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USS Waters (DD-115)

USS Waters (DD-115) was a Wickes-class destroyer in the United States Navy during World War I and World War II, later re-designated a high speed transport with the hull identification number APD-8. She was named in honor of Daniel Waters.

Construction and commissioning
Waters was laid down on 26 July 1917 at Philadelphia by William Cramp & Sons. The ship was launched on 3 March 1918, sponsored by Miss Mary Borland Thayer. The destroyer was commissioned at the Philadelphia Navy Yard on 8 August 1918.

World War I
Although her active service began late in World War I, Waters still managed to get in two round-trip voyages to the British Isles and one to the Azores before the armistice in November 1918. On 11 August, she joined a convoy at Tompkinsville, New York, and put to sea for England. She escorted her charges safely into Devonport on 23 August and stood out again four days later in the screen for four ships headed home.

The destroyer delivered the small convoy at New York on 6 September and, following a three-day layover, departed once again—this time bound for Ireland. Eleven days later, she entered the port at Buncrana. She remained there for eight days before again putting to sea. On 8 October, Waters arrived in New York and, but for a run to Newport, Rhode Island, on 31 October and 1 November, remained there until she put to sea with a convoy again on 4 November. This one was made up of 11 merchantmen bound for the Azores. Waters and her convoy were still three days steaming time from Ponta Delgada on 11 November 1918, when the armistice brought hostilities in Europe to a close. She entered the Portuguese island port with the convoy on 14 November. Eight days later, Waters headed west again and arrived at New York on 28 November.

Inter-war period
The destroyer remained there under repairs until mid-January 1919. On 15 January, she put to sea for another voyage to the Azores. Waters stayed in Ponta Delgada from her arrival on 21 January until 17 February when she headed back to the United States. She reached Boston on 25 February and moved to Philadelphia early in March for another series of repairs. On 3 April, she got underway for a brief run, via New York, to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The destroyer returned to New York on 14 March and remained there through the end of the month. On 1 May, she stood out of port, in company with USS Craven (DD-70), USS Dent (DD-116), USS Hopewell (DD-181), USS Philip (DD-76), USS Roper (DD-147), and USS Stockton (DD-73), to take up station as part of the picket of destroyers dotting the path of the transatlantic flight to be conducted by Navy flying boats. After an overnight stop at Trepassey Bay, Newfoundland, on 4 and 5 May, Waters dropped anchor off Santa Cruz in the Azores on 10 May.

On 17 May, she got underway at 0643 and arrived at her station, located between the islands of Corvo and Flores, at 0750. There, she lay to await the passage of the three seaplanes attempting the flight. Finally, at about 1112, her crew heard the drone of the engines of a single seaplane as NC-4, the only one of the three seaplanes to successfully complete the flight, passed overhead.

That afternoon, the warship left her station to search for NC-1 which had made a forced landing at sea. During the search, she received word that the third plane, NC-3, was also lost in the fog. Just after noon the following day, she received word that NC-1 had been found and its crew rescued by the Greek cargo ship SS Ionia. Accordingly, Waters returned to her anchorage off Santa Cruz that night.

Early the next morning, she weighed anchor to participate in the search for NC-3; however, she soon learned that NC-3 had been sighted off Ponta Delgada, navigating on the surface, and heading for that port under its own power. That same day, 19 May, the warship departed the Azores and shaped a course for Newport, Rhode Island, where she arrived on 23 May.

The destroyer operated out of Newport and New York until mid-July. She was among the destroyers which escorted the battleship USS Pennsylvania (BB-38) out to sea on 8 July when Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels embarked in the battleship to meet USS George Washington (1908), off New York harbor and to welcome President Woodrow Wilson as he returned home from the peace negotiations in Europe.

On 14 July, Waters sailed from New York, via Hampton Roads and the Panama Canal, to the west coast. She pulled into San Diego on 5 August and, after six weeks of operations which included a voyage to the Hawaiian Islands, was placed in reserve at San Diego on 21 September 1919.

1920s
On 24 February 1920, Waters came out of reserve and moved to Bremerton, Washington, where she began a nine-month overhaul preparatory to her return to active service. While the destroyer was at Puget Sound, the Navy adopted the alphanumeric system of hull designations, and Waters became DD-115 on or about 17 July 1920. She completed her reconditioning on 30 November and returned to San Diego at the end of the first week in December.

During the first few months of 1921, she operated as a unit of Division X, a special organizational unit, to which USS Dorsey (DD-117) and Dent were also attached, pending the reconstitution of Division 14 in its entirety. In January and February, she made a cruise to Central and South America. She stopped in the Panama Canal Zone on her way south and visited Valparaíso and Mejillones Bay in Chile during the first two weeks of February and then returned to Panama for nine days of battle practice with the Fleet. On 23 February, she headed home and, after visits to Costa Rica and El Salvador, reached San Diego on 11 March.

Waters remained there until 21 June when she got underway north and, following brief stops at San Pedro and Mare Island, entered Bremerton, Washington, on 27 June to prepare at the Puget Sound Navy Yard for duty in the Far East. Almost a month later, she returned south to San Francisco, whence she sailed for the Far East on 21 July. After stops at Pearl Harbor, Midway, and Guam, Waters steamed into Manila Bay on 24 August and reported for duty with the Asiatic Fleet at the Cavite Navy Yard.

The destroyer remained in the vicinity of Luzon through most of her tour of duty in the Orient. She visited Olongapo and Manila frequently and conducted combat training and torpedo exercises off the northwestern shores of the island in Lingayen Gulf. On 3 June 1922, she departed the Philippines and headed north for the Asiatic Fleet's usual summer cruise to Chinese waters. She arrived at Shanghai three days later and, for the remaining seven weeks of her tour in the Orient, visited Chinese ports such as Yantai and Qinhuangdao.

On 25 August, the warship weighed anchor at Yantai to return to the United States. She stopped at Nagasaki in Japan, Midway Island, and Pearl Harbor en route to San Francisco, where she finally arrived on 3 October. After a week of repairs at Mare Island Navy Yard, Waters steamed south and, upon her arrival at San Diego on 23 October, immediately began preparations for inactivation. On 28 December 1922, Waters was decommissioned there and was laid up at the destroyer base.

1930s
On 4 June 1930, following more than seven years of inactivity, Waters was recommissioned at San Diego. After a month of refurbishing, she began operations along the west coast on 18 July and continued that routine for the next 18 months.

On 1 February 1932, she departed the west coast for the first time since her return from the Far East in 1922. She arrived in Lahaina Roads in the Hawaiian Islands on 12 February and took part in a landing exercise as a unit of the antisubmarine screen. The destroyer spent most of her time in Lahaina Roads but managed brief visits to Oahu and Hilo.

Waters returned to San Diego on 21 March and resumed normal operations until late January 1933. On 24 January, the warship arrived at Mare Island where she was placed in Rotating Reserve Squadron 20. She passed the next six months idly, moored to pierside at Mare Island with a severely reduced crew on board.

Early in July 1933, Waters returned to active service as a unit of Destroyer Division (DesDiv) 5, Destroyer Squadron (DesRon) 2, Battle Force Destroyers. She left Mare Island on 10 July, arrived at San Diego two days later, and resumed operations along the west coast. After more than eight months of such activity, the warship put to sea from San Diego on 9 April 1934 for an extended voyage to the Atlantic.

Waters reached Balboa, Canal Zone, on 22 April, transited the canal three days later, and was moored at Cristobal for a fortnight. On 5 May, she sailed for the gunnery range at Culebra Island near Puerto Rico. For the next three weeks, Waters participated in maneuvers in conjunction with Fleet Problem XV, a three-phased exercise which encompassed an attack upon and defense of the Panama Canal, the capture of advanced bases, and a major fleet engagement. On 25 May, the destroyer shaped a course north to Rhode Island. After a stop at New York City, she stood into Newport on 6 July and conducted tactical exercises out of Newport for two months.

On 7 September, she embarked upon a leisurely voyage back to San Diego. Along the way, she stopped at Hampton Roads, Tampa, Florida, and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Consequently, the warship did not transit the canal until 25 October. She reached San Diego on 8 November and went back into the Rotating Reserve on 19 December.

The warship returned to active duty in May 1935, and resumed operations along the west coast as a unit of DesDiv 19. Late in April 1936, she steamed south to the Panama Canal where she again joined in the maneuvers associated with the annual fleet concentrations which were conducted on the Pacific side of the isthmus. She returned to San Diego at the end of the first week in June and conducted normal operations for a month before leaving the west coast on 6 July.

Her voyage to Hawaii came as a result of DesDiv 19's assignment to the Submarine Force in conjunction with sonar tests. Sometime during the first half of the year, Waters and her sisters in the division had received the latest sound gear—high frequency directional sonar which allowed a destroyer to locate a submarine more accurately. Previously, sonar could at best indicate the presence of a submarine somewhere near the destroyer. The new equipment enabled submarine hunters to estimate the interloper's bearing and distance and therefore increased the probability of success of the destroyer's depth charge attacks. From July 1936 until late June 1939, Waters and her division mates cooperated with units of the Submarine Force in experiments to develop the techniques which translated the theoretical potential of the new technological developments into efficient antisubmarine warfare doctrine. Waters departed Hawaii for the west coast on 20 June 1939. She reached San Diego ten days later and was assigned to the Underwater Sound Training School. Between that time and America's entry into World War II, the destroyer continued to develop the Navy's antisubmarine warfare capability by teaching techniques which she had developed to sonar operators and officers assigned to the Fleet.

World War II
When the Japanese launched their surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Waters was in port at San Diego and still operating with the Sound School. She received word of the hostilities at 11:25 and immediately began preparations to put to sea. That afternoon, the destroyer made a three-hour antisubmarine sweep of the approaches to San Diego. On 8 December, she departed San Diego in the screen of Hawaii-bound aircraft carrier USS Saratoga (CV-3). Six days later, the carrier and her screen, DesDiv 50, entered Pearl Harbor. During her ten days at Oahu, Waters periodically conducted patrols of the sea approaches to the harbor. Two days before Christmas, she got underway homeward with a task unit built around the cruisers USS St. Louis (CL-49), USS Helena (CL-50), and USS Raleigh (CL-7). She escorted the cruisers into San Francisco on 29 December and returned to San Diego on 30 December.

1942
After a month patrolling the California coast, Waters slipped her moorings at San Diego on 31 January 1942 and headed north for duty with the defense forces of the 13th Naval District. She arrived at Bremerton, Washington, on 5 February and, six days later, continued north to Alaska. For the next ten months, the destroyer escorted supply ships from Seattle, Washington, to and between the bases along the Alaskan coast and through the Aleutians chain. She was later assigned to the forces of the Northwestern Sea Frontier as a unit of Task Force 8, the Alaskan defense force. Her mission, however, remained the same as she plied the cold Waters of the northeastern Pacific between such ports as Kodiak, Dutch Harbor, Chernofski, Adak, and Sitka—returning periodically to Seattle.

The exigencies of the campaign for Guadalcanal— where neither side enjoyed the overwhelming local naval and air supremacy which insured victory in every other amphibious operation of the war—necessitated an increase in the number of high-speed transports. These hybrid warships combined the functions of transports and of destroyers into one. The concept of the high-speed transport embodied sufficient armament for the ship to defend herself against smaller warships and to support the troops she carried with sufficient speed to enable her to outrun more heavily armed ships. Overage flushdeck destroyers such as Waters were the first ships to be so converted to fill this role.

Waters entered the Puget Sound Navy Yard on 19 December 1942 to begin conversion and later that month was redesignated APD-8. During the modifications, her forward boilers were removed to make room for the troops she would carry while her torpedo tubes came off to accommodate landing craft and their davits. Though the ship retained her four-gun main battery configuration, she swapped her obsolete single-purpose 4 in guns for more up-to-date dual-purpose 3 in guns. Her antiaircraft defenses were further augmented by the addition of several single 20 mm mounts. She completed conversion in February and returned to San Diego on 10 February.

1943
On 17 February, Waters stood out of San Diego, bound for the South Pacific. After a five-day stop at Pearl Harbor, she resumed her voyage and reported for duty with the South Pacific Amphibious Force at Noumea, New Caledonia, on 21 March. Five days later, she got underway for Espiritu Santo where she arrived the following day. For the next three weeks, the high-speed transport conducted amphibious training at Espiritu Santo with units of the 4th Marine Raider Battalion. On 18 April, Waters headed for the Fiji Islands. She arrived at Suva two days later, embarked men and equipment of Carrier Air Group 11, and proceeded via Espiritu Santo to the Solomons. She arrived off Guadalcanal on 25 April, disembarked her passengers, unloaded cargo, and departed the same day.

During the next nine days, she made a circuitous voyage that took her first to Efate, thence to the Fijis, and from there back to Espiritu Santo where she arrived on 4 May. Eleven days later, the warship exited Segond Channel and set a course for Pago Pago in American Samoa where she stopped from 19 to 23 May. The next stop on her itinerary was Auckland, New Zealand, where she laid over from 29 May to 5 June while her crew enjoyed their last real shore leave for quite some time. Waters returned to Nouméa on 8 June and got underway the following day with a convoy bound for the southern Solomons. She and her charges arrived off Guadalcanal on 14 June, and the high-speed transport began patrolling the anchorage off Koli Point.

With her arrival in the Solomons, Waters began almost a year engaged in the type of operations for which ships of her type were ideally suited. The remnants of the Japanese defense forces had evacuated Guadalcanal over three months before, and the American Navy, Marine Corps, and Army possessed relatively secure bases—at that island and across Ironbottom Sound at Port Purvis on Florida Island—from which to begin the climb up the Solomons staircase toward the Bismarcks and Rabaul. Operating from Purvis Bay at Florida Island, Waters shuttled troops and supplies north to the invasions of various central and northern Solomon Islands—New Georgia, Vella Lavella, Bougainville, Treasury Island, and the Green Islands subgroup. After the move toward the Bismarcks began in earnest, she supported both initial invasions and consolidation operations.

New Georgia, the center island of a cluster which, with Vella Lavella, made up the southern branch of the Solomon Archipelago, constituted the second rung on the ladder to Rabaul. While Waters waited for the assault on that island, scheduled for the end of June, she patrolled the anchorages of Ironbottom Sound between Guadalcanal and Florida Island. On 16 June, she fought her first action when attacking Japanese planes dropped a stick of bombs close aboard. She returned the compliment more accurately than her adversaries, as her antiaircraft battery splashed two of the offending bombers.

Four days later, she received orders to move to Guadalcanal to embark five officers and 187 men of the 4th Marine Raider Battalion, part of a force hastily collected to occupy Segi Point on the southern coast of New Georgia. The Japanese were then moving in on a coastwatcher named Kennedy who held the plantation on the point, and Rear Admiral Richmond K. Turner decided to advance the date of the opening of the Segi Point phase of the New Georgia operation in order to keep possession of the beachhead which for all intents and purposes was already established there and to protect Kennedy and his native guerrillas. Waters and Dent transited the Slot during the night of 20 and 21 June and, early the next morning, threaded their way through the uncharted shoal water between New Georgia and Vangunu to Segi Point. In less than two hours, the two former flushdeckers disembarked their passengers and stood out to sea again. After a daylight passage back down the Slot, Waters and her sister ship returned to Guadalcanal late that afternoon and thence moved to Port Purvis without incident.

On 25 June, Waters moved to Guadalcanal to embark more troops, this time the "Barracudas" scout troops of the Army's 172nd Infantry. Until 29 June, she practiced amphibious landings at Purvis Bay; then headed north for the landings on Rendova, a small island south of New Georgia and directly opposite Munda, the main objective of the operation. The troops she carried were to have led the assault on Rendova and to have secured a beachhead for the main invasion force. However, heavy weather obscured the beacon fires which were to have guided them ashore, and the "Barracudas" landed some 10 mi down the coast from their objective. By the time they reembarked and moved up the coast, the troops were able to land unopposed across a beachhead already established by units of the main invasion force. Waters completed disembarkation and unloading operations without further incident and, by 0855, stood down Blanche Channel in company with Dent to return to Purvis Bay, where she anchored that afternoon.

Rendova had been taken primarily as a stepping-stone to the main objective—Munda—as well as its airstrip— and to provide locations for supporting heavy artillery and its observation posts. By the time troops began shuttling from Rendova to Zanana—located to the east of Munda Point—for the planned occupation, Waters had picked up more troops at Guadalcanal and had landed them on the opposite coast of New Georgia. She departed Guadalcanal on 4 July and, the following morning, sent them ashore at Rice Anchorage on the northern coast of the island. The force she landed, a mixture of Marine Corps and Army units, succeeded in isolating and reducing the Japanese garrisons at Bairoko and on Enogai Inlet while the troops in the south concentrated upon the seizure of Munda without fear of interference from the north.

During the next ten days, she made two more runs to New Georgia carrying reinforcements and supplies to Rendova and returning to Guadalcanal with casualties. On the morning of 13 July, in the aftermath of the naval battles of Kula Gulf and Kolombangara, she escorted the cruisers USS Honolulu (CL-48) and St. Louis into Purvis Bay. Two days later, she received orders to head for Vella Lavella—located northwest of New Georgia—to pick up survivors from Helena which had been sunk during the Battle of Kula Gulf. She embarked three war correspondents at Koli Point and cleared Guadalcanal at 1325 on 15 July. At 2258 that night, she hauled in sight of her destination and began searching for the Helena sailors. At 0159 on 16 July, she lowered her boats to enter Paraso Bay. Later, she moved to Lambu Lambu cove, where her boats picked up 40 survivors from the sunken cruiser. She completed rescue operations at 0450 and departed Vella Lavella for Guadalcanal. She disembarked the 40 survivors at Tulagi just after 1300 and anchored in Purvis Bay an hour later.

For the next month, Waters transported supplies, reinforcements, and garrison troops from Guadalcanal to Rendova and New Georgia and evacuated casualties in support of the mopping up of New Georgia and the capture of the remainder of the smaller islands of the group. During these operations, she served both as a transport and as escort for the slower and less well-armed landing ship tanks (LSTs) and landing craft infantry (LCIs) which were used so extensively for transportation throughout the campaigns in the southwestern Pacific.

In mid-August, while the troops she had ferried to New Georgia over the previous seven weeks continued to mop up that island and the smaller ones surrounding it, Waters trained her sights on a new objective. Though Kolombangara, the big round island just to the northwest of New Georgia, appeared to be the next step in the ascent to Rabaul, American commanders had become intrigued with the possibility of by-passing, or "leapfrogging," its strong garrison and isolating it by occupying Vella Lavella, the next island above it on the southern arm of the Solomons chain.

Accordingly, Waters and six other fast transports loaded troops and equipment at Guadalcanal on 13 and 14 August. Two other transport groups, both composed of slower ships—LSTs and LCIs—departed ahead of her and her sisters who cleared Guadalcanal just before 1600 on 14 August. On the way up the Slot, the faster transports took over the lead from the tank landing ships and landing craft and arrived off Vella Lavella at 0529 the following morning. Since there was no organized Japanese garrison on the island, troops from Waters and the other fast transports established and consolidated their beachhead quickly. By 0730, she was steaming back down the Slot toward Guadalcanal and Purvis Bay. During the first hour of the passage, planes from the enemy air raids which halfheartedly contested the Vella Lavella landings attacked the transports. Waters's antiaircraft battery engaged the attackers, but neither side scored. The remainder of the trip proved uneventful, and Waters dropped anchor in Purvis Bay at 2133 that night.

Over the next two months, Waters transported replacement troops, reinforcements, and supplies to New Georgia and Vella Lavella. On the return trips, she evacuated casualties and later, after both islands had been secured and garrison forces had moved in, began evacuating the combat-weary veterans of the campaign. These operations signaled the close of the central Solomons phase of the campaign to isolate Rabaul. Future operations centered upon Bougainville, the northernmost major island in the Solomons. In preparation for the invasion of that island, Waters participated in simulated amphibious landings at Kukum Beach on Guadalcanal on 26 October. Later that day, she embarked New Zealand troops and laid a course up the Slot to the Treasury Islands, a small pair located not far south of Bougainville and ideally suited as a staging base for small craft and PT boat patrols. The warship landed her portion of the Treasuries assault force expeditiously on 27 October and returned south to Purvis Bay the next day.

Waters remained at Purvis Bay for the remainder of October and into the first week of November. Consequently, she missed the 1 November landings on Bougainville at Cape Torokina. However, she moved to Guadalcanal on 4 November, loaded elements of the second echelon, and stood out toward Bougainville. She entered Empress Augusta Bay at 0609 on 6 November and disembarked her passengers by 0733. She then stood out of the bay and took up patrol position outside and helped to screen the entrance to the bay until the following day when she steamed back toward Purvis Bay.

For the following two weeks, Waters shuttled troops and equipment back and forth between Guadalcanal and Bougainville. All but the last of those trips were relatively peaceful affairs which began with troop embarkation at Guadalcanal, disembarkation at Empress Augusta Bay after passage up the Slot, and a return voyage with casualties bound for Guadalcanal. During the last voyage, however, enemy dive bombers attacked her convoy just as it arrived off Cape Torokina at 0755 on 17 November; the warship's antiaircraft batteries quickly engaged the intruders and scored a kill on a Japanese Aichi D3A "Val." During a lull in the attacks, Waters disembarked her troops, but another air raid at 0615 delayed the embarkation of wounded, and she did not complete the operation until 0845. She laid off Cape Torokina until 1819 when she formed up with a south-bound convoy and headed back to Guadalcanal. On 19 November, she disembarked the casualties at Kukum Beach and returned to Purvis Bay at about 1330.

After 11 days in port at Purvis Bay, Waters departed the Solomons for the first time since her arrival the previous June. On 1 December, she stood out of Purvis Bay for Nouméa, where she arrived on 3 December. Two days later, she weighed anchor again to escort Liberty ships SS Amy Lowell and SS Juan Cabrillo, as far as Lady Elliot Island and then continued independently to Australia. She reached Sydney on 10 December and began nine days of shore leave and repairs.

On the morning of 20 December, she sailed for New Caledonia. On 23 December, she received orders to rendezvous with the Liberty ship SS Walter Colton, and to escort that ship into Nouméa. The warship reached the rendezvous point on Christmas Eve Day and began a fruitless two-day search for Walter Colton. Early in the evening of 25 December, she gave up the search and entered Nouméa alone.

Four days later, Waters returned to sea and, on 30 December 1943, joined the screen of a Guadalcanal-bound convoy. En route back to the Solomons, Waters received orders detaching her from the convoy and instructions to rendezvous with SS Sea Barb and see that ship safely to Auckland, New Zealand. She made the rendezvous that same day, 5 January 1944, escorted her to her destination, and came about to return to Nouméa. Waters arrived in Nouméa on 9 January and, a week later, entered drydock for three days. On 20 January, the day after she left the dock, the fast transport headed back to the Solomons and, two days later, arrived in Purvis Bay.

1944
After a brief excursion as target ship for TF 38 on 24 and 25 January, she moved to Guadalcanal on 28 January and embarked a reconnaissance party for the initial raid on the Green Islands, a small pair north of Buka and Bougainville. She departed Guadalcanal the same day and headed up the Slot. En route, she stopped at Vella Lavella on 29 January to embark a further 112 troops, all members of the 30th Battalion, New Zealand Commando Force. That evening, the fast transport and the embarked raiders rehearsed the landing at Vella Lavella. The next morning, she started out on the last leg of the journey. The landing force reached the Green Islands around 2400 that night, and the commandos landed, unopposed, on Nissan, the larger of the two islands. At 0120 on 31 January, Waters received word that the landing had succeeded. Later that evening, she moved in toward the Nissan transport area to recover the reconnaissance party which had completed its mission. She completed reembarkation before dawn on 1 February and steamed back down the Slot. Later that day, she and Hudson parted company with the rest of the task group to return the New Zealanders to Vella Lavella. Afterward, she continued on toward Guadalcanal, where she arrived on 2 February.

After offloading her remaining passengers at Guadalcanal, Waters returned to Purvis Bay for an 11-day stay. On 13 and 14 February, the fast transport retraced her steps of two weeks before. On 13 February, she embarked troops at Guadalcanal and steamed northwest up the Slot. The following day, she stopped at Vella Lavella and took on additional troops, mostly members of the 207th Battalion, 3rd New Zealand Division, before continuing on to the Green Islands for the actual occupation. At 0625 on 15 February, the task force arrived off Nissan and began landing the occupation force. The minuscule enemy garrison did not oppose the landing and Waters completed her part of the mission and cleared the area by 0846. She returned to Florida Island on 16 February. Between 18 and 21 February, the warship made another round-trip voyage to the Green Islands to ferry a mixed bag of Navy, Army, and New Zealand forces before reentering Purvis Bay for the remainder of the month.

During the first half of March, she made two more voyages to the Green Islands—via Bougainville—before returning to Purvis Bay on 16 March to prepare for the occupation of Emirau Island. At 0630 on 17 March, she shifted from Florida Island to Guadalcanal, where she embarked units of the newly reconstituted 4th Marines. At 1800, she passed through Indispensable Strait with the Emirau invasion force and laid in a course to the northwest of the Solomons and New Ireland. At 0615, she arrived in the St. Matthias Islands and began disembarking troops for the invasion of Emirau, the southernmost island of the group. Once again, Waters' troops made their landing unopposed. The fast transport completed unloading by 1030 and took up station to patrol the transport area against enemy submarines. Finally, at 1930 that evening, she formed up with the other ships of the force and headed back to the southern Solomons. On the evening of 22 March, the force retransited Indispensable Strait and, the next morning, broke up off Savo Island to return to their various anchorages. Waters reentered Purvis Bay at 1130 and let go her anchor.

The fast transport remained in Purvis Bay for the remainder of March and the first week in April. On 8 April, she stood out of the anchorage, picked up passengers at Guadalcanal, and took departure for Pearl Harbor in company with USS Stringham (APD-6). She made a brief stop at Funafuti, in the Ellice Islands, on 11 April and moored at the DE docks in Pearl Harbor on 18 April. The warship completed repairs by 1 May and began amphibious training at Kauai to prepare for the Marianas operation.

On 21 May, while Waters was in Pearl Harbor, an LST moored near her exploded. The resulting fire quickly spread to ships moored nearby. Though Waters was unable to get underway immediately and clear the area, her crew responded quickly by manning the fire-fighting equipment and wetting down the decks. Further explosions occurred during the afternoon, showering her with debris and injuring one of her crewmen, but the warship sustained relatively minor damage—a few sprung doors, cut cables, some sprung bulkheads, a bent yardarm brace, and a slightly damaged hull frame. Later, her crew responded to the emergency by launching the ship's boats and rescuing 75 survivors from the oil and fire-covered Waters surrounding the stricken LSTs. The fires smoldered for two days after the incident, and fire-fighting parties were called away intermittently. However, Waters soon completed repairs of the damage caused on 21 May and resumed amphibious exercises in preparation for Operation Forager

On 28 May, Waters stood out of Pearl Harbor for Kawaihae Bay, where she embarked marines the following day. That same day, she joined TF 51 and departed the Hawaiian Islands en route to Eniwetok Atoll, the staging point for the invasion of Saipan. She entered Eniwetok Lagoon at 0900 on 8 June and remained at anchor there for three days. On 11 June, TF 52—the Northern Attack Force—sortied from Eniwetok and headed for the Marianas. Waters served as flagship for both TransDiv 12 and TG 52.8, the Eastern Landing Group, administrative and operational organizations, respectively; the same six fast transports made up both organizations.

As she led her task group on the approach to Saipan late in the evening of 14 June, Waters made sonar contact with a submarine. She attacked with depth charges around 2200 and was unable to reestablish the contact after the barrage. Though the evidence did not support crediting her with a confirmed kill, her crew observed an oil slick which suggested that she had at least damaged an enemy submarine. She resumed her place in formation just before 2300 and continued to close Saipan, the northernmost of the Marianas islands.

At 0510, she went to general quarters in anticipation of the landing and moved into the transport area off the lower portion of Saipan's western coast. She received orders to patrol 2000 yd to seaward of the transport area, and she led TransDiv 12 to that station at around 0715. The assault force hit the beaches at about 0845, but Waters' complement of marines remained embarked throughout the day and the night of 15 and 16 June while she screened the transport area. She closed the transports once—at 1835—to help repel an air attack and, later, screened them during night retirement.

A little after 0800 on 16 June, Waters and the other APDs of TransDiv 12 closed the Charon Kanoa beaches and disembarked their troops—members of the 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment—originally intended for a secondary landing on the eastern coast at Magicienne Bay but landed at the main beachhead because of unexpectedly stiff resistance ashore and an impending battle at sea. She completed debarking marines by 0858 and formed her division in column to take up screening station for the transports. The fast transport reached her assigned position at 1330 and relieved USS Bagley (DD-386).

She remained off Saipan until late June, shepherding the transports of TF 51. During that time, she helped repel several air attacks but did not actually participate in the great air battle of the Philippine Sea fought on 19 and 20 June 1944. Before departing the Marianas on 2 July, the warship also made two unsuccessful attacks on enemy submarines and bombarded Japanese positions on Tinian.

On 2 July, the fast transport cleared the Marianas to escort TG 51.4 to Eniwetok. She reached her destination two days later and, after a 48-hour layover, exited the lagoon to return to the Marianas. Waters resumed patrols of the transport area off Saipan upon her arrival there on 12 July. That night, she delivered night illumination and harassment fire on Tinian near Tinian Town, probably to discourage any attempt by the Japanese on that island to reinforce their comrades in the Saipan garrison. She resumed antisubmarine patrols the next day, and on 14 July, she departed the Marianas once more—this time to escort USS Patuxent (AO-44) and SS Sea Cat to Eniwetok. After reaching Eniwetok on 17 July, the warship spent the next 11 days undergoing repairs and then stood out of the lagoon on 28 July to screen another task unit on its voyage to Saipan. She arrived in the Marianas two days later, parted company with the task unit, and entered the anchorage off Guam, which American forces had invaded while the fast transport was at Eniwetok.

Following three days of screening transports in Agat Bay, she joined a task unit built around the battleships USS Colorado (BB-45) and Pennsylvania. Waters reached Eniwetok on 6 August, remained overnight, and then steamed out of the lagoon to escort Colorado to Pearl Harbor.

Waters arrived in Pearl Harbor on 12 August but departed again six days later. On 22 August, she entered San Francisco. After six weeks of repairs and modifications, the fast transport left San Francisco on 7 October to return to Hawaii. Upon arrival in Pearl Harbor on 14 October, she began additional repairs in preparation for training with underwater demolition teams (UDT) which she began at the end of October. She completed that training by the beginning of January 1945 and, on 10 January, departed Pearl Harbor with TG 52.11, built around the battleships USS Texas (BB-35) and USS Nevada (BB-36). The task group reached Ulithi Atoll on 23 January, and Waters remained until 10 February when she got underway to join in the assault on Iwo Jima. She arrived in the Marianas on 12 February, conducted rehearsals at Saipan and Tinian, and continued on to the Bonin-Volcano group two days later.

1945
She arrived off Iwo Jima on the morning of 16 February as part of the screen for the fire support group. During the three days before the actual invasion, Waters protected the bombardment battleships from enemy submarines and supported the UDTs in their preinvasion reconnaissance of Iwo Jima's beaches. On the day of the assault, she joined the transports and screened them during the landings. The warship remained in the vicinity of Iwo Jima until the first week in March, supporting UDT operations and patrolling against Japanese submarines. On 5 March, the high-speed transport cleared the area with TransDiv 33 and a four-ship screen and headed for Guam. She remained at Guam for a day and a night, arriving there early on 8 March and departing again the next day. She entered Ulithi again on 11 March and began preparations for the last campaign of World War II—Operation Iceberg, the assault on Okinawa.

Following ten days in Ulithi lagoon, Waters steamed out of the atoll on 21 March and joined TG 54.2, part of Rear Admiral M. L. Deyo's Gunfire and Covering Force, for the voyage to the Ryukyus. During the approach for the preinvasion bombardment on 26 March, Waters fired upon a "Val" which tried to crash into USS Gilmer (APD-11). Though she claimed no kill, Waters antiaircraft battery was probably instrumental in deflecting that kamikazes aim and causing him to miss his target by a mere 75 yd. Over the four days before the landings, she screened the "old" battleships while they softened up Okinawa's defenses and supported UDT reconnaissance missions and demonstrations along the Okinawa coastline. Late on the 31st, she joined Tractor Group "Fox" to cover its approach to the beaches on the following morning.

During the first week of the assault, she conducted patrols off those same beaches. On 6 April, she teamed up with USS Morris (DD-417) to splash a "Betty". Early that evening, a kamikaze crashed Morris, and Waters rushed to her assistance, helping to control the fires that blazed on board the destroyer for two hours. Two days later, Waters entered Kerama Retto for fuel and to await reassignment. The following day, she received orders to screen Mine Squadron (MinRon) 3 and, for the remainder of the month, supported minesweeping operations. On 3 May, she took up familiar duty protecting the transport area from submarines, but that assignment proved to be a brief one.

The following day, she joined the escort of a Ulithi-bound convoy. On 6 May, she and USS Herbert (APD-22) were diverted to Leyte Gulf, where they arrived on the 8th. There, they picked up a convoy of LSTs and shepherded them back to Okinawa, arriving on the 15th. After four days at Okinawa—punctuated by frequent Japanese air attacks, she departed once again in the escort of a convoy bound for Saipan. The fast transport reached her destination on 24 May, underwent repairs, and shifted to Guam on 5 June to unload her UDT equipment. From Guam, she moved to Ulithi for another week of repairs from 6 to 13 June. On 17 June, the warship returned to Okinawa with another convoy and, after two days at Kerama Retto, cleared the Ryukyus for the last time.

During this voyage, which ultimately took her home, she fired her last shot in anger on 24 June when she dropped a barrage of depth charges on an underwater sound contact. Following the attack, she lost contact and continued on her way. After stops at Saipan, Eniwetok, and Pearl Harbor, the warship finally hauled into San Pedro, California, on 21 July. Soon after her arrival, she began an extensive overhaul at the Western Steel & Pipe Company. On 2 August, she resumed her former classification as a destroyer and became DD-115 once again. The war ended on 14 August while she was still in the yard; and, in September, she was moved to Terminal Island, and the overhaul became preinactivation preparations. On 12 October 1945, the veteran of two world wars was decommissioned at Terminal Island. Her name was struck from the Navy list on 24 October 1945, and she was sold for scrapping on 10 May 1946.

Waters received seven battle stars for service during World War II.

title: USS Waters (DD-115)


text:
Pinto da Costa

Pinto da Costa may refer to:

 * Manuel Pinto da Costa, twice president of São Tomé and Príncipe
 * Jorge Nuno Pinto da Costa, chairman of FC Porto

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

title: Pinto da Costa


text:
Oscar Deutsch

Oscar Deutsch (12 August 1893 – 5 December 1941) was a British entrepreneur who was the founder of Odeon Cinemas, the largest cinema chain in the United Kingdom. He opened his first cinema in Brierley Hill, Staffordshire in 1928, with the chain's flagship cinema, the Odeon, Leicester Square in London, opening in 1937.

Life and career
Deutsch was born in Balsall Heath, Birmingham, Warwickshire, the son of Leopold Deutsch, a successful Hungarian Jewish scrap metal merchant. After attending King Edward VI Five Ways Grammar School, he started work at his father's metal firm in Birmingham. In 1918, he married and went on to have three sons. In 1925, he rented cinemas in Wolverhampton and Coventry and started exhibiting subsequent runs of films. He opened his first cinema in nearby Brierley Hill, Dudley in 1928. By 1933 he had 26 Odeons and "Odeon" had started to become a household word, used interchangeably with "cinema" in some parts of the UK until after the Second World War.

By 1937 there were 250 Odeons, including the flagship cinema in Leicester Square, London, making Odeon one of the three major circuits in the UK. Odeon cinemas were considered more comfortable and respectable for middle-class filmgoers than those of the two other circuits, Associated British Cinemas (ABC) and Gaumont-British Cinemas. Odeons were known for their art deco architecture, first used on the Odeon, Kingstanding to a design by Cecil Clavering, working for Harry Weedon. Although Clavering only designed three further Odeons, at Sutton Coldfield, Colwyn Bay and Scarborough, "one masterpiece after the other" considered "the finest expressions of the Odeon circuit style". Later in 1935, however, Clavering stunned Weedon by resigning to take up a job with the Office of Works. Weedon approached Clavering's former tutor who recommended Robert Bullivant as Clavering's replacement and Weedon was commissioned by Deutsch to oversee the design of the entire chain.

Deutsch became a director of the UK arm of United Artists, who had acquired a 50% stake in Odeon Cinema Holdings.

He was from 1932 to 1940 President of Birmingham's main Synagogue, Singers Hill. In 1939, the Synagogue was extended by Harry Weedon.

In 1941, a bomb landed on his home and he was blown out of bed and never recovered. After Deutsch died of cancer in 1941, his widow sold the Odeon chain to J. Arthur Rank and it became part of the Rank Organisation, who also bought, but managed separately, Gaumont-British Cinemas.

Origin of "Odeon"
The original Odeons were the popular amphitheatres of ancient Greece. The name Odeon had been appropriated by cinemas in France and Italy in the 1920s, but Deutsch made it his own in the UK. His publicity team claimed Odeon stood for "Oscar Deutsch Entertains Our Nation".

title: Oscar Deutsch


text:
Talk:Oscar Deutsch

Untitled
Initial entry created for Oscar Deutsch with links to J. Arthur Rank and the Rank Organisation. MPLX/MH 01:28, 10 Oct 2004 (UTC)

First Cinema
Corrected to Brierley Hill, Dudley cinema opened in 1928 as shown in an email I received from Odeon promoting their return to their roots with the completion of the conversion of the UCI in Brierley Hill to an Odeon. --CartmanUK26 11:15, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

Arnold Deutsch, Communist recruiter (Cambridge Five)
According to Christopher Andrew's Defence of the Realm, Arnold Deutsch was a cousin of Oscar Deutsch, and enjoyed support from Oscar during his activities in Britain. It is not clear whether Oscar knew his support was being used, ultimately, for Communist ends. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.13.30.104 (talk) 19:14, 17 December 2009 (UTC)

Sale to Rank
Article says "After Deutsch died of cancer in 1941, his widow sold the Odeon chain to J. Arthur Rank and it became part of the Rank Organisation". However the Rank Organisation page says "1938 - Odeon Cinemas was purchased" 202.172.103.51 (talk) 11:49, 21 January 2015 (UTC)

title: Talk:Oscar Deutsch


text:
Gençay

Gençay is a commune in the Vienne department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region in western France. The inhabitants are called Gencéens.

Geography
The village lies on the left bank of the Clouère, which forms the commune's northern border.

Twin towns

 * Breckerfeld, Northern Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

title: Gençay


text:
User talk:Wolbring

Gregor Wolbring 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 KEEP

DeleteInsufficiently Famous. Richard Taylor 01:30, 10 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * Comment, no vote: fame and notability are not the same thing, especially in the scientific world. Institutes founded by subject may be noteworthy, any comments from those more au fait with this area? Ianb 22:01, 10 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep. Seems quite well known.  Don't really understand why this is up for deletion.  This isn't  a vanity page.--Tomheaton 22:21, 11 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep. He's not that well known, but after a bit of googling, I think he's at least borderline notable -- not as a scientist per se, but as a speaker on ethics (especially the rights of the disabled), and apparently as an antitranshumanist or antinanotechnologist as well. --Aponar Kestrel (talk) 22:45, 2004 Oct 11 (UTC)
 * Keep. Moderately notable ethicist.   — Gwalla | Talk 02:31, 12 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * Pretty obvious keep — siro  χ  o  09:11, Oct 12, 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep. 1600 Google hits. Twice as many as J. Fred Muggs.--NathanHawking 20:04, 2004 Oct 15 (UTC)

End archived discussion -- Graham ☺ | Talk 02:03, 16 Oct 2004 (UTC)

title: User talk:Wolbring


text:
Lathyrus sativus

Lathyrus sativus, also known as grass pea, cicerchia, blue sweet pea, chickling pea, chickling vetch, Indian pea, white pea and white vetch, is a legume (family Fabaceae) commonly grown for human consumption and livestock feed in Asia and East Africa. It is a particularly important crop in areas that are prone to drought and famine, and is thought of as an 'insurance crop' as it produces reliable yields when all other crops fail. The seeds contain a neurotoxin that causes lathyrism, a neurodegenerative disease, if eaten as a primary protein source for a prolonged period.

Cultivation
Lathyrus sativus grows best where the average temperature is 10–25 °C and average rainfall is 400 – per year. Like other legumes, it improves the nitrogen content of soil. The crop can survive drought or floods, but grows best in moist soils. It tolerates a range of soil types from light sandy through loamy to heavy clay, and acid, neutral, or alkaline soils. It does not tolerate shade.

Slow Food inducted Serra de'Conti Cicerchia, a cicerchia grown in Serra de’ Conti Municipality, Ancona Province, Marche region of Italy into the Ark of Taste.

Uses
Seed is sold for human consumption at markets in Florence. Consumption of this pulse in Italy is limited to some areas in the central part of the country, and is steadily declining.

Flour made from grass peas (Spanish: almorta) is the main ingredient for the gachas manchegas or gachas de almorta. Accompaniments for the dish vary throughout La Mancha. This is an ancient Manchego cuisine staple, generally consumed during the cold winter months. The dish is generally eaten directly out of the pan in which it was cooked, using either a spoon or a simple slice of bread. This dish is commonly consumed immediately after removing it from the fire, being careful not to burn one's lips or tongue.

Due to its toxicity, it was forbidden for human consumption in Spain from 1967 to 2018. However, it was widely sold as animal feed, but displayed together with flours for human consumption.

The town of Alvaiázere in Portugal dedicates a festival lasting several days to dishes featuring the pulse. Alvaiázere calls itself the Chícharo capital, the name of this pulse in Portuguese.

Immature seeds can be eaten like green peas. L. sativus needs soaking and thorough cooking to reduce toxins.

The leaves and stem are cooked and eaten as chana saga (Odia: ଚଣା ଶାଗ) in parts of Odisha, India.

Neurotoxic properties
Like other grain legumes, L. sativus produces a high-protein seed. The seeds however also contain variable amounts of a neurotoxic amino acid β-N-oxalyl-L-α,β-diaminopropionic acid (ODAP). ODAP is considered the cause of the disease neurolathyrism, a neurodegenerative disease that causes paralysis of the lower body: emaciation of gluteal muscle (buttocks). The disease has historically occurred after famines in Europe (France, Spain, Germany), North Africa, and South Asia, and is still prevalent in Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Afghanistan (panhandle) when Lathyrus seed is the exclusive or main source of nutrients for extended periods. ODAP concentration increases in plants grown under stressful conditions, compounding the problem."The crop is harmless to humans in small quantities, but eating it as a major part of the diet over a three-month period can cause permanent paralysis below the knees in adults and brain damage in children, a disorder known as lathyrism. (Kew Gardens)" Some authors have argued that this toxicity is overstated, and L. sativus is harmless as part of a normal diet.

Goya in his 1810-1815 The Disasters of War series illustrates the harm that can be done by excessive consumption of grass peas in times of famine in his print Gracias á la almorta (Thanks to the grass pea), about Napoleon's siege of Madrid. It depicts a woman who can no longer walk due to lathyrism, surrounded by starving people waiting for bowls of grass pea-based food. Grass-pea products were banned for sale for human consumption in Spain from 1967 to 2018, due to toxicity.

This legume is the only known dietary source for L -homoarginine and is preferred over arginine for nitric oxide (NO) generation. L-ODAP is reported to act as an activator of calcium-dependent protein kinase C.

Breeding programs
Breeding programs are underway to produce lines of Lathyrus sativus that contain ODAP levels too low to be dangerous, while maintaining disease and insect resistance and tolerance to drought, heat, and salinity. "Certain varieties from western Asia have a low level of the neurotoxin and breeders and farmers are now exploring this genetic diversity to develop varieties that maintain the tolerance to extreme conditions, while at the same time achieving a safe level of the toxic compound."

Wild relatives are a prominent source of genetic material to improve cultivars. From 2016 to 2018, the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) evaluated wild relatives to explore genes for low or no ODAP and resistance/tolerance to biotic/abiotic stresses and transfer them to cultivated grass pea.

title: Lathyrus sativus


text:
Joe Peschisolido

Joe Peschisolido (born April 27, 1963) is a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for the riding of Richmond from 2000 to 2004 and as the MP for Steveston—Richmond East from 2015 to 2019. He was first elected as a member of the Canadian Alliance, but crossed the floor to the Liberal Party in 2002.

Background
Peschisolido has a Bachelor of Arts (honours) degree in political science from Trinity College at the University of Toronto and a law degree from Osgoode Hall Law School. Peschisolido is a fourth degree knight of the Knights of Columbus in Richmond, a member of the Rotary Club of Richmond Sunset and a member of the Richmond Chamber of Commerce. He is an active parishioner of Canadian Martyrs Catholic Church and is a vegan, who believes in making healthy and sustainable food choices.

Political career
For decades, Peschisolido was a member of the Liberal Party, where he had worked as a youth co-ordinator for Jean Chrétien's 1990 leadership campaign. In 1993, he joined the Reform Party of Canada (later the Canadian Alliance), running as their candidate in Etobicoke North in the 1993 general election and a subsequent 1996 by-election. He placed second both times.

First term (2000 to 2004)
Peschisolido relocated to British Columbia, where he was elected as Member of Parliament for Richmond in the 2000 general election, defeating Liberal incumbent, Raymond Chan.

In 2002, Peschisolido left the Canadian Alliance and crossed the floor to the Liberal Party without consulting with his constituents. This was due to the "process of political realignment" which eliminated both the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party, and instead creating the Conservative Party of Canada.

While serving in office, Peschisolido fought to protect the rights of taxpayers by introducing the "Taxpayers' Bill of Rights" in the 37th Parliament's first, second, and third sessions.

In 2002, Peschisolido helped broker the original Garden City land deal, which saw the transfer of said lands from the Canadian federal government to the City of Richmond. This deal would have seen the City of Richmond receive 75 to 80 percent of the land, with the rest of the property set aside for a trade and exhibition center, as well as commercial development.

In 2003, he served as Parliamentary Secretary to the President of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada and Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs. He was also Vice-Chair for the Standing Committee on Human Resources Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities.

Peschisolido lost the Liberal nomination to his predecessor as Member of Parliament, Raymond Chan, who went on to retain the riding for the Liberals in the 2004 election.

2011 election
In 2011, Peschisolido won the Liberal nomination over Raymond Chan for Member of Parliament for Richmond in the 2011 Canadian federal election. In the general election, Peschisolido was defeated by Alice Wong by more than 17,000 votes.

Second term (2015 to 2019)
On August 11, 2015, Peschisolido again won the Liberal nomination for Member of Parliament in the new riding of Steveston—Richmond East for the 2015 Canadian federal election.

On October 19, 2015, as a Liberal majority government was formed, Peschisolido was returned to Parliament.

In July 2019, Global News reported the Royal Canadian Mounted Police opened an investigation into Peschisolido "after confidential police informants alleged the veteran politician had been knowingly associating with Chinese organized crime figures through his former real estate law practice in Richmond, B.C." Peschisolido's law firm allegedly received money via illicit channels from China as part of an attempt by the firm's clients to circumvent the legal immigration process. No charges have been laid against Peschisolido or lawyers at his firm. Peschisolido turned in his law license in 2018.

On February 5, 2020 the Ethics Commissioner of Canada released an investigative report on Peschisolido. The Commissioner found Peschisolido contravened subsections 21(3) and 20(1) of the Conflict of Interest Code for Members of the House of Commons for failing to file a statement of material change and by failing to file a full statement of the private interests.

Peschisolido was defeated by Kenny Chiu in the 2019 Canadian federal election, and Parliament could not apply sanctions since Peschisolido was no longer a sitting MP.

title: Joe Peschisolido


text:
Stefano Pasquini

Stefano W. Pasquini is an Italian contemporary artist, writer and curator living in Italy. He works with paintings, performance, photography and installation. He also publishes a magazine called Obsolete Shit.

He currently works with the Italian galleries L'Arte, Molinella, Quattrocentometriquadri, Ancona, and MelePere Verona. Since 2010 he has been known as Stefano W. Pasquini.

His style has been defined "horizontal", as it's hard to define practicing in so many different styles. To quote Fabio Cavallucci: "Pasquini doesn’t worry about changing styles and contents: he goes from interactive performances – like when, for example, he dressed like Spider-Man, sitting on the floor of the streets of London – to the hard rock videos – like the one he’s in the woods stuck with his hands and feet onto the ground, shouting like a maniac. He’s also not afraid to return to paintings, portraying, with a fast and synthetic stroke, himself or people from the mass media zoo. Or eschews the indifference in order to approach politics, making works that range from portraying the statesman Aldo Moro in sculpture, as he was found (dead) in the trunk of a Renault in via Caetani, to a performance where a series of people raise on pedestals and wave their hands in the fascist salute."

Life
Pasquini was born in Bologna, Italy. He received his MFA from the Academy of Fine Arts of Bologna in 1991, then immediately left his country for Dublin, briefly, then London for seven years, and New York, where he participated to many exhibitions. He is currently based in Bologna, where he works. He was head curator of Sesto Senso, a small non-profit gallery in Bologna, for the exhibiting seasons of 2001–2002. He was Art Director of "Work – Art in progress", magazine of the Contemporary Art Gallery of Trento, as well as contributing editor of NYArts Magazine.

In 2014 he directed the non-profit art space Studio Cloud 4 curating many exhibitions until 2016. Since 2013 he teaches Tecniche Grafiche Speciali at the Albertina Academy of Fine Arts of Turin.

Exhibitions
Since 1988 Pasquini exhibited in group shows in venues such as the Collective Gallery (Edinburgh), The National Portrait Gallery (London), Casco (Utrecht), ICA (London), Art in General (New York), Star67 (Brooklyn), Gallery Korea (New York), MACRO (Rome), Galleria Enrico Astuni (Bologna).

His first solo exhibition was at Carnera (Adria), in 1994, followed by a show titled "Hope and Despair" at the Bond Gallery in (Birmingham) in 1998.

Further solo exhibitions include Sesto Senso, Graffio, Villa Serena (Bologna), Studio Vetusta, Paggeriarte (Modena), MelePere (Verona), Quattrocentometriquadri (Ancona).

In 2004 he made a project about quantity that resulted in a solo exhibition, titled "2004" at Galleria 42 Contemporaneo, in Modena. In 2012 he had a solo exhibition at Siz, in Rijeka, Croatia, and in 2013 he participated to a three part exhibition curated by Kaz in London at Kingsgate Gallery.

In 2014 he finished a public project started in 2011 in Pfyn, Switzerland, that involved the local population of the small town, a time capsule and a big wooden sculpture.

Writings
Since 1994 Pasquini has been writing about contemporary art in many magazines: La Stanza Rossa (Bologna, Italy), New York Arts (New York), Collezioni Sport & Street (Modena, Italy).

He is author with Frank Verpoorten of "Accidental//Coincidental", Newhouse Center for the Arts, New York, 2008.

In 2004 he published a volume on photographer Claudio Serrapica.

In 2015 he co-authored (with Maria Teresa Roberto) "Incorporeo", published by Albertina Press.

Reviews
Tiziana Platzer, “Il frastuono della guerra risuona nelle ex carceri”, La Stampa, Turin, 7 November 2015.

Matteo Bianchi, “Il ferrarese Stefano Pasquini all'Art Week torinese”, La Nuova Ferrara, Ferrara, 5 November 2015.

“Luci in mostra a Molinella”, il Resto del Carlino, martedì 30 dicembre 2014, Bologna, Italy, p. 21.

Manuela Valentini, “Il diario delle medie? Si esponga”, il Resto del Carlino, Bologna, giovedì 25 settembre 2014, p. 33.

Stefano Bigazzi, "Il bosco di Parmenide, la lunga performance di Angelo Pretolani", la Repubblica Genova, venerdì 12 settembre 2014, p. X.

Mario Trombino, “Noi vogliamo la luna!”, “Rebus difficilissimo”, and “Chi resta calmo vince”, Diogene Magazine, No. 34, marzo-maggio 2014, Bologna, Italy, pp. 1, 3, 6-7, 10-11.

Christof Lampart, “Ein Römer sagt “scusi””, Thurgauer Zeitung, Thurgau, Switzerland, Dienstag 29 April 2014.

Caterina Cavina, “Stefano W. Pasquini”, Arte Contemporanea News, Anno VII numero 35 Novembre-Dicembre 2013, pp. 60–61, D'Agostino Editore, Olevano Romano (RM), Italy.

Federico Mascagni, “L'editoria indipendente si mette in mostra al Fruit” L'Unità Emilia Romagna, martedì19 marzo 2013, p. 26.

Time Out: “FrighteningFigure”, La Tribuna Provincia di Bologna, anno XVIII N° 276, October 2012, p. 14.

Manuela Valentini, “Voci come opere d'arte”, Il Resto del Carlino, Bologna edition, 4 October 2012, p. 29.

N.V.O., “Uspon i pad Berlusconija”, Novi List, Rijeka, 30 September 2012, p. 61.

Luca Rossi, “Stefano W. Pasquini e l'orizzontalità”, Juliet, n. 156, February – March 2012, pp. 77 and 91.

Manuela Valentini, “Così chiedo scusa per l'invasione romana”, Il Resto del Carlino, Bologna, 4 settembre 2011, p. 31.

Jelena Jindra, “Reci mi knjigom, ali bez Čitanja”, Globus, Broj 1058, Izdanje 0111, 18.03.2011, Zagreb, Croatia, pp. 70–73.

Luigi Meneghelli, “Stefano W. Pasquini”, Flash Art Italia, No. 290, XLIV, Milan, February 2011, p. 108.

Luiza Samanda Turrini, “Direttamente dalla luna gli oggetti di Stefano Pasquini“, L'Informazione di Modena, Anno X numero 16, 17 January 2009.

“Stefano Pasquini, apoteosi dell’oggetto”, Arte, No. 425, Milan, January 2009, p. 77.

Pilot Magazine, Issue 3, London, 2008. pp. 33–34, 59, 82-83.

Anna Caterina Bellati, “Pasquini poeta del quotidiano”, Arte, No. 393, Milano, May 2006.

Daniela Lotta, “Stefano Pasquini”, Flash Art Italia, Anno XXXVIII, N° 251, Aprile – Maggio 2005, Milan, Italy.

Michele Pompei, “Arte Urbana”, La Repubblica Bologna, September 22, 2004.

Fabiola Naldi, “Rapport 2004”, Flash Art, Anno XXXVII, n° 244, Febbrario – Marzo 2004, Milan, Italy.

Laura Taccani, “Riflessioni sugli effetti delle guerre”, City Milano, Anno 3, Numero 62, 2 Aprile 2003.

Michele Fuoco, “Il tempo rinnova la paura”, Gazzetta di Modena, Italy, 25 October 2002.

Randi Hopkins, “The Land of signs”, The Phoenix, Boston, US, May 16–23, 2002.

Soren de Melinot, “Pasquini’s Flags”, Collezioni Trends 59, Italy, SS 2002.

Paola Naldi, La Repubblica, Italy, 13 June 2001.

Juliet, 99, October–November 2000, Trieste, Italy.

La Repubblica, Italy, 16 June 2000.

Susan Hamburgher, Waterfrontweek 9.13, Williamsburg, NY, 1 July 1999.

Dario Trento, “Pasquini smista posta in galleria Sesto Senso”, La Repubblica, Italy, 24 June 1999.

Flash Art 206, International, May–June 1999.

City Lights 17, Nottingham, November 1998.

“Unrealizeable Projects“, Skin, Maastricht 1997.

“Unrealizeable Projects“, STOPSTOP, Glasgow, 1997.

Miranda Sayer, Time Out 1308, London, September 1995.

Elaine Paterson, Time Out 1206, London, October 1993.

title: Stefano Pasquini


text:
Art in General

Art in General was a non-profit contemporary art exhibition space known for its vibrant and ground-breaking projects as a formidable and longstanding New York City alternative space, focused on giving meaningful resources and opportunities to artists early on in their careers. Founded in 1981 by artists Martin Weinstein and Teresa Liszka and originally located in the General Hardware building in New York City — hence the organization's name, Art in General — the institution produced and presented distinctive programs and exhibitions featuring new work by local and international artists.

Since its first exhibition in 1982, Art in General provided spaces for artists to display unconventional work and exchange ideas with their peers for almost 40 years, making it one of the longest-standing artist-founded non-profit artist organizations in New York City. Art in General organized exhibitions; commissions new art projects; hosted national and international artist residency programs; and facilitated regular free public programs with renowned artists, critics and curators. More than 2,000 artists exhibited their work at Art in General in a wide range of disciplines—painting, sculpture, drawing, photography, installation art, audio, video art, performance art and new media art.

Programs
The New Commissions Program, Art in General’s central focus, flourished since its launch in 2005. The program was created in response to artists’ need for support to create major new projects that would significantly advance their practice. Art in General commissioned new works, either through an open call, or through direct invitation. Art in General provided commissioned artists with both space and a budget for developing their project, as well as an honorarium. Initially designed for New York based artists, in 2012 this program expanded to include projects by international artists.

Art in General established the Eastern European Residency Exchange (EERE) in 2001, with the goal of supporting critical dialogue, the presentation of new work, and a greater understanding of diverse cultures. This program took the form of a two-way artist residency until 2013, when it expanded to encompass institutional co-commissioning and other forms of exchange. Art in General’s partner institutions have included: 'kim?' Contemporary Art Centre in Riga, Latvia; The Gardens in Vilnius, Lithuania; Pavilion Unicredit in Bucharest, Romania; Croatian Association of Artists (HDLU) in Zagreb, Croatia; The Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rijeka, Croatia; Centre for Contemporary Arts FUTURA in Prague, Czech Republic; The Trafó House of Contemporary Arts in Budapest, Hungary; Center For Contemporary Arts Estonia in Tallinn; Bunkier Sztuki Gallery in Kraków, Poland; Swimming Pool in Sofia, Bulgaria; and The Centre for Contemporary Art in Warsaw, Poland.

Art in General regularly organized other discursive programs and exhibitions. When Art in General was located in Manhattan, its Audio in the Elevator program began in 1990 in response to the slow-moving elevator that takes 38 seconds to reach the 6th floor gallery from street level. Art in General saw this unfavorable circumstance as an opportunity to create a new exhibition space in the elevator, where one to five audio or video art projects were displayed each year. In 2018 Rational Dress Society, a counter-fashion collective, were commissioned to create official Art in General uniforms that all members of its staff wore in contemplation of "what cultural work should look like in difficult political times".

Artists
Art in General had a long history of supporting artists early in their careers. Since 1981, Art in General is proud to have supported and shown over 2,000 emerging and mid-career artists and collectives who have gone onto greater success, including Dorothea Rockburne, Joan Jonas, Kay WalkingStick, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Glenn Ligon, Byron Kim, Elizabeth Peyton, Marina Abramović, Gabriel Orozco, Paul Pfeiffer, William Pope.L, Pipilotti Rist, Francis Alÿs, Walid Raad, Sharon Hayes, Patty Chang, Allora & Calzadilla, Pierre Huyghe, Andrea Geyer, Xaviera Simmons, Lisi Raskin, Kambui Olujimi, Carlos Motta, Jill Magid, Marwa Arsanios, Adelita Husni-Bey, Dineo Seshee Bopape, Postcommodity, Duane Linklater, Chim↑Pom, Sondra Perry, Anna Daučíková, Aliza Shvarts, Zach Blas, among many others. Its roster of artists reflected its deep and long-standing commitment to diversity and equity in the arts. Art in General was often at the forefront of giving artists their first New York exhibitions.

Curators
The institution had also been a crucial one for giving diverse curators a chance to curate risk-taking exhibitions early in their careers. Not unlike the artists it supports, many who curated exhibitions for Art in General as staff members or as guest curators later went on to notable acclaim for their impactful and highly original curatorial work, writing on contemporary artists, and leading of important arts institutions such as Holly Block, Anne Barlow, Sofía Hernández Chong Cuy, Dean Daderko, Eva Diaz, Andria Hickey, Ruba Katrib, Laura Hoptman, Laurel Ptak, Irene Mei Zhi Shum, Franklin Sirmans, Hazma Walker, and others.

Leadership
Art in General had a long history of supporting women in leadership roles. From 1981 to 1988, Art in General was led by its founders, artists Martin Weinstein and Teresa Liszka. After Weinstein and Liszka stepped aside from actively overseeing day-to-day operations, Holly Block was appointed the inaugural Executive Director. Subsequently, Art in General proudly established itself as a woman-led organization.

Executive Directors: Holly Block (1988–2006); Anne Barlow (2007–2016); Laurel Ptak (2017–2020); Irene Mei Zhi Shum (2020).

Facilities
From 1981 to 2015, Art in General was located at 79 Walker Street in Manhattan, in a six-floor building owned by General Hardware Manufacturing Inc. (now General Tools & Instruments LLC), hence the organization’s name. Located at the intersection of three neighborhoods in New York City (Tribeca, SoHo, and Chinatown), Art in General had since its founding been committed to presenting new work by artists of color, women, immigrants and visiting artists. In 2003, Gerry Weinstein, CEO of General Tools & Instruments LLC, donated the storefront to Art in General for use as a gallery. In 2006, the sixth-floor gallery underwent a major renovation by Steven Learner Studios and was re-opened in January 2007 with Le Musée Minuscule, created in honor of New Langton Arts’ former space of the same name. In 2014, General Tools was acquired by High Road Capital Partners, a private equity group. When the business was sold and the building changed ownership, Art in General lost its primary patron, that provided corporate donations as well as rent-free office and exhibition space. Then Director Anne Barlow and board president Robert Ferguson moved its office to 20 Jay Street and its gallery to 145 Plymouth Street in DUMBO, Brooklyn in January 2016. Although the office and gallery had different mailing addresses, they were in fact located in the same building, owned by Two Trees Management. In August 2020 then Director Irene Mei Zhi Shum announced that Art in General would be partnering with Mana Contemporary and relocating the office to Mana's facility in Jersey City, New Jersey, stating in a press release, "This new partnership allows Art in General to organize programs and exhibitions across Mana Contemporary’s real estate portfolio, which includes buildings in Jersey City, New Jersey; Chicago, Illinois; and Miami, Florida. It also provides studio space for visiting artists and curators for Art in General's residency programs. This opportunity was made possible by the generous support of Eugene Lemay, founder of Mana Contemporary." However in October 2020 Art in General was shuttered deeply saddening the arts community. The closure was the direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic. In a statement, Board President Leslie Ruff and Executive Director Irene Mei Zhi Shum cited the pressures of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. “Although we have taken critical measures to adjust to the new normal, the financial constriction due to COVID-19 has proved formidable, severely affecting our ability to fulfill our mission.” They continued, “In this difficult time for us all, we offer our sincere thanks to you — our alumni artists, guest curators, visitors, former staff and donors — for your passion and dedication, interest and support during the last forty years.”

Legacy
The Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, acquired the archive of Art in General. The Art in General archive comprehensively chronicles the decades of exhibitions and programs and long-standing commitment to diversity and equity in the arts. The more than one hundred linear feet of materials donated to the Archives of American Art include Holly Block’s files, documenting her 18-year tenure as Art in General’s forward-thinking first director.

“It is a tremendous honor to preserve the legacy of one of New York’s most important non-profit institutions,” said Liza Kirwin, interim director, Archives of American Art. “The Archives is proud to be stewards of Art in General’s historic records, ensuring that they are preserved and available to the public and future generations.”

title: Art in General


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Category:Payment systems

Articles about ways money can be moved between persons, organizations, and locations, as well as how financial transactions can be executed.

title: Category:Payment systems


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Hockley

Hockley is a large village and civil parish in Essex in the East of England located between Chelmsford and Southend-on-Sea, or, more specifically, between Rayleigh and Rochford. It came to prominence during the coming of the railway in the 1890s and at the 2001 census had a population of 13,616 people, reducing to 9,616 at the 2011 Census,. The parish of Hockley itself had a population of 8,909 at the (2001 census), while the urban area runs into the neighbouring parish of Hawkwell. Hockley railway station serves the village.

History
The place-name 'Hockley' is first attested in the Domesday Book of 1086, where it appears as Hocheleia. The name means "Hocca's woodland clearing or glade". Today, there is still a large wooded area named Hockley Woods. Notable buildings in the village include the church of St Peter and Paul, which has a nave which was possibly built before the twelfth century, a thirteenth-century chancel and a fourteenth-century tower, the upper half of which is octagonal and was built at a later date. The tower holds three bells, manufactured by Miles Gray in 1626, by James Bartlett in 1684 and by John Hodgson in 1657, and the building is Grade II* listed. The church is situated to the north-west of the village centre, where Grade II listed Spa Pump Room is situated. The building was built as a spa to a design by James Lockyer in 1842, after Robert Clay found a medicinal spring there in 1838. Hockley is also the site of the former Bullwood Hall prison which closed in 2013.

Plumberow Mount, a Roman burial mound, was excavated in 1913 by Mr. E. B. Francis. At the time, there was a summer house on the top of the mound, and so trenches were cut on three sides. The excavation found a Roman coin of Domitian and some Saxon pottery which may indicate a secondary burial. The oval mound is 14 ft high, and 76 ft in diameter, with a flattened top, where the summerhouse was located. Since 2005, a metal fence has surrounded the mound to protect it from erosion, and a number of trees which were growing on or near it were cut down at the same time.

In 2009, the sixteenth-century Hockley Pendant was discovered in a field at Hockley.

Governance
Hockley has a parish council consisting of two wards and is part of Rochford District Council

title: Hockley


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Arthur Danto

Arthur Coleman Danto (January 1, 1924 – October 25, 2013) was an American art critic, philosopher, and professor at Columbia University. He was best known for having been a long-time art critic for The Nation and for his work in philosophical aesthetics and philosophy of history, though he contributed significantly to a number of fields, including the philosophy of action. His interests included thought, feeling, philosophy of art, theories of representation, philosophical psychology, Hegel's aesthetics, and the philosophers Friedrich Nietzsche and Jean-Paul Sartre.

Life and career
Danto was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, January 1, 1924, and grew up in Detroit. He was raised in a Reform Jewish home. After spending two years in the Army, Danto studied art and history at Wayne University (now Wayne State University). While an undergraduate he intended to become an artist, and began making prints in the Expressionist style in 1947 (these are now great rarities). He then pursued graduate study in philosophy at Columbia University. From 1949 to 1950, Danto studied in Paris on a Fulbright scholarship under Jean Wahl, and in 1951 returned to teach at Columbia.

Upon retirement in 1992 he was named Johnsonian Professor Emeritus of Philosophy. He was twice awarded fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, elected in 1980. He was one of the signers of the Humanist Manifesto. Danto died on October 25, 2013, aged 89 in Manhattan, New York City.

Philosophical work
Arthur Danto argued that "a problem is not a philosophical problem unless it is possible to imagine that its solution will consist in showing how appearance has been taken for reality." While science deals with empirical problems, philosophy according to Danto examines indiscernible differences that lie outside of experience. Noel Carroll, writing as an art critic, has criticized Danto's anthropology stating that Danto "believe[d] that persons are essentially systems of representation."

"Artworld" and the definition of art
Danto laid the groundwork for an institutional definition of art that sought to answer the questions raised by the emerging phenomenon of twentieth-century art. The definition of the term "art" is a subject of constant contention and many books and journal articles have been published arguing over the answer to the question "What is Art?" In terms of classificatory disputes about art, Danto takes a conventional approach. Non-conventional definitions take a concept like the aesthetic as an intrinsic characteristic in order to account for the phenomena of art. Conventional definitions reject this connection to aesthetic, formal, or expressive properties as essential to defining art but rather, in either an institutional or historical sense, say that "art" is basically a sociological category. Danto's "institutional definition of art" defines art as whatever art schools, museums, and artists consider art, regardless of further formal definition. Danto wrote on this subject in several of his works and a detailed treatment is to be found in Transfiguration of the Commonplace.

Danto stated, "A work of art is a meaning given embodiment." Danto further stated, also in Veery journal, "Criticism, other than of content, is really of the mode of embodiment."

The 1964 essay "The Artworld" in which Danto coined the term "artworld" (as opposed to the existing "art world", though they mean the same), by which he meant cultural context or "an atmosphere of art theory", first appeared in The Journal of Philosophy and has since been widely reprinted. It has had considerable influence on aesthetic philosophy and, according to professor of philosophy Stephen David Ross, "especially upon George Dickie's institutional theory of art. Dickie defined an art work as an artifact 'which has had conferred upon it the status of candidate for appreciation by some person or persons acting in behalf of a certain social institution (the artworld)' (p. 43.)"

According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, "Danto's definition has been glossed as follows: something is a work of art if and only if (i) it has a subject (ii) about which it projects some attitude or point of view (has a style) (iii) by means of rhetorical ellipsis (usually metaphorical) which ellipsis engages audience participation in filling in what is missing, and (iv) where the work in question and the interpretations thereof require an art historical context (Danto with Noël Carroll). Clause (iv) is what makes the definition institutionalist. The view has been criticized for entailing that art criticism written in a highly rhetorical style is art, lacking but requiring an independent account of what makes a context art historical, and for not applying to music."

After about 2005, Danto attempted to streamline his definition of art down to two principles: (i) art must have content or meaning and (ii) the art must embody that meaning in some appropriate manner.

The philosophical disenfranchisement of art
Danto's Hegelian position on the history of art and its reception was emphasized in his 1984 plenary address to the World Congress of Aesthetics held in Montreal in that year, and later published as the opening chapter in his book The Philosophical Disenfranchisement of Art. In the essay, Danto takes a contrary position to that of Plato who emphasized that art and artistic endeavors occupied an inferior position of importance among the endeavors of philosophers. Danto summarizes this ancient position of the Socratics with the phrase that "art is dangerous" on page four of the essay, which he then criticizes in the remainder of the essay.

The Hegelian end of art
The basic meaning of the term "art" has changed several times over the centuries and continued to evolve during the 20th century as well. Danto describes the history of Art in his own contemporary version of Hegel's dialectical history of art. "Danto is not claiming that no-one is making art anymore; nor is he claiming that no good art is being made any more. But he thinks that a certain history of western art has come to an end, in about the way that Hegel suggested it would." The "end of art" refers to the beginning of our modern era of art in which art no longer adheres to the constraints of imitation theory but serves a new purpose. Art began with an "era of imitation, followed by an era of ideology, followed by our post-historical era in which, with qualification, anything goes... In our narrative, at first only mimesis [imitation] was art, then several things were art but each tried to extinguish its competitors, and then, finally, it became apparent that there were no stylistic or philosophical constraints. There is no special way works of art have to be. And that is the present and, I should say, the final moment in the master narrative. It is the end of the story."

Art criticism
Arthur Danto was an art critic for The Nation from 1984 to 2009, and also published numerous articles in other journals. In addition, he was an editor of The Journal of Philosophy and a contributing editor of the Naked Punch Review and Artforum. In art criticism, he published several collected essays, including Encounters and Reflections: Art in the Historical Present (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1990), which won the National Book Critics Circle Prize for Criticism in 1990; Beyond the Brillo Box: The Visual Arts in Post-Historical Perspective (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1992); Playing With the Edge: The Photographic Achievement of Robert Mapplethorpe (University of California, 1995); The Madonna of the Future: Essays in a Pluralistic Art World (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2000); and Unnatural Wonders: Essays from the Gap Between Art and Life (Columbia University Press, 2007).

In 1996, he received the Frank Jewett Mather Award for art criticism from the College Art Association. Danto artist friend Sean Scully, to honor his long-term friendship with Danto, published the book Danto on Scully, bringing together the series of five essays Danto had written on the artist over the previous 20 years after Danto's death in 2013.

Books

 * Nietzsche as Philosopher (1965)
 * Analytical Philosophy of History (1965)
 * What Philosophy Is (1968)
 * Analytical Philosophy of Knowledge (1968), republished, within additional material, as Narration and Knowledge (1985)
 * Mysticism and Morality: Oriental Thought and Moral Philosophy (1969)
 * Analytical Philosophy of Action (1973)
 * Jean-Paul Sartre (1975), second edition Sartre (1991)
 * The Transfiguration of the Commonplace (1981)
 * The Philosophical Disenfranchisement of Art (1986)
 * Connections to the World: The Basic Concepts of Philosophy (1989; with new preface, 1997)
 * Encounters and Reflections: Art in the Historical Present (1990)
 * Beyond the Brillo Box: The Visual Arts in Post-Historical Perspective (1992)
 * After the End of Art (1997)
 * The Abuse of Beauty (2003)
 * Andy Warhol (2009)
 * What Art Is (2013)
 * Remarks on Art and Philosophy (2014)
 * Art and Posthistory, Conversations on the End of Aesthetics written with Demetrio Paparoni (2022)

Essay collections

 * The State of the Art (1987)
 * Encounters and Reflections: Art in the Historical Present (1990)
 * Embodied Meanings: Critical Essays and Aesthetic Meditations (1994)
 * The Wake of Art: Criticism, Philosophy, and the Ends of Taste (1998)
 * Philosophizing Art: Selected Essays (1999)
 * The Body/Body Problem: Selected Essays (1999)
 * The Madonna of the Future: Essays in a Pluralistic Art World (2000)
 * Unnatural Wonders: Essays from the Gap Between Art and Life (2007)

Articles, book chapters and other works

 * "The Artworld" (1964) Journal of Philosophy LXI, 571-584
 * Introduction to: Playing With the Edge: The Photographic Achievement of Robert Mapplethorpe (1995)
 * Hegel's End-of-Art Thesis (1999) preprint of article in: Wellbery, David E. (ed.) A New History of German Literature (2004)
 * "The world as ruckus: Red Grooms and the spirit of Comedy" in Red Grooms (2004)
 * "The Poetry of Meaning and Loss: The Glass Dresses of Karen LaMonte" (2005)
 * (with Robert Fleck and Beate Söntgen) Peter Fischli David Weiss (a survey of their oeuvre) (2005)
 * "Weaving as Metaphor" in Sheila Hicks: Weaving as Metaphor (2006)
 * "Architectural Principles in the Art of Sean Scully," Border Crossings, August 2007 #103 (2007)

title: Arthur Danto


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NKVD troika

NKVD troika or Special troika (особая тройка), in Soviet history, were the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs (NKVD which would later be the beginning of the KGB) made up of three officials who issued sentences to people after simplified, speedy investigations and without a public trial. The three members were judge and jury, though they themselves did not carry out the sentences they dealt. These commissions were employed as instruments of extrajudicial punishment introduced to supplement the Soviet legal system with a means for quick and secret execution or imprisonment. It began as an institution of the Cheka, then later became prominent again in the NKVD, when it was used during the Great Purge to execute many hundreds of thousands of Soviet citizens. Defendants in the Troika's proceeding were typically not entitled to legal aid or the presumption of innocence. Convictions usually did not include information about the actual incriminating evidence and basically contained only information about indictment and sentencing. The outcome of such trials was often determined before it even began due to targeted numbers of citizens to be executed or imprisoned in Gulag prison camps.

Troika means "a group of three" or "triad" in Russian.

Background

The first troika was instituted in 1918, the members being Felix Dzerzhinsky, Yakov Peters, and Left SR V. Aleksandrovich.

The first "operational troikas" (оперативная тройка) were introduced in the "centre", in the Moscow military okrug in 1929. The qualifier "operational" denotes they were based on the operational departments of the state police (OGPU). The troikas were tasked with administering quick punishment of anti-Soviet elements, without public trial or investigation. The sentences that were doled out, executions, were to be held in secret.

In January 1930, as part of the collectivization program, the Soviet Politburo authorized the state police to screen the peasant population of the entire Soviet Union. Normal legal procedures were suspended and the corresponding OGPU order of the 2nd of February, specified the measures needed for "the liquidation of the kulaks as a class". This instituted a regional based system for these troikas to work, so that the operations could be handed locally and with a quicker result. In each region, the troikas would decide the fate of the landlords branded as "kulaks". The troika, composed of a member of the state police, a local communist party secretary, and a state procurator, had the authority to issue rapid and severe verdicts (death or exile) without the right to appeal. In effect they served as judges, juries, and executioners.

The secret police troikas became an execution machine, implementing persecutions and torture of priests or other "anti-Soviet elements." This was done in secret and the victims of these trials often stood no chance at fighting the claims placed before them. They were often forced to give evidence against themselves and watch as the members of the troika sentenced them, often to death.

Gradually, troikas were introduced to other parts of the Soviet Union for various and different purposes: "court troikas" (судебная тройка), "extraordinary troikas" (чрезвычайная тройка), and "special troikas" (специальная тройка). At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War the NKVD was tasked with deporting thousands of Germans from the Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. This decree issued from Moscow in 1941 was the responsibility of the Troika and all measures of decrees execution were left in the hands of the so-called three who made up this particular Troika. After the war responsibilities within the government began to shift and in 1952 two special Troikas were crested. The first Troika consisted of Georgy Malenkov, Nikita Khrushchev (who was also heavily involved with the Great Purge and Show trial), and Nikolai Bulganin. The second consisted of Lavrentiy Beria, Mikhail Pervukhin, and Maksim Saburov. These troikas were created to make sure there were clear duties between party and state, although it was common to be involved on both party and state committees this blurred the lines between party and state functions.

Secret Order № 00447 — the "Kulak Operations"
On June 28, 1937, the Politburo issued a decree to set up a troika in West Siberia. While the original intent was to discover if there was a plot stemming from the ROVS, a group of white officers based in Paris, this can be seen as the first step in the creation of order NKVD Order no. 00447.

The NKVD Order no. 00447 by July 30, 1937 О репрессировании бывших кулаков, уголовников и других антисоветских элементов ("Concerning the repression of former kulaks, criminals, and other anti-Soviet elements") undersigned by Nikolai Yezhov. By this order, troikas were created on the levels of republic, krai and oblast. Investigation was to be performed by 'operative groups' "in a speedy and simplified way" and the results were to be delivered to troikas for trials. The regional troikas had control over the target groups, the size of the initial limits, the extension of the deadline for completing the operation, the relationship between the initial limits and the final number of victims" Initially, the target groups were limited to only Kulaks and criminals. After some time it broadened to enemies of the Motherland.

The chairman of a troika was the chief of the corresponding territorial subdivision of NKVD (People's Commissar of a republican NKVD, etc.). Usually a troika included the prosecutor of the republic/krai/oblast in question; if not, he was allowed to be present at the session of a troika. The third person was usually the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) secretary of the corresponding regional level. The staff of these troikas were personally specified in the Order No. 00447. While Order 00447 decreed the personal constitution of all troikas, in the course of the Purge many members of troikas were repressed themselves, so the staff of troikas varied over time.

Protocols of a troika session were passed to the corresponding operative group for executions of sentences. Times and places of executions of death sentences were ordered to be held in secret. Troikas of this purpose were established for a period of 4 months, but functioned for about a year.

When Operation No. 00447 was finally stopped, on November 17, 1938, by the Decree about Arrests, Prosecutor Supervision and Course of Investigation, issued jointly by the Sovnarkom and Central Committee of the CPSU, it is estimated that up to 767,000 persons had been condemned, of whom 387,000 had been executed by shooting.

The "National Operations"
On August 11, 1937, following a Politburo top-secret resolution taken two days earlier, Nikolai Yezhov issued another secret directive, Order No. 00485, aimed at "the complete liquidation of local branches of the Polish Military Organization (POW) and its networks of spies, wreckers and terrorists in industry, transport and agriculture".

Due to a backlog of people being processed by "dvoikas" (two person extrajudicial commissions) as part of the Polish Operations, on September 15, 1938, the Politburo issued the resolution (# П64/22) about the creation of special troikas (Особая тройка) for the period of the Polish operation of the NKVD.

Order No. 00485 served as a model for a series of similar NKVD "National Operations" targeting a number of the Soviet Union's diaspora nationalities and ethnic groups: the German, Finnish, Latvian, Estonian, Romanian, Greek, and Chinese. The NKVD referred to these decrees collectively as "the National Operations" directed against "nationalities of foreign governments".

According to NKVD statistics, from July 1937 to November 1938, 335,513 persons were sentenced by troikas in the course of the implementation of the National Operations. Among them, 247,157 (or 73.6%) were executed by shooting.

The American Jewish Joint Agricultural Cooperation and Birobidzhan (JAR)
The American Jewish Joint Agricultural Cooperation Agro-Joint, 1924–1938 worked to permanently resettle Jews from shtetls (small Jewish settlements) into new agriculture based settlements across Southern Ukraine and Crimea. Agro-Joint had aided in the resettlement of German-Jewish doctors to help grow the living standards of the communities. Germans were among the top nationalities being repressed and eliminated in Soviet Russia during the thirties while Stalin prepared for war with Hitler. During the Great Purge, 1937–38, there was a directive to rid the Soviet lands of all those with outside (non-Soviet) ties or connections. Members of the Agro-Joint, as well as foreign colonies and national diasporas such as the settlements they established, fell squarely within those parameters. Although the Agro-Joint was never intended as a permanent program, the swiftness and fierceness with which it was dismantled by the Soviet Regime shocked those involved, in particular, its leader Joseph Rosen whose network of internal Soviet connections fell to the purges.

In total around 60 high-ranking members of the Agro-Joint staff were arrested, most of whom were tried and sentenced by NKVD Troikas on the grounds of being counter-revolutionaries, nationalists, or spies.

Happening in conjunction with the resettlements by the Agro-Joint was the Soviet Union's attempt at giving the Jewish population a homeland. This was the Jewish Autonomous Region commonly referred to by its central city Birobidzhan established in 1928, though not officially recognized as an Autonomous Region by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of USSR until May 1934. Though conditions were tough and approximately 2/3rds of the original settlers left upon seeing that things were not as promised, those that remained founded Birofeld, the first Jewish collective farm in 1928. In 1936, barely a year after the official recognition as an Autonomous Region, The Great Terror began and the Jewish Party leadership both in Moscow and Birobidzhan was decimated by arrests and fast trials (by troika), resulting in either imprisonment or execution on charges such as "bourgeois nationalism" or being spies for the Germans. Prominent Jewish writer Moyshe Litvakov confessed to being an agent for the Gestapo.

The Katyn Massacre
The Katyn Massacre was a mass execution of around 15,000 Polish military officers carried out by the NKVD during the spring of 1940. The killings took place in the Katyn forest in Russia and other cites. After a request from Polish general Władysław Anders on the whereabouts of the 15,000 Polish POWs in 1941, the Soviet Union replied that the soldiers had fled and could not be located. The whereabouts of these prisoners remained unknown until 1943 when approximately 4,000 bodies were found by German soldiers at the Katyn location. Physical evidence suggested that the soldiers were shot in the back of the head and then buried in large piles. The Soviet Union went on to deny these killings until 1990 when Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev acknowledged that the Soviet Union was, in fact, responsible for the deaths. Many of the documents surrounding the massacre were destroyed and others were not made public until 2010.

According to the released documents, the executions were authorized by a troika consisting of Vsevolod Merkulov, Bogdan Kobulov, and Leonid Bashtakov.

title: NKVD troika