title: "Boeing 717" content: traces its history back to 1983 when McDonnell Douglas outlined a study named the "DC-9-90". During the early 1980s, as production of the DC-9 family moved away from the smaller Series 30 towards the larger Super 80 (later redesignated MD-80) variants, McDonnell Douglas proposed a smaller version of the DC-9 to fill the gap left by the DC-9-30. Dubbed the DC-9-90, it was revealed in February 1983 and was to be some shorter than the DC-9-81, giving it an overall length of . The aircraft was proposed with a thrust version of the JT8D-200 series engine, although the CFM International


title: "Boeing 717" content: CFM56-3 was also considered. Seating up to 117 passengers, the DC-9-90 was to be equipped with the DC-9's wing with tip extensions, rather than the more heavily modified increased area of the MD-80. The aircraft had a design range of around , with an option to increase to , and a gross weight of . The DC-9-90 was designed to meet the needs of the newly deregulated American airline industry. However, its development was postponed due to the recession of the early 1980s. When McDonnell Douglas did develop a smaller version of the MD-80, it simply shrunk the aircraft to


title: "Boeing 717" content: create the MD-87, rather than offer a lower thrust, lighter aircraft that was more comparable to the DC-9-30. With its relatively high MTOW and powerful engines, the MD-87 essentially became a special mission aircraft and could not compete with the all new 100-seaters then being developed. Although an excellent aircraft for specialized roles, the MD-87 often was not sold on its own. Relying on its commonality factor, sales were generally limited to existing MD-80 operators. In 1991, McDonnell Douglas revealed that it was again considering developing a specialized 100-seat version of the MD-80, initially named the "MD-87-105" (105 seats). It


title: "Boeing 717" content: was to be some shorter than the MD-87, powered with engines in the thrust class. McDonnell Douglas, Pratt & Whitney, and the China National Aero-Technology Import Export Agency signed a memorandum of understanding to develop a 105-seat version of the MD-80. At the 1991 Paris Airshow, McDonnell Douglas announced the development of a 105-seat aircraft, designated "MD-95". The new name was selected to reflect the anticipated year deliveries would begin. McDonnell Douglas first offered the MD-95 for sale in 1994. In early 1994, the MD-95 re-emerged as similar to the DC-9-30, its specified weight, dimensions, and fuel capacity being almost


title: "Boeing 717" content: identical. Major changes included a fuselage "shrink" back to length (same as the DC-9-30), and the reversion to the original DC-9 wingspan of . At this time, McDonnell Douglas said that it expected the MD-95 to become a family of aircraft with the capability of increased range and seating capacity. The MD-95 was developed to satisfy the market need to replace early DC-9s, then approaching 30 years old. The MD-95 was a complete overhaul, going back to the original DC-9-30 design and applying new engines, cockpit and other more modern systems. In March 1995, longtime McDonnell Douglas customer Scandinavian Airlines


title: "Boeing 717" content: System (SAS) chose the Boeing 737-600 for its 100-seater over the MD-95. In October 1995, U.S. new entrant and low-cost carrier ValuJet signed an order for 50 MD-95s, plus 50 options. McDonnell Douglas president Harry Stonecipher felt that launching MD-95 production on the basis of this single order held little risk, stating that further orders would "take a while longer". The ValuJet order was the only order received for some two years. As first proposed, the MD-95 was to be powered by a thrust derivative of the JT8D-200 series with the Rolls-Royce Tay 670 also considered as an alternative. This


title: "Boeing 717" content: was confirmed in January 1992, when Rolls-Royce and McDonnell Douglas signed a memorandum of understanding concerning the Tay-powered MD-95. McDonnell Douglas said that the MD-95 project would cost only a minimal amount to develop, as it was a direct offshoot of the IAE-powered MD-90. During 1993 McDonnell Douglas seemed to be favoring a life extension program of the DC-9-30, under the program name DC-9X, to continue its presence in the 100-120 seat market, rather than concentrating on the new build MD-95. In its evaluation of the engine upgrades available for the DC-9X, McDonnell Douglas found that the BMW Rolls-Royce BR700


title: "Boeing 717" content: engine to be the ideal candidate, and on February 23, 1994 the BR700 was selected as the sole powerplant for the airliner. McDonnell Douglas was planning for MD-95 final assembly to be undertaken in China, as an offshoot of the Trunkliner program, for which McDonnell Douglas had been negotiating to have up to 150 MD-90s built in China. The MD-90 Trunkliner deal was finalized in June 1992, but the contract was for a total of 40 aircraft, including 20 MD-80Ts and 20 -90Ts. The MD-80 has been license built in Shanghai since the 1980s. However, in early 1993, MDC said


title: "Boeing 717" content: that it was considering sites outside China, and was later seeking alternative locations for the assembly line. In 1994, McDonnell Douglas sought global partners to share development costs. It also began a search for a low-cost final assembly site. Halla Group in South Korea was selected to make the wings; Alenia of Italy the entire fuselage; Aerospace Industrial Development Corp. of Taiwan, the tail; ShinMaywa of Japan, the horizontal stabilizer; and a manufacturing division of Korean Air Lines, the nose and cockpit. On November 8, 1994, McDonnell Douglas announced that final assembly would be taken away from the longtime Douglas


title: "Boeing 717" content: plant at Long Beach Airport, California. Instead, it selected a modifications and maintenance operation, Dalfort Aviation in Dallas, Texas, to assemble the MD-95. In early 1995, management and unions in Long Beach reached an agreement to hold down wage costs for the life of the MD-95 program and McDonnell Douglas canceled the preliminary agreement with Dalfort. After McDonnell Douglas was acquired by Boeing in August 1997, most industry observers expected that Boeing would cancel development of the MD-95. However, Boeing decided to go forward with the design under a new name, Boeing 717. While it appeared that Boeing had skipped


title: "Boeing 717" content: the 717 model designation when the 720 and the 727 followed the 707, the 717 name was the company's model number for the KC-135 Stratotanker tanker aircraft. 717 had also been used to promote an early design of the 720 to airlines before it was modified to meet market demands. A Boeing historian notes that the Air Force tanker was designated "717-100" and the commercial airliner designated "717-200". The lack of a widespread use of the 717 name left it available for rebranding the MD-95. At first Boeing had no more success selling the 717 than McDonnell Douglas. Even the


title: "Boeing 717" content: original order for 50 was no certainty in the chaotic post-deregulation United States airline market. Assembly started on the first 717 in May 1997. The aircraft had its roll out ceremony on June 10, 1998. The 717's first flight took place on September 2, 1998. Following flight testing, the airliner was awarded a type certification on September 1, 1999. Its first delivery was in September 1999 to AirTran Airways, which had been previously named Valujet. Commercial service began the following month. Trans World Airlines (TWA) ordered 50 717s in 1998 with an option for 50 additional aircraft. Boeing's decision to


title: "Boeing 717" content: go ahead with the 717 slowly began to pay off. Early 717 operators were delighted with the reliability and passenger appeal of the type and decided to order more. The small Australian regional airline Impulse took a long-term lease on five 717s in early 2000 to begin an expansion into mainline routes. The ambitious move could not be sustained in competition with the majors, and Impulse sold out to Qantas in May 2001. Within a few months, the 717's abilities became clear to Qantas, being faster than the BAe 146, and achieving a higher dispatch reliability, over 99%, than competing


title: "Boeing 717" content: aircraft. Maintenance costs are low: according to AirTran Airways, a C check inspection, for example, takes three days and is required once every 4,500 flying hours. (For comparison, its predecessor, the DC-9 needed 21 days for a C check.) The new Rolls-Royce BR715 engine design is relatively easy to maintain. Many 717 operators, such as Qantas, became converts to the plane; Qantas bought more 717s to replace its BAe 146 fleet, and other orders came from Hawaiian Airlines and Midwest Airlines. Boeing actively marketed the 717 to a number of large airlines, including Northwest Airlines, who already operated a large


title: "Boeing 717" content: fleet of DC-9 aircraft, and Lufthansa. Boeing also studied a stretched, higher-capacity version of the 717, to have been called 717-300, but decided against proceeding with the new model, fearing that it would encroach on the company's 737-700 model. Production of the original 717 continued. Boeing continued to believe that the 100-passenger market would be lucrative enough to support both the 717 and the 737-600, the smallest of the Next-Generation 737 series. While the aircraft were similar in overall size, the 737-600 was better suited to long-distance routes, while the lighter 717 was more efficient on shorter, regional routes. In


title: "Boeing 717" content: 2001, Boeing began implementing a moving assembly line for production of the 717 and 737. The moving line greatly reduced production time, which led to lower production costs. Following the slump in airline traffic caused by an economic downturn subsequent to the terrorists attacks on September 11, 2001, Boeing announced a review of the type's future. After much deliberation, it was decided to continue with production. Despite the lack of orders, Boeing had confidence in the 717's fundamental suitability to the 100-seat market, and in the long-term size of that market. After 19 worldwide 717 sales in 2000, and just


title: "Boeing 717" content: 6 in 2001, Boeing took 32 orders for the 717 in 2002, despite the severe industry downturn. Increased competition from regional jets manufactured by Bombardier and Embraer took a heavy toll on sales during the airline slump after 2001. American Airlines acquired TWA and initially planned to continue the 717 order. American Airlines cancelled TWA's order for Airbus A318s, but eventually also cancelled the Boeing 717s that had not yet been delivered. The beginning of the end came in December 2003 when Boeing failed to reach a US$2.7 billion contract from Air Canada, a long term DC-9 customer, who chose


title: "Boeing 717" content: the Embraer E-Jets and Bombardier CRJ200 over the 717. In January 2005, citing slow sales, Boeing announced that it planned to end production of the 717 after it had met all of its outstanding orders. The 156th and final 717 rolled off the assembly line in April 2006 for AirTran Airways, which was the 717's launch customer as well as its final customer. The final two Boeing 717s were delivered to customers AirTran Airways and Midwest Airlines on May 23, 2006. The 717 was the last commercial airplane produced at Boeing's Long Beach facility in Southern California. As the airline


title: "Boeing 717" content: industry slowly recovered from 9/11 and the fuel prices of the early 2000s, demand for air travel increased, and carriers started to upgauge to bigger planes from the 50-70 seat regional jets they adopted at the time. With Boeing's discontinuation of the Boeing 737-600, the options in the 100-150 seat market is currently limited to the Airbus A220 and Embraer 190. The carriers currently operating the 717 have no plans to relinquish their planes anytime soon, and can't get enough of the ones currently in inventory, so the future for the continued viability of the 717 fleet looks bright. The


title: "Boeing 717" content: 717 features a two-crew cockpit that incorporates six interchangeable liquid-crystal-display units and advanced Honeywell VIA 2000 computers. The cockpit design is called Advanced Common Flightdeck (ACF) and is shared with the MD-10 and MD-11. Flight deck features include an Electronic Instrument System, a dual Flight Management System, a Central Fault Display System, and Global Positioning System. Category IIIb automatic landing capability for bad-weather operations and Future Air Navigation Systems are available. The 717 shares the same type rating as the DC-9, such that the FAA approved transition courses for DC-9 and analog MD-80 pilots that could be completed in 11


title: "Boeing 717" content: days. In conjunction with Parker Hannifin, MPC Products of Skokie, Illinois designed a fly-by-wire technology mechanical control suite for the 717 flight deck. The modules replaced much cumbersome rigging that had occurred in previous DC-9/MD-80 aircraft. The Rolls-Royce BR715 engines are completely controlled by an electronic engine system (FADEC — Full Authority Digital Engine Control) developed by BAE Systems, offering improved controllability and optimization. The engine has significantly lower fuel consumption compared to other engines of the equivalent amount of thrust. Like its DC-9/MD-80/MD-90 predecessors, the 717 has a 2+3 seating arrangement in the main economy class, providing only one


title: "Boeing 717" content: middle seat per row, whereas other single-aisle twin jets, such as the Boeing 737 family and the Airbus A320 family, often have 3+3 arrangement with two middle seats per row. Unlike its predecessors, McDonnell Douglas decided not to offer the MD-95/717 with the boarding flexibility of aft airstairs, with the goal of maximizing fuel efficiency through the reduction and simplification of as much auxiliary equipment as possible. Three initial variants were proposed by McDonnell Douglas in 1993: Boeing 717 Business Express was a proposed corporate version of 717-200, unveiled at the EBACE Convention in Geneva, Switzerland in May 2003. Configurable


title: "Boeing 717" content: for 40 to 80 passengers in first and/or business class interior (typically, 60 passengers with seat pitch of 52 inch, 132 cm). Maximum range in HGW configuration with auxiliary fuel and 60 passengers was 3,140 nmi (5,815 km; 3,613 mi). The version complements BBJ family. Boeing 717-100 (-100X): Proposed 86-seat version, formerly MD-95-20; four frames (6 ft 3 in, 1.9 m) shorter. Renamed 717-100X; wind tunnel tests began in early 2000; revised mid-2000 to eight-frame (12 ft 8 in, 3.86 m) shrink. Launch decision was deferred in December 2000 and again thereafter to an undisclosed date. Shelved by mid-2003. Boeing


title: "Boeing 717" content: 717-100X Lite: Proposed 75-seat version, powered by Rolls-Royce Deutschland BR 710 turbofans; later abandoned. Boeing 717-300X: Proposed stretched version, formerly MD-95-50; studies suggest typical two-class seating for 130 passengers, with overall length increased to 138 ft 4 in (42.16 m) by addition of nine frames (five forward and four aft of wing); higher MTOW and space-limited payloads weights; additional service door aft of wing; and 21,000 lb (93.4 kN) BR 715C1-30 engines. AirTran expressed interest in converting some -200 options to this model. Was under consideration late 2003 by Star Alliance Group (Air Canada, Austrian Airlines, Lufthansa and SAS); interest


title: "Boeing 717" content: was reported from Delta, Iberia and Northwest Airlines. , there were 148 Boeing 717-200s in service with Delta Air Lines (91), Hawaiian Airlines (20), QantasLink (20), and Volotea (17). Delta Air Lines is currently the largest operator of the 717, flying nearly 60 percent of all in-service jets, but did not purchase any of the planes new from Boeing. In 2013, Delta began leasing the entire fleet of 88 jets previously operated by AirTran Airways from Southwest Airlines, who had purchased AirTran, but wanted to preserve its all-Boeing 737 fleet rather than taking on another class of aircraft. In 2015,


title: "Boeing 717" content: Blue1 announced it would sell its 717 fleet, with five jets going to Delta Air Lines and four going to the third largest operator of the type, Volotea. For Delta, used Boeing 717 and MD-90s allowed them to retire their DC-9s while also being cheaper to acquire than buying brand-new jets from Airbus or Boeing. Unlike other mainline US legacy carriers, Delta has decided that its best path to profitability is a strategy that utilizes older aircraft, and Delta has created a very extensive MRO (maintenance, repair and overhaul) organization, called TechOps, to support them. One 717, the prototype, was


title: "Boeing 717" content: scrapped. , the Boeing 717 had been involved in five aviation accidents and incidents with no hull-loss accidents and no fatalities. The accidents and incidents included one on-ground collision while taxiing, an emergency landing where the nose landing gear did not extend, and one attempted hijacking. Sources: Boeing Notes Bibliography Boeing 717 The Boeing 717 is a twin-engine, single-aisle jet airliner, developed for the 100-seat market. The airliner was designed and originally marketed by McDonnell Douglas as the MD-95, a derivative of the DC-9 family. Capable of seating up to 134 passengers, the 717 has a design range of 2,060


title: "Portuguese man o' war" content: Portuguese man o' war The Atlantic Portuguese man o' war ("Physalia physalis"), also known as the man-of-war, is a marine hydrozoan of the family Physaliidae found in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans. Its long tentacles deliver a painful sting, which is venomous and powerful enough to kill fish or, rarely, humans. Despite its appearance, the Portuguese man o' war is not a true jellyfish but a siphonophore, which is not actually a single multicellular organism (true jellyfish are single organisms), but a colonial organism made up of specialized individual animals (of the same species) called zooids or polyps. These


title: "Portuguese man o' war" content: polyps are attached to one another and physiologically integrated, to the extent that they cannot survive independently, creating a symbiotic relationship, requiring each polyp to work together and function like an individual animal. The Indo-Pacific Portuguese man-of-war ("P. utriculus"), or blue bottle, is a related species with very similar appearance found throughout the Indian and Pacific Oceans. The name "man o' war" comes from the man-of-war, an 18th-century armed sailing ship, and the cnidarian's resemblance to the Portuguese version at full sail. The Atlantic Portuguese man o' war lives at the surface of the ocean. The gas-filled bladder, or pneumatophore,


title: "Portuguese man o' war" content: remains at the surface, while the remainder is submerged. As the Portuguese man o' war has no means of propulsion, they move according to the winds, currents, and tides. Although they are most commonly found in the open ocean in tropical and subtropical regions, they have been found as far north as the Bay of Fundy, Cape Breton and the Hebrides. Strong winds may drive them into bays or onto beaches. Often, finding a single Portuguese man o'war is followed by finding many others in the vicinity. They can sting while beached; the discovery of a man o' war washed


title: "Portuguese man o' war" content: up on a beach may lead to the closure of the beach. Being a colonial siphonophore, the Portuguese man o' war is composed of three types of medusoids (gonophores, siphosomal nectophores, and vestigial siphosomal nectophores) and four types of polypoids (free gastrozooids, gastrozooids with tentacles, gonozooids, and gonopalpons), grouped into cormidia beneath the pneumatophore, a sail-shaped structure filled with gas. The pneumatophore develops from the planula, unlike the other polyps. This sail is bilaterally symmetrical, with the tentacles at one end. It is translucent, and is tinged blue, purple, pink, or mauve. It may be long and may extend as


title: "Portuguese man o' war" content: much as above the water. The Portuguese man o' war fills its gas bladder with up to 14% carbon monoxide. The remainder is nitrogen, oxygen, and argon—atmospheric gases that diffuse into the gas bladder. Carbon dioxide also occurs at trace levels. The sail is equipped with a siphon. In the event of a surface attack, the sail can be deflated, allowing the colony to temporarily submerge. The other three polyp types are known as dactylozooid (defense), gonozooid (reproduction), and gastrozooid (feeding). These polyps are clustered. The dactylozooids make up the tentacles that are typically in length, but can reach over


title: "Portuguese man o' war" content: . The long tentacles "fish" continuously through the water, and each tentacle bears stinging, venom-filled nematocysts (coiled, thread-like structures), which sting, paralyze, and kill adult or larval squids and fishes. Large groups of Portuguese man o' war, sometimes over 1,000 individuals, may deplete fisheries. Contractile cells in each tentacle drag the prey into range of the digestive polyps, the gastrozooids, which surround and digest the food by secreting enzymes that break down proteins, carbohydrates, and fats, while the gonozooids are responsible for reproduction. This species and the smaller Indo-Pacific man o' war ("Physalia utriculus") are responsible for up to 10,000


title: "Portuguese man o' war" content: human stings in Australia each summer, particularly on the east coast, with some others occurring off the coast of South Australia and Western Australia. One of the problems with identifying these stings is that the detached tentacles may drift for days in the water, and the swimmer may not have any idea if they have been stung by a man o' war or by some other less venomous creature. The stinging, venom-filled nematocysts in the tentacles of the Portuguese man o' war can paralyze small fish and other prey. Detached tentacles and dead specimens (including those that wash up on


title: "Portuguese man o' war" content: shore) can sting just as painfully as the live organism in the water and may remain potent for hours or even days after the death of the organism or the detachment of the tentacle. Stings usually cause severe pain to humans, leaving whip-like, red welts on the skin that normally last two or three days after the initial sting, though the pain should subside after about 1 to 3 hours (depending on the biology of the person stung). However, the venom can travel to the lymph nodes and may cause symptoms that mimic an allergic reaction including swelling of the


title: "Portuguese man o' war" content: larynx, airway blockage, cardiac distress, and an inability to breathe (though this is not due to a true allergy, which is defined by serum IgE). Other symptoms can include fever and shock, and in some extreme cases, even death, although this is extremely rare. Medical attention for those exposed to large numbers of tentacles may become necessary to relieve pain or open airways if the pain becomes excruciating or lasts for more than three hours, or breathing becomes difficult. Instances where the stings completely surround the trunk of a young child are among those that have the potential to be


title: "Portuguese man o' war" content: fatal. Stings from a Portuguese man o' war are often extremely painful. They result in severe dermatitis characterized by long, thin open wounds that resemble those caused by a whip. These are not caused by any impact or cutting action, but by irritating urticariogenic substances in the tentacles. Treatment for a Portuguese man o' war sting usually begins with the application of poured salt water to rinse away any remaining microscopic nematocysts. Salt water should be used as fresh water has been shown to cause nematocystic discharge. Acetic acid (vinegar) or a solution of ammonia and water is believed to


title: "Portuguese man o' war" content: deactivate the remaining nematocysts and usually provides some pain relief, though some isolated studies suggest that in some individuals vinegar dousing may increase toxin delivery and worsen symptoms. Vinegar has also been claimed to provoke hemorrhaging when used on the less severe stings of cnidocytes of smaller species. The current recommended treatment from studies in Australia is to avoid the use of vinegar, as local studies have shown this to exacerbate the symptoms. The vinegar or ammonia soak is then often followed by the application of shaving cream to the wound for 30 seconds, followed by shaving the area with


title: "Portuguese man o' war" content: a razor and rinsing the razor thoroughly between each stroke. This removes any remaining unfired nematocysts. Heat in the form of hot salt water or hot packs may be applied: heat speeds the breakdown of the toxins already in the skin. Hydrocortisone cream may also be used. The Portuguese man o' war is a carnivore. Using its venomous tentacles, a man o' war traps and paralyzes its prey while "reeling" it inwards to the digestive polyps. It typically feeds on small marine organisms, such as fish and plankton. The organism has few predators of its own; one example is the


title: "Portuguese man o' war" content: loggerhead turtle, which feeds on the Portuguese man o' war as a common part of its diet. The turtle's skin, including that of its tongue and throat, is too thick for the stings to penetrate. The blue sea slug "Glaucus atlanticus" specializes in feeding on the Portuguese man o' war, as does the violet snail "Janthina janthina". The blanket octopus is immune to the venom of the Portuguese man o' war; young individuals carry broken man o' war tentacles, presumably for offensive and/or defensive purposes. The ocean sunfish's primary diet consists of jellyfish, but it also consumes the Portuguese man


title: "Portuguese man o' war" content: o' war. A small fish, "Nomeus gronovii" (the man-of-war fish or shepherd fish), is partially immune to the venom from the stinging cells and can live among the tentacles. It seems to avoid the larger, stinging tentacles but feeds on the smaller tentacles beneath the gas bladder. The Portuguese man o' war is often found with a variety of other marine fish, including yellow jack. All these fish benefit from the shelter from predators provided by the stinging tentacles, and for the Portuguese man o' war, the presence of these species may attract other fish to eat. Portuguese man o'


title: "Ashdown Forest" content: the crown for hunting and protected its sovereign right to all wild animals, commoners were still able to exercise—within strict limits—many of their traditional or customary rights, for example, to pasture their swine in the woods or collect wind-blown branches and trees. Thus, in the 13th century, the commoners of Ashdown were recorded as grazing large numbers of swine and cattle on the forest alongside the many deer that were kept for aristocratic sport and the provision of venison. Note that "forest" does not have the modern meaning of "heavily wooded". Medieval hunting forests like Ashdown consisted of a mixture


title: Kinetoplastida content: basal body). The kinetoplast contains many copies of the mitochondrial genome. The kinetoplastids were first defined by Bronislaw M. Honigberg in 1963 as the members of the flagellated protozoans. They are traditionally divided into the biflagellate Bodonidae and uniflagellate Trypanosomatidae; the former appears to be paraphyletic to the latter. One family of kinetoplastids, the trypanosomatids, is notable as it includes several genera which are exclusively parasitic. "Bodo" is a typical genus within kinetoplastida and including various common free-living species which feed on bacteria. Others include "Cryptobia" and the parasitic "Leishmania". Bronislaw M. Honigberg created the taxonomic names Kinetoplastida and Kinetoplastea


title: "Manchu people" content: people also have traditional jewelry which evokes their past as hunters. The fergetun (), a thumb ring traditionally made out of reindeer bone, was worn to protect the thumbs of archers. After the establishment of the Qing dynasty in 1644, the fergetun gradually became simply a form of jewelry, with the most valuable ones made in jade and ivory. High-heeled shoes were worn by Manchu women. Riding and archery () are significant to the Manchus. They were well-trained horsemen from their teenage years. Huangtaiji said, "Riding and archery are the most important martial arts of our country". Every generation of


title: Germans content: nation in Europe by far. Between 1950 and 1987, about 1.4 million ethnic Germans and their dependents, mostly from Poland and Romania, arrived in Germany under special provisions of right of return. With the collapse of the Iron Curtain since 1987, 3 million "Aussiedler" – ethnic Germans, mainly from Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union – took advantage of Germany's law of return to leave the ""land of their birth"" for Germany. Approximately 2 million, just from the territories of the former Soviet Union, have resettled in Germany since the late 1980s. On the other hand, significant numbers of


title: "Hugh Gaitskell" content: but Gaitskell had made “a frontal assault on … a Labour equivalent of the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England”. Bevan saw Gaitskell's speech in advance and made no objection to it at the time. Gaitskell did not rule out further nationalisation, but saw it as a means to an end, pouring scorn on the idea that Labour should be committed to nationalising “the whole of light industry, the whole of agriculture, all the shops, every little pub and garage”. Bevan now claimed he had “misunderstood or misheard” what Gaitskell planned and was reported to be “absolutely livid” and


title: "Hyacinthoides non-scripta" content: Hyacinthoides non-scripta Hyacinthoides non-scripta (formerly "Endymion non-scriptus" or "Scilla non-scripta") is a bulbous perennial plant, found in Atlantic areas from north-western Spain to the British Isles, and also frequently used as a garden plant. It is known in English as the common bluebell or simply bluebell, a name which is used in Scotland to refer to the harebell, "Campanula rotundifolia". In spring, "H. non-scripta" produces a nodding, one-sided inflorescence of 5–12 tubular, sweet-scented violet–blue flowers, with strongly recurved tepals, and 3–6 long, linear, basal leaves. "H. non-scripta" is particularly associated with ancient woodland where it may dominate the understorey to


title: "Hyacinthoides non-scripta" content: produce carpets of violet–blue flowers in "bluebell woods", but also occurs in more open habitats in western regions. It is protected under UK law, and in some other parts of its range. A related species, "H. hispanica" has also been introduced to the British Isles and hybridises with "H. non-scripta" to produce intermediates known as "H." × "massartiana". "Hyacinthoides non-scripta" was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his seminal 1753 work ', as a species in the genus "Hyacinthus". The specific epithet ' means "unlettered" or "unmarked" and was intended to distinguish this plant from the classical hyacinth of Greek


title: "Hyacinthoides non-scripta" content: mythology. This mythical flower, which was almost certainly not the modern hyacinth, sprang up from the blood of the dying prince Hyacinthus. His lover, the god Apollo, shed tears that marked the new flower's petals with the letters "AIAI" ("alas") as a sign of his grief. In 1803, Johann Centurius von Hoffmannsegg and Johann Heinrich Friedrich Link transferred the species to the genus "Scilla", and in 1849 Christian August Friedrich Garcke transferred it to the genus "Endymion" (now a synonym of "Hyacinthoides"); it is still widely known as ""Scilla non-scripta"" or ""Endymion non-scriptus"". In 1934, Pierre Chouard transferred the species


title: "Hyacinthoides non-scripta" content: to its current placement in the genus "Hyacinthoides". "Scilla" was the original Greek name for the sea squill, "Drimia maritima"; Endymion is a character from Greek mythology; "Hyacinthoides" means "like a hyacinth". The type species of "Hyacinthoides" is "H. hispanica", while that of "Endymion" is ""Scilla nutans"", described by James Edward Smith in "English Botany" in 1797, but now treated as a synonym of "H. non-scripta". Smith had argued that ' ("nodding") is a more fitting epithet than ', which makes no sense once separated from "Hyacinthus", but the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants requires the


title: "Hyacinthoides non-scripta" content: oldest name to be used, regardless of meaning. Common names for "Hyacinthoides non-scripta" include bluebell, common bluebell, English bluebell, British bluebell, wild hyacinth, wood bell, fairy flower and bell bottle. In Scotland, the term "bluebell" is used for the harebell, "Campanula rotundifolia". "Hyacinthoides non-scripta" forms a clade with three other species – "H. hispanica", "H. paivae" and "H. cedretorum" – centred on the Iberian Peninsula. "H. paivae" is restricted to a small area of north-western Iberia (Galicia and neighbouring parts of Portugal), while "H. cedretorum" is found in mountainous areas of western North Africa (Morocco and Algeria). Within Iberia, "H.


title: "Hyacinthoides non-scripta" content: non-scripta" and "H. hispanica" are geographically separated by the Duero river. The genus also contains seven further species, mostly distributed further east in the Mediterranean Basin. "Hyacinthoides non-scripta" is a perennial plant that grows from a bulb. It produces 3–6 linear leaves, all growing from the base of the plant, and each wide. An inflorescence of 5–12 (exceptionally 3–32) flowers is borne on a stem up to tall, which droops towards the tip; the flowers are arranged in a 1-sided nodding raceme. Each flower is long, with two bracts at the base, and the six tepals are strongly recurved at


title: "Hyacinthoides non-scripta" content: their tips. The tepals are violet–blue. The three stamens in the outer whorl are fused to the perianth for more than 75% of their length, and bear cream-coloured pollen. The flowers are strongly and sweetly scented. The seeds are black, and germinate on the soil surface. The bulbs produce contractile roots; when these roots contract, they draw the bulbs down into deeper layers of the soil where there is greater moisture, reaching depths of . This may explain the absence of "H. non-scripta" from some thin soils over chalk in South East England, since the bulbs are unable to penetrate


title: "Hyacinthoides non-scripta" content: into sufficiently deep soils. "H. non-scripta" differs from "H. hispanica", which occurs as an introduced species in the British Isles, in a number of ways. "H. hispanica" has paler flowers which are borne in radially symmetrical racemes; their tepals are less recurved, and are only faintly scented. The outer stamens are fused with the tepals for less than 75% of their length, and the anthers are the same colour as the tepals. These two species are thought to have diverged 8000 years ago. The two species hybridise readily to produce fertile offspring known as "Hyacinthoides" × "massartiana"; the hybrids are


title: "Hyacinthoides non-scripta" content: intermediate between the parental species, forming a spectrum of variation which connects the two. "Hyacinthoides non-scripta" is native to the western parts of Atlantic Europe, from north-western Spain (occasionally even north-western Portugal) to the Netherlands and the British Isles. It is found in Belgium, Great Britain, France, Ireland, the Netherlands and Spain, and also occurs as a naturalized species in Germany, Italy and Romania. It has also been introduced into various parts of North America, in both the Pacific Northwest (British Columbia, Washington and Oregon), the Great Lakes region (Ontario, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania) and other parts of the


title: "Hyacinthoides non-scripta" content: United States (the Virginias, Kentucky and Indiana). Despite the wide distribution of "H. non-scripta", it reaches its greatest densities in the British Isles, where "bluebell woods" (woodland with the understory dominated by "H. non-scripta" in spring) are a familiar sight. "H. non-scripta" is found throughout the British Isles, with the exception of the northern Outer Hebrides (Lewis and Harris), Orkney and Shetland, and it is estimated that 25%–50% of all common bluebells may be found in the British Isles. Bluebells are a species of deciduous woodland over much of their range, flowering and leafing early before the canopy closes in


title: "Hyacinthoides non-scripta" content: late spring. They may also be found growing under bracken or Japanese knotweed, perennial plants which also form stands with a dense summer canopy. They are most successful on slightly acid soils; the same niche in alkaline conditions may be occupied by other species such as "Mercurialis perennis". As a species adapted to woodlands, the young shoots are able to penetrate through a thick layer of leaf litter, and bluebells are often used as an indicator species to identify ancient woodland. Bluebells are also frequently found in hedgerows, and in the west of their range they can be found growing


title: "Hyacinthoides non-scripta" content: in open habitats, including coastal meadows. Bluebell flowers are rich in pollen and nectar, and are chiefly pollinated by bumblebees, although they are also visited by various other insects. They are a host species for the parasitic fungus "Uromyces muscari", which causes bluebell rust. The ability of "H. non-scripta" to take up phosphorus from the soil is greatly enhanced by the presence of arbuscular mycorrhizae in its roots. "Hyacinthoides non-scripta" is not protected under international law, such as CITES or the EU Habitats Directive. In the United Kingdom, "H. non-scripta" is a protected species under the Wildlife and Countryside Act


title: "Hyacinthoides non-scripta" content: 1981. Landowners are prohibited from removing common bluebells on their land for sale and it is a criminal offence to remove the bulbs of wild common bluebells. This legislation was strengthened in 1998 under Schedule 8 of the Act making any trade in wild common bluebell bulbs or seeds an offence, punishable by fines of up to £5,000 per bulb. The species is not protected in the Republic of Ireland. In France, "H. non-scripta" is largely confined to the northern half of the country. It is not legally protected at the national level, but it is protected in many of


title: "Hyacinthoides non-scripta" content: the ' towards the edge of its range (Corrèze, Loiret, Gironde, Lot-et-Garonne, Dordogne, Cher, Eure-et-Loir, Indre-et-Loire and Loir-et-Cher). In Wallonia, "H. non-scripta" is protected under ' of the "". Bluebells are widely planted as garden plants, either among trees or in herbaceous borders. They flower at the same time as hyacinths, "Narcissus" and some tulips. Their ability to reproduce vegetatively, using bulb offsets and seed, means that they can spread rapidly, and may need to be controlled as weeds. Bluebells synthesise a wide range of chemicals with potential medicinal properties. They contain at least 15 biologically active compounds that may


title: "Hyacinthoides non-scripta" content: provide them with protection against insects and animals. Certain extracts – water-soluble alkaloids – are similar to compounds tested for use in combating HIV and cancer. The bulbs of bluebells are used in folk medicine as a remedy for leucorrhoea, and as a diuretic or styptic, while the sap can be used as an adhesive. The bluebell may be regarded as the United Kingdom's "favourite flower". When the wild plant charity Plantlife organised a survey in 2004 to find a favourite flower for each county in the United Kingdom, it decided to ban voters from choosing the bluebell because it


title: "Hyacinthoides non-scripta" content: had been by far the top choice in an earlier poll for the nation's favourite flower. A stylised bluebell is used as the logo for the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland. Hyacinthoides non-scripta Hyacinthoides non-scripta (formerly "Endymion non-scriptus" or "Scilla non-scripta") is a bulbous perennial plant, found in Atlantic areas from north-western Spain to the British Isles, and also frequently used as a garden plant. It is known in English as the common bluebell or simply bluebell, a name which is used in Scotland to refer to the harebell, "Campanula rotundifolia". In spring, "H. non-scripta" produces a nodding, one-sided


title: Leotard content: Leotard A leotard () is a unisex skin-tight one-piece garment that covers the body from the crotch to the shoulder. The garment was first made famous by the French acrobatic performer Jules Léotard (1838–1870). There are sleeveless, short-sleeved and long-sleeved leotards. A variation is the unitard, which also covers the legs. Leotards are worn by acrobats, gymnasts, dancers, figure skaters, athletes, actors, wrestlers, and circus performers both as practice garments and performance costumes. They are often worn together with ballet skirts on top and tights or sometimes bike shorts as underwear. As a casual garment, a leotard can be worn


title: Leotard content: with a belt; it can also be worn under overalls or short skirts. Leotards are entered by stepping into the legs and pulling the sleeves over the shoulders. Scoop-necked leotards have wide neck openings and are held in place by the elasticity of the garment. Others are crew necked or polo necked and close at the back of the neck with a zipper or snaps. Leotards are used for a variety of purposes, including yoga, cardiovascular exercise, dance (particularly for ballet and/or modern), as pajamas, for additional layered warmth under clothing, and for recreational and casual wear. They may form


title: Leotard content: a part of children's dressing up and play outfits and can also be worn as a top. Leotards are commonly worn in figure skating, postwar modern dance, traditional ballet and gymnastics, especially by young children. Practice leotards are usually sleeveless. Female competition garments for gymnastics and skating are almost always long-sleeved, while male competition leotards may be sleeved or sleeveless, the latter more common in gymnastics, the former in figure skating. Many leotards are cut high enough above the legs that they expose underwear. For this reason, underwear is often omitted, or special underwear, cut high on the waist, is


title: Leotard content: worn. Many dance studios forbid underwear. Gymnastics judges can deduct points for visible underwear. For example, in the movie "Stick It", a competitor had her score deducted for a technicality of showing a bra strap. The first known use of the name "leotard" came only in 1886, many years after Léotard's death. Léotard himself called the garment a "maillot", which is a general French word for different types of tight-fitting shirts or sports shirts. In the early 20th century, leotards were mainly confined to circus and acrobatic shows, worn by the specialists who performed these acts. The 1920s and 1930s


title: Leotard content: saw leotards influencing the style of swimsuits, with women's one-piece swimsuits today still being similar in appearance to leotards. Leotards are worn by professional dancers such as the showgirls of Broadway. Stage use of the leotard typically coordinates the garment with stockings or tights. In the 1950s, traditionally-styled leotards continued to be worn mainly by stage performers and circus actors, but leotards began to be used as simple and functional exercise garments, often in institutional settings like schools and in fitness training. These were almost always black and worn together with thick tights. Between 1950 and 1970, leotards remained as


title: Leotard content: such in appearance until a style change in the 1970s, with more colorful leotards appearing on the scene, most often in ballet and exercise. During the 1970s and 1980s, leotards were extensively used as clothing for aerobic exercises, eventually displaced in the 1990s by Lycra pants similar to those used in cycling uniforms and in the 2000s they were replaced completely by trousers and leggings (tight clothing which cover the legs made of spandex and denim). It continues to be also worn by women cyclists and athletes in competitions. By the late 1970s leotards had become common both as exercise


title: Leotard content: and street wear, popularized by the disco craze, and aerobics fashion craze of the time. These leotards were produced in a variety of nylon and spandex materials, as well as the more traditional cotton previously used for uni-colored leotards and tights. Exercise videos by celebrities such as Jane Fonda also did much to popularize the garment. The dancewear company Danskin flourished during this period, producing a wide variety of leotards for both dance and street wear. Other companies, such as Gilda Marx, produced leotards during this time period then ceased production when they ceased to be in fashion. By the


title: Leotard content: late 1980s leotards for exercise wear had become little more than bikini bottoms with straps over the shoulders, generally worn with cropped shirts. From the mid 1980s to mid 90s leotards were popularly worn as tops with jeans especially skinny jeans as part of everyday wear. By the mid 1990s leotards had been almost completely replaced for exercise wear by the sports bra and shorts. Leotards are a versatile garment that can either be dressed up or dressed down. The illustration of Taylor Dayne shows a stage costume that has been heavily embellished with sequins and sparkles; it is matched


title: Leotard content: with striped tights and a cropped cardigan to create an extremely eye-catching costume. Among exercise garments, leotards may be seen along with other types of garments, such as T-shirts, crop tops and tights. For females, the standard gymnastic competition uniform is a leotard. Traditionally, competition leotards have always had long sleeves; however, half-length sleeved and sleeveless garments are now permitted under the "Code of Points" and have been worn by teams at the World Gymnastics Championships and other major events. Practice leotards and those worn in podium training sessions are generally sleeveless. Leotards may not ride too high on the


title: Leotard content: hip or be cut too low; in rare instances, gymnasts and teams have been penalized with score deductions for their attire. In the 1970s leotards were typically made from polyester and related fabrics. Since the 1980s, however, they have been made from lycra or spandex. Since the 1990s, leotards have become more elaborate and have employed a variety of textiles, including velvet, velour, mesh, metallic fabrics, foils and iridescent "hologram" fabric. They can also be decorated with rhinestones, and metallic jewels that are heat-set onto the garments and will not fall or wash off. Leotards cannot be cut above hip


title: Leotard content: height or be cut past the shoulder blades, back or front. Any leotard that is somewhat see-through is also against the rules. Usage of white tights is not standard. For competitions, male gymnasts wear two layers of clothing. The first, a singlet (or comp shirt, short for competition shirt) is a sleeveless leotard. For floor and vault, gymnasts wear a pair of very short shorts over the singlet. For their other events, they wear a pair of long pants, attached to the bottom of the feet with stirrups. Men's uniforms are usually less ornate than those of their female counterparts


title: Leotard content: and are usually matte-colored, while women's uniforms generally employ metallic or iridescent fabrics. Singlets usually employ one or more of the national team colors, but there are no restrictions on design. Shorts and pants are generally a solid color, usually white, blue, red or black. Olympic gymnastics team leotards have dramatically changed from their first memorable designs. Over time, the emphasis on what leotards are intended to do has changed. Originally, the intent was to cover as much of a woman’s body as possible, while today, leotards must breathe, improve aerodynamics and seamlessly re-shape as female athletes bend, twist and


title: Leotard content: contort their way through increasingly difficult routines. When Jules Léotard created the "maillot", it was intended for men. This style of leotard can be seen in early 20th century photos of the circus 'strong man'. Men's leotards evolved along with the women's style, eventually resembling it, except that the men's version had a slightly lower-cut leg opening and a lower-cut front. Unlike their female counterparts, however, men's leotards come in two styles — either with a full seated bottom or as a thong. The reason for this is apparent when worn with tights such as in ballet, where lines created


title: Leotard content: by the garment underneath the tights would look unsightly. In such instances, a dance belt is also worn. Leotards are commonly worn by male dancers (particularly for ballet) and gymnasts. Leotard-like garments (often of the "biketard" or singlet type) are also often worn by men in sports such as rowing, wrestling, cycling and running, to maintain a tight fit and stop the upper part of the clothing running up. Leotard A leotard () is a unisex skin-tight one-piece garment that covers the body from the crotch to the shoulder. The garment was first made famous by the French acrobatic performer


title: "RCA connector" content: attached. Modern styli (phonograph needles) and phono cartridges give a very low level output signal of the order of a few millivolts which the circuitry amplifies and equalizes. Phonograph recordings are made with high frequencies boosted and the low frequencies attenuated: during playback the frequency response changes are reversed. This reduces background noise, including clicks or pops, and also conserves the amount of physical space needed for each groove, by reducing the size of the larger low-frequency undulations. This is accomplished in the amplifier with a phono input that incorporates standardized RIAA equalization circuitry. Through at least the 1980s, the


title: "Humber Bridge" content: Humber Bridge The Humber Bridge, near Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England, is a single-span suspension bridge, which opened to traffic on 24 June 1981. When it was opened, it was the longest of its type in the world; it was not surpassed until 1998, with the completion of the Akashi Kaikyō Bridge, and it is now the eighth-longest. It spans the Humber, (the estuary formed by the rivers Trent and Ouse), between Barton-upon-Humber on the south bank and Hessle on the north bank, thereby connecting the East Riding of Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire. When it opened in


title: "Humber Bridge" content: 1981, both sides of the bridge were in the non-metropolitan county of Humberside, until its dissolution in 1996. The bridge can be seen for miles around and from as far as Patrington in the East Riding of Yorkshire and out to sea miles off the East Yorkshire coast. It is a Grade I listed building. By 2006, the bridge carried an average of 120,000 vehicles per week. The toll was £3.00 each way for cars (higher for commercial vehicles), which made it the most expensive toll crossing in the United Kingdom. In April 2012, the toll was halved to £1.50


title: "Humber Bridge" content: each way after the UK government deferred £150 million from the bridge's outstanding debt. Before the bridge opening, commuters would go from one bank to the other either by using the Humber Ferry that ran between Corporation Pier at Hull and New Holland Pier at New Holland, Lincolnshire or by driving via the M62 (from 1976), M18 (from 1979) and M180 motorways, crossing the River Ouse near Goole (connected to the Humber) in the process. Until the mid-1970s, the route south was via the single-carriageway A63 and the A614 (via grid-locked Thorne where it met the busy A18 and crossed


title: "Humber Bridge" content: the Stainforth and Keadby Canal at a swing bridge bottleneck, and then on through Finningley and Bawtry, meeting the east-west A631). The journey was a series of straight single-carriageway roads across foggy moors interrupted by predictable bottlenecks for most of the journey to Blyth, Nottinghamshire, where it met the A1. The accident rate was consequently high, and the journey of most of Hull's traffic was similar to that faced by much of Lincolnshire's drivers today. Debates in Parliament were held on the low standard of the windy route across the wind-swept plains around Goole. It was not unexpected that under


title: "Humber Bridge" content: these conditions, a Humber Bridge, with connecting dual-carriageway approach roads, and grade-separated junctions, would seem worthwhile. By the time the bridge opened, much of this well-below-standard route had been transformed by dualling of the A63 and its bypasses, the extension of the M62, and the much-needed connecting of the M18 from Thorne to Wadworth. The obvious need for a Humber Bridge had largely been tempered by the late 1970s with the much-improved motorway infrastructure of the region. Although welcome, the timing of these improvements would detract any significant levels of traffic needing to cross a bridge from Hessle to Barton.


title: "Humber Bridge" content: The Humber Bridge would be a victim of the M62's success, before opening. There was also a short-lived hovercraft service; Minerva and Mercury linked Hull Pier and Grimsby Docks from February to October 1969, but suffered frequent mechanical failures. Plans for a bridge were originally drawn up in the 1930s, and were revised in 1955, but work did not begin until 27 July 1972. The Humber Bridge Act, promoted by Kingston Upon Hull Corporation, was passed in 1959. This established the Humber Bridge Board to manage and raise funds to build the bridge and buy the land required for the


title: "Humber Bridge" content: approach roads. However, raising the necessary funding proved impossible until the 1966 Hull North by-election. To save his government, Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson prevailed upon his Minister of Transport Barbara Castle to sanction the building of the bridge. This type of action is known as "pork barrel", or an "election sweetener". Dismay at the long wait for a crossing led to the writing by Christopher Rowe of a protest song entitled "The Humber Bridge". The consulting engineers for the project were Freeman Fox & Partners – now Hyder Consulting. Sir Ralph Freeman had produced the first ideas in 1927,


title: "Humber Bridge" content: and in the early 1930s the cost of the project was thought to be around £1.725 million, and that the bridge would be unlikely to recoup the construction or maintenance costs. In 1935 he had an idea for a suspension bridge for the Humber Tunnel Executive Committee. Sir Gilbert Roberts produced more ideas in 1955 for a bridge with a central span, costing £15 million, to be paid for by East Riding County Council and Lindsey County Council. Once it was looking likely that a bridge would be constructed, Imperial College-educated Bernard Wex OBE (24 April 1922 – 31 July


title: "Humber Bridge" content: 1990) produced the design in 1964 that was actually built. In 1985 he was awarded the Telford Medal by the Institution of Civil Engineers. In the 1950s he had helped to design High Marnham Power Station. He was a former UK chairman of the International Association of Bridge and Structural Engineers, and helped to found the Steel Construction Institute in 1976. The architect was R.E. Slater ARIBA. The administration building (for the tolls) was designed by Parker & Rosner. The landscaping was designed by Prof Arnold Weddle. Wind tunnel testing took place at the National Maritime Institute (now part of


title: "Humber Bridge" content: BMT Limited) at Teddington in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, and the road deck is designed for wind speeds up to . The main contractor for the steel superstructure was British Bridge Builders (the same grouping as for the Forth and Severn Road Bridges comprising Sir William Arrol & Co., then a unit of NEI Cranes Ltd, the Cleveland Bridge & Engineering and Redpath Dorman Long Ltd). The contractor for the concrete towers, anchorages and sub-structure was John Howard & Co Ltd of Chatham, Kent, who were later bought by Amec. Work began on the southern approach road


title: "Humber Bridge" content: in July 1972 by Clugston Construction of Scunthorpe. The approach road to the A1077 junction, by Costain Civil Engineering began in September 1976. It included a span from the southern anchorage of seven pre-stressed concrete box sections, and the A1077 junction, costing £4.25 million. Work on the bridge substructure (foundations) began in March 1973. To reduce heat of hydration in the concrete, which produces calcium silicate hydrate from belite, as much as 60% of the Portland cement was replaced with ground granulated blast-furnace slag (GGBS). It took longer to build the southern anchorage due to a diaphragm wall design due


title: "Humber Bridge" content: to not enough shallow bedrock. The main southern approach roads from Barton to the M180 motorway junction at Barnetby were built in the late 1970s by Clugston Construction of Scunthorpe, opening in 1978. The towers were constructed by slipforming, and the north tower was completed by May 1974. The southern foundations were completed in September 1975, with the pier completed in March 1976, and the southern tower was completed by September 1976. The bridge itself had been planned to open in 1976. The northern tower and anchorage was built on solid chalk, but the southern tower and anchorage were built


title: "Humber Bridge" content: on fissured Kimmeridge Clay, and 500 metres from the southern shore, and built with a difficult caisson design. The subcontractor for the concrete was Tileman & Co. of Shipston-on-Stour, south Warwickshire. Cable spinning took place between September 1977 and July 1979. Each cable weighs , with 37 strands of 404 lengths of cable. The cable on the northern span has four extra strands. Each cable can take a load of . The deck is of box girder form. The box sections weighed around each. The first box sections were assembled in June 1975, and put into the main span on


title: "Humber Bridge" content: 9 November 1979. The toll buildings and north approach road were built by A. F. Budge of Retford, Nottinghamshire, costing £2.9 million. Work began on the administration building in November 1976. The toll system was manufactured by Plessey Controls of Poole, Dorset. Corrosion resistance on the steelwork was provided by Camrex Corrosion of Bellshill, North Lanarkshire. The road was laid by Tarmac Roadstone of Wolverhampton with mastic asphalt. In 2017, the bridge was designated a Grade I listed building. The bridge opened to traffic on 24 June 1981. It was opened officially by Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II on 17


title: "Humber Bridge" content: July 1981. With a centre span of and a total length of , the Humber Bridge was the longest single-span suspension bridge in the world for 17 years, until Japan's Akashi Kaikyō Bridge opened on 5 April 1998. The road-distance between Hull and Grimsby was reduced by nearly as a consequence of the bridge. The bridge's surface takes the form of a dual carriageway with a lower-level foot and cyclepath on both sides. There is a permanent speed limit on the full length of the bridge. Each tower consists of a pair of hollow vertical concrete columns, each tall and


title: "Humber Bridge" content: tapering from square at the base to at the top. The bridge is designed to tolerate constant motion and bends more than in winds of . The towers, although both vertical, are farther apart at the top than the bottom due to the curvature of the earth. The total length of the suspension cable is . The north tower is on the bank, and has foundations down to . The south tower is in the water, and descends to as a consequence of the shifting sandbanks that make up the estuary. The bridge held the record for the world's longest


title: "Humber Bridge" content: single-span suspension bridge for 16 years from its opening in July 1981, until the opening of the Great Belt Bridge in June 1997, and was relegated to third place with the opening of the Akashi Kaikyō Bridge in April 1998. It is now the eighth longest single-span suspension bridge. The central span, at 1410 m (4640 ft), is the UK's longest. It remains the longest single-span suspension bridge in the world that one can cross on foot or by bicycle. The bridge is crossed twice during the annual Humber Bridge half marathon. In July 2013, work began on introducing a


title: "Humber Bridge" content: new electronic tolling system. The existing Humber Bridge toll system was largely the same as it was when the bridge opened in 1981, and used a computer system that was over 15 years old. This obsolete technology required an increasing amount of maintenance and needed replacing. The project to update the tolls and the resulting decrease in waiting times was welcomed by business and transport leaders. Phase one of the project focused on updating the infrastructure and saw all the toll booths replaced as well as the toll plaza canopy. Phase two concentrated on writing, testing, and setting up the


title: "Humber Bridge" content: new toll system. The project completed in 2015 allowing bridge users to set up an account with the bridge and pay into it. Account holders receive a device called the HumberTAG, a small electronic tag that enables the system to recognise the bridge user and the toll is automatically deducted from the user's account. The two central lanes through the plaza are free-flow lanes: they do not have any booths and account holders are able to cross the bridge without stopping. During construction of the bridge, the road deck sections were floated up on barges then hoisted into place by


title: "Humber Bridge" content: cables. During one of these lifting operations some of the cables on one of the road deck sections failed, leaving the section hanging at an angle. The section was, however, subsequently rescued and used. More than 200 incidents of people jumping or falling from the bridge have taken place since it was opened in 1981; only five have survived. Between 1990 and February 2001 the Humber Rescue Team launched its boat 64 times to deal with people falling or jumping off the bridge. Notable incidents include the cases of a West Yorkshire woman and her two-year-old daughter who fell off


title: "Humber Bridge" content: the bridge in 2005, a mother who killed herself and her 12-year-old son with Fragile X Syndrome in April 2006, and that of a man jumping from the bridge to his death on the A63 road below in September 2006. As a result, plans were announced on 26 December 2009 to construct a suicide barrier along the walkways of the bridge; design constraints were cited as the reason for non-implementation before this time. In May 2017, a YouTuber with the username 'Night Scape', along with a small group, illegally scaled the bridge without safety equipment. The group of young men


title: "Humber Bridge" content: climbed up the structure to the top of the bridge whilst using the suspension wires as handholds. Humberside Police and the Humber Bridge Board are reviewing the security measures. The bridge has a toll charge of £1.50 for cars. Until 1 April 2012 the Humber Bridge was the only major toll bridge in the United Kingdom to charge tolls to motorcycles (£1.20); others such as the Severn crossings and the Dartford Crossing are free. In 2004, a large number of motorcyclists held a slow-pay protest, taking off gloves and helmets and paying the toll in large denomination bank notes. Police


title: "Humber Bridge" content: reported a tailback of as a consequence of the protest. In 1996, the British Parliament passed the Humber Bridge (Debts) Act 1996 to reorganise the Humber Bridge Board's debts to ensure the bridge could be safely maintained. Although a significant proportion of the debt was suspended in that refinancing arrangement there was no "write off" of debt and the suspended portion is being gradually re-activated as the Bridge Board pays off the remainder of the active debt. In 2006 a Private Member's Bill – sponsored by Cleethorpes Labour MP Shona McIsaac – relating to the Humber Bridge, was introduced into


title: "Humber Bridge" content: Parliament. The Humber Bridge Bill would have made amendments to the Humber Bridge Act 1959 "requiring the secretary of state to give directions to members of the Humber Bridge Board regarding healthcare and to review the possibility of facilitating journeys across the Humber Bridge in relation to healthcare". The aim was to allow people who travel from the southbank to the northbank for medical treatment to cross the bridge without paying the toll, and to allow the Secretary of State for Transport to appoint two members of the Humber Bridge board to represent the interests of the NHS. Even though


title: "Humber Bridge" content: the Bill received cross-party support (it was co-sponsored by Shadow Home Secretary David Davis, and supported by all other MPs representing North Lincolnshire and the East Riding of Yorkshire) it ran out of time later that year. A protest at the bridge on 1 September 2007 was supported by the local Cancer Patients Involvement Group, the Road Haulage Association, Yorkshire and Humberside MEP Diana Wallis and local business and council representatives. The government responded to the petition on 14 January 2008, stating that "Concessions or exemptions from tolls on the Humber Bridge are a matter for the Humber Bridge Board."


title: "Humber Bridge" content: In October 2008, a joint campaign was launched by the "Scunthorpe Telegraph", "Hull Daily Mail" and "Grimsby Telegraph" to abolish the fee for crossing the Humber. The papers' A Toll Too Far campaign garnered much support from councillors and MPs serving Lincolnshire and Humberside and was launched in response to a mooted increase in the cost of bridge crossings. The campaign's aim was not only to stave off any potential increase in crossing charges, but to ultimately see the costs abolished. A reduction to a £1 charge for bridge crossings was a sought-after alternative. Thousands of readers backed the campaign


title: "Humber Bridge" content: with a paper and an online petition. A public inquiry into the tolls was held in March 2009 by independent inspector Neil Taylor. In July 2009, the Department for Transport announced that it had decided not to allow the proposed increase. Transport Minister Sadiq Khan said he did not believe it was right for the tolls to be raised in the current economic climate. In October 2009, the government approved a £6 million grant for maintenance costs, which meant that there would be no toll increase before 2011 at the earliest, by which time tolls would have been frozen for


title: "Humber Bridge" content: five years. The Humber Bridge Board applied again to the Department of Transport in September 2010, to raise the tolls from April 2011, but the Government ordered a public inquiry to be held into the application. A three-day public inquiry was held in Hull in early March 2011. Following the recommendation by the planning inspector the Government gave approval, on 14 June 2011, for the increase to go ahead. The toll was raised on 1 October 2011, at which point it became the most expensive toll crossing in the United Kingdom. The Severn Bridge and Second Severn Crossing charge a


title: "Humber Bridge" content: toll of £5.70, but this is only collected in one direction. In the 2011 Autumn Statement on 29 November, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, announced that the Government had agreed to reduce the debt on the bridge by £150 million, which would allow the toll for cars to be halved to £1.50. Following the government accepting the agreement, between the four local councils, to underwrite the remaining debt Transport Secretary Justine Greening confirmed the reduction in tolls on 29 February 2012. This was implemented in April. Humber Bridge The Humber Bridge, near Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of


title: "Conisbrough Castle" content: Conisbrough Castle Conisbrough Castle is a medieval fortification in Conisbrough, South Yorkshire, England. The castle was initially built in the 11th century by William de Warenne, the Earl of Surrey, after the Norman conquest of England in 1066. Hamelin Plantagenet, the illegitimate, "parvenu" son of Henry II, acquired the property by marriage in the late 12th century. Hamelin and his son William rebuilt the castle in stone, including its prominent -high keep. The castle remained in the family line into the 14th century, despite being seized several times by the Crown. The fortification was then given to Edmund of Langley,


title: "Conisbrough Castle" content: passing back into royal ownership in 1461. Conisbrough fell into ruin, its outer wall badly affected by subsidence, and was given to the Carey family in the 16th century. Its derelict state prevented it from involvement in the English Civil War of the 17th century and the remains were bought by the Duke of Leeds in 1737. Sir Walter Scott used the location for his 1819 novel "Ivanhoe" and by the end of the 19th century the ruins had become a tourist attraction, despite the increasing industrial character of the area. The state took over the management of the property


title: "Conisbrough Castle" content: in 1950, but by the 1980s the visitor facilities were felt to be unsuitable, leading to a three-way partnership being created between the local council, the state agency English Heritage and a local charitable trust to develop the castle. The keep was re-roofed and re-floored in the 1990s with the help of European Union funding. English Heritage took over control of the castle in 2008 and continues to operate the property as a tourist attraction. The castle is made up of an inner and an outer bailey, the former surrounded by a stone curtain wall defended by six mural or


title: "Conisbrough Castle" content: fortified towers and the castle keep. The inner bailey would have included a hall, solar, chapel and other service buildings of which only the foundations survive. The design of Conisbrough's keep is unique in England, and the historians Oliver Creighton and Stephen Johnson consider it an "architectural gem" and "one of the finest examples of late Norman defensive architecture". The keep comprises a circular central tower with six massive buttresses; its four floors would have included a main chamber and a private chamber for the lord above it. Although militarily weak, the design would have been a powerful symbol of


title: "Conisbrough Castle" content: Hamelin Plantagenet's new social status as a major lord. Conisbrough Castle was founded by William de Warenne, the first Earl of Surrey, who had taken part in the Norman conquest of England in 1066 and was rewarded by his father-in-law, William the Conqueror, with extensive estates in Yorkshire, Norfolk and Sussex. As part of these, Lord de Warenne was given the manor of Conisbrough, which had previously been owned by the late Harold Godwinson. The manor took its name from the Anglo-Saxon name for the settlement, "Cyningesburh", meaning "the king's fortress", and formed a large estate comprising 28 townships, centred


title: "Conisbrough Castle" content: on an Anglo-Saxon fortified burh at Conisbrough itself. William built his castle on a rocky Magnesian Limestone spur surrounded by steep banks, and the fortification included a motte, an inner bailey protected by an earth bank and palisades, an outer bailey, and possibly a timber keep. The castle was located around above the river and would have dominated this part of the Don Valley. It was positioned directly opposite the village, which probably contained the old Anglo-Saxon burh. The castle was held by William's son, also called William, from 1088 to 1138, and then by his son, another William, until


title: "Conisbrough Castle" content: his death in 1147. Conisbrough and the earldom then passed through Isabel, William's daughter, to her first husband, William de Blois, and then on to her second husband, Hamelin Plantagenet, whom she married in 1163. Hamelin was the illegitimate half-brother of King Henry II, who had arranged the marriage, and the union brought him great wealth. Hamelin extensively rebuilt the castle around 1180 to 1190, including constructing the stone keep; given his "parvenu" status, he probably hoped to reinforce perceptions of his new elevated rank. King John visited the castle in 1201. The castle continued in the ownership of Hamelin


title: "Conisbrough Castle" content: Plantagenet's family, passing to his son William de Warenne in 1202. William was probably responsible for the construction of new stone curtain walls around the inner bailey, destroying the former earthwork defences in the process. The inner bailey was levelled and William built a hall and service buildings inside the castle, again in stone. Conisbrough was inherited by William's young son John de Warenne in 1239, but he was still a minor and the castle was initially managed by his mother, Maud. Under John, Conisbrough's constables carried out a range of what the historian Stephen Johnson terms "colourful if rather


title: "Conisbrough Castle" content: unlawful dealings"; one was ultimately charged with having conducted "devilish and innumerable oppressions". Further work was carried out in the castle during John's ownership, including modernising the castle hall and solar. The castle passed to John's grandson, also called John, who, in 1304, married Joan de Barr. The marriage broke down but John's attempts to gain a divorce in 1316 failed in the law courts. John blamed Thomas, the Earl of Lancaster, for this and in response he kidnapped Thomas' wife; Thomas then retaliated by seizing Conisbrough Castle. Edward II intervened in the dispute and confirmed Thomas as the new


title: "Conisbrough Castle" content: owner of the castle. In 1322, however, Thomas rebelled against the King and was executed, resulting in Edward taking control of Conisbrough himself. The King visited the castle in 1322, and spent 40 marks on repairing both Conisbrough and the neighbouring castle of Pontefract. Edward was overthrown by his wife Isabella in 1326 and the castle was returned to John. John had hoped to pass the property to his mistress and two illegitimate sons, but he outlived them and on his death in 1347 it reverted to the control of the Crown. Edward III gave the castle to his own


title: "Conisbrough Castle" content: son, Edmund of Langley, the Duke of York, who controlled it until 1402. Edmund's eldest son, Edward, owned it until 1415, when it passed to Maud Clifford, the widow of Edmund's younger son Richard, who lived there until 1446. Richard of York then inherited the castle, and on his death in 1460 during the Wars of the Roses it passed to his son Edward, who seized the throne in 1461, bringing Conisbrough back into Crown ownership once again. By the 16th century Conisbrough Castle was in a poor state of repair, and a royal survey carried out in 1537 and


title: "Conisbrough Castle" content: 1538 showed that the gates, bridge and parts of the walls had collapsed in a spectacular land slippage, and that one floor of the keep had also fallen in. The collapse of the walls was a consequence of the instability of the topsoil on top of the limestone spur, which was a mixture of clay and sandstone; once the clay was washed away over time, the remaining sandstone proved extremely unstable and liable to crack. Henry VIII gave the ruins to the Carey family, who retained it until it passed by marriage into first the Heviningham and then the Coke


title: "Conisbrough Castle" content: families. The castle was not involved in the events of the English Civil War in the 17th century, and escaped the slighting that affected many similar properties, probably because the collapse of the outer walls had already made it indefensible and of little military value. In 1737, after the death of Edward Coke, the castle and the surrounding manor were bought by Thomas Osborne, the Duke of Leeds, for £22,500. In 1811 the novelist Sir Walter Scott passed by the castle and later used it as the location for his novel "Ivanhoe", published in 1819. Scott only had a partial


title: "Conisbrough Castle" content: view of the property from the road and the events portrayed in the novel, set at the end of the 12th century, are fictitious; Scott believed the castle to have been Saxon in origin, a view shared by many 19th-century commentators. Although the writer John Wainwright was still able to praise the "picturesque view" around the castle in 1826, the antiquarian Ecroyd Smith commented with concern in 1887 on the changing character of the location, in particular the factories that were growing up around the new railway line and the "murky atmosphere" the industrial works created. In 1859 Francis D'Arcy-Osborne,


title: "Conisbrough Castle" content: the Duke of Leeds, died, leaving Conisbrough to his nephew, Sackville Lane-Fox, the Baron Conyers. The keep remained in good condition, but by 1884 it was apparent that repairs were needed and the antiquarian George Clark recommended urgent work to repair the stonework. If finances allowed it, he also urged the reinstallation of a roof and wooden floors. Limited repairs were subsequently approved by the trustees of Lord Conyers, although Clark's colleague, A. Ellis, expressed concerns that railings to protect the visitors who routinely climbed to the top of the keep had not been funded. A reported £500 was spent


title: "Conisbrough Castle" content: by the trustees renovating the castle ruins, including the construction of a lodge in the outer bailey for the castle keeper, completed in 1885, and improvements to the footpaths. Conisbrough Castle was bought by the Conisbrough local council in the 1940s, who placed the castle into the guardianship of the Ministry of Public Works in 1949, but retained the freehold ownership of the land. Two sets of archaeological excavations were carried out on the site between 1967 and 1969, exposing the foundations of the buildings in the inner bailey, and then from 1973 to 1977, examining options for future visitor


title: "Conisbrough Castle" content: facilities. By 1984, when the government agency English Heritage took over the management of the property, the condition of the visitor services was unsatisfactory and the industrial character of the surrounding area was discouraging tourists. In response, English Heritage and Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council formed a three-way agreement in 1988 with the Ivanhoe Trust, a local charity designed to generate new employment in the region. Under this agreement the trust would manage the site, English Heritage would maintain the historic fabric of the castle, while the council would construct a new visitors' centre. A new, controversial visitor's centre was built


title: "Conisbrough Castle" content: in the style of a collection of jousting tents, while the floors and roof of the keep were reinstalled between 1993 and 1995 with European Union funding, in an attempt to limit the erosion of the castle stonework. Visitor numbers following the investments fell far short of expectations, however, and by 2006 had settled at around 30,000 each year, only slightly above the level in the early 1980s. The external facilities did not age well and funding shortages led to the new audio-visual effects in the keep being turned off to save money. Discussions between the three partners about the


title: "Conisbrough Castle" content: future of the castle took place, but relations broke down and English Heritage resumed the direct management of the castle in 2008. The castle was closed for a £1.1 million programme of renovations in 2013, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, as part of which a new visitors' centre and visitor facilities were constructed. The castle is protected under UK law as a Grade I listed building and as an Ancient Monument. Conisbrough Castle has an outer and an inner bailey, approximately and across respectively. The castle was entered through the outer bailey, a rectangular enclosure protected by earthworks, which


title: "Conisbrough Castle" content: would have contained the castle's barns, stables, and other service facilities. A drawbridge on the northern side of the outer bailey, now replaced by an earth causeway, linked it with the inner bailey. The oval inner bailey was formed by scarping and counter-scarping the natural contours of the hill, producing a bank, now largely destroyed, and a protective ditch. The early 13th-century curtain wall is mostly of roughly dressed, coursed stone, up to thick and high, with two sections repaired with ashlar facings. The wall was defended by six mural towers along its southern and western sides, of which three


title: "Conisbrough Castle" content: still survive reasonably intact, and strengthened with pilaster buttresses along the northern edge. The bases of the walls and the towers were splayed, spreading their weight out more broadly, but their footings are only deep in places. A barbican protected the link from the drawbridge to the gatehouse of the inner bailey, complete with an additional corner turret. The remains of the collapse of the curtain wall are still visible in the ditch. Various buildings were constructed along the inside of the inner bailey wall of similar rough stonework to the curtain wall, but only their foundations remain today. In


title: "Conisbrough Castle" content: the south-west corner was the solar block, containing the solar and various chambers. Along the north side was the hall, pushed into an awkward corner of the curtain wall, in size and originally probably built two storeys high. Initially constructed with a central hearth, a fireplace was added into the outer wall in the later 13th century. Alongside the hall were a kitchen and pantry, the former with a cellar. On the south-east side of the inner bailey was the castle chapel, across. Conisbrough's keep was positioned on the north-east side of the inner bailey. It is an important medieval


title: "Conisbrough Castle" content: survival: the historian Sidney Toy considered it to be "one of the finest keeps in England", the archaeologist Oliver Creighton describes it as an "architectural gem" and Stephen Johnson as "one of the finest examples of late Norman defensive architecture". The keep comprises a central circular tower, in diameter, with six, large solid buttresses projecting outwards to form an hexagonal design, unique in England. It was made from magnesian limestone and tall with walls up to thick in places. It has four floors: a ground floor that serves as a basement and a vaulted stone support for the chamber above;


title: "Conisbrough Castle" content: the first floor, through which the keep was accessed; two upper floors and a roof walk, which was probably covered by a pentice and defended by battlements. The current concrete stairs to the keep are modern, and the original medieval stairway, made from timber and stone, would have incorporated a drawbridge just before the castle doors. The basement contained a well, which could also be drawn from the 1st floor through a hole in the stone floor. The keep was designed as a private tower for Hamelin Plantagenet, rather than a grander residence. As a result, it was not designed


title: "Conisbrough Castle" content: to accommodate several different households and its layout was simpler than that seen at the contemporary keep of Orford Castle, for example. The 2nd and the 3rd floor would have served as the main chamber and the lord's private chamber, forming a vertical sequence of rooms, with a vaulted, hexagonal chapel leading off the private chamber, cut into one of the buttresses. Most of the castle would have been very dark due to the lack of natural light. The main chamber, however, had a large window, by , with deep recesses to allow for the thickness of the walls; two


title: "Conisbrough Castle" content: carved seats sat alongside the window. A similar window was placed above it in the private chamber. The keep had relatively advanced fireplaces and flues for this period, the fireplace in the main chamber being exceptionally large and decorated with stone columns and carved capitals. Conisbrough Castle was probably similar to two other castles owned by the Warren earls. Hamelin Plantagenet was also responsible for the development of Mortemer Castle in France, where a similar keep was built on top of a motte, and Conisbrough might also have had resemblances to Sandal Castle in the north of England, also owned


title: "Conisbrough Castle" content: by the earls. The design of the keep was poor from a military perspective. The central circular tower provided defensive advantages but the buttresses introduced 12 vulnerable corners into the stonework, and the keep itself had no arrow slots to permit the defenders to fire on any attackers. Rather than being designed primarily for military defence, it was constructed to symbolise and reinforce Hamelin's lordship and new social status. Conisbrough Castle Conisbrough Castle is a medieval fortification in Conisbrough, South Yorkshire, England. The castle was initially built in the 11th century by William de Warenne, the Earl of Surrey, after


title: "John I of Castile" content: was happy to wed the Portuguese heiress. The wedding took place on 17 May at the Cathedral of Badajoz. Beatrice was only ten years old. King Ferdinand died soon thereafter, on 22 October 1383. According to the treaty between Castile and Portugal, the Queen Mother, Leonor Telles de Menezes, declared herself Regent in the name of her daughter and son-in-law. The assumption of the regency by the queen was badly received in many Portuguese cities; Leonor was considered a treasonous interloper who intended to usurp the Portuguese crown for Castile and end Portugal's independence. At the request of John I


title: "Phil Collins" content: leg in North America. During the tour Genesis performed at the Live Earth concert at Wembley Stadium, London. In 2007 they were honoured at the second annual VH1 Rock Honors, performing "Turn It On Again", "No Son of Mine" and "Los Endos" at the ceremony in Las Vegas. On 22 May 2008 Collins received his sixth Ivor Novello Award from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors when he was presented the International Achievement Award at a ceremony held at the Grosvenor House Hotel, London. In October 2009, it was reported that Collins was to record a Motown covers


title: "Henry III of Castile" content: city of Toledo on 25 December 1406, while preparing a campaign against the Emirate of Granada. After his death, Henry's body was taken to the city of Toledo, which he was interred in a tomb in the Chapel of the New Monarchs of the Cathedral of Toledo, and his remains are still there today. The tomb is located above the choir stalls on the Gospel side and is in the Plateresque style. The box part is decorated with the shields of Castile and León, and the lower interior has three panels decorated with trophies. Above the three panels two cherubs


title: "Motorcycle personal protective equipment" content: full grain, top grain, corrected grain, and suede can have different levels of resistance to abrasion, as well as tearing and bursting forces. Leather suits were the first motorcyclists' garments to be tested using the Cambridge impact abrasion tester, Some leather products available have been certified as meeting the European Standard EN 13595-1:2002. Originally, motorcycle leathers were adapted from tank corps gear immediately following World War I. Duster coats, which tended to catch in the wheels, were switched for short coats. Wide-pegged breeches were worn by some motorcycle police and by dispatch riders in World War II. The classic American


title: "The Great Game" content: academically by Professor H.W.C. Davis in a presentation titled "The Great Game in Asia (1800-1844)" on 10 November 1926. The use of the term "The Great Game" to describe Anglo-Russian rivalry in Central Asia became common only after the Second World War. At the start of the 19th century, the Indian subcontinent was ruled in part by independent princely states and in part by the company rule of the British East India Company. During the 19th century a political and diplomatic confrontation developed between Britain and Russia over Afghanistan which later became known as "The Great Game". Russia was fearful


title: "Dale Gribble" content: has proven he can "kick Dale's ass" while standing on a ladder. He also is incapable of performing a single pull-up. Dale admits that a prepubescent girl would probably beat him in a fight and that he doesn't know where his son got his athletic abilities — being unaware that John Redcorn is Joseph's biological father. During an altercation with Bill, Kahn describes him as an "anorexic chain smoker." Dale confirms the possibility that he may suffer from an eating disorder, when, in season three episode "Dog Dale Afternoon," Dale mentions "the binging, the purging," indicating that he suffers from


title: "Harry Belafonte" content: cash and entertaining crowds in Greenwood. In 1968, Belafonte appeared on a Petula Clark primetime television special on NBC. In the middle of a duet of "On the Path of Glory", Clark smiled and briefly touched Belafonte's arm, which prompted complaints from Doyle Lott, the advertising manager of the show's sponsor, Plymouth Motors. Lott wanted to retape the segment, but Clark, who had ownership of the special, told NBC that the performance would be shown intact or she would not allow it to be aired at all. Newspapers reported the controversy, Lott was relieved of his responsibilities, and when the


title: "Yosemite Falls" content: Yosemite Falls Yosemite Falls is the highest waterfall in Yosemite National Park, dropping a total of from the top of the upper fall to the base of the lower fall. Located in the Sierra Nevada of California, it is a major attraction in the park, especially in late spring when the water flow is at its peak. The falls consist of three sections: In all but the wettest years, the falls cease flowing altogether in late summer or fall. A very small number of rock climbers have taken the opportunity to climb the normally inaccessible rock face beneath the falls,


title: "Yosemite Falls" content: although this is an extraordinarily dangerous undertaking; a single afternoon thunderstorm could restart the falls, sweeping the climbers off the face. Lower Yosemite Fall is easily accessible near the Yosemite Lodge in Yosemite Valley. The top of Upper Yosemite Fall may be reached via a steep, strenuous, and usually crowded hike beginning near Camp 4. The Upper Fall may also be reached via several routes from the Tioga Road to the north. The main village of the native people of Yosemite Valley, the Ahwahneechee, was located at the base of the falls. The Ahwahneechee people called the waterfall "Cholock" ("the


title: "Yosemite Falls" content: fall") and believed that the plunge pool at its base was inhabited by the spirits of several witches, called the Poloti. An Ahwaneechee folktale describes a woman going to fetch a pail of water from the pool, and drawing it out full of snakes. Later that night, after the woman had trespassed into their territory, the spirits caused the woman's house to be sucked into the pool by a powerful wind, taking the woman and her newborn baby with it. Yosemite Falls Yosemite Falls is the highest waterfall in Yosemite National Park, dropping a total of from the top of


title: "Thomas Merton" content: the Benedictine Order and presiding officer of the conference, Rembert Weakland, anointed Merton. His body was flown back to the United States on board a US military aircraft returning from Vietnam. He is buried at the Trappist Monastery, Gethsemani Abbey in Bardstown, Kentucky. In 2016, theologian Matthew Fox claimed that Merton had been assassinated by agents of the Central Intelligence Agency. James W. Douglass made a similar claim in 1997. In 2018, Hugh Turley and David Martin published "The Martyrdom of Thomas Merton: An Investigation", questioning the claim of accidental electrocution. Merton was first exposed to and became interested in


title: "Georges Danton" content: Georges Danton Georges Jacques Danton (; 26 October 1759 – 5 April 1794) was a leading figure in the early stages of the French Revolution, in particular as the first president of the Committee of Public Safety. Danton's role in the onset of the Revolution has been disputed; many historians describe him as "the chief force in the overthrow of the French monarchy and the establishment of the First French Republic". He was guillotined by the advocates of revolutionary terror after accusations of venality and leniency toward the enemies of the Revolution. Danton was born in Arcis-sur-Aube in northeastern France


title: Mesen content: in New Zealand in part due to the location of the New Zealand World War I Memorial, which has annual Anzac Day commemorations on 25 April. Mesen Mesen ("Messines" in French, historically used in English) is a city located in the Belgian province of West Flanders. On January 1, 2006, Mesen had a total population of 988. The total area is 3.58 km² which gives a population density of 276 inhabitants per km². The municipality comprises only one main settlement, the town of Mesen proper. An exclave to the west of the main territory is surrounded by the municipalities of


title: Parka content: Parka A parka or anorak is a type of coat with a hood, often lined with fur or faux fur. The Caribou Inuit invented this kind of garment, originally made from caribou or seal skin, for hunting and kayaking in the frigid Arctic. Some Inuit anoraks require regular coating with fish oil to retain their water resistance. The words "anorak" and "parka" have been used interchangeably, but they are somewhat different garments. Strictly speaking, an anorak is a waterproof, hooded, pull-over jacket without a front opening, and sometimes drawstrings at the waist and cuffs, and a parka is a hip-length


title: Parka content: cold-weather coat, typically stuffed with down or very warm synthetic fiber, and with a fur-lined hood. The word "anorak" comes from the Greenlandic ("Kalaallisut") word "annoraaq". It did not appear in English until 1924; an early definition is "a beaded item worn by Greenland women or brides in the 1930s". In the early 1950s it was made from nylon, but changed to poplin by 1959, when it was featured in "Vogue" magazine as a fashion item. In 1984, "The Observer" used the term to refer to the type of people who wore it and subsequently, in the United Kingdom, it


title: Parka content: is sometimes used as a mildly derogatory term. The word "parka" is derived from the Nenets language. In the Aleutian Islands the word simply means "animal skin". It first entered the English written record in a 1625 work by Samuel Purchas. The Inuit who speak Inuktitut use parkas and have various terms related to them as follows: The original snorkel parka (USAF N-3B parka, which is 3/4 length and has a full, attached hood; the similar N-2B parka is waist-length and has an attached split hood) was developed in the United States during the early 1950s for military use, mainly


title: Parka content: for flight crews stationed in extremely cold areas. It was designed for use in areas with temperatures as low as to . Originally made with a sage green DuPont flight silk nylon outer and lining it was padded with a wool blanket type material until the mid-1970s when the padding was changed to polyester wadding making the jacket both lighter and warmer. The outer shell material also was changed to a sage green cotton-nylon blend, with respective percentages 80–20, 65–35, and 50–50 being used at various times. It gained the common name of "snorkel parka" because the hood can be


title: Parka content: zipped right up leaving only a small tunnel (or snorkel) for the wearer to look out of. This is particularly effective in very cold, windy weather although it has the added liabilities of seriously limiting the field of vision and hearing. Earlier Vietnam-era hoods had genuine fur ruffs; later versions used synthetic furs. Original manufacturers of this parka for the government included Skyline, Southern Athletic, Lancer, Greenbrier, Workroom For Designers, Alpha, and Avirex. The basic N-3B parka design was copied and sold to the civilian market by many manufacturers with varying degrees of quality and faithfulness to the original government


title: Parka content: specifications. Surplus military parkas are often available for relatively low prices online and in surplus stores; they compare quite favorably with civilian extreme-cold parkas of all types due to their robust construction, designed for combat conditions, and warmth. The 1970s–1980s civilian version of the parka was made in many colors – navy blue, green, brown, black, maroon, grey, royal blue, sky blue and bright orange. Most had an orange diamond quilted nylon lining, although a very small number did have alternative colored linings such as yellow, pale blue, and green. While still manufacturing parkas to the military standard, Alpha Industries


title: Parka content: have more recently adopted the orange lining and a slimmer fit when producing their VF59 model parka which is now more popular than the military version. In the late 1980s the snorkel parka came to be associated in the UK with trainspotters, who would supposedly wear them, giving birth to the slang term there "anorak". In Europe the snorkel parka started to regain popularity in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The fishtail parka was first used by the United States Army in 1950 during the Korean War. Following the end of the Second World War the US army recognized


title: Parka content: the need for a new cold weather combat system, resulting in four main styles of fishtail parka: the EX-48, M-48, M-51 and the M-65. The M stands for military, and the number is the year it was standardized. The EX-48 model was the first prototype or "experimental" precursor to all of them. The M-48 then being the first actual production model fishtail parka after the pattern being standardized on December 24, 1948. The name "fishtail" comes from the fish tail extension at the back that could be folded up between the legs, much like a Knochensack, and fixed using snap