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Julian Amery

Harold Julian Amery, Baron Amery of Lustleigh, (27 March 1919 – 3 September 1996) was a British Conservative Party politician, who served as a Member of Parliament (MP) for 39 of the 42 years between 1950 and 1992. He was appointed to the Privy Council in 1960.

Amery was created a life peer upon his retirement from the House of Commons in 1992. For three decades, he was a leading figure in the Conservative Monday Club. He was the son-in-law of Conservative prime minister Harold Macmillan. His brother, John, was hanged for high treason for supporting Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy during the Second World War.

Early and family life
Amery was born in Chelsea, London. His father was Leo Amery, a British statesman and Conservative politician. He was educated at Eaton House, Summer Fields School, Eton College and Balliol College, Oxford. While an undergraduate, he had a brief romance with the future novelist Barbara Pym, who was six years his senior.

Military service
Before the Second World War started, Amery was a war correspondent in the Spanish Civil War and later an attaché for the British Foreign Office in Belgrade. After the war began he joined the RAF as a sergeant in 1940, then was commissioned and transferred to the British Army on the General List in 1941, reaching the rank of Captain.

He spent 1941–42 in the eastern Mediterranean (the Middle East, Malta, Yugoslavia) and served as Liaison Officer to the Albanian Resistance Movement in 1943–44 ("The Musketeers": Captain Julian Amery, Major David Smiley and Lieutenant-Colonel Neil McLean). The following year, Amery went to China to work with General Carton de Wiart, then Prime Minister's Personal Representative to Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek. Amery became a close friend of King Zog of Albania and described him as "the cleverest man I have ever met".

Political career
Amery won a Parliamentary seat in the first general election held after he returned to civilian life, in 1950. He was elected as Conservative MP for Preston North, going on to hold a number of government offices, all in governments led by his father-in-law, now the Prime Minister. He began with two Under-Secretaryships of State: for War (1957–58) and for the Colonies (1958–60). He was promoted to Secretary of State for Air (1960–62), followed by a promotion to the post of Minister of Aviation (1962–64). In this role and during this two-year period, Amery was involved in the planning stages of what would become the supersonic passenger service known as Concorde.

Amery lost his Preston North seat in 1966, but was re-elected to the Commons in 1969 representing Brighton Pavilion, a seat he would hold until 1992 when he retired. On 8 July 1992, he was created a life peer as Baron Amery of Lustleigh, of Preston in the County of Lancashire and of Brighton in the County of East Sussex.

Under the Heath administration, Amery held three ministerial posts: Minister for Public Works (1970), Minister for Housing and Construction (1970–72) and Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (1972–74).

Monday Club
For 30 years, Amery was an active member and later a Patron of the Conservative Monday Club, where he became friendly with General Sir Walter Walker, subsequently writing the foreword for Walker's anti-Soviet book, The Next Domino.

He was Guest of Honour at the club's Annual Dinner at the Cutlers' Hall in 1963. In 1965, he wrote the foreword for Club activist Geoffrey Stewart-Smith's book, No Vision Here. On May Day 1970, he was one of the club's principal speakers at their 'Law and Liberty' rally in Trafalgar Square, held in answer to the 'Stop the Seventy Tour' campaign, designed to stop the South African cricket tour.

Amery was the Monday Club's Guest-of-Honour at their Annual Dinner held at the Savoy Hotel, London, in January 1974 and again at the dinner at the end of the club's two-day Conference in Birmingham in March 1975.

Political views
Amery was in favour of entry to the European Common Market and also of the nuclear deterrent. Both caused some discord between himself and his old friend Enoch Powell but for many, he was seen as an archetypal Conservative from the "God and Empire" school. In 1948, Amery opposed GATT, arguing that it limited imperial preference.

In late 1962 Amery made these comments after Egypt sent troops to Yemen to prevent an insurrection: "'The prosperity of our people rests really on the oil in the Persian Gulf, the rubber and tin of Malaya, and the gold, copper and precious metals of South- and Central Africa. As long as we have access to these; as long as we can realize the investments we have there; as long as we trade with this part of the world, we shall be prosperous. If the communists [or anyone else] were to take them over, we would lose the lot. Governments like Colonel Nasser's in Egypt are just as dangerous.'"

In 1963, Amery took charge of Quintin Hogg's campaign for leadership of the Conservative Party.

In early 1975, he took part in a House of Commons debate on the Trades Unions Congress's invitation to Alexander Shelepin, the former Soviet KGB Chief, to visit Britain. He stated that "more and more people are beginning to look upon the TUC as a Communist-penetrated show and this invitation must strengthen that view."

According to Margaret Thatcher's 1995 memoir, The Path to Power, when Harold Wilson's Labour government proposed devolution for Scotland in 1976, "Julian Amery and Maurice Macmillan proved effective leaders of the anti-devolution Tory camp."

Although he was Harold Macmillan's son-in-law, he did not defend him when Count Nikolai Tolstoy published The Minister and the Massacres in 1986, focusing the ultimate burden of blame sharply on Macmillan for the 1945 Bleiburg repatriations and the Cossack repatriations. Amery stated that the repatriations were "one of the few blots on Harold that I can think of".

Personal life
On 26 January 1950, he married Catherine Macmillan (19 November 1926 – 27 May 1991), daughter of Harold Macmillan. The couple had one son and three daughters.

Death
Amery died on 3 September 1996 in Westminster, London. He is buried with his wife (who predeceased him) at the Church of St John the Baptist in Lustleigh, Devon, along with his father Leo Amery.

title: Julian Amery


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Vic Armstrong

Victor Monroe Armstrong (born 5 October 1946) is a British film director, stunt coordinator, second unit director, and stunt double—the world's most prolific, according to the Guinness Book of Records.

Career
The 6 ft Armstrong doubled for 6 ft Harrison Ford in the first three Indiana Jones films, 6 ft Timothy Dalton for Flash Gordon, George Lazenby for the Swiss Alps skiing scenes in the Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service, and 6 ft Christopher Reeve in Superman and Superman II. Reportedly, Armstrong looked so much like Harrison Ford that the crewmembers on the films were constantly mistaking him for Ford. This proved useful when Ford injured his back and had to sit out for filming crucial action sequences in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Armstrong filled in for him. The stunt where he jumps from a horse onto a German tank in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade was voted one of the Top Ten film stunts of all time by a panel of experts and Sky Movies viewers in the UK in 2002. On a private photograph taken on the film set, Ford wrote to Armstrong, "If you learn to talk I'm in deep trouble!" Armstrong was unable to work on the fourth Indiana Jones film, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, due to commitments to The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. However, he had discussed possible action sequences with Steven Spielberg during production of War of the Worlds.

Armstrong is a famed stunt coordinator and action unit director, notable for (amongst others) the action sequences of several James Bond films, War of the Worlds and I Am Legend. Armstrong was also the opening scene director on Terminator 2: Judgment Day.

In 1993, Armstrong's made his directorial debut with action film Joshua Tree (a.k.a. Army of One), starring Dolph Lundgren, George Segal, Kristian Alfonso and Ken Foree.

He was the subject of This Is Your Life in 2003 when he was surprised by Michael Aspel at Pinewood Studios.

In 2012, Armstrong was Second Unit Director for The Amazing Spider-Man. In 2013, he signed on to direct Left Behind, a remake of the series that got released in 2014. His next directorial effort was the true story A Sunday Horse. He also worked on the 2022 Amazon Prime Video series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power as second unit director and action director.

Armstrong is a long-serving member of the British Stunt Register.

Awards
In 2001, he received a Technical Achievement Academy Award for "the Fan Descender for accurately and safely arresting the descent of stunt persons in high freefalls". In 2002, he received the BAFTA Michael Balcon Award.

Personal
Armstrong is the brother of Andy Armstrong and husband of stuntwoman Wendy Leech, who is the daughter of fellow James Bond stunt performer George Leech. He met her while filming Superman II (she doubled for Margot Kidder) and they have four children between them. Armstrong has two children from his first marriage, and Leech has a daughter from her first marriage. They have one daughter together. Vic is uncle to stuntman James Armstrong and film maker Jesse V Johnson

Filmography
As stunt double

As director

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

title: Vic Armstrong


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Josephine Bakhita

Josephine Margaret Bakhita (جوزفين بخيتة), (ca. 1869 – 8 February 1947) was a Canossian religious sister who lived in Italy for 45 years, after having been a slave in Sudan. In 2000, she was declared a saint, the first black woman to receive the honor in the modern era.

Early life
She was born around 1869 in Darfur (now in western Sudan) in the village of Olgossa, west of Nyala and close to Mount Agilerei. She was one of the Daju people; her respected and reasonably prosperous father was brother of the village chief. She was surrounded by a loving family of three brothers and three sisters; as she says in her autobiography: "I lived a very happy and carefree life, without knowing what suffering was".

Slavery
In 1877, when she was 7–8 years old, she was seized by Arab slave traders, who had abducted her elder sister two years earlier. She was forced to walk barefoot about 960 km to El-Obeid and was sold and bought twice before she arrived there. Over the course of twelve years (1877–1889) she was sold three more times.

'Bakhita' was not the name she received from her parents at birth. It is said that the trauma of her abduction caused her to forget her original name; she took one given to her by the slavers, bakhīta (بخيتة), Arabic for 'lucky' or 'fortunate'. She was also forcibly converted to Islam.

In El-Obeid, Bakhita was bought by a rich Arab who used her as a maid for his two daughters. They treated her relatively well, until after offending one of her owner's sons, wherein the son lashed and kicked her so severely that she spent more than a month unable to move from her straw bed. Her fourth owner was a Turkish general, and she had to serve his mother-in-law and his wife, who were cruel to their slaves. Bakhita says: "During all the years I stayed in that house, I do not recall a day that passed without some wound or other. When a wound from the whip began to heal, other blows would pour down on me."

She once said that the most terrifying of all of her memories there was when she (along with other slaves) was marked by a process resembling both scarification and tattooing, which was a traditional practice throughout Sudan. As her mistress was watching her with a whip in her hand, a dish of white flour, a dish of salt and a razor were brought by a woman. She used the flour to draw patterns on her skin and then she cut deeply along the lines before filling the wounds with salt to ensure permanent scarring. A total of 114 intricate patterns were cut into her breasts, belly and into her right arm.

By the end of 1882, El-Obeid came under the threat of an attack of Mahdist revolutionaries. The Turkish general began making preparations to return to his homeland and sold his slaves. In 1883, Bakhita was bought in Khartoum by the Italian Vice Consul Callisto Legnani, who did not beat or punish her. Two years later, when Legnani himself had to return to Italy, Bakhita begged to go with him. At the end of 1884 they escaped from a besieged Khartoum with a friend, Augusto Michieli. They travelled a risky 650 km trip on camelback to Suakin, which was the largest port of Sudan. In March 1885 they left Suakin for Italy and arrived at the port of Genoa in April. They were met there by Augusto Michieli's wife, Maria Turina Michieli, to whom Legnani gave ownership of Bakhita. Her new owners took her to their family villa at Zianigo, near Mirano, Veneto, about 25 km west of Venice. She lived there for three years and became nanny to the Michielis daughter Alice (Mimmina), born in February 1886. The Michielis brought Bakhita with them back to the Sudan where they stayed for nine months before returning to Italy.

Conversion to Catholicism and freedom
Suakin on the Red Sea was besieged but remained in Anglo-Egyptian hands. Augusto Michieli acquired a large hotel there and decided to sell his property in Italy and to move his family to Sudan permanently. Selling his house and lands took longer than expected. By the end of 1888, Turina Michieli wanted to see her husband in Sudan even though land transactions were unfinished. Since the villa in Zianigo was already sold, Bakhita and Mimmina needed a temporary place to stay while Micheli went to Sudan without them. On the advice of their business agent Illuminato Cecchini, on 29 November 1888, Michieli left both in the care of the Canossians in Venice. There, cared for and instructed by the sisters, Bakhita encountered Christianity for the first time. Grateful to her teachers, she recalled, "Those holy mothers instructed me with heroic patience and introduced me to that God who from childhood I had felt in my heart without knowing who He was."

When Turina Michieli returned to take her daughter and maid back to Suakin, Bakhita firmly refused to leave. For three days, Michieli tried to force the issue, finally appealing to the attorney general of the King of Italy; while the superior of the Institute for baptismal candidates (catechumenate) that Bakhita attended contacted the Patriarch of Venice about her protégée's problem. On 29 November 1889, an Italian court ruled that because the British had outlawed slavery in Sudan before Bakhita's birth and because Italian law had never recognized slavery as legal, Bakhita had never legally been a slave. For the first time in her life, Bakhita found herself in control of her own destiny, and she chose to remain with the Canossians. On 9 January 1890, Bakhita was baptized with the names Josephine Margaret Fortunata (the Latin translation of the Arabic Bakhita). On the same day, she was also confirmed and received Holy Communion from Archbishop Giuseppe Sarto, the Cardinal Patriarch of Venice and later Pope Pius X.

Canossian sister
On 7 December 1893, Josephine Bakhita entered the novitiate of the Canossians and on 8 December 1896, she took her vows, welcomed by Cardinal Sarto. In 1902 she was assigned to the Canossian convent at Schio, in the northern Italian province of Vicenza, where she spent the rest of her life. Her only extended time away was between 1935 and 1939, when she stayed at the Missionary Novitiate in Vimercate (Milan); mostly visiting other Canossian communities in Italy, talking about her experiences and helping to prepare young sisters for work in Africa. A strong missionary drive animated her throughout her entire life – "her mind was always on God, and her heart in Africa".

During her 42 years in Schio, Bakhita was employed as the cook, sacristan, and portress (doorkeeper) and was in frequent contact with the local community. Her gentleness, calming voice, and the ever-present smile became well known and Vicenzans still refer to her as Sor Moretta ("little brown sister") or Madre Moretta ("black mother"). Her special charisma and reputation for sanctity were noticed by her order; the first publication of her story (Storia Meravigliosa by Ida Zanolini) in 1931, made her famous throughout Italy. During the Second World War (1939–1945) she shared the fears and hopes of the townspeople, who considered her a saint and felt protected by her presence. Bombs did not spare Schio, but the war passed without a single casualty. Her last years were marked by pain and sickness. She used a wheelchair but she retained her cheerfulness, and if asked how she was, she would always smile and answer: "As the Master desires." In the extremity of her last hours, her mind was driven back to her youth in slavery and she cried out: "The chains are too tight, loosen them a little, please!" After a while, she came round again. Someone asked her, "How are you? Today is Saturday," probably hoping that this would cheer her because Saturday is the day of the week dedicated to Mary, mother of Jesus. Bakhita replied, "Yes, I am so happy: Our Lady... Our Lady!" These were her last audible words. Bakhita died at 8:10 PM on 8 February 1947. For three days, her body lay in repose while thousands of people arrived to pay their respects. Her remains were translated to the Church of the Holy Family of the Canossian convent of Schio in 1969.

Legacy and canonization
A young student once asked Bakhita: "What would you do, if you were to meet your captors?" Without hesitation, she replied: "If I were to meet those who kidnapped me, and even those who tortured me, I would kneel and kiss their hands. For, if these things had not happened, I would not have been a Christian and a religious today".

The petitions for her canonization began immediately, and the process commenced by Pope John XXIII in 1959, twelve years after her death. On 1 December 1978, Pope John Paul II declared Josephine Venerable, the first step towards canonization. On 17 May 1992, she was declared Blessed and given 8 February as her feast day. On 1 October 2000, she was canonized as Saint Josephine Bakhita. She is venerated as a modern African saint, and as a statement against the brutal history of slavery. She is regarded as the patron saint of both the country and the Catholic Church in Sudan. Caritas Bakhita House in London, which provides accommodation and support for women escaping human trafficking, is named in her honour. Bakhita's legacy is that transformation is possible through suffering. Her story of deliverance from physical slavery also symbolises all those who find meaning and inspiration in her life for their own deliverance from spiritual slavery. In May 1992, news of her beatification was banned by Khartoum which Pope John Paul II visited nine months later. On 10 February 1993, he solemnly honoured Bakhita on her own soil. "Rejoice, all of Africa! Bakhita has come back to you. The daughter of Sudan sold into slavery as a living piece of merchandise and yet still free. Free with the freedom of the saints."

Pope Benedict XVI, on 30 November 2007, in the beginning of his second encyclical letter Spe Salvi ("In Hope We Were Saved"), relates her life story as an outstanding example of the Christian hope.

Josephine Margaret Bakhita is honored with a Lesser Feast on the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, also on 8 February.

In 2023, Canadian sculptor Timothy Schmalz centered his human-trafficking sculpture "Let the Oppressed Go Free" on Bakhita, depicting her opening a trapdoor as she frees human-trafficking victims who emerge from underground. The bronze sculpture was installed near her remains in the Italian city of Schio.

title: Josephine Bakhita


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Hurricane Katrina effects by region

The article covers the Hurricane Katrina effects by region, within the United States and Canada. The effects of Hurricane Katrina, in late August 2005, were catastrophic and widespread. It was one of the deadliest natural disasters in U.S. history, leaving at least 1,836 people dead, and a further 135 missing. The storm was large and had an effect on several different areas of North America.

Florida
More than 1 million customers were left without electricity, and damage in Florida was estimated at between $1 and $2 billion (with most of the damage coming from flooding and overturned trees).

Two traffic fatalities related to Katrina were also reported on the Florida Panhandle in Walton County, and moderate to locally heavy damage was reported in the western part of the Panhandle (on the outer edge of Katrina), which had already been hit hard by Hurricane Ivan in September 2004 and Hurricane Dennis in July 2005.

Louisiana
Hurricane Katrina made landfall in Louisiana at 6:45 AM local time on August 29, 2005, as a Category 3 hurricane with sustained winds of 127 mph, near Buras-Triumph, Louisiana and a 22-foot storm surge. The eye of the storm passed 27 miles east of downtown New Orleans at 8:30 AM. The primary areas that were affected were southeastern Louisiana, including the city of New Orleans, Louisiana, the parishes of St. Tammany (Slidell), Jefferson (Gretna), Terrebonne (Houma), Plaquemines (Buras), Lafourche (Thibodaux), and St. Bernard (Chalmette).

According to officials nearly one million people were temporarily without electricity in Louisiana for several weeks. On September 1, 2005, 800,000 homes were without electricity. Numerous roadways were flooded or damaged and many evacuations conducted by boat and helicopter.

Approximately 46,000 National Guard were dispatched to the area as part of the disaster relief effort. The United States Navy also announced that four amphibious ships would be sent from Norfolk, Virginia within a few days to assist the relief efforts. The US Coast Guard rescued 1,259 survivors off rooftops by Wednesday morning August 31, less than two days after landfall, and more than 1,000 the next day. In less than two weeks 12,535 flood victims were saved by helicopter. In all, the Coast Guard made 33,544 rescues by helicopter and boats.

By July 1, 2006, when new population estimates were calculated by the U.S. Census Bureau, the population of the state of Louisiana declined by 219,563, or 4.87%.

Just as matters were beginning to improve in 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf in April 2010 caused massive amounts of oil to come ashore in the wetlands and marshes in Plaquemines Parish and other areas of coastal Louisiana near New Orleans that had been most heavily damaged by Katrina, and the spill will likely reach other states that were also affected by the storm (the hurricane had caused or exacerbated oil spills on a smaller scale when it hit).

New Orleans

Mayor Ray Nagin did not order a mandatory evacuation of the city until August 28, 2005. Approximately one million people had fled the city and its surrounding suburbs by the evening of August 28, while about 100,000 people remained in the city, with about 10,000 taking shelter at the Louisiana Superdome which had been prepared to accommodate only 800. Eventually, 30,000 arrived at the Superdome before they were evacuated. By August 31, eighty percent (80%) of the city of New Orleans was flooded by Hurricane Katrina, with some parts of the city under 20 ft, of water. Over 50 breaches in region's levee system were catalogued, five of which resulted in massive flooding of New Orleans. The 17th Street Canal levee was just south of the Hammond Highway Bridge. Levees adjacent to London Avenue breached in two locations: one near Robert E. Lee Boulevard and one between Filmore Avenue and Mirabeau Avenue. Two breaches also occurred in the Industrial Canal adjacent to Surekote Road. Levee repair efforts were undertaken, involving reinforcing the levees with 3000 lb sandbags deployed by U.S. Army Chinook and Black Hawk helicopters. The 17th Street Canal levee repair was completed by September 5, 2005, and subsequently, the three canals were repaired all the way to Lake Pontchartrain. The Army Corps of Engineers added flood gates to the three canals. Many evacuees were trapped in flooded houses and rooftops waiting to be rescued. The Superdome sustained significant damage and much of the dome's waterproof membrane had essentially been peeled off. On August 30, Louisiana governor Kathleen Blanco ordered the complete evacuation of the remaining people that sought shelter in the Superdome. Blanco instructed the Adjutant General of the Louisiana National Guard, Major General Bennett C. Landreneau to contact Honoré of Northern Command (Honoré arrived on Wednesday, August 31, as the commander of the newly established Joint Task Force Katrina to supervise federal military operations) to arrange for active duty military support of response operations in Louisiana. Additionally, General Landreneau instructed Louisiana National Guard officials at the Superdome to cease planning for the evacuation as Honoré would be "taking charge" of the evacuation project. The evacuees were then transported to the Astrodome in Houston, Texas. The only route out of the city was west on the Crescent City Connection as the I-10 (twin span) bridge traveling east towards Slidell, Louisiana had collapsed. The Lake Pontchartrain Causeway was also carrying emergency traffic only.

St. Tammany Parish
Hurricane Katrina made its final landfall in eastern St. Tammany Parish. The western eye wall passed directly over St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana as a Category 3 hurricane at about 9:45 AM CST, August 29, 2005. The communities of Slidell, Avery Estates, Lakeshore Estates, Oak Harbor, Eden Isles and North Shore Beach were inundated by the storm surge that extended over six miles inland. The storm surge impacted all 57 miles of St. Tammany Parish's coastline, including Lacombe, Mandeville and Madisonville. The storm surge in the area of the Rigolets Pass is estimated 16 feet, not including wave action declining to 7 feet at Madisonville. The surge had a second peak in eastern St. Tammany as the westerly winds from the southern eye wall pushed the surge to the east, backing up at the bottleneck of the Rigolets Pass. The Twin Spans of I-10 between Slidell and New Orleans East were virtually destroyed, and much of I-10 in New Orleans East was under water. The Lake Pontchartrain Causeway and the Highway 11 bridge, connecting the north and south shores of Lake Pontchartrain, were open only to emergency traffic.

Initial search and rescue operations were conducted south of Highway 190 from Lacombe east to the state line. Fire District No. 1 and the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's office evacuated over 3,000 people from flooded homes and rescued about 300 people in imminent danger. Radio communications among first responders functioned throughout the rescue period but the 9-1-1 system was not operational for ten days. Utility services were not available anywhere in the parish. Generator power was available for hospitals and a special needs shelter. Hospitals were running at capacity on generator power.

The hurricane-force winds toppled trees and telephone poles parish-wide, blocking all transportation routes. Land debris cleanup continued into 2007 with over 6.6 million cubic yards collected. Debris cleaning in waterways continued at least through 2009. Hurricane Katrina damaged 48,792 housing units in St. Tammany Parish from flood waters, high winds, or both.

Jefferson Parish
The breach on the east side of the 17th Street Canal levee did not cause severe flooding within Jefferson Parish, but some lower-lying areas did receive significant water damage, especially on the East Bank.

The Sheriff of Jefferson Parish reported that he expected his district to remain uninhabitable for at least one week and that residents should not return to the area. Incidents of looting were reported throughout affected areas of Louisiana, most notably in New Orleans. Louisiana governor Kathleen Blanco ordered all roadways into the state closed.

By one week after the storm, residents were allowed to return to their homes to retrieve essentials, provided that they could present identification proving that they lived in the parish. They were only allowed in to retrieve essential items, and were then required to leave the parish for another month.

Terrebonne Parish
In Terrebonne Parish, signs, trees, roofs and utility poles suffered the brunt of Hurricane Katrina's fury when the storm roared across Terrebonne and Lafourche. Most of Terrebonne Parish and Lafourche Parish were covered with water during the storm surge, yet Houma was spared to the extent that the Coast Guard used their airport for the initial rescue launch site. ""

Plaquemines Parish
Hurricane Katrina made a direct landfall in the "lower" (southern/down river) portion of Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, the eye passed directly over the town of Empire, Louisiana. There was extensive flooding the majority of the Parish, and the southern part was temporarily "reclaimed" by the Mississippi River. All of the East Bank of the Parish was flooded, as was the downriver portion of the West Bank. Belle Chase mostly escaped with only moderate wind damage. The Belle Chasse Tunnel was flooded as well.

On August 29, the President of Plaquemines Parish, Benny Rousselle, issued a statement to all residents not to return to the parish until further notice. There were no public services available and all roads were closed and impassable. He requested that only employees in Drainage, Heavy Equipment, Public Right-of-Way Maintenance and Solid Waste departments return to the parish if possible.

Areas gradually opened up in late 2005.

St. Bernard Parish
St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana, which lies to the East of New Orleans and thus was closer to the path of the storm and the more exposed to the storm surge from the Gulf of Mexico, was completely flooded via water surging into Lake Borgne. A large portion of the flooding was apparently the result of levee failures along the Mississippi River – Gulf Outlet Canal, a 76 mi canal. The levees were sized to hold back up to 17.5 ft, of water; they held back the initial surge, but then they were breached in several areas by the 22 ft, surge.

The Parish's two shelters at Chalmette High School and St. Bernard High School suffered considerable damage with flooding. Chalmette High lost much of its roof, and St. Bernard High had many broken windows. There were estimates of 300-plus evacuees at both sites.

By August 29, about 150 people were sighted on rooftops in areas that were under approximately 8–10 feet or more of water. Among those on the roofs were WDSU reporter Heath Allen and a St. Bernard resident on a government complex rooftop. Residents reported that even oil platform service boats were utilized to rescue survivors.

Several tragic deaths were reported at St. Rita's Nursing Home in the parish, as 35 people died due to drowning. The owners of the nursing home were arrested and charged with negligent homicide for not having evacuated in advance of the storm. However, the owners were subsequently found not guilty.

Washington Parish
Washington Parish, Louisiana is located north of New Orleans. The parish received significant damage due to wind damage and local flooding. The Parish is home to many pine forests in which many of the pine trees snapped or were completely uprooted. The eye of Katrina could be seen from the eastern part of the parish, in Bogalusa as Bogalusa was only fifteen miles away from the center of the eye. Much of Bogalusa was without power for weeks. Many major roads were covered by trees and were not cleared for many days. Schools did not reopen until October. As gasoline was in short supply even for emergency workers, the parish banned gas sales to the public for several days, arousing the ire of many locals.

Mississippi

Hurricane Katrina's devastating impact on the state of Mississippi caused a complete re-evaluation of hurricane command centers, safety, and offshore gambling. Because landfall was during daylight, many people survived by swimming to higher buildings and trees within sight. Afterward, all Mississippi counties were declared disaster areas (see map).

The Gulf Coast of Mississippi suffered massive damage from the impact of Hurricane Katrina on August 29, 2005, leaving 238 people dead, 67 missing, and an estimated $125 billion in damages. Since Katrina made its third and final landfall on the Louisiana/Mississippi state line, the storm's powerful northeastern quadrant hammered areas of Mississippi, as well as Alabama, causing extensive wind and flood damage. According to MSNBC, a 30 ft storm surge came ashore wiping out 90% of the buildings along the Biloxi-Gulfport coastline. The bridge between Bay St. Louis and Pass Christian was also damaged by the storm.

The three counties most affected by the storm were the coastal counties, Hancock County, Harrison County, and Jackson County. Emergency command centers in the 3 coastal counties were partially disabled, prompting a re-evaluation of general hurricane emergency-center design nationwide: in Hancock county, the emergency-command headquarters were swamped by a 32-foot (11-m) storm tide flooding into the building, which had been considered flood-proof at 30 ft above sea level.

Mississippi Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) officials also recorded deaths in Hinds, Warren, and Leake counties. About 800,000 people throughout the state experienced power outages, which is almost a third of the population.

United States Navy officials announced that two Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers that were under construction at Litton-Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula had been damaged by the storm, as well as the amphibious assault ship USS Makin Island (LHD-8).

Hancock County
Hancock County was the scene of the final landfall of the eye of Hurricane Katrina, and its communities and infrastructure suffered some of the most intense damage inflicted by that storm. Devastation occurred in many communities, including Waveland, Bay St. Louis, Pearlington, and Clermont Harbor.

Katrina practically obliterated Waveland, and state officials said that it took a harder hit from the wind and water than any other town along the coast. The storm dragged away almost every structure within one half mile of the beach, leaving driveways and walkways that went to nowhere. The death toll was estimated at 50.

In Bay St. Louis, Katrina destroyed many buildings, including the first floor and dormitories of Saint Stanislaus College and the Bay St. Louis Public Library.

Harrison County

Harrison County was hit particularly hard by the hurricane, as well as the storm surge. Its two coastal cities, Biloxi and Gulfport suffered severe damage and many casualties were reported. By September 1, 126 people were already confirmed dead.

Widespread damage was reported in the city of Biloxi and several of the city's attractions were destroyed. Many restaurants have been destroyed and several casino barges were pulled out of the water and onto land. Residents that recalled Hurricane Camille observed that Katrina was, "much worse", with a storm surge reportedly reaching further inland. Katrina's wind estimates were lighter than Camille's, and the central air pressure was slightly higher, but Camille was also a much smaller storm, so the greater impact of Katrina's surge may be due to the size.

The Biloxi-Ocean Springs Bridge was totally destroyed, and US 90 had heavy debris and severe damage to the roadbed. Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi was also damaged extensively.

In Pass Christian, the destruction was almost complete.

Jackson County
Jackson County, Mississippi had a coastal storm tide of at least 22 ft, with Hurricane Katrina coming ashore during the morning high tide. Reports stated that 90% of Pascagoula was flooded by the storm surge, and the storm was so intense that 3 US Navy ships were damaged. Moss Point and Escatawpa were also affected.

Although the severe hurricane-force winds were recorded mainly east of downtown New Orleans, extending into Alabama, heavy rainfall led to inland flooding, including counties in western Mississippi. Also, the eastern outer bands of Hurricane Katrina spawned 62 tornadoes to the northeast (none in Louisiana), with 11 tornadoes in Mississippi, and 2 tornadoes in Georgia.

For those reasons, all counties in Mississippi were affected in some tangible way, and hence, all Mississippi counties were designated as disaster areas for Federal assistance, with 49 lower counties eligible for full individual and public assistance.

Alabama

Hurricane Katrina was the fifth recent storm to hit Alabama, and Alabama suffered widespread, moderate-to-heavy damage caused by hurricane-force winds, flooding by a storm tide of 14–18 feet, and tornadoes. Massive damage occurred along coastal areas, pushing small ships and oil rigs ashore, flooding fishing areas with dozens of shrimp boats, destroying marinas plus hundreds of boardwalks, and swamping beachfront homes or hotels, with widespread tree damage and roofs or shingles torn off. Afterward, 22 counties in Alabama were declared disaster areas for Federal assistance (see map above, "Federal Disaster Areas"), spanning a 400-mile (640-km) region.

Mobile Bay spilled into downtown Mobile, Alabama to the depth of 2 - 6 ft. A flotel (floating habitat used by oil platform crews) broke loose of its moorings and slammed into the Cochrane–Africatown USA Bridge; the bridge damage was later found not to be critical but in the meantime its traffic was reduced from four lanes to two. There was cause for concern because the bridge, in conjunction with underwater tunnels, is a part of the I-10 Hazardous Materials route across the Mobile River. The Battleship Parkway crossing Mobile Bay was also closed before the storm and was completely submerged during the hurricane. Many coastal homes south of the Point Clear area were severely damaged, flooded, or swept away.

Damage was quite heavy in coastal Alabama (comparable to Hurricane Ivan in 2004), including significant structural damage to many buildings. Bayou La Batre, a fishing town, sustained significant damage to its infrastructure and fishing fleet. It was the focal point of public attention given to Alabama in the aftermath of the storm. On Sunday, September 4, 2005, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited a community center in Bayou La Batre and surveyed storm damage with Alabama Governor Bob Riley. Some damage was reported in inland Alabama, as well, particularly related to fallen trees. An oil platform became grounded near Dauphin Island.

More than 584,000 people were left without power in Alabama immediately after the storm. Tornadoes were also reported near Brewton.

Towns on the Eastern Shore began regaining electric power on August 30, and power was restored to sections of Mobile beginning on the fifth day after the storm, September 3, 2005.

An (inland) tropical storm wind warning was issued in every county in Alabama along and west of I-65.

Georgia
Western Georgia was hit with the outer bands of Hurricane Katrina, resulting in heavy rains, damaging winds and several reports of tornadoes in Polk, Heard, and Carroll counties. In Polk County, three homes were damaged by a tornado. A fatal tornado in Carroll County resulted in the death of one person in a vehicle collision and caused damage to as many as 30 homes, and one additional fatality was reported.

Severe weather was also reported in northeastern Georgia, including tornadoes in White and Hall counties. In White County, a tornado struck the tourist town of Helen, ripping the top floor from an Econolodge hotel and damaging businesses at a nearby outlet mall. Thirty people were displaced by the storm, but no injuries were reported. In Hall County, several homes were reported damaged by a possible tornado in Lula. A tornado in a feeder band moved through Decatur County to the west of Bainbridge in southwestern Georgia during the evening of August 29.

On August 31, the price of gasoline shot up dramatically in and around the Atlanta metropolitan area, reaching as high as $6 per gallon. This was mainly due to consumer panic about lack of gasoline caused by Hurricane Katrina, which disrupted oil production in the Gulf of Mexico.

Arkansas
Arkansas avoided damage from Katrina, as the storm passed mainly to the east. The state established KARE (Katrina Assistance Relief Effort), a toll free telephone number and website for evacuees seeking assistance, and provided deep discounts on spaces at its state parks, waived pet restrictions, and allowed evacuees to stay even if other travelers had confirmed reservations (bumped travelers were offered either space at another state park or a gift certificate for future use). The governor instructed state agencies to take care of human needs first and worry about paperwork later.

Kentucky
Western Kentucky was already suffering flooding from storms that had passed through the area during the weekend prior to Katrina's arrival. Part of Christian County High School, located just outside Hopkinsville, collapsed during the weekend. Significant flooding was reported in the Hopkinsville area, and many homes were flooded. One person was killed in flood waters during Katrina that had already been high from the previous storm.

Governor Ernie Fletcher, declared Christian, Todd, and Trigg counties disaster areas due to flooding, and declared a statewide state of emergency.

New England
Over 4 in of rain fell across parts of New England, especially in the northern part of the region. Gusty winds also caused many trees to fall across the region.

New York
Western New York received up to 5 in of rain. High winds from the storm left about 4,500 people in Buffalo without power.

North Carolina
North Carolina avoided damage from the storm, but gas prices rose in response to interrupted supply lines. Local hospitals received some regional evacuees.

Ohio
In Ohio, some flooding and power outages were reported (including about 2,500 outages in the easternmost part of the state alone), and several areas were evacuated throughout the state. One hospital in Dennison had to be evacuated as it lost power and its generator failed, but it was restored later in the day. Two deaths were blamed on the storm in Ohio, both indirect deaths from an automobile accident caused by Katrina's rains in Huron County north of the village of Monroeville.

A F-0 force tornado hit Warren County on August 30, causing minor damage in Morrow and Salem Township. Three houses were damaged, but no injuries were reported.

Ontario
On August 30 heavy rain and tropical storm force wind gusts were reported in Southern Ontario as Katrina passed over the area before dissipating into a remnant low pressure system. Port Colborne and Brockville appeared to receive the most rain, both with over 4 in. Other regions in the province reported 1 - 2 in of rain, except near the New York border where up to 3 in was reported. There were also some spotty reports of flooding and damage due to fallen trees.

Pennsylvania
In Pennsylvania, at least two tornadoes spawned from Katrina's outer bands and touched down in the south-central part of the state south of Harrisburg. Numerous trees were blown down and several roofs were damaged.

Quebec
On August 31, the storm system previously known as Katrina was partially absorbed by a front and continued to produce heavy rainfall along the St. Lawrence River Valley. Several villages in the northeastern part of Quebec were isolated due to multiple washouts. Sections of roads were destroyed, effectively cutting these villages off via land travel. Affected areas were supplied by boats normally supplying the Magdalen Islands. The system crossed over uninhabited areas of Labrador before completely dissipating.

Tennessee
At the storm's peak, at least 80,000 customers were without power, primarily in the Memphis and Nashville areas.

Some damage was reported, primarily due to fallen trees. However, there were no deaths or injuries reported in Tennessee as a result of Katrina.

Tennessee was used as a staging area for Gulf Coast evacuees, particularly in and around Memphis.

Texas
Texas avoided any direct damage from Hurricane Katrina, but the state took in an estimated 220,000 people who sought refuge from Louisiana.

On August 31, the Harris County, Texas Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management and the State of Louisiana came to an agreement to allow at least 25,000 evacuees from New Orleans, especially those who were sheltered in the Louisiana Superdome, to move to the Astrodome until they could return home. The evacuation began on September 1. President George W. Bush announced on September 4 that additional evacuees would be airlifted to other states.

The Reliant Astrodome in Houston took on some of the 25,000 who had initially sought shelter in the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, but quickly reached capacity and by September 2, was unable to accept additional hurricane evacuees from the disaster. The Astrodome was reopened a few hours later, after it was announced that all events scheduled through December 2005 would be cancelled so as to open the building to an additional 11,000 evacuees. City officials then opened two additional buildings adjacent to the Dome, the Arena, and the center, as well as the George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston to house additional evacuees.

When the Houston shelters began to reach capacity on September 2, Governor Rick Perry activated an emergency plan that made space for an additional 25,000 each in San Antonio and the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, as well as smaller shelters in communities across Texas. Beginning with a convoy of 50 buses (2,700 people) that arrived at Reunion Arena in Dallas at 3:00 AM CST on September 3, a wave of over 120,000 additional evacuees began pouring into Texas at a rate such that, as of September 5, it was estimated there were roughly 139,000 evacuees in official shelters around the state. This, added to the estimated 90,000 that were already in hotels and homes, overwhelmed local resources. Dallas quickly sought help from nearby cities to help accommodate more evacuees. A staging area at the unused Big Town Mall in Mesquite was opened, but was also quickly overloaded. Fort Worth and Arlington accepted some evacuees, and towns from as far away as Bonham and even Tulsa, Oklahoma offered to help.

By the afternoon of September 5, with a total estimated number of over 230,000 evacuees in Texas, Governor Perry ordered that buses begin being diverted to other shelters outside the state resulting in 20,000 being sent to Oklahoma and 30,000 being sent to Arkansas. By September 6, Texas had an estimated 250,000 evacuees and Governor Perry was forced to declare a state of emergency in Texas and issued an impassioned plea to other states to begin taking the 40,000-50,000 evacuees that were still in need of shelter.

Many communities in Texas opened up many of their services to evacuees from Louisiana, offering speedier enrollment for children in local school districts, speedy access to the Texas food stamp program, as well as access to health services for those being treated for diseases like tuberculosis and HIV. Texas state parks were opened free of charge to evacuees.

More than 300 students from Tulane University, including the school's football team, were displaced to Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

The New Orleans Saints NFL football team, who were displaced from their home facility at the Superdome, moved temporarily to San Antonio. The Saints' 2005 home games were split between the Alamodome in San Antonio and Louisiana State University's Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge. On December 30, 2005, the team and the league announced that the club would play a split schedule again in 2006.

Virginia
In Virginia, a tornado related to Katrina's outer bands touched down in Marshall, damaging at least 13 homes. In addition, electricity was lost by about 4,000 customers. No deaths or injuries were reported.

West Virginia
Significant flooding was reported in several communities in West Virginia, including Sissonville, forcing some evacuations.

title: Hurricane Katrina effects by region


text: Category:Wales-related lists

title: Category:Wales-related lists


text:
Masstige

Masstige is a marketing term meaning downward brand extension. The word is a portmanteau of the words mass and prestige and has been described as "prestige for the masses".

The term was popularized by Michael Silverstein and Neil Fiske in their book Trading Up and Harvard Business Review article "Luxury for the Masses". Masstige products are defined as "premium but attainable", and there are two key tenets: (1) They are considered luxury or premium products and (2) They have price points that fill the gap between mid-market and super premium.

Silverstein and Fiske cite several examples:

 * Bath and Body Works Lotion that sells for 1.13 $/oz versus 0.30 $/oz.
 * Pottery Barn housewares that are considered premium but are widely available at attainable price points well below super premium brands.
 * Kendall-Jackson Wines that entered the market at $5 per bottle versus the standard $2 per bottle.
 * Porsche Boxster

Several other examples of masstige brand positioning have been proposed by Truon, McColl, and Kitchen include:

 * BMW 1 Series for $19,000 vs. traditional BMW sedans for $50,000
 * Armani Jeans for $100 vs. Armani Haute Couture for $900
 * Tag Heuer Formula 1 for $550 vs. Tag Heuer Link for $4,000

History
According to the Oxford Dictionary Online, the term originated during the 1990s. It was then popularized in 2003 by Michael Silverstein and Neil Fiske in their book Trading Up and Harvard Business Review article "Luxury for the Masses". Masstige' movement gains steam" by Moly Prior characterizes the product trends for the health and beauty care industries with the term. Since 2003, the marketing strategy of masstige has been used by numerous consumer goods industries that include premium level products.

Masstige market positioning
Kitchen, a reasonable equilibrium between perceived prestige and price premium is critical to an effective masstige strategy. That is to say that masstige brand positioning for the consumer is to develop the brand as a premium, or reasonable level of perceived prestige yet whose price point is similar to middle-range brands as outlined in the diagram below.

New luxury brands are closer to traditional brands in terms of prestige, however in terms of price they are closer to middle range brands. Established brands command a premium at 3.1 times more expensive than new luxury brands (masstige positioning), and new luxury brands only sold for 2.2 times more than middle range brands. In terms of perceived prestige, the ratio of traditional luxury brands and new luxury brands was 1.14, while the ratio of new luxury brands and middle-range brands was 1.74. Those brands that employed masstige positioning strategy effectively differentiated themselves from middle range brands in terms of perceived prestige, and yet maintained a reasonable price premium to target middle range customers.

Brand dilution
It has been suggested that luxury marketers thinking about developing their own masstige strategies should be aware of the possibility for brand dilution. To avoid this, it is suggested that adequate price premiums are maintained and access is limited to middle class consumers as brand dilution tends to occur when purchases from middle class consumers becomes frequent or habitual. The more available a product is the less prestigious its perception. Luxury marketers should also focus on developing a prestigious environment around the brand by advertising in glamorous magazines and prestigious stores, and holding seasonal fashion shows so that the brand appeals to consumers as an "aspirational" brand. During periods of economic downturn or consumer economic uncertainty, "aspirational" spending is one of the first categories to slow while spending on true luxury items shows little change.

title: Masstige


text:
Cypress knee

A cypress knee is a distinctive structure forming above the roots of a cypress tree of any of various species of the subfamily Taxodioideae, such as the bald cypress. Their function is unknown, but they are generally seen on trees growing in swamps. Some current hypotheses state that they might help to aerate the tree's roots, create a barrier to catch sediment and reduce erosion, assist in anchoring the tree in the soft and muddy soil, or any combination thereof.

Knees are woody projections sent above the normal water level, roughly vertically from the roots, with a near-right-angle bend taking them vertically upward through water. One early assumption of their function was that they provided oxygen to the roots that grow in the low dissolved oxygen (DO) waters typical of a swamp, acting as pneumatophores: mangroves have similar adaptations. There is little actual evidence for this assertion; in fact, swamp-dwelling specimens whose knees are removed continue to thrive, and laboratory tests demonstrate that the knees are not effective at depleting oxygen in a sealed chamber. Even though there is no expert consensus on their role, the supposition that they are pneumatophores is repeated without comment in several introductory botany textbooks.

Another more likely function is that of structural buttressed support and stabilization. Lowland or swamp-grown cypresses found in flooded or flood-prone areas tend to be buttressed and "kneed," as opposed to cypresses grown on higher ground, which may grow with very little taper.

Trees that develop these "knees" include:
 * Glyptostrobus
 * Bald cypress
 * Pond cypress
 * Ahuehuete
 * Metasequoia

title: Cypress knee


text:
User:IndeedPossible

The user known as IndeedPossible is an anonymous man from New England, who would like to inform the world about post-capitalism and anti-capitalist causes.

Traveling between New Hampshire, Cambridge Massachusetts, Maine and other New England states, he wants to eventually distribute enough free information via human-existence.info in order to educate the masses about the inevitable evolution and elimination of modern capitalism.

The world, as a global society, must truly consider the brutal reality in store for us when capitalism reaches its' peak, and we are forced to either create a new structure for world affairs, or perish.

This is in our future. But not something we are taught in contemporary schools.

title: User:IndeedPossible


text:
Music of the Sun

Music of the Sun is the debut studio album by Barbadian singer Rihanna. It was released on August 29, 2005, by Def Jam Recordings. Prior to signing with Def Jam, Rihanna was discovered by record producer Evan Rogers in Barbados, who helped Rihanna record demo tapes to send out to several record labels. Jay-Z, the former chief executive officer (CEO) and president of Def Jam, was given Rihanna's demo by Jay Brown, his A&R at Def Jam, and invited her to audition for the label after hearing the song that would become her first single, "Pon de Replay". She auditioned for Jay-Z and L.A. Reid, the former CEO and president of record label group The Island Def Jam Music Group, and was signed on the spot to prevent her from signing with another record label.

After Rihanna was signed by Jay-Z, she continued to work with Rogers and his production partner Carl Sturken, as well as other music producers such as Poke and Tone, D. "Supa Dups" Chin-quee, and Stargate. Music of the Sun features vocals from Canadian rapper Kardinal Offishall, music group J-Status, and Jamaican singer Vybz Kartel. Music of the Sun is a dance-pop, dancehall, and R&B album; it also incorporates elements of pop, hip hop, Latin-pop and other Caribbean music genres such as reggae and soca music.

Music of the Sun received generally mixed reviews from music critics, some of whom complimented its dancehall and Caribbean-inspired songs, while others criticized some of the production. Commercially, the album was a modest success, debuting at number ten on the US Billboard 200 and number six on the US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums. In addition, it peaked within the top 40 of album charts in Germany, New Zealand, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. It produced two singles – "Pon de Replay" and "If It's Lovin' that You Want" – the former of which peaked at number two on the US Billboard Hot 100 and number one on the US Dance Club Songs. Music of the Sun was certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Rihanna promoted the album along with her next release with her debut concert tour, Rihanna: Live in Concert.

Background
Before signing to Def Jam Recordings, Rihanna was discovered in her home country Barbados by American record producer Evan Rogers. The two met in December 2003 through mutual friends of Rihanna's and Rogers' wife, while the couple was on vacation in Barbados. After meeting for the first time, Rogers asked Rihanna to come to his hotel room, where she performed renditions of Destiny's Child's "Emotion" and Mariah Carey's "Hero". Rihanna's renditions impressed Rogers, who then took her to New York City, where she was accompanied by her mother to record some demo tapes which could be sent to record labels. She recorded the demo over the next year intermittently, due to Rihanna only being able to record during school holidays.

At the age of 16, Rihanna was signed to Rogers' and Carl Sturken's production company, Syndicated Rhythm Productions, who assigned her a lawyer and manager, before the completed demo tape was distributed to various record labels around the world in late 2004. The first to respond to the demo tape was Jay-Z, who had recently been appointed president and CEO of Def Jam Recordings. Rihanna auditioned for him and music mogul L.A. Reid in his office. Looking back on the audition and meeting Jay-Z, Rihanna explained in an interview how she felt before walking into the room, saying: "That's when I really got nervous..... I was like: 'Oh God, he's right there, I can't look, I can't look, I can't look!' I remember being extremely quiet. I was very shy. I was cold the entire time. I had butterflies. I'm sitting across from Jay-Z. Like, Jay-Zee. I was star-struck." During the audition, Rihanna performed Whitney Houston's cover of "For the Love of You", as well as "Pon de Replay" and "The Last Time", which were written and produced by Rogers and Sturken and would be included on her debut album, Music of the Sun.

Jay-Z was initially skeptical about signing Rihanna after he felt "Pon de Replay" was too big for her, saying "when a song is that big, it's hard [for a new artist] to come back from. I don't sign songs, I sign artists". The audition resulted in Rihanna signing a six-album record deal with Def Jam Recordings in February 2005, on the same day of the audition, with Jay-Z saying "There's only two ways out. Out the door after you sign this deal. Or through this window ...", meaning that he was not going to let her leave without signing a record deal.

After signing to Def Jam Recordings, Rihanna cancelled other meetings with record labels and relocated from Barbados to New York City to live with Rogers and his wife. Rihanna explained the concept behind the title of the album to Kidzworld, saying that the sun is representative of her native Caribbean culture as well as herself and that the album consists of music from her heritage.

Recording
Rihanna worked with various producers for Music of the Sun and continued to work with Carl Sturken and Evan Rogers, who had previously written and produced "Pon de Replay" and "The Last Time" for Rihanna's demo tape. Although Rihanna stated that when she first heard "Pon de Replay", she did not want to record it, expressing that she felt the song was "sing-songy", but grew to like the song at the end of the recording process. In an interview with Kidzworld, Rihanna learned how the pair helped her develop her song-writing abilities, talking about Rogers and Sturken, who had worked with recording artists including Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and Kelly Clarkson.

Music and lyrics
Music of the Sun is a Caribbean-influenced, "urban" dance-pop album. Its dance-pop songs are complemented by contentional R&B ballads. The lead single "Pon de Replay" was written by Rogers, Sturken and Vada Nobles, and was produced by the first two. "Pon de Replay" is a simple dance-pop song with dancehall beats and reggae vocal cadence. Lyrically, the song has its protagonist asking the DJ to play her favorite song, as well as the fulfillment of dancing in a club. "The Last Time", written and produced by Rogers and Sturken, is an acoustic guitar driven ballad, while "Now I Know" is a stripped down string driven song. In addition to working with Rogers and Sturken for the majority of the album, Rihanna worked with production teams Poke and Tone of Trackmasters and Stargate. The former wrote and produced the second single released from the album, "If It's Lovin' that You Want", which Rihanna described as a "fun song". A R&B song, "If It's Lovin' that You Want" is a song about a girl telling a boy that he should make her his girl, because she has what the boy wants. A remix of the song, entitled "If It's Lovin' That You Want – Part 2", which features rap by Cory Gunz, was included as a bonus track on Rihanna's sophomore studio album, A Girl like Me (2006). Alongside Rogers and Sturken, Stargate co-wrote and co-produced "Let Me", which appears as the ninth song on the album. Music of the Sun also contains a remake of Jamaican singer Dawn Penn "You Don't Love Me (No, No, No)", and features dancehall recording artist Vybz Kartel.

Singles
"Pon de Replay" was released as the album's lead single on May 24, 2005. The song peaked at number one on the New Zealand Singles Chart and at number two on the US Billboard Hot 100 and the UK Singles Chart. An accompanying music video was directed by Little X and features Rihanna in a nightclub setting. Rihanna performed "Pon de Replay" complete with Barbados flags and colorful carnival attire at the MTV Video Music Awards pre-show in Miami, Florida on August 28, 2005. Rihanna also performed the song at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in November 2005.

"If It's Lovin' that You Want" was released as the second and final single from Music of the Sun on December 2, 2005. The song failed to replicate the chart success that "Pon de Replay" experienced, though managed to peak at number 36 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and inside the top 40 of multiple other record charts. An accompanying music video was directed by Marcus Raboy and features Rihanna in an island setting.

Critical reception
Music of the Sun received generally mixed reviews from music critics. Kelefa Sanneh of The New York Times viewed that the album's combination of dancehall and pop resulted in "["Pon de Replay" being] one [of] the summer's biggest and most seductive club tracks", but felt that Rihanna sounded "stranded" without a beat to sing along to. Barry Walters of Rolling Stone found it lacking in replay value, ingenuity, and rhythm, with "generic vocal hiccups and frills" of US R&B inflecting upon her "Caribbean charm". Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine called the album a "glut of teen R&B chanteuses" and described the lead single "Pon de Replay" as "a dancehall-pop mixture that owes plenty of its sweat and shimmy to Beyoncé's "Baby Boy". Evan Serpick of Entertainment Weekly wrote that Rihanna's "vibrant vocals lift tracks like 'That La, La, La' and 'Let Me,' but this bland dancehall/R&B debut is filled with chintzy production and maudlin arrangements that block out the Music of the Sun." Robert Christgau of The Village Voice rated the album a "dud", indicating "a bad record whose details rarely merit further thought."

In a positive review, Jason Birchmeier of AllMusic commented that the album presents Rihanna as "winsome rather than [a] wannabe," as well as how she set herself apart from other urban dance-pop artists such as Ashanti, Beyoncé, and Ciara. Birchmeier further explained that "Music of the Sun descends into faceless slow jams after a while, overall consistency not being among its attributes, but thankfully it picks up the pace toward the end..... the result is one of the more engaging urban dance-pop albums of the year." Chantal Jenoure of The Jamaica Observer complimented the dancehall and hip hop composition on several of the songs, including "Pon de Replay", "Rush", "Let Me", "Music of the Sun" and "That La, La, La", writing that they make the listener feel "happy" and "carefree".

Commercial performance
In the United States, Music of the Sun sold 69,000 copies in its first week and debuted and peaked at number ten on the Billboard 200 in the chart issue dated September 17, 2005. The album spent a total of thirty-five weeks on the chart. Music of the Sun debuted on the US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart at number six in the same chart issue, and spent a total of forty-four weeks on the chart. After five months of release, the album was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on January 1, 2006, denoting shipments of over 500,000 copies. By the time Rihanna released her third studio album Good Girl Gone Bad (2007), the album had sold 539,000 copies, making it a slower-selling album than the others in her repertoire. As of June 2015, the album had sold 623,000 copies in the United States. On August 28, 2020, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified the album Platinum. In Canada, Music of the Sun debuted and peaked at number seven on the Canadian Albums Chart in the chart issue dated September 17, 2005, but dropped out of the top ten the following week. After four months of release, the album was certified Platinum by Music Canada for shipments of over 100,000 copies.

Internationally, Music of the Sun failed to achieve a comparable level of chart success. In the United Kingdom, the album debuted and peaked at number 35 on the UK Albums Chart in the chart issue dated October 10, 2005. In its second week charting, Music of the Sun fell by three positions to number 38 and dropped out of the official UK Top 40 the following week. On May 12, 2006, the album was certified Gold by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), denoting shipments of over 100,000 copies. Elsewhere in Europe, the album debuted on the Swiss Albums Chart at number 46 in the chart issue dated September 11, 2005, and peaked at number 38 four weeks later. In Austria, Music of the Sun debuted on the Austrian Albums Chart at number 61 in the chart issue dated September 18, 2005, and peaked at number 45 the following week. The album debuted and peaked at number 93 on the French Albums Chart in the chart issue dated September 24, 2005. In the Netherlands, Music of the Sun debuted and peaked at number 98 on the Mega Album Top 100 in the chart issue dated April 29, 2006, and spent one week on the chart. In New Zealand, the album debuted on the New Zealand Albums Chart at number 40 in the chart issue dated September 26, 2005. Between September 29 and October 10, 2005, Music of the Sun dropped out of the album chart's top 40, but made a re-entry at number 40 on October 10, 2005. In its fourth week charting, the album peaked at number 26.

Personnel
Credits for Music of the Sun are adapted from AllMusic and the album's liner notes.

Recording locations

 * Bassmint Studios (Bronxville, New York)
 * The Loft Recording Studios (Bronxville, New York)
 * Avatar Studios (New York City, New York)

 * Forceful Boondog Studios (New York City, New York)
 * RMP Studios (Orlando, Florida)

Mixing locations

 * The Loft Recording Studios (Bronxville, New York)
 * Forceful Boondog Studios (New York City, New York)

 * Sony Music Studios (New York City, New York)

Vocals

 * Rihanna – main vocals, background vocals
 * Full Force – background vocals (track 5)
 * Sharina Sharpe – background vocals (track 5)
 * Elephant Man – featured vocals (track 13)

 * J-Status – featured vocals (tracks 2, 11)
 * Kardinal Offishall – featured vocals (track 10)
 * Vybz Kartel – featured vocals (track 4)

Musicians

 * Larry Glazener – bass (track 12)
 * Stephanie Cummins – cello (track 6)
 * Richard Locker – cello (track 12)
 * Mark Shumann – cello (track 12)
 * Richard Sortomme – concertmaster (track 5)
 * Carl Sturken – guitar (tracks 4, 6, 8), keyboards (tracks 1, 2, 4, 6-8, 10, 11, 13) , piano (track 12) , additional keyboards (track 9)
 * Tor Erik Hermansen – instruments (track 9)
 * Mikkel Storleer Eriksen – instruments (track 9)
 * Rob Mounsey – string arrangement and string conductor (track 12)
 * Ken Burdward-Hoy – viola (track 12)
 * Vincent Lionti – viola (track 12)
 * Sue Pray – viola (track 12)
 * Debra Shuffelt-Dine – viola (track 6)
 * Avril Brown – violin (track 12)
 * Cenovia Cummins – violin (track 12)
 * Yana Goichman – violin (track 12)
 * Ann Leathers – violin (track 12)
 * Jan Mullen – violin (track 12)
 * Elizabeth Nielson – violin (track 6)
 * Marti Sweet – violin (track 12)
 * Uri Vodoz – violin (track 12)
 * Carol Webb – violin (track 12)

Production

 * Jay Brown – A&R
 * Adrienne Muhammad – A&R
 * Tyran "Ty Ty" Smith – A&R
 * D. Emile – arrangements and producer (track 5)
 * Full Force – arrangements, mixing, producer, recording engineer, and vocal production (track 5)
 * Tai Linzie – art coordination, photography
 * Andy West – art direction
 * Jason Agel – assistant engineer (track 1)
 * Val Brathwaite – assistant engineer (tracks 1, 13)
 * Julius Díaz – assistant engineer (track 13)
 * Blake Douglas – assistant engineer (track 1)
 * Roy Matthews – assistant engineer (tracks 1, 13)
 * Alex Pinto – assistant engineer (track 13)
 * Ian Allen – business affairs
 * Heath Kudler – business affairs
 * Antoinette Trotman – business affairs
 * The Carter Administration – executive producer
 * Evan Rogers – co-executive producer, co-producer (track 9), producer (tracks 1, 2, 4, 6-8, 10-13) , additional vocal production (tracks 3, 5)
 * Carl Sturken – co-executive producer, co-producer (track 9), producer (tracks 1, 2, 4, 6-8, 10-13) , programming (tracks 2, 4, 6-8, 10, 11) , additional vocal production (tracks 3, 5) , additional programming (track 9)
 * D. "Supa Dups" Chinquee – co-producer (track 4)
 * Johnny "Too" Nice – co-producer, mixing, and recording engineer (track 5)
 * Spanador – co-producer (track 3)
 * Rudy Maya – drum programming and additional production (track 11)
 * Tippi Shorter – hairstyling
 * Scott Felcher – legal counsel
 * Evan Freifeld – legal counsel
 * Marc Jordan – management
 * Mylah Morales – make-up
 * Tracey Waples – marketing
 * Chris Gehringer – mastering
 * Al Hemberger – mixing (tracks 2, 4, 6-12), recording engineer (all tracks) , additional mixing (track 3)
 * Jason Goldstein – mixing (track 3)
 * Jason Groucott – mixing (tracks 1, 13)
 * Vada Nobles – mixing and producer (tracks 1, 13)
 * Michelle Graf – packaging
 * Mark Mann – photography
 * Ivan Otis – photography
 * Poke and Tone – producers (track 3)
 * Stargate – producers (track 9)
 * Andrea Derby – production manager
 * Rob Heselden – production manager assistant
 * Matt Noble – recording engineer (tracks 3, 10)
 * Deborah Mannis-Gardner – sample clearance
 * Malcolm Pollack – strings recording engineer (track 12)
 * Ms. Cee Gee – studio assistant
 * Charlene Curry – studio assistant
 * Lou$tar – studio assistant
 * Raphaela St. Vil – studio assistant
 * Crystal Streets – stylist
 * Makeba – vocal production

title: Music of the Sun


text:
Salix myrtilloides

Salix myrtilloides, the swamp willow, is a species of willow native to boglands in cool temperate to subarctic regions of northeastern Europe and northern Asia from central Norway and Poland eastwards to the Pacific Ocean coast, with isolated populations further south in mountain bogs in the Alps, Carpathians and Sikhote-Alin mountains.

It is a deciduous small shrub growing to 15 – tall. The leaves are oval-acute, 15–20 mm long, with an entire or sparsely toothed margin, dark green above, paler glaucous or purple-tinged below. The flowers are produced in catkins 1–2 cm long in the spring at the same time as the new leaves appear.

The leaves resemble bilberry (Vaccinium uliginosum) leaves in shape, hence the name in the Finnish and Swedish languages, which translates as "bog bilberry willow".

A very similar, closely related species, Salix pedicellaris (bog willow), occurs in northern North America; it is classified as a variety of swamp willow S. myrtilloides var. pedicellaris by some botanists.

title: Salix myrtilloides


text: Category:Israeli poets

title: Category:Israeli poets


text:
Manoj Joshi (journalist)

Manoj Joshi is an Indian journalist and author specialising in security and international relations. As of 2013 he is a Distinguished Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation, a New Delhi–based think tank. Before that he was a professional journalist whose previous job was as Comment Editor with the Mail Today newspaper in India.

Education
Joshi finished his schooling from St. Joseph's College in Nainital. After an undergraduate degree at St. Stephen's College, Delhi, Joshi studied history at the University of Lucknow and earned his MPhil and PhD from the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University.

Career
Joshi was a Comment Editor with the Mail Today newspaper in India. and prior to that he has worked as the political editor of The Times of India. He has worked with India Today, The Hindu and was the Washington Correspondent of The Financial Express. Through his career, he has reported on the rise and fall of the militancy in Punjab, India's Sri Lanka venture in 1987, the conflict in the Siachen Glacier, India–Pakistan crises of 1987, 1990, 1999, 2002 and 2008–2009, on Sino-Indian relations and the growing ties between India and the United States and covered several general elections. He remained a member of India's National Security Council's advisory board, 2004–2006 In July 2011 he was appointed by the Government of India's Cabinet Committee on Security to be a member of a high level National Task Force chaired by former Cabinet Secretary Naresh Chandra. The 14-member task force was asked to examine India's security system and suggest ways of plugging the gaps, if any, and recommend reforms to make the system more efficient.

title: Manoj Joshi (journalist)


text:
Suisun

Suisun may refer to:

People

 * Suisun people

Places

 * Suisun Bay
 * Suisun City, California
 * Suisun–Fairfield station
 * Suisun Marsh
 * Suisun Valley AVA, wine region

Ships

 * USS Suisun

title: Suisun


text:
Talk:Operational risk

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 30 October 2018 and 11 December 2018. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Yt1416. Peer reviewers: Yt1416.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 05:45, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Basel Committee
Basel Committee is based on "Group of Ten" countries which includes Japan, US and Canada. Europe adopted the Based codes, not the other way round. Martin (Talk, Contribs) 13:53, 2 April 2011 (UTC)

Where does Basel II state the requirements for media data protection i.e. disk/ tapes that need to leave the IT envornment?
 * It doesn't. Basel II is much more around the financial safeguards, rather than the IT ones. Any data protection would need to be "robust". 87.194.61.149 16:57, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

Criticisms of definition
Removed a lot of text about analyst criticisms of definition. Happy to see these reinstated if a citation is provided. Martin (Talk, Contribs) 13:14, 29 August 2008 (UTC)

Ability to measure market risk or manage?
"However, it is worth mentioning that the near collapse of the U.S. financial system in September 2008 is a clear indication that our ability to measure market and credit risk is far from perfect." I have done some work in market risk, I believe this would be more accurate to say "our ability to understand and manage market & credit risk measures". September 2008 was more about reglation and mis-management, not about measurement. 206.230.48.50 (talk) 12:35, 4 March 2010 (UTC)wilce1197
 * I agree there is more needed on this topic. I have created a reputational risk article - perhaps that is more fitting than this article for expansion? Anneaholaward (talk) 15:47, 11 May 2010 (UTC)

Background
Although few would argue that poor risk management helped cause the recent crisis, this is a page on operational risk, which as far as I know was not a major factor. DominicConnor (talk) 15:26, 16 March 2011 (UTC)

title: Talk:Operational risk


text:
Robin Squire

Robin Clifford Squire (born 12 July 1944) is a British Conservative politician. He was Member of Parliament for Hornchurch from 1979 until 1997 when he lost the seat to John Cryer.

Squire was born and raised in South West London. After qualifying as an accountant he was employed by a finance company while being a Conservative Party activist. He became a member of Sutton Borough Council in 1968, and the Member of Parliament for Hornchurch in 1979. During Margaret Thatcher's years (1979 to 1990) in government, Squire was considered to be a prominent "wet", opposed to the Conservative government's economic and employment policies. After Thatcher left office in 1990, Squire's political position strengthened, and he held junior ministerial positions until the Conservative government fell in 1997.

Squire was described in The Guardian as "a user-friendly Tory wet" and in The Times as "a minister who wears pebble glasses and always looks as though he lives in a bedsit."

After losing his seat in the 1997 general election, Squire struggled initially to find a new career. His difficulties in this regard were widely reported on in the media. Since 2002, he has been the Trust Secretary/Chief Executive for the Veolia ES Cleanaway Trusts, based in Rainham, a group of several environmental charities operating in Havering, Basildon and Castle Point, Essex.

Early career
Squire was educated at Tiffin Grammar School, Kingston upon Thames and then qualified as a Chartered Accountant while working in a small City practice. He joined the accounting department of Lombard Banking in 1968 (a finance company that became a member of the National Westminster Bank group in 1970) and was promoted to the position of Deputy Chief Accountant at Lombard North Central in 1972. He held this post until he was elected to Parliament in 1979.

During this period he was a Conservative activist. Notably, he held various positions in the Greater London Young Conservatives including that of chairman in 1973. He was elected a member of Sutton Borough Council in 1968. Squire was the Conservative candidate for Hornchurch in the October 1974 general election although he lost the election by a 7,000 vote margin. In 1976, he became the Leader of Sutton Council.

At an early stage, he demonstrated a political position on the left of the Conservative Party. At the Conservative Party Conference in 1973 he was booed when he opposed a motion calling on the Government to recognise the white minority regime in Rhodesia. At the Conservative Local Government Conference in 1977, Squire was one of five council leaders who spoke against plans advanced by Keith Speed (then Conservative local government spokesman) to abolish the domestic rating system. Squire warned that abolition of the rating system without a widely accepted alternative to put in its place might be highly damaging.

During the period 1970 to 1979, both Conservative and Labour administrations promoted the move to comprehensive education. As Leader of Sutton Council, Squire advocated a move to comprehensive education in the Borough that would be phased in by 1984. However, in 1978 Labour Education Secretary Shirley Williams pressed for an end to selective education in the Borough by 1980. This resulted in a stand-off and Squire threatened legal action against the government to prevent an earlier move to comprehensives. The advent of a new Conservative government in May 1979 allowed Sutton to remain as an isolated pocket of selective education and grammar schools. After the Liberal Democrats took control of the Council in 1986 selective education was retained.

Squire was elected to Parliament as the member for Hornchurch on 3 May 1979. Labour-held Hornchurch had not been a marginal seat and Squire had not expected to win it. However, he was elected with a 769-vote majority on a "freak" 8.5% swing. At this point, he stood down as leader of Sutton Borough Council and gave up his Council seat in 1982.

Squire married Susan Fey, a Labour Party activist, in 1981. Questioned about the marriage, Fey stated that she was on the right wing of the Labour Party and her husband was on the left of the Conservative Party. As such, she considered that there was no great political difference between them. The couple had two children (one son and one daughter) by Fey's previous marriage, and divorced in 2007.

Parliamentary career
Upon entering Parliament, Squire was soon established as one of the "wet" group of Conservative MPs who opposed many aspects of the economic, employment and social policies of the Thatcher government. For example, in 1981 Squire was one of 18 Conservative rebels who opposed referendum provisions for local council rate increases. In 1987 he opposed the introduction of the community charge (or 'poll tax') and in 1988 he was one of 20 Conservative rebels to vote against the freezing of child benefits. During the 1980s, he sponsored a successful 'freedom of information' private members bill and participated in cross-party pressure groups involved with homeless people. In 1988 Squire was the only Conservative MP to vote against Section 28, legislation which sought to prevent local authorities from promoting awareness of gay issues. He became particularly well known for his regular contributions to Capital Radio's "Party Pieces" programme and he was described in The Times diary as being "pleasingly unsycophantic".

He appeared to be comfortable as a member of the 'Parliamentary club'. He was reported to be a prominent and popular member of the Guy Fawkes club – a dining club composed of Conservative MPs first elected in 1979. Other members of the Guy Fawkes club included John Major and Brian Mawhinney. He was rated as a highly capable member of the House of Commons bridge team and acquitted himself well in tournaments.

Squire consistently expressed misgivings over the personal leadership style of Margaret Thatcher, describing her as "a good wartime leader, but ...." This, combined with his status as a "dripping" or "oceanic" wet meant that promotion was slow in coming. The only significant office he held during the Thatcher governments was that of Parliamentary Private Secretary to Transport Secretary Lynda Chalker between 1983 and 1985. In 1980 he was ousted from the Secretaryship of the Conservative backbench European Committee by a Eurosceptic.

However, his prospects suddenly improved when Major became Prime Minister in 1990 and early in 1991, he became PPS to Chris Patten MP, the Chairman of the Conservative Party.

Ministerial career
On 14 April 1992, in the immediate aftermath of the 1992 United Kingdom general election, Squire was appointed Under Secretary of State for the Environment. In this capacity he was variously described as the "inner cities minister" or the "local government minister". His background as a council leader made him an obvious choice for this role and he appeared to work harmoniously with Michael Howard, the then Secretary of State for the Environment.

However, on 28 May 1993 he was moved to the post of Under Secretary of State for Education, serving under Secretary of State John Patten and later Gillian Shephard. In this capacity he was generally known as the "schools minister" and occasionally as the "school discipline minister". He held this post until the Conservative government fell in May 1997. The official reason given for the move was that one of the other education ministers (Baroness Blatch) sat in the House of Lords and it was felt that an experienced House of Commons operator like Squire was needed to front government policy on schools.

During his four years as Schools Minister, Squire was involved in many high-profile issues. These included the introduction of the OFSTED schools inspection regime, published league tables for school performance, the ability of state sector schools to opt out of local authority control as "grant-maintained" schools, nursery education vouchers and the introduction of the first state funded Muslim schools. Many of these reforms survived the change of government in 1997 and became features of Labour education policy.

He is reported to have "barked down" some of the more extreme proposals to deal with the threat of school shootings after the Dunblane massacre in 1996, in which a crazed individual with a gun entered a primary school, shooting a number of pupils and teachers.

During the final months of the Major government, Squire was identified with the "Conservative Mainstream" group of MPs. This group was composed of centrist, one-nation members who sided with Major in his confrontations with Eurosceptics and right-wingers.

In the 1997 United Kingdom general election, Squire was defending a 9,165 majority in his constituency at Hornchurch. His personal popularity plus his prominence as a Minister led him to believe that he would hold the seat, saying "This was the one time when I thought my seat was safe...". However, he lost the seat to Labour's John Cryer with a 16% swing and a 5,680 majority for his opponent.

After Parliament
Around 150 Conservative MPs lost their seats in the 1997 general election. Many of them struggled to find gainful employment and a new role in life for themselves. This was particularly difficult for former ministers who had become accustomed to the status, emoluments and perks that went with their old jobs.

Squire initially considered a return to accountancy but he had difficulty in this regard because he had not updated his skills since leaving the profession in 1979. For example, he was initially unable to use a computer spreadsheet or a scientific calculator – essential tools for an accountant by 1997. He applied for the post of general manager of the Dolphin Square residential complex in Pimlico, London at a salary of £30,000 but was turned down, albeit as the runner-up for the post. He applied for the position of bursar at several independent schools but was rejected by all of them. "His only independent income in the first four months of his enforced leisure came when he won 20 pounds on a Sunday Times brain-teaser competition"

He eventually "signed on" for Job Seeker's Allowance. He was given counselling and directed to courses on interview technique, assertiveness and IT skills. Squire gradually developed a portfolio of part-time appointments. In 1999, he served for a short period as a National Lottery Commissioner (salary £6,200) and he was later appointed as a schools adjudicator by the Department of Education. It is believed that he took up a number of other such posts in the voluntary and NGO sectors. He also acted, until March 2000, as a Parliamentary lobbyist.

Squire stood against John Cryer at Hornchurch in the 2001 general election, but lost again by a significant majority. He has not been politically active since that time.

title: Robin Squire


text:
Magyar Posse

Magyar Posse was a Finnish post-rock band established in 2000 in the city of Pori. They have been praised by critics since their first album. Their second album achieved Top 40 status in Finland. They have toured frequently in Europe. Their first music video 'Whirlpool of Terror and Tension' (2006) won two awards in the Oulu Music Video Festival and a Kultainen Muuvi, the grand prize for Finnish music videos.

For their latest album, Random Avenger, the band got a sixth member, violinist Sandra Mahlamäki.

In 2008, the band completed an experimental film project titled Aldebaran rising with Pori-based director Petri Hagner. The film was performed on three occasions in Pori (October 17 and 18th, 2008) with live accompaniment by the band. There is no information of plans to perform the film elsewhere.

In June 2012, the band announced on their Facebook page that they had split up due to "lack of passion and motivation".

Members
The current band members are: Olli Joukio, Tuomas Laurila, Jari Lähteinen, Mikko Rintala, Pasi Salmi, and Harri Sippola. Sandra Mahlamäki left the band in early 2010.

Albums

 * We Will Carry You Over the Mountains (Verdura Records 2002)
 * 1) Sleepwalker
 * 2) Witchcraft
 * 3) Single Sparks Are Spectral Fires
 * 4) Pacific Ocean/Death in the Desert
 * 5) (Nameless)
 * 6) Enemy Within
 * 7) The Endless Cycle of Violence
 * 8) Lufthan

 * Kings of Time (Verdura Records 2004)
 * I
 * II
 * 1) III
 * IV
 * V
 * VI
 * 1) VII

 * Random Avenger (Verdura Records 2006)
 * 1) Whirlpool of Terror and Tension
 * 2) Sudden Death
 * 3) Black Procession
 * 4) European Lover/Random Avenger
 * 5) Intercontinental Hustle
 * 6) One By One
 * 7) Popzag

In addition the tracks "Sports" and "Combat Shock" in the album: Tulva-kokoelma 2: Tässä me uimme, tätä me juomme (2003) and "Robots 4 Life" from the album Huge Bass - Post It.

title: Magyar Posse


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Akrabu

 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. -Splash 02:31, 10 September 2005 (UTC)

Akrabu
The band does not appear to be notable, nor does it meet WP:MUSIC criteria for listing. The article does not establish the necessary points for this to remain. C HAIRBOY 20:15, 31 August 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete Per above. - C HAIRBOY 20:15, 31 August 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete per nominator DV8 2XL 22:27, 31 August 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete per nom, also no Allmusic. --TheMidnighters 22:37, 31 August 2005 (UTC)
 * Don't Delete Come on, now, I thought Wikipedia was supposed to have as much as possible, shouldn't we err on the side of completeness? It's not like it's a self-promotion page or anything.
 * 4th edit by user 67.164.100.198 (who is also the author of the Akrabu page. - C HAIRBOY 03:50, 1 September 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.

title: Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Akrabu


text:
Talk:History of Dalmatia

Editwarring
VVVladimir, if several different editors disagree with you, there is an obvious explanation which is much more likely than the notion that you are protecting the Truth against tag-teaming. Please stop. bobrayner (talk) 00:05, 12 March 2014 (UTC)
 * What are you talking about? I've been following this for the past three days and I don't see any explanation or discussion (and thus no consensus) for removal of such large portions of the article. Care to explain yourself? Shokatz (talk) 01:14, 12 March 2014 (UTC)
 * Yes, bobrayner, would you please explain to us why do you insist on removing those parts of the article, including several whole sections? They were deleted three days ago without explanation by a newly created account, and when the text was restored by an experienced editor, you undid his edit with the summery "not an improvement". So, how was the article improved by those deletions? Vladimir  (talk) 17:55, 12 March 2014 (UTC)

 * bob, I came this -><- close to blocking you now. This is simply improper, and you and everyone else editing in the WP:ARBMAC topic area should know better. This was plain censorship by what appears to be a disposable WP:SPA - reinstating those edits without so much as a useful edit summary is a clear violation of decorum. --Joy [shallot] (talk) 17:05, 13 March 2014 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion: Participate in the deletion discussion at the. —Community Tech bot (talk) 23:38, 14 February 2023 (UTC)
 * Serenissima.svg

Maps of Venetian Dalmatia
Please refrain from using 15-18th century and especially 15-17th century maps which are erroneously showing how Venice Republic had governorship and control over whole region of modern Dalmatia - it did NOT neither in its full extent of power which came in the 18th century. Especially not in the 15th and 16ht century, when most part of Dalmatia was under Ottoman Empire control and governorship, and prior to that under Hungarian Kingdom. Venetian Dalmatia mainly included only the very coastal part of Dalmatia with very near hinterland while the majority of the Dalmatian hinterland was not Venetian at all. Miki Filigranski (talk) 10:10, 3 February 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:History of Dalmatia


text: Category:Swedish poets

title: Category:Swedish poets


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Fdi flow

 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. — J I P | Talk 15:15, 10 September 2005 (UTC)

Fdi flow
Delete meaningless, out-of-context snippet from a document with no explanation of significance. --Russ Blau (talk) 20:15, August 31, 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete nonsence DV8 2XL 22:27, 31 August 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:
Heitarō Kimura

Heitarō Kimura (木村 兵太郎) was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army. He was convicted of war crimes and sentenced to death by hanging.

Biography
Kimura was born in Saitama prefecture, north of Tokyo, but was raised in Hiroshima prefecture, which he considered to be his home. He attended military schooling from an early age, and graduated from the Imperial Japanese Army Academy in 1908. He went on to graduate from the Army War College in 1916 and was commissioned into the artillery. He served during the Japanese Siberian Intervention of 1918–1919 in support of White Russian forces against the Bolshevik Red Army. He was subsequently sent as a military attaché to Germany.

From the late 1920s Kimura was attached to the Inspectorate of Artillery and an instructor at the Field Artillery School. He was selected as a member of the Japanese delegation to the London Disarmament Conference from 1929 to 1931. On his return to Japan, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and assigned command of the IJA 22nd Artillery Regiment. From 1932 to 1934, he returned to the Field Artillery School, followed by the Coastal Artillery School as an instructor.

In 1935, Kimura first served in an influential role close to the centre of Japanese policy when he was appointed Chief of the Control Section in the Economic Mobilisation Bureau at the Ministry of War. The next year, he was appointed Head of the Ordnance Bureau. He was promoted to the rank of major general in 1936. He became a lieutenant general in 1939, and was assigned a combat command with the IJA 32nd Division in China from 1939 to 1940. From 1940 to 1941, Kimura served as Chief of Staff of the Kwantung Army in Manchukuo.

Kimura returned to the Ministry of War in 1941 as Vice Minister of War, assisting War Minister Hideki Tōjō in planning strategies for campaigns in the Second Sino-Japanese War as well as the Pacific War. From 1943 to 1944, he was a member of the Supreme War Council, where he continued to exert a major influence on strategy and policy.

Late in 1944, as the course of the war went against Japan after the disastrous Battle of Imphal, Kimura was again assigned to the field, this time as commander in chief of the Burma Area Army, defending Burma against the Allied South East Asia Command. The situation was not promising as Japanese forces were under severe pressure on every front, and the Allies had complete air superiority. Reinforcements and munitions were short, and Imperial General Headquarters entertained the unsupported hope that Kimura would be able make his command logistically self-sufficient.

Unable to defend all of Burma, Kimura fell back behind the Irrawaddy River to attack the Allies when their supply lines were stretched thin - a move which initially dislocated the Allied plans. Such was Allied material superiority that the main weight of the offensive was switched, and the vital positions of Meiktila and Mandalay were captured at the Battle of Meiktila and Mandalay. From that point, Kimura was only capable of delaying actions. He opted to preserve his forces rather than defend the capital, Rangoon to the last man. Promoted to the rank of general in 1945, he was still reorganizing his forces at the surrender of Japan in mid-1945.

After the end of World War II, Kimura was arrested by the Allied occupation powers and tried by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East for war crimes. The tribunal cited his role in planning the strategy for the war in China and Southeast Asia, and condemned him for laxity in preventing atrocities against prisoners of war in Burma. Although the Death Railway was built from 1942 to 1943, and Kimura did not arrive in Burma until late 1944, Kimura was also charged with the abuse and deaths of prisoners of war & civilian laborers used to construct the railroad. Found guilty in 1948 on Counts 1, 27, 29, 31, 32, 54 and 55 of the indictment he was condemned to death by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East and hanged as a war criminal.

title: Heitarō Kimura