Amateur career.

Culcay took up boxing at the behest of his father in 1998, training at TG 75 Darmstadt. He was relatively unknown in 2007, when he was sent to the 2007 World Amateur Boxing Championships. But while all the German top fighters exited early he and middleweight Konstantin Buga were the only ones to reach the quarterfinal and qualify for the 2008 Summer Olympics. At the World Championships, Culcay beat Jetmir Kuci and Zoran Mitrovic then he lost to eventual American winner Demetrius Andrade. At the Olympics he was edged out in his first bout by Kim Jung-Joo. Culcay went on to win a gold medal at the 2009 World Championships, beating Andrey Zamkovoy in the final match.

Professional career.

Culcay turned pro in 2009. He is promoted by Sauerland Promotions. He won his first 14 fights, before losing a split decision to Guido Pitto. Culcay avenged the loss with a narrow unanimous decision win in his next fight. Culcay claimed the European light-middleweight title in August 2014, beating Isaac Real on points.  On May 2015, Culcay faced Maurice Weber for the WBA interim light-middleweight title. Culcay won the bout and the title by unanimous decision. After two successful defenses, Culcay reached an agreement to fight former world champion Demetrius Andrade. The winner would be elevated to WBA (Regular) champion. The fight took place on March 2017 at the Friedrich-Ebert-Halle in Ludwigshafen, Germany. Andrade won by split decision. Two judges scored the bout 116–112, 116–112 for Andrade whilst the third had it 115–114 for Culcay. The fight was regarded as close, with as many as five rounds being tossed between the two. Sky Sports pundits had Andrade a clear close winner as he outworked Culcay. In the post fight interview, Andrade credited his performance, "I thought I did everything that I needed to do. I came to Germany and took the title. Culcay came like a champion, but I was the better man. I outlanded him and I came out with the victory."

Professional boxing record.

!!Result!Record!Opponent!Type!Round, time!Date!Location!Notes

Jack Robert Culcay-Keth (born 26 September 1985 in Ambato, Ecuador) is an Ecuador-born German professional boxer. As an amateur he represented Germany, fighting at the 2008 Summer Olympics in the welterweight division, and winning a silver medal at the 2008 European Championships and gold at the 2009 World Championships. He held the WBA interim light-middleweight title between 2015 and 2017.


Early life.

Maronna was born in Brooklyn, New York, to a fireman father and a guidance counselor mother. He is of one half Italian, three-eighths Irish, and one-eighth Dutch descent. He went to Hunter College High School in New York City, before attending Purchase College of the State University of New York, where he studied documentary/nonfiction filmmaking.

Career.

Maronna played older Pete Wrigley in the television show "The Adventures of Pete & Pete" on Nickelodeon (from 1989 to 1996), as well as the character of Jeff McCallister in the movie "Home Alone" (1990) and its sequel, "" (1992). In the first one he says the line "Kevin, you are such a disease", which became a popular moment from the movie. He also portrayed a teenage killer in an episode of "Law & Order". In the 2000s, Maronna appeared in the movies "Slackers" and "40 Days and 40 Nights".  Maronna was in a widely seen series of 1999 ads for the web brokerage Ameritrade, as Stuart, a slacker employee of a clueless boss whom he helps get on the internet with over-the-top zealousness. Maronna reprised the role in a comedy reel with Bill Clinton, which was shown at Clinton's final appearance as the President of the United States at the 2000 White House Correspondents' Association dinner.  Maronna's last acting credits were in 2004, and since then he has worked as an electrician on films and television in New York. His credits include roles in "Sex and The City" and "Be Kind Rewind". He also appeared in the music videos for "Whose Authority" and "All My Friends", by the bands Nada Surf and The XYZ Affair, respectively.  Since 2013, Maronna co-hosts the podcast "The Adventures of Danny and Mike" on with his "Adventures of Pete and Pete" co-star Danny Tamberelli.

Michael C. Maronna (born September 27, 1977) is an American actor who has appeared in several television programs and films. He is best known for his roles as "Big Pete" Wrigley on the TV show "The Adventures of Pete & Pete" and as Jeff McCallister in the movie "Home Alone" and its sequel, "".


Etymology.

"Kek Lok Si" means "Sukhāvatī Temple". In Hokkien (a southern Chinese language), "Kek-lok" literally means "supreme joy", itself a translation of "Sukhāvatī", a paradise. "Si" means "temple".  "Kek Lok Si" has also been translated as "Heavenly temple", "Pure Land Temple" (Sukhāvatī is one of the pure lands), "Temple of Supreme Bliss", and the "Temple of Paradise".

History.

The construction of the temple began in 1890 and completed in 1905. It was inspired by Beow Lean, the chief monk of the Goddess of Mercy Temple at Pitt Street in 1887; he had served earlier in the Kushan Abbey in Fujian in China. The site chosen by Beow, a spiritual location in the hills of Ayer Itam, facing the sea, was named "Crane Mountain". It was established as a branch of the Buddhist Vatican in Drum Mountain in Foochow in Hokkien province. Beow Lean was the first abbot of the temple. The buildings of the temple complex were sponsored by five leading Chinese business people of Penang known as "Hakka tycoons": Cheong Fatt Tze, his cousin Chang Yu Nan, Cheah Choon Seng, Tye Kee Yoon, and Chung Keng Kooi. Collection of funds for building the temple was also facilitated by dedicating the structures and artefacts in the name of the temple's benefactors. The main hall, which was completed first, housed a shrine to Guanyin, in a recessed area where many other female goddesses called the Queen of Heaven, the Goddess of the Earth, and Goddess of Childbirth are housed; which is said to represent, on a miniature scale, the island of Potalaka (as Mount Putuo), where there is a large shrine dedicated to Guanyin in the China Sea. People compared this shrine to the Amitabha Buddha's Western Paradise and started calling it the "Kek Lok Si" ("Jile Si" in Mandarin). There are also many other shrine chambers, which have stately statues, all gilded, of the Buddhas, bodhisattvas, saintly lohans, guardian spirits, and Heavenly (or Diamond) Kings of Pure Land Buddhism.  The consular representative of China in Penang reported the grandeur of the temple to the Qing imperial government. Following this, the Guangxu Emperor invited Beow Lean to Beijing in 1904 and bestowed on him 70,000 volumes (or 7,000, according to other sources) of the "psalms and other sacred works of Buddhism" and also presented him edicts anointing him the "dignity of the Chief Priest of Penang" and also declaring "the Chinese temple at Air Itam as the head of all Chinese temples in Penang". On the abbot's return to Penang, a royal procession, carrying the edict in a rattan chair and the scriptures in pony-driven carts, was organised leading to the temple complex. Prominent Chinese dignitaries of Penang in their royal mandarin attire accompanied the abbot in the procession.  In 1930, the seven-storey main pagoda of the temple, the "Ban Po Thar" (, "Pagoda of the Ten Thousand Buddhas"), a structure, was completed. This pagoda combines a Chinese octagonal base with a middle tier of Thai design, and a Burmese crown (spiral dome); reflecting the temple's amalgam of both Mahayana and Theravada Buddhism. It represents syncretism of the ethnic and religious diversity in the country. There is a large statue of Buddha donated by King Bhumibol of Thailand deified here. King Rama VI of Thailand laid the foundation for the pagoda, so it is also named "Rama Pagoda".  In 2002, a bronze statue of Guanyin, the Goddess of Mercy, was completed and opened to the public. It replaced the previous white plaster Kuan Yin statue which was damaged due to a fire a few years earlier. The bronze statue is located on the hillside above the pagoda. The statue is complemented with a three-tiered roof pavilion (with 16 columns made of bronze supporting the pavilion), which was completed in 2009. It is the tallest Guanyin statue in the world. One hundred statues of the goddess Kuan Yin, each of height, are set around the main statue of the goddess. However, its height was restricted to avoid its shadow falling on the Penang State Mosque. This shrine also has other 10,000 statues of Buddha, apart from a statue of 12 Zodiac Animal Signs of the Chinese Calendar.  The temple complex has a large hydraulically operated bell, which tolls with a high pitch at frequent intervals. Wood and stone carvings are profusely seen in the temple. In front of each deity there is a cushion, impressive scrolls, and candles set in very attractive suspended lamps, and with a large number of priests in attendance.

Description.

Kek Lok Si Temple is located at the foot of the Air Itam mountain in George Town on Penang Island. It is built over a plot of an area of that was donated by Yeoh Siew Beow. It is about walk from the Penang Hill Station.  Most visitors approach the temple as they ascend a stairway, roofs of which provide shelter to a multitude of shops selling souvenirs and other - mostly secular - commodities. They pass by a so-called Liberation Pond, following the Buddhist tradition of merit-making, turtles may be released into freedom, albeit a limited one.  The temple itself consists of several large prayer halls and pavilions for assembly and prayer, statues of Buddha; various bodhisattvas as well as Chinese gods are being venerated. The architectural features include carved pillars, fine woodwork, mostly painted in bright colours, and a plethora of lanterns add to the visual impression. Fish ponds and flower gardens are also part of the temple complex.  There are two tiers of double-lane inclined elevators to carry pilgrims and visitors further uphill. An electric buggy service links the different tiers of elevators as their middle levels are some distance apart. On the elevated platform, there is a fish pond, and the towering statue of Kuan Yin, Goddess of Mercy, beseeched by women hoping to have children. Monks and nuns are housed in a monastery.

Annual events.

The temple is a focal point of festivals of the Chinese community in Penang. The Chinese New Year celebrations are particularly impressive. For 30 days following Chinese New Year, the temple remains open until late at night whilst thousands of lights turn the scenery into a sea of light. During the festival days, the complex is decorated with thousands of lanterns representing donations offered by devotees. Another festive feature is the long marches undertaken by hundreds of monks from Thailand to the temple, once or twice in a year.

Worship.

Worship of the deities in the temple complex reflects the diversity of the ethnic origins of the Buddhist devotees. Such worship could be in the form of counting prayer beads or by burning incense or by cash offerings or just by bowing and clapping to make one's presence known to the deity. Highly learned people offer prayers at the tower of Sacred Books in the upper part of the temple. Some pilgrims also offer prayers in the extensive gardens located in the precincts of the temple.  The religious paraphernalia sold along the winding steps that lead to the temple precincts cater to the religious offerings to be made by the pilgrims. The goods on sale comprise ornaments, books, pictures, collection of sayings and strings of a sacred orange colour and mementos such as T-shirts and CDs.

The Kek Lok Si Temple is a Buddhist temple situated in Air Itam, Penang, Malaysia. It is the largest Buddhist temple in Malaysia, and is also an important pilgrimage centre for Buddhists from Hong Kong, the Philippines, Singapore and other countries in Southeast Asia. The entire complex of temples was built over a period from 1890–1930, an inspirational initiative of Beow Lean, the abbot. The main draw in the complex is the striking seven-storey Pagoda of Rama VI (Pagoda of Ten Thousand Buddhas) with 10,000 alabaster and bronze statues of Buddha, and the bronze statue of Guanyin (Kuan Yin), the Goddess of Mercy.


Education.

Born in London, Ontario, Canada, Jackson attended the University of Western Ontario, receiving a B.Sc. in honors physics and mathematics in 1946. He went on to graduate study at MIT, where he worked under Victor Frederick Weisskopf, completing his Ph.D. thesis in 1949.

Academic career.

Jackson held academic appointments successively at McGill University, thanks to Philip Russell Wallace, a prominent Canadian theoretical physicist, (January 1950 – 1957); then the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign (1957–1967); and finally the University of California, Berkeley (1967–1995). At McGill, he was Assistant and Associate Professor of Mathematics; at Illinois and Berkeley, he was in the Physics Departments. At the latter, he held appointments on campus and at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. After retiring from teaching in 1993, he continued to be active at LBNL.

McGill and Princeton.

At McGill in the 1950s, in addition to appreciable teaching, Jackson found time for research on atomic processes and nuclear reactions at intermediate energies and the beginnings of his book on classical electricity and magnetism.  While on leave at Princeton University, he found a fruitful collaboration with Sam Treiman and H. W. Wyld on weak interactions, particularly the various observable decay correlations in allowed nuclear beta decay involving the electron's momentum, its spin, the neutrino's momentum, and the nuclear spin that provide information about parity conservation or non-conservation and time reversal conservation or not. He also published an early paper on the then recently discovered muon-catalyzed fusion of hydrogen isotopes.

Illinois (1957–1967) and CERN (1963–64).

While at the University of Illinois (1957–1967) Jackson initially continued work on weak interactions as well as strange particle interactions at low energy with Wyld and others. On sabbatical leave at CERN in 1963–64, he collaborated with Kurt Gottfried on production and decay of unstable resonances in high-energy hadronic collisions. They introduced the use of the density matrix to connect production mechanisms to the decay patterns and described the influence of competing processes ("absorption") on the reactions.  During this period Jackson lectured at three summer schools—on dispersion relations at the first Scottish Universities Summer School in Physics, 1960; on weak interactions at the Brandeis Summer Institute, 1962; and on particle and polarization decay distributions at the Summer School of Theoretical Physics, Les Houches, 1965. He also published three books, one on particle physics, based on lectures at the Canadian Summer School in Edmonton and Jasper, 1957; the second, a small book on mathematics for quantum mechanics (1962), and the third, also in 1962, the first edition of his text on classical electrodynamics.

Berkeley.

Moving to Berkeley in 1967, Jackson taught on campus, did his research at LBNL, and served in administrative positions at both (Chair, UCB Physics Department, 1978–1981; Head, LBNL Physics Division, January 1982 – June 1984). In the formative years of the ill-fated Superconducting Super Collider project, he served as deputy director of operations of the SSC Central Design Group that did the R&D culminating on the 20 TeV design accepted by President Reagan in 1987.  In the 1960s and 1970s his research alone and with students focused in journal publications and conference papers on models of high energy processes, radiative and resolution corrections for resonances in electron–positron annihilation, spin-flip synchrotron radiation and the polarization of electrons in a storage ring, and, after November 1974, the spectroscopy of the charm–anticharm particles. In 1973, he lectured again at the Scottish Universities Summer School, on hadronic interactions at high energies, and in 1976 at the SLAC Summer Institute, on charmonium spectroscopy. In 1973–74 he ran the nascent theory group at Fermilab and co-edited the proceedings of the 1973 "Rochester" Conference.  In January 1977 Jackson began a 17-year stint as Editor of "Annual Review of Nuclear and Particle Science". In much of the 1980s he was involved with many others in the high-energy physics community in activities aimed at the next step up in accelerators. Then in 1983 he became active in the R&D for the SSC, and on the program advisory committee for the SSC Laboratory, when it began in Texas in 1988.

Retirement years.

Jackson retired from teaching in May 1995, but retained his connection with LBNL. In the 1990s and beyond his time was increasingly devoted to semi-historical talks and publications on a variety of topics, with a foray into refuting suggestions that cancer may be caused by environmental radiation stemming from ubiquitous electronics use. Noteworthy are a continuing series of papers in the American Journal of Physics on diverse topics in electromagnetism, including rebuttals of mistaken ideas. History of physics publications include the historical roots of gauge invariance, examples of the misattribution of discoveries in physics, and the editing of a sequel to R. T. Birge's history of the Berkeley Physics Department.

Students.

Among his students at McGill, Hubert Reeves, a Master's student, went on to international prominence as an astrophysicist in France. John T. Donohue (now in Bordeaux, France) and Gordon L. Kane (University of Michigan) stand out among his Ph.D. students at Illinois. The Berkeley trio, Bob Cahn (LBNL), Rick Field (University of Florida), and Chris Quigg (Fermilab), are prominent particle theorists.

Memberships and honors.

Jackson was a Fellow of the American Physical Society (elected in 1961), a Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a Member of the National Academy of Sciences (elected in 1990). In 1956, he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. In 1989, he received an Honorary D. Sc. from his alma mater, the University of Western Ontario. In 2009, in recognition of his own contributions to classroom teaching and his influential textbook, the American Association of Physics Teachers created the "J. D. Jackson Award for Excellence in Graduate Education," with the first award in February 2010 to Eugene Commins.

John David Jackson (January 19, 1925 – May 20, 2016) was a Canadian–American physics professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley and a faculty senior scientist emeritus at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. A theoretical physicist, he was a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and is well known for numerous publications and summer-school lectures in nuclear and particle physics, as well as his widely used graduate text on classical electrodynamics. The book is notorious for the difficulty of its problems, and its tendency to treat non-obvious conclusions as self-evident. Jackson's high standards and admonitory vocabulary are the subject of an amusing memorial volume by his son Ian Jackson.


Expulsion.

The Pieres were expelled by the Macedonians in the 8th century BC from their original seats, and driven to the North beyond the Strymon river and Mount Pangaeus, where they formed a new settlement which they named "Pieris" (Ancient Greek,""Πιερίς""). Herodotus mentions that they had mines in Mount Pangaeus and two fortresses. He writes the Pierians were among the nations that supplied the army of Xerxes. This district, which, under the name of Pieria or "Pieris", is mentioned in the Homeric poems, was, according to legend, the birthplace of the Muses and of Orpheus, the father of song. When this worship was introduced into Boeotia, the names of the mountains, grots, and springs with which this poetic religion was connected, were transferred from the North to the South.  The boundaries which historians and geographers give to this province vary. In the systematic geography of Ptolemy the name is given to the extent of coast between the mouths of the Ludias and the Haliacmon rivers. Pieria was bounded on the West from the contiguous district of the Thessalian Perrhaebia by the great chain of Olympus. An offshoot from Olympus advances along the Pierian plain, in a North-west direction, as far as the ravine of the Haliacmon, where the mountains are separated by that chasm in the great eastern ridge of Northern Greece from the portion of it anciently called Bermius. The highest summit of the Pierian range called "Pierus Mons" and is a conspicuous object in all the country to the East. It would seem that there was a city called Pieria, which may be represented by a tumulus, overgrown with trees upon the extremity of the ridge of Andreotissa, where it ends in a point between Dium and Pydna, the other two chief cities of Pieria. Beyond Pydna was a considerable forest, called Pieria Silva, which may have furnished the Pierian pitch, which had such a high reputation. The road from Pella to Larissa in Thessaly passed through Pieria, and was probably the route which the consul Quintus Marcius Philippus pursued in the third and fourth years of the third Macedonian War (171 BC–168 BC).

The Pieres (Ancient Greek,""Πίερες"") were a Thracian tribe connected with the Brygi, that long before the archaic period in Greece occupied the narrow strip of plain land, or low hill, between the mouths of the Peneius and the Haliacmon rivers, at the foot of the great woody steeps of mount Olympus. This region was named after them as Pieria ().


Early life and army career.

Zervas was born in Arta, Epirus, and was of Souliote origin. After finishing high school in 1910, he volunteered for the 2nd Infantry Division. During the Balkan Wars, he was promoted to the rank of first sergeant. Later he attended the Hellenic Army NCO School and graduated as sergeant major in 1914.  Zervas was a Venizelist, and in 1916 was among the very first to join the venizelist Movement of National Defence in Thessaloniki. He served with distinction in many battles of the Macedonian front during World War I, being eventually promoted to major. After the defeat of Venizelos' Liberal Party in the elections of 1920, he fled to Constantinople. He only returned to Athens in late 1922, after the Revolution of September 1922, and rejoined the army.  Three years later, after the establishment of General Theodoros Pangalos' dictatorship (June 1925), he was appointed as garrison commander of the city of Athens and at the same time, took command of the Second Battalion of the Republican Guard. These troops served as the main strongholds of Pangalos' military regime in the capital. Nevertheless, Zervas participated in the coup d'état of 22 August 1926, led by General Georgios Kondylis, that overthrew Pangalos. Zervas, however, confronted Kondylis a month later, when the new strongman sought to disarm and dissolve the Republican Guard. Bloody battles took place in Athens between Zervas' battalion and the governmental forces. After his defeat, Zervas was sentenced to life in prison. However, two years later, the newly established republican government of Eleftherios Venizelos (the Liberals' government of 1928-1932), granted him amnesty and Zervas was named lieutenant colonel in retirement.

Occupation and resistance.

Establishment of EDES.

In September 1941, a few months after the start of the Axis Occupation of Greece, Zervas, along with other Venizelist army officers and political figures, founded the National Republican Greek League (EDES). The goals of EDES were the fight against the conquerors of Greece, the abolition of the Greek monarchy and the establishment of a republic on social-democratic principles. The two most guiding principles for Zervas was hatred of the House of Glücksburg together with an equally intense hatred of communism. The party platform of EDES talked of a "republic in a socialist form", but the British historian Mark Mazower described Zervas's socialism as "only skin deep". Notably, the platform of EDES did not mention armed resistance, and only after Zervas was bribed with 24, 000 gold sovereigns from an agent of the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) did he agree to take to the mountains to wage guerrilla war. Obese and a hypochondriac, Zervas was reluctant to take up the arduous life of an "andarte" (guerrilla), preferring to stay in Athens.  The SOE had a low opinion of Zervas's ability to lead with one agent writing bitterly of his "disregard of even elementary organisation". The same report mentioned that Zervas "hopes for the best but employs a crowd of useless officers, because it would disturb the peace to fire them...As an organiser, his value is NIL". A charming man, described by those who knew him as being like a "bland and easy-going company director", Zervas was primarily a political as opposed to a military leader. Another SOE agent wrote about Zervas that he was like: "the chairman of a provincial tramway company which is boosted and kept going but always has hanging over it the shadow of radical changes to the buses in the dim future. In the meantime, the chairman isn't doing too badly for himself, and if the future isn't too rosy, he himself is well provided for".  In August 1942, with his political advisor and second-in-command of EDES, Komninos Pyromaglou, he went to the mountains of Epirus, where he founded the military branch of EDES, the EOEA ("Ethnikes Omades Ellinon Antarton", National Groups of Greek Guerrillas). Upon taking to the mountains of his native Epirus, Zervas relied primarily upon familial connections to recruit "andartes". Zervas was very much a traditional guerrilla leader whose status as an "archigos" (leader) was based upon his charisma, and his political platform was notably vague beyond its call to restore the republic. Pyromaglou summed Zervas's philosophy of EDES as: "Faith in the Leader. All from the Leader. All for the Leader." The EDES-EOEA forces were proclaimed as combatant forces of the Allied Armies by the British General Headquarters of Middle East.  Zervas incorporated not only Republicans but increasingly also royalists into his movement, who saw EDES as the only acceptable alternative to EAM, the Communist-dominated rival resistance movement that had established itself over most of the country. EOEA's activities were largely confined to Epirus, but Zervas had some control of Aetolia-Acarnania, in the Valtos area.

Gorgopotamos and Epirus.

In November 1942, the forces of EDES and those of ELAS (under the command of Aris Velouchiotis), in collaboration with a small group of British and New Zealand expert saboteurs, blew up the Gorgopotamos Bridge. Afterward the success of Operation Harling, a team of SOE agents led by "Monty" Woodhouse arrived to train his forces and arrange for arms shipments.

Changing Allegiances.

As a republican, Zervas was naturally opposed to the government-in-exile in Cairo led by King George II, but after Woodhouse made it clear that the British were willing to increase the supply of arms if he become a royalist, on 9 March 1943, Zervas sent out a message declaring his loyalty to the king. As EDES was a republican group, Zervas's sudden conversion to monarchism shocked his followers. At the same time, Zervas warned Woodhouse of the "dark forces of Communism backed by Russia", by which he meant the rival EAM ("Ethnikó Apeleftherotikó Métopo"-National Liberation Front). The British substantially increased the supply of arms to EDES after Zervas proclaimed his loyalty to the king, and in course of 1943 EDES received twice the amount of weapons that EAM received from Britain. Despite the hostility of the British government to EAM and the preference for EDES, reports from the SOE indicated that EAM was the larger and more effective resistance group.  In 1943, the Allies were planning to invade Sicily. As a diversion, the British planned to trick the Germans into thinking that the Allies were planning to invade Greece, which required an increase in guerrilla attacks meant to stimulate the prelude to an invasion. By threatening to cut off the supply of arms, the SOE was able to impose the National Bands Agreement in May 1943, under which EAM and EDES agreed to stop fighting each other, and both put themselves under the command of Field Marshal Henry "Jumbo" Wilson, the supreme Allied commander in the Mediterranean. In the summer of 1943, EAM, EDES and the SOE all worked together in Operation Animals, an all-out campaign of sabotage and guerrilla attacks upon the Wehrmacht that represented exactly the sort of guerrilla campaign that the Wehrmacht expected as the prelude to an invasion. As a consequence, 8 German divisions were rushed to Greece.

Securing the Ionian coast and expulsion of the Chams.

During late 1944, EDES under Zervas leadership secured the Ionian coast under British support. The subsequent operation led to the expulsion of the entire Muslim Cham Albanian minority, ca. 20,000 strong, from the Greek region of Epirus. The Chams, little integrated into Christian Greek society, had been a subject of Italian-sponsored Albanian irredentism both before and during the war, while a large part had collaborated with the Axis, taking part in reprisal actions against the Greek population. A small part joined the left-wing EAM-ELAS guerrillas. On 18 June 1944, EDES forces under Zervas with Allied support launched an attack on Paramythia, in Thesprotia. After a short-term conflict against the combined Cham-German forces, the town was finally liberated. The successful advance of the EDES forces continued during summer 1944. A number of violent reprisals that took part against the town's Muslim community during these developments were done without the permission of the EDES leadership. These reprisals caused most of the Cham community to flee across the border to Albania.  In the final stages of the Occupation, EDES was contained strictly in the area of Epirus, having lost Aitoloakarnania, after a mini-civil war with ELAS in 1943. During the December 1944 clashes, EDES was attacked once more by Aris Velouchiotis, and in 24 hours was obliged to leave Epirus and fled to the island of Corfu. On 15 February 1945, after the defeat of ELAS in Athens by the governmental and British forces, Zervas dissolved the remnants of his guerrilla force in Corfu.

Post-war years.

After World War II, Zervas founded the National Party of Greece and at the elections of the 31st of March 1946, he was elected as representative of the Ioannina district in the Hellenic Parliament, while his party gained 25 seats in it. Later, he participated in Dimitrios Maximos' cabinet as Minister without portfolio, from 24 January to 23 February 1947, and afterwards as Minister for Public Order until 29 August 1947.  The United States of America and the United Kingdom opposed his appointment suspecting him of collaboration with Nazi Germany during World War II and dictatorial ambitions. Some leftist writers believe that Zervas collaborated with the Germans to face ELAS. However, most writers consider that the Germans made fake documents to provoke disbelief and suspicion among resistant groups of Greece, and take advantage of their mini civil wars, which weakened them furthermore.  As a Minister for Public Order, Zervas initiated inefficient reforms of the gendarmerie and ordered mass arrests of Communists. When he was replaced, Dwight Griswold, head of the U.S economic mission in Greece, said "I feel he is making more Communists than he is eliminating". A few years later, Zervas merged his party with the Liberal Party and was re-elected as representative of Ioannina in the Parliament. He then served as Minister of Public Works in Sophoklis Venizelos' cabinets from 2 September 1950 to 30 September 1951, also holding the portfolio of Merchant Marine until 1 February 1951. He did not manage his reelection in the Parliament at the next elections and withdrew from politics. He died on 10 December 1957, in Athens.

Napoleon Zervas (; May 17, 1891 – December 10, 1957) was a Greek general and resistance leader during World War II. He organized and led the National Republican Greek League (EDES), the second most significant (after EAM), in terms of size and activity, resistance organization against the Axis Occupation of Greece.


History.

Sepura's origins are in the Pye company, founded in Cambridge in 1896. William Pye, a trained instrument maker working at Cambridge University Cavendish Laboratory, set up his own business making high precision scientific instruments. He soon built up an international customer base and a reputation for high quality products.  During the First World War the company began developing and manufacturing military equipment, but after 1921, business began to slow and Pye turned its attention to designing the first commercially successful radio – the ‘700 series’.  Pye also had a keen interest in television, and in 1930 started developing TV sets and cathode ray tubes. The high point of Pye pre-World War II TV development came with the introduction of the Model 915 TV, a receiver of advanced design. By 1939, a full-scale production line had been set up in Cambridge.  With the arrival of the Second World War, UK TV broadcasting was suspended, and the production of the 45 MHz Pye Model 915 TV receiver ceased. Pye then turned its attention to designing and producing radar and wireless equipment for the British Military.  As a developer and manufacturer, Pye produced:  The mobile radio division of the company, Pye Telecommunications, was taken over by Philips in 1966. By the mid-1990s Philips had decided to pull out of non-core business areas and in 1996 Simoco acquired the Philips PMR business. Sepura was founded in 2002 when it acquired the assets of the TETRA radio business from Simoco.  The following decade saw the TETRA standard gradually adopted around the globe. Correspondingly, Sepura saw its business expand from its core UK-based public safety organisations to an international market across a range of sectors, including oil and gas, transport, utilities and mining.  Sepura was listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2007 and in 2012, the year of its 10th anniversary, the company announced that it had shipped its millionth radio. In the same year, it acquired Austrian infrastructure provider 3T Communications (now Sepura Systems).  In 2013, the company acquired Helsinki-based applications developer, Portalify and launched a range of Digital Mobile Radio (DMR) products, covering UHF and VHF frequency bands. The following year, Sepura acquired Fylde Micro, pioneers in radio trunking, enabling DMR Tier III to be offered as part of their portfolio. 2015 saw the acquisition of Teltronic, a Professional Mobile Radio company, based in Zaragoza, Spain.  In 2016 Sepura ran into financial trouble resultant from the acquisition of Teltronic and alleged delay of expected orders. The company incurred a considerable amount of debt following its acquisition of Teltronic. Net debt rose from just 1.1 Million Pounds in 2015 to 119.4 Million Pounds at the end of the 2016 Financial year - additionally Sepura posted a pre tax 19 Million Pound loss for the same period.  Based on the financial issues, Sepura withdrew its DMR range of radios citing at the 2016 AGM "that the board now believes it will not be possible to achieve further market penetration without significant additional investment."  Sepura's share price on the London Stock Exchange subsequently lost 95% of its value, dropping from 200 pence to a low of just 9.7 pence in a 3-month period between July 2016 and September 2016.  Hytera, a Chinese Radio manufacturer, then entered into talks and due diligence to take over the company in November 2016.  On the 16th of December 2016, the Sepura board recommended the shareholders accept a bid of 20 pence per share from Hytera as a cash purchase.

Products.

The SRP Series.

Sepura's first TETRA radio was the SRP2000 – a new generation radio, much smaller and lighter than anything that had gone before.  Developed at a time when the UK Police were going through a uniform re-design, Sepura listened carefully to police users’ requirements to develop a functional secure communications device that was fit-for-purpose. As a result, by mid-2004, the SRP2000 held a remarkable 90% of market share (Radio Comms News, 2012) among UK-based police users.  The SRP2000 resembled a GSM phone of the day, rather than a traditional portable radio and, for the first time, it was a radio designed to be worn on the user's lapel rather than on the belt.  This was significant, because a lapel-worn radio negated the need for a remote speaker microphone, thus lowering the overall cost per user, but also reduced costs by removing a sizeable weight from the user's belt – a factor which was thought to contribute to lumbar strain and a significant number of absences from work.  In 2005, Sepura partnered with QinetiQ to deploy the first Super Sensitive GPS solution for users of TETRA, known as sGPS. This move saw the SRP series updated to become the SRH series.

The SRH Series.

(SRH3500, SRH3800, SRH3900)<br> The SRH3500 was, in many ways, a groundbreaking TETRA radio on account of its diminutive dimensions; it remains one of the smallest and lightest TETRA radios ever to be put in mass production. Together with its sister radio, the SRH3800, it was adopted by police, ambulance and fire and rescue services worldwide.  The radios’ popularity within the ‘blue light’ community meant that Sepura was frequently asked to supply dummy radios to film and TV production crews around the world, to add to the authenticity of their productions. As a result, Sepura radios have made appearances on well-known programmes such as Eastenders and Coronation Street, as well as crime re-enactments and real life ‘police action’ documentaries.

The STP8000 Series.

(STP8000, STP8100, STP8200)<br> Climate change was one of the key drivers behind Sepura's next launch, the STP8000 series. Launched in 2008, it was designed to cope with heavy downpours – rather than light showers, as had previously been the accepted industry standard.  The 8000 series was designed to cope with the needs of the search and rescue users in the jungles of Malaysia; frozen winters experienced by Swedish Police and fire services; and downpours and floods that were occurring in many parts of the world.  The STP8000 was the start of Sepura's new genre of tough, go-anywhere TETRA radios, that not only appealed to the world's emergency services, but gained a whole new range of users, keen to take advantage of its ruggedness.  As a result, the STP8000 was complemented by the STP8100 (launched 2009) and STP8200 (launched 2010), designed for use in the mines of Australia and oil and gas installations around the globe.

SRG3900.

Launched in 2010, the SRG3900 was a popular addition to Sepura's range, providing 10 watts of RF power, and gateway and repeater technology to extend communication into areas otherwise beyond network coverage. It had the greatest operational range of any TETRA terminal on the contemporary market and was deployed everywhere from ski resorts to mines and chemical parks.  It was launched in conjunction with the Sepura Colour Console (SCC), whose large, high-resolution colour screen allowed the display of high quality photographs and maps and boasted an innovative 'night mode' to reduce glare, particularly at night.

The STP9000 Series.

(STP9000, STP9100, STP9200)<br> In 2011, during trials for the London Olympics, TETRA radios were exposed to salt-laden environments, which were seen to quickly cause corrosion to connectors. In response to this and other new challenges, the STP9000 series drew on the ‘tough technology’ developed for the STP8X and went one step further, being designed to be not just waterproof, but fully submersible. It was resistant to heavy salt mist and included a new ‘Connector Protector’ technology that guarded it against direct exposure to salt water.  The STP9000 was also the first TETRA radio to feature Haptic Technology, significantly improving its key response for users working in heavy gloves.

The STP8X Series.

(STP8X000, STP8X100)<br> As a result of this new user base, demand for an Intrinsically Safe variant of the STP8000 was growing. In March 2011 the STP8X100 series, Sepura's first Intrinsically Safe radio, was launched.  Certified by Baseefa to version 6 of the IECEx and ATEX standards they were designed to exceed the requirements of the rigorous highly accelerated life test stipulated by the specifications: one month held at 85 °C and 90% humidity followed by one day at −25 °C to −30 °C, before being impact tested, drop tested, water-ingress tested and finally vacuum-assisted dust-ingress tested in a chamber for two hours.

The SC20 Series.

Launched in May 2015, the SC20 was promoted as ‘The next generation’ of hand-portable radios, offering optional high-speed data connectivity, connectivity to body-worn data accessories and a Linux operating system to enable a wider applications capability. Submersible, waterproof and dustproof, SC20 radios boasted IP66, IP67 and IP68 environmental protection ratings and an easy-clean design, allowing them to be rinsed in running water.

Applications.

The acquisition of Portalify OY in 2013 added applications to Sepura's portfolio. The applications enable users to get real-time information from the field and back-office – including picture, location and textual information – reducing the need for voice calls and conserving bandwidth.

Transport solutions.

The acquisition of Teltronic allowed Sepura to offer transport communication solutions based on the TETRA standard and complemented with broadband technologies. This provided continuous voice and data communication between vehicles and control systems, along with support for a range of applications:  The portfolio also included CeCo-TRANS, a control centre specially designed for the transportation market.

Sepura Limited designs, manufactures and supplies digital mobile radio products, systems and applications for business and critical communications. The company specialises in TETRA (Terrestrial Trunked Radio) technology.


Plot.

Henry Morrison washes off blood in a bathroom, before changing his appearance and putting his belongings into a suitcase. After packing his things, Henry leaves through the front door of his house, nonchalantly passing the butchered remains of his family and others. Boarding a ferry, Henry throws the suitcase containing the objects from his former life into the ocean. One year later, Henry—now operating as a real estate agent named Jerry Blake in the suburbs of Seattle—has married the widow Susan Maine. Jerry's relationship with Susan's 16-year-old daughter, Stephanie, is strained. Her psychiatrist, Dr. Bondurant, advises her to give Jerry a chance.  Meanwhile, Jim Ogilvie, the brother of Jerry's murdered previous wife, runs an article about his sister's murder in the newspaper. While hosting a neighborhood barbecue, Jerry discovers the article and is disturbed by it. Jerry goes into the basement of the house and begins maniacally rambling to himself, unaware that Stephanie has also entered the basement. Discovering his stepdaughter, Jerry brushes off his outbursts by saying that he was simply letting off steam. He tells her not to worry. Stephanie finds the newspaper mentioning Jerry's earlier killings and comes to believe her stepfather is the murderer mentioned in the article. She writes a letter to the newspaper requesting a photo of Henry Morrison, but Jerry finds the photo in the mail and replaces it with a stranger's photo, allaying her suspicions.  Curious about Stephanie's stepfather, Dr. Bondurant makes an appointment with Jerry under an assumed name, saying he wants to buy a house. During their meeting, Bondurant asks too many questions and Jerry realizes that Bondurant is not who he says he is, beats him to death, and fakes a car accident. The next day, Jerry informs Stephanie of Bondurant's death and succeeds in bonding with her. Jerry's newfound relationship with his stepdaughter is quickly cut short when he catches Stephanie kissing her boyfriend, Paul. Jerry accuses Paul of attempting to rape Stephanie, which causes an argument with Stephanie and Susan, and drives Paul away. Stephanie runs out on Jerry and Susan because Susan says Jerry is her father, though he's not. The next day, Jerry quits his job and creates a new identity for himself in another town. He begins to court another widow, while planning to get rid of Susan and Stephanie.  Having discovered where Jerry is now living, Jim Ogilvie begins going door to door, in search of his former brother-in-law. After Jim stops by, Susan phones the real estate agency to tell Jerry that someone was looking for him, only to be informed that Jerry quit several days ago. Susan asks Jerry, but, while explaining himself to Susan, Jerry confuses his identities and Susan realizes Stephanie was right about him. Realizing his mistake, Jerry bashes Susan with the phone and knocks her down the basement stairs. Content that Susan is dead, Jerry then sets out to kill Stephanie. He first kills Jim, who shows up again at the house, this time with a revolver. After terrorizing Stephanie, he corners her in the attic, only to fall through the weak floor down to the bathroom. Susan shoots Jerry twice which has no effect when he tries to attack Stephanie, who then stabs him in the chest. He weakly utters "I love you", tumbles down the stairs and supposedly dies from his injuries.  The film ends with Stephanie cutting down a birdhouse she and Jerry had built during the time they bonded.

Release.

Box office.

The film was theatrically released on January 23, 1987 in the United States, by the New Century Vista Film Company. During its opening weekend, "The Stepfather" grossed $260,587, in 105 theatres. Ultimately playing in 148 theatres, it earned a total domestic gross of $2,488,740.

Critical reception.

"The Stepfather" has an 88% approval rating from Rotten Tomatoes and an average rating of 6.8/10 out of 32 reviews. Film critic Roger Ebert, from the "Chicago Sun-Times", gave the movie 2.5 stars out of 4, and commented, "Violence itself seems to sell at the box office, even when it's divorced from any context. Maybe that's what the filmmakers were thinking. What often happens, though, is that in an otherwise flawed film there are a couple of things that are wonderful. "The Stepfather" has one wonderful element: Terry O'Quinn's performance."  On "Combustible Celluloid", the film ranked 3 out of 4 stars, with reviewer Jeffrey M. Anderson commenting, "Joseph Ruben directs competently but perhaps not as playfully as the material could have used, but O'Quinn gets in a few prime moments, such as the startling one in which he forgets which persona he's currently occupying. Nevertheless, "The Stepfather" is still a high water mark of 1980s horror/suspense."  For his performance, O'Quinn was nominated for both a Saturn and an Independent Spirit Award. Director Ruben was honored with the Critics Award at the 1988 Cognac Festival. The film was also nominated for the International Fantasy Film Award for Best Film at the 1990 Fantasporto and included in Bravo's "100 Scariest Movie Moments" on spot #70.  Years since its release, it is now considered a cult film.

Home media.

The film was released on DVD for the first time in North America by Shout! Factory on October 13, 2009. Shout! Factory released the first-ever Blu-ray version of the film on June 15, 2010.

Sequels and remake.

The film was followed by a sequel, "Stepfather II", in 1989, which opened to negative reviews. A third, made-for-television, film, "Stepfather III", was released in 1992, with the title character played by another actor. A remake, "The Stepfather", was released in 2009 to negative reviews.

The Stepfather is a 1987 American psychological horror film directed by Joseph Ruben and starring Terry O'Quinn, Jill Schoelen, and Shelley Hack. O'Quinn stars as an identity-assuming serial killer who marries a widow with a teenage daughter. Having killed his previous family and changed his identity, his murderous tendencies continue after his stepdaughter becomes suspicious about him. The film is loosely based on the life of mass murderer John List, although the plot is more commonly associated with slasher films of the era than a true story. The film was written by Donald E. Westlake, from a story by Westlake, Carolyn Lefcourt, and Brian Garfield. It received an uncredited rewrite by David Loughery.


Discovery.

Archaeologists discovered the Karanovo settlement in the 1930s when a tell - a settlement mound - was excavated at Karanovo. The hilltop settlement is constituted of 18 buildings, which housed some 100 inhabitants. The site was inhabited more or less continuously from the early 7th to the early 2nd millennia BC. The Karanovo culture served as the foundation of the East Balkan cultural sequence. The layers at Karanovo are employed as a chronological system for Balkans prehistory. This culture had seven major phases: Karanovo I and II, which existed parallel to Starčevo; Karanovo III (Veselinovo); Karanovo IV; Karanovo V (Marica); Karanovo VI (Gumelniţa); and, Karanovo VII, which emerged during the Early Bronze Age.

Characteristics.

Some of the main characteristics of the Karanovo culture are the white-painted pottery and dark-painted vessels obtained from the tell. These artifacts were particularly associated with the first and second phases. There is also the Karanovo macroblade technology, which featured semi-steep and steep retouching as well as the use of yellow flint with white spots. This particular technology, which is also known as "Karanovo blade", emerged during the culture's early Neolithic phase. Scholars note its interesting length and width: 100 mm long and between 15 mm and 23 mm wide.  Karanovo II is distinguished from its predecessor due to its influence on the Thracian culture, or the assimilation of its elements into those inherited from Karanovo I. The basic characteristics of this phase continued until Karanovo III and were particularly pronounced in its coarsely made ware such as pitchers, shallow dishes and cylindrical vases (e.g. "Kügel").

The Karanovo culture is a Neolithic culture (Karanovo I-III ca. 62nd to 55th centuries BC) named after the Bulgarian village of (Караново, Sliven Province ). The culture, which is part of the Danube civilization, is considered the largest and most important of the Azmak River Valley agrarian settlements.


History.

In 1122, Bishop Godebald of Utrecht dammed the Kromme Rijn where it branches from the Nederrijn at Wijk bij Duurstede. In the Roman period, The Kromme Rijn had been the main channel of the Rhine river, but by this stage was a minor distributary, most water flowing in the Lek and the Waal distributaries. The Kromme Rijn was dammed to prevent inundation of the Bishop's land holdings near Wijk bij Duurstede. The dam on the Kromme Rijn severed the shipping connection between Utrecht and the Rhine hinterland, and the citizens of Utrecht therefore decided to dig a canal restoring the connection.  The first phase of construction of the Vaartse Rijn, (also called the Rechte Rijn in contrast to the Kromme Rijn) began in 1127, making it one of the oldest canals in the Netherlands. The first stretch was dug between the moat surrounding Utrecht and Liesbosch (currently part of the town of Nieuwegein. In the middle of the 12th century, the Vaartse Rijn was extended in the direction of the Hollandse IJssel, (the so-called Doorslag canal). At its junction with the Hollandse IJssel, a lock protected the canal from inundation. At the time, the Hollandse IJssel was in open connection with the Lek river, a major distributary of the Rhine.  In 1285 Floris V, Count of Holland dammed the Hollandse IJssel connection between the Lek and the Hollandse IJssel. In order to maintain the connection between the Utrecht and the Lek, Floris ordered the construction of a new stretch of the Vaartse Rijn (the "Nieuwe Vaart"), to meet the Lek directly at Vreeswijk. In 1373 the Vaartse Rijn was deepened, and a lock installed at Vreeswijk.

The Vaartse Rijn is a canal connecting the city of Utrecht with Nieuwegein and the Lek river in the Dutch province of Utrecht. The Vaartse Rijn was formerly a major shipping route between Utrecht and the Rhine basin.


Early life and career.

Ahmed Jan Thirakwa was born to a family of musicians in 1892 in Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh state in northern India. Although his early musical training was in Hindustani vocals and the sarangi, his interest in tabla was aroused when he first heard tabla player Munir Khan. He became Munir Khan's disciple at the age of 12. According to The Hindu newspaper article, "When he was around 12, Ahmed Jan was brought to Bombay by his father Hussain Bakhsh and elder brother Mia Jan, both of whom were noted sarangi players, and placed in the hands of the tabla stalwart Ustad Munir Khan. The tutelage was to last for 25 years but at a very early stage, his guru's father, Kale Khan, nicknamed him "Thirakwa" because of his playful and naughty nature." For a long time, he played tabla in the court of the Nawab of Rampur and during this time, came in close contact with the maestroes of Agra, Jaipur, Gwalior and Patiala gharanas — both vocalists and instrumentalists. On very few occasions, he rendered Bandishes in his own voice but this was only in the company of extremely close compatriots and admirers. As an accompanist, he was equally loved respected and admired by his peers and elders. Two noteworthy artists in this category of admirers was the great Rabindrasangeet exponent Suchitra Mitra (1924–2011) and the famous tabla player Pt. Nikhil Ghosh.  The name "Thirakwa" is not actually his original name, but was a nickname he earned from his guru's father. One day, while watching him practise, his guru's father remarked that he played so well his fingers seemed to be "shimmering" on the tabla. This earned him the nickname "Thirakwa" (shimmering). It is also rumored that his tone was similar to the thunderous cracking sound of lightning. A great lightning is sometimes described as "Thirakwa". In popular jargon, Ahmad Jan Thirakwa is termed as the "Mount Everest of Tabla". He performed at regular intervals in almost all the music conferences in various parts of the country and gained popularity as well as admiration. A connoisseur of biryani and kababs, Ahmad Jan was famous for his interpretation of the wide-ranging patterns of the beat-cycles which he liberally taught to his disciples. A few number of his live recordings are now available in audio-visual form that include excerpts from his different programmes over the years and which also provide glimpses of his mastery over percussion.  According to The Hindu newspaper article on Ahmed Jan Thirakwa, "Ustad Thirakwa, for instance, was revered both as a soloist and an accompanist. He belongs to the glittering galaxy of Hindustani classical music along with other supernovae such as Aftab-e-Mausiqui ('Sun of Music') Faiyaz Khan, Abdul Karim Khan, Allabande Khan, Alladiya Khan, Allauddin Khan and Bade Ghulam Ali Khan."

Disciples.

Ustad Ahmed Jan Thirakwa, during his long career as a musician, trained many disciples all across India including Pt. Prem Vallabh ji, Pandit Lalji Gokhale, Pt. Nikhil Ghosh (tabla player) and famous vocalist of Agra gharana Pandit Jagannathbuwa Purohit, Pandit Narayanrao Joshi, Pandit Bhai Gaitonde, Pandit Bapu Patwardhan, Shri Anand Shidhaye and Rashid Mustafa are some of his well-known shagirds. Ustad Ahmed Jan's unique style continues to attract many tabla players of present generation including Ustad Zakir Hussain, Pandit Chandra Nath Shastri, Pandit Anindo Chatterjee and Pandit Nikhil Ghosh.

Ustad Ahmed Jan Khan "Thirakwa" was an Indian tabla player, commonly considered the preeminent soloist among tabla players of the 20th century, and among the most influential percussionists in the history of Indian Classical Music. He was known for his mastery of the fingering techniques and aesthetic values of various tabla styles, technical virtuosity, formidable stage presence, and soulful musicality. While he had command over the traditional tabla repertoire of various gharanas, he was also distinguished by the way in which he brought together these diverse compositions, his reinterpretation of traditional methods of improvisation, and his own compositions. His solo recitals were of the first to elevate the art of playing tabla solo to an art in its own right in the popular mind. His style of playing influenced many generations of tabla players including his nephew ustad Rashid Mustafa who has succeeded the "Thirakwa" lineage with his contribution to Indian classical music. leading his ideas is also his grandson Shariq Mustafa who has often been cited as the "prince of tabla" and was featured on "In tune with the rhythm" on Saturday, 3 September 2016.


Organisational history.

Formation.

The British Socialist Labour Party began as a faction of the Social Democratic Federation (SDF) headed nationally by Henry Hyndman. A group of Scottish members of the organisation, led by an engineering worker named George Yates, strongly criticised the party leadership of the SDF for supporting the entry of conservative socialist Alexandre Millerand into the bourgeois French cabinet at the 1900 Congress of the Second International. The group attacked the party leadership as reformist and began to publish their critique abroad in "The Weekly People", edited by Daniel DeLeon, official organ of the Socialist Labor Party of America.  The tendency, initially known as the "Glasgow Socialist Society," took over publication of James Connolly's newspaper, "The Socialist", in Scotland in 1902. A purge followed in the SDF at its 1903 Annual Conference, with the dissident radicals denounced as "Impossibilists" by the SDF leadership.  On 7 June 1903 the Socialist Labour Party was formally established at a meeting in Edinburgh, with the already extant monthly newspaper "The Socialist" declared its official organ. The party began with a membership of only about 80 individuals in 4 branches, all in Scotland—two in Edinburgh, one in Glasgow, and one in Falkirk.  Although deeply influenced by the Socialist Labor Party of America, members of the fledgling British organisation sought their intellectual independence from the start. Whereas the American SLP strongly opposed advancing ameliorative "immediate demands," the new British organisation did not follow, instead initially choosing to adopt a programme of immediate demands matching those of the SDF from whence it sprung. Indeed, there was some discussion as to whether the new party should adopt an altogether different name so as to further delineate themselves from their American counterparts. Trade unionist Tom Bell, a delegate to the inaugural conference, later recalled: "The question of the name of the new party required a little thought. We were anxious not to create the impression which the official SDF was trying to encourage, that we were only the tools of the American SLP. We thought of 'Republican Socialist Party,' etc., etc. It was Connolly who with characteristic directness proposed 'The Socialist Labour Party.' 'It doesn't matter what you call yourself,' he declared, 'you'll be dubbed the SLP anyway.' And the SLP we became."  Radical Irish nationalist and trade union leader James Connolly attempted to play a vital role in the British SLP's formative days, energetically traveling back and forth across Scotland, addressing dozens of meetings on behalf of the organisation. His efforts were largely ineffectual, however, as no major influx of Scottish workers into the SLP's ranks was forthcoming. The party's development was further hampered by Connolly's departure to the United States in September 1903, exacerbated by the resignation of the editor of "The Socialist," George Yates, that same month. Still, the tiny group managed to persevere, with a young engineer named Neil Maclean serving as National Secretary.  As was the case with the American party of the same name, from which it drew inspiration, the Socialist Labour Party considered itself a highly principled and uncompromising organisation. The group refused to work in tandem with "reformists" such as those populating the SDF or the Independent Labour Party. The SLP instead focused on producing and distributing its own propaganda, leaflets, pamphlets, and papers calling for establishment of a bloc of industrial unions as a necessary first step to socialist revolution. The group insisted that its members should avoid taking part in unemployment demonstrations as these were "sentimental" and built false hopes in the viability of the existing system. Echoing the perspective of the American SLP, the majority of the Scottish SLP argued for the use of political action for propaganda and publicity purposes.  The SLP was a highly disciplined and centralised organization. Following the lead of its American counterpart, it mandated that its central press should be directly owned by the party. The party sought to enforce the ideological purity of its printed propaganda through a strict requirement that no branch be able to distribute any literature not previously approved by the SLP's Executive Committee. The party saw the path to socialist revolution blocked by a conservative bureaucracy at the top of the established trade union movement, committed to a "pure and simple" policy of increasing wages and improving conditions in the shop rather than fighting for socialist organization of industry as a whole. Instead, the party sought to establish a network of explicitly socialist unions which would do battle with the so-called "labour fakirs" of the existing union movement. The organization never had sufficient numbers to carry its professed desires into action, however.  The Socialist Labour Party remained headquartered in Scotland, the location of an overwhelming percentage of its members, although it did establish some individual members and small section in Northern England, especially Yorkshire. The organization was thus well-placed to play a leading role in the Red Clydeside movement. They had a great deal of influence on the Clyde Workers Committee, but failed to win it to socialism. Other members, such as J.T. "Jack" Murphy, were influential in the Sheffield Workers Committee and gradually abandoned the DeLeonist strategy of creating dual unions, coming to adopt the strategy of working within existing unions and "boring from within" in an effort to win them to their ideas.

The question of international affiliation.

The new party determined to send a delegation to the 1904 Amsterdam Congress of the Second International and selected a group of five to represent the organisation there. Upon arriving, the SLP Scots were told by the credentials committee of the congress to submit their credentials for participation to the British delegation, a group which included the rival Social Democratic Federation. The SLP delegation refused and were excluded from the congress for the remainder of the proceedings. This experience served to heighten the suspicion of the party towards the International and the party remained henceforth unaffiliated.  Following the Congress, the leading figure of the American SLP, party editor Daniel DeLeon, paid his Scottish followers a visit en route home to America. A historian later recalled that "DeLeon's visit was no more than a moderate success. His speeches savoured more of the university lecture room than the socialist platform. He had none of the flowering rhetoric at that time deemed essential."  By July 1905 the party had established a total of nine branches, including groups at Oxford, Southampton, Birmingham, and London. The Oxford branch was particularly influential, with the party making inroads with the trade unionists enrolled at Ruskin College and the party's literature playing a role in the local strike movement as well as the establishment of the Central Labour College and Plebs League.  The SLP published a wide array of literature from the Marxist canon and emerged as the single most important distributor of Marxist literature in Great Britain. It has been noted that "there can have been scarcely a single person involved in the foundation of the Communist Party of Great Britain who was not, at some time, influenced by the SLP and its literature."

The industrial unionism of the IWW.

In 1905 in the United States there was established the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), a revolutionary industrial union which sought to organize workers across all industries as a prelude for the socialist transformation of the economy. American Socialist Labor Party theoretician Daniel DeLeon was among the radical leaders who joined together to establish the new organisation—a group which included Eugene V. Debs of the Socialist Party of America and William "Big Bill" Haywood of the Western Federation of Miners. Parallel attempts to establish the IWW organisation were made in Canada, Australia, Great Britain, and elsewhere.  The leadership of the Glasgow-based Socialist Labour Party was quick to follow the lead of DeLeon and the American SLP, giving hearty endorsement of the new IWW organisation. This decision came at the cost of nearly tearing the British SLP asunder, however. Socialist Labour Party activist Tom Bell, then a 24-year-old in charge of the party's literature department remembered in his autobiography about the 1905 decision to endorse the IWW: "[The decision] was so sharp and radical, and so opposed to our traditional attitude towards the leaders of the trade unions and Socialist Party, as to cause a certain confusion in our midst... There was resentment at...committing the party to such a change of policy without discussion... We had fierce discussions in Glasgow on the question of policy and finally, with a majority group in our branch, I resigned from the party. We remained outside for nearly a year."  Despite its espousal of revolutionary industrial unionism, the SLP still believed in use of the ballot box for educational purposes in the short term and as a transformative tool in the future, when the working class had come over to its ideas. It maintained its party organisation but established a propaganda group, the British Advocates of Industrial Unionism. Some party members took the ideas of the bitterly anti-political IWW to heart with fervour. In 1908 a syndicalist minority tendency, the Industrialist Union, headed by E. J. B. Allen, organised itself and exited the SLP, disclaiming all political work.  With eyes to America, the SLP started its own federation of industrial unions, akin to the Industrial Workers of the World. The British incarnation, established in February 1906, was known as the British Advocates of Industrial Unionism (BAIU). This group was essentially a propaganda society at its inception, attempting to disseminate the ideas of Daniel DeLeon about revolutionary industrial unionism. This group was reorganized in 1909 as the Industrial Workers of Great Britain, with a move made to actually recruit industrial unionists in opposition to the established trade union officialdom, regarded by the SLP as among the most bitter and incorrigible enemies of the radical working class. Goals and desires notwithstanding, the tiny SLP was singularly unsuccessful in its efforts to challenge the established unions of the TUC.  Purity had come at a price. The staunchly anti-reformist, anti-compromise, impossibilist SLP found itself largely isolated from the British working class, a small sect in a big working class ocean. The party's agitation for industrial unionism did have appeal to others in the radical political sphere, however. The idea of industrial unionism permeated the left wing of the Social Democratic Federation, becoming more or less a permanent ideological feature of that organization and its successor after 1911, the British Socialist Party. This common orientation, a rejection of traditional craft-based trade unionism and towards industrial unionism including unskilled workers, was to make the call for a new Communist Party an appeal which many SLP activists found impossible to resist.

The SLP and the emerging communist movement.

As a result of their work in the industrial field and their relentless focus on educational work, something they had in common with Scottish radical John MacLean of the BSP, the SLP had grown to the point at which it could claim over 1,000 members in 1919. Their official organ, "The Socialist," boasted a circulation of 8,000 by the start of the next year.  The Socialist Labour Party was also extremely active in publicizing the struggle for national self-determination then taking place in Ireland. That one of the leaders of the Irish national liberation struggle, James Connolly, had also been a founder of the SLP being noted proudly by writers in the SLP press in this period.  From 1918, excited by the Bolshevik success in the Russian Revolution, the SLP opened talks with the British Socialist Party with the aim of forming a British Communist Party. The leadership could not agree with the BSP's plan to affiliate the new party to the Labour Party, however, and refused to join in the foundation of the Communist Party of Great Britain.  This decision by the party leadership incensed many rank and file members of the organization. A section of the organization, including key figures such as shop steward movement activist Jack Murphy formed an organised faction called the Communist Unity Group, which ultimately left the SLP to join the CPGB at its founding conference in the summer of 1920. Other leading members of the SLP such as Arthur MacManus and William Paul also joined. The loss of such key activists was a great blow to the SLP.

Decline and final disbanding.

A small remnant of the SLP was reorganised by Leonard Cotton and survived for many years. Although the party seems to have been moribund by the 1960s it was revived by younger people and only finally dissolved in 1980.  One splinter group in Edinburgh, the British Section of the International Socialist Labour Party, turned towards Trotskyism and became the Revolutionary Socialist Party, fusing with the Revolutionary Socialist League in 1938.

The Socialist Labour Party was a socialist political party in the United Kingdom. It was established in 1903 as a splinter from the Social Democratic Federation (SDF) by James Connolly, Neil Maclean and SDF members impressed with the politics of the American socialist Daniel De Leon, a Marxist theoretician and leading figure of the Socialist Labor Party of America. After decades of existence as a tiny organisation, the group was finally disbanded in 1980.


Functional vs. traditional selectivity.

Functional selectivity has been proposed to broaden conventional definitions of pharmacology.  Traditional pharmacology posits that a ligand can be either classified as an agonist (full or partial), antagonist or more recently an inverse agonist through a specific receptor subtype, and that this characteristic will be consistent with all effector (second messenger) systems coupled to that receptor. While this dogma has been the backbone of ligand-receptor interactions for decades now, more recent data indicates that this classic definition of ligand-protein associations does not hold true for a number of compounds; such compounds may be termed as mixed agonist-antagonists.  Functional selectivity posits that a ligand may inherently produce a mix of the classic characteristics through a single receptor isoform depending on the effector pathway coupled to that receptor. For instance, a ligand can not easily be classified as an agonist or antagonist, because it can be a little of both, depending on its preferred signal transduction pathways. Thus, such ligands must instead be classified on the basis of their individual effects in the cell, instead of being either an agonist or antagonist to a receptor.  It is also important to note that these observations were made in a number of different expression systems and therefore functional selectivity is not just an epiphenomenon of one particular expression system.

Examples.

One notable example of functional selectivity occurs with the 5-HT receptor, as well as the 5-HT receptor. Serotonin, the main endogenous ligand of 5-HT receptors, is a functionally selective agonist at this receptor, activating phospholipase C (which leads to inositol triphosphate accumulation), but does not activate phospholipase A2, which would result in arachidonic acid signalling. However, the other endogenous compound dimethyltryptamine activates arachidonic acid signaling at the 5-HT receptor, as do many exogenous hallucinogens such as DOB and lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD). Notably, LSD does not activate IP signaling through this receptor to any significant extent. Oligomers; specifically 5-HT– heteromers mediate this effect. This may explain why some direct 5-HT receptor agonists have psychedelic effects, whereas compounds that indirectly increase serotonin signalling at the 5-HT receptors, such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs), generally do not; nor do 5HT receptor agonists without constitutive activity at the mGluR dimer, such as lisuride.  Tianeptine, an atypical antidepressant, is thought to exhibit functional selectivity at the μ-opioid receptor to mediate its antidepressant effects.  Oliceridine is a mu opioid receptor agonist that has been described to be functionally selective towards G protein and away from β-arrestin2 pathways. However, recent reports highlight that, rather than functional selectivity or 'G protein bias', this agonist has low intrinsic efficacy. "In vivo", it has been reported to mediate pain relief without tolerance nor gastrointestinal side effects.  The delta opioid receptor agonists SNC80 and ARM390 demonstrate functional selectivity that is thought to be due to their differing capacity to cause receptor internalization. While SNC80 causes delta opioid receptors to internalize, ARM390 causes very little receptor internalization. Functionally, that means that the effects of SNC80 (e.g. analgesia) do not occur when a subsequent dose follows the first, whereas the effects of ARM390 persist. However, tolerance to ARM390's analgesia still occurs eventually after multiple doses, though through a mechanism that does not involve receptor internalization. Interestingly, the other effects of ARM390 (e.g. decreased anxiety) persist after tolerance to its analgesic effects has occurred.

Functional selectivity (or “agonist trafficking”, “biased agonism”, “biased signalling”, "ligand bias" and “differential engagement”) is the ligand-dependent selectivity for certain signal transduction pathways relative to a reference ligand (often the endogenous hormone or peptide) at the same receptor. Functional selectivity can be present when a receptor has several possible signal transduction pathways. To which degree each pathway is activated thus depends on which ligand binds to the receptor. Functional selectivity, or biased signalling, is most extensively characterized at G protein coupled receptors (GPCRs). A number of biased agonists, such as those at muscarinic M2 receptors tested as analgesics or antiproliferative drugs, or those at opioid receptors that mediate pain, show potential at various receptor families to increase beneficial properties while reducing side effects. For example, pre-clinical studies with G protein biased agonists at the mu opioid receptor show equivalent efficacy for treating pain with reduced risk for addictive potential and respiratory depression. Studies within the chemokine receptor system also suggest that GPCR biased agonism is physiologically relevant. For example, a beta-arrestin biased agonist of the chemokine receptor CXCR3 induced greater chemotaxis of T cells relative to a G protein biased agonist.


Early years.

Born in Houston, Texas, Renfro moved with his family to Portland, Oregon, and he attended its Jefferson High School, starring as a two-way football player and track and field athlete. As a sophomore and junior, he contributed to his team achieving a 23–0 record, including consecutive Class A-1 football state championships in 1957 and 1958. The Democrats' 1958 team is regarded as one of the greatest in Oregon prep history, which had a backfield that included him at halfback, quarterback Terry Baker (1962 Heisman Trophy winner at Oregon State), halfback Mickey Hergert (one of the leading ground gainers in the nation at Lewis & Clark College) and his brother Raye Renfro at fullback (in 1958 he broke a Portland Interscholastic League record with 24 touchdowns). After Baker graduated, Renfro saw playing time at quarterback as a senior in 1959 and was also an all-state selection at running back, as Jefferson pursued a third consecutive title. They again advanced to the championship game, played before more than 21,000 at Multnomah Stadium in Portland, but lost 7–6 to Medford.  In track as a junior in 1959, he helped Jefferson win the team title by winning the 180-yard low hurdles, the 120-yard high hurdles (breaking the state record) and the broad jump state titles. In 1960, he broke two Oregon junior AAU championship records with a 120-yard high hurdles of 13.9 seconds and 19.3 seconds in the 180-yard low hurdles. Renfro also collected 32 points outscoring every team except one, recording the state record with a 24.1 broad jump and winning the low hurdles, high hurdles and the half-mile relay team. He was named outstanding athlete in the Golden West Invitational track meet, which brought annually the nation's top high school seniors. He was "Track and Field News" "High School Athlete of the Year" in 1960.  In 1983, he was inducted into the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame.

College career.

In 1960, Renfro enrolled at the University of Oregon in Eugene, where he excelled for the track team and as a two-way football player, an All-American halfback and defensive back. In football, he earned All-Pacific Coast Conference recognition three times and is one of only two-time All-American (Steve Barnett is the other player) in university history. He is also the second two-sport All-American in university history, the first one was George Shaw in football and baseball.  In 1992, Renfro was inducted into the University of Oregon Athletic Hall of Fame.

Football.

From the start of his sophomore season he received recognition as one of the best and most complete running backs in college football, being able to run inside or outside, catch, block and play special teams. In 1963, he was even named the team's backup quarterback.  One of Renfro's best collegiate games took place against Rice at Houston in 1962. Renfro shined on both offense and defense, leading the Ducks to a 31–12 victory on October 13. Rice Stadium had been a whites-only facility prior to the Ducks' visit, but university officials allowed Renfro's family to enter and sit in a special section of the stadium near the 35-yard line. According to a contemporary account in the "Register-Guard", when Renfro left the game, he was given a loud and appreciative ovation by the Rice crowd.  An Oregon sportswriter asked a Houston counterpart in the press box if an African-American had ever received such an ovation by a predominantly white crowd. The Texan enthusiastically replied, "We've never seen any player that good!" The morning after the game, a Houston paper headlined, "Renfro Runs Rice Ragged."  Renfro led Oregon in rushing three straight seasons (1961–63), finishing with a career total 1,540 yards and 23 touchdowns. He still holds the university's career record for highest average per play at 6.01 yards. He also had 41 catches for 644 yards and five touchdowns, very impressive numbers in an era when running backs usually did not catch more than 10 passes during a season.  In 1986, Renfro was enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame and is a member of The Pigskin Club of Washington, D.C., a National Intercollegiate All-American Football Players Honor Roll. He is considered to be the best running back in the history of the University of Oregon, other than LaMichael James.

Track and field.

From 1960 through 1965, the Oregon's men's track and field team led by coach Bill Bowerman was one of the best in the United States. In 1962, Renfro contributed to the university's first NCAA Men's Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships|NCAA team championship]] by finishing second behind teammate Jerry Tarr in the high hurdles with a 13.8 time and third in the long jump with a 25'-111⁄4" (7.905 m) leap.  That year, he was part of a world record-setting 440 yard relay team with a time of 40.0 seconds, his running mates were Tarr, Mike Gaechter and Harry Jerome. At the end of the year, he was named to the All-American track and field team in the high hurdles and the broad jump.  In 1963, he injured his knee on a foul broad jump in the NCAA Championships. In the same meet at Albuquerque, despite the injury he entered the high hurdles but failed to qualify.

Professional career.

Renfro was drafted in the second round of the 1964 NFL draft, 17th overall, by the Dallas Cowboys. The selection delayed the draft for 6 hours, while the Cowboys sent a doctor to check an injury he suffered on his wrist.  Although he had won many accolades as a running back and at the time teams put their best athletes on the offensive side of the ball, Tom Landry looking to build a dominating defense decided to start him at safety. As a rookie, he had an impressive season by leading the team with seven interceptions, the NFL in both punt return and kickoff return yardage (including a franchise record 273 total return yards against the Green Bay Packers) and culminated his great campaign with an invitation to the Pro Bowl. The 30 yards per kick-off return average he posted in his second year (1965) still remains a franchise record.  In 1966, despite Renfro coming off of an All-Pro season at safety, the Cowboys named him their starting halfback in an effort to improve its offense. He was injured in the opening game against the New York Giants and replaced by Dan Reeves, who was so impressive that Renfro was moved back to defense when he returned to action and would end up being named to the All-Pro team again.  He was switched to cornerback in his fifth season. The speedy Renfro (4.65 40-yd dash) became an exceptional threat to wide receivers, leading the NFL with 10 interceptions in 1969. Renfro was selected to the Pro Bowl in each of his first ten seasons in the league, including five All-Pro selections in 1964, 1965, 1969, 1971 and 1973. He was named the defensive MVP of the 1971 Pro Bowl.  In his 14 seasons, Renfro intercepted 52 passes, returning them for 626 yards and three touchdowns. He also returned 109 punts for 842 yards and one touchdown, 85 kickoffs for 2,246 yards and two touchdowns, along with recording 13 fumble recoveries, which he returned for 44 yards. In the 1970 NFC Championship Game, Renfro had a key interception that led to the Cowboys' game-winning touchdown over the San Francisco 49ers that helped them get to Super Bowl V, where they lost to the Baltimore Colts, 16–13. Dallas returned in Super Bowls VI, X, and XII, Renfro's last NFL game, a Cowboys' 27–10 victory over the Denver Broncos. He remains the Cowboys all-time leader in interceptions with 52 (In 1969 he led the NFL in interceptions with 10) and in career kickoff-return average (26.4 yards). His 14 seasons with the team ties him for second place in franchise history.  Renfro joined the Dallas Cowboys Ring of Honor in 1981 and was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1996. During his time with the Cowboys, even though one of his teammates was former Olympic gold medalist Bob Hayes, many experts still considered him the best athlete on the team.

Personal life.

In 1984 Renfro coached the defensive secondary under John Hadl with the Los Angeles Express of the United States Football League (USFL). In 1986 he was part of Gene Stallings St. Louis Cardinals coaching staff as his defensive backs coach.  In the early 1980s, Renfro had financial and legal challenges. He currently works as a motivational speaker.

Melvin Lacy Renfro (born December 30, 1941) is a former American football player, a cornerback who spent his entire 14-year career in the National Football League (NFL) with the Dallas Cowboys. He is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.


Name.

The name "Friends of God" may have been influenced by various sources. A number of biblical passages use the term (e.g. Judges 8.22, James 2.23, Exodus 33.11, Psalm 138.17, Wisdom 7.27, Lk 12.4, John 15.15) The concept of friendship with God had also been applied by various medieval authors, and particularly among Meister Eckhart and his followers.

History.

The movement grew out of the preaching and teaching of Meister Eckhart, and especially his Dominican spiritual heirs the preacher John Tauler and the writer Henry Suso. An influence on the Friends of God, although remaining in the background, was the secular priest Henry of Nördlingen, from the Bavarian Oberland, who met Tauler and Suso in Basel in 1339. had a great deal of interaction with other Bavarian and German mystics and introduced the Friends of God to "The Flowing Light of the Deity" by Mechthild of Magdeburg.  The group achieved a nascent institutional form in 1367 when wealthy layman Rulman Merswin purchased and restored a derelict monastery in Strasbourg known as the "grünenwörth" ('Green Isle'). Grünenwörth served as a refuge for study for the Friends of God and as a “school of prophets” which produced a number of mystical texts. Merswin is suspected of being the anonymous author The Friend of God from the Oberland.  The Friends of God, as led by Tauler and Suso, sought a mystical path in line with established Catholic doctrine, following Thomas Aquinas. Rulman Merswin, under the guidance of The Friend of God from the Oberland, wanted to purify the Church. This stress on reform brought The Friends of God into conflict with the Church and not long after Merswin’s death in 1382, they were condemned.  After Merswin's death, some sources claim that Nicholas of Basel became the leader. He was eventually burned at the stake with two of his followers for heresy at Vienna around 1395. The relationship of Nicholas of Basel to the Friends of God is unclear as he was condemned as a Beghard.  Another prominent member, Martin of Mainz, a follower of Nicholas of Basel, was also burned for heresy in 1393.

Texts.

A number of mystical texts are associated with The Friends of God, most notably the Theologia Germanica and the Book of the Nine Rocks. Many of the works were attributed to The Friend of God from the Oberland, although probably written by Rulman Merswin himself.

The Friends of God (German: Gottesfreunde; or gotesvriunde) was a medieval mystical group of both ecclesiastical and lay persons within the Catholic Church (though it nearly became a separate sect) and a center of German mysticism. It was founded between 1339 and 1343 during the Avignon Papacy of the Western Schism, a time of great turmoil for the Catholic Church. The Friends of God were originally centered in Basel, Switzerland, and were also fairly important in Strasbourg and Cologne. Some late-nineteenth century writers made large claims for the movement, seeing it both as influential in fourteenth-century mysticism and as a precursor of the Protestant Reformation. Modern studies of the movement, however, have emphasised the derivative and often second-rate character of its mystical literature, and its limited impact on medieval literature in Germany.


History.

After the KWE took over the Münster-Hamm Railway Company ("Münster-Hammer Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft"), together with its line to Münster, in 1855, it continued this line to the north in 1856. In Rheine it connected with the Royal Hanoverian State Railways' Emsland Railway to Emden and through it to the Almelo–Salzbergen railway of the "Spoorweg-Maatschappij Almelo-Salzbergen" (Almelo-Salzbergen railway company).  In 1870, the MEE received a concession to build a new line to the Netherlands and started construction from Münster to Enschede. When it became insolvent in 1874, the KWE took it over and continued construction of the line to Gronau. The last part to Enschede was built and subsequently operated jointly with the Dortmund-Gronau-Enschede Railway Company ("Dortmund-Gronau-Enscheder Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft", DGEE).  The new line was opened on 30 September 1875 and the DGEE opened the last section of the Dortmund–Enschede railway between Coesfeld and Enschede on the same day. Two weeks later, on 15 October 1875, the section to Enschede was official opened for passenger traffic.  As a result of the Second World War, this section was inoperative from 1940 to 1951. Freight traffic ended in the autumn of 1979 and regular passenger services ended exactly two years later on 26 September 1981. The line was officially downgraded to a branch line on 1 March 1982 and the line was closed between Gronau and Enschede on 15 June 1985 with a special train trip. In the early 1990s the idea developed to build a Euroregion cycling path on the closed section. These plans were not pursued further. In 1996, a Dutch-German working group was established with the aim of reopening the line. Initially it was expected to have about 2,000 passengers per day. A public agreement to restart passenger services between Enschede and Gronau was signed on 18 November 1998. A short time later, the first work began, so that the line was reopened on 16 November 2001. The stations of Glanerbrug and Enschede De Eschmarke were added to the line.  Although the line is identical with the line to Rheine for the first kilometres to Nevinghoff, the Royal Westphalian Railway built a separate track parallel to the existing line. It was dismantled during the reconstruction of the line after the Second World War.  A special feature of the railway is the Metelen Land railway museum at Metelen Land station.

Current operations.

Since the re-commissioning of the Dutch section of the line, the whole length of the line between Münster and Enschede has been served hourly by Regionalbahn service RB 64 ("Euregio-Bahn"). Between Gronau and Enschede, it alternates with the RB 51 ("Westmünsterland-Bahn") service, which is operated by DB Regio NRW (which was operated by Prignitzer Eisenbahn GmbH between 2004 and 2012), creating a half-hourly service on this section. There are connections in Enschede to Dutch InterCity services on the Amersfoort–Schiphol, Amersfoort–Utrecht–Rotterdam, Amersfoort–Utrecht–Den Haag routes and local services on the Almelo–Zwolle and Almelo–Deventer–Apeldoorn routes. Services are operated using 1 to 3 Bombardier Talent diesel multiple units. The average speed is about 49 km/h.  The extension to Enschede led to disproportionate passenger growth. The Euregio service is now one of the most important rail services in Western Münsterland and is used by thousands of commuters daily. On weekends, many German passengers use this line to go to the market in Enschede. Similarly, many Dutch people use the Euregio train to visit Münster for example. The line is used by many students on workdays to travel from Münster to Standort Steinfurt to reach the Münster University of Applied Sciences. The capacity during the peak hour, however, is very limited.  There are additional late connections on Friday and Saturday nights and on the eve of public holidays.  The Euregio-Bahn was previously operated as part of the Münster West Network diesel network under the auspices of the "Zweckverbands Nahverkehr Westfalen-Lippe" (Local transport association of Westphalia-Lippe, NWL). After a temporary suspension of the tender on 28 April 2010, it was announced that DB Regio Westphalia has been awarded the contract for this network. It has the contract to operate it for 15 years from December 2011.

Development.

On 23 November 2008, DB Netz put in operation an electronic interlocking bases in Coesfeld. The electronic interlocking currently controls traffic on the Münster–Enschede line, including the branch to Coesfeld. The line speed on the Münster Zentrum Nord–Burgsteinfurt section was increased to 100 km/h from 80 km/h or 90 km/h.  As the use of the trains has been on the rise in recent years, which is attributed to commuter traffic to the university located in Steinfurt and the attractiveness of the modernisation of the line, services are approaching the limits of their capacity. As a result, the "Zweckverband SPNV Münsterland" (public transport association of Münsterland) initiated the discussion on electrification in February 2012, allowing the line to be operated with double-deck cars. It would also be possible to use diesel-hauled double-deck cars, but diesel engines would not be as efficient as electric locomotives.  In September 2012, the council of the Münster district published a list of rail projects as a submission to the new Federal Transport Infrastructure Plan ("Bundesverkehrswegeplan"), which is intended to be finalised in 2015. Among them is the electrification of the Münster-Enschede line. Its justification is listed as "increasing the line speed and increasing the service frequency by electrification and the occasional duplication of the line to enable greater service density".

The Münster–Enschede railway is a 64 km long, continuous single-track and non-electrified branch line from Münster via Gronau in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia to Enschede in the Netherlands.


History.

Class E.430 is the first example, worldwide, of an electric locomotive powered by three-phase current. It was built for Rete Adriatica (the Adriatic Network), which at that time operated the Ferrovia della Valtellina, by Ganz Works, for the electrical part, and by the Royal Hungarian State Machine Factory (MÁVAG), for the mechanical part. These were, at the time, the most advanced factories in the world in the electric railway sector. The locomotives were numbered 34.1 and 34.2 under the management of the Adriatic Network. Acquired in 1905 by the Ferrovie dello Stato, the numbering changed to 0341-0342 and in 1914 they were re-numbered E.430.1 and E.430.2.  Since the Valtellina lines were the first in Italy to use three-phase electric power for the haulage of trains, the E.430 was used from the beginning. The Adriatic Network had commissioned the entire electrification project from the Ganz company in Budapest. The equipment was built under the supervision of Kálmán Kandó, one of the pioneers of three-phase traction in Italy. The electrification work began in 1897, with the establishment of a government commission to experiment with different electrification systems: one with accumulators (Bologna - San Felice and Milan - Monza lines), one with direct current at 650 V from a third rail (Milan - Varese), and finally the three-phase system on the Valtellina line.  The tests of the electric power lines at 3,000 - 3,300 Volt, at frequency 15 - 16.7 Hz, powered by the Campovico hydroelectric plant were carried out between 26 July 1902 and 4 September 1902, while tests on the Lecco - Colico - Chiavenna and Colico - Sondrio lines officially began on 15 October 1902. The passenger service was entrusted to a fleet of 10 electric railcars belonging to Class RA 32, while the freight was entrusted to the two locomotives of Class RA 34 numbered 34.1 and 34.2 (later E.430 FS). The electric locomotives, built by Ganz and Mavag in 1901 and with a power of 440 kW and a haulage capacity of 300 tons, easily out-performed the steam locomotives of the time. The electric railcars, on the other hand, proved insufficient for hauling passenger trains and, subsequently de-motored, they were transformed into passenger coaches of Class RBz.  From 1928 the locomotives were removed from the Valtellina line and transferred to the stations at Bolzano and Fortezza where, from 1929, they were used as shunting locomotives to assemble trains of wagons in transit towards the Brenner Pass.

Technical details.

The design of the locomotive was unusual. It comprised two half-locomotives coupled back-to-back with a bellows joint in the middle of the cab. This gave the wheel arrangement of Bo+Bo, rather than the more common Bo-Bo bogie system in later years. Front and rear visibility was ensured by three glass panels and there were four more on each side. Windshield wipers and washers were not provided. Each half-locomotive had two axles with leaf springs.  The four 150-horsepower traction motors were mounted coaxially on the axles, with a bellcrank linkage to the wheels, similar to that also used for the Valtellina electric railcars. The wheels and motors were covered by sloping bonnets, each equipped with four doors to allow maintenance. Current collection was by two bow collectors, controlled by groups of four cylindrical springs each.

Preservation.

E.430.001 is in the Museo Nazionale Scienza e Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci in Milan. This is the unit once in service at Fortezza station. It is displayed in its later condition with modified current collectors and three large headlights.

The FS Class E.430 locomotives, initially classed as RA 34, were three-phase alternating current electric locomotives of the Italian railways. They were built for Ferrovia della Valtellina by Ganz and MÁVAG in 1901 and had a power output of 440 kW (about 600 metric horsepower) and a haulage capacity of 300 tons. One locomotive is preserved.