title: Jethro Tull (agriculturist)

text: Tull died on 21 February 1741 at Prosperous Farm and is buried in the graveyard of St Bartholomew's Church, Lower Basildon, Berkshire (now redundant), where he had been baptised. His modern gravestone bears the burial date 9 March 1740 using the Old Style calendar, which is equivalent to the modern date 20 March 1741.


title: Jethro Tull (agriculturist)

text: In his travels, Tull found himself seeking more knowledge of agriculture. Influenced by the early Age of Enlightenment, he is considered to be one of the early proponents of a scientific – and especially empirical – approach to agriculture. He helped transform agricultural practices by inventing or improving numerous implements.


title: Jethro Tull (agriculturist)

text: Tull made early advances in planting crops with his invention of the seed drill (1701) – a mechanical seeder that sowed efficiently at the correct depth and spacing and then covered the seed so that it could grow. Before the introduction of the seed drill, the common practice was to plant seeds by broadcasting (evenly throwing) them across the ground by hand on the prepared soil and then lightly harrowing the soil to bury the seeds to the correct depth.


title: Jethro Tull (agriculturist)

text: In his 1731 publication, Tull described how the motivation for developing the seed-drill arose from conflict with his servants. He had struggled to enforce his new methods upon them, in part because they resisted the threat to their position as labourers and their skill with the plough.


title: Jethro Tull (agriculturist)

text: Tull invented some machinery for the purpose of carrying out his system of drill husbandry, about 1733. His first invention was a drill-plough to sow wheat and turnip seed in drills, three rows at a time. There were two boxes for the seed, and these, with the coulters, were placed one set behind the other, so that two sorts of seed might be sown at the same time. A harrow to cover in the seed was attached behind.


title: Jethro Tull (agriculturist)

text: Tull also invented a turnip-drill somewhat similar to the other in general arrangement, but of lighter construction. The feeding spout was so arranged as to carry one half of the seed backwards after the earth had fallen into the channel; a harrow was pinned to the beam; and by this arrangement one half of the seed would spring up sooner than the other, allowing part to escape the turnip fly.


title: Jethro Tull (agriculturist)

text: When desirable to turn the machine, the harrow was to be lifted and the feeding would stop. The manner of delivering the seeds to the funnels in both the above drills was by notched barrels, and Tull was the first to use cavities in the surfaces of solid cylinders for the feeding. Nothing material in the history of the drill then occurred until 1782.


title: Jethro Tull (agriculturist)

text: Tull considered soil to be the sole food of plants. "Too much nitre," Tull wrote, "corrodes a plant, too much water drowns it, too much air dries the roots of it, too much heat burns it; but too much earth a plant can never have, unless it be therein wholly buried: too much earth or too fine can never possibly be given to their roots, for they never receive so much of it as to surfeit the plant." Again, he declares elsewhere, "That which nourishes and augments a plant is the true food of it. Every plant is earth, and the growth and true increase of a plant is the addition of more earth." And in his chapter on the "Pasture of Plants", Tull told his readers with great gravity that "this pasturage is the inner or internal superficies "[sic]" of the earth; or, which is the same thing, it is the superficies of the pores, cavities, or interstices of the divided parts of the earth, which are of two sorts, natural and artificial. The mouths or lacteals of roots take their pabulum, being fine particles of earth, from the superficies of the pores or cavities, wherein their roots are included."


title: Jethro Tull (agriculturist)

text: Tull wrote with enthusiasm and carried his admiration of the powers of the earth to support vegetation too far; he was deceived, in fact, by the effects of his finely pulverising system of tillage, and did not sufficiently attend to the fact that there are many other substances in the commonly cultivated soils of the farmer besides the earths, and that so far from their being always the chief constituents of the soil, they very often form the smallest portion of even a highly productive field.


title: Jethro Tull (agriculturist)

text: That the four earths of which all cultivated soils are composed are all the necessary food or constituents of vegetables has, long since Tull wrote, been decided by accurate investigations of chemists. Of these, lime, either as a carbonate or an acetate or a sulphate, is by far the most generally present in plants; indeed, in one form or another, it is rarely absent from them. The presence of silica (flint) is almost equally general. Magnesia is less usually present, or, at least, it exists in smaller proportions; and the same remark applies to alumina (clay).


title: Jethro Tull (agriculturist)

text: The operation of hoeing is beneficial, not only as being destructive of weeds, but as loosening the surface of the soil, and rendering it more permeable to the gases and aqueous vapour of the atmosphere. Hoeing, therefore, not only protects the farmer's crops from being weakened by weeds, but it renders the soil itself as more capable of supplying the plants with their food. Tull was the first who inculcated the advantages of hoeing cultivated soils. He correctly enough told the farmers of his time, that as fine hoed ground is not so long soaked by rain, so the dews never suffer it to become perfectly dry. This appears by the plants which flourish in this, whilst those in the hard ground are starved. In the driest weather good hoeing procures moisture to the roots of plants, though the ignorant and incurious fancy it lets in the drought.


title: Jethro Tull (agriculturist)

text: Tull's work on agriculture initiated a new movement in 18th-century agriculture called "horse-hoeing husbandry" or "new husbandry". His system was supported by Henri-Louis Duhamel du Monceau in France, Michel Lullin de Chateauvieux in Switzerland, John Mills in England, and many others. It offered two major innovations:


title: Jethro Tull (agriculturist)

text: The influence of the atmosphere on the soil and the increased fertility produced by pulverising and stirring heavy lands led to the notion adopted by Tull that labour might entirely supersede the necessity of manure: hence the origin of the horse-hoeing husbandry, which at one time was so highly thought of as to be called, by way of distinction, the "new" husbandry.


title: Jethro Tull (agriculturist)

text: Fallows and manuring were both discarded as unnecessary; the seed was sown in rows with wide intervals, which were continually kept worked and stirred. At first the result was highly satisfactory; all the humus, by exposure to the air, was converted into soluble extract and taken up by the plants, which thrived well as long as the supply lasted: but in the end the soil was exhausted; and the warmest admirers and supporters of Tull's system, Du Hamel and De Chateauvieux, besides many others, found in practice that pulverising alone will not restore fertility. However, the system of drilling and horse-hoeing, when united with judicious manuring, has been found a great improvement in agriculture.


title: Jethro Tull (agriculturist)

text: Tull's book upon husbandry also influenced cotton culture in the American Southern Colonies. Tull's system taught that to ensure a sufficient number of plants, they did not just need to increase the quantity of seed, but to plant the seed at regular distances.


title: Jethro Tull (agriculturist)

text: After Tull's death, his holdings of about of freehold land in Berkshire found their way into Chancery, and were sold by order in 1784 to a Mr Blandy. Tull held about of additional land by a different tenure. The old-fashioned Hebrew-house he dwelt in has been modernised, but remains largely intact – as late as 1840 it was said to be in very good condition. Of the outhouses, Tull's granary and his stables remain, although deteriorating. At the end of the granary, which Tull built, is an old well. When it was cleared out some years ago, there was found under the accumulated mud of nearly a century a three-pronged hoe, which is likely to have belonged to Tull and is now in the museum of the Royal Agricultural Society of England. It may have been thrown by his men, who adopted new types of tool with reluctance and reportedly thwarted him in many ways.


title: Jethro Tull (agriculturist)

text: Tull's Prosperous Farm in the rural parish of Shalbourne, under the Coomb Hills about south of Hungerford, long remained an object of interest to lovers of agriculture. Arthur Young made a pilgrimage there and William Cobbett did the same. The farmhouse was rebuilt in the 19th century.


title: Jethro Tull (agriculturist)

text: While supported by a number of powerful patrons, Tull's revolutionary claims regarding horse-hoeing husbandry and rejection of Virgilian, "old" husbandry presented in "The Horse-Hoeing Husbandry" drew fire from a variety of critics. One of his most vehement dissenters was Stephen Switzer, a contemporary landscape gardener and leader of the Private Society of Husbandmen and Planters. Following the publication of "The Horse-Hoeing Husbandry: Or, An Essay on the Principles of Tillage and Vegetation" in 1731, Switzer fiercely attacked Tull in the final two volumes of his own monthly publication, "The Practical Husbandman and Planter", in 1734. He not only accused Tull of plagiarizing his technological inventions from others, namely the horse hoe and drill, but also attacked him for his criticism of farming techniques found in Virgil's "Georgics" and his rejection of traditional, "Virgilian" husbandry.


title: Jethro Tull (agriculturist)

text: Throughout the 18th century, "Georgics", a didactic poem written by the Roman poet Virgil in 37–30 BC, continued to hold great philosophical and cultural power in Britain, serving not merely as poetry but as manuals of husbandry and even scientific treatises. The sheer number of English translations and editions of "Georgics" between 1690 and 1820 highlights its cultural significance in British society. In the preface to his translation, William Benson declares his certainty that "the Husbandry of England in General is Virgilian." In a polemic chapter entitled "Remarks on the Bad Husbandry, that is so finely Express'd in Virgil's First Georgic," Tull derides it for several apparent deficiencies in farming techniques:


title: Jethro Tull (agriculturist)

text: He concludes with a declaration that his "New Husbandry," at odds with many of his contemporaries and differing "in all respects, warrants [him] calling it Anti-Virgilian."


title: Jethro Tull (agriculturist)

text: Tull's attack was not without consequences. Switzer leapt to Virgil's defence against what he saw as groundless and polemic attacks from Tull. He took offence at Tull's rejection not only of Virgil, but of any and all who practised husbandry in his style. Switzer criticized Tull for prescribing heavy ploughing to all regardless of soil type and condition, and for his dogmatic dismissal of the value of dung. He compared Tull to a quack who claims one medicine can cure all manners of diseases. For two more volumes, Switzer fine-combs through "The Horse-Hoeing Husbandry", mining Virgil for authoritative statements on agriculture and pouncing on apparently erroneous claims. Tull's rejection of a traditional mode of agronomy in favour of self-experimentation, and Switzer's defence of classical authority marked the beginnings of an intellectual discussion around the field of agricultural science.


title: Jethro Tull (agriculturist)

text: This article incorporates public domain material from: "The farmer's encyclopædia, and dictionary of rural affairs." By Cuthbert W. Johnson, 1844


title: T-35

text: The T-35 was a Soviet multi-turreted heavy tank of the interwar period and early Second World War that saw limited production and service with the Red Army. Often called a land battleship, it was the only five-turreted heavy tank in the world to reach production, but proved to be slow and mechanically unreliable. Most of the T-35 tanks still operational at the time of Operation Barbarossa were lost due to mechanical failure rather than enemy action. It was designed to complement the contemporary T-28 medium tank; however, very few were built.


title: T-35

text: Outwardly, it was large; but internally, the spaces were cramped with the fighting compartments separated from each other. Some of the turrets obscured the entrance hatches.


title: T-35

text: The T-35 was developed by the OKMO design bureau of the Bolshevik Factory, which began work on a heavy tank in 1930. Two teams developed separate designs. The team headed by German engineer Grotte worked on the 100-ton four-turreted TG-5 tank, armed with a 107 mm naval gun, using pneumatic servo-controls and pneumatic suspension. This project was later cancelled.


title: T-35

text: The concept of large, multi-turreted breakthrough tanks was favoured by several European armies in the 1920s and 1930s. Designs existed in Britain, France, and Germany for such vehicles. The second OKMO team, headed by N. Tsiets, worked on a tank similar to the British Vickers A1E1 Independent.


title: T-35

text: By July 1932, a prototype of a 35-ton tank with a 76.2 mm tank gun was completed. The first prototype was further enhanced with four smaller turrets, two with 37 mm guns and two with machine guns. This first prototype had severe defects in its transmission and was considered too complex and expensive for mass production. Work on it was therefore stopped and a new simpler prototype was built.


title: T-35

text: This new prototype received a new engine, new gearbox and improved transmission. The decision was also made to standardise the turrets used on the T-35 with those employed on the T-28, a triple-turreted medium tank. The small machine-gun turrets were identical on the two tanks. The large main turret housing the 76.2 mm gun was nearly identical, but those used on the T-28 had an additional, rear-firing machine gun.


title: T-35

text: On 11 August 1933, the T-35 was accepted for production. Engineering was shifted to the Kharkov Locomotive Factory, and two batches of ten vehicles were completed.


title: T-35

text: The experiences gained with the two prototypes were used for the main production T-35, which was again improved from the second prototype, with eight-wheel suspension, improved hull and 45-mm guns in place of the 37s. It started production in 1934, and 59 (including ones with conical turrets) were built by 1939. In general, throughout its production run small improvements were made to the individual tanks. Production tanks had medium turrets similar to the ones on the BT-5, but without the rear overhang. The final batch was a run of ten T-35 that had new turrets with sloped armour all around, as well as modified side skirts with suspension service hatches and new driver's hatch. Four of them had original fully vertical pedestal for the main turret, while the latter six had sloped pedestal.


title: T-35

text: Originally, the main turret was equipped with a 76.2 mm KT-28 cannon (length of barrel 16.5 calibers), which was also used on the Т-28 medium tank. The mounting allowed for vertical training (aiming) with upper and lower limits of −7° and +23°, respectively. As an auxiliary weapon in the main turret, to the right of the cannon, the 7.62 mm DT machine gun was placed autonomously in a ball setting. The cannon and machine gun had complete 360° horizontal sector of fire and independent fire control systems. The spare DT machine gun was fastened in a loop setting in the storage niche of the turret. The mechanism to turn the turret employed an electromechanical three-speed drive; an auxiliary hand drive was also provided for emergency use. By 1937, an anti-aircraft DT machine gun was set in a P-40 mount on the foundation of the gunner's hatch on the main turret.


title: T-35

text: In 1938, the L-10 tank cannon was proposed for the main turret weapon, but the representatives of the ABTU (the "Auto-Tank Directorate") abandoned this idea, considering the power of the KT-28 enough for the purpose of defeating enemy armored vehicles, and the accompaniment of attacking infantry was provided for by the two 45-mm cannons.


title: T-35

text: In each of the two diagonally-mounted (i.e., one in the right forward quarter and another in the diagonally-opposite left rear quarter, as viewed from behind) two-seater turrets was placed one 45 mm tank cannon obr.1932 and a coaxially-mounted 7.62 mm DT machine gun. Later, this cannon was replaced with a 45 mm gun of the 20k Model 1934 with a semi-automatic breech-block. The coupled setting had vertical training (aiming) limits of −8° to +23°. The front turret weapon had a horizontal field of fire from 19° (left of the turret's centerline) to −184° (rearwards). The two smaller turrets were single-seat and had one 7.62 mm DT machine gun apiece. The horizontal training (aiming) of these weapons was carried out through the turning of a hand mechanism.


title: T-35

text: The main and the two small machine gun turrets of the Т-35 and Т-28 had a high level of standardization. Main-weapon sighting utilized the telescopic breech-sight TOP obr.1930 and the periscope breech-sight PT-1 обр.1932. The 76.2 mm cannon had 96 rounds, the 45 mm guns had 226 rounds, and the DT machine guns had 10,080 cartridges. The 50-ton tank was designed with the maximum thickness of the body's armoured plates being 30 mm and that of the turret 20 mm. The armoured plates were coupled together by welding and riveting. In 1936, the thickness of the frontal, sloping body plate and the front plate protecting the driver-mechanic was increased to 50 mm. Armored side skirts also added 10 mm to the side armor covering the tracks.


title: T-35

text: In 1938, a conical turret with a maximum thickness of 25 mm (at the front) for strengthening the armoured defence of the tank was introduced; the thickness of the frontal armoured plates was also increased, to 70 mm. The battle weight of the machine grew to 54 tons (the first-series machines weighed 42.5 tons). Overall, from October 1938 to the end of Т-35 production, ten machines with the increased armoured defence were produced. On two of the machines of the 1938 issue, a 7.62-mm DT machine gun was mounted in the storage portion of the main conical turret back, for rear defence, while the other six had plain rear plate.


title: T-35

text: Western and Russian historians disagree about the inspiration for the T-35's design. The former argue that it was inspired by the British Vickers A1E1 Independent tank, but this is rejected by many Russian specialists. It is impossible to know the truth, but there is strong evidence to support Western claims, not least the failed Soviet attempts to purchase the A1E1. At the same time, the influence of German engineers, who in the late 1920s were developing similar designs at their Kama base in the Soviet Union, cannot be discounted. What is clear is that borrowing military technology and ideas from other nations was common to the majority of the armed forces in the inter-war years. The Red Army, with its purchase of the British Vickers Carden Loyd tankette, Vickers E-Light and Cruiser Mk II Medium tanks, and of the American Christie suspension for production use in its own vehicles, was clearly one of the leading exponents of this practice.


title: T-35

text: Due to its high cost, the production run of the T-35 ended at just 61 tanks (including two prototypes).


title: T-35

text: The T-35 prototypes had a crew of 9 (commander, gunner and loader of the 76 mm turret, two gunners of the 37 mm turrets, two gunners of the machine gun turrets, the driver and his assistant) with two mechanics "attached" to a particular tank, but not participating in battles, thus making the official crew number 11. The serial tanks had a crew of 10 (commander, gunner and loader of the 76 mm turret, two gunners and loaders of the 45 mm turrets, two gunners of the machine gun turrets and the driver), still with two attached mechanics, making the total crew 12.


title: T-35

text: The T-35 served with the 5th Separate Heavy Tank Brigade in Moscow, primarily for parade duties, from 1935 until 1940. In June 1940, the question was raised as to whether to withdraw the T-35s from frontline service, with the option to either convert them to heavy self-propelled artillery, or to assign them to the various military academies. The choice was made to use them up in combat instead and the surviving vehicles were collected together into the 67th and 68th Tank Regiments of the 34th Tank Division, which served with the 8th Mechanized Corps in the Kiev Special Military District.


title: T-35

text: The first known combat engagement of the T-35 tank took place sometime at the end of June 1941, in the broader fighting in the Lviv area known as the Battle of Brody. T-35 tanks belonging to the 34th Tank Division and trailing their unit lead elements due to poor tactical mobility, encountered advancing German armor on the unpaved road between the towns of Verba and Ptycha. The battle is documented only on photographs taken in the aftermath, and shows seven destroyed Soviet tanks including four T-35s (two of these vehicles having suffered catastrophic ammunition explosions) and three German tanks destroyed. The T-35 wrecks show evidence of hits by 37 mm cannon fire and the vehicles could have been engaged by towed German 8.8 cm Flak guns brought in to deal with heavily armored Soviet KV tanks also active in this sector. A Soviet report from the period identifies four T-35s lost on 30 June in this area with the loss of 15 crew.


title: T-35

text: On 1 June 1941, the Red Army possessed only 58 vehicles of this type, of those 48 were in combat ready condition. During Operation Barbarossa, the majority of the T-35s lost by the 67th and 68th Tank Regiments were lost not to enemy action but through either mechanical failure or immobilization, which resulted in these vehicles being abandoned and destroyed by their crews. The most common causes of breakdown were transmission-related, however the T-35 proved to have a greater automotive reliability than both the T-34 and KV tanks deployed at the time, with most of the failures arising from running the tanks beyond their normal service intervals, very little in the way of field repair or vehicle workshops and almost no spare parts support. Some T-35s involved in the long marches, delaying actions and retreat which characterized the beginning of the campaign, saw well over 500 km driven on unpaved roads and even off-road, before experiencing any significant failure.


title: T-35

text: The last recorded action of the T-35 took place during the First Battle of Kharkov, where four tanks undergoing repairs at their home factory (renamed Factory No. 183) were made roadworthy, re-armed and hastily pressed into service in the defense of the city. At least one captured T-35 was shipped to Germany for evaluation at the Kummersdorf military proving ground. This tank (serial number 715-62) was meticulously inspected and showed widely divergent armor thickness values used in its construction, likely the result of poor quality control of armor plate supplied by the steel mills. In April 1945, this tank, now stripped of most of its armament and immobile, was assigned to Panzer Brigade 150 and towed into the town of Zossen where it was used as a fixed fortification and barricade.


title: T-35

text: The T-35 is sometimes cited as having participated in the Winter War against Finland, but according to Soviet sources it did not. In fact, two other prototypes of multi-turreted heavy tanks had been sent to the front for testing: the T-100 and SMK. Single turret KV-1s also took part in the same test at the Battle of Summa. The SMK tank was disabled by a Finnish land mine and all attempts to recover the 55-ton behemoth failed. Finnish photographs of the previously unknown tank were mistakenly designated "T-35C" by German intelligence.


title: T-35

text: One tank survives and is preserved in running condition at the Patriot Park near Moscow. It was one of four T-35 machines that were used at training facilities in the Soviet rear. The Kubinka collection also includes a prototype SU-14, a self-propelled gun based on the T-35 chassis.


title: T-35

text: In January 2016 the Russian metallurgical company Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company (UMMC) announced the re-creation of a complete replica T-35 tank using Soviet drawings. The tank is to be placed in the Museum of Military Equipment of the UMMC.


title: Volkswagen Group A platform

text: The Volkswagen Group A platform is an automobile platform shared among compact and mid-size cars of the Volkswagen Group.


title: Volkswagen Group A platform

text: It debuted in 1974 and was originally based on the engineering concept of the Volkswagen Golf Mk1, and is applicable to either front- or four-wheel drive vehicles, using only front-mounted transverse engines.


title: Volkswagen Group A platform

text: Volkswagens based on this platform have been colloquially referred to by generation number, e.g. the first Golf version is referred to as an "A1 Golf". Often each generation is designated by substituting "Mark" for "A", but this can be misleading. For example, the Mk1 and Mk2 Scirocco are both based on the A1 platform. Furthermore, confusion was possible with the Volkswagen Passat, which has been produced on both the B platform alongside the Audi A4, as well as the A platform depending on the generation.


title: Volkswagen Group A platform

text: Volkswagen Group introduced a new alphanumeric nomenclature for vehicle platforms for the fourth generation. Under Volkswagen's revised platform naming system, the "A4" platform became the PQ34 platform, and what would have been called the A5 platform was called the PQ35 platform.


title: Volkswagen Group A platform

text: The A platform has been superseded by the MQB platform for new models, with the exception of a few models only sold in certain markets.


title: Volkswagen Group A platform

text: The A1 platform debuted on the Mk1 Golf on its launch in 1974, and continued into the early 1990s, when the last remaining models using the platform - the Scirocco and Caddy - were discontinued.


title: Volkswagen Group A platform

text: The A2 platform debuted in 1983 on the Mk2 Golf, and lasted until 1998, when the original SEAT Toledo (the first Volkswagen-developed SEAT following the Spanish company's takeover by Volkswagen) was replaced.


title: Volkswagen Group A platform

text: The Volkswagen Passat B3 was based on a stretched A2 platform. The Volkswagen Corrado, while being an A2 platform car, uses some components from the A3 platform, notably the rear suspension assembly and some front suspension parts.


title: Volkswagen Group A platform

text: The A3 platform was only used for two models - the Mk3 Golf, launched in 1991, and its saloon equivalent, the Vento, launched in early 1992.


title: Volkswagen Group A platform

text: The smaller A03 platform, used in the Polo (6N) is based on the A3 platform as well, and shares many components.


title: Volkswagen Group A platform

text: The A4 platform (PQ34 under the revised scheme) debuted on the Audi A3 in 1996 and went on to be used for many different models over the next two decades.


title: Volkswagen Group A platform

text: The PQ35 platform was designed to be more modular than previous A platforms. For the first time, a fully independent suspension was used in the rear of all A platform vehicles. The PQ46 platform is a variant derived from this platform primarily intended for larger vehicles, such as mid-size cars and crossovers. A common misconception is that the PQ46 based sixth and seventh generations of the Passat, are based on the PL46 (B6) and B7 platforms. However, this transverse engine Passat has little in common with the longitudinal engine "B6" and "B7" Audi A4.


title: Micah (prophet)

text: According to the Hebrew Bible, Micah ( "Mīḵā hamMōraštī" "Micah the Morashtite") was a prophet in Judaism and is the author of the Book of Micah. He is considered one of the Twelve Minor Prophets of the Hebrew Bible and was a contemporary of the prophets Isaiah, Amos and Hosea. Micah was from Moresheth-Gath, in southwest Judah. He prophesied during the reigns of kings Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah of Judah.


title: Micah (prophet)

text: Micah's messages were directed chiefly toward Jerusalem. He prophesied the future destruction of Jerusalem and Samaria, the destruction and then future restoration of the Judean state, and he rebuked the people of Judah for dishonesty and idolatry.


title: Micah (prophet)

text: Micah was active in Judah from before the fall of Israel in 722 BC and experienced the devastation brought by Sennacherib's invasion of Judah in 701 BC. He prophesied from approximately 737 to 696 BC. Micah was from Moresheth, also called Moresheth-Gath, a small town in southwest Judah. Micah lived in a rural area, and often rebuked the corruption of city life in Israel and Judah. The subject's father is not given and likely descended from the common people as the target of his message was towards the privileged classes.


title: Micah (prophet)

text: Micah prophesied during the reigns of kings Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah of Judah. Jotham, the son of Uzziah, was king of Judah from 742 to 735 BC, and was succeeded by his own son Ahaz, who reigned over Judah from 735 to 715 BC. Ahaz's son Hezekiah ruled from 715 to 696 BC. Micah was a contemporary of the prophets Isaiah, Amos, and Hosea. Jeremiah, who prophesied about thirty years after Micah, recognized Micah as a prophet from Moresheth who prophesied during the reign of Hezekiah.


title: Micah (prophet)

text: His messages were directed mainly towards Jerusalem, and were a mixture of denunciations and prophecies. In his early prophecies, he predicted the destruction of both Samaria and Jerusalem for their respective sins. The people of Samaria were rebuked for worshipping idols which were bought with the income earned by prostitutes. Micah was the first prophet to predict the downfall of Jerusalem. According to him, the city was doomed because its beautification was financed by dishonest business practices, which impoverished the city's citizens. He also called to account the prophets of his day, whom he accused of accepting money for their oracles.


title: Micah (prophet)

text: Micah also anticipated the destruction of the Judean state and promised its restoration more glorious than before. He prophesied an era of universal peace over which the Governor will rule from Jerusalem. Micah also declared that when the glory of Zion and Jacob is restored that the will force the Gentiles to abandon idolatry.


title: Micah (prophet)

text: Micah also rebuked Israel because of dishonesty in the marketplace and corruption in government. He warned the people, on behalf of God, of pending destruction if ways and hearts were not changed. He told them what the requires of them:


title: Micah (prophet)

text: Israel's response to Micah's charges and threats consisted of three parts: an admission of guilt, a warning of adversaries that Israel will rely on the for deliverance and forgiveness, and a prayer for forgiveness and deliverance.


title: Micah (prophet)

text: Another prophecy given by Micah details the future destruction of Jerusalem and the plowing of Zion (a part of Jerusalem). This passage (Micah 3:11–12), is stated again in Jeremiah 26:18, Micah's only prophecy repeated in the Old Testament. Since then Jerusalem has been destroyed three times, the first one being the fulfillment of Micah's prophecy. The Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem in 586 BC, about 150 years after Micah gave this prophecy.


title: Micah (prophet)

text: is interpreted as a prophecy that Bethlehem, a small village just south of Jerusalem, would be the birthplace of the Messiah.


title: Micah (prophet)

text: This passage is recalled in Matthew 2:6, and the fulfillment of this prophecy in the birth of Jesus is further described in .


title: Micah (prophet)

text: Micah was referring to the division in Judah and Samaria, the distrust that had arisen between all citizens, even within families. Jesus was using the same words to describe something different. Jesus said that he did not come to bring peace, but to divide households. Men are commanded to love Jesus Christ more than their own family members, and Jesus indicated that this priority would lead to persecution from others and separation within families.


title: Micah (prophet)

text: In Micah 7:20, Micah reminded Judah of God's covenant to be merciful to Jacob and show love to Abraham and his descendants. This is repeated in Luke 1:72–73 in the prophecy Zechariah at the circumcision and naming of John the Baptist. This prophecy concerned the kingdom and salvation through the Messiah. It is a step in the fulfillment of the blessing of the descendants of Abraham. When Micah restated this covenant promise, he was comforting Judah with the promise of God's faithfulness and love.


title: Micah (prophet)

text: 17 Then certain of the elders of the land rose up and spoke to all the assembly of the people, saying: 18 “Micah of Moresheth prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah, and spoke to all the people of Judah, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts:


title: Micah (prophet)

text: 19 Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah ever put him to death? Did he not fear the Lord and seek the Lord’s favor? And the Lord relented concerning the doom which He had pronounced against them. But we are doing great evil against ourselves.”


title: Micah (prophet)

text: Micah is commemorated with the other eleven minor prophets in the Calendar of Saints (Armenian Apostolic Church) on July 31. In the Eastern Orthodox Church he is commemorated twice in the year. The first feast day is January 5 (for those churches which follow the traditional Julian Calendar, January 5 currently falls on January 18 of the modern Gregorian Calendar). However, since January 5 is also the eve of the Great Feast of Theophany (in the west, Epiphany) and a strict fast day (near total abstinence from food and non-religious activities), his major celebration is on August 14 (the forefeast of the Great Feast of the Dormition of the Mother of God).


title: Eddie Benjamin

text: Eddie Benjamin is an Australian singer-songwriter and music producer based in Los Angeles, California. He has written and produced for artists such as Meghan Trainor, Earth, Wind & Fire, and Shawn Mendes while also touring with Justin Bieber in 2022. He released his debut EP "Emotional" in 2021.


title: Eddie Benjamin

text: Benjamin was born and raised in Australia. While attending Rose Bay Secondary College, he met Tash Wolf and Indy Linzbichler with whom he would form the group Haze Trio. The group toured Australia and won competitions, including the statewide talent search for YouthRock 2016.


title: Eddie Benjamin

text: In 2019, Benjamin moved to Los Angeles, California, where he wrote and produced for artists such as Meghan Trainor and Earth, Wind & Fire. He also worked with Justin Bieber, whom he met through a mutual friend, later appearing in the artist's 2021 documentary.


title: Eddie Benjamin

text: In 2020 he released his debut single "Fuck My Friends", which he co-produced with Dan Gleyzer. He followed this with his debut EP "Emotional" in 2021 and toured with Justin Bieber on the 2022 Justice World Tour. He also co-wrote and produced the 2021 Shawn Mendes single "It'll Be Okay", which peaked at No. 2 on the "Billboard" Bubbling Under Hot 100. In June 2022, Maura Johnston, writing in "Time", listed Benjamin's song "Weatherman" as one of "The Best Songs of 2022 So Far".


title: Eddie Benjamin

text: Benjamin is the son of musician Huey Benjamin and choreographer Narelle Benjamin. He has a sister, Marlo, who is a dancer. Since 2019 he has been dating actress and dancer Maddie Ziegler.


title: Little's law

text: In mathematical queueing theory, Little's result, theorem, lemma, law, or formula is a theorem by John Little which states that the long-term average number "L" of customers in a stationary system is equal to the long-term average effective arrival rate "λ" multiplied by the average time "W" that a customer spends in the system. Expressed algebraically the law is


title: Little's law

text: Although it looks intuitively easy, it is quite a remarkable result, as the relationship is "not influenced by the arrival process distribution, the service distribution, the service order, or practically anything else."


title: Little's law

text: The result applies to any system, and particularly, it applies to systems within systems. So in a bank, the customer line might be one subsystem, and each of the tellers another subsystem, and Little's result could be applied to each one, as well as the whole thing. The only requirements are that the system be stable and non-preemptive; this rules out transition states such as initial startup or shutdown.


title: Little's law

text: In some cases it is possible not only to mathematically relate the "average" number in the system to the "average" wait but even to relate the entire "probability distribution" (and moments) of the number in the system to the wait.


title: Little's law

text: In a 1954 paper Little's law was assumed true and used without proof. The form "L" = "λW" was first published by Philip M. Morse where he challenged readers to find a situation where the relationship did not hold. Little published in 1961 his proof of the law, showing that no such situation existed. Little's proof was followed by a simpler version by Jewell and another by Eilon. Shaler Stidham published a different and more intuitive proof in 1972.


title: Little's law

text: Imagine an application that had no easy way to measure response time. If the mean number in the system and the throughput are known, the average response time can be found using Little’s Law:


title: Little's law

text: For example: A queue depth meter shows an average of nine jobs waiting to be serviced. Add one for the job being serviced, so there is an average of ten jobs in the system. Another meter shows a mean throughput of 50 per second. The mean response time is calculated as 0.2 seconds = 10 / 50 per second.


title: Little's law

text: Imagine a small store with a single counter and an area for browsing, where only one person can be at the counter at a time, and no one leaves without buying something. So the system is roughly:


title: Little's law

text: If the rate at which people enter the store (called the arrival rate) is the rate at which they exit (called the exit rate), the system is stable. By contrast, an arrival rate exceeding an exit rate would represent an unstable system, where the number of waiting customers in the store would gradually increase towards infinity.


title: Little's law

text: Little's Law tells us that the average number of customers in the store "L", is the effective arrival rate "λ", times the average time that a customer spends in the store "W", or simply:


title: Little's law

text: Assume customers arrive at the rate of 10 per hour and stay an average of 0.5 hour. This means we should find the average number of customers in the store at any time to be 5.


title: Little's law

text: Now suppose the store is considering doing more advertising to raise the arrival rate to 20 per hour. The store must either be prepared to host an average of 10 occupants or must reduce the time each customer spends in the store to 0.25 hour. The store might achieve the latter by ringing up the bill faster or by adding more counters.


title: Little's law

text: We can apply Little's Law to systems within the store. For example, consider the counter and its queue. Assume we notice that there are on average 2 customers in the queue and at the counter. We know the arrival rate is 10 per hour, so customers must be spending 0.2 hours on average checking out.


title: Little's law

text: We can even apply Little's Law to the counter itself. The average number of people at the counter would be in the range (0, 1) since no more than one person can be at the counter at a time. In that case, the average number of people at the counter is also known as the utilisation of the counter.


title: Little's law

text: However, because a store in reality generally has a limited amount of space, it can eventually become unstable. If the arrival rate is much greater than the exit rate, the store will eventually start to overflow, and thus any new arriving customers will simply be rejected (and forced to go somewhere else or try again later) until there is once again free space available in the store. This is also the difference between the "arrival rate" and the "effective arrival rate", where the arrival rate roughly corresponds to the rate at which customers arrive at the store, whereas the effective arrival rate corresponds to the rate at which customers "enter" the store. However, in a system with an infinite size and no loss, the two are equal.


title: Little's law

text: To use Little's law on data, formulas must be used to estimate the parameters, as the result does not necessarily directly apply over finite time intervals, due to problems like how to log customers already present at the start of the logging interval and those who have not yet departed when logging stops.


title: Little's law

text: Little's law is widely used in manufacturing to predict lead time based on the production rate and the amount of work-in-process.


title: Little's law

text: Software-performance testers have used Little's law to ensure that the observed performance results are not due to bottlenecks imposed by the testing apparatus.


title: Little's law

text: An extension of Little's law provides a relationship between the steady state distribution of number of customers in the system and time spent in the system under a first come, first served service discipline.


title: Scott O'Grady

text: Scott Francis O'Grady (born October 12, 1965) is a former United States Air Force fighter pilot. On June 2, 1995, he was shot down over Bosnia and Herzegovina by a 2K12 Kub mobile SAM launcher and forced to eject from his F-16C into hostile territory. US Marines from heavy-helicopter squadron HMH-464 and the 24 MEU(SOC) eventually rescued O'Grady after nearly a week of his evading the Bosnian Serbs. He was previously involved in the Banja Luka incident where he fired upon six enemy aircraft. The 2001 film "Behind Enemy Lines" is loosely based upon his experiences.


title: Scott O'Grady

text: In September 2011, O'Grady announced a run for the 2012 Republican nomination for Texas State Senate District 8, held at the time by the retiring Republican Florence Shapiro, but he later suspended his campaign because of uncertainties over the Texas redistricting fight. In November 2020, President Donald Trump stated an official intention to nominate O'Grady as the next Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs. The nomination was submitted to the Senate for confirmation on November 30, 2020. Before and during the nomination, O'Grady had spread numerous debunked conspiracy theories regarding the 2020 United States presidential election, and calls by Michael Flynn for Trump to institute martial law.


title: Scott O'Grady

text: The Bosnian War was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between April 1992 and December 1995. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), had decided to intervene in the Bosnian War after allegations of war crimes against civilians were made by various media organizations. NATO military involvement primarily involved enforcement of a No-fly zone codenamed Operation Deny Flight to discourage Bosnian Serb military aircraft from attacking Bosnian government and Bosnian Croat forces. As part of that operation, two F-16s from the 555th Fighter Squadron based at Aviano Air Base, Italy, were patrolling the skies above Bosnia on June 2, 1995.


title: Scott O'Grady

text: On the ground, a Bosnian Serb army 2K12 Kub surface-to-air missile battery near Mrkonjić Grad was readying to fire its missiles on NATO aircraft. The Serbs had moved the mobile-tracked missile battery and laid a trap. They switched on their missile radars intermittently, giving F-16 fighters little warning. Waiting until a plane was directly overhead, where the aircraft's warning and countermeasures would be at their weakest, they fired two missiles. In the cockpit, O'Grady's instruments alerted him that a missile was coming, but, because he was flying through an overcast sky, he could not see it. The first missile exploded between the two aircraft. The second struck the F-16 piloted by O'Grady. His flight lead, Captain Robert Gordon "Wilbur" Wright, saw O'Grady's plane burst into flames and break in two. Wright did not see a parachute, but O'Grady survived by ejecting from the aircraft.


title: Scott O'Grady

text: O'Grady landed among a Bosnian Serb population that he was briefed would be unfriendly. He quickly secured a survival bag, ran, and hid. Rubbing dirt on his face, he hid face-down as Bosnian Serb forces came upon his parachute, half a dozen times shooting their rifles only feet from where he was hidden in an effort to flush him out or kill him.


title: Scott O'Grady

text: During the next six days, he put to use the lessons learned during a 17-day Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE) training session he had undertaken near his hometown of Spokane, Washington. He ate leaves, grass, and bugs, and stored the little rainwater he could collect with a sponge in plastic bags.


title: Scott O'Grady

text: O'Grady radioed for help immediately but had to remain quiet with paramilitaries coming within feet of him; he used the radio following standard operating procedures as the U.S. Air Force had taught him so as not to give away his position to unfriendly forces. On his 6th night on the ground he made radio contact, signalling his location using his radio's limited battery power. NATO planes conducting sorties in the Balkans had been picking up beeper snippets that they thought could be coming from O'Grady. This extremely sensitive information was inadvertently revealed by General Ronald Fogleman, the Air Force Chief of Staff, when the general told reporters attending a promotion ceremony that monitors had detected "intermittent" transmissions. A NATO official was quoted as saying "I was dumbfounded he said that... I mean, why not just announce to the bad guys, 'We think he's alive and kicking, and we hope we find him before you do'?"


title: Scott O'Grady

text: Just after midnight on June 8, O'Grady spoke into the radio. An F-16 pilot, Captain Thomas "T.O." Hanford, from the 510th responded and, after confirming his identity, the rescue was set in motion. At 0440 local time, USAF Lt. General Michael Ryan and Navy Admiral Leighton Smith, commander of NATO Southern Forces, called US Marine Corps Colonel Martin Berndt aboard USS "Kearsarge" with orders to "execute".


title: Scott O'Grady

text: Two CH-53 Sea Stallions with 51 marines from the 3rd Battalion, 8th Marines within the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit lifted off USS "Kearsarge" to rescue the pilot. The two helicopters were accompanied by two Marine Corps AH-1W Supercobra helicopter gunships and a pair of Marine Corps AV-8B Harrier jump jets, one piloted by Captain Ronald C. Walkerwicz. These six aircraft had support from identical sets of replacement helicopters and jump jets as well as two Navy EA-6B Prowler electronic warfare planes, two Air Force EF-111A Raven electronic warfare planes, two Marine F/A-18D Hornets, a pair of anti-tank Air Force A-10 Thunderbolts, an SH-60B from USS Ticonderoga (CG-47), and an RAF AWACS E-3D.


title: Scott O'Grady

text: At 0635, the helicopters approached the area where O'Grady's signal beacon had been traced. The pilots saw bright yellow smoke coming from trees near a rocky pasture where O'Grady had set off a flare. The first Sea Stallion, commanded by Major William Tarbutton, touched down and 20 Marines jumped off the aircraft and set up a defensive perimeter. As the second Sea Stallion, commanded by Captains Paul Fortunato and James Wright, landed, a figure with a pistol who turned out to be the missing pilot appeared running towards the Marines and immediately went to the Sea Stallion. As the side door opened, he was pulled in before the second 20 Marines poised to leave by the rear ramp could even move. They were called back to their seats, and those who had formed the defensive perimeter reboarded the other helicopter. After a quick head count, the Stallions took off. They had been on the ground no more than seven minutes.


title: Scott O'Grady

text: The Marines, with O'Grady, flew low over Serb-held Bosnia. However, American aircraft detected a Serb missile radar along the Croatian coast, scanning for targets. An American plane recommended destroying the Serb radar, code-named Giraffe. The request was denied, partly out of concern that a strike could spark wider conflict.


title: Scott O'Grady

text: Minutes later, the Marines reported they were under fire. Three shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles had been fired at them but missed, as the helicopter pilots—flying off the ground at —jinked to evade them. Serb small arms pocked both helicopters; the Marines aboard heard the bullets hit inside the fuselage. One door gunner returned fire. One round hit some communication gear in the chopper and the bullet ended up against Sergeant Major Angel Castro Jr.'s armor without injuring anyone. At 0715 local time, 30 minutes after picking up O'Grady, the rescuers reported "feet wet", meaning they were over water. O'Grady was back aboard the "Kearsarge" at 0730. All of the aircraft landed without further incident.


title: Scott O'Grady

text: On August 11, 1995, a USAF RQ-1 Predator drone was shot down by Serb forces in the same area. The Serbs recovered the wreckage and handed it over to Russia for technical evaluation. On August 30, NATO launched Operation Deliberate Force, a massive airstrike campaign which eventually lifted the siege of Sarajevo and led to the end of the war in Bosnia.


title: Scott O'Grady

text: In November 2020, President Donald Trump announced his intent to nominate O'Grady to be an Assistant Secretary of Defense (International Security Affairs). The President justified this intent to appoint by citing O'Grady's combat experience, his book "Return With Honor", and Master's degree in Theology from Dallas Theological Seminary and Honorary Doctorate of Public Service from the University of Portland in Oregon.


title: Scott O'Grady

text: Shortly before and during the nomination period, O'Grady promoted evidence-free theories about the 2020 United States presidential election, including claims that Trump won the election in a "landslide fashion", that millions of votes were "stolen from [Trump]", and that Hillary Clinton and George Soros were somehow involved in helping foreign agents interfere in the election. Additionally, O'Grady signaled support for conspiracy theories by Sidney Powell alleging an international conspiracy of politicians, CIA agents, communists, and deceased former president of Venezuela Hugo Chavez working with Dominion Voting Systems to rig the election for Biden; retweeted attacks calling former Defense Secretary James Mattis a "traitor"; and endorsed a petition allegedly shared by former national security advisor Michael Flynn which recommended Trump declare martial law to overturn the election.


title: Scott O'Grady

text: On January 3, 2021, his nomination was returned to the President under Rule XXXI, Paragraph 6 of the United States Senate.


title: Scott O'Grady

text: On December 14, 2020 the U.S. Defense Department announced that the Trump administration nominated O'Grady to the Defense Policy Board, as a part of a slate of replacement nominations for the 11 board members who were abruptly fired in November 2020. O'Grady was sworn in as the board member on January 19, 2021, the last full day of Trump's presidency, under pressure from the White House to complete his and other similar nominations. Following the election of President Joe Biden, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered a "zero-based review" of all the Pentagon advisory boards and fired all of the members appointed by the DoD, including all the Defense Policy Board members, effective February 16, 2021.


title: Scott O'Grady

text: O'Grady was born in Brooklyn, New York City, a son of William P. O'Grady and Mary Lou Scardapane, and graduated from Lewis and Clark High School in Spokane, Washington. He is a former cadet in the Civil Air Patrol and a 1989 Air Force ROTC graduate from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University's campus in Prescott, Arizona. After his rescue, O'Grady transferred from active duty in the regular U.S. Air Force to the Air Force Reserve, where he continued to fly the F-16. In May 2007, he completed a master's degree in biblical studies at Dallas Theological Seminary in Dallas, Texas. He resides in Frisco in Collin County, Texas.


title: Scott O'Grady

text: O'Grady is an active Republican, having spoken at the 1996 Republican convention in support of Bob Dole. In 2004, O'Grady, supporting George W. Bush for re-election, accused Bush's opponent John Kerry of "treason" for actions taken during the Vietnam War. O'Grady endorsed Brian Birdwell in his successful 2010 bid for the Texas State Senate, then launched his own candidacy for the Texas state house in September 2011, seeking the 2012 Republican nomination in Senate District 8 following the retirement of Sen. Florence Shapiro. O'Grady dropped out of the race in early 2012, claiming Shapiro had reneged on a promise to support him in the Republican primary, while his opponent had numerous endorsements.


title: Scott O'Grady

text: The shootdown incident was depicted and described on the documentary television program "Situation Critical" in episode No. 5, ""Downed Pilot"." This has been shown on the National Geographic Channel. It was also covered in ""Escape! – Escape From Bosnia: The Scott O'Grady Story"" on the History Channel. The BBC also made a documentary, titled "Missing in Action", that was later purchased by 20th Century Fox and Discovery Communications.


title: Scott O'Grady

text: The 2001 film "Behind Enemy Lines", starring Gene Hackman and Owen Wilson, is loosely based on this event. Although O'Grady had given the film a positive rating on the film review television show "Hot Or Not," O'Grady took offense at the portrayal of 'his' character in "Behind Enemy Lines" "as a pilot who disobeys orders and swears". O'Grady sued 20th Century Fox in 2002 for falsely misleading the public that the film was true to life and for using him unauthorized to promote the film without his permission. He also took action over the documentary, "Behind Enemy Lines: The Scott O'Grady Story", which was a re-edited version of a BBC documentary which Discovery Communications, parent company of the Discovery Channel, had purchased and edited. The documentary was broadcast several times on the Discovery Channel, and O'Grady accused Fox of using it to promote the film. Both suits were settled in 2004. Fox made a confidential settlement with O'Grady, while a Texas court ruled against O'Grady and in favor of Discovery Communications. The judge's ruling stated, in effect, that the events in a person's life are not the same thing as that person's likeness or image.


title: Scott O'Grady

text: O'Grady co-wrote two books, collaborating on one, with Michael French, that detailed his experiences of being shot down over Bosnia and his eventual rescue, "Basher Five-Two: The True Story of F-16 Fighter Pilot Captain Scott O'Grady." He first wrote a book that was a New York Times Bestseller about his experience in "Return with Honor" with Jeff Coplon. Another book has also been written; this one, ""Good To Go:" The Rescue of Capt. Scott O'Grady, USAF, from Bosnia," was written by Mary Pat Kelly.


title: Rajesh Gopinathan

text: Rajesh Gopinathan (born 1971) is the CEO and Managing Director of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), a global IT services, consulting and business solutions organization. He was elevated to the role of Chief Executive in February 2017 after serving as the Chief Financial Officer since 2013. Born in 1971, Rajesh is one of the youngest CEOs in the Tata Group.


title: Rajesh Gopinathan

text: Rajesh graduated in 1994 with an Electrical and Electronics Engineering degree from the Regional Engineering College, Tiruchirappalli (now National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli). In 1996, he obtained a post-graduate diploma in Management (PGDM, equivalent to an MBA) from Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad.


title: Rajesh Gopinathan

text: He joined the Tata Strategic Management Group in 1996, where he worked on multiple assignments with Tata companies.


title: Rajesh Gopinathan

text: In 2001, Rajesh joined Tata Consultancy Services from the Tata Industries and worked to drive TCS’ newly established e-business unit in the United States. He was involved in the design, structure and implementation of the new organizational structure and operating model of the company. Rajesh took over as the Chief Financial Officer of the company in 2013. Prior to this role, he was Vice President – Business Finance, where he was responsible for the financial management of the company's individual operating units. After serving as the Chief Financial Officer of the company for 4 years, he was elevated to the role of Chief Executive Officer in February 2017.


title: Rajesh Gopinathan

text: Rajesh has played a key role in helping TCS become a 22 billion global company at the end of fiscal year 2020. With over 469,000 associates, TCS is one of the largest private sector employers globally and was recognized as a Global Top Employer for the sixth consecutive year in 2021, with the highest retention rate in a competitive industry.


title: Rajesh Gopinathan

text: Under Rajesh’s leadership, the market capitalization of the company crossed USD 100 billion during April 2018, making TCS the most valuable company in India. In 2021, TCS’ brand value grew by $1.4 billion over the prior year to USD 15 billion and was ranked among the Top 3 most valuable brands in the IT Services sector globally according to the Brand Finance 2021 report.


title: Rajesh Gopinathan

text: Rajesh Gopinathan was born in Thrissur, Kerala. He grew up in Lucknow. Now he resides in Mumbai with his wife, daughter, and son. Rajesh likes to go for long walks, he loves reading books, travelling and watching movies.


title: Shawn Daivari

text: Dara Shawn Daivari () (born April 30, 1984) is an Iranian-American professional wrestler better known by the ring name Shawn Daivari. He is currently signed to WWE as a producer. He is also known for his time in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling where he is a former TNA X Division Champion and has also made appearances in Ring of Honor and Lucha Underground.


title: Shawn Daivari

text: Daivari along with fellow wrestlers Ken Anderson, brother Ariya Daivari, Molly Holly, and Arik Cannon operate a wrestling school called The Academy: School of Professional Wrestling in Minneapolis, Minnesota.


title: Shawn Daivari

text: Daivari grew up admiring Mick Foley and Bret Hart. His childhood hero was Shawn Michaels. He participated in his first professional wrestling match at age 15. He started his career in the upper midwest independent scene. He is known for representing Iran for international title matches.


title: Shawn Daivari

text: He appeared on the February 26, 2003, episode of "Explosion" and wrestled a tag team match against Mike Sanders and Glenn Gilberti with Ken Anderson. He also appeared on the October 5, 2003, episode of "Sunday Night Heat" as Shawn Daivari, losing his match against Tommy Dreamer. He also made four appearances for independent promotion Ring of Honor (ROH) between April and July 2004.


title: Shawn Daivari

text: Daivari signed a contract with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) in August 2004 and debuted on the December 13 episode of "Raw" alongside Muhammad Hassan as Khosrow Daivari, later shortened to Daivari. Their gimmick was that of two Arab Americans who were tired of the prejudice and stereotypes they were receiving after the 9/11 attacks. Ironically, Daivari would scream instructions in Persian to Hassan when working as his manager. In the weeks leading up to their debut, the two men would appear on "Raw" in vignettes promoting their hatred towards "America". In the following weeks, they would back up their words with actions, initiating a feud with "Raw" announcers Jim Ross and Jerry "The King" Lawler. At WrestleMania 21 on April 3, 2005, Daivari and Hassan were involved in an angle with Hulk Hogan. While attacking injured wrestler Eugene, Hogan came to the ring and ejected both men from the ring.


title: Shawn Daivari

text: The following night on "Raw", Daivari and Hassan interrupted Shawn Michaels during a promo. The two attacked Michaels and left him helpless in the ring. This led to Daivari's first singles match in WWE, on the April 11, 2005, episode of "Raw". Although Michaels was heavily favored, Daivari, with help from Hassan, got the upset win. Enraged, Michaels demanded a match against both Daivari and Hassan. "Raw" General Manager Eric Bischoff refused to grant a handicap match, but instead ordered Michaels to find a partner. That partner turned out to be Daivari and Hassan's WrestleMania foe Hulk Hogan.


title: Shawn Daivari

text: On the April 18, 2005, episode of "Raw", Michaels was once again double teamed by Daivari and Hassan until Hogan appeared to make the save. Hogan accepted Michaels' offer to tag and the match was set for the Backlash pay-per-view on May 1, 2005. At Backlash, Hogan and Michaels picked up the win which led to friction between the two since Hassan blamed Daivari for the loss. The next night on "Raw", Hassan verbally and physically attacked Daivari leaving their future as a team in question.


title: Shawn Daivari

text: Both Daivari and Hassan were later drafted to "SmackDown!" on June 23, 2005, as part of a package deal. On the July 7, 2005 episode of "SmackDown!", then General Manager Theodore Long put Daivari in a match against The Undertaker for that night, and Muhammad Hassan in a match against The Undertaker at The Great American Bash. Daivari was squashed easily in that match, after which Hassan began to pray on the ramp, summoning five masked men to the ring. The masked men beat and strangled The Undertaker into submission, and Hassan put him in the camel clutch. Afterward, the masked men carried Daivari off like a martyr. The controversial imagery aired unedited in North America despite the terrorist attacks in London earlier that day, but was removed from the Australian and UK broadcasts. This episode of "SmackDown!" was unusually taped on Monday and, at the time, aired on Thursday, so the skit was taped three days before the attack occurred.


title: Shawn Daivari

text: In late July, UPN requested that WWE keep the Muhammad Hassan character off of their network. WWE complied, effectively removing him from "SmackDown!" at The Great American Bash. After Hassan lost in a match with The Undertaker, Hassan was given the "Last Ride" through an open stage ramp onto a concrete floor. It was reported that he sustained serious injuries and had to be rushed to a nearby medical facility; this was an angle aimed to "kill off" the character.


title: Shawn Daivari

text: Although Hassan would eventually retire from professional wrestling, Daivari reported to WWE's Deep South Wrestling (DSW) developmental territory for training and repackaging. He returned from DSW and, after working in Minneapolis, made his debut in September 2005 on Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) TV returning as his "Sheik" Daivari persona.


title: Shawn Daivari

text: On November 7, 2005, Daivari returned to "Raw", acting as Kurt Angle's anointed special guest referee in the tag team match between Shawn Michaels and John Cena against Angle and Chris Masters. During the match, Daivari favored Angle and Masters, who won the match via disqualification when Michaels was caught with a chair Angle brought in.


title: Shawn Daivari

text: On November 21, 2005, Kurt Angle announced that Daivari was to be the referee for all his future matches, including his WWE Championship match against John Cena for the title at Survivor Series. Mr. McMahon rescinded that at the kangaroo court trial of Eric Bischoff on "Raw" on December 5, 2005. Daivari remained aligned with Kurt Angle as his manager.


title: Shawn Daivari

text: On the January 13, 2006, episode of "SmackDown!", Angle and Daivari were drafted to "SmackDown!", where Angle won the World Heavyweight Championship that same night. Angle later revealed that his contract on "Raw" had expired, which allowed them to switch brands. Angle was already signed to face Shawn Michaels on "Raw", however this non-title match went ahead, but Daivari would accidentally cost Angle the match against Michaels. Afterwards, Daivari and Angle argued, but when Daivari slapped Angle, he was "Angle Slammed" over the ropes and down to the floor on the outside of the ring. During the break, on WWE.com "Unlimited", an enraged Angle made it known that Daivari's services were no longer needed.


title: Shawn Daivari

text: A short time later, Daivari faced his former client in a match, during which Mark Henry, the number one contender for Angle's title, attacked Angle. After the match, Daivari officially announced that he was now managing Henry and continued to manage Henry during his feud with The Undertaker. Daivari would not be seen on television in the weeks leading up to WrestleMania 22 when, at "Saturday Night's Main Event XXXII", he suffered a chokeslam and "Tombstone Piledriver" at the hands of The Undertaker onto the lid of a casket.


title: Shawn Daivari

text: On the April 7, 2006, episode of "SmackDown!", Daivari made his return bringing in the debuting The Great Khali to attack The Undertaker during his match with Mark Henry. The next week, Daivari officially presented him to the crowd, hyping him as an "unstoppable monster". Over the following weeks, Daivari would accompany Khali to the ring as he attacked various "SmackDown!" superstars. This would all lead up to a match with The Undertaker at Judgment Day on May 21, 2006, which Khali would end up winning. Daivari and Khali appeared as guests on "Piper's Pit" on the June 2, 2006, episode of "SmackDown!", in which Roddy Piper made fun of Khali, who supposedly couldn't speak English. Eventually Piper stood on the bottom rope, attempting to match height with Khali, he managed to say: ""If this was twenty years ago"", before Khali grabbed him by the throat. Daivari made Khali put Piper down and straightened Piper's jacket disrespectfully, at which Piper slapped Daivari, but was then given a chop by Khali. The Undertaker was the original guest on the Pit, but he declined the invitation a few days before. Daivari continued to accompany The Great Khali to the ring when Khali wrestled or attacked other wrestlers, but when The Great Khali became inactive due to injury, Daivari was taken off the road as well.


title: Shawn Daivari

text: Daivari and The Great Khali were moved to the ECW brand officially when they made their ECW debuts on the October 31, 2006, episode of "ECW on Sci Fi", in which Daivari defeated "The Reject" Shannon Moore. Daivari's original theme music was used as well as his Persian rants on the microphone. Afterwards, Moore was manhandled by The Great Khali. Daivari continued his winning streak over the next several weeks with The Great Khali usually following up the contest with a chokebomb on Daivari's opponent. At December to Dismember on December 3, 2006, Daivari got a victory over Tommy Dreamer following a schoolboy roll-up. Dreamer then chased Daivari all the way to the back, but The Great Khali appeared and caught Dreamer, planting him on the steel ramp with a chokebomb. On January 8, 2007, The Great Khali debuted on "Raw" without Daivari. The following night, however, Daivari accompanied Khali to the ring for his match against Dreamer on "ECW on Sci Fi".


title: Shawn Daivari

text: Daivari returned to "SmackDown!" on February 9, 2007, defeating then Cruiserweight Champion Gregory Helms in a non-title match. He wrestled in a Cruiserweight Open for the WWE Cruiserweight Championship at No Way Out, won by Chavo Guerrero. He began wrestling in the Cruiserweight division. He was involved in a feud between Kane and The Great Khali, once again promoting Khali in March 2007. His first match against Kane involved him being dragged backstage by Kane's chain and hook leaving his back with multiple bruises. A few weeks later, Daivari had a rematch with Kane and was again defeated.


title: Shawn Daivari

text: Daivari returned to "SmackDown!" a few months later, teaming up with Chavo Guerrero Jr. and Jamie Noble against Jimmy Wang Yang, Paul London and Brian Kendrick in a losing effort. On the June 15, 2007, episode of "SmackDown!", Daivari competed in a fatal four-way number one contender match for the Cruiserweight Championship, which he lost to Yang and also involved Shannon Moore and Noble.


title: Shawn Daivari

text: Daivari was drafted back to "Raw" in the supplemental draft on June 17, 2007. He re-debuted on the June 18, 2007, episode of "Raw", losing to Jeff Hardy. On the July 30, 2007 episode of "Raw", Daivari was defeated by Cody Rhodes who had to win his match or else being fired from WWE. Daivari's losing streak continued when he failed to win the position of General Manager of "Raw" by been eliminated early in the battle royal the week after Rhodes defeated him. Daivari then started to get on a roll on "Heat" ("Raw"'s sister show) being victorious against Super Crazy and "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan. His return to "Raw" on September 17, 2007 saw him lose to Duggan in a flag match.


title: Shawn Daivari

text: On May 3, 2011, Daivari made his WWE return by competing in a dark match before the "SmackDown" tapings, losing to Ted DiBiase. In 2018, Daivari made his second return to WWE during a segment at Greatest Royal Rumble in Saudi Arabia where he and his brother, Ariya Daivari, were driven out of the ring by four new Saudi recruits. He was later hired by WWE as a producer in January 2019, and was eventually released on April 15, 2020, as part of budget cuts stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic. He returned on June 11, 2021.


title: Shawn Daivari

text: Daivari made his debut for Professional Championship Wrestling in Arlington, Texas, at PCW's "Heroes 2 Legends" event in November 2007. He wrestled J.T. Lamotta and "Jiggle-O" James Johnson in a triple threat match for the PCW Cruiserweight Championship, which Lamotta won. He returned to PCW on February 23, 2008, at PCW's "Big Bang '08" event to again wrestle a triple threat match for the PCW Cruiserweight Championship, this time against Robert Evans and Aaron Eagle, who won and became the new champion. On September 6, 2008, it was announced by The Bussey Brothers that Daivari would return on September 20, 2008, to team with them to take on Aaron Eagle and a partner of his choosing. Eagle had chosen Action Jackson to be his tag team partner. However, Jackson was injured at the hands of Mace Malone. PCW World Heavyweight Champion, Mike Foxx, who was supposedly suspended and also Eagle's main rival, surprisingly saved Eagle from an attack and announced he would be Eagle's partner. The stipulation was that if Eagle did not win, he could never get another PCW World Heavyweight Championship shot again. On September 20, Daivari and The Busseys defeated Eagle and Foxx when Foxx turned on Eagle and Daivari debuted his new finisher move, the "WMD" – "Weapon of Mass Destruction" (a DDT to a kneeling opponent), for the victory. Afterwards, Foxx announced he would give Eagle one final title shot at "Sick 'n' Twisted" on October 11.


title: Shawn Daivari

text: On April 4, 2008, Daivari made his AMW debut in a triple threat match against Wally Darkmon and Robert Evans for the AMW Light Heavyweight Championship. Daivari won the match to become the new AMW Light Heavyweight Champion. During most of 2008, he feuded with Wally Darkmon and on September 12, 2008, he lost the AMW Light Heavyweight Championship to Darkmon in a casket match.


title: Shawn Daivari

text: In June 2008, Davari took part in an Irish Whip Wrestling (IWW) event in the ESB Arena of Dublin, Ireland, where he lost in the main event to Mandrake for the IWW International Heavyweight Championship.


title: Shawn Daivari

text: Daivari debuted in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) on the June 12, 2008, episode of "Impact!" as the captain to Team International in 2008's World X Cup Tournament. Daivari then signed a contract with TNA. On the July 24, 2008, episode of "Impact!", after the conclusion of the X Cup, it was announced that he had joined the TNA roster under the name of Sheik Abdul Bashir. Retaining his anti-American gimmick and also adding a bullying mean streak, he quickly established himself as a heel after helping Petey Williams retain the TNA X Division Championship over Consequences Creed at Hard Justice on August 10, 2008, as well as delivering promos to draw heat. His official debut match on "Impact!" was a victory over Jay Lethal.


title: Shawn Daivari

text: Bashir won the X Division Championship at No Surrender on September 14, 2008, by defeating Williams and Creed in a three-way match. At Bound for Glory IV on October 12, 2008, Bashir defeated Creed in another match for the X Division Championship. On the October 23, 2008, live episode of "Impact!", Bashir successfully defended the X Division Championship against Jay Lethal. After the match, he attacked Rhino after being confronted by him over his political views.


title: Shawn Daivari

text: On October 30, 2008, it was announced that Daivari was taken to ""wrestler court"" at the week's "Impact!" tapings following a rib he played on Kip James during a flight they shared. Daivari pulled aside a flight attendant, who then announced over the loudspeaker that Kip was celebrating his 65th birthday. He was taken to wrestler court because it was determined that he hadn't spent enough time in the company to pull a rib on a veteran. Brother Ray served as the judge while B.G. James represented Kip and Brother Devon represented Daivari, and agent Pat Kenney served as the bailiff for the proceedings. Daivari was found guilty and was required to supply the locker room beer and booze, which he did on Tuesday night after the tapings.


title: Shawn Daivari

text: On the November 13, 2008, episode of "Impact!", Bashir lost the X Division Championship to Eric Young. During the match, Bashir shoved TNA Official Shane Sewell to the mat after Sewell questioned Bashir and the TNA audience of Bashir's actions during the match. Sewell became enraged, removed his shirt and attacked Bashir, which led Eric Young to hit his Death Valley driver on Bashir and pinning him for the win and the championship. However, Bashir was awarded the championship back the following week due to Sewell's interference, thus continuing his original title reign and making Young's title reign null and void. Sewell helped Young to defeat Bashir for the title for the second time at Final Resolution on December 7, 2008, ending Bashir's reign at 84 days. After the match, Bashir bloodied Sewell and tried to leave with the championship belt, but was stopped by Jim Cornette who announced that he had decided to vacate the championship. At Genesis on January 11, 2009, Sewell defeated Bashir in a grudge match that ended their feud.


title: Shawn Daivari

text: In July 2009, Bashir formed an alliance with Eric Young, Kiyoshi and The British Invasion (Doug Williams, Brutus Magnus and Rob Terry) known as World Elite. They were also later joined by Homicide. At Final Resolution on December 20, 2009, Bashir took part in the "Feast or Fired" match and was able to pick up one of the four briefcases. However, the briefcase he had picked up included a pink slip, which led to him being immediately fired from the company. Daivari would later say he originally signed a two-year extension with the understanding that Jeff Jarrett would be his boss, but after Jarrett stepped down a month later, he could not see eye to eye with the new management and asked for his release.


title: Shawn Daivari

text: Daivari made his return to ROH on February 5, 2010, at the tapings of "Ring of Honor Wrestling" on HDNet, once again portraying an anti-American heel. At the March 6 tapings, he joined Prince Nana's stable The Embassy. On June 19, 2010, at Death Before Dishonor VIII, he participated in a gauntlet match for Roderick Strong's ROH World Championship. On September 11, 2010, at Glory By Honor IX, Daivari unsuccessfully challenged Eddie Edwards for the ROH World Television Championship.


title: Shawn Daivari

text: On April 15, 2015, Daivari made his debut at "Lucha Underground" as DelAvar Daivari, a wrestler from a wealthy family, being seen sitting in attendance during the night within the audience. On the April 22, 2015, episode, Daivari attacked El Texano Jr. after Texano pushed him, which cost Texano's team the Lucha Underground Trios Championship match. On May 13, 2015, Daivari made his in-ring debut against Texano, which Daivari won by disqualification after Texano attacked the referee. On May 20, 2015, Daivari hired Big Ryck as his bodyguard, both of them attacking Texano as well as Bengala. Due to the alliance not paying off for Daivari, he attacked Ryck with a steel folding chair during a seven-way match at "Ultima Lucha".


title: Shawn Daivari

text: Daivari didn't appear in Season 2. However, he wrestled Paul London in a dark match at "Ultima Lucha Dos" in which he was defeated.


title: Shawn Daivari

text: Daivari made his debut in Juggalo Championship Wrestling (JCW) in "At Oddball Wrestling" on August 14, 2010, where The Daivari Brothers (Shawn and his sibling Arya), lost to The Ring Rydas. On November 10, 2010, in the first event of the tour, he defeated Dunkan Disorderly in Bordeaux, France, to win the AWR No Limits Championship. Daivari made his American Wrestling Rampage debut on AWR's seven-night "Twisted Steel Tour". On May 8, 2011, at Pro Wrestling Syndicate "Vendetta" event, Daivari won the vacant PWS New York State Championship. Several days later at Canadian Wrestling's Elite, he and Ariya Daivari went to the finals CWE Tag Team Championship Tournament, but lost to Danny Duggan and Kenny Omega.


title: Shawn Daivari

text: In June 2011, Daivari, working under the ring name Dubai, was announced as one of the four team captains for the pilot tapings of "All Wheels Wrestling". At the pilot tapings on June 29, Dubai was first defeated by RPM (Jay Lethal) in a five-minute Iron Man match and then by Schwagg Dutt (Sonjay Dutt) in an Ultimate X match, which also included Aaron Aguilera and RPM. In December 2011, Daivari took part in TNA's India project, Ring Ka King, where he resumed the Abdul Bashir gimmick and formed The Sheiks with his brother Arya, who worked as Mustafa Bashir.


title: Shawn Daivari

text: On May 12, 2012, Daivari won the Big Time Wrestling Cruiserweight Championship. In October, he and Sonjay Dutt wrestled for Family Wrestling Entertainment (FWE) challenging the Adrenaline Express for the FWE Tag Team Championship. On October 6, Daivari defeated Crowbar in the House of Hardcore's (HOH) first show. On a telecast of "Portland Wrestling Uncut" which aired on November 3, 2012, on Portland, Oregon, station KPTV, Daivari lost via pinfall to local star Exile, though the outcome was disputed because Daivari pointed out that he had his foot on the bottom rope when he was pinned.


title: Shawn Daivari

text: As of 2018, he has only made a few appearances on the independent circuit, most notably for Insane Championship Wrestling and The Brian Kendrick's promotion Wrestling Pro Wrestling (WPW).


title: Shawn Daivari

text: On October 24, 2020, at Bound for Glory, he made an unannounced appearance as a participant in the Call Your Shot gauntlet match under the ring name Daivari, which he failed to win as he was eliminated by Brian Myers. At Turning Point, Daivari lost to Eddie Edwards. Daivari made his return at Genesis as a competitor in the fourth Super X Cup tournament, where he lost in the first round to Jake Something.


title: Shawn Daivari

text: Daivari was born in Minnesota to Iranian parents, who immigrated to the United States in the 1970s. He speaks Persian fluently. He has an older and a younger brother. His younger brother, Ariya, is also a professional wrestler, and was part of the WWE Cruiserweight Division.


title: Shawn Daivari

text: In October 2012, Daivari gained attention for choking a drunk, disruptive passenger unconscious with a rear naked choke on a lightrail en route to the Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport, after police were slow to respond to another passenger hitting an emergency button.


title: Shawn Daivari

text: In 2016, Daivari and fellow WWE alumni Ken Anderson, Molly Holly, and independent wrestler Arik Cannon founded The Academy: School of Professional Wrestling.


title: Sri Lakshmi (actress)

text: Sri Lakshmi is an Indian actress who is known for her comic roles in Telugu films. She has also appeared in Tamil films. More than 500 films to her credit, she later turned her attention towards television serials. Lakshmi has received four Nandi Awards for Best Female Comedian.


title: Sri Lakshmi (actress)

text: Sri Lakshmi was born and brought up in Madras into a Telugu family from Rajahmundry, East Godavari district, Andhra Pradesh. Her father Amarnath and brother Rajesh are actors. Rajesh's daughter Aishwarya is an actress.


title: Sri Lakshmi (actress)

text: Daughter of veteran Telugu actor/Producer Dr. Amarnath, Sri Lakshmi entered the film industry to support her family after her father had fallen sick. Initially, she did minimal and unnoticeable characters. After noticing her spark in playing comedic roles, director Jandhyala offered her a meatier role in "Rendu Jella Sita", which turned her career. In the Telugu film industry, she acted in comedy films by ace director, Jandhyala. She also acted in K. Vishwanath films in comedy roles. She acted in more than 500 films, including Tamil, Kannada, etc. She later turned to TV plays. She is typically associated with stereo comic roles.


title: Sarissa

text: The sarisa or sarissa () was a long spear or pike about in length. It was introduced by Philip II of Macedon and was used in his Macedonian phalanxes as a replacement for the earlier dory, which was considerably shorter. These longer spears improved the strength of the phalanx by extending the rows of overlapping weapons projecting towards the enemy, and the word remained in use throughout the Byzantine years to sometimes describe the long spears of their own infantry.


title: Sarissa

text: The sarissa, made of tough and resilient cornel wood, was very heavy for a spear, weighing approximately . It had a sharp iron head shaped like a leaf and a bronze butt-spike, which could be anchored in the ground to stop charges by the enemy. The spike was sharpened well enough to pierce an enemy shield. The bronze material of the butt-spike prevented it from rusting. The spike also served to balance out the spear, making it easier for soldiers to wield, and could be used as a back-up point should the main one break.


title: Sarissa

text: The sheer bulk and size of the spear required the soldiers to wield it with both hands, allowing them to carry only a shield (pelta) suspended from the neck to cover the left shoulder. Its great length was an asset against hoplites and other soldiers bearing shorter weapons, as they had to get past the sarissas to engage the phalangites. However, outside the tight formation of the phalanx, the sarissa was of limited utility as a weapon and a hindrance on the march. As such, it was usually composed of two lengths and was joined by a central bronze tube only before a battle. The two parts were carried on the soldier's back during these marches.


title: Sarissa

text: Complicated training ensured that the sarissophoroi wielded their sarissas in unison, swinging them vertically to wheel about, then lowering them to the horizontal. The uniform swish of the sarissas daunted the Illyrian hill tribesmen against whom the young Alexander fought in an expedition early in his reign.


title: Sarissa

text: The sarissa-bearing phalanx would usually march to battle in open formation to facilitate movement. Before the charge, it would tighten its files to close formation or even compact formation (synaspismos). The tight formation of the phalanx created a "wall of pikes", and the pike was so long that there were fully five rows of them projecting in front of the front rank of men—even if an enemy got past the first row, there were still four more to stop him. The back rows bore their pikes angled upwards in readiness, which served the additional purpose of deflecting incoming arrows.


title: Sarissa

text: The Macedonian phalanx was considered invulnerable from the front, except against another such phalanx; the only way it was generally defeated was by breaking its formation or outflanking it, such as how Romans were able to defeat the Macedonians in the Battle of Cynoscephalae.


title: Sarissa

text: The invention of the sarissa is credited to Philip II, father of Alexander the Great. Philip drilled his soldiers to use these pikes with two hands. By the end of Philip's reign the previously fragile northern Greek kingdom of Macedon controlled the whole of Greece and Thrace.


title: Sarissa

text: Alexander used the sarissa armed phalanx in across Asia, conquering Egypt, Persia and the Pauravas (northwest India). The sarissa-wielding phalanxes were vital in every early battle, including the pivotal Battle of Gaugamela where the Persian king's scythe chariots were utterly destroyed by the phalanx, supported by the combined use of companion cavalry and peltasts (javelineers). During his later campaigning, Alexander gradually reduced the importance of the phalanx and the sarissa, as he modified his combined use of arms to incorporate Asian weapons and troops, not specifically trained in Macedonian battle tactics.


title: Ludwigshafen

text: Ludwigshafen, officially Ludwigshafen am Rhein (; meaning "Ludwig's Port upon Rhine"), is a city in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, on the river Rhine, opposite Mannheim. With Mannheim, Heidelberg, and the surrounding region, it forms the Rhine Neckar Area.


title: Ludwigshafen

text: Known primarily as an industrial city, Ludwigshafen is home to BASF, the world's largest chemical producer, and other companies. Among its cultural facilities are the Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz. It is the birthplace and deathplace of the former German chancellor Helmut Kohl.


title: Ludwigshafen

text: In 2012, Ludwigshafen was classified as a global city with 'Sufficiency' status by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network (GaWC).


title: Ludwigshafen

text: In antiquity, Celtic and Germanic tribes settled in the Rhine Neckar area. During the 1st century B.C. the Romans conquered the region, and a Roman auxiliary fort was constructed near the present suburb of Rheingönheim.


title: Ludwigshafen

text: The Middle Ages saw the foundation of some of Ludwigshafen's future suburbs, including Oggersheim, Maudach, Oppau, and Mundenheim. Most of the area, however, remained swampland, with its development hindered by seasonal flooding of the Rhine.


title: Ludwigshafen

text: The Rhine Neckar region was part of the territory of the Prince-elector of the "Kurpfalz", or Electorate of the Palatinate, one of the larger states within the Holy Roman Empire. The foundation of the new capital of the Kurpfalz, Mannheim, was a decisive influence on the development of the area as a whole. Parallel to the foundation of Mannheim in 1606, a fortress ("die Rheinschanze") was built by Frederick IV, Elector Palatine on the other side of the Rhine to protect the City of Mannheim, thus forming the nucleus of the City of Ludwigshafen itself.


title: Ludwigshafen

text: In the 17th century the region was devastated and depopulated during the Thirty Years' War, and also in King Louis XIV of France’s wars of conquest in the later part of the century.


title: Ludwigshafen

text: It was only in the 18th century that the settlements around the Rheinschanze began to prosper, profiting from the proximity of the capital Mannheim. Oggersheim in particular gained some importance, after the construction of both a small palace serving as secondary residence for the Elector, and the famous pilgrimage church, Wallfahrtskirche. For some weeks in 1782, the great German writer and playwright Friedrich Schiller lived in Oggersheim, on flight from his native Württemberg.


title: Ludwigshafen

text: War returned to the Ludwigshafen area with the armies of the French Revolution. The palace at Oggersheim was burned down, Mannheim besieged several times, and all the area west of the Rhine annexed by France from 1798 to 1813. The Electorate of the Palatinate was split up. The eastern bank of the Rhine with Mannheim and Heidelberg was given to Baden, while the western bank (including the Ludwigshafen area) was granted to the Kingdom of Bavaria, following the Wars of Liberation (1813-1815), in which the French were expelled. The Rhine had become a frontier and the Rheinschanze, cut off politically from Mannheim, lost its function as the neighbouring city's military bulwark.


title: Ludwigshafen

text: In 1808, during the French occupation, Carl Hornig of Mannheim purchased the fortress from the French authorities and turned it into a way station for passing river traffic. Later, the Rheinschanze with its winter-proof harbour basin (created by a flood in 1824) was used as trading post. Hornig died in 1819, but Johann Heinrich Scharpff, a businessman from Speyer, continued Hornig's plans, which were then turned over to his son-in-law, Philipp Markus Lichtenberger, in 1830. Their activities marked the beginning of the civilian use of the Rheinschanze.


title: Ludwigshafen

text: The year 1844 was the official birth of Ludwigshafen, when Lichtenberger sold this property to the state of Bavaria (Bayern), and the military title of the fortress was finally removed. The Bavarian king, Ludwig I, set forth plans to rename the settlement after himself and to start construction of an urban area as a Bavarian rival to Mannheim on the opposite bank.


title: Ludwigshafen

text: During the failed German revolution of 1848 rebels captured Ludwigshafen, but they were bombarded from Mannheim (rumours said the Mannheimers didn't aim at the revolutionaries, but on the rival harbour's infrastructure), and Prussian troops quickly expelled the revolutionaries. On December 27, 1852, King Maximilian II granted Ludwigshafen am Rhein political freedom and as on November 8, 1859, the settlement gained city status.


title: Ludwigshafen

text: At its founding Ludwigshafen was still a very modest settlement with just 1,500 inhabitants. Real growth began with industrialization, and gained enormous momentum in Ludwigshafen due to its ideal transport facilities. In addition to its excellent position and harbor facilities on the Rhine, a railway connecting Ludwigshafen with the Saar coalfields was completed in 1849.


title: Ludwigshafen

text: The year 1865 was an important date in the history of independent Ludwigshafen. After several discussions, BASF decided to move its factories from Mannheim to the Hemshof district, which belonged to Ludwigshafen. From then on, the city's rapid growth and wealth were linked to BASF's success and its expansion into becoming one of the world's most important chemical companies. Ludwigshafen also became home to several other rapidly growing chemical companies, including Friedrich Raschig GmbH, the Benckiser company (founded by Johann Benckiser), Giulini Brothers, Grünzweig&Hartmann AG, and .


title: Ludwigshafen

text: With more jobs available, the population of Ludwigshafen increased rapidly. In 1899 the city was governing more than 62,000 residents (compared to 1,500 in 1852).


title: Ludwigshafen

text: This population explosion looked quite “American” to contemporaries; it determined Ludwigshafen's character as a “worker's city”, and created problematic shortages of housing and real estate. The solution was the expansion of the municipal area and the incorporation of the two nearest villages, Friesenheim and Mundenheim, in the years 1892 and 1899. In the area between the city centre and those two suburbs new quarters (“North” and “South”) were built after (then) modern urban development plans. Because the ground was marshy and too low to be protected from Rhine floods, all the new houses were built on raised ground, sometimes as high as 5 metres above the original ground. Visitors can see the original ground level in many backyards of Ludwigshafen, which are sometimes two floors below street level.


title: Ludwigshafen

text: During World War I (1914–1918), Ludwigshafen's industrial plants played a key role in Germany's war economy, producing chemical ingredients for munitions, as well as much of the poison gas used on the Western Front. This contributed to Ludwigshafen, on May 27, 1915, being the target of the world's first strategic aerial bombardment. French aircraft attacked the BASF plants, killing twelve people and setting the precedent for the age to come.


title: Ludwigshafen

text: When the war was lost by Germany in 1918, the left bank of the Rhine was occupied by French troops, in accordance with the terms of the peace agreement. The French occupation lasted until 1930, and some of Ludwigshafen's most elegant houses were erected for the officers of the French garrison.


title: Ludwigshafen

text: The economic recovery of the 1920s was marred by one of the worst industrial explosions in history when, on Sept. 21, 1921, a BASF storage silo in Oppau blew up, killing more than 500 people, injuring a further 2,000, and destroying countless buildings.


title: Ludwigshafen

text: Despite this setback, Ludwigshafen reached a population of 100,000 in 1922, thus gaining "City" status. It prospered until the worldwide economic crisis of 1929, which brought unemployment, labor trouble, political strife, and the rise of the Nazis.


title: Ludwigshafen

text: The Nazi party had few followers and votes in working-class-dominated Ludwigshafen, but succeeded in enforcing their policies. Many small houses with gardens were built, especially in the Gartenstadt. Further, similar to Nazi plans in other cities (e.g. Hamburg), they aimed at creating a "Greater Ludwigshafen" by agglomerating smaller towns and villages in the vicinity. Thus Oggersheim, Oppau, Edigheim, Rheingönheim, and Maudach became suburbs of Ludwigshafen, raising its population to 135,000. The Ludwigshafen synagogue was destroyed in 1938 and its Jewish population of 1,400 was deported in 1940.


title: Ludwigshafen

text: During the Oil Campaign of World War II, the Allies conducted bombing of Ludwigshafen and Oppau. Thirteen thousand Allied bombers hit the city in 121 separate raids during the war, of which 56 succeeded in hitting the IG Farben plant. Those 56 raids dropped 53,000 bombs each containing 250 to 4,000 pounds of high explosives, plus 2.5 million 4-pound magnesium incendiary bombs (the bombers also dropped millions of leaflets warning the civilians to evacuate the city, plus counterfeit ration coupons). Repairs took longer and longer as spare parts became more difficult to find. By December 1944, so much damage had been done to vital utilities that output dropped to nearly zero. Follow-up raids every week ended production permanently. By the end of the war most dwellings had been destroyed or damaged; 1,800 people had died, and 3,000 were injured.


title: Ludwigshafen

text: The Allied ground advance into Germany reached Ludwigshafen in March 1945. The US 12th Armored Division and 94th Infantry Division captured Ludwigshafen against determined German resistance in house-to-house and block-to-block urban combat during 21–24 March 1945.


title: Ludwigshafen

text: Post-war, Ludwigshafen was part of the French occupation zone, becoming part of the newly founded Bundesland (state) of Rheinland-Pfalz and thus part of the Federal Republic of Germany. Reconstruction of the devastated city and revival of the economy was supported by the Allies, especially by American aid. In 1948, the "Pasadena Shares Committee" sent packages of blankets, clothing, food, and medicines to help the residents of post-war Ludwigshafen. Many friendships started to form, so that in 1956, Ludwigshafen am Rhein and Pasadena, California became sister cities.


title: Ludwigshafen

text: Large parts of the city were literally ruined, which were rebuilt in the architectural style of the 1950s and 1960s. The most important projects were the Hochstraßen (highways on stilts), the revolutionary new main station (then the most modern station in Europe), several tower blocks and a whole new suburb, the satellite quarter Pfingstweide north of Edigheim.


title: Ludwigshafen

text: The city's economic wealth allowed social benefits and institutions to be introduced. The population number reached its all-time climax in 1970 with more than 180,000 inhabitants, thus surpassing even the capital of Rheinland-Pfalz, Mainz, for a while.


title: Ludwigshafen

text: In the early 1970s, a plan to reform the composition of the German Bundesländer, which would have created a new state around a united Mannheim-Ludwigshafen as capital with more than half a million inhabitants, failed.


title: Ludwigshafen

text: Nevertheless, further ambitious projects were financed in Ludwigshafen, first of all the 15-floor city hall with its linked-up shopping centre (Rathaus Center). The last (up to now) new incorporated suburb was Ruchheim in 1974.