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USS Bluegill

USS Bluegill (SS-242/SSK-242) was a Gato-class submarine in commission in the United States Navy from 1943 to 1946, from 1951 to 1952, and from 1953 to 1969. She was named for the bluegill, a sunfish of the Mississippi Valley.

During World War II, Bluegill completed six war patrols between 1 April 1944 and 21 June 1945, operating in an area extending from New Guinea to Formosa and in the South China Sea and Java Sea. She sank ten Japanese vessels, totaling 46,212 tons, including the light cruiser JAPANESE CRUISER Yubari and a submarine chaser. She was placed in reserve in 1946.

Recommissioned in 1951, Bluegill operated as a training submarine until 1952. She then underwent conversion into a "hunter-killer submarine" specialized for antisubmarine warfare, and was recommissioned as such in 1953. After service in the Vietnam War, she was decommissioned in 1969 and sunk in 1971 for use as a salvage trainer. She was refloated and scuttled in 1983.

Construction and commissioning
Bluegill′s keel was laid down by the Electric Boat Company in Groton, Connecticut, on 17 December 1942. She was launched on 8 August 1943, sponsored by Mrs. W. Sterling Cole, wife of Congressman W. Sterling Cole of New York, and commissioned at Naval Submarine Base New London in Groton on 11 November 1943 with Lieutenant Commander Eric L. Barr, Jr., in command.

November 1943–March 1944
After shakedown training, Bluegill transited the Panama Canal. She departed Balboa in the Panama Canal Zone on 22 February 1944 and set course for the South West Pacific Area. She arrived at Milne Bay on the eastern tip of New Guinea on 22 March 1944.

First war patrol
On 1 April 1944, Bluegill put to sea from Milne Bay on her first war patrol. She conducted it in the area between northern Halmahera in the Maluku Islands and Sonsorol Island in the Palau Islands. She made her first enemy contact, three Japanese merchant ships, on 10 April 1944 but failed to gain a favorable attack position. On 27 April 1944, with the help of signals intelligence, Bluegill sighted an Imperial Japanese Navy destroyer lying to off Sonsorol Island. While she approached the destroyer, the Japanese 3,500-displacement ton light cruiser JAPANESE CRUISER Yubari crossed her path. She launched six torpedoes at Yubari, two of which struck home and sent Yubari to the bottom. The Japanese destroyer JAPANESE DESTROYER Samidare then charged in to counterattack. Bluegill responded with four torpedoes from her stern torpedo tubes. All four missed Samidare, and Bluegill went deep to escape.

On 28 April 1944, Bluegill encountered another Japanese destroyer escorting a large landing barge. After gaining a favorable position on the target, she fired a spread of four torpedoes. None hit, the torpedoes apparently running under the target. Again, Bluegill dived and escaped.

On the afternoon of 1 May 1944, Bluegill contacted a Japanese convoy of three merchant ships and two escorts west of the Palau Islands. She set up an ambush ahead of the convoy and, as the Japanese ships passed, fired a spread of four torpedoes, two of which crashed into the side of the 8,812-gross register ton cargo ship Asosan Maru. The escorts counterattacked, but Bluegill escaped. That evening, she surfaced and spied Asosan Maru still afloat and burning furiously. On 2 May 1944, she used her deck gun to finish off Asosan Maru.

On 10 May 1944, Bluegill put into Manus Island in the Admiralty Islands to bring aboard additional torpedoes from the submarine USS Cero (SS-225). The two submarines departed Manus on 11 May, and Bluegill returned to her patrol area near Halmahera and Morotai in the Maluku Islands. On the morning of 19 May, she allowed a Japanese destroyer to pass unmolested in the hope that larger targets might follow, but none materialized.

On 20 May 1944, Bluegill sighted a single Japanese merchant ship rounding a point on Halmahera in company with two escorts. Gaining a favorable firing position to shoreward, she loosed a four-torpedo spread from her stern tubes. Three of the four torpedoes shattered the 1,856-gross register ton cargo ship Miyaura Maru. On 22 May, Bluegill encountered a Japanese convoy that had already been attacked by the submarine USS Ray (SS-271), but two Japanese submarine chasers detected her and dropped a depth-charge barrage close aboard, preventing her from making an attack. While she continued to maneuver for a favorable attack position on the convoy later that day, a Japanese plane forced her to crash-dive and dropped depth charges. Thanks to the crash dive, Bluegill lost contact with the convoy. She left her patrol area on 28 May 1944, stopped at Manus on 1 June, and concluded her patrol with her arrival at Brisbane, Australia, on 7 June 1944.

Second war patrol
Bluegill embarked upon her second war patrol at the end of June 1944, stopped at Manus on 5 and 6 July, and then got underway for Davao Gulf off Mindanao in the Philippine Islands. On 20 July 1944, she made an unsuccessful attack on a Japanese Nagara-class light cruiser from an extreme range. On 22 July, she sighted a ship of about 1,000 tons, but her spread of four torpedoes ran harmlessly beneath the ship, which responded with 11 depth charges. Off the entrance to Sarangani Bay on 1 August 1944, she encountered a Japanese cargo ship with three escorts. She attained a good firing position, but the escorts detected her and the cargo ship began radical evasive maneuvers. With depth charges coming down around her, Bluegill abandoned her attack and escaped.

While off Maculi Point on Mindanao on 7 August 1944, Bluegill spotted a Japanese cargo ship accompanied by two escorts, a decoy vessel, and three aircraft overhead. She set up on the cargo ship, and two of the four torpedoes that she fired struck home. She was forced deep by a barrage of 36 depth charges. She later learned that her target, the 4,642-gross register ton Sanju Maru, had gone to the bottom.

On 13 August 1944, Bluegill caught sight of a Japanese cargo ship escorted by two torpedo boats, two submarine chasers, and a decoy vessel. She launched a spread of four torpedoes that found two targets, the 300-displacement ton Submarine Chaser No. 12 and the 1,931-gross register ton cargo ship Kojun Maru. At that point, she headed for Australia and, after a stop at Darwin in the Northern Territory, she concluded her patrol with her arrival at Fremantle, Western Australia, on 24 August 1944.

Third war patrol
Bluegill departed Fremantle on 18 September 1944 to begin her third war patrol, which took her to the Sulu Sea, the Sibuyan Sea, and the South China Sea. On 6 October 1944, she encountered an interisland steamer off Bondoc Point on southern Luzon in the Philippine Islands and riddled it with gunfire. The steamer remained stubbornly afloat at the approach of darkness, so Bluegill was forced to expend a torpedo to sink it.

On 12 October 1944, Bluegill surfaced in the midst of three small Japanese cargo ships of a type known to the Americans as "sea trucks" off Tumao Point on northwestern Mindanao. She opened gunfire on them and soon scored hits on two of the three. However, the sea trucks were armed with heavy machine guns, and when Bluegill′s after 20-millimeter gun jammed, one of the sea trucks took advantage of the opportunity to spray the submarine with machine-gun fire, wounding several of Bluegill′s sailors and prompting Bluegill to break off the action and submerge.

Before dawn on 18 October 1944, Bluegill contacted a Japanese 14-ship convoy while on the surface off Manila on Luzon but could not reach a favorable firing position. After transmitting a contact report, she submerged in the hope of making a daylight attack. The convoy turned away from her, but then made another turn toward Bluegill. In the ensuing combat, Bluegill claimed to have sunk five ships, but a postwar survey of Japanese records credited her with only three: the 9,400-gross register ton transport Arabia Maru, the 1,999-gross register ton cargo ship Chinzei Maru, and the 8,000-gross register ton passenger-cargo ship Hakushika Maru. From time to time throughout the action, Bluegill had to dive to evade depth charges before resuming her attack.

On 20 October 1944, Bluegill expended her remaining torpedoes in an unsuccessful attack on two Japanese tankers escorted by a submarine chaser. On the 21 October, she headed for Mios Woendi in the Schouten Islands off the northwestern coast of New Guinea. She arrived there on 27 October, took aboard torpedoes and fuel, and then returned to sea to resume her patrol in the Sulu Sea. After 20 fruitless days, she departed station to return to her base. Off the coast of Borneo in the Japanese-occupied Netherlands East Indies on 17 November 1944, she encountered a small Japanese transport escorted by three small destroyers. The Japanese detected her, and she dived deeply and began to clear the area. Before escaping, she suffered a pounding from 27 depth charges. Her patrol ended on 25 November 1944 with her arrival at Fremantle, where she began repairs to the damage she suffered in the 17 November depth-charging.

Fourth war patrol
Repair of her battle damage kept Bluegill in port until she stood out of Fremantle on 19 December 1944 for her fourth war patrol. On the night of 25 December, she attempted a fast surface transit of Lombok Strait between the islands of Bali and Lombok just east of Java, but a Japanese shore battery detected her and opened accurate fire on her, forcing her to make a hasty retreat. She soon joined a coordinated attack group, or "wolfpack," which also included the submarines USS Bream (SS-243) and USS Barbel (SS-316).

During January 1945, Bluegill conducted a reconnaissance in support of the American liberation of the campaign in the Philippine Islands. The only other event of note during the patrol occurred on 2 February 1945, when she took aboard two Japanese prisoners-of-war that another American submarine had captured for passage back to Fremantle, which she reached on 7 February 1945.

Fifth war patrol
Bluegill began her fifth war patrol on 12 March 1945 and transited Lombok Strait on the night of 18–19 March 1945. Early on 19 March, she made an unsuccessful submerged torpedo attack on an auxiliary sailing vessel and the "sea truck" it was preparing to take in tow. Following fruitless searches along the coast of Borneo, Bluegill arrived off Japanese-occupied French Indochina on 27 March 1945. She submerged off Hon Doi to join the submarines USS Blackfin (SS-322) and USS Blueback (SS-326) in a picket line along the coast.

At around 10:20 on 28 March 1945, Bluegill heard a combination of sonar pings and depth-charge explosions to the south as Blackfin attacked the Japanese convoy HI-88J as it moved up the coast of French Indochina. Bluegill began to edge quietly toward the fracas as the three submarines, in concert with United States Army Air Forces planes, began an onslaught against the convoy. Just before 11:00, Bluegill made contact with the 5,542-gross register ton tanker Honan Maru (formerly the British Royal Fleet Auxiliary tanker 'War Sirdar') escorted by four coast defense vessels and a destroyer. A little before 11:15, she fired three torpedoes at Honan Maru. Two of them struck home, but Honan Maru managed to ground herself on the nearby shore to avoid sinking and permit salvage. Meanwhile, Bluegill contended with a savage depth charge attack from the escorts. On 29 March, she fired two more torpedoes at the stranded Honan Maru.

On 5 and 6 April 1945, Bluegill attempted a commando raid to blow up bridges and trains in French Indochina. The Japanese detected the Australian commandos, and the attempt ended in failure. Meanwhile, Bluegill returned to Honan Maru on 5 April and sent ashore a landing party that ascertained Honan Maru′s identity and completed her destruction with demolition charges and incendiaries. She concluded her patrol at Subic Bay on Luzon in the Philippine Islands on 18 April 1945.

Sixth war patrol
Bluegill put to sea from Subic Bay on her sixth war patrol, assigned a patrol area in the South China Sea to the southwest of Formosa. She sighted no enemy shipping during her patrol. On 28 May 1945, she conducted a reconnaissance and bombardment of Pratas Island. She sent a landing party of 12 men ashore, and they found the island to be uninhabited, discovering that the Japanese naval garrison had recently been evacuated. In a ceremony on 29 May 1945, Bluegill′s crew raised the United States flag on the island and proclaimed it to be "Bluegill Island." They then destroyed a Japanese ammunition and fuel dump on the island. The otherwise uneventful patrol ended at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on 21 June 1945.

End of war
Later in June 1945, Bluegill headed for San Francisco, California, where she arrived on 2 July 1945 and soon began an overhaul at the Bethlehem Steel Company shipyard. While she was undergoing overhaul, World War II ended with the cessation of hostilities with Japan on 15 August 1945 (14 August on the other side of the International Date Line in San Francisco).

1945–1946
Upon completion of her overhaul, Buegill served in the United States Pacific Fleet until 1 March 1946, when she was decommissioned and placed in reserve at Mare Island Naval Shipyard on Mare Island in Vallejo, California.

1951–1953
Bluegill remained in reserve at Mare Island until the spring of 1951. As part of the fleet build-up that occurred following the outbreak of the Korean War on 25 June 1950, she was recommissioned on 3 May 1951 and reported to the U.S. Pacific Fleet for service as a training submarine, based at San Diego, California. On 7 July 1952, she was decommissioned at Hunters Point Naval Shipyard in San Francisco, placed in reserve, and redesignated a "hunter-killer submarine" — U.S. Navy terminology at the time for a specialized antisubmarine warfare submarine — with the hull classification symbol SSK-242. After conversion at Hunters Point for her new role, she was recommissioned at San Francisco on 2 May 1953.

1953–1969
Bluegill resumed duty based at San Diego until 2 November 1953, when she deployed to the western Pacific. During her deployment, she trained with units of the United States Seventh Fleet, saw service off the Koean Peninsula, and visited various Far Eastern ports before returning to San Diego on 15 May 1954. There, she resumed operations along the United States West Coast and continued such duty until Decebmber 1955.

In December 1955, Bluegill moved to a new home port at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. For almost nine years, she alternated between operations in the Hawaiian Islands with deployments to the western Pacific. On 15 August 1959, she was redesignated an attack submarine with the hull classification symbol SS-242.

While Bluegill was undergoing overhaul at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard on 1 April 1964, while in overhaul, her home port changed to San Diego. For the remainder of her career, she divided her time between training duties along the U.S. West Coast and periodic cruises to the Far East. During the Vietnam War, she spent time in the Gulf of Tonkin off North Vietnam in 1965, conducting reconnaissance operations and rescuing downed American pilots. She received her last designation change on 1 April 1966, when she became an auxiliary submarine with the hull classification symbol AGSS-242.

Disposal
Bluegill was decommissioned at San Diego on 28 June 1969, and her name was struck from the Navy Vessel Register the same day. In 1970, she was towed to Pearl Harbor. On 3 December 1970, she was scuttled and moored to the sea bed as a salvage trainer about 2 km off Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii, in 40 m of water. Her hull was used thereafter for underwater rescue training until 1983.

On 5 November 1983, after a month of preparatory work, the Edenton-class salvage and rescue ships USS Beaufort (ATS-2) and USS Brunswick (ATS-3) raised Bluegill and towed her to deep water, where she was scuttled with military honors on 6 November 1983 as a means of disposal.

Awards

 * U.S. Navy Unit Commendation ribbon.svg Navy Unit Commendation for her first war patrol, during which she sank Yubari
 * Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with four battle stars for World War II service
 * Korean Service Medal ribbon.svg Korean Service Medal
 * Vietnam Service Medal with four battle stars for Vietnam War service

title: USS Bluegill


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Nudelman N-37

The Nudelman N-37 was a 37 mm (1.46 in) aircraft autocannon used by the Soviet Union. It was designed during World War II by V. Ya. Nemenov of A.E. Nudelman's OKB-16 to replace the earlier Nudelman-Suranov NS-37 and entered service in 1946. It was 30% lighter than its predecessor at the cost of a 23% lower muzzle velocity.

The N-37 was a sizable weapon firing a massive (735 g/26 oz HEI-T, 760 g/27 oz AP-T) shell. Its muzzle velocity was still considerable, but its rate of fire was only 400 rounds per minute. The weapon's considerable recoil and waste gases were problematic for turbojet fighter aircraft, as was finding space for the gun and a useful amount of ammunition, but a single shell was often sufficient to destroy a bomber.

The N-37 was used in the MiG-9, MiG-15, MiG-17, and early MiG-19 fighters, the Yakovlev Yak-25, and others. Production lasted through the late 1950s, although it remained in service for many years afterwards.

Variants

 * N-37
 * Basic version without muzzle brake

 * N-37D
 * N-37 with muzzle brake

 * N-37L
 * N-37 with 1950mm long barrel (had no muzzle brake)

 * NN-37
 * Improved N-37L developed during the late 1950s for the Yak-27 reconnaissance aircraft. The NN-37 differed from the N-37L in having a pneumatic counter-recoil accelerator, therefore achieving a rate of fire of 600–700rpm. The ammunition feed mechanism was redesigned as well on this version.

 * Type 37 aircraft cannon
 * Chinese licensed / copy production

Production
The Soviet archives detail the following production numbers by year:
 * 1947 — 518
 * 1948 — 508
 * 1949 — 1,314
 * 1950 — 3,043
 * 1951 — 3,885
 * 1952 — 4,433
 * 1953 — 4,600
 * 1954 — 1,700
 * 1956 — 285

Comparable Weapons

 * M4 cannon

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

title: Nudelman N-37


text: Category:Historical continents

title: Category:Historical continents


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User:GHoosdum

Interest
Topics of Interest:
 * American Civil War
 * Automobiles
 * Information Technology

Articles of Special Interest:
 * Dodge_Dart
 * Plymouth_Valiant
 * Plymouth_Barracuda

Contributions
Significant Contributions:
 * Toyota_E_engine

 * All Contributions

title: User:GHoosdum


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Chudaism

Chudaism was proposed for deletion. This page is an archive of the discussion about the proposed deletion. This page is no longer live. Further comments should be made on the article's talk page rather than here so that this page is preserved as an historic record. The result of the debate was DELETE

Neologism/nonsense. 0 hits on Google. With better writing and ideas, it could have been funny. — Bill 16:57, 7 Oct 2004 (UTC)

 * delete - neologism/nonsense. - Nat Krause 17:02, 7 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete. Joke entry. --Improv 19:20, 7 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete A joke or plain nonsense. Google has no hits for "Jared Chompa". And "Chompa is Lord"? --Jill St. Crux 19:26, 7 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete. Nonsense/prank.   — Gwalla | Talk 03:00, 8 Oct 2004 (UTC)

This page is now preserved as an archive of the debate and, like other '/delete' pages is no longer 'live'. Subsequent comments on the issue, the deletion or on the decision-making process should be placed on the relevant 'live' pages. Please do not edit this page.


text: Category:Huguenots

title: Category:Huguenots


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Virgin Steele

Virgin Steele is an American heavy metal band from New York, originally formed in 1981.

The band released a few career highlights albums (Noble Savage, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell Part I, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell Part II and Invictus). In recent years, they have enriched their sound with elements of musical theatre, progressive and symphonic metal, developing and writing projects such as the metal opera The House of Atreus (based on Oresteia and the Greek myth related to the Atreides) in 1999/2000 and the soundtrack for an imaginary movie Visions of Eden (A Barbaric Romantic Movie of the Mind) or The Lilith Project (based on the Sumerian legend of Lilith) in 2006.

Origins
At the beginning of the 1980s, Jack Starr (a guitarist of French origin) was looking for the right elements to form the ultimate heavy metal band. The first to answer his call was drummer Joey Ayvazian and together they started jamming and auditioning singers. Future L.A. Guns bassist Kelly Nickels joined them in 1981. They auditioned around 40 singers before David DeFeis was introduced to Jack by a friend of Joey.

With an interpretation of "No Quarter" by Led Zeppelin, "Child in Time" by Deep Purple and "Catch the Rainbow" by Rainbow, David got the vacant role of singer, bringing with him bassist Joe O'Reilly. At the end of 1981 the first line-up was ready.

The debut album
Virgin Steele debuted in 1982 with "Children of the Storm" (a song loved by Metallica ), included in the compilation "U.S. Metal Vol. II". Later they issued their self-titled first album. Their style was and remains very original, a melding of American heavy metal and Rainbow's epic atmospheres. DeFeis, who also plays piano and keyboards, shows a particular liking for pompous and melodic arrangements, while Starr goes for a harder and more immediate assault. Fan mail was becoming more interesting. Two letters in particular stand out, one from a young band, who were from Seattle. Their name was Queensrÿche. The other, from California, also a band, who called themselves Metallica.

The second album
The following year (1983) the second album Guardians of the Flame was supported by a mini LP called Wait for the Night ("A Cry in the Night" in the European version). After the album, Jack Starr started recording his first solo album, Out of the Darkness. Meanwhile, DeFeis continued the band with Edward Pursino. As stated in the Virgin Steele's website "we never actually asked Edward to join the band, he just came down one day and never left". ) After a lawsuit won by Starr over the name Virgin Steele, he sold it to DeFeis.

Noble Savage and Age of Consent
Supported by Pursino, whose style better fit DeFeis' songwriting than Starr's had, Virgin Steele new lineup recorded Noble Savage, which melds classic and epic music. Today, this album is still considered one of the most important manifests of heavy and epic metal worldwide. Between 1985 and 1986, some members of Virgin Steele strongly contributed to an album published under the name Exorcist called Nightmare Theatre and to an album published under the name Piledriver called Stay Ugly. David DeFeis only produced and helped these albums even if some rumors said that he and Pursino were behind these bands.

Finally, the band managed to go to Europe, supporting Manowar on tour and gaining great approval from all quarters because of their live performances. When things started to come together, though, some inexplicable laws seemed to apply and the following album, Age of Consent, got a very narrow distribution and ended up a complete commercial failure. At this point, Virgin Steele were in their darkest period: their label shut down and Joe O'Reilly decided to leave, forcing the band to stop playing for a while.

During this break, David DeFeis graduated in piano and composition and played live with a semi-improvised band called "Smoke Stark Lightning", featuring some famous musicians like his old mate Jack Starr and drummer Bobby Rondinelli.

The comeback
In 1993, Rob De Martino was chosen as the new bass player and Virgin Steele came back with Life Among the Ruins, an album of Whitesnake-influenced hard rock with a strong bluesy vein. The song "Last rose of Summer" is the highlight of the cd. Featuring none of the trademark epic and mythology-based elements of the band, Life Among the Ruins is probably the most atypical release in the Virgin Steele discography and disliked by many die-hard classic metal fans. Quite interesting is the fact the American version has got a different cover and a bonus-track called "Snakeskin Voodoo Man" (published as a stand-alone single too) while many video-clips, taken from this album, were included into the home-video "Tale Of The Snakeskin Voodoo Man".

The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
One year later, the band returned to the original sound with The Marriage of Heaven and Hell Part I, an album of epic metal full of melodic and symphonic influences, very progressive oriented. This work (a concept regarding the different side of human nature) includes, among the others, the song "Life Among the Ruins" which is not related to the previous album with the same title.

Virgin Steele went back to Europe supporting Manowar and Uriah Heep and at the end of 1995 released The Marriage of Heaven and Hell Part II, following the concept and the style of the first one. The band appeared also on the compilation A Tribute to Judas Priest: Legends of Metal – Volume II playing a raw cover of the song "Screaming for Vengeance". Another Judas Priest cover, "Desert Plains", is included as a bonus track in the Age of Consent album reissue.

After another European tour (this time as headliner) in 1996, a new album was released in March 1998: the third and final chapter of the "Marriage" saga, titled Invictus. This was their heaviest album at the time and also very epic. Lyrically it is a concept album about humanity's rebellion against a pantheon of evil, uncaring gods. The band played at the Wacken Open Air festival in 1997 and in 1998. The Marriage of Heaven and Hell trilogy signs also the debut of drummer Frank Gilchriest. Always in 1998, Virgin Steele headlined a real long new European tour with Mark Reale's Riot and Stigmata IV as supporting acts. This tour included the headliner performance at the biker festival "Motorock" in Cremona (Italy).

Metal opera
Between the years 1999 and 2000, the band released a metal opera, writing the albums The House of Atreus Act I and The House of Atreus Act II, intended to be played by actors in theaters.

The subject of the metal opera was Oresteia and the Greek myths related by Aeschylus, very familiar to David DeFeis, because of his father's theaterical background. On the albums all vocals and orchestrations are managed by David DeFeis himself.

Just before The House of Atreus Act II, the single "Magick Fire Music" was published, with some metal opera outtakes. Inspired by Virgin Steele's metal opera, the German band Tobias Sammet's Avantasia wrote various albums using the same format. David DeFeis appears as special guest on the track: "The Final Sacrifice" included in the Avantasia's second album. After the show at the Bang Your Head!!! festival in 2000 without a bass player, in 2001 Virgin Steele toured with HammerFall and Freedom Call with the new bass player Josh Block.

The 20th anniversary
In 2002, the band released two compilations to celebrate the 20th anniversary. The Book of Burning consists of a mix of previously unreleased songs and new compositions created by David DeFeis in collaboration with original guitarist Jack Starr. The songs were written at the beginning of the 1990s and previously unofficially appeared in the underground, with Starr at the guitar, with the name "Sacred Demos". The album contained also re-recordings of various songs from the first two albums with Josh Block, and not Jack Starr, supporting Pursino at the second guitar. Hymns to Victory instead is a best-of album covering the band's career from Noble Savage to their latest album The House of Atreus Act II.

The way to manage the reissues of the first two albums Virgin Steele and Guardians of the Flame, never published in cd before, created one more time problems between DeFeis and Starr so they decided to truncate any sort of relationship. DeFeis managed the reissues all by himself remastering the original albums and adding new bonus tracks. The EP A Cry in the Night was included into the Guardians of the Flame CD.

Side projects
David DeFeis (keyboards and backing vocals) appears as special guest on the first two Immortally Committed albums in the tracks "Epic" and "Council in Hell". He, Edward Pursino, Josh Block and Exorcist's drummer Geoff Fontaine played some live dates with the New York cover band Carnival of Souls. Between the years 2002 and 2005, the band headlined a large number of heavy metal festivals such as the "Agglutination Festival" (2003, Italy), the "Tradate Iron Fest" (2004, Italy), the "Keep It True V Festival" (2004, Germany) and the "Ragnarock Festival" (2005, Netherlands).

A Barbaric Romantic Movie of the Mind
David DeFeis also created his own recording studio called The Hammer of Zeus (sometimes also called The Wrecking Ball of Thor). In September 2006, after 6 years without an all-new studio album, the band released its 11th full-length Visions of Eden. The album revolves heavily around Gnostic beliefs and critically revisits the traditional Christian mythology with regards to the creation of the Earth and the Biblical accounts of Adam and Eve. An even darker, more melancholic drama than the House of Atreus saga, the story revolves around Lilith, the first wife of Adam and a symbol of female strength and independence. Representing the female side of the true, higher god, she suffers under the lusting, jealous Demiurge who represents the Christian god, and as an emancipated woman who could not get along with the dominant Adam stands in stark contrast to Eve. Adam's second wife is portrayed as a docile, subservient partner created by the demiurge at the request of Adam, who could not cope with an independent woman on equal footing with him.

Visions of Eden (A Barbaric Romantic Movie of the Mind) or The Lilith Project is based on the Sumerian legend of Lilith and it is intended as the soundtrack for an imaginary movie. The band is looking for a producer to bring this concept album story to screen.

Recent activities
In 2007, the band played at the Power Prog VIII Festival (Atlanta, Georgia) and at the Evolution Festival (Florence, Italy). David DeFeis and Josh Block appear on the Polish band Crystal Viper EP in the cover of Virgin Steele's song "Blood and Gasoline" from The Marriage of Heaven and Hell Part I album. Between 2007 and 2008 the out of print albums Noble Savage, Age of Consent, Life Among the Ruins, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell Part I and The Marriage of Heaven and Hell Part II were reissued (with bonus tracks) by the German label Dockyard1. There are also rumors that a DVD live album is planned, a three hours show recorded at the Downtown Club (Long Island, NY) in 2002 and an acoustic concert played in 2000 in München should be part of it.

A new Virgin Steele album, entitled The Black Light Bacchanalia, was released at the end of October 2010 for the new label SPV/Steamhammer while, in 2011, the whole back-catalogue, from Noble Savage onwards, will be reissued again with faithfully restored covers and booklets, bonus tracks and liner notes.

The first ever Virgin Steele tribute album By the Gods: A Noble Tribute to Virgin Steele was released on October 31, 2015, by Majestic Metal Records. It features a 12-page full-color booklet with exclusive liner notes by Virgin Steele's frontman David DeFeis.

In February 2017, the album Visions of Eden was reissued as a double CD containing a remixed version and a remastered recording of the original mix.

Three years after Nocturnes of Hellfire & Damnation, in 2018 the box-set Seven Devils Moonshine is published containing 3 new albums (Ghost Harvest – Vintage I – Black Wine for Mourning, Ghost Harvest – Vintage II – Red Wine for Warning, Gothic Voodoo Anthems) plus the re-issues of The Book of Burning and Hymns to Victory.

Five years after Seven Devils Moonshine, the band will release their first album since then, and their first single-CD album since Nocturnes of Hellfire & Damnation, The Passion of Dionysus, on June 30, 2023.

Barbaric romantic music
Virgin Steele play what they call symphonic, romantic and bombastic music with many elements taken from classical music and fantasy/mythological lyrics based on real life events. David DeFeis (all vocals, keyboards, orchestration, synth bass, swords and effects) about Virgin Steele's music: "From a whisper to a scream, barbaric, romantic, bombastic, yet subtle, grandiose, yet earthy. A call, a shout, an invocation to Freedom and the continual awakening to the awareness that every moment of life is lived to its fullest potential. It is a force, a sacred quest which drives Virgin Steele on".

Typically, during Virgin Steele's concerts a sword is burnt on stage. In some special show they used to play a long live set called Three hour extravaganza. Fans consider "The Burning of Rome (Cry for Pompeii)" and "Emalaith" some of the most representative songs of the band.

Many Virgin Steele songs are mythological, often dealing with subjects from Greek and Christian mythology. Most of their albums are concept albums. The later albums tend to be more epic and mythological while, on the early albums (up until Life Among the Ruins), many songs are more real-life based stories of love and sex. According to David DeFeis, all the lyrics he writes are based on real life in some form or another.

Metal opera and theatre
A metal opera is a mix between rock opera, Broadway style and "heavy metal adapted for theater actors' live performances". According to German artists Walter Weyers and Martina Krawulsky, with the name Klytaimnestra – The House of Atreus, metal opera (musically available on the Virgin Steele's albums The House of Atreus Act I, The House of Atreus Act II) was performed on stage in Germany theaters by Landestheater Production. The result, very different from a heavy metal concert, is a metal based dark Broadway style musical really powerful and energetic with actors only. The premiere of Klytaimnestra in Memmingen, June 5, 1999, has been the first ever regular musical theatre show based on heavy metal concepts. After Klytaimnestra's success, David DeFeis & Landestheater Production extracted a second metal opera musical, named "The Rebels", from the previous Marriage of Heaven and Hell trilogy ("The Marriage of Heaven and Hell Part I", "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell Part II", "Invictus").

In 2003, the same team released a third metal opera, named "Lilith", based on the material of album Visions of Eden. "Visions of Eden" was later on published in CD in 2006. In a different way to the previous two operas. Regarding the album, David DeFeis declared: "I don't think of it as a Metal Opera. What it really is, is the soundtrack for a major motion picture that has yet to be made! And by the hammer of Zeus, I will make this film one day. I call this work a Barbaric Romantic movie of the mind.".

Band members
Current members Former members
 * David DeFeis – lead vocals, keyboards, synth bass, piano (1981–present)
 * Edward Pursino – guitar (1985–present)
 * Josh Block – bass (2000–present)
 * Matt McKasty – drums (2016–present)
 * Jack Starr – guitar (1981–1984)
 * Joe O'Reilly – bass (1981–1992)
 * Joey Ayvazian – drums (1981–1995)
 * Rob DeMartino – bass (1993–1999)
 * Frank Gilchriest – drums (1995–2015)

Albums

 * 1982: Virgin Steele
 * 1983: Guardians of the Flame
 * 1985: Noble Savage
 * 1988: Age of Consent
 * 1993: Life Among the Ruins
 * 1995: The Marriage of Heaven and Hell Part I
 * 1996: The Marriage of Heaven and Hell Part II
 * 1998: Invictus
 * 1999: The House of Atreus Act I
 * 2000: The House of Atreus Act II
 * 2006: Visions of Eden
 * 2010: The Black Light Bacchanalia
 * 2015: Nocturnes of Hellfire & Damnation
 * 2018: Seven Devils Moonshine (includes their 2002 compilations)
 * Ghost Harvest – Vintage I – Black Wine for Mourning
 * Ghost Harvest – Vintage II – Red Wine for Warning
 * Gothic Voodoo Anthems
 * 2023: The Passion of Dionysus

EPs

 * 1983: Wait for the Night
 * 2000: Magick Fire Music

Compilations

 * 2002: Hymns to Victory (*)
 * 2002: The Book of Burning (*)

(*) re-issues included in 2018 box set Seven Devils Moonshine

Singles

 * 1992: "Snakeskin Voodoo Man"
 * 1998: "Through Blood and Fire"

Videos/DVD

 * 1992: Tale of the Snakeskin Voodoo Man

Tributes

 * 2015: By the Gods: A Noble Tribute to Virgin Steele

title: Virgin Steele


text:
User talk:Mcarter44

Welcome to the Wikipedia
Here are some links I thought useful:

 * Tutorial
 * Help desk
 * Foundation issues
 * Policy Library
 * Utilities
 * Cite your sources
 * Verifiability
 * Wikiquette
 * Civility
 * Conflict resolution
 * Neutral point of view
 * Pages needing attention
 * Peer review
 * Bad jokes and other deleted nonsense
 * Brilliant prose
 * List of images
 * Boilerplate text
 * Current polls
 * Mailing lists
 * IRC channel

Feel free to contact me personally with any questions you might have. The Village pump is also a good place to go for quick answers to general questions. You can sign your name by typing 4 tildes, like this: ~.

Be Bold!

Sam [Spade] 17:00, 7 Oct 2004 (UTC)

title: User talk:Mcarter44


text:
Talk:Alexandroff topology

I have rearranged the history a bit and mentioned the usage in physics. I have also started sections on usage in comp sci and physics. I see that in physics papers the spelling "Alexandrov" is preferred. So maybe we should move back. 8 Oct 2004

I just checked my Johnstone and you are right, on p. 45 he uses "Alexandrov topology" for the T0 poset case. Interesting since Arenas seems to think that he is the first to talk about "Alexandroff topology" and from what I can make out the current usage of "Alexandroff topology" amongst the logic guys stems from Arenas' paper. The papers that use "Alexandroff topology" seem to be completely unaware of the categorical topology work on these spaces in the 80s under the name "finitely generated spaces" although the categorical topologists have picked up on their relevance to computer science, while still sticking to the name "finitely generated." There is also inconsistent usage of "upper topology" for this although the specialization (pre)order article uses "upper topology" for the coarsest topology consistent with the specialization preorder.

Ok how do we resolve the spelling issue, I agree that "Alexandrov" is the normal modern spelling of the name and it indeed appears as such in Johnstone, and as you say in denotational semantics work, but there is a whole lot more literature out there that spell this particular dude's name "Alexandroff". What should be said in the history section about Johnstone's use of "Alexandrov spaces" for the T0 poset case as opposed to Arenas' usage of "Alexandroff spaces" for general case? What should be said in the article Pavel Sergeevich Alexandrov about the spelling of the name?

 * It should be enough to mention that it was romanised as -off in older papers - I doubt there was a standard system used in the 1930s. Charles Matthews

 * The problem is that it is not simply older papers, there is a lot of current books and publications that spell the name "Alexandroff", remember his contribution to topology is much more than the Alexandroff/ov topology which is in fact extremely minor compared to his other work. - 8 Oct 2004

 * Well OK - we need only set up a few redirects using the -off spelling. Charles Matthews

Regarding the history section, when you say the usage goes back beyond the 90's I take it you mean in connection with denotational semantics, since as it mentions they go back to 1937? Well Alexandroff-like topologies have been used since Scott's work in the early 70's? but as far as I'm aware they fell short of being the general Alexandroff topology. A reference for first usage in denotational semantics of these spaces is indeed needed for the article. So is a reference for the first discussion of these spaces in categorical topology, in particular who was actually responsible for noticing that they are the finitely generated objects in the category Top and what was the paper?

- 8 Oct 2004

Well, the page has been moved - I'm not convinced, and 'Alexandrov' is in Johnstone, Stone Spaces (1982), which is the standard reference. Also the denotational semantics literature quite generally uses the -ov version. The use of the topology also surely goes back beyond the 1990s.

Charles Matthews 17:01, 7 Oct 2004 (UTC)

title: Talk:Alexandroff topology


text:
Type 63 assault rifle

The Type 63 is a Chinese-designed assault rifle with a resemblance to the SKS. The weapon features a fully-automatic rotating bolt system modified from the Type 56 assault rifle instead of the tilting bolt system of the SKS. Overall, the weapon is based on the Type 56 carbine (Chinese SKS) and the Type 56 assault rifle which are both used by the People's Liberation Army.

It is sometimes known as the Type 68, which is incorrect.

Development
The Type 63 was intended to replace the Type 56 semi-automatic carbine in Chinese service at one time when infantry felt the need for a compromise between rifle firepower and long rifle range and to help the Type 56 assault rifle integrate into service as there were too few of these to equip the entire PLA. The development of the Type 63 started in 1959; the design certificate was issued in 1963 (which is why the Chinese designation is "Type 63"), and the rifle entered service within the PLA in 1969. The Type 63 was removed from PLA service in 1978 due to bad performance and accuracy.

Other than China, the biggest user of the Type 63 rifle was Albania, where it was exported in quantities when the Communist regime split from the Soviet sphere of influence. The Type 63 rifle was also exported by China to North Vietnam during the Vietnam War, and throughout the 1970s, it was also sent in smaller amounts to Burma, Cambodia and other countries in Asia and Africa.

North Korea also has used the Type 63 rifle in addition to their own locally produced SKS rifles.

Design
The Type 63 rifle is a select-fire weapon, fed by proprietary "cut-down" 20-round magazines or standard AK-47 30-round magazines, although these require minor modifications (removal of the bolt hold-open device) to fit. The fire selector is placed on the right side of the weapon right above the trigger guard, at index finger reach. The Type 63 rifle also features a non-removable folding spike-bayonet and a gas regulator system to use standard live ammunition or blank ammunition for the launch of rifle grenades. The magazine can be reloaded with 10-round SKS stripper clips.

The Type 63 was designed for semi-automatic fire with selective full-auto capability. The rifle was required by the People's Liberation Army to have higher accuracy compared to the Type 56 assault rifle. Moreover, the manufacturing process needs to be simplified to realize the military philosophy based on the use of masses in wartime. The weapon should facilitate the troops to be able to stop the enemy advance by rifle shots at extremely long distances as well as the use of the automatic fire for the final close-quarters engagements.

The initial production of the rifle showed a promising result. Comparing to the Type 56 assault rifle, which is an AK-47 clone, the Type 63 has higher reliability and better accuracy. It is fitted with the bolt hold-open device that both the AK-47 and Type 56 lacks. The service life of the Type 63 is 15,000 rounds due to efficient structural design and a streamlined manufacturing process, making it significantly better than the 6,000 rounds of Type 56 and AK-47 at the time.

Production
Although the initial production of Type 63 received positive feedback from the troops, the final production of Type 63 encountered enormous disruption due to the Cultural Revolution. The quality control of the production was severely affected, and the initial design was not respected. After the first batch of Type 63 finished production in 1969, subsequent batches received design changes that yielded questionable results. The service life degraded to 10,000 rounds instead of the promised 15,000 rounds. By the time it was finished, the weapon design was outdated as more compact, short-barreled assault rifles were taking the spotlight in modern warfare as shown in the US engagement in Vietnam.

Users

 * 🇦🇫 Afghanistan: Used by the Mujahideen.
 * 🇦🇱 Albania
 * 🇰🇭 Cambodia
 * 🇨🇳 China: As of 2020, the Type 63 is mainly used in ceremonial events or with military honor guards.
 * 🇲🇲 Myanmar
 * 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka
 * Vietnam: In Vietnamese service the rifle is designated K63. It saw very little service in North Vietnam, and was withdrawn from front-line service after the Vietnam War ended. It is still in use by the Militia and Self-Defense (Vietnam).

Non-State Actors

 * Kosovo Liberation Army
 * People's Movement for the Liberation of Azawad

title: Type 63 assault rifle


text:
Białystok Ghetto uprising

The Białystok Ghetto uprising was an insurrection in the Jewish Białystok Ghetto against the Nazi German occupation authorities during World War II. The uprising was launched on the night of August 16, 1943 and was the second-largest ghetto uprising organized in Nazi-occupied Poland after the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of April–May 1943. It was led by the Anti-Fascist Military Organisation (Antyfaszystowska Organizacja Bojowa), a branch of the Warsaw Anti-Fascist Bloc.

The revolt began upon the German announcement of mass deportations from the ghetto. The main objective was to break the German siege and allow the maximum number of Jews to escape into the neighboring Knyszyn (Knyszyński) Forest. A group of about 300 to 500 insurgents armed with 25 rifles and 100 pistols as well as home-made Molotov cocktails for grenades, attacked the overwhelming German force with a great loss of life. Leaders of the uprising committed suicide. Several dozen combatants managed to break through and run into the Knyszyn Forest where they joined other guerrilla groups.

Background
The Białystok Ghetto was set up by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland soon after the German invasion of the Soviet Union. In February 1943, the first wave of mass deportations to Treblinka extermination camp took place, organized during country-wide Aktion Reinhard. The final liquidation of the ghetto was attempted on August 16, 1943, by regiments of the German SS reinforced by Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Latvian auxiliaries ("Hiwis"), known as the "Trawniki men".

Uprising
During the night of August 16, 1943, several hundred Polish Jews started an armed uprising against the troops carrying out liquidation of the ghetto. The guerillas led by Mordechaj Tenenbaum and Daniel Moszkowicz were armed with only one machine gun, rifles, several dozen pistols, Molotov cocktails and bottles filled with acid. As with the earlier Warsaw Ghetto Uprising extinguished in May 1943, the Białystok uprising had no chance for military success. However, it was seen as a way to die in combat rather than in German camps. A Betar youth commander was Yitzhak Fleischer, also spelled Fleisher, or Berl Fleischer according to different source.

The fights in isolated pockets of resistance lasted for several days, but the defence was broken almost instantly with a tank sent into the ghetto by SS Gruppenführer Odilo Globocnik. German soldiers set fire to the area. The commanders of the struggle committed suicide after their bunkers ran out of ammunition. In spite of the insurgency, the planned deportations to concentration and extermination camps went ahead on August 17, 1943, without any delay. Approximately 10,000 Jews were led to the Holocaust trains and sent to camps in Treblinka, Majdanek and Auschwitz. A transport of 1,200 children were sent to Theresienstadt concentration camp and later to Auschwitz, where they were murdered.

Several dozen guerillas managed to break through to the forests surrounding Białystok where they joined the partisan units of Armia Krajowa and other organisations and survived the war. It is estimated that out of almost 60,000 Jews who lived in Białystok before World War II, only several hundred survived the Holocaust.

Analysis
Historian Evgeny Finkel argues that "the comparison of the Minsk, Kraków, and Białystok ghettos suggests a direct linkage between the likelihood of uprising and the Zionists' leading role in the underground"; in Bialystok, the local Zionist chapters were well organized and had experience with clandestine activity from having operated underground even before the Nazi occupation, and ultimately successfully organized a rebellion, and convinced the rival communist faction to join; in Kraków, the Zionists were poorly organized and often dependent on cooperation with the communists, and thus could not successfully realize an uprising despite intending to. The difference between communist and Zionist behavior has been explained in the Zionists' greater salience of Jewish identity; they preferred to defend Jewish honor to the end even when doing so was suicidal, whereas the communists preferred to flee into forested lands and regroup.

Books

 * B. Mark, "Ruch oporu w getcie białostockim. Samoobrona-zagłada-powstanie" (Polish, "Resistance movement in the Białystok ghetto. Self-defence – annihilation – uprising."), Warsaw 1952.
 * "Obozy hitlerowskie na ziemiach polskich 1939 – 1945. Informator encyklopedyczny." (Polish, "Nazi camps on Polish soil 1939–1945. Encyclopedic reference book."), Warsaw 1979 r.

title: Białystok Ghetto uprising


text:
Category:Microsoft employees

Employees, past and present, of the computer technology corporation Microsoft.

title: Category:Microsoft employees


text:
Eleanor Rosch

Eleanor Rosch (once known as Eleanor Rosch Heider; born 9 July 1938 ) is an American psychologist. She is a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, specializing in cognitive psychology and primarily known for her work on categorization, in particular her prototype theory, which has profoundly influenced the field of cognitive psychology.

Throughout her work Rosch has conducted extensive research focusing on a range of topics, including semantic categorization, mental representation of concepts, and linguistics. Her research interests include cognition, concepts, causality, thinking, memory, and cross-cultural, and Eastern and religious psychology. Her more recent work in the psychology of religion has sought to show the implications of Buddhism and contemplative aspects of Western religions for modern psychology.

Early life and education
Rosch was born in New York City, the daughter of an English teacher from England and a mother who was a Russian refugee. She completed an undergraduate philosophy thesis at Reed College on Wittgenstein, who she said "cured her of studying philosophy."

After school, she served as a social worker in Portland for several years, returning later to Harvard to study clinical psychology at the then-Department of Social Relations. Rosch delivered a paradigm-changing doctoral thesis at Harvard about category formation, under the direction of Roger Brown. After a short stint at Brown University and Connecticut College, Rosch joined the Department of Psychology at University of California, Berkeley in 1971.

Research
From field experiments Rosch conducted (alongside her then-husband Karl Heider) in the 1970s with the Dani people of Papua New Guinea, she concluded that when categorizing an everyday object or experience, people rely less on abstract definitions of categories than on a comparison of the given object or experience with what they deem to be the object or experience best representing a category ("prototype").

Although the Dani lack words for all the English colors (their language contained only two color terms dividing all colors into either the "light, bright" category or the "dark, cool" category), Rosch showed that they could still categorize objects by colors for which they had no words. She argued that basic objects have a psychological import that transcends cultural differences and shapes how such objects are mentally represented. She concluded that people in different cultures tend to categorize objects by using prototypes, although the prototypes of particular categories may vary.

Rosch contributed to multiple scholarly works of taxonomic analysis of objects based on these prototype ("chair") and subordinate terms ("tall black leather chair"). She inferred that overuse of subordinate terms could be attributed to the attitude of snobbery and elitism.

Her work has been often referenced by that of computer vision and deep learning researcher Aude Oliva, who has built upon Rosch's object classifications to teach computers to recognize basic scenes instantly interpreted by humans.

Books

 * 1978 (with Lloyd, B., eds). Cognition and Categorization. Hillsdale NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
 * 1991 (with Francisco Varela and Evan F. Thompson). The Embodied Mind. MIT Press.

Book chapters

 * 1973, "On the Internal Structure of Perceptual and Semantic Categories." In T. Moore (ed.), Cognitive Development and the Acquisition of Language, New York: Academic Press, 1973.
 * 1974, Linguistic relativity. In: E. Silverstein (ed.) Human Communication: Theoretical Perspectives, Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
 * 1977, "Human Categorization" in Warren, Neil, ed., Advances in Cross-Cultural Psychology 1: 1-72. Academic Press.
 * 1983, "Prototype classification and logical classification: The two systems" in Scholnick, E., New Trends in Cognitive Representation: Challenges to Piaget's Theory. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates: 73–86

Categorization and prototype theory

 * 1975, "Cognitive representation of semantic categories," Journal of Experimental Psychology 104(3): 192–233.
 * 1975, "Cognitive representation of semantic categories," Journal of Experimental Psychology 104(3): 192–233.
 * 1975, "Cognitive representation of semantic categories," Journal of Experimental Psychology 104(3): 192–233.

Awards and recognition
Rosch is a Fellow of the Cognitive Science Society. She has mediated several discussions with the Dalai Lama.

title: Eleanor Rosch


text:
Jean Frédéric Frenet

Jean Frédéric Frenet (7 February 1816 – 12 June 1900) was a French mathematician, astronomer, and meteorologist. He was born and died in Périgueux, France.

He is best known for being an independent co-discoverer of the Frenet–Serret formulas. He wrote six out of the nine formulas, which at that time were not expressed in vector notation. These formulas are important in the theory of space curves (differential geometry), and they were presented in his doctoral thesis at Toulouse in 1847. That year he became a professor at Toulouse, and one year later, 1848, he became professor of mathematics at Lyon. He also was director of an astronomical observatory at Lyon. Four years later, in 1852, he published the Frenet formulas in the Journal de Mathématiques Pures et Appliquées.

In 1856 his calculus primer was first published, which ran through seven editions, the last one published posthumously in 1917.

title: Jean Frédéric Frenet


text:
Talk:Political party strength in U.S. states

Nebraska's nonpartisan status
While the Nebraska legislature is formally "nonpartisan", nearly all its members are either Democrats or Republicans and the parties endorse candidates for the legislature. For the purposes of party strength, I believe it is important to include these numbers. I propose to revert to the previous version of the table. Acsenray 17:08, 7 Oct 2004 (UTC)

The benefit of using a nominal standard (i.e., going by what they call themselves instead of making a judgement call as to what you/I/someone else thinks they actually are) is that it lends a finality and objectivity to the stats. If we decide to count members of a nonpartisan legislature as partisans, then someone could argue that since state Sen. So-and-So is a Zell Miller-like Democrat who always votes with Republicans, we should count him as a Republican on the chart. Having abandoned the nominal standard, it would be hard to argue against this logic.

Secondly, a nonpartisan legislature is part of Nebraska's constitution. It's a real part of the law, with real effects on government. There are Democrats who have held committee chairmanships, which wouldn't have happened if Nebraska's legislature were partisan. Someone consulting the chart would come away misinformed, which is a bad standard.

Suggested compromise: Revert the stats to reflect nonpartisan status, but leave in the disclaimer above. Schmeitgeist 16:13, Oct 9, 2004 (UTC)

I'm afraid I still disagree. This is an article on political party strength. In this context, it doesn't make sense to pretend that the individuals don't belong to a particular party. And it's not a matter of giving someone an arbitrary label or refusing to call them what they call themselves. These people are members of a party and they are endorsed by a party. They are nominally members of a party; I'm not pasting that label on them arbitrarily. When they run for other state and local offices, they keep their party labels; when they run for federal offices, they keep their party labels. Why pretend that this is not happening? The fact that the legislature works in a different way than other legislatures is interesting but more appropriate for a discussion of the Nebraska legislature itself, not in an article on political party strength.

The Nebraska Republican Party's Web site claims the following senators as Republicans -- Aguilar, Baker, Brashear, Bromm, Burling, Byars, Combs, Cudaback, Cunningham, Erdman, Foley, Friend, Hudkins, Jensen, Johnson, Jones, Kremer, Louden, Maxwell, McDonald, Mines, Mossey, Pedersen, Pederson, Price, Quandahl, Redfield, Schrock, Smith, Stuhr, Stuthman, Tyson Vrtiska, and Wehrbein. A telephone call to the Nebraska Democratic Party and they claim the following districts' senators as members of their party -- 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 27th, 28th, 45th, and 46th. Are they violating the Nebraska constitution by doing so? The fact is that these officials are members of a party and I don't see how removing the numbers from the table makes readers more informed.

Why should someone be misinformed? Since the beginning, the introductory material to the table has included the statement that the Nebraska legislature is official nonpartisan. This table says nothing about constitutional structure, committee organization, or leadership. It simply gives the raw numbers of elected officials by party. Why hide this information? (I'd even be willing to note "nonpartisan" in the table itself so long as the breakdown is still there.) Just presenting the raw numbers doesn't imply anything incorrect about the structure of Nebraska government. By linking to the appropriate article on the legislature, it should suffice to inform. Acsenray 19:55, 12 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Confusion about Chart
The article says

the following 22 states (mostly in the South and the Midwest) do not provide for party preferences in voter registration: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.

and then it says

The partisan breakdown "demographics" provided in the following table are obtained from that state's party registration figures (from late 2010 whenever possible) where indicated.

I am confused. If 22 states do not provide for party preferences in voter registration, then where did the figures for party registration for those 22 states come from? Kaltenmeyer (talk) 04:46, 12 August 2011 (UTC)
 * See superscript notation "g", noted below the chart. Rostz (talk) 04:49, 12 August 2011 (UTC)

 * I'm confused, too. The "g" explains where stats for the states that provide the preference option upon voting come from, but what about the other states?--Mike74 (talk) 21:43, 16 August 2011 (UTC)

They come from Political Machine 2008 — Preceding unsigned comment added by Daniel the duck (talk • contribs) 23:38, 27 August 2011 (UTC)

I believe the figures for the 22 states that don't have registration-by-party are from 2008 exit poll data. I've been meaning to try to track those figures down and source them, but haven't gotten to it yet. IJBall (talk) 16:07, 31 August 2011 (UTC)

The partisan split in Massachusetts voter registration shows that Dem/Rep combined only add up to about 42% of registered voters. State registration records show about 56% are registered independent/unenrolled. Since this is an actual majority, should it be represented somehow? Dan (talk) 03:53, 2 October 2020 (UTC)

Changing Definitions of Political Parties and Meaningless tabulation of their strength of years
Given Southerners were always conservative & utterly opposed most civil rights and voting rights, which party they associated with in given decades. The south opposed the party of Lincoln as too liberal, and sided with the Democratic Party from 1865 on. The immigration waves for the next 100 years were similarly poor, conservative, agricultural, and opposed to northern Republicans, so joined the Democratic Party. The northern Dems grew urban, industrialized, affluent, and grew to strongly support civil rights, utterly rejecting the hateful racism with the force of law of Southern US conservative.

The 1964 civil rights act and 1965 voting rights act caused the Southern conservatives to reject the Democratic Party, and Republican Party Presidential candidate Nixon, in 1968, and 1972, converted the South's conservatives into Republicans.

To solve this with a full set of historical is probably best, showing which states voted which way, is probably best, but we need text summaries as well.

For text grids, we need to define the US South, and how many of the region belonged to which political party, so we may see which party, Democrats or Repulbicans, are considered more liberal and more conservative. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 108.28.236.69 (talk) 03:14, October 23, 2015 (UTC)

Party control of state Legislatures and Governorships Map Wrong
It shows Kansas with a Republican trifecta. Kansas has a Democratic governor. Map needs updated to show Kansas as yellow. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.127.144.153 (talk) 02:40, 9 January 2020 (UTC)

I think it should also include, and that way specify, whether the State has split Legislatures, or the Legislature and the Governor are different parties. Minnesota is currently the only state to have a split Legislature with Republicans controlling the Senate and Democrats controlling the House, and a Democratic Governor. Elyon127 (talk) 04:46, 4 July 2021 (UTC)

Under construction tag
Before you do a major overhaul on that table, I think you should inform us of what your plans are. Because, personally, the current structure of that table is fine. --IJBall (contribs • talk) 01:00, 26 May 2020 (UTC)
 * All I did was update the registration numbers to reflect current data. - Presidentman talk · contribs (Talkback) 02:24, 26 May 2020 (UTC)
 * That's excellent, then. But for something like that, I don't think you need to add an Under construction tag – this tag usual implies that substantial changes are about to be made. FWIW. --IJBall (contribs • talk) 03:02, 26 May 2020 (UTC)

Adding D.C. and the territories
I'd like to add the District of Columbia and the territories, as they are considered state-level entities for statistical purposes, but first I want to be sure that it won't be reverted again. In addition, I'd like to change the name of the article to "Political party strength in U.S. states and territories" so that D.C. and the the territories can be included. The scope of the article should include the territories and the District of Columbia, as they are included on other politics-related articles (see for example, List of United States governors, State attorney general, and List of state and territorial capitols in the United States). LumaP15 (talk) 16:46, 30 June 2020 (UTC)

 * Oppose – if someone wants to do a separate article on the territories, they can write up a draft and we can take a look at that, but the territories are out of WP:SCOPE for this article, and are frankly irrelevant to this article. As for DC, it's not a "state", and until it is, it is not relevant here either. --IJBall (contribs • talk) 16:43, 30 June 2020 (UTC)
 * For statistical purposes, D.C. and the territories are state-level entities (see for example, in which the U.S. Census Bureau specifically mentions these entities as state-equivalents). That's why territories such as Puerto Rico have governors. Because they don't have full political integration (e.g. they don't have U.S. senators), they should not be in the same table as the states -- but they should still have a table in the article. Also, making a separate article entitled "Political party strength in the U.S. territories" might not work -- it might be merged into this article.
 * The question is, what makes the territories and D.C. worthy of exclusion, when they are sub-entities directly below the federal level (albeit without some state characteristics). In terms of scope, the territories and D.C. are within the scope of the article, so long as the article is renamed "Political party strength in U.S. states and territories". As I said, other U.S. political list articles such as State attorney general already have the territories listed. LumaP15 (talk) 17:00, 30 June 2020 (UTC)
 * I've already told you what you can do – write up a (separate) draft on the territories. But territories are irrelevant to the topic at hand: they do not participate in the electoral college, they do not send Senators or (full) Representatives to Congress. And many don't even have "Democrat" or "Republican" parties in the way the 50 states do. They are completely off-topic and out-of-WP:SCOPE for this article. As for DC, I'm fine with it being mentioned in passing in a sentence or two, but it should not be put in the tables – it's not a U.S. "state". So, no – I still oppose your proposal. --IJBall (contribs • talk) 17:08, 30 June 2020 (UTC)

 * Just because some of the territories don't have the normal Democrat/Republican system doesn't mean they should be excluded. True, they don't have U.S. senators, but they still have their own legislatures, governors, and a representative (which makes them relevant). While their representatives cannot vote on the final passage of bills, they are still representatives in every other way (e.g. they can write a bill, sponsor a bill, etc.) Also, D.C. is in the electoral college.

 * An entity does not have to be a full-fledged state to be included in this article. As I said, that's why other Wikipedia articles include both states and territories (see for example List of state and territorial capitols in the United States). The best thing to do would be to include the territories and D.C. in the article, but keep them separate from the states (in separate tables). LumaP15 (talk) 17:24, 30 June 2020 (UTC)

Request for comment on proposal to add the District of Columbia and territories to the article
There is a dispute about whether to include the District of Columbia and the U.S. territories (in tables) within the Political party strength in U.S. states article. The five U.S. territories are American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The proposal to include the District of Columbia and territories would involve moving the article to "Political party strength in the U.S. states and territories" or simply "Political party strength in the United States". The argument in favor of including the District of Columbia and territories in the article is that these political entities are often considered state-equivalents, with state-like characteristics (such as governors and legislatures). The opposing argument is that the District of Columbia and territories are not relevant to the article. 20:22, 30 June 2020 (UTC)

 * Support adding the District of Columbia and the U.S. territories to the article. Other Wikipedia state lists (such as List of state and territorial capitols in the United States, State attorney general, and List of United States governors) include both states and territories in each article's respective list. Also, the U.S. Census Bureau considers the District of Columbia and the territories to be state-equivalents (see ). In addition, just like the states, each territory has its own political party strength Wikipedia article (for example, the article Political party strength in American Samoa). Because territories such as Puerto Rico are sub-national entities directly below the federal level (like the states), and because they share many characteristics with states (such as governors and legislatures), they should be included. The article's title should be changed to "Political party strength in U.S. states and territories" or "Political party strength in the United States". The District of Columbia and the territories should have their own tables (separate from the state table). LumaP15 (talk) 20:35, 30 June 2020 (UTC)
 * Oppose changing the WP:SCOPE of this article – the territories are irrelevant to the topic at hand: they do not participate in the electoral college, they do not send Senators or (full) Representatives to Congress. And many don't even have "Democrat" or "Republican" parties in the way the 50 states do. They are completely off-topic and out-of-WP:SCOPE for this article – a separate article on this topic might be OK. As for DC, I'm fine with it being mentioned in passing in a sentence or two, but it should not be put in the tables – it's not a U.S. "state". --IJBall (contribs • talk) 22:02, 30 June 2020 (UTC)
 * DC sends three electors to the College. -- Red rose64 🌹 (talk) 22:26, 30 June 2020 (UTC)
 * Which is why I said it can be mentioned in the article. But it's not a "state" and so doesn't belong in the tables. --IJBall (contribs • talk) 22:35, 30 June 2020 (UTC)
 * they shall be considered, for the purposes of the election of President and Vice President, to be electors appointed by a State -- Red rose64 🌹 (talk) 22:45, 30 June 2020 (UTC)
 * Support - The article titles will need renaming in order to clarify these exceptions, of course. "Political party strength in the U.S. states and territories" is a fair replacement. MyPreferredUsernameWasTaken (talk) 02:53, 2 July 2020 (UTC)
 * Support - Like many Wikipedia lists and articles, this one can serve many purposes for many different readers — not just in regard to the politics of the Electoral College and the U.S. Congress as contends (otherwise it wouldn't list governors and state legislative houses as well as Federal offiicals.) And even with a national focus, it's useful to know the background of the half-dozen non-state delegations to each party's national conventions ("from Guam, where America's day begins...") and to the Democratic and Republican National Committees. —— Shakescene (talk) 03:21, 2 July 2020 (UTC)
 * Support I find the oppose rationale expressed so far unconvincing. {{u| Sdkb  }}  talk 06:39, 4 July 2020 (UTC)
 * Support It makes sense to add the territories here. We already have articles like List of states and territories of the United States by population. Adding a few more polities won't bulk this article up unnecessarily. Sure, Puerto Rico has different major parties. That alone shouldn't disqualify them being added. There are plenty of ways to show differentiation between states and territories, whether it be a separate table, astrisks, you-name-it. Properly executed this will only be a good addition.  The  Savage  Norwegian  19:25, 4 July 2020 (UTC)
 * Oppose - as OFFTOPIC, not relevant to the article which is about level of representation "providing legislators to the state and to the U.S. Congress ..." Territories do not provide Representatives or Senators, and the list here has a variety of internal management and even whether or not they are citizens or get to vote in U.S. elections.   These simply are not states and are not a part of “political party strength in U.S. States”.   Cheers Markbassett (talk) 00:49, 16 July 2020 (UTC)
 * Oppose, as irrelevant and off-topic. The states elect electors, senators, congresspeople. The territories and DC do not, and their representation is limited to Non-voting members of the United States House of Representatives who as their name implies do not vote and are not counted for political power. Until the US changes the representation of non-state entities in US federal politics then they are irrelevant. Vici Vidi (talk) 09:07, 22 July 2020 (UTC)
 * They already did, that's what the 23rd Amendment was all about. -- Red rose64 🌹 (talk) 20:40, 22 July 2020 (UTC)
 * Comment: D.C. has 3 electoral votes in the electoral college. Also, some of the columns in the table are not related to federal politics (such as governors, local senate, local house, and partisan split). The territories and D.C. could be included because they have local legislatures, governors, etc. Also, the territorial representatives in the U.S. House do have some political power, such as the power to write and sponsor bills, the power to vote within a committee, etc. LumaP15 (talk) 14:58, 27 July 2020 (UTC)
 * Support, as this article is about more than federal representation. State and territory legislatures are where most of the laws in the United States originate. Territorial legislatures are just as important in this way as state legislatures. --WMSR (talk) 23:42, 22 July 2020 (UTC)

Kentucky
Whatever stat is being used for the "partisan split" column is being applied incorrectly. The table indicates that Kentucky has a Democratic-leaning partisan split, even though Trump & McConnell are winning by wide margins in every poll? That makes no sense. Voter registration stats do not equate to a partisan split, or "political party strength" in that state. This really needs to be fixed, it's plainly wrong & doesn't pass the smell test.

Well there is a Democratic Governor, and McConnell and Trump have nothing to do with any State Legislature make ups, they would be the Federal government. Though states like Kentucky and West Virginia almost certainly vote Republican for Presidents, the state Legislatures aren't always garunteed (though still tend to lean that way) and there can certainly be more Democrats that are registered, but perhaps vote Republican more for different people or reasons. The same thing happens in Wisconsin and Maine quite a bit. Elyon127 (talk) 04:54, 4 July 2021 (UTC)


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Litovoi

Litovoi, also Litvoy, was a Vlach/Romanian voivode in the 13th century whose territory comprised northern Oltenia in today's Romania.

He is mentioned for the first time in the Diploma of the Joannites issued by king Béla IV of Hungary (1235–1270) on 2 July 1247. The diploma granted territories to the Knights Hospitaller in the Banate of Severin and Cumania, “with the exception of the land of the kenazate of Voivode Litovoi,” which the king left to the Vlachs “as they had held it”.

Name
The king’s diploma also refers to the kenazates of Farcaș and John and to a certain voivode Seneslau. Although the names of Litovoi and Seneslau are of Slavic origin, they are expressly said to be Vlachs (Olati) in the king's diploma. It seems that Litovoi was the most powerful of all the above local rulers. His territories were exempted from the grant to the knights, but half of the royal tax generated by his land (terra Lytua) was assigned to the Hospitallers – except for the income from the District of Hátszeg (terra Harszoc in the diploma’s only surviving, papal copy, Țara Hațegului), which the king kept all for himself. According to the Romanian historian Ioan-Aurel Pop, the king had grabbed Haţeg from Litovoi shortly before 1247.

War with the Hungarians
In 1277 (or between 1277 and 1280), Litovoi was at war with the Hungarians over lands king Ladislaus IV of Hungary (1272–1290) claimed for the crown, but for which Litovoi refused to pay tribute. Litovoi was killed in battle. This event is recounted in the king’s letter of grant of 8 January 1285, in which king Ladislaus IV donated villages in Sáros County (today in Slovakia) to Master George, son of Simon, who had been sent against Litovoi.

Ioan Aurel Pop argues that the Litovoi mentioned in the diploma of 1247 was not identical to the Litovoi whose death is described in the letter of grant of 1285, and the latter was probably the former’s successor.

title: Litovoi


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Atlanta University Center

The Atlanta University Center Consortium (AUC Consortium) is a collaboration between four historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in southwest Atlanta, Georgia: Clark Atlanta University, Spelman College, Morehouse College, and the Morehouse School of Medicine. It is the oldest and largest contiguous consortium of African-American higher education institutions in the United States. The consortium structure allows for students to cross-register at the other institutions in order to attain a broader collegiate experience. They also share the Robert W. Woodruff Library, a dual degree engineering program, and career planning and placement services and the AUC Data Science Initiative.

History
The Atlanta University Center (AUC) was created in April 1929, when John Hope, then president of both Morehouse College and the former Atlanta University saw the potential gains from such a consortium. Atlanta, Morehouse and Spelman signed the affiliation agreement and became the original members of the AUC. Clark College and Morris Brown College joined in 1957, followed by the Interdenominational Theological Center (ITC) in 1959. Morehouse School of Medicine (which became independent from Morehouse College) joined the AUC in 1983. Morris Brown ended its affiliation with AUC when the school lost its accreditation in December 2002.

The Atlanta University Center has undergone several administrative and governance changes since its inception. In 2004, the business operating as AUC, Inc. was dissolved. A new corporation, known as the AUC Consortium, Inc., was established in its place and Marilyn Jackson became the first female CEO and executive director, with fiduciary responsibilities. In 2011, the current executive director, Dr. Sherry Turner, was selected to expand the Consortium's community revitalization efforts.

Former members and closely related institutions
To be eligible for membership in the AUC Consortium, a college or university must be regionally accredited, maintain tax-exempt status, and pay a membership assessment. Morris Brown College was a member of the AUC Consortium until it lost its accreditation and federal funding in 2002 during the 1998–2002 tenure of Dr. Dolores E. Cross as school president.

The Interdenominational Theological Center (ITC) is eligible for membership in AUC Consortium, but is not currently a member. However, the ITC is a member of the library sharing consortium of Robert W. Woodruff Library, which is part of the AUC Consortium.

Location
The AUC campuses are located in the Atlanta University Center District, near Downtown Atlanta and immediately southwest of Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

Museums
The Spelman College Museum of Fine Art and Clark Atlanta University Museum of Art are the two designated museums in the AUC.

Olive Branch tradition
Olive Branch is a long-standing tradition where new first-year students from Clark Atlanta, Morehouse, and Spelman gather for an official AUC unity ceremony and celebration every August before the beginning of the fall semester.

Homecomings
Spelman and Morehouse annually have homecoming festivities in the same week during the fall semester. The parallel homecomings are traditionally referred to as "SpelHouse Homecoming." Clark Atlanta's homecoming is usually in a different week from Spelman and Morehouse. Every few years, all three institutions have homecoming during the same week which is traditionally referred to as "SpArkHouse Homecoming." Homecomings significantly contribute to the cultural identity of the AUC and attract tens of thousands of alumni, students, celebrity guests, and visitors.

Dual Degree Engineering Program (DDEP)
In 1969, the AUC Consortium established a dual degree engineering program that allows its undergraduate students to receive two degrees in approximately five years. Students must first complete a science, technology or mathematics curriculum at an AUC institution, followed by the completion of an engineering curriculum at the engineering institution. Upon successful completing both curricula, students earn two degrees: a Bachelor of Science degree awarded from an AUC institution, and a Bachelor of Science degree in a specific engineering discipline from an affiliated engineering institution. Engineering institutions affiliated with DDEP include Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Michigan, University of Notre Dame, Auburn University, Clarkson University, Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis, Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Rochester Institute of Technology, University of Alabama in Huntsville, and North Carolina A&T State University. Since its inception, over 1,100 students have successfully completed the dual degree program.

Spelman never offered engineering degrees which is most common among liberal arts colleges. In 2003, Clark Atlanta's leadership voted to end its engineering programs for budget reasons. In 2019, Morehouse established its first engineering degree program with software engineering.

AUC Data Science Initiative
In 2019, United Health Group donated $8.25 million to the AUC Consortium to establish the AUC Data Science Initiative. This initiative offers technical classes to AUC students who want to specialize in data science or learn data analysis to give them a competitive edge in the job market. A major objective of this initiative is to increase the number of underrepresented minorities in the data science and analytics fields.

3+3 Law Program
In 2019, three AUC institutions (Morehouse, Spelman, and Clark Atlanta) established an admissions agreement with Syracuse University College of Law allowing their students to receive a bachelor's degree and law degree in approximately six years.

Spike Fellowship
In 2023, Morehouse alumnus Spike Lee and the Gersh Agency, launched a competitive fellowship program for AUC students interested in careers in the entertainment and media industry. Students selected will receive a paid graduate study summer internship, executive mentorships and $25,000 in student loan payoff and debt relief. The goal of the fellowship is to increase diversity in all aspects of the entertainment and media industry.

Religious institutions
Three denominational campus ministry centers have been established to serve the students of the Atlanta University Center. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta operates the Lyke House Catholic Student Center, the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta operates the Absalom Jones Episcopal Student Center and Chapel, the Absalom Jones Student Center also houses the Lutheran Campus ministry which serves both students and the members of the adjoining community. Two of these campus ministry facilities are named after notable Black American clerics.

title: Atlanta University Center


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User:Tarek

I agree to multi-license all my contributions, with the exception of my user pages, as described below:

title: User:Tarek


text:
Talk:Charles Boot

untitled
I have created a major entry for Charles Boot to link with several other page entries including J. Arthur Rank and Pinewood Film Studios. MPLX/MH 17:13, 7 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Added WP:Sheff Tag as Henry boot company a major firm and till details split out as separate company entry, as Henry Boot links set to point here. Added Economy of Sheff category as well, so list in business index. BulldozerD11 (talk) 02:13, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

External links modified
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title: Talk:Charles Boot


text:
Seneslau

Seneslau, also Seneslav or Stănislau, was a Vlach voivode mentioned in the Diploma of the Joannites issued by king Béla IV of Hungary (1235–1270) on 2 July 1247. The diploma granted territories to the Knights Hospitaller in the Banate of Severin and Cumania. According to the diploma, the king gave the territories east of the Olt River to the knights, with the exception of the territory of voivode Seneslau.

The name of Seneslav is of Slavic origin. Seneslau held central and southern Muntenia (i.e., the territories along the rivers Argeş and Dâmboviţa). The Romanian historian Ioan Aurel Pop suggests that Seneslau was quasi independent of the king of Hungary. According to the Hungarian historian István Vásáry, his title (voivode) suggests that he had a territorial unit under his jurisdiction.

The diploma of Béla IV also refers to the kenazates of John, Farcaş and voivode Litovoi. Although the names of Seneslau and Litovoi are of Slavic origin, they are expressly said to be Vlachs (Olati) in the king's diploma.

title: Seneslau


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Vz. 52 rifle

The '''vz. 52''' rifle is a semi-automatic rifle developed shortly after the Second World War in Czechoslovakia. Its full name is 7,62mm samonabíjecí puška vzor 52. Vz. 52 is an abbreviation for vzor 52, meaning "model 52". It fires the unique 7.62×45mm cartridge. 52 rifles were made by Považské strojárne in Považská Bystrica, but due to production difficulties, its manufacture was taken over by Česká zbrojovka Uherský Brod.

Design details
The vz. 52 is a shoulder-fired semi-automatic rifle with a tilting-bolt locking mechanism powered by an annular short-stroke gas piston system. The bolt is locked by two lugs that recess into slots machined into the receiver. However, unlike most vertically-locking breech mechanism, the rifle's bolt has the unusual feature of tipping the bolt frontally to lock the mechanism, whereas other tipping bolt designs tip the bolt to the rear. The piston is actuated by residual gases from the bore, vented into a sleeve surrounding the barrel to overcome the inertia of the bolt carrier, bolt and the resistance of the return spring in order to unlock the chamber, eject the empty cartridge casing and then introduce a new round into the chamber upon return to battery.

The barrel is press-fit and pinned into the receiver. The manual safety switch is placed inside of the trigger guard and is manipulated by the shooter's index finger. The trigger mechanism closely resembles that used in the American M1 Garand semi-automatic rifle. The cocking handle is integrated into the bolt carrier and is located on the right side of the rifle.

The rifle is equipped with open-type iron sights with a hooded front post and V-notch rear sight placed on a sliding tangent, adjustable for elevation between 100–950 m. The rifle can also accept day and night-time optics that interface with an optional, receiver-mounted side rail. The one-piece pistol grip stock is carved from either walnut or beech and stained a yellowish-brown color; the stock has a hollowed butt which is used as a storage compartment for a cleaning rod, oil bottle and accessories. The rifle has an integral blade bayonet which folds into a recess carved into the stock on the right side.

The vz. 52 feeds from a detachable box magazine with a 10-round cartridge capacity but could also be rapidly recharged from stripper clips with the bolt retracted. For this purpose, a stripper clip guide is milled into the front face of the bolt carrier, aligning with the magazine when the bolt is locked in the open position. This is the primary method of reloading the rifle as infantrymen were only issued 2 magazines per rifle. It ejects cartridge cases vigorously forward and to the left.

Conversion
After pressure from the Soviet Union to adopt its 7.62×39mm cartridge, existing Czech rifles were rechambered to the Soviet caliber, and all further production of the rifle was chambered in this caliber and re-designated the '''vz. 52/57'''. The vz. 52/57 is identical to the vz. 52 except for its barrel and its magazines. It is considerably less common and is generally found in better condition due to the vz. 52/57 chromium-plated bore and chamber. The vz. 52 magazines can be used with the vz. 52/57, but they do not feed as reliably.

Decommissioning
All of the vz. 52 series were quickly replaced in Czechoslovak service by the vz. 58, but the earlier rifles found their way to Soviet allies during the Cold War, and have seen service in Grenada, Somalia, Cuba and Afghanistan and many of those were passed on to guerrillas. At least 12,000 of Cuba's vz. 52s were emptied from that country's reserve stocks and donated to Angola as military aid during the Cuban intervention in Angola.

The Czech Castle guard uses chrome-finished, deactivated vz. 52 rifles with darkened wood stocks as ceremonial weapons.

Users

 * 🇦🇴 Angola: 12,000 delivered in 1975
 * Biafra: 820 delivered in 1967
 * Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda
 * 🇨🇺 Cuba Used during the Escambray rebellion, Bay of Pigs invasion. Also used by Milicias de Tropas Territoriales. It proved to be unpopular in MTT service due to both the vz. 52 and 52/57 being in MTT use causing confusion with the magazines and ammunition. Some 52/57s were used during the US Invasion of Grenada.
 * Czechoslovakia
 * 🇪🇬 Egypt
 * 🇪🇹 Ethiopia
 * 🇮🇩 Indonesia: service with the KorMar, and with the Army as ceremonial weapon.
 * 🇮🇱 Israel
 * 🇬🇩 Grenada (During the New Jewel Movement regime)
 * 🇬🇼 Guinea-Bissau: vz. 52/57.
 * 🇳🇦 Namibia Used by People's Liberation Army of Namibia
 * 🇳🇮 Nicaragua Some later given as aid to the Salvadoran FMLN.
 * 🇳🇬 Nigeria
 * 🇵🇭 Philippines New People's Army Surrendered the firearms to the Armed Forces of the Philippines
 * Syria
 * 🇹🇿 Tanzania
 * Vietnam: very limited use
 * 🇾🇪 Yemen
 * Laos
 * 🇿🇼 Zimbabwe: used by ZIPRA and ZANLA

title: Vz. 52 rifle


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Swan Hellenic

Swan Hellenic is a British cruise line specialising in expedition tours of historical or cultural interest aimed at the upper end of the cruise market. Swan Hellenic was first established as Swan's Tours in the 1950s as a tour operator carrying guests to historic sites, providing enrichment throughout their trips. In 1983, Swan Hellenic was acquired by P&O and became a subsidiary of Carnival Corporation & plc in 2003, but it ended operations in 2007 after Carnival discontinued the brand. Shortly after, All Leisure Holidays Group purchased and revived Swan Hellenic, but ended its operations in 2017. G Adventures acquired the brand later that year and planned to revive it for a second time in 2018, but sold the brand to a private group in 2020, which plans to resume Swan Hellenic's operations with its first-ever new-build ship in 2021.

1950s–1983: Swan's Tours
In the 1950s, a British travel agency, Swan's Tours, operated by a father and son (W.F. Swan and R.K. Swan), was asked to organise a tour for visitors interested in the antiquities of Greece. Archaeologist Sir Mortimer Wheeler served as a guest lecturer on the tours. The tours developed into a full programme of cruises, a concept known as "cultural cruising," in which well known academics, writers and clergymen were regularly featured as guest lecturers, both on board ships and on site. Swan's Tours prided itself on never repeating an itinerary and focused its business on touring classical sites in the Aegean Sea, around the coasts and islands of modern Greece and Turkey. It also visited classical and other ancient sites in north Africa (including Egypt) and the eastern Mediterranean. In contrast to most commercial cruises offered at the time, in which the onboard entertainment was as important as the destinations visited, Swan's itineraries included almost-daily port calls for visits to historic sites, placing a high emphasis on the destination-oriented nature of its business. The operation was characterised by an English ethos of high culture, although it had an international following.

1983–2007: As subsidiaries of P&O and Carnival
In 1983, P&O acquired Swan Hellenic from the Swan family. In 2003, it became a subsidiary of Carnival Corporation & plc after Carnival merged with P&O Princess Cruises. Under Carnival, the characteristically small 300-passenger ship Minerva was replaced in 2003 by the 600-passenger Minerva II. This led to criticism that the intimacy of the original cruise concept had been compromised.

On 7 April 2007, Carnival officially ceased Swan Hellenic's operations, and transferred Minerva II to the Princess Cruises fleet with the new name of Royal Princess. Swan Hellenic's demise was also compounded when Martin Randall Travel launched a series of cruises to fill the niche Swan Hellenic had left.

2007–2017: First revival
On 15 March 2007, following news of Carnival folding the Swan Hellenic brand, Lord Sterling, the former chairman of P&O, announced that he was buying the Swan Hellenic brand and intended to relaunch the cruise line as soon as a suitable vessel could be located. All Leisure Holidays Group (ALG) subsequently acquired Swan Hellenic, joining it with sister brand Voyages of Discovery. The revived brand intended to begin operations with Minerva in May 2008, but the maiden voyage was later postponed after the ship's generators incurred problems. For her inaugural season, Minerva was scheduled to sail itineraries to the Baltic, Scandinavia, and Mediterranean.

In January 2008, Swan Hellenic announced it would begin operating river cruises in 2009, offering itineraries sailing on the Danube from Vienna and on the Rhône from Lyon. The cruises were operated in partnership with A-Rosa Cruises, and were offered with packages that included land excursions and gratuity charges.

On 4 January 2017, it was reported that ALG had gone into administration, leaving 400 passengers abroad. The Civil Aviation Authority was instructed to repatriate them and future bookings for 13,000 others had been cancelled with pending refunds. The news came one day after the company announced it was cancelling its first itineraries of 2017, seen as a precursor to the ending of operations after profits had declined in recent years. That month, Grant Thornton's Eddie Williams, administrator to ALG, told BBC: "The cruise operations [of Swan Hellenic and Voyages of Discovery] have been significantly loss-making over a number of years and the ongoing cost of funding these operations by the tour operations has created significant cash issues for the entire group, which has ultimately led to the administration of all businesses." Following ALG's closure, Minerva, the only ship operating for Swan Hellenic, was laid up in Marseille awaiting sale.

2017–present: Second revival
In February 2017, G Adventures announced it had acquired the Swan Hellenic brand, with the plan to restart operations in 2018. Itineraries were scheduled to be released that summer, though none were ultimately publicized and released for sale.

On 22 July 2020, a team led by former cruise industry executive Andrea Zito announced it had purchased Swan Hellenic from G Adventures. Zito, who had helped to broker the sale of Swan Hellenic to G Adventures in 2017 while working for V-Ships Leisure, said the revived brand will retain its British heritage and maintain the breadth of international offerings provided in the past by honing in on its focus on exploring different cultures across global destinations. The revived brand will launch with offices in Cyprus, Düsseldorf and Monaco. Swan Hellenic is scheduled to begin operations with the brand's first-ever new-build, an expedition vessel built by Helsinki Shipyard in Hietalahti, scheduled for delivery in August 2021 for a November 2021 debut, with a sister ship slated for delivery in September 2022 for an October 2022 debut. The 152-passenger vessels are designed to sail in the polar regions and the tropics. The vessels, temporarily named Vega 1 and Vega 2, will be built to Polar Class 5, measure 113 metres (370 ft) long, 20,2 metres (66 ft) wide and have a maximum crew capacity of 120. The ownership of Swan Hellenic is split between three Cyprus-based companies (shareholders, also listed as shipowners) - Capstans Ltd, Valbridge Ltd, and Diamant Ltd.

title: Swan Hellenic