A switcher or shunter is a small railroad locomotive intended not for moving trains over long distances but rather for assembling trains ready for a road locomotive to take over, disassembling a train that has been brought in, and generally moving railroad cars around – a process usually known as switching or shunting. They do this in classification yards. Switchers may also make short transfer runs and even be the only motive power on branch lines and switching and terminal railroads. The term can also be used to describe the workers operating these engines or engaged in directing shunting operations.
The typical switcher is optimised for its job, being relatively low-powered but with a high starting tractive effort for getting heavy cars rolling quickly. Switchers are geared to produce high torque but are restricted to low top speeds and have small diameter driving wheels. Switchers are rail analogs to tugboats.
US switchers tend to be larger, with bogies to allow them to be used on tight radiuses. European shunters tend to be smaller and more often have fixed axles.


The Simonetti family is an Italian noble family with origins in Tuscany. During the 12th Century different branches in Florence, Terni, Lucca, Pistoia and Pescia developed. Other famous branches of this family were established in Jesi, Palermo, Milan and Bologna.
Members of this family have held different titles since the Middle Ages, among them: Lords of Jesi, Princes of Musone, marquis, Barons in the kingdom of Naples and Rome, counts in the kingdom of Italy and Bologna, senators and Consuls of Rome and the Kingdom of Italy. The Simonetti also held positions in the Republic of Florence and the Republic of Lucca, among them priori of the signoria, gonfaloniere, captains, members of the council of the elders and the leadership of the Guelph party.


In Wealden, the largest of six local government districts in the English county of East Sussex, there are 41 former churches, chapels and places of worship which are now used for other purposes or are disused. The mostly rural district, with five small towns and dozens of villages, has a 1,200-year documented history of Christian worship—a Saxon leader founded a church at Rotherfield in 790—and by the 19th century nearly every settlement had at least one church, as formerly extensive parishes were split up. Some have since fallen out of use because of changing patterns of population or declining attendance, or because they have been superseded by other churches. Protestant Nonconformism, always strong in Sussex, flourished in the area now covered by the district: many Baptist, Methodist and Congregational chapels were built, and although most survive, not all remain in religious use. The district also has more than 130 current places of worship.
English Heritage has awarded listed status to more than 60 current and former church buildings in Wealden.


The International Telecommunication Union, is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for all matters related to information and communication technologies. Established in 1865 as the International Telegraph Union, it is one of the oldest international organizations in operation.
The ITU was initially aimed at helping connect telegraphic networks between countries, with its mandate consistently broadening with the advent of new communications technologies; it adopted its current name in 1934 to reflect its expanded responsibilities over radio and the telephone. On 15 November 1947, the ITU entered into an agreement with the newly created United Nations to become a specialized agency within the UN system, which formally entered into force on 1 January 1949.
The ITU promotes the shared global use of the radio spectrum, facilities international cooperation in assigning satellite orbits, assists in developing and coordinating worldwide technical standards, and works to improve telecommunication infrastructure in the developing world.


Gordon Llewellyn Allott was a Republican American politician.
Allott was born in Pueblo, Colorado to Bertha and Leonard J. Allott; his maternal grandparents were Welsh and his paternal grandparents were English. He graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1927 and from its law school in 1929. Allott was also an athlete in his youth, winning the 440 yd hurdles at the 1929 United States championships. He was admitted to the bar in 1929 and commenced practice in Pueblo. He moved to Lamar, Colorado in 1930 and continued practicing law.
Allott was the county attorney of Prowers County, Colorado in 1934 and from 1941 to 1946. He was also the director of the First Federal Savings & Loan Association of Lamar from 1934 to 1960. He became Lamar's city attorney in 1937, and served in this position until 1941.
During World War II, Allott served as a major in the United States Army Air Forces from 1942 to 1946. After the war he became a district attorney in the fifteenth judicial district from 1946 to 1948.


The Hominy Armory is a single story building measuring 257 feet x 141 feet. It was constructed between 1935 and 1937 by the Works Progress Administration. It originally housed the Hominy National Guard.


Chris Caffery is an American musician, best known for his work as a member of Savatage and the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Recently, Chris has been pursuing a solo career, releasing four albums since 2004.


Meudon Castle, also known as the Royal Castle of Meudon or Imperial Palace of Meudon, is a French castle located in Meudon in the Hauts-de-Seine department. At the edge of a wooded plateau, the castle offers views of Paris and the Seine river, as well as of the valley of Chalais. Located between Paris and Versailles, in the heart of a hunting reserve, the castle has an ideal topography for large gardens. It had many successive owners from the Renaissance until the fall of the Second French Empire. It should not be confused with the Bellevue Castle, also located in Meudon.
Famous past residents include: Anne de Pisseleu d'Heilly, Duchess of Étampes; the Cardinal of Lorraine, Abel Servien; François Michel Le Tellier Marquis de Louvois, and Louis, Grand Dauphin, also known as Monseigneur, who linked the Chaville Castle to Meudon Castle. The Château-Vieux burned down in 1795 and was rebuilt as the Château-Neuf, which in turn burned down in 1871. Demolition was considered, but most of the castle was preserved and became an observatory with an astronomical telescope in 1878, it was then attached to the Observatory of Paris in 1927.


Brockton is an MBTA Commuter Rail station in Brockton, Massachusetts. It serves the MBTA Middleborough/Lakeville Line and is a stop on the CapeFLYER seasonal line. The station consists of a single full-length high-level platform which is fully handicapped accessible. It is located adjacent to the BAT Centre, the primary hub for Brockton Area Transit Authority local bus service.
The first station in the town opened in 1846 on the Fall River Railroad. The railroad helped Brockton grow into a major manufacturing center. In the 1890s, Brockton was the site of the state's first major grade crossing elimination program, which included the construction of a massive stone viaduct and a pair of station buildings designed by Bradford Gilbert. Passenger service ended in 1959, and the station was demolished during an urban renewal program in the 1960s. After two decades of planning, the modern station was opened for commuter rail service by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) in 1997.


Mitromorpha axicostata is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Mitromorphidae.


Wahconah Falls State Park is a small Massachusetts state park in the town of Dalton managed by the Department of Conservation and Recreation. The park protects the scenic waterfall for which it is named.
Wahconah Falls are created where Wahconah Falls Brook makes four individual drops, tumbling over an outcrop of the Becket Gneiss formation. The falls have been described as "rather photogenic" depending on time of year.
Visitors can hike, fish, and picnic. Swimming and wading are also possible.


The tree-line or timberline is the edge of the habitat at which trees can grow. Beyond the tree-line, they are unable to grow as conditions are too bad.
There are several types of tree lines defined in ecology and geology:
Arctic tree-line The farthest north in the Northern Hemisphere that trees can grow; farther north, it is too cold.
Antarctic tree-line The farthest south in the Southern Hemisphere that trees can grow; farther south, it is too cold as well.
Alpine tree-line The highest height where trees grow: higher up, it is too cold, or snow covers the ground for too much of the year. The climate above the tree-line is called an alpine climate.
Exposure tree-line On coasts and isolated mountains, the tree-line is often much lower than in corresponding altitudes inland and in larger, more complex mountain systems, because strong winds reduce tree growth.
Desert tree-line The places where trees cannot grow as there is too little rainfall.
Toxic tree-line The environment is too extreme for trees to grow.


Modern Style or Glasgow Style is a style of art that lasted from the 1880s until 1914. It is an Art Nouveau style specific to Great Britain due to its roots in the Arts and Crafts. Britain not only provided the base and intellectual background for the style upon which local styles of other countries added variation, distinction, and uniqueness, they also played an over-sized role in its dissemination and cultivation through the Liberty and The Studio magazine. The most important person in the field of design in general and architecture, in particular, was Charles Rennie Mackintosh. He created one of the iconic symbols of the movement, known as the Mackintosh rose or Glasgow rose. The Glasgow school was also of tremendous importance, particularly due to a group closely associated with Mackintosh, known as The Four. The Liberty store nurturing of style gave birth to two metalware lines, Cymric and Tudric.
Archibald Knox was a defining person of these lines and metalware of the style. In the field of ceramic and glass Christopher Dresser is a standout figure.


The protected areas of Chile are areas that have natural beauty or significant historical value protected by the government of Chile. These protected areas cover over 140,000 km², which is 19% of the territory of Chile. The National System of Protected Wild Areas is regulated by law #18,362 passed in 1984, and administered by the National Forest Corporation.
There are three types of territories:
National Parks
National Reserves
Natural Monuments


Angel of Grief or the Weeping Angel is an 1894 sculpture by William Wetmore Story for the grave of his wife Emelyn Story at the Protestant Cemetery in Rome. Its full title bestowed by the creator was The Angel of Grief Weeping Over the Dismantled Altar of Life.
This was Story's last major work prior to his death, a year after his wife. The statue's creation was documented in an 1896 issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine: according to this account, his wife's death so devastated Story that he lost interest in sculpture, but was inspired to create the monument by his children, who recommended it as a means of memorializing the woman. Unlike the typical angelic grave art, "this dramatic life-size winged figure speaks more of the pain of those left behind" by appearing "collapsed, weeping and draped over the tomb".
The term is now used to describe multiple grave stones throughout the world erected in the style of the Story stone. A feature in The Guardian called the design "one of the most copied images in the world". Story himself wrote that "It represents the angel of Grief, in utter abandonment, throwing herself with drooping wings and hidden face over a funeral altar.


Páll Ólafsson was an Icelandic poet and one of the most popular poets of the nation of the 19th century, known for poems about love and about horses.
Many of his poems were made into popular song, such as Lóan er komin and Ó blessuð vertu sumarsól.


The downy woodpecker is a species of woodpecker, the smallest in North America.


John Work Garrett was an American diplomat. His postings included Minister to Venezuela, Argentina, and the Netherlands, and Ambassador to Italy.


Sabacon is a genus of the harvestman family Sabaconidae with about forty species.
Species of this genus have usually thickened pedipalps with stiff, fine hairs, which is unique among harvestmen. Although the small eye tubercle is usually not ornamented, there is a spine on one Nepalese species. Males have long, thin legs, females are stouter.
The genus is widespread in the temperate northern hemisphere, even extending into the subarctic, with the most southern records from caves in the southeastern United States and high elevations in Nepal. The center of diversification seems to be in Asia, where many species were described from Japan, Korea and Nepal. Some species occur in Europe.
While the Asian and North American species are easy to differententiate from one another by male genital traits, the few European species are very similar, and seem to be closely related to S. cavicolens. S. mitchelli, which, like the larger S. cavicolens, occurs in the eastern US, is quite different from the latter, with males lacking cheliceral glands. Species from the western US seem most closely related to Asian forms.


Positivism is a philosophical theory which states that "positive" knowledge is exclusively derived from experience of natural phenomena and their properties and relations. Thus, information derived from sensory experience, as interpreted through reason and logic, forms the exclusive source of all certain knowledge. Positivism therefore holds that all genuine knowledge is a posteriori knowledge.
Verified data received from the senses are known as empirical evidence; thus positivism is based on empiricism.
Positivism also holds that society, like the physical world, operates according to general laws. Introspective and intuitive knowledge is rejected, as are metaphysics and theology because metaphysical and theological claims cannot be verified by sense experience. Although the positivist approach has been a recurrent theme in the history of western thought, the modern approach was formulated by the philosopher Auguste Comte in the early 19th century. Comte argued that, much as the physical world operates according to gravity and other absolute laws, so does society.


Newmills is a small village in east County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, 3 miles from Dungannon and 2 miles from Coalisland. Newmills gets its name from a corn mill and kilns that formerly stood in the area. Local amenities include a primary school, a local shop and a number of churches. It currently has a population of approximately 400 people. The River Torrent flows through the village.
The most prominent feature of the village is the war memorial in the centre of the village. The old village pub, the VC Inn, was named after Robert Morrow's Victoria Cross. Newmills also has a primary school consisting of approximately 100 students and 4 teachers. It also has 3 churches, Wright's Tyre Garage, a children's playgroup, with three staff and 24 children and a football pitch.


The Museum of the Year Award, formerly known as the Gulbenkian Prize and the Art Fund Prize, is an annual prize awarded to a museum or gallery in the United Kingdom for a "track record of imagination, innovation and excellence". The award of £100,000, is Britain's biggest single art prize, and the largest single museum arts prize in the world. The prize and is presented to a museum or gallery, large or small, anywhere in the UK, whose entry, in the opinion of the judges, best demonstrates a track record of imagination, innovation and excellence through work mainly undertaken during the previous calendar year.


Nieuw Bergen is a town in the Dutch province of Limburg. It is a part of the municipality of Bergen and lies about 28 km north of Venlo.
In 2001, Nieuw Bergen had 4155 inhabitants. The built-up area of the town was 1.01 km², and contained 1683 residences.
In 1988, two British Royal Air Force soldiers were killed in the town.


Yamhill is a city in Yamhill County, Oregon, United States. Located in the northern part of the county, it is situated at the intersection of Oregon Route 47 and Oregon Route 240. The population was 1,024 at the 2010 census. Originally named North Yamhill, it was incorporated under that name by the Oregon Legislative Assembly on February 20, 1891.


Leila Pinheiro is a Brazilian Bossa Nova singer, pianist and composer. Her self-titled debut album had the guest performances of Tom Jobim, João Donato, Ivan Lins, Francis Hime, and Toninho Horta, and she later went on to perform with great names such as Zimbo Trio, Pat Metheny, Baden Powell, Toquinho, and others.


Lake Chūzenji is a scenic lake in Nikkō National Park in the city of Nikkō, Tochigi Prefecture, Japan. It was created 20,000 years ago when Mount Nantai erupted and blocked the river.
The lake has a surface area of 11.62 km² and a circumference of 25 km. Its elevation at the surface is 1,269 m, and the water reaches a depth of 163 m. The Yukawa River is the principal source of water. It drains through the Kegon Falls.
Chuzenji Lake was discovered in 782 by a priest named Shōdō when his group succeeded in climbing Mt. Nantai. Considered sacred, the mountain was closed to women, horses, and cows until 1872. In the middle of the Meiji period and early Showa period, many European embassies built vacation houses around the lake. The former Italian villa has been renewed and is now open to visitors. Other sites around the lake include Futara Shrine built in 790, Chuzenji Temple, and Kegon Falls.
In spring, cherry blossoms are blooming. In summer, people can escape the heat and enjoy bird watching and hiking. In fall of course, there are the famous beautiful autumn leaves and in winter there is the Snow and Ice Festival, plus winter sports like skiing and skating.


Starting in May 2020, demonstrations over the police killing of George Floyd have been held in the city of Portland, Oregon, concurrent with protests in other cities around the United States and around the world. As of July 2020, many of the protests, which have been held every day since May 28, have drawn more than 1,000 participants.
Some of the protests in Portland have been peaceful, but some have involved injury, vandalism, arson, looting, and heated confrontations with police, sometimes involving injury to protesters and police, declaration of riot, and use of tear gas and other less-lethal weapons.
In early July, the federal government deployed law enforcement officers to Portland to protect federal property. The deployment has been criticized for not clearly identifying officers and seizing protesters not on or near federal property, including by Portland's mayor and most of the state's congressional delegation. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection service defended the practice on the grounds protecting the officers' personal safety.


Underwater divers are people who take part in underwater diving activities – Underwater diving is practiced as part of an occupation, or for recreation, where the practitioner submerges below the surface of the water or other liquid for a period which may range between seconds to order of a day at a time, either exposed to the ambient pressure or isolated by a pressure resistant suit, to interact with the underwater environment for pleasure, competitive sport, or as a means to reach a work site for profit or in the pursuit of knowledge, and may use no equipment at all, or a wide range of equipment which may include breathing apparatus, environmental protective clothing, aids to vision, communication, propulsion, maneuverability, buoyancy and safety equipment, and tools for the task at hand.


The Twante Canal is a canal that connects the Irrawaddy River and the Yangon river in Myanmar. The 35 km canal is a heavily used short cut between the city of Yangon and the Irrawaddy Division. The canal is named after the town of Twante, located near the canal's mid-way point. The canal was the quickest route from Yangon to the Irrawaddy Delta until the 1990s when roads between Yangon and the Irrawaddy Division became usable year round. The canal is still heavily used.
Due to the lack of regular maintenance, the canal has become silted and narrower over the years. In 2010, the mouth of the canal was widened by 600 feet. However, plans to put in concrete embankments were yet to be carried out, and the navigation problems still remain. Twante Bridge is only bridge that spans the Twante Canal


A chariot is a type of transport used by many ancient civilisations and people. A chariot is horse-drawn, meaning that is pulled along by horses. A person who rides a chariot is called a charioteer.
Ancient Greek myths says that Poseidon, god of the sea, and Athena, goddess of wisdom, created the chariot together. Poseidon created the horses like waves, and Athena made the chariot. The two gods worked together.


Ellipsocephalus is an extinct genus of blind trilobite that lived during the Cambrian. The genus comprises benthic species inhabiting deep, poorly lit or aphotic habitats. E. hoffi is a common trilobite mainly from central Europe.


The HTC Droid Incredible was a smartphone manufactured by HTC Corporation using the Android operating system. It was released on April 29, 2010, and is available through Verizon Wireless only. The device is similar to the Sprint HTC Evo 4G. The device has been succeeded by the HTC Incredible S and the HTC ThunderBolt. The device's "end of life" was March 30, 2011.


SCART is a French-originated standard and associated 21-pin connector for connecting audio-visual equipment. The name SCART comes from Syndicat des Constructeurs d'Appareils Radiorécepteurs et Téléviseurs, "Radio and Television Receiver Manufacturers' Association", the French organisation that created the connector in the mid-1970s. The related European standard EN 50049 has been then refined and published in 1978 by CENELEC, calling it peritelevision, but it is commonly called by the abbreviation péritel in French.
The signals carried by SCART include both composite and RGB video, stereo audio input/output and digital signalling. The standard was extended at the end of the 1980s to support the new S-Video signals. A TV can be awakened from standby mode, and it can automatically switch to appropriate AV channel, when the device attached to it through a SCART connector is turned on. SCART connection was also used for high definition signals like 720i, 720p, 1080i, 1080p with YPbPr connection by some manufacturers, but to the present day this connection is very scarce due to the advent of HDMI.


Karlskrona Municipality is a municipality in Blekinge County in South Sweden in southern Sweden. It borders to Emmaboda Municipality, Torsås Municipality and Ronneby Municipality. The city of Karlskrona is the seat of the municipality.
Like most Swedish municipalities it was created during the municipal reform in the early seventies, combining several earlier local government units of urban and rural type, among them the City of Karlskrona.


Lex was the first active duty, fully fit military working dog to be granted early retirement in order to be adopted. Working for his United States Marine Corps handler Corporal Dustin J. Lee in the Iraq War, he was wounded in an attack that killed Lee, and subsequently awarded an honorary Purple Heart.