Solaris Urbino is a series of low-floor buses and low-entry doorway intercity buses, powered by diesel drive engines and alternative fuel, produced by the Polish company Solaris Bus & Coach in Bolechowo near Poznań in Poland. Produced models are of the fourth generation, by 2019 the production will start for the fifth. Solaris Urbino buses series have been successful in the market, as evidenced by many orders in Poland and abroad; the first bus from Solaris Urbino series rolled off the production line in Bolechowo in mid-1999. It was a Solaris Urbino 12 which in the second half of the year debuted two new models known as the Solaris Urbino 15 and Solaris Urbino 18, in 2000 the series was joined by the Solaris Urbino 9, they have been designed by Neoplan with the participation of designers from Berlin IFS Designatelier which designed all of the next generation of the models. In the second half of 2001 and 2002 the models of the second generation were ready; the 9-metre model was replaced by the Solaris Urbino 10.

Since 2005, the buses in the Solaris Urbino series are all third generation. The third series is distinguished by a characteristic depth front bow, which allows the driver better visibility at bus stops. Special orders were delivered, in the second-generation. During the IAA Nutzfahrzeuge in Hannover, held from September 25 - October 2, 2008, at the same in Poland the Transexpo Trade Fair in Kielce in October 2008, had presented the prototype model of the Solaris Urbino 12 New Edition generation 3.5. While maintaining the body of the third generation, the buses in the series received a new refurbished interior from the upcoming new fourth generation of buses. Where the interior had been improved by stylistic and illumination of the interior. A new instrument panel and steering wheel was included for the easy operation of the bus; the shortest vehicle of the series is Solaris Alpino 8.9 LE, which has a length of 8.9 meters and from the rest of the models in the series is narrower by 15 centimetres, for this reason received the name Solaris Urbino 8.9 LE for marketing reasons.

In 2012, two new low-floor models were added to the series which were the Solaris Urbino 12.9 and Solaris Urbino 18.75. The Solaris Urbino series includes the Solaris Urbino 12 Low Entry and the Solaris Urbino 15 LE, built preferably for companies for intercity and commuter routes; the Solaris Urbino bus series has a bus, built for urban and interurban commutes, the Solaris Urbino 12 Ü, which made its debut at the IAA Nutzfahrzeuge in Hanover in September 2012. Instead of the classic box type style the bus had the MAN D20 engine; the capacity for seated passengers increased to 44 in the front of the bus. In 2014 at the world premiere at the IAA in Hannover and at the Polish premiere at Transexpo Trade Fair in Kielce the new model of the Solaris Urbino series bus was shown, designed from the beginning in order to meet the needs of passengers and companies better; the Solaris Urbino series includes the following models: Solaris Urbino 10, the successor of the Solaris Urbino 9 Solaris Urbino 12 Solaris Urbino 12 Hybrid Solaris Urbino 12 Electric Solaris Urbino 12 Ü Solaris Urbino 12,9 Solaris Urbino 12,9 Hybrid Solaris Urbino 15 Solaris Urbino 18 Solaris Urbino 18 Hybrid Solaris Urbino 18,75The low entry and local buses are: Solaris Urbino 8,9 LE, the electric version is called Solaris Urbino 8,9 LE Electric Solaris Urbino 12 LE Solaris Urbino 15 LE Solaris Urbino 18 LE

Stalybridge, Mossley & Dukinfield Tramways & Electricity Board was a public transport and electricity supply organisation formed by Act of Parliament in August 1901. It was a joint venture between the borough councils of Stalybridge, Hyde and Dukinfield; the system was opened on 21 May 1904. At its inception, the scheme included a fleet of forty tramcars; the network was extended to 27 route miles with a fleet of sixty tramcars. The rails were rolled by Middlesbrough; the points and crossings were made by Sheffield. The main tram shed was on Stalybridge adjacent to the Tame Valley generating station. Smaller tram sheds were built in Hyde and Mossley; the British Westinghouse Co was the lead contractor for the first forty tram cars, supplying much of their electrical and mechanical equipment. The car bodies were sub contracted to the British Electric Car Co, Trafford Park, with bogies from the McGuire Manufacturing Co, Bury and wheel sets from the British Griffin Chilled Iron Co, Barrow in Furness.

The Tame Valley generating station consisted of three Yates and Thom, 815hp, vertical triple expansion steam engines. Each engine driving a Dick, Kerr & Co. 500 kW 60 pole alternator at 80 RPM, giving a three-phase output of 6,000 V at 40 Hz. The station's six Lancashire boilers were supplied by Shenton & Co, of Hyde. Most of the electrical switchgear was supplied by Eborall & Co.. Power from the station was distributed at 6,000 V via specially made three-core cables drawn through glazed earthenware underground conduits; each of the four SHMD towns had its own substation consisting of two synchronous motor generators, each rated at 200k W, converting the 6,000 V three-phase input into an output of 525 V DC to feed the overhead tram wires and 460 V three-wire DC for lighting circuits. The Tame Valley generating station remained in use until 1932, after which the building was used as a workshop and stores. In 1926, the new Hartshead Power Station was opened by the SHMD board. In 1936, the organisation's name was changed to the Stalybridge, Mossley & Dukinfield Joint Transport & Electricity Board due to most of its tramways being replaced by first trolley buses motor buses.

The last SHMD tram ran in 1945. For a number of years after this, the main bus routes were operated by electrically powered “trolley buses” which did not run on rails but on rubber tyres wheels and obtained their power from a pair of overhead cables, each bus having two catenary poles held up against the overhead cables by springs; these catenaries would jump off the rails and the conductor would be obliged to jump off, retrieve a long bamboo pole from a sheath on the side of the trolley bus and use it to replace the contacts on the overhead cables. The SHMD Board owned the trolleybus overhead within its area but did not operate any trolleybuses, which were provided by the neighboroughing undertakings of Ashton-under-Lyne and Manchester Corporation; the board continued to operate motor buses on routes. In 1948, the SHMD electricity interests were nationalised, with the board's electricity distribution assets being incorporated into Norweb; the Hartshead Power Station became part of the British Electricity Authority, the predecessor of the Central Electricity Generating Board and remained in use until 1979.

Norweb continued to use the former Tame Valley generating station building as a maintenance depot until 1984 after which it was sold to Beck & Politzer who continue to use it as a workshop. The Grade II listed Thorn House, the former SHMD head office near to Stalybridge bus station was used for many years by Norweb as an area office and showroom before being sold and converted into flats. Following the nationalisation of its electricity interests SHMD continued to operate bus services until 1969 when it was absorbed into SELNEC i. However, its origins in the electrical transport and electricity generation to power the teams and trolleys meant that the affectionate name of “Joint Board” was not lost entirely; the standard livery of the SHMD fleet was cream. Frost, Roy. Electricity in Manchester 1893 - 1993. ISBN 1852160756. Stalybridge, Mossley & Dukinfield Joint Transport and Electricity Board petergould.co.uk

MX Unleashed is a 2004 racing video game developed by Rainbow Studios and published by THQ for PlayStation 2 and Xbox. The game is backwards compatible for the Xbox One as of April 26, 2018; the game is a predecessor of Rainbow Studios' MX vs. ATV series, in which the first game of that series was titled MX vs. ATV Unleashed; the sharp controls allow for the players to weave around obstructions in the course as well as the other computer controlled riders. The turns are tight and the responsiveness of the controls allow the player to do as many tricks as possible before landing after a jump. To gain more height on the jumps to do more tricks, the player can make the bike rider push back on the shocks at the bottom of a hill and release them at the top to create a springboard like effect, go to heights unattainable without doing so. Your speed, bike angle, the way your biker is positioned on the bike all contribute to the way your bike responds to the ground it is driving over. In the story mode the player must place in the top three to unlock another race.

If you do not make the top three, there is no penalty and you may restart another game to move on to the next track. The freestyle mode is much different. There are a variety of challenges one has to complete in order to unlock more challenges, move on to another freestyle map; the challenges include a series of targets that your bike has to land on after every jump, a timed freestyle measured by the number of points one scores in the time frame, a race against a vehicle, not a dirt bike, a contest in which the player must hit ten targets after jumps before the other seven racers. After you have beaten one of these challenges the player unlocks the harder version of the challenge. Once one reaches the requirement for the challenges you unlock the next stage to do those challenges; this game has similar graphics to games that have been made by Rainbow Studios such as ATV Offroad Fury and ATV Offroad Fury 2. As you drive across the terrain, the track in the distance fogs in and fogs in as you go away from it rather than it just appearing out of nowhere.

For the age of the game, it has a far render distance that lets the player see the terrain, far away. Although the game is not stunningly beautiful, the landscapes are huge and the editors did not have enough time to make every aspect of the game perfect; the terrain is covered with many different types of objects like trees, buildings and many other items that need to be dodged to maneuver throughout the map. With all these items, there is not a whole lot of "dead" space throughout the game. MX Unleashed received "generally positive" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic. By July 2006, the PlayStation 2 version of MX Unleashed had sold 740,000 copies and earned $22 million in the United States. Next Generation ranked it as the 88th highest-selling game launched for the PlayStation 2, Xbox or GameCube between January 2000 and July 2006 in that country. Combined sales of the MX Unleashed series reached 1.5 million units in the United States by July 2006. MX Unleashed at MobyGames

In the NUTS codes of France, the three levels are: Up until 2016, the first level NUTS regions of France consisted of Ile de France, Bassin Parisien, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, Ouest, Sud-Ouest, Centre-Est and the Departement d'Outre Mer. The Departement d'Outre Mer consisted of all the overseas departments of France, while the remaining eight statistical regions were made up of the 22 regions of France. A law passed in 2014 by the French parliament reduced the number of metropolitan regions in the country from 22 to 13; the decrease took effect from 1 January 2016. As a result of these changes in the regions of France, the first level NUTS statistical regions were altered to reflect the changes; the number of first level regions was increased to 14 so that each of the 13 metropolitan regions of France became a separate first level statistical region. Although the Départements d'outre mer, as integrated departments of France, have always been a part of the European Union and its predecessors, they were only included as a permanent NUTS statistical area of France in 1989.

When they did appear in previous statistics the first and second level NUTS areas where one and the same, from 1989, Martinique, French Guiana and La Réunion were designated as separate level 2 regions. Below the NUTS levels, the two LAU levels are: The LAU codes of France can be downloaded here: Subdivisions of France ISO 3166-2 codes of France FIPS region codes of France FRANC - NUTS level 1 to 3, Official Journal of the European Union, page 26 List of current NUTS codes with used codes, simap.ted.europa.eu History of NUTS, ec.europa.eu/eurostat Overview map of EU Countries - NUTS level 1 Correspondence between the NUTS levels and the national administrative units, ec.europa.eu/eurostat

Scottish Friendly Assurance Society Limited is a leading UK mutual life and investments organisation. It provides a range of investment and protection products and provides life and investment products and services to other financial organisations; the largest mutual life office in Scotland, one of the largest in the UK, Scottish Friendly is based in Glasgow, United Kingdom and operates throughout the UK and Ireland. It has over 1 million policyholders; as of 31 December 2018, the society looked after assets worth more than £2.8 billion. Scottish Friendly was established in 1862 as the City of Glasgow Friendly Society, was a breakaway movement from the Royal Liver Friendly Society, whose headquarters were in Liverpool; the first meeting of the City of Glasgow Friendly Society took place in the Bell Hotel, 68 Trongate, on 16 September 1862. The first committee consisted of seven men — James Logan, John Stewart, James Semple, William Jack, David Black, James Wilson and William Roche; the founder of the Society was John Stewart, who guaranteed a fund of £1,500.

John Stewart would go on to become the Society's treasurer. During the first nine months of the Society's existence, branches were opened in Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Perth. In 1867/68, the Society opened branches in Belfast, Troon, Kilsyth, Manchester, Dalry and Kilwinning. By the end of 1884 the Society's surplus was £14,276 and the membership was in the region of 70,000. In 1890, James Stewart took over the management of the Society along with John Stewart. On 19 April 1893, James Stewart succeeded his father as managing treasurer of the Society. By the end of 1896 the Society's membership had risen to 104,833. On 16 May 1900, the Society obtained a typewriter on a week's trial; the Board appointed the first female member of staff – a typist, paid 10s a week. On 17 October 1912, Tom Johnston joined the board. A jubilee concert for the Society was held in Glasgow City Halls on 21 November 1912. In 1914, during World War 1, the Society cancelled a clause that stated that the sum payable should be reduced if death occurred as the result of war.

In August 1916, all 10,817 members of the Hulme Philanthropic Burial Society in Manchester voted that they should be taken over by the Society. In June 1919, Tom Johnston was appointed vice-president of the Society. In 1922, he became a Member of Parliament and, on 10 October 1932, was appointed as James Stewart's deputy and successor taking over as general manager in 1934. In 1941, Johnston was appointed wartime Secretary of State for Scotland by Prime Minister Winston Churchill, he retired as the Society's general manager in 1946. On New Year's Day 1958, the Society took over the business and the members of the Western Mutual Assurance Society of Glasgow, incorporating 3,000 members and funds of £500,000. On 1 February 1960, the Dundee Burial Collecting Society approached the Society and another 15,116 members were incorporated with funds of £170,000. In 1962, the Society celebrated its centenary, it was the fifth largest collecting friendly society in the British isles with 20 branches in Scotland, six in Northern Ireland, five in south Wales, 24 in England.

Annual income was £1,150,000 with funds of around £6,800,000. In 1968, the society purchased a Honeywell mainframe computer; the size of a small living room, it could store 256 kilobytes of data. In the late 1970s, the Society began to make inroads to the endowment market and towards the end of the decade endowments represented 30% of new business; the 1990s marked a decade of significant change for the City of Glasgow Friendly Society. The Friendly Societies Act 1992 allowed societies to become incorporated organisations, to launch subsidiaries and offer a wider range of products and services; the City of Glasgow Friendly Society became an incorporated organisation in 1992, acquired a small friendly society, Scottish Friendly, assumed its name. In 1994 Scottish Friendly left its Bath Street head office and moved to new premises at 16 Blythswood Square, Glasgow. During the 1990s, Scottish Friendly expanded, shifting its business model more to direct marketing focusing on tax-exempt savings plans for adults and children.

In 1998, Scottish Friendly appointed a new finance manager, Fiona McBain, who would become the first woman to sit on the board. The same year, the company launched its own website. In 2004 there was a restructuring of the business and gross premium income grew by 4% to £68m. Scottish Friendly's assets reached a record £420m; the following year Bob Thomson retired as chief executive after more than 30 years' service. On 1 January 2006, Fiona McBain became group chief executive; the same year, Scottish Friendly secured the contract to provide Nucleus with back-office and logistical support for its wrap business. In 2007, Scottish Friendly took over Scottish Legal Life, creating the largest transfer of engagements in the history of UK friendly societies. Having earlier acquired Rational Shelley, Preston Operative, Pioneer Friendly, 2007 closed with the transfer of the London Aberdeen & Northern Mutual Assurance Society. In 2008, Norwich Union approached Scottish Friendly to administer its wrap business.

The same year, Scottish Friendly won the Orange Prize for best use of technology at the Scottish Business Awards. In 2011, Scottish Friendly began negotiations with Citi, part of Citigroup, with a view to selling Scottish Friendly's wrap administration business, handling around £4bn of funds. On 1 January 2012, 134 Scottish Friendly employees were transferred, together with its offices in St Vincent Street and West George Street, to the American bank. In December, Scottish Friend

The British Motor Corporation's Mini has been used as the basis for numerous kit cars and specials. Some are designed to look like the rare Mini Moke. Below is a partial list. There may be duplicates in this list as several cars emerged more than once from companies under different ownership. BROADSPEED Sports GT Bulanti MINI Sports GT DES HIGGINS MOTORBODIES Ecurie-Dedez Mini GT LOLITA AUTOMOBILE DEVELOPMENTS Sports MK1, Racer MK2 NOTA Engineering, Nota Fang Sports Pellandini Cars PROJECT-X Sports GT S&A Minisprint S&A Mini Sprint GT TAYLORSPEED Minijem Sports GT MÉAN Sonora GT REPTUNE Sports GT SEKURA Coupe Sports Automobiles Chatenet CH26 HRUBON Phaeton HRUBON La Puce & Schmitt Funcars SIMCA Barquette 1300 GTR COMminiCATION Elektrofahrzeuge GmbH MINI Convertible MARTINI MOTORSPORT Coupe GT WESTWOOD ENGINEERING Mini-Moke replica CAGIVA Mini Moke 1000 ESAP Minimach GT Innocenti 90L and 120L INNOCENTI Mini Mare MICHELOTTI Coachworks Mini PININFARINA ADO-34 GT ZAGATO Minigatto Sports GT Morris Harimau De Joux MINI GT IBIS ENGINEERING Convertible AURORA-BMC 1300 GT Racecar IMA Austin Mini-Moke 1100 BANSHEE Cooper Targa JACKSON Sportster Cabriolet HOLINGER-SOLAR Mini Evergreen Cabriolet SURFITE Buggy Facorca MinicordIn early 1990 in Facorca in the factory located on Mariara, have the idea of building Minis made of Fiber-Glass is gestated.

After more than a year, on April 1990 an agreement is reached with RoverGroup Ltd. to obtain support, technical supervision, to provide all the mechanical parts as well as all electric components, Facorca would assume the body, interior trim, radio and tires. The factory molds itself for a maximum production of 10 cars per day, but the normal production would become of 6 cars per day. On December 1991, the series production commences. Two basic models with 1000cc enter the market: The Mini Cord FA, deluxe version, which brought amongst other things, air conditioning, complete leather interior trim, central console with tachometer, chrome bumpers, Minilite Type GB wheels. All Colombian versions came with Minilite type GB wheels. In 1992 768 Mini Cords were produced for the Colombia and Antilles market, of which 164 were imported to Colombia; that was the best year of production. If you visit the BMIHT museum you’ll be able to find, in a privileged place, amidst the most important Minis, a Red Mini Cord FA, with white roof.

By 1993, a few improvements are made to both models, changing the interior trim to a better one, much more comfortable, original Rover rearview mirrors, new design on the forward emblem. The 1993 Production descends to 391 units, due to the different economical problems, problems among the partners, which drive the Factory to an decisive shut down. 62 Units are imported to Colombia, the Distributors in Colombia, Mini City, cease to function as well. In 1994 Find itself in a difficult Financial Situation, but the success in sales and of possible exportations to Colombia take the Company to the hands of Abisaad Janna & Cia, to which become convinced to re-open production. Projects of assembling Mini Cords restart, two Beach Minis prototypes get to be built first, two unique convertibles, a conventional Mini with Kit Cooper 1.0 with 10inch wheels, another standard engine and Pilmico Style. Together with those, the Mini Cord with John Cooper 1.0 Kit deluxe is launched, with 13 inch Revolution wheels, Three-Clock-Central Drive Board, Leather Interior.

All should have been silver, because of special requests, some where painted otherwise, on other colors. The total production with Cooper and the standard versions by 1994 was of 24 units a great deal of these series reach Colombia, all this due to the Economical situation of Facorca; this takes Abisaad Cia, to cancel their contract. In 1995 only 16 units are commences the dismantling the installations. Between the years 1991 and 1995, only 1310 Mini Cord were produced, in the standard and the Deluxe Version and Convertibles, which takes it to be the smallest or at least of the smallest Mini Productions of a Mini ever