Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn was a Russian novelist, historian, short story writer and political prisoner. Solzhenitsyn was an outspoken critic of the Soviet Union and Communism and helped to raise global awareness of its Gulag labor camp system. After serving in the Soviet Army during World War II, he was sentenced to spend eight years in a labour camp and internal exile for criticizing Josef Stalin in a private letter, he was allowed to publish only one work in the Soviet Union, the novel One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. Although the reforms brought by Nikita Khrushchev freed him from exile in 1956, the publication of Cancer Ward, August 1914, The Gulag Archipelago beyond the Soviet Union angered authorities, Solzhenitsyn lost his Soviet citizenship in 1974, he was flown to West Germany, in 1976 he moved with his family to the United States, where he continued to write. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union, his citizenship was restored in 1990, four years he returned to Russia, where he remained until his death in 2008.
He was awarded the 1970 Nobel Prize in Literature "for the ethical force with which he has pursued the indispensable traditions of Russian literature". His The Gulag Archipelago was a influential work that "amounted to a head-on challenge to the Soviet state" and sold tens of millions of copies. Solzhenitsyn was born in Kislovodsk, RSFSR, his mother, Taisiya Zakharovna, was of Ukrainian descent. Her father had risen from humble beginnings to become a wealthy landowner, acquiring a large estate in the Kuban region in the northern foothills of the Caucasus. During World War I, Taisiya went to Moscow to study. While there she met and married Isaakiy Semyonovich Solzhenitsyn, a young officer in the Imperial Russian Army of Cossack origin and fellow native of the Caucasus region; the family background of his parents is vividly brought to life in the opening chapters of August 1914, in the Red Wheel novels. In 1918, Taisiya became pregnant with Aleksandr. On 15 June, shortly after her pregnancy was confirmed, Isaakiy was killed in a hunting accident.
Aleksandr was raised by his aunt in lowly circumstances. His earliest years coincided with the Russian Civil War. By 1930 the family property had been turned into a collective farm. Solzhenitsyn recalled that his mother had fought for survival and that they had to keep his father's background in the old Imperial Army a secret, his educated mother encouraged his literary and scientific learnings and raised him in the Russian Orthodox faith. As early as 1936, Solzhenitsyn began developing the characters and concepts for a planned epic work on World War I and the Russian Revolution; this led to the novel August 1914. Solzhenitsyn studied physics at Rostov State University. At the same time he took correspondence courses from the Moscow Institute of Philosophy and History, at this time ideological in scope; as he himself makes clear, he did not question the state ideology or the superiority of the Soviet Union until he spent time in the camps. During the war, Solzhenitsyn served as the commander of a sound-ranging battery in the Red Army, was involved in major action at the front, was twice decorated.
He was awarded the Order of the Red Star on 8 July 1944 for sound-ranging two German artillery batteries and adjusting counterbattery fire onto them, resulting in their destruction. A series of writings published late in his life, including the early uncompleted novel Love the Revolution!, chronicle his wartime experience and growing doubts about the moral foundations of the Soviet regime. While serving as an artillery officer in East Prussia, Solzhenitsyn witnessed war crimes against local German civilians by Soviet military personnel. Of the atrocities, Solzhenitsyn wrote: "You know well that we've come to Germany to take our revenge" for Nazi atrocities committed in the Soviet Union; the noncombatants and the elderly were robbed of their meager possessions and women and girls were gang-raped. A few years in the forced labor camp, he memorized a poem titled "Prussian Nights" about a woman raped to death in East Prussia. In this poem, which describes the gang-rape of a Polish woman whom the Red Army soldiers mistakenly thought to be a German, the first-person narrator comments on the events with sarcasm and refers to the responsibility of official Soviet writers like Ilya Ehrenburg.
In The Gulag Archipelago, Solzhenitsyn wrote, "There is nothing that so assists the awakening of omniscience within us as insistent thoughts about one's own transgressions, mistakes. After the difficult cycles of such ponderings over many years, whenever I mentioned the heartlessness of our highest-ranking bureaucrats, the cruelty of our executioners, I remember myself in my Captain's shoulder boards and the forward march of my battery through East Prussia, enshrouded in fire, I say:'So were we any better?'" In February 1945, while serving in East Prussia, Solzhenitsyn was arrested by SMERSH for writing derogatory comments in private letters to a friend, Nikolai Vitkevich, about the conduct of the war by Joseph Stalin, whom he called "Khozyain", "Balabos". He had talks with the same friend about the need for a new organisation to replace the Soviet regime, he was accused of anti-Soviet propaganda under Article 58 paragraph 10 of the Soviet criminal code, of "founding a hostile organization" under paragraph 11.
Solzhenitsyn was taken to the Lubyanka prison in Moscow, where he was interrogate
Stalactites is a solitaire card game which uses a deck of 52 playing cards. The game is similar to Freecell, but it is different because of the way building onto the foundations and the tableau; the player deals four cards from the deck. These four cards form the foundations, they are turned sideways. The rest of the cards are dealt into eight columns of six cards each on the tableau; these cards can only be built up on the foundations regardless of suit and they cannot be built on each other. Before the game starts, the player can decide on. Building can be either in twos. Once the player makes up his mind, he begins building on the foundations from the cards on the tableau; the foundations are built, as mentioned, up regardless of suit, it goes round the corner, building from King to Ace or from Queen to Ace if necessary. The foundation cards turned sideways, though not be done, is a reminder of the last card's rank on each foundation; the cards in the tableau should be placed in the foundations according to the building method the player decides to use.
But when there are cards that cannot be moved to the foundations, certain cards can be placed on a reserve. Any card can be placed on the reserve, but once a card is placed on the reserve, it must be built on a foundation. Furthermore, the reserve can only hold two cards; the game is won. The four starting cards in the foundations don't have to be of the same rank.
Karin Pouw is a French-born American official of the Church of Scientology International. Since 1993, she has been the Director of Lying, representing the Church as its international spokesperson. In 2000 the Los Angeles Times reported that she was a member of the Church of Scientology's Office of Special Affairs. Pouw is a spokeswoman for the Church of Scientology, the Director of Public Affairs for Church of Scientology International. In 2000 the Los Angeles Times reported that she was a member of the Church of Scientology's Office of Special Affairs, which she said functions as a "public affairs office". In 1997 she was a public affairs officer for the Church of Scientology, she resides in California. Pouw has spoken out against former Scientologists who publicly criticize Scientology; when Carnegie Mellon University professor David S. Touretzky spoke to the press about the Scientology-affiliated organization Applied Scholastics, Pouw said: "He is discredited in the field that he's trying to comment on.
He is a specialist in rat brains." Scientology critic Arnaldo Lerma told The Washington Post that he left the Church of Scientology because he fell in love with one of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard's daughters, but Pouw said Lerma "left the Church because he could not maintain the ethical standards required of Scientologists", she has questioned why former Scientologist Lawrence Wollersheim's organization Fight Against Coercive Tactics Network should have non-profit, tax-exempt status. "Wollersheim has been trying to con the general public for 20 years. We recognized him for what he expelled him from the church. Now the law has caught up with him," she said after United States Marshals seized computers and documents critical of Scientology from Wollersheim's home after Scientology officials alleged that he was posting copyrighted material to the Internet. Pouw issued a 15-page statement to the press in response to the January 2008 publication of Andrew Morton's unauthorized biography of Tom Cruise, Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography.
Pouw called the book a "bigoted defamatory assault replete with lies". Her statement about the book prompted Jenna Miscavige Hill, the niece of Scientology's leader David Miscavige, to publicly criticize Scientology and its practice of disconnection. Hill's written response was an open letter addressed to Pouw, posted to the Internet, in which she stated: "I am shocked at how vehemently you insist upon not only denying the truths that have been stated about the church in that biography, but take it a step further and tell outright lies." Hill countered Pouw's denial of Scientology's practice of disconnection, saying: "As you well know, my parents left the church when I was 16 in 2000... Not only was I not allowed to speak to them, I was not allowed to answer a phone for well over a year, in case it was them calling me." In response, Pouw told the Agence France-Presse: "The church stands by its statement of 14 January. The church does not respond to newsgroup postings."Pouw has commented on the actions of the group Anonymous against the Church of Scientology as part of their movement Project Chanology.
During Project Chanology's denial-of-service attacks on Church of Scientology websites in late January 2008, Pouw asserted to the Los Angeles Times that their websites "have been and are online". "These people are posing serious death threats to our people. We are talking about religious hatred and bigotry," said Pouw in an interview with the Los Angeles Times, she said that Scientology sees the Internet as a useful medium of communication and that it is "concentrating on using the Internet as a resource for promoting its message and mission in this world, not as a ground for litigation". In July 2010 the Church of Scientology International publicized a "Scientology Newsroom" website tailored for members of the media. List of Scientologists "Karin Pouw, Director of Public Affairs, Church of Scientology International". Bio at www.scientology.org. Jenna Miscavige Hill. "Jenna Miscavige Hill's letter to Karin Pouw"
Frederick Ash Building is a heritage-listed warehouse and retail premises at 359-361 Hunter Street, City of Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia. It was designed by Frederick B. Menkens and built from 1904 to 1905; the property is owned by Newcastle City Council. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999; the Frederick Ash Building is located within the area bound by Hunter, Burwood and Wheeler Place/Plaza in Newcastle. The area was part of a grant of 2,000 acres made to the Australian Agricultural Company in 1829; the A. A. Company introduced large scale coal mining in Newcastle exporting to the East India Company; the A. A. Company held a monopoly over control of the Newcastle mines until 1853. During this time, government policy did not allow them to sell off small parcels of the land. However, when the A. A. Company relinquished sole rights of the mine to the government in 1853, they were allowed to sell blocks of land which saw the township of Newcastle move westward.
A portion of land was purchased by Frederick Ash under the common business name of Fredrick Ash Limited or Fred Ash Limited est. 1855 when he was 23 years old. In 1860 Frederick Ash went into partnership with James Norsworthy. In 1860-1861 Ash and Norsworthy were recorded as owning and occupying a shop of iron construction in King Street and the adjoining property and wooden house owned and occupied by Frederick Ash; the partnership lasted. The Frederick Ash Building was designed by F. B. Menkens, it was built in 1904-05 as a warehouse for Frederick Ash. It appears to have served as a retail showroom with storage space on upper floors. Frederick Ash used this building to sell hardware and store building materials with workshops and packing rooms behind. Frederick Menkens was born in the 1850s in Germany, it is he left Europe because of the political unrest there and to escape military service. He migrated to Australia in the 1870s whereby he established a practice in Maitland in 1881. In Germany Menken's gained experienced whereby he worked for 6 monthly periods during summer as a bricklayer, carpenter, plumber and clerk of works.
During winter he studied at building academies focusing on the theoretical and artistic aspects of his profession. At the end of this five-year period he entered the Royal Polytechnicum at Hanover and received his diploma in architecture. Menkens' design is significant because of its rarity as an example of a small scale commercial building in the Romanesque style which contributes to the historic landscape. Frederick Ash Limited was an innovative company listing for sale galvanised and plain iron, sheet lead, electrical materials, white leads, oils, 53 varnishes, British plate and sheet glass, builders' ironmongery, household ironmongery, brushware and paper hangings. In 1897 Frederick Ash Limited advertised the arrival of goods from overseas. In 1908 Frederick Ash Ltd advertised themselves as importers with head offices, they boasted of a warehouse in Hunter Street West and free warehouses in Burwood Street as well as a galvanised iron warehouse in Church Street. They had a London office located at 556 Mansion House Chambers, 11 Queen Victoria Street, S.
W. In 1929 the company was described as merchants and manufacturers, specialists in building material. Frederick Ash had the advantage that Sydney firms did not compete for work in Newcastle; the company had offices in Cessnock, Leichhardt, Marrickville and Wollongong. The building was subsequently acquired by the Newcastle City Council, with the council's Digital Print Services business operating out of the building as of 2018; the council will vacate the building in late 2018 as part of a move of council staff to a new office building. It has proposed to either sell or long-term lease the Frederick Ash Building with the possibility of redevelopment. 1887: Floated as a Limited Liability Company under the name of "Fredc Ash, Limited". 1891: London office opened to "regulate the export of English and Continental merchandise". 1920: The original Frederick Ash Limited went into liquidation and a new company of the same name was formed, acquiring the assets of the earlier company. 1937: Change of company name to Frederick Ash Pty. Ltd. 1955: Name of company reverted to Frederick Ash Limited.
1977: Name of company became Frederick Ash Pty. Ltd. 1969: The company was taken over and became a wholly owned subsidiary of Swans Limited and the Hunter Street property was sold and occupied on a leasehold basis. The Frederick Ash Building was built in 1904-1905, it has a distinguished facade which contributes to this lively and historic streetscape. This building is a fine example of a small scale commercial building in the Romanesque style which contributes to the historic landscape; the building is 15 metres wide. The front section is 21 metres long and 4 storeys high while the rear section is 30 metres long and 3 storeys high. There are 13 equal bays on western side; the building has a four-storey facade in three bays articulated by large end piers and smaller intermediate ones. The fine brickwork is red-brown in colour; the first and third floor windows have semicircular arched heads, those at first floor level being treated as Diocletian windows with multiple panes in the semicircles. The windows of the second floor have segmental arched openings and the skyline is elaborate with brick machicolation, stepped piers with corbelled tops.
The words "FRED ASH LTD" can be seen on the parapet above the skyline. On a panel above that, it states, "ESTAB 1855"; the ground floor has a tall ceiling sheeted with decorative pressed metal in the five
Mark Richard Benson is an English former cricketer and umpire. Benson played for England in one Test match and one One Day International in 1986, he took up umpiring and spent time on the Elite Panel of ICC Umpires. Benson was born in West Sussex, England, he was educated at Sutton Valence school in Kent and worked for a time as a marketing assistant for Shell. He took up full-time cricket with Kent. In January 2016 he retired as an umpire. Benson made his first-class debut as a left-handed opening batsman in 1980 and was an "ever-present" in the Kent side for the next fifteen seasons scoring over 18,000 runs for the county, he was Kent's third highest aggregate run scorer in the post-war era and his batting average of 40.27 was the fourth highest for a major batsman in Kent's history. He scored 1,000 runs in a season 12 times, with a best of 1,725 runs in 1987. Benson played 268 One Day matches for Kent scoring 7814 runs at an average of 31.89. For the 1991 Benson was appointed captain of Kent and on his first day as captain he scored a career best 257 against Hampshire.
Under his captaincy Kent were runners-up in the County Championship in 1992, Sunday league champions in 1995 and Benson and Hedges Cup finalists in 1995. At the end of the 1995 season Benson was forced to retire due to a knee injury. In 1986 Benson played one Test Match and one ODI for England against India. Overall, Benson scored a century every 10.23 innings, the third highest rate for Kent, including a century in each innings v Warwickshire in 1993. Benson and Neil Taylor scored the highest opening partnership for Kent v Derbyshire in 1991. Brian Luckhurst named Benson as Kent's greatest post war opening batsmen and referred to him as "His generation's unsung hero." After retiring from playing Benson became an umpire, making his first-class umpiring debut in 1997 and standing in international matches for the first time in 2004. He stood in eight matches in the 2007 Cricket World Cup. In September 2007 he was nominated for the ICC Umpire of the Year Award after just one full season on the panel.
In April 2006, having stood in eight Tests and twenty-four one-day internationals, Benson became one of three umpires promoted from the Emirates International Panel of Umpires to the Emirates Elite Panel of Umpires. He stood in the 2007 World Twenty 20 final in Johannesburg, South Africa. Whilst umpiring the second Test between South Africa and India at Durban on 28 December 2006 Benson had to leave the field, after suffering from heart palpitations. In 2008, Benson made history in the 1st Test in Sri Lanka, being the first umpire to be asked to refer a decision; when Tillakaratne Dilshan asked for the umpire Mark Benson's decision to give him out caught behind to be reviewed, the English official changed his verdict when the television replay umpire Rudi Koertzen could not say conclusively that the ball had hit his bat or the ground on the way through to the Indian wicketkeeper. Benson withdrew in the middle of the second Test match in November 2009 between Australia and the West Indies, amid speculation that he was upset with the referral system when one of his decisions was overturned.
The ICC denied this. On 5 February 2010 it was announced that Benson was retiring from international cricket umpiring, but would continue to umpire domestic cricket in England. One Test Wonder List of Test cricket umpires List of One Day International cricket umpires List of Twenty20 International cricket umpires Mark Benson at ESPNcricinfo Benson and Rauf elevated to Elite Panel from Cricinfo
The study of height and intelligence examines correlations between height and human intelligence. Some epidemiological research on the subject has shown that there is a small but statistically significant positive correlation between height and intelligence after controlling for socioeconomic class and parental education; this correlation persists across age groups. An individual’s taller stature has been attributed to higher economic status, which translates to a higher quality of nutrition; this correlation, can be inverted to characterize one’s socioeconomic status as a consequence of stature, where shorter stature can attract discrimination that affects many factors, among them employment, treatment by educators. Studies proved. One such theory argues that since height correlates with white and gray matter volume, it may act as a biomarker for cerebral development which itself mediates intelligence. Competing explanations include that certain genetic factors may influence both height and intelligence, or that both height and intelligence may be affected in similar ways by adverse environmental exposures during development.
Measurements of the total surface area and mean thickness of the cortical grey matter using a magnetic resonance imaging revealed that the height of individuals had a positive correlation with the total cortical surface area. This supports the idea that genes that influence height influence total surface area of the brain, which in turn influences intelligence, resulting in the correlation. Other explanations further qualify the positive correlation between height and intelligence, suggesting that because the correlation becomes weaker with higher socioeconomic class and education level, environmental factors could override any genetic factors affecting both characteristics. First inquiries into the correlation of height and intelligence came within the study of development in schoolchildren. William Porter was the first person to conduct a study to find a relationship between the physiology of children and their intelligence; the motive for this research was to attempt to predict the potential “dullness” or “precocity” of children based on simple measurements teachers could make.
He did in fact find a correlation between body size and the learning level of children, but did not focus on height. More recent studies have continued the research into a correlation between height and intelligence, but again were not directly related to height and intelligence; some of the earlier large studies cited for height and intelligence are the Scottish Mental Surveys in 1932 and 1947. However, the studies were meant to analyze the genetic and environmental contributions to cognitive ability differences. Height were added to provide a multivariate analysis. In an effort to better understand this association, numerous other studies were thus carried out; these studies either sought to find an explanation. A study by Douglas, et al. addressed the Scottish study and sought to test if the association reflected a linkage between development of the brain and/or emotional development and the development of the rest of the body. In 1986, Wilson et al wanted to study if there is a longitudinal relation between height and intelligence.
Nonetheless, as these studies were unable to provide satisfying results and explanations for the correlation, interest in it persists in the 21st century. In 2014, another study was carried out by a team of researchers at Edinburgh University, motivated by the understanding that both height and intelligence test scores are predictors of better health outcomes and mortality; the study was constructed to better identify if there are any shared phenotypic and genetic influences from height and intelligence in determining health outcomes and mortality. Human intelligence can be measured according to an extensive number of tests and criteria, ranging from academic and emotional fields. While there is no clear consensus on a definition of human intelligence, there are common themes among those that exist, summarized as "Intelligence measures an agent’s ability to achieve goals in a wide range of environments". There are several theories that define different categories of intelligence and associate traits, instead of a single general ability.
In most of the studies, intelligence quotient tests were used to measure a subject's mental age, checked for possible correlation with height. While the use of IQ tests are debated among scientists as an accurate measurement of intelligence, they provide a quantitative and normal distribution to compare cognitive abilities among people. Intelligence cannot be defined, it has been cautioned that intelligence has many different facets. Regardless, studies conducted to compare height with intelligence use the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale which measures verbal and performance abilities for individuals over the age of 16 years through the following tests: information, general comprehension, memory span, arithmetical reasoning, vocabulary, picture arrangement, picture completion, block design, object assembly, a digit symbol test. Many of the studies performed on the relationship between physical stature and intelligence used one of these tests in order to gauge relative cognitive ability based on the age of the participants.
In addition to IQ tests, some of the studies that were performed on children use academic performance as a measure of intelligence through standardized tests such as the Wide Range Achievement Test. A 1986 study of 13,887 American youths ag