title: History of coal mining

text: North American coal deposits were first discovered by French explorers and fur traders along the shores of Grand Lake in central New Brunswick, Canada in the 1600s. Coal seams were exposed where rivers flowed into the lake and was dug by hand off the surface and from tunnels dug into the seam. About 1631 the French made their fur trading post at the mouth of the Saint John River their main post in Acadia and started construction of a new fort. The main residence at the fort was designed with two 11-foot-wide fireplaces which were stocked with wood and coal from upriver. As early as 1643, the French were sending coal and other supplies to the British colony at Boston.


title: History of coal mining

text: The Industrial Revolution, which began in Britain in the 18th century, and later spread to continental Europe, North America, and Japan, was based on the availability of coal to power steam engines. International trade expanded exponentially when coal-fed steam engines were built for the railways and steamships during the Victorian era. Coal was cheaper and much more efficient than wood fuel in most steam engines. As central and Northern England contains an abundance of coal, many mines were situated in these areas as well as the South Wales coalfield and Scotland. The small-scale techniques were unsuited to the increasing demand, with extraction moving away from surface extraction to deep shaft mining as the Industrial Revolution progressed.


title: History of coal mining

text: As steamships traveled overseas from the industrialized countries of Europe their need for coal served as trigger for coal mining to start at various locations across the globe. An example of this is the coal mining in Zona Centro Sur, Chile, that began as a response to the arrival of steamships to Talcahuano.


title: History of coal mining

text: In 1984 Australia surpassed the US as the world's largest coal exporter. One-third of Australia's coal exports were shipped from the Hunter Valley region of New South Wales, where coal mining and transport had begun nearly two centuries earlier. Coal River was the first name given by British settlers to the Hunter River after coal was found there in 1795. In 1804 the Sydney-based administration established a permanent convict settlement near the mouth of the Hunter River to mine and load the coal, predetermining the town's future as a coal port by naming it Newcastle. Today, Newcastle, NSW, is the largest coal port in the world. Now the state of Queensland is Australia's top coal producer, with its Bowen Basin the main source of black coal, and plans by miners such as Gina Rinehart to open up the Galilee and Surat Basins to coal mining. China became the main customer.


title: History of coal mining

text: By 1830 when iron and later steel became important in Wallonia the Belgian coal industry had long been established, and used steam engines for pumping. The Belgian coalfield lay near the navigable river Meuse, so coal was shipped downstream to the ports and cities of the Rhine-Meuse-Scheldt delta. The opening of the Saint-Quentin Canal in 1810 allowed coal to go by barge to Paris. The Belgian coalfield outcrops over most of its area, and the highly folded nature of the coal seams, part of the geological Rhenohercynian Zone, meant that surface occurrences of the coal were very abundant. Deep mines were not required at first, so a large number of small operations sprang up. There was a complex legal system for concessions, and often multiple layers had different owners. Entrepreneurs started going deeper and deeper, thanks to the good pumping system. In 1790, the maximum depth of mines was . By 1856, the average depth in the Borinage was , and in 1866, and some pits had reached down ; one was deep, probably the deepest coal mine in Europe at this time. Gas explosions were a serious problem, and Belgium had high coal miner fatality rates. By the late 19th century the seams were becoming exhausted, and the steel industry was importing some coal from the Ruhr. André Dumont's discovery in 1900 of coal in the Campine basin, in the Belgian Province Limburg, prompted entrepreneurs from Liège to open coal mines, mainly producing coal for the steel industry. An announced reorganisation of the Belgian coal mines in 1965 resulted in strikes and a revolt which led to the death of two coal miners in 1966 at the Zwartberg mine. Coal was mined in the Liège basin until 1980, in the Southern Wallonian basin until 1984, and in the Campine basin until 1992.


title: History of coal mining

text: Canadian coal mining started in New Brunswick and also occurred in Alberta, British Columbia, Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan. The United States has been a major supplier for the industrial regions of Ontario. By 2000 about 19% of Canada's energy was supplied by coal, much of it imported from the U.S while Eastern Canadian ports import considerable coal from Venezuela.


title: History of coal mining

text: The first coal mining in North America began in New Brunswick, Canada, in the early 1600s. Coal was found by French explorers and fur traders along the shores of Grand Lake where rivers and erosion had exposed the coal. Small amounts of coal were dug from surface deposits and tunnels dug into the coal seams, and this coal supplied Fort Saint Marie, built by the French about 1632 at the mouth of the Saint John River. The French sold coal to the British colony at Boston as early as 1639. Due to this earliest export of coal in North America, Grand Lake has been recognized as a Canadian Historic Site . Coal mining expanded after the British took control of the area in the mid 1700s and encouraged permanent settlements in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Quebec and Ontario by British Loyalists. Beginning in 1765, over 11,000 Loyalists settled in N.B., most along the lower 100 miles of the Saint John River and around Grand Lake. Approximately 200,000 tons of coal were dug at Grand Lake between 1639 and 1887 using surface collection, vertical shafts and the room and pillar system. By 1920, the use of draglines and other modern equipment made strip mining possible and the privately owned Grand Lake area mines produced over 200,000 tons per year. Most of this coal was used by the railroad and large businesses. By 1936, a coal-burning electric power generating plant at Newcastle Creek was operating with two 33,000 volt lines going to Fredericton and one 66,000 volt line going to Marysville. By 1950, coal production at Grand Lake often reached 1 million tons per year. In 1969, all the privately owned Grand Lake area coal companies and approximately 1,000 employees were consolidated into one provincial government controlled company named N.B. Coal Ltd.. In 2009, the increasing availability of oil and environmental concerns with coal use caused the closing of the Grand Lake coal mines and New Brunswick's coal mining industry.


title: History of coal mining

text: The first coal mining in Nova Scotia began in the 18th century with small hand-dug mines close to the sea at Joggins, Nova Scotia and in the Sydney area of Cape Breton Island. Large scale coal mining began in the late 1830s when the General Mining Association (GMA), a group of English mining investors, obtained a coal mining monopoly in Nova Scotia. They imported the latest in mining technology including steam water pumps and railways to develop large mines in the Stellarton area of Pictou County, Nova Scotia, including the Foord Pit which by 1866 was the deepest coal mine in the world. Coal mining also developed in Springhill and Joggins in Cumberland County, Nova Scotia. After the GMA monopoly expired, the largest and longest lasting mines developed at Cape Breton in Nova Scotia. Nova Scotia was the major supplier of Canadian coal until 1945. At its peak in 1949 25,000 miners dug 17 million metric tons of coal from Nova Scotian mines. The miners, who lived in company towns, became politically active in left-wing politics during labour struggles for safety and fair wages. Westray Mine near Stellarton closed in 1992 after an explosion killed 26 miners. All the subsurface mines were closed by 2001, although some open pit coal mining continues near Stellarton. The Nova Scotia Museum of Industry at Stellarton explores the history of mining in the province from its location on the site of the Foord Pit.


title: History of coal mining

text: Coal was easy to find in what is now Drumheller, Alberta, Canada. The Atlas Coal Mine National Historic Site has turned this coalfield into a museum. This museum interprets how the Blackfoot and Cree knew about the "black rock that burned." After many explorers reported coal in the area, a handful of ranchers and homesteaders dug out the coal for their homes. Sam Drumheller started the coal rush in this area when he bought the land from a local rancher, which he then sold to the Canadian National Railway. Sam Drumheller also registered a coal mine. However, before his mine opened Jesse Gouge and Garnet Coyle beat him to it by opening the Newcastle Mine. Once the railway was built thousands of people came to mine this area.


title: History of coal mining

text: By the end of 1912, there were nine working coal mines, in Newcastle, Drumheller, Midland, Rosedale, and Wayne. In years to follow more mines sprang up: Nacmine, Cambria, Willow Creek, Lehigh, and East Coulee. The timing of the Drumheller mine industry was "lucky" according to the Atlas National Historical Site, in that the United Mine Workers union had recently won the right for better working conditions. As a result of union action, child labour laws were passed to prevent boys under 14 years old working underground.


title: History of coal mining

text: Miners' camps in this area were called "hell's holes" because miners lived in tents and shacks. These camps were filled with drinking, gambling and watching fistfights as forms of recreation. With time, living conditions improved: little houses took the place of the tents, and more women joined the men and started families. With new activities such as hockey, baseball and theatre the camps were no longer "hell's holes" but became "the wonder town of the west."


title: History of coal mining

text: Between 1911 and 1979, 139 mines were registered in the Drumheller Valley, of which only 34 were productive for many years. The beginning of the end for the Drumheller mining industry was the discovery of oil at Leduc No. 1 in 1947, after which natural gas became the predominant fuel for heating homes in western Canada. As the demand for coal dropped, mines closed and communities suffered. Some communities, Willow Creek for example, completely vanished while others went from boomtowns to ghost towns.


title: History of coal mining

text: Atlas #4 Mine shipped its last load of coal in 1979, after which the Atlas Coal Mine National Historic Site has preserved the last of the Drumheller mines. Also nearby, East Coulee School Museum interprets the life of families in mine towns for its visitors.


title: History of coal mining

text: The coal industry in China goes back many centuries. In recent decades has become the main energy source of what (from 2010) is the world's second largest economy. Thus China is by far the largest producer of coal in the world, producing over 2.8 billion tons of coal in 2007, or approximately 39.8 percent of all coal produced in the world during that year. For comparison, the second largest producer, the United States, produced more than 1.1 billion tons in 2007. An estimated 5 million people work in China's coal-mining industry. As many as 20,000 miners die in accidents each year. Most Chinese mines are deep underground and do not produce the surface disruption typical of strip mines.


title: History of coal mining

text: Pierre-Francois Tubeuf laid the foundations of the modern industry in France, starting in 1770 in Languedoc. Labor unions emerged with an emphasis on the safety issue in the late 19th century. In 1885, there were 175 injuries per thousand workers per year. Deaths were low in most years 2 per 1000 workers), but major disaster was always a threat. 1099 men died in the Courrières mine disaster of 1906. The campaign for mine safety enabled miners to break from their peasant psychology and create solidarity that came from sharing dangerous work, and to develop a working-class consciousness. Unions gain strength by setting up a system of worker elected mine-safety delegates. The national government encouraged the mine safety movement as a means of limiting strife in the sometimes turbulent coal fields. Nevertheless, strikes remained very common, and coal miners took the lead in political organization. Germany seized control of some mining districts in the First World War, leaving them devastated. Polish, Spanish and other immigrants were brought in to provide a stable labor force at the end of the war.


title: History of coal mining

text: The first important mines appeared in the 1750s, in the valleys of the rivers Ruhr, Inde and Wurm where coal seams outcropped and horizontal adit mining was possible. In 1782 the Krupp family began operations near Essen. After 1815 entrepreneurs in the Ruhr Area, which then became part of Prussia took advantage of the tariff zone (Zollverein) to open new mines and associated iron smelters. New railways were built by British engineers around 1850. Numerous small industrial centres sprang up, focused on ironworks, using local coal. The iron and steel works typically bought mines, and erected coking ovens to supply their own requirements in coke and gas. These integrated coal-iron firms ("Huettenzechen") became numerous after 1854; after 1900 they became mixed firms called "Konzern."


title: History of coal mining

text: The average output of a mine in 1850 was about ; its employment about 64. By 1900, the average mine's output had risen to and the employment to about 1,400. Total Ruhr coal output rose from in 1850 to 22() in 1880, 60() in 1900, and 114() in 1913, on the verge of war. In 1932 output was down to , growing to 130() in 1940. Output peaked in 1957 (at 123 million()), declining to in 1974. At the end of 2010 five coal mines were producing in Germany. The last hard coal mine in Germany closed on December 21, 2018.


title: History of coal mining

text: The miners in the Ruhr region were divided by ethnicity (with Germans and Poles) and religion (Protestants and Catholics). Mobility in and out of the mining camps to nearby industrial areas was high. The miners split into several unions, with an affiliation to a political party. As a result, the socialist union (affiliated with the Social Democratic Party) competed with Catholic and Communist unions until 1933, when the Nazis took over all of them. After 1945 the socialists came to the fore.


title: History of coal mining

text: Coal was not known during the Mughal rule despite their contact with Europeans. Commercial exploitation began in 1774, John Sumner and Suetonius Grant Heatly of the East India Company setting up operations in the Raniganj Coalfield along the Western bank of river Damodar. Due to a lack of demand growth was sluggish until 1853, with the introduction of steam locomotives to the fast-expanding rail system.


title: History of coal mining

text: As late as 1895, India imported large quantities of coal from Britain, but as domestic production increased and was found to be suitable for locomotives and ships, demand for coal imports declined dramatically. India's export of coal increased, especially to Burma, Ceylon, and the Malay states.


title: History of coal mining

text: By 1900 production had risen to an annual average of 1 million tonne (mt) and India was producing 6.12 mts. per year by 1900 and 18 mts per year by 1920. Temporary wartime demand (1914-1918) was followed by a slump in the 1930s. The production reached a level of 29 mts. by 1942 and 30 mts. by 1946.


title: History of coal mining

text: After India became independent, the new government stressed the rapid growth of heavy industry. The National Coal Development Corporation was founded in 1956 (as a Government of India) undertaking. The founding of this body was major step in the development of an indigenous Indian coal sector. Especially important was the development of the vast Dhanbad coal-mining complex with such major operations as Tata Steel, BCCL, ECL and IISCO (Indian Iron And Steel Company), as well as the Indian School of Mines IIT (ISM) Dhanbad to train engineers, geologists and managers.


title: History of coal mining

text: The first permanent coal mine in Poland was established in Szczakowa near Jaworzno in 1767. In 19th century development of iron, copper and lead mining and processing in southern Poland (notably in the Old-Polish Industrial Region and later in the region of Silesia) led to a quick development of coal mining. Among the most prominent deposits are those located in what are now the Upper Silesian Industrial Region and Rybnik Coal Area (formerly part of Prussia) and the Zagłębie Dąbrowskie on the Russian side of the border.


title: History of coal mining

text: In modern times coal is still considered a strategic resource for Poland's economy, as it covers roughly 65% of energetic needs. Before and after World War II Poland has been one of the major coal producers worldwide, usually listed among the five largest. However, after 1989 the coal production is in decline, with the overall production for 1994 reaching 132 million metric tons, 112 million metric tons in 1999 and 104 million metric tons in 2002.


title: History of coal mining

text: From the 1860s large deposits in the Don Basin ("Donbas") in southern Russia supplied 87% of Russia's coal. It was used by railways and the iron and steel industry. After 1900 smaller deposits near Dombrovo, Zabaikal and Cheremkhovo in Siberia were opened. Small older mines south of Moscow also operated. Coal production was controlled by inefficient Russo-British syndicates, and there were shortages of workers, so the companies set up welfare systems for them. Their smallish output and the weak Russian railway system centered on the Ekaterininskaia (Krivoi Rog) Railway held back the growth of Russian heavy industry.


title: History of coal mining

text: In the Second World War the loss of 60% of the mining areas to German invaders forced the rapid expansion of mines in the Urals, as well as greater use of mines in the Kuznetsk Basin in Siberia. In 1939 the Urals produced only half the fuel needed by local industry. During the war the mines were expanded and over 700 factories were evacuated from the west, greatly increasing the demand for Ural coal. Prisoners from the Gulag were sent to the mines; up to a third of the workers were women. The miners were given much higher rations of food. Output doubled and the share of the region in the total national coal production rose from 8% to 22%.


title: History of coal mining

text: In 1989-91 militant coal miners in Russia and Ukraine were the mainstay of the revolutionary forced which finally overthrew the Communist system in 1991.


title: History of coal mining

text: Today the Donets Basin is the major coal-mining district in eastern Ukraine and adjacent portions of Russia. Production during 2009 was 68.7 million tons in the Ukrainian and 4.9million tons in the Russian part of the basin, but coal gas is a major hazard.


title: History of coal mining

text: Although some deep mining took place as early as the 1500s (in North East England, and along the Firth of Forth coast) deep shaft mining in the UK began to develop extensively in the late 18th century, with rapid expansion throughout the 19th century and early 20th century when the industry peaked. The location of the coalfields helped to make the prosperity of Lancashire, of Yorkshire, and of South Wales. The Yorkshire pits which supplied Sheffield were only about 300 feet deep. Northumberland and Durham were the leading coal producers and they were the sites of the first deep pits. In much of Britain coal was worked from drift mines, or scraped off when it outcropped on the surface. Small groups of part-time miners used shovels and primitive equipment.


title: History of coal mining

text: Scottish miners had been bonded to their "maisters" by a 1606 Act "Anent Coalyers and Salters". A Colliers and Salters (Scotland) Act 1775, recognised this to be "a state of slavery and bondage" and formally abolished it; this was made effective by a further law in 1799.


title: History of coal mining

text: Before 1800 a great deal of coal was left in place as extraction was still primitive. As a result, in the deep Tyneside pits (300 to 1,000 ft deep) only about 40 percent of the coal could be extracted. The use of wooden pit props to support the roof was an innovation first introduced about 1800. The critical factor was circulation of air and control of dangerous explosive gases. At first fires were burned at the bottom of the "upcast" shaft to create air currents and circulate air, but replaced by fans driven by steam engines. Protection for miners came with the invention of the Davy lamp and Geordie lamp, where any firedamp (or methane) burnt harmlessly within the lamp. It was achieved by preventing the combustion spreading from the light chamber to the outside air with either metal gauze or fine tubes, but the illumination from such lamps was very poor. Great efforts were made to develop better safe lamps, such as the Mueseler produced in the Belgian pits near Liège.


title: History of coal mining

text: Coal was so abundant in Britain that the supply could be stepped up to meet the rapidly rising demand. In 1700 the annual output of coal was just under 3 million tons. Between 1770 and 1780 the annual output of coal was some 6¼ million long tons (or about the output of a week and a half in the 20th century). After 1790 output soared, reaching 16 million long tons by 1815 at the height of the Napoleonic War. By 1830 this had risen to over 30 million tons The miners, less affected by imported labour or machines than were the cotton mill workers, had begun to form trade unions and fight their grim battle for wages against the coal owners and royalty-lessees.


title: History of coal mining

text: Use of women and children (at a fraction of the cost of men) was common until abolished in an Act of August 1842.


title: History of coal mining

text: In South Wales, the miners showed a high degree of solidarity. They lived in isolated villages where the miners comprised the great majority of workers. There was a high degree of equality in life style; combined with an evangelical religious style based on Methodism, leading to an ideology of egalitarianism. They forged a "community of solidarity" - under the leadership of the Miners Federation. The union supported first the Liberal Party, then after 1918 Labour, with some Communist Party activism at the fringes.


title: History of coal mining

text: The need to maintain coal supplies (a primary energy source) had figured in both world wars. As well as energy supply, coal became a very political issue, due to conditions under which colliers worked and the way they were treated by colliery owners. Much of the 'old Left' of British politics can trace its origins to coal-mining areas, with the main labour union being the Miners' Federation of Great Britain, founded in 1888. The MFGB claimed 600,000 members in 1908. (The MFGB later became the more centralised National Union of Mineworkers).


title: History of coal mining

text: Although other factors were involved, one cause of the UK General Strike of 1926 was concerns colliers had over very dangerous working conditions, reduced pay and longer shifts.


title: History of coal mining

text: Technological development throughout the 19th and 20th centuries helped both to improve the safety of colliers and the productive capacity of collieries they worked. In the late 20th century, improved integration of coal extraction with bulk industries such as electrical generation helped coal maintain its position despite the emergence of alternative energies supplies such as oil, natural gas and, from the late 1950s, nuclear power used for electricity. More recently coal has faced competition from renewable energy sources and bio-fuels.


title: History of coal mining

text: Most of the coal mines in Britain were purchased by the government in 1947 and put under the control of the National Coal Board, with only the smaller mines left in private ownership. The NUM had campaigned for nationalisation for decades and, once it was achieved, sought to work with the NCB in managing the industry and discouraged strikes. Under the chairmanship of Alf Robens, pit closures became widespread as coal's place in energy generation declined. The NUM leadership continued to resist calls for strike action, but an unofficial strike began in 1969 after a conference pledge on the hours of surface-workers was not acted upon. This was a watershed moment that led to increased spending on the coal industry and a much slower rate of pit closures, as well as the election of more militant officials to the NUM leadership. Under the government of Ted Heath, an official strike in 1972 won increased wages after the Wilberforce Commission. Less than two years later, Heath called a general election over another official strike, called after an overtime ban had led to a Three Day Week in Britain, and lost the election to the Labour Party. The wage demands were then met and spending on the industry continued to increase, including the establishment of the new Selby Coalfield.


title: History of coal mining

text: By the early 1980s, many pits were almost 100 years old and were considered uneconomic to work at current wage rates compared to cheap North Sea oil and gas, and in comparison to subsidy levels in Europe. The Miners' Strike of 1984 failed to stop the Conservative government's plans under Margaret Thatcher to shrink the industry, and a break-away Union of Democratic Mineworkers was founded by miners, mostly in the Midlands, who felt that the NUM had broken its own democratic rules in calling the strike. The National Coal Board (by then British Coal), was privatised by selling off a large number of pits to private concerns through the mid-1990s. Because of exhausted seams, high prices and cheap imports, the mining industry disappeared almost completely, despite the militant protests of some miners.


title: History of coal mining

text: In January 2008, the South Wales Valleys last deep pit mine, Tower Colliery in Hirwaun, Rhondda Cynon Taff closed with the loss of 120 jobs. The coal was exhausted. Until 2015 coal was still mined at Hatfield, Kellingley and Thoresby Collieries, and is extracted at several very large opencast pits in South Wales, Scotland and elsewhere. Kellingley Colliery was the last deep coal mine in operation in the UK and its last coaling shift was on 18 December 2015 when coaling operations ceased with the loss of 450 jobs bringing deep coal mining in the UK to an end in its entirety, a skeleton team of men will remain to service the colliery until it is finally dismantled.


title: History of coal mining

text: Coal mining was never a major industry in Ireland, apart from a spell in the mid-19th century when east Tyrone collieries were at their peak. Deerpark Mines was the largest opencast site. In 1919, it got rail connections and reached peak production in the 1950s.


title: History of coal mining

text: Anthracite (or "hard" coal), clean and smokeless, became the preferred fuel in cities, replacing wood by about 1850. Bituminous (or "soft coal") mining came later. In the mid-century Pittsburgh was the principal market. After 1850 soft coal, which is cheaper but dirtier, came into demand for railway locomotives and stationary steam engines, and was used to make coke for steel after 1870.


title: History of coal mining

text: Total coal output soared until 1918; before 1890, it doubled every ten years, going from in 1850 to 40 million () in 1870, 270 million () in 1900, and peaking at in 1918. New soft coal fields opened in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, as well as West Virginia, Kentucky and Alabama. The Great Depression of the 1930s lowered the demand to in 1932.


title: History of coal mining

text: Under John L. Lewis, the United Mine Workers (UMW) became the dominant force in the coal fields in the 1930s and 1940s, producing high wages and benefits. In 1914 at the peak there were 180,000 anthracite miners; by 1970 only 6,000 remained. At the same time steam engines were phased out in railways and factories, and bituminous coal was used primarily for the generation of electricity. Employment in bituminous peaked at 705,000 men in 1923, falling to 140,000 by 1970 and 70,000 in 2003. UMW membership among active miners fell from 160,000 in 1980 to only 16,000 in 2005, as coal mining became more mechanized and non-union miners predominated in the new coal fields.


title: History of coal mining

text: In the 1960s a series of mergers saw coal production shift from small, independent coal companies to large, more diversified firms. Several oil companies and electricity producers acquired coal companies or leased Federal coal reserves in the west of the United States. Concerns that competition in the coal industry could decline as a result of these changes were heightened by a sharp rise in coal prices in the wake of the 1973 oil crisis. Coal prices fell in the 1980s, partly in response to oil price movements, but primarily in response to the large increase in supply worldwide which was brought about by the earlier price surge. During this period, the industry in the U.S. was characterized by a move towards low-sulfur coal.


title: History of coal mining

text: In 1987 Wyoming became the largest coal producing state. It uses strip mining exclusively. Wyoming's coal reserves total about , or 14.2% of the U.S. coal reserve.


title: History of coal mining

text: In 2008, competition was intense in the US coal mining industry with some U.S. mines approaching the end of their useful life (mine closure). Other coal-producing countries also stepped up production to win a share of traditional US export markets. Coal is used primarily to generate electricity, but the rapid drop in natural gas prices after 2008 created severe competition.


title: History of coal mining

text: In the 21st century, Indonesia has expanded its coal mining and by 2011 ranked #5 globally in production. By 2011 Kazakhstan ranks in the top ten in terms of coal production and reserves. Lignite ("brown coal") remains important with Germany, China and Russia the largest producers.


title: History of coal mining

text: Mining has always been especially dangerous, because of explosions, roof cave-ins, and the difficulty of underground rescue. The worst single disaster in British coal mining history was at Senghenydd in the South Wales coalfield. On the morning of 14 October 1913 an explosion and subsequent fire killed 436 men and boys. Only 72 bodies were recovered. It followed a series of many extensive Mining accidents in the late 19th century, such as The Oaks explosion of 1866 and the Hartley Colliery Disaster of 1862. Most of the explosions were caused by firedamp ignitions followed by coal dust explosions. At Hartley there was no explosion, but the miners entombed when the single shaft was blocked by a broken cast iron beam from the haulage engine.


title: History of coal mining

text: Mitsubishi Hojyo coal mine disaster, occurred on 15 December 1914 at the Mitsubishi Hojyo coal mine located in the Kyushu Island of Japan. The disaster directly led to the deaths of 687, representing the worst mining incident in Japanese history.


title: History of coal mining

text: The Courrières mine disaster, Europe's worst mining accident, caused the death of 1,099 miners in Northern France on 10 March 1906. The Benxihu Colliery accident in China on April 26, 1942, killed 1,549 miners.


title: History of coal mining

text: As well as disasters directly affecting mines, there have been disasters attributable to the impact of mining on the surrounding landscapes and communities. The Aberfan disaster in 1966 buried a school in South Wales when a huge slag heap collapsed, killing 116 children and 28 adults.


title: The Yiddish Policemen's Union

text: The Yiddish Policemen's Union is a 2007 novel by American author Michael Chabon. The novel is a detective story set in an alternative history version of the present day, based on the premise that during World War II, a temporary settlement for Jewish refugees was established in Sitka, Alaska, in 1941, and that the fledgling State of Israel was destroyed in 1948. The novel is set in Sitka, which it depicts as a large, Yiddish-speaking metropolis.


title: The Yiddish Policemen's Union

text: "The Yiddish Policemen's Union" won a number of science fiction awards: the Nebula Award for Best Novel, the Locus Award for Best SF Novel, the Hugo Award for Best Novel, and the Sidewise Award for Alternate History for Best Novel. It was shortlisted for the British Science Fiction Association Award for Best Novel and the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Novel.


title: The Yiddish Policemen's Union

text: "The Yiddish Policemen's Union" is set in an alternative history version of the present day. The premise is that contrary to real history, the United States voted to implement the 1940 Slattery Report, which recommended the provision of land in Alaska for the temporary refugee settlement of European Jews who were being persecuted by the Nazis during World War II (see also Jews escaping from German-occupied Europe). The novel's divergence point from real history is revealed in the first dozen chapters to be the death of Anthony Dimond, Alaska Territory delegate to the U.S. Congress, in a car accident; Dimond was the politician most responsible for preventing a vote on the report. It imagines a temporary independent Jewish settlement being created on the Alaskan coast. As a result, only two million Jews are murdered in the Holocaust instead of six million (as in the real world).


title: The Yiddish Policemen's Union

text: The setting is Sitka, Alaska, which has become a sprawling metropolis at the center of the Jewish settlement in Alaska. One of the city's landmarks is the 'Safety Pin', a tall building erected for the 1977 World Fair held in Sitka and a source of pride for its inhabitants. The lands across the border are populated primarily by Tlingit Alaska Natives, and there has been a history of friction between the Jews and the Tlingit, but also of intermarriage and cross-cultural contact; one of the novel's characters, Berko Shemets, is half Jewish, half Tlingit. Sitka's status as a Federal District (US territory) has been granted for only sixty years, and the novel is set at the end of this period. The President of the United States is an evangelical Christian and Christian Zionist who is promising to go through with the 'Reversion' of Sitka to the State of Alaska.


title: The Yiddish Policemen's Union

text: In the novel, the State of Israel is founded in 1948, but is destroyed after only three months in an alternative version of the Arab-Israeli War. Without Israel, Palestine is described as a mosaic of contending religious and secular nationalist groups locked in internecine conflict; Jerusalem is described as "a city of blood and slogans painted on the wall, severed heads on telephone poles". The United States president believes in "divine sanction" for neo-Zionism, a movement seeking for Jews to reclaim Israel once again.


title: The Yiddish Policemen's Union

text: Chabon describes the rest of world history only elliptically, but hints at enormous changes. Germany crushes the Soviet Union in 1942 and World War II continues until 1946, when Berlin is destroyed with nuclear weapons. Chabon refers to a 'Polish Free State' existing in 1950 and describes some characters as veterans of a lengthy 'Cuban War' in the 1960s. President John F. Kennedy was not assassinated and married Marilyn Monroe, and Orson Welles succeeded in making his film of "Heart of Darkness". Describing the modern world, Chabon refers to a 'Third Russian Republic', an independent Manchuria that has its own space program, and Persia existing in place of Turkey.


title: The Yiddish Policemen's Union

text: The book opens with Meyer Landsman, an alcoholic homicide detective with the Sitka police department, examining the murder of a man in the hotel where Landsman lives. Beside the corpse lies an open cardboard chess board with an unfinished game set up on it. Landsman calls his partner, half-Tlingit, half-Jewish Berko Shemets, to help him investigate further. Upon filing a report on the murder at police headquarters, Landsman and Berko discover that Landsman's ex-wife Bina Gelbfish has been promoted to commanding officer of their unit.


title: The Yiddish Policemen's Union

text: Landsman and Berko discover that the victim was Mendel Shpilman, the son of the Verbover rebbe, Sitka’s most powerful organized crime boss. Many Jews believed Mendel to be the Tzadik ha-Dor, the potential messiah, born once in every generation.


title: The Yiddish Policemen's Union

text: As Meyer continues to investigate Mendel's murder, he discovers that the supposed "chosen one" had taken a flight with Naomi, Landsman's deceased sister. He follows Naomi's trail to a mysterious set of buildings with an unknown purpose, set up in Tlingit territory by Jews. Landsman flies there to investigate; he is knocked out and thrown in a cell, whose walls have graffiti in Naomi's handwriting.


title: The Yiddish Policemen's Union

text: The naked and injured Landsman is soon rescued by a local Tlingit police chief, Willie Dick, who reunites him with Berko. They learn that the mysterious complex is operated by a paramilitary group who wants to build a new Temple in Jerusalem after destroying the Dome of the Rock, hoping to speed the birth of the Messiah. An evangelical Christian Zionist American government supports the group.


title: The Yiddish Policemen's Union

text: As Landsman and Berko investigate, the News reports the Dome being bombed. American agents apprehend the detectives and offer them permission to stay in Sitka, if they agree to keep quiet about the plot they have uncovered. Landsman says that he will and is released. Landsman reunites with Bina, frustrated by his failure with the Shpilman case. Remembering the chess board, he suddenly realizes that it's not an unfinished game: he had seen the same position from the perspective of the other player in Berko's father, Hertz Shemets's house. Landsman and Bina track down Hertz, and he confesses to killing Mendel at Mendel's own request hoping to ruin the government's plans to bring upon the Messiah. Landsman contacts American journalist Brennan stating that he "has a story for him". It is left ambiguous to the reader if Landsman is planning to expose Hertz's involvement in Shpilman's murder or the complex messianic conspiracy.


title: The Yiddish Policemen's Union

text: Chabon began working on the novel in February 2002, inspired by an essay he had published in "Harper's" in October 1997. Entitled "Guidebook to a Land of Ghosts", the essay discussed a travel book Chabon had found, "Say It in Yiddish", and the dearth of Yiddish-speaking countries in which the book would be useful. While researching hypothetical Yiddish-speaking countries, Chabon learned of "this proposal once that Jewish refugees be allowed to settle in Alaska during World War II... I made a passing reference to it in the essay, but the idea stuck." Vitriolic public response to the essay, which was seen as controversial for "prematurely announcing [Yiddish's] demise," also spurred Chabon to develop the idea.


title: The Yiddish Policemen's Union

text: In late 2003, Chabon mentioned the novel on his web site, saying that it was titled "Hotzeplotz" in a reference to the "Yiddish expression 'from here to Hotzeplotz,' meaning more or less the back of nowhere, Podunk, Iowa, the ends of the earth." In 2004, Chabon said the (retitled) book would be published in fall 2005, but then the writer decided to trash his


title: The Yiddish Policemen's Union

text: most recent draft and start over. His publisher HarperCollins pushed the publication date back to April 11, 2006. Chabon's rejected 600-page draft featured the same characters as the novel he eventually published but "a completely different story," and was also written in the first person.


title: The Yiddish Policemen's Union

text: In December 2005, Chabon announced a second delay to the novel's release, claiming that the manuscript was complete but that he felt that HarperCollins was rushing the novel into publication. An excerpt from the book appeared in the Fall 2006 issue of the "Virginia Quarterly Review", and the novel itself was released on May 1, 2007. Chabon has said that the novel was difficult to write, calling it "an exercise in restraint all around... The sentences are much shorter than my typical sentences; my paragraphs are shorter than my typical paragraphs." He also described the novel as an


title: The Yiddish Policemen's Union

text: homage to the writing of mystery writers Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, and Ross Macdonald, along with Russian writer Isaac Babel.


title: The Yiddish Policemen's Union

text: The book's original cover art by Will Staehle features an amalgam of styles (like the novel itself), drawing on classic pulp detective novel, Jewish imagery, and art from the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, especially that of the Tlingit and Haida peoples.


title: The Yiddish Policemen's Union

text: In the weeks leading up to its publication, the novel received considerable attention from the press. The front page of "The New York Times"' Arts & Leisure section featured a "big, splashy" profile of Chabon in which he flew to Sitka and discussed the book while walking around the city. The novel also received preemptive criticism, with "The New York Post" publishing an article headlined "Novelist's Ugly View of Jews." The "Post" alleged that Chabon's depiction of "Jews as constantly in conflict with one another [is] bound to set off a firestorm of controversy."


title: The Yiddish Policemen's Union

text: Reviews were generally positive. The review aggregator Metacritic reported the book had an average score of 75 out of 100, based on 17 reviews. "Library Journal" called it "bloody brilliant" and Michiko Kakutani wrote in "The New York Times" that the novel "builds upon the achievement of "Kavalier & Clay"... a gripping murder mystery [with] one of the most appealing detective heroes to come along since Sam Spade or Philip Marlowe." The novel debuted at #2 on the "New York Times" Best Seller list on May 20, 2007, remaining on the list for 6 weeks.


title: The Yiddish Policemen's Union

text: Producer Scott Rudin purchased the film rights to "The Yiddish Policemen's Union" in 2002, based on a one-and-a-half page proposal. In February 2008, Rudin told "The Guardian" that a film adaptation of "The Yiddish Policemen's Union" was in pre-production, to be written and directed by the Coen brothers. The Coen brothers were to begin working on the adaptation for Columbia Pictures after they completed filming of "A Serious Man". Chabon stated that the Coens are "among [his] favorite living moviemakers[...] What's more, I think they are perfectly suited to this material in every way, from its genre(s) to its tone to its content."


title: The Yiddish Policemen's Union

text: In the fall of 2012, however, Chabon told "Mother Jones" that "the Coen brothers wrote a draft of a script and then they seemed to move on," and that the film rights had "lapsed back to me."


title: The Yiddish Policemen's Union

text: In January 2019, CBS Television Studios, PatMa Productions and Keshet Studios acquired the script from Chabon and his wife Ayelet Waldman to premium cable and streaming networks.


title: Some Good News

text: Some Good News is a 2020 American web series created and hosted by American actor and filmmaker John Krasinski on YouTube, which premiered on March 29, 2020. Krasinski self-funded and co-produced the show with his production company, Sunday Night Productions, and filmed each episode remotely from his home in Brooklyn during the COVID-19 pandemic. After eight episodes and a live-streamed prom, a report from the "Hollywood Reporter" announced that the show was sold to ViacomCBS on May 22, 2020. Krasinski later confirmed that he dropped plans for any adaptations to the show and that it would be kept in its original format. Krasinski brought the show back for a holiday special on YouTube in December 2020.


title: Some Good News

text: Since the first season concluded, "Some Good News" has raised over $2 million for various charities through their "Some Good Merch" Sevenly store. Donations have gone to Direct Relief, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, Trauma Free World, World Central Kitchen, the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, Toys For Tots, and the Restaurant Employee Relief Fund.


title: Some Good News

text: The show, which was originally developed and hosted on YouTube, is "a news show dedicated entirely to good news," with Krasinski operating inside his home during the COVID-19 pandemic. In each episode, he discusses several feel-good stories and invites celebrity guests to join in conversation.


title: Some Good News

text: Krasinski conceptualized "Some Good News" in 2013, but launched the series in 2020, amid the imposed lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic. He self-financed and produced the program, in conjunction with his production banner partner, Allyson Seeger. Various companies were hired for production, editing, marketing, and other aspects.


title: Some Good News

text: On May 21, 2020, ViacomCBS announced that it had acquired "Some Good News", following a bidding war, with the intention of turning the show into a weekly addition to traditional news segments for CBS All Access and Comedy Central with productions through Comedy Central Productions. Krasinski stated he would step down as host, but remain an executive producer alongside Sunday Night Productions. However, in May 2021, Krasinski announced he and ViacomCBS did not move forward with development plans for the company's streaming platform. Instead, "Some Good News" would remain in its original format on YouTube as well as secondary video platforms established in the show's original run such as Snapchat.


title: Some Good News

text: On April 16, 2020, Krasinski announced that he was DJing a live-streamed prom special on the channel the following night at 8:00 pm EDT. The Jonas Brothers performed their song "Sucker" while Eilish and O'Connell performed "Bad Guy". Krasinski stated, "We are all going through this together. It's a very weird time, but each and every one of you are missing something and this is the least I could do and I couldn't be more proud to do it." Mashable called the episode "truly a night to remember." "Vulture" stated "Overall, [it was] at least as fun as our actual physical prom, minus the $$$. Hope you enjoyed, Class of 2020!"


title: Some Good News

text: "Some Good News" debuted on YouTube on March 29, 2020, and accumulated 330,000 subscribers overnight. The first episode appeared on YouTube's Trending page and was viewed 3.1 million times one day after being uploaded. It had been viewed over 12 million times by April 5, 2020.


title: Some Good News

text: Within the first eight weeks, the eight episode series drew in over 72 million views and 2.58 million subscribers.


title: Some Good News

text: "Some Good News" was positively received, including the accompanying Twitter account Krasinski set up for the show under the handle @somegoodnews. "TV Insider" wrote "... "Some Good News" has proven how powerful spreading positivity can be. TV fans should put their faith in John Krasinski to deliver what the title of his YouTube series promises amidst the chaos and hardships of life during the COVID-19 pandemic."


title: Some Good News

text: Reviewing the second episode, CBN News stated, "just like the first episode, this one is definitely worth watching." NPR stated the episode was an "explosion of good-hearted joy". Michelle Obama shared the video on social media, adding, "I couldn't help but smile after watching this video with John Krasinski, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and the cast of "Hamilton" surprising a young fan, giving us all a little bit of joy at this difficult time." Jimmy Traina of "Sports Illustrated" said the third episode "managed to create some damn good sports content—and some tears."


title: Some Good News

text: "Some Good News" won a Special Achievement Award at the 2020 Webby Awards and was nominated for a Streamy Award.


title: Some Good News

text: In episode eight, John Krasinski announced that "Some Good News" had partnered with Sevenly and the Starbucks Foundation to launch "Some Good Merch", an online merchandise store where 100% of profits go to charity. As of 2021, over two million dollars have been donated to six charities through "Some Good Merch". Donations from "Some Good Merch" to Direct Relief specifically provided emergency aid to the Navajo Nation and White River Indian Hospital in Fort Apache Indian Reservation, a facility serving over 17,000 tribal members and run by the Indian Health Service (IHS). The donation included COVID-19 PPE, thousands of masks and sanitizer, and other relief supplies compiled by a coordinating team at First Nations Fund. Additionally, PPE donations were made to "SelfHelp Community Services", a home and community-based healthcare service for elderly Holocaust survivors and homebound seniors. With Trauma Free World, "Some Good Merch" donations went towards the international "Signs for Hope" program, which assists in the training of trauma-informed care for deaf children and orphans. Additionally, donations to the Boys & Girls Clubs of America assisted in the remote re-opening of the Metro Atlanta BGCA after the club was forced to close due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. Donations have also been made to the World Central Kitchen, Toys for Tots, NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, and the Restaurant Employee Relief Fund.


title: Black Front

text: The Combat League of Revolutionary National Socialists (German: "Kampfgemeinschaft Revolutionärer Nationalsozialisten", KGRNS), more commonly known as the Black Front (), was a political group formed by Otto Strasser in 1930 after he resigned from the Nazi Party (NSDAP) to avoid being expelled.


title: Black Front

text: Strasser formed the Black Front to continue what he saw as the original anti-capitalist stance of the Nazi Party, embodied in several items of its 1920 25-point Program that was in large part ignored by Adolf Hitler, which Strasser saw as a betrayal. The Black Front was composed of former radical Nazis who intended to cause a split in the party. The group published a newspaper, "The German Revolution". The Black Front adopted the crossed hammer and sword symbol which is still used by several Strasserite groups.


title: Black Front

text: The Black Front, which never had more than a couple of thousand members, was unable to effectively oppose the Nazis. Hitler’s rise to power as Chancellor of Germany proved to be the final straw. The remaining anti-capitalist elements of the Nazis were eradicated in 1934 during the Night of the Long Knives, in which Gregor Strasser, Otto's older brother, was killed. Strasser had previously broken with his brother over Otto's proclivity to act on his own. Otto Strasser spent the years of the Third Reich in exile, first in Czechoslovakia and later in Canada.


title: Edward Capehart O'Kelley

text: Edward Capehart O'Kelley (October 1, 1857 – January 13, 1904) was an American killer who killed Robert Ford, who had killed the famous outlaw Jesse James to receive a bounty. He was the subject of a 1994 book by his (O'Kelley's) great-great-niece.


title: Edward Capehart O'Kelley

text: Over the years, historians and contemporary newspapers erroneously spelled O'Kelley's surname as "Kelly" or "O'Kelly", sometimes mistakenly using the letter "O" as his middle initial.


title: Edward Capehart O'Kelley

text: Little is known of O'Kelley's youth, although his birthplace is reported as Harrisonville, Missouri. His mother was Margaret Ann Capehart (6 July 1836 – 27 July 1903), but at the time of her 14 July 1857 marriage to Dr. Thomas Katlett O'Kelley (20 October 1833 – 9 October 1923) she was already pregnant with Edward. It is believed that Thomas was not Edward's father.


title: Edward Capehart O'Kelley

text: Edward was a child during the American Civil War. In Thomas' Civil War Veteran Pension File, where Thomas was required to list all his children and their dates of birth, Edward is not included on the list.


title: Edward Capehart O'Kelley

text: Robert Ford befriended outlaw Jesse James in 1882, when he and his brother Charley joined his gang. They lived with James and his family for a time. Ford shot James in the back of the head to collect a state bounty of $5,000. By 1892, he operated a tent saloon in the silver mining camp of Creede, Colorado.


title: Edward Capehart O'Kelley

text: On 8 June 1892, while Ford was preparing to open his saloon, O’Kelley walked into the tent with a shotgun. Ford was turned away from the front entrance. O’Kelley called out, "Hello, Bob." As Ford turned around to see who spoke, O’Kelley fired his shotgun, hitting Ford in the neck and killing him instantly.


title: Edward Capehart O'Kelley

text: O’Kelley never explained why he had shot Ford. According to one account, O’Kelley married a relative of the Younger Brothers Gang and became friends with Jesse James, who became a cousin by marriage. Another version contends that con man Soapy Smith assured O’Kelley he’d be famous if he killed Ford. One theory involves the accusation that O’Kelley had stolen Ford’s diamond ring, and the dispute had escalated. O’Kelley was initially imprisoned for life, though his sentence was later reduced to 18 years. In the end, O’Kelley served only around 9 years at the Colorado State Penitentiary before being released due, firstly, to a 7,000-signature petition in favor of his release, and, secondly, to a medical condition.


title: Edward Capehart O'Kelley

text: After his release, O'Kelley moved to Oklahoma City. Shortly after his arrival in town, he was recognized by Otto Ewing of the Southern Club, a local gambling house. It is claimed that Ewing had been connected with Ford's saloon in Creede, and may even have been there when O'Kelley killed Ford. Ewing told people that O'Kelley was a dangerous man and best avoided.


title: Edward Capehart O'Kelley

text: In December 1903, police officer Joseph Grant "Joe" Burnett (1867–1917) arrested O'Kelley as a "suspicious character". O'Kelley was staying at the Lewis Hotel. He frequented the saloons on West 4th and 2nd Streets, which were known as the hangouts of criminals in the early years of the city.


title: Edward Capehart O'Kelley

text: On 13 January 1904, O'Kelley was arrested by a police officer named Bunker. O'Kelley was released and went to his hotel, where he commented to others that the police had better not try to arrest him again. That evening, Officer Burnett, who had arrested O'Kelley the previous month, was walking his beat on the south side of First Street, in front of the McCord & Collins building. Burnett encountered O'Kelley and greeted him politely. In reply, O'Kelley struck at the lawman and drew a revolver. As O'Kelley struck at the officer again, Burnett grabbed the gun with his left hand.


title: Edward Capehart O'Kelley

text: The two men began to wrestle over the firearm. O'Kelley fired his pistol several times in an attempt to kill Burnett. The officer called out for help repeatedly. O'Kelley did not hit Burnett with his gunfire, but Burnett did receive powder burns on one ear. Once out of ammunition, O'Kelley bit chunks out of both of Burnett’s ears.


title: Edward Capehart O'Kelley

text: A friend of O'Kelley came to his aid and fired one shot at the policeman, but then lost his nerve and ran away. R.E. Chapin witnessed the fight from the rear of the building on West Main Street and telephoned police headquarters. Finally, A.G. Paul, a railroad baggage man, came running from the depot. He grabbed O'Kelley's hand, thus freeing Burnett's gun hand. The policeman immediately fired two shots and killed O'Kelley.


title: Edward Capehart O'Kelley

text: There were two bullet holes in the back of Burnett's overcoat, and the left hip pocket was torn by a bullet. By the time friends reached his side, Burnett's gloves were burned and his clothing was on fire. They called an ambulance to take O'Kelley's body to the morgue at Street and Harpers furniture store. His body had a bullet wound in his left leg just above the knee. The fatal shot entered his head just behind the left temple and exited behind the right ear.


title: Edward Capehart O'Kelley

text: Burnett continued with the Oklahoma City Police Department, serving as a Captain and later as assistant Chief of Police. He died on 20 July 1917 of paralysis after a stroke, at St. Anthony's Hospital. Burnett was buried in a marked grave in the same cemetery as the man he killed.


title: Edward Capehart O'Kelley

text: A monument for Edward O'Kelley stands in the Patton United Methodist Church cemetery, on Country Road 878, in Patton, Missouri. The monument is engraved on both sides. (It cites 1858 as the year of birth.)


title: Edward Capehart O'Kelley

text: The back of the memorial contains engraved scenes from 1890s Creede, Colorado, where O'Kelley fatally shot Ford. The monument was erected through the efforts of Judith Ries, O'Kelley's great-great niece.


title: Jill Messick

text: Jill Laura Sobel Messick (July 27, 1967 – February 7, 2018) was an American film producer. She worked as an executive producer on several films, including "She's All That" (1999), "Frida" (2002), and "Mean Girls" (2004).


title: Jill Messick

text: She was actress Rose McGowan's manager in 1997 when McGowan alleged that she was raped by Harvey Weinstein. After the Weinstein allegations became public in late 2017, McGowan was highly critical of Messick; and Weinstein's lawyer released a private email sent by Messick that contradicted McGowan's claims. The publicity surrounding the scandal led to online cyberbullying directed at her. Messick died by suicide in February 2018. In a public statement, Messick's family said that she supported the Me Too movement and called her loss collateral damage of a "feeding frenzy", blaming Weinstein, McGowan, the media, and the public for her death.


title: Jill Messick

text: Messick was the daughter of Michael Sobel and actress Laura Nicholson Sobel (1945–2015). She was the maternal granddaughter of film producer James H. Nicholson and had a brother named Jan. After attending Santa Barbara High School, where she was named homecoming princess, Messick graduated with a degree in communications from the University of Southern California.


title: Jill Messick

text: She began her career at the Gersh Agency and later worked as a junior manager at Somers/Teitelbaum/David. She was director of development at Woods Entertainment from 1994 to 1996, working on films including "Scream" (1996) and "Teaching Mrs. Tingle" (1999), both distributed by Dimension Films, a division of Miramax Films. She also helped facilitate Miramax distributing M. Night Shyamalan's "Wide Awake" (1998). Shyamalan later said that "she helped fight for my second film to get made at Miramax. Really made me feel I had a big sister protecting me." In the late 1990s, she worked as a talent manager at Addis-Wechsler & Associates, where her clients included Chloe Sevigny and John Bloom. In November 1997, she was hired as vice-president of development by Miramax Films and tasked with "scouting writers and directors and bringing in material to the company." She reported directly to executive vice-president of production Meryl Poster and was hired by Cathy Konrad, who said that she had "a keen eye for spotting new talent."


title: Jill Messick

text: At Miramax Messick helped bring "She's All That" (1999) to the company within a month of her hiring, It eventually grossed $60 million. She worked on such films as "Boys and Girls" (2000), "Frida" (2002) and early development of "Cinderella Man" (2005). She also worked directly with Dimension Films and helped make multipicture deals with screenwriters R. Lee Fleming, Jr., Andrew Lowery and Andrew Miller. In 2000, she was promoted to senior Vice-President of Production. She worked at Miramax until 2003. She later worked as an executive producer for Lorne Michaels, Paramount Pictures and The Weinstein Company. Her film credits include "Get Over It" (2001), "Mean Girls" (2004), "Hot Rod" (2007), "Baby Mama" (2008), and "Masterminds" (2016).


title: Jill Messick

text: Messick made a brief foray into television production with the short-lived NBC sitcom "Bad Judge" (2014–15). She was married to producer Kevin Messick, with whom she had two children.


title: Jill Messick

text: Messick was actress Rose McGowan's talent manager in 1997 at the time when McGowan alleges Harvey Weinstein raped her. In an October 2017 interview with "The New York Times", McGowan was highly critical of Messick's lack of support after the incident and the article suggests that Messick's job at Miramax was directly related to the aftermath. On January 30, 2018, Weinstein's attorney released a private email from Messick to Weinstein as a way to defend Weinstein. The email was sent months before the incident became publicly known and Messick's account of the incident was that McGowan told her that she consensually got into a hot tub with Weinstein and later regretted it. Messick's family later said that McGowan "never once used the word rape" when she told Messick about the incident.


title: Jill Messick

text: McGowan's memoir "Brave", also released on January 30, 2018, details the alleged assault and is highly critical of Messick. In a documentary series about McGowan on the E! network, titled "Citizen Rose", produced by Bunim/Murray Productions and also airing on January 30, McGowan accused Messick of betrayal and of siding with Weinstein in exchange for her job at Miramax. After Weinstein's lawyers released Messick's email, McGowan claimed that Messick's statements had already been disproven by her former assistant Anne Woodward in "The New York Times" article.


title: Jill Messick

text: The media and public attention had a negative impact on Messick. According to Mandy Stadtmiller in "The Daily Beast", the publicity led to online cyberbullying after "activists on Twitter named, shamed and identified how Messick could be reached, with one even revealing Messick’s purposefully obscured LinkedIn profile (she did not use her full name) and encouraging others to reach out to her and let her know what they really thought of her." In 2021 Stadtmiller claimed that "Daily Beast" entertainment editor Marlow Stern attempted to cancel the story, compelling Stadtmiller to go higher up for approval. Stadtmiller called it "an important part of the #MeToo narrative in its revelation of just how disposable some women are in the name of feminism."


title: Jill Messick

text: A Messick family statement stated that she had suffered from bipolar disorder and that a "manic episode" in 2013 had affected her career. The statement also said: "Seeing her name in headlines again and again, as part of one person's attempt to gain more attention for her personal cause, along with Harvey's desperate attempt to vindicate himself, was devastating for her. It broke Jill."


title: Jill Messick

text: Messick died by suicide in Los Angeles on February 7, 2018, one day after the third anniversary of her mother's death. The manner of her suicide was not announced.


title: Jill Messick

text: After that, Messick's family issued a public statement that was critical of the media, Weinstein, and McGowan, as well as "our new culture of unlimited information sharing and a willingness to accept statement as fact. The speed of disseminating information has carried mistruths about Jill as a person, which she was unable and unwilling to challenge. She became collateral damage in an already horrific story." Her family defended Messick's decision to not publicly address McGowan's negative statements about her because of "fear of undermining the many individuals who came forward in truth. She opted not to add to the feeding frenzy, allowing her name and her reputation to be sullied despite having done nothing wrong." It also asserts that, contrary to McGowan's accusations, Messick (who supported the Me Too movement) "was the first person who stood up on Rose's behalf, and alerted her bosses to the horrific experience which Rose suffered" despite being a junior-level employee at that time.


title: Jill Messick

text: McGowan paid tribute to Messick on Instagram without addressing her family's accusations. Messick was among the deceased memorialized at the 90th Academy Awards.


title: Yorkie (chocolate bar)

text: Yorkie is a chocolate bar made by Nestlé. It was originally made by York-based company Rowntree's, hence the name.


title: Yorkie (chocolate bar)

text: In 1976, Eric Nicoli of Rowntree's spotted a gap in the confectionery market for a "manly" chocolate bar, and so the company launched Yorkie as a chunkier competitor to Cadbury's Dairy Milk. Production was at York and Norwich until 1994.


title: Yorkie (chocolate bar)

text: The Yorkie bar has historically been marketed towards men. From the bar's launch until 1992, the "Yorkie bar trucker" was the famous "rough, tough star" of the brand's television adverts. Another prominent ad from this period was a billboard at York railway station with the words "Welcome to" and a picture of a half unwrapped Yorkie bar. Thus the advert read "Welcome to York". Further text beneath said "Where the men are hunky and the chocolate's chunky".


title: Yorkie (chocolate bar)

text: In 2002, the bar's relaunch campaign made this positioning more explicit, with the addition of a wrapper tagline reading "It's not for girls!", as well as associated £3m television and print advertisements that featured a variety of sexist slogans"." One of these campaigns provoked 97 complaints to the Advertising Standards Agency on grounds of sexism in its first year, but the ASA eventually ruled that these complaints were not justified. However, an associated promotional campaign in which free sample bars were handed out exclusively to men was banned by Liverpool's and Birmingham's councils. In 2006, a pink-wrapped special edition was released as an ironic play on the "not for girls" branding, with this edition marketed towards women. In 2011, the 'It's Not for Girls!' slogan was dropped, and standard Yorkie bars became available in 3 packs.


title: Yorkie (chocolate bar)

text: Aside from the original milk chocolate bar, several variants are available, including a "raisin and biscuit" flavour, "honeycomb" flavour, and Yorkie Ice Cream. A special version for use in Ministry of Defence ration packs was also produced, with its tagline reading "It's not for civvies".


title: Yorkie (chocolate bar)

text: Yorkie bars were originally composed of six chunks of chocolate each marked "Rowntree"; they were wrapped in both foil and an outer paper wrapper and weighed . The wrapping was later switched to a single plastic foil wrapper. More recently, in an effort to reduce costs, the number of chunks has been reduced to five with "Yorkie" moulded into each chunk. The weight of the bar has decreased over the years. In 2002, Yorkie bars were . This had been reduced to by 2010, and was reduced further to in 2011 and then later that year. It was shrunk again in November 2014 to . In January 2015, UK, Raisin & Biscuit Yorkies were . Limited edition Yorkie Peanut was . Yorkie King size bars have also reduced in size.


title: Benzoin (resin)

text: Benzoin or benjamin (corrupted pronunciation) is a balsamic resin obtained from the bark of several species of trees in the genus "Styrax". It is used in perfumes and some kinds of incense and as a flavoring and medicine (see tincture of benzoin). It is distinct from the chemical compound benzoin, which is ultimately derived chemically from benzoin resin; the resin, however, does not contain this compound.


title: Benzoin (resin)

text: Benzoin is sometimes called gum benzoin or gum benjamin, and in India "Sambrani or" loban, though loban is, via Arabic "lubān", a generic term for frankincense-type incense, e.g., fragrant tree resin. Benzoin is also called storax, not to be confused with the balsam of the same name obtained from the Hamamelidaceae family.


title: Benzoin (resin)

text: Benzoin is a common ingredient in incense-making and perfumery because of its sweet vanilla-like aroma and fixative properties. Gum benzoin is a major component of the type of church incense used in Russia and some other Orthodox Christian societies, as well as Western Catholic Churches. Most benzoin is used in the Arabian Peninsula and Hindu temples of India, where it is burned on charcoal as an incense. It is also used in the production of Bakhoor (Arabic بخور - scented wood chips) as well as various mixed resin incense in the Arab countries and the Horn of Africa. Benzoin is also used in blended types of Japanese incense, Indian incense, Chinese incense (known as Anxi xiang; 安息香), and Papier d'Arménie as well as incense sticks.


title: Benzoin (resin)

text: There are two common kinds of benzoin, benzoin Siam and benzoin Sumatra. Benzoin Siam is obtained from "Styrax tonkinensis", found across Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Benzoin Sumatra is obtained from "Styrax benzoin", which grows predominantly on the island of Sumatra. Unlike Siamese benzoin, Sumatran benzoin contains cinnamic acid in addition to benzoic acid. In the United States, Sumatra benzoin ("Styrax benzoin" and "Styrax paralleoneurus") is more customarily used in pharmaceutical preparations, Siam benzoin ("Styrax tonkinensis" etc.) in the flavor and fragrance industries.


title: Benzoin (resin)

text: In perfumery, benzoin is used as a fixative, slowing the dispersion of essential oils and other fragrance materials into the air. Benzoin is used in cosmetics, veterinary medicine, and scented candles. It is used as a flavoring in alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages, baked goods, chewing gum, frozen dairy, gelatins, puddings, and soft candy.


title: Willow (Joe Biden's cat)

text: Willow (born January 3, 2020) is a tabby domestic short-haired cat owned by President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden. Formerly a farm cat, she was adopted by the Biden family from Rick Telesz as part of a campaign promise to adopt a cat into the First Family and is named after Jill Biden's hometown of Willow Grove, Pennsylvania. Willow is the first cat to live in the White House since India, who was owned by President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush.


title: Willow (Joe Biden's cat)

text: Willow is a former farm cat that was born in Western Pennsylvania, and was formerly owned by Rick Telesz, a farmer in Volant, Lawrence County, Pennsylvania.


title: Willow (Joe Biden's cat)

text: Jill Biden first met Willow during a campaign speech at the farm where she resided and she immediately bonded with her. In an interview Jill stated that the cat had, between then and her adoption by the Bidens, been living with a foster family, had grown attached to the cat. Rick Telesz, Willow's former owner, claimed that he received a phone call where he was informed that Jill wanted to adopt Willow from him.


title: Willow (Joe Biden's cat)

text: Willow's adoption was part of a campaign promise to adopt a cat into the First Family, and after being so, was named Willow Biden, after Jill's hometown of Willow Grove, Pennsylvania.


title: Willow (Joe Biden's cat)

text: While the adoption of a cat by the Biden family was promised in late 2020, Willow was only adopted in 2022 because of concerns that she would not get along with the Biden family's German Shepherd Major, who had biting issues. Eventually Major was sent to live with friends of the Biden family in Delaware.


title: Dark Passage (film)

text: Dark Passage is a 1947 American mystery thriller film directed by Delmer Daves and starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. The film is based on the 1946 novel of the same title by David Goodis. It was the third of four films real-life couple Bacall and Bogart made together.


title: Dark Passage (film)

text: The first portion of the film subjectively depicts the male lead's point of view, concealing the face of Vincent Parry (Bogart), until the character undergoes plastic surgery to change his appearance. The story follows Parry's attempt to hide from the law and clear his name of murder.


title: Dark Passage (film)

text: Vincent Parry (Bogart), convicted of killing his wife, escapes from San Quentin Prison and evades police by hitching a ride with a motorist named Baker. Already suspicious of Parry's appearance, Baker hears a radio news report about an escaped convict; Parry resorts to beating him unconscious. An apparent stranger, Irene Jansen (Bacall), picks Parry up and smuggles him past a police roadblock into San Francisco. She offers him shelter in her apartment while she goes to buy him some new clothes.


title: Dark Passage (film)

text: Irene's acquaintance Madge comes by Irene's apartment, but Parry (through a closed door) tells her to leave. A former romantic interest whom Parry had spurned, Madge testified at his trial out of spite, claiming that his dying wife identified him as the killer. Irene explains that she had followed Parry's case with interest and that she believes Parry is innocent. Her own father had been falsely convicted of murder, and since then she has taken an interest in miscarriages of justice.


title: Dark Passage (film)

text: Parry leaves but is recognized by his cab driver, Sam, who turns out to be sympathetic and gives Parry the name of a plastic surgeon who can change his appearance. Parry arranges to stay with a friend, George Fellsinger, during his recuperation from the surgery.


title: Dark Passage (film)

text: Later, Parry enters George's apartment to find him murdered; he sentimentally handles George's trumpet before leaving. He retreats to Irene's apartment; she nurses him back to health.


title: Dark Passage (film)

text: Irene is called on by Madge and her ex-fiancé Bob, who is romantically interested in Irene. While Parry hides in the bedroom, Madge asks to stay with Irene for protection, worried that Parry will kill her for testifying against him. As Irene insists that Madge leave, the latter unwittingly reveals that Irene recently had a male guest, thinking the voice she heard through the door was Bob's. Bob departs as well, having learned that Irene has another romantic interest.


title: Dark Passage (film)

text: Parry recuperates and learns that he is wanted for George's murder, his fingerprints having been found on the murder weapon, George's trumpet. After his bandages are removed, Parry reluctantly parts from Irene.


title: Dark Passage (film)

text: Parry decides to flee the city before trying to discover who really killed his wife. At a diner, an undercover policeman becomes suspicious of Parry's behavior. The policeman asks for identification, but Parry claims to have left it at his hotel. On the street, Parry darts in front of a moving car to escape. At the hotel, Parry is surprised by Baker, who holds him at gunpoint. Baker has been following Parry since they first met. He now demands that Irene pay him $60,000 or he will turn Parry over to the law. Parry agrees, and Baker obliges him to drive the two of them to Irene's apartment. Claiming to take a shortcut, Parry drives to a secluded spot underneath the Golden Gate Bridge, where he succeeds in disarming Baker and questions him, becoming convinced that Madge is behind the deaths of his wife and friend. The two men fight, and Baker falls to his death.


title: Dark Passage (film)

text: Parry goes to Madge's apartment. Knowing she does not recognize him with his new face, he pretends to be a friend of Bob's and feigns interest in courting her. Parry soon reveals his true identity and accuses Madge of having killed both his wife and George. He shows her that he has all the accusations written down, and attempts to coerce her into making a confession. She refuses, and plunges through a window to her death.


title: Dark Passage (film)

text: Knowing he cannot prove his innocence, and that he will likely be accused of Madge's murder as well, Parry decides to flee. He phones Irene, revealing his plans to relocate to South America; she says she will meet him there. Later, Parry waits with a drink in a beach bar in Peru. Irene arrives, and they embrace on the dance floor.


title: Dark Passage (film)

text: Warner Bros. paid author David Goodis $25,000 for the rights to the story, which had originally been serialized in "The Saturday Evening Post" from July 20 to September 7, 1946, before being published in book form. Bogart himself had read the book and wanted to make it into a movie. At the time that "Dark Passage" was shot, Bogart was the best-paid actor in Hollywood, averaging $450,000 a year.


title: Dark Passage (film)

text: Robert Montgomery had made the film "Lady in the Lake" (1946) which also uses a "subjective camera" technique, in which the viewer sees the action through the protagonist's eyes. This technique was used in 1927 in France by Abel Gance for "Napoléon" and by the director Rouben Mamoulian for the first five minutes of "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" (1931). Film critic Hal Erikson believes "Dark Passage" does a better job at using this point-of-view technique, writing, "The first hour or so of "Dark Passage" does the same thing—and the results are far more successful than anything seen in Montgomery's film."


title: Dark Passage (film)

text: According to Bacall, in her autobiography "By Myself", during the filming of "Dark Passage", Bogart's hair began to fall out in clumps, the result of alopecia areata, although photos from their 1945 wedding show Bogart to be losing his hair two years earlier. By the end of filming he wore a full wig. Bogart eventually had B12 shots and other treatments to counteract the effects, but he was helped by the fact that in his next film, "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" he was required to wear a full wig.


title: Dark Passage (film)

text: Parts of the film were filmed on location in San Francisco, California, including the Filbert Steps and the cable car system. The elegant Streamline Moderne Malloch Building on Telegraph Hill was used for the apartment of Irene Jansen where Parry hides out and recuperates from his surgery. Apartment Number 10 was Jansen's. The current residents of that apartment occasionally place a cutout of Bogart in the window. The diner was "Harry's Wagon" at 1921 Post Street, a long-closed diner in the Fillmore District of San Francisco.


title: Dark Passage (film)

text: Film critic Bosley Crowther gave the film a mixed review and was not impressed by Bogart's performance but was impressed by Bacall's work. He wrote:


title: Dark Passage (film)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an approval rating of 90% based on 31 reviews, with an average rating of 7.7/10. Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 68 out of 100, based on 10 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: Dark Passage (film)

text: The film earned $2.31 million domestically and $1.11 million in overseas markets, for a worldwide total of $3.4 million.


title: Dug Days

text: Dug Days (also known as Up: Dug Days) is an American computer-animated streaming television series of shorts produced by Pixar Animation Studios for the Disney+ streaming service. The series is set immediately after the 2009 3D CGI film "Up", following its main characters, dog Dug, voiced by Bob Peterson and his owner, 78-year-old Carl Fredricksen, voiced by Ed Asner in one of his last performances. It was created, written and directed by Peterson, and produced by Peterson and Kim Collins.


title: Dug Days

text: The series was announced in December 2020, during Disney's Investor Day, with Peterson pitched the series centering on Dug following his work on "Forky Asks a Question". The animators created new animation rigging, textures, and hair for the characters in order to update their original designs due to advances in CG animation ever since the original film's release. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, much of the final animations were done from the crew's homes as were the cast remotely record their dialogue.


title: Dug Days

text: "Dug Days" premiered with its episodes on September 1, 2021, on Disney+. It received generally positive reviews for its voice performance, message, role models, humor and emotional bond.


title: Dug Days

text: On December 19, 2022, it was announced that the show would get a second season entitled "Dug Days: Carl's Date" in 2023.


title: Dug Days

text: The miniseries is set after the events of "Up", and presents the adventures of Golden Retriever dog named Dug living with his owner, widower and childless 78-year-old Carl Fredricksen, in their new house in the suburb.


title: Dug Days

text: The series was announced on December 10, 2020, during Disney's Investor Day. It was produced by Pixar, with Bob Peterson as its creator, director, and writer. It premiered on Disney+ streaming service, with five episodes, on September 1, 2021. Peterson pitched the series following his work on "Forky Asks a Question", as he wanted to revisit the characters from "Up", and felt a short series centering on Dug was the appropriate format. Kim Collins joined as producer after Peterson wrote the series. "Up" director and Pixar chief creative officer Pete Docter was an executive-producer for the series; Docter supervised the series so it would be faithful to the original film.


title: Dug Days

text: In addition to writing and directing the series, Peterson reprises his role as Dug from the film. Ed Asner, Carl's voice actor from both the film and the series, died on August 29, three days before the series premiere, making it a posthumous performance. Unused archive recordings of Jordan Nagai were used in the episode "Science", as Nagai had already retired from acting by the time the series entered development.


title: Dug Days

text: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the series was animated remotely, with approximately 100 animators working on the series, a shorter number than usual for a Pixar production. All episodes were produced simultaneously. The series also had a tighter production schedule than most Pixar productions, due to being released on streaming.


title: Dug Days

text: For Carl's new home, animators created a design reminiscent of his old home while also being different. They also used similar design aesthetics for Carl's neighborhood. The animators also created new animation rigging, textures, and hair for the characters in order to update their original designs due to advances in CG animation ever since the original film's release. Carl's animation and movement was altered to reflect the events of the original movie.


title: Dug Days

text: The score for "Dug Days" was composed by Andrea Datzman and Curtis Green. "Up" composer and longtime Pixar collaborator Michael Giacchino was approached to return for the series, but declined due to scheduling issues, and instead recommended Andrea, who in turn contacted Curtis to help with the score. The score references Giacchino's work for the original film. According to producer Kim Collins, the score for each episode features different tones and themes. The score for the series was released in September 1, 2021.


title: Dug Days

text: Joel Keller of "Decider" found the humor of the series simple yet effective and praised the performances of the cast members, claimed that the interactions between the characters manage bring an emotional bond between them, while complimenting the animation. Joly Herman of "Common Sense Media" rated the series 4 out of 5 stars and complimented "Dug Days" for providing positive messages such as kindness and loyalty, while praising the depiction of diverse positive role models through the characters.


title: Dug Days

text: "Dug Days" fifth episode, "Science", received a nomination for Best Animated Television Production for Children at the 49th Annie Awards. At the 1st Children's and Family Emmy Awards, the series was nominated for Outstanding Directing for an Animated Program, Outstanding Writing for an Animated Program, and Outstanding Editing for an Animated Program (Torbin Xan Bullock).


title: Nslookup

text: nslookup (from name server lookup) is a network administration command-line tool for querying the Domain Name System (DNS) to obtain the mapping between domain name and IP address, or other DNS records.


title: Nslookup

text: nslookup was a member of the BIND name server software. Early in the development of BIND 9, the Internet Systems Consortium planned to deprecate nslookup in favor of host and dig. This decision was reversed in 2004 with the release of BIND 9.3 and nslookup has been fully supported since then.


title: Nslookup

text: Unlike dig, nslookup does not use the operating system's local Domain Name System resolver library to perform its queries, and thus may behave differently. Additionally, vendor-provided versions may include output of other sources of name information, such as host files, and Network Information Service. Some behaviors of nslookup may be modified by the contents of resolv.conf.


title: Nslookup

text: nslookup operates in interactive or non-interactive mode. When used interactively by invoking it without arguments or when the first argument is - (minus sign) and the second argument is a hostname or Internet address of a name server, the user issues parameter configurations or requests when presented with the nslookup prompt (codice_1). When no arguments are given, then the command queries the default server. The - (minus sign) invokes subcommands which are specified on the command line and should precede nslookup commands. In non-interactive mode, i.e. when the first argument is a name or Internet address of the host being searched, parameters and the query are specified as command line arguments in the invocation of the program. The non interactive mode searches the information for a specified host using the default name server.


title: Platanus orientalis

text: Platanus orientalis, the Old World sycamore or Oriental plane, is a large, deciduous tree of the Platanaceae family, growing to or more, and known for its longevity and spreading crown. In autumn its deep green leaves may change to blood red, amber, and yellow.


title: Platanus orientalis

text: The species' name means 'eastern'. (In comparison, the 'western' plane (or American sycamore) is named "Platanus occidentalis"). The eastern plane's original distribution was eastward from the Balkans. The tree was called "platane" in ancient Greek history and literature and by related names in continental Europe. Equally well known in Asia from Anatolia to India and usually called "chinar" or "chenar".


title: Platanus orientalis

text: The native range is Eurasia from the Balkans to at least as far east as Iran. Some accounts extend its native range to Iberia in the west, and to the Himalayas in the east. As it has been known in cultivation from early times in much of this region it can be difficult to determine if it is truly indigenous in peripheral areas.


title: Platanus orientalis

text: The oriental plane is found naturally in riverine settings, together with such trees as alder, willow and poplar. However, it is quite capable of survival and success in dry soils once it is established. It can grow into a massive tree with many examples hundreds of years old and several specimens around 100 m³ in total volume.


title: Platanus orientalis

text: Like other plane trees, its leaves are borne alternately on the stem, deeply lobed, and palmate or maple-like. It usually has flaking bark, occasionally not flaking and becoming thick and rugged. Flowers and fruit are round and burr-like, borne in clusters of between 2 and 6 on a stem. Considerable variation exists among trees in the wild, and this may be complicated by crossbreeding with planted London planes ("Platanus x acerifolia"), the hybrid of "P. orientalis" with the American sycamore ("Platanus occidentalis").


title: Platanus orientalis

text: The tree is capable of being grown in most temperate latitudes, though it benefits greatly from warm summers. As a very large and wide tree with broad, thick leaves that tend to orient horizontally, it is especially prized for the shade and coolness it provides during the hot season.


title: Platanus orientalis

text: It grows best in rich soil in a sunny location and can survive drought well. Although young plants appreciate regular watering.


title: Platanus orientalis

text: The leaves and bark have been used medicinally. A fabric dye has been made from the twigs and roots. The timber, often called lacewood, is figured and valuable for indoor furniture. The leaves are also often used by artists for leaf carving.


title: Platanus orientalis

text: The Tree of Hippocrates, under which Hippocrates — the "Father of Medicine" — taught at Kos, is reputed to have been an oriental plane. A 500-year-old tree presently there may be on the same site and may have been planted from a succession of cuttings from the original. The Athenian Academy, outside Athens, featured a sacred grove of planes where the students listened to the masters and where among others the Peripatetics practiced philosophy.


title: Platanus orientalis

text: Many villages in Greece feature plane trees in their main squares, frequently found alongside them are water springs that in the past would serve as the main water source for the villagers; usually these are quite old trees with their age seen as a point of pride for the local inhabitants. Occasionally the oldest trees exhibit partially hollowed out trunks, with cavities large enough to provide amusement opportunities for local or visiting children and teenagers, and even serving (along with the rest of the tree) as tourist attractions or at least in one occasion a shrine.


title: Platanus orientalis

text: Pliny's "Natural History" records the westward progress of the plane "introduced among us from a foreign clime for nothing but its shade", planted first at the tomb of Diomedes on the island of Tremiti, then imported to Greek Sicily by Dionysius the Elder (c. 432-367 BC), tyrant of Syracuse. He had plane-trees conveyed to the city of Rhegium (Reggio di Calabria), where they were looked upon as the great marvel of his palace, according to Pliny's sources. From there it spread by the first century CE as far as the lands of the Morini in Belgic Gaul. Regardless of why it may have been introduced, the tree had medicinal uses from early times. Pliny details 25 remedies using preparation from the bark, leaves and excrescences of plane. Pliny prescribes it for burns, bites, stings, frostbite and infections.


title: Platanus orientalis

text: Pliny goes on to describe some legendary plane trees. There was one on the grounds of the Athenian Academy, he says, that had roots long. Licinius Mucianus held a banquet for 19 in a hollow plane-tree of Lycia, and the emperor Caligula another for 15 plus servants in a tree house (nest) built in the branches of a plane-tree at Velletri.


title: Platanus orientalis

text: Muslim Kashmiris believe that the "chinar" was brought to the Kashmir valley by Islamic preachers from Iran in the 14th century AD, while Hindu Kashmiris hold a view that the tree was traditionally planted near Hindu holy places in Kashmir and is associated with Hindu goddess "Bhavani". After the advent of Muslim rule, especially under the Mughals, "Chinar" became a major garden and landscape tree, and dominates many historic gardens. It is a living heritage of Kashmir. It is seen as a symbol for the region. It is a majestic tree that can be found throughout the landscape of the valley, hillsides and cities, generally called "" in Kashmiri and "chinar" in Hindustani. The tree known for its elegance and exuberance has remained an attraction for artists and litterateurs. One tree believed to be planted in 1374 A.D at the Chattergam village by an Islamic mystic Syed Abul Qaim Hamadani who accompanied Mir Sayyid Ali Hamadani from Iran to Kashmir, is believed by many in Kashmir to be the world's oldest surviving chinar tree. Planting of chinar trees in Kashmir was greatly patronised by the Mughals, and later by Dogra rulers.


title: Platanus orientalis

text: Chinar trees are being felled rapidly in Kashmir, although a ban was enacted in 2009 to curb cutting. Chinar trees are now required to be registered, considered State Property, and painted white at their base. Naseem Bagh a Mughal garden near Srinagar with over 700 chinar trees has been developed as a Chinar Heritage Park by the University of Kashmir.


title: Platanus orientalis

text: In 2011 a specimen planted by Capability Brown at Corsham Court in Wiltshire was identified in 2011 by The Tree Register of the British Isles as the tree with the greatest known spread in the United Kingdom.


title: Platanus orientalis

text: The Pococke Garden at Christ Church, Oxford contains a specimen, known as The Pococke Tree, which is understood to have been planted by Edward Pococke from seed he collected in 1636 from Aleppo. With a girth of around 9 metres it is the oldest in the UK.


title: Platanus orientalis

text: A plane tree is the main theme in the aria Ombra mai fu composed by George Frideric Handel, in which the main character, Xerxes I of Persia, admires the shade of a plane tree.


title: Platanus orientalis

text: The Chinar leaf is considered a national symbol in Azad Jammu and Kashmir. The continues to include the leaf. Many universities, including the University of Azad Jammu and Kashmir also include the symbol.


title: Platanus orientalis

text: It is the State tree of the Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. During the 2010 Commonwealth Games opening ceremony, held in India, the chinar tree was featured prominently in the 'tree of knowledge' segment of the ceremony.


title: Platanus orientalis

text: The Pococke Tree in the Pococke Garden at Christ Church is thought to be the inspiration for the Tumtum tree in Lewis Carol's poem Jabberwocky.


title: Timeline of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine: phase 3

text: This timeline of the third phase of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine covers the period from 29 August 2022, when Ukrainian forces retook substantial ground during counteroffensives in the south and east, continuing to the present day.


text: This timeline is a dynamic and fluid list, and as such may never satisfy criteria of completeness. Please note that some events may only be fully understood and/or discovered in retrospect.


text: Ukraine has reportedly launched a counteroffensive in the south. The Ukrainian government said that its military had "breached Russia's first line of defense near Kherson", while the Ukrainian military also claimed to have struck a Russian military base in the Kherson region, though this claim is still not verified. Russian forces claim that Ukrainian forces have suffered "heavy losses". Ukraine also claims that Russian paratroopers have fled the battlefield.


text: Ukraine claims to have used decoy HIMARS units made out of wood. This may explain Russian claims of having destroyed multiple HIMARS systems. Ukrainian officials claim to have decoyed 10 Russian 3M-54 Kalibr cruise missiles alone. One US diplomat has noted that Russian sources have claimed more HIMARS destroyed than the US has sent. Another US Pentagon official has confirmed no HIMARS have been destroyed yet.


text: Images from Maxar Technologies show holes in the roof of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. IAEA chief Rafael Grossi has confirmed that the support and assistance mission is “now on its way”.


text: Russia pulled its fighter jets out of Crimea and increased its surface-to-air missiles to defend against future shelling.


text: Russia has stopped gas supplies to Germany via Nord Stream 1 for three days in order to perform repairs.


text: According to the UK MoD, Ukrainian forces pushed the Russian "front line back some distance in places", due to Ukraine "exploiting relatively thinly held Russian defenses".


text: Ukraine has released footage of a MiG-29 firing an AGM-88 HARM, which had to be somehow integrated into the MiG-29’s analogue displays.


text: Ravil Maganov, the chairman of Lukoil, had died. According to Interfax, Maganov "fell out of a window of the Central Clinical Hospital" and "died from his injuries". Lukoil was one of the few Russian companies to oppose the war in Ukraine, calling for an "immediate" end to the war. Maganov's death is the latest mysterious death of current or former Russian businessmen since the war began.


text: Norwegian state-owned oil company Equinor exited the last of their joint ventures in Russia following the February invasion by withdrawing from the joint venture with Lukoil and exiting the Kharyaga project on 2 September 2022.


text: Ukraine arrested a woman in the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region. She was accused of sending the details of her husband's unit and other military information to Russian forces which was then used to the advantage of Russian military action.


text: Russian support for the war in Ukraine remains stable despite it dragging on for six months. The greatest disagreement was on whether to continue the war or proceed to negotiations.


text: Ukraine is searching the UK for foundries to make 155 mm ammunition due to Western stockpiles running low. BAE systems can increase production however Ukrainian officials are looking for other manufacturers. The US has sent "806,000" of these rounds to Ukraine and replacing them could take as long as "18 months".


text: Gazprom has maintained its shutdown of Nord Stream 1 without providing a date for restarting the flow of gas. Gazprom cites Western sanctions as the reason that it cannot fix the "malfunction" in the pipe, which is claimed to be a leak. Brussels has called it an economic weapon.


text: According to the UK MoD, since 29 August Ukrainian forces have gained surprise due to mistakes made by Russian commanders and logistical problems Russian forces face. There are three main thrusts by Ukrainian forces into Kherson Oblast. Ukraine has also destroyed pontoon bridges used by Russian forces.


text: The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant has been cut from its main power line, with only a reserve line operational, which is supplying power to the grid. Only one of the six reactors remains operational. Russia blamed this on an alleged Ukrainian attempt to retake the plant.