text:
New coaching regime helping Ireland
Odran Flynn (CricketEurope
The die was cast for the World Cup Qualifying squad once an inspired Paul Stirling led Ireland to victory against Afghanistan last month in Sharjah.
The fourteen players in the Sharjah squad plus of course Ed Joyce when he was fit again were, bar injury, almost certain to go to Zimbabwe in March. This would mean that eight of the eleven who played in the iconic win over England are still in the squad with only the retired Trent Johnson, Alex Cusack and the retired and then unretired John Mooney missing.
The likelihood that the Sharjah group would be the World Cup squad was effectively confirmed when the squad for the current Tri-Series in Dubai was announced with only Tim Murtagh being omitted in order to rest him for the battles ahead. Interestingly he was replaced by Andy McBrine which suggests that if he performs well with his off spin he could get yet slip in under the radar.
While it certainly would not be at the expense of Murtagh, neither Stuart Poynter nor Jacob Mulder can be as confident of their place as they might have felt in the immediate aftermath of the triumph against the Afghans. While McBrine's batting was disappointing in 2017, 23 runs at an average of 5.75, he did take 8 wickets at an average of 25.1 with an economy rate of 3.9. He came into the team for the second match against UAE last week and got two key wickets while only conceding 40 runs from his ten overs. The new Ireland selection panel led by Andrew White may well remember McBrine's performance against West Indies in Nelson at the last World Cup when his 10 overs for just 26 runs was a major factor in preventing the men from the Caribbean getting off to the start they must have anticipated.
Mulder is a curious case in that he was awarded the Sunday Independent Aengus Fanning International Emerging Player of the Year at the Cricket Ireland Awards last November yet has only played one match for Ireland since March against Afghanistan in Greater Noida despite being in every squad. In that one game against Netherlands in August he never looked particularly threatening and when I saw him in the final 3 day Inter-Pro match in Clontarf in September he, quite frankly, looked disinterested.
After a decent start for Ireland A against Bangladesh A last October his performance levels fell away and although he was in the squad for the final I Cup match versus Scotland and the three ODI's against Afghanistan he never got on the park and wasn't picked for either of the two matches against UAE. New bowling coach Rob Cassell has persisted with trying to turn him into a match winner but it would be very odd if he went to Zimbabwe without playing in at least one of the two matches against Scotland this week. Having watched him quite a few times throughout the past season it appears to me that the zip had gone from his action over the second half of the season and this may in part be due to him no longer driving through with his leading arm which is essential for a successful leg spinner.
Hopefully it can be resolved as a good wrist spinner is a vital component to an international bowling attack.
Poynter has had quite a few opportunities over the last couple of years but while he regularly gotten into double figures he seems to be unable to kick on. The promise generated by his blistering century against Sri Lanka A in Stormont in July 2014 has never really materialised.
It appears that Andrew White has decided to go with the collective after the Afghanistan series rather that concentrate on individual performances. His thinking could be that at every World Cup since the initial breakthrough in 2007 Ireland have exceeded all expectations despite less than stellar pre tournament form.
Indeed the acclimatisation tour of Australasia in late 2014, of which White was a part until he shattered his finger taking a return catch off his only delivery on tour, filled most observers with dread such was the horrendous displays by many of that squad.
Yet only a few months later, largely the same group of players won three matches and narrowly lost out on the quarter finals on run rate.
Without doubt the Afghanistan series win was the best performance by the side since the 2015 World Cup. The batting was led by Paul Stirling who yet again demonstrated that the much vaunted Afghan bowling attack, especially their spinners, held no fear for him. His 188 runs were 62 more than anyone else on either side and he now has an aggregate in ODI's against this opposition of 665 runs in 16 matches at an average of 44.3.
Yet other than Stirling only George Dockrell, with a superb 48 ball unbeaten 62 in the second ODI ensured Ireland set a target that was beyond the reach of the opposition, got to 50 as the sequence of low scores by many of the top order in the past year continued. The problem is that, as I have written a number of times previously, the lack of proper development opportunities has meant that the current squad has had little in the way of pressure put on them for their places.
Fortunately the instigation of a meaningful A team program together with the enhanced Academy system, is in the process of changing this. There is now real hope that a new generation of talented players such as the Tector brothers, Nathan Smith, David Delany, Josh Little, James McCollum and a revitalised James Shannon will bolster the squad in the not too distant future.
In my view the key difference has been the bowling performance and there is no doubt in my mind that this is largely due to the influence of Rob Cassell. I watched the live streaming from Sharjah on an Afghanistan TV station and the significant difference was the much tighter line bowled by all of the attack. The Afghan batsmen couldn't free their arms to anything like the same extent that they had been able to do in the past and which of course have also been exploited by most of the others countries Ireland have faced.
The use of variations has been much more subtle, particularly in the type and length of slower balls, and has brought quite a few wickets. While much work still needs to be done and there will still be bad days, there is no doubt in my mind that progress is being made. A measure of that progress is that in their last seven innings, two in I Cup match against Scotland, three ODI's against Afghanistan and the two ODI's against UAE, Ireland have not conceded more than 238 runs in any of those innings.
The return of a fit Boyd Rankin has given a cutting edge to the attack and his bowling in Sharjah and the first UAE ODI last week demonstrated how much his firepower was missed last March in Greater Noida. Even that old war horse Tim Murtagh has proved you are never too old to learn new tricks when his economy rate in Sharjah was 2.9 compared to 5.1 last March.
However the biggest difference was that Barry McCarthy got an extended run in the side. It is inexplicable to me how McCarthy was regularly overlooked by the Bracewell/Porterfield axis. From his debut against Sri Lanka in Malahide in June 2016, when he got a wicket with his second ball, he was not selected for ten of the 23 ODI's up to and including the first Afghanistan match last month. He has now played in 17 ODI's and has taken at least one wicket in all but one match which was against Australia in Benoni in September 2016.
In the entire history of ODI cricket which as of today (15th January) stands at 3952 matches, 689 players have bowled at least 100 overs. Of all of those bowlers only EIGHT have a strike rate of less than 25. Top of the list is former West Indies all rounder and current South Africa coach Otis Gibson whose 34 wickets came at a strike rate of 21.7. Gibson is followed by the young Afghanistan wrist spinning sensation Rashid Khan who strikes at a rate of 22.2 balls for each of his 70 wickets. In third place is Barry McCarthy who has taken 37 wickets at 23.4.
Yet McCarthy was not considered good enough for almost half of all the ODI's for which he was available. In case anyone thinks that his figures up to last month were justification for his omission then consider that his strike rate for those first 13 matches was 25.5 which would still have left him in 10th place on the list. Also bear in mind that until the UAE games last week all of his previous 15 matches were against Full Members or Afghanistan the year before they attained that status.
His economy rate may be almost 6 runs per over but he gets people out because he attacks the stumps and the outside edge from a full length. The great Michael Holding has always maintained that he would rather take 5 for 60 over 0 for 30 any day. Greater experience and a captain who shows confidence in him will inevitability improve his economy rate and let us remember that if every bowler in the team was striking at the rate that McCarthy achieves Ireland wouldn't concede more than 240 in a match.
Despite taking 48 first class wickets for Durham in just over a year McCarthy has never been selected for a red ball match for Ireland.
Incidentally on that list of strike rates at number six with a rate of 24.3 is Craig Young who has been bedevilled by injury and occasionally selector brain freeze. It is remarkable that in the top six strike rates of all time there are two Irishmen and an Afghanistani.
The only thing that matters for the next two months is getting the preparation right for Zimbabwe.
The two UAE matches gave valuable and much needed runs for Andrew Balbirnie and Gary Wilson while Ed Joyce and William Porterfield reinforced how crucial they are to this side. All the bowlers performed well and Niall O'Brien set a new Ireland record for catches in a match. Hopefully this surge of form will continue in the Scotland games and rebuild the confidence levels that were so essential to the success of this side from 2007-2015.
Today's Qualifying draw is not easy but as Ireland is ranked below West Indies, Zimbabwe and Afghanistan it was always going to be tough. The new 13th addition to the ODI table Netherlands will be formidable but Ireland has prevailed against the odds before. Whether or not everyone agrees with the squad I hope that with the new Management and coaching structure in place most of the mistakes of the past two years can be avoided and the Blarney army will light up the grounds in England next year.
The under 19's have been very unfortunate in their preparations for their World Cup campaign. Weather prevented them getting on the park for three of their four warm up matches and the lack of sharpness told in their defeat against Sri Lanka in their opening match.
However they gave an excellent account of themselves. The Fingal openers Jamie Grassi and Mark Donegan give them an excellent start but a couple of run outs stalled the progress and the final score of 206 for 8 was probably some 70 short. Two early wickets by Munster speedster Aaron Cawley give initial hope of an upset but a fine century by opener Lakshan took the game away from Ireland.
In the one warm up match that was played Ireland fought hard against a very strong England team. Josh Little with bat and ball stood out while the skipper Harry Tector scored an excellent century against an attack that with one exception have all featured in County Second XI's with their Captain Harry Brook playing five games for Yorkshire firsts.
Ireland should be able to be competitive in their remaining two group games against Pakistan and Afghanistan. This experience will stand all of this squad in good stead for the future and I fully expect several of this team to feature in the Wolves team later in the year.
There is no doubt that ESPNCricinfo has been a tremendous asset to the cricketing world. Now that Ireland is a Full Member it would be reasonable to expect more detailed and focused comment and articles.
In light of this it was extremely disappointing that in their review of 2017 for each of the countries the Ireland piece was written by someone who is a very infrequent visitor to this island. To be able to write a coherent analysis he draws upon much of the work of home based writers and commentators.
Ireland cricket deserves better and there is no shortage of experienced writers who actually go and see matches at all levels so as to properly gauge the future prospects for our International sides. For example there is Ger Siggins who has thirty years writing about cricket and has been a contributor to Cricinfo. There is of course Ian Callender who has been the text ball by ball commentator on over 500 Ireland matches not to mention countless under age, A team and Interprovincial matches and club games. He is also a well respected cricket journalist who contributes to many newspapers on the island.
They also have their own excellent Cricinfo ball by ball text commentator Justin Smyth. All of these and many others have much more relevant and insightful knowledge of the Ireland cricket scene than someone who rarely sees in the flesh the events and characters associated with the game here.
Let us hope that as Ireland moves towards its first Test Cricinfo gives it the respect it deserves by showcasing the talents of those who kept cricket in the public domain here for many years often against the odds.
The shocking sudden death of Davy Holmes at just 54 years of age has sent tremors though the cricketing community on the island. While I had occasionally came across him in Belfast I never really had a conversation of any note with him until the abandoned West Indies match in Stormont last September. It then transpired that the following month we were both on the Cricket Ireland awards panel and after the official deliberations were over, we together with Cricket Ireland President Brian Walsh spent a very enjoyable couple of hours chatting mostly but not exclusively about the game we all loved.
His enthusiasm and knowledge of the game was a joy to behold and the mischievous glint in his eye when telling stories of various events enhanced every sentence.
I last saw him at the awards night itself in Dublin in November where he was in his element with that glint to the forefront. Fortunately Brenda Hand took a photograph of the cricket writers on the night and it is on the Cricket Europe website.
Many people knew him a great deal better than I did but I can see why there was such an outpouring of genuine tributes. Hopefully his family can take some comfort from these.


text:
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
<?php

// This file is part of Moodle - http://moodle.org/
//
// Moodle is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
// it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
// the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
// (at your option) any later version.
//
// Moodle is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
// but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
// MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
// GNU General Public License for more details.
//
// You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
// along with Moodle.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.

defined('MOODLE_INTERNAL') || die();

$string['addmorechoices'] = 'Добавить больше вариантов';
$string['allowupdate'] = 'Разрешить изменение выбора';
$string['answered'] = 'Получено ответов';
$string['atleastoneoption'] = 'Вы должны выбрать по крайней мере один из возможных ответов.';
$string['choice'] = 'Вариант ответа';
$string['choice:choose'] = 'Записывать выбор';
$string['choiceclose'] = 'Опрос закрывается';
$string['choice:deleteresponses'] = 'Удалять ответы';
$string['choice:downloadresponses'] = 'Скачивать ответы';
$string['choicefull'] = 'Этот вариант заполнен и больше места нет';
$string['choicename'] = 'Название опроса';
$string['choiceopen'] = 'Опрос открывается';
$string['choiceoptions'] = 'Варианты ответа';
$string['choiceoptions_help'] = '
Варианты ответа

Здесь вы можете написать варианты, из которых учеником будет выбираться ответ.

Вы можете заполнить любое количество вариантов (допускается оставлять поля пустыми).';
$string['choice:readresponses'] = 'Просматривать ответы';
$string['choicesaved'] = 'Ваш выбор сохранен';
$string['choicetext'] = 'Текст опроса';
$string['chooseaction'] = 'Выберите действие...';
$string['completionsubmit'] = 'Показать как завершенный, когда пользователь сделает выбор';
$string['displayhorizontal'] = 'Отображать горизонтально';
$string['displaymode'] = 'Режим отображения';
$string['displayvertical'] = 'Отображать вертикально';
$string['expired'] = 'Извините эта активность закрыта {$a} и более недоступна';
$string['fillinatleastoneoption'] = 'Вы должны указать как минимум два возможных ответа';
$string['full'] = '(Заполнено)';
$string['havetologin'] = 'Для того, чтобы Вы могли участвовать в опросе, Вам необходимо войти под Вашей учетной записью, либо создать новую, если у Вас ее нет.';
$string['limit'] = 'Предел';
$string['limitanswers'] = 'Ограничивать число возможных выборов каждого варианта';
$string['limitanswers_help'] = 'Этот параметр позволяет ограничить число участников, которые могут выбрать конкретный вариант ответа. Когда при опросе указанное количество учеников выберут соответствующий вариант ответа, для остальных учеников он станет недоступен.

Если режим выключен, то любое число учеников может выбрать конкретный вариант ответа.';
$string['modulename'] = 'Опрос';
$string['modulename_help'] = 'Модуль опроса позволяет учителям создавать опрос, в том числе опрос с множественным выбором.';
$string['modulenameplural'] = 'Опросы';
$string['moveselectedusersto'] = 'Переместить выбранных пользователей в ...';
$string['mustchooseone'] = 'Вы должны выбрать вариант для сохранения. Ничего не было сохранено.';
$string['noguestchoose'] = 'Извините, гость не может участвовать в опросе.';
$string['noresultsviewable'] = 'Вы не можете в данный момент просматривать результаты опроса.';
$string['notanswered'] = 'Еще не ответили';
$string['notenrolledchoose'] = 'Извините, только участники курса могут участвовать в опросе.';
$string['notopenyet'] = 'Извините, данное действие недоступно до {$a}';
$string['numberofuser'] = 'Количество пользователей';
$string['option'] = 'Вариант';
$string['pluginadministration'] = 'Управление опросом';
$string['pluginname'] = 'Опрос';
$string['privacy'] = 'Конфиденциальность ответов';
$string['publish'] = 'Публикация результатов опроса';
$string['publishafteranswer'] = 'Показывать результаты студентам после их ответа';
$string['publishafterclose'] = 'Показывать результаты студентам только после закрытия опроса';
$string['publishalways'] = 'Всегда показывать результаты студентам';
$string['publishanonymous'] = 'Выводить обезличенные результаты опроса, без отображения имен студентов';
$string['publishnames'] = 'Выводить подробные результаты опроса, с отображением имен студентов и выбранных вариантов';
$string['publishnot'] = 'Не показывать результаты студентам';
$string['removemychoice'] = 'Удалить мой выбор';
$string['removeresponses'] = 'Удалить все ответы';
$string['responses'] = 'Ответы';
$string['responsesto'] = 'Ответ на {$a}';
$string['savemychoice'] = 'Сохранить мой выбор';
$string['showunanswered'] = 'Отображать колонку «Еще не ответили»';
$string['skipresultgraph'] = 'Пропустить график результатов';
$string['spaceleft'] = 'доступное место';
$string['spacesleft'] = 'доступные места';
$string['taken'] = 'Использовано';
$string['timerestrict'] = 'Ограничить время проведения опроса';
$string['viewallresponses'] = 'Просмотреть ответы: {$a}';
$string['withselected'] = 'С выбранными';
$string['yourselection'] = 'Ваш выбор';

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


The 3'x3' Pump Tank (New Style) is a single chamber pump station for residential use. For installations after a septic tank, pump tanks are outfitted with an effluent pump. For pump tanks that are 'direct fed' (including solids), require a solids handling or grinder pump.
Included in our pump tanks: an indoor control panel, pump (effluent/solids handling/grinder), high water alarm and direct burial tray cable. Outdoor control panels available, by request.


text:
Home / AI is the new MVP in sports
AI is the new MVP in sports
Sameer Dhanrajani
AI Interventions For Industry Segments And Business Functions, Consulting, Enterprises
Over the last few years, technology has been rapidly permeating the sporting arena — from DRS in cricket to VAR (video assistant referee) and goal-line technology in football. Moneyball – the seminal book and movie on the use of analytics for smarter player acquisition – was the tipping point in how analytics and AI could be gainfully used in managing the business of sports better.
For years, avid sports fans around the world have had the topline analytics for their favourite players and teams at their fingertips. From there, today carrying analytics on player performance is seeing a massive data detonation. Sports analytics is no longer a mere water-cooler conversation. It is increasingly a specialised science that is rapidly informing the way professional sports team pick, monitor and coach players – in the process, even transforming the way a game is played.
As sports become more competitive, the margin for error is becoming smaller than ever. Teams need to incorporate every possible scientific element that helps improve player performance for a sustained improvement in their rankings. One such science being co-opted in sports is Artificial Intelligence – which is now a key component in the way teams identify players with high potential, monitor in-game progress to provide feedback and provide coaching for long-term success to players. Let us unpack these three crucial areas and see how AI is playing a key role in managing sports teams.
1. Identifying Top Stars
With a wealth of data available right from lower rungs to youth team records, AI can be hugely decisive in scouting for players likely to be mainstays of the senior levels of sport for years to come. By ingesting performance data for each player from their very first game, AI can uncover youth players who have a strong potential or can complement existing players in the team.
Union Minister of State for Youth Affairs and Sports Rajyavardhan Rathore believes that AI will help sports pick future stars. His plan is for the Indian government to create a database of nearly 3 crore young children in the age group of 5 to 18 years, who will be further refined and trained based on their abilities in different sports.
2. Performance and Insights
The major chunk of identified AI use cases falls in the arena of monitoring key performance indicators of sportspersons and providing insights for improvement. A lot of investment has already gone into the development of various sensors and devices that can track speed, accuracy, motion during practise sessions and games.
These monitoring devices – coupled with computer vision and machine learning – will be crucial interventions in the way coaches and players refine their approaches to their sport. Whether it be identifying potential areas to work on during training, or an analysis of situations within the game, AI can combine well with coaches to uncover how to extract the best performance from their teams and players.
An example of this in action is Dutch company SciSports. The company has developed a product called BallJames. Leveraging computer vision and machine learning, the product uses 3D images to provide insights on movements and tactics for football players.
3. Coaching for Success
Augmenting coaches and long-term training programme is the third and rapidly emerging use case of AI in sports. Depending on the sport being played, elite athletes spend between 10 years and 20 years at the very senior level, and possibly 10 years before at junior levels before becoming elite pros. All of which means that these athletes require continuous mental and physical conditioning to stay at the top of their game for nearly 30 years – depending on the sport they are playing.
AI can be an important intervention in building customised training routines for sportspersons – helping them take a long-term view of their health and diet. For instance, using AI, players could identify areas of improvement on the physical side and strengthen muscles, which may be adjudged as below-par for their sport. On similar lines, AI-led apps could also help suggest dietary options based on the conditioning required and provide personalised pathways for these athletes depending on their unique physical characteristics.
The other equally, if not more important aspect of managing the long-term well-being of athletes, is mental health. Sports players often live away from their families, go through swings in form alongside enormous highs and lows of success and failure. Through all of this, it is critical that we also manage the long-term psychological health of athletes to ensure that they stay at the top of their game. Apps such as jolt.ai – chatbots for motivation and tracking workout adherence – could be instrumental if created specifically to manage the mentality of sports players.
While the above mostly dealt with the 'game' aspects of sports management, there is also a plethora of topical applications that can be utilised in the management of sports franchisees (fan loyalty and engagement, player acquisition and abilities matching and uplift from sponsorship deals) and sports administrators (spend and procurement management, asset management and tracking legal compliance and fraud). When you combine these two areas, it is evident that Artificial Intelligence could very well be the next MVP in sports!
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text:
La sirena antiaerea di Teramo è uno dei pochi dispositivi acustici d'epoca ancora conservati in Italia (un altro esempio è la sirena di Fossano, in provincia di Cuneo, ubicata sul Municipio e tuttora funzionante) e per questo dotati di particolare importanza dal punto di vista storico e tecnico. Essa ebbe per sei anni la funzione di avvisare la popolazione in occasione di incursioni aeree durante il secondo conflitto mondiale. Originariamente installato sulla sommità della torre del Duomo, l'impianto è stato successivamente rimosso e restaurato.

Storia

Durante la seconda guerra mondiale, la città di Teramo era dotata di tre sirene di allarme antiaereo: due di proprietà dello Stato (installate nel 1943) ed una di proprietà del Comune (installata nel 1937).

Il 16 febbraio 1937 una deliberazione municipale stabilì l'installazione, prima ancora che il pericolo di attacchi aerei divenisse imminente, di una sirena sul locale più alto della torre del Duomo, al fine di facilitare l'udibilità del segnale anche a distanze notevoli.

Il quadro comandi remoto fu posto presso il locale di guardia del Comando della polizia municipale, al piano terra del palazzo comunale di via della Banca. Era la polizia municipale, dunque, ad azionare il dispositivo in caso di necessità. Ogni giorno, in occasione del segnale orario del mezzogiorno, la sirena era messa in funzione per qualche secondo al fine di testarne quotidianamente l'efficienza.

La spesa totale per l'installazione dell'impianto fu di 7497 lire, di cui 4387 necessarie solo per l'acquisto della sirena.

Dietro segnalazione della Prefettura e tenuto conto del fatto che una sola sirena, quella comunale della torre del Duomo, non avrebbe certamente potuto garantire l'udibilità del segnale in tutta la Città, fu disposta la relativa installazione di altri due apparecchi supplementari: il 20 gennaio 1943, come risulta da apposito verbale di consegna sottoscritto da un funzionario di Prefettura e da Aldo Boldrini, ingegnere capo dell'Amministrazione comunale, furono concessi al Comune di Teramo due nuovi dispositivi supplementari, di proprietà del Ministero dell'Interno, consistenti in due sirene elettromagnetiche SIIS, a semplice emettitore, situate l'una sopra l'arco di Porta Reale e l'altra sopra il teatro comunale, oltre ad una centrale di comando realizzata dalla ditta SAIR ed equipaggiata con tutti gli organi di telecomando e di controllo delle sirene, completa di stazioni di carica e batteria di accumulatori, a due quadri di comando locale presso le singole sirene e due scale di legno per l'accesso alla sirena posta sull'arco di Porta Reale e alla sirena posta sul teatro comunale.

La civica amministrazione, per conto del Ministero dell'Interno, si impegnò a mantenere in efficienza i congegni e a curarne l'esercizio a norma delle disposizioni ministeriali in vigore.

I due nuovi impianti supplementari venivano azionati attraverso un quadro comandi collegato alla rete telefonica e furono quindi gli addetti dell'Unione nazionale protezione antiaerea e del Comando artiglieria contraerei a gestirli. Allo scopo di unificare il soggetto deputato all'allerta della cittadinanza, il suddetto Comando invitò l'allora podestà, con nota del 20 febbraio 1944 sottoscritta dal tenente Guido Franchetti, a scollegare la sirena comunale della torre del Duomo dal quadro comandi della polizia municipale e a collegarla al quadro cui afferivano le altre due sirene supplementari consegnate dallo Stato. Il successivo 4 marzo il podestà acconsentì all'esecuzione dei lavori.

Quando il prefetto, Giovanni Lorenzini, con proprio decreto del 4 luglio 1944 n. 7651, dispose la soppressione del Comando teramano dell'Unione nazionale protezione antiaerea a decorrere dal successivo 10 luglio, le relative funzioni e tutti i beni furono ceduti al Comando Provinciale dei Vigili del Fuoco. Il relativo verbale di consegna, sottoscritto dall'ing. Ernesto Pelagalli e dall'ing. Biagio Bonomo, fu redatto il giorno 8 agosto 1944.

Al termine della guerra, il Ministero dell'Interno, con circolare del 22 settembre 1945 n. 457, ordinò la dismissione degli impianti di allarme in tutto il territorio nazionale. Il dispositivo presente sul tetto del teatro comunale, così come quello posto sull'arco di Porta Reale, già preso in consegna da parte dei vigili del fuoco, fu quindi ceduto in pura custodia al Comune di Teramo che provvide a smontarlo, a conservarlo dapprima nei magazzini municipali e successivamente a restituirlo allo Stato il 20 settembre 1949.

La Provincia di Teramo, come risulta pertanto dai documenti dell'epoca, possedeva gli unici impianti di allarme antiaereo nel capoluogo. Delle tre sirene presenti, soltanto quella comunale del 1937 è giunta fino ai tempi moderni.

La sirena della torre del Duomo entrò in funzione il 19 giugno 1938. Suonò per l'ultima volta il 14 luglio 1944 e rimase collocata sulla torre del Duomo fino al 7 ottobre 2011.

Caratteristiche tecniche
Il dispositivo è una sirena elettromeccanica Ercole Marelli di potenza pari a 6 kW, tipo M6. Funzionava con corrente alternata trifase a 220 V (50 Hz).

Era ancorata su un castello in legno realizzato dalla ditta Vincenzo Pediconi, a spese del Comune. Alla base della torre era posto un quadro locale per il comando del motore della sirena, del dispositivo MORSE e della resistenza di riscaldamento.

Il collegamento del quadro locale con il motore era assicurato attraverso un cavo tripolare sottopiombo di sezione 3 x 30/10. Il collegamento con il dispositivo MORSE era assicurato attraverso un cavo tripolare sottopiombo di sezione 2 x 12/10.

L'impianto era azionabile a distanza attraverso un quadro di comando remoto (avente pulsanti distinti per il motore, per il dispositivo MORSE e per la resistenza di riscaldamento), collegato con cinque fili di rame nudo, posto presso il locale di guardia al piano terra del palazzo della Polizia municipale in via della Banca. Tutti i collegamenti elettrici e il cablaggio furono realizzati dalla ditta Italo Piantini.

La sirena ha un motore ad asse verticale, con carcassa in ghisa perfettamente stagna alle intemperie e girante in silumin, al fine di ridurre al minimo l'azione di massa all'avviamento. Dello stesso materiale è la corona, onde ottenere un opportuno alleggerimento del gruppo. Il complesso rotante è ben bilanciato, così da evitare qualsiasi fenomeno vibratorio.

Un largo cappello zincato è posto a protezione superiore, tenuto peraltro a debita distanza dal sottostante riflettore acustico (realizzato anch'esso in lamiera zincata). Lo spazio compreso fra il cappello e il riflettore acustico, attraverso il quale avveniva l'aspirazione dell'aria, è protetto da una robusta rete metallica al fine di impedire l'ingresso nella sirena di corpi esterni.

È presente, intorno alla girante, una resistenza elettrica di riscaldamento, con comando separato rispetto a quello del motore, per prevenire nella stagione invernale la formazione di ghiaccio sul congegno.

Di lato, un magnete esterno a comando separato costituisce il dispositivo atto all'emissione di segnalazioni MORSE, attraverso il controllo dell'aspirazione dell'aria. In questo modo era possibile eliminare l'avviamento e la coda del suono della sirena.

Il segnale di imminente attacco aereo era dato, secondo le disposizioni del Ministero dell'Interno, con due successivi suoni di 15 secondi ciascuno, intervallati da 15 secondi di silenzio (per un totale, dunque, di 45 secondi). Il cessato pericolo era dato con un solo lungo suono di durata pari a 1 minuto.

Ultime vicende

La sirena antiaerea comunale di Teramo, unica sopravvissuta nell'intera provincia, si è ben conservata nonostante sia stata dismessa e sia rimasta inutilizzata per ben 67 anni. La buona conservazione è stata in larga parte dovuta al fatto che il locale in cui era alloggiata era di fatto inaccessibile e riparato dalle intemperie. Rimossa il 7 ottobre 2011, è stata integralmente restaurata e resa di nuovo funzionante.

Gli interventi hanno riguardato l'esterno della sirena, attraverso l'applicazione di sostanze atte a conservare i colori e a rimuovere i segni del tempo (bloccando il naturale processo di ossidazione), nonché le componenti interne. Il gruppo è stato interamente smontato, pulito e lubrificato e sono state ripristinate le strutture meccaniche ed elettriche attraverso riparazioni e ricostruzioni ex novo. I cuscinetti e parte del magnete per l'emissione di segnalazioni MORSE sono stati sostituiti. I collegamenti elettrici sono stati ripristinati. Sono state anche adottate migliorie per evitare fenomeni vibratori.

Il 13 maggio 2013 è stato effettuato il primo test di funzionamento della sirena, dopo la conclusione del restauro. Il 27 gennaio 2016 la sirena è stata nuovamente messa in funzione, dopo che era rimasta muta dalla fine della guerra, pubblicamente, nell'aula magna dell'Università degli Studi di Teramo.

Note

Bibliografia
 Fabrizio Primoli, La Torre del Duomo di Teramo, Teramo, Verdone Editore, 2009
 Fabrizio Primoli, Il Teatro Comunale di Teramo. 1868-1959. Fasti e miserie, fra silenzi e applausi, in appena novant'anni di vita, Teramo, Edizioni Palumbi, 2011.

Voci correlate
 Torre del Duomo di Teramo
 Duomo di Teramo
 Teatro comunale (Teramo)
 Teramo
 Chiese di Teramo
 Unione nazionale protezione antiaerea
 Sirena (acustica)

Altri progetti

Collegamenti esterni

Teramo
Archeologia industriale in Italia
Acustica

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
At Davos 2014, the Gods Of Mischief Rule
January 21-- Even the high and mighty assembling at the Swiss resort recognize, now, that grotesque inequality is the greatest threat to world peace. Their answer: Party on!
Not so long ago and not so very far away, there were people who thought they were masters of the universe. They were very powerful and very rich (and very often both), and each year they got together on a mountaintop in Switzerland to congratulate themselves, network with each other and confer about how best to bring order and prosperity to humankind.
From afar, the confab known as the World Economic Forum in Davos looked a little like Asgard, the mythical home of the Norse gods. Up close, slipping along the icy sidewalks with people partying all night in a hodgepodge of hotels, it looked like Loki, the god of mischief, was running the show.
For decades after the forum was founded in 1971, Davos often appeared a model of disorganization, a 30-ring-circus of panels and plenary sessions, even as the world, with or without its help, looked to be in more or less good order. The Cold War ended; Communism died; technology was spreading opportunities; global trade supposedly was pulling people out of poverty. Even the problems of terrorism and a very shaky euro, while they were disconcerting, seemed manageable.
But tonight as the little resort town begins to welcome 2,500 participants, including more than 40 heads of state, the forum itself is better organized than ever—it's the rest of the world that's not. Nobody at Davos claims to be a master of the universe anymore. Hell, nobody would dare.
There's a sudden shocked revelation on the mountaintop that from the cauldrons of the Middle East to the restive billions in slums around the globe, who have ever less money and ever fewer hopes of change, the politics and the economy of the world as the forum sees it really look very scary indeed.
The group's own publication, Global Risks 2014, concludes that "the chronic gap between the incomes of the richest and poorest citizens" is the greatest threat to stability that looms in the next decade.
The charitable organization Oxfam issued a report, largely based on statistics compiled by Crédit Suisse, that showed it's not just the infamous "one percent" who own most of the world's wealth, it's an even more minuscule fraction: "The bottom half of the world's population owns the same as the richest 85 people in the world." If I read my calculator right, that would be 0.000001 per cent. No wonder populists and revolutionaries are raising hell, from neo-Nazis in Greece to jihadists in Nigeria.
Martin Wolf of the Financial Times, a Davos stalwart, likens the situation today to the eve of World War I, exactly a century ago, when the world's rich and its rulers stumbled toward the most horrific conflagration in history. "Complex societies rely on their elites to get things, if not right, at least not grotesquely wrong," wrote Wolf, and today, "the elites need to do better. If they do not, rage may overwhelm us all."
Nowhere is the sense of impending doom stronger than in the Middle East, and much of the thunder in the first two days of Davos is likely to be consumed by another conference at the far end of a lake in another corner of Switzerland. Several countries (but not Iran are getting together in Montreux with representatives of the Assad regime and some of its fractious opponents to try to begin talking about how they might begin thinking about having a transitional government that could maybe bring an end to the gruesome civil war in Syria.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is supposed to arrive in Davos on Friday to brief the high and mighty gathered there, but hopes are not high, and expectations are even lower.
In the meantime, both Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani will make appearances. In years past, the threat of war with Iran started by Israel and waged by the United States to stall the mullahs' nuclear program loomed very large. Less so this year, thanks to the interim deal struck between Iran, the United States and other powers in Geneva a couple of months ago, which went into effect this week.
Chinese Centers of Gravity
Many distinguished scholars, journalists, and strategic analysts have provided compelling visions of why and how the People's Republic of China (PRC) would conduct a naval and military campaign in the Indo-Pacific basin. Several viable U.S. responses to such a Chinese operation have been articulated. These include a blockade-based "offshore control strategy" to deprive China of resources and trade, and the "Air/Sea battle" operational concept involving a joint U.S. naval and air power effort to directly combat Chinese forces in the Western Pacific littoral. Both visions suggest allied participation and perhaps can be combined into an overall military strategy. Before moving further however, it is useful to examine current and evolving Chinese strategic "centers of gravity" and look at how the People's Republic of China (PRC) has conducted recent military actions. Past Chinese conflicts may not provide a complete picture for U.S. leaders, but perhaps offer a window into how the PRC thinks about its military activity.
Changing Centers of Gravity
Tiananmen Square Protests, 1989
The most important center of gravity for post-revolutionary China has been the survival of Communist party authority over the state. The definition of the Chinese Communist party however has changed since the official Party program of "Modernization and Stability" began in the wake of the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989. While the rest of the Communist world collapsed in the face of the perceived superiority of the Capitalist system, the Chinese party was able to adroitly turn the Communist system on its head and adopt the best practices of its Western opposite number. The "modernized" China now resembles a large corporation rather than the revolutionary state of Chairman Mao Zedong. Its Politburo, with orderly successions of authority, and Party Congresses filled with departmental representatives reporting on modernization efforts are similar to a Corporate Board of Directors reporting to a meeting of shareholders. The economic model fits well as the Chinese party essentially "purchased" the loyalty and support of its citizenry. The exchange of traditional Marxist patterns of life including poor quality consumer goods, overt repression, and little or no upward mobility for economic growth, security and prosperity has served to insulate the Chinese Communist leadership from pre-1989 style criticisms. One wonders if Mikhail S. Gorbachev lays awake at night wondering why he did not attempt the Chinese method for the Soviet Union. While the Party itself remains the principle Chinese center of gravity, the continuing prosperity and support for the party from the PRC citizenry is nearly equal in importance to that of the party itself since both are mutually dependent on each other's support.
Leaders of a fictional "corporate state" from the 1975 movie "Rollerball"
"And now, our Corporate Anthem!"
A DIFFICULT VICTORY - China's support for Hasina Wajed may have a message for India
When Sheikh Hasina Wajed's Awami League won a landslide in the January 5 polls, most were asking how long the government would last. It was not an unfair question, considering that a similar election in early 1996, held with Khaleda Zia in power, had led to huge protests that forced the Bangladesh Nationalist Party leader to accept a caretaker dispensation and hold fresh elections within a few months. That election led to an Awami League victory and a change of guard. After the January 5 polls, most were busy looking for parallels. The 1996 polls led to a 7 per cent turnout and was boycotted by the Awami League-led opposition. The January 5 polls had a much better turnout, but that was nowhere near the 80 per cent registered in the December 2008 polls. It was boycotted by the BNP-led opposition and marred by intense violence. Wajed was aware of the limitation in which she was taking over as prime minister for a third time as she promised a dialogue with the opposition and fresh polls as soon as a consensus was reached. The United States of America rubbished the elections as "less than credible" and its envoy in Dhaka, Dan Mozena, called for fresh dialogue and mid-term polls to "let the Bangladesh people express their will freely". The European Union and the Commonwealth also dubbed the polls one-sided and called for fresh elections. Only India expectedly backed Wajed, saying that the polls were a "constitutional necessity".
But within a week, the situation has changed for her. Russia has come out in support of Wajed's government, saying it looked forward to a "constructive partnership and cooperation" with the new government. More interestingly, the Russian statement blamed the opposition for the violence and the boycott while it explained the one-sided nature of the elections. This brought back memories of the 1971 liberation war for many Awami League veterans, of the troubled months when India and the erstwhile Soviet Union firmly upheld the cause of Bangladesh's independence against a brutal Pakistani military regime backed by the US and China. After Vladimir Putin's firm intervention in Syria, this move by Russia to back Wajed was also seen as yet another Kremlin assertion in a major Asian issue. But what came after that was all the more surprising.
** A Fine Balance: India, Japan and the United States
Dhruva Jaishankar |
This weekend, the world will be treated to an unusual sight: Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe inspecting a military parade which will be showcasing, among other things, nuclear-capable ballistic missiles. This scene will not be taking place in Japan, which has rejected nuclear weapons and whose constitution famously renounces war as a sovereign right, but rather in India's foggy capital, New Delhi, near an iconic British memorial commemorating the Indians killed in World War I and the Third Anglo-Afghan War. The Indian government's intention in inviting Abe to be chief guest at its Republic Day parade is nothing if not calculated. In fact, it is about as clear a signal that India seeks to facilitate Japan's emergence as a 'normal' military power.
Japan and India may at first glance appear unusual partners. Japan is a nominally pacific, aging and technologically advanced ally of the United States, whereas India is notoriously sceptical of alliances, boasts the world's second-largest army, has a youthful population, and is still in the process of modernizing its economy. But Abe's visit marks the next step in a series of overtures between Asia's two largest democratic economies, beginning with Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's 2000 visit to India, and continuing under the stewardships of Junichiro Koizumi, Taro Aso, and Abe. For its part, New Delhi has reciprocated the goodwill under successive governments. In a speech last year in Tokyo, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called Japan "a natural and indispensable partner" of India, with which it enjoyed "shared values and shared interests" and "a shared commitment to the ideals of democracy, peace and freedom."
It is unclear how much attention Washington is paying to this emerging Asian strategic compact, despite its strong security relations with both Tokyo and New Delhi. In fact, scepticism about the United States' reliability as a defense partner may be contributing to the growing bonhomie between India and Japan. But there are good enough reasons for all three countries to invest further in trilateral security cooperation.
*** Balancing Without Containment: An American Strategy for Managing China
ASHLEY J. TELLIS REPORT JANUARY 22, 2014
China is poised to become a major strategic rival to the United States.
China is poised to become a major strategic rival to the United States. Whether or not Beijing intends to challenge Washington's primacy, its economic boom and growing national ambitions make competition inevitable. And as China rises, American power will diminish in relative terms, threatening the foundations of the U.S.-backed global order that has engendered unprecedented prosperity worldwide. To avoid this costly outcome, Washington needs a novel strategy to balance China without containing it.
SOUTH ASIA PROGRAM
The loss of American primacy to China would pose unacceptable risks to the security and interests of the United States and its allies.
China's power—unlike that of previous U.S. competitors—stems from Beijing's deep integration in the U.S.-led global economy.
The containment strategy that the United States used to great effect during the Cold War cannot succeed today. Cutting off ties with Beijing and urging China's neighbors to do the same is politically, economically, and practically unthinkable.
Washington should balance Beijing's growing capabilities by pursuing policies that simultaneously increase China's stake in the existing global system and raise the costs of abusing its power.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR U.S. POLICYMAKERS
Bolster Regional Actors.By increasing the national power of China's neighbors, the United States can constrain Beijing's behavior and limit its capacity for aggressiveness. This investment is in Washington's best interest irrespective of whether it is repaid in kind because it will diminish China's ability to misuse its growing strength and increase American geopolitical maneuverability in the Indo-Pacific. But the United States must be wary of Chinese tactics to subvert these efforts.
Selectively Deepen Globalization. The United States should make trade liberalization a top priority. Since comprehensive global liberalization remains a distant goal, Washington should work to quickly conclude key regional trade pacts, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, which promise increased relative gains to the United States and its allies vis-à-vis China.
Bolster U.S. Military Capabilities. To preserve its military superiority in the face of growing Chinese power, Washington should invest in improving U.S. power projection capabilities that will allow it to defeat challenges posed by China's new strategic denial systems and regain U.S. freedom of action in the Indo-Pacific.
Reinvigorate the U.S. Economy. Revitalizing the domestic economy is imperative to sustaining American hegemony. To maintain its global economic dominance, the United States must emphasize labor force renewal, promote disruptive technological innovations, increase efficiency in production, and resolve the political squabbles that prevent Washington from fixing the country's public finances.
http://carnegieendowment.org/2014/01/22/balancing-without-containment-american-strategy-for-managing-china/gz2z
THE NUCLEAR WORLD: FROM 1945-2013
http://infogr.am/the-nuclear-world-from-1945-2013
Interactive: Mapping the Divide
Video: Crossing the Divide
Featured Stories:Comparing the Divide
Photos: Picturing the Divide
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Blog: GroundTruth
About / Team
Income inequality is surging, and there are few countries where it is rising faster than the United States. The distance between rich and poor is greater in America than nearly all other developed countries, making the US a leader in a trend that economists warn has dire consequences. GlobalPost sets out on a reporting journey to get at the 'ground truth' of inequality through the lenses of education, race, immigration, health care, government, labor and natural resources. The hope is to hold a mirror up to the US to see how it compares to countries around the world.
Four Reasons Why Interstate Conflict Scholars Don't Read Intrastate Work and Why They are Wrong, Part 1
by politicalviolenceataglance on January 21, 2014
By Christian Davenport and Scott Gates
Historically, those of us who rigorously study political conflict and violence have adopted the approaches and rhetoric of, and found positions within, the International Relations field (e.g., the Conflict Processes section at APSA or the Peace Science Society). This work has been associated with "interstate" war and more recently civil war. Somewhat less prominently, research also addressed "intrastate" activity (e.g., ordinary resistance, domestic spying/covert action, strikes, protest, terrorism, human rights violation/state repression, revolution, and genocide). This work is associated more with comparative as well as, in some cases, American politics. We note the fields here because quite frequently scholars (when they are searching for something to cite or someone to hire), students (as they look for someone to read), journalists (as they look for something to orient their studies around or someone to quote), and ordinary citizens (when they want to understand what is taking place around them) adopt the language, ideas, and approaches of the interstate approach without acknowledging that it might not be appropriate or effective at addressing other forms of conflict. Indeed, quite frequently on this blog someone will mention that "international scholars blah blah blah" without noting that some interested in the topic are comparativists or Americanists and do not adopt or even accept the International Relations take on the subject of inquiry.
This leads us to ask, why is this the case? Part of the reason why most individuals draw upon interstate work is simply because it has been around longer and has been somewhat more prominent in terms of the number of leading scholars, books, articles, grants and, very importantly, its connection with US foreign policy interests. Another part of the reason why most individuals do not draw upon the intrastate community, however, is a lack of awareness — it is a vast area of research and there is simply too much to read already without venturing into something new.
To try and change this situation, we wish to identify four reasons why IR/"interstate" scholars don't read/consider/discuss more comparative/American/intrastate work and why they are wrong. Two are discussed in Part 1 and two are discussed in Part 2. We do this in order to begin, or rather continue, the process of breaking boundaries within the conflict community, something that is finding more advocates: e.g., Armstrong, Lichbach, and I, Joseph Young, James Ron, Lemke and Cunningham, and James Fearon, but which has not been completely adopted by the majority of people interested with the topic.
The scholars mentioned above have begun to blur the lines between interstate and intrastate work in a fruitful manner. More is needed.
Misconception #1 – "Intrastate Conflict Is Just Not as Important as Interstate Conflict"
It used to be the case that interstate war was frequent as well as extremely deadly. Indeed, whole generations were defined by their participation in these conflicts. The impact of this reality followed accordingly. With the global importance of interstate war, most individuals who focused, studied, discussed, and generated policy about conflict would highlight what states did to each other in the international realm. With regard to this topic, data and detailed histories were compiled and a large number of articles and books were written. For years, this was one, if not the most, important subject in the world generally and in social science specifically.
Best of Frenemies
By Adnan Siddiqi
Filed: 1/6/14
Pakistan's Husain Haqqani has tough words for his home country – and for its supposed ally, the United States. Joshua Roberts/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Pakistan and the United States aren't allies – they "just pretend to be allies." Or so says Husain Haqqani, Pakistan's former ambassador to the U.S. He's making waves with his latest book, Magnificent Delusions, which speaks hard truths about the difficult relationship between the two countries. In 2011, Haqqani was forced to resign as Islamabad's envoy to Washington following a controversy in which he was accused of delivering, through an intermediary, a note to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff asking for U.S. help to ward off a supposed coup in Pakistan after U.S. forces killed Osama bin Laden. (He has denied the episode and also said there was no attempted coup.) He was investigated by the Supreme Court at home for treason, and he eventually left the country, saying his life was at risk. Haqqani returned to the United States and now teaches international relations at Boston University. Newsweek Pakistan spoke with him by email about his book and the delusions that continue to impair Pakistan's relationship with the U.S.
NW: You have been a consistent advocate of resetting Pakistan-America relations on the basis of pragmatism. What exactly does this entail?
HH: For 66 years, Pakistan has sought close ties with the U.S. with the sole purpose of offsetting India's size and military advantage. This has been a security relationship. But no nation can become a regional power while also being dependent on assistance from other countries. A better option for Pakistan would be to normalize relations with India and Afghanistan and then have a broader, nonsecurity relationship with the United States. Pakistanis resent the U.S. partly because we have been dependent on it. The United States had not been constant in its relations with Pakistan, but it was also wrong on Pakistan's part to expect constancy. I have studied several models of partnership with the United States and wondered why most other U.S. allies since World War II have prospered while Pakistan has not. The answer came down to our unwillingness to have an honest relationship. South Korea and Taiwan aligned their security policies and perceptions with the Americans. Pakistan refused to accept U.S. advice, especially when its regional view was questioned. My vision, encouraged by [former prime minister] Benazir Bhutto, was for a strategic rather than tactical relationship. It would not be based on asking for military aid in return for providing some services to the Americans in their concerns. We need to build a self-confident Pakistan, free of the burdens of past blunders, especially jihadist misadventures. American assistance should be directed toward standing on our own feet. We need a relationship involving education, tourism, investment, and trade – like other countries have – not one that is all about seeking military equipment and aid in private and abusing America in public.
NW: But despite the mutual misgivings, Pakistan and the U.S. remain disenchanted allies. Does the relationship lose relevance after NATO troops pull out from Afghanistan by the end of 2014?
Iraq in Crisis
By Anthony H. Cordesman, Sam Khazai
Download the PDF of "Iraq in Crisis"
As events in late December 2013 and early 2014 have made brutally clear, Iraq is a nation in crisis bordering on civil war. It is burdened by a long history of war, internal power struggles, and failed governance. It is also a nation whose failed leadership is now creating a steady increase in the sectarian divisions between Shi'ite and Sunni, and the ethnic divisions between Arab and Kurd.
Iraq suffers badly from the legacy of mistakes the United States made during and after its invasion in 2003. It suffers from the threat posed by the reemergence of violent Sunni extremist movements like al-Qaeda and equally violent Shi'ite militias. It suffers from pressure from Iran and near isolation by several key Arab states. It has increasingly become the victim of the forces unleashed by the Syrian civil war.
Its main threats, however, are self-inflicted wounds caused by its political leaders. Its election in 2010 divided the nation rather than create any form of stable democracy, and pushed Iraq's Prime Minister, Maliki to focus on preserving his power and becoming a steadily more authoritarian leader. Other Shi'ite leaders contributed to Iraq's increasing sectarian and ethnic polarization – as did key Sunni and Kurdish leaders.
Since that time, a brutal power struggle has taken place between Maliki and senior Sunni leaders, and ethnic tensions have grown between the Arab dominated central government and senior Kurdish leaders in the Kurdish Regional government (KRG). The actions of Iraq's top political leaders have led to a steady along rise in Sunni and Shi'ite violence accelerated by the spillover of the extremism caused by the Syrian civil war. This has led to a level of Shi'ite and Sunni violence that now threatens to explode into a level of civil conflict equal to – or higher than – the one that existed during the worst period of the U.S. occupation.
This struggle has been fueled by actions of the Iraqi government that many reliable sources indicate have included broad national abuses of human rights and the misuse of Iraqi forces and the Iraqi security services in ways where the resulting repression and discrimination has empowered al-Qaeda and other extremist groups. As a result, the very forces that should help bring security and stability have become part of the threat.
The history and current patterns in these trends are analyzed in detail in a new analysis by the Burke Chair at CSIS. This analysis is entitled Iraq in Crisis and is available on the CSIS web site athttp://csis.org/files/publication/140106_Iraq_Book_AHC_sm.pdf.
The New Cold War: China vs Japan
China and Japan's war of the words reveals a larger struggle for regional influence akin to a mini Cold War.
Lately, it seems that Japanese officials can't sneeze without incurring the wrath of the Chinese — and vice versa. So it's no surprise that even conciliatory statements from Shinzo Abe have been soundly rebuffed. On Thursday, Abe wrote a message, published in local Chinese-language papers, conveying greetings for the lunar new year. According to Reuters' translation of the Japanese-language version, Abe insisted that Japan has "taken the path of peace" since World War II, and "nothing has been changed in the policy of continuing to uphold this position."
Friday, Abe further extended the olive branch. According to Channel NewsAsia, Abe told a parliamentary session that "Japan and China are inseparable." He also expressed his desire for the two countries to restart diplomatic meetings. "Instead of refusing to hold dialogue unless issues become resolved, we should hold talks because we have issues," Abe said.
China flatly rejected these overtures. Responding to earlier requests for a bilateral dialogue, Qin Gang responded with bitter sarcasm: "Such kind of dialogue will be of no effect. Chinese leaders are very busy. Let them spend more time on things useful and effective." China has repeatedly expressed its position that no diplomatic meetings between China and Japan can be held until Shinzo Abe proves his sincerity. During Friday's press conference, Qin Gang laid down a specific path for restarting dialogue: Abe should declare that "I will pull back from the precipice, immediately admit and correct mistakes and make no more visits to the Yasukuni Shrine."
As I wrote earlier, at this point it seems impossible that anything Abe will do will satisfy Chinese leaders (the things he could do, like apologizing for his visit to Yasukuni and/or Japan's imperialistic past, are incredibly unlikely). To Chinese officials, Abe is "self-contradictory," as an editorial in China Daily put it. Unless Abe apologizes for and refrains from repeating actions that upset China (from visiting Yasukuni to building up Japan's military), China will dismiss as insincere his rhetoric about dialogue and peace. Meanwhile, from the Japanese perspective, were Abe to devote the rest of his administration to proving his friendship to China, it would have obvious negative repercussions for Japanese interests.
So we have two countries, each building up their militaries while insisting they must do so to counter the threat of their regional rival. Added to this, a deep distrust of each other's different political systems coupled with a history of animosity makes the two nations deeply suspicious of each other. Each country insists it loves peace, and uses scare tactics to try to paint its opponent as a hawkish boogeyman. Sound familiar to anyone else?
Indonesia and Saudi Arabia Sign Defense Cooperation Agreement
Saudi Arabia and Indonesia signed their first defense cooperation agreement.
On Thursday, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia signed a defense cooperation agreement (DCA) – the first of its kind – between the two of them. The agreement was signed by Saudi Deputy Defense Minister Prince Salman bin Sultan Abdulaziz Al Saud and Indonesian Lt. Gen. (ret.) Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin. The DCA covers training, education, counter-terrorism, and defense industry cooperation.
The agreement is significant for Indonesia in a few ways. It is the first agreement of its sort that Indonesia has signed with a Middle Eastern country and the first between it and Saudi Arabia – the two countries have had diplomatic relations since 1950. Lt. Gen. Sjafrie told the Jakarta Post that "This is the first time a Saudi deputy defense minister has visited Indonesia."
The cooperation between Saudi Arabia and Indonesia is underscored by both nations' common Islamic identities, although this wasn't a driving factor in the signing of the DCA. In fact, both Saudi Arabia and Indonesia, in agreeing to cooperate on counterterrorism, noted that terrorism should not be linked to any ideology or religion, in particular Islam. Indonesia's interlocutor adds that "No religion in the world teaches violence."
Understanding Security Competition in Asia
Image Credit: REUTERS/Jason Lee
Do greater levels of interdependence mean the region is less susceptible to a crisis?
By Thomas Wright
Growing geopolitical tensions in East Asia, particularly between China and Japan, have increased concern that the world may be on the verge of a new crisis that could quickly and inadvertently spiral out of control. At the very least, the world looks set for a prolonged period of peacetime security competition between major powers for the first time since the Cold War.
The main driver of this security competition is China's innovative strategy to revise the regional order in Asia. As a senior Chinese diplomat put it to me, while the United States is rebalancing to Asia, China "is trying to rebalance the status quo." Beijing is avoiding outright aggression but is digging deep into the coercive diplomatic tools available to it to get its way. China's seizing of the Scarborough Shoal and its declaration of an Air Defense Identification Zone in the East China Sea are two of the most prominent (and in China's view successful) examples. If this trend continues, Japan, the United States and others will have to step up their balancing efforts and regional security competition will intensify.
The temptation when analyzing the strategic environment is to draw comparisons to America's 20th century experiences, whether that is the Cold War or the run-up to World War I. Both are misplaced and cloud unique features of today's challenge. Geopolitical competition is on the rise but it is occurring in a world that is highly interdependent and globalized. This distinguishes our moment – one of "interdependent competition" – from the Cold War when the United States and the Soviet Union had little to do with each other economically or culturally. Moreover, America's allies today are closely tied to China, unlike relations between the Soviet Union and Western Europe.
Ever since the Cold War ended, strategists have been warning leaders to drop the "Cold War mentality." But it apparently hasn't worked, because that is exactly what we have right now between China and Japan. The two countries identify so strongly as rivals that it's impossible for either country to do or say anything without triggering a response from its counterpart. The tensions pop up in the most unexpected places – during Abe's Africa tour, during a global economic summit in Switzerland.
Even the strong economic ties between China and Japan haven't helped forestall tensions. In fact, it's the other way around – tensions are eroding the economic relationship. The Telegraph recently reported that, according to a poll, 60 percent of Chinese business leaders are unwilling to work with Japanese firms. In 2012, China-Japan tensions even erupted into outright calls to boycott Japanese products, with rioters targeting Japanese businesses and restaurants. While Japan's business view of China is less affected (according to The Telegraph, 80 percent of Japanese are willing to continue trade with China and South Korea), economic interests are shifting to other regions, notably Southeast Asia. Economic ties are likely to continue worsening. It's certainly hard to see the next round of negotiations on a trilateral China-Japan-South Korea free-trade agreement going off as planned in February 2014.
As with the Cold War, part of the problem is that both China and Japan willfully read each other's every move as a challenge or threat. For all the distrust between China and the United States, the problem hasn't reached this level (yet). The U.S. has too many potential enemies (Russia, Iran, North Korea) and too many global interests for China to realistically interpret every diplomatic or strategic maneuver as somehow anti-China (although certainly some hawks within China do try). Japan, with its more limited global presence and strategic interests, is a different story. Meanwhile, as China is currently limiting its military build-up and strategic goals to the near seas, it's easy for Tokyo interpret each move (for example, a new air defense identification zone) as directly aimed at Japan.
My colleague Zachary wrote Friday that one byproduct of the United States' decline could be the emergence of regional hegemons. We might be seeing the beginning of this process now, with China and Japan in a Cold War-style battle, not for global power but for regional dominance. The territorial dispute highlights this by increasing the possibility of military conflict, but even if the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands were to sink into the ocean tomorrow (one possible benefit of global warming) the tensions would remain. It's a regional Cold War, currently being fought with words but with an arms race looming on the horizon. And, like the Cold War, tensions are unlikely to end until one country claims victory.
Darpa Cracks Radio Incompatibility Problem Once and for All
BY ALLEN MCDUFFEE
After more than 10 years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Pentagon's research group has announced a new system that could help U.S. troops and multinational forces communicate — a problem that frequently plagued the countries' cooperation in the field.
Darpa's nearly-completed Mobile Ad-Hoc Interoperability Gateway (MAINGATE) is said to overcome the "technical incompatibility between communications systems [that] can hinder information sharing and timely command and control decisions." The latest version of the system will soon make its way to Afghanistan, even as U.S. forces draw down.
"MAINGATE is designed to be a potent communications force multiplier for joint and combined forces," said Keith Gremban, DARPA program manager, in a statement. "From a radio perspective, MAINGATE allows coalition forces to plug in their own radio systems and MAINGATE takes the necessary steps so everyone can communicate in real time."
Darpa has been developing MAINGATE since 2008, awarding Raytheon an initial $155 million contract in 2009 to make the concept into a reality. Certain elements of the project have already been used into U.S. Army systems.
The system relies on two technologies to provide an interoperable network for connecting forces. A high capacity Wireless IP Network (WIPN) radio provides a "terrestrial 'Everything over IP' backbone" with enough capacity to simultaneously support many channels of voice, video and data. The second is MAINGATE's Interoperability Gateway, which provides interconnectivity for otherwise incompatible communications equipment. According to Raytheon, MAINGATE provides 10 megabits per second to a network of as many as 128 nodes that could include drones, ships, bases and vehicles on the ground.
"We're transitioning a proven capability that can be kept up to date with the latest IP technology standards," said Gremban. "Just as a smartphone offers the capability to do more than make phone calls, MAINGATE is much more than a radio—it's a backbone architecture enabling video, data and voice sharing among a diversity of networks and devices."
In Tomorrow's Wars, Battles Will Be Fought With a 3-D Printer
BY ROBERT BECKHUSEN
Army Staff Sgt. Joshua Rucinski checks his 3-D printer at Joint Base Balad, Iraq on June 8, 2011. Less than two years later, an increasing number of military officers are saying this could change the way we fight wars. Photo: U.S. Army
A 3-D printed drone is shot down by insurgents near a far-flung base manned by the U.S. military. Within hours, a small lab dropped onto the base by a helicopter days before churns out a replacement — along with plenty of ammunition and reinforced shelters for the troops. A few miles off a nearby coastline, a naval ship-turned-factory harvests resources from the sea and uses on-board printers to make everything from food to replacement organs.
It's a far-out vision for future combat, but at least one naval officer thinks it could happen. According to Lt. Cmdr. Michael Llenza, who sketched out the scenario in the latest Armed Forces Journal, 3-D printing could arguably "upend the way we think about supply chains, sea basing and even maritime strategy." And by we, Llenza doesn't just mean Americans. The Chinese military is already bragging about how they are printing parts for their next-gen aircraft.
Aside from drones — which have already been printed — ammunition could potentially be produced with the machines, as the casings would be "relatively easy," he writes. (The Pentagon would just have to find a way to produce the propellants.) Additive manufacturing also "offers a new way to think about building shelters or other structures on a beachhead or forward operating base." The hope, as the theory goes, is that large-scale investments in 3-D printing could take a lot of strain off the supply lines modern military forces depend on to survive.
None of this amounts to the official position of the Pentagon, but publications like the Armed Forces Journal serve as influential arenas where many theories and ideas from military officers — some which are later incorporated — are first put up for debate. And it's no surprise the potential (and existing) military uses of 3-D printers has been getting a lot of recent ink.
In April, Navy lieutenants Scott Cheney-Peters and Matthew Hipple sketched out a theoretical future Navy in the widely read U.S. Naval Institute journal Proceedings that imagined ships capable ofharvesting the oceans for 3-D printing material, and floating factories capable of manufacturing repair parts for a fleet of ships. Even shipyards, the authors wrote, could be effectively converted into giant 3-D printers. Llenza, who is also a Senior Naval Fellow at the non-partisan Atlantic Council, has taken that concept and run with it.
But there are also dangers, he warns. It's not the 3-D gunmakers who are posting videos of their weapons to the internet. Those guns are crude and expensive compared to a homemade zip gun or bomb. "As far as printing guns, I'm not worried about it in its current state," Llenza tells Danger Room. "I'm more worried about knee-jerk legislation and some idiot getting a hold of one. Plans to make zip guns and bomb making recipes have been online forever, so not much is new there." (Though over time, the technology could advance with machines that can work with both metal and plastic simultaneously, or with printable composite materials that can withstand the heat and pressure of repeated use.)
FAILURE TO LEARN: REFLECTIONS ON A CAREER IN THE POST-VIETNAM ARMY
January 24, 2014 ·
The legacy and future of American counterinsurgency remains perhaps the most contentious issue in contemporary military affairs. Many punches have been thrown in this raucous debate in key online publications, most notably Small Wars Journal, the late Abu Muqawama, and here at War on the Rocks. WOTR's Mark Stout caused quite a stir with his article on "Why the Counterinsurgency Debate Must Go On." Critics focused their fire and ire on his caution that the Army must not do what it did after the Philippine Insurrection and the Vietnam War, when it "consciously decided to forget. It locked the records away and pretended that nothing had ever happened."
How did the Army deal with the Vietnam War? And how did this experience inform the controversial Field Manual 3-24: Counterinsurgency (FM 3-24)? These are questions with which I have some personal experience from my career as an Army officer. These questions have also framed my research as a historian in the Army and at RAND.
Like many of my contemporaries, I joined an Army in disarray in the aftermath of Vietnam, contributed to rebuilding it without looking to Vietnam for lessons, and made it the most powerful warfighting army in history.
I was commissioned in 1972. The Vietnam War ended while I was in Ranger School and I went to the 1st Cavalry Division at Fort Hood, Texas. I was a mechanized infantry rifle platoon leader and assistant S-3 for a little over a year and then became a Quartermaster officer, my Regular Army branch, for eight months before branch transferring to Field Artillery. I recall spending most of my time, as did my peers, trying to lead small units transitioning from the draft to a volunteer army. The state of the Army of the 1970s is summed up in its official history of the first Gulf War: "The Army emerged from Vietnam cloaked in anguish…it was an institution fighting merely to maintain its existence in the midst of growing apathy, decay, and intolerance."
We junior officers spent most of our time trying to train soldiers that many thought were untrainable, gaining control of our units, and preparing to fight a conventional adversary. Our equipment was in bad shape, although our leaders rated us "ready." Two events stick in my memory: We had a "best vehicle" competition in our brigade. The vehicle that won was an M-578 Recovery Vehicle that, while freshly painted and immaculate, had not run in a year. I also recall that we were C1—the highest level—in our readiness, until the 1973 Arab-Israeli War. The rumor was we were going to go to Israel; suddenly our readiness ratings dropped precipitously. I left Fort Hood for the Artillery Basic Course en route to Korea and the 2ndInfantry Division. I recall nothing about Vietnam in the course. The 2ndInfantry Division was appropriately riveted on the North Korean Army. When I returned to the Advanced Course in 1976 our focus was on conventional operations. We learned how to "shoot and scoot" to avoid Soviet counterfire and to suppress enemy artillery and antitank guided missiles, a lesson from the 1973 Arab-Israeli War. There was nothing about Vietnam in the course.
The Right Way to Educate Navy Officers
The Naval Diplomat offers a "No Officer Left Behind" solution to the STEM-Humanities debate raging inside the US Navy.
By James R. Holmes
Smackdown!!!
As civilian academe debates the merits of technical and non-technical college degrees, the U.S. Navy is carrying on its own parallel bloodletting conversation. The scientific, technical, engineering, and mathematics — a.k.a. STEM — fields are much in vogue in the service. Indeed, the chief of naval operations, Admiral Jonathan Greenert, recently issued guidance mandating that 85 percent of officer candidates earn degrees in scientific-technical disciplines. That's up from the 65 percent benchmark currently in force. STEM mania has aroused consternation among non-quantitative types in the navy, just as it has on civilian campuses from sea to shining sea. (Look at any edition of Inside Higher Ed for the latest installment from the civilian world.)
Nuclear power lies at the heart of the navy's debate. Too few officer candidates, it seems, boast the academic prerequisites to attend Nuclear Power School, and thence qualify to operate the nuclear power plants in America's aircraft carriers and submarines. But the Golden Rule works in the navy's favor here. The service has the gold, paying U.S. Naval Academy and Naval ROTC midshipmen's way through school. It can make the rules governing what they study. If the nuclear-power community needs more engineering officers, the leadership can require more midshipmen to amass the requisite coursework. And then it can dispatch the press gang come commissioning time.
Problem solved. Yet teeth have been gnashed and garments rent in commentary on the navy's mandate. Naval Diplomat pal CDR Salamander speaks out on behalf of mush-headed humanities and social-science majors everywhere, decrying "the warping effects of an unbalanced mind." By that he presumably means too many skulls awash in numbers and formulas, too few in Gibbon and Chaucer.
Meanwhile, a self-confessed "pocket-protector-wearing poindexter" — think the cast of The Big Bang Theory — wonders why partisans of the humanities and social sciences assume they can pick up advanced mathematics, physics, or engineering on sea duty while a STEM-degree-bearing officer could never master history, politics, or strategy in similar circumstances. Good question. If that really is an underlying assumption, it's a faulty one. Those adept with numbers can read.
► Mar 18


Texas rode a wave of early hot shooting from behind the arc to cruise to a 85-52 win over Eastern Washington on Thursday night. The Longhorns sprung out to a commanding 27-15 lead thanks to five three-pointers in the game's first 12 minutes. The team never looked back after the early outburst.
Senior guard Kendal Yancy ignited the scoring barrage for the Longhorns, hitting consecutive threes in the game's opening minutes to give Texas a quick 6-2 lead.
Yancy said the quick start set the tone for the team and that the threes were a result of the team's inside-out game plan.
Texas would hit six more threes in the second half to finish the game with 11, one more than they made in its first two games combined.
Eastern Washington made a concentrated effort to collapse on Texas' big men and deny them entry passes. Head coach Shaka Smart said the team responded by attacking from outside.
Sophomore guard Tevin Mack overcame a slow start to finish as Texas' leading scorer. The guard shot one of five from the field in the first half but caught fire in the second. He scored 15 of his 19 points after halftime. Mack was lethal from three-point range, draining four of his eight shots from deep.
Freshman guard Andrew Jones continued the strong start to his rookie campaign. The guard finished with 17 points and provided an early spark for the Longhorns, scoring 12 points in the first half.
Jones also helped set the tone on defense with his aggressiveness. The freshman excelled on that end while locking down his man on the perimeter. He finished with a game-high three steals.
As a team, the Longhorns suffocated the Eagles while forcing a season-high 16 turnovers. They limited Eastern Washington to 36 percent shooting from the field.
The Longhorns now prepare for their first road trip of the season. The team will travel to Brooklyn to take on Northwestern in the semifinals of the Legends Classic on Monday at 8:30 p.m.


In 2010, Life Time set out to design the first in a series of cycle kits for its base of passionate cyclists. I desiged a collection of 15+ pieces for all weather conditions.
The release of the kit coincided with the first "Ride of a Life Time" event. More than 1,000 riders transformed the Saint Paul River Centre into the world's largest cycle studio, in an attempt to be part of Guinness World Record history.


The Communist Party of India firmly criticised west Bengal Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee and the Centre with respect to the developmenta in the CBI vs Kolkata Police issue. The criticism came over the developments in CBI's attempt to interrogate Rajeev Kumar, Kolkata Police Commissioner in the chit dund scam case. The CPI demanded a tranparency in the enquiries into the Ponzi schemes.
A day after Banerjee ended her three-day dharna in Kolkata protesting the CBI's action, CPI General Secretary S Sudhakar Reddy accused her of trying to convert the issue into a crisis involving Centre-state relations. He said both the action and reaction were not good for democracy.
Hitting out at the NDA government, he alleged cases had been filed before the elections against leaders, including Samajwadi Party's Akhilesh Yadav, BSP chief Mayawati, former JNU student union leader Kanhaiya Kumar. The Central government should stop using CBI, the Enforcement Directorate against political opponents, he told reporters.


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The Inn of the Good Samaritan is a national park, museum, ancient archaeological site and former inn administered by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority located near Ma'ale Adumim, halfway between Jerusalem and Jericho, at an elevation of 298 meters above sea level.

The Inn is named after the New Testament's Parable of the Good Samaritan, and houses a museum of ancient mosaics and other archaeological findings mostly dating from the 4th-7th centuries that were collected from churches and Jewish and Samaritan synagogues from the West Bank and from the ancient Gaza synagogue.

Beginning in biblical times, Jewish pilgrims from the Galilee took the nearby Jerusalem-Jericho road to worship at the Temple in Jerusalem. In later times, Christian pilgrims used the road to reach the baptismal site of Jesus on the Jordan River, near Jericho. The area of the Inn of the Good Samaritan was repeatedly fortified, and traveller-inns were built a little below the hilltop. This is reflected in the presence of two distinct, if related, archaeological sites in close proximity to each other, the other site being the ruins of a castle believed to have been built by King Herod although today they are separated by the modern Jerusalem–Jericho highway.

Today, the Inn of the Good Samaritan is a mosaic museum, and servers as a tourist attraction visited especially by international tourists, particularly Christians. The museum features a guided audio tour, and is accessible to persons with disabilities.

Christian tradition

According to the Christian tradition, the site may have been the location of the event of the "Parable of the Good Samaritan" in the Gospel of Luke (, specifically ). The association is made already by Jerome in 385 and continued through the centuries, the British Mandate authorities adopting the name Good Samaritan Inn for the site. There are few inns located between Jerusalem and Jericho, and The Inn of the Good Samaritan is a plausible fit for the location of the story. After 1967 Israel developed the ruins as a tourist site officially called the "Good Samaritan Inn". However, the identification as the "inn of the good Samaritan" is neither of Byzantine, nor of Crusader date, but of a later time, when pilgrims saw in the blood-coloured rocks rather the symbolic proof that this was the place where the traveller in the parable was beaten by the robbers.

History

Israelites

The Iron Age Israelites called this area Maale Adumim, "ascent of Adummim" or "Red Ascent" (), due to the red rocks seen here, and it was part of the Kingdom of Judea and part of the territory of the ancient Jewish tribes of Binyamin, and was located along the Israelite road between Jerusalem and Jericho. The site marked the border between the territory of the Tribe of Judah and the Tribe of Benjamin.

Late Roman and Byzantine periods

Eusebius, writing before 324 CE, mentions the Late Roman fort of Maledomni, whose traces have disappeared under the Templar castle of Maldoim. The fort was already standing by 331, and around 400 it was garrisoned by Cohors I Salutaris, a Roman (Byzantine) auxiliary unit commissioned with protecting the travellers. Under the protection of the fortified place, a caravanserai was established. In 385, St Jerome accompanied his benefactress, the Roman patrician Paula, on her pilgrimage to Jericho, and at this site recalled the parable of the merciful Samaritan, seemingly hinting at the existence there of a church and road station. He introduces the interpretation that the name Adummim, derived from the Semitic root for blood and the colour red, stems from the blood shed there by the victims of road robbers, an idea later picked up by medieval authors.

In the Early Byzantine period there seems to have been a fortress at the site (4th-5th century), replaced in the 6th century by a square-shaped inn, erected around a central courtyard, providing Christian pilgrims with rooms, water from a central cistern, and a large church for worship.

Crusader period
The Templar castle of Maldoim (also Maledoim, Adumim, Castrum Dumi, Turris Rubea, Rubea Cisterna, Rouge Cisterne; most being variations on "Red Tower"/"Red Cistern" in Latin and Medieval French), preserves the Israelite Hebrew name, Maale Adumim. The castle is mentioned by Theoderic in 1172. Its ruins stand at the hilltop dominating the site, although now it is separated from it by the modern highway. The protection offered by the castle had as a result the establishment of an inn, a remote precursor of the buildings we are seeing today.

Ayyubid and Mamluk periods
After the Battle of Hattin in 1187, the castle, already deserted by the Knights Templar, was occupied by Saladin's troops. A French author, writing around 1230, identifies the site as the inn where "the Samaritan carried the man". Later medieval authors start making a distinction between the khan and the castle.

Felix Fabri wrote, after his 1483–84 pilgrimage to the Holy Land, about the ruined inn of which only the dangerously weathered four walls were still standing around a small well, a rare and important landmark along the steep ascent in an arid landscape.

Ottoman period
In 1767 Giovanni Mariti, an Italian (:it:Giovanni Mariti), writes of the ruin on the hill that it "is called Castle of the Samaritan, after the nearby khan...".

The Palestine Exploration Fund studied the site in 1873 and reported on the ruins of the inn:
"Khan Hathrurah — A Saracen hostel, standing on high ground, and just north of the present Jericho road. A few piers and some of the walls are still standing. On the opposite side of the road are two or three small caves, in one of which is a stone with an Arabic inscription. Cisterns, well-built and supported on arches, exist beneath the Khan, and contain water. North-east of this, on the highest part of the hill, are the remains of a strong fortress, which commands the road here, ascending through a narrow pass between walls of rock on the east. On the west also there is a winding ascent to the neighborhood of the Khan. The rock, especially on the west, is of a ruddy color like burnt brick, whence the title, Tal'at ed Damm, 'Ascent of Blood ', is applied to the whole hill, and sometimes to the castle on the summit".

The khan was rebuilt in its present shape in 1903.

The Good Samaritan Museum of Mosaics

In 2010, a Museum of Mosaics was opened at the site. It was initiated by Yitzhak Magen, the Staff Officer for Archaeology at the Israeli Civil Administration for the Judea and Samaria Area. Magen discovered that the site had been rebuilt in several historical periods, and in every phase the site had apparently functioned as an inn for travellers. In the Byzantine period a church was also built at the site, suggesting its importance for early Christian pilgrims. The floor of the church was once decorated by a beautiful mosaic of geometric patterns that had largely disappeared in modern times. Magen decided that he and his team would restore the mosaic based on early photographs taken before the tiles had disappeared. After the successful restoration of the church's mosaic floor, it was decided to take the project further and create a mosaic museum there. The museum contains ancient Jewish mosaic floors featuring Jewish religious iconography such as the temple menorah, lulav, and shofar as well as depictions of ancient Israelite figures such as David, that were excavated from all across what is now Judea and Samaria/the West Bank and Gaza.

The museum also includes a wing dedicated to the history and customs of the Samaritans a local indigenous ethnoreligious group closely related to the Jews., where several mosaics, including the mosaic from Khirbet Samara, are on display.

Access, visitor services
The restored mosaic floor of the 6th-century church has been provided with benches along the ruined walls and is used for holding mass by visiting Christian groups.

For more information see the online museum pamphlet.

See also
 The ancient road from Jericho to Jerusalem followed the Ascent of Adummim, along the southern side of Wadi Qelt, past the khan, and on to the Mount of Olives ridge.

References

Bibliography

 (pp. 172, 207−209)
 (grid 1841/1361) (pp. 78−79)
 (grid 1841/1386) (pp. 345− 346, 454)

External links

Official Website
The Good Samaritan Inn Mosaic Museum, official Parks Authority pamphlet, June 2018. Accessed April 2021.
The inn of the Good Samaritan, Bible walks

New Testament places


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Home»News»Missing Girl Returned To Kogi By Ebonyi Govt.
Missing Girl Returned To Kogi By Ebonyi Govt.
By ACNN TV August 4, 2021 No Comments2 Mins Read
The Ebonyi State Government, on Wednesday, returned one Miss Halimat to its Kogi State counterparts months after she was declared missing in the state after consuming a soft drink suspected to be drugged by a stranger in her home.
It was gathered that Halimat who had lost her memory since the incident, was allegedly drugged after taking a popularly soft drink in her home town in Uhodo in the Okehi Local Government Area of the state.
According to Halimat attestation, they added substance in the drink that made her lost consciousness and could not remember anything.
When asked about how she got to Ebonyi State, the lady explained that she had no memory of activities that took place after taking the drink.
The young lady was returned to the state by Officials of Ebonyi State Ministry of Women Affairs, Mrs Oge Veronica, Head of Department Social Welfare and Mrs Otozi Patience, Senior Social Welfare Officer of the Ministry, and was received by the Kogi State Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development, Hon. Fatima Kabir Buba.
The Ebonyi delegation told the honourable Commissioner that Halimat who had been missing for months was reportedly found in Ebonyi State by a passerby who handed her over to the authorities.
Responding to the gesture, the State Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development, Hon. Fatima Kabir Buba, lauded the synergy between Eboyin and Kogi State assuring that the ministry is set to reunite Halimat with her family.
Source: Nigerian Tribune
Ebonyi State Kogi State