Harpersville is a town in Shelby County, United States. It is notorious for being the birthplace of the founder of William Joseph Simmons. According to the 1950 U. S. Census, it formally incorporated in 1943. At the 2010 census, the population was 1,637, up from 1,620 in 2000, it is located southeast of the Birmingham metro area. Harpersville was settled, it was called Big Springs. Harpersville Municipal Court has been taken over by Circuit Court Judge Hub Harrington as of 13 July 2012 in a case regarding Private probation, his order characterizes the municipal court as a debtors' prison and extortion racket condoned by the elected officials of Harpersville and Judicial Correction Services. Harpersville has two structures which are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Chancellor House and the Old Rock House. Harpersville is located in the eastern part of Shelby County at 33°19′33″N 86°25′34″W. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 15.9 square miles, of which 15.9 square miles is land and 0.06% is water.

The town is located at the intersection of US Routes 280 and 231. US 280 runs east to west through the town, leading west 12 mi to Chelsea and 30 mi to downtown Birmingham. US 280 and 231 run southeast together 7 mi to Childersburg. US 231 runs northeast 21 mi to Pell City; as of the census of 2000, there were 1,620 people, 610 households, 458 families residing in the town. The population density was 102.0 people per square mile. There were 685 housing units at an average density of 43.1 per square mile. The racial makeup of the town was 69.57% White, 28.70% Black or African American, 0.49% Native American, 0.68% Asian, 0.25% from other races, 0.31% from two or more races. 0.62% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. There were 610 households out of which 33.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 57.4% were married couples living together, 14.8% had a female householder with no husband present, 24.8% were non-families. 21.8% of all households were made up of individuals and 9.2% had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older.

The average household size was 2.66 and the average family size was 3.10. In the town, the population was spread out with 27.3% under the age of 18, 7.5% from 18 to 24, 30.0% from 25 to 44, 23.0% from 45 to 64, 12.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females, there were 93.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 87.6 males. The median income for a household in the town was $31,655, the median income for a family was $34,632. Males had a median income of $28,839 versus $22,069 for females; the per capita income for the town was $12,783. About 17.4% of families and 19.3% of the population were below the poverty line, including 23.6% of those under age 18 and 24.1% of those age 65 or over. As of the census of 2010, there were 1,637 people, 620 households, 456 families residing in the town; the population density was 103.0 people per square mile. There were 708 housing units at an average density of 44.5 per square mile. The racial makeup of the town was 73.1% White, 23.5% Black or African American, 0.3% Native American, 0.7% Asian, 1.0% from other races, 1.3% from two or more races.

2.6 % of the population were Latino of any race. There were 620 households out of which 26.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 51.5% were married couples living together, 16.9% had a female householder with no husband present, 26.5% were non-families. 21.1% of all households were made up of individuals and 9.3% had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.64 and the average family size was 3.09. In the town, the population was spread out with 23.1% under the age of 18, 8.9% from 18 to 24, 22.9% from 25 to 44, 30.2% from 45 to 64, 14.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 41.7 years. For every 100 females, there were 91.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 95.0 males. The median income for a household in the town was $37,768, the median income for a family was $42,065. Males had a median income of $43,301 versus $32,434 for females; the per capita income for the town was $20,170. About 23.9% of families and 28.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 55.3% of those under age 18 and 23.4% of those age 65 or over.

Harpersville is growing due to the growth of big business on Highway 280. The town contains Morgan Creek Vineyards, Baker's Christmas Tree Farm, a historic graveyard, Shelby Sod farm, a drive in movie theater, numerous cotton fields, a public park, two private schools, numerous subdivisions; the current mayor is life-long resident Don Greene. Coosa Valley Academy, part of the Alabama Independent School Association, serves as one of the private schools in the town of Harpersville; the doors of the school first opened in 1970. The School's mission statement says, "The vision of Coosa Valley Academy is to provide a college preparatory education in a safe and orderly Christian environment that will instill in each student the desire to fulfill his or her greatest academic potential while encouraging mutual respect among students and staff in order to prepare well-rounded individuals for success in life". Education is available for students in grades from Pre-Kindergarten through Twelfth grade. Dual enrollment programs are available for students in grades 10-12 allowing them the opportunity to take online classes at Troy University to earn college credits.

A variety of clubs are availble for student participation consisting

Dan Suciu is a full professor of computer science at the University of Washington. He received his Ph. D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1995 under the supervision of Val Tannen. After graduation, he was a principal member of the technical staff at AT&T Labs until he joined the University of Washington in 2000. Suciu does research in data management, with an emphasis on Web data management and managing uncertain data, he is a co-author of an influential book on managing semistructured data. His research work on developing query languages and algorithms for managing semistructured and XML data has been influential in the data management research community, he has helped shape XML query languages such as XML-QL and Strudel, which influenced the subsequent design of the standard XQuery language. His work on XML-relational mapping in the context of the STORED and SilkRoute projects built the foundations of the standard techniques that are now used for storing XML data in commercial database systems.

His work on XMill, an XML compressor, won the best paper award at SIGMOD 2000, the main research conference in data management, was seminal to a substantial amount of follow-up work. At the 2010 Symposium on Principles of Database Systems and his co-authors Victor Vianu and Tova Milo won the Alberto O. Mendelzon Test-of-Time Award for their work ten years prior on type checking for XML transformation languages. In 2011, he was inducted as a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery, his current work on probabilistic databases was at the outset of a revival of interest in this area. He lives in Seattle, with his wife and two children. Dan Suciu's homepage: http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/suciu/

A dirk is a long thrusting dagger. It was a personal weapon of officers engaged in naval hand-to-hand combat during the Age of Sail as well as the personal sidearm of Highlanders, it was used by the officers and drummers of Scottish Highland regiments around 1800 and by Japanese naval officers. The term is associated with Scotland in the Early Modern Era, being attested from about 1600; the term was spelled dork or dirk during the 17th century from the Dutch and Danish dolk, German dolch, tolch from a West Slavic Tillich. The exact etymology is unclear; the modern spelling dirk is due to Samuel Johnson's 1755 Dictionary. The term is used for "dagger" generically in the context of prehistoric daggers such as the Oxborough dirk. A thrusting weapon, the naval dirk was used as a boarding weapon and functional fighting dagger, it was worn by midshipmen and officers during the days of sail evolving into a ceremonial weapon and badge of office. In the Royal Navy, the naval dirk is still presented to junior officers.

The naval dirk became part of the uniform of naval officers and civilian officials in the Navy Department of the Russian Empire and in the Soviet navy an element of the dress uniform of officers. It became an element of other uniforms as well, e.g. of officers in the Russian and Polish army and air force and of the police forces in some countries. The Scottish dirk, as a symbolic traditional and ceremonial weapon of the Highland Cathairean, is worn by officers and drummers of Scottish Highland regiments; the development of the Scottish dirk as a weapon is unrelated to that of the naval dirk. The traditional Scottish dirk is a probable development from the 16th century but like all medieval societies, the Highlander needed a knife for everyday use; the dirk became symbolic of a Highland man’s honour and oaths were sworn on the steel, believed to be holy. The following highlights the importance of the dirk in Highland culture: The dirk occupies a unique niche in Highland culture and history. Many Highland Scots were too cash-poor to buy a sword, but every male carried a dirk—and carried it everywhere!

If in Japan the katana was the soul of the Samurai, in Scotland the dirk was the heart of the Highlander. In many warrior cultures oaths were sworn on one's sword. Among the Gael, binding oaths with the force of a geas were sworn on one's dirk; the English, aware of this, used the custom against the Highlanders after Culloden: When Highland dress was prohibited in 1747 those Gael who could not read or sign an oath were required to swear a verbal oath, "in the Irish tongue and upon the holy iron of their dirks", not to possess any gun, sword, or pistol, or to use tartan: "... and if I do so may I be cursed in my undertakings and property, may I be killed in battle as a coward, lie without burial in a strange land, far from the graves of my forefathers and kindred. During the period of proscription, only service in a British regiment permitted Highlanders to bear their traditional arms and dress; the 78th Fraser Highlanders, raised in 1757, wore full highland dress uniform. The shape of the grip developed from the historical more cylindrical form to a shape intended to represent the thistle.

Fancier fittings of silver, became popular shortly after 1800. The hilts of modern Scottish dirks are carved from dark colored wood such as bog oak or ebony. Hilts and scabbards are lavishly decorated with silver mounts and have pommels set with cairngorm stones; the blades measure 12" in length and are single edged with decorative file work known as "jimping" on the unsharpened back edge of the blade. When worn, the dirk hangs by a leather strap known as a "frog" from a dirk belt, a wide leather belt having a large ornate buckle, worn around the waist with a kilt. Many Scottish dirks carry a smaller knife and fork which fit into compartments on the front of the sheath, a smaller knife known as a sgian dubh is worn tucked into the top of the hose when wearing a kilt. Kindjal Knife fight List of blade materials Spotlight: The Scottish Dirk

The Lagoa do Rabil is a wetland site in the Cape Verde archipelago, on the island of Boa Vista. It has been recognised as a wetland of international importance by designation under the Ramsar Convention since 2005; the site lies at the mouth of the seasonally flowing Ribeira do Rabil, near the town of Rabil on the west coast of Boa Vista. The site comprises the river mouth, the associated lagoon, the surrounding dunes system and its vegetation dominated by Tamarix, Cyperus and Euphorbia species; the site supports a population of Iago sparrows and several species of waders, including Eurasian spoonbill. The endemic lizards Hemidactylus bouvieri and Chioninia stangeri are present

Farhad Humbatov was the National Hero of Azerbaijan, the warrior of the Karabakh war. Farhad Humbatov was born on September 1968, in Arjut village of Karakilisa District. In 1983 he graduated from secondary school in his village and entered the vocational school on the specialty of the driver-mechanic, he served his military service first in Chitta and in Mongolia and was discharged from the army in Irkutsk in 1988. At that time, Humbatov's parents were exposed to Armenian aggression and were living in danger like other Azerbaijanis. Despite all the difficulties, he returned to his native village and they moved to Baku with his family, he started his career as a driver in the Consumer Services Department. Farhad was survived by coincidence during the tragedy of Black January on the 20th of January, 1990; that same night, the Soviet armies, with heavy military equipment, entered Baku and attacked the protesters, firing into the crowds. Farhad was voluntarily sent to military service, he participated in battles around Shusha and Khankendi on March 7, 1992, deployed five Armenians targets.

On March 29, 1992, Farhad fought with the Armenian armed forces in the vicinity of Khankendi. He saved many wounded soldiers of Azerbaijani Army during this battle. In this battle, he was killed in a shootout, he was posthumously awarded the title of "National Hero of Azerbaijan" by Presidential Decree No. 833 dated 7 June 1992. He was buried in the Martyrs' Lane in Baku. Nagorno-Karabakh War Vugar Asgarov. Azərbaycanın Milli Qəhrəmanları. Bakı: "Dərələyəz-M", 2010, səh. 118-119

Dennis Clifford "Danny" Dunton was an English international motorcycle speedway rider and promoter who reached the final of the Speedway World Championship in 1950, achieving 12th place with 5 points. As well as riding, Dunton promoted Peterborough Panthers and co-promoted Oxford Cheetahs Oxford Rebels and White City Rebels. Dunton was born in Buckinghamshire, he first took his bike in 1949 to Harringay Racers, found himself as a team member in his first meeting, a rare if not unique feat. As well as Harringay Racers, Belle Vue Aces, Ipswich Witches, Oxford Cheetahs, Long Eaton Archers are listed as tracks where he rode as a contracted or loaned rider. In 1950, in only his second season, he qualified for the World Championship Final and finished 12th – the top three riders were Jack Young, Graham Warren and Cyril Brine. In 1953, following a crash at New Cross, he could not walk for 4 months. Danny Dunton retired from racing at Long Eaton at the end of 1963, having scored 127 and a half points from just 17 matches.

In 1964, he was the Team Manager at Oxford, taking over the promotion the following year. He was joined in 1972 by Bob Dugard, he had opened up Peterborough Speedway at the Showground in 1970, was joined as co-promoter by his son, Lee, in 1979, the Team Manager. 1974 saw the Rebels at the bottom of the League Table but, with new signing Dag Lovaas the team improved, winning the Midland Cup. After a threatened closure of the stadium at Oxford and Bob Dugard secured White City as a venue, only to find out too late, the stadium was saved. At White City, the Rebels won the Gulf British League in 1977 but, the venue not proving viable, raced their last season in 1978 and the licence was moved to Eastbourne. Following the decision of the British League promoters in November 1967 to run a second division, five promoters from the British League, Danny Dunton, Maury Littlechild, Len Silver, Ron Wilson and Reg Fearman formed Allied Presentations Limited; this company opened three tracks in 1968, Reading and Rayleigh, constructed Crewe in 1969, followed in 1970 by Peterborough.

Each track was promoted by one of the APL members and Danny Dunton’s track was Peterborough. After he retired from riding, he served during the 1970s on the committee of the British League and the National League as its chairman in 1981–85 and 1987, was honoured by being made president in 1988. Danny was active in the World Speedway Riders Association and was the honoured and respected president for the year 2005/06. After retirement, he was a keen golfer and restorer of vintage speedway bikes, which he used to race in specialist matches; that had to stop after a motoring accident in 2004 and he had to have a leg amputated. He lived for many years with his wife in Buckinghamshire, he died after a long illness on 2 January 2015. 1950 – London, Wembley Stadium – 12th place – 5 points ^ a b "A History of Long Eaton Speedway". Speedway Plus. 2008. Https://web.archive.org/web/20071208055430/http://www.speedwayplus.com/long_eaton.shtml. Retrieved on 2008-12-20. Reg Fearman Part 3 Dennis Clinton Dunton at Speedway Atoz Danny Dunton on World SRA