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Decapitation (military strategy)

Decapitation is a military strategy aimed at removing the leadership or command and control of a hostile government or group.

Genocide

 * The deportation of Armenian intellectuals in 1915, considered the start of the Armenian genocide
 * German AB-Aktion in Poland by the Nazis during World War II
 * The Katyn massacre by the Soviet Union against Polish military officers. As Polish law required every university graduate to be a reserve officer, executing the officers among the Polish POWs allowed Lavrentiy Beria to stunt Polish science, culture and leadership.

In nuclear warfare
In nuclear warfare theory, a decapitation strike is a pre-emptive first strike attack that aims to destabilize an opponent's military and civil leadership structure in the hope that it will severely degrade or destroy its capacity for nuclear retaliation. It is essentially a subset of a counterforce strike but whereas a counterforce strike seeks to destroy weapons directly, a decapitation strike is designed to remove an enemy's ability to use its weapons.

Strategies against decapitation strikes include the following:
 * Distributed command and control structures.
 * Dispersal of political leadership and military leadership in times of tension.
 * Delegation of ICBM/SLBM launch capability to local commanders in the event of a decapitation strike.
 * Distributed and diverse launch mechanisms.

A failed decapitation strike carries the risk of immediate, massive retaliation by the targeted opponent. Many countries with nuclear weapons specifically plan to prevent decapitation strikes by employing second-strike capabilities. Such countries may have mobile land-based launch, sea launch, air launch, and underground ballistic missile launch facilities so that a nuclear attack on one area of the country will not totally negate its ability to retaliate.

Other nuclear warfare doctrines explicitly exclude decapitation strikes on the basis that it is better to preserve the adversary's command and control structures so that a single authority remains that is capable of negotiating a surrender or ceasefire. Implementing fail-deadly mechanisms can be a way to deter decapitation strikes and respond to successful decapitation strikes.

Conventional warfare, assassination and terrorist acts
Decapitation strikes have been employed in as a strategy in conventional warfare. The term has been used to describe the assassination of a government's entire leadership group or a nation's royal family.
 * Assassination attempts on Volodymyr Zelenskyy
 * The 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq began with a decapitation strike against Saddam Hussein and other Iraqi military and political leaders. These air strikes failed to kill their intended targets.
 * The U.S. and its NATO allies have, and continue to pursue this strategy in its efforts to dismantle militant Islamic fundamentalist networks, such as Al-Qaeda and ISIL, that threaten the United States and allies.
 * April 14, 1865: The assassination of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln by Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth was part of a larger plot to disrupt the presidential line of succession by also killing then-Vice President Andrew Johnson, and Secretary of State William H. Seward, at the close of the American Civil War
 * February 1, 1908: King Carlos I of Portugal was assassinated along with his son the Crown Prince Luís Filipe by Alfredo Luís da Costa and Manuel Buiça, both connected to the Carbonária (the Portuguese section of the Carbonari)
 * July 17, 1918: Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and the Imperial Family were executed by a Bolshevik firing squad under the command of Yakov Yurovsky
 * November 9, 1939: Attempt on German Führer Adolf Hitler's life in the Burgerbräukeller in Munich by Swabian carpenter Georg Elser, using a time bomb in order to cripple the Third Reich and its war effort. Several died, but Hitler escaped due to a change in schedule, leaving the rostrum 13 minutes before detonation.
 * July 20, 1944: Claus von Stauffenberg attempted to assassinate Hitler and his inner circle of advisers by a suitcase bomb as part of a broader military coup d'état against the Nazi government, which ultimately failed.
 * Yemen 1948 Alwaziri coup.

In recent warfare, unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, are popularly used for decapitation strikes against terrorist and insurgent groups. Drones are most effective in areas with inadequate air defense. There are mixed scholarly opinions whether or not decapitation strikes via drones effectively degrade the capabilities of these groups.

Some military strategists, like General Michael Flynn, have argued that the experience gained by the American and Coalition military experience from fighting the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan was in support of kill or capture operations, but that they would be ineffective without a full understanding of how they would affect the local political landscape in the country.

Robert Pape has argued that decapitation is a relatively ineffective strategy. He writes that decapitation is a seductive strategy as it promises "to solve conflicts quickly and cheaply with... little collateral damage, and minimal or no friendly casualties", but decapitation strikes frequently fail or are not likely to produce the intended consequences even if successful.

Counterterrorism theorists Max Abrahms and Jochen Mierau argue that leadership decapitation in a terrorist or rebel group has the tendency to create disorder within the group, but find decapitation ineffective because group disorder can often lead to politically ineffective, unfocused attacks on civilians. The two conclude that "[t]his change in the internal composition of militant groups may affect the quality and hence selectivity of their violence."

One tactic that is sometimes used to inform the target selection for decapitation strikes is social network analysis. This tactic involves identifying and eliminating higher ranked members in a hierarchically arranged rebel or terrorist group by targeting lower members first, and using intel gained in initial strikes to identify an organization's leadership. Some strategists, like Generals David Petraeus and Stanley McChrystal, have also called for dedicated task units that are non-hierarchical and can be reorganized, in order to face similar distributed or decentralized terrorist groups. Others, however, argue that decapitation strikes combined with social network analysis are more than unproductive, but can prolong a conflict due to their habit of eliminating rebel or terrorist leaders who are the most capable peace negotiators or have the potential to advance communities hardest hit by terror campaigns after the cessation of hostilities.

title: Decapitation (military strategy)


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David Turner (computer scientist)

David A. Turner (26 January 1946 – 19 October 2023) was a British computer scientist. He is best known for designing and implementing three programming languages, including the first for functional programming based on lazy evaluation, combinator graph reduction, and polymorphic types: SASL (1972), Kent Recursive Calculator (KRC) (1981), and the commercially supported Miranda (1985).

Turner's work on Miranda had a strong influence on the later Haskell. Turner first implemented SASL using the abstract SECD machine, but then reimplemented them in 1978 using SKI combinator calculus. This approach was used by Thomas Johnsson and Lennart Augustsson in the design of the g-machine that evolved to become the standard mechanism for lazy evaluation in call-by-need languages.

In 1981, Turner received the Doctor of Philosophy (D.Phil.) from the University of Oxford, for his dissertation "Aspects of the Implementation of Programming Languages: The Compilation of an Applicative Language to Combinatory Logic", supervised by Christopher Strachey and Dana Scott. He held professorships at Queen Mary College, London, University of Texas at Austin and the University of Kent at Canterbury, where he spent most of his career and retained the title of Emeritus Professor of Computation.

Turner was involved with developing international standards in programming and informatics, as a member of the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) IFIP Working Group 2.1 on Algorithmic Languages and Calculi, which specified, maintains, and supports the programming languages ALGOL 60 and ALGOL 68. He was also a member of the IFIP Working Group 2.8 on Functional Programming, which related to his creation of Miranda.

Turner was an emeritus professor at the University of Kent and Middlesex University in England.

Turner's parents were second-generation Jewish immigrants, and Turner himself was a strong advocate for equal rights for Palestinians. He was an executive member of ICAHD UK and frequently spoke on the topic. Turner died on 19 October 2023, at the age of 77.

Publications

 * Turner, David A. SASL language manual. Tech. rept. CS/75/1. Department of Computational Science, University of St Andrews, 1975.
 * Another Algorithm for Bracket Abstraction, D. A. Turner, Journal of Symbolic Logic, 44(2):267–270, 1979.
 * Functional Programming and its Applications, D. A. Turner, Cambridge University Press 1982.
 * A Parser Generator for use with Miranda, ACM Symposium on Applied Computing, pages 401–407, Philadelphia, USA, February 1996.
 * Elementary Strong Functional Programming, D. A. Turner, in R. Plasmeijer, P. Hartel, eds, "First International Symposium on Functional Programming Languages in Education", Lecture Notes in Computer Science, volume 1022, pages 1–13, Springer-Verlag, 1996.
 * Ensuring Streams Flow, Alastair Telford and David Turner, in Johnson, ed., "Algebraic Methodology and Software Technology", 6th International Conference, AMAST '97, Sydney Australia, December 1997, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, volume 1349, pages 509–523. AMAST, Springer-Verlag, December 1997.
 * Ensuring the Productivity of Infinite Structures, A.J.Telford, D.A.Turner, "Technical Report TR 14-97", 37 pages, Computing Laboratory, University of Kent, March 1998. Under submission to "Journal of Functional Programming".
 * Ensuring Termination in ESFP, A. J. Telford and D. A. Turner, in "15th British Colloquium in Theoretical Computer Science", page 14, Keele, April 1999. To appear in "Journal of Universal Computer Science".
 * A Hierarchy of Elementary Languages with Strong Normalisation Properties, A.J.Telford, D.A.Turner, "Technical Report TR 2-00", 66 pages, University of Kent Computing Laboratory, January 2000.
 * Total Functional Programming, Keynote address, pp 1–15, SBLP 2004, Rio de Janeiro, May 2004.
 * Church's Thesis and Functional Programming, in A. Olszewski ed., "Church's Thesis after 70 years'", pages 518-544, Ontos Verlag, 2006.
 * Church's Thesis and Functional Programming, in A. Olszewski ed., "Church's Thesis after 70 years'", pages 518-544, Ontos Verlag, 2006.

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

title: David Turner (computer scientist)


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Autothysis

Autothysis (from the Greek roots autos- αὐτός "self" and thysia θυσία "sacrifice") or suicidal altruism is the process where an animal destroys itself via an internal rupturing or explosion of an organ which ruptures the skin. The term was proposed by Ulrich Maschwitz and Eleonore Maschwitz in 1974 to describe the defensive mechanism of Colobopsis saundersi, a species of ant. It is caused by a contraction of muscles around a large gland that leads to the breaking of the gland wall. Some termites (such as the soldiers of Globitermes sulphureus) release a sticky secretion by rupturing a gland near the skin of their neck, producing a tar effect in defense against ants.

Termites
Groups of termites whose soldiers have been found to use autothysis to defend their colonies include: Serritermes serrifer, Dentispicotermes, Genuotermes, and Orthognathotermes. Several species of the soldierless Apicotermitinae, for example those of the Grigiotermes and Ruptitermes genera, have workers that can also use autothysis. This is thought to be one of the most effective forms of defense that termites possess as the ruptured workers block the tunnels running into the nest and it causes a one-to-one exchange between attackers and defenders, meaning attacks have a high energy cost to predators.

The soldiers of the Neotropical termite family Serritermitidae have a defense strategy which involves front gland autothysis, with the body rupturing between the head and abdomen. When outside the nest they try to run away from attackers, and only use autothysis when in the nest to block tunnels up, preventing attackers entering.

Old workers of Neocapritermes taracua develop blue spots on their abdomens that are filled with copper-containing proteins. These react with a secretion from the labial gland upon autothysis to form a mixture which is toxic to other termites.

Ants
Some ants belonging to the genus Camponotus and Colobopsis have adapted to using autothysis as an altruistic defensive trait to better fight against arthropods and to possibly deter vertebrate predators for the benefit of the colony as a whole. These ants use autothysis as a self-destructive defense to protect their territory, but they use it differently from termites, in that their primary uses for autothysis do not include blocking the tunnels of their territory from attackers, but more so for combat purposes during territorial battles.

Early ants used mechanical means of stinging to defend themselves, but the stings showed to be more useful against large vertebrate predators and not as successful against other arthropods. So selection for autothysis in ants evolved as a way to more effectively kill arthropod enemies. The products of autothysis in ants are sticky and corrosive substances, released by the ants' contraction of their gasters, leading to a burst at an intersegmental fold as well as the mandibular glands. The ants use this self-sacrifice to kill one or more enemies which entangle themselves in this sticky substance. The worker ant has been observed to wrap itself around an opponent, placing its dorsal gaster onto the opponent's head before expelling sticky corrosive material from its mouth and gaster, permanently sticking to the opponent while killing itself and the enemy, as well as any other enemies that become stuck to the products.

These ants mostly use autothysis against other arthropods, like invading ant colonies or against termite colonies, and are rather ineffective towards larger vertebrate predators such as lizards or birds. This self-sacrifice is most useful against arthropods because the sticky adhesives in the products work best against the bodies of other arthropods. The compounds used in autothysis, however, have also been explained to have some use in deterring vertebrate predators from eating the ants, because these products are inedible.

title: Autothysis


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Fort Paull

Fort Paull was a gun battery situated on the north bank of the Humber, near the village of Paull, downstream from Hull in northern England.

History
Batteries have been built at Paull by Henry VIII, Charles I during the Civil War during the siege of Hull and the Napoleonic Wars. The first fort built on the site was started in 1542 with a capacity for 12 guns. The current fort is of pentagonal design and was built in 1861–4 and on the recommendations of the Royal Commission, hence it is one of the Palmerston Forts.

Armament
The original emplacements, nineteen 64-pounder (29 kg) RML artillery pieces were concealed or demolished in 1894 when concrete emplacements for three 6-inch Breech Loading (BL) guns on hydropneumatic carriages and two 4.7-inch Quick Firing (QF) guns were built. A mining station was added in 1886 and searchlights followed in 1907. The three 6-inch gun positions were remodelled after 1902 to newer Mark VII types on central pivot mountings.

At the outset of the First World War, Paull was judged too close to Hull, so was disarmed when new forts were built at Sunk Island and Stallingborough. The fort was used as a training base between the wars, and during the Second World War, it was converted into a magazine to serve the Russian convoys; a degaussing station was also added.

Present day
In 1960, Fort Paull was released from the Ministry of Defence and closed down. In 1964, a group of volunteers, the Friends of Fort Paull took over the site and began to restore the fort as a heritage museum. Fort Paull finally opened to the public in 2000. Fort Paull housed a waxwork museum showing figures which have influenced the fort's long history as well as an armoury showing various artillery pieces and armoured vehicles. The fort also played hosts to various military re-enactments from time to time.

Fort Paull was the location of the last remaining complete Blackburn Beverley heavy transport aircraft.

In January 2020, it was announced that the attraction would not be opening for the 2020 season.

The museum's contents were auctioned on 19 September 2020. The contents auction raised a six-figure sum, the Blackburn Beverley bringing £21,000.

Reopening
In May 2024 a post on Facebook announced the site had been bought and would be undergoing works to reopen. The post referenced the desire to bring the site back for future generations and start running events there again. It mentions they will be starting from scratch after a lot of the museums contents were auctioned off when it last closed.

title: Fort Paull


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Trachemys

Trachemys is a genus of turtles belonging to the family Emydidae. Members of this genus are native to the Americas, ranging from the Midwestern United States south to northern Argentina, but one subspecies, the red-eared slider (T. scripta elegans), has been introduced worldwide. Species under this genus are commonly referred to as sliders.

Extant

 * Trachemys adiutrix Vanzolini, 1995 – Maranhão slider
 * Trachemys callirostris (Gray, 1856) – Colombian slider
 * T. c. callirostris (Gray, 1856) – Colombian slider
 * T. c. chichiriviche (Pritchard & Trebbau, 1984) – Venezuelan slider
 * Trachemys decorata (Barbour & Carr, 1940) – Hispaniolan slider
 * Trachemys decussata (Bell, 1830) – Cuban slider
 * T. d. angusta (Barbour & Carr, 1940) – western Cuban slider
 * T. d. decussata (Bell, 1830) – eastern Cuban slider
 * Trachemys dorbigni (A.M.C. Duméril & Bibron, 1835) – D'Orbigny's slider
 * Trachemys emolli (Legler, 1990) – Nicaraguan slider
 * Trachemys gaigeae (Hartweg, 1939) – Big Bend slider
 * Trachemys hartwegi (Legler, 1990) – Nazas slider
 * Trachemys medemi Vargas-Ramírez, del Valle, Ceballos & Fritz, 2017 – Atrato slider
 * Trachemys nebulosa (Van Denburgh, 1895) – Baja California slider
 * T. n. hiltoni (Carr, 1942) – Fuerte slider
 * T. n. nebulosa (Van Denburgh, 1895) – Baja California slider
 * Trachemys ornata (Gray, 1830) – ornate slider
 * Trachemys scripta (Thunberg, 1792) – pond slider
 * T. s. elegans (Wied, 1839) – red-eared slider
 * T. s. scripta (Thunberg, 1792) – yellow-bellied slider
 * T. s. troostii (Holbrook, 1836) – Cumberland slider
 * Trachemys stejnegeri (Schmidt, 1928) – Central Antillean slider
 * T. s. malonei (Barbour & Carr, 1938) – Inagua slider
 * T. s. stejnegeri (Schmidt, 1928) – Puerto Rican slider
 * T. s. vicina (Barbour & Carr, 1940) – Dominican slider
 * Trachemys taylori (Legler, 1960) – Cuatro Ciénegas slider
 * Trachemys terrapen (Bonnaterre, 1789) – Jamaican slider
 * Trachemys venusta (Gray, 1856) – Meso-American slider
 * T. v. cataspila (Günther, 1885) – Huasecan slider
 * T. v. grayi (Bocourt, 1868) – Gray's slider or Tehuantepec slider
 * T. v. iversoni McCord, Joseph-Ouni, Hagen & Blanck, 2010 – Yucatan slider
 * T. v. panamensis McCord, Joseph-Ouni, Hagen & Blanck, 2010 – Panamanian slider
 * T. v. uhrigi McCord, Joseph-Ouni, Hagen & Blanck, 2010 – Uhrig's slider
 * T. v. venusta (Gray, 1856) – Belize slider
 * Trachemys yaquia (Legler & Webb, 1970) – Yaqui slider

Nota bene: In the above list, a binomial authority or a trinomial authority in parentheses indicates that the species or subspecies was originally described in a genus other than Trachemys.

Fossil

 * † Trachemys inflata Weaver & Robertson, 1967 - inflated slider turtle
 * † Trachemys haugrudi Jasinski, 2018 - Haugrud's slider turtle

title: Trachemys


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Frank B. Robinson

Frank Bruce "Doc" Robinson (1886 – 19 October 1948 ) was an American New Thought author and spiritual leader. A pharmacist in Moscow, Idaho, Robinson was the son of an English Baptist minister. He studied in a Canadian Bible school but later rejected organized religion in favor of the New Thought Movement. In 1928, he founded the spiritual movement Psychiana. Robinson was also publisher of the Idahoan newspaper. Psychiana's International Headquarters building still stands on 2nd Street, as does Robinson's house on Howard Street. Robinson's most lasting impact on Moscow and Latah County is the eponymous Robinson Park, for which he donated the land.

title: Frank B. Robinson


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Sharpe James

Sharpe James (born February 20, 1936) is an American former Democratic politician who served as the 37th mayor of Newark, New Jersey, from 1986 to 2006, and as a state senator for the 29th legislative district from 1999 to 2008. He is a subject of the 2005 feature-film Street Fight, about the 2002 Newark mayoral election, in which James faced a closer-than-expected challenge from Cory Booker.

On July 12, 2007, James was indicted on federal corruption charges, and on April 16, 2008, was convicted of five counts of fraud and was subsequently sentenced to 27 months in prison. He was released in 2010 and has been barred from running for elected office since.

Early life and education
James was born in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1936. He has been a resident of Newark since 1940. He graduated from South Side High School (since renamed as Malcolm X Shabazz High School), earned a B.A. in education from Montclair State University and a M.A. in physical education from Springfield College. He received the 1961 Department of Physiology Award from that school, and later completed postgraduate studies at Washington State University, Columbia University, and Rutgers University. He also served with the U.S. Army in Germany. In 1988, James was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Montclair State University, and, in 1991, an Honorary Doctorate from Drew University. Prior to politics, James worked as a teacher, athletic director and professor at Essex County College.

City council
James was first elected to public office in 1970 as a South Ward Councilman. He was reelected to the council in 1974, defeating his sole opponent by a ten-to-one margin. He was elected to a third term in 1978, and in 1982 he became the first ward councilman elected to an at-large seat. As a councilman, he chaired New Jersey's Black and Hispanic delegation. In 1977 he led an effort to halt landings of Concorde jets at Newark International Airport, claiming it would add to air and noise pollution in the area. In 1983, after talk show host Phil Donahue made comments about Newark being "a place foreigners wouldn't want to visit", James demanded for an apology. In response, Donahue sent James a letter apologizing for the remark.

Mayor of Newark
On January 30, 1986, James announced he would run for Mayor of Newark to challenge four-term incumbent Kenneth A. Gibson. James won the May 13 election and was sworn into office on July 1 of that year. He was the first Newark mayor to run unopposed when he sought re-election in 1990 and handily won re-election in 1994 and 1998. James became Newark's longest-serving mayor when he was re-elected for an unprecedented fifth term in 2002, a year after being named "Mayor of the Year" by the New Jersey Conference of Mayors. His 2002 reelection campaign, against then-Councilman Cory Booker, was documented in the 2005 feature film Street Fight. James faced scrutiny over a racist and homophobic statement involving a slur made to Booker during a public confrontation prior to election day, but still was victorious in the tense election.

James became known in his early years as mayor for often wearing jogging suits in public and making high-profile efforts to attract development to Downtown Newark. In 1997, Newark saw the completion of the acclaimed New Jersey Performing Arts Center. James became known as an example of "machine politics". He had a reputation for questionable campaign tactics, including alleged use of the police force for his own purposes, intimidating supporters of his opponents and attacking his opponents' heritage.

In 1987 and 1988, James served as the New Jersey chairman of Jesse Jackson's campaign for the 1988 Democratic Party presidential nomination. In December 1992, James was a member of the New Jersey State Electoral College, one of 15 electors casting their votes for the Clinton/Gore ticket.

In 1996, James's chief of staff, Jackie Mattison, was charged in federal court with receiving over $17,000 in bribes from an insurance broker from Millburn. He was later sentenced to 41 months in federal prison. He was released in 2000.

In terms of housing, James' policy in the 1990s was to demolish Newark's massive, but mostly abandoned, housing projects, and replace them with small-scale public housing or market rate middle class residences. Following the September 11 terrorist attacks, James offered to assist nearby Jersey City in providing aid for New York City where the attacks occurred.

In 2006, James championed the relocation of the New Jersey Devils to the City of Newark. The Prudential Center is the newest arena in the Newark metropolitan area. On March 16, James filed for reelection as mayor, but announced eleven days later he would not seek a sixth term.

State senate
In June 1999, while serving as Mayor, James was appointed to the New Jersey Senate to fill out the unexpired term of the late Senator Wynona Lipman, and won election to that seat the following November. He was re-elected for a full term in November 2001 and continued to hold both offices. His Senate district encompassed part of Newark in Essex County and all of the Township of Hillside in Union County.

From 2002 to 2003, James served as Assistant Democratic leader of the senate, and from 2004 to 2005 he served as Assistant Senate Majority leader under Bernard Kenny. He became vice chairman of the Senate budget committee in 2004, serving in that position under Senator Wayne R. Bryant, who was indicted in March 2007 for corruption charges. On April 9, 2007, James announced he would not seek re-election to his State Senate seat.

Investigations and federal charges
In 2005, a New Jersey Open Public Records Act (OPRA) request was submitted asking that James hand over a City Hall-issued debit card he had received in 2002. The OPRA request showed that James had spent over $70,000 with the card for personal expenses over a two-year period. In August 2006, an OPRA request further revealed that James had spent over $80,000 with a credit card provided by the Newark Police Department for several vacations, including a $6,500 vacation to Rio de Janeiro in June of that year. On August 21, the U.S. Attorney's Office, led by U.S. Attorney Chris Christie, issued subpoenas for debit and credit card records for further information. In a response, James claimed no wrongdoing, and explained that, "as the last of the civil rights mayors in America, I had to travel and sell this city and the world about the Newark success story". In September, federal authorities began their own investigation into potential wrongdoing committed by James.

In March 2007, federal investigators subpoenaed documents between James and Tamika Riley, his mistress and a former store operator, under accusations that James rigged the sale of city lots to Riley, who quickly resold them for hundreds of thousands of dollars in profit. The U.S. Attorney's office launched a separate investigation into these allegations later in June.

On July 12, James was indicted by a federal grand jury on 33 federal charges, namely mail fraud and conspiracy. In a press conference regarding the indictment, Christie alleged that James rigged the sale of nine city lots to Riley in a "cut-rate scheme" between 2001 and 2005. Later, he further alleged that James had also misused city-issued credit cards for himself and eight women during out-of-state vacations between 2001 and 2006. At his arraignment, James pleaded not guilty.

Trial and conviction
On February 26, 2008, James went to trial for five counts of mail fraud and conspiracy. His lawyers maintained that James had not violated federal law. In the first week, prosecutors presented a video tape of James testifying about Senate Bill 967, which was legislation he sponsored in 2004 to amend the Faulkner Act, with them alleging that James urged the passage of the bill so he could increase his power and illegally benefit himself. The defense counter-argued that James was acting properly in his capacity as a senator and should have enjoyed immunity.

On March 5, prosecutors presented more than a dozen memos from James regarding the land deals, which revealed that he had been monitoring whether city developers he was acquainted with were getting a chance to buy the lots. To prove this, prosecutors called up James' longtime secretary Rose Marie Posella, who testified that James met routinely with developers in his Newark City Hall office. She also testified that Tamika Riley had privileged access to James and that City Hall officials were aware they were having an affair. On April 1, the defense called up former councilwoman Gayle Chaneyfield Jenkins, who testified that the city council set a uniform price for city-owned land for redevelopers and that James had not been involved in the process.

The jury began deliberations on April 8 and on April 16 they found James guilty on all counts. On May 12, the U.S. Attorney's office announced that the remaining charges against James for his misuse of city-issued credits cards had been dropped, thus sparing him of a second trial. On July 23, Judge Bill Martini upheld the convictions, and on July 29, James was sentenced to 27 months in prison and was ordered to pay a $100,000 fine. Tamika Riley was also found guilty on those five counts and eight others, including tax evasion. In September 2008, the Federal Bureau of Prisons denied James' request to serve his sentence at a federal prison in Fort Dix and instead reported him to FCI Petersburg in Virginia.

Release from prison and lawsuits
In June 2009, James' attorney Alan Bowman attempted to convince an appellate court to expunge the convictions, although his efforts failed. On April 6, 2010, James was granted early release after 18 months served. As per a court order, he was banned from running for elected office for the remainder of his career. Seven days after his release, James filed an appeal to reverse his convictions. In September 2010, one of his convictions was overturned, but the four remaining convictions were left unchanged. He further appealed seeking to overturn the convictions due to a juror being dishonest; this appeal was dismissed in February 2013.

In 2011, the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission filed a lawsuit against James alleging that he and his campaign treasurer, Cheryl Johnson, improperly used about $94,000 in campaign funds to pay for legal fees. On August 17, 2012, the New Jersey Superior Court ruled in favor of the commission and ordered that both James and Johnson had to pay the money back. In January 2015, a state appeals court struck down an appeal by James and upheld the higher court's ruling.

Post-conviction career
In 2013, James published a 17-chapter book titled Political Prisoner, which he had written in prison. That same year, he advised the election campaign of his son John Sharpe James, who won a seat on the Municipal Council of Newark. That same year James endorsed Cory Booker, a former foe he had defeated in the 2002 Newark mayoral race, in the special election for U.S. Senator to replace the late Frank Lautenberg.

In 2022, James was attempting to run for office as an at-large candidate for Newark City Council despite a court order banning him from running a public elected office. His certification was denied by Newark City Clerk Kenneth Louis on March 3, 2022. James threatened a lawsuit if the city denies his candidacy.

title: Sharpe James


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Talk:Psychiana

Untitled
I note that the only page that links here is Moscow, Idaho, which seems appropriate enough. Wetman 09:49, 10 Oct 2004 (UTC)

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title: Talk:Psychiana


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Finncon

Finncon is the largest science fiction convention in Finland and, with up to 15,000 participants, one of the largest SF conventions in Europe. Finncon is unique among SF conventions because it has no participation/membership fee, and is funded primarily on various cultural grants as well as income from traders. The event is organised annually in different cities in Finland.

From 2003 to 2009 and in 2011 the convention included the anime convention Animecon, which boosted the convention's attendance and public visibility significantly. Since then the conventions have separated, and the future of the Finnish Animecon is currently uncertain beyond the 2011 combined Finncon-Animecon.

Finncon alternates between different cities in Finland without a formal rota. Recently the event has been held almost every year, but occasionally a year is skipped if no city is found to host the event that year.

title: Finncon


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William Hayley

William Hayley (9 November 1745 – 12 November 1820) was an English writer, best known as the biographer of his friend William Cowper.

Biography
Born at Chichester, he was sent to Eton in 1757, and to Trinity Hall, Cambridge, in 1762; his connection with the Middle Temple, London, where he was admitted in 1766, was merely nominal. In 1767 he left Cambridge and went to live in London. His private means enabled Hayley to live on his patrimonial estate at Eartham, Sussex, and he retired there in 1774. The location of this house in Eartham is now occupied by the Great Ballard School.

So great was Hayley's fame that on Thomas Warton's death in 1790 he was offered the laureateship, which he refused. In 1792, while writing the Life of Milton, Hayley made Cowper's acquaintance. A warm friendship sprang up between the two which lasted till Cowper's death in 1800. Hayley indeed was mainly instrumental in getting Cowper his pension. In 1800 Hayley also lost his natural son, Thomas Alphonso Hayley, to whom he was devotedly attached. He had been a pupil of John Flaxman's, to whom Hayley's Essay on Sculpture (1800) is addressed. Flaxman introduced William Blake to Hayley, and after the latter had moved in 1800 to his marine hermitage at Felpham, Sussex. Blake settled near him for three years to engrave the illustrations for the Life of Cowper. This, Hayley's best known work, was published in 1803–1804 (Chichester) in 5 vols.

Hayley died at Felpham on 12 November 1820. His library was sold at auction by Evans, in London, on 13 February (and twelve following days), in 2649 lots. A copy of the catalogue is at Cambridge University Library (Munby.c.123(4)).

Works
Hayley had already written occasional poems, when in 1771 his tragedy, The Afflicted Father, was rejected by David Garrick. In the same year his translation of Pierre Corneille's Rodogune as The Syrian Queen was also declined by George Colman. Hayley won the fame he enjoyed amongst his contemporaries by his poetical Essays and Epistles; a Poetical Epistle to an Eminent Painter (1778), addressed to his friend George Romney, an Essay on History (1780), in three epistles, addressed to Edward Gibbon; Essay on Epic Poetry (1782) addressed to William Mason; A Philosophical Essay on Old Maids (1785); and the Triumphs of Temper (1781). The last-mentioned work was so popular as to run to twelve or fourteen editions; together with the Triumphs of Music (Chichester, 1804) it was ridiculed by Byron in English Bards and Scotch Reviewers. His 1789 tragedy Marcella was performed at Drury Lane.

In 1805 he published Ballads founded on Anecdotes of Animals (Chichester), with illustrations by Blake, and in 1809 The Life of Romney. For the last twelve years of his life Hayley received an allowance for writing his Memoirs.

Legacy
In 2007, the exhibition "Poets in the Landscape: the Romantic Spirit in British Art" curated by Simon Martin and held at Pallant House Gallery in Chichester explored Hayley's role as patron and friend of artists including William Blake, George Romney, John Flaxman and Joseph Wright of Derby. It was appropriate that the gallery's new wing is situated on 8 North Pallant, which formed part of the house in which Hayley was born. A portrait of Hayley by George Romney is currently on long-term display in the gallery.

Family
In 1769 Hayley married Eliza Ball (1750-1797), daughter of Thomas Ball, dean of Chichester. Eliza Ball Hayley was a translator and an essayist. She translated into English two essays by the French essayist Anna Thèrese de Lambert (1647 – 1733), Traité de l’Amitié (1732) and Traité de la Vieillesse (1732), published in 1780 as Essays on Friendship and Old Age by the Marchioness de Lambert. Sixteen years later she published an original essay, The Triumph of Acquaintance over Friendship: an Essay for the Times (1796). She died in 1797; after being separated from William since 1789. He attributed the mental illness she suffered as reasoning for the separation. He married in 1809 Mary Welford, but they also separated after three years. He left no child.

title: William Hayley


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Colac

Colac can refer to:

 * Colac, Victoria, a town in Australia
 * City of Colac, a former local-government area in Victoria, Australia
 * Shire of Colac, a former local-government area in Victoria, Australia
 * Shire of Colac Otway, a current local-government area in Victoria, Australia
 * Colac Botanic Gardens, in Colac, Australia
 * Colac railway station, in Colac, Australia
 * Lake Colac in Victoria, Australia
 * Colac (mountain), in the Italian Dolomites
 * Colac Bay, New Zealand
 * HMAS Colac, a ship of the Royal Australian Navy
 * Kalach (food), spelled colac in Romania, traditional East Slavic bread, also common in Hungary, Romania, and Serbia

title: Colac


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Castlemaine

Castlemaine may mean:
 * Castlemaine, Victoria, a town in Victoria, Australia
 * Castlemaine Football Club, an Australian rules football club
 * Castlemaine railway station
 * Castlemaine, County Kerry, a town in Ireland
 * Castlemaine Brewery, Western Australia - ceased trading in 1927
 * Castlemaine Perkins, a Queensland-based brewery, known for the XXXX range of beers
 * Baron Castlemaine, in the peerage of Ireland
 * Roger Palmer, 1st Earl of Castlemaine
 * Barbara Palmer, 1st Duchess of Cleveland, wife of Roger Palmer
 * HMAS Castlemaine, a ship in the Royal Australian Navy

title: Castlemaine


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Card deck

Card deck may refer to:
 * Card deck (gaming), a set of playing cards
 * Card deck (computing), a set of punched cards

title: Card deck


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Fort Perch Rock

Fort Perch Rock is a former defence installation situated at the mouth of Liverpool Bay in New Brighton. Built in the 1820s to defend the Port of Liverpool, it is now a tourist attraction and museum. It has been used as a venue for musical concerts and has been listed as a Grade II* Listed Building. The Fort's cafe "The Mess" is open daily from 9am. A World War 2 escape room concept "Escape The Fort" runs within the fort.

History
Fort Perch Rock is a coastal defence battery built between 1825 and 1829, with the foundation stone being laid in 1826. It was built to protect the Port of Liverpool and proposed as a fortified lighthouse to replace the old Perch Rock Light; however, a separate lighthouse was built. The fort was built on an area known as Black Rock, and was cut off at high tide. However, coastal reclamation has made it fully accessible.

The Fort covers an area of about 4000 sqyd, with enough space for 100 men. It was built with red sandstone from the Runcorn quarries. The height of the walls ranges from 24 ft to 32 ft, and the towers are 40 ft high. The Fort originally had a drawbridge, and a Tuscan portal which bore the coat of arms and the words 'Fort Perch Rock'. At one point it was armed with 18 guns, of which 16 were 32-pounders, mounted on platforms. It was nicknamed the 'Little Gibraltar of the Mersey'.

The foundation stone reads: ''This foundation stone of the Rock Perch Battery, projected by and under the direction of John Sikes Kitson, Esquire, Captain in the Royal Engineers, for the defence of the port was laid on 31st March 1826 by Peter Bourne, Esquire, Mayor of Liverpool in the 7th year of the reign of His Majesty George IV. His Grace, the Duke of Wellington, Master General of the Ordnance.''

The projected cost of building was £27,065.0s.8d. Kitson ensured that this budget was not exceeded, finishing the fort for a total cost of £26,965.0s.8d.

Modern use
In the late 1970s, the fort could be hired as a party venue. During this time Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark founder members Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys played there as members of the short lived Wirral group The Id. Since the 1990s, the fort has played host to various musical events including, in the summer of 2006, a number of rock concerts which were organised by a group of young Wallaseyans. The nights were called "Nautical" and were featured in The Guardian newspaper and named The NME club of the week for the 1 September 2006 show, which featured British Sea Power and the Tiny Dancers.

The fort features a museum with displays including military aviation, maritime history, and the Fort Perch Rock Marine Radio Museum used to exhibit marine wireless communications devices. The museum is currently being refurbished and will reopen in Spring 2023.

A new permanent escape room concept "Escape The Fort" opened in 2022 and is available for bookings daily.

In spring 2022, The Mess cafe opened within the Fort and is open daily from 9am.

In Literature and the Arts
In the poetical illustration 'The Black-Rock Fort and Lighthouse', by Letitia Elizabeth Landon to an engraving of a painting by Samuel Austin, she imagines the beacon light as a welcoming sight to voyagers returning home to England.

title: Fort Perch Rock


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Topic Records

Topic Records is a British folk music label, which played a major role in the second British folk revival. It began as an offshoot of the Workers' Music Association in 1939, making it the oldest independent record label in the world.

History
The label began as an offshoot of the communist led Workers' Music Association in 1939, selling Soviet and left-wing political music by mail order. After a period of relative inactivity in the Second World War, production resumed in the later 1940s, moving towards traditional music for the emerging revival market. Up to 1949 the composer Alan Bush was involved with choral and orchestral music released on the label. Topic also produced some of the first American blues records to be commercially available in Britain. From about 1950 the two key figures of the second revival, Ewan MacColl and A. L. Lloyd, became heavily involved, producing several records of traditional music. One of the earliest albums of UK traditional music was Street Songs and Fiddle Tunes of Ireland by Margaret Barry and Michael Gorman, issued in 1958.

With the decline of British Communist Party membership in the late 1950s, financial aid to the label began to dry up and, under director Gerry Sharp, they were forced to pursue an entrepreneurial strategy to survive. In the early 1960s, Topic Records separated from the Workers' Music Association, but those involved still had socialist credentials. A new company was registered in 1963. Financially, the company was in a precarious state until that year, when they had substantial sales from the album The Iron Muse, a ground-breaking thematic programme of industrial folk songs. This success allowed them to produce a greater and wider range of records until tastes began to radically change again in the 1970s.

After the arrival of managing director Tony Engle, Topic released a series of albums by ground breaking artists including Nic Jones, Dick Gaughan, The Battlefield Band, as well as major figures on the folk scene including Martin Carthy and Roy Harris. They also began to reissue their back catalogue on cd. In the late 1990s, with the resurgence of traditional folk, spearheaded by children of the revival like Eliza Carthy, Topic managed to gain both commercial and critical success. In the inaugural BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards in 2000 the label received the Good Tradition Award in recognition of their role in the folk music movement.

Other major figures who recorded for Topic included Peggy Seeger, The Watersons, Shirley Collins, June Tabor and John Tams. The breadth of the Topic catalogue was evident in the release of The Voice of the People (1998), a twenty-part series sampling the earliest and greatest of folk singers of the British Isles.

In 2009, the label celebrated 70 years of activity with the release of a seven-CD hardback book set entitled Three Score & Ten - A Voice To The People.

In 2012, this venerable old label began to re-release many of the LPs from its early catalogue in digital form. However, in a departure from the norm, it accompanied the music with a digital booklet containing all the original artwork and sleeve notes from the original album. These are downloadable free from their website.

Tony Engle went into semi-retirement in 2012, and the day-to-day running of the label was taken over by David Suff. In an interview in early 2017, Suff explained that he would also be entering semi-retirement in February 2017, and that the everyday management of the label would be handed over to Proper Records.

Anniversaries
The label's 70th anniversary was marked by the issue of a boxed set Three Score and Ten, A Voice to the People consisting of a 108-page book and 7 CDs from their back catalogue. Alexis Petridis said in The Guardian, "not bad for a Marxist party offshoot that started in a basement".

The label's 75th anniversary was marked on 23 August 2014 with a special concert at the 50th Towersey Village Festival, near Thame in Oxfordshire. Artists performed songs from the Topic catalogue, and included Norma Waterson, Eliza Carthy & the Gift Band, Lau, Fay Hield, Martin Carthy, Saul Rose, Blair Dunlop, Josienne Clarke and Ben Walker.

title: Topic Records


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INV

INV may refer to:

 * Inverter (logic gate)
 * Inverness Airport, IATA airport code
 * Inverness railway station, Scotland; National Rail station code INV
 * Inverness-shire, county in Scotland, Chapman code
 * Irish National Volunteers
 * Inverse (mathematics)
 * Invected (Drosophila melanogaster gene)

title: INV


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User talk:Alianareen

ohh my god! that's what you can hear if a picture af harry the prince of wales will apear in the wide screen! thats how they love the son of the unforgetable princes of wales! ohh! who will forget the said nice, charming, and kind hearted princes who thought in our lady of grace accademy in caloocan city before! it is well knowned as the luckiest accademy in the whole country! we will never forget this mom who cared for most of the less fortunate children running around the streets whom she cared about when she visited manila! we will never forget this heart touching moment of her undying care and love for others especialy to those people in need!

title: User talk:Alianareen


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Franklin Raines

Franklin Delano Raines (born January 14, 1949), also known as Frank Raines, is an American business executive. He is the former chairman and chief executive officer of the Federal National Mortgage Association, commonly known as Fannie Mae, who served as White House budget director under President Bill Clinton. His role leading Fannie Mae has come under scrutiny. He has been called one of the "25 People to Blame for the Financial Crisis" according to Time magazine.

Early life
Raines was born in Seattle, Washington, the son of a janitor. Raines graduated from Harvard College, Harvard Law School; and Magdalen College, Oxford University, as a Rhodes Scholar.

Career
In 1969, Raines first worked in national politics, preparing a report for the Nixon administration on the causes and patterns of youth unrest around the country related to the Vietnam War. He served in the Carter Administration as associate director for economics and government in the Office of Management and Budget and assistant director of the White House Domestic Policy Staff from 1977 to 1979. Then he joined Lazard Freres and Co., where he worked for 11 years and became a general partner. In 1991 he became Fannie's Mae's vice chairman, a post he left in 1996 in order to join the Clinton Administration as the director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, where he served until 1998. In 1999, he returned to Fannie Mae as CEO.

On December 21, 2004, Raines accepted what he called "early retirement" from his position as CEO while U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigators continued to investigate alleged accounting irregularities. He was accused by The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO), the regulating body of Fannie Mae, of abetting widespread accounting errors, which included the shifting of losses so senior executives, such as himself, could earn large bonuses.

In 2006, the OFHEO announced a suit against Raines in order to recover some or all of the $90 million in payments made to Raines based on the overstated earnings, initially estimated to be $9 billion but have been announced as $6.3 billion.

Civil charges were filed against Raines and two other former executives by the OFHEO in which the OFHEO sought $110 million in penalties and $115 million in returned bonuses from the three accused. On April 18, 2008, the government announced a settlement with Raines together with J. Timothy Howard, Fannie's former chief financial officer, and Leanne G. Spencer, Fannie's former controller dismissing its charges. The three executives maintained their denial of the charges but agreed to the payment of fines totaling about $3 million, which were paid by Fannie's insurance policies. Raines also agreed to donate to charity the proceeds from the sale of $1.8 million of his Fannie stock newly issued to him by the company and to give up stock options, which were valued at $15.6 million when issued. The stock options however had no value. The OFHEO press release said Raines also gave up an estimated $5.3 million of "other benefits" said to be related to his pension and forgone bonuses. Raines denied that he gave up any such benefits or paid any money out of pocket for the settlement.

A 2008 editorial in The Wall Street Journal called it a "paltry settlement" which allowed Raines and the other two executives to "keep the bulk of their riches". In 2003 alone, Raines's compensation was over $20 million.

A statement issued by Raines said of the consent order, it "is consistent with my acceptance of accountability as the leader of Fannie Mae and with my strong denial of the allegations made against me by OFHEO".

The OFHEO charges were repeated in a class action securities fraud lawsuit filed on September 23, 2004, by the Ohio Attorney General on behalf of Ohio state pension funds and other investors. On September 20, 2012, Federal District Court Judge Richard Leon granted summary judgment to Raines and dismissed him from the suit. The judge noted that over its eight-year history "the parties produced nearly 67 million pages of documents, deposed 123 fact witnesses, and engaged 35 expert witnesses". Despite all of that discovery, Judge Leon found, "plaintiffs have not identified any evidence that Raines knew or, indeed had any reason to know, that Fannie Mae's accounting violated GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles). Further, plaintiffs have not identified any evidence that Raines intentionally misled investors through his statements concerning the implementation and operation of these accounting policies." The judge also refused to give any credence to the original OFHEO reports. He wrote, "the OFHEO reports were part of an effort to prepare administrative charges against the individual defendants and raise substantial questions of trustworthiness." (Memorandum Opinion September 20, 2012, Judge Richard Leon, United States District Court for the District of Columbia, In re Fannie Mae Securities Litigation MDL No. 1668, Consolidated Civil Action No. 04-1639)

In a settlement with OFHEO and the Securities and Exchange Commission, Fannie paid a record $400 million civil fine. Fannie, which is the largest American financier and guarantor of home mortgages, also agreed to make changes in its corporate culture and accounting procedures and ways of managing risk. The SEC and the Justice Department never brought any charges against Raines.

In June 2008, The Wall Street Journal reported that Franklin Raines was one of several people who may have received below market rates loans at Countrywide Financial because the corporation considered the officeholders "FOA's"--"Friends of Angelo" (Countrywide Chief Executive Angelo Mozilo). But the article acknowledged that it had insufficient data to confirm whether the rates were below market. He received loans for over $3 million while CEO of Fannie Mae. Raines has denied that he received any loan terms from Countrywide other than those for which he qualified based on his credit standing.

Role in the subprime mortgage crisis
Whether the GSEs (Government-Sponsored Enterprises) caused or greatly contributed to the financial crisis of 2008 is controversial. The overwhelming consensus of those who have examined the issue find that their connection in to the crisis was minor at best. The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC) completed its analysis of the financial crisis and found that the GSE's "contributed to the crisis, but were not a primary cause". There was a strong dissent by one member of the commission. The FCIC found that the GSE's were late to the subprime lending game, entering the market in a substantial way in 2005. The GSE's followed rather than led the race to purchase subprime loan securities. The GSE's increased their involvement in the subprime securitization market because they were significantly losing market share and were feeling less relevant in the mortgage lending marketplace. In accordance with the mission of Fannie Mae to enable home ownership by a greater proportion of the population, Franklin Raines, while chairman and CEO, began a pilot program in 1999 to ease credit requirements on loans that Fannie Mae purchased from banks. Raines promoted the program saying that it would allow consumers who were "a notch below what our current underwriting has required" to get home loans. The move was intended in part to increase the number of minority and low income home owners.

The Investor's Business Daily editorial staff has noted that the expansion of easy credit to home buyers with a lesser ability to pay them back was one of the major contributing factors to the subprime mortgage crisis. Raines himself stated before Congress, "In 1994, we launched our trillion-dollar commitment, a pledge to provide $1 trillion in financing for 10 million underserved families before the decade was over ... In 2000 ... we launched a redoubled new pledge ... to provide $2 trillion for 18 million underserved families before this decade is over. ... we are one of the best capitalized financial institutions in the world, when compared to the risk of our business ... these assets are so riskless that their capital for holding them should be under 2 percent."

While the Fannie Mae pilot program described above sought to expand housing opportunities for under-served consumers, these loans did not result in major losses and performed significantly better than private label subprime loans. Phil Angelides, the chair of the FCIC commented that "the FCIC analyzed the performance of roughly 25 million mortgages outstanding at the end of each year from 2006 to 2009, and found that delinquency rates for the loans that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac purchased or guaranteed were substantially lower than for mortgages securitized by other financial firms. This holds true even for loans to borrowers with similar credit scores or down payments. For example, data compiled by the FCIC for a subset of borrowers with scores below 660 shows that by the end of 2008, far fewer GSE mortgages were seriously delinquent than non-GSE securitized mortgages: 6.2 percent versus 28.3 percent." Although under Raines, Fannie Mae invested in some securities backed by subprime loans, it didn't start buying subprime and Alt-A loans directly (and bundling them into securities) until 2006 after Raines had left Fannie Mae. Purchasing of subprime and alt-A mortgages expanded under the guidance of Raines's successor Daniel H. Mudd. (See also Subprime lending.)

On December 9, 2008, Raines testified before the United States House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on Capitol Hill regarding Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and financial market instability.

Alleged connection to Obama
On July 16, 2008 The Washington Post reported that Franklin Raines had "taken calls from Barack Obama's presidential campaign seeking his advice on mortgage and housing policy matters". Also, in an editorial on August 27, 2008, titled "Tough Decision Coming", The Washington Post editorial staff wrote that "Two members of Mr. Obama's political circle, James A. Johnson and Franklin D. Raines, are former chief executives of Fannie Mae." On September 18, 2008, John McCain's campaign published a campaign ad that quoted The Washington Post reporting regarding Raines and Obama. The ad also notes that "Raines made millions and then left Fannie Mae while it was under investigation for accounting irregularities".

Neither Raines nor the Obama campaign had disputed the Post reporting before the ad. The text in question consisted of one sentence in each article. After McCain's ad however, both denied that Raines was or had been a provider of advice to Obama or the Obama campaign.

In later commentary The Washington Post (the original source) described McCain's attempts to connect Obama with Raines based on their reporting as "a stretch" and said all reporting they did about the matter actually stems from a single conversation a reporter had with Raines in which she recalls Raines said he "had gotten a couple of calls from the Obama campaign". When the reporter queried Raines to the nature of the calls he said "oh, general housing, economy issues".

Additionally, an email hoax falsely claimed that Raines was made "chief economic advisor" for the Obama presidential campaign.

title: Franklin Raines


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Country Life (Roxy Music album)

Country Life is the fourth studio album by English art rock band Roxy Music, released on 15 November 1974 by Island Records. It was released by Atco Records in the United States. The album is considered by many critics to be among the band's most sophisticated and consistent.

Country Life peaked at number three on the UK albums chart. It also charted at number 37 in the US, becoming their first record to crack the top 40 in the country. The album includes Roxy Music's fourth hit single, "All I Want Is You", which, backed with the B-side "Your Application's Failed", reached number 12 on the UK singles chart. An edited version of "The Thrill of It All", with the same B-side, was released in the US.

Style and themes
Band leader Bryan Ferry took the album's title from the British rural lifestyle magazine Country Life.

The opening track, "The Thrill of It All", is an uptempo rocker that builds on the style of previous Roxy Music songs such as "Virginia Plain" (1972) and "Do the Strand" (1973); it includes a quote from Dorothy Parker's poem "Resume": "You might as well live". Eddie Jobson's violin dominates the heavily-flanged production of "Out of the Blue", which became a live favourite. Esoteric musical influences are betrayed by the German oom-pah band passages in "Bitter-Sweet", the Elizabethan flavour of "Triptych" and the lighthearted, boogie-blues, Southern rock edge to "If It Takes All Night".

"Three and Nine" has been likened to the whimsical songs of the Kinks' Ray Davies, with Ferry looking back nostalgically to a time of watching the moving pictures in cinemas in his youth, for the pre-decimalization price of 3 shillings and ninepence.

"Casanova" was singled out for praise by a number of critics as a more cynical and hard-rocking number than the usual Roxy Music fare. Like the earlier "In Every Dream Home a Heartache" (1973), it was seen as a critique of the hollowness of the contemporary jet set, and contained further instances of Ferry's idiosyncratic word association ("Now you're nothing but / Second hand in glove / With second rate"). A re-recorded version, more mellow than the original, appeared on Ferry's 1976 solo studio album Let's Stick Together.

The final track, "Prairie Rose", is an ode to Texas and sometimes mistakenly thought as a reference to Jerry Hall. However, Ferry would not meet Hall until 1975.

Cover art
Shot by Eric Boman, the Country Life cover features two scantily-clad models, Constanze Karoli (sister of Can's Michael Karoli ) and Eveline Grunwald (who was also Michael Karoli's girlfriend). Bryan Ferry met them in Portugal and persuaded them to do the photo shoot as well as to help him with the words to the song "Bitter-Sweet". Although not credited for appearing on the cover, they are credited on the lyric sheet for their German translation work.

The cover image was controversial in some countries, including the United States and Spain, where it was censored for release. As a result, early releases in the US were packaged in opaque shrink wrap; a later American LP release of Country Life (available during the years 1975–80) featured a different cover shot. Instead of Karoli and Grunwald posed in front of some trees, the reissue used a photo from the album's back cover that featured only the trees. In Australia, the album was banned in some record stores, while others sold each copy inside a black plastic sleeve. Author Michael Ochs has described the result as the "most complete cover-up in rock history".

Critical reception
Jim Miller, in a 1975 review for Rolling Stone, wrote that "Stranded and Country Life together mark the zenith of contemporary British art rock."

In 2003, Country Life was ranked number 387 on Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. It was one of four Roxy Music studio albums that made the list (For Your Pleasure, Siren and Avalon being the others).

Track listing
Note: "Out of the Blue" was listed incorrectly as being 4:26 on original pressings.

Personnel
Roxy Music
 * Bryan Ferry – vocals, keyboards, harmonica
 * Andy Mackay (credited as 'Andrew Mackay') – oboe, saxophone
 * Phil Manzanera – guitar
 * Paul Thompson – drums
 * Eddie Jobson (credited as 'Edwin Jobson') – strings, synthesizer, keyboards
 * John Gustafson – bass guitar

Note: On the 1999 CD reissue of Country Life, Manzanera and Thompson's respective credits are erroneously reversed.

title: Country Life (Roxy Music album)


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William Martin Leake

William Martin Leake FRS  (14 January 1777 – 6 January 1860) was an English soldier, spy, topographer, diplomat, antiquarian, writer, and Fellow of the Royal Society. He served in the British Army, spending much of his career in the Mediterranean seaports. He developed an interest in geography and culture of the regions visited, and authored a number of works, mainly about Greece.

Life
Leake was born in London to John Martin Leake and Mary Calvert Leake. Following a family tradition, he joined the British Royal Regiment of Artillery as an officer; he completed his training at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich in 1794 and was commissioned as a second lieutenant. Having spent four years in the West Indies as lieutenant of marine artillery, he was promoted to captain, and was sent in 1799 by the government to Constantinople to train the forces of the Ottoman Empire in the use of artillery. The British Empire had decided to support the Ottoman in its defence against Napoleonic France. A journey through Asia Minor in 1800 to join the British fleet at Cyprus inspired him with an interest in antiquarian topography. In 1801, after travelling across the desert with the Turkish army to Egypt, he was, on the expulsion of the French, employed in surveying the Nile valley as far as the cataracts; but having sailed with the ship engaged to convey the Elgin marbles from Athens to England, he lost all his maps and observations when the vessel foundered off Cerigo in Greece.

For much of the first decade of the nineteenth century, Leake was employed by the Foreign Office to spy in Greece in the guise of a wandering tourist, with the intent of gathering topographical information which would be useful in the case of a French invasion. Shortly after his arrival in England, he was sent out to survey the coast of Albania and the Morea, with the view of assisting the Turks against attacks of the French from Italy, and of this he took advantage to form a valuable collection of coins and inscriptions and to explore ancient sites. In 1807, war having broken out between Turkey and England, he was made prisoner at Salonica; but, obtaining his release the same year, he was sent on a diplomatic mission to Ali Pasha of Ioannina, whose confidence he completely won, and with whom he remained for more than a year as British representative. He was there in 1809 when Lord Byron visited Ali's court.

In 1810 he was granted a yearly sum of £600 for his services in Turkey. In 1815 he retired from the army, in which he held the rank of colonel, devoting the remainder of his life to topographical and antiquarian studies. He joined the learned Society of Dilettanti and became vice-president of the Royal Society of Literature. He was admitted a Fellow of the Royal Society on 13 April 1815.

He died in Steyning, Sussex on 6 January 1860. The marbles collected by him in Greece were presented to the British Museum; his bronzes, vases, gems and coins were purchased by the University of Cambridge after his death, and are now in the Fitzwilliam Museum. He was also elected as a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, received the honorary DCL at Oxford in 1816, and was a member of the Berlin Academy of Sciences and correspondent of the Institute of France.

Works
He authored:
 * Researches in Greece (1814)
 * The topography of Athens: With some remarks on its antiquities (1821)
 * Journal of a tour in Asia Minor,: with comparative remarks on the ancient and modern geography of that country (1824)
 * Travels in the Morea: With a map and plans (1830), and a supplement, Peloponnesiaca (1846)
 * Travels in Northern Greece (1835)
 * Numismata Hellenica (1854), followed by a supplement in 1859.

His Topography of Athens, the first attempt at a systematic treatment, long remained an authority.

title: William Martin Leake


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Gary Megson

Gary John Megson (born 2 May 1959) is an English former football player and manager.

He has previously managed Norwich City, Blackpool, Stockport County, Stoke City, West Bromwich Albion, Nottingham Forest, Leicester City, Bolton Wanderers and Sheffield Wednesday. He guided West Brom to promotion in 2001–02 and 2003–04, both times from the First Division to the Premier League.

He is the son of Don Megson and the brother of Neil Megson, both former players.

Playing career
As a player, Megson was a tough-tackling defensive midfielder who played for nine different clubs. He began his career at Plymouth Argyle, where he impressed enough for Everton to sign him for a £250,000 transfer fee. Megson struggled to establish himself in the Everton line-up, and after two years at Goodison, he moved to Sheffield Wednesday, where his father had once played, for a fee of £130,000.

Megson immediately gained a place in Wednesday's starting lineup, and was a member of the team that gained promotion to the top flight in 1983–84, ending a 14-year exile from the elite. In his three years at Hillsborough, he missed only three league games. In the summer of 1984, he was signed by Nottingham Forest, only for Brian Clough to decide "he couldn't trap a bag of cement". Megson spent five months at the City Ground, without making a single first-team appearance before being sold to Newcastle United.

Megson played regularly for the Magpies for the remainder of the 1984–85 season, but lost his place in the line-up the following season, and moved back to Sheffield Wednesday. In his second spell with the Owls, Megson again established himself as an important member of the squad, and was rarely out of the starting eleven. In January 1989, he moved to Manchester City, where he spent three and a half seasons, and helped City finish fifth in his final two seasons there, having helped them win promotion in his first season.

He then moved to Norwich City on a free transfer in the summer of 1992, and spent three seasons at Carrow Road. He was an important member of the Norwich side that finished third in the inaugural season of the Premier League and played in the UEFA Cup for the first time as a result. When manager Mike Walker moved to Everton in January 1994, he was also assistant to the new Norwich manager John Deehan.

When Deehan resigned in April 1995, Megson briefly took charge as caretaker manager, but failed to save City from the drop, losing four and drawing one of his five games in charge. In the summer, he also left Norwich and finished his playing career with short spells at lower division sides Lincoln City and Shrewsbury Town. In December 1995, he returned to Norwich when he was re-appointed manager following Martin O'Neill's sudden departure to Leicester City. He remained as manager at Carrow Road until the end of the season, when Mike Walker was appointed for the second time.

Norwich City
While still playing at Norwich City, Megson became assistant to manager John Deehan. When Deehan resigned as manager of Norwich on 9 April 1995, with Norwich heading for relegation after a terrible loss of form since Christmas, Megson stepped up to the manager's seat for the remainder of the season, and had five games remaining to secure survival. However, Norwich collected just one point from their remaining games and were relegated. Martin O'Neill was appointed manager that summer, with Megson leaving the club to play for Lincoln City and then Shrewsbury, before joining Bradford City late in 1995 as assistant manager to Chris Kamara. However, by Christmas that year, he was back at Norwich as manager following the departure of Martin O'Neill to Leicester City. Norwich finished 15th in Division One that season and Megson then left the club as Mike Walker returned as manager.

Blackpool
In 1996, Megson became manager at Blackpool, where he recorded 21 wins in 52 matches – enough to stay clear of relegation to Division Three, but not quite enough for a playoff place and the chance of promotion to the Division One. At Bloomfield Road, he was assisted by the former Manchester United midfielder Mike Phelan, but the partnership failed to bring a Division Two playoff place to the Seasiders, and Megson left at the end of the season.

Stockport County
Megson moved to Stockport County in July 1997, shortly after Dave Jones' departure for Premier League Southampton. County had been runners-up in Division Two the season before, therefore started the new season in Division One. In Megson's first season they performed admirably and they came just two places short of the Division One playoffs, with some excellent performances, including a 3–1 home win versus Manchester City. The following season was more disappointing and County finished in 16th place. Soon after he left Stockport by mutual consent.

Stoke City
Megson was not unemployed for long, taking the manager's job at Stoke City in the summer of 1999 after the club missed out on Tony Pulis who instead joined Bristol City. Megson arrived at the club at a time when there was a great deal of pressure on the current board to sell the club to new owners. After a slow start to the 1999–2000 season results gradually improved and the team went on a ten match unbeaten run to haul them into the play-offs. However unfortunately for Megson by November the long-awaited takeover bid was accepted in the form of a group of Icelandic businessmen headed by Gunnar Gíslason. They appointed their own man, former Iceland national team manager Gudjon Thordarson.

West Bromwich Albion
Megson took over as manager of First Division West Bromwich Albion in March 2000, just days before the transfer deadline at the end of the 1999–2000 season. It was 14 years since Albion had been in the top flight of English football, and in that time they had spent their first ever spell (two seasons) in the third tier. Indeed, when Megson was appointed they were in real danger of a second relegation to that level. But he moved quickly to strengthen the team by bringing in several new players. In his first month in charge, Megson received a 28-day touchline ban following his comments to referee Graham Poll after Albion's 2–0 defeat to Portsmouth. Megson was unhappy about a penalty that Poll had awarded to Portsmouth; some years later, Poll conceded that it was "one of the worst penalties I've ever given". Albion nevertheless ensured their safety by winning their final game of the season.

The following season Megson took the club into the playoffs, winning the Division One Manager of the Month award for November 2000 along the way. Albion lost to Bolton Wanderers at the semi-final stage, but the following year the club won promotion to the Premier League for the first time, overcoming the eleven-point lead of their fierce local rivals Wolverhampton Wanderers in the closing weeks of the campaign. This achievement earned Megson the Nationwide Division One Manager of the Year award, as well as the medieval title Lord of the Manor of West Bromwich. However, the club was barely prepared for the financial challenges of life in the top flight and a bitter quarrel soon developed between Megson and the club's chairman Paul Thompson over what Megson perceived as the latter's interference in footballing matters. An undignified public showdown resulted in Thompson resigning from the board in order to forestall Megson's departure. The board elected Jeremy Peace as Thompson's successor, and in July 2002 Megson signed a new three-year contract with Albion. However, in 2002–03 the club were relegated after just a single season in the Premier League.

Megson mounted a successful promotion campaign the following season, and a return to the Premier League – but by the summer of 2004, the relationship between Megson and Peace had become strained. By September, after a poor start to the season, Megson's job appeared to be under threat. The following month Megson, whose contract was due to end in June 2005, announced that he would not sign a new deal if the club offered one. The board chose to interpret this as a resignation, and on 26 October Megson was dismissed. A settlement for the remainder of his contract was reached in November 2004.

Nottingham Forest
Within a week of being sacked at West Bromwich Albion, Gary Megson was linked with the manager's job at Albion's local rivals Wolverhampton Wanderers, which became vacant after Dave Jones was sacked – but that job went to Glenn Hoddle instead. On 10 January 2005, Megson was appointed to succeed Joe Kinnear as manager of struggling Nottingham Forest, but was unable to save them from slipping into the third tier of English football for the first time in more than half a century. Promotion back to the Championship was to be his priority for 2005–06, but Forest struggled, especially away from home, for most of the season. In terms of points they were nearer to the relegation zone than the playoff zone when he resigned in February 2006 after being put under a lot of pressure by the Forest fans. He claimed that his resignation had cost him £500,000.

In June 2007 Megson was appointed as a coach at Stoke City by manager Tony Pulis. He retained this role until his appointment as manager of Leicester City.

Leicester City
On 13 September 2007, Leicester City chairman Milan Mandarić announced Gary Megson as the new manager of the club, citing Megson's "wealth of experience" as a deciding factor in the appointment. Leicester achieved their first League win under Megson on 6 October 2007 with a 2–0 win over Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough with goals from Gareth McAuley and an own goal by Akpo Sodje.

A month into Megson's tenure at Leicester, Mandarić rejected an approach from Bolton Wanderers for the manager's services. On 23 October however, Bolton announced that Megson was their first choice to become their new manager, and made a second approach for him. The club said they were also willing to compensate Leicester should Megson leave the Walkers Stadium. This second approach was also rejected by Milan Mandarić, but Megson was eventually given permission to speak to Bolton and he left Leicester on 24 October 2007, just 41 days and nine EFL Championship games after his appointment.

Bolton Wanderers
Megson took over as manager of Bolton Wanderers on 25 October 2007 in a two-and-a-half-year deal. He accepted that he was not the number one choice for the job, after Bolton had already had approaches for Steve Bruce and Chris Coleman rejected, and Graeme Souness had also ruled himself out. Bolton had made a poor start to the 2007–08 season under Sammy Lee, and when Megson took over they were bottom of the Premier League table with only 5 points from 10 games. Megson's first game in charge was against Aston Villa on 28 October, and finished 1–1. He recorded his first win on 24 November when Bolton beat Manchester United, the champions and League leaders, 1–0; this was their first home victory over United for 30 years.

By the New Year Bolton were lying 16th in the Premier League table, but only two points ahead of Fulham who were 19th. In January 2008 they sold Nicolas Anelka to Chelsea for £15 million, and brought in no comparable replacement. In February 2008 however they beat Atlético Madrid (who at the time were lying fourth in La Liga) 1–0 on aggregate, winning 1–0 at home and drawing 0–0 away, to reach the last 16 of the UEFA Cup for the first time in the club's history before proceeding to play the reserve team in Lisbon in the Last 16 with the tie tied at 1–1, Bolton lost the away leg 1–0. Megson picked a reserve side so that the first team were rested for Sunday's relegation battle against Wigan Athletic. They proceeded to lose 1–0 to a ten-man Wigan side. Their League form remained poor, and a 4–0 defeat at Aston Villa on 5 April left them in 18th place, two points adrift of safety. But they proceeded to take 11 points from their last five games (including a 1–1 draw at Chelsea on the final day of the season) to secure survival in the Premier League – the first time Megson had achieved this as a manager.

Megson won the Premier League Manager of the Month award for November 2008. Heading into the 2008–09 season, he brought in players such as Johan Elmander for a club record £8.2m, Fabrice Muamba from Birmingham City for £5m, Mustapha Riga from Levante, Danny Shittu for £2m and Ebi Smolarek on a season-long loan from Racing Santander with a view to a permanent deal. Bolton started the season unremarkably and by October Bolton were looking set for another relegation scrap. This caused increasing pressure on Megson but he was given time by Chairman Phil Gartside and managed to improve results, leading Bolton to a high of eighth in the league. On 1 March 2009, it was announced that Megson had agreed a new rolling contract with Bolton. He celebrated his new contract with a 1–0 victory over Newcastle United. Bolton finished 13th in the 2008–09 season.

During the summer of 2009 Megson added to the Trotters' squad with the additions of Portsmouth midfielder Sean Davis on a free transfer, Hull City's Welsh right-back Sam Ricketts, Aston Villa's England international defender Zat Knight for £4m, veteran left-back Paul Robinson on loan from West Brom and the South Korean international Lee Chung-Yong. Just before the transfer window closed he added the Croatian international Ivan Klasnić from FC Nantes on a season long loan. In the 2009 season, under Megson's tenure, he started the season in an inauspicious manner with defeats to Hull City and Sunderland before seeing excellent form in the next seven games. These games saw three wins, two draws and narrow defeats to Manchester United and Liverpool. After 25 October, Bolton lost five out of the next six games. The first three were losses by four goals and these were followed by a home defeat to Blackburn, a draw against Fulham and an away defeat at Wolverhampton Wanderers. In a period which lasted almost fifty days without a win Bolton played Manchester City and were scheduled games against other relegation candidates including West Ham United, Wigan Athletic, Burnley and Hull City. In the four games that were played Bolton were leading them all but ended with only one win and three draws, leaving the club 18th out of 20 and with 18 points from 18 games.

On 30 December 2009, Bolton announced that Megson had been relieved of his duties as manager with immediate effect. Bolton Wanderers official club statement said; "The decision has been taken in the light of the position the club finds itself in the Barclays Premier League at the halfway point of the season." It was later confirmed that as the club and their former manager could not agree a compensation deal Megson would be paid out the remainder of his rolling contract on a weekly basis, effectively putting him on a year's garden leave. Over two years after being dismissed by Bolton, Megson complained that he had never won the fans over and hit out at the club's supporters, claiming that they did not like him and he did not like them.

Sheffield Wednesday
On 4 February 2011, Megson was appointed manager of his former club, Sheffield Wednesday, replacing Alan Irvine who had been relieved of his post the previous day. On 29 February 2012, with the club third in League One, he was sacked. At the time of his sacking he had the third best win percentage of any manager in Sheffield Wednesday's history. His last result before being sacked was a 1–0 victory over Sheffield United in the Steel City derby.

Return to West Bromwich Albion
Megson returned to West Bromwich Albion as an Assistant Head Coach to Tony Pulis in July 2017.

On 20 November 2017, he was named as the caretaker head coach of West Bromwich Albion "until further notice" after Tony Pulis was sacked. When Alan Pardew was appointed manager of the club, Megson departed.

Coaching style
Darren Huckerby criticised Megson's coaching style, when explaining why he chose to sign for Norwich City, instead of Megson's West Bromwich Albion. "I told him I didn't like the way he coached, I didn't like the way he shouted at his players and didn't like the way he treated seasoned professionals like 15-year-olds. I was just being honest with him. I said: 'I've seen you on the sidelines and you look like a crazed animal'". According to Huckerby, Megson's response was that "He told me that was how he had to work with his players".

As a manager
West Bromwich Albion
 * Football League First Division runner-up: 2001–02, 2003–04

Individual
 * Premier League Manager of the Month: November 2008

title: Gary Megson


text:
Talk:Country Life (Roxy Music album)

Actually I remember it more for the quality of the tunes on it. And my cover was uncensored. In fact I didn't even know there had been a controversy. So 'is best remembered for' is probably inaccurate. Sjc 10:21, 10 Oct 2004 (UTC)

cover art homage
not too important but it´s perhaps worth noting, given that there is a section on it that the band ladytron´s album softcore jukebox has a cover that is most likely a homage to the country life cover--Lotsofmagnets (talk) 19:34, 26 October 2012 (UTC)

title: Talk:Country Life (Roxy Music album)