The Coptic calendar called the Alexandrian calendar, is a liturgical calendar used by the Coptic Orthodox Church and used by the farming populace in Egypt. This calendar is based on the ancient Egyptian calendar. To avoid the calendar creep of the latter, a reform of the ancient Egyptian calendar was introduced at the time of Ptolemy III which consisted of the intercalation of a sixth epagomenal day every fourth year. However, this reform was opposed by the Egyptian priests, the reform was not adopted until 25 BC, when the Roman Emperor Augustus imposed the Decree upon Egypt as its official calendar. To distinguish it from the Ancient Egyptian calendar, which remained in use by some astronomers until medieval times, this reformed calendar is known as the Coptic calendar, its years and months coincide with those of the Ethiopian calendar but have different numbers and names. The Coptic year is the extension of the ancient Egyptian civil year, retaining its subdivision into the three seasons, four months each.
The three seasons are commemorated by special prayers in the Coptic Liturgy. This calendar is still in use all over Egypt by farmers to keep track of the various agricultural seasons; the Coptic calendar has 13 months, 12 of 30 days each and one at the end of the year of 5 days in length, except in leap years when the month is 6 days. Today, until 2099, the year starts on 11 September in the Gregorian Calendar or on the 12th in the year before Leap Years; the Coptic Leap Year follows the same rules as the Julian Calendar so that the extra month always has six days in the year before a Julian Leap Year. The Feast of Neyrouz marks the first day of the Coptic year. Ignorant of the Persian language for the most part, the Arabs confused the Egyptian new year's celebrations, which the Egyptians called the feast of Ni-Yarouou, with the Persian feast of Nowruz; the misnomer remains today, the celebrations of the Egyptian new year on the first day of the month of Thout are known as the Neyrouz. Its celebration falls on the 1st day of the month of Thout, the first month of the Egyptian year, which for 1901 to 2098 coincides with 11 September, except before a Gregorian leap year when it is 12 September.
Coptic years are counted from 284 AD, the year Diocletian became Roman Emperor, whose reign was marked by tortures and mass executions of Christians in Egypt. Hence, the Coptic year is identified by the abbreviation A. M.. The first day of the year I of the Coptic era was 29 August 284 in the Julian calendar. Note that A. M. abbreviation is used for unrelated calendar eras which start at the putative creation of the world. Every fourth Coptic year is a leap year without exception, as in the Julian calendar, so the above-mentioned new year dates apply only between 1900 and 2099 inclusive in the Gregorian Calendar. In the Julian Calendar, the new year is always 29 August, except before a Julian leap year when it is 30 August. Easter is reckoned by the Julian Calendar in the Old Calendarist way. To obtain the Coptic year number, subtract from the Julian year number either 283 or 284. Coptic Christmas is observed on what the Julian Calendar labels 25 December, a date that corresponds with 7 January on the more used Gregorian Calendar.
The 25 December Nativity of Christ was alleged early by Hippolytus of Rome in his Commentary on Daniel 4:23: "The first coming of our Lord, that in the flesh, in which he was born at Bethlehem, took place eight days before the calends of January, a Wednesday, in the forty-second year of the reign of Augustus, 5500 years from Adam." Another early source is Theophilus Bishop of Caesarea: "We ought to celebrate the birth-day of our Lord on what day soever the 25th of December shall happen.". However, it was not until 367. Before that, the Eastern Church had kept 6 January as the Nativity under the name "Epiphany." John Chrysostom, in a sermon preached in Antioch in 387, relates how the correct date of the Nativity was brought to the East ten years earlier. Dionysius of Alexandria emphatically quoted mystical justifications for this choice. 25 March was considered to be the anniversary of Creation itself. It was the first day of the year in the nominal vernal equinox. Considering that Jesus was thought to have been conceived on that date, 25 March was recognized as the Feast of the Annunciation which had to be followed, nine months by the celebration of the birth of Christ, Christmas, on 25 December.
There may have been more practical considerations for choosing 25 December. The choice would help substitute a major Christian holiday for the popular Pagan celebrations surrounding the Winter Solstice (Roman Sol Sticia, the three-day stasis when the sun would rise consecutively in its southernmost point before heading north, 21, 22 and 23 December. In AD 274, Emperor Aurelian had declared a civil holiday on 25 December to celebrate the deity Sol Invictus. Joyous festivals are needed at that time of year, to fight the natural gloo
I Ain't Been Shot Mum! is a World War II tabletop skirmish miniatures wargame produced by Too Fat Lardies. Designers Richard Clarke and Nick Skinner started work on a set of rules for the Vietnam war. Feeling that the existing rulesets allowed too much control over their forces they set out to design a set of rules that would force a player to think as a real-life commander rather than a gamer; as such, IABSM has been influenced by the Kriegsspiel approach utilizing an umpire to help decide points of issue that arise during the game such as modifiers for shooting, spotting enemies, etc. The rules are designed to force players to adopt realistic tactics, including scouting ahead for hidden enemies as the game system uses "blinds" to simulate the fog of war; the main focus is not on military hardware but on the men using that hardware, on morale and command and control. Rather than giving the player total control over their forces every action, the system uses so-called "Big Men" to allow players to influence their forces behaviour.
It features a random, card-driven initiative system rather than the classic I-GO-U-GO system most turn-based strategy games use. A typical company will have a card for each Big Man; the actions of squads/sections are keyed to Big Man cards. This initiative system is designed to simulate the "friction" of war noted by Carl von Clausewitz, plus units use a dice system for movement and fire that means you never know how they will perform; the basic IABSM system provides a framework allowing players to tailor the game to specific situations or conflicts. Apart from its main focus on World War II, it has been adapted to the Spanish Civil War, the Falklands War and the Korean War; the rules are designed for Company level games, i.e. where each side fields a reinforced company of troops at 1 man to 1 figure scale, with infantry combat being at the heart of the rules, but including a comprehensive mechanism for armour support, etc. The rules have been designed for 15 mm scale figures, but can be adopted for other scales such as 6 mm or 25 mm.
The system does not use a point-based method for constructing opposing forces, so most games are designed to be scenario driven. Most games on the market, in general, pre-suppose that you will be playing with reasonable people with whom you are at least quasi-friendly. IABSM takes this supposition and advances it further; these are NOT tournament type games rules because frankly they rely on players being more concerned about having fun than winning a trophy. One of the main characteristics of IABSM is that many common and somehow simple decisions are left to the players providing a "framework for play" rather than a checklist to represent real situations on the model battlefield; the challenges and possibilities of this approach are endless, since shooting at a target behind some cover would require both players to agree on the shot being Great, Ok or Poor. But this freedom allows for any non predictable action to take place, like heroic feats, based in the same common agreement; the main rules of versions 1 and 2 did not contain any information about the armies involved.
However version 3, published in Summer 2012 contains'The Normandy Handbook', to cover the campaign in France following Operation Overlord, contains basic lists for US, British and German forces, as well as four inspired scenarios, six generic'scenario generator' templates. The armies are described in more detail in various supplements; the following supplements were written for IABSM v1 and v2: BlitzkriegCovers the period between 1939 and 1943. Army information for Belgium, France, Great Britain, Hungary, Norway, Romania and the Soviet Union. GötterdammerungCovers the period between 1943 and 1945. Army information for Brazil, France, Great Britain, Italy, the Soviet Union and the United States. In the Footsteps of LegionsCovers the war in the Mediterranean and North Africa. Army information for British Empire and Dominion forces, Free French, Vichy France, Greece, Italy, United States and Yugoslavia. In The Shadow of the Rising SunCovers the war in the Pacific. Army information for Australia, Holland, Vichy France, Great Britain, Japan and the United States.
As well as supplements detailing various armed forces, Too Fat Lardies publishes scenario supplements for use with IABSM. The supplements contain historical background, mission briefings and participating forces; as the forces involved are described as real world equivalents rather than point values, conversion to different rulesets is easy. Nearly all the scenario packs are available adapted or written for IABSM v3. Scenario/campaign packs published so far are: Western FrontThe Defence of Calais The Campaign for Greece Operation Sea Lion Anzio: Wildcat to Whale Where the Hell Have You Been Boys Blenneville or Bust! Eastern FrontThe September War, Part 1 The September War, Part 2 Vyazma or Bust Bashnya or Bust Pacific/Far EastFall of the Lion Gate Bloody Burma AfricaCall this a Ruddy Picnic? Operation Compass OthersCymru am byth (historical - rather than detailing a specific operation or campaign, this supplement follows the actions of one regiment during the course of the war
Menton J. Matthews III is an American painter and comic book artist living in Chicago, he is known as Menton3, but as Avis and as Saltillo. Matthews is a multi-instrumentalist who can play a number of diverse instruments such as cello, violin, drums and bass. Matthews started his music work as a member of Sunday Munich, a band, created with his wife Sarah Matthews. During that time he adopted the name Avis J. Matthews III. Saltillo is an alias used by Menton J. Matthews III for his solo project, his debut album "Ganglion" was released in 2006 under Suspicious Records, a sub-label of Hive Records. He started cooperation with Artoffact Records and they re-released this album in 2011, his next two albums were released under mentioned label, both in 2012. "Monocyte" was created as a soundtrack to the comic book of the same name. Menton started drawing and painting as a child then he wanted to make comic books, his gift developed over the years and now he can be called self-taught painter. For some time he dedicated himself to music.
After the Saltillo album was released, he thought of painting his wife a canvas. Doing so brought back memories and for next few years he painted as much as he could; the idea of creating comic books came back to him he self-published his graphic novel, Ars Memoria. He admitted, in interview from 2010, that up to this date, it was the hardest and most rewarding thing he have done artistically, he had a pin up in Proof #25, Zombies vs Robots Aventure a four issue miniseries of which he has'the first nine to eight pages of, plus a great deal of independent covers and pin ups'. Asked about his future work he replied "I heard a writer once say, that he did not write things, much as he just wrote it down. Painting for me is a great deal like that, if I could articulate it with words I would not have to paint it, it is the need to manifest the internality of my own psyche. To place in the external world my own personal internal architecture, iconography and loci, connecting them together and seeing them in ways that my psyche does not do outside of dreams, to the point that resolution was a foregone conclusion."Since he collaborated with different writers and created a lot of illustrations.
Released under Suspicious Records label. Released under Artoffact Records label. Released under Artoffact Records label. Released under Artoffact Records label Official website Menton J. Matthews III's channel on YouTube Menton3 at DeviantArt