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William Buckland

William Buckland DD, FRS (12 March 1784 – 14 August 1856) was an English theologian who became Dean of Westminster. He was also a geologist and palaeontologist.

Buckland wrote the first full account of a fossil dinosaur, which he named Megalosaurus. His work proved that Kirkdale Cave in North Yorkshire had been a prehistoric hyena den, for which he was awarded the Copley Medal. It was praised as an example of how scientific analysis could reconstruct events in the distant past. He pioneered the use of fossilised faeces in reconstructing ecosystems, coining the term coprolites.

Buckland followed the Gap Theory in interpreting the biblical account of Genesis as two widely separated episodes of creation. It had emerged as a way to reconcile the scriptural account with discoveries in geology suggesting the earth was very old. Early in his career Buckland believed he had found evidence of the biblical flood, but later saw that the glaciation theory of Louis Agassiz gave a better explanation, and played a significant role in promoting it.

Early life

Buckland was born at Axminster in Devon and, as a child, would accompany his father, the Rector of Templeton and Trusham, on his walks where interest in road improvements led to collecting fossil shells, including ammonites, from the Early Jurassic Lias rocks exposed in local quarries.

He was educated first at Blundell's School, Tiverton, Devon, and then at Winchester College, from where he won a scholarship to Corpus Christi College, Oxford, matriculating in 1801 and graduating BA in 1805. He also attended lectures of John Kidd on mineralogy and chemistry, developed an interest in geology, and carried out field research on strata during his vacations. He went on to obtain his MA degree in 1808, became a Fellow of Corpus Christi in 1809, and was ordained as a priest. He continued to make frequent geological excursions, on horseback, to various parts of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales.

In 1813, Buckland was appointed Reader in mineralogy, in succession to John Kidd, giving lively and popular lectures with increasing emphasis on geology and palaeontology. As an unofficial curator of the Ashmolean Museum, he built up collections, touring Europe and coming into contact with scholars including Georges Cuvier.

Rejection of flood geology and Kirkdale Cave
In 1818, Buckland was elected a fellow of the Royal Society. That year he persuaded the Prince Regent to endow an additional Readership, this time in Geology and he became the first holder of the new appointment, delivering his inaugural address on 15 May 1819. This was published in 1820 as Vindiciæ Geologiæ; or the Connexion of Geology with Religion explained, both justifying the new science of geology and reconciling geological evidence with the biblical accounts of creation and Noah's Flood.

At a time when others were coming under the opposing influence of James Hutton's theory of uniformitarianism, Buckland developed a new hypothesis that the word "beginning" in Genesis meant an undefined period between the origin of the earth and the creation of its current inhabitants, during which a long series of extinctions and successive creations of new kinds of plants and animals had occurred. Thus, his catastrophism theory incorporated a version of Old Earth creationism or Gap creationism. Buckland believed in a global deluge during the time of Noah but was not a supporter of flood geology as he believed that only a small amount of the strata could have been formed in the single year occupied by the deluge.

From his investigations of fossil bones at Kirkdale Cave, in Yorkshire, he concluded that the cave had actually been inhabited by hyaenas in antediluvian times, and that the fossils were the remains of these hyaenas and the animals they had eaten, rather than being remains of animals that had perished in the Flood and then carried from the tropics by the surging waters, as he and others had at first thought. In 1822 he wrote:

"It must already appear probable, from the facts above described, particularly from the comminuted state and apparently gnawed condition of the bones, that the cave in Kirkdale was, during a long succession of years, inhabited as a den of hyaenas, and that they dragged into its recesses the other animal bodies whose remains are found mixed indiscriminately with their own: this conjecture is rendered almost certain by the discovery I made, of many small balls of the solid calcareous excrement of an animal that had fed on bones... It was at first sight recognised by the keeper of the Menagerie at Exeter Change, as resembling, in both form and appearance, the faeces of the spotted or cape hyaena, which he stated to be greedy of bones beyond all other beasts in his care."

While criticised by some, Buckland's analysis of Kirkland Cave and other bone caves was widely seen as a model for how careful analysis could be used to reconstruct the Earth's past, and the Royal Society awarded Buckland the Copley Medal in 1822 for his paper on Kirkdale Cave. At the presentation the society's president, Humphry Davy, said:

"by these inquiries, a distinct epoch has, as it were, been established in the history of the revolutions of our globe: a point fixed from which our researches may be pursued through the immensity of ages, and the records of animate nature, as it were, carried back to the time of the creation."

While Buckland's analysis convinced him that the bones found in Kirkdale Cave had not been washed into the cave by a global flood, he still believed the thin layer of mud that covered the remains of the hyaena den had been deposited in the subsequent 'Universal Deluge'. He developed these ideas into his great scientific work Reliquiæ Diluvianæ, or, Observations on the Organic Remains attesting the Action of a Universal Deluge which was published in 1823 and became a best seller. However, over the next decade as geology continued to progress Buckland changed his mind. In his famous Bridgewater Treatise, published in 1836, he acknowledged that the biblical account of Noah's flood could not be confirmed using geological evidence. By 1840 he was very actively promoting the view that what had been interpreted as evidence of the 'Universal Deluge' two decades earlier, and subsequently of deep submergence by a new generation of geologists such as Charles Lyell, was in fact evidence of a major glaciation.

Megalosaurus

He continued to live in Corpus Christi College and, in 1824, he became president of the Geological Society of London. Here he announced the discovery, at Stonesfield, of fossil bones of a giant reptile which he named Megalosaurus ('great lizard') and wrote the first full account of what would later be called a dinosaur.

In 1825, Buckland was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. That year he resigned his college fellowship: he planned to take up the living of Stoke Charity in Hampshire but, before he could take up the appointment, he was made a Canon of Christ Church, a rich reward for academic distinction without serious administrative responsibilities.

Marriage
In December 1825 he married Mary Morland of Abingdon, Oxfordshire, an accomplished illustrator and collector of fossils. Their honeymoon was a year touring Europe, with visits to famous geologists and geological sites. She continued to assist him in his work, as well as having nine children, five of whom survived to adulthood. His son Frank Buckland became a well known practical naturalist, author, and Inspector of Salmon Fisheries.

On one occasion, Mary helped him decipher footmarks found in a slab of sandstone by covering the kitchen table with paste, while he fetched their pet tortoise and confirmed his intuition, that tortoise footprints matched the fossil marks. His daughter, author Elizabeth Oke Buckland Gordon, wrote a biography of her father that included appendices of positions held by Buckland, his membership in professional societies, and an index of his publications.

The Red Lady of Paviland
On 18 January 1823 Buckland walked into Paviland Cave in south Wales, where he discovered a skeleton which he named the Red Lady of Paviland, as he at first supposed it to be the remains of a local prostitute. Although Buckland found the skeleton in Paviland Cave in the same strata as the bones of extinct mammals (including mammoth), Buckland shared the view of Georges Cuvier that no humans had coexisted with any extinct animals, and he attributed the skeleton's presence there to a grave having been dug in historical times, possibly by the same people who had constructed some nearby pre-Roman fortifications, into the older layers.

Carbon-data tests have since dated the skeleton, now known to be male as from circa 33,000 years before present (BP). It is the oldest anatomically modern human found in the United Kingdom.

Coprolites and the Liassic food chain

The fossil hunter Mary Anning noticed that stony objects known as "bezoar stones" were often found in the abdominal region of ichthyosaur skeletons found in the Lias formation at Lyme Regis. She also noted that if such stones were broken open they often contained fossilised fish bones and scales, and sometimes bones from small ichthyosaurs. These observations by Anning led Buckland to propose in 1829 that the stones were fossilised faeces. He coined the name coprolite for them; the name came to be the general name for all fossilised faeces.

Buckland also concluded that the spiral markings on the fossils indicated that ichthyosaurs had spiral ridges in their intestines similar to those of modern sharks, and that some of these coprolites were black because the ichthyosaur had ingested ink sacs from belemnites. He wrote a vivid description of the Liassic food chain based on these observations, which would inspire Henry De la Beche to paint Duria Antiquior, the first pictorial representation of a scene from the distant past. After De le Beche had a lithographic print made based on his original watercolour, Buckland kept a supply of the prints on hand to circulate at his lectures. He also discussed other similar objects found in other formations, including the fossilised hyena dung he had found in Kirkdale Cave. He concluded:

"In all these various formations our Coprolites form records of warfare, waged by successive generations of inhabitants of our planet on one another: the imperishable phosphate of lime, derived from their digested skeletons, has become embalmed in the substance and foundations of the everlasting hills; and the general law of Nature which bids all to eat and be eaten in their turn, is shown to have been co-extensive with animal existence on our globe; the Carnivora in each period of the world's history fulfilling their destined office, – to check excess in the progress of life, and maintain the balance of creation."

Buckland had been helping and encouraging Roderick Murchison for some years, and in 1831 was able to suggest a good starting point in South Wales for Murchison's researches into the rocks beneath the secondary strata associated with the age of reptiles. Murchison would later name these older strata, characterised by marine invertebrate fossils, as Silurian, after a tribe that had lived in that area centuries earlier. In 1832 Buckland presided over the second meeting of the British Association, which was then held at Oxford.

Bridgewater Treatise
Buckland was commissioned to contribute one of the set of eight Bridgewater Treatises, "On the Power, Wisdom and Goodness of God, as manifested in the Creation". This took him almost five years' work and was published in 1836 with the title Geology and Mineralogy considered with reference to Natural Theology. His volume included a detailed compendium of his theories of day-age, gap theory and a form of progressive creationism where faunal succession revealed by the fossil record was explained by a series of successive divine creations that prepared the earth for humans. In the introduction he expressed the argument from design by asserting that the families and phyla of biology were "clusters of contrivance":

"The myriads of petrified Remains which are disclosed by the researches of Geology all tend to prove that our Planet has been occupied in times preceding the Creation of the Human Race, by extinct species of Animals and Vegetables, made up, like living Organic Bodies, of 'Clusters of Contrivances,' which demonstrate the exercise of stupendous Intelligence and Power. They further show that these extinct forms of Organic Life were so closely allied, by Unity in the principles of their construction, to Classes, Orders, and Families, which make up the existing Animal and Vegetable Kingdoms, that they not only afford an argument of surpassing force, against the doctrines of the Atheist and Polytheist; but supply a chain of connected evidence, amounting to demonstration, of the continuous Being, and of many of the highest Attributes of the One Living and True God."

Following Charles Darwin's return from the Beagle voyage, Buckland discussed with him the Galapagos land iguanas and Marine iguanas. He subsequently recommended Darwin's paper on the role of earthworms in soil formation for publication, praising it as "a new & important theory to explain Phenomena of universal occurrence on the surface of the Earth—in fact a new Geological Power", while rightly rejecting Darwin's suggestion that chalkland could have been formed in a similar way.

Glaciation theory
By this time Buckland was a prominent and influential scientific celebrity and a friend of the Tory prime minister, Sir Robert Peel. In co-operation with Adam Sedgwick and Charles Lyell, he prepared the report leading to the establishment of the Geological Survey of Great Britain.

Having become interested in the theory of Louis Agassiz, that polished and striated rocks as well as transported material, had been caused by ancient glaciers, he travelled to Switzerland, in 1838, to meet Agassiz and see for himself. He was convinced and was reminded of what he had seen in Scotland, Wales and northern England but had previously attributed to the Flood. When Agassiz came to Britain for the Glasgow meeting of the British Association, in 1840, they went on an extended tour of Scotland and found evidence there of former glaciation. In that year Buckland had become president of the Geological Society again and, despite their hostile reaction to his presentation of the theory, he was now satisfied that glaciation had been the origin of much of the surface deposits covering Britain.

In 1845 he was appointed by Sir Robert Peel to the vacant Deanery of Westminster (he succeeded Samuel Wilberforce). Soon after, he was inducted to the living of Islip, near Oxford, a preferment attached to the deanery. As Dean and head of Chapter, Buckland was involved in repair and maintenance of Westminster Abbey and in preaching suitable sermons to the rural population of Islip, while continuing to lecture on geology at Oxford. In 1847, he was appointed a trustee in the British Museum and, in 1848, he was awarded the Wollaston Medal by the Geological Society of London.

Illness and death
Around the end of 1850, William Buckland contracted a disorder of the neck and brain, and died of it in 1856. Frank Buckland reported that an autopsy showed "the portion of the base of the skull upon which the brain rested, together with the two upper vertebrae of the neck, to be in an advanced state of caries, or decay. The irritation...was quite sufficient cause to give rise to all symptoms." Frank Buckland attributed the cause of death of both his parents to a severe accident years earlier.

The plot for William's grave had been reserved, but when the gravedigger set to work, it was found that an outcrop of solid Jurassic limestone lay just below ground level and explosives had to be used for excavation. This may have been a last jest by the noted geologist, reminiscent of Richard Whately's Elegy intended for Professor Buckland written in 1820:

Known eccentricities
Buckland preferred to do his field palaeontology and geological work wearing an academic gown. His lectures were notable for their dramatic delivery. When he lectured indoors he would bring his presentations to life by imitating the movements of the dinosaurs under discussion. Buckland's passion for scientific observation and experiment extended to his home, where he had a table inlaid with dinosaur coprolites. The original table top is exhibited at the Lyme Regis Museum.

Not only was William Buckland's home filled with specimens – animal as well as mineral, live as well as dead – but he claimed to have eaten his way through the animal kingdom: zoophagy. The most distasteful items were mole and bluebottle fly; panther, crocodile and mouse were among the other dishes noted by guests. Buckland was followed in this hobby by his son Frank. On one occasion, Buckland (the father) consumed, perhaps unintentionally, a portion of the mummified heart of King Louis XIV.

Legacy
Dorsum Buckland, a wrinkle ridge on the Moon, is named after him. Buckland Island (known today as Ani-Jima), in the Bonin Islands (Ogasawara-Jima), was named after him by Captain Beechey on 9 June 1827. In 1846, William Buckland was rector of St. Nicholas in Islip and is commemorated on a plaque in the south aisle of the church and the "East Window" was dedicated to the memory of Buckland and his wife in 1861. A plaque is dedicated to him near his summer home by the Old Rectory, The Walk, Islip (10 August 2008). There is also a bust by Henry Weekes in the south aisle at Westminster Abbey.

In 1972, botanist Heikki Roivainen circumscribed Bucklandiella, a genus of moss in the family Grimmiaceae, which was named in his honour. Buckland Peaks in New Zealand's Paparoa Range was named after him.

The Iñupiat village of Buckland (Nunatchiaq) in Alaska's Northwest Arctic Borough takes its English name from William Buckland, being named by Royal Navy officer Frederick William Beechey in 1826.

title: William Buckland


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Amadou Toumani Touré

Amadou Toumani Touré (4 November 1948 –9 November 2020) was a Malian politician. He supervised Mali's first multiparty elections as chairman of the transitional government (1991–1992), and later became the second democratically elected President of Mali (2002–2012).

Touré was head of President Moussa Traoré's personal guard (and parachute regiment) when a popular revolution overthrew the regime in March 1991; Colonel Touré then arrested the President and led the revolution onward. He presided over a year-long military-civilian transition process that produced a new Constitution and multiparty elections, then handed power to Mali's first democratically elected president, Alpha Oumar Konaré, on 6 June 1992. Konaré promoted Touré to the rank of General.

Ten years later, after retiring from the army, Touré entered politics as a civilian and won the 2002 presidential election with a broad coalition of support. He was easily re-elected in 2007 to a second and final term. On 22 March 2012, shortly before his scheduled departure from office, disgruntled soldiers initiated a coup d'état that forced him into hiding. As part of the agreement to restore constitutional order to Mali, Touré resigned from the presidency on 8 April, and eleven days later he went into exile.

Early life
Amadou Toumani Touré was born on 4 November 1948, in Mopti, where he attended primary school. Between 1966 and 1969, he attended Badalabougou Standard Secondary School in Bamako in order to become a teacher. Eventually, he joined the army and attended the Kati Inter-Military College. As a member of the Parachute Corps, he rose quickly through the ranks and after numerous training courses in the Soviet Union and France, he became the commander of the parachute commandos in 1984.

Political and military career
In March 1991, after the violent suppression of anti-government demonstrations turned into a popular revolution against 23 years of military rule, the armed forces refused to fire any longer on the Malian people and Touré – head of the presidential guard – arrested President Moussa Traoré. Known universally by his initials ATT, Colonel Touré (as he then was) became leader of the Transitional Committee for the Welfare of the People and acting head of state throughout the committee's efforts to transition the country's government to democracy. He presided over the national conference that between 29 July and 13 August 1991 drew up the Constitution of Mali and scheduled the legislative and presidential elections of 1992. After the results of the elections became known, Touré handed over power to the newly elected president, Alpha Oumar Konaré. Following his voluntary departure from office, he gained the nickname "The Soldier of Democracy."

In June 2001, Touré served briefly as a special envoy of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to the Central African Republic, after the failed coup attempt that had occurred there.

Election and presidency (2002–2012)
In September 2001, he requested and was granted retirement from the military, entering politics as a candidate in the 2002 presidential election. In the first round of voting, he placed first with 28.71% of the vote, while in the second round he won 64.35% of the vote, defeating the ADEMA candidate, former cabinet minister Soumaïla Cissé, who obtained 35.65%. Touré was sworn in on 8 June 2002.

His presidency was atypical, in part due to the fact that he was not a member of any political party and that he included members from all of the country's political parties in his government. Following his 2002 election, he appointed Ahmed Mohamed ag Hamani as Prime Minister, but on 28 April 2004, Hamani was replaced by Ousmane Issoufi Maiga, who in turn was replaced on 28 September 2007 by Modibo Sidibé.

In 2006 the government signed a peace deal with Tuareg rebels, giving them greater autonomy.

Touré announced on 27 March 2007, that he would run for a second term in the April 2007 presidential election. According to final results announced on 12 May, Touré won the election with 71.20% of the votes. The main opposition candidate, National Assembly President Ibrahima Boubacar Keïta, won 19.15%; the Front for Democracy and the Republic, a coalition including Keïta and three other candidates, rejected the official results. Foreign observers, however, endorsed the election as free and fair. Touré was sworn in for his second term as president on 8 June 2007, at a ceremony attended by seven other African presidents.

In addition to improving Mali's infrastructure, Touré established the first national medical insurance system.

Conforming to the constitution of Mali, which has a two-term presidential limit, Touré confirmed at a press conference on 12 June 2011, that he would not stand in the 2012 presidential election.

2012 coup d'état
Early in 2012, elements of the Malian military protested the Touré government's handling of the 2012 insurgency in northern Mali. The brutal massacre in Aguel Hoc (frontier with Niger) of more than 80 Malian soldiers led to unrest in the army, with soldiers and army wives accusing President Touré of mismanagement because of ammunition shortages. On 21 March, soldiers at a barracks in Kati, near Bamako, launched a revolt against the visiting defense minister, and their revolt turned into a coup d'état. A group of sergeants and corporals seized several locations in Bamako, including the presidential palace, state television headquarters, and some military barracks. They then formed a provisional governmental authority, the National Committee for the Restoration of Democracy and State (CNRDRE), under the leadership of Captain Amadou Sanogo, and declared that they had overthrown Touré, accusing his government of incompetence. President Touré was not taken into custody by the rebels.

For more than two weeks Touré's whereabouts were unknown and CNRDRE never indicated that he was in its custody. The CNRDRE did, however, state that Touré was in "good health" and a statement from the Nigerian government, though supportive of Touré, claimed that he had been "detained" by the mutineers. According to soldiers loyal to Touré, however, he was safe, and guarded by pro-government military forces at a barracks somewhere outside of Bamako.

On 3 April, the junta announced that it was considering charges of treason and financial misconduct against Touré.

On 8 April, Touré reemerged to announce his resignation in accordance with an agreement brokered by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to return Mali to constitutional rule, telling ECOWAS mediators, "More than anything, I do it out of the love I have for my country". On 19 April, Touré went into exile in neighboring Senegal.

Amadou Toumani Touré returned to Mali after five years, on 24 December 2017.

Other work
In 1993, Touré founded Fondation pour l'enfance, a children's health foundation. During his presidency, the foundation was managed by First Lady Toure Lobbo Traore.

Touré was a member of the Earth Charter International Commission.

Personal life
Touré was married to Touré Lobbo Traoré. They had three daughters. He died in Istanbul, Turkey, on 9 November 2020, a week after his 72nd birthday.

Honours

 * 🇲🇱 Mali: Grand Master & Grand Cross of the National Order of Mali
 * 🇦🇹 Austria: Grand Star of the Decoration of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria (2009)
 * 🇱🇺 Luxembourg: Grand Cross of the Order of Adolphe of Nassau (11/2005)
 * 🇲🇨 Monaco: Grand Cross of the Order of Saint-Charles (13 February 2012)
 * 🇸🇳 Senegal: Premier Prix pour l'Ethique, Fondation Amadou Kéba Mbaye (2010)

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

title: Amadou Toumani Touré


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Pistol Star

The Pistol Star is an extremely luminous blue hypergiant star, one of the most luminous and massive known in the Milky Way. It is one of many massive young stars in the Quintuplet cluster in the Galactic Center region. The star owes its name to the shape of the Pistol Nebula, which it illuminates. It is located approximately 25,000 light-years from Earth in the direction of Sagittarius. The star has a large mass comparable to V4998 Sagittarii and a luminosity 3.3 million times that of the Sun. It would be visible to the naked eye as a 4th-magnitude star if it were not for the interstellar dust near the Center of the Milky Way that absorbs almost all of its visible light.

Properties
The Pistol Star was discovered using the Hubble Space Telescope in the early 1990s by Don Figer, an astronomer at UCLA. The star is thought to have ejected almost 10 solar masses of material in giant outbursts perhaps 4,000 to 6,000 years ago (as observed from Earth). Its stellar wind is over 10 billion times stronger than the Sun's. Its exact age and future are not known, but it is expected to end in a brilliant supernova or hypernova in 1 to 3 million years. The mass is equally uncertain, thought to have been up to 200 times the Sun when initially formed but now considerably less due to extreme mass loss although likely still over 100 times the Sun. Modelling the star itself to match its spectrum gives a mass of, while matching its current properties to an evolutionary model gives a much higher mass. Earlier studies once claimed the Pistol Star as the most massive star known at around.

Later studies have reduced its estimated luminosity making it a candidate luminous blue variable about (one third as luminous as the binary star system Eta Carinae), hence a radius of  based on an effective temperature around $12,000 K$, or as high as, hence a correspondingly larger radius of anywhere from  to. Even so, it radiates about as much energy in 10 seconds as the Sun does in a year.

A close point source has been discovered hidden in the surrounding nebulosity, but there has been no confirmation of this being a star or whether it is physically associated.

title: Pistol Star


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Kessai Note

Kessai Hesa Note (born August 7, 1950, in Ailinglaplap) is a Marshallese politician who was President of the Marshall Islands from 2000 to 2008.

Elected in 1979 alongside Litokwa Tomeing, Note is one of the two longest-serving members of Nitijeļā. He was the Minister of Internal affairs from 1985 to 1986, and Minister of Transportation and communications from 1986 to 1987. Having served as Speaker of the Nitijeļā since 1988, he was elected president in 2000. Note is the first commoner, rather than an Iroijlaplap or traditional chief, to be elected to the Presidency. He is a member of the United Democratic Party, and was reelected by parliament in January 2004, receiving 20 votes, while Justin deBrum received 9.

On January 7, 2008, following the November 2007 general election, he was defeated in his bid for re-election in a vote of Parliament, receiving 15 votes against 18 for Litokwa Tomeing.

Note is of Japanese-Marshallese descent, having inherited his Japanese heritage from his paternal grandfather. Note's grandfather was a native of Niigata Prefecture, and settled in the Marshall Islands during the Japanese colonial era and married a Marshallese wife.

He was the Minister of Justice from 2020 to 2022.

In February 2023, The Washington Post reported that Note is under investigation by the Marshall Islands' attorney general. In December 2023, the United States Department of State barred Note from entering the US under the Global Magnitsky Act for accepting bribes.

title: Kessai Note


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User talk:Claudio Bernardini

Hello, welcome to Wikipedia. Here are some useful links in case you haven't already found them;

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This is a very impressive picture. I'll be very interrested to see the article about the cave.

snoyes 19:16, 8 Dec 2003 (UTC)

I am writing something for the italian Wikipedia, then do it in english... mmm dunno if is correct to write here a message to Snoyes...

 * Well, I don't get notified if you write something here, but I did stumble over it ;-) --snoyes 19:56, 8 Dec 2003 (UTC)

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title: User talk:Claudio Bernardini


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Joseph Urusemal

Joseph John "Joe" Urusemal (born March 19, 1952) is a Micronesian political figure who served as the sixth President of the Federated States of Micronesia from 2003 until 2007.

Urusemal is married to former First Lady Olania Latileilam, who is from Satawal. The couple have four children: B.J., Tarsis, Craig and Elenita.

Early life
Urusemal was born on the island of Woleai in the State of Yap. He attended secondary school on the island of Chuuk (then called Truk) at Xavier High School, a Jesuit institution. He would graduate from Xavier in 1976.

Urusemal went on to attend and graduate from Rockhurst University (then called Rockhurst College) in Kansas City, Missouri, United States. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Administration of Justice from Rockhurst, a Roman Catholic Jesuit university. Upon graduation, Urusemal accepted a position with the Jackson County, Missouri, government, including the county Department of Corrections until he returned to Micronesia in 1982.

Following his return to Micronesia, Urusemal became a teacher and guidance counselor for the Outer Islands High School on his native Yap.

Political career
Urusemal was elected to four-year term in the Fifth Congress of the Federated States of Micronesia in 1987. He was elected as Yap's at-large representative. Urusemal rose to leadership positions during his parliamentary career. He served as Floor Leader for twelve years during the Seventh until the Twelfth FSM congresses.

During his political career representing Yap, Urusemal served on several congressional committees including Health, Education and Social Affairs and the Judiciary and Governmental Operations committees.

The president and vice president of the Federated States of Micronesia are elected directly by Congress and must be a duly elected member at the time of election. Due to the defeat of the then-incumbent president, Leo Falcam, in the previous elections, Falcam was unable to stand for re-election. On May 11, 2003, Congress elected Urusemal as President and he took office immediately.

On May 11, 2007, the 15th Congress convened. A new presidential election was held and Manny Mori was elected president. He likewise took office immediately.

title: Joseph Urusemal


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William Conybeare

William Conybeare may refer to:

 * William Conybeare (geologist) (1787–1857), English geologist
 * William Conybeare (author) (1815–1857), English author, his son
 * William Conybeare (Provost of Southwell) (1871–1955), English priest

title: William Conybeare


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Talk:List of governors of Västmanland County

Delinked names. Relink if and when corresponding articles are written. Please discuss before considering reverting. -Hemanshu 19:19, 8 Dec 2003 (UTC)

 * Names are linked so that they will become active when corresponding articles are created. Not the other way around. -- Mic 08:14, Dec 9, 2003 (UTC)


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Joaquim Chissano

Joaquim Alberto Chissano (born 22 October 1939) is a politician who served as the second President of Mozambique, from 1986 to 2005. He is credited with transforming the war-torn country of Mozambique into a successful African democracy. After his presidency, Chissano became an elder statesman, envoy and diplomat for both his home country and the United Nations. Chissano also served as Chairperson of the African Union from 2003 to 2004.

Early life
Joaquim Chissano was born in the remote village of Malehice, Chibuto district, Gaza Province of the Portuguese colony of Mozambique (then called Portuguese East Africa). Chissano was the first black student to attend the only high school in the colony, Liceu Salazar in Lourenço Marques (present-day Maputo). After leaving secondary school, he went to Portugal to study medicine at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon. However, his political leanings caused him problems and he moved to France where he continued his studies at the University of Poitiers. In 1962, he went to Tanzania where he participated on the political movement that resulted in the foundation of the Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO) and a year later he abandoned his studies to move to Tanzania in order to serve on the fight for the independence of Mozambique.

Career
Chissano became "one of the founding members" of the Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO), which demanded autonomy from Portugal. Later, Chissano played a fundamental role in the negotiation of the Lusaka Accord of 1974, which paved the way for the country's independence in 1975. The new President of Mozambique, Samora Machel, appointed him as Minister of Foreign Affairs.

President of Mozambique
Chissano succeeded to the presidency and became FRELIMO party leader in 1986 when Samora Machel's presidential aircraft crashed in mountainous terrain in South Africa. Chissano ended the Mozambican Civil War in 1992 by negotiating a peace treaty with the rebel forces that "promised no prosecutions or punishments" and gave them 50% of the positions in the Mozambican army. The Renamo rebels later established their own political party.

In 1992, Chissano learned the Transcendental Meditation technique and introduced it to other government officials and their families. Two years later, Chissano and his generals ordered all police and military to "meditate twice a day for 20 minutes." In addition, 16,000 soldiers and 30,000 civilians were taught Transcendental Meditation and its advanced TM-Sidhi Program including Yogic Flying. According to Transcendental Meditation literature, Chissano said the result was "political peace and balance in nature in my country." According to Tobias Dai, the 2001 defence minister, "the effect was overwhelming" and included reduced crime, drought aversion and three times the expected level of economic growth. In 1993 Chissano received an honorary degree from Maharishi Vedic University in MERU, Holland and in 1994 negotiated an agreement with Maharishi Heaven on Earth Development for the agricultural development of 20 million hectares (49,000,000 acres) of "unused land" beginning with 2.5 million acres of timber, cotton and fruit. The 50-year contract promised 20% to 40% of the profits for the Mozambique government but other government officials refused the deal.

Chissano was reelected to the presidency in 1994 (53.3% of votes) and again in 1999 (52.9% votes), when he defeated the former rebel leader, Afonso Dhlakama. After winning re-election Chissano's priority became poverty eradication but his efforts were complicated by a severe flood in 2000. However, Chissano had a fundamental role in convincing the G8 to write off £22 billion of Mozambique's debt in 2005. Chissano chose not to run for a third term in the elections of 2004, although the constitution would have allowed him to do so. During Chissano's presidency, almost 3 million people, about 15% of the country's citizens, were removed from "extreme poverty" and the country achieved an economic growth rate of eight percent. In addition, child mortality rates for children under age five decreased by 35% and there was a 65% increase in primary school attendance.

Post presidency
Since leaving the presidency Chissano has assumed the role of elder statesman and has campaigned for peace through his work as an envoy and peace negotiator for the United Nations. Chissano served as Chairperson of the African Union from July 2003 to July 2004. On 4 December 2006, the United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed Chissano the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General to Northern Uganda and Southern Sudan, to resolve the conflict with the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). On Chissano's 68th birthday in 2007, he was awarded the inaugural $5 million Prize for Achievement in African Leadership awarded by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation. Chissano was absent from the award ceremony because he was still working on his United Nations mission in southern Sudan. According to the award's judges "Mr Chissano's decision not to seek a third presidential term reinforced Mozambique's democratic maturity and demonstrated that institutions and the democratic process were more important than the person".

In 2010, Chissano wrote an article for The Huffington Post about water scarcity in Africa. Chissano is a member of the Fondation Chirac's honour committee. He is also an independent non-executive director at Harmony Gold Mining, a South African underground and surface gold mining company, as well as an Eminent Member of the Sergio Vieira de Mello Foundation.

In 2014, Chissano has spoken out in favor of LGBT rights in Africa.

On July 3, 2023, he was appointed Honorary President of the new International Association of Friends of the Algerian Revolution. This organization aims to promote the principles of the Algerian Revolution and provide support to colonized peoples.

Awards and nominations

 * On 9 December 2004, he received the Order of the Athir, one of the National Order of Merits of Algeria.
 * On February, 2005, he received the Honoris Causa title from the University of Minho. The title was awarded with the institution justifying the tribute with the action developed by Chissano as President of the Republic and "also for the role he played in the peace process in Mozambique, in the evolution and construction of a democratic and opening up the country to development".
 * In 2006, he received the Chatham House Prize.
 * In 2007, Kofi Annan announced the former President of Mozambique as the winner of the Mo Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation. President Chissano received the inaugural Ibrahim Prize for his achievements in bringing peace, reconciliation, stable democracy and economic progress to his country following the 16-year civil war which lasted until 1992. The Prize also recognises the major contribution he has made outside his country’s borders.
 * Chairs the Joaquim Chissano Foundation and the Forum of Former African Heads of State and Government.
 * According to a UNISA statement, released in Maputo, the former head of state would be distinguished, on 24 May, with the title doctor 'honoris causa' in Literature and Philosophy, for the "political and diplomatic work developed in the last five decades." On 24 May 2011 he received it.

Personal life
Chissano is married to Marcelina Rafael Chissano. He is the father of four children and his son received a scholarship to Maharishi International University in Fairfield, Iowa. Chissano has been criticized for his continued friendship with Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and there have been allegations that Chissano's son Nyimpine Chissano (who died in 2007) promised payment for the assassination of journalist Carlos Cardoso.

Chissano speaks fluent Portuguese, French, English, and Swahili. He speaks Changana as well.

title: Joaquim Chissano


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Killing Joke

Killing Joke are an English rock band formed in Cheltenham, England, in 1979 by Jaz Coleman (vocals, keyboards), Paul Ferguson (drums), Geordie Walker (guitar) and Youth (bass).

Their first album, Killing Joke, was released in 1980. After the release of Revelations in 1982, bassist Youth was replaced by Paul Raven. The band achieved mainstream success in 1985 with the album Night Time and particularly the single "Love Like Blood" which reached the top ten in Belgium, the Netherlands and New Zealand.

The band's musical style emerged from the post-punk scene, but stood out due to their heavier approach, and has been cited as a key influence on industrial rock. Their style evolved over many years, at times incorporating elements of gothic rock, synth-pop and electronic music, but always featuring Walker's prominent guitar and Coleman's "savagely strident vocals". Killing Joke have influenced many later bands and artists, such as Metallica, Nirvana, Nine Inch Nails and Soundgarden.

Following Raven's sudden death in 2007, all four founding members returned to the band's lineup the following year. Coleman and Walker were the only constant members of the band until Walker's death in 2023.

Formative years (1978–1982)
Paul Ferguson was the drummer in the band Matt Stagger when he met Jaz Coleman (from Cheltenham, Gloucestershire) in Notting Hill, London in late 1978. Coleman was briefly the keyboard player in that band. He and Ferguson then left to gradually piece together Killing Joke. In the following months, they placed advertisements in Melody Maker and other music papers. Guitarist Geordie Walker joined them in March 1979, followed by bassist Youth. The band was formed in June 1979. Coleman said their manifesto at the time was to "define the exquisite beauty of the atomic age in terms of style, sound and form". Coleman gave an explanation concerning their name: "The killing joke is like when people watch something like Monty Python on the television and laugh, when really they're laughing at themselves. It's like a soldier in the first world war.  He's in the trench, he knows his life is gone and that within the next ten minutes he's gonna be dead ... and then suddenly he realises that some cunt back in Westminster's got him sussed—'What am I doing this for? I don't want to kill anyone, I'm just being controlled'." The band played their debut gig on 4 August 1979 at Brockworth, Whitcombe Lodge supporting the Ruts and The Selecter.

By September 1979, shortly before the release of their debut EP, Turn to Red, they started the Malicious Damage record label with graphic artist Mike Coles as a way to press and sell their music. Island Records distributed the records (and released their debut single "Nervous System"), before they switched to E.G. Records with distribution through Polydor from 1980. Killing Joke's early material "fused together elements of punk, funk and dub reggae". Turn to Red came to the attention of BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel, who was keen to champion the band's urgent new sound and gave them extensive airplay. In October 1979, the band recorded their first session for Peel's radio show. An NME concert review said that "their sound is a bit like early [Siouxsie and the] Banshees without the thrilling, amoral imagination". Concerning their live performances, it was said that "the only animation on stage is provided by Jaz who crouches behind his synthesizer, making forays like a Neanderthal man gripped by a gesturing, gibbering fury". The songs on the 1980 "Wardance/Pssyche" single were described as "heavy dance music" by the press. The band had changed their sound into something denser, more aggressive and more akin to heavy metal. Their debut album, Killing Joke, was released in October 1980; the band had considered calling it Tomorrow's World. The press started to criticise them for the lack of new material appearing on the B-sides of singles, which often featured different mixes. The group preferred to carry on working in the studio and released What's THIS For...! just eight months after Killing Joke, in June 1981. For this second album, they hired sound engineer Nick Launay, who had previously recorded with Public Image Ltd. They toured extensively throughout the UK during this time, with fans of post-punk and heavy metal taking interest in Killing Joke via singles such as "Follow the Leaders".

Killing Joke also became notorious largely due to the controversies that arose from their imagery. The images that appeared on their records and stage set were often bizarre and potentially shocking and inflammatory. Critics noted the band's black humour and the use of musical and visual shock tactics to create a reaction. The "Wardance" sleeve had already depicted Fred Astaire dancing in a war field. One promotional poster featured an original photo, erroneously believed to be of Pope Pius XI. The picture was of German abbot Alban Schachleiter walking among rows of Nazi brownshirts offering Hitler salutes and appearing to return the salute; it was later used for the cover of the band's compilation album Laugh? I Nearly Bought One!.

Revelations was recorded in 1982 in Germany near Cologne with producer Conny Plank, who had previously worked for Neu! and Kraftwerk. The album was supported by a pair of performances on BBC Radio's "The John Peel Show" and a slot on UK TV show Top of the Pops for "Empire Song". It was the first time that one of their albums had entered the top 20 of the UK Albums Chart: Revelations peaked at No. 12 at its release. Members of the band, especially Coleman, had become immersed in the occult, particularly the works of occultist Aleister Crowley. In February of that year, Coleman, with Walker following shortly after, moved to Iceland to survive the Apocalypse, which Coleman predicted was coming soon. While in Iceland, Coleman and Walker worked with musicians from the band Þeyr in the project Niceland. Youth, who had stayed in England, left the band after a few months. He then began the band Brilliant with Ferguson, but the latter defected and travelled to Iceland to rejoin Killing Joke with new bassist Paul Raven.

Paul Raven and new direction (1982–1988)
The new Killing Joke line-up recorded again with Plank, yielding the single "Birds of a Feather" and a six-track 10" EP Ha!, recorded live at Larry's Hideaway in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in August. In 1983 the band released Fire Dances and its single, "Let's All Go (to the Fire Dances)", the first Killing Joke single to be promoted with a music video. Another non-album single, "Me or You?", was released in October.

The following year brought the arrival of producer Chris Kimsey, who had previously worked with the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin. The first releases with Kimsey were "Eighties" (April 1984) and "A New Day" (July 1984). The band achieved mainstream success in January 1985 with the single "Love Like Blood", which blended goth and new wave to pop and rock; it peaked at No. 16 in the UK charts. In Europe, it reached the No. 5 position in the Netherlands, No. 6 in New Zealand and No. 8 in Belgium. This song and the earlier single "Eighties" were both included on their fifth album, Night Time, released later that year. The album took the band's songwriting in a more melodic, "anthemic" direction and reached No. 11 in the UK albums chart, their highest position to date. Night Time also became an international success, staying in the Dutch charts for nine weeks, reaching the top 10, and peaking at No. 8 in New Zealand during a 14-week stay. The band, still on the E.G. label, then quit their distribution deal with Polydor and signed a new one with Virgin Records.

The following album, Brighter than a Thousand Suns (1986) was also produced by Kimsey and saw the band's style develop further. The label rejected Kimsey's original mixes and had the album re-mixed against the wishes of the band, in an attempt to achieve more commercial success. The results have been retrospectively described as over-produced. Despite the intentions of the label, the album was a commercial failure compared to Night Time, failing to reach the top 50 in the UK chart. Its two singles fared little better: "Adorations" narrowly missed the UK Top 40 and "Sanity" peaked at number 70. However, the band continued touring successfully until the end of the year. Kimsey's original mixes of "Brighter Than A Thousand Suns" were eventually restored on the 2008 re-release, to much more favourable response.

In 1987, Coleman and Walker began working on a new project, which was presented by Coleman and Walker as a studio project to the rest of the band. Raven took part in the sessions but ultimately asked for his name to be removed from the album credits. Ferguson recorded drums in Berlin but, according to Coleman, was dismissed because he was not able to manage the precise timings. Raven denied this version of events, stating, "I know Paul and when he does something he does it properly. If it wasn't right he would have stayed there 'til it was". Session player Jimmy Copley was brought in to provide the drumming on the album, along with percussion player Jeff Scantlebury. Raven and Ferguson quit Killing Joke shortly afterwards, with Raven purportedly calling Coleman and Walker "a pair of ego-strokers". Coleman then delivered a lecture at London's Courtauld Institute about his method behind the songs, expounding on its origins in gematria and the occult, while Walker and Scantlebury provided a minimal acoustic musical backing. A recording of this event was released as The Courtauld Talks.

The resulting album, Outside the Gate, released the following June, is Killing Joke's most controversial work to date due to its complex synth instrumentation and stylistic departure. It entered the UK Albums Chart at number 92 and stayed for just one week. No gigs were played in support of the album and it was not released in the US. Virgin dropped the band two months later, by which time Coleman and Walker had become embroiled in a lengthy legal battle to extricate themselves from their contract with E.G.

Revised line-up (1989–1991)
Towards the end of 1988, Coleman and Walker revived the band and began looking for full-time bass players and drummers. First on board was drummer Martin Atkins, who had gained notability in Public Image Ltd. A suitable bass player proved more difficult. Former Smiths member Andy Rourke was hired, then dismissed after only three days. Eventually the band settled on Welsh bass player Dave "Taif" Ball, and played their first gigs in almost two years in December 1988. Touring continued across the UK, Europe and the US until August 1989, when the band took a break to record new material in Germany and allow Coleman time to record Songs from the Victorious City with Anne Dudley of Art of Noise.

For reasons that remain unclear, the German sessions were shelved and bass player Taif left the band. He was replaced by former member Paul Raven and the revised line-up began recording again, this time in London. The result was Killing Joke's eighth album, Extremities, Dirt & Various Repressed Emotions, released on the German Noise International label in 1990. It marked a return to a heavier sound. "Money Is Not Our God" was the lead single. The band toured Europe and North America until unexpectedly disbanding again in mid-1991. Coleman emigrated to New Zealand to live on a remote Pacific island, and Killing Joke entered a hiatus.

Atkins continued with Walker, Raven and the band's live keyboard player, John Bechdel, as the short-lived Murder, Inc., recruiting Scottish vocalist Chris Connelly and reuniting with Ferguson as second drummer.

Pandemonium and Democracy (1992–1996)
A Killing Joke anthology, ''Laugh? I Nearly Bought One!'', was released in 1992; during its production, Walker became reacquainted with Youth, who suggested that they reform the band with himself back on bass. That same year, two singles (on cassette and CD) appeared featuring the early songs "Change" and "Wardance" remixed by Youth, who was by then a successful producer. In late 1993, Walker, Youth, and Coleman (alongside new drummer Geoff Dugmore) started work on Killing Joke's ninth studio album. Portions of the album were recorded inside the King's Chamber of The Great Pyramid of Giza.

Pandemonium was released in 1994 on Youth's Butterfly Recordings label, featuring a heavy and diverse new style. Tom Larkin, of New Zealand band Shihad, performed additional drums on the album. Coleman had earlier produced Shihad's 1993 debut album, but relations later soured due to a dispute over Coleman's producer's fee. Pandemonium also featured several Egyptian musicians that Coleman had previously worked with on Songs from the Victorious City, including percussionist Hossam Ramzy and violinist Aboud Abdel Al., and earned Killing Joke a memorable Top of the Pops appearance for the single "Millennium", which was a UK Top 40 hit (the album itself made the Top 20). The title track was also released as a single and made the UK Top 30. The album itself became Killing Joke's best-selling work.

In 1995, the band recorded the song "Hollywood Babylon" for the Showgirls soundtrack of the Paul Verhoeven film of the same name.

A follow-up album, Democracy, was released in 1996 and also produced by Youth. Democracy introduced acoustic guitar to several songs and featured more explicitly political lyrics. The title track was released as a single and made the UK Top 40. Much of Pandemonium and all of Democracy featured drummer Dugmore, who also played live with the band during this era. Nick Holywell-Walker also joined the band on keyboards and programming for 11 years from 1994 to 2005, notably on Democracy and XXV Gathering. Youth bowed out of live performance early in the Democracy tour and was replaced by Troy Gregory, previously of Prong.

After the Democracy tour, the band went on their longest hiatus to date. Coleman and Youth produced a string of orchestral rock albums based on the music of classic rock artists such as Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and the Doors. Coleman became Composer in Residence for New Zealand and Czech symphony orchestras, and made his acting debut with the main role in the film Rok ďábla (Year of the Devil) by Czech filmmaker Petr Zelenka.

Reformation and death of Paul Raven (2002–2007)
In 2002, Coleman, Walker and Youth recorded their second self-titled album with special guest Dave Grohl on drums. Produced by Andy Gill and released to much acclaim in 2003, it was heralded as a powerful addition to their earlier classics. In 2003, the band played at the biggest open air festival in Europe—Przystanek Woodstock in Poland. The War on Terror and the invasion of Iraq were cited as major factors in their reforming, reflected in the lyrical content of much of the album, based on themes of war, government control and Armageddon. The album, which fell just short of the UK Top 40 and spawned two singles, "Loose Cannon" (a UK Top 25 hit) and "Seeing Red". The songs were all credited to Coleman/Walker/Youth/Gill, although Raven's name is also on the list of musicians on the liner notes, marking his return to the band after more than a decade. The album was accompanied by a tour of the United States, Europe and Australia in 2003–2004, with ex-Prong drummer Ted Parsons on board.

In February 2005, now with young drummer Ben Calvert (Twin Zero, Sack Trick), Killing Joke played two consecutive shows at London's Shepherd's Bush Empire to commemorate their 25th anniversary. DVD and CD recordings from these concerts were released in the fall of the same year as XXV Gathering: The Band that Preys Together Stays Together. In June, remastered and expanded editions of Pandemonium and Democracy, were released by Cooking Vinyl. These were followed in July by remasters of their first four albums (Killing Joke to Ha!) on EMI, who by then owned the E.G. Records catalogue. The second batch of EMI remasters would not appear until January 2008. That year, Reza Udhin joined the band on keyboards when they supported Mötley Crüe's British tour; they then began work on their next album in Prague. Killing Joke's contribution to the world of rock was recognised when they were awarded the "Lifetime Achievement Award" at the 2005 Kerrang Awards. The band recorded the new album in "Hell", the basement rehearsal space of Studio Faust Records in Prague, opting for simplicity and raw energy through the use of live takes with a minimum of overdubs. The result was Hosannas from the Basements of Hell, released in April 2006, which made the UK Top 75.

During a European tour in April 2006, Paul Raven abruptly departed after a few dates to tour with Ministry, and was temporarily replaced by Kneill Brown. In October, it was announced that Coleman had been chosen as Composer in Residence for the European Union, to be commissioned to write music for special occasions.

Early in 2007, Killing Joke released three archival collections. The first, Inside Extremities, was a double album of material taken from the band's preparations for the Extremities album, including rehearsals, rare mixes, previously unheard track "The Fanatic" and a full live show from the Extremities tour. This was followed by two volumes of Bootleg Vinyl Archive, each consisting of a 3-CD box set of live bootleg recordings originally released on vinyl in the 1980s, plus the Astoria gig from the Pandemonium tour (which was voted one of the greatest gigs of all time by Kerrang). The 1990 album Extremities, Dirt & Various Repressed Emotions, which had long been out of print, was reissued in remastered form.

On 20 October, Paul Raven died of heart failure prior to a recording session in Geneva, Switzerland. In his honour, Coleman composed the track "The Raven King", which appeared on the next album. In 2008, the second batch of albums, from Fire Dances to Outside the Gate, was reissued in remastered form with bonus tracks.

Reunion of the original line-up and death of Geordie Walker (2008–present)
After the death of Raven, the original line-up of Coleman, Youth, Walker and Ferguson reunited. Coleman told Terrorizer magazine how the return of Ferguson came up after 20 years of absence:

"Everything came together when we all met at...Raven's funeral. It was funny the unifying effect it had on all of us. It made us realise our mortality and how important Killing Joke is to all of us."

They assembled in Granada, Spain, to prepare a world tour consisting of two nights in various capital cities of the world, playing a programme of four complete albums. Recordings of the rehearsals were later released as Duende - The Spanish Sessions. The first night was dedicated to their first two albums, Killing Joke and What's THIS For...!, while the second night featured large parts of Pandemonium plus some early Island singles. The world tour began in September in Tokyo and concluded in Chicago in October.

An album of radio session recordings, The Peel Sessions 1979–1981, was released in September 2008. This was the second time all 17 tracks were released in their live session form.

The band then appeared at several festivals, including All Tomorrow's Parties, Sonisphere Festival, and Rebellion Festival, headlining the latter. They also performed in the Big Top Tent at the 2009 Isle of Wight Festival after being hand-picked by Tim Burgess, frontman for the Charlatans.

During October and November 2009, they recorded the album Absolute Dissent (2010), marking the band's 30th anniversary. It was preceded by the In Excelsis EP in June 2010. In November, the band received the "Innovator Award" at the 2010 Classic Rock Roll of Honour; the award was presented to Killing Joke by Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, who stated, "I go back a long way with Jaz Coleman and the band. I used to go and see the band, and it was a band that really impressed me because Geordie's guitar sound was just really, really strong. And they were really tribal, the band, and it was really intense. It was just really good to hear something like that during the 80s, which sort of caved in a bit with haircuts and synthesizers". The band were also honoured by Metal Hammer at their annual awards, receiving the Album of the Year award for Absolute Dissent.

In 2012, the group released MMXII. It reached No. 44 upon its first week of release, the band's highest UK chart placement since their eponymous 2003 album, as well as charting across Europe.

The band released their 15th studio album, Pylon, in October 2015. The deluxe edition contained five additional tracks. A nine-date British tour followed to promote the record. Pylon entered the UK albums chart at No. 16, becoming the band's first UK Top 20 album since 1994. In November 2016, the band played at the Brixton Academy in London, before embarking on a European tour, their longest to date. In 2018, the band did a worldwide tour to celebrate their 40th anniversary.

In March 2022 the band released a new EP, Lord of Chaos, their first new material for seven years.

Geordie Walker died in Prague on 25 November 2023, aged 64, after suffering a stroke.

Style and influences
The band called their sound "tension music". Co-founder Ferguson described it as "the sound of the earth vomiting. I'm never quite sure whether to be offended by the question of 'are we punk' or not, because, I loved punk music, but we weren't. And I think our influences were beyond punk. Obviously before punk, there was Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and there was Yes even and King Crimson, and those had all influenced me as a player, and the other guys would say other things, but I'm sure they were all part of their history as well".

Coleman's "menacing" vocal style and "terrifying growl" have been compared to Motörhead's Lemmy. In the first part of their career, Coleman also played synth while singing, adding electronic atonal sounds to create a disturbing atmosphere.

Walker's guitar style is metallic and cold. Walker stated that "the guitar should convey some sort of emotion". He cited Siouxsie and the Banshees's original guitarist John McKay who "came out with these chord structures that I found very refreshing". According to critic Simon Reynolds, Walker took Keith Levene's guitar sound from PiL to another, almost inhuman and extreme level. Ferguson's tribal drum style has been compared to early Siouxsie and the Banshees. Coleman had stated in early 1980 that Ferguson listened to the Banshees.

Legacy
Killing Joke have inspired artists of many genres. They have been namechecked by several heavy metal and rock bands such as Metallica and Soundgarden. Metallica covered "The Wait" and James Hetfield picked Coleman as one of his favourite singers. Soundgarden cited them as one of their main influences when they started playing. Jane's Addiction said that the group was one of their influences; singer Perry Farrell was inspired by the percussive and tribal aspect of their music. Helmet frontman Page Hamilton, whose band covered "Primitive" and "Requiem", has described Killing Joke as "a huge-huge influence". Faith No More stated that all of their members liked the group, qualifying them as a "great band". Walker's style inspired Kurt Cobain's work with Nirvana, according to Bill Janovitz of AllMusic, with the use of a metallic sound mixed with a shimmering chorused effect. Foo Fighters, Nirvana drummer Grohl's subsequent band, covered "Requiem" in 1997. Metal band Fear Factory covered "Millennium" in 2005.

The band have inspired many industrial bands, including Nine Inch Nails and Ministry. They have been cited by Trent Reznor, Nine Inch Nails's leader, who mentioned his interest in their early material, and said that he studied their music. Al Jourgensen of Ministry described himself as a "big fan" of the group. Marilyn Manson listened to them during his formative years. Godflesh frontman Justin Broadrick was particularly influenced by their early releases containing dub versions.

The group has also been cited by alternative music acts such as My Bloody Valentine and LCD Soundsystem. Shoegazing guitarist and composer Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine mentioned the band and specifically praised Walker's touch, which he described as "this effortless playing producing a monstruous sound". In 2002, James Murphy of dance-punk band LCD Soundsystem lifted the rhythm section of "Change" on his debut single, "Losing My Edge".

Film
Killing Joke were the subject of a feature-length documentary film, The Death and Resurrection Show (2013), by filmmaker Shaun Pettigrew; its genesis came from an earlier video work financed by Coleman called Let Success Be Your Proof. The film was shown in various festivals between 2013 and 2014. Co-produced by Coleman, it combined archive footage of Killing Joke over the previous decades with tour footage, recording sessions and interviews with subjects including the members of the band, Jimmy Page, Dave Grohl, Peter Hook and Alex Paterson. The Death and Resurrection Show was broadcast on Sundance TV and was then released on DVD via the film's website in 2017. Uncut rated it 9 out of 10, saying "Shaun Pettigrew's film mixes outlandish anecdotes, arcane philosophy and blistering music".

Discography
Studio albums
 * Killing Joke (1980)
 * What's THIS For...! (1981)
 * Revelations (1982)
 * Fire Dances (1983)
 * Night Time (1985)
 * Brighter Than a Thousand Suns (1986)
 * Outside the Gate (1988)
 * Extremities, Dirt and Various Repressed Emotions (1990)
 * Pandemonium (1994)
 * Democracy (1996)
 * Killing Joke (2003)
 * Hosannas from the Basements of Hell (2006)
 * Absolute Dissent (2010)
 * MMXII (2012)
 * Pylon (2015)

title: Killing Joke


text:
Enrique Bolaños

Enrique José Bolaños Geyer (13 May 1928 – 14 June 2021) was a Nicaraguan politician who served as President of Nicaragua from 10 January 2002 to 10 January 2007.

From 1997 to 2002, Bolaños served as vice president under Arnoldo Alemán. On 4 November 2001 he defeated Daniel Ortega of the Sandinista National Liberation Front party in the presidential election and was sworn in as president on 10 January 2002. He was a member of the Constitutional Liberal Party (PLC) until he broke with it to help form the Alliance for the Republic (APRE). At the beginning of his term as president, he led an anti-corruption campaign that ultimately convicted his predecessor and head of the PLC, Arnoldo Alemán to 20 years in prison.

Early life and career
Bolaños was born in Masaya, Nicaragua, on 13 May 1928. He received his primary and secondary education in Nicaragua at the Jesuit Colegio Centro América, and graduated from Saint Louis University in the United States with a degree in industrial engineering. He married Lila Teresita Abaunza in 1949. They had five children, a daughter and four sons, including Enrique Bolaños Abaunza who is head of INCAE Business School.

With his brothers Alejandro and Nicolás, in 1952 high cotton prices promoted him to begin an agro-production enterprise. This grew into the business, founded in 1964, SAIMSA (Industrial Agricultural Services of Masaya), a consortium that became one of the largest cotton producers in Central America by the 1970s. Bolaños served as an active member of the influential business chamber COSEP (Superior Council for Private Enterprise), and served as its president from 1983 to 1988. Under his leadership, COSEP was a vigorously anti-Sandinista institution; Bolaños described himself as anti-communist and believed investment was the way to lift the country out of poverty.

Bolaños publicly opposed Daniel Ortega's Sandinista government during the 1980s. After COSEP sent a letter criticizing the Junta of National Reconstruction, Bolaños was one of the COSEP figures arrested, on 20 October 1981 and held for six days, though he was not yet part of the COSEP leadership which signed the aforementioned letter. One month later he was imprisoned again upon returning from an AIL (Association of Latin American Enterprises) conference in Venezuela. Under the government's controversial agrarian reform program, in 1985 SAIMSA was confiscated by the government. Bolanos characterized the confiscation as a reprisal for his political activities. He worked as a computer programmer following the confiscation of his business.

In October 1995 Bolaños was elected campaign manager for the Liberal Constitutionalist Party (PLC) in the 1996 elections. The following May, he was chosen by presidential candidate and former mayor of Managua Arnoldo Alemán as the PLC's vice-presidential candidate. The ticket defeated perennial Sandinista candidate Ortega with 51% of the vote, and Alemán and Bolaños were sworn in as president and vice president, respectively, on 10 January 1997.

 Presidency (2002–2007)
Bolaños was chosen as the presidential candidate for the 2001 elections at the Grand Convention of the Constitutionalist Liberal Party (PLC) meeting in 2001. Facing a country still recovering from the devastation wrought by Hurricane Mitch in 1998, Bolaños campaigned on the slogan “let’s roll up our sleeves”. He won the presidential elections with 56.3% of the vote, while Daniel Ortega received 42.3% and Conservative Party candidate Alberto Saborio received 1.4%.

Bolaños was sworn in as President of the Republic of Nicaragua on 10 January 2002 to serve a five-year term (2002–2007). Two days later, he began an anti-corruption campaign to investigate and prosecute all former and current state employees who engaged in corrupt behavior. In August this resulted in the prosecution, and ultimately the conviction of his predecessor Alemán with fraud, money laundering, and misuse of public funds, in sums totaling almost $100 million. The case, known as “la huaca”, is one of the largest in Nicaraguan history. Alemán served six of a 20-year sentence, mainly under house arrest, until he was acquitted by the Ortega administration in 2009.

Throughout his administration, Bolaños faced obstacles from power based outside the Presidency, later citing what he characterized as three coup attempts against his government: the first, early in his tenure came when the Supreme Court of Justice of Nicaragua sent an accusation to the National Assembly that he had used funds from the "huaca" to finance his electoral campaign and asked to reverse it. The second came in 2004 when an opinion from the Comptroller's Office sent to the National Assembly sought to remove him from office. Finally, in September 2005, Bolaños publicly denounced as a “slow motion coup” the joint efforts of Ortega, Alemán, the PLC, and the FSLN, together with the National Assembly, which attempted constitutional reforms to strip him of power. Demonstrations called by the FSLN backed the National Assembly’s actions. The executive branch was partially stripped of its powers to appoint ministers and public officials, but, facing pressure from the international community, particularly the OAS, the EU, and the United States, constitutional changes were postponed until the following year.

Despite this crisis, he succeeded in negotiating the ratification of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) by the National Assembly; as well as the forgiveness of 80% of Nicaragua’s debts by creditors. Focused on macroeconomics, he set up investment incentives that spurred sustained economic growth at levels the country had not seen in decades; but this emphasis came at the expense of policies to help the poor, something his adversary Ortega seized on to fuel opposition. A staunch conservative, Bolaños allegedly ordered the compilation of a list of public officials "suspected" of being part of the "gay-lesbian world". In November 2006, abortion was outlawed under all circumstances and Bolaños proposed a 30-year prison sentence as punishment.

During the 2006 presidential election campaign, the Nicaraguan Constitution barred the incumbent from seeking re-election and Bolaños's Alliance for the Republic party (APRE) joined the Nicaraguan Liberal Alliance, whose candidate Eduardo Montealegre took second place. Bolaños turned over the presidency to his longtime political opponent Daniel Ortega on 10 January 2007. As outgoing President, he was legally entitled to a seat in the new session of the National Assembly, a practice he had criticized after its creation in the 1990s as part of the “pact” between Alemán and Ortega. Bolaños instead left the political arena, formally resigning his seat in February 2007.

Post-presidency
Following his retirement from politics, Bolaños ran the Enrique Bolaños Foundation, a non-profit educational foundation that provides free and democratic access to all documents from Bolaños' presidency as well as many digitized collections of Nicaraguan historical, political, cultural, and juridical documents, making it one of the main centers of historical documentation in the country. It is the first Nicaraguan presidential library, and one of Latin America's first virtual presidential libraries, which Bolaños programmed and developed himself.

Despite having left politics, he remained a critic of Ortega, who Bolaños said had never left power since he first toppled Somoza in 1979.

In 2017, Bolaños published The Struggle for Power, which both gave a political history of Nicaragua from 1821 to 2007 and also served as a memoir of his time in the presidency.

His wife Lila T. Abaunza died in 2008 of a brain hemorrhage. Three of Bolaños’s children also predeceased him. In August 2020, Bolaños’s family shared news that he was in poor health. He died on 14 June 2021 in his home outside Managua at the age of 93. He was interred at the family crypt at Monimbó cemetery.

National Convention of the Constitutionalist Liberal Party (PLC) presidential primaries, 28 January 2001
Source:
 * Enrique Bolaños Geyer – 220 (54.6%)
 * Eduardo Montealegre – 143 (35.5%)
 * Iván Escobar Fornos – 38 (9.4%)
 * Null – 2 (0.5%)

Presidential election results, 4 November 2001
Source:

title: Enrique Bolaños


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DC Thomson

DC Thomson is a media company based in Dundee, Scotland. Founded by David Couper Thomson in 1905, it is best known for publishing The Dundee Courier, The Evening Telegraph and The Sunday Post newspapers, and the comics Oor Wullie, The Broons, The Beano, The Dandy and Commando. It also owns the Aberdeen Journals Group which publishes the Press and Journal. The company owns several websites, including Findmypast, and owned the now defunct social media site Friends Reunited.

History
The company began as a branch of the Thomson family business when William Thomson became the sole proprietor of Charles Alexander & Company, publishers of Dundee Courier and Daily Argus. In 1884, David Couper Thomson took over the publishing business, and established it as D.C. Thomson in 1905. The firm flourished, and took its place as the third J in the "Three Js", the traditional summary of Dundee industry ('jute, jam and journalism').

Thomson was notable for his conservatism, vigorously opposing the introduction of trade unions into his workforce, and for refusing to employ Catholics. Among historians of popular culture, the firm has "excited a good deal of interest precisely because it has always shrouded its activities in secrecy ... [it] has never allowed scholars access to its archives, and has declined to participate in exhibitions of juvenile literature."

By 2010, the company was producing more than 100 million comics, magazines, and newspapers every year from offices in Dundee, Glasgow, Manchester, and London. In June 2010, 350 jobs at DC Thomson were made redundant with the closure of the West Ward Printworks in Dundee, along with a section of the Kingsway Print Plant.

Although the principal offices are now located outside Dundee city centre at Kingsway, the Courier Building at Meadowside has been retained as the company headquarters. This 1902 building was designed to resemble an American red stone, steel reinforced office block. When a nine-storey tower extension was added in 1960, the architect T. Lindsay Grey kept the same style. The building underwent extensive renovation and reopened to employees in 2017, and is able to accommodate 600 workers.

In 2009 DC Thomson acquired the magazine company This England Publishing, which included This England magazine and Evergreen quarterly magazine. In the same year DC Thomson acquired the Friends Reunited website from ITV for £25.6m, but by 2011 it was valued at £5.2m and was eventually shut down completely in February 2016. In 2013 there were nine job losses at This England Publishing with the editorial team remaining but relocating in Cheltenham.

As of 2016, the company posted an increase in pre-tax profits and revenue whilst employing over 2,000 workers. Despite the falling circulation of newspapers and magazines, DC Thomson attributed the rising profits to company-wide cuts to operating costs and good figures in digital revenues and events. The company went on to say that they would continue to branch out their brand into new areas to support the traditional newspaper and magazine divisions.

In February 2023, it was announced that several "well-loved" titles would be closed and employees would be made redundant as part of a wider restructuring. On 9 February 2023, it was announced that Shout, Living, Platinum Magazine, Evergreen, Animals & You and Animal Planet would be closed with 300 employees being made redundant.

Brightsolid
Brightsolid is a data centre and cloud-based hosting company based in Dundee that DC Thomson established in 1995 as Scotland Online. It became Brightsolid in 2008, organised into two divisions: Brightsolid Online Publishing (BSOP) and Brightsolid Online Technology (BSOT). The two divisions were split into separate businesses in October 2013, and Brightsolid Online Publishing was renamed DC Thomson Family History, with Annelies van den Belt as chief executive.

Findmypast
Findmypast Limited (formerly DC Thomson Family History, until 2015) owns a variety of large genealogy sites worldwide, including Findmypast, Genes Reunited and Mocavo. The company had contracts to digitise archives for the Imperial War Museum and the British Library, where it was making the British Newspaper Archive searchable.

Former
DC Thomson once owned Bridlington-based children's publisher Peter Haddock until they closed it in late 2013.

Publications
D.C. Thomson publications include:
 * Sunday Post
 * The Courier
 * The Evening Telegraph
 * My Weekly
 * The Scots Magazine
 * The People's Friend
 * The Beano
 * The Dandy
 * Commando
 * Jackie
 * Shout
 * Bunty

title: DC Thomson