Monday, December 31, 2007

Blimp
A non-rigid airship, or blimp, differs from a rigid airship (e.g. a Zeppelin) in that it does not have a rigid structure that holds the airbag in shape. Rather, these aircraft rely on a higher pressure of the gas (usually helium) inside the envelope. Although a blimp can be steered and thus qualifies as a dirigible, that term is more commonly used with rigid airships.
Blimps are also distinct from moored balloons. While often very similar in shape, moored balloons (sometimes called aerostats) are tethered to the ground in contrast to blimps which are free flying aircraft.
Because blimps keep their shape with internal overpressure, typically the only solid parts are the passenger car (gondola) and the tail fins. A non-rigid-airship that uses heated air instead of a light gas (such as Helium) as a lifting medium is called a hot air airship.
The term "blimp" is reportedly onomatopoeic, the sound the airship makes when one taps the envelope (balloon) with a finger. Although there is some disagreement among historians, credit for coining the term is usually given to Lt. A.D. Conningham of the British Royal Navy in 1915.
There is an often repeated, but false, alternative explanation for the term. The erroneous story is that at some time in the early 20th century, the United States military had two classes for airships: Type A-rigid and Type B-limp, hence "blimp". In fact,
"there was no American 'A-class' of airships as such—all military aircraft, heavier or lighter-than-air were designated with 'A' until the appearance of B-class airships in May 1917. There was an American B airship—but there seems to be no record of any official designation of non-rigids as 'limp'. Further, according to the Oxford Dictionary, the first appearance of the word in print was in 1916, in England, a year before the first B-class airship." ("Etymology of 'Blimp'" by Dr. A. D. Topping, AAHS Journal, Winter 1963.)
The perpetuation of this erroneous explanation is an example of false etymology.

Friday, December 28, 2007



Units of mass
In the U.S. mining industry, 'T' is used to distinguish the traditional ton from the metric ton, but 'T' is also the SI symbol for the tesla. The symbol 't', traditionally used for the long or short ton, is now reserved for the metric tonne.

Ton Common abbreviations
There are also the units of force based on each of these three mass units, but none are acceptable for use with SI. The tonne force, like the kilogram force, is no exception. Only the tonne as a unit of mass is acceptable for use with SI.

1 short ton force = 2000 pounds-force (lbf) = 8.896443230521 kilonewtons (kN)
1 long ton force = 2240 lbf = 9.96401641818352 kN
1 tonne force = 1000 kgf = 9.80665 kN Units of force
Also see tonnage.
The freight ton or measurement ton is a unit of volume used for describing ship capacities (tonnage) or cargo. One measurement ton is equal to:
The measurement ton is abbreviated as M/T, MT, or MTON, which can cause it to be confused with the metric ton.
The register ton is also a unit of volume used for the cargo capacity of a ship, defined as 100 cubic feet (roughly 2.83 cubic metres). It is often abbreviated GRT for gross registered ton. It is known as a tonneau de mer in Belgium, but, in France, a tonneau de mer is 1.44 cubic metres or about 1.88 cubic yards.
The Panama Canal net ton, a unit of volume used for billing for ships going through the Panama Canal, is the same as the register ton. The fee for example in the 1990s was roughly a couple USD for each unit.
The water ton was formerly used in Great Britain and equal to 224 imperial gallons (the volume occupied by a mass of one long ton under the conditions which define the imperial gallon).
See 1 E-1 m³ and orders of magnitude (volume) for a comparison with other volumes.
(Note that volume tons are units of convenience used in shipping and are not useful in science except that they are exactly defined.)

40 cubic feet
1.481(481) cubic yards (the "481" digit sequence repeats infinitely)
1,132.67386368 litres
1.13267386368 cubic metres Units of volume

Units of energy and power

Main article: TNT equivalent ton of coal equivalent

A ton of oil equivalent or tonne of oil equivalent (TOE), a conventional value of 10 Gcal (IT) = 41.868 GJ ≈ 10.0067 ton of TNT. See also GTOE. ton of oil equivalent
The unit ton is used in refrigeration and air-conditioning to measure heat absorption. Prior to the introduction of mechanical refrigeration, cooling was accomplished by delivering ice. Installing one ton of refrigeration replaced the daily delivery of one ton of ice.


In the United States, a standard ton of refrigeration = 12000 BTU/h = 200 BTU/min ≈ 3517 W. It is approximately the power required to cool 1 short ton of water by 1 °F every 10 minutes; or the power required to melt one short ton (2000 lb) of ice at 0 °C in 24 hours.
A ton is also a unit of energy equal to that power for a period of a day, or 24 h × 12 000 BTU/h = 288 000 BTU ≈ 303.9 megajoule.
A less common usage is the power required to cool 1 long ton of water by 1 °F every 10 minutes = 13 440 BTU/h ≈ 3 939 W. Refrigeration ton
When the light duty trucks were first produced, they were rated by their payload capacity in tons (e.g. 1/2-, 3/4-, & 1-ton). The Ford F-150, Chevy/GMC 1500, & Dodge 1500 are a 1/2-ton. The Ford F-250, Chevy/GMC 2500, & Dodge 2500 are a 3/4-ton. The Ford F-350, Chevy/GMC 3500, & Dodge 3500 are a 1-ton. But throughout the years, the payload capacities have increased while the ton title has stayed the same. The current ton rating is nothing more than just a truck name.

Miscellaneous tons

Conversion of units
Medieval weights and measures
Ancient weights and measures
English unit
Imperial unit
U.S. customary unit

Thursday, December 27, 2007

Chicago Stock Exchange
The Chicago Stock Exchange (CHX), located in Chicago, Illinois, is the third most active stock exchange in the United States by volume, and the largest outside of New York City. In North America, it is fourth largest behind the New York Stock Exchange, NASDAQ, and the Toronto Stock Exchange. It is the most active regional stock exchange in the U.S.
Founded on March 21, 1882, it merged with the St. Louis, Cleveland, and Minneapolis/St. Paul Stock Exchanges in 1949. Upon merger the Chicago Stock Exchange became the Midwest Stock Exchange. Ten years later, it absorbed the New Orleans Stock Exchange.
In 1993, the exchange changed its name back to the Chicago Stock Exchange.

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Bassett, Southampton
Bassett is middle class suburb of Southampton, UK. It is the location of the University of Southampton's Glen Eyre Halls of residence complex. Southampton Sports Centre is in Bassett. There is St. Micheal's church, and Bassett Avenue, the main road into Southampton from the north.
Part of the "Flower roads" estate resides in Bassett (north and west of the Bassett Green secondary school), south and east of this, the estate lays into Swaythling. Although mainly working class, the estate also houses many students from the nearby University of Southampton. Much of the Bassett section of the Flowers roads was formally a nursery owned by a Miss Longmead in the late 19th and early 20th century, the old nursery house is now the Burgess Court old peoples home.
Four public houses have served the local community for many years, the oldest of which is "The Gate"(formally "The Gate brewery, "The Gate hangs high" and "The Hanging gate" situated in Burgess Road (formally Burgess Street) dating back to the late 18th century. To the west of "The Gate", some 100 yards, is "The Stile" formerly the Hedgehog, 100 yards east is "The Crown and Sceptre", and north of "Daisy Dip" on the Bassett Green Road is "The Stoneham Arms"
Bassett, Southampton Coordinates: 50°57′N, 1°24′W

Tuesday, December 25, 2007


Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs) is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Rutland, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, South Yorkshire, the East Riding of Yorkshire. It also borders Northamptonshire for just 19 metres, England's shortest county boundary. The county town is the city of Lincoln, where the county council has its headquarters.
The ceremonial county of Lincolnshire is composed of the non-metropolitan county of Lincolnshire and the area covered by the unitary authorities of North Lincolnshire and North-East Lincolnshire. The county is the second largest of the English counties and one that is predominantly agricultural in land-use.
For the purposes of a general geographical classification the county can be broken down into a number of sub-regions including: the Lincolnshire Fens, the Lincolnshire Wolds, and the industrial Humber Estuary and North Sea coast around Grimsby and Scunthorpe.

Ian Cawsey (Lab)
Quentin Davies (Lab)
John Henry Hayes (Con)
Douglas Hogg (Con)
Edward Leigh (Con)
Shona McIsaac (Lab)
Gillian Merron (Lab)
Austin Mitchell (Lab)
Elliot Morley (Lab)
Mark Simmonds (Con)
Peter Tapsell (Con)
Lincoln
North Kesteven
South Kesteven
South Holland
Boston
East Lindsey
West Lindsey
North Lincolnshire (Unitary)
North East Lincolnshire (Unitary) History
This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added of Lincolnshire at current basic prices published (pp.240-253) by Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling.

Economy
The county of Lincolnshire is a major agricultural producer, growing large amounts of wheat, barley, sugar beet, and oilseed rape. In South Lincolnshire, where the soil is particularly rich in nutrients, some of the most common crops include cabbage, cauliflowers, and onions.
Mechanisation around the turn of the 20th Century greatly diminished the number of workers required to manage the county's relatively large farms, and the proportion of workers in the agricultural sector dropped substantially during this period. Several major engineering companies developed in Lincoln and Grantham to support those changes, perhaps most famously Fosters of Lincoln, who built the first tank, and Richard Hornsby & Sons of Grantham.
Today, immigrant workers mainly from Portugal and from new member states of the European Union in Central and Eastern Europe comprise a large component of the seasonal agricultural workforce, particularly in the south of the county where more labour-intensive crops such as small vegetables and cut flowers are typically grown. This seasonal influx of migrant labour occasionally causes tension between the migrant workforce and local people, in a county which is still relatively unaccustomed to the large scale immigration experienced by other parts of the United Kingdom.

Agriculture
According to an IGGI study in 2000 (source), the town centres were ranked thus (including N Lincs and NE Lincs):-

Lincoln
Grantham
Grimsby
Boston and Scunthorpe (equal)
Spalding
Stamford
Skegness
Louth
Sleaford
Gainsborough
Brigg
Cleethorpes
Bourne
Horncastle and Mablethorpe (equal) Services and Retail

Public services

Main article: Education in Lincolnshire Education

Main article: Transport in Lincolnshire Transport
The United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust is one of the largest trusts in the country, employing almost 7,000 staff and with an annual budget of over £250 million.
Lincolnshire shares the problems of elsewhere in the country when it comes to finding an NHS dentist, with waiting lists of three months not uncommon.
Some of the larger hospitals in the county include:
Since April 1994, Lincolnshire has had an Air Ambulance service [1] which was extended to also cover Nottinghamshire in 1997. The air ambulance is stationed at RAF Waddington near Lincoln and can reach emergencies in Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire within 19 minutes. From any accident in Lincolnshire an A&E hospital is only 10 minutes away by helicopter.

Grimsby's Diana Princess of Wales Hospital
Boston Pilgrim Hospital
Grantham and District Hospital
Lincoln County Hospital
Scunthorpe General Hospital
Skegness and District General Hospital
Louth County General Hospital Health care
Lincolnshire is relatively unusual in the composition of its population, being one of the least ethnically diverse counties of the United Kingdom (98.5 percent of the population describe themselves as "white"). Over recent years inward migration by people from ethnic minority communities has increased (particularly to population centres such as Lincoln) but the absolute number of non-white Lincolnshire residents remains very low.
Recently, the county has also witnessed a growing trend towards an in-migration of retired persons from other parts of the United Kingdom, particularly those from the southern counties of England attracted by the generally lower property prices and the slower and more relaxed pace of life. Skegness was recently voted the most popular place in Britain to retire to, with Spalding and Mablethorpe also recommended, by a recent study [2]. The relatively high proportion of elderly and retired people is reflected in many of the services, activities and events. Sleaford is considered one of the fastest growing towns in the East Midlands, with many professional people moving there in order to benefit from (relatively) low house prices, low crime rate and the selective education offered.
Those born in Lincolnshire are sometimes given the nickname of Yellowbellies (often spelt "Yeller Bellies", to reflect the pronunciation of the phrase by the typical Lincolnshire farmer). The origin of this term is hotly debated, but is most commonly believed to derive from the uniforms of the 10th Regiment of Foot (later the Lincolnshire Regiment) when they wore yellow lapels on their red coats. For this reason, the coat of arms of Lincolnshire County Council is supported by two officers of the regiment.

People
The non-metropolitan county of Lincolnshire is characterised by the absence of any major urban area. The principal settlements and their populations are: Lincoln (101,000), Boston (35,000), Grantham (34,000), Spalding (22,000), Stamford (19,000), and The Deepings (15,000). Many of the towns in the county continue to hold a weekly market, a centuries-old tradition reinvigorated recently by the growth of farmers' markets. Most of the urbanised area of Lincolnshire is on the Humber estuary, in the unitary authorities. Scunthorpe (including Bottesford) in North Lincolnshire, has a population of 72,000, and the Cleethorpes/Great Grimsby conurbation in North East Lincolnshire has a population of over 120,000 (34,000 and 87,000 respectively).
For a full list of Lincolnshire towns and villages see the List of places in Lincolnshire page.

Towns and villages
Lincolnshire is a rural area where the pace of life is generally slower than much of the United Kingdom. Sunday is still largely a day of rest, with generally only shops in Lincoln, larger market towns, and resorts and industrial towns of the North Sea coast remaining open. Some towns and villages in the county still observe half-day closing on Thursdays. Due to the large distance between towns within the county many villages have remained very much contained with most still having shops, pubs, local halls and local chapels and churches all of which host a variety of social activities for residents. Fishing (because of the extensive river and drainage system in the fens) and shooting are popular activities. Lincolnshire's unofficial county anthem is the Lincolnshire Poacher.

Lincolnshire Language
Lincolnshire has a number of interesting local dishes:


  • Traditional Lincolnshire sausages are made entirely from these ingredients - Minced Pork, stale bread crumb (rusk is used nowadays) pepper, sage and salt. Nothing else! The skins should be nothing other than natural casings which are made from the intestines of either sheep or pig.




Stuffed chine - this is salted neck-chine of a pig taken from between the shoulder blades of a pig, salted for up to ten months and stuffed with parsley stuffing (other ingredients are normally kept secret). Served cold, it's considered by many in the county to be an acquired taste
haslet - a type of pork loaf, also flavoured with sage (pronounced HAYSS-let in Lincolnshire but HAZ-let in many other parts of the county)
Lincolnshire pork sausages - most butchers in Lincolnshire have their own secret recipe for these and a competition is held each year to judge the best sausages in the county
Traditional Lincolnshire sausages are made entirely from these ingredients - Minced Pork, stale bread crumb (rusk is used nowadays) pepper, sage and salt. Nothing else! The skins should be nothing other than natural casings which are made from the intestines of either sheep or pig.
Pork pies - the same pork butchers will take a pride in their unique recipe for pork pies.
Plum bread - as with plum pudding, plum refers to dried fruit in this context, namely currants, raisins and sultanas sometimes soaked in tea.
Grantham Gingerbread- a hard white ginger biscuit no longer commercially available.
Batemans ales - a beer brewed in Wainfleet and served in many pubs in the county and further afield
Grimsby is renowned for its fishing industry and historically Grimsby Fish has carried a premium price. Sadly, since the decline of the fishing industry in the 1970s this is no longer the case, with the majority of fish sold at the town's fish market being brought overland from other ports. However Grimsby Fish is still a recognised product, one associated with a particular area that specialises in and is knowledgable of a particular trade (such as Sheffield steel or Nottingham lace). Food
Every year the Lincolnshire Agricultural Society which was founded in 1869 stages the Lincolnshire Agricultural Show. It is held on the Wednesday and Thursday of the last whole week of June at its Showground at Grange de Lings, a few miles north of Lincoln on the A15, which first held the show at this site in 1958. First held around the year 1884, it is one of the largest agricultural shows in the country, and is attended by around 100,000 people over its two days. The Showground is in regular use throughout the year for a wide range of other events and functions.
Each year RAF Waddington is the home to the Waddington International Air Show. The two day event attracts around 100,000 people and usually takes place during the last weekend of June.
On the Monday before Easter, an unusual auction takes place in Bourne to let the grazing rights of the Whitebread Meadow|| . Bidding takes place while two boys race toward the Queen's Bridge in Eastgate, the end of which dash is equivalent to the falling of the gavel. The whole affair dates back to the 1742 will of William Clay.
Corby Glen sheep fair has been held every year since 1238.
The Haxey Hood village competition takes place every January, as it has for over 700 years.
Stamford Mid-Lent fair sees showmen converge on the town the week after Mothering Sunday, rides and sideshows filling Broad Street and Sheepmarket for a week. The following week sees them in Grantham.
Also there is a popular Belchford Downhill Challenge which is held every year where soapbox racers race down the hill at up to 50Kmph. The turnout have been up to 3,000.
In recent years Lincoln Christmas Market, a candlelit street market throughout the town, has been held at the start of December. Around the same time Christmas lights are turned on in Bourne, Sleaford, Skegness, and many other towns.
Throughout the summer The Stamford Shakespeare Company presents the Bard's plays in the open air theatre at Tolethorpe Hall, which is actually in Rutland.
Spalding Flower Parade is held in late spring every year. Colourful floats decorated with tulip heads compete for a cup. The tradition was started in 1959, and draws coach tours from across Britain.

Events
The unofficial anthem of the county is the traditional folk song, 'The Lincolnshire Poacher', which dates from around 1776. A version of the song was the theme to BBC Radio Lincolnshire for many years.
According to a 2002 marketing campaign by the charity Plantlife, the county flower of Lincolnshire is the Common Dog-violet.
In August 2005, BBC Radio Lincolnshire and Lincolnshire Life magazine launched a vote for an official flag to represent the county. Six competing designs were voted upon by locals. The winning submission was unveiled in October 2005 - see here. Lincoln has its own flag - St George's flag with a Fleur-de-Lys.
The Lincoln Imp has symbolised Cathedral, City, and county for many years. In 2006 it was replaced as the 'brand' of Lincolnshire County Council by the stylised version seen on the header here which has lost even the unique pose of the carving.

Radio

Alford Manor House
Alford Windmill
Alkborough Turf Maze
Ayscoughfee Hall
Belmont mast (tallest construction in the European Union)
Belton House
Bolingbroke Castle
Boston Stump
Bourne Abbey
Boultham Park
Branston Hall
Burghley House
Cogglesford Watermill
Crowland Abbey
Doddington Hall
Donna Nook
Dunston Pillar
East Lighthouse, Sutton Bridge
Ellis Mill (Windmill)
Gainsborough Old Hall
Gainsthorpe
Gibraltar Point
Grimsby Dock Tower
Grimsthorpe Castle
Harlaxton Manor
Heckington Windmill
Hartsholme Country Park
Lincoln Castle
Lincoln Cathedral
Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre
Metheringham Windmill
St James Church, Louth
National Fishing Heritage Centre
Natureland Seal Sanctuary
Normanby Hall
Gibraltar Point
River Ancholme
Stow Minster
Tattershall Castle
The Collection
The Humber Bridge
The Lincolnshire Wolds
The Museum of Lincolnshire Life
The South Common (Lincoln)
The Wash
The West Common (Lincoln)
The Usher Art Gallery
Whisby Nature Park
Woolsthorpe Manor

Monday, December 24, 2007

HFS Plus
HFS Plus or HFS+ is a file system developed by Apple Inc. to replace their Hierarchical File System (HFS) as the primary file system used in Macintosh computers (or other systems running Mac OS). It is also one of the formats used by the iPod digital music player. HFS Plus is also referred to as Mac OS Extended (or, erroneously, "HFS Extended"), where its predecessor, HFS, is also referred to as Mac OS Standard (or, erroneously, as "HFS Standard"). During development, Apple referred to this filesystem with the codename Sequoia. HFS Plus permits filenames up to 255 UTF-16 characters in length, and n-forked files similar to NTFS, though almost no software takes advantage of forks other than the data fork and resource fork. HFS Plus also uses a full 32-bit allocation mapping table, rather than HFS's 16 bits. This was a serious limitation of HFS, meaning that no disk could support more than 65,536 allocation blocks under HFS. When disks were small, this was of little consequence, but as larger-capacity drives became available, it meant that the smallest amount of space that any file could occupy (a single allocation block) became excessively large, wasting significant amounts of space. For example, on a 1 GB disk, the allocation block size under HFS is 16 KB, so even a 1 byte file would take up 16 KB of disk space.
Like HFS, HFS Plus uses B*-trees to store most volume metadata.

History
HFS Plus volumes are divided into sectors (called logical blocks in HFS), that are usually 512 bytes in size. These sectors are then grouped together into allocation blocks which can contain one or more sectors; the number of allocation blocks depends on the total size of the volume. HFS Plus uses a larger value to address allocation blocks than HFS, 32 bits rather than 16 bits; this means it can access 4,294,967,296 (=2

Sectors 0 and 1 of the volume are HFS boot blocks. These are identical to the boot blocks in an HFS volume. They are part of the HFS wrapper.
Sector 2 contains the Volume Header equivalent to the Master Directory Block in an HFS volume. The Volume Header stores a wide variety of data about the volume itself, for example the size of allocation blocks, a timestamp that indicates when the volume was created or the location of other volume structures such as the Catalog File or Extent Overflow File. The Volume Header is always located in the same place.
The Allocation File which keeps track of which allocation blocks are free and which are in use. It is similar to the Volume Bitmap in HFS, each allocation block is represented by one bit. A zero means the block is free and a one means the block is in use. The main difference with the HFS Volume Bitmap, is that the Allocation File is stored as a regular file, it does not occupy a special reserved space near the beginning of the volume. The Allocation File can also change size and does not have to be stored contiguously within a volume.
The Catalog File is a B*-tree that contains records for all the files and directories stored in the volume. The HFS Plus Catalog File is very similar to the HFS Catalog File, the main differences being records are larger to allow more fields and to allow for those fields to be larger (for example to allow the longer 255-character unicode file names in HFS Plus). A record in the HFS Catalog File is 512 bytes in size, a record in the HFS Plus Catalog File is 4KB in Mac OS and 8KB in Mac OS X. Fields in HFS are of fixed size, in HFS Plus the size can vary depending on the actual size of the data they store.
The Extents Overflow File is another B*-tree that records the allocation blocks that are allocated to each file as extents. Each file record in the Catalog File is capable of recording eight extents for each fork of a file; once those are used extents are recorded in the Extents Overflow File. Bad blocks are also recorded as extents in the Extents Overflow File. The default size of an extent record in Mac OS is 1 KB and 4 KB in Mac OS X.
The Attributes File is a new B*-tree in HFS Plus that does not have a corresponding structure in HFS. The Attributes File can store three different types of 4 KB records: Inline Data Attribute records, Fork Data Attribute records and Extension Attribute records. Inline Data Attribute records store small attributes that can fit within the record itself. Fork Data Attribute records contain references to a maximum of eight extents that can hold larger attributes. Extension Attributes are used to extend a Fork Data Attribute record when its eight extent records are already used.
The Startup File is designed for non-Mac OS systems that don't have HFS or HFS Plus support. It is similar to the Boot Blocks of an HFS volume.
The second to last sector contains the Alternate Volume Header equivalent to the Alternate Master Directory Block of HFS.
The last sector in the volume is reserved for use by Apple. It is used during the computer manufacturing process.

Sunday, December 23, 2007


James Dalrymple, 1st Viscount of Stair (May, 1619 - November 29, 1695), Scottish lawyer and statesman, was born at Drummurchie, Barr, South Ayrshire.

James Dalrymple, 1st Viscount Stair Biography
Stair's great legal work, The Institutions of the Law of Scotland deduced from its Originals, and collated with the Civil, Canon and Feudal Laws and with the Customs of Neighbouring Nations, affords evidence of the advantage he had enjoyed from his philosophical training, his foreign travels and his intercourse with Continental jurists as well as English lawyers. Unfortunately for its permanent fame and use, much of the law elucidated in it has now become antiquated through the decay of the feudal part of Scottish law and the large introduction of English law, especially in the departments of commercial law and equity. The Physiologia was favourably noticed by Boyle, and is interesting as showing the activity of mind of the exiled judge, who returned to the studies of his youth with fresh zest when physical science was approaching its new birth. But he was not able to emancipate himself from formulae which had cramped the education of his generation, and had not caught the light which Newton spread at this very time by the communication of his Principia to the Royal Society of London.

James Dalrymple, 1st Viscount Stair Offspring

An apology for Sir James Dalrymple of Stair, President of the Session, by himself ... Edinburgh, 1690 (which responds to the pamphlet by Robert Ferguson: The late proceedings and votes of the Parliament of Scotland)
The decisions of the Lords of Council & Session, in the most important cases debate before them, with the Acts of Sederunt. As also, an alphabetical compend of the decisions, with an index of the Acts of Sederunt, and the pursuers and defenders names. From June 1661. to July 1681. ... observed by Sir James Dalrymple of Stair. 2 vols. Edinburgh, 1683
The institutions of the law of Scotland, deduced from its originals, and collated with the civil, canon and feudal laws; and with the customs of neighbouring nations ... . Edinburgh, 1681 (which includes his:Modus litigandi, or form of process observed before the Lords of Council and Session in Scotland. Edinburgh, 1681)
The institutions of the law of Scotland, deduced from its originals, and collated with the civil, canon and feudal laws, and with the customs of neighbouring nations. 2nd ed. Edinburgh, 1693
The institutions of the law of Scotland, deduced from its originals, and collated with the civil, and feudal-laws, and with the customs of neighbouring nations. 3rd ed. Edinburgh, 1759
The institutions of the law of Scotland deduced from its originals and collated with the civil, canon and feudal laws and with the customs of neighbouring nations. New ed. 2 vols. Edinburgh, 1832.
The institutions of the law of Scotland deduced from its originals, and collated with the civil, canon and feudal laws, and with the customs of neighbouring nations … ; edited by David M. Walker. Edinburgh : University Presses of Edinburgh and Glasgow, 1981. ISBN 0-85224-397-9 (Text based on the 1693 edition)
The laws of Scotland : Stair memorial encyclopaedia. Edinburgh : Butterworths, 1999-
Physiologia nova experimentalis in qua generales notiones Aristotelis, Epicuri, & Cartesii supplentur errores deteguntur & emendantur …. Lugduni-Batavorum [Leiden], [1686] Notes

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

Saturday, December 22, 2007


Coordinates: 53°23′36″N 3°00′52″W / 53.3932, -3.0145
Birkenhead is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral in Merseyside, England. It is located on the Wirral Peninsula, along the west bank of the River Mersey, opposite the City of Liverpool, and has a total resident population of 83,729.
Historically part of Cheshire, Birkenhead is perhaps best known as a centre for ship building, as a sea port and its related industries. Because it is close to Liverpool, many residents commute there.

History
Birkenhead was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1877, and became a county borough with the passing of the Local Government Act 1888. The borough included the parishes of Birkenhead St Mary, Claughton with Grange, Oxton, Tranmere and part of Bebington, later known as Rock Ferry. The parishes of Landican, Prenton and Thingwall were added in 1928, followed by the parishes of Noctorum and Woodchurch in 1933.
Prior to 1974, Birkenhead and the rest of the Wirral Peninsula, was part of the county of Cheshire, since the passage of the Local Government Act 1972, Birkenhead has lain within the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, in the metropolitan county of Merseyside. The current Member of Parliament is Frank Field.

Governance
Birkenhead Market was first established on what is now the site of Birkenhead Town Hall, between Chester Street and Hamilton Street, on 10th July 1835.
During the 1970s, the commercial centre of the town was redeveloped around the principal shopping area of Grange Road. Following two fire at the original Birkenhead Market in 1969 and 1974, it was later moved to new premises adjoining the Grange Shopping Precinct development. Commercial expansion continued in the 1990s when the Pyramids Shopping Centre was opened.

Economy
Birkenhead Park is acknowledged to be the first publicly funded park in Britain.
Religious landmarks include Birkenhead Priory & St Mary's Tower, St James' Church and St Werburgh's Roman Catholic Church. Other notable landmarks include Bidston Windmill on a ridge behind the town, Flaybrick Watertower and Flaybrick Memorial Gardens.

Landmarks

Transport
Birkenhead had the first street tramway in Europe. Opened on 29 August 1860 the first line ran from Woodside (landing stage of the Mersey Ferry) to Birkenhead Park. This early system was horse-drawn and was the brainchild of flamboyant American, George Francis Train. A preserved tram is currently on display in the Woodside ferry terminal booking hall.
Two replica trams, imported from Hong Kong, have been brought into service as part of a heritage tramway between Woodside and Wirral Transport Museum.

Trams
Birkenhead and Liverpool became the first major conurbations in northwest England to be served by an underground railway system, which today is part of the Merseyrail network.
The major underground station in Birkenhead is Hamilton Square, the nearest station to the ferry terminal. Hamilton Square is linked to the "Liverpool Loop" of the Wirral Line, which includes James Street, Moorfields, Liverpool Lime Street and Liverpool Central stations, all of which are underground. Other stations located in Birkenhead include Birkenhead Central, Green Lane, Rock Ferry, Conway Park, Birkenhead Park, Birkenhead North and Bidston.
The Wirral Line from Birkenhead travels south to Chester and Ellesmere Port, north to New Brighton and westwards, across the Wirral peninsula, to West Kirby. The Borderlands Line leaves Bidston in the north of Birkenhead and travels through the rural centre of Wirral, ultimately leaving England near Shotton and terminating in Wrexham, Wales. View Merseyrail Network Map

Railways
Junctions 1 & 3 of the M53 motorway allow access to the national motorway network. The A41 trunk road connects Woodside with Marble Arch in London. The Queensway road tunnel, opened in 1936, runs underneath the River Mersey and connects the town to Liverpool.

Birkenhead Roads
Birkenhead's dock system is part of the Port of Liverpool facility, operated by the Mersey Docks and Harbour Company. The Twelve Quays ferry terminal allows a direct freight & passenger service to Dublin, Ireland & Belfast, Northern Ireland. The Mersey Ferry at Woodside supplies a passenger service to Liverpool, as well as chartered cruising.

Maritime
The nearest airport is Liverpool John Lennon Airport (formerly known as Speke) located about 8 miles (13 km) from Birkenhead.

Airport

Education
Birkenhead's oldest independent school is Birkenhead School. It was exclusively a boys' school from its founding in 1860 until 2000 when its Sixth Form became co-educational. It also has a preparatory school for boys aged 3–11 and a co-educational nursery from 3 months. "Old Birkonians" (as former pupils are known) include the lawyer F. E. Smith (Lord Birkenhead), Andreas Whittam Smith (chairman of the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) and founder of The Independent newspaper), Andrew Irvine (mountaineer), and Philip Toosey, hero at the Bridge on the River Kwai.
Birkenhead High School is an independent school for girls, founded in 1885 and catering for girls aged 2½–18. It is a member of the Girls' Day School Trust. Its alumnae include the actress Patricia Routledge.

Schools
Birkenhead's technical college in Woodside (Previously in Borough Road), now called Wirral Metropolitan College, had a theatre named after one of its most famous former students and Birkonian (born 1936), Glenda Jackson, the Oscar-winning actress and Member of Parliament. The college and the Glenda Jackson Theatre were demolished in late 2005, to make way for apartment blocks, although Wirral Metropolitan College flourishes on other sites across the Wirral. The theatre secretly housed an emergency command centre for the region in its basement, accessible via the college. Politicians and officials would have retreated to this secure bunker in the event of nuclear war to coordinate the recovery effort. By the 1990s the bunker had been decommissioned, and the surrounding complex of rooms was used by the college as a rehearsal space and recording studio.

Colleges
Formerly, Birkenhead was served by Birkenhead General Hospital on Conway Street, St. James' Hospital in Claughton and St. Catherine's Hospital, Tranmere. Presently, Birkenhead is served by Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust through its Arrowe Park Hospital and Clatterbridge Hospital sites, and Wirral Primary Care Trust.

Healthcare

Arts and leisure
Despite being in England, Birkenhead hosted Wales's National Eisteddfod in 1917, as well as an unofficial National Eisteddfod event in 1879.
In 1856, Birkenhead Library was opened as the country's first public library in an unincorporated borough. The Little Theatre was established in 1958 from a converted former Presbyterian church, whilst more recently, the Pacific Road Arts Centre in Woodside opened in 1999.
The Williamson Art Gallery was opened in 1928 and houses a fine collection of paintings, porcelain and pottery. The Laird School of Art was the first public school of art outside London and was given to the town by John Laird. It opened on 27th September 1871.
The first Boy Scout group in the world was founded as the 1st Birkenhead YMCA in 1908. The 2nd Birkenhead scout group is the longest running scout group in the world, being established in 1908 and still in existence, as of 2007.

Arts
Birkenhead is served by local daily newspapers the Liverpool Echo and Liverpool Daily Post. The free local weekly newspapers are the Wirral Globe and the Birkenhead News (part of the Wirral News group).
The local radio station Wirral's Buzz 97.1 is based in the town. In addition, there are five other local radio stations that transmit to Birkenhead: BBC Radio Merseyside, Radio City 96.7, Juice 107.6, Dune 107.9 and Rock FM 97.4.
Birkenhead is situated within the television regions of BBC North West and ITV's Granada Television.

Media
Birkenhead is the home of Tranmere Rovers Football Club, a professional football team who play at Prenton Park near the Tranmere area of the town. They are in Football League One. Cammell Laird F.C. is the town's semi professional football club who play at Kirklands in Rock Ferry. They are in Northern Premier League Division One South. The town is also the home of several successful amateur football leagues, both 11-a side and six-a side.
The Birkenhead Park Football Club was founded in 1871, the same year as the Rugby Football Union. The club originally played in the Lower Park but moved to their current home in the Upper Park in 1885.

Sports
Birkenhead is mentioned in the song "What She Said" on the album Meat Is Murder by The Smiths: What she read/All heady books/She'd sit and prophesise/(It took a tattooed boy from Birkenhead/To really really open her eyes).
The town is also referred to in the song "Everything Is Sorrow" on the Boo Radleys' C'mon Kids album: I worked in Birkenhead for you/It brings me tears even now.

Friday, December 21, 2007

Pope Nicholas I Early life
To a spiritually exhausted and politically uncertain Western Europe beset by Muslim and Norse incursions, Pope Nicholas appeared as a conscientious representative of the Roman primacy in the Church. He was filled with a high conception of his mission for the vindication of Christian morality, the defence of God's law against powerful, worldly bishops.

Papacy
Archbishop John of Ravenna oppressed the inhabitants of the papal territory, treated his suffragan bishops with violence, made unjust demands upon them for money, and illegally imprisoned priests. He also forged documents to support his claims against the Roman See and maltreated the papal legates. As the warnings of the pope were without result, and the archbishop ignored a thrice-repeated summons to appear before the papal tribunal, he was excommunicated. Having first visited the Emperor Louis at Pavia, the archbishop repaired, with two imperial delegates to Rome, where Nicholas cited him before the Roman synod assembled in the autumn of 860. Upon this John fled from Rome.
Going in person to Ravenna, the pope then investigated and equitably regulated everything. Again appealing to the emperor, the archbishop was recommended by him to submit to the pope, which he did at the Roman Synod of November, 861. Later on, however, he entered into a pact with the excommunicated archbishops of Trier and Cologne, was himself again excommunicated, and once more forced to make his submission to the pope. Another conflict arose between Nicholas and Archbishop Hincmar of Reims: this concerned the prerogatives of the papacy. Bishop Rothad of Soissons had appealed to the pope against the decision of the Synod of Soissons, of 861, which had deposed him; Hincmar opposed the appeal to the pope, but eventually had to acknowledge the right of the papacy to take cognizance of important legal causes (causae majores) and pass independent judgment upon them. A further dispute broke out between Hincmar and the pope as to the elevation of the cleric Wulfad to the archiepiscopal See of Bourges, but here, again, Hincmar finally submitted to the decrees of the Apostolic See, and the Frankish synods passed corresponding ordinances.

Bishops
Nicholas showed the same zeal in other efforts to maintain ecclesiastical discipline, especially as to the marriage laws. Ingiltrud, wife of Count Boso, had left her husband for a paramour; Nicholas commanded the bishops in the dominions of Charles the Bold to excommunicate her unless she returned to her husband. As she paid no attention to the summons to appear before the Synod of Milan in 860, she was put under the ban.
The pope was also involved in a desperate struggle with Lothair II of Lorraine over the inviolability of marriage. Lothair had abandoned his lawful wife Theutberga to marry Waldrada. At the Synod of Aachen, 28 April 862, the bishops of Lorraine approved this union, contrary to ecclesiastical law. At the Synod of Metz, June, 863, the papal legates, bribed by the king, assented to the Aachen decision, and condemned the absent Theutberga. Upon this the pope brought the matter before his own tribunal. The two archbishops, Günther of Cologne and Thietgaud of Trier, who had come to Rome as delegates, were summoned before the Lateran Synod of October, 863, when the pope condemned and deposed them as well as John of Ravenna and Hagano of Bergamo. The Emperor Louis II took up the cause of the deposed bishops, while King Lothair advanced upon Rome with an army and laid siege to the city, so that the pope was confined for two days in St. Peter's without food. Yet Nicholas did not waver in his determination; after being reconciled with the pope, the emperor withdrew from Rome and commanded the former Archbishops of Trier and Cologne to return to their homes. Nicholas never ceased from his efforts to bring about a reconciliation between Lothair and his lawful wife, but without effect.
Another matrimonial case in which Nicholas interposed was that of Judith, daughter of Charles the Bold, who had married Baldwin, Count of Flanders, without her father's consent. Frankish bishops had excommunicated Judith, and Hincmar of Reims had taken sides against her, but Nicholas urged leniency, in order to protect freedom of marriage.

Relations with the Eastern Church
He encouraged the missionary activity of the Church. He sanctioned the union of the Sees of Bremen and Hamburg, and confirmed to St. Anschar, Archbishop of Bremen, and his successors the office of papal legate to the Danes, Swedes, and Slavs. In many other ecclesiastical matters, he issued letters and decisions, and he took active measures against bishops who were neglectful of their duties.
At Rome, Nicholas rebuilt and endowed several churches, and constantly sought to encourage religious life. His led a pious personal life guided by a spirit of Christian asceticism. Regino of Prüm reports that Nicholas was highly esteemed by the citizens of Rome and by his contemporaries generally (Chronicon, "ad annum 868," in "Mon. Germ. Hist." Script.", I.579), and after death was regarded as a saint.
A much discussed question and one that is important in judging the position taken by this pope is whether he made use of the forged pseudo-Isidorian papal decretals. After exhaustive investigation, Schrörs has decided that the pope was neither acquainted with the pseudo-Isidorian collection in its entire extent, nor did he make use of its individual parts; that he had perhaps a general knowledge of the false decretals, but did not base his view of the law upon them, and that he owed his knowledge of them solely to documents which came to him from the Frankish Empire [Schrörs, "Papst Nikolaus I. und Pseudo-Isidor" in Historisches Jahrbuch, XXV (1904), 1 sqq.; Idem, "Die pseudoisidorische 'Exceptio spolii' bei Papst Nikolaus I" in Historisches Jahrbuch, XXVI (1905), 275 sqq.].

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Status quo ante bellum
The term status quo ante bellum comes from Latin meaning literally, as things were before the war. The term was originally used in treaties to refer to the withdrawal of enemy troops and the restoration of prewar leadership. When used as such, it means that no side gains or loses territory or economic and political rights. This contrasts with uti possidetis, where each side retains whatever territory and other property it holds at the end of the war.
An early example was the treaty that ended the great 602-629 War between the East-Roman and the Sassanian Persian Empires. The Persians had occupied Asia Minor, Palestine and Egypt. After a successful East-Roman counteroffensive in Mesopotamia finally brought about the end of the war the integrity of Rome's eastern frontier as it was prior to 602 was fully restored. Both empires were exhausted after this war and neither were ready when the armies of Islam burst out of Arabia in 632.
Another example of a war that ended status quo ante bellum was the War of 1812, which was concluded with the Treaty of Ghent in 1814. During negotiations, British diplomats had suggested ending the war uti possidetis, but the final treaty, due in large part to a resounding American victory in the Battle of Lake Champlain, left neither gains nor losses in land for the United States and the United Kingdom's Canadian colonies.
Also, the War of Austrian Succession (1740-1748) concluded status quo ante bellum. Austria survived and only had to sacrifice the area of Silesia.
Another example is Iran-Iraq War (September 1980 - August 1988): "The war left the borders unchanged. Two years later, as war with the western powers loomed, Saddām recognized Iranian rights over the eastern half of the Shatt al-`Arab, a reversion to the status quo ante bellum that he had repudiated a decade earlier." Another example is the Falklands War (1982). The war ended in British military victory, but did not resolve the sovereignty dispute over the Falkland Islands.
The term has been generalized to form the phrase status quo and status quo ante. Outside this context, the term antebellum is in the United States usually associated with the period before the American Civil War.

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Introduction
The ethnic names below come from ancient and mediaeval sources dating from the late 1st millennium BC to the early 2nd millennium AD. They do not necessarily represent contemporaneous, distinct or Germanic-speaking populations or have common ancestral populations. Some closely fit the concept of a tribe. Others are confederations or even unions of tribes. Some may not have spoken Germanic at all, but were bundled by the sources with the Germanic speakers.
Some were undoubtedly of mixed culture. They may have assimilated to Germanic or to other cultures from Germanic. Long-lasting ethnic identities changed population base and language over the centuries. As for genetic characteristics, they must be considered unrelated to these names.
Apart from these limitations, it is probably safe to assume that, on the whole, most of these populations spoke some branch of Germanic and contributed to pools of descendants who currently live in the Germanic-speaking countries. Many of the names descend to modern place names.

Ancient and Medieval
A
Adogit, Adrabaecampi, Aelvaeones, Aeragnaricii, Ahelmil, Alamanni or Alemanni, Ambrones, Ampsivarii or Ampsivari, Angles, Anglo-Saxons, Angrivarii or Angrivari, Arochi, Augandzi, Avarpi, Aviones
B
Baemi, Banochaemae, Batavii or Batavi today known by Batavians, Batini, Bavarii, Bergio, Brisgavi, Brondings, Bructeri, Burgundiones, BuriByzantines
C
Calucones, Canninefates, Casuari, Caritni, Chaedini, Chaemae, Chaetuori, Chali, Chamavi, Charudes, Chasuarii, Chattuarii, Chauci, Cherusci, Chatti, Cimbri, Cobandi, Condrusi, Corconti, Curiones
D
Danduti, Dani, Dauciones, Diduni, Dulgubnii, Dutch, Danes
E
Eburones, English, Eudoses, Eunixi, Evagre,
F
Faroese, Favonae, Fervir, Finni, Firaesi, Flemish, Forsi, Franks, Frisians, Fundusi
G
Gall-Gaidheal, Gambrivii, Gauthigoth, Geats, Gepidae, Goths, Gutar Grannii
H
Hallin, Harii, Harudes, Hasdingi, Helisii, Helveconae, Heruli, Hermunduri, Hilleviones, Horder
I
Ingriones, Ingvaeones (North Sea Germans), Intuergi, Irminones (Elbe Germans), Istvaeones (Rhine-Weser Germans) Icelanders
J
Jutes, Juthungi
L
Lacringi, Landi, Lemovii, Levoni, Lombards or Langobardes, Liothida, Lugii
M
Manimi, Marcomanni, Marsi, Marsigni, Marvingi, Mattiaci, Mixi, Mugilones
N
Naharvali, Narisci or Naristi, Nemetes, Nertereanes, Nervii, Njars, Norn,Nuitones,Norwegians
O
Ostrogoths, Otingis
P
Parmaecampi, Pharodini
Q
Quadi
R
Racatae, Racatriae, Ranii, Raumarici, Reudigni, Rugii, Ruticli
S
Sabalingi, Saxons, Scirii, Segni, Semnoni or Semnones, Sibini, Sidini, Sigulones, Silingi, Sitones, Suarini or Suardones, Suebi or Suevi, Suetidi, Suiones, Sugambri, Swedes
T
Taetel, Tencteri, Teuriochaemae, Teutonoari, Teutons, Theustes, Thuringii, Toxandri, Treveri, Triboci, Tubantes, Tungri, Turcilingi, Turoni
U
Ubii, Ulmerugi, Usipetes, Usipi or Usippi
V
Vagoth, Vandals, Vangiones, Vargiones, Varini, Varisci, Vinoviloth, Viruni, Visburgi, Visigoths, Vispi
Z
Zumi

Alphabetic list
Some tribal maps of Germania can be found at:
These maps or any other maps represent an interpretation of the information available to the map-maker. Typically the ancients did not know or did not leave enough information for us to locate them exactly. The maps only give us a rough idea of the features and ethnic locations of Germania. In addition, some of tribes, e.g. the Bastarnae are not identified as Germanic with any certainty and large areas in Central Europe the Germanic tribes probably only constituted a newly arrived minority among Slavs and remaining Celts. Wolfram (1990:91f), for instance, points out that the early Visigoths, called Tervingi also comprised many Taifalans (unknown origin) and Alans (Iranians). The Alans became so Gothicized that non-Germanic people considered them to be Goths.

Germania of Tacitus
A speculative Findlay map of 1849 List of Germanic peoples Contemporary

North Germanic

  • Danes

    • Slesvigers
      Dano-Germans/German-Danes (may be included as an Ethnic German, or Ethnic Danish group)

      • Holsteiners
        Schleswigers
        Hutterites (North American Diaspora)
        Liechtensteiners
        Luxemburgers
        Mennonites (North American or Eurasian Diaspora)
        Styrians
        Swabians
        Swiss German majority of Switzerland
        Walser German and Walliser German minorities of Aosta Valley
        South Tiroleans
        Lorrainians