text:
Bank fraud

Bank fraud is the use of potentially illegal means to obtain money, assets, or other property owned or held by a financial institution, or to obtain money from depositors by fraudulently posing as a bank or other financial institution. In many instances, bank fraud is a criminal offence.

While the specific elements of particular banking fraud laws vary depending on jurisdictions, the term bank fraud applies to actions that employ a scheme or artifice, as opposed to bank robbery or theft. For this reason, bank fraud is sometimes considered a white-collar crime.

Accounting fraud
In order to hide serious financial problems, some businesses have been known to use fraudulent bookkeeping to overstate sales and income, inflate the worth of the company's assets, or state a profit when the company is operating at a loss. These tampered records are then used to seek investment in the company's bond or security issues or to make fraudulent loan applications in a final attempt to obtain more money to delay the inevitable collapse of an unprofitable or mismanaged firm. Examples of accounting frauds include the Enron scandal, World Com and Ocala Funding. These companies "cooked the books" in order to appear as though they had profits each quarter, when in fact they were deeply in debt.

Demand draft fraud
Demand draft (DD) fraud typically involves one or more corrupt bank employees. Firstly, such employees remove a few DD leaves or DD books from stock and write them like a regular DD. Since they are insiders, they know the coding and punching of a demand draft. Such fraudulent demand drafts are usually drawn payable at a distant city without debiting an account. The draft is cashed at the payable branch. The fraud is discovered only when the bank's head office does the branch-wide reconciliation, which normally take six months, by which time the money is gone.

Remotely created check fraud
Remotely created checks are orders of payment created by the payee and authorized by the customer remotely, using a telephone or the internet by providing the required information including the MICR code from a valid check. They do not bear the signatures of the customers like ordinary cheques. Instead, they bear a legend statement "Authorized by Drawer". This type of instrument is usually used by credit card companies, utility companies, or telemarketers. The lack of signature makes them susceptible to fraud. The fraud is considered Demand Draft fraud in the US.

Uninsured deposits
A bank soliciting public deposits may be uninsured or not licensed to operate at all. The objective is usually to solicit for deposits to this uninsured "bank," although some may also sell stock representing ownership of the "bank." Sometimes the names appear very official or very similar to those of legitimate banks. For instance, the unlicensed "Chase Trust Bank" of Washington D.C. appeared in 2002, bearing no affiliation to its seemingly apparent namesake; the real Chase Manhattan Bank is based in New York. Accounting fraud has also been used to conceal other theft taking place within a company.

Bill discounting fraud
Essentially a confidence trick, a fraudster uses a company at their disposal to gain the bank's confidence, by posing as a genuine, profitable customer. To give the illusion of being a desired customer, the company regularly and repeatedly uses the bank to get payment from one or more of its customers. These payments are always made, as the customers in question are part of the fraud, actively paying any and all bills the bank attempts to collect. After the fraudster has gained the bank's trust, the company requests that the bank begin paying the company up front for bills it will collect from the customers later. Many banks will agree but are not likely to go whole hog right away. So again, business continues as normal for the fraudulent company, its fraudulent customers, and the unwitting bank. As the bank grows more comfortable with the arrangement, it will trust the company more and more and be willing to give it larger and larger sums of money up front. Eventually, when the outstanding balance between the bank and the company is sufficiently large, the company and its customers disappear, taking the money the bank paid up front and leaving no one to pay the bills issued by the bank.

Duplication or skimming of card information
This takes a number of forms, ranging from merchants copying clients' credit card numbers for use in later illegal activities or criminals using carbon copies from old mechanical card imprint machines to steal the info, to the use of tampered credit or debit card readers to copy the magnetic stripe from a payment card while a hidden camera captures the numbers on the face of the card.

Some fraudsters have attached fraudulent card stripe readers to publicly accessible ATMs to gain unauthorised access to the contents of the magnetic stripe as well as hidden cameras to illegally record users' authorisation codes. The data recorded by the cameras and fraudulent card stripe readers are subsequently used to produce duplicate cards that could then be used to make ATM withdrawals from the victims' accounts.

Cheque kiting
Cheque kiting exploits a banking system known as "the float" wherein money is temporarily counted twice. When a cheque is deposited to an account at Bank X, the money is made available immediately in that account even though the corresponding amount of money is not immediately removed from the account at Bank Y at which the cheque is drawn. Thus both banks temporarily count the cheque amount as an asset until the cheque formally clears at Bank Y. The float serves a legitimate purpose in banking, but intentionally exploiting the float when funds at Bank Y are insufficient to cover the amount withdrawn from Bank X is a form of fraud.

Forged or fraudulent documents
Forged documents are often used to conceal other thefts; banks tend to count their money meticulously so every penny must be accounted for. A document claiming that a sum of money has been borrowed as a loan, withdrawn by an individual depositor or transferred or invested can therefore be valuable to someone who wishes to conceal the fact that the bank's money has in fact been stolen and is now gone.

Forgery and altered cheques
Fraudsters have altered cheques to change the name (in order to deposit cheques intended for payment to someone else) or the amount on the face of cheques, simple altering can change $100.00 into $100,000.00. (However, transactions for such large values are routinely investigated as a matter of policy to prevent fraud.)

Instead of tampering with a real cheque, fraudsters may alternatively attempt to forge a depositor's signature on a blank cheque or even print their own cheques drawn on accounts owned by others, non-existent accounts, etc. They would subsequently cash the fraudulent cheque through another bank and withdraw the money before the banks realise that the cheque was a fraud.

Fraudulent loan applications
These take a number of forms varying from individuals using false information to hide a credit history filled with financial problems and unpaid loans to corporations using accounting fraud to overstate profits in order to make a risky loan appear to be a sound investment for the bank.

Fraudulent loans
One way to remove money from a bank is to take out a loan, which bankers are more than willing to encourage if they have good reason to believe that the money will be repaid in full with interest. A fraudulent loan, however, is one in which the borrower is a business entity controlled by a dishonest bank officer or an accomplice; the "borrower" then declares bankruptcy or vanishes and the money is gone. The borrower may even be a non-existent entity and the loan is merely an artifice to conceal a theft of a large sum of money from the bank. This can also be seen as a component within mortgage fraud (Bell, 2010).

Empty ATM envelope deposits
A criminal overdraft can result due to the account holder making a worthless or misrepresented deposit at an automated teller machine in order to obtain more cash than present in the account or to prevent a check from being returned due to non-sufficient funds. United States banking law makes the first $100 immediately available and it may be possible for much more uncollected funds to be lost by the bank the following business day before this type of fraud is discovered. The crime could also be perpetrated against another person's account in an "account takeover" or with a counterfeit ATM card, or an account opened in another person's name as part of an identity theft scam. The emergence of ATM deposit technology that scans currency and checks without using an envelope may prevent this type of fraud in the future.

Identity theft or Impersonation
Identity theft operates by obtaining information about an individual, then using the information to apply for identity cards, accounts and credit in that person's name. Often little more than name, parents' name, date and place of birth are sufficient to obtain a birth certificate; each document obtained then is used as identification in order to obtain more identity documents. Government-issued standard identification numbers such as "social security numbers" are also valuable to the fraudster.

Money laundering
The term "money laundering" dates back to the days of Al Capone; money laundering has since been used to describe any scheme by which the true origin of funds is hidden or concealed.

Money laundering is the process by which large amounts of illegally obtained money (from drug trafficking, terrorist activity or other serious crimes) is given the appearance of having originated from a legitimate source.

Payment card fraud
Credit card fraud is widespread as a means of stealing from banks, merchants and clients.

Phishing or Internet fraud
Phishing, also known as Internet fraud, operates by sending forged e-mail, impersonating an online bank, auction or payment site; the e-mail directs the user to a forged web site which is designed to look like the login to the legitimate site but which claims that the user must update personal info. The information thus stolen is then used in other frauds, such as theft of identity or online auction fraud.

A number of malicious "Trojan horse" programmes have also been used to snoop on Internet users while online, capturing keystrokes or confidential data in order to send it to outside sites.

Fake websites can trick a visitor into downloading computer viruses that steal personal information. A visitor encounter security messages claiming his machine has viruses and instructing him to download new software, which is actually a virus.

Prime bank fraud
The "prime bank" operation which claims to offer an urgent, exclusive opportunity to cash in on the best-kept secret in the banking industry, guaranteed deposits in "primebanks", "constitutional banks", "bank notes and bank-issued debentures from top 500 world banks", "bank guarantees and standby letters of credit" which generate spectacular returns at no risk and are "endorsed by the World Bank" or various national governments and central bankers. However, these official-sounding phrases and more are the hallmark of the so-called "prime bank" fraud; they may sound great on paper, but the guaranteed offshore investment with the vague claims of an easy 100% monthly return are all fictitious financial instruments intended to defraud individuals.

Rogue traders
A rogue trader is a trader at a financial institution who engages in unauthorized trading; at times to recoup the loss they incurred in earlier trades. In those instances, out of fear and desperation, they manipulate the internal controls to circumvent detection to buy more time.

Unauthorized trading activities invariably produce more losses due to time constraints; most rogue traders are discovered at an early stage with losses ranging from $1 million to $100 million, but a very few working out of institutions with extremely lax controls were not discovered until the loss had reached well over a billion dollars. Rogue traders may not have criminal intent to defraud their employer to enrich themselves; they may be merely trying to recoup the loss to make their firm whole and salvage their employment.

Some of the largest unauthorized trading losses were discovered at Barings Bank (Nick Leeson), Daiwa Bank (Toshihide Iguchi), Sumitomo Corporation (Yasuo Hamanaka), Allfirst Bank (John Rusnak), Société Générale (Jérôme Kerviel), UBS (Kweku Adoboli), and JPMorgan Chase (Bruno Iksil).

Wire transfer fraud
Wire transfer networks such as the international SWIFT interbank fund transfer system are tempting as targets as a transfer, once made, is difficult or impossible to reverse. As these networks are used by banks to settle accounts with each other, rapid or overnight wire transfer of large amounts of money are commonplace; while banks have put checks and balances in place, there is the risk that insiders may attempt to use fraudulent or forged documents which claim to request a bank depositor's money be wired to another bank, often an offshore account in some distant foreign country.

There is a very high risk of fraud when dealing with unknown or uninsured institutions.

The risk is greatest when dealing with offshore or Internet banks (as this allows selection of countries with lax banking regulations), but not by any means limited to these institutions. There is an annual list of unlicensed banks on the US Treasury Department web site which is fifteen pages in length.

Also, a person may send a wire transfer from country to country. Since this takes a few days for the transfer to "clear" and be available to withdraw, the other person may still be able to withdraw the money from the other bank. A new teller or corrupt officer may approve the withdrawal since it is in pending status which then the other person cancels the wire transfer and the bank institution takes a monetary loss.

Australia
The Commonwealth Fraud Control Framework outlines the preventions, detection, investigation and reporting obligations set by the Australian Government for fraud control. The framework includes three documents called The Fraud Rule, Fraud Policy and Fraud Guidance

The Fraud Rule is a legislative instrument binding all Commonwealth entities setting out the key requirements of fraud control.

The Fraud Policy is a government policy binding non-corporate Commonwealth entities setting out the procedural requirements for specific areas of fraud control such as investigations and reporting.

The Fraud Guidance preventing, detecting and dealing with fraud, supports best practice guidance for the Fraud Rule and Fraud Policy setting out the government's expectations for fraud control arrangements within all Commonwealth entities.

Other important acts and regulations in the Australian Government's fraud control framework include the:
 * CrimesAct 1914, which sets out criminal offences against the Commonwealth, such as fraud
 * Criminal Code 1995, which sets out criminal offences against the Commonwealth, such as fraudulent conduct
 * Public Service Act 1999 and the Public Service Regulations 1999, which provide for the establishment and management of the Australian Public Service and its employees
 * Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 and the Proceeds of Crime Regulations 2002, which provide for the confiscation of the proceeds of crime.

United States
Under federal law, bank fraud in the United States is defined, and made illegal, primarily by the bank fraud statute in Title 18 of the U.S. Code. 18 U.S.C. § 1344 states:
 * Whoever knowingly executes, or attempts to execute, a scheme or artifice—
 * (1) to defraud a financial institution; or
 * (2) to obtain any of the moneys, funds, credits, assets, securities, or other property owned by, or under the custody or control of, a financial institution, by means of false or fraudulent pretenses, representations, or promises;
 * shall be fined not more than $1,000,000 or imprisoned not more than 30 years, or both.

State law may also criminalize the same, or similar acts.

The bank fraud statute was enacted by Congress in response to the Supreme Court's decision in Williams v. United States,, in which the Court held that check-kiting schemes did not constitute making false statements to financial institutions (18 U.S.C. § 1014). Section 1344 has subsequently been bolstered by the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act of 1989 (FIRREA), Pub. L. No. 101-73, 103 Stat. 500.

The bank fraud statute federally criminalizes check-kiting, check forging, non-disclosure on loan applications, diversion of funds, unauthorized use of automated teller machines (ATMs), credit card fraud, and other similar offenses. Section 1344 does not cover certain forms of money laundering, bribery, and passing bad checks. Other provisions cover these offenses.

The Supreme Court has embraced a broad interpretation of both of the numbered clauses within section 1344. The Supreme Court has held that the first clause only requires the prosecution to show that the crime involved accounts controlled by a bank; the prosecution need not show actual financial loss to the bank or intent to cause such loss. The Supreme Court has also held that the second clause does not require a showing of intent to defraud a financial institution.

In the United States, consumer liability for unauthorized electronic money transfers on debit cards is covered by Regulation E of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. The extent of consumer liability, as detailed in section 205.6, is determined by the speed with which the consumer notifies the bank. If the bank is notified within 2 business days, the consumer is liable for $50. Over two business days the consumer is liable for $500, and over 60 business days, the consumer liability is unlimited. In contrast, all major credit card companies have a zero liability policy, effectively eliminating consumer liability in the case of fraud.

Notable cases

 * 1873 Bank of England forgeries
 * Gone in 60 Seconds (bank fraud)
 * 2014 Moldovan bank fraud scandal, $1 billion
 * Russian Laundromat, $20–80 billion from 2010 to 2014
 * The Resistance Banker, movie about WWII banker financing Dutch resistance
 * San Francisco Department of Public Works corruption scandal, at least three people pleaded guilty or were convicted of bank fraud

title: Bank fraud


text:
Balakovo

Balakovo (Балако́во) is a city in Saratov Oblast, Russia, located on the East bank of the Volga River about 131 km northeast of Saratov, the administrative center of the oblast. Population:

History
It was founded in 1762 by the Old Believers who returned from Poland and was granted town status in 1913.

Russian Empire
For a long time it was believed that the city of Balakovo was founded in 1762, but later a document dated 1738 was found in the archives of St. Petersburg, which mentions the Cossack meadow possession of Balakov Yurt, located two versts from the Volga. December 14, 1762 Empress of Russia Catherine II issued a manifesto calling on the Old Believers, who had fled to Poland, to return from abroad to Russia and settle on the lands between the Bolshoy and Maly Irgiz rivers. To the zealots of the old faith, 70,000 dessiatins (76,300 hectares) of the best land on the left bank of the Volga were allocated for use. Returned Old Believers founded several new settlements, including the village of Balakovo. In 1861 there were 2,700 people living in the village of Balakovo. The convenient location on the shipping routes helped the village to grow rapidly due to wheat trade. In one season, up to 10 million poods of grain were sent from Balakovo. More than 300 spacious barns that stood on the shore of Balakovo, allowed to store grain from harvest to harvest. In the 1860s for one navigation, from Balakovo could go up to 180 barges with cargo. Another commodity, to which the Balakovo merchants traded in huge quantities, was the forest. Balakovo was an intermediary between the forest provinces of the Upper Volga region and the forestless left bank of the Volga. Here, from such rivers as Kama, Belaya, Vyatka, it was brought annually up to 500 thousand poods of firewood and up to three million poods of forest building materials. Part of this forest was processed in two sawmills.

With the development of trade, the pier freight turnover grew, the fleet of freight and passenger ships increased. To repair them, the ship-repair industry was created. In 1897 the population of the village reached 18388 people.

The beginning of the 20th century was marked by a significant expansion of the borders of the village, as well as an increase in the number of industrial enterprises. In May 1911, the Highest Ordinance was signed to confer on Balakovo the status of a city with the rights of self-government. Ivan Mamin, the industrialist, became the first city head. On the eve of the 1917 revolution, there were 6 churches, 7 schools, the grain market, the ironworks of Fyodor Blinov and the mechanical plant of oil engines of the Mamin brothers, ship repair and furniture workshops, sawmills, mills, a commercial college opened in 1910, with considerable financial assistance of the merchant - a patron of Ivan Kobzar, the Zemsky hospital and the city factory ambulance (polyclinic), a library, and a power plant, which was organized by the "Light" partnership.

Inventors-self-taught Fyodor Abramovich Blinov and Yakov Mamin glorified Balakovo as the birthplace of the world's first caterpillar tractor, wheel self-propelled gun and Russian diesel engine. The plant of oil engines and tractors Yakov Mamin in 1915 produced 325 diesel engines, with a total capacity of 5100 horsepower. The image of the old Balakovo was created by such architects as H. F. Meyer and academician Fyodor Schechtel. Carefully preserving and restoring the historical landscape of the central part, the people of Balakovo constantly improve the appearance of a new, young city with spacious avenues, straight as arrows, avenues, slender buildings with elegant facades.

Soviet Union
Until 1928, Balakovo was part of the Samara Governorate (Balakovo county existed in 1919–1924), after the Lower Volga region, from December 5, 1936, to the Saratov Oblast.

In the period from 1956 to 1971, the Saratov Hydroelectric Station was built in Balakovo, which led to the flooding of the Volga and the flooding of part of the coastal territory and the changing appearance of the modern city, as well as its sharp growth associated with obtaining the necessary electricity. In a short time the Balakovo industrial complex was created, numbering more than two dozen enterprises of chemistry, engineering, energy, construction industry, food industry. In 1985, the first power unit of the Balakovo Nuclear Power Plant was put into operation, which currently has 4 operating power units.

As a result of the referendum on December 22, 1996, the Balakovo municipal formation was created, which included the city of the regional subordination of Balakovo and the rural Balakovo district. In 2004 the Balakovo municipal formation was renamed Balakovo municipal district.

Administrative and municipal status
Within the framework of administrative divisions, Balakovo serves as the administrative center of Balakovsky District, even though it is not a part of it. As an administrative division, it is incorporated separately as the city of oblast significance of Balakovo—an administrative unit with the status equal to that of the districts. As a municipal division, the city of oblast significance of Balakovo is incorporated within Balakovsky Municipal District as Balakovo Urban Settlement.

Economy
Balakovo is the location of the Saratov Hydroelectric Station on the Volga River and the Balakovo Nuclear Power Plant. It is served by the Balakovo Airport which currently does not work. Balakovo has a rail connection to Moscow, and is an end destination for some train routes.

Climate
Balakovo has a humid continental climate (Köppen: Dfa) with long cold winters and warm, often hot summers. The warmest month is July with daily mean temperature near +22 C; the coldest month is February with -8 C. Balakovo has distinct cold and warm seasons, like cold winters and warm summers. The temperatures at night are cooler than during daytime.

Winter has prolonged freezing periods, with the coldest month most often being December. August is on average the month with most sunshine. Rainfall and other precipitation has no distinct peak month, but June is slightly the wettest.

Infrastructure
Passenger transportations are carried out by buses, route taxis, taxis and trolleybuses. In 2002 a new section of the contact network was put into operation, which allowed increasing the number of trolleybus routes.

The connection between the two parts of the city is carried out by the lock bridge. In 2003, it was decided to build a second bridge across the Navigable Canal. Since December 9, 2015 the Bridge "Victory Bridge" has been put into operation.

There is a bus station "Balakovo", railway station Balakovo, railway station "Linyovo" (for freight trains, electric trains), river station, river port, ship repair port.

Earlier in Balakovo, there was a similar airport (located near the village of Malaya Bykovka), which until the late 1990s received regular flights. In 2003 the airport was closed.

Sports
There is a speedway team called Speedway Klub Turbina, that is six-time Soviet Union champion and three-time Russian champion. The Trud Stadium is located south west of the centre of the city, on the south side of the Volga and has hosted various international competitions.

Notable people

 * Yulia Alipova (born 1990), beauty pageant titleholder
 * Anastasia Karpova (born 1984), pop singer
 * Yevgeni Khlebodarov (born 1980), former footballer
 * Andrei Kovalenko (born 1970), professional ice hockey forward
 * Andrey Kudryashov (born 1991), speedway rider
 * Dmitri Kugryshev (born 1990), professional ice hockey forward
 * Ivan Maximkin (born 1988), professional ice hockey defenceman
 * Artem Vodyakov (born 1991), speedway rider

Twin towns – sister cities
Balakovo is twinned with:
 * 🇸🇰 Trnava, Slovakia
 * 🇷🇺 Cherepovets, Russia
 * 🇺🇸 Scranton, Pennsylvania, United States

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

title: Balakovo


text:
Che (interjection)

Che (tchê ; xe ) is an interjection commonly used in Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia, Paraguay, Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil) and  Valencia (Spain), signifying "hey!", "fellow", "guy". Che is mainly used as a vocative to call someone's attention (akin to "mate!" or "buddy!" in English), but it is often used as filler too (akin to "right" or "so" in English). The Argentine revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara earned his nickname from his frequent use of the expression, which amused his Cuban comrades.

Etymology
Che is an interjection of unclear origin. According to the Diccionario de la Lengua Española, it is comparable to the archaic ce used in Spain to ask for someone's attention or to make someone stop. Che is now mainly used in Argentina and Uruguay, but is also predominant in Bolivia, Paraguay, the Rio Grande do Sul state of Brazil, and also in Valencia, Spain with a similar meaning.

Due to its spread in South America, alternative etymologies have been suggested by analogy with indigenous words:

 * In Tupi-Guarani, spoken by certain ethnic groups from Argentina to Brazil, che means simply "I" or "my."
 * In the native Araucanian and Chonan language families of the Southern Cone, che means "man" or "people" and is often used as a suffix for ethnonyms in these languages (such as Mapuche, Huilliche, Tehuelche, and Puelche).
 * In Kimbundu, spoken by Congolese slaves during colonial times, xê means "hey!", an interjection for calling someone.

Usage
The first recorded use of che in Spanish America appears to be in 19th-century Argentine writer Esteban Echeverría's short story "The Slaughter Yard" ("El matadero"), published posthumously in 1871 but set in 1838–1839 in the Rosas era.

Che, negra bruja, salí de aquí antes de que te pegue un tajo—exclamaba el carnicero.

("Hey, you black witch, get out of here before I gash you," said the butcher.)

Falkland Islands
In the Falkland Islands, che is commonly used by English speakers ("G'day che, how's things?"). It can also be written as "chay". The word is sometimes used to describe someone who is a particularly traditional Falkland Islander ("He's a proper che").

Valencia
In Spain, che is widely used in Valencia and Terres de l'Ebre, Catalonia (written as xe), as an interjection. With the spelling "xe" in Valencian, its main use is to express protest, surprise or exasperation. Xe! is one of the symbols of the Valencian identity to the point where, for example the Valencia CF is often referred to with the nickname "Xe Team".

Philippines
In the Philippines, che (also spelled cheh) is used to express the dismissing another person or interrupting another person's speech, similar in context to the English expression "Shut up!".

title: Che (interjection)


text:
Brigitte Le Brethon

Brigitte Le Brethon (born 8 March 1951) is a French politician, and a member of The Republicans. She was born in Campeaux, Calvados, France.

She was the mayor of Caen from 2001 to 2008. She was Caen's first woman mayor and was defeated in March 2008 by Philippe Duron, a member of the Socialist Party.

She was elected on 16 June 2002, for the 12th legislature (2002–2007), in the First constituency of Calvados.

Political Office

 * 14 March 1983 – 19 March 1989 : Deputy mayor of Caen.
 * 18 March 1985 – 29 March 1992 : Vice-president of the General Council of Calvados.
 * 20 March 1989 – 18 June 1995 : Deputy mayor of Caen.
 * 30 March 1992 – 22 March 1998 : Vice-president of the general Council of Calvados.
 * 19 March 1995 – 18 March 2001 : Deputy mayor of Caen.
 * 6 March 1998 – 15 July 2002 : Vice-president of the regional Council of Lower Normandy.
 * 16 June 2002 – 19 June 2007 : Member of the National Assembly in Calvados's 1st constituency.
 * 24 March 2001 – 23 March 2008 : Mayor of Caen, France.

title: Brigitte Le Brethon


text: Template:East Midlands

title: Template:East Midlands


text:
POSTNET

POSTNET (Postal Numeric Encoding Technique) is a barcode symbology used by the United States Postal Service to assist in directing mail. The ZIP Code or ZIP+4 code is encoded in half- and full-height bars. Most often, the delivery point is added, usually being the last two digits of the address or PO box number.

The barcode starts and ends with a full bar (often called a guard rail or frame bar and represented as the letter "S" in one version of the USPS TrueType Font) and has a check digit after the ZIP, ZIP+4, or delivery point. The encoding table is shown on the right.

Each individual digit is represented by a set of five bars, two of which are full bars (i.e. two-out-of-five code). The full bars represent "on" bits in a pseudo-binary code in which the places represent, from left to right: 7, 4, 2, 1, and 0. (Though in this scheme, zero is encoded as 11 in decimal, or in POSTNET "binary" as 11000.)

Encoding
The following table shows the encoding for decimal digits:

Example
The ZIP+4 of 55555-1237 yields a check digit of 2 for encoded data of 5555512372 Together with the initials and terminal frame bars, this would be represented as:

Barcode formats
There have been four formats of Postnet barcodes used by the Postal Service:

A 5 digit (plus check digit) barcode, containing the basic ZIP Code only, referred to as the "A" code. 32 bars total.

A 6 digit (plus check digit) barcode, containing the last 2 digits of the ZIP Code and the 4 digits of the ZIP+4 Code, referred to as a "B" code. 37 bars total. In the early stages of Postal automated mail processing the B code was used to "upgrade" mail that had been coded only with a 5-digit "A" code. This barcode was only found on mail that received a 5-digit barcode on the initial coding by an OCR. Now obsolete.

A 9 digit (plus check digit) barcode, containing the ZIP Code and ZIP+4 Code, referred to as the "C" code. 52 bars total. The 9-digit barcode enabled the sorting of mail to the individual delivery carrier, and in some cases into a semblance of delivery sequence.

An 11 digit (plus check digit) barcode, containing the ZIP Code, ZIP+4 Code, and the delivery point code. 62 bars total. This is usually referred to as the DPBC, or Delivery Point Bar Code. By including delivery point information, it enables the Postal Service to sort mail into delivery point (address) sequence.

Discontinuation
The POSTNET 11-digit barcode was the predominant postal addressing barcode in use until the Intelligent Mail barcode (also known in its early usage as OneCode Solution) was introduced and implemented. The POSTNET barcode was replaced by the Intelligent Mail barcode in the fall of 2009, combining all previous Postal Service barcodes and marking into a single barcode. The Intelligent Mail barcode was originally supposed to be required beginning May 2011 however the USPS postponed the requirement date, allowing mailers to continue receiving automation discount rates using the POSTNET barcode until January 28, 2013, at which time Intelligent Mail barcode was required for those reduced rates.

Checkdigit algorithm
The check digit is chosen so that the sum of all digits in the bar code is a multiple of 10. Equivalently, the modulo-10 sum is 0.

To calculate the check digit:
 * 1) Add up the digits. For example, if a letter is sent to Young America, Minnesota, it might be sent to 55555-1237, which would have the sum of 38.
 * 2) Find the remainder of this number when it is divided by 10, in this case 8. This is also known as the sum modulo 10.  A simple way to combine the two steps is to sum the digits without a tens column at all, but discard all carries.
 * 3) Subtract the sum modulo 10 from 10. Continuing with the example, 10 − 8 = 2.  The check digit is therefore 2.

If calculated correctly, the sum of the ZIP, ZIP+4, or ZIP+4+delivery point digits and the check digit will always be a multiple of 10. Continuing with the example above, (5+5+5+5+5+1+2+3+7+2) = 40, and 40 mod 10 = 0.

Note that the Delivery Point is often added after the ZIP+4 and before the check digit, in which case the computation of the check digit includes the ZIP+4 and the Delivery Point.

title: POSTNET


text:
Saria

Saria may refer to:

 * SARIA, a food company
 * Saria, Burkina Faso
 * Saria (mountain), an international mountain in the Anti-Lebanon mountain range
 * Saria, a heroine protagonist of Twinkle Tale
 * Saria (The Legend of Zelda), a fictional character
 * Saria Island, an island of Greece
 * Saria, an Oscar nominated short film based on the 2017 Guatemala orphanage fire events

title: Saria


text:
Tseung Kwan O

Tseung Kwan O New Town, commonly known as Tseung Kwan O, is one of the nine new towns in Hong Kong, built mainly on reclaimed land in the northern half of Junk Bay in southeastern New Territories, after which it is named.

Development of the new town was approved in 1982, with the initial population intake occurring in 1988. As of 2016, the town is home to around 396,000 residents. The total development area of Tseung Kwan O, including its industrial estate, is about 17.18 km2, with a planned population of 445,000. Major residential neighbourhoods within the new town include Tsui Lam, Po Lam, Hang Hau, Tseung Kwan O Town Centre, Tiu Keng Leng (also known by its English name Rennie's Mill) and Siu Chik Sha, etc.

Administratively, the new town belongs to Sai Kung District in southeastern New Territories, although it is often incorrectly regarded as part of Kowloon / New Kowloon due to its close proximity to the city — the new town is bordered by Kwun Tong District, a high rise built-up area, to Tseung Kwan O's west.

History and urban development

The land where Tseung Kwan O New Town now stands was, until the 1980s, a long narrow inlet named Junk Bay, with small fishing villages (such as Tseung Kwan O Village and Hang Hau Village, etc.) and a few small shipbuilding establishments dotting its coastline. The present-day neighbourhood of Tiu Keng Leng (then known as Rennie's Mill) was, from the 1950s to 1990s, a refugee village housing Kuomintang loyalists who fled to Hong Kong after their party's defeat in the Chinese Civil War.

The Hong Kong Government had long been interested in developing a new town at Hang Hau because of its proximity to the urban area. The project was postponed for a long time owing to the extensive scale of reclamation in the bay, which is rather deep. The project finally took off under the name of Tseung Kwan O in 1983, when the development of the new town's Phase I was endorsed by the Governor-in-Council. This was followed by the decision to proceed with Phase II, which entailed further reclamation and the clearance of the Kuomintang refugee village at Rennie's Mill (later renamed Tiu Keng Leng), with a view to increase the planned population from 175,000 to 325,000. The first families moved in to the new town in 1988 when public housing at the Head of the Bay (Po Lam Estate) was completed.

The New Town was developed in three phases. The first phase encompasses Northern Tseung Kwan O, which includes Po Lam MTR station and Hang Hau station, while the second and third phase comprise Southern Tseung Kwan O, which includes Tseung Kwan O station (Town Centre) and Tiu Keng Leng station.
 * Phase I – Hang Hau, Po Lam, Siu Chik Sha, Tsui Lam
 * Phase II – Town Centre North, Tiu Keng Leng
 * Phase III – Town Centre South, Pak Shing Kok, Tai Chik Sha

The design of the new town was highly transit-oriented. Developments centred along the MTR-corridor, with more than 80% of the population living within five minutes of an MTR station, with huge residential complexes surrounding the MTR stations. As most of the residential complexes surrounds the MTR station, urban open space are usually planned at the periphery of each neighbourhood in Tseung Kwan O. Neighbourhoods are therefore separated by parks.

Geography
Tseung Kwan O is located near the southeastern tip of the New Territories mainland, 9 to 12 km east-southeast from the Central District of Hong Kong.

The town is bounded on the south by the namesake Junk Bay, known as Tseung Kwan O (將軍澳) in Chinese. Most of the residential developments in the new town stand on land reclaimed from the bay. The mountains of Devil's Peak, Chiu Keng Wan Shan, Black Hill and Tai Sheung Tok form the new town's western boundary, where it borders Kwun Tong District of Kowloon. Lying to the north and southeast of the town are Razor Hill and High Junk Peak, which separate the new town from the rural parts of Sai Kung District.

The whole of Tseung Kwan O belongs to Sai Kung District, part of the New Territories. The town is, however, situated far away from other major population centres of the New Territories, and is instead in close proximity with Kwun Tong in Kowloon. While the town is entirely within the New Territories East geographical constituency, a number of governmental bodies and large corporations would, for the sake of administrative convenience, classify Tseung Kwan O as part of Kowloon East, adding to the confusion of the town's residents. For example, the Hospital Authority places Tseung Kwan O under its Kowloon East Cluster.

From 1992 to 2017, Tseung Kwan O had been policed under the Tseung Kwan O Division of the Kwun Tong Police District, and the upgraded Tseung Kwan O Police District still belongs to the Kowloon East Police Region. It is under such a situation that the new town is often incorrectly, or intentionally, referred to as part of Kowloon. This is illustrated by the fact that the two hotels in Tseung Kwan O are named Crowne Plaza Hong Kong Kowloon East and Holiday Inn Express Hong Kong Kowloon East.

Neighbourhoods

The development of Tseung Kwan O New Town commenced from the head of the original inlet, on reclaimed land in front of the original indigenous villages of Tseung Kwan O and Yau Yue Wan. The Po Lam neighbourhood is where the earliest developments in the new town could be found. Notably, Po Lam Estate (1988) was the first residential development in the area. Metro City Plaza, with its three phases surrounding the MTR terminus, remains the largest shopping mall in the new town.

To the southeast of Po Lam lies the residential neighbourhood of Hang Hau. It was once a small market town that served the whole of Clear Water Bay Peninsula, and was also a hub for ship breaking industries. When the new town was developed, residents of Hang Hau Town were resited into the Hang Hau Town Resite Area at the neighbourhood's northern edge, known presently as Hang Hau Village. The reclaimed part of Hang Hau is now home to a number of residential developments as well as community facilities such as the District Hospital and Sai Kung District Council facilities.

Tseung Kwan O Town Centre refers to the area to the south of Po Lam, southwest of Hang Hau and east of Tiu Keng Leng. Centered on MTR Tseung Kwan O station, this is the major growth area in the new town where new residential developments are being built. The development of the town centre commenced with the construction of Sheung Tak Estate in 1998. It has since been extended southwards to the shoreline of Junk Bay. Early private residential developments in the area include Sun Hung Kai Properties' Park Central (2002) and The Wings (2012),  and Nan Fung Group's Tseung Kwan O Plaza (2004).

Tiu Keng Leng (formerly Rennie's Mill) was once a cottage area housing refugees who settled in Hong Kong after Kuomintang's defeat in the Chinese Civil War. The refugee village was cleared before the handover. It has since been redeveloped into a mid-size high-rise residential neighbourhood.

Demographics
The 2016 Population By-census records the population of Tseung Kwan O New Town at 398,479, a 7.12% increase from 2011. This is equivalent to 86% of Sai Kung District's total population.

Among the residents of Tseung Kwan O, 42% live in private housing, 34% in some form of subsidized home ownership housing (e.g. HOS courts) and 23% in public rental housing. Each of 4 more well-developed neighbourhoods in the new town, namely Po Lam, Hang Hau, Tseung Kwan O Town Centre and Tiu Keng Leng, is a combination of the above 3 types of housing clustering around a metro station. Private housing estates usually come in the form of podium-tower structures, where the podium levels are shopping malls. Most public housing estates in Tseung Kwan O are equipped with their own shopping malls as well, although mostly smaller in size than their private counterparts.

The LOHAS Park residential project in the southern part of the new town will become the largest single residential enclave in Hong Kong, with 50 high-rises skyscrapers from 46 to 76 floors high after its full completion in 2025.

A handful of pre-existing indigenous villages are also retained in the new town design.

Economy
Tseung Kwan O displays the characteristics of a commuter town as only less than 10% of the workforce living there works within the same district, according to the 2016 Population By-census.

Industries
Tseung Kwan O Industrial Estate is located in the southeastern part of the town. Apart from various manufacturing industries that could not be housed in conventional multi-storey industrial buildings, the estate is also where a number of mass media outlets locate their headquarters at, including TVB City, the headquarters of Hong Kong's largest television broadcaster, and news agencies like Apple Daily (forcibly closed on 24 June 2021) and Sing Tao Daily. The industrial estate hosts a high concentration of data centres due to the fact that three out of the eight submarine communications cables connecting to Hong Kong make their landfall at the marine frontage of the estate.

Bus routes 797M (NWFB) and 298E (KMB) connect the industrial estate to southern Tseung Kwan O. A spur line of the MTR's Tseung Kwan O line to the LOHAS Park station was completed in July 2009 and provides easy access to the industrial estate from Kowloon and Hong Kong Island.

Shopping complexes
Tseung Kwan O has several major shopping complexes, all sitting atop of or in close proximity to MTR stations. The largest shopping centre in the new town now is Metro City Plaza, which boasts three phases surrounding Po Lam MTR station.

Hang Hau MTR station is surrounded by an extensive network of mid-sized shopping arcades linked by footbridges. The mainstay of this multifarious complex is East Point City.

Tseung Kwan O Town Centre (Tseung Kwan O MTR station) is home to Park Central, PopCorn, and Tseung Kwan O Plaza.

An iconic 480,000-square-foot MTR shopping mall The LOHAS has been built atop LOHAS Park station. It has the largest indoor ice rink in Hong Kong as well as the largest cinema in Tseung Kwan O.

Rail
Tseung Kwan O is linked to urban Hong Kong Island by the namesake Tseung Kwan O line of the MTR metro system. The commutes from Po Lam and Tiu Keng Leng to Central District take 31 and 24 minutes, respectively. Currently the line calls at five stations in the new town: Tiu Keng Leng, Tseung Kwan O, Hang Hau, Po Lam, and LOHAS Park. Tiu Keng Leng station is also the terminus of MTR's Kwun Tong line which connects the town with Kowloon East. All MTR stations within the new town are either connected to or in the proximity of shopping centres and large private housing developments.

Bus services
The new town is also well-covered by the local public bus and minibus network. As of November 2019, a total of 50 bus routes ply between Tseung Kwan O and other districts of Hong Kong. Another 3 operate entirely within the new town. These are complemented by 37 green minibus routes. On the other hand, red minibuses are banned from entering Tseung Kwan O.

Hong Kong's three major bus operators all have routes serving Tseung Kwan O. Kowloon Motor Bus, the major bus operator in the New Territories, serves mainly Po Lam and Hang Hau areas. Having successfully tendered for a package of bus routes serving southern Tseung Kwan O, New World First Bus now operates an extensive network serving Tiu Keng Leng, Tseung Kwan O Town Centre and most of the town's southern part. The new town is linked to the airport at Chek Lap Kok by a handful of Citybus routes.

Bus termini could be found at Metro City Plaza in Po Lam; Tsui Lam Estate and Hong Sing Garden in Tsui Lam; Hang Hau station and Hang Hau (North) in Hang Hau; Tseung Kwan O station and Sheung Tak Estate in Tseung Kwan O Town Centre; Tiu Keng Leng station and Kin Ming Estate in Tiu Keng Leng; as well as at Oscar by the Sea, LOHAS Park and the Industrial Estate in the town's southeastern part.

Road network
The new town is connected to urban Kowloon through two road tunnels. The Tseung Kwan O Tunnel acts as the major road link between Tseung Kwan O and Kwun Tong. Built to alleviate the heavy pressure on Tseung Kwan O Tunnel, the Tseung Kwan O – Lam Tin Tunnel opened to traffic in 2022 and offers a more direct linkage to the Eastern Harbour Crossing.

Other main roads leading to Tseung Kwan O include:
 * Po Lam Road, connected to Kwun Tong.
 * Hang Hau Road and Ying Yip Road, connected to Sai Kung and Clear Water Bay.
 * Wan Po Road, connected to Tseung Kwan O Industrial Estate.

The Tseung Kwan O Cross Bay Bridge spans Junk Bay and is Hong Kong's first marine viaduct that boasts carriageways, a cycle track and a footway.

Healthcare
Tseung Kwan O Hospital in Hang Hau North is the only secondary care hospital within the new town boasting a 24-hour emergency department.

Situated on the western slopes of Tseung Kwan O is Haven of Hope Hospital, where subacute medical care, comprehensive rehabilitation and long-term care is provided.

The two hospitals are supplemented by public healthcare facilities like the Tseung Kwan O Jockey Club General Out-patient Clinic and Po Ning Road Health Centre, as well as the numerous private physician practices scattered among the various residential areas in the new town.

Waste management
East of the Tseung Kwan O Industrial Estate is the 10-hectare South East New Territories Landfill (SENT), one of the three remaining landfills in Hong Kong.

Culture and recreation
Tseung Kwan O's largest cultural and recreational complex is situated by the road interchange at the end of Tseung Kwan O Tunnel Road. It comprises a swimming Pool, an indoor games hall and a public library. Additional sports centres are available in Po Lam Estate, Hang Hau and Tiu Keng Leng, albeit smaller in size. Tseung Kwan O still lacks a performing arts centre, however.

Located between Tseung Kwan O Town Centre and Hang Hau, Tseung Kwan O Sports Ground was built for the 2009 East Asian Games. It was completed in early 2009 and started to host top-division football matches afterwards. The adjacent Hong Kong Velodrome has also hosted world-class cycling events like the 2017 UCI Track Cycling World Championships, since its completion in 2013.

Tseung Kwan O Football Training Centre is being developed to deliver six state of the art pitches; three artificial and three natural. It is being funded by the Hong Kong Jockey Club, spearheaded by Hong Kong Football Association, and constructed by Projexasia.

There are two public libraries in Tseung Kwan O. The amphitheatre-shaped Tseung Kwan O Public Library, which opened in 2001, is part of the new town's largest recreational complex mentioned above. It was the only library in the new town until 2015, when the Tiu Keng Leng Public Library was established. Both libraries belong to the Hong Kong Public Libraries system managed by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department.

Education
Tseung Kwan O has an array of 24 primary schools and 24 secondary schools teaching the local curriculum, scattering across its major residential areas. There are also more than 40 kindergartens in the new town. In 2018, the French International School of Hong Kong (香港法國國際學校) and Shrewsbury International School Hong Kong (思貝禮國際學校) opened their campuses in the new town, in Areas 67 and 85 of Tseung Kwan O respectively.

Tseung Kwan O is in Primary One Admission (POA) School Net 95. Within the school net are multiple aided schools (operated independently but funded with government money) and one government school: Tseung Kwan O Government Primary School (將軍澳官立小學).

Tiu Keng Leng is home to the Hong Kong Design Institute and Lee Wai Lee Campus of the Hong Kong Institute of Vocational Education (IVE), two vocational education establishments operated by the Vocational Training Council. Caritas Institute of Higher Education is also located in the same neighbourhood. Although not located within the new town's boundaries, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology is only a 10-minute ride from Hang Hau in the new town.

The Fire and Ambulance Services Academy, where all new recruits of the Hong Kong Fire Services Department are trained, is located in Pak Shing Kok of Tseung Kwan O South.

Politics
The town is located within Sai Kung District and covered by a number of constituencies of the District Council. However, except several functions that are provided by the Home Affairs Department, the executive branch of the Hong Kong Government and its departments are not subdivided along the same borders as the districts and often have their own subdivisions. For example, the public hospitals of the town belong to the Kowloon East Cluster of the Hospital Authority.

title: Tseung Kwan O


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Suzdal

Suzdal (Суздаль, ) is a town that serves as the administrative center of Suzdalsky District in Vladimir Oblast, Russia, which is located near the Kamenka River, 26 km north of the city of Vladimir. Vladimir is the administrative center of the surrounding oblast. As of the 2021 Census, its population was 9,286.

Suzdal is one of the oldest Russian towns. In the 12th century, it became the capital of the principality, while Moscow was one of its subordinate settlements. Currently, Suzdal is the smallest of the Russian Golden Ring towns, yet it has more than 40 historically important monuments and 200 architectural sites. Several of these sites are listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

History

The town's history dates back to 999 or 1024, and in 1125 Yury Dolgoruky made Suzdal the capital of the Rostov-Suzdal principality. Suzdal served as a capital at the time when Moscow has been described as "still a cluster of cowsheds". In 1157, Andrei Bogolyubsky moved the capital from Suzdal to Vladimir, from which time the principality was known as Vladimir-Suzdal. Suzdal was burned and plundered in 1237 during the Mongol-led invasions, however remained a trade centre after this because of its location in a fertile wheat-growing area. Eventually, it united with Nizhny Novgorod until both were annexed by Moscow in 1392. After a decline in political importance, the town rose in prominence as a religious center with development projects funded by Vasily III and Ivan the Terrible in the 16th century. In the late 17th and 18th centuries, wealthy merchants paid for 30 churches, which still stand in the town. At one point,Suzdal had 40 churches per 400 families.

In 1864, local merchants failed to convince the government to build the Trans-Siberian Railway through their town. Instead, it went through Vladimir, 35 km away. In 1967 Suzdal earned a federally protected status, which officially limited development in the area.

In 1943, high-ranking Nazi officers captured at the Battle of Stalingrad were imprisoned within Suzdal's monastery.

Today, the town serves as a tourist center, as it features many examples of old Russian architecture -mostly churches and monasteries. Despite having nearly ten thousand residents, Suzdal still retains a rural atmosphere with streams and meadows, and chicken and livestock a common sight on the streets, some of which remain unpaved. This juxtaposition of medieval architecture in a pastoral setting has made Suzdal a popular subject for artists.

Administrative and municipal status
Within the framework of administrative divisions, Suzdal serves as the administrative center of Suzdalsky District, to which it is directly subordinated. As a municipal division, the town of Suzdal is incorporated within Suzdalsky Municipal District as Suzdal Urban Settlement.

Tourism
The only industry in the town is tourism. Suzdal avoided the industrialization of the Soviet times and was able to preserve many examples of Russian architecture of the 13th-19th centuries. There are 305 monuments and listed buildings in Suzdal, including 30 churches, 14 bell towers, and 5 monasteries and convents. 79 of them are federally protected buildings and 167 are regionally protected.

In 1992 two of the monuments (Saviour Monastery of St Euthymius and Kremlin with Nativity of the Virgin Cathedral) were included in the UNESCO World Heritage List, together with six other White Monuments in this region.

Main sights

 * The Kremlin is the oldest part of Suzdal, dating from the 10th century. It is a predecessor of the Moscow Kremlin. In the 12th century, it was the base of Prince Yury Dolgoruky, who ruled the northeastern part of Kievan Rus' and founded an outpost, which is now Moscow. A posad (settlement) to the east became home to the secular population - shopkeepers and craftsmen, while the Kremlin (fortress) proper was the home of the prince, the archbishop, and the high clergy. Within the Kremlin, the Archbishop’s Chambers house the Suzdal History Exhibition, which includes a visit to the 18th-century Cross Hall, which was used for receptions. More exhibits are provided in the 1635 Kremlin bell tower (Russian: Звонница) in the yard.
 * The 1.4 km earth rampart of the Kremlin encloses a number of houses and churches, including the Nativity of the Virgin Cathedral. This cathedral, with its blue and gold domes, was constructed in 1222-1225 by Yury II on the site of an earlier church built around 1102 by Vladimir Monomakh. It was built of light tufa with limestones for details. In 1445 the cathedral collapsed and was rebuilt in 1528-1530 with the upper structure and drums being constructed of new brick. The original 13th-century door from the cathedral is now on exhibition in the Archbishop’s Chambers.
 * Saviour Monastery of St Euthymius, founded in 1352 to the north of the town centre on the high bank of the Kamenka river. It was built under the order of the Suzdal-Nizhniy Novgorod prince Konstantin. The monastery was planned as a fortress and was originally enclosed by a wooden wall, later destroyed by the Poles. Today's reddish brick walls of the Suzdal monastery were erected over four years, from 1640 to 1644. The fortifications have 12 towers constructed to house artillery power. Later the monastery became a prison, which had a reputation for brutal punishment of prisoners. In 1905 the prison was abolished.
 * The Wooden Church of St. Nicholas, built in Glotovo in 1766, was moved to Suzdal in 1960 to be part of a Museum of Wooden Architecture and Peasant Life. The church is elevated off the ground about a story high from when it was moved across the country. The church is made entirely of wood.
 * St John the Baptist Church, built in 1720, at the same time as the Wooden Church of St Nicholas. It was constructed with white plastered walls and wooden supports.
 * St Alexander Convent, built in 1240 by an unknown architect. It is said that the princesses of Suzdal, Mariya and Agrippina, were buried here in the 14th century.
 * Intercession Convent, founded in 1364. In its center stands the Cathedral of the Intercession, an add-on built in 1518, financed by Moscow knaz (king) Vasili III. The interior of the cathedral is plain white stone, with no paintings or stained glass. The church houses the burial vaults of 20 nuns of noble birth. An art museum containing works created in the 16th and 17th centuries is connected to the cathedral.

Festivals

 * Open Russian Festival of Animated Film, held annually in March since 2002, with the support of the Russian Ministry of Culture.
 * Cucumber Day Festival with folk music performances is celebrated by locals on the second Saturday of July, every year since 2001.

Infrastructure
There are four major hotels in Suzdal: There are also 50 guesthouses with a total number of 700 rooms. Suzdal has approximately 20 hotel rooms per 100 population (comparing to 0.2 rooms for Russia in general, or 1.6 rooms in the US).
 * Nikolaevsky Posad (180 rooms)
 * Pushkarskaya Sloboda (291 rooms)
 * Heliopark (185 rooms)
 * GTK Suzdal (705 rooms).

Suzdal has 13 restaurants, 10 cafes, 11 bars and 73 souvenir shops.

In 1982 Suzdal became the first Russian town to receive La Pomme d'Or (Golden Apple) - a prize for excellence in the tourism industry, awarded annually by the World Federation of Travel Journalists and Writers (FIJET).

Film
More than 60 movies were filmed in Suzdal and the vicinity. Among them:

 * Andrei Rublev (USSR, 1966)
 * Bratya Karamazovy (USSR, 1969)
 * Finist, the brave Falcon (USSR, 1976)
 * The Shooting Party (USSR, 1978)
 * Tema (USSR, 1979)
 * Yunost Petra (USSR, 1980)
 * Charodei (USSR, 1982)
 * Dead Souls (USSR, 1984)
 * Peter the Great (USA, 1986)
 * Tsar (Russia, 2009)

According to local historian Yury Belov, in the summer of 1964 three different feature films (Metel, Zhenitba Balzaminova and Tsarskaya nevesta) were filmed in Suzdal at the same time.

Twin towns
Suzdal is twinned with:
 * 🇩🇪 Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany, since 1988
 * 🇮🇹 Cles, Italy, since 1991
 * 🇺🇸 Oberlin, United States, since 1991
 * 🇺🇸 Windham, United States, since 1992
 * Évora, Portugal, since 2006
 * 🇫🇷 Loches, France, since 2011
 * Shangrao, China, since 2012

Notable people

 * Solomonia Saburova (1490–1542), the first wife of Grand prince Vasili III of Muscovy, canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church as St Sofia of Suzdal
 * Dmitry Pozharsky (1577–1642), national hero, granted the title Saviour of the Motherland for routing the Polish invasion
 * Eudoxia Lopukhina (1669–1698), Tsarina, the first wife of Peter the Great, banished to the Intercession Convent of Suzdal
 * Dmitry Vinogradov (1720–1758), chemist, the founder of the Imperial Porcelain Factory, Saint Petersburg
 * Aleksei Gastev (1882–1939), revolutionary, trade-union activist and a pioneer of scientific management in Russia
 * Sergei Shirokogorov (1887–1939), founder of Russian anthropology
 * Vasily Blokhin (1895–1955), chief executioner of the NKVD (Soviet Secret Police) during the Great Purge and World War II
 * Yuri Modin (1922–2007), KGB controller for the "Cambridge Five"

title: Suzdal


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Wind Song (ship)

Wind Song was a 4-masted motor sailing yacht used as a cruise ship by Windstar Cruises from 1987 until 2002, when the ship suffered an engine room fire.

Wind Song was one of an unusual class of only three vessels ( Wind Star, Wind Spirit and Wind Song), designed as a modern cruise ship but carrying an elaborate system of computer-controlled sails on four masts. The ship's usual itinerary was an inter-island cruise in French Polynesia and in the Bahamas.

Fire
On December 1, 2002, according to a first-hand passenger account, an engine room fire forced passengers into lifeboats at 3:15 a.m. where they'd hoped to stay only until the fire was under control. At 5:04 a.m. a small explosion was heard from the front of the ship and the captain gave the order to abandon ship. All 127 passengers and 92 crew members were evacuated safely. Passengers were transported by fast ferry to Raiatea, a nearby island where they arrived at approx 8 a.m. Over the course of that day, they were flown on scheduled and charter Air Tahiti flights to Papeete.

The French Navy put out the fire and towed the ship to Papeete, where examination showed extensive damage to engineering spaces, although the passenger areas were mostly intact. Subsequently the Navy demanded compensation for its services, and French Polynesian government seized the Wind Song. However, both Holland America Line (owner of Windstar Cruises at the time, itself a subsidiary of Carnival Corporation & plc) and Carnival Corporation & plc was unwilling to pay the costs involved, and even scrapping was uneconomical, because of the ship's small size and remoteness from shipbreakers in India, China, and elsewhere.

On January 22, 2003, with the agreement of Holland America and Carnival, the President of the Territorial Government of French Polynesia, Gaston Flosse, ordered the scuttling of the Wind Song. That night the ship was towed into the Sea of the Moon between Tahiti and Moorea and sunk in 9,843 feet of water, at latitude 17.45S, longitude 149.48W.

title: Wind Song (ship)


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Tunstead Milton

Tunstead Milton is a village in Derbyshire, England.

It is situated on the B5470 road west of, and in the parish of Chapel-en-le-Frith, near the northern edge of the Combs Reservoir.

It is the location of Tunstead Dickey, a "Screaming Skull", and is mentioned in Highways and Byways in Derbyshire by J B Frith, a guide published in 1905, and in Black's Guide published throughout the 19th century.

The name Tunstead is likely derived from hundred homestead and Milton from mill town.

The hamlet had in the past a post office, a garage and two public houses, all of which have now closed.

It should not be confused with Tunstead, which is roughly five miles to the southeast, near Wormhill.

title: Tunstead Milton


text: Template:West Midlands

title: Template:West Midlands


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USS Narwhal (SS-167)

USS Narwhal (SS-167), the lead ship of her class of submarine and one of the "V-boats", was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for the narwhal. She was named V-5 (SC-1) when her keel was laid down on 10 May 1927 by the Portsmouth Navy Yard in Kittery, Maine.

Design
V-5 was generally similar to the preceding submarine minelayer V-4, although slightly smaller and lacking a minelaying system. The configuration of V-4, V-5, and V-6 resulted from an evolving strategic concept that increasingly emphasized the possibility of a naval war with Japan in the far western Pacific. This factor, and the implications of the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty, suggested the need for long-range submarine "cruisers", or "strategic scouts", as well as long-range minelayers, for which long endurance, not high speed, was most important. The design was possibly influenced by the German "U-cruisers" of the Type U-139 and Type U-151 U-boat classes, although V-4, V-5, and V-6 were all larger than these. A raised gun platform was provided around the conning tower, and deck stowage for spare torpedoes was included under the platform and in the superstructure. V-5 and her near-sisters V-4 (USS Argonaut (SS-166)) and V-6 (USS Nautilus (SS-168)) were initially designed with larger and more powerful MAN-designed diesel engines than the Busch-Sulzer engines that propelled earlier V-boats, which were failures. Unfortunately, the specially built engines failed to produce their design power, and some developed dangerous crankcase explosions. The engineering plant was replaced in 1942.

The as-built engine specifications were two BuEng-built, MAN-designed direct-drive 10-cylinder 4-cycle main diesel engines, 2350 hp each, with two BuEng MAN  4-cycle 6-cylinder auxiliary diesel engines, 450 hp each, driving 300 kW  electric generators. The auxiliary engines were for charging batteries or for increased surface speed via a diesel-electric system providing power to the main electric motors.

V-5 was built to a partial welded/partial riveted construction method. Welding was used to join the vertical keel plates, and also in other non-critical areas like the superstructure, piping brackets, and support framing. The inner and outer hulls were still entirely riveted.

Construction and commissioning
V-5 was launched on 17 December 1929, sponsored by Mrs. Frances Adams (née Lovering), wife of Charles F. Adams, Secretary of the Navy, and commissioned on 15 May 1930, Lieutenant Commander John H. Brown Jr. in command.

Interwar period

V-5 departed Annapolis, Maryland on 11 August 1930 for a cruise to the West Indies, returning to Portsmouth on 11 September. She trained in New England waters until 31 January 1931, when she sailed for the West Coast via the Panama Canal, arriving San Diego on 4 April. On 19 February, V-5 was renamed Narwhal and on 1 July received the new hull number SS-167. After overhaul at Mare Island Navy Yard, Narwhal departed on 2 February 1932 for fleet exercises off Hawaii. She returned to San Diego on 17 March. After patrol duty along the West Coast, the submarine got underway on 12 July 1934 for a cruise with Submarine Division 12 (SubDiv 12) until her arrival at San Diego on 18 September. For the next three years, she operated as far north as Seattle, Washington and as far west as Pearl Harbor, which became her home base for operations through 1941. On a 30 day pre-war training cruise in 1941, Narwhal lost 20,000 gallons of fuel oil due leakage from her riveted fuel tanks.

World War II
Narwhal was one of four submarines in overhaul caught by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in the early morning of 7 December 1941. Within minutes of the first enemy bomb explosions on Ford Island, Narwhal's gunners were in action to assist in the destruction of two torpedo planes.

1st–3rd Patrols and overhaul, February 1942 – April 1943
On her first war patrol – from 2 February to 28 March 1942 – Narwhal, with Lieutenant Commander Charles W. "Weary" Wilkins in command, departed Pearl Harbor to reconnoiter Wake Island on 15–16 February, then continued on to the Ryukyu Islands. On 28 February, she made her first torpedo attack of the war, heavily damaging Maju Maru. Six days later, the submarine sank Taki Maru in the East China Sea.

She spent her second war patrol – from 28 May – 13 June – in defense of Midway Atoll. As TF 16 – with the aircraft carriers USS Enterprise (CV-6), USS Hornet (CV-8), and USS Yorktown (CV-5) – prepared to meet the Japanese attack, Narwhal joined USS Plunger (SS-179) and USS Trigger (SS-237) in scouting east of Midway; during the Battle of Midway on 3–6 June, these submarines – along with 15 others – accomplished nothing as the Japanese did not move east of Midway.

Narwhal's third patrol – from 7 July – 26 August – took her close to Hokkaidō to stalk Japanese shipping off the Kurile Islands. She claimed two small inter-island freighters on 24 and 28 July. One reference credits Narwhal with 3 sinkings on 24 July. However, it is likely that the gunboat mentioned was too small to be considered in the official tally, and the other two sinkings are the ones that took place around this date. On 1 August, Narwhal included Meiwa Maru to her credit despite aircraft bomb and depth charge retaliation. One reference credits Narwhal with an additional sinking on 1 August (the tanker Koan Maru). Seven days later, she sank Bifuku Maru. On the morning of 14 August, the submarine raised her periscope to discover three enemy destroyers crossing her stern in column. She waited while the destroyers "were running all over the ocean" dropping depth charges. Only slightly damaged, Narwhal departed her patrol area the next day.

On 8 September, Narwhal sailed from Pearl Harbor for the West Coast, arriving Mare Island Navy Yard on 15 September for overhaul. Her aging BuEng MAN engines were replaced at this time with four GM-Winton 16-278As and other upgraded machinery, including more powerful electric motors and new batteries. She also received four external torpedo tubes, two in the bow and two on top of the stern casing, and may have received increased torpedo deck stowage as well. She went on to San Diego on 4 April 1943, arriving two days later to embark a company of the 7th Infantry Division Provisional Scout Battalion (including Alaskan Native scouts of the Alaska Territorial Guard) for the invasion of Attu Island. On 18 April, she set course for Alaska, arriving at Dutch Harbor on 27 April.

4th–8th Patrols, April 1943 – December 1943
The submarine began her fourth war patrol – from 30 April to 25 May – departing Dutch Harbor for the western Aleutian Islands. She rendezvoused with sister ship USS Nautilus (SS-168) on 11 May off the northern side of Attu Island, and the two ships debarked Army Scouts in rubber boats for the preliminary landings in the recapture of the island, a venture successfully completed on 29 May. Narwhal returned to Pearl Harbor with a stopover at Dutch Harbor on 14 and 18 May.

With Commander Frank D. Latta in command, she again got underway for the Kurile Islands on her fifth war patrol, from 26 June – 7 August. Her mission – beginning on 11 July – was to create diversion by bombarding an air base on Matsuwa. USS Lapon (SS-260), USS Permit (SS-178), and Plunger were about to attempt an exit from the previously impenetrable Sea of Japan which they had so daringly invaded. The night of 15 July, Narwhal drew so much enemy attention to her presence she was forced to dive from the shells, but she accomplished her mission: the other submarines slipped through Etorofu Strait without detection.

Narwhal made her sixth war patrol – from 31 August to 2 October – off the Marshall Islands. On the morning of 11 September, she torpedoed and sank Hokusho Maru before a Japanese escort caught up with her. After a severe depth charging, she departed for the Kwajalein Atoll area. By the end of September, the submarine was en route to Brisbane.

Upon arrival, Narwhal prepared to participate in the campaign to assist the guerrilla movement in the Philippines begun in January 1943, when USS Gudgeon (SS-211) disembarked six Filipinos and a ton of equipment on Negros Island. Narwhal eventually became the leading submarine in supporting the Philippine guerrilla movement with nine secret transport missions to her credit.

Narwhal was loaded down with 92 ST of ammunition and stores and a party of ten for her seventh patrol, from 23 October – 22 November, supporting Philippine guerrillas. She was in the Sulu Sea, off Mindanao, the night of 10 November en route to Puluan Bay when two Japanese ships astern opened fire. The night of 13 November, she entered Ptiluan Bay stealthily to disembark her passengers and half of her cargo while lying off the starboard side of Dona Jitana Maru. By midnight Narwhal was safely on her way to Nasipit, on Mindanao, where she docked on 15 November to unload the rest of her stores to the tune of "Anchors Aweigh" played by a grateful Filipino band. She then embarked 32 evacuees, including eight women, two children, and a baby, for Darwin, Australia, and the end of her patrol.

Picking up such odd assortments of passengers and secret cargo soon became routine for Narwhal. She departed on her eighth war patrol – from 25 November – 18 December – with the usual cargo and 11 Army operatives bound for Cabadbaran, on Mindanao, arriving Butuan Bay on 2 December for disembarking. With seven evacuees on board, Narwhal sailed for Majacalar Bay, arriving off Negros Island on 3 December. Taking on nine more people, she stood out of Alajacalar Bay on 5 December. Around sunrise that same day, the submarine sank Hinteno Maru in a blaze of gunfire. On 11 December, she disembarked her passengers at Port Darwin, then continued on to Fremantle, Western Australia.

9th–12th Patrols, January 1944 – July 1944
On her ninth war patrol – from 18 January to 15 February 1944 – the submarine returned to Darwin to embark observer Commander F. Kent Loomis and more stores. Following a nighttime transit of the Surigao Strait, Narwhal slipped west and north, made a submerged patrol off Naso Point, Panay, then headed for Pandan Bay to transfer cargo to sailing craft. With six new passengers, she came off Negros Island on 7 February to deposit 45 tons of supplies. Narwhal then received 28 more evacuees for the trip to Darwin, including Professor Roy Bell and family.

On her tenth war patrol – from 16 February – 20 March – Narwhal delivered more ammunition to Butuan Bay on 2 March. With 28 new people on board, she departed on 3 March for Tawi-Tawi. That evening, she damaged Karatsu (the captured USS Luzon (PR-7)) and was heavily bombarded with depth charges by enemy escorts for her trouble. On the night of 5 March, two small boats – assisted by rubber boats from Narwhal – put off for shore with cargo. Three Japanese destroyers closed in later; she eluded them and transferred her passengers, now a total of 38, to Chinampa on 11 March before docking at Fremantle.

Narwhal, with Commander Jack C. Titus in command, departed on her 11th war patrol – from 7 May – 9 June – for Alusan Bay, Samar, where she landed 22 men and supplies, including electric lamps, radio parts, and flour for the priests, the night of 24 May. By 1 June, the submarine was unloading 16 men and stores on the southwest coast of Mindanao. She ended this patrol at Port Darwin. )

The twelfth war patrol – from 10 June – 7 July – gave Narwhal a chance for some action. On 13 June, she submerged for reconnaissance of Bula, Ceram Island, an enemy fuel depot. That night, the submarine closed the shore and fired 56 rounds of 6-inch (152 mm) projectiles to destroy several gasoline storage tanks and set fires around a power house and pumping station area before she had to retreat from the salvos directed at her. Three minutes before sunset on 20 June, she rendezvoused with native boats to send her cargo ashore during a suspenseful nine and one-half hours. Within 30 minutes she had completed unloading and taking on 14 evacuees, but a submarine chaser was in her wake. Narwhal evaded him to do some shooting herself the next day at a Japanese motorized sailboat and on 22 June at the tanker Itsukushima Maru. After putting her evacuees ashore at Port Darwin on 29–30 June, she continued to Fremantle.

13th–15th Patrols, Decommissioning, and Scrapping, August 1944 – May 1945
Her 13th war patrol – from 12 August – 10 September – started at Fremantle and ended at Port Darwin. On the night of 30 August, Narwhal surfaced in Dibut Bay on the east coast of Luzon for her usual disembarking procedures, greatly speeded this time by the use of bamboo rafts built by the shore party under the direction of Major Robert Lapham and Lieutenant Commander Charles "Chick" Parsons, a liaison man in the Philippine supply and evacuation missions. Before midnight on 2 September, Narwhal sent a party and supplies ashore to a beach off the mouth of the Masanga River, and received four evacuees in return to complete the patrol.

On her 14th war patrol – from 14 September – 5 October – Narwhal deposited men and stores on Cebu Island on 27 September, then took off for Siari Bay, where on 29 September she received 31 liberated prisoners-of-war (POWs) rescued from the sea after USS Paddle (SS-263) sank two Japanese transports off Sindagan Point on 7 September. However, according to a POW survivor's account, Narwhal picked up 82 POW's, survivors of the Shin'yō Maru incident, vice 31 at Siari, Mindanao. "Forty-one placed in the forward torpedo room and 41 in the aft torpedo room". Narwhal found herself in danger the afternoon of 30 September, when she submerged to avoid a Japanese antisubmarine patrol plane, her stern planes locked in a 20° down-angle. Forced to blow her main ballast to stop the steep dive, Narwhal reversed direction and popped out of the water stern first just two minutes after she went down. Luckily, the patrol plane could not maneuver fast enough to return before she again dove.

After a short refit at Mios Woendi, Dutch New Guinea, Narwhal conducted her 15th and last war patrol from 11 October – 2 November, with Commander William G. Holman in command. Friday the 13th brought a near attack by a PBY Catalina. Once the submarine was recognized, the aircraft signaled "GOOD LUCK NARWHAL." The evening of 17 October she was off a Tawi Tawi beach to deliver 11 ST of cargo. Two days later she unloaded the rest of her cargo and 37 men at Negros Island and took on her last passengers, 26 in all, for the trip to Brisbane, Queensland.

Narwhal departed Brisbane on 6 January 1945 for the east coast via the Panama Canal, entering the Philadelphia Navy Yard on 21 February, where she was decommissioned on 23 April. She was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 19 May and sold for scrap. Narwhal's two 6-inch (152 mm) guns are permanently enshrined at the Naval Submarine Base New London, at Groton, Connecticut. There is an oral tradition in the US submarine force that USS Narwhal (SSN-671) received her hull number as a deliberate re-arrangement of the older Narwhal's hull number of SS-167.

Awards

 * American Defense Service Medal with "FLEET" clasp
 * Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with 15 battle stars for World War II service
 * World War II Victory Medal ribbon.svg World War II Victory Medal

Narwhal′s 15 battle stars for World War II service tied her with USS Thresher (SS-200) for the most battle stars earned by a submarine, placing them amongst the most decorated US ships of World War II.

Memorial
The town of Nasipit in Agusan del Norte, created a memorial in commemoration of the USS Narwhal's efforts during World War II.

In popular culture
A 1958 episode of the television series The Silent Service called "Narwhal's Passenger From Mindanao," detailed a rescue operation involving Narwhal under Titus's command.

The opening of the movie Operation Pacific may have been inspired by the Narwhal's seventh war patrol, where 32 civilians, including 8 children and a baby, were evacuated to Australia.

title: USS Narwhal (SS-167)


text:
Daniel Schorr

Daniel Louis Schorr (August 31, 1916 – July 23, 2010) was an American journalist who covered world news for more than 60 years. He was most recently a Senior News Analyst for National Public Radio (NPR). Schorr won three Emmy Awards for his television journalism.

Early life
Schorr was born in the Bronx, New York, the son of Russian immigrants Tillie Godiner and Gedaliah Tchornemoretz. He began his journalism career at the age of 13, when he came upon a woman who had jumped or fallen from the roof of his apartment building. After calling the police, he phoned the Bronx Home News and was paid $5 for his information.

He attended DeWitt Clinton High School in the West Bronx, where he worked on the Clinton News, the school paper. He graduated from City College of New York in 1939 while working for the Jewish Daily Bulletin. Schorr also worked for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency as a chief news editor from 1934 to 1948. During World War II, Schorr served in Army Intelligence at Fort Polk, Louisiana, and at Fort Sam Houston, Texas.

In January 1967, he married Lisbeth Bamberger, a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley.

CBS News
Following several years as a stringer, including bylines in The New York Times, which led to a tryout but no job despite repeated attempts, in 1953 he joined CBS News as one of the recruits of Edward R. Murrow (becoming part of the later generation of Murrow's Boys). In 1955, with the post-Stalin thaw in the Soviet Union, he received accreditation to open a CBS bureau in Moscow. In June 1957, he obtained an exclusive interview with Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet Communist Party chief. It aired on CBS's Face the Nation, Schorr's first television interview. Schorr left the Soviet Union later that year, because of Soviet censorship laws. When he applied for a new visa, it was denied by the Soviets.

In January 1962, he aired the first examination of everyday life under communism in East Germany, The Land Beyond the Wall: Three Weeks in a German City, which the Times called a "journalistic coup". After agreeing not to foster "propaganda" for the United States, Schorr was granted the rights to conduct the interviews in Rostock. By airing everyday life, Schorr painted a picture of the necessity for a Communist state to seal itself off from the West in order to survive.

President John F. Kennedy's Secretary of State Dean Rusk criticized Schorr's actions in an August 10, 1962 diplomatic cable for a checkbook journalism story in which, "Schorr involved himself in a matter which was far beyond his private or journalistic responsibilities and proceeded amateurishly in a matter filled with greatest danger for all concerned. As we anticipated, [the] other side turned out to be fully aware of the matter and laid a trap which could have resulted in [a] massacre [of] those involved.” A meeting with the State Department over the matter recorded in a cable stated, "Schorr appeared chastened by fact that a plan which was to be his greatest achievement had failed. He did not give slightest appearance of being contrite."

CBS executives were not amused when Schorr reported—incorrectly—that Barry Goldwater was said to "travel to Germany to join-up with the right-wing there", and visit "Hitler's one-time stomping ground" in Berchtesgaden, immediately after he became the Republican nominee for president. For obvious reasons, this did not fare well with Goldwater, who demanded an apology for the "CBS conspiracy" against his campaign for president.

Schorr took a close journalistic interest in the career of Vice President of the United States Hubert Humphrey.

1970s
Schorr attracted the anger of Richard Nixon's White House. In 1971, after a dispute with White House aides, Schorr's friends, neighbors, and co-workers were questioned by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) about his habits. They were told that Schorr was under consideration for a high-level position in the environmental area. Schorr knew nothing about it. Later, during the Watergate hearings, it was revealed that Nixon aides had drawn up what became known as Nixon's Enemies List, and Daniel Schorr was on that list. Famously, Schorr read the list aloud on live TV, surprised to be reading his own name in that context. Schorr won Emmys for news reporting in 1972, 1973, and 1974.

Schorr provoked intense controversy in 1976 when he received and made public the contents of the secret Pike Committee report on illegal Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and FBI activities. Called to testify before Congress, he refused to identify his source on First Amendment grounds, risking imprisonment. This did not mollify CBS executives, and Schorr ultimately resigned from his position at CBS in September 1976. Although scolded at first for his television report by former CIA director Richard Helms, Schorr was vindicated by the text of the report, which he had obtained from an undisclosed source and sent to The Village Voice.

Schorr "remained silent in the face of false suspicions that another CBS correspondent, Lesley Stahl, had given the (Pike) report to The Voice". Roger Mudd stated in his autobiography that Schorr personally spread rumors that Stahl had leaked the paper, while Stahl in her autobiography stated that she was "flabbergasted" at the accusation from Schorr and the resulting furor within CBS as the executives were "deciding what to do" with her over the serious journalistic breach she was accused of, while Nora Ephron reports that Stahl considered a slander suit against Schorr. Schorr later donated his profits from the sale of the Pike papers to the Reporters' Committee for Freedom of the Press.

On May 14, 2006, on NPR's Weekend Edition, Schorr mentioned a meeting at the White House that took place with colleague A. M. Rosenthal and president Gerald Ford. Ford mentioned that the Rockefeller Commission had access to various CIA documents, including those referring to political assassinations.

Later work
In 1977, Schorr was hired by Reese Schonfeld as a White House correspondent for ITNA (Independent Television News Association), a news agency serving independent television news stations in the U.S. In 1979, Schonfeld and Ted Turner brought Schorr to Cable News Network (CNN), where he was the first on-camera employee hired. He reported news and delivered commentary and news analysis on the fledgling CNN. His contract was not renewed in 1985, one of the two times he stated he was "fired". He then took the position as Senior News Analyst at NPR, a position he held for decades up to the time of his death. In that position, he regularly commented on current events for programs including All Things Considered and Weekend Edition. He also wrote a column for The Christian Science Monitor for several decades. Schorr was called "reliably liberal", and was "widely regarded as a liberal" according to another source, though he regarded the label as inaccurate.

In 1994, Schorr narrated the TV miniseries, Watergate. In the late 1990s, he appeared briefly as a newscaster in three Hollywood movies: The Net (1995), The Game (1997), and The Siege (1998). In The Game, Schorr appeared as himself as an agent of an organization that interferes with the main character's life. He also appeared as himself in the docufiction film World War Three that presented an alternative ending to the USA/USSR Cold War.

Schorr was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2002.

Other
Though not a fan of rock music, Schorr became friends with composer Frank Zappa after the latter contacted him, asking for help with a voter registration drive. Schorr made an appearance with Zappa on February 10, 1988, where he sang "It Ain't Necessarily So" and "Summertime". Schorr delivered the eulogy on NPR after Zappa's death on December 4, 1993; he professed not to understand Zappa's lengthy discourses on music theory, but he found a kindred spirit—a serious man with a commitment to free speech.

About 20 years after Nixon's resignation, Schorr attended a dinner where Nixon spoke about the Soviet Union. After the dinner ended, Schorr walked up to Nixon and said, "Mr. Nixon, I'm not sure you'll remember me." Nixon replied, "Dan Schorr, damn near hired you once."

Death
Schorr died from an apparent "short illness" on July 23, 2010, at a Washington, D.C. hospital, at the age of 93. Schorr's last broadcast commentary for NPR aired on Saturday, July 10, 2010 (on Weekend Edition). His remains were buried at Parklawn Memorial Park in Rockville, Maryland.

Awards

 * Emmy Award for "outstanding achievement within a regularly scheduled news program", 1972, 1973, and 1974.
 * George Polk Award for Radio Commentary, for his work on NPR, 1993.
 * Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University "Golden Baton" for "Exceptional Contributions to Radio and Television Reporting and Commentary", 1996.
 * Edward R. Murrow Award for Lifetime Achievement in Broadcasting, 2002.
 * Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters (L.H.D.) degree from Whittier College (2003)

Listed as number 17 on Nixon's Enemies List, something he discovered while reading the just obtained list live on the air. He was later named in the Nixon articles of impeachment. Even late in life, he considered being named on the Enemies List one of the greatest honors in his life.

Books

 * (2007) Come to Think of It: Notes on the Turn of the Millennium. Viking Adult. ISBN 0-670-01873-2.
 * (2005) The Senate Watergate Report: The Historic Ervin Committee Report, Which Initiated the Fall of a President. Carroll & Graf. ISBN 0-7867-1709-2.
 * (2002) Staying Tuned: A Life in Journalism. Washington Square Press. ISBN 0-671-02088-9.
 * (1998) Forgive Us Our Press Passes: Selected Works (1972–1998). O'Brien Center for Scholarly Pubns. ISBN 0-9626954-6-7.
 * (1978) Clearing the Air. Berkley. ISBN 0-425-03903-X.
 * (1970) Don't Get Sick in America. Aurora Publishers. ISBN 0-87695-103-5.

title: Daniel Schorr


text:
Kingsway telephone exchange

Kingsway telephone exchange was a Cold War-era hardened telephone exchange underneath High Holborn in London. Initially built as a deep-level air-raid shelter in the early 1940s, it was instead used as a government communications centre. In 1949 the General Post Office (GPO) took over the building, and in 1956 it became the UK termination point for TAT-1, the first transatlantic telephone cable. Closure of the facility began in the 1980s. It was built together with underground exchanges in Birmingham and Manchester, and was originally covered by a D-Notice.

History
The Kingsway telephone exchange was built as a deep-level shelter underneath Chancery Lane tube station in the early 1940s, consisting of two east–west aligned tunnels, one on each side of the Central Line. Although intended for use as an air raid shelter, like many of the deep level shelters, it was not used for its intended purpose and was instead used as a government communications centre. Material from the Public Record Office was stored there from 1945 to 1949.

The site was given to the General Post Office in 1949. At the time, the Post Office was also responsible for telephones as well as postal system. The two-tunnel shelter was extended by the addition of four shorter tunnels, at right angles to the original pair. This extension was completed by 1954, and the exchange opened on 30 October 1954. In 1956 it became the UK termination point for TAT-1, the first transatlantic telephone cable.

Throughout the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s, Kingsway Trunk Switching Centre (as it became known) was a trunk switching centre and repeater station with Post Office engineering staff totalling over 200 at its peak. After the exchange was wound down the site was used for the Radio Interference Investigation Group, whose function was to prevent television viewers and radio listeners in north and central London from suffering interference to their service from external sources such as thermostats, fluorescent tubes and injection moulding equipment. The country's first radio paging terminal was also installed on this site in the 1970s. In the 1980s it housed Kingsway Computer Centre, a backup for ICARUS (international circuit allocation record update system)

The site had a staff restaurant, tea bar, games room and licensed bar. Its bar claimed to be the deepest in the United Kingdom, at about 200 feet (60 metres) below street level. The site contained an artesian well and rations to maintain several hundred people for many months, to try to ensure a safe environment in case of nuclear attack.

By the early 1980s the site was subject to a phased closure after large quantities of blue asbestos were found on the site. By 1995 only the main distribution frame was still in service. This reportedly has been removed. Also in the 1990s two of the east most tunnels became a bunker of sorts, possibly a temporary home for PINDAR. This was abandoned by 1996.

In October 2008, British Telecom announced that the tunnels were for sale.

London Tunnels
In November 2023, BT Group agreed to sell the tunnels to The London Tunnels, a UK-based group backed by a private equity fund, which planned to restore and preserve them and open them to the public for the first time. Subject to planning approval, working with architect WilkinsonEyre, The London Tunnels' vision is to create an interactive cultural experience, with an operational capacity of two million visitors per year. The plans envisage investing around £140m on restoring, preserving and fitting-out the site, then £80m on immersive technology and screens. The venue would open to the public in 2027 and would involve the rebuilding of the Furnival Street entrance. In June 2024, City of London Corporation planners approved the £220m scheme; Camden Council approved the scheme in July 2024.

Entrances
Kingsway Telephone Exchange has two entrances. One is next to a shopfront at 32 High Holborn, the other is a goods lift on Furnival Street. A third access point, a combination of ventilation towers and a passenger lift at Tooks Court, was demolished in 2001.

Fiction
The Exchange features in the third of James Herbert's The Rats trilogy Domain, as a place where survivors of a nuclear attack on London take shelter.

Once home to MI6's Special Operations Executive, the tunnels are referenced by Ian Fleming (who worked as an SOE liaison officer) in his first James Bond book Casino Royale as the location of M's Q Branch laboratories.

title: Kingsway telephone exchange


text:
User:Ploro~enwiki

Astonished by the wikipedia project, I've tried to help wherever I've found that I had something to write, which is not much.

For the moment, I consider myself the best paella cook of the world (a subjective assessment of course), and I've made some modifications to the paella and related entries, and some entries related to the city of Valencia or Valencian history.

In the future I should modify or include new entries in the fields of data mining, artificial intelligence and other computer science disciplines, where it is supposed that I should have a say...

title: User:Ploro~enwiki


text:
Red Rocks Park

Red Rocks Park is a mountain park in Jefferson County, Colorado, owned and maintained by the city of Denver as part of the Denver Mountain Parks system. The park is known for its very large red sandstone outcrops. Many of these rock formations within the park have names, from the mushroom-shaped Seat of Pluto to the inclined Cave of the Seven Ladders. The most visited rocks, around Red Rocks Amphitheatre, are Creation Rock to the north, Ship Rock to the south, and Stage Rock to the east.

The red sandstone found throughout Red Rocks Park is geologically identified as belonging to the Fountain Formation. Other Colorado examples of Fountain Formation geology include nearby Roxborough State Park, Garden of the Gods near Colorado Springs, and the Flatirons near Boulder. The rocks were formed about 290-296 million years ago when the Ancestral Rocky Mountains were eroded during the Pennsylvanian epoch. Later, uplift during the Laramide orogeny tilted the rocks to the angle at which they sit today.

An Army expedition led by Stephen Long discovered present-day Red Rocks in 1820. The park was in times far past a favored campsite of the Ute tribe for it provided natural cover from the elements. Its earliest known name was the Garden of the Angels, reputedly given to it on July 4, 1870, by Martin Van Buren Luther, a pioneer Colorado judge. In 1872, Marion Burts became the first recorded owner of Red Rocks. He sold it to Leonard H. Eicholtz, a civil engineer who helped build the Union Pacific Railway and who developed the property into a park in 1878. Eicholtz added roads, trails, picnic grounds, steps, and ladders so visitors could explore the park. In 1906, Eicholtz sold Red Rocks to famed editor John Brisben Walker which he purchased with proceeds from his sale of Cosmopolitan magazine; Walker organized concerts on a temporary platform at the Garden of the Titans. Known however by the folk name of Red Rocks since the area was settled, it was formally given that name when Denver acquired it in 1928 from Walker.

Within the park boundaries is the Red Rocks Amphitheatre, a venue used since 1941. The Amphitheater was designed by Burnam Hoyt within the area between two massive slabs of Red stone (Ship Rock and Creation Rock).

Park construction
Denver Mayor Ben Stapleton resisted developing the already beautiful Red Rocks but the city used Depression-era New Deal funding and resources to build out the park, as part of the development of the Denver Mountain Parks system. City planner George Cranmer oversaw the development, securing federal funding and establishment of a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp at Mount Morrison to facilitate the construction of the park's features. CCC crews were responsible for building out the early roads and the amphitheater, as well as a Pueblo-style concession stand. The park along with surviving CCC camp (which is one of the best preserved of such camps) were designated a National Historic Landmark in 2015.

Trails
There are several short, pedestrian-only trails in the park: Funicular Trail, Geologic Overlook Trail, Mt. Vernon Creek Trail, Red Rocks Trail, and the Trading Post Trail. Other multi-use trails are open to mountain bikes, horses, and leashed dogs.

title: Red Rocks Park


text:
Shadoevision

Shadoevision is an episode of "The Cinemax Comedy Experiment" that first aired in 1986, and was repeated on Weird TV in 1995. It was hosted, created and produced by Shadoe Stevens.

Plot
Norman Jones is just a run-of-the-mill CPA until he stumbles through a mysterious doorway into an alternate reality onto a spaceship where a talk show that is evolving mankind broadcasts from.

Unfortunately, he left the door open and the entire universe is at risk of being sucked through it. As well, World Control, a shadowy international corporation, has kidnapped Faith in an effort to capture Norman.

Cast

 * "Djony Dakota," "Burke," and Dr. Milton Oak - Shadoe Stevens
 * Norman "Norm" Jones - Gil Christner
 * Faith Pate' - Kim Zabinski
 * Dorley Shrivel -
 * Wiggy Higgins - Ed Freeman
 * Nooter Blank -
 * Bjorn Murt -
 * Murky Dirge -
 * Usher -
 * Singers -
 * Dr. Winston Taylor -

title: Shadoevision