The BNSF Railway Company is the largest freight railroad network in North America. One of seven North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 42,000 employees, 32,500 miles of track in 28 states, more than 8,000 locomotives, it has three transcontinental routes that provide rail connections between the western and eastern United States. BNSF trains traveled over 169 million miles in 2010, more than any other North American railroad; the BNSF Railway Company is the principal operating subsidiary of parent company Burlington Northern Santa Fe, LLC. Headquartered in Fort Worth, the railroad's parent company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, Inc. According to corporate press releases, the BNSF Railway is among the top transporters of intermodal freight in North America, it hauls bulk cargo, including enough coal to generate around ten per cent of the electricity produced in the United States. The creation of BNSF started with the formation of a holding company on September 22, 1995.
This new holding company purchased the Atchison and Santa Fe Railway and Burlington Northern Railroad, formally merged the railways into the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway on December 31, 1996. On January 24, 2005, the railroad's name was changed to BNSF Railway Company using the initials of its original name. On November 3, 2009, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway announced it would acquire the remaining 77.4 percent of BNSF it did not own for $100 per share in cash and stock — a deal valued at $44 billion. The company is acquiring $10 billion in debt. On February 12, 2010, shareholders of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation voted in favor of the acquisition. Today, BNSF and its chief competitor, the Union Pacific Railroad, have a duopoly on all transcontinental freight rail lines in the Western U. S. and share trackage rights over thousands of miles of track. BNSF's history dates back to 1849, when the Aurora Branch Railroad in Illinois and the Pacific Railroad of Missouri were formed.
The Aurora Branch grew into the Chicago and Quincy Railroad, a major component of successor Burlington Northern. A portion of the Pacific Railroad became the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway; the Atchison and Santa Fe Railway was chartered in 1859. It built one of the first transcontinental railroads in North America, linking Chicago and Southern California; the Interstate Commerce Commission denied a proposed merger with the Southern Pacific Transportation Company in the 1980s. The Burlington Northern Railroad was created in 1970 through the consolidation of the Chicago and Quincy Railroad, the Great Northern Railway, the Northern Pacific Railway and the Spokane and Seattle Railway, it absorbed the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway in 1980, its main lines included Chicago-Seattle with branches to Texas and Birmingham and access to the low-sulfur coal of Wyoming's Powder River Basin. On June 30, 1994, BN and ATSF announced plans to merge. S. Class I railroads; the long-rumored announcement was delayed by a disagreement over the disposition of Santa Fe Pacific Gold Corporation, a gold mining subsidiary that ATSF agreed to sell to stockholders.
This announcement began the next wave of mergers, as the "Super Seven" were merged down to four in the next five years. The Illinois Central Railroad and Kansas City Southern Railway, two of the five "small" Class Is, announced on July 19 that the former would buy the latter, but this plan was called off on October 25; the Union Pacific Railroad, another major Western system, started a bidding war with BN for control of the SF on October 5. The UP gave up on January 1995, paving the way for the BN-ATSF merger. Subsequently, the UP acquired the Southern Pacific Transportation Company in 1996, Eastern systems CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern Railway split Conrail in 1999. On February 7, 1995, BN and ATSF heads Gerald Grinstein and Robert D. Krebs both announced shareholders had approved the plan, which would save overhead costs and combine BN's coal and ATSF's intermodal strengths. Although the two systems complemented each other with little overlap, in contrast to the Santa Fe-Southern Pacific merger, which failed because it would have eliminated competition in many areas of the Southwest, BN and ATSF came to agreements with most other Class Is to keep them from opposing the merger.
UP was satisfied with a single segment of trackage rights from Abilene, Kansas to Superior, which BN and ATSF had both served. KCS gained haulage rights to several Midwest locations, including Omaha, East St. Louis, Memphis, in exchange for BNSF getting similar access to New Orleans. SP requesting far-reaching trackage rights throughout the West, soon agreed on a reduced plan, whereby SP acquired trackage rights on ATSF for intermodal and automotive traffic to Chicago, other trackage rights on ATSF in Kansas, south to Texas, between Colorado and Texas. In exchange, SP assigned BNSF trackage rights over the former Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad between El Paso and Topeka and haulage rights to the Mexican border at Eagle Pass, Texas. Regional Toledo and Western Railway obtained trackage rights over BN from Peoria to Galesburg, Illinois, a BN hub where it could interchange with SP; the Interstate Commerce Commission approved the BNSF merger on July 20, 1995, less than
Marine mammals are a food source in many countries around the world. They were hunted by coastal people, in the case of aboriginal whaling, still are; this sort of subsistence hunting was on produced only localised effects. Dolphin drive hunting continues from the South Pacific to the North Atlantic; the commercial whaling industry and the maritime fur trade, which had devastating effects on marine mammal populations, did not focus on the animals as food, but for other resources, namely whale oil and seal fur. Today, the consumption of marine mammals is much reduced. However, a 2011 study found that the number of humans eating them, from a wide variety of species, is increasing. According to the study’s lead author, Martin Robards, "Some of the most eaten animals are small cetaceans like the lesser dolphins... That was a surprise since only a decade ago there had only been only scattered reports of this happening". Marine mammals were hunted by coastal aboriginal humans for food and other resources.
The effects of this were only localised as hunting efforts were on a small scale. Commercial hunting was developed and marine mammals were exploited; this led to the extinction of the Caribbean monk seal. Today, populations of species that were hunted, such as blue whales Balaenoptera musculus and B. m. brevicauda), the North Pacific right whale, are much lower compared to their pre-exploited levels. Because whales have slow growth rates, are slow to reach sexual maturity, have a low reproductive output, population recovery has been slow. Despite the fact commercial whaling is a thing of the past since the passage of the International Whaling Commission’s moratorium on commercial whaling, a number of marine mammals are still subject to direct hunting; the only remaining commercial hunting of whales is by Norway where several hundred northeastern North Atlantic minke whales are harvested each year, Iceland, which takes 150 North Atlantic fin whales and less than 50 minke whales each year. Japan harvests several hundred Antarctic and North Pacific minke whales each year under the guise of scientific research.
However, the illegal trade of whale and dolphin meat is a significant market in some countries. Seals and sealions are still hunted in some areas such as Canada. For thousands of years, Arctic people have depended on whale meat. In Alaska now, the meat is harvested from legal, non-commercial hunts that occur twice a year in the spring and autumn; the meat is eaten throughout the winter. Coastal Alaska Natives divided their catch into 10 sections; the fatty tail, considered to be the best part, went to the captain of the conquering vessel, while the less-desired sections were given to his crew and others that assisted with the kill. The skin and blubber taken from the bowfin, beluga, or narwhal is valued, is eaten raw or cooked. In recent years Japan resumed hunting for whales, which they call "research whaling". Japanese research vessels refer to the harvested whale meat as incidental byproducts resulting from lethal study. In 2006, 5,560 tons of whale meat was sold for consumption. In modern-day Japan, two cuts of whale meat are distinguished: the belly meat and the tail or fluke meat.
Fluke meat can sell for $200 per kilogram, over three times the price of belly meat. Fin whales are desired because they are thought to yield the best quality fluke meat. In some parts of the world, such as Taiji in Japan and the Faroe Islands, dolphins are traditionally considered food, are killed in harpoon or drive hunts. Whaling has been practiced in the Faroe Islands in the North Atlantic since about the time of the first Norse settlements on the islands. Around 1000 Long-finned pilot whales are still killed annually during the summer. Dolphin meat is consumed in a small number of countries world-wide, which include Peru. While Japan may be the best-known and most controversial example, only a small minority of the population has sampled it. Dolphin meat is such a dark shade of red as to appear black. Fat is located in a layer of blubber between the skin; when dolphin meat is eaten in Japan, it is cut into thin strips and eaten raw as sashimi, garnished with onion and either horseradish or grated garlic, much as with sashimi of whale or horse meat.
When cooked, dolphin meat is cut into bite-size cubes and batter-fried or simmered in a miso sauce with vegetables. Cooked dolphin meat has a flavor similar to beef liver. Dolphin meat is high in mercury, may pose a health danger to humans when consumed. Ringed seals were once the main food staple for the Inuit, they are still an important food source for the people of Nunavut and are hunted and eaten in Alaska. Seal meat is an important source of food for residents of small coastal communities. Meat is sold to the Asian pet food market; the seal blubber is used to make seal oil, marketed as a fish oil supplement. In 2001, two percent of Canada's raw seal oil was sold in Canadian health stores. There has been no market for seal organs since 1998. Archaeological evidence indicates that for thousands of years, indigenous peoples have hunted sea otters for food and fur. Aquatic animal Aquatic mammal Drift whale Marine mammal Sustainable seafood Taboo food and drink Whale meat Whaling When Marine Mammals Become Food New York Times, 27 January 2012
Underhill Methodist Church is a Wesleyan-Methodist church, opened in 1899, located in Fortuneswell village, on the Isle of Portland, Dorset. It was built between 1898–1899, replacing a 1793 chapel built by Robert Carr Brackenbury, the founder of Methodism on Portland; the church remains active to date, as part of the Portland Methodist Circuit, alongside Easton Methodist Church. Robert Carr Brackenbury came to Portland in 1791, he purchased a house on the island, alongside Mr George Smith, began to preach from his own residence. Soon a Methodist following was established. During that same year Brackenbury built a chapel at his expense within Fortuneswell, it opened by 1793, had 120 members. During 1794 Brackenbury aimed to increase members at Tophill, purchased a house for use as a chapel within Wakeham. After Brackenbury died in 1818, his wife had the first purpose-built chapel constructed at Tophill in 1825. During the first half of the 19th century, the construction of new schools were essential on Portland, a Wesleyan School at Fortunewell was built for 200 children in 1841.
It opened in May 1845. It took the same name as the chapel; the 19th-century construction of Portland Harbour's Breakwaters, the other associated works, led to a large increase within Portland's population. Brackenbury's chapel had fallen into a poor condition by this time, it was decided that a new church should be built, was to be called Brackenbury Memorial Church. The foundation stones were laid in 1898, the church was completed by 1899; the church cost over £3,200 to build, was declared open in 1899 for Divine Service on Whit Monday. In 1903 Brackenbury's original chapel was demolished, the new Wesleyan manse erected on the same site; this was Brackenbury House, located just below the new church. The increasing Methodist population on the island led to the Tophill's Easton Methodist Church being built between 1906–07. With the outbreak of World War II, Portland was a natural target for German aircraft, due to the importance of island's naval base. On 11 August 1940 the church was damaged by bombing.
During the late 1990s renovations were carried out on the church. The church, still active today as part of the Portland Methodist Circuit, has Revd Christopher Briggs as the current minister. Dorset South and West Methodist Circuit website
Geoffrey Wainwright is an English theologian. He has spent much of his career in the United States and teaches at Duke Divinity School. Wainwright has made major contributions to modern Methodist theology and Christian liturgy, has played an significant role on producing the text Baptism and Ministry, as a member of the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches. Born in Monk Bretton, Yorkshire, England, in 1939, Geoffrey Wainwright is an ordained minister of the Methodist Church of Great Britain, he received his university education in Cambridge and Rome. He holds the Dr. Théol. degree from Geneva and the Doctor of Divinity degree from Cambridge. He served as a circuit minister in Liverpool and as a missionary teacher and pastor in Cameroon, West Africa. Returning to England, he taught theology at the Queen's College, Birmingham. In 1979 he moved to Union Theological Seminary, New York, where he became the Roosevelt Professor of Systematic Theology. Since 1983 he has taught at Duke Divinity School, a part of Duke University in North Carolina, where he occupies the Robert Earl Cushman chair of Christian Theology.
Wainwright has held visiting professorships at the University of Notre Dame, the Gregorian and Angelicum universities in Rome and the United Faculty of Theology in Melbourne, Australia. From 1976 to 1991, Wainwright was a member of the WCC Faith and Order and chaired the final redaction of the Lima text on Baptism and Ministry. Since 1986 he has been co-chairman of the Joint Commission between the World Methodist Council and the Roman Catholic Church. In 2004 he gave the opening address on behalf of "the ecclesial communities of the West" at the Roman symposium to mark the 40th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council’s decree on ecumenism. Among Wainwright's books the most influential remains Doxology: The Praise of God in Worship and Life, his more recent books include For Our Salvation: Two Approaches to the Work of Christ, Worship with One Accord: Where Liturgy and Ecumenism Embrace, Is the Reformation Over? Catholics and Protestants at the Turn of the Millennia, an intellectual and spiritual biography of a father of the 20th century ecumenical church, Lesslie Newbigin: A Theological Life, Embracing Purpose: Essays on God, the World and the Church.
His Eucharist and Eschatology and Christian Initiation were re-issued in 2003 respectively. With Karen Westerfield Tucker he edited The Oxford History of Christian Worship, his latest book is Faith and Love: The Ecumenical Trios of Virtues. Wainwright has served as president of the international Societas Liturgica as well as of the American Theological Society, he was honoured by the publication of Ecumenical Theology in Worship and Life: Essays Presented to Geoffrey Wainwright on his Sixtieth Birthday. He was awarded the 2005 Johannes Quasten Medal by the Catholic University of America for "excellence in theological scholarship". In 2005, Wainwright said that he was delighted at the election of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as bishop of Rome, he called the new Pope a first-rate theologian with a penetrating mind. He continues to make scholarly contributions in his retirement, he delivered a paper on "The Second Vatican Council: The Legacy from a Methodist Perspective" at the annual conference of the North American Academy of Ecumenists in Halifax in September 2012
This article is about the Iron Age village in central Jordan. For the Early Bronze Age proto-urban site in Jordan's basalt desert, see Jawa, JordanTall Jawa is an archaeological and historical site in central Jordan. Excavations and research have revealed the remains of an Iron Age village of the ancient Kingdom of Ammon. A two-storey house of the early Islamic period was found, providing insight of the seventh to eighth century transition from Christianity to Islam in Central Transjordan. Today Tall Jawa stands as a tell — a mound of ruins — overlooking the Madaba Plain. Amongst local people, it is known as'the Rock' but the ancient name of the settlement is not known. Tall Jawa stands at an elevation of 928 metres above sea level, close to the Iron Age capital city of Rabbath-Ammon, it is located west-northwest of the modern city of Jawa, 10.9 kilometres south of modern Amman. Tall Jawa was known to nineteenth-century explorers. Nelson Glueck conducted the first archaeological survey on site in 1933 and modern day excavations commenced in 1989.
No other research is known to have taken place between Glueck's survey and the start of modern excavations. Tall Jawa underwent 6 seasons of research and excavations, first as part of the Madaba Plains Project and, after 1992, as the Tall Jawa excavation Project. Lawrence T. Geraty was in charge of the excavations in 1989 and 1991 and Michèle Daviau oversaw them from 1992 to 1995. Archaeological finds, including architecture and artefacts dating from the Iron Age, have revealed information about the Kingdom of Ammon; some of the artefacts found on site have been retained by the Department of Antiquities of Jordan for the National Museum in Amman. The remaining objects are either at Wilfrid Laurier University or in storage at the American Center for Oriental Research in Amman. Archaeological research has revealed that the site was reoccupied 1200 years after the destruction of the Iron Age town, during the transition from the Byzantine to the Umayyad period. Excavations and research in 1989, 1991 and 1992–95, uncovered Iron Age settlements at Tall Jawa dating from 1100 to 600 BC.
The earliest settlement on site dates back to the Iron Age I period. After the destruction of the Iron Age I village, excavations revealed the existence of a fortification wall and a multi-chambered gate dating to mid-late Iron Age II; the majority of the ceramic material found date to Iron Age II, putting the site within the range of Iron Age II residential towns. Items excavated include artefacts of daily life such as flasks and ground stone tools, figurative objects, coins and marine shells; the presence of pottery sherds from the Byzantine period suggested the reoccupation of the site during the Late Antique period. Building 600, a two-storey house, was abandoned thereafter. Pottery, mould-made lamps, glass, a small coin hoard and mosaic pavements were amongst the artefacts and architectural elements found in or near the building. Research on this building and the material culture attached to it has made a contribution to our understanding and knowledge of village life during and after the Islamic conquests in Central Transjordan, as well as the overall seventh to eighth century Christian–Islamic transition.
The zenith of Tall Jawa can be traced to during the period of the Assyrian Empire, according to evidence of ceramic artefacts that are more advanced and of higher status compared to others at the site. Daviau, Michèle, Excavations at Tall Jawa, Jordan, I: The Iron Age Town, Leiden: Brill, ISBN 978-9004130128, ISSN 1566-2055 Daviau, Michèle, Excavations at Tall Jawa, Jordan, II: The Iron Age Artefacts, Leiden: Brill, ISBN 978-9004123632 Daviau, Michèle, Excavations at Tall Jawa, Jordan, IV: The Early Islamic House, Leiden: Brill, ISBN 978-9004175525 Description of the Jawa site by Creighton University Description Department of Tourism and Antiquities Jordan Description of the American Centre for Oriental Research in Amman, Jordan
The First Mithridatic War was a war challenging Rome's expanding Empire and rule over the Greek world. In this conflict, the Kingdom of Pontus and many Greek cities rebelling against Rome were led by Mithridates VI of Pontus against the Roman Republic and the Kingdom of Bithynia; the war lasted five years and ended in a Roman victory which forced Mithridates to abandon all his conquests and return to Pontus. The conflict with Mithridates VI would continue in two further Mithridatic Wars. Following his ascension to the throne of Kingdom of Pontus, Mithridates VI of Pontus focused on expanding his kingdom. Mithridates' neighbours, were Roman client states, expansion at their expense would lead him to conflict with Rome. After incorporating most of the coast around the Black Sea into his kingdom, he turned his attention towards Asia Minor, in particular the Kingdom of Cappadocia, where his sister Laodice was Queen. Mithridates had his brother-in-law, Ariarathes VI, assassinated by Gordius leaving the kingdom in the hands of Laodice, who ruled as regent for her son Ariarathes VII of Cappadocia.
Laodice married Nicomedes III of Bithynia. Nicomedes occupied Cappadocia and Mithridates retaliated by driving him out of Cappadocia and establishing himself as patron of his nephew's kingship on the throne; when Ariarathes refused to welcome Gordius back, Mithridates invaded Cappadocia again and killed Ariarathes. He proceeded to place his son called Ariarathes, on the throne of Cappadocia under the guardianship of Gordius. Nicomedes appealed to the Roman Senate, which decreed that Mithridates be removed from Cappadocia and Nicomedes be removed from Paphlagonia and the Senate appointed Ariobarzanes I of Cappadocia as King of Cappadocia. Mithridates prompted his son-in-law Tigranes the Great of Armenia to invade Cappadocia and remove Ariobarzanes. In the late summer 90 BC a Senatorial legation was sent east, under Manius Aquillius and Manlius Maltinus, to restore Nicomedes and Ariobarzanes to their kingdoms; the Senate sent instructions to Cassius "the commander of Asia about Pergamon who had a small army" and to Mithridates Eupator himself to assist in this.
Cassius' small army was the standard peacetime garrison force of between a whole and half legion and a few local auxiliary units – no more than 5,000 troops in all. The Aquillian legation soon augmented it with a large force of Galatian and Phrygian auxiliary regiments and with these troops proceeded to restore both monarchs. Mithridates, angry with the Romans, refused to cooperate but neither did he offer opposition and both kings were restored without any fighting in autumn 90 BC, its mandate achieved, the Aquillian legation ought to have gone home in winter 90/89 BC. Instead, no doubt on the excuse of keeping Mithridates under observation, it began to work upon Marius' covert instructions to Aquillius of provoking the Pontic King to war; this was considered to be a risky and reckless policy with the Italic War still in the balance. The kings, Nicomedes in particular, had taken out big loans in Rome to bribe the Senators to vote for their restoration. Aquillius' retinue included representatives of the lenders.
With Aquillius' support they now urged the two kings to invade the Pontic kingdom to secure the funds with which to repay the loans, needed for the bribes. Fearing the power of Mithridates, both kings demurred, but Nicomedes' creditors persisted with their pressure until he at last consented. It was at the end of autumn, 90 BC, that Nicomedes regained control of the Thracian Bosporos and in the new sailing season he prevented egress from the Euxine to Pontic ships. Around the middle of spring, 89 BC, Nicomedes invaded the ancient Mithridateian dynastic lands of Mariandynia, plundering as far east as Amastris without encountering resistance. Mithridates had long been preparing a challenge to Roman power and the time was now ripe; as a final means of enlisting as much sympathy as possible in Anatolia, he offered no opposition to the Bithynian raid, preferring to appear as manifestly wronged by what was seen as the puppets and representatives of Rome. The Bithynians returned home with a great deal of plunder – sufficient for Nicomedes to repay his debts.
After the raid Mithridates sent his spokesman Pelopidas to the Roman legates and commanders to make a complaint against Pergamon. At the same time Mithridates continued with his war preparations, trusting in his existing alliance with Tigranes of Armenia, although the more distant connection with Parthia was now without use because his ally Mithridates II had been slain by his rival Sanatruk attacking from the east in summer 91 BC, a serious internal war persisted between Sanatruk and Mithridates' eldest son and heir Gotarzes I; the Parthian internal conflict was to seize the entire attention of Tigranes too, but this could not yet be known. The Pontic king was exploiting prepared networks of support and recruitment among the Thracians and the Scythians, now solicited help and alliances from the kings in Syria and from Ptolemy Alexander I and the Cretans; the Pontic envoy Pelopidas cleverly ignored the fact that Aquillius and his suite had induced the Bithynian raid. Instead he let out propaganda about Roman intolerance towards Mithridates and concluded by appeali