The Central Industrial District (, abbreviated COP), is an industrial region in Poland. It was one of the biggest economic projects of the Second Polish Republic. The 5-year-long project was initiated by a famous Polish economist, deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Treasury, Eugeniusz Kwiatkowski. Its goal was to create a heavy industrial center in the middle of the country, as far as possible from any borders, strengthen the Polish economy and reduce unemployment. The four-year plan for the development of COP was scheduled from 1 September 1936 until 30 July 1940 and was interrupted by the outbreak of the Second World War and the German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939. Nonetheless, the COP project succeeded in vastly expanding Polish industry, and after the end of the war in 1945 COP was rebuilt and expanded under the People's Republic of Poland.

History
Starting in 1928, there were recurring attempts to create a triangle of security, an industrial region in the middle of the country, which would be secure from any aggression by Germany or the Soviet Union. The plan was finally approved in 1936 by the Polish government. By April 1938, the plan, which had already set in motion in some parts of the country, was expanded to the territories beyond those covered by the original plan for the most secure 'triangle'.

The COP was located in the territories of the following former voivodeships: the eastern parts of Kielce Voivodship and Kraków Voivodship, the southern part of Lublin Voivodeship, and the western part of Lwów Voivodeship, or in other terms, 46 powiats, constituting 15.4% of the territory of Poland and inhabited by 17% of Poland's population. The urbanization factor of those territories was 17% (94 cities), compared to the national average of 30%. There were several arguments for the location of the COP:
Military: a relatively long distance from both the western and eastern borders (Poland was expecting future German or Soviet aggression) as well as protection from the south by the Carpathian Mountains.
Demographic: a fairly high population density (100 people/km2) with high unemployment (400,000-700,000).
Economic: to strengthen the mostly agricultural market of eastern Poland and create a market for Western Poland's industrial products as well as an energy market for southern Poland. In addition, the region had some undeveloped natural resources (stone, iron, clay and some energy resources).
Social: to reduce unemployment, still high in the mostly-agricultural regions of Eastern Poland, which were still feeling the aftershocks of the Great Depression.

The COP plan required a massive financial investment, just the development of the infrastructure and the military industry being estimated at 3 billion zlotys. As expectations of war grew, there was too little private investment in Europe in the late 1930s and so the Polish government carried most of the burden for financing the project. From 1937 to 1939, the COP had consumed approximately 60% of all Polish investment funds.

Achievements

The following industrial projects were part of the plan: a steel mill (Huta Stalowa Wola) and power plant in a brand new city of Stalowa Wola, a rubber factory in Dębica, an automobile factory in Lublin, an aircraft factory in Mielec, an aircraft engine and artillery factory in Rzeszów, hydroelectric power plants in Rożnów and Myczkowce, and the expansion of Zakłady Azotowe in Mościce. The military industry in the Staropolski Okręg Przemysłowy was expanded in the towns of Radom, Skarżysko-Kamienna, Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski, Starachowice, and Kielce. Most of those investments were located in regions with high unemployment, and their construction succeeded in reducing social tensions and began to strengthen the Polish economy.

The development of the COP and similar projects, like the construction of the seaport in Gdynia, were the most outstanding achievements of the Second Polish Republic, marking the beginning of the new era of recently regained independence. The COP plan was continued by the communist government of Poland after the Second World War.

However, as the end date for the plan was the end of July 1940, and Poland did not have sufficient capital to carry out the entire plan on its own, few of the intended projects were completely operational before the war broke out, and many other ones were not launched at all. Consequently, their contribution to the equipment of the Polish Army in the run-up to the war was relatively insignificant, and did little to offset the crushing material superiority of the German armed forces.

German encirclement and annihilation tactics in the Second World War, with their rapid advances by extremely well-equipped infantry (better than even their British and French counterparts) and fast motorized forces (heavy losses suffered by Panzer divisions were one of the reasons, the Germans created, what became known after World War II was over, as blitzkrieg tactics) and long-range air attacks, ensured that the COP region apparently failed to provide a secure haven for Polish industry. The idea of the safe triangle came from the thinking of the Polish military strategists during World War I and the Polish—Russian War in 1919–1920. This idea was upgraded during the late 1930s and many of the factories crucial to the war effort got distributed across the country. Moreover, the PZL.37 Łoś, a medium bomber, the factory was successfully moved and reassembled in the easternmost Poland that fell to the Soviet advance after September 17, 1939.

In any event, the German dismemberment of Czechoslovakia outflanked Poland from the south and put the majority of COP factories in the direct path of German advance from Slovakia. During the German occupation, most of the factories were converted to contribute to the German war effort. After the war, the COP-initiated industrial enterprises were further expanded and for the most part, continue to function until today.

Melchior Wańkowicz, in his 1939 book Sztafeta, emphasized the fact that the quick growth of the COP's towns and cities was not followed by necessary investments in infrastructure, especially schools and housing. As Ilustrowany Kurier Codzienny announced on January 10, 1939, in the first half of 1938, the population of Rzeszów grew by 24%, that of Sandomierz by 29%, Tarnobrzeg by 49%, and Mielec by 58%. Altogether, in the first half of 1938, the total population of all the COP's towns and cities grew by 20%. According to a press release from January 1939, out of 33 towns and cities located at the confluence of the San and the Vistula rivers, as many as 23 needed new schools.

See also
 Sandomierz Voivodeship (1939)
 Upper Silesian Industry Area
 Gdynia
 Polish Coal Trunk-Line
 Sztafeta

References

 Wiesław Samecki, Ekonomia 3: Centralny Okręg Przemysłowy 1936–1939, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego, 1998,

Economic history of Poland
Second Polish Republic
Regions of Poland
History of Lesser Poland
Kielce Voivodeship (1919–1939)
Kraków Voivodeship (1919–1939)
Lublin Voivodeship (1919–1939)
Lwów Voivodeship
1936 in Poland
1930s in Poland
Industrialisation
Economic planning

Central Industrial Region (Poland)


The graph of desire () is a conceptual tool in Lacanianism.

History
Lacan devised numerous quasi-mathematical diagrams to represent the structure of the unconscious and its points of contact with empirical and mental reality. He adapted figures from the field of topology in order to represent the Freudian view of the mind as embodying a "double inscription" (which could be defined as the ultimate inseparability of unconscious motivations from conscious ones).

Graph
The graph of desire was first proposed in a 1960 colloquium, and was later published in the Ecrits. It depends on ideas developed originally in Lacan's Schema R, a graph in which fundamental organising structures of the human mind are shown in a schematic relationship to the domains or "orders" which in turn structure human reality: the Imaginary, the Symbolic and the Real.

The graph of desire is a "flattened" representation of a signifying chain as it crosses a pathway Lacan called a vector of desire. It appears as two curved lines which cross one another at two separate points. Each line has a symbolic meaning.

Elements of the graph
The signifying chain begins in a linguistic sign (S) and progresses to a signification (S'), or a linguistic meaning. It can be expressed sententially and has a duration.

The vector of desire is a representation of the volition and will of the split or barred subject ($). Unlike the signifying chain, the vector of desire is expressed metaphorically, and has no duration.

It is necessary to bear in mind the special conception of the subject Lacan means by the $ symbol. The barred subject is the internally conflicted result of the processes of individuation that begin in infancy. In Lacan's account of individuation, the infant must respond to the loss of symbiosis with the mother by creating a symbol of this lack. In doing so the infant is constrained by the always-already present structures of a natural language. There is a certain relief in the summoning of a symbolically present "mother", but the experience of the mother who returns to the infant as someone-signified-by-the-word-"mother" is nevertheless one of absolute, irremediable loss. Mother—and the world—is now mediated by the Symbolic order and the exigencies of language.

With this in mind, the crossing of the two pathways in the graph of desire can be understood to connote interference and constraint. Desire for the primordial object is not fulfilled except through the constraints of the signifying chain. The vector of desire is metaphorical, substituting various objects for the absolutely lost primordial one, and irrupting into language without regard for the passage of time, or for the particular human relationship through which the vector moves.

Finally, the points at which the vector of desire and the signifying chain cross can be seen as instances of Freudian double inscription. The "conscious and unconscious" significance of an act or utterance are one and the same, and each constrains the other.

See also
Demand
Desire

References
Leupin, Alexandre (2004). Lacan Today, Other Press, New York.

External links
A Tour of the Graph of Desire - YouTube guide from LacanOnline.com
The Paradigms of Jouissance – Lacanian Ink 17, Autumn 2000
The Seminars of Jacques Lacan

Psychoanalytic terminology
Jacques Lacan
Post-structuralism
Structuralism

Graph of desire


Ray "Sugar Bear" Hamilton (born January 20, 1951) is a former American football player from 1973 through 1981 for the New England Patriots. He also coached for the Patriots as an assistant defensive line coach in Super Bowl XX. Hamilton got his first shot as a defensive line coach for the National Football League (NFL)'s Atlanta Falcons. Hamilton was an All Big 8 defensive tackle for the Oklahoma Sooners, being named to the first team in 1971 and 1972.

Hamilton is best known for an incident in the 1976 NFL playoffs in a first-round game against the Oakland Raiders, when Oakland's Ken Stabler threw an incompletion after Hamilton tipped the ball as he threw. Stabler fell backwards after hit him, and the play would have resulted in a fourth down and 18 yards to go. Ben Dreith, the referee, gave the Raiders a first down on a penalty of roughing the passer. Hamilton later was a defensive line coach for nine NFL teams, including the Patriots and Raiders.

Before becoming the defensive line coach for the Falcons, he spent the previous five years in the same position with the Jacksonville Jaguars. Hamilton spent two seasons as the Defensive Line Coach for the Cleveland Browns from 2001–2002. In his first season with Cleveland, the Browns tied for fourth in the AFC with 43 sacks. For three seasons, Hamilton served as New England Defensive Line Coach from 1997–99 and joined the New York Jets staff in 2000.  His 1998 defensive line tallied 25 of the team 36 sacks, the seventh-best total in the NFL. In 1995, Hamilton joined the Jets in his first stint with the team as the Defensive Line Coach. He guided defensive end Hugh Douglas, who was named the 1995 NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year. From 1993–94, Hamilton was a member of the Los Angeles Raiders where he developed Chester McGlockton and a defensive line that combined for 83 sacks in his two seasons with the Raiders. In 2006, Hamilton guided defensive end Bobby McCray  who developed into one of the AFC top pass rushers as he led Jacksonville with a career-high 10 sacks. The defensive line combined for 29.5 sacks, ranking fourth in the NFL in rushing yards allowed per game.

In 2018, Hamilton became the defensive line coach for the Birmingham Iron of the Alliance of American Football.

References

1951 births
Living people
American football defensive tackles
American football defensive ends
Birmingham Iron coaches
New England Patriots players
New England Patriots coaches
Oklahoma Sooners football players
Jacksonville Jaguars coaches

Ray Hamilton


Bank account debits tax (BADT or BAD) was an Australian bank transaction tax levied on customer withdrawals from bank accounts with a cheque facility (both withdrawals made by cheque or by another means, such as EFTPOS).

The tax was introduced by the federal government in 1982.  The power to levy the tax was transferred to the states in 1990, except for Norfolk Island which did not charge it.  The tax was abolished by the states on dates between 1 July 2002 and 1 July 2005 as part of the package of reforms for the introduction of the goods and services tax. The financial institutions duty was also abolished as part of this package.

The tax was based on the amount withdrawn, and varied by state.  The final rates were per the following table.

{| class="wikitable"
|
| Tas
| ACT, NT, NSW, Qld,
SA, Vic,
WA
|-
| less than $1 || nil || nil
|-
| $1 to less than $100 || $0.15 || $0.15
|-
| $100 to less than $500 || $0.35 || $0.70
|-
| $500 to less than $5,000 || $0.75 || $1.50
|-
| $5,000 to less than $10,000 || $1.50 || $3.00
|-
| $10,000 or more || $2.00 || $4.00
|}

The tax was levied according to the state where the bank account was domiciled, not where the account holder lived.  A total of about $1 billion per year was being collected near the end of its full operation in 2001 (according to the Australian Bankers' Association).

Since the tax applied only to cheque accounts, bank customers could choose not to have a cheque facility to avoid the tax, or could keep a separate cheque account used only when needing to write a cheque.

Bank errors
On 11 May 2005, National Australia Bank announced it had incorrectly collected bank account debits tax totalling some $10 million from 140,000 bank accounts.  The bank's announcement included plans to reimburse customers for the $10 million incorrectly collected and a further $4 million in interest owed.  However, since the issue may have dated back to the 31 December 1982 introduction of the tax, there were insufficient records to identify all affected customers.

Legislation

 Debits Tax Act 1982 (Commonwealth)
 Debits Tax Administration Act 1982 (Commonwealth)
 Debits Tax Act 1990 (New South Wales)
 Debits Tax Act 1990 (Queensland)
 Debits Tax Act 1990 (South Australia)
 Debits Tax Act 1990 (Tasmania)
 Debits Tax Act 1990 (Victoria)
 Debits Tax Act 1990 (Western Australia)
 Debits Tax Act 1997 (Australian Capital Territory)
 Debits Tax Act 1990 (Northern Territory)

See also
 Taxation in Australia
 Bank transaction tax

References
Bank Account Transaction Taxes: 'FID' and 'BAD' , David Kehl, Parliament of Australia Parliamentary Library Research Note 7 2001–02
Press release on FID abolition, by the Australian Bankers' Association
Bank account overcharging announcement, National Australia Bank media release and ASX announcement

History of taxation in Australia
Banking in Australia
Abolished taxes

Bank account debits tax


Gaullism () is a French political term of people who support the ideas and presidency of World War II French Resistance leader General Charles de Gaulle.

Gaullism cannot be seen within a political ideology, meaning it is not left or right. It is more of how the President of France should use their power.

"Neo-Gaullism" has been used to describe a movement after the death of de Gaulle in 1970 from people who are economic liberal than both traditional and social Gaullism.

Gaullist political parties
The following is a list of Gaullist political parties and their successors:
 1947–1955: Rally of the French People (RPF)
 1955–1958: National Centre of Social Republicans (CNRS)
 1958–1962: Union for the New Republic (UNR) and Democratic Union of Labour (UDT)
 1962–1967: Union for the New Republic – Democratic Union of Labour (UNR – UDT)
 1967–1968: Democratic Union for the Fifth Republic (UD-Ve)
 1968–1971: Union for the Defence of the Republic (UDR)
 1971–1976: Union of Democrats for the Republic (UDR)
 1976–2002: Rally for the Republic (RPR)
 1994-2018: Movement for France  (MPF)
 1999–2014: Debout la République (DLR)
 2002–2015: Union for a Popular Movement (UMP)
 2014–present: Debout la France (DLF)
 2015–present: The Republicans (LR)

References

Political parties in France

Gaullism


Ivan Mikhailovich Varichev (; January 15, 1924 – June 7, 2016) Russian Soviet realist painter, People's Artist of the Russian Federation, who live and work in Saint Petersburg (former Leningrad). He is a member of the Saint Petersburg Union of Artists (before 1992 named as the Leningrad branch of Union of Artists of Russian Federation), regarded as one of the brightest representatives of the Leningrad school of painting, most famous for his lyrical landscape of rural Russia.

Biography
Ivan Mikhailovich Varichev was born January 15, 1924, in village of Nizhnaya Loshikha, Smolensk Province of the USSR.

In 1942, Ivan Varichev was drafted into the Red Army and took part in the German-Soviet War, which led the Soviet people against Nazi Germany and its allies. As a soldier and gunner he fought on the Leningrad Front, then on the Soviet Far East against Japan. He was wounded and marked by military awards.

After demobilization Ivan Varichev entered at the Tavricheskaya Art School in Leningrad, which he graduated in 1951. After graduation Ivan Varichev was adopted at the first course of Department of Painting at the Leningrad Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture named after Ilya Repin, where he studied of Ivan Stepashkin, Vitaly Valtsev, Piotr Belousov.

In 1957, Ivan Varichev graduated from the Leningrad Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture named after Ilya Repin in Yuri Neprintsev studio, together with Galina Rumiantseva, Zlata Bizova, Ilya Glazunov, Elena Gorokhova, Vladimir Malevsky, Dmitry Oboznenko, Vladimir Proshkin, and other young artists. His graduation work was genre painting "The Return from mowing"

Since 1957 Ivan Varichev has participated in Art Exhibitions. He painted landscapes, genre paintings, and sketches from the life. Most famous for etudes done from nature and lyrical landscapes of rural Russia.

Ivan Varichev has become a member of the Leningrad Union of Artists since 1960.

Ivan Varichev was awarded the honorary titles of the Honored Artist of the Russian Federation (1983), and the People's Artist of the Russian Federation (2005).

Paintings by Ivan Varichev reside in State Russian Museum, State Tretyakov Gallery, in art museums and private collections in Russia, Japan, China, England, in the US, France, and others.

Honours and awards
 Order of the Patriotic War, 1st class
 Order of Glory
 Medal "For Courage", twice
 Medal "For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945"
 Medal "For the Defence of Leningrad"

References

Sources
 Artists of the peoples of the USSR. Biography and Bibliography Dictionary. Volume 2. - Moscow: Iskusstvo Edition, 1972. - p. 168.
 Saint-Pétersbourg - Pont-Audemer.  Dessins, Gravures, Sculptures et Tableaux du XX siècle du fonds de L' Union des Artistes de Saint-Pétersbourg. - Pont-Audemer: 1994. - pp. 87, 101.
 Matthew C. Bown. Dictionary of 20th Century Russian and Soviet Painters 1900-1980s. - London: Izomar, 1998. , .
 Time for change. The Art of 1960-1985 in the Soviet Union. - Saint Petersburg: State Russian Museum, 2006. - p. 164.
 Irina Romanycheva. Academic Dacha. History and traditions. - Saint Petersburg: Petropol Publishing House, 2009. - pp. 136–137.
 Sergei V. Ivanov. Unknown Socialist Realism. The Leningrad School. - Saint Petersburg: NP-Print Edition, 2007. – pp. 9, 18, 29, 284, 358, 391-396, 399, 401-404, 406, 407, 415-419, 421-424. , .
 Artists of Peter's Academy of Arts and Sciences. - Saint Petersburg: Ladoga Edition, 2008. - pp. 36–37.

1924 births
2016 deaths
Leningrad School artists
Members of the Leningrad Union of Artists
Recipients of the Medal "For Courage" (Russia)
Recipients of the Order of Glory
Repin Institute of Arts alumni
Socialist realist artists
Soviet military personnel of World War II
Soviet painters
Tavricheskaya Art School alumni
20th-century Russian painters
Russian male painters
21st-century Russian painters
20th-century Russian male artists
21st-century Russian male artists

Ivan Varichev


Razing Storm is a light gun rail shooter arcade game developed and published by Namco Bandai Games for the System 357 board. It is the second spin-off of the Time Crisis series published by Namco after Crisis Zone.

Razing Storm was released for the PlayStation 3  as Time Crisis: Razing Storm in North America, and as Big 3 Gun Shooting in Japan in October 2010, and features support for the PlayStation Move controller and Namco Guncon 3 controller.

Plot
Razing Storm'''s story places in the year 2030, with the players - referred to as Alpha One and Alpha Two in-game - in a massively destructible environment to fight futuristic terrorists and renegade soldiers in South America, which is under a bloody revolution, as part of a special forces unit called S.C.A.R. (Strategic Combat and Rescue), sent to capture the leader of the rebels, Paulo Guerra, who masterminded an attack on the United States. Guerra's schemes are shrouded in mystery, as much of his doings are unraveled in the PlayStation 3 version of the game, which also wraps up the cliffhanger from the Arcade release.

GameplayRazing Storm is similar to many of its Time Crisis rail shooter counterparts, namely Crisis Zone, using the signature foot pedal cover system, but providing the player with a machine gun as the default weapon and a handheld ballistic shield. Pressing down on the pedal allows the player to lower the shield and attack, but leaves them open to enemy fire. Releasing the pedal allows the player to raise the shield, reloading their weapon and rendering the player impervious to all conventional types of damage, but leaves them unable to attack. The game also has a time limit on each section. This forces the player to attack and take risks rather than spend too much time hiding behind their shield, or they will face damage from events that occur when from the timer runs out.

Players have a limited number of life marks (a default setting of three) and one mark is taken away for every hit of damage they take and whenever the timer runs out. A one-half mark is taken away for accidentally shooting a civilian in certain situations, but several one-half marks can be earned (even above the default amount) by covering allied squad members in other situations. When the life marks drop to zero or below, the game is over. Different from most Time Crisis games, clear warnings are given when an enemy has locked-on and is about to attack, usually in the form of a shrinking crosshair mark around an enemy's gun, or a yellow triangle around flying projectiles. As the player keeps progressing without taking damage, the warning time shrinks and projectiles travel faster, forcing the player to defend much more quickly and efficiently to avoid damage while moving forward, much like the Virtua Cop series.

Unlike its Time Crisis counterparts, Razing Storm puts a unique emphasis on the player's score and performance, with frequent checkpoints, score reports, and commentary for hit chains to let the player know how he's doing, and how he compares to other players before him. As the player scores continuous hits on enemies in short periods of time, his hit counter increases, giving score bonuses and compliments from other characters at certain milestones (scoring a 50, 100, 150 hit chain, etc.). The hit counter/chain is also added to and extended by destroying the surrounding environment, such as shooting out windows, railings, fruit stands, and concrete barriers. Large score bonuses are also given for quick completion of areas, as a time bonus, and for destroying environmental hazards that harm enemies. This scoring system gives players incentive to attack and shoot continuously and recklessly, taking risks for a high score, rather than playing defensively to simply complete the game.Razing Storm has 4 stages of gameplay, in which playing all four stages is contingent on how well the player performed. Players must encounter militias, rogue troopers, and mechanized enemies throughout. Players are also given four different weapons, based on the situation that the player is facing.

Originally an arcade game, Razing Storm was released as a part of Time Crisis: Razing Storm for the PlayStation 3. In the PlayStation 3 port, a first-person shooting Story Mode (similar to Time Crisis 4's Full Mission) covers cliffhangers and plot holes purposely omitted from the arcade version.

See alsoTime Crisis: Razing StormExternal links
 Namco America - Game - Razing Storm Official 'Razing Storm' page on Namco America website Razing Storm at Highway Games''

2009 video games
Time Crisis
Arcade video games
PlayStation 3 games
Video games set in South America
Science fiction shooter video games
Rail shooters
Video game spin-offs
Video games developed in Japan
Video games set in 2030
Light gun games
Video games using Havok
Bandai Namco games
Cooperative video games
Namco arcade games

Razing Storm


Lego Design byME (previously known as Lego Factory since the 2005 launch) was a service connected with the construction toy Lego. Using this service, people could design their own Lego models using a computer program, then upload them to the Lego website, design their own box design, and order them for actual delivery. The brand also covered a small selection of products that have been designed by Lego fans, and which were available to purchase as a set.

System
Lego Design byME was created for people to build and experiment with virtual Lego bricks. This was done on a program called Lego Digital Designer. Models were uploaded to Design byME on the Lego website, and creations could either be shared with the world in the gallery or purchased as a custom Lego set.

Pricing

When purchasing models from Lego Design byME, the price was significantly high compared to store-bought Lego sets, leading consumers to believe that the prices were unreasonable. However, the price was divided into a few different parts. These are listed below:
 A service fee, which includes the handpicking of bricks and producing a custom made box.
 The cost of the bricks, which is based on the amount as well as the types of bricks in the model.
 Standard shipping fees.
 The optional building guide does not produce any additional fee.
Design byME did not accept returns due to its classification as a custom service.

Discontinuation of service

In late 2011, Lego announced that it would discontinue its Design byME service in its current form. As of 16 January 2012, models created in Lego Digital Designer can no longer be purchased directly as Lego Design byME sets. This does not affect the HERO Recon Team Hero Creator range of products. At the time, Lego confirmed that it would continue Lego Digital Designer as a free design software, and also keep its Pick-a-Brick service operational. Lego claims that Design byME has proven to be "too complex for children", and that despite its success, "the overall Design byME experience has struggled to live up to the quality standards for a LEGO service".  Subsequently, in 2016 Lego also discontinued support for Lego Digital Designer.

List of sets
5524 Airport – Location: Super Airport, Hotel
5525 Amusement Park – Location: Pirate Ship, Car Race, Ski Slope, Robo Destroyer
5526 Skyline – Location: Hot Pursuit, Sears Tower, Liberty, LEGO Corp
10183 Hobby Trains
10190 Market Street – Minifigures: Townspeople (3x)
10191 Star Justice – Minifigures: Astronauts (4x), Space Robots (x3)
10192 Space Skulls – Minifigures: Space Skulls (4x)
10200 Custom Car Garage – Minifigures: Repairman (1x), Flagman (1x), Drivers (2x)

References

Factory
Internet properties established in 2005
Internet properties disestablished in 2012

Lego Design byME


Offa was the King of Mercia from 757 until his death in July 796.
Many historians regard Offa as the most powerful Anglo-Saxon king before Alfred the Great. Offa died in 796 and was succeeded by his son, Ecgfrith, who reigned for less than five months before Coenwulf of Mercia became king.

King of Mercia

Offa was the son of Thingfrith, a descendant of Eowa of Mercia. Eowa was a king of Mercia who ruled along with his more famous brother Penda of Mercia. In 757 the king of Mercia,Athelbald, was murdered. There was a short civil war between others claiming the throne. An ealdorman named Beornred took the throne of Mercia but Offa drove him out of Mercia and became king himself that same year. The alliances Athelbald had formed fell apart when Offa came to power. Offa had very little power outside of Mercia for the first several years of his reign.

Bretwalda (overlord)

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle makes no mention of Offa for the years between 757—777. No Mercian chronicles from this time period have survived. Charters are the only records that give any idea of Offa's power outside of Mercia. But he proved to be ruthless, bold and creative in bringing Kent, Sussex and Essex under his control. Aethelbert the king of Kent was apparently under Offa's influence before he died in 762. In 794 another Aethelbert, a king in East Anglia was beheaded at Offa's command. When Egbert of Wessex made a bid for the throne of Wessex in 786 Offa had him banished from England. He made Beorhtric king of Wessex instead. Egbert was welcomed at the court of Charlemagne for at least three years. In charters Offa issued in Kent, East Anglia, Sussex and Middlesex he simply used the style Rex Merciorum (Latin for king of Mercia). Only in three church charters does he expand his title to indicate he is overlord of all of England.

Offa had diplomatic relations with Charlemagne. He was one of the few Anglo-Saxon monarchs to have dealings with continental rulers. Letters and presents were exchanged. But when Offa sought a marriage of his son to one of Charlemagne's daughters, relations were quickly cut off. Charlemagne had all Frankish ports closed to British ships. Offa, very involved in church affairs, presided over church councils personally in 786-7. In 787 he convinced the pope to create the position of archbishop of Lichfield in Mercia. He wanted his own archbishop who was closer at hand than the Archbishop of Canterbury. He reorganized the defenses of his kingdom. One of these defenses, Offa's Dyke was a massive earthworks between Mercia and the Welsh kingdoms to the west. Offa died in 796. His son, Ecgfrith, lasted only 141 days as king. Mercia was never again as powerful as it was during Offa's reign.

Notes

References

796 deaths
Kings and Queens of Mercia
730s births

Offa of Mercia


Brunswick is a town in Rensselaer County, New York, United States that was first settled in the early 1700s. During its history, it had been part of Albany County, Rensselaerswyck, and Troy, before its incorporation in 1807. It is bordered on the west by the city of Troy; on the north by Schaghticoke and Pittstown; on the east by Grafton; and on the south by Poestenkill and North Greenbush. The number of people living there was 11,664 at the 2000 census. The story of the town's name is fought: some say it comes from the source of its first people who lived in Germany, Brunswick-Lüneburg, while others say that it honors the "Duke of Brunswick (George I).

The town was in the past agricultural, but began experiencing suburban sprawl in the later decades of the 20th century, which continues today. Historically, most of the developments have happened around the town's two major crowded roads: New York Route 7 and New York Route 2, known locally as Hoosick Road and Brunswick Road. Brunswick became a popular place to settle in upon the completion of the local highway system in the Capital District, mostly the fix of Route 7 into a four-lane highway in the 1980s.

Landmarks
The town has two listings on the National Register of Historic Places, both schoolhouses: Garfield School and the Little Red Schoolhouse. And, it is home to a well-known cemetery, Forest Park Cemetery, right now under the power of the town. It is known by urban legend as being one of the most haunted cemeteries in the United States. A very small part of the historic Oakwood Cemetery, added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984, and burial place of Samuel Wilson, a possible  namesake of Uncle Sam, remains within the northwestern part of the town.

Towns in New York (state)

Brunswick, New York


Ilango Adigal (, ) was a monk and a poet, sometimes identified as a Chera prince. He is traditionally credited as the author of Cilappatikaram, one of the Five Great Epics of Ancient Tamil literature. He is one of the greatest poets from Cheranadu (now Kerala). In a patikam (prologue) to the epic poem, he identifies himself as the brother of a famous Chera king Ceṅkuṭṭuvan (Senguttuvan). This Chera king, as stated by Elizabeth Rosen, ruled over his kingdom in late 2nd or early 3rd century CE. However, this is doubtful because a Sangam poem in Patiṟṟuppattu – the fifth ten – provides a biography of Ceṅkuṭṭuvan, his family and rule, but never mentions that he had a brother who became an ascetic or wrote one of the most cherished epics. This has led scholars to conclude that the legendary author Ilango Adikal myth was likely inserted later into the epic. In a 1968 note, Kamil Zvelebil suggested that, "this [Adigal claim] may be a bit of poetic fantasy, practised perhaps by a later member of the Chera Dynasty [5th or 6th century] recalling earlier events [2nd or 3rd century]".

Biography
Iḷaṅkō Aṭikaḷ (lit. "the venerable ascetic prince"), also spelled Ilango Adigal or Ilangovadigal, is traditionally believed to be the author of the Cilappatikaram. No direct verifiable information is available about him. He is believed to have been a prince who became a Jain ascetic based on a patikam (prologue) composed and interpolated into the epic many centuries later. Ilango is considered the younger son of Chera king Nedum Cheralatan and Sonai/Nalchonai of the Chola dynasty. His elder brother is believed to be Senguttuvan, the reputed warrior-king. The young Ilango chose to forgo the royal life because a priest had told the royal court that the younger prince will succeed his father, and Ilango wanted to prove him wrong. However, these traditional beliefs are doubtful because the Sangam era text Patiṟṟuppattu provides a biography of king Nedum Cheralatan and of king Senguttuvan, and in neither is Ilango Adigal ever mentioned.

The author was a Jaina scholar, as in several parts of the epic, the key characters of the epic meet a Jaina monk or nun. The last canto of the epic, lines 155-178, mentions "I also went in", whose "I" scholars have assumed to be the author Adigal. The epic also mentions, among other details, the "Gajabahu synchronism".

These verses state Adikal attended the animal sacrifice by king Senguttuvan in the presence of Gajabahu, someone believed to have been the king of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) between 171 and 193 CE. This has led to the proposals that Adikal lived in the same period. These lines also mention that he became a sannyasi in a monastery outside Vanci – the capital of the 2nd-century Chera kingdom (now parts of Kerala). This declaration has been interpreted as renouncing and becoming a Jain monk.

According to Kamil Zvelebil, all this must have been a fraudulent statement added by Ilango Adikal to remain a part of the collective memory in the epic he wrote. Adikal was likely a Jain who lived a few centuries later, states Zvelebil, and his epic "cannot have been composed before the 5th- or 6th-century".

Gananath Obeyesekere – a scholar of Buddhism, Sri Lankan religious history and anthropology, considers the epic's claims of Gajabahu and the kinship between Ilango Adigal and Senguttuvan to be ahistorical, and that these lines are likely "a late interpolation" into the Tamil epic. The author was likely not a prince, nor had anything to do with the Chera dynasty, says R Parthasarathy, and these lines may have been added to the epic to give the text a high pedigree status, gain royal support, and to "institutionalize the worship of goddess Pattini and her temples" in the Tamil regions (modern Kerala and Tamil Nadu) as is described in the epic.

According to another Tamil legend, an astrologer predicted that he would become the ruler of the land. To stop this, and let his elder brother be the king, the prince became a Jain monk taking the name of Ilango Adigal.

Legacy
The Cilappatikaram epic credited to Ilango Adigal inspired another Chera-Tamil poetic epic called Manimekalai. This poetic epic acts as a sequel to the aforementioned work. It revolves around the daughter of Kovalan (the protagonist of Cilappatikaram) and Madhavi (who had an affair with Kovalan in Cilappatikaram), named Manimekalai. Although Manimekalai's mother was Madhavi, she worshipped goddess Pattini (Kannaki, Kovalan's wife).

See also
 Five Great Epics
 Tamil literature

References

Bibliography

External links

Tamil epic poets
Indian Jain monks
2nd-century Indian Jains
2nd-century Jain monks
2nd-century Indian monks
2nd-century Indian poets

Silappatikaram
Indian male poets

Ilango Adigal


The United Pentecostal and Evangelical Churches (, abbreviated VPE) is the largest Pentecostal and evangelical Christian denomination in the Netherlands. It was created on February 16, 2002, when the Brotherhood of Pentecostal Churches (Broederschap van Pinkstergemeenten) and the Full Gospel Churches of the Netherlands (Volle-Evangeliegemeenten Nederland) merged. The VPE is the Dutch branch of the Assemblies of God. In 2008, it had 22,000 members in 160 churches.

Organisation
Local churches have relative autonomy, and the national office, based in Urk, functions as a facilitator of local churches. Peter Sleebos has chaired the VPE since its founding. Clergy and other church workers are trained at Azusa Theological College, which has resided at the Free University in Amsterdam since 2002. The Free University also has an academic chair of Pentecostalism.

Relations with other Churches
Internationally, the VPE is a member of the World Assemblies of God Fellowship (WAGF). Within Europe, the VPE cooperates closely with Assemblies of God churches in Germany and Flanders—the Federation of Pentecostal Churches and the Verbond van Vlaamse Pinkstergemeenten respectively. The VPE is also a member of the Pentecostal European Fellowship.

In the Netherlands the VPE cooperate with other Pentecostal and evangelical groups in the National Platform of the Pentecostal and Evangelical Movement and participates in the Evangelical Alliance of the Netherlands.
The VPE has continuous dialogues with both the Roman Catholic Church and the Protestant Church in the Netherlands.
September 15, 2007, at the occasion of the celebration of the 100 years existence of the Pentecostal movement in the Netherlands at the Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam, Bas Plaisier, secretary general of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands asked for forgiveness for some judgements of the Pentecostals issued by his church in the past. November 16, 2007 Peter Sleebos, chairman of the National Platform did the same vice versa when he addressed the General Synod of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands.

References

External links

Netherlands
Evangelicalism in the Netherlands
Christian denominations in the Netherlands
Pentecostalism in Europe


Robert (died July 1080) was the first Norman count of Montescaglioso.

Robert had a brother, Geoffrey of Conversano. Their mother was a sister of Duke Robert Guiscard.

Along with his brother Geoffrey and his cousins, Abelard and Herman, Robert was constantly in rebellion against his uncle the duke. In April 1064, Robert joined Abelard, Geoffrey, and Joscelin, Lord of Molfetta, in rebellion against Robert, who had just left for Sicily. They received the aid, financial and military, of Perenos, the Byzantine duke of Durazzo. Between 1 September 1065 and 31 August 1066, Byzantine troops landed at Bari. The rebels held out for several years, neither making headway against Robert nor he against them. On 1 January 1068, Romanus Diogenes was acclaimed emperor in Constantinople and the Greeks transferred their military attention to the Seljuk threat to their east. The rebellion fell apart and by February Robert had surrendered.

In 1071, with Abelard, and in 1078, with his cousin Prince Jordan I of Capua, Robert was in rebellion again. Robert and his brother and cousins continued in rebellion after the 1079 peace between Jordan and the Guiscard. Robert was one of the first to cease revolting: he died in July 1080. He left a son, Rudolf, who succeeded him.

Sources
Lexikon de Mittelalters.
Norwich, John Julius. The Normans in the South 1016-1130. Longmans: London, 1967.

Italo-Normans
Norman warriors
1080 deaths
Year of birth unknown

Robert, Count of Montescaglioso


Greenland Brewhouse was Greenland's first brewery. It was located in Narsaq in Southern Greenland and was founded in December 2004. The beer was brewed from water derived from melted icebergs. Melt water was collected from icebergs and transported to the brewery by local fishermen on their fishing boats. Greenland Brewhouse pioneered 'ice beer', brewed from 2000-year-old natural Arctic ice harvested from glaciers.

Prior to 1954, alcohol sales were heavily restricted in Greenland, thus home brewing presented problems.

Bankruptcy
The microbrewery filed for bankruptcy in October 2008. A month later—in November 2008—the main shareholder, Greenland Ventures, decided against further investment in the company and the brewery was declared bankrupt. The main Greenlandic newspaper Sermitsiaq reported the brewery left behind four million kroner in debt.

See also

Godthaab Bryghus, in Nuuk, Greenland
Icefiord Bryghus, in Ilulissat, Greenland
Microbrewery

References

External links
Image: Ice collection for the brewery's water source

Beer in Denmark
Breweries of Greenland
Defunct companies of Greenland
Alcohol in Greenland

Greenland Brewhouse


Peg Kerr (born 28 April of undisclosed year) is an American fantasy author.

Biography

She was born in a suburb of Chicago and moved to Minnesota to attend St. Olaf College. She received an M.A. in English Literature in 1990, specializing in speculative fiction. She lives with her two daughters in Minneapolis; she and her daughters are students of the martial arts. Her husband, Robert F. Ihinger, died in 2018.

Kerr has been publishing short fiction since 1987 and attended the Clarion Workshop in 1988; her stories have been published in Tales of the Unanticipated, Amazing Stories, Weird Tales, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and several anthologies.

Kerr's first novel Emerald House Rising was published in 1997 by Warner Aspect, and received praise for the degree of care and detail with which it treated the subjects of jewelry crafting and gemcutting, as well as the unusual sociology she constructed around them.

Her second novel The Wild Swans, based in part on Hans Christian Andersen's classic fairy tale The Wild Swans, was published in 1999. It was praised by many notable figures in the genre, including Lois McMaster Bujold and Jane Yolen, and was nominated for a Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature as well. Charles de Lint placed it "among the very best contemporary retellings of fairy tales, those that retain the old charm and magic of the original, but use the classic material to illuminate elements of our life in the real world."

References

External links
 A Peg Kerr page – fan-maintained, with Kerr's support
 http://pegkerr.livejournal.com - Kerr's LiveJournal
 Enthusiastic review of Wild Swans at SF Site

20th-century American novelists
American fantasy writers
American women short story writers
American women novelists
Novelists from Chicago
Novelists from Minnesota
St. Olaf College alumni
Living people
Women science fiction and fantasy writers
20th-century American women writers
20th-century American short story writers
Year of birth missing (living people)
21st-century American women

Peg Kerr


Culchie is a pejorative term in Hiberno-English for someone from rural Ireland. The term usually has a pejorative meaning directed by urban Irish against rural Irish, but since the late 20th century, the term has also been reclaimed by some who are proud of their rural or small town origin. In Dublin, the term culchie is often used to describe someone from outside County Dublin, including commuter towns such as Maynooth. In Belfast, Northern Ireland, the term is used to refer to persons from outside of the city proper but not necessarily outside the Greater Belfast area. The etymology of the term is unclear.

Possible derivations
The term is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as "one who lives in, or comes from, a rural area; a (simple) countryman (or woman), a provincial, a rustic". It is sometimes said to be a word derived from the remote town of Kiltimagh, County Mayo. A further explanation is that the word derives from the word "agriculture", highlighting the agricultural/industrial divide between rural and urban populations.

It may be derived from an Irish-language term , meaning 'back of the house'. It was, and still is to a certain extent, common practice in rural areas to enter a neighbour's house through the back door, to avoid tracking dirt through the house and to visit in the kitchen, rather than the front, which was used for more formal visits. Thus the term  or culchie referred to such rural peoples used to such practices. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many city dwellers from Dublin tenements worked as domestic servants in the homes of wealthier people. The servants were not permitted to enter the house through the front door but had to use the back door or servants' entrance. It became common practice in Dublin to use culchie in a derogatory manner. Over time, as the numbers of servants dwindled through the 20th century, the term was retained in everyday use.

The word culchie may instead be derived from the Irish word , 'woods, forests'. It was used by townspeople, mainly in the western counties of Mayo and Galway, as a condescending or pejorative reference to people from rural areas. In the mid-1960s it was adopted as a common term in Dublin, as a counter to the country people's use of the word jackeen for a Dublin person. The culchie spelling is common in the English-language media, based on their understanding of phonetics and the word's derivation. It is also sometime spelled cultchie, indicative of its more likely derivation from .

Culchie is also an Irish term for a simple, impromptu bed, chiefly consisting of planks, hastily slung between the tapered end of an inglenook fireplace and the nearest wall of a farmhouse kitchen. A culchie might be offered to anyone who asked for a bed for the night, who was not known to the family (rather like letting someone sleep in the barn). So, this could have become a derogatory term for traveling rural labourers and hence just country folk.  However, originally it was just an example of common hospitality as often formerly offered to travellers and those in need.

Popular culture
Some Dublin GAA fans call supporters of any of the other county teams from Ireland culchies; fans from counties in Northern Ireland are called nordies. Dublin's fans are sometimes called jackeens. David McWilliams coined the term dulchies to describe Dubliners who decide to live in the provinces of Leinster (outside Dublin City, or County Dublin) or Ulster. This subgroup of people often live in urban areas such as Navan, Kells and Naas. The term is also frequently used to refer to Dubliners that live in rural parts of county Dublin.

The comedian Pat Shortt has made a successful living out of a culchie-themed act. He has his own television series, Killinaskully, based on a theme of a culchie in a village in rural Munster.

Television presenter Dáithí Ó Sé has been said by humourist George Byrne of The Herald to have a style interpreted as anywhere from "edgy" to "a big lump of culchie cliché".

Culch.ie is an Irish pop-culture blog with a name derived from the term (.ie is the country code top-level domain name for Ireland). The site still exists but is no longer active.

Dundalk folk-punk singer Jinx Lennon included a song on his 2020 album "Border Schizo FFFolk Songs For The Fuc**d" named "Be Proud" in which he lists reasons for people to be proud of their hometown, including the lyrics "Be proud of your big, thick country accent - it's an addition not a subtraction".

Culchie Festival
The Culchie Festival started in 1989 in Clonbur, County Galway and ran until 2012. The festival took place in many towns and villages throughout Ireland in its search to find an exemplary culchie or "village character" – a local (perhaps even parochial) personality with the ability to entertain at will and excel at various stereotypically rural tasks.

The festival was held in late October each year after regional heats held throughout Ireland and overseas Irish communities to select contestants. The final consists of various challenges, such as tractor racing, nappy changing, sandwich making, potato picking, knitting, and karaoke. The 2008 winner was Adrian McCabe from Ballyjamesduff, County Cavan, where the next Culchie Festival was hosted, 23–25 October 2009.

References
Definitions found at Irish Slang

Irish slang
Pejorative terms for European people
Regional nicknames
Stereotypes of rural people

Culchie