AcharyaChanakya/simple-wikipedia huggingface dataset:
Dark Circle is a documentary movie about anti-nuclear protest activity. The protest is mainly focused on Diablo Canyon (Nuclear) Power Plant in California. The point of view is clearly in favor of the protesters. They believe that the protests delayed government licensing of the Diablo Canyon (Nuclear) Power Plant. They believe that as a result of this delay,construction errors were made public before the plant started operating.
The director is Judy Irving. The movie is a 1982 release. It is said to be "still powerful" long after its initial release.
Protest leader Raye Fleming takes central role. She leaflets power plant workers going to work and later leads protesters. Two thousand people were arrested at the demonstrations. This established a record for anti-nuclear civil disobedience in the US.
0:30 A black and white clip from 1963 National Educational Television program giving basic information on the dangerousness of plutonium.
1:30 Geese fly by Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant. Female voice over speculates on radiologic hazards affecting animals.
2:30 Inside Diablo Canyon Power Plant
4:00 Federal government's early tests of reactor meltdown.
4:20 Idaho 1955 Nuclear Reactor Explosion Test
4:40 New Mexico 1965 Nuclear Reactor Explosion Test
4:55 Nevada 1965 - Actual explosion of an unshielded nuclear reactor, it's radioactive core blown to pieces and scattered to the atmosphere.
5:55 Federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission Hearings, agenda limited to site specific matters.
7:45 Ray contacting workers at DCPP.
8:54 Quotes worker "None of the equipment or material or structures here would fail or be adversely effected by the earthquake."
9:30 "Is it possible to design and build anything with a sufficient degree of certainty and safety that you should go ahead and do it."
9:40 Diablo Canyon Anti-Nuclear Protest in San Luis Obispo, CA
10:00 60 local groups from across California formed a coalition to organize large scale highly visible opposition to Diablo.
10:15 California Governor Jerry Brown came out against Diablo.
10:25 In the end there was no time for rallies or marches. Back at Diablo Canyon's Main Gate, the human blockade began.
12:50 Blockading protesters.
13:15 Final preparations to start the reactor, then PG&E publicly admitted to backwards installation.
Allegedly "first of hundreds of mistakes"
14:50 Protesters taking credit for delaying start of plant prior to placement of the plant in service.
15:00 Analogy to frogs by Ray. "Boiling Frogs".
15:50 Rhetoric.
17:10 Comment by filmmaker, Judy Irving.
The movie was approved for national broadcast in 1985, but that decision was rejected a year later. Many people believe that was censorship. B.J.Bullert commented that the PBS/KQED decision "robbed a national public television audience" . He extrapolates this critical remark to the media across the board and its failure to focus public attention on the putative biological hazard of nuclear power.
B.J. Bullert, in his book "Public Television: Politics and the Battle over Documentary Film" protested what he viewed as censorship. He stated that Dark Circle was outside of the mainstream at that time but now the viewpoint in the movie is widely accepted. Nat Katzman, former KQED station manager, disagreed. He is quoted in Bullert's book, saying "It's more difficult to say ("Dark Circle") falsified anything, but it left one with the uncomfortable feeling that this is propaganda, not journalism".
The movie is clearly created to raise public alarm about the hazards of nuclear power. It is also about problems at the regulatory agency, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). However, there are numerous points in the movie in which the voices heard are those of the workers. We also hear from the Pacific Gas and Electric management, and the lawyer for the NRC.
Communes of the Charente-Maritime department
The following is a list of the 472 communes of the Charente-Maritime "département" in France.
Bourges is a commune. It is the prefecture of the Cher department.
Bourges is twinned with:
Communes of the Cher department
The following is a list of the 290 communes of the Cher "département" in France.
Tulle
Tulle () is a French commune, the "prefecture" of the Corrèze department in central France. It is in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region. It is also the capital of the "arrondissement" of Tulle.
Tulle is in the valley of the Corrèze river at the confluence of this river with several tributaries: the Solane and the Céronne on the right side, and Saint-Bonnette and Montane on the left side. The city is in narrow part of the valley along several Kilometres.
The "commune" of Tulle has an area of , and its average altitude is ; at the city hall, the altitude is .
The "commune" of Tulle is surrounded by the "communes":
Three rivers flow through the "commune"ː the river Diège (the town sometimes is called "Ussel-sur-Diège"), the river Sarsonne and the stream "Étang Roux".
The climate of Tulle, in the Köppen climate classification, is Cfb - Oceanic climate with template summers.
The inhabitants of this city are known, in French, as "Tullistes".
With a population of 14,325, Tulle has a population density of inhabitants/km.
Evolution of the population in Tulle
Tulle forms, together with other 7 "communes", the urban area of Tulle with a population of 21,108 inhabitants (2013) and an area of . This urban area is the centre of the metropolitan area of Tulle, formed by 25 "communes", with a population of 30,970 inhabitants (2013) and an area of .
Tulle is the prefecture of the Corrèze department, the capital of the "arrondissement" of Tulle and the administrative centre () of the canton of Tulle.
It is part of the intercommunality "Tulle Agglo" ().
Tulle is twinned with:
English grammar is the grammar of the English language. Grammar is the rules about how to speak and write in a language. English grammar started out based on Old English, which is considered to be a Germanic language. After the Norman French conquered England in 1066, parts of the Latin language were brought to the English language by the Norman French.
Dialects of English vary not only in pronunciation but in grammar. For example, people who use what is called General American English or BBC English might say, "I didn't do anything", while someone who speaks what is called African American Vernacular English might say, "I didn't do nothing". London working class version: "I ain't done nuffink!" The dialect a person uses is usually decided by where they live.
Even though the dialects of English use different words or word order, they still have grammar rules. However, when writing in American English, grammar uses the rules of General American English. When people talk about using "proper English", they usually mean using the grammar of general British English, as described in standard reference works. The models for "spoken" English in Britain are often called Received Pronunciation or BBC English.
English makes few changes to its word endings. These are called ('suffixes'): plurals and possessives ("John's") are the most common. English verbs drop most endings except one: I love, you love, they love, but "she loves". That final 's' is a remnant of Anglo-Saxon, which had more suffixes. Verbs do have endings which show changes in tense: walked, walking.
Word order is the other big difference. In English, adjectives usually come before the noun. Most Romance languages normally put their adjectives after the nouns. For example, in English, a person may say "I like fast cars", but in Spanish, it is "Me gustan los coches rápidos" [coches = cars; rápidos = fast]. The order of the words has changed: if just the words, without the grammar, are translated into English, it would mean 'to me they please the cars fast'. This is because Spanish and English have different rules about word order. In German, main verbs often come near the end of sentences, but in English we usually put them between subject and object, as: "the cat sat on the mat".
Grammar studies the different parts of language. The parts of language are called "parts of speech." The parts of speech are nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections.
Nouns are things. They can be a single thing such as an apple. They can also be plural such as a box of apples. There is a special kind of noun called a proper noun, which is a name. For instance, Johnny Appleseed.
Pronouns are special types of nouns. They are not a particular thing. They can mean many different things. An example is the word "it." In the sentence "I like the ball; it is blue," you have to look at what comes before "it" to know that "it" is talking about the ball. The noun before a pronoun that the pronoun really means is called the antecedent.
The basic verb form is called the infinitive. The infinitive for existence is "to be". A famous example is the speech of Hamlet: to be or not to be?
Words that tell you about nouns are called adjectives. When an adjective is used, you learn more about the noun. An example would be the words "red" and "juicy" in the phrase "the red apple is juicy." They do not have any endings. Even if the noun they talk about is plural, they stay the same. You can see this in the sentence "the red apples are juicy."
Adverbs are words that tell you about words that are not nouns. An adverb can describe a verb, like the word "quickly" in the sentence "He ran quickly." They can also describe an adjective. The adverb "very" describes the adjective "sick" in the sentence "The boy is very sick." Adverbs can even describe other adverbs, as in the sentence "He ran very quickly."
A preposition is a word that describes how one noun (or pronoun) relates to another in the sentence as a whole. The preposition usually comes before the noun that it adds to the sentence, which is called the object of the preposition. An example is the word "over" in the sentence "he walked over the bridge."
A conjunction is a word that connects other parts of a sentence. It can connect two words that both do the same thing in a sentence. "And" in the sentence "the boy and the girl run" connects the boy to the girl because they both run. Conjunctions can even connect two clauses that would normally be different sentences together. The word "but" in the sentence "I like cats, but he likes dogs" is a conjunction doing this.
Interjections are words that do not fit normal grammar rules. Interjections can and often do take the place of an entire sentence, as they can give they meaning of a whole sentence in a single word. These can be used to show emotions, such as the word "Hooray," which means that the speaker is happy or likes something. They are also used to shorten common phrases that would otherwise need a full sentence to talk about. For example, saying the word "yes" is much simpler than saying "what you say is true," so it is usually used instead. Interjections like these can be helpful for saving time and making complex sentences very simple. Often, though, interjections may have no meaning at all, such as the word "um."
Grammar also studies how the parts of language work together. This is called "syntax." Some common ways in which the words fit together are sentences, phrases, clauses, and paragraphs.
Communes of the Corrèze department
The following is a list of the 286 communes of the Corrèze "département" in France.
Edward is an English male given name. It is an old name, dating from before the Norman conquest of England in 1066. It means "wealthy" (rich) and "guard". "Ted", "Teddy", and "Ned" are often used as nicknames for people called Edward, such as Ted Kennedy, or Ned Kelly. There have been many kings of England called Edward, such as Edward the Confessor, and Edward VIII.
Holiday Inn is a brand of hotels. Holiday Inn is one of the world's most recognized hotel brands. It is part of the InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG).
Kemmons Wilson had the idea for the business after a family road trip to Washington, D.C.. During the trip, he was disappointed by the quality of roadside motels at that time. Mr. Wilson partnered with Wallace E. Johnson to build the first four motels on roads entering Memphis, Tennessee. Eddie Bluestein was the architect who designed these first hotels. He named the first one "Holiday Inn" after a Bing Crosby movie as a joke.
Walter Kogler
Walter Kogler (born 12 December 1967 in Wolfsberg, Carinthia) is a retired Austrian football defender and coach. At the moment he is coach of FC Wacker Innsbruck, which is playing in the Austrian Bundesliga.
In his youth years he played for FC St. Michael and Wolfsberger AC. He start as professional player with SK Sturm Graz. His next club was Austria Wien, where he started also his team career. After one year in France with AS Cannes he came back to Austria, where he played for LASK Linz, Austria Salzburg and FC Kärnten.
After his professional career he became football coach starting in the football academy of FC Kärnten. His first team was SK St. Andrä in the Regionalliga (3rd level). After one year with DSV Leoben he went to FC Wacker Innsbruck. With this team he reached in 2010 the championship and was promoted to the Bundesliga.
Walter Kogler played 28 matches for the Austrian team and scored one goal. He was member of the Austrian team for the FIFA World Cup 1998. As player he was 5 times Austrian Champion (with Austria Wien, Austria Salzburg and Wacker Innsbruck). In 17 years as professional he played 495 matches in the Austrian Bundesliga.
AJ Lee
April Jeanette "AJ" Brooks (born Mendez, March 19, 1987) is an American retired professional wrestler. She is best known for her time in WWE under the ring name AJ Lee. She competed on the third season of NXT but finished fourth overall. Even though she did not win NXT she was still given a contract with the WWE and debuted in her first match for the SmackDown brand on May 27, 2011 edition where she teamed with Kaitlyn in a losing effort against Alicia Fox and Tamina.
AJ Lee held the Divas Championship 3 times in the WWE, successfully retaining her title at WrestleMania XXX. the night after on 'Raw' she was defeated and lost her title to NXT Woman's Champion, Paige. On the June 30, 2014 episode of "Raw", Lee returned to the WWE. She challenged Paige for the Divas Championship and won her second championship.
On April 3, 2015, it was announced that AJ decided to retire from the company.
Basset Hound
The Basset Hound is a short-legged dog, of the hound family. Bassets are used in hunting to detect the scent of game. Their sense of smell for tracking is second only to that of the Bloodhound.
The name "Basset" comes from French words meaning ""rather low"".
Basset Hounds usually have coats of brown, black or white and are most often spotted. Sometimes they can be other colors. Basset Hounds have been bred from the nineteenth century. They are said to descend from the Basset d'Artois. Basset Hounds are tall, and can weight up to .
Alvin Plantinga
Alvin Plantinga (born November 15, 1932, Ann Arbor, Michigan ) is an American epistemologist, philosopher of religion and professor at the University of Notre Dame. He is a founding member of the Society of Christian Philosophers.
Plantinga's aim in philosophy is to defend believing in God as rational. His epistemology is one that tries to say that knowledge is only possible if you accept the possibility of some form of intelligent design by God.
Acute radiation syndrome
Castorocauda
Castorocauda was a genus of small, semi-aquatic proto-mammals which lived in the Jurassic period, about 154 million years ago.
Its fossil was found in lakebed sediments of the Daohugou Beds of Inner Mongolia. "Castorocauda" was highly specialized, with adaptations like those of modern semi-aquatic mammals such as beavers, otters, and the platypus (convergent evolution). It is the earliest animal found with fur.
"Castorocauda" is one of the near-mammals in a group called the Docodonta.
Although "Castorocauda" was not a crown group mammal, it is important in the study of how mammals evolved. It was the first find with an almost complete skeleton. Also it is not a "small nocturnal insectivore".
Element Skateboards
Element Skateboards (sometimes shortened to Element) is an American company. It is known for making skateboards and swimwear. It was founded in 1992 by Johnny Schillereff. The company is based out of Irvine, California. The company was originally known as Underworld Element Skateboards but Schillereff decided to drop the "Underworld" part due to the company being absorbed because of financial problems. The Element company also sponsors professional skateboarders like Bucky Lasek, Bam Margera, Chad Muska, Ray Barbee, Vanessa Torres, Mark Appleyard, Nyjah Huston and
Madars Apse
Gustave Doré
Paul Gustave Doré (; January 6, 1832 – January 23, 1883) was a French artist, engraver, illustrator and sculptor. Most of Doré's work was wood engraving and steel engraving.
Doré was born in Strasbourg. His first illustrated story was published at the age of fifteen. As a young man, he began work as a literary illustrator in Paris. He was hired to illustrate scenes from books by Rabelais, Balzac, Milton and Dante.
In 1853, Doré was asked to illustrate the works of Lord Byron. British publishers asked him to do more work, including a new illustrated English Bible. Ten years later, he illustrated a French edition of Cervantes's "Don Quixote". His images of the knight and Sancho Panza have influenced later readers, artists, and stage and film directors' ideas of how the two characters looked. Doré also illustrated an edition of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" with larger than usual pages. He was paid 30,000 francs by the publisher Harper & Brothers in 1883.
Doré's English Bible (1866) was a great success, and in 1867 Doré had a major exhibition of his work in London. The Doré Gallery in Covelant Bond Street opened after the show. In 1869, Blanchard Jerrold suggested that they work together to make a complete portrait of London. Jerrold got the idea from "The Microcosm of London" produced by Rudolph Ackermann, William Pyne, and Thomas Rowlandson in 1808. Doré signed a five-year contract with the publishers Grant & Co. He had to stay in London for three months each year. He was paid £10,000 a year for the project.
The completed book, "London: A Pilgrimage," was published in 1872. It had 180 engravings. The book was successful financially and influenced many people. However, many critics at the time disliked it. Some of these critics wrote that Doré paid too much attention to the poverty in parts of London.
His later works included Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner", Milton's "Paradise Lost", Tennyson's "The Idylls of the King", "The Works of Thomas Hood", and "The Divine Comedy". His work also appeared in the "Illustrated London News".
He continued to illustrate books until he died in Paris after a short illness in 1883. He is buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.
Doré made many works of art. This list is very long, but does not include every piece of art that Doré made. It does not include his sculptures and paintings. Also, many journal illustrations are not listed.
WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009
WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 is a wrestling video game that was published by THQ. It is available for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Nintendo DS, Wii and Xbox 360 systems. The game is also featured as a mobile phone game which can be downloaded. It featured new features like the Inferno match, a newer tag team match, and also four new game modes: Create-a-Finisher, Road to WrestleMania, Career and multiplayer season. The game received positive reviews from video game reviewers. Triple H and Shawn Michaels both as member of D-Generation X are on the cover.
Sylvester Ritter (December 13, 1952 – June 2, 1998) was an American professional wrestler who was best known for wrestling with World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and World Championship Wrestling (WCW) under the ring names, Junkyard Dog and JYD for short. He died in Forest, Mississippi on June 2, 1998 after he fell asleep at the wheel of the car he was driving home in and crashed into another car.
Ritter held many championships during his professional wrestling career:
Cell (novel)
Lisey's Story
Guéret
Guéret () is a commune of France. It is the prefecture of the Creuse department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region.
In 1514, Guéret became the capital of the County of Marche, a medieval French county, approximately corresponding to the modern Creuse department.
In 1790, when the departments were created, Guéret was named as the capital of the Creuse department.
Guéret is in a plateau between the Creuse and the Gartempe rivers, at the foot of two hills: the "Puy de Gaudy", high, and the "Maupuy", high. The "commune" has an area of , and its average altitude is ; at the city hall, the altitude is .
The city of Guéret is at about from Bordeaux, at from Toulouse, at from Paris and at from Lyon.
The "communes" that are around Guéret are Saint-Fiel, Sainte-Feyre, Savennes, Saint-Christophe, La Chapelle-Taillefert, Saint-Léger-le-Guérétois and Saint-Sulpice-le-Guérétois.
Guéret has an oceanic climate with relatively hot summers, mild winters and abundant rainfall, Cfb in the Köppen climate classification.
The inhabitants of Guéret are known, in French, as "Guérétois" (women: "Guérétoises").
The "commune" of Guéret has a population, in 2014, of 13,342; its population density is of inhabitants/km.
Evolution of the population in Guéret
Guéret forms, together with Saint-Fiel, the urban area of Guéret with a population of 14,157 inhabitants (2013) and an area of . This urban area is the centre of the metropolitan area of Guéret, formed by 32 "communes" with a population of 31,499 inhabitants and an area of .
Guéret is the prefecture of the Creuse department, the capital of the "arrondissement" of Guéret and the administrative centre () of two cantons:
It is part of the intercommunality "Le Grand Guéret" ().
Guéret is twinned with:
Communes of the Creuse department
The following is a list of the 260 communes of the Creuse "département" of France.
Périgueux
Périgueux () is a commune in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region in southwestern France. It is the capital, prefecture, of the Dordogne department.
Périgueux is in the centre of the Dordogne department, in the tourist region named as "Périgord Blanc". The Isle river flows through the city.
The city is at about from Angoulême, from Limoges, from Agen, from Bordeaux and from Cahors.
The "commune" of Périgueux has an area of and its average altitude is ; at the city hall, the altitude is .
Périgueux is surrounded by the "communes" Château-l'Évêque, Champcevinel, Trélissac, Boulazac, Notre-Dame-de-Sanilhac, Coulounieix-Chamiers, Marsac-sur-l'Isle and Chancelade.
Périgueux has an oceanic climate with template summers (Köppen climate classification: Cfb).
The inhabitants of Périgueux are known, in French, as "Pétrocoriens" (women: "Pétrocoriennes"). Another name for the inhabitants of Périgueux is "Périgourdins".
With a population of 30,069 (2014), Périgueux has a population density of inhabitants/km.
Evolution of the population in Périgueux
Périgueux forms, together with 8 other "communes", the urban area of Périgueux with a population of 66,895 inhabitants (2013) and an area of . This urban area is the centre of the metropolitan area of Périgueux, formed by 55 "communes" with a population of 102,855 inhabitants (2013) and an area of .
Périgueux is a prefecture of the Dordogne and the capital of the "arrondissement" of Périgueux.
The "commune" is the administrative centre () of two cantons
It is part of the intercommunality "Le Grand Périgueux" ().
Périgueux is twinned with:
Communes of the Dordogne department
The following is a list of the 557 communes of the Dordogne "département" in France.
Évreux
Évreux is a commune. It is found in the Eure department in France.
Évreux is twinned with:
Communes of the Eure department
The following is a list of the 675 communes of the Eure "département" in France.
Eric Nickulas
Eric Nickulas (born March 25, 1975 in Hyannis, Massachusetts) is a American professional ice hockey right winger who last played for the ERC Ingolstadt of the Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL). Nickulas has also played a total of 7 seasons in the NHL; 4 with the Boston Bruins, 2 with the St. Louis Blues and 1 with the Chicago Blackhawks. He won the Calder Cup in 1998 while he was apart of the Boston Bruins farm team, the Providence Bruins.
Halteres
Halteres are small knobbed structures modified from the hind wings in flies. They vibrate during flight, and help the insect fly better.
The halteres evolved from wings. Ancestral flying insects had two pairs of wings, like dragonflies, hymenoptera and lepidoptera still do. Flies have only the front pair of wings.
Halteres help balancing and improve flight. They help flies to perform their fast aerobatics. In addition to providing rapid feedback to the muscles steering the wings, they also help stabilise the head during flight.
They are flapped rapidly and work as gyroscopes, telling the insect about its body position during flight.
Every vibrating object tends to maintain its plane of vibration, a result of the Coriolis effect. If the body of the insect changes direction in flight or rotates about its axis, the vibrating halteres exert a force on the body. The insect detects this force with sensory organs at the base of the halteres.
The two halteres vibrate in different planes, each forming an angle of about 45 degrees with the long axis of the insect. This increases the information got from the halteres.
In Diptera, the formation of the haltere during metamorphosis is dependent on the homeotic gene "Ultrabithorax" (Ubx). If this gene is experimentally deactivated, the haltere will develop into a fully developed wing. This is an excellent illustration of an important mechanism of evolutionary development; a simple homeotic gene change can result in a radically different phenotype.
The Strepsiptera, small insects parasitic on bees, wasps and cockroaches, also have halteres. We know the evolution was independent because in the Strepsiptera the "forewings" evolved into halteres while, in the Diptera, the "hindwings" changed into halteres. This is a classic case of convergent evolution.
Grimaldi and Engel say halteres have evolved at least seven times in insects, and "in most cases it is known to be associated with improved manoeuvering in flight".
Chartres
Chartres is a French commune in the Eure-et-Loir department. About 39,000 people live there.
Chartres is twinned with:
Jethou
Jethou is a small island that is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey in the Channel Islands. It is privately leased, and not open to the public.
It is immediately south of Herm and has an area of approximately 44 acres (18 ha).
It is said that in AD 709 a storm washed away the strip of land which connected the island with Herm.
The island's name contains the "-hou" suffix, which means "a small island".
In 1416, it became part of Henry V of England's estate. It is still a Crown lease, and is owned by the States of Guernsey.
From 1920 to 1923 it was leased by Compton MacKenzie along with Herm and remained part of that estate for years, although it is currently part of a different one.
The British 1957 musical "Free as Air" by Dorothy Reynolds & Julian Slade was set on the fictitious island of 'Terhou', which was based on Jethou.
On the top is a marker. It is said that in earlier times, pirates were hanged on it with chains, like nearby Crevichon.
From September 1964 until December 1971 the island was occupied by the Faed family consisting of Mr Angus Faed, his wife Susan Faed and their four children, Colin, Erik, Colette and Amanda. Mrs. Susan Faed was the 22nd tenant of Jethou.
It is flanked by two islets, Crevichon to the north and Fauconniere to the south. There is one house on the island and two cottages as well as a large garage where vehicles such as quad bikes and tractors are stored.
It is now leased by Sir Peter Ogden of IT company Computacenter.
Unlike the largely autonomous islands of Sark and Alderney within the Bailiwick, Jethou cannot pass its own laws. It is administered by the States of Guernsey, and elects members to the States of Deliberation as part of the St. Peter Port South electoral district.
At the east of Jethou, puffins can be seen swimming off the rocks.
They also nest there in the east clifftop.
Communes of the Eure-et-Loir department
The following is a list of the 403 communes of the Eure-et-Loir "département", in France.
Lihou
"Not to be confused with Lihou Reef National Nature Reserve"
Lihou () is a small tidal island (95 vergées; 38½ acres; 15.6 hectares) that is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, Channel Islands. It lies off the west coast of Guernsey and is the most westerly point in the Channel Islands. Coordinates: . The island was bought by the States of Guernsey in January 1995. Lihou is connected to Guernsey at low tide by an ancient stone causeway between the island and L'Eree headland. It is part of the Parish of St. Peter's. Lihou's bird and marine life makes it an important conservation area.
Like many other Channel Islands, Lihou's name contains the Norman language suffix ""-hou"" of Old Norse origin.
The island has the ruins of the priory of St. Mary which is believed to have been set up by Benedictine monks in the 12th century. The monks of the priory were not very popular with the local people, who thought they were devil worshippers. This animosity may be due to the monks' insistence on rights of wreck. Until 1415 it was under the control of Mont Saint Michel and then Eton College until the Reformation when it was closed and fell into disrepair.
The house on Lihou was used for target practice by heavy artillery during the German Occupation of the Channel Islands during World War II. It has now been rebuilt as accommodation for school groups, and is used as an educational resource.
"Vraic" (seaweed) was harvested and dried on frames set up on the beach. A 1927 factory building produced iodine from seaweed. All traces of the industry disappeared during the German Occupation.
The Lihou family name is included in parish records which go back as far as the early 15th century and there are a number of groups who study the ancestry of the Lihou's. More recently a group was set up using the social networking site 'Facebook' which links Lihou's around the world.
-hou
-hou is a suffix (part added to the end of a word) found in many Channel Islands and Norman names. It is the Norman language version of the Old Norse "holmr", meaning a small island, and often found anglicised elsewhere as "holm". It can still be found in modern Scandinavian languages, e.g. Stockholm.
The Norman "hommet/houmet" also comes from this suffix.
In Parisian French, the equivalent is "îlot", which is the same as the English "islet".
Vergée
A vergée, or vergee, is a unit of area, a quarter of the French acre. Other spellings include vergie and vrégie. It is not an SI unit. The SI unit of area is the square metre.
The term derives from Latin "virga" (rod). Compare French "verge" (yard).
In the Channel Islands, it is a standard measure of land, but the statutory definition differs between the bailiwicks.
In France a vergée was 12,100 square Paris feet (1,276.8 m²). It was 25 (square) perches. The surveying perch measured 22 French feet. the royal perch was 18 French feet.
1 vergée (Guernsey) is equivalent to:
1 vergée (Jersey) is equivalent to:
Derby Industrial Museum
Derby Silk Mill, is a museum of industry in Derby, England. The museum is housed in a historic former silk mill which is part of Derwent Valley Mills. Between 1717 and 1721 George Sorocold built Britain’s first mill beside the River Derwent. This mill was built to produce silk threads using machines powered by a water wheel.
John Lombe copied the design for the machines used for spinning large quantities of silk, when he was working within the Italian Silk Industry. This may be the first example of industrial espionage.
Traditionally the spinning wheel had been used for producing small quantities of silk thread at the homes of local spinsters. But these new, large machines were able to produce far greater quantities of silk and came to compete with the Italians. However, these machines required large buildings and a huge power source. An undershot water wheel turned by the mill fleam on the west side of the new Silk Mill drove these large spinning machines.
John Lombe unnaturally died in 1722. It was believed that he was killed with poison by an Italian as the revenge for stealing trade secrets. His half brother, Sir Thomas Lombe Knt., died on 2 June 1739 leaving his estate to his widow and their two daughters.
Dame Elizabeth advertised the lease of the building and machinery in 1739, and the remaining 64 years of the lease were assigned to Richard Wilson junior of Leeds for £2,800.
Richard Wilson stayed in Leeds and took a proportion of the profits. The mill was conducted by William and Samuel Lloyd (both London merchants) and Thomas Bennet as salaried manager.
A description of the mill by William Wilson dating from sometime between 1739 and 1753 is left as follows:
These circular spinning machines (also known as 'throwing machines'), were the most progressive feature of the factory. Also, they used the single source of power (water), and employed many organized workers (200-400, according to recent sources). Due to these total process of production from raw silk to fine quality thread, the Lombes' silk mill is regarded as the first successful use of the factory system in Britain.
The Silk Mill was visited by many tourists. For example, Boswell visited there in September 1777. Not all visitors thought that the mill was in good condition. Torrington commented on the "heat, stinks and noise". In 1835, Fairholt was shocked at unhealthy poor children. Foreign visitors also visited the mill during their trips.
William Hutton was once the employees and he later recalled the long hours, low wages and beatings. Work only stopped in time of extreme dryness or frost, or lack of silk supply. But in August 1748, unofficial holidays were taken during elections and Derby races.
The partnership of Wilson and Lloyd ended in 1753 due to quarrel and legal suits. Lloyd remained in possession of the building and machinery.
In 1765 Thomas Bennet bought the mill from Lloyd subject to a mortgage to the Wilson family but the mill was neglected for years, because other mills in Derby and Cheshire had grown to become competitor, and silk trade itself had declined.
Lamech Swift became the sub-tenant in 1780. He paid £7 to the Corporation and £170 to Thomas Wilson (brother of Richard and William) per year respectively. He conflicted with the Corporation on repairs to dams in 1781, he remained in occupation until the lease expired in 1803.
The Corporation advertised the lease in 1803 to run for 60 years. The advertisement said that the "Italian works" was still used for throwing silk.
In November 1833, labor movements began in Derby which led to the formation of the Grand National Trades Union in February 1834. Several months later, Tolpuddle Martyrs occurred. The Silk Mill was not at the centre of the movements, Taylor (the mill's lessee at this time) was one of the employers who agreed not to employ any worker who was a union member. By the middle of April 1834 Taylor reported that two-thirds of his machinery was working and many of his former workers were applying for reinstatement. According to "The Derby Mercury" some of the former unionists were never able to find next employment in Derby. This event is commemorated by a march organized by the Derby Trades Union Council every year on the weekend before MayDay.
The Taylor family remained in occupation of the mill but in 1865 they ruined and were forced to sell their machinery and lease. "The Derby Mercury" advertised many silk mills for sale that year, and it were obvious that a general depression was hitting the industry. This took place four years before the Cobden Treaty with France which is said to have effectively destroyed the British silk industry.
The long connection with silk production ended in about 1908 when F.W. Hampshire and Company, the Chemists, moved into the buildings to make fly papers and cough medicines. On 5 December 1910 at 5.00 am, fire broke out in the near flour mill of Sowter Bothers and soon the flame spread to the Silk Mill. The mill's east wall fell into the river and the whole building was burnt up. Great efforts were made by the Borough Fire Brigade and the Midland Railway Company who saved the shell of the tower and the outline of the doorways leading into the original five floors. These can still be seen today on the tower staircase. The building was rebuilt at the same height but with three stories instead of five and remains that way today.
During the 1920s the building passed ownership to the Electricity Authority. They used it partly as stores, workshops and a canteen. Hidden from the road by the power station, the mill's existence was largely forgotten by the general public until the power station was removed in 1970. It was then converted into Industrial Museum which Derby had proposed for a long time. The museum opened on 29 November 1974.
Derby City Council closed the museum on 3 April 2011 in order to free funds for the redevelopment of the Silk Mill museum and other museums in the city. The Report of the Strategic Director of Neighbourhoods (Item 7 put before the Council Cabinet meeting held on the 26 October 2010) indicated that 8.6 full time jobs would be lost but on the contrary £197,000 would be saved to offset the loss of "Renaissance Programme" funding. No date for the re-opening of the museum is given in the report, although a period of two years has been reported.
Sources of information:
Auch (Gascon: "Aush" or "Aux") is a commune in southwestern France, in the region of Occitanie. It is the "prefecture" (capital) of the Gers department. It is also the capital of 3 "cantons": Auch-1, Auch-2 and Auch-3.
Auch is the historical capital of Gascony and the people of this city are known, in French, as "auscitain" (women: "auscitaines").
Auch is an ancient town. The name of "Auch" comes from the people that inhabited the area at the time of the Roman conquest. The name of this tribe was "Ausci", singular "Auscus".
The Romans named the town where that tribe lived as "Augusta Auscorum" (or "Augusta Ausciorum"), which means "Augusta of the Ausci". Eventually, "Augusta" was dropped, and the name changed into modern Gascon "Aush", and modern French "Auch".
Auch is in the southwest of France, in Armagnac (Gascony), in the valley of the Gers river. It extends along the sides of the river that gives its name to the department.
The river splits the city in two parts:
The "commune" is, in straight line, at from the Pyrenees, from the Bay of Biscay, from Bordeaux, from Toulouse and from Pau.
It has an area of and its average altitude is .
Auch is surrounded by the following "communes", all of them part of the arrondissement of Auch: Roquelaure to the north, Preignan and Montaut-les-Créneaux to the northeast, Leboulin and Montégut to the east, Pessan to the southeast, Pavie to the south, Lasséran and Barran to the southwest, Ordan-Larroque and Duran to the west and Castin and Castillon-Massas to the northwest.
The climate of the department is an oceanic climate with template summers, Cfb (Marine West Coast Climate) in the Köppen climate classification.
The average temperature for the year in Auch is . The warmest month, on average, is July with an average temperature of . The coolest month on average is January, with an average temperature of .
The highest recorded temperature in Auch is , which was recorded in August. The lowest recorded temperature in Auch is , which was recorded in January.
The average amount of precipitation for the year in Auch is . The month with the most precipitation on average is May with of precipitation. The month with the least precipitation on average is February with an average of .
The city of Auch has a population, in 2014, of 21,807; its population density is of inhabitants/km.
Evolution of the population in Auch
Auch is the prefecture of the Cantal department, the capital of the "arrondissement" of Auch and the administrative centre () of three cantons:
It is part of the intercommunality "Le Grand Auch" ().
Auch is twinned with:
A city founded by the Romans, Auch had its period of power during the Middle Ages, when it was the capital of the old province of Gascony. The high quality of the limestone is an important component of its monuments and buildings, such as its cathedral.
Some of these places of interest are:
Crevichon
Crevichon is an islet off Herm, immediately to the north of Jethou, in the Channel Islands.
According to Dr S.K. Kellett-Smith, the name "Crevichon" means "island of crabs, crayfish or cranes".
Like many names in the Channel Islands, it is Norman language in origin. A thousand years ago, the water level was ten feet lower (3 m), so there were many more of the animals the island was named after.
The island is about 212 by 168 metres (696 by 551 ft) at its widest. Its area is less than . The distance to Jethou is about 215 metres (705 ft).
A 16th-century drawing of the islet, now in the British Museum, shows Crevichon as apparently a wooded islet.
Prof. John Le Patourel, in "The Building of Castle Cornet" said that in 1566, iron and hammers were taken to "Creavissham", and the island quarried for the castle. The quarry has been used since then, but this has made the island much smaller, and less visible. As a result, a fifteen-foot () marker was built on the top. Crevichon may have provided the granite for the steps of St. Paul's Cathedral in London.
It is said that in earlier times, pirates were hanged on it with chains, like nearby Jethou.
Compton Mackenzie, former owner of Herm called Crevichon "Merg" in his book, "Fairy Gold", which is a fictionalised version of the islands.
In 1953, Victor Coysh says that he saw the remains of a German bomber, from the time of the occupation.
Other wrecks include:
Communes of the Gard department
This is a list of the 353 communes of the Gard "département", in France.
Houmets
""Houmet" redirects here, for further information on the placename element, please see "-hou""
Les Houmets are to the east of Guernsey in the Channel Islands. Their name comes from "hou", a Norman/Guernésiais word meaning islets. They are tidal islands.
Amongst the islets are Houmet Benest/Houmet Benêt, Houmet Paradis and Houmet Hommetol (Omptolle). Although Victor Hugo suggests that they were heavily eroded by quarrying (which was certainly true in the case of Crevichon off Herm), Victor Coysh disagrees saying:
Victor Hugo who wrote about many of the Channel Islands in his books, described Les Houmets, in "The Toilers of the Sea" ("Les Travailleurs de la mer"). Gilliat, the main character lives on Houmet Paradis:
Moreover, this house had some very nasty inhabitants besides Gilliat,
The novel was written in the 1860s and set in the 1820s when the islands were still inhabited.
Houmet Benest/Benêt is about two hundred yards (180 m) from the shore. It is triangular, and 80 × 50 yards (73 × 45 m). There is an 18th century gun battery here, to defend against the French. The German occupation added their own, and the British another after the Germans left. The steamer "Clarrie" sank off Houmet Benêt in 1921, in the Great Roussel. "Heathery Brae" in 1952 tried to salvage it, but ended up being wrecked itself, and there are also the wrecks of "Vixen" (a brig), "Rescue" (a tug) and "Romp" (a cutter) went ashore here. It is covered in grass and brambles.
Houmet Paradis, the fictional Gilliat's home, was originally known as Houmet de l'Eperquerie, as it was used for fish gutting, and drying on stands known as "perques" (perches). It was formerly owned by the Collas family, whose estate at Paradis, gave the islet its new name. In the 1920s, it was used for quarrying, and it was also used for grazing cattle, and has a lot of grass. In 1951 it was sold to James Watson of Newcastle upon Tyne for £500 who placed the island under the stewardship of the National Trust of Guernsey. It remained within the family until 2004 when it was sold at auction by James Watson's grandson (also called James Watson who live on Alderney) to a local consortium to keep the island as a nature reserve.
Hommetol, more commonly called Omptolle by the Ordnance Survey etc., is used for gathering ormer. It is mostly covered in thrift.
Phoenix Park () is a park in the middle of Dublin, Ireland. It lies about west of the city centre, north of the River Liffey. The wall around it is 16 km long. The area within the wall is . It is one of the largest walled city parks in Europe. It has large areas of grassland and wide roads with trees on both sides. A herd of wild Fallow deer have lived in the park since the seventeenth century. The English name ("Phoenix") comes from the Irish "fionn uisce" meaning "clear water".
A Royal Hunting Park was created in 1662 by the English Lord Lieutenant of Ireland at the time, Lord Ormonde. The park contained pheasants and wild deer, and a wall was built around the whole area to stop them escaping. The Park originally included more land which was to the south of the River Liffey. But when they started to build the Royal Hospital at Kilmainham in 1680, the Park was made smaller to the size it is today. It was opened to the people of Dublin by Lord Chesterfield in 1745.
Two people were killed in the park on 6 May 1882. This became known as the Phoenix Park Murders.
"Áras an Uachtaráin" is Irish for "the house of the President". The President of Ireland lives here. It was built in 1754. It was first called the Viceregal Lodge, as it was where the English Lord Lieutenant of Ireland lived.
The Chief Secretary's Lodge was the former house of the Chief Secretary for Ireland. It has been the official house of the United States Ambassador to Ireland since 1927.
The oldest building in the park is Ashtown Castle. It is a medieval tower house from the 15th century. It was restored in 1989. It is located beside the Visitor Centre which has information on the 5,500 years of park and area history.
The Magazine Fort in the south east of the Park is the location where Phoenix Lodge was built by Sir Edward Fisher in 1611. In 1734 the house was knocked down when the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Lionel Sackville, 1st Duke of Dorset wanted a powder magazine ("a building to store gunpowder") for Dublin. An extra wing was added to the fort in 1801 for troops. The Christmas Raid of 1939 happened here.
Dublin Zoo has more than 600 animals and tropical birds from around the world. It was founded in 1830 and opened to the public on 1 September 1831, which means it is the third oldest zoo in the world. It received animals from the Zoological Society of London. Within a year the zoo housed 123 different kinds of animals.
The Wellington Monument is a tall obelisk. It remembers the victories of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington. It is the largest obelisk in Europe and would have been even higher if the public funding had not run out.
The "phoenix monument" is a Corinthian column with a Phoenix bird rising from the ashes at the top. Lord Chesterfield had it made in 1747.
The "Papal Cross" is a large cross that was placed in the park for the visit of Pope John Paul II on 29 September 1979. Over one million people attended an open-air mass in the park at the time. The large white cross is high and is made of steel.
There are 351 plant species in the Park; three of these are rare and protected. The park has kept almost all of its old grasslands and woodlands. It also has rare examples of wetlands. The current 400–450 fallow deer descend from the original herd.
A Birdwatch survey in 2007-8 found 72 species of bird including buzzard, sparrowhawk, kestrel and jay.
The park also has several streams that flow into the River Liffey.
These gardens were created in 1840 as the "Promenade Grounds" ("grounds for talking a walk in"). It has small lakes, a children's playground and a picnic area. The gardens are located close to the Parkgate Street entrance.
The south western corner of the park is known as the Furry Glen. It has a number of short walks around a small lake with birds, plants and wildlife.
The park has sports grounds for football, hurling, soccer, cricket and polo.