Arjun Kumar Sengupta

Arjun Kumar Sengupta (10 June 1937 – 26 September 2010) was an Indian economist. He served as a Member of the Parliament of India, representing West Bengal in the Rajya Sabha from 2006 until his death. In addition to being a Parliamentarian, he was one of India's most noted economists, and led a multifaceted career as an academician and economic policy administrator.
Life and career.
Arjun Sengupta was born in Kolkata in 1937. After finishing his schooling at Mitra Institution in Bhawanipur, Kolkata, he graduated from the Presidency College, then affiliated with the University of Calcutta. At Presidency College, he was a member of the All-India Students' Federation, a radical student organisation affiliated with the Communist Party of India, then undivided. He later received a doctorate in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under advisor Robert Solow, at the age of 27. His career included eminent posts such as Special Secretary to the Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi (1981–1984), Executive Director and Special Adviser to the managing director of the International Monetary Fund (1985–1990), India's Ambassador to the European Union (1990–1993), Member Secretary of the Planning Commission (1993–1998), and Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha (2005 until his death). As an educator, he traversed many institutions, including Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi School of Economics, London School of Economics and Harvard University. Arjun Sengupta also served as the UN's Independent Expert on the Right to Development, the UN's Independent Expert on Human Rights and Extreme Poverty, and member of the United Nations Development Program's Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor.
Sengupta died of prostate cancer, which was first diagnosed in 2005. He is survived by his wife, Jayshree, and daughter, Madhura (Mitu), and brothers Arya and Pinaki.
Commemoration.
The United Nations Human Rights Council observed a moment of silence for Sengupta on 27 September 2010 and the Rajya Sabha was adjourned on 9 November 2010, as a mark of respect to him.
Delivering the Arjun Sengupta Memorial Lecture organised by the Indian Society of Labour Economics on 16 December 2010, Prabhat Patnaik described Sengupta as an "iconoclast" and lauded the many roles he played "in his long and distinguished career."
On 26 March 2013, Sengupta was honoured posthumously by the Government of Bangladesh for his contribution to the Bangladesh Liberation War.
Government and politics.
Arjun Sengupta joined the Government of India in the early 1970s, assisting top policymakers such as P.N. Dhar and Sukhomoy Chakravarty build an alliance with the nascent state of Bangladesh. Later in the 1970s, he worked in Commerce Ministry under then Commerce Minister, Pranab Mukherjee. In his stint at the Prime Minister's Office in the early 1980s, Sengupta was reportedly unhappy about India's 1982 loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and wanted more to be done for agriculture and small farmers. At this time, he also steered two important groups: the Narsimhan Committee, which created the architecture of disbanding quantitative controls and replacing them with tariff and fiscal steps, and also the Sengupta Committee on public sector reform. Sengupta was a proponent of the need for an arms-length relationship with the political authority in public sector units (PSUs). However, while Sengupta was a market reformer, his vision was different than what was in currency at the time in the international financial institutions. Yoginder Alagh, a former Union Minister and Sengupta's longtime colleague and friend, said that the reforms championed by Sengupta at the time "were our own, not big bang IMF/World Bank reform initiatives."
Upon his return to India in 1993 (from the US, where he was with the IMF, and Brussels, where he was posted as India's Ambassador to the EC), Sengupta was appointed Member Secretary of the Planning Commission, under then Deputy chairman, Pranab Mukherjee. According to veteran journalist Rajesh Mahapatra, Mukherjee had become the rallying point for those in the Congress party that were critical of the market reform policies of then Finance Minister, Manmohan Singh. As Member Secretary of the Planning Commission, Sengupta brought together a group of left-wing economists to prepare a critical mid-term appraisal that highlighted the downside of economic liberalisation. With this act, Mahapatra said, "Sengupta ended up on the wrong side of history. The finance ministry prevailed over Prime Minister Narasimha Rao to stop the mid-term appraisal from being printed in its original form." In the same article, Mahapatra alleges that Sengupta was subsequently denied many posts for which he was a candidate, including Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, which went to Dr. Bimal Jalan in 1997, and Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, which went to Dr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia in 2004.
Another veteran journalist and TV personality, Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, remembered Sengupta in a similar fashion. According to Guha Thakurta, Sengupta's critical stance towards "the neo-liberal school of economic thought subscribed to by Manmohan Singh" and refusal to "cultivate political godfathers" meant that he would be "one Finance Minister India never had." In a published tribute to Sengupta in "The Asian Age", his daughter, Mitu Sengupta, described him as "a strong, principled and self-made man, a visionary and true egalitarian," and someone "who could be neither bullied nor bought."
Work as Chairman of the National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganized Sector.
Upon his death, various published tributes to Dr. Arjun Sengupta indicated that his most significant contribution was the final report he produced as the head of the National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganized Sector (NCEUS), a cabinet-rank position that he held from 2005 to 2009. This report, released in April 2009, revealed that, despite many years of economic growth, 77% of India's population continues to live on less than $2 per day (currently around Rs. 120/day), and that as much as 86% of India's workforce is in the unorganised sector. The report also revealed that the vast majority of India's 'Poor and Vulnerable' are Muslim or lower caste, and thus in addition to poverty, also suffer from social discrimination. According to the report: "These groups emerge as a sort of a coalition of socially discriminated, educationally deprived and economically destitute" while "less than one fourth" of India's population is enjoying the fruits of high economic growth. Under Sengupta's Chairmanship, the NCEUS produced a total of ten reports in addition to submitting a number of proposals and working papers on selected issues, such as the global economic crisis, the informal economy, Special Economic Zones, and street vendors.
Critical of existing government policy, the NCEUS pointed out that although enormous funds had been allocated and spent on social development programs, the benefits largely bypassed the poorest of the poor. It suggested designing special schemes for the vulnerable sections of Indian society through better targeting and social engineering. The commission's recommendations on social security resulted in the enactment of the Unorganized Workers Social Security Act, 2008. Recalling Dr. Sengupta's contribution to identifying the cross-linkages between extreme poverty and the downtrodden, C. Rangarajan, Chairman of the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council, said: "He had a good understanding of social problems and was deeply involved in finding solutions for people at the bottom of the population pile." Another of Sengupta's admirers, the Vice-President of India, Mohammad Hamid Ansari, said that the "Sengupta report on the unorganised sector is a guiding force to provide minimum social security for all unorganised workers."
Work on the Rights-Based Approach to Development.
In 1999, Arjun Sengupta became the Independent Expert on the Right to Development (RTD) for the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. He produced six reports on the Right to development between 1999 and 2004. These reports elaborated on the 'Declaration of the Right to Development' adopted by the UN in 1986 (the US cast the lone dissenting vote). He also wrote a number of academic papers on the subject, and with the support of Harvard University, implemented two large projects in South Asia. In his subsequent role as the UN's Independent Expert on Human Rights and Extreme Poverty, he wrote as many as six reports, including a mission report on extreme poverty in the United States. Sengupta founded the Centre for Development and Human Rights (CDHR), a non-profit organisation that has produced numerous papers, reports and volumes on the rights-based approach to development, including an edited volume, "Reflections on the Right to Development", produced in 2005.
According to Ravi Srivastava, Professor of Economics and Jawaharlal Nehru University, "Sengupta's contributions to the right to development constitute... a very significant contribution to the ongoing debate in India on the rights-based approach." Srivastava says that Sengupta's reports provide a "formidable basis" for arguing that positive rights and collective rights are possible. Sengupta argued that the enforceability of collective rights via the implementation of development programs was possible even without their being converted into legal rights (though he recognised that justiciability did remain a superior course of action).
The right to development was linked to a path of development in which national governments were obliged to ensure that human rights were progressively realised. But international organisations were also seen as having an important role. In a seminal article published in India's Economic and Political Weekly in 2001, Sengupta argued that: "When development is seen as a human right, it obligates the authorities, both nationally and internationally, to fulfill their duties in delivering (or in human rights language, promoting, securing, and protecting) that right in a country. The adoption of appropriate policies follows from that obligation. Nationally, the government must do everything, or must be seen as doing everything to fulfill the claims of a human right. If the right to food, education, health are regarded as components of a human right to development, the state has to accept the primary responsibility of delivering the right either on its own or in collaboration with others. It has to adopt the appropriate policies and provide for the required resources to facilitate such delivery because meeting the obligation of human rights would have a primary claim on all the resources — physical, financial and institutional — that it can command."


The Hong Kong Life Saving Society

The Life Saving Society of Hong Kong is the life saving society in Hong Kong.
As Royal Life Saving Society Hong Kong Branch.
The Life Saving Society began as a branch of the Royal Life Saving Society UK in 1950 and Hong Kong Life Guard Club created 1956.
The RLSS Hong Kong Branch was charged with training while the HKLGC was in charge of life guard service.
As Hong Kong Life Saving Society.
The HKLSS was formed with the merger of the RLSS Hong Kong Branch and HKLGC with the current name in 1997 (required to break ties with RLSS before the handover).
HKLSS is a founding member of the International Life Saving Federation.


Sus law

In England and Wales, the sus law (from "suspected person") was a stop and search law that permitted a police officer to stop, search and potentially arrest people on suspicion of them being in breach of section 4 of the Vagrancy Act 1824. According to a 2018 study in the "British Journal of Criminology", stop and search had a marginal impact on crime in the UK.
1824 legislation.
The power to act on suspicion was found in part of section 4 of the Vagrancy Act 1824, which provided that:
and upon conviction may be imprisoned for up to three months. This effectively permitted the police to stop and search, and even arrest, anyone found in a public place if they suspected that they intended to commit an offence.
In order to bring a prosecution under the act, the police had to prove that the defendant had committed two acts:
Two witnesses were required to substantiate the charge, which were usually two police officers patrolling together.
1970s and 1980s.
The law caused much discontent among certain sections of the population, particularly black and ethnic minorities, against whom the law was particularly targeted by the police—see racial profiling. The sus law had attracted considerable controversy prior to the early 1980s race riots (in St Pauls, Bristol, in 1980, and in Brixton, London; Toxteth, Liverpool; Handsworth, Birmingham; and Chapeltown, Leeds in 1981).
This led to campaigns against the law including the "Scrap Sus" campaign led by Mavis Best and Paul Boateng.
When questioned on the topic in 1980, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir David McNee stated that the reason for its disproportionate use on black people was because they were "over-represented in offences of robbery and other violent theft".
In 1980, the House of Commons' Sub-Committee on Race Relations and Immigration began hearings into the law. In the case of the race riots, the alleged abusive use of the sus law was believed to be a contributory factor to those events. The sus law was repealed on 27 August 1981, on the advice of the 1979 Royal Commission on Criminal Procedure, when the Criminal Attempts Act 1981 received Royal Assent.
2007 legislation.
Subsequent British legislation that makes provision for the police to act on the basis of suspicion alone has been denounced as "another sus law" by opponents of proposals to grant increased "stop and question" powers to police officers in England and Wales.
Mr Hain said he wanted to see the details of the policy before making any judgement.
But he told BBC1’s Sunday AM: “We cannot have a reincarnation of the old ‘sus’ laws under which mostly black people, ethnic minorities, were literally stopped on sight and that created a really bad atmosphere and an erosion of civil liberties.
In January 2008 David Cameron, at the time Conservative leader of the opposition, announced that he would, if elected, seek to return similar powers to the police. Under Conservative proposals, police sergeants would be able to authorise the use of stop and search of pedestrians and vehicles in a specific area for up to six hours—or 48 hours if permission is granted by a senior officer. Gordon Brown, then Labour prime minister, announced in response that he would seek to remove the lengthy forms that are currently required for 'stop and searches'.


Lars Eighner

Laurence "Lars" Eighner Hexamer (born Laurence Vail Eighner; November 25, 1948) is the author of "Travels with Lizbeth", a memoir of homelessness in the American Southwest during the late 1980s; the included essay "On Dumpster Diving," which is widely anthologized both at full length and in abridged form under the title "My Daily Dives in the Dumpster"; "Pawn to Queen Four", a novel; "Lavender Blue: How to Write and Sell Gay Men's Erotica", also published as "Elements of Arousal" (an early edition includes an introduction by noted erotica author John Preston); "Gay Cosmos", a work of gay theory; and numerous short works of gay men's erotica, collected under various titles.
Lars Eighner was born Laurence Vail Eighner in Corpus Christi, Texas, the son of Alice Elizabeth Vail Eighner (later Harlow) and Lawrence Clifton Eighner, and the grandson of the Texas poets Alice Ewing Vail ("The Big Thicket") and John Arthur Vail ("John Vail Ballads"). He grew up in Houston, Texas, and graduated from Lamar High School in 1966. He studied creative writing under George Williams of Rice University at the Corpus Christi Fine Arts Colony, and attended the University of Texas at Austin, doing major work in ethnic studies.
Eighner became homeless in 1988 after leaving a job he had held for ten years as an attendant at a state hospital in Austin, Texas.
On July 5, 2015, he was married to the man called Clint in his memoir, with whom he had lived for nearly 28 years. In 2017, he assumed his husband's surname and his legal name became Laurence Eighner Hexamer.
Eighner began writing for publication in the early 1980s. By that time he was generally known as Lars, the result of having worked in a small office with two Larrys. Because in early writing attempts he had been confused with Black Mountain poet Larry Eigner, Eighner used "Lars" for writing. His first book was a collection of short stories, "Bayou Boy and Other Stories" (Gay Sunshine Press, 1985). In the late 1980s, he and his dog Lizbeth became homeless, and his experiences as a homeless person in Austin, Texas; Los Angeles, and places in between are the subject of "Travels with Lizbeth."
Eighner was elected to the Texas Institute of Letters in 1994.


Veterans Transition Center

The Veterans Transition Center (VTC) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) rehabilitation center and shelter for veterans, founded in 1998, in Monterey County, California. The VTC is located at the site of the former Fort Ord near Marina, California. While the program is funded partly by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and United States Department of Veterans Affairs, it largely relies on donations from the public. The VTC seeks a holistic approach to helping homeless veterans that includes community service, life skills classes, sobriety requirements, counseling, and transitional housing. According to the U.S. Army Monterey Presidio Public Affairs bureau:
In general, the mission of the Veterans Transition Center is to provide services for Monterey County's homeless veterans and their families ... by providing veterans with transitional housing, emergency services and case-management programs, veterans will once again become employable and productive members of the community.
Currently, the center is looking forward to add a vocational rehabilitation program and more housing units. The vocational rehabilitation program is to include a non-profit store with the express purpose of hiring the most veterans possible while the additional housing units will increase the center's capacity for veterans to rehabilitate. Since its inception, the VTC has served 4,155 single veterans and 351 veterans with families. According to the center:
An estimated 80% of veterans who graduated from the VTC program transitioned into permanent housing for at least one year while 92% of who were in the program for 1 year maintained sobriety. At the time of graduation, 87% of veterans had $700 or more in savings and 75% were employed with a mean wage greater than $9.00 per hour. Among families, 100% of school aged children attended school, 80% of children pursued an after-school hobby, and 100% of all veterans with families enrolled in healthy families insurance.
Starting in June 2011, work has begun on two previously abandoned buildings that are to become a non-profit thrift store and reception center for arriving veterans.


Gary Poulter

Gary Poulter (September 16, 1959 - February 19, 2013) was an American street performer and actor known for his lead role alongside Nicolas Cage in David Gordon Green's 2013 film "Joe". Poulter was homeless, living on the streets of Austin, Texas when he was cast in the role of Wade, the abusive alcoholic father of Gary, played by Tye Sheridan.
Early life.
Poulter grew up in Upland, California. At 17, he joined the Navy and served on a ship in Japan. He went AWOL for years in Japan and ultimately was court-martialed in Washington, D.C., whereupon he received a dishonorable discharge.
Film role.
In 2013, Poulter was recruited from the streets of Austin to play the third lead, "Wade", in the film "Joe", which became his sole film performance, although he worked as a background extra in 1987 in the TV series "Thirtysomething". Shortly before landing the film role, Poulter worked for a traveling carnival, but he was left naked on the side of the road after he was caught stealing money.
Reviews.
"The Independent" summed up Poulter's performance in its movie review, writing, "In his only screen role, he offers an utterly compelling portrait of a man so consumed by self-loathing that he will go to extreme lengths to destroy the life of his son."
Movie critic Peter Sobczynski in his review for RogerEbert.com described Poulter's film debut as a "stunning performance" and "one of the great one-shot performances in the history of the cinema."
Award.
The Austin Film Critics Association gave Poulter the Special Honorary Award in 2014 for his performance in "Joe".
Death.
Before the film's 2014 release, Poulter was found dead on February 10, 2013, at the edge of Lady Bird Lake, a river-like reservoir in Austin, Texas. Director Green dedicated the film "Joe" to Poulter.


Property derivative

A property derivative is a financial derivative whose value is derived from the value of an underlying real estate asset. In practice, because individual real estate assets fall victim to market inefficiencies and are hard to accurately price, property derivative contracts are typically written based on a real estate property index. In turn, the real estate property index attempts to aggregate real estate market information to provide a more accurate representation of underlying real estate asset performance. Trading or taking positions in property derivatives is also known as synthetic real estate.
Property derivatives usually take the form of a total return swap, forward contract, futures, or can adopt a funded format where the property derivative is embedded into a bond or note structure. Under the total return swap or forward contract the parties will usually take contrary positions on the price movements of a property index. See Exotic derivative.
The only index used for writing property derivative contracts in the UK are the various property indices published by the Investment Property Databank (IPD) now owned by MSCI. The IPD Annual Index covers approximately 12,000 directly held UK property investments, market revalued in December 2015 at just under £202 billion equivalent to 49% of the UK investment market. IPD indices have also been used in a number of other countries such as Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Switzerland as the basis for commercial property derivatives. In the United States commercial property utilizes the National Council of Real Estate Investment Fiduciaries (NCREIF) property index the NPI. There are two main residential real estate indices in the United States which trade - Radar Logic's RPX, and the main index - S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices (see Case-Shiller index).
Uses.
Property derivatives provide the investor with the ability to:
All of these objectives can be achieved without having to transact in physical property; synthetic real estate.
Defining property market performance.
To create a derivative, there needs to be a point of reference for the performance of the market against which the derivative contracts are priced.
In the case of property derivatives, this reference is provided by the Investment Property Databank index in the United Kingdom, and NCREIF, S&P/Case-Shiller and Rexx in the United States.
The IPD Index Property Index provide a number of indices which relate to performance of commercial property. There are many indices reflecting sectors and sub-sectors of the commercial property market. To date, much of the interest in property derivatives relates to the UK market and its sub-sectors.
Types.
There are three main types of property derivative in use in the UK property market: Property Index Notes(PINs), Total Return Swap (TRS), and Forwards which incorporates the IPD Property Index Futures listed on Eurex.
In the United States property derivative trading is primarily through forwards and future contracts. Forwards agreements are made generally on the RPX and NCREIF indices. Futures trading is done by the CME Group via Globex utilizing the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices.
Property index notes.
The PINs are essentially bonds. The cash flows of these bonds are structured in a way that is meant to be similar to a transaction in the physical property. This means that the PIN pays the capital return on redemption of the bond and it pays a quarterly coupon to investors.
In this way, the seller of the PIN pays the IPD annual index capital growth at redemption and the income return, paid quarterly (IPD) or monthly (FTSE), to the counter party. This means that the counter party is, therefore, receiving the total return of the UK commercial property market, just as they would with a physical transaction in property.
Total return swaps.
A property total return swap is simply an exchange of cash flows. Here, the total return on property, as measured by the change in the relevant IPD or FTSE UK Commercial Property Index, is exchanged for the return on cash.
The UK IPD pricing mechanism was simplified on 15 January 2007. Rather than quoting libor +/- a spread, now it’s a fixed percentage. So take the Dec 2008 contract for example if it has a mid of -11.5%. This means that if you ‘buy’ the swap, you pay -11.5% (so receive 11.5% due to the -ve sign) to your counterparty and receive the performance of IPD. (Or pay it out if it’s a negative number.) No quarterly cashflows, simply one annual interest payment versus one annual property payment.
Forwards/futures.
A property forward contract is based upon the property returns in any annual period - the expected total return for example is agreed at trade, and on maturity the difference between the realized total return and the traded price is exchanged. Forward agreements are over the counter requiring a counter party to be found. Risk of default of either party must be considered in the trade
The CME Group has been trading in real estate futures since mid-2006. All trading is done electronically through the exchange who is the default counter party in all trades.
Since February 2009 Eurex, the international derivatives exchange, has listed Property Index Futures. The Future Contract is based upon the IPD UK Annual All Property Index Total Returns - the exchange lists five consecutive annual contracts with pricing based upon a par value of 100 + Expected percentage Total Annual Return in the related calendar year. The contract for the calendar year 2009, which expired in March 2010 (expiry is the last working day in the following March to ensure this is after publication of the IPD data) settled at 103.50, representing a +3.5% annual total return (as published by IPD). Though a nascent market, in 2010 a total of 3,304 contracts traded according to the Eurex website - representing £165m in notional property value.
ISDA 2007 property index derivatives definitions.
On Friday 4 May 2007 the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) released the 2007 Property Index Derivatives Definitions. The definitions set out various market standard definitions which can be used in property derivatives transactions together with a standard form total return swap template and forward transaction template It is hoped that standardised documentation will kick start the market.


Jerre Noe

Jerre Noe (February 1, 1923 – November 12, 2005) was an American computer scientist. In the 1950s, he led the technical team for the ERMA project, the Bank of America's first venture into computerized banking. In 1968 he became the first chair of the University of Washington's Computer Science Group, which later evolved into the Computer Science and Engineering Department.
Early life and education.
Noe was born in McCloud, California. He received a Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. Stationed in Europe during World War II, he conducted research and development related to radar, before returning to California to complete a Ph.D. in electrical engineering at Stanford University.
Career.
During the 1950s, Noe served as the Assistant Director of Engineering at Stanford Research Institute (now SRI International), during which time he led the technical team for the Electronic Recording Machine, Accounting (ERMA) project. Noe and the ERMA team were honored by SRI in 2001 with the Weldon B. Gibson Achievement Award for their work.
In 1968 he was recruited by the University of Washington to chair its newly founded Computer Science Group, a role in which he continued until 1976. Initially, this was mainly a graduate department but in 1975 it introduced a baccalaureate program. In the early 1980s, Noe directed the Eden Project, the first recipient of the National Science Foundation's Coordinated Experimental Research Program award, which brought U.W. into the first rank of Computer Science departments.
Retirement.
After retirement from the department in 1989, Noe continued a very active life until 2005. He remained active in his department as a professor emeritus and in other aspects of his life; in his late seventies, he and his wife trekked approximately 100 miles (160 km) across the Basque Country. He was also an avid flautist, sailor and skier into his eighties.
Personal life.
Noe's second wife is Margarete Noe. Noe had three children, Russell, Jeff, and Sherill.
On November 12, 2005 Noe died from peritoneal mesothelioma, a rare form of cancer caused by exposure to asbestos that attacks the lining of the abdomen. He was 82 years old.


Urban Search and Rescue California Task Force 2

Urban Search and Rescue California Task Force 2 or CA-TF2 is a FEMA Urban Search and Rescue Task Force based in Los Angeles County, California. CA-TF2 is sponsored by the Los Angeles County Fire Department.
CA-TF2 is one of two Task Forces that works with the United States Agency for International Development’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance to provide international response to natural and man-made disasters.


List of homelessness organizations

This is a list of notable organizations that provide services or work on issues related to homelessness.


Ryan Hart

Ryan Joseph Hart, also known as Prodigal Son, Tsuujin, Robotnik, The Terminator, NeriahSensei and Drrrry, is a British professional fighting game player. He specialises in 2D and 3D fighter games released by Capcom, Bandai Namco, Sega, Midway, NetherRealm Studios and SNK. Ryan holds numerous National, European and World titles and has won the Evolution Championships twice. Hart also holds four world records within the Guinness World Record's for most international "Street Fighter" competition wins, most well-travelled fighting game champion, the longest winning streak on "Street Fighter IV", and the most consecutive opponents on "Street Fighter V". While Hart is predominantly known for his professional gaming career, he is also a commentator, tournament organiser, author, presenter, event host, model, translator and content creator.
Early life.
Hart was born and raised in South West London. At the age of 10 he visited his local arcade at a mini cab station, it was here that he was first introduced to his first arcade action game, "Golden Axe". A year later he discovered the fighting games "Street Fighter" and "Street Smart". When amusement arcades grew in popularity within the UK, Hart became a frequent visitor to the different arcades located around his local area, where he started to play "Street Fighter" and "", among other games. For a portion of his teenage years, Hart was homeless. During his secondary school years, Hart's family relocated to Croydon in South London, where he frequently visited arcades and began to gain local reputation among classmates and arcade visitors.
Career.
Hart has worked in many different areas of the Esports industry, these include (but not limited to) professional player, tournament organiser, team manager, caster, interviewer, consultant, coach and content creation.
Outside of Esports, Hart has also worked for many years in the video game industry, for companies such as Sammy Europe, Sega Europe and Nintendo of Europe.
Professional player.
Early career.
Hart's first tournament was for the game "", held in London Trocadero in 1994, the event was sponsored by Kiss FM. It was also during this time he began to play King of Fighter '94, a year later Hart entered the National King of Fighter '95 Championship hosted by Play 2 Win arcade on Oxford Street, London. Unsuccessful in both tournaments Hart began to visit central London to play with more experienced players, it was there that he was introduced to "Tekken" and "Tekken 2". It was with "Tekken 2" that Hart had his first success, entering the Tekken 2 UK National Tournament, where he placed 4th with the character King.
With the release of "The King of Fighters '96", Hart entered the National King of Fighters 96' Championship on 22 December 1996. This was the first competition that Hart won, defeating the player Motohide Nishio in the grand finals thus cementing his name among the "King of Fighters" community. Hart began to explore other fighting games, having huge success with Sega's "Virtua Fighter 3", winning nine championships in a row at the Namco Wonderpark on 6, 7 and 8 June 1997, which was located on Great Windmill Street in Central London. With the release of "Tekken 3", Hart trained heavily with his Tekken 2 background and went back and forth in arcades with other top players including Sho Hiraki from Japan, who was living in the UK at the time. Hart became the UK national champion defeating Sho Hiraki along his path in September 1997, and even appeared in a four player exhibition on the UK's GameMaster TV show again competing against the player Sho from Japan within the final, which he unfortunately lost.
In 1998, Hart won the "Ehrgeiz" UK championship and a flight to Japan to compete in the Ehrgeiz World Finals, he was defeated but during his time in Japan, he entered and won the "King of Fighters '98" World Tournament held at the Amusement Machine Show in Tokyo Big Sight. While still in Japan, Hart placed first in three "Tekken 3" tournaments held at Shinjuku Playmax arcade. Adding to Hart's success within Japan, he also placed second at the "Virtua Fighter 3" tournament held in Ikebukuro Gigo arcade. After returning to the UK, Hart entered the 1999 Official Namco Tekken 3 World Championship, it was there where he managed to win his second world title and one of the last Sony/Namco collaborated events within the Namco Station arcade.
2000–2010.
After the closure of the Namco Wonderpark, Hart began to frequently visit Play 2 Win and Casino arcade within the city of London, shifting his focus from "Tekken 3" and "The King of Fighters", he started to play "Tekken Tag Tournament" and the newly released "Virtua Fighter 4". During the arcade decline within the UK, Hart began to organise tournaments within his own home, Casino arcade and London Trocadero, in an effort to support the competitive fighting game community and share knowledge. The success of these events lead to a weekly ranking battle held at the Casino arcade.
Hart competed at Fuce Championship on 15 October 2000, for the "Tekken Tag Tournament" console tournament held in Amsterdam, placing first by defeating Sandro Aousdji from Italy in the grand final.
In 2001, Hart competed at the Euro 3 tournament for "Tekken Tag Tournament" held in Birmingham, placing second. In the same year, Hart flew over to the United States for the first time to compete within the Electric Cancel 3 tournament; Hart placed third within the main tournament due to a faulty controller, but later in the event played against the American "Tekken Tag Tournament" champion JOP to a first to 26 exhibition, winning 26–21. Hart had great success at the Euro 4 arcade tournament held on 26 July within the Extraball Arcade, Rome, Italy, winning on "Tekken Tag Tournament".
Hart came to more success in 2002, winning first place in "Tekken Tag Tournament" and third place in "SoulCalibur II" at Absolution UK 2002. 2002 is also the year where Hart won his first "Capcom vs. SNK 2", "Virtua Fighter 4" and "Tekken 4" tournaments.
Hart won multiple "Virtua Fighter 4" and European "Tekken Tag Tournament" events within 2003 including Torneo di Napoli, "Tekken Tag Tournament" (solo) at Euro 5 (also winning "Tekken 3" and "Tekken Tag Tournament" (pair play)) and Toreno di Ancona, thus cementing his name as the best European Tekken and Virtua Fighter 4 player at the time. This led to Hart entering the "Tekken Tag Tournament" event held at Evolution 2003 within California placing second, losing to Kim Bong Min in the grand finals. Before the events of Evolution 2003, Hart challenged the Korean and Evolution 2003 champion Kim Bong Min to first to 26, winning the set 26–21, with this win Hart became the first European player ever to defeat a Korean champion on a "Tekken" game. Hart also had success playing "Virtua Fighter 4", winning the Warriors Unite Pre-Absolution 2004 event that took place in December 2003, defeating Japanese player Jun within the grand finals. Hart also entered Virtua Fighter 4 at Evolution 2003 tournament placing 3rd.
In 2004, Hart continued to have success within "Tekken Tag Tournament", placing first at Torneo di Napoli 2nd Edition and second at Absolution UK 2004. It was also within this year that Hart would have his largest tournament win to date at the famous Evolution 2004 Championship tournament, Hart defeated Unconkable in the grand finals thus taking his third world championship. While at the Evolution 2004 Championship Hart also placed 4th on Virtua Fighter 4 defeated by the US champion, ShouTime, and 5th on Tekken 4. The same year Hart took first place in "Tekken 4" at Torneo di Fano. Hart also managed to place first within "Virtua Fighter 4" at Absolution UK 2004 defeating Delune within the grand final.
2005 saw a new introduction to the Tekken franchise; Tekken 5. Hart continued to compete and place well within European tournaments, winning the Official Bandai Namco UK Championship then winning Ultimate Tournament Volume 4 within France and achieving 2nd at Torneo Olandese and Olanda 2005, while also still competing within Tekken Tag Tournament with the same placement. At Evolution 2005 Championship, Hart fought his way in Tekken Tag Tournament to the grand finals where he purposely forfeited his winner bracket match for an unknown reason, but still fought his way to the grand final, placing 2nd and claiming his second silver medal from the Evolution Championship Series. 2005 also saw Hart take on a new challenge, . Hart took the community by storm, winning both the Southgate Showdown and Chasing Dragon tournaments.
In 2006, Hart displayed one of his most dominant years to date by going almost completely undefeated on seven different games and losing only a handful of events. Hart was successful multiple different tournaments for games such as , Street Fighter Alpha 3, Hyper Street Fighter II, Tekken Tag Tournament, Tekken 5, The King of Fighters 2002 and . Hart continued to be a prominent figure within the Tekken 5 scene within 2006, with 1st place wins at Torneo Roma, Roma, Torneo Francia, Ultimate Tournament Volume 5, Euroslash Poland and a 3rd-place finish at Ultimate Tournament Volume 6. 2006 was also the same year that Hart and his teammates became the first ever European players to qualify for the Tougeki Championship held in Japan, also known as Super Battle Opera, winning the 3 on 3 European SBO qualifier held in France. Unfortunately, one of Hart's teammates pulled out before the Super Battle Opera finals for personal reasons, and Hart's team was forced into a 2 vs 3 handicap match, which they lost. Hart also qualified for Tekken 5 at Super Battle Opera by winning the SBO qualifier held in Stuttgart.
Hart won Torneo Roma in 2007 defeating the player Liquid and also defeated Steve88 in Tekken 5 to win the event on both days. These were some of the last regular events before Namco introduced an update to Tekken 5 entitled , with this new entry, tournaments began to run the newer iteration of the game and Hart transitioned over to compete. He later managed to secure 4th place at Ultimate Tournament Volume 8 and 3rd place at Ultimate Tournament Volume 9. Hart had more success winning Iron Man 2, E-Games Festival and Super Battle Opera European Qualifiers, this also became the third time that Hart qualified for the Japanese fighting game event. Hart also won 1st place at Super VS Battle 2007 for Hyper Street Fighter II and 3rd place at Summer Showdown. Additionally at Summer Showdown, Hart placed 1st on Virtua Fighter 5 and . Hart continued to show winning strides on as he took 1st place at Ranking Battles 4.1, 4.2 and 4.3. Winning E-Games Festival, Iron Man, Netko Finals, Rome Tournament and placing 2nd at CPTL Paris Fighting Festival, Brussels Tournament and Fighters Day 3 hosted by the production company Unequalled Media.
2008 was a great achievement within Harts's career, it was this year that Hart would go on to win Evolution 2007 for the game , defeating Paco "Gandido" Vilaró within the grand final to secure his fourth world championship and truly cement his name as one of the best Tekken players within the world. While also winning , Hart also saw success within placing 7th. And once again had success within The King of Fighters '98 Ultimate Match by placing 3rd at Rebirth 2008. Hart would also go on to win the Giessen Tournament, defeating the Polish champion Devil. 2008 also saw a new introduction to the Street Fighter franchise with the release of Street Fighter IV in Japanese arcades, with this release fighting games quickly became a mainstream genre again and revitalising the fighting game community. 2008 also marks an interesting moment in Hart's career, during the Battle of Destiny event, Hart played the American Justin Wong in what ended up being possibly the most memorable match of all time in European history. At an even score of 1-1, Wong playing Chun-Li had Hart cornered on the ground with no health. As Hart was getting up, Wong attempted to low forward into super resulting in Hart's Yun being defeated via chip-damage, however Hart parried every single hit and won the round in a similar fashion to the infamous Daigo Umehara Evolution #37 moment. Hart became the second person ever to parry Wong's Chun-Li super during a main stage match.
Hart continued to have success In 2009 for winning Torneo Spagnolo in Vigo, Spain. Within the same year Tekken 6: Bloodline Rebellion would be introduced to the console market, Hart would go on to place 3rd at DreamHack Sweden 2009. 2009 would also be the year that Street Fighter IV was finally released on home consoles, with this release Hart was quick to compete and win multiple tournament such as DreamHack Sweden 2009 in Sweden, Impact 2009, Max Damagermany, Cinemasters Tournament, Insomnia i37, Capcom SFIV National Championship and Capcom SFIV European Championship. He also managed to secure 3rd place at Super VS Battle 2009. Hart also placed 1st on at Max Damagermany and Super VS Battle 2009.
2010 – present.
With the release of Super Street Fighter IV in 2010, Hart was already considered one of the best players in Europe, continuing to increase his reputation by winning ECL 1 - Liverpool 2010, DreamHack Winter 2010, Beat By Contest Qualifier, Ultimate Clash, Ultimate Clash 2, Winner Stays On League and VSFighting. Placing 2nd at Super VS Battle 20X and 360Gaming twice, 3rd at DreamHack Summer 2010, and 7th at World Cyber Games 2011. Even with the success of his placements within Super Street Fighter IV, Hart would continue to compete within other games such as Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix placing 2nd at VSFighting and 2nd within at Super VS Battle 20X. He would also continue to compete within Tekken 6: Bloodline Rebellion placing 3rd and 4th at World Game Cup 2010 and VSFighting.
2011 saw the announcement for , and with this announcement Hart competed less within Super Street Fighter IV as events faded away in prepare for the new iteration, Hart entered a handful of tournaments; DamaGermany 2011 (3rd), World Game Cup 2011 (3rd), and Beat by Contest 2011 (9th). He also competed and won European Gaming League 4 (), the Winner Stays On League and 360 Gaming twice (Super Street Fighter IV). Hart also managed to secure 2nd at Red Fight District 2011 (Super Street Fighter II Turbo). In June 2011, was released to home consoles and along with it, a new game for Hart to continue his gaming success. Hart managed to win DreamHack Summer 2011 and Super VS Battle 20XI while placing 2nd at DreamHack Winter 2011 and the European Gaming League 4. Hart also managed to place 7th and 9th respectively at Red Fight District 2011 and Canada Cup 2011. Hart would also continue to play , finishing 1st at 360 Gaming twice again, 2nd at Canada Cup 2011, 5th and 7th at Max Damagermany 2011 and Evolution Championship 2011, while also placing 2nd at Shadowloo Showdown 2011 for Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown. This would also be the year that Hart got his first Guinness World Record for defeating 169 people in a row. Hart accomplished this using the character Sagat, with his fastest victory being just a mere 7 seconds. This led to Hart being featured within the Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition 2011.
2012 was a very busy year for Hart within , he managed to win multiple events; Berlin Campus Party, Ultimate Clash 13, Bushido Impact International 2v2, Proving Grounds 4, EGL 8 2v2, Hypespotting and WinnerStaysOn Xmas Special, while also placing 2nd in four tournaments; Bushido Impact International II, European Gaming League 8, Kuwait Battle Royale 2012 and DreamHack Winter 2012. This would also be the same year that Hart supported the creation of the Esports team Western Wolves, under his Low Land Lion manager, team Western Wolves would become a subsidiary of Low Land Lions, this was due to the manager of Low Land Lion wanting to separate his international players with Benelux based players thus Low Land Lions then became a strictly Benelux based team. Hart who created the name for the new team Western Wolves would also lead the team and was responsible for bringing in new players such as Seon Woo "Infiltration" Lee, Ryan "Laugh" Ahn from South Korea, Femi "F-Word" Adeboye and Andreas Demetriou from the UK. Hart believed these players to have potential, he especially expressed Lee's potential after he visited South Korea and spent some personal time with Lee and Ahn. Hart's belief was proven true as each player went on to be a champion, Lee and Ahn both went on to win Evolution 2012 Championship for the game Street Fighter X Tekken with Lee also taking the title for , Demetriou would go on to win DreamHack Valencia, with Adeboye winning World Game Cup team tournaments and Winner Stays On singles events. Hart's other results would see him placing 17th at Evolution Championship 2012 and Shadowloo Showdown 2012, 3rd at Street Fighter 25th Anniversary UK, 9th Capcom Cup Tokyo Game Show, 4th at Stunfest 2012, DreamHack Energizer, and 5th World Game Cup 2012. Hart would continue to compete and place well within other Capcom games such as placing 2nd at Hypespotting, Street Fighter X Tekken placing 1st at Stunfest 2012, Max Damagermany Europe and Cross Up tournament which Hart won three times in a row. He managed place 2nd at Hypespotting, DreamHack Summer and 9th at Shadowloo Showdown 2012.This was the same year that a new introduction to the Tekken franchise would take place, with the release of Tekken Tag Tournament 2, Hart would continue his dominance within the new title, winning 1st place at Proving Grounds 4, European Gaming League 8, Kuwait Battle Royale 2012 and Insomnia i46 - Madcatz UK Championship, not contempt with competing in so many games Hart won Hypespotting's Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown event and came 2nd at Shadowloo Showdown 2012. Hart also had success on Tekken 6 with winning Snake Pit 3v3, coming 2nd at Damagermany Crash and 5th at the Tekken Rules Tournament in Venezuela. Hart would expand his gaming results further by playing The King of Fighter XIII and winning the European Gaming League 8 while also placing 2nd at Hypespotting. 2012 would also be the year that Hart was featured in the Guinness World Records 2012 Gamers Edition book for holding three records within Street Fighter; Most International Street Fighter Competition Wins, Most Tournament Wins in Street Fighter, and the Longest Winning Streak on Street Fighter IV.
Controversy struck Hart in 2012, which would see him temporarily suspended by his current sponsor Western Wolves for a tweet he posted after losing to his teammate MCZ|Mago at the Street Fighter 25th Anniversary UK event stating ""Thank you very fucking much Madcatz. Sending Mago to beat his team mate. Great teamwork! Last time I fucking help any of you.", Hart would apologise minutes later for the incident with the tweet "I know everyone likes a bit of drama, but I'm sorry Mad Catz. I just said that out of frustration to my loss. Everyone knows Mad Catz rock!"".
Hart was reinstated back into Western Wolves – who were sponsored by Madcatz, after only a month of suspension. His first event back under the Western Wolves banner was the Alienware Championship in January 2013, where he won both the qualifier and the finals itself.
Hart continued to be very active within 2013, as well as winning the Alienware Championships Hart also scored wins at DreamHack Valencia 2013, Ludus Magnus Gaming, Paris World Warriors, World Game Cup 3v3, Stunfest 2v2 and Razer Fighting Championships for . Along with these victories, Hart placed 2nd at a number of different events such as Da Ultimate Crushing, Final Round 16, Treta Aftermath, Wednesday Night Fights, DreamHack Valencia and VSFighting 3. His other results would be DreamHack Winter 2013 (5th), Capcom Cup UK Play Expo (3rd), Community Effort Orlando 2013 (12th), VXG 2013 (5th), Evolution Championship 2013 (33rd), DreamHack Summer 2013 (3rd), Paris World Warriors - 2v2 (3rd), Stunfest 2013 (4th) and World Game Cup 2013 (7th). This year would also see Hart continuing with his victories within Tekken Tag Tournament 2, winning VSFighting 3, IGN Con Bahrain and Treta Aftermath, Super Street Fighter II Turbo winning VSFighting 3, and placing 2nd in Super Turbo Sunday V and VSFighting 3 2v2 event, along with placing 3rd for Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix at Electronic Dojo @ Play Expo. Hart would also win competitions in The King of Fighters XIII at 360 Gaming and also came 3rd on , adding yet another competitive game to his list. Hart also competed in exhibition matches held at the Capcom London office in May, dubbed Frame Trap x Capcom FT10, which saw him defeat fellow UK players Benjamin "Problem X" Simon and Andreas. Hart would also find himself without a sponsor mid-way through the year after Team Western Wolves disbanded on 17 August, Western Wolves would officially close it doors on 20 December 2013.
2014 was the last year of before Ultra Street Fighter IV was released on 3 June 2014, but this did not stop Hart from being proactive within the game. He managed to secure victories at a number of events including but not limited to Ultimate Fighting Game Tournament 10, Warriors Return 3, Republic of Fighter 3 (3v3), International Video Game Cup 2014 (5v5), Final Round XV, Winner Stays On Invitational, Super Vs Battle 2014, Road To Ultra 2014 and Next Level Battle Circuit #71, along with multiple 2nd places at International Video Game Cup 2014, International Video Game Cup 2014 (3v3), Next Level Battle Circuit #72 and Republic of Fighters 3. Hart still maintained great results in other Capcom fighter such as Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix with 1st place at Triple Threat Volume 10, IGN Con Dubai Arcade Cafe Tournament and International Video Game Cup 2014, 2nd-place finish at Gigacon and 4th place at VSFighting 4, winning Shadowloo Showdown V and Triple Threat Volume 10, he then placed 2nd at Proving Grounds 4 and 3rd at Stunfest 2014. June 2014 also saw the introduction of a new sponsor for Hart, with Team Dignitas picking him up which he would only stay with until December 2014 when Team Dignitas left the fighting game scene. In the six months Hart was with Dignitas, he won 20 medals across four continents for the team, leading to speculation of this being the most championships any Dignitas player has ever won within a six-month period. With the eventual release of Ultra Street Fighter IV later within the year, Hart took 1st place at Warriors Return 3, Bracket Reset, Gigacon (2v2), Keep It Classy and Triple Threat Volume 10, while placing 2nd at Street Grand Battle 2014, DreamHack Valencia 2014, ROF, Ultimate Fighting Game Tournament 10, Shadowloo Showdown V, DreamHack Stockholm 2014, Hypespotting 3 and The Luffy Beatdown Special. Hart still managed to compete within different titles at events winning Tekken Tag Tournament 2 at IGN Con Dubai, International Video Game Cup 2014 and Hypespotting 3 while obtaining 3rd-place finishes at Wednesday Night Fights on both Tekken Tag Tournament 2 and Ultra Street Fighter IV. Hart also had a 4th-place finish at VSFighting 4, a 2nd-place finish at Hypespotting 3 for The King of Fighters XIII and competing in his last Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown tournaments with 1st place victories at International Video Game Cup 2014 and Final Round XVII.
2015 would be the final year of Ultra Street Fighter IV being the main game of the Capcom franchise. This did not hinder Hart from competing within multiple events around globe, winning Bracket Reset 21, IGN Con Qatar finishing 3rd place within Topanga Charity Cup EGX 2015, Stunfest 2015 (2v2) and Kakutop League II, along with 4th-place finishes at DreamHack Summer 2015, Milan Games Week, Hypespotting 4, Ouka Ranbu Cup and Kakutop League I. Hart also took 3rd place at Stunfest 2015 tournament. 2015 would also be Hart's last event for Tekken Tag Tournament 2 taking 1st place at Canada Cup.
2016 welcomed the new release of Street Fighter V and a lot of fresh new competition with it. Hart was very active during the first year of the new games release, winning Bracket Reset 59, Take TV Take's Dojo, Fight Club NRW and placing 2nd at Lockdown 2016, EGX 2016 and Paris Games Week Invitational. Along with these results Hart secured 3rd and 4th place victories at events such as Kuwait Battle Royale 2016, Celtic Throwdown 2016, VSFighting 2016, and Cannes Winter Clash 2016.
Hart started to focus more on his private life and this led him competing a lot less than he had previously at this point, but also allowed him to be more active within different areas of the Esports industry. In 2017 he only entered a handful of events for Street Fighter V with his best result being 1st at Take TV Weekly, Meltdown Weekly and Greek Empire Tournament, additionally Hart placed 3rd at TakeDojo X-Mas 2017. within this same year, Hart casually picked up the new Bandai Namco game; Tekken 7, where he placed 9th at Hypespotting 6.
Hart continues to compete within fighting game events but to a lesser extend as he continues to grow his career within other areas, he still enters events for Street Fighter V and Tekken 7 with his best results of 7th (Tekken 7) and 9th (Street Fighter V) at Brussels Challenge Major 2018, Headstomper 2018 and Fight Club NRW 2018.
Team manager.
Hart has managed Western Wolves as a team leader during the team's run. Western Wolves closed its doors on 20 December making Hart and all team members free agents.
Caster.
Hart has been a caster for multiple different events including Pokkén's Nationals, Black Label ESports Masters, World Cyber Games, Capcom Pro Tour, GamesCom Dragonball Fighter Z Tournament, and the Tekken World Tour.
Presenter.
Hart works as a host and presenter for variety of gaming events, shows and TV such as ESL
Content creator.
Hart works as a content creator for ESL's main products, such as ESL One, IEM and ESL Pro League. Among Ryan's long career within the Esports industry he has had the opportunity to co-author a book and write articles for his own blog and Ars Technica
Tournament organiser.
Since 2001 Hart has also setup and ran many tournaments during his time within the competitive fighting game scene including but not limited to TTT 1 Crackdown, SBO Netko, Chasing Dragon 3s Tournament, VF4 Feet Bribe, 50 Man Trocadeo KO Showdown, 3S Neko RB Season, Prodigal Summit, Namco Station Tekken 5 Bi-Weeklies, USA vs Europe SF4 Showdown and the Venezuela Tour 2012. Hart currently hosts the community initiative Silent V Trigger within Germany to help local players improve.


Pelretin

Pelretin is a synthetic retinoid. It was tested in the 1980s on animals in the hopes that it could be used to eliminate wrinkles.


Tsushima Strait

 or Eastern Channel (동수로 Dongsuro) is a channel of the Korea Strait, which lies between Korea and Japan, connecting the Sea of Japan, the Yellow Sea, and the East China Sea.
The strait is the channel to the east and southeast of Tsushima Island, with the Japanese islands of Honshu to the east and northeast, and Kyushu and the Gotō Islands to the south and southeast. It is narrowest south-east of Shimono-shima, the south end of Tsushima Island proper, constricted there by nearby Iki Island, which lies wholly in the strait near the tip of Honshu. South of that point Japan's Inland Sea mingles its waters through the narrow Kanmon Strait between Honshu and Kyushu, with those of the Eastern Channel, making for some of the busiest sea lanes in the world.
The Strait was the site of the decisive naval battle in the Russo-Japanese War, the Battle of Tsushima, took place between the Japanese and Russian navies in 1905. The Russian fleet was virtually destroyed, with the Japanese suffering only the loss of three torpedo boats.
Geography.
The Tsushima Strait measures approximately 100 kilometres along Tsushima Island and is about 65 kilometres wide at its narrowest. The strait has a depth of about 140 metres and is bounded by the "Tsushima Islands" to the west through north (of "Gotō Islands"). Nearby Iki Island lies in the strait about 50 kilometres towards Kyūshū from the southern tip of Kamino-shima (South Island).
A warm branch of the "Kuroshio Current" passes through the strait. Originating along the Japanese islands, this current passes through the Sea of Japan then a branch eventually flowing into the Pacific
Northern Pacific Ocean via the Tsugaru Strait south of Hokkaido. Another branch continues far northward and divides along either shore of Sakhalin Island; eventually flowing into the Sea of Okhotsk via the La Perouse Strait north of Hokkaido and via the Strait of Tartary into the Sea of Okhotsk north of Sakhalin Island near Vladivostok.
The "Kuroshio Current" brings rich fisheries resources from the East China Sea into the Sea of Japan, like Japanese amberjack, Japanese horse mackerel, but these days also brings disaster like mass aggregation of gigantic Nomura's jellyfish and waste from countries along the course of the current.
A commercial ferry service operates between Shimonoseki at the western tip of Honshu and Busan (aka Pusan), South Korea. Another operates between Shimonoseki and Tsushima Island. The cities of Kitakyushu (Kyushu) and Shimonoseki (Honshu) are joined by an ocean-spanning bridge across the Kanmon Strait joining those cities with Nagasaki, which latter city serves as prefecture-level capital and administers both Tsushima and Iki Island. The Kanmon Strait lies approximately 85 miles (135 km) due east of the center of Tsushima Island, while Nagasaki city proper lies about 100 miles (165 km) to the south-south-east of the southern tip of the island.
Historical impact.
The earliest settlement of Japan by people most resembling modern Japanese in litoral northern Kyushu next to the Eastern Channel is supported by legendary, historical, and archeological evidence, and is undisputed. A range of dates when immigration began from what is the mainland via the Korean Peninsula to north Kyushu from the fall of Four Commanderies of Han (108 BC) to the 4th century AD. Historically these narrows (i.e., the whole Korea/Tsushima Strait) served as a highway for high-risk voyages (southern end of the Korean Peninsula to the Tsushima Islands to Iki Island to the western tip of Honshu) for trade between the countries of the Korean peninsula and Japan
The straits also served as a migration or an invasion path, in both directions. For example, archeologists believe the first Mesolithic migrations (Jōmon) traveled across to Honshu around the 10th century BC, supplanting Paleolithic people that walked from Asia to Japan overland over 100,000 years ago when the sea level was lower during the Pleistocene ice age. Immigrants from Korea and China also contributed to waves of immigrants arriving in Kyushu, although who, when, and how many exactly is a matter of intense debate. Buddhism, along with Chinese writing, was initially transmitted from Korean Peninsula via Eastern Channel to Japan in the 5th century by way of the straits as well. Iki to Kamino-shima, the southern end of the large island of Tsushima, is about 50 kilometres. Busan (Korea), to the northern tip of Tsushima, about the same across the Korea Strait. These were tremendous distances to attempt in small boats over open seas.
The Mongol invasions of Japan crossed this sea and ravaged the Tsushima Islands before the "kamikaze" – translated as "divine wind" – a typhoon that is said to have saved Japan from a Mongol invasion fleet led by Kublai Khan in 1281. The 16th century, Toyotomi Hideyoshi was aimed at the conquest of China via the Korean Peninsula from this strait.
The decisive naval battle in the Russo-Japanese War, the Battle of Tsushima, took place in the strait between the Japanese and Russian navies in 1905; the Russian fleet was virtually destroyed by a Japanese naval force for the loss of only three Japanese torpedo boats.
Japan's territorial waters extend to three nautical miles (5.6 km) into the strait instead of the usual twelve, reportedly to allow nuclear-armed United States Navy warships and submarines to transit the strait without violating Japan's prohibition against nuclear weapons in its territory.


Planetarium Negara

<mapframe latitude="3.13927" longitude="101.68893" zoom="17" width="200" height="200" align="right" />
The National Planetarium () is the national planetarium of Malaysia. It is a blue-domed structure that is situated on top of a hill in the Lake Gardens at Jalan Perdana, Kuala Lumpur. It is about in area.
History.
The National Planetarium started as the Planetarium Division in the Prime Minister's Department in 1989. The construction of the National Planetarium complex began in 1990 and was completed in 1993. A soft launch to the public began in May 1993 and it was officially opened by the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Mahathir bin Mohamad, on 7 February 1994. In July 1995, the Division was transferred to the Ministry of Science, Technology and the Environment, which is also the owner of this planetarium until now.
Exhibits and attractions.
One of the major attractions of this planetarium includes a space theatre which screens space shows and large format film.
In the main hall are permanent exhibits related to space science. Among them is Arianne IV space engine, which is also one of the engines used to launch MEASAT 1, Malaysia's first satellite into space. A telescope is located in the observatory.
The National Planetarium extends to a space theme park where replicas of ancient observatories are sited. It is connected by an overhead pedestrian bridge to the National Museum of Malaysia.
Operating hours.
The planetarium is opened daily from 9.00 am to 4.30 pm (except on Monday, Hari Raya Puasa holiday, Hari Raya Haji holiday and public holidays as stated by the Planetarium Negara). The planetarium shows will be aired every one hour starting at 10am and the last show will be at 4pm. The entrance to the gallery is free and the shows ticket is RM 12 for adult (per person) and RM 8 for children (per person).
Transportation.
The planetarium is accessible within walking distance west of Kuala Lumpur railway station.


Danish straits

The Danish straits are the straits connecting the Baltic Sea to the North Sea through the Kattegat and Skagerrak. Historically, the Danish straits were internal waterways of Denmark; however, following territorial losses, Øresund and Fehmarn Belt are now shared with Sweden and Germany, while the Great Belt and the Little Belt have remained Danish territorial waters. The Copenhagen Convention of 1857 made all the Danish straits an international waterway.
Toponymy and geography.
Five straits are named 'belt' (Danish: "bælt"), the only ones in the world. Several other straits are named 'sound' (Danish, Swedish and German: "sund"). Where an island is situated between a "belt" and a "sound", typically the broader strait is called "belt" and the narrower one is the "sound":
Etymology of "sound" / "sund".
The Germanic word "sound" has the same root as the verb "to sunder" in the meaning of "to separate". The Old Norse form of that verb is "sundr". In Norway hundreds of narrow straits separating islands and combining fjords or outer parts of fjords are named "Sund".
Another explanation derives "sound" from an ancient verb "sund" in the meaning of to swim. That way a "sound" is a "swimmable strait". In the Swedish language any strait is called "sund".
The Germanic word "sound" is not related to the Romance languages originated word "sound", which has developed from the Latin "sonus".


Sterling v. Velsicol Chemical Corp.

Sterling v. Velsicol Chemical Corp., 855 F.2d 1188 (6th Cir. 1988), was an environmental lawsuit filed by citizens of Hardeman County, Tennessee, led by Steven Sterling, who sued Velsicol Chemical Corporation for contaminating their water supply through improper disposal of toxic chemicals.
Background.
In August 1964, Velsicol Chemical Corporation acquired of rural land in Hardeman County, Tennessee. Velsicol used the site as a landfill for by-products from the production of chlorinated hydrocarbon insecticides at its Memphis, Tennessee, chemical manufacturing facility. Before Velsicol purchased the landfill site and commenced depositing chemicals into the ground, it neither conducted hydrogeological studies to assess the soil composition underneath the site, the water flow direction, and the location of the local water aquifer, nor drilled a monitoring well to detect and record any ongoing contamination. From October, 1964, to June, 1973, the defendant deposited a total of 300,000 55-gallon steel drums containing ultrahazardous liquid chemical waste and hundreds of fiber board cartons containing ultrahazardous dry chemical waste in the landfill.
Shortly after Velsicol began its disposal operations at the landfill site, local residents and county, state, and federal authorities became concerned about the environmental impact of their activities. As a result of this concern, the United States Geological Survey (USGS), in 1967, prepared the first of several reports on the potential contamination effects of the chemicals deposited into the landfill up to that time. The 1967 report indicated that chlorinated hydrocarbons had migrated down into the subsoil and had contaminated portions of the surface and subsurface environment adjacent to the disposal site. While the chemicals had not reached the local water aquifer, the USGS concluded that both the local and contiguous ground water were in danger of contamination.
State authorities increasingly became concerned about Velsicol's disposal of ultrahazardous chemicals at the site. In 1972, the state filed an administrative action to close the landfill because the chlorinated hydrocarbons buried at the site allegedly were contaminating irreparably the subsurface waters. The state ordered Velsicol to cease disposal of all toxic chemicals by August 21, 1972, and all other chemicals by June 1, 1973.
U.S. District Court case.
In 1978, forty-two plaintiffs sued Velsicol in the Circuit Court of Hardeman County, Tennessee, for damages and an injunction. The complaint sought $1.5 billion in compensatory damages and $1 billion in punitive damages. Velsicol had the case moved to the United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee, seeking a diversity of citizens based on the amount of damages being sought. All but fifteen of the original forty-two plaintiffs then settled their claims. Plaintiffs' counsel filed an amended complaint for damages and an injunction and added forty-seven new plaintiffs to the original lawsuit.
The complaint sought relief for involuntary exposure to certain chemical substances known to cause cancer, affect the central nervous system and permanently damage other organs of the human body, and for loss of value to their real property in the region affected by the chemicals.
The district court found Velsicol liable to the plaintiffs on legal theories of strict liability, common law negligence, trespass, and nuisance. The court concluded that the defendant's hazardous chemicals, which escaped from its landfill and contaminated plaintiffs' well water, were the proximate cause of the representative plaintiffs' injuries. The district court awarded the five individuals compensatory damages totaling $5,273,492.50 for their respective injuries, plus prejudgment interest dating back to July, 1965, of $8,964,973.25. All damages, except for $48,492.50 to one plaintiff for property damage claims, were awarded for personal injuries. The district court also awarded $7,500,000 in punitive damages to the class as a whole.
Appeal.
Velsicol appealed the decision to the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals on the basis that the District Court certified the case as a class action under Rule 23(b)(3). Velsicol argued that individual issues, such as proximate cause and damages, predominated over common issues, so that the District court erred in its classification. The Appeals Court ruled that as long as "the defendant's liability can be determined on a class-wide basis because the cause of the disaster is a single course of conduct which is identical for each of the plaintiffs." The Appeals Court reversed the District court's decision to defer its award punitive damages prior to determining compensatory damages for the entire class of 128 individuals; and remanded the recomputation of punitive damages
Environmental damage.
It was determined that spent hydrocarbons buried at the landfill disposal site included not only chlorobenzene, hexachlorobutadiene, hexachloroethane, hexachloronorbornadiene, naphthalene, tetrachloroethylene, toluene, hexachlorocyclopentadiene, and benzene, but also the known carcinogens carbon tetrachloride and chloroform. The drums and cartons containing these chemicals were deposited in trenches that were deep and 12 to wide and covered with approximately of soil. Velsicol took no precautions to insure the drums from bursting and, invariably, some of the drums would leak their contents into the soil. Furthermore, the trenches were neither lined nor covered with any impermeable material to prevent the chemical waste from leaking into the soil. Velsicol eventually placed a clay cap over the landfill site in 1980 only after state authorities threatened a lawsuit over the imminent danger the landfill posed to the environment.


United States environmental law

United States environmental law concerns legal standards to protect human health and improve the natural environment of the United States. While subject to criticism at home and abroad on issues of protection, enforcement, and over-regulation, the country remains an important source of environmental legal expertise and experience.
Scope.
The United States Congress has enacted federal statutes intended to address pollution control and remediation, including for example the Clean Air Act (air pollution), the Clean Water Act (water pollution), and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA, or Superfund) (contaminated site cleanup). There are also federal laws governing natural resources use and biodiversity which are strongly influenced by environmental principles, including the Endangered Species Act, National Forest Management Act, and Coastal Zone Management Act. The National Environmental Policy Act, governing environmental impact review in actions undertaken or approved by the U.S. federal government, may implicate all of these areas.
Federalism in the United States has played a role in the shape of national environmental legislation. Many federal environmental laws employ cooperative federalism mechanisms - many federal regulatory programs are administered in coordination with the U.S. states. Furthermore, the states generally have enacted their own laws to cover areas not preempted by federal law. This includes areas where Congress had acted in limited fashion (e.g., state site cleanup laws to handle sites outside Superfund) and where Congress has left regulation primarily to the states (e.g., water resources law).
History.
The history of environmental law in the US can be traced back to early roots in common law doctrines, for example, the law of nuisance and the public trust doctrine. The first environmental statute was the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899, which has been largely superseded by the Clean Water Act (CWA). However, most current major environmental statutes, such as the federal statutes listed above, were passed in the time spanning the late 1960s through the early 1980s. Prior to the passage of these statutes, most federal environmental laws were not nearly as comprehensive.
"Silent Spring," a 1962 book by Rachel Carson, is frequently credited as launching the environmental movement in the United States. The book documented the effects of pesticides, especially DDT, on birds and other wildlife. Among the most significant environmental disasters of the 1960s was the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill, which generated considerable public outrage as Congress was considering several major pieces of environmental legislation. ("See" Environmental movement in the United States.)
One lawsuit that has been widely recognized as one of the earliest environmental cases is "Scenic Hudson Preservation Conference v. Federal Power Commission," decided in 1965 by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, prior to passage of the major federal environmental statutes. The case helped halt the construction of a power plant on Storm King Mountain in New York State. The case has been described as giving birth to environmental litigation and helping create the legal doctrine of standing to bring environmental claims. The Scenic Hudson case also is said to have helped inspire the passage of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), and the creation of such environmental advocacy groups as the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Legal sources.
Laws from every stratum of the laws of the United States pertain to environmental issues. Congress has passed a number of landmark environmental regulatory regimes, but many other federal laws are equally important, if less comprehensive. Concurrently, the legislatures of the fifty states have passed innumerable comparable sets of laws. These state and federal systems are foliated with layer upon layer of administrative regulation. Meanwhile, the US judicial system reviews not only the legislative enactments, but also the administrative decisions of the many agencies dealing with environmental issues. Where the statutes and regulations end, the common law begins.
Federal regulation.
Consistent with the federal statutes that they administer, US federal agencies promulgate regulations in the Code of Federal Regulations that fill out the broad programs enacted by Congress. Primary among these is Title 40 of the Code of Federal Regulations, containing the regulations of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Other important CFR sections include Title 10 (energy), Title 18 (Conservation of Power and Water Resources), Title 21 (Food and Drugs), Title 33 (Navigable Waters), Title 36 (Parks, Forests and Public Property), Title 43 (Public Lands: Interior) and Title 50 (Wildlife and Fisheries).
Judicial decisions.
The federal and state judiciaries have played an important role in the development of environmental law in the United States, in many cases resolving significant controversy regarding the application of federal environmental laws in favor of environmental interests. The decisions of the Supreme Court in cases such as "Calvert Cliffs Coordinating Committee v. U.S. Atomic Energy Commission" (broadly reading the procedural requirements of NEPA), "Tennessee Valley Authority v. Hill" (broadly reading the Endangered Species Act), and, much more recently, "Massachusetts v. EPA" (requiring EPA to reconsider regulation of greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act) have had policy impacts far beyond the facts of the particular case.
Common law.
The common law of tort is an important tool for the resolution of environmental disputes that fall beyond the confines of regulated activity. Prior to the modern proliferation of environmental regulation, the doctrines of nuisance (public or private), trespass, negligence, and strict liability apportioned harm and assigned liability for activities that today would be considered pollution and likely governed by regulatory regimes. These doctrines remain relevant, and most recently have been used by plaintiffs seeking to impose liability for the consequences of global climate change.
The common law also continues to play a leading role in American water law, in the doctrines of riparian rights and prior appropriation.
Administration.
In the United States, responsibilities for the administration of environmental laws are divided between numerous federal and state agencies with varying, overlapping and sometimes conflicting missions. EPA is the most well-known federal agency, with jurisdiction over many of the country's national air, water and waste and hazardous substance programs. Other federal agencies, such as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Park Service pursue primarily conservation missions, while still others, such as the United States Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management, tend to focus more on beneficial use of natural resources.
Federal agencies operate within the limits of federal jurisdiction. For example, EPA's jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act is limited to "waters of the United States". In many cases federal laws allow for more stringent regulation by states, and of transfer of certain federally mandated responsibilities from federal to state control. US state governments, therefore, administering state law adopted under state police powers or federal law by delegation, uniformly include environmental agencies. The extent to which state environmental laws are based on or depart from federal law varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.
Thus, while a permit to fill non-federal wetlands might require a permit from a single state agency, larger and more complex endeavors—for example, the construction of a coal-fired power plant—might require approvals from numerous federal and state agencies.
Enforcement.
In the United States, violations of environmental laws are generally civil offenses, resulting in monetary penalties and, perhaps, civil sanctions such as injunction. Many environmental laws also provide for criminal penalties for egregious violations. Some federal laws, such as the Clean Water Act, also allow a U.S. citizen to file a lawsuit against a violator, if the government has failed to take enforcement action.
Environmental agencies often include separate enforcement offices, with duties including monitoring permitted activities, performing compliance inspections, issuing citations and prosecuting wrongdoing (civilly or criminally, depending on the violation). EPA's Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance is one such agency. Others, such as the United States Park Police, carry out more traditional law enforcement activities.
Adjudicatory proceedings for environmental violations are often handled by the agencies themselves under the structures of administrative law. In some cases, appeals are also handled internally (for example, EPA's Environmental Appeals Board). Generally, final agency determinations may subsequently be appealed to the appropriate court.
Education and training.
U.S. News & World Report has consistently ranked Lewis & Clark Law School, The Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University, and the Vermont Law School in the top 5 of its list of Environmental Law programs in the United States.
Environmental law courses are offered as elective courses in the second and third years of JD study at many American law schools. Curricula vary: an introductory course might focus on the "big five" federal statutes—NEPA, Clean Air Act, CWA, CERCLA (Superfund) and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (or, alternatively, the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act)—and may be offered in conjunction with a natural resources law course. Smaller seminars may be offered on more focused topics. Some US law schools also offer an LLM or JSD specialization in environmental law. Additionally, several law schools host legal clinics that focus on environmental law, providing students with an opportunity to learn about environmental law in the context of real world disputes involving actual clients.
International environmental lawyers often receive specialized training in the form of an LL.M. degree at US institutions, after having a first law degreeoften in another country from where they got their first law degree.


Commission for Polish Relief

The Commission for Polish Relief (CPR), also known unofficially as "Comporel" or "Hoover Commission", was initiated in late 1939 by former US President Herbert Hoover, following the German and Soviet occupation of Poland. The Commission provided relief to Nazi occupied territories of Poland until December 1941.
Background.
Following the conquest of Poland by Nazi Germany and the USSR, the country's most fertile agricultural land was annexed to Germany in October 1939. The remaining area of German-occupied Poland (the General Government) did not produce enough food to feed its population. National Socialist People's Welfare, Nazi Germany relief service, was not providing adequate service and very soon started to exclude Jews from its aid programmes. Herbert Hoover testified before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs that around 400 to 500 million US dollars would be needed to feed approximately 7 million of destitute people in Poland, and argued that at least a quarter of that should be provided by the US.
Both Polish and Jewish population in areas of Nazi Germany occupied was considered by German authorities to be "sub-human" (Untermensch) and as such targeted for extermination and slavery. Under Nazi plans, deliberate starvation of what were considered "sub-humans" was considered. From the beginning of Nazi occupation of Poland food was forcefully confiscated from Polish population by Nazi authorities to be used for benefit of Nazi Germany By mid 1941, the German minority in Poland received 2613 calories per day while Poles received 699 and Jews in the ghetto 184. The Jewish ration fulfilled 7.5 percent of their daily needs; Polish rations only 26 percent. Only the ration allocated to Germans fulfilled the full needs of their daily calorie intake.
The Nazis-based food rations on racist basis with Germans considered "ubermenschen" receiving biggest food rations in Nazi occupied territories of Poland, with little spared for Polish and Jewish population:
Prior to the war the General Government was not self-sufficient in agricultural production and was a net importer of food from other regions of Poland. Despite this food deficit the German occupiers confiscated 27% of the agricultural output in the General Government, thus reducing the food available for the civilian population. This Nazi policy caused a humanitarian crisis in Poland's urban areas. In 1940 20 to 25% of the population the Government General depended on outside relief aid. This crisis was made worse by the German expulsion of 923,000 Polish citizens from Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany into the General Government. The Germans "showed no concern for the destination of the dislocated families" who depended on the local Polish welfare services.Richard C. Lukas points out "To be sure, the Poles would have starved to death if they had to depend on the food rationed to them To supplement the meager rations allocated by the Germans ( see table above) Poles depended on the black market in order to survive. During the war 80% of the population's needs were met by the black market Poles involved in the black market "risked arrest, deportation to a concentration camp, and even death" The German occupiers maintained a large police force to eliminate the black market. During the war there was an increase in infectious diseases caused by the general malnutrition among the Polish population. In 1940 the tuberculosis rate among Poles, not including Jews,was 420 per 100,000 compared to 136 per 100,000 prior to the war. Also Poles were pressured to sign up for work in Germany hoping to improve their living standards, but most were disappointed when they found low wages and humiliating treatment in Germany.
The brutal occupation policy of Germany resulted in a huge death toll. Prior to the establishment of the death camps in mid 1942 one-fifth (500–600,000) of Polish Jews perished in ghettos and labor camps. Apart from 2.3 million non-Jewish Poles killed directly during the course of the war an additional 473,000 perished due to the harsh conditions of the occupation,
Additionally the Generalplan Ost plan of Nazis which envisioned elimination of Slavic population in occupied territories, and artificial famines – as proposed in Hunger Plan – were to be used.
Organisation and operations of the Commission for Polish Relief.
The Commission was organized on 25 September 1939, following an appeal by the Polish Government in Exile.
The Commission was led by Maurice Pate and Chauncey McCormick with Herbert Hoover as (Honorary) Chairman. Funding came from governments and private charities as well as the American Red Cross. Polish–American organizations in the United States donated $400,000; the Polish Government in Exile, $186,225. The Commission eventually collected $6,000,000, including $3,060,704 in Polish gold deposited in the National Bank of Romania (which proved more difficult to obtain).
The Commission provided food (such as evaporated milk, rye flour, vegetable fats, sugar and hominy grits) and clothing to Polish refugees throughout Europe, such as the 50,000 Polish refugees in France, and to 200,000 malnourished children, women and elderly inside occupied Poland that were fed daily from canteens. The Commission is said to have delivered 150 tonnes of supplies within a few months, and in early 1940 CPR organized kitchens served 200,000 meals a day.
The shipments were sent using from the United States to Sweden and then to German ports like Hamburg or Danzig. After the German invasion of Norway the route was changed to Genoa or Lisbon, from where the food was shipped by rail to occupied Poland. After , Italian railroads no longer carried aid, and the shipments were rerouted to Vilnius.
The Nazi government provided guarantees that ships from neutral countries that transported the relief would not be targeted by Kriegsmarine submarines and CPR was allowed to operate in occupied Poland (for example, in July 1941, two depots existed in Kraków and Warsaw). At the same time, Nazis were opposed to CPR requests that American nationals are allowed to distribute the supplies, or that their aid be extended to Jews. It was only around summer 1940 that the Germans agreed to allow American nationals to accompany the shipments to Poland, but German Red Cross (which at the time was under Nazi control, headed by Reichsartz of SS Ernst Grawitz) was to act as a liaison between them and the local groups.
Reduction and ending of relief.
Soon after Poland's defeat in October 1939, controversies arose on whether the Nazis could be trusted to distribute the food properly. Contributions from the Polish-American community dropped, as the community became split over that issue. By early spring 1940, CPR efforts were much reduced in effectiveness as a result of the drop in donations and Nazi government opposition.
The matters were further complicated as the UK had a naval blockade in place against delivery of food to territory controlled by Nazi Germany. At first it was possible to get exceptions to the blockade from the British, and this was regularly the case while Neville Chamberlain was Prime Minister. The US government and the American Red Cross (ARC) spoke in favor of the blockade, which played a role in diverting donations from the CPR to the ARC. The Roosevelt Administration attempted to minimize aid to Poland as it preferred to focus on aiding the UK and France and wanted to avoid being drawn into the war.
In May 1940, Winston Churchill replaced Chamberlain as the UK Prime Minister, and his policy made it much more difficult to ship food to continental Europe. In August 1940, the British Government decided to not permit any further aid shipments to areas in Europe under occupation by Nazi Germany. This decision was motivated by the Nazi conquest of Denmark, Norway, the Low Countries and France, the growing importance of economic warfare and difficulties experienced by the Americans in adequately supervising the distribution of supplies in Poland. The British government believed that the Nazi German government could not be trusted to allow aid to be delivered to its intended recipients and that there was no way of supervising how it was actually used. Given the large population in the German-occupied countries, the British were also concerned that the amount of goods which would be delivered through an aid program would free up considerable reserves of Nazi Germany manpower. On 7 June, the British Foreign Office also learned that the German government had withdrawn all offers to facilitate American relief aid to Polish territories under Nazi occupation and interpreted this as meaning that the Commission for Polish Relief and a Red Cross aid program to the country had broken down. As a result, and after extensive discussions by the British cabinet and between government departments, Churchill announced on 20 August that Britain would maintain a strict blockade of Nazi Germany and countries it occupied. He also stated that while Nazi Germany must be responsible for feeding its occupied countries, Britain would make preparations to rapidly provide aid to any territories which were liberated from Nazi control. This policy was supported by the European governments in exile which were based in London, though the promise of aid once territories were liberated was made in response to concerns they raised about the blockade potentially encouraging people in occupied countries to cooperate with the Nazi German forces.
At the time of its announcement, the British government had no evidence that there was any actual or impending starvation in Europe and believed that food supplies would be adequate to prevent significant shortages until the spring of 1941. Nazi German propaganda statements made at this time also claimed that no part of Nazi-occupied Europe would go short of food, and on 26 June the Deutschlandsender radio station had broadcast a statement explicitly rejecting aid from Herbert Hoover's organisation to feed the populations of Belgium, France and the Netherlands.
The British Government was concerned about the reaction in the United States to its decision to cut off aid to Nazi occupied Europe. The United States government supported the blockade, with Under Secretary of State Sumner Welles telling the British ambassador Lord Lothian on 13 July, more than a month before the blockade was announced, that President Roosevelt, the US State Department and American public opinion all were opposed to "any action which would relieve pressure on Germany by feeding the distressed people of Europe". Secretary of State Cordell Hull later told Lord Lothian that an argument in favour of the blockade was that experience had shown that it was impossible to arrange any system of providing relief that did not, directly or indirectly, increase the food available to the German government.
Hoover campaigned against the British blockade. He was critical of Churchill, and later wrote that for Churchill, civilian starvation, if speeding up the end of the war, was justified. On 11 August 1940, Hoover issued a statement arguing that there was no reason why aid could not be sent to Europe through a neutral non-government organisation. This statement specified that such a scheme should go ahead only if the German government agreed to not take food from the occupied countries—which the Nazis were doing in Poland from the start of the occupation. Other demands by Hoover included permitting imports from the USSR and Balkan countries, granting unimpeded passage to aid ships and allowing the non-government organisation to control the distribution of aid to the degree necessary for it to be confident that these guarantees were being met. Hoover also requested that the British allow aid shipments as long as the German Government met the conditions he had specified and asked that the governments in exile provide funding for aid supplies. He also argued that "the obvious truth is that there will be wholesale starvation, death and disease in these little countries unless something is done about it". The US Government did not support Hoover's statement and it also failed to win public support. An opinion poll conducted on 1 September 1940 found that only 38 percent of Americans believed that the country should send food aid if famine broke out in Nazi-occupied European countries of Belgium, France and the Netherlands. Nevertheless, a campaign to provide food relief to Europe continued in the US until the end of the war, though it attracted little attention after the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941.
In response to the British blockade, the Commission for Polish Relief attempted to purchase food from the Soviet Union and the Baltic states, but the results were meager. The Commission was able to continue to provide a very limited amount of relief to Poland until December 1941, when Nazi Germany declared war on the United States. The Commission operated for several more years, providing aid to Poles outside German occupied territories. Hoover Institution Archives list the Commission documents from up to 1949.


Ceylon Police Long Service Medal

The Ceylon Police Long Service Medal was awarded to police officers in Ceylon of and below the rank of Chief Inspector in Sri Lanka Police for completing 18 years of unblemished service. The medal replaced the Colonial Police Long Service Medal and was itself replaced by the Deergha Sewa Padakkama when Ceylon became a Republic in 1972.


Royal Life Saving Society Commonwealth

The Royal Life Saving Society - Commonwealth is the umbrella organisation that links together lifesaving societies in the Commonwealth of Nations. The RLSS-Commonwealth organises the Commonwealth Lifesaving Championships. The Society hosts the Quinquennial Commonwealth Conference and Lifesaving Championships.