The Vickers machine gun or Vickers gun is a name used to refer to the water-cooled.303 British machine gun produced by Vickers Limited for the British Army. The machine gun required a six to eight-man team to operate: one fired, one fed the ammunition, the rest helped to carry the weapon, its ammunition, spare parts. Not to be confused with the Maxim machine gun, it was in service from before the First World War until the 1960s, with air-cooled versions of it on many Allied World War I fighter aircraft; the weapon had a reputation for great reliability. Ian V. Hogg, in Weapons & War Machines, describes an action that took place in August 1916, during which the British 100th Company of the Machine Gun Corps fired their ten Vickers guns continuously for twelve hours. Using 100 barrels, they fired a million rounds without a failure. "It was this absolute foolproof reliability which endeared the Vickers to every British soldier who fired one." The Vickers machine gun was based on the successful Maxim gun of the late 19th century.

After purchasing the Maxim company outright in 1896, Vickers took the design of the Maxim gun and improved it, inverting the mechanism as well as reducing its weight by lightening and simplifying the action and using high strength alloys for certain components. A muzzle booster was added; the British Army formally adopted the Vickers gun as its standard machine gun under the name Gun, Mark I, Vickers.303-inch on 26 November 1912. There were still great shortages when the First World War began, the British Expeditionary Force was still equipped with Maxims when sent to France in 1914. Vickers was, in fact, threatened with prosecution for war profiteering, due to the exorbitant price it was demanding for each gun; as a result, the price was slashed. As the war progressed, numbers increased, it became the British Army's primary machine gun, served on all fronts during the conflict; when the Lewis Gun was adopted as a light machine gun and issued to infantry units, the Vickers guns were redefined as heavy machine guns, withdrawn from infantry units, grouped in the hands of the new Machine Gun Corps.

After the First World War, the Machine Gun Corps was disbanded and the Vickers returned to infantry units. Before the Second World War, there were plans to replace the Vickers gun. However, the Vickers remained in service with the British Army until 30 March 1968, its last operational use was in the Radfan during the Aden Emergency. Its successor in UK service is the L7 GPMG. In 1913, a Vickers machine gun was mounted on the experimental Vickers E. F. B.1 biplane, the world's first purpose-built combat aeroplane. However, by the time the production version, the Vickers F. B.5, had entered service the following year, the armament had been changed to a Lewis gun. During World War I, the Vickers gun became a standard weapon on British and French military aircraft after 1916. Although heavier than the Lewis, its closed bolt firing cycle made it much easier to synchronize to allow it to fire through aircraft propellers; the belt feed was enclosed right up to the gun's feed-way to inhibit effects from wind.

Steel disintegrating-link ammunition belts were perfected in the UK by William de Courcy Prideaux in mid-war and became standard for aircraft guns thereafter. By 1917 it had been determined that standard rifle calibre cartridges were less satisfactory for shooting down observation balloons than larger calibres carrying incendiary or tracer bullets; the famous Sopwith Camel and the SPAD XIII types used twin synchronized Vickers, as did most British and French fighters between 1918 and the mid-1930s. In the air, the weighty water cooling system was rendered redundant by the chilly temperatures at high altitude and the constant stream of air passing over the gun as the plane flew. Several sets of louvred slots were cut into the barrel jacket to aid air cooling, a better solution than what had been attempted with the 1915-vintage lMG 08 German aircraft ordnance; as the machine gun armament of fighter aircraft moved from the fuselage to the wings in the years before the Second World War, the Vickers was replaced by the faster-firing and more reliable Browning Model 1919 using metal-linked cartridges.

The Gloster Gladiator was the last RAF fighter to be armed with the Vickers, although they were replaced by Brownings. The Fairey Swordfish continued to be fitted with the weapon until production ended in August 1944. Several British bombers and attack aircraft of the Second World War mounted the Vickers K machine gun or VGO, a different design, resembling the Lewis gun in external appearance. Vickers machine guns, designated as models E and F were used among others in Poland, where 777 of them were converted to 7.92×57mm Mauser cartridge in 1933-1937. The larger calibre version of the Vickers was used on naval vessels; the Gun, Vickers.5-inch, Mk. II was used in tanks, the earlier Mark I having been the development model; this entered servi

Jan Hertrich-Woleński is a Polish philosopher specializing in the history of the Lwów–Warsaw school of logic and in analytic philosophy. He has spent most of his academic career at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, where he is professor emeritus, his main fields of research are the philosophy of language and the history of philosophy in Poland. Jan Woleński was born in Radom, Poland on 21 September 1940, his first interest was law and he began studies at Jagiellonian University in 1958. Soon philosophy drew his attention and by 1963 he was employed in the Department of State and Law as an assistant professor, he looked to analytical jurisprudence in the United Kingdom, with the guidance of Professor Kazimierz Opalek, in 1968 he produced his thesis. Continuing his ascent, he produced a Habilitation in 1972: Problems in the Interpretations of Law. In 1974 he straddled two positions: the Institute of Social Sciences at the Academy of Mining and Metallurgy, lecturer on philosophy of science at the Institute of Philosophy at Jagiellonian University.

Wroclaw Polytechnic called him to teach in their Institute of Social Sciences in 1979. As an opponent of the state socialism governing Poland, Woleński edited an underground bulletin Riposte. Though he was appointed director of the Institute, he was removed after four months for his resistance; the journal Studia Logica engaged him as editor from 1987 to 1993. It was in 1988, he became professor ordinarius in 1990 and chair of the Department of Epistemology in 1994. Other editing positions include Synthese from 1990, The Monist from 1993, Studies in Eastern European Thought from 1993, Axiomathes from 1992, the Synthese Library of Kluwer Academic. Woleński was president of the Polish Society of Philosophy of Science. "Jan Woleński has achieved success as a teacher and advisor, encompassing the supervision of fourteen doctoral dissertations. Among his graduates are professors of philosophy as well as of law."He is on the consulting board of the philosophy journal, Theoria. Institute Vienna Circle held a conference in 1997 on the Austro-Polish connections in logical empiricism.

Woleński described the semantic theory of truth in his introductory essay, "Sematic Revolution – Rudolf Carnap, Kurt Gödel, Alfred Tarski". It was followed by a score of contributions from philosophers. Working with Eckehart Köhler, Wolenski edited the papers and the collection was published as Alfred Tarski and the Vienna Circle. In 2013 Woleński was awarded the Prize of the Foundation for Polish Science for a comprehensive analysis of the work of the Lwów-Warsaw school and for placing its achievements within the context of international discourse in contemporary philosophy. Woleński was a plenary speaker at the second world congress on religion and logic held in Warsaw, June 18 to 22, 2017, he has continued academic involvement at the University of Information Technology and Management in Rzeszów Poland. Woleński is active in Poland's atheist movement. In the 1960s he was a member of the government-sponsored Association of Atheists and Freethinkers, since 2007 he is a member of the Honorary Committee of the Polish Rationalist Association.

He is recognized in Poland as an atheist and has promoted the replacement of religion classes with philosophy classes in Polish schools. Woleński is involved in the secular Jewish movement, writing on the common Polish-Jewish past and on today's Polish-Jewish relations, he is a member of B'nai B'rith and was deputy president of its Polish chapter from 2007 to 2012. He was a member of the Polish United Workers Party from 1965 to 1981. From 1980 to 1990 he was a member of the Solidarity movement. Woleński, Jan. Logic and Philosophy in the Lvov-Warsaw School. Dordrecht Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers. Woleński, Jan. Kotarbinski: Logic and Ontology. Dordrecht Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers. Woleński, Jan. Philosophical Logic in Poland. Dordrecht Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers. Woleński, Jan. Alfred Tarski and the Vienna circle: Austro-Polish Connections in Logical Empiricism. Dordrecht Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers. Woleński, Jan. Essays in the History of Logic and Logical Philosophy. Cracov: Jagiellonian University Press.

Woleński, Jan. Handbook of Epistemology. Dordrecht Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers. ISBN 9781402019852. Woleński, Jan. Z zagadnień analitycznej filozofii prawa, Quaestiones ad philosophiam analyticam iuris pertinentes, Warsaw, PWN. Woleński, Jan. Filozoficzna szkoła lwowsko-warszawska, Warsaw, PWN. Woleński, Jan. Kotarbiński, Wiedza Powszechna, Warsaw. Woleński, Jan. Metamatematyka a epistemologia, Warsaw, PWN. Woleński, Jan. W stronę logiki, Cracow. Woleński, Jan. Szkoła Lwowsko-Warszawska w polemikach, Scholar. Woleński, Jan. Okolice filozofii prawa, Universitas. Woleński, Jan. Epistemologia, 3 volumes, Aureus. Woleński, Jan. Granice niewiary, Wydawnictwo Literackie. Anna Brożek History of philosophy in Poland List of Poles Works by Woleński from PhilPapers Humanism and Rationalism Woleński, Jan. "The Lvóv-Warsaw School". In Zalta, Edward N.. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Short film about Woleński made by Foundation for Polish Science "Czy Bóg jest potrzebny do wyjaśnienia świata?—debata między Janem Woleńskim i Jackiem Wojtysiakiem" Jagiellonian University's Holocaust Research Centre website

"Can't Go Back" is a song by the band Primal Scream. Released on 14 July 2008, it was the first single to be released from the band's ninth album, Beautiful Future; the song entered the UK Singles Chart at number 48 on 26 July 2008. The song was featured in the video for the 2008 British Grand Prix at the Formula One website; the song is featured in the 2010 film Kick-Ass, its soundtrack album, trailers for the 2011 film Johnny English Reborn. The single was engineered by Mark Rankin and produced by Paul Epworth and Björn Yttling at Primal Scream’s North London studio; as the first taste of Beautiful Future, “Can’t Go Back” heralded Primal Scream’s latest sound, a fusion of pop, new wave, traditional song structures with the punk aggression and electro production qualities that distinguished their 2000 album XTRMNTR. It is a more straightforward rock song that plays up the band’s bombast and immediacy rather than an attempt to innovate; this approach was referenced in the sometimes self-contradictory reviews for “Can’t Go Back,” which reflected a growing critical ambivalence towards Primal Scream.

The NME equivocated, “With a dental-drill hook and Bobby muttering about how he ‘Stuck a needle in my arm…stuck it in my baby’s heart,’ ‘Can’t Go Back’ rockets straight from the XTRMNTR school of propulsive, night-streaked electro-rock’n’roll. In anyone else’s hands it’d sound try-hard, but it’s impossible to call them a cliché when they invented so many.” CD"Can't Go Back" - 3:45 "Jesus is my Air-o-plane" - 3:077""Can't Go Back" - 3:42 "Urban Guerrilla" - 3:43 Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics

The Irish Confederation was an Irish nationalist independence movement, established on 13 January 1847 by members of the Young Ireland movement who had seceded from Daniel O'Connell's Repeal Association. Historian T. W. Moody described it as "the official organisation of Young Ireland". In June 1846, Sir Robert Peel's Tory Ministry fell, the Whigs under Lord John Russell came to power. Daniel O'Connell, founder of the Repeal Association which campaigned for a repeal of the Act of Union of 1800 between Great Britain and Ireland attempted to move the Association into supporting the Russell administration and English Liberalism; the intention was that Repeal agitation would be damped down in return for a profuse distribution of patronage through Conciliation Hall, home of the Repeal Association. On 15 June 1846 Thomas Francis Meagher denounced English Liberalism in Ireland saying that there was a suspicion that the national cause of Repeal would be sacrificed to the Whig government and that the people who were striving for freedom would be "purchased back into factious vassalage."

Meagher and the other “Young Irelanders", as active Repealers, vehemently denounced in Conciliation Hall any movement towards English political parties, be they Whig or Tory, so long as Repeal was denied. The "Tail" as the "corrupt gang of politicians who fawned on O'Connell" were named, who hoped to gain from the government places decided that the Young Irelanders must be driven from the Repeal Association; the Young Irelanders were to be presented as revolutionaries, factionists and secret enemies of the Church. For this purpose resolutions were introduced to the repeal Association on 13 July which declared that under no circumstances was a nation justified in asserting its liberties by force of arms; the Young Irelanders, as members of the association, had never advocated the use of physical force to advance the cause of repeal and opposed any such policy. Known as the "Peace Resolutions,” they declared that physical force was immoral under any circumstances to obtain national rights. Meagher agreed that only moral and peaceful means should be adopted by the Association, but if it were determined that Repeal could not be carried by those means, a no less honourable one he would adopt though it be more perilous.

The resolutions would again be raised on 28 July in the Association and Meagher would deliver his famous "Sword Speech". Addressing the Peace Resolutions, Meagher held. Under the existing circumstances of the country, any provocation to arms would be senseless and wicked, he dissented from the Resolutions because by assenting to them he would pledged himself to the unqualified repudiation of physical force "in all countries, at all times, in every circumstance." There were times when arms would suffice, when political amelioration called for "a drop of blood, many thousand drops of blood." He "eloquently defended physical force as an agency in securing national freedom." Having been at first semi-hostile, Meagher carried the audience to his side and the plot against the Young Irelanders was placed in peril of defeat. Observing this he was interrupted by O'Connell's son John who declared that either he or Meagher must leave the hall. William Smith O'Brien protested against John O'Connell's attempt to suppress a legitimate expression of opinion, left with other prominent Young Irelanders, never returned.

After negotiations for a reunion had failed, the seceders decided to establish a new organisation which would be called the Irish Confederation. Its founders determined to revive the uncompromising demand for a national Parliament with full legislative and executive powers, they were resolute on a complete prohibition of place-hunting or acceptance of office under the existing Government. They wished to return to the honest policy of the earlier years of the Repeal Association, would be supported by the young men, who had shown their repugnance for the corruption and insincerity of Conciliation Hall by their active sympathy with the seceders. There were extensive indications that many of the Unionist class, in both the cities and among land owners, were resentful of the neglect of Irish needs by the British Parliament since the famine began. What they demanded was vital legislative action to provide both employment and food, to prevent all further export of the corn, cattle and butter which were still leaving the country.

On this there was a general consensus of Irish opinion according to Dennis Gwynn, "such as had not been known since before the Act of Union." The first meeting of the Irish Confederation took place in the Rotunda, Dublin on 13 January 1847. The chairperson for the first meeting was John Shine Lawlor, the honorary secretaries being John Blake Dillon and Charles Gavan Duffy. Duffy would be replaced by Meagher. Ten thousand members would be enrolled, but of the gentry there were few, the middle class stood apart and the Catholic clergy were unfriendly. In view of the poverty of the people, subscriptions would be purely voluntary, the founders of the new movement would bear the cost themselves if necessary. In the 1847 United Kingdom general election, three Irish Confederation candidates stood - Richard O'Gorman in Limerick City, William Smith O'Brien in Limerick County and Thomas Chisholm Anstey in Youghal. O'Brien and Anstey were elected. Joseph Henry Blake William Smith O'Brien Robert Cane Michael Doheny Charles Gavan Duffy D'Arcy McGee Father John Kenyon James Fintan Lalor Terence MacManus Thomas Francis Meagher John Mitchel Thomas Devin Reilly Patrick James Smyth General Doheny, Michael.

The Felon's Track. Dublin: M. H. Gill & Son. Duffy, Charles Ga

"Proposals for concerted operation among the powers at war with the Pyratical states of Barbary" was the title of an identic note written by Thomas Jefferson in 1786, when he was the American ambassador to France. It proposed an intergovernmental military alliance for purposes of instituting a naval blockade of the Ottoman Regency of Algiers, which allowed the Barbary pirates to attack ships; the alliance was never implemented. Pirates operating from North Africa, with the consent of the Dey of Algiers and the rulers of other Barbary states, had been attacking shipping in the Mediterranean since the 1600s. Beginning in the 1700s, European powers negotiated treaties with the Dey to control the pirates in exchange for lavish tributes; the United States first negotiated treaties with Algiers and the other Barbary states in 1784. Under Jefferson's proposal, each state party that entered the alliance would contribute at least one frigate to a combined naval flotilla situated in the Mediterranean Sea, as well as tenders and other support vessels.

Governance of the force would be vested in a council of ministers, consisting of delegates from each state party, to be seated in Versailles and in which delegates would hold votes in proportion to the contributions to the force of the states they represented. Once constituted, the alliance would go to war against Algiers and, upon its defeat, refocus its efforts on other Barbary states. Article IX of the circular suggested binding signatories to continue in the alliance if war broke out among two or more of them. According to Jefferson's autobiography, Naples, the Two Sicilies, Malta and Denmark all responded favorably to the proposal, while Spain and Britain were "doubtful" on the question. Congress, expressed opposition to the idea as a result of lobbying by John Adams and John Jay, the matter died. Depredations against American and European shipping increased in severity in the following years, as did the size of the tributes the rulers of the Barbary states demanded. In June 1800, Sweden and Denmark approached the United States with the idea of a tri-national naval flotilla to escort Swedish and American ships during transits of the Mediterranean.

President of the United States John Adams rejected the proposal, preferring instead to continue paying tributes. The following year, upon Jefferson's ascension to the presidency, American policy changed and the United States went to war against Algiers and Tunis in the First Barbary War. Barbary Wars Collective security History of the United States Hostis humani generis NATO Original text &

Ships in the Forest is a studio album by Irish traditional singer Karan Casey, the first to be released on her own label. The album features much of Casey's live band, as well as her brother-in-law and husband, both members of the band Buille; the album features one song in many Irish traditional songs. There is a song by Joni Mitchell; the album's title is a reference to the last track, the traditional Scots song I Once Loved a Lass, which includes an enigmatic verse that asks "how many ships sail through the forest?" "Love Is Pleasing" "Dunlavin Green" "Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye" "Black Is The Colour" "Town of Athlone" "Maidin Luan Chincíse" "The Fiddle and the Drum" "Erin's Lovely Home" "Ae Fond Kiss" "I Once Loved a Lass" Official website