title: Battle of Mons

text: The Battle of Mons was the first major action of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in the First World War. It was a subsidiary action of the Battle of the Frontiers, in which the Allies clashed with Germany on the French borders. At Mons, the British Army attempted to hold the line of the Mons–Condé Canal against the advancing German 1st Army. Although the British fought well and inflicted disproportionate casualties on the numerically superior Germans, they were eventually forced to retreat due both to the greater strength of the Germans and the sudden retreat of the French Fifth Army, which exposed the British right flank. Though initially planned as a simple tactical withdrawal and executed in good order, the British retreat from Mons lasted for two weeks and took the BEF to the outskirts of Paris before it counter-attacked in concert with the French, at the Battle of the Marne.


title: Battle of Mons

text: Britain declared war on Germany on 4 August 1914 and on 9 August, the BEF began embarking for France. Unlike Continental European armies, the BEF in 1914 was exceedingly small. At the beginning of the war, the German and French armies numbered well over a million men each, divided into eight and five field armies respectively; the BEF had in two corps of entirely professional soldiers made up of long-service volunteer soldiers and reservists. The BEF was probably the best trained and most experienced of the European armies of 1914. British training emphasised rapid-fire marksmanship and the average British soldier was able to hit a man-sized target fifteen times a minute, at a range of with his Lee–Enfield rifle. This ability to generate a high volume of accurate rifle-fire played an important role in the BEF's battles of 1914.


title: Battle of Mons

text: The Battle of Mons took place as part of the Battle of the Frontiers, in which the advancing German armies clashed with the advancing Allied armies along the Franco-Belgian and Franco-German borders. The BEF was stationed on the left of the Allied line, which stretched from Alsace-Lorraine in the east to Mons and Charleroi in southern Belgium. The British position on the French flank meant that it stood in the path of the German 1st Army, the outermost wing of the massive "right hook" intended by the Schlieffen Plan (a combination of the and deployment plans), to pursue the Allied armies after defeating them on the frontier and force them to abandon northern France and Belgium or risk destruction.


title: Battle of Mons

text: The British reached Mons on 22 August. In the afternoon of that same day arrived a message from the French Fifth Army commander, General Charles Lanrezac, sent to Field Marshal Sir John French requesting the BEF to turn right to attack von Bülow's advancing flank. The French Fifth Army, located on the right of the BEF, was engaged with the German 2nd and 3rd armies at the Battle of Charleroi. French refused, instead agreeing to hold the line of the Condé–Mons–Charleroi Canal for twenty-four hours, to prevent the German 1st Army from threatening the French left flank. The British spent the day digging in along the canal.


title: Battle of Mons

text: At the Battle of Mons the BEF had some 80,000 men, comprising the Cavalry Division, an independent cavalry brigade and two corps, each with two infantry divisions. I Corps was commanded by Sir Douglas Haig and was composed of the 1st and 2nd Divisions. II Corps was commanded by Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien and consisted of the 3rd and 5th Divisions. Each division had and in three brigades of four battalions. Each division had twenty-four Vickers machine guns – two per battalion – and three field artillery brigades with fifty-four 18-pounder guns, one field howitzer brigade of eighteen 4.5-inch howitzers and a heavy artillery battery of four 60-pounder guns.


title: Battle of Mons

text: The II Corps, on the left of the British line, occupied defensive positions along the Mons–Condé Canal, while I Corps was positioned almost at a right angle away from the canal, along the Mons–Beaumont road (see map). I Corps was deployed in this manner to protect the right flank of the BEF in case the French were forced to retreat from their position at Charleroi. I Corps did not line the canal, which meant that it was little involved in the battle and the German attack was faced mostly by II Corps. The dominant geographical feature of the battlefield, was a loop in the canal, jutting outwards from Mons towards the village of Nimy. This loop formed a small salient which was difficult to defend and formed the focus of the battle.


title: Battle of Mons

text: The first contact between the two armies occurred on 21 August, when a British bicycle reconnaissance team encountered a German unit near Obourg; and Private John Parr became the first British soldier to be killed in the war. The first substantial action occurred on the morning of 22 August. At the 4th Royal Irish Dragoons laid an ambush for a patrol of German lancers outside the village of Casteau, to the north-east of Mons. When the Germans spotted the trap and fell back, a troop of the dragoons, led by Captain Hornby gave chase, followed by the rest of his squadron, all with drawn sabres. The retreating Germans led the British to a larger force of lancers, whom they promptly charged and Captain Hornby became the first British soldier to kill an enemy in the Great War, fighting on horseback with sword against lance. After a further pursuit of a few miles, the Germans turned and fired upon the Irish cavalry, at which point the dragoons dismounted and opened fire. Drummer E. Edward Thomas is reputed to have fired the first shot of the war for the British Army, hitting a German trooper.


title: Battle of Mons

text: That very same day, having used British reconnaisance planes along with Lanrezac's messaging to his Army Staff, BEF's Chief of Intelligence, Colonel George Macdonogh warned Sir John French that three German army corps were advancing straight against them. The Field Marshal chose to ignore these claims, instead proposing to advance towards Soignies.


title: Battle of Mons

text: Advancing towards the British was the German 1st Army, commanded by Alexander von Kluck. The 1st Army was composed of four active corps (II, III, IV, and IX Corps) and three reserve corps (III, IV and IX Reserve corps), although only the active corps took part in the fighting at Mons. German corps had two divisions each, with attendant cavalry and artillery. The 1st Army had the greatest offensive power of the German armies, with a density of per of front, or about ten per .


title: Battle of Mons

text: Late on 20 August General Karl von Bülow, the 2nd Army commander, who had tactical control over the 1st Army while north of the Sambre, held the view that an encounter with the British was unlikely and wished to concentrate on the French units reported between Charleroi and Namur, on the south bank of the Sambre; reconnaissance in the afternoon failed to reveal the strength or intentions of the French. The 2nd Army was ordered to reach a line from Binche, Fontaine-l'Eveque and the Sambre next day to assist the 3rd Army across the Meuse by advancing south of the Sambre on 23 August. The 1st Army was instructed to be ready to cover Brussels and Antwerp to the north and Maubeuge to the south-west. Kluck and the 1st Army staff expected to meet British troops, probably through Lille, which made a wheel to the south premature. Kluck wanted to advance to the south-west to maintain freedom of manuoeuvre and on 21 August, attempted to persuade Bülow to allow the 1st Army to continue its manoeuvre. Bülow refused and ordered the 1st Army to isolate Maubeuge and support the right flank of the 2nd Army, by advancing to a line from Lessines to Soignies, while the III and IV Reserve corps remained in the north, to protect the rear of the army from Belgian operations southwards from Antwerp.


title: Battle of Mons

text: On 22 August, the 13th Division of the VII Corps, on the right flank of the 2nd Army, encountered British cavalry north of Binche, as the rest of the army to the east began an attack over the Sambre river, against the French Fifth Army. By the evening the bulk of the 1st Army had reached a line from Silly to Thoricourt, Louvignies and Mignault; the III and IV Reserve corps had occupied Brussels and screened Antwerp. Reconnaissance by cavalry and aircraft indicated that the area to the west of the army was free of troops and that British troops were not concentrating around Kortrijk (Courtrai), Lille and Tournai but were thought to be on the left flank of the Fifth Army, from Mons to Maubeuge. Earlier in the day, British cavalry had been reported at Casteau, to the north-east of Mons. A British aeroplane had been seen at Louvain (Leuven) on 20 August and on the afternoon of 22 August, a British aircraft en route from Maubeuge, was shot down by the 5th Division. More reports had reached the IX Corps, that columns were moving from Valenciennes to Mons, which made clear the British deployment but were not passed on to the 1st Army headquarters. Kluck assumed that the subordination of the 1st Army to the 2nd Army had ended, since the passage of the Sambre had been forced. Kluck wished to be certain to envelop the left (west) flank of the opposing forces to the south but was again over-ruled and ordered to advance south, rather than south-west, on 23 August.


title: Battle of Mons

text: Late on 22 August, reports arrived that the British had occupied the Canal du Centre crossings from Nimy to Ville-sur-Haine, which revealed the location of British positions, except for their left flank. On 23 August, the 1st Army began to advance north-west of Maubeuge, to a line from Basècles to St. Ghislain and Jemappes. The weather had turned cloudy and rainy, which grounded the 1st Army all day, despite an improvement in the weather around noon. News that large numbers of troops had been arriving at Tournai by train were received and the advance was suspended, until the reports from Tournai could be checked. The IX Corps divisions advanced in four columns against the Canal du Centre, from the north of Mons to Roeulx and on the left (eastern) flank, met French troops at the canal, which was thought to be the junction of the British and French forces. The corps commander, General von Quast, had ordered an attack for to seize the crossings, before the halt order was received. The two III Corps divisions were close to St. Ghislain and General Ewald von Lochow ordered them to prepare an attack from Tertre to Ghlin. In the IV Corps area, General Sixt von Armin ordered an attack on the canal crossings of Péruwelz and Blaton and ordered the 8th Division to reconnoitre from Tournai to Condé and to keep contact with lang|de|Höhere Kavallerie-Kommando}} 2 (HKK 2, II Cavalry Corps).


title: Battle of Mons

text: At dawn on 23 August, a German artillery bombardment began on the British lines; throughout the day the Germans concentrated on the British at the salient formed by the loop in the canal. At the first German infantry assault began, with the Germans attempting to force their way across four bridges that crossed the canal at the salient. Four German battalions attacked the Nimy bridge, which was defended by a company of the 4th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers and a machine-gun section led by Lieutenant Maurice Dease. Advancing at first in close column, "parade ground formation", the Germans made easy targets for the riflemen, who hit German soldiers at over , mowing them down by rifle, machine-gun and artillery fire. So heavy was the British rifle fire throughout the battle that some Germans thought they were facing batteries of machine-guns.


title: Battle of Mons

text: The German attack was a costly failure and the Germans switched to an open formation and attacked again. This attack was more successful, as the looser formation made it harder for the Irish to inflict casualties rapidly. The outnumbered defenders were soon hard-pressed to defend the canal crossings and the Royal Irish Fusiliers at the Nimy and Ghlin bridges only held on with piecemeal reinforcement and the exceptional bravery of two of the battalion machine-gunners. At the Nimy bridge, Dease took control of his machine gun after the rest of the section had been killed or wounded and fired the weapon, despite being shot several times. After a fifth wound he was evacuated to the battalion aid station, where he died. Private Sidney Godley took over and covered the Fusilier retreat at the end of the battle but when it was his time to retreat he disabled the gun by throwing parts into the canal then surrendered. Dease and Godley were awarded the Victoria Cross, the first awards of the First World War. An equally brave attempt was made by Captain Theodore Wright of the Royal Engineers, who attempted to blow up five of the bridges that crossed the canal in a three mile run. He managed to destroy the Jemappes pass but while setting up charges at Mariette he was struck in the head by a projectile fragment and had to retreat. Having retreated for a small while, he nonetheless tried again protected by the cover fire of the Northumberland Fusiliers. However, he slipped and fell in the canal, being saved by a comrade and forced to give up the whole endeavour. For this action he was also awarded a Victoria Cross. Theodore Wright would be killed in action the following month at Vailly.


title: Battle of Mons

text: To the right of the Royal Fusiliers, the 4th Battalion, Middlesex Regiment and the 1st Battalion, Gordon Highlanders, were equally hard-pressed by the German assault on the salient. Greatly outnumbered, both battalions suffered many casualties but with reinforcements from the Royal Irish Regiment, from the divisional reserve and support from the divisional artillery, they managed to hold the bridges. The Germans expanded their attack, assaulting the British defences along the straight reach of the canal to the west of the salient. The Germans used the cover of fir plantations that lined the northern side of the canal and advanced to within a few hundred yards of the canal, to rake the British with machine-gun and rifle fire. The German attack fell particularly heavily on the 1st Battalion, Royal West Kent Regiment and the 2nd Battalion, King's Own Scottish Borderers, which despite many casualties, repulsed the Germans throughout the day.


title: Battle of Mons

text: By the afternoon, the British position in the salient had become untenable; the 4th Middlesex had suffered casualties of and killed or wounded. To the east of the British position, units of the German IX Corps had begun to cross the canal in force, threatening the British right flank. At Nimy, Private Oskar Niemeyer had swum across the canal under British fire to operate machinery closing a swing bridge. Although he was killed, his actions re-opened the bridge and allowed the Germans to increase pressure against the 4th Royal Fusiliers.


title: Battle of Mons

text: Having returned from Valenciennes, Commander-in-Chief Sir John French was still convinced that an advance could soon be made, however, by the 3rd Division was ordered to retire from the salient, to positions a short distance to the south of Mons and a similar retreat towards evening by the 5th Division to conform. By nightfall, II Corps had established a new defensive line running through the villages of Montrœul, Boussu, Wasmes, Paturages and Frameries. The Germans had built pontoon bridges over the canal and were approaching the British positions in great strength. News had arrived that the French Fifth Army was retreating, dangerously exposing the British right flank and at on 24 August, II Corps was ordered to retreat south-west into France to reach defensible positions along the Valenciennes–Maubeuge road. Sir John finally accepted that an advance wouldn't be able to take place and admitted that a retreat had to be made quickly, else the consequences would be irreparable for the BEF.


title: Battle of Mons

text: The unexpected order to retreat from prepared defensive lines in the face of the enemy, meant that II Corps was required to fight a number of sharp rearguard actions against the Germans. For the first stage of the withdrawal, Smith-Dorrien detailed the 15th Brigade of the 5th Division, which had not been involved in heavy fighting on 23 August, to act as rearguard. On 24 August they fought various holding actions at Paturages, Frameries and Audregnies. During the engagement at Audregnies the 1st Battalions of the Cheshire and Norfolk Regiments halted the German advance from Quiévrain and Baisieux until the morning of 25 August despite being outnumbered and suffering ruinous losses, and with the support of the 5th Brigade artillery, they also inflicted many casualties on the advancing German regiments. An evening roll call of the Cheshires 1st Battalion, who had not received a withdrawal order, indicated that their establishment had been reduced by almost 80 per cent. Their refusal to fall back without orders led Smith-Dorrien to later state that the on reflection the 1st Battalion, Cheshires together with the Duke of Wellington's regiment had "saved the BEF".


title: Battle of Mons

text: At Wasmes, elements of the 5th Division faced a big attack; German artillery began bombarding the village at daybreak, and at infantry of the German III Corps attacked. Advancing in columns, the Germans were immediately met with massed rifle and machine-gun fire and were "mown down like grass". For a further two hours, soldiers of the Northumberland Fusiliers, 1st West Kents, 2nd Battalion, King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, 2nd Battalion, Duke of Wellington's Regiment and the 1st Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment, held off German attacks on the village, despite many casualties and then retreated in good order to St. Vaast. On the extreme left of the British line, the 14th and 15th Brigades of the 5th Division were threatened by a German outflanking move and were forced to call for help from the cavalry. The 2nd Cavalry Brigade, along with the 119th Battery Royal Field Artillery (RFA) and L Battery RHA, were sent to their aid. Dismounting, the cavalry and the two artillery batteries screened the withdrawal of the 14th and 15th Brigades in four hours of intense fighting.


title: Battle of Mons

text: On 23 August, the 18th Division of IX Corps advanced and began to bombard the British defences near Maisières and St. Denis. Part of the 35th Brigade, which contained large numbers of Danes from Northern Schleswig, got across the canal east of Nimy with few casualties and reached the railway beyond in the early afternoon but the attack on Nimy was repulsed. The 36th Brigade captured bridges at Obourg against determined resistance, after which the defenders of Nimy gradually withdrew; the bridges to the north were captured at and the town stormed. Quast ordered the 18th Division to take Mons and push south to Cuesmes and Mesvin. Mons was captured unopposed, except for a skirmish on the southern fringe and by dark, the 35th Brigade was in the vicinity of Cuesmes and Hyon. On higher ground to the east of Mons, the defence continued. On the front of the 17th Division, British cavalry withdrew from the canal crossings at Ville-sur-Haine and Thieu and the division advanced to the St. Symphorien–St. Ghislain road. At the divisional commander ordered an enveloping attack on the British east of Mons, who were pushed back after a stand on the Mons–Givry road.


title: Battle of Mons

text: By reports from the IV, III and IX corps revealed that the British were in St. Ghislain and at the canal crossings to the west, as far as the bridge at Pommeroeuil, with no troops east of Condé. Intelligence reports from 22 August, had noted heading through Dour towards Mons and on 23 August, had been seen on the road to Genlis south of Mons, with more troops arriving at Jemappes. To the north of Binche, the right flank division of the 2nd Army had been forced back to the south-west by British cavalry. In the early afternoon, the II Cavalry Corps reported that it had occupied the area of Thielt–Kortryk–Tournai during the night and forced back a French brigade to the south-east of Roubaix. With this report indicating that the right flank was clear of Allied troops, Kluck ordered the III Corps to advance through St. Ghislain and Jemappes on the right of IX Corps and for IV Corps to continue towards Hensis and Thulies; IV Corps was already attacking at the Canal du Centre, the II Corps and the IV Reserve Corps were following on behind the main part of the army.


title: Battle of Mons

text: III Corps had to advance across meadows to an obstacle with few crossings, all of which had been destroyed. The 5th Division advanced towards Tertre on the right, which was captured but then the advance on the railway bridge was stopped by small-arms fire from across the canal. On the left flank, the division advanced towards a bridge north-east of Wasmuel and eventually managed to get across the canal against determined resistance, before turning towards St. Ghislain and Hornu. As dark fell, Wasmuel was occupied and attacks on St. Ghislain were repulsed by machine-gun fire, which prevented troops crossing the canal except at Tertre, where the advance was stopped for the night. The 6th Division was counter-attacked at Ghlin, before advancing towards higher ground south of Jemappes. The British in the village stopped the division with small-arms fire, except for small parties, who found cover west of a path from Ghlin to Jemappes. These isolated parties managed to surprise the defenders at the crossing north of the village, with the support of a few field guns around after which the village was captured. The rest of the division crossed the canal and began a pursuit towards Frameries and Ciply but stopped as dark fell.


title: Battle of Mons

text: The IV Corps arrived in the afternoon, as the 8th Division closed on Hensies and Thulin and the 7th Division advanced towards Ville-Pommeroeuil, where there were two canals blocking the route. The 8th Division encountered the British at the northernmost canal, west of Pommeroeuil and forced back the defenders but then bogged down in front of the second canal, under machine-gun fire from the south bank. The attack was suspended after night fell and the British blew the bridge. The 7th Division forced the British back from a railway embankment and over the canal, to the east of Pommeroeuil but was pushed back from the crossing. Small parties managed to cross by a footbridge built in the dark and protected repair parties at the blown bridge, which allowed troops to get across and dig in south of the canal, on either side of the road to Thulin.


title: Battle of Mons

text: Late in the day, the II Corps and the IV Reserve Corps rested on their march routes at La Hamaide and Bierghes, after marching respectively, behind the front, too far behind to take part in the battle on 24 August. In the mid-afternoon of 23 August, IV Corps was ordered to rest, as reports from the front suggested that the British defence had been overcome and the 1st Army headquarters wanted to avoid the army converging on Maubeuge, leaving the right (western) flank vulnerable. In the evening, Kluck cancelled the instruction, after reports from IX Corps reporting that its observation aircraft had flown over a column long, moving towards Mons along the Malplaquet road. Two more columns were seen on the Malplaquet–Genly and the Quevy–Genly roads, a large force was seen near Asquillies and cavalry was found further east, which showed that most of the BEF was opposite the 1st Army. It was considered vital that the second canal crossings were captured along the line, as had been achieved by the IX and part of III corps. IV Corps was ordered to resume its march and move the left wing towards Thulin but it was already engaged at the canal crossings. The III and IX corps attack during the day, had succeeded against "a tough, nearly invisible enemy" but the offensive had to continue, because it appeared that only the right flank of the army could get behind the BEF.


title: Battle of Mons

text: The situation remained unclear at the 1st Army headquarters in the evening, because communication with the other right flank armies had been lost and only fighting near Thuin by VII Corps, the right-flank unit of the 2nd Army had been reported. Kluck ordered that the attack was to continue on 24 August, past the west of Maubeuge and that II Corps would catch up behind the right flank of the army. IX Corps was to advance to the east of Bavay, III Corps was to advance to the west of the village, IV Corps was to advance towards Warnies-le-Grand further to the west and the II Cavalry Corps was to head towards Denain, to cut off the British retreat. During the night there were several British counter-attacks but none of the German divisions was forced back over the canal. At dawn the IX Corps resumed its advance and pushed forwards against rearguards until the afternoon, when the corps stopped the advance due to uncertainty about the situation on its left flank and the proximity of Maubeuge. At cavalry reports led Quast to resume the advance, which was slowed by the obstacles of Maubeuge and III Corps congesting the roads.


title: Battle of Mons

text: On the III Corps front to the west, the 6th Division attacked Frameries at dawn, which held out until and then took La Bouverie and Pâturages, after which the British began to retreat; the division turned west towards Warquignies and the 5th Division. St. Ghislain had been attacked by the 5th Division behind an artillery barrage, where the 10th Brigade had crossed the canal and taken the village in house-to-house fighting, then reached the south end of Hornu. A defensive line had been established by the British along the Dour–Wasmes railway, which stopped the German advance and diverted the 9th Brigade until when the British withdrew. The German infantry were exhausted and stopped the pursuit at Dour and Warquignies. During the day Kluck sent liaison officers to the corps headquarters, stressing that the army should not converge on Maubeuge but pass to the west, ready to envelop the British left (west) flank.


title: Battle of Mons

text: The IV Corps headquarters had ordered its divisions to attack over the canal at dawn but found that the British had blown the bridges and withdrawn. Repairs took until and the 8th Division did not reach Quiévrain until noon; the 7th Division reached the railway at Thuin during the morning and then took Élouges late in the afternoon. As the 8th Division moved on, the vanguard was ambushed by British cavalry before an advance to Valenciennes could begin and then attacked a British rearguard at Baisieux, which then slipped away to Audregnies. The rest of the division skirmished with French Territorials south-west of Baisieux. The IV Corps attack forced back rearguards but inflicted no serious damage, having been slowed by the bridge demolitions at the canals. The cavalry divisions had advanced towards Denain and the had defeated troops of the French 88th Territorial Division at Tournai and then reached Marchiennes, after a skirmish with the 83rd Territorial Division near Orchies.


title: Battle of Mons

text: German air reconnaissance detected British troops on 21 August, advancing from Le Cateau to Maubeuge, and on 22 August from Maubeuge to Mons, as other sources identified halting places, but poor communication and lack of systematic direction of air operations led to the assembly of the BEF from Condé to Binche being unknown to the Germans on British reconnaissance flights had begun on 19 August with two sorties and two more on 20 August, which reported no sign of German troops. Fog delayed flights on 21 August but in the afternoon German troops were seen near Kortrijk and three villages were reported to be burning. Twelve reconnaissance sorties were flown on 22 August and reported many German troops closing in on the BEF, especially troops on the Brussels–Ninove road, which indicated an enveloping manoeuvre. One British aircraft was shot down and a British observer became the first British soldier to be wounded while flying. By the evening Sir John French was able to discuss with his commanders the German dispositions near the BEF which had been provided by aircraft observation, the strength of the German forces, that the Sambre had been crossed and that an encircling move by the Germans from Geraardsbergen was possible. During the battle on 23 August, the aircrews flew behind the battlefield looking for troop movements and German artillery batteries.


title: Battle of Mons

text: By nightfall on 24 August, the British had retreated to what were expected to be their new defensive lines, on the Valenciennes–Maubeuge road. Outnumbered by the German 1st Army and with the French Fifth Army also falling back, the BEF had no choice but to continue to retire – I Corps retreating to Landrecies and II Corps to Le Cateau. The chaos and confusion were graphically illustrated in Landrecies on 25 August, where a senior officer "apparently took leave of his senses and began firing his revolver down a street". The Great Retreat continued for two weeks and covered over . The British were closely pursued by the Germans and fought several rearguard actions, including the Battle of Le Cateau on 26 August, the Étreux rearguard action on 27 August and the action at Néry on 1 September. Units disappeared and "More guns were lost than at any time since the American War of Independence."


title: Battle of Mons

text: Both sides had success at the Battle of Mons: the British had been outnumbered by about managed to withstand the German 1st Army for 48 hours, inflict more casualties on the Germans and then retire in good order. The BEF achieved its main strategic objective, which was to prevent the French Fifth Army from being outflanked. The battle was an important moral victory for the British; as their first battle on the continent since the Crimean War, it was a matter of great uncertainty as to how they would perform. In the event, the British soldiers came away from the battle with a clear sense that they had got the upper hand during the fighting at Mons. The Germans appeared to recognise that they had been dealt a sharp blow by an army they had considered inconsequential. German novelist and infantry officer Walter Bloem wrote:


title: Battle of Mons

text: For the Germans, the Battle of Mons was a tactical repulse and a strategic success. The staff at Kluck's headquarters claimed that the two-day battle had failed to envelop the British, due to the subordination of the army to Bülow and the 2nd Army headquarters, which had insisted that the 1st Army keep closer to the western flank, rather than attack to the west of Mons. It was believed that only part of the BEF had been engaged and that there was a main line of defence from Valenciennes to Bavay, which Kluck ordered to be enveloped on 25 August. The 1st Army was delayed by the British and suffered many casualties but crossed the barrier of the Mons–Condé Canal and began its advance into France. The Germans drove the BEF and French armies before them almost to Paris, before being stopped at the Battle of the Marne.


title: Battle of Mons

text: J. E. Edmonds, the British official historian, recorded "just over" casualties, most in the two battalions of the 8th Brigade which had defended the salient and wrote that German losses "must have been very heavy", which explained German inertia after dark, when the 8th Brigade was vulnerable, several other gaps existed in the British line and the retirement had begun. John Keegan estimated German losses to have been In 1997, D. Lomas recorded German losses from In 2009, Herwig recorded casualties and casualties, despite the fact that Kluck and Kuhl did not reveal 1st Army casualties. Post-war German records estimated dead and missing and 4,932 wounded in the 1st Army from Using German regimental histories, Terence Zuber gave "no more than German casualties.


title: Battle of Mons

text: The Battle of Mons has attained an almost mythic status. In British historical writing, it has a reputation as an unlikely victory against overwhelming odds, similar to the English victory at the Battle of Agincourt. Mons gained a myth, a miraculous tale that the Angels of Mons—angelic warriors sometimes described as phantom longbowmen from Agincourt—had saved the British Army by halting the German troops.


title: Battle of Mons

text: Soldiers of the BEF who fought at Mons became eligible for a campaign medal, the 1914 Star, often colloquially called the Mons Star, honouring troops who had fought in Belgium or France On 19 August 1914, Kaiser Wilhelm allegedly issued an Order of the Day which read in part: ". . . my soldiers to exterminate first the treacherous English; walk over Field Marshal French's contemptible little Army." This led to the British "Tommies" of the BEF proudly labelling themselves "The Old Contemptibles". No evidence of the Order of the Day has been found in German archives and the ex-Kaiser denied giving it. According to the controversial book "Falsehood in War-Time", an investigation conducted by General Frederick Maurice traced the origins of the Order to the British GHQ, where it had been concocted for propaganda purposes.


title: Battle of Mons

text: The Germans established the St Symphorien Military Cemetery as a memorial to the German and British dead. On a mound in the centre of the cemetery, a grey granite obelisk tall was built with a German inscription: "In memory of the German and English soldiers who fell in the actions near Mons on the 23rd and 24th August 1914." Originally, and soldiers were interred at the cemetery. More British, Canadian and German graves were moved to the cemetery from other burial grounds and more than were eventually buried in St. Symphorien, of which over unidentified. Special memorials were erected to five soldiers of the Royal Irish Regiment believed to be buried in unnamed graves. Other special memorials record the names of four British soldiers, buried by the Germans in Obourg Churchyard, whose graves could not be found. St. Symphorien cemetery also contains the graves of the two soldiers believed to be the first (Private John Parr, 4th Battalion, Middlesex Regiment, 21 August 1914) and the last (Private Gordon Price, 28th Canadian Infantry Regiment, 11 November 1918) Commonwealth soldiers to be killed during the First World War. A tablet in the cemetery sets out the gift of the land by Jean Houzeau de Lehaie. A bronze tablet was erected on a wall of Obourg railway station, commemorating British soldiers who lost their lives around Obourg including an unnamed soldier who is said to have stayed behind at the cost of his own life, perched atop the station, in order to cover his withdrawing comrades. The small portion of the wall supporting the plaque was preserved when the rest of the building was demolished in 1980.


title: Doug Marrone

text: Douglas Charles Marrone (born July 25, 1964) is an American football coach and former offensive lineman who is the offensive line coach for the New Orleans Saints of the National Football League (NFL). He came to prominence as the head coach at Syracuse from 2009 to 2012, where he previously played college football. He also served as the head coach of the NFL's Buffalo Bills from 2013 to 2014 and the Jacksonville Jaguars from 2016 to 2020.


title: Doug Marrone

text: Marrone won the Pinstripe Bowl twice with Syracuse, which led to him being hired as the Bills' head coach. He helped the Bills obtain their first winning record for a decade during the 2014 season, but opted-out of his contract the same year. Joining the Jaguars in 2015 as an assistant coach, he was named interim head coach near the end of the 2016 season and officially became head coach for 2017. His 2017 campaign was his most successful, leading the Jaguars to their first playoff appearance since 2007 and their first division title since 1999 en route to an AFC Championship Game appearance. However, Marrone's subsequent seasons saw the team finish at the bottom of their division and he was fired in 2020 after a franchise-worst 1–15 record. Marrone returned to college football before being hired by the Saints in 2022.


title: Doug Marrone

text: Marrone was born in the Bronx. He is of Italian ancestry. Marrone was a three-year letterman at Syracuse University, playing from 1983 to 1985 on the offensive line; he returned to graduate from the university in 1991.


title: Doug Marrone

text: Marrone was drafted in the sixth round of the 1986 NFL draft by the Los Angeles Raiders, but failed to make the 53-man roster. In the 1987 season, Marrone landed a spot on the roster of the Miami Dolphins, seeing action in four games.


title: Doug Marrone

text: In subsequent years, Marrone spent time in camp with the New Orleans Saints, Pittsburgh Steelers, Dallas Cowboys, and Minnesota Vikings — managing to land on a roster and see action in only one more NFL game, playing for the Saints in 1989. In all, Marrone would be cut six times by NFL teams.


title: Doug Marrone

text: Marrone ended his playing career taking the field in 1991 and 1992 with the London Monarchs of the World League of American Football, helping to win the World Bowl for the Monarchs in 1991.


title: Doug Marrone

text: On December 11, 2008, after the 2008 season, Marrone was chosen as Syracuse University's head football coach by athletic director Daryl Gross. He was the first Syracuse alumnus to serve as head football coach since Reaves H. Baysinger in 1948. Before being hired at Syracuse, Marrone served as an assistant coach for numerous universities and NFL teams starting in 1992, including a stint with the New Orleans Saints as an offensive coordinator from 2006 to 2008.


title: Doug Marrone

text: Reportedly, alumni such as Tim Green and Floyd Little wanted Marrone from the moment the previous coach, Greg Robinson, was fired. When Marrone was interviewed by Green, it was learned that Marrone had kept a folder of current high school players in the Syracuse area to get a head start in recruiting.


title: Doug Marrone

text: In Marrone's first season, the Syracuse Orange finished with four wins, one more than the previous year. The Orange doubled that output the following season. The eight wins in 2010 were the most since 2001 for the Orange. The 2010 season was highlighted with a victory over Kansas State and a victory in the first ever Pinstripe Bowl in New York City. This was the Orange's first bowl win since 2001. In 2011, the team started 5–2, which included a win over then No. 11 West Virginia Mountaineers. After the 5–2 start, the Orange failed to win another game in the season, ending with a 5–7 record. In 2012, Marrone coached the Orange to an 8–5 record, and a share of the Big East title as the result of a four-way tie. Their 38–14 victory in the Pinstripe Bowl again came against the West Virginia Mountaineers.


title: Doug Marrone

text: On January 6, 2013, Marrone was chosen to succeed Chan Gailey as head coach of the Buffalo Bills. His overall record during his two seasons as head coach of the Bills was 15–17. During his Bills' tenure, Marrone nicknamed himself "Saint Doug," referring to the fact that it takes two miracles to be canonized as a saint (he believed winning at Syracuse was one miracle and winning at Buffalo would qualify as the other).


title: Doug Marrone

text: In 2014, the Bills finished with a record of 9–7, second place in the AFC East and two wins away from making the playoffs. This was the Bills' first winning season in ten years (when the Bills finished 9–7 under Mike Mularkey in 2004). At the end of the 2014 season, it was revealed that Marrone had a three-day "out" clause in his contract in the event of an ownership change; the clause was triggered by the sale of the Bills in 2014 after the death of the Bills' founder and long-time owner Ralph Wilson. Marrone exercised the out clause and quit on December 31, 2014, and still collected his 2015 salary in full. After Marrone quit, several players expressed their displeasure and disgust with both the decision and the way that he informed the team. One of the captains and the longest-tenured player on the team, running back Fred Jackson, said it was "like getting punched in the stomach." Marrone interviewed with the New York Jets for their head coaching position; his interview reportedly did not go well.


title: Doug Marrone

text: Following Marrone's two-year stint as the head coach for the Buffalo Bills, the Jacksonville Jaguars hired Marrone as assistant head coach and offensive line coach on January 20, 2015.


title: Doug Marrone

text: On December 19, 2016, Marrone was named the interim head coach of the Jaguars following the firing of former head coach Gus Bradley. He coached the final two games of the 2016 season. On January 9, 2017, the Jaguars officially removed the interim tag and named Marrone the fifth head coach in team history. That same day, the Jaguars also announced the return of former head coach Tom Coughlin, the franchise's first head coach from 1995 to 2002, who was hired as the Executive Vice President of Football Operations, a position he held until the 2019 season.


title: Doug Marrone

text: In 2017, the Jaguars won the AFC South division championship, making the playoffs for the first time since the 2007 season. On January 7, 2018, the Jaguars won their first playoff game under Marrone, defeating the Buffalo Bills in the . They upset the Pittsburgh Steelers in the , advancing to the , where they were defeated by the New England Patriots by a score of 24–20.


title: Doug Marrone

text: On December 31, 2019, Jaguars owner Shahid Khan announced that Marrone would be retained for the 2020 season, despite back to back losing seasons since making it to the AFC Championship in 2017. general manager David Caldwell was also retained by Khan.


title: Doug Marrone

text: On January 4, 2021, Jaguars owner Shahid Khan announced that Marrone would not be retained for the 2021 season and was fired. Marrone finished his tenure in Jacksonville with a record with a playoff record for a career record of .


title: Doug Marrone

text: On January 19, 2021, Marrone was named the offensive line coach at the University of Alabama under head coach Nick Saban.


title: Doug Marrone

text: On February 1, 2022, It was reported that Eric Wolford has accepted the position of Offensive Line Coach at Alabama. It is unclear whether Doug Marrone was fired or asked to resign from Alabama.


title: Doug Marrone

text: On February 9, 2022, Marrone was hired as the offensive line coach for the New Orleans Saints under new head coach Dennis Allen. This is Marrone's first stint with the Saints in 14 years, as he previously served as their offensive coordinator under former head coach Sean Payton from 2006-2008.


title: Shirō Sagisu

text: Sagisu's career in music started in 1977, when he became one of the members of jazz fusion band T-Square. He made three albums with the group before becoming a full-time composer and writer in 1979. By 1997, he had composed over 2,000 songs, advertising jingles and TV and movie pieces. Sagisu won the Tokyo Anime Award for "Best Music" in 2010 for "". Sagisu arranged a rendition of the Japanese national anthem, "Kimigayo", performed at the 2020 Summer Olympics opening ceremony by Misia.


title: Kezar Stadium

text: Kezar Stadium is an outdoor athletics stadium in San Francisco, California, located adjacent to Kezar Pavilion in the southeastern corner of Golden Gate Park. It is the former home of the San Francisco 49ers and the Oakland Raiders (first AFL season only) of the National Football League (NFL) and of the San Francisco Dragons of Major League Lacrosse. It serves as the home of San Francisco City FC of USL League Two.


title: Kezar Stadium

text: Kezar also hosts amateur and recreation sports leagues, as well as numerous San Francisco high school football games (including the city championship, known popularly as the "Turkey Bowl").


title: Kezar Stadium

text: In 1920, Jack Spaulding proposed an athletics stadium for San Francisco, seating 50,000. Many business leaders in the city backed him, as it would keep San Francisco level with other cities with large stadiums. Areas under consideration for the stadium were 7th & Harrison Streets, Ocean Shore, and the Central Park grounds.


title: Kezar Stadium

text: In 1922, the San Francisco Park Commission accepted a $100,000 gift from the estate of Mary Kezar to build a memorial in honor of her mother and uncles, who were pioneers in the area. After the City and County of San Francisco appropriated an additional $200,000, the stadium was built in a year. Dedication ceremonies were on May 2, 1925, and featured a two-mile (3.2 km) footrace between Ville Ritola and Paavo Nurmi of Finland, two of the great runners of the era. A little over a month later, the new stadium hosted the USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships.


title: Kezar Stadium

text: The stadium had many uses in the 1930s. In addition to track and field competitions, Kezar Stadium hosted motorcycle racing, auto racing, rugby, lacrosse, soccer, baseball, boxing, cricket, and football. In September 1932, the Australian Cricket Team played a North California all-star team in the Australians' 56-game tour of the U.S. and Canada. The stadium was also home to several colleges (Santa Clara, USF, St. Mary's), Lowell High School, and the now-defunct San Francisco Polytechnic High School. In 1926, the stadium also became the home of the


title: Kezar Stadium

text: In 1928, the city high school championship game between cross-town rivals San Francisco Polytechnic and Lowell drew more than 50,000—still the record for a high school football game in northern California. Local Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory plays most of their home games at Kezar. The annual Bruce-Mahoney rivalry football game between St. Ignatius College Preparatory and Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory is held at the new (smaller) stadium.


title: Kezar Stadium

text: The annual East-West Shrine Game of 1931 was replaced by a raucous Knights of Columbus game featuring the Savoldi All-Stars. Prescott Sullivan, a "San Francisco News Call Bullentin" sportswriter, recounted the day's events in his January 26 column. " "Jumping Joe" Savoldi gave some very sound reasons why Knute Rockne calls him "modern football's greatest fullback" yesterday when he led a team composed largely of California and U.S.C. stars to a 13–0 victory over Ernie Nevers and a supporting cast of St. Mary's players at Kezar Stadium. More than 30,000 customers put the Knights of Columbus’ grid finales over in a big way and saw “Jumping Joe” and his playmates cinch their victory with two spectacular fourth period touchdowns. These runs, end to end, constituted a very sizable day's work for "Jumping Joe," and the crowd showed deep appreciation by mobbing him at the finish of the ball game. Savoldi managed to escape by throwing his headgear to the milling throng, and long after the players had left the field of action, Joe's helmet was still at the center of a battle royal. More than 200 enthusiastic souvenir hunters joined in the fight, which continued to rage unabated outside the stadium after police had managed to chase the combatants from the big bowl. Numerous black eyes were exchanged before mounted police finally quelled the uprising. Such is Savoldi's fame!"


title: Kezar Stadium

text: Stanford University played four of its home football games at Kezar: one in 1928 and three in 1942. Stanford was also part of the first-ever major college football double header in 1940, which featured Stanford–San Francisco and Santa Clara–Utah.


title: Kezar Stadium

text: Kezar Stadium was the first home of the San Francisco 49ers and Oakland Raiders, as well many NFL Hall of Famers, historical NFL games, and the first "alley-oop." The Raiders played at Kezar for their first four home games in 1960, and at Candlestick Park during the remainder of their first two seasons, before Frank Youell Field was built as a temporary facility in Oakland. Defensive end Jim Marshall of the visiting Minnesota Vikings had his famous "wrong way run" at Kezar in 1964, against the 49ers on October 25.


title: Kezar Stadium

text: The 49ers played the final NFL game at Kezar in early 1971, losing the 1970 NFC Championship Game to the Dallas Cowboys 17–10 on January 3. The 49ers moved to the more modern and accessible Candlestick Park for the 1971 season, and played there for through 2013.


title: Kezar Stadium

text: Kezar Stadium was also the home field for the San Francisco Stingrayz women's professional football team from until the team was forced to end their season due to a bus accident which injured many players. The Stingrayz were one of the Bay Area's women's tackle football teams in the Women's Professional Football League, and then the Independent Women's Football League.


title: Kezar Stadium

text: Months after the 49ers' departure, several scenes from the 1971 film "Dirty Harry" were filmed at and above the stadium. The film's fictional antagonist, Scorpio (played by Andrew Robinson), worked as the caretaker at the stadium and lived under the grandstand.


title: Kezar Stadium

text: With the loss of professional football in 1971, the stadium became a popular outdoor concert venue, and its proximity to the Haight-Ashbury District helped with the transition. Notable music events included the SNACK Benefit Concert in 1975. Among performers from that event and others were Led Zeppelin, The Doobie Brothers, Jefferson Starship, Tower of Power, Joan Baez, Grateful Dead, The New Riders of the Purple Sage, Santana, Waylon Jennings, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, and Graham Central Station.


title: Kezar Stadium

text: With pending demolition, the bleacher planks of Kezar Stadium were sold off to fans at a party in April 1989. In June, the stadium was demolished and rebuilt with a much smaller seating capacity of 10,000. The upgrades included an eight-lane, all-weather track and a grass athletic infield suitable for soccer, football, and lacrosse.


title: Kezar Stadium

text: During the reconstruction, the field and track configurations were shifted several degrees counterclockwise, to move the stadium away from Frederick Street. The evidence for this can be seen by examining photos of the tunnel entrance at the east end of the field, which used to be exactly on the long axis of the track. A replica of the original concrete arch bearing the name "Kezar Stadium" was built on the west side of the stadium as a tribute to the original structure. A plaque of NFL Hall of Famer Bob St. Clair, a San Francisco native who played 11 pro seasons (1953–63) with the 49ers, plus his high school (S.F. Poly) and most of his college career (USF) at Kezar Stadium, is built into the replica arch.


title: Kezar Stadium

text: Kezar Stadium was closed for renovations from September 29, 2014, until March 13, 2015. The $3.2-million renovation included the replacement of the running track surface, new entry walk paving, upgraded sound system, new perimeter walkways and curbs, installation of new Mondo running track surface and striping for nine 42” lanes. In addition, 1,000 historic Candlestick Park seats were installed for the public to enjoy. The renovation was funded by the city's Capital Planning General Fund. Mayor Edwin M. Lee helped re-open the stadium with a warm-up run.


title: Kezar Stadium

text: In December 2016, 4,000 additional historic Candlestick seats were acquired and installed at Kezar. The seats were paid for by the San Francisco Deltas as a part of a $1-million improvement the team agreed upon to make use of the stadium.


title: Kezar Stadium

text: In 1967 it served as the home stadium for the San Francisco Golden Gate Gales of the United Soccer Association.


title: Kezar Stadium

text: With the 2006 West Coast expansion of Major League Lacrosse, Kezar Stadium once again became a home to a professional team, the San Francisco Dragons. In October 2006, United Soccer Leagues (USL) and Spanish football club Deportivo Alavés announced that the new pro soccer team, named California Victory, would play their 2007 home games at Kezar. The Victory played in the USL's First Division, one level below Major League Soccer. However, Alaves later withdrew their support and the team folded.


title: Kezar Stadium

text: Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory, a nearby Catholic high school uses the field for their home football games. Mission High School also uses the field for home games. Kezar has also been the host of several Northern California Semi-pro football championship games.


title: Kezar Stadium

text: In 2010, 2011, and 2012, Stanford University held its spring football game at Kezar. For the 2012 and 2016 San Francisco Olympic bids, Kezar was designated to host field hockey had San Francisco been chosen in either year.


title: Kezar Stadium

text: From 2001 to present, Kezar has been the home field for San Francisco City FC, a supporter-owned club playing in USL Two.


title: Kezar Stadium

text: In 2017, Kezar became the home field for the San Francisco Deltas, a professional soccer team playing in the North American Soccer League (NASL). The Deltas have contributed over $1-million in renovations to the stadium. However, Deltas announced that they would be concluding operations and the team folded.


title: Kezar Stadium

text: In February 2018, San Francisco City FC announced they would return to Kezar Stadium for the 2018 PDL season.


title: Kezar Stadium

text: The San Francisco Nighthawks, founded in 1995 and a member of the Women's Premier Soccer League, play their home games at Kezar. The Bay Area Breeze of the W-League started play there in 2013.


title: Kezar Stadium

text: Kezar is also the home to the annual San Francisco Fall Lacrosse Classic, an NCAA Division I fall ball game started in 2009 to benefit the Bay Area Youth Sports Foundation. The first event was between Brown and North Carolina. It was the first Division I men's lacrosse played in Northern California. North Carolina beat Brown 13–5 in front of a crowd of more than 4,500. The 2010 event featured lacrosse powerhouse Johns Hopkins and Notre Dame on Saturday, October 16, 2010. Notre Dame beat Hopkins 10–7. The third installment took place on Saturday, October 8, 2011, and featured the University of Denver and Harvard University. The fourth installment took place Sunday October 21, 2012 in a match between Lehigh and Ohio State. As a direct result of the San Francisco Fall Lacrosse Classic, the BAYS Foundation has made over $225,000 in grants to local youth sports and educations programs for under-resourced children throughout the Bay Area.


title: Nontheistic religion

text: Nontheistic religions are traditions of thought within a religious context—some otherwise aligned with theism, others not—in which nontheism informs religious beliefs or practices. Nontheism has been applied and plays significant roles in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. While many approaches to religion exclude nontheism by definition, some inclusive definitions of religion show how religious practice and belief do not depend on the presence of a god or gods. For example, Paul James and Peter Mandaville distinguish between religion and spirituality, but provide a definition of the term that avoids the usual reduction to "religions of the book":


title: Nontheistic religion

text: The Buddha said that "devas" (translated as "gods") do exist, but they were regarded as still being trapped in "samsara", and are not necessarily wiser than humans. In fact, the Buddha is often portrayed as a teacher of the gods, and superior to them.


title: Nontheistic religion

text: Since the time of the Buddha, the denial of the existence of a creator deity has been seen as a key point in distinguishing Buddhist from non-Buddhist views. The question of an independent creator deity was answered by the Buddha in the Brahmajala Sutta. The Buddha denounced the view of a creator and sees that such notions are related to the false view of eternalism, and like the 61 other views, this belief causes suffering when one is attached to it and states these views may lead to desire, aversion and delusion. At the end of the Sutta the Buddha says he knows these 62 views and he also knows the truth that surpasses them. Later Buddhist philosophers also extensively criticized the idea of an eternal creator deity concerned with humanity.


title: Nontheistic religion

text: On one occasion, when presented with a problem of metaphysics by the monk Malunkyaputta, the Buddha responded with the Parable of the Poisoned Arrow. When a man is shot with an arrow thickly smeared with poison, his family summons a doctor to have the poison removed, and the doctor gives an antidote:


title: Nontheistic religion

text: A few liberal Christian theologians define a "nontheistic God" as "the ground of all being" rather than as a personal divine being.


title: Nontheistic religion

text: Many of them owe much of their theology to the work of Christian existentialist philosopher Paul Tillich, including the phrase "the ground of all being". Another quotation from Tillich is, "God does not exist. He is being itself beyond essence and existence. Therefore to argue that God exists is to deny him." This Tillich quotation summarizes his conception of God. He does not think of God as a being that exists in time and space, because that constrains God, and makes God finite. But all beings are finite, and if God is the Creator of all beings, God cannot logically be finite since a finite being cannot be the sustainer of an infinite variety of finite things. Thus God is considered beyond being, above finitude and limitation, the power or essence of being itself.


title: Nontheistic religion

text: From a nontheistic, naturalist, and rationalist perspective, the concept of divine grace appears to be the same concept as luck.


title: Nontheistic religion

text: A nontheist Friend or an atheist Quaker is someone who affiliates with, identifies with, engages in and/or affirms Quaker practices and processes, but who does not accept a belief in a theistic understanding of God, a Supreme Being, the divine, the soul or the supernatural. Like theistic Friends, nontheist Friends are actively interested in realizing centered peace, simplicity, integrity, community, equality, love, happiness and social justice in the Society of Friends and beyond.


title: Nontheistic religion

text: Hinduism is characterised by extremely diverse beliefs and practices. In the words of R.C. Zaehner, "it is perfectly possible to be a good Hindu whether one's personal views incline toward monism, monotheism, polytheism, or even atheism." He goes on to say that it is a religion that neither depends on the existence or non-existence of God or Gods. More broadly, Hinduism can be seen as having three more important strands: one featuring a personal Creator or Divine Being, second that emphasises an impersonal Absolute and a third that is pluralistic and non-absolute. The latter two traditions can be seen as nontheistic.


title: Nontheistic religion

text: Although the Vedas are broadly concerned with the completion of ritual, there are some elements that can be interpreted as either nontheistic or precursors to the later developments of the nontheistic tradition. The oldest Hindu scripture, the Rig Veda mentions that 'There is only one god though the sages may give it various names' (1.164.46). Max Müller termed this henotheism, and it can be seen as indicating one, non-dual divine reality, with little emphasis on personality. The famous Nasadiya Sukta, the 129th Hymn of the tenth and final Mandala (or chapter) of the Rig Veda, considers creation and asks "The gods came afterwards, with the creation of this universe. /Who then knows whence it has arisen?". This can be seen to contain the intuition that there must be a single principle behind all phenomena: 'That one' (tad ekam), self-sufficient, to which distinctions cannot be applied.


title: Nontheistic religion

text: It is with the Upanishads, reckoned to be written in the first millennia (coeval with the ritualistic Brahmanas), that the Vedic emphasis on ritual was challenged. The Upanishads can be seen as the expression of new sources of power in India. Also, separate from the Upanishadic tradition were bands of wandering ascetics called Vadins whose largely nontheistic notions rejected the notion that religious knowledge was the property of the Brahmins. Many of these were shramanas, who represented a non-Vedic tradition rooted in India's pre-Aryan history. The emphasis of the Upanishads turned to knowledge, specifically the ultimate identity of all phenomena. This is expressed in the notion of Brahman, the key idea of the Upanishads, and much later philosophizing has been taken up with deciding whether Brahman is personal or impersonal. The understanding of the nature of Brahman as impersonal is based in the definition of it as 'ekam eva advitiyam' (Chandogya Upanishad 6.2.1) – it is one without a second and to which no substantive predicates can be attached. Further, both the Chandogya and Brihadaranyaka Upanishads assert that the individual atman and the impersonal Brahman are one. The mahāvākya statement Tat Tvam Asi, found in the Chandogya Upanishad, can be taken to indicate this unity. The latter Upanishad uses the negative term Neti neti to 'describe' the divine.


title: Nontheistic religion

text: Classical Samkhya, Mimamsa, early Vaisheshika and early Nyaya schools of Hinduism do not accept the notion of an omnipotent creator God at all. While the Sankhya and Mimamsa schools no longer have significant followings in India, they are both influential in the development of later schools of philosophy. The Yoga of Patanjali is the school that probably owes most to the Samkhya thought. This school is dualistic, in the sense that there is a division between 'spirit' (Sanskrit: purusha) and 'nature' (Sanskrit: prakṛti). It holds Samadhi or 'concentrative union' as its ultimate goal and it does not consider God's existence as either essential or necessary to achieving this.


title: Nontheistic religion

text: The Bhagavad Gita, contains passages that bear a monistic reading and others that bear a theistic reading. Generally, the book as a whole has been interpreted by some who see it as containing a primarily nontheistic message, and by others who stress its theistic message. These broadly either follow after either Sankara or Ramanuja An example of a nontheistic passage might be "The supreme Brahman is without any beginning. That is called neither being nor non-being," which Sankara interpreted to mean that Brahman can only be talked of in terms of negation of all attributes—'Neti neti'.


title: Nontheistic religion

text: The Advaita Vedanta of Gaudapada and Sankara rejects theism as a consequence of its insistence that Brahman is "Without attributes, indivisible, subtle, inconceivable, and without blemish, Brahman is one and without a second. There is nothing other than He." This means that it lacks properties usually associated with God such as omniscience, perfect goodness, omnipotence, and additionally is identical with the whole of reality, rather than being a causal agent or ruler of it.


title: Nontheistic religion

text: Jain texts claim that the universe consists of "jiva" (life force or souls) and ajiva (lifeless objects). According to Jain doctrine, the universe and its constituents-soul, matter, space, time, and principles of motion-have always existed. The universe and the matter and souls within it are eternal and uncreated, and there is no omnipotent creator god. Jainism offers an elaborate cosmology, including heavenly beings/"devas", but these heavenly beings are not viewed as creators-they are subject to suffering and change like all other living beings, and are portrayed as mortal.


title: Nontheistic religion

text: According to the Jain concept of divinity, any soul who destroys its "karmas" and desires, achieves liberation/Nirvana. A soul who destroys all its passions and desires has no desire to interfere in the working of the universe. If godliness is defined as the state of having freed one's soul from "karmas" and the attainment of enlightenment/Nirvana and a god as one who exists in such a state, then those who have achieved such a state can be termed gods ("Tirthankara").


title: Nontheistic religion

text: Besides scriptural authority, Jains also employ syllogism and deductive reasoning to refute creationist theories. Various views on divinity and the universe held by the Vedics, Sāmkhyas, Mimamsas, Buddhists, and other school of thoughts were criticized by Jain Ācāryas, such as Jinasena in Mahāpurāna.


title: Nontheistic religion

text: Philosophical models not falling within established religious structures, such as Daoism, Confucianism, Epicureanism, Deism, and Pandeism, have also been considered to be nontheistic religions.


title: Nontheistic religion

text: The Satanic Temple, a sect of modern or rational Satanism, was officially recognized as a nontheistic religion in the United States on 25 April 2019.


title: Nontheistic religion

text: The sociologist Auguste Comte devised a religion called the Religion of Humanity based on his Positivist principles. The Religion of Humanity is not a metaphysical religion and as such there are no gods or supernaturalisms in its belief.


title: Explainable artificial intelligence

text: Explainable AI (XAI), or Interpretable AI, or Explainable Machine Learning (XML), is artificial intelligence (AI) in which humans can understand the decisions or predictions made by the AI. It contrasts with the "black box" concept in machine learning where even its designers cannot explain why an AI arrived at a specific decision. By refining the mental models of users of AI-powered systems and dismantling their misconceptions, XAI promises to help users perform more effectively. XAI may be an implementation of the social right to explanation. XAI is relevant even if there is no legal right or regulatory requirement. For example, XAI can improve the user experience of a product or service by helping end users trust that the AI is making good decisions. This way the aim of XAI is to explain what has been done, what is done right now, what will be done next and unveil the information the actions are based on. These characteristics make it possible (i) to confirm existing knowledge (ii) to challenge existing knowledge and (iii) to generate new assumptions.


title: Explainable artificial intelligence

text: The algorithms used in AI can be differentiated into white-box and black-box machine learning (ML) algorithms. White-box models are ML models that provide results that are understandable for experts in the domain. Black-box models, on the other hand, are extremely hard to explain and can hardly be understood even by domain experts. XAI algorithms are considered to follow the three principles of transparency, interpretability and explainability. Transparency is given “if the processes that extract model parameters from training data and generate labels from testing data can be described and motivated by the approach designer”. Interpretability describes the possibility of comprehending the ML model and presenting the underlying basis for decision-making in a way that is understandable to humans. Explainability is a concept that is recognized as important, but a joint definition is not yet available. It is suggested that explainability in ML can be considered as “the collection of features of the interpretable domain, that have contributed for a given example to produce a decision (e.g., classification or regression)”. If algorithms meet these requirements, they provide a basis for justifying decisions, tracking and thereby verifying them, improving the algorithms, and exploring new facts.


title: Explainable artificial intelligence

text: Sometimes it is also possible to achieve a result with high accuracy with a white-box ML algorithm that is interpretable in itself. This is especially important in domains like medicine, defense, finance and law, where it is crucial to understand the decisions and build up trust in the algorithms. Many researchers argue that, at least for supervised machine learning, the way forward is symbolic regression, where the algorithm searches the space of mathematical expressions to find the model that best fits a given dataset.


title: Explainable artificial intelligence

text: AI systems optimize behavior to satisfy a mathematically specified goal system chosen by the system designers, such as the command "maximize accuracy of assessing how positive film reviews are in the test dataset". The AI may learn useful general rules from the test set, such as "reviews containing the word 'horrible' are likely to be negative". However, it may also learn inappropriate rules, such as "reviews containing 'Daniel Day-Lewis' are usually positive"; such rules may be undesirable if they are deemed likely to fail to generalize outside the train set, or if people consider the rule to be "cheating" or "unfair". A human can audit rules in an XAI to get an idea how likely the system is to generalize to future real-world data outside the test-set.


title: Explainable artificial intelligence

text: Cooperation between agents, in this case algorithms and humans, depends on trust. If humans are to accept algorithmic prescriptions, they need to trust them. Incompleteness in formalization of trust criteria is a barrier to straightforward optimization approaches. For that reason, transparency, interpretability and explainability are posited as intermediate goals for checking other criteria. This is particularly relevant in medicine, especially clinical decision support systems (CDSS), where medical professionals should be able to understand how and why a machine-based decision has been made in order to trust the decision and augment their decision-making process.


title: Explainable artificial intelligence

text: AI systems sometimes learn undesirable tricks that do an optimal job of satisfying explicit pre-programmed goals on the training data, but that do not reflect the complicated implicit desires of the human system designers. For example, a 2017 system tasked with image recognition learned to "cheat" by looking for a copyright tag that happened to be associated with horse pictures, rather than learning how to tell if a horse was actually pictured. In another 2017 system, a supervised learning AI tasked with grasping items in a virtual world learned to cheat by placing its manipulator between the object and the viewer in a way such that it falsely appeared to be grasping the object.


title: Explainable artificial intelligence

text: One transparency project, the DARPA XAI program, aims to produce "glass box" models that are explainable to a "human-in-the-loop", without greatly sacrificing AI performance. Human users should be able to understand the AI's cognition (both in real-time and after the fact), and should be able to determine when to trust the AI and when the AI should be distrusted. Other applications of XAI are knowledge extraction from black-box models and model comparisons. The term "glass box" has also been used for tools that monitor the inputs and outputs of a system, with the purpose of verifying the system's adherence to ethical and socio-legal values and, therefore, producing value-based explanations. Furthermore, the same term has been used to name a voice assistant that produces counterfactual statements as explanations.


title: Explainable artificial intelligence

text: During the 1970s to 1990s, symbolic reasoning systems, such as MYCIN, GUIDON, SOPHIE, and PROTOS were explored that could represent, reason about, and explain their reasoning for diagnostic, instructional, or machine-learning (explanation-based learning) purposes. MYCIN, developed in the early 1970s as a research prototype for diagnosing bacteremia infections of the bloodstream, could explain which of its hand-coded rules contributed to a diagnosis in a specific case. Research in intelligent tutoring systems resulted in developing systems such as SOPHIE that could act as an 'articulate expert', explaining problem-solving strategy at a level the student could understand, so they would know what action to take next. For instance, SOPHIE could explain the qualitative reasoning behind its electronics troubleshooting, even though it ultimately relied on the SPICE circuit simulator. Similarly, GUIDON added tutorial rules to supplement MYCIN's domain-level rules so it could explain strategy for medical diagnosis. Symbolic approaches to machine learning, especially those relying on explanation-based learning, such as PROTOS, explicitly relied on representations of explanations, both to explain their actions and to acquire new knowledge.


title: Explainable artificial intelligence

text: In the 1980s through early 1990s, truth maintenance systems (TMS) were developed to extend the capabilities of causal-reasoning, rule-based, and logic-based inference systems. A TMS acts to explicitly track alternate lines of reasoning, justifications for conclusions, and lines of reasoning that lead to contradictions, allowing future reasoning to avoid these dead ends. To provide explanation, they trace reasoning from conclusions to assumptions through rule operations or logical inferences, allowing explanations to be generated from the reasoning traces. As an example, consider a rule-based problem solver with just a few rules about Socrates that concludes he has died from poison:


title: Explainable artificial intelligence

text: By the 1990s researchers also began studying whether it is possible to meaningfully extract the non-hand-coded rules being generated by opaque trained neural networks. Researchers in clinical expert systems creating neural network-powered decision support for clinicians have sought to develop dynamic explanations that allow these technologies to be more trusted and trustworthy in practice. In the 2010s public concerns about racial and other bias in the use of AI for criminal sentencing decisions and findings of creditworthiness may have led to increased demand for transparent artificial intelligence. As a result, many academics and organizations are developing tools to help detect bias in their systems.


title: Explainable artificial intelligence

text: Marvin Minsky et al. raised the issue that AI can function as a form of surveillance, with the biases inherent in surveillance, suggesting HI (Humanistic Intelligence) as a way to create a more fair and balanced "human-in-the-loop" AI.


title: Explainable artificial intelligence

text: Modern complex AI techniques, such as deep learning and genetic algorithms are naturally opaque. To address this issue, there has been a development of many new methods to make new models more explainable and interpretable. This includes many methods, such as Layerwise relevance propagation (LRP), a technique for determining which features in a particular input vector contribute most strongly to a neural network's output. Other techniques have been developed to explain one particular prediction made by a (nonlinear) black-box model, a goal referred to as "local interpretability". It is worth noting that the mere transposition of the concepts of local interpretability into a remote context (where the black-box model is executed at a third party) is currently under scrutiny.


title: Explainable artificial intelligence

text: In addition, there has been work on making glass-box models which are more transparent to inspection. This includes decision trees, Bayesian networks, sparse linear models, and more. The Association of Computing Machinery Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency (ACM FAccT) was established in 2018 to study transparency and explainability in the context of socio-technical systems, many of which include artificial intelligence.


title: Explainable artificial intelligence

text: Some techniques allow visualisations of the inputs which individual software neurons respond to most strongly. Several groups have found that neurons can be aggregated into circuits which perform human-comprehensible functions, some of which reliably arise across different networks trained independently.


title: Explainable artificial intelligence

text: At a higher level, various techniques exist to extract compressed representations of the features of given inputs, which can then be analysed by standard clustering techniques. Alternatively, networks can be trained to output linguistic explanations of their behaviour, which are then directly human-interpretable. Model behaviour can also be explained with reference to training data—for example, by evaluating which training inputs influenced a given behaviour the most.


title: Explainable artificial intelligence

text: As regulators, official bodies, and general users come to depend on AI-based dynamic systems, clearer accountability will be required for automated decision-making processes to ensure trust and transparency. Evidence of this requirement gaining more momentum can be seen with the launch of the first global conference exclusively dedicated to this emerging discipline, the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence: Workshop on Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI).


title: Explainable artificial intelligence

text: The European Union introduced a right to explanation in the General Data Protection Right (GDPR) as an attempt to deal with the potential problems stemming from the rising importance of algorithms. The implementation of the regulation began in 2018. However, the right to explanation in GDPR covers only the local aspect of interpretability. In the United States, insurance companies are required to be able to explain their rate and coverage decisions. In France the Loi pour une République numérique (Digital Republic Act) grants subjects the right to request and receive information pertaining to the implementation of algorithms which process data about them.


title: Explainable artificial intelligence

text: Despite efforts to increase the explainability of AI models, they still have a number of limitations.


title: Explainable artificial intelligence

text: By making an AI system more explainable, we also reveal more of its inner workings. For example, the explainability method of feature importance identifies features or variables that are most important in determining the model's output, while the influential samples method identifies the training samples that are most influential in determining the output, given a particular input. However, there are a number of adversarial parties that could take advantage of this knowledge.


title: Explainable artificial intelligence

text: For example, competitor firms could replicate aspects of the original AI system in their own product, thus reducing competitive advantage. An explainable AI system is also susceptible to different parties to “game” the system, or influence the output in a way that undermines the intended purpose. One study gives the example of a predictive policing system; in this case, those who could potentially “game” the system are the criminals subject to the system's decisions. In this study, developers of the system discussed the issue of criminal gangs looking to illegally obtain passports, and they expressed concerns that, if given an idea of what factors might trigger an alert in the passport application process, those gangs would be able to “send guinea pigs” to test those triggers, eventually finding a loophole that would allow them to “reliably get passports from under the noses of the authorities”.


title: Explainable artificial intelligence

text: A fundamental barrier to making AI systems explainable in the first place is the technical complexity of such systems. End users often lack even the prerequisite coding knowledge required to understand software of any kind. Current methods used to explain AI are mainly technical ones, geared toward machine learning engineers for debugging purposes, rather than the end users who are ultimately affected by the system, causing “a gap between explainability in practice and the goal of transparency”. Proposed solutions to address the issue of technical complexity include either promoting the coding education of the general public that would make technical explanations more accessible to end users, or developing an outward-facing component that would provide explanations in layperson terms.


title: Explainable artificial intelligence

text: Regardless of the solution, however, it must avoid the pitfall of oversimplification. It is important to strike a balance between accuracy – how faithfully does the explanation reflect the actual process of the AI system – and explainability – how well end users understand the process. However, this is a difficult balance to strike, since complexity of machine learning makes it difficult for even ML engineers to fully understand, let alone non-experts.


title: Explainable artificial intelligence

text: The goal of explainability to end users of AI systems is ultimately to increase trust in the system, even “address concerns about lack of ‘fairness’ and discriminatory effects”. However, even with a good understanding of an AI system, end users may not necessarily trust the system. In one study, participants were presented with combinations of white-box and black-box explanations, and static and interactive explanations of AI systems. While these explanations served to increase both their self-reported and objective understanding, it had no impact on their level of trust, which remained skeptical.


title: Explainable artificial intelligence

text: This outcome was especially true for decisions which impacted the end user in a significant way, such as graduate school admissions. Participants judged algorithms to be too inflexible and unforgiving in comparison to human decision-makers; instead of rigidly adhering to a set of rules, humans are able to consider exceptional cases as well as appeals to their initial decision. So for such decisions, explainability will not necessarily cause end users to accept the use of decision-making algorithms. We will need to either turn to another method to increase trust and acceptance of decision-making algorithms, or question the need to rely solely on AI for such impactful decisions in the first place.


title: Explainable artificial intelligence

text: Recent scholarship has suggested that the pursuit of explainability in AI techniques should be considered a secondary goal to the pursuit of AI's effectiveness, and that encouraging the exclusive development of XAI may limit the functionality of AI more broadly. Critiques of XAI rely on developed concepts of mechanistic and empiric reasoning from evidence-based medicine to suggest that AI technologies can be clinically validated even when their function cannot be understood by their operators.


title: Explainable artificial intelligence

text: Moreover, XAI systems have primarily focused on making AI systems understandable to AI practitioners rather than end users, and their results on user perceptions of these systems have been somewhat fragmented. Some researchers have also advocated for the use of inherently interpretable machine learning models, rather than using post-hoc explanations, where a second model is created to explain the first. This is partly because post-hoc models increase the complexity in a decision pathway and partly because it is often unclear how faithfully a post-hoc explanation can mimic the computations of an entirely separate model.


title: Explainable artificial intelligence

text: Analysis of the goals of XAI find that it requires a form of lossy compression that will become less effective as AI models grow in their number of parameters, and in conjunction with other factors this leads to a theoretical limit for explainability.


title: İzmit

text: İzmit () is a district and the central district of Kocaeli province, Turkey. It is located at the Gulf of İzmit in the Sea of Marmara, about east of Istanbul, on the northwestern part of Anatolia. As of the last estimation (made on 31 December 2021), the city center had a population of 367,990. Kocaeli province (including rural areas) had a population of 2,033,441 inhabitants, of whom approximately 1.2 million lived in the largely urban İzmit City metro area made up of Kartepe, Basiksele, Korfez, Golcuk, Derince and Sapanca (in Sakarya Province). Unlike other provinces in Turkey, apart from Istanbul, the whole province is included within the municipality of the metropolitan center.


title: İzmit

text: İzmit was known as Nicomedia () in antiquity, and was the eastern and most senior capital city of the Roman Empire between 286 and 324, during the Tetrarchy introduced by Diocletian. Following Constantine the Great's victory over co-emperor Licinius at the Battle of Chrysopolis in 324, Nicomedia served as an interim capital city for Constantine between 324 and 330, when he rebuilt and expanded the nearby city of Byzantium as the new Roman capital; formally dedicating it in 330 with the name "Nova Roma", before he soon renamed it as "Constantinopolis" (modern Istanbul). Constantine died at a royal villa near Nicomedia in 337. During the Ottoman Empire, İzmit was the capital of the Sanjak of Kocaeli.


title: İzmit

text: ""İzmit"" derives from the Ancient Greek name of the city, Nicomedia (), prefixed with εἰς 'to' or 'into'


title: İzmit

text: (similarly to İstanbul). Names used in English prior to official Turkish Latinization include "Ismid", "Iskimid", and "Isnikmid".


title: İzmit

text: The geographical location of İzmit is between 40°-41° N and 29°-31° E, surrounded by the Gulf of İzmit at south, Istanbul and the Sea of Marmara at west, the Black Sea at north, and Sakarya at east.


title: İzmit

text: The city is mostly built on hill slopes because of the cramped area, while flat plains surround the gulf, near the sea. This topographic structure divided the city into two parts. The first was created on flat plains, where the city center is located. The railway and highway networks pass from this area which is close to the Sea of Marmara. The second part was built on hills, with many historic houses from the Ottoman period in the old quarters.


title: İzmit

text: In Antiquity, the city in Greek was called Astacus or Olbia (founded 712 BC). After being destroyed, it was rebuilt and founded by Nicomedes I of Bithynia in 264 BC under the name of Nicomedia. It remained one of the most important cities in northwestern Asia Minor.


title: İzmit

text: Carthaginian general and statesman Hannibal came to Nicomedia in his final years and committed suicide in nearby Libyssa (modern Gebze), in a date between 183 and 181 BC.


title: İzmit

text: The historian Arrian was born in Nicomedia, which was the metropolis of Bithynia under the Roman Empire (see also Nicaea).


title: İzmit

text: In 286 AD, Roman emperor Diocletian made Nicomedia the eastern capital city of the Roman Empire, when he introduced the Tetrarchy system. Nicomedia remained as the eastern (and most senior) capital of the Roman Empire until Licinius was defeated by Constantine the Great in 324. Constantine mainly resided in Nicomedia as his interim capital city for the next six years; until in 330 he declared the nearby Byzantium as "Nova Roma", which eventually became known as Constantinople (modern Istanbul). Constantine died at a royal villa in the vicinity of Nicomedia on 22 May 337. Owing to its position at the convergence of the Asiatic roads leading to the new capital, Nicomedia retained its importance even after the foundation of Constantinople.


title: İzmit

text: In 451, the local bishopric was promoted to a Metropolitan see under the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.


title: İzmit

text: Nicomedia remained under Byzantine rule until the late 11th century, when it was captured by Seljuk Turks. However, the city soon returned to Byzantine sovereignty as a consequence of the successes of the First Crusade. After the sack of Constantinople in 1204, during the Fourth Crusade, the city of Nicomedia, with most of the Bithynia province, became a part of the Latin Empire. It was recaptured by the Byzantines around 1235 and stayed within Byzantine borders until the first half of the 14th century. The city was conquered by the Ottoman Turks in 1337. Byzantine rule was restored after the Battle of Ankara in 1402, during the Ottoman Interregnum; but the Ottomans reconquered the city in 1419. Under Ottoman rule, it was the capital of the Sanjak of Kocaeli.


title: İzmit

text: In the early 20th century, it remained the seat of a pasha, a Greek metropolitan, and an Armenian archbishop.


title: İzmit

text: İzmit was occupied by the United Kingdom on 6 July 1920, during the Turkish War of Independence. The British left it to Greece on 27 October 1920. İzmit was re-taken by the Turks on 28 June 1921. As of 1920, the British reported that the city had a population of about 13,000. In 1920–1921 atrocities were committed in the city and its surroundings during the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922) against the civilian population. An Allied report (on 1 June 1921) stated that a large number of excesses were committed by both sides during the last year, while the Turkish atrocities in the Izmit peninsula "have been more considerable and ferocious than those on the part of the Greeks".


title: İzmit

text: The 7.6 earthquake of 17 August 1999 devastated the region with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent). The shock killed more than 17,000 people and left half a million homeless. It took several years for the city to recover from this disaster, and traces of the earthquake remain visible.


title: İzmit

text: İzmit has a history as a port city. As of 1913, the Turkish government had been working to privatize the port. At that time, Vickers built a temporary dock, bringing a small export business to the area. The British described the port as having little business as of 1920.


title: İzmit

text: During the sanjak period of İzmit, the forested regions of the area were devastated by deforestation. The wood in the region of İzmit was used to produce charcoal, primarily. During the 1920s, the area was also known for manufacturing linen. Factories were rare during that time, so most linen was handmade. It was described as being "coarse" and as being in high demand in Turkey as of 1920. İzmit was the home of two Turkish Army and Navy uniform factories. One made fez hats and the other made cloth. The area made carpet and embroidery, made by mainly Christian women.


title: İzmit

text: İzmit has a large oil refinery and major paper and cement factories. Ford Motor Company has a plant here in a joint venture with Otosan, assembling the Transit/Tourneo (including the new V362 Transit/Tourneo Custom since late 2012) and Transit/Tourneo Connect vans. With Ford's Southampton Assembly Plant closing in July 2013, and the launch of the new Otosan only V363 Transit in 2014, İzmit will be the sole producer of Ford Transit vans for Europe. It is also a transportation hub, being on the main highway and railway lines between Istanbul and Ankara and having a major port.


title: İzmit

text: In the past few years the province has developed into a growth point for the Turkish automotive industry, receiving investments from Ford, Hyundai, Honda and Isuzu. Tyre and rubber products are produced to world-class standard (Goodyear, Pirelli, Lassa and Bridgestone). As of today, Kocaeli province has attracted more than 1200 industrial investments, 108 of which have been established with international capital. Turkey's largest enterprise, the Tüpraş Petroleum Refinery Plant, is in Kocaeli, containing altogether 27% of the national chemical products industry, including petrochemical products. Eighteen of the 100 largest enterprises of Turkey are in Kocaeli and contribute to around 17%-18% of the national tax revenues.


title: İzmit

text: "Financial Times" affiliated "Foreign Direct Investment" magazine nominated Kocaeli (the province of which İzmit is the capital) among the 25 European Regions of the Future for 2006–2007. The city was chosen along with Adana for Turkey, which scored the highest points for cost effectiveness against Kocaeli's wider infrastructure, while Adana and Kocaeli tied on points for human resources and quality of life.


title: İzmit

text: Located along the commercially-active Black Sea and Marmara Sea shorelines, Kocaeli boasts 5 ports and 35 industrial docks, making it an important communications center, as well as Anatolia's farthest inland contact point and a gateway to global markets. The main transportation routes, the D100 highway and the Trans European Motorway which connects Europe with Asia, along with railway lines, form an intercontinental passage network. İzmit Central railway station is one of the busiest in Turkey, built in 1977 to replace the original station.


title: İzmit

text: Kocaeli neighbours one of the world's largest metropolitan centers, Istanbul. Its vicinity to Istanbul's two international airports (Sabiha Gökçen International Airport and Atatürk International Airport) which are away, respectively, from İzmit's city center, provides national and international connections.


title: İzmit

text: On 1 March 1958, , a small passenger ferry sailing between İzmit and Değirmendere sank due to lodos weather. 272 people died including 38 students and seven crew. 37 passengers and two crew survived the disaster.


title: İzmit

text: Kocaeli University (KOU) was established in the city in 1992. The university has more than 50,000 students. It has established a department of international relations that monitors Bologna developments closely and oversees KOU's participation in the Erasmus and Leonardo da Vinci student mobility schemes. With membership in the European University Association, KOU is aiming for greater international recognition of its academic work.


title: İzmit

text: The university, while focusing on technical and engineering subjects, offers an extensive selection of courses in social sciences and arts as well. Some steps toward certification by ABET (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology) are being taken by the Faculty of Engineering, such as adaptation of course content in engineering majors.


title: İzmit

text: İzmit has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen climate classification: "Cfa," Trewartha climate classification: "Cf"), which is warmer than its surroundings – largely due to its sheltered location – and noticeably wetter during summers than other locations on the northern Sea of Marmara coast further to the west. Summers are hot and often muggy, the average maximum temperature is around in July and August, while winters are cool and wet, the average minimum temperature is slightly below in January. Precipitation is high and fairly evenly distributed the year round; it is heaviest in late fall and winter. İzmit has a record high temperature of in July 2000, which is exceptionally high for the region, and a record low of in February 1929. Snowfall is fairly common, and İzmit's snow depth record is in February 1929.


title: İzmit

text: The city's main football club is Kocaelispor, with fans all across the province. The city is also home to women's football team Derince Belediyespor. The multi-sport club Kocaeli B.B. Kağıt S.K. has several sports sections covering a wide range disciplines. Cycling is popular with local team Brisaspor and the Tour of Marmara is hosted.


title: Nitrazepam

text: Nitrazepam, sold under the brand name Mogadon among others, is a hypnotic drug of the benzodiazepine class used for short-term relief from severe, disabling anxiety and insomnia. It also has sedative (calming) properties, as well as amnestic (inducing forgetfulness), anticonvulsant, and skeletal muscle relaxant effects.


title: Nitrazepam

text: Nitrazepam is used to treat short-term sleeping problems (insomnia), namely difficulty falling asleep, frequent awakening, early awakening, or a combination of each.


title: Nitrazepam

text: Nitrazepam is sometimes tried to treat epilepsy when other medications fail. It has been found to be more effective than clonazepam in the treatment of West syndrome, which is an age-dependent epilepsy, affecting the very young. In uncontrolled studies, nitrazepam has shown effectiveness in infantile spasms and is sometimes considered when other anti-seizure drugs have failed. However, drowsiness, hypotonia, and most significantly tolerance to anti-seizure effects typically develop with long-term treatment, generally limiting Nitrazepam to acute seizure management.


title: Nitrazepam

text: More common side effects may include: Central nervous system depression, including somnolence, dizziness, depressed mood, fatigue, ataxia, headache, vertigo, impairment of memory, impairment of motor functions, hangover feeling in the morning, slurred speech, decreased physical performance, numbed emotions, reduced alertness, muscle weakness, double vision, and inattention have been reported. Unpleasant dreams and rebound insomnia have also been reported.


title: Nitrazepam

text: Nitrazepam is a long-acting benzodiazepine with an elimination half-life of 15–38 hours (mean elimination half-life 26 hours). Residual "hangover" effects after nighttime administration of nitrazepam such as sleepiness, impaired psychomotor and cognitive functions may persist into the next day, which may impair the ability of users to drive safely and increases the risk of falls and hip fractures.


title: Nitrazepam

text: Less common side effects may include: Hypotension, faintness, palpitation, rash or pruritus, gastrointestinal disturbances, and changes in libido are less common. Very infrequently, paradoxical reactions may occur, for example, excitement, stimulation, hallucinations, hyperactivity, and insomnia. Also, depressed or increased dreaming, disorientation, severe sedation, retrograde amnesia, headache, hypothermia, and delirium tremens are reported. Severe liver toxicity has also been reported.


title: Nitrazepam

text: However, conflicting evidence implies that further research is needed in order to conclude that products of this class really do induce cancer.