The bowline is an ancient and simple knot used to form a fixed "eye" at the end of a rope. It has the virtues of being both easy to untie; the bowline is sometimes referred to as King of the knots because of its importance. Along with the sheet bend and the clove hitch, the bowline is considered one of the most essential knots; the common bowline shares some structural similarity with the sheet bend. All end-to-end joining knots have a corresponding eye knot. Although the bowline is considered a reliable knot, its main deficiencies are a tendency to work loose when not under load, to slip when pulled sideways and the bight portion of the knot to capsize in certain circumstances. To address these shortcomings, a number of more secure variations of the bowline have been developed for use in safety-critical applications; the bowline's name has an earlier meaning, dating to the age of sail. On a square-rigged ship, a bowline is a rope that holds the edge of a square sail towards the bow of the ship and into the wind, preventing it from being taken aback.

A ship is said to be on a "taut bowline" when these lines are made as taut as possible in order to sail close-hauled to the wind. The bowline knot is thought to have been first mentioned in John Smith's 1691 work A Sea Grammar under the name Boling knot. Smith considered the knot to be strong and secure, saying, "The Boling knot is so made and fastened by the bridles into the cringles of the sails, they will break, or the sail split before it will slip."Another possible finding was discovered on the rigging of the Ancient Egyptian Pharaoh Khufu's solar ship during an excavation in 1954. The bowline is used to make a loop at one end of a line, it is tied with the rope's working end known as the "tail" or "end". The loop may pass through an object during the making of the knot; the knot tightens. The bowline is used in sailing small craft, for example to fasten a halyard to the head of a sail or to tie a jib sheet to a clew of a jib; the bowline is well known as a rescue knot for such purposes as rescuing people who might have fallen down a hole, or off a cliff onto a ledge.

This knot is useful in such a situation because it is possible to tie with one hand. As such, a person needing rescue could hold onto the rope with one hand and use the other to tie the knot around their waist before being pulled to safety by rescuers; the Federal Aviation Administration recommends the bowline knot for tying down light aircraft. A rope with a bowline retains 2/3 of its strength, with variances depending upon the nature of the rope, as in practice the exact strength depends on a variety of factors. In the United Kingdom, the knot is listed as part of the training objectives for the Qualified Firefighter Assessment. A mnemonic used to teach the tying of the bowline is to imagine the end of the rope as a rabbit, where the knot will begin on the standing part, a tree trunk. First a loop is made near the end of the rope; the "rabbit" comes up the hole, goes round the tree right to left back down the hole. This can round the big tree. A single handed method can be used. There is a potential with beginners to tie.

This faulty knot stems from an incorrect first step while tying the rabbit hole. If the loop is made backwards so that the end of the rope is on the bottom, the resulting knot will be sideways; the final loop of a sideways bowline will slip. This makes it dangerous in the case of an inexperienced sailor, who, in addition to having an insecure knot, is less familiar with what to do should it come untied on the water; as noted above, the simplicity of the bowline makes it a good knot for a general purpose end-of-line loop. However, in situations that require additional security, several variants have been developed: The round turn bowline is made by the addition of an extra turn in the formation of the "rabbit hole" before the working end is threaded through. Similar to the double bowline, the water bowline is made by forming a clove hitch before the working end is threaded through, it is said to be stronger and more resistant to jamming than the other variations when wet. In this variation the knot's working end is taken round the loop in the direction of the original round turn threaded back up through the original round turn before the knot is drawn tight.

The Yosemite bowline is used in climbing. The cowboy bowline, French bowline, Portuguese bowline are variations of the bowline, each of which makes one loop. A running bowline can be used to make a noose which draws tighter as tension is placed on the standing part of the rope; the Birmingham bowline has two loops. Other two-loop bowline knots include the bowline on the bight. A triple bowline is used to make three loops. A Cossack knot is a bowline where the running end goes around the loop-start rather than the main part and has a more symmetric triangular shaped knot. A slipped version of the Cossack knot is called Kalmyk loop. List of knots Karash double loop Eye splice Video of the Lightning Method Mark Gommer

CSS Alabama's Gulf of Mexico Expeditionary Raid commenced shortly after the Confederate States Navy ship CSS Alabama left Bermuda and the Atlantic coast and cruised south toward the island of Dominica in the Caribbean Sea near the Gulf of Mexico. The raid lasted from about the middle of November 1862 to the end of January 1863; the primary area of operation during this expeditionary raid, was the southern seaboard of the United States starting from Dominica ranging up along Cuba and to Galveston, Texas before heading south again toward Jamaica. CSS Alabama worked its way down the east coast of Florida during the month of November to Martinique to rendezvous with her supply vessel, CSS Agrippina, ran into USS San Jacinto, narrowly escaping the Union warship. CSS Alabama made her way to Texas to help defend the state from invasion from General Banks Expedition, fought USS Hatteras in the Action off Galveston Light naval battle, before escaping to the South Atlantic. From this raiding area off the coast of New England, CSS Alabama made her way into the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico to continue her unhindered wrecking of enemy commerce along the North American coastline.

Hearn, Chester G. Gray Raiders of the Sea, Louisiana State Press, 1996. ISBN 0-8071-2114-2 Luraghi, Raimondo, A History of the Confederate Navy, U. S. Naval Institute Press, 1996. ISBN 1-55750-527-6

Warmoth Thomas Gibbs Sr. was an American educator, retired Second Lieutenant in the United States Army, civil rights activist, fourth president of North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. Gibbs was one of the first black commissioned officers in World War I and served as president of North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College from 1955 to 1960. During his presidency, North Carolina A&T became accredited by the Southern Association of Schools and Colleges. Warmoth T. Gibbs was born on April 5, 1892, in Baldwin, Louisiana, a town in the southern Louisiana region of Acadiana; because of the lack of public education for African-Americans in the area, Gibbs received his primary education from a United Methodist Church boarding school for blacks. Gibbs earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Wiley College in Texas, he earned bachelor's degrees in political science and history, in addition to a master's degree in Education from Harvard University. Gibbs enlisted in the United States Army during World War I and became one of the few black officers of that time.

Serving as a second lieutenant with the predominantly black 92nd Division Expeditionary Force, Gibbs saw battle in France in 1917 and 1918 before returning to the United States in 1919. In 1926, Gibbs began his career at the Negro Agricultural and Technical College of North Carolina, now North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, as head of the military service unit and the school's dean of men. In 1928, Gibbs became the dean of the Department of General Services, of what is now the College of Arts and Sciences. After the death of president, Dr. Ferdinand D. Bluford in 1955, Gibbs was appointed as the acting head of North Carolina A&T College, he would be inaugurated as president of the college on November 9, 1956. During Gibbs' administration, the college acquired land to extend the main campus, A&T was admitted to the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools in 1959; the guidance center became a separate department, a placement office was established, athletics flourished and coaching staffs were reorganized.

On February 1, 1960, one of the most dramatic events during the Gibbs administration occurred when four freshmen students, Ezell Blair, Franklin McCain, Joseph McNeil, David Richmond sat down at a segregated lunch counter at the downtown Greensboro Woolworth's store in protest of the company's policy of excluding African Americans from being served there. During the height of the protests, Greensboro's white city leaders urged Gibbs to use his authority as President to quell the student protesters who had taken to the streets to march; this event, known as the Greensboro sit-ins, initiated a sit-in movement, a pivotal event during the civil rights movement. On May 23, 1960, the role of President Emeritus was bestowed upon him by the college, after 34 years of service to A&T, Gibbs retired in 1966, at the age of 74. In that same year, he wrote the "History of The North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College," which recounts the history of the university from its beginnings as a land grant institution to the administration of Dr. Lewis Dowdy.

Gibbs died at Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospital on April 19, 1993, at the age of 101, he was married for 49 years to Marece Jones Gibbs until her death in 1967. With his wife, they had three children: a daughter Elizabeth Gibbs Moore, two sons Chandler and Warmoth Jr. A building on N. C. A&T's campus is named for Gibbs. Constructed in 1980, W. T. Gibbs Hall houses The Graduate School, as well as various social sciences. Gibbs is a member of Omega Psi Phi fraternity and was instrumental in the establishment of fraternity on the campus of North Carolina A&T. Gibbs, Warmoth T.. History of The North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College. Dubuque, Iowa: Wm. C. Brown Book Company. Pfaff, Eugene, E. "Oral history interview with Warmoth T. Gibbs by Eugene Pfaff". Civil Rights Greensboro. University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Retrieved 23 February 2014

North Carolina Military Institute was established in 1858. Daniel Harvey Hill was made superintendent of the school in 1859 and James H. Lane taught natural philosophy at the Institute until the start of the U. S. Civil War; the school was used by Charlotte Military Academy, which architect Herbert B. Hunter attended; the school building stood at South Boulevard in Charlotte, North Carolina. North Carolina Military Institute was established by Dr. Charles J. Fox. By April 1861 it had 150 students. During the start of the U. S. Civil War Governor John Willis Ellis ordered cadets from the school to Raleigh to serve as drill masters; the school closed during the war and the buildings were used as a Confederate hospital for part of it. Daniel Harvey Hill, who trained at West Point was superintendent of the school at the start of the war and was elected colonel of the 1st North Carolina Volunteers. Charles C. Lee was teaching at the school at the start of the war, he became a lieutenant colonel of the 1st North Carolina Volunteers and colonel after Hill's promotion.

He served as colonel of the 37th North Carolina Troops and was killed at Frayser's Farm. He is interred in Charlotte. James H. Lane, who graduated from VMI, was teaching at the North Carolina Military Institute, he was elected major and lieutenant colonel of the 1st North Carolina Volunteers before being elected colonel of the 28th North Carolina Troops. According to an article in the Charlotte Observer from 1889: "As at first organized, the session lasted, without intermission, throughout the year, the months of August and September being spent campaigning in the mountains of North Carolina. At the end of the second year cadets received a furlough of months. There were a primary department. In the former the West Point curriculum was followed, the students were required to board in the buildings and to be under military discipline. There was a primary department; such of these students as boarded in the buildings were under military discipline. The institute provide board, fuel, washing, equipment, medical attendance and all clothing, except underclothes, for $200 per annum.

No extra charges." A Charlotte Observer article from 1915 stated that the "first Confederate flag raised in the city was hoisted there when Fort Sumter fell by the students of the North Carolina Institute."After the war discussion of reopening the Military School took place but the building was used as a girls' school and from 1873 until 1882 for the Charlotte Military Academy. It was used by the Charlotte Public School system before being torn down in 1954. List of defunct military academies in the United States North Carolina Military Academy/ North Carolina Military and Polytechnic Academy /Hillsborough Military Academy Remarks of Major D. H. Hill of the N. C. Military Institute at Charlotte, before the Committee on Education of the North Carolina Legislature.. 1 sheet. OCLC 41374540

Syed Najeeb Ahmed known as Quaid e Talba was a leftist Pakistani student activist, murdered in 1990. Born to a Muhajir family in Karachi, Ahmed was a PSF leader in Karachi and president of PSF, Karachi division, he is dubbed the "iron man" of the PSF. At University of Karachi, Najeeb Ahmed had a few scuffles with policemen posted at the university, he led PSF into a number of clashes with APMSO the student wing of MQM, before being arrested. Najeeb Ahmed had been leading PSF at the university since 1986, by 1988 he had emerged as the student organisation's top man in Karachi. In Karachi Najeeb Ahmed was popularly acclaimed as the Quaid-e-Talba and has become a symbol of bravery for PSF activists all over Pakistan. On April 6, 1990, Najeeb Ahmed was gunned down by unknown people in North Nazimabad area, he died a few days at the hospital. Due to the violence no student union elections were held in the rest of Sindh. Benazir Bhutto Pakistan Peoples Party Peoples Students Federation

The Mexican Health and Aging Study known by its Spanish name, Estudio Nacional de Salud y Envejecimiento en México, ENASEM, is the first panel study of health and aging in Mexico. The first phase of MHAS was supported by a grant from the MHAS was supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health/National Institute on Aging; the study was a collaborative effort among researchers from the Universities of Pennsylvania and Wisconsin in the U. S. and the Instituto Nacional de Estadística, Geografia e Informática. The second phase of MHAS is supported by the National Institutes of Health/National Institute on Aging and by the INEGI in Mexico; the new study is a collaborative effort from the University of Texas Medical Branch, Instituto Nacional de Estadística, Geografia e Informática, the University of Wisconsin, the Instituto Nacional de Geriatría and the Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública. The overall goal of the study is to examine the aging process and its disease and disability burden in a large representative panel of older Mexicans from a wide socioeconomic spectrum.

The MHAS design was motivated by several research questions related to the dynamics of health and aging in Mexico. S. and among those returning to Mexico. The MHAS includes a nationally representative sample of Mexicans 50 years and older and their spouses of partners regardless of age, used protocols and survey instruments that are comparable to the U. S. Health and Retirement Study; the baseline survey is a national representative survey of individuals born prior to 1951. The baseline survey was conducted in 2001, a follow-up visit to the same individuals was conducted in 2003; the sample for the MHAS baseline was selected from residents of both rural and urban areas, from the National Employment survey, carried out by the INEGI in Mexico. The baseline survey was conducted in the summer of 2001 with a sample size of 15,186 respondents. A direct interview was sought with each individual, proxy interviews obtained when poor health or temporary absence precluded a direct interview. A follow-up survey was carried out in the summer of 2003.

If the subject had died, an interview was conducted with an informed respondent. New spouses of respondents from 2001 were interviewed and included in the 2003 follow-up study, for a total of 14,250 interviews including 546 next-of-kin interviews. A follow-up visit was completed in 2012. In addition to a follow-up of the 2001 and 2003 respondents, the sample was refreshed by adding a representative sample of the population from the 1952-1962 birth cohorts, as well as their spouses/partners regardless of age. Similar to the baseline interview, the sampling frame for the new cohort sample was the Mexican National Employment and Occupation Survey 2012. During the 2012 survey, 18,465 interviews were completed, including 2,742 next-of-kin interviews; the survey was conducted using a new CAPI system. New to the third wave of the study was the collection of a blood sample for biomarkers from a sub-sample and questions on the occurrence of major life events of the respondents; the MHAS is a high quality study, with excellent follow-up rates.

Response rates for waves in 2001, 2003 and 2012 were 93.3 % and 88.1 %, respectively. The next wave of the study is planned to be fielded in 2015; the study website has a user-friendly environment, designed to enhance the usability of and access to MHAS survey data and documentation. The platform is in both English (www. MHASweb.org and Spanish. Databases and study documents can be accessed from the website and include: • Questionnaires • Interviewer and Coder Manuals • Codebooks with variable codes and frequencies • Follow-up master file to link study subjects through the three waves • Fieldwork reports: duration of interviews, response rates The website features a searchable database of publications using MHAS data and a discussion forum available to all users; the discussion forum can be used to facilitate research collaborations and share knowledge among users, including codes for constructing common variables. The database of publications is a non-exhaustive compilation of peer-reviewed publications, working papers, other research documents using MHAS data.

Health Measures: Self-reports of conditions, functional status, lifestyle behaviors, use/source/costs of health care services, pain and cognitive performance tests. Parent and sibling migration experiences. All non-response in amount