title: Equal-loudness contour

text: The first research on the topic of how the ear hears different frequencies at different levels was conducted by Fletcher and Munson in 1933. Until recently, it was common to see the term "Fletcher–Munson" used to refer to equal-loudness contours generally, even though a re-determination was carried out by Robinson and Dadson in 1956, which became the basis for an ISO 226 standard.


title: Equal-loudness contour

text: It is now better to use the generic term "equal-loudness contours", of which the Fletcher–Munson curves are now a sub-set, and especially since a 2003 survey by ISO redefined the curves in a new standard.


title: Equal-loudness contour

text: The human auditory system is sensitive to frequencies from about 20 Hz to a maximum of around 20,000 Hz, although the upper hearing limit decreases with age. Within this range, the human ear is most sensitive between 2 and 5 kHz, largely due to the resonance of the ear canal and the transfer function of the ossicles of the middle ear.


title: Equal-loudness contour

text: Fletcher and Munson first measured equal-loudness contours using headphones (1933). In their study, test subjects listened to pure tones at various frequencies and over 10 dB increments in stimulus intensity. For each frequency and intensity, the listener also listened to a reference tone at 1000 Hz. Fletcher and Munson adjusted the reference tone until the listener perceived that it was the same loudness as the test tone. Loudness, being a psychological quantity, is difficult to measure, so Fletcher and Munson averaged their results over many test subjects to derive reasonable averages. The lowest equal-loudness contour represents the quietest audible tone—the "absolute threshold of hearing". The highest contour is the "threshold of pain".


title: Equal-loudness contour

text: Churcher and King carried out a second determination in 1937, but their results and Fletcher and Munson's showed considerable discrepancies over parts of the auditory diagram.


title: Equal-loudness contour

text: In 1956 Robinson and Dadson produced a new experimental determination that they believed was more accurate. It became the basis for a standard (ISO 226) that was considered definitive until 2003 when ISO revised the standard on the basis of recent assessments by research groups worldwide.


title: Equal-loudness contour

text: Perceived discrepancies between early and more recent determinations led the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) to revise the standard curves in ISO 226. They did this in response to recommendations in a study coordinated by the Research Institute of Electrical Communication, Tohoku University, Japan. The study produced new curves by combining the results of several studies—by researchers in Japan, Germany, Denmark, UK, and the US. (Japan was the greatest contributor with about 40% of the data.)


title: Equal-loudness contour

text: This has resulted in the recent acceptance of a new set of curves standardized as ISO 226:2003. The report comments on the surprisingly large differences, and the fact that the original Fletcher–Munson contours are in better agreement with recent results than the Robinson–Dadson, which appear to differ by as much as 10–15 dB especially in the low-frequency region, for reasons not explained.


title: Equal-loudness contour

text: According to the ISO report, the Robinson–Dadson results were the odd one out, differing more from the current standard than did the Fletcher–Munson curves. The report states that it is fortunate that the 40-phon Fletcher–Munson curve on which the A-weighting standard was based turns out to have been in agreement with modern determinations.


title: Equal-loudness contour

text: The report also comments on the large differences apparent in the low-frequency region, which remain unexplained. Possible explanations are:


title: Equal-loudness contour

text: Real-life sounds from a reasonably distant source arrive as planar wavefronts. If the source of sound is directly in front of the listener, then both ears receive equal intensity, but at frequencies above about 1 kHz the sound that enters the ear canal is partially reduced by the head shadow, and also highly dependent on reflection off the pinna (outer ear). Off-centre sounds result in increased head masking at one ear, and subtle changes in the effect of the pinna, especially at the other ear. This combined effect of head-masking and pinna reflection is quantified in a set of curves in three-dimensional space referred to as head-related transfer functions (HRTFs). Frontal presentation is now regarded as preferable when deriving equal-loudness contours, and the latest ISO standard is specifically based on frontal and central presentation.


title: Equal-loudness contour

text: Because no HRTF is involved in normal headphone listening, equal-loudness curves derived using headphones are valid only for the special case of what is called "side-presentation", which is not how we normally hear.


title: Equal-loudness contour

text: The Robinson–Dadson determination used loudspeakers, and for a long time the difference from the Fletcher–Munson curves was explained partly on the basis that the latter used headphones. However, the ISO report actually lists the latter as using "compensated" headphones, though it doesn't make clear how Robinson–Dadson achieved "compensation".


title: Equal-loudness contour

text: Good headphones, well sealed to the ear, provide a flat low-frequency pressure response to the ear canal, with low distortion even at high intensities. At low frequencies, the ear is purely pressure-sensitive, and the cavity formed between headphones and ear is too small to introduce modifying resonances. Headphone testing is, therefore, a good way to derive equal-loudness contours below about 500 Hz, though reservations have been expressed about the validity of headphone measurements when determining the actual threshold of hearing, based on the observation that closing off the ear canal produces increased sensitivity to the sound of blood flow within the ear, which the brain appears to mask in normal listening conditions. At high frequencies, headphone measurement becomes unreliable, and the various resonances of pinnae (outer ears) and ear canals are severely affected by proximity to the headphone cavity.


title: Equal-loudness contour

text: With speakers, the opposite is true. A flat low-frequency response is hard to obtain—except in free space high above ground, or in a very large and anechoic chamber that is free from reflections down to 20 Hz. Until recently, it was not possible to achieve high levels at frequencies down to 20 Hz without high levels of harmonic distortion. Even today, the best speakers are likely to generate around 1 to 3% of total harmonic distortion, corresponding to 30 to 40 dB below fundamental. This is not good enough, given the steep rise in loudness (rising to as much as 24 dB per octave) with frequency revealed by the equal-loudness curves below about 100 Hz. A good experimenter must ensure that trial subjects really hear the fundamental and not harmonics—especially the third harmonic, which is especially strong as a speaker cone's travel becomes limited as its suspension reaches the limit of compliance. A possible way around the problem is to use acoustic filtering, such as by resonant cavity, in the speaker setup. A flat free-field high-frequency response up to 20 kHz, on the other hand, is comparatively easy to achieve with modern speakers on-axis. These effects must be considered when comparing results of various attempts to measure equal-loudness contours.


title: Equal-loudness contour

text: The A-weighting curve—in widespread use for noise measurement—is said to have been based on the 40-phon Fletcher–Munson curve. However, research in the 1960s demonstrated that determinations of equal-loudness made using pure tones are not directly relevant to our perception of noise. This is because the cochlea in our inner ear analyzes sounds in terms of spectral content, each "hair-cell" responding to a narrow band of frequencies known as a critical band. The high-frequency bands are wider in absolute terms than the low-frequency bands, and therefore "collect" proportionately more power from a noise source. However, when more than one critical band is stimulated, the signals to the brain add the various bands to produce the impressions of loudness. For these reasons Equal-loudness curves derived using noise bands show an upwards tilt above 1 kHz and a downward tilt below 1 kHz when compared to the curves derived using pure tones.


title: Equal-loudness contour

text: Various weighting curves were derived in the 1960s, in particular as part of the DIN 4550 standard for audio quality measurement, which differed from the A-weighting curve, showing more of a peak around 6 kHz. These gave a more meaningful subjective measure of noise on audio equipment, especially on the newly invented compact cassette tape recorders with Dolby noise reduction, which were characterized by a noise spectrum dominated by the higher frequencies.


title: Equal-loudness contour

text: BBC Research conducted listening trials in an attempt to find the best weighting curve and rectifier combination for use when measuring noise in broadcast equipment, examining the various new weighting curves in the context of noise rather than tones, confirming that they were much more valid than A-weighting when attempting to measure the subjective loudness of noise. This work also investigated the response of human hearing to tone-bursts, clicks, pink noise and a variety of other sounds that, because of their brief impulsive nature, do not give the ear and brain sufficient time to respond. The results were reported in BBC Research Report EL-17 1968/8 entitled "The Assessment of Noise in Audio Frequency Circuits".


title: Equal-loudness contour

text: The ITU-R 468 noise weighting curve, originally proposed in CCIR recommendation 468, but later adopted by numerous standards bodies (IEC, BSI, JIS, ITU) was based on the research, and incorporates a special Quasi-peak detector to account for our reduced sensitivity to short bursts and clicks. It is widely used by Broadcasters and audio professionals when they measure noise on broadcast paths and audio equipment, so they can subjectively compare equipment types with different noise spectra and characteristics.


title: John O'Donohue

text: John O'Donohue (1 January 1956 – 4 January 2008) was an Irish poet, author, priest, and Hegelian philosopher. He was a native Irish speaker, and as an author is best known for popularising Celtic spirituality.


title: John O'Donohue

text: Eldest of four siblings, he was raised in west Ireland in the area of Connemara and County Clare, where his father Patrick O'Donohue was a stonemason, while his mother Josie O'Donohue was a housewife.


title: John O'Donohue

text: O'Donohue became a novice at Maynooth, in north County Kildare, at age of 18, here he earned degrees in English, Philosophy, and Theology at St Patrick's College in County Kildare. He was ordained as Catholic priest on 6 June 1979. O'Donohue moved to Tübingen, Germany in 1986, and completed his dissertation in 1990 on German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel for his PhD in philosophical theology from University of Tübingen. In 1990, he returned to Ireland to continue his priestly duties, and began his post-doctoral work on the 13th century mystic, Meister Eckhart.


title: John O'Donohue

text: O'Donohue's first published work of prose, "Anam cara" (1997), catapulted him into a more public life as an author, speaker and teacher, particularly in the United States. O'Donohue left the priesthood in 2000. O'Donohue also devoted his energies to environmental activism, and is credited with helping spearhead the Burren Action Group, which opposed government development plans and ultimately preserved the area of Mullaghmore and the Burren, a karst landscape in County Clare.


title: John O'Donohue

text: Later in life, O’Donohue became a prominent speaker on creativity in the workplace. He consulted executives in the corporate sector "on integrating a sense of soul and of beauty into their leadership and their imagination about the people with whom they work."


title: John O'Donohue

text: Just two days after his 52nd birthday and two months after the publication of his final complete work, "Benedictus: A Book of Blessings", O'Donohue died suddenly in his sleep on 4 January 2008 while on holiday near Avignon, France. The exact cause of death has not been released by his family, leaving writers of non-fiction to speculation regarding the cause. Articles and posts have listed an aneurysm, heart problem, and aspiration as possible causes. He was survived by his partner Kristine Fleck, his mother Josephine (Josie) O'Donohue, his brothers, Patrick (Pat) and Peter (PJ) O'Donohue, and his sister, Mary O'Donohue.


title: John O'Donohue

text: Posthumous publications include a reprinting of "The Four Elements", a book of essays, in 2010 and "Echoes of Memory" (2011), an early work of poetry originally collected in 1994. In March 2015, a series of radio conversations he had recorded with close friend and former RTÉ broadcaster John Quinn was collated and published as "Walking on the Pastures of Wonder".


title: John O'Donohue

text: O'Donohue's last will was held to be invalid by the High Court in December 2011, Justice Gilligan holding that "As a piece of English, the Will is unclear on its face" and that the will was void for uncertainty. The will did not leave anything to his partner Kristine Fleck. In the absence of a valid will his estate devolved on his mother, Josie O'Donohue.


title: John O'Donohue

text: "Part of understanding the notion of Justice is to recognize the disproportions among which we live...it takes an awful lot of living with the powerless to really understand what it is like to be powerless, to have your voice, thoughts, ideas and concerns count for very little. We, who have been given much, whose voices can be heard, have a great duty and responsibility to make our voices heard with absolute integrity for those who are powerless."


title: Broad-gauge railway

text: A broad-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge (the distance between the rails) broader than the used by standard-gauge railways.


title: Broad-gauge railway

text: Broad gauge of , commonly known as Russian gauge, is the dominant track gauge in former Soviet Union (CIS states, Baltic states, Georgia and Ukraine), Mongolia and Finland. Broad gauge of , commonly known as Irish Gauge, is the dominant track gauge in Ireland, and the Australian States of Victoria and Adelaide.


title: Broad-gauge railway

text: Broad gauge of , commonly known as Iberian gauge, is the dominant track gauge in Spain and Portugal. Broad gauge of , commonly known as Indian gauge, is the dominant track gauge in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Argentina, Chile, and on BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) in the San Francisco Bay Area. This is the widest gauge in common use anywhere in the world. It is possible for trains on both Iberian gauge and Indian gauge to travel on each other's tracks with no modifications in the vast majority of cases.


title: Broad-gauge railway

text: In Great Britain, broad gauge was first used in Scotland for the Dundee and Arbroath Railway (1836–1847) and the Arbroath and Forfar Railway (1838–1848). Both short and isolated lines, they were built in . The lines were subsequently converted to standard gauge and connected to the emerging Scottish rail network.


title: Broad-gauge railway

text: The Great Western Railway was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel in 1838 with a gauge of , and retained this gauge until 1892. Some harbours also used railways of this gauge for construction and maintenance. These included Portland Harbour and Holyhead Breakwater, which used a locomotive for working sidings. As it was not connected to the national network, this broad-gauge operation continued until the locomotive wore out in 1913. The gauge initially proposed by Brunel was exactly but this was soon increased by to to accommodate clearance problems identified during early testing. George Stephenson was to add an extra half inch to his original gauge for the same reason.


title: Broad-gauge railway

text: While the parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was initially prepared to authorise lines built to the broad gauge of , it was eventually rejected by the Gauge Commission in favour of all new railways in England, Wales and Scotland being built to standard gauge of , this being the gauge with the greatest mileage. Railways which had already received their enabling Act would continue at the 7 ft gauge. Ireland, using the same criteria, was allocated a different standard gauge, the Irish gauge, of which is also used in the Australian states of South Australia and Victoria. Broad-gauge lines in Britain were gradually converted to dual gauge or standard gauge from 1864 and finally the last of Brunel's broad gauge was converted over a weekend in 1892.


title: Broad-gauge railway

text: In 1839, the Netherlands started its railway system with two broad-gauge railways. The chosen gauge of was applied between 1839 and 1866 by the "Hollandsche IJzeren Spoorweg-Maatschappij" (HSM) for its Amsterdam–The Hague–Rotterdam line and between 1842 and 1855, firstly by the Dutch state, but soon by the "Nederlandsche Rhijnspoorweg-Maatschappij", for its Amsterdam–Utrecht–Arnhem line. But the neighbouring countries Prussia and Belgium already used standard gauge, so the two companies had to regauge their first lines. In 1855, NRS regauged its line and shortly afterwards connected to the Prussian railways. The HSM followed in 1866. There are replicas of one broad-gauge 2-2-2 locomotive ("De Arend") and three carriages in the "Nederlands Spoorwegmuseum" (Dutch Railway Museum) in Utrecht. These replicas were built for the 100th anniversary of the Dutch Railways in 1938–39.


title: Broad-gauge railway

text: The erstwhile Great Indian Peninsula Railway introduced a broad gauge of for the first passenger railway line in India, between Bori Bunder and Thane. This was later adopted as the standard throughout the country, as it was thought to be safer in areas prone to cyclones and flooding. The gauge is now commonly referred to as Indian gauge. While some initial freight railway lines in India were built using standard gauge, most of the standard and narrow gauge railways have since been dismantled and relaid in broad gauge.


title: Broad-gauge railway

text: Ireland and some states in Australia and Brazil have a gauge of but Luas, the Dublin light rail system, is built to standard gauge. Russia and the other former Soviet Republics use a (originally ) gauge while Finland continues to use the gauge inherited from the Russian Empire (the two standards are close enough to allow full interoperability between Finland and Russia). Portugal and the Spanish "Renfe" system use a gauge of called "Ancho Ibérico" in Spanish or "Bitola Ibérica" in Portuguese (see Iberian gauge); though there are plans to convert to standard gauge.


title: Broad-gauge railway

text: In Toronto, Canada, the gauge for TTC subways and streetcars was chosen in 1861. Toronto adopted a unique Toronto gauge of , an "overgauge" originally stated to "allow horse-drawn wagons to use the rails" on the horse-drawn streetcar lines of the day but with the practical effect of precluding the use of standard-gauge equipment in the street. The Toronto Transit Commission still operates the Toronto streetcar system and three heavy-rail subway lines using this unique gauge. The light metro Scarborough RT and two light rail lines under construction (Eglinton Crosstown line and Finch West) use standard gauge.


title: Broad-gauge railway

text: In 1851, the broad gauge was officially adopted as the standard gauge for the Province of Canada, becoming known as the "Provincial gauge" and government subsidies were unavailable for railways that chose other gauges. This caused problems in interchanging freight cars with northern United States railroads, most of which were built to standard gauge or a gauge similar to it. In the 1870s (mainly between 1872 and 1874), Canadian broad-gauge lines were changed to standard gauge to facilitate interchange and the exchange of rolling stock with American railroads. Today, all Canadian railways are standard-gauge.


title: Broad-gauge railway

text: In the early days of rail transport in the US, railways tended to be built out from coastal cities into the hinterland, and systems did not initially connect. Each builder was free to choose its own gauge, although the availability of British-built locomotives encouraged some railways to be built to standard gauge. As a general rule, southern railways were built to one or another broad gauge, mostly , while northern railroads that were not standard gauge tended to be narrow gauge. Most of the original track in Ohio was built in , and special "compromise cars" were able to run on both this track and standard gauge track. In 1848, Ohio passed a law stating "The width of the track or gauge of all roads under this act, shall be four feet ten inches between the rails."  When American railroads' track extended to the point that they began to interconnect, it became clear that a single nationwide gauge was desirable.


title: Broad-gauge railway

text: Six-foot-gauge railroads () had developed a large regional following in New York State in the first part of the 19th century, due to the influence of the New York and Erie, one of the early pioneering railroads in America, chartered in 1832, with its first section opening in 1841. The builders and promoters decided that a six-foot track gauge would be needed for locomotives to be larger and more powerful than were in general use at the time, for pulling very large trains. Also the six-foot gauge provided greater stability, and the New York and Erie would operate passenger cars up to wide. Building westward from the Hudson River, it eventually reached Lake Erie, establishing a mainline longer than providing a shortcut to the American Midwest region from the New York City vicinity, and helping spawn a regional network of six-foot-gauge railroads almost exclusively within New York State.


title: Broad-gauge railway

text: Many early New York railways were Erie railroad-built branch lines, while others were independent railroads that wanted to partner and interchange with the Erie. These included the Walkill Valley, the Albany and Susquehanna (later part of the Delaware and Hudson); the Elmira, Jefferson & Canandaigua (later the Northern Central, becoming part of the Pennsylvania Railroad); the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western mainline (which also had a significant amount of trackage in Pennsylvania); predecessor lines of the New York and Oswego Midland (later the New York, Ontario, and Western); and the Canandaigua and Niagara Falls (later becoming part of the New York Central railroad's "Peanut Route" along the shoreline of Lake Ontario). However, by the late 1870s, the trend was inevitable, and conversion to standard gauge began, some lines first becoming "dual gauged" with the addition of a third running rail. Between 1876 and 1880, most of the remaining six-foot gauge trackage was converted.


title: Broad-gauge railway

text: In 1886, the railways in the Southern United States agreed to coordinate changing gauge on all their tracks. After considerable debate and planning, most of the southern rail network was converted from gauge to gauge, nearly the standard of the Pennsylvania Railroad, over two days beginning on 31 May 1886. Over a period of 36 hours, tens of thousands of workers pulled the spikes from the west rail of all the broad-gauge lines in the South, moved them east and spiked them back in place. The new gauge was close enough that standard-gauge equipment could run on it without difficulty. By June 1886, all major railroads in North America were using approximately the same gauge. The final conversion to true standard gauge took place gradually as track was maintained.


title: Broad-gauge railway

text: Some North American tram (streetcar) lines intentionally deviated from standard gauge. This may have been to make the tram companies less tempting targets for takeovers by the steam railways (or competing tram companies), which would be unable to run their trains over the tram tracks.


title: Broad-gauge railway

text: Pennsylvania trolley gauge of , is still used on the streetcars in New Orleans, and the Pittsburgh Light Rail system. This gauge was also used for the now defunct Pittsburgh Railways, West Penn Railways, and trams in Cincinnati. Similar gauge is used in Philadelphia on the SEPTA routes, 15, 101 and 102, the Subway–Surface Trolleys and the SEPTA Market-Frankford. Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system in the San Francisco Bay Area was opened in 1972 with gauge, and thus requires all related equipment to be custom built. The system trackage has been extended multiple times since then, and new railcars have been ordered with this non-standard gauge.


title: Broad-gauge railway

text: The use of a non-standard gauge precludes interoperability of rolling stock on railway networks. On the British Great Western Railway the gauge was supposed to allow high speed, but the company had difficulty with locomotive design in the early years, losing much of the advantage, and rapid advances in permanent way and suspension technology allowed standard-gauge speeds to approach broad-gauge speeds within a decade or two. On the and gauges, the extra width allowed bigger inside cylinders and greater power, a problem solvable by using outside cylinders and higher steam pressure on standard gauge. In the end, the most powerful engines on standard gauge in North America and Scandinavia far exceeded the power of any early broad-gauge locomotive, but then met limits set by other factors such as the capacity of manual stoking, the axle (and total) locomotive weight that would trigger upgrades to the rails and bridges, the maximum wheelbase and/or boiler length compatible with an individual route's curves.


title: Broad-gauge railway

text: Spain uses standard gauge track for its high speed railways in order to provide cross-border services with France and the rest of Western Europe, but runs high speed trains on its legacy broad gauge network at 200 km/h (124 mph) and are developing trains to travel at speeds in excess of 250 km/h (155 mph). Russia uses a modified Siemens Velaro High Speed Train on its flagship St Petersburg to Moscow service at 250 km/h (155 mph) and can run at 350 km/h (217 mph) on dedicated track. The country is planning to build its portion of the Beijing to Moscow high speed railway in broad gauge. Finland uses a modified Alstom pendolino on the Allegro service to Helsinki at 220 km/h (137 mph). Uzbekistan uses a modified Talgo 250 on the Tashkent–Bukhara high-speed rail line at 250 km/h (155 mph).


title: Broad-gauge railway

text: South Asia primarily uses the broad gauge for its passenger rail services and the fastest broad gauge train presently in the region is the Indian Railways' Vande Bharat Express (a.k.a. Train 18). During one of the trial runs, the Vande Bharat Express achieved a peak speed of 180 km/h (112 mph). The sustained speeds of this train is considerably lower, with a peak operational speed of 130 km/h and an average speed of 95 km/h, due to track limitations. Indian Railways has plans to introduce a higher speed Train 20 that is capable of 200 km/h, but the project has encountered delays stemming from bids for rolling-stocks with poor local sourcing. A number of semi high speed railway projects using broad gauge tracks are being planned or built in the region, with sustained speeds of 200 km/h with future-proofing for 250 km/h. India's current high speed railway project is being built on the standard gauge due to limitations imposed by the Japanese consortium funding the project, however the feasibility reports by both the French and German consultants preferred a broad gauge high speed railway. These European reports stated that the additional costs of train procurement, due to the essential modifications of the rolling-stock for the broad gauge, from European rolling-stock manufacturers such as Alstom or Siemens would be softened through a large minimum order size of at least thirty train sets. A considerable debate has continued about the suitability of the high speed rail on standard gauge for the Indian travel demands and the possible exclusion of the existing rail network in India. The recent discussions around the Kerala semi-high speed rail has highlighted the limitations of high speed rail on broad gauge. Since most of the global high speed rail infrastructure is built using the standard gauge, the cost benefits of using off-the-shelf rolling-stocks with minimal customizations and the availability of extensive, well proven technical know-how, are significant factors in favor of the high speed rail on the standard gauge over the broad gauge, for cost sensitive rail markets in South Asia, especially in India.


title: Broad-gauge railway

text: This gauge was first used in the United Kingdom and the United States before it became the standard gauge for most railways in the former Soviet Union.


title: Broad-gauge railway

text: Russian gauge or CIS gauge is the second most widely used gauge in the world, and spans the whole of the former Soviet Union/CIS bloc including the Baltic states and Mongolia. Finland uses . The difference is clearly lower than the tolerance margin, so through running is feasible. Care must be taken when servicing international trains because the wear profile of the wheels differs from that of trains that run on domestic tracks only.


title: Broad-gauge railway

text: When the Finnish rail network was founded in 1862, Finland was the Grand Duchy of Finland, a region of Imperial Russia. The first border crossing railway to Russia was opened in 1870, while the first to Sweden was not until 1919, so railways were built to the broad Russian track gauge of . In Russia, this gauge was re-standardized to during the 1960s. Finland retained the original gauge with no re-standardisation.


title: Broad-gauge railway

text: As part of the railway gauge standardisation considered by the United Kingdom Parliamentary Gauge Commission, Ireland was allocated its own gauge, Irish gauge. Ireland then had three gauges, and the new standard would be a fourth.


title: Broad-gauge railway

text: The Irish gauge of is used in Ireland and parts of Australia and Brazil. A problem with the Irish Gauge in Australia is that it is only wider than the standard gauge used in other parts of Australia, principally New South Wales. Therefore, it is not considered advisable to use a third rail to allow dual-gauge operation on mainline sections of track, because of the danger of material lodging between the two rails.


title: Broad-gauge railway

text: There has been argument for well over a century about the practicability of third rail operation, and numerous devices have been promoted to overcome the problem, especially at turnouts, including the "Brennan Switch".


title: Broad-gauge railway

text: This gauge was once used by the United Railways and Electric Company and the MTA Maryland and is now used only by the Baltimore Streetcar Museum.


title: Broad-gauge railway

text: As finally established, the Iberian gauge of is a compromise between the similar, but slightly different, gauges first adopted as respective national standards in Spain and Portugal in the mid-19th century. The main railway networks of Spain were initially constructed to a gauge of six Castilian feet. Those of Portugal were initially built in standard gauge, but by 1864 were all converted to a gauge of five Portuguese feet – close enough to allow interoperability in practice. The new high-speed network in Spain and Portugal uses standard gauge. The dual-gauge high-speed train RENFE Class 130 can change gauge at low speed without stopping.


title: Broad-gauge railway

text: The gauge was first used in Great Britain in Scotland for two short, isolated lines, the Dundee and Arbroath Railway (1836-1847) and the Arbroath and Forfar Railway (1838- ). Both the lines were subsequently converted to standard gauge and connected to the Scottish rail network.


title: Broad-gauge railway

text: Later this gauge was adopted as a standard for many British colonies such as Province of Canada and British India.


title: Broad-gauge railway

text: In 1851, the broad gauge was officially adopted as the standard gauge for the Province of Canada, becoming known as the "Provincial gauge", and government subsidies were unavailable for railways that chose other gauges. In the 1870s, mainly between 1872 and 1874, Canadian broad-gauge lines were changed to standard gauge to facilitate interchange and the exchange of rolling stock with American railways. Today, all Canadian railways are standard-gauge.


title: Broad-gauge railway

text: In US, this gauge was adopted for many lines, but soon fell out in favour of standard gauge. Today, only California's Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) uses this gauge.


title: Broad-gauge railway

text: In British India, some standard gauge freight railways were built in initial period, though they were dismantled later. Later, in the 1850s, the gauge of was adopted as standard for the nationwide network. Attempts to economize on the cost of construction led to the adoption of gauge and then and narrow gauges for many secondary and branch lines. In the later part of the 20th century, due to interchangeability and maintenance issue, the railways in each of the countries in the Indian Subcontinent began to convert all metre-gauge and narrow-gauge lines to this gauge. Today, the nationwide rail network in Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal is entirely on this gauge, whereas India, under Project Unigauge, and Bangladesh are still undergoing gauge conversion.


title: Broad-gauge railway

text: These applications might use double track of the country's usual gauge to provide the necessary stability and axle load. These applications may also use much heavier than normal rails, the heaviest rails for trains being about . Vehicles on these gauges generally operate at very low speeds.


title: Broad-gauge railway

text: A P. G. Wodehouse character, Roderick Spode, suggests widening the rails of the entire British railway network so sheep may stand sideways on trains.


title: Shriners Hospitals for Children

text: Shriners Children's is a network of non-profit medical facilities across North America. Children with orthopaedic conditions, burns, spinal cord injuries, and cleft lip and palate are eligible for care and receive all services in a family-centered environment, regardless of the patients' ability to pay. Care for children is usually provided until age 18, although in some cases, it may be extended to age 21.


title: Shriners Hospitals for Children

text: Headquartered in Tampa, Florida, the hospitals are owned and operated by Shriners International, formerly known as the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, a Freemasonry-related organization whose members are known as Shriners. Patients are not required to have any familial affiliation with the Shriners order nor Freemasonry. The current advertising campaign for the healthcare system features the tagline, "Love to the Rescue."


title: Shriners Hospitals for Children

text: In 1920, the Imperial Session of the Shriners was held in Portland, Oregon. During that session the membership unanimously passed a resolution put forward by W. Freeland Kendrick who (while serving as Imperial Potentate) put forth the resolution that created the Shriners Hospitals for Children. The first hospital in the system opened in 1922 in Shreveport, Louisiana. It provided pediatric orthopaedic care.


title: Shriners Hospitals for Children

text: Shriners Hospitals for Children worked closely with the United States Southern Command and other military commands, including the Army and Air Force, the Guatemalan combined military force and via the U.S. embassy, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, and the U.S. State Department to arrange medical visas and transportation to the United States, "with a global commitment to children around the world".


title: Shriners Hospitals for Children

text: In 1962, the Shriners of North America allocated $10 million to establish three hospitals that specialized in the treatment and rehabilitation of burned children. After visiting 21 university-based medical institutions, the decision was made to build their first pediatric burn hospital on the campus of the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas.


title: Shriners Hospitals for Children

text: In 1994, the "Chronicle of Philanthropy", an industry publication, released the results of the largest study of charitable and non-profit organization popularity and credibility. The study showed that the Shriners Hospitals were ranked as the 9th "most popular charity/non-profit in America" of over 100 charities researched with 40% of Americans over the age of 12 choosing "Love" and "Like A Lot" for the Shriners Hospitals.


title: Shriners Hospitals for Children

text: In September 2008, the Shriner's Hospital in Galveston sustained significant damage from Hurricane Ike. The hospital was closed for renovation at that time, and care for children with acute burns was provided at other Shriners Hospitals for Children. The Shriners had considered closing facilities in Shreveport, Louisiana; Greenville, South Carolina; Erie, Pennsylvania; Spokane, Washington; Springfield, Massachusetts and Galveston, Texas, eliminating a total of 225 beds. However, in July 2009, the Shriners National Convention voted overwhelming against closing any hospitals and to repair and reopen the Galveston facility.


title: Shriners Hospitals for Children

text: In 2009, despite an endowment that declined from $8 billion to $5 billion in less than a year because of the poor economy, Douglas Maxwell, the hospitals' CEO said he and other Shriners are confident the hospital system will be able to remain solvent in the long term. Maxwell stated in July 2009 that some of the facilities may become outpatient surgical centers, and will begin accepting insurance payments (for most care) for the first time in the hospitals' 87-year history. Maxwell said children with burns, orthopaedic conditions, spinal cord injuries and cleft palates will continue to be treated without charge to their families.


title: Shriners Hospitals for Children

text: In May 2015, Shriners Hospitals for Children became a member of the Mayo Clinic Care Network, a national network of organizations committed to better serving patients and their families through physician collaboration.


title: Shriners Hospitals for Children

text: In the 2020s, Shriners Hospitals for Children rebranded as Shriners Children's, adapting to current nationwide trends in health care, especially the emphasis on outpatient care, and some locations becoming clinics or outpatient centers.


title: Shriners Hospitals for Children

text: Treatment areas cover a wide range of pediatric orthopaedics, including scoliosis, limb discrepancies, clubfoot, hip dysplasia, and juvenile idiopathic arthritis, as well as cerebral palsy, spina bifida (myelomeningocele), and other neurological conditions that affect ambulation and movement. Three of the hospitals provide spinal cord injury rehabilitation that is developmentally appropriate for children and adolescents, with adventure and adapted sports programs, activity-based rehabilitation, aquatherapy, animal-assisted therapy, and other programs. Four of the hospitals (Boston, Galveston, Cincinnati, and Sacramento) provide care for children with burns, as well as treating a variety of skin conditions such as epidermolysis bullosa and toxic epidermal necrolysis. The Boston, Chicago, Shreveport, and Portland hospitals also provide treatment for children with craniofacial conditions, especially facial clefts.


title: Shriners Hospitals for Children

text: The hospital in Sacramento is the only hospital in the Shriners' system that focuses on all three areas of treatment (burns, orthopaedics, and spinal cord injuries), as well as research. The Sacramento hospital also houses its own orthotics and prosthetics lab and development facilities. Transportation to the hospitals is often provided free of charge for patients and their family by Shriner-drivers (also known as Hospital Tripsters) across the country, by van or by airplane. Children accepted for treatment become part of the Shriners Hospital system until their 18th or, sometimes, their 21st, birthday, eligible for both inpatient and outpatient treatment for all facets of their disability.


title: Shriners Hospitals for Children

text: While the main emphasis of the hospitals is to provide medical care to children regardless of the family's ability to pay, the mission of the hospitals also includes research on the conditions treated and the education of medical professionals, including medical residents and fellows, nurses, physical, recreation, and occupational therapists, speech and language pathology, psychologists, social workers, and child life specialists.


title: Shriners Hospitals for Children

text: , the Shriners Hospitals' Form 990, show an endowment of $8.2 billion, which is up significantly since April 2009, when the endowment dropped to approximately $5 billion due to the recession.


title: Matt Rosendale

text: Matthew Martin Rosendale Sr. (born July 7, 1960) is an American politician and businessman from Montana. A member of the Republican Party, he is the U.S. representative for Montana's at-large congressional district, elected in 2020.


title: Matt Rosendale

text: Prior to taking office as a congressman, Rosendale served as the Montana State Auditor and Commissioner of Securities and Insurance. He was also a member of the Montana Legislature from 2011 to 2017, serving in both houses.


title: Matt Rosendale

text: Rosendale was born and raised in Maryland. He spent his career working in real estate, real estate development and land management. He grew his family real estate business from a single, five agent office into a full-service firm with 65 agents and four offices.


title: Matt Rosendale

text: Rosendale and his wife moved their family to Glendive, Montana, in 2002, where they raised their children. He was twice elected chairman of the Glendive Agri-Trade Expo committee, a local group that puts on an agriculture exposition showcasing agri-business in eastern Montana. Rosendale also served as head of his local Catholic parish council.


title: Matt Rosendale

text: Rosendale says his friends and neighbors in Glendive urged him to run for the state legislature to reduce spending and regulations, defend their gun and property rights, and protect the sanctity of life.


title: Matt Rosendale

text: He served for one two-year term in the Montana House of Representatives and one four-year term in the Montana Senate, during which he served as Senate Majority Leader.


title: Matt Rosendale

text: Rosendale announced he would run for the Montana House of Representatives to represent House District 38, which covers Wibaux and part of Dawson county. Also seeking the Republican nomination were Edward Hilbert and Alan Doane, the latter of which ended up succeeding Rosendale in the Montana House. Rosendale prevailed, receiving 48.4% of the vote, with Doane receiving 41.3% and Hilbert receiving 10.4%.


title: Matt Rosendale

text: Rosendale went on to defeat a Democratic incumbent State Representative Dennis Getz in the general election, receiving 52.7% of the vote to Getz's 47.3%.


title: Matt Rosendale

text: During the 2011 legislative session, Rosendale served on several committees including the Business and Labor Committee, the Transportation Committee, and the Local Government Committee.


title: Matt Rosendale

text: In 2012, with State Senator Donald Steinbeisser's being ineligible to run for reelection due to term limits, Rosendale announced he would run for the Montana Senate to represent Senate District 19, a heavily Republican district in eastern Montana.


title: Matt Rosendale

text: After running unopposed in the Republican primary, Rosendale defeated Democrat Fred Lake in the general election, receiving 67.6% of the vote to Lake's 32.4%.


title: Matt Rosendale

text: During the 2013 legislative session, Rosendale served as Vice Chair of the Natural Resources and Transportation Committee. He also served on the Finance and Claims Committee, the Highways and Transportation Committee and the Natural Resources Committee. During this legislative session, Rosendale was the primary sponsor of a resolution urging Congress to submit a balanced budget amendment to states. He also was the primary sponsor of a bill which became law to prevent law enforcement from using drones for surveillance purposes.


title: Matt Rosendale

text: Based on Rosendale's voting record in the 2013 legislative session, he earned a 100% on the Montana Family Foundation's scorecard and was also named a "Champion of Business" by the Montana Chamber of Commerce.


title: Matt Rosendale

text: Due to state redistricting in 2014, Rosendale represented Senate District 18 for the remainder of his tenure, starting in 2015. At the beginning of the 2015 legislative session, Rosendale's colleagues in the State Senate, elected him to serve as the Senate Majority Leader. He also served as the Chair of the Rules Committee and as a member of the Finance and Claims Committee and Natural Resources and Transportation Committee. Rosendale was the primary sponsor of a bill to authorize direct primary care provider plans which passed both houses of the legislature before being vetoed by Democratic Governor Steve Bullock.


title: Matt Rosendale

text: Rosendale's voting record in the 2015 session earned him perfect 100% scores on several organizations' scorecards including the Montana Family Foundation. He was the recipient of the American Conservative Union's "Award for Conservative Excellence" and was again named a "Champion of Business" by the Montana Chamber of Commerce.


title: Matt Rosendale

text: With State Auditor Monica Lindeen ineligible to run for re-election due to term limits, Rosendale decided to run for the open State Auditor position.


title: Matt Rosendale

text: Rosendale ran unopposed in the Republican primary. In the general election, Rosendale faced Jesse Laslovich, who was Chief Legal Counsel to State Auditor Monica Lindeen and was widely considered to be one of Montana's rising political stars.


title: Matt Rosendale

text: Despite being outspent 4:1, Rosendale defeated Democrat Jesse Laslovich receiving 53.6% of the vote to Laslovich's 46.4%. At the time, this was the most expensive State Auditor's race in Montana state history.


title: Matt Rosendale

text: In 2017, Rosendale announced he would seek the Republican nomination to challenge two-term incumbent Democratic Senator Jon Tester.


title: Matt Rosendale

text: In a competitive four-way primary, Rosendale faced District Judge Russell Fagg, State Senator Al Olszewski, and combat veteran Troy Downing. Rosendale won the Republican primary with 33.8% of the vote, to Fagg's 28.3%, Downing's 19.1% and Olszewski's 18.7%.


title: Matt Rosendale

text: After the primary, Rosendale was endorsed by President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence. Trump visited the state to campaign for Rosendale four times, with Pence visiting three times.


title: Matt Rosendale

text: Polls showed the race in a statistical tie going into election day, in what was the most expensive election in Montana history, with more than $70 million spent between the two sides. Tester's campaign had a huge cash advantage, raising and spending $21 million to Rosendale's $6 million.


title: Matt Rosendale

text: In the general election, Tester won 50.3% of the vote to Rosendale's 46.8%, with Libertarian candidate Rick Breckenridge taking 2.9%.


title: Matt Rosendale

text: As State Auditor, Rosendale is also one of five members of the Montana State Land Board, which oversees the 5.2 million acres in the state trust land. As a member of the Montana State Land Board, Rosendale voted to expand access to over of public land.


title: Matt Rosendale

text: In 2017, Rosendale proposed legislation which would create a reinsurance program so that individuals with pre-existing conditions could access affordable health coverage. This legislation passed both houses of the legislature before being vetoed by Governor Steve Bullock. Rosendale condemned Governor Bullock's veto stating, "the governor has sacrificed good, bipartisan policy in favor of bad, partisan politics."


title: Matt Rosendale

text: Rosendale then worked with a bipartisan group of Montana officials to create a reinsurance program and were granted a waiver to do so by the federal government. The program is currently operational.


title: Matt Rosendale

text: In 2019, Rosendale proposed legislation targeting pharmacy benefits managers and a practice known as spread pricing. The legislation passed both houses of the legislature before being vetoed by Governor Steve Bullock. Rosendale again condemned Governor Bullock saying his veto "is a gift to the pharmaceutical and insurance industries and it's a slap in the face to consumers."


title: Matt Rosendale

text: In 2013, incumbent Representative Steve Daines announced that he would not seek re-election and would instead run for the United States Senate. Following this, Rosendale announced he would be running to succeed him in the U.S. House of Representatives. In addition to Rosendale, the Republican field included former State Senators Ryan Zinke and Corey Stapleton, State Representative Elsie Arntzen, and real estate investor Drew Turiano.


title: Matt Rosendale

text: Rosendale came in third place with 28.8% of the vote, behind Zinke with 33.3% of the vote and Stapleton with 29.3% of the vote. Arntzen and Turiano received 6.9% and 1.7% respectively.


title: Matt Rosendale

text: In June 2019, Congressman Greg Gianforte announced that he would not be seeking re-election and would instead run for Governor to replace term-limited Governor Steve Bullock. Days later, Rosendale announced he would run for the open congressional seat.


title: Matt Rosendale

text: Rosendale received the early endorsement of President Donald Trump. He also received early endorsements from elected officials around the country including Senator Ted Cruz, Senator Rand Paul, House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy, House Republican Whip Steve Scalise and Congressman Jim Jordan, as well as the endorsement of the Crow Tribe of Montana.


title: Matt Rosendale

text: Rosendale defeated Democrat Kathleen Williams in the general election in November, capturing 56.4% of the vote to Williams' 43.6%.


title: Matt Rosendale

text: As a result of the 2020 census and redistricting cycle, Montana regained a congressional district after having had a single at-large district since 1993. Rosendale chose to run for re-election in the reconstituted second district, which covers the eastern two-thirds of the state and includes Billings, Great Falls, Helena and his home in Glendive


title: Matt Rosendale

text: Rosendale again received the endorsement of Donald Trump and won the Republican primary with 75.7% of the vote. Rosendale won the general election with 56.6% of the vote, compared with Independent Gary Buchanan's 22.0% and Democrat Penny Ronning's 20.1%.


title: Matt Rosendale

text: Rosendale, along with all other Senate and House Republicans, voted against the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.


title: Matt Rosendale

text: In June 2021, Rosendale was among 21 House Republicans who voted against a resolution to give the Congressional Gold Medal to police officers who defended the U.S. Capitol on January 6. Also in June 2021, Rosendale was among fourteen House Republicans who voted against passing legislation to establish June 19, or Juneteenth, as a federal holiday.


title: Matt Rosendale

text: In June 2021, Rosendale was one of forty-nine House Republicans who voted in favor of the repeal of the AUMF against Iraq.


title: Matt Rosendale

text: Rosendale was one of 15 representatives to vote against H.R. 567: Trans-Sahara Counterterrorism Partnership Program Act of 2021, which would establish an interagency program to assist countries in North and West Africa to improve immediate and long-term capabilities to counter terrorist threats, and for other purposes.


title: Matt Rosendale

text: In September 2021, Rosendale was among 75 House Republicans to vote against the National Defense Authorization Act of 2022, which contains a provision that would require women to be drafted. He was among 19 House Republicans to vote against the final passage of the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act.


title: Matt Rosendale

text: In November 2021, Rosendale was one of 6 House Republicans to vote against the RENACER Act, which extended U.S. sanctions against Nicaragua and granted the president several ways to address acts of corruption and human rights violations by the Daniel Ortega administration, including the power to exclude Nicaragua from the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR) and to obstruct multilateral loans to the country.


title: Matt Rosendale

text: Rosendale issued a statement in opposition to intervention in Ukraine during the 2021–2022 Russo-Ukrainian crisis. Later, Rosendale sponsored the Secure America’s Border First Act, which would prohibit the expenditure or obligation of military and security assistance to Kyiv over the United States border with Mexico.


title: Matt Rosendale

text: On March 2, 2022, Rosendale was one of only three representatives in the House to vote against a resolution supporting the sovereignty of Ukraine in the face of the Russian invasion.


title: Matt Rosendale

text: In 2022, Rosendale voted against the government funding bill which would provide approximately 14 billion dollars to the government of Ukraine.


title: Matt Rosendale

text: In July 2022, Rosendale was one of 18 Republicans to vote against ratifying Sweden's and Finland's applications for NATO membership.


title: Matt Rosendale

text: In July 2021, Rosendale voted against the bipartisan ALLIES Act, which would increase by 8,000 the number of special immigrant visas for Afghan allies of the U.S. military during its invasion of Afghanistan, while also reducing some application requirements that caused long application backlogs; the bill passed in the House 407–16.


title: Matt Rosendale

text: Rosendale sponsored Representative Brian Babin's bill, H.R.140 - Birthright Citizenship Act of 2021, which would eliminate birthright citizenship.


title: Matt Rosendale

text: Rosendale and his wife Jean reside on a ranch north of Glendive. The couple has three adult children. Their son Adam served briefly in the Montana Legislature in 2017. Rosendale is a Roman Catholic.


title: Luqman

text: Luqman (; also known as Luqman the Wise or Luqman al-Hakim) was a wise man after whom Surah Luqman, the 31st sura (chapter) of the Quran, was named. Luqman ( BC) is believed to have been from Nubia or from Egypt. There are many stories about Luqman in Persian, Arabic and Turkish literature, with the primary historical sources for his life being Tafsir ibn Kathir and "Stories of the Qur'an" by Ibn Kathir. While the Quran does not state whether Luqman was a prophet or not, some believe him to be a prophet and thus, add the honorific ʿAlaihis Salam (A.S.) after his name.


title: Luqman

text: According to the 12th ayah (verse) of Surah Luqman in the Qur'an, Luqman was bestowed with wisdom by Allah, al-Hakim (the Most Wise).


title: Luqman

text: According to a Hadith in the Muwatta of Imam Malik, Luqman was asked, "What has brought you to what we see?", referring to his high rank. Luqman said, "Truthful speech, fulfilling the trust, and leaving what does not concern me." This narration has also been mentioned with different wording in another source from ibn Jarir who heard it from ibn Hamid who heard it from al-Hakam who heard it from Umar ibn Qais.


title: Luqman

text: In another Hadith, it is mentioned that for some people, a high rank in Jannah has been determined. However, when that person has not acquired the good deeds to reach that high rank, Allah causes him to receive some trials or tests, which, if accepted and borne patiently, will grant him the high status.


title: Luqman

text: Luqman was captured by slavers and sold as a slave. He was deprived of his freedom and could neither move nor speak freely. However, he suffered his bondage patiently, faithful and hopeful, waiting for Allah's action. This was the first of the trials that he had to bear.


title: Luqman

text: The man who bought Luqman was good-hearted and intelligent, treating Luqman with kindness. He was able to detect that Luqman was not ordinary and thus, tried to test his intelligence and discovered its reality.


title: Luqman

text: One day, the man ordered Luqman to slaughter a sheep and Luqman slaughtered the sheep. Then, he ordered Luqman to bring its best parts to him and Luqman took its heart and tongue to his master. On receiving them, his master smiled, fascinated by Luqman's choice of the 'best' part of the sheep. He understood that Luqman was trying to convey some deep meaning, even though he could not make out exactly what. From that moment onwards, his owner began to take more interest in Luqman and became kinder to him than before.


title: Luqman

text: A few days later, Luqman was again instructed to slaughter a sheep - which he did - but this time he was asked to take the worst parts of the animal to his master. Once again, Luqman brought the heart and the tongue - to his master's amazement. When the master mentioned this to Luqman, the wise Luqman answered, "The tongue and the heart are the sweetest parts if they are good, and nothing can be worse than these if they are wicked!" Thereafter, Luqman's owner held him in great respect. Luqman was consulted by many people for advice, and the fame of his wisdom spread all over the country.


title: Luqman

text: An Arabian mythical figure named 'Luqman' also existed long before the figure of the wise 'Luqman' appeared in the Quran, resulting in considerable debate of both theological and historical nature as to the relationship of the two characters.


title: Luqman

text: Some, such as 17th-century French scholar Pierre-Daniel Huet, maintain that the two are the same person, but others argue that they simply share the same name. In Arabic proverb collections, the two characters are fused, drawing from both the Quran and pre-Islamic stories, endowing Luqman with superhuman strength and lifespan. The pre-Islamic Luqman was of the Ad people, who lived in Al-Ahqaf in the Arabian peninsula, near modern-day Yemen.


title: Type 16 maneuver combat vehicle

text: The "Type 16" maneuver combat vehicle (MCV) equips designated combat units. Due to its light weight and small size, it is designed for easy deployment (by aircraft if needed) allowing rapid movement on narrow roads and in built-up areas in response to various contingencies. Despite its small size and light armor, it can successfully attack much larger armored fighting vehicles as well as personnel, using its large caliber gun.


title: Type 16 maneuver combat vehicle

text: For FY2016, the MOD has requested funding for 36 examples of the MCV, to enter service with elements of the 8th Division at Kumamoto, and the 14th Brigade at Zentsūji. Both formations are currently planned for conversion to rapid reaction forces (though these plans, as with the original plans for the MCV [see History], are presently (mid-2015) under review and subject to possible major revision). The intention is for the MCV to act as both as a rapid reaction asset against conventional incursions on the outer islands and as a counter-insurgency vehicle against asymmetrical attacks in urban areas of Japan by enemy special forces, intelligence operatives, or their proxies.


title: Type 16 maneuver combat vehicle

text: MCVs are expected to be highly functional, but can also be loaded on Kawasaki C-2 at the same time. JPSDF is dedicated to securing transport vessels for maritime transport independently, and will be carried on these vessels and transported to the Okinawa Islands.


title: Type 16 maneuver combat vehicle

text: The main gun is manually loaded as a cost-saving measure. Some critics have expressed doubts about its effectiveness due to this strain on the crew in hot conditions, as the vehicle does not have air conditioning.


title: Type 16 maneuver combat vehicle

text: In 2009 resistance testing of the shielding against HEAT rounds was conducted using the Carl Gustav M2; and against regular kinetic ammunition the frontal shield was developed to resist shots from 20 mm to 30 mm autocannons while the side armor was deemed sufficient to resist 14.5 mm heavy machine gun fire.


title: Type 16 maneuver combat vehicle

text: The first concept for a Japanese wheeled chassis mounting a 105 mm cannon appeared with the (将来装輪戦闘車両) program in 2003. The program was centered around a universal wheeled chassis mounting a variety of weaponry including a 40 mm CTA cannon, 120 mm mortar system, 155 mm howitzer, and most notably a 105 mm cannon. The Future Combat Vehicle program was cancelled due to development expenses, but the concept for a 105 mm cannon would be expanded upon in the Light Combat Vehicle Program.


title: Type 16 maneuver combat vehicle

text: The LCV program was a technology demonstration to explore the viability of multiple concepts that would possibly be integrated into the Maneuver Combat Vehicle development. These include IED and mine resistance, individual motors inside of the wheels, air transportability inside of a C-2 and C-130, passive hydro-pneumatic suspension to reduce recoil and a double action low recoil cannon that could provide indirect and direct fire. Initial designs for the LCV called for a 6x6 design, but that concept was scrapped in favor of an 8x8 design for the MCV. Other concepts that would be omitted from the Type 16 include the in-wheel engines, transport inside of the C-130, and indirect fire capability of the main cannon. The IED/ anti-tank mine resistance became an optional plate for the undercarriage that Type 16 crews can special order for their vehicle. After the concept was confirmed to be viable, work began on creating a new vehicle that would incorporate what was learned from the LCV project.


title: Type 16 maneuver combat vehicle

text: The Technical Research & Development Institute of Japan's Ministry of Defense had made several prototype vehicles since 2008. They unveiled their fourth of what were initially called "mobile combat vehicle" prototypes on 9 October 2013. JGSDF service Acceptance tests were scheduled to begin in 2014 or 2015, with initial operational deployment by the JGSDF planned for 2016. 99 MCVs were originally planned to be introduced by the end of FY 2018. The name of the vehicle was changed to "maneuver combat vehicle" during the second half of 2011.


title: Type 16 maneuver combat vehicle

text: The MCV was part of a new armored vehicle strategy that prioritized light air-transportable firepower. Originally the number of main battle tanks was to be reduced from 760 to 390, with most remaining tanks to be concentrated on the main Japanese islands of Hokkaido and Kyushu. Some 200–300 MCVs were to be procured and these would be airlifted to islands when and where they were needed. The idea was that the smaller, lighter, and faster MCV could be redeployed quicker than tanks to better defend the outlying islands. This represented a shift in Japanese armored vehicle structure from one designed to repel a Soviet invasion from the north to a more mobile force aimed at possibly defending against a Chinese invasion of the southern island chain. The MCV was intended to help re-equip existing divisions and brigades reorganised into mobile (rapid reaction) divisions/brigades, as well as equip new dedicated rapid reaction regiments alongside (eventually) the Light-weight Combat Vehicle System (LCV) which was also designed with defense of the outer islands in mind.


title: Diana Lewis

text: Diana Lewis (September 18, 1919 – January 18, 1997) was an American film actress and a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract player.


title: Diana Lewis

text: The daughter of vaudeville performers, Lewis was born in Asbury Park, New Jersey. She attended Fairfax High School in Los Angeles.


title: Diana Lewis

text: She began her film career in "It's a Gift" (1934) and worked steadily over the next few years, usually in minor roles. Her more notable films include "It's a Gift", "Gold Diggers in Paris" (1938), "Go West" (1940), and "Johnny Eager" (1941). She was the love interest of Andy Hardy as Daphne Fowler in "Andy Hardy Meets Debutante" (1940).


title: Diana Lewis

text: Lewis met actor William Powell, who was 27 years her senior, at MGM in 1940. They married at a dude ranch in Nevada on January 5, 1940, after a courtship of less than a month. She retired from acting in 1943. Lewis became known as Mousie Powell after her marriage. Lewis was a supporter of the LPGA tour. She was an honorary member and established The William and Mousie Powell Award in 1986 though it was renamed in 2019. The couple remained together for 44 years until Powell's death at age 91 in 1984.


title: Diana Lewis

text: Lewis died from pancreatic cancer in Rancho Mirage, California, aged 77. She was interred at Cathedral City's Desert Memorial Park in Riverside County, California, alongside Powell, and her stepson, William David Powell.


title: Diana Lewis

text: Lewis was an active supporter of women's golf and the LPGA. The LPGA's William and Mousie Powell Award is named in honor of the Powells.


title: Lovlina Borgohain

text: Lovlina Borgohain (born 2 October 1997) is an Indian boxer. She won a bronze medal at the 2020 Olympic Games in the women's welterweight event, becoming only the third Indian boxer to win a medal at the Olympics. She won bronze medal at the 2018 AIBA Women's World Boxing Championships and the 2019 AIBA Women's World Boxing Championships. Borgohain is the first female athlete and the second boxer from Assam to represent the state in the Olympics. In 2020, she became the sixth person from Assam to receive Arjuna Award.


title: Lovlina Borgohain

text: Borgohain was born on 2 October 1997, and hails from the Golaghat district of Assam. Her parents are Tiken and Mamoni Borgohain. Her father Tiken is a small-scale businessman and struggled financially to support his daughter's ambition. A former Muay Thai practitioner, Lovlina, as the youngest of three sister-siblings, got interested in boxing after seeing her twin sisters, Licha and Lima take up kickboxing and followed the same trail. The Sports Authority of India held trials at her high school Barpathar Girls High School, where Borgohain participated. She was noticed and selected by renowned Coach Padum Chandra Bodo at the SAI STC Guwahati from 2012 to learn basics of boxing and to achieve the excellence in boxing. She was later coached by Sandhya Gurung.


title: Lovlina Borgohain

text: She won gold medal at the 1st India Open International Boxing Tournament in New Delhi and silver medal at the 2nd India Open International Boxing Tournament in Guwahati.


title: Lovlina Borgohain

text: Borgohain's career's biggest break came when she was selected to participate in the 2018 Commonwealth Games welterweight boxing category. However, her announcement was the subject of controversy after it was found out that she hadn't received any official intimation about her selection. She found out about her selection after the story broke at a major media outlet. At the Commonwealth Games, she lost to Sandy Ryan from the UK in the quarterfinals. Sandy Ryan eventually went on to win gold in that category.


title: Lovlina Borgohain

text: Her selection in the 2018 Commonwealth Games was attributed to her success at the inaugural India Open – an international boxing championship held in February 2018 – where she won a gold medal in the welterweight category. She had also won the bronze medal at the Asian Boxing Championships in Vietnam in November 2017 and the bronze medal at the President's Cup held in Astana in June 2017.


title: Lovlina Borgohain

text: She later won a silver medal at the Ulaanbaatar Cup in Mongolia in June 2018 and a bronze medal at the 13th International Silesian Championship in Poland in September 2018.


title: Lovlina Borgohain

text: She represented India for the first time at the AIBA Women's World Boxing Championship, held in New Delhi, where she won the bronze medal in the welterweight category on 23 November 2018.


title: Lovlina Borgohain

text: In 2019, Borgohain got selected for her second Women's World Boxing Championships in Ulan-Ude, Russia, from 3–13 October without trials. Borgohain defeated Morocco's Bel Ahbib Oumayma 5–0 in her round of 16 bout. She was defeated by China's Yang Liu in the 69 kg category semi-final by 2-3 and had to settle with the bronze medal.


title: Lovlina Borgohain

text: In March 2020, Borgohain secured the Olympic berth in the 69 kg with a 5–0 win over Maftunakhon Melieva of Uzbekistan in the 2020 Asia & Oceania Boxing Olympic Qualification Tournament. With this, she has become the first ever sportswoman from Assam to qualify for the Olympics. She lost to the 2018 AIBA Women's World Boxing Championships silver-medallist Gu Hong of China in a unanimous 5-0 verdict and signed off with a bronze medal at the Asian Olympic Qualifiers.


title: Lovlina Borgohain

text: Borgohain trained at Assisi, Italy from 15 October to 5 December 2020 for World Olympic qualifying event scheduled for May – June 2021.


title: Lovlina Borgohain

text: Borgohain is the first female athlete and the second boxer from Assam to represent the state in the Olympics. She defeated the German boxer Nadine Apetz in the primary rounds and on 30 July 2021, she defeated Taiwan's Chen Nien-chin and which assured her a medal. India women's boxing team head coach Raffaelle Bergamesco told "The Times of India" in an interview, "She wanted to win and that was a fundamental change. Lovlina is a girl who is very attached to her family, to her fellow citizens. I tried to motivate her by shouting that the whole of India was watching her and she could write her own story" In the semifinals she lost to the world no. 1 and eventual gold medalist Busenaz Sürmeneli and took home the bronze medal.


title: Lovlina Borgohain

text: She lost to Cindy Ngamba of Fair Chance Team 1-4 in the pre-quarter finals. Borgohain had again defeated former world champion Chen Nien-Chin in the first round.


title: Lovlina Borgohain

text: In 2019, Borgohain signed up with sports management firm Infinity Optimal Solutions (IOS) which will handle her endorsements and commercial interests.


title: Lovlina Borgohain

text: In 2022, Borgohain was appointed as deputy superintendent of police by Assam Government. In May 2022, she was elected as the chair and a voting member on the Board of Directors for International Boxing Association (amateur) Athletes' Committee.


title: Tropical year

text: A tropical year or solar year (or tropical period) is the time that the Sun takes to return to the same position in the sky of a celestial body of the Solar System such as the Earth, completing a full cycle of seasons; for example, the time from vernal equinox to vernal equinox, or from summer solstice to summer solstice. It is the type of year used by tropical solar calendars. The solar year is one type of astronomical year and particular orbital period. Another type is the sidereal year (or sidereal orbital period), which is the time it takes Earth to complete one full orbit around the Sun as measured with respect to the fixed stars, resulting in a duration of 20 minutes longer than the tropical year, because of the precession of the equinoxes.


title: Tropical year

text: Since antiquity, astronomers have progressively refined the definition of the tropical year. The entry for "year, tropical" in the "Astronomical Almanac Online Glossary" states:


title: Tropical year

text: An equivalent, more descriptive, definition is "The natural basis for computing passing tropical years is the mean longitude of the Sun reckoned from the precessionally moving equinox (the dynamical equinox or equinox of date). Whenever the longitude reaches a multiple of 360 degrees the mean Sun crosses the vernal equinox and a new tropical year begins".


title: Tropical year

text: The mean tropical year in 2000 was 365.24219 ephemeris days, each ephemeris day lasting 86,400 SI seconds. This is 365.24217 mean solar days. For this reason, the calendar year is an approximation of the solar year: the Gregorian calendar (with its rules for catch-up leap days) is designed so as to resynchronise the calendar year with the solar year at regular intervals.


title: Tropical year

text: The word "tropical" comes from the Greek "tropikos" meaning "turn". Thus, the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn mark the extreme north and south latitudes where the Sun can appear directly overhead, and where it appears to "turn" in its annual seasonal motion. Because of this connection between the tropics and the seasonal cycle of the apparent position of the Sun, the word "tropical" also lent its name to the "tropical year". The early Chinese, Hindus, Greeks, and others made approximate measures of the tropical year.


title: Tropical year

text: In the 2nd century BC Hipparchus measured the time required for the Sun to travel from an equinox to the same equinox again. He reckoned the length of the year to be 1/300 of a day less than 365.25 days (365 days, 5 hours, 55 minutes, 12 seconds, or 365.24667 days). Hipparchus used this method because he was better able to detect the time of the equinoxes, compared to that of the solstices.


title: Tropical year

text: Hipparchus also discovered that the equinoctial points moved along the ecliptic (plane of the Earth's orbit, or what Hipparchus would have thought of as the plane of the Sun's orbit about the Earth) in a direction opposite that of the movement of the Sun, a phenomenon that came to be named "precession of the equinoxes". He reckoned the value as 1° per century, a value that was not improved upon until about 1000 years later, by Islamic astronomers. Since this discovery a distinction has been made between the tropical year and the sidereal year.


title: Tropical year

text: During the Middle Ages and Renaissance a number of progressively better tables were published that allowed computation of the positions of the Sun, Moon and planets relative to the fixed stars. An important application of these tables was the reform of the calendar.


title: Tropical year

text: The Alfonsine Tables, published in 1252, were based on the theories of Ptolemy and were revised and updated after the original publication. The length of the tropical year was given as 365 solar days 5 hours 49 minutes 16 seconds (≈ 365.24255 days). This length was used in devising the Gregorian calendar of 1582.


title: Tropical year

text: In the 16th century Copernicus put forward a heliocentric cosmology. Erasmus Reinhold used Copernicus' theory to compute the Prutenic Tables in 1551, and gave a tropical year length of 365 solar days, 5 hours, 55 minutes, 58 seconds (365.24720 days), based on the length of a sidereal year and the presumed rate of precession. This was actually less accurate than the earlier value of the Alfonsine Tables.


title: Tropical year

text: Major advances in the 17th century were made by Johannes Kepler and Isaac Newton. In 1609 and 1619 Kepler published his three laws of planetary motion. In 1627, Kepler used the observations of Tycho Brahe and Waltherus to produce the most accurate tables up to that time, the Rudolphine Tables. He evaluated the mean tropical year as 365 solar days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, 45 seconds (365.24219 days).


title: Tropical year

text: Newton's three laws of dynamics and theory of gravity were published in his "Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica" in 1687. Newton's theoretical and mathematical advances influenced tables by Edmond Halley published in 1693 and 1749 and provided the underpinnings of all solar system models until Albert Einstein's theory of General relativity in the 20th century.


title: Tropical year

text: From the time of Hipparchus and Ptolemy, the year was based on two equinoxes (or two solstices) a number of years apart, to average out both observational errors and periodic variations (caused by the gravitational pull of the planets, and the small effect of nutation on the equinox). These effects did not begin to be understood until Newton's time. To model short-term variations of the time between equinoxes (and prevent them from confounding efforts to measure long-term variations) requires precise observations and an elaborate theory of the apparent motion of the Sun. The necessary theories and mathematical tools came together in the 18th century due to the work of Pierre-Simon de Laplace, Joseph Louis Lagrange, and other specialists in celestial mechanics. They were able to compute periodic variations and separate them from the gradual mean motion. They could express the mean longitude of the Sun in a polynomial such as:


title: Tropical year

text: where "T" is the time in Julian centuries. The derivative of this formula is an expression of the mean angular velocity, and the inverse of this gives an expression for the length of the tropical year as a linear function of "T".


title: Tropical year

text: Two equations are given in the table. Both equations estimate that the tropical year gets roughly a half second shorter each century.


title: Tropical year

text: Newcomb's tables were sufficiently accurate that they were used by the joint American-British "Astronomical Almanac" for the Sun, Mercury, Venus, and Mars through 1983.


title: Tropical year

text: The length of the mean tropical year is derived from a model of the Solar System, so any advance that improves the solar system model potentially improves the accuracy of the mean tropical year. Many new observing instruments became available, including


title: Tropical year

text: The complexity of the model used for the Solar System must be limited to the available computation facilities. In the 1920s punched card equipment came into use by L. J. Comrie in Britain. For the "American Ephemeris" an electromagnetic computer, the IBM Selective Sequence Electronic Calculator was used since 1948. When modern computers became available, it was possible to compute ephemerides using numerical integration rather than general theories; numerical integration came into use in 1984 for the joint US-UK almanacs.


title: Tropical year

text: Albert Einstein's General Theory of Relativity provided a more accurate theory, but the accuracy of theories and observations did not require the refinement provided by this theory (except for the advance of the perihelion of Mercury) until 1984. Time scales incorporated general relativity beginning in the 1970s.


title: Tropical year

text: A key development in understanding the tropical year over long periods of time is the discovery that the rate of rotation of the earth, or equivalently, the length of the mean solar day, is not constant. William Ferrel in 1864 and Charles-Eugène Delaunay in 1865 predicted that the rotation of the Earth is being retarded by tides. This could be verified by observation only in the 1920s with the very accurate Shortt-Synchronome clock and later in the 1930s when quartz clocks began to replace pendulum clocks as time standards.


title: Tropical year

text: Apparent solar time is the time indicated by a sundial, and is determined by the apparent motion of the Sun caused by the rotation of the Earth around its axis as well as the revolution of the Earth around the Sun. Mean solar time is corrected for the periodic variations in the apparent velocity of the Sun as the Earth revolves in its orbit. The most important such time scale is Universal Time, which is the mean solar time at 0 degrees longitude (the IERS Reference Meridian). Civil time is based on UT (actually UTC), and civil calendars count mean solar days.


title: Tropical year

text: However the rotation of the Earth itself is irregular and is slowing down, with respect to more stable time indicators: specifically, the motion of planets, and atomic clocks.


title: Tropical year

text: Ephemeris time (ET) is the independent variable in the equations of motion of the Solar System, in particular, the equations from Newcomb's work, and this ET was in use from 1960 to 1984. These ephemerides were based on observations made in solar time over a period of several centuries, and as a consequence represent the mean solar second over that period. The SI second, defined in atomic time, was intended to agree with the ephemeris second based on Newcomb's work, which in turn makes it agree with the mean solar second of the mid-19th century. ET as counted by atomic clocks was given a new name, Terrestrial Time (TT), and for most purposes ET = TT = International Atomic Time + 32.184 SI seconds. Since the era of the observations, the rotation of the Earth has slowed down and the mean solar second has grown somewhat longer than the SI second. As a result, the time scales of TT and UT1 build up a growing difference: the amount that TT is ahead of UT1 is known as Δ"T", or Delta "T". TT is ahead of UT1 by 69.28 seconds.


title: Tropical year

text: As a consequence, the tropical year following the seasons on Earth as counted in solar days of UT is increasingly out of sync with expressions for equinoxes in ephemerides in TT.


title: Tropical year

text: As explained below, long-term estimates of the length of the tropical year were used in connection with the reform of the Julian calendar, which resulted in the Gregorian calendar. Participants in that reform were unaware of the non-uniform rotation of the Earth, but now this can be taken into account to some degree. The table below gives Morrison and Stephenson's estimates and standard errors ("σ") for ΔT at dates significant in the process of developing the Gregorian calendar.


title: Tropical year

text: The low-precision extrapolations are computed with an expression provided by Morrison and Stephenson:


title: Tropical year

text: where "t" is measured in Julian centuries from 1820. The extrapolation is provided only to show Δ"T" is not negligible when evaluating the calendar for long periods; Borkowski cautions that "many researchers have attempted to fit a parabola to the measured Δ"T" values in order to determine the magnitude of the deceleration of the Earth's rotation. The results, when taken together, are rather discouraging."


title: Tropical year

text: One definition of the tropical year would be the time required for the Sun, beginning at a chosen ecliptic longitude, to make one complete cycle of the seasons and return to the same ecliptic longitude.


title: Tropical year

text: Before considering an example, the equinox must be examined. There are two important planes in solar system calculations: the plane of the ecliptic (the Earth's orbit around the Sun), and the plane of the celestial equator (the Earth's equator projected into space). These two planes intersect in a line. One "direction" points to the so-called vernal, northward, or March equinox which is given the symbol (the symbol looks like the horns of a ram because it used to be toward the constellation Aries). The opposite "direction" is given the symbol (because it used to be toward Libra). Because of the precession of the equinoxes and nutation these directions change, compared to the direction of distant stars and galaxies, whose directions have no measurable motion due to their great distance (see International Celestial Reference Frame).


title: Tropical year

text: The ecliptic longitude of the Sun is the angle between and the Sun, measured eastward along the ecliptic. This creates a relative and not an absolute measurement, because as the Sun is moving, the direction the angle is measured from is also moving. It is convenient to have a fixed (with respect to distant stars) direction to measure from; the direction of at noon January 1, 2000 fills this role and is given the symbol .


title: Tropical year

text: There was an equinox on March 20, 2009, 11:44:43.6 TT. The 2010 March equinox was March 20, 17:33:18.1 TT, which gives an interval - and a duration of the tropical year - of 365 days 5 hours 48 minutes 34.5 seconds. While the Sun moves, moves in the opposite direction. When the Sun and met at the 2010 March equinox, the Sun had moved east 359°59'09" while had moved west 51" for a total of 360° (all with respect to ). This is why the tropical year is 20 min. shorter than the sidereal year.


title: Tropical year

text: When tropical year measurements from several successive years are compared, variations are found which are due to the perturbations by the Moon and planets acting on the Earth, and to nutation. Meeus and Savoie provided the following examples of intervals between March (northward) equinoxes:


title: Tropical year

text: Until the beginning of the 19th century, the length of the tropical year was found by comparing equinox dates that were separated by many years; this approach yielded the "mean" tropical year.


title: Tropical year

text: If a different starting longitude for the Sun is chosen than 0° ("i.e." ), then the duration for the Sun to return to the same longitude will be different. This is a second-order effect of the circumstance that the speed of the Earth (and conversely the apparent speed of the Sun) varies in its elliptical orbit: faster in the perihelion, slower in the aphelion. The equinox moves with respect to the perihelion (and both move with respect to the fixed sidereal frame). From one equinox passage to the next, or from one solstice passage to the next, the Sun completes not quite a full elliptic orbit. The time saved depends on where it starts in the orbit. If the starting point is close to the perihelion (such as the December solstice), then the speed is higher than average, and the apparent Sun saves little time for not having to cover a full circle: the "tropical year" is comparatively long. If the starting point is near aphelion, then the speed is lower and the time saved for not having to run the same small arc that the equinox has precessed is longer: that tropical year is comparatively short.


title: Tropical year

text: The "mean tropical year" is based on the mean sun, and is not exactly equal to any of the times taken to go from an equinox to the next or from a solstice to the next.


title: Tropical year

text: The following values of time intervals between equinoxes and solstices were provided by Meeus and Savoie for the years 0 and 2000. These are smoothed values which take account of the Earth's orbit being elliptical, using well-known procedures (including solving Kepler's equation). They do not take into account periodic variations due to factors such as the gravitational force of the orbiting Moon and gravitational forces from the other planets. Such perturbations are minor compared to the positional difference resulting from the orbit being elliptical rather than circular.


title: Tropical year

text: The mean tropical year on January 1, 2000, was or 365 ephemeris days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, 45.19 seconds. This changes slowly; an expression suitable for calculating the length of a tropical year in ephemeris days, between 8000 BC and 12000 AD is


title: Tropical year

text: where T is in Julian centuries of 36,525 days of 86,400 SI seconds measured from noon January 1, 2000 TT.


title: Tropical year

text: Modern astronomers define the tropical year as time for the Sun's mean longitude to increase by 360°. The process for finding an expression for the length of the tropical year is to first find an expression for the Sun's mean longitude (with respect to ), such as Newcomb's expression given above, or Laskar's expression. When viewed over a one-year period, the mean longitude is very nearly a linear function of Terrestrial Time. To find the length of the tropical year, the mean longitude is differentiated, to give the angular speed of the Sun as a function of Terrestrial Time, and this angular speed is used to compute how long it would take for the Sun to move 360°.


title: Tropical year

text: The above formulae give the length of the tropical year in ephemeris days (equal to 86,400 SI seconds), not solar days. It is the number of solar days in a tropical year that is important for keeping the calendar in synch with the seasons (see below).


title: Tropical year

text: The Gregorian calendar, as used for civil and scientific purposes, is an international standard. It is a solar calendar that is designed to maintain synchrony with the mean tropical year. It has a cycle of 400 years (146,097 days). Each cycle repeats the months, dates, and weekdays. The average year length is 146,097/400 = = 365.2425 days per year, a close approximation to the mean tropical year of 365.2422 days.


title: Tropical year

text: The Gregorian calendar is a reformed version of the Julian calendar. By the time of the reform in 1582, the date of the vernal equinox had shifted about 10 days, from about March 21 at the time of the First Council of Nicaea in 325, to about March 11. According to North, the real motivation for reform was not primarily a matter of getting agricultural cycles back to where they had once been in the seasonal cycle; the primary concern of Christians was the correct observance of Easter. The rules used to compute the date of Easter used a conventional date for the vernal equinox (March 21), and it was considered important to keep March 21 close to the actual equinox.


title: Tropical year

text: If society in the future still attaches importance to the synchronization between the civil calendar and the seasons, another reform of the calendar will eventually be necessary. According to Blackburn and Holford-Strevens (who used Newcomb's value for the tropical year) if the tropical year remained at its 1900 value of days the Gregorian calendar would be 3 days, 17 min, 33 s behind the Sun after 10,000 years. Aggravating this error, the length of the tropical year (measured in Terrestrial Time) is decreasing at a rate of approximately 0.53 s per century. Also, the mean solar day is getting longer at a rate of about 1.5 ms per century. These effects will cause the calendar to be nearly a day behind in 3200. The number of solar days in a "tropical millennium" is decreasing by about 0.06 per millennium (neglecting the oscillatory changes in the real length of the tropical year). This means there should be fewer and fewer leap days as time goes on. A possible reform would be to omit the leap day in 3200, keep 3600 and 4000 as leap years, and thereafter make all centennial years common except 4500, 5000, 5500, 6000, etc. But the quantity ΔT is not sufficiently predictable to form more precise proposals.


title: Chad Michaels

text: Chad Michael Storbeck, known professionally as Chad Michaels (born March 20, 1971), known, is an American drag performer and professional Cher impersonator. He was the runner-up of the fourth season of "RuPaul's Drag Race", alongside Phi Phi O'Hara, and the winner of the of "". In 2013, he released "Tragic Girl", his debut single and music video.


title: Chad Michaels

text: Michaels was born Chad Michael Storbeck to former high school football player Jerry Michael Storbeck of Aurelia, Iowa and salon worker Linda Storbeck Olson of Encinitas, California at Arcadia Methodist Hospital in Arcadia, California on March 20, 1971. His parents graduated from Pasadena High School and Aurelia High School, respectively, and wed in 1968. They resided in Olivenhain, Encinitas, California at the time of his birth before they moved to Los Angeles, and then again to San Diego, where he was raised. He originally went by the drag name "Brigitte Love." Michaels chose to perform under his own name after working at "An Evening at La Cage" in Las Vegas, which required the drag queens to use male stage names.


title: Chad Michaels

text: In 2010, Michaels competed in the first California Entertainer of the Year pageant, becoming first alternate to winner Shangela.


title: Chad Michaels

text: In 2011, Chad was announced as one of the 13 queens competing on the fourth season of "RuPaul's Drag Race" in 2012. Throughout the series, Chad won two challenges, including "WTF!: Wrestling's Trashiest Fighters" as well as the annual "Snatch Game" (a parody of the Match Game) where he impersonated Cher. His performance as Cher received high praises from the judges. He made it to the final three, losing to Sharon Needles. After his run on "Drag Race", Chad continued to perform as Cher.


title: Chad Michaels

text: In the same year, Chad was announced as a contestant on the first series of . During the series, he teamed up with Season 1 contestant Shannel. Chad won three challenges, including the make-over challenge, and ultimately won the competition, beating Season 2 runner-up Raven in a final lipsync. This secured his spot in the "Drag Race" Hall of Fame.


title: Chad Michaels

text: Michaels produces and performs with the Dreamgirls Revue, a female impersonation show in California. Performers in the Dreamgirls Revue have included "RuPaul's Drag Race" contestants Delta Work, Raven, Detox, Morgan McMichaels, Raja, Shannel, and Venus D-Lite.


title: Chad Michaels

text: Michaels started touring with Farrah Moan in 2019 for the Burlesque tour, based on the Cher and Christina Aguilera movie.


title: Voss (water)

text: Voss is a Norwegian-based bottled water from the village of Vatnestrøm in Iveland municipality, Agder county. Contrary to popular belief, the water is not bottled in the municipality of Voss, which is more than from the bottling site. It is available in both still and sparkling forms.


title: Voss (water)

text: The company's cylindrical glass bottle was designed by Neil Kraft. In some countries including US, UK and Australia, VOSS still water is also packaged in plastic bottles that retain the cylindrical design.


title: Voss (water)

text: Voss is bottled by Voss of Norway AS, an American Limited Company headquartered in New York City. The water is marketed in over 50 countries, with a particular focus on the United States. Voss claims its manufacturing process is completely carbon neutral.


title: Voss (water)

text: In 2007, "Women's Health" magazine rated Voss #1 among several bottled waters. For entertainment on television, in tests sponsored by Finland's national broadcasting company, Yle, three blindfolded wine experts rated Voss water lowest of six waters tested, which included Helsinki public tap water.


title: Voss (water)

text: In 2016, Reignwood Group, a Thai-Chinese company, acquired majority control of Voss. The chairwoman of Voss is Lisa Wang and the vice chairman is John D. Shulman.


title: Voss (water)

text: In October 2010, Norway's TV 2 reported that Voss has the same source as tap water from the municipal water supply in Iveland and, contrary to Voss marketing, that this is not artesian. TV 2 stood by these claims despite Voss's objections.


title: Teamster

text: A teamster is the American term for a truck driver or a person who drives teams of draft animals. Further, the term often refers to a member of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, a labor union in the United States and Canada.


title: Teamster

text: Originally the term "teamster" referred to a person who drove a team, usually of oxen, horses, or mules, pulling a wagon, replacing the earlier "teamer".


title: Teamster

text: This term was common by the time of the Mexican–American War (1848) and the Indian Wars throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries on the American frontier.


title: Teamster

text: Another name for the occupation was bullwhacker, related to driving oxen. A teamster might also drive pack animals, such as a muletrain, in which case he was also known as a muleteer or muleskinner. Today this person may be called an outfitter or packer.


title: Teamster

text: In some places, a teamster was known as a carter, referring to the bullock cart. In Australian English, a teamster was also known as a bullocker or bullocky.


title: Teamster

text: From the Revolutionary War at least through World War I, United States Army enlisted personnel responsible for transporting supplies by wagon and upkeep of animals for this purpose were called wagoners.


title: Kafiristan

text: Kāfiristān, or Kāfirstān (, ), is a historical region that covered present-day Nuristan Province in Afghanistan and Chitral District of Pakistan. This historic region lies on, and mainly comprises, the basins of the rivers Alingar, Pech (Kamah), Landai Sin and Kunar, and the intervening mountain ranges. It is bounded by the main range of the Hindu Kush on the north, Pakistan's Chitral District to the east, the Kunar Valley in the south and the Alishang River in the west.


title: Kafiristan

text: Kafiristan took its name from the enduring kafir (non-Muslim) Nuristani inhabitants who once followed a distinct form of ancient Hinduism mixed with locally developed accretions; they were thus known to the surrounding predominantly Sunni Muslim population as Kafirs, meaning "disbelievers" or "infidels". They are closely related to the Kalash people, a fiercely independent people with a distinctive culture, language and religion.


title: Kafiristan

text: The area extending from modern Nooristan to Kashmir was known as "Peristan", a vast area containing a host of "Kafir" cultures and Indo-European languages that became Islamized over a long period of time, which eventually led them to become Muslim on the orders of Emir Abdur Rahman Khan who conquered the territory in 1895–96. The region was earlier surrounded by Buddhist states that temporarily brought literacy and state rule to the mountains; the decline of Buddhism heavily isolated the region. It was surrounded by Muslim states in the 16th century.