Moira Brown is a Canadian researcher of the North Atlantic right whale. She is leading the initiative to convince the Government of Canada, shipping industry and scientists to address ship strikes and North Atlantic right whale mortality in the Bay of Fundy, Canada. Brown has conducted research on whales for more than 30 years.

Early life and education
Brown was born in Montreal, Quebec and grew up in Lachine.  She attended McGill University.

Career

Brown taught Physical Education Class  for four years in schools in the West Island District of Montreal, Quebec. She then enrolled in McGill University in Montreal to study renewable resources and graduated with a Bachelor of Science Degree.

Brown worked as a research assistant for Fisheries and Oceans Canada on a project about the history of whaling. In 1985 she started to work as a volunteer at the New England Aquarium, studying North Atlantic right whale population biology in the Bay of Fundy, and later in Cape Cod Bay.  Her studies on right whale genetics commenced in 1988.

After working with and studying these whales for ten years, Moira returned to university to pursue a Doctorate Degree from the University of Guelph in Ontario.

Brown worked at the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine, for three years and then became Director at the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown, Massachusetts, working for seven years on the conservation of marine mammals and their ecosystem.

After a five-year effort by Brown and her colleagues, the International Maritime Organization amended shipping lanes in 2003 to avoid an endangered marine species.

In 2004, Brown became a senior scientist at the New England Aquarium in Boston, Massachusetts,  where she still conducts marine conservation work focused on diminishing the human-related threats to the right whale population in Canadian waters.

In 2016 she is Co-Chair of the North Atlantic Right Whale Recovery-Implementation Team.  She is also a member of the Canadian Whale Institute.

Photo Identification Catalogue

Photo identification of whales was first developed in the 1970s and is used extensively during modern  whale studies. Each right whale has physical features that make it unique and distinguishable from the rest. The natural markings of each whale are photographed, and the information is compiled to a computer database.

The North Atlantic Right Whale Catalogue at the New England Aquarium was started by Scott Kraus in 1990. It contains information related to over 30,000 whale sightings of over 500 individual whales since 1935.  Brown is one of a number of scientists who have contributed to the database.

Scientists and researchers used this information to estimate population numbers: in 2007, the right whale population was estimated to be at 400 whales.  They can determine when and where an individual whale has traveled throughout its lifetime, and monitor whale population demographics, reproductive efforts, mortality, behavior, migration patterns, and occurrence rates of human-caused scarring. Results gathered from this research can then be used to discover species-wide problems and implement recovery strategies, such as the Bay of Fundy Traffic Separation Scheme, enforced in 2003.

Natural Resources DNA Profiling and Forensic Centre

The Natural Resources DNA Profiling and Forensic Centre in Canada has introduced high-resolution genetic profiling for North Atlantic right whale study. Researchers study the declining population of the endangered North Atlantic right whale through both historical and contemporary analysis.

Brown is a member of a team of researchers who are trying to find out why the number of right whales population has so drastically declined.  One theory was that Basque whaling in the 16th and 17th centuries in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence led to the demise. At Red Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador, in 1978, during an investigation of whaling centres of the Strait of Belle Isle (Gulf of St. Lawrence), whale bones were found near a Basque galleon that sank in 1565. Researchers from Parks Canada and the Canadian Museum of Nature analysed the morphology and genetics the bones, but after comparing them with North Atlantic whale bone DNA, they concluded that the Basques primarily hunted bowhead whales, not right whales.

To study the genetics of contemporary whales, Brown extracts North Atlantic right whale bone DNA by using a Crossbow and biopsy tip to collect whale skin samples. She, works with a team of geneticists at Trent University under the leadership of Bradley White to analyze and record these samples to create a right whale "family tree". The data collected from this research can be used to study right whale reproductive biology and the factors that contribute to their reproductive success.

Awards

By implementing one of the most important marine mammal protection measures in Canada, Brown has been recognized with the following awards:
Gulf of Maine Visionary Award] (2002)
Canadian Environment Award (2003)
International Fund for Animal Welfare Lifetime Achievement Award (2006)

References

Kraus, S.D. & Rolland, R. (eds.) (2007). The Urban Whale: North Atlantic Right Whales at the Crossroads. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

External links

Shipping Lanes and Whales
Shipping Lanes
Whale Collision with Ships, historical article with statistics
Right Whale Conservation
Bay of Fundy Shipping Lanes
Right Whales

20th-century Canadian biologists
20th-century Canadian women scientists
21st-century Canadian biologists
21st-century Canadian women scientists
Canadian animal welfare workers
Canadian conservationists
Canadian marine biologists
Canadian women biologists
Living people
Scientists from Montreal
Year of birth missing (living people)

Moira Brown


"Hands All Over" is a song by the American rock band Soundgarden. Featuring lyrics written by frontman Chris Cornell and music written by guitarist Kim Thayil, "Hands All Over" was released in 1990 as the second single from the band's second full-length studio album, Louder Than Love (1989). It also appeared on the band's EP Loudest Love, released in 1990. The song was included on Soundgarden's 1997 greatest hits album, A-Sides and appeared on the band's compilation album Telephantasm.

Composition

"Hands All Over" features lyrics written by frontman Chris Cornell and music written by guitarist Kim Thayil. The song is in the key of D major. Thayil on the song:
What I liked about the song was that it was just one simple riff—one note, one chord—but with a lot of dynamics. In some ways it's simple and basic; in other ways, it's very sophisticated in how it was layered. We don't really have many songs that are like "Hands All Over".

Lyrics
Regarding "Hands All Over", Cornell said that "it's just sort of an environmental thing. Not strictly environmental, but mostly. It's basically about how we humans tend to screw up everything that's good enough as it is ... or everything that we're attracted to, we love to go and defile it."

Release and reception
The single for "Hands All Over" marked the beginning of Soundgarden having cover versions as B-sides. The B-side to the single is a cover of The Beatles song "Come Together". Producer Jack Endino provided the backing vocals on the song. This was also the last time that Soundgarden recorded with him. Outside the United States, the single was released commercially in Australia and the United Kingdom.

Due to some of the lyrics contained in the song (most notably the "kill your mother" line), this song and "Big Dumb Sex" led to the band facing various retail and distribution problems upon the release of Louder Than Love. Tom Maginnis of AllMusic called "Hands All Over" a "walloping behemoth of a track". He said, "The song combines an Eastern-tinged rock riff in an extended arrangement, as singer Chris Cornell airs out his impressive lung capacity while lyrically taking a stab at environmental politics." J. D. Considine of Rolling Stone said that the song "applies swooping bass and jazzily vigorous drumming to counterbalance the static intensity of the song's bone-simple guitar hook."

Both the song and video were featured in the 1990 film Pacific Heights, but the song was not included on the film's soundtrack.

Music video
The music video for "Hands All Over" was directed by Kevin Kerslake, who had previously directed the "Loud Love" music video for the band. The video was shot in a factory and features the band members swinging on equipment amid scenes of the band performing the song. Thayil described the video as "one of the lamest ever made. It really sucked." Cornell added, "Making this video was fun because we were in a steel foundry. And there was like a black cancer dust all over everything. We're all gonna get cancer from it and die. So I hope you enjoy it. This will be the video that killed Soundgarden." The video was released in January 1990. The video is available on the home video release Louder Than Live.

Track listing
Promotional CD (US) and Promotional 12" Vinyl (US)
"Hands All Over" (Chris Cornell, Kim Thayil) – 6:00
"Come Together" (John Lennon, Paul McCartney) – 5:52

Promotional Cassette (US) and 7" Vinyl (Australia)
"Hands All Over" (Cornell, Thayil) – 6:00

7" Vinyl (Australia)
"Hands All Over" (Cornell, Thayil) – 6:00
"Big Bottom" (live) (Spinal Tap) – 4:58
Recorded live on December 10, 1989 at the Whisky a Go Go in Los Angeles, California.

CD (UK) and 10" Vinyl (UK)
"Hands All Over" (Cornell, Thayil) – 6:00
"Come Together" (Lennon, McCartney) – 5:52
"Heretic" (Thayil, Hiro Yamamoto) – 3:48
"Big Dumb Sex" (Cornell) – 4:11

Chart positions

References

1990 singles
Environmental songs
Protest songs
Soundgarden songs
Song recordings produced by Chris Cornell
Song recordings produced by Matt Cameron
Song recordings produced by Terry Date
Songs written by Chris Cornell
Songs written by Kim Thayil
1989 songs
A&M Records singles
Music videos directed by Kevin Kerslake

Hands All Over (Soundgarden song)


Delirium () is a 1987 Italian giallo film directed by Lamberto Bava and starring Serena Grandi, David Brandon, George Eastman and Daria Nicolodi. The film is about Gioia, a centerfold model for the adult Pussycat magazine. She is harassed by a killer who sends her photos of her co-workers with her own erotic photography in the background.

The film was developed as a vehicle for Serena Grandi after the success of the film Miranda (1985). The film was shot in 10 weeks and released in April 1987 in Italy to negative critical and box office reaction.

Plot
Gloria, a former model, runs a men's magazine, Pussycat, which she inherited from her late husband. One night, a killer in a blonde wig murders Gloria's friend Kim with a pitchfork outside Gloria's house. Her paraplegic neighbor Mark witnesses it and calls Gloria to alert her, but she finds nothing outside. The killer takes pictures of Kim's body in front of Gloria's modeling shots, send her the photos, which are found by her assistant, Evelyn. When Kim's body is found in a dumpster, copies of Pussycat start selling out because Kim was on the cover.

Gloria's brother Tony does a photoshoot for Pussycat with Sabrina Salerno. They try to have sex that night but Tony has impotency issues. After he leaves, the killer shows up in a beekeeper suit and releases bees which, attracted to Sabrina's perfume, proceed to sting her to death. The killer takes more pictures, sends them to Gloria, who recognizes the picture of her in the background. She confronts Roberto, the photographer, who tells her that the only negatives he had were stolen a while back.

Flora, an old acquaintance of Gloria's, attempts to buy Pussycat and Gloria eventually agrees to sell in the hopes that it will bring an end to the murders. Tony introduces Gloria to his new girlfriend Susan, and they scout out her department store for a photoshoot. They become separated and Gloria finds Tony's body on the escalator. The killer taunts her over the PA system. She escapes down the freight elevator, where she finds Susan's body. However, when the police arrive both the bodies have been removed. The killer sends Gloria some more photos, and later Evelyn finds Susan's dead body in her car.

The cops show up at Roberto's residence to question him and find the backdrops of Gloria. They call Gloria to warn her right as Roberto shows up at her house. She runs from him, he chases after and gets hit by a car which kills him and then drives off. The cops conclude that he was the killer and consider the case closed.

Gloria sells the magazine to Flora and returns home to find out that Evelyn has quit the magazine. She then finds Tony's body floating in her swimming pool, and starts to put together the clues. The killer taunts her again, inside her home, and then pops up wearing the blonde wig and is revealed to be Tony. He explains his motive, that he committed these murders to protect and get closer to his sister. Mark sees Tony and Gloria from his room and shoots Tony in the groin with his rifle, seriously wounding him. Gloria is taken to the hospital to recover, and Mark brings her flowers.

Cast

Production
Delirium was envisioned as vehicle for Serena Grandi who has just appeared in the Tinto Brass film Miranda (1985).

The film had a 10-week filming time, which Bava reflected on saying it was one of the few films he had enough time and budget to get the results he desired for the film. In an interview, director Lamberto Bava suggested that after doing a few gialli back-to-back, he began to feel unenthusiastic about the genre, preferring more fantastical films like Demons. This led Bava to explore the notion of the killer's point of view in Delirium, which involved showing the killer's perception of his victims by giving them grotesque visual features. This ranges from one woman having a giant eyeball for a face while another has the appearance of a bee.

Release
Delirium was released in Italy on 3 April 1987. A review in Variety noted that the film "produced little joy at the local boxoffice" while Italian critic and film historian Roberto Curti described it as a "critical and commercial failure at a time when Grandi's name drew crowds to the theatre." Bava later stated that he regretted having Grandi in the film who wrote in her contract that she "would barely show her tits". Curti noted that during this period, Grandi was trying to move away from her "sexy starlet image".

Delirium was released on DVD by Shriek Show/Media Blasters.

Reception
A reviewer credited as "Yung." of Variety stated that Bava "keeps camera and action on the move, but without much result. Anontello Geleng's imaginative sets give pic an above-average look."

References

Footnotes

Sources

External links

1987 films
1980s Italian-language films
Giallo films
1980s erotic thriller films
Films directed by Lamberto Bava
Italian serial killer films
Films scored by Simon Boswell
Italian erotic thriller films
1980s Italian films
1980s slasher films
Italian slasher films

Delirium (1987 film)


Rhapsody of Realities is a Christian daily devotional publication by Pastor Chris Oyakhilome. It was first published January 2001 in English language and by August 2022, it was reported to have over 7,000 languages. In 2011, it distributed 2 million copies each month globally. During the celebration of its 20th year in print, the publishers reported the devotional has reached a global coverage of all 242 countries and territories of the world with over 3.6 billion copies circulated in 20 years.

The book is released in physical print, audiobook and e-book monthly. It has an article for each day of the month with a daily bible study plan to complete reading the Bible in one and two years.  It has variants for Children called Rhapsody of Realities for Early Readers, Teevo for Teenagers, and Braille version for the visually impaired.

Languages
In 2015 Rhapsody of Realities had 664 languages with 38 from Nigeria. In 2022 Publishers stated they faced challenges with the translations because a large percentage of the world's languages face extinction but had reached 7,000 languages.

Reach Out Campaign
The Reach Out Campaigns began with Reach Out Nigeria where free copies of Rhapsody of Realities were distributed in Nigeria with carnival floats across major cities in the country on October 1, 2007, to celebrate Nigeria's Independence. Subsequent editions featured community development projects, and other activities to instill a sense of patriotism and inspire positive change among Nigerians. Other countries with Christ Embassy Churches began organizing Reach Out Campaigns also.  In 2013, Christ Embassy launched Reach Out Nigeria with 20 million copies for distribution  and by 2015, 30 million copies were planned for distribution all over the country, Nigeria. In the city of Warri alone, 2 million copies were distributed in 2019.

Reach Out Foundation
The Reach Out Foundation was registered in 2010 to manage the Community Development projects birthed by the distribution of Rhapsody of Realities in different communities. In Warri Nigeria, an ICT center was donated in 2011, and by 2013, the foundation provided a Hilux truck, 500 mattresses, a Generator and Computers to the Nigerian Prison Service. 35 Inmates were given scholarship to study in Open University in Nigeria.

In 2015, the foundation donated Hospital Equipment to the state owned Government facility, continued its Warri Prison Project, organized Medical Outreach At 8 Locations, and organized Football Tournament Amongst Community Youths And Clubs, Rhapsody of Reality  Distribution From October to December .Across the nation Nigeria. By 2017, the foundation built a Skill Acquisition Centre for prisoners in Warri, and built boreholes to provide water for different communities across the city of Warri. In 2019, 100 school children in Kaduna, where given scholarship to return to schools by the foundation and in 2021, the foundation built and donated a Police Station, 22.5kva generator, borehole and a surveillance van to the Nigerian Police Force in Edo State.

References

Books based on the Bible
Christian devotional literature
Christian literature

Rhapsody of Realities


James Friedrich Ludolf Hobrecht (31 December 1825 in Memel – 8 September 1902 in Berlin) was a Prussian director for urban planning. His development plan of 1862 for a million-sized Berlin was soon to be simply called the Hobrecht-Plan. His main focus was on modern sewer systems for which he was well known in the late 19th century.

Biography
Hobrecht was born as the son of the estate owner Ludolph Hobrecht and his wife Isabella (born Johnson) in East Prussian Memel. His elder brother Arthur Hobrecht would later become the mayor of Berlin. In 1834 his father was called to the royal economic council and the family moved to Königsberg. In 1841, Hobrecht broke off his school education and began an apprenticeship as geodesist (professional land surveyor) for which he passed examination in 1845. Until 1847 he was engaged in separation work (clearing the pathway of transportation projects from rocks and hills) in East Prussia as well as the Cologne-Minden Railway. During the German revolutions of 1848 he served in the student guards at the Berlin Palace.

By 1847 he had started studies at the Berlin Bauakademie (one of the institutes that would later form the Technical University of Berlin). While at the building academy he was an active member of the "Akademischer Verein 'Motiv'" student association. The fraternity was originally a loose group of students interested in arts and philosophy founded in 1847 as a chorus. Along with the rise of the academy it quickly grew by size and influence on contemporary architecture. Being at the academy he attended a variety of courses until his examination as "Bauführer" (academic site manager) in 1849. Right after examination he joined the "Architekten- und Ingenieur-Verein zu Berlin" professional association of architects in Berlin. He held different management positions in the circle until he was called off to the infantry regiment in the Electorate of Hesse in 1850.

His first professional work is recorded with the building of the "Packhof" in Königsberg in 1851. In 1852 there are records of managing the Dirschkeim estate in Samland. On 4 February 1853 he married Henriette Wolff. The couple had three sons and four daughters in the coming years.

James Hobrecht continued his studies in civil engineering with records of field placements at the Prussian Eastern Railway in 1857. In 1858 he passed examination in transportation planning (Wasser-, Wege- und Eisenbahnbaumeister) and found an employment at the Royal Prussian urban planning administration (Baupolizei) in the same year. In that role he was commanded in 1859 to head the commission on creation of a land-use plan for Berlin and its environs. As part of his job he traveled to Hamburg, Paris and London in 1860 to learn about the contemporary development status in urban planning especially their sewer systems. Before the plan was finished the city came to an amalgamation of its suburbs on 1. January 1861. Based on the just finished land surveys and existing land-use proposals James Hobrecht constructed a map showing a possible land-use for a city at a projected size of 1.5 to 2 million inhabitants. The map of building lines was soon to be called the Hobrecht-Plan but he was not able to continue on the details due to his dismissal on 15. December 1861, even before the resolution of the planning works on 18. July 1862.

The reasons for the job termination are unknown. He went to Stettin to construct the water supply system for the city and to create plans for a modern sewer system Which was started to be built in 1870. Before the project was realized in Stettin, he was able to return to Berlin in 1869 where he was commissioned to build a sewer system for the city. This was enabled by his brother Arthur Hobrecht, who became lord mayor of Berlin in 1872, and Rudolf Virchow, who had already been a famous medical doctor and influential liberal politician. He laid out plans for a radial system of 12 main routes of canalization from the city to new sewage farms on the outskirts of Berlin. Soon after his brother took office the grand pipes were constructed from 1873 until the last one in 1893. While the works were ongoing he was called to help with the planning of the sewer systems of 30 German cities and the sewer systems in Moscow, Tokyo and Cairo.

From 1872 to 1874 he had a teaching assignment at the Bauakademie. In 1885 he was elected to head the municipal urban planning departement, a position that he held for 12 years. Most of the embankments of the river Spree were built under his leadership allowing larger ships to pass through the city. In 1897 he retired for health reasons. In the same year he was honored with the title of "Stadtältester von Berlin". He remained in the city until his death in 1902. His grave can be found on the Friedhof II der Sophiengemeinde Berlin.

Influence and legacy
When James Hobrecht was commanded to head the urban planning commission for Berlin in 1859 he was just 34 years old and he had only minor experience compared to the size of the project which included 14 chapters. Actually he was just replacing a colleague who had fallen sick at the time. The shortcomings of the crowded Mietskaserne tenement blocks were largely attributed to that fact by historians in the early 20th century. Even the deadly street fights of fascist and communist squadrons in those area have been traced back to the Hobrecht-Plan that he created at that time. Modern historians are more favourable as his writings do also include chapters on estimates of the social consequences and his planning was good enough for later reformations that allowed Berlin to grow successfully.

In 1868 he published the influential paper "Ueber öffentliche Gesundheitspflege und die Bildung eines Central-Amts für öffentliche Gesundheitspflege im Staate" (on the public health issues and the founding of a central office in the government) that was spawned by a Cholera epidemic at the time. He is still favouring the "Durcheinanderwohnen" (mixed class housing) in the tenement areas but criticizes the catastrophic housing conditions that had developed in the Wilhelmine Ring of Berlin. He finds support from Rudolph Virchow who had the same agenda on improving public health and housing conditions. With his wide knowledge on sewer systems and land-use for its pipes, he is the technician being in need to bring these reform ideas into reality.

Soon after his return to Berlin he is one of the founders of the "Deutsche Vierteljahrsschrift für öffentliche Gesundheitspflege" (Quarterly Magazine on Public Health) in 1869. Between 1870 and 1879 he publishes 13 issues of "Reinigung und Entwässerung von Berlin. Einleitende Verhandlungen und Berichte über mehrere auf Veranlassung des Magistrats der Königlichen Haupt- und Residenzstadt Berlin angestellte Versuche und Untersuchungen" (water treatment and sewer systems of Berlin. Introduction and reports on experiments and studies on request of the municipal government of Berlin). When the Berlin sewer system started to work successfully, with much of an improvement to inhabitants of Berlin, he became a well-known expert in the field - helping later with the planning in Moscow in 1880, in Tokyo in 1886 and in Cairo in 1892.

References

1825 births
1902 deaths
People from Klaipėda
People from East Prussia
German civil engineers

James Hobrecht


Soft single skin kites are the least complex of all the power kites.

The best known design is the NASA Parawing or NPW. For more, see rogallo wing. This is a very simple kite with mixed performance. It has excellent pull, but is slow to maneuver and suffers from a limited wind window.
Its simple construction and forgiving design make it very popular among hobbyists and some traction enthusiasts, especially ski- and sledge-borne expeditions across both Arctic and Antarctic lands, but its drawbacks make it unsuitable for high efficiency and many water-borne sports.

There are also soft single skin kites designed to be used on sailing ships as a free flying spinnaker substitute. There are significant advantages to having the spinnaker catching wind further above the surface of the water than is normal. This design was tested in the 2002 Louis Vuitton Regatta by the Oracle Americas Cup team.

Kites

Soft single skin kite


The James Lee House, also known as the Harsson-Goyer-Lee House, is a historic house at 690 Adams Avenue in Memphis, Tennessee, United States. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, together with the adjacent Woodruff-Fontaine House. The two houses are included in the Victorian Village historic district.

The 8,100-square-foot home was constructed by William Harsson in 1848. Harsson's daughter, Laura, married Charles Wesley Goyer, who bought the house in 1852. Goyer had it expanded by the architecture firm of Edward Culliatt Jones and Matthias H. Baldwin in 1871, after seeing their work in designing the neighboring Woodruff-Fontaine House.

James Lee, a riverboat captain who had been educated at Princeton University, bought the house in 1890. In 1925 it became the James Lee Memorial Art Academy, a predecessor of the Memphis College of Art (formerly the Memphis Academy of Art). The city of Memphis took ownership in 1929. After the art school moved to a new location in 1959, the house was vacant for many years. It was used by Canadian indie rock group Tokyo Police Club in a music video for their 2008 song "In a Cave."

In 2012 the empty house was purchased by new private owners. The following year, a $2 million construction and renovation project began, converting the house into a luxury bed and breakfast. The city of Memphis provided a property tax abatement to encourage its renovation.  The bed and breakfast opened for business in April 2014.

References

External links

Houses in Memphis, Tennessee
Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Tennessee
Second Empire architecture in Tennessee
Victorian architecture in Tennessee
National Register of Historic Places in Memphis, Tennessee

James Lee House (690 Adams Avenue, Memphis)


Sonorous Records Inc. is an American company that was established in 2011 as an independent Christian record label by Dwayne Bigelow (Principal/CEO). The company's headquarters is located in Boca Raton, Florida, with its International Division located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. In 2015 the company became Sonorous Records Inc. with headquarters in Toronto Ontario.  Sonorous Entertainment remained as the publishing arm.

House of Beauty (HOB) music catalog

House of Beauty was a beauty salon established around 1948 by Carmen Murphy. In the 1950s she started funding gospel recordings and converted the salon's basement into a practice room.

Ms Murphy's inspiration for HOB Records started when she attended a Good Friday Mass in her home town of Detroit. Finding herself particularly moved by the performances that evening she would eventually convert the basement of her salon "House of Beauty" into a rehearsal space for local Gospel acts. Later that year she funded the recording of a local Gospel star Rev. James Cleveland and the HOB Record label was born. Artists for the label included Shirley Caesar, Rev. James Cleveland, The Staple Singers, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Albertina Walker, The Mighty Clouds of Joy, and many others.

Over the years the HOB Records label was owned and operated by a number of companies. The label grew commercially and successfully between 1964 and 1976 when Scepter Records owned it. In 1976 the owner of Scepter Records, Florence Greenberg decided to retire and sold her record labels to Springboard International. When Springboard went bankrupt, Gusto Records acquired the HOB catalog. In the years to follow the HOB catalog continued to change hands.

In the Fall of 2011 Sonorous Entertainment acquired the House of Beauty (HOB) Music Catalog which gave Sonorous the copyrights to over 3,000 sound recordings and the publishing rights to over 200 songs.

Various projects

With a vast collection of songs from the HOB Music Catalog, Sonorous began producing its Platinum Gospel Series. This series included digitally remastered compilations of various and individual Gospel artists. Physical and digital distribution in the United States for the series was undertaken by Sonorous' distribution partner Universal Music Group.

References

External links

Gospel music record labels
Companies based in Boca Raton, Florida
Record labels established in 2011
Entertainment companies established in 2011

Sonorous Entertainment


Karlín () is a cadastral area of Prague, part of Prague 8 municipal district, formerly an independent town (which became part of Prague in 1922). It is bordered by the river Vltava and Holešovice to the north, Vítkov hill and Žižkov to the south, New Town to the west and Libeň to the east.

History
The building of the Karlín district began in 1817, surrounding the Rosarium of the Knights of the Cross with the Red Star. The new settlement was named after the fourth wife of Emperor Francis I of Austria, Caroline Augusta of Bavaria.

After the demolition of the city walls, the properties in Karlín were counted among the cheapest properties of Prague. For that reason, the number of industrial enterprises and dwellings grew very quickly in the area of "Rohan Island" (Rohanský ostrov). On 1 January 1922 Karlín was incorporated into Prague. At this time, the electrical engineering pioneer and industrialist František Křižík had great influence in the area. He established a streetcar line, which he then sold to the city.

In the 1970s, traffic was rerouted onto the Rohanské nábřeží and the main arterial road was relieved. Since 1990 Karlín is connected to the Prague Metro by Křižíková station named after Křižík, and a pedestrian zone has been established as well. In 2002 Karlín was severely affected by the 100-year flood. It has since recovered and is becoming a new destination for businesses and residences.

Notable buildings
A notable building in Karlín is the Karlín Railway Bridge, which connects the Masaryk Railway Station to the Bubny station. The viaduct (also called Karlín viaduct) was named after Alois Negrelli, it is  long and was put into operation on 1 June 1850. It is the longest bridge/viaduct on Czech territory.

Other notable buildings include:

 Theater Karlín (Karlínské hudební divadlo)
 Hotel Olympik
 Hotel Hilton Prague
 House of the Invalid (Invalidovna)
 Church of Saints Cyril and Methodius (Kostel Sv. Cyrila a Metoděje)
 Danube House
 Czech Statistical Office (Český statistický úřad)
 Karlín Synagogue

Notable people
 Lucia Moholy (born Schulz 18 January 1894, Karolinenthal bei Prag; died 17 May 1989, Zollikon, Switzerland) photographer, documentarist, publicist
 Franz Baermann Steiner (born 12 October 1909; died 17 November 1952, Oxford, England) ethnologist, polymath, essayist, aphorist, and poet.

References

External links

 Karlin Real Estate Group

Prague 8

Karlín


"Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience™" is a short story written by Rebecca Roanhorse and published in the August 2017 issue of Apex Magazine.  The story was well-received, and it won the 2017 Nebula and the 2018 Hugo short story awards.  Her first professionally published work of speculative fiction, the story also earned Roanhorse the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer.

Plot
The story is told from the second-person perspective of American Indian man Jesse Turnblatt (who uses Trueblood as his surname at work to appear more "Indian", to his wife Theresa's chagrin) who works at a tourist centre called Sedona Sweats that offers virtual reality Indian "Experiences". The employees base the Experiences and their performances on popular movies and stereotypes about Indian culture - Turnblatt uses the surname "Trueblood" at work to appear more "Indian", to his wife Theresa's chagrin. After obsessing over Little Big Man, Jesse suggests a "Crazy Horse Experience" of Custer's Last Stand that fails to attract a single tourist: his Pima boss says that tourists come to Sedona Sweats to find themselves in a "spiritual experience", not a battle where the white man loses. Navajo DarAnne, among with other employees, protests the sexual objectification and racial slur in Boss's newest idea "Squaw Fantasy" that has become a bestseller among tourists. Jesse, feeling torn between saving face with his boss after the failure of Crazy Horse Experience and supporting DarAnne's group, decides Boss's approval is more important than DarAnnne's and sides with him to her disgust.

Jesse does a "Vision Quest" Experience where he transforms into a caricature of a nonspecific Plains Indian "Spirit Guide" for a tourist who is disappointed at the artificial, inauthentic nature of the Experience. As the tourist tries to exit the Experience, a flustered Jesse gives him the Indian name (as is routine for the end of every Vision Quest Experience) of Pale Crow then corrects to White Wolf, knowing the tourist entered in his details that his favorite animal was a wolf.

At Sedona's local Hey U.S.A. Indian bar after work, DarAnne confronts Jesse and asks him what he really thinks about the "Squaw Fantasy". Learning Jesse was scared of Theresa leaving him if he loses his job, she encourages Jesse to stand up more at work, leaving before Jesse can reply. Upon leaving the bar, Jesse encounters White Wolf who apologizes for ruining the experience. Their conversation is against the rules, as employees are not allowed to speak with tourists outside of Experiences. White Wolf mentions his great grandmother is Cherokee, despite being pale-skinned - while Theresa calls these people "Pretendians", Jesse wants to give White Wolf the benefit of the doubt.

The next day, White Wolf requests a specifically Cherokee Vision Quest Experience to talk to Jesse and asks to meet again at the bar later that night. They begin to routinely meet for drinks at the bar on Tuesday and Friday nights, and after a month, Theresa begins to get suspicious. The following Tuesday, Jesse falls sick and is unable to come into work or meet White Wolf. His illness persists until Friday, and he asks Theresa to meet White Wolf and tell him that he's too sick to meet him. She returns home at one o'clock at night, drunk, seeming very pleased with White Wolf.

Jesse recovers and returns to work on Monday morning to find that Boss has laid him off and replaced him with White Wolf, considering him to be more authentic than Jesse. Unwilling to return home to Theresa and explain he was fired, Jesse goes to the Hey U.S.A. bar and begins drinking shots until nighttime. As he leaves, he runs into DarAnne as well as White Wolf, noticeably tanned and wearing American Indian clothing, who treats Jesse like a trouble-making drunk harassing DarAnne and pretends not to recognize him. White Wolf beats him and leaves him unconscious in the gutter.

Jesse wakes up the following day and returns home hoping to see Theresa but finds she and her belongings are gone and White Wolf sitting at the table. He explains he told Theresa about the firing and incident at the bar, and she went to stay at her mother's house for her safety and demands that Jesse leave. Realizing that White Wolf lied about being Indian to take Jesse's job, house, and wife, Jesse tries to protest when White Wolf tries to kick him out of the house. He asks if Jesse had never considered that he was the tourist in White Wolf's Experience. Jesse feels the same type of nausea he feels from the whiplash of Relocating in and out of an Experience, and "lets go" as if Relocating.

See also
 List of joint winners of the Hugo and Nebula awards

References

External links
 "Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience™" at Apex Magazine

2017 short stories
Hugo Award for Best Short Story winning works
Nebula Award for Best Short Story-winning works
Works originally published in online magazines


Yelovsky District () is an administrative district (raion) of Perm Krai, Russia; one of the thirty-three in the krai. As a municipal division, it is incorporated as Yelovsky Municipal District. It is located in the southwest of the krai. The area of the district is . Its administrative center is the rural locality (a selo) of Yelovo. Population:  The population of Yelovo accounts for 49.7% of the district's total population.

History
The district was established on January 15, 1924.

Demographics
The most numerous ethnic groups, according to the 2002 Census, include Russians at 94.1% and the Chuvash people at 2.6%.

References

Notes

Sources

Districts of Perm Krai
States and territories established in 1924

Yelovsky District


Richard Harman (c. 1621 – 1646) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons  from 1640 to 1646.

Harman was born at St Andrew's, Norwich,  the son of Richard Harman, alderman, of Norwich. He was educated at Norwich School under Mr Briggs and was admitted at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge on 28 March 1638 aged 17. He was admitted at Gray's Inn on 18 March 1640.

In November 1640, Harman was elected Member of Parliament for Norwich in the Long Parliament.  He sat until his death in 1646.

References

1621 births
1646 deaths
English MPs 1640–1648
Politicians from Norwich
Alumni of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge
Members of Gray's Inn
People educated at Norwich School
Year of birth uncertain

Richard Harman (politician)


Hexacorallia is a large subclass of Anthozoa in the aquatic phylum Cnidaria.

It has about 4,300 species, all polyps, generally with 6-fold symmetry. It includes all the stony corals, most of which are colonial and reef-forming. It also contains the sea anemones, tube anemones, and zoanthids, in six living orders.

The Hexacorallia are distinguished from the other subclass of Anthozoa, the Octocorallia, because they have six or less axes of symmetry in their body structure and only single rows of tentacles. They are formed of individual soft polyps which in some species live in colonies and secrete a calcite skeleton. As with all Cnidarians, these organisms have a complex life cycle including a mobile planktonic phase  and a later sessile phase.

Hexacorallia also include the extinct orders of the rugose corals and tabulate corals. They built the coral reefs of the Palaeozoic era. In fact, there are a total of eight extinct orders of the Hexacorallia, which shows it has always been an important group of marine organisms.

References

Cnidarians

Hexacorallia


Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum (born 26 December 1969) is an American-born German equestrian who competes at the international level in show jumping.

Career
She grew up riding ponies and had a successful career as a Young Rider, both in equitation and in show jumping. As a young-adult, Michaels-Beerbaum studied political science at Princeton University, continuing to compete during her college years.
She then went to train in Germany with Paul Schockemöhle in 1991, planning to remain only for a summer, which eventually turned into a permanent stay. She decided to buy the training center in Balve.

Personal life
She was born in Los Angeles, California, and is the daughter of film director Richard Michaels and actor Kristina Hansen.

Following her marriage to  the well-known German show jumper Markus Beerbaum in 1998, she changed her citizenship.
Together the Beerbaums have one daughter, Brianne Victoria Beerbaum, born in 2010. Through her marriage, Michaels-Beerbaum is also sister-in-law to Ludger Beerbaum, who has won multiple Olympic and championship medals in show jumping.

Horses

Current
 Unbelievable (born 2001), Dutch Warmblood,  Dark bay gelding, sired by Manhattan, damsire Democraat
 Fibonacci (born 2005), Swedish Warmblood, Grey gelding, sired by For Feeling, damsire Corland
 Atlanta (born 2005), Dutch Warmblood, Chestnut mare, sired by For Pleasure, damsire Achill-Libero H
 Comanche (born 2006), Oldenburg, Grey gelding, sired by Coupe de Coeur, damsire Baloubet du Rouet

Previous
 Bella Donna (born 2003), Holsteiner horse, Dark bay mare, sired by Baldini II, damsire Calido I
 Quick Star (1982–2011), Selle Français, Dark bay stallion, sired by Galoubet A, damsire Stella v. Nithard
 Shutterfly (born 1993), Hanoverian horse, Darkbay gelding, sired by Silvio I, damsire Forrest xx
 Kismet (Benedicte) (born 2001), Belgian Warmblood, Liver chestnut mare, sired by Kannan, damsire Furioso II
 Stella (born 1989), Dark bay mare, sired by Quick Star, damsire Wilson
 Le Mans (born 1995), Chestnut gelding, sired by Leubus, damsire Landadel
 Malou (born 2004), Grey mare, sired by Maloubet de Pleville, damsire Carthago
 Cantano (born 2000), Holsteiner horse, Bay stallion, sired by Cascavelle, damsire Acor
 Checkmate (born 1995), Hanoverian, Darkbay gelding, sired by Contender, damsire Pik Bube II

Achievements
 Gold medal team member, 9th individually, at the 1999 European Championships in Hickstead, England (Stella)
 5th place at the 2006 World Cup Final in Kuala Lumpur (Checkmate 4)
 Gold medal winner of the 2005 World Cup Final in Las Vegas, NV (Shutterfly)
 Silver medal at the 2004 World Cup Final in Milan, Italy (Shutterfly)
Nations Cup starts:27 Wins:8
 Ladies German Championships Gold Medal in 1999 and 2001, Silver medal in 2002, Bronze medal in 1998, 4th place in 2004
 German Championships Bronze Medal in 2004, 5th place in 2002
German Championship Winner in 2008 at Balve Optimum and 2010 at "Turnier der Sieger" in Münster
First woman to win the World Cup Finals three times (2005, 2008, 2009)
Ranked #1 in the Rolex World Rankings for 11 consecutive months in 2008 (February–December).
Bronze medal in Team Jumping event at the 2016 Summer Olympics (Fibonacci) in Rio de Janeiro

See also
List of Princeton University Olympians

References
FEI Rider's Biography
http://www.michaels-beerbaum.de/20-Biographie.htm

External links

1969 births
Living people
Sportspeople from Los Angeles
German show jumping riders
German female equestrians
American female equestrians
American expatriate sportspeople in Germany
Olympic equestrians for Germany
Equestrians at the 2008 Summer Olympics
Equestrians at the 2012 Summer Olympics
Equestrians at the 2016 Summer Olympics
Olympic bronze medalists for Germany
Olympic medalists in equestrian
Medalists at the 2016 Summer Olympics

Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum


Valkyrie is an American doom metal band from Harrisonburg, Virginia.

Biography
Driven by brothers Jake and Pete Adams, Valkyrie draws from pre-metal style to create a stoner metal sound. They formed in summer 2002 as a three-piece consisting of vocalist/guitarist Jake Adams, bassist Eric Seaman, and drummer Luke Shafer. In 2004 Jake's brother Pete was introduced on second guitar and a five-song demo was recorded at a local college radio station. Shafer soon departed and was replaced by Mike Hoke on drums and a new demo, Sunlight Shines, and a split 7-inch with VOG were recorded. Seaman and Hoke parted ways with the band at the end of 2004 and were replaced by bassist Nick Crabill and drummer Nic McInturff. This line-up recorded the eponymous debut album, which was released by Twin Earth Records. In early 2006 Valkyrie again parted ways with its rhythm section and recruited current bassist Will Barry-Rec and drummer Gary Isom (Spirit Caravan, Pentagram). Isom and Valkyrie parted ways in mid-2007 and Valkyrie recruited drummer Warren Hawkins.

Members
Current members
Jake Adams - guitar, vocals (2002–present)
Pete Adams - guitar, vocals (2004–present)
Alan Fary - bass (2012–present)
Warren Hawkins - drums (2007–present)

Former members
Eric Seaman - bass (2002-2004)
Luke Shafer - drums (2002-2004)
Mike Hoke - drums (2004)
Nick Crabill - bass (2004-2006)
Nic McInturff - drums (2004-2006)
Gary Isom - drums (2006-2007)
Will Barry-Rec - bass (2006-2012)

Discography
 Split 7-inch with VOG (2005 self-released)
 Valkyrie (2006 Twin Earth Records)
 Split 7-inch with Bible of the Devil (2008 Heavy Birth), red and blue vinyl
 Man of Two Visions (2010 Noble Origin)
 Valkyrie/Earthling split 7-inch (2012 Tension Head Records)
 Shadows (2015 Relapse Records)
 Fear (2020 Relapse Records)

References

External links
Official Valkyrie Page
Official Facebook Page

American doom metal musical groups
Heavy metal musical groups from Virginia
Musical groups established in 2002
American musical quartets
2002 establishments in Virginia

Valkyrie (American band)


Hamo le Strange, Heimon Lestrange, Hamo L'Estrange or Hamo Extraneus (died late in 1272 or early 1273) was an English Crusader. His surname means the Foreigner. By marriage to Isabella of Beirut he was Lord of Beirut in the Kingdom of Jerusalem—he was the second of her four husbands.

Life

He was the second son of the English knight John (III.) le Strange (died before March 1269) and his wife Lucy, daughter of Robert Tresgoz. He was lord of Ellesmere, Shropshire and during the De Montfort Rebellion was part of the entourage of Edward, Prince of Wales.

In 1270, he left his lands to his younger brother Robert and joined Edward on the Seventh Crusade. Edward returned to Europe in 1272 after his father's death, leaving Hamo in the Kingdom of Jerusalem. On 21 March 1272, he married Isabella of Beirut (1252 - 1282/83), Lady of Beirut and daughter of John II of Beirut. She was the widow of Hugh II of Cyprus (died 1267).

Hamo's death was known in England by the end of April 1273 and so probably occurred late in 1272 or early in 1273.

On his deathbed he put Isabella and the Lordship of Beirut under the protection of the Mamluk sultan Baibars. After Hamo's death, Hugh III of Cyprus tried to join Beirut to Cyprus by bringing Isabella to Cyprus to marry a man of his choosing, but Baibars cited Hamo's deathbed wish and prevented this. This move forced Isabella to return to Beirut in 1277, where she married Nicolas l'Aleman († 1277), Lord of Caesarea, and after his death William Barlais († 1305/06).

References

13th-century deaths
Christians of the Crusades
Le Strange family

Hamo le Strange


Toby Harnden (born 14 January 1966) is an Anglo-American author and journalist who was awarded the Orwell Prize for Books in 2012. He is the author of First Casualty: The Untold Story of the CIA Mission to Avenge 9/11, published by Little, Brown in September, 2021. He spent almost 25 years working for British newspapers, mainly as a foreign correspondent. From 2013 until 2018, he was Washington bureau chief of The Sunday Times. He previously spent 17 years at The Daily Telegraph, based in London, Belfast, Washington, Jerusalem and Baghdad, finishing as US Editor from 2006 to 2011. The book's title is a reference to paramilitary officer Johnny Micheal Spann, a member of the CIA's Team Alpha, whose eight members became the first Americans behind enemy lines in Afghanistan following the 9/11 attacks of 2001. He is the author of two previous books: Bandit Country: The IRA & South Armagh (1999) and Dead Men Risen: The Welsh Guards and the Defining Story of Britain's War in Afghanistan (2011). He was reporter and presenter of the BBC Panorama Special programme Broken by Battle about suicide and PTSD among British soldiers, broadcast in 2013.

Background
The son of architect Keith Anthony Harnden and Valerie Anne Steadman Harnden (nee Dixon), he was born in Portsmouth and grew up in Marple and Rusholme, Manchester. He attended Harrytown Comprehensive School in Bredbury, Cheshire and St Bede's College, Manchester. He entered Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth in January 1985 and passed out the following August. After studying Modern History at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, he graduated from Oxford University with a First in July 1988, receiving a College Prize and the Miles Clauson Prize. While at the university, Harnden was Junior Common Room President of Corpus Christi in 1987, succeeding David Miliband and was president of the JCR Presidents' Committee. Before becoming a journalist, Harnden was an officer in the Royal Navy, retiring in the rank of Lieutenant in 1994 after service ashore and at sea in the assault ships , and , the minesweeper , the destroyers  and  and the frigate . During his training, he was an exchange officer with the Royal Norwegian Navy, helping to transport reindeer on troop landing craft. His final naval appointment was in the Ministry of Defence as Flag Lieutenant to the Second Sea Lord. In August 2009, he became an American citizen. He has two children.

Books

Harnden has written three non-fiction books: First Casualty: The Untold Story of the CIA's Secret Mission to Avenge 9/11 (2021); Dead Men Risen: The Welsh Guards and the Defining Story of Britain's War in Afghanistan (2011); and Bandit Country: The IRA & South Armagh(1999).

Bandit Country: The IRA & South Armagh, published by Hodder & Stoughton in November 1999, was critically acclaimed and sold more than 100,000 copies. It led to the formation of the Smithwick Tribunal, which investigated whether, as Harnden had alleged in his book, there had been Garda (Irish police) collusion in the 1989 murders of senior RUC officers Chief Superintendent Harry Breen and Superintendent Bob Buchanan. In December 2013, the tribunal confirmed the allegations, concluding that there had been Garda collusion in the murders. The Irish government apologized to the families of the dead officers. The author Ed Moloney, one of the foremost experts on the modern IRA, supported Harnden's account: "The other thing I know is that the IRA did have an agent inside the Dundalk Garda station. The Smithwick Tribunal was established largely because of allegations from Toby Harnden in his book Bandit Country – The IRA and South Armagh that a Dundalk-based Garda helped the IRA kill the two RUC men. Harnden got his information from security force sources on both sides of the Border and although he refused to give evidence to Smithwick – presumably on the laudable grounds that he would not compromise his sources – I believed him. I believed him not just because I know him to be a reputable and ethical journalist but also because I was told the same, that a well-known Dundalk Garda was in the back pocket of the IRA in South Armagh. My source was a well-placed member of the IRA whose position in the organization was such that he was in a position to know all about the Garda agent. The details about the agent that I was given dovetail exactly with Harnden's information." In 2016, Abebooks listed "Bandit Country" as the 14th most-searched-for out-of-print book in the English language. In 2019, novelist David Keenan named "Bandit Country" as one of the top 10 books written about the Irish Troubles, stating: "One of my fascinations with Northern Ireland in the 1970s and 80s is how it became a place where different rules applied, where reality itself seemed up for grabs. Nowhere was this more the case than the "Provisional Republic" of South Armagh, AKA Bandit Country, with its handmade 'sniper at work' signs and its community militias all surveyed by the watchtowers and helicopters of the British army. Toby Harnden's book is a compulsively fascinating tour of this alternative universe." BBC journalist and author Peter Taylor, a veteran of more than three decades of reporting in Ireland, had named "Bandit Country" in his top 10 Irish Troubles books in 2002, concluding: "Courageous journalism and compulsive reading as Harnden goes inside the most impenetrable and deadly of the IRA Brigades. Good judgment; great sources." In 2003, it was reported that the British authorities had tried to use possession of a copy of "Bandit Country" as evidence against an alleged Irish republican dissident accused of terrorist offenses: "An attempt was also made to lodge the possession of Toby Handen's 'Bandit Country' as evidence against one of the accused."

Dead Men Risen was published by Quercus Books in March 2011. Publication was delayed after the Ministry of Defence objected to certain passages on "security" grounds. The book had already been cleared for publication by the MOD after a four-month review process that Harnden had agreed to as part of a contract that provided him with access to the Welsh Guards. Following a legal dispute between the MOD and Quercus, the MOD agreed to purchase all 24,000 copies of the first print run of the book, at a cost to the UK taxpayer of £151,450, and oversee their pulping. It was well-reviewed and reached number four on The Sunday Times bestseller list. In May 2012, it was awarded the Orwell Prize for books. Orwell prize judges Helena Kennedy, Miranda Carter and Sameer Rahim said: "It sometimes seems that we only care about the soldiers fighting in our names when they are killed. Once the platitudes are over we forget about them. Toby Harnden's remarkable book takes us into the hearts and minds of the Welsh Guards in a way that is both compelling and visceral. It challenges every citizen of this country to examine exactly what we're asking soldiers to do in Afghanistan."

Main works
 First Casualty: The Untold Story of the CIA Mission to Avenge 9/11, Little, Brown, New York, 2021.
 Dead Men Risen: The Welsh Guards and the Real Story of Britain's War in Afghanistan, Quercus, London, 2011.
 Bandit Country -The IRA and South Armagh, Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1999.

Journalism career

Harnden spent 24 years with British newspapers, 19 of them as a foreign correspondent based in Washington D.C., the Middle East and London. He has interviewed three U.S. presidents: George W. Bush (in 2000 and 2014).), Bill Clinton (in 2006) and Jimmy Carter (in 2015).

He started his career in journalism as a theatre reviewer at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival for The Scotsman
and a writer of obituaries for The Independent. He began at The Daily Telegraph in 1994 as a home news reporter. He was posted to Belfast as the newspaper's Ireland Correspondent in March 1996, shortly after the IRA's first ceasefire had ended. He subsequently covered the IRA's second ceasefire, the Good Friday Agreement and the Omagh bombing of 1998 Harnden was ordered by Lord Saville's Bloody Sunday Tribunal to hand over recordings and notes of his interviews with two anonymous Paratroopers who had been present during the 1972 killings. He refused to do so, arguing that it was his duty to protect the anonymity of his sources. According to the Irish Times: "With contempt of court proceedings hanging over him, Mr. Harnden faced a heavy fine or up to two years' imprisonment." In June 2004, Saville dropped contempt proceedings with Harnden stating that he would never have revealed the identity of "Soldier X", who had opened fire on Bloody Sunday.

From 1999 to 2003, Harnden was Washington Bureau Chief of The Daily Telegraph. He reported from Washington during the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001. Six months after 9/11, he spoke of his growing affinity with the United States, saying at a Brookings Institution forum: "There's a great difference at the moment between the language that's used in America and in Europe...Since September 11, I feel like I'm more like an American than a European...I find myself more and more having a problem with people in Europe. At least what you get here is people saying what they mean, which is what I find refreshing." He became Middle East Correspondent of The Daily Telegraph in October 2003 and was based in Jerusalem and then Baghdad. Harnden spent much of 2004 and 2005 covering the war in Iraq. In November 2004, he was embedded with the US Army's Task Force 2-2 during the battle of Fallujah, including Staff Sergeant David Bellavia, later awarded the Medal of Honor. Of Bellavia's platoon, Harnden reported: "With Dope's 'Die Motherfucker Die' blaring out from the psychological operations Humvee, the Terminators entered Fallujah to go about their business in the way they know best. They played 'Rage Against the Machine' in the backs of their Bradleys and enjoyed the buzz of killing. When it was over, they sat laughing about the insurgents who had jumped out of closets to fight them or wrapped themselves in curtains to hide. They joked about the cat they'd seen eating the face of a corpse, about the fighter who had been 'fragged' by a grenade and shot several times but who still managed to jump off a roof and escape. They celebrated victory but most of all they were intoxicated by being alive."

Harnden joined The Sunday Telegraph in 2005 as London-based Chief Foreign Correspondent, traveling to report from Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel, the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Lebanon, Bahrain, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Austria, Italy, Estonia, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, the United States and Thailand. In May 2005, Harnden was imprisoned in Zimbabwe for 14 days after being arrested at a rural polling station on the day of the country's parliamentary elections and deported following acquittal on charges of illegally entering the country and "practicing journalism without accreditation". During court appearances, Harnden and photographer Julian Simmonds were shackled together with handcuffs and leg irons.

Harnden returned to Washington DC in May 2006 as a correspondent for The Sunday Telegraph and in October 2006 became United States Editor of The Daily Telegraph. He covered the 2008 primaries and general election, traveling extensively as part of the Obama campaign press corps.

He was shortlisted for the UK's Press Gazette for Digital Journalist of the Year 2008. In 2011, he was ranked at 27 in a list of Top 50 most influential media users of Twitter in the UK. He left the Telegraph at the end of 2011 to join the Daily Mail. In January 2013, he joined The Sunday Times as Washington Bureau Chief  and spent almost six years as the newspaper's senior American correspondent, covering the Boston bombings, unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, the 2016 presidential election, and the 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas.

On 3 August 2021, two weeks before the collapse of Afghan forces and the return of the Taliban government, Harnden argued in a Wall Street Journal opinion article  that the U.S. had succeeded in Afghanistan in 2001 because the CIA-led campaign had only used small number of American intelligence agents and Special Forces, combined with U.S. air power, and had left the bulk of the fighting to indigenous Afghan forces. He warned against a complete U.S withdrawal and stated that a U.S. approach based on similar principles could still succeed in 2021: "A small residual force of CIA officers and special forces, using U.S. air power when needed, while letting the Afghans fight would prevent a Taliban rout. Such an approach could prevent Afghanistan returning to what it was before 9/11—an ungoverned space where terrorists can plot with impunity." In September 2021, Harnden wrote in a Guest Essay in The New York Times that the Taliban had not changed fundamentally and that it was foolish to assume so: "The Taliban seem to have calculated that the West's wishful thinking and desire to move on from two decades of bloody conflict would be enough to win them global acceptance." Harnden was involved in evacuating his translator Rohullah Sadat from Afghanistan

References

External links
 Official website
 Toby Harnden's blog

 Official information page about 'Dead Men Risen'

1966 births
Living people
Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Oxford
English bloggers
English male journalists
English people imprisoned abroad
English political writers
Graduates of Britannia Royal Naval College
People from Fairfax County, Virginia
Writers from Portsmouth
Prisoners and detainees of Zimbabwe
Royal Navy officers
People educated at St Bede's College, Manchester
People from Romiley
Writers from Manchester
The Daily Telegraph people
The Sunday Times people
British male bloggers

Toby Harnden


The Brethren of Purity (; also The Brethren of Sincerity) were a secret society of Muslim philosophers in Basra, Iraq, in the 9th or 10th century CE.

The structure of the organization and the identities of its members have never been clear. Their esoteric teachings and philosophy are expounded in an epistolary style in the Encyclopedia of the Brethren of Purity (Rasā'il Ikhwān al-ṣafā'''), a giant compendium of 52 epistles that would greatly influence later encyclopedias. A good deal of Muslim and Western scholarship has been spent on just pinning down the identities of the Brethren and the century in which they were active.

Name
The Arabic phrase Ikhwān aṣ-Ṣafāʾ (short for, among many possible transcriptions, , meaning "Brethren of Purity, Loyal Friends, People worthy of praise and Sons of Glory") can be translated as either the "Brethren of Purity" or the "Brethren of Sincerity"; various scholars such as Ian Netton prefer "of Purity" because of the group's ascetic impulses towards purity and salvation.

A suggestion made by Ignác Goldziher, and later written about by Philip Khuri Hitti in his History of the Arabs, is that the name is taken from a story in Kalilah waDimnah, in which a group of animals, by acting as faithful friends (ikhwān aṣ-ṣafāʾ), escape the snares of the hunter. The story concerns a Barbary dove and its companions who get entangled in the net of a hunter seeking birds. Together, they leave themselves and the ensnaring net to a nearby rat, who is gracious enough to gnaw the birds free of the net; impressed by the rat's altruistic deed, a crow becomes the rat's friend. Soon a tortoise and gazelle also join the company of animals. After some time, the gazelle is trapped by another net; with the aid of the others and the good rat, the gazelle is soon freed, but the tortoise fails to leave swiftly enough and is himself captured by the hunter. In the final turn of events, the gazelle repays the tortoise by serving as a decoy and distracting the hunter while the rat and the others free the tortoise. After this, the animals are designated as the "Ikhwān aṣ-Ṣafāʾ".

This story is mentioned as an exemplum when the Brethren speak of mutual aid in one risāla (epistle), a crucial part of their system of ethics that has been summarized thus:

Meetings
The Brethren regularly met on a fixed schedule. The meetings apparently took place on three evenings of each month: once near the beginning, in which speeches were given, another towards the middle, apparently concerning astronomy and astrology, and the third between the end of the month and the 25th of that month; during the third one, they recited hymns with philosophical content. During their meetings and possibly also during the three feasts they held, on the dates of the sun's entry into the Zodiac signs "Ram, Cancer, and Balance" (which double as the Vernal Equinox, Summer Solstice, and Autumnal Equinox), beyond the usual lectures and discussions, they would engage in some manner of liturgy reminiscent of the Harranians.

Ranks
Hierarchy was a major theme in their Encyclopedia, and unsurprisingly, the Brethren loosely divided themselves up into four ranks by age; the age guidelines would not have been firm: for example, such an exemplar of the fourth rank as Jesus would have been too young if the age guidelines were absolute and fixed. Compare the similar division of the Encyclopedia into four sections and the Jabirite symbolism of 4. The ranks were:
 The "Craftsmen" – a craftsman had to be at least 15 years of age; their honorific was the "pious and compassionate" (al-abrār wa 'l-ruhamā).
 The "Political Leaders" – a political leader had to be at least 30 years of age; their honorific was the "good and excellent" (al-akhyār wa 'l-fudalā)
 The "Kings" – a king had to be at least 40 years of age; their honorific was the "excellent and noble" (al-fudalā' al-kirām)
 The "Prophets and Philosophers" – the most aspired-to, the final and highest rank of the Brethren; to become a Prophet or Philosopher a man had to be at least 50 years old; their honorific compared them to historical luminaries such as Jesus, Socrates, or Muhammad who were also classified as Kings; this rank was the "angelic rank" (al-martabat al-malakiyya).

Identities
There have been a number of theories as to the authors of the Brethren. Though some members of the Ikhwān are known, it is not easy to work out exactly who, or how many, were part of this group of writers. The members referred to themselves as "sleepers in the cave" (rasā'il 4, p. 18); a hidden intellectual presence. In one passage they give as their reason for hiding their secrets from the people to be not a fear of earthly violence but a desire to protect their God-given gifts from the world (rasā'il 4, p. 166). Yet they were well aware that their esoteric teachings might provoke unrest, and the various calamities suffered by the successors of the Prophet may have seemed good reason to remain hidden.

Sunni-Sufi connections
Among the theories of the origins of the Ikhwān is that they were Sunnis and that their batini teachings were Sufic in nature. The Rasā'il contains hadith narrated by Aisha, which is something Shia scholars would not do. Susanne Diwald asserts that the Rasā'il is Sufi, thus implying a Sunni character. Alessandro Bausani also presented theories of the work being Sunni-Sufi in nature. The Rasā'il contains reference to the Al Khulafa Al-Rashidun, which is associated with Sunni Islam and also contains a passage in it that denounces the Rafidhi, a term used to describe non-Zaydi Shias, including Ismailis. According to Louis Massignon, the Arab-Andalusian scholar Ibn Sab'in has asserted that the Rasā'il has a Sunni-Sufi orientation. According to Palestinian historian Abdul Latif Tibawi, the Rasā'il contains a passage that states that if an ideal Imam dies, then the community can still be governed by consensus (ijma), which is a Sunni concept. According to Tibawi, this idea rejects the Shia concept of continuous leadership based on heredity.

 Mu'tazilite connections
The ontology of the Ikhwan is based on Neo-Platonism, linking ideas to a higher reality than sensory things. In line with the Mu'tazilite, they link human free will with God's justice. As evident from The Case of the Animals versus Man, spiritual entities frequently acknowledged by Muslim beliefs, such as angels, jinn, and spirits, function as figures representing Platonic intellects, showing further resemblance to the Mu'tazilite cosmology.

Ismaili Connections
Among the Isma'ili groups and missionaries who favored the Encyclopedia, authorship was sometimes ascribed to one or another "Hidden Imam"; this theory is recounted in al-Qifti's biographical compendium of philosophers and doctors, the "Chronicle of the Learned" (Akhbār al-Hukamā or Tabaqāt-al-Hukamā).pg. 25 of Nasr 1964

Some modern scholars have argued for an Ismaili origin to the writings. Ian Richard Netton writes that: "The Ikhwan's concepts of exegesis of both Quran and Islamic tradition were tinged with the esoterism of the Ismailis." According to Yves Marquet, "It seems indisputable that the Epistles represent the state of Ismaili doctrine at the time of their compositions". Bernard Lewis was more cautious, ranking the Epistles among books which, though "closely related to Ismailism" may not actually have been Ismaili, despite their batini inspiration. Ibn Qifti (d.646/1248), reporting in the 7th/13th century in Tarikh-i Hukama (p. 82) that, "Opinions differed about the authors of the Epistles. Some people attributed to an Alid Imam, proffering various names, whereas other put forward as author some early Mutazilite theologians."

Among the Syrian Ismailis, the earliest reference of the Epistles and its relation with the Ismailis is given in "Kitab Fusul wa'l Akhbar" by Nurudin bin Ahmad (d. 233/849). Another important work, "al-Usul wa'l-Ahakam" by Abul-Ma'ali Hatim bin Imran bin Zuhra (d. 498/1104), writes that, "These da'is, and other da'is with them, collaborated in composing long Epistles, fifty-two in number, on various branches of learning." It implies the Epistles being the product of the joint efforts of the Ismaili da'is.

Among the Yemenite traces, the earliest reference of the Epistles is found in the fragments of "Sirat Ibn Hawshab" by Ja'far ibn Mansur al-Yaman, who writes: "He (Imam Wafi Ahmed) 8th Imam of Ismaili sect went through many a difficulty and fear and the destruction of his family, whose description cannot be lengthier, until he issued (ansa'a) the Epistles and was contacted by a man called Abu Gafir from among his dais. He charged him with the mission as was necessary and asked him to keep his identity concealed." This source not only asserts the connection of the Epistles with the Ismailis, but also indicates that the Imam himself was not the sole author (sahibor mu'allif), but only the issuer or presenter (al-munsi). It suggests that the text of the philosophical deliberations was given a final touching by the Imam, and the approved text was delivered to Abu Gafir to be forwarded possibly to the Ikhwan in Basra secretly. Since the orthodox circles and the ruling power had portrayed a wrong image of Ismailism, the names of the (six) compilers were concealed.

Notwithstanding the uncertainties in the source, the prominent members of the secret association seem to have included Abul Hasan al-Tirmizi, Abdullah bin Mubarak, Abdullah bin Hamdan, Abdullah bin Maymun, Sa'id bin Hussain. The other Yemenite source connecting the Epistles with the Ismailis was the writing of the Tayyibi da'i al-mutlaq Ibrahim ibn al-Husayn al-Hamidi (d. 557/1162), who wrote "Kanz ul-Walad." After him, there followed "al-Anwar ul-Latifa" by Muhammad ibn Tahir (d. 584/1188), "Tanbih al-Ghafilin" by Hatim ibn Ibrahim al-Hamidi (d. 596/1199), "Damigh al-Batil wa hatf ul-Munaazil" by Ali ibn Muhammad ibn al-Walid al-Anf (d. 612/1215), "Risalat al-Waheeda" by al-Hussayn inn Ali al-Anf (d. 667/1268) and "Uyun'ul-Akhbar" by Idris Imad al-Din (d. 872/1468) etc.

al-Tawhīdī

Al-Qifti, however, denigrates this account and instead turns to a comment he discovered, written by Abū Hayyān al-Tawhīdī (d. 1023) in his Kitāb al-Imtā' wa'l-Mu'ānasa (written between 983 and 985), a collection of 37 séances at the court of Ibn Sa'dān, vizier of the Buyid ruler Samsam al-Dawla. Apparently, al-Tawhīdī was close to Zaid ibn Rifa'a, praising his intellect, ability and deep knowledge – indeed, he had dedicated his Kitāb as-Sadiq wa 'l-Sadaqa to Zaid – but he was disappointed that Zaid was not orthodox or consistent in his beliefs, and that he was, as Samuel Miklos Stern puts it,

For many years, this was the only account of the authors' identities, but al-Tawhīdī's comments were second-hand evidence and so unsatisfactory; further, the account is incomplete, as Abu Hayyan mentions that there were others besides these 4.

This situation lasted until al-Tawhīdī's Kitāb al-Imtā' wa'l-Mu'ānasa was published in 1942. This publication substantially supported al-Qifti's work, although al-Qifti apparently toned down the description and prominence of al-Tawhīdī's charges that the Brethren were Batiniyya, an esoteric Ismaili sect and thus heretics, possibly so as to not tar his friend Zaid with the same brush.

Stern derives a further result from the published text of the Kitāb al-Imtā wa 'l-Mu'anasa, pointing out that a story al-Tawhīdī ascribes to a personal meeting with Qadi Abu'l-Hasan 'Alī b. Hārūn az-Zanjāni, the founder of the group, appears in almost identical form in one of the epistles. While neat, Stern's view of things has been challenged by Tibawi, who points out some assumptions and errors Stern has made, such as the relationship between the story in al-Tawhīdī's work and the Epistles; Tibawi points out the possibility that the story was instead taken from a third, independent and prior source.

Al-Tawhīdī's testimony has also been described as thus:

The last contemporary source comes from the surviving portions of the Kitāb Siwan al-Hikma (c. 950) by Abu Sulaiman al-Mantiqi (al-Tawhīdī's teacher; 912–985), which was a sort of compendium of biographies; al-Mantiqi is primarily interested in the Brethren's literary techniques of using parables and stories, and so he says only this little before proceeding to give some extracts of the Encyclopedia:

al-Maqdisī was previously listed in the Basra group of al-Tawhīdī; here Stern and Hamdani differ, with Stern quoting Mantiqi as crediting Maqdisi with 52 epistles, but Hamdani says "By the time of al-Manṭiqī, the Rasā'īl were almost complete (he mentions 51 tracts)."

The second near-contemporary record is another comment by Shahrazūrī as recorded in the Tawārikh al-Hukamā or alternatively, the Tawárykh al-Hokamá; specifically, it is from the Nuzhat al-arwah, which is contained in the Tawārikh, which states:

Hamdani disputes the general abovegoing identifications, pointing out that accounts differ in multiple details, such as whether Zayd was an author or not, whether there was a principal author, and who was in the group or not. He lays particular stress on quotes from the Encyclopedia dating between 954 and 960 in the anonymous (Pseudo-Majriti) work Ghāyat al-Hakīm; al-Maqdisi and al-Zanjani are known to have been active in 983, He finds it implausible they would have written or edited "so large an encyclopedia at least twenty-five to thirty years earlier, that is, around 343/954 to 348/960, when they would have been very young." He explains the al-Tawhidi narrative as being motivated by contemporary politics and issues of hereticism relating to the Qarmatians, and points out that there is proof that Abu Hayyan has fabricated other messages and information.

Aloys Sprenger mentions this in a footnote:

The Epistles of the Brethren of Purity

The Rasā'il Ikhwān aṣ-Ṣafāʾ (Epistles of the Brethren of Purity) consist of fifty-two treatises in mathematics, natural sciences, psychology (psychical sciences) and theology. The first part, which is on mathematics, groups fourteen epistles that include treatises in arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, geography, and music, along with tracts in elementary logic, inclusive of: the Isagoge, the Categories, De Interpretatione, the Prior Analytics and the Posterior Analytics. The second part, which is on natural sciences, gathers seventeen epistles on matter and form, generation and corruption, metallurgy, meteorology, a study of the essence of nature, the classes of plants and animals, including a fable. The third part, which is on psychology, comprises ten epistles on the psychical and intellective sciences, dealing with the nature of the intellect and the intelligible, the symbolism of temporal cycles, the mystical essence of love, resurrection, causes and effects, definitions and descriptions. The fourth part deals with theology in eleven epistles, investigating the varieties of religious sects, the virtue of the companionship of the Brethren of Purity, the properties of genuine belief, the nature of the Divine Law, the species of politics, and the essence of magic.

They define a perfect man in their Rasā'il as "of East Persian derivation, of Arabic faith, of Iraqi, that is Babylonian, in education, Hebrew in astuteness, a disciple of Christ in conduct, as pious as a Syrian monk, a Greek in natural sciences, an Indian in the interpretation of mysteries and, above all a Sufi or a mystic in his whole spiritual outlook". There are debates on using this description and other materials of Rasa'il that could help with determination of the identity, affiliation (with Ismaili, Sufism, ...), and other characteristics of Ikhwān aṣ-Ṣafāʾ.

Notes

References
 1998 edition of The Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy; ed. Edward Craig,

 "The authorship of the Epistles of the Ikhwan-as-Safa", by Samuel Miklos Stern, published by Islamic Culture of Hyderabad in 1947
 "Abū Ḥayyan Al-Tawḥīdī and The Brethren of Purity", Abbas Hamdani. International Journal of Middle East Studies'', 9 (1978), 345–353

 El-Bizri, Nader (2014) «Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ: An Islamic Philosophical Fraternity », in Houari Touati (ed.), Encyclopedia of Mediterranean Humanism.

Further reading
 Critical editions and English translations of the Epistles of the Brethren of Purity published by Oxford University Press in association with the Institute of Ismaili Studies (2008–) https://global.oup.com/academic/content/series/e/epistles-of-the-brethren-of-purity-epbp/?cc=gb&lang=en&

External links

  (PDF version).
 http://ismaili.net/histoire/history04/history428.html

 Article at the Encyclopædia Britannica
 "Ikhwanus Safa: A Rational and Liberal Approach to Islam" – (by Asghar Ali Engineer)
 "The Classification of the Sciences according to the Rasa'il Ikhwan al-Safa'" by Godefroid de Callataÿ
 The Institute of Ismaili Studies article on the Brethren, by Nader El-Bizri
 The Institute of Ismaili Studies gallery of images of manuscripts of the Rasa'il of the Ikhwan al-Safa'
 Article in Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
 Article in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

10th-century philosophers
People from Basra
Ismailis
Esoteric schools of thought
Secret societies
10th-century Islam
9th-century Arabic books

Brethren of Purity


The Auckland snipe (Coenocorypha aucklandica aucklandica), also known as the Auckland Island snipe, is a small bird in the sandpiper family. It is the isolated nominate subspecies of the subantarctic snipe that is endemic to the Auckland Islands, a subantarctic island group south of New Zealand in the Southern Ocean.

Taxonomy and etymology
The Auckland snipe was first collected in 1840 both by Charles Wilkes' United States Exploring Expedition, and James Ross' Erebus and Terror Antarctic expedition, with the British specimens forming the basis for George Gray's 1844 description. The species name, and hence the subspecific epithet, refer to the type locality.

Description
The subspecies is generally similar to others in the genus, being a small, brown, cryptically patterned snipe with a long bill, short neck, tail and legs, and short, rounded wings. Females are slightly larger than males, weighing about 107 g compared with the males' 82–94 g.

Distribution and habitat
The snipe is endemic to the Auckland Islands, which has a total surface area of 625 km2. However, it is no longer present on  main Auckland Island, but only on 100 km2 Adams Island, Enderby Island, and the much smaller Disappointment, Ewing, Figure of Eight, Rose, Ocean and Dundas Islands. It inhabits the islands' tussock grasslands, Olearia forest, shrubland and herbfields.

Breeding
Breeding is seasonal, with a records of egg-laying from late September to early November with chicks present in November–December.  The typical clutch size is two. "Hakawai" aerial displays have been recorded.

Status and conservation
The population of the snipe is estimated at 20,000 birds. It has been classified as a range-restricted island endemic with a stable population.

References

Auckland snipe
Birds of the Auckland Islands
Auckland snipe
Auckland snipe

Auckland snipe