A rōnin was a samurai without a lord or master during the feudal period of Japan. A samurai became masterless upon the death of his master, or after the loss of his master's favor or privilege. In modern Japanese usage, sometimes the term is used to describe a salaryman, unemployed or a secondary school graduate who has not yet been admitted to university; the word rōnin means "wave man". It is an idiomatic expression for "vagrant" or "wandering man", someone, without a home; the term originated in the Nara and Heian periods, when it referred to a serf who had fled or deserted his master's land. It came to be used for a samurai who had no master.. According to the Bushido Shoshinshu, a samurai was supposed to commit seppuku upon the loss of his master. One who chose not to honor the code was "on his own" and was meant to suffer great shame; the undesirability of rōnin status was a discrimination imposed by other samurai and by daimyō, the feudal lords. Like other samurai, rōnin wore two swords. Rōnin used a variety of other weapons as well.

Some rōnin -- those who lacked money -- would carry a yumi. Most weapons would reflect the ryū from. During the Edo period, with the shogunate's rigid class system and laws, the number of rōnin increased. Confiscation of fiefs during the rule of the third Tokugawa shōgun Iemitsu resulted in an large increase of rōnin. During previous ages, samurai were able to move between masters and between occupations, they could marry between classes. However, during the Edo period, samurai were restricted, were—above all—forbidden to become employed by another master without their previous master's permission; because the former samurai could not take up a new trade, or because of pride were loath to do so, many rōnin looked for other ways to make a living with their swords. Those rōnin who desired steady, legal employment became mercenaries that guarded trade caravans, or bodyguards for wealthy merchants. Many other rōnin became criminals, operating as bandits and highwaymen, or joining organized crime in towns and cities.

Rōnin were known to operate or serve as hired muscle for gangs that ran gambling rings, protection rackets, similar activities. Many were petty muggers; the criminal segment gave the rōnin of the Edo period a persistent reputation of disgrace, with an image of being thugs, bullies and wandering vagrants. In the Kamakura and Muromachi periods, when warriors held lands that they occupied, a rōnin was a warrior who had lost his lands. During these periods, as small-scale wars occurred throughout Japan, the daimyō needed to augment their armies, so rōnin had opportunities to serve new masters; some rōnin joined in bands, engaging in robbery and uprisings. In the Sengoku period, daimyō needed additional fighting men, if a master had perished, his rōnin were able to serve new lords. In contrast to the Edo period, the bond between the lord and the samurai was loose, some samurai who were dissatisfied with their treatment left their masters and sought new lords. Many warriors served a succession of masters, some became daimyō.

As an example, Tōdō Takatora served ten lords. Additionally, the division of the population into classes had not yet taken place, so it was possible to change one's occupation from warrior to merchant or farmer, or the reverse. Saitō Dōsan was one merchant who rose through the warrior ranks to become a daimyō; as Toyotomi Hideyoshi unified progressively larger parts of the country, daimyō found it unnecessary to recruit new soldiers. Next, the Battle of Sekigahara resulted in the confiscation or reduction of the fiefs of large numbers of daimyō on the losing side; as many as a hundred thousand rōnin joined forces with Toyotomi Hideyori and fought at the Siege of Osaka. In the ensuing years of peace, there was less need to maintain expensive standing armies, many surviving rōnin turned to farming or became townspeople. A few, such as Yamada Nagamasa, sought adventure overseas as mercenaries. Still, the majority lived in poverty as rōnin. Under the third Tokugawa shōgun Iemitsu, their number approached half a million.

The shogunate viewed them as dangerous, banished them from the cities or restricted the quarters where they could live. They prohibited serving new masters; as rōnin found themselves with fewer and fewer options, they joined in the Keian Uprising. This forced the shogunate to rethink its policy, it relaxed restrictions on daimyō inheritance, resulting in fewer confiscations of fiefs, it permitted rōnin to join new masters. Not having the status or power of employed samurai, rōnin were disreputable and festive, the group was a target of humiliation or satire, it was undesirable to be a rōnin, as it meant being without a land. As an indication of the humiliation felt by samurai who became rōnin, Lord Redesdale recorded that a rōnin killed himself at the graves of the forty-seven rōnin, he left a note saying that he had tried to enter the service of the daimyō of Chōshū Domain, but was refused. Wanting to serve no other master, hating being a rōnin, he killed himself. On the other hand, the famous 18th-century writer Kyokutei Bakin renounced his allegiance to Matsudaira Nobunari, in whose service Bakin's samurai father had spent his life.

Bakin voluntarily became a rōn

Laestadianism known as Laestadian Lutheranism and Apostolic Lutheranism, is a pietistic Lutheran revival movement started in Lapland in the middle of the 19th century. Named after Swedish Lutheran state church administrator and temperance movement leader Lars Levi Laestadius, it is the biggest pietistic revivalist movement in the Nordic countries, it has members in Finland, North America, Norway and Sweden. There are smaller congregations in Africa, South America and Central Europe. In addition Laestadians have missionaries in 23 countries; the number of Laestadians worldwide is estimated to be between 144,000 and 219,000. Most Laestadians in Finland are part of the national Lutheran Church of Finland, but in America, where there is no official Lutheran church, they founded their own denomination, which split into several sub-groups in the mid-20th century; because of doctrinal opinion differences and personality conflicts, the movement split into 19 branches, of which about 15 are active today.

The three large main branches are Conservative Laestadianism. These comprise about 90 percent of Laestadians. Other branches are small and some of them inactive. In Finland, the Elämän Sana group, as the most "mainline" of the different branches of Laestadianism, has been prominent within the hierarchy of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland: Two members have been elected bishops of Oulu, one has served as Chaplain General. All branches share many essential teachings including a central emphasis on the Lutheran doctrine of justification. Another core teaching concerns essential differences in lifestyle and beliefs between true believers on one hand, false Christians and unbelievers on the other; the leaders of the two largest Laestadian sub-groups, the Conservative Laestadians and Firstborn Laestadians, have for decades excluded each other and all other Laestadian sub-groups from the kingdom of Heaven though the denominations' core doctrines are nearly indistinguishable. The leadership of the smaller third main sub-group, the Federation, has continued to regard the other sub-groups as of living faith, after having unsuccessfully sought to preserve unity within Laestadianism when its larger counterparts' leaders in the 1930s called for, required, dissociation from the Federation and other Laestadian denominations.

The church teaches that every believer has the authority to testify that others' sins are forgiven, sometimes referred to as the audible declaration of the forgiveness of sins. Laestadians proclaim the forgiveness of sins "in Jesus' name and blood". Laestadianism holds that when a Christian has committed a sin, whether in thought or deed, she or he should confess the sin to another believer, thus it is a common practice among Laestadians in or out of church at any time, but during the church service prior to the rite of holy communion, to be confessing their sins to one another or to one of the church ministers performing the sacrament. A common declaration is, "Believe your sin forgiven in Jesus' name and blood." This procedure, ingrained in Laestadianism, differs from absolution in mainstream Lutheran churches in several aspects, including that the request for forgiveness need not be, most is not, to the minister. Because a Laestadian takes seriously the proposition that grace exists only for one whose sins have been forgiven, there is scarcely another rite in this movement that would rival the importance of the declaration of forgiveness.

This doctrine is a unique extension of the priesthood of the believer doctrine. When greeting each other, Laestadians say "God's Peace" in English. To take their leave of each other, they say "God's peace" in English. "Worldliness" is discouraged, Laestadians frown on pre-marital sex and on alcohol consumption except in the sacrament of holy communion. Conservative Laestadians frown upon worldly vices such as dancing, birth control, rhythmic music, make-up, movies and cursing; some conservative elements within the church go further in rejecting the ways of the world, for examples, refusing to buy insurance, prohibiting their children's participation in organized school sports, removing their car radios. Large numbers of Firstborn Apostolic Lutherans and many members of the most conservative congregations within the Word of Peace group, for examples, do not use birth control because they believe that a child is a gift from God; the central activities of Laestadians are annual or more frequent church conventions, including the Summer Services of Conservative Laestadians, attended by members from congregations far and wide.

The Chillerton Down transmitting station is a broadcasting facility for FM and DAB radio at Chillerton Down, above the village of Chillerton on the Isle of Wight off the south coast of England. The transmitter was erected in 1958 and uses a 228.9-metre high guyed steel lattice mast of triangular cross section as an aerial. It was used to transmit Southern Television, TVS, until the end of VHF television transmissions in the UK at the beginning of 1985, it now transmits Wave 105, 103.2 Capital FM, Sam FM, Isle of Wight Radio, the local Arqiva DAB multiplex and the national Digital One DAB multiplex. The site is operated by Arqiva. VHF analogue television was transmitted from Chillerton Down from its launch in 1958 until the nationwide shutdown of VHF signals in 1985. List of masts List of tallest buildings and structures in Great Britain The Transmission Gallery: photographs and information Antenna picture Chillerton Down Transmitter at thebigtower.com

George McMahon was an American cannabis rights activist. McMahon was one of the last surviving patients enrolled in the federal Compassionate Investigational New Drug Program that began providing cannabis to patients in 1978, he lived with extreme pain caused by a rare genetic condition called nail-patella syndrome and used cannabis to treat its symptoms. McMahon was the Grassroots Party candidate for Vice-president in 1996 and 2012. McMahon, who lived in Iowa, traveled for speaking engagements, he co-authored the book Prescription Pot: A Leading Advocate's Heroic Battle to Legalize Medical Marijuana. He served on the board of the group Patients Out of Time. McMahon died on November 30, 2019, at the age of 69

Sphaeralcea coulteri is a species of flowering plant in the mallow family known by the common name Coulter's globemallow. It is native to the Sonoran Desert, its distribution extending from northern Mexico north into California and Arizona, it is an annual herb, its slender, hairy stems sprawling or growing erect to a maximum height near 1.5 meters. The thin, gray-green leaf blades are wide and short, heart-shaped or triangular in shape, measure up to about 5 centimeters long, they have a few wide lobes along the edges which may have smaller lobes. The leafy inflorescence bears clusters of flowers each with five wedge-shaped orange petals around a centimeter long, yellow anthers. Jepson Manual Treatment Photo gallery

Ko Chang-Sung is a sidearm pitcher playing for the NC Dinos in the KBO League. He throws right-handed. Ko played college baseball at Kyungsung University in Busan, he was drafted by the Doosan Bears in the 3rd round of the 2008 Korea Baseball Organization Draft. In the set-up role, Ko drew the attention of the league when he posted a 1.95 ERA and earned 16 holds in 2009. He enjoyed another great season as a setup man in 2010, when he earned 22 holds, runner-up in the KBO league. After the 2010 season, Ko was selected for the South Korean national baseball team to compete in the 2010 Asian Games where he won the gold medal. In 2011, Ko earned 14 holds but his ERA rose to 4.44. In 2012, he finished the season with an 8.62 ERA losing all ability to control his pitches. Ko was sent down to the second-tier team of the Bears in the middle of the 2012 season and traded to the NC Dinos after the season. Korea Baseball Organization career statistics from Koreabaseball.com