War is intense armed conflict between states, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries and militias. It is characterized by extreme violence, aggression and mortality, using regular or irregular military forces. Warfare refers of wars in general. Total war is warfare, not restricted to purely legitimate military targets, can result in massive civilian or other non-combatant suffering and casualties; the scholarly study of war is sometimes called polemology, from the Greek polemos, meaning "war", -logy, meaning "the study of". While some scholars see war as a universal and ancestral aspect of human nature, others argue it is a result of specific socio-cultural, economic or ecological circumstances; the English word war derives from the 11th-century Old English words wyrre and werre, from Old French werre, in turn from the Frankish *werra deriving from the Proto-Germanic *werzō'mixture, confusion'. The word is related to the Old Saxon werran, Old High German werran, the German verwirren, meaning “to confuse”, “to perplex”, “to bring into confusion”.

Asymmetric warfare is a conflict between belligerents of drastically different levels of military capability or size. Biological warfare, or germ warfare, is the use of weaponized biological toxins or infectious agents such as bacteria and fungi. Chemical warfare involves the use of weaponized chemicals in combat. Poison gas as a chemical weapon was principally used during World War I, resulted in over a million estimated casualties, including more than 100,000 civilians. Cold warfare is an intense international rivalry without direct military conflict, but with a sustained threat of it, including high levels of military preparations and development, may involve active conflicts by indirect means, such as economic warfare, political warfare, covert operations, cyberwarfare, or proxy wars. Conventional warfare is declared war between states in which nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons are not used or see limited deployment. Cyberwarfare involves the actions by a nation-state or international organization to attack and attempt to damage another nation's information systems.

Insurgency is a rebellion against authority, when those taking part in the rebellion are not recognized as belligerents. An insurgency can be fought via counter-insurgency warfare, may be opposed by measures to protect the population, by political and economic actions of various kinds aimed at undermining the insurgents' claims against the incumbent regime. Information warfare is the application of destructive force on a large scale against information assets and systems, against the computers and networks that support the four critical infrastructures. Nuclear warfare is warfare in which nuclear weapons are the primary, or a major, method of achieving capitulation. Total war is warfare by any means possible, disregarding the laws of war, placing no limits on legitimate military targets, using weapons and tactics resulting in significant civilian casualties, or demanding a war effort requiring significant sacrifices by the friendly civilian population. Unconventional warfare, the opposite of conventional warfare, is an attempt to achieve military victory through acquiescence, capitulation, or clandestine support for one side of an existing conflict.

The earliest evidence for prehistoric warfare belongs to the Mesolithic cemetery Site 117, determined to be 14,000 years old. About forty-five percent of the skeletons there displayed signs of violent death. Since the rise of the state some 5,000 years ago, military activity has occurred over much of the globe; the advent of gunpowder and the acceleration of technological advances led to modern warfare. According to Conway W. Henderson, "One source claims that 14,500 wars have taken place between 3500 BC and the late 20th century, costing 3.5 billion lives, leaving only 300 years of peace." An unfavorable review of this estimate mentions the following regarding one of the proponents of this estimate: "In addition feeling that the war casualties figure was improbably high, he changed "approximately 3,640,000,000 human beings have been killed by war or the diseases produced by war" to "approximately 1,240,000,000 human beings...&c."" The lower figure is more plausible, but could be on the high side, considering that the 100 deadliest acts of mass violence between 480 BC and 2002 AD claimed about 455 million human lives in total.

Primitive warfare is estimated to have accounted for 15.1 % of deaths and claimed 400 million victims. Added to the aforementioned figure of 1,240 million between 3500 BC and the late 20th century, this would mean a total of 1,640,000,000 people killed by war throughout the history and pre-history of mankind. For comparison, an estimated 1,680,000,000 people died from infectious diseases in the 20th century. Nuclear warfare breaking out in August 1988, when nuclear arsenals were at peak level, the aftermath thereof, could have reduced human population from 5,150,000,000 by 1,850,000,000 to 3,300,000,000 within a period of about one year, according to a projection that did not consider "the most severe predictions concerning nuclear winter"; this would have been a proportional reduction of the world's population exceeding the reduction caused in the 14th century by the Black Death, comparable in proportional terms with the pl

The Switzer Covered Bridge, located off Rocky Branch Rd. over North Elkhorn Creek, in or near Switzer, was built around 1855. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974, it is 11 feet wide. It was built by George Hockensmith; the bridge was saved. Instead of destroying and replacing this bridge, the State Highways Department installed a new bridge adjacent to it; the bridge was closed to automotive traffic in 1954. The correct length of the Switzer Bridge is 120' not 60' It is a single span; the statement that it was saved from destruction is correct, but it should be stated that it was through the efforts of local magistrate Harrold Cunningham. Cunningham ascertained that the bridge belonged to the county not the state and that they had no authority to demolish it. Construction was completed in late summer, 1953 and the bridge was closed to traffic at that time, not 1954; the concrete bridge built to replace it was named for Cunningham. Robert W. M. Laughlin

Concarneau is a commune in the Finistère department of Brittany in north-western France. Concarneau is bordered to the west by the Baie de La Forêt; the town has two distinct areas: the modern town on the mainland and the medieval Ville Close, a walled town on a long island in the centre of the harbour. The old town was a centre of shipbuilding; the Ville Close is now devoted to tourism with many shops aimed at tourists. However restraint has been shown in resisting the worst excesses of souvenir shops. In the Ville Close is the fishing museum; the Ville Close is connected to the town by a bridge and at the other end a ferry to the village of Lanriec on the other side of the harbour. In August the town holds the annual Fête des Filets Bleus; the festival, named after the traditional blue nets of Concarneau's fishing fleet, is a celebration of Breton and pan-Celtic culture. Such festivals can occur throughout Brittany but the Filets Bleus is one of the oldest and largest, attracting in excess of a thousand participants in traditional dress with many times that number of observers.

In 2005, the 100th festival was celebrated. Concarneau was the setting for Belgian mystery writer Georges Simenon's 1931 novel Le Chien jaune, featuring his celebrated sleuth Maigret. Fishing for tuna, has long been the primary economic activity in Concarneau; the Les Mouettes d'Arvor is one of the last traditional canning factories in Concarneau. Concarneau is one of the biggest fishing ports in France. Since the 1980s, other industries have arisen, such as summer tourism; the Ville Close separates the working port from the yacht basin. Inhabitants of Concarneau are called in French Concarnois. In 2008, 2.16% of primary-school children attended bilingual schools. The football club US Concarneau is based in the town. Michel Desjoyeaux, navigator Samantha Davies, sailor Guy Cotten, founder of a clothes factory Stéphane Guivarc'h, French footballer, won the FIFA World Cup 1998 with the French national side Théophile Deyrolle and Alfred Guillou, founders of the Concarneau Art Colony. Valérie Hermann President of Ralph Lauren Twinned towns: Bielefeld, Germany since 1969 M'bour, Senegal since 1974 Penzance, United Kingdom since 1982 Communes of the Finistère department Walled town of Concarneau Calypso Lionel Floch Fernand-Marie-Eugène Le Gout-Gérard Henri Alphonse Barnoin Henri Guinier INSEE Official website |Concarneau Cultural Heritage French Ministry of Culture list for Concarneau