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Footprints (poem)

"Footprints," also known as "Footprints in the Sand," is a popular modern allegorical Christian poem. It describes a person who sees two pairs of footprints in the sand, one of which belonged to God and another to themselves. At some points the two pairs of footprints dwindle to one; it is explained that this is where God carried the protagonist.

Content
This popular text is based in Christian beliefs and describes an experience in which a person is walking on a beach with God. They leave two sets of footprints in the sand. The tracks represent stages of the speaker's life. The two trails dwindle to one, especially at the lowest and most hopeless moments of the person's life. When the narrator questions God, believing that the Lord must have abandoned his love during those times, God gives the explanation, "During your times of trial and suffering, when you see only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you."

Authorship and origin
The authorship of the poem is disputed, with a number of people claiming to have written it. In 2008, Rachel Aviv, in a Poetry Foundation article, discusses the claims of Burrell Webb, Mary Stevenson, Margaret Fishback Powers, and Carolyn Joyce Carty. Later that year, The Washington Post, covering a lawsuit between the claims of Stevenson, Powers, and Carty, said that "At least a dozen people" had claimed credit for the poem.

The three authors who have most strenuously promoted their authorship are Margaret Powers (née Fishback), Carolyn Carty, and Mary Stevenson. Powers says she wrote the poem on Canadian Thanksgiving weekend, in mid-October, 1964. Powers is among the contenders who have resorted to litigation in hopes of establishing a claim. She is occasionally confused with American writer Margaret Fishback. Powers published an autobiography in 1993.

Carolyn Carty also claims to have written the poem in 1963 when she was six years old based on an earlier work by her great-great aunt, a Sunday school teacher. She is known to be a hostile contender of the "Footprints" poem and declines to be interviewed about it, although she writes letters to those who write about the poem online. A collection of poetry by Carty with a claim to authorship of "Footprints" was published in 2004.

Mary Stevenson is also a purported author of the poem circa 1936. A Stevenson biography was published in 1995.

Popular use of phrase
Before its appearance in the 1970s, the phrase "footprints in the sand" occurred in other works. The most dominant usage in prose is in the context of fictional or nonfiction adventure or mystery stories or articles. Prominent fiction includes Daniel Defoe's 1719 novel Robinson Crusoe and Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story "Foot-prints on the Sea-shore" published in the Democratic Review. Hawthorne published the story again in Twice-Told Tales and it has been reprinted many times since. A line in the story reads, "Thus, by tracking our foot-prints in the sand, we track our own nature in its wayward course, and steal a glance upon it, when it never dreams of being so observed. Such glances always make us wiser." Non-fiction includes the 1926 post-kidnapping discovery of Aimee Semple McPherson in the northern Mexican desert.

In the two centuries before 1980, when "Footprints" entered popular American culture, many books, articles, and sermons appeared with "Footprints in the Sand" as a title. Some of them concerned the lives of Christian missionaries. Footprints and Living Songs is an 1883 biography of hymn-writer Frances Ridley Havergal. In 1839, "A Psalm of Life" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow contained the lines:

Lives of great men all remind us We can make our lives sublime, And, departing, leave behind us Footprints on the sands of time.

Within a decade, the last phrase of the poem was being used in public discourse without attribution, apparently on the assumption that any literate reader would know its origin. In some usages "of time" disappeared; later, "on" seems to become "in". "The Object of a Life" (1876) by George Whyte-Melville includes the lines:

To tell of the great example, the Man of compassion and woe; Of footprints left behind Him, in the earthly path He trod, And how the lowest may find Him, who straitly walk with God

was published in the widely read (and plagiarized) Temple Bar. The lines here are strikingly similar in many respects to those seen in contemporaneous hymn lyrics and later poetry.

Biblical background
Deuteronomy 1:31 presents the concept of "God bearing you". The 1609 Douay-Rheims Bible Old Testament translation from Latin into English uses the wording, "And in the wilderness (as thou hast seen) the Lord thy God hath carried thee, as a man is wont to carry his little son, all the way that you have come, until you came to this place." In 1971, the New American Standard Bible used the language "and in the wilderness where you saw how the LORD your God carried you". Nearly identical wording is used in other late-twentieth-century translations, including the New International Version of 1978.

Possible nineteenth century origins
May Riley Smith's poem "If," published without attribution in the Indianapolis Journal in 1869, includes a stanza that describes God's footprints in the sand next to a boy's:

If I could know those little feet were shod in sandals wrought of light in better lands, And that the foot-prints of a tender God ran side by side with his, in golden sands, I could bow cheerfully, and kiss the rod, since Benny was in wiser, safer hands.

June Hadden Hobbs suggested that the origin of the modern "Footprints" is in Mary B. C. Slade's 1871 hymn "Footsteps of Jesus" as "almost surely the source of the notion that Jesus's footprints have narrative significance that influences the way believers conduct their life stories...it allows Jesus and a believer to inhabit the same space at the same time...Jesus travels the path of the believer, instead of the other way around."

A similar argument could be made for Footprints of Jesus by L. B. Thorpe as published in the 1878 The International Lesson Hymnal.

Aviv suggests that the source of the modern "Footprints" allegory is the opening paragraph of Charles Haddon Spurgeon's 1880 sermon "The Education of the Sons of God". He wrote:

"And did you ever walk out upon that lonely desert island upon which you were wrecked, and say, 'I am alone, — alone, — alone, — nobody was ever here before me'? And did you suddenly pull up short as you noticed, in the sand, the footprints of a man? I remember right well passing through that experience; and when I looked, lo! it was not merely the footprints of a man that I saw, but I thought I knew whose feet had left those imprints; they were the marks of One who had been crucified, for there was the print of the nails. So I thought to myself, 'If he has been here, it is a desert island no longer.'"

In 1883, an American encyclopedia of hymns by female writers included Jetty Vogel, an English poet. Vogel's "At the Portal" follows someone looking at their footprints as they deviate from the proper path. Vogel's hymn has an angel's footsteps but lacks the "I carried you" of the modern "Footprints".

In 1892, the Evening Star ran a short story "Footprints in the Sand" written by Flora Haines Loughead for the Star. The work uses a metaphor for Christ, of a father following footprints in the sand of another's child headed for danger, as he wonders, "Why was it that there was nowhere any sign of a larger footprint to guide the little babyish feet?"

Possible 20th century origins
In 1918, Mormon publication The Children's Friend re-published the Loughead piece (credited, but misspelled "Laughead"), ensuring a wider distribution in the western states. Chicago area poet Lucille Veneklasen frequently submitted poems to the Chicago Tribune in the 1940s and 1950s; one entitled "Footprints" was published in the Tribune in late 1958:

 * I walked the road to sorrow—a road so dark with care, so lonely, I was certain that no one else was there.
 * But suddenly around me were beams of light, stretched wide; and then I saw that someone was walking by my side.
 * And when I turned to notice this road which I had trod, I saw two sets of footprints—My own... and those of God.

Veneklasen's poem appeared occasionally in newspaper obituaries, commonly lacking attribution, and often with the decease substituted for "I".

In 1963 and 1964, the Aiken Standard and Review in South Carolina ran a poem by frequent contributor M. L. Sullivan titled "Footprints". This was a bit of romantic verse that moves from sadness at "lone footprints in the sand" to close with "our footprints in the sand".

Early documentable history
The earliest known formally dated publications of any variants of the poem are from 1978, with three different descriptions of the person and also the setting. The first to appear in July 1978, in a small Iowa town newspaper, is a very concise (six-sentence) version featuring an "elderly man" and "rocky roads". There is no attribution for this piece, and this version does not seem to have appeared in any other publication.

An elderly man, who had lived his life and left this world to go and meet his Maker asked the Lord a question. "As I'm looking down on the paths I've trod, I see two sets of footprints on the easy paths. But down the rocky roads I see only one set of footprints. "Tell me, Lord, why did you let me go down all those hard paths alone?" The Lord smiled and simply replied, "Oh, my son, you've got that all wrong! I carried you over those hard paths."

The second and most complete early appearance was in a September 1978 issue of Evangel, a semi-monthly Church of God publication. This version is similar to the "Carty" version but is credited to "Author Unknown—(Submitted by Billy Walker)". A third version appeared in October 1978, in two California papers, first in Oakland and twelve days later in Shafter, with a "young woman" and a "sandy pathway" in a "desert wilderness". This version does not appear to have re-emerged later.

[A] young woman who was going through hard times ... began to pray to God for help. ... [S]uddenly in her mind's eye she saw two sets of footprints side by side on a sandy pathway. Immediately her spirits lifted because she interpreted this to mean that God was with her and was walking beside her. Then the picture changed. She now saw the footprints located in a vast desert wilderness, and instead of two sets of footprints, there was only one. Why was God no longer beside her? As despair settled back over her, she began to cry. Then the inner voice of God softly spoke and said, "I have not left you. The one set of footprints is mine. You see, I am carrying you through the wilderness."

In 1979, additional appearances occurred: two in small Louisiana and Mississippi newspapers, one in a Catholic journal, two in widely syndicated newspapers columns, one on a nationwide radio program and reprinted by two small papers, and one in a prominent evangelist's biography. In January 1979, the Opelousas, Louisiana, Daily World published a near exact Carty version but with a "My dear child" mutation at the end, and no attribution.

In March, the Winona Times presented a Powers-like version with "a certain elderly man ... walking along a sea shore" where "Out of the waves shot rays of light, mystic and wonderful that played across the sky illuminating scenes from his life". He was "sorely troubled and his life had been at its saddest and lowest ebb."

The March 1979 issue of Liguorian, a monthly publication of the Catholic Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, published a complete, nearly unmodified first-person version following Carty, but attributed to "Author Unknown".

Christian televangelist and columnist Robert Schuller noted in his column that a reader had sent him a story; it is unclear whether the version presented in the column—which casts a "pilgrim" as the human character—was used verbatim or was rewritten by Schuller: this particular version has not been re-published after the column's original nationwide publication during March–August, 1979.

[A] pilgrim arrived in heaven and God said to him, "Would you like to see where you've come from?" When the pilgrim responded that he would, God unfolded the story of his whole life and he saw footprints from the cradle to the grave. Only there were not only the footprints of the pilgrim, but another set of prints alongside. The pilgrim said, "I see my footprints, but whose are those?" And the Lord said, "Those are My footprints. I was with you all the time." Then they came to a dark, discouraging valley and the pilgrim said, "I see only one set of footprints through that valley. I was so discouraged. You were not there with me. It was just as I thought–I was so all alone!" Then the Lord said, "Oh, but I was there. I was with you the whole time. You see, those are MY footprints. I carried you all through that valley."

In April 1979, the Havre Daily News in Montana published a variant of the Carty version told in first person with slightly different punctuation and a "never, never" alteration to match the "precious, precious child" of the previous sentence. The author of the local weekly column noted that it had been supplied by a friend who had "first heard [it] when Paul Harvey quoted it on his radio program." It is unknown whether the listener had copied it down from memory or received a written version from Mr. Harvey or elsewhere. No recordings or transcriptions of Mr. Harvey's daily radio news and commentary broadcasts are known to have survived. A verbatim copy of the Havre instance ran in a small, inmate-produced newsletter published by the Napa State Hospital, in July 1979.

Advice columnist Ann Landers published an exact copy of the Stevenson version in July 1979. The column indicates that the correspondent who provided the work, claims to have carried a tattered copy around "for years" with no further explanation of its publication source. She printed the piece again in late February 1982 in response to reader demand and noted that it had also appeared in Reader's Digest. The 1982 republication added a novel phrase "I would never desert you".

Christian televangelist Jerry Falwell's 1979 biography, Jerry Falwell: Aflame for God, opens a chapter with an expanded "a man dreamed" version.

Humorist and columnist Erma Bombeck published a condensed version of Stevenson's variant in July 1980.

During the 1980 United States presidential campaign, Ronald Reagan used a variant of "Footprints", with himself as the human, as the closing lines in an August speech to evangelical leaders in Dallas, Texas. President Reagan used "Footprints" again in a speech at the annual National Prayer Breakfast on February 5, 1981. These versions appear to be Stevenson paraphrases.

Advice columnist "Dear Abby" ran a Carty version attributed to "Author Unknown" in late 1981.

Influence
In 1983, Cristy Lane released a country gospel song based on the poem called "Footprints in the Sand". The song peaked at No. 64 on the Billboard Country chart and No. 30 on the U.S. Christian chart.

The 1983 television movie Choices of the Heart closes with lead character Jean Donovan reciting a condensed version of Powers/Carty.

In 1984, Ken Brown published a version of the poem in rhyme and rhythm as opposed to the more commonly known free form versions popular today.

In 1994, English singer Chris de Burgh included a summary of the poem as the fourth stanza in his song "Snows of New York" in the album This Way Up: In my dream we walked, you and I to the shore / Leaving footprints by the sea / And when there was just one set of prints in the sand / That was when you carried me.

Per Magnusson, David Kreuger, Richard Page, and Simon Cowell wrote a song based on the poem, called "Footprints in the Sand", which was recorded by Leona Lewis. It appears on Lewis's debut album Spirit. "Footprints in the Sand" became the official theme of the 2008 version of biennial charity programme Sport Relief, by the BBC. Another song inspired by the poem called "Footprints" was recorded by Dancehall/Reggae group T.O.K.

The poem is parodied in the Half Man Half Biscuit song "Footprints", off the 1993 album This Leaden Pall. In the song, the Lord explains the fact that there is only one set of footprints this way: "During your times of trial and suffering, when you see only one set of footprints, that must have been when I was appearing on . . . Junior Kick Start!"

The poem was also the inspiration and chorus for the G-Unit song "Footprints", from their 2003 debut album "Beg For Mercy".

The 2006 eroge H2O: Footprints in the Sand uses this poem as its central motif. A Japanese translation of this poem is also recited in the Jabberwocky 2 chapter of the 2010 eroge Wonderful Everyday.

The poem was used in the memorial service for Air France Flight 447 on 3 June 2009.

In 2016, a larger-than-life sculpture inspired by the poem was installed at Pippen Memorial Park in Carthage, Texas.

Kanye West referenced this poem in his 2016 song “Saint Pablo.”

title: Footprints (poem)


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Momentum operator

In quantum mechanics, the momentum operator is the operator associated with the linear momentum. The momentum operator is, in the position representation, an example of a differential operator. For the case of one particle in one spatial dimension, the definition is: $$\hat{p} = - i \hbar \frac{\partial}{\partial x} $$ where $ħ$ is Planck's reduced constant, $i$ the imaginary unit, $x$ is the spatial coordinate, and a partial derivative (denoted by $$\partial/\partial x$$) is used instead of a total derivative ($d/dx$) since the wave function is also a function of time. The "hat" indicates an operator. The "application" of the operator on a differentiable wave function is as follows: $$ \hat{p}\psi = - i \hbar \frac{\partial \psi}{\partial x} $$

In a basis of Hilbert space consisting of momentum eigenstates expressed in the momentum representation, the action of the operator is simply multiplication by $p$, i.e. it is a multiplication operator, just as the position operator is a multiplication operator in the position representation. Note that the definition above is the canonical momentum, which is not gauge invariant and not a measurable physical quantity for charged particles in an electromagnetic field. In that case, the canonical momentum is not equal to the kinetic momentum.

At the time quantum mechanics was developed in the 1920s, the momentum operator was found by many theoretical physicists, including Niels Bohr, Arnold Sommerfeld, Erwin Schrödinger, and Eugene Wigner. Its existence and form is sometimes taken as one of the foundational postulates of quantum mechanics.

Origin from de Broglie plane waves
The momentum and energy operators can be constructed in the following way.

One dimension
Starting in one dimension, using the plane wave solution to Schrödinger's equation of a single free particle, $$ \psi(x, t) = e^{\frac{i}{\hbar}(px - Et)},$$ where $p$ is interpreted as momentum in the $x$-direction and $E$ is the particle energy. The first order partial derivative with respect to space is $$ \frac{\partial \psi(x, t)}{\partial x} = \frac{ip}{\hbar} e^{\frac{i}{\hbar}(px - Et)} = \frac{ip}{\hbar} \psi.$$

This suggests the operator equivalence $$ \hat{p} = -i\hbar \frac{\partial }{\partial x}$$ so the momentum of the particle and the value that is measured when a particle is in a plane wave state is the eigenvalue of the above operator.

Since the partial derivative is a linear operator, the momentum operator is also linear, and because any wave function can be expressed as a superposition of other states, when this momentum operator acts on the entire superimposed wave, it yields the momentum eigenvalues for each plane wave component. These new components then superimpose to form the new state, in general not a multiple of the old wave function.

Three dimensions
The derivation in three dimensions is the same, except the gradient operator del is used instead of one partial derivative. In three dimensions, the plane wave solution to Schrödinger's equation is: $$ \psi = e^{\frac{i}{\hbar}(\mathbf{p}\cdot\mathbf{r}-E t)}$$ and the gradient is $$ \begin{align} \nabla \psi &= \mathbf{e}_x\frac{\partial \psi}{\partial x} + \mathbf{e}_y\frac{\partial \psi}{\partial y} + \mathbf{e}_z\frac{\partial \psi}{\partial z} \\ & = \frac{i}{\hbar} \left ( p_x\mathbf{e}_x + p_y\mathbf{e}_y+ p_z\mathbf{e}_z \right)\psi \\ & = \frac{i}{\hbar} \mathbf{p}\psi \end{align}$$ where $e_{x}$, $e_{y}$, and $e_{z}$ are the unit vectors for the three spatial dimensions, hence $$ \mathbf{\hat{p}} = -i \hbar \nabla$$

This momentum operator is in position space because the partial derivatives were taken with respect to the spatial variables.

Definition (position space)
For a single particle with no electric charge and no spin, the momentum operator can be written in the position basis as: $$\mathbf{\hat{p}}=-i\hbar\nabla$$ where $∇$ is the gradient operator, $ħ$ is the reduced Planck constant, and $i$ is the imaginary unit.

In one spatial dimension, this becomes $$\hat{p}=\hat{p}_x=-i\hbar{\partial \over \partial x}.$$

This is the expression for the canonical momentum. For a charged particle $q$ in an electromagnetic field, during a gauge transformation, the position space wave function undergoes a local U(1) group transformation, and $ \hat{p}\psi = - i \hbar \frac{\partial \psi}{\partial x} $ will change its value. Therefore, the canonical momentum is not gauge invariant, and hence not a measurable physical quantity.

The kinetic momentum, a gauge invariant physical quantity, can be expressed in terms of the canonical momentum, the scalar potential $φ$ and vector potential $A$: $$\mathbf{\hat{P}} = -i\hbar\nabla - q\mathbf{A} $$

The expression above is called minimal coupling. For electrically neutral particles, the canonical momentum is equal to the kinetic momentum.

Hermiticity
The momentum operator is always a Hermitian operator (more technically, in math terminology a "self-adjoint operator") when it acts on physical (in particular, normalizable) quantum states.

(In certain artificial situations, such as the quantum states on the semi-infinite interval $[0, ∞)$, there is no way to make the momentum operator Hermitian. This is closely related to the fact that a semi-infinite interval cannot have translational symmetry—more specifically, it does not have unitary translation operators. See below.)

Canonical commutation relation
By applying the commutator to an arbitrary state in either the position or momentum basis, one can easily show that: $$ \left [ \hat{x}, \hat{p} \right ] = \hat{x} \hat{p} - \hat{p} \hat{x} = i \hbar \mathbb{I}, $$

where $$ \mathbb{I}$$ is the unit operator. The Heisenberg uncertainty principle defines limits on how accurately the momentum and position of a single observable system can be known at once. In quantum mechanics, position and momentum are conjugate variables.

Fourier transform
The following discussion uses the bra–ket notation. One may write $$ \psi(x)=\langle x|\psi\rangle =\int\!\!dp~ \langle x|p\rangle \langle p|\psi\rangle = \int\!\!dp~ {e^{ixp/\hbar} \tilde \psi (p) \over \sqrt{2\pi\hbar}},$$ so the tilde represents the Fourier transform, in converting from coordinate space to momentum space. It then holds that $$ \hat{p}=   \int\!\!dp~      |  p    \rangle p \langle p|=   -i\hbar      \int\!\!dx~ |  x \rangle  \frac{ d}{d x} \langle x| ~,  $$ that is, the momentum acting in coordinate space corresponds to spatial frequency, $$ \langle x | \hat{p} | \psi \rangle = - i \hbar \frac{d}{dx} \psi ( x ) .$$

An analogous result applies for the position operator in the momentum basis, $$ \langle p | \hat{x} | \psi \rangle =  i \hbar \frac{d}{dp} \psi ( p ), $$ leading to further useful relations, $$ \langle p | \hat{x} | p' \rangle = i \hbar \frac{d}{dp} \delta (p - p') ,$$ $$ \langle x | \hat{p} | x' \rangle = -i \hbar \frac{d}{dx} \delta (x - x') ,$$ where $δ$ stands for Dirac's delta function.

Derivation from infinitesimal translations
The translation operator is denoted $T(ε)$, where $ε$ represents the length of the translation. It satisfies the following identity: $$ T(\varepsilon) | \psi \rangle = \int dx T(\varepsilon) | x \rangle \langle x | \psi \rangle $$ that becomes $$\int dx | x + \varepsilon \rangle \langle x |\psi \rangle = \int dx | x \rangle \langle x - \varepsilon | \psi \rangle = \int dx | x \rangle \psi(x - \varepsilon) $$

Assuming the function $ψ$ to be analytic (i.e. differentiable in some domain of the complex plane), one may expand in a Taylor series about $x$: $$\psi(x-\varepsilon) = \psi(x) - \varepsilon \frac{d \psi}{dx} $$ so for infinitesimal values of $ε$: $$ T(\varepsilon) = 1 - \varepsilon {d \over dx} = 1 - {i \over \hbar} \varepsilon \left ( - i \hbar { d \over dx} \right )$$

As it is known from classical mechanics, the momentum is the generator of translation, so the relation between translation and momentum operators is: $$ T(\varepsilon) = 1 - \frac{i}{\hbar} \varepsilon \hat{p}$$ thus $$ \hat{p} = - i \hbar \frac{d}{dx}. $$

4-momentum operator
Inserting the 3d momentum operator above and the energy operator into the 4-momentum (as a 1-form with $(+ − − −)$ metric signature): $$P_\mu = \left(\frac{E}{c},-\mathbf{p}\right)$$

obtains the 4-momentum operator: $$\hat{P}_\mu = \left(\frac{1}{c}\hat{E},-\mathbf{\hat{p}}\right) = i\hbar\left(\frac{1}{c} \frac{\partial}{\partial t}, \nabla\right) = i\hbar\partial_\mu $$

where $∂_{μ}$is the 4-gradient, and the $−iħ$ becomes $+iħ$ preceding the 3-momentum operator. This operator occurs in relativistic quantum field theory, such as the Dirac equation and other relativistic wave equations, since energy and momentum combine into the 4-momentum vector above, momentum and energy operators correspond to space and time derivatives, and they need to be first order partial derivatives for Lorentz covariance.

The Dirac operator and Dirac slash of the 4-momentum is given by contracting with the gamma matrices: $$ \gamma^\mu\hat{P}_\mu = i\hbar \gamma^\mu\partial_\mu = \hat{P} = i\hbar\partial \!\!\!/$$

If the signature was $(− + + +)$, the operator would be $$\hat{P}_\mu = \left(-\frac{1}{c}\hat{E},\mathbf{\hat{p}}\right) = -i\hbar\left(\frac{1}{c}\frac{\partial}{\partial t},\nabla\right) = -i\hbar\partial_\mu$$

instead.

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

title: Momentum operator


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Popolarismo

Popolarismo (Popularism) is the term Italian politician Luigi Sturzo used to describe his political doctrine that formed the ideological basis for the Italian Popular Party and later Christian Democracy. In the Papal Encyclical Graves de Communi, (1901) Pope Leo XIII did not want Christian Democracy to enter the political sphere, and restricted it to the social action. Sturzo developed Popularism as an alternative means of political action, which had an ideological focus on the people. As one academic notes:

"To put it in a nutshell, Popularism was a political version of its predecessor, the prevalently social Christian Democracy."

In this European context, Popularism helped Catholics come to accept democratic institutions, alongside inspiring the French Popular Democratic Party (formed 1924), the Spanish Partido Social Popular, and the People and Freedom group (formed 1936), which Sturzo helped form in London. Sturzo outlined his conception of popularism as follows: "Popularism is democratic, but it differs from liberal democracy in that it denies the individualist and centralising system of the State and wishes the State to be organic and decentralised. It is liberal (in the wholesome sense of the word) because it takes its stand on the civil and political liberties, which it upholds as equal for all, without party monopolies and without persecution of religion, races or classes. It is social in the sense of a radical reform of the present capitalist system, but it parts company with socialism because it admits of private property while insisting on the social function of such property. It proclaims its Christian character because to-day there can be no ethics or civilisation other than Christian. Popularism was the antithesis of the totalitarian State."

In describing Popularism, Sturzo refers to the political program of the Italian Popular Party, which called for the state to recognize natural communities, such as the family, the classes and the communes, proportional representation and universal suffrage for women, for an elected senate to represent the managers, trade unions and academics, the decentralization of power and greater regional autonomy, freedom of religion, the demonopolisation of education, and pro workers legislation generally. The Popular Democratic Party's most significant theorist was Marcel Prélot, who was Struzo's French translator. He said the Popular Democratic Party:

"called themselves démocrate populaires in spite of the slight pleonasm of the term in order to underline, on one hand, their determined adherence to government 'for the people' and 'by the people'; in order, on the other hand, to indicate their organic and anti-individualistic conception of social life."

Academics have noted that Popularism relates to the Christian Democratic notions of the people, and democracy.

The notion of the people is that the people extend beyond the working class, and actually encompasses the whole of society. But it is not a mass aggregation of individuals; the people is an organically unified community, but also internally diverse community. Christian Democratic parties have invoked the people when naming themselves “popular” or “People’s Parties”. In this invocation, Christian Democratic parties aim for two things. The first is to work towards a policy that is for the good of all the members of society as opposed to parties that promote the good of a specific group (i.e. class). The second refers to a society where the people live in a kind of harmony and where people and groups are interested in and care about each other. In practice, the specific religious nature of the Christian Democratic parties has enabled them to cut across the class divide.

The notion of the democracy that derives from this reflects the socio-economic diversity of people by advocating inclusive forms of democracy. This has led to the Christian Democratic call for Proportional Representation. Christian Democrats have also called for Pillarization, which where representatives is based on a vast array of complex social organizations ingrained in the fabric of society. Often, these organizations play an intermediary role to democracy.

In light of the 100th Anniversary of the Establishment of the Italian Popular Party, the Luigi Sturzo Institute has aimed to increase the general knowledge about the party, and noted that:

"Popularism is characterized by the constructive capacity of new political forms, by the demand for institutional reforms and by the disposition to listen to changes in society."

Modern Christian Democrats have called for Popularism. In 2019, after a meeting with Pope Francis and Donald Tusk, Charles Michel noted the differences between Popularism (popolarismo) and Populism (populismo):"With Pope Francis we discussed the difference between ‘populismo’ and ‘popolarismo’ distinguishing the politics of ‘pleasing the people’ from the politics of ‘for the people’. A key question for European Christian Democrats."Donald Tusk, would later refer to this meeting at the European People's Party congress in Zagreb, and call for "responsible popularity" over "irresponsible populism". Pope Francis would later call for Popularism instead of Populism in a video message for the release of his book Let us Dream: The Path to a Better Future.

title: Popolarismo


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Émile-Justin Menier

Émile-Justin Menier (18 May 1826 – 17 February 1881), French pharmaceutical manufacturer, chocolatier, and politician, was born in Paris. In 1853, on the death of his father, Antoine, Émile-Justin Menier inherited a large and successful Parisian company that manufactured a range of medicinal powders.

His father's company also manufactured chocolate as part of its business and Émile-Justin Menier would eventually devote himself to the making of chocolate. His Menier Chocolate company purchased cocoa-growing estates in Nicaragua and sugar beet fields in France, erected a processing mill, and equipped itself in other ways for the production of chocolate on a large scale. In 1864 he sold his interest in the drug-manufacturing business, and thenceforth confined himself to chocolate, building up an immense trade. He built a factory in London in 1870 and the next year he hired architect Jules Saulnier to design a new chocolate factory to replace their existing facility in Noisiel.

Émile-Justin Menier was also a keen politician, serving as mayor of Noisiel from 1871-1881. Members of the family would be the commune's mayor until 1959. From 1876 until his death he had a seat in the French National Assembly, his general views being strongly Republican, while he consistently opposed protectionist trade policies. Menier was the author of several works on fiscal and economic questions, notably L'impôt sur le capital (1872), La Réforme fiscale (1872), Economie rurale (1875), L'Avenir économique (1875–1878), Atlas de la production de la richesse (1878) and, published in the English language by G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York City in 1878, France And The United States: Their Present Commercial Relations Considered With Reference to a Treaty of Reciprocity (downloadable)

Émile-Justin Menier was made an Officer of the Legion of Honor in 1878. He died at Noisiel-sur-Marne in 1881 and was interred in the Père-Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. His sons Henri and Gaston succeeded him in the business. Members of the Menier family would run the chocolate company until 1959.

In 1898, a statue of Émile-Justin Menier was erected in the town square in Noisiel.

title: Émile-Justin Menier


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Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/AttentionTrust

 This page is an archive of the proposed deletion of the article below. Further comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or on a Votes for Undeletion nomination). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result of the debate was delete. Joyous (talk) 21:55, July 30, 2005 (UTC)

AttentionTrust
Notability not established. Possible vanity. Note that according to the external link provided, they have no members! "AttentionTrust" only gets 3 Google hits. Sonic Mew | talk to me 18:45, July 22, 2005 (UTC)
 * Response: We are currently hosting the founding conference. The site will be up in the next few hours. If you would prefer us to hold back on this entry until then, we can comply. Thanks. (Unsigned response by )

 * Delete, vanity. If you're the ones founding this organization you shouldn't be the ones listing on Wikipedia. Wait till you've gotten media coverage, then someone unaffiliated with your group will add it if it's notable enough. --Angr/undefined 19:33, 22 July 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete. Sounds like self-promotion from another misguided person that believes a Wikipedia article begets notability, when it's really the other way around. "Attention Trust" doesn't seem to find anything relevant either. Niteowlneils 19:39, 22 July 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete. It would seem to me that if you just had the founding conference several hours ago, you can't possibly be worthy of an encyclopedia article yet. Aerion//talk 04:28, 23 July 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete self promotion. JamesBurns 04:38, 23 July 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete premature. It strikes me that the notion of Attention Trust and the advocacy that goes with it is being formulated now, and there is a better way to attract attention to AttentionTrust.  Later, it may be appropriate to tie into any Wikipedia treatment of social arrangements and protocols for internet-participating communities. Orcmid 16:37, 24 July 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete. Probably means well, but anybody can put up a website with this kind of empty sloganeering on it. Please come back when you have some record of accomplishment. --Michael Snow 23:28, 28 July 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete premature. When AttentionTrust has adoption and a following it would be apropriate for someone else to establish a wikipeida entry. Cori.schlegel 11:27, 29 July 2005 (UTC)

 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in an undeletion request). No further edits should be made to this page.


text: User talk:152.3.245.7

title: User talk:152.3.245.7


text:
20th Engineer Brigade (United States)

The 20th Engineer Brigade is a combat engineer brigade assigned to the XVIII Airborne Corps of the United States Army stationed at Fort Liberty. Although the brigade was identified as an airborne unit, not all of its subordinate units were airborne qualified—despite the airborne tab as part of the unit patch. Soldiers of the 20th Engineer Brigade provide various supportive duties to other Army units, including construction, engineering, and mechanical work on other Army projects.

Though its predecessor units have lineage that dates back before the American Civil War, the formation was not formally designated as the 20th Engineer Brigade until its activation on 16 August 1950, at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. Deploying overseas in November 1952, it supported construction projects in southwestern France until its return to the US on 10 September 1954. From then until its inactivation on 12 December 1958, it provided support to XVIII Airborne Corps.

Reactivated on 1 May 1967, at Fort Liberty, the brigade deployed to South Vietnam where it supported American forces for several years and a dozen campaigns. The brigade was deactivated on 20 September 1971, as American forces withdrew from the country.

Reactivated as an airborne brigade on 21 June 1974 at Fort Liberty, NC, the unit has since seen numerous overseas tours, including to Kuwait during the Persian Gulf War, Kosovo, Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom, and Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation New Dawn. It has also independently conducted various humanitarian missions in the United States and in other nations throughout the world.

Organization
The 20th Engineer Brigade currently consists of two engineer battalions: the Brigade Headquarters and Headquarters Company (HHC) as well as the 27th Engineer Battalion are headquartered at Fort Liberty, North Carolina while the 19th Engineer Battalion (Construction Effects) headquartered at Fort Knox, Kentucky, the 46th Engineer Battalion, split between Fort Johnson, Louisiana and Fort Drum, New York, and the 92nd Engineer Battalion at Fort Stewart, Georgia.

The 307th Engineer Battalion, formerly assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division, was reactivated effective 16 September 2010 by reflagging the existing 37th Engineer Battalion. In 2014 the 307th was transferred to the 3d Brigade Combat Team of the 82nd Airborne Division.

The insignia was originally authorized on 30 June 1967. It was amended on 14 January 1975 to add the blue and white "Airborne" tab. The tab is part of the unit insignia and does not indicate whether an individual soldier is Airborne-qualified. Parachute wings on an individual soldier indicate Airborne-qualification. While the brigade headquarters was on jump status, some subordinate elements were not.

On 16 September 2009, the brigade's Airborne status was terminated and the "Airborne" tab on the brigade's shoulder sleeve insignia was removed.

Lineage
The lineage and honors of the 20th Engineer Brigade date back to the American Civil War. First designated as the Battalion of Engineers on 3 August 1861, the battalion participated in 10 campaigns during the Civil War. Since that time, unit designations have changed many times as predecessors of the 20th Engineer Brigade have served in the Spanish–American War, the Philippine–American War, the Mexican Expedition, World War I and World War II. Though it was not officially designated as the 20th Engineer Brigade during all of these wars, the Brigade received campaign participation credit for all of these campaigns, and has numerous campaign streamers for what its previous incarnations did during these conflicts.

On 16 August 1950 the brigade was first designated as the 20th Engineer Brigade and activated at Camp Leonard Wood, Missouri. It deployed overseas to France in November 1952 and established headquarters in Croix Chapeau. Comprising two battalions and six separate companies, the brigade provided engineer construction support to the Base Section of the European COMMZ in southwestern France. In August 1954, it redeployed back to the United States and was activated at Fort Liberty, North Carolina, on 10 September 1954. From that time until its inactivation on 12 December 1958, the brigade provided engineer support to the XVIII Airborne Corps.

Vietnam War and aftermath
In response to the buildup of U.S. forces in South Vietnam, the brigade headquarters was reactivated 1 May 1967, at Fort Liberty and deployed to Vietnam in August 1967. During the Vietnam War, the brigade numbered over 13,000 officers and enlisted men organized into three engineer groups, with 14 battalions and 31 separate companies and detachments. One of these soldiers, Al Gore, would later become Vice President of the United States.

The brigade provided all non-divisional engineer support in Military Regions III and IV during eleven campaigns. Units cleared more than one-half million acres (2,000 km2) of jungle, paved 500 kilometers of highway, and constructed bridges totaling more than six miles (10 km) in length. As American forces were withdrawing from Vietnam, the brigade was inactivated 20 September 1971.

As the organization of the Army changed following Vietnam, the 20th Engineer Brigade was again reactivated at Fort Liberty, North Carolina as an airborne brigade on 21 June 1974. Assigned as a subordinate command of the XVIII Airborne Corps, which comprised one airborne combat engineer battalion, a heavy construction battalion and four separate companies. Additionally, the 283rd Engineer Detachment (Terrain Analysis) provided terrain intelligence needs of the brigade's mission. Since that time the brigade and its subordinate units supported the XVIII Airborne Corps, fulfilling critical combat engineer, construction, topographic, and bridging missions. In the wake of February 1976 Guatemalan earthquake, the brigade participated in humanitarian aid and rebuilding efforts of a major highway, CA-9.

The brigade participated in the recovery efforts following the Great Lakes Blizzard of 1977. Over 300 members of the unit were dispatched to New York State to help with recovery efforts. As requirements and the engineer force structure changed, the brigade inactivated the 548th Engineer Battalion (Combat)(Heavy) in 1987 and activated the 37th Engineer Battalion (Combat)(Airborne). In 1989, the 30th Engineer Battalion (Topographic) was added to the brigade. Over the years, the brigade has provided engineer support to XVIII Airborne Corps and other Army commands. In addition to training, it has deployed in support of operations across the entire spectrum of conflict from disaster relief to combat operations.

Gulf War
The brigade was called to support the multinational response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait on 2 August 1990. The brigade grew to a 7,700 soldier force composed of three groups, ten battalions, four separate companies, and eight detachments in support of XVIII Airborne Corps during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. The brigade completed 1,500 combat heavy battalions equivalent days of work constructing roads, airfields, heliports, ammunition/fuel/water storage points, life support areas and forward landing strips, distributed over ten million maps, trained over 5,000 coalition engineers, and supported the French attack on Assalman airfield. During follow-on missions the brigade destroyed over 6,000 enemy bunkers and one million tons of munitions.

After the Gulf War, elements of the brigade were dispatched to Haiti on a humanitarian mission. The 20th Engineer Brigade was assigned to construct base camps, improve the Haitian infrastructure, participate in humanitarian service projects, and assist with the reestablishment of public services, with a goal of improving overall quality of life within the country.

Since 11 September 2001, it has participated in repeated operations in Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq.

First Iraq tour
In November 2004 the brigade headquarters deployed to Camp Victory, Iraq in support of OIF 04-06. The brigade grew to a size of 6,100 personnel in of three brigade headquarters companies, seven battalions, six separate companies and nine detachments. The brigade served as the Multi-National Corps – Iraq corps-level engineer headquarters for all echelon-above-division engineers in Iraq, providing command and control for general support combat and construction engineer missions across the country. During its deployment, the 20th Engineer Brigade patrolled 57,950 kilometers of roads for Improvised Explosive Devices, expanded 14 bases in support of the MNC-I basing plan; emplaced or maintained 16 bridges; expanded detention capacity for 6,000 detainees; trained over 53,000 coalition soldiers on explosives hazards awareness; reduced over 11,000 caches and over 80,000 tons of explosive munitions. Other missions included repair of an airfield known as "Key West" by light equipment elements, support of the Long Range Surveillance Detachment, 313th Military Intelligence Battalion, 82nd Airborne Division based in Zakhu, located in Iraqi Kurdistan. Another task for the Brigade was to assist British engineers in a systematic mapping of the entire nation and creating an Iraqi Geospatial Reference System, in order to make national reconstruction easier and more organized. The 20th Brigade suffered at least one casualty during its tour in Iraq, with a soldier killed by an enemy Improvised Explosive Device on 22 August 2005 in Ad Dwar when an explosive device destroyed his vehicle. During its deployment to Iraq, the Unit assumed command of several additional battalions from the Army National Guard, forcing existing formations of the unit to cope with additional responsibilities. Seemingly elements of the 107th and 507th Engineer Battalions of the Michigan Army National Guard, the 30th Engineer Brigade (TA) of the North Carolina Army National Guard and the 194th Engineer Brigade of the Tennessee National Guard were part of the brigade.

Second Iraq tour
The brigade again deployed to Iraq for the OIF 07-09 rotation. This time, the brigade was headquartered in Balad, Iraq. The brigade was given Husky Mine Detection vehicles and Buffalo mine protected carrier vehicles for the deployment. The brigade was responsible for providing combat, geospatial and general engineering and reconstruction operations in partnership with Provincial Reconstruction Teams, Civil Service Corps, Sons of Iraq and Iraqi Army engineers, as well as training and assisting the Iraqi Army and provincial engineers in the rebuilding of the infrastructure of Iraq. As of May 2008, the brigade had constructed 10 major bridges and destroyed or captured IED cells in nine of the country's provinces. During the deployment it was visited by Lieutenant General Lloyd J. Austin III, the commanding general of Multi-National Corps Iraq. The brigade was scheduled to return to Fort Liberty in the fall of 2008, to be replaced by the 555th Engineer Brigade. This was completed during a transfer of authority ceremony on 29 September 2008. The brigade then began redeploying to Fort Liberty, completing its return by November 2008. A year later, in August 2009, the brigade held a ceremony promoting dozens of its soldiers to the rank of Sergeant.

Notable soldiers
Numerous soldiers who have served in the 20th Engineer Brigade have later achieved fame for various reasons, most of them having served the 20th in Vietnam. Former 20th Engineer Brigade soldiers and engineers include Chief of Engineers Robert B. Flowers, Governor of the Panama Canal Zone Harold Parfitt, Vice President of the United States and Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore, Sergeant Major of the Army Leon L. Van Autreve, and West Virginian state Senator Richard Ojeda.

title: 20th Engineer Brigade (United States)


text:
William J. Kossler Award

The Captain William J. Kossler, USCG Award is given by the American Helicopter Society (AHS) International for "the greatest achievement in practical application or operation of rotary wing aircraft, the value of which has been demonstrated by actual service during the preceding calendar year." The award consists of one certificate for the selected individual or crew and honors the memory of William J. Kossler, a U.S. Coast Guard airman, aeronautical engineer and early advocate of helicopters in USCG operations.

The annual award was first given in 1951, to Col. Richard T. Knight, U.S. Air Force. Other individual recipients have included Don R. Berlin, James M. Gavin, Keith B. McCutcheon and Paul A. Yost, Jr.

Group or crew recipients have included "USSR Military and Civilian Helicopter Pilots Flying Initial Operations at Site of Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster, April-May, 1986", "Army National Guard Aviation, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita (2006)", "Australian Search and Rescue Helicopters/Sydney-Hobart Yacht Race (1999)" and "Canadian Air Force Flight Crew of Labrador 303, 413 Squadron (1997)".

title: William J. Kossler Award


text: User talk:152.3.245.8

title: User talk:152.3.245.8


text:
User:Scoi007

Scott Isaac Tao Dai
Born February 12th, 1983 in Shanghai, China.

Currently works in Corporate Communications for TerraSim, Inc. in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania after graduating from Carnegie Mellon University.

title: User:Scoi007


text:
Singapore Civil Defence Force

The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) is a uniformed organisation in Singapore under the Ministry of Home Affairs that provides emergency services such as firefighting, technical rescue, and emergency medical services, and coordinates national civil defence programme.

History
Singapore's first Fire Committee was formed in 1855. Prior to this, fires were attended to by uniformed groups which included the police, sepoys, marine soldiers and even convicts. On 7 September 1869, the Governor Major-General Sir Harry St. George Ord enacted the Fire Ordinance and appointed the Colonial Engineer as Chairman of the Fire Commission for Singapore. This Fire Commission was however later disbanded in 1884 due to poor organisation and difficult circumstances. In 1888, the Singapore Fire Brigade was established as a fully-equipped professional brigade with sufficient funding. By 1909, there were a total of three built stations servicing Singapore, namely Central Fire Station at Hill Street, Cross Street and Kallang Fire Stations. In 1980, the brigade was officially renamed the Singapore Fire Service (SFS).

In 1970, on the basis of elements of the SPF's Vigilante Corps, raised in the early 1960s, the Police Civil Defence Force was created under the purview of the Singapore Police Force. In 1982, the National Civil Defence Plan was launched which spearheaded the emergency preparedness for the nation at large and as a consequence of this plan majority of the SPF-VC's serving personnel joined the SPF-PCDF, which the plan designated as the nation's primary organization for civil defence and disaster response. With the enactment of the Civil Defence Act in 1986, the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF), by now separate from the SPF proper, was established as an organisation under the Ministry of Home Affairs. In the same year, the Hotel New World disaster paved the way for joint operations between the SCDF and SFS. The SCDF and SFS were merged on 15 April 1989 into one organization.

The newly integrated SCDF mainly used facilities which were handed over from the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) or the Singapore Police Force (SPF). Since the early 2000s, its headquarters and territorial divisions have all moved into purpose-built facilities. SCDF's involvement in regional disaster relief operations has also raised its profile significantly.

On 18 January 2009, SCDF was classified by INSARAG as a heavy urban search and rescue team, the highest level of urban search and rescue service.

Organisation structure
SCDF is led by the Commissioner of the SCDF and three deputy commissioners, each in charge of Strategy & Corporate Services, Operations & Resilience and Future Technology & Public Safety. The SCDF is organised with one headquarter element commanding seven divisions. Of the latter, four (1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Divisions) are territorial divisions; another two are training divisions, namely the Civil Defence Academy (CDA) and National Service Training Centre (NSTC) and can be activated as the 5th and 6th Divisions respectively in times of emergency; the eighth is the Marine Division, which was set up on 1 April 2012 with the capability and capacity to respond to marine fire and rescue incidents.

Headquarters

HQ SCDF, Central Supply Base, SCDF Operations Centre, and Paya Lebar Fire Station are located in the Civil Defence Complex at Ubi.

Operational divisions
Each territorial division has a boundary of responsibility within Singapore, and possesses its own command centre and hazmat capabilities. Administrative and logistical support is split between Corporate Service Hub East and Corporate Service Hub West.

Training divisions
The Civil Defence Academy (CDA) conducts training for the various vocations and specialisations within the SCDF, including the Section Commander Course (SCC) and Rota Commander Course (RCC).

The National Service Training Centre (NSTC) conducts training for national servicemen. It consists of the Basic Rescue Training Branch (BRTB), which conducts basic training for new enlistees in basic rescue skills and fitness, and the In-Camp Training Branch (ICTB), which trains Operationally Ready NSmen. Tucked in a corner of NSTC is the Civil Defence Detention Barracks under the purview of the SCDF Provost Unit. Detainees from both SCDF and SPF are detained here throughout the duration of their detention. Subunits of the Provost Unit are also housed here.

The Home Team Tactical Centre provides an additional training ground for trainees to experience. It replaces the Mandai Training Village which has since been demolished.

List of appliances
The SCDF maintains a large fleet of custom-made vehicles (referred to as appliances) that are capable of mitigating a variety of incidents. Many of the appliances were designed and commissioned by the SCDF rather than ready-made designs.

Ambulance
The ambulance forms the backbone of Singapore's medical emergency response capability and is the most widely deployed appliance. Ambulances are often referred to by their callsign, "Alpha." Each ambulance is staffed by up to 3 emergency medical technicians, one serves as a driver, and 1 paramedic. Medic trainees from the Singapore Armed Forces are also sent for attachment with these Ambulances. The latest 7th Generation ambulances comes with a self-decontamination system which is capable of decontaminating the ambulance when needed.

Medical Support Vehicle (MSV)
The Medical Support Vehicle (MSV) is a truck that is designed to provide on-site treatment capabilities for mass casualty incidents. On reaching the incident site, it is able to fold out and expand to form a mobile aid station to perform on-site stabilization and critical invasive medical treatment. When fully deployed, it is capable of treating a large number of patients simultaneously on an operating table that slides under its "wings". In addition, MSVs are loaded with a larger inventory of medical equipment so as to manage mass-casualty incidents.

Fire Bike
The Fire Bike, also known as the Red Scorpion, is a three-wheeled Piaggio MP3 that carries a single firefighter. They are able to navigate traffic to provide a faster initial response to emergencies. The Fire Bike carries a compressed air foam backpack which can extinguish handle smaller conflagrations such as household and vehicle fires. It is also equipped with an automated external defibrillator to respond to medical emergencies in concert with an ambulance.

Light Fire Attack Vehicle (LFAV)
The Light Fire Attack Vehicle (LFAV), also known as the Red Rhino, was first introduced in 2000. It is designed to be more compact than a traditional fire engine, allowing it to be stationed at a larger variety of locations.

The most recent iteration is the 6th generation, unveiled in 2022 at the SCDF Workplan Seminar. Instead of the traditional 4-man crew in the previous LFAV generations, the 6th generation carries a robot named the Red Rhino Robot (3R) which fits in the rear passenger compartment. The 3R conducts reconnaissance operations to locate the seat of fire through the use of thermal imaging and relay the information to the operator, who can then direct firefighting operations. The robot is able to mitigate a fire within confines of approximately 15m2.

Pump Ladder (PL)
The Pump Ladder (PL) is the workhorse fire engine of the SCDF. It carries 2,400 litres of water and 1,200 litres of foam, along with other rescue and firefighting equipment. The PL is also equipped to set up hasty decontamination facilities for a chemical incident. The decontamination lanes can be set up within four minutes, and each lane is able to decontaminate up to 36 walking casualties or six lying casualties per hour. The Generation E of the PL features a compress air foam pump.

Combined Platform-Ladder (CPL)
The Combined Platform-Ladder (CPL) is a hydraulic ladder-platform truck which is used to conduct external firefighting and rescue operations involving high-rise buildings. There are several variants of CPL in SCDF, the largest being the CPL60 which can extend its platform ladder up to a maximum height of 60 metres, the equivalent of a 20-storey building. Its platform is equipped with a water monitor capable of discharging water at the rate of 3,800 litres per minute, and a rescue cage that can hold up to 500 kg.

Aerial Ladder (AL)
The Aerial Ladder (AL) is a ladder truck used in the SCDF for aerial firefighting and rescue. It has an operational height of 56 metres.

Fire and Rescue Operations Support Tender (FROST)
The Fire and Rescue Operations Support Tender (FROST) is a support appliance that provides additional sets of self-contained breathing apparatus, thermal imaging cameras, gas detectors and smoke and water extraction functions to facilitate difficult or prolonged rescue operations.

It was designed to consolidate the functions of the previous Breathing Apparatus Tender (BAT) and Damage Control Tender (DCT), halving the total manpower needed for these functions from eight to four.

Tracked Firefighting Vehicle (TFV)
The Tracked Firefighting Vehicle (TFV) is a Bandvagn 206 that is used in forested areas where wheeled vehicles may have difficulty navigating. These vehicles were transferred from the Singapore Armed Forces to the SCDF and subsequently repainted and fitted with firefighting equipment and capabilities.

Modular Oil Tank Firefighting System (MOTFS)
The Modular Oil Tank Fire-Fighting System (MOTFS) is an oil tank fire fighting system capable of discharging large volumes of foam for large-scale fires, up to 100,000 litres per minute. It is also capable of drafting water supply directly from open sources such as the sea or marine vessels. It is also designed in a modular form to speed up deployment to match the scale of the incident.

Unmanned Firefighting Machine (UFM)
The Unmanned Firefighting Machine (UFM) is a remote controlled fire-fighting unit built to operate in extreme heat and hazardous environments, by using high velocity airflow to create ventilation in smoke-logged areas, and intense water mist, jet or foam to put out fires. It was first launched in April 2014. In 2015, the UFM added a rail kit to enable the unit to manoeuvre in Mass Rapid Transit tunnels at up to 40 km/h to put out fires and conduct ventilation operations.

Pumper Firefighting Machine
The custom-built Pumper Firefighting Machine can traverse up and down a staircase, fit into passenger lifts and penetrate through premises with a maximum temperature of 250-degree Celsius for up to 10 minutes. Other unique features include a rotating nozzle that can project water mist in 360-degree angles to quickly lower room temperatures and a high pressure hose reel with a built-in water tank that can allow firefighters to quickly initiate firefighting operations at incidents. Its resistance to heat also means that firefighters will be less exposed to risk during firefighting operations.

Hazmat Mitigation Vehicle
The Hazmat Mitigation Vehicle (HMV) is a hazardous materials apparatus that transports Hazmat personnel and their equipment to an incident site. The HMV carries a Hazmat Utility Buggy (HUB) in the rear of the appliance, where it can be unloaded to assess incident developments, transport equipment and convey casualties out of the hazard area.

Hazmat Decon Pod
The Hazmat Decon Pod conducts environmental decontamination by sucking in contaminated air and purifying it at a high rate to remove hazardous material and render an area more hospitable for work following a chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear incident.

Mass Decontamination Vehicle (MDV)
The Mass Decontamination Vehicle (MDV) is a large bus that is able to transport personnel and equipment, perform the decontamination of a large number casualties, and convey the casualties to the hospital.

Hazmat Control Vehicle
The Hazmat Control Vehicle carries a chemical detector to detect and monitor chemical release from up to 5 km away. It is also fitted with a launchpad for unmanned aerial vehicles to extend the range and altitude of its chemical detection capabilities.

Command Vehicle (CV) and Forward Command Vehicle (FCV)
The Command Vehicle (CV) functions as a mobile headquarters command and control centre. The vehicles are the size of a large bus, and when deployed, the body of the vehicle stretches to thrice its size on the road, allowing ample space inside the vehicle for personnel and essential computer and communications equipment. CVs are deployed to strategic locations to provide forward tactical headquarters capability in major incidents or high-risk events.

Hazmat Command Vehicle (HCV)
The Hazmat Command Vehicle (HCV) is a command post specifically designed for command and control during a CBR incident. It is equipped for this task with a wide array of instruments and sensors which can, for example, monitor and help predict toxic material presence and dispersion in the wind.

DART Rescue Vehicle (DRV)
The DART Rescue Vehicle (DRV) is a specialised appliance of the Disaster Assistance and Rescue Team designed for urban search and rescue. It carries a personnel cabin and can accommodate up to eight DART officers with their equipment. The DRV is equipped with a crane with a load capacity of 7.9 tonnes. It is primarily used to load other rescue vehicles like the DART skid loader, which is used to access confined spaces in collapsed buildings.

Fireboats
In 2012, the Singapore Civil Defence Force took over responsibility from the Maritime Port Authority for fighting maritime fires. By 2019, the SCDF Marine Division had retired some old fireboats, and added six new modern vessels, bringing the size of the firefighting fleet to eight vessels. One of the new vessels, the Red Sailfish, is the most powerful fireboat in the world so far. Three vessels are pumper, decontamination and evacuation specialist fireboats.

Operation Lionheart
SCDF maintains a rescue contingent on 24-hour standby under the codename Operation Lionheart to provide rescue and humanitarian assistance and support to countries stricken by major disasters. Since its formation in 1990, the Operation Lionheart contingent had responded to multiple overseas missions.

Below is the breakdown of the missions:

Ranks

 * Officers

 * Warrant officers

 * Other ranks

In popular culture
Fictional television programs:
 * Fiery Passion (烈焰焚情), 12 February 1992
 * On the Frontline (穿梭生死线), 2000
 *  Cemas, an 2001 malay drama
 * Life Line, 2005
 * Without Warning, 26 October 2006
 * Life Line 2, 15 May 2007
 * Rescue 995 (九九五), 6 February 2012
 * In Safe Hands (守护星), 7 March 2022
 * Crimewatch Singapore, 1986

Misconduct
On 19 December 2011, former commissioner Peter Lim Sin Pang was arrested on graft charges in connection with an IT contract. Lim was dismissed from service in August 2013. He was sentenced to jail for six months.

On 13 May 2018, full-time national serviceman Corporal Kok Yuen Chin drowned in a fire station's pump well during a ragging incident when his colleagues attempted to celebrate his transition to an operationally ready reservist. Those involved were arrested, charged in court and jailed. Two of them have been dismissed from service.

Deaths whilst on duty
In late January 2006, SGT Shaik Amran Bin Shaik Jamal from Woodlands Fire Station killed in a traffic accident when the SCDF Light Fire Attack Vehicle or Red Rhino, was travelling fast towards Woodlands Square.

On 9 December 2022, full-time national serviceman Corporal Edward H Go (Chinese: 吴宏泽; pinyin: Wú Hóngzé) fell unconscious during a firefighting operation at a residential building in Bukit Merah; he was later pronounced dead in hospital. Reported by the press as being the first SCDF member to have died during an operation, Go was posthumously promoted to Sergeant(1) and granted a ceremonial funeral.

SCDF Commissioner Eric Yap paid tribute to SGT(1) Edward Go on his ceremonial funeral and said in his speech that he offered condolences to SGT(1) Go’s family, loved ones and friends, adding that his death has also hit those in the SCDF hard. "We will remember Sgt Edward’s selflessness, professionalism and commitment. For those of us who knew him personally, they will remember how proud he was to be a firefighter,” the commissioner added further.

On 16 May 2024, SCDF regular Captain Tay Xue Qin Kenneth (Chinese: 郑学勤; pinyin: Zhèngxuéqín), 30 who assigned to SCDF Marine Division died while fighting a fire on a Chinese flagged supertanker ship Sheng Hang Hua 6 that was anchored in the southwest of Singapore at 12:15 am. While the firefighting operation was ongoing, another team of firefighters entering the engine room to support the operation found the rota commander lying at the bottom of a ship staircase. Captain Tay was evacuated by SCDF Marine Fire Vessel to Pasir Panjang Ferry Terminal and conveyed by an SCDF ambulance to National University Hospital. Captain Kenneth Tay passed away at around 5:50am. Reported by the press as being the second SCDF member to have died during an operation & granted a ceremonial funeral.

title: Singapore Civil Defence Force


text:
Charles Joseph Sainte-Claire Deville

Charles Joseph Sainte-Claire Deville (26 February 1814 – 10 October 1876) was a geologist and meteorologist.

Born in St. Thomas, he was the brother of chemist Henri Etienne Sainte-Claire Deville.

Having attended at the École des Mines in Paris, he assisted Élie de Beaumont in the chair of geology at the Collège de France from 1855 until he succeeded him in 1874. He made researches on volcanic phenomena, especially on the gaseous emanations. He investigated also the variations of temperature in the atmosphere and ocean. In 1857, he is elected member of the French Academy of Sciences in replacement of Armand Dufrénoy.

In 1852, he was one of the founders of the Société Météorologique de France, of which, he served as its first secretary. In 1859, he was the first to achieve a complete ascent of Grand Combin (4314 meters) in the Pennine Alps. He is promoted Officier de la Légion d'honneur in 1862. He died in Paris. The Promontorium Deville, a lunar headland, was named after him.

Publications
His published works include:
 * Études géologiques sur les îles de Ténériffe et de Fogo (1848) – Geological studies on the islands of Tenerife and Fogo.
 * Recherches sur les principaux phénomènes de météorologie et de physique terrestre aux Antilles (1849) – Research on the principal phenomena involving meteorology and terrestrial physics of the Antilles.
 * Voyage géologique aux Antilles et aux îles de Ténériffe et de fogo (1856–1864) – Geological voyage to the Antilles and the islands of Tenerife and Fogo.
 * Lettres à Élie de Beaumont sur l'éruption du Vésuve – Letters to Élie de Beaumont on the eruption of Vesuvius.
 * Les éruptions actuelles du Volcan de Stromboli (1858) – The actual eruptions of the Stromboli volcano.
 * Sur les variations périodiques de la température (1866) – On the periodic variations of temperature.

title: Charles Joseph Sainte-Claire Deville


text:
John Kaizan Neptune

John Kaizan Neptune (born November 13, 1951, in Oakland, California, United States) is an American player and builder of the shakuhachi (Japanese bamboo flute). He is known particularly for his use of the instrument in non-traditional contexts, such as jazz and cross-cultural music.

Neptune studied ethnomusicology at the University of Hawaii, where he began to study the shakuhachi with a Japanese Buddhist priest in 1971. In 1973, he continued his shakuhachi studies in Kyoto, Japan, returning after one year to Honolulu to complete a degree in ethnomusicology. Following his graduation, he traveled again to Kyoto for several more years of intensive study, and in March 1977 he received the "shi-han," or master's certificate, in the Tozan School of Shakuhachi. At that time he was awarded the honorary name "Kaizan," which means Sea Mountain. He lives in Japan.

Neptune has performed in North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia and recorded more than 20 albums with a variety of musicians. As a non-Japanese playing a Japanese traditional instrument, Neptune has attracted much interest from the Japanese public. His third recording, entitled Bamboo, was named Outstanding Album of the Year for 1980 by the Cultural Affairs Agency of the Japanese Ministry of Education, the first time a jazz recording or foreign artist had been so honored.

He also makes shakuhachi and other bamboo instruments at his home workshop in the Japanese countryside.

John Kaizan Neptune has recorded 21 records since 1979.

title: John Kaizan Neptune


text:
User:JavaJive

James Bragg
Born February 12th, 1983 in Shanghai, China.

Currently works in Corporate Communications for TerraSim, Inc. in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania after graduating from Carnegie Mellon University.

title: User:JavaJive


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John Neptune

John Neptune may refer to:

 * Old John Neptune (1767–1865), Native American religious and political leader
 * John Kaizan Neptune (born 1951), American flautist

title: John Neptune