AcharyaChanakya/simple-wikipedia huggingface dataset:
Elimination Chamber (2011) (also known as No Way Out (2011) in Germany) was the second annual Elimination Chamber professional wrestling pay-per-view event made by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It took place on February 20, 2011 at the Oracle Arena in Oakland, California. John Cena, who was the winner of the Raw Elimination Chamber match received a WWE Championship match at WrestleMania XXVII against The Miz. Edge, who was the winner of the SmackDown Elimination Chamber match won the World Heavyweight Champion.
Dnipro
Dnipro (, , Dnepr), called Dnipropetrovsk until May 2016 ( ; Dnepropetrovsk) is a city in Ukraine and is the third largest city in Ukraine. About 1 million people live there. It lies southeast of Ukraine's capital city, Kiev. It was founded in 1776. Dnipro enjoys a borderline semi-arid/Mediterranean climate (Köppen climate classification "BSh/Csa"), with relativity mild temperatures and plentiful sunshine year-round.
Dnipro is one of the key places for the nuclear, arms and space industries of the former Soviet Union.
Mae Young
Johnnie Mae Young (March 12, 1923 – January 14, 2014) is an American female professional wrestler and is also a WWE Ambassador. She is probably best known for wrestling for the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) and World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment (WWF/E). She helped increase the popularity of women wrestling during World War II and has trained many wrestlers.
She is the only professional wrestler to compete in documented matches in nine different decades, having her first match in 1939 and her last match in 2010.
She was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2008. She was best friends with fellow wrestler The Fabulous Moolah whom she appeared with on WWF/E television with as a comedic duo.
On December 30th, 2013, she was hospitalized with an undisclosed illness and was placed on life support. On January 9th, 2014, she was taken off life support and was placed under hospice care at home.
Ismaïlia
Ismailia () is a city in Egypt, on the Suez Canal. Ismailia is the capital of the Governorate with the same name. The city has a population of approximately 750,000. It is approximately halfway between Port Said to the north and Suez to the south. The Canal widens at this point to include Lake Timsah, one of the Bitter Lakes.
Khedive Ismail the Magnificent founded the city in 1863, when the Canal was constructed. The city is named after him. The head office of the Suez Canal Authority is in Ismaïlia at the shore of Lake Timsah. Many of the buildings that were built when the British and French were involved in running the canal are still standing. Some of them are still being used by Canal employees and officials.
Sela Ward
Sela Ann Ward (b. July 11, 1956) is an American Emmy and Golden Globe Award winning movie and television actress. She was in the NBC television series "Sisters". She acted in the CBS television series "".
Ward was born in Meridian, Mississippi
Eye of the Storm (EP)
Cattle egret
The cattle egret ("Bubulcus ibis") is a cosmopolitan species of heron (family Ardeidae) found in the tropics, subtropics and warm temperate zones.
It is the only member of the genus Bubulcus, with two subspecies, the western cattle egret and the eastern cattle egret. It is a stocky white bird adorned with buff plumes in the breeding season. It nests in colonies, usually near bodies of water and often with other wading birds.
Unlike most other herons, it feeds in relatively dry grassy habitats, often with cattle or other large mammals. It catches insect and small vertebrate prey disturbed by these animals. It also captures ticks and flies from cattle.
Originally native to parts of Asia, Africa and Europe, it has undergone a rapid expansion in its distribution and successfully colonised much of the rest of the world. This is because humans now raise domesticated cattle throughout most of the world. Some populations of the Cattle Egret are migratory and others disperse after breeding.
It can be a safety hazard at airfields, and has been implicated in the spread of tick-borne animal diseases.
The cattle egret has undergone one of the most rapid and wide reaching natural expansions of any bird species.
It was originally native to parts of Southern Spain and Portugal, tropical and subtropical Africa and humid tropical and subtropical Asia. In the end of the 19th century it began expanding its range into southern Africa, first breeding in the Cape Province in 1908.
Cattle egrets were first sighted in the Americas on the boundary of Guiana and Suriname in 1877, having apparently flown across the Atlantic Ocean. It was not until the 1930s that the species is thought to have become established in that area.
The species first arrived in North America in 1941 (these early sightings were originally dismissed as escapees), bred in Florida in 1953, and spread rapidly, breeding for the first time in Canada in 1962. It is now commonly seen as far west as California. It was first recorded breeding in Cuba in 1957, in Costa Rica in 1958, and in Mexico in 1963, although it was probably established before that.
In Europe the species had historically declined in Spain and Portugal, but in the latter part of the 20th century it expanded back through the Iberian Peninsula, and then began to colonise other parts of Europe; southern France in 1958, northern France in 1981 and Italy in 1985. Breeding in the United Kingdom was recorded for the first time in 2008 only a year after an influx seen in the previous year. In 2008 cattle egrets were also reported as having moved into Ireland for the first time.
In Australia the colonisation began in the 1940s, with the species establishing itself in the north and East of the continent. It began to regularly visit New Zealand in the 1960s.
Since 1948 the cattle egret has been permanently resident in Israel. Prior to 1948 it was only a winter visitor.
The massive and rapid expansion of the cattle egret's range is due to its relationship with humans and their domesticated animals. Originally adapted to a commensal relationship with large browsing animals, it was easily able to switch to domesticated cattle and horses. As livestock keeping spread throughout the world it was able to occupy otherwise empty niches.
The bird feeds on a wide range of prey, particularly insects, especially grasshoppers, crickets, flies (adults and maggots), and moths, as well as spiders, frogs, and earthworms.
The species is usually found with cattle and other large grazing and browsing animals, and catches small creatures disturbed by the mammals. Studies have shown that Cattle Egret foraging success is much higher when foraging near a large animal than when feeding singly. When foraging with cattle, it has been shown to be 3.6 times more successful in capturing prey than when foraging alone. Its performance is similar when it follows farm machinery, but it is forced to move more.
Merginae
The Merginae or seaducks are a subfamily of the Anatidae, the duck, goose and swan family of birds.
As the name suggests, most are marine outside the breeding season. Many species have specialized salt glands to allow them to tolerate salt water, but these have not yet developed in young birds. Some species prefer riverine habitats.
Boundary Park
Boundary Park is a football stadium in Oldham, England. It is the current home stadium of the Oldham Athletic A.F.C. and the Oldham Roughyeds. The stadium was built in 1904. It opened August 1, 1904. The total seating capacity of the stadium is about 10,638.
Immigration to Canada
Immigration to Canada is a way that people from other countries can move to Canada. Some laws about this include the Immigration Act 1976, and the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act 2002.
Canada lets many people move to Canada. Because of this, there are some high percentages of non-Canadians in ethnicity results.
Even after Canadian colonization by the United Kingdom and France, there have been many other people coming to Canada in large groups.
In the 1700s, the French were settling in Quebec and Acadia, followed by some American and European movement.
After the American Revolution ended many Americans loyal to Britain went to Canada as it was the last main territory in North America still loyal to the Crown.
The War of 1812 promoted British and Irish immigration to Canada. Some British officers went to Canada, fearing that the Americans would invade Canada. While Irish immigration was still high, eventually some went to the United States.
Others went to Canada from America, especially during the Klondike Gold Rush.
This time, many people went to Canada from Europe. A large spike in the third group was pre-World War I.
This group saw an increase in Asian immigrants.
Glans
Lessepsian migration
Lessepsian migration is the name given for the migration of marine species through the Suez Canal, between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean.
It is named after Ferdinand de Lesseps, who built the Suez Canal. The Suez Canal joined two biospheres that were separate before. Many species migrated from the Red Sea to the Eastern Mediterranean. Only a few species migrated in the other direction, from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea. The migration can be seen most clearly when looking at fish species, even though other animals also migrated.
When the Suez Canal was opened in 1869, it created the first salt-water passage between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. The Bitter Lakes are two very salty (hypersaline) lakes about mid-way in the canal. At first, this blocked the migration of species from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean. Over the last decades, the salinity of the lakes changed, which made it easier for species to migrate.
The Red Sea is higher than the Mediterranean, at high tide, water flows from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean. The Red Sea is also poor in nutrients, so species who migrate will find more nutrients. The waters of the Red Sea are saltier than that of the Mediterranean. For these reasons, most species migrate from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean, and only very few migrate in the other direction.
When the Aswan High Dam was built in the 1960s, this blocked the flow of freshwater from the Nile into the Mediterranean. As a result, the salinity levels in the Eastern Mediterranean increase, and make it much more like the Red Sea – this means that migration will become even easier, as conditions are very similar.
Invasive species coming from the Red Sea and introduced into the Mediterranean by the construction of the canal have become a major component of the Mediterranean ecosystem. They have serious impacts on the Mediterranean ecology, endangering many local and endemic Mediterranean species. To this day, about 300 species native to the Red Sea have been identified in the Mediterranean Sea, and there are probably others still unidentified.
The Egyptian government announced it plans to deepen and widen the canal. This announcement has raised concerns from marine biologists, who fear that this will worsen the invasion of Red Sea species into the Mediterranean, and make the crossing of the canal easier for additional species.
Today, the term "Lessepsian migration" is used more broadly for any migration of animals over man-made structures.
Stuyvesant Town–Peter Cooper Village
Stuyvesant Town–Peter Cooper Village is a large, private community where people live. It is on the east side of Manhattan, a borough in New York City. It is one of the most and successful post-World War II private housing communities. Stuyvesant Town is known to its residents as "Stuy Town". It was named after Peter Stuyvesant, the last Director-General of the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam, whose farm occupied the site in the seventeenth century. Peter Cooper Village is named after Peter Cooper, a 19th-century industrialist, inventor and philanthropist. Cooper also founded Cooper Union.
The complex was planned beginning in 1942. It opened its first building in 1947. It replaced several very big gas storage tanks.
The complex has many red brick apartment buildings. They stretch from First Avenue to Avenue C between 14th and 23rd Streets. It covers about of land. Some of this land is also playground land or parkland. Between 14th and 20th Street is Stuyvesant Town. It has 8,757 apartments in 89 residential buildings. Peter Cooper Village is between 20th and 23rd Streets. The complex has a total of 110 residential buildings, 11,250 apartments, and over 25,000 people living in it.
The East River and Avenue C is on the east, the Gramercy Park neighborhood on the west, the East Village and Alphabet City to the south, and Kips Bay to the north. To the west is a historic two-block park. Around the park is Stuyvesant Square, Saint George's Church, and the Beth Israel Medical Center.
Keri Russell
Keri Lynn Russell (born March 23, 1976 in Fountain Valley, California) is an American actress. She has starred in many movies for both the cinema and television. She starred in the television series "Felicity" from 1998 to 2002. Russell won a Golden Globe for "Best Actress in a Drama Series" in 1999.
Russell has been in a relationship with Matthew Rhys since 2014. They had their first child together in 2016.
1973 Constitution of Pakistan
One of the most pressing tasks for the new government was to draft a new constitution. When martial law was finally lifted, the Assembly was summoned in April 1972 on the basis of the 1970 election result in the former west pakistan region. A committee was set up from a cross-section of politicians from different parties. There were disagreements within the committee to whether the new constitution should bring in parliamentary rule or a presidential system of government. There were also differing views over the question of provincial autonomy. It took the constitutional committee eight months before it submitted it's report on 10th April 1973.
The draft constitution was passed by the federal Assembly by 135 votes in favour, with three abstentions. It was brought into force on 14th August 1973, and Bhutto was elected prime minister by the National Assembly on 12th August. The Constitution's main features were:
I. Pakistan shall be a Federal Republic with a Parliamentary system of government. The prime minister shall be the head of government, elected from the majority party.
II. The special position of lslam as the state religion shall be emphasized and both the prime minister and president are required to be Muslims.
III. Pakistan shall be declared an lslamic republic by default.
IV. A bill to amend the constitution shall need a two-thirds majority in the lower house and a majority in the upper house.
V. All fundamental human rights shall be guaranteed but the stipulation was added that it was subject to resonable restrictions imposed by law'.
VI. The supreme court and High Courts shall be given the power to enforce fundamental rights.
VII. The president shall act in accordance with the binding advice of the prime minister, and all orders of president shall be counter signed by the prime minister.
VIII. The senate, or upper house, shall be elected mostly from the provincial governments and so, for the first time, the interests of the provinces shall be safeguarded at the centre. The Senate shall not be dissolved even in emergencies.
IX. In case of emergencies, the federal government can pass legislation on anything and can even suspend fundamental freedoms.
X. Urdu shall be the official language of the country, with pakistani language to be retained for the next 15 years.
Xl.The teaching of holy Quran and Islamiat should be compulsory.
XlI. Pakistan shall be a federal lslamic state, so residuary powers shall rest with provinces not the central government.
The 1973 Constitution, therefore, marked a return to a parliamentary form of democracy after the presidential experiment introduced under the 1962 constitution. There were also concessions made to the provinces to alleviate fears that the central government would overule them on every issue. This was important as the one unit scheme had only recently been abolished and because 2 of the 4 provincial governments in the new state of were non-PPP. The 1973 Constitution, however, had another advantage over its two predecessors: it had been agreed and voted on by a democratically elected Assembly. This gave it greater authority and, even though it was suspended under the next martial law regime, Since independence, Pakistan has devised and changed three written constitutions and the fourth one was drawn up and it was restored on the 30th of December in 1985 and remains in place to date.
Aleutian Islands
The Aleutian Islands (; possibly from Chukchi "aliat", "island") are a chain of more than 300 small volcanic islands. They are in the Northern Pacific Ocean. They are spread out over an area of 6,821 sq mi (17,666 km²) and go out about west from the Alaska Peninsula toward the Kamchatka Peninsula. They mark a line between the Bering Sea and the Pacific Gulf of Alaska. Crossing longitude 180°, they are the furthest West part of the United States Nearly all the islands are part of Alaska but at the extreme western end are the Commander Islands which are in Russia. The islands, with their 57 volcanoes, are in the northern part of the Pacific Ring of Fire. The Alaska Marine Highway passes through the islands.
About 8.200 people live in 11 towns or villages on seven islands, of the US part. About 600 people live in the Russian part of the islands.
Yarlung Zangbo River
Yarlung River is a watercourse that originates upstream from the South Tibet Valley and the Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon, in Southern Tibet. It then passes through the province of Assam, Republic of India, where it is known as the Dihang.
Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon
Clay Matthews III
William Clay Matthews III (born May 14, 1986 in Northridge, California) is an American football outside linebacker for the Los Angeles Rams of the National Football League (NFL). Matthews was drafted out of the University of Southern California by the Green Bay Packers with the 26th pick in the first round of the 2009 NFL Draft. Matthews is the son of former NFL player Clay Matthews, Jr. and his uncle is Bruce Matthews who also played in the NFL.
Lea Thompson
Lea Katherine Thompson (born May 31, 1961) is an American actress. She acted in the 1983 movie "All the Right Moves" and the 1990s sitcom "Caroline in the City". She also starred in many made for television movies.
Thompson was born in Rochester, Minnesota. Both she and her older brother Andrew Thompson took ballet classes as children. Both became dancers with major dance companies--Andrew with the Colorado Ballet and Lea with the American Ballet Theatre. After Lea had many injuries, she left professional ballet to become an actress.
Rallidae
The rails, or Rallidae, are a large family of small to medium-sized birds. The rails are related to cranes, and both are in the order Gruiformes.
The family is diverse, and includes the crakes, coots, and gallinules. Many species are associated with wetlands, although the family is found in every terrestrial habitat except dry deserts, polar regions and alpine areas above the snow line. The Rallidae are found on every continent except Antarctica. There are numerous island species. The most common habitats are marshland or dense forest. They like dense vegetation.<Hor/>
There are many rails on islands, and they are often flightless.
The wings of all rails are short and rounded. Their flight is not powerful, but can continue for long periods, and many species migrate annually. The weakness of their flight means they are easily blown off course, so they are common vagrants. This has led them to colonize many isolated oceanic islands. Furthermore, these birds often prefer to run rather than fly, especially in dense shrub or woodland habitats. Some are also flightless at some time during their moult period.
Many island rails are flightless because on a small island without threatening predators they do not need to fly or move long distances. Flight makes intense demands, with the keel and flight muscles taking up to a quarter of a bird's weight. Reducing the flight muscles lowers the metabolic demands, and reduces the flightless rail's energy needs. For this reason, flightlessness makes it easier to survive and colonize an island where resources may be limited. Flightlessness can evolve extremely rapidly in island rails; it took as little as 125,000 years for the Laysan Rail to lose the power of flight and evolve the reduced, stubby wings only useful to keep balance when running quickly.
Tim Masthay
All Pakistan Muslim League
All Parties Hurriyat Conference
The All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) (formed March 10, 1993) is a political front formed as an alliance of 26 political, social and religious organizations in Kashmir. It was formed achieving the right of self-determination according to United Nations Security Council Resolution 47. "Hurriyat" in Koshur (as well as in Arabic from which the word is loaned, Urdu and Persian) means "liberty". Tabish Bhat was elected its leader in January 2010.
The primary objective of Hurriyat Conference is to have Islamic governance in Jammu & Kashmir and liberating the regions from India to Pakistan.
Matt Turk
Matthew Edward Turk (born June 16, 1968 in Greenfield, Wisconsin) is a former American football punter that played 18 seasons in the National Football League (NFL). Turk was not drafted but started his football career in 1995 with the Washington Redskins.
He played for the Washington Redskins from 1995 to 1999, the Miami Dolphins from 2000 to 2001, the New York Jets in 2002, the Miami Dolphins again from 2003 to 2005, the St. Louis Rams in 2006, the Houston Texans from 2007 to 2010, the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2011 and the Houston Texans again in 2011.
Anthurium is a large plant genus of about one thousand species, belonging to the arum family (Araceae). Anthurium can also be called "Flamingo Flower" or "Boy Flower", both referring to the structure of the spathe and spadix.
The species has neotropical distribution; mostly in wet tropical mountain forest of Central America and South America, but some in semi-arid environments.
Wynonna Judd
Christina Claire Ciminella, aka Wynonna Judd, is an American singer and songwriter. She first rose to fame during the 1980s as part of the duo The Judds with her mother Naomi Judd, who is also a singer. The duo had seven albums via Curb Records. Wynonna has had many solo albums.
Judd was born on May 30, 1964.
Autobiography of Mark Twain
The Autobiography of Mark Twain or "Mark Twain’s Autobiography" is a book by Mark Twain, (the pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens). It has many stories about his life in it. Twain did not write and publish the book in the usual way. He told the stories and they were written down for him. The book was published in November 2010, one hundred years after his death.
According to Harriet Smith, editor of the book, some of the manuscripts of Twain’s autobiography are handwritten by him but most are transcripts of what he said. These were created on typewriters by helpers such as his secretaries and his youngest daughter. There are three versions of much of the autobiography, including the original. There was a copy used to send 25 sections of the book, one at a time, to be published in "North American Review". Then a copy was used for Albert Paine’s 1924 edition of the book. Clemens proofread them all. Into his vocal dictations, he often inserted earlier manuscripts he wrote and also letters, newspaper clippings and other documents.
In Harriet Smith’s 2010 edition, Clemens instructions are not always followed. For example, she did not insert his article about the survivors of the sunken ship in his February 20, 1906 dictation. Also, she did not include in the January 12, 1906 dictation the illustrated magazine about his 70th birthday dinner. Mistakes that were made are just pointed out in the book’s explanatory notes instead of being changed to be correct. She has made some changes to bad spelling and adding missing prepositions to fix the grammar. She does not correct grammar when the text would lose the spoken style. For example, she believes “. . . the world’s sympathy and compassion are with her, where it belongs” is bad grammar but does not correct it.
Larry Rohter in his July 9, 2010 review in "The New York Times" describes Twain as a Colonel Sanders without the chicken who told stories, whose books "Huck Finn" and "Tom Sawyer" he had to read in high school. In writing his autobiography, Twain spoke his recollections and opinions to his secretary for a more natural, frank, colloquial tone than if he had written them down. Twain died on April 21, 1910. He was 74 years old. The content of his 500,000 word autobiography is being published in the random order he wrote it, and that is the way he wanted it to be. Previous editions of the work have put things in chronological order. They have also censored it for interest and propriety. This edition, published over 100 years after his death, has the material in the order he wrote it and uncensored. The University of California Press is publishing it in three volumes. Five percent of the first volume was never published before, and about fifty percent of all three volumes was never published before. Twain claims some shocking things, such as the elder Rockefeller paying taxes on only 2.5 million of his fortune and a U.S. Army overkill against six hundred Philippine savages resisting U.S. imperialism. In Twain’s boyhood in Missouri, he was not aware there was anything wrong about slavery. When Cleveland was U.S. President, Twain met him in the White House and got the First Lady’s autograph. Twain resented his publisher and an inventor for fleecing him, and also a rude landlord, from when he lived in Italy in 1904.
Julie Bosman’s review on November 19, 2010, in "The New York Times" said the book is a four-pound, 500,000-word, $35.00 doorstopper more political than Twain’s previous works. The content is nonlinear although very readable. It seems like a reader could flip the book open at random to any part of it and not worry about plot. The book includes 200 pages of end notes. At first the publisher planned to print 7,500 copies. However, because it was being published a century after Twain’s death, as he wanted it to be, the book got in the news. Before the book’s November 15th publication date, magazines including "Newsweek", "Playboy," and "Harper’s" ran excerpts from the book. The book was quickly sold out and back-ordered. The publisher was University of California Press. A girl with them said, “We feel like, wow . . . people are interested in a 736-page scholarly tome about Mark Twain.” They rushed to send copies to bookstores in time for the holidays. The publisher hired a small printer in Michigan to print the books. They worked overtime producing 30,000 copies a week and got bigger trucks to bring the books to the warehouses. Instead of 7,500 copies, the book got on best seller lists with over 275,000 copies in November 2010. The book was the biggest success the University of California Press had in sixty years.
Kathleen Turner
Jewel (singer)
Lynton and Barnstaple Railway
The Lynton & Barnstaple Railway (L&B) is a Heritage railway in North Devon, England.
The original line opened in May 1898, but closed in 1935. It was a single track narrow gauge railway just over 19 miles (30 km) long, running through rugged rural countryside in Exmoor National Park
For a few years the line earned a small profit, but for most of its life the L&B lost money. The L&B was taken over by the Southern Railway in 1923, and finally closed in September 1935.
The Lynton & Barnstaple Railway Association was created in 1979. A short section of the line opened again in 2004. This was extended in 2006 and a year later, plans were announced to open nine miles (14 km) of track, linking the station at Woody Bay to both Lynton and Blackmoor Gate, and eventually to a new station at Wistlandpound Reservoir.
Several plans were put forward to extend railways from Barnstaple to Lynton. Because of the hills and valleys which would need tight curves and steep slopes, one scheme suggested a gauge of , already being used on other lines like the Ffestiniog Railway, to make building the line easier. This plan was supported by Sir George Newnes who became chairman of the company. The Lynton & Barnstaple Railway Bill was passed on 27 June 1895, and the line was officially opened on 11 May 1898. Public services started on 16 May.
The L&B did not attract enough passengers to make a profit. The journey of nearly twenty miles normally took about one and a half hours. To make things worse, to satisfy several powerful local people, Lynton station was built quite a long way from the town itself, and from the cliff railway to Lynmouth.
Falling traffic during World War I, better roads, and more people owning cars cut the line's income even more, until it was no longer economic.
Despite many cost-saving changes, and extra money being spent on the line, the Southern Railway was still unable to make money, so they closed the line.
The last train ran on 29 September 1935. The Southern Railway removed everything they could use on other lines, and by 8 November, they had lifted the track from Lynton to the Barnstaple side of Woody Bay station. On 13 November a sale was held, but the railway did not attract much interest. Most of the carriages and wagons, and every engine apart from "Lew", were scrapped at Pilton. Some carriages were cut up and used as garden sheds. Third class seats became garden furniture, and first class seats were used in local public halls. In December, Sidney Castle got the job of taking the rest of the railway apart. The remaining track was lifted by June 1936, and in September, "Lew" was shipped to South America - probably Brazil. The stations and track bed were sold in 1938.
The L&B had a very good safety record, and no members of the public were killed or injured, although accidents at Braunton Road and Chumhill did take the lives of three workers.
The L&B rises and falls several times along its length. Starting at above sea level, The first , through Barnstaple, and along the Yeo Valley stays nearly level. "Collard Bridge" marks the start of an climb, mainly at one in fifty (2%), to Blackmoor Gate. A slight down-gradient follows, about m long, towards Parracombe Bank, and the start of another climb, about , to Woody Bay – at , the highest railway station in southern England. The line then falls, again mostly at one in fifty - to Lynton & Lynmouth station, still above the sea, and hidden by the landscape from the town of Lynton. The minimum radius on curves was .
One of the most obvious features of the L&B was its rail vehicles, with the engines appearing first in a plain lined Holly green colour, later on a black base, with chestnut under-frames, pulling passenger carriages coloured terra-cotta with cream upper panels, and light grey goods wagons. The painting was simplified as each vehicle was repainted. With the take-over by the Southern Railway and arrival of Lew, the paint scheme was slowly changed to a lighter green with yellow lettering for the engines and passenger carriages, and brown for the goods wagons. The engine headlamps which had been black were re-painted red.
At least three builders' engines were used for building the line. Unusually, some of the temporary track was wider than the final gauge - the section around Parracombe Bank for example, crossing the Heddon valley, was built to gauge, with an engine known as "Winnie". A fifth engine - perhaps named "Spondon" - may also have been used, although little is known of either of these. In 1900, "Kilmarnock" was sold by the L&B. It is thought that it was left behind by James Nuttall, because of the financial problems and legalcase between the railway and the builder.
The L&B used only coal-fired steam engines. The railway ordered three 2-6-2Ts from Manning Wardle & Co of Leeds. The engines were named after local rivers: "Yeo", "Exe", and "Taw". These were supplemented by a 2-4-2T, "Lyn", built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works of Philadelphia, USA, as the company realised that three engines would not be enough. Baldwin was chosen as they could deliver the engine – built mainly from standard parts – more quickly than British builders, who had a backlog of orders, caused by a national engineering dispute from July 1897 to January 1898. After it was built by Baldwin, the engine was shipped across the Atlantic in parts, and re-assembled at Pilton by railway staff. It first steamed in July 1898. The Manning Wardles were delivered before the dispute, and "Yeo" and "Taw" were used to help build the line.
In 1923 the L&B became part of the Southern Railway, and began an upgrade programme. All stock was repainted in Southern Maunsell livery, and track and buildings were improved. A fifth engine, "Lew" was bought in 1925, with a few improvements to the original Manning Wardle design.
Although bought at the auction by December 1935, "Lew" was working for Sidney Castle, the dismantler of the railway. This work was completed by July 1936 and in September, "Lew" was moved by rail to Swansea and then shipped to South America where Lew just disappeared. Despite several searches, no trace of the engine, or clues to what happened to it, have been found.
Sixteen passenger carriages were delivered for the opening. These were of comprised six different types, all the same size, being long, wide, ( over steps) and high – large by narrow gauge standards – and certainly better than any earlier British narrow gauge stock.
The coaching stock was very solidly made, and offered levels of accommodation far better that any others at the time - certainly compared to any other narrow gauge railway. Almost 70 years later, the design was used as the basis for a new set of carriages built by the Ffestiniog Railway, suggesting how good the original design was.
The body for coach 17 was built in 1911 by a local firm, Shapland and Petter, and fitted to a steel underframe made by the railway at Pilton. Slightly longer than the earlier coaches, it had both smoking and non-smoking compartments for first and third class passengers, as well as the brake van space.
The Southern Railway introduced several new goods wagons, and also bought two ex-War Department travelling cranes for the line.
Goods-only trains were not normally used, and usually goods wagons were attached to any passenger trains. The extra work to shunt wagons at stations along the line slowed down the passengers' journey times.
The open goods wagons were originally delivered with a single top-hung side door on each side, but these proved inefficient, and all were eventually converted to side hung double doors. By 1907, most had been fitted with tarpaulin rails. The goods vans used the same underframe, and were fitted with double sliding doors on each side.
Van 23 - now restored and at Woody Bay - was built at Pilton by the L&B. Unlike all other L&B stock, its underframe was entirely made of wood.
The travelling cranes were bought from the War Department, and were fitted with outriggers, they could lift up to 4½ tons. They were intended to be used as recovery cranes if there3 was a derailment, but they were not used much. One crane was kept at Pilton, the other was used in Lynton goods yard.
The 1927 bogie goods vans were originally fitted with heavy diagonal wooden cross braces at each end, but these were later replaced with single diagonal angle-iron braces.
More than seventy-five years after it closed, much of the line can still be seen. The most spectacular is Bridge 22 - the brick-built Chelfham Viaduct, which was fully restored in 2000. Its eight wide arches reach above the Stoke Rivers valley – the largest narrow-gauge railway structure in England.
The stations at Lynton and Bratton Fleming are now private homes, Blackmoor Gate is a restaurant and Barnstaple Town is a school. Chelfham and Woody Bay are both owned by the new L&B. Chelfham station is used for storage, and Woody Bay is the main centre of operations. Snapper Halt was purchased in 2010 by Exmoor Associates - a private company dedicated to securing trackbed for restoring the railway.
Unlike other railways, the track bed was sold off in many pieces - often to the original owners, who paid much less than they had sold it for originally. Although there has been some minor building on parts of the route, and Wistlandpound Reservoir has flooded the track bed close to its middle, much is still in open countryside, with many sections identifiable.
The Lynton & Barnstaple Railway Association (since 2000, a charity) was formed in 1979. Woody Bay Station was bought by the Lynton and Barnstaple Railway Company in 1995 and, after much effort, a short section of railway reopened to passengers in 2004. This was extended to over a mile in 2006, with steam and diesel trains running between Woody Bay and the new, temporary station at Killington Lane Station.
In 1995, the Lynbarn Railway – at the "Milky Way", a theme park near Clovelly, was created and operated by L&B volunteers. Profits from this funded the purchase, restoration and reopening of Woody Bay. The "Lynbarn" was handed over to the park in 2005, once Woody Bay had become established, and continues to operate as part of the attraction.
Most of the original rail vehicles did not survive, but Van 23 is on display at Woody Bay. Coach 7 and Coach 17 are being rebuilt. The remains of several other carriages and Goods Van 4 are being stored ready to be rebuilt. The carriages will then be used as a "Heritage Train" to complement more modern carriages.
Coach 2 was sold and used as a summer house. It is now on show at the National Railway Museum in York, with nameplates from the original engines. Coach 15, recovered from Snapper Halt in 1959 and rebuilt by the Ffestiniog Railway in North Wales, has been running there (now as FR Coach 14) for longer than it did on the L&B. In September 2010, Coach 15 visited the L&B with the "Lew" replica engine, "Lyd".
A "Joffre" class 0-6-0 steam engine built by Kerr Stuart in 1915 was bought in 1983, and named "Axe". Restored to working order in 2008, Axe now pulls most of the passenger trains at Woody Bay. An 0-4-0 engine built by Maffei of Germany in 1925, now named "Sid", is owned by several L&B members, and is also sometimes used on the L&B steam service.
The Trust owns three industrial diesel engines. One of these - Heddon Hall - is some times used in place of the steam engines, and for engineering trains.
A number of other visiting diesel and steam engines have also seen service on the line.
Restoring passenger services from Woody Bay was a major undertaking by the enthusiastic volunteers. Although much of the track bed survives intact, several obstacles – including Wistlandpound Reservoir – must be overcome to restore most of the old route.
In October 2007, the railway announced plans for reinstating enough trackbed to reopen nine miles (14 km) of track, linking the station at Woody Bay to both Lynton (at a new terminus on an extension to the original line, closer to the town) and Blackmoor Gate, and as far as a new station at Wistlandpound.
"Exmoor Enterprise" is likely to cost around £30 million, including the building of replica vehicles and improving the line as an important local tourist attraction.
The railway believes that the scheme will generate over £70 million for the south west economy within five years.
Long-term plans see reopening the line towards Barnstaple.
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Woody Bay railway station
Woody Bay was a station on the old Lynton and Barnstaple Railway, a narrow gauge railway line that ran through Exmoor from Barnstaple to Lynton and Lynmouth in North Devon. The station was inland, about 2 km from Woody Bay itself. It opened with the line (as "Wooda Bay" until the name was changed in 1901) on 7 March 1898, and closed when the line was closed on 29 September 1935. From 1923 until closure, the line was part of the Southern Railway.
Woody Bay station was built in part to serve the expected development of a resort at Woody Bay, a mile or so to the north. A pier was built in the bay, although not much more building took place, and the pier was destroyed by storms before it properly opened.
The development was stopped when the promotor went bankrupt in 1900, and although a route was surveyed for a branch line to the bay, it was never built.
After being bought by the Lynton and Barnstaple Railway Company in 1995, restoration of the station began, and it opened as a Visitors' Centre in 2003. An "out and back" service over a few hundred yards of track began in 2004, and with the opening of a temporary station at Killington Lane, about one mile towards Parracombe Halt, a regular "point to point" service started in 2006.
A carriage shed has been built into a cutting beyond the station. It is a temporary structure erected in 2003, and can be moved when the line expands.
Woody Bay station is at:
Endgame (chess)
The endgame in chess (or "end game" or "ending") is the part of the game when there are few pieces left on the board. Alternatively, endgames begin when the middlegame is over, and kings are relatively safe.
There are three main strategic differences between earlier parts of the game and endgame:
All endgame positions can be put into two camps. On the one hand are positions which may be won by force. On the other hand are positions which are drawn, or which should be drawn. The ones that are drawn for certain may be legally drawn (mate could not happen) or drawn by chess experience (no sane defence could lose). All endgames in master chess revolve around the borderline between winning and drawing. Generally, once a 'textbook' drawn position is reached the players will agree a draw; otherwise they play on.
Endgames can be studied according to the type of pieces that remain on board. For example, king and pawn endgames have only kings and pawns on one or both sides and the task of the stronger side is to promote one of the pawns. Other endings are studied according to the pieces on board other than kings, e.g. rook and pawn versus rook endgame.<ref name=H/W>Hooper D. and Whyld K. 1992. "The Oxford companion to chess". 2nd ed, Oxford University Press.</ref>
Positions for which the result is certain, given best play, are technical positions. The best example is the analysis by computer chess engine of all possible positions with six pieces or fewer. This is called proof by exhaustion or exhaustive proof. It is logically the same as proving a mathematical theorem by proving the complete set of individual cases covered by the theorem.
After the chess engine has analysed the positions, the results are put into an endgame tablebase for easy retrieval by users. Working with a database to discover previously unknown facts is called 'data mining'.
A number of interesting and surprising facts have indeed emerged. For example, For all three- to five-piece endgames and pawnless six-piece endgames, a complete list of mutual zugzwangs has been tabulated and published.
Another case is the longest sequence of moves to reach a definite result, called 'Depth to conversion'. In May 2006, Bourzutschky and Konoval discovered a KQN vs KRBN position with an astonishing DTC of 517 moves.
Brent Peterson (ice hockey, born 1972)
Brent Peterson (born July 20, 1972 in Calgary, Alberta) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player. Peterson, a left winger, played in 56 games over three seasons for the National Hockey League's (NHL) Tampa Bay Lightning, scoring nine goals and assisting on one. After his three NHL seasons, Peterson spent four seasons in Europe, playing for teams in Switzerland and Germany.
Peterson joined the United States Hockey League's Thunder Bay Flyers for the 1990–91 season, at the age of eighteen. In 48 regular season games, he recorded 27 goals and 40 assists, and added eight goals and nine assists in 10 playoff games. In 1991–92, Peterson began playing college hockey with the Western Collegiate Hockey Association's Michigan Tech Huskies. After scoring 20 points in the 1992–93 season, Peterson increased his point total to 42 in 1993–94. In 1994–95, he scored 25 goals and had 21 assists; both totals were the highest of his college career, as was his 46 points. Peterson's statistical production declined slightly in his last college season, 1995–96, as he posted 20 goals and 16 assists.
In the 1993 NHL Supplemental Draft, Peterson was chosen as the third overall selection by the Tampa Bay Lightning. Following the end of his college career, he was sent to the Atlanta Knights, the Lightning's affiliate in the minor league International Hockey League (IHL). With the Knights, Peterson had 28 points in 69 regular season games, but went scoreless in three playoff games. In 1996–97, Peterson spent most of his playing time with the American Hockey League's Adirondack Red Wings, for whom he scored 45 points in the regular season and four in the playoffs. During that season, he made his NHL debut with the Lightning, and scored two goals in 17 games. The 1997–98 season saw Peterson again split time between the NHL and minor league hockey; he tallied five goals in 19 games for the Lightning, and 20 goals and 39 assists for the IHL's Milwaukee Admirals. He played his final NHL games in the 1998–99 season, when he posted two goals and his only NHL assist in 20 games for the Lightning. In addition, he had 13 goals and 12 assists in 35 games for two IHL clubs.
In March 1999, the Lightning traded Peterson to the Pittsburgh Penguins organization. He became a free agent after the season, and the Nashville Predators signed him. During the 1999–00 season, Peterson spent the entire campaign with the Admirals, the Predators' IHL affiliate, scoring 32 points in the regular season and five in the playoffs. Peterson moved to Europe for the 2000–01 season, beginning the season with the SCL Tigers in Switzerland's National League A. In 10 games, he recorded three goals and two assists before moving to Germany to play for the Deutsche Eishockey Liga's Kassel Huskies. Peterson finished 2000–01 season with the Tigers and spent three more seasons with the club; his best statistical season in Germany was 2002–03, when he had 25 regular season points, along with three in the playoffs.
Jimmy Roy
Jimmy Roy (born September 22, 1975 in Sioux Lookout, Ontario) is a Canadian ice hockey player currently playing for the Iserlohn Roosters of the Deutsche Eishockey Liga.
Roy was drafted 254th overall by the Dallas Stars in the 1994 NHL Entry Draft but never played in the National Hockey League. After spending two years at Michigan Technological University he signed with the Manitoba Moose in 1997. Roy spent nine seasons with the Manitoba Moose, the first four in the International Hockey League and the rest in the American Hockey League after the Moose became members of the league when the IHL folded. He holds different team records like games played and most goals. For the 2006–07 season Roy signed with the Iserlohn Roosters of the Deutsche Eishockey Liga. In Iserlohn he developed to a key player, known for his leading quality on and off the ice. He also helped the club to sign some former Moose players like Ryan Ready and Pat Kavanagh. Roy extended his contract after his first season in Germany for two years. On Christmas Day 2008 the Roosters announced again that Roy has signed for two more years. As a Rooster he usually plays on a line with Ryan Ready. In the 2007–08 season their center was Pat Kavanagh, the next season Bob Wren was their linemate.
Jean-François Labbé
Jean-François "J.F." Labbé, nicknamed Ti-Mine, (born June 15, 1972) is a retired Canadian professional ice hockey goaltender.
After playing four seasons in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, Labbé began a very successful American Hockey League career. He played for the Prince Edward Island Senators, Cornwall Aces, Hershey Bears, Hamilton Bulldogs, Hartford Wolf Pack and Syracuse Crunch in his AHL tenure. His best season came in 1996–1997 with the Hershey Bears, when he won both the Hap Holmes Memorial Award for lowest goals against average and the Les Cunningham Award for league MVP. Labbé won the Calder Cup with the Hartford Wolf Pack in 2000.
Labbé appeared in 15 NHL games: one with the New York Rangers at the end of the 1999–2000 season and 14 with the Columbus Blue Jackets during the 2001–02 and 2002–03 seasons.
He played for the Saint-Georges Garaga in the Ligue Nord-Américaine de Hockey in 2003–2004 after a short stint with the Tolyatti Lada in the Russian Hockey Super League.