title: Exhaust gas recirculation

text: In diesel engines in particular, EGR systems come with serious drawbacks, one of which is a reduction in engine longevity. For example, because the EGR system routes exhaust gas directly back into the cylinder intake without any form of filtration, this exhaust gas contains carbon particulates. And, because these tiny particles are abrasive, the recirculation of this material back into the cylinder increases engine wear. This is so because these carbon particles will blow by the piston rings (causing piston-cylinder-interface wear in the process) and then end up in the crankcase oil, where they will cause further wear throughout the engine simply because their tiny size passes through typical oil filters. This enables them to be recirculated indefinitely (until the next oil change takes place).


title: Exhaust gas recirculation

text: Exhaust gas—which consists largely of nitrogen, carbon dioxide, and water vapor—has a higher specific heat than air, so it still serves to lower peak combustion temperatures. However, adding EGR to a diesel reduces the specific heat ratio of the combustion gases in the power stroke. This reduces the amount of power that can be extracted by the piston, thereby reducing the thermodynamic efficiency.


title: Exhaust gas recirculation

text: EGR also tends to reduce the completeness of fuel combustion during the power stroke. This is plainly evident by the increase in particulate emissions that corresponds to an increase in EGR.


title: Exhaust gas recirculation

text: Particulate matter (mainly carbon and also known as soot) that is not burned in the power stroke represents wasted energy. Because of stricter regulations on particulate matter (PM), the soot-increasing effect of EGR required the introduction of further emission controls in order to compensate for the resulting PM emission increases. The most common soot-control device is a diesel particulate filter (DPF) installed downstream of the engine in the exhaust system. This captures soot but causes a reduction in fuel efficiency due to the back pressure created.


title: Exhaust gas recirculation

text: Diesel particulate filters come with their own set of very specific operational and maintenance requirements. Firstly, as the DPF captures the soot particles (which are made far more numerous due to the use of EGR), the DPF itself progressively becomes loaded with soot. This soot must then be burned off, either actively or passively.


title: Exhaust gas recirculation

text: At sufficiently high temperatures, the nitrogen dioxide component of emissions is the primary oxidizer of the soot caught in the DPF at normal operating temperatures. This process is known as passive regeneration, and it is only partially effective at burning off the captured soot. And, especially at high EGR rates, the effectiveness of passive regeneration is further reduced. This, in turn, necessitates periodic active regeneration of the DPF by burning diesel fuel directly in the oxidation catalyst in order to significantly increase exhaust-gas temperatures through the DPF to the point where PM is incinerated by the residual oxygen in the exhaust.


title: Exhaust gas recirculation

text: Because diesel fuel and engine oil both contain nonburnable (i.e. metallic and mineral) impurities, the incineration of soot (PM) in the DPF leaves behind a residue known as ash. For this reason, after repeated regeneration events, eventually the DPF must either be physically removed and cleaned in a special external process, or it must be replaced.


title: Exhaust gas recirculation

text: As noted earlier, the feeding the low-oxygen exhaust gas into the diesel engine's air intake engenders lower combustion temperatures, thereby reducing emissions of . But this simultaneously makes combustion less efficient, thus reducing fuel efficiency and compromising power. (These losses are in addition to the losses created by the DPF backpressure and the extra fuel burning for active DPF regeneration.) The translates into the need for a bigger, bulkier engine. Alternatively, the engine can be operated at a higher rotation speed, which in turn also increases mechanical wear and reduces lifespan.


title: Exhaust gas recirculation

text: With EGR, the normally "dry" intake system of a diesel engine is now subject to fouling from soot, unburned (and semi-burned) fuel, and also oil in the EGR bleed gas. Although airflow into the engine remains high, the mixture of exhaust gas and fresh air is also combined with oil vapor from a positive crankcase ventilation system (PCV) system. This tripartite mixture (i.e. exhaust gas, fresh air, and oil vapour) can cause the buildup of sticky tar in the intake manifold and valves. This mixture can also cause problems with components such as swirl flaps, where fitted. (These problems, which effectively take the form of an undesirable positive-feedback loop, will worsen as the engine ages. For example, as the piston rings progressively wear out, more crankcase oil will get into the exhaust stream. Simultaneously, more fuel and soot and combustion byproducts will gain access to the engine oil.)


title: Exhaust gas recirculation

text: The end result of this recirculation of both exhaust gas and crankcase oil vapour is again an increase in soot production, which is merely masked by the DPF.


title: Exhaust gas recirculation

text: In addition to the abrasive contaminants that EGR systems bring into the combustion chamber, and also given that exhaust gas contains water vapour, modern cooled EGR systems also induce the formation of both nitric acid (from ) and sulphuric acid (since some sulphur remains in low-sulphur diesel fuel). These acids will be introduced into the combustion chamber via the intake valves, whereupon they will enter the crankcase via piston blow-by. Because these acids are highly corrosive to metal, the resulting increase in engine oil acidity can be expected to also reduce overall engine longevity.


title: Exhaust gas recirculation

text: Although engine manufacturers have refused to release details of the effect of EGR on fuel economy, the EPA regulations of 2002 that led to the introduction of cooled EGR were associated with a 3% drop in engine efficiency, thus bucking the trend of a 0.5% annual increase.


title: Dean Smith (footballer, born 1971)

text: Dean Smith (born 19 March 1971) is an English professional football manager and former player who is the head coach of club Norwich City.


title: Dean Smith (footballer, born 1971)

text: Starting his playing career as a defender with Walsall in 1989, over the course of five years he played 166 league and cup games. After signing for Hereford United in 1994, three years and 146 appearances later he moved on to Leyton Orient. In six years with Orient he made 309 appearances in all competitions, before earning a move to Sheffield Wednesday in 2003. After a season with Wednesday he moved on to Port Vale, retiring in January 2005. He scored 54 goals in 566 league games in a 16-year career in the Football League.


title: Dean Smith (footballer, born 1971)

text: Returning to Leyton Orient, he worked as assistant manager until January 2009. In July 2009, he was appointed as Head of Youth at Walsall, before taking over as manager in January 2011. He took Walsall from the relegation zone to safety in his first four months in charge. He took Walsall to the 2015 final of the Football League Trophy, before leaving the club to manage Brentford in November 2015. Smith was appointed as Aston Villa manager in October 2018 and took the club from 14th in the Championship to the Premier League via the play-offs in the 2018–19 season, and then to the 2020 EFL Cup final. He was dismissed by Aston Villa in November 2021 and immediately took up the head coach role at Premier League rivals Norwich City.


title: Dean Smith (footballer, born 1971)

text: Smith started his playing career at Walsall, as the club suffered relegation from the Third Division in 1989–90 under John Barnwell's stewardship. They then struggled to adapt to life in the Fourth Division under new manager Kenny Hibbitt, finishing 16th in 1990–91 and 15th in 1991–92. The Saddlers qualified for the play-offs with a fifth-place finish in 1992–93, but were badly beaten by Crewe Alexandra at the semi-final stage. Walsall finished tenth in 1993–94, and Smith left the club, having played a total of 166 games for the Saddlers, scoring two goals.


title: Dean Smith (footballer, born 1971)

text: In summer 1994, Smith was sold to Hereford United for £80,000, a club record fee for the "Bulls". They finished 16th in the Third Division in 1994–95 under John Layton. Smith was Graham Turner's captain at Edgar Street during the club's rise to the Third Division play-offs in 1995–96, where they were beaten by 4–2 Darlington at the semi-final stage, despite Smith opening the scoring just two minutes into the first leg.


title: Dean Smith (footballer, born 1971)

text: Hereford were relegated from the English Football League after finishing in last place in 1996–97; they had been level on points with Brighton & Hove and with a superior goal difference, however goals scored was the decider and Brighton scored three more than Hereford over the course of the campaign. Smith scored 26 goals in 146 appearances in all competitions during his time at Edgar Street.


title: Dean Smith (footballer, born 1971)

text: Smith signed with Tommy Taylor's Leyton Orient in August 1997, with a tribunal setting the fee at £42,500. He scored ten goals in 51 games in 1997–98; Orient would have finished one point outside the Third Division play-offs had they not been deducted three points. He captained Orient to the play-offs in 1998–99, and converted a penalty in the shoot-out victory over Rotherham United at the semi-final stage. However his team were beaten 1–0 by Scunthorpe United in the Wembley final. Over the course of the campaign he scored ten goals in 49 appearances.


title: Dean Smith (footballer, born 1971)

text: Orient then struggled in 1999–2000, finishing in the bottom half of the table. Smith was again a key player, scoring six goals in 50 appearances. Following a fifth-place finish in 2000–01, he again captained the "O's" to the play-off final in 2001, this time at the Millennium Stadium. Despite twice taking the lead against Blackpool, they lost the match 4–2. Over the course of the season he scored five goals in 54 games.


title: Dean Smith (footballer, born 1971)

text: He scored four goals in 51 games in 2001–02, but Paul Brush's team struggled and finished in mid-table, closer to the relegation zone than the play-offs, though they were 16 points above the drop. Smith continued to feature heavily in the 2002–03 campaign, though he left the club in mid-season. He had played 309 games for the club in all competitions, scoring 43 goals.


title: Dean Smith (footballer, born 1971)

text: He joined First Division side Sheffield Wednesday in February 2003, then managed by Chris Turner. The "Owls" were relegated at the end of the season, having finished in 22nd place, four points below Stoke City. He was appointed club captain in the summer, however Wednesday struggled in the Second Division and finished just three points above relegated Grimsby Town. Smith played 48 games in 2003–04, scoring one goal. The club then had a clear out of personnel, and Smith was one of 13 players to depart Hillsborough. He had scored one goal in 62 appearances for Wednesday.


title: Dean Smith (footballer, born 1971)

text: In July 2004, he signed for Martin Foyle's Port Vale. He played 13 League One games and two cup games for the "Valiants" in 2004–05, before he ended his playing days in January 2005 when he left Vale Park to become youth team coach at his old club Leyton Orient.


title: Dean Smith (footballer, born 1971)

text: After working as a youth coach at Leyton Orient from January 2005, Smith was promoted to the role of assistant manager toward the end of the 2004–05 season. He attained his UEFA Pro Licence in 2008, alongside classmates such as Roy Keane, Brendan Rodgers, and Ian McParland. After a poor run of form, Smith left Orient in January 2009, along with long serving manager Martin Ling.


title: Dean Smith (footballer, born 1971)

text: Smith was appointed caretaker manager of Walsall on 4 January 2011, following the dismissal of Chris Hutchings. Seventeen days later he was announced as permanent manager of the club until the end of the season. Taking over managerial duties with his side nine points adrift at the foot of League One, Smith managed to steer Walsall out of the drop zone before the season's end. On 29 January, the "Saddlers" recorded their best league result since 1986 by beating Bristol Rovers 6–1, in what was Smith's first win in charge; the three points also took Walsall off the foot of the table, though they were still seven points short of safety. His team made up the difference over February, and a 1–0 win over promotion chasing Southampton on 1 March saw Walsall climb out of the relegation zone for the first time since October. They ended the season one point clear of Dagenham & Redbridge in the drop zone.


title: Dean Smith (footballer, born 1971)

text: He let fourteen players go in summer 2011, including: Darren Byfield, Jonny Brain, Clayton McDonald, Paul Marshall, Matt Richards, Steve Jones, Aaron Lescott, David Bevan, Julian Gray, and Tom Williams. He then signed goalkeeper Dávid Gróf; defenders Mat Sadler and Lee Beevers; midfielders Kevan Hurst, Claude Gnakpa, Adam Chambers, and Anton Peterlin; and striker Ryan Jarvis. Also during the campaign he boosted his squad with loan signings Dave Martin, Mark Wilson, Andy Halliday, and Florent Cuvelier. His side lost just one of their first five league games, but then picked up just three points from their next seven games. They beat Preston North End on 15 October, but then picked up just four points from their next eight games. From 26 November, they were beaten just once in nine matches, but became the division's draw specialists as seven of these nine games finished level. They finished the campaign in 19th place, seven points clear of the relegation zone.


title: Dean Smith (footballer, born 1971)

text: In summer 2012, he offered professional contracts to youth team players Mal Benning, Ben George, Aaron Williams and Kieron Morris. He continued to add promising young players by bringing in 21-year-old winger Ashley Hemmings, 19-year-old former loanee Florent Cuvelier, 19-year-old winger James Baxendale, 20-year-old defender Paul Downing, 19-year-old striker Connor Taylor, 23-year-old striker Febian Brandy, in addition to 32-year-old right-back Dean Holden. He also brought in full-back James Chambers, twin brother of Adam Chambers. He also brought in a number of players on loan, including: Karl Darlow (21), Sam Mantom (20), Aaron McCarey (20), and Craig Westcarr (27). Mantom was made into a permanent signing in January. Smith signed a new two-and-a-half-year contract in October, keeping him at the club until summer 2015. This came after the club announced a £10,000 profit on the previous campaign as Smith's 'Total Football' approach yielded a mid-table position for the young Walsall team, in addition to praise from pundits and fans. A poor run of results saw the team slip to just above the relegation zone in mid-December. Walsall recovered to win four of their five games in January, as Smith was named as Manager of the Month. They ended the season in ninth place, six points outside the play-offs.


title: Dean Smith (footballer, born 1971)

text: During a fine start to the 2013–14 season, Smith, affectionately nicknamed "Ginger Mourinho" by the Walsall fans, took the club to an unlikely promotion push. He masterminded a win at Molineux against Black Country derby rivals, Wolverhampton Wanderers, and also ended winning streaks by table-toppers Leyton Orient and Brentford. The club could not sustain their promotion push however, and ended the campaign in 13th place. Smith released top-scorer Craig Westcarr at the end of the season, along with Troy Hewitt, Nicky Featherstone, James McQuilkin, and Shane Lewis.


title: Dean Smith (footballer, born 1971)

text: He took Walsall to the 2015 final of the Football League Trophy, a 2–0 defeat to Bristol City, which was Walsall's first appearance at Wembley Stadium. At the end of the 2014–15 season he largely kept his squad together, the most high-profile player to be released being Ben Purkiss. He was given a Special Achievement Award by the League Managers Association (LMA).


title: Dean Smith (footballer, born 1971)

text: Walsall started the 2015–16 season well, with Smith being named as League One Manager of the Month for August 2015 as the club ended the month at the top of the table. Walsall rejected an approach for Smith from Rotherham United in October, describing him as "fundamental to our future plans". Smith signed a new 12-month rolling contract on 16 October. He was named as Football League manager of the week after his side came from two goals down to beat Gillingham 3–2 on 24 October. However six weeks after signing his new contract he left Walsall for Brentford with the "Saddlers" fourth in the table; at the time of his departure he was the fourth longest serving manager in the Football League.


title: Dean Smith (footballer, born 1971)

text: Smith was appointed manager of Championship club Brentford on 30 November 2015. Brentford finished the 2015–16 season in ninth place, during which time Smith sold Toumani Diagouraga and James Tarkowski for a combined £3.6 million. In building for the 2016–17 season Smith signed 18 players, including Romaine Sawyers (free transfer) and Rico Henry (£1.5 million) from previous club Walsall. The "Bees" finished the season in tenth place, and Smith said he wanted to bring in more players in order to push for the play-offs the following season. He signed a new one-year contract extension in February 2018. Brentford finished the 2017–18 season in ninth-place and were "widely regarded as the Championship's entertainers" after Smith built an attractive passing style of play on a shoestring budget.


title: Dean Smith (footballer, born 1971)

text: On 10 October 2018, Smith was appointed manager of 15th-placed Championship club Aston Villa, with John Terry as his assistant coach. He was named as the EFL's manager of the week after overseeing a 3–0 win at Derby County on 10 November. He immediately managed to reinvigorate the Villa attack, and only a controversial injury-time equaliser from local rivals West Bromwich Albion at The Hawthorns kept them from a place in the top 6 by 7 December. Villa's form dipped dramatically in the three months after Jack Grealish was sidelined with a shin injury picked up in that match, but on 2 March, Smith gave Grealish the captaincy on his return to the first-team and the 23-year old inspired an important 4–0 victory over play-off rivals Derby County. Smith was given that month's Championship Manager of the Month award after achieving five wins in five games, including a victory over Second City derby rivals Birmingham City. On 22 April 2019, Smith led Aston Villa to break an 109 year old club record for longest winning run after defeating Millwall 1–0 at Villa Park to make it 10 successive victories in 10 matches. The record had previously been held at nine straight wins. On 11 May, Smith oversaw his 18th win with Aston Villa as they came from behind to beat West Brom 2–1 in the first leg of the Championship play-off semi-finals. Three days later, Villa came from behind at West Brom to win on penalties and secure a place in the play-off final. Villa went on to win promotion to the Premier League with a 2–1 victory over Derby County.


title: Dean Smith (footballer, born 1971)

text: The club spent a net total of £144.5 million to bring in 12 players in the summer 2019 transfer window: Jota, Anwar El Ghazi, Wesley, Kortney Hause, Matt Targett, Tyrone Mings, Ezri Konsa, Björn Engels, Trézéguet, Douglas Luiz, Tom Heaton and Marvelous Nakamba. On 29 November 2019, midway through his first Premier League season with Aston Villa, Smith signed a contract extension lasting until 2023. In the EFL Cup, Villa advanced past Crewe Alexandra of League Two and four Premier League sides in Brighton & Hove Albion, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Liverpool and Leicester City to reach the final at Wembley Stadium; they lost the final 2–1 to Manchester City. In the league though, Villa were four points deep inside the relegation zone with four games left to play of the 2019–20 season, but pulled off what he called a "magnificent achievement" to clinch survival on the last day with a 1–1 draw at West Ham United. He elaborated by saying "I thought we used the pandemic really well. We've been solid defensively, we have looked strong and managed to stay in the Premier League."


title: Dean Smith (footballer, born 1971)

text: Smith strengthened the squad in summer 2020 by signing Matty Cash (£14 million from Nottingham Forest), Ollie Watkins (£28 million from Brentford), Emiliano Martínez (£17 million from Arsenal), Bertrand Traoré (£17 million from Lyon) and Ross Barkley (season long-loan from Chelsea). On 4 October, in the third game of the 2020–21 season, Smith led Aston Villa to a 7–2 home win over Premier League champions Liverpool; this was the first time a team had scored seven goals past the top-flight champions in 67 years. A win against Leicester City then gave Villa their best start to a season since 1930. On 26 December, Smith oversaw his century of competitive games as manager of Aston Villa with a 3–0 victory over Crystal Palace despite his team being reduced to ten men for the majority of the game due to Tyrone Mings' first half dismissal. Smith was named as Premier League Manager of the Month for December as Villa conceded just one goal in their five league games. He made one signing in the January transfer window: midfielder Morgan Sanson from Marseille for £14 million. Aston Villa ended the campaign in 11th-place and Smith was keen to strengthen the squad further.


title: Dean Smith (footballer, born 1971)

text: In preparation for the English record transfer of Jack Grealish to Manchester City, a deal worth £100 million, Smith brought in summer signings Emiliano Buendía, Leon Bailey and Danny Ings for a total fee of £83 million. The club also signed former player Ashley Young on a free transfer from Inter Milan, and for the third time signed Manchester United defender Axel Tuanzebe on loan. On 7 November 2021, Smith and Aston Villa parted company after a run of five straight defeats in the Premier League. Chief Executive Christian Purslow stated that the decision was made after Aston Villa had not continued to improve in the 2021–22 season as they had done in previous years.


title: Dean Smith (footballer, born 1971)

text: On 15 November 2021, Smith signed a two-and-a-half year deal to become the new Norwich City head coach, replacing the outgoing Daniel Farke. He won his first game in charge, a 2–1 victory over Southampton. The game made him the first manager to take charge of successive Premier League matches against the same opponent. Norwich climbed out of the relegation zone on 21 January with a 3–0 win at Watford, having beaten Everton at Carrow Road six days previously. However the "Canaries" went on to win just one more Premier League game and were relegated in last place at the end of the 2021–22 season, though relegation was actually confirmed with four games left to play.


title: Dean Smith (footballer, born 1971)

text: Smith is married, and has two children - a son, Jamie, and daughter. Speaking in December 2019, he said that his family, coupled with his experiencing playing and managing in the lower leagues, have helped him to stay grounded and deal with the perceived pressure of managing a Premier League team. He is a keen chess player and was a West Midlands school chess champion as a child. His father, Ron, was an Aston Villa supporter, and a steward at Villa Park. Towards the end of his life, Ron Smith suffered from dementia and was not aware that his son had become Aston Villa manager. On the eve of the 2019 play-off final, Dean Smith visited his father and told him "The next time I see you, I'll be a Premier League manager." Ron Smith died on 27 May 2020 after contracting COVID-19.


title: Vātsyāyana

text: Vātsyāyana was an ancient Indian philosopher, known for authoring the "Kama Sutra". He was a brahmin, and lived in India during the second or third century CE, probably in Pataliputra (modern day Patna in Bihar).


title: Vātsyāyana

text: He is not to be confused with Pakṣilasvāmin Vātsyāyana, the author of "Nyāya Sutra Bhāshya", the first preserved commentary on Gotama's "Nyāya Sutras". His name is sometimes erroneously confused with Mallanaga, the seer of the Asuras, to whom the origin of erotic science is attributed.


title: Vātsyāyana

text: Hardly anything is known about Vātsyāyana from sources outside the "Kāmasūtra" itself. Vātsyāyana's interest in refined human, including sexual, behavior as a means of fulfilment, was recorded in his treatise "Kama Sutra".


title: Vātsyāyana

text: After reading and considering the works of Babhravya and other ancient authors, and thinking over the meaning of the rules given by them, this treatise was composed, according to the precepts of the Holy Writ, for the benefit of the world, by Vatsyayana, while leading the life of a religious student at Benares, and wholly engaged in the contemplation of the Deity. This work is not to be used merely as an instrument for satisfying our desires. A person acquainted with the true principles of this science, who preserves his Dharma (virtue or religious merit), his Artha (worldly wealth) and his Kama (pleasure or sensual gratification), and who has regard to the customs of the people, is sure to obtain the mastery over his senses. In short, an intelligent and knowing person attending to Dharma and Artha and also to Kama, without becoming the slave of his passions, will obtain success in everything that he may do.


title: Vātsyāyana

text: Some believe that he must have lived between the 1st and 6th century CE, on the following grounds: He mentions that Satakarni Satavahana, a king of Kuntal, killed Malayevati his wife with an instrument called Katari by striking her in the passion of love. Vatsyayana quotes this case to warn people of the danger arising from some old customs of striking women when under the influence of sexual passion. This king of Kuntal is believed to have lived and reigned, consequently Vatsyayana must have lived after him. On the other hand, another author, Varahamihira, in the eighteenth chapter of his "Brihatsanhita", discusses of the science of love, and appears to have borrowed largely from Vatsyayana on the subject. Some believe that Varahamihira lived during the 6th century and therefore Vatsyayana must have written his works before the 6th century.


title: Tails (operating system)

text: Tails, or The Amnesic Incognito Live System, is a security-focused Debian-based Linux distribution aimed at preserving privacy and anonymity. It connects to the Internet exclusively through the anonymity network Tor. The system is designed to be booted as a live DVD or live USB, and leaves no digital footprint on the machine unless explicitly told to do so. It can also be run as a virtual machine, with some additional security risks. The Tor Project provided financial support for its development in the beginnings of the project, and continues to do so alongside numerous corporate and anonymous sponsors.


title: Tails (operating system)

text: Tails was first released on June 23, 2009. It is the next iteration of development on Incognito, a discontinued Gentoo-based Linux distribution. The Tor Project provided financial support for its development in the beginnings of the project. Tails also received funding from the Open Technology Fund, Mozilla, and the Freedom of the Press Foundation.


title: Tails (operating system)

text: Laura Poitras, Glenn Greenwald, and Barton Gellman have each said that Tails was an important tool they used in their work with National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden.


title: Tails (operating system)

text: Tails's pre-installed desktop environment is GNOME 3. The system includes essential software for functions such as reading and editing documents, image editing, video watching and printing. Other software from Debian can be installed at the user's behest.


title: Tails (operating system)

text: Tails includes a unique variety of software that handles the encryption of files and internet transmissions, cryptographic signing and hashing, and other functions important to security. It is pre-configured to use Tor with multiple connection options. It tries to force all connections to use Tor and blocks connection attempts outside Tor. For networking, it features a modified version of Tor Browser with the inclusion of uBlock Origin, instant messaging, email, file transmission and monitoring local network connections for security.


title: Tails (operating system)

text: By design, Tails is "amnesic". It runs in the computer's Random Access Memory (RAM) and does not write to a hard drive or other storage medium. The user may choose to keep files, applications or some settings on their Tails drive in "Persistent Storage". Though the Persistent Storage is encrypted by default, it is not hidden and detectable by forensic analysis. While shutting down, Tails overwrites most of the used RAM to avoid a cold boot attack.


title: Tails (operating system)

text: In 2014 Das Erste reported that the NSA's XKeyscore surveillance system sets threat definitions for people who search for Tails using a search engine or visit the Tails website. A comment in XKeyscore's source code calls Tails "a comsec <nowiki>[</nowiki>communications security<nowiki>]</nowiki> mechanism advocated by extremists on extremist forums".


title: Tails (operating system)

text: In the same year, "Der Spiegel" published slides from an internal National Security Agency presentation dating to June 2012, in which the NSA deemed Tails on its own as a "major threat" to its mission and in conjunction with other privacy tools as "catastrophic".


title: Tails (operating system)

text: In 2017, the FBI used malicious code developed by Facebook, identifying sexual extortionist and Tails user Buster Hernandez through a zero-day vulnerability in the default video player. The exploit was never explained to or discovered by the Tails developers, but it is believed that the vulnerability was patched in a later release of Tails. It was not easy to find Hernandez: for a long time, the FBI and Facebook had searched for him with no success, resorting to developing the custom hacking tool.


title: Hong Kong Phooey

text: Hong Kong Phooey is an American animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and originally broadcast on ABC. The original episodes aired from September 7 to December 21, 1974, and then in repeats until 1976. The show was brought back in reruns in 1978 and 1981, and was included in the USA Network's Cartoon Express block throughout the '80s. The main character, Hong Kong Phooey, is the clownishly clumsy secret identity of Penrod "Penry" Pooch, working at a police station as a "mild-mannered" janitor under the glare of Sergeant Flint, nicknamed "Sarge".


title: Hong Kong Phooey

text: Penry disguises himself as Hong Kong Phooey by jumping into a filing cabinet – in so doing he always gets stuck, and is unstuck by his striped pet cat named Spot – and once disguised, gets equipped with the "Phooeymobile" vehicle that transforms itself into a boat, a plane or a telephone booth, depending on the circumstances.


title: Hong Kong Phooey

text: In fighting crime, he relies on his copy of "The Hong Kong Book of Kung Fu", a correspondence-course martial-arts instruction handbook. However, his successes are only either thanks to Spot, who provides a solution to the challenges, or the direct result of a comically unintended side effect of his efforts. The humor of the incompetence of Hong Kong Phooey is a recurring theme of each episode. The backgrounds were designed by Lorraine Andrina and Richard Khim.


title: Hong Kong Phooey

text: Each episode begins with Rosemary, the somewhat ditzy telephone operator, getting a call about a crime which she explains to Sergeant Flint. Penry, the janitor, overhears the conversation and proceeds to transform himself into the crime-fighting canine (on whom Rosemary has a crush) by slipping into the hidden room behind the vending machine, then jumping into the bottom drawer of his filing cabinet, getting stuck, and, with help from Spot, coming out of the top drawer.


title: Hong Kong Phooey

text: After sliding behind an ironing board to the floor below, he bounces off an old sofa, through an open window, into a dumpster outside, and emerges driving his Phooeymobile. Even when he crashes into, harms, or otherwise inconveniences a civilian, the passer-by feels honored, as opposed to being annoyed or embarrassed, when they see who did it. One example was when he drove the Phooeymobile through wet cement, splattering the workers: they responded that it was an honor to have a whole day's work ruined by "the great Hong Kong Phooey". Despite his blatant lack of talent or intelligence, Hong Kong Phooey is feared by criminals and admired by citizens, but disliked by Sergeant Flint who sees him only as a hindrance to the police, and as evidenced in the final episode "Comedy Cowboys", Flint takes pleasure in arresting the framed hero (though he is later exonerated).


title: Hong Kong Phooey

text: Hong Kong Phooey is voiced by Scatman Crothers. Sergeant Flint is voiced by Joe E. Ross, who was best known as Officer Gunther Toody in the early 1960s television series "Car 54, Where Are You?" As Flint, Ross revived Toody's famous "Ooh! Ooh!" exclamation, which he had also used when playing mess sergeant Rupert Ritzik, in The Phil Silvers Show.


title: Hong Kong Phooey

text: The final episode, "Comedy Cowboys", was intended as a backdoor pilot for a new series. In this two-part episode, several new cartoon characters, who are named Honcho, The Mystery Maverick, and the Posse Impossible, appear and help to clear Hong Kong Phooey of a crime. These characters later appear in their own continuing segment, "Posse Impossible" on "CB Bears". Like many animated series created by Hanna-Barbera in the 1970s, the show uses the limited Hanna-Barbera laugh track.


title: Hong Kong Phooey

text: The show's opening theme, titled "Hong Kong Phooey", was written and composed by Hoyt Curtin, William Hanna, and Joseph Barbera, and sung by Crothers himself. For the end credits, an instrumental version of the same song was used. A cover performed by Sublime is included on the 1995 tribute album "," produced by Ralph Sall for MCA Records.


title: Hong Kong Phooey

text: On August 15, 2006, Warner Home Video released the complete series on 2-disc DVD in Region 1. The DVD set includes commentary on select episodes as well as a documentary of the show from its development through its legacy. The set also includes production designs, never-before-seen original artwork, new interviews, and the special feature "Hong Kong Phooey—The Batty Bank Gang: The Complete Storyboard". The series is also available in the UK as a Region 2 two-disc set, and as two separate volumes in Region 4. The shorts "Car Thieves" and "Zoo Story" were also released on a 1970s Saturday morning cartoon compilation.


title: Hong Kong Phooey

text: With a copyright of 2001, Alan Lau, in conjunction with Wildbrain.com, produced a flash animation webshow cartoon that was prominently featured on CartoonNetwork.com, and could still be found there as of the middle of June 2015. While Penry appears identical to the original incarnation, Hong Kong Phooey is a much larger, cut, and highly competent and skilled fighter—even without Spot the cat. Hong Kong Phooey faces off against and easily defeats evil anthropomorphic animals: a trio of rabbits, what appears to be a crane, and a reptilianoid (that appears to be a Komodo dragon). At the end he morphs back to Penry with a smile and sparkle in his eye.


title: Hong Kong Phooey

text: The children's novella "Hong Kong Phooey and the Fortune Cookie Caper" by Jean Lewis, illustrated by Phil Ostapczuk, was published in 1975 by Rand McNally and Company, as well as "Hong Kong Phooey and the Bird Nest Snatchers" (1976) and "Hong Kong Phooey and the Fire Engine Mystery" (1977). "Hong Kong Phooey's Hidden Pictures" book by Tony Tallarico was published by Tempo Books in 1976.


title: Hong Kong Phooey

text: In January 2015, a street art ceramic mosaic of Hong Kong Phooey sold at a Sotheby's auction for HK$2 million. The copy sold was a re-creation by the artist Invader after the original was removed from a city wall by Hong Kong authorities.


title: Hong Kong Phooey

text: Charlton Comics published seven issues of a "Hong Kong Phooey" comic book during the show's run. Much of the art was produced by Paul Fung Jr.


title: Hong Kong Phooey

text: The character appeared in 2017 in "Scooby-Doo Team-Up" #51-52 digital comic (released in print as #26).


title: Hong Kong Phooey

text: In 2018, a re-imagined version of Hong Kong Phooey appeared alongside Black Lightning in the DC comic book "Black Lightning/Hong Kong Phooey Special" #1.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: Fridtjof Wedel-Jarlsberg Nansen (; 10 October 186113 May 1930) was a Norwegian polymath and Nobel Peace Prize laureate. He gained prominence at various points in his life as an explorer, scientist, diplomat, and humanitarian. He led the team that made the first crossing of the Greenland interior in 1888, traversing the island on cross-country skis. He won international fame after reaching a record northern latitude of 86°14′ during his "Fram" expedition of 1893–1896. Although he retired from exploration after his return to Norway, his techniques of polar travel and his innovations in equipment and clothing influenced a generation of subsequent Arctic and Antarctic expeditions.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: Nansen studied zoology at the Royal Frederick University in Christiania and later worked as a curator at the University Museum of Bergen where his research on the central nervous system of lower marine creatures earned him a doctorate and helped establish neuron doctrine. Later, neuroscientist Santiago Ramón y Cajal won the 1906 Nobel Prize in Medicine for his research on the same subject. After 1896 his main scientific interest switched to oceanography; in the course of his research he made many scientific cruises, mainly in the North Atlantic, and contributed to the development of modern oceanographic equipment.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: As one of his country's leading citizens, in 1905 Nansen spoke out for the ending of Norway's union with Sweden, and was instrumental in persuading Prince Carl of Denmark to accept the throne of the newly independent Norway. Between 1906 and 1908 he served as the Norwegian representative in London, where he helped negotiate the Integrity Treaty that guaranteed Norway's independent status.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: In the final decade of his life, Nansen devoted himself primarily to the League of Nations, following his appointment in 1921 as the League's High Commissioner for Refugees. In 1922 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on behalf of the displaced victims of World War I and related conflicts. Among the initiatives he introduced was the "Nansen passport" for stateless persons, a certificate that used to be recognized by more than 50 countries. He worked on behalf of refugees until his sudden death in 1930, after which the League established the Nansen International Office for Refugees to ensure that his work continued. This office received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1938. His name is commemorated in numerous geographical features, particularly in the polar regions.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: The Nansen family originated in Denmark. Hans Nansen (1598–1667), a trader, was an early explorer of the White Sea region of the Arctic Ocean. In later life he settled in Copenhagen, becoming the city's "borgmester" in 1654. Later generations of the family lived in Copenhagen until the mid-18th century, when Ancher Antoni Nansen moved to Norway (then in a union with Denmark). His son, Hans Leierdahl Nansen (1764–1821), was a magistrate first in the Trondheim district, later in Jæren. After Norway's separation from Denmark in 1814, he entered national political life as the representative for Stavanger in the first Storting, and became a strong advocate of union with Sweden. After suffering a paralytic stroke in 1821 Hans Leierdahl Nansen died, leaving a four-year-old son, Baldur Fridtjof Nansen, the explorer's father.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: Baldur was a lawyer without ambitions for public life, who became Reporter to the Supreme Court of Norway. He married twice, the second time to Adelaide Johanne Thekla Isidore Bølling Wedel-Jarlsberg from Bærum, a niece of Herman Wedel-Jarlsberg who had helped frame the Norwegian constitution of 1814 and was later the Swedish king's Norwegian Viceroy. Baldur and Adelaide settled at Store Frøen, an estate at Aker, a few kilometres north of Norway's capital city, Christiania (since renamed Oslo). The couple had three children; the first died in infancy, the second, born 10 October 1861, was Fridtjof Wedel-Jarlsberg Nansen.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: Store Frøen's rural surroundings shaped the nature of Nansen's childhood. In the short summers the main activities were swimming and fishing, while in the autumn the chief pastime was hunting for game in the forests. The long winter months were devoted mainly to skiing, which Nansen began to practice at the age of two, on improvised skis. At the age of 10 he defied his parents and attempted the ski jump at the nearby Huseby installation. This exploit had near-disastrous consequences, as on landing the skis dug deep into the snow, pitching the boy forward: "I, head first, described a fine arc in the air ... [W]hen I came down again I bored into the snow up to my waist. The boys thought I had broken my neck, but as soon as they saw there was life in me ... a shout of mocking laughter went up." Nansen's enthusiasm for skiing was undiminished, though as he records, his efforts were overshadowed by those of the skiers from the mountainous region of Telemark, where a new style of skiing was being developed. "I saw this was the only way", wrote Nansen later.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: At school, Nansen worked adequately without showing any particular aptitude. Studies took second place to sports, or to expeditions into the forests where he would live "like Robinson Crusoe" for weeks at a time. Through such experiences Nansen developed a marked degree of self-reliance. He became an accomplished skier and a highly proficient skater. Life was disrupted when, in the summer of 1877, Adelaide Nansen died suddenly. Distressed, Baldur Nansen sold the Store Frøen property and moved with his two sons to Christiania. Nansen's sporting prowess continued to develop; at 18 he broke the world one-mile (1.6 km) skating record, and in the following year won the national cross-country skiing championship, a feat he would repeat on 11 subsequent occasions.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: In 1880 Nansen passed his university entrance examination, the "examen artium". He decided to study zoology, claiming later that he chose the subject because he thought it offered the chance of a life in the open air. He began his studies at the Royal Frederick University in Christiania early in 1881.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: Early in 1882 Nansen took "...the first fatal step that led me astray from the quiet life of science." Professor Robert Collett of the university's zoology department proposed that Nansen take a sea voyage, to study Arctic zoology at first hand. Nansen was enthusiastic, and made arrangements through a recent acquaintance, Captain Axel Krefting, commander of the sealer "Viking". The voyage began on 11 March 1882 and extended over the following five months. In the weeks before sealing started, Nansen was able to concentrate on scientific studies. From water samples he showed that, contrary to previous assumption, sea ice forms on the surface of the water rather than below. His readings also demonstrated that the Gulf Stream flows beneath a cold layer of surface water. Through the spring and early summer "Viking" roamed between Greenland and Spitsbergen in search of seal herds. Nansen became an expert marksman, and on one day proudly recorded that his team had shot 200 seals. In July, "Viking" became trapped in the ice close to an unexplored section of the Greenland coast; Nansen longed to go ashore, but this was impossible. However, he began to develop the idea that the Greenland icecap might be explored, or even crossed. On 17 July the ship broke free from the ice, and early in August was back in Norwegian waters.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: Nansen did not resume formal studies at the university. Instead, on Collett's recommendation, he accepted a post as curator in the zoological department of the Bergen Museum. He was to spend the next six years of his life there—apart from a six-month sabbatical tour of Europe—working and studying with leading figures such as Gerhard Armauer Hansen, the discoverer of the leprosy bacillus, and Daniel Cornelius Danielssen, the museum's director who had turned it from a backwater collection into a centre of scientific research and education. Nansen's chosen area of study was the then relatively unexplored field of neuroanatomy, specifically the central nervous system of lower marine creatures. Before leaving for his sabbatical in February 1886 he published a paper summarising his research to date, in which he stated that "anastomoses or unions between the different ganglion cells" could not be demonstrated with certainty. This unorthodox view was confirmed by the simultaneous research of the embryologist Wilhelm His and the psychiatrist August Forel. Nansen is considered the first Norwegian defender of the neuron theory, originally proposed by Santiago Ramón y Cajal. His subsequent paper, "The Structure and Combination of Histological Elements of the Central Nervous System", published in 1887, became his doctoral thesis.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: The idea of an expedition across the Greenland icecap grew in Nansen's mind throughout his Bergen years. In 1887, after the submission of his doctoral thesis, he finally began organising this project. Before then, the two most significant penetrations of the Greenland interior had been those of Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld in 1883, and Robert Peary in 1886. Both had set out from Disko Bay on the western coast, and had travelled about eastward before turning back. By contrast, Nansen proposed to travel from east to west, ending rather than beginning his trek at Disko Bay. A party setting out from the inhabited west coast would, he reasoned, have to make a return trip, as no ship could be certain of reaching the dangerous east coast and picking them up. By starting from the east—assuming that a landing could be made there—Nansen's would be a one-way journey towards a populated area. The party would have no line of retreat to a safe base; the only way to go would be forward, a situation that fitted Nansen's philosophy completely.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: Nansen rejected the complex organisation and heavy manpower of other Arctic ventures, and instead planned his expedition for a small party of six. Supplies would be manhauled on specially designed lightweight sledges. Much of the equipment, including sleeping bags, clothing and cooking stoves, also needed to be designed from scratch. These plans received a generally poor reception in the press; one critic had no doubt that "if [the] scheme be attempted in its present form ... the chances are ten to one that he will ... uselessly throw his own and perhaps others' lives away". The Norwegian parliament refused to provide financial support, believing that such a potentially risky undertaking should not be encouraged. The project was eventually launched with a donation from a Danish businessman, Augustin Gamél; the rest came mainly from small contributions from Nansen's countrymen, through a fundraising effort organised by students at the university.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: Despite the adverse publicity, Nansen received numerous applications from would-be adventurers. He wanted expert skiers, and attempted to recruit from the skiers of Telemark, but his approaches were rebuffed. Nordenskiöld had advised Nansen that Sami people, from Finnmark in the far north of Norway, were expert snow travellers, so Nansen recruited a pair, Samuel Balto and Ole Nielsen Ravna. The remaining places went to Otto Sverdrup, a former sea-captain who had more recently worked as a forester; Oluf Christian Dietrichson, an army officer, and Kristian Kristiansen, an acquaintance of Sverdrup's. All had experience of outdoor life in extreme conditions, and were experienced skiers. Just before the party's departure, Nansen attended a formal examination at the university, which had agreed to receive his doctoral thesis. In accordance with custom he was required to defend his work before appointed examiners acting as "devil's advocates". He left before knowing the outcome of this process.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: The sealer "Jason" picked up Nansen's party on 3 June 1888 from the Icelandic port of Ísafjörður. They sighted the Greenland coast a week later, but thick pack ice hindered progress. With the coast still away, Nansen decided to launch the small boats. They were within sight of Sermilik Fjord on 17 July; Nansen believed it would offer a route up the icecap.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: The expedition left "Jason" "in good spirits and with the highest hopes of a fortunate result." Days of extreme frustration followed as they drifted south. Weather and sea conditions prevented them from reaching the shore. They spent most time camping on the ice itself—it was too dangerous to launch the boats.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: By 29 July, they found themselves south of the point where they left the ship. That day they finally reached land but were too far south to begin the crossing. Nansen ordered the team back into the boats after a brief rest and to begin rowing north. The party battled northward along the coast through the ice floes for the next 12 days. They encountered a large Eskimo encampment on the first day, near Cape Steen Bille. Occasional contacts with the nomadic native population continued as the journey progressed.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: The party reached Umivik Bay on 11 August, after covering . Nansen decided they needed to begin the crossing. Although they were still far south of his intended starting place; the season was becoming too advanced. After they landed at Umivik, they spent the next four days preparing for their journey. They set out on the evening of 15 August, heading north-west towards Christianhaab on the western shore of Disko Bay— away.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: Over the next few days, the party struggled to ascend. The inland ice had a treacherous surface with many hidden crevasses and the weather was bad. Progress stopped for three days because of violent storms and continuous rain one time. The last ship was due to leave Christianhaab by mid-September. They would not be able to reach it in time, Nansen concluded on 26 August. He ordered a change of course due west, towards Godthaab; a shorter journey by at least . The rest of the party, according to Nansen, "hailed the change of plan with acclamation."


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: They continued climbing until 11 September and reached a height of above sea level. Temperatures on the icecap summit of the icecap dropped to at night. From then on the downward slope made travelling easier. Yet, the terrain was rugged and the weather remained hostile. Progress was slow: fresh snowfalls made dragging the sledges like pulling them through sand.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: On 26 September, they battled their way down the edge of a fjord westward towards Godthaab. Sverdrup constructed a makeshift boat out of parts of the sledges, willows, and their tent. Three days later, Nansen and Sverdrup began the last stage of the journey; rowing down the fjord.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: On 3 October, they reached Godthaab, where the Danish town representative greeted them. He first informed Nansen that he secured his doctorate, a matter that "could not have been more remote from [Nansen's] thoughts at that moment." The team accomplished their crossing in 49 days. Throughout the journey, they maintained meteorological and geographical and other records relating to the previously unexplored interior.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: The rest of the team arrived in Godthaab on 12 October. Nansen soon learned no ship was likely to call at Godthaab until the following spring. Still, they were able to send letters back to Norway via a boat leaving Ivigtut at the end of October. He and his party spent the next seven months in Greenland. On 15 April 1889, the Danish ship "Hvidbjørnen" finally entered the harbour. Nansen recorded: "It was not without sorrow that we left this place and these people, among whom we had enjoyed ourselves so well."


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: "Hvidbjørnen" reached Copenhagen on 21 May 1889. News of the crossing had preceded its arrival, and Nansen and his companions were feted as heroes. This welcome, however, was dwarfed by the reception in Christiania a week later, when crowds of between thirty and forty thousand—a third of the city's population—thronged the streets as the party made its way to the first of a series of receptions. The interest and enthusiasm generated by the expedition's achievement led directly to the formation that year of the Norwegian Geographical Society.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: Nansen accepted the position of curator of the Royal Frederick University's zoology collection, a post which carried a salary but involved no duties; the university was satisfied by the association with the explorer's name. Nansen's main task in the following weeks was writing his account of the expedition, but he found time late in June to visit London, where he met the Prince of Wales (the future Edward VII), and addressed a meeting of the Royal Geographical Society (RGS).


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: The RGS president, Sir Mountstuart Elphinstone Grant Duff, said that Nansen has claimed "the foremost place amongst northern travellers", and later awarded him the Society's prestigious Patron's Medal. This was one of many honours Nansen received from institutions all over Europe. He was invited by a group of Australians to lead an expedition to Antarctica, but declined, believing that Norway's interests would be better served by a North Pole conquest.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: On 11 August 1889 Nansen announced his engagement to Eva Sars, the daughter of Michael Sars, a zoology professor who had died when Eva was 11 years old. The couple had met some years previously, at the skiing resort of Frognerseteren, where Nansen recalled seeing "two feet sticking out of the snow". Eva was three years older than Nansen, and despite the evidence of this first meeting, was an accomplished skier. She was also a celebrated classical singer who had been coached in Berlin by Désirée Artôt, one-time paramour of Tchaikovsky. The engagement surprised many; since Nansen had previously expressed himself forcefully against the institution of marriage, Otto Sverdrup assumed he had read the message wrongly. The wedding took place on 6 September 1889, less than a month after the engagement.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: Nansen first began to consider the possibility of reaching the North Pole after reading meteorologist Henrik Mohn's theory on transpolar drift in 1884. Artefacts found on the coast of Greenland were identified to have come from the "Jeannette" expedition. In June 1881, was crushed and sunk off the Siberian coast—the opposite side of the Arctic Ocean. Mohn surmised the location of the artefacts indicated the existence of an ocean current from east to west, all the way across the polar sea and possibly over the pole itself.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: The idea remained fixated in Nansen's mind for the next couple of years. He developed a detailed plan for a polar venture after his triumphant return from Greenland. He made his idea public in February 1890, at a meeting of the newly formed Norwegian Geographical Society. Previous expeditions, he argued, approached the North Pole from the west and failed because they were working against the prevailing east–west current; the secret was to work with the current.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: A workable plan would require a sturdy and manoeuvrable small ship, capable of carrying fuel and provisions for twelve men for five years. This ship would enter the ice pack close to the approximate location of "Jeannette's" sinking, drifting west with the current towards the pole and beyond it—eventually reaching the sea between Greenland and Spitsbergen.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: Experienced polar explorers were dismissive: Adolphus Greely called the idea "an illogical scheme of self-destruction". Equally dismissive were Sir Allen Young, a veteran of the searches for Franklin's lost expedition, and Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker, who had sailed to the Antarctic on the Ross expedition. Nansen still managed to secure a grant from the Norwegian parliament after an impassioned speech. Additional funding was secured through a national appeal for private donations.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: Nansen chose naval engineer Colin Archer to design and build a ship. Archer designed an extraordinarily sturdy vessel with an intricate system of crossbeams and braces of the toughest oak timbers. Its rounded hull was designed to push the ship upwards when beset by pack ice. Speed and manoeuvrability were to be secondary to its ability as a safe and warm shelter during their predicted confinement.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: The length-to-beam ratio— and —gave it a stubby appearance, justified by Archer: "A ship that is built with exclusive regard to its suitability for [Nansen's] object must differ essentially from any known vessel." It was christened "Fram" and launched on 6 October 1892.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: Nansen selected a party of twelve from thousands of applicants. Otto Sverdrup, who took part in Nansen's earlier Greenland expedition was appointed as the expedition's second-in-command. Competition was so fierce that army lieutenant and dog-driving expert Hjalmar Johansen signed on as ship's stoker, the only position still available.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: "Fram" left Christiania on 24 June 1893, cheered on by thousands of well-wishers. After a slow journey around the coast, the final port of call was Vardø, in the far north-east of Norway. "Fram" left Vardø on 21 July, following the North-East Passage route pioneered by Nordenskiöld in 1878–1879, along the northern coast of Siberia. Progress was impeded by fog and ice conditions in the mainly uncharted seas.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: The crew also experienced the dead water phenomenon, where a ship's forward progress is impeded by friction caused by a layer of fresh water lying on top of heavier salt water. Nevertheless, Cape Chelyuskin, the most northerly point of the Eurasian continental mass, was passed on 10 September.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: Heavy pack ice was sighted ten days later at around latitude 78°N, as "Fram" approached the area in which was crushed. Nansen followed the line of the pack northwards to a position recorded as , before ordering engines stopped and the rudder raised. From this point "Fram's" drift began. The first weeks in the ice were frustrating, as the drift moved unpredictably; sometimes north, sometimes south.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: By 19 November, "Fram's" latitude was south of that at which she had entered the ice. Only after the turn of the year, in January 1894, did the northerly direction become generally settled; the 80°N mark was finally passed on 22 March. Nansen calculated that, at this rate, it might take the ship five years to reach the pole. As the ship's northerly progress continued at a rate rarely above a kilometre and a half per day, Nansen began privately to consider a new plan—a dog sledge journey towards the pole. With this in mind, he began to practice dog-driving, making many experimental journeys over the ice.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: In November, Nansen announced his plan: when the ship passed latitude 83°N, he and Hjalmar Johansen would leave the ship with the dogs and make for the pole while "Fram", under Sverdrup, continued its drift until it emerged from the ice in the North Atlantic. After reaching the pole, Nansen and Johansen would make for the nearest known land, the recently discovered and sketchily mapped Franz Josef Land. They would then cross to Spitzbergen where they would find a ship to take them home.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: The crew spent the rest of the winter of 1894 preparing clothing and equipment for the forthcoming sledge journey. Kayaks were built, to be carried on the sledges until needed for the crossing of open water. Preparations were interrupted early in January when violent tremors shook the ship. The crew disembarked, fearing the vessel would be crushed, but "Fram" proved herself equal to the danger. On 8 January 1895, the ship's position was 83°34′N, above Greely's previous record of 83°24′N.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: With the ship's latitude at 84°4′N and after two false starts, Nansen and Johansen began their journey on 14 March 1895. Nansen allowed 50 days to cover the to the pole, an average daily journey of . After a week of travel, a sextant observation indicated they averaged per day, which put them ahead of schedule. However, uneven surfaces made skiing more difficult, and their speeds slowed. They also realised they were marching against a southerly drift, and that distances travelled did not necessarily equate to distance progressed.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: On 3 April, Nansen began to doubt whether the pole was attainable. Unless their speed improved, their food would not last them to the pole and back to Franz Josef Land. He confided in his diary: "I have become more and more convinced we ought to turn before time." Four days later, after making camp, he observed the way ahead was "... a veritable chaos of iceblocks stretching as far as the horizon." Nansen recorded their latitude as 86°13′6″N—almost three degrees beyond the previous record—and decided to turn around and head back south.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: At first Nansen and Johansen made good progress south, but suffered a serious setback on 13 April, when in his eagerness to break camp, they had forgotten to wind their chronometers, which made it impossible to calculate their longitude and accurately navigate to Franz Josef Land. They restarted the watches based on Nansen's guess they were at 86°E. From then on they were uncertain of their true position. The tracks of an Arctic fox were observed towards the end of April. It was the first trace of a living creature other than their dogs since they left "Fram". They soon saw bear tracks and by the end of May saw evidence of nearby seals, gulls and whales.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: On 31 May, Nansen calculated they were only from Cape Fligely, Franz Josef Land's northernmost point. Travel conditions worsened as increasingly warmer weather caused the ice to break up. On 22 June, the pair decided to rest on a stable ice floe while they repaired their equipment and gathered strength for the next stage of their journey. They remained on the floe for a month.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: The day after leaving this camp, Nansen recorded: "At last the marvel has come to pass—land, land, and after we had almost given up our belief in it!" Whether this still-distant land was Franz Josef Land or a new discovery they did not know—they had only a rough sketch map to guide them. The edge of the pack ice was reached on 6 August and they shot the last of their dogs—the weakest of which they killed regularly to feed the others since 24 April. The two kayaks were lashed together, a sail was raised, and they made for the land.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: It soon became clear this land was part of an archipelago. As they moved southwards, Nansen tentatively identified a headland as Cape Felder on the western edge of Franz Josef Land. Towards the end of August, as the weather grew colder and travel became increasingly difficult, Nansen decided to camp for the winter. In a sheltered cove, with stones and moss for building materials, the pair erected a hut which was to be their home for the next eight months. With ready supplies of bear, walrus and seal to keep their larder stocked, their principal enemy was not hunger but inactivity. After muted Christmas and New Year celebrations, in slowly improving weather, they began to prepare to leave their refuge, but it was 19 May 1896 before they were able to resume their journey.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: On 17 June, during a stop for repairs after the kayaks had been attacked by a walrus, Nansen thought he heard a dog barking as well as human voices. He went to investigate, and a few minutes later saw the figure of a man approaching. It was the British explorer Frederick Jackson, who was leading an expedition to Franz Josef Land and was camped at Cape Flora on nearby Northbrook Island. The two were equally astonished by their encounter; after some awkward hesitation Jackson asked: "You are Nansen, aren't you?", and received the reply "Yes, I am Nansen."


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: Johansen was picked up and the pair were taken to Cape Flora where, during the following weeks, they recuperated from their ordeal. Nansen later wrote that he could "still scarcely grasp" their sudden change of fortune; had it not been for the walrus attack that caused the delay, the two parties might have been unaware of each other's existence.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: On 7 August, Nansen and Johansen boarded Jackson's supply ship "Windward", and sailed for Vardø where they arrived on the 13th. They were greeted by Hans Mohn, the originator of the polar drift theory, who was in the town by chance. The world was quickly informed by telegram of Nansen's safe return, but as yet there was no news of "Fram".


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: Taking the weekly mail steamer south, Nansen and Johansen reached Hammerfest on 18 August, where they learned that "Fram" had been sighted. She had emerged from the ice north and west of Spitsbergen, as Nansen had predicted, and was now on her way to Tromsø. She had not passed over the pole, nor exceeded Nansen's northern mark. Without delay Nansen and Johansen sailed for Tromsø, where they were reunited with their comrades.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: The homeward voyage to Christiania was a series of triumphant receptions at every port. On 9 September, "Fram" was escorted into Christiania's harbour and welcomed by the largest crowds the city had ever seen. The crew were received by King Oscar, and Nansen, reunited with family, remained at the palace for several days as special guests. Tributes arrived from all over the world; typical was that from the British mountaineer Edward Whymper, who wrote that Nansen had made "almost as great an advance as has been accomplished by all other voyages in the nineteenth century put together".


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: Nansen's first task on his return was to write his account of the voyage. This he did remarkably quickly, producing 300,000 words of Norwegian text by November 1896; the English translation, titled "Farthest North", was ready in January 1897. The book was an instant success, and secured Nansen's long-term financial future. Nansen included without comment the one significant adverse criticism of his conduct, that of Greely, who had written in "Harper's Weekly" on Nansen's decision to leave "Fram" and strike for the pole: "It passes comprehension how Nansen could have thus deviated from the most sacred duty devolving on the commander of a naval expedition."


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: During the 20 years following his return from the Arctic, Nansen devoted most of his energies to scientific work. In 1897 he accepted a professorship in zoology at the Royal Frederick University, which gave him a base from which he could tackle the major task of editing the reports of the scientific results of the "Fram" expedition. This was a much more arduous task than writing the expedition narrative. The results were eventually published in six volumes, and according to a later polar scientist, Robert Rudmose-Brown, "were to Arctic oceanography what the "Challenger" expedition results had been to the oceanography of other oceans."


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: In 1900, Nansen became director of the Christiania-based International Laboratory for North Sea Research, and helped found the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea. Through his connection with the latter body, in the summer of 1900 Nansen embarked on his first visit to Arctic waters since the "Fram" expedition, a cruise to Iceland and Jan Mayen Land on the oceanographic research vessel "Michael Sars", named after Eva's father. Shortly after his return he learned that his Farthest North record had been passed, by members of the Duke of the Abruzzi's Italian expedition. They had reached 86°34′N on 24 April 1900, in an attempt to reach the North Pole from Franz Josef Land. Nansen received the news philosophically: "What is the value of having goals for their own sake? They all vanish ... it is merely a question of time."


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: Nansen was now considered an oracle by all would-be explorers of the north and south polar regions. Abruzzi had consulted him, as had the Belgian Adrien de Gerlache, each of whom took expeditions to the Antarctic. Although Nansen refused to meet his own countryman and fellow-explorer Carsten Borchgrevink (whom he considered a fraud), he gave advice to Robert Falcon Scott on polar equipment and transport, prior to the 1901–04 "Discovery" expedition. At one point Nansen seriously considered leading a South Pole expedition himself, and asked Colin Archer to design two ships. However, these plans remained on the drawing board.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: By 1901 Nansen's family had expanded considerably. A daughter, Liv, had been born just before "Fram" set out; a son, Kåre was born in 1897 followed by a daughter, Irmelin, in 1900 and a second son Odd in 1901. The family home, which Nansen had built in 1891 from the profits of his Greenland expedition book, was now too small. Nansen acquired a plot of land in the Lysaker district and built, substantially to his own design, a large and imposing house which combined some of the characteristics of an English manor house with features from the Italian renaissance.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: The house was ready for occupation by April 1902; Nansen called it "Polhøgda" (in English "polar heights"), and it remained his home for the rest of his life. A fifth and final child, son Asmund, was born at Polhøgda in 1903.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: The union between Norway and Sweden, imposed by the Great Powers in 1814, had been under considerable strain through the 1890s, the chief issue in question being Norway's rights to its own consular service. Nansen, although not by inclination a politician, had spoken out on the issue on several occasions in defence of Norway's interests. As of 1898 Nansen was among the contributors of "Ringeren", an anti-Union magazine established by Sigurd Ibsen. It seemed, early in the 20th century that agreement between the two countries might be possible, but hopes were dashed when negotiations broke down in February 1905. The Norwegian government fell, and was replaced by one led by Christian Michelsen, whose programme was one of separation from Sweden.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: In February and March Nansen published a series of newspaper articles which placed him firmly in the separatist camp. The new prime minister wanted Nansen in the cabinet, but Nansen had no political ambitions. However, at Michelsen's request he went to Berlin and then to London where, in a letter to "The Times", he presented Norway's legal case for a separate consular service to the English-speaking world. On 17 May 1905, Norway's Constitution Day, Nansen addressed a large crowd in Christiania, saying: "Now have all ways of retreat been closed. Now remains only one path, the way forward, perhaps through difficulties and hardships, but forward for our country, to a free Norway". He also wrote a book, "Norway and the Union with Sweden", to promote Norway's case abroad.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: On 23 May the Storting passed the Consulate Act establishing a separate consular service. King Oscar refused his assent; on 27 May the Norwegian cabinet resigned, but the king would not recognise this step. On 7 June the Storting unilaterally announced that the union with Sweden was dissolved. In a tense situation the Swedish government agreed to Norway's request that the dissolution should be put to a referendum of the Norwegian people. This was held on 13 August 1905 and resulted in an overwhelming vote for independence, at which point King Oscar relinquished the crown of Norway while retaining the Swedish throne. A second referendum, held in November, determined that the new independent state should be a monarchy rather than a republic. In anticipation of this, Michelsen's government had been considering the suitability of various princes as candidates for the Norwegian throne. Faced with King Oscar's refusal to allow anyone from his own House of Bernadotte to accept the crown, the favoured choice was Prince Charles of Denmark. In July 1905 Michelsen sent Nansen to Copenhagen on a secret mission to persuade Charles to accept the Norwegian throne. Nansen was successful; shortly after the second referendum Charles was proclaimed king, taking the name Haakon VII. He and his wife, the British princess Maud, were crowned in the Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim on 22 June 1906.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: In April 1906 Nansen was appointed Norway's first Minister in London. His main task was to work with representatives of the major European powers on an Integrity Treaty which would guarantee Norway's position. Nansen was popular in England, and got on well with King Edward, though he found court functions and diplomatic duties disagreeable; "frivolous and boring" was his description. However, he was able to pursue his geographical and scientific interests through contacts with the Royal Geographical Society and other learned bodies. The Treaty was signed on 2 November 1907, and Nansen considered his task complete. Resisting the pleas of, among others, King Edward that he should remain in London, on 15 November Nansen resigned his post. A few weeks later, still in England as the king's guest at Sandringham, Nansen received word that Eva was seriously ill with pneumonia. On 8 December he set out for home, but before he reached Polhøgda he learned, from a telegram, that Eva had died.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: After a period of mourning, Nansen returned to London. He had been persuaded by his government to rescind his resignation until after King Edward's state visit to Norway in April 1908. His formal retirement from the diplomatic service was dated 1 May 1908, the same day on which his university professorship was changed from zoology to oceanography. This new designation reflected the general character of Nansen's more recent scientific interests.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: In 1905, he had supplied the Swedish physicist Walfrid Ekman with the data which established the principle in oceanography known as the Ekman spiral. Based on Nansen's observations of ocean currents recorded during the "Fram" expedition, Ekman concluded that the effect of wind on the sea's surface produced currents which "formed something like a spiral staircase, down towards the depths".


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: In 1909 Nansen combined with Bjørn Helland-Hansen to publish an academic paper, "The Norwegian Sea: its Physical Oceanography", based on the "Michael Sars" voyage of 1900. Nansen had by now retired from polar exploration, the decisive step being his release of "Fram" to fellow Norwegian Roald Amundsen, who was planning a North Pole expedition. When Amundsen made his controversial change of plan and set out for the South Pole, Nansen stood by him.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: Between 1910 and 1914, Nansen participated in several oceanographic voyages. In 1910, aboard the Norwegian naval vessel "Fridtjof", he carried out researches in the northern Atlantic, and in 1912 he took his own yacht, "Veslemøy", to Bear Island and Spitsbergen. The main objective of the "Veslemøy" cruise was the investigation of salinity in the North Polar Basin. One of Nansen's lasting contributions to oceanography was his work designing instruments and equipment; the "Nansen bottle" for taking deep water samples remained in use into the 21st century, in a version updated by Shale Niskin.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: At the request of the Royal Geographical Society, Nansen began work on a study of Arctic discoveries, which developed into a two-volume history of the exploration of the northern regions up to the beginning of the 16th century. This was published in 1911 as "Nord i Tåkeheimen" ("In Northern Mists"). That year he renewed an acquaintance with Kathleen Scott, wife of Robert Falcon Scott, whose "Terra Nova" Expedition had sailed for Antarctica in 1910.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: Biographer Roland Huntford has claimed that Nansen and Kathleen Scott had a brief affair. Louisa Young, in her biography of Lady Scott, rejects the claim. Many women were attracted to Nansen, and he had a reputation as a womaniser. His personal life was troubled around this time; in January 1913 he received news of the suicide of Hjalmar Johansen, who had returned in disgrace from Amundsen's successful South Pole expedition. In March 1913, Nansen's youngest son Asmund died after a long illness.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: In the summer of 1913, Nansen travelled to the Kara Sea, by the invitation of Jonas Lied, as part of a delegation investigating a possible trade route between Western Europe and the Siberian interior. The party then took a steamer up the Yenisei River to Krasnoyarsk, and travelled on the Trans-Siberian Railway to Vladivostok before turning for home. Nansen published a report from the trip in "Through Siberia". The life and culture of the Russian peoples aroused in Nansen an interest and sympathy he would carry through to his later life. Immediately before the First World War, Nansen joined Helland-Hansen in an oceanographical cruise in eastern Atlantic waters.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: On the outbreak of war in 1914, Norway declared its neutrality, alongside Sweden and Denmark. Nansen was appointed as the president of the Norwegian Union of Defence, but had few official duties, and continued with his professional work as far as circumstances permitted. As the war progressed, the loss of Norway's overseas trade led to acute shortages of food in the country, which became critical in April 1917, when the United States entered the war and placed extra restrictions on international trade. Nansen was dispatched to Washington by the Norwegian government; after months of discussion, he secured food and other supplies in return for the introduction of a rationing system. When his government hesitated over the deal, he signed the agreement on his own initiative.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: Within a few months of the war's end in November 1918, a draft agreement had been accepted by the Paris Peace Conference to create a League of Nations, as a means of resolving disputes between nations by peaceful means. The foundation of the League at this time was providential as far as Nansen was concerned, giving him a new outlet for his restless energy. He became president of the Norwegian League of Nations Society, and although the Scandinavian nations with their traditions of neutrality initially held themselves aloof, his advocacy helped to ensure that Norway became a full member of the League in 1920, and he became one of its three delegates to the League's General Assembly.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: In April 1920, at the League's request, Nansen began organising the repatriation of around half a million prisoners of war, stranded in various parts of the world. Of these, 300,000 were in Russia which, gripped by revolution and civil war, had little interest in their fate. Nansen was able to report to the Assembly in November 1920 that around 200,000 men had been returned to their homes. "Never in my life", he said, "have I been brought into touch with so formidable an amount of suffering."


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: Nansen continued this work for a further two years until, in his final report to the Assembly in 1922, he was able to state that 427,886 prisoners had been repatriated to around 30 different countries. In paying tribute to his work, the responsible committee recorded that the story of his efforts "would contain tales of heroic endeavour worthy of those in the accounts of the crossing of Greenland and the great Arctic voyage."


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: The Nansen Mission is the colloquial term used by inhabitants of former Soviet Socialist Republics to describe the series of humanitarian initiatives undertaken by the International Committee of the Red Cross and headed by Fridtjof Nansen. This international effort included the involvement of the Swiss, Swedish, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian and German branches of the Red Cross, the Swiss and Italian Children's Aids, the Seventh-day Adventist Society, as well as many other organisations. The mobilisation effort began in August 1921 and the first programmes in Russia began soon after, with the signing of an agreement of assistance between Nansen and Georgy Chicherin, which provided aid to mitigate starvation in Russia and Ukraine.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: Even before this work was complete, Nansen was involved in a further humanitarian effort. On 1 September 1921, prompted by the British delegate Philip Noel-Baker, he accepted the post of the League's High Commissioner for Refugees. His main brief was the resettlement of around two million Russian refugees displaced by the upheavals of the Russian Revolution.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: At the same time he tried to tackle the urgent problem of famine in Russia; following a widespread failure of crops around 30 million people were threatened with starvation and death. Despite Nansen's pleas on behalf of the starving, Russia's revolutionary government was feared and distrusted internationally, and the League was reluctant to come to its peoples' aid. Nansen had to rely largely on fundraising from private organisations, and his efforts met with limited success. Later he was to express himself bitterly on the matter:


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: A major problem impeding Nansen's work on behalf of refugees was that most of them lacked documentary proof of identity or nationality. Without legal status in their country of refuge, their lack of papers meant they were unable to go anywhere else. To overcome this, Nansen devised a document that became known as the "Nansen passport", a form of identity for stateless persons that was in time recognised by more than 50 governments, and which allowed refugees to cross borders legally. Although the passport was created initially for refugees from Russia, it was extended to cover other groups.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: While attending the Conference of Lausanne in November 1922, Nansen learned that he had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 1922. The citation referred to "his work for the repatriation of the prisoners of war, his work for the Russian refugees, his work to bring succour to the millions of Russians afflicted by famine, and finally his present work for the refugees in Asia Minor and Thrace". Nansen donated the prize money to international relief efforts.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: After the Greco-Turkish War of 1919–1922, Nansen travelled to Constantinople to negotiate the resettlement of hundreds of thousands of refugees, mainly ethnic Greeks who had fled from Turkey after the defeat of the Greek Army. The impoverished Greek state was unable to take them in, and so Nansen devised a scheme for a population exchange whereby half a million Turks in Greece were returned to Turkey, with full financial compensation, while further loans facilitated the absorption of the refugee Greeks into their homeland. Despite some controversy over the principle of a population exchange, the plan was implemented successfully over a period of several years.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: From 1925 onwards, Nansen devoted much time trying to help Armenian refugees, victims of Armenian genocide at the hands of the Ottoman Empire during the First World War and further ill-treatment thereafter. His goal was the establishment of a national home for these refugees, within the borders of Soviet Armenia. His main assistant in this endeavour was Vidkun Quisling, the future Nazi collaborator and head of a Norwegian puppet government during the Second World War.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: After visiting the region, Nansen presented the Assembly with a modest plan for the irrigation of on which 15,000 refugees could be settled. The plan ultimately failed, because even with Nansen's unremitting advocacy the money to finance the scheme was not forthcoming. Despite this failure, his reputation among the Armenian people remains high.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: Nansen wrote "Armenia and the Near East" (1923) wherein he describes the plight of the Armenians in the wake of losing its independence to the Soviet Union. The book was translated into many languages. After his visit to Armenia, Nansen wrote two additional books: "Across Armenia" (1927) and "Through the Caucasus to the Volga" (1930).


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: Within the League's Assembly, Nansen spoke out on many issues besides those related to refugees. He believed that the Assembly gave the smaller countries such as Norway a "unique opportunity for speaking in the councils of the world." He believed that the extent of the League's success in reducing armaments would be the greatest test of its credibility. He was a signatory to the Slavery Convention of 25 September 1926, which sought to outlaw the use of forced labour. He supported a settlement of the post-war reparations issue and championed Germany's membership of the League, which was granted in September 1926 after intensive preparatory work by Nansen.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: On 17 January 1919 Nansen married Sigrun Munthe, a long-time friend with whom he had had a love affair in 1905, while Eva was still alive. The marriage was resented by the Nansen children, and proved unhappy; an acquaintance writing of them in the 1920s said Nansen appeared unbearably miserable and Sigrun steeped in hate.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: Nansen's League of Nations commitments through the 1920s meant that he was mostly absent from Norway, and was able to devote little time to scientific work. Nevertheless, he continued to publish occasional papers. He entertained the hope that he might travel to the North Pole by airship, but could not raise sufficient funding. In any event he was forestalled in this ambition by Amundsen, who flew over the pole in Umberto Nobile's airship "Norge" in May 1926. Two years later Nansen broadcast a memorial oration to Amundsen, who had disappeared in the Arctic while organising a rescue party for Nobile whose airship had crashed during a second polar voyage. Nansen said of Amundsen: "He found an unknown grave under the clear sky of the icy world, with the whirring of the wings of eternity through space."


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: In 1926 Nansen was elected Rector of the University of St Andrews in Scotland, the first foreigner to hold this largely honorary position. He used the occasion of his inaugural address to review his life and philosophy, and to deliver a call to the youth of the next generation. He ended:


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: We all have a Land of Beyond to seek in our life—what more can we ask? Our part is to find the trail that leads to it. A long trail, a hard trail, maybe; but the call comes to us, and we have to go. Rooted deep in the nature of every one of us is the spirit of adventure, the call of the wild—vibrating under all our actions, making life deeper and higher and nobler.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: Nansen largely avoided involvement in domestic Norwegian politics, but in 1924 he was persuaded by the long-retired former Prime Minister Christian Michelsen to take part in a new anti-communist political grouping, the Fatherland League. There were fears in Norway that should the Marxist-oriented Labour Party gain power it would introduce a revolutionary programme. At the inaugural rally of the League in Oslo (as Christiania had now been renamed), Nansen declared: "To talk of the right of revolution in a society with full civil liberty, universal suffrage, equal treatment for everyone ... [is] idiotic nonsense."


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: Following continued turmoil between the centre-right parties, there was even an independent petition in 1926 gaining some momentum that proposed for Nansen to head a centre-right national unity government on a balanced budget program, an idea he did not reject. He was the headline speaker at the single largest Fatherland League rally with 15,000 attendees in Tønsberg in 1928. In 1929 he went on his final tour for the League on the ship "Stella Polaris", holding speeches from Bergen to Hammerfest.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: In between his various duties and responsibilities, Nansen had continued to take skiing holidays when he could. In February 1930, aged 68, he took a short break in the mountains with two old friends, who noted that Nansen was slower than usual and appeared to tire easily. On his return to Oslo he was laid up for several months, with influenza and later phlebitis, and was visited on his sickbed by King Haakon VII.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: Nansen died of a heart attack on 13 May 1930. He was given a non-religious state funeral before cremation, after which his ashes were laid under a tree at Polhøgda. Nansen's daughter Liv recorded that there were no speeches, just music: Schubert's "Death and the Maiden", which Eva used to sing.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: In his lifetime and thereafter, Nansen received honours and recognition from many countries. Among the many tributes paid to him subsequently was that of Lord Robert Cecil, a fellow League of Nations delegate, who spoke of the range of Nansen's work, done with no regard for his own interests or health: "Every good cause had his support. He was a fearless peacemaker, a friend of justice, an advocate always for the weak and suffering."


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: Nansen was a pioneer and innovator in many fields. As a young man he embraced the revolution in skiing methods that transformed it from a means of winter travel to a universal sport, and quickly became one of Norway's leading skiers. He was later able to apply this expertise to the problems of polar travel, in both his Greenland and his "Fram" expeditions.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: He invented the "Nansen sledge" with broad, ski-like runners, the "Nansen cooker" to improve the heat efficiency of the standard spirit stoves then in use, and the layer principle in polar clothing, whereby the traditionally heavy, awkward garments were replaced by layers of lightweight material. In science, Nansen is recognised both as one of the founders of modern neurology, and as a significant contributor to early oceanographical science, in particular for his work in establishing the Central Oceanographic Laboratory in Christiania.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: Through his work on behalf of the League of Nations, Nansen helped to establish the principle of international responsibility for refugees. Immediately after his death the League set up the Nansen International Office for Refugees, a semi-autonomous body under the League's authority, to continue his work. The Nansen Office faced great difficulties, in part arising from the large numbers of refugees from the European dictatorships during the 1930s. Nevertheless, it secured the agreement of 14 countries (including a reluctant Great Britain) to the Refugee Convention of 1933.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: It also helped to repatriate 10,000 Armenians to Yerevan in Soviet Armenia, and to find homes for a further 40,000 in Syria and Lebanon. In 1938, the year in which it was superseded by a wider-ranging body, the Nansen Office was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In 1954, the League's successor body, the United Nations, established the Nansen Medal, later named the Nansen Refugee Award, given annually by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to an individual, group or organisation "for outstanding work on behalf of the forcibly displaced".


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: Numerous geographical features bear his name: the Nansen Basin and the Nansen-Gakkel Ridge in the Arctic Ocean; Mount Nansen in the Yukon region of Canada; Mount Nansen, Mount Fridtjof Nansen and Nansen Island, all in Antarctica; as well as Nansen Island in the Kara Sea, Nansen Land in Greenland and Nansen Island in Franz Josef Land; 853 Nansenia, an asteroid; Nansen crater at the Moon's north pole and Nansen crater on Mars. His Polhøgda mansion is now home to the Fridtjof Nansen Institute, an independent foundation which engages in research on environmental, energy and resource management politics.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: A 1968 Norwegian/Soviet biographical film "Just a Life: the Story of Fridtjof Nansen" was released with Knut Wigert as Nansen.


title: Fridtjof Nansen

text: The Royal Norwegian Navy launched the first of a series of five s in 2004, with as its lead ship. Cruise ship was launched in 2020.


title: Death ray

text: The death ray or death beam was a theoretical particle beam or electromagnetic weapon first theorized around the 1920s and 1930s. Around that time, notable inventors such as Guglielmo Marconi, Nikola Tesla, Harry Grindell Matthews, Edwin R. Scott, Erich Graichen and others claimed to have invented it independently. In 1957, the National Inventors Council was still issuing lists of needed military inventions that included a death ray.


title: Death ray

text: While based in fiction, research into energy-based weapons inspired by past speculation has contributed to real-life weapons in use by modern militaries sometimes called a sort of "death ray", such as the United States Navy and its Laser Weapon System (LaWS) deployed in mid-2014. Such armaments are technically known as directed-energy weapons.


title: Death ray

text: In 1923, Edwin R. Scott, an inventor from San Francisco, claimed he was the first to develop a death ray that would destroy human life and bring down planes at a distance. He was born in Detroit, and he claimed he worked for nine years as a student and protégé of Charles P. Steinmetz. Harry Grindell-Matthews tried to sell what he reported to be a death ray to the British Air Ministry in 1924. He was never able to show a functioning model or demonstrate it to the military.


title: Death ray

text: Nikola Tesla claimed to have invented a "death beam" which he called teleforce in the 1930s and continued the claims up until his death.


title: Death ray

text: Tesla explained that "this invention of mine does not contemplate the use of any so-called 'death rays'. Rays are not applicable because they cannot be produced in requisite quantities and diminish rapidly in intensity with distance. All the energy of New York City (approximately two million horsepower) transformed into rays and projected twenty miles, could not kill a human being, because, according to a well known law of physics, it would disperse to such an extent as to be ineffectual. My apparatus projects particles which may be relatively large or of microscopic dimensions, enabling us to convey to a small area at a great distance trillions of times more energy than is possible with rays of any kind. Many thousands of horsepower can thus be transmitted by a stream thinner than a hair, so that nothing can resist." Tesla proposed that a nation could "destroy anything approaching within 200 miles... [and] will provide a wall of power" in order to "make any country, large or small, impregnable against armies, airplanes, and other means for attack". He claimed to have worked on the project since about 1900, and said that it drew power from the ionosphere, which he called "an invisible ball of energy surrounding Earth". He said that he had done this with the help of a 50-foot tesla coil.


title: Death ray

text: Antonio Longoria in 1934 claimed to have a death ray that could kill pigeons from four miles away and could kill a mouse enclosed in a "thick walled metal chamber".


title: Death ray

text: During World War II, the Germans had at least two projects, and the Japanese one, to create so-called death rays. One German project led by Ernst Schiebold concerned a particle accelerator with a steerable bundle of beryllium rods running through the vertical axis. The other was developed by Dr. Rolf Widerøe and is referred to in his biography. The machine developed by Widerøe was in the Dresden Plasma Physics laboratory in February 1945 when the city was bombed. Widerøe led a team in March 1945 to remove the device from the ruined laboratory and deliver it to General Patton's 3rd Army at Burggrub where it was taken into US custody on 14 April 1945. The Japanese weapon was called Death ray "Ku-Go" which aimed to employ microwaves created in a large magnetron.


title: Death ray

text: The concept of a death ray has fueled science fiction stories at least as early as Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy's 1927 novel "The Garin Death Ray". Later science fiction introduced the concept of the handheld raygun used by fictional characters such as Flash Gordon. In Alfred Noyes' 1940 novel "The Last Man" (US title: "No Other Man"), a death ray developed by a German scientist named Mardok is unleashed in a global war and almost wipes out the human race. Similar weapons are found in spy-fi films such as "Murderers' Row" and George Lucas's science-fiction saga "Star Wars".