Badminton is a racquet sport played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" and "doubles". Badminton is played as a casual outdoor activity in a yard or on a beach. Points are scored by striking the shuttlecock with the racquet and landing it within the opposing side's half of the court; each side may only strike the shuttlecock. Play ends once the shuttlecock has struck the floor or if a fault has been called by the umpire, service judge, or the opposing side; the shuttlecock is a feathered or plastic projectile which flies differently from the balls used in many other sports. In particular, the feathers create much higher drag, causing the shuttlecock to decelerate more rapidly. Shuttlecocks have a high top speed compared to the balls in other racquet sports; the flight of the shuttlecock gives the sport its distinctive nature. The game developed in British India from the earlier game of shuttlecock.

European play came to be dominated by Denmark but the game has become popular in Asia, with recent competitions dominated by China. Since 1992, badminton has been a Summer Olympic sport with four events: men's singles, women's singles, men's doubles, women's doubles, with mixed doubles added four years later. At high levels of play, the sport demands excellent fitness: players require aerobic stamina, strength and precision, it is a technical sport, requiring good motor coordination and the development of sophisticated racquet movements. Games employing shuttlecocks have been played for centuries across Eurasia, but the modern game of badminton developed in the mid-19th century among the British as a variant of the earlier game of battledore and shuttlecock, its exact origin remains obscure. The name derives from the Duke of Beaufort's Badminton House in Gloucestershire, but why or when remains unclear; as early as 1860, a London toy dealer named Isaac Spratt published a booklet entitled Badminton Battledore – A New Game, but no copy is known to have survived.

An 1863 article in The Cornhill Magazine describes badminton as "battledore and shuttlecock played with sides, across a string suspended some five feet from the ground". The game may have developed among expatriate officers in British India, where it was popular by the 1870s. Ball badminton, a form of the game played with a wool ball instead of a shuttlecock, was being played in Thanjavur as early as the 1850s and was at first played interchangeably with badminton by the British, the woollen ball being preferred in windy or wet weather. Early on, the game was known as Poona or Poonah after the garrison town of Poona, where it was popular and where the first rules for the game were drawn up in 1873. By 1875, officers returning home had started a badminton club in Folkestone; the sport was played with sides ranging from 1 to 4 players, but it was established that games between two or four competitors worked the best. The shuttlecocks were coated with India rubber and, in outdoor play, sometimes weighted with lead.

Although the depth of the net was of no consequence, it was preferred that it should reach the ground. The sport was played under the Pune rules until 1887, when J. H. E. Hart of the Bath Badminton Club drew up revised regulations. In 1890, Hart and Bagnel Wild again revised the rules; the Badminton Association of England published these rules in 1893 and launched the sport at a house called "Dunbar" in Portsmouth on 13 September. The BAE started the first badminton competition, the All England Open Badminton Championships for gentlemen's doubles, ladies' doubles, mixed doubles, in 1899. Singles competitions were added in 1900 and an England–Ireland championship match appeared in 1904. England, Wales, Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand were the founding members of the International Badminton Federation in 1934, now known as the Badminton World Federation. India joined as an affiliate in 1936; the BWF now governs international badminton. Although initiated in England, competitive men's badminton has traditionally been dominated in Europe by Denmark.

Worldwide, Asian nations have become dominant in international competition. China, Indonesia, India, South Korea and Japan are the nations which have produced world-class players in the past few decades, with China being the greatest force in men's and women's competition recently; the game has become a popular backyard sport in the United States. The following information is a simplified summary of badminton rules based on the BWF Statutes publication, Laws of Badminton; the court is divided into halves by a net. Courts are marked for both singles and doubles play, although badminton rules permit a court to be marked for singles only; the doubles court is wider than the singles court. The exception, which causes confusion to newer players, is that the doubles court has a shorter serve-length dimension; the full width of the court is 6.1 metres, in singles this width is reduced to 5.18 metres. The full length of the court is 13.4 metres. The service courts are marked by a centre line dividing the width of the court, by a short service line at a distance of 1.98 metres from the net, by the outer side and back boundaries.

In doubles, the service court is marked by a long service line, 0.76 metres (2 f

James Tilden Carroll in 1933 served 103 days as 12th District member of the Los Angeles City Council to fill out the unexpired term of Thomas Francis Ford, elected to the U. S. Congress the preceding year. Carroll was born in Assumption, Illinois on 22 September 1876 to James J. Carroll and Eliza Brown Booker. On 9 January 1901 in Assumption, Illinois he married Mary Jane Conley. By 1918 he had moved to Montana, he moved to California around 1927. He was secretary of the Northwest Chamber of Commerce, a member of the Municipal League and of the executive council of the Holy Name Society, he lived with his family at 2226 Rampart Boulevard. He died on 9 February 1939 in California at the age of 62 after a surgical procedure. Surviving were his widow, Mary Jane. Carroll was appointed temporarily to the 12th District seat by the City Council on March 17, 1931, by eight votes for him, one vote for former Councilman Douglas Eads Foster and one vote for Lois Williams, Ford's secretary. Carroll said he would not be a candidate for the full two-year term beginning July 1 and that he would retain Mrs. Williams in her position.

He did run for the balance of the unexpired term in the May 1933 election and was chosen over the other candidate for the short-term job, George W. Scott, he thus served about fourteen weeks as council member for District 12, which at that time was bounded on the south by Pico Boulevard, the west by Hoover Street, the north by Fountain Avenue and the east by Figueroa Street. Carroll was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for Congress in the 14th District in the August 1934 primary election. Access to the Los Angeles Times links requires the use of a library card

A dehkan farm is a term for an individual or family farm in Central Asia. A Persian word used by the Sassanid Empire, it is still utilized in the classification systems of several regional governments. In Uzbekistan, household plots were reclassified as "dehkan farms" in 1998, at which time the Law of Dehkan Farms was passed. Around 60% of all agricultural production in the country comes from dehkan farms, which control less than 5% of arable land in the country and average less than 0.2 hectares in size. The small dehkan farms raise livestock. Scale crops, such as wheat and cotton, are grown on larger peasant farms and on the few remaining shirkats. All agricultural land in Uzbekistan is owned by the state. While this situation allows the state to demand certain performance and production standards from larger farms, dehkan farms are allowed to grow whatever the farmers wish. Additionally, unlike larger farms where leases must be renewed, leases for dehkan farms are lifetime holdings and can be transferred through inheritance.

They can not, however, be given to someone outside the family as a gift. Dehkan farms own 93% of all cattle in Uzbekistan. In Tajikistan, "dehkan farms" are midsized peasant farms that are and physically distinct from household plots. Regulations concerning dehkan farms in Tajikistan are laid out in the Law No. 48 on Dehkan Farms, dating from 2002. Dehkan farms cultivate more than 60% of agricultural land in Tajikistan, averaging about 20 hectares in size. Dehkan farms concentrate in crop production and their share of livestock is minimal. Agriculture in Central Asia Agriculture in Tajikistan Agriculture in Uzbekistan Lerman, Zvi. "Agricultural Development in Central Asia: A Survey of Uzbekistan, 2007–2008". Eurasian Geography and Economics. 49: 481–505. Doi:10.2747/1539-7216.49.4.481. Lerman, Zvi. "Agricultural Development and Household Incomes in Central Asia: A Survey of Tajikistan, 2003-2008". Eurasian Geography and Economics. 50: 301–326. Doi:10.2747/1539-7216.50.3.301

Olimpia Aldobrandini was a member of the Aldobrandini family of Rome, the sole heiress to the family fortune. Donna Olimpia Aldobrandini was born 20 April 1623, the daughter of Giorgio Aldobrandini and Ippolita Ludovisi. In 1638, she married Prince Paolo Borghese of the Borghese family who died in 1646; the following year, in 1647, she married Camillo Pamphili who renounced a cardinalate to become her husband. Part of her dowry of her second marriage was a collection of paintings, villas in Montemagnanapoli and Frascati, the great Aldobrandini estates in Romagna on the Corso in Rome and the Palazzo Aldobrandini; these estates and property thus passed to the Pamphili family and became the nucleus for the Galleria Doria Pamphilj. Aldobrandini and Camillo Pamphili had five children including Giovan Battista Pamphili, Benedetto Pamphili and Anna Pamphili who married the Genoese nobleman Giovanni Andrea III Doria Landi in 1671; when the Roman branch of the Pamphlili family ended in 1760, it was the descendants of Anna and Giovanni who inherited the palazzo in Rome.

Children with Prince Borghese: Giovanni Giorgio Borghese Camillo Borghese Francesco Borghese Giovanni Battista Borghese, Principe Borghese married Eleonora Boncompagni and had issue. Maria Virginia Borghese had issue. Children with Pamphili: Flaminia Pamphili married Bernardino Savelli, Duke of Castelgandolfo and had no children. Teresa Pamphili had children. Anna Pamphili founded the Doria-Pamphili-Landi line. Benedetto cardinal. Giambattista Pamphili, Prince of Carpinetti & of Belvedere married Violante Facchinetti and a daughter Olimpia who married Filippo Colonna, Prince of Paliano, son of Marie Mancini Pamphili family, with inclusive family tree. Doria Pamhpilj Gallery http://www.doriapamphilj.it/roma/la-galleria-doria-pamphilj/ The Will of Olimpia Aldobrandini, transcribed by Maria Gemma Paviolo, kept in Rome Historical Archive, ASR,30 NOTAI, Ufficio 18, Testamenti 1675-1685

Death Unchained is an adventure for the 2nd edition of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. Death Unchained is set in the merciless regime of Falkovnia. A horde of dark and sinister assassins pursue the players from the moment they step out of the mists. Death Unchained was published by TSR in 1996, was designed by Lisa Smedman, with cover art by Fred Fields and interior art by John Dollar. Trenton Webb reviewed Death Unchained for Arcane magazine. Webb commented, "without a shadow of a doubt TSR's Death Unchained is a great off-the-shelf AD&D Ravenloft scenario", he declares that the adventure has "plenty of Hammer-horror atmosphere, but this time it's more akin to the paranoid fears of Witchfinder General than the schlock of Frankenstein". He called it a "hard core horror-fest" that "doesn't let up" against the player characters in its "non-stop chase through grim city streets and a beautifully labyrinthe dungeon complex", he notes that, for the DM, "it's a well-balanced adventure guide - it's strict enough to maintain direction but with enough flexibility and troubleshooting options to be useful under game conditions".

Webb felt that Death Unchained's insight comes from "its more mainstream feel", as while he feels that many Ravenloft scenarios "have a late-Georgian atmosphere in which demi-humans and magic feel a tad anachronistic", this adventure "revels in a far more medieval flavour being set in downtown Transylvania at the time of Vlad Tepes". Webb concludes the review by saying: "Pushed along at a frantic pace, filled with plenty of clues which are clear enough for players to find and follow, with a varied cast of refreshingly different villains, Death Unchained opens a promising trilogy. What's more, with its mainstream feel it's ideal for other world parties to test the murky waters of Ravenloft. However, if this is your first foray into the Demiplane of Dread, be warned - it's a real character killer."

Zorya-Mashproekt is a research and production complex that specializes in a gas turbine construction. The complex is located in the city of Mykolaiv, Ukraine and is part of the Ukrainian Defense Industries state corporation; the idea of creating a factory in production of steam turbines in Ukraine arose soon after World War II. On July 9, 1946 the Soviet government adopted a decision on establishing of the factory in Mykolaiv, while the city authorities found a spot in the southeastern suburbs of the city near a military airfield Kulbakine; the preparatory works started out in March 1948, while the construction stretched out for the next five years. The factory was called the Southern Turbine Plant. Following the 2014 Crimean crisis, the Ukrainians refused to supply the Russian Navy with marine gas turbines from Zorya-Mashproekt, so NPO Saturn has been commissioned to design new engines for the Admiral Gorshkov and Admiral Grigorovich-class frigates. FC Torpedo Mykolaiv Ivchenko-Progress Official website Zorya-Mashproekt at the military exhibition in Russia.

"Military Panorama". Baklin, D. Zorya and Russian Navy. December 11, 2012