text:
Fracture

Fracture is the appearance of a crack or complete separation of an object or material into two or more pieces under the action of stress. The fracture of a solid usually occurs due to the development of certain displacement discontinuity surfaces within the solid. If a displacement develops perpendicular to the surface, it is called a normal tensile crack or simply a crack; if a displacement develops tangentially, it is called a shear crack, slip band, or dislocation.

Brittle fractures occur without any apparent deformation before fracture. Ductile fractures occur after visible deformation. Fracture strength, or breaking strength, is the stress when a specimen fails or fractures. The detailed understanding of how a fracture occurs and develops in materials is the object of fracture mechanics.

Strength
[[File:Stress v strain Aluminum 2.png|thumb|Stress vs. strain curve typical of aluminum 1. Ultimate tensile strength

2. Yield strength

3. Proportional limit stress

4. Fracture

5. Offset strain (typically 0.2%)]]

Fracture strength, also known as breaking strength, is the stress at which a specimen fails via fracture. This is usually determined for a given specimen by a tensile test, which charts the stress–strain curve (see image). The final recorded point is the fracture strength.

Ductile materials have a fracture strength lower than the ultimate tensile strength (UTS), whereas in brittle materials the fracture strength is equivalent to the UTS. If a ductile material reaches its ultimate tensile strength in a load-controlled situation, it will continue to deform, with no additional load application, until it ruptures. However, if the loading is displacement-controlled, the deformation of the material may relieve the load, preventing rupture.

The statistics of fracture in random materials have very intriguing behavior, and was noted by the architects and engineers quite early. Indeed, fracture or breakdown studies might be the oldest physical science studies, which still remain intriguing and very much alive. Leonardo da Vinci, more than 500 years ago, observed that the tensile strengths of nominally identical specimens of iron wire decrease with increasing length of the wires (see e.g., for a recent discussion). Similar observations were made by Galileo Galilei more than 400 years ago. This is the manifestation of the extreme statistics of failure (bigger sample volume can have larger defects due to cumulative fluctuations where failures nucleate and induce lower strength of the sample).

Types
There are two types of fractures: brittle and ductile fractures respectively without or with plastic deformation prior to failure.

Brittle

In brittle fracture, no apparent plastic deformation takes place before fracture. Brittle fracture typically involves little energy absorption and occurs at high speeds—up to 2133.6 m/s in steel. In most cases brittle fracture will continue even when loading is discontinued.

In brittle crystalline materials, fracture can occur by cleavage as the result of tensile stress acting normal to crystallographic planes with low bonding (cleavage planes). In amorphous solids, by contrast, the lack of a crystalline structure results in a conchoidal fracture, with cracks proceeding normal to the applied tension.

The fracture strength (or micro-crack nucleation stress) of a material was first theoretically estimated by Alan Arnold Griffith in 1921:
 * $$\sigma_\mathrm{theoretical} = \sqrt{ \frac{E \gamma}{r_o}}$$

where: –
 * Sprödbruch.jpg$$E$$ is the Young's modulus of the material,
 * $$\gamma$$ is the surface energy, and
 * $$r_o$$ is the micro-crack length (or equilibrium distance between atomic centers in a crystalline solid).

On the other hand, a crack introduces a stress concentration modeled by Inglis's equation
 * $$\sigma_\mathrm{elliptical\ crack} = \sigma_\mathrm{applied}\left(1 + 2 \sqrt{ \frac{a}{\rho}}\right)= 2 \sigma_\mathrm{applied} \sqrt{\frac{a}{\rho}} $$ (For sharp cracks)

where:
 * $$\sigma_\mathrm{applied}$$ is the loading stress,
 * $$a$$ is half the length of the crack, and
 * $$\rho$$ is the radius of curvature at the crack tip.

Putting these two equations together gets
 * $$\sigma_\mathrm{fracture} = \sqrt{ \frac{E \gamma \rho}{4 a r_o}}.$$

Sharp cracks (small $$\rho$$) and large defects (large $$a$$) both lower the fracture strength of the material.

Recently, scientists have discovered supersonic fracture, the phenomenon of crack propagation faster than the speed of sound in a material. This phenomenon was recently also verified by experiment of fracture in rubber-like materials.

The basic sequence in a typical brittle fracture is: introduction of a flaw either before or after the material is put in service, slow and stable crack propagation under recurring loading, and sudden rapid failure when the crack reaches critical crack length based on the conditions defined by fracture mechanics. Brittle fracture may be avoided by controlling three primary factors: material fracture toughness (K$c$), nominal stress level (σ), and introduced flaw size (a). Residual stresses, temperature, loading rate, and stress concentrations also contribute to brittle fracture by influencing the three primary factors.

Under certain conditions, ductile materials can exhibit brittle behavior. Rapid loading, low temperature, and triaxial stress constraint conditions may cause ductile materials to fail without prior deformation.

Ductile

In ductile fracture, extensive plastic deformation (necking) takes place before fracture. The terms "rupture" and "ductile rupture" describe the ultimate failure of ductile materials loaded in tension. The extensive plasticity causes the crack to propagate slowly due to the absorption of a large amount of energy before fracture.

Because ductile rupture involves a high degree of plastic deformation, the fracture behavior of a propagating crack as modelled above changes fundamentally. Some of the energy from stress concentrations at the crack tips is dissipated by plastic deformation ahead of the crack as it propagates.

The basic steps in ductile fracture are microvoid formation, microvoid coalescence (also known as crack formation), crack propagation, and failure, often resulting in a cup-and-cone shaped failure surface. The microvoids nucleate at various internal discontinuities, such as precipitates, secondary phases, inclusions, and grain boundaries in the material. As local stress increases the microvoids grow, coalesce and eventually form a continuous fracture surface. Ductile fracture is typically transgranular and deformation due to dislocation slip can cause the shear lip characteristic of cup and cone fracture.

The microvoid coalescence results in a dimpled appearance on the fracture surface. The dimple shape is heavily influenced by the type of loading. Fracture under local uniaxial tensile loading usually results in formation of equiaxed dimples. Failures caused by shear will produce elongated or parabolic shaped dimples that point in opposite directions on the matching fracture surfaces. Finally, tensile tearing produces elongated dimples that point in the same direction on matching fracture surfaces.

Characteristics
The manner in which a crack propagates through a material gives insight into the mode of fracture. With ductile fracture a crack moves slowly and is accompanied by a large amount of plastic deformation around the crack tip. A ductile crack will usually not propagate unless an increased stress is applied and generally cease propagating when loading is removed. In a ductile material, a crack may progress to a section of the material where stresses are slightly lower and stop due to the blunting effect of plastic deformations at the crack tip. On the other hand, with brittle fracture, cracks spread very rapidly with little or no plastic deformation. The cracks that propagate in a brittle material will continue to grow once initiated.

Crack propagation is also categorized by the crack characteristics at the microscopic level. A crack that passes through the grains within the material is undergoing transgranular fracture. A crack that propagates along the grain boundaries is termed an intergranular fracture. Typically, the bonds between material grains are stronger at room temperature than the material itself, so transgranular fracture is more likely to occur. When temperatures increase enough to weaken the grain bonds, intergranular fracture is the more common fracture mode.

Testing
Fracture in materials is studied and quantified in multiple ways. Fracture is largely determined by the fracture toughness ($\mathrm{K}_\mathrm{c}$ ), so fracture testing is often done to determine this. The two most widely used techniques for determining fracture toughness are the three-point flexural test and the compact tension test.

By performing the compact tension and three-point flexural tests, one is able to determine the fracture toughness through the following equation:

 * $$\mathrm{K_{c}} = \sigma_\mathrm{F}\sqrt{\pi \mathrm{c}}\mathrm{f \ (c/a)}$$

Where:
 * $$\mathrm{f \ (c/a)}$$ is an empirically-derived equation to capture the test sample geometry
 * $$\sigma_\mathrm{F}$$ is the fracture stress, and
 * $$\mathrm{c}$$ is the crack length.

To accurately attain $\mathrm{K}_\mathrm{c}$, the value of $\mathrm{c}$ must be precisely measured. This is done by taking the test piece with its fabricated notch of length $\mathrm{c\prime}$ and sharpening this notch to better emulate a crack tip found in real-world materials. Cyclical prestressing the sample can then induce a fatigue crack which extends the crack from the fabricated notch length of $\mathrm{c\prime}$ to $\mathrm{c}$. This value $\mathrm{c}$ is used in the above equations for determining $\mathrm{K}_\mathrm{c}$.

Following this test, the sample can then be reoriented such that further loading of a load (F) will extend this crack and thus a load versus sample deflection curve can be obtained. With this curve, the slope of the linear portion, which is the inverse of the compliance of the material, can be obtained. This is then used to derive f(c/a) as defined above in the equation. With the knowledge of all these variables, $\mathrm{K}_\mathrm{c}$ can then be calculated.

Ceramics and inorganic glasses
Ceramics and inorganic glasses have fracturing behavior that differ those of metallic materials. Ceramics have high strengths and perform well in high temperatures due to the material strength being independent of temperature. Ceramics have low toughness as determined by testing under a tensile load; often, ceramics have $\mathrm{K}_\mathrm{c}$ values that are ~5% of that found in metals. However, as demonstrated by Faber and Evans, fracture toughness can be predicted and improved with crack deflection around second phase particles. Ceramics are usually loaded in compression in everyday use, so the compressive strength is often referred to as the strength; this strength can often exceed that of most metals. However, ceramics are brittle and thus most work done revolves around preventing brittle fracture. Due to how ceramics are manufactured and processed, there are often preexisting defects in the material introduce a high degree of variability in the Mode I brittle fracture. Thus, there is a probabilistic nature to be accounted for in the design of ceramics. The Weibull distribution predicts the survival probability of a fraction of samples with a certain volume that survive a tensile stress sigma, and is often used to better assess the success of a ceramic in avoiding fracture.

Fiber bundles
To model fracture of a bundle of fibers, the Fiber Bundle Model was introduced by Thomas Pierce in 1926 as a model to understand the strength of composite materials. The bundle consists of a large number of parallel Hookean springs of identical length and each having identical spring constants. They have however different breaking stresses. All these springs are suspended from a rigid horizontal platform. The load is attached to a horizontal platform, connected to the lower ends of the springs. When this lower platform is absolutely rigid, the load at any point of time is shared equally (irrespective of how many fibers or springs have broken and where) by all the surviving fibers. This mode of load-sharing is called Equal-Load-Sharing mode. The lower platform can also be assumed to have finite rigidity, so that local deformation of the platform occurs wherever springs fail and the surviving neighbor fibers have to share a larger fraction of that transferred from the failed fiber. The extreme case is that of local load-sharing model, where load of the failed spring or fiber is shared (usually equally) by the surviving nearest neighbor fibers.

Disasters
Failures caused by brittle fracture have not been limited to any particular category of engineered structure. Though brittle fracture is less common than other types of failure, the impacts to life and property can be more severe. The following notable historic failures were attributed to brittle fracture:
 * Pressure vessels: Great Molasses Flood in 1919, New Jersey molasses tank failure in 1973
 * Bridges: King Street Bridge span collapse in 1962, Silver Bridge collapse in 1967, partial failure of the Hoan Bridge in 2000
 * Ships: Titanic in 1912, Liberty ships during World War II, SS Schenectady in 1943

Computational fracture mechanics
Virtually every area of engineering has been significantly impacted by computers, and fracture mechanics is no exception. Since there are so few actual problems with closed-form analytical solutions, numerical modelling has become an essential tool in fracture analysis. There are literally hundreds of configurations for which stress-intensity solutions have been published, the majority of which were derived from numerical models. The J integral and crack-tip-opening displacement (CTOD) calculations are two more increasingly popular elastic-plastic studies. Additionally, experts are using cutting-edge computational tools to study unique issues such ductile crack propagation, dynamic fracture, and fracture at interfaces. The exponential rise in computational fracture mechanics applications is essentially the result of quick developments in computer technology.

Most used computational numerical methods are finite element and boundary integral equation methods. Other methods include stress and displacement matching, element crack advance in which latter two come under Traditional Methods in Computational Fracture Mechanics.

The finite element method
The structures are divided into discrete elements of 1-D beam, 2-D plane stress or plane strain, 3-D bricks or tetrahedron types. The continuity of the elements are enforced using the nodes.

The boundary integral equation method
In this method, the surface is divided into two regions: a region where displacements are specified Su and region with tractions are specified ST. With given boundary conditions, the stresses, strains, and displacements within the body can all theoretically be solved for, along with the tractions on Su and the displacements on ST. It is a very powerful technique to find the unknown tractions and displacements.

Traditional methods in computational fracture mechanics
These methods are used to determine the fracture mechanics parameters using numerical analysis. Some of the traditional methods in computational fracture mechanics, which were commonly used in the past, have been replaced by newer and more advanced techniques. The newer techniques are considered to be more accurate and efficient, meaning they can provide more precise results and do so more quickly than the older methods. Not all traditional methods have been completely replaced, as they can still be useful in certain scenarios, but they may not be the most optimal choice for all applications.

Some of the traditional methods in computational fracture mechanics are:
 * Stress and displacement matching
 * Elemental crack advance
 * Contour integration
 * Virtual crack extension

title: Fracture


text:
Mouse chording

Mouse chording is the capability of performing actions when multiple mouse buttons are held down, much like a chorded keyboard and similar to mouse gestures.

One common application of mouse chording, called rocker navigation, is found in Opera and in mouse gesture extensions for Mozilla Firefox. Rocker navigation typically involves the following two mouse chords:
 * Hold the left button and click the right button to move forward in the browser's history.
 * Hold the right button and click the left button to move backward in the browser's history.

The operating systems Plan 9 and Oberon and the acme development environment make heavy use of mouse chording. OS/2 Presentation Manager can also use chording to copy and paste text using two buttons however Common User Access key combinations are more frequently used.

Limitations
Like mouse gestures, chorded actions may lack feedback and affordance and would therefore offer no way for users to discover possible chords without reference. A similar feature such as a context menu would require less training.

When Project Athena used equipment from both IBM and DEC, DEC mice had three buttons and IBM mice had two. Athena simulated the third (middle) button on IBM mice by chording the two buttons together. This does not enable chords which involve the middle click. The Apple Mighty Mouse does not support mouse chording due to the design of the button sensors.

Applications that support mouse chording

 * 3DS Max - Any action in the main UI that involves clicking and dragging can be cancelled by right clicking while left button is still held down.
 * Microstation - CAD software, uses chording to snap to elements.
 * CATIA - CAD/CAM/CAE software, uses middle and left mouse button chording to zoom, pan and rotate screen representation
 * Acme and Wily text editors
 * Opera (web browser)
 * Vivaldi (web browser)
 * Maxthon
 * Blender 3D
 * Plan 9 from Bell Labs
 * Oberon operating system
 * Sketchup
 * Valve Hammer Editor
 * Celestia - Pressing both mouse buttons allows the user to adjust distance from an object.
 * Minesweeper (Windows) - Pressing both mouse buttons clears around a square after the correct number of flags have been placed in the surrounding squares.
 * UDE
 * World of Warcraft
 * Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas - The weapon aiming system in the PC version of San Andreas implements mouse chording, as it requires the user to hold the right mouse button to aim while clicking or holding the left button to fire a weapon or use an item, such as a camera.
 * Eve Online - Pressing both the left and right mouse buttons allows for an alternative method of camera control.
 * Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 - On the PC version of the game, by default the right mouse button must be held to take cover and the left mouse button to fire a weapon.
 * The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - On the PC version, holding both buttons activates dual casting, shield bashing, or a powerful flurry of attacks when dual-wielding melee weapons.
 * Any number of other first-person shooters where the iron sights view or aiming down sights is mapped to the right mouse button.
 * Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order - On the PC version, once the player learns the lightsaber throw ability, they can use it by holding down the right mouse button to block, then clicking the left mouse button (used for a lightsaber attack by itself) to throw the lightsaber. Later in the game, they can perform a split saber attack by clicking with both mouse buttons simultaneously.
 * Symbolics Genera (operating system) - the user interface management system Dynamic Windows is fully object oriented. It remembers objects for all output. Output is mouse sensitive depending on context. A three-button mouse is supported and mouse buttons can be modified additionally with shift keys (shift, control, meta, shift-control, ...). A mouse documentation line at the bottom of the screen shows the available mouse commands for the object under the mouse cursor and is continuously updated.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Mouse chording


text:
Standing committee (United States Congress)

In the United States Congress, standing committees are permanent legislative panels established by the United States House of Representatives and United States Senate rules. (House Rule X, Senate Rule XXV.) Because they have legislative jurisdiction, standing committees consider bills and issues and recommend measures for consideration by their respective chambers. They also have oversight responsibility to monitor agencies, programs, and activities within their jurisdictions, and in some cases in areas that cut across committee jurisdictions. Due to their permanent nature, these committees exist beyond the adjournment of each two-year meeting of Congress.

Most standing committees recommend funding levels—authorizations—for government operations and for new and existing programs. A few have other functions. For example, the Appropriations Committees recommend legislation to provide budget authority for federal agencies and programs. The Budget Committees establish aggregate levels for total spending and revenue that serve as guidelines for the work of the authorizing and appropriating panels. Committees also provide oversight of federal agencies and programs.

The Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946 greatly reduced the number of committees. The membership of each committee is adopted at the beginning of each Congress, usually by adoption of a formal resolution. Each committee is assigned its own staff to assist with its legislative, investigative, and research functions. Several committees divide their work into sub units called subcommittees.

Committee sizes range from 6 to 50 members per committee. In the House, one person may not serve on more than two standing committees and four subcommittees at one time, though waivers can be granted to serve on additional committees. Also in the House, the House Republican Steering Committee assigns Republican representatives to their committee(s), while the Steering and Policy Committee is in charge of assigning Democratic representatives to committees. The Senate follows similar procedures, with senators being limited to no more than three full committees and five sub-committees.

Current number of standing committees
16 standing committees and the House had 20 standing committees. (The count is for standing committees only and does not include select or special committees or joint committees. See those articles for that information.)


text:
Political officer

Political officer may refer to:
 * Political commissar
 * Official of the Indian Political Department of the British Empire
 * Political Officer, one of five tracks for Foreign Service officers in the United States Department of State
 * "The Political Officer", a story by Charles Coleman Finlay

title: Political officer


text: Talk:Zoidberg

title: Talk:Zoidberg


text:
Angel Falls

Angel Falls  (Salto Ángel; Pemon: Kerepakupai Merú or Parakupá Vená)  is a waterfall in Venezuela. It is the world's tallest uninterrupted waterfall, with a height of 979 m, and a plunge of 807 m. The waterfall drops over the edge of the Auyán-tepui mountain in the Canaima National Park (Spanish: Parque Nacional Canaima), a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Gran Sabana region of Bolívar State. The height figure, 979 m, mostly consists of the main plunge but also includes about 400 m of sloped cascade and rapids below the drop and a 30 m plunge downstream of the talus rapids.

The falls are along a fork of the Río Kerepacupai Merú which flows into the Churún River, a tributary of the Carrao River, itself a tributary of the Orinoco River.

With regard to overall height, a revisited validation of waterfall measurements is not available, and there is still uncertainty whether Angel Falls or South Africa's Tugela Falls is the tallest (both measurements were taken at considerable distance from the two waterfalls).

Etymology
The waterfall has been known as Angel Falls since the mid-20th century; they are named after Jimmie Angel, a U.S. aviator, who was the first person to fly over the falls. Angel's ashes were scattered over the falls on 2 July 1960.

The common Spanish name Salto Ángel derives from his surname. In 2009, President Hugo Chávez announced his intention to change the name to the purported original indigenous Pemon term ("Kerepakupai-Merú", meaning "waterfall of the deepest place"), on the grounds that the nation's most famous landmark should bear an indigenous name. Explaining the name change, Chávez reportedly said, "This is ours, long before Angel ever arrived there... this is indigenous land." However he later said that he would not decree the change of name, but was only defending the use of Kerepakupai Vená.

Exploration
During his expedition to find the fabled city of El Dorado, Walter Raleigh described what was possibly a tepui (table top mountain), and he is said to have been the first European to view Angel Falls, although these claims are considered far-fetched. Some historians say that the first European to visit the waterfall was Fernando de Berrío, a Spanish explorer and governor from the 16th and 17th centuries. Other sources claim that the first Westerner to see the waterfall was the Spanish explorer Fèlix Cardona in 1927.

They were not known to the outside world until American aviator Jimmie Angel, following directions given by Cardona, flew over them on 16 November 1933 on a flight while he was searching for a valuable ore bed.

Returning on 9 October 1937, Angel tried to land his Flamingo monoplane El Río Caroní atop Auyán-tepui, but the plane was damaged when the wheels sank into the marshy ground. Angel and his three companions, including his wife Marie, were forced to descend the tepui on foot. It took them 11 days to make their way back to civilization by the gradually sloping back side, but news of their adventure spread and the waterfall was named Angel Falls in his honor. The name of the waterfall—"Salto del Ángel"—was first published on a Venezuelan government map in December 1939.

Angel's plane remained on top of the tepui for 33 years before being lifted out by helicopter. It was restored at the Aviation Museum in Maracay, Venezuela and now sits outdoors on the front of the airport at Ciudad Bolívar in Venezuela.

The first recorded European to reach the base of the falls was the Latvian explorer Aleksandrs Laime, also known as Alejandro Laime to the native Pemon tribe. He reached the falls alone in 1946. He was the first to reach the upper side of the falls in the late 1950s, by climbing up the back side, where the slope is not vertical. He also reached Angel's plane 18 years after the crash landing. On 18 November 1955, Latvian independence day, he announced to the Venezuelan newspaper El Nacional that this stream without any known local name should be named after a Latvian river, Gauja. In the same year, this name was registered in the National Cartographic Institution of Venezuela. There is no convincing proof that the indigenous Pemon people had named the local streams, as Auyán-tepui was considered to be a dangerous place and was not visited by the indigenous people. However, lately the Pemon name Kerep is used as well. Laime was also the first to clear a trail that leads from the Churún River to the base of the falls. On the way is a viewpoint commonly used to capture the falls in photographs. It is named Mirador Laime ("Laime's Viewpoint" in Spanish) in his honor. This trail is used now mostly for tourists, to lead them from the Isla Ratón camp to the small clearing.

The official height of the falls was determined by a survey carried out by an expedition organized and financed by American journalist Ruth Robertson on 13 May 1949. Robertson's expedition, which began on 23 April 1949, was also the first to reach the foot of the falls. The first known attempt to climb the face of the cliff was made in 1968 during the wet season. It failed because of slippery rock. In 1969, a second attempt was made during the dry season. This attempt was thwarted by lack of water and an overhang 400 ft from the top. The first climb to the top of the cliff was completed on 13 January 1971. The climbers, a four-man team led by American mountaineer George Bogel, an electrical engineer from Pittsburgh, required nine and a half days to ascend and one and a half days to rappel down.

Tourism

Angel Falls is one of Venezuela's top tourist attractions, though a trip to the falls is a complicated affair. The falls are located in an isolated jungle. A flight from Maiquetia Airport, Puerto Ordaz, or Ciudad Bolívar is required to reach Canaima camp, the starting point for river trips to the base of the falls. River trips generally take place from June to December, when the rivers are deep enough for use by the Pemon guides. During the dry season (December to March), the volume of water is less than in other months.

Cinema
Angel Falls was the main inspiration for the fictional Paradise Falls in Pixar's animated film, Up.

The American fantasy-romance film What Dreams May Come (1998), starring Robin Williams, Cuba Gooding Jr, and Annabella Sciorra, is set in Venezuela and shows Angel Falls.

Angel Falls was used as a setting for a scene in the action film Point Break (2015); actors Edgar Ramirez and Luke Bracey free-climb the Falls.

In the film narrated by Lowell Thomas, Seven Wonders of the World (1956), Angel Falls was included as one of the seven wonders.

The 1990 film Arachnophobia was partly set at Angel Falls.

Book
Angel Falls by Kathryn Casey was published in September 2023; it is a historical fiction story inspired by the life of the photographer Ruth Robertson.

title: Angel Falls


text:
Cuquenan Falls

Kukenan Falls (or Salto Kukenan, Kukenaam, Cuquenan or similar) is the second tallest major waterfall in Venezuela after Angel Falls. It is also the second tallest free-leaping waterfall in the world. Overall, it is usually cited as the 11th highest waterfall in the world. The falls drop in a single leap of around 2211 ft and the final portion of the falls trickles down towards the base of the Kukenan Tepui.

The Kukenan Tepui is located near Mount Roraima, which serves as the geographical marker of the border between Brazil, Venezuela, and Guyana. Mount Roraima also hosts its own waterfall, usually referred to as Roraima Falls, which leaps off the tepui in four tiered leaps. The height is estimated at approximately 2000 ft.

title: Cuquenan Falls


text:
Negros Oriental

Negros Oriental (Sidlakang Negros; Silangang Negros), officially the Province of Negros Oriental (Lalawigan sa Sidlakang Negros; Lalawigan ng Silangang Negros), is a province in the Philippines located in the Negros Island Region. Its capital is the city of Dumaguete. It occupies the southeastern half of the large island of Negros, and borders Negros Occidental, which comprises the northwestern half. It also includes Apo Island, a popular dive site for both local and foreign tourists.

Negros Oriental faces Cebu to the east across the Tañon Strait and Siquijor to the southeast. The primary spoken language is Cebuano, and the predominant religious denomination is Roman Catholicism. Dumaguete is the capital, seat of government, and most populous city of the province. According to the 2020 census, it had a population of 1,432,990 people, making it the second most-populous province in the region after Negros Occidental, the fifth most-populous province in the Visayas, and the 19th most-populous province of the Philippines.

Early history
Negros, the largest island in the Visayas, is believed to have once been part of a larger landmass that was cut off by rising waters at the end of the last ice age. Among the early inhabitants of the island were the Negritos and the Austronesians, and later the Han Chinese, who are mainly merchants. They called the island "Buglas", a native word which is believed to mean "cut off".

Spanish colonial era
Spanish explorers on the expedition of Miguel Lopez de Legazpi first came to the island in April 1565. Legazpi dropped anchor in Bohol and sent his men to scout the island. Because of the strong currents of the Tañon Strait between Cebu and Negros, they were carried for several days and forced to land on the western side of the island. They reported seeing many dark-skinned inhabitants, and they called the island "Negros" (Negro means "black" in Spanish). The island was sparsely settled at the time, except for a few coastal settlements including Ilog and Binalbagan. In 1571, Legaspi assigned encomiendas on the island to 13 of his men. Augustinian friars began the Christianization of the island the next year. The island was administered as part of the jurisdiction of Oton until 1734 when it became a military district, and Ilog became the capital of the island. The capital was transferred to Himamaylan in 1795. Negros became a politico-military province in 1865 and the capital was transferred to Bacolod.

Due to its proximity to Mindanao, the southeastern coasts of Negros were in constant threat from Moro marauders looking for slaves, so watchtowers were built to protect the Christian villages. The Moro raids and Negros Oriental's distance from the Negrense capital of Bacolod, induced 13 Recollectionist priests to petition for the division of the island in July 1876. The island of Negros was then divided into the provinces of Negros Oriental and Negros Occidental by a royal decree executed by Governor General Valeriano Weyler on January 1, 1890. Dumaguete was made the first and only capital of Negros Oriental. In 1892, Siquijor became a part of Negros Oriental, having previously been administered by Spain under the politico-military province of Bohol.

The Philippine Revolution reached Negros in 1898, disrupting government functions but without extreme violence and bloodshed. Revolutionary troops in the island were composed mostly of farm labourers and other prominent people of the province of Negros Oriental, who were organized and led by Don Diego de la Viña. The Spanish colonial government in Dumaguete and the rest of the island was overthrown on November 24, 1898. Later, the Negros Occidental area under the leadership of Gen. Araneta, along with the Negros Oriental area under the leadership of Don Diego de la Viña, merged to form the Cantonal Republic of Negros, a separate government from the more familiar Malolos Republic established in Luzon.

American Occupation era
In 1901, the Negros Oriental province was reorganized by the United States and a civil government was established with Demetrio Larena as governor. The American government made Siquijor a "sub-province" of Negros Oriental. Negros Oriental became a province under the American civil government on March 10, 1917, through Act 2711. In 1934, Negros Oriental became a corregimiento, a separate military district. Under the American colonial government, transportation infrastructure was developed with improvements of roads and new bridges.

Japanese occupation era
During World War II, both Negros provinces were invaded by Imperial Japanese forces, resorting many residents to flee to the inland mountains. Negros Island was liberated by combined Philippine & American troops with the local Negrense guerillas attacking the Japanese on August 6, 1945. The 7th, 73rd, 74th, and 75th Infantry Divisions of the Philippine Commonwealth Army were established from January 3, 1942, to June 30, 1946, and the 7th Constabulary Regiment of the Philippine Constabulary was active from October 28, 1944, to June 30, 1946, at the Military General Headquarters in Negros Oriental. They started the engagements of the Anti-Japanese Imperial Military Operations in Negros from 1942 to 1945 against the Japanese Imperial forces.

Contemporary

On September 17, 1971, Siquijor became an independent province by virtue of Republic Act No. 6396.

The municipality of Guihulngan became a component city by virtue of Republic Act No. 9409 which sought to convert the municipality into a city. The law was ratified on June 14, 2007. However, the cityhood status was lost twice in the years 2008 and 2010 after the LCP questioned the validity of the cityhood law. The cityhood status was reaffirmed after the court finalized its ruling on February 15, 2011 which declared the cityhood law constitutional. On May 29, 2015, the Negros Island Region was formed when President Benigno Aquino III signed Executive Order No. 183, s. 2015. Negros Oriental was separated from the Central Visayas region and transferred to the new region along with Negros Occidental and Bacolod. However, on August 9, 2017, President Rodrigo Duterte dissolved the Negros Island Region, revoking Executive Order No. 183, s. 2015 through the signing of Executive Order No. 38, citing a lack of funds to fully establish the region according to Benjamin Diokno, the Secretary of Budget and Management. This returned Negros Oriental to the Central Visayas region.

In 2018, with the Duterte administration promoting federalism, the idea of Negros Oriental and Negros Occidental reunified into one federal region was discussed with local provincial politicians, with some additional support from the known native Negrenses. There is also a suggestion, jointly approved by the provincial governors, that Negros Oriental along with Negros Occidental, be renamed with their pre-colonial names as "Buglas Sidlakan" and "Buglas Nakatundan" respectively, with Negros, as a federal state, be named as "Negrosanon Federated Region", due to the negative racial connotation associated with the name "Negros".

On June 13, 2024, Negros Oriental was transferred from Central Visayas to the Negros Island Region after President Bongbong Marcos signed Republic Act 12000.

Centennial anniversary of the Negros Oriental Capitol building
On May 17, 2024, the 1924 Grecian-Ionic Daniel Burnham "Negros Oriental Capitol" building's historical marker for the centennial anniversary-"Jubilee Year" commemoration was installed by the National Historical Commission of the Philippines' Directress Carminda Arevalo. Governor Manuel "Chaco" L. Sagarbarria signed the marker's Certificate of Transfer in the presence of Imee Marcos, Francis Tolentino, Mark Villar, Risa Hontiveros, Lito Lapid, Jinggoy Estrada, Irish Ambassador William John Carlos and Philippine Tour Operators Association who graced the historic event along Dumaguete North Road, Dumaguete City. Kuh Ledesma, Silliman University Dance Troupe and Orchestra Sin Arco performed with others followed by the finale, Pyro Musical Competition at the Freedom Park.

Geography
Negros Oriental occupies the southeastern half of the island of Negros, with Negros Occidental comprising the northwestern half. It has a total land area of 5,385.53 km2. A chain of rugged mountains separates Negros Oriental from Negros Occidental. Negros Oriental faces Cebu to the east across the Tañon Strait and Siquijor to the southeast. The Sulu Sea borders it to the south to southwest. Negros is primarily volcanic, making its soil ideal for agriculture. Eighty percent of all arable land in the island region is cultivated.

Topography
The province's topography is characterized by low, grooved mountain ranges, some of which lie close to the shoreline. At the southern end of the province is Mount Talinis, also known as Cuernos de Negros ("Horns of Negros"), which is a dormant complex volcano which rises to a height of 2000 m. At the northern end of the province is the active Kanlaon Volcano, the highest peak of the island region with a height of 2465 m. There are a few flatlands and plateaus in the interior to the southwest of the province, which includes the Tablas Plateau.

One of the landmarks of Dumaguete is the Dumaguete Bell Tower which stands next to the Saint Catherine of Alexandria Cathedral. It was once used to warn the city of impending pirate attacks.

Climate
Negros Oriental has a tropical climate. Because of the mountain range running from the north to the south, the province has two types of climatic conditions. The eastern part of the province is characterized as having a modestly distinct wet season, and a short dry season lasting from one to three months. The western half of the province is characterized by a distinct wet season and dry season.

Administrative divisions
Negros Oriental comprises 19 municipalities and 6 cities, further subdivided into 557 barangays.

Dumaguete is the provincial capital and seat of government. It is also the province's most populous city, despite having the smallest land area among all component cities and municipalities of Negros Oriental.

For purposes of legislative representation, the cities and municipalities are grouped into three congressional districts, with each district electing a congressman to the House of Representatives of the Philippines.

Provincial capital and component city

Component city

Municipality

Demographics
The population of Negros Oriental in the 2020 census was 1,432,990 people, with a density of 250 PD/km2. In 2010, its registered voting population was 606,634. 34.5% of the population are concentrated in the six most populous component cities of Dumaguete, Bayawan, Guihulngan, Tanjay, Bais and Canlaon. Population growth per year is about 0.99% between 2010 and 2015, lower than the national average of 1.72%.

Residents of Negros are generally called "Negrenses" (and less often "Negrosanons") while residents of Negros Oriental sometimes refer to themselves as "NegOrenses" to distinguish themselves from residents of Negros Occidental. Many NegOrenses are of either pure/mixed Austronesian heritage, with foreign ancestry (i.e. Chinese and/or Spanish) as minorities. Negros Oriental is predominantly a Cebuano-speaking province due to its close proximity to Cebu, with 72% of residents reporting it as a first language. Hiligaynon is spoken by the remaining 28% and is common in areas close to the border with Negros Occidental. Filipino and English, while seldom used as first languages, are generally understood and used for official, literary, and educational purposes.

Religion
Christianity is the predominant religion in the province with Roman Catholicism (75%) as the largest single denomination. However, there is a strong and growing presence of mainline and evangelical Protestant which forms about 9% of the province population. The Iglesia ni Cristo, the Seventh-day Adventists, Jehovah's Witnesses and the Aglipayan Church, also known as the Philippine Independent Church, also have some presence. Adherents of Islam and Buddhism constitute a minority of the population.

Economy
With its vast fertile land resources, Negros Oriental's other major industry is agriculture. The primary crops are sugarcane, sweetcorn, coconut and rice. In the coastal areas, fishing is the main source of income. People are also involved in cattle ranches, fish ponds and rubber plantations, especially in Bayawan. There are also mineral deposits like gold, silver, and copper found throughout the inner areas of the province.

The province is already emerging as a major technological center in Visayas, with its growing business process outsourcing (BPO) that has started to penetrate the province's secondary cities and other technology-related industries. Vehicle assembly is a growing industry in Amlan. Construction of mass housing and subdivisions is very evident in the periphery of Dumaguete and is expected to spill over into the province's secondary cities and fast-growing towns.

Other industries include water bottling and warehousing, as well as cold and dry storing. Retailing has penetrated other urban areas outside Dumaguete, with the entry of supermarkets and shopping malls in cities such as Bayawan, Tanjay, and Bais. The town of Bacong, which borders Dumaguete in the south, hosts many industrial plants geared for the local and export markets, which can bolster economic growth. Negros Oriental is also a notable tourist destination in the Visayas.

Transportation
Negros Oriental has a network of roads, including a national road that spans the circumference of Negros Island. National and provincial roads in the province total more than 900 kilometers, though only about half of these are paved.

Many residents do not own private vehicles and rely solely on public transport. Buses and jeepneys link the cities and municipalities of the province. For short distances within a town, motorized tricycles ("tricycles" for short) are available. Moreover, motorcycle taxis, known locally as habal-habal, are the primary mode of transportation in places that cannot be reached with other types of vehicles.

Sibulan Airport, located in Sibulan, is the province's only commercial airport. It is a domestic airport with multiple daily flights to and from Manila, served by Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific. The airport also serves flights to and from Cebu and Cagayan de Oro. Based on 2002 statistics, an average of 5,800 outgoing passengers and 5,700 incoming passengers pass through the airport every month. In March 2021, upgrade works were made to the current Sibulan Airport which included pavement reconstruction, expansion of the terminal building, and expansion of CAAP administrative buildings. The airport is due for transfer to Bacong because of congestion in its current location and has been proposed since 2014 and is still pending final approval as of 2022.

The primary seaport of the province is the Port of Dumaguete. Additionally, there are five other seaports in the province classified as tertiary.

Education
Most colleges and universities in the province are concentrated in Dumaguete, called the Center of Learning in the South, which is widely known as a university city. The following tables show a list of some universities, colleges, and other tertiary institutions located in the province of Negros Oriental.

Culture
Each town in Negros Oriental celebrates an annual town fiesta, usually dedicated to a patron saint of a particular town or city. In some of the larger towns, there are particular fiestas for specific neighborhoods or barangays.

 * 1) Jimalalud: January 15 - Sr. Sto. Niño
 * 2) Canlaon: March 19 - Sr. San Jose
 * 3) Sibulan: June 13 - St. Anthony of Padua
 * 4) Tayasan: June 13 - St. Anthony of Padua
 * 5) Tanjay City: July 25 - St. James the Greater
 * 6) Bacong: August 28 - St. Augustine of Hippo
 * 7) Bais: September 10 - St. Nicholas of Tolentino
 * 8) Dauin: September 10 - St. Nicholas of Tolentino
 * 9) Manjuyod: October 4 - St. Francis of Assisi
 * 10) Valencia: October 12 - Our Lady of the Abandoned
 * 11) Dumaguete: November 25 - St. Catherine of Alexandria
 * 12) Amlan: November 30 - St. Andrew
 * 13) Siaton: December 6 - St. Nicholas of Bari

Additionally, the Buglasan Festival is celebrated annually in October in the provincial capital of Dumaguete and is hailed as Negros Oriental's "festival of festivals". It is a week-long celebration where unique booths of each town and city in Negros Oriental feature their native products and tourist attractions. The highlights of the occasion are the float parade and street dancing competition.

The province is the home of the last living remnants of the Inatá language speakers. The Cebuano language is spoken throughout the province, while the indigenous Minagahat language is spoken in the south.

Media
There are at least seven local media publications in general circulation around the province. These publications include Dumaguete MetroPost, The Negros Chronicle, Dumaguete Star Informer, Times Focus, and Island News. PLDT, Globe Telecom, DITO Telecommunity and their subsidiaries are major providers of a network connection within the province. Major providers, in TV and radio are Advanced Media Broadcasting System operating AllTV Channel 12 Dumaguete acquired from a defunct ABS-CBN Dumaguete station, People's Television Network, GMA, and GTV (Philippine TV network). Cable TV and pay TV providers like G Sat, Cignal TV and SatLite provides access to Kapamilya Channel, BBC, ESPN, and other international programs. The province is mainly served before by one regional newscast: TV Patrol Central Visayas (shared with ABS-CBN Cebu).

title: Negros Oriental


text:
Ramnefjellsfossen

Ramnefjellsfossen (also known as: Utigardsfossen or Utigordsfossen) is unofficially listed as the third-highest waterfall in the world in several publications. On the other hand, The World Waterfall Database, a waterfall enthusiast website, which includes all minor and seasonal waterfalls in the country, lists it as eleventh-tallest. The falls are located on the mountain, Ramnefjellet, in the municipality of Stryn in Vestland county, Norway–about 10 km southeast of the villages of Loen and Olden.

The tiered horsetail waterfall has four drops measuring 818 m, with the longest single drop measuring 405 m. The average width of the falls are 15 m over the 457 m long run from top to bottom. The average flow of the falls are 1 m3/s, with the best flow in the summer.

The falls are fed by the Ramnefjellbreen glacier, an arm of the great Jostedalsbreen glacier. After the falls, the water flows into the lake Lovatnet. The falls are easily reached by boat, sea plane, or road, and a campsite is located within hiking distance of the base of the falls. The total drop is 818 m from three free-leaping cascades. Due to the small flow of water it is one of the few major waterfalls in Norway that has not been slated for hydroelectric usage.

The mountain, Ramnefjellet, has killed over 100 people as a result of major landslides in 1905 and 1936. A 2008 photograph of the falls taken from Lovatnet lake was included in the Emirates "Skywards" brochure.

title: Ramnefjellsfossen


text:
USS Confederacy

 USS Confederacy was a 36-gun sailing frigate of the Continental Navy in the American Revolutionary War. The British Royal Navy captured her in March 1781. The British named her Confederate but never commissioned her. She reached England in about half-a-year and was broken up in 1782.

Career
She was launched on 8 November 1778 at Chatham (Norwich), Connecticut, and towed to New London to be prepared for sea. From 1 May to 24 August 1779 she cruised on the Atlantic coast under the command of Captain Seth Harding. While convoying a fleet of merchantmen, on 6 June, she and USS Deane (1778) captured three prizes, drove off two British frigates and brought the convoy safely into Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

On 17 September 1779 Confederacy was ordered to carry the French Minister and his family back to France. Later John Jay, the first American Minister to Spain, his secretary, and family were added to the passenger list. During the passage on 7 November 1779 Confederacy was completely dismasted and almost lost, but managed through the skillful seamanship of Captain Harding to reach Martinique early in December. After repairs, she returned to convoy duty.

Captain Nicholson replaced Harding in on 20 October 1780.

Confederacy was homeward bound from Cape Francois in the West Indies in 1781 with military stores and other supplies and escorting a fleet of 37 merchantmen, when on 14 April she encountered HMS Roebuck (1774) (44) and HMS Orpheus (1780) (32) off the Delaware Capes. The British ships forced Confederacy to strike her flag. Most of the merchantmen she was escorting escaped. Many of her crew were sent to the old prison hulk HMS Jersey (1736), though some ended up in Mill and Forton prisons.

Fate
The Royal Navy sent her to England, under the command of Captain James Cumming. He paid her off in September 1781. She was never commissioned and was docked on 18 November 1781 at Woolwich. She was broken up there in March 1782.

title: USS Confederacy


text:
Henry E. Huntington

Henry Edwards Huntington (February 27, 1850 – May 23, 1927) was an American railroad magnate and collector of art and rare books. Huntington settled in Los Angeles, where he owned the Pacific Electric Railway as well as substantial real estate interests. In addition to being a businessman and art collector, Huntington was a major booster for Los Angeles in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Many places in California are named after him.

History in Southern California
Born in 1850 in Oneonta, New York, to Solon Huntington (1812–1890) and his wife, Henry Saunders (1821–1906) grew up hearing about his uncle Collis P. Huntington. His uncle became one of The Big Four, instrumental in creating the Central Pacific Railroad (later part of the Southern Pacific), one of the two railroads that built the transcontinental railway in 1869.

Henry Huntington later worked with his uncle, holding several executive positions under him with the Southern Pacific. After Collis Huntington's death in 1900, Henry Huntington assumed the senior Huntington's leadership role with Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company in Virginia. He later married his uncle's widow Arabella Huntington.

In 1906, Huntington divorced his first wife Mary Alice Prentice Huntington (1852–1916). They had four children together: Howard Edward (1876–1922), Clara Leonora (1878–1965), Elizabeth Vincent (1880–1965), and Marian Prentice (1883–1973). His wife Mary died in 1916. She was the birth sister of Clara Elizabeth Prentice-Huntington, whom his Uncle Collis and his first wife Elizabeth had adopted.

Huntington's marriage to the widowed Arabella Huntington in 1913 shocked San Francisco society. They were about the same age, so had no children.

Huntington expected to assume control of the Central and Southern Pacific after his uncle's death. He was blocked by bondholder's representative James Speyer, forcing him to sell his interests to E. H. Harriman.

In 1898, in friendly competition with his uncle's Southern Pacific, Huntington bought the narrow gauge city-oriented Los Angeles Railway (LARy), known as the 'Yellow Car' system. In 1901, Huntington formed the sprawling interurban, standard gauge Pacific Electric Railway (the PE), known as the 'Red Car' system, centered at 6th and Main streets in Los Angeles. Huntington succeeded in this competition by providing passenger-friendly streetcars on 24/7 schedules, which the railroads could not match. This was in the period of a boom in Southern California land development. Housing was built in places such as Orange County's Huntington Beach, a Huntington-sponsored development, and streetcars served passenger needs that the railroads had not considered. Connectivity to Downtown Los Angeles made such suburbs feasible.

By 1910, the Huntington trolley systems spanned approximately 1300 mi of Southern California. At its greatest extent, the system contained over 20 streetcar lines and 1,250 trolleys, most running through the core of Los Angeles and serving such nearby neighborhoods as the Crenshaw district, West Adams, Echo Park, Westlake, Hancock Park, Exposition Park, Vernon, Boyle Heights and Lincoln Heights. The system integrated the 1902 acquisition, the Mount Lowe Scenic Railway above Altadena, California in the San Gabriel Mountains.

In 1905, Huntington, A. Kingsley Macomber, and William R. Staats developed the Oak Knoll subdivision, located to the west of his San Marino estate in the oak-covered hilly terrain near Pasadena.

In 1906, Huntington, along with Frank Miller, owner of the Mission Inn, and Charles M. Loring, formed the Huntington Park Association, with the intent to purchase Mount Rubidoux in Riverside, build a road to the summit, and develop the hill as a park to benefit the city of Riverside. The road was completed in February 1907. The property was later donated to the city of Riverside by the heirs of Frank Miller, and today the hill is a 161 acre city park.

Huntington was a Life Member of the Sons of the Revolution in the State of California.

Huntington retired from business in 1916. On May 23, 1927, Henry E. Huntington died in Philadelphia while undergoing surgery. He and Arabella are buried, with a large monument, in the Gardens of the Huntington Library in San Marino, California.

Hotel
The Huntington Hotel was originally named Hotel Wentworth when it opened on February 1, 1907. Financial problems and a disappointing first season forced it to close indefinitely. Henry Huntington purchased the Wentworth in 1911, renaming it the Huntington Hotel. It reopened in 1914, transformed into a winter resort. The 1920s were prosperous for the hotel, as Midwestern and Eastern entrepreneurs discovered California's warm winter climate.

The hotel's reputation for fine service began with long-time general manager and later owner Stephen W. Royce. By 1926, the hotel's success prompted Royce to open the property year-round. The "golden years" ended with the stock market crash and the Great Depression of the late 1920s and early 1930s. By the end of the 1930s the hotel was vibrant again. When World War II began, all reservations were cancelled and the hotel was rented to the Army for $3,000 a month. Following the war, the Huntington's fortunes improved again. In 1954 Stephen Royce sold the hotel to the Sheraton Corporation, serving as general manager until his retirement in 1969. The hotel operated until 1985, when it closed because of its inability to meet seismic standards. The structure was built of reinforced concrete in 1906.

After a $2 1/2$-year major renovation, the hotel reopened in March 1991 as the Ritz Carlton Huntington Hotel and Spa. The hotel completed a $19 million renovation in January 2006; it changed hands in early 2007 and became Langham Brand International, Huntington Hotel & SPA.

Legacy
Huntington left a prominent legacy with the Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens on his former estate in San Marino near Pasadena. Other legacies in California include the cities of Huntington Beach and Huntington Park, as well as Huntington Lake.

Also in greater Los Angeles are the Huntington Hospital in Pasadena, Henry E. Huntington Middle School in San Marino, and the grand boulevard, Huntington Drive, running eastbound from downtown Los Angeles. Its landscaped central parkway was previously the right-of-way for the Northern Division of the Pacific Electric.

Riverside's city park on Mount Rubidoux was originally named Huntington Park, and the road to the top was named Huntington Drive. After Frank Miller's heirs donated the property to the city, the city renamed the park the Frank A. Miller Rubidoux Memorial Park, and the road has become known as Mount Rubidoux Drive. A plaque that was dedicated to Huntington in 1907, in recognition of his contributions to the development of Mount Rubidoux, remains on a large boulder known as Huntington Rock. After Huntington's death a second tablet was placed on the north side of the hill at a place named the Huntington Shrine.

His legacy on the East Coast includes the Huntington Memorial Library in Oneonta, New York, opened July 9, 1920 in his childhood home.

As well as a portrait by Oswald Birley at the Huntington Library, portraits of Huntington were also painted by the Swiss-born American artist Adolfo Müller-Ury who built a studio less than a mile from Huntington's estate in San Marino in 1924-1925: a full-length, based on a photograph, is at the Collis Potter & Howard Edwards Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena, and two seated versions, a small one of which was acquired by Huntington's son-in-law John Metcalf, and a larger one (which is presumed lost) which was engraved by an artist called Witherspoon in 1928. The artist also painted Huntington's granddaughter Mary Brockway Metcalf (this is on long-term loan to the offices of the Director of the Huntington Library and Art Gallery).

title: Henry E. Huntington


text:
Mongefossen

Mongefossen (Monge falls) is a waterfall in the Rauma Municipality of Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is the fourth tallest single-drop waterfall in the world. It's located near the European route E136 highway and the Rauma River, which it flows into. There is some dispute as to the height, but it is generally listed at 773 m. As is the case with many of Norway's waterfalls, it has been targeted for hydroelectric power, which results in a greatly diminished water flow during the summer tourist season.

Mongefossen also holds the distinction as being the highest waterfall in the world which may be viewed from a railway station on the Rauma Line, on the north side between the villages of Flatmark and Marstein.

title: Mongefossen


text:
Kanban

Kanban (看板 meaning signboard) is a scheduling system for lean manufacturing (also called just-in-time manufacturing, abbreviated JIT). Taiichi Ohno, an industrial engineer at Toyota, developed kanban to improve manufacturing efficiency. The system takes its name from the cards that track production within a factory. Kanban is also known as the Toyota nameplate system in the automotive industry.

In kanban, problem areas are highlighted by measuring lead time and cycle time of the full process and process steps. One of the main benefits of kanban is to establish an upper limit to work in process (commonly referred as "WIP") inventory to avoid overcapacity. Other systems with similar effect exist, for example CONWIP. A systematic study of various configurations of kanban systems, such as generalized kanban or production authorization card (PAC) and extended kanban, of which CONWIP is an important special case, can be found in Tayur (1993), and more recently Liberopoulos and Dallery (2000), among other papers.

A goal of the kanban system is to limit the buildup of excess inventory at any point in production. Limits on the number of items waiting at supply points are established and then reduced as inefficiencies are identified and removed. Whenever a limit is exceeded, this points to an inefficiency that should be addressed.

Origins
The system originates from the simplest visual stock replenishment signaling system, an empty box. This was first developed in the UK factories producing Spitfires during the Second World War, and was known as the "two bin system". In the late 1940s, Toyota started studying supermarkets with the idea of applying shelf-stocking techniques to the factory floor. In a supermarket, customers generally retrieve what they need at the required time—no more, no less. Furthermore, the supermarket stocks only what it expects to sell in a given time, and customers take only what they need, because future supply is assured. This observation led Toyota to view a process as being a customer of one or more preceding processes and to view the preceding processes as a kind of store.

Kanban aligns inventory levels with actual consumption. A signal tells a supplier to produce and deliver a new shipment when a material is consumed. This signal is tracked through the replenishment cycle, bringing visibility to the supplier, consumer, and buyer.

Kanban uses the rate of demand to control the rate of production, passing demand from the end customer up through the chain of customer-store processes. In 1953, Toyota applied this logic in their main plant machine shop.

Operation
A key indicator of the success of production scheduling based on demand, pushing, is the ability of the demand-forecast to create such a push. Kanban, by contrast, is part of an approach where the pull comes from demand and products are made to order. Re-supply or production is determined according to customer orders.

In contexts where supply time is lengthy and demand is difficult to forecast, often the best one can do is to respond quickly to observed demand. This situation is exactly what a kanban system accomplishes, in that it is used as a demand signal that immediately travels through the supply chain. This ensures that intermediate stock held in the supply chain are better managed, and are usually smaller. Where the supply response is not quick enough to meet actual demand fluctuations, thereby causing potential lost sales, a stock building may be deemed more appropriate and is achieved by placing more kanban in the system.

Taiichi Ohno stated that to be effective, kanban must follow strict rules of use. Toyota, for example, has six simple rules, and close monitoring of these rules is a never-ending task, thereby ensuring that the kanban does what is required.

Toyota's six rules
Toyota has formulated six rules for the application of kanban:
 * 1) Each process issues requests (kanban) to its suppliers when it consumes its supplies.
 * 2) Each process produces according to the quantity and sequence of incoming requests.
 * 3) No items are made or transported without a request.
 * 4) The request associated with an item is always attached to it.
 * 5) Processes must not send out defective items, to ensure that the finished products will be defect-free.
 * 6) Limiting the number of pending requests makes the process more sensitive and reveals inefficiencies.

Kanban (cards)
Kanban cards are a key component of kanban and they signal the need to move materials within a production facility or to move materials from an outside supplier into the production facility. The kanban card is, in effect, a message that signals a depletion of product, parts, or inventory. When received, the kanban triggers replenishment of that product, part, or inventory. Consumption, therefore, drives demand for more production, and the kanban card signals demand for more product—so kanban cards help create a demand-driven system.

It is widely held by proponents of lean production and manufacturing that demand-driven systems lead to faster turnarounds in production and lower inventory levels, helping companies implementing such systems be more competitive.

In the last few years, systems sending kanban signals electronically have become more widespread. While this trend is leading to a reduction in the use of kanban cards in aggregate, it is still common in modern lean production facilities to find the use of kanban cards. In various software systems, kanban is used for signalling demand to suppliers through email notifications. When stock of a particular component is depleted by the quantity assigned on kanban card, a "kanban trigger" is created (which may be manual or automatic), a purchase order is released with predefined quantity for the supplier defined on the card, and the supplier is expected to dispatch material within a specified lead-time.

Kanban cards, in keeping with the principles of kanban, simply convey the need for more materials. A red card lying in an empty parts cart conveys that more parts are needed.

Three-bin system
An example of a simple kanban system implementation is a "three-bin system" for the supplied parts, where there is no in-house manufacturing. One bin is on the factory floor (the initial demand point), one bin is in the factory store (the inventory control point), and one bin is at the supplier. The bins usually have a removable card containing the product details and other relevant information, the classic kanban card.

When the bin on the factory floor is empty (because the parts in it were used up in a manufacturing process), the empty bin and its kanban card are returned to the factory store (the inventory control point). The factory store replaces the empty bin on the factory floor with the full bin from the factory store, which also contains a kanban card. The factory store sends the empty bin with its kanban card to the supplier. The supplier's full product bin, with its kanban card, is delivered to the factory store; the supplier keeps the empty bin. This is the final step in the process. Thus, the process never runs out of product—and could be described as a closed loop, in that it provides the exact amount required, with only one spare bin so there is never oversupply. This 'spare' bin allows for uncertainties in supply, use, and transport in the inventory system. A good kanban system calculates just enough kanban cards for each product. Most factories that use kanban use the colored board system (heijunka box).

Electronic kanban
Many manufacturers have implemented electronic kanban (sometimes referred to as e-kanban ) systems. These help to eliminate common problems such as manual entry errors and lost cards. E-kanban systems can be integrated into enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, enabling real-time demand signaling across the supply chain and improved visibility. Data pulled from e-kanban systems can be used to optimize inventory levels by better tracking supplier lead and replenishment times.

E-kanban is a signaling system that uses a mix of technology to trigger the movement of materials within a manufacturing or production facility. Electronic kanban differs from traditional kanban in using technology to replace traditional elements like kanban cards with barcodes and electronic messages like email or electronic data interchange.

A typical electronic kanban system marks inventory with barcodes, which workers scan at various stages of the manufacturing process to signal usage. The scans relay messages to internal/external stores to ensure the restocking of products. Electronic kanban often uses the Internet as a method of routing messages to external suppliers and as a means to allow a real-time view of inventory, via a portal, throughout the supply chain.

Organizations like the Ford Motor Company and Bombardier Aerospace have used electronic kanban systems to improve processes. Systems are now widespread from single solutions or bolt on modules to ERP systems.

Types of kanban systems
In a kanban system, adjacent upstream and downstream workstations communicate with each other through their cards, where each container has a kanban associated with it. Economic order quantity is important. The two most important types of kanbans are:
 * Production (P) Kanban: A P-kanban, when received, authorizes the workstation to produce a fixed amount of products. The P-kanban is carried on the containers that are associated with it.
 * Transportation (T) Kanban: A T-kanban authorizes the transportation of the full container to the downstream workstation. The T-kanban is also carried on the containers that are associated with the transportation to move through the loop again.

The Kanban philosophy and task boards are also used in agile project management to coordinate tasks in project teams. An online demonstration can be seen in an agile simulator.

Implementation of kanban can be described in the following manner:

 * The workflow consists of logical steps.
 * There are two steps to a workflow viz. queue and work in progress/process.
 * The team in charge decides on the maximum amount of work each step of the workflow can hold.
 * Work is pushed into the queue step and pulled into the process step.
 * If need be, work is halted in two successive stages to clear bottleneck.

Kanbrain
A third type involves corporate training. Following the just-in-time principle, computer-based training permits those who need to learn a skill to do so when the need arises, rather than take courses and lose the effectiveness of what they've learned from lack of practice.

title: Kanban


text:
County of Toulouse

The County of Toulouse (Comtat de Tolosa) was a territory in southern France consisting of the city of Toulouse and its environs, ruled by the Count of Toulouse from the late 9th century until the late 13th century.

After Pippin the Short conquered Septimania, his successor Charlemagne imposed an administration where Frankish counts were established in key cities such as Toulouse. The first count, Fredelo (appointed by Pippin II) ruled the Toulouse region under the sovereignty of the king of Francia in the 840s. Over time his descendants gained more power over the region compared to their Frankish overlord; by the end of the 9th century, they had gained total independence. Later in the 12th century, the county was affected by the Albigensian Crusade, and by 1229, the Treaty of Paris saw Toulouse formally submitted to the crown of France, ending its independence.

Formation of administration under the early Carolingians
The Roman province of Gallia Narbonensis fell to the Visigothic Kingdom in the 5th century. Septimania, the Visigothic province roughly corresponding to the later county of Toulouse, fell briefly to the Emirate of Córdoba in the 750s before it was conquered into Francia by Pippin the Short in 759 following the Siege of Narbonne. Septimania within the Frankish realm would become known as Gothia or Marca Gothica by the end of the 9th century.

Pippin died in 768 and was followed by his sons Charlemagne and Carloman I. Because of this event, Hunald II, son of the late Duke Waifer, raised an insurrection against Frankish power in Aquitaine. Charlemagne soon intervened and defeated him. In 771, Carloman died and Charlemagne was left as the only ruler of the Frankish realm. In 778, Charlemagne led his army into Spain against the Arabs. On his way back the famous event of Roncesvalles (Roncevaux in French) occurred: Charlemagne's rear-guard was attacked in the pass of the same name by some Basque warriors. This led him to realize that Frankish power in Gascony and Aquitaine was still feeble, and that the local populations were not entirely loyal to the Franks. Consequently, that same year, he completely reorganized the administration of the region: direct Frankish administration was imposed, and Frankish counts were established in key cities, such as Toulouse.

In 781, Charlemagne set up the Kingdom of Aquitaine, comprising the whole of Aquitaine (including Gascony) plus the Mediterranean coast from Narbonne to Nîmes (an area then known as Gothia). Other such sub-kingdoms were created inside the wider Carolingian empire in places such as Bavaria or Lombardy. They were meant to ensure the loyalty of local populations in territories freshly conquered and with strong local idiosyncrasies.

General supervision of this Basque frontier seems to have been placed in the hands of Chorson, count or duke of Toulouse. These politics displeased the Basques, and in 787 or 789 Chorson was captured by Odalric "the Basque", probably son of Duke Lupus, who forced Chorson into an agreement which Charlemagne considered so shameful that he replaced him by the Count William in 790. Toulouse was a major Carolingian military stronghold close to Muslim Spain. Military campaigns against the Muslims were launched from Toulouse almost every year during Charlemagne's reign. Barcelona was conquered in 801, as well as a large part of Catalonia. Together with the northern areas of Aragon and Navarre along the Pyrenees, the region became the southern march (the Spanish March) of the Frankish empire.

Toulouse under the sons of Charlemagne
In 814, Charlemagne died, and his only surviving son was Louis, king of Aquitaine, who became Emperor Louis the Pious. Gothia was detached from the Kingdom of Aquitaine and administered directly by the emperor. Problems soon arose. Louis the Pious had three sons, and in 817 he arranged an early allocation of the shares in the future inheritance of the empire where Pippin was confirmed king in Aquitaine.

In 823, Charles the Bald was born from the second wife of Louis the Pious which caused a succession crisis among the ruling circle, this eventually led to the decentralization of the Frankish empire. War broke out among the sons of Louis the Pious when the latter died in 840. Louis the German allied with his half-brother Charles the Bald and they jointly defeated Lothar. The empire would split under the Treaty of Verdun in 843. Charles the Bald moved south to defeat Pippin II (son of Pippin I who was son of Louis) and add Aquitaine to his territory. He conquered Gothia from its rebellious count, who had taken advantage of the Carolingian feud, and had him executed.

In 844, he moved west and besieged Toulouse, the capital of King Pippin II of Aquitaine. However, he had to withdraw without being able to capture the city. That same year, the Vikings entered the mouth of the Garonne River, took Bordeaux, and sailed up as far as Toulouse, plundering and killing all along the Garonne River valley. They moved back when they reached Toulouse, without attacking the city. It is still a matter of debate among historians whether they were called by Pippin II in his fight against Charles the Bald (as Charles' propaganda later claimed), helped defeat Charles the Bald, and left with due payment from Pippin II of Aquitaine, or whether they just took advantage of the war to invade unchecked, but moved back at the sight of the strong garrison of Toulouse who had just resisted successfully Charles the Bald.In 845, following these events, Charles the Bald signed a treaty recognizing Pippin II as king of Aquitaine in exchange for him relinquishing the northern part of Aquitaine (the county of Poitiers) to Charles the Bald. However, the Aquitanians grew very unhappy with their king Pippin II, perhaps for his friendliness towards the Vikings who inflicted terrible damage on the population, and so in 848 they called Charles the Bald to topple Pippin II.

Counts of Toulouse gains power over the Carolingians
In 849 Charles the Bald moved south again and was presented the capital of Aquitaine, Toulouse, by Fredelo (the count of Toulouse recently appointed by Pippin II). Charles the Bald then officially confirmed Frédelon as count of Toulouse. Soon the whole of Aquitaine was submitting to Charles the Bald. In 852, Pippin II was taken prisoner by the Basques and handed over to his uncle Charles the Bald who put him in a monastery.

In 852, Count Fredelo of Toulouse died and Charles the Bald appointed Frédelon's brother Raymond as the new count. This was a special favor, normally counts were only administrative agents not chosen in the same family. However, it would prove to be the start of the dynasty of the counts of Toulouse, who were all descendants of Count Raymond I of Toulouse. Meanwhile, Pippin II of Aquitaine had escaped from his monastery in 854, and he was raising an insurrection in Aquitaine but failed. He then resorted to calling the Vikings for help. In 864, at the head of a Viking army, Pippin II of Aquitaine besieged Toulouse where the count of Toulouse resisted fiercely. The siege failed, and the Vikings left to plunder other areas of Aquitaine. Pippin II, abandoned by all, saw the ruins of his ambitions. He was captured and again put in a monastery by his uncle, where he died soon after.

In 866, Charles the Child died. Charles the Bald then made his other son, Louis the Stammerer (Louis le Bègue), the new king of Aquitaine. By then, the central state in the kingdom of France was rapidly losing authority. Charles the Bald was rather unsuccessful at containing the Vikings; local populations had to rely on their local counts to resist the Vikings, and the counts soon became the main source of authority, challenging the central authority of Charles the Bald in Paris. As they grew in power, they started to be succeeded in the same family and establish local dynasties. Wars between the central power and the counts arose, as well as wars between the competing counts, which further debilitated the defenses against the Vikings. Western Europe, and France in particular, was again entering a new Dark Age, which would prove even more disastrous than those of the 6th and 7th centuries.

In 877, Charles the Bald had to give in: he signed the Capitulary of Quierzy, which allowed counts to be succeeded by their sons when they died. This was the founding stone of feudalism in western Europe. Charles the Bald died four months later, his so Louis the Stammerer did not choose any of his sons to become the new king of Aquitaine, thus in effect putting an end to the kingdom of Aquitaine, which would never be revived again. In practice, during the years 870–890, the central power was so weakened that the counts in southern France achieved complete autonomy. The dynasties they established ruled independently. The central state in Paris would not be able to reassert its authority over the south of France for the next four centuries.

Independence
By the end of the 9th century, Toulouse had become the capital of an independent county, the county of Toulouse, ruled by the dynasty founded by Fredelo, who in theory was under the sovereignty of the king of France, but in practice was totally independent. The counts of Toulouse had to fight to maintain their position at first. They were challenged by the dynasty of the counts of Auvergne (ruling over the northeastern part of the former Aquitaine) who claimed the county of Toulouse as their own, and even temporarily ousted the counts of Toulouse from the city of Toulouse.

On the death of Count William the Pious of Auvergne in 918 they came into the possession of Gothia which had been in the family of the counts of Auvergne for two generations. Thus, they more than doubled their territory, once again reuniting Toulouse with the Mediterranean coast from Narbonne to Nîmes. The county of Toulouse took its definite shape, from Toulouse in the west to the Rhone River in the east, a unity that would survive until the French Revolution as the province of Languedoc. Toulouse would never again be part of the Aquitaine polity, whose capital in later times would become Poitiers, then Bordeaux. Count William was the first to recreate the title of Duke of Aquitaine for himself in the 890s; then the count of Poitiers inherited the title in 927. In 932 the king of France Raoul was fighting against the count of Poitiers, and he transferred the title of Duke of Aquitaine to his new ally Count Raymond III Pons of Toulouse. However, the counts of the former Aquitaine all ruled independently, and did not recognize a superior authority.

Various factions were competing for the throne of France, but since all central authority had disappeared, the position of King of France had become an almost empty title. After Raoul's death, another faction succeeded in establishing an English bred Carolingian prince to the throne, Louis IV. Raymond III Pons was from the opposite faction and so when he died in 950 Louis IV awarded the title of Duke of Aquitaine to Count William III Towhead of Poitiers who was an ally of Louis IV. From then on the title of Duke of Aquitaine would be used in the family of the counts of Poitiers, whose power base of Poitou was in the northwestern part of the former Aquitaine. The counts of Toulouse would soon forget any dreams about Aquitaine. Eventually, on the death of the Carolingian king of France Louis V in 987, the Robertian faction succeeded in having its chief, Hugh Capet elected to the French throne. This time, the Carolingian dynasty effectively ended. Hugh Capet was the founder the Capetian dynasty, which would rule in France for the next eight centuries. However, from this point forward, the history of France is irrelevant to Toulouse, at least until the 13th century.

10th century

The counts of Toulouse had extended their rule to the Mediterranean coast, but they would not long enjoy the large domain they had succeeded in carving out for themselves. The 10th century was perhaps the worst century for western Europe in the last two millennia. This conjugated with dramatic civil wars, bad weather, plagues, and population loss. Entire areas of western Europe returned to wilderness and cities were depopulated. Another phenomenon was the complete disappearance of central authority where power fragmented.

By the end of the 10th century, France was ruled by thousands of local rulers who controlled only one town, or one castle and the few villages around. Toulouse and its county was exactly reflecting this situation. Between 900 and 980 the counts of Toulouse gradually lost control over the county, with the emergence of local dynastic rulers in every part of it. By the end of the 10th century the counts of Toulouse only had authority over a few estates scattered around the county. Even the city of Toulouse was ruled by a viscount independent from the counts of Toulouse.

Abd al-Rahman III of Córdoba managed to reunite Muslim Spain and launched an offensive against the northern Christian kingdoms and went as far north as Toulouse, without capturing the city. In 924, the Magyars (ancestors of the Hungarians) launched an expedition toward the west and went as far as Toulouse, but they were defeated by Count Raymond III Pons of Toulouse. At the end of the 10th century all the Carolingian wars and subsequent invasions had left the county of Toulouse in disarray. However, Toulouse was perhaps faring a little better than northern France in the sense that its proximity to Muslim Spain meant there was a strong flow of knowledge and culture coming from the schools and printing houses of Córdoba. Toulouse had also retained Roman Law unlike northern France, and had in general kept more of the Roman legacy, even in these troubled times. The ground was there for a recovery of civilization.

11th–12th century

At the beginning of the second millennium, the drifting attitude of the clergy and the confiscation of the Church by the Toulouse administration initiated a degradation of the worship. The Saint-Sernin church, the Daurade basilica, and the Saint-Étienne cathedral were not maintained properly. New religious currents appeared, like the Cluniac reform. Bishop Isarn, helped by Pope Gregory VII, tried to put everything back in order. He gave the Daurade Basilica to the Cluniac abbots in 1077. In Saint-Sernin, he met a strong opposition in the person of Raimond Gayrard, a provost who had just built a hospital for the poor and was proposing to build a basilica.

Supported by count Guilhem IV, Saint Raymond finally gained permission from Pope Urban II to dedicate the building in 1096. The religious quarrels had just awoken the faith of Toulouse. This rebirth was accompanied by a new demographic progression, supported by technically more efficient agriculture.

The suburbs of Saint-Michel and Saint Cyprien were built during this period. The Daurade bridge connected in 1181 the Saint-Cyprien suburb to the gates of the city. The suburbs of Saint-Sernin and Saint-Pierre des Cuisines also had a remarkable expansion.

The end of the 11th century marked the departure of count Raymond IV to the crusades. Various succession wars followed, besieging Toulouse several times. In 1119, the population of Toulouse proclaimed Alphonse Jourdain count. Alphonse Jourdain, willing to be grateful to his people, reduced the taxes immediately, for example on salt and wine.From the middle years of the 12th century, the people of Toulouse seem to have begun to free themselves from the most oppressive feudal dues. With the death of the count, an administration of eight "capitulaires" was created. Under the direction of the count, they had the responsibility of regulating the exchanges and making sure the laws were applied. These were the Capitouls, whose first acts were dated in 1152. In 1152 we have traces of a commune consilium Tolosae making police ordinances in its own name "with the advice of Lord Raymond, count of Toulouse, duke of Narbonne, and marquis of Provence". This act was witnessed by six capitularii, four duly appointed judges (judices constiluti), and two advocates. Twenty-three years later there were twelve capitularii or consuls, six for the city and six for its suburbs, all of them elected and sworn to do justice in whatever municipal matters were brought before them.

In 1176, the "chapitre" already had twelve members, each of them representing a district of Toulouse, or a suburb. The consuls quickly opposed count Raimond V. The population of Toulouse was divided on the subject and in 1189, after ten years of fighting, the town council finally obtained the submission of the count.

In 1190 the construction of the future Capitole, the common house, the town council headquarters began. With twenty-four members, probably elected, the Capitouls granted themselves the rights of police, trade, imposition and started some conflicts with the closest cities. Toulouse was usually victorious, extending the domination of the patria tolosana. Despite the intervention of the king, the administration of the Capitouls gave a relative independence to the city, for nearly 600 years, until the French Revolution.

In 1222 the number of capitularii was increased to twenty-four; but they were forbidden to touch the city property, which was to remain in the charge of certain communarii chosen by themselves.

Albigensian Crusade
Catharism is a doctrine professing the separation of the material and the spiritual existences, one of its possible inspiration may be Bogomilism of Bulgaria. It conflicts with the orthodox confession. Called "heretics", the Cathars found a strong audience in the south of France, and during the 12th century. Simon de Montfort tried to exterminate them.

Toulouse was reached by the Cathar doctrine too. The orthodox White Brotherhood pursued the heretical Blacks in the streets of the city. The abbot of Foulques took advantage of this because the heretics were his creditors, and encouraged this inquisition.

Some people joined the white fighters, others chose to assist the besieged population. The consuls did not wish to encourage the division of Toulouse, and defied the pontifical authority, refusing to identify the heretics. Raymond VI, Count of Toulouse, a Catholic, who was excommunicated for his dispute with the pope, later sympathised with the heretics because he saw the crusade take an unholy path with the extermination at Bézier.

In 1211, the first siege of Toulouse by Simon de Montfort was unsuccessful but two years later, he successfully defeated the Toulouse army. Though Simon was practically the Count of Toulouse by 1214, it was not until Pope Innocent III's decision following the Fourth Council of the Lateran in November 1215 that it was made official.

Simon de Montfort was killed by a stone at the Siege of Toulouse in 1218. Until the last siege, the "whites" were fought against by the Toulouse populace. Louis VIII finally decided to give up in 1219. Raymond VI recognized the support he had received from the population, helping him to preserve his interests, gave up his last prerogatives to the Capitouls.

Within the Kingdom of France
The 13th century went in a political direction opposite to the path drawn by the past centuries. In the Treaty of Paris of 1229, Toulouse formally submitted to the crown of France. The county's sole heiress Joan was engaged to Alphonse, Count of Poitiers, a younger brother of Louis IX of France. The marriage became legal in 1241, but it remained childless so that after Joan's death the county fell to the crown of France by inheritance.

Also in 1229, the University of Toulouse was established after the Parisian model, intended as a means to dissolve the heretic movement. Various monastic orders, like the congregation of the order of frères prêcheurs, were started. They found a home in Les Jacobins. In parallel, a long period of inquisition began inside the walls of Toulouse. The fear of repression obliged the notabilities to exile, or to convert themselves. The inquisition lasted nearly 400 years, making Toulouse its capital.

Count Raimond VII was convicted of heresy and died in 1249 without an heir. The Toulouse county was given to the king of France, who imposed his laws through appointed seneschals. The power of the Capitouls was reduced.

In 1323 the Consistori del Gay Saber was established in Toulouse to preserve the lyric art of the troubadours. Toulouse became the center of Occitan literary culture for the next hundred years; the Consistori was last active in 1484.

Reinforcing its place as an administrative center, the city grew richer, participating in the trade of Bordeaux wine with England, as well as cereals and textiles.

Accompanying the inquisition, many threats affected the city. Plague, fire and flood devastated the districts. The Hundred Years' War decimated Toulouse. Despite strong immigration, the population lost 10,000 inhabitants in 70 years. Toulouse only had 22,000 people in 1405.

Women's rights
As a successor state of the Visigothic Kingdom and the Duchy of Aquitaine, Toulouse, along with the Aquitaine region and Languedoc (but not Gascony), inherited Visigothic Law and Roman Law which had combined to allow women more rights than their contemporaries would enjoy until the 20th century. Particularly with the Liber Judiciorum as codified in 642/643 and expanded on in the Code of Recceswinth in 653, women could inherit land and title and manage it independently from their husbands or male relations, dispose of their property in legal wills if they had no heirs, and women could represent themselves and bear witness in court by age 14 and arrange for their own marriages by age 20. As a consequence, male-preference primogeniture was the practiced succession law for the nobility.

Counts of Toulouse
Under the Carolingians, counts and dukes were appointed by the royal court. Later, this office became hereditary. The counts of Toulouse ruled the city of Toulouse and its surrounding county from the late 9th century until 1271. At times, the counts of Toulouse or family members were also counts of Quercy, Rouergue, Albi, Nîmes, Provence and marquesses of Gothia.

title: County of Toulouse


text:
Tin Mine Falls

The Tin Mine Falls is a cascade waterfall located in the remote Pilot Wilderness Area within the Kosciuszko National Park in the Snowy Mountains region of New South Wales, Australia. Described from top to bottom, the falls consist of non-segmented tiered cascades over bedrock with a few smaller plunges, followed by a single large plunge into a pool. The falls are recessed into a punchbowl feature making it impossible to view the entire waterfall from a single location on the ground.

Location and features
The falls are located in remote country within the Kosciuszko National Park. The closest access point is the Cascade Fire Trail, a hiking trail that runs south from the Alpine Way, west of Thredbo Village.

The height of Tin Mine Falls is listed as 459 m or 360 m, and quote a story concerning the origin of this figure: "The falls were apparently measured in 1990 by a Dr. John Pease ... using a plumb line". According to the World Waterfall Database, Tin Mine Falls is the 462nd tallest waterfall in the world, with a total height of 213 m. Official data from Geoscience Australia list the most significant waterfalls in Australia as:
 * Wallaman Falls - Queensland, 305m
 * Wollomombi Falls - New South Wales, 220 m with a 100 m single drop
 * Ellenborough Falls - New South Wales 160 m in a single drop

Conclusions
The estimated height of 160 - 180 m corresponds with topography but contradicts Geoscience Australia's list of the tallest waterfalls in Australia (this would make Tin Mine Falls the 3rd highest on the continent). Unless the upper limit of the falls is fixed well upstream, to include a long section of shallow-slope non-bedrock streambed, the rumoured height of 360 - 459 m cannot be substantiated.

title: Tin Mine Falls


text:
Sutherland Falls

Sutherland Falls is a waterfall near Milford Sound in New Zealand's South Island. At 580 metres (1,904 feet) the falls are the tallest waterfall in New Zealand.

The water falls from Lake Quill in three cascades: the upper is 229 m tall, the middle is 248 m, and the lower is 103 m tall. A vertical fall of 580 m is made over 480 m of horizontal distance, thus the mean grade of falls is approximately 56 degrees.

The base of Sutherland Falls is a 90-minute (return) walk from Quintin Public Shelter on the Milford Track.

Sutherland Falls are visible in the background of the eagle scene in Peter Jackson's fantasy film The Hobbit.

History
Sutherland Falls was first known to Europeans when a Scottish settler, Donald Sutherland, saw them in 1880. He initially claimed the falls were over 1000 m tall, which would have made them the highest in the world by far. Later surveys showed that this claim was significantly inflated, and they have been confirmed to actually be 580 m tall.

Lake Quill, which forms the source of the falls, was named for the first European explorer who climbed up the cliff face to find it in 1890.

title: Sutherland Falls