text:
Short Empire

The Short Empire was a medium-range four-engined monoplane flying boat, designed and developed by Short Brothers during the 1930s to meet the requirements of the growing commercial airline sector, with a particular emphasis upon its usefulness upon the core routes that served the United Kingdom. It was developed and manufactured in parallel with the Short Sunderland maritime patrol bomber, which went on to serve in the Second World War; a further derivative that was later developed was the piggy-back Short Mayo Composite.

The development of the Short Empire had been heavily influenced by its primary customer, Imperial Airways, which had originally developed the requirements to which it was initially ordered and designed. Imperial Airways, and its successor, the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC), along with Qantas and TEAL, operated the type in commercial service. Upon entering service, the Empire routinely flew between the British mainland and Australia and the various British colonies in Africa and Asia, typically carrying a combination of passenger and mail cargoes; Empires were also used on various other routes, such as between Bermuda and New York City.

The Empire also saw military service during the Second World War. The Royal Air Force (RAF), Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF), and briefly the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) used the type to conduct various military operations, particularly as an airborne platform for anti-submarine patrols and for general transport duties.

Origins
During the 1930s, global demand for air travel was consistently and rapidly growing. Thus, keen to grow its share of this emerging market, British airline Imperial Airways was keen to expand and sought the latest technology to do so. In particular, Imperial Airways' technical adviser, Major Robert Hobart Mayo developed a specification for a new type of aircraft to serve both passenger and freight requirements throughout the world. This specification sought an aircraft that would be capable of carrying up to 24 passengers in spacious comfort along with adequate room for airmail or freight while simultaneously being capable of a cruising speed of 170 mph and a range of at least 700 mi; the capacity for an extended range of 2000 mi to serve the North Atlantic route was also stipulated. According to aviation author Geoffrey Norris, at the time, it was considered to be impossible to construct a land-based aeroplane of such size and weight that still possessed acceptable landing/take-off performance, thus it was determined that a flying boat would be required.

Early on, it was apparent that Short Brothers, which had previously developed and produced several large flying boats for Imperial Airways and the Royal Air Force (RAF) that had proven to be sound designs in terms of performance and safety, would be a frontrunner to fulfil the requirement. However, Shorts was hesitant to build such an aircraft, due to the necessary advances involved, straight from the drawing board without the production of a preceding prototype, and thus requested to be allowed the time to build such an aircraft; this was rejected by Imperial Airways, stating that such a delay was not permissible. In 1935, Imperial Airways announced the placement of an order for 28 flying boats of an as-of-yet undesigned type, weighing 18 tonnes each; the order was reportedly hailed as being "one of the world's boldest experiments in aviation", while sceptics referred to the decision less favourably as being a gamble.

A design team led by Arthur Gouge set about designing what would become the Empire. It was quickly determined that, in order to have sufficient clearance between the tips of the propellers and the water, the wing would need to be in a high mounted position; initially to be housed in a hump above the fuselage for sufficient height, the fuselage depth was instead increased, providing more internal volume than required but enabling a lighter and stronger integration of the cantilever wing with the fuselage. Shorts' own convention for wide planing bottomed hulls for its flying boats was overturned as the 18-tonne weight would generate excessive drag with such a configuration; following a series of water tank experiments, a new type of planing bottom with a reduced beam deemed suitable. The basic aerodynamic design was derived from the smaller Short Scion Senior floatplane, which served in all but name as a half-scale prototype for the Empire and for its sibling, the military-orientated Short Sunderland.

At the time of development, the British aircraft industry had never attempted to construct an aeroplane of this size and complexity before; accordingly, many new techniques were devised to overcome problems encountered, particularly during its construction process. Shorts had to develop its own machinery to produce the necessary T-shaped Hiduminium alloy lengths that comprised the main spar. A specialised and patented flap arrangement, known as Gouge flaps after their creator, was employed on the Empire to increase wing area with only a small increase in drag and without heavy disrupting airflow over the top of the aerofoil; in operation, the lift coefficient of the wing could be increased by 30 percent, reducing the landing speed by 12 per cent, without employing any trimming to adjust.

Initial production
On 4 July 1936, the first Empire flying boat to be built, G-ADHL, named Canopus, conducted its maiden flight, flown by Shorts' chief test pilot, John Lankester Parker. Early flights of the type were relatively trouble-free, Parker declaring his satisfaction with the aircraft's performance; the new styling of the planing bottom used also quickly proved its value. On 17 September 1936, G-ADHL first flew on behalf of Imperial Airways, piloted by Major H G Brackley, Imperial Airways' air superintendent; the final delivery and proving flight of the aircraft to Marseilles, France took place on 22 October 1936. The first series of the Short Empires, the S.23, could carry five crew, 17 passengers, and 4,480 lb (2,035 kg) of cargo at a maximum speed of 174 knots (320 km/h) and was powered by four 920 hp Bristol Pegasus Xc radial engines.

The second Empire and the first of the long-range models to be produced, G-ADHM, named Caledonia, performed her first flight on 15 September 1936 and was delivered to Imperial Airways on 4 December 1936. From September 1936 onwards, the Empire was produced at a rate of one aircraft per month; typically, each aircraft's delivery date occurred only a few days after having performed its maiden flight, the hand-over sometimes happened immediately following the first flight. The Empire was officially known as the C-class by Imperial Airways and each aircraft operated by them was given a name beginning with a C.

On 26 February 1938, the final three Empires of the initial order placed by Imperial Airways – Coorong, Coogee and Corio – were diverted from the Imperial Airways order and were delivered instead to the Anglo-Australian Qantas Empire Airways. In late 1937, due to Imperial Airways' satisfaction with its operational experience with the aircraft of the initial batch, the company placed a follow-on order for another 11 Empires; combined with the original order of 28 this had the distinction of being the largest single order to have ever been placed for a British civil aircraft at that time. While the first three aircraft of the additional order were of the typical S.23 class, intended for Qantas Empire Airways, the rest were manufactured to a differing design, designated as the S.30. A total of 42 Empires were built, all at Short's Rochester factory.

Further development
The S.30 series was outfitted with four Bristol Perseus XIIc sleeve valve engines in the place of the Pegasus engines; the Perseus engines were more efficient but provided a lower power output of 890 hp, but the decrease in developed thrust was effectively compensated for via the adoption of smaller diameter nacelles which had resulted in a substantial reduction in drag. It also had a strengthened airframe and used heavier gauge sheeting on the fuselage and wings; while these changes allowed the takeoff weight to be increased to 46000 lb with a corresponding range of 1500 mi, the S.30 had broadly the same performance as the preceding S.23 flying boats.

The first of the S.30 flying boats to be laid out and completed was G-AFCT, named Champion. In December 1938, the second S.30 aircraft G-AFCU, named Cabot became the first aircraft of the series to conduct the first successful takeoff. The last three aircraft of this order – Captain Cook, Clare and Aotearoa – were renamed and re-registered for use by TEAL. In 1939, a final S.30 flying boat, G-AFKZ, was ordered and delivered to Imperial Airways in late March 1940.

A total of four flying S.30 series flying boats – Cabot, Caribou, Clyde and Connemara – were equipped with in-flight refuelling equipment and extra fuel tanks in order that they could be used to provide a regular transatlantic airmail service. The concept was for the aircraft to take off at lower weights and, once airborne, take on extra fuel to reach an all up weight of 53000 lb, giving the aircraft a range of over 2500 mi. The extra fuel reduced the payload to 4270 lb against the 6250 lb of the standard aeroplane. The refuelling was performed by three converted Handley Page Harrow bombers, one operating out of Ireland and two out of Newfoundland.

In 1939, Imperial Airways placed a further follow-on order for a modified model of the S.30, designated as the S.33. This series had the same basic construction as its immediate predecessors, the new Pegasus XI engine, a development of the powerplant used by the original S.23 series, was adopted instead. Out of these three final aircraft, only two – Clifton and Cleopatra – would be completed and delivered to the newly formed British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC).

A substantial larger development of the Empire flying boat, effectively a new aircraft, was the S.26, designated as the G-class. The aircraft had similar appearance to the standard Empire, but was in fact roughly about 15 percent larger in all dimensions, as well as differing in its use of the more powerful Bristol Hercules radial engine. It adopted an improved hull design, featuring a wing span of 134 ft and a length of 101 ft. It was intended to be used for year-round services on the north Atlantic route. Only a small number were built, and these were quickly impressed into military service during the Second World War.

Design
The Short Empire flying boat was a relatively clean-looking high-wing monoplane, initially powered by an arrangement of four wing-mounted Bristol Pegasus Xc radial engines which drove de Havilland-built variable-pitch propellers. The engines were each enclosed within NACA cowls and mounted ahead of the leading edge of the wings. This allowed portions of the leading edge adjacent to the engines to be hinged forwards and used as platforms from which to maintain the engines.

The Pegasus Xc engines could each produce 910 hp on takeoff, decreasing to 740 hp at an altitude of 3,500 ft. Alternative engines were installed upon various models of the aircraft, of both greater and lower power outputs depending upon the model's role and purpose. Initial production aircraft were designed for a 40500 lb gross weight; however, by 1939, many aircraft had been strengthened for an increased gross weight of 53000 lb. Overall, its useful load included 600 impgal of fuel (weighing 4560 lb), 44 impgal of oil, assorted onboard equipment (weighing 3340 lb), along with the payload itself and a crew complement of five (weighing 8200 lb). The S.23 series achieved a top speed of 200 mph at an altitude of 5500 ft along with a cruising speed of 165 mph and a minimum flying speed of 73 mph.

The wings had a flush-riveted Alclad covering and featured both Frise-type ailerons and the internally-developed Gouge flaps, the latter of which were actuated by an electric motor connected via a gearing system and screw jacks, allowing the flaps to be lowered in 60 seconds and raised within 90 seconds. Large cylindrical 325-gallon fuel tanks were accommodated within the wings, set in between the inner and outer engines, and were fitted as standard; on long-range variants of the aircraft, additional fuel tanks were present in the wings, up to a total of three containing 280 gallons, 325 gallons, and 175 gallons in each wing. Elements of the leading edge of the wing, set upon either side of the engine nacelles, could be folded down to act as servicing platforms for both the engines and the floats, the latter of which were carried upon tandem struts fixed onto the main spar and featured shock absorbers in order to eliminate undue torsional loads being transmitted to the wings by the sudden impact of waves while travelling at speed.

The hull, which had adopted a radically new shape, employed mainly traditional construction methods at Shorts. The structure used a combination of Z-shaped stringers and I-shaped girders to form triangular sections that ran along the chines located at the point where the fuselage sides met with the planing underside. As a measure to simplify manufacturing and to increase the available internal volume, only a simple curvature sweeping the sides of the hull into the chines was employed; on previous Shorts-built flying boats, a more complex S-shaped curvature and a sudden reduction in beam just above the chines had been employed instead.

The 17 ft deep hull accommodated a total of two decks, the upper deck forming a lengthy compartment divided into sections to accommodate 3000 lb of freight and mail along with a storage space and a ship's clerk's office. This office contained controls such as electrical fuseboxes and circuit switches, ventilation controls, and fuelcocks. The lower deck contained a large marine compartment containing an anchor, a pair of drogues, a mooring bollard, and a boat hook, along with a step ladder to the cockpit; aft of the mooring compartment was the forward passenger saloon, followed by a central corridor flanked by the toilets and galley, a mid-ship cabin, a spacious promenade cabin, and finally an aft-cabin. The cabins could be alternatively outfitted with comfortable seating or bunks for sleeper services. Near the rear of the aircraft, a further compartment for the purpose of containing freight and mail was present which extended into the after fuselage.

The flying crew was seated in a spacious cockpit, also referred to as the bridge; the captain and co-pilot were seated side-by-side while the radio operator sat behind the captain, facing rearwards. The flight deck was relatively well equipped for the era, including features such as an autopilot; the flying instrumentation included a Hughes turn indicator, compass, and variometer, a Sperry Corporation artificial horizon and heading indicator, a Kollsman sensitive altimeter, a Marconi radio direction finder, a Smiths chronometer, and an attitude indicator. The radio operator was furnished with Marconi shock-proof radio sets for receiving and transmitting across the radio spectrum; the retractable loop antenna could be repositioned for visual or aural homing.

While designed as civil aircraft, examples of the type would not only see military service but be specifically refitted for this purpose. In 1941, two Empire flying boats – Clio and Cordelia returned to Shorts' Belfast facility, where they were modified with the addition of gun turrets in dorsal and rear positions and air to surface vessel (ASV) radar equipment installed on the top and sides of the fuselage. They were used by Coastal Command. More extensive military use was made of the Empire's sibling design, the Short Sunderland.

Operational history

On 8 February 1937, one of the Empire flying boats, Castor, conducted the first regular flight, flying from Calshot, Hampshire, England to Alexandria, Egypt. This flight, which covered a distance of roughly 2300 mi non-stop, showed that Britain could move military materiel to its overseas bases by air. On 18 February 1937, Caledonia, the first of the Empires built, flew the same Calshot-Alexandria route; it was able to traverse the route non-stop at an average speed of 170 mph.

On 5 July 1937, the first crossing of the Atlantic by an Empire flying boat was conducted. On an experimental basis, Caledonia, piloted by Captain W N Cummings, flew a 1993 mi route from Foynes on the River Shannon, Ireland west to Botwood on the Bay of Exploits, Newfoundland. On the same day, an American Sikorsky S-42 flying boat flew the opposite direction. Caledonia took just over 15 hours (including a period spend searching for a landing spot), flying at an altitude of 1500 to 5000 ft to cover 1993 mi—an average speed of about 130 mph. On its return flight, conducted on 22 July 1937, Caledonia flew the same route in the opposite direction in a time of 12 hours; in comparison to the competing Sikorsky S-42, the Empire was able to traverse the overall route faster.

Several more survey flights of the Atlantic were made by Caledonia and Cambria. In August 1937, Cambria conducted the East-West flight in 14 hrs 24 min. In 1937, Cavalier was shipped to Bermuda and, after reassembly, started a service between there and New York City on 25 May 1937.

The Short Empire was designed to operate along the Imperial Airways routes to South Africa and Australia, where no leg was much over 500 mi. After the design of the Empire had been finalised and production had commenced, it was recognised that, with some pressure from the United States, it would be desirable to offer a similar service across the Atlantic. The range of the S.23 was less than that of the equivalent American-built counterpart in the form of the Sikorsky S-42, and as such it could not provide a true transatlantic service. Two boats (Caledonia and Cambria) were lightened and furnished with long-range tanks; both aircraft were used in experimental in-flight refuelling trials in order for them to conduct the journey; these modifications came at the cost of being able to carry fewer passengers and less cargo.

In an attempt to manage the Atlantic crossing, an alternative 'piggy-back' approach was trialled. This concept had been strongly advocated for by Imperial Airways' technical adviser, Major Robert Hobart Mayo, as a means of significantly increasing both range and payload, and had been well received by both the airline and the British Air Ministry, the latter of which placed an order with Shorts. Using the S.21 design (based on the S.23) as the carrier, a smaller four-engined floatplane, the Short S.20, was mounted upon its back; the most obvious difference between the S.21 and regular S.23 aeroplanes was the additional superstructure to carry the floatplane. Only a single example was built of the S.21 carrier aircraft, named Maia, and of the S.20, named Mercury. Together, they were known as the Short Mayo Composite.

On 21 July 1938, a successful mid-air launch of Mercury was executed off the west coast of Ireland while carrying a 600 lb payload of mixed cargo and mail; it arrived at Montreal, Canada, 2860 mi 22 hrs 22 min later, having achieved an average speed of 141 mph. In further flights, the Empire-Mercury combination went on to set a number of long distance records; one such flight was conducted on 6 October 1938, flying from Dundee, Scotland to Orange River, South Africa, covering 6045 mi in 42 hrs 5 min. However, in spite of the demonstrated merits and workability of the concept, the outbreak of the Second World War resulted in the effective termination of all development work. During wartime, there was interest in the concept using alternative land-based aircraft to deliver Hawker Hurricane fighter aircraft for aerial protection over the mid-Atlantic.

After Italy entered the Second World War in June 1940, it became impossible for mail to be safely flown between Britain and Egypt (and thus onto Australia) via the Mediterranean. Accordingly, a new "Horseshoe Route" was established that ran from Auckland/Sydney via Cairo (following the old "Eastern Route") to Durban, South Africa, and thence by sea to Britain. This was restricted after the loss of Singapore in February 1942 to being between Durban and Calcutta, India.

Wartime experience in operating the type at overload weights resulted in the realisation that the Empires could take off at considerably higher weights than the conservative maxima provided by Shorts and, although the last Empire crossings to America were made in 1940 (by Clare and Clyde), many more flights were made on the long, demanding and vital over-water Lisbon-Bathurst flights.

Variants
42 "C Class" Short Empire flying boats were built, including 31 S.23s, nine S.30s and two S.33s.
 * S.23 Mk I : powered by four 920 hp Bristol Pegasus Xc poppet valve radial engines. 27 built.
 * S.23 Mk II Bermuda : powered by four 920 hp Bristol Pegasus Xc poppet valve radial engines. 2 built.
 * S.23 Mk III Atlantic : powered by four 920 hp Bristol Pegasus Xc poppet valve radial engines. two built.
 * S.23M : two converted from impressed S.23 Mk I, with an ASV radar, armed with two Boulton Paul gun turrets and depth charges.
 * S.30 Mk I : powered by four 890 hp Bristol Perseus XIIc sleeve valve radial engines. One built.
 * S.30 Mk I (Cathay) : powered by four 920 hp Bristol Pegasus Xc poppet valve radial engines. One built.
 * S.30 Mk II New Zealand : powered by four 890 hp Bristol Perseus XIIc sleeve valve radial engines. One built.
 * S.30 Mk III Atlantic : powered by four 890 hp Bristol Perseus XIIc sleeve valve radial engines. Four built.
 * S.30 Mk IV New Zealand : powered by four 890 hp Bristol Perseus XIIc sleeve valve radial engines. Two built.
 * S.30M : two converted from impressed S.30 Mk III Atlantic for ASV trials and transport duties.
 * S.33 : powered by four 920 hp Bristol Pegasus Xc poppet valve radial engines. Two completed, third example scrapped when 75% complete.

Many S.23, S.30 & S.33 were re-engined during the war with 1010 hp Bristol Pegasus XXII poppet valve radial engines.

Accidents and incidents
Most accidents involving the aircraft occurred during landing and were generally attributed to pilot error. For pilots trained on smaller less sophisticated aircraft judgement of height was difficult due to the high cockpit of the Empire, as well as the concept of using flaps to manage speed. With time improved familiarity reduced the accident rate. Once in service the structure was found to be weak in places, especially on the planing bottoms, which led to later models employing thicker gauge skins on the hull and wings.

 * 24 March 1937: G-ADVA Capricornus of Imperial Airways crashed in the Beaujolais mountains in Central France, during the inaugural Southampton to Alexandria scheduled service.
 * 27 November 1938:G-AETV Calpurnia of Imperial Airways crashed on landing on Lake Habbaniya, Iraq with the loss of four lives.
 * 21 January 1939:G-ADUU Cavalier of Imperial Airways ditched in the Atlantic Ocean due to carburettor icing affecting all four engines. The aircraft subsequently sank with the loss of three lives. Ten survivors were rescued by the American tanker SS Esso Baytown (1937).
 * 14 March 1939: G-ADVB Corsair (under Capt E.S. Alcock, brother of John Alcock) foundered during a forced landing on the Dungu River. After 10 months' salvage work, and one failed take-off attempt, it was flown off the river on 6 January 1940.
 * 1 May 1939: G-ADVD Challenger of Imperial Airways crashed on landing in Mozambique Harbour with the loss of two lives.
 * February 1941:G-AFCX Clyde of BOAC was wrecked in a gale at Lisbon, Portugal.
 * 29 December 1941:G-ADUX Cassiopeia of BOAC crashed after striking debris on takeoff from Sabang, Indonesia, killing four.
 * 30 January 1942:G-AEUH Corio of BOAC was shot down by seven Japanese fighter aircraft and crashed off West Timor, killing 13 of the 18 people on board. The aircraft was owned by BOAC, but was operated by Qantas.
 * 28 February 1942: G-AETZ Circe of Qantas was shot down 320 km south of Java by Mitsubishi G4M "Betty" aircraft of the Imperial Japanese Navy with the loss of all on board.
 * 22 April 1943:G-AEUB (VH-ADU) crashed off Port Moresby, with 18 survivors.

Civil operators

 * Qantas
 * TEAL
 * Imperial Airways
 * BOAC
 * Imperial Airways
 * BOAC
 * BOAC

Military operators

 * Royal Australian Air Force
 * No. 11 Squadron RAAF
 * No. 13 Squadron RAAF
 * No. 20 Squadron RAAF
 * No. 33 Squadron RAAF
 * No. 41 Squadron RAAF
 * Royal Air Force
 * No. 119 Squadron RAF
 * Royal Air Force
 * No. 119 Squadron RAF

title: Short Empire


text:
Boulder River

Boulder River may refer to:

 * The Boulder River (southwestern Montana), a tributary of the Jefferson River in Jefferson County, southwestern Montana in the United States
 * The Boulder River (Sweet Grass County, Montana), a tributary of the Yellowstone River in Sweet Grass County, south central Montana in the United States
 * The Boulder River (Washington), a tributary of the North Fork Stillaguamish River in Washington (U.S. state) in the United States
 * The Boulder River, New Zealand, a small river in the north of the South Island of New Zealand
 * The Boulder River (Minnesota), a river of Minnesota

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

title: Boulder River


text:
Tazewell County

Tazewell County is the name of two counties in the United States:

 * Tazewell County, Illinois
 * Tazewell County, Virginia

title: Tazewell County


text:
X.Org Server

X.Org Server is the free and open-source implementation of the X Window System (X11) display server stewarded by the X.Org Foundation.

Implementations of the client-side X Window System protocol exist in the form of X11 libraries, which serve as helpful APIs for communicating with the X server. Two such major X libraries exist for X11. The first of these libraries was Xlib, the original C language X11 API, but another C language X library, XCB, was created later in 2001. Other smaller X libraries exist, both as interfaces for Xlib and XCB in other languages, and as smaller standalone X libraries.

The services with which the X.Org Foundation supports X Server include the packaging of the releases; certification (for a fee); evaluation of improvements to the code; developing the web site, and handling the distribution of monetary donations. The releases are coded, documented, and packaged by global developers.

Software architecture
The X.Org Server implements the server side of the X Window System core protocol version 11 (X11) and extensions to it, e.g. RandR.

Version 1.16.0 integrates support for systemd-based launching and management which improved boot performance and reliability.

Device Independent X (DIX)
The Device Independent X (DIX) is the part of the X.Org Server that interacts with clients and implements software rendering. The main loop and the event delivery are part of the DIX.

An X server has a tremendous amount of functionality that must be implemented to support the X core protocol. This includes code tables, glyph rasterization and caching, XLFDs, and the core rendering API which draws graphics primitives.

Device Dependent X (DDX)
The Device Dependent X (DDX) is the part of the x-server that interacts with the hardware. In the X.Org Server source code, each directory under "hw" corresponds to one DDX. Hardware comprises graphics cards as well as mouse and keyboards. Each driver is hardware specific and implemented as a separate loadable module.

2D graphics driver
For historical reasons the X.Org Server still contains graphics device drivers supporting some form of 2D rendering acceleration. In the past, mode-setting was done by an X-server graphics device driver specific to some video controller hardware (e.g., a GPU). To this mode-setting functionality, additional support for 2D acceleration was added when such became available with various GPUs. The mode-setting functionality was moved into the DRM and is being exposed through a DRM mode-setting interface, the new approach being called "kernel mode-setting" (KMS). But the 2D rendering acceleration remained.

In Debian the 2D graphics drivers for the X.Org Server are packaged individually and called xserver-xorg-video-*. After installation the 2D graphics driver-file is found under. The package xserver-xorg-video-nouveau installs  with a size of 215 KiB, the proprietary Nvidia GeForce driver installs an 8 MiB-sized file called   and Radeon Software installs   with a size of about 25MiB.

The available free and open-source graphics device drivers are being developed inside of the Mesa 3D-project. While these can be recompiled as required, the development of the proprietary DDX 2D graphics drivers is greatly eased when the X.Org Server keeps a stable API/ABI across multiple of its versions.

With version 1.17 a generic method for mode-setting was mainlined. The  package, the Debian-package being called , was retired, and the generic modesetting DDX it contained was moved into the server package to become the KMS-enabled default DDX, supporting the vast majority of AMD, Intel and NVidia GPUs.

On April 7, 2016 AMD employee Michel Dänzer released  version 7.7.0 and   version 1.1.0, the latter including support for their Polaris microarchitecture.

Acceleration architectures
There are (at least) XAA (XFree86 Acceleration Architecture), EXA, UXA and SNA.

In the X Window System, XFree86 Acceleration Architecture (XAA) is a driver architecture to make a video card's 2D hardware acceleration available to the X server. It was written by Harm Hanemaayer in 1996 and first released in XFree86 version 3.3. It was completely rewritten for XFree86 4.0. It was removed again from X.Org Server 1.13.

Most drivers implement acceleration using the XAA module. XAA is on by default, though acceleration of individual functions can be switched off as needed in the server configuration file ( or  ).

The driver for the ARK chipset was the original development platform for XAA.

In X.Org Server release 6.9/7.0, EXA was released as a replacement for XAA, as XAA supplies almost no speed advantage for current video cards. EXA is regarded as an intermediate step to converting the entire X server to using OpenGL.

Glamor
Glamor is a generic, hardware independent, 2D acceleration driver for the X server that translates the X render primitives into OpenGL operations, taking advantage of any existing 3D OpenGL drivers. In this way, it is functionally similar to Quartz Extreme and QuartzGL (2D performance acceleration) for Apple Quartz Compositor.

The ultimate goal of GLAMOR is to obsolete and replace all the DDX 2D graphics device drivers and acceleration architectures, thereby avoiding the need to write X 2D specific drivers for every supported graphic chipset. Glamor requires a 3D driver with support for shaders.

Glamor performance tuning was accepted for Google Summer of Code 2014. Glamor supports Xephyr and DRI3, and can boost some operations by 700–800%. Since its mainlining into version 1.16 of the X.Org Server, development on Glamor was continued and patches for the 1.17 release were published.

Virtualization
There is a distinct and special DDX for instances of the X.Org Server which run on a guest system inside of a virtualized environment: xf86-video-qxl, a driver for the "QXL video device". SPICE makes use of this driver though it works without it as well.

In the Debian repositories it is called xserver-xorg-video-qxl, cf. https://packages.debian.org/buster/xserver-xorg-video-qxl

Input stack
Under Debian, drivers related to input are found under. Such drivers are named e.g.,  ,   or.

With version 1.16, the X.Org Server obtained support for the libinput library in form of a wrapper called. At the XDC 2015 in Toronto, libratbag was introduced as a generic library to support configurable mice. is the input module for the X.Org server to handle classic joysticks and gamepads, which is not meant for playing games under X, but to control the cursor with a joystick or gamepad.

Other DDX components

 * XWayland
 * XWayland is a series of patches over the X.Org server codebase that implement an X server running upon the Wayland protocol. The patches are developed and maintained by the Wayland developers for compatibility with X11 applications during the transition to Wayland, and were mainlined in version 1.16 of the X.Org Server in 2014. When a user runs an X application from within Weston, it calls upon XWayland to service the request.
 * XQuartz
 * XQuartz is a series of patches from Apple Inc. to integrate support for the X11 protocol into their Quartz Compositor, in a similar way to how XWayland integrates X11 into Wayland compositors.

 * Xspice
 * Xspice is a device driver for the X.Org Server. It supports the QXL framebuffer device and includes a wrapper script which makes it possible to launch an X.Org Server whose display is exported via the SPICE protocol. This enables use of SPICE in a remote desktop environment, without requiring KVM virtualization.

 * Xephyr
 * Xephyr is an X-on-X implementation. Since version 1.16.0, Xephyr serves as the primary development environment for the new 2D acceleration subsystem (Glamor), permitting rapid development and testing on a single machine.

 * RandR
 * RandR (resize and rotate) is a communications protocol written as an extension to the X11 protocol. XRandR provides the ability to resize, rotate and reflect the root window of a screen. RandR is responsible for setting the screen refresh rate. It allows for the control of multiple monitors.

IPC
The X.Org Server, and any x-client, each run as distinct processes. On Unix/Linux, a process knows nothing about any other processes. For it to communicate with another process, it is completely and utterly reliant on the kernel to moderate the communication via available inter-process communication (IPC) mechanisms. Unix domain sockets are used to communicate with processes running on the same machine. Special socket function calls are part of the System Call Interface. Although Internet domain sockets can be used locally, Unix domain sockets are more efficient, since they do not have the protocol overhead (checksums, byte orders, etc.).

X.Org Server does not use D-Bus.

Sockets are the most common interprocess communication (IPC) method between the processes of the X server and its various X clients. It provides the Application Programming Interface (API) for communication in the TCP/IP domain and also locally only in the UNIX domain. There are several other APIs described in the X Transport Interface, for instance TLI (Transport Layer Interface). Other options for IPC between for the X client-server, require X Window system extensions, for instance the MIT Shared Memory Extension (MIT-SHM).

Multiseat configuration
Multi-seat refers to an assembly of a single computer with multiple "seats", allowing multiple users to sit down at the computer, log in, and use the computer at the same time independently. The computer has multiple keyboards, mice, and monitors attached to it, each "seat" having one keyboard, one mouse and one monitor assigned to it. A "seat" consists of all hardware devices assigned to a specific workplace. It consists of at least one graphics device (graphics card or just an output and the attached monitor) and a keyboard and a mouse. It can also include video cameras, sound cards and more.

Due to limitation of the VT system in the Linux kernel and of the X core protocol (in particular, how X defines the relation between the root window and an output of the graphics card), multi-seat does not work out-of-the-box for the usual Linux distribution but necessitates a special configuration.

There are these methods to configure a multi-seat assembly:
 * multiple Xephyr servers over a host xorg-server
 * multiple instances of an xorg-server
 * one graphics card per seat
 * a single graphics card for all seats

The utilized command-line options of the xorg-server are:
 * Restrict device resets (output) to the device at bus-id. The bus-id string has the form bustype:bus:device:function (e.g., 'PCI:1:0:0'). At present, only isolation of PCI devices is supported; i.e., this option is ignored if bustype is anything other than 'PCI'.
 * the default for e.g. Debian 9 Stretch is 7, i.e. by pressing ++ the user can switch to the VT running the xorg-server.

Only the user on the first monitor has the use of vt consoles and can use ++x to select them. The other users have a GDM login screen and can use xorg-server normally, but have no vt's.

Even though a single user can utilize multiple monitors connected to the different ports of a single graphics card (cf. RandR), the method which is based on multiple instances of the xorg-server seems to require multiple PCI graphics cards.

It is possible to configure multi-seat employing only one graphics card, but due to limitations of the X protocol this necessitates the usage of X Display Manager Control Protocol XDMCP.

There is also Xdmx (Distributed Multihead X).

Adoption

 * Unix and Linux
 * The X.Org Server runs on many free-software Unix-like operating systems, including being adopted for use by most Linux distributions and BSD variants. It is also the X server for the Solaris operating system. X.Org is also available in the repositories of Minix 3.

 * Windows
 * Cygwin/X, Cygwin's implementation of the X server for Microsoft Windows, uses the X.Org Server, as do VcXsrv (Visual C++ X-server ) and Xming. SSH clients such as PuTTY allow launching of X applications through X11 forwarding on the condition that it is enabled on both the server and client.
 * OS X / macOS
 * OS X versions prior to Mac OS X Leopard (10.5) shipped with an XFree86-based server, but 10.5's X server adopted the X.Org codebase. Starting with OS X Mountain Lion, (10.8) X11 is not bundled in OS X; instead, it has to be installed from, for example, the open source XQuartz project. As of version 2.7.4, X11.app/XQuartz does not expose support for high-resolution Retina displays to X11 apps, which run in pixel-doubled mode on high-resolution displays.

 * OpenVMS
 * Current versions of the DECwindows X11 server for OpenVMS are based on X.org Server.

History
The modern X.Org Foundation came into being in 2004 when the body that oversaw X standards and published the official reference implementation joined forces with former XFree86 developers. X11R6.7.0, the first version of the X.Org Server, was forked from XFree86 4.4 RC2. The immediate reason for the fork was a disagreement with the new license for the final release version of XFree86 4.4, but several disagreements among the contributors surfaced prior to the split. Many of the previous XFree86 developers have joined the X.Org Server project.

In 2005, a great effort was put in the modularization of the X.Org server source code, resulting in a dual release by the end of the year. The X11R7.0.0 release added a new modular build system based on the GNU Autotools, while X11R6.9.0 kept the old imake build system, both releases sharing the same codebase. Since then the X11R6.9 branch is maintained frozen and all the ongoing development is done to the modular branch. The new build system also brought the use of dlloader standard dynamic linker to load plugins and drivers, deprecating the old own method. As a consequence of the modularization, the X11 binaries were moving out of their own  subdirectory tree and into the global   tree on many Unix systems.

In June 2006, another effort was done to move the X.Org server source codebase from CVS to git. Both efforts had the long-term goal of bringing new developers to the project. In the words of Alan Coopersmith:

"Some of our efforts here have been technological - one of the driving efforts of the conversions from Imake to automake and from CVS to git was to make use of tools developers would already be familiar and productive with from other projects. The Modularization project, which broke up X.Org from one giant tree into over 200 small ones, had the goal of making it possible to fix a bug in a single library or driver without having to download and build many megabytes of software & fonts that were not being changed."

In the 7.1 release, the KDrive framework (a small implementation of X written by Keith Packard, which was not based on XFree86 that X.Org developers used as a testing ground for new ideas, such as EXA) was integrated into the main codebase of X.Org server.

In 2008, the new DRI2, based on the kernel mode-setting (KMS) driver, replaced DRI. This change also set a major milestone in the X.Org server architecture, as the drivers were moved out from the server and user space (UMS) to the kernel space.

In 2013, the initial versions of DRI3 and Present extensions were written and coded by Keith Packard to provide a faster and tearing-free 2D rendering. By the end of the year the implementation of GLX was rewritten by Adam Jackson at Red Hat.

title: X.Org Server


text:
Seanad Éireann (Irish Free State)

Seanad Éireann (Senate of Ireland) was the upper house of the Oireachtas (parliament) of the Irish Free State from 1922 to 1936. It has also been known simply as the Senate, First Seanad, Free State Senate or Free State Seanad. The Seanad was established under the 1922 Constitution of the Irish Free State. A number of constitutional amendments were made to change the manner of its election and its powers. It was eventually abolished in 1936 when it attempted to obstruct constitutional reforms favoured by the government. It sat, like its modern successor, in Leinster House.

Powers
The Seanad was subordinate to Dáil Éireann (the lower house) and could delay but not veto decisions of that house. Nonetheless, the Free State Senate had more power than its successor, the modern Seanad Éireann, which can only delay normal legislation for 90 days. As originally adopted the constitution provided that the Free State Seanad had power to delay a money bill for 21 days (three weeks) and delay any other bill for 270 days (approximately nine months)—with the potential for a further 9 months' delay if the Seanad voted to suspend a bill just passed into law in order to initiate a referendum on it. In 1928, this second period was extended so that the Seanad could delay a non-money bill for 20 months.

Composition and election
The 1922 Constitution provided for a Seanad of 60 members directly elected. Members would serve 12-year terms, with one-quarter of the house elected every three years. The members would be elected under the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote in a single, nationwide, 15-seat constituency. However, the body's initial membership would be appointed by Dáil Éireann (the lower house) and the President of the Executive Council.

After the 1925 Seanad election, a direct election, the constitution was amended, so that further elections to the Seanad occurred by a method of indirect election. Therefore, in the five elections to the Seanad to occur before its abolition, three different systems were used.

The 1925 Seanad election was notable in that 19 were elected in a single contest using STV. This was the largest district magnitude used under STV anywhere in the world until 1995. The next time an Irish election used the whole country as a single district was for the 1945 presidential election.

Seanad membership was initially restricted to those who were over 35. Constitutional amendments made in 1928 reduced the minimum age to 30 and the term of office from 12 years to 9 years.

Seanad Éireann, established by the Constitution of Ireland in 1937 is considered to be a successor of the Free State Seanad. Each Seanad elected under the 1937 Constitution is numbered, beginning with the 2nd Seanad elected in 1938. The entire period of the Seanad of the Irish Free State was considered to have been the First Seanad.

1922 election
Half the initial membership of the Seanad were appointed by the President of the Executive Council (prime minister), W. T. Cosgrave; the other half were elected by the Dáil under the single transferable vote. The first 15 elected by the Dáil were assigned a term of nine years, the other 15 a term of three years. Cosgrave's nominees were divided by lot, 15 to serve for twelve years and 15 for six years. The President agreed to use his appointments in 1922 to grant extra representation to the Protestant minority in the state, most of whom were former Southern Unionists, to promote inclusiveness in the new Free State.

As a result, of the sixty members of the first Seanad, as well as 36 Catholics, there were 20 Protestants, 3 Quakers and 1 Jew. It contained 7 peers, a dowager countess (Ellen, Countess of Desart, who was Jewish), 5 baronets and several knights. The New York Times remarked that the first senate was "representative of all classes", though it has also been described as, "the most curious political grouping in the history of the Irish state". Members included W. B. Yeats, Oliver St. John Gogarty, General Sir Bryan Mahon and Jennie Wyse Power.

Also included was the Earl of Kerry, heir to the 5th Marquess of Lansdowne. Lord Kerry succeeded his father in the peerage in June 1927, thus becoming the 6th Marquess of Lansdowne in his own right. This gave the new Lord Lansdowne an hereditary seat in the British House of Lords. Thus he had the unique distinction for a time of being a member of both the Oireachtas in Dublin and the British Parliament at Westminster.

The opponents of the Anglo-Irish Treaty also opposed the new Seanad, and 37 of the senators' homes were burnt to the ground. Others were intimidated, kidnapped or almost assassinated. Nevertheless, the first Seanad greatly influenced the guiding principles and legislative foundations of the new state.

The first Cathaoirleach (chairman) was Lord Glenavy. Lord Glenavy had formerly served as the Lord Chief Justice of Ireland from 1916 to 1918 and had served as Lord Chancellor of Ireland from 1918 to 1921.

George Sigerson served as chairman briefly from 11 to 12 December 1922 before the election of Lord Glenavy.

1925 election
The 15 original 3-year seats came up for election in 1925, as did four other seats which had been filled temporarily by co-option. The 19 retiring members were automatically eligible for re-election; another 19 candidates were nominated by the Seanad (by the single transferable vote from a list of 29); the Dáil nominated 38 candidates (from a list of 57, again by the single transferable vote). The 76 candidates were then put to the public electorate on 17 September 1925, but without partisan campaigning, turnout was less than a quarter of the 1,345,000 potential voters. The count took two weeks. Only 8 of the former senators were re-elected, with particularly poor results for the Gaelic League and Douglas Hyde.

Subsequent elections
After the amendment of the constitution in 1928, future members of the Seanad were to be elected from a single constituency consisting of the combined membership of the outgoing Seanad and the Dáil, and the system was changed so that a third (20 seats) rather than a quarter (15 seats) of the Seanad would be replaced at each election. The elections were still held by secret ballot and under the single transferable vote. Elections took place under the new system in 1928, 1931, and 1934 before the Seanad was abolished in 1936.

The system for nominating candidates was also changed. After 1928, it was provided that the number of nominees would be equal to twice the number of seats to be filled and that half would be elected by the Dáil and the other half by the Seanad. Both houses used the single transferable vote for this purpose. The right of outgoing senators to nominate themselves was removed.

By-elections
The constitution originally provided that premature vacancies would be filled by a vote of the Seanad. However, a candidate elected in this way would serve only until the next senatorial election, when the seat would come up for election along with the others scheduled to be filled. In 1929, the system was changed so that vacancies were filled by members of both houses voting together.

Abolition
The Free State Seanad was abolished entirely by the Constitution (Amendment No. 24) Act 1936 after it delayed some Government proposals for constitutional changes. Éamon de Valera had seen its delay of his proposals as illegitimate, although the continuing opposition majority had been a result of his own earlier boycott of the Free State Oireachtas (combined with the provision for the Seanad's self-election). The abolition was highly controversial at the time and the last chairman Thomas Westropp Bennett played a key role. It opposed its own abolition, but this decision was over-ridden by the Dáil. De Valera later created a new Senate in the 1937 Constitution of Ireland.

Direct democracy role
As adopted, the Free State constitution contained a number of provisions for direct democracy, which included a special role for the Seanad. Most importantly it was provided that the Seanad could, if three-fifths of its members agreed, demand a binding referendum on any bill. This was to allow the Seanad to appeal to voters directly if there was a disagreement between the two houses and if the Dáil attempted to override the Seanad. However, this power was taken from the Seanad in 1928 without having been put to use. It was in compensation for this loss that the Seanad's powers of delay were increased in the same year.

Before it was removed, the Seanad's right to demand a referendum was contained in Article 47, which provided for voters to veto legislation directly in certain circumstances. The article provided that once a bill had been approved by both houses of the Oireachtas (or just by the Dáil, if it had over-ridden the Seanad), its enactment into law could be suspended if, within seven days, either a majority of the Seanad or three-fifths of all members of the Dáil so requested.

There would then be a further period of ninety days within which either 5% of all registered voters or 60% of the Seanad could demand a referendum on the bill. The referendum would be decided by a majority of votes cast and if rejected the bill would not become law. Article 47 did not apply to money bills or bills declared by both houses to be "necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health or safety". In 1928, Article 47 was repealed in its entirety, along with Article 48 which provided for an initiative process.

A similar power given to the Free State Seanad by Article 47 is granted to the modern Seanad by the 1937 Constitution of Ireland. Under the current constitution, a simple majority of senators (with the agreement of one-third of the Dáil) can request that the President of Ireland refer a bill to the people. The president can thus refuse to sign it until it has been approved either in an ordinary referendum or by the Dáil after it has reassembled after a general election. This power has never been used because the modern Seanad is designed in such a way as to have a permanent government majority.

List of constitutional amendments
During the Irish Free State there were at least 12 constitutional amendments relating to the Seanad. The value n where the amending act had the short title "Constitution (Amendment No. n) Act year"

Notable members

 * Thomas Westropp Bennett
 * Kathleen Browne
 * Kathleen Clarke
 * Eileen Costello
 * Ellen Cuffe, Countess of Desart
 * Sir Thomas Esmonde, 11th Baronet
 * James Campbell, 1st Baron Glenavy
 * Oliver St. John Gogarty
 * Alice Stopford Green
 * Henry Guinness
 * Sir William Hickie
 * Douglas Hyde
 * Thomas Johnson
 * Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, 6th Marquess of Lansdowne
 * Edward MacLysaght
 * Sir Bryan Mahon
 * Maurice George Moore
 * Sir Horace Plunkett
 * George Sigerson
 * Jennie Wyse Power
 * Windham Wyndham-Quin, 4th Earl of Dunraven and Mount-Earl
 * W. B. Yeats

title: Seanad Éireann (Irish Free State)


text:
27th Home Army Infantry Division (Poland)

27th Volhynian Infantry Division (27 Wołyńska Dywizja Piechoty) was a World War II Polish Home Army formed in the Volhynia region in 1944. It was created on January 15, 1944, from smaller partisan self-defence units during the Volhynia massacre and was patterned after the prewar Polish 27th Infantry Division.

History
The 27th Volhynian Infantry Division of the Home Army (AK) was the first large Polish military unit to openly engage in combat with the Germans as part of Operation Tempest. Volhynia, even before the war, was a region with the smallest percentage of Polish population, further decimated by Soviet deportations, German terror, and the genocide carried out by Ukrainian nationalists since 1943. Considering the dire situation, the local AK command, led primarily by commander Colonel Kazimierz Bąbiński "Luboń" and chief of staff Captain Tadeusz Klimowski "Ostoja", decided to concentrate all forces in one region, east of the Bug River, and form a single large corps.

Bąbiński issued the mobilization order on January 15, 1944, and headed to Kupychiv, where his headquarters was to be located. Most local Polish units refused to comply with the order, not wanting to leave the Polish population without any defense against the still marauding UPA units. Consequently, the division-strength unit was formed mainly from the Kowel and Łuck inspectorates. And numbered about 6,500 people in January 1944. After mobilization in March 1944, the division became one of the largest partisan units in Central Europe with 7300 soldiers, officers and NCOs.

The division initially aided local self-defence units during the massacres of Poles in Volhynia and fought against the Ukrainian Insurgent Army. It also fought German anti-partisan units and regular Wehrmacht troops. The unit commander, Colonel Babiński strictly prohibited any repressions against women and children. Despite this and despite the orders by the Polish government not to harm civilians, some Polish partisans retaliated against the massacre of Poles by burning down Ukrainian villages and killing ethnic Ukrainians whom they encountered on Volhynian roads.

In 1944 the division fought several major battles near Włodzimierz Wołyński (February 23), Hołoby (March 9) and Zasmyki (March 17). During the latter two battles the division cooperated with local Soviet partisan groups and the advancing Red Army. After reaching the frontline and contacting the Soviets, Colonel Jan Kiwerski "Oliwa" was asked to combine the unit with the Red Army as a regular unit of the Soviet-backed Polish army. He declined and returned to partisan fighting. The division was surrounded by the Germans near Kowel on April 2.

After receiving a promise of Soviet help, the unit fought surrounded for two weeks. When no help arrived, the unit started to break through in the direction of Włodawa. As a result of heavy fighting, it lost between 10% and 50% of its personnel.

The division returned northwards and was surrounded by the end of May. Elements of the division broke through the Pripyat river and reached the Soviet lines. The officers were arrested by the NKVD and sent to Russia while most of the soldiers were conscripted into the First Polish Army of General Zygmunt Berling.

The division's remnants withdrew westwards, crossed the Bug river on June 7 to the Parczew Forest near Lublin. It joined other Home Army units and took part in the liberation of Kock, Lubartów, and the village Firlej on July 21.

After the Red Army reached the area they took over the captured territory. Most of the divisions officers, NCOs and ordinary soldiers were arrested by the NKVD and were interred in gulags. Only a small part joined the Red Army or the Soviet-controlled Polish People's Army.

Commanders

 * Colonel Kazimierz Damian Bąbiński "Luboń" - January 15 - February 11
 * Lieutenant Colonel Jan Wojciech Kiwerski "Oliwa" - February 11 - April 18
 * Major Jan Szatowski "Kowal" - April 18 - May 3
 * Major Tadeusz Sztumberk-Rychter "Żegota" - May 3 - July 16
 * Colonel Jan Kotowicz "Twardy" - July 16 - July 25


text:
Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We?

Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We? is the debut studio album by Irish alternative rock band the Cranberries. Released on 1 March 1993 through Island Records after four EPs, it is both the band's first full-length album and major label release. The album was written entirely by the band's lead singer Dolores O'Riordan and guitarist Noel Hogan and contains the band's highest charting US single, "Linger". The album reached number one on the UK and the Irish albums charts. It spent a total of 86 weeks on the UK chart. On 24 June 1994, it became the fifth album in rock history to reach number one more than a year after release. At the end of 1995, it ranked as the 50th best selling album in Australia. It reached number 18 on the US Billboard 200 albums chart and stayed on this chart for 130 weeks; the album sold six million copies worldwide.

On 7 March 2018, the band's three remaining members announced they were releasing a special 25th anniversary newly remastered anniversary edition of the album, with previously unreleased material as well as other bonus material from the era of the album. However, it was delayed until late 2018, following the death of O'Riordan.

2002 release
The 2002 re-release included additional tracks.

Personnel
The album's liner notes credit the following personnel:

The Cranberries
 * Dolores O'Riordan – vocals, acoustic guitar
 * Noel Hogan – guitar, backing vocals
 * Mike Hogan – bass guitar
 * Fergal Lawler – drums, percussion

Additional musicians
 * Mike Mahoney – backing vocals and additional sounds (on "Dreams")

Production
 * Stephen Street – production, engineering
 * Aidan McGovern – additional engineering (1–5, 7–12)


text:
Taylor County

Taylor County may refer to the following counties in the United States:

 * Taylor County, Florida
 * Taylor County, Georgia
 * Taylor County, Iowa
 * Taylor County, Kentucky
 * Taylor County, Texas
 * Taylor County, West Virginia
 * Taylor County, Wisconsin

title: Taylor County


text:
HEI

HEI may refer to:

Companies and organizations

 * HEI Hospitality, an American hotel owner and operator
 * Hawaiian Electric Industries, the largest supplier of electricity in the state of Hawaii
 * Health Effects Institute, a non-profit focused on the health effects of air pollution
 * HEICO, HEI is the stock symbol for HEICO Corporation

In education

 * Higher education institution
 * Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (French: Institut universitaire de hautes études internationales et du développement), in Geneva, Switzerland
 * Hautes études d'ingénieur, an engineering school in Lille, France

In language

 * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets
 * Heiltsuk-Oowekyala language, spoken in Canada

Places

 * Heilongjiang, a province of China
 * Hei District, Chiba, a former administrative unit of Japan
 * Hei Glacier, in Antarctica
 * Hei River, in China
 * Heide–Büsum Airport, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany
 * Heighington railway station, in England

In science and technology

 * Healthy Eating Index, a measure of diet quality
 * High-efficiency incandescent, a type of incandescent light bulb
 * High energy ignition, an automotive ignition system
 * High explosive incendiary, a type of ammunition
 * Hot-carrier injection, a principle in the function of solid-state electronic devices
 * Human-environment interaction, or Environmental sociology

Other uses

 * Hei (album), 2015 album by Norwegian duo Marcus & Martinus
 * Hei (Darker than Black), protagonist of the 2007 anime
 * Qi, in traditional Chinese culture, a principle forming part of any living thing (Cantonese: hei)

title: HEI