title: Jars of Clay

text: "The Shelter" was released October 5, 2010 and features eleven tracks. During their promotion for the album, the band streamed the entire album for a few days before its release on their website. In early 2011 they toured the United States on the Rock And Worship Roadshow headlined by MercyMe. In July 2012, the band traveled to Portland, Oregon to begin recording "Inland" at Flora Recording & Playback, a music studio owned and operated by Tucker Martine. The new album was released on August 27, 2013 and features twelve tracks. On March 18, 2013, the band released an exclusive track, "Love in Hard Times", that could only be acquired with the purchase of their EP "Under the Weather (Live in Sellersville, PA)" directly from their website. On June 17, 2013, the band released a free download of the song "Inland" through "Rolling Stone"s website. The first single off of the album, "After the Fight", was released on June 18.


title: Jars of Clay

text: The group's activities have been limited in recent years (as of 2022), each band member focusing on individual pursuits, but they continue to release music and perform sporadically. They collaborated with pop group SHEL, performing a Christmas concert in Nashville that led to a 6-song Christmas-themed EP titled "A Family Christmas", which included four original songs. In 2022, they contributed a track to "There's a Rainbow Somewhere", a tribute album to Randy Stonehill.


title: Jars of Clay

text: Lead singer Dan Haseltine visited Africa in 2002, which in turn inspired the founding of , a non-profit organization created to raise awareness and money for the poverty and AIDS stricken regions of the continent. The name is derived from, as Haseltine says, "The two things Africa needs most" - clean blood and clean water. The mission has begun the 1000 Wells project, an effort to have a thousand new wells built throughout Africa. The group recently met their goal of providing clean water to 1,000 African communities through the organization they founded, Blood: Water Mission, and its 1,000 Wells Project. Former Bassist for Jars of Clay Aaron Sands serves as Administrative Director for the project.


title: Jars of Clay

text: In a 2002 interview with NPR's Scott Simon on "Weekend Edition Saturday", responding to a question about the relatively subtle religious content of their music, Haseltine said, "our songs ... [are] not really there to explain our faith," but are "written about our life that is affected by our faith." Haseltine explained the decision to "shy away from ... traditional religious language" as a conscious one, in part to make their music more accessible to those "put off by religion", and to "love people in a way that isn't exclusive to simply people that understand the language of Christianity." Haseltine also stated that art can "make people feel what's true rather than telling them".


title: Jars of Clay

text: Jars of Clay has been nominated for and won several awards, including Grammy Awards and several of the Christian music awards, known as the GMA Dove Awards. Some of these successes have been collaborative efforts, including two "City on a Hill" albums and the for the 2005 film "". The group has won five Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI) awards.


title: Beech marten

text: The beech marten (Martes foina), also known as the stone marten, house marten or white breasted marten, is a species of marten native to much of Europe and Central Asia, though it has established a feral population in North America. It is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List on account of its wide distribution, its large population, and its presence in a number of protected areas. It is superficially similar to the European pine marten, but differs from it by its smaller size and habitat preferences. While the pine marten is a forest specialist, the beech marten is a more generalist and adaptable species, occurring in a number of open and forest habitats.


title: Beech marten

text: Its most likely ancestor is "Martes vetus", which also gave rise to the pine marten. The earliest "M. vetus" fossils were found in deposits dated to the Würm glaciation in Lebanon and Israel. The beech marten likely originated in the Near East or southwestern Asia, and may have arrived in Europe by the Late Pleistocene or the early Holocene. Thus, the beech marten differs from most other European mustelids of the Quaternary, as all other species (save for the European mink) appeared during the Middle Pleistocene. Comparisons between fossil animals and their descendants indicate that the beech marten underwent a decrease in size beginning in the Würm period. Beech martens indigenous to the Aegean Islands represent a relic population with primitive Asiatic affinities.


title: Beech marten

text: The skull of the beech marten suggests a higher adaptation than the pine marten toward hypercarnivory, as indicated by its smaller head, shorter snout and its narrower post-orbital constriction and lesser emphasis on cheek teeth. Selective pressures must have acted to increase the beech marten's bite force at the expense of gape. These traits probably acted on male beech martens as a mechanism to avoid both intraspecific competition with females and interspecific competition with the ecologically overlapping pine marten.


title: Beech marten

text: The beech marten is superficially similar to the pine marten, but has a somewhat longer tail, a more elongated and angular head and has shorter, more rounded and widely spaced ears. Its nose is also of a light peach or grey colour, whereas that of the pine marten is dark black or greyish-black. Its feet are not as densely furred as those of the pine marten, thus making them look less broad, with the paw pads remaining visible even in winter. Because of its shorter limbs, the beech marten's manner of locomotion differs from that of the pine marten; the beech marten moves by creeping in a polecat-like manner, whereas the pine marten and sable move by bounds. The load per 1 cm of the supporting surface of the beech marten's foot (30.9 g) is double that of the pine marten (15.2 g), thus it is obliged to avoid snowy regions.


title: Beech marten

text: Its skull is similar to that of the pine marten, but differs in its shorter facial region, more convex profile, its larger carnassials and smaller molars. The beech marten's penis is larger than the pine marten's, with the bacula of young beech martens often outsizing those of old pine martens. Males measure 430–590 mm in body length, while females measure 380–470 mm. The tail measures 250–320 mm in males and 230–275 mm in females. Males weigh 1.7–1.8 kg in winter and 2–2.1 kg in summer, while females weigh 1.1–1.3 kg in winter and 1.4–1.5 kg in summer.


title: Beech marten

text: The beech marten's fur is coarser than the pine marten's, with elastic guard hairs and less dense underfur. Its summer coat is short, sparse and coarse, and the tail is sparsely furred. The colour tone is lighter than the pine marten's. Unlike the pine marten, its underfur is whitish, rather than greyish. The tail is dark-brown, while the back is darker than that of the pine marten. The throat patch of the beech marten is always white. The patch is large and generally has two projections extending backwards to the base of the forelegs and upward on the legs. The dark colour of the belly juts out between the forelegs as a line into the white colour of the chest and sometimes into the neck. In the pine marten, by contrast, the white colour between the forelegs juts backwards as a protrusion into the belly colour.


title: Beech marten

text: The beech marten is mainly a crepuscular and nocturnal animal, though to a much lesser extent than the European polecat. It is especially active during moonlit nights. Being a more terrestrial animal than the pine marten, the beech marten is less arboreal in its habits, though it can be a skilled climber in heavily forested areas. It is a skilled swimmer, and may occasionally be active during daytime hours, particularly in the summer, when nights are short. It typically hunts on the ground. During heavy snowfalls, the beech marten moves through paths made by hares or skis.


title: Beech marten

text: In an area of northeastern Spain, where the beech marten still lives in relatively unmodified habitats, one specimen was recorded to have had a home range of with two centres of activity. Its period of maximum activity occurred between 6 PM and midnight. Between 9 AM and 6 PM, the animal was found to be largely inactive. In urban areas, beech marten's dens are almost entirely in buildings, particularly during winter. The beech marten does not dig burrows, nor does it occupy those of other animals. Instead, it nests in naturally occurring fissures and clefts in rocks, spaces between stones in rock slides and inhabited or uninhabited stone structures. It may live in tree holes at a height of up to 9 metres.


title: Beech marten

text: Estrus and copulation occur at the same time as in the pine marten. Copulation can last longer than 1 hour. Mating occurs in the June–July period, and takes place in the morning or in moonlit nights on the ground or on the roofs of houses. The gestation period lasts as long as the pine marten's, lasting 236–237 days in the wild, and 254–275 days in fur farms. Parturition takes place in late March-early April, with the average litter consisting of 3-7 kits. The kits are born blind, and begin to see at the age of 30–36 days. The lactation period lasts 40–45 days. In early July, the young are indistinguishable from the adults.


title: Beech marten

text: The beech marten's diet includes a much higher quantity of plant food than that of the pine marten and sable. Plant foods eaten by the beech marten include cherries, apples, pears, plums, black nightshade, tomatoes, grapes, raspberries and mountain ash. Plant food typically predominates during the winter months. Rats, mice and chickens are also eaten. Among bird species preyed upon by the beech marten, sparrow-like birds predominate, though snowcocks and partridges may also be taken. The marten likes to plunder nests of birds including passerines, galliformes and small owls, preferring to kill the parents in addition to the fledglings. Although it rarely attacks poultry, some specimens may become specialized poultry raiders, even when wild prey is abundant. Males tend to target large, live prey more than females, who feed on small prey and carrion with greater frequency.


title: Beech marten

text: In areas where the beech marten is sympatric with the pine marten, the two species avoid competing with one another by assuming different ecological niches; the pine marten feeds on birds and rodents more frequently, while the beech marten feeds on fruits and insects. There is however one case of a subadult beech marten being killed by a pine marten. The beech marten has been known to kill European polecats on rare occasions. Red foxes, lynxes and mountain lions may prey on adults, and juveniles are vulnerable from attack by birds of prey and wildcats. There is, however one case, from Germany, of a beech marten killing a domestic cat.


title: Beech marten

text: The beech marten is a widespread species which occurs throughout much of Europe and Central Asia. It occurs from Spain and Portugal in the west, through Central and Southern Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia, extending as far east as the Altai and Tien Shan mountains and northwest China. Within Europe, the species is absent in the British Isles, Scandinavian peninsula, Finland, Denmark, the northern Baltic and northern European Russia. It occurs in Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bhutan and was recently confirmed to inhabit northern Burma.


title: Beech marten

text: The beech marten is present in Wisconsin, particularly near the urban centres surrounding Milwaukee. It is also present in several wooded, upland areas in the Kettle Moraine State Forest, and in nearby woodlands of Walworth, Racine, Waukesha and probably Jefferson Counties. North American beech martens are likely descended from feral animals that escaped a private fur farm in Burlington during the 1940s. They have also been listed as being released or having escaped in 1972.


title: Beech marten

text: British zoologist George Rolleston theorised that the "domestic cat" of the Ancient Greeks and Romans was in fact the beech marten. Pioneering marine biologist Jeanne Villepreux-Power kept two tame beech martens.


title: Beech marten

text: Although the beech marten is a valuable animal to the fur trade, its pelt is inferior in quality to that of the pine marten and sable. Beech marten skins on the fur markets of the Soviet Union accounted for only 10-12% of the market presence of pine marten skins. Beech martens were caught only in the Caucasus, in the Montane part of Crimea and (in very small numbers) in the rest of Ukraine, and in the republics of Middle Asia. Because animals with more valuable pelts are rare in those areas, the beech marten is of value to hunters on the local market. Beech martens are captured with jaw traps, or, for live capture, with cage traps. The shooting of beech martens is inefficient, and trailing them with dogs is only successful when the animal can be trapped in a tree hollow.


title: Beech marten

text: Since the mid-1970s, the beech marten has been known to occasionally cause damage to cars. Cars attacked by martens typically have cut tubes and cables. A beech marten can slice through the cables of a starter motor with just one bite. The reason for this is not fully known, as the damaged items are not eaten. There is, however, a seasonal peak in marten attacks on cars in spring, when young martens explore their surroundings more often and have yet to learn which items in their habitat are edible or not.


title: Beech marten

text: On 29 April and 21 November 2016, two beech martens shut down the Large Hadron Collider, the world's most powerful particle accelerator, by climbing on 18–66 kV electrical transformers located above ground near the LHCb and ALICE experiments, respectively. The second marten was stuffed and put on display in the Rotterdam Natural History Museum.


title: Earl Strickland

text: Earl Strickland (born June 8, 1961) is an American professional pool player who is considered one of the best nine-ball players of all time. He has won over 100 championship titles and three world titles. In 2006 he was inducted into the Billiard Congress of America's Hall of Fame. He is also known as one of the sport's most controversial players for his outspoken views and his sometimes volatile behavior at tournaments.


title: Earl Strickland

text: Strickland started playing pool at the age of 8. After intensive practice, he entered his first professional tournament aged 16. Strickland rose to national prominence in 1983 with a victory in Caesars Tahoe Pro Billiard Classic defeating Steve Mizerak in the finals and winning $25,000. This was followed in 1984 by winning the McDermott Masters 9-Ball Championship.


title: Earl Strickland

text: According to sources, Strickland played "like a polished gem." He was beginning to be a dominant force on the tournament trail and recognized as a future world champion. He had the "skill, endurance, patience, temperament, and tenacity of which champions are made." Because of his dominance, Strickland was named "The National Billiard News" Player of the Year in 1984. He won the 1988 Brunswick World Open Nine-ball championship, after a momentous final confrontation between himself and Mike Sigel.


title: Earl Strickland

text: A 45-second shot clock was used to monitor each shot because the tournament was being recorded for broadcast for a seven-week series. At the conclusion, Sigel commented he could feel the pressure of being clocked. Strickland, on the other hand, said they "could have made it only 30 seconds between shots, and it wouldn't have mattered."


title: Earl Strickland

text: At the 2004 Derby City Classic, a week-long multiple tournament event held every January in Louisville, Kentucky, Strickland was one of six competitors in a nine-ball ring game. Veteran Grady Mathews, when introducing Strickland, says that when Strickland is in the house, "A hush ensues, and there is an expectation" due to his brilliant shot-making capabilities and unpredictable behaviour.


title: Earl Strickland

text: Strickland is a multiple winner of the prestigious Billiards Digest Player of the Year in 1984, 1985, 1987, 1988 and 2000 including Billiards Digest Player of the Decade in the 1980s.


title: Earl Strickland

text: His career highlights of a record three World Nine-ball Championships & a record five U.S. Open Nine-ball Championships along with Shane Van Boening & a record three McDermott Masters 9-Ball Championships. Strickland is the only WPA World Nine-ball Champion ever to win the event in consecutive years. He was also an ever-present player for the American team in the annual Mosconi Cup tournament, from its inauguration in 1996, up until 2013, winning it a record nine times along with Johnny Archer.


title: Earl Strickland

text: Strickland once ran 11 consecutive racks against Nick Mannino during the first PCA tournament in 1996 where there was a stipulation that anyone who could 10 racks would win US$1,000,000. Jimmy Mataya, who was present at the event, witnessed Strickland's last shot, a tough nine-ball in which Earl showed no fear and "fired it in with authority" to win the prize. Up to that time, no one had ever run 10 racks of 9-ball in a row during a professionally sanctioned event. The feat has never been duplicated in a tournament since. This Million dollar Challenge event was a kickoff for the new tour, which Earl Strickland, C.J. Wiley, and others helped to build. He won it on the first day of the event and the very start of the brand new tour association (PCA). The insurance company backing the event refused to pay and lawsuits were filed. Two and one half years later, the insurers were forced to pay up. Unfortunately, due to expenses of the legal battle, Earl received less than a $1,000,000 and this resulted in negative publicity around it and led to a very premature demise of the new PCA tour. Earl was very gracious about the money, but sorely disappointed that the new tour got off to a bad start. The scandal and a feud with the already existing feud with the Professional Billiards Tour fearing lost revenues and television contracts spelled doom and led to a quick demise of the new tour.


title: Earl Strickland

text: For 2007, he was ranked #6 in "Pool & Billiard Magazine"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s "Fans' Top 20 Favorite Players" poll.


title: Earl Strickland

text: Strickland has engaged in exchanges with fans, players, referees, and tournament officials. His 2003 WPA World Nine-ball Championship match with snooker star Steve Davis was particularly notorious. Before the match, Strickland had given a particularly charged interview with a Sky Sports reporter, in which he complained that fans had been disrespectful to him (booing when his name had been broadcast over the PA), and that the event "revolves around Davis" (the event was organized by Matchroom Sport, which was headed by Davis' manager Barry Hearn, while Sky's coverage had featured Davis heavily to win an audience in the UK). He also appeared upset that Sky Sports had shown numerous replays during the buildup to the match of Davis beating him in the previous year's Mosconi Cup, the match which settled the event in favour of Team Europe.


title: Earl Strickland

text: During the match, Strickland entered the arena visibly downbeat, and after beginning the match in a quiet mood, Strickland soon began to engage in heated verbal arguments with fans and then referee Michaela Tabb. TV microphones caught him using foul language to one member of the crowd, then telling Tabb to "shut up" when she reprimanded him. In response, Davis made use of his entitlement to take a break in the match. (Davis admitted later that the timing of this was intentional, leaving Strickland to the mercy of the crowd.) During the gap, Strickland put his fingers in his ears to block out the crowd's support for Davis, to the derision of the crowd, who mocked the gesture, and cheered loudly for Davis whenever Strickland took his fingers out. Late in the match, he responded to Davis' missing of an easy shot by sharply leaping out of his chair, fists aloft, shouting to the crowd "Yeah! He dogged it!" When Davis took a second break, Strickland loudly complained that players were only entitled to a single break, telling the crowd "He's Steve Davis, he can do what he likes," another reference to his belief that Davis's status at Matchroom Sport afforded him special treatment.


title: Earl Strickland

text: Strickland's tirade against Davis, the crowd, and the rules of the event, continued through the main part of a post-match interview, before visibly calming and apologizing for his behaviour. After admitting regret over his reactions during the encounter with Davis, Strickland entered the arena for his next match carrying a bunch of flowers which he gave to Tabb by way of an apology, and proceeded to play in a much calmer manner for the remainder of the event. Davis would go on to liken his match with Strickland to his 1980s snooker matches against Alex Higgins, another player noted for his combination of impressive play and enigmatic behaviour.


title: Earl Strickland

text: At the 2006 Mosconi Cup, which took place at Rotterdam, Netherlands between December 7 and 10, the audience was loud, cheering and blowing horns when rooting for Team Europe. During a match with Nick van den Berg, someone shouted from the audience for Strickland to "shut up" since he had continued talking while opponents were taking their shots. The noise was so intense that referee Michaela Tabb warned spectators they could be thrown out of the arena if they persisted. Strickland broke his cue out of frustration during his match against Thomas Engert, smashing it against the floor after a failed attempt at a shot. He replaced the broken shaft and went on to win the match 7–4.


title: Earl Strickland

text: One year later, the 2007 Mosconi Cup in Las Vegas saw Strickland complain strongly about the "misbehavior" of European players and fans, reaching its peak in a particularly bad-tempered clash between himself and reigning world champion Daryl Peach where the referee (again Tabb) had to separate the two amid fears their animosity might turn violent. Whereas most matches in the event were followed by live TV interviews with both players, Strickland refused to participate, while the normally mild-mannered Peach stated "Strickland is the scum of the Earth, everyone knows that." Given the opportunity to retract the statement moments later by the interviewer, he declined.


title: Earl Strickland

text: The next year, 2008, saw the event played in Portomaso, Malta. Strickland's opening night match again saw him repeatedly argue with European fans in the crowd, and also repeatedly comment aloud that the table was playing too easily. In a post-match interview, he stated that it was bad for the sport if the public sees top players in a high-profile event using a table that was clearly playing more easily than a standard club table. When the crowd gave a mixed reaction to his comments, he turned to the spectators and attempted to rally them by calling "Do you want to see us have an easy time out here? Or do you want to see these guys shit on themselves?" Presenter Andy Goldstein immediately apologised to viewers, an action that prompted Strickland to further argue that such language is acceptable, citing Tiger Woods as a fellow sportsman who has used such language on TV without being challenged.


title: Earl Strickland

text: Asked about the possibility of banning Strickland from future events for his behaviour, Matchroom Sports founder Barry Hearn stated he would always want Strickland to participate in the firm's events, since his presence "guarantees drama and unpredictability." Strickland, though, would be dropped by the United States team for the 2009 Mosconi Cup and was not selected again for the next three years before returning to the team in 2013.


title: Earl Strickland

text: At the 2021 Mosconi Cup Strickland became the oldest player to be selected at the age of 60, but was forced to withdraw on the eve of the tournament after being in close contact with a case of COVID-19 on his flight to London, and UK rules specifying unvaccinated people must isolate in this situation.


title: Otokar Cobra

text: The Cobra is a family of armored vehicles produced by Otokar of Turkey. It is produced in two generations.


title: Otokar Cobra

text: The monocoque steel v-hull provides protection against small arms fire, artillery shell shrapnel, and to a certain degree against anti-personnel and tank mines, and IEDs. Front wheel arches are designed to be blown away to free blast pockets.


title: Otokar Cobra

text: In December 2016, footage of an ISIL attack against Turkish M-60 Sabra tanks circulating the Internet, showed the crew of a Cobra APC surviving a direct hit from an ISIL RPG.


title: Otokar Cobra

text: The Cobra vehicle forms a common platform which can be adapted for various roles and mission requirements including: armoured personnel carrier, anti-tank vehicle, reconnaissance vehicle, ground surveillance radar vehicle, forward observation vehicle, armoured ambulance, armoured command post, turreted vehicle for 12.7mm machine gun (turret produced by the Israeli firm Rafael), 20mm cannon, anti-tank missiles such as the TOW missile and Spike missiles or surface-to-air missiles.


title: Otokar Cobra

text: Cobras can be used as amphibious combat vehicles. Turkish naval forces are currently looking for a new amphibious vehicle and the Cobra is listed among the candidates for acquisition.


title: Otokar Cobra

text: The Cobra II (), a further development of the existing Cobra, is an amoured tactical vehicle designed and produced by Turkish company Otokar. Cobra II is a 4x4 wheeled armoured vehicle and has a capacity for nine personnel including the driver and the commander. It features high level of protection against threats from improvised explosive devices, land mines. Among its various functions are security and peacekeeping operations and border protection. The personnel carrier can be produced in different versions, according to different security requirements of the user thanks to its modular design.


title: Otokar Cobra

text: The tactical personnel carrier's overall length is with its width and height . Run flat, CTIS, air conditioning system, blackout lighting system and towing eye are among the standard equipment of the vehicle. It can be additionally fitted with a self-recovery winch, a CBRN filtration kit, automatic fire extinguishing system, navigation system, intercom system and an auxiliary power unit. It can be optionally equipped with a remote controlled weapon system (RCWS) of up to 30 mm machine gun or grenade launcher.


title: Otokar Cobra

text: It serves in the Turkish Armed Forces and security forces. It is also used by several other countries as well as by the United Nations in peacekeeping missions. The development of the armoured vehicle, which is used for patrolling at the Syria–Turkey barrier, was funded by the European Union. It was presented for the first time in May 2013.


title: Otokar Cobra

text: First unveiled at IDEF 2013, the Cobra II is a more heavily armoured successor to the Cobra. The Cobra II has a combat weight that is roughly double that of its predecessor and is slightly wider, longer and taller.


title: Otokar Cobra

text: Standard equipment includes rear view camera, thermal front camera, air conditioning system, blackout lighting system, multi-point seat belts, radio provisions, and a towing eye. It can be optionally equipped with a self-recovery winch, nuclear, biological and chemical filtration kit, automation fire extinguishing system, intercom system, navigation system and an auxiliary power unit. In an APC configuration, the vehicle can carry nine personnel and can be armed with a number of different weapons, including crew-operated machine guns and remote weapon stations armed with short-range surface-to-air missiles and grenade launchers.


title: Otokar Cobra

text: Cobra II is powered by a 6.7L, six-cylinder, water cooled, turbo charged, common rail, diesel engine mated to an automatic gearbox (six forward and one reverse). It produces a power of 360 hp (269 kW) at 2,650rpm, and torque of 1100Nm at 1,400rpm. The engine is also compatible with F-34 and F-54 fuel. It has a maximum speed of 110 km/h (68 mph) and can operate in range of 700 km (430 mi).


title: Otokar Cobra

text: Otokar has received orders for the Cobra II both from an undisclosed customer and from the Turkish Armed Forces.


title: Otokar Cobra

text: In late 2015, the Turkish Armed Forces ordered 82 Cobra II vehicles plus related systems, maintenance and support worth $52 million. In June 2016, the Turkish Armed Forces ordered an undisclosed number of Cobra II vehicles plus related systems, maintenance and support worth $120.8 million. Assuming the same value to vehicle ratio as the 2015 order, this would imply an order of about 180 vehicles.


title: Otokar Cobra

text: According to sources, Pakistan purchased over 200 of these vehicles and plan to have about 500 in their inventory. A deal was concluded with TOT and the remaining vehicles are to be produced at Heavy Industries Taxila with additional orders for Otokar Akrep.


title: Otokar Cobra

text: In the 2008 South Ossetia war, Cobra vehicles equipped with 12.7 mm NSV machine guns and 40 mm automatic grenade launchers were used by the special forces of the Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs during their assault on the city in the Battle of Tskhinvali. One of the Cobras were destroyed and captured by the Russian army. Cobras are also being used by Georgian UN forces in the Central African Republic.


title: Otokar Cobra

text: The Nigerian military has deployed Cobras during operations against the Boko Haram insurgency in the north-east of the country since 2013.


title: Otokar Cobra

text: Cobras are actively being used by the Turkish Armed Forces within the country for anti-terrorism operations.


title: Otokar Cobra

text: Cobras have shown to be highly resistant against most mine and IED attacks, with the crew surviving most incidents without any injuries. The increasing sophistication of IED use by the PKK and the loss of eight soldiers inside one on August 19, 2015, has prompted the Turkish Armed Forces to upgrade its fleet of armoured vehicles. This has, in part, led to additional orders for the improved Cobra II.


title: Otokar Cobra

text: Cobras have also been used effectively by Turkish backed militias against ISIS and YPG during Operation Euphrates Shield.


title: Otokar Cobra

text: Cobras were used by the Turkish Armed Forces as part of NATO's International Security Assistance Force and Resolute Support Mission in Afghanistan.


title: Otokar Cobra

text: A Burkinabe army vehicle was struck by an IED in the area of Kompienbiga, after hitting an IED laid by insurgents. The explosion overturned the vehicle, after which it caught fire; there were three killed and four wounded in the incident.


title: Protohistory

text: Protohistory is a period between prehistory and history during which a culture or civilization has not yet developed writing, but other cultures have already noted the existence of those pre-literate groups in their own writings. For example, in Europe, the Celts and the Germanic tribes are considered to have been protohistoric when they began appearing in Greek and Roman sources.


title: Protohistory

text: Protohistoric may also refer to the transition period between the advent of literacy in a society and the writings of the first historians. The preservation of oral traditions may complicate matters, as they can provide a secondary historical source for even earlier events. Colonial sites involving a literate group and a nonliterate group are also studied as protohistoric situations.


title: Protohistory

text: The term can also refer to a period in which fragmentary or external historical documents, not necessarily including a developed writing system, have been found. For instance, the Proto–Three Kingdoms of Korea, the Yayoi and the Mississippian groups, recorded by early European explorers, are protohistoric.


title: Protohistory

text: In the abstract of a later paper on "slavery in the first millennium Aegean, Carpatho-Balkan and Pontic regions", Taylor, primarily an archaeologist, stated,


title: Protohistory

text: For other examples, see also the writings of Brian M. Fagan on the protohistory of North America and the work of Muhammed Abdul Nayeem on that of the Arabian Peninsula


title: Protohistory

text: As with prehistory, determining when a culture may be considered prehistoric or protohistoric is sometimes difficult for anthropologists. Data vary considerably from culture to culture, region to region, and even from one system of reckoning dates to another.


title: Protohistory

text: In its simplest form, protohistory follows the same chronology as prehistory and is based on the technological advancement of a particular people with regard to metallurgy:


title: Protohistory

text: The best known protohistoric civilizations and ethnic groups are those for whom the term was originally coined, the barbarian tribes mentioned by European and Asian writers. Many of those peoples also experienced periods of prehistory and history:


title: Commonwealth Saga

text: The Commonwealth Saga is a series of science fiction novels by British science fiction writer Peter F. Hamilton. This saga consists of the novels "Pandora's Star" (2004) and "Judas Unchained" (2005). Hamilton has also written several books set in the same literary universe. "Misspent Youth" (2002) takes place 340 years before the events of "Pandora's Star". The "Void Trilogy", consisting of "The Dreaming Void" (2008), "The Temporal Void" (2009), and "The Evolutionary Void" (2010), takes place 1,200 years after the events of "Judas Unchained"; several of the main characters from "Judas Unchained" and "Pandora's Star" also appear in the "Void" trilogy.


title: Commonwealth Saga

text: Two additional novels, set in the time 263 years before (A.B.D.) and five years after (N.W.S.) "The Void Trilogy", were released in 2014 ("The Abyss Beyond Dreams") and 2016 ("Night Without Stars").


title: Commonwealth Saga

text: Like Hamilton's earlier "The Night's Dawn Trilogy", the "Commonwealth Saga" is an epic space opera that extends across dozens of worlds and characters.


title: Commonwealth Saga

text: The book opens with a short section providing backstory. As part of the first mission to Mars, a team of astronauts exits their spacecraft for the first time, only to see another man standing there, connected to an air hose that leads through a wormhole to a laboratory in California. The wormhole generator's inventors, Nigel Sheldon and Ozzie Isaacs, chose to test it by beating the crew, by moments, to become the first humans to reach Mars. The saga then moves into the Commonwealth era in 2380, when humanity has used the wormhole technology to colonise several hundred planets across hundreds of light years.


title: Commonwealth Saga

text: On a distant planet, astronomer Dudley Bose performs the first detailed observations of a mysterious astronomical event known as the Dyson Pair Enclosure. Two stars, located roughly 1,000 light years from Earth (750 light years from the edge of Commonwealth space), disappeared some time in the past. The theory is that they have been enclosed inside Dyson spheres.


title: Commonwealth Saga

text: Bose's investigations reveal that the enclosing of Dyson Alpha and Dyson Beta (as the stars become known) occurred quickly and simultaneously. This implies that the technology of the Dyson aliens, or possibly of other unknown aliens, surpasses that of the Commonwealth; furthermore, did the Dyson Aliens enclose themselves, or did some other force enclose them? Was it for protection or to protect those outside the spheres?


title: Commonwealth Saga

text: To investigate, the Commonwealth builds its first interstellar ship, the "Second Chance". Lacking contemporary astronauts, it gives the command to Wilson Kime, one of the members of the original Mars mission. Using a self-enclosed "flowing" wormhole for propulsion, the "Second Chance" travels to Dyson Alpha.


title: Commonwealth Saga

text: When the "Second Chance" arrives and begins to explore what appears to be an enclosure generator, an unknown mechanism shuts it down and the barrier around the star disappears. Formerly imprisoned inside is an extremely warlike and aggressive species, a race that comes to be called "the Primes". They consist of intelligent "immotiles" that breed and control vast armies of sub-sentient "motiles" via electronically extended neural interfaces. The few immotiles constantly vie with each other for territories and resources, and by the time of the story, the strongest uses the technology gleaned by analysis of the human's wormhole-generation techniques to destroy all the other Prime immotiles and thus become the only one remaining Prime: MorningLightMountain.


title: Commonwealth Saga

text: Primes had previously colonised the solar system referred to as Dyson Beta using slower-than-light starships and had committed genocide against its native inhabitants in the process. Disconnected from their originating immotile groupings, and provided with novel biological forms, Beta's Primes started to routinely alter themselves through genetic manipulation and mechanical augmentation. This was an anathema to the Alpha Primes, who referred to them as "AlienPrimes". With Beta's Primes no longer under the control of Alpha's Primes, a war began between the two systems. The war appears to have continued until forces unknown erected the barrier around the stars.


title: Commonwealth Saga

text: After capturing two crew members of the "Second Chance" (one of them Bose), MorningLightMountain eventually discovers the location of the Commonwealth. Upon learning of the Commonwealth's existence, MorningLightMountain makes it its primary objective to destroy it. Having been in almost continual combat for its entire evolution, MorningLightMountain believes that it is necessary to eliminate all other life in the Universe in order to secure its survival into the distant future; it views all life that is not under its control as a potential threat.


title: Commonwealth Saga

text: Hamilton weaves several other stories into the main narrative of the Prime encounter. Among these is that of the ancient spacecraft "Marie "[sic]" Celeste", found crashed on one of the Commonwealth planets, Far Away. An enigmatic figure, Bradley Johansson, claims the original passenger of the spacecraft is alive, an alien he calls the Starflyer. He claims that it is using mind-controlled agents to manipulate events in the Commonwealth, and that it caused the events that led to the discovery of the Primes. The Commonwealth forces dismiss Johansson as a crazy terrorist, and his attempts to interfere with the voyage to Dyson Alpha are thwarted.


title: Commonwealth Saga

text: "Judas Unchained", the second part of the Commonwealth Saga, picks up where "Pandora's Star"s abrupt ending left off.


title: Commonwealth Saga

text: The story begins with the small human resistance that exists on what remains of the Commonwealth worlds attacked by the Primes. Human resistance forces have found two ways to fight back: using the Prime weapons (primarily directed-energy weapons) against the invaders, and disrupting communication between the slave caste (motiles) and the commanding caste (immotiles) of the Primes. Meanwhile, the humans in the remaining Commonwealth pursue other plans: to develop a set of weapons and warships to defend against the next Prime invasion and force the conflict back into Prime space; to develop a "quantumbuster superweapon" based on technology supplied, unbeknownst to most humans, by the Starflyer; and to prepare for the evacuation of known space altogether if necessary.


title: Commonwealth Saga

text: Eventually, the human forces decide that there can be no other solution to the conflict than to commit genocide and destroy the Primes entirely. However, it is revealed that the Primes are planning a much larger invasion, which humanity will be all but powerless to stop.


title: Commonwealth Saga

text: As the war rages, the human forces begin to build much faster, better armed, ships and fitting them with new "quantumbuster" weapons. These weapons function by converting the entire rest mass of an object into energy, and are thus capable of destroying an entire planet. Later on, a more advanced quantumbuster is deployed, which is capable of inducing a main-sequence star to go nova via a feedback loop where the energy from the conversion is used to further expand the radius of the effect field. Despite the original plan to use it on the Dyson Alpha star and thus kill the entire prime race, a modified field version of a normal quantumbuster is eventually deployed on the Dyson Alpha forcefield generator, destroying the mechanism that was interfering with the generator's systems. This allows the mechanism to reactivate, trapping the Prime aliens inside and avoiding genocide.


title: Commonwealth Saga

text: Meanwhile, the Commonwealth forces slowly realize that Johansson is correct, the Starflyer is in fact an AlienPrime which, by chance, escaped the enclosure event. After crashing on Far Away it has been plotting how to destroy both the Alpha Primes as well as dangerous Humanity by manipulating events to force both races to commit mutual genocide. Beta Primes would then become the dominant lifeforms. Through a long trail of companies, it funded Bose's "discovery" of the enclosure and snuck agents aboard "Second Chance" with a device to deactivate the enclosure generator.


title: Commonwealth Saga

text: As the Starflyer attempts to return to Beta, human forces engage in a desperate chase to prevent the Starflyer from escaping. Their forces fail, but Johansson's Guardians of Selfhood have been preparing for this event, marshalling the weather of the entire planet and unleashing as a massive directed hurricane, destroying the Starflyer's ship. Johansson is aboard the "Marie Celeste", and the action ends with him preparing to kill the Starflyer.


title: Commonwealth Saga

text: The series starts in the year 2380, when wormhole technology has developed ahead of faster-than-light drive systems, making the "Commonwealth Saga" markedly different from Hamilton's other works. One notable difference is the initial lack of spaceships. Instead, interstellar travel is accomplished by travelling through wormholes, most commonly via a train. This mode of travel is a commonplace experience, considered similar to commuting. Hundreds of planets are linked in this fashion. However, several colonies have chosen to withdraw from the Commonwealth by severing their wormhole connection.


title: Commonwealth Saga

text: All rail-based wormhole transportation operations are operated by a megacorporation called Compression Space Transport, or CST, co-founded and co-owned by the inventors of wormhole travel technology.


title: Commonwealth Saga

text: Death may be postponed indefinitely in the Commonwealth. Most Commonwealth citizens have a memory crystal (which was invented in the events of "Misspent Youth") inserted at the base of the brain which is able to record memories including those before insertion. Commonwealth citizens undergo a process called rejuvenation, approximately every thirty to fifty years (also introduced in "Misspent Youth"). Rejuvenation is an intense process which leaves the subject's body aged around 20 with adjustment made for personal preference. Citizens can also create backups of memories which are placed in a safe environment, called their "secure store". In the event of a fatal accident or premature death, a clone of the person is created and the stored memories of the original are inserted. If the memory crystal of the deceased is still intact, all the memories, including the one of the pain of the death itself, are reinjected into the clone. This is the "re-life" process, which effectively makes all humans equipped with a memory crystal immortal. Even if still threatened by the loss of their body, the memory crystal implant and "secure store" enable a seamless transition between 'death' and any given human's next life. Not all humans, however, have chosen these implants. In particular, rebels of Far Away are usually not implanted. Most Commonwealth citizens must pay for rejuvenation insurance, similar to superannuation, although some citizens elect to forgo rejuvenation altogether. Rejuvenation is said to be akin to starting a new life, with those who have undergone the process being referred to as second-lifers, third-lifers, and so on. Psychologically, some people tend to shake off the responsibilities of their previous life including employment and marriage. Memories can even be edited to facilitate easy transition to a new life.


title: Commonwealth Saga

text: Cyberware is used extensively in the Commonwealth, and most people possess several implants. One of the most common implants is a memory crystal. Other common implants include a transceiver designed to interface with the Commonwealth's Unisphere, an interstellar network of computers. This system uses the network of wormholes to send data between Commonwealth planets. Each planet has its own Cybersphere which connects with other cyberspheres to create the Unisphere. This system allows characters to contact each other easily from anywhere within the Commonwealth.


title: Commonwealth Saga

text: OCTattoos (Organic Circuitry Tattoos) are also a major technological device. These are tattooed on the skin and resemble colourful, often metallic tattoos, and serve hundreds of purposes from transferring credits to serving as sensors. Their main function is to act as processors for other implants (which may function at reduced capacity if an OCTattoo is damaged).


title: Commonwealth Saga

text: Less common 'wet-wired' implants also serve many functions in the novels, including, but not limited to: implanted weapons, personal forcefields, explosives, and scanners. Often, such implants are illegal, and must be installed by the black-market clinics in the Commonwealth. Gore Burnelli is a notable user of wet-wiring in the series, so much so that his entire body is coated in a golden sheen of technological implants.


title: Commonwealth Saga

text: Non-human sentient civilisations have been encountered by the Commonwealth in its expansion through the Galaxy. The most prominent of these are the elf-like Silfen, who appear to eschew most forms of technology, as well as any participation in the politics or events of the Galaxy. The Silfen choose instead to wander across uncharted alien worlds on Paths, the Silfen equivalent of wormholes. The "High Angel" is an enormous sentient starship of unknown origin, acting as home for several colonies of alien species, most of which keep themselves away from humans. The Raiel are the exception to this – a race of large, somewhat self-satisfied creatures, capable of immensely complex computational calculations. All of the species encountered up to the start of the novel are peaceful, though few impart useful information to the Commonwealth.


title: Commonwealth Saga

text: Humanity has also spawned a powerful artificial intelligence called the Sentient Intelligence, or SI, which exists alone, its physical form spanning an entire planet. Like the Silfen, it offers little assistance to humanity, and its motivations are unclear. However, it has been known to offer aid where it deems it right to do so. Perhaps due to its isolation (the only connection to the SI planet is a zero-width wormhole through which only data can pass), it tends to contact those who would offer it unparalleled levels of information on the happenings of the Commonwealth, providing such people with favours in exchange for information. These favours range from ensuring their safety through observation of their local Cybersphere's communications, to controlling what it can in the physical world to offer help.


title: Commonwealth Saga

text: The SI is also the repository for humans who upload their "personality" into a communal existence alongside the SI. Some characters are offered deals by the SI because they have a "deceased" relative's personality stored in the SI. The deals often lead to the person in question being granted elevated access and control over the technology in the novels in return for gathering information that the SI cannot access.


title: Commonwealth Saga

text: Other books set in the Commonwealth Universe include "Misspent Youth" and the "Void Trilogy". "Misspent Youth" is set in 2040 and focuses on the first human to undergo rejuvenation. It is in this book that Hamilton lays the foundations for the "Commonwealth Saga", particularly the rejuvenation therapy that has become commonplace in the 24th century. The "Void Trilogy" continues within the same universe, but set a further 1200 years into the future. Many of the races featured in the "Commonwealth Saga" also appear in the "Void Trilogy". Finally, "The Chronicle of the Fallers" series takes place both before and after the events of the "Void Trilogy".


title: Commonwealth Saga

text: The short stories "Blessed by an Angel", which take place between "Judas Unchained" and "The Dreaming Void" (published in "The New Space Opera" (2007), ed. Gardner Dozois and Jonathan Strahan), "The Demon Trap" and "Manhattan in Reverse" also occur in this universe. All three are published in "Manhattan in Reverse".


title: Backhaul (telecommunications)

text: In a hierarchical telecommunications network, the backhaul portion of the network comprises the intermediate links between the core network, or backbone network, and the small subnetworks at the "edge" of the network.


title: Backhaul (telecommunications)

text: The most common network type in which backhaul is implemented is a mobile network. A backhaul of a mobile network, also referred to as mobile-backhaul connects a cell site towards the core network. The two main methods of mobile backhaul implementations are fiber-based backhaul and wireless point-to-point backhaul. Other methods, such as copper-based wireline, satellite communications and point-to-multipoint wireless technologies are being phased out as capacity and latency requirements become higher in 4G and 5G networks.


title: Backhaul (telecommunications)

text: In both the technical and commercial definitions, "backhaul" generally refers to the side of the network that communicates with the global Internet, paid for at wholesale commercial access rates to or at an Internet exchange point or other core network access location. Sometimes middle mile networks exist between the customer's own LAN and those exchanges. This can be a local WAN connection.


title: Backhaul (telecommunications)

text: Cell phones communicating with a single cell tower constitute a local subnetwork; the connection between the cell tower and the rest of the world begins with a backhaul link to the core of the internet service provider's network (via a point of presence). A backhaul may include wired, fiber optic and wireless components. Wireless sections may include using microwave bands and mesh and edge network topologies that may use a high-capacity wireless channel to get packets to the microwave or fiber links.


title: Backhaul (telecommunications)

text: Visualizing the entire hierarchical network as a human skeleton, the core network would represent the spine, the backhaul links would be the limbs, the edge networks would be the hands and feet, and the individual links within those edge networks would be the fingers and toes.


title: Backhaul (telecommunications)

text: A telephone company is very often the internet service provider providing backhaul, although for academic research and education networks, large commercial networks or municipal networks, it is increasingly common to connect to public broadband backhaul. See national broadband plans from around the world, many of which were motivated by the perceived need to break the monopoly of incumbent commercial providers. The US plan for instance, specifies that all community anchor institutions should be connected by gigabit fiber optics before the end of 2020.


title: Backhaul (telecommunications)

text: The choice of backhaul technology must take account of such parameters as capacity, cost, reach, and the need for such resources as frequency spectrum, optical fiber, wiring, or rights of way.


title: Backhaul (telecommunications)

text: Generally, backhaul solutions can largely be categorized into wired (leased lines or copper/fiber) or wireless (point-to-point, point-to-multipoint over high-capacity radio links). Wired is usually a very expensive solution and often impossible to deploy in remote areas, hence making wireless a more suitable and/or a viable option. Multi-hop wireless architecture can overcome the hurdles of wired solutions to create efficient large coverage areas and with growing demand in emerging markets where often cost is a major factor in deciding technologies, a wireless backhaul solution is able to offer 'carrier-grade' services, whereas this is not easily feasible with wired backhaul connectivity.


title: Backhaul (telecommunications)

text: Backhaul capacity can also be leased from another network operator, in which case that other network operator generally selects the technology being used, though this can be limited to fewer technologies if the requirement is very specific such as short-term links for emergency/disaster relief or for public events, where cost and time would be major factors and would immediately rule out wired solutions, unless pre-existing infrastructure was readily accessible or available.


title: Backhaul (telecommunications)

text: Wireless backhaul is easy to deploy, cost efficient and can provide high capacity connectivity (multiple Gbps (Gigabit per second) and even 10s of Gbps). Wireline fiber backhaul, on the other hand, can provide practically endless capacity, but requires investment in deploying fiber as well as in optical equipment.


title: Backhaul (telecommunications)

text: The abovementioned tradeoff is considered when planning. The type of backhaul for each site is determined taking into consideration the capacity requirement (current and future), deployment timeline, fiber availability and feasibility and budget constraints.


title: Backhaul (telecommunications)

text: As data rates increase, the range of wireless network coverage is reduced, raising investment costs for building infrastructure with access points to cover service areas. Mesh networks are unique enablers that can reduce this cost due to their flexible architecture.


title: Backhaul (telecommunications)

text: With mesh networking, access points are connected wirelessly and exchange data frames with each other to forward to/from a gateway point.


title: Backhaul (telecommunications)

text: Since a mesh requires no costly cable constructions for its backhaul network, it reduces total investment cost. Mesh technology’s capabilities can boost extending coverage of service areas easily and flexibly.


title: Backhaul (telecommunications)

text: For further cost reduction, a large-scale high-capacity mesh is desirable. For instance, Kyushu University's Mimo-Mesh Project, based in Fukuoka City, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan, has developed and put into use new technology for building high capacity mesh infrastructure. A key component is called IPT, intermittent periodic transmit, a proprietary packet-forwarding scheme that is designed to reduce radio interference in the forwarding path of mesh networks. In 2010, hundreds of wireless LAN access points incorporating the technology were installed in the commercial shopping and entertainment complex, Canal City Hakata, resulting in the successful operation of one of the world's largest indoor wireless multi-hop backhauls. That network uses a wireless multi-hop relay of up to 11 access points while delivering high bandwidth to end users. Actual throughput is double that of standard mesh network systems using conventional packet forwarding. Latency, as in all multi-hop relays, suffers, but not to the degree that it compromises voice over IP communications.


title: Backhaul (telecommunications)

text: Many common wireless mesh network hotspot solutions are supported in open source router firmware including DD-WRT, OpenWRT and derivatives. The IEEE 802.21 standard specifies basic capabilities for such systems including 802.11u unknown user authentication and 802.11s ad hoc wireless mesh networking support. Effectively these allow arbitrary wired net connections to be teamed or ganged into what appears to be a single backhaul – a "virtual private cloud". Proprietary networks from Meraki follow similar principles. The use of the term backhaul to describe this type of connectivity may be controversial technically. They invert the business definition, as it is the customer who is providing the connectivity to the open Internet while the vendor is providing authentication and management services.


title: Backhaul (telecommunications)

text: On very large scale long range networks, including transcontinental, submarine telecommunications cables are used. Sometimes these are laid alongside HVDC cables on the same route. Several companies, including Prysmian, run both HVDC power cables and telecommunications cables as far as FTTx. This reflects the fact that telecommunications backhaul and long range high voltage electricity transmission have many technologies in common, and are almost identical in terms of route clearing, liability in outages, and other legal aspects.


title: Fernand Lopez

text: Fernand Lopez Owonyebe (born November 12, 1978) is a Cameroonian-French former mixed martial artist (MMA) and current MMA coach. He is best known for establishing MMA Factory, the biggest MMA gym in France, as well as being the former trainer of UFC Heavyweight Champion Francis Ngannou and current trainer of former UFC Interim Heavyweight Champion Ciryl Gane.


title: Fernand Lopez

text: Lopez was born in 1978 in a small village in Lekié and grew up in Yaoundé. His father was a college professor and his mother was a high school teacher.


title: Fernand Lopez

text: In his youth his father signed him up for lessons in combat sports such as Taekwondo, Boxing, Judo and Wrestling to defend himself from bullies.


title: Fernand Lopez

text: In 1997, Lopez immigrated to France where he worked as an Electrical Engineer. On the side he would attend sports science classes at INSEP while playing Rugby in the Pro D2 league. However a neck injury sidelined him in Rugby and he had to have surgery to treat it, rendering him unable to move his neck for three years. During this period, Lopez discover to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) leading him to gain an interest in mixed martial arts.


title: Fernand Lopez

text: Lopez joined Mathieu Nicourt’s Free Fight Academy where he initially trained in BJJ. Once his neck recovered, he resumed training in other combat sports like Wrestling and Boxing.


title: Fernand Lopez

text: On 11 March 2006, Lopez made his professional MMA debut after a year of training. The bout took place at Xtreme Gladiators 2 where he submitted Cedric Deschamps via choke in the first round.


title: Fernand Lopez

text: Lopez's professional MMA career lasted for four years from 2006 to 2010. He fought in various promotions such as M1 Global and Shooto, where his final record was ten wins and seven losses.


title: Fernand Lopez

text: After retiring as a professional fighter, Lopez became an MMA coach at Free Fight Academy for a few years before deciding to establish his own gym.


title: Fernand Lopez

text: In 2013 Lopez and his business partner, a police officer, opened a gym called 'Cross Fight' which was later renamed 'MMA Factory'.


title: Fernand Lopez

text: Initially this academy had two students, but grew very fast to become the biggest gym in France with over 600 students. MMA Factory was one of only three gyms to receive sponsorship from Reebok, with the other two being AKA and SBG.


title: Fernand Lopez

text: His most notable student was Francis Ngannou, who became the UFC Heavyweight champion in 2021 after defeating Stipe Miocic in a rematch at UFC 260. When Ngannou was 26, he moved from Cameroon to France in order pursue his dream of becoming a professional boxer. Didier Carmont met Ngannou and then introduced him to Lopez and the MMA factory. Lopez saw the potential of Ngannou and convinced him to try MMA even though Ngannou originally wanted to do boxing. Lopez gave Ngannou some MMA gear and allowed him to train and sleep at the gym at no cost. Lopez and Ngannou worked very well together, with Ngannou having a successful winning streak in the UFC and eventually getting his first title shot. However Lopez was criticized after Ngannou lost to Stipe Miocic in a title bout at UFC 220. Since then the relationship between Lopez and Ngannou has deteriorated, with Lopez stating that Ngannou has ego problems and had refused to pay gym membership fees after he had achieved success. Ngannou moved to the United states to train at Xtreme Couture.


title: Fernand Lopez

text: Lopez has trained Ciryl Gane who won the Interim UFC Heavyweight Championship after defeating Derrick Lewis on August 7, 2021 at UFC 265.


title: Fernand Lopez

text: Lopez has also trained many other fighters such as Nassourdine Imavov, Ion Cuțelaba and Taylor Lapilus


title: Gender of connectors and fasteners

text: In electrical and mechanical trades and manufacturing, each half of a pair of mating connectors or fasteners is conventionally assigned the designation male or female. The female connector is generally a receptacle that receives and holds the male connector. Sometimes the terms plug and socket or jack are used, particularly in reference to electrical connectors. In some cases, the pins on the connector may have the opposite nominal gender to the mounted connector, such as the RCA connector.


title: Gender of connectors and fasteners

text: The assignment is a direct analogy with male/female genitalia, the part bearing one or more protrusions or which fits inside the other being designated male, in contrast to the part containing the corresponding indentations, or fitting outside the other, being designated female. Extension of the analogy results in the verb to mate being used to describe the process of connecting two corresponding parts together.


title: Gender of connectors and fasteners

text: In some cases (notably electrical power connectors), the gender of connectors is selected according to rigid rules, to enforce a sense of one-way directionality (e.g. a flow of power "from" one device "to" another). This gender distinction is implemented to enhance safety or ensure proper functionality by preventing unsafe or non-functional configurations from being set up.


title: Gender of connectors and fasteners

text: In terms of mathematical graph theory, an electrical power distribution network made up of plugs and sockets is a directed tree, with the directionality arrows corresponding to the female-to-male transfer of electrical power through each mated connection. This is an example where male and female connectors have been deliberately designed and assigned to physically enforce a safe network topology.


title: Gender of connectors and fasteners

text: In other contexts, such as plumbing, one-way flow is "not" enforced through connector gender assignment. Flows through piping networks can be bidirectional, as in underground water distribution networks which have designed-in redundancy. In plumbing situations where one-way flow "is" desired, it is implemented through other means (e.g. gravity feed or one-way check valves), and not through male-female gender schemes.


title: Gender of connectors and fasteners

text: In mechanical design, the prototypical "male" component is a threaded bolt, but an alignment post, a mounting boss, or a sheet metal tab connector can also be considered as male. Correspondingly, a threaded nut, an alignment hole, a mounting recess, or sheet metal slot connector is considered to be female.


title: Gender of connectors and fasteners

text: While some mechanical designs are "one-off" custom setups not intended to be repeated, there is an entire fastener industry devoted to manufacturing mass-produced or semi-custom components. To avoid unnecessary confusion, conventional definitions of fastener gender have been defined and agreed upon.


title: Gender of connectors and fasteners

text: Although this aspect is not highlighted in their promotional literature, several common construction toys embody gendered (and in some cases, genderless) mechanical interconnections. This should not be surprising, since these toys feature the nearly infinite flexibility and versatility of shape that a modular interconnect architecture can enable. Mathematicians have begun to classify well-known construction sets using group theory to study the combinatoric possibilities of structures that can be built.


title: Gender of connectors and fasteners

text: For example, the canonical LEGO plastic blocks have "female" indentations on the lower surface, and "male" bosses or protrusions on the upper surfaces. Meccano and Erector have many gendered connections, starting with the nut-and-bolt fasteners they use frequently.


title: Gender of connectors and fasteners

text: Stickle bricks, using interlocking plastic protrusions, are effectively genderless. Lincoln logs use a very simple form of genderless connections. Kapla or KEVA planks are extremely simple genderless systems interconnected only by gravity.


title: Gender of connectors and fasteners

text: In plumbing fittings, the "M" or "F" usually comes at the beginning rather than the end of the abbreviated designation. For example:


title: Gender of connectors and fasteners

text: A short length of pipe having an MIP thread at both ends is sometimes called a nipple. A short pipe fitting having an FIP thread at both ends is sometimes called a coupling.


title: Gender of connectors and fasteners

text: Hermaphroditic connections, which include both male and female elements in a single unit, are used for some specialized tubing fittings, such as Storz fire hose connectors. A picture of such fittings appears in , below.


title: Gender of connectors and fasteners

text: Downspouts (downpipes, rain conductors or leaders) are used to convey rainwater from roof gutters to the ground through hollow pipes or tubes. These tubes usually come in sections, joined by inserting the male end (often crimped with a special tool to slightly reduce its size) into the female end of the next section. These connections are usually not sealed or caulked, instead relying on gravity to move the rainwater from the male end and into the receiving female connection located directly below.


title: Gender of connectors and fasteners

text: Sheet metal ductwork for conveying air in HVAC systems typically uses gendered connections. Typically, the airflow through a ductwork connection is from male to female. However, since one-way flow is implemented by forced-air fans or blowers, "backwards" gendered connections can be seen frequently in some systems, since all connections are typically sealed with duct sealing mastic or tape to prevent leakage anyway. The flow convention is usually loosely adhered to for simplicity of design, and to reduce the number of gender changer fittings required, but exceptions are made whenever expedient.


title: Gender of connectors and fasteners

text: Although the gender of tubing and plumbing fittings is usually obvious, this may not be true of electrical connectors because of their more complex and varying constructions. Instead, connector gender is conventionalized and thus can be somewhat obscure to the uninitiated. For example, the female D-subminiature connector body projects outward from the mounting plane of the chassis, and this protrusion could be erroneously construed as male. Instead, the "maleness" of the D-subminiature connectors is defined by specific presence of "male pins", rather than by the protrusion of the connector, which is also true for many other pin-based connectors like XLR. The male/female distinction is more obvious with ring crimp lug connectors which are placed around a screw post, but again with spade or split ring crimp lug connectors the end alone is not obviously female.


title: Gender of connectors and fasteners

text: Further confusion can be caused by the term "jack", which is used for both female and male connectors and typically refers to the fixed (panel) side of a connector pair. IEEE STD 100, IEEE-315-1975 and IEEE 200-1975 (replaced by ASME Y14.44-2008) define "plug" and "jack" by location or mobility, rather than gender.


title: Gender of connectors and fasteners

text: A connector in a fixed location is a jack and a moveable connector is a plug. The distinction is relative, so a portable radio is considered stationary compared to the cable from the headphones; the radio has a jack, and the headphone cable has a plug. Where the relationship is equal, such as when two flexible cables are connected, each is considered a plug. Jacks use the reference designator prefix of J and plugs use the reference designator prefix of P. It is possible in the case of box mounted connectors for the connector to be a receptacle with male pin contacts. In this case the connector is designated a jack (J ref des) regardless of the contact gender because the housing for the contacts is in fact configured as the receptacle even though its mate (the plug) goes around the receptacle. See MIL-STD-38999 and similar cases.


title: Gender of connectors and fasteners

text: It is common practice to use female connectors for jacks, so the informal gender-based usage often happens to agree with the functional description of the technical standards. However, this is "not" always the case; often-seen exceptions include a computer's AC Power Inlet and EIA232 DE9 Serial Port, or the male coaxial power jacks for connecting external power adapters to portable equipment.


title: Gender of connectors and fasteners

text: To summarize, it is considered best practice to use "male" and "female" for connector "gender", and "plug" and "jack" for connector "function" or "mobility".


title: Gender of connectors and fasteners

text: In the UK, many Commonwealth countries and some non-English-speaking countries, the word "jack" may refer to the "plug" on the end of a removable cable. These connectors were originally referred to as "jack plugs", or plugs intended to be mated with fixed receptacles, or "sockets" (which North Americans would call "jacks"), but the second word was dropped. This variant usage is in direct contradiction to common usage and official standards in North America.


title: Gender of connectors and fasteners

text: In the United Kingdom, for example, the connector on the end of a headphone lead is known as a "jack", that plugs into a "socket" on the main unit. The same generally occurs also in Italy, where the English word "jack" is commonly used to indicate the connector on the end of a headphone lead.


title: Gender of connectors and fasteners

text: The standard letters "M" and "F" are commonly used in part numbers to designate connector gender. For example, in Switchcraft XLR microphone or hydrophone connectors, the part numbers are denoted as follows:


title: Gender of connectors and fasteners

text: The terms plug, pin, and prong are also often used for "male" connectors, and receptacle, socket, and slot are used for "female" connectors. In many cases these terms are more common than "male" and "female", especially in documentation intended for the non-specialist. These nearly synonymous terms can cause a fair amount of confusion when the designations are shortened in labels.


title: Gender of connectors and fasteners

text: For example, a female high-density D-subminiature connector with a size 1 shell can be named DE15F or DE15S (see accompanying pictures). Both terms mean the same thing but could be construed to be completely different items. Similarly, a male standard-density D-sub with a size 1 shell can be named DE9M or DE9P; a female standard-density D-sub with a size 2 shell can be named DA15F or DA15S; a male high-density D-sub with a size 3 shell can be named DB44M or DB44P; and so forth.


title: Gender of connectors and fasteners

text: Electronic designers often select female jack connectors for fixed mounting on electronic equipment they design. This is usually done because female connectors are more resistant to damage or contamination, by virtue of their concealed or recessed electrical contacts. A damaged motherboard connector can result in the scrapping of an expensive piece of electronic equipment. The risk of expensive damage is reduced by relegating the more exposed male contacts to connecting cables, which can be repaired or replaced at lower cost. However, since motherboards have all slot connector positions loaded regardless of how many slots will actually be filled, this would seem to favor the cheaper male connector.


title: Gender of connectors and fasteners

text: Such cost and reliability considerations probably drove the design decision to use female jack connectors on many computer terminals (and some personal computers) for the serial port, in direct violation of the connector gender convention specified in the RS-232 standard for "DTE" computer equipment. This confusing reversal of the RS-232 connector gender convention would cause many hours of frustration for ill-informed end users, as they tried to troubleshoot non-functional serial port equipment connections.


title: Gender of connectors and fasteners

text: In the case of electrical power connections, designers do not reverse connector gender in such a casual fashion, because exposing live AC line power on male connectors is unsafe and generally illegal. Devices that need to be robust against mechanical damage use a special male IEC 60320 C14 connector (see Gallery above), which is recessed below the surface of a mounting panel, providing the desired physical protection while conforming to safety regulations.


title: Gender of connectors and fasteners

text: In electrical connections where voltage or current is sufficient to cause injury, the part permanently connected to the power "source" is invariably female, with concealed contacts, to prevent inadvertent touching of live conductors by people or animals, or by conductive items that may cause a short. A male plug, with fully exposed protruding contacts, is installed on the cord of (or directly onto) the device "receiving" the power.


title: Gender of connectors and fasteners

text: In the case of consumer-level AC power, connector gender is used to implicitly enforce safe use of power connectors. Because of this consideration, it is illegal under electrical code to make or use any "gender changers" to connect AC line power to consumer-level equipment.


title: Gender of connectors and fasteners

text: In low-voltage use such as for data communications, electrical shock hazard is not an issue, and male or female connectors are used based on other engineering factors such as convenience of use, cost, or ease of manufacturing. For example, the common "patch cables" used for Ethernet (and the similar cords used for telephones) typically have male modular plugs on both ends, to connect to jacks on equipment or mounted in walls.


title: Gender of connectors and fasteners

text: An example of a design tradeoff in power connector selection is a coaxial power connector, which is usually set up so that power is fed "from" the female plug "into" the male jack (which is typically a part of the electronic device accepting the power). Although the plug is female, with a partially recessed center contact, it is still possible for casual accidental contact with a metallic object to short-circuit the power source. Depending on the design of the power adapter, it may react to a short circuit by shutting down temporarily, or instead by blowing out an internal safety fuse.


title: Gender of connectors and fasteners

text: In this example, the marginal reliability of the connector choice was deemed to be acceptable by the equipment designer, since the power adapter supplies low voltage that does not pose an electric shock hazard. The potential fire hazard from accidental short-circuiting is addressed by the internal safety fuse, although this requires that a failed power adapter must be completely replaced. In a different design, if the power adapter were intended to supply a voltage sufficient to cause electrical shock, the semi-exposed center contact of the female plug would be considered unacceptably hazardous, requiring a different choice of power connector.


title: Gender of connectors and fasteners

text: A double-ended male connector for mains electricity is extremely dangerous, and sometimes known as a suicide cable, with some hardware shops explicitly refusing to produce them when asked by customers who have hung a string of Christmas lights backwards and wish to connect the socket end to a wall socket, or who intend to connect a generator to their home's electrical circuit in the event of a power shortage. The prongs on the live end of the cable poses serious shock and fire hazards, and in a generator setup may cause the equipment to burn out when mains power is restored.


title: Gender of connectors and fasteners

text: Some electrical connectors are hermaphroditic because they include both male and female elements in a single unit intended to interconnect freely, without regard for gender. See the discussion of Genderless connectors elsewhere in this article for more detailed information.


title: Gender of connectors and fasteners

text: As an additional complication, certain electronic connector designs may incorporate combinations of male and female pins in a "single" connector body, for mating with a complementary connector with opposite gender pins in corresponding positions. In these unusual cases, gender is often defined by the shape of the connector "body", rather than the mixed-gender connector "pins" and "sockets". These types of connectors are not strictly speaking hermaphroditic, since mating connectors are "not" freely interchangeable. An informal term that has been used for these connectors is "bisexual", in addition to the more official terminology, mixed-gender. Thus, for example, one can have a mixed-gender female plug that connects to a mixed-gender male jack (though a reversed gender assignment of connectors would be a more typical design choice in this example).


title: Gender of connectors and fasteners

text: Male connector pins are often protected by a shell (also called a shroud, surround, or shield), which may envelop the entire female connector when mated. RF connectors often have multiple layers of interlocking shells to properly connect the shields of coaxial and triaxial cable. In such cases, the gender is assigned based on the "innermost" connecting point. With the exception of reverse polarity BNC or TNC, where the outer shell determines the gender and the innermost connecting points are opposite to a standard connector, for example a female RP-TNC connector has a solid innermost pin.


title: Gender of connectors and fasteners

text: Another ambiguous situation arises with the connectors used for USB, FireWire (IEEE-1394), HDMI, and Thunderbolt serial data bus connections. Close examination of these connectors reveals that the contact "pins" are not actually pins, but instead are conductive surfaces that slide past each other when they mate. Therefore, the traditional pin and socket nomenclature is not applicable. Instead, most computer hardware people fall back to referring to the wrap-around metal shield on the plug connector "as if" it were a connector "pin". By this convention, the connectors on serial bus cables are "male plugs", and the corresponding connectors on equipment are "female jacks". A unique connector configuration where the contacts are hermaphroditic is the ELCO Varicon where the contacts are bifurcated and nest with one another axial at a 90 degree rotation in cross-shaped wells. In this case the plugs had the contacts oriented transversely and the sockets longitudinally.


title: Gender of connectors and fasteners

text: A casual glance at a USB "Type A" plug connector may give the false impression that it is hermaphroditic. However, a physical attempt to mate two USB "Type A" cables with each other reveals the fact that the connectors will not interconnect. Classifying according to mathematical graph theory, USB buses are directed trees, whereas FireWire buses have a true bus network topology. This difference is reflected in the bus connectors used, in that USB cables are asymmetrical (one end Type A, other end Type B) while FireWire cables may have identical connectors at both ends.


title: Gender of connectors and fasteners

text: By definition, a hermaphroditic connector includes mating surfaces having simultaneous male and female aspects, involving complementary paired identical parts each containing both protrusions and indentations. These mating surfaces are mounted into identical fittings which can freely mate with any other, without regard for gender (provided that the size and type are already matched). Alternative names include hermaphrodite, androgynous, genderless, sexless, combination (or combo), two-in-one, two-way, and other descriptive terms. Several of these latter alternate names are ambiguous in meaning, and should not be used unless carefully defined in context. True hermaphroditic connectors should not be confused with "mixed gender" connectors, which are described elsewhere in this article.


title: Gender of connectors and fasteners

text: Another closely related type is the stackable connector for electronics, which typically has male pins on one surface and complementary female sockets on the opposite surface, allowing multiple units to be stacked up like plastic milk crates. Examples of this include stackable banana plugs, and interconnect cables specified for the IEEE-488 instrumentation bus. Stackable mezzanine bus connectors are used on some modular microcomputer accessory boards for systems such as the Arduino add-on daughterboards called "shields". The older PC/104 embedded PC modules use a similar stackable format for interconnection. Stackable connectors are not classified as hermaphroditic in the strictest sense, but are often described as such in looser usage.


title: Gender of connectors and fasteners

text: The hermaphroditic design is useful when multiple complex or lengthy components must be arbitrarily connected in various combinations. For example, if hoses have hermaphroditic fittings, they can be connected without having to pull a lengthy hose and reverse it because it has the wrong gender to connect to another hose. Some military fiber optical cables also have hermaphroditic connectors to prevent "wrong gender" connector problems in field deployments. In a similar fashion, railcars are usually equipped with hermaphroditic railway coupling mechanisms that allow either end of the vehicle to be connected to a train without having to turn the railcar around first.


title: Gender of connectors and fasteners

text: including the Androgynous Peripheral Attach System, the NASA Docking System, and Chinese Docking Mechanism.


title: Gender of connectors and fasteners

text: In the absence of genderless connectors, gender changer fittings might be used to enable certain connections. The designer of a connection system may use one or both schemes to allow arbitrary connectivity, or even combine both schemes into a single system.


title: Gender of connectors and fasteners

text: When an enforced sense of unidirectionality or "one-way flow" is required for safety or other reasons (for example, AC electrical power connections), a strict assignment of connector genders is implemented to prevent undesired configurations and gender changers are banned.


title: Gender of connectors and fasteners

text: Some commonly seen examples of hermaphroditic connectors include the SAE connector for 12 V DC power, jackhammer air hose connectors, and the Anderson Powerpole series of modular high-current power connectors. The IBM Token Ring connector was another widespread example, but it has become obsolete and is being phased out. The General Radio Corporation developed a hermaphroditic coaxial radio frequency connector often called the "GR connector".


title: Gender of connectors and fasteners

text: Some audio multicore cables are fitted with hermaphroditic multipin quick-disconnect connectors for ease of use in the field. One style of this audio signal cable is fitted on both ends with connectors that are each populated half with pins and half with sockets. The advantage to the user is that it does not matter which end connects to the stage and which to the audio mixer, facilitating faster set up. Another style of connector uses hybrid male/female pins with a receiving slot fitted in the center of each two-tine pin, and relies on 90-degree rotation of the pin axes to mate. The connector housings themselves are sexed male and female.


title: Gender of connectors and fasteners

text: Devices used for mating two connectors of the same gender have a wide variety of terms, including for example: "gender changer", "gender mender", "gender bender", and "gender blender". A specific gender changer can be referred to by either the gender of its connectors, or the gender which it is designed to connect to, resulting in a thoroughly ambiguous terminology. Thus a "male gender changer" might have female connectors to mate two male ends, or male connectors to mate two female ends.


title: Gender of connectors and fasteners

text: Adding to this potential for confusion, some gender changers also combine additional functions such as cross-over pin-outs or even embedding micro-controllers for performance, or for logic level or protocol adaptations, which would properly make them an adapter, but this nomenclature is sometimes neglected in marketing materials or common parlance.


title: Texas Chainsaw House

text: The Texas Chainsaw House is located in Kingsland, Texas, on the grounds of The Antlers Hotel. This 1900s Victorian house was featured prominently in Tobe Hooper's horror film "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" as the home of Leatherface and his cannibalistic family, before it was moved to this location from Williamson County in 1998. The then-dilapidated farm house originally sat on Quick Hill Road during the July–August 1973 filming of the movie. The original site is where La Frontera is now located, in Round Rock.


title: Texas Chainsaw House

text: In 1998, the house was cut into six pieces in order to be moved, then reassembled and restored to its original condition by master carpenter Anthony Mayfield on behalf of an investor couple in Austin, Texas. The house was a "pattern book" house, ordered from a catalog and assembled on site from a package of materials brought by wagon from a local lumber company. Research indicates it was likely built between 1908 and 1910.


title: Texas Chainsaw House

text: A densely overgrown identical twin of the house was later found at La Frontera as well, and it too was cut into pieces and moved, but to nearby Georgetown and restored. It is known locally as the Burkland-Frisk house as it was built by an early settler in Williamson County, Leonard Frisk, and was later owned by Tony Burkland, a relative of the Frisk family. The house originally sat across the street from the Texas Chainsaw House on Quick Hill Road, but it was later moved to another location within La Frontera and was not originally recognized as a twin because of the dilapidated condition of the house and it being completely overthrown with plants and trees. It was moved in 2006 and restored by the developers of La Frontera, Don Martin and Bill Smalling (1953–2008). It sits on San Gabriel Village Blvd prominently overlooking the South San Gabriel River and is used as an office.


title: Texas Chainsaw House

text: Replicas of the original house were built as sets for 2013-2017 film series, appearing in "Texas Chainsaw 3D" and its 2017 prequel "Leatherface" respectively.


title: Texas Chainsaw House

text: A duplicate of the house was also featured in a post-credits scene in "Texas Chainsaw Massacre", a 2022 sequel picking up several decades after the original film.


title: The Luminaries

text: The Luminaries is a 2013 novel by Eleanor Catton. Set in New Zealand's South Island in 1866, the novel follows Walter Moody, a prospector who travels to the West Coast settlement of Hokitika to make his fortune on the goldfields. Instead, he stumbles into a tense meeting between twelve local men, and is drawn into a complex mystery involving a series of unsolved crimes. The novel's complex structure is based on the system of Western astrology, with each of the twelve local men representing one of the twelve signs of the zodiac, and with another set of characters representing planets in the solar system.


title: The Luminaries

text: The novel has won many awards and honours, including the 2013 Booker Prize. It was adapted into the BBC/TVNZ miniseries "The Luminaries" in 2020. In 2022, it was included on the "Big Jubilee Read" list of 70 books by Commonwealth authors, selected to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II.


title: The Luminaries

text: The story begins with one of the book's protagonists, Walter Moody, arriving in the smoking room of the Crown Hotel after having encountered a horrific sight on his ship to Hokitika. There, he meets the twelve men who become the other protagonists of the book: Te Rau Tauwhare (a Māori greenstone hunter), Charlie Frost (a banker), Edgar Clinch (an hotelier), Benjamin Lowenthal (a newspaperman), Cowell Devlin (a chaplain), Sook Yongsheng (a hatter), Aubert Gascoigne (a justice's clerk), Joseph Pritchard (a chemist), Thomas Balfour (a shipping agent), Harald Nilssen (a commission merchant), Quee Long (a goldsmith), and Dick Mannering (a goldfields magnate).


title: The Luminaries

text: The twelve men inform Walter Moody about the mysterious events that have happened leading up to the current night, from their different perspectives. Some two weeks previously, Crosbie Wells, a little-known hermit, was found dead in his cabin by a politician named Alistair Lauderback on his way into town. Wells' death was apparently peaceful, but upon inspection, his cabin had several thousand pounds' worth of gold hidden inside it, as well as an unsigned deed (witnessed by Wells) which suggested that Emery Staines, a rich and likeable young man, was to pay £2,000 to Anna Wetherell, a prostitute well-known for frequenting the Chinatown areas of Hokitika. Upon the same night as Wells' body was found, Staines himself had disappeared, and Wetherell was found lying in the road unconscious, having apparently attempted suicide. She and Gascoigne discovered the next day that hundreds of pounds' worth of gold has been sewn into the lining of her dress by an unknown person.


title: The Luminaries

text: The council has met to discuss these and subsequent events, and the man who appears to be at the centre of all these occurrences is Francis Carver, a violent and scarred man who captained the "Godspeed", the ship in which Moody came to Hokitika, and who, nine months previously in Dunedin, had cheated Lauderback out of that same ship using the false name of Francis Crosbie Wells. Carver had blackmailed Lauderback by hiding a fortune of gold inside a shipment of five dresses under Lauderback's name; if Lauderback refused to give Carver the ship, Carver would have Lauderback arrested and imprisoned for smuggling undeclared gold. However, the shipping crate disappeared and washed up ashore, forcing Carver to arrive in Hokitika in search of the fortune. Anna unknowingly bought the dresses upon her arrival in Hokitika; one of her clients, Quee, discovered the gold in four of her dresses and secretly removed and replaced with leaden makeweights while she slept. However, because Anna never wore the fifth dress while engaging in prostitution, the gold in that dress remained. He then smelted the gold and submitted it to the bank, only to discover it had been stolen by Staines.


title: The Luminaries

text: After hearing and considering the tales of the other twelve men, Moody tells them his own story: he believes he saw the ghost of Emery Staines on the "Godspeed". As he tells them his story, the council is interrupted by one of Dick Mannering's servants telling them the ship has foundered just off-shore.


title: The Luminaries

text: Three weeks later, the wreckage of "Godspeed" is pulled up onto shore. Moody is mistakenly sent Alistair Lauderback's trunk, in which he finds letters revealing that Crosbie was Lauderback's half-brother, a bastard born to a prostitute mother. Crosbie had originally travelled to New Zealand in search of their father, and had attempted to contact Lauderback for years to no response. In the letters, he also reveals that he amassed an enormous fortune on the goldfields, only for the fortune to be subsequently stolen from him in circumstances he declines to divulge.


title: The Luminaries

text: Lydia Wells, Crosbie Wells' widow and Carver's mistress, announces that she plans to hold a séance to contact the ghost of Emery Staines. As an assistant, she hires Wetherell, who has recently given up prostitution, having paid off her debt to Edgar Clinch. Lydia claims to have befriended Wetherell when she first arrived in Dunedin, but keeps her under a tight watch and does not allow her out without supervision. Sook Yongsheng, Wetherell's opium dealer and friend, goes to visit her, and recognises Lydia as Carver's mistress. Sook had sworn revenge on Carver years earlier for murdering his father, and he will not rest until Carver is dead. Lydia insists that Sook attend the séance, where instead of channelling Staines, she speaks Cantonese and repeats Sook's promise to kill Carver many years before. After the séance, Sook goes to Carver's hotel to attempt to murder him. However, before he can execute his revenge, he is shot by George Shepard, the gaoler, in an act of revenge for his brother, whom Shepard believes was killed by Sook.


title: The Luminaries

text: On the very same night, Emery Staines appears in Crosbie Wells' cabin gravely wounded. Te Rau Tauwhare brings him back to town to get medical attention, where he is reunited with Anna Wetherell, who has also suffered some kind of injury. It is evident that the two of them have fallen in love. After they have recovered, Staines and Wetherell are charged with various crimes, and Moody agrees to act as their lawyer. The trial reveals the truths behind the crimes; amongst other things, that Carver and Lydia plotted together to steal Crosbie Wells' gold, that Carver bought the "Godspeed" by blackmailing Lauderback, and that Carver killed Wells by drugging him with laudanum. After the trial is over, Staines is sentenced to nine months of hard labour and Wetherell is acquitted. Carver is taken to prison but on the way is found murdered. It is implied that the murder was committed by Te Rau Tauwhare, using a greenstone patu, as vengeance for his old friend Crosbie Wells. Walter Moody finally leaves Hokitika to begin to prospect for gold.


title: The Luminaries

text: While planning the novel, Catton discovered there had been a triple conjunction in Sagittarius at the time the novel was set."As I tracked it over the year, I could see that certain planets were following each other and it set me to thinking about how I could put that into a story. Mercury, which is a planet that governs reason, was following just behind all the other players of the action. So I could build this narrative that the person who is trying to unravel the mysteries is one step behind it all."Catton used star charts from "Sky and Telescope" and the program Stellarium to reconstruct the night sky over the novel's time frame. She had up to that time had only a rudimentary understanding of astrology, but in the course of writing "The Luminaries" became "slightly obsessed"."I like to think of the zodiac as having a lot in common with the Greek pantheon: less of a thing to be believed in, and more of a repository of cultural knowledge and history that is archetypal, and mythic, and responsive to close study."Each of the twelve men who comprise the council in the first chapter of the book is a "stellar" character, associated with one of the twelve signs of the zodiac. The title of a chapter in which one of these men plays a major role invariably bears that man's sign. These titles also reflect the true positions of the planets or stars on the given dates.


title: The Luminaries

text: The conventional characteristics associated with each sign serve as a skeleton upon which Catton builds to create fully fledged characters. Te Rau Tauwhare is the only name on the list based on a real person; all others are fictional.


title: The Luminaries

text: The novel is divided into twelve sections, each shorter than the one before, to mimic the moon waning through its lunar cycle. Catton has described this as "like a wheel, a huge cartwheel, creaky at the beginning and spinning faster and faster as it goes."


title: The Luminaries

text: Aged 14, Catton and her father went on a tandem trip from their home in Christchurch over Arthur's Pass to the West Coast. This inspired her interest in the 1860s West Coast Gold Rush, and she started thinking about a story. She spent time in Hokitika while writing the book many years later. She was also inspired by her love of adventure mysteries for children and young adults, and after writing her first novel "The Rehearsal", which had no specific setting, wanted to write a book that was "firmly located in time and space". "The Luminaries" makes use of numerous real-life settings in 1866 Hokitika, including the "West Coast Times" office, Revell and Wharf Streets, and the former courthouse on Sewell Street; after its publication the town offered "Luminaries" walking tours and Hokitika Museum published a book of historical photos captioned with passages from the novel.