title: Eddie Long

text: In September 2010, Maurice Robinson, Anthony Flagg, Jamal Parris and Spencer LeGrande filed separate lawsuits alleging that Long used his pastoral influence to coerce them into sexual relationships with him. The plaintiffs state that Long placed the men on the church's payroll, bought them cars and other gifts, including overseas trips.


title: Eddie Long

text: The lawsuits stated that Long would "discuss the Holy Scripture to justify and support the sexual activity." Long denied the allegations through his attorneys and spokesman. In a prepared statement, Long said, "I have devoted my life to helping others and these false allegations hurt me deeply."


title: Eddie Long

text: On September 26, Long spoke to the New Birth congregation but he did not address the issue directly. Long spoke of painful times and said, "I've been accused. I'm under attack. I want you to know, as I said earlier, I am not a perfect man, but this thing, I'm going to fight." Long's unwillingness to address the accusations directly prompted a group of over 70 people, headed by the pastor of a small church in South Carolina, to hold a protest rally on the steps of the Georgia state Capitol on October 31, 2010, calling for Long's resignation.


title: Eddie Long

text: "The Atlanta-Journal-Constitution" reported in May 2011, that the lawsuits were settled out of court; terms were undisclosed. Later on, media outlets indicated that Centino Kemp was the fifth accuser who also settled. On May 30, 2011, an episode of the documentary series "Sex Scandals In Religion" aired on Canadian television network VisionTV. It took an investigative look at the allegations of inappropriate sexual behavior by Long with young men in his care.


title: Eddie Long

text: In August 2016, Long received major attention on Twitter when he posted a video on Facebook of himself showing his drastic weight loss. In the video, he said he was eating "raw vegetables" instead of a "slave menu" and that he was not on any medications.


title: Eddie Long

text: In September 2016, Long issued a statement saying he was "recovering" from an unspecified illness and that the illness was "unrelated" to his diet.


title: Eddie Long

text: Long died on January 15, 2017, at the age of 63. The church issued a statement describing the cause of death as an "aggressive form of cancer".


title: City of Evil

text: City of Evil is the third studio album by American heavy metal band Avenged Sevenfold, released on June 6, 2005, through Warner Bros. Records. Co-produced by Andrew Murdock, "City of Evil" contains a more traditional heavy metal and hard rock sound than Avenged Sevenfold's previous two albums, which showcased a predominantly metalcore sound. The album title is derived from a lyric in the song, "Beast and the Harlot". The album is notable for the absence of screaming vocals. M. Shadows worked for months before the album's release with vocal coach Ron Anderson, whose clients have included Axl Rose and Chris Cornell, to achieve a sound that had "grit while still having the tone". In order to increase stamina and strength on the pedals, The Rev would sit for hours practicing until he could get up to 210 beats per minute.


title: City of Evil

text: The album contains some of Avenged Sevenfold's most popular and famous songs, including "Bat Country", which is arguably their most successful to date, being one of their two singles certified Gold by the RIAA. "City of Evil" was very successful after its release, debuting at number 30 on the "Billboard" 200 chart and certified as a platinum record by the Recording Industry Association of America in August 2009. It went on to sell over 1,500,000 copies in the United States, and 2,500,000 total worldwide, making it the best-selling album out of Avenged Sevenfold's discography as of 2020. "Burn It Down", "Bat Country", "Beast and the Harlot" and "Seize the Day" were also released as music videos, directed by Marc Klasfeld, Tony Petrossian, and Wayne Isham, respectively. "Blinded in Chains" was also featured in the video game, , and is also the theme of the Blacklist member, Vince "Taz" Kilic and the promo of the Japanese-Canadian anime "Bakugan Battle Brawlers" on TV3.


title: City of Evil

text: The album was ranked No. 63 on "Guitar World" magazine's "100 Greatest Guitar Albums of All Time". "City of Evil" also appears in "Kerrang!"s "666 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die" and "50 Albums You Need To Hear Before You Die". The album was ranked No. 35 in "Kerrang"s list of "50 Greatest Metal Albums Ever" in 2016. "Rolling Stone" listed the album at No. 100 on its list of The 100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time.


title: City of Evil

text: Previously, Avenged Sevenfold had written and released two albums, "Sounding the Seventh Trumpet" in 2001 and "Waking the Fallen" in 2003, under the Goodlife Records and the Hopeless Records labels, respectively. Although neither album was a smash hit, the latter has been certified gold by the RIAA. "Waking the Fallen" attracted several major record labels to the band, and eventually they signed with Warner Bros. Records after consideration of several others.


title: City of Evil

text: When they began to write the album, Avenged Sevenfold turned to their influences for a change in style. The album abandons the band's metalcore sound. "When we started working on this record, we said, 'You know what? None of our favorite bands are super extreme, they just write really good melodic songs that are still heavy," said singer M. Shadows in an interview. The album is partially influenced by European power metal bands such as Blind Guardian, Sonata Arctica and Helloween, as well as Children of Bodom.


title: City of Evil

text: Shadows turned to Ron Anderson, a vocal coach that had previously worked with Axl Rose and Chris Cornell. Shadows was specifically looking to add a more gritty, raspy tone to his voice and worked with Anderson for several months on this before "City of Evil" was recorded.


title: City of Evil

text: "Ron taught me how to have that grit to my voice while still having the tone. He brought all of that to the table and he brought that technique to my voice. I’ve worked with him for about a year and a half now, but I worked with him for nine months before the record," said Shadows, "I told him that I want my voice to sound different from everybody else, but I wanted those characteristics in my voice...It was one of those things that we just wanted to go all the way with it."


title: City of Evil

text: "Burn It Down" was the first track written for ""City of Evil"". The song was released as the lead single from the album, but was received poorly by fans.


title: City of Evil

text: "Bat Country" was one of the breakout singles of 2005, reaching No. 2 on the "Billboard" Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks, No. 6 on the "Billboard" Modern Rock Tracks, and No. 1 on MTV's "Total Request Live".


title: City of Evil

text: "City of Evil" features four music videos (one for each single). On May 4, 2005, the band released a promotional video for "Burn It Down", which was done in the same way as "Unholy Confessions" from "Waking the Fallen" (live footage with dubbed music). The video was directed by Nick Wickham. On July 28, 2005, their first professional video for a song on the album, "Bat Country", was released. It was directed by Marc Klasfeld. On February 6, 2006, "Beast and the Harlot" was released. This was a few weeks after it had been leaked on YouTube. It was directed by Tony Petrossian. On June 7th, 2006, the music video for Seize the Day was released, and on June 30 it was released on Avenged Sevenfold's MySpace. The video was directed by Wayne Isham.


title: City of Evil

text: The album debuted at No. 30 on the "Billboard" 200 selling over 30,000 copies. "Rolling Stone" praised the guitar work, giving the album three out of a possible five stars. Johnny Loftus of Allmusic rated the album three-and-a-half stars out of five and commented "...Avenged Sevenfold gets all the pieces right, and sound like they're having more fun here than in the scattershot approach of the first couple records". The British version of the German magazine, "Metal Hammer" gave the album an eight out of ten rating with Katie Parsons concluding "They have done it their way, they're having fun and who the hell can blame them?".


title: City of Evil

text: In addition, "Bat Country" was one of the breakout singles of 2005, reaching No. 2 on the "Billboard" Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks, No. 6 on the "Billboard" Modern Rock Tracks, and No. 1 on MTV's "Total Request Live". Additionally, the band won Best New Artist at the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards, beating out Rihanna, Panic! at the Disco, James Blunt, Angels & Airwaves and Chris Brown.


title: City of Evil

text: Multiple "City of Evil" songs appeared in video games, notably by Electronic Arts and Activision. "Bat Country" appeared in EA Sports' "Madden 06" and "NHL 06", as well as "SSX On Tour", which was produced by EA Sports label EA Sports BIG. It also appeared in "Saints Row 2", "", and "Rocksmith 2014". However, the lyric "too many doses" has been replaced by "too many save me" to avoid drug content in a few games to keep the ESRB age rating down below. "Blinded in Chains" is the theme song for Blacklist member #14 Vince "Taz" Killic in "Need For Speed: Most Wanted". "Beast and the Harlot" was featured in the soundtrack of the games "Burnout Revenge", "Guitar Hero II", "Guitar Hero Smash Hits", Rock Band 3. and "Rocksmith". The version featured in "Guitar Hero II" was a cover version, while the one featured in "Smash Hits" was a master recording.


title: Pneumocystis pneumonia

text: Pneumocystis" pneumonia (PCP), also known as Pneumocystis jirovecii" pneumonia (PJP), is a form of pneumonia that is caused by the yeast-like fungus "Pneumocystis jirovecii".


title: Pneumocystis pneumonia

text: "Pneumocystis" specimens are commonly found in the lungs of healthy people although it is usually not a cause for disease. However, they are a source of opportunistic infection and can cause lung infections in people with a weak immune system or other predisposing health conditions. PCP is seen in people with HIV/AIDS (who account for 30-40% of PCP cases), those using medications that suppress the immune system, and people with cancer, autoimmune or inflammatory conditions, and chronic lung disease.


title: Pneumocystis pneumonia

text: Signs and symptoms may develop over several days or weeks and may include: shortness of breath and/or difficulty breathing (of gradual onset), fever, dry/non-productive cough, weight loss, night sweats, chills, and fatigue. Uncommonly, the infection may progress to involve other visceral organs (such as the liver, spleen, and kidney).


title: Pneumocystis pneumonia

text: Pneumothorax is a well-known complication of PCP. Also, a condition similar to acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) may occur in patients with severe Pneumocystis pneumonia, and such individuals may require intubation.


title: Pneumocystis pneumonia

text: The risk of PCP increases when CD4-positive T-cell levels are less than 400 cells/μL. In these immunosuppressed individuals, the manifestations of the infection are highly variable. The disease attacks the interstitial, fibrous tissue of the lungs, with marked thickening of the alveolar septa and alveoli, leading to significant hypoxia, which can be fatal if not treated aggressively. In this situation, lactate dehydrogenase levels increase and gas exchange is compromised. Oxygen is less able to diffuse into the blood, leading to hypoxia, which along with high arterial carbon dioxide () levels, stimulates hyperventilatory effort, thereby causing dyspnea (breathlessness).


title: Pneumocystis pneumonia

text: In addition, in symptomatic cases of "P. jirovecii" pneumonia, the overgrowth of the fungus is associated to a co-infection with trichomonads, unicellular flagellated parabasalid protist (Parabasalia) of the family Trichomonadidae. These parasites (including the commensal "Trichomonas tenax", "Trichomonas vaginalis" and "Tritrichomonas foetus") exhibit an amoeboid form, without flagellum, which makes it difficult to identify them under the microscope. Amoeboid transformation is an argument in favor of a deleterious action, which nevertheless remains conjectural.


title: Pneumocystis pneumonia

text: The diagnosis can be confirmed by the characteristic appearance of the chest X-ray and an arterial oxygen level (PaO) that is strikingly lower than would be expected from symptoms. Gallium 67 scans are also useful in the diagnosis. They are abnormal in about 90% of cases and are often positive before the chest X-ray becomes abnormal. Chest X-ray typically shows widespread pulmonary infiltrates. CT scan may show pulmonary cysts (not to be confused with the cyst-forms of the pathogen).


title: Pneumocystis pneumonia

text: The diagnosis can be definitively confirmed by histological identification of the causative organism in sputum or bronchoalveolar lavage (lung rinse). Staining with toluidine blue, silver stain, periodic acid-Schiff stain, or an immunofluorescence assay shows the characteristic cysts. The cysts resemble crushed ping-pong balls and are present in aggregates of two to eight (and not to be confused with "Histoplasma" or "Cryptococcus", which typically do not form aggregates of spores or cells). A lung biopsy would show thickened alveolar septa with fluffy eosinophilic exudate in the alveoli. Both the thickened septa and the fluffy exudate contribute to dysfunctional diffusion capacity that is characteristic of this pneumonia.


title: Pneumocystis pneumonia

text: "Pneumocystis" infection can also be diagnosed by immunofluorescent or histochemical staining of the specimen, and more recently by molecular analysis of polymerase chain reaction products comparing DNA samples. Notably, simple molecular detection of "P. jirovecii" in lung fluids does not mean that a person has PCP or infection by HIV. The fungus appears to be present in healthy individuals in the general population. A blood test to detect β-D-glucan (a part of the cell wall of many different types of fungi) can also help in the diagnosis of PCP.


title: Pneumocystis pneumonia

text: In immunocompromised people, prophylaxis with co-trimoxazole (trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole), atovaquone, or regular pentamidine inhalations may help prevent PCP.


title: Pneumocystis pneumonia

text: Antipneumocystic medication is used with concomitant steroids to avoid inflammation, which causes an exacerbation of symptoms about 4 days after treatment begins if steroids are not used. By far, the most commonly used medication is trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole, but some patients are unable to tolerate this treatment due to allergies. Other medications that are used, alone or in combination, include pentamidine, trimetrexate, dapsone, atovaquone, primaquine, pafuramidine maleate (under investigation), and clindamycin. Treatment is usually for a period of about 21 days.


title: Pneumocystis pneumonia

text: Pentamidine is less often used, as its major limitation is the high frequency of side effects. These include acute pancreatic inflammation, kidney failure, liver toxicity, decreased white blood cell count, rash, fever, and low blood sugar.


title: Pneumocystis pneumonia

text: The disease PCP is relatively rare in people with normal immune systems, but common among people with weakened immune systems, such as premature or severely malnourished children, the elderly, and especially persons living with HIV/AIDS (in whom it is most commonly observed). PCP can also develop in patients who are taking immunosuppressive medications. It can occur in patients who have undergone solid organ transplantation or bone marrow transplantation and after surgery. Infections with "Pneumocystis" pneumonia are also common in infants with hyper IgM syndrome, an X-linked or autosomal recessive trait.


title: Pneumocystis pneumonia

text: The causative organism of PCP is distributed worldwide and "Pneumocystis" pneumonia has been described in all continents except Antarctica. More than 75% of children are seropositive by the age of four, which suggests a high background exposure to the organism. A "post mortem" study conducted in Chile of 96 persons who died of unrelated causes (suicide, traffic accidents, and so forth) found that 65 (68%) of them had pneumocystis in their lungs, which suggests that asymptomatic pneumocystis infection is extremely common. Up to 20% of adults may be asymptomatic carriers at any given time, and asymptomatic infection may persist for months before being cleared by an immune response.


title: Pneumocystis pneumonia

text: "P. jirovecii" is commonly believed to be a commensal organism (dependent upon its human host for survival). The possibility of person-to-person transmission has recently gained credence, with supporting evidence coming from many different genotyping studies of "P. jirovecii" isolates from human lung tissue. For example, in one outbreak of 12 cases among transplant patients in Leiden, it was suggested as likely, but not proven, that human-to-human spread may have occurred.


title: Pneumocystis pneumonia

text: Since the start of the AIDS epidemic, PCP has been closely associated with AIDS. Because it only occurs in an immunocompromised host, it may be the first clue to a new AIDS diagnosis if the patient has no other reason to be immunocompromised (e.g. taking immunosuppressive drugs for organ transplant). An unusual rise in the number of PCP cases in North America, noticed when physicians began requesting large quantities of the rarely used antibiotic pentamidine, was the first clue to the existence of AIDS in the early 1980s.


title: Pneumocystis pneumonia

text: Prior to the development of more effective treatments, PCP was a common and rapid cause of death in persons living with AIDS. Much of the incidence of PCP has been reduced by instituting a standard practice of using oral co-trimoxazole (Bactrim / Septra) to prevent the disease in people with CD4 counts less than 200/μL. In populations who do not have access to preventive treatment, PCP continues to be a major cause of death in AIDS.


title: Pneumocystis pneumonia

text: The first cases of "Pneumocystis" pneumonia were described in premature infants in Europe following the Second World War. It was then known as plasma cellular interstitial pneumonitis of the newborn.


title: Pneumocystis pneumonia

text: In the era before the existence of HIV/AIDS in humans, clinical transplant immunology, and widespread immunomodulatory therapy for autoimmune diseases, the neonatal and infantile population was the principal immunity-limited population. For example, a 1955 review article stated, "Interstitial plasma cell pneumonia is a type of infantile pneumonia, occurring chiefly in Europe." It also stated, "The etiology is unknown, but the disease acts like an infection in its epidemiology. No present-day therapeutic measures seem to be of any definite value."


title: Pneumocystis pneumonia

text: Both "Pneumocystis" pneumonia" and "pneumocystis pneumonia" are orthographically correct; one uses the genus name per se and the other uses the common noun based on it. (This is the same reason, for example, why "group A "Streptococcus"" and "group A streptococcus" are both valid.) Synonyms for PCP include "pneumocystosis" (pneumocystis + -osis), "pneumocystiasis" (pneumocystis + -iasis), and "interstitial plasma cell pneumonia".


title: Pneumocystis pneumonia

text: The older species name "Pneumocystis carinii" (which now applies only to the "Pneumocystis" species that is found in rats) is still in common usage. As a result, "Pneumocystis" pneumonia (PCP) is also known as "Pneumocystis jiroveci[i]" pneumonia" and (incorrectly) as "Pneumocystis carinii" pneumonia".


title: Pneumocystis pneumonia

text: Regarding nomenclature, when the name of "Pneumocystis" pneumonia (PCP) changed from "P. carinii" pneumonia to "P. jirovecii" pneumonia, it was at first asked whether "PJP" should replace "PCP". However, because the short name "PCP" was already well established among physicians that managed patients with "Pneumocystis" infection, it was widely accepted that this name could continue to be used, as it could now stand for "p"neumo"c"ystis "p"neumonia.


title: Deception Island

text: Deception Island is an island in the South Shetland Islands close to the Antarctic Peninsula with a large and usually "safe" natural harbor, which is occasionally troubled by the underlying active volcano. This island is the caldera of an active volcano, which seriously damaged local scientific stations in 1967 and 1969. The island previously held a whaling station. It is now a tourist destination with over 15,000 visitors per year. Two research stations are operated by Argentina and Spain during the summer season. While various countries have asserted sovereignty, it is still administered under the Antarctic Treaty System.


title: Deception Island

text: Located within the Bransfield Strait, the island is roughly circular and horseshoe-shaped, with a maximum diameter around . The highest peak, Mont Pond on the east side of the island, has an elevation of , while Mount Kirkwood on the west has an elevation of . Over half (57%) of the island is covered by glaciers up to 10 m thick, ice-cored moraines, or ice covered pyroclasts. The centre of the island has been flooded by the sea to form a large bay, now called Port Foster, about long and wide. The bay has a narrow entrance, just wide, called Neptune's Bellows. The port is a basin with a flat floor up to deep with several small submarine cones and domes. The port is rimmed by a shallow coastal shelf with sandy-gravelly beaches. The outer coast of the island is characterized by cliffs of rock or ice.


title: Deception Island

text: Raven's Rock, a navigation hazard, lies below the water in the middle of the channel. Just inside Neptune's Bellows lies the cove Whalers Bay, which is bordered by a large black sand beach. Several maars line the inside rim of the caldera, with some containing crater lakes (including one named Crater Lake). Others form bays within the harbour, such as the wide Whalers Bay. Other features of the island include Mount Kirkwood, Fumarole Bay, Sewing-Machine Needles, Telefon Bay, and Telefon Ridge.


title: Deception Island

text: The linear Costa Recta spanning most of the east coast is hypothesised to be a scarp of a retreated submarine fault.


title: Deception Island

text: A 2016 study on Ardley Island, to the northeast, examined lake guano sediments and studied penguin population dynamics over 7,000 years. Three of five population growth phases were terminated by a sudden crash, due to volcanic eruptions from the active volcano of Deception Island.


title: Deception Island

text: The history of volcanic eruptions is still under investigation, but several larger eruptions happened in the last 10,000 years.


title: Deception Island

text: Deception Island is the exposed portion of an active shield volcano 30 km in diameter. The island is associated with Bransfield Basin seafloor spreading that includes a volcanic ridge and seamounts dating back to the Pleistocene. Deception Island volcanic ash layers have been found on other South Shetland Islands, the Bransfield Strait, the Scotia Sea and in South Pole ice cores. Volcanic tremors are common, originating from depths less than 10 km. Historical eruptions occurred in 1839–1842, 1967, 1969, and 1970. Stratigraphy of the island is characterized by the pre-caldera Port Foster Group and the post-caldera Mount Pond Group, both within the Deception Island Volcanic Complex. The Port Foster Group's principal outcrops are located at South Point, Cathedral Crags near Entrance Point and north of Punta de la Descubierta forming spectacular coastal cliffs along the western portion of the island. The group is composed of the Fumarole Bay Formation consisting of hydrovolcanic tephra, the Basaltic Shield Formation consisting of lavas and Strombolian scoria, and the Outer Coast Tuff Formation consisting of lapilli-tuffs. The Mount Pond Group dominates the surface geology and consists of the pyroclastic Baily Head and Pendulum Cove formations, both formed during hydrovolcanic eruptions, and the Stonethrow Ridge Formation consisting of tuff cone and maar deposits. The caldera collapsed as either a hydrovolcanic eruption of the Outer Coast Tuff Formation, releasing about 30 cubic kilometers of magma, or passively due to regional tectonics, since the island is at the intersection of the Bransfield Strait rift and the orthogonal Hero Fracture Zone.


title: Deception Island

text: The first authenticated sighting of Deception Island was by the British sealers William Smith and Edward Bransfield from the brig "Williams" in January 1820. It was first visited and explored by the American sealer Nathaniel Palmer on the sloop "Hero" the following summer, on 15 November 1820. He remained for two days, exploring the central bay. Palmer named it "Deception Island" on account of its outward deceptive appearance as a normal island, when the narrow entrance of Neptune's Bellows revealed it rather to be a ring around a flooded caldera.


title: Deception Island

text: Palmer was part of an American sealing fleet from Stonington, Connecticut, under the command of Benjamin Pendleton, consisting of 6 ships. Port Fisher was used as their operational base from 1820 to 1821. Palmer met Bellingshausen close to the island in Jan. 1821, during the First Russian Antarctic Expedition.


title: Deception Island

text: A lighthouse named Surgidero Iquique was built on the island to guide vessels into Deception Station.


title: Deception Island

text: Over the next few years, Deception became a focal point of the short-lived fur-sealing industry in the South Shetlands. The industry began with a handful of ships in the 1819–1820 summer season, rising to nearly a hundred in 1821–1822. While the island did not have a large seal population, it was a perfect natural harbour, mostly free from ice and winds, and a convenient rendezvous point. Some men likely lived ashore in tents or shacks for short periods during the summer, though no archaeological or documentary evidence survives to confirm this. Massive overhunting meant that the fur seals neared extinction in the South Shetlands within a few years, and the sealing industry collapsed as quickly as it had begun. Deception was abandoned again in approximately 1825.


title: Deception Island

text: Sealing captain Robert Fildes charted Port Foster in 1820–1821, which in 1829 became the first published Antarctica nautical chart.


title: Deception Island

text: In 1829, the British Naval Expedition to the South Atlantic under the command of Captain Henry Foster in stopped at Deception. The expedition conducted a topographic survey and scientific experiments, particularly pendulum and magnetic observations. A watercolour made by Lieutenant Kendall of the "Chanticleer" during the visit may be the first image made of the island. A subsequent visit by the American elephant-sealer "Ohio" in 1842 reported the first recorded volcanic activity, with the southern shore "in flames".


title: Deception Island

text: The second phase of human activity at Deception began in the early 20th century. In 1904, an active whaling industry was established at South Georgia, taking advantage of new technology and an almost untouched population of whales to make rapid profits. It spread south into the South Shetland Islands, where the lack of shore-based infrastructure meant that the whales had to be towed to moored factory ships for processing; these needed a sheltered anchorage and a plentiful supply of fresh water, both of which could be found at Deception. In 1906, the Norwegian-Chilean whaling company Sociedad Ballenera de Magallanes started using Whalers Bay as a base for a single ship, the "Gobernador Bories".


title: Deception Island

text: Other whalers followed, with several hundred men resident at Deception during the Antarctic summers and as many as 13 ships operating in peak years. In 1908, the British government formally declared the island to be part of the Falkland Islands Dependencies, thus under British control, establishing postal services and appointing a magistrate and customs officer for the island. The magistrate was to ensure that whaling companies were paying appropriate licence fees to the Falklands government and ensuring adherence to catch quotas. A cemetery was built in 1908, a radio station in 1912, a hand-operated railway also in 1912, and a small permanent magistrate's house in 1914. The cemetery, by far the largest in Antarctica, held graves for 35 men along with a memorial to 10 more presumed drowned. These were not the only constructions; as the factory ships of the period were only able to strip the blubber from whales and could not use the carcasses, a permanent on-shore station was established by the Norwegian company Hvalfangerselskabet Hektor A/S in 1912 – up to an estimated 40% of the available oil was being wasted by the ship-based system. This was the only successful shore-based industry ever to operate in Antarctica, reaping high profits in its first years. A number of exploring expeditions visited Deception during these years, including the Wilkins-Hearst expedition of 1928, when a Lockheed Vega was flown from a beach airstrip on the first successful flights in Antarctica.


title: Deception Island

text: The development of pelagic whaling in the 1920s, where factory ships fitted with a slipway could tow aboard entire whales for processing, meant that whaling companies were no longer tied to sheltered anchorages. A boom in pelagic Antarctic whaling followed, with companies now free to ignore quotas and escape the costs of licences. This rapidly led to overproduction of oil and a collapse in the market, and the less profitable and more heavily regulated shore-based companies had trouble competing. In early 1931, the Hektor factory finally ceased operation, ending commercial whaling at the island entirely.


title: Deception Island

text: Deception remained uninhabited for a decade, but was revisited in 1941 by the British auxiliary warship HMS "Queen of Bermuda", which destroyed the oil tanks and some remaining supplies to ensure it could not be used as a German supply base. In 1942, an Argentinean party aboard the "Primero de Mayo" visited and left signs and painted flags declaring the site Argentinean territory; the following year, a British party with returned to remove the signs.


title: Deception Island

text: In 1944, a British expedition under Lieutenant James Marr established a short-lived base on Deception Island as part of Operation Tabarin, which was carried out during the Second World War to deny safe anchorages to enemy raiding vessels and to gather meteorological data for allied shipping in the South Atlantic. It also had the effect of strengthening British claims to the Falkland Island Dependencies that had begun being challenged by Argentina and Chile. Operation Tabarin would deny use of the area to the "Kriegsmarine", which was known to use remote islands as rendezvous points, and address a fear that Japan might attempt to seize the Falkland Islands. Following the end of the war, the research begun by Operation Tabarin continued in subsequent years, ultimately becoming the British Antarctic Survey.


title: Deception Island

text: In 1961, Argentina's president Arturo Frondizi visited the island to show his country's interest. Regular visits were made by other countries operating in the Antarctic, including the 1964 visit of the US Coast Guard icebreaker , which ran aground inside the harbour.


title: Deception Island

text: However, the volcano returned to activity in 1967 and 1969, destroying the existing scientific stations. Both British and Chilean stations were demolished, and the island was again abandoned for several years. The final major volcanic eruption was reported by the Russian Bellingshausen station on King George Island and the Chilean station Arturo Prat on Greenwich Island; both stations experienced major falls of ash on 13 August 1970.


title: Deception Island

text: In 2000, there were two summer-only scientific stations, the Spanish Gabriel de Castilla Base and the Argentinian Decepción Station.


title: Deception Island

text: Remains of previous structures at Whalers Bay include rusting boilers and tanks, an aircraft hangar, and the British scientific station house (Biscoe House), with the middle torn out by the 1969 mudflows. A bright orange derelict airplane fuselage, which is that of a de Havilland Canada DHC-3 Otter that belonged to the Royal Air Force, was recovered in 2004. Plans to restore the airplane and return it to the island have been made.


title: Deception Island

text: The Russian cruise ship ran aground at Deception Island on 27 November 2006. She was towed off by the Spanish Navy icebreaker "Las Palmas" and made her own way to Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego. She later became a ghost ship in the North Atlantic after the towing line parted during an operation to scrap the vessel in the Dominican Republic.


title: Deception Island

text: The first commercial cruise ship arrived in January 1966. By 1999, over 10,000 tourists had visited the island.


title: Deception Island

text: President Pedro Aguirre Cerda Station was a Chilean Antarctic base, located at Pendulum Cove on Deception Island in the South Shetland Islands, inaugurated in 1955. It was evacuated in December 1967 when volcanic eruptions forced the evacuation of the base.


title: Deception Island

text: Deception Station is an Argentine base located at Deception Island. The station was founded on 25 January 1948 and was a year-round station until December 1967, when volcanic eruptions forced the evacuation of the base. Since then, it has been inhabited only during the summer.


title: Deception Island

text: Gabriel de Castilla Base is a Spanish research station located on Deception Island. The station was constructed in 1990.


title: Deception Island

text: The Gutiérrez Vargas Refuge, named after an aviation captain who died on 30 December 1955, was located at from Aguirre Cerda Station and was inaugurated on 12 February 1956. Its purpose was to serve as a refuge for the members of the station in case of fire. On 4 December 1967 the refuge was definitively abandoned, as was the Aguirre Cerda Station, due to a violent volcanic eruption. The remains of the refuge structure can still be seen on the beach where it was located.


title: Deception Island

text: In early 1944, a party of men from Operation Tabarin, a British expedition, established a permanent scientific base named Station B. This was occupied until 5 December 1967, when an eruption forced a temporary withdrawal. It was used again between 4 December 1968 and 23 February 1969, when further volcanic activity caused it to be abandoned.


title: Deception Island

text: Deception Island has become a popular tourist stop in Antarctica because of its several colonies of chinstrap penguins, as well as the possibility of making a warm bath by digging into the sands of the beach. Mount Flora is the site in Antarctica where fossilized plants were first discovered.


title: Deception Island

text: After the Norwegian Coastal Cruise Liner ran aground off the coast of Deception Island on 30 January 2007, fuel from the ship washed into a bay. Ecological damage has not yet been determined. On 4 February 2007, the Spanish Gabriel de Castilla research station on Deception Island reported that water and sand tests were clean, and that they had not found signs of the oil, estimated as ).


title: Deception Island

text: Deception Island exhibits some wildly varying microclimates. Near volcanic areas, the air can be as hot as , and water temperature can reach .


title: Deception Island

text: Eleven terrestrial sites have been collectively designated as an Antarctic specially protected area (ASPA 140), primarily for their botanic and ecological values, because the island has the greatest number of rare plant species of any place in the Antarctic. This is largely due to frequent volcanic activity creating new substrates for plant colonisation:


title: Deception Island

text: In addition, two marine sites in Port Foster have collectively been designated ASPA 145, to protect their benthic communities.


title: Deception Island

text: Baily Head, a prominent headland forming the easternmost extremity of the island, has been identified as an important bird area (IBA) by BirdLife International because it supports a very large breeding colony of chinstrap penguins (100,000 pairs). The IBA comprises the ice-free headland and about of beach on either side of it. Other birds known to nest at the site include brown skuas, Cape petrels, and snowy sheathbills.


title: UEFA Euro 1968

text: The 1968 UEFA European Football Championship final tournament was held in Italy. This was the third UEFA European Championship, an event held every four years and organised by UEFA. The final tournament took place between 5 and 10 June 1968.


title: UEFA Euro 1968

text: It was in this year that the tournament changed its name from the "European Nations' Cup" to the "European Championship". There were also some changes in the tournament's qualifying structure, with the two-legged home-and-away knock-out stage being replaced by a group phase.


title: UEFA Euro 1968

text: Four countries played in the final tournament, which consisted of the semi-finals, a third place play-off, and the final. The host nation for the finals was selected from the four qualified nations.


title: UEFA Euro 1968

text: The qualification competition was played in two stages: a group stage (taking place from 1966 until 1968) and the quarter-finals (played in 1968). There were eight qualifying groups of four teams each with the exception of group 4, which only had three. The matches were played in a home-and-away basis. Victories were worth 2 points, draws 1 point, and defeats 0 points. Only group winners could qualify for the quarter-finals. The quarter-finals were played in two legs on a home-and-away basis. The winners of the quarter-finals would go through to the final tournament.


title: UEFA Euro 1968

text: As of 2024, this is the last European Championship finals not to feature Germany (then West Germany) in it.


title: UEFA Euro 1968

text: In all matches but the final, extra time and a coin toss were used to decide the winner if necessary. If the final remained level after extra time, a replay would be used to determine the winner.


title: Cessna O-1 Bird Dog

text: The Cessna L-19/O-1 Bird Dog is a liaison and observation aircraft. It was the first all-metal fixed-wing aircraft ordered for and by the United States Army following the Army Air Forces' separation from it in 1947. The Bird Dog had a lengthy career in the U.S. military, as well as in other countries.


title: Cessna O-1 Bird Dog

text: The U.S. Army was searching for an aircraft that could adjust artillery fire, as well as perform liaison duties, and preferably be constructed of all metal, as the fabric-covered liaison aircraft used during World War II (primarily Stinson and Piper products) had short service lives. After the specification for a two-seat liaison and observation monoplane was issued the Cessna Aircraft Company submitted the Cessna Model 305A, a development of the Cessna 170. The Cessna 305A was a single-engine, lightweight, strut-braced, high-wing monoplane with a tailwheel landing gear.


title: Cessna O-1 Bird Dog

text: The greatest difference from the Cessna 170 was that the 305A had only two seats, in tandem configuration (the largest tandem-seat aircraft Cessna ever produced), with angled side windows to improve ground observation. Other differences included a redesigned rear fuselage, providing a view directly to the rear (a feature later dubbed "Omni-View", carried over to Cessna single-engine aircraft after 1964), and transparent panels in the wings' center-section over the cockpit (similar to those found on the Cessna 140 and the later Cessna 150 "Aerobat" model), which allowed the pilot to look directly overhead. A wider door was fitted to allow a stretcher to be loaded.


title: Cessna O-1 Bird Dog

text: The U.S. Army awarded a contract to Cessna for 418 of the aircraft, which was designated the L-19A Bird Dog. The prototype Cessna 305 (registration N41694) first flew on 14 December 1949, and it now resides in the Spirit of Flight Center in Erie, Colorado. Deliveries began in December 1950, and the aircraft were soon in use fighting their first war in Korea from 1950 through 1953. An instrument trainer variant was developed in 1953, later versions had constant speed propellers, and the final version, the L-19E, had a larger gross weight. Cessna produced 3,431 aircraft; it was also built under license by Fuji in Japan.


title: Cessna O-1 Bird Dog

text: The L-19 received the name Bird Dog as a result of a contest held with Cessna employees to name the aircraft. The winning entry, submitted by Jack A. Swayze, an industrial photographer, was selected by a U.S. Army board. The name was chosen because the role of the army's new aircraft was to find the enemy and orbit overhead until artillery (or attack aircraft) could be brought to bear on the enemy. While flying low and close to the battlefield, the pilot would observe the exploding shells and adjust the fire via his radios, in the manner of a bird dog (gun dog) used by game hunters.


title: Cessna O-1 Bird Dog

text: The United States Department of Defense (DOD) ordered 3,200 L-19s that were built between 1950 and 1959, entering both the U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps inventories, initially designated as the OE-1 in the Marine Corps. The aircraft were used in various utility roles such as artillery spotting, front-line communications, medevac, and training.


title: Cessna O-1 Bird Dog

text: In 1962, the Army L-19 and Marine Corps OE-1 were redesignated as the O-1 Bird Dog and entered the Vietnam War. During the early 1960s, the Bird Dog was flown by the Republic of Vietnam Air Force (RVNAF), U.S. Army, and U.S. Marines in South Vietnam and later by clandestine forward air controllers (e.g., Ravens) in Laos and Cambodia. Because of its short takeoff and landing (STOL) and low altitude/low airspeed capabilities, the O-1 also later found its way into U.S. Air Force service as a Forward Air Controller (FAC) aircraft for vectoring faster fighter and attack aircraft and supporting combat search-and-rescue operations recovering downed aircrews.


title: Cessna O-1 Bird Dog

text: During the Vietnam War, the Bird Dog was used primarily for reconnaissance, target acquisition, artillery adjustment, radio relay, convoy escort, and the forward air control of tactical aircraft, including bombers operating in a tactical role.


title: Cessna O-1 Bird Dog

text: Supplementing the O-1, then gradually replacing it, the USAF switched to the Cessna O-2 Skymaster and North American OV-10 Bronco, while the U.S. Marine Corps took delivery of the OV-10 to replace their aging O-1s. Both were faster twin-engine aircraft, with the OV-10 being a turboprop aircraft. Still, the U.S. Army retained the Bird Dog throughout the war with up to 11 Reconnaissance Airplane Companies (RACs) deployed to cover all of South Vietnam, the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), and the southern edge of North Vietnam. Its quieter noise footprint, lower speed, tighter maneuverability, short runway ability, and better visibility (even to the rear) kept it highly valued by the ground units it supported and highly feared by enemy units it flew over. The last U.S. Army O-1 Bird Dog was officially retired in 1974.


title: Cessna O-1 Bird Dog

text: During the Vietnam War, 469 O-1 Bird Dogs were lost to all causes. The USAF lost 178, the USMC lost 7, and 284 were lost from the U.S. Army, RVNAF, and clandestine operators. Three Bird Dogs were lost to enemy hand-held surface-to-air missiles (SAMs).


title: Cessna O-1 Bird Dog

text: Two O-1 Bird Dogs were loaned to the Australian Army's 161 Reconnaissance Flight operating out of Nui Dat in Phuoc Tuy Province. One was lost to ground fire in May 1968, killing 161's commanding officer. Another Bird Dog was built by this unit's maintenance crew, using aircraft sections salvaged from dumps around Vietnam. It was test-flown and later smuggled back to Australia in pieces, contained in crates marked as "aircraft spares". This aircraft now resides in the Museum of Army Flying at the Army Aviation Center at Oakey, Queensland.


title: Cessna O-1 Bird Dog

text: As the USAF phased out the O-1 in favor of the O-2 and OV-10, many O-1s in the United States were sold as surplus. During the 1970s and 1980s, Ector Aircraft remanufactured many as the Ector Mountaineer with their original powerplants and as the Ector Super Mountaineer with the Lycoming O-540-A4B5.


title: Cessna O-1 Bird Dog

text: In the early 1970s, as the O-2 Skymaster and OV-10 Bronco replaced the O-1 in frontline USAF service, several former USAF O-1s were turned over to the USAF's civilian auxiliary, the Civil Air Patrol (CAP), for duties such as aerial search in support of domestic search and rescue (SAR) operations. However, since very few CAP pilots had prior training and experience as professional military aviators and/or significant experience with tailwheel aircraft, many CAP O-1 aircraft were damaged in ground loops and other takeoff, landing, or taxiing mishaps.


title: Cessna O-1 Bird Dog

text: To reduce both risk and repair costs, the USAF directed CAP that all O-1 aircraft in CAP service be eventually replaced for safety reasons by single-engine tricycle-gear civilian Cessnas common to general aviation, primarily Cessna 172 and Cessna 182 aircraft. The only O-1 remaining in the CAP inventory is a permanent static display aircraft on a pylon in front of CAP Headquarters at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama.


title: Cessna O-1 Bird Dog

text: Many former USAF and former CAP O-1 and L-19 aircraft were sold to private owners as recreational aircraft. In contrast, others went to museums where they are usually displayed in their military combat markings. Others found their way to glider clubs in the U.S. as a reliable and robust vehicle to tow gliders into the air. As with most aircraft used for glider towing, the aircraft has also been outfitted with mirrors mounted to the struts.


title: Cessna O-1 Bird Dog

text: In Canada, the Royal Canadian Air Cadets use former CAF L-19 aircraft equipped with a towing rig to tow their Schweizer 2-33A gliders for the Air Cadet gliding program. These particular L-19 variants are used in the Atlantic, Eastern, and Pacific regions. They have been modified for noise reduction using a smaller-diameter, four-blade Hoffman composite propeller in all regions except the Pacific Region and exhaust modification. The fuel delivery system has also been modified from the original design, placing the fuel selector valve closer to the pilot. The L-19/O-1 is a popular warbird with private pilots.


title: Cessna O-1 Bird Dog

text: In the U.S., the Franconia Soaring Association in Franconia, N.H., uses an O-1, tail number N4796G, to tow its gliders, including Schweizer SGS 1-26 gliders and Grob G103 Twin Astir and Pilatus B4-PC11 sailplanes, as of July 2012.


title: Cessna O-1 Bird Dog

text: As of June 2009, more than 330 were registered with the Federal Aviation Administration. Others are owned and operated outside the U.S. by individuals and flying organizations.


title: Cessna O-1 Bird Dog

text: American television personality and actor Ed McMahon was a Marine Corps aviator who piloted an O-1E during the Korean War, flying 85 combat missions and earning six Air Medals in 1953.


title: Cessna O-1 Bird Dog

text: Captain Sidney Harrison, U.S. Army, a decorated veteran of World War II and the Korean War, crashed his Cessna O-1 on a flight from Wichita, Kansas, to Buckley Air Force Base, Colorado, in 1952. The wreckage is still in the woods above Palmer Lake, Colorado, and can be reached by an hike.


title: Cessna O-1 Bird Dog

text: Captain Hilliard A. Wilbanks, USAF, posthumously received the Medal of Honor for sacrificing his life on February 24, 1967, while supporting an ARVN Ranger Battalion at Di Linh, near Da Lat, South Vietnam. After knowing their ambush had been compromised and fighter support would soon come, the Viet Cong charged into the Rangers. Trying to slow them down, Wilbanks shot the rest of his phosphorus rockets at the enemy. After he ran out of rockets, he strafed the enemy troops using his M16 rifle and fired from the side window of the plane. After the third pass, he was wounded and crashed. He died while being evacuated to a hospital using a helicopter.


title: Cessna O-1 Bird Dog

text: On 29 April 1975, the day before the fall of Saigon during the Vietnam War, Republic of Vietnam Air Force Major Buang-Ly loaded his wife and five children into a two-seat Cessna O-1 Bird Dog and took off from Con Son Island. After evading enemy ground fire, Major Buang-Ly headed out to sea and spotted the aircraft carrier . With only an hour of fuel remaining, he dropped a note asking that the deck be cleared so he could land.


title: Cessna O-1 Bird Dog

text: Knowing there was no room for this to happen, "Midway"'s commanding officer, Captain (later Rear Admiral) Lawrence Chambers, ordered US$10 million worth of South Vietnamese Bell UH-1 Iroquois ("Huey") helicopters to be pushed overboard into the South China Sea. The Bird Dog that Major Buang-Ly landed aboard "Midway" is now on display at the National Naval Aviation Museum at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida. A similar aircraft was restored in the markings of the aircraft flown by Major Buang-Ly for an exhibit at the USS "Midway" Museum in San Diego, California.


title: The Patriot (1998 film)

text: The Patriot is a 1998 American action thriller film directed by Dean Semler. Starring Steven Seagal, the film is loosely based on the novel "The Last Canadian" by William C. Heine. Seagal's first direct-to-video film, it features him as a local doctor and former immunologist who races against time to find a cure for an active viral outbreak, the origins of which trace back to a militia leader who injected himself with a deadly virus.


title: The Patriot (1998 film)

text: Near the town of Ennis, Montana, local doctor and former government research immunologist Wesley McClaren (Steven Seagal) who has an interest in herbal medicine and is also a weapons and self-defense expert, is called to a hospital when people start dying from an unknown but very deadly disease. He determines that the cause is a highly dangerous airborne virus and calls in a Biological Response team, who seal off the town while doctors start treating sufferers with a vaccine. Unfortunately for them, several have already died.


title: The Patriot (1998 film)

text: The source of the virus is traced to a local self-styled rebel militia leader, Floyd Chisholm (Gailard Sartain), who has given himself up after a long siege and has been arrested on weapons charges. In court, having ingested the virus himself (believing that he also possesses the vaccine) he spits at the judge, and starts the rapid spread of the disease.


title: The Patriot (1998 film)

text: Floyd's militia followers, who have been allowed to go free, attack the prison and rescue Floyd. They then proceed to invade and besiege the hospital, with much loss of life, and take medical personnel hostage including Wesley and his daughter Holly (Camilla Belle). But too late, they realize that the vaccine they were seeking at the hospital is the same as the one they possess which only delays the effect of the deadly virus.


title: The Patriot (1998 film)

text: Working at gunpoint, Wesley takes a sample of Holly's blood; it shows that Holly has been infected, but somehow her body is fighting it off. Wesley and Holly contrive to escape and travel to a farm where Holly's grandfather lives. Wesley takes a blood sample from his friend Dr. Ann White Cloud (Whitney Yellow Robe), and realizes that her body is also fighting off the infection.


title: The Patriot (1998 film)

text: Wesley and Ann gain access to a secret underground laboratory where Wesley used to work, where they hope to come up with a cure. Wesley finds out why Ann and Holly are not being affected by the virus: they have been drinking tea made with a specific wild herb that is known to Native American healers.


title: The Patriot (1998 film)

text: Back at the hospital, Wesley and Holly are captured by the militia, but he manages to kill Floyd and disable the other soldiers. As soon as the biological protection team learn of the cure, they go out and pick all the flowers they can find and drop them by helicopter over the town, telling the people to boil them and drink the liquid.


title: The Patriot (1998 film)

text: The film, directed by Academy Award winning cinematographer Dean Semler, was reportedly originally intended as a theatrical release worldwide, but it was ultimately released direct-to-video in America with select countries like Spain in 1998 seeing it as a theatrical release, the first Seagal film to skip most theaters. It was shot over eight weeks in Ennis and Virginia City, Montana, and for three days on the campus of Montana State University. Filming was briefly halted to remove snow from the ground during shooting in Virginia City, to maintain continuity.


title: The Patriot (1998 film)

text: The screenplay is credited to M. Sussman and John Kingswell (neither has any other film credit of any kind). Several writers, including David Ayer and Paul Mones were rumored to be working on the script prior to its release; Mones was ultimately credited as a producer. Though the movie is credited as an adaptation of William C. Heine's novel "The Last Canadian", it shares virtually no similarities with the novel except the idea of a deadly virus. No character names, events, or even locations appear in both the book and the film.


title: The Patriot (1998 film)

text: The film is Seagal's only effort to date in which he co-stars with his daughter, actress Ayako Fujitani, and is notable for an extremely low amount of action scenes compared to Seagal's other work.


title: The Patriot (1998 film)

text: David Nusair of Reel Film Reviews called it "dull" and criticized its lack of action (he claims, "Out of a 90 minute movie, there's maybe 10 minutes of actual Seagal hand-to-hand combat") and unwelcome political messages. "Seagalogy" author Vern argues that "in many ways "The Patriot" is an admirable effort," noting "The production values and acting are better than some of Seagal's subsequent movies," but going on to point out that due to its "ridiculously low action quotient it is a least-favorite of many Seagal fans." As of 2 October 2014, the film has a 22% "rotten" critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes (based on 9 reviews).


title: Lime mortar

text: Lime mortar or torching is composed of lime and an aggregate such as sand, mixed with water. The ancient Egyptians were the first to use lime mortars, which they used to plaster their temples. In addition, the Egyptians also incorporated various limes into their religious temples as well as their homes. Indian traditional structures built with lime mortar, which are more than 4,000 years old like Mohenjo-daro is still a heritage monument of Indus valley civilization in Pakistan. It is one of the oldest known types of mortar also used in ancient Rome and Greece, when it largely replaced the clay and gypsum mortars common to ancient Egyptian construction.


title: Lime mortar

text: With the introduction of Portland cement during the 19th century, the use of lime mortar in new constructions gradually declined. This was largely due to the ease of use of Portland cement, its quick setting, and high compressive strength. However, the soft and porous properties of lime mortar provide certain advantages when working with softer building materials such as natural stone and terracotta. For this reason, while Portland cement continues to be commonly used in new brick and concrete construction, in the repair and restoration of brick and stone-built structures originally built using lime mortar, the use of Portland cement is not recommended.


title: Lime mortar

text: Despite its enduring utility over many centuries, lime mortar's effectiveness as a building material has not been well understood; time-honoured practices were based on tradition, folklore and trade knowledge, vindicated by the vast number of old buildings that remain standing. Only during the last few decades has empirical testing provided a scientific understanding of its remarkable durability. Both professionals and do-it-yourself home owners can purchase lime putty mortar (and have their historical mortar matched for both color and content) by companies that specialize in historical preservation and sell pre-mixed mortar in small batches.


title: Lime mortar

text: "Lime" comes from Old English "lim" 'sticky substance, birdlime, mortar, cement, gluten', and is related to Latin "limus" 'slime, mud, mire', and "linere" 'to smear'. "Mortar" is a mixture with cement and comes from Old French "mortier" 'builder's mortar, plaster; bowl for mixing' in the late 13th century and Latin "mortarium" 'mortar'. Lime is a cement which is a binder or glue which holds things together but "cement" is usually reserved for Portland cement.


title: Lime mortar

text: Lime mortar today is primarily used in the conservation of buildings originally built using lime mortar, but may be used as an alternative to ordinary portland cement. It is made principally of lime (hydraulic, or non hydraulic), water and an aggregate such as sand. Portland cement has proven to be incompatible with lime mortar because it is harder, less flexible, and impermeable. These qualities lead to premature deterioration of soft, historic bricks so traditionally, low temperature fired, lime mortars are recommended for use with existing mortar of a similar type or reconstruction of buildings using historically correct methods. In the past, lime mortar tended to be mixed on site with whatever sand was locally available. Since the sand influences the colour of the lime mortar, colours of pointing mortar can vary dramatically from district to district.


title: Lime mortar

text: Hydraulic lime contains substances which set by hydration so it can set under water. Non-hydraulic lime sets by carbonation and so needs exposure to carbon dioxide in the air and cannot set under water or inside a thick wall. For natural hydraulic lime (NHL) mortars, the lime is obtained from limestone naturally containing a sufficient percentage of silica and/or alumina. Artificial hydraulic lime is produced by introducing specific types and quantities of additives to the source of lime during the burning process, or adding a pozzolan to non-hydraulic lime. Non-hydraulic lime is produced from a high purity source of calcium carbonate such as chalk, limestone or oyster shells.


title: Lime mortar

text: Non-hydraulic lime is produced by first heating sufficiently pure calcium carbonate to between 954° and 1066 °C, driving off carbon dioxide to produce quicklime (calcium oxide). This is done in a lime kiln. The quicklime is then "slaked": hydrated by being thoroughly mixed with enough water to form a slurry (lime putty), or with less water to produce dry powder. This hydrated lime (calcium hydroxide) naturally turns back into calcium carbonate by reacting with carbon dioxide in the air, the entire process being called the "lime cycle".


title: Lime mortar

text: The slaking process involved in creating a lime putty is an exothermic reaction which initially creates a liquid of a creamy consistency. This is then matured for 2 to 3 months—depending upon environmental conditions—to allow time for it to condense and mature into a lime putty.


title: Lime mortar

text: A matured lime putty is "thixotropic", meaning that when a lime putty is agitated it changes from a putty into a more liquid state. This aids its use for mortars as it makes a mortar easier to work with. If left to stand following agitation a lime putty will slowly revert from a thick liquid to a putty state.


title: Lime mortar

text: As well as calcium-based limestone, dolomitic limes can be produced which are based on calcium magnesium carbonate.


title: Lime mortar

text: A frequent source of confusion regarding lime mortar stems from the similarity of the terms hydraulic and hydrated.


title: Lime mortar

text: If the quicklime is slaked with an excess of water then putty or slurry is produced. If just the right quantity of water is used, the result is a dry material (any excess water escaping as steam during heating). This is ground to make hydrated lime powder.


title: Lime mortar

text: Hydrated, non-hydraulic lime powder can be mixed with water to form lime putty. Before use putty is usually left in the absence of carbon dioxide (usually under water) to mature. Putty can be matured for as little as 24 hours or for many years; an increased maturation time improves the quality of the putty. There is an argument that a lime putty which has been matured for an extended period (over 12 months) becomes so stiff that it is difficult to work.


title: Lime mortar

text: There is some dispute as to the comparative quality of putty formed from dry hydrated lime compared with that produced as putty at the time of slaking. It is generally agreed that the latter is preferable. A hydrated lime will produce a material which is not as "fatty”, being a common trade term for compounds have a smoother buttery texture when worked. Often, due to lengthy and poor storage, the resulting lime produced by hydrated lime will exhibit longer carbonatation periods as well as lower compressive strengths.


title: Lime mortar

text: Non-hydraulic lime takes longer to set and is weaker than hydraulic lime, and should not be allowed to freeze before it is well set. Although the setting process can be slow, the drying time of a lime mortar must be regulated at a slow rate to ensure a good final set. A rapidly dried lime mortar will result in a low-strength, poor-quality final mortar often displaying shrinkage cracks. In practice, lime mortars are often protected from direct sunlight and wind with damp hessian sheeting or sprayed with water to control the drying rates. But it also has the quality of autogeneous healing (self healing) where some free lime dissolves in water and is redeposited in any tiny cracks which form.


title: Lime mortar

text: In the tidewater region of Maryland and Virginia, oyster shells were used to produce quicklime during the colonial period. Similar to other materials used to produce lime, the oyster shells are burned. This can be done in a lime rick instead of a kiln. Burning shells in a rick is something that Colonial Williamsburg and the recreation of Ferry Farm have had to develop from conjecture and in-the-field learning. The rick that they constructed consists of logs set up in a circle that burn slowly, converting oysters that are contained in the wood pile to an ashy powder. An explanatory video of how the rick was built for the Ferry Farm can be found here. The burnt shell can then be slaked and turned into lime putty.


title: Lime mortar

text: Mortars using oyster shells can sometimes be identified by the presence of small bits of shell in the exposed mortar joint. In restoration masonry, the bits of shell are sometimes exaggerated to give the viewer the impression of authenticity. Unfortunately, these modern attempts often contain higher than necessary ratios of Portland cement. This can cause failures in the brick if the mortar joint is stronger than the brick elements.


title: Lime mortar

text: When a stronger lime mortar is required, such as for external or structural purposes, a pozzolan can be added, which improves its compressive strength and helps to protect it from weathering damage. Pozzolans include powdered brick, heat treated clay, silica fume, fly ash, and volcanic materials. The chemical set imparted ranges from very weak to almost as strong as Portland cement.


title: Lime mortar

text: This can also assist in creating more regulated setting times of the mortar as the pozzolan will create a hydraulic set, which can be of benefit in restoration projects when time scales and ultimately costs need to be monitored and maintained.


title: Lime mortar

text: Hydraulic lime can be considered, in terms both of properties and manufacture, as part-way between non-hydraulic lime and Portland cement. The limestone used contains sufficient quantities of clay and/or silica. The resultant product will contain dicalcium silicate but unlike Portland cement not tricalcium silicate.


title: Lime mortar

text: It is slaked enough to convert the calcium oxide to calcium hydroxide but not with sufficient water to react with the dicalcium silicate. It is this "dicalcium silicate" which in combination with water provides the setting properties of hydraulic lime.


title: Lime mortar

text: There are three strength grades for natural hydraulic lime, laid down in the European Norm EN459; NHL2, NHL3.5 and NHL5. The numbers stand for the minimum compressive strength at 28 days in newtons per square millimeter (N/mm). For example, the NHL 3.5 strength ranges from 3.5 N/mm (510 psi) to 10 N/mm (1,450 psi). These are similar to the old classification of feebly hydraulic, moderately hydraulic and eminently hydraulic, and although different, some people continue to refer to them interchangeably. The terminology for hydraulic lime mortars was improved by the skilled French civil engineer Louis Vicat in the 1830s from the older system of water limes and feebly, moderately and eminently. Vicat published his work following research of the use of lime mortars whilst building bridges and roads in his work. The French company Vicat still currently produce natural cements and lime mortars. Names of lime mortars were so varied and conflicting across the European continent that the reclassification has greatly improved the understanding and use of lime mortars.


title: Lime mortar

text: Traditional lime mortar is a combination of lime putty and aggregate (usually sand). A typical modern lime mortar mix would be 1 part lime putty to 3 parts washed, well graded, sharp sand. Other materials have been used as aggregate instead of sand. The theory is that the voids of empty space between the sand particles account for a 1/3 of the volume of the sand. The lime putty when mixed at a 1 to 3 ratio, fill these voids to create a compact mortar. Analysis of mortar samples from historic buildings typically indicates a higher ratio of around 1 part lime putty to 1.5 part aggregate/sand was commonly used. This equates to approximately 1 part dry quicklime to 3 parts sand. A traditional coarse plaster mix also had horse hair added for reinforcing and control of shrinkage, important when plastering to wooden laths and for base (or dubbing) coats onto uneven surfaces such as stone walls where the mortar is often applied in thicker coats to compensate for the irregular surface levels.


title: Lime mortar

text: Hair reinforcement is common in lime plaster and many types of hair and other organic fibres can be found in historic plasters. However, organic material in lime will degrade in damp environments particularly on damp external renders. This problem has given rise to the use of polypropylene fibres in new lime renders


title: Lime mortar

text: Usually any dampness in the wall will cause the lime mortar to change colour, indicating the presence of moisture. The effect will create an often mottled appearance of a limewashed wall. As the moisture levels within a wall alter, so will the shade of a limewash. The darker the shade of limewash, the more pronounced this effect will become.


title: Lime mortar

text: A load of mixed lime mortar may be allowed to sit as a lump for some time, without it drying out (it may get a thin crust). When ready to use, this lump may be remixed ('knocked up') again and then used. Traditionally on building sites, prior to the use of mechanical mixers, the lime putty (slaked on site in a pit) was mixed with sand by a labourer who would "beat and ram" the mix with a "larry" (a wide hoe with large holes). This was then covered with sand and allowed to sit for a while (from days to weeks) - a process known as 'banking'. This lump was then remixed and used as necessary. This process cannot be done with Portland cement.


title: Lime mortar

text: The combination of Portland cement and lime is used for stabilization and solidification of the ground through establishing of lime cement columns or stabilization of the entire upper mass volume. The method provides an increase in strength when it comes to vibrations, stability and settling. When building e.g. roads and railways, the method is more common and widespread (Queen Eufemias street in Central Oslo, E18 at Tønsberg etc.).


title: Lime mortar

text: For preservation purposes, Type N and Type O mortars are often used. A Type N mortar is 1 part Portland, 1 part Lime and 6 parts sand or other aggregate (1:1:6). A Type O mortar is 1 part Portland, 2 parts Lime and 9 parts sand or other aggregate (1:2:9). Straight lime mortar has no Portland, and 1 part Lime to 3 parts sand or other aggregate. The addition of cement or other pozzolan to decrease cure times is referred to as “gauging.” Other than Portland, ash and brick dust have been used to gauge mortars.


title: Lime mortar

text: For historic restoration purposes, and restoration work involving repointing or brick replacement, masons must discover the original brick and mortar and repair it with a similar material. The National Park Service provides guidance for proper masonry repointing through Preservation Brief 2. In general, Brief 2 suggests that repointing should be done with a similar or weaker mortar. Therefore, a straight lime mortar joint should be repointed in kind. Due to the popularity of Portland cement, this often is not the case. A wall system needs a balance between the mortar and brick that allows the mortar to be the weak part of the unit. When mortar is stronger than the brick, it prevents any natural movement in the wall and the faces of the brick will begin to deteriorate, a process known as spalling, the process by which the outer face of a brick degrades and can flake off or turn to powder. There is also a natural movement of water through a masonry wall. A strong Portland cement mix will prevent a free flow of water from a moist to dry area. This can cause rising damp to be trapped within the wall and create system failures. If moisture can not escape into the air, it will cause damage to a wall structure. Water freezing in the wall is another cause of spalling.


title: Lime mortar

text: In restoration work of pre-20th century structures, there should be a high ratio of lime and aggregate to Portland. This reduces the compressive strength of the mortar but allows the wall system to function better. The lime mortar acts as a wick that helps to pull water from the brick. This can help to prevent the older brick from spalling. Even when the brick is a modern, harder element, repointing with a higher ratio lime mortar may help to reduce rising damp.


title: Lime mortar

text: It may not be advisable for all consumers to use a straight lime mortar. With no Portland in the mix, there is less control over the setting of the mortar. In some cases, a freeze thaw cycle will be enough to create failure in the mortar joint. Straight lime mortar can also take a long time to fully cure and therefore work needs to be performed at a time of year where the weather conditions are conducive to the mortar setting properly. Those conditions are not only above freezing temperatures but also drier seasons. To protect the slow curing mortar from damp, a siloxane can be added to the surface. With historic structures, this may be a controversial strategy as it could have a detrimental effect to the historic fabric.


title: Lime mortar

text: The presence of Portland allows for a more stable mortar. The stability and predictability make the mixed mortar more user friendly, particularly in applications where entire wall sections are being laid. Contractors and designers may prefer mixes that contain Portland due to the increased compressive strength over a straight lime mortar. As many pre-Portland mix buildings are still standing and have original mortar, the arguments for greater compressive strength and ease of use may be more a result of current practice and a lack of understanding of older techniques.


title: Peekskill, New York

text: Peekskill is a city in northwestern Westchester County, New York, United States, from New York City. Established as a village in 1816, it was incorporated as a city in 1940. It lies on a bay along the east side of the Hudson River, across from Jones Point in Rockland County. The population was 25,431 at the 2020 US census, an increase over 23,583 during the 2010 census. It is the third largest municipality in northern Westchester County, after the towns of Cortlandt and Yorktown.


title: Peekskill, New York

text: The area was an early American industrial center, primarily for iron plow and stove products. The Binney & Smith Company, now named Crayola LLC and makers of Crayola products, is linked to the Peekskill Chemical Company founded by Joseph Binney at Annsville in 1864, and succeeded by a partnership by his son Edwin and nephew Harold Smith in 1885.


title: Peekskill, New York

text: The well-publicized Peekskill Riots of 1949 involved attacks and a lynching-in-effigy occasioned by Paul Robeson's benefit concerts for the Civil Rights Congress, although the main assault following the September concert properly took place in nearby Van Cortlandtville. Nevertheless, the city of Peekskill has since had multiple African American mayors since 1984.


title: Peekskill, New York

text: In September 1609, Dutch explorer Henry Hudson, captain of the "Half Moon", anchored along the reach of the Hudson River at Peekskill. His first mate noted in the ship's log that it was a "very pleasant place to build a town". After the establishment of the province of New Netherland, New Amsterdam resident Jan Peeck made the first recorded contact with the Lenape people of this area, then identified as "Sachoes". The date is not certain, (possibly early 1640s), but agreements and merchant transactions took place, formalized in the Ryck's Patent Deed of 1684. The name "Peekskill" derives from a combination of Mr. Peeck's surname and the Dutch word for stream, "kil" or "kill".


title: Peekskill, New York

text: Located on the north bank of the Annsville Creek as it empties into the Hudson, Fort Independence combined with Forts Montgomery and Clinton to defend the Hudson River Valley. Fort Independence was built in August 1776, while Forts Montgomery and Clinton were started in June. Fort Hill Park, the site of Camp Peekskill, contained five barracks and two redoubts.


title: Peekskill, New York

text: Settlement was slow in the early 18th century. By the time of the American Revolution, the tiny community was an important manufacturing center, which made it attractive to the Continental Army, which established an outpost here in 1776. Several creeks and streams powered mills which provided gunpowder, leather, planks, and flour. Slaughterhouses provided fresh meat, easily shipped from docks along the river. Much was needed to support several other forts and garrisons located to support the Hudson River Chains placed between Bear Mountain Bridge and Anthony's Nose during the Revolution to prevent British naval passage upriver.


title: Peekskill, New York

text: Though Peekskill's terrain and mills were beneficial to the Patriot cause, they also made tempting targets for British raids. The most damaging attack took place in early spring of 1777, when an invasion force of a dozen vessels led by a warship and supported by infantry overwhelmed the American defenders. On leaving New Windsor in June, 1781, Washington established his quarters, for a short time, at Peekskill.


title: Peekskill, New York

text: Peekskill's first legal incorporation of 1816 was reactivated in 1826 when Village elections took place. The Village was further incorporated within the Town of Cortlandt in 1849 and remained so until separating as a city in 1940.


title: Peekskill, New York

text: In 1859 Rev. Henry Ward Beecher bought a thirty-six acre farm at Peekskill. Beecher made many improvements and established a summer home for his family. In 1902 the locally prominent McFadden family bought the property. In 1987 the Beecher-McFadden Estate was added to the National Register of Historic Places.


title: Peekskill, New York

text: In August 1949, following reports misquoting Paul Robeson's speech to the World Peace Conference in Paris as stating that African Americans would not fight for the United States in any prospective war against the Soviet Union, a planned benefit concert for the Civil Rights Congress in Peekskill had to be cancelled amid White Nationalist and anti-communist violence. An effigy of Robeson was lynched in the town. The artists were able to plan a second concert in nearby Van Cortlandtville on a farm owned by a Holocaust survivor. (His house was subsequently shot into and brickbats thrown through his windows.) The publicity drew a crowd of around 20,000, and two men with rifles were discovered and removed prior to any violence during the concert itself. It was one of the earliest performances of Pete Seeger's "If I Had a Hammer"; Robeson sang surrounded by union guards and volunteers from the audience as protection against other snipers. Following the event, area police and state troopers directed exiting traffic down a single road into an ambush where rocks were thrown through car windows (even at cars with small children). Some were overturned and their occupants beaten without police intervention. These Peekskill Riots were subsequently well-publicized in news report and folk songs and formed a major event in E.L. Doctorow's historical fiction novel "The Book of Daniel".


title: Peekskill, New York

text: Peekskill was the landing point of a fragment of the Peekskill Meteorite, just before midnight on October 9, 1992. The meteoric trail was recorded on film by at least sixteen individuals. This was only the fourth meteorite in history for which an exact orbit is known. The rock had a mass of and punched through the trunk of Peekskill resident's automobile upon impact.


title: Peekskill, New York

text: The "Peekskill Evening Star" and the "Peekskill Highland Democrat" were two of the city's daily newspapers through much of the city's history. The "Evening Star" published under various mastheads from the 19th century on, and as the "Evening Star" from 1939 until 1985 when the paper folded into what would become the nexus of the "Journal News", a conglomeration of local papers from throughout Westchester County. The "Journal News" focused more on statewide and New York City issues, however, which led to the founding of the "Peekskill Herald" in 1986. Although numerous prominent citizens came together to try to keep the paper afloat after a series of New York Times articles about the paper's foundering fiscal situation, it folded in 2005, being replaced by the "Peekskill Daily" in 2009.


title: Peekskill, New York

text: The Centennial Firehouse, built in 1890, was located under a U.S. Route 9 bridge. During the original construction of the bridge in 1932 part of the roof of the firehouse was removed. As part of a 2008 highway reconstruction project it was to be relocated to a new historic district. The city spent $150,000 in grant money in preparing the building. Unfortunately a mechanical failure during a turn caused the building to collapse.


title: Peekskill, New York

text: According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and (20.99%) is water. The city's eastern border is the Town of Cortlandt and its western border is the Hudson River.


title: Peekskill, New York

text: As of the 2010 United States Census, there were 23,583 people living in the city. The racial makeup of the city was 35.8% White, 21.4% Black, 0.2% Native American, 2.9% Asian, <0.1% Pacific Islander, 0.3% from some other race and 2.5% from two or more races. 36.9% were Hispanic or Latino of any race. The American Community Survey in 2020, the city was 13.8% Ecuadorian, 10.4% was Puerto Rican, 4.9% Guatemalan.


title: Peekskill, New York

text: As of the census of 2000, there were 22,441 people, 8,696 households, and 5,348 families living in the city. The population density was 5,189.7 people per square mile (2,005.7/km). There were 9,053 housing units at an average density of 2,093.6 per square mile (809.1/km). The racial makeup of the city was 57.12% White, 25.54% African American, 0.42% Native American, 2.38% Asian, 0.06% Pacific Islander, 9.83% from other races, and 4.64% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 21.92% of the population.


title: Peekskill, New York

text: There were 8,696 households, out of which 30.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 39.7% were married couples living together, 16.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 38.5% were non-families. 31.3% of all households were made up of individuals, and 10.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.55 and the average family size was 3.18.


title: Peekskill, New York

text: In the city, the population was spread out, with 24.4% under the age of 18, 8.3% from 18 to 24, 34.9% from 25 to 44, 20.9% from 45 to 64, and 11.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35 years. For every 100 females, there were 94.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.0 males.


title: Peekskill, New York

text: The median income for a household in the city was $47,177, and the median income for a family was $52,645. Males had a median income of $38,091 versus $34,757 for females. The per capita income for the city was $22,595. About 10.3% of families and 13.7% of the population were below the poverty line.


title: Peekskill, New York

text: Beginning in the early 1990s, Peekskill made sustained efforts to attract artists, particularly from high-rent areas in New York City. These included economic development incentives to landlords such as tax incentives, grants, facade improvements, and loans to renovate buildings that could be used as live-work spaces by artists. In 2002 the city of Peekskill and the County of Westchester joined with a private real estate company to develop The Peekskill Art Lofts, a 28 unit limited equity income co-op offering artists an opportunity for affordable home ownership. By one account, upwards of 50 artists in all relocated to the community.


title: Peekskill, New York

text: Some local art-related highlights included Paramount Center for the Arts, a restored 1930 movie palace which served as the area's cultural hub, offering music, comedy, drama and independent films before suspending operations in 2012; the Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art;STUDIO No.9 Gallery and Workshops; and the Peekskill Coffee House, which showcases local acts. The Bean Runner Cafe, on South Division Street, and 12 Grapes, on North Division Street, also showcase local artists and musicians.


title: Peekskill, New York

text: The town contains several parks and recreation areas, including Charles Point, with bay and river views; Depew Park, which has pools and a pond in addition to ballfields and trails and is the home of the Recreation Department headquarters; Franklin Park; Lepore Park; Fort Hill Park; Peekskill Dog Park; Peekskill Stadium; Riverfront Green Park; and Tompkins Park (home of Little League).


title: Peekskill, New York

text: The Peekskill City School District is the local school district, with Peekskill High School being the main high school.


title: Peekskill, New York

text: The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York operates Catholic schools in Westchester County. Our Lady of the Assumption School in Peekskill closed in 2013. The closest Catholic school to Peekskill is St. Columbanus School, which is located in Cortlandt Manor.


title: Peekskill, New York

text: Peekskill is served by the Hudson Valley Hospital Center (HVHC), founded in 1889 as Peekskill Hospital on lower South Street. In 2014, the hospital began an affiliation with New York-Presbyterian Hospital and is now referred to as New York Presbyterian – Hudson Valley Hospital.


title: Peekskill, New York

text: The hospital has 128 inpatient beds and includes a comprehensive cancer center, maternity center, neonatal intensive care unit and surgery center among several other patient care services.


title: Peekskill, New York

text: The city also has an emergency medical service staffed by EMTs and paramedics from the city's fire department and volunteer ambulance corps. The fire department staffs seven EMTs and eight paramedics whereas the volunteer corps has 60 active riding members. Most patients are transported to NYP-Hudson Valley Hospital.


title: Peekskill, New York

text: Peekskill train station provides commuter service to New York City, away via Metro-North Railroad. The Bee-Line Bus System provides bus service to Peekskill on routes 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, and 31. The Bear Mountain Bridge, five miles (8 km) to the northwest, gives road access to Bear Mountain State Park across the Hudson River, Palisades Interstate Parkway and to the United States Military Academy at West Point via US 6 and US 202. The Croton Expressway portion of US 9 ends here. NY 9A and NY 35 also run through the city.


title: Peekskill, New York

text: The 1980s American sitcom "The Facts of Life" was about teenagers and young women who attend a fictional all-girls' boarding school in Peekskill, named Eastland School for Girls (inspired by a now-defunct all-girls school that still overlooks the city) and similarly fictional Langley College.


title: Cram school

text: A cram school, informally called crammer and colloquially also referred to as test-prep or exam factory, is a specialized school that trains its students to achieve particular goals, most commonly to pass the entrance examinations of high schools, or universities. The English name is derived from the slang term "cramming", meaning to study hard or to study a large amount of material in a short period of time.


title: Cram school

text: Cram schools may specialize in a particular subject or subjects, or may be aligned with particular schools. Special cram schools that prepare students to re-take failed entrance examinations are also common. As the name suggests, the aim of a cram school is generally to impart as much information to its students as possible in the shortest period of time. The goal is to enable the students to obtain a required grade in particular examinations, or to satisfy other entrance requirements such as language skill (e.g.: IELTS). Cram schools are sometimes criticised, along with the countries in which they are prevalent, for a focus on rote learning and a lack of training in critical thinking and analysis.


title: Cram school

text: Cram schools are referred to largely as "coaching colleges", they are used primarily to achieve the necessary results for the entrance exam for selective schools in New South Wales. They are also used extensively in English, mathematics and science courses for the Higher School Certificate, Victorian Certificate of Education, and other high school leavers exams.


title: Cram school

text: In Bangladesh, cram schools are known as "coaching centers" and in some cases, "tutorials". Most cram schools provide help for admission tests of public universities and medical colleges, and public examinations like PSC, JSC, SSC, and HSC. There are also some variants which have entered the market of ever-increasing help seekers. For example, cram schools now also prepare students for language tests like IELTS and TOEFL, aptitude tests like GRE, GMAT, SAT, and so on. In recent years, cram schools have also been extended to the tests for government civil services like BCS Examination.


title: Cram school

text: Cram schools are called "Cursinhos" (lit. "Little Courses") in Brazil and are attended by students who will be taking a vestibular exam to be admitted into a university.


title: Cram school

text: Cram schools are called "Preuniversitarios" in Chile and are attended by students to revise before taking PTU (University Transition Test) in order to get onto undergraduate studies.


title: Cram school

text: Buxiban (补习班) are cram schools located in China. They are related to the phenomenon of buke, which is extra study for the improvement of students’ academic performance in National Higher Education Entrance Examination (commonly known as "Gaokao"). They exist due to the importance of standardized exams, such as:


title: Cram school

text: China has a test-driven system. Education departments give entrance examinations to sort students into schools of different levels. Examinations like the National Higher Education Entrance Examination ("Gaokao") are vital, deciding the academic future of the participants. This education system cultivated the cramming style of teaching. Schools and teachers usually regard grades to be the primary goal. This sometimes leads to teachers imparting exam skills instead of knowledge and inspiration. But as the population of students decreases each year and admission to domestic universities expands, the pressure of the Entrance Exam has been reducing.


title: Cram school

text: The national exam (baccalauréat) ending high-school is easy to obtain (the success rate is about 90%), and the marks obtained matter relatively little (most higher education school choose their students before the baccalauréat results, based on marks during high-school). Thus, baccalauréat cram schools are rare. Individual tutoring is more common.


title: Cram school

text: After the baccalauréat, about 5% of the French students attend the "Classes Préparatoires aux Grandes Écoles" (prep school) or CPGE. These two-year programs are meant to prepare undergrad students to the entrance exams of high-profile graduate schools (Grandes écoles) in research, engineering and business — including École Normale Supérieure, HEC Paris, EDHEC, ESCP, EM Lyon, ESSEC, École polytechnique, Arts et Métiers ParisTech, Télécom Paris, École des Ponts, CentraleSupélec, École des Mines, and ISAE-SUPAERO. A large proportion of CPGE are public schools, with very small tuition fees. There are about 400 CPGE schools for 869 classes, including about 58 private schools. They have produced most of France's scientists, intellectuals, and executives during the last two centuries.


title: Cram school

text: French prep schools are characterized by heavy workload and high demands, varying however between schools. Programs are, however, similar to the first two years in public universities. Students in CPGE have between 36 and 40 hours of class a week, as well as a weekly 2-to-4 hours written test (often on Saturday). Students are expected to work on their own at least 2 hours a day, while the most ambitious students can work more than 5 hours every evening after school, as well as during the weekend. Moreover, students take what is called "colles" (or "khôlles") mainly 2 times a week, which are oral interrogations. For science topics, it consists of an hour-long session where a group of typically 3 students, each on a board, and dealing with a question related to a specific lesson (e.g. a demonstration of a theorem) and/or exercises. The teacher listens to, assists and corrects the students. Khôlles on languages (e.g. English) consists in a 30 minutes test: first listening to an audio or studying a newspaper article and summarizing it, and then writing a short essay on the theme. Everything is then presented orally to the teacher. Literacy khôlles often consist in preparing and presenting an essay.


title: Cram school

text: Entrance exams consist in written and oral exams. For scientific branches, a project involving research-oriented works has to be prepared. Written exams are typically 4h-long sets of exercises and problems built around a specific topic (which often can't be fully treated in the given amount of time), and require more reasoning than raw knowledge. Oral exams are often similar to khôlles.


title: Cram school

text: This is a two-year track. In most schools, only the second year is explicitly focused on entrance exams preparation. If a student could not obtain the school(s) they wanted, they can repeat the second year.


title: Cram school

text: The various tracks and schools are known for their folklore (slang terms, songs and hymns, anecdotes), and often inherited from early 19th-century generations of students.


title: Cram school

text: Φροντιστήρια (from φροντίζω, to take care of) have been a permanent fixture of the Greek educational system for several decades. They are considered the norm for learning foreign languages (English language learning usually starts during the elementary school years) and for having a chance to pass the university entrance examinations. The preparation for the country-wide university entrance examinations practically takes up the two last years of upper high school, and the general view is that the amount of relevant school hours is insufficient for the hard competition, regardless of the teachers' abilities. This leads to students taking state school lessons from 08.15 to 14.00 at school, going home for lunch, continue for two or three hours in the cramming school and returning to prepare the homework both for state school and "frontistirio". In the weekend, the students usually have lessons in the cramming school on Saturday morning and on Sunday morning revision tests. Unhired teachers by the state find a way to employment through these private businesses.


title: Cram school

text: These two popular views pave the ground for the abundant number of cram schools, also attended by numerous high school students for general support of their performance.


title: Cram school

text: Cram schools in Hong Kong are called tutorial schools. These cram schools put focus on the major public examinations in Hong Kong, namely HKDSE, and teach students on techniques on answering questions in the examinations. They also provide students tips on which topics may appear on the coming examination (called "question tipping"), and provide students some sample questions that are similar to those that appear in the examinations. Some cram school teachers in Hong Kong have become idolised and attract many students to take their lessons. These teachers are called "King of tutors (補習天王)". English and math are the most common subjects taught in Hong Kong cram schools.


title: Cram school

text: Cram schools in Hong Kong are famous because of the stresses from Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (HKDSE). These cram school teaching includes practicing exam questions and grammar drills. Moreover, they provide model essays for English language exam. However, some schools are not licensed, and few educators have teaching qualifications. Their education is fun and appealing to the students but may be of little use in actually passing exams.


title: Cram school

text: Numerous cram schools—referred to as coaching centers/institutes, tutorials/tuitions or classes in India—have sprung up all over the nation. These tutorials have become a parallel education system and it is very common and almost mandatory for the students to go to cram schools. They aim to tutor students to pass schools and college exams and getting their clients through various competitive exams to enter prestigious institutions such as the Indian Institutes of Technology for engineering courses the All India Institutes of Medical Sciences for medical courses at the undergraduate & postgraduate levels and the National Law Universities for legal and judicial courses.


title: Cram school

text: Many such schools prepare students to crack prestigious national entrance/scholarship exams at the high school level such as JEE (Joint Entrance Examination) Main & Advanced to enter prestigious engineering colleges like the IITs, NEET-UG (National Eligibility cum Entrance Test – Undergraduate level) for entrance into major medical science undergraduate programs and Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) for entering into premier law schools of the country.


title: Cram school

text: Various such exams are held for entering fields such as scientific research, engineering, medicine, management, accountancy, law and also into India's premier central and state government services organised by UPSC, SSC etc.


title: Cram school

text: Cram schools in Indonesia are called bimbingan belajar (learning assistance), often shortened into bimbel, and accepts students preparing for National Examinations before passing elementary school, junior high school, high school and college entrance exams. These cram schools teach students with exam simulations and problem-solving tutorials. Usually, these cram schools teach students by past exam questions. Bimbels in Indonesia offer lessons after school hours, weekends or public holidays.


title: Cram school

text: "Grind schools", as they are known in the Republic of Ireland, prepare students for the Leaving Certificate examination. Competition for university places (the "points race") has intensified with recent years: students wishing to study medicine, law or veterinary science in particular aim to achieve high points (up to 625) to be accepted. Some grind schools, such as The Institute of Education, Ashfield College, Leinster Senior College, The Dublin Academy of Education and Bruce College, teach full-time. Many others offer weekend or evening classes for students in subjects in which they struggle.


title: Cram school

text: Cram schools, called juku, are special private schools common in Japan that offer lessons conducted after regular school hours, on weekends, and during school vacations.