text: In 2009, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the Inspector General for the Department of Homeland Security issued reports that were highly critical of the Federal Protective Service for relying on low-wage contract personnel to provide security at federal buildings. See GAO-09-0859T and OIG-09-51. Both documented that the contractors lacked the necessary skills or training to handle their duties, which threatened the security of all federal employees and visitors. The GAO report made national headlines in July 2009 as it cited frequent lapses, including failure to prevent investigators from carrying weapons into several key federal installations. It also displayed a photograph of a contract security guard asleep at his guard post.


title: Federal Protective Service (United States)

text: On October 28, 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama, signed legislation which effectively transferred the Federal Protective Service from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to the National Protection and Programs Directorate of the Department of Homeland Security.


text: On June 17, 2019, a lone gunman by the name of Brian Issack Clyde opened fire on the Earle Cabell Federal Building and Courthouse in Dallas, Texas. Since FPS officers are charged with protecting federal courthouses, they were present at the shooting. Three FPS officers engaged the shooter, fatally wounding him.


text: On May 30, 2020, Dave Patrick Underwood, a contract security officer for the Federal Protective Service, was shot and killed in Oakland, California. The attack occurred amid the George Floyd protests, which broke out into unrest in Oakland. Two suspects, one of whom had killed a Santa Cruz County deputy in a subsequent attack on police, were arrested in June; they were found to have had ties to the far-right boogaloo movement.


text: Starting in July 2020, the Federal Protective Service was the main agency involved in the deployment of federal forces to the city of Portland, Oregon. These forces included many officers from other agencies, but they acted under the jurisdiction of FPS. Their operations centered around the two downtown Portland federal buildings on 3rd Ave, and the ICE building in South Waterfront.


text: FPS law enforcement personnel derive their law enforcement authority from Section 1315 of Title 40 of the United States Code (40 USC 1315):


text: The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) National Local 918 is the exclusive representative of all bargaining unit eligible Federal Protective Service employees which include non-supervisory Police Officers, Inspectors, Special Agents and support personnel. Citation: AFGE NL#918


text: The Protective Investigations Program was established in early 2004, to ensure the safety of DHS and FPS protectees and facilities. The objective of the program is to prevent an attack on persons and facilities designated as FPS protectees.


text: The program integrates the following aspects of the FPS mission: the initial patrol response by FPS uniformed police officers; full investigation by FPS special agents; prosecution by the U.S. Attorney's Office or State Prosecutor's Office; physical security enhancements and countermeasures; security briefings and workplace violence seminars administered by FPS law enforcement personnel; suspicious surveillance detection initiatives designed to detect pre-incident indicators of threats to federal employees, facilities and protectees; a monthly Operations Security Bulletin; and protection details for high-ranking officials within DHS. FPS Headquarters developed a Memorandum of Understanding, in collaboration with the U.S. Capitol Police, enabling the two entities to use each other's resources to effectively, efficiently and professionally respond to and investigate threats and inappropriate communications directed at members of Congress, their families and staff when outside the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.


text: FPS collaborates with other components within DHS and has established liaisons with agencies having a protective and investigative mission such as the U.S. Secret Service—National Threat Assessment Center, Social Security Administration (SSA), U.S. Marshals Service, FBI, U.S. Postal Inspection Service and various state and local police agencies throughout the country.


text: FPS special agents have made arrests and conducted investigations of subjects charged with making inappropriate communications and threats to members of the U.S. Congress (House and Senate) and/or their staff, the director of Federal Emergency Management Agency, FPS Director, members of the military reserve, SSA, the Department of Veteran Affairs and other federal employees. Many of these investigations resulted in convictions for making threats to do physical harm and threats to bomb federal facilities. FPS special agents investigated threats delivered in person, via telephone, e-mail and U.S. Postal Service mail.


text: FPS special agents also oversee an outreach program designed to educate the community and tenant agencies and provide them with a point of contact to report suspicious behavior and incidents that threaten FPS protectees, facilities, and/or visitors.


text: The mission of the Explosive Detector Dog (EDD) Teams is the protection of life and property and providing a strong visible and psychological deterrent against criminal and terrorist acts. Prior to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the FPS had a minimal program of 10 EDD Teams located in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. Since that time, the FPS EDD program has expanded to more than 60 teams nationwide.


text: The EDD Teams conduct routine explosive searches of office areas, vehicles, materials, packages and persons housed in federally owned or leased facilities. The EDD Teams respond to bomb threats and suspicious packages or items and are used to assist in clearing identified areas.


text: The FPS EDD Teams are deployed in their area of assignment as well as frequent deployment to National Special Security Events such as the Olympic games, the Republican and Democratic National Conventions, and the G-8 Summit. The EDD Teams provide their vital capabilities to state and local law enforcement authorities under emergency conditions when local EDD Teams are unavailable.


text: The FPS Canine Training Academy is located in Fort McClellan, Alabama, and is conducted in partnership with the Auburn University Canine Detection Training Center. Each handler and respective canine attends the mandatory 10-week EDD Handler Training Course. The handlers and their canine partners graduate from the course as a team.


text: The EDD Teams are on call 24 hours a day and serve a crucial role as part of a greater network of first responders in a growing national network of federal task force officers.


text: The FPS Hazardous Response Program (HRP) was created to support the mission of FPS in response to credible chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and high yield explosive (CBRNE) threats or incidents.


text: HRP includes initial investigations of suspicious or threatening CBRNE incidents; completion of CBRNE threat assessments; confirmations of unauthorized presence of CBRNE agents and materials; and the conduction of emergency operations. HRP also provides: evacuation support during CBRNE incidents and some training assistance. The program is compliant with OSHA and NFPA guidance and regulations. The HRP consists of five main elements: Awareness, Prevention, Preparedness, Response, and Recovery.


text: In 2000, FPS transitioned all alarm monitoring and dispatching capabilities from several regional control centers to four MegaCenters. Currently, each MegaCenter monitors multiple types of alarm systems, closed-circuit television, and wireless dispatch communications within federal facilities throughout the entire nation. The centers located in Battle Creek, Michigan; Denver, Colorado; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Suitland, Maryland, are equipped with state-of-the-art communication systems and in operation 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.


title: One Piece Film: Z

text: One Piece Film: Z is a 2012 Japanese anime fantasy action adventure film directed by Tatsuya Nagamine. It is the twelfth feature film based on the shōnen manga series "One Piece" by Eiichiro Oda. The film stars the regular television cast of Mayumi Tanaka, Kazuya Nakai, Akemi Okamura, Kappei Yamaguchi, Hiroaki Hirata, Ikue Otani, Yuriko Yamaguchi, Kazuki Yao, and Chō. It also features Hōchū Ōtsuka as Zephyr, an ex-naval Admiral, with Ryoko Shinohara and Teruyuki Kagawa as Zephyr's henchmen. The events of the film takes place near the end of the fifteenth season of the "One Piece" anime series during the "Z's Ambition" story arc, which serves as a prologue. The film revolves around the Straw Hat Pirates battling against Zephyr, considered to be the most powerful enemy they've faced yet.


title: One Piece Film: Z

text: The film opens with a man singing "Ocean Guide". , a former naval admiral and leader of the Neo Marines which also includes his henchmen and , commences an assault on the navy on Firs Island, a volcanic island and one of the End Points. While there, Zephyr steals the Dyna Stones and fights Kizaru and the marines before he starts an eruption to defeat the Admiral only to be sent flying into the ocean.


title: One Piece Film: Z

text: While having a cherry blossom party, the Straw Hat Pirates discover an unconscious Zephyr floating on the sea. Luffy uses his gum-gum devil fruit ability to reel him in, but when grabbing Zephyr’s prosthetic arm (the battle smasher) Luffy loses all his strength. The Straw hats soon learn that Zephyr’s arm is made with sea prism stones. As Chopper begins to attend to Zephyr’s wounds, Nami begins to worry, not just because of the prosthetic arm, but also because of Zephyr’s muscular form and his many battle scars, but Luffy reassures Nami that if Zephyr is a threat he will deal with him. When Zephyr comes too, everything is fine at first as Luffy and Zephyr begin socializing, but when Zephyr learns that Monkey D. Luffy is a pirate, he fights Luffy, Roronoa Zoro and Sanji. Having discovered Zephyr's location with a Vivre Card, Ain and Binz join the ex-Admiral to fight them.


title: One Piece Film: Z

text: Ain uses her Devil Fruit powers to de-age Nami, Tony Tony Chopper, Brook and Nico Robin, while Binz uses his Devil Fruit powers to trap Franky, Usopp and Brook with vines.


title: One Piece Film: Z

text: Luffy goes one on one against Zephyr, but is overpowered and defeated when Zephyr grabs Luffy with his Battle Smasher arm. Realizing that Luffy is the grandson of Monkey D. Garp, Zephyr attempts to kill them, but the Straw Hats are forced to flee. At Marine Headquarters, the navy discovers Zephyr's whereabouts and decides to recover the Dyna Stones. Landing on Dock Island, Franky repairs the Thousand Sunny, which has been damaged by Zephyr. They meet , whose granddaughter reveals that pirates who come to this island say that they have been attacked by Zephyr.


title: One Piece Film: Z

text: Mobston, angered by Zephyr destroying their pirates' dreams, decides to give the Straw Hats his strongest equipment. While there, the Straw Hats gather information on Zephyr's location from the navy and meet up with Kuzan, who reveals that has left the navy after being defeated by Akainu on Punk Hazard. Using the Sea Train, the Straw Hats enter Secon Island just as the volcano erupts. They confront Zephyr, Ain and Binz, only to be easily defeated once again. Meanwhile, Garp reveals to Koby and Helmeppo that Zephyr once believed in the navy's justice and became an Admiral after serving as a soldier in the navy. When Zephyr's wife and son were killed by a pirate who resented him, Zephyr became an instructor. One day, most of Zephyr's recruits were killed and Zephyr lost his arm after being attacked by a pirate with Devil Fruit powers. Zephyr acquired his prosthetic arm the Battle Smasher, a weapon developed by the navy's scientist to defeat Devil Fruit users and organized a strike unit.


title: One Piece Film: Z

text: However, when the pirate who attacked him was chosen to serve as a Warlord, Zephyr left the Navy, organizing the Neo Marines as a result. Back on Dock Island, Kuzan reveals that Zephyr is targeting the three volcanic islands known as End Points. If all three islands erupt in a short period of time of each other, it would result in a giant eruption covering the New World's oceans and killing everyone in them. The Straw Hats confront the Neo Marines on the third End Point and have a massive battle.


title: One Piece Film: Z

text: Luffy finds Zephyr and challenges him one to one. As the Straw Hats battle against the Neo Marines and a bunch of converted Pacifista’s, Zoro and Sanji go head to head against Ain and Binz. The Straw Hats are victorious, and with Ain defeated, Nami, Chopper, Robin and Brook return to their original age. Luffy and Zephyr’s fight wages on with Zephyr using his Battle Smasher to get the upper hand. Luffy, using all his might continues to punch Zephyr’s Battle Smasher until he breaks it.


title: One Piece Film: Z

text: The two are still equally matched and in the final strike, they both knock the other one down. Zephyr admits defeat and believes that Luffy will now kill him (for he believes all pirates are the same), but Luffy spares Zephyr and says he doesn’t want to kill anyone. Seeing how Luffy is different from other pirates Zephyr realizes the errors of his ways and understood that his actions were driven by anger, he apologizes to Ain and Binz for all that he has done and asks for their forgiveness. In that moment, Kizaru and the navy appear and choose to execute Zephyr and the Neo Marines, as well as the Straw Hat Pirates whiles they’re all weak from their previous battle. The Straw Hats prepare themselves for battle, but Zephyr walks forward, stating that he has done everything he wanted to do and now he will pay the price for his actions.


title: One Piece Film: Z

text: Just then a wall of ice appears and separates Zephyr from the others, thus giving the Straw Hats, Ain and Binz the chance to escape, whiles leaving Zephyr to fight back against the marines. As the Straw Hats sail away, Zephyr battles against the marines until he succumbs to his injuries and died. Ain and Binz mourn their loss, as they cry over a makeshift grave that used Zephyr’s Battle Smasher as the centerpiece.


title: One Piece Film: Z

text: Kuzan tells them not to cry and states “he lived his life the way he wanted. Don’t you think he was amazing.” In the final scene of the film, it shows a young Zephyr dressed as a superhero fighting off a group of bullies who were harassing a girl. Zephyr beats the bullies with ease and as the bullies run away Zephyr states that he is the “hero of Justice” as he shouts the word “I’m Z”


title: One Piece Film: Z

text: In a mid-credit scene, the Straw Hats return to Dock Island, giving their gear and weapons back to Mobston, before going their separate ways.


title: One Piece Film: Z

text: In November 2011, Fuji Television announced that production on "One Piece Film: Z" has begun. One month later, Viz Media's "Shonen Jump" and Hisashi Suzuki, deputy director of Shueisha's Shonen manga group announced through their Twitter accounts that Eiichiro Oda would be the executive producer for the film. On January 30, 2012, Toei issued a press release announcing the film's plot and also announced the film's director Tatsuya Nagamine and the film's release in December.


title: One Piece Film: Z

text: The April 23, 2012 issue of "Weekly Shonen Jump" revealed character designs for Zephyr and also revealed minor information, including staff information as well as the premiere date, December 15. The screenplay was written by Osamu Suzuki, who serves as one of the writers of the television program "SMAP x SMAP", and the film's character designer and animation supervisor is Masayuki Sato, who was previously involved as an animation supervisor and character designer of "".


title: One Piece Film: Z

text: On April 21, 2012, Toei's official website for the "One Piece" films was updated with a teaser trailer.


title: One Piece Film: Z

text: A special pre-sale collaboration ticket with the "" movie was made to commemorate the release of the two films. The dual-ticket good for both films has a special new illustration by both Akira Toriyama (author of "Dragon Ball") and Eiichirō Oda. Limited to 8,989 across Japan, the tickets went on sale on November 23, 2012 for ¥2,600 ($31.51 US) apiece.


title: One Piece Film: Z

text: The film's theme songs are covers of Nickelback's "How You Remind Me" and Joan Jett's "Bad Reputation", both performed by Canadian singer Avril Lavigne. Oda sent a personal thank you letter to Lavigne after hearing her cover of "How You Remind Me". "Bad Reputation" is one of Oda's favorite songs. Lavigne agreed to contribute the songs for the film. The film's soundtrack, containing 30 tracks, was released on December 12, 2012 by Sony Music Entertainment Japan.


title: One Piece Film: Z

text: "One Piece Film: Z" opened at number one in the Japanese box office, earning (US$16.3 million) during its opening weekend. Film attendees received 1 of 2 million copies of an 84-page “Volume 1,000” of "One Piece", which contains designs about Character Z (also known as Zephyr) and an exclusive One Piece Treasure World card. The film grossed in Japan


title: One Piece Film: Z

text: The movie was released across several other Asian countries including Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Philippines, Thailand, and South Korea. A French dub was released for "One Piece"s "Straw Hat Day" on May 15, 2013. The worldwide total box office from Japan and above countries is about .


title: One Piece Film: Z

text: Toshi Nakamura, writing for Kotaku, called "Z" "something [he] was totally not expecting." Nakamura particularly praised the film's villain, calling its backstory "dramatic, and more importantly, convincing," as well as the pacing of the storyline, saying that it feels "organic." However, Nakamura had mixed opinions of the film's secondary characters, stating that "some of the characters have their own plot lines that connect nicely with the [film's] original story," but said they eventually end up as "foils to build on the character of Z." Although Nakamura disapproved of the film's unresolved plotlines, he would declare that the film is "definitely well worth seeing for any fan of the series."


title: One Piece Film: Z

text: "Z" was released in Japan on June 28, 2013 on DVD and Blu-ray, with both formats having a regular edition and a limited "Greatest Armored Edition". The regular editions for both formats include trailers, with the first copies having one of nine randomly distributed holographic stickers of a straw hat. The limited editions for both formats include all nine straw hat holographic stickers, Zephyr's weapon Smasher as a keychain, a stand with a voice recording, and not-for-sale press material. The limited editions also has a bonus DVD which includes the prologue to the film, titled "One Piece: Glorious Island", "event footage", and interviews. By the end of the year in Japan, it had sold 125,667 DVDs and 80,016 Blu-rays.


title: One Piece Film: Z

text: In the Philippines, "Z" was released on DVD and VCD by C-Interactive Digital Entertainment on October 17, 2013.


title: One Piece Film: Z

text: On April 7, 2014, Funimation announced its acquisition of the home video rights to the film in the United States and Canada. The film was released in a Blu-ray/DVD combo on September 30, 2014, which includes the English dub recorded by Funimation, promos for the film, and a video of Patrick Seitz at Sakura-Con in 2014.


title: One Piece Film: Z

text: Selecta Visión released the film in Spain on DVD and Blu-ray on November 30, 2016, featuring Japanese and Spanish audio, as well as subtitles in Spanish.


title: Paul Reynolds (musician)

text: Paul Reynolds (born 4 August 1962) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame as the lead guitarist of the new wave band A Flock of Seagulls. He is highly praised for having a unique guitar sound that differentiated his band from others of the time.


title: Paul Reynolds (musician)

text: Paul Reynolds was born on 4 August 1962 in Liverpool. In his teens, Reynolds always enjoyed playing the guitar, but in his spare time he enjoyed writing, drawing and was also an amateur photographer.


title: Paul Reynolds (musician)

text: Then at the age of seventeen, he joined the new wave band A Flock of Seagulls, a few months after the band was formed, and came to replace the original guitarist Willie Woo. The group's popularity soared in the early 1980s with the release of "(It's Not Me) Talking," and in 1982 the song "I Ran (So Far Away)" was a hit in the US and at home. By the time he was 21, the band had released an album, won a Grammy Award, got two more hit singles, and had embarked on a worldwide tour. Reynolds, whose "textural wash" contributed significantly to the group's sound, was praised for his "echo-laden" "unique guitar style", which differentiated A Flock of Seagulls from other synth-heavy bands of the period.


title: Paul Reynolds (musician)

text: Reynolds left the band in 1984, after the release of "The Story of a Young Heart", two years before the band broke up. When it was reformed in 1989 by singer Mike Score, Reynolds and the remaining members decided not to rejoin. Reynolds and his fellow ex-members did, however, reunite with Score for a one-off performance in London in 2003 for VH1's "Bands Reunited" television program. Before the performance, Reynolds was interviewed about why he left the band; he claimed that he was too young for the "rock 'n' roll lifestyle" and that he was exhausted from all of the performances.


title: Paul Reynolds (musician)

text: In 2018, Reynolds and the other original members of the band met with Mike Score to record a new album, the first with the complete classic line-up since 1984, entitled "Ascension". The album features the main songs from the band's career accompanied by the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2019, Reynolds reunited with his former music companions to record an album called "Inflight (The Extended Essentials)".


title: Paul Reynolds (musician)

text: Reynolds played several guitars, including his 1980 Kramer XL-5, mostly used for performances between 1980 and 1984. His XL-5 was a uniquely shaped walnut-bodied electric with an aluminum-framed neck with wooden inserts.


title: Paul Reynolds (musician)

text: Another guitar that stood out was his red Gibson Firebird Studio, often used live to play songs like Wishing (If I Had a Photograph You). It was also used in the clips for Wishing, Space Age Love Song and The More You Live The More You Love.


title: Paul Reynolds (musician)

text: Paul has also played two different Fender Stratocasters. A black one was used in the Transfer Affection clip which he also played live during the band's return tours in 2004. Reynolds used a naturally-finished Strat in the clip for Space Age Love Song with the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra in 2018.


title: Paul Reynolds (musician)

text: Reynolds also had a synthesized Roland G-808 guitar with a wood finish that was used exclusively for the songs, which are supposed to be done across the border.


title: Paul Reynolds (musician)

text: Two more guitars Raynes used during his tours alongside A Flock Of Seagulls were a special 1981 Fender Telecaster Black and Gold, which can be seen in the clip for "Never Again (The Dancer)" and a blue Vantage Avenger that was used in programs and TV.


title: Paul Reynolds (musician)

text: Reynolds also used a Roland Jazz Chorus-120 amplifier on tour during the 1980s and a Marshall Lead 100 Mosfet used in the clip Space Age Love Song in with Orchestra in 2018.


title: Paul Reynolds (musician)

text: For instrumental performances such as "D.N.A," Reynolds used a ProCo The Rat in his performances, this distortion pedal was used a lot when Reynolds was in the band in 1979 and 1984.


title: Paul Reynolds (musician)

text: Paul also had his studio equipment that was often used in concerts, including the Roland RE-501 Chorus Echo and Roland Chorus Echo SRE-555 that were used on the band's first three albums.


title: Paul Reynolds (musician)

text: When Paul returned to a band in the early 2000s, Paul used the Lace Sensor Red, Silver, Blue Pickup Set pickups on his Stratocaster.


title: Paul Reynolds (musician)

text: Inspired by one of his guitar heroes, Brian May, Paul used an old pre-decimal British coinage British shilling piece to play, in place of a plectrum. This also contributed to his unique guitar tone.


title: Paul Reynolds (musician)

text: One of the most famous effects accessories used by Reynolds was the Ebow Sound Heet, which was used to make endless harmonics and sharps, Reynolds made several solos with this accessory, as in the songs, Wishing (If I had a Photograph You), Nightmares, The fall, Don't ask me, European (I wish I was) and among other songs, all of these performed live.


title: Carrie Keranen

text: Carrie Keranen is an American voice actress, production manager, producer and voice director. She is best known for her work with 4Kids Entertainment, Bang Zoom! Entertainment, DuArt Film and Video, NYAV Post, Studiopolis and Funimation. Her roles include Satsuki Kiryuin in "Kill La Kill", Casca in "Berserk", and in "". In her live-action work, she has played Piper Tate in "Untitled Web Series About a Space Traveler Who Can Also Travel Through Time".


title: Carrie Keranen

text: Keranen grew up in Oak Park, Michigan. She had always been involved in acting, including high school plays, but in an interview with Everything Geek Podcast, she said she was more active in sports. She attended University of Michigan, and originally intended to major in international business with a specialization in Japanese but would be drawn back into doing plays and subbing in for major roles there. She graduated with a BA in theatre and linguistics, and after visiting Europe, moved to New York City to pursue acting. She worked on various acting jobs and did stand-up comedy. In 2003, she was a waitress at Rocco's which was featured in "The Restaurant", a reality television series about the launch of celebrity chef Rocco DiSpirito's eatery. The series was broadcast on NBC for two seasons.


title: Carrie Keranen

text: Keranen's first voice-over audition for 4Kids was April O'Neil in the 2003 TV series "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles". She landed supporting roles, and also landed some guest and supporting voices on the "Pokémon" TV series. When fellow voice actress Tara Sands moved from New York to Los Angeles, she auditioned to voice match Sands' character Mokuba Kaiba in "Yu-Gi-Oh!". On her way out of the audition, Keranen started pitching another voice actress for the part, but director Eric Stuart later told her that she was the right person for the role and that he even vouched for her to play the part. That was her first major role as a lead male character. Later in the same season, she also got to voice Kisara, which she said was more typical of the characters and used her natural voice. She also voiced Mina Simington, which she described as "type A but not in a forceful way" and would totally get into something if she had the chance.


title: Carrie Keranen

text: In 2010, she moved to Los Angeles, California, to continue working on other projects. She had a recurring role as Kate Harper in the "Fringe" TV series, and is a member of the Sacred Fools Theater Company. On July 23, 2011, she and fellow voice actress Cristina Vee were panelists at Comic-Con for Namco Bandai's preview of the "" film.


title: Carrie Keranen

text: In 2014, Keranen voiced Satsuki Kiryuin, the student council president and antagonist in the anime series "Kill la Kill", which ran on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim. In 2016, she provided the voice of , Marinette Dupain-Cheng's best friend, in the French cartoon "", which ran on Nickelodeon. She attended San Diego Comic-Con 2016 with the cast and the original creator, Thomas Astruc.


title: Mudcrutch

text: Mudcrutch was an American southern and country rock band from Gainesville, Florida. They are best known for being the band that began Tom Petty's rise to fame.


title: Mudcrutch

text: Mudcrutch formed in Gainesville in 1970 and soon became a popular act across Florida. The band moved to Los Angeles in 1974 to attract the attention of a record company. Though they signed a contract with Shelter Records, they released only one poor-selling single before breaking up in 1975. The following year, former Mudcrutch members Petty, Mike Campbell, and Benmont Tench formed the core of a new band, the Heartbreakers.


title: Mudcrutch

text: Most of the original Mudcrutch lineup reformed in 2007 to record their first album as a group, which was followed by a tour. A second album followed in 2016. Petty's death in 2017 effectively dissolved the group again.


title: Mudcrutch

text: Mudcrutch was formed in 1970 by teenage Gainesville, Florida residents Tom Petty and Tom Leadon, who had been playing together in a group called the Epics. Mudcrutch's lineup consisted of Petty (bass and vocals), Leadon (guitar and vocals), Jim Lenehan (vocals), Randall Marsh (drums) and Mike Campbell (guitar). This incarnation of the band issued a locally distributed single ("Up In Mississippi"/"Cause Is Understood") in 1971, with Petty writing and singing both songs. Leadon and Lenehan left the band in 1972 and were replaced by bassist/guitarist/vocalist Danny Roberts and keyboardist Benmont Tench. Ricky Rucker was a part of the band for a short time. Mudcrutch became locally popular and regularly played gigs from central Florida to southern Georgia. In Gainesville, they had a long stint as the house band at Dub's Lounge and organized several well-attended music festivals at "Mudcrutch Farm", a run-down house on a large lot where several band members lived.


title: Mudcrutch

text: In 1974, the members of Mudcrutch decided to relocate to Los Angeles to try to sign with a major record label. After several rejections, they signed with Leon Russell's independent Shelter Records. The band released one single, "Depot Street" in 1975, which failed to chart. After Danny Roberts left the group, Petty invited Charlie Souza to take over on bass guitar and the band continued recording in Leon Russell's Tulsa studio, and later at his Encino, California home. Discouraged by the group's lack of success, the record company broke up Mudcrutch in late 1975, keeping only Petty under contract. Several months later, Petty regrouped with former Mudcrutch members Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench to form The Heartbreakers along with fellow Gainesville natives Stan Lynch (drums) and Ron Blair (bass).


title: Mudcrutch

text: In August 2007, Tom Petty invited Randall Marsh and Tom Leadon, original members of Mudcrutch, to reunite with Heartbreakers Benmont Tench and Mike Campbell to reform Mudcrutch. They recorded an album, "Mudcrutch", which was released on April 29, 2008, by Reprise Records, and contains 14 old and new tracks. "We would play and then we would just talk about the old days," said Leadon. The band toured briefly in California to promote the album throughout April and the beginning of May 2008. The album hit number 8 on the Billboard 200 albums chart.


title: Mudcrutch

text: Fans who bought tickets to the tour through Ticketmaster were given six free downloads from the album.


title: Mudcrutch

text: On November 11, 2008, a live EP titled "Extended Play Live" was released. All tracks were recorded live in April 2008. On the same day American music channel VH1 Classic broadcast a documentary about the band.


title: Mudcrutch

text: According to "Rolling Stone", Mudcrutch intended to reconvene August 2015 to begin work on a new album. The group was originally going to begin work on the album in January of that year, but things were pushed back eight months due to medical issues that rhythm guitarist Tom Leadon was experiencing. In February 2016, prior to the announcement that they were releasing a second album, Mudcrutch was announced as a headliner for both the 2016 Bunbury Music Festival in Cincinnati, Ohio, and the 2016 Summer Camp Music Festival in Chillicothe, Illinois.


title: Mudcrutch

text: The band's second full-length album, "2", was released May 20, 2016, on Reprise Records. Preceding the album's release was a single, "Trailer", as well as "Beautiful World" and "Hungry No More". The album hit number 10 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. Less than three days after the album was released, the band embarked on their first national tour in support of the album. The tour began the same way their 2008 tour did: with two benefit shows for the Midnight Mission (on May 23 and 24, 2016, in Los Angeles). Herb Pedersen, who is also credited on "2", joined Mudcrutch on the tour.


title: Chia Pet

text: Chia Pets are American styled terracotta figurines used to sprout chia, where the chia sprouts grow within a couple of weeks to resemble the animal's fur or hair. Moistened chia seeds ("Salvia hispanica") are applied to a grooved terracotta figurine.


title: Chia Pet

text: The Chia Pet is marketed by Joe Pedott and produced by San Francisco, California-based company Joseph Enterprises, Inc. He originally developed the idea for Chia Pets after visiting Mexico and seeing Oaxacan artisans using sprouted chia seeds in their artwork. The first Chia Pet was created on September 8, 1977. A trademark registration was filed on Monday, October 17, 1977. Pedott first learned about "something called the Chia Pet" being imported from Mexico when he attended a housewares show in Chicago in 1977. Negotiating the rights, Pedott began marketing Chia Pets in the US. They achieved popularity in the 1980s following the 1982 release of a ram, the first widely distributed Chia Pet.


title: Chia Pet

text: The catchphrase sung in the TV commercial as the plant grows in time lapse is "Ch-ch-ch-chia!". This catchphrase originated at an agency brainstorming meeting, where one of the individuals present pretended to stutter the product name. As of 2019, approximately 15 million Chia Pets were sold annually with most sales during the holiday season. Originally made in Mexico, Chia Pets are now produced in China.


title: Chia Pet

text: A range of generic animals has been produced, including a turtle, pig, puppy, kitten, frog, and hippopotamus. Cartoon characters have also been licensed, including Garfield, Scooby-Doo, Looney Tunes, Shrek, The Simpsons, and SpongeBob. Additionally, there are Chia Pets depicting real people, including Barack Obama and Bob Ross.


title: Chia Pet

text: Joseph Enterprises sells replacement seeds for Chia products and also sells chia seeds in bulk as a nutritional supplement.


title: Pelton wheel

text: The Pelton wheel or Pelton Turbine is an impulse-type water turbine invented by American inventor Lester Allan Pelton in the 1870s. The Pelton wheel extracts energy from the impulse of moving water, as opposed to water's dead weight like the traditional overshot water wheel. Many earlier variations of impulse turbines existed, but they were less efficient than Pelton's design. Water leaving those wheels typically still had high speed, carrying away much of the dynamic energy brought to the wheels. Pelton's paddle geometry was designed so that when the rim ran at half the speed of the water jet, the water left the wheel with very little speed; thus his design extracted almost all of the water's impulse energywhich made for a very efficient turbine.


title: Pelton wheel

text: Lester Allan Pelton was born in Vermillion, Ohio in 1829. In 1850, he traveled overland to take part in the California Gold Rush. Pelton worked by selling fish he caught in the Sacramento River. In 1860, he moved to Camptonville, a center of placer mining activity. At this time many mining operations were powered by steam engines which consumed vast amounts of wood as their fuel. Some water wheels were used in the larger rivers, but they were ineffective in the smaller streams that were found near the mines. Pelton worked on a design for a water wheel that would work with the relatively small flow found in these streams.


title: Pelton wheel

text: By the mid 1870s, Pelton had developed a wooden prototype of his new wheel. In 1876, he approached the Miners Foundry in Nevada City, California to build the first commercial models in iron. The first Pelton Wheel was installed at the Mayflower Mine in Nevada City in 1878. The efficiency advantages of Pelton's invention were quickly recognized and his product was soon in high demand. He patented his invention on 26 October 1880. By the mid-1880s, the Miners Foundry could not meet the demand, and in 1888, Pelton sold the rights to his name and the patents to his invention to the Pelton Water Wheel Company in San Francisco. The company established a factory at 121/123 Main Street in San Francisco.


title: Pelton wheel

text: The Pelton Water Wheel Company manufactured a large number of Pelton Wheels in San Francisco which were shipped around the world. In 1892, the Company added a branch on the east coast at 143 Liberty Street in New York City. By 1900, over 11,000 turbines were in use. In 1914, the company moved manufacturing to new, larger premises at 612 Alabama Street in San Francisco. In 1956, the company was acquired by the Baldwin-Lima-Hamilton Company, which company ended manufacture of Pelton Wheels.


title: Pelton wheel

text: In New Zealand, A & G Price in Thames, New Zealand produced Pelton waterwheels for the local market. One of these is on outdoor display at the Thames Goldmine Experience.


title: Pelton wheel

text: Nozzles direct forceful, high-speed streams of water against a series of spoon-shaped buckets, also known as impulse blades, which are mounted around the outer rim of a drive wheel (also called a "runner"). As the water jet hits the blades, the direction of water velocity is changed to follow the contours of the blades. The impulse energy of the water jet exerts torque on the bucket-and-wheel system, spinning the wheel; the water jet does a "u-turn" and exits at the outer sides of the bucket, decelerated to a low velocity. In the process, the water jet's momentum is transferred to the wheel and hence to a turbine. Thus, "impulse" energy does work on the turbine. Maximum power and efficiency are achieved when the velocity of the water jet is twice the velocity of the rotating buckets. A very small percentage of the water jet's original kinetic energy will remain in the water, which causes the bucket to be emptied at the same rate it is filled, and thereby allows the high-pressure input flow to continue uninterrupted and without waste of energy.


title: Pelton wheel

text: Typically two buckets are mounted side-by-side on the wheel, with the water jet split into two equal streams; this balances the side-load forces on the wheel and helps to ensure smooth, efficient transfer of momentum from the water jet to the turbine wheel.


title: Pelton wheel

text: Because water is nearly incompressible, almost all of the available energy is extracted in the first stage of the hydraulic turbine. "Therefore, Pelton wheels have only one turbine stage, unlike gas turbines that operate with compressible fluid."


title: Pelton wheel

text: Pelton wheels are the preferred turbine for hydro-power where the available water source has relatively high hydraulic head at low flow rates. Pelton wheels are made in all sizes. There exist multi-ton Pelton wheels mounted on vertical oil pad bearings in hydroelectric plants. The largest units – the Bieudron Hydroelectric Power Station at the Grande Dixence Dam complex in Switzerland – are over 400 megawatts.


title: Pelton wheel

text: The smallest Pelton wheels are only a few inches across, and can be used to tap power from mountain streams having flows of a few gallons per minute. Some of these systems use household plumbing fixtures for water delivery. These small units are recommended for use with or more of head, in order to generate significant power levels. Depending on water flow and design, Pelton wheels operate best with heads from , although there is no theoretical limit.


title: Pelton wheel

text: Compared to other turbine designs, the relatively low specific speed of the Pelton wheel, implies that the geometry is inherently a "low gear" design. Thus it is most suitable to being fed by a hydro source with a low ratio of flow to pressure, (meaning relatively low flow and/or relatively high pressure).


title: Pelton wheel

text: The specific speed is the main criterion for matching a specific hydro-electric site with the optimal turbine type. It also allows a new turbine design to be scaled from an existing design of known performance.


title: Pelton wheel

text: The formula implies that the Pelton turbine is "geared" most suitably for applications with relatively high hydraulic head "H", due to the 5/4 exponent being greater than unity, and given the characteristically low specific speed of the Pelton.


title: Pelton wheel

text: In the ideal (frictionless) case, all of the hydraulic potential energy ("E" = "mgh") is converted into kinetic energy ("E" = "mv"/2) (see Bernoulli's principle). Equating these two equations and solving for the initial jet velocity ("V") indicates that the theoretical (maximum) jet velocity is "V" = . For simplicity, assume that all of the velocity vectors are parallel to each other. Defining the velocity of the wheel runner as: ("u"), then as the jet approaches the runner, the initial jet velocity relative to the runner is: ("V" − "u").


title: Pelton wheel

text: Assuming that the jet velocity is higher than the runner velocity, if the water is not to become backed-up in runner, then due to conservation of mass, the mass entering the runner must equal the mass leaving the runner. The fluid is assumed to be incompressible (an accurate assumption for most liquids). Also it is assumed that the cross-sectional area of the jet is constant. The jet "speed" remains constant relative to the runner. So as the jet recedes from the runner, the jet velocity relative to the runner is: −("V" − "u") = −"V" + "u". In the standard reference frame (relative to the earth), the final velocity is then: "V" = (−"V" + u) + "u" = −"V" + 2"u".


title: Pelton wheel

text: The ideal runner speed will cause all of the kinetic energy in the jet to be transferred to the wheel. In this case the final jet velocity must be zero. If −"V" + 2"u" = 0, then the optimal runner speed will be "u" = "V" /2, or half the initial jet velocity.


title: Pelton wheel

text: By Newton's second and third laws, the force "F" imposed by the jet on the runner is equal but opposite to the rate of momentum change of the fluid, so


title: Pelton wheel

text: where "ρ" is the density, and "Q" is the volume rate of flow of fluid. If "D" is the wheel diameter, the torque on the runner is


title: Pelton wheel

text: The torque is maximal when the runner is stopped (i.e. when "u" = 0, "T" = "ρQDV"). When the speed of the runner is equal to the initial jet velocity, the torque is zero (i.e. when "u" = "V", then "T" = 0). On a plot of torque versus runner speed, the torque curve is straight between these two points: (0, "pQDV") and ("V", 0).


title: Pelton wheel

text: The power "P" = "Fu" = "Tω", where "ω" is the angular velocity of the wheel. Substituting for "F", we have "P" = 2"ρQ"("V" − "u")"u". To find the runner speed at maximum power, take the derivative of "P" with respect to "u" and set it equal to zero, ["dP"/"du" = 2"ρQ"("V" − 2"u")]. Maximum power occurs when "u" = "V" /2. "P" = "ρQV"/2. Substituting the initial jet power "V" = , this simplifies to "P" = "ρghQ". This quantity exactly equals the kinetic power of the jet, so in this ideal case, the efficiency is 100%, since all the energy in the jet is converted to shaft output.


title: Pelton wheel

text: A wheel power divided by the initial jet power, is the turbine efficiency, "η" = 4"u"("V" − "u")/"V". It is zero for "u" = 0 and for "u" = "V". As the equations indicate, when a real Pelton wheel is working close to maximum efficiency, the fluid flows off the wheel with very little residual velocity. In theory, the energy efficiency varies only with the efficiency of the nozzle and wheel, and does not vary with hydraulic head.


title: Pelton wheel

text: The conduit bringing high-pressure water to the impulse wheel is called the penstock. Originally the penstock was the name of the valve, but the term has been extended to include all of the fluid supply hydraulics. Penstock is now used as a general term for a water passage and control that is under pressure, whether it supplies an impulse turbine or not.


title: Lord Speaker

text: The Lord Speaker is the presiding officer, chairman and highest authority of the House of Lords in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The office is analogous to the Speaker of the House of Commons: the Lord Speaker is elected by the members of the House of Lords and is expected to be politically impartial.


title: Lord Speaker

text: Until July 2006, the role of presiding officer in the House of Lords was undertaken by the Lord Chancellor. Under the Constitutional Reform Act 2005, the position of the speaker of the House of Lords (as it is termed in the Act) became a separate office, allowing the position to be held by someone other than the Lord Chancellor. The Lord Chancellor continued to act as speaker of the House of Lords in an interim period after the Act was passed while the House of Lords considered new arrangements about its speakership.


title: Lord Speaker

text: In 2003, following the decision to disaggregate the roles performed by the Lord Chancellor (originally Prime Minister Blair's aim was to abolish the office altogether), a select committee of the House of Lords looked into the proposed new office of its presiding officer, including the title for the elected speaker of the Lords. Following their recommendations, the new speaker was named "Lord Speaker", and the number of deputy speakers has fallen from 25 to twelve. "Lord Speaker" was chosen in part because it was already in use in the Standing Orders and the Companion.


title: Lord Speaker

text: The main functions of the Lord Speaker are to take the chair in debates held in the chamber of the House of Lords, to advise the House of Lords on procedural rules, to take formal responsibility for security in the areas of the Palace of Westminster occupied by the House of Lords and its members, to speak for the House of Lords on ceremonial occasions, and to represent the House of Lords as its ambassador in the UK and overseas.


title: Lord Speaker

text: The role has less power than the Speaker of the House of Commons. The House of Lords is largely self-governing, and its presiding officer has traditionally taken a less active role in debates than the Speaker of the House of Commons. For example, unlike the Speaker, the Lord Speaker does not call the House to order, determine who is to speak when two individuals rise at the same time, rule on points of order, discipline members who violate the rules of the House, or select amendments to bills—all these functions are performed by the House of Lords as a whole. Similarly, whereas speeches in the House of Commons are addressed directly to the Speaker, those in the House of Lords are addressed to the House as a whole; i.e., speeches begin "My Lords" instead of "Mr Speaker". In practice, the only task of the Lord Speaker in the Chamber is to formally put the question before a vote, to announce the result of any vote, and to make certain announcements to the House (e.g., announcing the death of a member). Also, the Lord Speaker may end the adjournment of the House (or "recall" the House) during a public emergency.


title: Lord Speaker

text: The Lord Speaker has assumed most of the duties that the Lord Chancellor used to have in relation to his parliamentary role. However, the Lord Chancellor continues to hand the speech to the King during the State Opening of Parliament, representing the Government in doing so. When peers debated the creation of the office, there was debate as to whether the new speaker should have additional powers and responsibilities that the Lord Chancellor does not have, ultimately resolved in the negative.


title: Lord Speaker

text: The debate was renewed with proposals put forward by a Leader's Group (an "ad hoc" committee) led by Alastair Goodlad. The proposals include allowing the Lord Speaker, during Question Time and ministerial statements, to take on the role of advising the House which party should speak next when there is a dispute. The Leader of the House of Lords, a Government minister, currently handles this task. The decision of who should speak would ultimately remain with the House. A similar proposal was made by the committee that initially discussed the new office. A further option would allow the Speaker even more power during Question Time, but it was not recommended by the Leader's Group. The Group's report has yet to be approved.


title: Lord Speaker

text: Like the Speaker of the House of Commons, but unlike the Lord Chancellor (who was also a judge and a government minister), the Lord Speaker is expected to remain non-partisan whilst in office. On election, the Lord Speaker resigns the party whip or crossbench group and certain outside interests to concentrate on being an impartial presiding officer.


title: Lord Speaker

text: The Lord Speaker is elected for a maximum term of five years, and may serve a maximum of two terms. The election is conducted using the alternative vote method. Under amendments made on 3 May 2011, elections must be held by 15 July of the final year of a term, with the new term beginning on 1 September. When Helene Hayman, Baroness Hayman, was elected the first Lord Speaker, the Clerk of the Parliaments (the chief clerk of the House of Lords) announced the result, and the Lord Chamberlain announced the Queen's confirmation of the choice. The Lord Speaker thus elected then replaced the Lord Chancellor on the Woolsack.


title: Lord Speaker

text: By Royal Warrant on 4 July 2006, the Queen declared that the Lord Speaker would have rank and precedence immediately after the Speaker of the House of Commons. The Lord Speaker earns a salary of £104,360, less than the Speaker of the House of Commons, though the Speaker of the House of Commons’ salary includes £81,932 paid for being an MP. The Lord Speaker, like the Speaker of the House of Commons, is entitled to a grace and favour apartment in the Parliamentary Estate.


title: Lord Speaker

text: Like the Lord Chancellor, the Lord Speaker wears court dress with a plain black silk gown while presiding over the House and a black silk damask and gold lace ceremonial gown on state occasions. To date holders of the office have chosen not to wear a wig, as the Lord Chancellor previously did, though they do have the option. When presiding over debates, the Lord Speaker sits on the Woolsack.


title: Lord Speaker

text: Before each day's sitting of the House of Lords, the Lord Speaker forms part of a procession that marches from the Lord Speaker's residence to the Lords Chamber. The Lord Speaker is preceded by the Deputy Serjeant-at-Arms or Principal Doorkeeper of the House (who bears the Mace). The procession is joined by the Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod in the Prince's Chamber. Together, they move through the Not-content Lobby, entering the Chamber below the bar, and finish by walking up the Temporal (opposition) side toward the Woolsack. The Mace is placed on the Woolsack, where the Lord Speaker sits after a bishop has led the House in prayers.


title: Lord Speaker

text: When the Sovereign appoints Lords Commissioners to perform certain actions on his or her behalf (for example, to open or prorogue Parliament, or formally declare Royal Assent), the Lord Speaker is one of them. The other Lords Commissioners, by convention, are the Leader of the House (who has acted as the principal Commissioner since the Lord Chancellor's functions were transferred to the Lord Speaker), the leaders of the other two major parties in the Lords, and the Convenor of the Crossbenches.


title: Lord Speaker

text: New peers, upon being introduced in the House of Lords, shake hands with the Lord Speaker after taking the oath (or making affirmation).


title: Abe Saffron

text: Abraham Gilbert Saffron (6 October 1919 – 15 September 2006) was an Australian hotelier, nightclub owner and property developer who was one of the major figures in organised crime in Australia in the latter half of the 20th century.


title: Abe Saffron

text: For several decades, members of government, the judiciary and the media made repeated allegations that Saffron was involved in a wide range of criminal activities, including illegal alcohol sales, dealing in stolen goods, illegal gambling, prostitution, drug dealing, bribery and extortion. He was charged with a range of offences including "scandalous conduct", possession of an unlicensed firearm and possession of stolen goods, but his only major conviction was for federal tax evasion.


title: Abe Saffron

text: He gained nationwide notoriety in the media, earning various nicknames including "Mr Sin", "a Mr Big of Australian crime" and "the boss of the Cross" (a reference to the Kings Cross red-light district, where he owned numerous businesses).


title: Abe Saffron

text: In March 2021, ABC Television aired an investigative documentary series, "The Ghost Train Fire", which directly implicated Saffron in an arson plot at Luna Park Sydney in 1979, resulting in the deaths of seven people, including six children. Former senior police officers testified on camera that Saffron ordered the crime, which was swiftly and systematically covered up by corrupt police and government figures. Saffron always vigorously denied such accusations, and was renowned for the extent to which he was willing to sue for libel against his accusers.


title: Abe Saffron

text: Saffron was born in Annandale, New South Wales in 1919, of Russian Jewish descent. He was educated at Annandale and Leichhardt primary schools and at the selective Fort Street High School. Although his mother hoped he would become a doctor, Saffron left school at 15 and began his business career in the family's drapery firm in the late 1930s.


title: Abe Saffron

text: On 5 August 1940, Saffron enlisted in the Australian Army and was promoted to the rank of corporal before his discharge in January 1944. Saffron is reputed to have served in the merchant navy. However, Saffron's name does not appear in the Merchant Navy category of the Department of Veterans' Affairs to have then served in the Merchant Navy from January to June 1944.


title: Abe Saffron

text: Upon leaving the Merchant Navy, he became involved with a notorious Sydney nightclub called The Roosevelt Club, co-owned by "prominent Sydney businessman" Sammy Lee. It is claimed that Saffron began his rise to power in the Sydney underworld through his involvement in the lucrative sale of black-market alcohol at the Roosevelt.


title: Abe Saffron

text: At the time, NSW clubs and pubs were subject to strict licensing laws which limited trading hours and regulated alcohol prices and sale conditions. When Saffron began working at the Roosevelt, alcohol sales were also subject to wartime rationing regulations. A subsequent Royal Commission into the NSW liquor trade heard evidence that in the early 1950s The Roosevelt Club was clearing over £1000 per week in alcohol sales, of which only £100 was being banked as liquor takings.


title: Abe Saffron

text: In 1947, Saffron, in partnership with Hilton Granville Kincaid and Mendel Brunen, took over the ownership of the Roosevelt. In January 1953, the club was closed after being declared a "disorderly house" by the NSW Police Commissioner. After Saffron sold the Roosevelt, it was able to be re-opened. Saffron then relocated to Newcastle; he worked there for a time as a bookmaker, but it has been reported that he was not successful.


title: Abe Saffron

text: When questioned by a Royal Commission about how he had obtained the substantial sum (£3000) with which he bought his first pub licence in Newcastle, he claimed that the money had come from savings he had accumulated from his bookmaking activity, although he was notably vague when pressed about the exact sources of this income.


title: Abe Saffron

text: In 1948, Saffron returned to Sydney and began purchasing licences for a string of Sydney pubs. It was later alleged that he also established covert controlling interests in numerous other pubs through a series of "dummy" owners. The 1954 Maxwell Royal Commission heard evidence that Saffron used these pubs to obtain legitimately purchased alcohol, diverting it to the various nightclubs and other businesses that he operated and selling at black market prices, realising vast profits.


title: Abe Saffron

text: By the 1960s, Saffron owned or controlled a string of nightclubs, strip joints and sex shops in Kings Cross, including the Sydney club Les Girls, home of the famous transvestite revue. During this period he began to expand his business operations into "legitimate" enterprises and to establish holdings in other states, such as the Raffles Hotel, Perth, leading several state governments to launch inquiries into his activities.


title: Abe Saffron

text: The Australian Commonwealth Police alleged that Mr Saffron met with Chicago mobster, Joseph Dan Testa, in 1969, while Testa was in Australia.


title: Abe Saffron

text: One of the most contentious incidents in Saffron's career was his rumoured involvement in the disappearance and presumed murder of newspaper publisher and anti-development campaigner Juanita Nielsen in July 1975. Although no direct connection to the crime was ever established, Saffron was shown to have had proven connections with several people suspected of being involved in Nielsen's disappearance. Saffron owned the Carousel nightclub in Kings Cross, where Nielsen was last seen on the day of her disappearance; his long-serving deputy James McCartney Anderson managed the club; one of the men later convicted of conspiring to kidnap Nielsen was Eddie Trigg, the night manager of the club; it was also reported that Saffron had financial links with developer Frank Theeman, against whose development Nielsen was campaigning.


title: Abe Saffron

text: In the 1980s investigative journalist David Hickie published his landmark book "The Prince and The Premier", which included a substantial section detailing Saffron's alleged involvement in many aspects of organised crime in Sydney. The book's central thesis was that former NSW Premier Robert Askin was corrupt, that Askin and Police Commissioners Norman Allan and Fred Hanson received huge bribes from the illegal gaming industry over many years, and that Askin and other senior public officials had overseen and approved of a major expansion of organised crime in New South Wales.


title: Abe Saffron

text: Using only material that was already in the public domain, obtained from evidence tendered to royal commissions and allegations made by politicians under parliamentary privilege, Hickie devoted an entire section of his book to Saffron's business activities. Among the most damning material was the detailed evidence tendered to the 1954 Maxwell Royal Commission into the NSW liquor trade, which concluded that Saffron had established covert controlling interests in numerous NSW pubs to supply his "sly grog" outlets, and that he had systematically made false statements to the commission and sworn false oaths before the NSW Licensing Court.


title: Abe Saffron

text: In the second edition of "The Politics of Heroin" by Alfred W. McCoy, in a chapter summarising the Nugan Hand Bank it is mentioned that Askin and Saffron regularly had dinner together at the Bourbon & Beefsteak, owned by American expatriate Bernie Houghton.


title: Abe Saffron

text: The NSW Police were unable to effect any substantial convictions against Saffron over a period of almost 40 years, which only served to reinforce the public concerns about his alleged influence over state police and government officials, but after the establishment of the National Crime Authority in the 1980s, he became a major target for the new federal investigative body.


title: Abe Saffron

text: In May 2007, the "Sydney Morning Herald" published an article on Saffron's reputed involvement in the infamous Ghost Train fire at Luna Park Sydney in 1979, when a suspected arson attack destroyed the popular ride, killing seven people. In an interview with "Herald" journalist Kate McClymont, Saffron's niece Anne Buckingham linked Saffron to the fire, stating that her uncle "liked to collect things" and that he intended to purchase Luna Park.


title: Abe Saffron

text: At the time of the fire, the park was being leased to property developer Leon Fink (businessman) and his partner, who told the "Herald" that he had been stopped from purchasing the park by the then state ALP government of Neville Wran—reputedly because Fink's business partner Nathan Spatt had made derogatory comments about Wran's use of a private aircraft belonging to Sir Peter Abeles—and Fink said that Wran once said to him at a function: "While my bum points to the ground, your partner will not get that lease." The "Herald" story also stated that a parliamentary report revealed that then Deputy Premier Jack Ferguson had told John Ducker (head of the Labor Council of New South Wales) that Wran had decided that Fink would not get Wran's support because he did not donate enough money to the ALP.


title: Abe Saffron

text: In March 2021, ABC Television broadcast an investigative documentary series, "The Ghost Train Fire" as a second series of the "Exposed" program which directly implicated Saffron in an arson plot at "Luna Park Sydney" in 1979, resulting in the deaths of seven people, six of them children. Former senior police officers Steve Bullock and Paul Egge, supported by the testimony of other involved officers and former licensing magistrate James Swanson, stated on camera their belief that Saffron ordered the crime, which was swiftly and systematically covered up by corrupt police and government figures.


title: Abe Saffron

text: It was alleged by the program that the motive was control of the valuable harbourside land next to the Sydney Harbour Bridge and with unobstructed views of the Sydney Opera House. It was the intention of Saffron and associate Jack Rooklyn, a poker-machine promoter, to gain control of and redevelop the Luna Park site. NSW premiers Robert Askin and Neville Wran have been named as corrupt close associates of Saffron, along with the police commissioner Norman "Bill" Allan, the High Court justice Lionel Murphy and lawyer Morgan Ryan, among others.


title: Abe Saffron

text: Saffron's cousins Hal and Col Goldstein and his nephew Sam Cowper ran the company that won control of Luna Park after the fire. Saffron also had 100 game machines installed at Luna Park.


title: Abe Saffron

text: In November 1987, following an extensive investigation by the NCA and the Australian Taxation Office, Saffron was found guilty of tax evasion. His conviction was largely made possible by evidence provided by his former associate Jim Anderson, who testified that Saffron's clubs routinely kept two sets of accounts—one set of so-called "black" books, which recorded actual turnover, and another set ("white" books) which were purposely fabricated with the intent of evading tax by falsifying income.


title: Abe Saffron

text: Despite several legal appeals, Saffron served 17 months in jail. Judge Loveday said on sentencing "In my view the maximum penalty of three years is inadequate."


title: Abe Saffron

text: Saffron undertook a number of highly publicised defamation cases against various publications; he unsuccessfully sued "The Sydney Morning Herald" but was successful in later suits against the authors, publishers and distributors of "Tough: 101 Australian Gangsters" and the publishers of "The Gold Coast Bulletin", which contained a defamatory crossword clue.


title: Abe Saffron

text: Prior to his death he lived in retirement at Surry Hills, Sydney. Abe Saffron died at St. Vincent's Hospital, Sydney in 2006, aged 86.


title: Abe Saffron

text: In November 2006, "The Daily Telegraph" newspaper of Sydney reported that Saffron's son Alan would receive only $500,000 from his father's multimillion-dollar estate; the article quoted various estimates of the value of the estate that ranged from A$30 million to as much as $140 million. The article reported that Saffron's eight grandchildren (including Alan Saffron's five children) would receive $1 million each, Saffron's mistress Teresa Tkaczyk would receive a lifetime annuity of $1000 a week and the couple's apartments in Surry Hills, Elizabeth Bay and the Gold Coast and that Melissa Hagenfelds (Saffron's daughter by his former mistress Rita Hagenfelds) would also receive a $1,000 a week annuity and apartments at Centennial Park and Elizabeth Bay. Other reported provisions of the will included bequests of up to $10 million to various charities.


title: Abe Saffron

text: In August 2007, Allen & Unwin published the first major biography of Saffron, written by investigative journalist Tony Reeves, author of the 2005 biography of notorious Sydney gangster Lenny McPherson.


title: Abe Saffron

text: In July 2008, Saffron's son Alan returned to Australia from his home in the US to promote his memoir "Gentle Satan: Abe Saffron, My Father" and the publication of the book was widely covered in the Australian media. According to a "Sydney Morning Herald" report, Saffron's book names former Saffron associate James McCartney Anderson as the chief agent of the conspiracy to silence Juanita Nielsen. Anderson (who died in 2003) consistently denied any involvement while he was alive, but police reportedly failed to check Anderson's alibi that he was interstate when Nielsen disappeared.


title: Abe Saffron

text: In an interview with "Herald" reporter Lisa Carty, Alan Saffron said that he had received death threats over the book because it would name some of the people involved in the Juanita Nielsen conspiracy, but that he was unable to name all those involved for legal reasons, because some were still alive.


title: Abe Saffron

text: Saffron claimed he could name people "much bigger" than former NSW premier Robert Askin and former police commissioner Norman Allan, with whom his father corruptly dealt to protect his gambling, nightclub and prostitution businesses. Saffron specifically referred to:


title: Abe Saffron

text: According to the "Herald" article, all the conspirators are named in the original manuscript of the book, which is now in the possession of Saffron's publishers, Penguin, and that the book would be re-published with additional names after people not originally named had died.


title: Abe Saffron

text: A follow-up article published the next day carried Alan Saffron's assertion that his father controlled the vice trade, including illegal gambling and prostitution, in every state except Tasmania and the Northern Territory, and that he bribed "a host of politicians and policemen" to ensure he was protected from prosecution.


title: Abe Saffron

text: Later in his career, Saffron reportedly began laundering his huge illegal income through loan sharking and that the late media magnate Kerry Packer was among those who borrowed money from Abe Saffron, allegedly to cover gambling debts.


title: Abe Saffron

text: The book also alleges that Saffron lent money to several other prominent Sydney businessmen including Frank Theeman (whose controversial Kings Cross development was the target of Juanita Nielsen's campaign) as well as former TNT boss Sir Peter Abeles and property tycoon Sir Paul Strasser, both of whom received knighthoods during Askin's premiership.


title: Abe Saffron

text: The book lends further weight to the long-standing allegations of corruption against former NSW Premier Robert Askin and Police Commissioner Norman Allan. It claims that Saffron made payments of between A$5000 and $10,000 per week to each man over many years, that Askin and Allan both visited Saffron's office on several occasions, that Allan also visited the Saffron family home, and that Abe Saffron paid for an all-expenses overseas trip for Allan and a young female 'friend'.


title: Abe Saffron

text: Later in Askin's premiership, according to Alan Saffron, his father became the "bagman" for Sydney's illegal liquor and prostitution rackets and most illegal gambling activities, collecting payoffs that were then passed to Askin, Allan and others; in return his father was completely protected.


title: The Stars My Destination

text: The Stars My Destination is a science fiction novel by American writer Alfred Bester. Set in the 24th or 25th century, which varies between editions of the book, when humans have colonized the Solar System, it tells the story of Gully [Gulliver] Foyle, a teleporter driven by a burning desire for revenge.


title: The Stars My Destination

text: Its first publication was in book form in June 1956 in the United Kingdom, where it was titled Tiger! Tiger!, named after William Blake's 1794 poem "The Tyger", the first verse of which is printed as the first page of the novel. The book remains widely known under that title in the markets in which this edition was circulated. It was subsequently serialized in "Galaxy" magazine in four parts beginning with the October 1956 issue. A working title was "Hell's My Destination", and the book was also associated with the name "The Burning Spear".


title: The Stars My Destination

text: At the time when the book is set, "jaunting"—personal teleportation—has so upset the social and economic balance that the Inner Planets are at war with the Outer Satellites. Gully Foyle of the Presteign-owned merchant spaceship "Nomad"—an uneducated, unskilled, unambitious man whose life is at a dead end—is marooned in space when the ship is attacked and he alone survives. After six months of his waiting for rescue, a passing spaceship, the "Vorga", also owned by the powerful Presteign industrial clan, ignores his signal and abandons him. Foyle is enraged and is transformed into a man consumed by revenge, the first of many transformations.


title: The Stars My Destination

text: Foyle repairs the ship, but is captured by a cargo cult in the Asteroid Belt which tattoos a hideous mask of a tiger on his face. He manages to escape and is returned to Terra. His attempt to blow up the "Vorga" fails, and he is captured by Presteign. Unknown to Foyle, the "Nomad" was carrying "PyrE", a new material which could make the difference between victory and defeat in the war. Presteign hires Saul Dagenham to interrogate Foyle and find the ship and PyrE.


title: The Stars My Destination

text: Protected by his own revenge fixation, Foyle cannot be broken, and he is put into a -proof prison. There he meets Jisbella McQueen, who teaches him to think clearly, and tells him he should find out who gave the order not to rescue him. Together they escape and get his tattoos removed—but not with total success: the subcutaneous scars become visible when Foyle becomes too emotional. They travel to the "Nomad", where they recover not only PyrE, but also a fortune in platinum. Jisbella is captured by Dagenham, but Foyle escapes.


title: The Stars My Destination

text: Some time later, Foyle re-emerges as "Geoffrey Fourmyle", a "nouveau riche" dandy. Foyle has rigorously educated himself and had his body altered to become a killing machine. Through yoga he has achieved the emotional self-control necessary to prevent his stigmata from showing. He seeks out Robin Wednesbury, a one-way telepath, whom he had raped earlier in the novel, and persuades her to help him charm his way through high society.


title: The Stars My Destination

text: Foyle tracks down the crew of the "Vorga" to learn the identity of the ship's captain, but each is implanted with a death-reflex and dies when questioned. Each time, Foyle is tormented by the appearance of "The Burning Man", an image of himself on fire.


title: The Stars My Destination

text: At a society party, Foyle is smitten with Presteign's daughter Olivia. He also meets Jisbella again—now Dagenham's lover—who chooses not to reveal Foyle's identity, although Dagenham has realized it anyway (Foyle's alias was implanted in his subconscious mind during Dagenham's interrogation). During a nuclear attack by the Outer Satellites, Foyle goes to Olivia to save her. She tells him that to have her, he must be as cruel and ruthless as she is.


title: The Stars My Destination

text: Robin, traumatized by the attacks, tries to buy her way out of her arrangement with Foyle with the name of another "Vorga" crew member. Foyle agrees, but immediately reneges. In response, Robin goes to Central Intelligence to betray him.


title: The Stars My Destination

text: Foyle learns that the captain of the "Vorga" joined a cult on Mars and has had all her sensory nerves disabled, making her immune to conventional torture. Foyle kidnaps a telepath to interrogate the captain, and learns that the ship did not rescue him because it was picking up refugees, taking their belongings, and ejecting them into space. He also learns that Olivia Presteign was the person in charge. Olivia rescues him from Martian commandos, as she sees in Foyle someone who can match her hatred and need to destroy.


title: The Stars My Destination

text: Driven by a guilty conscience, Foyle tries to give himself up to Presteign's lawyer, Regis Sheffield, who is known as a Terran patriot. Sheffield turns out to be a spy for the Outer Satellites, and he captures Foyle. Sheffield tells Foyle that when the "Nomad" was attacked, Foyle was taken off the ship, transported 600,000 miles away, and set adrift in a spacesuit to be a decoy to attract ships to be ambushed. Instead, Foyle space-jaunted—teleporting a cosmic distance, very much further than had been previously believed possible—back to the "Nomad". Now, the Outer Satellites not only want PyrE, they want Foyle as well, to learn the secret of space-jaunting.


title: The Stars My Destination

text: Meanwhile, Presteign reveals that PyrE is activated by telepathy, and Robin is enlisted to trigger it to flush out Foyle. Bits of PyrE left exposed by Foyle's tests to determine its purpose cause destruction worldwide, but primarily at Foyle's abandoned encampment in St. Patrick's Cathedral, where Sheffield has brought him. The church partially collapses, killing Sheffield and trapping Foyle, unconscious but alive, over a pit of flame. Suffering from synesthesia brought on by the explosion affecting his neurological implants, Foyle through space and time as The Burning Man. Finally he lands in the future, where Robin telepathically tells him how to escape from the collapsing cathedral.


title: The Stars My Destination

text: Back in the present, Foyle is pressured to surrender the rest of the PyrE, which was protected from exploding by its Inert Lead Isotope container, and to teach mankind how to space-. He leads them to where the rest of the PyrE is hidden, but makes off with it and across the globe, throwing slugs of PyrE into the crowd at each stop. He asks humanity to choose: either destroy itself or follow him into space.


title: The Stars My Destination

text: Foyle now realizes the key to space-jaunting is faith: not the certainty of an answer, but the conviction that somewhere an answer exists. He from one nearby star to another, finding new worlds suitable for colonization, but reachable only if he shares the secret of space-jaunting. He comes to rest back with the cargo cult, where the people see him as a holy man and await his revelation.


title: The Stars My Destination

text: "The Stars My Destination" anticipated many of the staples of the later cyberpunk movement, for instance the megacorporations as powerful as governments, a dark overall vision of the future and the cybernetic enhancement of the body. Bester added to this mix the concept that human beings could learn to teleport, or "" from point to point, provided they know the exact locations of their departure and arrival and have physically seen the destination, similar to A. E. van Vogt's Gilbert Gosseyn in the 1948 novel "The World of Null-A". There is one overall absolute limit: no one can through outer space. A of 1,000 miles is the maximum any jaunter is able to achieve, and even that is extremely rare. On the surface of a planet, the rules supreme; otherwise, mankind is still restricted to using machinery. In this world, telepathy is extremely rare, but does exist. One important character is able to send thoughts but not receive them. There are fewer than half-a-dozen full telepaths in all the worlds of the solar system.


title: The Stars My Destination

text: The novel can be seen as a science fiction adaption of Alexandre Dumas' "The Count of Monte Cristo". It is the study of a man completely lacking in imagination or ambition, Gulliver Foyle, who is introduced with "He was one hundred and seventy days dying and not yet dead...". Foyle is a cipher, a man with potential but no motivation, who is suddenly marooned in space. Even this is not enough to galvanize him beyond the necessities of survival, finding air and food on the wreck. But everything changes when an apparent rescue ship deliberately passes him by, stirring him irrevocably out of his passivity. Foyle becomes a monomaniacal and sophisticated monster bent upon revenge. Wearing many masks, learning many skills, this "worthless" man pursues his goals relentlessly; no price is too high to pay.


title: The Stars My Destination

text: Like Edmond Dantès in "The Count of Monte Cristo", Foyle is thrown into prison, the supposedly -proof "Gouffre Martel" located in caverns. He establishes a clandestine connection to another prisoner, Jisbella McQueen, and through her he is educated to the point where he can conceive a plan to escape and exact his revenge. Escaping with her and locating the wreck of the "Nomad", he uses its treasure, as Dantès did, to re-invent himself as Geoffrey Fourmyle.


title: The Stars My Destination

text: The scenario of the shipwrecked man ignored by passing ships came from a "National Geographic Magazine" story that Bester had read, about a shipwrecked sailor Poon Lim who had survived four months on a raft in the South Atlantic during World War II, and ships had passed him without picking him up, because their captains were afraid that the raft was a decoy to lure them into torpedo range of German submarines.


title: The Stars My Destination

text: The title "The Stars My Destination" appears in a quatrain quoted by Foyle twice during the book. The first time, while he is trapped in outer space, he states:


title: The Stars My Destination

text: Toward the end of the novel, after he has returned to human life and become something of a hero, he states:


title: The Stars My Destination

text: Both quatrains are based on a poetic form that was popular in England and the United States during the 18th-to-mid-20th centuries, in which a person stated their name, country, city or town, and a religious homily (often, "Heaven's my destination") within the rhyming four-line structure (see book rhyme). This literary device had been previously used by James Joyce in "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man".


title: The Stars My Destination

text: Bester may have come across his title expression in the writings of John Whiteside Parsons, one of the fathers of modern rocketry, who was also a science fiction fan and occultist. In 1943, Parsons wrote: "Rocketry may not be my True Will, but it's one hell of a powerful drive. With Thelema as my goal and the stars my destination and my home, I have set my eyes on high".


title: The Stars My Destination

text: Bester's initial work on the book began in England, and he took the names for his characters from a UK telephone directory. As a result, many of the characters are named after British or Irish towns or other features: Gulliver Foyle (and his pseudonym, Fourmyle of Ceres), Robin Wednesbury, the Presteign clan, Regis Sheffield, Y'ang-Yeovil, Saul Dagenham, Sam Quatt, Rodger Kempsey, the Bo'ness and Uig ship underwriters.


title: The Stars My Destination

text: The novel included some notable early descriptions of proto-science and fictional technology, among them Bester's portrayal of psionics, including the phenomenon of "jaunting", named after the scientist (Charles Fort Jaunte) who discovered it. Jaunting is the instantaneous teleportation of one's body (and anything one is wearing or carrying). One is able to move up to a thousand miles by just thinking. This suddenly revealed, and near-universal ability, totally disrupts the economic balance between the Inner Planets (Venus, Earth, Mars, and the Moon) and the Outer Satellites (various moons of Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune), eventually leading to a war between the two. Jaunting has other effects on the social fabric of the novel's world, and these are examined in true science-fictional fashion. Women of the upper classes are locked away in -proof rooms "for their protection", the treatment of criminals of necessity goes back to the Victorian "separate system", and freaks and monsters abound.


title: The Stars My Destination

text: The second significant technology in the novel is the rare substance known as "PyrE", an extremely powerful explosive which is activated by telepathy. Possession of PyrE and knowledge of the means to detonate it is believed by both sides to be key to winning the interplanetary war.


title: The Stars My Destination

text: Bester's description of synesthesia is the first popular account published in the English language and is also quite accurate.


title: The Stars My Destination

text: Initially, reviews of "The Stars My Destination" were mixed. The well-regarded science fiction writer and critic Damon Knight, in "In Search of Wonder" (1956), wrote of the novel's "bad taste, inconsistency, irrationality, and downright factual errors", but called the ending of the book "grotesquely moving". In a profile of Bester for "Continuum Encyclopedia of American Literature" (2005), critic Steven H. Gale cited the novel as a reflection of the author's maturation, addressing as it does "the continued evolution of humankind as a species", a grander theme than those treated with in his earlier work. Gale declared the novel to be Bester's most stylistically ambitious work, citing the use of disparate fonts to evoke synaesthesia, the progressively intelligent language accorded to the maturing protagonist, and the framing of the narrative between the variations on Blake's quatrain.


title: The Stars My Destination

text: The book has received high praise from several science fiction writers. After criticizing unrealistic science fiction, Carl Sagan in 1978 listed "The Stars My Destination" as among stories "that are so tautly constructed, so rich in the accommodating details of an unfamiliar society that they sweep me along before I have even a chance to be critical". By 1987, when the author died, "it was apparent that the 1980s genre owed an enormous debt to Bester and to this book in particular", Neil Gaiman wrote in the introduction to a 1999 edition of the book: ""The Stars My Destination" is, after all, the perfect cyberpunk novel: it contains such cheerfully protocyber elements as multinational corporate intrigue; a dangerous, mysterious, hyperscientific MacGuffin (PyrE); an amoral hero; a supercool thief-woman..." James Lovegrove called it "the very best of Bester", and Thomas M. Disch identified it as "one of the great sf novels of the 1950s". Joe Haldeman wrote: "Our field has produced only a few works of actual genius, and this is one of them", who also added that he reads the novel "every two or three years and it still evokes a sense of wonder".


title: The Stars My Destination

text: According to Samuel R. Delany, the book is "considered by many to be the greatest single SF novel". while Robert Silverberg wrote that it is "on everybody's list of the ten greatest SF novels". Fantasy writer Michael Moorcock praised it as "a wonderful adventure story" that embodies truly libertarian principles. Ty Franck, co-author of "The Expanse" series, said: "I don't remember any of the other stories in ["A Treasury of Great Science Fiction", Volume Two; an anthology of science fiction stories], and I read that book a dozen times. The only story that sticks out in my mind is "The Stars My Destination"".


title: The Stars My Destination

text: In a 2011 survey asking leading science fiction writers to name their favorite work of the genre, "The Stars My Destination" was the choice of William Gibson and Moorcock. Gibson remarked that the book was "perfectly surefooted, elegantly pulpy", and "dizzying in its pace and sweep", and a "talisman" for him when undertaking his first novel. Moorcock hailed Bester's novel as a reminder of "why the best science fiction still contains, as in Ballard, vivid imagery and powerful prose coupled to a strong moral vision".


title: The Stars My Destination

text: In 2012, the novel was included in the Library of America two-volume boxed set "American Science Fiction: Nine Classic Novels of the 1950s", edited by Gary K. Wolfe.


title: The Stars My Destination

text: Howard Chaykin and Byron Preiss created a graphic adaptation the first half of which was published in 1979 by Baronet Publishing and the complete version – delayed due to Baronet's bankruptcy after releasing the original version – by Marvel Entertainment's Epic imprint in 1992.


title: The Stars My Destination

text: A dramatisation titled "Tiger! Tiger!" was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on September 14, 1991 and repeated on August 16, 1993. It was scripted by Ivan Benbrook and directed by Andy Jordan. Alun Armstrong played Gully Foyle, Miranda Richardson was Olivia, Siobhan Redmond was Robin Wednesbury and Lesley Manville was Jisbella McQueen.


title: The Stars My Destination

text: A 2004 anime series, "", was originally intended as an adaptation of "The Stars My Destination", the copyright holders' refusal to allow an adaptation led the director, Mahiro Maeda, to instead use "The Count of Monte Cristo", which had inspired Bester's story.


title: The Stars My Destination

text: Various film adaptations of the book have been scripted but none has yet made it to the screen. While the novel has long been considered an "unfilmable" science fiction work, the screen rights were acquired by Universal Pictures in 2006 and by Paramount Pictures in 2015.


title: Soil classification

text: Soil classification deals with the systematic categorization of soils based on distinguishing characteristics as well as criteria that dictate choices in use.


title: Soil classification

text: Soil classification is a dynamic subject, from the structure of the system, to the definitions of classes, to the application in the field. Soil classification can be approached from the perspective of soil as a material and soil as a resource.


title: Soil classification

text: Inscriptions at the temple of Horus at Edfu outline a soil classification used by Tanen to determine what kind of temple to build at which site. Ancient Greek scholars produced a number of classification based on several different qualities of the soil.


title: Soil classification

text: Geotechnical engineers classify soils according to their engineering properties as they relate to use for foundation support or building material. Modern engineering classification systems are designed to allow an easy transition from field observations to basic predictions of soil engineering properties and behaviors.


title: Soil classification

text: The most common engineering classification system for soils in North America is the Unified Soil Classification System (USCS). The USCS has three major classification groups: (1) coarse-grained soils (e.g. sands and gravels); (2) fine-grained soils (e.g. silts and clays); and (3) highly organic soils (referred to as "peat"). The USCS further subdivides the three major soil classes for clarification. It distinguishes sands from gravels by grain size, classifying some as "well-graded" and the rest as "poorly-graded". Silts and clays are distinguished by the soils' Atterberg limits, and thus the soils are separated into "high-plasticity" and "low-plasticity" soils. Moderately organic soils are considered subdivisions of silts and clays and are distinguished from inorganic soils by changes in their plasticity properties (and Atterberg limits) on drying. The European soil classification system (ISO 14688) is very similar, differing primarily in coding and in adding an "intermediate-plasticity" classification for silts and clays, and in minor details.


title: Soil classification

text: Other engineering soil classification systems in the United States include the AASHTO Soil Classification System, which classifies soils and aggregates relative to their suitability for pavement construction, and the Modified Burmister system, which works similarly to the USCS but includes more coding for various soil properties.


title: Soil classification

text: A full geotechnical engineering soil description will also include other properties of the soil including color, in-situ moisture content, in-situ strength, and somewhat more detail about the material properties of the soil than is provided by the USCS code. The USCS and additional engineering description is standardized in ASTM D 2487.


title: Soil classification

text: For soil resources, experience has shown that a natural system approach to classification, i.e. grouping soils by their intrinsic property (soil morphology), behaviour, or genesis, results in classes that can be interpreted for many diverse uses. Differing concepts of pedogenesis, and differences in the significance of morphological features to various land uses can affect the classification approach. Despite these differences, in a well-constructed system, classification criteria group similar concepts so that interpretations do not vary widely. This is in contrast to a technical system approach to soil classification, where soils are grouped according to their fitness for a specific use and their edaphic characteristics.


title: Soil classification

text: Natural system approaches to soil classification, such as the French Soil Reference System (Référentiel pédologique français) are based on presumed soil genesis. Systems have developed, such as USDA soil taxonomy and the World Reference Base for Soil Resources, which use taxonomic criteria involving soil morphology and laboratory tests to inform and refine hierarchical classes. Another approach is numerical classification, also called ordination, where soil individuals are grouped by multivariate statistical methods such as cluster analysis. This produces natural groupings without requiring any inference about soil genesis.


title: Soil classification

text: In soil survey, as practiced in the United States, soil classification usually means criteria based on soil morphology in addition to characteristics developed during soil formation. Criteria are designed to guide choices in land use and soil management. As indicated, this is a hierarchical system that is a hybrid of both natural and objective criteria. USDA soil taxonomy provides the core criteria for differentiating soil map units. This is a substantial revision of the 1938 USDA soil taxonomy which was a strictly natural system. The USDA classification was originally developed by Guy Donald Smith, director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's soil survey investigations. Soil taxonomy based soil map units are additionally sorted into classes based on technical classification systems. Land Capability Classes, hydric soil, and prime farmland are some examples.


title: Soil classification

text: The European Union uses the World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB), currently the fourth edition is valid. According to the first edition of the WRB (1998), the booklet "Soils of the European Union" was published by the former Institute of Environment and Sustainability (now: Land Resources Unit, European Soil Data Centre/ESDAC).


title: Soil classification

text: In addition to scientific soil classification systems, there are also vernacular soil classification systems. Folk taxonomies have been used for millennia, while scientifically based systems are relatively recent developments. Knowledge on the spatial distribution of soils has increased dramatically. SoilGrids is a system for automated soil mapping based on models fitted using soil profiles and environmental covariate data. On a global scale, it provides maps at 1.00–0.25 km spatial resolution. Whether sustainability might be the ultimate goal for managing the global soil resources, these new developments require studied soils to be classified and given its own name.


title: Soil classification

text: The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requires the classification of soils to protect workers from injury when working in excavations and trenches. OSHA uses three soil classifications plus one for rock, based primarily on strength but also other factors which affect the stability of cut slopes:


title: Soil classification

text: Each of the soil classifications has implications for the way the excavation must be made or the protections (sloping, shoring, shielding, etc.) that must be provided to protect workers from collapse of the excavated bank.


title: Soil classification

text: Technical soil classification systems focus on representing some specific facet or quality of the soil, rather than a direct pedogenetic classification. Such technical classifications are developed with specific applications in mind, such as soil-water relationships, land quality assessment or geotechnical engineering.


title: Vladimir Demikhov

text: Vladimir Petrovich Demikhov (; July 31, 1916 – November 22, 1998) was a Soviet scientist and organ transplantation pioneer, who performed several transplants in the 1940s and 1950s, including the transplantation of a heart into an animal and a heart–lung replacement in an animal. He is also well known for his dog head transplants, which he conducted during the 1950s, resulting in two-headed dogs. This ultimately led to the head transplants in monkeys by Dr. Robert White, who was inspired by Demikhov's work.


title: Vladimir Demikhov

text: Vladimir P. Demikhov was born on July 31, 1916, into a family of Russian peasants living on a small farmstead in the northern part of Russia's Volgograd region. His father, Demikhov Peter Yakovlevich, was killed during the Russian Civil War when Demikhov was about three years old, so he and his brother and sister were raised by their mother, Domnika Alexandrovna, who managed to provide them with a good education. He began to show an interest in the mammalian circulatory system as a teenager, and is also known to have been inspired by Pavlov's experimental work with dogs. When he left school in 1931, his first job was at the Stalingrad Tractor Plant where he worked as a mechanic and repairman.


title: Vladimir Demikhov

text: In 1934, Demikhov began studying at the Voronezh State University, where in 1937 he created the world's first artificial heart and successfully implanted it into a dog (which survived for two hours after the surgery). A description of this groundbreaking work was published in April 1938 in the university's student newspaper, and it was presented to the other students at a scientific conference the following month. He then transferred to the Biology Faculty of Moscow State University, where he wrote his first scientific work, and graduated with honors in August 1940.


title: Vladimir Demikhov

text: Soon after graduation, Demikhov was conscripted into military service and became a soldier in the Red Army; when the Soviet Union was drawn into the Second World War in June 1941, he served on the front line as a forensic expert and pathologist, and spent time serving in China when the Soviets declared war on Japan in 1945. He returned home at the end of the war with a number of medals and a military decoration. He married Liya Nikolayevna in August 1946, and their daughter Olga was born in July 1947.


title: Vladimir Demikhov

text: After the war, Demikhov resumed his post in the human physiology department at Moscow State University, where he continued his experimental research, eventually performing successful heart and lung transplants on warm-blooded animals. In 1947, he moved to the Institute of Surgery in Moscow where he began to experiment with liver and kidney transplantation in the late 1940s.


title: Vladimir Demikhov

text: He spent the 1950s carrying out research into organ transplantation surgery, continuously improving his experimental techniques. He successfully performed an isolated orthotopic heart transplantation in a dog in 1951 (where the heart was correctly positioned rather than offset inside the thoracic cavity). The survival rates steadily increased from a few hours to several weeks, and one of the dogs that received a heart transplant in 1953 survived for another seven years after the operation.


title: Vladimir Demikhov

text: A successful mammary–coronary artery anastomosis was achieved in 1953, after unsuccessful attempts the previous year. Demikhov also developed the principles of myocardial revascularization, which enabled him to perform the first experimental coronary artery bypass operation. The ultimate aim of his research was for organ transplantations to be implemented in clinical practice on humans.


title: Vladimir Demikhov

text: In February 1954, in arguably his most bizarre experiment, he transplanted a dog's head onto another dog, using vascular connections to the host dog's heart. Ignoring the condemnation from his critics, he continued with this particular line of experimentation, becoming more successful with time. His transplantation work was widely reported inside the Soviet Union, where it was continuously criticized for being unethical, but it was not until the late 1950s that news of his experiments spread to the outside world. In fact, by the time American surgeons became aware of Demikhov's dog head transplantations in 1959, he had already been performing these procedures for five years.