1.
Order of the British Empire
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There is also the related British Empire Medal, whose recipients are affiliated with, but not members of, the order. Recommendations for appointments to the Order of the British Empire were at first made on the nomination of the United Kingdom, the self-governing Dominions of the Empire, nominations continue today from Commonwealth countries that participate in recommending British honours. Most members are citizens of the United Kingdom or the Commonwealth realms that use the Imperial system of honours and awards. Honorary knighthoods are appointed to citizens of nations where the Queen is not head of state, occasionally, honorary appointees are, incorrectly, referred to as Sir or Dame – Bill Gates or Bob Geldof, for example. In particular, King George V wished to create an Order to honour many thousands of those who had served in a variety of non-combatant roles during the First World War, when first established, the Order had only one division. However, in 1918, soon after its foundation, it was divided into Military. The Orders motto is For God and the Empire, at the foundation of the Order, the Medal of the Order of the British Empire was instituted, to serve as a lower award granting recipients affiliation but not membership. In 1922, this was renamed the British Empire Medal, in addition, the BEM is awarded by the Cook Islands and by some other Commonwealth nations. The British monarch is Sovereign of the Order, and appoints all members of the Order. The next most senior member is the Grand Master, of whom there have been three, Prince Edward, the Prince of Wales, Queen Mary, and the current Grand Master, the Duke of Edinburgh. The Order is limited to 300 Knights and Dames Grand Cross,845 Knights and Dames Commander, and 8,960 Commanders. There are no limits applied to the number of members of the fourth and fifth classes. Foreign recipients, as members, do not contribute to the numbers restricted to the Order as full members do. Though men can be knighted separately from an order of chivalry, women cannot, and so the rank of Knight/Dame Commander of the Order is the lowest rank of damehood, and second-lowest of knighthood. Because of this, Dame Commander is awarded in circumstances in which a man would be created a Knight Bachelor, for example, by convention, female judges of the High Court of Justice are created Dames Commander after appointment, while male judges become Knights Bachelor. The Order has six officials, the Prelate, the Dean, the Secretary, the Registrar, the King of Arms, the Bishop of London, a senior bishop in the Church of England, serves as the Orders Prelate. The Dean of St Pauls is ex officio the Dean of the Order, the Orders King of Arms is not a member of the College of Arms, as are many other heraldic officers. From time to time, individuals are appointed to a higher grade within the Order, thereby ceasing usage of the junior post-nominal letters
2.
Organic farming
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Organic farming is an alternative agricultural system which originated early in the 20th century in reaction to rapidly changing farming practices. Organic agriculture continues to be developed by various organic agriculture organizations today and it relies on fertilizers of organic origin such as compost, manure, green manure, and bone meal and places emphasis on techniques such as crop rotation and companion planting. Biological pest control, mixed cropping and the fostering of insect predators are encouraged, in general, organic standards are designed to allow the use of naturally occurring substances while prohibiting or strictly limiting synthetic substances. For instance, naturally occurring pesticides such as pyrethrin and rotenone are permitted, while synthetic fertilizers, synthetic substances that are allowed include, for example, copper sulfate, elemental sulfur and Ivermectin. Genetically modified organisms, nanomaterials, human sewage sludge, plant growth regulators, hormones, since 1990 the market for organic food and other products has grown rapidly, reaching $63 billion worldwide in 2012. This demand has driven a similar increase in organically managed farmland that grew from 2001 to 2011 at a rate of 8. 9% per annum. As of 2011, approximately 37,000,000 hectares worldwide were farmed organically, Agriculture was practiced for thousands of years without the use of artificial chemicals. Artificial fertilizers were first created during the mid-19th century and these early fertilizers were cheap, powerful, and easy to transport in bulk. Similar advances occurred in chemical pesticides in the 1940s, leading to the decade being referred to as the pesticide era, in the late 1800s and early 1900s, soil biology scientists began to seek ways to remedy these side effects while still maintaining higher production. Biodynamic agriculture was the first modern system of agriculture to focus exclusively on organic methods and its development began in 1924 with a series of eight lectures on agriculture given by Rudolf Steiner. The one hundred eleven attendees, less than half of whom were farmers, came from six countries, primarily Germany, the lectures were published in November 1924, the first English translation appeared in 1928 as The Agriculture Course. In 1921, Albert Howard and his wife Gabrielle Howard, accomplished botanists, stimulated by these experiences of traditional farming, when Albert Howard returned to Britain in the early 1930s he began to promulgate a system of natural agriculture. One of the purposes of the conference was to bring together the proponents of various approaches to organic agriculture in order that they might cooperate within a larger movement. Howard attended the conference, where he met Pfeiffer, in the following year, Northbourne published his manifesto of organic farming, Look to the Land, in which he coined the term organic farming. The Betteshanger conference has been described as the link between biodynamic agriculture and other forms of organic farming. In 1940 Howard published his An Agricultural Testament, in this book he adopted Northbournes terminology of organic farming. Howards work spread widely, and he became known as the father of organic farming for his work in applying scientific knowledge and these became important influences on the spread of organic agriculture. Further work was done by Lady Eve Balfour in the United Kingdom, increasing environmental awareness in the general population in modern times has transformed the originally supply-driven organic movement to a demand-driven one
3.
Organic movement
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The organic movement broadly refers to the organizations and individuals involved worldwide in the promotion of organic farming and other organic products. It started around the first half of the 20th century, when modern large-scale agricultural practices began to appear, the term “organic” can be broadly described as food grown without the assistance of man-made chemicals. The beginnings of the movement can be traced back to the beginning of the 1800s. In 1840 Justus Von Liebig developed a theory of plant nutrition. Liebig believed that manure could be substituted by certain mineral salts. Many years later in 1910, preceding the First World War, chemists Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch developed an ammonia synthesis process and this form of ammonia had already been used to manufacture explosives, so after the war, it was implemented into the fertilization of agriculture. The organic movement began in the early 1900s in response to the shift towards synthetic nitrogen fertilizers, in 1972 these organizations joined to form the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements. In recent years, environmental awareness has driven demand and conversion to organic farming, some governments, including the European Union, have begun to support organic farming through agricultural subsidy reform. Organic production and marketing have grown at a fast pace, today, organic foods stores have captured a significant share of the grocery shopping market, specifically, Whole Foods Market, Wild Oats, Trader joes and others. In the summer of 1924 Rudolf Steiner presented what has called the first organic agriculture course to a group of over one hundred farmers and others at Koberwitz, now Kobierzyce. The first use of the organic farming is by Lord Northbourne. The term derives from his concept of the farm as organism, which he expounded in his book, Look to the Land, Northbourne wrote of chemical farming versus organic farming. In 1939, strongly influenced by Sir Howards work, Lady Eve Balfour launched the Haughley Experiment on farmland in England and it was the first, side-by-side comparison of organic and conventional farming. Four years later, she published The Living Soil, based on the findings of the Haughley Experiment. It was widely read, and lead to the formation of a key international organic advocacy group, during the 1950s, sustainable agriculture was a research topic of interest. The science tended to concentrate on the new chemical approaches, Rodale began to popularize the term and methods of organic growing. In addition to research, Rodales publications through the Rodale Press helped to promote organic gardening to the general public. A bestseller in many countries, including the US, and widely read around the world, the book and its author are often credited with launching the environmental movement
4.
University of Reading
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The University of Reading is a public university located in Reading, Berkshire in England. It was established in 1892 as a college of Christ Church, Oxford under the name University College. It received the power to grant its own degrees by Royal Charter in 1926 from King George V, the university is usually categorised as a red brick university, reflecting its original foundation in the 19th century. It has four main campuses both in the United Kingdom and internationally, London Road and Whiteknights are based in the town of Reading itself, and Greenlands is based on the banks of the River Thames. It also has a campus in Iskandar Puteri, Malaysia, the university owes its first origins to the Schools of Art and Science established in Reading in 1860 and 1870. In 1892 the College at Reading was founded as a college by Christ Church. The first President was the geographer Sir Halford John Mackinder, the Schools of Art and Science were transferred to the new college by Reading Town Council in the same year. The new college received its first treasury grant in 1901, three years later it was given a site, now the universitys London Road Campus, by the Palmer family of Huntley & Palmers fame. The same family supported the opening of Wantage Hall in 1908, the college first applied for a Royal Charter in 1920 but was unsuccessful at that time. However a second petition, in 1925, was successful, with the charter, the college became the University of Reading, the only new university to be created in the United Kingdom between the two world wars. In 1947 the university purchased Whiteknights Park, which was to become its principal campus, in 1984 the University started a merger with Bulmershe College of Higher Education, which was completed in 1989. In October 2006, the Senior Management Board proposed the closure of its Physics Department to future undergraduate application, on 10 October the Senate voted to close the Department of Physics, a move confirmed by the Council on 20 November. Other departments closed in recent years include Music, Sociology, Geology, the university council decided in March 2009 to close the School of Health and Social Care, a school whose courses have consistently been oversubscribed. In late 2009 it was announced that the London Road Campus was to undergo a £30 million renovation, the university is a lead sponsor of UTC Reading, a new university technical college which opened in September 2013. In 2016 a move to reorganise the structure of Reading University provoked student protests, on 21 March 2016, staff announced a vote of no confidence in the Vice Chancellor Sir David Bell. 88% of those who voted backed the no confidence motion, the campus takes its name from the nickname of the 13th century knight, John De Erleigh IV or the White Knight, and was landscaped in the 18th century by the Marquis of Blandford. The main University library, in the middle of the campus, holds nearly a million books and it also has a lake, which is home to many Mandarin Ducks. The Whiteknights campus was voted one of the best green spaces in the United Kingdom for the year running in the 2015 Green Flag Peoples Choice awards
5.
Gerald Balfour, 2nd Earl of Balfour
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Balfour was the fourth son of James Maitland Balfour, of Whittingehame, Haddingtonshire, and Lady Blanche Cecil, daughter of James Gascoyne-Cecil, 2nd Marquess of Salisbury. Two Prime Ministers were immediate relations, Arthur Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour, his elder brother and he was educated at Eton and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he gained 1st Class Honours in the Classical Tripos. Balfour sat as Conservative Member of Parliament for Leeds Central from 1885 to 1906, during this time he was a member of Commission on Labour, and private secretary to his brother, Arthur Balfour, when he was president of the Local Government Board from 1885 to 1886. He served as Chief Secretary for Ireland from 1895 to 1900, as president of the Board of Trade from 1900 to 1905 and he was admitted to the Privy Council of Ireland in 1895, and to the Privy Council of the United Kingdom in 1905. He succeeded his brother Arthur as second Earl of Balfour in 1930, according to a remainder in the letters patent. During his first spell at the Houses of Parliament, Balfour received an honorary LLD from Cambridge University, Lord Balfour married Lady Elizabeth Edith Betty Bulwer-Lytton, daughter of Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton, in 1887. The Countess of Balfour died in 1942, aged 74, Lord Balfour survived her by three years and died in January 1945, aged 91, by which time he was the last surviving member of any of long-serving Prime Minister Salisburys cabinets. He was succeeded in the earldom by his only son Robert, hansard 1803–2005, contributions in Parliament by the Earl of Balfour
6.
Arthur Balfour
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Entering Parliament in 1874, Balfour achieved prominence as Chief Secretary for Ireland, in which position he suppressed agrarian unrest whilst taking measures against absentee landlords. He opposed Irish Home Rule, saying there could be no half-way house between Ireland remaining within the United Kingdom or becoming independent. From 1891 he led the Conservative Party in the House of Commons, serving under his uncle, Lord Salisbury, a brilliant debater, he was bored by the mundane tasks of party management. In July 1902 he succeeded his uncle as Prime Minister and he oversaw reform of British defence policy and supported Fishers naval innovations. He secured the Entente Cordiale with France, leaving Germany in the cold and he cautiously embraced the imperial preference championed by Joseph Chamberlain, but resignations from the Cabinet over tariffs left his party divided. He also suffered from public anger at the stages of the Boer war. He resigned as Prime Minister in December 1905 and the month the Conservatives suffered a landslide defeat at the 1906 election. He resigned as party leader later in 1911, Balfour returned as First Lord of the Admiralty in Asquiths Coalition Government. In December 1916 he became Foreign Secretary in David Lloyd Georges coalition and he was frequently left out of the inner workings of foreign policy, although the Balfour Declaration on a Jewish homeland bore his name. He continued to serve in positions throughout the 1920s, and died on 19 March 1930 aged 81. Arthur Balfour was born at Whittingehame House, East Lothian, Scotland and his godfather was the Duke of Wellington, after whom he was named. He was the eldest son, third of eight children, and had four brothers, Arthur Balfour was educated at Grange preparatory school in Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, and Eton College, where he studied with the influential master, William Johnson Cory. He went to the University of Cambridge, where he read moral sciences at Trinity College and his younger brother was the Cambridge embryologist Francis Maitland Balfour. Margot Tennant wished to marry him, but Balfour said, No, I rather think of having a career of my own. His household was maintained by his sister, Alice. In middle age, Balfour had a 40-year friendship with Mary Charteris, Lady Elcho, later Countess of Wemyss, in 1874 he was elected Conservative Member of Parliament for Hertford until 1885. In spring 1878, Balfour became Private Secretary to his uncle and he accompanied Salisbury to the Congress of Berlin and gained his first experience in international politics in connection with the settlement of the Russo-Turkish conflict. At the same time he became known in the world of letters, Balfour divided his time between politics and academic pursuits
7.
Newport, Wales
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Newport is a cathedral and university city and unitary authority area in south east Wales. It is located on the River Usk close to its confluence with the Severn Estuary, at the 2011 census it is the third largest city in Wales, with a city population of 145,700 and an urban population of 306,844. The city forms part of the Cardiff-Newport metropolitan area with a population of 1,097,000, Newport has been a port since medieval times, when the first Newport Castle was built by the Normans. The town outgrew the earlier Roman town of Caerleon, immediately upstream and it grew significantly in the 19th century, when its port became the focus of coal exports from the eastern valleys of South Wales. Until the rise of Cardiff from the 1850s, Newport was Wales largest coal-exporting port and it was the site of the last large-scale armed insurrection in Britain, the Newport Rising of 1839 led by the Chartists. During the 20th century, when the docks declined in importance and it was granted city status in 2002. Newport hosted the Ryder Cup in 2010, the city was the venue for the 2014 NATO summit. It is the largest urban area within the county boundaries of Monmouthshire. The City of Newport, which includes surrounding rural areas as well as the built up area, is governed by Newport City Council. Bronze Age fishermen settled around the estuary of the River Usk. In AD75, on the edge of their empire. According to legend, in the late 5th century Saint Woolos church was founded by Saint Gwynllyw, the church was certainly in existence by the 9th century and today has become Newport Cathedral, the seat of the Bishop of Monmouth. The Normans arrived from around 1088–1093 to build the first Newport Castle and river crossing downstream from Caerleon, the settlement of Newport is first mentioned as novo burgus established by Robert, Earl of Gloucester in 1126. The name was derived from the original Latin name Novus Burgus, the city can sometimes be found labelled as Newport-on-Usk on old maps. The original Welsh language name for the city, Casnewydd-ar-Wysg means New castle-on-Usk, the original Newport Castle was a small motte-and-bailey castle in the park opposite Newport Cathedral. It was buried in rubble excavated from the Hillfield railway tunnels that were dug under Stow Hill in the 1840s and no part of it is currently visible. Around the settlement, the new town grew to become Newport, obtaining its first charter in 1314 and was granted a second one, by Hugh Stafford, in the 14th century friars came to Newport where they built an isolation hospital for infectious diseases. After its closure the hospital lived on in the place name Spitty Fields, austin Friars also remains a street name in the city
8.
Haughley
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Haughley is a village in the English county of Suffolk. Haughley is an ancient village and parish in Suffolk overlooking the River Ratt, the village stands about two miles from Stowmarket. The parish anciently divided into the four divisions of Haughley Green, Old Street, New Street and it was first mentioned in the will of Leofgifu a Saxon noblewoman in 1040. Haughley contains many thatched, painted and listed both in the village and on the surrounding settlements. Since 1892 it has been the residence of the Palmer family who have been in Haughley since Tudor times, plashwood House is another which was built in 1901 and is currently the residence oof the Bevan family since 1907. The previous house was burned down and was the home of the Ray, Haughley Parish Church is an example of an early English medieval Church on the site of a Norman chapel. It is dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary and a Toy fair was held annually in August to celebrate this until the 1870s and it has a South tower c1200 which contains five bells dating back to the medieval period. The first recorded priest was an Italian, John de Monte Luelli, visitors would worship at the Chapel of the Holy Cross in Haughley which contained a piece of the true cross of Christ in return for a papal remission of their sins. It contains many memorials and hatchments as well as remains of medieval stained glass. The church was endowed to the Abbey of Haighley Hailes in Gloucestershire by Richard Earl of Cornwall and his son Henry of Almain was born at Haughley Castle and baptised here. He was murdered in the church of San Lorenzo in Virtebo by Simon, the most recent Church clock was erected in 1903 a gift of the Bevan family. Previous clocks had been erected from the 1697 onwards replacing a public sundial removed by the Woods family, the current incumbent is the Rev David Swales. A URC chapel formerly worshiped regularly in the village until its recent closure, Haughley is famous for its Castle, it is considered to be one of the best preserved Motte & Bailey castles in England with impressive baileys and ditches of up to 80 feet. It was built by Hugh de Montfront following the conquest of 1066 over the footprint of the fortified hall of the Saxon Lord Guthmund who was killed at the Battle of Hastings. The castle has a motte and bailey design, with a large motte,210 feet wide at the base and 80 feet tall. The bailey is rectangular,390 feet by 300 feet across, during the restoration and clearance of 2010 by the Archaeological Unit impressive carved stone and other masonry were recovered from the Keep. Following the battle of 1173 it was rebuilt to a certain extent. By the 1300s it was occupied by the Ufford family before falling into disuse in the 15th century when the De La Poles built Wingfield Castle
9.
Science
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Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. The formal sciences are often excluded as they do not depend on empirical observations, disciplines which use science, like engineering and medicine, may also be considered to be applied sciences. However, during the Islamic Golden Age foundations for the method were laid by Ibn al-Haytham in his Book of Optics. In the 17th and 18th centuries, scientists increasingly sought to formulate knowledge in terms of physical laws, over the course of the 19th century, the word science became increasingly associated with the scientific method itself as a disciplined way to study the natural world. It was during this time that scientific disciplines such as biology, chemistry, Science in a broad sense existed before the modern era and in many historical civilizations. Modern science is distinct in its approach and successful in its results, Science in its original sense was a word for a type of knowledge rather than a specialized word for the pursuit of such knowledge. In particular, it was the type of knowledge which people can communicate to each other, for example, knowledge about the working of natural things was gathered long before recorded history and led to the development of complex abstract thought. This is shown by the construction of calendars, techniques for making poisonous plants edible. For this reason, it is claimed these men were the first philosophers in the strict sense and they were mainly speculators or theorists, particularly interested in astronomy. In contrast, trying to use knowledge of nature to imitate nature was seen by scientists as a more appropriate interest for lower class artisans. A clear-cut distinction between formal and empirical science was made by the pre-Socratic philosopher Parmenides, although his work Peri Physeos is a poem, it may be viewed as an epistemological essay on method in natural science. Parmenides ἐὸν may refer to a system or calculus which can describe nature more precisely than natural languages. Physis may be identical to ἐὸν and he criticized the older type of study of physics as too purely speculative and lacking in self-criticism. He was particularly concerned that some of the early physicists treated nature as if it could be assumed that it had no intelligent order, explaining things merely in terms of motion and matter. The study of things had been the realm of mythology and tradition, however. Aristotle later created a less controversial systematic programme of Socratic philosophy which was teleological and he rejected many of the conclusions of earlier scientists. For example, in his physics, the sun goes around the earth, each thing has a formal cause and final cause and a role in the rational cosmic order. Motion and change is described as the actualization of potentials already in things, while the Socratics insisted that philosophy should be used to consider the practical question of the best way to live for a human being, they did not argue for any other types of applied science
