title: Robert C. Martin

text: Martin is a proponent of software craftsmanship, agile software development, and test-driven development.


title: Ron Washington

text: Ronald Louis Washington (born April 29, 1952) is an American former professional baseball shortstop. He played Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Minnesota Twins, Baltimore Orioles, Cleveland Indians, and Houston Astros.


title: Ron Washington

text: Washington is currently the for the Atlanta Braves. He is also the former manager of the Texas Rangers, whom he took to the World Series in 2010 and 2011. Prior to managing the Rangers, Washington coached in the New York Mets and Oakland Athletics organizations. He is one of only three MLB players, along with U L Washington (no relation) and Frank White, who were products of the Royals Academy.


title: Ron Washington

text: Washington was signed by the Kansas City Royals on July 17, 1970. He spent the next ten seasons in the minor leagues with three different organizations (Royals, Mets, and Dodgers). He also played various seasons in the Mexican Pacific League during the winters throughout the 1970s and 1980s. He earned a brief September callup with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1977 hitting .368 (7 for 19). He would not return to the major league level until 1981 with the Minnesota Twins where he would remain until 1986. He then played one season each for the Baltimore Orioles, Cleveland Indians, and Houston Astros before retiring from Triple-A Oklahoma City in 1990. He was a middle infielder for most of his career. On May 28, 1988, while playing for the Indians, Washington broke up Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Odell Jones' no-hit bid after innings with a pinch-hit single.


title: Ron Washington

text: Following his retirement as a player, Washington worked in the New York Mets organization for five years. After being hired as the Oakland Athletics first base coach in 1996 under his former Astros manager Art Howe, Washington then served as infield and third base coach for the A's between 1997 and 2006. As infield coach Washington has been credited for developing much of the A's young infield talent in the last decade, including six-time Gold Glover Eric Chavez, and former MVP and A's shortstop Miguel Tejada. In 2004, Chavez expressed his appreciation by giving Washington one of his Gold Glove trophies, signed "Wash, not without you." However, the trophy was lost during Hurricane Katrina in August 2005.


title: Ron Washington

text: Washington is portrayed in the book "Moneyball" that relates how the A's competed having a small budget. Washington is shown in a positive light for the way he trained Scott Hatteberg to field first base for the first time in his career, but also as too old-fashioned and traditional in his lack of acceptance of general manager Billy Beane's sabermetric strategies. His character in the film adaptation of the book was played by actor Brent Jennings.


title: Ron Washington

text: On November 6, 2006, the Texas Rangers announced that Washington had accepted their offer to manage the team replacing Buck Showalter, who was fired a month earlier. Washington beat out four other candidates for the job: Rangers bench coach Don Wakamatsu, then New York Mets third base coach Manny Acta, Nippon Ham Fighters manager Trey Hillman and former Rangers catcher John Russell.


title: Ron Washington

text: At the beginning of the 2007 season, it was rumored that there was a rift between Washington and Rangers star Mark Teixeira. Asked about it, Washington responded,


title: Ron Washington

text: Teixeira was traded to the Atlanta Braves in July 2007 and had been rumored to have been on the trading block before reports of tensions with Washington, as his agent, Scott Boras, had refused to negotiate a contract extension beyond the 2008 season. Reports also suggested tensions between Washington and catcher Gerald Laird. Questioned about the rumors, Washington conceded that the pressure he put on Laird was "a lot to put on a young kid ... (But) that's what we've got. He's got to grow up fast."


title: Ron Washington

text: On March 17, 2010, Jon Heyman of "Sports Illustrated" reported that Washington tested positive for cocaine during the 2009 season and has acknowledged using cocaine.


title: Ron Washington

text: In 2010, Washington became the second manager of the Rangers franchise (after Johnny Oates) to take his team to the postseason. On October 12, 2010, Washington became the first manager in franchise history to win a playoff series, with a 3–2 victory in the ALDS over the Tampa Bay Rays. On October 22, 2010, Washington's Rangers defeated the New York Yankees in the ALCS in six games, to advance to their first World Series in franchise history, before losing to the San Francisco Giants in five games. He also became the third African American to manage a team into a World Series, joining Cito Gaston, who managed the Toronto Blue Jays to the World Championship in the 1992 and 1993 World Series, and Dusty Baker, who managed the Giants in the 2002 World Series.


title: Ron Washington

text: Referring to Washington, second baseman Ian Kinsler said: "I just love the way he never holds his emotion back, especially when he's managing. He hangs on every pitch, and it's great to know that your manager is in every single pitch and cares that much." In 2009 his salary was about $750,000. On November 4, 2010, Washington agreed to a two-year contract extension.


title: Ron Washington

text: On October 15, 2011, Washington managed the Rangers to their second World Series in as many years, when the Rangers defeated the Detroit Tigers in the ALCS. The Rangers eventually lost to the St. Louis Cardinals in 7 games, after twice being one strike away from the title in game 6. On January 30, 2012, Washington agreed to another two-year contract extension. That year, he led the Rangers to a five-game lead in the race for the AL West title over the Oakland Athletics on September 24, but lost seven of the last nine games and the team was relegated to the inaugural AL Wild Card Game, which they lost 5–1 to the Baltimore Orioles.


title: Ron Washington

text: On September 2, 2012, Washington earned his 507th win as a manager of the Texas Rangers, passing Johnny Oates for the second-most wins by a Rangers manager. On August 4, 2013, Washington passed Bobby Valentine for the most wins as a Rangers manager, at 582.


title: Ron Washington

text: Following the conclusion of the 2014 season, Washington traveled to Japan to manage a team of MLB All-Stars playing against All-Stars of Nippon Professional Baseball in the 2014 Major League Baseball Japan All-Star Series.


title: Ron Washington

text: On September 5, 2014, Washington announced his resignation as manager of the Rangers, citing personal reasons. On September 11, 2014, it was announced by several media outlets that Ron Washington's resignation may be related to allegations of sexual assault against a reporter. On September 18, 2014, Washington announced that he had been having an extramarital affair, and that he had resigned to reconcile with his family. Washington's managerial record with the Rangers was 664–611 (.521), including four consecutive 90-win seasons (2010–13), and two pennants. However, his 2014 squad was only 53–87 (.379).


title: Ron Washington

text: Washington was hired as an infield coach by the Oakland Athletics on May 21, 2015. He became the A's third base coach on August 24, 2015.


title: Ron Washington

text: In October 2016, it was learned that Washington was a finalist for the Atlanta Braves managerial vacancy. The Braves opted to promote interim manager Brian Snitker instead, and then announced the hiring of Washington as their new third base coach, replacing Bo Porter.


title: Ron Washington

text: Washington won his first World Series championship on November 2, 2021, as third-base coach for the Atlanta Braves.


title: Polynesian navigation

text: Polynesian navigation or Polynesian wayfinding was used for thousands of years to enable long voyages across thousands of kilometers of the open Pacific Ocean. Polynesians made contact with nearly every island within the vast Polynesian Triangle, using outrigger canoes or double-hulled canoes. The double-hulled canoes were two large hulls, equal in length, and lashed side by side. The space between the paralleled canoes allowed for storage of food, hunting materials, and nets when embarking on long voyages. Polynesian navigators used wayfinding techniques such as the navigation by the stars, and observations of birds, ocean swells, and wind patterns, and relied on a large body of knowledge from oral tradition.


title: Polynesian navigation

text: Navigators travelled to small inhabited islands using wayfinding techniques and knowledge passed by oral tradition from master to apprentice, often in the form of song. Generally, each island maintained a guild of navigators who had very high status; in times of famine or difficulty, they could trade for aid or evacuate people to neighbouring islands. As of 2014, these traditional navigation methods are still taught in the Polynesian outlier of Taumako in the Solomons and by voyaging societies throughout the Pacific.


title: Polynesian navigation

text: Both wayfinding techniques and outrigger canoe construction methods have been kept as guild secrets, but in the modern revival of these skills, they are being recorded and published.


title: Polynesian navigation

text: Between about 3000 and 1000 BC speakers of Austronesian languages spread through the islands of Southeast Asia – most likely starting out from Taiwan, as tribes whose natives were thought to have previously arrived from mainland South China about 8000 years ago – into the edges of western Micronesia and on into Melanesia, through the Philippines and Indonesia. In the archeogenetic record, there are well-defined traces of this expansion that allow the path it took to be followed and dated with a degree of certainty. In the mid-2nd millennium BC, a distinctive culture appeared suddenly in north-west Melanesia, in the Bismarck Archipelago, the chain of islands forming a great arch from New Britain to the Admiralty Islands.


title: Polynesian navigation

text: This culture, known as Lapita, stands out in the Melanesian archeological record, with its large permanent villages on beach terraces along the coasts. Particularly characteristic of the Lapita culture is the making of pottery, including a great many vessels of varied shapes, some distinguished by fine patterns and motifs pressed into the clay. Between about 1300 and 900 BC, the Lapita culture spread 6000 km farther to the east from the Bismarck Archipelago, until it reached as far as Tonga and Samoa. Lapita pottery persisted in places such as Samoa, Tonga, and Fiji for many years after its introduction to Western Polynesia but eventually died out in most of Polynesia due to the scarcity of clay. Although the production of ceramics did not travel beyond Western Polynesia, some ceramic materials have been recovered through archeological excavations in the Central Polynesia but have been attributed to trade.


title: Polynesian navigation

text: In accordance with Polynesian oral tradition, the geography of Polynesian navigation pathways is said to resemble the geometric qualities of an octopus with head centred on Ra'iātea (French Polynesia) and tentacles spread out across the Pacific. In oral tradition the octopus is known by various names such as Taumata-Fe'e-Fa'atupu-Hau (Grand Octopus of Prosperity), Tumu-Ra'i-Fenua (Beginning-of-Heaven-and-Earth) and Te Wheke-a-Muturangi (The Octopus of Muturangi).


title: Polynesian navigation

text: Specific chronology of the discovery and settlement of specific island groups within Eastern and Central Polynesia is hotly debated among archeologists, but a generally accepted timeline puts the initial settlement of the Cook Islands before 1000 AD. From this point, navigation branched out in all directions with Eastern Polynesia (including the Society Islands and the Marquesas Islands) settled first followed by more remote regions such as Hawaii, Easter Island, and New Zealand peopled later. The pattern of settlement also extended to the north of Samoa to the Tuvaluan atolls, with Tuvalu providing a stepping stone to the founding of Polynesian Outlier communities in Melanesia and Micronesia. The natives of Easter Island likely originated from Mangareva. They discovered the island by using the flight path of the sooty tern. When the first European to visit the island, Jacob Roggeveen, landed on Easter Island, he found no evidence of navigation. Instead, he noticed that there were not enough trees to build seaworthy canoes and the rafts the natives were using were not seaworthy either.


title: Polynesian navigation

text: The archeological record supports oral histories of the first peopling of region including both the timing and geographical origins of Polynesian society.


title: Polynesian navigation

text: Navigation relies heavily on constant observation and memorization. Navigators have to memorize where they have sailed from in order to know where they are. The sun was the main guide for navigators because they could follow its exact points as it rose and set. Once the sun had set they would use the rising and setting points of the stars. When there were no stars because of a cloudy night or during daylight, a navigator would use the winds and swells as guides.


title: Polynesian navigation

text: Through constant observation, navigators were able to detect changes in the speed of their canoes, their heading, and the time of day or night. Polynesian navigators thus employed a wide range of techniques including the use of the stars, the movement of ocean currents and wave patterns, the patterns of bioluminescence that indicated the direction in which islands were located, the air and sea interference patterns caused by islands and atolls, the flight of birds, the winds and the weather.


title: Polynesian navigation

text: Certain seabirds such as the white tern and noddy tern fly out to sea in the morning to hunt fish, then return to land at night. Navigators seeking land sail opposite the birds' path in the morning and with them at night, especially relying on large groups of birds, and keeping in mind changes during nesting season.


title: Polynesian navigation

text: Harold Gatty suggested that long-distance Polynesian voyaging followed the seasonal paths of bird migrations. In "The Raft Book", a survival guide he wrote for the U.S. military during World War II, Gatty outlined various Polynesian navigation techniques for shipwrecked sailors or aviators to find land. There are some references in their oral traditions to the flight of birds, and Gatty claimed that departing voyages used onshore range marks pointing to distant islands in line with their flight paths. A voyage from Tahiti, the Tuamotus or the Cook Islands to New Zealand might have followed the migration of the long-tailed cuckoo ("Eudynamys taitensis"), just as the voyage from Tahiti to Hawaii would coincide with the track of the Pacific golden plover ("Pluvialis fulva") and the bristle-thighed curlew ("Numenius tahitiensis").


title: Polynesian navigation

text: It is also believed that Polynesians, like many seafaring peoples, kept shore-sighting birds. One theory is that voyagers took a frigatebird ("Fregata") with them. This bird's feathers become drenched and useless if it lands on water, so voyagers would release it when they thought they were close to land, and would follow it if it did not return to the canoe.


title: Polynesian navigation

text: The positions of the stars helped guide Polynesian voyages. Stars, as opposed to planets, hold fixed celestial positions year-round, changing only their rising time with the seasons. Each star has a specific declination, and can give a bearing for navigation as it rises or sets. Polynesian voyagers would set a heading by a star near the horizon, switching to a new one once the first rose too high. A specific sequence of stars would be memorized for each route.


title: Polynesian navigation

text: The Polynesians also took measurements of stellar elevation to determine their latitude. The latitudes of specific islands were also known, and the technique of "sailing down the latitude" was used. That is, Polynesians navigated by the stars through knowledge of when particular stars, as they rotated through the night sky, would pass over the island to which the voyagers were sailing. Also knowledge that the movement of stars over different islands followed a similar pattern, (that is all the islands had a similar relationship to the night sky) provided the navigators with a sense of latitude, so that they could sail with the prevailing wind, before turning east or west to reach the island that was their destination.


title: Polynesian navigation

text: Some star compass systems specify as many as 150 stars with known bearings, though most systems have only a few dozen (illustration at right). The development of sidereal compasses has been studied and hypothesized to have developed from an ancient pelorus instrument.


title: Polynesian navigation

text: For navigators near the equator, celestial navigation is simplified, given that the whole celestial sphere is exposed. Any star that passes through the zenith (overhead) moves along the celestial equator, the basis of the equatorial coordinate system.


title: Polynesian navigation

text: The Polynesians also used wave and swell formations to navigate. Many of the habitable areas of the Pacific Ocean are groups of islands (or atolls) in chains hundreds of kilometres long. Island chains have predictable effects on waves and currents. Navigators who lived within a group of islands would learn the effect various islands had on the swell shape, direction, and motion, and would have been able to correct their path accordingly. Even when they arrived in the vicinity of an unfamiliar chain of islands, they may have been able to detect signs similar to those of their home.


title: Polynesian navigation

text: Once they had arrived fairly close to a destination island, they would have been able to pinpoint its location by sightings of land-based birds, certain cloud formations, as well as the reflections of shallow water made on the undersides of clouds. It is thought that the Polynesian navigators may have measured sailing time between islands in "canoe-days".


title: Polynesian navigation

text: The energy transferred from the wind to the sea produces wind waves. The waves that are created when the energy travels down away from the source area (like ripples) are known as swell. When the winds are strong at the source area, the swell is larger. The longer the wind blows, the longer the swell lasts. Because the swells of the ocean can remain consistent for days, navigators relied on them to carry their canoe in a straight line from one house (or point) on the star compass to the opposite house of the same name. Navigators were not always able to see stars; because of this, they relied on the swells of the ocean. Swell patterns are a much more reliable method of navigation than waves, which are determined by the local winds. Swells move in a straight direction which makes it easier for the navigator to determine whether the canoe is heading in the correct direction.


title: Polynesian navigation

text: Polynesian navigators could identify the clouds that resulted from the white sand of coral atolls reflecting heat into the sky. Subtle differences in the colour of the sky also could be recognised as resulting from the presence of lagoons or shallow waters, as deep water was a poor reflector of light while the lighter colour of the water of lagoons and shallow waters could be identified in the reflection in the sky.


title: Polynesian navigation

text: In Eastern Polynesia, navigators sailing from Tahiti to the Tuamotus would sail directly east towards Anaa atoll, which has a shallow lagoon that reflects a faint green colour on to the clouds above the atoll. If the navigator drifted off their course, they could correct their course when they sighted the reflection of the lagoon in the clouds in the distance.


title: Polynesian navigation

text: Dr. David Lewis was one of the first academics, along with Marianne George, to document an unexplained light phenomenon. Te lapa is a burst of light in a straight line occurring on, or just below the water surface, and originates from islands. It is used by Polynesians to reorient themselves out at sea or to find new islands.


title: Polynesian navigation

text: There is currently no evidence of historic Polynesian navigators using navigational devices on board vessels. However, the Micronesian people of the Marshall Islands have a history of using a stick chart onshore, to serve as spatial representations of islands and the conditions around them. Micronesian navigators created charts using the rib of coconut leaves attached to a square frame, with the curvature and meeting-points of the coconut ribs indicating the wave motion that was the result of islands standing in the path of the prevailing wind and the run of the waves.


title: Polynesian navigation

text: On his first voyage of Pacific exploration, Captain James Cook had the services of a Polynesian navigator, Tupaia, who drew a chart of the islands within a radius (to the north and west) of his home island of Ra'iatea. Tupaia had knowledge of 130 islands and named 74 on his chart. Tupaia had navigated from Ra'iatea in short voyages to 13 islands. He had not visited western Polynesia, as since his grandfather's time the extent of voyaging by Raiateans had diminished to the islands of eastern Polynesia. His grandfather and father had passed to Tupaia the knowledge as to the location of the major islands of western Polynesia and the navigation information necessary to voyage to Fiji, Samoa and Tonga. Tupaia was hired by Joseph Banks, the ship's naturalist, who wrote that Cook ignored Tupaia's chart and downplayed his skills as a navigator.


title: Polynesian navigation

text: However, in February 1778, Cook recorded his impressions of the dispersal and settlement of Polynesian people across the Pacific ocean in favorable terms:


title: Polynesian navigation

text: The islands of New Zealand, along with a series of outlying islands, have been labelled 'South Polynesia' by New Zealand archaeologist Atholl Anderson. These islands include the Kermadec Islands, the Chatham Islands, the Auckland Islands and Norfolk Island. In each of these islands there is radiocarbon dating evidence of visits from Polynesians by 1500. The material evidence of Polynesian visits to at least one of the subantarctic islands to the south of New Zealand consists of the remains of a settlement. This evidence from Enderby Island in the Auckland Islands has been radiocarbon dated back to the 13th Century.


title: Polynesian navigation

text: Descriptions of a shard of early Polynesian pottery buried on the Antipodes Islands are unsubstantiated, and the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, where it was supposedly stored, has stated that "The Museum has not been able to locate such a shard in its collection, and the original reference to the object in the Museum's collection documentation indicates no reference to Polynesian influences."


title: Polynesian navigation

text: Oral history describes Ui-te-Rangiora, around the year 650, leading a fleet of Waka Tīwai south until they reached, ""a place of bitter cold where rock-like structures rose from a solid sea"." The brief description might match the Ross Ice Shelf or possibly the Antarctic mainland, but may be a description of icebergs surrounded by sea ice found in the Southern Ocean. The account also describes snow.


title: Polynesian navigation

text: In the mid-20th century, Thor Heyerdahl proposed a new theory of Polynesian origins (one which did not win general acceptance), arguing that the Polynesians had migrated from South America on balsa-log boats.


title: Polynesian navigation

text: The presence in the Cook Islands of sweet potatoes, a plant native to the Americas (called "kūmara" in Māori), which have been radiocarbon-dated to 1000 CE, has been cited as evidence that Native Americans could have traveled to Oceania. The current thinking is that sweet potato was brought to central Polynesia circa 700 CE and spread across Polynesia from there, possibly by Polynesians who had traveled to South America and back. An alternative explanation posits biological dispersal; plants and/or seeds could float across the Pacific without any human contact.


title: Polynesian navigation

text: A 2007 study published in the "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences" examined chicken bones at El Arenal, Chile near the Arauco Peninsula. The results suggested Oceania-to-America contact. The domestication of chickens originated in southern Asia, whereas the "Araucana" breed of Chile is thought to have been introduced to the Americas by Spaniards around 1500. The bones found in Chile were radiocarbon-dated to between 1304 and 1424, prior to the documented arrival of the Spanish. DNA sequences taken were exact matches to the sequences of chickens from the same period in American Samoa and Tonga, both over 5000 miles (8000 kilometers) away from Chile. The genetic sequences were also similar to those found in Hawaii and Easter Island, the closest Polynesian island, at only 2500 miles (4000 kilometers). The sequences did not match any breed of European chicken.


title: Polynesian navigation

text: Although this initial report suggested a Polynesian pre-Columbian origin, a later report looking at the same specimens concluded:


title: Polynesian navigation

text: In 2005, a linguist and an archeologist proposed a theory of contact between Hawaiians and the Chumash people of Southern California between 400 and 800 CE. The sewn-plank canoes crafted by the Chumash and neighboring Tongva are unique among the indigenous peoples of North America, but similar in design to larger canoes used by Polynesians and Melanesians for deep-sea voyages. "Tomolo'o", the Chumash word for such a craft, may derive from "tumula'au"/"kumula'au", the Hawaiian term for the logs from which shipwrights carve planks to be sewn into canoes. The analogous Tongva term, "tii'at", is unrelated. If it occurred, this contact left no genetic legacy in California or Hawaii. This theory has attracted limited media attention within California, but most archaeologists of the Tongva and Chumash cultures reject it on the grounds that the independent development of the sewn-plank canoe over several centuries is well-represented in the material record.


title: Polynesian navigation

text: Polynesian contact with the prehispanic Mapuche culture in central-south Chile has been suggested because of apparently similar cultural traits, including words like "toki" (stone axes and adzes), hand clubs similar to the Māori wahaika, the dalca –a sewn-plank canoe as used on Chiloe Archipelago, the curanto earth oven (Polynesian "umu") common in southern Chile, fishing techniques such as stone wall enclosures, palín –a hockey-like game– and other potential parallels. Some strong westerlies and El Niño wind blow directly from central-east Polynesia to the Mapuche region, between Concepción and Chiloe. A direct connection from New Zealand is possible, sailing with the Roaring Forties. In 1834, some escapees from Tasmania arrived at Chiloe Island after sailing for 43 days.


title: Polynesian navigation

text: A Mangarevan legend tells of Anua Matua who sailed in south-west direction reaching southernmost South America.


title: Polynesian navigation

text: Knowledge of the traditional Polynesian methods of navigation was widely lost after contact with and colonization by Europeans. This caused debates over the reasons for the presence of the Polynesians in such isolated and scattered parts of the Pacific. According to Andrew Sharp, the explorer Captain James Cook, already familiar with Charles de Brosses's accounts of large groups of Pacific islanders who were driven off course in storms and ended up hundreds of miles away with no idea where they were, encountered in the course of one of his own voyages a castaway group of Tahitians who had become lost at sea in a gale and blown 1000 miles away to the island of Atiu. Cook wrote that this incident "will serve to explain, better than the thousand conjectures of speculative reasoners, how the detached parts of the earth, and, in particular, how the South Seas, may have been peopled".


title: Polynesian navigation

text: By the late 19th century to the early 20th century, a more generous view of Polynesian navigation had come into favor, creating a much romanticized view of their seamanship, canoes, and navigational expertise. Late 19th- and early 20th-century writers such as Abraham Fornander and Percy Smith told of heroic Polynesians migrating in great coordinated fleets from Asia far and wide into present-day Polynesia.


title: Polynesian navigation

text: Another view was presented by Andrew Sharp, who challenged the "heroic vision" hypothesis, asserting instead that Polynesian maritime expertise was severely limited in the field of exploration, and that as a result, the settlement of Polynesia had been the result of luck, random island sightings, and drifting, rather than as organized voyages of colonization. Thereafter, the oral knowledge passed down for generations allowed for eventual mastery of traveling between known locations. Sharp's reassessment caused a huge amount of controversy and led to a stalemate between the romantic and the skeptical views.


title: Polynesian navigation

text: Anthropologist David Lewis sailed his catamaran from Tahiti to New Zealand, via Rarotonga using stellar navigation without instruments. David Lewis also sought out navigators of the Caroline Islands, Santa Cruz Islands and Tonga to confirm that traditional navigation techniques had been retained by navigators from Polynesia, Micronesia and Melanesia. The voyages of David Lewis on his ketch "Isbjorn" included: Tevake navigating between the Santa Cruz Islands; and Hipour of Puluwat navigating in the Caroline Islands; and also conversations with Fe’iloakitau Kaho, Ve’ehala and Kaloni Kienga from Tonga; Temi Rewi of Beru and Iotiabata Ata of Tarawa in the Gilbert Islands; and Yaleilei of Satawal in the Caroline Islands.


title: Polynesian navigation

text: Anthropologist and historian Ben Finney built "Nalehia", a replica of a Hawaiian double canoe. Finney tested the canoe in a series of sailing and paddling experiments in Hawaiian waters. At the same time, ethnographic research in the Caroline Islands in Micronesia brought to light the fact that traditional stellar navigational methods were still very much in everyday use there. The building and testing of proa canoes ("wa") inspired by traditional designs, the harnessing of knowledge from skilled Micronesians, as well as voyages using stellar navigation, allowed practical conclusions about the seaworthiness and handling capabilities of traditional Polynesian canoes and allowed a better understanding of the navigational methods that were likely to have been used by the Polynesians and of how they, as people, were adapted to seafaring. Recent re-creations of Polynesian voyaging have used methods based largely on Micronesian methods and the teachings of a Micronesian navigator, Mau Piailug.


title: Polynesian navigation

text: In 1973, Ben Finney established the Polynesian Voyaging Society to test the contentious question of how Polynesians found their islands. The team claimed to be able to replicate ancient Hawaiian double-hulled canoes capable of sailing across the ocean using strictly traditional voyaging techniques. In 1980, a Hawaiian named Nainoa Thompson invented a new method of non-instrument navigation (called the "modern Hawaiian wayfinding system"), enabling him to complete the voyage from Hawaii to Tahiti and back. In 1987, a Māori named Matahi Whakataka-Brightwell and his mentor Francis Cowan sailed from Tahiti to New Zealand without instruments in the waka "Hawaiki-nui".


title: Polynesian navigation

text: In 1978, the Hokulea was capsized en route to Tahiti. Eddie Aikau, a world champion surfer, and part of the crew, attempted to paddle his surfboard to the nearest island to find help. However, Aikau was never seen again. The crew was later rescued regardless of the fact that Aikau didn’t make it to the nearest island.


title: Polynesian navigation

text: In New Zealand, a leading Māori navigator and ship builder was Hector Busby, who was also inspired and influenced by Nainoa Thompson and Hokulea's voyage there in 1985.


title: Polynesian navigation

text: In 2008, an expedition starting in the Philippines sailed two modern Wharram-designed catamarans loosely based on a Polynesian catamaran found in Auckland Museum. The boats were built in the Philippines by an experienced boat builder to Wharram designs using modern strip plank with epoxy resin glue built over plywood frames. The catamarans had modern Dacron sails, Terylene stays and sheets with modern roller blocks. Wharram says he used Polynesian navigation to sail along the coast of Northern New Guinea and then sailed 150 miles to an island for which he had modern charts, proving that it is possible to sail a modern catamaran along the path of the Lapita Pacific migration. Unlike many other modern Polynesian "replica" voyages, the Wharram catamarans were at no point towed or escorted by a modern vessel with modern GPS navigation system, nor were they fitted with a motor.


title: Polynesian navigation

text: In 2010, O Tahiti Nui Freedom, an outrigger sailing canoe, retraced the path of the migration from Tahiti to China via Cooks, Tonga, Fiji, Vanuatu, Solomons, PNG, Palau, Philippines in 123 days.


title: Polynesian navigation

text: In 2013, a modern, non-instrument voyage was launched called Mālama Honua. It traveled across the world leaving Hilo, Hawaii, initially. This was not a re-creation of a known historical voyage. The spirit of the voyage was to spread the message of conservation. In fact, "mālama honua" means, roughly, to care for Earth, in Hawaiian. The journey was made on two vessels: the Hōkūle'a and the Hikianalia. Nainoa Thompson was on the crew.


title: Svartálfar

text: In Norse cosmology, svartálfar (O.N. "black elves", "swarthy elves", sing. svartálfr), also called myrkálfar ("dark elves", "dusky elves", "murky elves", sing. myrkálfr), are beings who dwell in Svartalfheim ("Svartálf[a]heimr", "home of the black-elves"). Both the svartálfar and Svartálfaheimr are primarily attested in the "Prose Edda", written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson. Scholars have noted that the svartálfar appear to be synonymous with the dwarfs and potentially also the dökkálfar ("dark elves"). As dwarfs, the home of the svartálfar could possibly be another description for "Niðavellir" ("dark fields").


title: Svartálfar

text: The "svartálfar" are almost only attested in the "Prose Edda" (the word does appear in "Ektors saga ok kappa hans", but is presumably borrowed from the "Prose Edda"). The "svartálfar" mentioned in "Skáldskaparmál" 35 are the Sons of Ivaldi, whom Loki engages to craft replacement hair for Sif, wife of the god Thor, after Loki mischievously sheared off her golden tresses. Ivaldi is often glossed as being a dwarf.


title: Svartálfar

text: "Svartálfaheimr" ("world of black-elves") appears in the "Prose Edda" twice, in each case as the place where certain dwarfs can be found to be living: In "Gylfaginning" 33, the "world of black-elves" is where the dwarfs are sought by the gods to craft the fetter Gleipnir to bind the wolf Fenrir. And in "Skáldskaparmál," 39, the "world of black-elves" is where Loki encounters the dwarf Andvari.


title: Svartálfar

text: Scholars have commented that, as both attestations mentioning the beings and location appear to refer to dwarfs, "svartálfr" and "dwarf" may simply be synonyms for the same concept. Scholar John Lindow comments that whether the dökkálfar and the svartálfar were considered the same at the time of the writing of the "Prose Edda" is also unclear.


title: Rafael Palmeiro

text: Rafael Palmeiro Corrales (born September 24, 1964) is a Cuban-American former Major League Baseball first baseman and left fielder. Palmeiro was an All-American at Mississippi State University before being drafted by the Chicago Cubs in 1985. He played for the Cubs (1986–1988), Texas Rangers (1989–1993, 1999–2003), and the Baltimore Orioles (1994–1998, 2004–2005).


title: Rafael Palmeiro

text: He was named to the MLB All-Star Team four times, and won the Gold Glove three times. He is one of only seven players in MLB history to be a member of both the 500 home run club and the 3,000 hit club. Days after recording his 3,000th hit, Palmeiro received a 10-game suspension for testing positive for an anabolic steroid.


title: Rafael Palmeiro

text: Palmeiro was born in Havana, Cuba but moved to the United States at the age of seven. He graduated from Miami Jackson High School in Miami, Florida. Although he was drafted by the New York Mets in the 8th round of the 1982 draft, he did not sign.


title: Rafael Palmeiro

text: Palmeiro was recruited by Ron Polk and enrolled at Mississippi State University, where he played college baseball for the Bulldogs in the Southeastern Conference (SEC). He was the first of two players to have ever won the SEC triple crown, both of whom are Mississippi State products. A teammate of Will Clark, the two were known as "Thunder and Lightning". Clark and Palmeiro were known to dislike each other, dating back to their time at Mississippi State. On June 11, 1985, Palmeiro signed with the Chicago Cubs as the 22nd pick in the 1st round of the 1985 draft. He was drafted as a compensation pick from the San Diego Padres, to whom the Cubs lost Tim Stoddard via free agency.


title: Rafael Palmeiro

text: In 1985, Palmeiro played with the Peoria Chiefs of the Class A level Midwest League. In his first professional season, Palmeiro batted .297 with 5 home runs and 51 RBI in 73 games. He played exclusively in the outfield.


title: Rafael Palmeiro

text: Palmeiro played for the Pittsfield Cubs of the Class AA level Eastern League in 1986. With Pittsfield, Palmeiro played exclusively in the outfield and hit .306 with 12 home runs and 95 RBI in 140 games, before a September call up to the major leagues.


title: Rafael Palmeiro

text: In 1987, Palmeiro played for the Iowa Cubs of the Class AAA level American Association. In 57 games Palmeiro hit .299 with 11 home runs and 41 RBI before being called up the major leagues. He played the outfield in 47 games and made his debut at 1B, playing 9 games.


title: Rafael Palmeiro

text: Palmeiro debuted on September 8, 1986 in a game between the Chicago Cubs and Philadelphia Phillies at Wrigley Field, as a left fielder. In his first season, he played 22 games, having a .247 batting average while having 12 RBIs and 3 home runs. In the next season, he played in 84 games, garnering 61 hits, 14 home runs and 30 RBIs with a .276 average. During his tenure with the Cubs, he normally played left field, though occasionally he would play other outfield positions or first base. Palmeiro was the runner up to National League batting champion Tony Gwynn in 1988 with a .307 batting average, only six points below Gwynn's. He had 178 hits, 8 home runs and 53 RBIs in 629 plate appearances and 152 games. He was named to the 1988 MLB All-Star Game, the first in his career.


title: Rafael Palmeiro

text: During that year rumors spread about a relationship between Palmeiro and Ryne Sandberg's wife, Cindy. This led to issues in the locker room and after the 1988 season, Palmeiro was traded by the Cubs to the Texas Rangers along with Jamie Moyer and Drew Hall in exchange for Mitch Williams, Paul Kilgus, Steve Wilson, Curtis Wilkerson, Luis Benitez, and Pablo Delgado.


title: Rafael Palmeiro

text: Upon moving to the American League, Palmeiro was primarily used as a first baseman or designated hitter. Palmeiro blossomed as a hitter while with the Rangers, leading the league in hits in 1990 and doubles in 1991. In 1989, he hit for .275 that season, having 64 RBIs, 8 home runs and 154 hits. In 1990, he was third in the American League in batting. He hit for .319 during the season, while having 89 RBIs and 14 home runs and leading the league in hits (191). He hit 49 doubles in 1991 (a season high along with a career high), while having 203 hits, 26 home runs and 88 RBIs for a .322 batting average. He was named to his second career All-Star Game that year. He dipped in every category in 1992, having 163 hits, 22 home runs, 85 RBIs and a .268 batting average.


title: Rafael Palmeiro

text: He bounced back the following year (a contract season), having a career high 124 runs (most in the American League that year), 176 hits, a career high 37 home runs along with 105 RBIs and a .295 batting average. He was offered a five-year contract worth $26 million after the season. Despite that fact, he left the Rangers for the Orioles after they signed ex-Mississippi State teammate Will Clark.


title: Rafael Palmeiro

text: Instead of getting a better deal, they signed Will Clark instead (for $30 million and five years), causing Palmeiro to call him a "low life", though he later apologized for saying that.


title: Rafael Palmeiro

text: Palmeiro signed a 5-year contract, worth more than $30 million. In his first season as an Oriole, Palmeiro hit 23 home runs, a season that was abbreviated due to a work stoppage. He had 76 RBIs (the last time he would have less than 100 RBIs until 2004) along with a .319 batting average. Prior to Palmeiro's 1995 season, he had hit more than 30 home runs only once (37 in 1993).


title: Rafael Palmeiro

text: Starting in 1995, Palmeiro began a streak of 38+ home run years that continued through the 2003 season. He hit 373 home runs during this nine-season span, while also driving in over 100 runs in each of these seasons. However, Palmeiro never led the league in home runs, and he is history's most prolific home run hitter to have never won the home run crown.


title: Rafael Palmeiro

text: That season, he led the team in home runs, batting average, and runs batted in. In the 1996 season, he hit 39 home runs, 181 hits, and 142 runs batted in and helped the Orioles qualify for the American League Wild Card. This was both his first postseason appearance in his career along with the first postseason appearance for the Orioles since 1983. In his first postseason, he had seven total hits, six RBIs and a combined .205 average while playing in all nine games the Orioles played, as they beat the Cleveland Indians in the 1996 American League Division Series to advance to the 1996 American League Championship Series before being beat by the New York Yankees. He finished 6th in MVP balloting, his highest finish up to that point in his career.


title: Rafael Palmeiro

text: Despite having 109 strikeouts (a career high) and a .254 batting average, he had 110 RBIs, 156 hits along with 38 home runs in 1997 as he helped the team win their division for the first time since 1983. He also was awarded the Rawlings Gold Glove Award that season, his first ever. In the 1997 American League Division Series, the Orioles beat the Seattle Mariners in four games. In the postseason, he had 10 combined hits along with 2 RBIs and 1 home run and a .265 average in the 10 games he played in the postseason, as the Orioles once again advanced to the ALCS after beating the Seattle Mariners before losing to the Indians in six games. This would be the last time the Orioles would make the playoffs until 2012 and last time they would win a division title until 2014. The next season, his last with his first stint with the Orioles, he hit 43 home runs, to lead the team for the 4th time. He had 183 hits along with 121 RBIs and a .296 batting average. He was named to the 1998 MLB All-Star Game, his first since 1991. He also won a Gold Glove for the second straight year along with his first Silver Slugger Award, while finishing 18th in MVP balloting. In his time with the Orioles, he received MVP votes each year, though he never finished higher than 6th.


title: Rafael Palmeiro

text: Palmeiro was offered a 5-year, $50 million deal to stay with the Orioles, but instead agreed to a 5-year, $45 million contract to return to the Rangers in 1999, citing a desire to be close to family (he had remained in the Dallas area during his time with the Orioles).


title: Rafael Palmeiro

text: Palmeiro played an average of 157 games per season in his second tenure with the Rangers. He had 47 home runs in his first season back with the Rangers, while hitting for .324 and having 183 hits. He finished 5th in the MVP balloting, his highest finish ever while being named to the 1999 MLB All-Star Game, his fourth and final selection. He was awarded the Gold Glove for the third straight year along with winning the Silver Slugger Award for his second straight and final year. The Gold Glove win was not without controversy, as he appeared in only 28 games as a first baseman while playing 128 games as the designated hitter. He finished 5th in the MVP balloting, having garnered a .324 batting average, 47 home runs, and 148 RBIs, all improvements from the previous season. He hit over 100 RBIs in each of his five seasons, along with 805 hits. He hit 214 home runs with the team in that span, though his batting average dipped each year, hitting .260 in his final year in 2003. His first season resulted in a division title. In the 1999 American League Division Series, his team was swept by the Yankees in three games. He had three hits and a .273 average for the series. This was his last postseason appearance. The team would finish last place in his remaining four seasons. Palmeiro was one of the few bright spots for the Rangers from 2000–2003, when he left the Rangers to re-join the Orioles.


title: Rafael Palmeiro

text: On May 11, 2003, Palmeiro hit his 500th home run off David Elder in a game against the Cleveland Indians.


title: Rafael Palmeiro

text: In 10 years with the team, he played in 1,573 games, garnering 1,692 hits, 321 home runs and 1,039 RBIs while compiling a .290 batting average.


title: Rafael Palmeiro

text: Palmeiro re-signed with the Baltimore Orioles in 2004, on a 1-year, $4 million contract. In his press conference, he claimed he was "a little bit older, a little bit wiser". He also said he didn't want to retire until he rejoined the Orioles and if he was inducted to the Hall of Fame, he would do so as an Oriole. His power fell significantly his first season back with the Orioles, having 142 hits, along with 23 home runs, 88 RBIs and a .258 batting average, all drops from the previous season. Despite this, he became one of only six players (the other five being Ken Griffey Jr., Mark McGwire, Jimmie Foxx, Albert Pujols and Manny Ramírez) in history to hit at least 200 home runs for two different clubs, doing so on September 13, 2004 off Justin Miller. Entering 2005, he was just 78 hits shy of 3,000. He hit his 563rd home run that season, passing Reggie Jackson on the all-time list. Just a few weeks later, on July 15, Palmeiro joined Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Alex Rodriguez, and Eddie Murray as the only players in major league history to get 3,000 hits and 500 home runs. Shortly afterwards, Palmeiro was suspended 10 days for testing positive for steroids. He claimed he received a tainted vitamin b12 shot from Miguel Tejada. Upon returning he only played seven more games, during which he was booed by the home fans. He was sent home due to a nagging injury, but was told to stay home – largely because of his attempt to implicate his teammate. As of April 2016, he has yet to return to Baltimore. In his final season, he had 98 hits, 18 home runs, 60 RBIs and a .266 batting average in 110 total games played. He finished his career with 2,831 games played, the most by any player who never played in the World Series.


title: Rafael Palmeiro

text: In 2,831 games over 20 seasons, Palmiero posted a .288 batting average (3,020-for-10,472) with 1,663 runs, 585 doubles, 38 triples, 569 home runs, 1,835 RBI, 97 stolen bases, 1,353 bases on balls, .371 on-base percentage and .515 slugging percentage. Defensively, he finished his career with a .994 fielding percentage primarily as a first baseman. He also played 213 games in the outfield, 209 as a left fielder. In 22 postseason games, he batted .244 (20-for-82) with 13 runs, 5 doubles, 4 home runs, 8 RBI and 6 walks.


title: Rafael Palmeiro

text: On September 17, 2015, it was announced that Palmeiro would sign with the Sugar Land Skeeters of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball to play alongside his son, Patrick Palmeiro, for one game. Palmeiro appeared in only one game for the Skeeters on September 18, 2015. Skeeter fans quickly gave him the nickname "The Saccharin Slugger."


title: Rafael Palmeiro

text: Palmeiro announced on January 5, 2018 that he wanted to return to Major League Baseball. On May 9, 2018, it was announced that Palmeiro and his son Patrick signed with the Cleburne Railroaders of the American Association of Independent Professional Baseball. On May 22, 2018 he hit his first professional home run since July 2005 when he was with the Orioles. He finished the season with a .301 batting average, 6 home runs, and 22 RBIs despite being limited to only 31 games due to injuries. On March 11, 2019, the Railroaders announced that Palmeiro and his son would return for the 2019 season. On May 15, the Railroaders released the pair, stating that Rafael was not fully healthy and would not be able to play a full season after undergoing knee surgery earlier in the year.


title: Rafael Palmeiro

text: Palmeiro was inducted into the Mississippi State University Hall of Fame on October 11, 2008. In 2009, he was inducted into the National College Baseball Hall of Fame. In 2012 Rafael Palmeiro was inducted into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame.


title: Rafael Palmeiro

text: Palmeiro became eligible for induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2011. He received 64 votes, or 11% of total ballots cast; the threshold for entry is 75%. According to Barry M. Bloom on Major League Baseball's official website: "Palmeiro should have been a sure-fire first-ballot inductee, as a member of the 500-homer, 3,000-hit club, but was suspended in 2005 after testing positive for steroid use. He received only 11 percent of the vote." On January 8, 2014, Palmeiro received insufficient support to remain on the Hall of Fame ballot in future years, when he appeared on only 4.4% of ballots.


title: Rafael Palmeiro

text: Former Rangers teammate José Canseco identified Palmeiro as a fellow steroid user in his 2005 book, "", and claimed he personally injected Palmeiro with steroids. On March 17, 2005, Palmeiro appeared at a Congressional hearing about steroids in baseball and, while under oath, denied ever using steroids and stated, "Let me start by telling you this: I have never used steroids, period. I don't know how to say it any more clearly than that. Never."


title: Rafael Palmeiro

text: On August 1, 2005, Palmeiro was suspended for ten days after testing positive for a steroid. The "Washington Post" reported that the steroid detected in Palmeiro's system was a "serious" one. According to "The New York Times", Palmeiro tested positive for the potent anabolic steroid stanozolol. In a public statement, Palmeiro disclosed that an appeal of the suspension had already been denied. He released a statement saying, "I have never intentionally used steroids. Never. Ever. Period. Ultimately, although I never intentionally put a banned substance into my body, the independent arbitrator ruled that I had to be suspended under the terms of the program." According to Palmeiro, all of his previous tests over the two years including the 2003 sealed test were negative, and a test he took just three weeks after his positive test was also negative. The House Government Reform Committee would not seek perjury charges against Palmeiro, although they were not clearing him.


title: Rafael Palmeiro

text: Palmeiro returned to Camden Yards following his 10-day suspension on August 11, 2005, although he did not play in the lineup until August 14. Coincidentally, this was the date that had been planned as "Rafael Palmeiro Appreciation Day" in celebration of his 500-home run, 3,000-hit milestone. It was canceled after Palmeiro's suspension. "The Baltimore Sun" reported that Palmeiro never offered an explanation for his positive test to the MLB arbitration panel, which ran contrary to his public statements. ESPN later reported that Palmeiro implicated Miguel Tejada to baseball's arbitration panel, suggesting a supplement provided to him by Tejada was responsible for his positive test. This supplement was supposedly vitamin B, though it could have been tainted. Tejada and two unnamed teammates provided B samples to the panel, which did not contain stanozolol. However, the committee did say they found "substantial inconsistencies between Mr. Tejada's accounts and the accounts of players A and B." Tejada, who said he received shipments of B from the Dominican Republic, was later implicated for steroid use in the Mitchell Report.


title: Rafael Palmeiro

text: Palmeiro continues to strongly deny ever having used steroids intentionally, telling "The Baltimore Sun" in June 2006, "Yes sir, that's what happened. It's not a story; it's the reality of what happened", and "I said what I said before Congress because I meant every word of it." Palmeiro passed a polygraph test in which he was not asked if he ever used steroids, but in which he did state that he unknowingly ingested them via a B injection. A 2005 "New York Times" article expressed one writer's belief that Palmeiro's story could perhaps be the truth.


title: Rafael Palmeiro

text: In December 2007, Palmeiro was included in the Mitchell Report in which it was alleged that he used performance-enhancing drugs during his career. The report did not provide any new evidence and only recapped allegations made by José Canseco, Palmeiro's appearance before Congress, and his subsequent failed drug test. The report also details a conversation Larry Bigbie alleges he had with Palmeiro where he claims "Palmeiro asked him about his source of steroids and human growth hormone (the source was Kirk Radomski) and how the substances made him feel." Bigbie also stated that "Palmeiro denied in those conversations that he had ever used performance-enhancing substances himself."


title: Rafael Palmeiro

text: On December 20, 2007, Palmeiro was also named in Jason Grimsley's unsealed affidavit as a user of amphetamines prior to their being banned by MLB.


title: Rafael Palmeiro

text: Palmeiro lives in Colleyville, Texas, with his wife. His son Preston played baseball for North Carolina State University and was drafted by the Baltimore Orioles organization in 2016, and currently plays with the Los Angeles Angels organization.


title: Sara Bronfman

text: Sara Rosner Bronfman (born 1976) is the daughter of the billionaire former Seagram chairman Edgar Bronfman Sr. Bronfman was a leading funder and a member of the leadership team for the controversial multi-level marketing company and cult NXIVM, as was her sister, Clare Bronfman.


title: Sara Bronfman

text: Bronfman's father, Canadian billionaire Edgar Bronfman, Sr., met her mother, Rita Webb, the daughter of an English pub owner from Essex, England, in Marbella, Spain. Webb changed her first name to Georgiana and married Bronfman in 1975, two years after his divorce from his first wife, investment-banking heiress Ann Loeb. Webb gave birth to Sara the following year, then Clare two and a half years later. Her father is of Jewish background.


title: Sara Bronfman

text: Shortly after Clare's birth, Georgiana asked Edgar for a divorce. After Edgar married again in 1980, then was again divorced, the two sisters visited their father at his homes outside Charlottesville, Virginia; in Westchester County; at Sun Valley; and on Fifth Avenue in New York City, though their lives were centered in England and in Kenya, with their mother.


title: Sara Bronfman

text: In 2001, 25-year old Sara was introduced to NXIVM by a family friend. NXIVM was a multi-level marketing organization founded by Keith Raniere that claimed to help individuals achieve self-discovery, offering personal and professional development seminars, but has subsequently been identified as a cult.


title: Sara Bronfman

text: Sara has described herself, prior to discovering NXIVM, as "dilettantish". After her introduction to NXIVM, Sara urged Clare, then 23, to become involved. Clare was then committed to her equestrian career as a competitive jumper, horse trainer, and owner of Slate River Farm; she was described as being "a bit withdrawn and certainly the type to stay in and read while everyone else goes out."


title: Sara Bronfman

text: Sara and Clare became committed followers and financial backers of both NXIVM and its leader, Keith Raniere, and relocated to upstate New York to work as NXIVM trainers. "As Sara would later explain on her blog," wrote Suzanna Andrews in a profile of the sisters for "Vanity Fair", "she was 'in search of finding ways to bring peace to the world.' According to [a] family friend, who put it more prosaically, she was desperately looking for some purpose in her life. And she found it at NXIVM."


title: Sara Bronfman

text: Sara began working with Raniere's company Executive Success Programs, Inc. (ESP) and its "proprietary technology" Rational Inquiry, which had been created by Raniere.


title: Sara Bronfman

text: According to one source: "She founded the company's VIP Programs, which provide distinguished individuals with special training and coaching. These programs[,] facilitated by the company's President Nancy Salzman, were responsible for launching ESP into the British and Irish markets in 2005." Soon Sara Bronfman was on the Executive Board of ESP and had become "Director of Humanities, Regional Vice President, Professional Coach and Head Trainer".


title: Sara Bronfman

text: In September 2018, a class-action lawsuit was filed against Bronfman in the Brooklyn Supreme Court, asserting that she "ensnared" Isabella Martinez and Gabrielle Leal, among others, into taking costly classes as part of "a fraudulent scheme nationwide" for Raniere and NXIVM.


title: Sara Bronfman

text: Sara and her husband founded the Athal Education Group, a France-based offshoot of Raniere's Rainbow Cultural Garden, as well as the UK branch of RCG itself. The school was closed by the authorities in 2020.


title: Sara Bronfman

text: On June 19, 2019, NXIVM founder Raniere was found guilty of sex trafficking and racketeering. At trial, prosecution witness and NXIVM defector Mark Vicente testified that Sara Bronfman was among Raniere's "trusted group".


title: Sara Bronfman

text: On January 28, 2020, Sara and Clare Bronfman were named as defendants when 80 former NXIVM members sued, saying they were victims of sex trafficking, forced labor and illegal human experiments, and the NXIVM organisation being a pyramid scheme.


title: Sara Bronfman

text: Eager to distance themselves from cult allegations in the press, NXIVM members sought the endorsement of the Dalai Lama, spending $2 million on the project. Sara, along with her sister, Clare Bronfman, and NXIVM founder Keith Raniere formed an organization called the World Ethical Foundations Consortium.


title: Sara Bronfman

text: In January 2009, after the Dalai Lama cancelled a planned visit to the Special Olympics World Winter Games in Idaho, Sara Bronfman wrote a letter to an Idaho newspaper in which she threatened to "formally resign as an honorary board member of the Special Olympics if it turned out that the Dalai Lama had been dis-invited by no fault of his own".


title: Sara Bronfman

text: Sara and Clare were credited with being able to bring the Dalai Lama to Albany to participate in the WEFC's inaugural event on May 6, 2009, where the Dalai Lama gave a talk; during the event, he presented Raniere with a white scarf onstage. The Dalai Lama additionally wrote the foreword to the book "The Sphinx and Thelxiepeia", which Raniere co-authored in 2009. Eight years later, it would be found that Sara Bronfman had had a 2009 sexual relationship with Lama Tenzin Dhonden, the Dalai Lama's gatekeeper who arranged the appearance, who, being a monk, had taken a vow of celibacy. Amid accusations of corruption, Dhonden was replaced.


title: Sara Bronfman

text: In November 2011, Sara Bronfman traveled to Libya with fellow NXIVM member (and future spouse) Basit Igtet, accompanied by consultants including Adam Hock and Joseph Hagin. In 2012, Igtet and Bronfman founded the Canada-Libya Chamber of Commerce, serving as its inaugural president and chairman of the board respectively.


title: Sara Bronfman

text: In 2009, Bronfman reportedly had a sexual relationship with Lama Tenzin Dhonden, the self-styled "Personal Emissary for Peace for the Dalai Lama"; the affair was made public after a 2017 investigation led to Dhonden's removal for corruption.


title: Subaru Leone

text: The Subaru Leone is a compact car produced by the Japanese car manufacturer Subaru from 1971 to 1994. The word "leone" is Italian for lion.


title: Subaru Leone

text: It was released as a replacement for the Subaru 1000 and was the predecessor of the Subaru Impreza. All Leones were powered by the Subaru EA boxer engine. Most cars were equipped with optional four-wheel drive. At the time of its introduction, the Leone was Subaru's top model until 1989, when the larger Legacy was introduced.


title: Subaru Leone

text: Although released in Japan and some export markets as the Leone, for many years, this was the only vehicle sold internationally by Subaru where the smaller kei cars Rex, Vivio, R-2, 360, and Sambar were not commonly sold. As a result, in major markets such as Australia, Europe and North America, it was instead identified with a trim level designation, some of which included: DL, GL, GLF, GLF5, GL-10, and RX. The car is thus often referred to simply as the Subaru GL or the Subaru L series.


title: Subaru Leone

text: The first generation Leone was released on October 7, 1971 as a front-wheel drive coupé, with trim levels DL, GL and GSR. April 1972 saw the introduction of the two- and four-door sedans with trim levels DL, GL and in Japan, the Super Touring. At its introduction, the Leone was Subaru's largest car, and was the top level vehicle above the "kei" car Subaru Rex.


title: Subaru Leone

text: In September 1972 the four-wheel drive (4WD) station wagon (A67) was released, however it did not appear in the United States until 1974 as a 1975 model. The Leone was introduced before the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo to emphasize its durability in adverse weather conditions. Up until this time four-wheel drive had been limited mainly to off-road vehicles, although the very expensive Jensen FF had been built in limited numbers.


title: Subaru Leone

text: Subaru broke this pattern by introducing a mass-produced four-wheel drive passenger car, after having tested the waters by building a limited series of four-wheel drive FF-1 1300G wagons in 1971. Four-wheel drive was Subaru's most notable feature during the 1970s and 1980s, leading to particularly strong sales in places like Switzerland and Colorado. The Leone competed with the Toyota Corolla, Nissan Sunny, Honda Civic, Mazda Familia, Isuzu Gemini, and the Mitsubishi Lancer. The Leone introduced a Subaru tradition of frameless side windows for all models.


title: Subaru Leone

text: In August 1968, Subaru entered into an alliance with Nissan Motors. The appearance of the new Leone was influenced by the design efforts from Nissan, especially the long hood and short trunk appearance that Nissan was using at that time for their own products. The 1400 RX coupé was one of the first Japanese automobiles to be equipped with four-wheel disc brakes. A two-door hardtop coupé, with different bodywork than the two-door sedan or two-door coupé, was introduced in June 1973. The hardtop coupé received model names containing the letter F for "Formal" (FL, GF, GFT). A 4WD version with the sedan bodywork (model code A27) appeared in 1975. In the Japanese market, the sedan had to be equipped with the SEEC-T desmogged EA71 engine producing , whereas the station wagon was classified as a commercial vehicle and thus received a version of the same engine.


title: Subaru Leone

text: The Leone was originally equipped with a 1.2- or a 1.4-litre flat-four, carbureted, OHV engine. The 1,100 cc engine from the earlier FF-1 G was carried over for the Leone 1100 van in the Japanese domestic market, but was only available in the first few years. In September 1975, as a response to tightening emissions regulations, the 1.2 was removed from the sedan lineup (although it continued to be available as a van-wagon version in the Japanese domestic market). To be able to offer as much power as the pre-smog 1.4 a bigger, 1.6-litre version was added for 1976.


title: Subaru Leone

text: The Leone was available with a four-speed manual transmission, a five-speed manual transmission, and also a three-speed automatic transmission beginning in 1975. Some early models had duo-servo drum brakes at the front, however, later models were equipped with disc brakes. All models originally had rear drum brakes except the RX coupés. Unusually, the handbrake or emergency brake operated on the front wheels.


title: Subaru Leone

text: In March 1977 an updated Leone range was released. All body panels were altered slightly and the overall look was 'smoother' and more contemporary in appearance. A completely new dashboard with altered interior were also part of the update. Despite these changes the overall effect was similar to the earlier version and it was mechanically identical, with the exception of the rear track which was widened by . The chassis codes were changed, with sedans now in the 30 series and estates in the 60 series. The little 1.2 continued to be available in the lowliest standard van model, with . In November 1977 a new top model arrived, the Leone Grand Am-T, which adopted the federalized safety bumpers and had an interior "inspired by American tastes."


title: Subaru Leone

text: The Leone entered Australia and New Zealand in 1973, with cars imported fully assembled from Japan. The 4WD Wagon entered the Australian market in 1975, and remained the only vehicle in its class until the early 1980s. Many versions - sedan, wagon and Brumby (BRAT) coupe utility, were also assembled from CKD kits, from 1978, in New Zealand by then-importer Motor Holdings' Waitara plant near New Plymouth. Local assembly ceased when the Legacy range replaced the Leone in 1993.


title: Subaru Leone

text: The Leone was first introduced to the United States in 1972. In 1976 the EA63 engine was replaced with the 1.6 liter EA71 engine. The EA71 engine was originally installed in cars equipped with automatic transmission but eventually supplanted the EA63 across the entire range of vehicles in the US and Australia. Using Subaru's new SEEC-T technology meant that a catalytic converter was not necessary, lowering cost and enabling the use of leaded fuel. Power in 49-state (US) trim was at 5200 rpm (two horsepower less in California), although drivability and gas mileage suffered distinctly from the emissions equipment. The Wagon was also available with four-wheel drive, beginning with the 1977 model year.


title: Subaru Leone

text: A print ad for the 1973 Subaru GL coupé referred to the engine as "quadrozontal" The large bumpers required in the United States sat on hydraulic units; these were not a part of the original design and thus intruded considerably into the luggage compartment.


title: Subaru Leone

text: Late in 1977 saw the introduction of the Subaru BRAT as a 1978 model. This was a two-seater body with a pickup truck bed, with two seats welded into the bed to evade the so-called "chicken tax" on light commercial vehicles. It brought the U.S. lineup to eight models in three trim levels. Most were in the volume DL trim except a base two-door, and the GF hardtop and 4WD models which shared a higher specification. For 1979, a decontented DL 4WD wagon and Brat were added along with fancier GL four-door sedan and 2WD wagon models bringing the total to twelve, the original fully equipped 4WDs also getting the DL designation. The original Brat was updated for 1981 with a dual-range 4WD transmission and the 1.8-litre EA81 engine. This was sold alongside the second generation Leone (introduced in 1979) until the 1982 model year.


title: Subaru Leone

text: In June 1979 the Leone saw its first complete model update. This generation was released with a two-door hardtop coupé, four-door sedan, station wagon and a three-door hatchback. Export sales began in the fall with the 1980 model year. The earlier two-door sedan was replaced by a three-door hatchback design ("Swingback" in Japan), as an alternative to contemporary hatchback competitors. The Swingback, however, differed from its competitors in offering the option of four-wheel-drive.


title: Subaru Leone

text: New for this generation was a dual-range four-speed 4WD transmission with both hi/lo range gearing and manual ride height adjustment on the 4WD models. In November 1981 Subaru introduced Japan's first all-wheel-drive vehicle with an automatic transmission, utilizing the world's first "wet hydraulic multi-plate clutch". This allowed the driver to engage 4WD with a simple push of a button rather than shifting a lever as in the manual models. The electric switch activated a solenoid that pushed the clutch plates together, thereby engaging the driveshaft to the rear wheels.


title: Subaru Leone

text: A new 1.8 L EA81 engine was added to the lineup from the beginning. In November 1983, a turbocharger with optional multi-port fuel injection was also added to the BRAT and Turbo Wagon models. They were only available with an automatic transmission and 3.70:1 gearing. In Japan the top-spec 1800 GTS sedan was the first Subaru to offer air conditioning, power windows, and power steering. The installation of a turbocharger was to provide better fuel economy by reducing emissions and burning fuel more effectively as opposed to providing a performance oriented product, due to taxes levied by the Japanese Government on a graduated scale based on the emissions emitted from the car.


title: Subaru Leone

text: This generation of hatchback and BRAT were made alongside the third-generation offerings until 1987 for the BRAT in the United States (1993 in some markets and 1994 in Latin America) and 1989 for the hatchback. All other second generation models were discontinued by 1985.


title: Subaru Leone

text: In the United States, the trim level of a vehicle could be identified by the headlights – early GLs had square while others had round; later GLs had quad square headlights and lower series had single squares, with 1982 being a transition year (2WD GL=quad square, 4WD GL=single square with third light, all DLs=single square, STD hatchback=single round). 1980–1982 models also featured an optional third headlight hidden behind the grille logo, using a similar approach used by Chrysler in the late 1960s called the Super-Lite. The logo moved up and out of the way when the driver activated a switch on the dash, revealing the extra headlight and activating it when the high-beams were illuminated.


title: Subaru Leone

text: Australian buyers originally only received the option of a 1.6-liter engine coupled with a four-speed manual transmission. It was available as a four-door sedan or as a 4WD wagon.


title: Subaru Leone

text: On July 16, 1984, the Leone saw its second major redesign. This generation was released with a three-door hatchback, four-door sedan and a continuation of the popular station wagon body style. This generation Leone made its way to the United States in 1985. The liftback coupé was hamstrung by a very high rear cargo lip, but did receive a split folding rear seat.


title: Subaru Leone

text: In Europe, the range was 1.3 DL, 1.6 DL, 1.6 GL, 1.8 DL, and 1.8 GL 4WD. There were also Turbo versions, with in catalyzed specifications. Not all versions were offered in all countries.


title: Subaru Leone

text: In North America, the 1.6-liter engine was dropped completely from the lineup, due to its lack of power. The 1.3 was only available in select markets. For 1987, the Leone received a facelift with a smoothed out appearance.


title: Subaru Leone

text: A new 1.8-liter SOHC engine, EA82 was offered instead of the OHV 1.8-liter flat-four engine. The engine was available with a carburetor, single point fuel injection, multi-port fuel injection, or multi-port fuel injection with a turbocharger.


title: Subaru Leone

text: From 1988 this generation saw the availability of a full-time 4WD manual transmission or a full-time 4WD four-speed electronically controlled automatic transmission.


title: Subaru Leone

text: Other options found in the third generation Leone were a full digital instrument panel; self diagnostic computer, travel computer, cruise control and pneumatic suspension with selectable height,(previous generations 4WD models had manual height adjustment).


title: Subaru Leone

text: The performance oriented three-door RX was introduced in 1987, equipped with the EA82T turbo engine mated to a five speed manual transmission with synchronized dual-range and a manually-locking center differential). It had a 3.70:1 rear Limited Slip Differential, rally tuned suspension, four wheel disc brakes, power windows, A/C, central locking differential, adjustable seats and steering wheel, split fold-down rear seats, and hill holder. Weight was . An AT version was introduced in 1989, its final year of production. Only 2,600 were made.


title: Subaru Leone

text: From September 1989 until 1993, the van version was also provided to Isuzu as the "Geminett II" under an OEM deal.


title: Subaru Leone

text: By 1990 the Leone name continued to be used in Japan but was now known as the Loyale in Chile, the United States and Canada; the L-Series in Europe and Australia, and as the Omega in New Zealand where the third generation was the last to be assembled locally by Motor Holdings at Waitara. The popularity of the Leone wagon was ceded to the new, larger, Legacy wagon in 1989 and was ultimately replaced by the Impreza in 1994. The Impreza was introduced with a 'hatch like' wagon which was reminiscent of the first and second generation Leone wagons.


title: Subaru Leone

text: There were no third generation BRAT/Brumby/MV pickup as the range was discontinued after 1987. There was however a concept for a Subaru Suiren and the next generation Subaru Baja


title: Subaru Leone

text: Subaru Rally Team Japan led by Noriyuki Koseki (founder of Subaru Tecnica International STI) ran Subaru Leone coupé, sedan DL and RX Turbo in the World Rally Championship between 1980 and 1989 a few rallies per season. Drivers for individual rallies included Ari Vatanen, Per Eklund, Shekhar Mehta, Mike Kirkland, Possum Bourne, Frank Tundo, Harald Demut and Chilean driver Jose Antonio Celsi. Mike Kirkland finished 6th overall and won the A Group at the 1986 Safari Rally. That year Subaru was one of the only manufacturers combining 4WD and turbo. Jose Antonio Celsi finished eight in the 1986 Marlboro Rally Argentina and fifth in the 1988 Marlboro Rally Argentina. During 1989 Subaru entry two works RX Turbo for Jose Antonio Celsi and Possum Bourne. Celsi finished fourth, but retired on the final road section and Bourne retired during the first stage. Subaru changed the rally model to Legacy RS for the 1990–1992 period and took part in the first complete season in the World Rally Championship with the same model in 1993.


title: Subaru Leone

text: Introduced in August 1994, the Subaru Leone Van was a badge engineered version of the Nissan AD van for light commercial uses. The Leone's successor Legacy and Impreza did not compete in this segment. It was sold in two generations until the 2001 model year. In March 2001, sales of the Leone Van ended. The Sambar, which had grown larger due to changes in mini vehicle standards, was beginning to compete with the Leone Van. The name of "Leone" ended after three decades. At the same time, it meant Subaru's withdrawal from the small truck market.


title: Feral horse

text: A feral horse is a free-roaming horse of domesticated stock. As such, a feral horse is not a wild animal in the sense of an animal without domesticated ancestors. However, some populations of feral horses are managed as wildlife, and these horses often are popularly called "wild" horses. Feral horses are descended from domestic horses that strayed, escaped, or were deliberately released into the wild and remained to survive and reproduce there. Away from humans, over time, these animals' patterns of behavior revert to behavior more closely resembling that of wild horses. Some horses that live in a feral state but may be occasionally handled or managed by humans, particularly if privately owned, are referred to as "semi-feral".


title: Feral horse

text: Feral horses live in groups called a "herd", "band", "harem," or "mob". Feral horse herds, like those of wild horses, are usually made up of small harems led by a dominant mare, containing additional mares, their foals, and immature horses of both sexes. There is usually one herd stallion, though occasionally a few less-dominant males may remain with the group. Horse "herds" in the wild are best described as groups of several small bands who share the same territory. Bands are normally on the small side, as few as three to five animals, but sometimes over a dozen. The makeup of bands shift over time as young animals are driven out of the band they were born into and join other bands, or as young stallions challenge older males for dominance. However, in a closed ecosystem (such as the isolated refuges in which most feral horses live today), to maintain genetic diversity, the minimum size for a sustainable free-roaming horse or burro population is 150–200 animals.


title: Feral horse

text: The only truly wild horses in existence today are Przewalski's horse native to the steppes of central Asia. The best-known examples of modern day "wild" horses are those of the American West. When Europeans reintroduced the horse to the Americas, beginning with the arrival of the conquistadors in the 15th century, some horses escaped and formed feral herds known today as mustangs.


title: Feral horse

text: Australia has the largest population in the world, with in excess of 400,000 horses. The Australian name equivalent to the mustang is the brumby, descendants of horses brought to Australia by English settlers.


title: Feral horse

text: In Portugal, a population of free-ranging horses, known as "garrano", lives in the northern mountain chains. Isolated populations of wild horses occur in a number of other places, including Sable Island off the coast of Nova Scotia, Assateague Island off the coast of Virginia and Maryland, Cumberland Island, Georgia, and Vieques Island off the coast of Puerto Rico. Some of these horses are said to be the descendants of horses that managed to swim to land when they were shipwrecked. Others may have been deliberately brought to various islands by settlers and either left to reproduce freely or abandoned when assorted human settlements failed.


title: Feral horse

text: More than 700 feral wild horses live in the foothills of Cincar Mountain, between Livno and Kupres, Bosnia and Herzegovina, in an area of roughly . These animals, which descend from horses set free by their owners in the 1950s, enjoy a protected status since 2010.


title: Feral horse

text: A modern wild horse population ("janghali ghura") is found in the Dibru-Saikhowa National Park and Biosphere reserve of Assam, in north-east India, and is a herd of about 79 horses descended from animals that escaped army camps during World War II.


title: Feral horse

text: Many prehistoric horse species, now extinct, evolved in North America, but the wild horses of today are the offspring of horses that were domesticated in Europe. In the Western United States, certain bands of horses and burros are protected under the Wild and Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971. About 40,000 mustangs are left in the United States.


title: Feral horse

text: Modern types of feral horses that have a significant percentage of their number living in a feral state, though domesticated representatives may exist, include these types, landraces, and breeds:


title: Feral horse

text: In the United Kingdom, herds of free-roaming ponies live in apparently wild conditions in various areas, notably Dartmoor, Exmoor, Cumbria (Fell Pony), and the New Forest. Similar horse and pony populations exist elsewhere on the European continent. These animals, however, are not truly feral, as all of them are privately owned, and roam out on the moors and forests under common grazing rights belonging to their owners. A proportion of them are halter-broken, and a smaller proportion broken to ride, but simply turned out for a while for any of a number of reasons (e.g., a break in training to allow them to grow on, a break from working to allow them to breed under natural conditions, or retirement). In other cases, the animals may be government-owned and closely managed on controlled reserves.


title: Feral horse

text: Feral populations are usually controversial, with livestock producers often at odds with horse aficionados and other animal welfare advocates. Different habitats are impacted in different ways by feral horses. Where feral horses had wild ancestors indigenous to a region, a controlled population may have minimal environmental impact, particularly when their primary territory is one where they do not compete with domesticated livestock to any significant degree. However, in areas where they are an introduced species, such as Australia, or if the population is allowed to exceed available range, there can be significant impacts on soil, vegetation (including overgrazing), and animals that are native species.


title: Feral horse

text: If a feral population lives close to civilization, their behavior can lead them to damage human-built livestock fencing and related structures. In some cases, where feral horses compete with domestic livestock, particularly on public lands where multiple uses are permitted, such as in the Western United States, there is considerable controversy over which species is most responsible for degradation of rangeland, with commercial interests often advocating for the removal of the feral horse population to allow more grazing for cattle or sheep, and advocates for feral horses recommending reduction in the numbers of domestic livestock allowed to graze on public lands.


title: Feral horse

text: Certain populations have considerable historic or sentimental value, such as the Chincoteague pony that lives on Assateague Island, a national seashore with a delicate coastal ecosystem, or the Misaki pony of Japan that lives on a small refuge within the municipal boundaries of Kushima. These populations manage to thrive with careful management that includes using the animals to promote tourism to support the local economy. Most sustained feral populations are managed by various forms of culling, which, depending on the nation and other local conditions, may include capturing excess animals for adoption or sale. In some nations, management may include the often-controversial practice of selling captured animals for slaughter or simply shooting them. Fertility control is also sometimes used, though it is expensive and has to be repeated on a regular basis.


title: Isle of Portland

text: The Isle of Portland is a tied island, long by wide, in the English Channel. The southern tip, Portland Bill lies south of the resort of Weymouth, forming the southernmost point of the county of Dorset, England. A barrier beach called Chesil Beach joins Portland with mainland England. The A354 road passes down the Portland end of the beach and then over the Fleet Lagoon by bridge to the mainland. The population of Portland is 13,417.


title: Isle of Portland

text: Portland is a central part of the Jurassic Coast, a World Heritage Site on the Dorset and east Devon coast, important for its geology and landforms. Portland stone, a limestone famous for its use in British and world architecture, including St Paul's Cathedral and the United Nations Headquarters, continues to be quarried here.


title: Isle of Portland

text: Portland Harbour, in between Portland and Weymouth, is one of the largest man-made harbours in the world. The harbour was made by the building of stone breakwaters between 1848 and 1905. From its inception it was a Royal Navy base, and played prominent roles during the First and Second World Wars; ships of the Royal Navy and NATO countries worked up and exercised in its waters until 1995. The harbour is now a civilian port and popular recreation area, and was used for the 2012 Olympic Games.


title: Isle of Portland

text: The name Portland is used for one of the British Sea Areas, and has been exported as the name of North American and Australian towns.


title: Isle of Portland

text: Portland has been inhabited since at least the Mesolithic period (the Middle Stone Age)—there is archaeological evidence of Mesolithic inhabitants at the Culverwell Mesolithic Site, near Portland Bill, and of habitation since then. The Romans occupied Portland, reputedly calling it "Vindelis".


title: Isle of Portland

text: Although the beginning of the Viking Age in England is dated to their raid in 793, when they destroyed the abbey on Lindisfarne, their first documented landing occurred in Portland four years earlier, in 789, as recorded in the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle". Three lost Viking ships from Hordaland (the district around Hardanger fjord in west Norway) landed at Portland Bill. The king's reeve tried to collect taxes from them, but they killed him and sailed on.


title: Isle of Portland

text: A castle on the site of the present Rufus Castle, standing over Church Ope Cove, may have been built for William II of England (also known as William Rufus) soon after the conquest of England by his father William the Conqueror. None of that castle remains; the existing castle probably dates from the 15th century.


title: Isle of Portland

text: In 1539 King Henry VIII ordered the construction of Portland Castle for defence against attacks by the French; the castle cost £4,964 (equivalent to £ in 2022). It is one of the best preserved castles from this period, and is opened to the public by the custodians English Heritage.


title: Isle of Portland

text: In the 17th century, chief architect and Surveyor-General to James I, Inigo Jones, surveyed the area and introduced the local Portland stone to London, using it in his Banqueting House, Whitehall, and for repairs on St Paul's Cathedral. His successor, Sir Christopher Wren, an architect and the Member of Parliament for nearby Weymouth, used six million tons of white Portland limestone to rebuild destroyed parts of the capital after the Great Fire of London of 1666. Well-known buildings in the capital, including St Paul's Cathedral and the eastern front of Buckingham Palace feature the stone. After the First World War, a quarry was opened by The Crown Estate to provide stone for the Cenotaph in Whitehall and half a million gravestones for war cemeteries, and after the Second World War hundreds of thousands of gravestones were hewn for soldiers who had fallen on the Western Front. Portland cement has nothing to do with Portland; it was so named due to its similar colour to Portland stone when mixed with lime and sand.


title: Isle of Portland

text: There have been railways in Portland since the early 19th century. The Merchant's Railway was the earliest—it opened in 1826 (one year after the Stockton and Darlington railway) and ran from the quarries at the north of Tophill to a pier at Castletown, from where the Portland stone was shipped around the country. The Weymouth and Portland Railway was laid in 1865, and ran from a station in Melcombe Regis, across the Fleet and along the low isthmus behind Chesil Beach to a station at Victoria Square in Chiswell. At the end of the 19th century the line was extended to the top of the island as the Easton and Church Ope Railway, running through Castletown and ascending the cliffs at East Weares, to loop back north to a station in Easton. The line closed to passengers in 1952, and the final goods train (and two passenger 'specials') ran in April 1965.


title: Isle of Portland

text: The Royal National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck stationed a lifeboat at Portland in 1826, which was withdrawn in 1851. Coastal flooding has affected Portland's residents and transport for centuries—the only way off the island by land is along the causeway in the lee of Chesil Beach. At times of extreme floods (about every 10 years) this road link is cut by floods. The low-lying village of Chiswell used to flood on average every 5 years. Chesil Beach occasionally faces severe storms and massive waves, which have a fetch across the Atlantic Ocean. Following two severe flood events in the 1970s, Weymouth and Portland Borough Council and Wessex Water decided to investigate the structure of the beach, and coastal management schemes that could be built to protect Chiswell and the beach road. In the 1980s it was agreed that a scheme to provide storm protection with a 20% annual exceedance probability to reduce flood depth and duration in more severe storms. Hard engineering techniques were employed in the scheme, including a gabion running to the north of Chiswell, an extended sea wall in Chesil Cove, and a culvert running from inside the beach, underneath the beach road and into Portland Harbour, to divert flood water away from low-lying areas.


title: Isle of Portland

text: At the start of the First World War, HMS "Hood" was sunk in the passage between the southern breakwaters to protect the harbour from torpedo and submarine attack. Portland Harbour was formed (1848–1905) by the construction of breakwaters, but before that the natural anchorage had hosted ships of the Royal Navy for more than 500 years. It was "the home of the Asdics," a centre for Admiralty research into asdic submarine detection and underwater weapons from 1917 to 1998; the shore base HMS Serepta was renamed HMS Osprey in 1927. During the Second World War Portland was the target of 48 air raids and a total of 532 bombs, although most warships had moved north as Portland was within enemy striking range across the Channel. Mulberry Harbour Phoenix Units can be seen at Black Barge beach, near Portland Castle. Portland was a major embarkation point for Allied forces on D-Day in 1944. Early helicopters were stationed at Portland in 1946–1948, and in 1959 a shallow tidal flat, The Mere, was infilled, and sports fields taken to form a heliport. The station was formally commissioned as HMS Osprey, which then became the largest and busiest military helicopter station in Europe. The base was gradually improved with additional landing areas and one of England's shortest runways, at .


title: Isle of Portland

text: The naval base closed after the end of the Cold War in 1995, and the Royal Naval Air Station closed in 1999, although the runway remained in use for Her Majesty's Coastguard Search and Rescue flights as MRCC Portland until 2014. MRCC Portland's area of responsibility extended midway across the English Channel, and from Start Point in Devon to the Dorset/Hampshire border, covering an area of around . The 12 Search and Rescue teams in the Portland area dealt with almost 1000 incidents in 2005. Portland lends its name to one of the BBC's Shipping Forecast regions.


title: Isle of Portland

text: There are still two prisons on Portland: HMP The Verne, which until 1949 was a Victorian military fortress, and a Young Offenders' Institution (HMYOI) on the Grove clifftop. This was the original prison (HM Prison Portland) built for convicts who quarried stone for the Portland Breakwaters from 1848. For a few years until 2005 Britain's only prison ship, HMP "The Weare", was berthed in the harbour.


title: Isle of Portland

text: Portland is in the Dorset unitary authority, administered by Dorset Council. The island forms one of the 52 wards and elects three members to the council.


title: Isle of Portland

text: Portland is an ancient royal manor, and until the 19th century remained a separate liberty within Dorset for administration purposes. It was then an urban district from 1894 to 1974. The borough of Weymouth and Portland formed on 1 April 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972 by merger of Portland urban district with the borough of Weymouth and Melcombe Regis. In 2020, the borough of Weymouth and Portland was abolished when Dorset moved to a unitary authority structure of local government.


title: Isle of Portland

text: Weymouth, Portland and the Purbeck district are in the South Dorset parliamentary constituency, created in 1885. The constituency elects one Member of Parliament; the current MP is Richard Drax (Conservative).


title: Isle of Portland

text: Weymouth and Portland have been twinned with the town of Holzwickede in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany since 1986, and the French town of Louviers, in the department of Eure in Normandy, since 1959. The borough and nearby Chickerell have been a Fairtrade Zone since 2007.


title: Isle of Portland

text: The Isle of Portland lies in the English Channel, south of Wyke Regis, and west-southwest of London, at (50.55, −2.44). Portland is situated approximately halfway along the UNESCO Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site; the site includes of the Dorset and east Devon coast that is important for its geology and landforms. The South West Coast Path runs around the coast; it is the United Kingdom's longest national trail at . Portland is unusual as it is connected to the mainland at Abbotsbury by Chesil Beach, a tombolo which runs north-west to West Bay. Portland is sometimes defined incorrectly as a tombolo—in fact Portland is a tied island, and Chesil Beach is the tombolo (a spit joined to land at both ends).


title: Isle of Portland

text: There are eight settlements on Portland, the largest being Fortuneswell in Underhill and Easton on Tophill. Castletown and Chiswell are the other villages in Underhill, and Weston, Southwell, Wakeham and the Grove are on the Tophill plateau. Many old buildings are built out of Portland Stone; several parts have been designated Conservation Areas to preserve the unique character the older settlements which date back hundreds of years.


title: Isle of Portland

text: The Isle of Portland has been designated by Natural England as National Character Area 137. It is adjoined by the Weymouth Lowlands to the north.


title: Isle of Portland

text: Geologically, Portland is separated into two areas; the steeply sloping land at its north end called Underhill, and the larger, gently sloping land to the south, called Tophill. Portland stone lies under Tophill; the strata decline at a shallow angle of around 1.5 degrees, from a height of near the Verne in the north, to just above sea level at Portland Bill. The geology of Underhill is different to Tophill; Underhill lies on a steep escarpment composed of Portland Sand, lying above a thicker layer of Kimmeridge Clay, which extends to Chesil Beach and Portland Harbour. This Kimmeridge Clay has resulted in a series of landslides, forming West Weares and East Weares.


title: Isle of Portland

text: Portland Bill is the southern tip of the island of Portland. The Bill has three lighthouse towers. The Higher Lighthouse is now a dwelling and holiday apartments whilst the Lower Lighthouse is now a bird observatory and field centre providing records of bird migration and accommodation for visitors, which opened in 1961. The white and red lighthouse on Bill Point replaced the Higher and Lower Lighthouses in 1906. It is a prominent and much photographed feature; an important landmark for ships passing the headland and its tidal race. The current lighthouse was refurbished in 1996 and became remotely controlled. It now contains a visitors' centre giving information and guided tours of the lighthouse. As of June 2009, the lighthouse uses a 1 kW metal-halide US-made lamp with an operational life of about 4000 hours, or 14 months.


title: Isle of Portland

text: Portland Ledge is an underwater extension of Portland Stone into the English Channel at a place where the depth of Channel is 20 to 40 metres (about 10 to 20 fathoms). Tidal flow is disrupted by the feature; at 10 metres (about 5 fathoms) deep and long, it causes a tidal race to the south of Portland Bill, the so-called Portland Race. The current only stops for brief periods during the -hour tidal cycle and can reach at the spring tide of .


title: Isle of Portland

text: Due to its isolated coastal location, the Isle of Portland has an extensive range of flora and fauna; the coastline and disused quarries are designated as Sites of Special Scientific Interest. The Isle of Portland SSSI encompasses , and includes 17 monitored features ranging from Jurassic fossils, calcareous grassland, rock sea-lavender and nationally scarce butterflies. Sea and migratory birds occupy the cliffs in different seasons, sometimes these include rare species which draw ornithologists from around the country. Rare visitors to the surrounding seas include dolphins, seals and basking sharks. Chesil Beach is one of only two sites in Britain where the scaly cricket can be found; unlike any other cricket it is wingless and does not sing or hop. Ten British Primitive goats were introduced to the East Weares part of the island to control scrub in 2007.


title: Isle of Portland

text: The comparatively warm and sunny climate allows species of plants to thrive which do not on the mainland. The limestone soil has low nutrient levels; hence smaller species of wild flowers and grasses are able to grow in the absence of larger species. Portland sea lavender can be found on the higher sea cliffs; unique to Portland, it is one of the United Kingdom's rarest plants. The wild flowers and plants make an excellent habitat for butterflies; over half of the British Isles' 57 butterfly species can be seen on Portland, including varieties that migrate from mainland Europe. Species live on Portland that are rare in the United Kingdom, including the limestone race of the silver-studded blue.