title: Hindupur

text: Hindupur is connected with the major cities in the region by road and by train. This includes National Highway 44, Bangalore Highway, Parigi Road, Lepakshi Road, Kadiri SH-61 Road (proposed to be a four lane highway in 2022), and Penukonda Road. Hindupur Railway Station (code – 'HUP') in the Bengaluru City Railway Station(KSR Bengaluru) stretch of the South Western Railway zone is one of the busiest in the route. The Penukonda–Hindupur and Hindupur Industrial Area maintained by Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation and Hindupur's surrounding stretch has a number of industries involved in manufacturing, pharmaceutical, automobile and IT which makes Hindupur as industrial town in State. Recently Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman laid foundation stone for construction of National Academy of Customs Indirect Taxes and Narcotics at Hindupur.


title: Hindupur

text: Legendary accounts say that Hindupur was founded by and named after Hindu Rao, the name that the father of Maratha General Murari Rao Ghorpade was known as.


title: Hindupur

text: Even in summers, the city experiences lower temperatures compared to the rest of the state due to its high elevation. Average annual rainfall is 551mm.


title: Hindupur

text: Hindupur is located at on the banks of completely dried Penna River. It has an average elevation of 2,037 feet (621 metres).


title: Hindupur

text: 2011 Census of India, the city had a population of 151,677, an increase of about 25,000 compared to the previous census in 2001, when it was 125,074. The population recorded in the 2011 census was made up of 76,625 males and 75,210 females — a sex ratio of 982 females per 1000 males, which is higher than the national average of 940 per 1000. 16,309 children were in the age group of 0–6 years, of which 8,263 were boys and 8,046 were girls. The average literacy rate stood at 76.40% with 103,538 literates, significantly higher than the state average of 67.41%. Telugu is the official and spoken language. Kannada is the second most spoken language since it shares the Karnataka State Border.


title: Hindupur

text: Clothes and retail (referred to locally as Mundy Merchants) are the most significant businesses, along with food producers and wholesalers. Hindupur has three privately run spinning mills and a food manufacturer called Kirikera Food Products Ltd.


title: Hindupur

text: The Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation operates bus services from Hindupur bus station. Hindupur railway station is administered under the Bangalore division of the South Western Railway zone. It is located in the Guntakal–Bangalore section of Indian Railways. The nearest Airport is Bangalore International Airport, which is 90 Kms away and Puttaparthi Private Airport, which is 70 Kms away. Krishnapatnam Port is located around 350 km from the town.


title: Hindupur

text: There are many government and privately administered schools across the city. The primary and secondary school education is imparted by government aided and private schools, under the "School Education Department" of the state. There are government aided institutions like Government Polytechnic Hindupur and other private and government degree colleges and one private engineering college (soon the college closing down). Despite being biggest town in District, the town does not have a government Intermediate College for Boys, Government Degree College for Boys, Government Diploma College for Boys, for Engineering Graduate courses one has to go to Ananapur. The town was so poor in education infrastructure. Schools teach in several languages, including English, Telugu, Urdu and Kannada.


title: Kwa Geok Choo

text: Kwa Geok Choo (; 21 December 1920 – 2 October 2010) was a Singaporean lawyer. She was the wife of former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew and the mother of current Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. She was also the co-founder and partner of law firm Lee & Lee.


title: Kwa Geok Choo

text: Kwa was the daughter of Kwa Siew Tee, former general manager of Oversea-Chinese Bank and Singapore Municipal Commissioner who was a Tong'anese on his paternal side who also had a Teochew mother, and Wee Yew Neo, Geok Choo's Teochew mother was from Shantou. Kwa attended the Methodist Girls' School, Raffles Institution and Raffles College, and was a Queen's Scholar of Malaya. According to Lee Kuan Yew's memoirs, by 1939, Kwa and Lee were both top students in Raffles, often coming first and second in exams. They continued their courtship during the Japanese occupation when their studies were disrupted. After the war, Kwa resumed her studies at Raffles College in 1946 while Lee left Singapore to pursue his law degree at the University of Cambridge. Kwa was admitted to Girton College in 1947, after Lee petitioned for her, saying she was "a very bright girl, brighter than I was". She graduated with first-class honours in 1949 and was called to the bar in the subsequent year. She returned to Singapore and was admitted to the Colony Bar in 1951. Kwa was one of the few female lawyers of the country then, practising at Laycock & Ong.


title: Kwa Geok Choo

text: Kwa married Lee in secret in London in 1947 and then remarried in Singapore on 30 September 1950. They had two sons – Lee Hsien Loong and Lee Hsien Yang – and a daughter – Lee Wei Ling. Her brother, Kwa Soon Bee, served as a Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health. She had three sisters: Mrs Cheah, a teacher at Methodist Girls' School; Mrs Yong, the wife of Yong Nyuk Lin; and Mrs Earnest Lau, who was also a teacher at Methodist Girls School.


title: Kwa Geok Choo

text: On 1 September 1955, Kwa founded law firm Lee & Lee with Lee Kuan Yew and Dennis Lee Kim Yew. Kwa practised conveyancing and legal draftsmanship. She retired from partnership in 1987 but stayed on as a consultant thereafter.


title: Kwa Geok Choo

text: During Lee's years as Prime Minister and Senior Minister, Kwa was frequently seen with her husband, especially on diplomatic trips and meetings with other foreign ministers. After suffering two strokes in May and June 2008, she was bedridden and developed locked-in syndrome, being unable to speak, but remained conscious and able to understand speech.


title: Kwa Geok Choo

text: Kwa was a founding member of the People’s Action Party (PAP) and helped to draft the PAP Constitution. She made her first political speech on Radio Malaya on PAP's policy on women before the 1959 elections, advocating equal pay for women and for monogamous marriages. She mostly stayed out of the political limelight throughout her husband's career.


title: Kwa Geok Choo

text: When Singapore separated from the Malaysian Federation, Kwa drafted the clauses in the Separation Agreement for the guarantee of the water agreements between the Malaysian state of Johor and Singapore. This guarantee was done via an amendment to the Federal Constitution of Malaysia.


title: Kwa Geok Choo

text: Kwa was also a pioneer advocate of women's rights in Singapore. She spoke on family planning, and supported legal protection for women. Together with other women’s activists such as Chan Choy Siong, Kwa's suggestions were included into the landmark 1961 Women’s Charter, which sought to improve and protect the legal rights of women.


title: Kwa Geok Choo

text: Kwa died in her sleep at home, following a long illness on 2 October 2010 around 05:40 AM hours SST. She was given a state funeral and cremated at Mandai Crematorium on 7 October 2010.


title: Kwa Geok Choo

text: In 2011, the Singapore Management University named its new law library, a new scholars programme and a top law graduate award after Kwa. In the same year, the National University of Singapore established a professorship in property law, a distinguished visitors programme, bursaries and scholarships in her honour. Nanyang Girls' High School also unveiled a bust of Kwa at its Yu Zhi Library, which is named after her. Her alma mater, the Methodist Girls' School, named their auditorium in her honour after it was refurbished in 2011.


title: Kwa Geok Choo

text: In 2011, former "Far Eastern Economic Review" comic artist Morgan Chua released "In Memory of Kwa Geok Choo (1920-2010)", a book of sketches and political cartoons in tribute to her.


title: Kwa Geok Choo

text: In October 2014, the Madame Tussauds Singapore museum unveiled wax figures of Kwa and Lee Kuan Yew seated and smiling together against a backdrop of red flowers formed in the shape of two hearts. The statues were created based on a photograph that was taken by Kwa's niece, Kwa Kim Li, of the pair on Valentine's Day in 2008 at Sentosa.


title: Kwa Geok Choo

text: In the same month, Cultural Medallion recipient Tan Swie Hian completed a painting of Kwa and Lee Kuan Yew entitled "A Couple". The painting, which took Tan five years to complete, was partially damaged by a fire in 2013. It depicts Kwa and Lee in their youth, is based on a 1946 black-and-white photograph of the couple in the University of Cambridge, and incorporates in its background Tan's poem written in memory of Kwa. Tan said, "I have always felt [Madam Kwa] was a great woman who, despite her intelligence and capability, was also a humble and dedicated wife." "A Couple" was donated to the National Library of Singapore in 2017 and is displayed at the National Library Building in Victoria Street.


title: Kwa Geok Choo

text: In 2022, Toy Factory Productions produced a play, "Madam Kwa Geok Choo", a monologue where Tan Rui Shan protrayed as Kwa.


title: Robotic arm

text: A robotic arm is a type of mechanical arm, usually programmable, with similar functions to a human arm; the arm may be the sum total of the mechanism or may be part of a more complex robot. The links of such a manipulator are connected by joints allowing either rotational motion (such as in an articulated robot) or translational (linear) displacement. The links of the manipulator can be considered to form a kinematic chain. The terminus of the kinematic chain of the manipulator is called the end effector and it is analogous to the human hand. However, the term "robotic hand" as a synonym of the robotic arm is often proscribed.


title: Robotic arm

text: In space, the Canadarm and its successor Canadarm2 are examples of multi degree of freedom robotic arms. These robotic arms have been used to perform a variety of tasks such as inspection of the Space Shuttle using a specially deployed boom with cameras and sensors attached at the end effector, and also satellite deployment and retrieval manoeuvres from the cargo bay of the Space Shuttle.


title: Robotic arm

text: The "Curiosity" and "Perseverance" rovers on the planet Mars also use robotic arms. Additionally, "Perseverance" has a smaller sample caching arm hidden inside its body below the rover in its caching assembly.


title: Robotic arm

text: TAGSAM is a robotic arm for collecting a sample from a small asteroid in space on the spacecraft OSIRIS-REx.


title: Robotic arm

text: The 2018 Mars lander InSight has a robotic arm called the IDA, it has camera, grappler, is used to move special instruments.


title: Robotic arm

text: In the decade of 2010 the availability of low-cost robotic arms increased substantially. Although such robotic arms are mostly marketed as hobby or educational devices, applications in laboratory automation have been proposed, like their use as autosamplers.


title: Robotic arm

text: A serial robot arm can be described as a chain of links that are moved by joints which are actuated by motors. An end-effector, also called a robot hand, can be attached to the end of the chain. As other robotic mechanisms, robot arms are typically classified in terms of the number of degrees of freedom. Usually, the number of degrees of freedom is equal to the number of joints that move the links of the robot arm. At least six degrees of freedom are required to enable the robot hand to reach an arbitrary pose (position and orientation) in three dimensional space. Additional degrees of freedom allow to change the configuration of some link on the arm (e.g., elbow up/down), while keeping the robot hand in the same pose. Inverse kinematics is the mathematical process to calculate the configuration of an arm, typically in terms of joint angles, given a desired pose of the robot hand in three dimensional space.


title: Robotic arm

text: The end effector, or robotic hand, can be designed to perform any desired task such as welding, gripping, spinning etc., depending on the application. For example, robot arms in automotive assembly lines perform a variety of tasks such as welding and parts rotation and placement during assembly. In some circumstances, close emulation of the human hand is desired, as in robots designed to conduct bomb disarmament and disposal.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: Somerville College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England, was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of its first two women's colleges. Among its alumnae have been Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, Dorothy Hodgkin, Iris Murdoch, Vera Brittain and Dorothy L. Sayers. It began admitting men in 1994. Its library is one of Oxford's largest college libraries. The college's liberal tone derives from its founding by social liberals, as Oxford's first non-denominational college for women, unlike the Anglican Lady Margaret Hall, the other to open that year. In 1964, it was among the first to cease locking up at night to stop students staying out late. No gowns are worn at formal halls.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: In 2021 it was recognised as a sanctuary campus by City of Sanctuary UK. It is one of three colleges to offer undergraduates on-site lodging throughout their course. It stands near the Science Area, University Parks, Oxford University Press, Jericho and Green Templeton, St Anne's, Keble and St Benet's. Over a third of its 650 students are not from the UK. Over half the UK admissions are from state schools – close to the university average. Its total net assets in 2021 were £238 million, the seventh highest of an Oxford undergraduate college. Its sister college at Cambridge is Girton.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: In June 1878, the "Association for the Higher Education of Women" was formed, aiming for the eventual creation of a college for women in Oxford. Some of the more prominent members of the association were George Granville Bradley, Master of University College, T. H. Green, a prominent liberal philosopher and Fellow of Balliol College, and Edward Stuart Talbot, Warden of Keble College. Talbot insisted on a specifically Anglican institution, which was unacceptable to most of the other members. The two parties eventually split, and Talbot's group (the "Christ Church camp") founded Lady Margaret Hall, which opened its doors for students in 1879, the same year as Somerville did.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: Thus, in 1879, a second committee was formed to create a college "in which no distinction will be made between students on the ground of their belonging to different religious denominations." This committee was called the "Balliol camp" and had close ties to the Liberal Party. This second committee included A. H. D. Acland, Thomas Hill Green, George William Kitchin, James Legge, Henry Nettleship, Walter Pater, Henry Francis Pelham, its chairman John Percival, Grace Prestwich, Eleanor Smith, A. G. Vernon Harcourt, and Mary Ward. Other people who assisted in the founding were Anna Swanwick, Bertha Johnson, Charlotte Byron Green, and Owen Roberts.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: This new effort resulted in the founding of "Somerville Hall", named after the then recently deceased Scottish mathematician and renowned scientific writer Mary Somerville. It was felt that the name would reflect the virtues of liberalism and academic success which the college wished to embody. She was admired by the founders of the college as a scholar, as well as for her religious and political views, including her conviction that women should have equality in terms of suffrage and access to education.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: Madeleine Shaw-Lefevre was chosen as the first principal because, though not a well-known academic at the time, her background was felt to reflect the college's political stance. Because of its status as both women's college and non-denominational institution, Somerville was widely regarded within Oxford as "an eccentric and somewhat alarming institution."


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: When opened, Somerville Hall had twelve students, ranging in age between 17 and 36. The first 21 students from Somerville and Lady Margaret Hall attended lectures in rooms above a baker's shop on Little Clarendon Street. Just two of the original 12 students admitted in 1879 remained in Oxford for three years, the period of residence required for male students to complete a bachelor's degree.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: Increasingly, however, as the college admitted more students, it became more formalized. Somerville appointed Lilla Haigh as its first in-house tutor in 1882, and by the end of the 1890s female students were permitted to attend lectures in almost all colleges. In 1891 it became the first women's hall to introduce entrance exams and in 1894 the first of the five women's halls of residence to adopt the title of college (changing its name to Somerville College), the first of them to appoint its own teaching staff, and the first to build a library. In Oxford legend it soon became known as the "bluestocking college", its excellent examination results refuting the widespread belief that women were incapable of high academic achievement.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: In the 1910s, Somerville became known for its support for the women's suffrage campaign. In 1920, Oxford University allowed women to matriculate and therefore gain degrees. From the college's inception, all female students had to be chaperoned when in the presence of male students. The practice was abolished in 1925, although male visitors to the college were still subject to a curfew. In the same year the college was granted its charter.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: "The Mutual Admiration Society (MAS)" was a literary society (or literary circle) of women who became friends at Somerville College. Its members included Dorothy L. Sayers, Muriel St Clare Byrne, Charis Frankenburg, Dorothy Rowe, and Amphilis Throckmorton Middlemore, among others.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: The society of the title was a real club. The members composed poetry and prose for each other's pleasure. Apart from Sayers, none of them was a household name, though all were notable. Mo Moulton argued in their Agatha Award-winning book, "The Mutual Admiration Society: How Dorothy L. Sayers and Her Oxford Circle Remade the World For Women", that each one lived a life worthy of attention.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: Years later, the writer Vera Brittain — a Somerville contemporary of the group, but not one of its members — recalled that the MAS “took themselves very seriously”.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: During the First World War, Somerville College together with the Examination Schools and other Oxford buildings were requisitioned by the War Office to create the Third Southern General Hospital, a facility for the Royal Army Medical Corps to treat military casualties. For the duration of the war, Somerville students relocated to Oriel College. Because many male students had left Oxford to enlist in the military, Somerville was able to rent St Mary Hall Quad which they bricked off from the rest of the college to segregate it from Oriel's remaining male students. Many students and tutors were involved in work in World War I and some of them went to the Western Front in France.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: Notable patients who stayed in Somerville include the war poets Robert Graves, Siegfried Sassoon and R. E. Vernède. Sassoon arrived on 2 August 1916. Graves and Sassoon were both to reminisce of their time at Somerville Hospital: "How unlike you to crib my idea of going to the Ladies' College at Oxford", Sassoon wrote to Graves in 1917, and called it "very much like Paradise". At Somerville College, Graves met his first love, a nurse and professional pianist called Marjorie. About his time at Somerville, he wrote: "I enjoyed my stay at Somerville. The sun shone, and the discipline was easy". Alfred Mills was received in the hospital in 1916 and officer Llewelyn Davies died at the college.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: Once the war ended, the return to normality between Oriel and Somerville was delayed, sparking both frustration and an incident in spring 1919 known as the "Oriel raid," in which male students made a hole in the wall dividing the sexes. In July 1919 the principal (Emily Penrose) and fellows returned to Somerville. Alumna Vera Brittain wrote about the impact of the war in Oxford and paid tribute to the work of the principal, Miss Penrose, in her memoir "Testament of Youth".


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: Starting in the 1970s, the traditionally all-male colleges in Oxford began to admit female students. Since it was assumed that recruiting from a wider demographic would guarantee better students, there was pressure on single-sex colleges to change their policy to avoid falling down the rankings. All-female colleges, like Somerville, found it increasingly difficult to attract good applicants and fell to the bottom of the intercollegiate academic rankings during the period.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: During the 1980s, there was much debate as to whether women's colleges should become mixed. Somerville remained a women's college until 1992, when its statutes were amended to permit male students and fellows; the first male fellows were appointed in 1993, and the first male students admitted in 1994. Somerville became the second-to-last college (after St Hilda's) to become coeducational. A 50 per cent male/female gender balance has been maintained to this day, though without formal quotas.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: The college and its main entrance, the Porters' Lodge, are located at the southern end of Woodstock Road, with Little Clarendon Street to the south, Walton Street to the west and the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter to the north. The front of the college runs between the Oxford Oratory and the Faculty of Philosophy. Somerville has buildings of various architectural styles, many of which bear the names of former principals of the college, located around one of Oxford's biggest quads. Five buildings are Grade II-listed.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: A 2017 archaeological evaluation of the site shows that in the medieval period the area now occupied by Somerville lay in fields beyond the boundary of Oxford. There is evidence of 17th-century building and earthworks beneath the site, some of which almost certainly relates to the defensive network placed around the city by Royalists during the Civil War. There are also remains of some 19th-century buildings, including a stone-lined well.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: The original building of Somerville Hall, Walton House (commonly called House) was built in 1826 and purchased from St John's College in 1880 amid fears that the men's colleges might, in the future, repossess the site for their own purposes. The house could only accommodate seven of the twelve students who came up to Oxford in the first year. In 1881, Sir Thomas Graham Jackson was commissioned to build a new south wing which could accommodate eleven more students. In 1892, Walter Cave added a north wing and an extra storey. He also installed a gatehouse at the Woodstock Road entrance. In 1897/98, the Eleanor Smith Cottages were added, adjoining Walton House.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: Today House is home to only one or two students, and, until 2014, it housed the college bar. It also contains Green Hall, where guests to college are often greeted and in which prospective students are registered and wait for interviews; some of the college's paintings by Roger Fry are located here. Most of the administration of college, and the academic pigeon-holes are in House, as is the Mary Somerville Room, a reception room featuring paintings by Mary Somerville, George Romney and George Frederic Watts.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: Originally known as West, from its location in the college, the idea of building a second self-contained hall was inspired by Newnham College, Cambridge. It was designed by Harry Wilkinson Moore and built in two stages. The 1885–1887 phase saw the construction of rooms for 18 students with their own dining-room, sitting rooms and vice-principal. This was a deliberate policy aimed at replicating the family environment that the women students had left. It had the effect of turning House and West into rivals. The second building stage (1888–1894) created two sets of tutors' rooms, a further 19 rooms and the West Lodge (now Park Lodge). In 2004 it was renamed Park in honour of Daphne Park, Principal from 1980 to 1989.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: Today there are over 60 student and fellows' rooms in the building along with a music room and a computer room. Park is a Grade II-listed building.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: The Grade II-listed library designed by Basil Champneys in 1903 was opened by John Morley the following year. Specially for the opening, "Demeter" was written by Robert Bridges and performed for the first time. Somerville Library was the first purpose-built library in the women's colleges of the university. With some foresight it was designed to contain 60,000 volumes, although the college only possessed 6,000 when it opened. It now holds around 120,000 items (95,000 on open shelves), as one of the largest college libraries in the university.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: Amelia Edwards, John Stuart Mill, John Ruskin and Vera Brittain have been notable benefactors to the library. It contains paintings by Mary Somerville, John Constable, Maud Sumner and Patrick George.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: The John Stuart Mill room contains what was Mill's personal library in London at the time of his death, with annotations in many of the books.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: The library dominates the north wing of the main quadrangle, having been designed to bring the college together, and is open 24 hours, with access to college-wide wifi, a group study room, and computing and printing facilities. It gives full satisfaction according to several annual student surveys.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: There was no hall large enough to seat the entire college until 1911, when Maitland Hall and Maitland, designed by Edmund Fisher in Queen Anne style and Edwardian Baroque, were opened by H. A. L. Fisher, the Vice-Chancellor of the university and Gilbert Murray. Murray, whose translations of Greek drama were performed at Somerville in 1912 and 1946, supported Somerville in many ways, including endowing its first research fellowship. A fund was raised as a memorial to Miss Maitland, Principal of Somerville Hall (College from 1894) from 1889 to 1906, and the money was used to pay for oak panelling in Hall. The panelling of the south wall was designed to frame a portrait of Mary Somerville by John Jackson. The buildings were constructed on the site of an adjoining building gifted to Somerville by E. J. Forester in 1897 and bought from University and Balliol Colleges for £4,000 and £1,400 respectively. There was difficulty in constructing the buildings, now thought to have resulted from the outer limit of the Oxford city fortifications running under the site. In 1935, Morley Horder reconstructed the archway connecting Maitland Hall and the south wing of Walton House, creating a Reading Room off the main hall; in 1947, André Gide gave a lecture that filled both these rooms and the staircase and quadrangle outside.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: Somerville's is the one Oxford dining hall where all portraits show women. They were painted by Michael Noakes, Herbert James Gunn, George Percy Jacomb-Hood, William Coldstream, John Whittall, Francis Helps, Claude Rogers, Humphrey Ocean, Thomas Leveritt and Richard Twose.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: Hall and Maitland form the east face of the main quad, as Grade II-listed buildings. The Senior Common Room is situated on the ground floor. The first floor holds the pantry and the hall, in which Formal Hall (called guest night) is held weekly in term time.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: Maitland now houses few students, being mainly occupied by fellows' offices and the college IT office. The building, named after Principal Agnes Maitland, stands to the south of Hall.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: The Penrose block was designed by Harold Rogers in 1925 and its first students were installed in 1927. A row of poplars had to be removed in 1926 to construct the south-western end of the main quadrangle on the site of 119 and 119A Walton Street. It was refurbished in 2014, with carpets replacing the bare wooden floorboards, and new furniture. Penrose is named after Dame Emily Penrose, third Principal of the college. It contains mainly first-year accommodation in about 30 rooms.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: Darbishire Quad was the culmination of a long-standing project to absorb Woodstock Road properties above the Oxford Oratory. In 1920, three houses (29, 31 and 33) were bought by the college from the vicar of St Giles' Church, Oxford for £1,300. The three had been constructed in 1859 and rented by the college before the purchase. The adjoining "Waggon and Horses" pub was purchased from St John's College in 1923. These buildings were demolished in 1932–1933 together with the old Gate House.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: Morley Horder was commissioned to build a quadrangle that would fill the space left by the demolished structures, using a loan of £12,000 from Christ Church. The porters' lodge and New Council Room were constructed at the entrance to the quad, which housed undergraduates and fellows. The coat of arms of Somerville and of co-founder John Percival, first Principal Madeleine Shaw-Lefevre and Helen Darbishire were carved by Edmund Ware inside the quadrangle. The archway leading to Hall was added in 1938.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: Originally the East Quadrangle, it was opened in June 1934 by Lord Halifax as "a notable addition to buildings of varying styles" ("varii generis aedificiia additamentum nobile") in the Creweian Oration during the Encaenia. Darbishire was renamed in 1962 in honour of the principal of the college during its construction, Helen Darbishire.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: Today Darbishire contains some 50 student rooms, along with tutors' offices, the college archive and a medical room. The offices of the Global Ocean Commission, co-chaired by José María Figueres, Trevor Manuel and David Miliband, were housed in Darbishire as part of a partnership with Somerville in 2012–2016, when the organisation completed its work.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: Darbishire Quad is described on the opening page of "Gaudy Night" by alumna Dorothy L. Sayers. The clock was donated by alumna Eleanor Rathbone.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: Built largely with funds provided by alumna Emily Georgiana Kemp in 1935, Somerville Chapel reflects the non-denominational principle on which the college was founded in 1879. No religious tests were used for admission and non-denominational Christian prayers were said in college.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: Instead of a chaplain, there is a "Chapel Director", in keeping with its non-denominational tradition. The chapel provides opportunities for Christian worship in addition to hosting speakers with a multiple range of religious perspectives. It holds an excellent mixed-voice Choir of Somerville College, which tours and issues occasional recordings.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: Hostel is a small block between House and Darbishire completed in 1950 by Geddes Hyslop. It houses 10 students on three floors. The Bursary is on the ground floor.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: Holtby, designed in 1951 and completed in 1956 by Hyslop, lies above the library extension, adjacent to Park. It has ten rooms for undergraduates and is named after the alumna Winifred Holtby.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: Designed by Sir Philip Dowson between 1958 and 1966, Vaughan and Margery Fry & Elizabeth Nuffield House (commonly shortened to Margery Fry) are both named for former principals of the college, while Elizabeth Nuffield was an important proponent of women's education and along with her husband Lord Nuffield, a financial benefactor of the college. Margery Fry was opened in 1964 by Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit and Vaughan in 1966. Constructed in the same architectural style, with an exterior concrete frame standing away from the walls of the interior edifice, the two buildings overlie a podium of shops and an arcaded walkway in Little Clarendon Street.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: Vaughan is the larger of the two, with eleven rows to its concrete frame compared to eight. It is Grade II-listed and contains some 60 undergraduate rooms, smaller than those of Margery Fry and used exclusively for first-year students, along with the junior deans. Vaughan was refurbished in 2013, with new bathroom facilities, including, for the first time, sinks. Beneath the two buildings, a tunnel provides access to Somerville from Little Clarendon Street.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: Margery Fry serves as the centre of the postgraduate student community at Somerville, with 24 graduate rooms. Other accommodation for graduate students is provided in buildings adjacent to the college.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: Sir Philip Dowson was commissioned to design a building at the back of the college to house undergraduates and offices for fellows and Wolfson. Like his other work in Somerville, it is constructed largely of glass and concrete; it is also Grade II listed. A four-storey building with five bays on each floor, Wolfson has impressive views of Walton Street from the rear and Somerville's main quadrangle from the front. Wolfson is named after the building's main benefactor, Sir Isaac Wolfson, and was opened in 1967 by Principal Barbara Craig, with Harold Macmillan, Dorothy Hodgkin and Lord Wolfson giving speeches.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: The ground floor contains the Flora Anderson Hall (FAH) and Brittain-Williams Room, named after Vera Brittain and Shirley Williams, the college's most famous mother-daughter alumnae. The room was designed in 2012 by the architect Niall McLaughlin and opened on 29 November 2013 by Williams at an event that included her unveiling a portrait of herself, which now hangs in the room. The FAH is used for lectures and events, notably college parties (or bops) and mock exams, known as Collections.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: Named after the alumna-Prime Minister, the MTC comprises a lecture room, ante room and lobby used for meetings, conferences and other internal college events. The lecture room has full AV facilities and for 60 seated patrons. A bust of Margaret Thatcher stands in the lobby and the meeting room has portraits of Somerville's two prime-minister alumnae: of Margaret Thatcher by Michael Noakes and Indira Gandhi by Sanjay Bhattacharyya.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: The Dorothy Hodgkin Quad (DHQ) was conceived in 1985, completed in 1991 and named after Somerville's Nobel Prize-winner. The quadrangle is above the MTC and designed around self-contained flats of two and four bedrooms with communal kitchens, housing mainly finalists and some second-year students.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: Architect Geoffrey Beard's scheme was submitted to Oxford City Council in 1986 and the energies of Sir Geoffrey Leigh and alumna and former principal Baroness Daphne Park brought support from around the world. The buildings were opened in 1991 by Margaret Thatcher, Dorothy Hodgkin, Principal Catherine Hughes and College Visitor Baron Roy Jenkins.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: Somerville College was the first Oxford college to provide a nursery for children of Fellows and staff and is still one of the few colleges to do so. Alumna Dorothy Hodgkin donated much of her Nobel Prize money to the project. St Paul's Nursery is also open to families unconnected with the college and cares for 16 children between the ages of three months and five years.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: ROQ East and West flank the north side of Somerville and overlook the site of the university's new Blavatnik School of Government and Mathematical Institute. Completed in 2011, they were the first new buildings in the university's Radcliffe Observatory Quarter and have won four awards for their architect Niall McLaughlin. The project was also awarded Oxford City Council's David Steel Sustainable Building Award, being commended for balancing Somerville's collegiate heritage with the need for energy efficiency. Energy-efficiency measures include renewable technologies such as solar thermal energy and ground source heat pumps.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: The buildings house 68 students in en-suite rooms. There are several rooms and facilities designed to help those with disabilities, including lifts and adjoining carer rooms. The buildings were funded by donations of over £2.7 million from over 1,000 alumni and friends of the college and by a significant loan. There is now an unimpeded view of the Radcliffe Observatory.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: The bar and café of the college, The Terrace, opened in 2013 (replacing the old bar in House) and is attached to the Vaughan building. It is housed in a mainly glass structure, with seating in the college colours of red and black. It has an open-air terrace looking down on Little Clarendon Street. The Terrace has the usual pool table and bar facilities and serves the college drink, "Stone-cold Jane Austen", consisting of blue VK, Southern Comfort, and Magners cider, as well as the "College Triple" and the non-alcoholic "Somerville Sunset".


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: Named after Somerville's late principal in 1989–1996, the Catherine Hughes Building was completed in October 2019 and provides 68 additional bedrooms. Designed by Niall McLaughlin Architects, it includes en suite bathrooms, kitchens and accessible rooms on every floor and a new communal study area for graduate students.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: The red-brick building has a frontage onto Walton Street and additional access from the college gardens, aligning with key levels on the adjacent Penrose Building. The bedrooms are arranged in clusters with kitchens and circulation spaces forming social focal points.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: The building's construction has given Somerville sufficient accommodation to be one of three Oxford colleges which can allow all students applying from 2017 to live in college for the entirety of their three or four-year undergraduate degree courses.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: Somerville is one of few Oxford colleges where students may walk on the grass. An unassuming frontage opens onto a vast green space looked after by two gardeners. The original site consisted of a paddock, an orchard and a vegetable garden and was bounded by large trees. It was home to a donkey, two cows, a pony and a pig. The paddock was soon transformed into tennis courts, where huge tents were erected during World War I. During World War II, large water tanks were dug in the Main Quad and in Darbishire Quad in case of firebombing, and the lawns dug up and planted with vegetables.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: In the Main or Library Quad has a cedar planted by Harold Macmillan in 1976, after an earlier cedar fell victim to a winter storm. Another tree, a "Picea likiangensis" (var. "rubescens"), was planted in 2007 on the chapel lawn, providing Somerville with an outdoor Christmas tree. The library border of lavender and "Agapanthus" references the bluestocking reputation of Somerville. The tory blue "Ceratostigma willmottianum" stands outside the Margaret Thatcher Centre. The garden outside the Thatcher Centre, now dedicated to Lisa Minoprio, was originally designed by the former director of the Oxford Botanic Garden and Lecturer in Plant Sciences Timothy Walker, and retains yellow and blue as its theme colours.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: There are nods to Somerville's long-standing links with India, the most notable being a large specimen of the Indian horse chestnut, "Aesculus indica", planted on the Library lawn in 2019. Features of interest include a narrow bed of low-growing Mediterranean plants in front of Wolfson in a modernist style, a varied selection of mature trees in the Library Quad, and large herbaceous borders containing emblematic Somerville thistles ("Echinops").


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: The annual summer and winter bedding plants in Darbishire Quad, the beds outside the SCR, and those in pots around site have traditionally been in the Victorian style, to reflect the era of inception of the college. However, this is evolving due to a change in garden management in late 2019, with aims of following more environmentally friendly growing principles and developing a more contemporary style. The western wall of Penrose and the northern wall of Vaughan form a secluded area, historically known as the Fellows' Garden (currently in a transitional phase). It is distinct from the main quad and separated from it by a hedge and a wall, and which were previously kitchen gardens. This walled garden is home to a sundial, commissioned in 1926 and commemorating first principal Madeleine Shaw-Lefevre, and a garden roller gifted by the parents of tutor Rose Sidgwick.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: In 1962, Henry Moore lent his work "Falling Warrior" to the college and Barbara Hepworth lent "Core" shortly afterwards. There are also permanent sculptures by Wendy Taylor, Friedrich Werthmann and Somervillian Polly Ionides. The most striking sculpture on site is Taylor's "Triad" (1971), situated on the Chapel Lawn in front of Maitland building.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: In 2011 student satisfaction was rated in some categories as the highest in the university. Central to it is its large quad, onto which most accommodation blocks back; it is often filled with students in summer. Somerville is one of the few Oxford colleges where students (as opposed to just fellows) may walk on the grass. Somerville is sometimes nicknamed "The Ville". Formal Halls take place on some Tuesdays and Fridays about six times a term. No gowns are worn and the grace is "Benedictus benedicat". The college song is "Omnes laetae nunc sodales".


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: Somerville has a gym beneath Vaughan with treadmills, cross-trainers and weights. It shares a sports ground with Wadham College and St Hugh's College, in Marston Ferry Road. There are clubs and teams in men's and women's football, rugby (with Corpus Christi), mixed lacrosse, cricket, swimming, hockey, netball, basketball, pool, water polo, tennis, squash, badminton, cycling and croquet.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: Both the Somerville cricket and netball team won Cuppers for the 2014/15 season. The swimming team won Cuppers for the 2015/16 season.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: Somerville formed a rowing team in 1921. It competes in both of the annual university bumps races, Torpids and Summer Eights. The women are the most successful women's rowing team at the university, having won the title Head of the River eight times in Summer Eights and five times in Torpids. The club shares the award-winning University College Boathouse on The Isis with St Peter's College, University College and Wolfson College.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: The Choir of Somerville College is mixed voice and led by the Director of Chapel Music, Will Dawes. In conjunction with the organ scholars, the choir is central to the musical life at the college.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: There are regular concerts and cathedral visits, and recitals featuring soloists from the choir. In recent years it has toured Germany (2005 and 2009), Italy (2010) and the United States (2014 and 2016). It sings every term-time Sunday at the evening service. The organ of the college chapel is a traditionally voiced instrument by Harrison & Harrison.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: The college choir has released two CDs on the Stone Records label, "Requiem Aeternam" (2012) and "Advent Calendar" (2013).


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: Once every three years, Somerville hosts a ball jointly with Jesus College, Oxford. The last, for 1500 people, was held in May 2019 and the next ball will come in 2022.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: However, the 2013 ball, "The Last Ball", was mired in controversy reported in national news. The organisers had intended to display a live nurse shark as entertainment. Permission for the shark was initially granted by the principal Alice Prochaska, but was subsequently revoked following student protests. The ball was widely condemned for poor organisation, examples of which included a lack of canapés and the presence of only one food stand, serving pork; the vegetarian options were said to run out quickly and revellers were reportedly set on fire by the pork rôtisserie. "The Guardian" reported "The ball descended into farce with guests questioning what the organisers had done with the money paid by 1,000 guests."


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: Before men were admitted Somerville, under the principalship of Barbara Craig, established a position at or near the head of the Norrington Table. Currently Somerville is in the lower half of the university's colleges for academic achievement. For the academic year 2018/19, it came 21st out of 30 in the Norrington Table, which lists the university's undergraduate colleges in order of their students' examination performances. The college has been recognized as a University College of Sanctuary by the UK charity City of Sanctuary, and offers a fully-funded postgraduate Sanctuary scholarship.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: Somerville has had recent success disproportionate to its size on the TV quiz show "University Challenge". It won the competition once, triumphing in the University Challenge 2001–02 series by beating Imperial College, London by 200 points to 185. Croatian quizzer Dorjana Širola was one of the contestants. Recently the college team reached the final of the University Challenge 2013–14 series, losing in the final to Trinity College, Cambridge, with a score of 135 to 240.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: Somerville College plays a major role in relations between Oxford and India. Cornelia Sorabji, born in the Bombay Presidency of British India, became the first Indian woman to study at any British university, when she came to Somerville in 1889 to read law, while Indira Gandhi, India's first female prime minister, read Modern History at the college in 1937. Radhabai Subbarayan, the first woman member of the Indian Council of States (Rajya Sabha) studied at Somerville College as well, as did princess Bamba Sutherland, the last surviving member of a family that had ruled the Sikh Empire in the Punjab, and her sister Catherine Hilda Duleep Singh. Other alumni with links to India include Moon Moon Sen, Agnes de Selincourt, Smit Singh, Gurmehar Kaur, Hilda Stewart Reid and Utsa Patnaik. Former principal Barbara Craig (1967–1980) and fellow Aditi Lahiri were born in Kolkata.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: Sonia Gandhi visited Somerville in 2002 and presented a portrait of her late mother-in-law to her alma mater. Indira Gandhi received an honorary degree from the college in 1971.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: In 2012, the college and Oxford University announced a £19-million "Indira Gandhi Centre for Sustainable Development". India provided £3 million and the university and college £5.5 million. The name was later changed to the "Oxford India Centre for Sustainable Development" (OICSD). The OICSD carries out research on sustainable development challenges facing India and provides scholarships for outstanding Indian students. The centre now hosts 12 India scholars. A new building is planned in the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter, adjacent to the college's ROQ accommodation.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: Somervillians include Prime Ministers Margaret Thatcher and Indira Gandhi, Nobel Prize winning scientist Dorothy Hodgkin, television personalities Esther Rantzen and Susie Dent, reformer Cornelia Sorabji, writers Marjorie Boulton, A. S. Byatt, Vera Brittain, Susan Cooper, Penelope Fitzgerald, Winifred Holtby, Nicole Krauss, Iris Murdoch and Dorothy L. Sayers, politicians Shirley Williams, Thérèse Coffey, Margaret Jay and Sam Gyimah, Princess Bamba Sutherland and her sister, biologist Marian Dawkins, philosophers G. E. M. Anscombe, Patricia Churchland, Philippa Foot and Mary Midgley, psychologist Anne Treisman, archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon, actress Moon Moon Sen, soprano Emma Kirkby, banker Baroness Vadera and numerous (women's rights) activists.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: Somerville alumnae have achieved an impressive number of "firsts", both (inter)nationally and at the University of Oxford. Arguably the most prominent of these are: the first woman Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Margaret Thatcher; the first, and only, British woman to win a Nobel Prize in science Dorothy Hodgkin and the first woman to lead the world's largest democracy Indira Gandhi, who was Prime Minister of India for much of the 1970s.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: Somerville has educated at least 28 Dames, 17 heads of Oxford colleges, 11 life peers, ten MP's, four Olympic rowers, three of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945", two prime ministers, two princesses, a queen consort, and a Nobel laureate.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: Former students of Somerville belong to an alumni group, the Somerville Association, which was originally founded in 1888.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: Notable fellows of Somerville College (excluding alumni) include philosopher G. E. M. Anscombe, biochemist Louise Johnson, classical archaeologist Margarete Bieber, Egyptologist Käthe Bosse-Griffiths, classicists Edith Hall and Lotte Labowsky, author Alan Hollinghurst, astronomer Chris Lintott, International Federation of University Women founder Rose Sidgwick, botanist Timothy Walker and philologist Anna Morpurgo Davies.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: The first principal of Somerville Hall was Madeleine Shaw-Lefèvre (1879–1889). The first principal of Somerville College was Agnes Catherine Maitland (1889–1906), when in 1894 it became the first of the five women's halls to adopt the title of college, the first to appoint its own teaching staff, the first to set an entrance examination, and the first to build a library. She was succeeded by the classical scholar Emily Penrose (1906–1926), who set up in 1903 the "Mary Somerville Research Fellowship" offering women in Oxford opportunities for research.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: The current principal is Janet Royall, Baroness Royall of Blaisdon, who took up the appointment in August 2017, succeeding Alice Prochaska. To date seven principals have been alumnae of Somerville, two of St Hilda's College.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: Like all Oxford colleges, Somerville has a variety of symbols and colours which are associated with it. The college's colours, which feature on the college scarf and on the blades of its boats, are red and black. The combination was originally adopted in the 1890s. Its flag has the shield from the arms on a yellow background.


title: Somerville College, Oxford

text: The two colours also feature in the college's coat of arms, which depicts three mullets in chevron reversed gules, between six crosses crosslet fitched sable. The college's motto, "Donec rursus impleat orbem", was originally that of the family of Mary Somerville. Her family befriended the new hall, allowing it to adopt their arms and motto. The Latin motto itself is described as "baffling" as, although it translates as "Until It Should Fill the World Again", what the subject of the sentence ("it") is left unspecified. The crest, which is often omitted, is a hand grasping a crescent and occasionally a helmet with mantling is added.


title: Federal Capital Territory (Nigeria)

text: The Federal Capital Territory, commonly known as the FCT, is a federal territory in central Nigeria. Abuja, the capital city of Nigeria, is located in this territory. The FCT was formed in 1976 from parts of the states of old Kaduna, Kwara, Niger, and Plateau states, with the bulk of land mass carved out of Niger state. The Federal Capital Territory is within the North Central region of the country. Unlike other states of Nigeria, which are headed by elected Governors, it is administered by the Federal Capital Territory Administration, headed by a minister, who is appointed by the President.


title: Federal Capital Territory (Nigeria)

text: The Federal Capital Territory, also known as the FCT, was created upon the promulgation of decree number 6 of 1976. It came into existence due to a need to find a replacement for the capital city of Lagos, which had become congested and had little space for expansion. The area chosen as the new capital was principally Gwari Land (the home of the tribes referred to as the Gbagyis, their language is referred to as Gwari) with high concentrations of Muslims and Christians and high degree of neutrality from the dominant ethnic groups. It is the least populated state in Nigeria.


title: Federal Capital Territory (Nigeria)

text: Decree 6 of 1976, gave the federal government rights over land within the territory. The population density prior to the takeover by the government was sparse with a population of 120,000 residents living in 840 villages and mostly of Gwari heritage. Inhabitants were relocated to nearby towns like Suleja in Niger state, and New Karshi in Nasarawa State on the outskirts of the territory.


title: Federal Capital Territory (Nigeria)

text: The territory is located just north of the confluence of the Niger River and Benue River. It is bordered by the states of Niger to the West and North, Kaduna to the northeast, Nasarawa to the east and south, and Kogi to the southwest.


title: Federal Capital Territory (Nigeria)

text: Lying between latitudes 8.25 and 9.20 north of the equator and longitudes 6.45 and 7.39 east of Greenwich Meridian, Abuja is geographically located at the center of the country.


title: Federal Capital Territory (Nigeria)

text: The Federal Capital Territory has a landmass of approximately 7,315 km, and it is situated within the savannah region with moderate climatic conditions.


title: Federal Capital Territory (Nigeria)

text: The hills of the FCT provide home to many bushbuck, forest Black duiker, bush pig, chimpanzee and red-flanked duiker.


title: Federal Capital Territory (Nigeria)

text: Also found in FCT woodland are leopard, buffalo, roan antelope, Western hartebeest, elephant, warthog, grey duiker, dog-faced baboon, patas monkey and green monkey.


title: Federal Capital Territory (Nigeria)

text: Like some northern states in Nigeria, the Federal Capital Territory is relatively cold. The nation capital city, Abuja, is usually very hot between three to four months annually, that is, between the months of January and April. The average daily temperature of the city is above 90C, with the month of March being the hottest month. The rainy season in the state lasts between July and October of every year but the coldest month is December, during the harmattan season. During the harmattan, there is high relative humidity, coupled with windy and foggy atmosphere.


title: Federal Capital Territory (Nigeria)

text: While the Federal Capital Territory minister administers the whole of the Federal Capital Territory, the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) specifically manages the construction and infrastructure development of the region.


title: Federal Capital Territory (Nigeria)

text: Languages of the Federal Capital Territory listed by local government area (LGA) are presented in tabular format as follows:


The Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania is a non-stock, not-for-profit organization headquartered in Warwick, New York. It is the main legal entity used worldwide by Jehovah's Witnesses to direct, administer and disseminate doctrines for the group and is often referred to by members of the denomination simply as "the Society". It is the parent organization of a number of Watch Tower subsidiaries, including the Watchtower Society of New York and International Bible Students Association. The number of voting shareholders of the corporation is limited to between 300 and 500 "mature, active and faithful" male Jehovah's Witnesses. About 5800 Jehovah's Witnesses provide voluntary unpaid labour, as members of a religious order, in three large Watch Tower Society facilities in New York; nearly 15,000 other members of the order work at the Watch Tower Society's other facilities worldwide.


The organization was formed in 1881 as "Zion's Watch Tower Tract Society" for the purpose of distributing religious tracts. The society was incorporated in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on December 15, 1884. In 1896, the society was renamed "Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society". Following a leadership dispute in the Bible Student movement, the Watch Tower Society remained associated with the branch of the movement that became known as Jehovah's Witnesses. In 1955, the corporation was renamed "Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania". In 1976, all activities of the Watch Tower Society were brought under the supervision of the Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses.


title: Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania

text: On February 16, 1881, Zion's Watch Tower Tract Society was formed in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, for the purpose of organizing the printing and distribution of religious tracts. William Henry Conley, a Pittsburgh industrialist and philanthropist, served as president, with Charles Taze Russell serving as secretary-treasurer. The society's primary journal was "Zion's Watch Tower and Herald of Christ's Presence", first published in 1879 by Russell, founder of the Bible Student movement. Other early writers for the Watch Tower Society included J. H. Paton and W. I. Mann. Formation of the society was announced in the April 1881 issue of "Zion's Watch Tower". That year, the society received donations of $35,391.18.


text: On December 15, 1884, the society was incorporated as Zion's Watch Tower Tract Society in Pennsylvania as a non-profit, non-stock corporation with Russell as president. The corporation was located in Allegheny, Pennsylvania. In its charter, written by Russell, the society's purpose was stated as "the mental, moral and religious improvement of men and women, by teaching the Bible by means of the publication and distribution of Bibles, books, papers, pamphlets and other Bible literature, and by providing oral lectures free for the people". The charter provided for a board of seven directors, three of whom served as officers—a president, vice-president (initially William I. Mann) and secretary-treasurer (initially Maria Russell). The charter stipulated that the officers be chosen from the directors and be elected annually by ballot. Board members would hold office for life unless removed by a two-thirds vote by shareholders. Vacancies on the board resulting from death, resignation or removal would be filled by a majority vote of the remaining board members within 20 days; if such vacancies were not filled within 30 days an appointment could be made by the president, with the appointments lasting only until the next annual corporation meeting, when vacancies would be filled by election.


text: Anyone subscribing to $10 or more of the society's "Old Testament Tracts" or donating $10 or more to the society was deemed a voting member and entitled to one vote per $10 donated. Russell indicated that despite having a board and shareholders, the society would be directed by only two people—him and his wife Maria. Russell said that as of December 1893 he and his wife owned 3705, or 58 percent, of the 6383 voting shares, "and thus control the Society; and this was fully understood by the directors from the first. Their usefulness, it was understood, would come to the front in the event of our death... For this reason, also, formal elections were not held; because it would be a mere farce, a deception, to call together voting shareholders from all over the world, at great expense, to find upon arrival that their coming was useless, Sister Russell and myself having more than a majority over all that could gather. However, no one was hindered from attending such elections." The influx of donations gradually diluted the proportion of the Russells' shares and in 1908 their voting shares constituted less than half the total. Russell emphasized the limitations of the corporation, explaining: "Zion's Watch Tower Tract Society is not a 'religious society' in the ordinary meaning of this term" He also stated, "This is a business association merely... It has no creed or confession. It is merely a business convenience in disseminating the truth." Incorporation of the society meant that it would outlive Russell, so individuals who wished to bequeath their money or property to him would not have to alter their will if he died before they did. On September 19, 1896, the name of the corporation was changed to Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society.


text: From 1908 Russell required the directors to write out resignations when they were appointed so Russell could dismiss them by simply filling in the date. In 1909, Russell instructed legal counsel Joseph Franklin Rutherford to determine whether the society's headquarters could be moved to Brooklyn, New York. Rutherford reported that because it had been established under Pennsylvania law, the corporation could not be registered in New York state, but suggested that a new corporation be registered there to do the society's work. Rutherford subsequently organized the formation of the People's Pulpit Association, which was incorporated on February 23, 1909, and wrote the charter which gave the president—to be elected for life at the first meeting—"absolute power and control" of its activities in New York. The society sold its buildings in Pittsburgh and moved staff to its new base in Brooklyn. Although all New York property was bought in the name of the New York corporation and all legal affairs of the society done in its name, Russell insisted on the continued use of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society name on all correspondence and publications.


text: The move from Pennsylvania to New York occurred during court proceedings over the breakdown of Russells' marriage. His wife Maria had been granted a "limited divorce" on March 4, 1908, but in 1909 returned to court in Pittsburgh to request an increase in alimony, which her former husband refused. Authors Barbara Grizzuti Harrison and Edmond C. Gruss have claimed Russell's move to Brooklyn was motivated by his desire to transfer from the jurisdiction of the Pennsylvania courts. They claim he transferred all his assets to the Watch Tower Society so he could declare himself bankrupt and avoid being jailed for failure to pay alimony.


text: In 1914, the International Bible Students Association was incorporated in Britain to administer affairs in that country. Like the People's Pulpit Association, it was subsidiary to the Pennsylvania parent organization and all work done through both subsidiaries was described as the work of the Watch Tower Society. "The Watchtower" noted: "The editor of "The Watchtower" is the President of all three of these Societies. All financial responsibility connected with the work proceeds from [the Pennsylvania corporation]. From it the other Societies and all the branches of the work receive their financial support... we use sometimes the one name and sometimes the other in various parts of our work—yet they all in the end mean the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, to which all donations should be made."


text: Russell died on October 31, 1916, in Pampa, Texas during a cross-country preaching trip. On January 6, 1917, board member and society legal counsel Joseph Franklin Rutherford, aged 47, was elected president of the Watch Tower Society, unopposed, at the Pittsburgh convention. Under his presidency, the role of the society underwent a major change. By-laws passed by both the Pittsburgh convention and the board of directors stated that the president would be the executive officer and general manager of the society, giving him full charge of its affairs worldwide.


text: By June 1917, four of the seven Watch Tower Society directors, Robert H. Hirsh, Alfred I. Ritchie, Isaac F. Hoskins and James D. Wright, had decided they had erred in endorsing Rutherford's expanded powers of management, claiming Rutherford had become autocratic. Hirsch attempted to rescind the new by-laws and reclaim the powers of management from the president, but Rutherford later claimed he had by then detected a conspiracy among the directors to seize control of the society. In July, Rutherford gained a legal opinion from a Philadelphia corporation lawyer that none of his opposers were legally directors of the society.


text: On July 12, 1917, Rutherford filled what he claimed were four vacancies on the board, appointing A. H. Macmillan and Pennsylvania Bible Students W. E. Spill, J. A. Bohnet, and George H. Fisher as directors. Between August and November the society and the four ousted directors published a series of pamphlets, with each side accusing the other of ambitious and reckless behavior. The former directors also claimed Rutherford had required all headquarters workers to sign a petition supporting him and threatened dismissal for any who refused to sign. The former directors left the Brooklyn headquarters on August 8, 1917. On January 5, 1918, Rutherford was returned to office.


text: In May 1918, Rutherford and seven other Watch Tower directors and officers were arrested on charges of sedition under the federal Espionage Act. On June 21, 1918, they were sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment. Rutherford feared his opponents would gain control of the Society in his absence, but on January 2, 1919, he learned he had been re-elected president at the Pittsburgh convention the day before. However, by mid-1919 about one in seven Bible Students had chosen to leave rather than accept Rutherford's leadership, forming groups such as The Stand Fast Movement, Paul Johnson Movement, Dawn Bible Students Association, Pastoral Bible Institute of Brooklyn, Elijah Voice Movement, and Eagle Society.


text: Although formed as a "business convenience" with the purpose of publishing and distributing Bible-based literature and managing the funds necessary for that task, the corporation from the 1920s began its transformation into the "religious society" Russell had insisted it was not, introducing centralized control and regulation of Bible Student congregations worldwide. In 1938, Rutherford introduced the term "theocracy" to describe the hierarchical leadership of Jehovah's Witnesses, with "Consolation" explaining: "The Theocracy is at present administered by the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, of which Judge Rutherford is the president and general manager." The society appointed "zone servants" to supervise congregations and in a "Watchtower" article Rutherford declared the need for congregations to "get in line" with the changed structure.


text: Following Rutherford's death in 1942, Nathan H. Knorr became president of the Watch Tower Society, and subsequently introduced further changes to the role of the society. At a series of talks given in Pittsburgh on September 30, 1944, coinciding with the society's annual meeting, it was announced that changes would be made to the 1884 charter to bring it into "closer harmony with theocratic principles". The amendments, most of which were passed unanimously, significantly altered the terms of membership and stated for the first time that the society's purposes included preaching about God's kingdom, acting as a servant and governing agency of Jehovah's Witnesses, and sending missionaries and teachers for the public worship of God and Jesus Christ. The new charter, which took effect from January 1, 1945 included the following changes:


text: In 1976, direction of the Watch Tower Society and of the congregations of Jehovah's Witnesses worldwide came under the control of the Governing Body, reducing the power of the society's president. The society has described the change as "one of the most significant organizational readjustments in the modern-day history of Jehovah's Witnesses."


text: Following the death of Knorr in 1977, subsequent presidents of the Watch Tower Society have been Frederick W. Franz (June 1977 – December 1992); Milton G. Henschel (December 1992 – October 2000), Don A. Adams (October 2000 – 2014) and Robert Ciranko (incumbent). Adams and Ciranko are considered "helpers" to the Governing Body, which retains authority over the corporations.


text: The corporation is a major publisher of religious publications, including books, tracts, magazines and Bibles. By 1979, the society had 39 printing branches worldwide. In 1990, it was reported that in one year the society printed 696 million copies of its magazines, "The Watchtower" and "Awake!" as well as another 35,811,000 pieces of literature worldwide, which are offered door-to-door by Jehovah's Witnesses. As of 2013, the Society prints more than 43 million of its public issues of these magazines each month, totaling over 1 billion annually.


text: The society describes its headquarters and branch office staff as volunteers rather than employees, and identifies them as members of the Worldwide Order of Special Full-Time Servants of Jehovah's Witnesses. Workers receive a small monthly stipend with meals and accommodation provided by the society. The "Bethel family" in the Brooklyn headquarters includes hairdressers, dentists, doctors, housekeepers and carpenters, as well as shops for repairing personal appliances, watches, shoes and clothing without charge for labor.


text: The society files no publicly accessible financial figures, but reported in 2011 that it had spent more than $173 million that year "in caring for special pioneers, missionaries and traveling overseers in their field service assignments". Donations obtained from the distribution of literature is a major source of income, most of which is used to promote its evangelical activities.


text: Author James Beckford has claimed the status of voting members of the society is purely symbolic. He said they cannot be considered to be representatives of the mass of Jehovah's Witnesses and are in no position to challenge the actions or authority of the society's directors.


text: The corporation was first located at 44 Federal Street, Allegheny, Pennsylvania (the city was annexed by Pittsburgh in 1907), but in 1889 moved to "Bible House", newly built premises at 56–60 Arch Street, Allegheny, owned by Russell's privately owned Tower Publishing Company. The new building contained an assembly hall seating about 200, as well as editorial, printing and shipping facilities and living quarters for some staff. The title for the building was transferred in April 1898 to the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society.


text: In 1909, the society moved its base to Brooklyn. A four-story brownstone parsonage formerly owned by Congregationalist clergyman and social reformer Henry Ward Beecher at 124 Columbia Heights was converted to a residence for a headquarters staff of 30, as well as an office for Russell. A former Plymouth church building at 13–17 Hicks Street was also purchased and converted into Watch Tower headquarters, with room for 350 staff. It contained an 800-seat assembly hall, shipping department and printing facilities. "The Watch Tower" announced: "The new home we shall call 'Bethel,' and the new office and auditorium, 'The Brooklyn Tabernacle'; these names will supplant the term 'Bible House.'" In October 1909, an adjoining building at 122 Columbia Heights was bought. In 1911, a new nine-story residential block was built at the rear of the headquarters, fronting on Furman Street and overlooking the Brooklyn waterfront. The Brooklyn Tabernacle was sold in 1918 or 1919.


text: Printing facilities were established in Myrtle Street, Brooklyn in 1920 and from the February 1, 1920 issue "The Watch Tower" was printed by the society at the plant. Two months later the plant began printing "The Golden Age". In 1922, the printing factory was moved to a six-story building at 18 Concord Street, Brooklyn; four years later it moved again to larger premises, a new eight-story building at 117 Adams Street, Brooklyn, at which time the society's headquarters was rebuilt and enlarged. In December 1926, a building at 126 Columbia Heights was bought, and a month later the three buildings from 122–126 Columbia Heights were demolished and rebuilt for accommodation and executive offices, using the official address of 124 Columbia Heights.


text: In 1946, property surrounding the Adams Street factory was bought to expand printing operations (when completed in 1949 the factory occupied an entire block bounded by Adams, Sands Pearl and Prospect Streets) and five more properties adjoining 124 Columbia Heights were purchased for a 10-story building. In the late 1950s a property at 107 Columbia Heights, across the road from 124 Columbia Heights, was bought and by 1960 a residential building for staff was constructed there. More residences were built at 119 Columbia Heights in 1969.


text: "The Watchtower" detailed further expansion in the 1950s and 1960s: "In 1956, a 13-story building was constructed at 77 Sands Street. Then just across the street, another (10-story building) was purchased in 1958. In 1968, an adjoining 11-story new printing factory was completed. Along with the factory at 117 Adams Street, these fill out four city blocks of factories that are all tied together by overhead bridges. Then in November 1969, the Squibb complex located a few blocks away was purchased."


text: The society bought the Towers Hotel at 79–99 Willow Street in 1974 for accommodation, which is connected to the society's other Columbia Heights properties via tunnels. In 1978, a property at 25 Columbia Heights underwent renovation for use as offices and in the early 1980s properties were bought at 175 Pearl Street and 360 Furman Street for factory and office use. A building at 360 Furman Street was bought in March 1983 and renovated, providing almost 9 hectares of floor space for shipping, carpentry and construction. The Bossert Hotel at 98 Montague Street was also bought in 1983 as a residence building. 97 Columbia Heights, the former site of the Margaret Hotel, was purchased in 1986 as it was ideally located next to WTBTS residences at 107 and 124 Columbia Heights and it could easily tie in with the main complex on the other side of the street by means of an under-street tunnel. An 11-story residential building was erected on the site to house 250 workers. A property at 90 Sands Street was also bought in December 1986 and a 30-story residential building for 1000 workers was completed on the site in 1995. A 1996 publication listed other Watch Tower residential buildings in Brooklyn including the 12-story Bossert Hotel, 34 Orange Street (1945), Standish Arms Hotel at 169 Columbia Heights (1981), 67 Livingston Street (1989), and 108 Joralemon Street (1988).


text: Two properties known as Watchtower Farms, at Wallkill, north of Brooklyn and totaling , were bought in 1963 and 1967 and factories erected in 1973 and 1975. 2012-2014 the Society is adding an office building, residence building and garage. In 1984, the society paid $2.1 million for a 270 hectare farm at Patterson, New York for a development that would include 624 apartments, garages for 800 cars, and a 149-room hotel. Other rural purchases included a farm near South Lansing, New York and a farm near Port Murray, New Jersey.


text: In February 2009, the society paid $11.5 million for 100 hectares of land in Ramapo, Rockland County, New York for an administration and residential complex. The site was reported to be planned as a base for about 850 Watch Tower workers, creating a compound combining residential and publishing facilities currently located in Brooklyn. A Witness spokesman said the land was currently zoned for residential uses, but an application would be made to rezone it, adding that "Construction is several years in the future."


text: A year later, the Society announced it planned to move its world headquarters from Brooklyn to a proposed eight-building complex, replacing the pre-existing four-building complex on a 100-hectare Watch Tower property in Warwick, New York,<ref name="5/13 Warwick">"Wallkill and Warwick Projects Moving Ahead", JW.org News, May 13, 2013.</ref> 1.5 km from its Ramapo site. A Watch Tower presentation to Warwick planning authorities said the complex would house up to 850 people. In July 2012, the Warwick planning commission approved the environmental impact statement for building the Warwick site. In July 2013, Warwick approved building plans of the multiple building complex of the new headquarters, including four residence buildings of 588 rooms for about 1,000 people. In August 2011, a 50-acre property was bought in Tuxedo, NY, with 184,000 square foot building, for $3.2 million, six miles from the Warwick site to facilitate the staging of machinery and building materials. The Society bought a 48-unit apartment building in Suffern, NY near Warwick, NY for housing temporary construction workers in June 2013. On December 3, 2014 the Society bought 250-unit Rivercrest Luxury Apartments in Fishkill, Dutchess County, NY. The sale price was not released, though taxes on the sale indicated a transaction of $57 million. The current leases will not be renewed.


text: In 2004, the society began transferring its printing operations to its Wallkill factory complex. The move triggered the sale of a number of Brooklyn factory and residential properties including:


text: In 2011, the Watch Tower Society was reported to still own 34 properties in Brooklyn; a 2009 report calculated "a dozen or more" properties in the Brooklyn area. In a 2010 news report the Watch Tower Society said it was "not actively promoting" the sale of eight Brooklyn properties still on the market. Watch Tower Society's remaining nine unsold Brooklyn properties are 97, 107, and 119 Columbia Heights; 80 and 86 Willow Street; 21 Clark Street (Towers Hotel); parking lots at 67 Furman Street, 1 York Street and 85 Jay Street; and 90 Sands Street already arranged to sell in 2017. Many sold buildings are to be emptied by 2017. The Furman Street properties and parking lots are for sale currently as stated above.


text: In 1900, the Watch Tower Society opened its first overseas branch office in Britain. Germany followed in 1903 and Australia in 1904. By 1979 the society had 39 printing branches throughout the world, with facilities transferred to farming properties in many countries including Brazil, Sweden, Denmark, Canada and Australia. In 2011, the Watch Tower Society had 98 branch offices worldwide reporting to New York directly; other nations' offices report to large branches nearby.


text: Critics including Raymond Franz, Edmond C. Gruss and James Penton have accused the society of being authoritarian, controlling and coercive in its dealings with Witnesses. Franz, a former Governing Body member, has claimed the Watch Tower Society's emphasis of the term "theocratic organization" to describe the authority structure of Jehovah's Witnesses, which places God at the apex of its organization, is designed to exercise control over every aspect of the lives of Jehovah's Witnesses and condition them to think it is wrong for them to question anything the society publishes as truth. The Watch Tower Society has been accused of employing techniques of mind control on Witnesses including the direction to avoid reading criticism of the organization, frequent and tightly controlled "indoctrination" meetings, regimentation, social alienation and elaborate promises of future rewards. Apart from life stories, all Watch Tower Society magazine articles and other publications are written anonymously and correspondence from the society does not typically indicate a specific author or personal signature.


title: Albion-class landing platform dock

text: The "Albion"-class landing platform dock is a class of amphibious warfare ship in service with the Royal Navy. The class consists of two vessels, and , ordered in 1996 to replace the ageing . Both ships were built by BAE Systems Marine at the former Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering yard in Barrow-in-Furness. "Albion" was commissioned in 2003 and "Bulwark" in 2004. Each of the ships has a crew of 325 and can accommodate up to 405 troops. Thirty-one large trucks and thirty-six smaller vehicles and main battle tanks can be carried inside the vehicle deck. To disembark troops and vehicles, the vessels are equipped with eight landing craft.


title: Albion-class landing platform dock

text: The value of the two s was highlighted during the Falklands War. Not only did the ships transport troops and vehicles to the South Atlantic, the commanders of the landing operations at San Carlos were aboard , and once they arrived their flight decks were used to support airborne operations by helicopters and Sea Harrier jets.


title: Albion-class landing platform dock

text: As these ships were built in the 1960s, on 18 July 1996 the British Ministry of Defence awarded a £450 million contract for their replacements to Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering Ltd (VSEL) in Barrow-in-Furness.


title: Albion-class landing platform dock

text: The ships' roles are "to act as the afloat command platform for the Royal Navy's Amphibious Task Force and Landing Force Commanders when embarked" and "to embark, transport, deploy and recover troops with their equipment and vehicles which form part of an amphibious assault force". They are larger and more capable than the "Fearless" class, and formed part of a modernization programme of the British amphibious fleet, which includes the helicopter carrier , the s of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary and the s.


title: Albion-class landing platform dock

text: To cut the running costs of the Royal Navy, the 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review concluded that one of its two "Albion"-class LPDs should be placed into extended readiness, or docked, while the other is held at high readiness for operations. The vessels will alternate between extended readiness and high readiness throughout their service lives.


title: Albion-class landing platform dock

text: It was confirmed that "Albion" would be the first of the two vessels to be placed at extended readiness, for a cost of £2.5 million, as "Bulwark" had recently finished a major refit. Running costs while in extended readiness are estimated to be £300,000 per annum to keep the vessel available for reactivation at short notice. HMS "Albion" re-entered high readiness when HMS "Bulwark" was put into extended readiness. In 2014 Albion entered a regeneration refit and rejoined the active fleet in 2016. The running costs of one of the "Albion"-class vessels at high readiness ranged from £17.7 million to £38.6 million per annum from 2007 to 2011. As of late 2018 "Albion" was in active service while "Bulwark" was held at extended readiness.


title: Albion-class landing platform dock

text: The "Albion"-class LPDs have a length of , a breadth of , and a draught of . They have a normal displacement of , at full load and when the dock is flooded. The ships have a crew of 325 and can accommodate up to 405 troops, including their vehicles and combat supplies, in overload conditions. The GE Electric Propulsion System is powered by two Wärtsilä Vasa 16V 32E diesel generators generating at 6.6kV which drive two electric motors, two shafts, and a bow thruster as well as providing all the services power on the vessel. The first diesel electric propulsion system to be used in a Royal Navy surface ship was in the 1960s built "Hecla"-class ocean survey ships. This is the first in a major surface combatant vessel. It reduces the engine room crew by about 66 per cent compared with the preceding "Fearless" class of ships. The diesel electric system can propel the ships to a maximum speed of 18 knots and have a range of .


title: Albion-class landing platform dock

text: The aft flight deck has two landing spots for aircraft the size of a Chinook, although it has no hangar or aircraft storage facility. Below the flight deck are the dock and vehicle deck. The latter has the capacity to hold thirty-one large trucks and thirty-six smaller vehicles or six Challenger 2 tanks and thirty armoured personnel carriers. The dock can hold four Landing Craft Utility MK10, each large enough to carry vehicles up to main battle tank size, which are then launched by flooding of the dock area. Four smaller LCVP MK5 that can carry thirty-five men or two light trucks are carried on davits, two each side of the ship's superstructure. Each ship also carries a fifty-two ton tracked beach recovery vehicle for assisting with landing craft recovery, as well as two tractors: one that can lay a track-way across a landing beach, and the second fitted with an excavating bucket and forks.


title: Albion-class landing platform dock

text: For defence against missile attack, the "Albion"-class LPDs were fitted with two 30 mm Goalkeeper CIWSs mounted fore and aft on the superstructure and two 20 mm cannon located on the forward superstructure. Defensive countermeasures include the Outfit DLJ decoys, eight Seagnat radar reflection / infra-red emitting decoy launchers and a BAE Systems DLH off-board decoy. In 2017, "Albion" had her Goalkeeper mounts removed and replaced by a pair of 20mm Phalanx mounts as part of her refit prior to returning to active service; "Bulwark" will have her Goalkeeper mounts removed upon her entry into Extended Readiness.


title: Albion-class landing platform dock

text: When commissioned, the ships were fitted with two Kelvin Hughes Type 1007/8 I-band radars, for navigation and aircraft control. For air and surface search, a Selex Sensors and Airborne Systems Radar Type 996 E/F band radar was fitted. From 2013 on, RT996 will be gradually replaced by the BAE Systems Maritime Services Artisan 3D E/F-band (designated RT997). was the first Royal Navy ship so fitted; RT997 will be fitted to "Albion" and "Bulwark" by 2015. There is also an ADAWS 2000 combat data system and a UAT/1-4 Electronic support measures (ESM) system.


title: Albion-class landing platform dock

text: HMS "Albion" was launched at Barrow-in-Furness on 9 March 2001. After completing sea trials, "Albion" was commissioned in June 2003 and became fully operational in April 2004. Her home port is HMNB Devonport on the south coast of England.


title: Albion-class landing platform dock

text: In December 2010, it was announced that "Albion" would be the next Royal Navy flagship after . She was deployed with the Response Force Task Group to the Gulf of Sidra off Libya to assist the ongoing NATO-led operation, and then moved into the Indian Ocean in June 2011 to assist with anti-piracy operations off the Horn of Africa. In 2011 she entered a state of "extended readiness". In July 2017, she re-entered active service after a long re-fit.


title: Albion-class landing platform dock

text: HMS "Bulwark", the second in the class, was launched at Barrow-in-Furness in November 2001, and was commissioned in December 2004.


title: Albion-class landing platform dock

text: One of "Bulwark"s first missions was Operation Highbrow in the Mediterranean in July 2006. Docking in Beirut, the ship evacuated around 1,300 United Kingdom nationals. In May 2010, she entered dry-dock at HMNB Devonport for a £30 million refit. In October 2011, "Bulwark", having just completed an eight-month refit, became the flagship of the fleet. The refit improved her machinery and magazines, converted her to full night-vision tactical ability for landing craft and aircraft, and gave her the ability to operate two Chinook helicopters from the flight deck at the same time.


title: Odd, West Virginia

text: Odd is an unincorporated rural hamlet in Raleigh County, West Virginia, United States. It is located along Tommy Creek. Only a post office is located there, with small residences spread the nearby roads.


title: Odd, West Virginia

text: The community's unusual name has attracted attention from writers. Townspeople were encouraged to think of an "odd" name for their town, hence the name.


title: Odd, West Virginia

text: Odd went viral in 2020 when Mark Laita's YouTube channel, "Soft White Underbelly", posted a video of the Whittaker family, long-time residents of the small town who are allegedly inbred.


title: Riau

text: Riau is a province of Indonesia. It is located on the central eastern coast of Sumatra along the Strait of Malacca. The province shares land borders with North Sumatra to the northwest, West Sumatra to the west, and Jambi to the south. According to the 2020 census, Riau had a population of 6,394,087 across a land area of 87,023.66 square kilometres; the official estimate as at mid 2021 was 6,493,603. The province comprises ten regencies and two cities, with Pekanbaru serving as the capital and largest city.


title: Riau

text: Historically, Riau has been a part of various monarchies before the arrival of European colonial powers. Muara Takus temple in Kampar Regency, believed to be a remnant of the Buddhist empire of Srivijaya circa 11th-12th century. Following the spread of Islam in the 14th century, the region was then under control of Malay sultanates of Siak Sri Indrapura, Indragiri, and Johor. The sultanates later became protectorate of the Dutch and were reduced to puppet states of the Dutch East Indies. After the establishment of Indonesia in 1945, Riau belonged to the republic's provinces of Sumatra (1945–1948) and Central Sumatra (1948–1957). On 10 August 1957, the province of Riau was inaugurated and it included the Riau Islands until 2004.


title: Riau

text: Although Riau is predominantly considered the land of Malays, it is a highly diverse province. In addition to Malays constituting one-third of the population, other major ethnic groups include Javanese, Minangkabau, Batak, and Chinese. The local Riau dialect of Malay language is considered as the "lingua franca" in the province, but Indonesian, the standardized form of Malay is used as the official language and also as the second language of many people. Other than that, different languages such as Minangkabau, Hokkien and varieties of Batak languages are also spoken.


title: Riau

text: Riau is one of the wealthiest provinces in Indonesia and is rich in natural resources, particularly petroleum, natural gas, rubber, palm oil and fibre plantations. Extensive logging and plantation development in has led to a massive decline in forest cover Riau, and associated fires have contributed to haze across the larger region.


title: Riau

text: There are three possible origins of the word "riau" which became the name of this province. First, from the Portuguese word, ""rio"" which means river. In 1514, there was a Portuguese military expedition that traced the Siak River, in order to find the location of a kingdom they believed existed in the area, and at the same time to pursue followers of Sultan Mahmud Shah who fled after the fall of the Malacca Sultanate.


title: Riau

text: The second version claims that "riau" comes from the word "riahi" which means sea water. The word is allegedly derived from the figure of Sinbad al-Bahar in the book of the One Thousand and One Nights.


title: Riau

text: The third version mentions that this word comes from the local people's speech, lifted from the word rioh or boisterous, which means crowded, frenzied working people. Perhaps this name is derived from the naming of local people, the Malays who live in the Bintan area, which is now located in the Riau Islands. The name is likely to have become famous since Raja Kecil moved the Malay kingdom center from Johor to Ulu Riau in 1719. This name was used as one of the four main sultanates that formed the kingdoms of Riau, Lingga, Johor and Pahang. However, as the consequences of the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824 between the Netherlands and United Kingdom, the Johor-Pahang sultanates fell under British influence, while the Riau-Lingga sultanates fell under Dutch influence.


title: Riau

text: Riau is thought to have been inhabited since the time between 40,000 and 10,000 BC. This conclusion was taken after the discovery of tools from the Pleistocene era in the Sengingi River area in Kuantan Singingi Regency in August 2009. Stone tools found include: an axle, a drawstring, and shale and core stone axes, which are the basic ingredients of making drawstring tools and shale. The research team also found some wood fossils predicted to be older than the stone tools. It is suspected the ones who used these tools were "Pithecanthropus erectus" (reclassified as "Homo erectus") as such as those found in Sangiran, Central Java. These tools proved the existence of prehistoric settlement in Riau. Earlier settlement was assumed to be possible in the area since the discovery of the Muara Takus Temple in Kampar in 1860.


title: Riau

text: The Malay kingdoms in Riau were at first based on the Buddhist Srivijaya Empire. This is evidenced by the Muara Takus Temple which was thought to be the center of the Srivijaya government in Riau. It architecturally resembles those temples that can be found in India. In addition, French historian George Cœdès also discovered the similarity of the Srivijaya governmental structure and the Malay sultanates of the 15th century. The earliest text that deals with the Malay world is "Sulalatus Salatin" ("Malay Annals)" by Tun Sri Lanang, in 1612. According to the annals, Bukit Seguntang in modern-day Palembang in South Sumatra is the place where Sang Sapurba came to the world and his descendants would scatter throughout the Malay world. His descendants such as Sang Mutiara would become king in Tanjungpura and Sang Nila Utama would become king in Bintan before finally moving to Singapura. Before the arrival of Islam to the archipelago, many parts of the Riau region were under the Srivijaya Empire between the 7th to the 14th century which was greatly influenced by the Hindu-Buddhist tradition. Islam was introduced to the region when the Maharaja of Srivijaya sent a letter to Caliph Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz of the Umayyad Caliphate in Egypt containing a request to send a messenger to introduce Islamic law to him.


title: Riau

text: In the 12th century, the entry of Islam into the archipelago was carried through the Samudera Pasai Sultanate in Aceh which was the first and recognized as the pioneer of the Islamic sultanates in the archipelago of during its heyday. The process of the spread of Islam occurred through trade, marriage and missionary activities of Muslim clerics. These factors led to the spread of peace and the growth of Islamic influence throughout the Malay world. The strong factor of acceptance of Islam by Malay people is the aspect of human equality, which according to the ideology of society at that time adhered to the caste system in Hinduism, where lower class caste people were lower than members of higher castes.


title: Riau

text: The golden age of Islam in the region is when Malacca became an Islamic sultanate. Many elements of Islamic law, including political and administrative sciences are incorporated into Malacca law, especially the "Udang-Undang Melaka" (Law of Melaka). The ruler of Melaka received the title 'Sultan' and was responsible for Islam in his kingdom. In the 15th century, Islam spread and developed throughout the Melaka region including the entire Malay Peninsula, Riau Islands, Bintan, Lingga and several areas on the eastern coast of Sumatra, namely Jambi, Bengkalis, Siak, Rokan, Indragiri, Kampar, and Kuantan. Malacca is considered a catalyst in the expansion of Islam into other areas such as Palembang, Sumatra, Patani in southern Thailand, North Kalimantan, Brunei and Mindanao.


title: Riau

text: According to the journals of the Portuguese explorer Tomé Pires between 1513 and 1515, Siak is an area that lies between "Arcat" and "Indragiri" which he calls a port city under a Minangkabau king, then became a Malacca vassal before being conquered by the Portuguese. Since the fall of Malacca into the hands of the Dutch East India Company (VOC), the Johor Sultanate has claimed Siak as part of its sovereignty territory. This continued until the arrival of Sultan Abdul Jalil Rahmat Shah or "Raja Kecil" who later founded the Siak Sultanate. In the "Syair Perang Siak", it is told that "Raja Kecil" was asked to become the ruler of Siak for the consensus of the people in Bengkalis. This aims to release Siak from the influence of the Johor Sultanate. While according to the "Hikayat Siak", "Raja Kecil" was also called the true inheritor of the throne of the Sultan of Johor who lost the power struggle. Based on the correspondence of the Sultan Indermasyah with the Dutch Governor-General in Malacca at that time, it was mentioned that Sultan Abdul Jalil was his brother who was sent for business affairs with the VOC. Sultan Abdul Jalil then wrote a letter addressed to the Dutch, calling himself the "Raja Kecil" of Pagaruyung, that he would take revenge for the death of the Sultan of Johor.