The constants.

There are four primary line constants, but in some circumstances some of them are small enough to be ignored and the analysis can be simplified. These four, and their symbols and units are as follows:  "R" and "L" are elements in series with the line (because they are properties of the conductor) and "C" and "G" are elements shunting the line (because they are properties of the dielectric material between the conductors). "G" represents leakage current through the dielectric and in most cables is very small. The word loop is used to emphasise that the resistance and inductance of both conductors must be taken into account. For instance, if a line consists of two identical wires that have a resistance of 25 mΩ/m each, the "loop" resistance is double that, 50 mΩ/m. Because the values of the constants are quite small, it is common for manufacturers to quote them per kilometre rather than per metre; in the English-speaking world "per mile" can also be used.  The word "constant" can be misleading. It means that they are material constants; but they may vary with frequency. In particular, "R" is heavily influenced by the skin effect. Furthermore, while "G" has virtually no effect at audio frequency, it can cause noticeable losses at high frequency with many of the dielectric materials used in cables due to a high loss tangent. Avoiding the losses caused by "G" is the reason many cables designed for use at UHF are air-insulated or foam-insulated (which makes them virtually air-insulated). The actual meaning of constant in this context is that the parameter is constant with "distance". That is the line is assumed to be homogenous lengthwise. This condition is true for the vast majority of transmission lines in use today.

Circuit representation.

The line constants cannot be simply represented as lumped elements in a circuit; they must be described as distributed elements. For instance "pieces" of the capacitance are in between "pieces" of the resistance. However many pieces the "R" and "C" are broken into, it can always be argued they should be broken apart further to properly represent the circuit, and after each division the number of meshes in the circuit is increased. This is shown diagramtically in figure 1. To give a true representation of the circuit, the elements must be made infinitesimally small so that each element is distributed along the line. The infinitesimal elements in an infinitesimal distance formula_2 are given by;  It is convenient for the purposes of analysis to roll up these elements into general series impedance, "Z", and shunt admittance, "Y" elements such that; Analysis of this network (figure 2) will yield the secondary line constants: the propagation constant, formula_9, (whose real and imaginary parts are the attenuation constant, formula_10, and phase change constant, formula_11, respectively) and the characteristic impedance, formula_12, which also, in general, will have real, formula_13, and imaginary, formula_14, parts, making a total of four secondary constants to be derived from the four primary constants. The term constant is even more misleading for the secondary constants as they usually vary quite strongly with frequency, even in an ideal situation where the primary constants do not. This is because the reactances in the circuit (formula_15 and formula_16) introduce a dependence on formula_17. It is possible to choose specific values of the primary constants that result in formula_10 and formula_12 being independent of formula_20 (the Heaviside condition) but even in this case, there is still formula_11 which is directly proportional to formula_17. As with the primary constants, the meaning of "constant" is that the secondary constants do not vary with distance along the line, not that they are independent of frequency.

Characteristic impedance.

The characteristic impedance of a transmission line, formula_12, is defined as the impedance looking into an infinitely long line. Such a line will never return a reflection since the incident wave will never reach the end to be reflected. When considering a finite length of the line, the remainder of the line can be replaced by formula_12 as its equivalent circuit. This is so because the remainder of the line is still infinitely long and therefore equivalent to the original line. If the finite segment is very short, then in the equivalent circuit it will be modelled by an L-network consisting of one element of formula_25 and one of formula_26; the remainder is given by formula_12. This results in the network shown in figure 3, which can be analysed for formula_12 using the usual network analysis theorems,  which re-arranges to,  Taking limits of both sides  and since the line was assumed to be homogenous lengthwise,

Propagation constant.

The ratio of the line input voltage to the voltage a distance formula_33 further down the line (that is, after one section of the equivalent circuit) is given by a standard voltage divider calculation. The remainder of the line to the right, as in the characteristic impedance calculation, is replaced with formula_12,  Each infinitesimal section will multiply the voltage drop by the same factor. After formula_36 sections the voltage ratio will be,  At a distance formula_38 along the line, the number of sections is formula_39 so that,  In the limit as formula_41,  The second order term formula_43 will disappear in the limit, so we can write without loss of accuracy,  and comparing with the mathematical identity,  yields,  From the definition of propagation constant,  Hence,

Special cases.

Ideal transmission line.

An ideal transmission line will have no loss, which implies that the resistive elements are zero. It also results in a purely real (resistive) characteristic impedance. The ideal line cannot be realised in practice, but it is a useful approximation in many circumstances. This is especially true, for instance, when short pieces of line are being used as circuit components such as stubs. A short line has very little loss and this can then be ignored and treated as an ideal line. The secondary constants in these circumstances are;

Twisted pair.

Typically, twisted pair cable used for audio frequencies or low data rates has line constants dominated by "R" and "C". The dielectric loss is usually negligible at these frequencies and "G" is close to zero. It is also the case that, at a low enough frequency, formula_53 which means that "L" can also be ignored. In those circumstances the secondary constants become,  The attenuation of this cable type increases with frequency, causing distortion of waveforms. Not so obviously, the variation of formula_11 with frequency also causes a distortion of a type called dispersion. To avoid dispersion the requirement is that formula_11 is directly proportional to formula_17. However, it is actually proportional to formula_61 and dispersion results. formula_12 also varies with frequency and is also partly reactive; both these features will be the cause of reflections from a resistive line termination. This is another undesirable effect. The nominal impedance quoted for this type of cable is, in this case, very nominal, being valid at only one spot frequency, usually quoted at 800 Hz or 1 kHz.

Co-axial cable.

Cable operated at a high enough frequency (VHF radio frequency or high data rates) will meet the conditions formula_63 and formula_64. This must eventually be the case as the frequency is increased for any cable. Under those conditions "R" and "G" can both be ignored (except for the purpose of calculating the cable loss) and the secondary constants become;

Loaded line.

Loaded lines are lines designed with deliberately increased inductance. This is done by adding iron or some other magnetic metal to the cable or adding coils. The purpose is to ensure that the line meets the Heaviside condition, which eliminates distortion caused by frequency-dependent attenuation and dispersion, and ensures that formula_12 is constant and resistive. The secondary constants are here related to the primary constants by;

Velocity.

The velocity of propagation is given by,  Since,  then,  In cases where can be taken as,  the velocity of propagation is given by,  The lower the capacitance the higher the velocity. With an air dielectric cable, which is approximated to with low-loss cable, the velocity of propagation is very close to "c", the speed of light "in vacuo".

The primary line constants are parameters that describe the characteristics of conductive transmission lines, such as pairs of copper wires, in terms of the physical electrical properties of the line. The primary line constants are only relevant to transmission lines and are to be contrasted with the secondary line constants, which can be derived from them, and are more generally applicable. The secondary line constants can be used, for instance, to compare the characteristics of a waveguide to a copper line, whereas the primary constants have no meaning for a waveguide.


Background.

Valsalva was born at Imola. The contemporary of Isaac Newton and Johann Sebastian Bach, he was educated in the humanities, mathematics, and natural sciences. After studies of the liberal arts, he studied medicine and philosophy in Bologna. He was taught by Marcello Malpighi, who is known as the founder of microscopic anatomy. Valsalva graduated from the medical school in 1687. In 1705, he was appointed professor of anatomy at Bologna. He was later chosen as president of the Academy of the Sciences. Valsalva taught Giovanni Battista Morgagni who edited Valsalva’s complete writings and published a biography on Valsalva, both in 1740.  In 1709, Valsalva married Elena Lisi. As he lost his health, he lost his sense of smell, but he recognized the prodromal symptoms, in the form of dyslalia, of the disease that would eventually cause his death from stroke at Bologna in 1723.  Valsalva was buried in the church of San Giovanni in Monte, Bologna. The Valsalva family donated a collection of dried anatomical specimens to be used for educational purposes to the Institute of Sciences founded in 1711. The wear of this material that followed possibly inspired the work of the Bolognese school of wax modeling and the artists Ercole Lelli and Giovanni and Anna Morandi Manzolini. This new anatomic collection includes models of the heart and lungs and is today presented at the Museum of Anatomy.  Valsalva was described as a skillful surgeon and excellent physician, a meticulous anatomist with high scientific integrity, and a man of great kindness. Morgagni wrote ""... there is nobody of those times who goes ahead of him, very few who are his equals.""

Research.

Valsalva both studied and taught in the fields of science, surgery, anatomy, physiology, and psychiatry. At a young age, Valsalva had successfully removed a dog’s kidney. He opposed cauterization in the treatment of wounds, and recommended humanitarian treatment of mentally ill patients. His main interest was the middle and internal ear, including the muscles of the external ear and the pharyngeal muscles.  Valsalva named the Eustachian tube and described its function and that of its muscle. He showed the connection between the mastoid cells and the tympanic cavity, and made observations on physiologic and pathologic processes of the ear. "De aure humana tractatus" published in 1704 contains a description of the Valsalva maneuver and patency test of the auditory tubes.  A skilled anatomist, Valsalva conducted many autopsies on deceased patients. During the 17th century, lacking chemical tests and knowledge of disease transmission mechanisms, he sometimes tasted the fluids he encountered in cadavers in an effort to better characterize them. "Gangrenous pus does not taste good", he wrote, "leaving the tongue tingling unpleasantly for the better part of the day."

Valsalva device in spacesuits.

The Valsalva device is a device used in spacesuits to allow astronauts to equalize the pressure in their ears by performing the Valsalva maneuver inside the suit without using their hands to block their nose. It has also been used for other purposes, such as to remove moisture from the face.

Andrew Kevin Walker (born August 14, 1964) is an American screenwriter, producer and script doctor. He is known for having written "Seven" (1995), for which he earned a nomination for the BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay, as well as several other films, including "8mm" (1999), "Sleepy Hollow" (1999) and many uncredited script rewrites.


Life.

Johanna Melzer was born in Oberwaldenburg, a mining village in Lower Silesia close to the German frontier with Bohemia, southwest of Breslau. Her father was a miner. While she was still a child the family relocated to the Ruhr region in connection with her father's work: she attended junior school in Rünthe, before moving on to a commercially focused secondary school in Hamm. Melzer trained for work as a sales assistant and for clerical employment. The family were politically conscious, and in 1923 she joined both the Communist Party and its youth wing. From 1925 till 1930 she was employed as a book keeper with the "Ruhr-Echo", a daily newspaper. Between 1925 and 1932 she lived with, a Communist activist to whom, she later wrote, she owed a large part of her own political awakening. Locally she became a leader of the in Bochum. In 1928/29 she was listed as the party's Agitation and Propaganda chief for the Bochum sub-district.  In 1930 she moved to Thuringia where she became a member of the party regional leadership team (""Bezirksleitung"") in Erfurt. Here she also worked as the book keeper and treasurer of the local Red Aid (""Rote Hilfe"") communist workers' welfare organisation. She remained in Erfurt till 1932, also serving as a party instructor and, towards the end of her time, leader in the women's department of the regional party leadership.  By March 1933 she had returned to the Dortmund area. In January 1933 the political backdrop was transformed when the Nazi Party took power and converted Germany into a one-party dictatorship. Political activity - except in support of the Nazi Party - became illegal. At the end of February the Reichstag fire was instantly blamed on the Communists, and in March 1933 Communists began to be arrested. From March 1933 Melzer was working illegally as a "party instructor" in the Dortmund area and in July 1933 she was arrested. She was placed in the Moringen concentration camp where she remained till December 1933.  Soon after the Nazi take-over Melzer arranged that the "Oblies" dress shop in Dortmund, where she was a customer, would become a focal point for resistance activists. Various Communist Party newspapers were distributed from there, such as "The Red Flag" (""Die Rote Fahne"") and "The International" as well as a publication that hid its identity behind the camouflaging name "Rolleiflex". Because of intelligence received from the Gestapo in Berlin. local police were already aware of this arrangement by the end of 1933, and of the significance of the phrase "I've come from the Lyon boutique" (""Ich komme vom Modehaus Lyon"") which resistance fighters used to identify themselves. Along with her activities in Dortmund, Johanna Metzler worked illegally as a "party instructor" in Bielefeld, Osnabrück and Hagen, in and beyond the eastern part of the Ruhr industrial conurbation.  She herself was re-arrested on 26 August 1934 and held under investigatory detention, initially at the infamous "Steinwache" interrogation prison beside the Main Railway Station in Dortmund. She was held here for some time during which she underwent a sustained period of interrogation and sustained serious mistreatment, according to one source "isolated for weeks on end" and "bound hand and foot". It was during this time that she earned from fellow detainees the soubriquet "Iron Johanna" (""Eiserne Johanna"") because she stayed silent under torture. A couple of weeks after her arrest, on 7 September 1934, she wrote a letter to her parents and family. The letter was intercepted by the prison censors, but today it is retained in the archives of the high court at Hamm, where it provides a lasting testimony to Johanna Metzler's mental strength and courage. She was subsequently transferred to Hamm where she appeared before the High Court on 1 March 1935, She was charged with "the crime of preparing a highly treasonable undertaking" (""Verbrechens der Vorbereitung eines hochverräterischen Unternehmens""). The prosecution demanded a death sentence, but the court sentenced her to a fifteen-year term of imprisonment plus ten years of deprivation of civil rights.  Melzer spent the next ten years in a succession of prisons. War ended early in May 1945: she was liberated from prison by allied forces on 4 May 1945. She moved to Thuringia where she became head of the women's section with the Communist party leadership in Erfurt. Thuringia had been successfully invaded during the opening months of 1945 by the American army, but under terms already agreed between the allied leaders the area was to be incorporated into the Soviet occupation zone (after 1949 the German Democratic Republic). On 3 July 1945 the American military withdrew, and for the rest of Mezler's time in Erfurt the city was administered by the Soviets.Towards the end of 1946 she returned to Dortmund, now administered as part of the British occupation zone (after 1949 part of the German Federal Republic). Here she joined the party regional leadership team (""Bezirksleitung"") for the Ruhr region. She was appointed a member of the Westphalia provincial assembly in 1946, and following a return to democracy she was elected a member of its successor body, the Landtag (regional legislature) of North Rhine-Westphalia, for a three-year term starting in 1947. During her time in the assembly she was vocal in support of equal pay for women and in opposition to the production of more nuclear bombs.  After this she was a co-founder, in 1950, of a West German outpost of the Democratic Women's League (""Demokratischer Frauenbund Deutschlands"" / DFD), becoming its secretary. In 1954 she became a member of the Communist. It was not till August 1956 that the Communist Party was banned in West German (reflecting "the aggressive and combative methods that the party used as a "Marxist-Leninist party struggle" to achieve their goals") but as the political differences between East and West Germany became ever more stark, especially after the 1953 East German uprising, the Communist Party became increasingly marginalised in West Germany, and in 1953 Johanna Mezler faced an arrest warrant in connection with her political activity. The more direct concern for the authorities in West Germany appears to have involved not her Communist Party membership, but her position within the DFD which was seen as a proxy for the East German government and its ruling party. She went into hiding and appears to have avoided arrest.  The political separation implicit in the military occupation zones created in 1945 came to be enforced by a physical frontier during the 1950s. In 1956 Melzer relocated to East Berlin where she lived till her death there on the night of 2/3 October 1960. There are suggestions that her health was damaged and her life thereby shortened by torture she had suffered at the hands of the Gestapo. Her sister Klara's attempts to have the 1953 indictment lifted posthumously were rejected by the West German authorities who inferred that her relocation to East Germany in 1956 was tantamount to a confession of guilt.

Johanna Melzer (7 April 1904 - 3 October 1960) was a German political activist (KPD) who participated in resistance to the Hitler regime. She spent eleven of the twelve Nazi years in prison, earning the soubriquet "Iron Johanna" (""Eiserne Johanna"") because she stayed silent under torture. She survived and became, for a time, a regional politician in West Germany.


Methods.

Heath beekeeping is a special form of beekeeping used to obtain heather honey. It involves a transportable, swarming hive in which the beekeeper only allows a small number of colonies to overwinter. In spring, the number of colonies increases many times through the process of swarming, and several hundred were not unusual. Over the centuries, by selecting bees that swarm early and often, beekeepers on the heathlands developed an extremely swarm-loving and robust strain from the European dark bee.  The once widespread "Bienenzaun" (bee enclosure) apiary provided plenty of space. Beehives were made from straw into a plaited basket, the "Lüneburger Stülper" or Lüneburg Skep and, in the 1940s and 50s the Kanitz Basket ("Kanitzkorb"), named after its inventor, was also used. Because there was not usually enough local forage for the many hives concentrated into one place, the beekeepers had to move the bees around to areas where there were worthwhile sources of nectar. The new colonies formed in the early spring from swarms, collected honey from the blossoming heathlands in late summer, mainly in August and September. After the honey was harvested the superfluous colonies were removed from their baskets and sold as 'bare' colonies without honeycombs. These bees were very keen to swarm.

History.

For centuries, the historical basket or heath beehive produced honey and beeswax on the Lüneburg Heath. In the Middle Ages heather honey was a sought-after commodity. Beekeeping was common in the core areas of the former heath, so that almost every farmstead had a "Bienenzaun". The farmers employed special beekeeping hands for this purpose. The town of Celle on the Südheide was a major trading centre for heather honey. As early as the 16th century there was a professional apiculture centre. It declined during the second half of the 19th century for a number of reasons, which led to the retreat of the areas of heathland. As a result of land consolidation there were no areas of common land with their wide range of nectar-producing plants. The introduction of artificial fertiliser enabled better harvest yields from heath soils and so areas of heath were turned into arable land. Marshland soils with buckwheat cultivation were turned into meadows for cattle. In addition, large areas of heath were reforested with fast-growing pines. Today there are only a very few apiaries left on the Lüneburg Heath which keep bees in the historical way. These also produce comb honey which is a specialty today due to its rarity.

Heath beekeeping () was a specialist form of beekeeping, which was intensively practised by beekeepers on the Lüneburg Heath from the Middle Ages until the 19th century, but which is now very rarely encountered. It was also referred to as "Lüneburger Schwarmbienenzucht" (Lüneburg honey bee breeding) "Lüneburger Heideimkerei" (Lüneburg Heath beekeeping) or "Lüneburger Korbimkerei" (Lüneburg basket beekeeping). Typical features were beehives made of plaited straw baskets or skeps, the use of heathland flowers, frequent moving of bees to worthwhile feeding areas and the enormous multiplication of bee colonies through swarming.


Origins.

The origins of the lance lie in the retinues of medieval knights (Chaucer's Knight in the "Canterbury Tales", with his son the Squire and his archer Yeoman has similarities to a lance). When called by the liege, the knight would command men from his fief and possibly those of his liege lord or in this later's stead. Out of the Frankish concept of knighthood, associated with horsemanship and its arms, a correlation slowly evolved between the signature weapon of this rank, the horseman's lance, and the military value of the rank. In other words, when a noble spoke of his ability to field forces, the terms knights and lances became interchangeable.  The lance had no consistent strength of arms throughout its usage as a unit. Different centuries and different states gave it a fluctuating character. However, the basic lance of three men; a knight, a squire who served as a fighting auxiliary and a non-combatant squire, primarily concerned on the battlefield with looking after the knight's spare horses or lances, seems to evolve in the 13th century An excellent description to convey its relevance is in Howard, "a team of half a dozen men, like the crew of some enormous battle tank". The 13th-century French rule of the Templars had specified that a brother knight should have one squire if he had one warhorse, two if he had an extra one. In addition, he had a riding horse and a packhorse. In battle the squires would follow the brothers with the spare warhorses. A similar arrangement was also seen in Spain in the 1270s, according to Ramon Llull:  Neither horse, nor armor, nor even being chosen by others is sufficient to show forth the high honor that pertains to a Knight. Instead he must be given a squire and a servant to look after his horse

Organisation.

France.

The term "lances fournies" itself appeared much the same way as the "compagnies d'ordonnance" ""Les lances fournies pour les compagnies d'ordenance du Roi."" or The lances furnished for the companies ordered by the King. Upon the original establishment of the French "compagnies d'ordonnance", the "lances fournies" were formed around a man-at-arms (a fully armored man on an armored horse) with a retinue of a page or squire, two or three archers, and a (slightly) lighter horseman known as the serjeant-at-arms or coutilier (literally "dagger man," a contemporary term for mounted bandits and brigands). All members in a lance were mounted for travel but only the man-at-arms and the coutilier were regularly expected to fight on horseback, though of course both members were also trained and equipped for dismounted action. Lances would be further organized as companies, each company numbering about 100 "lances", effectively 400 plus fighting men and servants. These companies were sustained even in peace, and became the first standing army in modern Europe.

Burgundy.

The last Duke of Burgundy, Charles the Bold, made a number of ordinances prescribing the organisation of his forces in the 1460s and 1470s. In the first ordinance of 1468, the army is clearly organised in three man lances; a man-at-arms, a "coustillier" and a "valet". In the Abbeville Ordinance of 1471, the army is re-organised into 1250 lances of nine men each : a man-at-arms, a "coustillier", a non-combatant page, three mounted archers and three foot soldiers (a crossbowman, handgunner, and pikeman). This organisation is repeated in the 1472 and 1473 ordinances.

Brittany.

The Duchy of Brittany also ordered the equivalent of the lance in an ordinance of 1450. While the basic lance was the familiar three man structure of man-at-arms, coutilier and page, dependent on the wealth of the man-at-arms, additional archers or "juzarmiers" (that is, men equipped with a guisarme) were added. At the highest income band specified (600–700 livres), either four archers, or three archers and a juzarmier, were added to the basic unit.

Italy.

In Italy in the 14th and 15th centuries, mercenary soldiers were recruited in units known variously as "barbuta", lance or "corazza", consisting of two to six men. Although it is traditionally thought that the three man lance was introduced to Italy by the mercenaries of the White Company in the 1360s, in fact they had evolved somewhat earlier The three man lance consisted of two combatants, a man-at-arms and an armed squire, plus a page. Occasionally, a mounted archer could be substituted for the squire.  In the mid 15th century, soldiers called "lanze spezzate" (literally broken lances) evolved. These were men who, for some reason, had become detached from their mercenary companies and their lances and were now hired as individuals. They were then placed in new companies and lances under a new commander.

Germany.

In Germany, an indigenous form of the lance known as a "gleve" (pl. "gleven") developed. A gleve may have consisted of as many as ten men - both horse and foot soldiers - supporting the knight. The three man gleve may have existed in the early 14th century, with a knight supported by two sergeants. Later the sergeants were replaced by mercenaries. The equivalent of the lance of two combatants with page is seen in Germany in the later 14th century, when the second combatant can be a spearman or an archer. However, in various regions, other sizes of gleven existed of up to ten men, including up to three mounted archers (who would dismount to fight) and armed servants who acted as infantry.

Poland.

"Kopia" (Polish for lance) was the basic military formation in medieval Poland, identical to the lance-unit employed elsewhere in Western Europe. A "Kopia" was composed of a knight and his retinue (of 3–12 soldiers). On campaign, several kopias were combined to form a larger unit, the "chorągiew (pl: banner)."  From the 15th century the term kopia was replaced by "Poczet".

See also.

Re-enacting Charles the Bold's ordinances.

The lance fournie (French: "equipped lance") was a medieval equivalent to the modern army squad that would have accompanied and supported a man-at-arms (a heavily armoured horseman popularly known as a "knight") in battle. These units formed companies under a captain either as mercenary bands or in the retinue of wealthy nobles and royalty. Each lance was supposed to include a mixture of troop types (the men-at-arms themselves, lighter cavalry, infantry, and even noncombatant pages) that would have guaranteed a desirable balance between the various components of the company at large; however, it is often difficult to determine the exact composition of the lance in any given company as the available sources are few and often centuries apart.


Style.

A-frame buildings are an old form known in Europe, China, and the South Pacific islands sometimes called a "roof hut" and were simple structures used for utilitarian purposes until the 1950s. In 1934, R.M. Schindler built the first modern A-frame house, for owner Gisela Bennati, in Lake Arrowhead, California. Architects Walter Reemelin, John Campbell, George Rockrise, Henrik H Bull, and Andrew Geller helped to popularize Schindler's idea in the early 1950s, designing A-frame vacation homes. In 1955, Andrew Geller built an A-frame house on the beach in Long Island, New York, known as the Elizabeth Reese House. Geller's design won international attention when it was featured in "The New York Times" on May 5, 1957. Before long, thousands of A-frame homes were being built around the world.  The Abbey Resort in Fontana-on-Geneva Lake, Wisconsin claims to have the world's tallest wooden A-frame.

Rise in popularity.

The post–World War II popularity of the A-frame has been attributed to a combination of factors including Americans' extra disposable income, the inexpensiveness of building an A-frame structure, and a new interest in acquiring a second home for vacationing.  Another factor contributing to the rise of the A-frame included the adaptability of the structure itself, which enabled architects to experiment with more modern designs. A-frames were a useful medium in which architects could explore their creative side since they were relatively cheap to build.  Additionally, many people preferred the idea of a "modern-style" vacation home to that of a "modern-style" primary home. A-frames became available as prefabricated kits, lowering the cost even more, and were sold by Macy's department stores.  After the rise of the archetypal A-frame, architects soon began experimenting with new designs, which led to what became known as the modified A-frame style.

An A-frame house or other A-frame building is an architectural house or building style featuring steeply-angled sides (roofline) that usually begin at or near the foundation line, and meet at the top in the shape of the letter A. An A-frame ceiling can be open to the top rafters.


Extensibility.

The product is extensible through the use of the.NET framework, which allows developers and network administrators to extend out-of-the-box capabilities and perform complex tasks.

History.

MIIS has its origins in two Canadian companies' products, Linkage Software's metadirectory product LinkAge Directory Exchange (LDE) which Microsoft acquired on June 30, 1997 and Zoomit Corporation's metadirectory product, Via, which Microsoft acquired on July 7, 1999.  LDE was strongly email system oriented but traces of it and its field mapping technology remain through MIIS 2003.  After acquiring Zoomit Via Microsoft renamed it to MMS (Microsoft Metadirectory Services) and offered this product for free; however they will strongly encourage customers to hire Microsoft Consulting Services to install and configure product.  Microsoft Identity Integration Server 2003 was completely re-written from ground up. No original Zoomit Via code was moved into MIIS. However Microsoft preserved methodology and original idea of the Via product. MIIS 2003 no longer uses ZScript (proprietary scripting language of Zoomit Via), instead it offered.NET framework support. With this upgrade Microsoft did not offer a migration path from MMS to MIIS due to the significant differences in the products.  Currently Service Pack 2 is available for MIIS 2003.  IIFP is a slimmed-down version of MIIS that is limited to synchronization between AD, ADAM, and exchange datastores.  In fall 2007 MIIS 2003 was incorporated into a new offering called Identity Lifecycle Manager (ILM) 2007. This product was announced at the RSA Conference in February 2007 and made available to customers in May 2007. Identity Lifecycle Manager 2007 includes not only the original MIIS 2003 product, but also a component called Certificate Lifecycle Manager (CLM) which is used to manage X.509 digital certificate and smart card issuance.

Future developments.

Future releases of MIIS/ILM are expected to be x64 only; x86 support expected to be dropped, following suite of Exchange Server Public Release Candidate (RC) version for Identity Lifecycle Manager '2' is available now (December 2008) The Microsoft SQL Server 2008 is a new back-end dependency of ILM '2'

Supported data sources.

MIIS 2003, Enterprise Edition, includes support for a wide variety of identity repositories including the following.  Network operating systems and directory services : Microsoft Windows NT, Active Directory, Active Directory Application Mode, IBM Directory Server, Novell eDirectory, Resource Access Control Facility (RACF), SunONE/iPlanet Directory, X.500 systems and other network directory products E-mail : Lotus Notes and IBM Lotus Domino, Microsoft Exchange 5.5, 2000, 2003, 2007, 2010, & 2013. Application : PeopleSoft, SAP AG products, ERP1, telephone switches PBX, XML- and Directory Service Markup Language DSML-based systems Database : Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle RDBMS, IBM Informix, dBase, IBM DB2  File-based : DSMLv2, LDIF, Comma-separated values CSV, delimited, fixed width, attribute value pairs Other: MIIS provides developers with well defined framework to create additional management agents (in any.NET framework languages currently available on the market) that are not available out-of-the box. Microsoft itself as well as third party vendors provide a wide array of additional management agents, such as OpenLDAP, IBM UniData, PeopleSoft, Windows Live ID/Hotmail, MySQL etc.

Limitations.

While MIIS appears to support DSML, there is currently no out-of-the-box support for SPML version 1 or version 2.0. Standardization in the service provisioning space would benefit consumers and assist in avoiding costly lock-in to proprietary systems.

Microsoft Identity Integration Server (MIIS) is an identity management (IdM) product offered by Microsoft. It is a service that aggregates identity-related information from multiple data-sources. The goal of MIIS is to provide organizations with a unified view of a user's/resources identity across the heterogeneous enterprise and provide methods to automate routine tasks.


Plot.

Aging town constable Bob Valdez (Burt Lancaster) is tricked into killing an innocent man by powerful rancher Frank Tanner (Jon Cypher), whose hired gun R.L. Davis (Richard Jordan) shot up the hovel where the wrongly accused man and his Indian wife were trapped. Valdez believes it would be a fair gesture to raise $200 for the widow, $100 from Tanner and the rest from others in town.  Tanner is livid at the old man's suggestion. He orders ranch hand El Segundo (Barton Heyman) and his men to tie Valdez to a heavy wooden cross and drive him into the desert. The central pole is so long that Valdez must walk bent over. He finds an oasis blocked by two trees that he repeatedly tries to ram with the ends of the cross. When it finally breaks, the jagged ends are driven into Valdez's back.  Davis finds him and cuts the ropes, freeing the unconscious man. The badly injured Valdez is able to crawl to the ranch of his friend Diego (Frank Silvera), where he is nursed back to health. Unfortunately for Tanner, he has picked on the wrong man: Valdez is a wily, experienced Indian fighter and a marksman with a rifle. He dons his old cavalry uniform and sends Tanner a message via one of the rancher's wounded men (Héctor Elizondo): "Valdez is coming."  Valdez sneaks into the compound and, during the ensuing gun battle and his escape, kidnaps Tanner's woman, Gay Erin (Susan Clark), for whose favors it is rumored that Tanner had her husband killed. With her in restraints, Valdez proceeds to systematically do away with the men Tanner sends after him with his long-range Sharps rifle. The only one he shows mercy to is Davis, after the gunman screams, "I cut you loose! I cut you loose!" and reveals that the cut on the left wrist of Valdez concealed under his glove came when his knife slipped as he cut the ropes off.  Now he has two hostages. While hiding from Tanner's posse, Valdez realizes that Gay Erin knows who killed her husband. Valdez confronts her and she admits that it was she who killed her own husband in order to be with Tanner, not the other way around. He sets her free, but by now Tanner's woman is sympathetic to his cause, feeling guilty because she was the cause of all the deaths so far.  Despite Gay Erin's help, Valdez is finally surrounded and captured. Tanner and his men ride up. The men are ordered to shoot, but R.L. Davis backs off, showing he has no gun, and El Segundo calls his men aside, refusing to obey orders. That leaves Tanner to do his own dirty work—if he can.  Tanner turns out to be a coward one-on-one. Valdez tells him he should have paid the $100 The woman makes it clear she will not return to Tanner.

Production.

The film was filmed in southern Spain in locales used by Italian filmmaker Sergio Leone in his European "spaghetti" Westerns. The desert-like terrain of this isolated region of Spain resembles the U.S. southwest and parts of Sonora, Mexico, though the vegetation is not the same.  When director Sydney Pollack was attached to the property, Lancaster was originally slated to play Frank Tanner with Marlon Brando as Valdez. These plans failed to materialize when Lancaster got involved in the 1970 movie "Airport".

Reception.

The film received primarily mediocre to negative reviews. Vincent Canby of "The New York Times" praised Lancaster's on-screen presence but wrote that, "A lot of fancy flourishes, which I associate with Mr. Sherin's stage work, are apparent in the film, as in its picturesque groupings of picturesque characters, and in a musical score that's much given to comment on the action."  When the film was released to video, Ty Burr of "Entertainment Weekly" wrote that, "Slow and choppy, "Valdez" manages an astounding feat: It drains Lancaster of personality."

Valdez Is Coming is a 1971 American Western film directed by Edwin Sherin and starring Burt Lancaster, Susan Clark, Richard Jordan and Jon Cypher. The film is based on the 1970 Elmore Leonard novel of the same name.


Membership.

SBVT was formed in 2004. Membership was initially limited to veterans of the Vietnam War who at some point served in a Swift boat unit, as did Kerry.  Of the 3,500 Swift boat sailors who served in Vietnam, the names of some 250 appeared on the group's statement against Kerry; most did not serve at the same time or in the same place as Kerry. Founding members of SBVT include Rear Admiral Roy Hoffmann (retired), a former commander of Swift boat forces; Colonel Bud Day, who earned the Medal of Honor; Houston attorney John O'Neill, an officer who became commander of Swift Boat PCF 94 several months after Kerry's departure in 1969 and who appeared opposite Kerry in a televised 1971 debate between them on "The Dick Cavett Show"; and 13 other named veterans. Several of those who joined SBVT during the 2004 campaign were officers who had previously praised Kerry's conduct during the Vietnam War. These included Division Commander Grant Hibbard, who wrote positive evaluations of Kerry, and Commander George Elliott, who submitted Kerry for a Silver Star. SBVT asserted that it included, in total, 16 officers who served with Kerry in Coastal Division 11 as members. Despite SBVT's statements that Kerry's "entire chain of command" belonged to the group, Joseph Streuli, former commander of Coastal Division 13, Charles Horne, former commander of Coastal Squadron 1, and Art Price, former commander CTF 116, who are described in "Unfit for Command" as part of Kerry's chain of command, were not affiliated with the group.  The group's initial letter against Kerry stated "It is our collective judgment that, upon your return from Vietnam, you grossly and knowingly distorted the conduct of the American soldiers, marines, sailors and airmen of that war (including a betrayal of many of us, without regard for the danger your actions caused us). Further, we believe that you have withheld and/or distorted material facts as to your own conduct in this war." However, Kerry had posted over 100 pages of his military records at his website nearly two weeks before the issuance of the SBVT letter, and had also made his military medical records available for inspection by reporters (and provided a summary from his doctor).  Not all SBVT members said that they were signing the letter for the same reason. For example, from an interview published the day before the letter was made public: "'[Kerry] earned his medals, he did what he was supposed to do in Vietnam,' said retired Coast Guard Captain Adrian Lonsdale, who was in the chain of command above Kerry and oversaw various operations dealing with Navy swift boats of the type Kerry commanded. 'But I was very disappointed in his statements after he got out of the Navy.  Of those who served in Kerry's boat crew, only Stephen Gardner joined SBVT. He was not present on any of the occasions when Kerry earned his medals, including his Purple Hearts. Gardner appeared in two of the group's television advertisements.  All other living members of Kerry's crew supported his presidential bid, and some frequently campaigned with him as his self-described "band of brothers". Kerry crew members have disputed some of SBVT's various allegations, calling them "totally false" (Drew Whitlow), "garbage" (Gene Thorson), and "a pack of lies" (Del Sandusky).  No members of SBVT were aboard Kerry's boat during any of the incidents for which he was decorated. The only member of SBVT who was present at the Silver Star incident, Rood's crew member Larry Clayton Lee, praised Kerry's tactics and stated that he earned his Silver Star. However, he stated that based on discussions with other SBVT members, he came to question whether Kerry deserved other medals for incidents at which he was not present.  On September 29, 2004, SBVT announced that it was joining forces with a group of American prisoners of war who were held captive by the North Vietnamese during the war to form the new group, "Swift Vets and POWs For Truth".

Media activities.

SBVT produced several television advertisements created by Stevens Reed Curcio & Potholm attacking Kerry's actions both in and after Vietnam. For a detailed discussion of SBVT's allegations about Kerry's service in Vietnam, see John Kerry military service controversy.

First television advertisement.

SBVT first went public with a May 4, 2004, press conference declaring opposition to Kerry. When the press conference garnered little attention, the organization produced television advertisements. On August 5, 2004, SBVT began airing a one-minute television spot in three hotly contested states in the ongoing presidential election. The advertisement, entitled "Any Questions?", was a collage of short clips of 13 SBVT members, many of whom stated they served with John Kerry or had direct contact with Kerry during his service in Vietnam. The veterans appearing in the ad said Kerry was dishonest, unreliable, unfit to lead, and had dishonored his country and fellow veterans. Only one of the men in the advertisement (Steve Gardner) served under Kerry, but some sailed on other boats grouped with Kerry's.  Among the first to denounce the first ad was Republican Senator John McCain, a Bush supporter, Vietnam veteran, and former POW. He said, "I condemn the [SBVT] ad. It is dishonest and dishonorable. I think it is very, very wrong". Senator McCain would be criticized four years later during his own presidential campaign for accepting money and support from many of the same Swiftboaters.

Book.

SBVT founder and spokesman John O'Neill and Jerome Corsi are listed as coauthors of the book "Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry", published by Regnery Publishing. A best-seller upon its release in August 2004, it criticized Kerry's judgment in battle, his truthfulness, his entitlement to certain medals, and his later anti-war activities. The book was based in part on interviews with veterans who served in or with Kerry's division, and also on biographies of Kerry. Several members of Kerry's crew stated that O'Neill failed to interview them; some veterans who were interviewed asserted that their statements were edited to strip out material favorable to Kerry. Neither O'Neill nor Corsi had any firsthand knowledge of Kerry's service. O'Neill served on the Swift boats after Kerry left Vietnam, and Corsi never served in Vietnam.  After controversial statements made by Corsi became public, O'Neill denied Corsi's coauthorship of the book, saying that Corsi was "simply an editor and not really any sort of co-author." However, portions of the book contain material also found in articles posted under Corsi's name at a website critical of John Kerry, and O'Neill is cited in a later book as describing Corsi as helping to write "Unfit for Command", and urging him to back out of media appearances after the controversial comments became public.

Second television advertisement.

On August 20, 2004, SBVT released a second television advertisement featuring a portion of Kerry's, before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Kerry, testifying as a member of Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW), had criticized U.S. policy in Vietnam. He had also described VVAW's 1971 Winter Soldier Investigation, in which more than 100 soldiers and civilians said they had seen or committed atrocities carried out by U.S. forces in Vietnam. Kerry's Senate testimony presented a summary of these men's statements; he did not, however, say that he had any personal knowledge of these atrocities. The SBVT advertisement alternated clips of Kerry's summary of these statements with charges from Vietnam veterans, particularly former POWs, that Kerry's "accusations" had demoralized and "betrayed" soldiers in Vietnam.

Third television advertisement.

A third television advertisement began airing on August 26, 2004, attacking Kerry's past statements that he was in Cambodia on Christmas Eve, 1968. This advertisement featured Stephen Gardner stating, "I spent more time on John Kerry's boat than any other crew member.... John Kerry claims that he spent Christmas in 1968 in Cambodia and that is categorically a lie. Not in December, not in January. We were never in Cambodia on a secret mission, ever."  However, Gardner was only a member of Kerry's crew for a month and a half, from December 6, 1968 to approximately January 22, 1969; crew directories and first hand accounts indicate that other crewmembers served as long or longer under Kerry's four-month-long command.  In addition, Kerry had never said that the Christmas Eve incident was a "secret mission", but happened during a routine patrol; furthermore, he stated at least two weeks prior to the ad's appearance that he had been patrolling at or near the border at the time and subsequently ambushed. The account of the patrol appears in Douglas Brinkley's "Tour of Duty", [pp. 209–219] and Cmdr. Elliott noted in Kerry's fitness report that his boat was ambushed during the Christmas truce of 1968. Moreover, Kerry's biographer, Douglas Brinkley, has stated that Kerry "went into Cambodian waters three or four times in January and February 1969 on clandestine missions".

Fourth television advertisement.

On August 31, 2004, a fourth advertisement was released by SBVT. The advertisement described Kerry as a man who "renounced his country's symbols", a reference to a Vietnam War protest where Kerry threw war decorations over the fence of the U.S. Capitol building on April 23, 1971. The advertisement also contained edited video clips of Kerry from a WRC-TV program called "Viewpoints", in which he stated that he gave back "six, seven, eight, nine" (in response to a question: "How many did you give back, John?"); it then included a clip from another part of that interview where Kerry stated "and that was the medals themselves", although in the interview it was not in reference to the decorations he returned.

Controversy.

Truth of allegations.

Early in the advertising campaign, "Time" magazine surveyed public credence in the SBVT advertisements among those who viewed them. The poll, conducted August 24 through 26, showed that about one-third of viewers believed there was at least "some truth" to the allegations. Among swing voters, about one-fourth felt there was any truth to the ads.  A major part of the SBVT controversy centered on the group's testimony. The SBVT statements were accompanied by affidavits. One affiant, Alfred French, acknowledged he had no firsthand knowledge of the events to which he had sworn.  In May 2006, "The New York Times" reported that an early member of the group, Steve Hayes, stated that he came to believe that the group was twisting Kerry's record, and broke with the group and voted for Kerry. Hayes told the Times:  Hayes also told "The New York Times" that he provided a long interview to Kerry's supporters, backing their version of the incident for which Kerry received the Bronze Star.

First television advertisement.

The first SBVT ad was contradicted by the statements of several other veterans who observed the incidents, by the Navy's official records, and, in some instances, by the contemporaneous statements of SBVT members themselves.  Several major newspapers were also skeptical of the SBVT allegations. For example, a "New York Times" news article stated, "on close examination, the accounts of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth prove to be riddled with inconsistencies." Regarding the medal dispute, a "Los Angeles Times" editorial stated, "Not limited by the conventions of our colleagues in the newsroom, we can say it outright: These charges against John Kerry are false." The editorial argued this position on the basis that "Kerry is backed by almost all those who witnessed the events in question, as well as by documentation." On August 22, 2004 "The Washington Post" reported: "An investigation by "The Washington Post" into what happened that day suggests that both sides have withheld information from the public record and provided an incomplete, and sometimes inaccurate, picture of what took place. But although Kerry's accusers have succeeded in raising doubts about his war record, they have failed to come up with sufficient evidence to prove him a liar."  The ABC television show "Nightline" traveled to Vietnam and interviewed Vietnamese who were involved in the battle for which Kerry was awarded the Silver Star. These witnesses disputed O'Neill's charge that there "was little or no fire" that day; they said that the fighting was fierce. SBVT supporters question whether these witnesses are reliable because they spoke "in the presence of a Communist official", but their account of enemy fire is substantially the same as that previously given by another former Viet Cong to an AP reporter and by the American witnesses, including the only SBVT member who was actually present that day, Larry Clayton Lee. ABC News's "The Note" opined, "the Swift Boat ad and their primary charges about Kerry's medals are personal, negative, extremely suspect, or false."

Book, other media statements.

Jerome Corsi has said that a picture of Kerry's 1993 visit to Vietnam hangs in the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City as a gesture of "honor" by the Communists "for his contribution to their victory over [the] United States", and John O'Neill has stated that Kerry "is in the North Vietnamese war museum as a hero.... one of the heroes who caused them to win the war in Vietnam". The statement is also repeated in "Unfit for Command" (pp 167–174). However, Josh Gerstein of the "New York Sun" stated in this regard:  In this connection, the web page Corsi and another anti-Kerry veteran originally published on the Kerry museum photo contained the picture of Robert McNamara's 1995 meeting with General Giáp, who was misidentified as "Mao Tse-tung". (Photo #10).  In addition, John O'Neill said that in 1971 John Kerry "wanted to abandon ship and leave the POWs [in Vietnam]" and that "[o]n the Dick Cavett show and elsewhere, John Kerry‘s position was that we should accept the Madame Binh seven-point proposal, which called for unilateral withdrawal, setting a date after which at some future time, we'd negotiate the return of the POWs. So we would set a date. We would withdraw and then we would begin to discuss how to bring them home". However, in the Cavett debate, Kerry actually said:

Connections with Republicans.

SBVT characterized itself as a non-partisan group both in the legal sense and in spirit, yet several prominent individuals who assisted SBVT also have had close ties to the Republican Party. According to information released by the IRS on February 22, 2005, more than half of the group's reported contributions came from just three sources, all prominent Texas Republican donors: Houston builder Bob J. Perry, a longtime supporter of George W. Bush, donated $4.45 million, Harold Simmons' Contrans donated $3 million, and T. Boone Pickens, Jr. donated $2 million. Other major contributors included Bush fundraiser Carl Lindner ($300,000), Robert Lindner ($260,000), GOP contributor Aubrey McClendon ($250,000), George Matthews Jr. ($250,000), and Crow Holdings ($100,000).  The initial communications consultant for SBVT was Merrie Spaeth, a Reagan administration press officer and a volunteer consultant to Ken Starr in the Clinton impeachment; she was also a spokesperson for "Republicans for Clean Air", a 527 group opposing John McCain's 2000 presidential campaign and funded by Bush supporters who also helped fund SBVT. John E. O'Neill — the primary author of "Unfit for Command" and a key player in the formation of SBVT — donated over $14,000 to Republican candidates. He co-operated with the Nixon White House in opposing Kerry in 1971, and seconded Nixon's nomination at the 1972 Republican national convention.  Retired Admiral William Schachte, a principal source for the SBVT allegations about Kerry's first Purple Heart, has donated to both of Bush's presidential campaigns. Schachte was also a lobbyist for FastShip, a firm that recently announced it was receiving $40 million in federal funding for one of its projects. In addition, Schachte's lobbying firm associate, David Norcross, was chairman of the 2004 Republican convention. Chris LaCivita, Political Director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee in 2002, works as a private contractor providing media advice for SBVT.  The SBVT postal address was registered to Susan Arceneaux, treasurer of the Majority Leader's Fund, a PAC closely tied to the former Congressional leader, Republican Dick Armey.  Republican activist Sam Fox's donation of $50,000 to SBVT during the 2004 campaign caused a controversy when Bush nominated him to the position of ambassador to Belgium. Because the Democratic members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee indicated that they would not support his nomination, Bush withdrew the nomination; he appointed Fox to the position on April 4, 2007, while Congress was in recess.<ref name="AP/CNN03283007"></ref>  These ties, along with others (see below), led to suggestions in the popular press that SBVT was a front group for Republicans.

Connections with the Bush campaign.

The Bush campaign became part of the general SBVT controversy when McCain condemned the first SBVT ad, and said, "I hope that the president will also condemn it." The Bush campaign did not condemn SBVT or the SBVT ads. The campaign did not endorse the group either, stating "We have not and we will not question Senator Kerry's service in Vietnam." Kerry was dismissive of this statement, saying, "Of course, the President keeps telling people he would never question my service to our country. Instead, he watches as a Republican-funded attack group does just that." Kerry also alleged that SBVT was "a front for the Bush campaign. And the fact that the President won’t denounce what they’re up to tells you everything you need to know—he wants them to do his dirty work". When pressed on the issue, President Bush called for an end to all 527 group political advertisements, and challenged Kerry to do the same.  Critics and the Kerry campaign pointed to several specific connections between SBVT and the Bush campaign. The Kerry campaign asserted that Bush campaign headquarters in Florida distributed fliers promoting SBVT events, a charge the Bush campaign denied. Kenneth Cordier, former vice-chair of Veterans for Bush/Cheney (in 2000) and volunteer member of the Bush campaign veterans steering committee, appeared in the second SBVT advertisement. The Bush campaign asked him to resign and stated that it had been unaware of his SBVT involvement.  On August 25, 2004, Benjamin Ginsberg, the top election lawyer to the Bush campaign on campaign finance law, also resigned after it was learned that SBVT was one of his clients. Ginsberg stated that he was withdrawing to avoid being a distraction to the campaign. He declared that he had acted "in a manner that is fully appropriate and legal," arguing that it was not uncommon or illegal for lawyers to represent campaigns or political parties while also representing 527 groups. He also maintained that he did not disclose to the Bush campaign that he was simultaneously representing the SBVT group. After leaving the Bush campaign, Ginsberg retained his status as counsel to SBVT.  In January 2005, Governor Jeb Bush, the President's brother and Florida chairman for his 2004 campaign, sent a letter to SBVT member and former POW Bud Day, thanking him for his "personal support of my brother in his re-election." In addition, Governor Bush said of the SBVT:

Federal Election Commission filings.

FEC Cases #5511 and #5525  On August 10, 2004, three campaign finance watchdog groups — Democracy 21, the Campaign Legal Center, and the Center for Responsive Politics — jointly filed an independent complaint with the Federal Election Commission (Case #5511). The complaint alleged that SBVT's sources of funding were in violation of federal election law in that "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (SBVT) is registered with the IRS as a section 527 group but is not registered with the Commission as a political committee. However, SBVT is, in fact, a federal political committee."  On August 20, 2004, the Kerry campaign filed a complaint with the FEC (Case #5525) alleging that SBVT and 20 additional named respondents had conducted campaign activity that "has been coordinated with the Bush campaign and the Republican Party from the outset." Under federal election law, SBVT, as a nonpartisan 527 group, was barred from coordinating with any political campaign. The complaint, citing the "ties" noted above, claimed a "web of connections to the Bush family, high-profile Texas political figures, and President Bush's chief political aide, Karl Rove".  The Bush campaign dismissed charges of ties and asserted there was no co-ordination between SBVT and the campaign. Editorial opinion on the evidence for co-ordination varied. ABC News' "The Note" stated, "There is no evidence that the Bush campaign is orchestrating the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth." In contrast, the "New York Times" opined that the SBVT attacks were "orchestrated by negative-campaign specialists deep in the heart of the Texas Republican machine."  FEC Findings – Cases #5511 and #5525  On December 13, 2006, in a consolidated finding, the FEC ruled against the Kerry campaign allegations (Case #5525) finding that...  In addition, Kerry campaign complaints against 18 other respondents were relegated to "dismissed-other" and 2 relegated to "Reason To Believe/No Further Action" (RTB/NFA) status.  The FEC did, however, find "for" the joint complainants (Case #5511) in that the SBVT failed to register and file disclosure reports as a federal political committee, and accepted contributions in violation of federal limits and source prohibitions. SBVT was assessed a fine of $299,500.  The conciliation agreement between the FEC and the SBVT also stated, in part:  In addition, as part of the conciliation agreement, SBVT stated that upon completing its obligations under the agreement, it "intends to cease operations as an IRC Section 527 organization and to donate the remainder of its funds to a charity supporting the families of U.S. servicemen and servicewomen killed or wounded in the War in Iraq."

Disclosure of documents.

During the campaign, SBVT criticized Kerry for not signing a Standard Form 180 authorizing general public access to his Navy personnel records. Kerry responded that the documents were posted on his website. In May 2005, Kerry confirmed his signing of the SF-180 form permitting release of his service records and medical records to reporters from the "Boston Globe", the "Los Angeles Times", and the Associated Press; he refused a request by the "New York Sun" for access to the records. The "Boston Globe" and "Los Angeles Times" reported that the records largely duplicated what Kerry had released during the campaign.  SBVT members also criticized Kerry for not releasing his own private journals and letters. However, SBVT members themselves refused to release documents. For example, a journal by another of the Swift boat commanders and the relevant Navy records of some of the SBVT members involved in specific allegations have not been released.  The White House refused to release records detailing any Bush administration contacts with prominent individuals associated with SBVT. The denied Freedom of Information Act request was filed on August 24 by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

Discredited.

The claims of the group were discredited, and most of the Vietnam veterans who served alongside Kerry or under his command disputed the criticisms and supported Kerry's version of events and his presidential aspirations.

"Swift Boating".

Since the 2004 election, the term "Swift Boating" (or "swiftboating") has become a common expression for a campaign attacking opponents by questioning their credibility and patriotism in a dishonest manner. The term is most often used with the pejorative meaning of a smear campaign.

Swift Vets and POWs for Truth, formerly known as the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (SBVT), was a political group (527 group) of United States Swift boat veterans and former prisoners of war of the Vietnam War, formed during the 2004 presidential election campaign for the purpose of opposing John Kerry's candidacy for the presidency. The campaign inspired the widely used political pejorative "swiftboating", to describe an unfair or untrue political attack. The group disbanded and ceased operations on May 31, 2008.


History.

Following the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806 and the Congress of Vienna in 1815, the various German states gained nominal sovereignty. However, the reunification process that culminated in the creation of the German Empire in 1871, produced a country that was constituted of several principalities and dominated by one of them, the Kingdom of Prussia after it had ultimately defeated its Austrian rival. Its territory covered some 60 percent of the territory that was to become the German Reich.

German Confederation.

The German Confederation was established at the Congress of Vienna in 1815 and the Kingdom of Prussia was a member until the dissolution in 1866 following the Austro-Prussian War.  The Prussian state was initially subdivided into ten provinces. The Prussian government appointed the heads of each province known as "Oberpräsident" (i.e. High Commissioner). The Oberpräsident represented the Prussian government in the province, and was busy with implementing and supervising central prerogatives of the Prussian government. The provinces of Prussia were further subdivided into government districts (Regierungsbezirke), subject to the High Commissioner. As to self-rule each province also had a provincial diet ("Provinziallandtag" in German), the members of which were elected in indirect election by county councillors and city councillors of the constituent rural counties and independent cities.  Western Provinces: In 1822 the Rhine Province was created from the merger of the Lower Rhine and Jülich-Cleves-Berg provinces.  Eastern Provinces (East Elbia): In 1829 the Province of Prussia was created by the merger of East Prussia and West Prussia, lasting until 1878 when they were again separated. Congruent with the Kingdom of Prussia proper (i.e. former Ducal and Royal Prussia), its territory, like the province of Posen, was not part of the German Confederation.  In 1850 the Province of Hohenzollern in Southern Germany, was created from the annexed principalities of Hohenzollern-Hechingen and Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen.  In 1866, following the Austro-Prussian War, Prussia annexed several German States that had been allied with Austria and, together with previously occupied Danish territory, organized them into three new provinces:

German Empire.

The outcome of the Austro-Prussian War put an end to the aspirations of a grand unified state consisting of all German-speaking states. Instead the North German Confederation was created under Prussian leadership. Following the Franco-Prussian War and the incorporation of the southern states of Bavaria, Baden and Württemberg into the confederation, the German Empire was proclaimed in 1871.  From 1875 the provinces were bodies combining regional home rule through representatives delegated from each rural and urban district ( and ), forming the provincial diet () with a 6-year term, which elected from its midst a head of this self-administration, the Landesdirektor (with a 6 to 12-year term), and a provincial government (, ) as well as part of the superordinated overall Prussian royal administration, supervising - on a provincial range - the self-governing municipalities and counties as well as each governorate (, mere supervising bodies of the Prussian government). For this purpose the respective Prussian minister of interior affairs appointed a High Commissioner () to each province, who fulfilled his task with the help of a Prussian government-appointed provincial council ().  In 1881 the final province of the Kingdom of Prussia was established when Berlin was separated from Brandenburg.  In 1918 following World War I the German Empire was dissolved and replaced by the Weimar Republic. The following were the existing Prussian provinces:

Weimar Republic.

After the fall of the German Empire the Kingdom of Prussia was reconstituted with a republican government as the Free State of Prussia. The Free State promoted the democratisation of the provinces, the provincial parliaments (Provinziallandtage) were elected in direct elections by the voters, unlike before when elected county councillors chose from their midst members for the provincial parliaments.  Prussia had to cede virtually all territory belonging to the provinces of Posen and West Prussia to the newly created state of Poland and the League of Nations mandate of the Free City of Danzig. Smaller areas had been ceded to Belgium (East Cantons, formerly Rhineland), Czechoslovakia (Hlučín Region, formerly Silesia), Denmark (Northern Schleswig, formerly Schleswig-Holstein), the League of Nations mandate of the Memel Territory (formerly East Prussia), Poland (eastern Upper Silesia, formerly Prov. of Silesia), and the Mandatory Saar (League of Nations) (formerly Rhineland).  Prussia and its provinces formally continued to exist even though political control was eventually taken over by the National Socialist German Workers Party following their rise to power in 1933. The following is a summary of the changes in the Prussian provinces between 1919 and 1945:  Prussia did not survive the defeat and the division of Germany following the end of World War II in 1945 and was formally abolished in February 1947. Several of its provinces attained statehood or became a part of other post-war states in East Germany and West Germany.

The Provinces of Prussia () were the main administrative divisions of Prussia from 1815 to 1946. Prussia's province system was introduced in the Stein-Hardenberg Reforms in 1815, and were mostly organized from duchies and historical regions. Provinces were divided into several "Regierungsbezirke", sub-divided into "Kreise" (districts), and then into "Gemeinden" (townships) at the lowest-level. Provinces constituted the highest level of administration in the Kingdom of Prussia and Free State of Prussia until 1933, when Nazi Germany established "de facto" direct rule over provincial politics, and were formally abolished in 1946 following World War II. The Prussian provinces became the basis for many federal states of Germany, and the states of Brandenburg, Lower Saxony, and Schleswig-Holstein are direct successors of provinces.


Background.

The compromise proposed six constitutional amendments and four Congressional resolutions. Crittenden introduced the package on December 18. It was tabled on December 31.  It guaranteed the permanent existence of slavery in the slave states and addressed Southern demands in regard to fugitive slaves and slavery in the District of Columbia. It proposed re-instating the Missouri Compromise (which had been functionally repealed in 1854 by the Kansas–Nebraska Act, and struck down entirely in 1857 by the Dred Scott decision), and extending the compromise line to the west, with slavery prohibited north of the 36° 30′ parallel and guaranteed south of it. The compromise included a clause that it could not be repealed or amended.  The compromise was popular among Southern members of the Senate, but it was generally unacceptable to the Republicans, who opposed the expansion of slavery beyond the states where it already existed into the territories. The opposition of their party's leader, President-elect Abraham Lincoln, was crucial. Republicans said the compromise "would amount to a perpetual covenant of war against every people, tribe, and state owning a foot of land between here and Tierra del Fuego." The only territories south of the line were parts of New Mexico Territory and Indian Territory. There was considerable agreement on both sides that slavery would never flourish in New Mexico. The South refused the House Republicans' proposal, approved by committee on December 29, to admit New Mexico as a state immediately. However, not all opponents of the Crittenden Compromise also opposed further territorial expansion of the United States. "The New York Times" referred to "the whole future growth of the Republic" and "all the Territory that can ever belong to the United States—the whole of Mexico and Central America."

Results.

President-elect Abraham Lincoln vehemently opposed the Crittenden compromise on grounds that he opposed any policy permitting the continued expansion of slavery. Both the House of Representatives and the Senate rejected Crittenden's proposal. It was part of a series of last-ditch efforts to provide the Southern states with sufficient reassurances to forestall their secession during the final session of Congress prior to the Lincoln administration taking office.  The Crittenden proposals were also discussed at the Peace Conference of 1861, a meeting of more than 100 of the nation's leading politicians, held February 8-27, 1861, in Washington, D.C. The conference, led by former President John Tyler, was the final formal effort of the states to avert the start of war. There too, the Compromise proposals failed, as the provision guaranteeing slave ownership throughout all Western territories and future acquisitions again proved unpalatable.  A February 1861 editorial in the "Charleston Courier" (Charleston, Missouri) summed up the mood prevalent in Southern-leaning border counties as the Crittenden proposals went down in defeat: "Men at Washington think there is no chance for peace, and indeed we can see but little, everything looks gloomy. The Crittenden resolutions have been voted down again and again. Is there any other proposition which will win, that the South can accept? If not—there comes war—and woe to the wives and daughters of our land; beauty will be but an incentive to crime, and plunder but pay for John Brown raids. Let our citizens be prepared for the worst, it may come." This statement by editor George Whitcomb came in response to a fiery "letter to the editor" excoriating "disunion", from US Representative John William Noell, whose district included Charleston.

In popular culture.

The novel "Underground Airlines" (2016) by Ben Winters is set in an alternate history where the Crittenden Compromise was accepted.

The Crittenden Compromise was an unsuccessful proposal to permanently enshrine slavery in the United States Constitution, and thereby make it unconstitutional for future congresses to end slavery. It was introduced by United States Senator John J. Crittenden (Constitutional Unionist of Kentucky) on December 18, 1860. It aimed to resolve the secession crisis of 1860–1861 that eventually led to the American Civil War by addressing the fears and grievances of Southern pro-slavery factions, and by quashing anti-slavery activities.


Origins.

Medieval.

The comital House of Urach were part of Swabian nobility in the 12th to 13th centuries, with their ancestral seat at Urach.  Earliest mention of the name dates to the early 11th century, with the brothers Egino and Rudolf, whose seat was at Dettingen. Older historiography points to an origin of the name in the given name "Unruoch", possibly Unruoch III (d. 874) of the Unruochings. More recent literature prefers an origin of the name in toponymy, derived from name of Aura. The two brothers built Achalm Castle in c. 1050. Rudolf and his heirs form the lineage of the Counts of Achalm, while Egino's heirs (either Egino II or Egino III) in the 12th century built another castle in the upper Erms valley (now Bad Urach). After the extinction of the Zähringer line in 1218, Egino IV inherited parts of the Zähringer possessions due to his 1180 marriage with Agnes of Zähringen. Egino V won a dispute over further parts of the Zähringen inheritance, and he moved his seat to Freiburg where he ruled as Egino I, count of Freiburg. Egino V (I) and his brothers supported the rebellion Henry VII of Germany but were beaten in a field battle in 1235. The counts of Urach declined in the 1250s; their line was extinct in 1261 and their territories were incorporated into the County of Württemberg.

Modern.

The title of count or duke of Urach was revived in the 18th and 19th centuries for morganatic lineages of the House of Württemberg.  The Duchy of Württemberg the early modern period often found itself in the theatre of war as French and Austrian armies fought to extend the hegemony of the rival houses of Bourbon and Habsburg on the European continent. During the 17th and 18th centuries the duchy resisted repeated French invasions.  Although Duke Frederick III was nominally a subject of the Holy Roman Emperor Francis II, as an ally of Napoleon I he assumed the higher title of Elector in 1803, and when the Holy Roman Empire was abolished in 1806 leaving the Duchy of Württemberg without a suzerain, the Elector embraced complete independence, assuming the title King of Württemberg.  The Kingdom of Württemberg survived until 1918 as part of the Confederation of the Rhine and later the German Empire, and was ruled by four kings:  The House of Urach was founded by the secret marriage of Duke Wilhelm of Württemberg (1761–1830), a younger brother of the reigning Duke Frederick III (later King Frederick I), with Wilhelmine Rhodis von Tunderfeld (1777-1822) at Coswig, Anhalt on 28 August 1800. Although she signed the wedding contract as "Baroness von Tunderfeld-Rhodis", the bride's father Karl August Rhodis held no barony, and his family had assumed "Burgrave von Tunderfeld" as a hereditary title since an ancestor had once held the post of burgrave at Narva. Although by dynastic arrangement Duke Wilhelm's wife was officially recognised as a Württemberg princess on 30 April 1801 and the marriage was acknowledged publicly on 1 August 1801, Duke Wilhelm's formal renunciation of his dynastic rights in Württemberg was also accepted on the latter date. The male-line, non-dynastic descendants of this marriage constitute the House of Urach.

Members of the family.

However, not all of the issue of the marriage were recognised as princes or dukes. Initially, the children of this marriage were accorded only the title "Count/Countess von Württemberg". The eldest son, Count Alexander (1801-1844), married Countess Ilona Festetics von Tolna in 1832 (daughter of the Croatian Count Ladislas Festetics and his wife, born Princess Josephine of Hohenzollern-Hechingen). The last of his four children died in 1911, the two sons leaving no issue to bear the Württemberg comital title.  Alexander's sister Marie (1815-1866) was Countess von Württemberg until her marriage in 1842, and she became Countess von Taubenheim.  King Frederick and Duke Wilhelm's youngest brother, Duke Karl Heinrich of Württemberg (1772–1838), also married morganatically, under the alias "Count von Sontheim" in 1798, with Christiane-Caroline Alexei (d. 1838), who received from the King, along with her children, the titles "Baroness/Baron von Hochberg und Rottenburg" in 1807 and, in 1825, "Countess/Count von Württemberg". The two surviving daughters, Marie (1802-1882) and Alexandrine (1803-1884), married, respectively, Karl, Prince of Hohenlohe-Kirchberg in 1821 and Charles, Count Arpeau de Gallatin in 1830.

Dukes.

Count Wilhelm von Württemberg (1810-1869), Duke Wilhelm's third son, would become the first Duke von Urach in 1867 and ancestor of the current princely Urach line. Although both of his marriages were to dynastic princesses, he wed them as a count, marrying Théodelinde de Beauharnais, Princess of Leuchtenburg (1814–1857) in 1841 and Princess Florestine of Monaco (1833–1897) in 1863.  Following the 1863 marriage of the widowed Count Wilhelm von Württemberg to Princess Florestine, sister of Prince Charles III of Monaco (1818–1889) and second in the line of succession to the Monegasque throne after her nephew, Hereditary Prince Albert (1848–1922), Count Wilhelm took up residence in Monte Carlo while retaining property in Württemberg. On 28 May 1867, King Karl raised his cousin, Count Wilhelm, to Duke of Urach in the nobility of Württemberg. Urach had been an hereditary fief of the family for centuries, whose territorial designation the new duke would bear without thereby acquiring any actual prerogatives or property in Urach or Württemberg. Although the new ducal house remained ineligible to succeed to the crown of the Kingdom of Württemberg, it could succeed to that of the Principality of Monaco.  The 2nd Duke von Urach, Wilhelm, who first married Duchess Amalie in Bavaria (1865–1912) in 1892 and then Princess Wiltrud of Bavaria (1884-1975) in 1924, not only came close to wearing the crown of Lithuania, but lost the prospect of the Monegasque throne in the Monaco Succession Crisis of 1918. Given that his kinsmen the Dukes of Teck had been Anglicized, he might have been next in the line of succession to inherit the Kingdom of Württemberg in 1921 after the death of its last king, William II, had morganatic status not been a hindrance, and had the monarchy not been abolished in 1918. In 1913, Wilhelm had been one of several princes considered for the throne of Albania, which, despite support for Wilhelm from Catholic groups in the north, was conferred instead upon Prince William of Wied in 1914.  The current and 5th duke (according to the 1867 grant) is Wilhelm Albert, Duke of Urach (b. 1957), who since 1991 has been married to Karen von Brauchitsch ("Grafin" Berghe von Trips, by 1988 adoption). They have a son, Prince Karl-Philipp (born 1992) and two daughters. Wilhelm inherited the dukedom from his brother, the 4th Duke Karl Anselm (born 1955), who renounced the title on 16 February 1991, a few weeks after his marriage to Saskia Wüsthof. Their uncle, Karl Gero (1899–1981), had been the 3rd Duke, but left no children. He had been preceded in the title by his father Duke Wilhem (1864-1928), his elder brother Prince Wilhelm ((1897-1957) having renounced his right of succession in January 1928 to marry Elisabeth Theurer.

Property.

The House of Urach established three "Familienfideikommissen" during its history: the Württemberg Countship Trust for the Counts of Württemberg, the Urach Ducal Trust for the Dukes of Urach, and the Urach Princely Trust for Prince Karl of Urach (1865-1925), the younger son of Duke Wilhelm who was not expected to inherit his father's dukedom and who died childless.  The comital trust was set up in October 1837, originally for the brothers Count Alexander (1801-1844) and Count Wilhelm (1810-1869, later 1st Duke of Urach), funded by an inheritance from a childless uncle, Duke Ferdinand of Württemberg (1763–1834), as stipulated in his will. Still extant, although subject to substantial modern legal restrictions, the ducal trust came to include, besides liquid assets, several castles, town houses, farmlands, hunting grounds, commercial and rental buildings, and other property in Germany, France and Monaco, notably Lichtenstein Castle which remains the hereditary seat of the dukes.  Like the ducal trust, the title "Duke of Urach" was hereditary by agnatic primogeniture in the legitimate descent of the first duke, with cadets and females bearing the title of "Prince/Princess of Urach" (the royal letters patent mandated use of the term "Fürst/Fürstin" for "Prince/Princess" rather than the term "Prinz/Prinzessin". Although both words translate as "prince" in English, "Fürst", when used for cadets and not referring to a reigning sovereign, indicates noble rather than dynastic status, whereas "Prinz" was usually confined in use to cadets of ruling and mediatized families). In Württemberg, only dynasts descended in male-line from the nation's kings were titled "Prinz", while those descending from the first king's brothers remained dukes). The name and title "Count/Countess von Württemberg" was explicitly preserved for the Urach dukes and princes rather than being replaced by the higher titles.

Lithuania.

Despite being ineligible to reign in Germany, in 1918 the House of Urach was invited to rule another country – the Kingdom of Lithuania. On June 4, 1918, the "Taryba" voted to offer the Lithuanian throne to the German prince Wilhelm, 2nd Duke of Urach. He was elected on 11 July 1918 and accepted, taking the name of Mindaugas II, King of Lithuania.  The Kingdom of Lithuania was a short-lived constitutional monarchy created toward the end of World War I when Lithuania was part of the German Empire. The "Taryba" declared Lithuania's independence on February 16, 1918, but was unable to form a government, police, or other state institutions due to the continued presence of German troops.  The Germans presented various proposals to incorporate Lithuania into an expanded German Empire. The Lithuanians resisted this idea and hoped to preserve their independence by creating a separate constitutional monarchy, so they invited Prince Wilhelm of Urach to become their king.  The reign of Mindaugas II was accepted by the Catholic Church and by several European countries, as is seen in the letter from Pope Benedict XV welcoming Wilhelm's selection as the future King of Lithuania. Such authoritative registers as the "Almanach de Gotha" also acknowledged the new monarchy.

Rules of succession.

According to the rules of the old House of Urach and to the requirements imposed by the "Taryba" in 1918, the Head of the House of Urach and of Lithuanian monarchy must: Be firstborn in the male line; hold military rank; undertake to learn the Lithuanian language; reside in Lithuania.  Succession to the throne of Lithuania was to be hereditary in the House of Urach. Although born the youngest of five children, Prince Inigo is the only one of three brothers alleged to comply with all the requirements to become King of Lithuania (House of Urach rules + "Taryba" rules): His wife, Baroness Danielle von und zu Bodman (b. 1963), belongs to a "Uradel" family whose nobility in Swabia has been authenticated back to 1152, and whose mother, born Isabelle de Guyard, Countess von Saint Julien von und zu Wallsee is a direct descendant of Pierre Guyard (fl. 1418), to which family had belonged the crusader Guillaume Guyard who flourished in 1280, the family being made Imperial counts in 1627. The couple wed civilly 21 September 1991, their elder son, Eberhard, being born in 1990 and the younger, Anselm, on 29 November 1992.

The House of Urach is a morganatic cadet branch of the formerly royal House of Württemberg. Although the Württemberg dynasty was one of many reigning over small realms in Germany into the 20th century, and despite the fact that marital misalliance in these dynasties usually disinherited the descendants thereof, the Dukes of Urach unusually managed to elicit consideration for candidacy for the thrones of several European states, "viz." the Kingdom of Württemberg, the Principality of Monaco, the abortive Kingdom of Lithuania and even the Principality of Albania. Although none of these prospects came to fruition, they reflected monarchical attempts to accommodate the rapid shifts in national allegiance, regime and international alliances that intensified throughout the 19th century, leading up to and following Europe's Great War of 1914-1918.


Biography.

He was born in Munich, where he studied until 1588 under Hans Donauer the Elder. In 1593-4 (and perhaps earlier) he was in Rome, and he then settled in Venice from 1595-6 to 1606, before returning to Germany and settling in Augsburg, working also in Munich. He died in Augsburg, apparently in some poverty, and according to some sources an alcoholic.

Work.

In Venice he gained a reputation for small highly finished cabinet paintings on copper, of religious and mythological subjects, combining German and Italian elements of style. In particular he combines the landscape tradition of the North with the compositional and figure styles of Tintoretto and Veronese. He was the first German artist to specialize in cabinet paintings. In Rome he knew the earlier members of the Bamboccianti, a circle of Northern artists (before the name itself arose), and remained in regular contact with Paul Bril, a Flemish artist living in Rome, sending him plates with the figures painted on for Bril to supply the landscape, according to a dealer's letter of 1617. He also collaborated with Jan Brueghel the Elder in a similar way. He was commissioned in 1600 to paint a "Feast of the Gods" for Emperor Rudolph II (now Hermitage). A good example of his early style, in which he approaches Tintoretto, is his "Death of Adonis" in the Louvre.  Once back in Germany, he worked on larger altarpieces and decorative schemes for palaces, including the Munich Residenz and Schloss Bückeborg(Goldener Saal), more in the style of Northern Mannerism than his Italian work.  He is believed to have employed Adam Elsheimer as an assistant in 1598 or 1599, and no doubt gave Elsheimer an introduction to Bril; when Elsheimer moved on to Rome he and Bril became close friends. Two drawings by Rottenhammer (now in Copenhagen) belonged to Elsheimer, and have an inscription noting they were a gift from Rottenhammer. Elsheimer's mature paintings are all small and on copper, and continue to develop Rottenhammer's synthesis of German and Italian styles, and use of landscape. Among his noted works are those painted for Emperor Rudolph II of Austria: "Nativity" (1608), "Battle Between Centaurs and Lapithæ", and four others, in the Vienna Museum.

Galleries.

There are paintings in the main galleries in London, Munich (3), Augsburg, Berlin, Cambridge, St Petersberg, Amsterdam (2), Schwerin, Milan, Los Angeles, Dunedin and elsewhere. Most of his altarpieces and decorative schemes can still be seen in situ.

Johann Rottenhammer, or Hans Rottenhammer (1564 – 14 August 1625), was a German painter. He specialized in highly finished paintings on a small scale.


Career.

A New York City native, Morris began working in the theater in the 1950s, appearing as an actor in a number of Broadway plays including a 1961 production of "Daughter of Silence" by Morris West and based on West's novel. He also appeared in Jennie, a 1963 musical starring Mary Martin. During that period, he worked as a television actor, making guest appearances on "Naked City", "The Honeymooners", "Car 54, Where Are You?", "WKRP in Cincinnati". He continued his television acting career through the 1990s, with guest roles on "Cheers", "Mad About You", "NewsRadio" and "Frasier". He also directed episodes of "Barney Miller", "Fish", "Diff'rent Strokes", "Too Close for Comfort", "Quincy, M.E." and "Tony Orlando and Dawn", among other series.  In his theater work, Morris focused on directing from the early 1970s. One of his first major assignments was directing the touring production of Neil Simon's "The Gingerbread Lady" in 1972. In 1973 he directed Anne Meara and Jerry Stiller in a production of The Prisoner Of Second Avenue that toured the midwest including the infamous Kenley Playhouse in Warren,Ohio. All in all, he helmed hundreds of productions, on and off Broadway, on national tours and in regional theaters, directing legends such as Al Pacino, Jose Ferrer and Mickey Rooney.  In 1989, Morris accepted a job as artistic director of the Actors Alley theater in the San Fernando Valley. During his more than 10 years with the company, the eclectic program list featured works by George Bernard Shaw and Charles Dickens as well as modern plays, including Susan Sandler's "Crossing Delancey", produced in partnership with the University of Judaism (now the American Jewish University). The Actors Alley moved into the historic El Portal Theatre in North Hollywood in 1995 and performed in a small space for several years until the main stage was renovated. Morris left the artistic director post in 2000.

Jeremiah Morris ("Jerome Maurice Gomberg": April 4, 1929 in Bronx, New York – March 5, 2006 in Culver City, California) was an American actor and television and theater director. Morris, influential in Los Angeles theater, appeared in Broadway plays and on popular television series for close to 40 years and directed television and theater productions.


History.

In the course of the construction of the oil mill of Franz Köcheln at Stephanitorsbollwerk in Bremen during the 1810s, the master miller, who came from Groningen, brought along many assistants, among whom was the 30-year-old Berend Erling, who was singled out as "uncommon skilled". Erling remained in Bremen after the construction, established himself as a miller, and raised his own first windmill in 1832. The Am Wall Windmill ("Herdentorswallmühle") stands today as the last windmill along the old Bremen city wall (Wallanlagen). It was followed in 1846 by the mill at Stephanitor ("Stephanitorsmühle"), whose upper part burned down in 1911. The bottom part served until 1930 as housing, and was demolished during the renovation of the platforms of the Weserbahnhof train station. Erling's son Johann took over the company and built the steam mill at Tannenstraße in Vegesack in 1882, which burned down in 1897.  After the first steam mill was destroyed, and with windmills no longer being economically profitable, Carl Erling founded in 1897 a stock company and built a brick building with a steam mill at the Bremen Holzhafen. It had a capacity of 100 tons per day. The wheat that it used was imported from around the world, and the flour that it produced was shipped by barge within Germany. For overseas export, seagoing ships were used.  In the following years the mill was enlarged and its capacity grew to about 800 tons per day. In 1925, the first silo tower was built to a plan by Carl Heinrich Behrens-Nicolai, and five years later it made its first acquisition of another mill. In 1940 a second silo was inaugurated that gave the Rolandmühle a storage capacity of 30,000 tons.  After acquiring competitors like the "Grohner Mühlenwerke" and the "Hansamühle AG" during the Great Depression, Hans Erling made the "Bremer Rolandmühle AG" a family-run company in 1937 with himself as the board director.  The demolition of the mill by explosion on the instigation of the Wehrmacht was interrupted in 1945 by the Second World War.  At the beginning of the 1970s, a steel grain silo at the Rolandmühle broke open due to corrosion and emptied out its grain onto the street, without causing any injuries or further property damage.

Flour-dust explosion.

The plant made headlines again on 6 February 1979 because of a fire. The cause was one of the largest peace-time explosions to date. A cable fire triggered the most powerful dust explosion in German history in a sample chamber on the quayside. From here, the fire spread across a conveyor bridge through further smaller dust explosions along this bridge, which filled the upper storage area with flour dust. In this room another small explosion triggered the catastrophe, that also set the flour silo on fire.  The roof of the silo was blown off by the pressure wave, the walls collapsed, and the whole building was torn apart. Windows were broken in houses even a large distance away from the mill, and flour dust rained down across an area of about 30 hectares. 14 people died in the detonation, and 17 were seriously injured. The fire burned until 12 March 1979. The incident caused damage to a cost of about 100 million Deutsche Mark (about 206 million Euro today). The Rolandmühle was afterwards completely rebuilt.

The mill today.

The mill complex is equipped today with modern silos, totalling twelve small and three large silos.  The mill is an important component of the harbour economy in Bremen, and is a major employer in its district. The majority of its production is exported. About 360,000 tons of grain were processed annually (2014) by the mill. 100 to 200 vessels lie directly by the silos.  The company is currently led by Hans-Christoph Erling and Dieter Bohling.  In 2004, the company merged with two smaller enterprises. The three family-run companies, "Bremer Rolandmühle Erling", "Mills United Hovestadt & Münstermann", and "Heyl-Mühlen" grouped themselves under the name "Grain Millers" in 2004. Since 2013 the cooperative has used the name "Roland Mills United".

The Rolandmühle ("Roland Mill") in Bremen is an industrial grain mill that is one of the most important private production facilities in the harbour of Bremen. The company has about 100 employees and processes 350,000 tons of grain into flour annually for commercial and industrial use. Both imported and regionally grown grain are processed. The products have been supplied to both regional and export customers.


History and profile.

"Fakt" was launched in October 2003 by the Polish outlet of the German publishing company Axel Springer AG, Axel Springer Polska, and modeled on Springer's German tabloid "Bild", the biggest-selling newspaper in Europe. Like its German counterpart "Bild", "Fakt" is characterised by its downmarket, often sensationalist journalism with a populist appeal. However, politically it is by and large centrist. Then the paper supported former prime minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz's policies; Marcinkiewicz also regularly contributes invited comments. Other regular contributors of op-ed pieces include Tomasz Lis, a prominent television journalist with political ambitions, TVN anchorman Kamil Durczok, and former "Rzeczpospolita" columnist Maciej Rybiński.  Untypically for a tabloid and in contrast to its usual content, "Fakt" has a weekly supplement entitled "Europa" which contains highbrow (non-original) essays by scholars and public intellectuals, which in 2006 have included Niall Ferguson, Francis Fukuyama, Jürgen Habermas, and Robert Kagan.  The headquarters of "Fakt" is in Warsaw and the paper is published in tabloid format.  The circulation of "Fakt" was 715,000 copies in 2003, making it the best selling newspaper in the country. Its circulation was 373,700 copies in Germany.

Response from competitors.

Within a short time, "Fakt" replaced the upmarket to middle-market "Gazeta Wyborcza" as Poland's biggest-selling newspaper, also putting pressure on "Super Express", until then the only national tabloid. "Gazeta Wyborcza's" publisher Agora S.A. responded with the (failed) launch of a distinct middle-market paper "Nowy Dzień" to compete directly with "Fakt".  When "Fakt" was launched at a price of 1 Polish złoty, "Super Express"'s publisher MediaExpress accused Springer of dumping its daily at a cover-price lower than its production costs. Having lost the lawsuit against Springer, MediaExpress reduced the price of "Super Express" to "Fakt"'s level.

Criticism.

Like "Bild" and other tabloid press products, "Fakt" has been subjected to criticism concerning its style of journalism from media watchdogs. Twice so far, the Association of Polish Journalists awarded "Fakt" with its "Hyena Of The Year" award for "particular unscrupulousness and neglect of the principles of the journalistic work ethic": In 2004, "Fakt" had published a photograph showing the nude dead body of a murder victim; in 2005 it had published the photo of an innocent person with the caption "This sex offender is at large".

Fakt (Polish language for "fact") is a Polish tabloid-style daily newspaper and one of the best-selling papers in the country.