title: Hereward the Wake

text: Hereward's birth is conventionally dated as 1035/36 because the "Gesta Herewardi" says that he was first exiled in 1054 in his 18th year. However, since the account in the "Gesta" of the early part of his exile (in Scotland, Cornwall and Ireland) contains fantastic elements, it is hard to know if it is trustworthy. Peter Rex, in his 2005 biography of Hereward, points out that the campaigns in which he is reported to have fought in the region of Flanders seem to have begun around 1063 and suggests that, if he "was" 18 at the time of his exile, he was born in 1044/45. But this would be based on the assumption that the early part of the story is largely fictitious.


title: Hereward the Wake

text: His birthplace is supposed to be in or near Bourne in Lincolnshire. The Domesday Book shows that a man named Hereward held lands in the parishes of Witham on the Hill and Barholm with Stow in the southwestern corner of Lincolnshire as a tenant of Peterborough Abbey; prior to his exile, Hereward had also held lands as a tenant of Croyland Abbey at Crowland, east of Market Deeping in the neighbouring fenland. In those times it was a boggy and marshy area. Since the holdings of abbeys could be widely dispersed across parishes, the precise location of his personal holdings is uncertain but was certainly somewhere in south Lincolnshire.


title: Hereward the Wake

text: According to the "Gesta Herewardi", Hereward was exiled at the age of eighteen for disobedience to his father and disruptive behaviour, which caused problems among the local community. He was declared an outlaw by Edward the Confessor. The "Gesta" tells various stories of his supposed adventures as a young man while in exile in Cornwall, Ireland and Flanders. These include a fight with an enormous bear, and the rescue of a Cornish princess from an unwanted marriage. Many historians consider these tales to be largely fictions. Having arrived in Flanders he joined an expedition against "Scaldemariland" (probably islands in Scheldt estuary). Historian Elizabeth van Houts considers this aspect of the story to be consistent with evidence concerning expeditions led by Robert the Frisian on behalf of his father Baldwin V, Count of Flanders in the early 1060s. Peter Rex also accepts that these events probably occurred.


title: Hereward the Wake

text: At the time of the Norman conquest of England, he was still in exile in Europe, working as a successful mercenary for Baldwin V. According to the "Gesta" he took part in tournaments in Cambrai. At some point in his exile Hereward is said to have married Turfida, a Gallo-Germanic woman from a wealthy family in Saint-Omer. She is said in the "Gesta" to have fallen in love with him before she met him, having heard of his heroic exploits.


title: Hereward the Wake

text: The "Gesta Herewardi" says Hereward returned to England a few days after the death of Count Baldwin V of Flanders, who died on 1 September 1067. The "Gesta" says that he discovered that his family's lands had been taken over by the Normans and his brother killed with his head then placed on a spike at the gate to his house. Hereward took revenge on the Normans who killed his brother while they were ridiculing the English at a drunken feast. He allegedly killed fifteen of them with the assistance of one helper. He then gathered followers and went to Peterborough Abbey to be knighted by his uncle Abbot Brand. He returned briefly to Flanders to allow the situation to cool down before returning to England.


title: Hereward the Wake

text: The "Gesta" claims that William de Warenne's brother-in-law Frederick swore to kill Hereward, but Hereward outwitted him and killed him. Since Hereward's killing of Frederick is also attested in the independent Hyde Chronicle, this event is regarded as "almost certainly" true. William himself later pursued Hereward, but Hereward supposedly unhorsed him with an arrow shot.


title: Hereward the Wake

text: In 1070 Hereward certainly participated in the anti-Norman insurrection centred on the Isle of Ely. In 1069 or 1070 the Danish king Sweyn Estrithson sent a small army to try to establish a camp on the Isle of Ely. Hereward appears to have joined them. Hereward stormed and sacked Peterborough Abbey in company with local men and Sweyn's Danes. While the "Gesta" says this was after the main battle at Ely, the Peterborough Chronicle says it was before. The historical consensus is that the Chronicle's account is most accurate. His justification is said to have been that he wished to save the Abbey's treasures and relics from the rapacious Normans led by the new Norman abbot who had ousted his uncle Brand. According to the "Gesta" he returned the treasures looted from the abbey after having a vision of Saint Peter. However, the Peterborough Chronicle says that the treasure was carried off to Denmark.


title: Hereward the Wake

text: Hereward was then joined by a small army led by Morcar, the Saxon former Earl of Northumbria who had been ousted by William. William sent an army to deal with the rebels. In 1071, Hereward and Morcar were forced to retreat to their stronghold and made a desperate stand on the Isle of Ely against the Conqueror's rule. Both the "Gesta Herewardi" and the "Liber Eliensis" claim that the Normans made a frontal assault, aided by a huge, mile-long timber causeway, but that this sank under the weight of armour and horses. The Normans then tried to intimidate the English with a witch, who cursed them from a wooden tower, but Hereward managed to set a fire that toppled the tower with the witch in it. The "Gesta" includes other fantastical tales about Hereward's prowess, including disguising himself as a potter to spy on the king and escaping from captivity.


title: Hereward the Wake

text: It is said that the Normans, probably led by one of William's knights named Belasius (Belsar), then bribed the monks of the island to reveal a safe route across the marshes, resulting in Ely's capture. An earlier hillfort now known as Belsar's Hill is still extant and sits astride the much older route known as Aldreth's Causeway, which would have been a direct route from the Isle of Ely to Cambridge.


title: Hereward the Wake

text: Morcar was taken and imprisoned, but Hereward is said to have escaped with some of his followers into the wild fenland and to have continued his resistance. This escape is noted in all the earliest surviving sources.


title: Hereward the Wake

text: An ancient earthwork about east of Willingham, Cambridgeshire is still visible at the junction of the old fen causeway and Iram Drove. This circular feature, known as Belsar's Hill, is a potential site for a fort, built by William, from which to attack Ely and Hereward. There were perhaps as few as four causeways onto the isle itself, with this being the southerly route from London and the likely route of William's army.


title: Hereward the Wake

text: There are conflicting accounts about Hereward's life after the fall of Ely. The "Gesta Herewardi" says Hereward attempted to negotiate with William but was provoked into a fight with a man named Ogger. The fight led to his capture and imprisonment. His followers, however, liberated him when he was being transferred from one castle to another. Hereward's former gaoler persuaded the king to negotiate once more, and he was eventually pardoned by William and lived the rest of his life in relative peace. It also says that he married a second wife after Turfida entered a convent. She is said have been called Alftruda and was the widow of Earl Dolfin.


title: Hereward the Wake

text: Geoffrey Gaimar, in his "Estoire des Engleis", says instead that Hereward lived for some time as an outlaw in the Fens, but that as he was on the verge of making peace with William, he was set upon and killed by a group of Norman knights. It is also possible that Hereward received no pardon and went into exile, never to be heard from again; this was in fact the fate of many prominent Englishmen after the Conquest. Ogger ("Oger the Breton"), either the person Hereward is supposed to have fought or an heir, appears to have taken over his lands. Joseph Harrop in his 1764 "A New History of England", suggests that after his escape from Ely, Hereward went to Scotland.


title: Hereward the Wake

text: The epithet "the Wake" (Old English 'wæcnan') is first attested in the late 14th-century "Peterborough Chronicle", ascribed by its first editor, Joseph Sparke, to the otherwise unknown John of Peterborough. There are two main theories as to the origin of the tag. The usual interpretation is that it means "the watchful". In Charles Kingsley's novel, Hereward acquires it when, with the help of his servant Martin Lightfoot, he foils an assassination attempt during a hunting party by a group of knights jealous of his popularity. A second theory is that the name was given to him by the Wake family, the Norman landowners who gained Hereward's land in Bourne, Lincolnshire, after his death, to imply a family connection and therefore legitimise their claim to the land. The family claimed descent from Hereward's daughter by his second wife, Alftruda.


title: Hereward the Wake

text: The existence of Hereward is not generally disputed, though the story of his life, especially as recounted in the "Gesta", almost certainly contains exaggerations of his deeds and some outright fictions. Hugh M. Thomas argues that the "Gesta" is intended to be an entertaining story about an English hero, creating a fantasy of successful resistance to the Normans. Hereward is always motivated by honest emotions and displays chivalric values in his warfare, unlike his enemies. His supreme manly prowess is constantly emphasised. Potentially discreditable episodes such as the looting of Peterborough are excused, and even wiped out by stories such as the vision of St. Peter leading him to return the loot.


title: Hereward the Wake

text: The fact of Hereward's participation in the events at Ely is attested in early documents such as the annal for 1071 in the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle". Another text of the "Chronicle" also tells of his involvement in the looting. Early sources say nothing about him other than the fact that he was at Ely and that he led the last band of resisters. "Estoire des Engleis" (1140) says that he had a noble family, but is unspecific. His alleged genealogy is given in the "Gesta" and the later "Historia Croylandensis", though with some variations. By the 15th century, the Wake family were claiming descent from him and elevating his ancestry by asserting that he was the son of Leofric, Earl of Mercia and Lady Godiva.


title: Hereward the Wake

text: It is possible that some of the stories about Hereward mutated into tales about Robin Hood or influenced them. Hereward nevertheless remained a minor figure until the Victorian period, when the idea of native Anglo-Saxon heroism became popular. Charles Kingsley’s 1865 novel "Hereward the Wake: the Last of the English" elevated Hereward to the position of a national hero. It drew on the theory that traditional English liberties were destroyed by the "Norman yoke", an idea earlier popularised in Walter Scott's novel "Ivanhoe". Both novels helped create the image of a romantic Anglo-Saxon England violated by Norman tyranny. After its publication Hereward appears in numerous popular historical works.


title: Les Crane

text: Les Crane (born Lesley Stein; December 3, 1933 – July 13, 2008) was a radio announcer and television talk show host, a pioneer in interactive broadcasting who also scored a spoken word hit with his 1971 recording of the poem "Desiderata", winning a "Best Spoken Word" Grammy. He was the first network television personality to compete with Johnny Carson after Carson became a fixture of late-night television.


title: Les Crane

text: Born in New York, Crane graduated from Tulane University, where he was an English major. He spent four years in the United States Air Force, as a jet pilot and helicopter flight instructor.


title: Les Crane

text: He began his radio career in 1958 at KONO in San Antonio and later worked at WPEN (now WKDN) in Philadelphia. In 1961, he became a popular and controversial host for the radio powerhouse KGO in San Francisco. With KGO's strong nighttime 50,000 watt signal reaching as far north as Seattle, and as far south as Los Angeles, he attracted a regional audience in the West. "Variety" described him as "the popular, confrontational and sometimes controversial host of San Francisco's KGO. Helping to pioneer talk radio, he was outspoken and outraged some callers by hanging up on them."


title: Les Crane

text: A late-night program airing weekdays from 11pm to 2am, "Crane at the hungry i" (1962–63) found Crane interacting with owner and impresario Enrico Banducci and interviewing such talents as Barbra Streisand and Professor Irwin Corey.


title: Les Crane

text: Crane, along with KRLA general manager John Barrett, were the original people "responsible for creating the Top 40 (list of the most requested pop songs)," said Casey Kasem in a 1990 interview.


title: Les Crane

text: In 1963, Crane moved to New York City to host "Night Line," a 1:00 a.m. talk show on WABC-TV, the American Broadcasting Company's flagship station. The first American TV appearance of The Rolling Stones was on Crane's program in June 1964 when only New Yorkers could see it. The program debuted nationwide with a trial run (telecast nightly for a week) in August 1964 starting at 11:15 p.m. on the ABC schedule and titled "The Les Crane Show". It was the first network program to compete with "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson".


title: Les Crane

text: ABC network officials used kinescopes of two episodes from the August 1964 trial run to pitch the show to affiliates that had not yet signed up to carry the program. One episode featured the mother of Lee Harvey Oswald debating Oswald's guilt with noted attorney Melvin Belli, Crane and audience members. The other featured Norman Mailer and Richard Burton. Burton encouraged Crane to recite the "gravedigger speech" from "Hamlet", and Crane did.


title: Les Crane

text: More affiliates signed up for a November relaunch of "The Les Crane Show", and "Look" ran a prominent feature story with captioned still photographs from the August episodes. One image shows Shelley Winters debating a controversial issue with Jackie Robinson, May Craig and William F. Buckley.


title: Les Crane

text: While some critics found Crane's late-night series innovative (indeed, two and a half years later "The Phil Donahue Show" followed a similar format to much greater success on a local station in Dayton, Ohio during its daytime schedule), it never gained much of an audience.


title: Les Crane

text: In late June 1965, following Crane's three-month absence from television, "The Les Crane Show" was retitled "ABC's Nightlife", sometimes advertised in newspapers as "Nightlife", and it returned to the late-night schedule of the ABC network. Network executives removed most of the controversy and emphasized light entertainment. Producer Nick Vanoff started forbidding guests from broaching controversial topics. After the summer 1965 run ended, network executives relocated the show from New York to Los Angeles, and the fall season began there. The Paley Center for Media has available for viewing the first 15 minutes of one of the last episodes before executives finally cancelled "ABC's Nightlife" in early November 1965. Crane can be seen and heard delivering his monologue, joking about words that could be censored and bantering with his sidekick Nipsey Russell.


title: Les Crane

text: The two kinescopes that ABC used to pitch "The Les Crane Show" to its affiliates in 1964 constitute most of the surviving "video and audio" of Crane's show. The UCLA Film and Television Archive has a digitized collection of clips from the "Les Crane Show" early episodes in August 1964. It was assembled using 16 millimeter editing equipment, probably so network executives could use the collection of clips, in addition to the two entire episodes, to pitch the show to affiliates around the United States who had not yet signed up to carry the show.


title: Les Crane

text: An archive of source material on Malcolm X has only the audio of the civil rights leader's December 1964 appearance with Crane. Audio of Bob Dylan's February 17, 1965 appearance is circulated online, and transcribed. Videotape of that broadcast was erased but still photographs and a snippet in silent 8mm film survive.


title: Les Crane

text: The National Archives has a transcript of the August 1964 Oswald/Belli episode in its documents related to the JFK assassination that were declassified and released publicly in 1993 and 1994. Crane's daughter Caprice Crane has said she believes her father saved until he died a kinescope of this entire episode.


title: Les Crane

text: The collection culled from various episodes (preserved digitally at UCLA Film and Television Archive) includes a short clip from the episode with Shelley Winters, Jackie Robinson, May Craig and William F. Buckley. Several people seem to be ridiculing Winters, and the studio audience cheers efforts to keep her quiet after she voices her opinion of presidential candidate Barry Goldwater. A transcript of the rest of this episode does not exist, and what the participants said during the remainder is unknown. The collection excludes Malcolm X, evidently because the collection has only clips from August 1964, and he appeared in December 1964.


title: Les Crane

text: Les Crane's confrontational interview technique, along with a "shotgun microphone" he aimed at audiences, earned him the name "the bad boy of late-night television." The profile in the "Look" magazine edition of November 3, 1964 called him "television's new bad boy," but critical opinion was divided. "The New York Times"' media critic Paul Gardner considered him an incisive interviewer who asked tough questions without being insulting. One critic who did not like his show found Crane's trademark shotgun microphone distracting. "Each time he points this mike into the audience, it looks as though he's about to shoot a spectator." (Laurent, 1964) Nearly every critic described Crane as photogenic. One described him as "a tall, handsome and personable lad..." (Smith, 1964)


title: Les Crane

text: Crane was unable to dent Carson's ratings, and his show lasted 14 weeks before ABC executives transformed it into the more show-business-oriented "ABC's Nightlife".


title: Les Crane

text: In addition to Dylan, who rarely appeared on American television, Malcolm X and Richard Burton, Crane's guests on "The Les Crane Show" included Martin Luther King Jr., Ayn Rand, Judy Collins, Sam Levene, George Wallace, Robert F. Kennedy, and the voice of radio's "The Shadow", Bret Morrison.


title: Les Crane

text: Immediately after the November 1965 cancellation of "ABC's Nightlife", Crane tried acting, but his career was brief. He appeared in the unsuccessful film "An American Dream" (1966), which was based on the Norman Mailer novel, and made a few guest-star appearances on network television shows, including a 1966 appearance on the western series "The Virginian".


title: Les Crane

text: Folksinger Phil Ochs mentioned Crane in the lyrics of his satirical 1966 song "Love Me, I'm a Liberal".


title: Les Crane

text: Some sources say that Crane gave the rock group The Mamas and the Papas their name, but this is disputed in other sources, including John Phillips' 1986 memoir, which says he and Cass Elliot (both founding members of the group) came up with the name while they were watching a television news segment about the Hells Angels. In a radio interview, year unknown, that Elliot did after the 1968 disbanding of the group, she says the following: "We were watching this special on the Hell's Angels and one of the guys, Les Crane or somebody, asked them, uh, 'What do you call your women?' And this guy said, 'Well, some call 'em cheap but we call 'em mamas.' And it became a gag. You know, well, if the mamas would cook the dinner, the papas would go out and get the cat food. And it became the Mamas and the Papas."


title: Les Crane

text: Les Crane was known as an advocate for civil rights, and was praised by black journalists for his respectful interviews with such black newsmakers as Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali (Young, 1968).


title: Les Crane

text: Crane was one of the first interviewers to have an openly gay guest, Randy Wicker, on his television show. This occurred in January 1964, when Crane's show that was titled "Night Line" aired locally on WABC Channel 7 in New York City. But when Crane tried to invite members of a lesbian advocacy group, the Daughters of Bilitis, to be guests on "Night Line" in June 1964 when it was still a local show, WABC officials ordered him to cancel the booking, and he did.


title: Les Crane

text: After Crane's final television appearance in the early 1970s, he refused to discuss his television career and did not respond to queries about any kinescopes he may have owned of his late-night ABC show from 1964.


title: Les Crane

text: His daughter Caprice Crane has said he had two August 1964 episodes in their entirety: the one with Richard Burton that is represented by a large still photograph of Burton and Crane in Crane's "Look" magazine profile (Norman Mailer supposedly appears in the episode, too), and the one in which Melvin Belli debates Lee Oswald's guilt with Lee's mother Marguerite.


title: Les Crane

text: When Caprice was informed about the reel of clips from a handful of episodes that can be viewed at the UCLA Film and Television Archive, she replied that she had never seen it and she did not know whether her father was ever aware of it.


title: Les Crane

text: In 1967 Crane tried his hand at acting, starring as Jack, the leader of the three detectives in I Love a Mystery, a pilot film film for a proposed series based on the popular radio show. The series wasn't developed, and the movie didn't air until 1973.


title: Les Crane

text: In 1968, Les Crane was hosting a radio talk show on KLAC in Los Angeles. Critics noted that in the style of the 1960s, he now dressed in a turtleneck and moccasins, sprinkling his speech with words like "groovy." ("Communicasters," 1968). However, he was still doing interviews with major newsmakers and discussing topics like civil disobedience, hippies and the rising popularity of meditation. (Sweeney, 1968) He also did some local TV talk. Crane left KLAC when the station switched to a country music format.


title: Les Crane

text: In late 1971, the 45rpm recording of Crane's reading of "Desiderata" reached No. 8 on the "Billboard" charts. It became what one writer called "a New Age anthem" and won him a Grammy.


title: Les Crane

text: Though Crane thought the poem was in the public domain when it was recorded, the rights belonged to the family of author Max Ehrmann, and royalties were distributed accordingly. When asked about the recording during an interview by the "Los Angeles Times" in 1987, Crane replied, "I can't listen to it now without gagging."


title: Les Crane

text: In the 1980s, Crane transitioned to the software industry and became chairman of The Software Toolworks, creators of the three-dimensional color chess series, "Chessmaster" and the educational series "Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing". Toolworks was also responsible for such games as "The Original Adventure" and the PC version of "Pong". The company was sold and renamed Mindscape in the early 1990s.


title: Les Crane

text: Crane was married five times. The 1964 "Look magazine" profile includes a photograph of him with his wife Eve, maiden name King, on the lawn of their home in Oyster Bay, Long Island. The text of the article says he is helping raise her three children from her previous marriage that had ended in divorce.


title: Les Crane

text: Crane's fourth wife was "Gilligan's Island" cast member Tina Louise, whom he married in 1966 and divorced in 1971. Their only child together was Caprice Crane (b. 1970), who became an author, screenwriter and television producer.


title: Les Crane

text: Les Crane and Tina Louise can be seen as actors in a joint appearance on a 1969 segment of "Love, American Style".


title: Les Crane

text: Crane died on July 13, 2008, in Greenbrae, California, north of San Francisco, at age 74. At the time of his death, he had been living in nearby Belvedere, California with his wife Ginger.


title: Qashqai people

text: Qashqai people (pronounced ; ) are a tribal confederation in Iran mostly of Turkic origin. They are also believed to have incorporated Lurs, Kurds, and Arabs. Almost all of them speak a Western Turkic (Oghuz) language known as the Qashqai language, which they call "Turki", as well as Persian (the national language of Iran) in formal use. The Qashqai mainly live in the provinces of Fars, Khuzestan, Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, Bushehr and Southern Isfahan, especially around the cities of Shiraz and Firuzabad in Fars. The majority of Qashqai people were originally nomadic pastoralists and some remain so today. The traditional nomadic Qashqai traveled with their flocks twice yearly between the summer highland pastures north of Shiraz roughly 480 km or 300 miles south and the winter pastures on lower (and warmer) lands near the Persian Gulf, to the southwest of Shiraz. The majority, however, have now become partially or wholly sedentary. The trend towards settlement has been increasing markedly since the 1960s under government pressure, and encouragement, which has built housing for those willing to settle, starting in the early 20th century during the reign of the Pahlavi Dynasty; However, for those who continue their migratory lifestyle, the Iranian government maintains and controls travel corridors for the Qashqai and their livestock, and other populations practicing pastoral migrations.


title: Qashqai people

text: The Qashqai are made up of five major tribes: the "Amale" (Qashqai) / "Amaleh" (Persian), the "Dere-Shorlu / Darreh-Shuri", the "Kashkollu / Kashkuli", the "Shishbeyli / Sheshboluki" and the "Eymur / Farsimadan". Smaller tribes include the "Qaracha / Qarache'i", "Rahimli / Rahimi" and "Safi-Khanli / Safi-Khani".


title: Qashqai people

text: Historically, the Turkic-speaking people are believed to have arrived in Iran from Central Asia from the 11th or 12th century onwards.


title: Qashqai people

text: The Qashqai were a significant political force in Iran during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. During World War I they were influenced by the German consular official Wilhelm Wassmuss and sided with the Germans. During World War II the Qashgais attempted to organize resistance against the occupation of Iran by the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union, receiving some ineffectual assistance from Nazi Germany in 1943 by the means of Operation ANTON, which (along with Operation FRANZ) proved a complete failure. In 1945–1946 there was a major rebellion of a number of tribal confederacies, including the Qashgais, who fought valiantly until the invading Russians were repelled. The Qashgais revolted during 1962–1964 due to the land reforms of the White Revolution. The revolt was put down and within a few years many Qashqais had settled. Most of the tribal leaders were sent to exile. After the Iranian Revolution of 1979 the living leader, Khosrow Khan Qashqai, returned to Iran from exile in the United States and Germany.


title: Qashqai people

text: The Qashqai tribal confederation consists of five major tribes, including the Dareshuri, Farsimadan, Sheshboluki, Amaleh, and Kashkuli.


title: Qashqai people

text: People of the Amaleh tribe were originally warriors and workmen attached to the household of the Ilkhani, or paramount chief; recruited from all the Qashqai tribes they constituted the Ilkhani's bodyguard and retinue. By 1956, the Amaleh tribe comprised as many as 6,000 families.


title: Qashqai people

text: The Dareshuri are said to have joined the Qashqai tribal confederation during the reign of Karim Khan Zand (1163-93/1750-79). According to Persian government statistics, there were about 5,169 Dareshuri families, or 27,396 individuals, in 1360 sh./1981. The Dareshuri were "the greatest horse-breeders and owners among the Qashqai". The policy of forced sedentarization of the nomadic tribes pursued by Reza Shah Pahlavi (1304–20 SH./1925-41) resulted in the loss of 80–90 percent of the Dareshuri horses, but the tribe made a recovery after World War II. Reza Shah Pahlavi also executed Hossein khan Darehshouri the head of Darehshouri family in order to take back the control of the Fars province which was controlled by Darehshouri tribe during Ghajar empire.


title: Qashqai people

text: During World War I, the Kashkuli khans supported the British in their struggle against Ṣowlat-al-Dowla (Iyl-khan) and the German agent, Wilhelm Wassmuss. After the war, Ṣowlat-al-Dowla punished the Kashkuli. He dismissed the Kashkuli leaders who had opposed him and "deliberately set out to break up and impoverish the Kashkuli tribe". Two sections of the tribe, which consisted of elements which had been loyal to Ṣowlat-al-Dowla, were then separated from the main body of the tribe and given the status of independent tribes, becoming the Kashkuli Kuchak ("Little Kashkuli") and Qarachahi tribes. The remaining tribe became known as the Kashkuli Bozorg ("Big Kashkuli") tribe. The Kashkuli Bozorg tribe comprised 4,862 households in 1963. As Oliver Garrod observed, the Kashkuli Bozorg are "especially noted for their Jajims, or tartan woolen blankets, and for the fine quality of their rugs and trappings".


title: Qashqai people

text: The Farsimadan claim that they are of Ḵhalaj origin, and that, before moving to southern Persia, they dwelled in Ḵalajestan, a region southwest of Tehran. The tribe was already in Fars by the late 16th century, for it is known that in October 1590 their leader, Abul-Qasem Beyg and some of his followers were punished for having sided with Yaqub Khan the Zul-Qadr governor of Fars, in a revolt against Shah Abbas I. The population of the Farsimadan was estimated by Afshaar-Sistaani at 2,715 families or 12,394 individuals, in 1982.


title: Qashqai people

text: The Qashqai are pastoral nomads who rely on small-scale cultivation and shepherding. Traditional dress includes the use of decorated short tunics, wide-legged pants, and headscarves worn by women.


title: Qashqai people

text: The Qashqai are renowned for their pile carpets and other woven wool products. They are sometimes referred to as "Shiraz" because Shiraz was the major marketplace for them in the past. The wool produced in the mountains and valleys near Shiraz is exceptionally soft and beautiful and takes a deeper color than wool from other parts of Iran.


title: Qashqai people

text: Qashqai carpets have been said to be "probably the most famous of all Persian tribal weavings". Qashqai saddlebags, adorned with colorful geometric designs, "are superior to any others made".


title: Acrylic resin

text: An acrylic resin is a thermoplastic or thermosetting plastic substance typically derived from acrylic acid, methacrylic acid and acrylate monomers such as butyl acrylate and or methacrylate monomers such as methyl methacrylate. Thermoplastic acrylics designate a group of acrylic resins typically containing both a high molecular weight and a high glass transition temperature which exhibit lacquer dry capability. Acrylic resins designed for use in two component systems for crosslinking with isocyanate are referred to as polyols and are made with the monomers previously mentioned as well as hydroxy monomers such as hydroxy ethyl methacrylate. Acrylic resins are produced in different liquid carriers such as a hydrocarbon solvent (solventborne acrylics or solution acrylics solventborne acrylic selector) or water in which case they are referred to as emulsions or dispersions and they are also provided in 100% solids bead form.


title: Acrylic resin

text: One example is polyhydroxyethylmethacrylate (pHEMA), which makes a crosslinked polymer when treated with polyisocyanates. Such materials are a useful component in some paints.


title: Acrylic resin

text: Acrylic resin is a common ingredient in latex paint (UK: "emulsion paint"). Interior and exterior latex paints with a greater proportion of acrylic resin, versus vinyl, offer better stain protection, greater water resistance, better adhesion, greater resistance to cracking and blistering, and resistance to alkali cleaners. Acrylic resin is considered extremely weatherproof. This makes it ideal for outdoor applications. In solid form acrylic resin can last for decades. It does not yellow when exposed to sunlight, even after many years. Acrylic resins are the materials which when added to latex (U.K. Emulsion) increases its gloss properties, mechanical properties i.e. scratch resistance, and improves the gloss (shine) compared to vinyl-only resin.


title: Split Airport

text: Split Airport (; ), also known as Resnik Airport (), is the international airport serving the city of Split, Croatia. It is located from Split, on the west side of Kaštela Bay, in the town of Kaštela, and extending into the adjacent town of Trogir.


title: Split Airport

text: In 2019, the airport was the second busiest in Croatia after Zagreb Airport handling 3.3 million passengers. The airport was the busiest in Croatia in 2021 handling 1.57 million passengers, surpassing Zagreb Airport for the first time. It is a major destination for leisure flights during the European summer holiday season and an important seasonal base for Croatia Airlines that offers flights to European cities such as Athens, Frankfurt, London and Paris.


title: Split Airport

text: The first grass airfield was located in Sinj and the first commercial route was opened in 1931 by the Yugoslav airline Aeroput. It linked Zagreb with Belgrade through Rijeka, Split and Sarajevo, and maintained this route until the start of the Second World War. These flights connected Split either by its Divulje seaplane station, or by the Sinj airfield.


title: Split Airport

text: In the sixties, the airport was relocated from Sinj to Resnik. The new airport complex, designed by architect Darko Stipevski (Tehnika, Zagreb), was opened on 25 November 1966. The apron had dimensions of only 200 x 112 m and 6 parking positions with a planned capacity of 150,000 passengers. In 1968, passenger numbers already stood at 150,737 and in 1969 at 235,000. In 1967, the apron was extended for the first time to accommodate 10 aircraft.


title: Split Airport

text: A new larger terminal building designed by architect Branko Gruica (Projektant, Mostar) was constructed and opened in 1979 to accommodate traffic for the 8th Mediterranean Games held in Split in September of that year. The largest pre-war passenger numbers were achieved in 1987 totalling 1,151,580 passengers and 7,873 landings.


title: Split Airport

text: In 1991, the passenger figures dropped to nearly zero, as the war in the former Yugoslavia broke out. In the years that followed, most of the traffic were NATO and UN cargo planes, such as the C-5 Galaxy, MD-11, Boeing 747 and C-130 Hercules. After 1995, the civilian traffic figures began rising again, and eventually surpassed the 1987 record in 2008.


title: Split Airport

text: In 2005, the terminal got a major facelift by architect Ivan Vulić (VV-Projekt, Split) adding one more gate, the glass façade, as well as the award-winning Airport entrance structure consisting of steel/fabric "trees" illuminated by multi-colour LEDs.


title: Split Airport

text: The new apron designed by Ivan Vulić, Ivan Radeljak and Mate Žaja was constructed in 2011 with a capacity slightly over the old one but with better security conditions. The cost of this investment was €13 million leading to 34,000 m  of new parking space for aircraft as well as space for future administrative works below the apron. The lower level houses warehouses, workshops, offices and other objects that will support the new 34,500 m, HRK 455 million terminal building that is being built next to it. New apron features an unusual sound barrier on the south side which can be closed when an aircraft is close by and opened in all other times to allow for fairly unobstructed view of the Adriatic sea from the terminal building.


title: Split Airport

text: The airport's busiest time are the months of June, July and August due to a large influx of tourists for the European summer holiday period. Weekends are the busiest part of the week with more than 200 flights and some 50,000 passengers.


title: Split Airport

text: Due to significant increase in passengers numbers, especially during the summer months, an expansion project was completed in summer of 2019, adding more than three times the floor space of the original terminal building and increasing the capacity to 5 million passengers per year. Original terminal has been refurbished and is still being used for some international departures, while check in, all domestic departures as well as both international and domestic arrivals including baggage claim is located in the new areas.


title: Split Airport

text: As a part of the expansion project, an enclosed bridge was built over the state road D409, taking passengers to the newly built parking lot, bus terminal and rental car facilities.


title: Split Airport

text: The decision not to include any jet bridges in the new expansion has been justified because of limited apron space as well as the fact that majority of the airlines at the airport are low-cost carriers.


title: Split Airport

text: The airport is also easily reachable by shuttles, taxis or private cars. Numerous car rental companies are available on the site.


title: Split Airport

text: A catamaran service between the airport and Split harbour is available every 90 minutes in the peak tourist season (15 July – 30 September) and with lower frequency through October. Another line connecting the airport two additional times daily with Split harbour and Bol on Brač island is available from June to mid-September.


title: Split Airport

text: The airport is linked onto the Split suburban railway with a "Promet" bus line running eight times daily between the nearest train station (Kaštel Stari) and the airport with a joint ticket.


title: Split Airport

text: According to Split city administration plans, starting from 2025–6 the Split suburban railway will be extended to the airport.


title: Bates method

text: The Bates method is an ineffective and potentially dangerous alternative therapy aimed at improving eyesight. Eye-care physician William Horatio Bates (1860–1931) held the erroneous belief that the extraocular muscles effected changes in focus and that "mental strain" caused abnormal action of these muscles; hence he believed that relieving such "strain" would cure defective vision. In 1952, optometry professor Elwin Marg wrote of Bates, "Most of his claims and almost all of his theories have been considered false by practically all visual scientists."


title: Bates method

text: No type of training has been shown to change the refractive power of the eye. Moreover, certain aspects of the Bates method can put its followers at risk: They may damage their eyes through overexposure to sunlight, not wear their corrective lenses while driving, or neglect conventional eye care, possibly allowing serious conditions to develop.


title: Bates method

text: In 1891, Bates published an article in the "New York Medical Journal" claiming to have successfully reversed seven cases of nearsightedness, or "myopia". In 1911, Bates published an article claiming to have taught myopic schoolchildren how to correctly focus in the distance. He recommended that schools post a Snellen chart in each classroom and encourage students to read it daily.


title: Bates method

text: In 1917, Bates teamed up with "'physical culture' faddist" Bernarr Macfadden on a "New Course of Eye Training" which was heavily advertised in the "Physical Culture" magazine. Bates' name was later dropped from the advertising, but Macfadden continued to market this correspondence course, which was renamed "Strengthening the Eyes". This course was criticized by the American Medical Association's Bureau of Investigation as dangerous quackery. In July 1919, Bates began publishing "", "A Monthly Magazine Devoted to the Prevention and Cure of Imperfect Sight Without Glasses". This was also criticized "as it were the product of a psychopathic ward".


title: Bates method

text: In 1920, Bates self-published a book, "" (or "Perfect Sight Without Glasses"). In 1926, articles by his assistant Emily Lierman were re-printed in a book titled "Stories From the Clinic"; some of these stories claimed that such methods had cured glaucoma and cataracts as well as refractive errors. In 1929, the Federal Trade Commission lodged a complaint against Bates for advertising "falsely or misleadingly".


title: Bates method

text: Accommodation is the process by which the eye increases optical power to maintain focus on the retina while shifting its gaze to a closer point. The long-standing medical consensus is that this is accomplished by action of the ciliary muscle, a muscle "within" the eye, which adjusts the curvature of the eye's crystalline lens. This explanation is based in the observed effect of atropine temporarily preventing accommodation when applied to the ciliary muscle, as well as images reflected on the crystalline lens becoming smaller as the eye shifts focus to a closer point, indicating a change in the lens' shape. Bates rejected this explanation, and in his 1920 book presented photographs that he said showed that the image remained the same size even as the eye shifted focus, concluding from this that the lens was not a factor in accommodation. However, optometrist Philip Pollack in a 1956 work characterized these photographs as "so blurred that it is impossible to tell whether one image is larger than the other", in contrast to later photographs that clearly showed a change in the size of the reflected images, just as had been observed since the late 19th century.


title: Bates method

text: Bates adhered to a different explanation of accommodation that had already been generally disregarded by the medical community of his time. Bates' model had the muscles "surrounding" the eyeball controlling its focus. In addition to their known function of turning the eye, Bates maintained, they also affect its shape, elongating the eyeball to focus at the near-point or shortening it to focus at a distance. Science author John Grant writes that many animals, such as fishes, accommodate by elongation of the eyeball, "it's just that humans aren't one of those animals."


title: Bates method

text: Laboratory tests have shown that the human eyeball is far too rigid to spontaneously change shape to a degree that would be necessary to accomplish what Bates described. Exceedingly small changes in axial length of the eyeball (18.6–19.2 μm) are caused by the action of the ciliary muscle during accommodation. However, these changes are far too small to account for the necessary changes in focus, producing changes of only −0.036 dioptres.


title: Bates method

text: Medical professionals characterize refractive errors as consequences of the eye's shape and other basic anatomy, for which no evidence shows that any exercise can alter. Bates, however, believed that these conditions are caused by tension of the muscles surrounding the eyeball, which he believed prevents the eyeball from sufficiently changing shape (per his explanation of accommodation) when gaze is shifted nearer or farther. Bates characterized this supposed muscular tension as the consequence of a "mental strain" to see, the relief of which he claimed would instantly improve sight. He also linked disturbances in the circulation of blood, which he said is "very largely influenced by thought", not only to refractive errors, but also to double vision, crossed-eye, lazy eye, and to more serious eye conditions such as cataracts and glaucoma. His therapies were based on these assumptions.


title: Bates method

text: Bates felt that corrective lenses, which he characterized as "eye crutches", are an impediment to curing poor vision. In his view, "strain" would increase as the eyes adjust to the correction in front of them. He thus recommended that glasses be discarded by anyone applying his method.


title: Bates method

text: In his writings, Bates discussed several techniques that he claimed helped patients to improve their sight. These techniques were all supposed to relieve "strain" to which Bates attributed sight problems.


title: Bates method

text: Bates suggested closing the eyes for minutes at a time to help bring about relaxation. He asserted that the relaxation could be deepened in most cases by "palming", or covering the closed eyes with the palms of the hands, without putting pressure on the eyeballs. If the covered eyes did not strain, he said, they would see "a field so black that it is impossible to remember, imagine, or see anything blacker", since light was excluded by the palms. However, he reported that some of his patients experienced "illusions of lights and colors" sometimes amounting to "kaleidoscopic appearances" as they "palmed", occurrences he attributed to his ubiquitous "strain" and that he claimed disappeared when one truly relaxed. This phenomenon, however, was almost certainly caused by Eigengrau or "dark light". In fact, even in conditions of perfect darkness, as inside a cave, neurons at every level of the visual system produce random background activity that is interpreted by the brain as patterns of light and color.


title: Bates method

text: Bates placed importance on mental images, as he felt relaxation was the key to clarity of imagination as well as of actual sight. He claimed that one's poise could be gauged by the visual memory of black; that the darker it appeared in the mind, and the smaller the area of black that could be imagined, the more relaxed one was at the moment. He recommended that patients think of the top letter from an eye chart and then visualize progressively smaller black letters, and eventually a period or comma. He cautioned against "concentrating" on such images, as he regarded an attempt to "think of one thing only" as a strain.


title: Bates method

text: While Bates preferred to have patients imagine something black, he also reported that some found objects of other colors easiest to visualize, thus were benefited most by remembering those, because, he asserted, "the memory can never be perfect unless it is easy." Skeptics reason that the only benefit to eyesight gained from such techniques is "itself" imagined, and point out that familiar objects, including letters on an eye chart, can be recognized even when they appear less than clear.


title: Bates method

text: Bates thought that the manner of eye movement affected the sight. He suggested "shifting", or moving the eyes back and forth to get an illusion of objects "swinging" in the opposite direction. He believed that the smaller the area over which the "swing" was experienced, the greater was the benefit to sight. He combined this with visualization, advocating that patients close their eyes and imagine movement of objects. By alternating actual and mental shifting over an image, Bates wrote, many patients were quickly able to shorten the "shift" to a point where they could "conceive and swing a letter the size of a period in a newspaper".


title: Bates method

text: Perhaps finding Bates' concepts of "shifting" and "swinging" too complicated, Bernarr Macfadden suggested simply moving the eyes up and down, from side to side, and shifting one's gaze between a near-point and a far-point.


title: Bates method

text: Bates advocated sungazing, characterizing ill effects as "always temporary". This is at odds with the well-known risk of eye damage that can result from direct sunlight observation.


title: Bates method

text: In his magazine, Bates later suggested exposing only the white part of the eyeball to direct sunlight, and only for seconds at a time, after allowing the sun to shine on closed eyelids for a longer period. Posthumous publications of Bates' book omitted mention of the supposed benefits from direct sunlight shining on open eyes. Even on closed eyes, direct sunlight exposure poses a risk of damage to the eyelids, including skin cancer.


title: Bates method

text: After Bates died in 1931, his methods of treatment were continued by his widow Emily and other associates. In 1932, Gayelord Hauser published a book endorsing the Bates method but also adding new exercises and recommendations for his own dietary products. Most subsequent proponents did not stand by Bates' explanation of how the eye focused mechanically, but nonetheless maintained that relieving habitual "strain" was the key to improving sight.


title: Bates method

text: Margaret Darst Corbett first met Bates when she consulted him about her husband's eyesight. She became his pupil, and eventually taught his method at her School of Eye Education in Los Angeles. She was of the stated belief that "the optic nerve is really part of the brain, and vision is nine-tenths mental and one-tenth only physical."


title: Bates method

text: In late 1940, Corbett and her assistant were charged with violations of the Medical Practice Act of California for treating eyes without a license. At the trial, many of her students testified on her behalf, describing in detail how she had enabled them to discard their glasses. One witness testified that he had been almost blind from cataracts, but that after working with Corbett, his vision had improved to such an extent that for the first time he could read for eight hours at a stretch without glasses. Corbett explained in court that she was practicing neither optometry nor ophthalmology and represented herself not as a doctor, but only as an "instructor of eye training". Describing her method, she said, "We turn vision on by teaching the eyes to shift. We want the sense of motion to relieve staring, to end the fixed look. We use light to relax the eyes and to accustom them to the sun."


title: Bates method

text: The trial attracted widespread interest, as did the "not guilty" verdict. The case spurred a bill in the Californian State Legislature that would have then made such vision "education" illegal without an optometric or medical license. After a lively campaign in the media, the bill was rejected.


title: Bates method

text: Perhaps the most famous proponent of the Bates method was the British writer Aldous Huxley. At the age of 16, Huxley had an attack of keratitis, which, after an 18-month period of near-blindness, left him with one eye just capable of light perception and the other with an unaided Snellen fraction of 10/200. This was mainly due to opacities in both corneas, complicated by hyperopia and astigmatism. He was able to read only if he wore thick glasses and dilated his better pupil with atropine, to allow that eye to see around an opacity in the center of the cornea.


title: Bates method

text: In 1939, at the age of 45 and with eyesight that continued to deteriorate, he happened to hear of the Bates method and sought the help of Margaret Corbett, who gave him regular lessons. Three years later, he wrote "The Art of Seeing", in which he related: "Within a couple of months, I was reading without spectacles, and what was better still, without strain and fatigue... At the present time, my vision, though very far from normal, is about twice as good as it used to be when I wore spectacles." Describing the process, Huxley wrote, "Vision is not won by making an effort to get it: it comes to those who have learned to put their minds and eyes into a state of alert passivity, of dynamic relaxation." He expressed indifference regarding the veracity of Bates' explanation of how the eye focuses, stating, "my concern is not with the anatomical mechanism of accommodation, but with the art of seeing."


title: Bates method

text: His case generated wide publicity, as well as scrutiny. Ophthalmologist Walter B. Lancaster, for example, suggested in 1944 that Huxley had "learned how to use what he has to better advantage" by training the "cerebral part of seeing", rather than actually improving the quality of the image on the retina.


title: Bates method

text: In 1952, 10 years after writing "The Art of Seeing", Huxley spoke at a Hollywood banquet, wearing no glasses, and according to Bennett Cerf, apparently reading his paper from the lectern without difficulty. In Cerf's words:


title: Bates method

text: Then suddenly he faltered—and the disturbing truth became obvious. He wasn't reading his address at all. He had learned it by heart. To refresh his memory, he brought the paper closer and closer to his eyes. When it was only an inch or so away, he still couldn't read it, and had to fish for a magnifying glass in his pocket to make the typing visible to him. It was an agonizing moment.


title: Bates method

text: In response to this, Huxley wrote, "I often do use magnifying glasses where conditions of light are bad, and have never claimed to be able to read except under very good conditions." This underscored that he had not regained anything close to normal vision, and in fact never claimed that he had.


title: Bates method

text: "Natural vision correction" or "natural vision improvement" continues to be marketed by practitioners offering individual instruction, many of whom have no medical or optometric credentials. Most base their approach in the Bates method, though some also integrate vision therapy techniques. Also, many self-help books and programs, which have not been subjected to randomized controlled trials, are aimed at improving eyesight naturally. Purveyors of such approaches argue that they lack the funds to formally test them.


title: Bates method

text: The heavily advertised "See Clearly Method" (of which sales were halted by a court order in November 2006, in response to what were found to be dishonest marketing practices) included "palming" and "light therapy", both adapted from Bates. The creators of the program, however, emphasized that they did not endorse Bates' approach overall.


title: Bates method

text: In his 1992 book "The Bates Method, A Complete Guide to Improving Eyesight—Naturally", "Bates method teacher" Peter Mansfield was very critical of eye care professionals for prescribing corrective lenses. The book included accounts of 12 "real cases", but did not report any information about refractive error.


title: Bates method

text: Czech native John Slavicek claims to have created an "eye cure" that improves eyesight in three days, borrowing from ancient yogic eye exercises, visualizations from the Seth Material, and the Bates method. Although he has testimonials from his neighbor and others, several of his students indicate that he has greatly exaggerated their cases. Slavicek's self-published manual, "Yoga for the Eyes", was rejected by an ophthalmologist who evaluated it, and evinced no interest from the World Health Organization and St. Erik's Eye Foundation in Sweden, as he had not conducted double-blind tests.


title: Bates method

text: Some eye conditions may naturally change for the better with age or in cycles (ophthalmologist Stewart Duke-Elder suggested that this happened with Aldous Huxley's keratitis). A cataract when first setting in sometimes results in much improved eyesight for a short time. One who has been practicing the Bates method will likely credit it for any improvement experienced regardless of the actual cause.


title: Bates method

text: When corrective lenses are removed, vision can adapt to lessen the initial perceived blur, sometimes by more than two lines on an eye chart. This phenomenon is known as blur adaptation. Some studies have suggested that a learned ability to interpret blurred images may also account for perceived improvements in eyesight.


title: Bates method

text: In 2004 the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) published a review of various research regarding "visual training", which consisted of "eye exercises, muscle relaxation techniques, biofeedback, eye patches, or eye massages", "alone or in combinations". No evidence was found that such techniques could objectively benefit eyesight, though some studies noted changes, both positive and negative, in the visual acuity of nearsighted subjects as measured by a Snellen chart. In some cases noted improvements were maintained at subsequent follow-ups. However, these results were not seen as actual reversals of nearsightedness, and were attributed instead to factors such as "improvements in interpreting blurred images, changes in mood or motivation, creation of an artificial contact lens by tear film changes, or a pinhole effect from miosis of the pupil."


title: Bates method

text: In 2005 the Ophthalmology Department of New Zealand's Christchurch Hospital published a review of forty-three studies regarding the use of eye exercises. They found that "As yet there is no clear scientific evidence published in the mainstream literature supporting the use of eye exercises" to improve visual acuity, and concluded that "their use therefore remains controversial."


title: Bates method

text: A frequent criticism of the Bates method is that it has remained relatively obscure, which is seen as proof that it is not truly effective. Writer Alan M. MacRobert concluded in a 1979 article that the "most telling argument against the Bates system" and other alternative therapies was that they "bore no fruit". In regards to the Bates method, he reasoned that "If palming, shifting, and swinging could really cure poor eyesight, glasses would be as obsolete by now as horse-drawn carriages."


title: Bates method

text: Philosopher Frank J. Leavitt has argued that the method Bates described would be difficult to test scientifically due to his emphasis on relaxation and visualization. Leavitt asked, "How can we tell whether someone has relaxed or imagined something, or just thinks that he or she has imagined it?" Regarding the possibility of a placebo trial, Leavitt commented, "I cannot conceive of how we could put someone in a situation where he thinks he has imagined something while we know that he has not."


title: Bates method

text: Discarding one's corrective lenses, as Bates recommended, or wearing lenses weaker than one's prescribed correction, as some Bates method advocates suggest, poses a potential safety hazard in certain situations, especially when one is operating a motor vehicle. James Randi related that his father, shortly after discarding glasses for this reason, wrecked his car. Bates method teachers often caution that when driving, one should wear the correction legally required.


title: Bates method

text: A follower of the Bates method may neglect urgently needed medical treatment for a condition such as glaucoma, which can lead to blindness. Also, children with vision problems may require early attention by a professional in order to successfully prevent lazy eye. Such treatment may include exercises, but which are different from those associated with the Bates method, and parents who subscribe to Bates' ideas may delay seeking conventional care until it is too late. It may further be necessary for a child at risk of developing lazy eye to wear the proper correction.


title: Gadsden, Alabama

text: Gadsden is a city in and the county seat of Etowah County in the U.S. state of Alabama. It is located on the Coosa River about northeast of Birmingham and southwest of Chattanooga, Tennessee. It is the primary city of the Gadsden Metropolitan Statistical Area, which has a population of 103,931. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 33,945.


title: Gadsden, Alabama

text: In the 19th century, Gadsden was Alabama's second-most important center of commerce and industry, trailing only the seaport of Mobile. The two cities were important shipping centers: Gadsden for riverboats and Mobile for international trade.


title: Gadsden, Alabama

text: From the late 19th century through the 1980s, Gadsden was a center of heavy industry, including the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company and Republic Steel. In 1991, following more than a decade of sharp decline in industry, Gadsden was awarded the honor of All-America City by the National Civic League.


title: Gadsden, Alabama

text: The first substantial European-American settlement in the area that developed as Gadsden was a village called "Double Springs". It was founded in about 1825 by John Riley, a mixed-race American Indian and European-American settler who built his house near two springs. Riley used his house for a stagecoach stop on the Huntsville-to-Rome route. The original building still stands as the oldest in Gadsden.


title: Gadsden, Alabama

text: The house was purchased by brothers Gabriel and Asenath Hughes in 1840. The Hughes brothers purchased much of the land between Lookout Mountain, the Coosa River, and the mouth of Wills Creek. The brothers proposed constructing a railroad from the port of Savannah to Nashville, Tennessee through their land. The original survey of Gadsden included the Hughes brothers' land, plus that of John S. Moragne and Lewis L. Rhea.


title: Gadsden, Alabama

text: On July 4, 1845, Captain James Lafferty piloted the steamboat "Coosa" to the settlement. He landed near the site where the Memorial Bridge was built. The Hughes brothers suggested renaming the town as "Lafferty's Landing", but residents adopted "Gadsden" in honor of Colonel James Gadsden of South Carolina. He later was noted for negotiating the United States' Gadsden Purchase from Mexico.


title: Gadsden, Alabama

text: In 1867, after the American Civil War, the legislature organized Baine County; Gadsden was incorporated and made the county seat. After a constitutional convention, the new legislature dissolved Baine County in 1868 and renamed it as Etowah County. Gadsden retained its standing as county seat.


title: Gadsden, Alabama

text: By the late 19th century, Gadsden had developed as a major river port on the Coosa River, and was second to Mobile, a seaport on the Gulf Coast, in importance. It also developed as a center of heavy industry.


title: Gadsden, Alabama

text: With unionization, industrial workers could earn middle-class salaries and improve their lives, even as African Americans struggled under Jim Crow laws and political disenfranchisement. The city reached its peak of population in 1960.


title: Gadsden, Alabama

text: Affected by the national restructuring of railroads and heavy industry, most of Gadsden's major industries closed in the 1970s and 1980s. The city lost many jobs and much population, and began to decline. The city government has struggled to manage the transition to a different economy, just as numerous other industrial cities had to do.


title: Gadsden, Alabama

text: Redevelopment efforts, such as the Cultural Arts Center and downtown revitalization, earned Gadsden first place in the 2000 City Livability Awards Program of the US Conference of Mayors. Underemployment continues to be a severe problem, as indicated by the economic data presented below.


title: Gadsden, Alabama

text: Gadsden is located in central Etowah County at (34.010147, −86.010356), and developed on both sides of the Coosa River. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and , or 2.96%, is water. The southern end of Lookout Mountain rises to the north of the city center.


title: Gadsden, Alabama

text: Typical of the Deep South, Gadsden experiences a humid subtropical climate (Köppen "Cfa") with four distinct seasons.


title: Gadsden, Alabama

text: Winter lasts from early December to late-February; the daily average temperature in January is . On average, the low temperature falls to the freezing mark or below on 60 days a year, and to or below on 6.9 days. While rain is abundant (January and February are on average the wettest months), measurable snowfall is rare, with most years receiving none. Summers are hot and humid, lasting from mid-May to mid-September, and the July daily average temperature is . There are 60–61 days of + highs annually and 2.1 days of + highs. The latter part of summer tends to be drier. Autumn, which spans from mid-September to early-December, tends to be similar to spring in terms of temperature and precipitation, although it begins relatively dry.


title: Gadsden, Alabama

text: With a period of record dating only back to 1953, the highest recorded temperature was on June 30, 2012, while the lowest recorded temperature was on January 20–21, 1985.


title: Gadsden, Alabama

text: As of the census of 2000, there were 38,978 people, 16,456 households, and 10,252 families living in the city. The population density was . There were 18,797 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 62.7% White, 34.0% Black or African American, 0.3% Native American, 0.5% Asian, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 1.2% from other races, and 1.2% from two or more races. 2.6% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.


title: Gadsden, Alabama

text: There were 16,456 households, out of which 24.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 40.5% were married couples living together, 18.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 37.7% were non-families. 33.9% of all households were made up of individuals, and 16.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.28 and the average family size was 2.91.


title: Gadsden, Alabama

text: In the city, the population was spread out, with 23.0% under the age of 18, 9.5% from 18 to 24, 25.3% from 25 to 44, 22.0% from 45 to 64, and 20.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 39 years. For every 100 females, there were 85.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 80.1 males.


title: Gadsden, Alabama

text: The median income for a household in the city was $24,823, and the median income for a family was $31,740. Males had a median income of $29,400 versus $19,840 for females. The per capita income for the city was $15,610. About 18.1% of families and 22.9% of the population were below the poverty line, including 33.9% of those under age 18 and 14.6% of those age 65 or over.


title: Gadsden, Alabama

text: As of the census of 2010, there were 36,856 people, 15,171 households, and 9,183 families living in the city. The population density was . There were 17,672 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 57.3% White, 36.3% Black or African American, 0.4% Native American, 0.6% Asian, 0.4% Pacific Islander, 3.2% from other races, and 1.9% from two or more races. 5.4% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.


title: Gadsden, Alabama

text: There were 15,171 households, out of which 24.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 35.9% were married couples living together, 19.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 39.5% were non-families. 34.9% of all households were made up of individuals, and 14.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.31 and the average family size was 2.99.


title: Gadsden, Alabama

text: In the city, the population was spread out, with 22.5% under the age of 18, 9.7% from 18 to 24, 25.0% from 25 to 44, 26.1% from 45 to 64, and 16.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 39.3 years. For every 100 females, there were 90.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 93.5 males.


title: Gadsden, Alabama

text: The median income for a household in the city was $28,386, and the median income for a family was $34,643. Males had a median income of $33,827 versus $27,342 for females. The per capita income for the city was $18,610. About 20.2% of families and 24.9% of the population were below the poverty line, including 38.9% of those under age 18 and 14.3% of those age 65 or over.


title: Gadsden, Alabama

text: As of the 2020 United States census, there were 33,945 people, 13,766 households, and 8,133 families residing in the city.


title: Gadsden, Alabama

text: Citing statistics from the Alabama Department of Industrial Relations and the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Alabama, the Gadsden-Etowah County Industrial Development Authority reports that approximately 12,000 residents of Etowah County were underemployed and 2,179 residents were unemployed as of 2008.


title: Gadsden, Alabama

text: Gadsden houses numerous churches: Episcopalian, Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Church of Christ, Pentecostal, Catholic, Church of the Nazarene, and Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.


title: Gadsden, Alabama

text: The city was home to Congregation Beth Israel, a Reform synagogue founded in 1908. In a 1960 attack, the synagogue was fire-bombed, its windows smashed, and two members shot and wounded by a Nazi sympathizer. Because of declining numbers as some members moved away and others died, the congregation ceased operations in 2010.


title: Gadsden, Alabama

text: Gadsden is served by a 106-member municipal police department that includes a Patrol Division and Detective Division. The Patrol Division operates patrol, a bomb squad unit, special projects team, and a joint SWAT team with the Etowah County Sheriff Office. The Detective Division serves a homicide or persons unit, property crime unit, financial crimes unit, and juvenile unit. In May 2010, the Gadsden Police Department acquired two unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) under the auspices of a $150,000 federal grant. The drones are equipped with video cameras and wireless transmitters, designed to be used for aerial surveillance.


title: Gadsden, Alabama

text: The Gadsden City Board of Education oversees fourteen schools: eight elementary schools, three middle schools, one high school, and two specialty schools (one alternative center and one technical center).


title: Gadsden, Alabama

text: A new high school, Gadsden City High School, replaced the three former city high schools (Emma Sansom High School, Gadsden High School, and Litchfield High School) via merger for the 2006–2007 school year.


title: Gadsden, Alabama

text: Gadsden is home to Gadsden State Community College, the second largest of the 27 two-year institutions in the Alabama Community College System. This was founded by former Governor George Wallace. Small satellites of Jacksonville State University and the University of Alabama also offer college courses in Gadsden.


title: Gadsden, Alabama

text: Gadsden is home to the first statewide day-treatment program for juvenile offenders. The Community Intensive Treatment for Youth Program (C.I.T.Y.) was founded in January 1981 by Edward E. Earnest (1943-2005). With the assistance and support of the Honorable Judge Robert E. Lewis (1927-1993), the city of Gadsden, and the Gadsden City Board of Education, the C.I.T.Y. Program began enrolling students on February 1, 1981. C.I.T.Y. is designed to be a multi-dimensional program emphasizing habilitation (i.e., equipping at-risk youth on juvenile probation with skills needed to meet the demands of modern society).


title: Gadsden, Alabama

text: Its objectives are: 1. to identify the at-risk youth's individual strengths and weaknesses, 2. to provide an individualized environment in which the at-risk youth can develop skills, and 3. to alter the natural environment of the at-risk youth so that new acquired skills are nurtured and encouraged. To achieve these objectives, C.I.T.Y. offers academic remediation in reading, math, language; intensive counseling that involves behavior modification, consumer education, and job readiness training. After all objectives have been met, C.I.T.Y. provides GED preparation, return to public school, and placement into technical school, college, job, or military service. In 1983, C.I.T.Y. Program of Etowah County (Gadsden) received the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges Unique and Innovative Project Award. On October 1, 2009, C.I.T.Y.’s name was changed to Special Programming for Achievement Network (S.P.A.N.) It operates under the directorship of the Alabama Department of Youth Services. There are eleven SPAN programs in the state of Alabama.


title: Gadsden, Alabama

text: Gadsden is located in the Birmingham DMA (Designated Market Area) for television stations. Two of the market's stations are licensed to Gadsden.


title: Ziegler–Natta catalyst

text: A Ziegler–Natta catalyst, named after Karl Ziegler and Giulio Natta, is a catalyst used in the synthesis of polymers of 1-alkenes (alpha-olefins). Two broad classes of Ziegler–Natta catalysts are employed, distinguished by their solubility:


title: Ziegler–Natta catalyst

text: Ziegler–Natta catalysts are used to polymerize terminal alkenes (ethylene and alkenes with the vinyl double bond):


title: Ziegler–Natta catalyst

text: The 1963 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to German Karl Ziegler, for his discovery of first titanium-based catalysts, and Italian Giulio Natta, for using them to prepare stereoregular polymers from propylene. Ziegler–Natta catalysts have been used in the commercial manufacture of various polyolefins since 1956. As of 2010, the total volume of plastics, elastomers, and rubbers produced from alkenes with these and related (especially Phillips) catalysts worldwide exceeds 100 million tonnes. Together, these polymers represent the largest-volume commodity plastics as well as the largest-volume commodity chemicals in the world.


title: Ziegler–Natta catalyst

text: In the early 1950s workers at Phillips Petroleum discovered that chromium catalysts are highly effective for the low-temperature polymerization of ethylene, which launched major industrial technologies culminating in the Phillips catalyst. A few years later, Ziegler discovered that a combination of titanium tetrachloride (TiCl) and diethylaluminium chloride (Al(CH)Cl) gave comparable activities for the production of polyethylene. Natta used crystalline α-TiCl in combination with Al(CH) to produce first isotactic polypropylene. Usually Ziegler catalysts refer to titanium-based systems for conversions of ethylene and Ziegler–Natta catalysts refer to systems for conversions of propylene. In the 1970s, magnesium chloride was discovered to greatly enhance the activity of the titanium-based catalysts. These catalysts were so active that the residual titanium was no longer removed from the product. They enabled the commercialization of linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) resins and allowed the development of noncrystalline copolymers.


title: Ziegler–Natta catalyst

text: Also, in the 1960s, BASF developed a gas-phase, mechanically-stirred polymerization process for making polypropylene. In that process, the particle bed in the reactor was either not fluidized or not fully fluidized. In 1968, the first gas-phase fluidized-bed polymerization process, the Unipol process, was commercialized by Union Carbide to produce polyethylene. In the mid-1980s, the Unipol process was further extended to produce polypropylene.


title: Ziegler–Natta catalyst

text: The features of the fluidized-bed process, including its simplicity and product quality, made it widely accepted all over the world. As of today, the fluidized-bed process is one of the two most widely used technologies for producing polypropylene.


title: Ziegler–Natta catalyst

text: In the 1970s, magnesium chloride-supported Ziegler–Natta catalysts were introduced. These catalysts exhibit activities so enhanced that costly steps could be omitted from the workup. These omitted processes included deashing (removal of residual catalyst) and removal of unwanted amorphous polymer.


title: Ziegler–Natta catalyst

text: Natta first used polymerization catalysts based on titanium chlorides to polymerize propylene and other 1-alkenes. He discovered that these polymers are crystalline materials and ascribed their crystallinity to a special feature of the polymer structure called stereoregularity.


title: Ziegler–Natta catalyst

text: The concept of stereoregularity in polymer chains is illustrated in the picture on the left with polypropylene. Stereoregular poly(1-alkene) can be isotactic or syndiotactic depending on the relative orientation of the alkyl groups in polymer chains consisting of units −[CH−CHR]−, like the CH groups in the figure. In the isotactic polymers, all stereogenic centers CHR share the same configuration. The stereogenic centers in syndiotactic polymers alternate their relative configuration. A polymer that lacks any regular arrangement in the position of its alkyl substituents (R) is called atactic. Both isotactic and syndiotactic polypropylene are crystalline, whereas atactic polypropylene, which can also be prepared with special Ziegler–Natta catalysts, is amorphous. The stereoregularity of the polymer is determined by the catalyst used to prepare it.


title: Ziegler–Natta catalyst

text: The first and dominant class of titanium-based catalysts (and some vanadium-based catalysts) for alkene polymerization can be roughly subdivided into two subclasses:


title: Ziegler–Natta catalyst

text: The overlap between these two subclasses is relatively small because the requirements to the respective catalysts differ widely.


title: Ziegler–Natta catalyst

text: Commercial catalysts are supported by being bound to a solid with a high surface area. Both TiCl and TiCl give active catalysts. The support in the majority of the catalysts is MgCl. A third component of most catalysts is a carrier, a material that determines the size and the shape of catalyst particles. The preferred carrier is microporous spheres of amorphous silica with a diameter of 30–40 mm. During the catalyst synthesis, both the titanium compounds and MgCl are packed into the silica pores. All these catalysts are activated with organoaluminum compounds such as Al(CH).


title: Ziegler–Natta catalyst

text: All modern supported Ziegler–Natta catalysts designed for polymerization of propylene and higher 1-alkenes are prepared with TiCl as the active ingredient and MgCl as a support. Another component of all such catalysts is an organic modifier, usually an ester of an aromatic diacid or a diether. The modifiers react both with inorganic ingredients of the solid catalysts as well as with organoaluminum cocatalysts. These catalysts polymerize propylene and other 1-alkenes to highly crystalline isotactic polymers.


title: Ziegler–Natta catalyst

text: A second class of Ziegler–Natta catalysts are soluble in the reaction medium. Traditionally such homogeneous catalysts were derived from metallocenes, but the structures of active catalysts have been significantly broadened to include nitrogen-based ligands.


title: Ziegler–Natta catalyst

text: These catalysts are metallocenes together with a cocatalyst, typically MAO, −[O−Al(CH)]−. The idealized metallocene catalysts have the composition CpMCl (M = Ti, Zr, Hf) such as titanocene dichloride. Typically, the organic ligands are derivatives of cyclopentadienyl. In some complexes, the two cyclopentadiene (Cp) rings are linked with bridges, like −CH−CH− or >SiPh. Depending on the type of their cyclopentadienyl ligands, for example by using an "ansa"-bridge, metallocene catalysts can produce either isotactic or syndiotactic polymers of propylene and other 1-alkenes.


title: Ziegler–Natta catalyst

text: Ziegler–Natta catalysts of the third class, non-metallocene catalysts, use a variety of complexes of various metals, ranging from scandium to lanthanoid and actinoid metals, and a large variety of ligands containing oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur. The complexes are activated using MAO, as is done for metallocene catalysts.


title: Ziegler–Natta catalyst

text: Most Ziegler–Natta catalysts and all the alkylaluminium cocatalysts are unstable in air, and the alkylaluminium compounds are pyrophoric. The catalysts, therefore, are always prepared and handled under an inert atmosphere.


title: Ziegler–Natta catalyst

text: The structure of active centers in Ziegler–Natta catalysts is well established only for metallocene catalysts. An idealized and simplified metallocene complex CpZrCl represents a typical precatalyst. It is unreactive toward alkenes. The dihalide reacts with MAO and is transformed into a metallocenium ion CpCH, which is ion-paired to some derivative(s) of MAO. A polymer molecule grows by numerous insertion reactions of C=C bonds of 1-alkene molecules into the Zr–C bond in the ion:


title: Ziegler–Natta catalyst

text: Many thousands of alkene insertion reactions occur at each active center resulting in the formation of long polymer chains attached to the center. The Cossee–Arlman mechanism describes the growth of stereospecific polymers. This mechanism states that the polymer grows through alkene coordination at a vacant site at the titanium atom, which is followed by insertion of the C=C bond into the Ti−C bond at the active center.


title: Ziegler–Natta catalyst

text: On occasion, the polymer chain is disengaged from the active centers in the chain termination reaction. Several pathways exist for termination:


title: Ziegler–Natta catalyst

text: Another type of chain termination reaction called a β-hydride elimination reaction also occurs periodically:


title: Ziegler–Natta catalyst

text: Polymerization reactions of alkenes with solid titanium-based catalysts occur at special titanium centers located on the exterior of the catalyst crystallites. Some titanium atoms in these crystallites react with organoaluminum cocatalysts with the formation of Ti–C bonds. The polymerization reaction of alkenes occurs similarly to the reactions in metallocene catalysts:


title: Ziegler–Natta catalyst

text: The two chain termination reactions occur quite rarely in Ziegler–Natta catalysis and the formed polymers have a too high molecular weight to be of commercial use. To reduce the molecular weight, hydrogen is added to the polymerization reaction:


title: Ziegler–Natta catalyst

text: Another termination process involves the action of protic (acidic) reagents, which can be intentionally added or adventitious.


title: Chapter 7: The Reckoning

text: "Chapter 7: The Reckoning" is the seventh episode of the first season of the American streaming television series "The Mandalorian". It was written by the series' showrunner Jon Favreau, directed by Deborah Chow, and released on Disney+ on December 18, 2019. The episode stars Pedro Pascal as The Mandalorian, a lone bounty hunter on the run with "the Child". The episode won a Primetime Emmy Award for Cinematography.


title: Chapter 7: The Reckoning

text: The episode was released early on December 18 so it could include a sneak preview of "", which was released on December 20.


title: Chapter 7: The Reckoning

text: The Mandalorian receives a message from Greef Karga. Karga's town has been overrun by Imperial troops led by the Client, who is desperate to recover "the Child". Karga proposes that the Mandalorian use the Child as bait in order to kill the Client and free the town in return for allowing the Mandalorian and the Child to live in peace; Karga secretly plans to kill the Mandalorian and take the Child to the Client. Sensing this trap, the Mandalorian recruits Cara Dune and Kuiil the Ugnaught to assist him. Despite the Mandalorian's apprehension, Kuiil also brings a rebuilt IG-11, reprogrammed to act as a nurse droid instead of a bounty hunter. Upon arrival on Nevarro they meet Karga and his associates, but en route to the town are attacked by large flying reptile creatures. Karga is injured but the Child uses the Force to heal his wound; in return, Karga shoots his associates, unable to go through with his trap.


title: Chapter 7: The Reckoning

text: The group formulates a new plan: Karga will pretend that Dune captured the Mandalorian, and all three will enter the town to meet the Client while Kuiil returns the Child to the ship, where IG-11 is waiting. During the meeting, the Client receives a call from Moff Gideon, whose stormtroopers and deathtroopers surround the building and open fire, killing the Client. Gideon arrives and boasts that the Child will soon be in his possession. In the desert outside town, two scout troopers track and capture the Child, and leave Kuiil dead on the ground.


title: Chapter 7: The Reckoning

text: Nick Nolte was cast as the voice of Kuiil in November 2018. Giancarlo Esposito, Carl Weathers, and Werner Herzog joined the main cast in December 2018 as Moff Gideon, Greef Karga, and the Client, respectively. Gina Carano and Taika Waititi also co-star as Cara Dune and the voice of IG-11. Additional guest starring actors cast for this episode include Adam Pally as a bike scout trooper and Dave Reaves as a Zabrak fighter. Brendan Wayne and Lateef Crowder are credited as stunt doubles for the Mandalorian.


title: Chapter 7: The Reckoning

text: Misty Rosas, Rio Hackford and Chris Bartlett are credited as performance artists for Kuiil, IG-11 and the RA-7 droid, respectively. Gene Freeman and John Dixon are credited as stunt doubles for Greef Karga and the Client. "The Child" was performed by various puppeteers. The episode features several stormtroopers in a single scene. When the production team realized they did not have enough suits for the troopers, they contacted the 501st Legion, a fan group dedicated to cosplay of stormtroopers, Imperial officers, and other "Star Wars" villains, to fill in the extra roles.


title: Chapter 7: The Reckoning

text: Ludwig Göransson composed the musical score for the episode. The soundtrack album for the episode was released on December 18, 2019.


title: Chapter 7: The Reckoning

text: "The Reckoning" received critical acclaim. On Rotten Tomatoes, the episode holds an approval rating of 100% with an average rating of 8.4/10, based on 29 reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, ""The Mandalorian"s disparate plot threads coalesce in thrilling fashion during "The Reckoning", with familiar faces making a welcome return and the emotional stakes going into hyperdrive."


title: Chapter 7: The Reckoning

text: In a positive review, Tyler Hersko, of "IndieWire", felt the episode was "a superb slice of westernized sci-fi and a much-needed breath of fresh air that will leave viewers rabid to discover what happens next week in the season finale." Alan Sepinwall of "Rolling Stone" felt that "the episode is as thrilling and entertaining as it is because the season unfolded so simply and carefully."


title: Chapter 7: The Reckoning

text: The episode won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Cinematography for a Single-Camera Series (Half-Hour).


title: Tania Sachdev

text: Tania Sachdev (born 20 August 1986) is an Indian chess player, who holds the FIDE titles of International Master (IM) and Woman Grandmaster (WGM). She is a two-time Indian women's chess champion in 2006 and 2007, one-time Asian women's chess champion in 2007 and three-time and current Commonwealth Women's Chess Champion in 2016, 2018 and 2019. She is also a chess presenter and commentator.


title: Tania Sachdev

text: Born in Delhi, Sachdev was introduced to the game by her mother, Anju, at the age of 6. Her parents provided her with professional training. She achieved her first international title when she was eight. She was coached by K.C. Joshi during her early years. As a child, Tania Sachdev won multiple events. Her career successes are under-12 Indian champion, Asian U14 girls' champion in 2000 and bronze medalist at the 1998 World Youth Chess Championships in the Girls U12 division. In 2002, she won the Asian Junior Girls Championship in Marawila.


title: Tania Sachdev

text: In 2005, Sachdev became the eighth Indian player to be awarded the Woman Grandmaster title. She won India's National Women's Premier Chess Championship in 2006 and 2007. In 2007, she also won the Women's Asian Chess Championship with 6½ points out of nine rounds in Tehran. She was conferred with the Arjuna Award in 2009. In 2016, Sachdev won the best woman's prize at the Reykjavik Open and won the Commonwealth women's champion title in Kalutara.


title: Tania Sachdev

text: She has played for the Indian national team in the Women's Chess Olympiads since 2008, the Women's World Team Chess Championship in 2009 and 2011, the Women's Asian Team Chess Championship since 2003, the 2006 Asian Games, and the 2009 Asian Indoor Games. Sachdev won the individual bronze medal for board 3 at the 2012 Women's Chess Olympiad in Istanbul, four team silver medals (in 2008, 2009, 2012, and 2014) and four individual ones (three silver and one bronze) at the Women's Asian Team Championship.


title: Tania Sachdev

text: Sachdev has presented a Fritztrainer Strategy DVD for Chessbase and was a member of the official commentary team for the 2013 (Chennai) World Championship Match between Magnus Carlsen and Viswanathan Anand. In July 2019, Sachdev won Commonwealth women's championship and defended her title.


title: Tania Sachdev

text: Sachdev completed her schooling at Modern School in Vasant Vihar in Delhi and did her graduation at Sri Venkateswara College.


title: Royal Tank Regiment

text: The Royal Tank Regiment (RTR) is the oldest tank unit in the world, being formed by the British Army in 1916 during the First World War. Today, it is the armoured regiment of the British Army's 12th Armoured Infantry Brigade. Formerly known as the Tank Corps and the Royal Tank Corps, it is part of the Royal Armoured Corps.


title: Royal Tank Regiment

text: The formation of the Royal Tank Regiment followed the invention of the tank. Tanks were first used at the Battle of Flers–Courcelette in September 1916 during the Battle of the Somme in the First World War. They were at first considered artillery, and crews received artillery pay. At that time the six tank companies were grouped as the Heavy Section of the Machine Gun Corps (MGC). In November 1916 the eight companies then in existence were each expanded to form battalions (still identified by the letters A to H) and designated the Heavy Branch MGC; another seven battalions, I to O, were formed by January 1918, when all the battalions were changed to numbered units. On 28 July 1917, the Heavy Branch was separated from the rest of the Corps by Royal Warrant and given official status as the Tank Corps. The formation of new battalions continued and, by December 1918, 26 had been created though only 25 battalions were equipped with tanks, as the 17th had converted to armoured cars in April 1918. The first commander of the Tank Corps was Hugh Elles. The Corps saw much action at the Battle of Cambrai in November 1917.


title: Royal Tank Regiment

text: After the war, the Tank Corps was trimmed down to a central depot and four battalions: the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th battalions. On 18 October 1923, it was officially given the title "Royal" making it the Royal Tank Corps (RTC) by Colonel-in-Chief King George V. It was at this time that the motto, "Fear Naught", the black beret, and the unit badge were adopted. In 1933, the 6th Battalion, RTC was formed in Egypt by combining the personnel of the 3rd and 5th Regular Army Armoured Car Companies. In 1934, the 1st (Light) Battalion, RTC was formed in England with personnel drawn from the 2nd, 3rd & 5th Battalions. With the preparations for war in the late 1930s, two more Regular Army battalions were formed: the 7th in 1937 and the 8th in 1938. In the latter half of 1938, six TA infantry battalions were converted to tank battalions; with a further six created in 1939 following the "duplication" of the TA.


title: Royal Tank Regiment

text: During the early 1920s, the Tank Corps was augmented by 20 armoured car companies: twelve Regular Army, created using MGC elements; and eight Territorial Army (TA) created by the reduction and conversion of Yeomanry regiments. Eight of the Regular Army companies were later converted into independent light tank companies; all twelve companies had been disbanded by the outbreak of the Second World War.


title: Royal Tank Regiment

text: On 4 April 1939, the Royal Tank Corps was renamed the Royal Tank Regiment and became a wing of the newly created Royal Armoured Corps. The eight Yeomanry Armoured Car Companies of the RTR were activated and transferred to the Royal Armoured Corps. Before the Second World War, Royal Tank Corps recruits were required to be at least 5 feet 4 inches tall. They initially enlisted for six years with the colours and a further six years with the reserve. They trained at the Royal Tank Corps Depot at Bovington Camp, Dorset for about eight months.


title: Royal Tank Regiment

text: During the course of the war, four "hostilities-only" battalions were formed: the 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th. 11 RTR formed part of 79th Armoured Division (a specialist group operating vehicles known as "Hobart's Funnies"), initially equipped with "Canal Defence Light" tanks, it converted to "Buffalo" (the British service name for the US Landing Vehicle Tracked) not long after D-Day and participated in the assault crossing of the Rhine. Prime Minister Winston Churchill was ferried across the Rhine in a Buffalo from 'C' Squadron, 11RTR.


title: Royal Tank Regiment

text: The Regiment's numerous units took part in countless battles in the Second World War, including the Battle of Dunkirk, El Alamein, Italian Campaign, Burma Campaign and D-Day landings of 6 June 1944. Field Marshal Sir Bernard Law Montgomery would frequently wear the regiment's beret, with his Field Marshal's badge sewn on next to the regimental cap badge, as it was more practical whilst travelling on a tank than either a formal peaked hat or the Australian slouch hat he previously wore.


title: Royal Tank Regiment

text: After service in the Korean War, the RTR was reduced through various amalgamations, firstly, in 1959–60:


title: Royal Tank Regiment

text: In 1969, 5RTR was disbanded, while, in 1992 under Options for Change, 4RTR amalgamated with 1RTR, and 3RTR amalgamated with 2RTR.


title: Royal Tank Regiment

text: The Royal Tank Regiment continued to see action including missions in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo. Elements of 1RTR were deployed to Afghanistan in 2002 and both regiments were involved in the invasion of Iraq, with the 2RTR battlegroup involved in taking Basra. Both regiments continued deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, with the final tour to Afghanistan taking place in 2013.


title: Royal Tank Regiment

text: On 2 August 2014, 1RTR and 2RTR amalgamated at Bulford, and for the first time in its history the Royal Tank Regiment became a "Single Battalion" Regiment. The new regiment is titled the Royal Tank Regiment.


title: Royal Tank Regiment

text: The regiment is equipped with Challenger 2 tanks and based at Tidworth coming under 12th Armoured Infantry Brigade following the Army 2020 refine. Unlike the other Type 56 Challenger 2 Regiments, the RTR also has an CBRN reconnaissance squadron operating the Fuchs reconnaissance vehicle which forms part of 28 Engineer Regiment. Thus the regiment comprises six squadrons:


title: Royal Tank Regiment

text: Sidi Barrani, Beda Fomm, Sidi Suleiman, Tobruk 1941, Sidi Rezegh 1941, Belhamed, Gazala, Cauldron, Knightsbridge, Defence of Alamein Line, Alam el Halfa, El Alamein, Mareth, Akarit, Fondouk, El Kourzia, Medjez Plain, Tunis


title: Royal Tank Regiment

text: Sangro, Salerno, Volturno Crossing, Garigliano Crossing, Anzio, Advance to Florence, Gothic Line, Coriano, Lamone Crossing, Rimini Line, Argenta Gap


title: Royal Tank Regiment

text: Odon, Caen, Bourguébus Ridge, Mont Pincon, Falaise, Nederrijn, Scheldt, Venlo Pocket, Rhineland, Rhine, Bremen


title: Royal Tank Regiment

text: The official regimental motto is "Fear Naught". The regimental colours are Brown, Red and Green. When it was first formed, the Tank Corps had no distinctive colours. Nothing was done about it until just before the Battle of Cambrai in 1917 when General Elles, wanting some distinguishing mark for his tank, went into a shop to buy material for a flag. Although stocks were small, the General bought some lengths of silk-brown, red and green. The silk was sewn together and was flown from his tank 'Hilda' in which he led the Tank Corps into battle. The colours typified the struggle of the Corps – 'From mud, through blood to the green fields beyond'. This most apt interpretation of the colours was suggested by Colonel Fuller. The flag is flown with the green uppermost.


title: Royal Tank Regiment

text: The Uniform of the Royal Tank Regiment is unique in many ways to the rest of the Royal Armoured Corps and British Army:


title: Royal Tank Regiment

text: Much of the uniform and equipment of soldiers during the First World War was quite impractical for use inside a tank. In particular, the vision apertures in a tank were so small that it was necessary to keep the eyes very close to them in order to get even a limited vision. Thus, any headdress with a peak was entirely unsuitable. In May 1918, General Elles and Colonel Fuller were discussing the future of the Tank Corps and its uniform and General Elles tried on a beret of the 70th Chasseurs Alpins, which was billeted nearby. A black beret was selected as it would not show oil stains. No change in uniform was possible during the war, but after a prolonged argument with the War Office, the black beret was approved by King George V on 5 March 1924. The black beret remained the exclusive headdress of the Royal Tank Corps until its practical value was recognised by others and its use extended to the majority of the Royal Armoured Corps in 1940. On the introduction of the blue beret in 1949, the Royal Tank Regiment reclaimed its right to the exclusive use of the black beret, which may not be worn by any other Regiment or Corps with the exception of the Berkshire and Westminster Dragoons Squadron of The Royal Yeomanry.


title: Royal Tank Regiment

text: The wearing of black overalls is a custom reserved to the Regiment by Material Regulations for the Army, volume 3, Pamphlet No 4 (Code 13251). It stems from the Royal Review held at Aldershot in the presence of King George V on 13 July 1935 on which occasion black overalls were worn on parade by all ranks of the Royal Tanks Corps. The practice lapsed during the Second World War, but was re-introduced in the 1950s.


title: Royal Tank Regiment

text: Royal Tank Regiment officers and senior warrant officers also wear both a black sam browne and a black sword scabbard, while other ranks wear a black parade belt.


title: Royal Tank Regiment

text: The sleeve badge of a First World War Mk 1 tank preceded the formation of the Royal Tank Corps when it was worn by the Heavy Branch of the Machine Gun Corps. Authorised on 7 May 1917, it is still worn today.