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Talk:Krypton fluoride laser

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Krypton Fluoride Laser Development for Inertial Fusion Energy

J. SETHIAN, M. FRIEDMAN, M.MYERS, S.OBENSCHAIN, R. LEHMBERG, J. GIULIANI, and P.KEPPLE Plasma Physics Division, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington DC USA F. HEGELER Commonwealth Technology, Inc, Alexandria, VA S. SWANEKAMP Jaycor, Inc Alexandria, VA D. WEIDENHEIMER Titan-Pulse Sciences, Inc, San Leandro, CA

1 . Introduction
Direct drive with krypton fluoride (KrF) lasers is an attractive approach to fusion energy: KrF lasers have outstanding beam spatial uniformity, which reduces the seed for hydrodynamic instabilities; they have an inherent short wavelength (248 nm) that increases the rocket efficiency and raises the threshold for deleterious laser-plasma instabilities; and they have the capability for “zooming” the spot size to follow an imploding pellet and thereby increase efficiency. Our 1-D numerical simulations have shown that a target driven by a KrF laser can have a gain above 125 [1,2], which is ample for a fusion system. We are also conducting simulations of pellet burn in 2-D and 3-D using commercial and homegrown multiprocessor computers. These simulations will allow us to establish target and laser criteria for current pellet designs and help us develop more advanced designs that are even more resistant to hydrodynamic instabilities. The simulations and their underlying codes are benchmarked with experiments on the Nike KrF laser at NRL. Nike has demonstrated that a large (3-5 kJ) KrF laser can be built and can produce highly uniform target illumination [3]. Nike ablatively accelerates planar targets that have close to the pulse shape and areal mass that are required in a high gain system. Moreover, the targets are composed of similar materials (low density foam wicked with cryogenically cooled liquid D 2 ) as in a high gain target. In addition to these laser-target issues, the Sombrero Power Plant study showed a KrF based system could lead to an economically attractive power plant [4]. In order to fully evaluate this approach to fusion energy, we need to establish if a krypton fluoride laser can meet the requirements for inertial fusion energy. That is the purpose of the Electra program at the Naval Research Laboratory.

2. The Electra Laser Program
Electra will be a 700 J, 30 cm aperture, 5 Hz rep-rate facility that will be used to develop the technologies that can meet the fusion energy requirements for rep-rate, efficiency, durability, and cost. These requirements are based on both power plant studies and on our high gain target designs. Electra will be 1-2% of the energy of a power plant size laser beam line, but it will be large enough that the technologies will be directly scalable to a full size system. The main amplifier of Electra will be pumped with two 30 cm x 100 cm electron beams, each with V = 500 kV, I = 110 kA, and pulse duration τ = 100 nsec. Electra will use the same type of architecture that would be used in a power plant laser, e.g. double pass laser amplification with double-sided electron beam pumping of the laser gas. This is the same arrangement now being used in the Nike 60 cm amplifier. The main laser components that need to be developed are: a durable, efficient, and cost effective pulsed power system; a durable electron beam emitter; a long life, transparent pressure foil structure to isolate the laser cell from the electron beam diode (the “hibachi”); a recirculator to cool and quiet the laser gas between shots; and long life optical windows. These are shown schematically in Figure 1. Components that can meet these requirements have been identified [5]. Many have already been developed separately, but not necessarily in a parameter range suitable for fusion energy [5]. Our plan is to develop these components specifically for fusion in a single integrated laser facility. Figure 1. The principal components of an electron beam pumped KrF laser We will build two complete pulsed power systems for Electra. It will take several years to develop an advanced pulsed power system that can meet all the IFE requirements for durability, efficiency, and cost. Fundamental research and development must be carried out to develop the components necessary to build an appropriate system. However, we do not want to wait until that system is operational before we can start developing the other laser components. Therefore we have developed and built a First Generation Pulsed Power System [6] that is only a modest extrapolation of existing technology. This system uses a capacitor/step-up transformer prime power system that pulse charges a pair of coaxial, water dielectric, pulse forming lines. The energy in the lines is then switched into the electron beam diode load using laser-triggered spark gaps. The First Generation System can run at 5 Hz for 10 5 shots between refurbishment. (Refurbishment is a simple manner of replacing two pairs of electrodes.) This five hour run is unprecedented for a pulsed power system of this size (25 kW @ 500 keV) and is more than ample to develop the required laser components. A photo of the Electra facility is shown in Figure 2.

The second pulsed power system will be the one that can meet the IFE requirements for durability, efficiency and cost. We have identified three systems that have the potential to meet these requirements. The first is based on magnetic switches using saturable inductors. This is a low risk approach with respect to existing technology, but the system would be marginal in meeting the cost and efficiency requirements. Accordingly, we have evaluated two more systems that have greater promise, but require more research and development. Both are based on laser gated solid state switches. In this approach a small diode laser is used to flood the junction and volume of a semiconductor switch. This causes the entire switch to turn on very rapidly, and allows it to pass a rapidly rising current. In one manifestation the switch operates at 40 kV and is used in an ultra fast Marx arrangement. In another, albeit more difficult approach, the switch operates at up to 1 MV and is used to switch out a water dielectric pulse forming line. This is a direct replacement for the relatively short-lived gas switch in the present system, and can lead to overall efficiencies of up to 87%. Currently we are performing the advanced component research to develop both types of laser triggered switches as well as some components in the magnetic compressor system. We will pick the best approach then use it as the basis for a system that will be integrated into Electra. One of the key challenges for a long-lived KrF laser system is the development of a cathode and hibachi (foil support structure) that allows the electron beam to efficiently and reliably be injected into the gas. We are evaluating a number of cathode options that can meet the requirements for risetime (< 40 nsec), uniformity (< 10%), impedance collapse (< 1 cm/µsec), and durability (> 3 x 10 8 shots.) Ultra fine double velvet cloth meets the first three requirements, but is not expected to have the required durability. To date we have evaluated seventeen different cathodes. The most promising are cathodes based on flocked carbon fiber and on a metal-dielectric structure. It is obvious that to meet the efficiency requirements, we need to develop an electron beam emitter that can produce a “patterned beam” that can miss the ribs of the hibachi structure. Our baseline design is to make the hibachi supports out of thin wall tubing that contains flowing water for coolant. A depiction of this is shown in Figure 3. Figure 3: Water Cooled rib Hibachi Concep t Our preliminary computational analysis shows that this type of arrangement can remove enough of the heat from the foil to keep the system at a reasonable temperature. We have also demonstrated that we can produce an electron beam in a pattern that is consistent with this concept. We have made the beam in both 1 cm wide by 30 cm high strips and 3 cm x 3 cm patches. The latter is shown in the right hand side of Figure 3, which shows a radiachromic (RC) film image of the electron beam at the anode. This segmenting may also be needed to quench the “transit time instability” discussed below. We use an applied axial magnetic field to guide the beam into the laser gas and prevent it from pinching. The interaction of this applied field and the current of the beam causes the beam to rotate, which can clearly be seen in the RC film image. This must be taken into account in designing the cathode/hibachi. We are also performing basic and applied research to understand the physics of the electron beam pumped KrF lasers. We are developing and testing three codes: an electron beam propagation code to model the electron beam flow through the hibachi structure into the laser cell, an advanced kinetics code to model the e-beam pumped KrF laser media, and a laser beam propagation code to model the laser transport. The ultimate goal of this task is to develop a predictive capability for large electron beam pumped amplifiers, and to possibly increase the intrinsic efficiency of a KrF system to above the ∼12% that is presently observed [7]. (Intrinsic efficiency is defined as the laser energy out divided by electron beam energy into the gas.) All of these codes will be tested with experiments on both Electra and the Nike 60cm amplifier. The latter will allow verification close to the scale of a power plant size system. At the present the three codes are being developed separately. They will be combined into a single monolithic code when they are more mature. Our beam propagation code models the transport of the electron beam in the diode, through the hibachi structure and into the laser gas. This is a Particle in Cell (PIC) Code that includes scattering in the hibachi foil, backscattering from the laser gas into the diode, and re-injection of the electrons. We have used this model to predict that the water-cooled tube hibachi design described above will allow up to 79% energy of the electron beam energy to be deposited into Laser Gas .001”Ti e-beam Emitter Water cooled rib Vacuum RC Film of “Patch” Cathode Page 5 the laser gas. This is on Electra with an electron beam voltage of 500 keV. In a full scale system operating at 750 keV the expected deposition is 85%. This is more than ample to meet the transport efficiency requirements. We have established, through experiments, simulations and theory, that large area electron beams are subject to a transit time instability [8]. The electron beam is modulated at a frequency of 2.5 GHz and the resulting axial momentum spread results in a large fraction of the beam being either lost in the foil, or completely traversing the cell. In addition, the electrons can lose 10-20% of their energy to the electromagnetic field, which, in turn, feeds the instability. The instability also imparts a transverse velocity to the beam which results in a significant fraction of the beam lost to the hibachi ribs. Obviously this instability is a loss mechanism that must be eliminated. Fortunately, our theory and particle simulations show that the instability can be mitigated, and possibly even eliminated, by slotting the cathode and loading the slots with resistive elements. This effectively turns the cathode-anode into a slow wave structure that damps the RF oscillations. Simulations of the resistively loaded slots showed no sign of any instability. This result was also obtained when the applied voltage was modulated 10% by either white noise or by a 2.5 GHz perturbation. This slotted cathode is consistent with the hibachi designs quoted above, where the electron beam is segmented to miss the hibachi support structure ribs. In the arena of the KrF kinetics, we are developing a computer code to model the temporal and spatial behavior of e-beam pumped KrF laser amplifiers. The physics is divided into several components: (1) kinetics of the KrF plasma medium, (2) amplification of the seed laser beam, and (3) incoherent propagation of the Amplified Spontaneous Emission (ASE). The plasma is divided into 20 or more zones along the axial lasing direction, with uniform e- beam energy deposition throughout the plasma. This can readily be generalized to full 3-D resolution in the future. The kinetics model follows 23 species, including electrons, for a Kr/Ar/F 2 mixture with 116 reactions. The transport and amplification of the input laser beam is solved using the method of characteristics. This is a stable and accurate technique for handling the exponential gain, and it treats double pass operation with a minimum of additional complication. To date this code can predict the observed output of the Nike 60cm amplifier, as well as with other KrF systems operating in very different regimes. This is the first time a KrF kinetics codes has been able to model a wide range of KrF systems, and gives us confidence that we may be able to have a predictive capability in hand. The gas in the laser cell must be cool and quiescent on each shot to ensure that the amplified laser beam is very uniform. Of particular importance is the elimination of short scale-length, ordered temperature variations perpendicular to the aperture. The EMRLD laser successfully addressed this problem (EMRLD was an electron beam pumped XeF laser developed by AVCO Textron for the Air Force). In EMRLD the gas in the laser cell was circulated through a flow loop that contained a series of mixing plates, diffusers, and heat exchangers. This enabled the EMRLD laser to faithfully amplify a 1.3 x diffraction limited (XDL) laser beam [9]. This is far better than the 5 XDL that is required for Electra. The shot rate was 100 Hz, and the (supply-limited) duration was 10 seconds. The largest aperture one would consider for a large (50-150 kJ) laser is about 200 cm. Thus, the EMRLD results suggests this technology could readily scale to 5 Hz. A preliminary design shows that it is indeed feasible to make such as system, and that it will meet our power and smoothing requirements [10]. Based on this design, we have produced a first generation recirculator for Electra that will test the baseline flow, the acoustic suppression and the heat removal. The system has been delivered and is undergoing final modifications before installation on Electra. Page 6 There are several other components to the Electra Program. Among these is the development of an advanced front end for Electra. This is the initial, low energy stage of the laser system. It will be used to produce the beam temporal and spatial characteristics that is required by the high gain target design; i.e. the ability to precisely control the laser temporal pulse shape, the ability to decrease the laser spot size as the target is compressed (called “zooming”), and the ability to produce flat top spatially uniform profiles on a scale of 4-6 mm diameter. The front end implements the Induced Spatial Incoherence (ISI) beam smoothing that allows KrF lasers to achieve highly uniform and controlled illumination of targets at high intensity. This capability for uniform target illumination is the single most compelling reason to develop high-energy high-repetition rate KrF laser technology. Another advantage of a KrF system is that these tasks can be carried at low energy in a single front end which then feeds all the laser beam lines. Most likely the front end will be some type of electron beam system, as discharge pumped lasers alone cannot produce the needed longer timescale pulses or pump larger apertures. We also are developing optical coatings for the Electra Amplifier. These need to survive the rather harsh laser cell environment of UV, fluorine, HF, electrons and x-rays. We are using an Ion Beam Assisted Deposition (IBAD) system deposit various coatings of hafnia, magnesium fluoride, or alumina, onto a suitable substrate (usually fused silica). These are being tested in a controlled environment test cell that mimics the laser cell environment. The coated samples are checked for transmission, uniformity and index of refraction (i.e. n, and k) using a Photospectrometer, an HeNe Laser Probe, and a fiber optic spectrometer. We are also characterizing the surfaces using electron, optical, or atomic force microscopy. The coatings that that are resistant to chemical corrosion and have a high enough transmission will be tested for durability to high power laser light. The ultimate goal is a damage threshold of 5 Joules/cm 2 . Finally, we will test candidate materials in the Nike 60 cm amplifier, and evaluate their behavior in an actual laser cell environment to determine the effect of x-rays and high energy electrons. We will use the results of our research to determine the optimal laser architecture for a large (1.2 to 2.4 MJ) laser system. By laser architecture, we mean the final amplifier size, the amplifier staging, the multiplexing/demultiplexing system, and the final optics layout. We will consider all components of the power plant in this study, including the chamber environment, final focussing elements, target injection system, and economics. We have compiled a list of goals and requirements that should be met before proceeding to a second phase of the program. These are listed in Table I. The laser rep-rate, efficiency, durability and cost requirements are derived from power plant studies, whereas the laser beam uniformity requirements are derived from the high gain target design. Table I shows what has been achieved, what we expect to achieve during the Electra program, and what is required for a fusion energy power plant. Parameters are listed in descending order of risk. “DD” is degree of difficulty, and is scaled as + / - / 0. with + being the easiest.

3. The Integrated Research Experiment-- the next step.
Although we discuss only the KrF laser program in this paper, it is part of a larger, broad based integrated program that looks at all the issues for Laser Fusion Energy, including the driver, target gain, chamber, target fabrication, target injection, final optics, and ultimately, the cost of energy. If the Electra program, as well as these other research areas are successful Page 7 Table I: The Goals for the Electra Laser Program Parameter Now Phase I goals Fusion Energy Requirement DD EFFICIENCY 1.5% 6-7% 6-7% Pulsed Power 63%(RHEPP) b 80% + Hibachi (foil support) 50% 80% - Ancillaries N/A 95% f 0 Intrinsic (e-beam to laser) 7% Nike/ 14% c 12% g + Transport (laser to target) 75% 90% + DURABILITY (shots) d N/A >10 5 3 x 10 8 Pulsed Power 3 × 10 7 (RHEPP) e 10 8 + Cathode 10 8 (RHEPP) 10 8 0 Hibachi 100 >10 5 - Amplifier Window 1000 >10 5 0 OPTICS DAMAGE THRESHOLD Mirrors at 5 Hz > 5 J/cm 2 (5 cm optics) 5 J/cm 2 (20 cm optics) 5 J/cm 2 (100cm optics) 5-8 J/cm 2 (20cm optics) 0 COST h N/A study f $225/J (laser) h + Pulsed power Cost N/A $5-10/J (e-beam) $5.00/J (e-beam) h + REP-RATE .0005 Hz 5 Hz 5-10 Hz + LASER UNIFORMITY Bandwidth 3.0 THz 2.0 THz 2.0 THz ++ Beam Quality, High Mode 0.2% 0.2% 0.2% ++ Beam Power Balance N/A 2% 0 a. All parameters taken from Nike, unless otherwise indicated b. Repetitive High Energy Pulsed Power, at Sandia National Laboratory [11] c. 14% has been demonstrated on test cells. [7]. A working amplifier will be 80-90% of this because of fill factor d. Durability is defined as number of shots between major maintenance e. Limited by lifetime of cables, which will not be used in laser system f. Electra validates technology, cost & efficiency will be established with modeling based on Electra g. Electra will achieve required efficiency, but will be too small to scale. Nike experiments will validate h. 1999 dollars in meeting their goals, the next step would be to build an Integrated Research Experiment (IRE). We envision the IRE to be a system that integrates and addresses the key enabling technologies for a KrF laser fusion power plant. The IRE will consist of a laser beam line, steering mirrors, a target injector, and a chamber. The entire system will run at 5 Hz. The IRE Page 8 will be an integrated repetitive demonstration that a power plant sized laser can be steered to illuminate a target injected into a reactor chamber environment, and it can do so with the uniformity and precision required for inertial fusion energy. The “power plant sized” laser will provide the energy, pulse shape control, wall plug efficiency, and target illumination uniformity required for a single beam line of laser fusion power plant. The energy of the beam line will likely be in the range of 50 to 150 kJ, and a fusion power plant will require 20 to 50 identical beam lines. The chamber will have the same type of environment (e.g. gas needed for x-ray shielding, grazing incidence final optics, etc) as envisioned for a power plant. The laser energy and average power on target would be sufficient that this facility could be used for other purposes, such as to examine chamber clearing issues and investigate the response of candidate wall materials to x-ray pulses.

4. References
[1] S.E. Bodner et al, “High Gain Direct Drive Target Design for Laser Fusion,” Phys of Plasmas 7, 2298, (2000). S.E. Bodner et al, “New High Gain target Design for a Laser Fusion Power Plant”, Proc IAEA Technical Meeting on Physics and Technology of Inertial Fusion Energy and Chambers June 7, 2000, Madrid Spain. [2] D. Colombant, et al, “Effect of Radiation on Direct Drive Laser Fusion Targets,” Phys. Plasmas 7, 2046 (2000). [3] S.P. Obenschain,, et al, “The Nike KrF Laser Facility: Performance and Initial Target Experiments,” Phys of Plasmas, 3, 2098 (1996). [4] I.V. Sviatoslavsky, et al, “A KrF Laser Driven Inertial Fusion Reactor Sombrero,” Fusion Technology, 21, 1470, (1992). [5] J.D. Sethian, et al, “KrF Lasers For Inertial Fusion Energy,” Proc 17 th IEEE Symp on Fusion Engineering, IEEE 0-7803-4226-7/98, p 593. [6] J.D. Sethian, et al, “Pulsed Power For A Rep-Rate, Electron Beam Pumped, KrF Laser”, IEEE Trans Plasma Sci, 28, 1333 (2000). [7] Mandl et al, “ KrF laser Studies at High Krypton Density” Fusion Technology 11, 542 (1987). [8] M. Friedman, S. Swanekamp, S. Obenschain, Y. Chan, L. Ludeking and D. Smithe, “Stability of Large Area Electron Beam Diodes”, Appl. Phys Lett 77, 1053 (2000) [9] P.D. Tannen et al, “Excimer Laser Technical Support, Final Report”, WJSA-FR-A-90-01, January 1990. [10] P. Lewis, “Conceptual Design of a Recirculator for the Electra Laser”, Textron Defense Systems, Everett MA, internal report, September, 1999. [11] D.L. Johnson et al “Results of Initial Testing of the Four Stage RHEPP accelerator”, Digest of Technical Papers, Ninth International Pulsed Power Conference, San Diego, CA 1993 p 437- 444.

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User talk:Dstudent

Thanks for the info, Dstudent. Hesperian 11:51, 20 August 2005 (UTC)

cheese-cube's behaviour did seem strange, but I don't see any reason not to assume good faith. As the edit was on a Talk page rather than an article, deletion of your comments was not appropriate; you are entitled to reinstate what you wrote. Hesperian 04:02, 30 August 2005 (UTC)
 * No worries. An accusation of vandalism is very serious, as many people would interpret it as a personal attack.  If you regret the comment, feel free to remove it in accordance with remove personal attacks.  If you decide to leave the comment there, you really ought to sign it. Hesperian 04:52, 30 August 2005 (UTC)

Re: WSHS
I am sorry that I removed your comments. I shouldn't have done so. It was arrogant and stupid. I hope that you can accept my apology. --cheese-cube 05:59, 30 August 2005 (UTC)

 * Upon inspecting User talk:203.14.53.45 I have found that you accused me of vandalism. I assure you that the edit I made, while it may have been the wrong thing to do, was in good faith. I wanted no wrong. You you please remove the allegations you have made against me. --cheese-cube 06:05, 30 August 2005 (UTC)

 * Done. Dstudent 08:43, 30 August 2005 (UTC)

 * Many thanks. --cheese-cube 10:31, 30 August 2005 (UTC)

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My nickname is onzie and my mother is from Aruba and my father is from Netherlands. My grand father from my mothers side is from China and my Grand mother is from German and Arawak descent. I currently live in Miami and was born in the United states. I lived in Curacao for 9 months as a boy. My hobbies include learning and listening to music. My favorite type(s) of music is dance, trance, house or you might sum it up as electonic music. I also like to watch television and my favorite shows include, "Fosters Home For Imaginery Friends","Smallville" "catscratch" some programs on Cartoon Network (USA). My favorite sport is football. I really enjoy watching Uefa Champions League and European Championship along with the FIFA World Cup. Go Nederland,Oranje. My favorite football team is Ajax Amsterdam(Holland) or Bayern Munich(Germany). I am 15 years old and like to learn things involving science or history. I believe World Peace is possibly.

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Renée Friedman

Renée Friedman is an American Egyptologist, primarily known for her work at Nekhen (Hierakonpolis).

Life
Friedman received her BA from the University of California at Berkeley, where her thesis was on the predynastic Egyptian cemetery at Naga ed Der. She earned her PhD in 1994 for work on predynastic ceramics.

In 1996, along with Barbara Adams, she began working as co-director of the American Hierakonpolis Expedition, which had been on a 4-year hiatus following the death of the former director Walter Fairservis.

Works

 * 1989 Fish and Fishing in Ancient Egypt. Aris and Phillips, Warminster, England. [with D.J. Brewer] American University in Cairo. 1990. 109pp. 1
 * 1992 The Followers of Horus: Studies Dedicated to Michael Allen Hoffman. Oxbow Press, Oxford. [edited with Barbara Adams] 354pp.
 * 1998 Egypt. British Museum Press. [with Vivian Davies] 224pp. Issued in USA as Egypt Uncovered.
 * 2002 Egypt and Nubia. Gifts of the Desert. 328pp. British Museum Press. Editor.

title: Renée Friedman


text:
Mexican burrowing toad

The Mexican burrowing toad (Rhinophrynus dorsalis) is the single living representative of the family Rhinophrynidae. It is a unique species in its taxonomy and morphology, with special adaptations to assist them in digging burrows where they spend most of their time. These adaptations include a small pointed snout and face, keratinized structures and a lack of webbing on front limbs, and specialized tongue morphology to assist in feeding on ants and termites underground. The body is nearly equal in width and length. It is a dark brown to black color with a red-orange stripe on its back along with splotches of color on its body. The generic name Rhinophrynus means 'nose-toad', from rhino- (ῥῑνο-), the combining form of the Ancient Greek rhis (ῥίς, 'nose') and phrunē (φρύνη, 'toad').

The Mexican burrowing toad diverged from other amphibians over 190 million years ago and has been evolving independently for a longer period of time than the evolutionary differences between mammals like humans, fruit bats, polar bears and killer whales. Its closest sister group is Pipidae, or the aquatic clawed frogs.

Description
The Mexican burrowing toad has a unique appearance that makes it easy to distinguish from other organisms. This species’ body is flat with a width and length that are almost equal. It is covered in loosely fitting wrinkled skin which becomes taut and shiny when the frog's body swells up during its mating call. Its head is small and triangular, and projects out of its body in a small point with very small eyes. They have no neck and no visible ear holes or tympanum. Its legs are short and muscular, and are structured for burrowing as indicated by its name. Its feet also have adaptations for burrowing, mainly nail-like keratinized structures at the end of each digit. Its front feet lack webbing between the digits to free them up for burrowing, and its back feet are short and extensively webbed.

The toad's coloration ranges from a dark brown to black. A bright red-orange stripe runs on its back from head to tail, and the body is covered with other red-orange splotches in varying patterns. Its underside is gray to dark brown and does not have the red splotches like the rest of the body. The toad is sexually dimorphic, with females being larger than males. Adults of the Mexican burrowing toad grow to be between 75 and 88 mm (snout-vent length) or about 3.0 to 3.3 inches.

Feeding specializations
The toad's snout is covered in an armor of small keratinous spines, and its lips are sealed by secretions from glands under the mandible. Its lips have a double closure along their maxillary arch, which are enhanced by the glands under the jaw. Morphological studies reveal that the frog has a type of tongue protrusion that is distinct from that of other frogs. Many other frog species project their tongues by a lingual flip, a behavior where the tongue is strongly flipped through the lips and out of the mouth. In this species however, the tongue stiffens and protrudes out of the mouth by moving the jaw backwards. This mechanism is specialized for capturing small insect prey in burrows.

Distribution
The Mexican burrowing toad is found in tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forest, savannas, and thorn scrub (e.g. Tamaulipan mezquital) in the lowlands of Central America, Mexico, and extreme south Texas, USA. Due to its wide range, the species is categorized as least concern by the IUCN, but some local and regional populations are protected and listed as threatened by various governments within its distribution.

Rhinophrynus dorsalis occurs in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of south Texas, USA, ranging southward through the costal lowlands of the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea in eastern Mexico including much of the Yucatán Peninsula, into northern Guatemala, Belize, extreme northwest Honduras, and an isolated record from northeast Nicaragua. Another geographically isolated population occurs in the lowlands of the Pacific coast, from extreme southern Michoacán, Mexico, southward into coastal areas of Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, and northwest Costa Rica.

Evolutionary history
The oldest fossil of the genus is Rhinophrynus canadensis known from the late Eocene of Saskatchewan, Canada. Other fossils are known from the Oligocene of Florida.

Habitat
Its natural habitats include forest, savanna, shrubland, grassland, and inland wetlands. It primarily inhabits lowland areas of tropical dry and moist forests. It is generally associated with areas which are seasonally flooded because it relies on temporary ponds for breeding. It usually remains underground in the dry season following the breeding period. Its eggs and larvae develop in temporary pools formed by heavy rains, and the adults remain in fairly small areas.

Behavior
This species is nocturnal. These frogs make burrows to survive the dry season without suffering from lack of water. They use their strong short limbs and nails to dig into the soil and create burrows. The frog can survive long periods of drought inside this burrow. When the frog is making its vocalization or when it is alarmed its body becomes inflated and resembles a balloon, with its already short head and limbs almost disappearing. This mechanism is not deeply studied, and may require more research to determine its physiology.

Diet
The Mexican burrowing toad primarily subsists on ants and termites that they forage underground. Their features are specialized for underground foraging, especially the way the tongue is used by shifting it forward rather than the lingual flip seen in other frogs. This mode is unique among anurans, and is highly specialized for capturing small insects in burrows.

Reproduction and life cycle
This species has a characteristically short and explosive breeding period, often lasting only one to three days. This explosive breeding combined with the ecological condition of dry seasonal forests have influenced the evolution of their courtship behavior and male-female interactions. There is size sexual dimorphism in this species with females being larger than males, and male-male contests are largely absent during the short breeding period. Due to the absence of male-male competition and territoriality, females select their mates based on the frequency and tonality of advertisement calls. The characteristics of the advertisement call can give females insight to male size, which affects mating with larger females opting for larger mates over smaller ones.

Breeding
Breeding in this species occurs after heavy rains in small temporary pools. Based on Costa Rican populations, clutch sizes range from 2,000 to 8,000 eggs. The Mexican burrowing toads are considered explosive breeders, and reproduce in a way where many individuals exit burrows at the same time to gather at temporary pools of water for breeding to occur. The males then float on the surface of the water and inflate their bodies while making a characteristic call that attracts females. The toad's mating periods is between one and three days, one of the shortest seasons among amphibians, and after this period they burrow back into the ground and remain there until the next breeding season.

Sexual maturity
Sexual maturity in the Mexican burrowing toad is determined by examining testes size in males and ovarian stages in females. The presence of enlarged testes and a larger body size is used to determine maturity in males, and various ovarian characteristics including oviduct size and shape are used in females. Females are most likely to be carrying eggs during May and June, but reproduction can occur in October and January as well. In one study the clutch size ranged from 1,000 to around 8,000 eggs, with larger females carrying proportionally more eggs. R. dorsalis will live underground for most of the year and emerges with heavy rains. The males then float on the surface of water and call to females which results in amplexus. After mating and laying eggs in the water, the environment dries and they will burrow back into the ground. Tadpoles hatch in a few days and transform into adults after one to three months of metamorphosis.

Female/Male interactions
Competition between males for females relies primarily on acoustic communication, with males depending on the impressive calls they make to attract females. The short breeding season imposes constraints on their courtship behavior and breeding formations. Because the breeding season is so short, there is more incentive to spend time breeding rather than competing with other males. Therefore, there are few antagonistic interactions between the males of this species and female choice is based on acoustic displays rather than physical competition or territory defense.

Males produce two types of Mating calls during the breeding season to attract females. These calls are the pre-advertisement and advertisement calls. In one observational study of the reproductive behavior of The Mexican burrowing toad, the pre-advertisement call was often produced just before the advertisement call. The advertisement call is a single tone with an upward tone, with a duration of about 1.36 seconds. The pre-advertisement call was a single short sound without modulation, and was of higher frequency than the advertisement calls.

The calls attract females, after which the male and female will participate in amplexus. In all the mating pairs of R. dorsalis, females mate with smaller males but large females often mate with the larger males present. Females will inflate their bodies during breeding season which allows them to reduce the ability of smaller males to maintain amplexus.

Conservation
The population trend of the Mexican burrowing toad is described as stable and as of 2019 it is listed as being of least concern by the IUCN. In Mexico and Central America it is widespread and locally abundant in many areas within its range. The species is protected by Mexican law under the Special Protection category. In the state of Texas, USA, it is listed as a threatened species due to the extensive areas of its habitat that have been converted for agricultural uses and urban development in its limited distribution there.

title: Mexican burrowing toad


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Charles Leslie (cricketer)

Charles Frederick Henry Leslie (8 December 1861 – 12 February 1921) was an English businessman and cricketer. He played first-class cricket for eight years between 1881 and 1888, for Oxford University, Middlesex and England.

Life
He was the son of Henry David Leslie and his wife, Mary Betsy Perry. At Rugby School he was captain of cricket, and according to one opinion was, with Charles Thomas Studd of Eton, the best public school all-rounder of the year. He was compared favourably to Manley Kemp, cricket captain of Harrow School.

Leslie matriculated at Oriel College, Oxford, in 1880. He became managing director of William France, Fenwick &. Co. Ltd., Fenchurch Street, London, coal merchants and ship owners, a company formed in 1901 when three shipping companies merged. They shipped mainly coal, and Baltic timber. As a director of Baku Russian Petroleum, he visited Baku in 1904, and struck up a friendship with the entrepreneur Leslie Urquhart.

After the 1905 Russian Revolution and subsequent depression, Leslie went into business with Urquhart, investing in Russian oil and minerals. At board level, the existing Anglo-Siberian group was reconfigured as the Perm Corporation, including Sir Frederick Frankland of East Russian mines and the civil engineer Thomas Blair Reynolds (1860–1941), as well as Leslie and Urquhart.

In 1908 Leslie became Chairman of the Kyshtym Corporation, for mining, with Semmy Joseph Blumlein (1863–1914) as managing director. By 1912, in a complex corporate struggle, Leslie had broken with Urquhart. The Fenchurch group of investors were excluded from further developments by Urquhart, who had joined forces with American interests, for whom Alfred Chester Beatty and Herbert Hoover were acting.

By 1905, Leslie resided at Epcombs, near Hertingfordbury in Hertfordshire.

Cricketing career
Leslie was a hard-hitting batsman with a solid defence, a useful right-arm fast bowler and an athletic cover-point. He won blues for cricket in each of his three seasons at Oxford (1881–83) and also at racquets and football.

His performances won him selection for the Honourable Ivo Bligh's tour side to Australia in 1882/3 where he was part of the team that regained the Ashes. His Test career comprised all four matches for Bligh's team when he scored 106 runs at 15.14 and took four wickets at 11.00. The first three matches were played against Billy Murdoch's 1882 touring team and counted for the Ashes; Leslie did not take a wicket in the last two of those Tests. The urn was not at stake for the fourth match played against a combined Australian side when Leslie took one first innings wicket.

Leslie represented Middlesex from 1881 to 1886 and in 48 first-class matches in total scored 1860 runs at 22.96 with his 144 for Bligh's XI against New South Wales the highest of his four hundreds. He took eight wickets at 20.62 and held 18 catches.

Below first-class level Leslie played county level cricket for Shropshire between 1878 and 1891, achieving a century in one match where he made 164 runs. He played during that time at club level for Oswestry.

Family
His son, John, also played first-class cricket. Leslie's great-grandson is the former Kent and England cricketer Matthew Fleming. His great-great-grandson is actor Jack Huston.

Leslie died in February 1921 aged 59.

authors: ابوالحسن راجپوت

title: Charles Leslie (cricketer)


text:
Rhinophrynidae

The Rhinophrynidae are a family of frogs containing one extant genus, the monotypic Rhinophrynus,   and a number of fossil genera. The family is sometimes known as the Mexican burrowing toads or simply burrowing toads.

Rhinophrynus occurs in the Central America north from Costa Rica to Mexico and Texas. Fossil finds of Rhinophrynidae come from Mexico, the United States, and Canada. Rhinophrynus is a burrowing ant and termite eater.

Systematics
The Rhinophrynidae are the sister taxon of the Pipidae. The clade formed by these two genera is sometimes referred to as Xenoanura or superfamily Pipoidea.

Genera
Extant genera:
 * Rhinophrynus or Mexican burrowing toad Late Eocene-Recent

Fossil genera:
 * †Chelomophrynus Henrici 1991 Wagon Bed Formation, Wyoming United States, Eocene
 * †Eorhinophrynus Hecht 1959 Polecat Bench Formation, Wyoming, United States, Paleocene
 * †Rhadinosteus Henrici 1998 Morrison Formation, Utah, United States, Late Jurassic

The affinity of Eorhinophrynus is uncertain.

title: Rhinophrynidae


text: User talk:Moyn2000

title: User talk:Moyn2000


text:
Flags of German states

All German states have a Landesflagge (flag of the state, sometimes known as a civil flag), that may be used by anyone. Some states have another variant, often showing the state coat of arms, called the Dienstflagge (service flag or government flag, sometimes known as a state flag), normally for use by official government offices only. In addition to these flags, in a few states there are variants exclusively for the state senate, or for state-operated ships. In some cases, there are specific flags for high-ranking officials, mainly used as car flags. Frequently, the flags are used in vertical variants.

title: Flags of German states


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Pāṭimokkha

In Theravada Buddhism, the Pāṭimokkha is the basic code of monastic discipline, consisting of 227 rules for fully ordained monks (bhikkhus) and 311 for nuns (bhikkhuṇīs). It is contained in the Suttavibhaṅga, a division of the Vinaya Piṭaka.

Pārājika
The four pārājikas (lit. "defeats") are rules entailing expulsion from the sangha for life. If a monk breaks any one of the rules he is automatically "defeated" in the holy life and falls from monkhood immediately. He is not allowed to become a monk again in his lifetime. Intention is necessary in all these four cases to constitute an offence. The four parajikas for bhikkus are:

 * 1) Sexual intercourse: engaging in any sexual intercourse.
 * 2) Stealing: the robbery of anything worth more than 1/24 troy ounce of gold (as determined by local law).
 * 3) Killing: bringing about the death of a human being—whether by killing the person, arranging for an assassin to kill the person, inciting the person to die, or describing the advantages of death.
 * 4) Lying: lying to another person that one has attained a superior human state, such as claiming to be an arahant when one knows one is not, or claiming to have attained one of the jhānas when one knows one has not.

The pārājikas are more specific definitions of the first four of the Five Precepts.

Saṅghādisesa
The thirteen saṅghādisesas are rules requiring an initial and subsequent meeting of the sangha (communal meetings). If a monk breaks any rule here he has to undergo a period of probation or discipline after which, if he shows himself to be repentant, he may be reinstated by a sangha of not less than twenty monks. Like the pārājikas, the saṅghādisesas can only come about through the monk's own intention and cannot be accidentally invoked. The thirteen saṅghādisesas for bhikkus are:
 * 1) Discharge of semen or getting someone to discharge your semen, except while dreaming.
 * 2) Lustful bodily contact with a woman, including kissing or holding hands.
 * 3) Making lustful remarks to a woman alluding to her genitals or sexual intercourse.
 * 4) Requesting sexual favors from a woman, or telling her that she would benefit spiritually from having sex with the monk.
 * 5) Arranging for a date, affair, or marriage between a man and woman.
 * 6) Building a hut without permission from the sangha, or building a hut that exceed 3 x 1.75 meters in size.
 * 7) Having someone else build a hut for you without permission from the sangha, or exceeding 3 x 1.75 meters in size.
 * 8) Making unfounded charges about another bhikkhu in the hopes of having him disrobed.
 * 9) Making deceitfully worded charges about another bhikkhu in the hopes of having him disrobed.
 * 10) Agitating for a schism, even after having been rebuked three times.
 * 11) Supporting an agitator, even after he was rebuked three times (only applies if there are fewer than four supporters.)
 * 12) Rejecting well-grounded criticism, even after having been rebuked three times.
 * 13) Criticizing the justice of one's own banishment, even after having been rebuked three times.

Aniyata
The aniyata are two indefinite rules where a monk is accused of having committed an offence with a woman in a screened (enclosed) or private place by a lay person. It is indefinite because the final outcome depends on whether the monk acknowledges the offence. Benefit of the doubt is given to the monk unless there is over-riding evidence.

Thus it is not proper for a monk to be alone with a woman, especially in screened or private places.

 * 1) Sitting in private with a woman on a seat secluded enough for sexual intercourse and the monk acknowledges the offense
 * 2) Sitting in private with a woman on a seat not sufficiently secluded for sexual intercourse but sufficiently so to address lewd words and the monk acknowledges the offense

Nissaggiya pācittiya
The nissaggiya pācittiya are rules entailing "confession with forfeiture." They are mostly concerned with the possessing of items which are disallowed or obtained in disallowable ways. The monk must forfeit the item and then confess his offense to another monk. There are thirty nissaggiya pācittiya for bhikkhu.

Pācittiya
Pacittiya are rules entailing confession. There are ninety-two pacittiya; these are minor violations which do not entail expulsion or any probationary periods.

Patidesanīya
Patidesaniya are violations which must be verbally acknowledged.

 * 1) Accepting and eating food from an unrelated bhikkuṇī.
 * 2) Accepting and eating food after a bhikkuṇī has instructed the donors on whom to give what food, and none of the bhikkus rebuke the bhikkuṇī.
 * 3) Accepting and eating food from a family that the sangha designates as "in training", that is, preparing to becoming arahants, unless if the monk is sick.
 * 4) Accepting and eating food from a family living in a dangerous location, unless if the monk is sick.

Sekhiyavatta
There are seventy-five sekhiya or rules of training, which are mainly about the deportment of a monk. These rules consist of Sāruppa (proper behavior; 26), Bhojanapatisamyutta (food; 30), Dhammadesanāpatisamyutta (teaching dhamma; 16) and Pakinnaka (miscellaneous; 3). In many countries, it is also standard for novice monks (samanera) to follow the Sekhiyavatta rules in addition to the Ten Precepts.

Adhikarana-samatha
Adhikarana-samatha are seven rules for settlement of legal processes that concern monks only.
 * 1) When an issue is settled, the verdict should be in the presence of the sangha, the parties, the Dhamma and the Vinaya.
 * 2) If the bhikku is innocent, the verdict should be "mindfulness".
 * 3) If the bhikku was or is insane, the verdict should be "past insanity".
 * 4) If the bhikku confesses to the exact allegations, the verdict should be "acting in accordance with what was admitted".
 * 5) If the dispute cannot be unanimously settled, the sangha should take a vote and the verdict should be "acting in accordance with the majority".
 * 6) If the bhikku confesses only after interrogation, the verdict should be "acting in accordance with the accused's further misconduct".
 * 7) If both sides agree that they are not acting the way monks ought to, they can call a full assembly of the sima and confess their mistakes, and the verdict should be "covering over as with grass."

title: Pāṭimokkha


text:
FC Argeș Pitești

Asociația Clubul Sportiv Campionii Fotbal Club Argeș, commonly known as FC Argeș Pitești, Argeș Pitești or simply FC Argeș, is a Romanian professional football club based in Pitești, Argeș County, that competes in the Liga II.

The team was originally founded as Dinamo Pitești in 1953, and made its top flight debut in the 1961–62 season. In 1967, it changed its name to Argeș Pitești. The club's most successful period was in the 1970s, when it won the national title twice. Three-time Romanian Footballer of the Year award recipient Nicolae Dobrin was the most important member of the squad during that period, which turned him into a club icon over the years.

FC Argeș amassed over 40 seasons in the Liga I, and traditionally plays its home matches at Nicolae Dobrin Stadium, which is currently under reconstruction.

Founding and early years (1953–1967)
On 6 August 1953, an order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs created Dinamo Pitești, the original formation of FC Argeș. The name was based on an older Bucharest team, FC Dinamo București. The new team from Pitești started its rise from the bottom, in the City Championship (Campionatul Orășenesc), today Liga IV or Liga V, but the involvement of the local administration in bringing the best football players from the city to FC Argeș was the main factor in the consecutive promotions of the club. The promotion to Divizia B (Liga II) occurred at the end of the 19581959 Divizia C (Liga III) season, and in the first year the team was very close to a Divizia A (Liga I) promotion, but ended up in second place of the second series of Divizia B. In the following season, the team was promoted to the top Romanian football league under the command of coaches Ştefan Vasile and Tănase Dima. Three of the most well-known members of the squad were Ion Barbu, Florin Halagian and Nicolae Dobrin, players who contributed the most to Dinamo's performance. The 1961–62 Divizia A season was a tough one for the club which was relegated back to Divizia B after only one year.

After only one season in Divizia B, Dinamo Pitești were promoted again in 1963. They would remain a constant presence on the first stage of Romanian football, finishing 10th place in 1964 while also winning the Romanian Cup final, 8th in 1965, 4th in 1966 and 12th in 1967.

Golden era (1967–1983)
In the summer of 1967 the club changed its name from Dinamo Pitești to Argeș Pitești. The first season with the new name was a great one for the club, which finished 2nd, with the same number of points as Steaua București, the champions of that season. It was the best ranking in the club's history until then, but was followed by a 12th place in 1969, a 10th place in 1970 and a 9th place in 1971.

In the 1971–72 Divizia A season nothing could have predicted the final success of the team. In the first round the team debuted poorly, with a defeat (1–4) at SC Bacău, and the tension within the team led to the dismissal of coach Titus Ozon. In his place Florin Halagian was promoted, a young coach and former member of the team. At his debut as the youngest coach of Divizia A on 29 August 1971, the team won 2–1 against Rapid București, with both goals scored by Jercan. At the end of the first part of the championship, FC Argeş was in 4th place with 18 points, behind UTA Arad, SC Bacău and Universitatea Cluj. The winter preparations took place at Băile Herculane, followed by a strong tournament in East Germany, which helped the team a lot in the second part of the championship. In the second part, FC Argeș was defeated only twice (0–2, at home against Steagul Roșu Brașov and 0–1, at Cluj-Napoca, against CFR Cluj). These were followed by 9 games without defeats, with Halagian playing the high card several times. In the match against Politehnica Iași, he played each half with a different line of midfielders, to everyone's surprise, to force the victory and to have fresh players until the end. In the penultimate stage on 21 June 1972 at Pitești, FC Argeș defeated Crişul Oradea, becoming champion of Romania for the first time in its history, with one round before the end of the championship. The team played offensively and ambitiously, with an inspired Dobrin at the helm. The score was 4–1 (3–1) with the goals scored by Dobrin, Prepurgel, and M. Joita, and Tămaş scoring for Crișul. In front of over 17,000 spectators in the final round, FC Argeș defeated Dinamo București at 23 August Stadium with a score of 3–2, through the goals scored by Jercan, Constantin Radu, and Frățilă, with Lucescu and Dumitrache scoring for Dinamo.

Following their 1972 Divizia A title, FC Argeș played in the European Champion Clubs' Cup. In the first round the team eliminated their opponents without difficulty, beating Aris Bonnevoie from Luxembourg 6–0. Then in the second round they faced Real Madrid, a team with 6 Champions' Cups at the time and top players such as Pirri, Ignacio Zoco, Santillana, and Amancio, a legendary coach Miguel Muñoz and president Santiago Bernabéu. The match seemed like it would be a formality for Real Madrid, but on the pitch FC Argeș made probably the best match in its entire history, one which made Dobrin famous. He scored for 1–0 at 24 minutes, then Anzarda scored at 41 minutes, tying the game. Prepurgel then scored for 2–1 at 62 minutes, followed by several failed scoring opportunities against goalkeeper García Remón. Bernabéu, amazed by Dobrin's techniques, offered 2 million dollars and to pay for the installations of stadium floodlights for him, but Romanian leader Nicolae Ceaușescu refused. At Madrid, Real barely qualified with a goal scored at 87 minutes. The final score was 3–1, with Santillana (17 and 87min) and Grande (47min) scoring for Real, and Marin Radu (Radu II) scoring at 43min for FC Argeș.

The following seasons were oscillating for the team which finished 3rd in 1973, 8th in 1974, and 7th in 1975, falling to 11th place in 1976 and 1977. In the 1977–78 Divizia A season the team had a remarkable comeback and finished 2nd, with the same number of points as the leader, Steaua București, as in 1968.

The 1978–79 Divizia A season began with the sign of good preparation and the desire to complete the maturation of the group of young players, most of whom grew up in Pitești. The team was still under the leadership of Coach Halagian, helped by Leonte lanovschi and Constantin Oţet, who transferred a few days before the start of the championship. The goal of the club's leadership was to occupy one of the top five places and to accumulate at least 18 points in the first championship round. FC Argeș started the championship strong, winning two games against Chimia Râmnicu Vâlcea and Politehnica Iași and ending up in a leading place. It was only in the 6th round when the club recorded its first defeat, 0–1 at Târgu Mureș against ASA Târgu Mureș. The players were subjected to double efforts, most of them being part of the Romanian Olympic team, which managed, after many years, to defeat the Hungarian team at Pitești. At the end of the first round, FC Argeş was in first place. A new player successfully debuted with the team, Moiceanu, who soon became a secret weapon for the team. In the last stage of the first round, FC Argeș won against Dinamo București 1–0, and became the champion of the round with 10 matches won, a draw and 6 defeats, 25 goals scored and 17 conceded, for a total of 21 points, three more than their objective at the start of the championship.

The well-known sports journalist Laurențiu Dumitrescu wrote in the Sportul newspaper,

"... it was also in the autumn of [1978 that] Dobrin's team, the team of that highly talented player, who has been wearing the number 10 shirt for more than 15 years, the player capable – even at 31 years old – of deciding any match in our championship (testimonial examples: matches against FC Baia Mare, on their own ground, and against Steaua, away) to score spectacular goals. When Dobrin was absent, Iovănescu stepped in, an offensive midfielder who had an exceptional season, perhaps the best of his career. He also assumed the role of puncheur when the striker Radu II was injured. But it was also Stancu's turn, who became at only 22 years old, the mature leader of the defense, who combined the experience of Ivan II with the strength of Cârstea and the ambition of Mihai Zamfir."

On 24 June 1979, in front of 20,000 spectators at Dinamo Stadium in Bucharest, FC Argeș defeated Dinamo 4–3 after a high-tension match, through goals scored by Radu II (11 and 24min), Doru Nicolae (69min) and Dobrin (90min) respectively, with Marin Dragnea (6min) and Dudu Georgescu (76min from penalty and 89min) scoring for Dinamo. This win brought FC Argeș the Romanian title for the second time in its history.

After the game, the well-known sports journalist Ioan Chirilă wrote in Sportul, "The championship final, awaited with extraordinary interest, which massively reduced the number of spectators on all the other grounds, ended with the well-deserved victory of the Pitești players after a high-tension game, in which the Dynamo team's thirst for victory received a veto from Dobrin, who offered the stands and viewers the countless matches of his life, he being the player who dominated the field from all points of view."

In the 1978–79 UEFA Cup FC Argeș eliminated Panathinaikos and went down with a fight against Valencia, with a score of 4–6 on aggregate. The club finished on the podium twice, in 1980 and 1981, but only in 10th place in 1982. Then in the summer of 1982, Dobrin at 35 years old left FC Argeș for CS Târgoviște. The team's performance wasn't greatly impacted and they finished 4th in 1983. The next summer Dobrin returned to FC Argeș, but played only 5 matches before retiring on 14 June 1983, after a match against Bihor Oradea, with the team finishing in 5th place.

After Nicolae Dobrin (1983–2009)
The retirement of Dobrin, the emblematic symbol of FC Argeș, also meant the end of great performances for the club. In the 1980s the team became mediocre, finishing frequently in 6th, 7th or 9th place, but still managed to reach three Balkans Cup finals in this period. At the end of the decade and the beginning of the next the team slipped even further, culminating in their relegation from Divizia A in 1992, after 29 years spent in the top league of Romanian football.

Relegated to Liga II and with financial problems FC Argeș was taken over by Dacia, whose director was Constantin Stroe, who paid the team's debts. The club was promoted back in 1994, finished 8th in 1995, but was again 5 points away from relegation in 1996. In the next season the team made a comeback to the middle of the standings.

The 1997–98 Divizia A season was the last peak of FC Argeș' history. The team finished 3rd and qualified for the 1998–99 UEFA Cup, where they eliminated teams like Dynamo Baku and İstanbulspor but were easily eliminated by Celta de Vigo 0–8 on aggregate. This last presence in European Cups was due to a formidable generation, the second most talented after Dobrin's. The team included the players Adrian Mutu, Bogdan Vintilă, Valentin Năstase, Iulian Crivac, Constantin Schumacher, and Constantin Barbu.

The team continued its good performance, finishing 4th in 1999, then in 5th place in 2000 and 2001. From 2002 on the team was a constant presence in the second half of the leaderboard, finishing at most in 10th place. This period ended with the second relegation in the club's history, this time after 13 years, at the end of the 2006–07 Liga I season. The team was promoted back after only one season in Liga II.

The Romanian Calciopoli and Bankruptcy (2009–2013)
The team finished 8th in their first season after the promotion, a season with good results and a solid playing style. Then on 8 June 2009, they were relegated to Liga II, after the National Anti-Corruption Division found that the owner of the team from that period, Cornel Penescu, tried to bribe referees to benefit the team in matches. This case was called the "Penescu Case" or the "Romanian Calciopoli" by the press.

After Penescu's arrest, his son Andrei led the club, but the funding was practically non-existent and the club struggled to survive even in Liga II, finishing in the second half of the standings. Then on 26 July 2013 it was announced that FC Argeș was bankrupt without any chance of rescue.

SCM Pitești and supporters' club (2013–2017)
After the bankruptcy of FC Argeș, the people of Pitești tried to bring football back to life. Their first project was Sport Club Municipal (SCM) Pitești, a project initiated by Pitești City Council which created a football section at the sporting club of the municipality in 2011, 2 years before the end of FC Argeș, anticipating the bankruptcy of the club led at that time by Penescu's son and burdened with debt. The team was promoted to Liga III after only one season and remained at that level until 2017 when they were promoted to Liga II.

The supporters of FC Argeș encouraged the team until the very end, then after the bankruptcy founded FC Argeș 1953 Piteşti, a phoenix club fully owned by FC Argeș supporters. The club won the 2015–16 Liga IV for Argeș County and the promotion play-off match 5–2 against Recolta Stoicănești, Olt County champion, but were unable to join Liga III due to a lack of funds and dissolved their senior team.

Pitești City Council offered to buy the FC Argeș brand, and the fans running FC Argeș 1953 supported this initiative.

Rebirth and return to Liga I (2017–present)
On 16 June 2017, the Municipality of Pitești bought FC Argeș's brand for 550,000 RON. As a result of this association, the brand was transferred to SCM Pitești's football section, newly promoted to Liga II, and the team came back to life four years after it was declared bankrupt. After promotion, the team spent 3 years in the second league. FC Argeș managed to earn promotion to the first division at the end of the 2019–20 season, after an 11-year break. The team narrowly earned 2nd place, after Rapid București held Turris-Oltul Turnu Măgurele to a draw in the seventh minute of extra time, a score at which Turris remained in the second league, and FC Argeș was promoted directly.

In the first half of their comeback season, FC Argeș failed to impress, their winless streak leaving them in last place in the league at the beginning of 2021. Things began to change after former player Andrei Prepeliță took over as manager, with the team recording an 11-game winning streak and slowly crawling out of the relegation places to join the fight for a play-off spot. With their unbeaten streak cut short by a 0–5 defeat against reigning champions CFR Cluj, FC Argeș kept their momentum but never made it above 7th place. They missed a chance to make it through with a 1–1 draw against fellow play-off contenders Academica Clinceni and by the penultimate round, they missed play-off qualification altogether following a 1–4 loss against Hermannstadt.

In the 2021-22 season, FC Argeș managed to secure a play-off spot on the final day of the regular season, finishing 4th after a 2–1 away win against FC Botoșani.

Youth program
Some notable names of Romanian football were developed in the youth academy of FC Argeș, such as Nicolae Dobrin, Adrian Mutu, Ilie Bărbulescu, Marius Bilașco, Constantin Cârstea, Dănuț Coman, Iulian Crivac, Emil Dică, Valentin Năstase, Adrian Neaga, Marin Radu, Bogdan Stancu, Cristian Tănase, Constantin Stancu and Ion Vlădoiu.

Stadium
The club plays its home matches in Nicolae Dobrin Stadium in Pitești. The stadium has a capacity of 15,000 seats, the biggest in Argeș County. The stadium is closed for renovations, so the club plays its matches at the Orășenesc Stadium in Mioveni at the moment.

Support
FC Argeș has many supporters in Romania and especially in Argeș County. The ultra groups of FC Argeș are Violet Republic, Brigada Vulturii București and Frați de weeknd.

Rivalries
FC Argeș does not have any significant rivalries, but one is with Dinamo București and another is against local team CS Mioveni, with the town of Mioveni being only 15 km away from Pitești.

Leagues

 * Liga I
 * Winners (2): 1971–72, 1978–79
 * Runners-up (2): 1967–68, 1977–78
 * Liga II
 * Winners (4): 1960–61, 1962–63, 1993–94, 2007–08
 * Runners-up (1): 2019–20
 * Liga III
 * Winners (1): 2016–17
 * Runners-up (1): 2015–16
 * Liga IV – Argeș County
 * Winners (1): 2011–12

Cups

 * Cupa României
 * Runners-up (1): 1964–65

European

 * Balkans Cup
 * Runners-up (3): 1983–84, 1984–85, 1987–88

Board of officials

 * Last updated: 6 September 2022
 * Source:

Current technical staff

 * Last updated: 22 May 2024
 * Source:

Notable former players
The footballers enlisted below have had international cap(s) for their respective countries at a senior level or at least 100 cap(s) for FC Argeș.

 * One-club men
 * 🇷🇴 Constantin Cârstea
 * 🇷🇴 Petre Ivan
 * 🇷🇴 Constantin Olteanu
 * 🇷🇴 Constantin Stancu
 * Romania
 * 🇷🇴 Cristian Albeanu
 * 🇷🇴 Bogdan Bănuță
 * 🇷🇴 Constantin Barbu
 * 🇷🇴 Ion Barbu
 * 🇷🇴 Cristian Bălașa
 * 🇷🇴 Ilie Bărbulescu
 * 🇷🇴 Marius Bilașco
 * 🇷🇴 Gheorghe Cacoveanu
 * 🇷🇴 Ion Ceaușu
 * 🇷🇴 Augustin Chiriță
 * 🇷🇴 Alin Chița
 * 🇷🇴 Dănuț Coman
 * 🇷🇴 Narcis Coman
 * 🇷🇴 Iulian Crivac
 * 🇷🇴 Cristian Dancia
 * 🇷🇴 Nicolae Dică
 * 🇷🇴 Nicolae Diță
 * 🇷🇴 Nicolae Dobrin
 * 🇷🇴 Cătălin Doman
 * 🇷🇴 Adrian Dulcea
 * 🇷🇴 Augustin Eduard
 * 🇷🇴 Constantin Frățilă
 * 🇷🇴 Constantin Gâlcă
 * 🇷🇴 Ionel Gane
 * 🇷🇴 Ion Geolgău
 * 🇷🇴 Adrian Iordache
 * 🇷🇴 Sevastian Iovănescu

 * 🇷🇴 Dumitru Ivan
 * 🇷🇴 Radu Jercan
 * 🇷🇴 Dan Lăcustă
 * 🇷🇴 Bogdan Mara
 * 🇷🇴 Andrei Mărgăritescu
 * 🇷🇴 Cornel Mirea
 * 🇷🇴 Viorel Moiceanu
 * 🇷🇴 Dorinel Munteanu
 * 🇷🇴 Alexandru Mustățea
 * 🇷🇴 Adrian Mutu
 * 🇷🇴 Nicolae Nagy
 * 🇷🇴 Valentin Năstase
 * 🇷🇴 Cosmin Năstăsie
 * 🇷🇴 Adrian Neaga
 * 🇷🇴 Cătălin Necula
 * 🇷🇴 Spiridon Niculescu
 * 🇷🇴 Marian Pană
 * 🇷🇴 Cornel Pavlovici
 * 🇷🇴 Marcel Pigulea
 * 🇷🇴 Ilie Poenaru
 * 🇷🇴 Vasile Popa
 * 🇷🇴 Marian Popescu
 * 🇷🇴 Ștefan Preda
 * 🇷🇴 Marius Predatu
 * 🇷🇴 Andrei Prepeliță
 * 🇷🇴 Ion Prepurgel
 * 🇷🇴 Constantin Radu
 * 🇷🇴 Marin Radu
 * 🇷🇴 Marius Radu
 * 🇷🇴 Ion Roșu
 * 🇷🇴 Emil Săndoi
 * 🇷🇴 Constantin Schumacher
 * 🇷🇴 Dănuț Șomcherechi

 * 🇷🇴 Andrei Speriatu
 * 🇷🇴 Mircea Stan
 * 🇷🇴 Vasile Stan
 * 🇷🇴 Bogdan Stancu
 * 🇷🇴 Ionuț Șerban
 * 🇷🇴 Dorian Ștefan
 * 🇷🇴 Iulian Tameș
 * 🇷🇴 Ciprian Tănasă
 * 🇷🇴 Cristian Tănase
 * 🇷🇴 Florin Tene
 * 🇷🇴 Ion Țîrcovnicu
 * 🇷🇴 Doru Toma
 * 🇷🇴 Radu Troi
 * 🇷🇴 Mihai Țurcan
 * 🇷🇴 Grigore Turda
 * 🇷🇴 Iosif Varga
 * 🇷🇴 Ion Vlădoiu
 * 🇷🇴 Bogdan Vintilă
 * 🇷🇴 Remus Vlad
 * 🇷🇴 Dorel Zamfir
 * 🇷🇴 Mihai Zamfir
 * Argentina
 * 🇦🇷 Elias Bazzi
 * Bosnia and Herzegovina
 * Adnan Gušo
 * Cameroon
 * 🇨🇲 Arnold Garita
 * Paraguay
 * 🇵🇾 David Meza

Notable former managers

 * 🇷🇴 Marian Bondrea
 * 🇷🇴 Constantin Cârstea
 * 🇷🇴 Ştefan Coidum
 * 🇷🇴 Nicolae Dobrin
 * 🇷🇴 Florin Halagian
 * 🇷🇴 Ion Lăpușneanu
 * 🇷🇴 Virgil Mărdărescu
 * 🇷🇴 Ion Moldovan
 * 🇷🇴 Ion Nunweiller
 * 🇷🇴 Titus Ozon
 * 🇷🇴 Vasile Ștefan
 * 🇷🇴 Constantin Teașcă

title: FC Argeș Pitești


text:
Kinetic fractionation

Kinetic fractionation is an isotopic fractionation process that separates stable isotopes from each other by their mass during unidirectional processes. Biological processes are generally unidirectional and are very good examples of "kinetic" isotope reactions. All organisms preferentially use lighter isotopic species, because "energy costs" are lower, resulting in a significant fractionation between the substrate (heavier) and the biologically mediated product (lighter). As an example, photosynthesis preferentially takes up the light isotope of carbon 12C during assimilation of an atmospheric CO2 molecule. This kinetic isotope fractionation explains why plant material (and thus fossil fuels, which are derived from plants) is typically depleted in 13C by 25 per mil (2.5 per cent) relative to most inorganic carbon on Earth.

A naturally occurring example of non-biological kinetic fractionation occurs during the evaporation of seawater to form clouds under conditions in which some part of the transport is unidirectional, such as evaporation into very dry air. In this instance, isotopically lighter water molecules (i.e., those with 16O) will evaporate slightly more easily than will the isotopically heavier water molecules with 18O, and this difference will be greater than it would be if the evaporation was taking place under equilibrium conditions (with bidirectional transport).

During this process the oxygen isotopes are fractionated: the clouds become enriched with 16O, and the seawater becomes enriched in 18O. Whereas equilibrium fractionation makes the vapor about 10 per mil (1%) depleted in 18O relative to the liquid water, kinetic fractionation enhances this fractionation and often makes vapor that is about 15 per mil (1.5%) depleted. Condensation occurs almost exclusively by equilibrium processes, and so it enriches cloud droplets somewhat less than evaporation depletes the vapor. This explains part of the reason why rainwater is observed to be isotopically lighter than seawater.

The isotope of hydrogen in water, deuterium, is much less sensitive to kinetic fractionation than oxygen isotopes, relative to the very large equilibrium fractionation of deuterium. For this reason kinetic fractionation does not deplete deuterium nearly as much, in a relative sense, as 18O. This gives rise to an excess of deuterium in vapor and rainfall, relative to seawater. The value of this "deuterium excess", as it is called, is about +10 per mil (1%) in most meteoric waters and its non-zero value is a direct manifestation of kinetic isotope fractionation.

A generalized treatment of kinetic isotopic effects is via the GEBIK and GEBIF equations describing transient kinetic isotope effects.

Other types of fractionation

 * Equilibrium fractionation
 * Mass-independent fractionation
 * Transient kinetic isotope fractionation

title: Kinetic fractionation


text:
Wesfarmers

Wesfarmers Limited is an Australian conglomerate, headquartered in Perth, Western Australia. It has interests predominantly in Australia and New Zealand, operating in retail, chemical, fertiliser, industrial and safety products. With revenue of A$43.5 billion in the 2023 financial year, it is one of Australia's largest companies by revenue. Wesfarmers is also one of the largest private employers in Australia, with approximately 107,000 employees.

Wesfarmers was founded in 1914 as a co-operative to provide services and merchandise to Western Australian farmers. It was listed on the Australian Securities Exchange in 1984 and grew into a major retail conglomerate.

History
Westralian Farmers Co‐operative Limited was formed in 1914 as a cooperative company by the Farmers' and Settlers' Association of Western Australia, to acquire the assets of the West Australian Producers' Union, to be focused on the provision of services and merchandise to the Western Australian rural community. By 1919, more than 65 local co-operative companies were acting as agents for Westralian Farmers Limited.

In 1924, it established the first public radio station in Western Australia with 6WF, before it passed into the hands of the Australian Broadcasting Commission in 1929, now called ABC Radio Perth

By the 1940s, the company's business included "being wheat and general merchants; country distribution for Commonwealth Oil Refineries; wool, livestock, skin and produce auctioneers; grain & fruit exporters; insurance underwriters; acquiring agents for the wheat pool of W.A." Known as Westralian Farmers Limited, it had premises in various locations within the Perth central business district. In the 1940s there were premises at 563-571 Wellington Street. It also had premises in Newman Street in Fremantle.

In 1949, Wesfarmers acquired Ashburton Transport, which at the time was lossmaking. The following year it also acquired its major competitor Gascoyne Trading, combining the operations of the two companies to supply the northwest of Western Australia. Along with wool and mail, it carted bananas from Carnarvon to Perth, returning with stores and mail from Perth. Gascoyne Trading introduced refrigerated transport to the region and three trailer road trains that now carry loads up to 115 tonnes.

In 1984, Westralian Farmers Co-operative Limited formed Wesfarmers Limited, restructuring from a co-operative to a public company and listed on the Australian Securities Exchange on 15 November 1984. Initially the Co-operative retained 60% of the ordinary shares, guaranteeing that the co-op's farmer members retained control, and the rest was distributed to its members.

In 1991, 19 m3 of the records of Westralian Farmers Co-operative were deposited with the J S Battye Library in Perth.

Rural business, Dalgety Farmers and Wesfarmers Landmark
Bought in January 1993 the integration of Dalgety Farmers with Wesfarmers proved more difficult than expected. For a time the merged rural agency and merchandise business was Wesfarmers Dalgety until renamed Wesfarmers Landmark in March 2001 after IAMA Limited was brought in. Landmark, Wesfarmers foundation business, was sold to AWB Limited (originally the Australia Wheat Board) in August 2003.

Bunnings
An initial investment in 10 percent of Bunnings in February 1987 reached full ownership in January 1994. Bunnings bought UK retailer Homebase in February 2016 and Britain's first Bunnings store opened twelve months later in February 2017. They were 265 well-located stores and Wesfarmers believed Bunnings' management would greatly improve their modest profits. The plan was to make changes gently but tactics changed and local management, perceived as under-performing, was removed and replaced by expatriate management. The expatriate management's changes alienated the existing customer base and, aided by a poor retailing climate, brought a rapid decline into losses. A strategic review by Wesfarmers resulted in the May 2018 sale of the Homebase business to Hilco Capital at a loss of A$1.96 billion.

Australian Railroad Group
Australian Railroad Group began a joint venture with Genesee & Wyoming by the purchase of Westrail at the beginning of 2000. It was sold in 2006 to Babcock & Brown and Queensland Rail.

End of co-operative ownership
In 2001, Wesfarmers became a freely-traded publicly listed company with open ownership. After becoming a public company, Wesfarmers diversified its interests by acquiring other businesses.

Home improvement and office supplies
This division is made up of Bunnings Warehouse, a retailer of home improvement and outdoor living products, servicing home and commercial customers in Australia and New Zealand, and Officeworks, a retailer and supplier of office products for home, business and education in Australia. There are 210 Bunnings "warehouse" (larger) stores, 67 Bunnings small-format stores, 36 Bunnings Trade centres and 171 Officeworks stores. Bunnings employs more than 33,000 staff and Officeworks employs more than 8,000 staff.

In January 2016, Home Retail Group accepted an offer from Wesfarmers to acquire the British home improvement retailer and garden centre Homebase. Stores in the United Kingdom and Ireland began to be rebranded as Bunnings following the takeover. However, following Wesfarmer's sale of Homebase to Hilco in May 2018, it was reported that the 24 stores already converted would return to the "Homebase" branding.

In 2019, Officeworks group acquired Geeks2U, an Australian provider of on-site information, communication and technology services.

Kmart Group
In February 2016, Wesfarmers announced a restructure of its department store businesses into a single division named Department Stores, with each brand (originally Kmart and Target) continuing to operate independently. The division was later renamed Kmart Group. In August 2019, Catch Group, operator of the online shopping website catch.com.au, was acquired by Wesfarmers and included in the group.

Kmart
Kmart is a discount department store retailer in Australia and New Zealand. Kmart has more than 300 stores around Australia and New Zealand, employing more than 42,000 staff. Kmart Tyre & Auto Service is no longer a part of Kmart after parent Wesfarmers sold the auto division to German company Continental AG. Kmart Tyre and Auto has since been rebranded by Continental AG to MyCar.

Target
Target is a mid-level department store retailer in Australia. Target employs more than 12,000 staff. Target Australia has no connection to the American retailer of the same name.

Industrials
In August 2015, Wesfarmers announced an organisational restructure to cluster its three industrial businesses, Chemicals, Energy & Fertilisers (WesCEF); Resources; and Industrial and Safety (WIS) into a single, new Industrials division.

Wesfarmers Chemicals, Energy & Fertilisers
Wesfarmers Chemicals, Energy & Fertilisers (WesCEF) produces and markets chemicals, fertilisers and gas products. WesCEF has ammonia and ammonium nitrate production facilities in Western Australia, 50% of QNP ammonium nitrate production facilities in Queensland, sodium cyanide production facilities in Western Australia, PVC resin and specialty chemicals production facilities in Victoria, LPG and LNG distribution across Australia with LPG and LNG production facilities in Western Australia and fertiliser production and importation facilities in Western Australia. WesCEF employs more than 1,200 staff. WesCEF businesses include CSBP, Australian Vinyls, AGR, QNP, Evol LNG, Kleenheat and Modwood.

Wesfarmers Industrial and Safety
Wesfarmers Industrial and Safety provides industrial and safety products and services in Australia and New Zealand. On 1 December 2014, Wesfamers Industrial and Safety completed the acquisition of the Workwear Group of Pacific Brands Limited. Its businesses now include Blackwoods, Greencap, Bullivants, Coregas, Blackwoods Protector, Safety Source, Total Fasteners, Packaging House, King Gee, Hard Yakka, Stubbies and GotStock.

The division's 32 New Zealand stores are now all branded as NZ Safety Blackwoods. These include former Blackwood and Packaging House stores, and 19 former Paykel Engineering Supplies purchased in 2003.

Health
Wesfarmers acquired Australian Pharmaceutical Industries (API) in March 2022. API would form the basis of a new healthcare division of Wesfarmers and a base from which to invest and develop capabilities in the health and wellbeing sector.

In June 2023, Wesfarmers reached an agreement to buy InstantScripts for $135 million.

Other businesses
Wesfarmers has 100% interest in many other subsidiaries across Australia, New Zealand, India, New Caledonia, United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Indonesia, China, Bermuda and Singapore. These include BBC Hardware, Coles Ansett Travel, Coles Group Superannuation Fund, Coles Property Management, Comnet, Fosseys, Grocery Holdings Pty Ltd, Harris Technology, Howard Smith, Katies Fashions, Loyalty Pacific, Masters Home Improvement New Zealand, Morley Shopping Centre, now.com.au, Theo's Liquor, Tooronga Shopping Centre, Tyremaster, Viking Direct and World 4 Kids.

Other activities
Wesfarmers has a 50% interest in investment house Gresham Partners plus interests in Gresham Private Equity Funds, 50% interest in Wespine, a plantation softwood sawmill in Dardanup and a 24% interest in BWP Trust which mainly owns Bunnings Warehouses tenanted by Bunnings Group Limited.

Insurance
On 16 June 2014, Wesfarmers completed the sale of its insurance broking and premium funding operations, including OAMPS Insurance Brokers in Australia, OAMPS UK, Crombie Lockwood in New Zealand, Lumley Finance and Monument Premium Financing to Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. On 30 June 2014, Wesfarmers completed the sale of its insurance underwriting operations, including the WFI and Lumley brands, to the Insurance Australia Group.

Coles
On 2 July 2007, Wesfarmers announced it was purchasing the Coles Group retail business for $22 billion making it the largest successful take-over in Australian corporate history. Wesfarmers took control of Coles on 23 November 2007, after paying almost $20 billion for the company. Wesfarmers had already purchased 13 per cent of the retailer in April.

Coles is a national supermarket, department store. liquor, fuel and convenience retailer in Australia. As of September 2013, Coles operated 756 full-service supermarkets, 810 liquor outlets, 92 hotels, and 636 fuel and convenience stores. Wesfarmers bought Kmart and Target when they bought Coles. Coles employs more than 105,000 staff. Coles' businesses include Coles Supermarkets, Coles Online, Coles Express, Vintage Cellars, 1st Choice Liquor Superstore, BI-LO, Coles Financial Services and Liquorland.

On 16 March 2018, Wesfarmers held a meeting to discuss its intention to demerge Coles, The demerger was effective from 21 November 2018 with Wesfarmers retaining a 15% shareholding. During 2020 Wesfarmers reduced its equity in Coles to 4.9%. In April 2023, Wesfarmers sold off the last of its shares in Coles.

Wesfarmers Resources
Wesfarmers Resources owned and operated open-cut coal producing resources in Australia including the Curragh in Queensland. Wesfarmers divested its coal business, completing the process with the sale of its 40 per cent interest in the Bengalla Joint Venture to New Hope Corporation for $860 million on 3 December 2018.

Wesfarmers Transport
In 1950 Wesfarmers purchased the Gascoyne Trading Company (GTC), growing it to become the largest transport operator in Western Australia. Until 1971 it held the sole rights for direct road transport between Carnarvon and Perth. In 1973 a joint venture was formed with Downard to enter the interstate freight forwarding market between Western Australia and Victoria.

In 1985, GTC purchased a 50% shareholding in Total West from Mayne Nickless. In 1996, after taking full ownership of Total West, Wesfarmers merged it with GTC to form Wesfarmers Transport. In 2001 the business was sold to Toll Holdings.

Company executives

 * Chairmen
 * 1914–1916: Deane Hammond
 * 1916–1921: Matthew Padbury
 * 1921–1953: Walter Harper
 * 1953–1965: Ernest Thorley Loton
 * 1965–1975: Walter Crosse
 * 1975–1982: Maurice Clayton
 * 1983–1986: Marcus Beeck
 * 1986–2002: Harry Perkins
 * 2002–2008: Trevor Eastwood
 * 2008–2015: Bob Every
 * 2015–present: Michael Chaney

 * Chief executives / general managers / managing directors
 * 1917–1925: Basil Murray
 * 1925–1957: John Thomson
 * 1958–1973: Keith Edwards
 * 1974–1984: John Bennison
 * 1984–1992: Trevor Eastwood
 * 1992–2005: Michael Chaney
 * 2005–2017: Richard Goyder
 * 2017–present: Rob Scott

title: Wesfarmers


text:
User:Dstudent

Hi! I'm a student at the University of Western Australia.

There is nothing to see here. Do something useful instead.

title: User:Dstudent


text:
Victory Road

Victory Road may refer to:
 * Impact Wrestling Victory Road, a professional wrestling event
 * Victory Road (video game), a 1986 arcade game
 * Victory Road, a street in Salt Lake City, Utah that is part of Utah State Route 186
 * Victory Road (Pokémon), a location in the Pokémon video games

title: Victory Road


text:
Kirkjubøargarður

Kirkjubøargarður (Faroese for Yard of Kirkjubøur, also known as King's Farm) is one of the oldest still inhabited wooden houses in the world, if not the oldest. The farm itself has always been the largest in the Faroe Islands.

The old farmhouse of Kirkjubøur dates back to the 11th century. It was the episcopal residence and seminary of the Diocese of the Faroe Islands, from about 1100. The legend says that the wood for the block houses came as driftwood from Norway and was accurately bundled and numbered, just for being set up. Note that there is no forest in the Faroes, with the exception of a wood in northern Tórshavn, and wood is a very valuable material. Many such wood legends are thus to be found in Faroese history.

The oldest part is a so-called roykstova (reek parlour, or smoke room). Perhaps it was moved one day, because it does not fit to its foundation. Another ancient room is the loftstovan (loft room). It is supposed that Bishop Erlendur wrote the 'Sheep Letter' here in 1298. This is the earliest document of the Faroes we know today. It is the statute concerning sheep breeding on the Faroes. Today the room is the farm's library. The stórastovan (large room) is from a much later date, being built in 1772.

Though the farmhouse is a museum, the 17th generation of the Patursson family, which has occupied it since 1550, still lives there. Shortly after the Reformation in the Faroe Islands in 1538, all the real estate of the Catholic Church was seized by the King of Denmark. This was about half of the land in the Faroes, and since then called "King's Land" (kongsjørð). The largest piece of King's Land was the farm in Kirkjubøur due to the above-mentioned episcopal residence. This land is today owned by the Faroese government, and the Paturssons are tenants from generation to generation. It is always the oldest son who becomes King's Farmer, and in contrast to the privately-owned land, the King's Land is never divided between the sons.

The farm holds sheep, cattle and some horses. It is possible to get a coffee here and buy fresh mutton and beef directly from the farmer. In the winter season there is also hare hunting for the locals. Groups can rent the roykstovan for festivities and will be served original Faroese cuisine.

Other notable buildings near the farmhouse are the Magnus Cathedral and Saint Olav's Church, which also date back to the medieval period.

People
Notable people who were born here or lived here for a period:

 * Sverre I of Norway (1151–1202), grew up here and went to the priest school.
 * Bishop Erlendur (d. 1308), wrote the Sheep Letter and built the Magnus Cathedral.
 * Súsanna Helena Patursson (1864–1916), first feminist of the Faroes.
 * King's farmer Jóannes Patursson (1866–1946), oldest brother of Helena, nationalist leader and writer.
 * Sverre Patursson (1871–1960) brother of Helena and Jóannes, writer, journalist and environmentalist.
 * Erlendur Patursson (1913–1986), son of Jóannes, writer and nationalist politician.
 * Tróndur Patursson (born 1944), great-grandson of Jóannes, artist and adventurer.

title: Kirkjubøargarður


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Usenet II

 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 KEEP. -Splash 06:53, 27 August 2005 (UTC)

Usenet II
No merit to the content. External link site appears to confirm there isn't any real plan - looks like a homepage, which according to the time stamp hasn't been updated in over 4 years. delete lots of issues | leave me a message 12:00, 20 August 2005 (UTC)

 * Expand the Usenet II people were very active on Usenet for quite a while, their activities may well end up being very relevant to Wikipedia as an example of protection strategies that failled to stop abuse. --Gorgonzilla 13:21, 20 August 2005 (UTC)
 * Keep. The USENET II network was an ambitious project of several longstanding news admins including Russ Allbery, Usenet admin at Stanford University, and for a brief period when the spam situation on Usenet, particularly the classic "Big 8" groups, looked absolutely dire, it seemed like the only way forward would be to completely replace the existing machinery that allowed unauthenticated injection of material into the system to one that had "sound sites" (mutually validating peers) and only permitted posting from a valid authenticated email address.  It enjoyed some limited success, and the "sound site" concept pioneered there has been adopted by small-scale closed networks that use the NNTP (Usenet) transport.  I'll expand a bit with whatever I can come up with.  --Tony Sidaway Talk  13:56, 20 August 2005 (UTC)

 * I found 966 Google hits for this term, the usage across results was uneven. Some may have referred to an unformed idea, while others used it purely as an expression of hope for unknown salvation. Whatever lies at the core of this term, it receives at most minimum attention.  lots of issues  | leave me a message 14:02, 20 August 2005 (UTC)
 * You're looking in the wrong place. A search on "usenet-ii" in Google Groups (the Usenet archives) gives 5770 hits. You get even more if you go for usenet2 but some of those references are to the kind of vague handwavy notions you peak of. In any case Usenet II did operate for a while and was seen as a possible way forward if the spam situation got worse.  In practice evidently the spammers realised they were choking Usenet, decided not to kill the goose that laid the golden egg, and ramped back their operations so as to avoid a catastrophe, so the pressure driving Usenet II project was released and it withered. --Tony Sidaway Talk  14:38, 20 August 2005 (UTC)

 * Keep as per Tony Sidaway. ~⌈Markaci⌋ 2005-08-21 T 07:23:16 Z
 * Keep. N (t/c) 21:34, 21 August 2005 (UTC)

 * Keep. I've heard of it Bluap 10:09, 22 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: File:CountingCrowsFilmsAboutGhosts.jpg

title: File:CountingCrowsFilmsAboutGhosts.jpg


text: Category:Museums in the Faroe Islands

title: Category:Museums in the Faroe Islands


text:
Tench Ringgold

Tench Ringgold (March 3, 1777 – July 31, 1844) was a businessman and political appointee in Washington, D.C. He was U.S. marshal of the District of Columbia, appointed by President James Monroe (1817—1825) and serving in the position through 1830, during the first two years of the administration of Andrew Jackson. Ringgold also owned a leather factory and curing shop in Georgetown. He was appointed Treasurer of the Georgetown Savings Institution in what was then a separate jurisdiction later annexed by the District of Columbia.

Ringgold was the son of Mary (Galloway) and Thomas Ringgold, and was from a prominent early-American family that came to the British colonies in the early seventeenth century. He had accompanied James Madison when the president and his cabinet were forced to flee Washington, D.C., during the War of 1812. Afterward, he was named as a member of the Presidential Commission in charge of restoring important Washington buildings after the burning, including the Capitol.

In 1825 he built a house in the capital; it is now known as the Ringgold-Carroll House, referring also to a later resident. The house has been designated as an historic property and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Boarders in the house during Ringgold's residency included Supreme Court Justices John Marshall and Joseph Story, both of whom considered Ringgold a friend.

Ringgold married and had a family. Through his daughter Catherine, who married Edward Douglass White Sr., he was the grandfather of Edward Douglass White, who was appointed a Justice of the United States Supreme Court in 1894 and served as Chief Justice from 1910-1921.

Ringgold owned slaves, among them was Thomas H. Ringgold, a Mulatto who was reportedly fathered by Tench. Thomas was born in Maryland and later became a runaway slave. Thomas married Mary E., who was born a free Black. He then made his way to Springfield, Massachusetts via the "underground railroad," circa 1848. There, he became a successful barber in Chicopee, MA. In response to a newspaper notice, he returned to buy his freedom. Using a lawyer in Alexandria, VA, he secured his freedom and returned to Massachusetts. His wife died shortly after childbirth of their daughter, Henrietta B. S. Ringgold. Henrietta died a few months later, that same year. He re-married and moved, leaving his wife and two children in Springfield Cemetery, Massachusetts.

title: Tench Ringgold