Leonid Stepanovych Stadnyk (; 5 August 1970 – 24 August 2014) was a Ukrainian farmer. He stood at 8 feet 5 inches or 2.57 meters. He was born in Zhytomyr Oblast, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, USSR. Stadnyk was listed as the world's tallest living man according to Guinness World Records.
Stadnyk died at the age of 44 on August 24, 2014 from a brain hemorrhage.
Battering ram
A battering ram is a siege engine used in the past. It was used to break open the stone walls of castles or splinter their wooden gates.
In its simplest form, a battering ram is just a large, heavy log carried by several people and banged against an obstacle. The ram damages the target if the big log hit the target again and again. Later rams were covered in the log with an arrow-proof, fire-resistant canopy mounted on wheels. Inside the canopy, the log was swung from chains or ropes.
Rams were great weapons of war against old fashioned wall-building materials such as stone and brick. These walls were weak in tension: they cracked when struck with sufficient force. With many blows, the cracks would grow steadily until a hole was created. Eventually, a breach would appear in the fabric of the wall. It would cause armed attackers to force their way through the gap.
The introduction in the later Middle Ages of siege cannons causes the end of battering rams and other traditional siege weapons. Much smaller, hand-held versions of battering rams are still used today, however, by law enforcement officers and military personnel to bash open locked doors.
Barry Dickins
Barry Dickins (born 1949) is an Australian artist and writer of books and plays.
He was born in Reservoir, which is part of Melbourne. He left school early and worked in a factory. Later he painted sets and backgrounds for television programs. His first play, "Ghosts", was performed in 1974 at La Mama Theatre. He has written many more plays. His play "Remember Ronald Ryan" won the 1995 Victorian Premier's Literary Award. He has also written short stories, biography, other non-fiction and children's books. Barry is known to use many 'half rhymes' in his work.
Drama
Stories
Non fiction
Children's books
Hashim Khan
Hashim Khan ( – 18 August 2014) was a Pakistani squash player. He won the British Open Squash Championships (BOSC) a total of seven times, from 1951 to 1956, and then again in 1958. During the 1950s, the BOSC was the "de facto" squash world championship. The movie based on Khan's life "" was released in 2009 and was directed by Josh Easdon.
Khan was born in Nawakille, a small village near Peshawar, British Raj (now Pakistan). He family were Pashtuns. During the 1960s, he moved to the United States and lived in Denver, Colorado. He had twelve children.
Khan died from congestive heart failure on 18 August 2014 in Aurora, Colorado. There are many disputes of his exact age but he is believed to have been at least 100.
Zugzwang
Zugzwang is a chess term. It means a situation where any move by a player will weaken the player's position. The fact that the player is compelled to move means that their position will become significantly weaker.
For example...
1. ... Kd7 and White cannot win:
2. c6+ Kc7
3. Kc5 Kc8
4. Kd6 Kd8 (opposing the king)
5. c7+ Kc8
6. Kc6 is stalemate
But if it is White to play in the original position, he can win by zugzwang:
1. Kc6! and now Black must move his king, for example
1... Kd8
3. Kb7 and queens the pawn.
There are positions where either player to move will lose.
On the following diagram, Whichever king moves, he loses his pawn and the opponent will win the game.
The concept of zugzwang was known in the old forms of chess, like shatranj. We know this because there are some Arabic chess problems which use the idea.
The term itself comes from the 19th century in a German chess magazine. Its first use in English was in the early 20th century.
Zwischenzug
In chess, zwischenzug (German for "intermediate move") is a common tactic that occurs in almost every game: instead of countering a direct threat, which the opponent expects, a move is played which poses an even more devastating threat, often an attack against the queen or the king. The opponent has to counter that threat first, and this will ideally change the situation to his disadvantage.
Borisenkov-Mezenev (diagram, Black to play), went 1... f2, threatening to queen, which White countered with 2. Rg8, intending 3. Rf8+. But White resigned after the zwischenzug 2... Bb1! which allows Black to queen (3. Kb1 f1Q+ or 3. Rf8+ Bf5).
Alfredo Martini
Alfredo Martini (18 February 1921 – 25 August 2014) was an Italian cyclist and coach. He won a stage in the 1950 Giro d'Italia. He was a professional cyclist from 1941 until 1957. He was later the coach of the Italian national cycling team from 1975 until 1997.
Martini was born in Florence. He retired from coaching in 1997.
Martini died from natural causes on 25 August 2014 in Sesto Fiorentino, aged 93.
Inga Juuso
Inga Juuso (5 October 1945 – 23 August 2014) was a Norwegian singer and actress. She appeared and performed in the movie "The Kautokeino Rebellion" (2008). She was known from her own band performances in the genres of jazz and joik. She did recordings and collabs with many Norwegian musicians like Håkon Mjåset Johansen and Jørn Øien.
Juuso was born in Mosjøen. She was a Sami woman, an ethnic group indigenous to Scandinavia. She was awarded the title of Spellemannprisen in 2011.
Juuso died after a long illness on 23 August 2014, aged 69.
Tom Pevsner
Thomas "Tom" Pevsner (2 October 1926 – 19 August 2014) was a British assistant movie director and producer. His career lasted from 1953 until 1995. His best known movies were "The Ladykillers" (1955), "The Longest Day" (1962) and "The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes" (1970) and "Dracula" (1979). He also worked on a
number of "James Bond" movies between 1981 and 1995.
Pevsner was born in Dresden, Saxony. His father was the scholar Nikolaus Pevsner. Because they were of Jewish descent the Pevsner family fled to the United Kingdom in 1933.
Pevsner died on 19 August 2014 in London, aged 87.
Tumbleweed (band)
Tumbleweed is an Australian rock group formed in 1990 in Tarrawanna. Three of their studio albums appeared on the ARIA Albums Chart: "Tumbleweed" (No. 48, 13 December 1992), "Galactaphonic" (No. 6, May 1995), and "Return to Earth" (No. 11, 1 September 1996). Three releases reached the top 50 on the related ARIA Singles Chart: "Sundial (Maryjane)" (1993), "Gyroscope" (1994), and "Hang Around" (1995).
They supported United States grunge group, Nirvana, on their January 1992 tour of Australia, and reached the mainstream with their crunchy-psychedelia style. They also supported tours by Rollins Band (June 1994) and Monster Magnet (February to March 1996).
Ramón Echarren Istúriz
Ramón Echarren Istúriz (November 13, 1929 – August 25, 2014) was a Spanish Roman Catholic bishop.
Istúriz ordained to the priesthood in 1958. Istúriz was appointed titular bishop of 'Diano' and auxiliary bishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Madrid, Spain, in 1969.
In 1978, he was appointed bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Canarias and retired in 2005.
Quentin Crisp
Quentin Crisp (born Denis Charles Pratt, 25 December 1908 – 21 November 1999) was an English writer and actor.
Denis Charles Pratt was born in Sutton, Surrey. He was an openly gay man who was very camp. He changed his name to Quentin Crisp after leaving home to move to London when he was 21. He was a male prostitute for about six months. In 1942, he started doing life modelling for art students. He wrote about his life, including The Naked Civil Servant. In 1981 he moved to Manhattan. Crisp died of a heart attack in Manchester, where he was due to give a speech.
Tak Province
Tak () is one of the northern provinces ("changwat") of Thailand. As of 2013, 532,353 people live there, and it has an area of 16,406.6 km². The Governor is Charoenrit Sa-nguansat.