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16547029

Agriculture in Madagascar

In the forested areas of the eastern coast, the Betsimisaraka and Tanala peoples also practice irrigated rice culture where possible. The dominant form of land use, however, is shifting cultivation by the slash-and-burn method, known as tavy. The smaller trees and brush are cut down and left to dry, then burned just before the rainy season. The cleared area is usually planted with mountain rice and corn. After two or three years of cultivation, the fields are usually left fallow and are gradually covered by secondary vegetation known as savoka. After ten or twenty years, the area may be cultivated again.

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Agriculture in Madagascar

Because the slash-and-burn method destroys the forest and other vegetation cover, and promotes erosion, it has been declared illegal. Government assistance is offered to those cultivators who prepare rice paddies instead, and those practicing tavy are fined or, in extreme cases, imprisoned. Despite the penalties, and much to the chagrin of forestry agents, tavy continues to be practiced. Even those who cultivate wet paddies often practice tavy on the side. The crop cycle for tavy is shorter than for irrigated rice, and generations of experience have taught that it is one of the few forms of insurance against the droughts that occur about every three years. Moreover, the precipitous slopes and heavy, irregular rains make it difficult to maintain affordable and controllable irrigation systems.

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Agriculture in Madagascar

A similar system of shifting cultivation is practiced in the arid, sparsely populated regions of the extreme south and southwest. The dry brush or grassland is burned off, and drought-resistant sorghum or corn is sown in the ashes. In the Antandroy and some Mahafaly areas, however, the main staples of subsistence--cassava, corn, beans, and sorghum—are also grown around the villages in permanent fields enclosed by hedges.

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Agriculture in Madagascar

Dry-season cultivation in empty streambeds is practiced largely on the western coast and in the southwest and is called "baiboho". The crops are sown after the last rising of the waters during the rainy seasons, and after the harvest fresh alluvial deposits naturally replenish the soil. Lima beans (also known as Cape peas) are raised by this system on the Mangoky River system delta, along with tobacco and a number of newer crops.

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Agriculture in Madagascar

The Betsileo are probably the most efficient traditional rice farmers. They construct rice paddies on narrow terraces ascending the sides of steep valleys in the southern portion of the central highlands, creating an intricate landscape reminiscent of Indonesia or the Philippines. The irrigation systems use all available water, which flows through narrow canals for considerable distances. Some rice paddies cover no more than a few square meters. Only those surfaces that cannot be irrigated are planted in dryland crops.

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Agriculture in Madagascar

In parts of the central highlands two rice crops a year can be grown, but not on the same plot. The Betsileo use a variety of local species that can be sown at different times, employing irrigation to grow some varieties in the dry season and waiting for the rainy season to plant others. The fields surrounding the typical Betsileo village often represent a checkerboard of tiny plots in different stages of the crop cycle.

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Agriculture in Madagascar

The cultivation cycle begins with the repair of irrigation and drainage canals and plowing, which is performed with a longhandled spade or hoe. Manure or fertilizer is then spread over the field. If the supply of manure or artificial fertilizer is limited, only the seedbeds are fertilized. After fertilizing, family and neighbors join in a festive trampling of the fields, using cattle if available. Occasionally, trampling takes the place of plowing altogether. If the rice is to be sown broadcast, it may be done on the same day as trampling. In the more advanced areas, the seedlings are raised in protected seedbeds and transplanted later.

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Agriculture in Madagascar

Rice-farming techniques among the Merina resemble those of the Betsileo but are usually less advanced and intensive. The Merina territory includes some areas where land is more plentiful, and broader areas permit less laborious means of irrigation and terracing. Although rice is still the dominant crop, more dryland species are grown than in the Betsileo region, and greater use is made of the hillsides and grasslands.

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Agriculture in Madagascar

Livestock is widespread, with about 60 percent of rural families depending on it for their income. Animal production is dominated by extensive livestock rearing, pigs and poultry. There is also a growing modern poultry industry around the main cities. In 2008, livestock accounted for 9.7 million of head of cattle, 2 million sheep and goats, 1.4 million pigs, and 26 million poultry. Overall, meat production was estimated at 251,000 tons; milk, 530,000 tons; and hen eggs, 19,000 tons. Zebus are also used for agricultural work for puddling rice fields as well as for ploughing and pulling carts. The high prevalence of disease is the main constraint undermining an increase of production. For example, Newcastle disease is a major ubiquitous problem for poultry, Anthrax affects cattle, and Classical and African swine fever affect pigs. Overall, the performances of this sub-sector are poor, with the exception of some filières (milk, small animals).

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Agriculture in Madagascar

Both on the highlands and on the coasts, many farmers use fishing as a complement to agriculture and livestock, but it remains characterized by the use of rudimentary tools and materials and inadequate conservation. Madagascar has enormous potential in the fisheries sector (notably along its western coast in the province of Toliara). There is also a good potential for the development of shrimps and prawns rising and for freshwater aquaculture (mainly for common carp and tilapia) in paddy fields, ponds and cages. In 2008, captures of fishery and aquaculture production totalled 130,000 tons About 35,000 tons of fishery products are exported every year. More than 50 percent are exported toward the European countries, the rest, toward Japan, Mauritius and some Asian countries.

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Agriculture in Madagascar

The traditional livestock-raising peoples are the Bara, Sakalava, and other groups of the south and the west, where almost every family owns some zebu cattle. The common practice is to allow the animals to graze almost at will, and the farmers take few precautions against the popular custom of cattle stealing. These farmers are also accustomed to burning off the dry grass to promote the growth of new vegetation for animal feed. The cattle generally are slaughtered only for ceremonial occasions, but these are so frequent that the per capita meat consumption among the cattle herders is very high.

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Agriculture in Madagascar

Fishing is popular as a sideline by farmers who supplement their farm produce with fish from freshwater rivers, lakes, and ponds. Perhaps two-thirds of the total yearly catch is consumed for subsistence; transportation costs to the capital make the price of marketed fish prohibitively expensive to other domestic consumers. The introduction of tilapia fish from the African mainland in the 1950s increased inland aquaculture. Many families, particularly in the central highlands, have established fish ponds to raise carp, black bass, or trout. The breeding of fish in rice fields, however, requires sophisticated water control and a strong guard against dynamiting, poisoning, and poaching, which remain chronic problems.

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Agriculture in Madagascar

Extensive stands of ebony, rosewood and mahogany flourish on the East coast. In 2009, the timber cut was approximately . Wood production is from natural forests and is almost entirely consumed locally for fuel and construction. Bush fires and illegal logging further exacerbate the loss of forest areas, which is estimated at the rate of per year.

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Agriculture in Madagascar

The 1984–85 agricultural census estimated that 8.7 million people live in the rural areas and that 65 percent of the active poption within these areas lives at the subsistence level. The census also noted that average farm size was 1.2 hectares, although irrigated rice plots in the central highlands were often 0.5 hectares. Only 5.2 percent () of the country's total land area of 58.2 million hectares is under cultivation; of this hectarage, less than 2 million hectares are permanently cultivated. Agriculture is critical to Madagascar's economy in that it provides nearly 80 percent of exports, constituting 33 percent of GDP in 1993, and in 1992 employed almost 80 percent of the labor force. Moreover, 50.7 percent (300,000 square kilometers) of the total landmass of 592,000 square kilometers supports livestock rearing, while 16 percent (484,000 hectares) of land under cultivation is irrigated.

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Agriculture in Madagascar

The government significantly reorganized the agricultural sector of the economy beginning in 1972. Shortly after Ratsiraka assumed power, the government announced that holdings in excess of 500 hectares would be turned over to landless families, and in 1975 it reported that 500,000 hectares of land had been processed under the program. The long-range strategy of the Ratsiraka regime was to create collective forms of farm management, but not necessarily of ownership. By the year 2000, some 72 percent of agricultural output was to come from farm cooperatives, 17 percent from state farms, and only 10 percent from privately managed farms. Toward this end, the Ministry of Agricultural Production coordinated with more than seventy parastatal agencies in the areas of land development, agricultural extension, research, and marketing activities. However, these socialist-inspired rural development policies, which led to a severe decline in per capita agricultural output during the 1970s, were at the center of the liberalization policies of the 1980s and the structural adjustment demands of the IMF and the World Bank.

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Agriculture in Madagascar

The evolution of rice production—the main staple food and the dominant crop—offers insight into some problems associated with agricultural production that were compounded by the Ratsiraka years. Rice production grew by less than 1 percent per year during the 1970–79 period, despite the expansion of the cultivated paddy area by more than 3 percent per year. Moreover, the share of rice available for marketing in the rapidly growing urban areas declined from 16 or 17 percent of the total crop in the early 1970s to about 11 or 12 percent during the latter part of the decade. As a result, Madagascar became a net importer of rice beginning in 1972, and by 1982 was importing nearly 200,000 tons per year—about 10 percent of the total domestic crop and about equal to the demand from urban customers.

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Agriculture in Madagascar

The inefficient system of agricultural supply and marketing, which since 1972 increasingly had been placed under direct state control, was a major factor inhibiting more efficient and expanded rice production. From 1973 to 1977, one major parastatal agency, the Association for the National Interest in Agricultural Products (Société d'Intérêt National des Produits Agricoles—SINPA), had a monopoly in collecting, importing, processing, and distributing a number of commodities, most notably rice. Corruption leading to shortages of rice in a number of areas caused a scandal in 1977, and the government was forced to take over direct responsibility for rice marketing. In 1982 SINPA maintained a large share in the distribution system for agricultural commodities; it subcontracted many smaller parastatal agencies to handle distribution in certain areas. The decreasing commercialization of rice and other commodities continued, however, suggesting that transportation bottlenecks and producer prices were undermining official distribution channels.

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Agriculture in Madagascar

To promote domestic production and reduce foreign imports of rice, the Ratsiraka regime enacted a series of structural adjustment reforms during the 1980s. These included the removal of government subsidies on the consumer purchase price of rice in 1984 and the disbanding of the state marketing monopoly controlled by SINPA in 1985. Rice growers responded by moderately expanding production by 9.3 percent during the latter half of the 1980s from 2.18 million tons in 1985 to 2.38 million tons in 1989, and rice imports declined dramatically by 70 percent between 1985 and 1989. However, the Ratsiraka regime failed to restore self-sufficiency in rice production (estimated at between 2.8 million to 3.0 million tons), and rice imports rose again in 1990. In 1992 rice production occupied about two-thirds of the cultivated area and produced 40 percent of total agricultural income, including fishing, which was next with 19 percent, livestock raising, and forestry.

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Agriculture in Madagascar

In February 1994, Cyclone Geralda hit Madagascar just as the rice harvesting was to start and had a serious impact on the self-sufficiency goal. In addition, the southern tip of Madagascar suffered from severe drought in late 1993, resulting in emergency assistance to 1 million people from the United Nations (UN) World Food Program (WFP). This WFP aid was later transformed into a food-for-work program to encourage development.

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Agriculture in Madagascar

Other food crops have witnessed small increases in production from 1985 to 1992. Cassava, the second major food crop in terms of area planted (almost everywhere on the island) and probably in quantity consumed, increased in production from 2.14 million tons in 1985 to 2.32 million tons in 1992. During this same period, corn production increased from 140,000 tons to 165,000 tons, sweet potato production increased from 450,000 tons to 487,000 tons, and bananas dropped slightly from 255,000 tons to 220,000 tons.

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Agriculture in Madagascar

Several export crops are also important to Madagascar's economy. Coffee prices witnessed a boom during the 1980s, making coffee the leading export crop of the decade; in 1986 coffee earned a record profit of US$151 million. Prices within the coffee market gradually declined during the remainder of the 1980s, and earnings reached a low of US$28 million in 1991 although they rebounded to US$58 million in 1992. Cotton traditionally has been the second major export crop, but most output during the early 1980s was absorbed by the local textile industry. Although cotton output rose from 27,000 tons in 1987 to 46,000 tons in 1988, once again raising the possibility of significant export earnings, the combination of drought and a faltering agricultural extension service in the southwest contributed to a gradual decline in output to only 20,000 tons in 1992.

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Agriculture in Madagascar

Two other export crops--cloves and vanilla—have also declined in importance from the 1980s to the 1990s. Indonesia, the primary importer of Malagasy cloves, temporarily halted purchases in 1983 as a result of sufficient domestic production, and left Madagascar with a huge surplus. A collapse in international prices for cloves in 1987, compounded by uncertain future markets and the normal cyclical nature of the crop, has led to a gradual decline in production from a high of 14,600 tons in 1991 to 7,500 tons in 1993. Similarly, the still state-regulated vanilla industry (state-regulated prices for coffee and cloves were abolished in 1988–89) found itself under considerable financial pressure after 1987 because Indonesia reentered the international market as a major producer and synthetic competitors emerged in the two major markets of the United States and France. As a result, vanilla production has declined from a high of 1,500 tons in 1988 and 1989 to only 700 tons in 1993. However, in recent years, there has been a resurgence of vanilla.

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Agriculture in Madagascar

Cacao is also a major export crop in the Ambanja region in the northwest.

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Agriculture in Madagascar

The fisheries sector, especially the export of shrimp, is the most rapidly growing area of the agricultural economy. This production is making up for lost revenues and potential structural decline within the ailing coffee, vanilla, and clove trade. Since 1988 total fish production has expanded nearly 23 percent from 92,966 tons to 114,370 tons in 1993. The export of shrimp constituted an extremely important portion of this production, providing export earnings of US$48 million in 1993. It is estimated by Aqualma, the major multinational corporation in the shrimp industry, that expansion into roughly 35,000 hectares of swampland on the country's west coast may allow for the expansion of production from the current 6,500 tons and US$40 million in revenues to nearly 75,000 tons and US$400 million in revenues by the end of the 1990s. The prospects are also good for promoting greater levels of fish cultivation in the rice paddies, and exports of other fish products, most notably crab, tuna, and lobster, have been rising.

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Agriculture in Madagascar

Livestock production is limited in part because of traditional patterns of livestock ownership that have hampered commercialization. Beef exports in the early 1990s decreased because of poor government marketing practices, rundown slaughtering facilities, and inadequate veterinary services. Approximately 99 percent of cattle are zebu cattle. In 1990 the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN estimated that Madagascar had 10.3 million cattle, 1.7 million sheep and goats, and some 21 million chickens.

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Agriculture in Madagascar

Most of the historical farming in Madagascar has been conducted by indigenous peoples. The French colonial period disturbed a very small percentage of land area, and even included some useful experiments in sustainable forestry. Slash-and-burn techniques, a component of some shifting cultivation systems have been practised by the inhabitants of Madagascar for centuries. As of 2006 some of the major agricultural products from slash-and-burn methods are wood, charcoal and grass for Zebu grazing. These practises have taken perhaps the greatest toll on land fertility since the end of French rule, mainly due to overpopulation pressures.

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Agriculture in Madagascar

The Madagascar dry deciduous forests have been preserved generally better than the eastern rainforests or the high central plateau, presumably due to historically less population density and scarcity of water; moreover, the present day lack of road access further limits human access. There has been some slash-and-burn activity in the western dry forests, reducing forest cover and the soil nutrient content. Slash-and-burn is a method sometimes used by shifting cultivators to create short term yields from marginal soils. When practiced repeatedly, or without intervening fallow periods, the nutrient poor soils may be exhausted or eroded to an unproductive state. Further protection of Madagascar's forests would assist in preservation of these diverse ecosystems, which have a very high ratio of endemic organisms to total species.

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Agriculture in Madagascar

A switch to slash-and-char would considerably advance preservation, while the ensuing biochar would also greatly benefit the soil if returned to it while mixed with compostable biomass such as crop residues. This would lead to the creation of terra preta, a soil among the richest on the planet and the only one known to regenerate itself (although how this happens exactly is still a mystery). The nascent carbon trading market may further bring direct economical benefits for the operators, since charcoal is a prime sequester of carbon and burying it spread in small pieces, as terra preta requires, is a most efficient guarantee that it will remain harmless for many thousands of years.

16547457

C. B. Muthamma

Chonira Belliappa Muthamma (24 January 1924 – 14 October 2009) was the first woman to clear the Indian Civil Services examinations. She was also the first woman to join the Indian Foreign Service. She was the first Indian woman diplomat as well. Later, she became the first Indian woman Ambassador (or High Commissioner) also. She is remembered for her successful crusade for gender equality in the Indian Civil Services.

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C. B. Muthamma

Chonira Belliappa Muthamma was born on 24 January 1924 in Virajpet in Coorg. Her father, who was a forest officer, died when she was nine years old. Muthamma's mother committed herself to the cause of getting the best education her four children. Muthamma completed her schooling in St.Joseph’s Girls School in Madikeri, and graduated from the Women's Christian College, Chennai (Madras at that point) with a triple gold medal. She then attained a Master of Arts degree in English Literature from Presidency College.

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C. B. Muthamma

Muthamma became the first woman to join the Indian Civil Services by clearing the UPSC examination in 1948. She finished at the top of the list of candidates who has applied for the Indian Foreign Service that year and went on to join the service in 1949. When she entered the service, Muthamma was made to sign an undertaking that she would resign from her job once she got married.

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C. B. Muthamma

Muthamma was first posted to the Indian Embassy at Paris. She also went on to serve as a diplomat in Rangoon, London, and on the Pakistan and America Desks in the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi. She was appointed India’s Ambassador to Hungary in 1970. She thus became the first woman from within the service to be appointed Ambassador. Later, she served as ambassador in Accra in Ghana, and afterwards she was made the Indian Ambassador to The Hague in the Netherlands.

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C. B. Muthamma

Muthamma is known for her successful crusade for gender equality in the Indian Civil Service. The Indian Ministry for external affairs had not promoted CB Muthamma to the post of foreign secretary. Muthamma had to take the Ministry of External Affairs to court when she was denied promotion to Grade I of the service on grounds of "merit". She petitioned the government, claiming that she had been overlooked for promotion and that the rules governing the employment were discriminatory. The Ministry promptly promoted her, hoping that the Supreme Court would dismiss the case. The Supreme Court dismissed the case only after ruling that the issues raised by the petitioner could not be dismissed. Her case was upheld in 1979 in a landmark judgment by a three-member Bench headed by Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer which emphasized "the need to overhaul all service rules to remove the stains of sex discrimination, without waiting for ad-hoc inspiration from writ petitions or gender charity." This did not deter the then Foreign Secretary, who sent a circular to women officers, threatening to remove them from their posts for seeking "special privileges". One of these alleged special privileges was the women wanting to be with their husbands. These details find mention in her 2003 book "Slain by the System". She retired from the IFS in 1982 after 32 years of service.

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C. B. Muthamma

Justice Krishna Iyer’s judgment of Muthamma's case described the Foreign Service as ‘misogynist.’ To show the existence of gender discrimination in the services, Iyer cited Rule 8 (2) of the Indian Foreign Service (Conduct and Discipline) Rules which stated that, "a woman member of the service shall obtain the permission of the government in writing before her marriage is solemnised. Any time after the marriage, a woman member of the Service may be required to resign from Service, if the government is satisfied that her family and domestic commitments are likely to come in the way of due and efficient discharge of her duties as a member of the Service." The Supreme Court Judgement ensured that henceforth it was not mandatory for women officers in the IFS to seek government permission for getting married.

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C. B. Muthamma

After retirement, she became the Indian member of the Independent Commission on Disarmament and Security Issues set up by the then Swedish Prime Minister, Olof Palme. Her last major published work was a collection of essays titled "Slain by the System" published in 2003 by Viveka Foundation.

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C. B. Muthamma

Muthamma was also a passionate environmentalist and a culinary enthusiast as well. She had also co-authored a book on Kodava cuisine called 'The Essential Kodava Cookbook'. A known philanthropist, she donated a large tract of personal land, amounting to approximately 15 acres in Delhi, to The Missionaries of Charity where a school for orphans has been started. The week she died she signed a cheque for a library Gonikoppal High School and for a business management college building in Virajpet in her native place. The manuscript she wrote on her mother as a tribute she owed for all her achievements was ready to be published posthumously.

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C. B. Muthamma

She died aged 85 at a private hospital in Bangalore in 2009.

16525400

SJ X40

The X40 is a series of electric multiple units operated by SJ of Sweden. They are in service from Stockholm to Linköping, Eskilstuna/Arboga, Västerås/Örebro and Gävle/Sandviken, and since 2010 to Gothenburg. The double decker trains were built by Alstom from 2004–2008, with 43 units being delivered, either in a two-car or three-car configuration. It is based on the Coradia series, very similar to the French SNCF Class Z 26500 double decker trains, and similar to the X60-series.

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SJ X40

The X40 is the first true double-decker train to operate in Sweden, although the first and last cars of the Y3 were built in a style similar to dome cars, connected to single-deck coaches. From 2019 onwards the bilevel Stadler DOSTO will also be used in the Mälardalen and Uppsala regions of Sweden.

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SJ X40

The double deckers have a little higher passenger capacity than conventional cars, with 85 compared to 78 seats. Wider doors allow the trains to make only 30 second stops in smaller stations and 60 second stops in larger stations. Top speed is 200 km/h. Often the trains are paired, with one two-car and one three-car unit. The X40 has both first and second class, but with the same level of comfort. There is air conditioning, signal boosting for mobile telephones, electrical plugs at each chair, that is also equipped with radio. WLAN is available for free to all passengers.

16525400

SJ X40

There were many technical problems during the first year of operation in 2006, including problems with doors and the air conditioning. Complaints from passengers were that there was too little room for baggage and that the seat pitch was insufficient. These problems have been addressed through rebuilding the interior, which also included removing all vending machines and coffeemakers from the trains themselves. The trains are specified for regional commuter traffic, and some complaints come from passengers on longer journeys. For example, a common route for the train is Gävle-Stockholm-Linköping, with stop at Arlanda Airport, which means that tourists with heavy luggage use the train. During 2011 they have been used for even longer distances, like Stockholm-Örebro-Göteborg and Stockholm-Sundsvall, which has added to these complaints. In 2012 the new SJ 3000 have replaced the X40 on some of these longer trips.

16533354

Idris Jusoh

Dato' Seri Haji Idris bin Jusoh (Jawi: إدريس بن جوسوه; born 15 November 1955) is a Malaysian politician and Member of Parliament of Malaysia for Besut constituency. He was the Minister of Higher Education from July 2015 to May 2018. He is a former Menteri Besar of Terengganu and also the former Chairman of Majlis Amanah Rakyat (MARA). He is a member of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) which is part of the national opposition coalition Barisan Nasional.

16533354

Idris Jusoh

Idris Jusoh or popularly known as "Yeh" (Yeh is just a shortform for Idris, most Kelantanese call people with the name Idris as Yeh and Jertih, at least according to some folklores, used to belong to Kelantan) attended elite school (STAR) from 1968 to 1973.

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Idris Jusoh

Yeh was in Green House. He was a school prefect too. He was one of the best students in STAR during his time. Those days, best students were sent to Australia for matriculation even before the MCE(SPM) results were known. And he was one of them.

16533354

Idris Jusoh

He came back to Malaysia before completing his studies in Australia because his father died. Later on he attended USM and was at one time USM's "overall best student".

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Idris Jusoh

Yeh became famous when he won Terengganu for Barisan Nasional from PAS in 2004 and he became the state MB. PAS, the incumbent party, won only 4 seats while Idris-led BN conquered 28.

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Idris Jusoh

He was MARA chairman until his recent appointment as Minister of Education II. Yeh is married to a Kelantanese lady whom he met in USM.

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Idris Jusoh

Following the 2008 Malaysian general election, Barisan Nasional managed to win a majority in the Terengganu state election, garnering 24 out of 32 state seats on offer, with PAS winning the remaining 8 seats.

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Idris Jusoh

In the formation of the new Terengganu state government, the federal government under the then Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi recommended Idris Jusoh as "Menteri Besar", who received full support of twenty-three of the 24 Barisan Nasional state assemblymen elected.

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Idris Jusoh

A crisis soon ensued after the Sultan of Terengganu, Mizan Zainal Abidin, who is also the Yang di-Pertuan Agong (Supreme Ruler) of Malaysia, refused to re-appoint and swear in Idris as Menteri Besar. On 22 March 2008, the office of the Sultan of Terengganu announced the appointment of Kijal assemblyman Ahmad Said instead of Idris Jusoh.

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Idris Jusoh

The Prime Minister responded by saying that the appointment of Ahmad Said was unconstitutional as it went against the wishes of the assemblymen and the Prime Minister's office who have supported Idris Jusoh candidacy for "Menteri Besar". The 22 other BN assemblymen had also pledged their support toward the appointment of Idris Jusoh according to Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak. Ahmad Said was given warning that he would be stripped of his UMNO membership "for disobeying the party's leadership". However he was not stripped of his UMNO membership

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Idris Jusoh

On 26 March 2008, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin met at Istana Negara to resolve the impasse. The Prime Minister accepted the King's appointment of Ahmad Said as Menteri Besar of Terengganu. He also apologised to the King for the public spat over the appointment of the mentri besar, explaining that there was no intention to disparage or humiliate the royal household. This apparent backdown was due to threat that the royal household would be prepared to dissolve the state assembly if there had been a motion of no-confidence against Ahmad Said by the 22 Umno state assemblymen.

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Idris Jusoh

The crisis was one of the only royal interventions in Malaysia in recent times.

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Idris Jusoh

On 10 September 2013, referring to the National Education Blueprint, he made a highlight in the news by saying this in a forum in Sabah, "If some people feel the system is not good and want to send their children overseas to study, the government cannot stop them. But the Ministry will work towards improving the country’s education system,"

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Idris Jusoh

On 21 February 2015, he declared that Malaysia's higher education is now on par with those of developed nations including the United Kingdom, Germany and Australia, said Second Education Minister Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh. He said this was proven by the fact that 135,000 foreign students made up 10% of students at national higher educational institutions in the country. This statement was largely criticized due to its over optimism. On 24 February 2015, Idris released an article entitled "What it Means to be World Class" to explain the statement as we as other education matters.

16534443

Reconnaissance by fire

Reconnaissance by fire (recon by fire), also known as speculative fire, is a warfare tactic used in which military forces may fire on likely enemy positions to provoke a reaction, which confirms the presence and the position of enemy forces.

16534443

Reconnaissance by fire

Reconnaissance by fire was widely adopted by the Allies against the Axis in the European theater of World War II. Armored units would typically advance in column behind light armored scouting units. At the same time infantry would be present to provide support in the event of ambush by German panzerfaust teams. This method proved too slow to keep pressure on retiring enemy forces. Instead, US armored columns continued to advance at speed, training cannon and machine guns alternately to fire to cover both the left and the right of the axis of advance. The column would fire its weapons more or less continuously into any suspected enemy positions as they appeared, suppressing and distracting the aim of enemy gunners and antitank teams. Supply echelon convoys using trucks equipped with .50-cal. M2 Browning machine guns also used the tactic when traveling through areas not completely cleared of enemy forces.

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Reconnaissance by fire

During the Battle of Ia Drang of the Vietnam War, a US Army battalion commander, Lieutenant Colonel Hal Moore, noticed that his men had a large amount of ammunition. He ordered his men to fire at anything suspicious at an agreed synchronised time. The large amount of fire at that time led a group of undetected infiltrating enemy soldiers to believe that they had been discovered and to charge the Americans, leading to their destruction.

16511247

Quentin Pongia

Quentin Lee Pongia (9 July 1970 – 18 May 2019) was a New Zealand rugby league footballer who represented New Zealand in the 1990s and 2000s.

16511247

Quentin Pongia

He was the grandson of fellow Kiwi international Jim Calder. His sister Megan Tahapeehi has represented the Kiwi Ferns, and his older brother Brendon represented New Zealand as a professional basketball player.

16511247

Quentin Pongia

Originally from the West Coast, Pongia transferred east in 1988. He registered and played for the Riccarton Knights Rugby League Football Club in the Canterbury Rugby League competition, representing the province in 1991 and 1992.

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Quentin Pongia

Pongia later played for the Canberra Raiders. He also became a New Zealand international and was selected to go on the 1993 New Zealand rugby league tour of Great Britain and France, playing in all five test matches. He played at the 1995 Rugby League World Cup. Pongia played for the Auckland Warriors and was the NZRL player of the year in 1998. He joined the Sydney Roosters of the National Rugby League before heading to France. Pongia went to France as player coach of Paris Chattilon, but it didn't work out and he moved to Villeneuve, winning both the Championship and the Lord Derby Cup with the club.

16511247

Quentin Pongia

In 2003, after the French season had finished, Pongia returned to Australia and played two matches for the St. George Illawarra Dragons. He then finished his career in England playing for the Wigan Warriors. Pongia played for the Wigan Warriors at prop forward in the 2003 Super League Grand Final which was lost to the Bradford Bulls. He was forced to retire from rugby league after it was discovered that he suffered from hepatitis B.

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Quentin Pongia

In 2009 Pongia was the strength and conditioning coach for the Canberra Raiders Toyota Cup (Under-20s) team. He was promoted to assistant coach for the Raiders National Rugby League team for the 2010 season. During the 2009 Four Nations Pongia was an assistant trainer and mentor for the New Zealand national rugby league team. He was replaced as a Raiders assistant coach for the 2012 season by Justin Morgan.

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Quentin Pongia

Quentin Pongia was the wellbeing officer for the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles in 2017.

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Quentin Pongia

Pongia died of bowel cancer on 18 May 2019 in Greymouth, at the age of 48.

16514819

Seren (name)

Seren is a Welsh female and male name meaning "star". It has become a common female name and was the third most common name for baby girls born in Wales in 2009; in 2010 Seren was the 5th most common name in Wales, and the 288th most common name for newborn girls in England.

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Seren (name)

Seren is also a popular Turkish name, where it is a surname (including with a cedilla under the 'S'), and a feminine given name.

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Seren (name)

Ceren, a cognate name in both Turkish and Welsh

16515217

Robert Zarinsky

Robert Zarinsky (September 2, 1940 November 28, 2008) was a convicted murderer and suspected serial killer from Linden, New Jersey.

16515217

Robert Zarinsky

After a series of lesser crimes and numerous stays in psychiatric institutions:

16515217

Robert Zarinsky

Zarinsky repeatedly boasted that he could solve up to ten homicides, hoping to parlay the information into a more-lenient prison sentence.

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Robert Zarinsky

Rosemary Calandriello was a 17-year-old girl from Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey, who disappeared on August 25, 1969. Her body was never found, but Zarinsky was convicted in 1975 of murdering her. He was sentenced to life imprisonment for this crime, upheld on appeal. He was the first person in New Jersey ever to be convicted of murder without the victim's body having been found.

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Robert Zarinsky

In 1988, Zarinsky claimed that he had accidentally killed Rosemary and buried her body in northwest New Jersey. He later claimed that he had thrown her body into the Atlantic Ocean.

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Robert Zarinsky

In 2001, Zarinsky was tried and acquitted of the November 28, 1958, murder of Rahway police officer Charles Bernoskie.

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Robert Zarinsky

Bernoskie happened upon a burglary in progress at the Miller Pontiac car dealership in Rahway. He was then shot and killed by one of the burglars, either Zarinsky or his cousin Theodore Schiffer. Although Bernoskie shot both suspects, they were able to elude capture. No one was charged with the murder until 1999.

16515217

Robert Zarinsky

Schiffer left a fingerprint at the scene of the Miller Pontiac burglary, but it was not until 1999 that the fingerprint was matched to him. He had never been fingerprinted and therefore there was no record of his fingerprints. Schiffer pleaded guilty to burglary and served three years in prison.

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Robert Zarinsky

Schiffer was implicated as an accomplice in the burglary and murder, in testimony from Zarinsky's sister, Judith Sapsa, who was under investigation for embezzling $121,500 from a mutual fund account owned by Zarinsky. Sapsa testified at the Bernoskie murder trial that she had assisted her mother with removing bullets from Zarinsky and Schiffer on the night of the Bernoskie murder. Sapsa also testified that Zarinsky stated to her that "Teddy and I shot a cop." Despite the testimony of Schiffer and Sapsa, their credibility and motives were questioned, and Zarinsky was acquitted of the Bernoskie murder.

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Robert Zarinsky

When Zarinsky was indicted in 2000 for the murder, Bette Bernoskie, the widow of Officer Charles Bernoskie, filed a wrongful-death suit against Zarinsky in civil court. In August 2003, a jury found Zarinsky responsible for the death and awarded Bette Bernoskie $9,500,000 plus interest. In 2004, $154,000 was seized from Zarinsky's assets, and Bette Bernoskie divided this award among her legal representatives and her six children.

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Robert Zarinsky

In July 2007, a New Jersey Appellate Court reversed the decision and ordered the money returned to Zarinsky, citing his inability to put on a proper defense. Bette Bernoskie no longer had the money, and the New Jersey Patrolmen's Benevolent Association then organized efforts to repay it. It was their intention that neither Bette Bernoskie nor her children would ever give back the award money.

16515217

Robert Zarinsky

On March 11, 2008, a grand jury returned an indictment against Zarinsky for the 1968 murder of 13-year-old Jane Durrua, based on DNA evidence. Durrua went missing on the evening of November 4, 1968, and her body was found the next morning in a field in Middletown, New Jersey.

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Robert Zarinsky

On February 17, 2016, the New Jersey State Police Major Crime Unit and the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office announced that newly examined DNA evidence linked the 1965 death of Mary Agnes Klinsky to Zarinsky. Klinsky was raped and beaten to death. Her naked body was found near Telegraph Hill Park in Holmdel, New Jersey on September 16, 1965.

16515217

Robert Zarinsky

On November 28, 2008, before he could stand trial for the Durrua murder, Zarinsky died at the South Woods State Prison in Bridgeton, New Jersey, of pulmonary fibrosis, a scarring of the lung tissue that made it increasingly difficult for him to breathe.

16617042

Without a Trace (season 5)

The fifth season of "Without a Trace" premiered September 24, 2006 on CBS and ended on May 10, 2007. There are 24 episodes in this season. This season includes the 100th episode. For the U.S. 2006–07 television season the fifth season of "Without a Trace" ranked 16th with an average of 14.7 million viewers and in the 18–49 demographic ranked 28th with a 4.1/11 Rating/Share.

16617042

Without a Trace (season 5)

The fifth season of "Without a Trace" has not been released on DVD in region 1 but was released in region 2 in Germany on July 17, 2009 on and in the UK on February 22, 2010. In region 4 the fifth season was released on July 1, 2009 However it was released on Amazon Video in early 2012.

16617042

Without a Trace (season 5)

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16617920

Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville

Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville (; 25 April 1817 – 26 April 1879) was a French printer, bookseller and inventor.

16617920

Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville

He invented the earliest known sound recording device, the phonautograph, which was patented in France on 25 March 1857.

16617920

Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville

As a printer by trade, he was able to read accounts of the latest scientific discoveries and became an inventor. Scott de Martinville was interested in recording the sound of human speech in a way similar to that achieved by the then-new technology of photography for light and image. He hoped for a form of stenography that could record the whole of a conversation without any omissions. His earliest interest was in an improved form of stenography, and he was the author of several papers on shorthand and a history of the subject (1849).

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Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville

From 1853 he became fascinated in a mechanical means of transcribing vocal sounds. While proofreading some engravings for a physics textbook, he came across drawings of auditory anatomy. He sought to mimic the working in a mechanical device, substituting an elastic membrane for the tympanum, a series of levers for the ossicle, which moved a stylus he proposed would press on a paper, wood, or glass surface covered in lampblack. On 26 January 1857, he delivered his design in a sealed envelope to the French Academy. On 25 March 1857, he received French patent #17,897/31,470 for the phonautograph.

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Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville

To collect sound, the phonautograph used a horn attached to a diaphragm which vibrated a stiff bristle which inscribed an image on a lampblack-coated, hand-cranked cylinder. Scott built several devices with the help of acoustic instrument maker Rudolph Koenig. Unlike Thomas Edison's later invention of 1877, the phonograph, the phonautograph created only visual images of the sound and did not have the ability to play back its recordings. Scott de Martinville's intention was for the device's waves to be read by humans as one would read text, which proved unfeasible.

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Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville

Scott de Martinville managed to sell several phonautographs to scientific laboratories for use in the investigation of sound. It proved useful in the study of vowel sounds and was used by Franciscus Donders, Heinrich Schneebeli and Rene Marage. It also initiated further research into tools able to image sound, such as Koenig's manometric flame. He was not, however, able to profit from his invention, and spent the remainder of his life as a bookseller dealing in prints and photographs, at 9 Rue Vivienne in Paris.

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Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville

Scott de Martinville also became interested in the relationship between linguistics, people's names and their character, and published a paper on the subject (1857).

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Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville

In 2008, "The New York Times" reported the playback of a phonautogram recorded on 9 April 1860. The recording was converted from "squiggles on paper" to a playable digital audio file with the IRENE technology, developed by scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California. The phonautogram was one of several deposited by Léon Scott in two archives in Paris and only recently brought to light.

16617920

Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville

The recording, part of the French folk song "Au clair de la lune", was initially played at a speed that produced what seemed to be a 10-second recording of the voice of a woman or child singing at an ordinary musical tempo. The researchers leading the project later found that a misunderstanding about an included reference frequency had resulted in a doubling of the correct playback speed, and that it was actually a 20-second recording of a man, probably Scott himself, singing the song very slowly. It is now the earliest known recording of singing in existence, predating, by 28 years, several 1888 Edison wax cylinder phonograph recordings of a massed chorus performing Handel's oratorio "Israel in Egypt".

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Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville

A phonautogram by Scott containing the opening lines of Torquato Tasso's pastoral drama "Aminta", in Italian, has also been found. Recorded around 1860, probably after the recording of "Au clair de la lune", this phonautogram is now the earliest known recording of intelligible human speech. Recordings of Scott's voice made in 1857 have also survived, but they are only unintelligible snippets. However, since then one of these recordings (1857 cornet scale recording) has been restored, and earlier records from 1853 experiments have been found and conserved.

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Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville

It has been claimed that in 1863 Scott's phonautograph was used to make a recording of Abraham Lincoln's voice at the White House. A phonautogram of Lincoln's voice was supposedly among the artifacts kept by Thomas Edison. According to FirstSounds.org, these stories are variations of a myth that seems to have first appeared in print in a 1969 book about antique collecting, in which it is explicitly categorized as a legend and dismissed as based on "garbled accounts". There is no solid evidence that such a recording ever existed. The most nearly similar artifact known to have been kept by Edison was a recording of the voice of President Rutherford B. Hayes, captured as a groove indented into a sheet of tinfoil when Edison demonstrated his newly-invented phonograph to Hayes in 1878. Scott did not visit the US in the 1860s and therefore could not have recorded Lincoln himself, as one version of the legend claims he did.

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Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville

Scott's phonautograms were selected by the Library of Congress as a 2010 addition to the National Recording Registry, which selects recordings annually that are "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

16618361

1996–97 Rangers F.C. season

The 1996–97 season was the 117th season of competitive football by Rangers.

16618361

1996–97 Rangers F.C. season

All results are written with Rangers' score first.