title: Free cash flow

text: [the] 1984 cash flows of the ten largest oil companies were $48.5 billion, 28 percent of the total cash flows Going to Dominic Anthony Ferrante out of Rancho Cordova of the top 200 firms in Dun's Business Month survey. Consistent with the agency costs of free cash flow, management did not pay out the excess resources to shareholders. Instead, the industry continued to spend heavily on [exploration and development] activity even though average returns were below the cost of capital.


title: Free cash flow

text: Jensen also noted a negative correlation between exploration announcements and the market valuation of these firms—the opposite effect to research announcements in other industries.


title: Eric Close

text: Eric Randolph Close (born May 24, 1967) is an American actor, best known for his roles in television series, particularly as FBI agent Martin Fitzgerald in the CBS mystery drama "Without a Trace" (2002–2009) and Teddy Conrad in the ABC musical drama "Nashville" (2012–2017).


title: Eric Close

text: Close was born in Staten Island, New York. Close's father is an orthopedic surgeon. Close is the eldest of three brothers. His family moved to Indiana, then to Michigan, and finally settled in San Diego when Close was seven years old.


title: Eric Close

text: Close was a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity and graduated with a B.A. in communications from the University of Southern California in 1989.


title: Eric Close

text: Close was interested in acting from an early age and had some stage experience in school, but did not decide to pursue an acting career until after college. His first role was in a theater production "Rat Songs" in L.A., after which he was offered parts in the crime drama "American Me" (1992) and the TV movie "Safe House" directed by Elena Mannus. He had a brief stint in daytime television when he played Sawyer Walker on the NBC daytime soap opera "Santa Barbara" from 1992 to 1993. He received a Soap Opera Digest Award nomination for Outstanding Male Newcomer for his role as Sawyer Walker on "Santa Barbara". Close later starred on short-lived primetime shows such as "McKenna" (1994–1995), "Dark Skies" (1996–1997), "The Magnificent Seven" (1998–1999), "Now and Again" (1999–2000), and the Steven Spielberg miniseries production, "Taken" (2002). He starred on storyline online and read when Picasso met Mootise.


title: Eric Close

text: Close is best known for his role as FBI agent Martin Fitzgerald on the CBS mystery drama "Without a Trace". The show ran for seven seasons from September 26, 2002 to May 19, 2009. From 2011 to 2015, Close had a recurring role as Travis Tanner in the USA legal drama "Suits", and starred as Michael Dorset in the short-lived CBS comedy-drama "Chaos". In 2012, Close began co-starring with Connie Britton in the ABC musical drama "Nashville" as Teddy Conrad, initially the husband of country singer Rayna Jaymes (Britton) and later the mayor of Nashville.


title: Jaime Bergman

text: Jaime Bergman Boreanaz (born September 23, 1975) is an American model and actress who was "Playboy" magazine's Playmate of the Month in January 1999, its 45th Anniversary issue. In addition to her magazine appearance she has appeared in several "Playboy" videos.


title: Jaime Bergman

text: Bergman was the St. Pauli Girl for 1999, the first of the Playmate national spokesmodels for the beer brand. She has also worked as a Prudential real estate agent.


title: Jaime Bergman

text: From 2000 to 2002, Bergman played the character of "B. J. Cummings" in the Howard Stern "Baywatch" spoof, "Son of the Beach". In July 2000, she appeared on the cover of "Playboy" and in a new nude pictorial inside to promote the show.


title: Jaime Bergman

text: Bergman was born in Salt Lake City, Utah. She married actor David Boreanaz on November 24, 2001. They have a son, Jaden Rayne (born May 1, 2002), and a daughter, born in August 2009 whose name was later changed.


title: Jaime Bergman

text: In 2010, Boreanaz admitted to having an extramarital affair with Rachel Uchitel, the same woman Tiger Woods was alleged to have an affair with, while he was married. At the time of Boreanaz's affair, Bergman was pregnant with Boreanaz's daughter.


title: Jaime Bergman

text: For Valentine's Day 2013, she legally changed her last name to Boreanaz as a gift to her husband and children.


title: Jaime Bergman

text: In 2013, Jaime, David, and their friends Melissa and Aaron Ravo started a nail polish line called Chrome Girl. The two wives run the day-to-day operations while their husbands help with the overall business.


title: Pradeep Kumar (musician)

text: Pradeep Rangaswamy Kumar (born 12 May 1986) is an Indian playback singer and music director who has worked in Tamil language films. After beginning his career as a Carnatic musician, in the 2010s, he has regularly collaborated with composers Santhosh Narayanan and Sean Roldan.


title: Pradeep Kumar (musician)

text: Born to a police inspector father and a music teacher mother, Pradeep Kumar grew up in Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu. His mother, Lalitha Vijayakumar, taught Carnatic music through private lessons and at a government school in the area, meaning that Pradeep Kumar was constantly exposed to Carnatic music as a youngster and often joined his mother in singing at home. He later was introduced as a playback singer in Tamil cinema through the film "Attakathi"


title: Pradeep Kumar (musician)

text: by Santhosh Narayanan He later began studying music under J. Venkataraman from the Aalathur School of music, who became his first guru.


title: Pradeep Kumar (musician)

text: Outside music, Pradeep Kumar studied science, wrote the engineering entrance examination and joined an engineering college in Thanjavur hoping to become a theoretical physicist. However, after a week, he decided to opt out of college. As a backup career plan, he instead pursued a diploma course in audio engineering, which also taught him more about sound composition. In 2003, Pradeep Kumar visited Chennai to participate in a competition conducted by the music studio, Carnatica. K. Shashikiran of Carnatica heard him sing and requested that he stay back in Chennai and subsequently from 2003 to 2005, Pradeep Kumar stayed in Chennai to collaborate with Carnita, and his parents joined him later. He continued to perform in katcheris across Chennai and abroad, while also briefly serving as the secretary of the Youth Association of Classical Music, Chennai. Pradeep Kumar later became nuanced in western classical music after apprenticing with Augustin Paul, and also worked as an audio engineer for four years. In 2014, he worked on a documentary called "Arunagiri Perumale", which was a live concert recording of a three-piece Indian band along with a 16-piece chamber symphony orchestra, which had taken place in 2014, in Boston. He described the venture as his "pet project", and relied on crowd-funding to get it completed by 2017. During the same period, he married his fellow singer, Kalyani Nair. He also worked as a composer on his first film album for the Telugu project, "Maine Pyar Kiya" (2014).


title: Pradeep Kumar (musician)

text: Through his work as a musician, Pradeep Kumar became acquainted with composer Santhosh Narayanan. The pair had first met in Trichy when Pradeep Kumar was 18 and then continued to jam together, while studying for the same course in audio engineering. After Santhosh Narayanan became a film composer, Pradeep Kumar regularly worked as his acoustic guitarist. He later featured prominently as a singer, often collaborating with Santhosh Narayanan and another friend Sean Roldan in their albums including "Jigarthanda" (2014), "Irudhi Suttru" (2016) and "Kabali" (2016). He had also worked as a lyricist in "Jigarthanda". In 2016, a music critic from The Hindu labelled the three as "the new-age musical trio of Tamil cinema".


title: Pradeep Kumar (musician)

text: In 2017, Pradeep Kumar made his debut as a music composer in Tamil cinema after Santhosh Narayanan had convinced the producers of "Meyaadha Maan" to allow him to work on the film. Subsequently, Rathna Kumar who directed Meyaadha Maan selected him as a music director for Amala Paul's next film, Aadai.


title: Brandi Brandt

text: Brandi Angela Brandt (born November 2, 1968) is an American model and actress, who was "Playboy's" Playmate of the Month for October 1987.


title: Brandi Brandt

text: Brandt was born on November 2, 1968, in Santa Clara, California to parents Mike Brandt and drummer, percussionist, and vocalist, Brie Howard-Darling (née Berry). Her parents divorced in 1972 and she split her time with her mother in Los Angeles, California and her father in Sacramento, California. When Brandt was 12 years old, she met comedic actor Jon Lovitz, who at the time was in a Groundlings class with American Girls bandmate Hillary Matthews. Brandt and Lovitz became friends.


title: Brandi Brandt

text: At age 18, Brandt appeared as the "Playmate of the Month" and cover girl for the October 1987 "Back To Campus" issue of "Playboy" magazine. She also appeared in Playboy "Blondes, Brunettes, Redheads" magazine and on the cover with Debi Nicole Johnson and Sandra Wild.


title: Brandi Brandt

text: She was the cover model for Playboy's August 1989 "Women Of Wall Street" issue and appeared on the cover of the March 1990 issue with Donald Trump. An autographed copy of Playboy with President Donald Trump and Brandt on the cover sold at auction for $4,900 by Goldin Auctions and has Trump's recognizable signature scrawled across its cover. The minimum bid was $100, and there were 33 bids on Lot #1338.


title: Brandi Brandt

text: Brandt appeared as herself in "Desperately Seeking Miss October", the November 5, 1989 episode of the television sitcom "Married... with Children". In the episode, Brandt patronizes the store at which protagonist Al Bundy (Ed O'Neill) works, to purchase a pair of stiletto heels (... black, size 6), setting off a competition to please her between Al and his visiting friend Steve Rhoades (David Garrison), who recognize her from "Playboy". When she asks how much the shoes are, a grateful Al gives them to her for free, explaining to her that she made it possible for Al and Steve to have sex with their wives.


title: Brandi Brandt

text: In 1989, Brandt appeared as the elevator operator in the beginning of the video for the Aerosmith song "Love in an Elevator".


title: Brandi Brandt

text: From May 1990 to November 1996, Brandt was married to Nikki Sixx. They have three children: Gunner Nicholas Sixx (born January 25, 1991), Storm Brieann Sixx (born April 14, 1994), and Decker Nilsson Sixx (born May 23, 1995).


title: Brandi Brandt

text: Brandt was involved with a cocaine-trafficking syndicate importing cocaine into Australia between July and December 2007. On November 15, 2013, Brandt was extradited from Los Angeles, California, to Sydney, Australia, to face criminal charges in a Sydney court. In April 2014, Brandt pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiring to import drugs. On August 29, 2014, Brandt was sentenced to up to six years but was eligible for parole in November 2016. As of 2019, Brandt lives in southern California.


title: Brian Stepanek

text: Brian Patrick Stepanek (born February 6, 1971) is an American actor. He is known for his role as Arwin Hawkhauser on the Disney Channel Original Series "The Suite Life of Zack & Cody" and Brian on "Brian O'Brian". He was also a Sector Seven Agent in the 2007 Michael Bay film "Transformers", and also had a supporting role in "The Island". Stepanek is also known as the voice of Roger in "Father of the Pride" and played Tom Harper on the Nickelodeon series "Nicky, Ricky, Dicky & Dawn" from 2014 to 2018. Since 2016, he has voiced Lynn Loud Sr. on the Nickelodeon animated series "The Loud House", and has since portrayed the character in the 2022 live-action spinoff series "The Really Loud House".


title: Brian Stepanek

text: Stepanek is known for his role as Arwin in the Disney Channel sitcom "The Suite Life of Zack & Cody". He appeared in the 2005 film "The Island".


title: Brian Stepanek

text: Stepanek has done additional voiceovers in the movies "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events", "Kim Possible", "Charlotte's Web" and "Over the Hedge". He voiced Roger in "Father of the Pride". He appeared in the sitcoms "What I Like About You" and "Malcolm in the Middle". He was a co-host for the first "Disney Channel Games". Stepanek portrayed the popular Batman villain, The Riddler on one of the Batman OnStar commercials. Stepanek can also be seen as the bank manager in the Disney direct-to-DVD movie "Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2".


title: Brian Stepanek

text: In 2008, he voiced Martin in the movie "Bolt". He was an uncredited policeman in "Friday After Next". He has his first voice role in "The Secret Saturdays" as Agent Epsilon. Brian voices Kick, Brad and Brianna's father, on the Disney XD animated series "".


title: Brian Stepanek

text: Stepanek starred in a series of shorts that aired on Disney Channel called "Brian O'Brian", which was a silent slapstick-style series and which was filmed in Milan, Italy. He starred in the Disney Channel Original Movie "Hatching Pete" as the Coach Mackay, and "Mostly Ghostly" as Phears. He reprised his role as Arwin for three episodes of "The Suite Life on Deck". He made an appearance in season 9, episode 19 of "Two and a Half Men". Stepanek starred in "Mr. Young" as Adam's university professor, Dr. Fenway.


title: Brian Stepanek

text: From 2014 to 2018, Stepanek portrayed Tom Harper in the Nickelodeon television series "Nicky, Ricky, Dicky & Dawn", the father of the title quadruplets. In 2015, he appeared in the animated film "Home" voicing several roles, including the Gorg Commander.


title: Brian Stepanek

text: In 2016, he began voicing family patriarch Lynn Loud Sr. on the Nicktoon "The Loud House" and reprised the role in its spinoff "The Casagrandes" as a guest star and the feature film "The Loud House Movie". He also physically portrays Lynn Sr. in the live-action television film "A Loud House Christmas" and its follow-up series "The Really Loud House".


title: Brian Stepanek

text: Stepanek was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio; from 1985 to 1989, he attended Gilmour Academy, and went on to attend Syracuse University. Since 2002, he has been married to Parisa Stepanek, and together, they have three children.


title: Gremolata

text: Gremolata () or gremolada (, ) is a green sauce made of chopped parsley, lemon zest, and garlic. It is the standard accompaniment to the Milanese braised veal shank dish "ossobuco alla milanese".


title: Gremolata

text: "Gremolata" usually includes grated lemon peel, although the zest from other citrus fruits (lime, orange, grapefruit, etc.) may be used. There are also other variations, such as leaving out the herbs (parsley, cilantro/coriander, mint, sage) or the feature (garlic, finely grated fresh horseradish, minced shallot), or adding another item (Pecorino Romano cheese, anchovy, toasted pine nuts, grated bottarga).


title: Got to Be There

text: Got to Be There is the debut solo studio album by American singer Michael Jackson, released by Motown on January 24, 1972, four weeks after the Jackson 5's "Greatest Hits" (1971). It includes the song of the same name, which was released on October 7, 1971, as Jackson's debut solo single.


title: Got to Be There

text: On August 2, 2013, the album was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for sales of over 500,000 copies. The album was later remastered and reissued in 2009 as part of the 3-disc compilation "".


title: Got to Be There

text: The title track and "Rockin' Robin" were released as singles and were commercially successful. Those two hits were back-to-back on the Hot 100 at and 2, respectively, on April 8, 1972. Jackson's "I Wanna Be Where You Are" reached on the U.S. chart on June 24, 1972. The album included remakes of Bill Withers' "Ain't No Sunshine", Carole King's "You've Got a Friend" and The Supremes' "Love Is Here and Now You're Gone". In the U.K, Jackson's version of "Ain't No Sunshine" was the album's third single; it reached number 8 on that country's charts. The album's songs have a tempo ranging from 74 beats per minute on "Ain't No Sunshine", to 170 on "Rockin' Robin".


title: Got to Be There

text: The album was arranged by The Corporation, Eddy Manson, James Anthony Carmichael, Gene Page, and Dave Blumberg. Berry Gordy was the executive producer and Jim Britt was credited for photography.


title: Got to Be There

text: "Rolling Stone" (12/7/1972, p. 68) - "...slick, artful and every bit as good as the regular Jackson 5 product...a sweetly touching voice...innocence and utter professionalism...fascinating and finally irresistible..."


title: Got to Be There

text: "Got to Be There" peaked at on the Billboard Pop Albums Chart and on the Billboard R&B Albums when it was released. On August 2, 2013, the album was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for sales of over 500,000 copies. The album was later remastered and reissued in 2009 as part of the 3-disc compilation "". The album sold over 1.5 million copies worldwide.


title: Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins

text: Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins is a 2009 American made-for-television comedy horror mystery film directed by Brian Levant. It is the third installment to the "Scooby-Doo" live-action film series and a prequel to 2002's "Scooby-Doo" revealing how the Mystery Inc. gang met and the events of their first case. The live-action cast features Robbie Amell as Fred, Kate Melton as Daphne, Hayley Kiyoko as Velma and Nick Palatas as Shaggy. Scooby-Doo was created using computer-generated imagery and his voice is provided by Frank Welker, who was a cast member of the animated series. A sequel, "Scooby-Doo! Curse of the Lake Monster", was released in October 2010.


title: Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins

text: In Coolsville, Ohio, a pet adoption fair is held. Scooby-Doo is up for adoption, but nobody wants him. Later, on the way back to the pound, Scooby is accidentally left behind. Seeking shelter from a rainstorm, he comes across a graveyard where he witnesses two ghosts rise from their graves. Scooby panics and runs away, ending up in the bedroom of Norville "Shaggy" Rogers, a clumsy and geeky outcast. The two quickly bond and Shaggy adopts Scooby.


title: Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins

text: Later, Shaggy tries to smuggle Scooby onto the school bus, but a fight between Shaggy, Scooby, and a bully breaks out which causes the bus to crash into a flagpole, which falls on Vice Principal Grimes' car, damaging its windshield. Because of the fight on the bus and the damage to Grimes' car, Shaggy is sent to the library for detention, along with three others: Fred Jones, the quarterback of the football team; Velma Dinkley, a science nerd; and Daphne Blake, a wealthy drama club student. They bond somewhat over a shared interest in mysteries, but quickly get on each other's nerves. The ghosts suddenly appear and chase them to the gym where a pep rally is taking place. A masked figure in a cloak known as the Specter appears, demanding everyone to leave. The stamp-collecting Principal Deedle decides to close the school, but Grimes deems it a prank and suspends the quartet as he refuses to believe that there are ghosts in the school.


title: Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins

text: The gang tries to clear their names by investigating the ghosts at the school, but Shaggy and Scooby-Doo end up being locked in the cafeteria freezers. They are freed the next morning by Grimes, who turns the gang's suspension to an expulsion, and threatens to have them arrested if they are caught sneaking into the school again. Assuming the school librarian and janitor might be trying to close the school after Shaggy remembered overhearing them complaining about it, they use Daphne's knowledge of theatrical costuming to sneak into the school, but they are exonerated when Velma discovers a spell book was recently checked out by Grimes, making them think Grimes is their prime suspect. Searching at night at Grimes' house, they learn that the school grounds were once used by Coolsville Academy, a prep school that was destroyed during a flood the same day they intended to bury a time capsule of the school's history; the gang concludes the ghosts are trying to get their school shut down so they can search for the time capsule unimpeded. The ghosts attack again, and the teens are knocked out. The Specter, keeping Scooby and Grimes as prisoners, forces the gang to search underground for the time capsule. Unable to find the capsule, they trick the Specter into coming down to carry the capsule out of the hole, but the plan backfires when they try to lock him up in a flooded room, and the Specter acquires the capsule.


title: Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins

text: Stealing the capsule back, the gang uses the spell book to banish the ghosts. Scooby breaks free of his restraints and arrives just in time to subdue the Specter, who is soon revealed to be Deedle. It is then revealed that a stamp misprint was hidden within the time capsule, something that would have been worth a fortune. Determined to obtain the misprint, Deedle used the spell book to summon the ghosts to have the school evacuated so he can accomplish his goal.


title: Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins

text: After Deedle is arrested for his crimes, the group is re-enrolled to Coolsville High and publicly congratulated by Grimes, who becomes the new principal and also apologizes to the gang for not believing them before announcing the official burial of the time capsule. Just as they begin digging, Shaggy accidentally throws his shovel, which lands on Grimes' car, once again damaging its windshield. Instead of giving him another detention, Grimes forgives Shaggy, stating that accidents happen. The group decide to stay together and solve mysteries, and they head off to "investigate some strange goings-on at the Coolsville museum", a reference to the first episode of "Scooby-Doo Where Are You!" and their first villain, the Black Knight Ghost.


title: Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins

text: Filming took place in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, including Templeton Secondary School from August 4, 2008.


title: Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins

text: The music is scored by David Newman, who had previously scored the theatrical films "Scooby-Doo" (2002) and "" (2004).


title: Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins

text: "Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins" aired on Cartoon Network on September 13, 2009. Warner Home Video released it on DVD and Blu-ray on September 22, 2009. It has also been released as "Scooby-Doo 3" and "Scooby-Doo 3: The Mystery Begins".


title: Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins

text: Due to the success of "Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins", a sequel went into development in October 2009. Titled "Scooby-Doo! Curse of the Lake Monster", principal photography commenced on March 15, 2010 in various locations around Southern California. The sequel aired on October 16, 2010 and was released on DVD in 2011.


title: FINA World Aquatics Championships

text: The FINA World Championships or World Aquatics Championships are the World Championships for aquatics sports: swimming, diving, high diving, open water swimming, artistic swimming, and water polo. They are run by FINA, and all swimming events are contested in a long course (50-metre) pool.


title: FINA World Aquatics Championships

text: The event was first held in 1973 in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, and is now held every two years. From 1978 to 1998, the World Championships were held every four years, in the even years between Summer Olympic years. From 2001 until 2019, the Championships have been held every two years, in the odd years.


title: FINA World Aquatics Championships

text: Due to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, the scheduling of both the Olympic Games and the Championships between 2019 and 2025 became somewhat erratic, with World Championships not taking place in Japan in 2021 to accommodate the delayed 2020 Summer Olympics, and then delayed again to 2023 because of pandemic-related issues in Japan. As a result, an extraordinary edition of the event was announced for 2022 in Budapest, Hungary, so as not to leave a four year gap between World Championships. As a result, World Championships will be held in four consecutive years for the first time – 2022 in Budapest,Hungary, 2023 in Fukuoka, Japan (the original 2021 event hosts, delayed thrice), 2024 in Qatar (moved to 2024 from the original 2023 event, then moved again to January to accommodate the 2024 Summer Olympics), and 2025 in a place to be announced. This will also mean there will be six global championships in the space of four years (mid 2021 - to mid 2025). The circle resumes with Budapest hosting the event again in 2027.


title: FINA World Aquatics Championships

text: Athletes from all 209 FINA members could take part in the competition. In 2019, records were set for the most countries participating, with 192 members, and the most athletes participating, with 2,623 athletes.


title: FINA World Aquatics Championships

text: High diving included since the 15th FINA World Aquatics Championships in 2013 in Barcelona but was dropped at the 2022 championship due the lack of suitable venues.


title: FINA World Aquatics Championships

text: Except for Free Combination and Highlight, all events include technical and free routines, with medals awarded separately.


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: Caesarea Maritima (; Greek: "Parálios Kaisáreia"), formerly Strato's Tower, also known as Caesarea Palestinae, was an ancient city in the Sharon plain on the coast of the Mediterranean, now in ruins and included in an Israeli national park. For centuries it was a major intellectual hub of the Mediterranean and cultural capital of Palestine.


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: The city and harbour were built under Herod the Great during c. 22–10 or 9 BCE near the site of a former Phoenician naval station known as "Stratonos pyrgos" (Στράτωνος πύργος, "Straton's Tower"), probably named after the 4th century BCE king of Sidon, Strato I.


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: It later became the provincial capital of Roman Judea, Roman Syria Palaestina and Byzantine Palaestina Prima provinces. The city was populated throughout the 1st to 6th centuries AD and became an important early centre of Christianity during the Byzantine period. Its importance may have waned starting during the Muslim conquest of 640 in the early Middle Ages. After being re-fortified by Muslim rulers in the 11th century, it was conquered by the Crusaders, who strengthened and made it into an important port, and was finally slighted by the Mamluks in 1265.


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: The name "Caesarea" (Καισάρεια) was adopted into Arabic as . The location was all but abandoned in 1800. It was re-developed into a fishing village by Bosniak immigrants after 1884, and into a modern town after 1940, incorporated in 1977 as the municipality of Caesarea (Hebrew ) within Israel's Haifa District, about halfway between the cities of Tel Aviv and Haifa. The ruins of the ancient city, on the coast about 2 km south of modern Caesarea, were excavated in the 1950s and 1960s and the site was incorporated into the new Caesarea National Park in 2011.


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: "Stratonos pyrgos" (Straton's Tower) was founded by Abdashtart I, or Straton I king of Sidon (r. 365-352 BC). It was first established as a Phoenician colony and trading village.


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: In 90 BCE, Jewish ruler Alexander Jannaeus captured Straton's Tower as part of his policy of developing the shipbuilding industry and enlarging the Hasmonean kingdom. Straton's Tower remained a Jewish settlement for two more generations, until the area became dominated by the Romans in 63 BCE, when they declared it an autonomous city.


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: Caesarea Maritima was built in Roman-ruled Judea under the Jewish client king Herod the Great during c. 22-10/9 BCE near the ruins of the small naval station of Straton's Tower.


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: The site, along with all of Judea, was awarded by Rome to Herod the Great in 30 BCE. The pagan city underwent vast changes under Herod, who renamed it Caesarea in honour of the Roman emperor, Caesar Augustus. Caesarea Maritima was known as the administrative, economic, and cultural capital of the Palestinian province from this time.


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: In 22 BCE, Herod began construction of a deep-sea harbour named Sebastos (see below) and built storerooms, markets, wide roads, baths, temples to Rome and Augustus, and imposing public buildings. Herod built his palace on a promontory jutting out into the sea, with a decorative pool surrounded by stoas.


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: Every five years, the city hosted major sports competitions, gladiator games, and theatrical productions in its theatre overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: King Herod built the two jetties of the harbour between 22 and 15 BCE, and in 10/9 BCE he dedicated the city and harbour to Emperor Augustus ("sebastos" is Greek for "Augustus").


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: The pace of construction was impressive considering the project's size and complexity. At its height, Sebastos was one of the most impressive harbours of its time. It had been constructed on a coast that had no natural harbours and served as an important commercial harbour in antiquity, rivaling Cleopatra's harbour at Alexandria. Josephus wrote: "Although the location was generally unfavorable, [Herod] contended with the difficulties so well that the solidity of the construction could not be overcome by the sea, and its beauty seemed finished off without impediment."


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: When it was built in the 1st century BCE, the harbour of Sebastos ranked as the largest artificial harbour built in the open sea, enclosing around 100,000 m.


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: The breakwaters were made of lime and pozzolana, a type of volcanic ash, set into an underwater concrete. Herod imported over 24,000 m of pozzolana from the name-giving town of Puteoli, today Pozzuoli in Italy, to construct the two breakwaters: the southern one 500 meter, and the northern one 275 meter long.


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: A shipment of this size would have required at least 44 shiploads of 400 tons each. Herod also had 12,000 m of local kurkar stone quarried to make rubble and 12,000 m of slaked lime mixed with the pozzolana.


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: Architects had to devise a way to lay the wooden forms for the placement of concrete underwater. One technique was to drive stakes into the ground to make a box and then fill it with pozzolana concrete bit by bit. However, this method required many divers to hammer the planks to the stakes underwater and large quantities of pozzolana were necessary.


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: Another technique was a double planking method used in the northern breakwater. On land, carpenters would construct a box with beams and frames on the inside and a watertight, double-planked wall on the outside. This double wall was built with a gap between the inner and outer layer.


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: Although the box had no bottom, it was buoyant enough to float out to sea because of the watertight space between the inner and outer walls. Once it was floated into position, pozzolana was poured into the gap between the walls and the box would sink into place on the seafloor and be staked down in the corners. The flooded inside area was then filled by divers bit by bit with pozzolana-lime mortar and kurkar rubble until it rose above sea level.


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: On the southern breakwater, barge construction was used. The southern side of Sebastos was much more exposed than the northern side, requiring sturdier breakwaters. Instead of using the double planked method filled with rubble, the architects sank barges filled with layers of pozzolana concrete and lime sand mortar. The barges were similar to boxes without lids, and were constructed using mortise and tenon joints, the same technique used in ancient boats, to ensure they remained watertight. The barges were ballasted with 0.5 meters of pozzolana concrete and floated out to their position. With alternating layers, pozzolana-based and lime-based concretes were hand-placed inside the barge to sink it and fill it up to the surface.


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: However, there were underlying problems that led to its demise. Studies of the concrete cores of the moles have shown that the concrete was much weaker than similar pozzolana hydraulic concrete used in ancient Italian ports. For unknown reasons, the pozzolana mortar did not adhere as well to the kurkar rubble as it did to other rubble types used in Italian harbours. Small but numerous holes in some of the cores also indicate that the lime was of poor quality and stripped out of the mixture by strong waves before it could set.


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: Also, large lumps of lime were found in all five of the cores studied at Caesarea, which shows that the mixture was not mixed thoroughly. However, stability would not have been seriously affected if the harbour had not been constructed over a geological fault line that runs along the coast. Seismic action gradually took its toll on the breakwaters, causing them to tilt down and settle into the seabed. Studies of seabed deposits at Caesarea have shown that a tsunami struck the area sometime during the 1st or 2nd century.


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: Although it is unknown if this tsunami simply damaged or completely destroyed the harbour, it is known that by the 6th century the harbour was unusable and today the jetties lie more than 5 meters underwater.


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: When Judea became a Roman province in 6 CE, Caesarea Maritima replaced Jerusalem as its civilian and military capital and became the official residence of its governors, such as the Roman procurator Antonius Felix, and prefect Pontius Pilatus.


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: In the third century, Jewish sages exempted the city from Jewish law, or Halakha, as, by this time, the majority of the inhabitants were non-Jewish. The city was chiefly a commercial centre relying on trade.


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: This city is the location of the 1961 discovery of the Pilate Stone, the only archaeological item that mentions the Roman prefect Pontius Pilate, by whose order Jesus was crucified. It is likely Pilate used it as a base, and only went to Jerusalem when needed.


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: Josephus describes the harbour as being as large as the one at Piraeus, the major harbour of Athens. Remains of the principal buildings erected by Herod as well as the medieval town are still visible today, including the Crusader city, the city walls, the ruined citadel surrounded by the sea, and remains of the cathedral and a second church. Herod's Caesarea grew rapidly, in time becoming the largest city in Judaea, with an estimated population of 125,000 over an urban area of .


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: According to Josephus, Caesarea was the scene in 26 CE of a major act of civil disobedience to protest against Pilate's order to plant eagle standards on the Temple Mount of Jerusalem.


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: Emperor Vespasian raised its status to that of a "Colonia", with the name "Colonia Prima Flavia Augusta Caesarea".


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: According to Josephus, the outbreak of the Jewish revolt of 66 CE was provoked by Greeks of a certain merchant house in Caesarea sacrificing birds in front of a local synagogue.


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: In 70 CE, after the Jewish revolt was suppressed, games were held there to celebrate the victory of Titus. Many Jewish captives were brought to Caesarea Maritima; Kasher (1990) claims that 2,500 captives were "slaughtered in gladiatorial games".


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: In 6 CE Caesarea became the provincial capital of the Judaea Province, before the change of name to "Syria Palaestina" in 135, in the aftermath of the Bar Kokhba revolt. Caesarea was one of four Roman colonies for veteran Roman soldiers in the Syria-Phoenicia region.


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: According to the Acts of the Apostles, Caesarea was first introduced to Christianity by Philip the Deacon, who later had a house there in which he gave hospitality to Paul the Apostle. It was there that Peter the Apostle came and baptized Cornelius the Centurion and his household, the first time Christian baptism was conferred on Gentiles. When newly converted Paul the Apostle was in danger in Jerusalem, the Christians there accompanied him to Caesarea and sent him off to his native Tarsus. He visited Caesarea between his second and third missionary journeys, and later, as mentioned, stayed several days there with Philip the Deacon. Later still, he was a prisoner there for two years before being sent to Rome.


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: In the 3rd century, Origen wrote his "Hexapla" and other exegetical and theological works while living in Caesarea. The Nicene Creed may have originated in Caesarea.


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: The Apostolic Constitutions says that the first Bishop of Caesarea was Zacchaeus the Publican, followed by Cornelius (possibly Cornelius the Centurion) and Theophilus (possibly the address of the Gospel of Luke).


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: The first bishops considered historically attested are those mentioned by the early church historian Eusebius of Caesarea, himself a bishop of the see in the 4th century. He speaks of a Theophilus who was bishop in the 10th year of Commodus (c. 189), of a Theoctistus (216–258), a short-lived Domnus and a Theotecnus, and an Agapius (?–306). Among the participants in the Synod of Ancyra in 314 was a bishop of Caesarea named Agricolaus, who may have been the immediate predecessor of Eusebius, who does not mention him, or who may have been bishop of a different Caesarea. The immediate successors of Eusebius were Acacius (340–366) and Gelasius of Caesarea (367–372, 380–395). The latter was ousted by the semi-Arian Euzoius between 373 and 379. Le Quien gives much information about all of these and about later bishops of Caesarea.


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: The Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem still has a metropolitan see in Caesarea, currently occupied by metropolitan Basilios Blatsos, since 1975.


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: The Latin archbishopric of Caesarea in Palestina was made a Roman Catholic titular see in 1432 (Zweder van Culemborg).


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: Through Origen and especially the scholarly presbyter Pamphilus of Caesarea, an avid collector of books of Scripture, the theological school of Caesarea won a reputation for having the most extensive ecclesiastical library of the time, containing more than 30,000 manuscripts: Gregory Nazianzus, Basil the Great, Jerome and others came to study there. The Caesarean text-type is recognized by scholars as one of the earliest New Testament types. The collections of the library suffered during the persecutions under the Emperor Diocletian, but were repaired subsequently by bishops of Caesarea. The library was mentioned in 6th century manuscripts but it may not have survived the capture of Caesarea in 640.


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: During the Byzantine period, Caesarea became the capital of the new province of Palaestina Prima in 390. As the capital of the province, Caesarea was also the metropolitan see, with ecclesiastical jurisdiction over Jerusalem, when rebuilt after the destruction in the year 70. In 451, however, the Council of Chalcedon established Jerusalem as a patriarchate, with Caesarea as the first of its three subordinate metropolitan sees.


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: Caesarea remained the provincial capital throughout the 5th and 6th centuries. It fell to Sassanid Persia in the Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628, in 614, and was re-conquered by Byzantium in 625.


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: Caesarea was lost for good by the Byzantines to the Muslim conquest in 640. Archaeological excavations discovered a destruction layer connected to the Muslim conquest of the city. Some newer research posits that there was no destruction caused by the Persians in 614 and Muslim Arabs in 640, but rather a gradual economic decline accompanied by the Christian aristocracy fleeing from the city.


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: According to Baladhuri, the fall of the city was allegedly the result of the betrayal of a certain Yusef, who conducted a party of troops of Muawiyah into the city. The city appears to have been partially destroyed upon its conquest. The 7th-century Coptic bishop John of Nikiû, claims there were "horrors committed in the city of Caesarea in Palestine", while the 9th-century Muslim historian Al-Baladhuri (d. 892) merely states that Kaisariyyah/Cæsarea was "reduced", mentioning it as one of ten towns in Jund Filastin (military district of Palestine) conquered by the Muslim Rashidun army under 'Amr ibn al-'As's leadership during the 630s.


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: The former Palaestina Prima was now administered as "Jund Filastin", with the capital first at Ludd and then at Ramla.


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: The city likely remained inhabited for some time under Arab rule, during the 7th and 8th century, albeit with much reduced population. Archaeological evidence shows a clear destruction layer identified with the conquest of 640, followed by some evidence of renewed settlement in the early Umayyad period.


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: It appears that the harbour remained in use for some time, but it was allowed to silt up and it was unusable by the 9th century.


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: The area was only seriously farmed during the Rashidun Caliphate period, apparently until the Crusader conquest in the eleventh century. Over time, the farms were buried under the sands shifting along the shores of the Mediterranean.


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: By the 11th century, it appears that the town had once again been developed into a fortified city. Writing in 1047, Nasir-i-Khusraw describes it as "a fine city, with running waters, and palm-gardens, and orange and citron trees. Its walls are strong, and it has an iron gate. There are fountains that gush out within the city". This is in agreement with William of Tyre's description of the Crusaders' siege in 1101, mentioning catapults and siege engines used against the city fortifications. Nasir-i-Khusraw noted a "beautiful Friday Mosque" in Caesarea in year 1047, "so situated that in its court you may sit and enjoy the view of all that is passing on the sea." This was converted into the church of St. Peter in Crusader times. A wall which may belong to this building has been identified in modern times.


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: Caesarea was taken by Baldwin I in the wake of the First Crusade, in 1101. Baldwin sent a message to emir of Caesarea, demanding him to surrender the city or face a siege, but the Muslims refuse. On May 2, 1101, Baldwin began sieging the city with trebuchets. After fifteen days of resistance, the Crusader army broke through the defenses. Like in Jerusalem in 1099, the Crusaders proceeded to slaughter a portion of the male populace, enslave the women and children and loot the city. Baldwin spared the emir and qadi for a hefty ransom. Baldwin appointed a cleric veteran of the First Crusade, also named Baldwin, as the new Latin archbishop of Caesarea.


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: William of Tyre (10.15) describes the use of catapults and siege towers, and states that the city was taken in an assault after fifteen days of siege and given over to looting and pillaging. Syriac Orthodox patriarch Michael the Syrian (born ca. 1126) records that the city was "devastated upon its capture".


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: William of Tyre mentions (10.16) the discovery of a "vessel of the most green colour, in the shape of a serving dish" ("vas coloris viridissimi, in modum parapsidis formatum") which the Genuese thought to be made of emerald, and accepted as their share of the spoils. This refers to the hexagonal bowl known as the "Sacro Catino" in Italian, which was brought to Genoa by Guglielmo Embriaco and was later identified as the Holy Chalice.


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: Caesarea was incorporated as a lordship (dominion) within the Kingdom of Jerusalem, and the Latin See of Caesarea was established, with ten archbishops listed for the period 1101–1266 (treated as titular see from 1432–1967). Archbishop Heraclius attended the Third Lateran Council in 1179.


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: Saladin retook the city in 1187, but it was recaptured by the Europeans during the Third Crusade in 1191. In 1251, Louis IX of France fortified the city, ordering the construction of high walls (parts of which are still standing) and a deep moat.


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: The Arab geographer Yaqut, writing in the 1220s, named "Kaisariyyah" as one of the principal towns in "Filastîn" (Palestine).


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: In 1251, Louis IX fortified the city, ordering the construction of high walls (parts of which are still standing) and a deep moat.


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: The city was finally lost in 1265, when it fell to the Mamluk armies of Sultan Baibars, who ordered his troops to scale the walls in several places simultaneously, enabling them to penetrate the city. Baibars destroyed the fortified city completely to prevent its re-emergence as a Crusader stronghold, in line with the Mamluk practice in other formerly-Crusader coastal cities.


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: During the Mamluk period, the ruins of ancient Caesarea Maritima and of the Crusader fortified town lay uninhabited.


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: Caesarea became part of the Ottoman Empire in 1516, along with the rest of the Levant, and remained under Ottoman rule for four centuries.


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: In 1664, a settlement is mentioned consisting of 100 Moroccan families, and 7–8 Jewish ones. In the 18th century it again declined.


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: In 1806, the German explorer Seetzen saw "Káisserérie" as a ruin occupied by some poor fishermen and their families.


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: Caesarea lay in ruins until the nineteenth century, when the village of Qisarya () was established in 1884 by Bushnaks (Bosniaks) – immigrants from Bosnia, who built a small fishing village on the ruins of the fortified Crusader city. The Bosniaks had emigrated to the area after Ottoman Bosnia was occupied by Austria-Hungary in 1878.


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: In February 1948 the village was conquered by a Palmach unit commanded by Yitzhak Rabin, its people already having fled following an attack by the Lehi paramilitary group.


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: In 1952, a Jewish town of Caesarea was established near the ruins of the old city, which in 2011 were incorporated into the newly-created Caesarea National Park.


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: Large-scale archaeological excavations began in the 1950s and 1960s and continue to this day, conducted by volunteers working under the supervision of archaeologists. The majority of the archaeological excavations are done by the United States and Israel.


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: Remains from many periods have been uncovered, in particular from the large city of the Roman and Byzantine periods, and from the fortified town of the Crusaders. Major Classical-era findings are the Roman theatre; a temple dedicated to the goddess Roma and Emperor Augustus; a hippodrome rebuilt in the 2nd century as a more conventional theatre; the Tiberieum, where archaeologists found a reused limestone block with a dedicatory inscription mentioning Pilate- the only archaeological find bearing his name and title; a double aqueduct that brought water from springs at the foot of Mount Carmel; a boundary wall; and a 200 ft (60 m) wide moat protecting the harbour to the south and west.


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: In 1986, the Israel Exploration Society published the archaeological findings of L.I. Levine and E. Netzer, during three seasons of excavations (1975, 1976 and 1979) at Caesarea Maritima. In 2010, archaeological surveys-excavations of the site were conducted by Dani Vaynberger and Carmit Gur on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), and others by Peter Gendelman and Jacob Sharvit on behalf of the IAA, Yosef Porath, Beverly Goodman, and Michal Artzy on behalf of University of Haifa. The site continued to be excavated as late as 2013. A new phase of exploration began in 2018 under the direction of Joseph L. Rife, Phillip Lieberman, and Peter Gendelman on behalf of Vanderbilt University and the IAA.


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: In February 2015, marine archaeologists and diving club members from the Israel Antiquities Authority announced that about 2,000 gold coins dating back more than 1,000 years have been discovered. According to the researchers, this could be a  large merchant ship trading with the coastal cities and ports in the Mediterranean and the coins could be for paying the salaries of the Fatimid military garrison. The remains are now the property of the state. In January 2021, researchers re-examined the coins discovered in 2015 and they retrieved hundreds more. The coins with Arabic text on both sides were 24 carat gold and 95 percent purity.


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: A large compound, located in the archaeologists' Area CC, in the first insula of the Roman and Byzantine city south of the Crusader wall and close to the sea, along the "decumanus", was in use as the Roman "praetorium" of the equestrian fiscal procurator, and then became the seat of the Byzantine governor. It contained a basilica with an apse, where magistrates would have sat, for the structure was used as a hall of justice, as fragments of inscriptions detailing the fees that court clerks might claim attest.


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: A rare, colorful mosaic dating from the 2nd-3rd century CE was uncovered in 2018, in the Caesarea National Park near a Crusader bridge. It contains the image of three male figures wearing togas, geometric patterns, as well as a largely damaged inscription in Greek. It is one of the few extant examples of mosaics from that specific time period in Israel. The mosaic measures 3.5 × 8 meters and is, according to its excavators, "of a rare high quality" comparable to that of Israel's finest examples.


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: In 1962, a team of Israeli and American archaeologists discovered in the sand of Caesarea Maritima three small fragments of one Hebrew stone inscription bearing the partial names of places associated with the priestly courses (the rest of which had been reconstructed), dated to the third-fourth centuries. The uniqueness of this discovery is that it shows the places of residence in Galilee of the priestly courses, places presumably resettled by Jews after the First Jewish–Roman War under Hadrian.


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: The main Byzantine church, an octagonal martyrion, was built in the 6th century and sited directly upon the podium that had supported Herod's temple, as was a widespread Christian practice. The "martyrion" was richly paved and surrounded by small radiating enclosures. Archaeologists have recovered some foliate capitals that included representations of the Cross. The site would in time be re-occupied, this time by a mosque.


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: In 2005 excavators found a well-preserved 6th-century panel covered in an exquisite mosaic made of glass gold and coloured opaque glass tesserae, used as a table, patterned with crosses and rosettes.


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: In 2018, a significant hoard of 24 gold coins and a gold earring was unearthed and tentatively dated to 1101.


title: Caesarea Maritima

text: Since 2000 the site of Caesarea Maritima is included in the "Tentative List of World Heritage Places" of the UNESCO.


title: Fula language

text: Fula , also known as Fulani or Fulah<ref name="ISO 639-2/RA"></ref><ref name="ISO 639-3/RA"></ref> (, , ; Adlam: , , ), is a Senegambian language spoken by around 30 million people as a set of various dialects in a continuum that stretches across some 18 countries in West and Central Africa. Along with other related languages such as Serer and Wolof, it belongs to the Atlantic geographic group within Niger–Congo, and more specifically to the Senegambian branch. Unlike most Niger-Congo languages, Fula does not have tones.


title: Fula language

text: It is spoken as a first language by the Fula people ("Fulani", ) from the Senegambia region and Guinea to Cameroon, Nigeria, and Sudan and by related groups such as the Toucouleur people in the Senegal River Valley. It is also spoken as a second language by various peoples in the region, such as the Kirdi of northern Cameroon and northeastern Nigeria.


title: Fula language

text: Several names are applied to the language, just as to the Fula people. They call their language "Pulaar" or "Pular" in the western dialects and "Fulfulde" in the central and eastern dialects. "Fula", "Fulah" and "Fulani" in English come originally from Manding (esp. Mandinka, but also Malinke and Bamana) and Hausa, respectively; "Peul" in French, also occasionally found in literature in English, comes from Wolof.


title: Fula language

text: Fula is based on verbonominal roots, from which verbal, noun, and modifier words are derived. It uses suffixes (sometimes inaccurately called infixes, as they come between the root and the inflectional ending) to modify meaning. These suffixes often serve the same purposes in Fula that prepositions do in English.


title: Fula language

text: The Fula or Fulfulde language is characterized by a robust noun class system, with 24 to 26 noun classes being common across the Fulfulde dialects. Noun classes in Fula are abstract categories with some classes having semantic attributes that characterize a subset of that class’ members, and others being marked by a membership too diverse to warrant any semantic categorization of the class’ members. For example, classes are for stringy, long things, and another for big things, another for liquids, a noun class for strong, rigid objects, another for human or humanoid traits etc. Gender does not have any role in the Fula noun class system and the marking of gender is done with adjectives rather than class markers. Noun classes are marked by suffixes on nouns. These suffixes are the same as the class name, though they are frequently subject to phonological processes, most frequently the dropping of the suffix's initial consonant.


title: Fula language

text: The table below illustrates the class name, the semantic property associated with class membership, and an example of a noun with its class marker. Classes 1 and 2 can be described as personal classes, classes 3-6 as diminutive classes, classes 7-8 as augmentative classes, and classes 9-25 as neutral classes. It is formed on the basis of McIntosh's 1984 description of Kaceccereere Fulfulde, which the author describes as "essentially the same" as David Arnott's 1970 description of the noun classes of the Gombe dialect of Fula. Thus, certain examples from Arnott also informed this table.


title: Fula language

text: Verbs in Fula are usually classed in three voices: active, middle, and passive. Not every root is used in all voices. Some middle-voice verbs are reflexive.


title: Fula language

text: Another feature of the language is initial consonant mutation between singular and plural forms of nouns and of verbs (except in Pular, no consonant mutation exists in verbs, only in nouns).


title: Fula language

text: Fula has inclusive and exclusive first-person plural pronouns. The inclusive pronouns include both the speaker and those being spoken to, while the exclusive pronouns exclude the listeners.


title: Fula language

text: The pronoun that corresponds to a given noun is determined by the noun class. Because men and women belong to the same noun class, the English pronouns "he" and "she" are translated into Fula by the same pronoun. However, depending on the dialect, there are some 25 different noun classes, each with its own pronoun. Sometimes those pronouns have both a nominative case (i.e., used as verb subject) and an accusative or dative case (i.e., used as a verb object) as well as a possessive form. Relative pronouns generally take the same form as the nominative.


title: Fula language

text: While there are numerous varieties of Fula, it is typically regarded as a single language. Wilson (1989) states that "travelers over wide distances never find communication impossible," and Ka (1991) concludes that despite its geographic span and dialect variation, Fulfulde is still fundamentally one language. However, "Ethnologue" has found that nine different translations are needed to make the Bible comprehensible for most Fula speakers, and it treats these varieties as separate languages. They are listed in the box at the beginning of this article.


title: Fula language

text: Fulfulde is an official lingua franca in Guinea, Senegal, Gambia, northeastern Nigeria, Cameroon, Mali, Burkina Faso, Northern Ghana, Southern Niger and Northern Benin (in Borgou Region, where many speakers are bilingual), and a local language in many African countries, such as Mauritania, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, Togo, CAR, Chad, Sudan, Somalia and Ethiopia, numbering more than 95 millions speakers in total.


title: Fula language

text: There were unsuccessful efforts in the 1950s and 1960s to create a unique script to write Fulfulde. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, two teenage brothers, Ibrahima and Abdoulaye Barry from the Nzérékoré Region of Guinea, created the Adlam script, which accurately represents all the sounds of Fulani. The script is written from right to left and includes 28 letters with 5 vowels and 23 consonants.


title: Fula language

text: Fula has also been written in the Arabic script or "Ajami" since before colonization by many scholars and learned people including Usman dan Fodio and the early emirs of the northern Nigeria emirates. This continues to a certain degree and notably in some areas like Guinea and Cameroon.


title: Fula language

text: When written using the Latin script, Fula uses the following additional special "hooked" characters to distinguish meaningfully different sounds in the language: Ɓ/ɓ , Ɗ/ɗ , Ŋ/ŋ , Ɲ/ɲ , Ƴ/ƴ . The letters c, j, and r, respectively represent the sounds [], [], and []. Double vowel characters indicate that the vowels are elongated. An apostrophe (ʼ) is used as a glottal stop. It uses the five vowel system denoting vowel sounds and their lengths. In Nigeria ʼy substitutes ƴ, and in Senegal Ñ/ñ is used instead of ɲ.


title: Fula language

text: a, aa, b, mb (or nb), ɓ, c, d, nd, ɗ, e, ee, f, g, ng, h, i, ii, j, nj, k, l, m, n, ŋ, ɲ (ny or ñ), o, oo, p, r, s, t, u, uu, w, y, ƴ or y,


title: Fula language

text: The standard Fulfulde alphabet adopted during the UNESCO-sponsored expert meeting in Bamako in March 1966 is as follows:


title: Fula language

text: a, b, mb, ɓ, c, d, nd, ɗ, e, f, g, ng, h, i, j, nj, k, l, m, n, ŋ, ny ("later" ɲ "or" ñ), o, p, r, s, t, u, w, y, ƴ, .


title: Web framework

text: A web framework (WF) or web application framework (WAF) is a software framework that is designed to support the development of web applications including web services, web resources, and web APIs. Web frameworks provide a standard way to build and deploy web applications on the World Wide Web. Web frameworks aim to automate the overhead associated with common activities performed in web development. For example, many web frameworks provide libraries for database access, templating frameworks, and session management, and they often promote code reuse. Although they often target development of dynamic web sites, they are also applicable to static websites.


title: Web framework

text: As the design of the World Wide Web was not inherently dynamic, early hypertext consisted of hand-coded HTML text files that were published on web servers. Any modifications to published pages needed to be performed by the pages' author. In 1993, the Common Gateway Interface (CGI) standard was introduced for interfacing external applications with web servers, to provide a dynamic web page that reflected user inputs.


title: Web framework

text: Original implementations of the CGI interface typically had adverse effects on the server load however, because each request started a separate process. More recent implementations utilize persistent processes amongst other techniques to reduce the footprint in the server's resources and offer a general performance boost.


title: Web framework

text: In 1995, fully integrated server/language development environments first emerged and new web-specific languages were introduced, such as ColdFusion, PHP, and Active Server Pages.


title: Web framework

text: Although the vast majority of languages for creating dynamic web pages have libraries to help with common tasks, web applications often require specific libraries for particular tasks, such as creating HTML (for example, Jakarta Server Faces).


title: Web framework

text: In the late 1990s, mature, "full stack" frameworks began to appear, that often gathered multiple libraries useful for web development into a single cohesive software stack for web developers to use. Examples of this include ASP.NET, Java EE, WebObjects, web2py, OpenACS, Catalyst, Mojolicious, Ruby on Rails, Laravel, Grails, Django, Zend Framework, Sails.js, Yii, CakePHP, and Symfony.


title: Web framework

text: Many frameworks follow the MVC architectural pattern to separate the data model into business rules (the "controller") and the user interface (the "view"). This is generally considered a good practice as it modularizes code, promotes code reuse, and allows multiple interfaces to be applied. In web applications, this permits different views to be presented, for example serving different web pages for mobile vs. desktop browsers, or providing machine-readable web service interfaces.


title: Web framework

text: Most MVC frameworks follow a push-based architecture also called "action-based". These frameworks use actions that do the required processing, and then "push" the data to the view layer to render the results. Django, Ruby on Rails, Symfony, Spring MVC, Stripes, Sails.js, CodeIgniter are good examples of this architecture. An alternative to this is pull-based architecture, sometimes also called "component-based". These frameworks start with the view layer, which can then "pull" results from multiple controllers as needed. In this architecture, multiple controllers can be involved with a single view. Lift, Tapestry, JBoss Seam, Jakarta Server Faces, and Wicket are examples of pull-based architectures.


title: Web framework

text: In three-tier organization, applications are structured around three physical tiers: client, application, and database. The database is normally an RDBMS. The application contains the business logic, running on a server and communicates with the client using HTTP. The client on web applications is a web browser that runs HTML generated by the application layer. The term should not be confused with MVC, where, unlike in three-tier architecture, it is considered a good practice to keep business logic away from the controller, the "middle layer".


title: Web framework

text: Frameworks are built to support the construction of internet applications based on a single programming language, ranging in focus from general purpose tools such as Zend Framework and Ruby on Rails, which augment the capabilities of a specific language, to native-language programmable packages built around a specific user application, such as content management systems, some mobile development tools and some portal tools.


title: Web framework

text: Web frameworks must function according to the architectural rules of browsers and protocols such as HTTP, which is stateless. Webpages are served up by a server and can then be modified by the browser using JavaScript. Either approach has its advantages and disadvantages.


title: Web framework

text: Server-side page changes typically require that the page be refreshed, but allow any language to be used and more computing power to be utilized. Client-side changes allow the page to be updated in small chunks which feels like a desktop application, but are limited to JavaScript and run in the user's browser, which may have limited computing power. Some mix of the two is typically used. Applications which make heavy use of JavaScript and only refresh parts of the page, are called single-page applications and typically make use of a client-side JavaScript web framework to organize the code.


title: Web framework

text: Frameworks typically set the control flow of a program and allow the user of the framework to "hook into" that flow by exposing various events. This "inversion of control" design pattern is considered to be a defining principle of a framework, and benefits the code by enforcing a common flow for a team which everyone can customize in similar ways. For example, some popular "microframeworks" such as Ruby's Sinatra (which inspired Express.js) allow for "middleware" hooks prior to and after HTTP requests. These middleware functions can be anything, and allow the user to define logging, authentication and session management, and redirecting.


title: Web framework

text: Web caching is the caching of web documents in order to reduce bandwidth usage, server load, and perceived "lag". A web cache stores copies of documents passing through it; subsequent requests may be satisfied from the cache if certain conditions are met. Some application frameworks provide mechanisms for caching documents and bypassing various stages of the page's preparation, such as database access or template interpretation.


title: Web framework

text: Some web frameworks come with authentication and authorization frameworks, that enable the web server to identify the users of the application, and restrict access to functions based on some defined criteria. Drupal is one example that provides role-based access to pages, and provides a web-based interface for creating users and assigning them roles.


title: Web framework

text: Many web frameworks create a unified API to a database backend, enabling web applications to work with a variety of databases with no code changes, and allowing programmers to work with higher-level concepts. Additionally, some object-oriented frameworks contain mapping tools to provide object-relational mapping, which maps objects to tuples.


title: Web framework

text: Some frameworks minimize web application configuration through the use of introspection and/or following well-known conventions. For example, many Java frameworks use Hibernate as a persistence layer, which can generate a database schema at runtime capable of persisting the necessary information. This allows the application designer to design business objects without needing to explicitly define a database schema. Frameworks such as Ruby on Rails can also work in reverse, that is, define properties of model objects at runtime based on a database schema.


title: Web framework

text: Other features web frameworks may provide include transactional support and database migration tools.


title: Web framework

text: A framework's URL mapping or routing facility is the mechanism by which the framework interprets URLs. Some frameworks, such as Drupal and Django, match the provided URL against pre-determined patterns using regular expressions, while some others use rewriting techniques to translate the provided URL into one that the underlying engine will recognize. Another technique is that of graph traversal such as used by Zope, where a URL is decomposed in steps that traverse an object graph (of models and views).


title: Web framework

text: A URL mapping system that uses pattern matching or rewriting to route and handle requests allows for shorter more "friendly URLs" to be used, increasing the simplicity of the site and allowing for better indexing by search engines. For example, a URL that ends with "/page.cgi?cat=science&topic=physics" could be changed to simply "/page/science/physics". This makes the URL easier for people to remember, read and write, and provides search engines with better information about the structural layout of the site. A graph traversal approach also tends to result in the creation of friendly URLs. A shorter URL such as "/page/science" tends to exist by default as that is simply a shorter form of the longer traversal to "/page/science/physics".


title: Web framework

text: Ajax, shorthand for ""Asynchronous JavaScript and XML"", is a web development technique for creating web applications. The intent is to make web pages feel more responsive by exchanging small amounts of data with the server behind the scenes, so that the entire web page does not have to be reloaded each time the user requests a change. This is intended to increase a web page's interactivity, speed, maintainability, and usability.


title: Web framework

text: Due to the complexity of Ajax programming in JavaScript, there are numerous Ajax frameworks that exclusively deal with Ajax support. Some Ajax frameworks are even embedded as a part of larger frameworks. For example, the jQuery JavaScript library is included in Ruby on Rails.


title: Web framework

text: With the increased interest in developing "Web 2.0" rich web applications, the complexity of programming directly in Ajax and JavaScript has become so apparent that compiler technology has stepped in, to allow developers to code in high-level languages such as Java, Python and Ruby. The first of these compilers was Morfik followed by Google Web Toolkit, with ports to Python and Ruby in the form of Pyjs and RubyJS following some time after. These compilers and their associated widget set libraries make the development of rich media Ajax applications much more akin to that of developing desktop applications.


title: Web framework

text: Some frameworks provide tools for creating and providing web services. These utilities may offer similar tools as the rest of the web application.


title: Web framework

text: A number of newer Web 2.0 RESTful frameworks are now providing resource-oriented architecture (ROA) infrastructure for building collections of resources in a sort of Semantic Web ontology, based on concepts from Resource Description Framework (RDF).


title: Steve Blackman

text: Steve Blackman (born September 28, 1963) is an American martial arts instructor, bail bondsman, and former professional wrestler. He is best known for his appearances with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) from 1997 to 2002, where he was a frequent challenger for the promotion's mid-card titles. He held the WWF Hardcore Championship six times and holds the record for most combined days as champion, a total of 172 days.


title: Steve Blackman

text: Steve Blackman began as a competitive bodybuilder and weightlifter before entering professional wrestling in 1986 in Connecticut, training at Tony Altamore's wrestling school and working for Stu Hart's Stampede Wrestling in Calgary. Also around that time, in January 1988, Blackman once toured with New Japan Pro-Wrestling wrestling as Steve R. Blackman during their "New Year Golden Series". He wrestled singles matches against the likes of Tatsumi Fujinami, Riki Choshu, Hiroshi Hase, Nobuhiko Takada, Kengo Kimura and a few others. He also wrestled tag matches in that tour teaming with the likes of Tony St. Clair, Buzz Sawyer, "Dr. Death" Steve Williams and Johnny K-9.


title: Steve Blackman

text: Blackman made his first appearance for the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) on March 9, 1988 at a house show in Watertown, New York. Wrestling David Sammartino, Blackman gained a victory in his first match. He then appeared on the May 8, 1988 episode of "WWF Superstars" where he teamed with Outback Jack and Brady Boone against The Islanders and Sivi Afi. Blackman appeared again on a WWF house show in Auburn Hills, Michigan on June 24, 1989, when he defeated Iron Mike Sharpe. He also wrestled Boris Zukhov on a Watertown, New York house show on September 2, 1989. Blackman was being considered for a full-time contract with the company when he contracted malaria and dysentery while wrestling in South Africa in 1989 and was essentially bedridden for two years.


title: Steve Blackman

text: After his rest, during which he lost much of his muscle mass, Blackman spent another four years in physical therapy to recover his condition, and incorporated martial arts training, specifically escrima and tae kwon do. Once back in working shape, he contacted his friends Brian Pillman and Owen Hart for a new WWF try-out. Blackman also reached out to Jim Cornette who brought him in for a tryout and presented Blackman to Vince McMahon.


title: Steve Blackman

text: Blackman made his second WWF debut on the November 3, 1997 episode of "Raw is War" when he jumped the guardrail, to help Vader fend off an attack from The Hart Foundation. Blackman was given a martial arts gimmick, and named "The Lethal Weapon" Steve Blackman. His first pay-per view appearance was at Survivor Series 1997, as a replacement for the injured Patriot as the fourth member of Team USA (Vader, Goldust, and Marc Mero). Blackman was the first elimination of the match when he was counted out of the ring. Team USA lost to Team Canada (British Bulldog, Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart, Phillip Lafon, and Doug Furnas) when the British Bulldog pinned Vader. His next pay-per view appearance was at Royal Rumble 1998 in the 30-man Royal Rumble match. He was the tenth entrant into the Rumble, but was eliminated by Kurrgan.


title: Steve Blackman

text: Blackman was undefeated for close to a year after his debut, during this time Blackman established his trademark entrance involving swinging glow-in-the-dark escrima sticks. His first loss finally came at the hands of Jeff Jarrett thanks to interference from Jarrett's manager, at the time, Tennessee Lee.


title: Steve Blackman

text: Blackman started feuding with the Nation of Domination in early 1998 and achieved great success by defeating the likes of The Rock and Faarooq. In his attempts to combat the Nation of Domination he teamed up with Ken Shamrock. Blackman and Shamrock teamed with former Nation member Faarooq at to defeat The Rock, D-Lo Brown and Mark Henry. Eventually, Blackman and Shamrock split to pursue singles success, both men entered the King of the Ring in 1998 but would never get to face each other because Blackman lost to Marc Mero, Shamrock won the tournament. During this time he would develop a reputation for doing run-ins during matches where one of the participants would cheat by having a run-in done in his favor, thus earning him the nickname "The Peacemaker" from the announce team. Blackman competed in the WWF Brawl for All tournament and once again came up against Marc Mero, this time however Blackman defeated him but would have to withdraw due to injury, allowing Mero to advance by default. Blackman came to the aid of Shamrock when he was being beat down by Owen Hart and Dan Severn. For his efforts Shamrock suplexed Blackman and in retaliation Blackman suplexed Shamrock back. This would lead to Blackman and Shamrock facing each other in the first round of the WWF Intercontinental Championship tournament which was won by Shamrock. At WWF Capital Carnage, Blackman took on Shamrock for the WWF Intercontinental Championship and lost. Blackman would eventually turn heel after siding with then-heel Shane McMahon. During his run as a heel, he brought a gym bag full of martial arts weapons with him to the ring, including kendo "shinai". Blackman would attempt to use the weapons in the bag during or after the match. After a short hiatus, Blackman returned as the hired hitman of Vince McMahon to take out Ken Shamrock and cost Shamrock the King of the Ring in 1999. This led to an iron circle match at Fully Loaded 1999 and a lion's den match at SummerSlam 1999, both of which Shamrock won.


title: Steve Blackman

text: On the Smackdown after SummerSlam, Blackman interfered in Shamrock's match against Val Venis and afterwards Shamrock knocked Blackman out. Once Blackman regained consciousness, he destroyed Venis with his signature Nunchucks. Blackman was set to face Venis and D-Lo Brown with Mark Henry, however, Henry failed to show making it a handicap match. Annoyed by Henry, he challenged him for the WWF European Championship and during the match Val Venis would attack Blackman with a kendo stick, costing him the match. During a match on SmackDown while Blackman was in the ring, Venis came to the ring switched Blackman's weapon bag with an identical bag. When Blackman went into what he thought was his bag for a weapon, he instead pulled out a sex toy. Their feud culminated in a match at Unforgiven 1999 where Venis defeated Blackman.


title: Steve Blackman

text: Blackman and Al Snow then formed a tag team that was known unofficially as Head Cheese, as Snow made Blackman wear a cheesehead hat to complement the mannequin head that Snow carried to the ring. Blackman had a reputation for being very serious and not displaying emotion, so the two put on comedy duo skits with Blackman as the straight man. Many of the skits involved Snow's attempts to come up with a gimmick for their team. In one backstage scene, Snow proposed that the duo develop a TV show wherein they travel through time and solve mysteries. In that same skit Snow proposed Blackman dress up like Dracula as he already "Had the personality of a dead guy". Another memorable sketch involved Snow scheduling an unsuspecting Blackman to perform stand-up comedy at a nursing home, with humorously disastrous results. Head Cheese had one opportunity to become the WWF World Tag Team Champions when they took on the New Age Outlaws, however, the match ended in a no contest due to the interference from the debuting Radicalz. Head Cheese also appeared on WrestleMania 2000 losing to T & A (Test and Albert).


title: Steve Blackman

text: After the Head Cheese team went their separate ways, Blackman entered the WWF's Hardcore Division. At the time, the title was defended 24 hours a day, 7 days a week as established by Crash Holly. Because of this, WWF often ran matches wherein the champion was attacked and defeated in locations not typically associated with wrestling matches, such as backstage or in a hotel. With Blackman as champion, however, surprise attacks no longer resulted in title changes: within the matches, Blackman was so dangerous in hand-to-hand combat that surprise attacks were not effective enough to defeat him. During his stint as Hardcore Champion, Blackman's full martial arts talent was utilized. The first time he lost the title for a significant amount of time was against Shane McMahon, largely due to interference from Test, Albert, Edge, and Christian, with Mick Foley suspending the 24/7 rule to make sure McMahon didn't try to get out of facing Blackman in a rematch. At SummerSlam, Blackman fought McMahon for the title. During that match, they both climbed the TitanTron with Blackman able to knock Shane off with a Singapore cane, then performed a diving elbow drop for the pinfall. Blackman would go on to defend the title on several occasions, but he would ultimately lose the title on a more permanent basis to Raven in late 2000. At Unforgiven, he retained the WWF Hardcore Championship against Test, Funaki, Al Snow, Crash Holly, and Perry Saturn. Later, he was ordered by Shane McMahon to come out and speak after he accused Blackman of running over Stone Cold Steve Austin at Survivor Series the previous year. Before he could speak, Austin came down to the ring and stunned both Blackman and McMahon.


title: Steve Blackman

text: Early in 2001, Blackman formed another tag team, this time with Grandmaster Sexay. Blackman again played the straight-faced man: a recurring element was that Grandmaster would always try to convince Blackman to dance with him after their matches. In the summer of 2001, Grandmaster was released from his WWF contract. Blackman was then sidelined due to an injury. He made his last TV appearance on the June 25th, 2001 episode of "Raw" with the APA and other mid-card superstars planning a fight against The WCW Invasion. In the fall of 2001, Blackman worked for Heartland Wrestling Association a developmental territory of the WWF. He wrestled his last match in December 2001 and sat out of his contract. Blackman left WWE in October 2002.


title: Steve Blackman

text: On September 4, 2004, Blackman made one night appearance for Afa Anoaʻi's World Xtreme Wrestling defeating Sugaa in Bushkill, Pennsylvania.


title: Steve Blackman

text: Blackman returned to WWE for a single night on the Raw 15th Anniversary Special on December 10, 2007, taking part in a battle royal. He was eliminated by Flash Funk.


title: Steve Blackman

text: In August 2010, Blackman was interviewed for regular WWE.com feature "Where Are They Now?", which features former superstars discussing their careers and current situations. Blackman recalled how he "loved doing hardcore matches" and that he had a "lot of good matches with Bob Holly, Kane, a bunch of those guys." On the subject of a return to the ring Blackman said: "Some days when I feel really good I get tempted" and "I miss being out there".


title: Steve Blackman

text: Blackman opened a self-defense school in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania called BlackmanMMA in mid-2003, teaching jujitsu and wrestling. Blackman and MMA fighter (UFC Hall of Famer) and wrestler Ken Shamrock were brought in to help promote a clothing line for professional fighters, called Ground 'n' Pound gear (GnP). As of July 2006, Blackman has re-opened Steve Blackman's Fighting Systems, which features MMA classes. Blackman has hosted four MMA events in the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania starting in 2009 and the most recent being on November 20, 2010, at the Zembo Mosque. The events are part of the Pennsylvania Fighting Championships (PFC).


title: Steve Blackman

text: Blackman is married and has two children. He also works as a bail bondsman in the central Pennsylvania area.


title: Vera Atkins

text: Vera May Atkins (15 June 1908 – 24 June 2000) was a Romanian-born British intelligence officer who worked in the France Section of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) from 1941 to 1945 during the Second World War.


title: Vera Atkins

text: Atkins was born Vera May Rosenberg in Galați, Kingdom of Romania, to Max Rosenberg (d. 1932), a German-Jewish father, and his British-Jewish wife, Zefra Hilda, known as Hilda (d. 1947). She had two brothers.


title: Vera Atkins

text: Atkins briefly attended the Sorbonne in Paris to study modern languages and a finishing school at Lausanne, where she indulged her passion for skiing, before training at a secretarial college in London. Atkins' father, a wealthy businessman on the Danube Delta, went bankrupt in 1932 and died a year after. Atkins remained with her mother in Romania until emigrating to Great Britain in 1937, a move made in response to the threatening political situation in mainland Europe.


title: Vera Atkins

text: During her somewhat-gilded youth in Romania, where Atkins lived on the large estate bought by her father at Crasna (now in Ukraine), Atkins enjoyed the cosmopolitan society of Bucharest where she became close to the anti-Nazi German ambassador, Friedrich Werner von der Schulenburg (executed after the July 1944 plot). Later Atkins became involved with a young British pilot, Dick Ketton-Cremer, whom she had met in Egypt, and to whom she may have been briefly engaged. He was killed in action in the Battle of Crete on 23 May 1941. Atkins was never to marry, and lived in a flat with her mother while working for SOE and until 1947 when Hilda died.


title: Vera Atkins

text: While in Romania, Atkins came to know several diplomats who were members of British Intelligence, some of whom were later to support her application for British nationality, and to whom in view of her and her family's strong pro-British views, she may have provided information as a "stringer". Atkins also worked as a translator and representative for an oil company.


title: Vera Atkins

text: The surname "Atkins" was her mother's maiden name and itself an Anglicised version of the original "Etkins", which she adopted as her own. She was a cousin of Rudolf Vrba.


title: Vera Atkins

text: Atkins was recruited before the war by Canadian spymaster Sir William Stephenson of British Security Co-ordination. He sent her on fact-finding missions across Europe to supply Winston Churchill (then in the 'political wilderness') with intelligence on the rising threat of Nazi Germany.


title: Vera Atkins

text: The Polish Cipher Bureau broke Germany's Enigma ciphers from 1932 on, using Enigma-machine reconstructions which they also gave to their British and French allies, following a July 1939 Warsaw conference at which they gave their French and British cryptologist opposite numbers information on the Poles' decrypting techniques and the special-purpose equipment they had invented.


title: Vera Atkins

text: According to William Stevenson's "The Life of Vera Atkins, the Greatest Female Secret Agent of World War II" (Arcade Publishing, 2006), Atkins' first mission was to get Poland's cryptologists Marian Rejewski, Jerzy Różycki, and Henryk Zygalski out of the country, and she was a member of the British military mission (MM-4), alongside Colin Gubbins, which arrived in Poland posing as civilians, by way of Greece and Romania, six days before the outbreak of the war. Atkins may have "attempted" to find the cryptologists and get them out of Poland, but as Rejewski describes (see "Marian Rejewski"), they were in fact evacuated to Romania by the Polish Cipher Bureau, and from Romania to France thanks to Gustave Bertrand of French intelligence; Rejewski makes no mention of ever having met or heard of Vera Atkins.


title: Vera Atkins

text: In the spring of 1940, before joining SOE, Atkins travelled to the Low Countries to provide money for a bribe to an Abwehr officer, Hans Fillie, for a passport for her cousin, Fritz, to escape from Romania. Atkins was stranded in the Netherlands when the Germans invaded on 10 May 1940, and, after going into hiding, was able to return to Britain late in 1940 with the assistance of a Belgian resistance network. Atkins kept this episode secret all her life and it only came to light after her death when her biographer, Sarah Helm, tracked down some mourners at Atkins' funeral.


title: Vera Atkins

text: Atkins volunteered as an Air Raid Precautions warden in Chelsea in the period prior to working for SOE. During this time she lived at Nell Gwynn House in Sloane Avenue in Chelsea.


title: Vera Atkins

text: Though not a British national, in February 1941 Atkins joined the French section of the SOE as a secretary. She was soon made assistant to section head Colonel Maurice Buckmaster, and became a de facto intelligence officer. Atkins served as a civilian until August 1944, when she was commissioned a Flight Officer in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF). In February 1944, Atkins was naturalised as a British subject. She was later appointed F Section's intelligence officer (F-Int).


title: Vera Atkins

text: Atkins' primary role at SOE was the recruitment and deployment of British agents in occupied France. She also had responsibility for the 37 women SOE agents who worked as couriers and wireless operators for the various circuits established by SOE. Atkins would take care of the "housekeeping" related to the agents, such as checking their clothing and papers to ensure they were appropriate for the mission, sending out pre-written anodyne letters at regular intervals, acting as SOE's liaison with their families, and ensuring they received their pay. Atkins would often accompany agents to the airfields from which they would depart for France and carry out final security checks before waving them off.


title: Vera Atkins

text: Atkins always attended the daily section heads meeting chaired by Buckmaster, and would often stay late into the night at the signals room to await the decoded transmissions sent by agents in the field. She would usually arrive at F Section's Baker Street office around 10.00 am. Although not popular with many of her colleagues, Atkins was trusted by Buckmaster for her integrity, exceptional memory and good organisational skills. Tall at 5 ft 9 in., she typically dressed in tailored skirt-suits. She was a lifelong smoker, preferring the "Senior Service" brand.


title: Vera Atkins

text: Controversy has lasted in certain circles as to how and why clues that one of F section's main spy networks had been penetrated by the Germans were not picked up, and Buckmaster and Atkins failed to pull out agents at risk. Instead, they sent in several more. A radio operator for the Prosper circuit, Gilbert Norman ("Archambaud"), had sent a message omitting his "true security check" – a deliberate mistake. Atkins, it is alleged, was negligent in letting Buckmaster repeat his errors at the expense of agents' lives, including 27 arrested on landing whom the Germans later killed.


title: Vera Atkins

text: Sarah Helm suggests that Atkins, who still had relatives in Nazi-occupied Europe, may have been defensive about her involvement with the Abwehr in the 1940 rescue of her cousin Fritz Rosenberg, something she kept secret from SOE. Furthermore, as a Romanian who had not yet obtained British citizenship, Atkins was legally an enemy alien and highly vulnerable. Whatever the truth, Buckmaster was Atkins' superior officer, and thus ultimately responsible for running SOE's French agents, and she remained a civilian and not even a British national until February 1944. It was Buckmaster who sent a reply to the message supposedly sent by Norman telling him, and thus the actual German operator, that he had forgotten his "true" check and to remember it in the future.


title: Vera Atkins

text: On 1 October 1943, F-Section received a message from "Jacques", an agent in Berne, passing on information from "Sonja" that "Madeleine" and two others had had "a serious accident and were in hospital" – code for captured by the German authorities. "Jacques" was an SOE radio operator, Jacques Weil of the Juggler circuit, who had escaped to Switzerland, "Sonja" was his fiancée, Sonia Olschanezky, who was still operating in Paris, and "Madeleine" was Noor Inayat Khan, a wireless operator of the Cinema circuit. This accurate information was not acted upon by Buckmaster, probably because "Sonja" was a locally recruited agent unknown to him, and F-Section continued to regard "Madeleine's" messages as genuine for several months after Noor's arrest. There is no evidence that Atkins was aware of this message, and as she was later to misidentify Sonia as Noor because she was unaware the former was an SOE operative, the responsibility for ignoring Sonia's communication and continuing to send agents to the blown Prosper circuit and sub-circuits in Paris, and so to their capture and often death, must lie with Buckmaster and not Atkins, as with the case of "Archambaud" above.


title: Vera Atkins

text: It was not until after the end of the war that Atkins learnt of the almost total success the Germans had had by 1943 in destroying SOE networks in the Low Countries by playing the Englandspiel ("England game"), by which radio operators were captured and forced to give up their codes and "bluffs", so that German intelligence (Abwehr in the Netherlands; Sicherheitsdienst (SD) in France) officers could impersonate the agents and play them back against in London. For some reason, Buckmaster and Atkins were not informed of the total collapse of the circuits in the Netherlands (N Section) and Belgium (T Section) due to the capture and control of wireless operators by the Abwehr.


title: Vera Atkins

text: This may have been a result of inter-departmental or service rivalry, or just bureaucratic incompetence, but the failure of their superiors to tell F Section officially of these other SOE disasters (although rumours about N and T Sections circulated at Baker Street) may have led Buckmaster and Atkins to be overconfident in the security of their networks and too ready to ignore signals evidence that questioned their trust in the identity of the wireless operator.


title: Vera Atkins

text: Notice should also be taken of the well-organised and skillful counter-espionage work of the SD at 84 Avenue Foch in Paris under Hans Josef Kieffer, who built up a deep understanding of how F Section operated in both London and France.


title: Vera Atkins

text: It has been suggested that Atkins' diligence in tracing agents still missing at the end of the war was motivated by a sense of guilt at having sent many to deaths that could have been avoided. It is also possible that she felt it her duty to find out what had happened to the men and women, each known personally to her, who had died serving SOE F Section in the most dangerous of circumstances.


title: Vera Atkins

text: In the end, what caused the complete collapse of the Prosper circuit of Francis Suttill and its extensive network of sub-circuits, were not errors in London, but the actions of Henri Déricourt ("Gilbert"), F Section's air-landing officer in France, who was at the heart of its operations, and who was literally giving SOE's secrets to the SD in Paris. What is not completely clear is whether Déricourt was, as is most likely, simply a traitor, or, as he was to claim, was working for the Secret Intelligence Service () (unknown to SOE) as part of a complex deception plan in the run-up to D-Day. However, it is beyond doubt that Déricourt was at least a double agent, and that he provided, first his friend, Karl Boemelburg, head of the SD in France, and then Kieffer, with large amounts of written evidence and intelligence about F Section's operations and operatives, which ultimately led to the capture, torture and execution of scores of British agents.


title: Vera Atkins

text: The conclusions of M.R.D. Foot in his official history of F Section are that the errors made by Atkins, Buckmaster and other London officers were the products of the "fog of war", that there were no conspiracies behind these failings, and that few individuals were culpable. Sara Helm's conclusions are that the errors were due to "terrible incompetence and tragic mistakes".


title: Vera Atkins

text: Atkins never admitted to making mistakes, and went to considerable lengths to hide her errors, as in her original identification of Noor Inayat Khan, rather than (the then unknown to Atkins) Sonia Olschanezky, as the fourth woman executed at Natzweiler-Struthof on 6 July 1944. Indeed, Atkins never informed Sonia's family that Sonia had died at Natzweiler, although she did later protest against the decision of the organising committee of the SOE memorial in Valençay not to include Sonia's name because she was a local agent and not one sent from England.


title: Vera Atkins

text: After the liberation of France and the allied victory in Europe, Atkins went to both France, and later, for just four days, Germany, where she was determined to uncover the fates of the fifty-one still unaccounted for F Section agents, of the 118 who had disappeared in enemy territory (117 of whom she was to confirm had died in German captivity). Originally she received little support and some opposition in Whitehall, but as the horrors of Nazi atrocities were revealed, and the popular demand for war crimes trials grew, it was decided to give official support for Atkins' quest to find out what had happened to the British agents and to bring those who had perpetrated crimes against them to justice.


title: Vera Atkins

text: At the end of 1945 SOE was wound up, but in January 1946 Atkins, now funded on the establishment of the Secret Intelligence Service (), arrived in Germany as a newly promoted Squadron Officer in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force to begin her search for the missing agents, including 14 women. Atkins was attached to the war crimes unit of the Judge Advocate-General's department of the British Army at Bad Oeynhausen, which was under the command of Group Captain Tony Somerhaugh.


title: Vera Atkins

text: Until her return to Britain in October 1946, Atkins searched for the missing SOE agents and other intelligence service personnel who had gone missing behind enemy lines, carried out interrogations of Nazi war crimes suspects, including Rudolf Höss, ex-commandant of Auschwitz-Birkenau, and testified as a prosecution witness in subsequent trials. In November 1946, Atkins' commission was extended so that she could return to Germany to assist the prosecution in the Ravensbrück trial which lasted into January 1947. She used this opportunity to complete her search for Noor Inayat Khan, who she now knew had not died at Natzweiler-Struthof, as she had originally concluded in April 1946, but at Dachau.


title: Vera Atkins

text: As well as tracing 117 of the 118 missing F Section agents, Atkins established the circumstances of the deaths of all 14 of the women, twelve of whom had perished in concentration camps: Andrée Borrel, Vera Leigh, Sonia Olschanezky (whom Atkins did not identify until 1947, but knew as the fourth woman to be killed) and Diana Rowden executed at Natzweiler-Struthof by lethal injection on 6 July 1944; Yolande Beekman, Madeleine Damerment, Noor Inayat Khan and Eliane Plewman executed at Dachau on 13 September 1944; Denise Bloch, Lilian Rolfe and Violette Szabo executed by shooting at Ravensbrück on 5 February 1945, and Cecily Lefort executed in the gas chamber at the Uckermark Youth Camp adjacent to Ravensbrück sometime in February 1945. Yvonne Rudellat died of typhus on 23 or 24 April 1945, eight or nine days after the liberation of Bergen-Belsen, and Muriel Byck had died of meningitis in hospital in Romorantin, France, on 25 May 1944. Atkins had also persuaded the War Office that the twelve women, technically regarded as civilians, who had been executed, were not treated as having died in prison, as had been originally intended, but were recorded as killed in action.