Production.

HMX is more complicated to manufacture than most explosives, and this confines it to specialist applications. It may be produced by nitration of hexamine in the presence of acetic anhydride, paraformaldehyde and ammonium nitrate. RDX produced using the Bachmann Process usually contains 8–10% HMX.

Applications.

Also known as cyclotetramethylene-tetranitramine, tetrahexamine tetranitramine, or octahydro-1,3,5,7-tetranitro-1,3,5,7-tetrazocine, HMX was first made in 1930. In 1949 it was discovered that HMX can be prepared by nitrolysis of RDX. Nitrolysis of RDX is performed by dissolving RDX in a 55% HNO solution, followed by placing the solution on a steambath for about six hours. HMX is used almost exclusively in military applications, including as the detonator in nuclear weapons, in the form of polymer-bonded explosive, and as a solid rocket propellant.  HMX is used in melt-castable explosives when mixed with TNT, which as a class are referred to as "octols". Additionally, polymer-bonded explosive compositions containing HMX are used in the manufacture of missile warheads and armor-piercing shaped charges.  HMX is also used in the process of perforating the steel casing in oil and gas wells. The HMX is built into a shaped charge that is detonated within the wellbore to punch a hole through the steel casing and surrounding cement out into the hydrocarbon bearing formations. The pathway that is created allows formation fluids to flow into the wellbore and onward to the surface.  The Hayabusa 2 space probe used HMX to excavate a hole in an asteroid in order to access material that had not been exposed to the solar wind.

Health and environmental fate.

Analytical methods.

HMX enters the environment through air, water, and soil because it is widely used in military and civil applications. At present, reverse-phase HPLC and more sensitive LC-MS methods have been developed to accurately quantify the concentration of HMX in a variety of matrices in environmental assessments.

Toxicity.

At present, the information needed to determine if HMX causes cancer is insufficient. Due to the lack of information, EPA has determined that HMX is not classifiable as to its human carcinogenicity.  The available data on the effects on human health of exposure to HMX are limited. HMX causes CNS effects similar to those of RDX, but at considerably higher doses. In one study, volunteers submitted to patch testing, which produced skin irritation. Another study of a cohort of 93 workers at an ammunition plant found no hematological, hepatic, autoimmune, or renal diseases. However, the study did not quantify the levels of exposure to HMX.  HMX exposure has been investigated in several studies on animals. Overall, the toxicity appears to be quite low. HMX is poorly absorbed by ingestion. When applied to the dermis, it induces mild skin irritation but not delayed contact sensitization. Various acute and subchronic neurobehavioral effects have been reported in rabbits and rodents, including ataxia, sedation, hyperkinesia, and convulsions. The chronic effects of HMX that have been documented through animal studies include decreased hemoglobin, increased serum alkaline phosphatase, and decreased albumin. Pathological changes were also observed in the animals' livers and kidneys.  Gas exchange rate was used as an indicator of chemical stress in Northern bobwhite quail ("Colinus virginianus") eggs, and no evidence of alterations in metabolic rates associated with HMX exposure was observed. No data are available concerning the possible reproductive, developmental, or carcinogenic effects of HMX. HMX is considered the least toxic amongst TNT and RDX. Remediating HMX contaminated water supplies has proven to be successful.

Biodegradation.

Both wild and transgenic plants can phytoremediate explosives from soil and water.

HMX, also called octogen, is a powerful and relatively insensitive nitroamine high explosive, chemically related to RDX. Like RDX, the compound's name is the subject of much speculation, having been variously listed as High Melting Explosive, Her Majesty's Explosive, High-velocity Military Explosive, or High-Molecular-weight RDX.


Biography.

Mateschitz was born May 20, 1944, in Sankt Marein im Mürztal, Styria, Austria to a family of Croatian ancestry. His parents were both primary school teachers and separated when he was a young child.  Although never married, he has a son. He holds a pilot's licence and enjoys flying a Falcon 900 and a Piper Super Cub.  After taking ten years to graduate from the "Hochschule für Welthandel" (now Vienna University of Economics and Business) with a marketing degree in 1972, Mateschitz's first employer was Unilever, where he worked marketing detergents. He subsequently moved to Blendax, the German cosmetics company since bought by Procter & Gamble, where he worked on, among other things, the marketing of Blendax toothpaste. It was as part of his travels for Blendax that he discovered Krating Daeng, the drink that would later become Red Bull. In 1984, he founded Red Bull GmbH with his Thai partners Chaleo and his eldest son Chalerm Yoovidhya, with the launch in Austria in 1987. Subsequently, he turned the Red Bull drink into a world market leader among energy drinks.  He is co-founder of the "Wings for Life" foundation that supports spinal cord research together with Heinz Kinigadner. Since 2014, the foundation has organised the Wings for Life World Run to raise funds.  He lives in Fuschl am See, Austria but also owns Laucala Island, off Fiji, which he bought from the Forbes family for £7 million. In 2013, Mateschitz purchased a custom DeepFlight Super Falcon, an extreme $1.7 million submarine for guests at his Laucala Island resort in Fiji.

Sports.

Mateschitz's brands are consistently marketed as associated with the physical and mental attributes needed for various types of extreme sports through commercial sponsorship. Red Bull formerly owned more than 60 percent of the Sauber Formula One motor racing team, and was the team's main sponsor. However, Red Bull ended its relationship with Sauber at the end of 2001 after the team opted to sign Kimi Räikkönen as one of their drivers for the 2001 season instead of Red Bull protege Enrique Bernoldi. In November 2004, Mateschitz bought the Jaguar Racing Formula One team from its previous owners, Ford, and renamed it Red Bull Racing. In September 2005, Mateschitz joined forces with his close friend and former Formula One driver, Gerhard Berger, to purchase the Italian-registered Minardi team from its Australian owner Paul Stoddart. The team was renamed "Scuderia Toro Rosso", "Toro Rosso" meaning Red Bull in Italian. In 2010, Red Bull Racing won the Formula One World Constructors' Championship and Drivers' Championship with Sebastian Vettel. They then went on to win both titles for the next three years running in 2011, 2012, and 2013, making Vettel and Red Bull Racing four-time world champions.  From 2006 to 2011, Mateschitz also owned Team Red Bull who competed in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and the K&N Pro Series East.  In late 2004, he bought the A1-Ring racing circuit, which had formerly hosted the Formula One Austrian Grand Prix, and renamed it the Red Bull Ring. The circuit re-opened in May 2011 and hosted a round of the 2011 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters season. Although Mateschitz had stated that there were no plans for it to return to the Formula One calendar, in December 2012 Red Bull notified the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile they would be open to hosting a Grand Prix. In July 2013, Red Bull announced the return of the Austrian Grand Prix to the Formula One World Championship in 2014. The race took place on 22 June 2014 and was won by Nico Rosberg, driving for Mercedes.  Mateschitz has his own hangar, where he keeps his collection of old planes, including the last ever Douglas DC-6B to be produced, and which once belonged to Yugoslav Marshal Josip Broz Tito. He also sponsors the World Stunt Awards, an annual fundraiser to benefit his Taurus Foundation, which helps injured stunt professionals.  In April 2005, he bought the Austrian football club SV Austria Salzburg and in March 2006, he bought the American club MetroStars; both clubs were subsequently renamed after his famous drink, as Red Bull Salzburg and New York Red Bulls, respectively. In 2007, Red Bull founded Red Bull Brasil, a football team based in Campinas, Brazil. The team was promoted to the 1st division of the São Paulo championship in 2014, the most competitive state championship of the country. In 2008, Red Bull founded Red Bull Ghana. In May 2009, he founded a German football club called RB Leipzig after he bought the club license of SSV Markranstädt. Since 2012, he is also the owner of the German ice hockey club EHC München, which also changed its name into Red Bull München.  He also owned Seitenblicke, Austria's top society magazine, but avoids the celebrity circuit and watches most Formula One races on TV despite owning two teams.

Dietrich Mateschitz (; born 20 May 1944) is an Austrian billionaire businessman. He is the co-founder and 49% owner of the Red Bull energy drink company. As of June 2019, Mateschitz's net worth was estimated at $19.5 billion, making him the 53rd richest person in the world.


History.

The dry and inclement plain above La Paz was uninhabited until 1903 when the newly built railways from Lake Titicaca and Arica reached the rim of the canyon, where the La Paz terminus, railyards and depots were built along with a settlement of railway workers (a spur line down into the canyon opened in 1905). In 1925, the airfield was built as base for the new air force, which attracted additional settlement. In 1939, El Alto's first elementary school opened. El Alto started to grow tremendously in the 1950s when the settlement was connected to La Paz's water supply (before this, all water had to be transported from La Paz in tanker vehicles) and building land in the canyon became more and more scarce and expensive. In an administrative reform in March 1985, the district of El Alto and surroundings was politically separated from the City of La Paz (this date is officially referred to and celebrated as the city's "founding day"). In 1987, El Alto was formally incorporated as a city. In 1994, the city became the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of El Alto.  El Alto, known for its teeming streets and traffic, broke gender barriers by hiring "cholitas" in December 2013. These Aymara women dress in traditional, multi-layered Andean skirts and brightly embroidered vests, and work as traffic cops to bring order to its road chaos. In recent years, Bolivia’s cholitas have been breaking social barriers, conducting television programs, working in offices, holding public posts, and participating in native fashion shows and beauty contests.  "El Alto" can also mean "The Halt" in Spanish,

El Alto's districts.

El Alto's autonomous government identifies 14 districts composing the Andean city.

Demographics.

El Alto is the largest city in Latin America with a mostly Amerindian population. About 76% of its inhabitants are Aymara, 9% are Quechua, 15% are Mestizo (descendants of Amerindian and White Europeans), and less than 0.1% are Criollos (White). El Alto was once known as La Paz's bedroom community, though recent growth of commerce and industry has led some local authorities to claim the title of "Bolivia's Economic Capital." With this industrial growth, there is concern about water pollution by businesses, including tanneries and slaughterhouse, for the city and communities downstream. Rapid population growth means the city struggles to bring potable water and sewer service to parts of the population, especially on the fringes of the expanding urban area. Much of the city's roads are unpaved and most citizens do not have access to running water, sewerage, electricity, or garbage collection for their homes.

Geography.

The city contains La Paz’s El Alto International Airport. El Alto is one of the highest major cities in the world, up to 4,150 meters (13,615 feet) above mean sea level. It has a cold climate, with the highest average monthly maximum temperature being in November. It is one of the fastest-growing cities in Bolivia, due to a trend in migration from Bolivia’s rural areas to the La Paz region that started with the rural reform of 1952 and increased in the last 10 years. Some migrants say the difficulty of growing crops in the countryside drove them to move to the city.

Climate.

The Köppen climate classification system classifies El Alto's climate as a rare cold-summer variety of a subtropical highland climate ("Cwc").  The water supply in El Alto has been impacted by drought caused by shrinking glaciers. In 2016 the three main dams supplying water to the city were almost dry due to lack of glacial melt water.

Attractions.

Museo de Arte Antonio Paredes Candia opened in 2002. From 2003, access from La Paz to the international airport, as well to oil and gas supplies, has been frequently blocked by protesting social leaders and some of the most powerful players in the politics of Bolivia. El Alto remains one of the major centers of the Bolivian gas conflict.  There is a large open-air market.

Government.

El Alto is a municipality within the province of Murillo. The government of the city is divided into the executive and legislative branches. The mayor of El Alto is the head of the city government, elected for a term of five years by general election. The legislative branch consists of the municipal council, which elects a president, vice president, and secretary from a group of 11 members.  The current mayor is Soledad Chapetón, who became the city's first female mayor in May 2015. The previous election was held April 4, 2010 and results of that regional election are given below:  The Government of El Alto faces competition in providing public services, security and participation with the grassroots and highly successful Fejuve movement.

Transportation.

El Alto is connected to La Paz by two lines of the Mi Teleférico system. The city is connected to domestic and international destinations by El Alto International Airport.

El Alto (Spanish for "The Heights") is the second-largest city in Bolivia, located adjacent to La Paz in Pedro Domingo Murillo Province on the Altiplano highlands. El Alto is today one of Bolivia's fastest-growing urban centers, with an estimated population of 943,558 in 2020. El Alto is the highest major metropolis in the world, with an average elevation of.


History.

The orchestra was founded in Munich in 1893 by Franz Kaim, son of a piano manufacturer, as the Kaim Orchestra. In 1895, it took up residence in the city's "Tonhalle" (concert hall). It soon attracted distinguished conductors: Gustav Mahler first directed the group in 1897 and premiered his "Symphony No. 4" and "Symphony No. 8" with the orchestra, while Bruno Walter directed the orchestra for the posthumous premiere of Mahler's "Das Lied von der Erde". Felix Weingartner was music director from 1898 to 1905, and the young Wilhelm Furtwängler made his auspicious conducting debut there in 1906. Meanwhile, Anton Bruckner pupil Ferdinand Löwe established an enduring tradition of Bruckner performance which continues to this day.  Throughout this time the orchestra, which by 1910 was known as the Munich Konzertverein Orchestra, was privately funded, but during World War I finances became tight and players were called for military service, forcing the orchestra to cease operation. After the war, the orchestra was taken over by the city of Munich and restarted under the leadership of composer Hans Pfitzner, soon replaced by Bruckner pioneer Siegmund von Hausegger. In 1928, the orchestra acquired its current name.  After the rise of the Nazi party in 1933, the orchestra stamped its scores with swastikas and the words "The Orchestra of the Fascist Movement". (The swastikas weren’t removed until the early 1990s.) In 1938, the pro-Nazi conductor Oswald Kabasta became chief conductor, raising its musical standards even as World War II began.  During the war, the Tonhalle was destroyed and the orchestra, homeless, was again shut-down for a period. After the war, fortunes recovered under the music directors Hans Rosbaud and Rudolf Kempe and in 1979, Sergiu Celibidache took over, raising the orchestra to the highest world-class standards. Notoriously demanding of his players, Celibidache created a unique sound for the orchestra. In a well-publicised case, he tried to remove principal trombonist Abbie Conant from her position because of her gender. Conant sued the City of Munich and, after a lengthy legal procedure, in 1993 won pay equal to that of her male colleagues along with being reinstated as full first soloist status as the court found that the orchestra and the City of Munich broke the law concerning equal treatment of men and women. Reportedly, Conant's audition was the last to be held using blind audition.  After Celibidache's sudden death in 1996, James Levine took over as chief conductor of the orchestra, serving until 2004. Christian Thielemann became the orchestra's music director in September 2004, joined by Wouter Hoekstra as "Intendant". However, in 2007, Hoekstra was dismissed from his post after reported disputes with Thielemann. In 2009, the orchestra announced the scheduled conclusion of Thielemann's tenure in 2011. Thielemann's demand to have a say over the choice of guest conductors was not approved. In March 2010, Lorin Maazel was named the orchestra's next chief conductor, effective with the 2012–2013 season. Early in 2014, Maazel cancelled concert engagements as a result of ill health. Subsequently, in June 2014, he announced his resignation as music director of the Munich Philharmonic, with immediate effect. In January 2013, the orchestra announced the appointment of Valery Gergiev as its next principal conductor as of 2015, with an initial contract through 2020.  Over the course of its history, the Munich Philharmonic has performed premieres of Günter Bialas, Anton Bruckner, Harald Genzmer, Luigi Nono, Gustav Mahler and others.

The Munich Philharmonic () is a German symphony orchestra located in the city of Munich. It is one of Munich's four principal orchestras, along with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Munich Radio Orchestra and the Bavarian State Orchestra. Since 1985, the orchestra has been housed in the Gasteig culture centre.


Process.

Metal surfaces can contain impurities that may affect usage of the product or further processing like plating with metal or painting. Various chemical solutions are usually used to clean these impurities. Strong acids, such as hydrochloric acid and sulfuric acid are common, but different applications use various other acids. Also alkaline solutions can be used for cleaning metal surfaces. Solutions usually also contain additives such as wetting agents and corrosion inhibitors. Pickling is sometimes called acid cleaning if descaling is not needed.  Many hot working processes and other processes that occur at high temperatures leave a discoloring oxide layer or scale on the surface. In order to remove the scale the workpiece is dipped into a vat of pickle liquor. Prior to cold rolling operation, hot rolled steel is normally passed through a pickling line so as to eradicate the scale from the surface.  The primary acid used in steelmaking is hydrochloric acid, although sulfuric acid was previously more common. Hydrochloric acid is more expensive than sulfuric acid, but it pickles much faster while minimizing base metal loss. The speed is a requirement for integration in automatic steel mills that run production at speeds as high as 800 ft/min (≈243 metres/min).  Carbon steels, with an alloy content less than or equal to 6%, are often pickled in hydrochloric or sulfuric acid. Steels with an alloy content greater than 6% must be pickled in two steps and other acids are used, such as phosphoric, nitric and hydrofluoric acid. Rust- and acid-resistant chromium-nickel steels are pickled traditionally in a bath of hydrofluoric and nitric acid. Most copper alloys are pickled in dilute sulfuric acid, but brass is pickled in concentrated sulfuric and nitric acid mixed with sodium chloride and soot.  In jewelry making, pickling is used to remove the copper oxide layer that results from heating copper and sterling silver during soldering and annealing. A diluted sulfuric acid pickling bath is traditionally used, but may be replaced with citric acid.  Sheet steel that undergoes acid pickling will oxidize (rust) when exposed to atmospheric conditions of moderately high humidity. For this reason, a thin film of oil or similar waterproof coating is applied to create a barrier to moisture in the air. This oil film must later be removed for many fabrication, plating or painting processes.

Disadvantages.

Acid cleaning has limitations in that it is difficult to handle because of its corrosiveness, and it is not applicable to all steels. Hydrogen embrittlement becomes a problem for some alloys and high-carbon steels. The hydrogen from the acid reacts with the surface and makes it brittle and causes cracks. Because of its high reactivity with treatable steels, acid concentrations and solution temperatures must be kept under control to ensure desired pickling rates.

Waste products.

Pickling sludge is the waste product from pickling, and includes acidic rinse waters, iron chlorides, and metallic salts and waste acid. Spent pickle liquor is considered a hazardous waste by the EPA. Pickle sludge from steel processes is usually neutralized with lime and disposed of in a landfill since the EPA no longer deems it a hazardous waste after neutralization. The lime neutralization process raises the pH of the spent acid. The waste material is subject to a waste determination to ensure no characteristic or listed waste is present. Since the 1960s, hydrochloric pickling sludge is often treated in a hydrochloric acid regeneration system, which recovers some of the hydrochloric acid and ferric oxide. The rest must still be neutralized and disposed of in land fills or managed as a hazardous waste based on the waste profile analysis. The by-products of nitric acid pickling are marketable to other industries, such as fertilizer processors.

Alternatives.

Smooth clean surface (SCS) and eco pickled surface (EPS) are more recent alternatives. In the SCS process, surface oxidation is removed using an engineered abrasive and the process leaves the surface resistant to subsequent oxidation without the need for oil film or other protective coating. EPS is a more direct replacement for acid pickling. Acid pickling relies on chemical reactions while EPS uses mechanical means. The EPS process is considered "environmentally friendly" compared with acid pickling and it imparts to carbon steel a high degree of rust resistance, eliminating the need to apply the oil coating that serves as a barrier to oxidation for acid-pickled carbon steel.  Alternative methods include also mechanical cleaning such as abrasive blasting, grinding, wire brushing and hydrocleaning. These methods generally do not provide as clean a surface as pickling does.

Pickling is a metal surface treatment used to remove impurities, such as stains, inorganic contaminants, rust or scale from ferrous metals, copper, precious metals and aluminum alloys. A solution called "pickle liquor", which usually contains acid, is used to remove the surface impurities. It is commonly used to descale or clean steel in various steelmaking processes.


Early life.

He was the third son of Isabella and Andrew Wood Foley, a Tiverton-born railway worker, whose family may have originated from Roscommon in Ireland in the early 1800s. After attending local schools in Somerset, Foley won a scholarship to Stonyhurst College, Lancashire, where he was educated by the Jesuits. He then went to a Catholic seminary in France to train as a priest but transferred to the Université de France in Poitiers to study Classics. While there he reconsidered his vocation for the priesthood and decided instead to pursue an academic career. He travelled extensively in Europe, becoming fluent in both French and German.  Foley graduated from the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, and was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the Hertfordshire Regiment on 25 January 1917. He was appointed temporary Captain on 20 September 1917, while commanding an infantry company of the 1st Battalion the Hertfordshire Regiment, and was later with the 2nd/6th Battalion North Staffordshire Regiment, during which time he was mentioned in despatches.

Joining secret service.

The story of his escape from Germany and his language skills had been noted by someone at the War Office. He was encouraged to apply for the Intelligence Corps. On 25 July 1918 Foley was promoted Lieutenant. In July 1918 he became part of a small unit which was responsible for recruiting and running networks of secret agents in France, Belgium and the Netherlands. After the Armistice he served for a short time in the Inter-Allied Military Commission of Control in Cologne. On 19 April 1920 he relinquished the temporary rank of captain, and in December 1921 retired from the Army with the rank of Captain.  After the running down of the Commission, he was subsequently offered the post of passport control officer in Berlin which was a cover for his main duties as head of the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) station. During the 1920s and 30s, Foley was successful in recruiting agents and acquiring key details of German military research and development.  Foley is primarily remembered as a "British Schindler". In his role as passport control officer, he helped thousands of Jews escape from Nazi Germany. At the 1961 trial of former ranking Nazi Adolf Eichmann, he was described as a "Scarlet Pimpernel" for the way he risked his own life to save Jews threatened with death by the Nazis. Despite having no diplomatic immunity and being liable to arrest at any time, Foley would bend the rules when stamping passports and issuing visas, to allow Jews to escape "legally" to Britain or Palestine, which was then controlled by the British. Sometimes he went further, going into internment camps to get Jews out, hiding them in his home, and helping them get forged passports. One Jewish aid worker estimated that he saved "tens of thousands" of people from the Holocaust.

Second World War.

In 1939 and 1940, he was a passport control officer in Norway until the Germans invaded, when he was attached to C-in-C Norwegian Forces in the Field, for which services he received the Norwegian Knight's Cross of the Order of St. Olaf. Foley and Margaret Reid, his assistant, abandoned Oslo on 9 April 1940 during the German advance, and travelled to Lillehammer and Åndalsnes. Before leaving Oslo Foley and Reid burned the documents in the UK legation. Foley helped Norway's commander in chief, general Otto Ruge, contact Britain to request assistance against the invader. Foley had his own radio transmitter that allowed general Ruge to communicate with London independently of Norwegian landlines. Reid was a cipher expert who coded messages sent to Britain. Until minister Cecil Dormer arrived on 16 April, Foley acted as a UK representative with Norwegian authorities. Foley and Reid were evacuated from Molde by the British navy on 1 May. At Åndalsnes Foley presumably met Martin Linge that acted as liasion officer.  On 1 January 1941, he was awarded Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George (CMG) as a Captain in respect of his services to the Foreign Office. In 1941, he was given the task of questioning Hitler's Deputy Rudolf Hess after Hess's flight to Scotland. After Hess was hospitalized in 1942, Foley helped coordinate MI5 and MI6 in running a network of double agents, the Double Cross System.

Later life.

He returned to Berlin very soon after the war under the cover of Assistant Inspector General of the Public Safety Branch of the Control Commission in Germany, where he was involved in hunting for ex-SS war criminals.  In 1949, Foley retired to Stourbridge, Worcestershire and died there in 1958. He is buried in Stourbridge Cemetery. On 27 April 1961, the "Daily Mail" carried the story, written by his widow, of his activities to save as many Jews as he possibly could with visas to the United Kingdom. When no excuse could be found for a visa to Britain, he contacted friends working in the embassies of other nations for their assistance in granting visas to their countries.  His widow, Katharine Eva Foley, died on 17 April 1979 at her home in Sidmouth, Devon.

Posthumous recognition.

Foley was accorded the status of a Righteous Among the Nations by Israel's Yad Vashem as a direct result of testimony from "living witnesses" found by Michael Smith while researching his biography of Foley. Lord Janner, chairman of the Holocaust Educational Trust, was instrumental in persuading Yad Vashem to look at Smith's evidence. Some members of the Yad Vashem committee that determines whether someone should be named as a "righteous gentile" were initially sceptical that a MI6 officer would not have diplomatic immunity but the then Foreign Office historian Gill Bennett produced previously classified documents that demonstrated this to be the case. The cover of Smith's book features the photograph from Foley's first diplomatic passport with the date it was issued clearly shown as 11 August 1939.  In 2004 a remembrance plaque was dedicated to him at the entrance to Stourbridge's Mary Stevens Park. The following year volunteers from Highbridge, Foley's birthplace, raised money to erect their own tribute.  In 2007, a film about Foley's life was in the planning stages, but the producers were then taking legal action against MI6 to release still-classified documents related to his work.  On 24 November 2004 (the 120th anniversary of his birth) descendants of Foley, relatives of those he saved, representatives of Jewish organisations, British MPs and other well-wishers gathered at the British Embassy in Berlin for the unveiling of a plaque in honour of Foley. At the ceremony Foreign Secretary Jack Straw praised Foley's heroism:  On 31 May 2009, a garden was dedicated in his memory at London's Sternberg Centre, where a plaque was unveiled by Cherie Booth.  In 2010, Foley was named a British Hero of the Holocaust by the British Government.  In 2012 the Foreign Secretary, William Hague, unveiled a plaque to him at the Hoop Lane Jewish Cemetery in Golders Green, London, an initiative led by the Spanish and Portuguese Jews' Congregation and West London Synagogue.  A National Express West Midlands bus is dedicated to him.  On 18 September 2018, Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, unveiled a statue of Major Frank Foley in West Midlands town of Stourbridge in the presence of Foley's great-nephew, Stephen Higgs.

Major Francis "Frank" Edward Foley CMG (24 November 1884, Highbridge, Somerset – 8 May 1958, Stourbridge, Worcestershire) was a British Secret Intelligence Service officer. As a passport control officer for the British embassy in Berlin, Foley "bent the rules" and helped thousands of Jewish families escape from Nazi Germany after Kristallnacht and before the outbreak of the Second World War. He is officially recognised as a British Hero of the Holocaust and as a Righteous Among the Nations.


History.

No clear record of the breed's origin exists. They are most often claimed to have originated as the companions of temple priests in northern Burma in the Mount of Lugh. Many stories exist of how the cats first came to France, including pairs of cats being given as a reward for helping defend a temple, or being smuggled out of Burma by a Vanderbilt. Another pair of Birmans (or a pregnant female called "Poupée de Maldapour") were said to have been stolen and later imported to France by Thadde Haddisch. The first traces of historical Birmans go back to a Mme Leotardi in Nice, France.  Many believe, as legend will tell, that the breed originated in Burma (now known as Myanmar) among the temples of ancient times and alongside priests; However, there are also some that later believed the felines came to Europe, namely France, from somewhere in Asia, which has been spread from other legends and stories passed around as well. Regardless of the numerous stories and folklore that go around, there is a positivity that the Birman cat breed was found in France as early as the 1920s, and many different stories continue to surface about the mystique that lies behind their history.  Birmans were almost wiped out as a breed during World War II. Only two cats were alive in Europe at the end of the war, a pair named Orloff and Xenia de Kaabaa, both belonging to Baudoin-Crevoisier. The foundation of the breed in postwar France were offspring of this pair. They had to be heavily outcrossed with long-hair breeds such as Persian and Siamese to rebuild the Birman breed. By the early 1950s, pure Birman litters were again being produced. The restored breed was recognized in Britain in 1965 and by the CFA in 1966.  The first Birman cats were seal point. The blue point colour was introduced in 1959 using blue Persian lines. New colours were later added by English breeders including chocolate, red, and tabby/lynx points. Birmans have also been used in the development of new breeds such as the Ragdoll.

Appearance.

Birmans have a medium-sized, rectangular body with a broad face and distinct Roman nose. Their ears are ideally as wide on the base as they are tall and should be set as much on top of the head as on the side. The eyes are rounded and should be a deep sapphire blue.  The Birman's fur is medium-long and should have a silky texture. Unlike a Persian or Himalayan, they have no undercoat, thus are much less prone to matting. Coat colour is always pointed, save for the contrasting pure white, symmetrical "gloves" on each paw that are the trademark of the breed. The white must involve all toes and in front must stop at the articulation or at the transition of toes to metacarpals. These gloves should extend noticeably further up the back of the leg (referred to as the "laces"), finishing with an inverted V extended half to three-fourths up the hock. Any other spot of white on the points is considered a serious fault. The base body colour is white to cream, with a wash of colour that corresponds to the points, but is much paler.  Recognized point colours are seal, chocolate, blue, lilac (a softer silver-grey), red, or cream. Tabby and tortie variations in seal, chocolate, blue or lilac are also allowed; other colours are in development.  Like all colour-point breeds, Birman kittens are born white and begin developing their points after one week if a dark colour (i.e. seal point) and 14 days or more if the points are "clear" or lighter-coloured (i.e. lilac point). Their coats do not reach full development up until the cats are two years old.

Genetic diversity.

The 2008 study "The Ascent of Cat Breeds: Genetic Evaluations of Breeds and Worldwide Random-bred Populations" by Lipinski" et al." found that the Birman has one of the lowest levels of genetic diversity of all the breeds studied. This is no surprise given the breed history.

Health.

The most severe threat is feline hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), the most common heart disease seen in cats. In Birman cats, it is thought to be inherited as an autosomal dominant trait. HCM is a progressive disease and can result in heart failure, paralysis of the hind legs due to clot embolisation originating in the heart, and sudden death.  Paltrinieri, Giraldi, Prolo, Scarpa, "et al". (2017) found that Birman cats have a high serum concentration of creatinine and symmetric dimethylarginine, but most Birman cats have higher concentrations of creatinine than SDMA. Creatinine is a creatine phosphate and is produced during metabolism of creatine, and is excreted through urination. SDMA is a methylated form of the amino acid arginine and is released during normal catabolisms of body proteins. Levels of creatinine and SDMA are found when Birman cats are tested for chronic kidney disease, for which they are at high risk. Birman cats are also at risk of developing feline infectious peritonitis; a disease that alters the renal function (creatinine levels in blood and urine) in the cats.

Birman naming conventions.

Many Birman breeders follow the French tradition of assigning all kittens born in a particular year given names that begin with the same letter of the alphabet. Countries with breeders using this convention include Australia, Canada, France, New Zealand, the U.K., and the U.S. Kittens born in 2016 would start with 'N', and in 2017 'O', and so on.

The Birman, also called the "Sacred Cat of Burma", is a domestic cat breed. The Birman is a long-haired, colour-pointed cat distinguished by a silky coat, deep blue eyes, and contrasting white "gloves" or "socks" on each paw.


Profile.

The classic bibliophile is one who loves to read, admire and collect books, often amassing a large and specialized collection. Bibliophiles usually possess books they love or that hold special value as well as old editions with unusual bindings, autographed, or illustrated copies. "Bibliophile" is an appropriate term for a minority of those who are book collectors.

Usage of the term.

Bibliophilia is not to be confused with bibliomania, a potential symptom of obsessive–compulsive disorder involving the collecting of books to the extent that interpersonal relations or health may be negatively affected, and in which the mere fact that a physical object is a book is sufficient for it to be collected or beloved. Some use the term "bibliomania" interchangeably with "bibliophily", and in fact, the Library of Congress does not use the term "bibliophily," but rather refers to its readers as either book collectors or bibliomaniacs.

History.

According to Arthur H. Minters, the "private collecting of books was a fashion indulged in by many Romans, including Cicero and Atticus". The term "bibliophile" entered the English language in 1824. A bibliophile is to be distinguished from the much older notion of a bookman (which dates back to 1583), who is one who loves books, and especially reading; more generally, a bookman is one who participates in writing, publishing, or selling books.  Lord Spencer and the Marquess of Blandford were noted bibliophiles. "The Roxburghe sale quickly became a foundational myth for the burgeoning secondhand book trade, and remains so to this day"; this sale is memorable due to the competition between "Lord Spencer and the marquis of Blandford [which] drove [the price of a probable first edition of Boccaccio's "Decameron" up to the astonishing and unprecedented sum of £2,260". J. P. Morgan was also a noted bibliophile. In 1884, he paid $24,750 for a 1459 edition of the Mainz Psalter.

Bibliophilia or bibliophilism is the love of books, and a bibliophile or bookworm is an individual who loves and frequently reads books.


Career.

Scheckter was born in East London, Eastern Cape, and educated at Selborne College.

Formula One.

He rapidly ascended to the ranks of Formula One after moving to Britain in 1970. His Formula 1 debut occurred at the US Grand Prix at Watkins Glen in 1972 with McLaren, where he ran as high as third place before spinning and finishing ninth. Immediately becoming a name to watch, he continued his development the following year, winning the 1973 SCCA L&M Championship and racing five times in F1. In France, he almost won in only his third start in F1 before crashing into Emerson Fittipaldi, the reigning World Champion, who said after the crash about Scheckter: "This madman is a menace to himself and everybody else and does not belong in Formula 1." In his next start, the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, Scheckter's spin triggered a major accident which took nearly a dozen cars out of the race. The Grand Prix Drivers Association demanded his immediate banishment, which was only put off when McLaren agreed to rest their driver for four races. Scheckter's McLaren M23 bore the number zero during the Canadian and American Grands Prix of 1973. Scheckter is one of only two F1 drivers to compete under this number, the other being Damon Hill. During the practice for the American event at the Watkins Glen circuit, Frenchman François Cevert, who was due to be Scheckter's Tyrrell teammate for 1974, was killed in an appalling accident at the fast uphill Esses corners. Scheckter was behind Cevert when he crashed, and he stopped his McLaren, got out of his car and attempted to help Cevert out of his destroyed Tyrrell, but the 29-year-old Frenchman had been cut in half by the circuit's poorly installed Armco barriers and was already dead. Witnessing Cevert's dreadful accident left an indelible mark on the South African and caused him to abandon his reckless ways, becoming a more mature and calculating driver as a result. Tyrrell in 1974 gave him his first full-time drive in F1. Jody rewarded them with a third-place finish in the Drivers' Championship and a pair of wins in Sweden and Britain. During the year, he scored points in eight consecutive races, one of the longer scoring streaks of the time. A slight off-year followed, although he did become the only South African to win the South African Grand Prix, but his third year with the team in 1976 gave him another third-place finish in the Drivers' Championship. In that season, Tyrrell introduced the most radical car in F1 history, the innovative six-wheeled Tyrrell P34. Although he later went on record as saying the car was "a piece of junk", Scheckter gave the six-wheeler its only win on Sweden's Anderstorp circuit and in his twelve races with the car, he scored points ten times. This included a thrilling race-long battle for the lead in the American Grand Prix between himself and his great friend James Hunt.  Scheckter left for Walter Wolf's new team in 1977 and Scheckter gave the team a win in its maiden race. He won twice more with the team and was often on the podium, but finished second on points behind a more dominant Niki Lauda. A seventh-place finish with the team in 1978 followed and he left the team after the season to join Ferrari to partner Gilles Villeneuve in the team's ground effect 312T4 car.  Critics felt he would not get along well with the domineering management at Ferrari, but he far surpassed expectations and helped give F1's most recognisable team another Constructors' Championship, while Scheckter's consistent finishes, with three wins among them, gave him the Drivers' Championship in 1979. However, he struggled badly in his 1980 title defence, even failing to qualify for one race. After managing only two points, Scheckter announced his retirement from the team and the sport. Scheckter was the last driver to win a Drivers' Championship for Ferrari until Michael Schumacher twenty-one years later in.

After Formula One.

Broadcaster.

In 1981, CBS Sports hired Scheckter as a Pit reporter for its F1 coverage.  Scheckter was brought in by ABC's Wide World Of Sports as a Pit reporter for the 1983 Monaco Grand Prix.  Scheckter was a guest commentator for ITV during the 1999 San Marino Grand Prix, replacing Martin Brundle.

Other interests.

In 1981, Scheckter won the World Superstars competition in Key Biscayne, Florida. He defeated athletes such as Russ Francis, Renaldo Nehemiah, Peter Mueller, Rick Barry, Gaétan Boucher and Andy Ripley. In 1983 he was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.  After Scheckter's retirement, he founded FATS Inc, a company which built firearms training simulators for military, law enforcement and security organisations. The sale of the company provided funds to allow Scheckter to help the racing careers of his sons Tomas and Toby. Tomas raced in the Indy Racing League where he won two races. Scheckter's brother, Ian, also raced in F1 for a few years.  In 2004 Scheckter was reunited with his championship-winning Ferrari at the South African two-seater F1x2 Charity Grand Prix at Kyalami in South Africa.

Present.

Scheckter now spends his time as a biodynamic farmer, having bought the Laverstoke Park Farm, near Overton, Hampshire, west of London. As an organic farming expert, Scheckter was featured in 2005 on the Visionhealth DVD and TV documentaries "Asthma: An Integrated Approach", "Arthritis: An Integrated Approach" and "Diabetes: An Integrated Approach". On 20 November 2011, he also appeared on the "Countryfile" television show to make a case for organic food. Laverstoke Park Farm was also featured on BBC's "Escape To the Country" where Jody showed viewers how Buffalo Mozzarella was made. In December 2009, Scheckter announced his intention to produce a biodynamic sparkling wine by 2012. In 2015 the farm was the setting for ITV's Sugar Free Farm where a group of celebrities had to go sugar free for two weeks whilst working on the farm. He is married and has six children: two, Toby and Tomas, from his previous wife Pamela; and four, Hugo, Freddie, Ila and Poppy, from his current marriage to Clare. Daughter Ila died on 17 October 2019, she was 21.

References.

<br

Jody David Scheckter (born 29 January 1950) is a South African business proprietor and former motor racing driver. He competed in Formula One from 1972 to 1980, winning the Drivers' Championship in with Ferrari. Scheckter remains the only driver from the continent of Africa to ever win the Formula One World Championship.


Origins.

Austrian Ludwig Wittgenstein investigated the use of tip jets to drive an aircraft propeller while studying aeronautical engineering at Manchester University, UK and patented his ideas. He soon left engineering and would become better known as a philosopher.  The Italian designer V Isacco built "Helicogyres" in the 1920s. Although they used piston engines at the ends of the rotary wing, he foresaw that they might be replaceable by jets.  During the Second World War, German engineer Friedrich von Doblhoff suggested powering a helicopter with ramjets on the rotor tips. The first tip jet-powered helicopter was the WNF 342 V1 in 1943. After the war two WNF 342 prototypes ended up with the Americans and Doblhoff joined McDonnell Douglas who subsequently produced the McDonnell XV-1. The engineer who had actually produced the tip jet engines, August Stephan, joined the Fairey Aviation company of the United Kingdom which used them in their Fairey Jet Gyrodyne and Fairey Rotodyne aircraft first flying in 1954 and 1957 respectively.  Eugene Michael Gluhareff was an early pioneer of tip jets.

Rotorcraft using tip jets.

Cold tip jets.

The compressed air in cold tip jets generally exited at quite high temperatures due to compression-heating effects, but they are referred to as "cold" jets to differentiate them from jets that burn fuel to heat the air for greater thrust; similar to the difference between the "cold" and "hot" exhausts on the Harrier "Jump Jet", which uses "cold" air heated to several hundred degrees by compression inside the low-pressure compressor of the Pegasus engine.)

A tip jet is a jet nozzle at the tip of some helicopter rotor blades, used to spin the rotor, much like a Catherine wheel firework. Tip jets replace the normal shaft drive and have the advantage of placing no torque on the airframe, so no tail rotor is required. Some simple monocopters are composed of nothing but a single blade with a tip rocket.


Construction.

Luxor temple was built with sandstone from the Gebel el-Silsila area, which is located in South-Western Egypt. This sandstone from the Gebel el-Silsila region is referred to as Nubian Sandstone. This sandstone was used for the construction for monuments in Upper Egypt as well as in the course of past and current restoration works.  Like other Egyptian structures a common technique used was symbolism, or illusionism. For example, to the Egyptian, a sanctuary shaped like an Anubis Jackal was really Anubis. At the Luxor temple, the two obelisks (the smaller one closer to the west is now at the Place de la Concorde in Paris) flanking the entrance were not the same height, but they created the illusion that they were. With the layout of the temple they appear to be of equal height, but using illusionism, it enhances the relative distances hence making them look the same size to the wall behind it. Symbolically, it is a visual and spatial effect to emphasize the heights and distance from the wall, enhancing the already existing pathway.

Excavation.

From medieval times, the Muslim population of Luxor had settled in and around the temple, at the southward end of the mount. Due to the Luxor's past city population building on top of and around the Luxor temple, centuries of rubble had accumulated, to the point where there was an artificial hill some 14.5 to 15 metres (48– 50 ft) in height. The Luxor Temple had begun to be excavated by Professor Gaston Maspero after 1884 after he had been given the order to commence operations. The excavations were carried out sporadically until 1960. Over time, accumulated rubbish of the ages had buried three quarters of the temple which contained the courts and colonnades which formed the nucleus of the Arab half of the modern village. Maspero had taken an interest earlier, and he had taken over the post of Mariette Pasha to complete the job in 1881. Not only was there rubbish, but there were also barracks, stores, houses, huts, pigeon towers, which needed to be removed in order to excavate the site. (There still exists a working mosque within the temple which was never removed.) Maspero received from the Egyptian minister of public works the authorization needed to obtain funds in order to negotiate compensation for the pieces of land covered by the houses and dependencies.

Festivals.

The Luxor Temple was dedicated to the Theban Triad of the cult of the Royal Ka, Amun, Mut, and Khonsu and was built during the New Kingdom, the focus of the annual Opet Festival, in which a cult statue of Amun was paraded down the Nile from nearby Karnak Temple ("ipet-sut") to stay there for a while, with his consort Mut, in a celebration of fertility – hence its name. However, other studies at the temple by the Epigraphic Survey team present a completely new interpretation of Luxor and its great annual festival (the Feast of Opet). They have concluded that Luxor is the temple dedicated to the divine Egyptian ruler or, more precisely, to the cult of the Royal Ka. Examples of the cult, of the Royal Ka can be seen with the colossal seated figures of the deified Ramesses II before the Pylon and at the entrance to the Colonnade are clearly Ka-statues, cult statues of the king as embodiment of the royal Ka.

Shrine stations.

Six barque shrines, serving as way stations for the barques of the gods during festival processions, were set up on the avenue between the Karnak and Luxor Temple. The avenue which went in a straight line between the Luxor Temple and the Karnak area was recently lined with human-headed sphinxes of Nekhtanebo I,21, in ancient times it is probable that these replaced earlier sphinxes which may have had different heads. Along the avenue the stations were set up for ceremonies such as the Feast of Opet which held significance to temple. Each station had a purpose, for example the fourth station was the station of Kamare, which cooled the oar of Amun. The Fifth station of Kamare was the station which received the beauty of Amun. Lastly the Sixth Station of Kamare was a shrine for Amun, Holy of Steps. A small mud-brick shrine was built, in the courtyard of Nectanebo I, in early second century (126 CE) and was dedicated to Serapis and Isis, it was presented to Roman Emperor Hadrian on his birthday.

Abu Haggag Mosque.

The active Abu Haggag Mosque (Arabic: مسجد أبو الحجاج بالأقصر) is located within the temple, standing on the ancient columns themselves. That part of the Luxor Temple was converted to a church by the Romans in 395 AD, and then to a mosque in 640, more than 3400 years of continuous religious worship. Hence, the Luxor Temple is the oldest building in the world at least partially active for other than archeological or tourist purposes.

Defacement.

In 2013, a Chinese student posted a picture of engraved graffiti that read "Ding Jinhao was here" () in Chinese on a sculpture. This discovery spurred debate about increased tourism after the media confirmed a Chinese student caused this and other defacements. The engraving has since been partially cleared.

Luxor Temple (Arabic: معبد الاقصر) is a large Ancient Egyptian temple complex located on the east bank of the Nile River in the city today known as Luxor (ancient Thebes) and was constructed approximately 1400 BCE. In the Egyptian language it is known as "ipet resyt", "the southern sanctuary". In Luxor there are several great temples on the east and west banks. Four of the major mortuary temples visited by early travelers include the Temple of Seti I at Gurnah, the Temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el Bahri, the Temple of Ramesses II (a.k.a. Ramesseum), and the Temple of Ramesses III at Medinet Habu; the two primary cults' temples on the east bank are known as the Karnak and Luxor. Unlike the other temples in Thebes, Luxor temple is not dedicated to a cult god or a deified version of the pharaoh in death. Instead, Luxor temple is dedicated to the rejuvenation of kingship; it may have been where many of the pharaohs of Egypt were crowned in reality or conceptually (as in the case of Alexander the Great, who claimed he was crowned at Luxor but may never have traveled south of Memphis, near modern Cairo).


Description.

The bank vole is a small rodent resembling a mouse when young but developing a stouter body, a slightly rounder head with smaller ears and eyes and a shorter, hairy tail. The dorsal surface is reddish-brown, with a greyish undercoat and the flanks are grey with a reddish-brown sheen. The underparts are whitish-grey sometimes tinged with dull yellow. The ears are larger than those of most voles. The adult head and body length varies between and the tail ranges from. The weight is between. Young animals are darker in colour with greyer underparts. The bank vole is capable of making growling sounds and can utter low-pitched squeaks. In a case of distress and isolation it has been witnessed to emit a sound resembling that of a human sob.  In areas such as Great Britain, where the only other small vole is the short-tailed vole ("Microtus agrestis"), the bank vole is distinguished by its more prominent ears, chestnut-brown fur and longer tail which is usually 50% body length. The northern red-backed vole ("Myodes rutilus") from northern Scandinavia and Russia, has a shorter tail and is paler with less grey in its pelage. The grey red-backed vole ("Myodes rufocanus") from northern Eurasia, is larger with a distinctive reddish back.

Distribution.

The bank vole has a Palearctic distribution. It is native to Europe, Asia Minor and parts of Western Siberia. It does not occur in Iceland or northern Scandinavia (except for Finland) and is absent from most of the Iberian Peninsula and parts of Italy and the Balkans. It was introduced into southwestern Ireland in the 1950s, and there are fears that it may be displacing the native wood mouse ("Apodemus sylvaticus"). A subspecies found on the island of Skomer in West Wales, the Skomer vole ("Myodes glareolus skomerensis"), is much larger than the mainland bank vole, and there may be 20,000 individuals on the island in late summer.

Habitat.

The bank vole is found in forests, especially in deciduous and mixed woodland with scrub, low plants and leaf litter. It is also present in hedgerows, field verges, among bracken and brambles, river banks, swamps and parks. In mountainous regions and the northern part of its range it occurs in coniferous woodland at altitudes of up to. It is not found on bare soil and ample ground cover seems a necessity. In the Mediterranean region, at the southern extent of its range, it is a habitat specialist and is found in moist woodland but not in grassland and bushy places. At the fringes of forested areas it is possible for there to be a metapopulation consisting of a number of spatially separated populations of bank vole that come and go according to the season and local events. Some areas may be devoid of voles during the winter and be repopulated during the summer only to become empty of voles again in October. The further from permanently inhabited forest the location is, the fewer females there are and the more widely the number of individuals fluctuates.

Behaviour.

The bank vole is active by day and also at night. It does not hibernate in winter. It excavates long, shallow branching burrows with multiple exits, sometimes tunnelling along beneath the leaf litter. It gathers and stores food underground and makes a nest with moss, dry grasses and leaves close to the surface or even above ground. It is in general quite bold but is also very alert to the cries of other animals such as tits (bird) warning of aerial predators.  The bank vole is primarily a herbivore. Its diet varies with the season but usually consists of leaves, grasses, roots, buds, bark, fruits, nuts, grain and seeds. When feeding on grass stalks it may clip the stalks and lay the cut pieces in piles. Some food is carried back to the burrow where it is kept in dedicated storage chambers. It sometimes eats animal food in the form of insects, spiders and worms and may take eggs from the nests of birds nesting on the ground.  The bank vole climbs well and in the winter it feeds on the bark of trees including beeches, maples and larch up to several metres above the ground. It also eats tree seedlings and reduces the natural regeneration of woodland and when present in large numbers, is considered a forest pest. However, its harmfulness is relatively low in a healthy ecosystem because significant damage only occurs when numbers build up, and because it has a large number of natural enemies its population is normally kept under control.

Breeding.

Females maintain territories which may overlap somewhat, and males occupy larger territories covering those of several females. The home range of females is usually between. The breeding season lasts from late April to September. Females appear to prefer dominant males and may actively avoid other vagrant males. The gestation period averages 21 days, being longer if the female is still lactating from a previous litter. A litter can be up to ten pups but the average number is four to eight. Females sometimes kill pups in burrows in adjoining territories and males sometimes kill pups before mating with their mother, perhaps as a tactic to ensure his offspring are advantaged. The pups are naked and helpless and their eyes open at about nine days. They are weaned at 20 to 25 days and the females become sexually mature by six weeks with the males reaching maturity by eight weeks. There may be up to four litters per year and as the youngsters start to breed, numbers quickly build up over the summer months. The bank vole lives for up to two years in the wild. In captivity this can increase to over 42 months, with the older voles tending to spend most time resting, less physically agile, though still capable of having a spin on the wheel.

Ecology.

The bank vole is plentiful during much of the year and plays an important part in the diet of various predators including the red fox ("Vulpes vulpes"), the stoat ("Mustela erminea"), the least weasel ("Mustela nivalis"), the European mink ("Mustela lutreola"), the common kestrel ("Falco tinnunculus"), the rough-legged buzzard ("Buteo lagopus") and the tawny owl ("Strix aluco"). The voles try to prevent being caught by avoiding open areas of ground, by using tunnels and well-worn paths through the undergrowth.  The bank vole acts as a reservoir of infection for the Puumala virus, which can infect humans, causing a haemorrhagic fever known as nephropathia epidemica and, in extreme cases, even death. Although this hantavirus has co-evolved with its host, its presence among populations seems to decrease their over-winter survival rates.

Status.

The bank vole has a very wide range across Europe and western Asia. The population density depends on the time of year and location and varies between six and one hundred individuals per hectare. The population size varies from year to year but in the long term appears to be stable. For these reasons, the International Union for Conservation of Nature has rated the bank vole as being of "Least Concern" in its Red List of Threatened Species. When it lives on road verges, the bank vole can suffer from lead toxicity and near farmland it may be affected by pesticides, molluscicides and rodenticides.

The bank vole ("Myodes glareolus"; formerly "Clethrionomys glareolus") is a small vole with red-brown fur and some grey patches, with a tail about half as long as its body. A rodent, it lives in woodland areas and is around in length. The bank vole is found in much of Europe and in northwestern Asia. It is native to Great Britain but not to Ireland, where it has been accidentally introduced, and has now colonised much of the south and southwest.


Ancient world.

The 9000 BCE dwellings of Jericho, were constructed from mudbricks, affixed with mud, as would those at numerous sites across the Levant over the following millennia. While well preserved Mudbricks from a site at Tel Tsaf, in the Jordan Valley, have been dated to 5200 BCE, though there is no evidence that either site was the first to use the technology.  The South Asian inhabitants of Mehrgarh constructed and lived in mud-brick houses between 7000–3300 BC. Mud bricks were used at more than 15 reported sites attributed to the 3rd millennium BC in the ancient Indus Valley Civilization. In the Mature Harappan phase fired bricks were used.  The Mesopotamians used sun-dried bricks in their city construction; typically these bricks were flat on the bottom and curved on the top, called plano-convex mud bricks. Some were formed in a square mould and rounded so that the middle was thicker than the ends. Some walls had a few courses of fired bricks from their bases up to the splash line to extend the life of the building.  In Minoan Crete, at the Knossos site, there is archaeological evidence that sun-dried bricks were used in the Neolithic period (prior to 3400 BC).  In Ancient Egypt, workers gathered mud from the Nile river and poured it into a pit. Workers then tramped on the mud while straw was added to solidify the mold. The mudbricks were chemically suitable as fertilizer, leading to the destruction of many ancient Egyptian ruins, such as at Edfu. A well-preserved site is Amarna. Mudbrick use increased at the time of Roman influence.

Adobe.

In areas of Spanish influence, mud-brick construction is called adobe, and developed over time into a complete system of wall protection, flat roofing and finishes which in modern English usage is often referred to as "adobe style", regardless of the construction method.

Banco.

The Great Mosque of Djenné, in central Mali, is the world's largest mudbrick structure. It, like much Sahelian architecture, is built with a mudbrick called Banco, a recipe of mud and grain husks, fermented, and either formed into bricks or applied on surfaces as a plaster like paste in broad strokes. This plaster must be reapplied annually.

A mudbrick or mud-brick is an air-dried brick, made of a mixture of loam, mud, sand and water mixed with a binding material such as rice husks or straw. Mudbricks are known from 9000 BCE, though since 4000 BC, bricks have also been fired, to increase their strength and durability.


Biography.

Pärson was born in Umeå, Sweden and has Sami roots. Pärson was introduced to ski racing by her sister, Frida, and is now trained by her father, Anders. Her first World Cup race was a giant slalom at the World Cup Finals at Crans-Montana, Switzerland (on 15 March 1998). She qualified for that race as the new junior World Champion but only finished 25th in last place. She won her first World Cup race, a slalom at Mammoth Mountain, California, in December 1998 at age 17, and her first gold medal at St. Anton, Austria, in 2001. She clinched the silver medal in the giant slalom and the bronze medal in the slalom at the 2002 Winter Olympics, and added the gold in slalom plus two more bronze medals in downhill and combined in 2006 Winter Olympics.  Pärson won the Alpine Skiing World Cup overall title in 2004 and 2005. The latter title was won by the smallest margin ever, only 3 points over her fierce rival, Janica Kostelić. Initially a slalom and giant slalom specialist, she won her first super-G and downhill races in March 2005 at San Sicario, Italy, during the pre-Olympic competitions. In total, she has won 42 World Cup races in all five disciplines.  Pärson has won seven gold medals in the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships, in 2001 (slalom), 2003 (giant slalom), 2005 (giant slalom, super-G) and 2007 (super-G, super combined, downhill). These go along with two silver and three bronze medals in other events in 2001, 2005, 2007 and 2011. With her three gold medals in 2007 at Åre, Sweden, she became the first skier in history to win World Championship golds in all five disciplines.  Pärson has earned a total of 17 individual medals in World Championships and Olympics, exceeding the record by Christl Cranz in women's alpine skiing. In men's alpine skiing this achievement has been beaten only by Kjetil André Aamodt, with 20. After two disappointing seasons (2006/07 and 2007/08 where she finished fifth and sixth in the overall cup), she was back to her best over the 2008/09 season, finishing third in the overall cup.  At the 2010 Winter Olympics, while trying to chase down eventual downhill champion Lindsey Vonn of the United States, Pärson lost her balance on the last jump before the finish, resulting in a 60-metre flight and subsequent fall, without however suffering serious injury. She recovered from the fall and one day later won the bronze medal in the combined event.  With a downhill victory in March 2011, she has won at least one race for ten consecutive World Cup seasons, trailing only Alberto Tomba and Vreni Schneider who won races in eleven consecutive World Cup seasons, and equalling the mark of Renate Götschl and Ingemar Stenmark.  On 12 March 2012, Pärson officially announced her retirement, and that her last competition would be the World Cup final in Schladming the coming weekend.  In 2014 she became an expert commentator for Viasat during the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.  As of 2015, Pärson works as a sports expert for the broadcaster Sveriges Television, in addition to running a company with her wife.  Pärson competes in the celebrity dance show Let's Dance 2017 broadcast on TV4.

Personal life.

Pärson's athletics club is Fjällvinden, Tärnaby, the same to which skiing legend Ingemar Stenmark and Stig Strand belonged.  Her height is 170 cm (5 ft 7 in). She was awarded the Svenska Dagbladet Gold Medal in 2006 and in 2007.  After living several years in Monaco during her sports career, she returned to Sweden and has lived in Umeå since 2012.  In June 2012, Pärson announced on the Swedish radio program "Sommar" that she has been in a relationship with a woman, Filippa Rådin, for the past five years, and that they are expecting a child together. Their son, Elvis, was born on 4 July 2012. On 2 August 2014, Anja Pärson and Filippa married in Umeå, Sweden. Former Swedish Social Democratic Party leader Mona Sahlin officiated at the wedding. In January 2015, the couple announced that Pärson was pregnant with their second child, a boy named Maximilian who was born in May 2015.

World Cup results.

Season titles.

7 titles (2 overall, 3 GS, 1 SL, 1 SC)

Individual races.

42 wins (6 DH, 4 SG, 11 GS, 18 SL, 3 SC)

Anja Sofia Tess Pärson (; born 25 April 1981) is a Swedish former alpine skier. She is an Olympic gold medalist, seven-time gold medalist at the World Championships, and two-time overall Alpine Skiing World Cup champion. She has won a total of 42 World Cup races.


Early life.

Born at Bar-le-Duc (Lorraine), Guise was the son of Claude, Duke of Guise (created Duke of Guise in 1527), and his wife Antoinette de Bourbon. His sister, Mary of Guise, was the wife of James V of Scotland and mother of Mary, Queen of Scots. His younger brother was Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine. He was the youthful cousin of Henry II of France, with whom he was raised, and by birth a prominent individual in France, though his detractors emphasised his "foreign" origin (he was a "prince étranger"), namely the Duchy of Lorraine.  In 1545, he was seriously wounded at the Second Siege of Boulogne, but recovered. He was struck with a lance through the bars of his helmet. The steel head pierced both cheeks, and of the shaft were snapped off by the violence of the blow. He sat firm in his saddle, and rode back unassisted to his tent; and when the surgeon thought he would die of pain, when the iron was extracted, 'he bore it as easily as if it had been but the plucking of a hair out of his head.' The scar would earn him the nickname ""Le Balafre"".  In 1548 he was magnificently wedded to Anna d'Este, daughter of the Duke of Ferrara, Ercole II d'Este, and French princess, Renée, the daughter of Louis XII.

Military career.

In 1551, he was created Grand Chamberlain of France. He won international renown in 1552 when he successfully defended the city of Metz from the forces of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, and defeated the imperial troops again at the Battle of Renty in 1554. but the Truce of Vaucelles temporarily curtailed his military activity.  He led an army into Italy in 1557 to aid Pope Paul IV (and probably to further his family's pretensions to the Angevin inheritance), but was recalled to France and made Lieutenant-General of France after the defeat of the Constable de Montmorency at the Battle of St. Quentin. Taking the field, he captured Calais from the English on 7 January 1558— an enormous propaganda victory for France— then Thionville and Arlon that summer, and was preparing to advance into Luxembourg when the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis was signed. Throughout the reign of Henry II Guise was the premier military figure of France, courteous, affable and frank, and universally popular, the "grand duc de Guise" as his contemporary Brantôme called him.  The accession of Francis's niece Mary, Queen of Scots, and her husband, Francis II of France (10 July 1559), however, was a triumph for the Guise family, and the Grand Master of France Montmorency was disgraced and sent from court. The Duke of Guise and his brother, Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine were supreme in the royal council. Occasionally he signed public acts in the royal manner, with his baptismal name only.

The Wars of Religion.

In reaction to the dominating power at court of the ultra-Catholic Guises, La Renaudie, a Protestant gentleman of Périgord, perhaps at the distanced instigation of Louis of Bourbon, Prince of Condé, organized a plot, the conspiracy of Amboise, to seize the person of the Duke of Guise and his brother Charles, the Cardinal of Lorraine. When the ill-organized plot was put off for six days, it was discovered by the court well ahead of time. On 12 March 1560, the Huguenots stormed the Château d'Amboise, to which the Guises had moved the young king and queen for safety. The uprising was violently suppressed, with 1,200 executed, many within sight of the castle. In the immediate aftermath Condé was obliged to flee the court, and the power of the Guises was supreme. The discourse which Coligny, leader of the Huguenots, pronounced against "les Guises" in the Assembly of Notables at Fontainebleau (August, 1560), did not influence King Francis II in the least, but resulted rather in the imprisonment of Condé, at Charles's behest.  However, the king died on 5 December 1560—making Mary, Queen of Scots a widow, and of little political importance. The Guises lost status alongside her, thus making a year full of calamity for the Guises both in Scotland and France. Within a year and a half, their influence waxed great and waned. After the accession of Charles IX, the Duke of Guise lived in retirement on his estates.  The regent, Catherine de' Medici, was at first inclined to favour the Protestants. To defend the Catholic cause, the Duke of Guise, together with his old enemy, the Constable de Montmorency and the Maréchal de Saint-André formed the so-called triumvirate opposed to the policy of concessions which Catherine de' Medici attempted to inaugurate in favour of the Protestants. His former military hero's public image was changing: "he could not serve for long as the military executive of this extreme political, ultra-montane, pro-Spanish junta without attracting his share of odium," N. M. Sutherland has observed in describing the lead-up to his assassination.  The plan of the Triumvirate was to treat with Habsburg Spain and the Holy See, and also to come to an understanding with the Lutheran princes of Germany to induce them to abandon the idea of relieving the French Protestants. About July, 1561, Guise wrote to this effect to the Duke of Württemberg. The Colloquy at Poissy (September and October 1561) between theologians of the two confessions was fruitless, and the conciliation policy of Catherine de' Medici was defeated. From 15 to 18 February 1562, Guise visited the Duke of Württemberg at Saverne, and convinced him that if the conference at Poissy had failed, the fault was that of the Calvinists.  As Guise passed through Wassy-sur-Blaise on his way to Paris (1 March 1562), a massacre of Protestants took place. It is not known to what extent he was responsible for this, but the Massacre of Vassy kindled open military conflict in the French Wars of Religion. The siege of Bourges in September was the opening episode, then Rouen was retaken from the Protestants by Guise after a month's siege (October); the Battle of Dreux (19 December), at which Montmorency was taken prisoner and Saint-André slain, was in the end turned by Guise to the advantage of the Catholic cause, and Condé, leader of the Huguenots, was taken prisoner.

Assassination.

In the fourth encounter, Guise was about to take Orléans from the Huguenot supporters of Condé when he was wounded on 18 February 1563 by the Huguenot assassin, Jean de Poltrot de Méré, and died six days later, bled to death by his surgeons, at Château Corney.  It was not the first plot against his life. A hunting accident – Francis had been appointed Grand Veneur of France in 1556 – had been planned, as Sir Nicholas Throckmorton informed Queen Elizabeth I of England in May 1560, but the plot was uncovered by one and his five co-conspirators fled.  Guise's unexpected death temporarily interrupted open hostilities. In his testimony, Poltrot implicated Coligny and the Protestant pastor Théodore de Bèze. Though the assassin later retracted his statement and Coligny denied responsibility for Guise's death, a bitter feud arose between Guise's son Henry and Coligny, which culminated in St. Bartholomew's Day massacre.

Family.

Guise married Anna d'Este, daughter of Ercole II d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, and Renée of France, in Saint-Germain-en-Laye on 29 April 1548. They had seven children:

Francis de Lorraine II, Prince of Joinville, Duke of Guise, Duke of Aumale (; 17 February 1519 – 24 February 1563), was a French general and politician. A prominent leader during the Italian War of 1551–1559 and French Wars of Religion, he was assassinated during the siege of Orleans in 1563.


Processes.

Post-production consists of many different processes grouped under one name. These typically include:  The post-production phase of creating a film usually takes longer than the actual shooting of the film and can take several months to complete because it includes the complete editing, color correction, and the addition of music and sound. The process of editing a movie is also seen as the second directing because through post-production it is possible to change the intention of the movie. Furthermore, through the use of color grading tools and the addition of music and sound, the atmosphere of the movie can be heavily influenced. For instance, a blue-tinted movie is associated with a cold atmosphere and the choice of music and sound increases the effect of the shown scenes to the audience.  Post-production was named a "dying industry" by Phil Izzo of the Wall Street Journal in 2011. The once exclusive service offered by high-end post-production facilities have been eroded away by video editing software solutions that operate on a non-linear editing system (NLE). As such, many parts of a traditional (analogue) post-production pipeline have been largely surpassed by newer digital workflows.

Television.

In television, the phases of post-production include: editing, video editing, sound editing, animation and visual effects insertions, viewing and the start of the airing process.

Photography.

Professional post-producers usually apply a certain range of image editing operations to the raw image format provided by a photographer or an image-bank. There is a range of proprietary and free and open-source software, running on a range of operating systems available to do this work.  The first of post-production usually requires loading the raw images into the post-production software. If there is more than one image, and they belong to a set, ideally post-producers try to equalize the images before loading them. After that, if necessary, the next step would be to cut the objects in the images with the Pen Tool for a perfect and clean cut. The next stage would be cleaning the image using tools such as the healing tool, clone tool, and patch tool.  The next stages depend on what the client ordered. If it's a photo-montage, the post-producers would usually start assembling the different images into the final document, and start to integrate the images with the background.  In advertising, it usually requires assembling several images together in a photo-composition.  Types of work usually done:

Music.

Techniques used in music post-production include comping (compiling the best portions of multiple takes into one superior take), timing and pitch correction (perhaps through beat quantization), and adding effects. This process is typically referred to as mixing and can also involve equalization and adjusting the levels of each individual track to provide an optimal sound experience. Contrary to the name, post-production may occur at any point during the recording and production process.

Post-production is part of the process of filmmaking, video production, and photography. Post-production includes all stages of production occurring after shooting or recording individual program segments.


Course.

The road leads from Bruck in the Salzach Valley via the northern toll both at Ferleiten (near Fusch) with numbered hairpin curves up to Hochtor Pass, with a branch-off from Fuscher Törl at to the "Edelweißspitze" viewpoint. The scenic route crosses the Alpine divide in a tunnel and runs southwards passing another branch-off which leads to the "Glocknerhaus" mountain hut and the "Kaiser-Franz-Josefs-Höhe" visitors' centre at.  The popular overlook was named after a visit by Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria and his consort Elisabeth in 1856. It offers a panoramic view over the Pasterze Glacier, the Grossglockner massif, the Glocknerwand, and the Johannisberg in the northwest. From here the road runs downhill to the southern toll booth near Heiligenblut.

History.

When, in 1924, a group of Austrian experts presented a plan for a road over the "Hochtor" (the high pass), they were ridiculed in a time when in Austria, Germany, and Italy there were only 154,000 private automobiles, 92,000 motorcycles, and of long-distance asphalt roads. Austria had suffered from the catastrophic economic results of losing the First World War, had shrunk to a seventh of its imperial size, lost its international markets and suffered devastating inflation.  Even the modest design of a gravel road, with overtaking points, appeared too expensive. The impulse for building a road, which was meant to open up the barren alpine valleys to motorized tourism, was given by the New York stock market slump in 1929. This catastrophe shook an impoverished Austria with terrible force.  Within three years, the economic output dropped by a quarter, and unemployment rate reached 26%. The government then revived the Grossglockner project to give work to 3,200 (from an average of 520,000 jobless). The project was extended to a width of to serve the needs of the "excessive international traffic" - which was roundly mocked - in the belief that an annual 120,000 visitors would come. The State advanced the building costs, and the users were to pay off this sum with a toll fee for usage.  On 30 August 1930 at 9:30am, the first explosives roared in Ferleiten. Four years later, the moving force of the road building, the Salzburg provincial head of government Franz Rehrl, and the technician Franz Wallack climbed into their Steyr 100 car, and achieved the first alpine crossing in an automobile on a graded road.  A year later, on 3 August 1935, the "Grossglockner High Alpine Road" was opened and put into full service a day later with an international automobile and motorcycle race.  Including the building of the access roads, the Glockner Road cost Austrian Schilling 910 million (at 1990 rates), around seven million less than estimated.  Planners had reckoned with 120,000 visitors in 1930, but the road's attraction for tourists in 1938 brought 375,000 visitors in 98,000 vehicles. After the Second World War it took until 1952 before the pre-war record was surpassed with 412,000 visitors and 91,000 vehicles. In 1962, 360,000 vehicles and 1.3 million visitors crossed the pass. The opening of the Felbertauern Road (1967) and the Tauern Motorway (1975) throttled traffic by nearly 15 per cent, but it also permanently changed the character of the Großglockner High Alpine Road: from the only transalpine road over the main alpine crest between the Brenner Pass and the Katschberg Pass, to an excursion road from a catchment area with a radius of around.  The Glockner Road also reflects the material advance of the people: in the early years, the motorcycle - as the poor man's car - accounted for up to a quarter of the traffic; 1955 was the highpoint with 47,500 motorcycles (26% of the traffic); in 1968, only 2,071 motorcycles were to be counted. The number of motorcycles on the "Grossglockner High Alpine Road" then rose by 2003 to over 76,000.  Increasing numbers of visitors made the stage-by-stage modernization of the road necessary after 1953 to a width of, to in place of bend radius, and 4,000 parking places instead of 800 and an annual capacity of up to 350,000 vehicles.

Snow clearing.

In the years 1936 and 1937, 350 men shovelled of snow in an average of seventy days to keep at least one lane on the road free. Since 1953, the five Wallack rotary plows, and twelve GROHAG workers, have been clearing of snow from the road and parking areas in around fourteen days every year in April.  In 1937, the road could only be traversed for 132 days, but in 1963 the road could be traversed for 276 days. The Grossglockner High Alpine Road is normally open from the beginning of May to the end of October.

Giro d'Italia.

Grossglockner has been featured in the men's Giro d'Italia twice so far. The first time was in the 17th stage of the 1971 Giro d'Italia, won by Pierfranco Vianelli. At that time it became the first, and so far only, Cima Coppi to be located outside of Italy. Grossglockner was featured for a second time in 13th stage of the 2011 Giro d'Italia. It was José Rujano who arrived first, after an escape with Alberto Contador.

The Grossglockner High Alpine Road (in German "Großglockner-Hochalpenstraße") is the highest surfaced mountain pass road in Austria. It connects Bruck in the state of Salzburg with Heiligenblut in Carinthia via Fuscher Törl and Hochtor Pass at. The road is named after the Grossglockner, Austria's highest mountain. Built as a scenic route, a toll is assessed for passage.


Surface ships, submarines, and torpedoes.

Nuclear-powered vessels are mainly military submarines, and aircraft carriers. Russia is the only country that currently has nuclear-powered civilian surface ships, mainly icebreakers. America currently (as of July 2018) has 11 aircraft carriers in service, and all are powered by nuclear reactors. For more detailed articles see:

Torpedo.

Russia's Channel One Television news broadcast a picture and details of a nuclear-powered torpedo called "Status-6" on about 12 November 2015. The torpedo was stated as having a range of up to 10,000 km, a cruising speed of 100 knots, and operational depth of up to 1000 metres below the surface. The torpedo carried a 100-megaton nuclear warhead.  One of the suggestions emerging in the summer of 1958 from the first meeting of the scientific advisory group that became JASON was for ""a nuclear-powered torpedo that could roam the seas almost indefinitely"".

Aircraft and missiles.

Research into nuclear-powered aircraft was pursued during the Cold War by the United States and the Soviet Union as they would presumably allow a country to keep nuclear bombers in the air for extremely long periods of time, a useful tactic for nuclear deterrence. Neither country created any operational nuclear aircraft. One design problem, never adequately solved, was the need for heavy shielding to protect the crew from radiation sickness. Since the advent of ICBMs in the 1960s the tactical advantage of such aircraft was greatly diminished and respective projects were cancelled. Because the technology was inherently dangerous it was not considered in non-military contexts. Nuclear-powered missiles were also researched and discounted during the same period.  Aircraft Missiles

Spacecraft.

Many types of nuclear propulsion have been proposed, and some of them (e.g. NERVA) tested for spacecraft applications.

Russian Federal Space Agency development.

Anatolij Perminov, head of the Russian Federal Space Agency, announced that it is going to develop a nuclear-powered spacecraft for deep space travel. Preliminary design was done by 2013, and 9 more years are planned for development (in space assembly). The price is set at 17 billion rubles (600 million dollars). The nuclear propulsion would have mega-watt class, provided necessary funding, Roscosmos Head stated.  This system would consist of a space nuclear power and a matrix of ion engines. "...Hot inert gas temperature of 1500 °C from the reactor turns turbines. The turbine turns the generator and compressor, which circulates the working fluid in a closed circuit. The working fluid is cooled in the radiator. The generator produces electricity for the same ion (plasma) engine..."  According to him, the propulsion will be able to support human mission to Mars, with cosmonauts staying on the Red planet for 30 days. This journey to Mars with nuclear propulsion and a steady acceleration would take six weeks, instead of eight months by using chemical propulsion – assuming thrust of 300 times higher than that of chemical propulsion.

Vehicles.

Cars.

The idea of making cars that used radioactive material, radium, for fuel dates back to at least 1903. Analysis of the concept in 1937 indicated that the driver of such a vehicle might need a 50-ton lead barrier to shield them from radiation.  In 1941 Dr R M Langer, a Caltech physicist, espoused the idea of a car powered by uranium-235 in the January edition of "Popular Mechanics". He was followed by William Bushnell Stout, designer of the Stout Scarab and former Society of Engineers president, on 7 August 1945 in the "New York Times". The problem of shielding the reactor continued to render the idea impractical. In December 1945, a John Wilson of London, announced he had created an atomic car. This created considerable interest. The Minister of Fuel and Power along with a large press contingent turned out to view it. The car did not show and Wilson claimed that it had been sabotaged. A later court case found that he was a fraud and there was no nuclear-powered car.  Despite the shielding problem, through the late 1940s and early 1950s debate continued around the possibility of nuclear-powered cars. The development of nuclear-powered submarines and ships, and experiments to develop a nuclear-powered aircraft at that time kept the idea alive. Russian papers in the mid-1950s reported the development of a nuclear-powered car by Professor V P Romadin, but again shielding proved to be a problem. It was claimed that its laboratories had overcome the shielding problem with a new alloy that absorbed the rays.  In 1958 at the height of the 1950s American automobile culture there were at least four theoretical nuclear-powered concept cars proposed, the American Ford Nucleon and Studebaker Packard Astral, as well as the French Simca Fulgur designed by Robert Opron and the Arbel Symétric. Apart from these concept models, none were built and no automotive nuclear power plants ever made. Chrysler engineer C R Lewis had discounted the idea in 1957 because of estimates that an engine would be required by a car. His view was that an efficient means of storing energy was required for nuclear power to be practical. Despite this, Chrysler's stylists in 1958 drew up some possible designs.  In 1959 it was reported that Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company had developed a new rubber compound that was light and absorbed radiation, obviating the need for heavy shielding. A reporter at the time considered it might make nuclear-powered cars and aircraft a possibility.  Ford made another potentially nuclear-powered model in 1962 for the Seattle World's Fair, the Ford Seattle-ite XXI. This also never went beyond the initial concept.  In 2009, for the hundredth anniversary of General Motors' acquisition of Cadillac, Loren Kulesus created concept art depicting a car powered by thorium.

Other.

The Chrysler TV-8 was an experimental concept tank designed by Chrysler in the 1950s. The tank was intended to be a nuclear-powered medium tank capable of land and amphibious warfare. The design was never mass-produced. The Mars rover Curiosity is powered by a radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG), like the successful Viking 1 and Viking 2 Mars landers in 1976.

Nuclear propulsion includes a wide variety of propulsion methods that use some form of nuclear reaction as their primary power source. The idea of using nuclear material for propulsion dates back to the beginning of the 20th century. In 1903 it was hypothesized that radioactive material, radium, might be a suitable fuel for engines to propel cars and boats. H. G. Wells picked up this idea in his 1914 fiction work "The World Set Free".


Youth and the First World War.

Ludwig Renn was the assumed name of Arnold Vieth von Golßenau who was born into a noble Saxon family whose family seat was in Golßen (Niederlausitz). He adopted the name Ludwig Renn in 1930, after becoming a communist, renouncing his noble title and taking the name of the hero of his first successful novel, "Krieg" (1928). His mother, Bertha, maiden name Raspe (1867 – 1949) was the daughter of a Moscow apothecary, whilst his father, Carl Johann Vieth von Golßenau (1856 – 1938), was a teacher of mathematics and physics at the Royal Court of Saxony in Dresden. Through him, Ludwig Renn came to know the Crown Prince of Saxony, Prince Friedrich August Georg von Sachsen (1865 – 1932), later King Friedrich August III, who was destined to be the last King of Saxony after the 1918 Revolution.  From 1911 Renn served as an officer in a prestigious Saxon Guards Regiment, where he served under his friend Prince Friedrich August. Between 1914 and 1918 he fought in the First World War as a company commander, and a field battalion commander on the Western Front. His first book, "Krieg" ("War"), which appeared in 1928 brought him wide acclaim. After the war he was a captain in the Dresden security police, a paramilitary force set up during the Weimar Republic. In 1920 during the Kapp Putsch, Renn refused to open fire upon striking workers and left the police service shortly afterwards. This is recounted in the novel "Nachkrieg" (1930) but confirmed as a fact by some sources.

Studies and travels.

From 1920 to 1923 Renn studied law, economics, history of art and Russian philology in Göttingen and Munich. In 1923 he worked as an art dealer in Dresden during the time of hyperinflation.  During 1925 and 1926 Renn undertook a journey on foot through Europe and the Near East. In 1927 he undertook further studies in archaeology, art history and Chinese history in Vienna, returning to Germany in the same year to give lectures to workers on the history of China and Russia at the Volkshochschule Zwickau.

Renn as a Communist writer and soldier in Spain.

In 1928, the year in which he published "Krieg", Renn became a member of the German Communist Party, a step which the novel "Nachkrieg" (1930) reflects. In the same year he joined the Roter Frontkämpferbund (‘Alliance of Red Front-Fighters’) and from 1928 to 1932 was secretary of the Alliance of Proletarian-Revolutionary Writers in Berlin (BPRS). Renn was editor of the communist journal, "Linkskurve" and the communist military police journal, "Aufbruch". His work for the BPRS brought him into close contact with, amongst others, Anna Seghers and Johannes R Becher.  Renn's growing commitment to communism saw him travel to the USSR in 1929 and 1930. Renn found himself increasingly under attack from the National Socialists and decided to renounce his noble title in 1930, adopting the name of the protagonist of his novel, "Krieg": Ludwig Renn. Between 1931 and 1932 he was a lecturer on the history of warfare and military theory at the Marxist Workers’ School (MASCH) in Berlin. His books "Nachkrieg" (1930) and "Rußlandfahrten" (1932) made him the most important German communist writer of the inter-war period.  In 1933, following the burning of the Reichstag, new laws designed to accelerate Adolf Hitler’s rise to power were passed, leading to Renn, Carl von Ossietzky and Ernst Torgler being arrested together in January 1934. Renn was sentenced to 30 months imprisonment. On his release in August 1935, he travelled to Spain where in July 1936 he joined the International Brigades in support of the Spanish Republican cause as Chief of Staff for the XI International Brigade and the 35th Division. During his service in Spain he spent time with Ernest Hemingway. He wrote an account of his time in his work, "Der spanische Krieg" (1955), but was unable to name Hemingway, referring to him only as 'an American', because of the ideological condemnation of Hemingway's work in the GDR at the time.

Exile and return to Germany.

After the defeat of the Spanish Republicans, Renn travelled into exile to Mexico, where he remained from 1939 to 1947 and served as president of the Free Germany movement (Freies Deutschland). During this time he promoted the use of the internationalist language Esperanto and the Ludwig Renn Archive at the Academy of the Arts, Berlin, holds several of his translations into Esperanto from foreign languages.  In 1947 he returned to Germany, settling once more in Dresden, which was at the time in the Soviet Occupation Zone and from 1949 part of the GDR. Here he was director of the Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut and held a chair in anthropology at the Dresden Technical University from 1947 to 1951.  From 1952 Renn lived in East Berlin, where he was a freelance writer and a member of the German Academy of the Arts. He also worked as a Spanish–German translator.

Importance.

Renn was one of the founders of proletarian‒revolutionary literature in Germany. His most important achievement lay in his novels, which were largely autobiographical in nature, and served to document the turbulent times in which he lived.  The novel "Krieg" was an international success. Here, Renn was amongst the first to depict the harsh reality of life on the Western Front for the ordinary soldier. Although the protagonist was a simple soldier and Renn in fact an officer, much of the novel reflects autobiographical concerns. Its sequel, "Nachkrieg" (1930) shows the same character living in a postwar period of intense political conflict and growing in socialist conviction.  Renn wrote directly about his own life in the work "Adel im Untergang" (Mexico 1947, Berlin 1947), as well as other works in the following decades. His final work, published posthumously in 1980, was an autobiography ("Anstöße in meinem Leben)." As well as novels, travel writing and memoirs, Renn also wrote imaginative works for children and young people.

Private life.

On his return from exile in Mexico in 1947 Renn settled at first in Dresden with his partner Max Hunger (1901 – 1973). In 1949 they were joined by Hans Pierschel (1922 – 1994) and the three men then moved in 1952 to Berlin-Kaulsdorf where they lived together for the rest of their lives. They were buried together in the same grave in the central Friedrichsfelde Cemetery.

Literature.

Albrecht, Kai-Britt", Renn, Ludwig," in "Neue Deutsche Biographie" (NDB), Vol. 21. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot (2003) pp. 426–428. (Digital version)  Böttcher, Kurt, "et al"., Eds., "Lexikon deutschsprachiger Schriftsteller: 20. Jahrhundert." Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlag (1993), pp. 598–600.  Garland, Henry and Mary, Eds.", Oxford Companion to German Literature". Oxford: Oxford University Press (1986), pp. 740–741.

Ludwig Renn (22 April 1889 in Dresden – 21 July 1979 in Berlin) was a German author. Born a Saxon nobleman, he later became a committed communist and lived in East Berlin.