title: Matías Almeyda

text: In the summer of 2002, Almeyda was exchanged with Vratislav Greško and moved to Inter, where he was again partnered by compatriots as in his previous clubs. Two years later he joined his final team in Italy, lowly Brescia Calcio, on a free transfer. The following year, after the team's relegation as second from bottom, he returned to Argentina and agreed to play for Quilmes Atlético Club, which appeared at the Libertadores, announcing his retirement after their elimination from that tournament.


title: Matías Almeyda

text: After one and a half years away from football, in which he represented Argentina in a "Showball" tour around the world alongside Diego Maradona and participated in the Indoor Football World Cup in Spain, Almeyda joined Norwegian Premier League side FK Lyn in Oslo, in which he was accompanied by compatriot José Oscar Flores; their friend Terje Liverod was central in these transfers. The midfielder made his debut on 13 May 2007, but only played regularly in the reserves and in the domestic cup, being released as the striker shortly after and again retiring from football.


title: Matías Almeyda

text: On 16 January 2009, at almost 36, Almeyda, after nearly agreeing on a return to River, signed with modest Club Atlético Fénix in the fourth division. During his brief spell, he managed to be sent off on two occasions.


title: Matías Almeyda

text: On 19 August 2009, veteran Almeyda finally re-joined his main club River Plate, teaming up with former teammates Marcelo Gallardo and Ariel Ortega. In June 2011, the team was relegated to the second level for the first time in their history and he retired from football, being appointed team manager the following month.


title: Matías Almeyda

text: Almeyda won 35 caps for Argentina over the course of seven years, his debut coming in April 1996 against Bolivia. Shortly after, he helped the Olympic side to the silver medal at the Summer Olympics in Atlanta.


title: Matías Almeyda

text: Subsequently, Almeyda was picked in the squad for the 1998 FIFA World Cup in France. He started in all five games during the tournament, as the country reached the quarter–finals.


title: Matías Almeyda

text: After Marcelo Bielsa became Argentina's manager, Almeyda did not get as much playing time. He was, however, selected for the 2002 World Cup which was held in South Korea and Japan, and played in the 1–1 group stage draw against Sweden.


title: Matías Almeyda

text: Almeyda spent 18 months in charge at River Plate, winning the Primera B Nacional and earning promotion back to the top division at the end of the 2011–12 season. He left the club in November 2012.


title: Matías Almeyda

text: In early April 2013, Almeyda signed with Club Atlético Banfield in the Argentine second level. During his spell, he won the league title once again to be subsequently promoted.


title: Matías Almeyda

text: On 15 September 2015, Almeyda was appointed manager at C.D. Guadalajara of the Mexican Liga MX, proclaiming he wanted to "awaken the giant." He won his first four matches in charge, including one against rivals Club América on 26 September by a score of 2–1 at the Estadio Azteca.


title: Matías Almeyda

text: On 4 November 2015, after nine years of a title hiatus, Almeyda's team won the Copa MX after defeating Club León by a score of 1–0. On 10 July 2016, they played their first ever Supercopa MX and won their second trophy in under a year by besting C.D. Veracruz 2–0, and as a result qualified to the Libertadores for the first time since 2012, but ultimately did not participate as a result of scheduling conflicts.


title: Matías Almeyda

text: On 19 April 2017, Almeyda led "Chivas" to their fourth Copa MX title, defeating Monarcas Morelia in a penalty shootout after a 0–0 draw. After placing third overall in the Clausura's general table, the final second leg was played at the Estadio Chivas on 28 May 2017 and the hosts won their 12th title in the competition after besting Tigres UANL by an aggregate of 4–3; thus, they became the first team in Mexican history to win the double in a single season on two occasions.


title: Matías Almeyda

text: Almeyda won the 2018 edition of the CONCACAF Champions League with the club, and as a result qualified for that year's FIFA Club World Cup. On 11 June 2018, however, he left, citing differences with an executive.


title: Matías Almeyda

text: On 8 October 2018, Almeyda was appointed as the new head coach of Major League Soccer club San Jose Earthquakes, starting with the 2019 season. He attained 44 points within the Western Conference, missing the playoff berth by one win.


title: Matías Almeyda

text: The following campaign, Almeyda's side managed to reach the playoffs, facing Sporting Kansas City in the first round but losing following a 3–0 penalty shoot-out after a 3–3 tie.


title: Matías Almeyda

text: On 18 April 2022, Almeyda and San Jose Eathquakes parted ways, two days after the team drew 2–2 with Nashville SC.


title: Matías Almeyda

text: On 20 May 2022, Almeyda signed a two-year contract with Greek Super League club AEK Athens. The contract includes a one-year renewal option, subject to performance satisfaction.


title: Matías Almeyda

text: A tenacious, dynamic and physically strong player in spite of his diminutive stature, Almeyda excelled in a midfield holding role due to his stamina, tactical awareness, reactions, anticipation and work rate, as well as his ability to press opponents and break down opposition plays which allowed him to protect his team's back-line. Although he earned a reputation in the media as a hard tackler, he was gifted with good feet and passing ability, which enabled him to start attacking plays after winning back possession; he also stood out for his leadership throughout his career.


title: Bad Taste

text: Bad Taste is a 1987 New Zealand science-fiction comedy horror film directed, produced and filmed by Peter Jackson, who also stars in and co-wrote the screenplay, along with Tony Hiles and Ken Hammon. Independently produced on a low budget, it is Jackson's first feature film. Jackson and friends take on most of the key roles, both on and off-screen. The plotline sees aliens invade the fictional New Zealand village of Kaihoro to harvest humans for their intergalactic fast food franchise, where they face off against a four-man paramilitary force. The film provided Jackson with the leverage necessary to advance in the film industry.


title: Bad Taste

text: The Astro Investigation and Defence Service (AIDS) sends their agents, Derek, Frank, Ozzy, and Barry to investigate the disappearance of the entire population of the town of Kaihoro. They find the town has been overrun by man-eating space aliens disguised as humans in blue shirts. Barry kills one of the aliens and is attacked by others. After Derek notifies Frank and Ozzy, he begins torturing Robert, an alien they caught earlier. Robert's screaming attracts a number of aliens in the area. Derek kills the would-be rescuers, but he is attacked by Robert and falls off a cliff ledge, to his presumed death.


title: Bad Taste

text: Meanwhile, a charity collector named Giles is passing through Kaihoro. He is attacked by Robert, but escapes in his car. He stops at a nearby house for help. Another alien answers the door and captures Giles. He later wakes up in a tub of water filled with vegetables and is told he is about to be cooked and eaten. Derek also wakes up to find that he landed in a seagull's nest. He also finds that his brain is leaking out the back of his head, so he stuffs it back in and uses a hat to hold it in place.


title: Bad Taste

text: That night, Frank, Ozzy, and Barry infiltrate the aliens' house and find a room filled with bloody cardboard boxes. They kill a nearby alien and Frank wears its shirt to infiltrate an alien meeting. He finds out that the residents of Kaihoro have been harvested for alien fast food and also hears of their recent hostage. Robert vomits into a bowl, which the aliens dine on, including the disguised (and disgusted) Frank. He escapes and tells the others of the plan. They sneak out to save Giles as the aliens sleep.


title: Bad Taste

text: At sunrise, they try to leave but are attacked by the aliens, which quickly dissolves into a gunfight. Derek emerges and his hat is shot off due to the ensuing gunfire, and he starts losing more of his brain, so he uses his belt as a headband. He grabs a chainsaw from the boot of his car and heads for the alien house. As the boys leave with Giles, the alien leader (Lord Crumb) and his followers transform into their true form and follow. Ozzy uses a rocket launcher to blow up Frank's car, which has been overrun by aliens.


title: Bad Taste

text: Frank and Ozzy hunt for Lord Crumb and kill many aliens along the way. Meanwhile, Derek kills an alien with his chainsaw and replaces the missing parts of his brain with its brain. An alien prepares to shoot Frank and Ozzy, but it is beheaded by Derek after he bursts through the wall behind it. Frank and Ozzy are shocked to see him alive.


title: Bad Taste

text: After they escape the house, Lord Crumb shoots Ozzy in the leg and Frank fires his rocket launcher at the leader, but it misses and almost hits Derek, finally taking out a sheep in a nearby meadow. Derek is knocked out by Lord Crumb and the house transforms into a giant space ship, which blasts off into space with Derek still aboard.


title: Bad Taste

text: On board, Derek looks out the window to see that he is leaving Earth. Crumb is then killed by Derek, who ambushes him and cuts through the alien with his chainsaw. Derek proclaims into his phone: "I'm coming to get you bastards!" He then puts on the alien leader's skin, laughing maniacally as he rockets towards the alien planet. On Earth, the rest of the group drive away into the sunset in Derek's car.


title: Bad Taste

text: Much of the film was shot in and around Jackson's home suburb of Pukerua Bay in northern Wellington, using a 25-year-old 16mm Bolex camera. Originally begun as a 20-minute short film called "Roast of the Day", "Bad Taste" was shot primarily on weekends over the course of four years, at an initial cost of around $25,000. Toward the end of the shoot the New Zealand Film Commission invested around NZ$235,000 into the film to ensure its completion. Heavily influenced by special effects pioneer Tom Savini, Jackson incorporated many absurdly gory special effects.


title: Bad Taste

text: Peter Jackson himself plays two acting roles. In one early scene halfway down a cliff, careful editing, utilising shots taken months apart, makes it possible for the two characters, Derek and the alien Robert (both played by Jackson), to fight one another.


title: Bad Taste

text: "Bad Taste" begins Jackson's penchant for using the Morris Minor in his films - Giles drives a Morris Minor. Subsequently, every car in "Meet the Feebles" is a Morris Minor (including a limousine) and several are seen in "Braindead".


title: Bad Taste

text: A combination of blank firing firearms and homemade weapon props were used in the film. Most of the firearm props were made using recycled aluminium and wood. The actors also had to shake them to simulate the recoil. A flash and sound effect was added later during post production.


title: Bad Taste

text: Kaihoro, the name of the town whose inhabitants are butchered, is a Māori word coined by Jackson and his crew early in the shooting of the film. It has two parts - "kai" which means food and "horo" which means town or village. Foodtown is also the name of a New Zealand chain of grocery stores. Kai horo in Te Reo Maori means 'greedy' - but is made up of the words Kai (food) and horo (quickly) which, loosely translated, could be said to mean 'fast food', a play on the fate of the villagers.


title: Bad Taste

text: The sheep in the film was to have played a larger role as a running gag, being surprisingly aggressive and chasing "The Boys" at various points throughout. This was reduced to the single sheep/rocket launcher moment of the final scene.


title: Bad Taste

text: Despite its wide acclaim, the film failed to impress at the 1989 NZ Film and Television Awards, winning no awards. As well as this, a TVNZ executive spoke out the next day about whether or not the film industry needed films like "Bad Taste". The film did however still win favour among the country's cult film audiences.


title: Bad Taste

text: "Bad Taste" received generally positive reviews. Kim Newman of "Empire" gave the film three stars out of five, with praise being directed to the special effects. For AllMovie, Jason Buchanan wrote that "Bad Taste" was "amazingly resourceful", but that it moves at such a "hyperactive" pace that "it's nearly impossible to draw a breath, much less take a moment to laugh at the revoltingly hilarious exploits." In a much less positive review, "Time Out" summarised that although "the film had its moments", it was not a worthwhile watch.


title: Bad Taste

text: The film holds a 71% approval rating on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 21 reviews with an average rating of 6.40/10. The site's consensus reads: "Peter Jackson's early low-budget shocker boasts a disgusting premise—aliens harvesting humans for fast food—that gives the budding auteur plenty of room for gross-out visuals and absurd cleverness." On Metacritic, the film holds a score of 52 out of 100 based on reviews by 4 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".


title: Bad Taste

text: The banning of an already cut version of "Bad Taste" in Queensland, Australia, three weeks into its run, led to the firing and dissolution of the Queensland Film Board of Review in 1990. The film had to be trimmed for release in Australia at the time, as the OFLC felt the gore too excessive. When released on home video in Australia, the words "BANNED IN QUEENSLAND" was proclaimed on the cover. The uncut version was released by Universal Home Entertainment on DVD in 2004.


title: Bad Taste

text: Apart from the uncut version, there is a heavily cut FSK 18-rated and an even more censored FSK 12-rated version in Germany available on DVD. The former is cut by approximately 6 minutes, the latter by approximately 10 minutes.


title: Bad Taste

text: In December 2018, Peter Jackson announced that he plans to restore "Bad Taste", along with his two following films "Meet the Feebles" and "Braindead" (known as Dead Alive in North America) for a possible 4K release.


title: Bad Taste

text: During his acceptance speech at the 2004 Academy Awards, Jackson mentioned "Bad Taste" (along with "Meet the Feebles"), joking that it had been "wisely overlooked by the Academy."


title: Bad Taste

text: On 15 September 2001, the Michael Fowler Centre in Wellington, New Zealand, hosted "Armageddon". One of the main features for the 2001 convention was the cast of "Bad Taste" attending for a quick question and answer session on the main stage, and a screening of the film. The cast members who attended were; Craig Smith (Giles), Pete O'Herne (Barry), Mike Minett (Frank), Terry Potter (Ozzy), Ken Hammon (Writer, 3rd Class Alien), and Dean Lawrie (Lord Crumb SPFX Double, 3rd Class Alien).


title: Bad Taste

text: In 2008, "Empire" ranked "Bad Taste" as the 416th greatest film of all time, based on opinions from readers and industry professionals.


title: R. N. Kao

text: Rameshwar Nath Kao (R.N. Kao) (10 May 1918 – 20 January 2002) was an Indian spymaster and the first chief of India's external intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) from its founding in 1968 to 1977. Kao was one of India's foremost intelligence officers, and helped build R&AW. He held the position of Secretary (Research) in the Cabinet Secretariat of the Government of India, which has been held by all R&AW directors since. He had also, during the course of his long career, served as the personal security chief to Prime Minister Nehru and as security adviser to Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. He also founded the Aviation Research Centre (ARC) and the Joint Intelligence Committee. An intensely private man, Kao was rarely seen in public post-retirement.


title: R. N. Kao

text: Kao was born in the holy city of Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh on 10 May 1918 to a Kashmiri Hindu Pandit family who migrated from Srinagar district. He was brought up by his uncle Pandit Trilokinath Kao. Encouraged to pursue education, he had his early schooling in the city of Baroda, in the Bombay Presidency. Here he did his matriculation in 1932 and intermediate in 1934. In 1936, he attained a Bachelor of Arts degree from Lucknow University. He then chose to pursue a master's degree in English Literature at Allahabad University. He completed his Master of Arts degree some time before 1940.


title: R. N. Kao

text: Rameshwarnath Kao was also known as "Ramji" amongst his friends and colleagues. A fiercely private man, he was rarely seen in public. He knew too much to make a public statement or write a book. Some attribute this to a life devoted to adventure and espionage which made it very difficult for him to mingle publicly. He was a recluse leading a heavily guarded life in his New Delhi bungalow, very rarely giving interviews. From 1989, Kao dedicated his time largely to the task of restoring the dignity and honour of the Kashmiri Pandits. He interacted with various political leaders and the Indian government to see that the Kashmir problem was not forgotten. He died in 2002 at age 84. He is survived by his wife, Malini Kao, to whom he had been married for 60 years, and daughter Achala Kaul.


title: R. N. Kao

text: Kao was well-liked in the international intelligence community. His professionalism was well regarded by his colleagues and the Prime Ministers Nehru and Indira Gandhi. Handsome, incorruptible, suave and intellectual, Rameshwar was a shy and humble person.


title: R. N. Kao

text: Count Alexandre de Marenches, erstwhile head of the French external intelligence agency, or SDECE (Service For External Documentation And Counter-Intelligence) as it was then known, named Kao as one of the 'five great intelligence chiefs of the 1970s'. About Kao, whom he knew well and admired, Count remarked: Alexandre praised the way Kao had built up R&AW into a professional intelligence organisation and made it play a key role to change the strategic face of the Indian Subcontinent within a span of three years of R&AWs formation.


title: R. N. Kao

text: Kao, for a while, took up a job in a cigarette company floated by Pt. Jag Mohan Narain Mushran, the then Chief Justice of the Benaras State.


title: R. N. Kao

text: Kao took classes in Law at Allahabad University but left when he joined the Indian Imperial Police in 1940 after passing Civil services examination. His first posting was in Kanpur as an Assistant Superintendent of Police. Kao was deputed to the Intelligence Bureau (I.B.), on the eve of Independence when it was being reorganised under B.N. Mullick. He was put in charge of VIP security, which included the task of looking after the security ring of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. Sometime in the late 50s he was sent to Ghana to help the then government of prime minister Kwame Nkrumah set up an intelligence and security organisation there.


title: R. N. Kao

text: Kashmir Princess was a Lockheed L-749A Constellation aircraft owned by Air India which exploded in midair and crashed into the Pacific Ocean on 11 April 1955 while en route from Bombay, India and Hong Kong to Jakarta, Indonesia, carrying delegates to the Bandung Conference. 16 of those on board were killed; three survived. Investigators believed that the explosion had been caused by a time bomb placed aboard the aircraft by a secret agent of the Kuomintang, also known as the Chinese Nationalist Party, who was attempting to assassinate Chinese premier Zhou Enlai, who had been scheduled to board the plane to attend the conference but had changed his travel plans at the last minute. Kao, along with British and Chinese agents, probed the circumstances leading to the crash. His work with the Chinese earned him a letter of recommendation from Zhou Enlai.


title: R. N. Kao

text: In 1977, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was toppled when the Congress was defeated in the elections by the Janata Party. Kao's closeness to Indira Gandhi had aroused deep suspicion among the political class about his role in the Emergency. However, Kao had privately advised Mrs. Gandhi not to declare emergency. His tenure had been extended by Mrs. Gandhi; he would have retired in 1976 otherwise.


title: R. N. Kao

text: When Morarji Desai's government came to power after the Emergency, Kao was under no illusion about how the new set of politicians— who had publicly attacked Indira Gandhi for spying on them— would react to his presence. He resigned quietly and kept out of the public eye. A thorough inquiry cleared him and the R&AW of all blame. He returned when Indira made a comeback in 1980. He worked as a security adviser to both Indira and Rajiv Gandhi.


title: R. N. Kao

text: Kao created the National Security Guard (NSG), during the Punjab militancy during the 1980s, to address the needs of the Government of India to counteract terrorism within the country.


title: R. N. Kao

text: After the intelligence failure of being unable to predict the Sino-Indian War of 1962 and the Operation Gibraltar of 1965, the Indian polity felt the need to establish a separate organisation for gathering intelligence for military purposes. Kao was handpicked by Jawaharlal Nehru himself, who knew him well, from his years as Nehru's Head of Personal Security. On his return from Ghana, he was made the first director of the newly formed Aviation Research Centre at Charbatia, Odisha, that chiefly concentrated on TECHINT collection. The Sino-Indian War and the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 caused the restructuring of the country's intelligence apparatus, since real-time foreign intelligence had become a political necessity. The Intelligence Bureau of India (IB) was considered to have become something of a behemoth, and was bogged down by internal operations and politicisation.


title: R. N. Kao

text: In 1968, the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who had then also begun tightening her grip on the Congress party, bifurcated the Intelligence Bureau to form the Research and Analysis Wing. The IB would be involved in domestic intelligence gathering, while the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) was created as India's primary external intelligence agency. Its mandate was to monitor the world in general and South Asia in particular. Kao was chosen as the head of the new organization, with a rank of Additional Secretary (Research) in the Cabinet Secretariat, later elevated to Secretary, a post that all R&AW Chiefs occupy. As its founder-chief, Kao was given the task of building up R&AW from scratch. He spent the next nine years as the head of the organisation. He took over R&AW at a time when things were beginning to heat up in the subcontinent. His tenure, which began in 1968, lasted for nearly a decade and marked the closest association that an Indian prime minister has ever had with the country's intelligence chief. He had unlimited access to Indira Gandhi. She reposed complete faith in him.


title: R. N. Kao

text: Towards the end of the 1960s, when the problems in East Pakistan began to escalate, the meetings with Indira Gandhi became more and more frequent. Recalls long-time Kao associate Victor Longer: "Intelligence is the only government business that depends upon the spoken word. Sometimes you can understand signs and body language. Kao had that rapport with Mrs Gandhi." The PMO's inner group of Kashmiri advisors D.P. Dhar, P.N. Haksar and T.N. Kaul now had another Kashmiri, Kao, for company. While what transpired at the meetings can now only be a matter of conjecture, Kao's own team, notably Shankaran Nair (former R&AW Director) and Girish Chandra Saxena (former R&AW Director and Jammu and Kashmir Governor), sized up the emerging scenario in what is now Bangladesh with precision. What was worked out was not just the larger picture but the little nuts and bolts—contingency plans and micro details. The idea of India training and equipping the freedom fighters of Mukti Bahini was evolved meticulously.


title: R. N. Kao

text: After Pakistan launched Operation Searchlight, R&AW played a highly important role in the Creation of Bangladesh. They gave arms and training support to the Mukti Bahini during the initial stages of the war. Amidst the mass killings and brutal rapes, Indian operatives would get into East Pakistan, arm the local population and capitalise on the frustrations brewing within. Ashok Raina, in his book "Inside R&AW", writes: "Another R&AW assessment sent to the prime minister spelt out the need for surgical intervention for the reports that came in gave positive indications that Pakistan was preparing for war. R&AW received the green signal. R&AW established guerrilla training camps along the border and began to train an illegal army."


title: R. N. Kao

text: According to Gunaratna, the Bangladesh operation took place in two phases: covert subversion and military intervention. "Phase one was coordinated by Kao and phase two by Manekshaw, both reporting directly to Indira Gandhi," he said. During the 1971 war, intelligence was thorough enough that the Indian Air Force could bomb the room in which the East Pakistan Cabinet was in session. Naval commandos were able to blow every single Pakistani ship in the Chittagong harbour.


title: R. N. Kao

text: Kao maintained close connection with the new nation. In May 1975, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi sent him to Dhaka to warn Sheikh Mujibur Rahman of his impending assassination by some in his Army.


title: R. N. Kao

text: Kao can also largely be credited for merging Sikkim into India in 1975 as its 22nd state. It was he who predicted and identified the fact that the merger must be effected before other competing interests like China moved in. Delhi had publicly acknowledged the good work done by R&AW at that point. Some analysts say Kao also had a substantial role in arming Tamil guerrillas in the late seventies and eighties and played a pivotal role in Sri Lankan affairs, even though he was no longer the hands-on man.


title: R. N. Kao

text: Kao is a legend among the Indian and South Asian Intelligence community, for his creation of the R&AW as a formidable force in such a short time from its inception. He is also well regarded by his juniors. His influence was such that those who served under him during this time were affectionately called 'Kaoboys'. Although the R&AW was established only in 1968, by the 1971 war, it had become a highly efficient and formidable force. Kao is credited to have, in only three years of R&AW's existence, helped in bringing about the creation of a new nation.


title: R. N. Kao

text: "His contacts the world over, particularly in Asia—Afghanistan, Iran, China, you name it—were something else. He could move things with just one phone call. He was a team leader who rode out notorious inter-departmental and inter-service rivalries, which is commonplace in India."


title: R. N. Kao

text: In order to commemorate the legacy of its founder R&AW created the annual R.N. Kao Memorial Lecture. The first lecture took place in 2006 on the fifth anniversary of Kao's death, and was delivered by writer-diplomat Shashi Tharoor. In 2007 Kumar Mangalam Birla delivered the second annual lecture, he focused on the shortage of people with the right skill set, in and out of the government. He counted the scramble for talent as one of the issues that looms the largest — globally and in India — over organisations in the private and public sector.


title: Lordship of Ireland

text: The Lordship of Ireland (), sometimes referred to retroactively as Norman Ireland, was the part of Ireland ruled by the King of England (styled as "Lord of Ireland") and controlled by loyal Anglo-Norman lords between 1177 and 1542. The lordship was created following the Norman invasion of Ireland in 1169–1171. It was a papal fief, granted to the Plantagenet kings of England by the Holy See, via "Laudabiliter". As the Lord of Ireland was also the King of England, he was represented locally by a governor, variously known as the Justiciar,


title: Lordship of Ireland

text: The kings of England claimed lordship over the whole island, but in reality the king's rule only ever extended to parts of the island. The rest of the island – referred to subsequently as Gaelic Ireland – remained under the control of various Gaelic Irish kingdoms or chiefdoms, who were often at war with the Anglo-Normans.


title: Lordship of Ireland

text: The area under English rule and law grew and shrank over time, and reached its greatest extent in the late 13th and early 14th centuries. The lordship then went into decline, brought on by its invasion by Scotland in 1315–18, the Great Famine of 1315–17, and the Black Death of the 1340s. The fluid political situation and Norman feudal system allowed a great deal of autonomy for the Anglo-Norman lords in Ireland, who carved out earldoms for themselves and had almost as much authority as some of the native Gaelic kings. Some Anglo-Normans became Gaelicised and rebelled against the English administration. The English attempted to curb this by passing the Statutes of Kilkenny (1366), which forbade English settlers from taking up Irish law, language, custom and dress. The period ended with the creation of the Kingdom of Ireland in 1542.


title: Lordship of Ireland

text: The authority of the Lordship of Ireland's government was seldom extended throughout the island of Ireland at any time during its existence but was restricted to the Pale around Dublin, and some provincial towns, including Cork, Limerick, Waterford, Wexford and their hinterlands. It owed its origins to the decision of a Leinster dynast, Diarmait Mac Murchada (Diarmuid MacMorrough), to bring in a Norman knight based in Wales, Richard de Clare, 2nd Earl of Pembroke (alias 'Strongbow'), to aid him in his battle to regain his throne, after being overthrown by a confederation led by the new Irish High King (the previous incumbent had protected MacMurrough). Henry II of England invaded Ireland to control Strongbow, who he feared was becoming a threat to the stability of his own kingdom on its western fringes (there had been earlier fears that Saxon refugees might use either Ireland or Flanders as a base for a counter-offensive after 1066); much of the later Plantagenet consolidation of South Wales was in furtherance of holding open routes to Ireland.


title: Lordship of Ireland

text: From 1155 Henry claimed that Pope Adrian IV had given him authorisation to reform the Irish church by assuming control of Ireland. Religious practices and ecclesiastical organisation in Ireland had evolved divergently from those in areas of Europe influenced more directly by the Holy See, although many of these differences had been eliminated or greatly lessened by the time the bull was issued in 1155. Further, the former Irish church had never sent its dues ("tithes") to Rome. Henry's primary motivation for invading Ireland in 1171 was to control Strongbow and other Norman lords. In the process he accepted the fealty of the Gaelic kings at Dublin in November 1171 and summoned the Synod of Cashel in 1172, this bringing the Irish Church into conformity with English and European norms.


title: Lordship of Ireland

text: The popes asserted the right to grant sovereignty over islands to different monarchs on the basis of the Donation of Constantine (now known to be a forgery). Doubts were cast by eminent scholars on "Laudabiliter" itself in the 19th century, but it had been confirmed by the letters of Pope Alexander III. The Papal power to grant also fell within the remit of "Dictatus papae" (1075–1087). While "Laudabiliter" had referred to the "kingdom" of Ireland, the Papacy was ambiguous about continuing to describe it as a kingdom as early as 1185.


title: Lordship of Ireland

text: Having captured a small part of Ireland on the east coast, Henry used the land to solve a dispute dividing his family. For he had divided his territories between his sons, with the youngest being nicknamed "Johan sanz Terre" (in English, "John Lackland") as he was left without lands to rule. At the Oxford parliament in May 1177, Henry replaced William FitzAldelm and granted John his Irish lands, so becoming Lord of Ireland ("Dominus Hiberniae") in 1177 when he was 10 years old, with the territory being known in English as the Lordship of Ireland.


title: Lordship of Ireland

text: Henry had wanted John to be crowned King of Ireland on his first visit in 1185, but Pope Lucius III specifically refused permission, citing the dubious nature of a claim supposedly provided by Pope Adrian IV years earlier. "Dominus" was the usual title of a king who had not yet been crowned, suggesting that it was Henry's intention. Lucius then died while John was in Ireland, and Henry obtained consent from Pope Urban III and ordered a crown of gold and peacock feathers for John. In late 1185 the crown was ready, but John's visit had by then proved a complete failure, so Henry cancelled the coronation.


title: Lordship of Ireland

text: Following the deaths of John's older brothers he became King of England in 1199, and so the Lordship of Ireland, instead of being a separate country ruled by a junior Norman prince, came under the direct rule of the Angevin crown. In the legal terminology of John's successors, the "lordship of Ireland" referred to the sovereignty vested in the Crown of England; the corresponding territory was referred to as the "land of Ireland".


title: Lordship of Ireland

text: The Lordship thrived in the 13th century during the Medieval Warm Period, a time of warm climate and better harvests. The feudal system was introduced, and the Parliament of Ireland first sat in 1297. Some counties were created by shiring, while walled towns and castles became a feature of the landscape. But little of this engagement with mainstream European life was of benefit to those the Normans called the "mere Irish". "Mere" derived from the Latin "merus", meaning "pure". Environmental decay and deforestation continued unabated throughout this period, being greatly exacerbated by the English newcomers and an increase in population.


title: Lordship of Ireland

text: The Norman élite and churchmen spoke Norman French and Latin. Many poorer settlers spoke English, Welsh, and Flemish. The Gaelic areas spoke Irish dialects. The Yola language of County Wexford was a survivor of the early English dialects. The Kildare Poems of c. 1350 are a rare example of humorous local culture written in Middle English.


title: Lordship of Ireland

text: The Lordship suffered invasion from Scotland by Edward Bruce in 1315–1318, which destroyed much of the economy and coincided with the great famine of 1315–1317. The earldom of Ulster ended in 1333, and the Black Death of 1348–1350 impacted more on the town-dwelling Normans than on the remaining Gaelic clans. The Norman and English colonists exhibited a tendency to adopt much of the native culture and language, becoming "Gaelicized" or in the words of some "More Irish than the Irish themselves". In 1366 the Statute of Kilkenny tried to keep aspects of Gaelic culture out of the Norman-controlled areas albeit in vain. As the Norman lordships became increasingly Gaelicized and made alliances with native chiefs, whose power steadily increased, crown control slowly eroded. Additionally, the Plantagenet government increasingly alienated the Irish chiefs and people on whom they often relied for their military strength. It had been a common practice for the Norman lordships as well as government forces to recruit the native Irish who were allied to them or living in English controlled areas (i.e. Leinster including Meath and Ossory, Munster and some parts of Connacht). This was easy to do as the native Irish had no great sense of national identity at that time and were prone to mercenarism and shifting alliances. But the Irish chiefs became increasingly alienated by the oppressive measures of the English government and began openly rebelling against the crown. Some of the more notable among those clans who had formerly cooperated with the English but became increasingly alienated until turning openly anti-Norman and a thorn in the side of the Dublin administration were the O'Connor Falys, the MacMurrough-Kavanagh dynasty, the Byrnes and the O'Mores of Leix. These clans were able to successfully defend their territories against English attack for a very long time through the use of asymmetrical guerrilla warfare and devastating raids into the lands held by the colonists. Additionally, the power of native chiefs who had never come under English domination such as the O'Neills and the O'Donnells increased steadily until these became once again major power players on the scene of Irish politics. Historians refer to a Gaelic revival or resurgence as occurring between 1350 and 1500, by which time the area ruled for the Crown – "the Pale" – had shrunk to a small area around Dublin.


title: Lordship of Ireland

text: Between 1500 and 1542 a mixed situation arose. Most clans remained loyal to the Crown most of the time, at least in theory, but using a Gaelic-style system of alliances based on mutual favours, centered on the Lord Deputy who was usually the current Earl of Kildare. The Battle of Knockdoe in 1504 saw such a coalition army fight the Burkes in Galway. However, a rebellion by the 9th Earl's heir Silken Thomas in 1535 led on to a less sympathetic system of rule by mainly English-born administrators. The end of this rebellion and Henry VIII's seizure of the Irish monasteries around 1540 led on to his plan to create a new kingdom based on the existing parliament.


title: Lordship of Ireland

text: English monarchs continued to use the title "Lord of Ireland" to refer to their position of conquered lands on the island of Ireland. The title was changed by the Crown of Ireland Act passed by the Irish Parliament in 1542 when, on Henry VIII's demand, he was granted a new title, King of Ireland, with the state renamed the Kingdom of Ireland. Henry VIII changed his title because the Lordship of Ireland had been granted to the Norman monarchy by the Papacy; Henry had been excommunicated by the Catholic Church and worried that his title could be withdrawn by the Holy See. Henry VIII also wanted Ireland to become a full kingdom to encourage a greater sense of loyalty amongst his Irish subjects, some of whom took part in his policy of surrender and regrant. To provide for greater security, a Royal Irish Army was established.


title: Lordship of Ireland

text: The government was based in Dublin, but the members of Parliament could be summoned to meet anywhere, whether Dublin or Kilkenny:


title: Tampa Bay Rowdies

text: The Tampa Bay Rowdies are an American professional soccer team based in St. Petersburg, Florida. The club was founded in 2008 and first took the pitch in 2010. Since 2017, the Rowdies have been members of the USL Championship in the second tier of the American soccer pyramid. They formerly played in USSF Division 2 (in 2010) and the North American Soccer League (NASL) (from 2011 to 2016), which were also second-tier leagues. The Rowdies play their home games at Al Lang Stadium on St. Petersburg's downtown waterfront.


title: Tampa Bay Rowdies

text: The current club is a phoenix club of the original Tampa Bay Rowdies, who were active from 1975 until 1993, most notably in the original North American Soccer League. It shares its name, logo, and some of its club culture with the original club. The owners of the current club announced their intention to use the old Rowdies' trademarks at its introductory press conference in 2008. However, licensing issues forced the club to use the name FC Tampa Bay until December 2011, when it gained full rights to the Rowdies name and other intellectual property. The current Rowdies have always used the same green and yellow color scheme and "hoops" as the original team, even when they could not yet use the Rowdies name.


title: Tampa Bay Rowdies

text: The Rowdies captured the NASL championship in Soccer Bowl 2012, and their team shield includes two stars: one for their 2012 win and one for the 1975 Soccer Bowl championship won by the original Rowdies. The club has had a long-standing rivalry with the Fort Lauderdale Strikers, with whom they have contested the "Florida Derby" since the original Rowdies and Strikers first met in 1977. The Rowdies were also named co-league champions in 2020 after winning the USL Regular Season title and Eastern Conference Championship, but the title game was canceled due to COVID-19. They were Eastern Conference Champions again in 2021, but lost in the title game.


title: Tampa Bay Rowdies

text: In October 2018, the Tampa Bay Rays, the area's Major League Baseball franchise, announced plans to purchase the Rowdies and assume control of Al Lang Stadium.


title: Tampa Bay Rowdies

text: The original Tampa Bay Rowdies were an expansion franchise in the original North American Soccer League and played for 10 seasons in Tampa Stadium starting in 1975. NASL indoor competitions saw the Rowdies claim three titles during the 1976, 1979-1980, and 1983 seasons. The Rowdies played until the NASL folded in 1984, after which the team played in the AISA, ASL and the APSL before folding in 1993. Between the years of the former and current Rowdies franchises, the Tampa Bay Mutiny played in the Major League Soccer during 1996 through 2001, leaving less than ten years between professional soccer teams in Tampa Bay since the former Rowdies' first season in 1975 and FC Tampa Bay's first season in 2010. While the Mutiny have no connection to either Rowdies franchise, the team often paid tribute to the former Rowdies by wearing jerseys of their colors, and even wearing the logo of both the Tampa Bay Mutiny and Rowdies on the same shirt.


title: Tampa Bay Rowdies

text: On June 18, 2008, local businessmen David Laxer, Andrew Nestor and Hinds Howard announced plans to start a new soccer club which would revive the Rowdies name as FC Tampa Bay Rowdies and start play in 2010 as an expansion team in the USL First Division, the second tier of the American Soccer Pyramid. However, in November 2009 FC Tampa Bay announced their intent to instead become the co-founders of a new North American Soccer League, which would begin play in 2010. These plans were subsequently superseded by the USSF Division 2 deal, which created a compromise one-season only league comprising teams from both the USL and the new NASL. In December 2013, local businessmen Bill Edwards bought a controlling interest in the club. In October 2018, the Tampa Bay Rays baseball club announced their purchase the Rowdies for an undisclosed amount, pending St. Petersburg City Council approval. Once the sale was finalized, Rays presidents Matthew Silverman and Brian Auld became vice chairmen of the soccer club.


title: Tampa Bay Rowdies

text: In January 2010, the club became known as "FC Tampa Bay" due to a legal dispute with sports apparel company Classic Ink over the merchandising rights to the Tampa Bay Rowdies name and related trademarks. The name was still used informally by the club until October 2010, when the team announced that it would not use the "Rowdies" nickname at all until the ongoing rights issue was resolved.


title: Tampa Bay Rowdies

text: On December 15, 2011, after two seasons of play, the club announced that it had finally reached a licensing agreement to use the "Rowdies" name and classic logos, allowing it to change its name back to "Tampa Bay Rowdies" before the 2012 season.


title: Tampa Bay Rowdies

text: The team played its first official game on April 16, 2010, a 1–0 victory over Crystal Palace Baltimore. The first goal in franchise history was scored by striker Aaron King. The first home game was held at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa on May 8, 2010, and ended in a 2–2 draw with Austin Aztex FC. The club started their inaugural season with a 5–1–3 record, but then won only 2 of its last 21 games and failed to make the playoffs with a final record of 7–12–11, leading to dismissal of manager Paul Dalglish. They did, however, capture the 2010 Ponce De Leon Cup.


title: Tampa Bay Rowdies

text: For the 2011 season, FC Tampa Bay transitioned to the new North American Soccer League, a second division league, and also changed their home pitch, as they moved across Tampa Bay to Al Lang Stadium in St. Petersburg. Former original Rowdie Ricky Hill was named the club's manager in January 2011.


title: Tampa Bay Rowdies

text: After winning only 2 of their first 10 matches, the club rebounded to finish third in the league table and qualified for the NASL playoffs. A highlight was a 1–0 mid-season friendly win over the Bolton Wanderers of the English Premier League at Al Lang Stadium.


title: Tampa Bay Rowdies

text: The 2012 season marked the return of the Rowdies name, as the club was finally able to secure full rights to use the moniker. It was also the most successful season in modern Rowdies history, as the club finished second in the league table and became NASL champions with a victory in Soccer Bowl 2012.


title: Tampa Bay Rowdies

text: Tampa Bay amassed 45 points in 28 matches during the regular season under returning manager Ricky Hill, tallying 12 wins, nine draws. and seven losses. The Rowdies earned a bye to the semifinals of the 2012 NASL Playoffs, where they beat the Carolina RailHawks by a 5–4 aggregate in the two-leg series. In the championship round against Minnesota Stars FC, the Rowdies fell behind 0–2 after the first leg but were able to tie the aggregate with a 3–1 win in the second leg back at Al Lang Stadium. Extra time ended scoreless, so the match was decided with a penalty shoot-out, which Tampa Bay won 3–2 to secure the league championship. Hill was named the NASL Coach of the Year.


title: Tampa Bay Rowdies

text: The defending champions got off to a slow start in two pre-league tournaments, as they went winless in their first six contests against MLS and USL Pro clubs. The Rowdies improved enough in league play to finish 4th in the NASL spring table with a record of 5 wins, 3 draws, and 4 losses. The highlight of the early season was a run to the 4th round of the 2013 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, which included a 1–0 win over the Seattle Sounders of MLS.


title: Tampa Bay Rowdies

text: The Rowdies went 5–4–4 during the fall portion of the schedule, good for 3rd place. The club earned 38 points over the entire campaign, second most in the league. However, because of the NASL's new split-season format, the Rowdies did not qualify for the playoffs. Midfielder / striker Georgi Hristov led the team with 15 goals in all competitions and was named the NASL's Golden Ball Award winner (MVP).


title: Tampa Bay Rowdies

text: The Rowdies struggled in 2014, coming in 7th place in the NASL's spring season and 8th in the fall while allowing the most goals (50) in the league overall. The club rose to 3rd in the table midway through the fall campaign but tailed off, going winless over their last 10 matches. Manager Ricky Hill was dismissed after the season.


title: Tampa Bay Rowdies

text: The Tampa Bay Rowdies' new manager for 2015 was Thomas Rongen, who had coached the MLS's Tampa Bay Mutiny in 1996. The team also brought in another familiar face when Farrukh Quraishi, who had been a player and a youth development director for the original Rowdies, was named general manager.


title: Tampa Bay Rowdies

text: In March 2015, the Rowdies traveled to Portugal to play several preseason friendlies against clubs in the Portuguese second and third division. It was the first time that the current club had undertaken an international tour.


title: Tampa Bay Rowdies

text: The Rowdies lost only one match during the NASL spring season, good for second place in the table. After starting the fall season 2–1–6, however, club owner Bill Edwards dismissed both Rongen and Quraishi. Assistant Stuart Campbell was promoted to manager and led the team to a 3–4–4 record. The Rowdies finished the fall season in 8th out of 11 teams in the league table and missed the playoffs.


title: Tampa Bay Rowdies

text: For the second consecutive year, the Rowdies visited Europe during the preseason, traveling to England in March to play several friendlies. The Rowdies held their own against three lower division sides, going 1–2–0 in official matches. The results of the 2016 NASL season were not as good. The club went 4–4–2 in the NASL spring season, good for 5th out of eleven teams in the league table. However, results slipped in the fall portion of the schedule, and the Rowdies finished the season 9–11–12, missing the playoffs for the fourth consecutive year. A few days before their final game of the season, the franchise announced they would be leaving the NASL to compete in the United Soccer League beginning with the 2017 season.


title: Tampa Bay Rowdies

text: Having made the jump to the USL, the Rowdies served notice that they were not to be taken lightly. During the regular season they lost only once at home, and en route to finishing in third position on the USL's Eastern Conference table, lost only two of their final 15 matches. They posted a record of 14–11–7 with 53 points to propel them into the playoffs. In the USL Cup playoffs, they lost in extra time at home in the conference semifinals. It was only their second home-loss of the season.


title: Tampa Bay Rowdies

text: After a strong start the team lost three straight without scoring a goal. This prompted the firing of head coach Stuart Campbell on May 17, with defender Neill Collins retiring to accept the coaching vacancy the following day. On July 4 Georgi Hristov scored his 58th career goal for the Rowdies, to pass Derek Smethurst and become the Rowdies’ all-time top scorer.


title: Tampa Bay Rowdies

text: An extremely strong start saw the club go unbeaten in their first 13 matches and losing only once in their first 20. The final third of the season wasn't as successful, as the team lost half of their last 14 games, including 2 crucial losses to expansion sides in October that saw the club finish 5th in the Eastern Conference. Their return to the postseason was short-lived, as they lost 2–1 on the road in Louisville in the first round of the 2019 USL Championship Playoffs. Elsewhere, the club advanced to the third round of the 2019 U.S. Open Cup, defeating The Villages SC before falling to OKC Energy FC. The club also entered into a partnership with Norwich City FC that saw defender Caleb Richards arrive on a season-long loan. Richards made 34 appearances, playing all but two minutes of the regular season, and scoring one goal.


title: Tampa Bay Rowdies

text: The Rowdies' home pitch since 2011 has been Al Lang Stadium, a 7,500 seat former baseball stadium located on the downtown waterfront of St. Petersburg, Florida. When the club first moved to the venue, the pitch ran from the third base grandstand to right field wall, and the seating arrangement utilized the baseball grandstand along with temporary bleachers along one sideline. The arrangement has been tweaked every season since to provide a more traditional soccer experience for the fans.


title: Tampa Bay Rowdies

text: The facility underwent a significant renovation in 2015 that reconfigured the pitch to run from the grandstand on one end to the left field wall on the other. A portion of the old right field wall was removed, and larger semi-permanent bleachers were installed along the south sideline, adding many more seats closer to the action and making Al Lang Stadium more soccer-friendly.


title: Tampa Bay Rowdies

text: Although the Rowdies have been the only regular tenant of Al Lang Stadium since 2011, it was still used for exhibition and amateur baseball events during the spring and summer, necessitating the regular restoration and removal of the pitcher's mound and clay infield and causing much wear and tear to the turf.


title: Tampa Bay Rowdies

text: After becoming majority owner of the club in 2013, St. Petersburg businessman Bill Edwards expressed displeasure with the condition of the playing field and the aging facilities at Al Lang Stadium. Months of rebuffed complaints about poor turf, leaky pipes, broken seats, and other issues culminated in a July 2014 lawsuit filed by the Rowdies against the St. Petersburg Baseball Commission claiming that the commission was not properly maintaining the "dilapidated" facility. The dispute was resolved in October 2014 when Edwards and the city of St. Petersburg brokered a deal that gave Edwards' Big 3 Entertainment company sole management control of Al Lang Stadium. As part of the arrangement, the facility would no longer be used for spring baseball, and Edwards agreed to complete $1.5 million in renovations as he sought to make Al Lang more soccer friendly.


title: Tampa Bay Rowdies

text: When the club was founded in 2008, its owners announced plans to build a 5000-seat soccer-specific stadium in northwest Tampa along the Veterans Expressway. These plans were shelved in early 2009 when residents living near the chosen site voiced concerns to the Hillsborough County Commission about potential noise and parking issues.


title: Tampa Bay Rowdies

text: After exploring other possible stadium sites around the Tampa Bay area, FC Tampa Bay decided to play its 2010 inaugural season at George M. Steinbrenner Field, an 11,000-seat baseball stadium near West Tampa. The club shared the facility with the Tampa Yankees, the Class A-Advanced affiliate of the New York Yankees, which presented some difficulties. Scheduling home games was a challenge because the club's seasons overlapped for most of the summer. The pitcher's mound and the infield dirt could not be removed, forcing the soccer field to be set across the outfield from the right field foul line to left centerfield. This created a pitch much smaller than most professional soccer fields, and a large portion of the playing surface of one attacking third was clay. And because of the difficulty of running on wet clay and potential damage to soggy turf, the Rowdies were not allowed to take the field when the ground was wet, which is often the case during Tampa's summer rainy season.


title: Tampa Bay Rowdies

text: In 2013, the city of St. Petersburg began the process of creating a master plan for the waterfront area that includes Al Lang Stadium. Some of the proposals suggest replacing the entire stadium and surrounding parking areas with a soccer park complex centered by a new soccer-specific stadium. Former club owner, Bill Edwards, had stated that "in a perfect world", Al Lang Stadium would be replaced by an 18,000-seat soccer-specific stadium, enabling the Rowdies to become a Major League Soccer club.


title: Tampa Bay Rowdies

text: When the club first took the pitch in 2010, the badge was a green and yellow striped shield bearing the club name (FC Tampa Bay) and topped with a star representing the original Rowdies' victory in Soccer Bowl 1975. The badge was changed before the 2012 season to the original "Rowdies" text logo, and a second star was added after the club won Soccer Bowl 2012.


title: Tampa Bay Rowdies

text: In 2021, the club introduced an alternate crest, which still contained the text logo and stars, but with the addition of a figure styled after Ralph Rowdie, the mascot of the original club. It also had the numbers "75" and "10" to represent the founding year of the original club in 1975 and the current club in 2010.


title: Tampa Bay Rowdies

text: Ralph's Mob is an independent supporter group for the Rowdies named after "Ralph Rowdie", a fictional mustached footballer featured in the logo of the original Tampa Bay Rowdies. The group is known for wearing green and gold striped scarves, socks, and face paint, and for loudly cheering on their team while teasing opponents, much like the "Fannies" of the original Rowdies. Ralph's Mob has a designated seating area at home matches. Many members also travel to away games, particularly when the Rowdies play at in-state rival Fort Lauderdale. A second group, the Skyway Casuals, is composed of supporters from the area south of the Skyway Bridge, mainly Bradenton and Sarasota.


title: Tampa Bay Rowdies

text: The Rowdies' traditional rivalry has been with the Fort Lauderdale Strikers. The rivalry began in 1977 between the original Tampa Bay Rowdies and the original Fort Lauderdale Strikers of the old NASL when the term "Florida Derby" was first used. It came back into use again in the late 1990s, when both cities had MLS franchises "(the Tampa Bay Mutiny & Miami Fusion)". Finally in 2010, after a nine-year absence "Florida Derby" re-entered the lexicon of American soccer, as the modern squads began facing one another. The rivalry currently sits in limbo, after Rowdies' owner, Bill Edwards won a 2017 summary judgement in a lawsuit against the Strikers. Edwards now controls the copyrights, trademarks and any rights to the use of the name "Fort Lauderdale Strikers" or any variation thereof.


title: Tampa Bay Rowdies

text: The Coastal Cup (est. 2010) originally was contested between the Rowdies and Strikers, but with Jacksonville Armada FC's entry into the league in 2015 and Miami FC in 2016, the competition had grown to become quadrilateral.


title: Tampa Bay Rowdies

text: In December 2015 the Rowdies announced that they would begin fielding a developmental team in the National Premier Soccer League for the 2016 season and that the club would be called Rowdies 2. The original Tampa Bay Rowdies had fielded a similarly named reserve/developmental squad from 1982 to 1983, but used Roman numerals to dub them "Rowdies II". Rowdies 2 competed in the Sunshine Conference of the South Region of NPSL, finishing in fourth place with a record of four wins, four losses, and two draws. The team disbanded in 2016.


title: Tampa Bay Rowdies

text: In February 2017, The Rowdies announced that they would field a team in the USL's Premier Development League, with Rowdies U23 set to join the league this for 2017 PDL season. Rowdies U23 will compete in the Southeast Division of the Southern Conference of PDL. The team went 3-8-3 in conference play and finished sixth out of nine teams. The team did not return for the 2018 season.


title: Tampa Bay Rowdies

text: On January 15, 2020, USL League Two (formerly the PDL) announced that the Rowdies would be launching the U23 for the 2020 USL League Two season. The team will play in the Southeast Division once again, play its games as Al Lang Stadium, and will be coached by former Rowdies player Andres Arango.


title: Tampa Bay Rowdies

text: In 2017, they formed a partnership with youth club Tampa Bay United to serve as their youth affiliate. In 2021, TBU replaced the Rowdies U23 in USL League Two.


title: Tampa Bay Rowdies

text: This is a partial list of the last five seasons completed by the Rowdies. For the full season-by-season history, see List of Tampa Bay Rowdies seasons.


title: Nuclear thermal rocket

text: A nuclear thermal rocket (NTR) is a type of thermal rocket where the heat from a nuclear reaction, often nuclear fission, replaces the chemical energy of the propellants in a chemical rocket. In an NTR, a working fluid, usually liquid hydrogen, is heated to a high temperature in a nuclear reactor and then expands through a rocket nozzle to create thrust. The external nuclear heat source theoretically allows a higher effective exhaust velocity and is expected to double or triple payload capacity compared to chemical propellants that store energy internally.


title: Nuclear thermal rocket

text: NTRs have been proposed as a spacecraft propulsion technology, with the earliest ground tests occurring in 1955. The United States maintained an NTR development program through 1973 when it was shut down for various reasons, for example to focus on Space Shuttle development. Although more than ten reactors of varying power output have been built and tested, , no nuclear thermal rocket has flown.


title: Nuclear thermal rocket

text: Whereas all early applications for nuclear thermal rocket propulsion used fission processes, research in the 2010s has moved to fusion approaches. The Direct Fusion Drive project at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory is one such example, although "energy-positive fusion has remained elusive". In 2019, the U.S. Congress approved US$125 million in development funding for nuclear thermal propulsion rockets.


title: Nuclear thermal rocket

text: In May 2022 DARPA issued an RFP for the next phase of their Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations (DRACO) nuclear thermal engine program. This follows on their selection, in 2021, of an early engine design by General Atomics and two spacecraft concepts from Blue Origin and Lockheed Martin. The next phases of the program will focus on the design, development, fabrication, and assembly of a nuclear thermal rocket engine.


title: Nuclear thermal rocket

text: Nuclear-powered thermal rockets are more effective than chemical thermal rockets, primarily because they can use low-molecular-mass propellants such as hydrogen.


title: Nuclear thermal rocket

text: As thermal rockets, nuclear thermal rockets work almost exactly like chemical rockets: a heat source releases thermal energy into a gaseous propellant inside the body of the engine, and a nozzle at one end acts as a very simple heat engine: it allows the propellant to expand away from the vehicle, carrying momentum with it and converting thermal energy to coherent kinetic energy. The specific impulse (Isp) of the engine is set by the speed of the exhaust stream. That, in turn, varies as the square root of the kinetic energy loaded on each unit mass of propellant. The kinetic energy per molecule of propellant is determined by the temperature of the heat source (whether it be a nuclear reactor or a chemical reaction). At any particular temperature, lightweight propellant molecules carry just as much kinetic energy as heavier propellant molecules and therefore have more kinetic energy per unit mass. This makes low-molecular-mass propellants more effective than high-molecular-mass propellants.


title: Nuclear thermal rocket

text: Because chemical rockets and nuclear rockets are made from refractory solid materials, they are both limited to operate below ~, by the strength characteristics of high-temperature metals. Chemical rockets use the most readily available propellant, which is waste products from the chemical reactions producing their heat energy. Most liquid-fueled chemical rockets use either hydrogen or hydrocarbon combustion, and the propellant is therefore mainly water (molecular mass 18) and/or carbon dioxide (molecular mass 44). Nuclear thermal rockets using gaseous hydrogen propellant (molecular mass 2) therefore have a theoretical maximum Isp that is 3x-4.5x greater than those of chemical rockets.


title: Nuclear thermal rocket

text: As early as 1944, Stanisław Ulam and Frederic de Hoffmann contemplated the idea of controlling the power of nuclear explosions to launch space vehicles. After World War II, the U.S. military started the development of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) based on the German V-2 rocket designs. Some large rockets were designed to carry nuclear warheads with nuclear-powered propulsion engines. As early as 1946, secret reports were prepared for the U.S. Air Force, as part of the NEPA project, by North American Aviation and Douglas Aircraft Company's Project Rand. These groundbreaking reports identified a reactor engine in which a working fluid of low molecular weight is heated using a nuclear reactor as the most promising form of nuclear propulsion but identified many technical issues that needed to be resolved.


title: Nuclear thermal rocket

text: In January 1947, not aware of this classified research, engineers of the Applied Physics Laboratory published their research on nuclear power propulsion and their report was eventually classified. In May 1947, American-educated Chinese scientist Qian Xuesen presented his research on "thermal jets" powered by a porous graphite-moderated nuclear reactor at the Nuclear Science and Engineering Seminars LIV organized by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.


title: Nuclear thermal rocket

text: In 1948 and 1949, physicist Leslie Shepherd and rocket scientist Val Cleaver produced a series of groundbreaking scientific papers that considered how nuclear technology might be applied to interplanetary travel. The papers examined both nuclear-thermal and nuclear-electric propulsion.


title: Nuclear thermal rocket

text: A nuclear thermal rocket can be categorized by the type of reactor, ranging from a relatively simple solid reactor up to the much more difficult to construct but theoretically more efficient gas core reactor. As with all thermal rocket designs, the specific impulse produced is proportional to the square root of the temperature to which the working fluid (reaction mass) is heated. To extract maximum efficiency, the temperature must be as high as possible. For a given design, the temperature that can be attained is typically determined by the materials chosen for reactor structures, the nuclear fuel, and the fuel cladding. Erosion is also a concern, especially the loss of fuel and associated releases of radioactivity.


title: Nuclear thermal rocket

text: Solid core nuclear reactors have been fueled by compounds of uranium that exist in solid phase under the conditions encountered and undergo nuclear fission to release energy. Flight reactors must be lightweight and capable of tolerating extremely high temperatures, as the only coolant available is the working fluid/propellant. A nuclear solid core engine is the simplest design to construct and is the concept used on all tested NTRs.


title: Nuclear thermal rocket

text: Using hydrogen as a propellant, a solid core design would typically deliver specific impulses (I) on the order of 850 to 1000 seconds, which is about twice that of liquid hydrogen-oxygen designs such as the Space Shuttle main engine. Other propellants have also been proposed, such as ammonia, water, or LOX, but these propellants would provide reduced exhaust velocity and performance at a marginally reduced fuel cost. Yet another mark in favor of hydrogen is that at low pressures it begins to dissociate at about 1500 K, and at high pressures around 3000 K., This lowers the mass of the exhaust species, increasing I.


title: Nuclear thermal rocket

text: Early publications were doubtful of space applications for nuclear engines. In 1947, a complete nuclear reactor was so heavy that solid core nuclear thermal engines would be entirely unable to achieve a thrust-to-weight ratio of 1:1, which is needed to overcome the gravity of the Earth at launch. Over the next twenty-five years, U.S. nuclear thermal rocket designs eventually reached thrust-to-weight ratios of approximately 7:1. This is still a much lower thrust-to-weight ratio than what is achievable with chemical rockets, which have thrust-to-weight ratios on the order of 70:1. Combined with the large tanks necessary for liquid hydrogen storage, this means that solid core nuclear thermal engines are best suited for use in orbit outside Earth's gravity well, not to mention avoiding the radioactive contamination that would result from atmospheric use (if an "open-cycle" design was used, as opposed to a lower-performance "closed cycle" design where no radioactive material was allowed to escape with the rocket propellant.)


title: Nuclear thermal rocket

text: One way to increase the working temperature of the reactor is to change the nuclear fuel elements. This is the basis of the particle-bed reactor, which is fueled by several (typically spherical) elements that "float" inside the hydrogen working fluid. Spinning the entire engine could prevent the fuel element from being ejected out the nozzle. This design is thought to be capable of increasing the specific impulse to about 1000 seconds (9.8 kN·s/kg) at the cost of increased complexity. Such a design could share design elements with a pebble-bed reactor, several of which are currently generating electricity. From 1987 through 1991, the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) Office funded Project Timberwind, a non-rotating nuclear thermal rocket based on particle bed technology. The project was canceled before testing.


title: Nuclear thermal rocket

text: In a conventional solid core design, the maximum exhaust temperature of the working mass is that of the reactor, and in practice, lower than that. That temperature represents an energy far below that of the individual neutrons released by the fission reactions. Their energy is spread out through the reactor mass, causing it to thermalize. In power plant designs, the core is then cooled, typically using water. In the case of a nuclear engine, the water is replaced by hydrogen, but the concept is otherwise similar.


title: Nuclear thermal rocket

text: Pulsed reactors attempt to transfer the energy directly from the neutrons to the working mass, allowing the exhaust to reach temperatures far beyond the melting point of the reactor core. As specific impulse varies directly with temperature, capturing the energy of the relativistic neutrons allows for a dramatic increase in performance.


title: Nuclear thermal rocket

text: To do this, pulsed reactors operate in a series of brief pulses rather than the continual chain reaction of a conventional reactor. The reactor is normally off, allowing it to cool. It is then turned on, along with the cooling system or fuel flow, operating at a very high power level. At this level the core rapidly begins to heat up, so once a set temperature is reached, the reactor is quickly turned off again. During these pulses, the power being produced is far greater than the same sized reactor could produce continually. The key to this approach is that while the total amount of fuel that can be pumped through the reactor during these brief pulses is small, the resulting efficiency of these pulses is much higher.


title: Nuclear thermal rocket

text: Generally, the designs would not be operated solely in the pulsed mode but could vary their duty cycle depending on the need. For instance, during a high-thrust phase of flight, like exiting a low earth orbit, the engine could operate continually and provide an Isp similar to that of traditional solid-core design. But during a long-duration cruise, the engine would switch to pulsed mode to make better use of its fuel.


title: Nuclear thermal rocket

text: Liquid core nuclear engines are fueled by compounds of fissionable elements in liquid phase. A liquid-core engine is proposed to operate at temperatures above the melting point of solid nuclear fuel and cladding, with the maximum operating temperature of the engine instead of being determined by the reactor pressure vessel and neutron reflector material. The higher operating temperatures would be expected to deliver specific impulse performance on the order of 1300 to 1500 seconds (12.8-14.8 kN·s/kg).


title: Nuclear thermal rocket

text: A liquid-core reactor would be extremely difficult to build with current technology. One major issue is that the reaction time of the nuclear fuel is much longer than the heating time of the working fluid. If the nuclear fuel and working fluid are not physically separated, this means that the fuel must be trapped inside the engine while the working fluid is allowed to easily exit through the nozzle. One possible solution is to rotate the fuel/fluid mixture at very high speeds to force the higher density fuel to the outside, but this would expose the reactor pressure vessel to the maximum operating temperature while adding mass, complexity, and moving parts.


title: Nuclear thermal rocket

text: An alternative liquid-core design is the nuclear salt-water rocket. In this design, water is the working fluid and also serves as the neutron moderator. Nuclear fuel is not retained, which drastically simplifies the design. However, the rocket would discharge massive quantities of extremely radioactive waste and could only be safely operated well outside the atmosphere of Earth and perhaps even entirely outside the magnetosphere of Earth.


title: Nuclear thermal rocket

text: The final fission classification is the gas-core engine. This is a modification to the liquid-core design which uses rapid circulation of the fluid to create a toroidal pocket of gaseous uranium fuel in the middle of the reactor, surrounded by hydrogen. In this case, the fuel does not touch the reactor wall at all, so temperatures could reach several tens of thousands of degrees, which would allow specific impulses of 3000 to 5000 seconds (30 to 50 kN·s/kg). In this basic design, the "open cycle", the losses of nuclear fuel would be difficult to control, which has led to studies of the "closed cycle" or nuclear lightbulb engine, where the gaseous nuclear fuel is contained in a super-high-temperature quartz container, over which the hydrogen flows. The closed-cycle engine has much more in common with the solid-core design, but this time is limited by the critical temperature of quartz instead of the fuel and cladding. Although less efficient than the open-cycle design, the closed-cycle design is expected to deliver a specific impulse of about 1500–2000 seconds (15-20 kN·s/kg).


title: Nuclear thermal rocket

text: The Soviet RD-0410 went through a series of tests at the nuclear test site near Semipalatinsk Test Site.


title: Nuclear thermal rocket

text: In October 2018, Russia's Keldysh Research Center confirmed a successful ground test of waste heat radiators for a nuclear space engine, as well as previous tests of fuel rods and ion engines.


title: Nuclear thermal rocket

text: Development of solid core NTRs started in 1955 under the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) as Project Rover and ran to 1973. Work on a suitable reactor was conducted at Los Alamos National Laboratory and Area 25 (Nevada National Security Site) in the Nevada Test Site. Four basic designs came from this project: KIWI, Phoebus, Pewee, and the Nuclear Furnace. Twenty individual engines were tested, with a total of over 17 hours of engine run time.


title: Nuclear thermal rocket

text: When NASA was formed in 1958, it was given authority over all non-nuclear aspects of the Rover program. To enable cooperation with the AEC and keep classified information compartmentalized, the Space Nuclear Propulsion Office (SNPO) was formed at the same time. The 1961 NERVA program was intended to lead to the entry of nuclear thermal rocket engines into space exploration. Unlike the AEC work, which was intended to study the reactor design itself, NERVA's goal was to produce a real engine that could be deployed on space missions. The thrust baseline NERVA design was based on the KIWI B4 series.


title: Nuclear thermal rocket

text: Tested engines included Kiwi, Phoebus, NRX/EST, NRX/XE, Pewee, Pewee 2, and the Nuclear Furnace. Progressively higher power densities culminated in the Pewee. Tests of the improved Pewee 2 design were canceled in 1970 in favor of the lower-cost Nuclear Furnace (NF-1), and the U.S. nuclear rocket program officially ended in the spring of 1973. During this program, the NERVA accumulated over 2 hours of run time, including 28 minutes at full power. The SNPO considered NERVA to be the last technology development reactor required to proceed to flight prototypes.


title: Nuclear thermal rocket

text: Several other solid-core engines have also been studied to some degree. The Small Nuclear Rocket Engine, or SNRE, was designed at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) for upper stage use, both on uncrewed launchers and the Space Shuttle. It featured a split-nozzle that could be rotated to the side, allowing it to take up less room in the Shuttle cargo bay. The design provided 73 kN of thrust and operated at a specific impulse of 875 seconds (8.58 kN·s/kg), and it was planned to increase this to 975 seconds, achieving a mass fraction of about 0.74, compared with 0.86 for the Space Shuttle main engine (SSME), one of the best conventional engines.


title: Nuclear thermal rocket

text: A related design that saw some work, but never made it to the prototype stage, was Dumbo. Dumbo was similar to KIWI/NERVA in concept, but used more advanced construction techniques to lower the weight of the reactor. The Dumbo reactor consisted of several large barrel-like tubes, which were in turn constructed of stacked plates of corrugated material. The corrugations were lined up so that the resulting stack had channels running from the inside to the outside. Some of these channels were filled with uranium fuel, others with a moderator, and some were left open as a gas channel. Hydrogen was pumped into the middle of the tube and would be heated by the fuel as it traveled through the channels as it worked its way to the outside. The resulting system was lighter than a conventional design for any particular amount of fuel.


title: Nuclear thermal rocket

text: Between 1987 and 1991, an advanced engine design was studied under Project Timberwind, under the Strategic Defense Initiative, which was later expanded into a larger design in the Space Thermal Nuclear Propulsion (STNP) program. Advances in high-temperature metals, computer modeling, and nuclear engineering, in general, resulted in dramatically improved performance. While the NERVA engine was projected to weigh about , the final STNP offered just over 1/3 the thrust from an engine of only by improving the I to between 930 and 1000 seconds.


title: Nuclear thermal rocket

text: KIWI was the first to be fired, starting in July 1959 with KIWI 1. The reactor was not intended for flight and was named after the flightless bird, Kiwi. The core was simply a stack of uncoated uranium oxide plates onto which the hydrogen was dumped. The thermal output of 70 MW at an exhaust temperature of 2683 K was generated. Two additional tests of the basic concept, A1 and A3, added coatings to the plates to test fuel rod concepts.


title: Nuclear thermal rocket

text: The KIWI B series was fueled by tiny uranium dioxide (UO) spheres embedded in a low-boron graphite matrix and coated with niobium carbide. Nineteen holes ran the length of the bundles, through which the liquid hydrogen flowed. On the initial firings, immense heat and vibration cracked the fuel bundles. The graphite materials used in the reactor's construction were resistant to high temperatures but eroded under the stream of superheated hydrogen, a reducing agent. The fuel species was later switched to uranium carbide, with the last engine run in 1964. The fuel bundle erosion and cracking problems were improved but never completely solved, despite promising materials work at the Argonne National Laboratory.


title: Nuclear thermal rocket

text: NERVA NRX (Nuclear Rocket Experimental), started testing in September 1964. The final engine in this series was the XE, designed with flight representative hardware and fired into a low-pressure chamber to simulate a vacuum. SNPO fired NERVA NRX/XE twenty-eight times in March 1968. The series all generated 1100 MW, and many of the tests concluded only when the test-stand ran out of hydrogen propellant. NERVA NRX/XE produced the baseline thrust that Marshall Space Flight Center required in Mars mission plans. The last NRX firing lost of nuclear fuel in 2 hours of testing, which was judged sufficient for space missions by SNPO.


title: Nuclear thermal rocket

text: Building on the KIWI series, the Phoebus series were much larger reactors. The first 1A test in June 1965 ran for over 10 minutes at 1090 MW and an exhaust temperature of 2370 K. The B run in February 1967 improved this to 1500 MW for 30 minutes. The final 2A test in June 1968 ran for over 12 minutes at 4000 MW, at the time the most powerful nuclear reactor ever built.


title: Nuclear thermal rocket

text: A smaller version of KIWI, the Pewee was also built. It was fired several times at 500 MW to test coatings made of zirconium carbide (instead of niobium carbide) but Pewee also increased the power density of the system. A water-cooled system is known as NF-1 (for "Nuclear Furnace") used Pewee 2's fuel elements for future materials testing, showing a factor of 3 reductions in fuel corrosion still further. Pewee 2 was never tested on the stand and became the basis for current NTR designs being researched at NASA's Glenn Research Center and Marshall Space flight Center.


title: Nuclear thermal rocket

text: The NERVA/Rover project was eventually canceled in 1972 with the general wind-down of NASA in the post-Apollo era. Without a human mission to Mars, the need for a nuclear thermal rocket is unclear. Another problem would be public concerns about safety and radioactive contamination.


title: Nuclear thermal rocket

text: In January 1965, the U.S. Rover program intentionally modified a Kiwi reactor (KIWI-TNT) to go prompt critical, resulting in immediate destruction of the reactor pressure vessel, nozzle, and fuel assemblies. Intended to simulate a worst-case scenario of a fall from altitude into the ocean, such as might occur in a booster failure after launch, the resulting release of radiation would have caused fatalities out to and injuries out to . The reactor was positioned on a railroad car in the Jackass Flats area of the Nevada Test Site.


title: Nuclear thermal rocket

text: In 1987, Ronen & Leibson published a study on applications of Am (one of the isotopes of americium) as nuclear fuel to space nuclear reactors, noting its extremely high thermal cross section and energy density. Nuclear systems powered by Am require less fuel by a factor of 2 to 100 compared to conventional nuclear fuels.


title: Nuclear thermal rocket

text: Fission-fragment rocket using Am was proposed by George Chapline at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in 1988, who suggested propulsion based on the direct heating of a propellant gas by fission fragments generated by a fissile material. Ronen et al. demonstrate that Am can maintain sustained nuclear fission as an extremely thin metallic film, less than 1/1000 of a millimeter thick. Am requires only 1% of the mass of U or Pu to reach its critical state. Ronen's group at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev further showed that nuclear fuel based on Am could speed space vehicles from Earth to Mars in as little as two weeks.


title: Nuclear thermal rocket

text: The Am as a nuclear fuel is derived from the fact that it has the highest thermal fission cross section (thousands of barns), about 10x the next highest cross section across all known isotopes. The Am is fissile (because it has an odd number of neutrons) and has a low critical mass, comparable to that of Pu.


title: Nuclear thermal rocket

text: It has a very high cross section for fission, and if in a nuclear reactor is destroyed relatively quickly. Another report claims that Am can sustain a chain reaction even as a thin film, and could be used for a novel type of nuclear rocket.


title: Nuclear thermal rocket

text: Since the thermal absorption cross section of Am is very high, the best way to obtain Am is by the capture of fast or epithermal neutrons in Americium-241 irradiated in a fast reactor. However, fast spectrum reactors are not readily available. Detailed analysis of Am breeding in existing pressurized water reactors (PWRs) was provided. Proliferation resistance of Am was reported by the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology 2008 study.


title: Nuclear thermal rocket

text: In 2000, Carlo Rubbia at CERN further extended the work by Ronen and Chapline on a Fission-fragment rocket using Am as a fuel. Project 242 based on Rubbia design studied a concept of Am based Thin-Film Fission Fragment Heated NTR by using a direct conversion of the kinetic energy of fission fragments into increasing of enthalpy of a propellant gas. Project 242 studied the application of this propulsion system to a crewed mission to Mars. Preliminary results were very satisfactory, and it has been observed that a propulsion system with these characteristics could make the mission feasible. Another study focused on the production of Am in conventional thermal nuclear reactors.


title: Nuclear thermal rocket

text: Current solid-core nuclear thermal rocket designs are intended to greatly limit the dispersion and break-up of radioactive fuel elements in the event of a catastrophic failure.


title: Nuclear thermal rocket

text: As of 2013, an NTR for interplanetary travel from Earth orbit to Mars orbit is being studied at Marshall Space Flight Center. In historical ground testing, NTRs proved to be at least twice as efficient as the most advanced chemical engines, which would allow for quicker transfer time and increased cargo capacity. The shorter flight duration, estimated at 3–4 months with NTR engines, compared to 6–9 months using chemical engines, would reduce crew exposure to potentially harmful and difficult to shield cosmic rays. NTR engines, such as the Pewee of Project Rover, were selected in the Mars Design Reference Architecture (DRA).


title: Nuclear thermal rocket

text: In 2017, NASA continued research and development on NTRs, designing for space applications with civilian approved materials, with a three-year, US$18.8 million contract.


title: Nuclear thermal rocket

text: In 2019, an appropriation bill passed by the U.S. Congress included US$125 million in funding for nuclear thermal propulsion research, including planning for a flight demonstration mission by 2024.


title: Nuclear thermal rocket

text: As of 2021, there has been much interest in nuclear thermal rockets by the United States Space Force and DARPA for orbital and cis-lunar uses. In addition to the U.S. military, NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine has also expressed interest in the project and its potential applications for a future mission to Mars. DARPA has awarded 2 contracts for their Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations (DRACO) program, which aims to demonstrate a nuclear thermal propulsion system in orbit: one award in September 2020 to Gryphon Technologies for US$14 million, and another award in April 2021 to General Atomics for US$22 million, both for preliminary designs for the reactor. Currently, DARPA is in the next phase of soliciting proposals for the design, development, fabrication, and assembly of the engine. Two conceptual spacecraft designs by Blue Origin and Lockheed Martin were selected. Proposals for a flight demonstration of nuclear thermal propulsion in the fiscal year 2026 are due August 5, 2022.


title: Nuclear thermal rocket

text: An atmospheric or orbital rocket failure could result in the dispersal of radioactive material into the environment. A collision with orbital debris, material failure due to uncontrolled fission, material imperfections or fatigue, or human design flaws could cause a containment breach of the fissile material. Such a catastrophic failure while in flight could release radioactive material over the Earth in a wide and unpredictable area. The amount of contamination would depend on the size of the nuclear thermal rocket engine, while the zone of contamination and its concentration would be dependent on prevailing weather and orbital parameters at the time of re-entry.


title: Nuclear thermal rocket

text: It is considered unlikely that a reactor's fuel elements would be spread over a wide area, as they are composed of materials such as carbon composites or carbides and are normally coated with zirconium hydride. Before criticality occurs, solid core NTR fuel is not particularly hazardous. Once the reactor has been started for the first time, extremely radioactive short-life fission products are produced, as well as less radioactive but extremely long-lived fission products. Additionally, all engine structures are exposed to direct neutron bombardment, resulting in their radioactive activation.


title: English Opening

text: A flank opening, it is the fourth most popular and, according to various databases, one of the four most successful of White's twenty possible first moves. White begins the fight for the by staking a claim to the d5-square from the wing, in hypermodern style. Although many lines of the English have a distinct character, the opening is often used as a transpositional device in much the same way as 1.Nf3 – to avoid such highly regarded responses to 1.d4 as the Nimzo-Indian and Grünfeld Defences — and is considered reliable and flexible.


title: English Opening

text: The English derives its name from the leading 19th century English master Howard Staunton, who played it during his 1843 match with Saint-Amant and at London 1851, the first international tournament. It did not inspire Staunton's contemporaries and caught on only in the twentieth century. It is now recognised as a opening that may be used to reach both classical and hypermodern positions. Mikhail Botvinnik, Tigran Petrosian, Anatoly Karpov, Garry Kasparov, and Magnus Carlsen have employed it during their world championship matches. Bobby Fischer created a stir when he switched to it from his customary 1.e4 late in his career, employing it against Lev Polugaevsky and Oscar Panno at the Palma de Mallorca Interzonal in 1970, and in his world championship match against Boris Spassky.


title: English Opening

text: Opening theoreticians who write on the English Opening divide it into three broad categories, generally determined by Black's choice of defensive setup.


title: English Opening

text: The Symmetrical Defence (classified A30–39 in "ECO") is 1...c5, and is so named because both of the c-pawns are advanced two squares, maintaining symmetry. Note that Black can reach the Symmetrical Defence through many move orders by deferring ...c5, and often does. For example, 1.c4 Nf6 2.Nc3 (or 2.Nf3) c5.


title: English Opening

text: Similar to the Open Sicilian, an early d2–d4 for White can arise on the third move in the Symmetrical Defence with 2.Nf3, where Black has chosen one of 2...Nc6, 2...e6, 2...d6, or 2...g6.


title: English Opening

text: After 3.d4, the game usually continues with 3...cxd4 4.Nxd4. The games can give a large variety of positional and tactical ideas, and can transpose into variants of the Open Sicilian involving the Maróczy Bind, such as the Accelerated Dragon, Taimanov, Kan, or Kalashnikov Variations, if White plays e4 in a later move. If Black manages to play d5 before White plays e4, then the game could transpose into variants of the Queen's Gambit Declined.


title: English Opening

text: When Black plays 2...Nf6, these lines are often called the Anti-Benoni, since these positions are often reached after the transposition 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.Nf3, where White avoided the Benoni Defense that would arise after 3.d5. After 3...cxd4 4.Nxd4, Black could follow up with 4...e5 forcing White's knight to go to the queenside and avoiding the transpositions to the Sicilian or the QGD; however, White could avoid the line by first playing 3.Nc3 and then play 4.d4, if Black doesn't play 3...d5 (see below). Same as above, the position could transpose into a Queen's Gambit Declined or an Open Sicilian involving the Maróczy Bind.


title: English Opening

text: There are several types of positions that can arise from the Symmetrical Defence. Among the ideas are:


title: English Opening

text: The Reversed Sicilian (classified A20–29 in ) is another broad category of defence, introduced by the response 1...e5. Note again, that Black can delay playing ...e5, for example 1.c4 Nf6 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.Nf3 e5 whereupon even though ...e5 has been delayed, once it is played the defence is classified as a Reversed Sicilian.


title: English Opening

text: After 1...e5, White has Black's position in the Sicilian but with an extra tempo. This is often called the Reversed Sicilian, though others call it the King's English. Bruce Leverett, writing the English chapter in "MCO-14", stated, "It is natural to treat the English as a Sicilian reversed, but the results are often surprising—main lines in the Sicilian Defence correspond to obscure side variations in the English, and vice versa."


title: English Opening

text: The third broad category consists of the non-...e5 and non-...c5 responses, classified A10–19 in "ECO". Most often these defences consist of ...Nf6, ...e6, and ...d5 or ...Bb4 systemic responses by Black, or a Slav-like system consisting of ...c6 and ...d5, a direct King's Indian Defence setup with ...Nf6, ...g6, ...Bg7, ...0-0, after which ...c5 and ...e5 are eschewed, or 1...f5, which usually transposes to a Dutch Defence once White plays d4. All irregular responses such as 1...b6 and 1...g5 are also lumped into this third broad category.


title: English Opening

text: If White plays an early d4, the game will usually transpose into either the Queen's Gambit or an Indian Defence.


title: English Opening

text: For example, after 1.c4 Nf6 2.Nc3 g6 3.d4 d5 the game has transposed into the Grünfeld Defence, usually reached by the move order 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5.


title: English Opening

text: White can, however, also play 1.c4 Nf6 2.Nc3 g6 3.e4, making it impossible for Black to reach a Grünfeld, instead more or less forcing them into lines of the King's Indian Defence with 3...d6. Black also cannot force a Grünfeld with 1.c4 Nf6 2.Nc3 d5, since White can deviate with 3.cxd5 Nxd5 4.g3, a line played several times by Mikhail Botvinnik in 1958, in his final match for the world championship with Vasily Smyslov.


title: English Opening

text: Instead of playing an early d4, White can also play Nf3 and fianchetto the (g3 and Bg2), transposing into a Réti Opening.


title: English Opening

text: Also, after 1.c4 c6, White can transpose into the Polish Opening, Outflank Variation, by playing 2.b4, which can be used as a surprise weapon if Black does not know very much about the Polish Opening.


title: English Opening

text: The many different transpositional possibilities available to White make the English a slippery opening for Black to defend against, and make it necessary for them to consider carefully what move order to employ. For instance, if Black would like to play a Queen's Gambit Declined (QGD), the most accurate move order to do so is 1...e6 2.d4 d5. (Of course, White can again play the Réti instead with 2.Nf3 d5 3.b3.) If Black plays instead 1...Nf6 2.Nc3 e6, White can avoid the QGD by playing 3.e4, the Flohr–Mikenas Attack.


title: English Opening

text: The "Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings" has classified the English Opening under the codes A10 through A39:


title: English Opening

text: The English Opening is used by Professor Moriarty in the film "" as he and Holmes discuss their competing plans over a game of chess. Both Holmes and Moriarty eventually play the final moves blindfolded by citing out the last moves in descriptive notation (rather than algebraic, as the former was contemporary in the late 19th century), ending in Holmes checkmating Moriarty, just as Watson foils Moriarty's plans.


title: English Opening

text: 1.c4 is also used in "Pawn Sacrifice" by Bobby Fischer in the climactic game six of the 1972 World Chess Championship versus Boris Spassky.


title: Jonathan Soros

text: Jonathan Tivadar Soros (born September 10, 1970) is the founder and chief executive officer of JS Capital Management LLC, a private investment firm. Prior to that, Soros worked at Soros Fund Management in daily operations and was co-deputy chairman of the organization.


title: Jonathan Soros

text: Soros started the Friends of Democracy PAC, now merged into Every Voice, to push for campaign finance reform and the abolition of the electoral college.


title: Jonathan Soros

text: Soros's parents are Annaliese Witschak and business magnate George Soros, who divorced in 1981. He is the brother of Andrea and Robert Soros and half-brother of Gregory and Alexander, from his father's second marriage to Susan Weber.


title: Jonathan Soros

text: He graduated from Wesleyan University in Connecticut in 1992. He received a Master of Arts in public policy at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government and a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School.


title: Jonathan Soros

text: Soros worked at Soros Fund Management beginning in 2002 and in 2004, he and his brother, Robert, became co-deputy chairmen of the organization that managed $12.8 billion in funds at that time. Their father stepped down at that time, but remained as chairman.


title: Jonathan Soros

text: He focused on operations and was the organization's chief investment officer until he stepped down in 2011. His father said that Jonathan was "the principal architect of our transition to a healthy and stable investment operation" out of a turbulent financial period. However, that year, the organization had incurred "significant losses" and had converted to a family office—managing the funds of George, his foundation, and Soros family members— and no longer operating as a hedge fund. In the process, its investors received $1 billion from the fund. Reuters states that the move was made to avoid a deadline to register at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as an investment manager. Jonathan remained on the board of his father's foundation.


title: Jonathan Soros

text: Soros is the founder and chief executive officer of JS Capital Management LLC, a private investment firm, located in midtown Manhattan near Central Park. The second quarter 2015 filings showed that the U.S. assets in its portfolio were valued at $500 million, up from $394.76 million the previous quarter. In 2015, Bloomberg Politics identified him as one of the hedge fund titans.


title: Jonathan Soros

text: He advocates for the removal of the electoral college, which he says is undemocratic and unconstitutional. This is the position of the Every Voice political advocacy group and the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact that advocates for electoral votes to be given to each state based upon certified results of the popular vote.


title: Jonathan Soros

text: In July 2012, Soros started and funded Friends of Democracy PAC (now merged into Every Voice), a hybrid political action committee and super PAC designed to push for campaign finance reform that would mandate a public financing system for all federal elections. Soros's organization was described as an "anti-super PAC super PAC" by "The Washington Post". Founded with Ilyse Hogue, formerly with Media Matters for America and MoveOn.org, and David Donnelly, executive director of the Public Campaign Action Fund, the goal of the organization is to elect candidates that support campaign reform, including public matching funds for elections.