The BBC Polish Section () was one of the foreign-language services of the BBC World Service. It existed between 1939 and 2005.

History
A decision to establish the BBC Polish Section was made on 3 September 1939, after Great Britain declared war on Germany. First programme was broadcast on 7 September 1939.

Programmes consisted of news, press reviews, commentaries, reports and interviews, and were also used for transmitting coded messages and orders to the Polish Underground using prearranged selection of songs and code phrases.

After V-E Day, a decision was made to continue broadcasting in Polish. Like other broadcasts from behind the Iron Curtain, BBC Polish-language programmes were jammed and, in the 1950s, listeners on occasion would be persecuted as enemies of the people. Jamming stopped in the 1970s but was reintroduced in 1981 as the authorities clamped down on political freedom (see martial law in Poland). Jamming finally ended in 1988. During the post-war period, while still concentrating on impartial and uncensored news, programming was expanded to culture, technology, social matters, British life and daily English language lessons.

In 1996, the office in Warsaw was opened.

On 25 October 2005 it was announced that 10 foreign-language services, including Polish, will be closed to free resources needed to start a new Arabic-language television service. The last broadcast in Polish took place on 23 December 2005.

Key personnel

Heads of Polish Section
 Robin Campbell (1939–?)
 Michael Winch (?–1942)
 Gregory MacDonald (1942–1945)
 Evelyn Zasio (1945–1953)
 Józef Zarański (1953–1960)
 Stanisław Faecher (1960–1966)
 Zbigniew Błażyński (1966–1973)
 Jan Krok-Paszkowski (1973–1980)
 Krzysztof Pszenicki (1980–1988)
 Eugeniusz Smolar (1988–1998)
 Marek Cajzner (1998–2005)

Heads of Warsaw Office
 Robert Kozak
 Leszek Jarosz

External links
 History of the BBC Polish Section (Polish)
 50 years of the BBC Polish Section (Polish)
 This Is London: The Wartime Story of the BBC Polish Section

1939 establishments in the United Kingdom
2005 disestablishments in the United Kingdom
Polish Srction
Radio stations established in 1939
Radio stations disestablished in 2005
Poland–United Kingdom relations

BBC Polish Section


Argyll is a county on the west coast of Scotland.

Geography
Argyll has many spits of land and many islands. The largest islands are the Isle of Mull and the Isle of Islay. The county town is Lochgilphead. Inveraray is the home of the Duke of Argyll.

Name of the county
Argyll's name comes from the Gaelic words for "Borderland of the Gael", because it was the first place in Great Britain settled by Gaelic-speaking settlers from Ireland.

Politics
For local government, most of Argyll is in the Argyll and Bute council area.

Argyll


Frederick Spencer Chapman,  (10 May 1907 – 8 August 1971) was a British Army officer and World War II veteran, most famous for his exploits behind enemy lines in Japanese occupied Malaya. His medals include the following: the Distinguished Service Order and Bar, the Polar Medal, Gill Memorial Medal, Mungo Park Medal, and the Lawrence of Arabia Memorial Medal.

Early life and education
Both of Chapman's parents died whilst he was still a young child. His mother, Winifred Ormond, died shortly after his birth in London and his father, Frank Spencer Chapman, was killed at the Battle of the Somme; Freddie (or sometimes Freddy as he was to become known) and his older brother, Robert, were cared for by an elderly clergyman and his wife in the village of Cartmel, on the edge of the Lake District. Chapman developed an early interest in nature and the outdoors. As a boy he was, by his own account, 'first a mad-keen butterfly collector, then a wild-flower enthusiast, and at last a bird-watcher'. These were continuing interests throughout his school years and into his adult life.

At the age of 8, "after a disastrous term in the kindergarten of a girls' school in Kendal [then Westmorland, now Cumbria], I was sent to a private school at Ben Rhydding, on the edge of the Yorkshire Moors. The headmaster – a man of infinite kindness and understanding- was an enthusiastic entomologist... [and] I left Private School with a good knowledge of gardening and a vast enthusiasm for all forms of natural history."

When Chapman was 14 years old he went to Sedbergh School in Yorkshire, but did not excel in any of his chosen subjects. Chapman, in his own words, "loathed the monotonous bell-regulated routine of school life" and considered lessons as "things to be avoided by all possible means, fair or foul, and organised games were a waste of a fine afternoon.". He preferred to be out walking and climbing in the surrounding fells. This eventually resulted in Chapman being excused by the headmaster – whom Chapman described as wise and sympathetic to his cause – from having to participate in organised sports, especially cricket, as long as he did not waste his time. Chapman used this time to explore the local area on foot.

Whilst at Sedbergh School, Chapman won a Kitchener scholarship to St John's College, Cambridge, in 1926, to study history and English. It was there that he developed his passion for adventure and, by the end of his university years, had already completed several overseas excursions including a climbing expedition in the Alps and a journey to Iceland to study plant and bird life. It was here that he met, and was inspired by, the great mountaineer Geoffrey Winthrop Young, and joined the Cambridge University Mountaineering Club (CUMC).

Expeditions
Chapman was attached as "ski expert and naturalist" to Gino Watkins' 1930–31 British Arctic Air Route Expedition. Expedition members included John Rymill and Augustine Courtauld. He also joined Watkins' subsequent fatal Greenland Expedition of 1932–33, which was led by Rymill after Watkins' death. Chapman experienced cold of such intensity that he lost all his finger and toe nails. He spent twenty hours in a storm at sea in his kayak and at one point fell into a deep crevasse, saving himself by holding onto the handles of his dog sled. He later led a three-man team across the desolate Greenland ice-cap. The first European to do this since Nansen, he became fluent in the Inuit language and was an able kayaker and dog sledger.  Chapman, with the other expedition members, was awarded the Polar Medal, with the clasp Arctic 1930–1931,  after the successful first expedition.

In between the Greenland Expeditions he attempted what was to become the Bob Graham Round fell running challenge,  and  of climbing in the English Lake District Fells, his time of 25 hours was not however a record.

Gino Watkins moulded an extraordinary esprit de corps in his expeditions, and the expedition members were a mixture of hard nuts, and rather fey Cambridge misfits.  Many of the members would go on to do extraordinary things in the war. These members included Martin Lindsay, Augustine Courtauld and Chapman himself.

Early in 1936, he joined a Himalayan climbing expedition. He was not only a keen mountaineer but studied the history of mountaineering, Dr Kellas being amongst his heroes. He enjoyed difficult climbs and met Basil Gould, the Political Officer for Sikkim, Bhutan and Tibet. Gould invited Spencer to be his private secretary on his political mission, from July 1936 to February 1937, to persuade the Panchen Lama to return from China and establish permanent British representation in Lhasa.  Spencer struggled to learn Tibetan, learning it well enough to converse.  He was involved in cypher work, kept a meteorological log, pressed six hundred plants, dried seeds, and made notes on bird life.  He kept a diary of "events" in Lhasa and took many photographs that were sent to India on a weekly basis.  He was allowed to wander and did so in an unshepherded way into the middle of Tibet and around the Holy City.

After his return from Lhasa, Chapman obtained permission to lead a five-man expedition from Sikkim to the holy mountain Chomolhari, which the British group had passed on the way from Sikkim to Tibet in July 1936. Chapman and Sherpa Pasang Dawa Lama succeeded to become the first mountaineers to climb the 7314 m high peak, which they finally reached from the Bhutanese side after finding the route from the Tibetan side impassable. The mountain would not be climbed again until 1970.

In 1938 Spencer taught at Gordonstoun School where Prince Philip was one of his pupils.

Malaya
Commissioned into the Seaforth Highlanders as a lieutenant on 6 June 1939, Chapman was chosen for a mission in Australia to train Australian and New Zealand forces in guerrilla warfare and eventually to join what was then Special Training School 101 (STS 101) in Singapore. One of the main objects of this school was the organisation of parties to stay behind in areas the Japanese might overrun.  In August 1941, a plan for stay-behind parties that would include local Indians, Chinese and Malays was proposed, but this was rejected by the British colonial governor, Sir Shenton Thomas, as extravagant and defeatist. Had permission been granted, Chapman speculated that the effect of the trained guerrilla forces would have delayed the Japanese invasion long enough for British reinforcements to arrive in Singapore, and Singapore might not have fallen.

During the Japanese invasion the then Captain Chapman took part in an undercover raid across the Perak River in support of Rose Force.  During the mission Chapman noticed how lightly equipped the Japanese soldiers were in contrast to the heavy kit of the British and Indian forces. He noted they had little standard issue equipment other than raincoats which had a hood and covered the bikes they were riding, allowing them to continue cycling in the rain.

In early 1942, Chapman ran out of the supplies that had been hidden for stay-behind parties such as his team.  Chapman and his team then tried to escape from Malaya, but had to hide from the Japanese in the Malayan jungle with the help of the Malayan Chinese Communists led by Chin Peng who lived in guerrilla camps in the jungle, waging war with the Japanese. However, due to the difficult jungle terrain and also due to Japanese attacks, or by leading search parties for lost members, he gradually lost all his team members through disease and gunfire and was completely cut off. For more than one and a half years, he had to live in jungle camps with Chinese Communist guerrillas, traveling long distances through dense and difficult jungles while often suffering high fevers caused by malaria.

In late 1943, Chapman finally re-established contact with the British. Two other Britons joined him from Force 136. On a search mission in the jungle for another stay-behind-Briton, Chapman was captured by the Japanese but managed to escape back into the jungle during the night, despite being surrounded by Japanese soldiers, who were asleep as well as several on guard. The Japanese had confiscated a number of his possessions including many of his natural scientific observations in diaries, which he requested (via a letter to the Japanese Governor General) be sent to the Royal Geographical Society of London should they be found, although they were never returned.

Due to continued Japanese attacks, Chapman and the two members of Force 136, John Davis and Richard Broome, were isolated again among the Communist guerrillas until early 1945. During that time, they had to fight against jungle diseases, namely, malaria, beriberi, dysentery and skin ulcers from leech bites. Finally, with the help of the Malayan Chinese Communists, they managed to repair first their radio receiver (using car batteries charged with a pedal dynamo) and secondly their radio transmitter equipment with spare parts collected by the Communist guerrillas (the military wing of this being the Malayan Peoples' Anti-Japanese Army). They were able to contact their headquarters in Colombo to organise reinforcements and supplies via parachute drops into the jungle. Subsequently, they could support British liaisons with the Malayan Chinese Communist guerrillas, and managed to escape from occupied Malaya in the submarine  after a trek from the mainland jungle to the island Pulau Pangkor off the west coast disguised as Chinese labourers.

Chapman was wounded twice during his time in Malaya, once in the leg by a steel nut from a homemade cartridge and once in the arm. He was captured both by Japanese troops and by Chinese bandits, escaping from both. Once he spent seventeen days in a semi coma, suffering from tick-typhus, blackwater fever, and pneumonia, with the effects of chronic malaria being the worst of it. However much he suffered in the Malayan jungle, Chapman attributed his survival to the basic rule that "the jungle is neutral", that one should view the surroundings as neither good or bad. The role of a survivalist is to expect nothing and accept the dangers and bounties of the jungle as of a natural course. Hence, one's steady state of mind was of the utmost importance to ensure that the physical health of body and the will to live were reinforced on a daily basis.

In the foreword to Chapman's book on his experiences in Japanese occupied Malaya, The Jungle Is Neutral, Field Marshal Earl Wavell wrote "Colonel Chapman has never received the publicity and fame that were his predecessor's lot [referring to T.E.Lawrence]; but for sheer courage and endurance, physical and mental, the two men stand together as examples of what toughness the body will find, if the spirit within it is tough; and as very worthy representatives of our national capacity for individual enterprise, which it is hoped that even the modern craze for regulating our lives in every detail will never stifle."

On 21 February 1946 Chapman was appointed to the Distinguished Service Order, backdated to 31 March 1944. A Bar followed on 7 November 1946. He retained a reserve commission until 4 December 1957, when he reached the age limit for service. He was belatedly awarded the Efficiency Decoration on 19 January 1970.

Post-war
After the war, Chapman was asked to form a school in Germany for the sons and daughters of British Forces and Control Commission Civilians resident in the British Zone of occupied Germany. This school, the King Alfred School, Plön, for children 11 to 18 years of age, used the German naval establishment at Plön in Schleswig-Holstein where Admiral Dönitz had resided during the last days of World War II. Chapman, as headmaster, set up the school, organised the teachers, arranged for the alterations to accept both boys and girls, and then in one day in 1948 accepted 400 young boys and girls into what was possibly the first successful comprehensive, co-educational boarding school in the world. His dynamism and understanding of the requirements of young people were the guiding influence in setting up the school to become a first class success story which lasted for 11 years.  He was relieved after its successful commencement, at which time he continued in educational work as Headmaster of St Andrew's College, Grahamstown, South Africa (1956–61) Then Warden at the Pestalozzi Children's Village Sedlescombe between (1962–66) and Warden of Wantage Hall at the University of Reading (1966–71).

He was the subject of This Is Your Life in January 1964 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at the BBC Television Theatre.

Personal life
In 1946, Chapman married Faith Townson and had three children: Nicholas, Stephen and Christopher.

Death
Chapman suffered from frequent and severe back pain, as well as recurring stomach pain and headaches. Chapman committed suicide in his study on 8 August 1971, leaving a note for his wife reading, "I don't want you to have to nurse an invalid for the rest of my life."

Freeman adds, "despite leading such an extraordinary life, Chapman still felt unfulfilled. For someone who had always sought 'to experience the fullness of life, and the inner satisfaction that comes from facing and overcoming danger', old age [apparently] offered few pleasures.

Reputation and legacy
The Pangkor Laut island resort has a memorial to Chapman, with a quotation from The Jungle is Neutral carved in black marble.

The resort has a bar named 'Chapman's bar' in Emerald Bay (from where he swam to the submarine). The resort also hosts the 'Chapman Challenge', which includes a timed trek through the jungle and a swim. Each year descendants of Chapman have attended and even competed.

Publications
All books published by Chatto & Windus in London.
Northern Lights, 1932.
Watkins' Last Expedition, 1934.
Lhasa: The Holy City, 1938.
Helvellyn to Himalaya, 1940.
Memoirs of a Mountaineer, 1945 (combined reprint of the above two).
The Jungle is Neutral, 1948
Living Dangerously, 1953.
Lightest Africa, 1955.

See also
 Japanese Invasion of Malaya

References

Sources
 Thompson, Peter, The Battle for Singapore, London, 2005,  HB
 The Tibet Album – British photography in Central Tibet, 1920 – 50.  Frederick Spencer Chapman
 The Red Dragons ( Magazines of King Alfred School Plõn 1948–1953 )
 Moynahan, Brian (2009) Jungle Soldier: The True Story of Freddy Spencer Chapman, Quercus,
 Tan Chong Tee, Force 136, Story of a WWII resistance fighter, Asiapac Books, Singapore, 1995,

External links

1907 births
1971 deaths
People educated at Sedbergh School
British Army personnel of World War II
Seaforth Highlanders officers
English mountain climbers
British Special Operations Executive personnel
Suicides by firearm in England
Companions of the Distinguished Service Order
Recipients of the Polar Medal
Military history of Malaya during World War II
Sportspeople from Yorkshire
British military personnel who committed suicide
People from Cartmel
Military personnel from London

Freddie Spencer Chapman


The Vortex Blaster is a collection of three science fiction short stories by American writer Edward E. Smith. It was simultaneously published in 1960 by Gnome Press in an edition of 3,000 copies and by Fantasy Press in an edition of 341 copies.  The book was originally intended to be published by Fantasy Press, but was handed over to Gnome Press when Fantasy Press folded.  Lloyd Eshbach, of Fantasy Press, who was responsible for the printing of both editions, printed the extra copies for his longtime customers.  The stories originally appeared in the magazines Comet and Astonishing Stories.

In 1968, Pyramid Books issued a paperback edition under the title Masters of the Vortex, promoting it as "the final adventure in the famous Lensman series." While the stories are set in the same universe as the Lensman novels, they are only tangentially related. They reference events that happen in the Lensman series, but only "off stage". No characters from the other Lensmen books show up in this book, though key characters such as Kimball Kinnison and Port Admiral Haynes are referred to. From the events spoken of in this book it apparently falls between Second Stage Lensmen and Children of the Lens.

Plot summary
The hero of the book is Neal "Storm" Cloud.  Although the story happens in the "Lensman" universe he is not a Lensman, having failed his Lensman's exam.  Instead he is a nuclear engineer with an amazingly mathematical mind. He is a high level genius and a lightning calculator. In his universe there is something we have apparently don't have in ours, self-sustaining vortices of atomic energy.  These are like a small piece of the heart of a star. A churning vortex of heat and light that slowly grows while consuming whatever it is in contact with. In theory they can be blown out by a precise amount of explosives, placed at an exact spot in the vortex, at exactly the right time. The problem is, it takes the best computers available hours to calculate the factors needed, and only seconds are available to get the correct amount of explosives on target. Also, if you try to blow one out, but don't get the factors right, all you do is split the vortex into many separate vortices and scatter them far and wide, and soon each is as dangerous as the original. Although Storm Cloud, being a nuclear engineer and lightning calculator, should be able to calculate the factors and extinguish a vortex, in practice he can't. It would be very dangerous and Storm has a wife and kids, and putting himself in that kind of danger ties his mind up with worry so much that he just can't do it.

Then things change in a major way. Cloud's family is tragically killed when a misguided attempt blow out a vortex lands one of the fragments right on his house. Devastated by the loss of his family, Cloud takes a leave of absence from the Radiation Lab where he works studying the vortices. As he drives he is struck with an idea for "blowing out" a vortex. It is slightly technical (Smith explains it so it can be easily followed), but the general idea is that Cloud's brain works so fast that he can calculate exactly where the center of the vortex will be at a moment in time and how big an explosive is needed, then hit it with a bomb that is set at the exact strength to actually extinguish the vortex instead of blowing it apart and making more vortices.

This works, and it makes Cloud a very popular guy. As it continues the book tells of Cloud's new job as the universe's one and only vortex blaster. This job takes him from planet to planet where he blows out vortices, matches wits against drug dealers and gangsters, meets new life forms, and acquires a crew for his small scout ship. His adventures are many and varied, and the lifeforms he meets are strange and interesting.

Eventually the Galactic Patrol decides that having only one "Vortex Blaster" is inviting disaster.  If something happens to Storm Cloud, they are at the mercy of the loose vortices again. As a result, Dr. Cloud is called back to Tellus (what the Earth is called in Smith's stories) and given a new ship. A specially modified, light cruiser (called Vortex Blaster II ) outfitted to carry everything that is needed to extinguish vortices. He is also introduced to Joan Janowick, the leading computer expert of Civilization. Her job is to build a computer that can reproduce whatever it was that Storm Cloud does and blow out vortices like he can. Working closely with Joan on a series of ever faster computers, his eyes soon turn more and more toward his pretty, super smart, and self-taught psychic co-worker and his heart begins to heal. As they fall in love, he bonds psionically with Joan, a pivotal point in the novel, as this leads him to find and communicate with the pure-energy alien beings that have been unknowingly causing the problems. The original vortices are found to be the incubators that an alien species uses to breed and raise its young!  That makes the Vortex Blaster an inadvertent murderer of children, a fact that does cause him anguish. In the end an agreement is reached, the aliens close down the "incubators" and move their offspring to vortices the Patrol has helped set up on uninhabited planets. As the story ends, "Storm" Cloud, the Vortex Blaster, is out of a job.

Contents
 "The Vortex Blaster"
 "Storm Cloud on Deka"
 "The Vortex Blaster Makes War"

Reception
Galaxy reviewer Floyd C. Gale rated the book four stars out of five, stating that "while the modern trend of sf has passed good Doc Smith by" he still got "a huge bang out of this super-duper yarn."

References

Sources

External links

 and at

 The original magazine stories:

1960 short story collections
American short story collections
Science fiction short story collections
Gnome Press books
Fantasy Press books

The Vortex Blaster


Diogenes (Διογένης) is a Greek name. It can refer to different people:
 Diogenes of Sinope (412-323 BC), better known as Diogenes the Cynic or simply Diogenes
 Diogenes Apolloniates (about 460 BC), philosopher
 Diogenes the Stoic (Diogenes of Seleucia on the Tigris) (c. 150 BC)
 Diogenes Laertius (between 200 and 500 AD), historian
 Diogenes of Oenoanda (2nd Century AD), Epicurean
 Diogenes of Judea (about 100-76 BC), general and advisor for Hasmonean king Alexander Jannaeus
 Diogenes of Babylon, Greek philosopher
 Diogenes (duke of Syrmia), duke of Syrmia (11th century)

Diogenes


Pal (June 4, 1940 – 1958) was a rough collie dog actor in the 1940s and early 1950s. He was owned and trained by Rudd Weatherwax. He appeared in the 1943 MGM movie Lassie Come Home and six other MGM "Lassie" movies. After the MGM movies, he played Lassie in the two pilot episodes for the CBS television series Lassie. He then retired. Pal died in 1958. He was buried on Weatherwax's ranch. His male descendants took over the Lassie role for the nearly 20-year run of the television series.

1940 births
1958 deaths
Individual dogs

Pal


Carlo Cremonesi (4 November 1866 – 25 November 1943) was an Italian cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church who served as Territorial Prelate of Pompei from 1926 to 1928, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1935.

Biography
Cremonesi was born in Rome, and there studied at the Pontifical Roman Seminary before being ordained to the priesthood on 21 June 1890. He then taught literature at the Pontifical Urbaniana University in Rome until 1909. Once private secretary to Cardinal Luigi Galimberti, he was also a canon of the chapter of Sant'Angelo in Pescheria, and was raised to the rank of an Honorary Chamberlain on 22 May 1898. Cremonesi served as notary for the processes of the candidates to become Italian bishops, and later as Secretary of the Pontifical Commission for Works of Religion from 1909 to 1921. He was made a Domestic Prelate of His Holiness on 9 September 1910, and a cleric of the Apostolic Chamber on 14 June 1914.

On 29 December 1921, Cremonesi was appointed Privy Almoner of His Holiness and titular archbishop of Nicomedia by Pope Benedict XV. He received his episcopal consecration on 8 January 1922 from Pope Benedict himself, with Archbishop Giovanni Nasalli Rocca di Corneliano and Bishop Agostino Zampini, OSA, serving as co-consecrators, in the Sistine Chapel. Cremonesi was later named Apostolic Delegate to the Pontifical Shrine of Our Lady of Pompei on 9 March 1926, and the first Territorial Prelate of Pompei on 21 March 1926. He resigned the prelature in 1928, and described Benito Mussolini's fifty-five-minute-long audience with Pope Pius XI in February 1932 as "very long".

Pope Pius created Cremonesi cardinal-priest of San Lorenzo in Lucina in the consistory of 16 December 1935. He was one of the cardinal electors who participated in the 1939 papal conclave that selected Pope Pius XII.

Cardinal Cremonesi died in Rome from a heart attack at age 77. He is buried in his titular church of S. Lorenzo in Lucina.

References

External links
Catholic-Hierarchy
Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church

1943 deaths
20th-century Italian cardinals
Territorial prelates
1866 births
Pontifical Roman Seminary alumni
Apostolic Camera

Carlo Cremonesi


Martha Alicia Villarreal Esparza (born 31 August 1971, in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico) is a Mexican Latin Grammy awaird-winnin sangster.

Biografie
Villarreal first performit the sang Mundo De Juguetes at Pipo, a local TV show her parents teuk her tae. Her first profeesional performance wis at a kirk fundraiser.

In 1995, Grupo Límite, wi her as lead sangster, stairtit tourin wi the mair famous Grupo Bronco.  Amang their sangs wur "Acariciame", "Te Aprovechas" an "Solo Contigo". Grupo Limite released sax albums aathegether, includin a live CD recordit in Mexico Ceety.

In 2001, Villarreal released her first solo album in the ranchera style titled Soy Lo Prohibido, which featured the single Te Quedo Grande la Yegua.

In 2004, efter pairtin weys wi her baundmates, she released her seicont solo album entitled Cuando el Corazón se Cruza. The album wis producit bi her current husband, Cruz Martínez, an they wrote several o the sangs thegither. The album haes garnered her several awairds.

Alicia Villarreal performit for the heichly televisit Selena Vive, whaur she performit Si Una Vez. She later released this sang alang wi 2 ither new sangs Punalada Trapera an Ya No Hay Amor on a dual disc o the album Cuando El Corazón Se Cruza. The dual disc contained 5 remixes tae her previous sangs an aw an a collection o aw her muisic videos. The dual disc wis released in Mexico in 2005.

In 2006, she released her third solo album titled Orgullo De Mujer wi the lead single Insensible a Ti. The single wis the theme sang for the telenovela Duelo de Pasiones, on which she made her actin debut, in the role o Raquel.

Efter nearly a three year hiatus, Villarreal annooncit she is in the studio recordin her 4t solo album. This, entitled La Jefa, wis released 23 Juin 2009, wi the lead single titled "Caso Perdido".  The album debuted at nummer ane on Billboards Regional Mexican Albums an oweraw at nummer foweur on its Latin Albums chairt.  La Jefa haes receivit mixed reviews frae creetics, an "Caso Perdido" did no achieve the same success as prior single releases.

Villarreal is currently wirkin on a new album due in 2011.

Personal life

Villarreal haed a dochter, Melanie Aidée, in 1999 wi Arturo Carmona. She is currently marriet tae Cruz Martínez, awner/producer o Los Super Reyes. In Dizember 2005, she gave birth first son, Cruz Angelo. In Februar 2007, she gave birth tae anither son, Felix Estefano.

On 10 October 2009 her brither José Víctor Villarreal Esparza, who wis 36 year auld, wis killed in a caur accident in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico.

Discografie

Solo albums an singles

Freemit airtins

 Official MySpace
 Official Facebook
 Official YouTube

References

1971 births
Cruz Martínez
Livin fowk
Mexican female sangsters
Mexican sangster-sangwriters
Mexican pop sangsters
Fowk frae Monterrey

Alicia Villarreal


John Ball (c. 1338 - 15 July 1381) was a Medieval Priest who clashed with the Archbishop of Canterbury after he started performing sermons against Work Service (Serfdom).

Ball was later freed by Wat Tyler and began to persuade peasants to join the Peasants Revolt. Ball was later killed after King Richard II after the Peasants Revolt was put to an end by the king.

Early life
John Ball was the child of Joan and William Ball, in Peledon near Colchester. He was born in 1331. Ball was trained in York, and moved a lot over the country, living in Norwich, Colchester, and Kent.

Ball was later imprisoned in Maidstone, Kent for his contradictory views on Christianity. He was then released, but continued to preach his radical ideas. This caused Ball to be released and imprisoned many a time. This cycle came to an end however, in 1381 when John was released from prison by former ex-soldier and leader of the Peasants revolt, Wat Tyler. This was a real turnaround for Ball, Tyler needed Ball to preach to the local Peasants, asking them to discontinue performing Work Service.

Links with the Peasants revolt
Now in Tyler's Peasant army, Ball began to march to London. There, London's gates were mysteriously opened and Tyler's army flooded in to the capital city. King Richard II, not wanting any trouble, decided to meet the Peasants at Mile End. There, the two forces began talks, surprisingly the King agreed to abolish Work Service, and accepted the other demands the army asked for. meanwhile, a rogue group of Peasants began to lay siege to the Tower of London, killing the Archbishop of Canterbury and many others.

Knowing another talk would have to be held,John and Tyler decided to meet the king outside the city walls, there the Kings army murdered Tyler and forced the Peasants to flee. None of the Peasants demands were met and  Ball, (along with many other rebels) was executed.

1338 births
1381 deaths
English Roman Catholic priests
Executed English people
People excommunicated by the Catholic Church
People executed by hanging
People from Hertfordshire

John Ball (priest)


A password manager is a computer program that stores passwords, and shows the passwords that are put or made in the password manager. They are used to make passwords and store passwords. This is usually used to store multiple passwords as a person may forget some passwords. People store many passwords for different services as it is not safe to only use one password as if someone else knows the passwords of one of their items, they know the passwords of their other things too since they all have the same password. Recently they have been used to stored other things such as credit card numbers, security questions, One-Time Passwords,  and account recovery questions. To access the items in the password manager the person usually has to remember one password, if they lose this password, then they will usually not be able to access the data in their password manager.

Computer security

Password manager


Crowd abuse or barracking refers to the widespread practice of crowds following various sports to criticise or abuse opponents, by shouting, chanting, singing or through the use of banners in the stadium. Motivation for crowd abuse includes gaining a psychological advantage over an opponent, either individually or as a team. Examples of the effectiveness of such techniques can be found in any major sport, including some dangerous outcomes such as the Malice in the palace (Pacers-Pistons Brawl).

Malice at the Palace featured both physical and verbal crowd abuse, and contributed to many player's careers changing in the blink of an eye. Ron Artest was suspended for the rest of the season, stagnated on his basketball improvements, and was traded 16 games into the next season, ending the era of his Pacers team/dynasty.  On December 8, 2004, five Pacers players and five fans were charged with assault and battery. All of the fans involved were banned from the Palace of Auburn Hills. Security at professional sports games changed drastically after the incident as well, with comments from players such as Jermaine O'Neal stating that "There was no security. You're talking about one of the largest arenas in the NBA and you're talking about...a large group in there that was literally trying to hurt us." Sekou Smith (NBA Writer, Indianapolis Star) stated "There was no security to keep people from jumping over that little rail and getting down to the floor." Due to the influence alcohol had on the situation, the NBA banned alcohol sales after the third quarter of any basketball game.

See also
Sports fan

References

Sports fandom
Crowd psychology

Crowd abuse


A current transformer (CT) is a transformer used to measure alternating current. CT is a part of instrument transformer. CT is used to measure current in a circuit when the current magnitude is too high to be measured safely. It is commonly used in power metering and power system protection.

Electricity

Current transformer


Bleak House is an antebellum Classical Revival style house in Knoxville, Tennessee. It is on the National Register of Historic Places.

History
The house was first occupied by Robert Houston Armstrong and his wife, Louisa Franklin. It was built in 1858 for the couple as a wedding gift by the bride's father, Major Lawson D. Franklin. Robert Armstrong's father, Drury Armstrong, gave them the land.  The Armstrongs named the house after Charles Dickens' "Bleak House" novel of the same name. The bricks in the house were molded on-site using slave labor.

The home was used by Confederate Generals James Longstreet and Lafayette McLaws as their headquarters from November 17 to December 4 of 1863 during the Battle of Knoxville. Three Confederate sharpshooters who were stationed in the house's tower were killed by Union cannonballs. Two of the cannonballs are still embedded in the walls, and Civil War-era sketches of the slain soldiers are displayed on the walls of the tower.

The home now belongs to local Chapter 89 of the United Daughters of the Confederacy and is commonly called Confederate Memorial Hall.

Crescent Bend, built by Robert Armstrong's father, Drury, and Westwood, built by Robert's daughter, Adelia Armstrong Lutz, still stand a few blocks from the Bleak House on Kingston Pike.

References
General
 Knoxville: Fifty Landmarks. (Knoxville: The Knoxville Heritage Committee of the Junior League of Knoxville, 1976).
Notes

External links
 Confederate Memorial Hall - Historic Bleak House homepage
 National Register of Historic Places
 http://www.restoreknoxville.com/Neighborhoods/KnoxvilleCollege/tabid/890/Default.aspx
 http://www.discoveret.org/kcwrt/sites/sm-text.htm
 https://www.bleakhouseknoxville.org/who-are-we

Houses in Knoxville, Tennessee
Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Tennessee
Confederate States of America monuments and memorials in Tennessee
Antebellum architecture
Museums in Knoxville, Tennessee
Historic house museums in Tennessee
Italianate architecture in Tennessee
National Register of Historic Places in Knoxville, Tennessee

Bleak House (Knoxville, Tennessee)


The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) is an agency which rescues people at sea in the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man, as well as on some large rivers.

The RNLI is a charity. Two-thirds of its funding comes from money left in people's wills. Most of its crew members are volunteers. The RNLI has 237 lifeboat stations and 444 lifeboats. These are boats that travel from the shore to rescue people at sea, rather than lifeboats that are used for escaping from a ship. Their crews rescued on average 22 people a day in 2015. The RNLI also provides beach lifeguards and flood rescue teams.

The RNLI cannot be called for help directly. In the event that someone is in danger at sea, the coastguard of the country or territory should be called on 999 or 112. The coastguard organize the search for those in danger. They will then call the RNLI if their help is needed. Not all lifeboats in the UK and Ireland are run by the RNLI; there are some independent lifeboat agencies.

Emergency services in the United Kingdom
Charities of the United Kingdom

Royal National Lifeboat Institution


May Disease is a common kind of minor depression in Japan. Almost all students enter new schools or universities in April. Most new company employees also start in April each year. Then there is a long Golden Week holiday at the beginning of May. People return to  their new school or job after a holiday, and it is not new or exciting anymore. May Disease describes this common feeling of disappointment or being let down.

Japanese culture

May Disease


Michelle Ford is an American figure skater.

Biography
Born in Detroit, Ford grew up in Scottsdale, Arizona and began ice skating at 7 years of age. As a youngster she skated singles and pairs with her brother who was later killed in a car accident at the age of 12.

As a teenager, Ford began ice dancing with partner Glenn Parriott, competing for the Skating Club of Phoenix. They became Junior National champions at the U.S. Championships in 1972 held in Long Beach, California. After splitting with Parriott, Ford started skating with Glenn Patterson in 1973.

She and Patterson ranked third in the Nation in 1974, 1975, and 1977 in senior dance. They represented the United States internationally in competitions in Moscow, China, and England. They were also alternates for the 1976 Olympic team.

After placing third in the 1977 U.S. Championships, Ford and Patterson turned professional, traveling as principal skaters in the Ice Follies for two years. During this time, they had their own highlighted dance numbers and skated the characters Betty Lou and Ernie in the Sesame Street segment of the show.

In 1979, Ford moved to San Diego and began coaching ice dancing and freestyle skating at the San Diego Ice Arena. Returning to competition in 2004, she skated with Team del Sol representing the San Diego Figure Skating Club, which took third place in the Adult Synchronized Team category at the U.S. Synchronized Team Skating Championships held at the San Diego Sports Arena. Ford directed the annual Christmas show at the San Diego Ice Arena in 2002 and has choreographed numbers in the show since they began the tradition many years ago. She also created, and produced and directed the ice show at Viejas Casino in Alpine, CA in 2008 and 2009.

In 2008, Ford developed a wireless teaching device named Silent Coach. Initially intended as an aid for ice skating coaches, it is also used by coaches in tennis, ballet, ballroom dancing, and other sports.

Results
Ice dance with Glenn Parriott:

Ice dance with Glenn Patterson

References

External links

 San Diego Figure Skating Club
 San Diego Ice Arena
 The Argentine Tango at YouTube
 Freedance at YouTube
 Silent Coach

Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
American female ice dancers
Sportspeople from Scottsdale, Arizona
21st-century American women

Michelle Ford (figure skater)


The social sciences are a group of academic disciplines that study human aspects of the world. Social Sciences includes anthropology, archaeology, economics, geography, political science, psychology, and sociology. They are different from the arts and humanities, and application of the scientific method is important. Most of the social sciences require doing a lot of research, such as making surveys. Such research is called "social research". Some subjects, such as history, are sometimes social sciences and sometimes humanities.

The term "social sciences" has been used for over 200 years and mostly originates from a thinker named Auguste Comte. Many of the fields of social science have come about since then. In America, much of the thought and practice of social science came from the University of Chicago and other universities.

References

Other websites
 Social Science Virtual Library
 UC Berkeley Experimental Social Science Laboratory
 Social Science Information Gateway  (UK)
 History of Social Science
 On the Social Sciences Critical Essays
 praxeology as the method of the social sciences
 in defense of extreme apriorism

Social sciences


Thomas Daniel "Tommy" Mottola (born July 14, 1948) is a music executive, producer and author. He is currently the Chairman of Mottola Media Group and previously the Chairman & CEO of Sony Music Entertainment, parent of the Columbia  label, for nearly 15 years. He is  married to the Mexican actress and singer Thalía.

Early career
Mottola was born in The Bronx, New York. He graduated from Iona Grammar School in 1962 and Iona Preparatory School in New Rochelle, New York in 1966. He briefly attended Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York before dropping out. He initially had aspirations of a music career, and released with CBS Records, but his singing career was short-lived.

Wishing to stay in the industry, Mottola started Champion Entertainment Organization Inc. to manage other artists.  While working at the Chappell music-publishing company, he became the mentor to Philadelphia-based soul/rock performers Daryl Hall and John Oates.

His belief in the duo led him to push them relentlessly to do appearances and advertising promotions, including some of the first specialized music videos and one of the first modern "sponsored tours," for Beech-Nut's Care Free Gum, Panasonic, and Pontiac.

Hall & Oates paid tribute to him in their track "Gino (the Manager)" on their self-titled 1975 RCA release, better known as the Silver Album. Mottola also figured—this time, being mentioned by name—in "Cherchez La Femme," the 1976 dance hit by another Mottola act, Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band. ("Tommy Mottola / Lives on the road ...")

Raised as a Roman Catholic, Mottola converted to Judaism shortly before his marriage to Lisa Clark. That marriage, which ended in divorce in 1992, produced a daughter (Sarah) and a son (Michael, who is now a production assistant with MTV).

Brisbane rock band Regurgitator wrote a tribute song to him called "I Love Tommy Mottola" for their 1999 album "...Art".

CBS
In 1987, Mottola was chosen to run CBS Records at the age of 37.

Soon afterward, Sony Corporation closed on its deal to buy the CBS Records group unit from CBS, naming him President and CEO of the music division, where he succeeded his former mentor Walter Yetnikoff, who had originally brought Mottola into CBS. Mottola served as Chairman and CEO Sony Music Entertainment.

Sony
During his tenure, he transformed Sony into one of the most successful global music companies, expanding its businesses into over 60 countries, while creating one of the strongest management teams in the industry.  He revitalized Sony Music's publishing division by making such acquisitions as the Beatles catalogue and enabled Sony to become the first major music company to make available commercial digital downloads. He is widely well known for signing, developing, and nurturing the careers of Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, Destiny's Child, Jennifer Lopez, Shakira, Gloria Estefan, the Dixie Chicks, Marc Anthony, Barbra Streisand, Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, among others. He also worked with Michael Jackson from the time he began recording his "Dangerous" (1991) album. Jackson would later state that his relationship with Mottola dissolved based on corruption in his working practices, publicly referring to him as a "racist" and "devil". "The recording companies really, really do conspire against the artists." Jackson said.(source: Vh1).

Mariah Carey
In 1988, Brenda K. Starr, a Columbia artist, handed Mottola a demo tape from one of her backup singers.  Initially he tossed it aside, but later decided to listen to it.  He was impressed by the demo and tracked down the singer, a then-unknown Mariah Carey, and eventually signed her. Mottola is seen as the main architect for Mariah's success in the early years of her career.

In June 1993, Mottola and Carey married in a lavish ceremony, but the marriage was short-lived with the couple separating shortly before Christmas 1996 and divorcing in early 1998. In 2000, Carey, at the time Columbia's biggest selling artist, signed an $80 million contract with Virgin Records, but after the commercial and critical failure of her first album for the label, the Glitter soundtrack, Virgin dropped her from the company and it rescinded the $80 million contract. Carey later signed with Island Records.

Thalía
Mottola later went on to date other stars before dating Mexican singer Thalía, whom he married  December 2, 2000. They have a daughter together, Sabrina Sakaë (Oct 7, 2007). Their second child, a son, Matteo Alejandro was born on June 25th 2011 . He also is credited with creating the Latin Explosion in popular music by championing such Sony artists as Marc Anthony, Ricky Martin, Jennifer Lopez and Gloria Estefan. Additionally, Mottola was the architect for some of Sony's biggest global brands such as Celine Dion and Mariah Carey. During his 15-year tenure, Mottola built Sony up from a company with revenues of 800 million dollars a year to one with over 6 billion dollars of annual revenue by the year 2000.
In June 2010, he decided to sell his Ranch in Colorado, for an amount of 27.5 million dollars, as he was not spending time in it anymore and wanted to be closer to his family.

After Sony
Tommy Mottola was the head of Sony Music Entertainment until January 2003. Since leaving his post as chief of Sony Music, Mottola has been building a new entertainment company, complete with recorded music, television production, theater, and fashion, alongside a branding and management company launching. He was instrumental in re-launching the various careers of such artists as Grammy winner and Latin pop star Marc Anthony, and teen sensation Lindsay Lohan.  Later signings included Cassie Ventura in 2006 and Mika, who in 2007 had a #1 single in the UK.

A collaboration with former Miramax chief Harvey Weinstein has them teamed on two current projects for live theater, namely producers of Pink Floyd's The Wall. Mottola's TV production arm is currently producing and developing many shows for cable and network television.

Mottola bought out the rights to Casablanca Records (a then-diminished imprint of Polygram), and resurrected it, signing actress Lindsay Lohan, and singer Mika.

Philanthropy
Known also for his many philanthropic activities, Mottola has served on the Board of Directors of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the Police Athletic League of New York City, T.J. Martell Foundation for Cancer, Leukemia and AIDS Research, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation and Museum, and the Federal Law Enforcement Foundation.

Cultural references
The character of Gene Balboa in the Channel 101 Internet TV Series Yacht Rock is loosely based on Mottola, in particular his time as manager of Hall and Oates.

The Australian band Regurgitator include the song "i love tommy mottola" on their 1999 album "...art".

Notes

Other websites
 Vh1

1949 births
Living people
Philanthropists from New York (state)
Businesspeople from New York City
Converts to Judaism
Jewish businesspeople
Jewish philanthropists
People from the Bronx

Tommy Mottola


The Swedish Chronicle (Vetus chronicon sveciae prosaicum or Prosaiska krönikan) is a mid-15th century chronicle on a nation called Getae (gethe), Goths (gotha), Geats (götha) and eventually Swedes (swenske). It says that it is compiled from ancient chronicles.

It includes a line of kings from the House of Yngling which appears to be based on the Norwegian Historia Norwegiæ and the Danish Chronicon Lethrense, but the compiler seems to have corrected the information.

Line of kings
The first part of its line of Swedish kings:
Inge (Yngvi, here the son of Filimer)
Neorch and Froe (Njord and Freyr)
Urbar (made his son Dan king of Denmark and his son Nore the king of Norway)
Östen
Solen (was drowned in a vat of mead like Fjölnir)
Swerker
Valand
Wisbur
Domalde (was sacrificed to a troll named Ceres)
Domar
Attila (made the Danes accept the dog king as their king)
Dyguer
Dager
Alrik (was killed by his brother Erik with a rein)
Ingemar (was hanged by his wife in Agnafit)
Ingeller (was killed by his own brother)
Järunder
Hakon (killed Harald Wartooth at the Battle of Brávellir and became so old that he had to feed by suckling a horn)
Eghil
Oktar (killed by his brother Faste)
Adhel (died when he fell off his horse during the sacrifices)
Östen (was arsoned to death)
Ingemar
Bräntemundher (was killed by his own brother Sigurd in Närke)
Ingeller (was so afraid of Ivar the far-travelled that he arsoned himself to death)
Olaffver trätelge
Inge (died in battle)
Erik Weatherhat
Eric the Victorious
Stenkil of Good Harvests (the first Christian king)
Olof Skötkonung

Sources and external links
The Swedish Chronicle, in the original language (rtf).
Anderson, Carl Edlund. Formation and Resolution of Ideological Contrast in the Early History of Scandinavia. Ph.D. thesis, University of Cambridge, Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse & Celtic (Faculty of English)

Scandinavian chronicles
15th-century Latin books
15th-century history books
15th century in Sweden
Historiography of Sweden
Chronicles about Sweden
Regnal lists

Swedish Chronicle


Hans-Jürgen Schlieker (April 8, 1924 – March 12, 2004) was a German abstract painter, grouped in importance with Hans Hartung, Bernard Schultze and Emil Schumacher.

Biography
Schlieker was born in 1924 in Schöningen (today Grędziec, Poland), East Pomerania, where he grew up and completed a formal education before deciding to study applied arts at a local studio. After a period of focused study, he served as a soldier for three years in the German army, an experience which he later expressed pictorially in flamboyant 50s colours and through artistic work groups. (These have returned to new importance thanks to the lectures of the poet, Baudelaire [Les fleurs du mal].)

After the war and a temporary stay at an artist's centre in Mecklenburg, Schlieker moved to Hamburg to study at the Kunsthochschule (arts college) under Erich Hartmann. Upon completing his studies in 1951, he married Gisela Chrambach and moved to Bochum in the Ruhr Valley, where he began life as a freelance artist. His only daughter, Claudia, was born in 1952.

In 1954, he travelled the Mediterranean on the German Orient Line and visited Spain, Algeria, Tunisia, Greece and Turkey. The trip left a deep impression and instilled a wanderlust. After completing a major in 1957-1958, he and his family moved to San Pol, Spain, a pristine bay on the Mediterranean.

Schlieker won two art prizes, the Westphalian Art Association's ''Jungwestfalen award'' in 1958, and ''Maler sehen Stuttgart (Painters see Stuttgart) in 1959.

For the next few years, Schlieker taught at a gymnasium in Bochum before moving to Ruhr University in 1968 to build up its fine arts department. Managing the entire programme, he soon became mentor to countless students seeking guidance and inspiration in the arts.

In 1989, he retired from teaching and was awarded the Verdienstorden des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen (Order of Merit of North Rhine-Westphalia) for his work. Other winners that year were K. O. Götz, Adolf Luther, Bernard Schultze, Hann Trier and Günther Uecker.

Schlieker entered the classroom three more times to hold seminars on etching at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna in 1994, 1996 and 1997. He died on March 12, 2004 in Bochum.

 Examples of work

A comprehensive collection of works by the artist is shown on his official website

 Schlieker Haus
The Schlieker Haus, opened in 2005 in the Querenburg suburb of Bochum, serves the purpose of documenting the life and work of the artist. In addition to a comprehensive collection of Schlieker paintings, the Schlieker Haus'' regularly organizes exhibitions of 20th and 21st century art.

References

External links
 Art Gallery Schlag & Cie Retrieved April 27, 2010
 Schlieker Channel on Vimeo Documentary movies produced by Christoph Böll. Retrieved April 27, 2010
 Schlieker Haus Official website. Retrieved April 27, 2010

1924 births
2004 deaths
Art Informel and Tachisme painters
German etchers
20th-century German painters
20th-century German male artists
German male painters
21st-century German painters
21st-century German male artists
Modern painters
Members of the Order of Merit of North Rhine-Westphalia
20th-century German printmakers
German Army personnel of World War II

Hans-Jürgen Schlieker


Mosquito Squadron is a 1969 British war film made by Oakmont Productions, directed by Boris Sagal and starring David McCallum.  The raid echoes Operation Jericho, a combined RAF–Maquis raid which freed French prisoners from Amiens jail in which the Mosquitos took part.

Plot
The Royal Air Force (RAF) begins attacking German V-1 flying bomb installations in early summer of 1944.  The de Havilland Mosquito fighter-bomber aircraft of Squadron Leader David "Scotty" Scott (David Buck) is shot down during a low-level bombing raid on a V-1 launching site. Scott and his navigator/bomb-aimer are killed. Following the raid, his wingman and friend, then-Flight Lieutenant (later insignia Royal Canadian Air Force squadron leader) Quint Munroe (David McCallum) comforts Scott's wife, Beth (Suzanne Neve), and a romance soon develops, rekindling one that they had had years earlier.

After nearly losing his own life on a photographic reconnaissance mission over the Château de Charlon in Northern France, Munroe, under orders from Air Commodore Hufford (Charles Gray), is tasked to lead an attack against the château using a Barnes Wallis-type land-use "bouncing bomb" (referred to as Highball). Following the reported capture and assumed torture by the Gestapo of a French Maquis resistance fighter, Allied prisoners, including a very-much-alive Scott and other shot-down RAF airmen, are held as "human shields" to thwart a raid. This is seen in a disturbing film dropped by a Luftwaffe Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter that, in tandem with others, bombed and strafed the airfield, killing a number of RAF personnel.

The Royal Air Force target is a tunnel leading to an underground Nazi factory on the château grounds, where new "V-3" long-range, multi-stage rockets are being constructed. The prisoners are held in the chapel during Sunday morning mass to concentrate them in one location. This is part of a coordinated attack that will allow French Maquis resistance fighters to get them out, once a Mosquito has used a Highball bomb to blow a hole in the outer wall closest to the chapel. But not before Father Belaguere (Michael Anthony), a Catholic priest and Maquis agent, is killed by an enraged German army officer, Leutnant Schack (Vladek Sheybal), for refusing to order the airmen back to their cells. The prisoners disarm Schack, pushing him outside, and stay holed-up inside when the RAF begins the raid.

Munroe and Bannister drop their first two Highballs, but both miss. After wingman Clark is shot down by a Bf 109, they have just two left for two targets. Bannister is shot down by flak and crashes into the tunnel, his bombs exploding, leading to the destruction of the factory. Munroe blows apart the prison wall, just as the Germans are about to breech the chapel door and machine-gun all their prisoners. This allows most of the airmen to escape. The senior RAF officer, Squadron Leader Neale (Bryan Marshall), is killed by German machine-pistol fire during the prisoner breakout. With the help of the resistance fighters, his comrades make their way out of the château and its grounds. The bombing raid continues with a second wave of Mosquitos dropping conventional bombs that obliterate the château buildings.

Munroe and Scott are briefly reunited after Munroe's Mosquito is brought down by flak. Scott, still suffering from amnesia and unable to remember his name (he sports a chalked "X" on his uniform for identification), rebuffs Munroe's attempt to get him to remember, ignoring a mention of his wife's name. Scott later sacrifices himself to stop a German tank with a captured Panzershreck. He saves Munroe and others but is too late to save Flight Sergeant Wiley Bunce (Nicky Henson), Munroe's navigator.

The next day, after rescue by submarine, Munroe, along with other survivors of the raid, is repatriated back to his RAF airbase in one of two Avro Anson transport aircraft. After being congratulated by his commanding officer, Wing Commander Penrose (Dinsdale Landen), as well as Air Commodore Hufford, he is reunited with Beth and her brother, Flight Lieutenant Douglas Shelton (David Dundas). Shelton is an ex-pilot who lost his right hand in combat. He sports a hook in its place and now serves in the same squadron in charge of training. He conceals from her that her husband survived and was captured (both he and Shelton had, in fact, discovered that her husband had not been killed, thanks to the dropped German film).

Cast

Production
Although not a sequel, the film is similar to the 1964 film 633 Squadron and was influenced by it, even using some of its footage. The pre-title sequence (including the aforementioned opening music by Frank Cordell) was also taken from the WWII film Operation Crossbow. Bovingdon Airfield in Hertfordshire was a location for many scenes; four "flightworthy" de Havilland Mosquito aircraft, including RR299, which eventually crashed and much later was destroyed in July 1996, were based at the airfield. The "chateau" used is actually Minley Manor, near Farnborough in Hampshire, Southern England.

The Highball weapon featured was an actual development of Barnes Wallis's "dam-busting" Upkeep bomb, and the footage of Mosquitoes dropping Highballs on land is genuine WWII archive footage, although in the event Highball was never used in combat. Charles Gray's character mentions Barnes Wallis during his briefing, in such a way as to erroneously imply that the name was well known to the RAF personnel (Wallis was not publicly identified as the Upkeep inventor until after the War). The special Highball bombsight is also a genuine representation of the one used in combat.

The car driven by David McCallum is a 1935 Godsal V8 Corsica.

Soundtrack
The film features a memorable music score (starting with pounding bass drum beats to background the V-1 flying-bomb scenes) composed and conducted by Frank Cordell. Cordell's score was intended as a soundtrack album from United Artists Records that was never released until Film Score Monthly finally issued it on CD, paired with Cordell's score for Khartoum.

Reception
Most reviewers concentrated on the low-budget production values, but the script and cast also received severe criticism from some quarters. In 1968, McCallum, attending a film festival in Nice, was quoted, "I've seen bongo films better than that Mosquito rubbish".

References

Notes

Citations

Bibliography

 "De Havilland Mosquito, De Speelfilms (in Dutch)."
 Lindsey, Brian. "Mosquito Squadron." Eccentric Cinema. Retrieved: 20 February 2011.

External links

 Mosquito Squadron review

1969 films
1969 war films
British aviation films
British war drama films
British World War II films
Films about the Royal Air Force
Films directed by Boris Sagal
Films shot at MGM-British Studios
United Artists films
World War II aviation films
1960s British films
1960s English-language films

Mosquito Squadron


The Florence–Rome railway is part of the traditional main north–south trunk line of the Italian railway network.  The line is referred to by Ferrovie dello Stato (the State Railways) as the Linea Lenta (meaning "slow line", abbreviated LL) to distinguish it from the parallel high-speed line. The Linea Lenta is now mainly used for regional services, for the InterCity services — rather than the faster Le Frecce trains — between Florence and Rome and for the majority of freight trains. Some types of passenger train are routed on the line to serve smaller stations not served by the high-speed line or in order to improve traffic flow during peak periods or other periods of congestion.

High-speed trains on the Florence-Rome route use the parallel Florence–Rome high-speed line (Direttissima, meaning "most direct", abbreviated DD) which was partially opened on 24 February 1977 and was completed on 26 May 1992.

History

The origins of the line design date back to early days of railway building in Italy, some years before the creation of the Italian State in 1859, which explains its tortuous path and its somewhat illogical route in places. While the Apennines to the north of Florence created a difficult natural barrier, the political frontier with the Papal States to the south also obstructed the development of a rail connection with Rome. The physical and political geography led to the development of a railway line from the French border, through the Kingdom of Sardinia (Piedmont), Piacenza, and Bologna to Ancona and eventually Brindisi.  At the same time the same geography led the Papal States to develop a line from Rome to Ancona. For similar reasons the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies was developing east–west rail links from Naples to Termoli, Foggia and Brindisi.

The plan for the line between Rome, Orte and Foligno, which is common to the current lines from Rome to the Adriatic port of Ancona and Florence as far as Orte, took shape in the Papal States in 1846 shortly after Pius IX became Pope, replacing his predecessor Gregory XVI who banned railways, calling them "chemins d'enfer" (French for "ways of hell"; a play of words for "chemins de fer", French for "railways"). On 7 November 1846, the Secretary of State, authorised the construction of a railway connecting Rome to Ancona in order to reach Bologna and Modena, and connecting with the railway of Lombardy–Venetia then part of the Austrian Empire. The route chosen generally followed an ancient Roman Road, the Via Flaminia through Orte and continued over the Apennines via the pass of Fossato. A concession was granted in May 1856 to a company called Ferrovia Pio Centrale (Central Pius Railway) in honour of the Pope. It was completed only ten years later and inaugurated on 29 April 1866 by the Kingdom of Italy. The project, including the sections already built, had already been absorbed in 1865 by the Società per le strade ferrate romane (Roman Railway Company).

Meanwhile, the project had inspired the Grand Duchy of Tuscany to build a railway to connect Florence with the Roman Railway Company'''s line. The route chosen for the railway was the natural route through the valley of the Arno to Arezzo and then continuing towards Perugia to the border with the Papal States. The concession was signed by the Grand Duchy in 1859 and confirmed by the new provincial government of Tuscany—which had just been absorbed into the Kingdom of Italy—on 24 March 1860. The company led by Augusto Pietro Adami and Adriano Lemmi, both from Livorno, obtained reconfirmation with a dictatorial decree signed by Garibaldi in Caserta on 25 September 1860. On 7 July 1861, Act 96 of the Kingdom of Italy gave legislative approval for the concession to the Società delle Ferrovie Livornesi (Livornese Railway Company) to carry out construction work already started for a strada ferrata da Firenze per Arezzo fino all'incontro di quella da Roma ad Ancona ("railway from Florence via Arezzo to that from Rome to Ancona"). The resulting line was very long and tortuous while being very useful for many formerly isolated towns and villages. The first section of slightly less than 20 kilometres between Firenze Santa Maria Novella and Pontassieve was opened by the Livornese Railway Company on 20 September 1862.  In the spring of 1863 the line from Florence reached Montevarchi and was completed to Terontola  on 16 March 1866. The line from Terontola to Foligno was opened in December 1866, completing the link between Florence and Rome via Perugia.

On 15 December 1862, the Società per la Ferrovia Centrale Toscana (the Central Railway Company of Tuscany)—which had the concession for the line from Empoli to Siena—opened an extension of the line from Chiusi–Chianciano Terme station to Ficulle and on 27 December 1865 the line reached . An extension to Orte on 10 March  1874, together with the Chiusi–Terontola cutoff, allowed the shortening of the route. Meanwhile, following the reorganisation of the railways under Law No. 2279 of 14 May 1865 the Livornese Railway Company and the Central Railway Company of Tuscany were merged into the reconstituted Roman Railway Company.

Chiusi–Terontola cutoff
On 2 November 1864 the final section of the Porrettana line opened between Pistoia and Pracchia, reducing the travel time over the Apennines between Florence to Bologna from 14 hours (by road) to only 5 hours. This fact together with the transfer of capital of the Kingdom from Turin to Florence moved the main traffic flow from the Ancona route to the new line to Florence.  However, it was quickly realized that it was inadequate and obsolete especially after the transfer in 1870 of Italy's capital to Rome, which meant that most trains now travelled on the line.  While the journey included many curves through beautiful landscape and the ancient towns of Narni, Terni, Spoleto, Assisi and Perugia, in 1871 it meant that a train leaving Florence at 8.05 arrived in Rome at 17.40, that is it took 9 hours 35 minutes to cover 372 km. It was therefore decided to shorten the route by bypassing Perugia. On 15 November 1875 a new cutoff was opened between Chiusi–Chianciano Terme and Terontola across generally flat land west of Lake Trasimeno, shortening the line by about 58 kilometers and avoiding the tortuous line through Perugia, which was reduced to being a secondary line. During the reorganisation of the railways in 1885, the line became part of a new concession, the Società Italiana per le strade ferrate meridionali (Italian Company for the Southern Railway)—known as the Rete Adriatica (Adriatic Network)—which had its headquarters in Florence.

Upgrades
The line was originally built as a single track and operated with steam traction; it was doubled in stages and then electrified at 3000 volts DC in 1935. However, the line remained slow, not allowing travel at over 100 km/h. After World War II work started on a project—which had been partly developed before the war—for the quadrupling of certain sections of the line that were already approaching saturation. In the early 1960s work slowly started on its implementation, which had developed into a project consisting of a new line with advanced features and a number of interconnections making possible the operation on the same track of both high-speed trains and trains stopping at intermediate stations.  The new line is now known as the Direttissima.

Route
The current route connects the stations of Firenze Santa Maria Novella and Roma Termini via Arezzo, Terontola, Chiusi and Orvieto with a total length of 314 km. It follows the valleys of the Arno, the Paglia and the Tiber rivers. The index of tortuosity, according to UIC standards is very high at 68%, which is determined in large part by the presence of five major curves: Fara Sabina, Orte, Ficulle, Arezzo and Pontassieve. Because of the reduced radius curves for 40/50% of the line, the maximum speeds are not more than 95–105 km per hour.

The line is double track and electrified at 3,000 volts direct current and has  interconnection with the Direttissima at:
Valdarno North
Valdarno South
Arezzo North
Arezzo Sud
Chiusi North
Chiusi South
Orvieto North
Orvieto South
Orte North
Orte South

The integration of fast and slow trains on the two double lines, known as Linea Alta Velocità/Alta Capacità'' (high speed/ high capacity line, AV-AC) is similar to that adopted for high-speed lines in Germany.

See also
 List of railway lines in Italy

References

Footnotes

Sources

Railway lines opened in 1866
Railway lines in Lazio
Railway lines in Tuscany
Railway lines in Umbria
1866 establishments in Italy
Standard gauge railways in Italy

Florence–Rome railway


Driver 2: Back on the Streets (named Driver 2: The Wheelman Is Back in North America) is the second installment of the Driver video game series. It was developed by Reflections Interactive and published by Infogrames. A port to the Game Boy Advance, titled Driver 2 Advance, was released in 2002, being developed by Sennari Interactive and was released under Infogrames' Atari range of products.

Video games

Driver 2


John Edmund Gardner (20 November 1926 – 3 August 2007) was an English spy and thriller novelist. He was best known for his James Bond novels, but also for his series of Boysie Oakes books and three continuation novels containing Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's fictional villain, Professor Moriarty.

Gardner went on to write over fifty works of fiction, including fourteen original James Bond novels, and the novel versions of two Bond movie. He died from suspected heart failure on 3 August 2007.

Other websites
John-Gardner.com

1926 births
2007 deaths
English novelists
James Bond writers
Writers from Northumberland

John Gardner (British writer)


Philip Henry Alston Jr. (April 19, 1911 – March 2, 1988) was an American lawyer and diplomat who served as U.S. Ambassador to Australia and Nauru.

Biography
Alston was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on April 19, 1911 to attorney Philip H. Alston Sr. (1880-1962) and May Lewis Alston (1890-1962). He received a bachelor's degree from the University of Georgia in 1932, and earned a law degree from Emory University in 1934. Upon completion of his LL.B., Alston began practicing at the law firm that would become Alston, Miller and Gaines, where he became a partner in 1942.

From 1942 - 1945, Alston served in the United States Navy, and returned to his legal practice following the end of World War II.

Alston was a confidant of U.S. President Jimmy Carter, and began supporting Carter politically in 1966. In 1976, Alston was chairman of Jimmy Carter's presidential campaign committee. Carter appointed him ambassador to Australia and Nauru in 1977 and 1979, respectively. He served in those roles until 1981.

Following his diplomatic appointments, Alston was a co-founder of the Georgia Foundation, raising millions of dollars for the University of Georgia.

References

1911 births
1988 deaths
University of Georgia alumni
Ambassadors of the United States to Australia
Ambassadors of the United States to Nauru
Emory University School of Law alumni
Georgia (U.S. state) lawyers
20th-century American lawyers
20th-century American diplomats

Philip H. Alston


Ventricina is a pork sausage commonly found in the Abruzzo region of central Italy. It is similar to certain luncheon meats, included in the category English-speakers from the United States refer to as "cold cuts". It is traditionally made using relatively low grade, very fatty pig meat cuts and encasing them in the animal's intestines or stomach while they cure. There are two principal types of ventricina: those of the area in and around the city of Teramo, and others coming from the area of Vasto. It is included in the Slow Food movement Ark of Taste, an international catalogue of endangered heritage foods.

Teramo ventricina
This version of ventricina is made from pork meat with added pork fat, the latter amounting to approximately 50–60% by weight of the finished product. The meat and fat are finely ground together and various spices are then added to the mixture. Most often these include garlic, salt, ground black and white pepper, hot and bell peppers, orange peel, rosemary, bell pepper paste, and fennel seeds. Other spices are sometimes added according to the taste of the producer. Traditionally, this mixture would be encased in the bladder, stomach, or intestines of the pig. More recently, synthetic casings have been employed or the mixture is simply stored in glass containers. Ventricina is often hung to cure in a cool dark place for several months before it is eaten.  Ventricina teramana (that from the area around Teramo in Abruzzo) is most often eaten when it is young and has been allowed to age only a few months.  Many people spread this delicacy on an open slice of bread. If desired the bread slices can be placed on the grill or in the oven for a period of time, thereby making a kind of bruschetta.

Vasto ventricina
In comparison to the Teramo ventricina, that made in Vasto contains a much lower percentage of fat, typically in the neighborhood of 30% or so. The meat in this ventricina is cut into larger cubes of about two centimeters.  Spices include bell peppers, hot peppers, fennel seeds and ground pepper.

External links
La ventricina del Vastese
Ventricina Teramana

Italian cuisine
Lunch meat
Salumi
Cuisine of Abruzzo

Ventricina


Cast paper is a paper crafting technique in which paper fiber or pulp, such as cotton fiber paper, is formed using a mold. The pulp may consist of pure fiber, or be an amalgam of fiber, binder, and filler, such as Papier-mâché.   The technique is employed for in-the-round sculpture as well as bas-relief.

References

Paper art
Artistic techniques
Decorative arts

Cast paper


Randy Cameron Kelly (born August 2, 1950) is an American politician and the former mayor of Saint Paul, Minnesota. He is a member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL).

Born in the small town of Rolette, North Dakota, Kelly and his family later moved to Saint Paul, where he graduated from Harding High School, and the University of Minnesota.

Service in the Minnesota Legislature
Kelly served in the Minnesota Senate from 1991 to 2002, representing District 67 (covering most of Saint Paul's East Side), and in the Minnesota House of Representatives from 1983 to 1991, representing districts 66B and, after redistricting, 67A. While in the legislature, he worked to reform Minnesota's criminal justice system, including creating a statewide criminal gang strike force, developing a four-year law enforcement degree, authoring many of the existing crime-victim and witness laws, and worked towards requiring sexual offender registration and community notification.

Kelly served as chair (2001) and a member of the Senate Transportation Committee, and was also a member of the Crime Prevention, Finance, and Telecommunications & Energy & Utilities committees.  He was also a member of the Public Safety Budget Division subcommittee.  Previously, in the Minnesota House, he had served as chair of the House Judiciary Committee from 1987 to 1991.

Mayor of Saint Paul
Kelly was the mayor of Saint Paul, Minnesota from January, 2002 through January, 2006. He won the office in 2001 by just 403 votes in a tight race with Jay Benanav, a city councilman.
As mayor, he was noted for his efforts to increase the minimum wage and create and retain high-paying jobs.

During Kelly's term in office, his political views and several appointments generated controversy.
In 2004, he rankled fellow Democrats by endorsing and campaigning for President George W. Bush's re-election. According to critics, his conservative views, which may have been intended to garner support from Republicans and independents, undermined his constituent base in the Democratic Party. An unsuccessful grassroots campaign to recall him was launched shortly after his announcement in support of Bush's re-election effort.

In 2005, one of Kelly's appointees, Sia Lo, head of the criminal division of the city attorney's office, was reported to be at the center of an investigation into alleged corruption in a city development deal which focused on a new Hmong funeral home on the city's West Side. Lo was never charged.

2005 mayoral race
Kelly sought reelection in 2005 and narrowly avoided being dropped from the ballot in the September primary. Fellow DFLer Chris Coleman finished in first place with 52% of the vote, Kelly at 27%, and the Green Party candidate, Elizabeth Dickinson, at 20%. The top two finishers went on to the November general election, in which Coleman defeated Kelly 69% to 31%. This was only the third loss by an incumbent Saint Paul mayor, as well as the greatest percentage loss on record for an incumbent mayor in the city's history.

In the aftermath of the election, it was suggested that Kelly's endorsement of President Bush the previous fall was a factor in his loss to Coleman.

Post-mayoral activities

In late 2006, Kelly was named Deputy Associate Administrator for Intergovernmental Relations for the Environmental Protection Agency by President Bush. At the EPA, his duties included managing relations with governors, state legislators, mayors, county executives and other state and local officials, as well as working with the national associations representing these officials. In the position, he also served as the liaison to the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs.  He remained in this position until early 2009.

He continues to reside on Saint Paul's East Side with his wife and family. Kelly's youngest son, Reed Kelly, competed on season 29 of Survivor on CBS with his boyfriend Josh Canfield.

Notes

External links

1950 births
Living people
Mayors of Saint Paul, Minnesota
Democratic Party Minnesota state senators
People from Rolette County, North Dakota
21st-century American politicians

Randy Kelly


Akhter Hameed Khan (, pronounced ; 15 July 1914 – 9 October 1999) was a Pakistani development practitioner and social scientist. He promoted participatory rural development in Pakistan and other developing countries, and widely advocated community participation in development. His particular contribution was the establishment of a comprehensive project for rural development, the Comilla Model (1959). It earned him the Ramon Magsaysay Award from the Philippines and an honorary Doctorate of law from Michigan State University.

In the 1980s he started a bottom-up community development initiative of Orangi Pilot Project, based in the outskirts of Karachi, which became a model of participatory development initiatives. He also directed many programmes, from microcredit to self-finance and from housing provision to family planning, for rural communities and urban slums. It earned him international recognition and high honours in Pakistan. Khan was fluent in at least seven languages and dialects. Apart from many scholarly books and articles, he also published a collection of poems and travelogues in Urdu.

Early life
Khan was born on 15 July 1914 in Agra. He was among the four sons and three daughters of Khansaahib Ameer Ahmed Khan and Mehmoodah Begum. His father, a police inspector, was inspired by the reformist thinking of Syed Ahmed Khan. In his early age, Khan's mother introduced him to the poetry of Maulana Hali and Muhammad Iqbal, the sermons of Abul Kalam Azad, and the Sufist philosophy of Rumi. This upbringing influenced his interest in historical as well as contemporary social, economic, and political affairs.

Khan attended Government High School at Jalam (Uttar Pradesh), and completed his education in 1930 at Agra College where he studied English literature and history. He read English literature, history, and philosophy for a Bachelor of Arts degree at Meerut College in 1932. At that point, his mother was diagnosed with tuberculosis. She died in the same year at the age of 36. Khan continued his studies and was awarded a Master of Arts in English Literature from Agra University in 1934. He worked as a lecturer at Meerut College before joining the Indian Civil Service (ICS) in 1936. As part of the ICS training, he was sent to read literature and history at Magdalene College, Cambridge, England. During the stay, he developed a friendship with Choudhary Rahmat Ali.

Khan married Hameedah Begum (the eldest daughter of Allama Mashriqi) in 1940. Together, they had three daughters (Mariam, Amina, and Rasheeda) and a son (Akbar). After Hameedah Begum's death in 1966, he married Shafiq Khan and had one daughter, Ayesha. During his ICS career, Khan worked as collector of revenue, a position that brought him into regular contact with living conditions in rural areas of East Bengal. The Bengal famine of 1943 and subsequent handling of the situation by the colonial rulers led him to resign from the Indian Civil Service in 1945. He wrote, "I realised that if I did not escape while I was young and vigorous, I will forever remain in the trap, and terminate as a bureaucratic big wig." During this period, he was influenced by the philosophy of Nietzsche and Mashriqi, and joined the Khaksar Movement. This attachment was brief. He quit the movement and turned to Sufism. According to Khan, "I had a profound personal concern; I wanted to live a life free from fear and anxiety, a calm and serene life, without turmoil and conflict. ... when I followed the advice of the old Sufis and sages, and tried to curb my greed, my pride and aggression, fears, anxieties and conflicts diminished."

For the next two years, Khan worked in Mamoola village near Aligarh as a labourer and locksmith, an experience that provided him with firsthand knowledge of the problems and issues of rural communities. In 1947, he took up a teaching position at the Jamia Millia, Delhi, where he worked for three years. In 1950, Khan migrated to Pakistan to teach at Islamia College, Karachi. In the same year, he was invited by the Government of Pakistan to take charge as Principal of Comilla Victoria College in East Pakistan, a position he held until 1958. During this time (1950–58) he also served as President of the East Pakistan Non-Government Teachers' Association.

Rural development initiatives
During his tenure as principal of Comilla Victoria College, Khan developed a special interest in grassroots actions. Between 1954 and 1955, he took a break to work as director of the Village Agricultural and Industrial Development (V-AID) Programme. However, he was not satisfied with the development approach adopted in the programme that was limited to the training of villagers. In 1958, he went to Michigan State University to acquire education and training in rural development. Returning in 1959, he established the Pakistan Academy for Rural Development (PARD, eventually renamed as Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development) at Comilla on 27 May 1959 and was appointed as its founding director. Khan became vice-chairman of the board of Governors of PARD in 1964, and in the same year, was awarded an honorary Doctorate of law by Michigan State University. In 1969, he established collaborative links with Arthur Lewis.

Advisory roles
Following his move to Pakistan, Khan was asked to implement the Comilla Model in rural settlements of North-West Frontier Province (now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), Punjab, and Sindh. He declined the offer on the grounds that the proposals were predominantly motivated by political interests rather than the common well-being. However, he continued to advise the authorities on various aspects of rural development, such as participatory irrigation management. He worked as a research fellow at the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad from 1971 to 1972, and as Director of Rural Economics Research Project at Karachi University from 1972 to 1973. Khan went to Michigan State University as a visiting professor in 1973 and remained there until 1979. During this time, he carried on advising the Rural Development Academy at Bogra in northern Bangladesh, and the Pakistan Academy for Rural Development, Peshawar, on the Daudzai Integrated Rural Development Programme. In 1974, he was appointed as a World Bank consultant to survey rural development situations in Java, Indonesia. He also briefly worked as a visiting professor at Lund University, Harvard University, and the University of Oxford.

In 1980, Khan moved to Karachi and started working on the improvement of sanitary conditions in Karachi suburbs. He laid the foundations of the Orangi Pilot Project for the largest squatter community of Orangi in the city. He remained associated with this project until his death in 1999. Meanwhile, he maintained his support for rural communities around Karachi, and also helped to develop the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme. OPP became a model for participatory bottom-up development initiatives.

Major development programmes

Comilla Cooperative Pilot Project

The Comilla Model (1959) was Khan's initiative in response to the failure of a Village Agricultural and Industrial Development (V-AID) programme that was launched in 1953 in East and West Pakistan with technical assistance from the US government. V-AID remained a government-level attempt to promote citizen participation in the sphere of rural development. Khan launched the project in 1959 on his return from Michigan, and developed a methodology of implementation in the area of rural development on the principle of grassroots-level participation. Initially, the aim was to provide a development model of programmes and institutions that could be replicated across the country. Advisory support in this respect was provided by experts from Harvard and Michigan State Universities, the Ford Foundation, and USAID.

Comilla Model simultaneously addressed the problems that were caused by the inadequacy of both local infrastructure and institutions through a range of integrated programmes. The initiatives included the establishment of: a training and development centre; a road-drainage embankment works programme; a decentralized, small scale irrigation programme; and, a two-tiered cooperative system with primary cooperatives operating in the villages, and federations operating at sub-district level.

After Khan's departure from Comilla, the cooperative's model failed in independent Bangladesh because only a few occupational groups managed to achieve the desired success. By 1979, only 61 of the 400 cooperatives were functioning. The model actually fell prey to the ineffective internal and external controls, stagnation, and diversion of funds. This prompted the subsequent scholars and practitioners in microfinance, such as Muhammad Yunus of Grameen Bank and Fazle Hasan Abed of BRAC, to abandon the cooperative approach in favour of more centralised control and service delivery structures. The new strategy targeted the poorest villagers, while excluding the 'less poor'. However, Khan's leadership skills during the course of his association with the project remained a source of inspiration for these leaders, as well as other participatory development initiatives in the country.

Orangi Pilot Project

The Orangi poverty alleviation project (known as the Orangi Pilot Project, or OPP) was initiated by Khan as an NGO in 1980. Orangi is located on the northwest periphery of Karachi. At that time, it was the largest of the city's approximately 650 low-income squatter settlements (known as katchi abadi). The locality was first developed in 1963 as a government township of . The influx of migrants after the creation of Bangladesh swelled the settlement to about one million people crowded over an area of more than . The working class multi-ethnic population was predominantly composed of day labourers, skilled workers, artisans, small shopkeepers, peddlers and low-income white collar workers. The project proved an impetus to the socio-economic development of the population of the area. As the project director, Khan proved to be a dynamic and innovative leader. The project initially focused on creating a system of underground sewers, using local materials and labour, and succeeded in laying hundreds of kilometres of drainage pipes along with auxiliary facilities. Within a decade of the initiative, local residents had established schools, health clinics, women's work centres, cooperative stores and a credit organisation to finance enterprise projects. By 1993, OPP had managed to provide low-cost sewers to more than 72,000 houses. The project subsequently diversified into a number of programmes, including a people's financed and managed low-cost sanitation programme; a housing programme; a basic health and family planning programme; a programme of supervised credit for small family enterprise units; an education programme; and a rural development programme in the nearby villages.

Comparing the OPP with Comilla project, Akhter Hameed Khan once commented:

The Orangi Pilot Project was very different from the Comilla Academy. OPP was a private body, dependent for its small fixed budget on another NGO. The vast resources and support of the government, Harvard advisors, MSU, and Ford Foundation was missing. OPP possessed no authority, no sanctions. It may observe and investigate but it could only advise, not enforce.

The successful OPP model became an inspiration for other municipalities around the country. In 1999, Khan helped to create Lodhran Pilot Project (LPP) to collaborate with Lodhran municipal committee. Learning from past experiences, the project extended its scope to the whole town instead of concentrating on low-income settlements only. The municipal partnership was itself a new initiative that ensured wider civic co-operation.

The success of OPP did come at a cost for Dr Khan as his liberal views and self-help initiatives were questioned and criticised by certain interest groups. At two occasions, he was accused of blasphemy. However, all allegations against him were acquitted by the courts of law and cleared by independent religious scholars.

Death
In 1999, Khan was visiting his family in the United States when he suffered from kidney failure. He died of myocardial infarction on 9 October in Indianapolis at the age of 85. His body was flown to Karachi on 15 October, where he was buried on the grounds of the OPP office compound.

Legacy
Khan's ideology and leadership skills were a source of inspiration for his students and colleagues, and continue to serve as guiding principles even after his death. Edgar Owens, who became an admirer of Khan's ideology while working at USAID's Asia Bureau, co-authored a book with Robert Shaw as a result of observations and discussions with Khan at Comilla Academy. A later study of various rural development experiences from South Asia, edited by Uphoff and Cambell (1983) was jointly dedicated to Khan and Owens.

Soon after Khan's death, on 10 April 2000, the Government of Pakistan renamed the National Centre for Rural Development the Akhter Hameed Khan National Centre for Rural Development and Municipal Administration.

Later in 2005, the Council of Social Sciences, Pakistan, in collaboration with the National Rural Support Programme and other institutions, announced the Akhter Hameed Khan Memorial Award. The annual cash award is given on Khan's birthday to a Pakistani author for a book on issues related to rural and urban development, peace, poverty alleviation, or gender discrimination. At the occasion of the award ceremony in 2006, a documentary film about the life and times of Akhter Hameed Khan was premiered. The film includes archival footage and interviews with family members, colleagues, and contributors and beneficiaries of the Comilla and OPP projects.

The Akhter Hameed Khan Resource Centre (AHK Resource Center)was established in Islamabad, under the auspices of the Institute of Rural Management, as a repository of published and digital resources on rural development. The Akhter Hameed Khan Resource Center was initially formed in 2010 as a repository of works and writings by Khan and his mentee Shoaib Sultan Khan; after 2015 the resource center transitioned into an NGO that established an experimental site in urban development in Dhok Hassu, Rawalpindi.

Awards and honours
Khan received the following civil awards:
 Jinnah Award (Posthumous, 2004) for services to people as founder of the Orangi Pilot Project.
 Nishan-e-Imtiaz (Posthumous, 2001) for services to the community.
 Ramon Magsaysay Award (31 August 1963, Manila, Philippines) for services to rural development.
 Sitara-e-Pakistan (1961) for pioneering work in rural development.

Publications
Khan was fluent in Arabic, Bengali, English, Hindi, Pali, Persian, and Urdu. He wrote several reports and monographs, mostly relating to rural development in general or his various successful and model initiatives in particular. He also published collections of poems and travelogues in Urdu.

In English
 1956, Bengal Reminances, vol 1, 2 & 3. Comilla Academy (now the Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development), Comilla, Bangladesh.
 1965, Rural Development in East Pakistan, Speeches By Akhter Hameed Khan. Asian Studies Center, Michigan State University.
 1974, Institutions for rural development in Indonesia, Pakistan Academy for Rural Development. Karachi.
 1985, Rural development in Pakistan. Vanguard Books. Lahore.
 1994, What I learnt in Comilla and Orangi. Paper presented at the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) seminar. Islamabad.
 1996, Orangi Pilot Project: Reminiscences and Reflections. The Oxford University Press: Karachi. (editions: 1996, 1999, 2005).
 1997 The sanitation gap: Development's deadly menace . The Progress of Nations . UNICEF.
 1998, Community-Based Schools and the Orangi Project. In Hoodbhoy, P (ed.), Education and the State: Fifty Years of Pakistan, Chapter 7, Karachi: Oxford University Press.
 2000, Twenty Weeks in America: A Diary, 3 September 1969 – 21 January 1970. Translated from Urdu by Aqila Ismail. City Press.

In Urdu
 1972, Safar-e-Amrika ki Diary (A Diary of Travels in America). The City Press: Karachi. 2nd Edition: Atlantis Publications, Karachi 2017.
 1988, Chiragh aur Kanwal (Collection of poems in Urdu). Saad Publishers. Karachi.

See also
 Civil society
 Social entrepreneurship
 Social innovation

Notes

References

 Abadi, H. (2006). Dr. Akhter Hameed Khan. Karachi: Oxford University Press.
 BARD (1983). The Works of Akhter Hameed Khan. Volumes I–III. Comilla: Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development.
 Barmazel, S. (2005). "Orangi Pilot Project: An NGO Helping to Build Community" in O.P. Richmond and H.F. Carey (eds.) Subcontracting Peace: The Challenges of NGO Peacebuilding. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing. pp. 191–98.
 Chowdhury, A.N. (1990). Let Grassroots Speak: People's Participation Self-Help Groups and NGO's in Bangladesh. Dhaka: South Asia Books.
 Chaudhuri, M.A. (1969). Rural Government in East Pakistan. Dhaka: Puthighar Ltd.
 Dowla, A. and Barua, D. (2006). The Poor Always Pay Back: The Grameen II Story. Bloomfield, CT: Kumarian Press.
 Hasan, A. (1994). "Replicating the Low-Cost Sanitation Programme Administered by the Orangi Pilot Project in Karachi, Pakistan" in I. Serageldin, M.A. Cohen, and K.C. Sivaramakrishnan (eds.) The Human Face of the Urban Environment, Proceedings of the Second Annual World Bank Conference on Environmentally Sustainable Development. (19–21 September). Washington, D.C.: The World Bank.
 Hasan, A. (1996). "Introduction" in A.H. Khan Orangi Pilot Project: Reminiscences and Reflections. Karachi: Oxford University Press. pp. xi–xli.
 Hasan, A. (1999). Akhter Hameed Khan and the Orangi Pilot Project. Karachi: City Press.
 Hasan, A. (2002). "A model for government-community partnership in building sewage systems for urban areas: The experiences of the OPP-RTI". Water Science and Technology Vol. 45, No. 8, pp. 199–216.
 Khan, A.H. (1996). Orangi Pilot Project: Reminiscences and Reflections. Karachi: Oxford University Press. (editions: 1996, 1999, 2005).
 Nigam, A. and Rasheed, S. (1998). "Financing of Fresh Water for All: A Rights Based Approach" in UNICEF Staff Working Papers. Evaluation, Policy and Planning Series, No. EPP-EVL-98-003.
 NRSP (2000). In commemoration of The Life and Times of Akhter Hameed Khan: Talks of Akhter Hameed Khan at the National Rural Support Programme. Islamabad: National Rural Support Programme (NRSP).
 Raper, A.F. (1970). Rural Development in Action: The Comprehensive Experiment at Comilla, East Pakistan. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
 Valsan, E.H. (2005). "Leadership in Public Administration for Alleviating Poverty and Development: A Conceptual Approach", in J. Jabes (ed.) The Role of Public Administration in Alleviating Poverty and Improving Governance, NAPSIPAG. Manila: Asian Development Bank.
 Yousaf, N. (2003). Allama Mashriqi and Dr. Akhtar Hameed Khan: Two Legends of Pakistan. New York: Xlibris.

External links
 Akhter Hameed Khan Memorial Award, at Council of Social Sciences (COSS) website
 AHK Resource Centre and Digital Library
 AHK Photo Gallery at Institute of Rural Management (IRM) website

1914 births
1999 deaths
Development specialists
Alumni of Magdalene College, Cambridge
Academics from Karachi
Recipients of Nishan-e-Imtiaz
Pakistani humanitarians
Recipients of Hilal-i-Imtiaz
Pakistani cooperative organizers
Microfinance people
Muhajir people
Pakistani Sunni Muslims
Ramon Magsaysay Award winners
Michigan State University alumni
People from Agra
Fellows of Pakistan Academy of Sciences
20th-century Pakistani economists
Academic staff of Comilla Victoria Government College
Recipients of the Sitara-e-Pakistan
Pakistani squatter leaders
Indian Civil Service (British India) officers
People from Karachi

Akhtar Hameed Khan