title: Military science

text: Until this time, and even after the Franco-Prussian War, military science continued to be divided between the formal thinking of officers brought up in the "shadow" of Napoleonic Wars and younger officers like Ardant du Picq who tended to view fighting performance as rooted in the individual's and group psychology and suggested detailed analysis of this. This set in motion the eventual fascination of the military organisations with application of quantitative and qualitative research to their theories of combat; the attempt to translate military thinking as philosophic concepts into concrete methods of combat.


title: Military science

text: Military implements, the supply of an army, its organization, tactics, and discipline, have constituted the elements of military science in all ages; but improvement in weapons and accoutrements appears to lead and control all the rest.


title: Military science

text: The breakthrough of sorts made by Clausewitz in suggesting eight principles on which such methods can be based, in Europe, for the first time presented an opportunity to largely remove the element of chance and error from command decision making process. At this time emphasis was made on the Topography (including Trigonometry), Military art (Military science), Military history, Organisation of the Army in the field, Artillery and Science of Projectiles, Field fortifications and Permanent fortifications, Military legislation, Military administration and Manoeuvres.


title: Military science

text: The military science on which the model of German combat operations was built for the First World War remained largely unaltered from the Napoleonic model, but took into the consideration the vast improvements in the firepower and the ability to conduct "great battles of annihilation" through rapid concentration of force, strategic mobility, and the maintenance of the strategic offensive better known as the Cult of the offensive. The key to this, and other modes of thinking about war remained analysis of military history and attempts to derive tangible lessons that could be replicated again with equal success on another battlefield as a sort of bloody laboratory of military science. Few were bloodier than the fields of the Western Front between 1914 and 1918. Fascinatingly the man who probably understood Clausewitz better than most, Marshal Foch would initially participate in events that nearly destroyed the French Army.


title: Military science

text: It is not however true to say that military theorists and commanders were suffering from some collective case of stupidity; quite the opposite is true. Their analysis of military history convinced them that decisive and aggressive strategic offensive was the only doctrine of victory, and feared that overemphasis of firepower, and the resultant dependence on entrenchment would make this all but impossible, and leading to the battlefield stagnant in advantages of the defensive position, destroying troop morale and willingness to fight. Because only the offensive could bring victory, lack of it, and not the firepower, was blamed for the defeat of the Imperial Russian Army in the Russo-Japanese War. Foch thought that "In strategy as well as in tactics one attacks".


title: Military science

text: In many ways military science was born as a result of the experiences of the Great War. "Military implements" had changed armies beyond recognition with cavalry to virtually disappear in the next 20 years. The "supply of an army" would become a science of logistics in the wake of massive armies, operations and troops that could fire ammunition faster than it could be produced, for the first time using vehicles that used the combustion engine, a watershed of change. Military "organisation" would no longer be that of the linear warfare, but assault teams, and battalions that were becoming multi-skilled with introduction of machine gun and mortar, and for the first time forcing military commanders to think not only in terms of rank and file, but force structure.


title: Military science

text: Tactics changed too, with infantry for the first time segregated from the horse-mounted troops, and required to cooperate with tanks, aircraft and new artillery tactics. Perception of military discipline too had changed. Morale, despite strict disciplinarian attitudes, had cracked in all armies during the war, but best performing troops were found to be those where emphasis on discipline had been replaced with display of personal initiative and group cohesiveness such as that found in the Australian Corps during the Hundred Days Offensive. The military sciences' analysis of military history that had failed European commanders was about to give way to a new military science, less conspicuous in appearance, but more aligned to the processes of science of testing and experimentation, the scientific method, and forever "wed" to the idea of the superiority of technology on the battlefield.


title: Military science

text: Currently military science still means many things to different organisations. In the United Kingdom and much of the European Union the approach is to relate it closely to the civilian application and understanding., for example Belgium's Royal Military Academy, military science remains an academic discipline, and is studied alongside Social Sciences, including such subjects as Humanitarian law. The United States Department of Defense defines military science in terms of specific systems and operational requirements, and include among other areas civil defense and force structure.


title: Military science

text: In the first instance military science is concerned with who will participate in military operations, and what sets of skills and knowledge they will require to do so effectively and somewhat ingeniously.


title: Military science

text: Develops optimal methods for the administration and organization of military units, as well as the military as a whole. In addition, this area studies other associated aspects as mobilization/demobilization, and military government for areas recently conquered (or liberated) from enemy control.


title: Military science

text: Force structuring is the method by which personnel and the weapons and equipment they use are organized and trained for military operations, including combat. Development of force structure in any country is based on strategic, operational, and tactical needs of the national defense policy, the identified threats to the country, and the technological capabilities of the threats and the armed forces.


title: Military science

text: Force structure development is guided by doctrinal considerations of strategic, operational and tactical deployment and employment of formations and units to territories, areas and zones where they are expected to perform their missions and tasks. Force structuring applies to all Armed Services, but not to their supporting organisations such as those used for defense science research activities.


title: Military science

text: In the United States force structure is guided by the table of organization and equipment (TOE or TO&E). The TOE is a document published by the U.S. Department of Defense which prescribes the organization, manning, and equipage of units from divisional size and down, but also including the headquarters of Corps and Armies.


title: Military science

text: Force structuring also provides information on the mission and capabilities of specific units, as well as the unit's current status in terms of posture and readiness. A general TOE is applicable to a type of unit (for instance, infantry) rather than a specific unit (the 3rd Infantry Division). In this way, all units of the same branch (such as Infantry) follow the same structural guidelines which allows for more efficient financing, training, and employment of like units operationally.


title: Military science

text: Studies the methodology and practices involved in training soldiers, NCOs (non-commissioned officers, i.e. sergeants and corporals), and officers. It also extends this to training small and large units, both individually and in concert with one another for both the regular and reserve organizations. Military training, especially for officers, also concerns itself with general education and political indoctrination of the armed forces.


title: Military science

text: Much of capability development depends on the concepts which guide use of the armed forces and their weapons and equipment, and the methods employed in any given theatre of war or combat environment.


title: Military science

text: Military activity has been a constant process over thousands of years, and the essential tactics, strategy, and goals of military operations have been unchanging throughout history. As an example, one notable maneuver is the double envelopment, considered to be the consummate military maneuver, notably executed by Hannibal at the Battle of Cannae in 216 BCE, and later by Khalid ibn al-Walid at the Battle of Walaja in 633 CE.


title: Military science

text: Via the study of history, the military seeks to avoid past mistakes, and improve upon its current performance by instilling an ability in commanders to perceive historical parallels during battle, so as to capitalize on the lessons learned. The main areas military history includes are the history of wars, battles, and combats, history of the military art, and history of each specific military service.


title: Military science

text: Military strategy is in many ways the centerpiece of military science. It studies the specifics of planning for, and engaging in combat, and attempts to reduce the many factors to a set of principles that govern all interactions of the field of battle. In Europe these principles were first defined by Clausewitz in his Principles of War. As such, it directs the planning and execution of battles, operations, and wars as a whole. Two major systems prevail on the planet today. Broadly speaking, these may be described as the "Western" system, and the "Russian" system. Each system reflects and supports strengths and weakness in the underlying society.


title: Military science

text: Modern Western military art is composed primarily of an amalgam of French, German, British, and American systems. The Russian system borrows from these systems as well, either through study, or personal observation in the form of invasion (Napoleon's War of 1812, and The Great Patriotic War), and form a unique product suited for the conditions practitioners of this system will encounter. The system that is produced by the analysis provided by Military Art is known as doctrine.


title: Military science

text: Western military doctrine relies heavily on technology, the use of a well-trained and empowered NCO cadre, and superior information processing and dissemination to provide a level of battlefield awareness that opponents cannot match. Its advantages are extreme flexibility, extreme lethality, and a focus on removing an opponent's C3I (command, communications, control, and intelligence) to paralyze and incapacitate rather than destroying their combat power directly (hopefully saving lives in the process). Its drawbacks are high expense, a reliance on difficult-to-replace personnel, an enormous logistic train, and a difficulty in operating without high technology assets if depleted or destroyed.


title: Military science

text: Soviet military doctrine (and its descendants, in CIS countries) relies heavily on masses of machinery and troops, a highly educated (albeit very small) officer corps, and pre-planned missions. Its advantages are that it does not require well educated troops, does not require a large logistic train, is under tight central control, and does not rely on a sophisticated C3I system after the initiation of a course of action. Its disadvantages are inflexibility, a reliance on the shock effect of mass (with a resulting high cost in lives and material), and overall inability to exploit unexpected success or respond to unexpected loss.


title: Military science

text: Chinese military doctrine is currently in a state of flux as the People's Liberation Army is evaluating military trends of relevance to China. Chinese military doctrine is influenced by a number of sources including an indigenous classical military tradition characterized by strategists such as Sun Tzu, Western and Soviet influences, as well as indigenous modern strategists such as Mao Zedong. One distinctive characteristic of Chinese military science is that it places emphasis on the relationship between the military and society as well as viewing military force as merely one part of an overarching grand strategy.


title: Military science

text: Each system trains its officer corps in its philosophy regarding military art. The differences in content and emphasis are illustrative. The United States Army principles of war are defined in the U.S. Army Field Manual FM 100–5. The Canadian Forces principles of war/military science are defined by Land Forces Doctrine and Training System (LFDTS) to focus on "principles of command", "principles of war", "operational art and campaign planning", and "scientific principles".


title: Military science

text: Russian Federation armed forces derive their principles of war predominantly from those developed during the existence of the Soviet Union. These, although based significantly on the Second World War experience in conventional war fighting, have been substantially modified since the introduction of the nuclear arms into strategic considerations. The Soviet–Afghan War and the First and Second Chechen Wars further modified the principles that Soviet theorists had divided into the operational art and tactics. The very scientific approach to military science thinking in the Soviet union had been perceived as overly rigid at the tactical level, and had affected the training in the Russian Federation's much reduced forces to instil greater professionalism and initiative in the forces.


title: Military science

text: The military principles of war of the People's Liberation Army were loosely based on those of the Soviet Union until the 1980s when a significant shift begun to be seen in a more regionally-aware, and geographically-specific strategic, operational and tactical thinking in all services. The PLA is currently influenced by three doctrinal schools which both conflict and complement each other: the People's war, the Regional war, and the Revolution in military affairs that led to substantial increase in the defense spending and rate of technological modernisation of the forces.


title: Military science

text: The differences in the specifics of Military art notwithstanding, Military science strives to provide an integrated picture of the chaos of battle, and illuminate basic insights that apply to all combatants, not just those who agree with your formulation of the principles.


title: Military science

text: Military geography encompasses much more than simple protestations to take the high ground. Military geography studies the obvious, the geography of theatres of war, but also the additional characteristics of politics, economics, and other natural features of locations of likely conflict (the political "landscape", for example). As an example, the Soviet–Afghan War was predicated on the ability of the Soviet Union to not only successfully invade Afghanistan, but also to militarily and politically flank the Islamic Republic of Iran simultaneously.


title: Military science

text: How effectively and efficiently militaries accomplish their operations, missions and tasks is closely related not only to the methods they use, but the equipment and weapons they use.


title: Military science

text: Military intelligence supports the combat commanders' decision making process by providing intelligence analysis of available data from a wide range of sources. To provide that informed analysis the commanders information requirements are identified and input to a process of gathering, analysis, protection, and dissemination of information about the operational environment, hostile, friendly and neutral forces and the civilian population in an area of combat operations, and broader area of interest. Intelligence activities are conducted at all levels from tactical to strategic, in peacetime, the period of transition to war, and during the war.


title: Military science

text: Most militaries maintain a military intelligence capability to provide analytical and information collection personnel in both specialist units and from other arms and services. Personnel selected for intelligence duties, whether specialist intelligence officers and enlisted soldiers or non-specialist assigned to intelligence may be selected for their analytical abilities and intelligence before receiving formal training.


title: Military science

text: Military intelligence serves to identify the threat, and provide information on understanding best methods and weapons to use in deterring or defeating it.


title: Military science

text: The art and science of planning and carrying out the movement and maintenance of military forces. In its most comprehensive sense, it is those aspects or military operations that deal with the design, development, acquisition, storage, distribution, maintenance, evacuation, and disposition of material; the movement, evacuation, and hospitalization of personnel; the acquisition or construction, maintenance, operation, and disposition of facilities; and the acquisition or furnishing of services.


title: Military science

text: Military technology is not just the study of various technologies and applicable physical sciences used to increase military power. It may also extend to the study of production methods of military equipment, and ways to improve performance and reduce material and/or technological requirements for its production. An example is the effort expended by Nazi Germany to produce artificial rubbers and fuels to reduce or eliminate their dependence on imported POL (petroleum, oil, and lubricants) and rubber supplies.


title: Military science

text: Military technology is unique only in its application, not in its use of basic scientific and technological achievements. Because of the uniqueness of use, military technological studies strive to incorporate evolutionary, as well as the rare revolutionary technologies, into their proper place of military application.


title: Military science

text: This speciality examines the ways that military and society interact and shape each other. The dynamic intersection where military and society meet is influenced by trends in society and the security environment. This field of study can be linked to works by Clausewitz ("War is the continuation of politics by other means") and Sun Tzu ("If not in the interest of the state, do not act" ). The contemporary multi and interdisciplinary field traces its origin to World War II and works by sociologists and political scientists. This field of study includes "all aspects of relations between armed forces, as a political, social and economic institution, and the society, state or political ethnic movement of which they are a part". Topics often included within the purview of military and society include: veterans, women in the military, military families, enlistment and retention, reserve forces, military and religion, military privatization, Civil-military relations, civil-military cooperation, military and popular culture, military and the media, military and disaster assistance, military and the environment and the blurring of military and police functions.


title: Military science

text: In an all volunteer military, the armed forces relies on market forces and careful recruiting to fill its ranks. It is thus, very important to understand factors that motivate enlistment and reenlistment. Service members must have the mental and physical ability to meet the challenges of military service and adapt to the military's values and culture. Studies show that enlistment motivation generally incorporates both self-interest (pay) and non-market values like adventure, patriotism, and comradeship.


title: Military science

text: The study veterans or members of the military who leave and return to the society is one of the most important subfields of the military and society field of study. Veterans and their issues represent a microcosm of the field. Military recruits represent inputs that flow from the community into the armed forces, veterans are outputs that leave the military and reenter society changed by their time as soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen. Both society and veteran face multiple layers of adaptation and adjustment upon their reentry.


title: Military science

text: The definition of veteran is surprisingly fluid across countries. In the US veteran’s status is established after a service member has completed a minimum period of service. Australia requires deployment to a combat zone. In the UK "Everyone who has performed military service for at least one day and drawn a day’s pay is termed a veteran." The study of veterans focuses much attention on their, sometimes, uneasy transition back to civilian society. "Veterans must navigate a complex cultural transition when moving between environments," and they can expect positive and negative transition outcomes. Finding a good job and reestablishing a fulfilling family life is high on their resettlement agenda.


title: Military science

text: Military life is often violent and dangerous. The trauma of combat often results in post-traumatic stress disorder as well as painful physical health challenges which often lead to homelessness, suicide, substance, and excessive alcohol use, and family dysfunction. Society recognizes its responsibilities to veterans by offering programs and policies designed to redress these problems. Veterans also exert an influence on society often through the political process. For example, how do veterans vote and establish party affiliation? During the 2004 presidential election veterans were basically bipartisan. Veterans who fought in Croatia’s war of independence voted for the nationalist parties in greater numbers.


title: Military science

text: Reserve forces are service members who serve the armed forces on a part-time basis. These men and women constitute a "reserve" force that countries rely on for their defense, disaster support, and some day-to-day operations etc. In the United States an active reservist spends a weekend a month and two weeks a year in training. The size of a county’s reserve force often depends on the type of recruitment method. Nations with a volunteer force tend to have a lower reserve percentage.


title: Military science

text: Recently the role of the reserves has changed. In many countries it [has] gone from a strategic force, largely static, to an operational force, largely dynamic. After WWII, relatively large standing forces took care of most operational needs. Reserves were held back strategically and deployed in times of emergency for example during the Cuban missile crisis. Subsequently, the strategic and budget situation changed and as a result the active duty military began to rely on reserve force, particularly for combat support and combat service support. Further large-scale military operation, routinely mobilize and deploy reservists


title: Military science

text: Lomsky-Feder et al (2008p. 594) introduced the metaphor of reserve forces as "Transmigrants" who live "betwixt and between the civilian and military worlds". This metaphor captures "their structural duality" and suggests dynamic nature of reservist experience as they navigate commitments to their often conflicting civilian and military worlds. Given their greater likelihood of lengthy deployment, reservists face many of the same stresses as active duty but often with fewer support services.


title: Military science

text: There are many international associations with the core purpose of bringing scholars in the field of Military Science together. Some are inter-disciplinary and have a broad scope, whilst others are confined and specialized focusing on more specific disciplines or subjects. Some are integrated in larger scientific communities like the International Sociological Association (ISA) and the American Psychological Association (APA) where others have grown out of military institutions or individuals who have had a particular interest in areas of military science and are military, defense or armed forces oriented. Some of these associations are:


title: Reformed Church in America

text: The Reformed Church in America (RCA) is a mainline Reformed Protestant denomination in Canada and the United States. It has about 152,317 members. From its beginning in 1628 until 1819, it was the North American branch of the Dutch Reformed Church.


title: Reformed Church in America

text: The RCA is a member of the National Council of Churches (founding member), the World Council of Churches (WCC), Christian Churches Together, and the World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC). Some parts of the denomination belong to the National Association of Evangelicals, the Canadian Council of Churches, and the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada. The denomination is in full communion with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Presbyterian Church (USA), and United Church of Christ and is a denominational partner of the Christian Reformed Church in North America.


title: Reformed Church in America

text: Colloquially, it is sometimes referred loosely to as the Dutch Reformed Church in America, or simply as the Dutch Reformed Church when an American context has already been provided. In 1819, it incorporated as the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church. The current name was chosen in 1867.


title: Reformed Church in America

text: The early settlers in the Dutch colony of New Netherland first held informal meetings for worship. In 1628 Jonas Michaelius organized the first Dutch Reformed congregation in New Amsterdam, now New York City, called the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church, now The Collegiate Churches of New York. During Dutch rule, the RCA was the established church of the colony and was under the authority of the classis of Amsterdam.


title: Reformed Church in America

text: Even after the English captured the colony in 1664, all Dutch Reformed ministers were still trained in the Netherlands. Services in the RCA remained in Dutch until 1764. Dutch language use faded thereafter until the new wave of Dutch immigration in the mid-19th century. This revived use of the language among Dutch descendants and in some churches.


title: Reformed Church in America

text: In 1747 the church in the Netherlands had given permission to form an assembly in North America; in 1754, the assembly declared itself independent of the classis of Amsterdam. This American classis secured a charter in 1766 for Queens College (now Rutgers University) in New Jersey. In 1784 John Henry Livingston was appointed as professor of theology, marking the beginning of the New Brunswick Theological Seminary.


title: Reformed Church in America

text: The Dutch-speaking community, including farmers and traders, prospered in the former New Netherland, dominating New York City, the Hudson Valley, and parts of New Jersey while maintaining a significant presence in southeastern Pennsylvania, southwestern Connecticut, and Long Island.


title: Reformed Church in America

text: In the early 18th century nearly 3,000 Palatine German refugees came to New York. Most worked first in English camps along the Hudson River to pay off their passage (paid by Queen Anne's government) before they were allowed land in the Schoharie and Mohawk Valleys. There they created numerous German-speaking Lutheran and Reformed churches, such as those at Fort Herkimer and German Flatts. Thousands more immigrated to Pennsylvania in the 18th century. They used German as the language in their churches and schools for nearly 100 years, and recruited some of their ministers from Germany. By the early 20th century, most of their churches had joined the RCA.


title: Reformed Church in America

text: During the American Revolution, a bitter internal struggle broke out in the Dutch Reformed church, with lines of division following ecclesiastical battles that had gone on for twenty years between the "coetus" and "conferentie" factions. One source indicates that defections may have occurred as early as 1737.


title: Reformed Church in America

text: "Desolation pervaded many of the churches, whereas prior to 1737 good order was maintained in the churches, and peace and a good degree of prosperity were enjoyed. ...But in 1754, the Coetus of the previous year, having recommended the changing of the Coetus into a Classis with full powers, the opposition became violent, and the opponents were known as the Conferentie."A spirit of amnesty made possible the church's survival after the war. The divisiveness was also healed when the church sent members on an extensive foreign missions program in the early 19th century.


title: Reformed Church in America

text: In 1792 the classis adopted a formal constitution; and in 1794 the denomination held its first general synod. Following the American Civil War, in 1867 it formally adopted the name "Reformed Church in America". In the nineteenth century in New York and New Jersey, ethnic Dutch descendants struggled to preserve their European standards and traditions while developing a taste for revivalism and an American identity.


title: Reformed Church in America

text: Some members owned slaves, the most famous of the slaves being Sojourner Truth, and the church did not support abolitionism. In rural areas, ministers preached in Dutch until about 1830–1850, then switched to English, at the same time finally dropping the use of many traditional Dutch clothing and customs. Although some ministers favored revivals, generally the church did not support either the First or the Second Great Awakenings, which created much evangelical fervor.


title: Reformed Church in America

text: Immigration from the Netherlands in the mid-19th century led to the expansion of the RCA into the Midwest. In 1837 Pastor Abram D. Wilson and his wife Julia Evertson Wilson from New Jersey established the first Dutch Reformed church west of the Allegheny Mountains in Fairview, Illinois. Hope College and Western Theological Seminary were founded in Holland, Michigan, Central College in Pella, Iowa, and Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa. In the 1857 Secession, a group of more conservative members in Michigan led by Gijsbert Haan separated from the RCA. They organized the Christian Reformed Church in North America (CRC), and other churches followed. In 1882 another group of congregations left for the CRC, mirroring developments in the church in the Netherlands.


title: Reformed Church in America

text: After 1945 the RCA expanded into Canada, which was the destination of a large group of Dutch emigrants. Between 1949 and 1958, the RCA opened 120 churches among non-Dutch suburban communities, appealing to mainline Protestants. It was a charter member of the Presbyterian Alliance, the Federal Council of Churches, and the World Council of Churches.


title: Reformed Church in America

text: Like most other mainline denominations, the RCA has had a declining membership during the last thirty years. In 2018 the total membership was less 196,308, down from 220,000 in 2016, from 300,000 in 2000 and 360,000 in 1980. In the last thirty years, the church has lost more than 45% of its membership.


title: Reformed Church in America

text: Due to differences related to the adoption of the Belhar Confession, the removal of the conscience clauses related to the ordination of women, and place of LGBTQ people in the church, a number of congregations have left the RCA to join the Presbyterian Church in America, which is more conservative on these issues. For largely the same reasons, about 100 churches separated from the denomination and formed the Alliance of Reformed Churches (65 of those churches had made their separation public) and 5 churches formed the Kingdom Network.


title: Reformed Church in America

text: The RCA confesses several statements of doctrine and faith. These include the historic Apostles' Creed, Nicene Creed, and Athanasian Creed; the traditional Reformed Belgic Confession, the Heidelberg Catechism (with its compendium), the Canons of Dort, and the Belhar Confession.


title: Reformed Church in America

text: The RCA opposes euthanasia. The report of the Commission on Christian Action stated in 1994: "What Christians say about issues of morality ought to be and usually is a reflection of their fundamental faith convictions. There are at least three of these convictions that appear especially relevant to the question of whether it is acceptable for Christians to seek a physician's assistance in committing suicide in the midst of extreme suffering./ A fundamental conviction Christians have is that they do not belong to themselves. Life, despite its circumstances, is a gift from God, and each individual is its steward... Contemporary arguments for the 'right' to assistance to commit suicide are based on ideas of each individual's autonomy over his or her life. Christians cannot claim such autonomy; Christians acknowledge that they belong to God... Christians yield their personal autonomy and accept a special obligation, as the first answer of the Heidelberg Catechism invites people to confess: 'I am not my own, but belong—body and soul, in life and in death—to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ' (Heidelberg Catechism, Q&A 1)... A decision to take one's own life thus appears to be a denial that one belongs to God./ A second conviction is that God does not abandon people in times of suffering... Christians express their faith in God's love by trusting in God's care for them. A decision to end one's life would appear to be a cessation of that trust... Suffering calls upon people to trust God even in the valley of the shadow of death. It calls on people to let God, and not suffering, determine the agenda of their life and their death./ A third conviction is that in the community of God's people, caring for those who are dying is a burden Christians are willing to share. Both living and dying should occur within a caring community, and in the context of death, Christian discipleship takes the form of caring for those who are dying./ This is an era when many people find legislating morality a questionable practice. Should Christians promote legislation which embodies their conclusions about the morality of physician-assisted suicide?... If Christians are to be involved in debating laws regulating assisted suicide, it will be out of a concern for the health and well-being of society... As a society, there is no common understanding that gives any universal meaning to 'detrimental'. In humility, Christians can simply acknowledge this, and proceed...to share our own unique perspectives, inviting others to consider them and the faith that gives them meaning."


title: Reformed Church in America

text: The Reformed Church also condemns the death penalty. The General Synod in 2000 expressed seven reasons why the Church opposes it:


title: Reformed Church in America

text: The General Synod resolution expressed its will "to urge members of the Reformed Church in America to contact their elected officials, urging them to advocate for the abolition of capital punishment and to call for an immediate moratorium on executions."


title: Reformed Church in America

text: The RCA is generally opposed to abortion. The position of the General Synod, stated in 1973 and later affirmed, has been that "in principle" abortion "should not be practiced at all", but in a "complex society" of competing evils there "could be exceptions". However, abortion should never be chosen as a matter of "individual convenience". The church personnel should promote "Christian alternatives to abortion", and church members are asked to "support efforts for constitutional changes" to protect the unborn.


title: Reformed Church in America

text: Since 1978 the General Synod has made a number of statements on homosexuality. Homosexual acts are considered sinful and "contrary to the will of God". But homosexuals are not to be blamed for their condition. The church must affirm civil rights for homosexuals while it condemns homosexual behavior (1978). The church must seek to lift the homosexual's "burden of guilt", recognizing that homosexuality is a "complex phenomenon" (1979). The church should encourage "love and sensitivity towards such persons as fellow human beings" (1990). In 1994 the Synod condemned the humiliation and degradation of homosexuals and confessed that many members had not listened to the "heartfelt cries" of homosexual persons struggling for "self-acceptance and dignity." While calling for compassion, patience, and loving support toward those who struggle with same-sex desires, the 2012 General Synod determined that it is a "disciplinable offense" to advocate for homosexual behavior or provide leadership for a service of a same-sex marriage. The following year, however, the General Synod essentially rescinded this statement and rebuked the 2012 delegates for demonstrating "a lack of decorum and civility," and usurping constitutional authority. In 2014, the General Synod recommended that the Commission on Church Order begin the process of defining marriage as heterosexual. However, in 2015, the General Synod approved a process for studying a way "to address the questions of human sexuality". Also in 2015, Hope College in Michigan, affiliated with the RCA, officially decided to provide benefits to employees' same-sex spouses though the school continues to maintain a statement on sexuality that espouses a traditional definition of marriage.


title: Reformed Church in America

text: Additionally, a number of congregations and classes have voted to publicly affirm LGBT members, including the Classis of New Brunswick and the Classis of Schenectady. Several of those congregations, including congregations dually affiliated with the RCA and United Church of Christ, perform same-sex marriages. "Some RCA churches have gay pastors, but their ordination is from other denominations". On 5 May 2017, the United Church of Christ and Reformed Church in America congregations that support LGBT inclusion announced the formation of an association for dually-affiliated congregations.


title: Reformed Church in America

text: In April 2016, a working committee of the RCA developed a report on human sexuality. The report offers different options, for review by the General Synod, and includes the option to define marriage as between a man and woman or to define marriage as between two persons thus allowing same-gender marriages. Of these options, General Synod 2016 voted to define marriage as "man/woman". However, that vote needed to receive the support of 2/3 of the classes and be ratified again in 2017.


title: Reformed Church in America

text: In March 2017, the proposal to define marriage as "man/woman" did not receive the necessary votes from 2/3 of the classes, and, as a result, it did not pass. On 12 June 2017, the General Synod voted for a "recommendation [which] says, 'faithful adherence to the RCA's Standards, therefore, entails the affirmation that marriage is between one man and one woman.'" Also, in 2017, a classis in the RCA ordained the first openly gay and married pastor who was 'out' when he began the ordination process.


title: Reformed Church in America

text: In 2021, the RCA's General Synod voted in favor of a plan to allow congregations to leave the denomination, with their properties, and to allow remaining RCA congregations to choose their policy on LGBTQ clergy and same-sex marriages with some supporting same-sex marriages and some opposing.


title: Reformed Church in America

text: The RCA first admitted women to the offices of deacon and elder in 1972 and first ordained women in 1979. By 1980 the General Synod of the RCA amended the Book of Church Order (BCO) to clarify their position on women's ordination, including amending the language of Part I, Article 1, Section 3 of the BCO from "persons" to "men and women".


title: Reformed Church in America

text: In 1980 the RCA added a conscience clause to the BCO stating, "If individual members of the classis find that their consciences, as illuminated by Scripture, would not permit them to participate in the licensure, ordination or installation of women as ministers of the Word, they shall not be required to participate in decisions or actions contrary to their consciences, but may not obstruct the classis in fulfilling its responsibility to arrange for the care, ordination, and installation of women candidates and ministers by means mutually agreed on by such women and the classis" (Part II, Article 2, Section 7).


title: Reformed Church in America

text: In 2012 by a vote of 143 to 69, the General Synod of the RCA voted to remove the conscience clauses. However, the vote by the General Synod had to be approved by a majority of the classes (a classis serving the same function as a presbytery). Eventually, 31 classes voted in favor of removal, with 14 voting to retain them, and the vote was ratified at the RCA's 2013 General Synod.


title: Reformed Church in America

text: The RCA has a presbyterian polity where authority is divided among representative bodies: consistories, classes, regional synods, and the General Synod. The General Synod meets annually and is the representative body of the entire denomination, establishing its policies, programs, and agenda. Measures passed at General Synod are executed and overseen by the General Synod Council. Council members are appointed by the General Synod. A General Secretary oversees day-to-day operations. The Rev. Eddy Alemán, D. Min., was installed as the current General Secretary at the 2018 General Synod.


title: Reformed Church in America

text: The Constitution of the RCA consists of three parts: the Liturgy, the Government, and the Doctrinal Standards. The Government, along with the Formularies and the By-laws of the General Synod, are published annually in a volume known as "The Book of Church Order".


title: Reformed Church in America

text: Through a document known as "A Formula of Agreement", the RCA has full communion with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the United Church of Christ, and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The relationship between the United Church of Christ and the RCA has been the subject of controversy within the RCA, particularly a resolution by the UCC General Synod in 2005 regarding homosexuality. The ELCA's affirmation of the ordination of homosexuals as clergy in 2009 prompted some RCA conservatives to call for a withdrawal from the "Formula of Agreement". In 2012 RCA discussed its own position regarding homosexuality. The two denominations undertook a dialogue and in 1999 produced a document discussing their differences (PDF).


title: Reformed Church in America

text: Along with their "Formula of Agreement "partners, the RCA retains close fellowship with the Christian Reformed Church in North America (CRC). In 2005 the RCA and CRC voted to allow for the exchange of ministers. Faith Alive Christian Resources, the CRC's publishing arm, is also used by the RCA and in 2013 published a joint hymnal for use in both denominations. The two denominations have also collaborated on various other ministry ventures, voted to merge pension plans in 2013 in conformity with the Affordable Care Act, and plan to hold back-to-back General Synods at Central College in Pella, Iowa, in 2014.


title: Punta Gorda, Florida

text: Punta Gorda (; ) is a city in and the county seat of Charlotte County, Florida, United States, as well as the only incorporated municipality in the county. As of the 2010 U.S. Census the city had a population of 16,641. Punta Gorda is the principal city of the Punta Gorda, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area and is also in the Sarasota-Bradenton-Punta Gorda Combined Statistical Area.


title: Punta Gorda, Florida

text: Punta Gorda was the scene of massive destruction after Charley, a Category 4 hurricane, came through the city on August 13, 2004. Charley was the strongest tropical system to hit Florida since Hurricane Andrew in 1992, and the first hurricane since Hurricane Donna in 1960 to make a direct hit on Florida's southwest coast. In the years following the storm, buildings were restored or built to hurricane-resistant building codes. The new buildings, restorations and amenities concurrently preserved the city's past while showcasing newer facilities. During this time, Laishley Park Municipal Marina was built and the Harborwalk, Linear Park and various trails were created throughout the city for bicycle and pedestrian traffic.


title: Punta Gorda, Florida

text: Before the arrival of European explorers and settlers, the region centered on present-day Punta Gorda was home to the Calusa people. The name "Punta Gorda" ("Fat Point") has been on maps at least since 1851, referring to a point of land that juts into Charlotte Harbor, an estuary off the Gulf of Mexico. In the late 1800s, white settlers began to arrive in the present-day Punta Gorda area.


title: Punta Gorda, Florida

text: Frederick and Jarvis Howard, Union Army veterans, homesteaded an area south of the Peace River near present-day Punta Gorda about a decade after the Civil War. In 1876, James and Josephine Lockhart bought land and built a house on property that is now at the center of the city. About two years later, Lockhart sold his claim to James Madison Lanier, a hunter and trapper, who lived there for two years.


title: Punta Gorda, Florida

text: In 1879, a charter for a railroad with termini at Charlotte Harbor and Lake City, Florida, was established under the name Gainesville, Ocala, and Charlotte Harbor Railroad. It was taken over by the Florida Southern Railroad, which reaffirmed Charlotte Harbor as a terminus in its own charter. In 1883, Lanier sold his land to Isaac Trabue, who purchased additional property along the harbor and directed the platting of a town (by Kelly B. Harvey) named Trabue. Harvey recorded the plat on February 24, 1885. At the time, Isaac was in Kentucky, and his cousin, John Trabue, was in charge of selling lots. To ensure his development's success, Trabue convinced the Florida Southern Railway to bring its road to his town on the south side of Charlotte Harbor.


title: Punta Gorda, Florida

text: The railroad rolled into Trabue in August 1886, and with it came the first land developers and Southwest Florida's first batch of tourists. Punta Gorda became the southernmost stop on the Florida Southern Railroad, until an extension was built to Fort Myers in 1904, attracting the industries that propelled its initial growth.


title: Punta Gorda, Florida

text: On December 3, 1887, dissatisfied with Trabue's lack of infrastructure development, 34 townspeople met at Hector's Billiard Parlor to discuss incorporation. The group voted to incorporate and rename the town after the Spanish name for the point on which it was located, Punta Gorda. Once Punta Gorda was officially incorporated, mayoral elections took place and a council was formed. The first mayor, W. H. Simmons, was elected.


title: Punta Gorda, Florida

text: Phosphate was discovered on the banks of the Peace River just above Punta Gorda in 1888. Phosphate mined in the Peace River Valley was barged down the Peace River to Punta Gorda and Port Boca Grande, where it was loaded onto vessels for worldwide shipment. In 1896, the "Florida Times-Union" reported that phosphate mining was Punta Gorda's chief industry and that Punta Gorda was the world's greatest phosphate shipping point. By 1907, a railroad was built direct to Port Boca Grande, ending the brief phosphate shipping boom from Punta Gorda.


title: Punta Gorda, Florida

text: In 1890, Isaac Trabue appointed the first postmaster, Robert Meacham, an African American, as a deliberate affront to Kelly B. Harvey and those who had voted to change the name of the town from Trabue to Punta Gorda.


title: Punta Gorda, Florida

text: The "Punta Gorda Herald" was founded by Robert Kirby Seward in 1893 and published weekly during its early years. The newspaper covered such events as rum-running, other smuggling activities, and lawlessness in general. It underwent many changes in both ownership and name, and today is known as "The Charlotte Sun Herald".


title: Punta Gorda, Florida

text: Early Punta Gorda greatly resembled the modern social climate of various classes living together and working together. While the regal Punta Gorda Hotel, at one point partly owned by Cornelius Vanderbilt, reflected the upper class, Punta Gorda was a pretty rough town, like most frontier towns. Its location at the end of the railway line spiked the crime rate, resulting in approximately 40 murders between 1890 and 1904. This included City Marshal John H. Bowman, who was shot and killed in his front parlor on January 29, 1903, in view of his family.


title: Punta Gorda, Florida

text: In 1925, a bungalow was built by Joseph Blanchard, an African American sea captain and fisherman. The Blanchard House Museum still stands as a museum, providing education about the history of middle-class African American life in the area.


title: Punta Gorda, Florida

text: Punta Gorda maintained steady growth. Charlotte County was formed in 1921 after DeSoto County was split. Also in 1921, the first bridge was constructed connecting Punta Gorda and Charlotte Harbor along the brand-new Tamiami Trail. This small bridge was replaced by the original Barron Collier Bridge in 1931, and then by the current Barron Collier Bridge and Gilchrist Bridge crossing the Peace River.


title: Punta Gorda, Florida

text: During World War II, a U.S. Army airfield was built in Punta Gorda to train combat air pilots. After the war, the airfield was turned over to Charlotte County. Today the old airfield is the Punta Gorda Airport, serving both commercial and general aviation.


title: Punta Gorda, Florida

text: Punta Gorda's next intense growth phase started in 1959 with the creation of a neighborhood of canal-front home sites, Punta Gorda Isles, by a trio of entrepreneurs, Al Johns, Bud Cole and Sam Burchers. They laid out 55 miles of canals 100 feet wide and 17 feet deep using dredged sand to raise the level of the canal front land. This gave dry home sites access to the Charlotte Harbor and the Gulf of Mexico. Johns went on to develop several other communities in Punta Gorda, among which were Burnt Store Isles, another waterfront community with golf course, and Seminole Lakes, a golf course community. These communities provided waterfront or golf course homes for retirees with access to a downtown with shopping, restaurants, and parks.


title: Punta Gorda, Florida

text: In the early 1980s at the site of the old Maud Street Fishing Docks, a new shopping, restaurant and marina complex, Fishermen's Village, was constructed that continues to be one of Southwest Florida's primary attractions.


title: Punta Gorda, Florida

text: In 2004, a major hurricane, Hurricane Charley, moved through Punta Gorda, damaging many buildings, but also creating an opportunity for revitalization of both the historic downtown and the waterfront. During the first part of the 21st century, Punta Gorda continued to grow and improve, adding a new Harborwalk that continues to expand, a linear park that winds through the city, and many new restaurants and neighborhoods.


title: Punta Gorda, Florida

text: A replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was dedicated on November 5, 2016. The city also features the "Whispering Giant" statue, a public art sculpture of the face of a Native American man and a Native American woman.


title: Punta Gorda, Florida

text: On September 28, 2022, the Category 4 Hurricane Ian made landfall in Punta Gorda, resulting in severe damage throughout Florida. Coincidentally, the storm made landfall with the same wind speed (145 mph, 235 km/h) as Hurricane Charley, and its minimum barometric pressure was only one millibar less than Charley's.


title: Punta Gorda, Florida

text: There are many historic places in Punta Gorda, including ten on the National Register of Historic Places:


title: Punta Gorda, Florida

text: Punta Gorda lies on the south bank of the tidal Peace River and the eastern shore of Charlotte Harbor, an arm of the Gulf of Mexico. Unincorporated communities bordering Punta Gorda include Charlotte Park (nearly surrounded by the city), Solana to the east, and Charlotte Harbor to the north, across the Peace River. Port Charlotte is west of Punta Gorda's incorporated residential neighborhoods Deep Creek and Suncoast Lakes, north of the Peace River. Harbour Heights lies east of Punta Gorda's Deep Creek residential neighborhood.


title: Punta Gorda, Florida

text: According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of , of which is land and (28.52%) is water.


title: Punta Gorda, Florida

text: As of October 5, 2017, Punta Gorda has 11 zoning districts, five overlay districts, and three planned development districts. Of the zoning districts, six are designated for residential use, two for commercial use, one for governmental use, and two districts allow mixed use.


title: Punta Gorda, Florida

text: As of 2019 there were an estimated 20,369 people as compared to 2000 census when there were 14,344 people, 7,165 households, and 5,187 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 8,907 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 94.60% White, 3.17% African American, 0.17% Native American, 0.78% Asian, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 0.59% from other races, and 0.68% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino people of any race were 1.99% of the population.


title: Punta Gorda, Florida

text: There were 7,165 households, out of which 8.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 66.8% were married couples living together, 4.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 27.6% were non-families. 24.1% of all households were made up of individuals, and 15.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 1.97 and the average family size was 2.27.


title: Punta Gorda, Florida

text: In the city, the population was spread out, with 8.2% under the age of 18, 2.1% from 18 to 24, 9.9% from 25 to 44, 33.4% from 45 to 64, and 46.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 64 years. For every 100 females, there were 89.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 88.9 males.


title: Punta Gorda, Florida

text: The median income for a household in the city was $48,916, and the median income for a family was $54,879. Males had a median income of $34,054 versus $26,125 for females. The per capita income for the city was $32,460. About 4.7% of families and 6.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 10.9% of those under age 18 and 3.0% of those age 65 or over.


title: Punta Gorda, Florida

text: Punta Gorda is home to five public schools operated by Charlotte County Public Schools: Charlotte High School, Punta Gorda Middle School, Sallie Jones Elementary School, East Elementary School, and the Baker Pre-K Center. Good Shepherd Day School is Punta Gorda's only private grade school. Florida SouthWestern Collegiate High School is the county school district's only charter school.


title: Punta Gorda, Florida

text: Florida SouthWestern State College's Charlotte Campus is Punta Gorda's institution of higher learning.


title: Punta Gorda, Florida

text: The Punta Gorda Public Library is in Punta Gorda, and is one of four branches in the Charlotte County Library System. It was established in 1908, making it the oldest branch of the Charlotte County Library System, which was created in 1963. The library was initially contained within an Episcopal Church rectory and supervised by the vicar's wife, Theodosia Trout, until 1909. The church that first housed this library still stands across the street, under the name Church of the Good Shepherd. The library was eventually moved due to its popularity interfering with church activities.


title: Punta Gorda, Florida

text: The Masonic Lodge on Sullivan Street became the library's new home due to its central location and popularity among established Punta Gorda groups and clubs, such as the Fortnightly Club and the Women's Civic Improvement Association. The library remained in the lodge until 1928, when a hurricane damaged part of the roof. Many books were destroyed, and the volumes that could be salvaged were moved to the new Women's Club building, where members adopted the library as a project. The library remained at the Women's Club building until land from the Retta Esplanade lot was donated for a new library in 1958.


title: Punta Gorda, Florida

text: In 1973, the City of Punta Gorda donated the land at 424 West Henry Street for a new library. This donation was intended for a playground, but with the permission of Mrs. Paschal B. Nobles, who donated the land, construction began for the new library.


title: Punta Gorda, Florida

text: On July 22, 1974, the Paschal B. Nobles-Punta Gorda Public Library opened to the public. The Punta Gorda Charlotte Library moved to a new, larger site on Shreve Street in 2019. The new library branch has features such as study niches, conference rooms, and an archive reading room.


title: Punta Gorda, Florida

text: U.S. Route 41, the Tamiami Trail, runs through the center of the city, leading south to Fort Myers and northwest to Venice. The southern terminus of U.S. Route 17 is in the center of Punta Gorda; the highway leads northeast to Arcadia and to its northern terminus in Winchester, Virginia. Interstate 75 bypasses Punta Gorda to the east, with access via U.S. 17 from Exit 164.


title: Punta Gorda, Florida

text: In 2010, over 90% of Punta Gorda commuters traveled by automobile, with about 81% driving alone and 9% carpooling. According to the 2015 American Community Survey, about 88% of Punta Gorda commuters traveled by automobile, with about 78% driving alone and 10% carpooling. About 6% worked out of the home, with about 6% of commuters traveling by all other modes of transportation.


title: Punta Gorda, Florida

text: The city last had intercity passenger rail with service by the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad on the Jacksonville-Fort Myers-Naples section of pre-Amtrak "Champion."


title: Punta Gorda, Florida

text: Punta Gorda Airport has scheduled commercial service by Allegiant Air and seasonally by Sun Country Airlines.


title: Stade Toulousain

text: Stade Toulousain () (), also referred to as Toulouse, is a professional rugby union club based in Toulouse, France. They compete in the Top 14, France's top division of rugby, and the European Rugby Champions Cup.


title: Stade Toulousain

text: Toulouse is the most successful club in Europe, having won the Heineken Cup/European Rugby Champions Cup a record five times – in 1996, 2003, 2005, 2010 and 2021. They were also runners-up in 2004 and 2008 against London Wasps and Munster, respectively. Stade Toulousain have also won a record 21 Boucliers de Brennus, the French domestic league trophy. It is traditionally one of the main providers for the French national team and its youth academy is one of the best in the world.


title: Stade Toulousain

text: Their home ground is the Stade Ernest-Wallon. However, big Top 14 matches along with European games are often played at the Stadium Municipal de Toulouse. The club colours are red, black and white.


title: Stade Toulousain

text: Before 1907, rugby union in Toulouse was only played in schools or universities. In 1893, students of secondary school "Lycée de Toulouse" got together in a new team "Les Sans Soucis". Once attending university, the same students founded "l'Olympique Toulousain", which became "Stade Olympien des Etudiants de Toulouse" (SOET) a few years later in 1896. In the same period, 'non-students' grouped in "le Sport Athlétique Toulousain" (SAT) while students of the veterinary school created "l'Union Sportive de l'Ecole Vétérinaire" (USEV). Both entities merged in 1905 and called themselves "Véto-Sport". Finally in 1907, Stade Toulousain was founded resulting from a union between the SOET and Véto-Sport.


title: Stade Toulousain

text: Since its creation in 1907, Stade Toulousain drew on the past of the city. The design of Stade Toulousain's crest refers to the initials of Thomas Aquinas ( in French ; S and T, same as the club's name) whose bones have been lying in the church of the Jacobins, in Toulouse. The interlaced letters came from a famous tiled floor of the Basilica of Saint-Sernin, where the relics were temporarily moved for almost two centuries after the French Revolution. The historical colours, red and black, are rooted in the ceremonial costume of the capitouls of Toulouse. A municipal body created in 1147, the capitouls were until the French Revolution the consuls of the city. Their traditional costume was red and black (with white bands), as shown in the oldest portraits dating from the 14th century.


title: Stade Toulousain

text: Stade Toulousain played its first final of the national title French Championship in 1909 and lost it to Stade Bordelais Université Club (17–0) in Toulouse. In 1912 Stade Toulousain won its first national title. It had to wait until 1922 before it won its second. However the 1920s were a golden era for the club. Their first final action in the 1920s was in 1921, when they were defeated by USA Perpignan. Despite losing in 1921, the side went on to win the 1922, 1923, 1924, 1926 and 1927 championships.


title: Stade Toulousain

text: The following decades were relatively quiet after such a dominant era during the 1920s. Stade Toulousain would not make it to any grand finals during the 1930s, and it would not be until the late 1940s when they would return. However they did contest the Challenge Yves du Manoir with RC Toulon in 1934, though it ended in a nil-all tie and both teams were winners. The club made it to the final of the 1947 championship, and claimed the premiership, beating SU Agen, 10 to 3. However, no such championships followed, the club was again relatively quiet on the championship. It was 22 years in the waiting; Toulouse made it to the final, but were defeated by the CA Bègles club.


title: Stade Toulousain

text: In 1971 Toulouse contested the Challenge Yves du Manoir against US Dax, losing 18 to 8. Eleven years after the CA Bègles defeat, the club was again disappointed in the final, being defeated by AS Béziers in the championship game of 1980. The latter end of the decade was however, reminiscent of the 1920s sides. Toulouse were again contesting the Challenge Yves du Manoir for the 1984 season, though they lost to RC Narbonne 17 to 3. They did however claim their first championship since 1947, defeating RC Toulon in the 1985 final. The following season saw them successfully defend their championship, defeating SU Agen in the final. After a number of defeats in the Challenge Yves du Manoir finals, Toulouse defeated US Dax to win the 1988 competition. Both Toulon and Agen won the following premierships (1987 and 1988) but Toulouse won another championship in 1989.


title: Stade Toulousain

text: The dominance continued in the 1990s, starting with a grand final loss in 1991, and a Challenge Yves du Manoir championship in 1993, defeating Castres 13 to 8 in the final. The mid-1990s saw Stade Toulousain become a major force yet again, as the club claimed four premierships in a row, winning the championship in 1994, 1995, 1996 and 1997, as well as the Challenge Yves du Manoir in 1995. The club emulated its success in the European Rugby Cup, becoming the first ever champions in the 1995–96 season.


title: Stade Toulousain

text: The late 1990s and the 2000s saw the club again reach great heights. The club won the Challenge Yves du Manoir in 1998, defeating Stade Français Paris, the 1999 championship as well as the 2001 championship. They also were runners-up in the 2003 season, losing to Stade Français in the final. As the club had done in the mid-1990s, Stade Toulousain replicated this success in the European Rugby Cup, winning the 2002–03 and the 2004–05 cups. The club made it to the final of the 2005-06 Top 14, and despite only trailing Biarritz 9–6 at half time, Toulouse could not prevent a second-half whitewash, eventually going down 40–13. They ended their seven-year title drought with a 26–20 win over ASM Clermont Auvergne on 28 June 2008. In 2008 they narrowly lost a Heineken Cup Final to Munster by 3 points. In 2010 Toulouse defeated Leinster to reach the final where they faced Biarritz Olympique at Stade de France in Paris on Saturday 22 May 2010. Toulouse won the game by 21–19 to claim their fourth Heineken Cup title, making them the first club to win the title four times. Stade Toulousain is also the only French club to have taken part in all the editions of Heineken Cup since its creation (17, with the 2011–12 season). They won the French championship in 2011 against Montpellier (15–10) and 2012 against Toulon (18–12). Stade Toulousain reached the semi-finals of the French championship 20 consecutive years (from 1994 to 2013). In 2019, Toulouse came back to victory, earning a 20th French Rugby Union Championship title before making an historic double, winning the 2021 Champions Cup and the 2021 Top 14.


title: Stade Toulousain

text: Toulouse play their home games at the Stade Ernest-Wallon, which was built in the late 1980s and was recently renovated. It has a capacity of 19,500. Stade Toulousain is one of the rare teams, in France and especially in rugby union, that own its stadium. Since February 2020, it has also been home to rugby league team Toulouse Olympique, which currently competes in the Super League, following negotiations and an agreement between both executive boards.


title: Stade Toulousain

text: The stadium however cannot always accommodate all the fans of the Toulouse club. For the larger fixtures, such as championship or Heineken Cup games or play-offs, the fixture may be moved to Stadium Municipal, which has more capacity, 33,150. The stadium was used for numerous matches at the 2007 Rugby World Cup and will host the 2023 Rugby World Cup.


title: Stade Toulousain

text: The following are players who have represented their country, players who have won a title with the club, players who have played a sufficient number of games to go down in the club history or players who came from the academy and have made a significant career in another team:


title: Stade Toulousain

text: Toulouse supporters are known for being very active on social media. Stade Toulousain is the most followed rugby club on social media in the world, ahead Crusaders, Sharks, Toulon and Stormers.


title: Stade Toulousain

text: Stade Ernest-Wallon atmosphere is well known in France and Europe to be one of the best of club rugby. Toulouse can rely on a passionate city, having one of the best attendances in the league. The club's mascot, Ovalion, is a lion, animal which is the symbol of Peugeot, main sponsor of the club.


title: Muhammad Asad

text: Muhammad Asad, ( , , born Leopold Weiss; 2 July 1900 – 20 February 1992) was an Austro-Hungarian-born Pakistani journalist, traveler, writer, linguist, political theorist and diplomat. He was a Jew but, later converted to Islam.


title: Muhammad Asad

text: His translation of the Quran in English, "The Message of The Qur'an" is one of the most notable of his works. In Asad's words in "The Message of the Quran": "the work which I am now placing before the public is based on a lifetime of study and of many years spent in Arabia. It is an attempt – perhaps the first attempt – at a really idiomatic, explanatory rendition of the Qur'anic message into a European language."


title: Muhammad Asad

text: By age 13, Weiss had acquired a passing fluency in Hebrew and Aramaic, on top of his native German and Polish languages. By his mid-twenties, he could read and write in English, French, Persian and Arabic. In Mandatory Palestine, Weiss engaged in arguments with Zionist leaders like Chaim Weizmann, voicing his reservations about some aspects of the Zionist Movement. After traveling across the Arab World as a journalist, he converted to Sunni Islam in 1926 and adopted the name "Muhammad Asad"—Asad being the Arabic rendition of his root name Leo (Lion).


title: Muhammad Asad

text: During his stay in Saudi Arabia, he spent time with Bedouins and enjoyed the close company of the state's founder, Ibn Saud. He also carried out a secret mission for Ibn Saud to trace the sources of funding for the Ikhwan Revolt. Due to these activities, he was dubbed in a Haaretz article as "Leopold of Arabia"—hinting similarity of his activities to those of Lawrence of Arabia. On his visit to India, Asad became friends with Muslim poet-philosopher Muhammad Iqbal, who persuaded him to abandon his eastward travels and "help elucidate the intellectual premises of the future Islamic state". He also spent five years in internment by the British Government at the outbreak of World War II. On 14 August 1947, Asad received Pakistani citizenship and later served at several bureaucratic and diplomatic positions including the Director of Department of Islamic Reconstruction, Deputy Secretary (Middle East Division) in the Foreign Ministry of Pakistan, and Pakistan's Envoy to the United Nations.


title: Muhammad Asad

text: In the West, Asad rose to prominence as a writer with his best-selling autobiography, "The Road to Mecca". Later, after seventeen years of scholarly research, he published his magnum opus: "The Message of the Qur'an"—an English translation and commentary of the Quran. The book, along with the translations of Pickthall and Yusuf Ali, is regarded as one of the most influential translations of the modern era. An ardent proponent of Ijtihad and rationality in interpreting religious texts, he dedicated his works "to People who Think".


title: Muhammad Asad

text: In 2008, the entrance square to the UN Office in Vienna was named "Muhammad-Asad-Platz" in commemoration of his work as a "religious bridge-builder". Asad has been described by his biographers as "Europe's gift to Islam" and "a Mediator between Islam and the West".


title: Muhammad Asad

text: Leopold Weiss was born on 2 July 1900 to a Jewish family in Lemberg, Galicia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (which is currently the city of Lviv, Ukraine). Weiss was a descendant of a long line of Jewish rabbis; however, his father, Akiva Weiss, broke from tradition and became a lawyer. Leopold received a religious education and was proficient in Hebrew from an early age, as well as familiar with Aramaic. He studied the Jewish Bible or Tanakh, the text and commentaries of the Talmud, the Mishna and Gemara, also delving into the intricacies of Biblical exegesis and the Targum.


title: Muhammad Asad

text: At the age of fourteen he escaped school and joined the Austrian army under a false name. After a week or so, his father traced him with the help of the police, and he was escorted back to Vienna.


title: Muhammad Asad

text: After abandoning university in Vienna, Weiss drifted aimlessly around 1920s Germany, working briefly for the expressionist film director Fritz Lang (F. W. Murnau, according to "The Road to Mecca"). By his own account, after selling a jointly written film script, he splurged the windfall on a wild party at an expensive Berlin restaurant, in the spirit of the times. While working as a telephone operator for an American news agency in Berlin, Weiss obtained a coveted interview with Russian author Maxim Gorky's wife, his first published piece of journalism, after simply ringing up her hotel room.


title: Muhammad Asad

text: In 1922 Weiss moved to the British Mandate of Palestine, staying in Jerusalem at the house of his maternal uncle Dorian Feigenbaum at his invitation. Feigenbaum was a psychoanalyst, a disciple of Freud, and later founded the "Psychoanalytic Quarterly".


title: Muhammad Asad

text: He picked up work as a stringer for the German newspaper "Frankfurter Zeitung", one of the most prestigious newspapers of Germany and Europe, selling articles on a freelance basis. His pieces were noteworthy for their understanding of Arab fears and grievances against the Zionist project. He published a small book on the subject in 1924, and this so inspired the confidence of the "Frankfurter Zeitung" that it commissioned him to travel more widely still, to collect information for a full-scale book. Weiss made the trip, which lasted two years.


title: Muhammad Asad

text: To gain closer assignments in the Arabic world, Weiss developed an ever-deepening engagement with Islam. This led to his religious conversion in 1926 in Berlin and adopting an Arabic name, Muhammad Asad.


title: Muhammad Asad

text: "Islam appears to me like a perfect work of architecture. All its parts are harmoniously conceived to complement and support each other; nothing is superfluous and nothing lacking; and the result is a structure of absolute balance and solid composure."


title: Muhammad Asad

text: Magazine "Saudi Aramco World" in a 2002 essay described his journey to conversion in these words: "Two roads diverged in Berlin in the 1920s: a well-worn one to the West, the other, rarely traveled, to the East. Leopold Weiss, a gifted young writer, traveler and linguist with a thorough knowledge of the Bible and the Talmud and with deep roots in European culture, took the road eastward to Makkah."


title: Muhammad Asad

text: After his conversion to Islam, Asad moved to Saudi Arabia making a journey by camel across the Arabian Desert, from Tayma to Mecca. He stayed there for nearly six years during which he made five pilgrimages. Alongside, he started writing essays for the Swiss newspaper "Neue Zürcher Zeitung", and continued to do so till 1934.


title: Muhammad Asad

text: After the sudden death of his wife Elsa, Asad stayed on in Mecca where, in a chance encounter in the Grand Mosque's library, he met Prince Faysal. On Faysal's invitation, Asad met King Abdulaziz (founder of modern Saudi Arabia); the meeting led to almost daily audiences with the King, who quickly came to appreciate Asad's knowledge, keen mind and spiritual depth. Ibn Saud allowed Asad to visit the Najd region (in the King's company), which was forbidden to foreigners at that time.


title: Muhammad Asad

text: In late 1928, an Iraqi named Abdallah Damluji, who had been an adviser to Ibn Saud, submitted a report to the British on "Bolshevik and Soviet penetration" of the Hijaz. In this report, after highlighting Asad's activities in Arabia, Damluji alleged that Asad had connections with Bolsheviks: "What is the real mission which makes him endure the greatest discomforts and the worst conditions of life? On what basis rests the close intimacy between him and Shaykh Yusuf Yasin (secretary to the King and editor of the official newspaper "Umm al-Qura")? Is there some connection between von Weiss and the Bolshevik consulate in Jidda?"


title: Muhammad Asad

text: According to Asad, he did finally become a secret agent of sorts. Ibn Saud sent him on a secret mission to Kuwait in 1929, to trace the sources of financial and military assistance being provided to Faysal al-Dawish – an Ikhwan leader-turned-rebel against Ibn Saud's rule. Asad, after traveling day and night through the desert without lighting fire, reached Kuwait to collect first-hand evidence. He concluded that the British were providing arms and money to al-Dawish to weaken Ibn Saud for the purpose of securing a 'land route to India' – a railroad from Haifa to Basra ultimately connecting the Mediterranean Sea with the Indian subcontinent.


title: Muhammad Asad

text: Asad left Arabia and came to British India in 1932 where he met South Asia's premier Muslim poet, philosopher and thinker Muhammad Iqbal. Iqbal had proposed the idea of an independent Muslim state in India, which later became Pakistan. Iqbal persuaded Asad to stay on in British India and help the Muslims of India establish their separate Muslim state. Iqbal introduced Asad to Chaudhry Niaz Ali Khan, a philanthropist and agriculturalist, who, on the advice of Muhammad Iqbal, established the Dar-ul-Islam Trust Institutes in Pathankot, India and Jauharabad, Pakistan. Asad stayed on in British India and worked with both Muhammad Iqbal and Chaudhry Niaz Ali Khan.


title: Muhammad Asad

text: Allama Iqbal encouraged Asad to translate Sahih Al-Bukhari in English for the first time in history. Asad responded positively and started making the arrangements for his translation. In order to find a place serene enough to stimulate his intellectual and spiritual cerebration, he arrived in Kashmir during the summer of 1934. There, he met Mirwaiz Muhammad Yusuf who became his close friend. While working enthusiastically on his translation, he also set up his own printing press in Srinagar. The first two chapters of his translation were printed in Srinagar. Asad mentions in his book "Home-coming of the Heart" that he had a special relationship with Kashmir and that he felt very sad when he left it.


title: Muhammad Asad

text: When the Second World War broke out in 1939, Asad's parents were arrested and, subsequently, murdered by the Nazis. Asad himself was arrested in Lahore in 1939, a day after the war broke out, by the British as an enemy alien. This was despite the fact that Asad had refused German nationality after the annexation of Austria in 1938 and had insisted on retaining his Austrian citizenship. Asad spent three years in prison, while his family consisting of his wife, Munira, and son, Talal, after being released from detention earlier, lived under the protection of Chaudhry Niaz Ali Khan at the latter's vast estate in Jamalpur, 5 km west of Pathankot. Asad was finally released and reunited with his family in Jamalpur when the Second World War ended in 1945.


title: Muhammad Asad

text: Asad supported the idea of a separate Muslim state in India. After the independence of Pakistan on 14 August 1947, in recognition for his support for Pakistan, Asad was conferred first full citizenship by Pakistan and appointed the Director of the Department of Islamic Reconstruction by the Government of Pakistan, where he made recommendations on the drafting of Pakistan's first Constitution. In 1949, Asad joined Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs as head of the Middle East Division and made efforts to strengthen Pakistan's ties with the Muslim states of the Middle East. In 1952, Asad was appointed as Pakistan's Minister Plenipotentiary to the United Nations in New York – a position that he relinquished in 1952 to write his autobiography (up to the age of 32), "The Road to Mecca".


title: Muhammad Asad

text: Asad contributed much to Pakistan's early political and cultural life but was shunned from the corridors of power. He served this country as the head of the Directorate of Islamic Reconstruction, Joint Secretary of the Middle East Division in Foreign Office, Minister Plenipotentiary to the United Nations and organizer of the International Islamic Colloquium. If one delves into the archival material of these government departments, the role played by Asad for his beloved Pakistan can be dealt with in detail.


title: Muhammad Asad

text: By chance, at a reception Asad met Pola, an American of Polish origin who was destined to become his third wife (d. 2007). She was young, beautiful and intelligent. He fell in love with her and when he learned that she had already embraced Islam he decided to marry her, despite the difference of age and temperament. However, under the rules of the Foreign Office, he was bound to get prior permission to marry a non-Pakistani national. He applied through the proper channels but the Governor-General rejected his application. So, he submitted his resignation from the Foreign Service, divorced his Arabian wife (Munira, d. 1978), and devoted himself to writing his autobiographical travel log "The Road to Mecca".


title: Muhammad Asad

text: During his stay in Switzerland, Asad received a letter from the President of Pakistan, General Ayub Khan, who was a great admirer of his book named The Principles of State and Government in Islam (1961). In a subsequent exchange of letters, he proposed to Asad to come to Pakistan and have the membership of a seven-man group of Muslim scholars – who both supposedly knew the world and were experts on Islam – to advise him with regard to everyday matters as well as the drawing up of a new Islamic constitution for the country. At that time, Asad was immersed in his cherished work on the Qur'an, and so he regretfully declined.


title: Muhammad Asad

text: After many years, Asad was again invited by another President of Pakistan, General Zia ul-Haq, in 1983 and that was his last visit to this country. When he arrived at Islamabad, which he had not yet seen, he was received at the plane with great honour and escorted to the Presidency. During his sojourn in Islamabad, there was a series of meetings with members of the Ansari Commission in order to prepare a kind of programme for the President for the future. Asad agreed with some, and as usual disagreed with others, which he found retrograde. On one point he was firm and insistent that Muslim women should have exactly the same rights in the political sphere as had men, to the extent of becoming Prime Minister. Asad also spared some time to meet with his surviving friends in Lahore and Islamabad and at the request of the President made several radio and television appearances, as always spontaneous. On his return, he was besieged by letters from literally hundreds of admirers in Pakistan, some even offering him land or a house but he refused politely, considering his concept of Pakistan to be beyond all these worldly trivialities.


title: Muhammad Asad

text: Towards the end of his life, Asad moved to Spain and lived there with his third wife, Pola Hamida Asad, an American national of Polish Catholic descent who had also converted to Islam, until his death on 20 February 1992 at the age of 91. He was buried in the Muslim cemetery of Granada in the former Moorish province of Andalusia, Spain.


title: Muhammad Asad

text: Asad had a son, Talal Asad, from his second Saudi Arabian wife, Munira. Talal Asad is now an anthropologist specializing in religious studies and postcolonialism. Asad also had a step-son named Heinrich (converted name Ahmad) with his first wife Else (converted name Aziza).


title: Muhammad Asad

text: In April 2008, a space in front of the UNO City in the 22nd District of Vienna was named "Muhammad-Asad-Platz" in honor of Muhammad Asad. The step was taken as part of a two-day program on the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue focusing on Islam and its relationship with Europe. The program commemorated the life and work of Asad, described as a great Austrian visionary, who earned international recognition by building bridges between religions. The honoree's son Talal Asad, the President of the Islamic Community of Austria Anas Schakfeh and Vienna's cultural adviser Andreas Mailath-Pokorny were present at the unveiling of the square. Mailath-Pokorny, while talking to the media said: "There is probably no more appropriate place to honor Muhammad Asad than that in front of the UN-City. Muhammad Asad was a citizen of the world, who was at home, and left his mark, everywhere in the world, especially in the Orient."


title: Muhammad Asad

text: On 23 March 2013, Pakistan Post issued a stamp with denomination of Rs. 15 under the "Men of Letters" Series in honor of Allamah Muhammad Asad.


title: Naomi Ekperigin

text: Naomi Ekperigin is an American comedian, actress and writer. She has written for the television shows "Great News" and "Broad City".


title: Naomi Ekperigin

text: Ekperigin was born and raised in Harlem, with a father from Nigeria and a mother from Detroit. She attended the Dalton School, where she was one of six black students in a class of 118, and graduated from Wesleyan University in 2005. In college, Ekperigin began performing comedy and doing improv.


title: Naomi Ekperigin

text: After graduating from college, Ekperigin spent a year touring with the National Theatre for the Deaf, and she returned to New York in 2007 where she got a start doing stand-up while working a day job at an art magazine. When that magazine folded in 2013, Ekperigin found a position working as a writer's assistant for "Broad City". She was promoted to staff writer in the show's second season and served as a writer on season 3 as well.


title: Naomi Ekperigin

text: In 2015, Ekperigin was a nominee, with the "Broad City" writing staff, for the . Splitsider praised her work as "savvy, smart, funny and politically active" and Essence named her to its list of "8 Black Comediennes Who are 'Ready' for SNL."


title: Naomi Ekperigin

text: In May 2016, Comedy Central announced that Ekperigin would create a half-hour special for the network, taped in New Orleans in June 2016. September 29, 2016, she made her late-night debut on Late Night with Seth Meyers. Her half-hour special premiered on Comedy Central just two weeks later, October 14 at midnight. Ekperigin also co-wrote a television pilot for Comedy Central with former "Daily Show" correspondent Jessica Williams. Ekperigin has also written for "Difficult People" and written for and appeared on "Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell".


title: Naomi Ekperigin

text: She's been a regular performer on the WNYC podcast "2 Dope Queens", standing out as a fan favorite. Other projects include a pilot for TruTV called "Inside Caucasia", developed with Ekperigin's fiancé, comedian Andy Beckerman.


title: Naomi Ekperigin

text: In June 2017, she joined the writing staff of the NBC sitcom "Great News", starring Briga Heelan, Andrea Martin, and John Michael Higgins. She then went on to write for season 2 of the CBS All Access show "No Activity" and the HBO limited series "Mrs. Fletcher", starring Kathryn Hahn.


title: Naomi Ekperigin

text: She has a recurring role in the Apple TV+ show "Mythic Quest" as Carol, the beleaguered HR person at a video game company. She was promoted to main role in season 3.


title: Selection rule

text: In physics and chemistry, a selection rule, or transition rule, formally constrains the possible transitions of a system from one quantum state to another. Selection rules have been derived for electromagnetic transitions in molecules, in atoms, in atomic nuclei, and so on. The selection rules may differ according to the technique used to observe the transition. The selection rule also plays a role in chemical reactions, where some are formally spin-forbidden reactions, that is, reactions where the spin state changes at least once from reactants to products.


title: Selection rule

text: In quantum mechanics the basis for a spectroscopic selection rule is the value of the "transition moment integral"


title: Selection rule

text: where formula_2 and formula_3 are the wave functions of the two states, "state 1" and "state 2", involved in the transition, and is the transition moment operator. This integral represents the propagator (and thus the probability) of the transition between states 1 and 2; if the value of this integral is "zero" then the transition is "forbidden".


title: Selection rule

text: In practice, to determine a selection rule the integral itself does not need to be calculated: It is sufficient to determine the symmetry of the "transition moment function" formula_4


title: Selection rule

text: If the transition moment function is symmetric over all of the totally symmetric representation of the point group to which the atom or molecule belongs, then the integral's value is (in general) "not" zero and the transition "is" allowed. Otherwise, the transition is "forbidden".


title: Selection rule

text: The transition moment integral is zero if the "transition moment function", formula_5 is anti-symmetric or odd, i.e. formula_6 holds. The symmetry of the transition moment function is the direct product of the parities of its three components. The symmetry characteristics of each component can be obtained from standard character tables. Rules for obtaining the symmetries of a direct product can be found in texts on character tables.


title: Selection rule

text: The Laporte rule is a selection rule formally stated as follows: In a centrosymmetric environment, transitions between like atomic orbitals such as "s"-"s", "p"-"p", "d"-"d", or "f"-"f," transitions are forbidden. The Laporte rule (law) applies to electric dipole transitions, so the operator has "u" symmetry (meaning "ungerade", odd). "p" orbitals also have "u" symmetry, so the symmetry of the transition moment function is given by the triple product "u"×"u"×"u", which has "u" symmetry. The transitions are therefore forbidden. Likewise, "d" orbitals have "g" symmetry (meaning "gerade", even), so the triple product "g"×"u"×"g" also has "u" symmetry and the transition is forbidden.


title: Selection rule

text: The wave function of a single electron is the product of a space-dependent wave function and a spin wave function. Spin is directional and can be said to have odd parity. It follows that transitions in which the spin "direction" changes are forbidden. In formal terms, only states with the same total spin quantum number are "spin-allowed". In crystal field theory, "d"-"d" transitions that are spin-forbidden are much weaker than spin-allowed transitions. Both can be observed, in spite of the Laporte rule, because the actual transitions are coupled to vibrations that are anti-symmetric and have the same symmetry as the dipole moment operator.


title: Selection rule

text: In vibrational spectroscopy, transitions are observed between different vibrational states. In a fundamental vibration, the molecule is excited from its ground state ("v" = 0) to the first excited state ("v" = 1). The symmetry of the ground-state wave function is the same as that of the molecule. It is, therefore, a basis for the totally symmetric representation in the point group of the molecule. It follows that, for a vibrational transition to be allowed, the symmetry of the excited state wave function must be the same as the symmetry of the transition moment operator.


title: Selection rule

text: In infrared spectroscopy, the transition moment operator transforms as either "x" and/or "y" and/or "z". The excited state wave function must also transform as at least one of these vectors. In Raman spectroscopy, the operator transforms as one of the second-order terms in the right-most column of the character table, below.


title: Selection rule

text: The molecule methane, CH, may be used as an example to illustrate the application of these principles. The molecule is tetrahedral and has "T" symmetry. The vibrations of methane span the representations A + E + 2T. Examination of the character table shows that all four vibrations are Raman-active, but only the T vibrations can be seen in the infrared spectrum.


title: Selection rule

text: In the harmonic approximation, it can be shown that overtones are forbidden in both infrared and Raman spectra. However, when anharmonicity is taken into account, the transitions are weakly allowed.


title: Selection rule

text: In Raman and infrared spectroscopy, the selection rules predict certain vibrational modes to have zero intensities in the Raman and/or the IR. Displacements from the ideal structure can result in relaxation of the selection rules and appearance of these unexpected phonon modes in the spectra. Therefore, the appearance of new modes in the spectra can be a useful indicator of symmetry breakdown.


title: Selection rule

text: The selection rule for rotational transitions, derived from the symmetries of the rotational wave functions in a rigid rotor, is Δ"J" = ±1, where "J" is a rotational quantum number.


title: Selection rule

text: There are many types of coupled transition such as are observed in vibration-rotation spectra. The excited-state wave function is the product of two wave functions such as vibrational and rotational. The general principle is that the symmetry of the excited state is obtained as the direct product of the symmetries of the component wave functions. In rovibronic transitions, the excited states involve three wave functions.


title: Selection rule

text: The infrared spectrum of hydrogen chloride gas shows rotational fine structure superimposed on the vibrational spectrum. This is typical of the infrared spectra of heteronuclear diatomic molecules. It shows the so-called "P" and "R" branches. The "Q" branch, located at the vibration frequency, is absent. Symmetric top molecules display the "Q" branch. This follows from the application of selection rules.


title: Selection rule

text: Resonance Raman spectroscopy involves a kind of vibronic coupling. It results in much-increased intensity of fundamental and overtone transitions as the vibrations "steal" intensity from an allowed electronic transition. In spite of appearances, the selection rules are the same as in Raman spectroscopy.


title: Selection rule

text: In general, electric (charge) radiation or magnetic (current, magnetic moment) radiation can be classified into multipoles E (electric) or M (magnetic) of order 2, e.g., E1 for electric dipole, E2 for quadrupole, or E3 for octupole. In transitions where the change in angular momentum between the initial and final states makes several multipole radiations possible, usually the lowest-order multipoles are overwhelmingly more likely, and dominate the transition.


title: Selection rule

text: The emitted particle carries away an angular momentum , which for the photon must be at least 1, since it is a vector particle (i.e., it has = 1). Thus, there is no radiation from E0 (electric monopoles) or M0 (magnetic monopoles, which do not seem to exist).


title: Selection rule

text: where formula_8 and its z-projection is given by formula_9 and where formula_10 and formula_11 are, respectively, the initial and final angular momenta of the atom.


title: Selection rule

text: Thus, parity does not change for E-even or M-odd multipoles, while it changes for E-odd or M-even multipoles.


title: Selection rule

text: These considerations generate different sets of transitions rules depending on the multipole order and type. The expression "forbidden transitions" is often used, but this does not mean that these transitions "cannot" occur, only that they are "electric-dipole-forbidden". These transitions are perfectly possible; they merely occur at a lower rate. If the rate for an E1 transition is non-zero, the transition is said to be permitted; if it is zero, then M1, E2, etc. transitions can still produce radiation, albeit with much lower transitions rates. These are the so-called "forbidden" transitions. The transition rate decreases by a factor of about 1000 from one multipole to the next one, so the lowest multipole transitions are most likely to occur.


title: Selection rule

text: Semi-forbidden transitions (resulting in so-called intercombination lines) are electric dipole (E1) transitions for which the selection rule that the spin does not change is violated. This is a result of the failure of LS coupling.


title: Selection rule

text: Which transitions are allowed is based on the hydrogen-like atom. The symbol formula_20 is used to indicate a forbidden transition.


title: Selection rule

text: In hyperfine structure, the total angular momentum of the atom is formula_21 where formula_22 is the nuclear spin angular momentum and formula_23 is the total angular momentum of the electron(s). Since formula_24 has a similar mathematical form as formula_25 it obeys a selection rule table similar to the table above.


title: Selection rule

text: In surface vibrational spectroscopy, the "surface selection rule" is applied to identify the peaks observed in vibrational spectra. When a molecule is adsorbed on a substrate, the molecule induces opposite image charges in the substrate. The dipole moment of the molecule and the image charges perpendicular to the surface reinforce each other. In contrast, the dipole moments of the molecule and the image charges parallel to the surface cancel out. Therefore, only molecular vibrational peaks giving rise to a dynamic dipole moment perpendicular to the surface will be observed in the vibrational spectrum.


title: History of cannon

text: The history of cannons spans several hundred years from the 12th century to modern times. The cannon first appeared in China sometime during the 12th and 13th centuries. It was most likely developed in parallel or as an evolution of an earlier gunpowder weapon called the fire lance. The result was a projectile weapon in the shape of a cylinder that fired projectiles using the explosive pressure of gunpowder. Cannons were used for warfare by the late 13th century in the Yuan dynasty and spread throughout Eurasia in the 14th century. During the Middle Ages, large and small cannons were developed for siege and field battles. The cannon replaced prior siege weapons such as the trebuchet. After the Middle Ages, most large cannons were abandoned in favor of greater numbers of lighter, more maneuverable field artillery. New defensive fortifications such as bastions and star forts were designed specifically to better withstand artillery sieges. Cannons transformed naval warfare with its deadly firepower, allowing vessels to destroy each other from long range. As rifling became more commonplace, the accuracy of the cannon was significantly improved, and they became deadlier than ever, especially to infantry. In World War I, a considerable majority of all deaths were caused by cannons; they were also used widely in World War II. Most modern cannons are similar to those used in the Second World War, including autocannons—with the exception of naval guns, which are now significantly smaller in caliber.