text:
Welsh Rugby
Adam Jones faces another six weeks out
ESPN Staff
November 16, 2012
Ospreys prop Adam Jones shouts instructions, Ospreys v Biarritz, Heineken Cup, Liberty Stadium, Swansea, Wales, November 12, 2011
Adam Jones looks set to for another six weeks out © Getty Images
Related Links
Players/Officials: Adam Jones
Tournaments/Tours: Heineken Cup
Teams: Ospreys | Wales

Wales and British & Irish Lions prop Adam Jones could be out until 2013 as he battles to return to fitness after sustaining a knee injury.

The Ospreys were yesterday rocked by the news that star lock Alun-Wyn Jones is out for four months due to the shoulder injury he suffered against Argentina last Saturday. And they now face further woe with the prognosis regarding Jones' injury.

The tight-head is facing at least six weeks on the sidelines according Ospreys physiotherapist Chris Towers. Towers said: "Although Adam remains unavailable due to the knee injury he re-aggravated in the Leicester match, we are happy with the progress he is making in his rehab.

"In line with the initial rehab plan, he still requires a further six weeks to get him back to the condition required to reach a position where he will be able to return to playing."

The news means that Jones is likely to miss the Ospreys' back-to-back clashes with Toulouse in the Heineken Cup in December.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.

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Last modified on 21 July 2014, at 20:03

Category:Hebrew singularia tantum

» Hebrew language » Lemmas » Nouns » Singularia tantum

Hebrew nouns that are mostly or exclusively used in the singular form.[edit]

  • Category:Hebrew uncountable nouns: Hebrew nouns that indicate qualities, ideas, unbounded mass or other abstract concepts that cannot be quantified directly by numerals.

This category has only the following subcategory.

Pages in category "Hebrew singularia tantum"

The following 6 pages are in this category, out of 6 total.

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text:
Memory Alpha

Varon-T disruptor

38,329pages on
this wiki

A Varon-T disruptor

Varria varon-t death

The effect of a Varon-T disruptor

The Varon-T disruptor was a hand-held directed-energy weapon banned in the Federation due to its vicious nature: the disruptor literally tore the body apart at the molecular level from the inside out, resulting in a relatively slow and excruciating death by disintegration compared to most phasers and disruptors. Only five were ever produced; four of them were owned by Zibalian trader Kivas Fajo and he slept with one of them under his pillow. Fajo used a Varon-T disruptor to kill Varria when she and Data attempted to escape his ship. (TNG: "The Most Toys")

Background informationEdit

The props used for the Varon-T disruptors were originally seen as the Mariposan phaser-like pistols from TNG: "Up The Long Ladder", they were then reused as the gamma radiation weapon used by Paul Stubbs in TNG: "Evolution", a Rutian Ansata terrorist pistol in TNG: "The High Ground", a pistol of the Ferengi Sovak in TNG: "Captain's Holiday", a pistol of the mercenary Kelsey in TNG: "Starship Mine", phaser pistol used by the mercenaries in TNG: "Gambit, Part I", "Gambit, Part II", a pistol of the Native American colonists of Dorvan V in TNG: "Journey's End", a Maquis pistol in TNG: "Preemptive Strike" and an alien weapon in VOY: "Fair Trade".

It is not clear if some of these weapons were intended to be Varon-T disruptors. Only in "Gambit, Part II" the reused prop was identified as a phaser. The type of the pistol was not identified in the other instances. TNG: "The Most Toys" was also the only episode in which this weapon was shown to produce the distinctive painful disintegration effect.

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text:
Fort Collins - Green Building Requirement for City-Owned Buildings (Colorado)

This is the approved revision of this page, as well as being the most recent.
Jump to: navigation, search

Last modified on February 12, 2015.

Rules Regulations Policies Program

Place Colorado

Name City of Fort Collins - Green Building Requirement for City-Owned Buildings
Incentive Type Energy Standards for Public Buildings
Applicable Sector Local Government
Eligible Technologies Comprehensive Measures/Whole Building, Biomass, Daylighting, Geothermal Heat Pumps, Passive Solar Space Heat, Photovoltaics, Small Hydroelectric, Solar Space Heat, Solar Thermal Process Heat, Solar Water Heat, Wind
Active Incentive Yes

Implementing Sector Local
Energy Category Energy Efficiency Incentive Programs, Renewable Energy Incentive Programs

Goal LEED Gold certification for all new City-owned buildings of 5,000 square feet or more

Date added to DSIRE 2007-11-27
Last DSIRE Review 2012-11-27

References DSIRE[1]

The City Council of Fort Collins passed a resolution in September 2006, establishing green building goals for new city-owned buildings of 5,000 square feet or more. New buildings must be designed and constructed to achieve LEED Gold certification and existing buildings should use the LEED standard as a guide for sustainable operation and maintenance, though no specific requirements are established.

To control the construction and design costs associated with new buildings meeting this standard, the goal of Gold can be reduced to Silver for projects where the payback period for earning Gold certification is ten years longer than that for achieving Silver. Also, for projects jointly funded by the city and other organizations, this requirement may be waived by the City Manager.

Incentive Contact

Contact Name Public Information Officer
Department The City of Fort Collins
Division Green Building Program
Address 281 N. College Ave.

Place Fort Collins, Colorado
Zip/Postal Code 80524
Phone (970) 221-6750

Authorities (Please contact the if there are any file problems.)

Authority 1: City Council Resolution 2006-096
Date Effective 2006-09-05
Date Enacted 2006-09-05

  • Incentive and policy data are reviewed and approved by the N.C. Solar Center's DSIRE project staff.[1]

  1. 1.0 1.1  "Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency (DSIRE)"


text:
Reporters Without Borders

Home page - Asia - Pakistan

TV reporter gunned down in Balochistan, sixth journalist slain this year

TV reporter gunned down in Balochistan, sixth journalist slain this year

Published on Thursday 31 May 2012.
Printable version PrintSend this article by mail Send français

Reporters Without Borders is alarmed by the rate at which journalists are being killed in Pakistan and offers its condolences to the family and colleagues of the latest victim, Vsh TV reporter Abdul Qadir Hajizai, who was gunned down in the southwestern province of Balochistan on 28 May. He was the sixth journalist to be murdered this year in Pakistan.

“Journalists have been killed in connection with their work at a rate of more than one a month since the start of 2012,” Reporters Without Borders said. “The authorities cannot continue to turn a blind eye to this.

“Effective measures to protect media personnel must be adopted as a matter of urgency. At the same time, the investigations into the murders of Hajizai and the previous victims must not be abandoned. The cycle of impunity must be ended as soon as possible.”

Hajizai was shot by two men on a motorcycle as he was returning to his home in Basima, in Washuk District (about 200 km southwest of the provincial capital of Quetta). He rushed to a nearby hospital, where he died of his injuries. He had worked for Vsh TV, a privately-owned Balochi-language station, for the past two years.

His murder was claimed the next day by the Baloch Liberation Front (BLF), an armed separatist group. The Daily Jang quoted a BLF spokesman as saying Hajizai was killed because he was a “government informer.” Vsh TV director Ovais Iqbal Baluch told Reporters Without Borders he was unaware of Hajizai receiving any threats prior to his murder.

In a separate development on 28 May in Turbat, in the far south of the province, gunmen opened fire on the home of Turbat Press Club president Arshad Akhtar, causing no injuries. The shooting came just 10 days after the abduction and murder of Turbat Press Club secretary Abdul Razaq Gul, whose body was found on the morning of 19 May.

The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) organized a demonstration outside the Quetta Press Club yesterday in protest against the latest violence against journalists, while the Balochistan Union of Journalists (BUJ) called on the provincial government to take concrete measures to protect media personnel.

Pakistan is ranked 151st out of 179 countries in the 2011-2012 Reporters Without Borders press freedom index, while Balochistan was classified as one of the world’s 10 most dangerous places for journalists by Reporters Without Borders last year.

Contact us | Who we are ? | Our U.S chapter | CGU


text:
Turkish PM: Local elections will be test for AKP

Photo: Turkish PM: Local elections will be test for AKP / Turkey

The upcoming local elections on March 30 will be a test for the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), Turkey's prime minister said Feb. 4 after meeting Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin, defending his government's economic record in the last decade amid the ongoing corruption probe, Hurriyet Daily News reported, Hurriyet Daily News reported.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that if the recent corruption allegations were true, the Turkish economy would not have blossomed during the ruling party's rule since 2002.

"The national income increased from $230 billion to $800 billion. Exports rose from $36 billion to $152 billion. Can a corrupt country or a government achieve this? We are here because there are no such things," Erdogan said, responding to reporters' questions after a conference at the German Council on Foreign Relations.

"We are here because we fought corruption, poverty and prohibitions. We had three general elections, two local elections, two referendums and we have come through all those. Now there is an election on March 30 and the real test is this. If the people choose us as the top party, that means this government is honest," the prime minister said.

Erdogan echoed his comments after a meeting with Merkel. "The point of the election is not who will be elected mayor or not, but which party will get how many votes. This is the reflection in Turkey. I can say this is a test," Erdogan told reporters standing along with Merkel.

For her part, Merkel prodded Turkey over judicial independence, which has been called into question by Ankara's handling of the corruption scandal. She said she and Erdogan agreed to have their justice ministers discuss issues such as the appointment of prosecutors and judges, as well as judicial independence in general.

Asked whether she thought the intensity of the discussion about an independent judiciary in Turkey would have been as high had EU accession chapters been opened previously, Merkel said every country should solve its problems internally, adding that she supported advancing talks on Turkey's membership.

"Every country must follow its own path to democracy [relying upon] its inner strength," she said.

Merkel lends support for accession process

Merkel said she supported opening those sections of Turkey's membership negotiations that address justice and human rights "as soon as possible."

Prior to his talks with Merkel, Erdogan urged Germany to step up support for Turkey's EU bid but acknowledged his country must also press on with reforms. "We expect and would like also to receive support from Germany for the path into the EU and the EU admission process," Erdogan told the German Council on Foreign Relations. "We would like for Germany to campaign [for it] more strongly than it has up until now."

The two also discussed bilateral ties and the Syrian crisis. Merkel praised Turkey's contribution to the Syria refugee crisis, noting that it is now hosting 700,000 Syrians. Merkel called the situation in Syria "intolerable," while calling for talks with Russia and China to help solve the conflict.

Follow us on Twitter @TRENDNewsAgency


text:
Außenstelle Österreich

From WikiFur, the furry encyclopedia.
(Redirected from Außenstelle Austria)
Jump to: navigation, search

Außenstelle Österreich (outpost Austria) is the name under which Grahir and nifelan produce German-language comedic sketches, which are aired at Furry 8000.

Außenstelle Österreich started as an idea when Grahir and nifelan walked home after buying drinks and snacks from a nearby petrol station. They wanted to do a call-in but didn't want to pay the high telephone charges for a call to Germany so they came up with the idea of pre-recording a short sketch, which was then aired at Furry 8000. This started the "tradition" of creating such sketches whenever a new F8k show was announced.

With time nifelan got access to better microphones as well as software and he picked up a few tricks, which greatly improved production quality.

In 2008 the name changed from Außenstelle Austria to Außenstelle Österreich.

Voice actors[edit]

While the Außenstelle started with only Grahir and nifelan, there have been other contributions to the project. Most notably Grahirs then-girlfriend maggy, who lent her voice for a few episodes until the Außenstelle moved to Vienna.

Ranek, Suran, Waldlicht and Zefiro also contributed to the Außenstelle with sent-in recordings that were used in a few sketches.


text:
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Status Published
Year started 2001
Latest version 5
April 2013
Organization AEEC - Engineering Standards for Aircraft Systems
Domain Avionics
Abbreviation ARINC 661
Website ARINC 661 website

ARINC 661 is a standard which aims to normalize the definition of a Cockpit Display System (CDS), and the communication between the CDS and User Applications (UA) which manage aircraft avionics functions. The GUI definition is completely defined in binary Definition Files (DF).

The CDS software is constituted of a kernel which is able to create the GUI hierarchy specified in the DF during initialization, thus not needing to be recompiled if the GUI definition changes.

History and adoption in industry[edit]

The first version of the standard was adopted in 2001. Its first use was for Airbus A380 CDS development. The first supplement was adopted in 2003, and added new widgets. The second supplement was adopted in June 2005, and added supplementary widgets. Third supplement has been adopted in 2007.[1] Supplement 4 was adopted in 2010.

The standard is known today to be used for Airbus A380 and A400M CDS development,[2][3] and also Boeing 787 CDS development.[4] AgustaWestland company use ARINC 661 for the development of a new Touchscreen unit in the upgraded Merlin helicopter for the Royal Navy.[5][6][7][8] In March 2011, Embraer announced that it selected SCADE Solutions for ARINC 661, a COTS (Commercial Off The Shelf) tool for ARINC 661 development, for its future developments.[9]

Supplement history[edit]

Supplement Release Date Highlights
Initial version 2001 First use for Airbus A380 development
1 2003 New widgets, vertical maps
2 June 2005 New widgets
3 2007 New widgets
4 2010 New widgets
5 2013 New widgets, widgets extensions, Look specification, User Application to Cockpit Display System interface specification

Technical overview[edit]

The standard normalizes :

  • the GUI definition of the CDS interface, in a binary file called DF (Definition File) defining the structure of the graphical interface tree. The GUI tree is instantiated at initialization time (called the Definition Phase in the standard) in the CDS, using the definition contained in the DF.
  • the communication at runtime between the User Applications (UA) and the CDS. This communication protocol is typically used for UAs to send widgets modifications to the CDS, and return user events (such as buttons selection) from CDS to UA.

In order to be compliant with the standard, a CDS must have a kernel that can create the widgets tree during CDS initialization, using the Definition File, and communicate with UA in both ways using the runtime protocol.

ARINC 661 does not imply the use of a particular Data bus structure to perform the low-level communication between CDS and UA. For example, an ARINC 429 or ethernet protocol can be used, but it is not mandatory.

GUI definition[edit]

Each DF binary file specify the GUI definition for one User Application (UA) User interface. Several UA user interface trees can be combined to constitute the CDS display definition.

A DF is composed of two parts : an optional symbol definition, and a widgets definition. The widget library is similar to Widgets used in computing. There are Containers, Lists, ScrollPanes, Buttons, Menus, Labels, EditBoxes, etc...

Although the DF File is binary, the standard has also defined an associated XML definition, which is easier to manipulate in tools.

Relationship with other UI languages[edit]

The concepts used by ARINC 661 are close to those used in User interface markup languages, except that the UI language is binary and not XML based.[10]

Main similarities from other User interface markup languages:

  • The interface definition is not hard-coded in the CDS. Instead, the CDS use a kernel which instantiate the widget tree at initialization, using a predefined widget library
  • The widget list and the structure of the widget tree are similar to what can be found in common Widget toolkits
  • The Look and feel is separated from the definition of the interface

Main differences from other User interface markup languages :

  • The widget library defined in the standard does not really take advantage of its object nature, contrary to other User interface markup languages. For example, there is no notion of inheritance in the standard, although the same properties can be used more than once for several widgets.
  • Some Widget toolkits or User interface markup languages have the ability to lay out widgets automatically in a container (see for example the box model in XUL, or the layouts in Java Swing). Widgets position and size in their container must always be defined exactly in an ARINC 661 definition. However, the supplement 3 of the standard has added a limited sort of "relative" layout capability between widgets (see Layout manager).
  • There is no mechanism for defining the presentation and interactive behavior of elements equivalent to XBL used in XUL (or sXBL used in SVG). There are symbols that can be reused, but they are mainly shapes that cannot have behaviors (apart from defining their position, rotation, and color), or specific bindings.
  • There is no equivalent of Cascading Style Sheets, as they are used in XUL or SVG for example. Instead, the Look and feel of the interface is hard-coded in the ARINC 661 kernel. However, supplement 5 introduced a way to specify the Look of widgets.
  • The standard does not have an equivalent of Javascript, as used in SVG and XUL, so all specific behavior associated with the widgets must be performed by the UAs.
  • The standard has defined specific "Map" widgets which allows to present elements such as Flight plans in CDS.

The following example presents the XML Definition File for a Layer containing a panel enclosing a label, which shows the text "Hello World!". Note that contrary to most widget toolkits, ARINC 661 widgets origins are relative to the lower left-hand corner of their parent container, and screen units are not in pixel but in 1/100 of millimeters.

  <?xml version="1.0"?>
  <!DOCTYPE a661_df SYSTEM "a661.dtd">
  <a661_df library_version="0" supp_version="2">
      <prop name="ApplicationId" value="1"/>
        <prop name="LayerId" value="5"/>
        <prop name="ContextNumber" value="23"/>
        <prop name="Height" value="10000"/>
        <prop name="Width" value="10000"/>
      <a661_widget name="SamplePanel" type="A661_PANEL">
          <prop name="WidgetIdent" value="1"/>
          <prop name="Enable" value="A661_TRUE" />
          <prop name="Visible" value="A661_TRUE" />
          <prop name="PosX" value="0"/>
          <prop name="PosY" value="0"/>
          <prop name="SizeX" value="10000"/>
          <prop name="SizeY" value="10000"/>
          <prop name="StyleSet" value="STYLESET_DEFAULT" />
        <a661_widget name="Hello World Label" type="A661_LABEL">
             <prop name="WidgetIdent" value="2"/>
             <prop name="Anonymous" value="A661_FALSE" />
             <prop name="Visible" value="A661_TRUE" />
             <prop name="PosX" value="5000" />
             <prop name="PosY" value="5000" />
             <prop name="SizeX" value="1500" />
             <prop name="SizeY" value="1000" />
             <prop name="RotationAngle" value="0.0" />
             <prop name="StyleSet" value="0" />
             <prop name="MaxStringLength" value="20" />
             <prop name="MotionAllowed" value="A661_TRUE" />
             <prop name="Font" value="T4" />
             <prop name="ColorIndex" value="black" />
             <prop name="Alignment" value="A661_CENTER" />
             <prop name="LabelString" value="Hello World!" />

Development and tools support[edit]

ARINC 661 GUI development includes tools for the specification of definition files and the kernel that use these files:

  • Thanks to ARINC 661 concepts, the specification tools have no dependency on the execution platform,
  • The kernel itself depends on the execution platform.

COTS specification tools for DF specification currently include SCADE Solutions for ARINC 661 Compliant Systems, DiSTI's GL Studio ARINC 661 Toolkit and Presagis VAPS XT 661 Toolkit.

Esterel Technologies announced on October 13, 2010, the availability of SCADE Solutions for ARINC 661 in 2011.[11] SCADE Solutions for ARINC 661 allow creating both ARINC 661-compliant CDS and UA. For CDS developers, the toolchain features a complete customizable ARINC 661 compliant model-based widgets library and the automated generation of a portable ARINC 661 server, compliant with the DO-178B/C safety objectives up to level A. For UA developers, the toolchain features the model-based design and generation of DFs and the automatic generation of communication code between SCADE Suite UA models and the ARINC 661 Server.

The GL Studio ARINC 661 Toolkit is a plug-in to GL Studio HMI Toolkit that delivers a set of pre-existing customizable widgets, a DF Generator, CDS, Communication Libraries, and a User Application Generator.

Presagis [12] introduced the first COTS ARINC 661 development tool which allows creation of Widgets, Layers, DF Generation and embeddable real-time COTS CDS kernel with DO-178B/C certification artifacts [13][14] It must also be noted that because of the burden of Avionics software certification, the kernel must be embedded in a DO-178B-compliant environment.

Flexible Software Solutions introduced COTS Testing and analysis tools for ARINC 661 protocol at the beginning of 2012. [15] The UAM tool can be used to test and debug UA and CDS ARINC 661 messaging.

See also[edit]

  1. ^ "Cockpit Display Systems (CDS) Subcommittee". AEEC. 2007-06-14. Archived from the original on 11 June 2007. Retrieved 2007-06-16.
  2. ^ Adams, Charlotte (2003-03-01). "A380 Innovations: A Balancing Act". Archived from the original on 30 June 2007. Retrieved 2007-06-16.
  3. ^ Adams, Charlotte (2003-07-01). "Airbus A400M". Retrieved 2007-06-16.
  4. ^ Jensen, David (2005-11-01). "B787 Cockpit: Boeing’s Bold Move". Retrieved 2007-06-16.
  5. ^ "AgustaWestland Selects Presagis’s Next-Generation VAPS XT 661 Tool to Fly Aboard Its Aircraft". 2006-06-10. Retrieved 2009-07-25.
  6. ^ "Barco wins major contract under Royal Navy Merlin upgrade program". Barco NV. 2007-06-18. Retrieved 2009-01-03.
  7. ^ "AgustaWestland Accelerates Merlin HMI TouchScreen display software development with COTS ARINC 661 prototyping tools". 2009-06-01. Retrieved 2010-07-25.
  8. ^ "Helicopter HMIs: Managing risk with automatic code generation, standards, and simulation". September 2008. Retrieved 2010-07-25.
  9. ^ "Embraer selects SCADE Solutions for ARINC 661 from Esterel for cockpit display development". 2011-03-17. Retrieved 2011-05-06.
  10. ^ The standard also specifies an XML format for the UI language, but it is mainly used to ease DF production by specification tools. The kernel is initialized with the binary version of DFs
  11. ^ "Esterel Technologies Introduces SCADE ARINC 661 Solutions for Interactive Cockpit Displays Development". Esterel Technologies. 2010-10-13. Archived from the original on 21 November 2010. Retrieved 2010-11-07.
  12. ^ "Understanding ARINC 661 and the benefits of 661-based development tools" (PDF). Presagis. Retrieved 2010-11-07.
  13. ^
  14. ^
  15. ^

External links[edit]


text:
Ashbury Heights

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
For the neighborhood in San Francisco, see Ashbury Heights (San Francisco).
Ashbury Heights
Origin Sundsvall Sweden
Genres Synthpop
Years active 2005–2010 2011 -
Labels Out of Line
Website Official site
Members Anders Hagström (2005-)
Tea F. Thimé (2013 -)

Ashbury Heights is an electronic music band formed in 2005 in Sundsvall, Medelpad, Sweden. The group's original membership consisted of Anders Hagström (male vocals, songwriter, music, and programming) and Yasmine Uhlin (vocals). Yasmine left the band after the release of their EP, Morning Star In A Black Car, and was replaced by Kari Berg (vocals) as lead female vocalist. Kari was a member of AH until 2010 and was featured on one album, Take Cair Paramour. In 2010, following a long running dispute between Hagström and the record label Out Of Line the band disbanded. This dispute was settled in 2011, whereupon Hagstöm and Out of Line renewed their collaboration. However, it took until 2013 for Hagström to find a new singer. The new singer, Tea F. Thimé (vocals and lyrics), comes from a background of alt. modelling and burlesque performance (going by the stage name Tea Time).

Ashbury Heights was created when Anders Hagström asked Yasmine if she wanted to sing on his demos. The newly formed band was signed by record label Out of Line soon after, and from then they attained wider recognition.

Yasmine Uhlin's departure (2008)[edit]

Yasmine announced her departure from the band in November 2008 in Hamburg at the last concert of the Out Of Line festival tour. On her blog, she wrote:

Why I am doing this is not because of lack of energy or love for the band. There are no grudges to be held and the air within Ashbury Heights is free from any pollution. You see, this is something I have to do. I need to let go in order to build something of my own. I've been fighting myself in this matter for a long time but I can't change what I truly feel.

Kari Berg (2008-2010)[edit]

Anders sought a new singer and found Kari Berg. Previous to joining Ashbury Heights, she had focused mostly on singing opera. Kari was a member of Ashbury Heights from 2008 until 2010, featuring on one album and a remix for BlutEngel.

Take Cair Paramour (2010)[edit]

The record Take Cair Paramour is the only Ashbury Heights album featuring Kari Berg. The album was released on July 2, 2010. A limited edition of the album was also released, including a bonus CD with remixes, demos, and exclusive tracks.

Disbandment (2010) and Renewal (2013)[edit]

In October 2010, Anders Hagström announced that he was disbanding Ashbury Heights due to ongoing disputes with his record label, Out of Line. This dispute was settled in 2011, resulting in the renewed collaboration between Hagström and Out of Line. However, Ashbury Heights did not start recording a new album until 2013, this time with a new singer, Tea F. Thimé.

Tea F. Thimé in Ashbury Heights (2013-)[edit]

Tea is a Swedish alt. model, stylist and performer.[2] The first interview with the new AH was published in ElectroStrom on 01/2014. There the band stated that Tea had no previous experience as a singer when joining the band. However she has a degree in English literature and is the first female half of AH to co-write lyrics. The first album with Tea is called The Looking Glass Society and was released in 2014. Before the album was released, Ashbury Heights made their live comeback at the 3rd Out of Line Weekender in Berlin. This was the first live show with the new female lead.[3]

Live supporting musicians[edit]

  • Johan Andersson – keyboards (2008-)
  • Tomas Gunnarson - keyboards (2009 on Synapsi in Finland)

With Yasmine[edit]

With Kari[edit]

With Tea[edit]

  1. ^ l Ashbury Heights splits up, Side Line - Retrieved 17 November 2008
  2. ^'s FB page - Retrieved March 21st 2014
  3. ^ - Retrieved March 21st 2014

External links[edit]


text:
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
"Bodysurfer" redirects here. For the Australian mini series, see Bodysurfer (miniseries).
Bodysurfing in San Diego, California
Bodysurfing in San Diego, California

Bodysurfing is the art and sport of riding a wave without the assistance of any buoyant device such as a surfboard or bodyboard. Bodysurfers typically equip themselves only with a pair of specialized swimfins that optimize propulsion and help the bodysurfer catch, ride and kick out of waves.

To get on the wave, bodysurfers must time their launch, pick a direction, kick and stroke hard with feet and arms, then use their back and outstretched arm, to ride the wave both sideways and downward. Turns can be performed by digging the shoulder into the wave, causing the person to slide to the side of the wave and accelerate. Exiting the wave is key to safety, In shallow water the safest maneuver is roll sideways out of the wave letting the feet tumble forwards. In stronger waves a person must drop the head and execute a very rapid tumble forward to exit the wave, flipping the feet over as fast as possible. This must be done with no hesitation, to avoid injury. Advanced techniques include spins and barrel rolls.

The Wedge[edit]

Body Surfing Large Waves at The Wedge (surfing) Newport Beach CA

One of the most famous bodysurfing spots in the world is The Wedge, located in Newport Beach, California. Wave faces there can reach upwards of 30 feet and more on big southern hemisphere and hurricane-generated swells during the spring, summer, and fall. Known mainly for high performance bodysurfing and intense jaw dropping rides and wipeouts, these waves are created by swells hitting the jetty and "rebounding" into oncoming waves, creating the "wedge effect," which results in peaks that can "jack up" to incredible sizes and shapes. When it is "on," The Wedge is for experienced riders only. The Wedge is to bodysurfing what the Pipeline is to surfing: the best bodysurfers prove themselves at The Wedge, as do the best stand-up surfers at Pipeline.(Pipeline is also a fantastic bodysurfing wave, and the first contest at Pipeline was the Pipeline Bodysurfing Classic - see below) or not to hold or return to the Flex position. Some riders will pull their chicken-winged hand to their front and use it as an additional planing hand.

Travis Overley bodysurfing at Banzai Pipeline. Shot by Rachel Newton

The Pipeline Bodysurfing Classic competition runs at the world-famous Banzai Pipeline. This event is considered[by whom?] to be a world-class pro-am competition, and yet is also considered one of the truly unique[citation needed] underground surf contests around. Among the bodysurfing population at large, the event is considered the premier event internationally. It is one of the only times a professional bodysurfing competition will have exclusive access to the cream of the Pipeline's waves.[citation needed] The event was last held in 2011 due to difficulties securing the location for exclusive use. The Da Hui Invitational Pipeline Bodysurfing Expression Session was held in March of 2014. It consisted of a different format than the Pipeline Bodysurfing Classic and awards were given to riders for Best Wave, Best Tube, Best Wipeout, Best Trick, Top Individual Performance and Top Team Performance. [1]

The World Bodysurfing Championships along with the Pipeline Bodysurfing Classic are the two biggest bodysurfing competitions in the world according to the Encyclopedia of Surfing. It started in 1977, and runs every August in Oceanside, California. Another long-time contest is the Manhattan Beach Bodysurfing Contest as a part of the International Surf Festival held in Manhattan Beach, California. This contest is sponsored by the oldest bodysurfing club in The United States, Gillis Beach Bodysurfing Association. Dating back to 1964, the GBBA formed on the beaches of Playa Del Rey in Los Angeles. Members of GBBA run the bodysurfing contest, but do not participate in the interest of promoting the sport. The contest is a part of the International Surf Festival held late July or the first of August annually. The surf festival is known for its volleyball, lifeguard competition and the bodysurfing contests.

Also in Mexico, between April and June in Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo, at Las Escolleras beach, takes place the tournament called Torneo Internacional de Bodysurf Las Escolleras, where the competitors challenge the powerful pipes in this famous waves of world-class, with the notoriety that this two-day event is not charged subscription to the competition, but it rewards the first four places of the category, with trophies and gifts from sponsors and make a big party with live music at the beach as the pure style of Sharing The Aloha Spirit.[citation needed]

In addition to the contests above there are numerous other contests in California and Hawaii. Many clubs and contests can be found in France, Brazil, Australia. Both France and Brazil have a series of contests to determine a national champion. In the UK, an annual Bodysurfing competition takes place at Trevaunance Cove, St. Agnes. This open contest is extremely competitive at all ages and requires competitors to enter without wetsuits, fins or any other aids.

Other names[edit]

In Hawai’i body surfing is called he’e umauma (sliding with the chest) while surfing with a board is called he’e nalu (literally, wave sliding). In Australia, body surfing is also known as 'body bashing'. Body bashing is colloquial for the rough and tumble of the experience of being dumped by ill chosen waves. In Brazil, bodysurfing is popular beach activity known as 'jacaré', which, literally translated into English, means alligator.

"Whomping" or "bodywhomping" is a variant that may or may not be done without fins. Generally practiced at hollow, closed-out beach breaks, instead of a smooth slide across the face of the wave, whomping entails going over the falls with maximum air. In contrast, using the sandbar is essential to a rider's (finless) advantage when bodywhomping.

In Popular Culture[edit]

In October 2014, the Honolulu City Council proposed renaming popular bodysurfing destination, Sandy Beach Park to President Barack Obama Sandy Beach Park. Located near Hanauma Bay on the east end of the island of Oahu in Hawaii, the beach is known for a large shore break and is popular among bodysurfing enthusiasts, including President Barack Obama. President Obama is known to have body surfed at Sandy Beach while living in Honolulu as a child, and has done so as recently as a vacation taken to Hawaii while in office. Due to a lack of public support, the city council's proposal to rename the park was withdrawn around October 7, 2014. However, the council previously approved a plaque to be placed at the park commemorating the President's fondness for bodysurfing there.[2]

See also[edit]

  • "Secrets of a Kahuna Bodysurfer:A Spiritual Adventure Guide" by Lani E Lowel (1999/2006)
  • The Art of Bodysurfing by Robert Gardner (1972)
  • Bodysurf by Hugo Verlomme and Laurent Masurel (2002)
  • The Art of Wave Riding by Ron Drummond (1931)
  • The Encyclopedia of Surfing", 2005, Matt Warshaw, Harcourt Books, ISBN 0-15-100579-6
  • Swell Lines Magazine, 2014
  • " Plan to name popular Hawaiian beach after Obama is a wash-out" Reuters Online. Reporting by Steve Gorman. October 7, 2014

External links[edit]


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Charles Lederer

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Jump to: navigation, search
Charles Lederer
Born (1906-12-31)December 31, 1906
New York, NY, U.S.
Died March 5, 1976(1976-03-05) (aged 69)
Los Angeles, CA, U.S.
Occupation Screenwriter, director, producer, author
Spouse(s) Virginia Nicolson (1940–1949)
Anne Shirley (1949–1976)
Children Daniel Lederer

Charles Lederer (December 31, 1906 – March 5, 1976) was a prolific and well-connected American screenwriter and director.[1] He was born into a prominent theatrical family in New York, and after his parents divorced, was raised in California by his aunt, Marion Davies, mistress to newspaper publisher William Randolf Hearst. A child prodigy, he entered college at age 13, but dropped out after a few years to work as a journalist with Hearst's newspapers.

Lederer is recognized for his comic and acerbic adaptations and collaborative screenplays of the 1940s and early 1950s. His screenplays frequently delved into the corrosive influences of wealth and power. His comedy writing was considered among the best of the period, and he, along with writer friends Ben Hecht and Herman Mankiewicz, became major contributors to the film genre known as "screwball comedy".

Among his notable screenplays which he wrote or co-wrote, were The Front Page (1931), the critically acclaimed His Girl Friday (1940), Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), The Spirit of St. Louis (1957), Ocean's 11 (1960), and Mutiny on the Bounty (1962).

Early life[edit]

Lederer was born in New York City to two prominent figures in the American theater, Broadway producer George Lederer and singer Reine Davies. After his parents were separated, Lederer and his younger sister Pepi moved to California and were raised by his mother's sister, actress Marion Davies. He grew up in Hollywood, spending much time at San Simeon, the "enchanted castle on the hill", where his aunt reigned as publisher William Randolph Hearst's mistress. He was a child prodigy and was admitted to UC Berkeley at the age of 13, but dropped out a few years later to work as a journalist for Hearst's newspapers.

According to biographer William MacAdams, "Hollywood was home to Lederer, where for most people it was a place they moved to in order to work for the movies. Virtually none of the film community had grown up in Los Angeles, but Lederer had been brought there when he was 11 by Marion Davies, his mother's sister... Lederer thus knew the movie colony inside out as seen from the top and wasn’t impressed ..."[2] :146

Screenwriting career[edit]

When he was 19, Lederer became friends with Ben Hecht, who introduced him to the New York literati. His friendship with Hecht led to his being hired to write additional dialogue for the film The Front Page. He later moved back to Hollywood to become a full-time screenwriter.

Lederer is recognized for his acerbic wit, with adaptations and collaborative screenplays written mostly during the 1940s and early 1950s. His screenplays frequently delved into the corrosive influences of wealth and power. Yet his comedy writing was also among the best of the period, and he, along with Hecht and Herman Mankiewicz became major contributors to the film genre known as "screwball comedy".

He was friends with screenwriters Joseph and Herman Mankiewicz. Herman would later become co-screenwriter of Citizen Kane. After becoming friends with Lederer, "Herman told Joe to come to the office of their mutual friend Charlie Lederer ... " [3]:144 Herman, who met Hearst as a result of his friendship with Lederer, later "saw Hearst as ‘a finagling, calculating, Machiavellian figure.’ But also, with Charlie Lederer, … wrote and had printed parodies of Hearst newspapers ..."[3]:212–213

As explained by Hollywood columnist Pauline Kael, "Mankiewicz found himself on story-swapping terms with the power behind it all, Hearst himself. When he had been in Hollywood only a short time, he met Marion Davies and Hearst through his friendship with Charles Lederer, a writer, then in his early twenties, whom Ben Hecht had met and greatly admired in New York when Lederer was still in his teens. Lederer, a child prodigy, who had entered college at thirteen, got to know Mankiewicz ... Lederer was Marion Davies’s nephew – the son of her sister Reine ... Marion was childless, and Lederer was very close to her; he spent a great deal of his time at her various dwelling places, and took his friends to meet both her and Hearst.” [4] :254–255

After finishing the script for Citizen Kane, Mankiewicz gave a copy to Lederer, which Kael explains was foolish:

He was so proud of his script that he lent a copy to Charles Lederer. In some crazily naive way, Mankiewicz seems to have imagined that Lederer would be pleased by how good it was. But Lederer, apparently, was deeply upset and took the script to his aunt and Hearst. It went from them to Hearst's lawyers. . . . It was probably as a result of Mankiewicz's idiotic indiscretion that the various forces were set in motion that resulted in the cancellation of the premiere at the Radio City Music Hall [and] the commercial failure of Citizen Kane.[4]

Lederer, however, told director Peter Bogdanovich that Kael was totally incorrect in this matter, and "she never bothered to check with him." He did not, in fact, ever give the script to Davies. Lederer explains:

I gave it back to him. He asked me if I thought Marion would be offended and I said I didn't think so. The script I read didn't have any flavor of Marion and Hearst—Robert McCormick was the man it was about.[5]:xxv

According to Hecht biographer, William MacAdams, "When Hecht began looking around for a new collaborator ... he thought of Charlie Lederer, whom he had met on one of his first trips to Los Angeles....In a letter to screenwriter Gene Fowler, Hecht called Lederer "a very tender soul....[who] captivated the New York literati just as the other Charlie (MacArthur) had a few years earlier."[2]:145

Leading screenplays[edit]

Lederer (far right) directing Fingers at the Window (1942), with Basil Rathbone and Laraine Day, and cameraman Harry Stradling standing

His friendship with Hecht led to his being hired in 1931, when he was 20, to write additional dialogue for the film version of the 1928 play The Front Page. The film would be nominated for three Academy Awards, including Best Picture. In 1933, he made contributions to Hecht's screenplay for Topaze, along with many others, without being credited.

From 1940 to 1943 Lederer worked at MGM where he wrote a series of light comedies, usually centering on mismatched couples. Comrade X (1940), written in collaboration with Ben Hecht and directed by King Vidor is the story an American in Russia (Clark Gable) who falls in love with a streetcar conductor (Hedy Lamarr). In 1942 he directed his first film, Fingers at the Window, although he did not write the screenplay.

He penned the screenplay for the classic 1951 science-fiction/horror film The Thing from Another World, directed largely by Howard Hawks but credited to Christian Nyby and co-wrote the original 1960's Ocean's 11. Lederer wrote or co-wrote screenplays (notably with Ben Hecht) for Howard Hawks's production of His Girl Friday (a remake of The Front Page), Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and the Lewis Milestone remake of Mutiny on the Bounty, starring Marlon Brando. His Girl Friday has remained his most popular and critically acclaimed screenplay.[6]:209 At the suggestion of the films' director, Howard Hawks, Lederer changed the sex of the lead character in the play, Hildy Johnson, from male to female.[6]

With Ben Hecht, he co-wrote the original Kiss of Death which was to feature the actor Richard Widmark's chilling debut as the psychopathic killer with a giggle. In addition, he wrote and directed the 1959 film Never Steal Anything Small, an adaptation of a play by Maxwell Anderson and Rouben Mamoulian, starring James Cagney. The Spirit of St. Louis was Lederer's last significant film work. The films that followed that were primarily vehicles for established stars.

Lederer was valued as a Hollywood screenwriter who produced lively, acerbic adaptations and worked well in collaboration with others. He was also a member of another circle of writers on the East Coast which included Moss Hart, George S. Kaufman, Howard Dietz, Robert Benchley, Dorothy Parker, and editor Harold Ross. These writers were to become the nucleus of the Algonquin Round Table.

In 1954, he won three Tony Awards for the Broadway Musical Kismet, as Best Producer (Musical), as Best Author (Musical) with Luther Davis, and as co-author of the book which, with several collaborators, contributed to the Best Musical win.

Personal life[edit]

Marion Davies' nephew[edit]

Lederer's aunt, Marion Davies

Lederer and his sister Pepi were raised by his aunt, actress Marion Davies. He grew up in Hollywood, and spent much of his time at Hearst Castle in San Simeon, his aunt's primary home with newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst. According to Davies's biographer Fred Guiles, "Everyone close to Marion knew that Charlie was her favorite person after Hearst. . . . He was her knight-errant and no one, not even Hearst, ever reckoned with Marion alone from then on; they knew that they were dealing, too, with nephew Charlie."[7] :10,171

Lederer's father, George Lederer, produced her first film, Runaway Romany. Hearst, who at that time had not known Davies, saw the film and offered Davies a one-year acting contract, leading to their future relationship and further roles for Davies.[8]:258

In July 1928, Davies and Hearst left on a summer vacation to Europe. Among those invited who joined them, at Hearst's expense, were Lederer and his sister Pepi.[8]:399 During another summer trip to Europe in 1934, Hearst and Davies considered having Lederer write a scenario for a movie project called Movie Queen, a proposed film and vehicle for Davies that had been discussed in Hollywood.[9]:305 Hearst also asked Lederer to help rewrite the script for another Davies film, Hearts Divided (1936), which he did without credit.[9]:411

In 1950, Hearst personally asked Lederer to find him an attorney to draw up a trust agreement for his will in order to provide Davies with a lifetime income from the Hearst estate after his death.[8]:595 Lederer remained close to Davies after Hearst's death in 1951. When Davies died in 1961 at age 64, nearly recovering from cancer treatments and deterioring health from years of heavy drinking, Lederer, along with Davies' husband and her sister, were at her bedside.[8]:605

During his visits at Hearst's estate, Lederer befriended Charlie Chaplin, also a frequent visitor, and got a small role in his 1931 film, City Lights. The scene was cut from the final film, however, and the seven-minute clip was first publicly shown in the 1983 documentary Unknown Chaplin.

Lederer married Virginia Nicolson Welles, ex-wife of Orson Welles, May 18, 1940, in Phoenix, Arizona.[10][11] Lederer, at the time, was a "good friend" of Welles, notes Welles biographer Peter Bogdanovich[5]:557 According to Guiles, "she married Charlie… coming back to the Lederer home on Bedford Drive [in Los Angeles] with her young daughter, Chris, Welles’ first-born child.” [7]:306 The couple divorced in 1949.[12]

Lederer's second wife was actress Anne Shirley whom he married in 1949.

Orson Welles[edit]

Welles biographer Barbara Leaming states that after Lederer married Welles's first wife in 1940, "earnestly trying to protect the best interests of Virginia and particularly of his daughter Chris, Lederer had angry run-ins with Orson, whom he accused of not living up to the divorce settlement. Now, in the unlikeliest of turnarounds, Orson and the witty, intelligent Lederer became great chums." Welles himself said of the Lederers, "I liked them together," and he soon entered into a friendly relationship that he describes as a "strange design for living at the beach." [13] :343–344

Welles became famous in the movie world after the release of Citizen Kane in 1941, a story based in part on the life of William Randolph Hearst. The story attempts to solve the mystery of newspaper publisher Charles Foster Kane's last dying word: "Rosebud". Film critic David Thomson calls the word "the greatest secret in cinema."[14] In 1989, author Gore Vidal disclosed that "Rosebud" was in fact a nickname which Hearst playfully used for the clitoris of his mistress, Marion Davies. Vidal said that Davies told this intimate detail to Lederer, who mentioned it to him.[15][16] The claim about the meaning of "Rosebud" was repeated in the 1996 documentary The Battle Over Citizen Kane and again in the 1999 dramatic film RKO 281.

Years later, after Welles's second marriage to actress Rita Hayworth ended in 1948, he moved to a beach house next door to the palatial Marion Davies estate where his first wife Virginia and Lederer, her husband, resided.[13] Welles lived there with Irish actress Geraldine Fitzgerald, and he soon became a "member of the household" of his former wife and Lederer.[17]

Hearst Castle at San Simeon

Chris Welles, in her biography, describes how her mother and stepfather remained friends with Welles despite the earlier problems:[17]

He seemed to be great pals with my stepfather, Charlie Lederer. No one observing them together would have guessed that my mother and Charlie had sued my father for an increase in my child support. . . . Mother and Charlie had given up, and so it was back to "Orson, darling!" and a daily invitation to join them in the ritual of martinis on the front porch at sunset. He was more likely to arrive unannounced and then madden the cook by staying for lunch or dinner. Always casually dressed in summer slacks and an open shirt, he behaved as though he were a member of our household, coming and going as he pleased with no need to give an account of himself.[17]

According to Welles biographer Frank Brady, Lederer and Welles would sometimes spend hours, or days, discussing various film projects or related properties that they might want to collaborate on. They both loved Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie.[18] There were also awkward periods that Welles remembers:

You see, he'd have Marion Davies for dinner. Virginia would say, "Now you stay away. Don't be seen." And so I'd come up to the window where their dinner table was, with my coat collar up as though it were snowing outside, and just stare in at them eating.[13]:344

Lederer would often take Chris and Virginia to visit San Simeon, where Davies lived with William Randolph Hearst. She recalls, "Whenever we visited San Simeon, the grandiose castle . . . Charlie could not resist pulling the old man's leg:

"WR is the perfect fall guy," I remember Charlie telling my father one evening while the adults were having martinis on the porch. Then, to illustrate his point, my stepfather launched into his favorite story. Late one night at San Simeon, when everyone else was asleep, Charlie stole out to the gardens and dressed the marble statues of naked women in bras and panties. . . . In the morning, the grand old gentleman stood there bothered and befuddled as each of his guests stumbled half-asleep into the garden and began to howl with laughter.[17]

Chris Welles adds that "aunt Marion, who had lost most of her relatives, was extremely close to Charlie." Lederer agreed, saying that "we're more like partners in crime than aunt and nephew."[17] She remembers one occasion: "Charlie and Marion would exchange a wicked glance and then begin turning somersaults in unison on one of Hearst's priceless Persian rugs."[17] She writes, however, that she was unaware at the time of the complications that her visits to San Simeon caused:

I was too young to appreciate the irony of my position—both the child of the man who had made Citizen Kane and the stepchild of Marion Davies's beloved nephew. Marion, Charlie, and my mother feared that the mere sight of "Orson's kid" might give Pops apoplexy . . .[17]

Virginia Welles gave some of the reasons Lederer became close friends with Welles:

Orson and Charlie just naturally gravitated toward one another. They were both brilliant, highly sophisticated men living in a cultural desert. . . . So my two husbands got to be great friends, and they loved to commiserate about how difficult it was to be married to me. But when it came to their personalities, they couldn't have been more unalike. Charlie was such a dear, sweet, funny man, and he didn't have Orson's crushing ego. He was a hell of a lot easier to live with, I can tell you.[17]

After completing Macbeth in late 1947, Welles planned to live and work in Europe to save on production costs. Before leaving, however, he came down with chicken pox, which he contracted from his daughter. He was forced to stay in New York's Waldorf hotel for three days, during which time Lederer remained with him while they worked on a script for The Shadow, which Welles was to direct.[13]:355 Later, after Welles had been living in Europe, spending most of his time and energy trying to obtain funds to both live and produce other films, Lederer loaned him $250,000.[19]

Ben Hecht[edit]

He was a close and lifelong friend of screenwriter Ben Hecht, with whom he had co-written numerous screenplays. Hecht noted that Lederer was "half Jewish and half Irish," and soon after meeting him, wired Rose, his wife, "I have met a new friend. He has pointed teeth, pointed ears, is nineteen years old, completely bald and stands on his head a great deal. His name is Charles Lederer. I hope to bring him back to civilization with me." [20] :408–410 Hecht's 1963 autobiography, Gaily, Gaily, was dedicated, "For Charles Lederer, to read in his tub."[21]

Lederer was famed on both coasts as a sardonic wit and "incessant practical joker," which endeared him to Hecht.[2]:145 Bennett Cerf's book Shake Well Before Using describes an incident during Lederer's career in the Army during World War II, when Lederer wreaked revenge on an Englishwoman who had been making rude remarks against Jews. Lederer was also great friends with Marx Brother Harpo Marx and the two constantly cooked up practical jokes at the balls and parties they attended at Hearst Castle, the estate of William Randolph Hearst, such as stealing all the female guests' fur coats and draping them over the statues outside the estate during a heavy snowstorm.

Final years[edit]

According to Mankiewicz' biographer Richard Meryman, Lederer "isolated himself in his last years, contorted from arthritis, addicted to narcotics."[3]:317 He died in 1976, aged seventy.


text:
Coal seam fire

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Jump to: navigation, search
A coal seam fire near Denniston, New Zealand
View at a coal fire (China)

A coal seam fire or mine fire is the underground smouldering of a coal deposit, often in a coal mine. Such fires have economic, social and ecological impacts. They are often started by lightning, grass, or forest fires, and are particularly insidious because they continue to smoulder underground after surface fires have been extinguished, sometimes for many years, before flaring up and restarting forest and brush fires nearby. They propagate in a creeping fashion along mine shafts and cracks in geologic structures.

Coal fires are a serious health and safety hazard, affecting the environment by releasing toxic fumes, reigniting grass, brush, or forest fires, and causing subsidence of surface infrastructure such as roads, pipelines, electric lines, bridge supports, buildings and homes. Whether started by humans or by natural causes, coal seam fires continue to burn for decades or even centuries until either the fuel source is exhausted, a permanent groundwater table is encountered, the depth of the burn becomes greater than the ground’s capacity to subside and vent, or humans intervene. Because they burn underground, coal seam fires are extremely difficult and costly to extinguish, and are unlikely to be suppressed by rainfall.[1] There are strong similarities between coal fires and peat fires.

Across the world, thousands of underground coal fires are burning at any given moment. The problem is most acute in industrializing, coal-rich nations such as China. Global coal fire emissions are estimated to cause 40 tons of mercury to enter the atmosphere annually, and to represent three percent of the world's annual CO2 emissions.[2]

Coal seam fires can be divided into near-surface fires, in which seams extend to the surface and the oxygen required for their ignition comes from the atmosphere, and fires in deep underground mines, where the oxygen comes from the ventilation.

Mine fires may begin as a result of an industrial accident, generally involving a gas explosion. Historically, some mine fires were started when bootleg mining was stopped by authorities, usually by blowing the mine up. Many recent mine fires have started from people burning trash in a landfill that was in proximity to abandoned coal mines, including the much-publicized Centralia, Pennsylvania, fire, which has been burning since 1962. Of the hundreds of mine fires in the United States burning today, most are found in the state of Pennsylvania.

Some fires along coal seams are natural occurrences. Some coals may self-ignite at temperatures as low as 40 °C (104 °F) for brown coal in the right conditions of moisture and grain size. The fire usually begins a few decimeters inside the coal at a depth in which the permeability of the coal allows the inflow of air but in which the ventilation does not remove the heat which is generated.

Two basic factors determine whether spontaneous combustion occurs or not, the ambient temperature and the grain size:

  • The higher the ambient temperature, the more quickly the oxidation reactions proceed.
  • The grain size and structure determine its surface area. Kinetics will be limited by availability of reactant, which in this case is carbon exposed to oxygen.

Wildfires (lightning-caused or others) can ignite the coal closer to the surface or entrance, and the smouldering fire can spread through the seam, creating subsidence that may open further seams to oxygen and spawn future wildfires when the fire breaks to the surface. Prehistoric clinker outcrops in the American West are the result of prehistoric coal fires that left a residue that resists erosion better than the matrix, leaving buttes and mesa. It is estimated that Australia's Burning Mountain, the oldest known coal fire, has burned for 6,000 years.[3]

Globally, thousands of inextinguishable mine fires are burning, especially in China where poverty, lack of government regulations and runaway development combine to create an environmental disaster. Modern strip mining exposes smoldering coal seams to the air, revitalizing the flames.

Rural Chinese in coal-bearing regions often dig coal for household use, abandoning the pits when they become unworkably deep, leaving highly combustible coal dust exposed to the air. Using satellite imagery to map China's coal fires resulted in the discovery of many previously unknown fires. The oldest coal fire in China is in Baijigou and is said to have been burning since the Qing Dynasty (before 1812).[4]

The effect of underground coal fire visible on the surface

Before attempting to extinguish a near-surface coal seam fire, its location and underground extent should be determined as precisely as possible. Besides studying the geographic, geologic and infrastructural context, information can be gained from direct measurements. These include:

  • Temperature measurements of the land surface, in fissures and boreholes, for example using pyrometers
  • Gas measurements to characterize the fire ventilation system (amount and velocity) and the gas composition, so that the combustion reactions can be described
  • Geophysical measurements on the ground and from airplanes and helicopters to establish the extent of conductivity or other underground parameters. For example, conductivity measurements map humidity changes near the fire; measuring the magnetism can determine changes in the magnetic characteristics of the adjacent rock caused by heat
  • Remote sensing from aircraft and satellites. High resolution optical mapping, thermal imaging and hyperspectral data play a role. Underground coal fires of several hundred to over a thousand degrees Celsius may raise the surface temperature by only a few degrees. This order of magnitude is similar to the temperature difference between the sunlit and shadowed slopes of a slag heap or sand dune. Infrared detecting equipment is able to track the fire's location as the fire heats the ground on all sides of it.[5] However, remote sensing techniques are unable to distinguish individual fires burning near one another and often lead to undercounting of actual fires.[6] They may also have some difficulties distinguishing coal seam fires from forest fires.

Underground coal mines can be equipped with permanently installed sensor systems. These relay pressure, temperature, airflow and gas composition measurements to the safety monitoring personnel, giving them early warning of any problems.

Environmental impact[edit]

Coal seam fire

Besides destruction of the affected areas, coal fires often emit toxic gases, including carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide. China's coal fires, which consume an estimated 20 – 200 million tons of coal a year, make up as much as 1 percent of the global carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels.[3]

One of the most visible changes will be the effect of subsidence upon the landscape. Another local environmental effect, can include the presence of plants or animals that are aided by the coal fire. The prevalence of otherwise non-native plants can depend upon the fire's duration and the size of the affected area. For example, near a coal fire in Germany, many Mediterranean insects and spiders were identified in a region with cold winters, and it is believed that elevated ground temperatures above the fires permitted their survival.[7]

Extinguishing coal fires[edit]

In order to thrive, a fire requires fuel, oxygen, and heat. As underground fires are very difficult to reach directly, firefighting involves finding an appropriate methodology which addresses the interaction of fuel and oxygen for the specific fire in question. A fire can be isolated from its fuel source, for example through firebreaks or fireproof barriers. Many fires, particularly those on steep slopes, can be completely excavated. In the case of near-surface coal seam fires, the influx of oxygen in the air can be interrupted by covering the area or installing gas-tight barriers. Another possibility is to hinder the outflow of combustion gases so that the fire is quenched by its own exhaust fumes. Energy can be removed by cooling, usually by injecting large amounts of water. However, if any remaining dry coal absorbs water, the resulting heat of absorption can lead to re-ignition of a once-quenched fire as the area dries. Accordingly, more energy must be removed than the fire generates. In practice these methods are combined, and each case depends on the resources available. This is especially true for water, for example in arid regions, and for covering material, such as loess or clay, to prevent contact with the atmosphere.

Extinguishing underground coal fires, which sometimes exceed temperatures of 540°C (1,000°F), is both highly dangerous and very expensive.[3]

Near-surface coal seam fires are routinely extinguished in China following a standard method basically consisting of the following phases:

  • Smoothing the surface above the fire with heavy equipment to make it fit for traffic.
  • Drilling holes in the fire zone about 20 m apart down to the source of the fire, following a regular grid.
  • Injecting water or mud in the boreholes long term, usually 1 to 2 years.
  • Covering the entire area with an impermeable layer about 1 m thick, e.g., of loess.
  • Planting vegetation to the extent the climate allows.

Efforts are underway to refine this method, for example with additives to the quenching water or with alternative extinguishing agents.

Underground coal seam fires are customarily quenched by inertization through mine rescue personnel. Toward this end the affected area is isolated by dam constructions in the galleries. Then an inert gas, usually nitrogen, is introduced for a period of time, usually making use of available pipelines.

In 2004, the Chinese government claimed success in extinguishing a mine fire at a colliery near Urumqi in China's Xinjiang province that had been burning since 1874. However, a March 2008 Time magazine article quotes researcher Steven Q. Andrews as saying, "I decided to go to see how it was extinguished, and flames were visible and the entire thing was still burning.... They said it was put out, and who is to say otherwise?"[8]

A jet engine unit, known as Gorniczy Agregat Gasniczy (GAG), was developed in Poland and successfully used for fighting coal fires and displacing firedamp in mines.

Current research and new developments in extinguishing fires[edit]

Time magazine reported in July 2010 that less expensive alternatives for extinguishing coal seam fires were beginning to reach the market, including special heat-resistant grouts and a fire-smothering nitrogen foam, with other innovative solutions on the way.[2]

Microbes and drug discovery[edit]

Scientists have recently begun to explore thermal vents for unique soil bacteria capable of producing new pharmaceutical leads. Soil microbes have long been a source for effective drugs[9] and new research, such as that conducted at the Center for Pharmaceutical Research and Innovation, suggests these extreme environments to be an untapped source for new discovery.[10][11]

List of mine fires[edit]

Some of the more notable mine fires around the world are listed below.

  • Burning Mountain - a naturally occurring, slow combusting underground coal seam
  • Morwell, Victoria - the Great Morwell open cut mine caught fire in March 1902 and burned for over a month. It was extinguished by breaching the nearby Morwell River with explosives to flood the mine. The fire was found to have been caused by sabotage from incendiary devices.[12][13]
  • Hazelwood Power Station - a 2 km coal face in the Hazelwood open cut mine was set alight by a bushfire in October 2006[14] and again by arson in February 2014.[15] Thousands of residents were affected by the fire at the Hazelwood coalmine in 2014 which burned for 45 days sending smoke across the community of Morwell in Victoria.[16] Government advised the vulnerable groups of people in South Morwell to temporarily relocate due to the danger of PM2.5 particle. Tim Flannery criticized the Australian government's promised comprehensive research into the possible health dangers of wind turbines while ignoring research into the direct and indirect health effects of coal power.[17]

In China, the world’s largest coal producer with an annual output around 2.5 billion tons, coal fires are a serious problem. It has been estimated that some 10-200 million tons of coal uselessly burn annually, and that the same amount again is made inaccessible to mining.[4] Coal fires extend over a belt across the entire north China, whereby over one hundred major fire areas are listed, each of which contains many individual fire zones. They are concentrated in the provinces of Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia and Ningxia. Beside losses from burned and inaccessible coal, these fires contribute to air pollution and considerably increased levels of greenhouse gas emissions and have thereby become a problem which has gained international attention.

In Planitz, now a part of the city of Zwickau, a coal seam that had been burning since 1476 could only be quenched in 1860. In Dudweiler (Saarland) a coal seam fire ignited around 1668 and is still burning today. This so-called Burning Mountain ("Brennender Berg") soon became a tourist attraction and was even visited by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Also well-known is the so-called Stinksteinwand (stinking stone wall) in Schwalbenthal on the eastern slope of the Hoher Meißner, where several seams caught fire centuries ago after lignite coal mining ceased; combustion gas continues to reach the surface today.

In India, as of 2010, 68 fires were burning beneath a 58-square-mile (150 km2) region of the Jharia coalfield in Dhanbad, Jharkhand. This region has been hit by the unique phenomenon of mine fires which started in 1916 and is rapidly destroying the only source of prime coking coal in the country.[19]

Coal and peat fires in Indonesia are often ignited by forest fires near outcrop deposits at the surface. It is difficult to determine when a forest fire is started by a coal seam fire, or vice versa, in the absence of eyewitnesses.[1] The most common cause of forest fires and haze in Indonesia is intentional burning of forest to clear land for plantation crops of pulp wood, rubber and palm oil.

No accurate count of coal seam fires has been completed in Indonesia. Only a minuscule fraction of the country has been surveyed for coal fires.[1] The best data available come from a study based on systematic, on-the-ground observation. In 1998, a total of 125 coal fires were located and mapped within a 2-kilometer strip either side of a 100-kilometer stretch of road north of Balikpapan to Samarinda in East Kalimantan, using hand-held Global Positioning System (GPS) equipment. Extrapolating this data to areas on Borneo and Sumatra underlain by known coal deposits, it was estimated that more than 250,000 coal seam fires may have been burning in Indonesia in 1998.[6]

Land clearing practices which use fire, often starting forest fires, may be the cause of coal seam fires in Indonesia. In 1982-83 one of the largest forest fires in this century raged for several months through an estimated 5 million hectares of Borneo's tropical rainforests. Goldammer and Seibert however concluded that there are indications that coal seam fires already occurred between 13,200 and 15,000 BP.[20]

A fire season usually occurs every 3–5 years, when the climate in parts of Indonesia becomes exceptionally dry from June to November due to the El Nino Southern Oscillation off the west coast of South America. Since 1982, fire has been a recurring feature on the Islands of Borneo and Sumatra, burning large areas in 1987, 1991, 1994, 1997–98, 2001 and 2004.[6]

In October 2004 smoke from land clearing again covered substantial portions of Borneo and Sumatra, disrupting air travel,[21] increasing hospital admissions,[22] and extending to portions of Brunei, Singapore and Malaysia.[23] Coal outcrops are so common in Indonesia it is virtually certain these fires ignited new coal seam fires.

New Zealand[edit]

In 1944 Longyearbyen Mine #2 on Svalbard was set alight by sailors from the Tirpitz on its final sortie outside of Norwegian coastal waters. The mine continued to burn for 20 years, while some of the areas were subsequently mined from the reconstructed Mine #2b.

South Africa[edit]

United States[edit]

Many coalfields in the USA are subject to spontaneous ignition. The federal Office of Surface Mining (OSM) maintains a database (AMLIS), which in 1999 listed 150 fire zones. In mid-2010, according to OSM, more than 100 fires were burning beneath nine states, most of them in Colorado, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Utah and West Virginia. But geologists say many fires go unreported, so that the actual number of them is nearer to 200, across 21 states.[2]

In Pennsylvania, 45 fire zones are known, the most famous being the fire in the Centralia mine in the hard coal region of Columbia County, which has been burning since 1962.[2]

In Colorado, coal fires have arisen as a consequence of fluctuations in the groundwater level, which can increase the temperature of the coal up to 300 °C, enough to cause it to spontaneously ignite.[citation needed]

The Powder River Basin in Wyoming and Montana contains some 800 billion tons of brown coal, and the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804 to 1806) reported fires there. Fires have been a natural occurrence in this area for about three million years and have shaped the landscape. For example, an area about 4,000 square kilometers in size is covered with coal clinker, some of it in Theodore Roosevelt National Park, where there is a spectacular view of fiery red coal clinker from Scoria Point.[26]

See also[edit]

  • Darvaza (also known as "Gates of Hell"), a location in Turkmenistan with a burning natural gas deposit
  • Nothing but Trouble, 1991 cult film that takes place near a mine fire; partially influenced by the Centralia, Pennsylvania, mine fire
  • The Steven Seagal movie Fire Down Below takes its name from a coal fire burning near a Kentucky mining town; a metaphor for society's tendency to try to ignore issues they do not know how to resolve
  • Silent Hill, 2006 film that takes place in a town affected by a mine fire (based on a video game of the same name)
  • Underground coal gasification
  • Oil well fire

  1. ^ a b c Whitehouse, Alfred; Mulyana, Asep A. S. (2004). "Coal Fires in Indonesia". International Journal of Coal Geology (Amsterdam: Elsevier) 2012 (1–2): 91–97 [p. 95]. doi:10.1016/j.coal.2003.08.010. ISSN 0166-5162.
  2. ^ a b c d Dan Cray (July 23, 2010). "Deep Underground, Miles of Hidden Wildfires Rage". Time Magazine.
  3. ^ a b c Krajick, Kevin (2005-05-01). "Fire in the Hole". Smithsonian Magazine. pp. 54ff. Retrieved 2007-01-16.
  4. ^ a b Rennie, David (1 February 2002). "How China's scramble for 'black gold' is causing a green disaster". The Daily Telegraph (London). Retrieved 30 April 2010.
  5. ^ J. Zhang, W. Wagner, A. Prakash, H. Mehl, S. Voigt (2004). "Detecting coal fires using remote sensing techniques". International Journal of Remote Sensing 25 (16): 3193–3220. doi:10.1080/01431160310001620812.
  6. ^ a b c Hamilton, Michael S., Richard O. Miller, and Alfred E. Whitehouse. 2000a. "The Continuing Fire Threat in Southeast Asia." Environmental Science & Technology 34(February): 82A-85A).
  7. ^ Bergehalden im Aachener Revier
  8. ^ Is Beijing Manipulating Air Pollution Statistics?, TIME, 14 March 2008 (retrieved 17 March 2008)
  9. ^ Dias, D.A.; Urban, S.; Roessner, U. "A Historical Overview of Natural Products in Drug Discovery." Metabolites 2012, 2, 303-336.
  10. ^ Wang, X.; Elshahawi, S.I.; Shaaban, K.A.; Fang, L.; Ponomareva, L.V.; Zhang, Y.; Copley, G.C.; Hower, J.C.; Zhan, C.-G.; Kharel, M.K.; Thorson, J.S. “Ruthmycin, a new tetracyclic polyketide from Streptomyces sp. RM-4-15.” Org. Lett. 2014, 16, 456-459.
  11. ^ Wang, X.; Shaaban, K.A.; Elshahawi, S.I.; Ponomareva, L.V.; Sunkara, M.; Copley, G.C.; Hower, J.C.; Morris, A.J.; Kharel, M.K.; Thorson J.S. Mullinamides A and B, new cyclopeptides produced by the Ruth Mullins coal mine fire isolate Streptomyces sp. RM-27-46. J. Antibiot. 2014, 67, 571–575.
  12. ^ "Coal mine fired by incendiary". The Advertiser. 1902-04-01.
  13. ^ "A coal mine on fire". The Argus. 1902-04-02.
  14. ^ "Massive coal mine blaze still burning". The Age. 2006-10-13.
  15. ^ "Police hunt arsonist as the battle to contain the Hazelwood mine fire continues". ABC. 2014-02-26.
  16. ^ "Morwell coalmine fire finally extinguished after 45 days". Guardian. 25 March 2014. Retrieved 22 April 2014.
  17. ^ Tim Flannery says coal communities are being kept in dark about dangers The Guardian 6 March 2014
  18. ^ Tourism Elkford
  19. ^ "Mine fires (India)". Retrieved 15 June 2012.
  20. ^ Goldammer, J.G.; Seibert, B. (1989): Natural rain forest fires in Eastern Borneo during the Pleistocene and Holocene, Naturwissenschaften, November 1989, Volume 76, Issue 11, p. 518-520
  21. ^ “Haze disrupts flights in Central Kalimantan.” 2004. Jakarta Post 17 October, 1.
  22. ^ “Haze thick over Kalimantan.” 2004. Jakarta Post 19 October, 1.
  23. ^ “Haze thickens in Sumatra and Kalimantan, affects Malaysia.” 2004. Jakarta Post 16 October, 1.
  24. ^ "Coal Mine Restoration in New Zealand, Geology Department, University of Otago, New Zealand". September 1, 2004. Retrieved December 19, 2012.
  25. ^ Limpitlaw; Aken, Lodewijks & Viljoen (2005-07-13). "Sustainable Development in the life of coal mining in South Africa" (PDF). The South African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. p. 3. Retrieved 16 January 2010.
  26. ^ John P. Bluemle, North Dakota's Clinker
  27. ^ Laurel Run

Further reading[edit]

  • Kuenzer, C.; Zhang, J.; Tetzlaff, A.; van Dijk, P.; Voigt, S.; Mehl, H.; Wagner, W. (2007). "Uncontrolled coal fires and their environmental impacts: Investigating two arid mining regions in north-central China". Applied Geography 27: 42–62. doi:10.1016/j.apgeog.2006.09.007.
  • "Satellites track the fires raging beneath India". New Scientist. 2006-07-18. pp. 25ff. Retrieved 2007-01-16.
  • Kuenzer, C.; Stracher, G. (2011). "Geomorphology of Coal Seam Fires". Geomorphology 138: 209–222. doi:10.1016/j.geomorph.2011.09.004.
  • Van Dijk, P.; Zhang, J.; Jun, W.; Kuenzer, C.; Wolf, W.H. (2011). "Assessment of the contribution of in-situ combustion of coal to greenhouse gas emission; based on a comparison of Chinese mining information to previous remote sensing estimates". International Journal of Coal Geology: 108–119. doi:10.1016/j.coal.2011.01.009.
  • Zhang, J.; Kuenzer, C. (2007). "Thermal surface characteristics of coal fires 1: Results of in-situ measurements". Journal of Applied Geophysics 63: 117–134. doi:10.1016/j.jappgeo.2007.08.002.
  • Zhang, J.; Kuenzer, C.; Tetzlaff, A.; Oettl, D.; Zhukov, B.; Wagner, W. (2007). "Thermal characteristics of coal fires 2: Results of measurements on simulated coal fires". Journal of Applied Geophysics 63: 135–147. doi:10.1016/j.jappgeo.2007.08.003.
  • Kuenzer, C.; Hecker, C.; Zhang, J.; Wessling, S.; Wagner, W. (2008). "The potential of multi-diurnal MODIS thermal bands data for coal fire detection". International Journal of Remote Sensing 29: 923–944. doi:10.1080/01431160701352147.
  • Kuenzer, C.; Zhang, J.; Li, J.; Voigt, S.; Mehl, H.; Wagner, W. (2007). "Detection of unknown coal fires: synergy of coal fire risk area delineation and improved thermal anomaly extraction". International Journal of Remote Sensing 28: 4561–4585. doi:10.1080/01431160701250432.
  • Wessling, S.; Kuenzer, C.; Kesselsf, W.; Wuttke, M. (2008). "Numerical modelling to analyze underground coal fire induced thermal surface anomalies". International Journal of Coal Geology 74: 175–184. doi:10.1016/j.coal.2007.12.005.
  • Kuenzer, C.; Zhang, J.; Sun, Y.; Jia, Y.; Dech, S. (2012). "Coal fires revisited: the Wuda coal field in the aftermath of extensive coal fire research and accelerating extinction activities". International Journal of Coal Geology 102: 75–86. doi:10.1016/j.coal.2012.07.006.
  • Vallero, Daniel; Letcher, Trevor (2012). Unraveling Environmental Disasters. Amsterdam: Elsevier Academic Press. ISBN 0123970261.

External links[edit]