Keep Cool (board game)

Keep Cool is a board game created by Klaus Eisenack and Gerhard Petschel-Held of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and published by the German company Spieltrieb in November 2004. The game can be classified as both a serious game and a global warming game. In Keep Cool, up to six players representing the world's countries compete to balance their own economic interests and the world's climate in a game of negotiation. The goal of the game as stated by the authors is to "promote the general knowledge on climate change and the understanding of difficulties and obstacles, and "to make it available for a board game and still retain the major elements and processes." Empirical studies have shown that Keep Cool can facilitate experiential learning about the difficulties of international climate politics.
Reception.
After Keep Cool was released in stores, it was sold out in only four months, prompting a second edition of the game to be released. The game has become very popular in Germany, and the game's creators were surprised at the success. Petschel-Held explained, "With 'Keep Cool,' we've been able to open new channels for dialogue between scientists and the public," and Eisenack commented, "Feedback has revealed surprising insights and exciting discussions about conflicts of interest in climate politics as highlights of Keep Cool." Keep Cool has been used by NGO's, schools, universities, and gaming conventions, besides being used by families and the general public. The German Federal Ministry for the Environment (BMU) has now included Keep Cool as a part of its teaching materials.
Aktivities related to KEEP COOL have been awarded various prizes: In 2016 the German Council for Sustainable Development awarded KEEP COOL mobil with the quality seal Werkstatt N. In 2017 Jasper Meya received the German Simulation and Gaming Award for his empirical study on the effectiveness of the board game KEEP COOL for teaching climate change. In 2016 and 2017 KEEP COOL mobil was awarded the Comenius-EduMedia-Siegel for educational media of particularly high didactic, content and design quality.
Gameplay.
Countries.
The game can be played with three to six players. The countries that players will use for the game depends on the number of players, as shown in table below.
Each of the countries has a distinct starting position in the game and some have special abilities/bargaining chips which can greatly affect negotiation. The United States begins the game with the most factories on the board (five black and one green) and always goes first. Europe begins with three black factories and one green, and the Tiger Countries begin with two black.
The Former Soviet Union begins the game with one of each kind of factory, but has the special prerogative to demand one carbonchip from any player at the beginning of their turn. OPEC and the Developing Countries only start with one black factory each, but they both have special attributes which they can use to their advantage. OPEC receives an additional carbonchip as income for every four black factories on the game board. The Developing Countries can either add or remove up to three carbonchips to/from the carbometer from/to the chip pool.
Targets.
A player needs to fulfill both their economic target and their secret target to win the game. Once both of their targets are fulfilled, the game ends, whether or not the targets are met during that player's turn. It is possible that multiple players could achieve their targets at the same time.
Economic Targets.
A player's economic target is met by having a certain minimum number of factories on the board. For this goal, only factories which are owned by that particular player count toward the total. This number is different for every group of countries, and it based on that group's number of starting factories and rate of growth. Players cannot receive factories from other players, but players may receive funds from other players which may go towards the cost of building new factories.
Secret Targets.
At the beginning of the game, players are randomly dealt a card with two secret targets printed on it. Players do not share these targets with other players. Players only have to meet one of the printed secret targets, though having two to choose from allows for some flexibility in their strategy. A player may switch between strategies at any time. There are eight different secret targets in Keep Cool. All targets are minimum or maximum numbers of protection tokens, green factories, or black factories. These minimum and maximum numbers can either be global targets or G77 targets. G77 targets only count the number of game pieces in the Former Soviet Union, Developing Countries, and Tiger Countries.
While there are only eight secret targets, there are eleven secret target cards, so it is very likely that at least two players in a game will have a common secret target.
Disasters.
The very first thing a player does on their turn, even before the usual steps of collecting income and the rest, is draw a greenhouse card. Greenhouse cards are the random generators of disasters in Keep Cool. Most greenhouse cards are disasters which affect a particular region (consequently only one player) such as Malaria Pandemic in China or Cold Winter in Europe. Greenhouse also include rarer events, such as global disasters (e.g. Sea-level rise) and beneficial events due to global warming, like more rain in Iran. The degree of the disaster or beneficial climate event is dependent on what level of warming has occurred in the game thus far, which is measured by the carbometer. In the blue zone, many disasters and other events have little or no effect. In the yellow and orange zones, disasters are particularly more potent as well as the benefit received from positive climate changes. In the red zone, climate events are catastrophic and beneficial events from positive change are severely reduced.
Background.
Countries.
The different coalitions of countries used in Keep Cool are based on the groups of similar interests which have emerged through the conferences held by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Throughout the various conferences of the UNFCCC, the countries belonging to the group "USA & Partners" have been generally hesitant about signing on to mandatory emissions targets and commitments. The countries of the Former Soviet Union have had emissions below the oft-cited '1990 level' for many years now, so they play a special role in emissions reduction by keeping their emissions low. The countries of the European Union have tended to have stronger commitments to reductions. The remaining groups of countries all belong to the G77. The G77 countries are divided accordingly because of their different interests, i.e. countries like China and India want to rapidly expand their industry and use their own coal, and oil-exporting countries have made no commitments to reduce emissions.
Developing countries are singled out as their own group partly because of their control of the world's rain forests. Depending on whether developing countries protect the rain forests in their lands and reforest or if they decide to clearcut in favor of expanding farmlands and industry, the developing countries can either act as another source of carbon pollution (via clearcutting) or as a carbon sink (via conservation and reforestation).
Factories.
Green and black factories in Keep Cool do not correspond to any actual types of factories in reality. Instead, they are symbolic of energy generation. Green factories symbolize power generated from renewable sources like wind, sun, and biomass. Black factories represent power from non-renewable fossil fuel sources like oil and coal. In Keep Cool, the only way to truly reduce emissions is to demolish black factories.
Protection Tokens.
Protection tokens are meant to represent general measures to adapt to the effects of global warming. Examples include installing flood plains, building reservoirs, and constructing new buildings in areas further away from the coast. In Keep Cool, the cost of protection tokens increases upon every purchase--"Dykes cannot be raised infinitely."


Golden gun


7mm Penna

The 7mm Penna also known as the 7×23mm is a handgun cartridge designed by Leonardo Penna for law enforcement applications. The cartridge utilises a novel lightweight, pointed projectile made from brass travelling at high velocity with the intention of giving it limited armor-piercing capabilities and greater stopping power.
There has been rumours of Fiocchi of Italy developing this cartridge for the sport of competitive shooting especially for IPSC competitions. STI chambered a few of their Nemesis line of 1911 clones for this cartridge but ceased shortly thereafter due to very little demand for such a handgun in this chambering.
This cartridge family also includes a 7x28mmR rimmed cartridge designed for use in revolvers and longer cartridges for use in carbines and rifles.


Ashpan Annie

Ashpan Annie (January 25, 1916 – July 18, 2010) was the name given to Halifax Explosion survivor Anne M. Welsh (née Liggins).
At the time she was 23 months old. Her brother Edwin and mother Anne were killed in the blast, which leveled most of the north Barrington Street structure. She was blown under the kitchen stove, where the still warm ashes in the ashpan kept her alive until she was rescued by a soldier, Sgt Davies and his dog along with a neighbour, Mr Henneberry, who was looking for his own family that had lived nearby some 26 hours later.
Her father, Pte Edward, was a soldier who was overseas at the time. She was taken to the Pine Hill Convalescent Hospital, where she was discovered by her grandmother and aunt.
She worked as a laundry worker at a young age, married and raised her own family. Her husband, Angus Welsh, died in the 1990s.
She lived most of her life in the Hydrostone district. She died at The Berkeley, Gladstone Ridge in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Legacy.
Several songs have been written about her.


Lake Chagan

Lake Chagan (, "Shaǵan"), or Lake Balapan, is a lake in Kazakhstan created by the Chagan nuclear test on January 15, 1965, which was conducted as part of the Soviet Union Nuclear Explosions for the National Economy program. A 140 kiloton device was placed in a hole in the dry bed of the Chagan River. The blast created a crater across and deep with a lip height of ; it is often referred to as "Atomic Lake".
The lake's water comes from the Chagan River, a tributary of the Irtysh River. The crater lake's volume is approximately . To the south, the rim of the crater holds back the waters of a second reservoir.
Media.
In Netflix's documentary series "Dark Tourist" (season 1 episode 4, "The Stans"), David Farrier visits and swims in Lake Chagan, as well as eats a fish from the lake, during his tour of Kazakhstan.


Cannone da 75/46 C.A. modello 34

The Cannone da 75/46 C.A. modello 34 was a mobile Italian anti-aircraft gun used during World War II. The designation means it had a caliber of 75 mm, the barrel was 46 caliber-lengths long and it was accepted in service in 1934.
History.
Showing the influence of contemporary Vickers designs, it was a sound and orthodox design; however, its production was first late in starting and slow in being carried out (by 1942, of the 240 ordered only 226 had been delivered). This meant that older and obsolete AA guns had to be kept in service even though their efficacy was minimal, and also that its production was parallel to the newer and better performing Cannone da 90/53. In addition to the mobile modello 34 a static mount the "Cannone da 75/46 C.A. modello 40" was produced. Once again production was slow and only 45 of the 240 ordered were delivered.
Assigned both to field units and to battieres protecting the Italian territory, it was also used on the Eastern front and in the Tunisian Campaign as an anti-tank gun (in which capacity it was also fitted to the Semovente da 75/46 self-propelled gun). Its performance was considered good in both roles, especially in the latter, with its AP shell that could pierce of armor at ), but it was never available in numbers.
After the Italian Armistice, the Wehrmacht captured some of these guns, and employed them with the designation 7.5 cm Flak 264/3(i), while modello 40 guns were given the designation 7.5 cm Flak 264/4(i)


Tenmei eruption

The Tenmei eruption () was a large eruption of Mount Asama that occurred in 1783 ("Tenmei 3"). This eruption was one of the causes of the Great Tenmei famine. It is estimated that about 1500-1624 people were killed in the eruption.
Overview.
Mount Asama erupted in 1783, causing widespread damage. The three-month-long Plinian eruption that began on 9 May 1783, produced andesitic pumice falls, pyroclastic flows, lava flows, and enlarged the cone. The climactic eruption began on 4 August and lasted for 15 hours, and contained pumice falls and pyroclastic flows. The complex features of this eruption are explained by rapid deposits of coarse pyroclastic ash near the vent and the subsequent flows of lava; and these events which were accompanied by a high eruption plume which generated further injections of pumice into the air.
Dutch diplomat Isaac Titsingh's account of the Asama-Yama eruption was posthumously published in French in Paris in 1820; and an English translation was published in London in 1822. These books were based on Japanese sources, and the work represented the first of its kind to be disseminated in Europe and the West.
The volcano's devastation exacerbated what was already known as the "Great Tenmei Famine". Much of the agriculturally productive land in Shinano and Kōzuke provinces would remain fallow or under-producing for the next four or five years. The effects of this eruption were made worse because, after years of near or actual famine, neither the authorities nor the people had any remaining reserves. The 4 August eruption killed up to 1,400 people, with an additional 20,000 more deaths caused by the famine.


Glossary of firelighting

This is an alphabetized glossary of terms pertaining to lighting fires, along with their definitions. Firelighting (also called firestarting, fire making, or fire craft) is the process of starting a fire artificially. Fire was an essential tool in early human cultural development. The ignition of any fire, whether natural or artificial, requires completing the fire triangle, usually by initiating the combustion of a suitably flammable material.


Play with Fire (Rolling Stones song)

"Play with Fire" is a song by English rock band the Rolling Stones, originally released as B-side to the song "The Last Time". It was later included on the American release of their 1965 album "Out of Our Heads".
Composition and recording.
"Play with Fire" is credited to Nanker Phelge, a pseudonym used when tracks were composed by the entire band, even though lead singer Mick Jagger and guitarist Keith Richards are the only Rolling Stones to appear on the track. The song was recorded late one night in January 1965 while the Stones were in Los Angeles recording with Phil Spector at the RCA Studios. Richards performed the song's acoustic guitar opening while Jagger handled vocals and tambourine (enhanced using an echo chamber). Spector played bass, and Jack Nitzsche provided the song's distinctive harpsichord arrangement and tamtams. The Stones left for a tour of Australia the following day.
The song's lyrics talk of the singer's relationship with a high society girl, disparaging the lifestyle much in the same way that "19th Nervous Breakdown" would in a more up-tempo feel. The title derives from the saying "If you play with fire, you will get burned."
In a 1995 interview with Jann Wenner for "Rolling Stone", entitled "Jagger Remembers," Jagger said, "'Play with Fire' sounds amazing—when I heard it last. I mean, it's a very in-your-face kind of sound and very clearly done. You can hear all the vocal stuff on it. And I'm playing the tambourines, the vocal line. You know, it's very pretty." According to Richie Unterberger, a friend of the Stones wrote that an unreleased version of the song, entitled "Mess with Fire", was also recorded, featuring a much more upbeat, soul-oriented feel. However, the story is considered dubious by Unterberger.
Releases and lawsuit.
"Play with Fire" went to No. 96 on the U.S. chart. It was also featured on the U.S. version of "Big Hits (High Tide and Green Grass)" (1966), "Hot Rocks" (1971) and "" (1989). The song was performed in concert during the Rolling Stones' tours of 1965 and 1966, and was revived on their 1989–90 Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle Tour.
In July 2008, "Play with Fire" became the subject of a lawsuit when ABKCO Music, which owns the rights to the Rolling Stones' early catalogue, filed a suit against Lil Wayne, asserting that the rapper's song "Playing with Fire" is based on the Rolling Stones' song.
A cover version is on the West, Bruce and Laing album Live 'n' Kickin'. Also the Pretty Things released a version of the song in 1999. Manfred Mann's Earth Band reworked it for their album Soft Vengeance in 1996.


Tesching

The tesching (French: "teschin") (Büchse) is a handgun of very small calibre (less than 6mm), which propels a very light bullet a short distance (10–20 metres) with a percussion cap instead of a charge of gunpowder. The pistol appears to derive its name from the city of Teschen.
The firearm was used in the late 19th and early 20th centuries for sport shooting. A number of shooting clubs, therefore, include the name "Tesching" or "Teschin". There were also some similar long-guns operating solely by percussion cap. These firearms were also used by young people to learn the basics of hunting, though due to their low power they were only suitable on small game or birds at close range.


Weapons of the Lebanese Civil War

The Lebanese Civil War was a multi-sided military conflict that pitted a variety of local irregular militias, both Muslim and Christian, against each other between 1975 and 1990.
A wide variety of weapons were used by the different armies and factions operating in the Lebanese Civil War. Combatants included:
Weapons and equipment.
The list below comprises all the weapons and equipment employed by the LNM, Lebanese Front, LAA, AFL, LF, IUM, Hezbollah, Al-Mourabitoun, NLA, Druze PLA, SLA, LAF, ISF, and lesser Lebanese groups. (note: the Syrian Army, PLO, Palestinian PLA and IDF are not included on this list)


Holy Hand Grenade


Future Weapons

Future Weapons, sometimes also written as FutureWeapons and Futureweapons, is a television series that premiered on April 19, 2006, on the Discovery Channel. Host Richard "Mack" Machowicz, a former Navy SEAL, reviews and demonstrates the latest modern weaponry and military technology. The program is currently broadcast on the Discovery Channel and Military Channel (now American Heroes Channel).


M/40 Automatic cannon

The 20 mm maskinkanon M.40 S is an autocannon with a calibre of 20mm of Swedish origin. The weapon was intended as both an anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapon.
History.
The 20mm m/40 followed the same pattern of long-recoil operation as the 25mm and 40mm guns. It was chambered for a unique and quite powerful 20×145R cartridge, and could fire at 360 rpm. On a wheeled AA mounting, it weighed 300 kg, on a low tripod for anti-tank use, it weighed 65 kg (the same gun was used in both installations, and could be switched between mountings). In anti-tank form, it was given the nickname "grasshopper" as it jumped about so much on firing. It was known as the pansarvärnsluftvärnskanon m/40 (PVLV) which translates as "Anti-tank/anti-aircraft gun". The ammunition feed consisted of an exposed 28-round rotary magazine above the gun, which in the AT mounting meant that the sights had to be fixed to the side. It appears that these weapons were only used by the Swedish army, with some 2,700 guns being produced. It was also fitted to about forty PB m/31 armoured cars and to fixed AA and "combination" mountings.


Calico Liberty

The Calico Liberty is a roller-delayed blowback-operated semi-automatic rifle (Liberty II) or pistol (Liberty III) chambered for the 9 mm Parabellum round, designed by Calico Light Weapons Systems. These firearms use an unusual 50 or 100-round helical magazine that allow for a large number of rounds in a relatively compact and convenient package. The spent cartridges are discharged in an unusual fashion as well: downward, ahead of the trigger guard. This makes it relatively easy to fit an effective device to catch the cartridge cases, which can then be reloaded. A full-automatic (machine gun) version is available for military, police and other government agencies.


Jane Riga

Jane Riga (11 August 1973 – 7 June 2015) was an Estonian mountain climber. She died after an avalanche knocked her into 65-foot deep crack in the Cordillera Blanca range in the Andes of northern Peru.
Early life.
Jane Riga was born as Jane Käärmann in Tartu. She was a graduate of the Tallinn University, majoring in English. After graduation, she worked as an interpreter and a guide and started hiking in 1989. In 2007, she was the first Estonian to scale the Vinson Massif in Antarctica. In 2008 and 2009, with her husband Tarmo Riga, she managed to climb several peaks in Ecuador and Argentina that no other Estonians had climbed.
Death.
In 2015, a four member group, including Jane Riga, her husband Tarmo Riga, Allan Valge, and Annemai Märtson attempted to climb the Huascaran National Reserve Ancash, Peru (Andes Mountains). After about a week into the climb, the group was crossing an ice bridge when Tarmo, Allan and Jane fell through the bridge. Thus starting an avalanche which caused the bridge to then fall on top of the three mountaineers. Märtson was the only one rescued because, while she also fell down the crevice, she was not encased in the ice and snow in the same way as the other three climbers, who were eventually found under four meters of ice and snow. Rescue workers arrived to the scene 12 hours after the initial fall. They were caught at about 300 feet from the summit (approx. elevation 19,400 feet).


Salaparuta

Salaparuta is a town and "comune" in South-Western Sicily, Italy, in the valley of the Belice river, administratively part of the province of Trapani.
In 1968, the original site of the town was near the epicentre of the Belice Valley earthquake. As a result, Salaparuta was completely destroyed and rebuilt not far from the original location. The current Salaparuta is still home to many of the citizens of the old town.
Salaparuta is popularly known for its Salaparuta DOC wine production, also the main income source for the town.


Market Revolution

The Market Revolution, which occurred in 19th century United States, is a historical model which argues that there was a drastic change of the economy that disoriented and coordinated all aspects of the market economy in line with both nations and the world. Charles Grier Sellers, a leading historian of the Market Revolution, portrays it as a highly negative development that marked the triumph of capitalism over democracy. He argues that this was one of the most significant transformations of America within the first half of the nineteenth century— indeed, the defining event of world history— the evolution from an agrarian to a capitalist society. Sellers observes:
Process.
Traditional commerce was made obsolete by improvements in transportation and communication. This change prompted the reinstatement of the mercantilist ideas that were thought to have died out. Increased industrialization was a major component of the Market Revolution as a result of the Industrial Revolution. Northern cities started to have a more powerful economy, while most southern cities (with the marked exception of free labor metropolises like St. Louis, Baltimore, and New Orleans) resisted the influence of market forces in favor of the region's slave system.
It also was in part influenced by the need for national mobility, shown to be a problem during the War of 1812, after which the government increased production of early roads, extensive canals along navigable waterways, and later elaborate railroad networks.
Following the War of 1812, the American economy was altered from an economy dependent on imports from Europe to one that evolved greater internal production and commerce. In 1817 James Monroe replaced James Madison as president of the U.S.. The Democratic-Republicans continued policies begun in Jefferson's administration. With a new generation of leaders, the Democratic-Republican Party came to embrace the principles of government activism and the development of large-scale domestic manufacturing. Despite all of the promises that characterized the United States, discrepancies loomed: the survival of slavery, treatment of the Native Americans, the deterioration of some urban areas, and a mania for speculation. The nation was not just growing through the addition of land, but population shifts brought about new states to the Union and when Missouri petitioned for statehood in 1819, the issue of slavery was thrust on the national agenda. Thomas Jefferson wrote that the issue awakened him "like a fire bell in the night." That the Missouri question coincided with the nation's worst financial crisis awakened anxieties in many Americans. By the 1820s Americans recognized a rough regional specialization: plantation-style export agriculture in the south, a north built on business and trade, and a frontier west. The regions were interdependent but in time their differences would become more obvious, more important, and increasingly more incompatible.
The market revolution also brought about a change in industry and agriculture. Eli Whitney perfected a system of producing muskets with interchangeable parts. Prior to Whitney's invention, most muskets—and all other goods—had been handmade with parts specially designed for each particular musket. The trigger of one musket, for example, could not be used to replace a broken trigger on another musket. With interchangeable parts, however, all triggers fit the same model of the musket, as did all ramrods, all flash pans, all hammers, and all bullets. Manufacturers in many different industries soon took advantage of Whitney's invention to make a variety of goods with interchangeable parts.
Many new products revolutionized agriculture in the West. John Deere, for example, invented the horse-pulled steel plow to replace the difficult oxen-driven wooden plows that farmers had used for centuries. The steel plow allowed farmers to till soil faster and more cheaply without having to make repairs as often.
In the 1830s, Cyrus McCormick invented a mechanical mower-reaper that quintupled the efficiency of wheat farming. Prior to the mower-reaper, wheat farming had been too difficult, so farmers had instead produced corn, which was less profitable. As in the South after the cotton gin, farmers in the West raked in huge profits as they acquired more lands to plant more and more wheat. More important, farmers for the first time began producing more wheat than the West could consume. Rather than let it go to waste, they began to transport crop surpluses to sell in the manufacturing Northeast.
The market revolution further exacerbated sectional tensions in the United States. As King Cotton became the primary crop in the South, the need for increase in labor arose; thus, the South increased its use of slaves in producing crops. The American North and Western European countries banned slavery in their countries/regions, and attempted to push the South to abolish slavery as well. The slave trade ended, but slavery did not end. As the textile industry in the North drastically increased, changing women and children's roles and further revolutionizing family structure, the demand for raw products such as cotton increased, meaning an increase in the South's demand for more labor. Ironically, this Northern demand for more cotton for the textile industry increased the Southern demand for slavery, making it harder for the North to end slavery in the South. This increase of labor and industry brought the United States into the world picture for economy and commerce, planting the seed for the United States to increase in wealth and power majority of the time.
Historiography.
Sellers argued:
Sellers has explained his motivation for this interpretation:
Professor John Lauritz Larson has considered these transformations in his book, "The Market Revolution in America: Liberty, Ambition, and the Eclipse of the Common Good".
Historian Daniel Walker Howe challenges the Sellers' interpretation. First, Howe points out that the market revolution happened much earlier, in the eighteenth century. Second, Howe claims that Sellers errs in emphasis arguing that because "most American family farmers welcomed the chance to buy and sell in larger markets," no one was mourning the end of traditionalism and regretting the rise of modernity. The market revolution improved standards of living for most American farmers. For example, a mattress that cost fifty dollars in 1815 (which meant that almost no one owned one) cost five in 1848 (and everyone slept better). Finally, retorts Howe, the revolution that really mattered was the "communications revolution": the invention of the telegraph, the expansion of the postal system, improvements in printing technology, and the growth of the newspaper, magazine, and book-publishing industries, and the improvements in higher-speed transportation.
In his debate with Sellers, Howe asked. "What if people really were benefiting in certain ways from the expansion of the market and its culture? What if they espoused middle-class tastes or evangelical religion or (even) Whig politics for rational and defensible reasons? What if the market was not an actor (as Sellers makes it) but a resource, an instrumentality, something created by human beings as a means to their ends?" However, Sellers summed up the differences between his and Howe's arguments this way. Howe was proposing that the "Market delivers eager self-improvers from stifling Jacksonian barbarism" whereas he saw that a "Go-getter minority compels everybody else to play its competitive game of speedup and stretch-out or be run over."
Howe has praised Larson's approach for rejecting Sellers' "villain":


.44-40 Winchester

The .44-40 Winchester, also known as .44 Winchester, .44 WCF (Winchester Center Fire), and .44 Largo (in Spanish-speaking countries) was introduced in 1873 by the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. It was the first metallic centerfire cartridge manufactured by Winchester, and was promoted as the standard chambering for the new Winchester Model 1873 rifle. As both a rifle and a handgun caliber, the cartridge soon became widely popular, so much so that the Winchester Model 1873 rifle became known as "The gun that won the West."
History.
When Winchester released the new cartridge, many other firearm companies chambered their guns in the new round. Remington and Marlin released their own rifles and pistols which chambered the round, Colt offered an alternative chambering in its popular Single Action Army revolver in a model known as the Colt Frontier Six-Shooter, and Smith & Wesson began releasing their Smith & Wesson New Model 3 chambered in .44-40. Settlers, lawmen, and cowboys appreciated the convenience of being able to carry a single caliber of ammunition which they could fire in both pistol and rifle. In both law enforcement and hunting usage, the .44-40 became the most popular cartridge in the United States, and to this day has the reputation of killing more deer than any other save the .30-30 Winchester.
The cartridge was originally sold as .44 Winchester. When the Union Metallic Cartridge Co. (UMC) began selling their own version of the cartridge, it adopted the name .44-40 (shorthand for .44 caliber and the standard load at the time of of black powder), as it did not want to offer free advertising for one of its competitors. Over time, the name stuck, and eventually Winchester adopted the .44-40 designation for the round after World War II. Winchester uses the designation "44-40 Winchester" on packaging.
Technical background.
The initial standard load for the cartridge was of black powder propelling a round-nose, flat-point bullet at roughly . Winchester catalogues listed velocities of by 1875. In 1886, UMC also began offering a slightly heavier, , bullet at , also with 40 gr of black powder. Winchester soon began to carry the 217-gr loading, as well, but in 1905, UMC discontinued the heavier load.
In 1895, Winchester introduced a cartridge bulk loaded with of DuPont No. 2 smokeless powder and a bullet for , and in 1896, UMC followed suit with a 217-gr bullet at . Soon, both companies were offering the cartridge with lead "metal patched" (i.e. copper-jacketed with lead points), and full metal jacket versions.
Taking advantage of the stronger-action designs of the Winchester model 1892 and the Marlin 1894 lever-action rifles, in 1903, Winchester began offering a higher-performance version of the loading called the Winchester High Velocity (WHV), with a velocity of using a 200-gr copper-jacketed bullet from a barrel length, UMC and Peters Cartridge Company soon introduced equivalents. Over the years, a number of different bullet weights and styles have been offered, including 122, 140, 160, 165, 166, 180, and 217 gr in lead, soft- and hollow-point, full metal case, blanks, and shot shells. The most common current loading is a 200-gr bullet at 1190 ft/s.
By 1942, more modern cartridges had all but eclipsed the .44-40, but it regained some popularity in the 1950s and 1960s when Colt began once again to manufacture the Single Action Army and Frontier. More recently, the .44-40 has had a resurgence due to the popularity of metallic silhouette and cowboy action shooting, which inspired the introduction of a low-velocity gallery load, the heaviest factory bullet ever available for the cartridge.


Belted magnum

The term belted magnum or belted case refers to any cartridge, but generally a rifle cartridge, with a shell casing that has a pronounced "belt" around its base that continues 2–4 mm past the extractor groove.
This design originated with the British gunmaker Holland & Holland for the purpose of headspacing certain more powerful cartridges. Non-shouldered (non-"bottlenecked") magnum rifle cartridges especially could be pushed too far into the chamber and thus cause catastrophic failure of the gun when fired with excessive headspace. The addition of the belt to the casing prevented over-insertion. An example of an American adaption of this practice is seen in cartridges like the .458 Winchester Magnum, also a shoulderless heavy magnum.
Many subsequent cartridges of "magnum" nomenclature were based on the original .375 H&H cartridge, so over time the belt became something of a standardized attribute, expected as part of a "magnum" cartridge. Many cartridge designs of the last century include this belt, but do not really require it.
In the last decade or so, there has been a trend toward beltless magnums, virtually all of which are heavily shouldered designs that obviate the original motivation for a belt.


2002 European floods

In August 2002 a flood caused by over a week of continuous heavy rains ravaged Europe, killing dozens, dispossessing thousands, and causing damage of billions of euros in the Czech Republic, Austria, Germany, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Romania and Croatia, as well as in Russia. The flood was of a magnitude expected to occur roughly once a century. Unprecedented flood heights were recorded and at least 110 people died. In December 2002, total economic damage estimates exceeded 15 billion Euro, of which 15% was insured.
Development of the floods.
Flooding resulted from the passage of two Genoa low pressure systems (named Hanne and Ilse by the Free University of Berlin) which brought warm moist air from the Mediterranean northwards. The effects of El Niño are believed to have possibly contributed although others disagree. The floods started with heavy rainfall in the Eastern Alps, which resulted in floods in Northern Italy, Bavaria and the Austrian states of Salzburg and Upper Austria. The floods gradually moved eastwards along the Danube, although the damage in the large cities on its shores was not as severe as in the areas affected by the floods later.
When the rainfall moved northeast to the Bohemian Forest and to the source areas of the Elbe and Vltava rivers, the result were catastrophic water levels first in the Austrian areas of Mühlviertel and Waldviertel and later in the Czech Republic, Thuringia and Saxony. Rivers changed their courses in unexpected ways, catching residents off guard. Several villages in Northern Bohemia, Thuringia and Saxony were more or less destroyed by rivers changing their courses or massively overflowing their banks.
Areas affected.
The floods that hit Europe during August 2002 were part of a larger system that was also affecting Asia. Within Europe, however, the areas that sustained significant damage included the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Italy, Spain, Germany, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, and Ukraine. Several rivers in the region, including the Vltava, Elbe and Danube reached record highs.
Czech Republic.
Prague received significant damage from what were deemed to be the worst floods ever to hit the capital. The flow of Vltava culminated at 5300 m³/s, 20% more than during the flood of 1845. Among the regions of the capital city most severely affected were: Karlín, Kampa, Holešovice and Libeň, where there was significant risk of building collapse. Most of Prague's art work was saved due to advance warning of high water levels, however there was significant damage to the Prague Metro subway system, much of which was completely flooded, as well as to the historic Prague pneumatic post, which was forced to cease operation.
The Terezín Memorial and Prague's Jewish Quarter also received significant damage, a part of the estimated $30 million in damage to Czech cultural sites including: the Prague Municipal Library, Malá Strana, the National Theatre and Terezín.
The evacuations before the worst of the flooding have been cited as one of the reasons for relatively little loss of life in the capital. An estimated 40,000 people were evacuated from Prague. One of the most visible victims of the summer's flood was Gaston, a sea lion from the Prague Zoo who swam to Germany following the flooding of his aquarium. For some time, it was believed he would survive, however he died following capture in Dresden.
In total, 17 people lost their lives in the Czech Republic due to the floods, and damage from the flood was estimated at between 70 and 73 billion CZK. The damage to the Prague metro has been estimated at approximately 7 billion CZK.
Germany.
Germany was the hardest hit, with over two-thirds of the flood's total losses. The 10 years of renovation work that had been carried out since reunification in 1990 in the town of Grimma, in the former East Germany, were said to have been destroyed in one night.
Dresden received significant damage when the Elbe River reached an all-time high of 9.4 meters (30.8 feet). More than 30,000 people were evacuated from various neighborhoods throughout the city and some of the city's cultural landmarks were considered to be at risk.
Dresden's Zwinger Palace, home to a significant number of Europe's artistic treasures including Raphael's Sistine Madonna was at risk from the flooding Elbe, however all of the art works could be saved. The Semper Opera House also suffered damage.
Russia.
The Black Sea Coast region was among the most severely hit regions of Russia with significant loss of life due to a tornado that hit the tourist region and destroyed homes. This was after earlier summer floods in southern Russia. All told, damage in the region was calculated at more than $400 million.
Regions spared.
Although all of Europe was affected to some degree or another from the record rains that fell, some cities were spared the severe flooding that hit Dresden and Prague.
Although the Danube reached record highs, both Bratislava and Vienna were spared significant flooding. Bratislava's sparing was due to the city's flood protection measures, which withstood the water, while it was generally believed that Vienna was spared significant damage due the city's engineering, and plans were undertaken to see if such work could be applied to the other cities as well.
After effects.
Once the water levels returned to normal and residents returned to their homes, they faced not only the damage left by the flood waters but also threats of disease due to decaying waste and food. The danger increased due to flooding of sewage treatment plants and the risk of damage to chemical plants.
Once the waters began to recede, European leaders gathered in Berlin to discuss the effects of the floods and to create a better understanding of how to prevent such disasters in the future. This meeting garnered some criticism, as Russia, which had suffered significant damage, was not invited to what was billed as a meeting of EU members and future members. The EU leaders did promise aid to the central European countries that suffered the most under the floods with monies coming from the EU's structural budget and this outreach to non-members was seen as symbolic in an effort to portray a truly united Europe.


M.27 (mountain gun)

The 75 mm M.27 was a Norwegian mountain gun used in World War II. Twenty-four of these guns were designed and built by Kongsberg Kanonfabrik to supplement the old 75mm Ehrhardt M.11 guns. There is no record of any use by Nazi Germany after the Norwegian Campaign


Joe Wood (infielder)

Joseph Perry Wood (October 3, 1919 – March 25, 1985) was a professional baseball player. He played one season in Major League Baseball for the Detroit Tigers in 1943, playing second base and third base. A native of Houston, Texas, Wood batted and threw right-handed. He attended Rice University.
In one season career, Wood was a .323 hitter (53-for-164) with one home run and 17 RBI in 60 games, including four doubles, four triples and two stolen bases.
Wood died in an accidental fire in his hometown of Houston, Texas, at the age of 65.


Billao

A billao (), also known as a belawa, is a horn-hilted Somali shortsword. It served most notably as a close-quarters weapon in the Dervish State, at the turn of the 20th century.
Features.
The dagger has a double-edged, leaf-shaped, asymmetrical blade and a three-pronged pommel. One-pronged pommels with the metal tang protruding out from the center of the hilt have been reported. Together, the grip and pommel are 6¾" in circumference. The billao's blade is made of iron or steel, and is 10½" long and 2½" wide. Though other horn types are also used, the handle is typically made from the horn of buffalo. In total, the dagger is 17¼" long. The sheath is made of sheepskin, and the sword is worn on a belt around the waist.
It is said to have originated in the Togdheer, Cayn and Sool regions of present day Somaliland


David Lama

David Lama (; 4 August 1990 – 16 April 2019) was an Austrian sport climber and mountaineer. He won the European Championship in bouldering in 2007 and the European Championship in lead climbing in 2006. He is known for his first free ascent of the "Compressor Route" (South-East Ridge) on Cerro Torre. In 2018, in a solo expedition, he was the first to reach the summit of Lunag Ri in the Himalayas. In 2019, he was posthumously honoured with a Piolet d'Or for this first ascent.
Biography.
David Lama was born in 1990. His father is a mountain guide from Nepal and his mother is an Austrian from Innsbruck. He was five years old when Himalaya veteran Peter Habeler first watched him climb in a climbing camp organized by him. Afterwards, Habeler immediately called his parents to tell them that their boy had an unusual talent. Lama then became part of the competition climbing team coached by Reinhold Scherer.
Competition climbing.
In 2004, 14 years old, Lama won the European Youth Cup. In the same year he climbed his first route.
He repeated his win at the European Youth Cup in 2005 and moved on to Senior competitions in 2006. The International Federation for Sport Climbing (IFSC) changed their rules so that Lama, only 15 years old at the time, could compete in the Senior World Cup.
Lama became the youngest person to compete at the World Cup and the first to win both a lead and a bouldering World Cup final in his first season.
Lama became European Champion, both in lead climbing (2006) and bouldering (2007). In 2008 he won the overall ranking in the World Cup. And in 2009 he placed 3rd at the World Championships in the category lead.
In 2011 he retired from competition climbing so he could focus solely on mountaineering.
Mountaineering.
Cerro Torre free ascent.
In 2009 David Lama announced his intention to free climb Cerro Torre via the Compressor Route, which means only natural rock and ice formations are used for the ascent of the mountain. Bolts and rope only serve as protection in case of a fall. Nobody had done this before, all previous ascents had used climbing aids of one kind or another. Alpinist legend Reinhold Messner even called the undertaking “crazy and impossible”.
For his first attempt in 2009 Lama brought along a film crew provided by his sponsor Red Bull. This first attempt ended in failure. Lama and his climbing partner Daniel Steuerer had to turn around due to bad weather. Back at base camp the conditions stayed bad and the team had to abandon the endeavor for the 2009/2010 season.
The aftermath of this first attempt started a scandal in the mountaineering scene. Both Lama and the Red Bull film crew were heavily criticized. The film crew had left behind at least 30 drilled bolts next to a route already laden with bolts. 700 metres of fixed rope and five haul bags were also left behind along the route. Argentinian guides were hired to remove the equipment, but they did not manage to remove all of it and none of the bolts were removed.
Lama stated that he was not aware of the large number of bolts that were drilled by the film team, but he took full responsibility for the actions and promised not to repeat the mistake. He promised to remove the remaining equipment in the following year.
They returned for a second attempt in January 2011. Peter Ortner, a more experienced climber, replaced Steuerer as Lama's climbing partner from this point onward. This initial ascent had to be aborted as well because the head wall was full of ice. On February 12, during a small good weather window, the two climbers managed to reach the summit using aided techniques. This ascent raised the morale of the team after the long series of failures and was used for scouting out the free route.
In January 2012, Lama and his team returned for a third expedition. A few days before the planned ascent they got the news that the climbers Jason Kruk and Hayden Kennedy had completed the compressor route, using as few bolts as they could manage. On their way back down they removed all the bolts they deemed unnecessary in order to restore the challenge of the mountain. They removed more than 120 bolts in total, most of them from the historical 1970 Cesare Maestri gas-powered compressor ascent. The headwall of the compressor route and one pitch below were completely freed of bolts. This move caused a heated debate in the mountaineering community. Both climbers were briefly detained by Argentinian police and the removed bolts were confiscated.
Lama's first reaction was that he did not need the bolts for his climb anyway and he moved ahead with his free climbing attempt. Since the old bolted route was not climbable anymore by regular means, the film crew had to ascend the summit via the west side of the mountain and rappel down with ropes in order to document the next attempt.
On January 19, 2012, Lama and Ortner finished the first free ascent of Cerro Torre via the south-east ridge compressor route in 24 hours in total.
According to Lama they brought 5 bolts along, but they did not have to place any of them. They ascended to the left of the crack climbed by Salvaterra and Mabboni, here Lama took one fall, but he managed to climb it on the second attempt. He later rated this crux in terms of difficulty. The two climbers slept for the night in bivouac sacks below the Ice Towers.
On the next day, after ascending most of the headwall, they went right of the compressor, following cracks and flakes in the rock, all the way to the summit. All previous routes went left of the compressor.
In 2013, National Geographic made David Lama "Adventurer of the Year" for his free ascent of Cerro Torre.
The documentary "Cerro Torre: A Snowball's Chance in Hell" documents the ascent.
Lunag Ri first ascent (solo).
In 2015 David Lama teamed up with The North Face climbing team captain Conrad Anker in order to climb the Lunag Ri, one of the highest unclimbed peaks in the Himalayas.
Their first attempt was on November 12, 2015. They picked a rock crevice that would allow them to climb up to the north-west pillar of the mountain. Up on the ridge they planned to follow it up to the peak using mixed climbing techniques. It was already late when they reached the top of the ridge, so for the night they set up a bivouac underneath a boulder. They continued in the early morning of the next day. Lack of ice and bad snow conditions complicated protection. They did not manage to reach the summit during the next day. They had to make the decision whether to dig in and wait out another night, at potential temperatures of -40 °C and strong wind, or turn around and descend the mountain. They decided for the latter and aborted the attempt around 300 metres below the summit.
They had to abandon the endeavor for that year, but returned for a second attempt in 2016.
On November 6, 2016, during the second attempt, Conrad Anker suffered a heart attack at a height of while climbing up the rock crevice. The two climbers quickly decided to rappel down the mountain. Lama called for an emergency helicopter rescue at base camp. 12 hours after the heart attack Anker underwent surgery in Kathmandu. A thrombotic occlusion was removed from his proximal left artery. As a result of this injury Anker quit high altitude climbing, or the "hurt locker" as he calls it.
Lama was left behind without climbing partner at the base camp. Since Anker had declared that he would not return, Lama decided to start another attempt alone.
This third attempt was started on November 8, 2016. Lama ascended the north-west ridge via a longer, but easier rock crevice and set up camp. Since he had no climbing partner he had to use roped solo techniques in order to ascend the ridge, climbing one pitch as lead, setting up an anchor and then rappeling back down to remove protections. Ascending the mountain this way together with a heavy backpack turned out to be too much of a challenge. Lama aborted this third attempt as well, not far from the location of the high point of the first expedition with Conrad Anker.
On October 23, 2018, David Lama returned for a fourth and final attempt. Again solo, he ascended the mountain in three days over the north-west ridge. He followed the same line he had taken on his first solo attempt. He had to set up bivouac two times for the nights at temperatures of -30 °C with 80 km/h storm gusts. During the entire third day he was unable to feel his toes. He decided to push on despite this and reached the summit at 10:00 a.m. After a few minutes on the summit he immediately rappeled back down. At midnight he was back at base camp. He did not lose any of his toes.
Death.
On 16 April 2019, David Lama, along with climbers Jess Roskelley and Hansjörg Auer, was caught in an avalanche on Howse Peak in the Waputik Range of the Canadian Rockies. The group had climbed a new route on the east face of Howse Peak, one of the most challenging Canadian rock-and-ice faces.
Photos from Jess Roskelley’s phone indicate that the three climbers had reached the summit on Tuesday, April 16 at 12:44 PM. Their bodies were found 21 April 2019. It can be deduced from a photograph taken from Icefields Parkway by a climber from Canmore that a large cornice broke off above their route. He reported that the resulting avalanche swept the south-east face at 1:58, 31 minutes after they had reached a steep couloir above a basin to descend their route. Their bodies were recovered from an avalanche cone below the icefall route "Life by the Drop". The shallow layer of snow covering the climbers is a further indicator of a cornice break as the cause of the accident.
Competition results.

Number of medals in the UIAA and IFSC Climbing World Cups.
Overall winner in IFSC World Cup 2008.


.30 R Blaser

The .30 R Blaser (7.62×68mm R) is a rimmed bottlenecked centerfire cartridge developed for hunting in 1991 by Gerhard Blenk, the then owner of Blaser Jagdwaffen GmbH and Dynamit Nobel which then owned RWS ammunition.
Design.
The cartridge is a de novo design and was constructed to outperform popular hunting cartridges like the .30-06 Springfield and 7.92×57mm Mauser. When compared with the .30-06 Springfield the .30 R Blaser features an equal maximum chamber pressure of 405 MPa (58,740 psi) piezo pressure - which is fairly high for a rimmed rifle cartridge - but more cartridge case capacity, allowing the use of more propellant. The .30 R Blaser performance does however not reach the power level of .30 caliber magnum cartridges like the .300 Winchester Magnum that feature more cartridge case capacity and higher maximum chamber pressure levels.
As a rimmed cartridge the .30 R Blaser is designed for use in break action rifles such as double rifles and combination guns as well as for single shot rifles such as the falling block action rifles. Break action rifles using rimless .30 caliber chamberings like .308 Winchester or .30-06 Springfield can be fairly easy rechambered for the .30 R Blaser.
The cartridge was commercially introduced in 1992 by Blaser Jagdwaffen (Blaser hunting weapons) and RWS ammunition. As of 2009, RWS is its only manufacturer.
Cartridge dimensions.
The .30 R Blaser has 4.94 ml (76 grains H2O) cartridge case capacity. The exterior shape of the case was designed to promote reliable case feeding and extraction in break action rifles.
.30 R Blaser maximum C.I.P. cartridge dimensions. All sizes in millimeters (mm).
Americans would define the shoulder angle at alpha/2 ≈ 20.01 degrees. The common rifling twist rate for this cartridge is 305 mm (1 in 12 in), 4 grooves, Ø lands = 7.62 mm, Ø grooves = 7.82 mm, land width = 4.47 mm and the primer type is large rifle or large rifle magnum depending on the load.
According to the official with C.I.P. (Commission Internationale Permanente Pour L'Epreuve Des Armes A Feu Portative) guidelines the .30 R Blaser case can handle up to Pmax piezo pressure. In C.I.P. regulated countries every rifle cartridge combo has to be proofed at 125% of this maximum C.I.P. pressure to certify for sale to consumers.
This means that .30 R Blaser chambered arms in C.I.P. regulated countries are currently (2013) proof tested at PE piezo pressure.
Contemporary use.
The versatility of the .30 R Blaser for hunting all kinds of American and European game and the availability of several factory loads and the fact that it uses standard .30 caliber projectiles all attribute to the .30 R Blaser chambering popularity in break action hunting rifles. Loaded with short light bullets it can be used on small European game like fox or medium game such as roe deer and chamois. Loaded with longer heavy bullets it can be used on medium and big European game like wild boar, fallow deer, red deer, moose and brown bear. The .30 R Blaser offers good penetrating ability due to a fast enough twist rate to enable it to fire relatively long, heavy bullets with a high sectional density. The (former) legal banning of (ex) military service cartridges in countries like Belgium, Italy and France, makes that the .30 R Blaser can be used for hunting in such jurisdictions.


William Wellington Greener

William Wellington Greener (1834—1921) was an innovative English gunsmith, the founder of the W. W. Greener company. He was also an author of books on guns, many of which went through multiple editions, most notably "The Gun and Its Development" (first published 1881; 9th edition 1910; subsequently reprinted 1972, 1989, 2002).
He was the son of the gunsmith William Greener (1806-1869).


6.5-06 A-Square

The 6.5-06 A-Square is a centerfire rifle cartridge that originated as a wildcat, based on the popular .30-06 Springfield. A-Square standardized the dimensions of the cartridge and submitted them to SAAMI in 1997.
Design.
The 6.5-06 A-Square uses a .264" diameter bullet loaded into a modified .30-06 Springfield cartridge. The neck is reduced to accept the smaller bullet, the shoulder is longer than that of the parent cartridge, and it has a 17.5 degree shoulder angle leading to the neck of the case, where the bullet is seated. The Ackley Improved version of the cartridge uses a sharper shoulder angle and has a case capacity of 72 gr of water.
Uses.
The 6.5-06 A-Square has power similar to that of the .270 Winchester and .308 Winchester, making it suitable for hunting medium-sized game such as deer and black bear.
It is also used in competitions such as F-Class and Benchrest formats.
Availability of ammunition.
Currently (2011) none of the major commercial ammunition manufacturers offer factory loaded 6.5-06 A-Square ammunition. There are smaller companies that custom load the cartridge however, and hand-loading can be accomplished using the proper set of dies and using .25-06 Remington, .270 Winchester, or .30-06 Springfield brass and making the proper modifications to fit the 6.5-06 A-Square chamber. After firing, the brass from the original cartridge (.25-06 Remington, .270 Winchester, or .30-06 Springfield) will be fire-formed to the exact dimensions of the 6.5-06 A-Square chamber.
Firearms chambered for 6.5-06 A-Square.
As of 2011, A-Square listed two different rifles factory chambered in 6.5-06 A-Square; the Hamilcar and the Genghis Khan. Several of the major custom barrel manufacturers offer the 6.5-06 A-Square (sometimes listed simply as 6.5-06) chamber as an option for builders of custom rifles. However, On 15 February 2012, the A-Square Company ceased to exist.


Randolph McCoy

Randolph "Randall" or "Ole Ran'l" McCoy (October 30, 1825 – March 28, 1914) was the patriarch of the McCoy clan involved in the infamous American Hatfield–McCoy feud. He was born the fourth of thirteen children to Daniel McCoy (1790–1885) and Margaret Taylor McCoy (1800–1868) and lived mostly on the Kentucky side of Tug Fork, a tributary of the Big Sandy River.
During the almost thirty-year feud with the Hatfield clan under their patriarch Devil Anse Hatfield, Randolph would lose five of his children to the violence.
Marriage, family, and children.
Randolph McCoy (1825–1914) married his first cousin, Sarah "Sally" McCoy (1829 – c. 1890), daughter of Samuel McCoy (1782–1855) and Elizabeth Davis, on December 9, 1849, in Pike County, Kentucky. They were of Scottish descent and had 17 children together. Their children were:
Their most prominent child was Roseanna McCoy, most known for her relationship with Johnse Hatfield, with whom they had a daughter, Sarah Elizabeth (named for her Grandmother and Great-Grandmother). Johnse Hatfield later married Nancy McCoy, a cousin of Roseanna.
Samuel McCoy (1782–1855) and Daniel McCoy (1790–1885) were sons of "Old" William McCoy (April 1751 – 1822) and according to 111 Y-DNA results, likely nephews of Richard McCoy (abt. 1752 – 1792) of New River area, Montgomery County, Virginia.
Samuel McCoy's sons included:
As noted above, Samuel McCoy's daughter Sarah "Sally" McCoy (1829–1890) married Randolph McCoy (1825–1914), son of her uncle Daniel McCoy.
The 3 Burress women were daughters of Micajah Burress (1775–1850) and Rachel McCoy (1755–1855), who married on 15 October 1795 in Montgomery County, Virginia. Rachel was daughter of Richard McCoy (abt. 1752 – 1792) and Susanna Moore (1755–1830) of New River area, Montgomery County, Virginia. Another daughter of Richard McCoy and Susanna Moore, Nancy McCoy (b. abt. 1782), married Thomas Jefferson McColley (1780–1842) in Montgomery County, Virginia on 7 June 1803.
"Old" William McCoy's daughter Nancy has erroneously been linked as married to Thomas Jefferson McColley. It is believed William Harmon McCoy, son of Richard McCoy and brother of Nancy McCoy (m. Thomas Jefferson McColley) is the "William" that signed Nancy's marriage bond since her father Richard, predeceased her marriage to McColley. The fact that "Old" William's daughter Nancy McCoy (b. abt. 1784-d. bef. 1823) married Thomas McColley is disproven is documented in the 1842 Will of Thomas Jefferson McColley who lists his "living" wife Nancy. Nancy McCoy, daughter of "Old" William died in 1823.
Richard McCoy and Susanna Moore of New River area, Virginia, also had a son William Harmon McCoy (1780–1855). Richard's son William was the first of known record to have the name "Harmon" which subsequently was given to 2 of "Old" William's grandsons: Asa Harmon McCoy (1809–1884), son of Samuel McCoy and to Asa Harmon McCoy (1828–1865), son of Daniel – both Samuel and Daniel were sons of "Old" William McCoy. Tolbert McCoy married Mary Butcher and they had a young daughter by the time of his murder.
Perry Cline and wife Elizabeth Riffe were parents of Sarah Ann Cline (1785–1865) born in Montgomery County, Virginia, and Jacob "Rich Jake" Cline (1790–1858), also born in Montgomery County, Virginia. Sarah Cline alleged that she had a child out of wedlock in 1803 with George H. McCoy (1784–1870), son of Richard McCoy and Susanna Moore of New River area Montgomery County, Virginia. George H. McCoy married Martha "Patsy" A. Kirk about 1805.
"Rich Jake" Cline and Nancy Fuller were parents of:
Feud.
During the American Civil War, the feud leaders from both families were staunchly pro-Confederate, and Randolph himself served in the 45th Virginia Infantry Battalion Confederate Army during the opening years of the war and was a POW from 1863 to 1865. He later returned to Kentucky. However, Randolph's younger brother, Asa Harmon McCoy, enlisted in the Union Army as "Asa H McCay" in Co E of the 45th Kentucky Infantry USA. He was discharged from the Union Army on December 24, 1864, after suffering a broken leg, and returned home. Soon after his return, Jim Vance, uncle of Devil Anse Hatfield, and a member of the "Logan Wildcats" militia put Asa Harmon on notice that they (the Wildcats) would soon be paying him, "a visit." Asa Harmon McCoy tried to escape by hiding out in a local cave, but was tracked to his hideout and killed. No charges were ever filed but it was widely known that Vance and members of Hatfield's Wildcats were directly responsible for his death.
In the late 1870s, Devil Anse Hatfield was involved in a land dispute with Randolph McCoy's cousin, Perry Cline, over a 5,000-acre tract of land that both held title to. Hatfield eventually brought a civil suit against Cline. Hatfield won in what was seen by the McCoys as a Hatfield-friendly court.
In the fall of 1878, Randolph "Randall" McCoy brought charges against Floyd Hatfield for stealing one of his hogs. This allegation was a very serious offense at the time, as hogs were extremely valuable to the farming economy. Due to the statements made by Bill Staton, who was related to both families, the case was decided in favor of the Hatfields. The ruling further inflamed the feud, as Randolph McCoy viewed the outcome as unfair. Later, brothers Sam and Paris McCoy were accused, tried, and acquitted of the death of Staton when the judge ruled Staton's death an act of self-defense by the McCoy brothers.
Randall's daughter Roseanna McCoy romanced "Johnse" Hatfield and later became pregnant with Johnse's child. Upon learning of the affair, Randolph became extremely upset and disowned her. Roseanna, unwanted by both families, moved in with her uncle Uriah and "Aunt Betty" Elizabeth (Rutherford) McCoy. Johnse later married Roseanna's cousin, Nancy McCoy. Roseanna's baby died before her first birthday and the abandoned Roseanna died at the age of 29.
The peak of the feuding occurred when three of Randolph's sons (Roseanna's brothers) killed Ellison Hatfield, brother of Devil Anse, on election day in 1882. Devil Anse retaliated for the killing of his brother by executing, without trial, Tolbert (b. 1854), Pharmer (b. 1863) and Randolph Jr. (b. 1864), three sons of Randolph McCoy near present-day Matewan, West Virginia.
On January 1, 1888, "Cap" Hatfield and Jim Vance led several members of the Hatfield family to attack the McCoy cabin. Randolph's house was burned to the ground and numerous family members were slain by the Hatfields, including two of Randolph's children. His son Calvin was killed in the shootout as was his daughter, Alifair, who was shot to death as she tried to flee the burning house. Randolph's wife Sally was badly injured when she attempted to comfort Alifair, suffering several broken ribs and skull fractures. She survived the beating but was disabled for the rest of her life. With his house burning, Randolph and his remaining family members were able to escape to the woods; unfortunately, his children, unprepared for the elements, suffered frostbite. He moved his family to Pikeville, Kentucky, where he lived out the remainder of his life in bitterness and grieving. He operated a ferry in Pikeville for some time, and the home he lived in still stands at the intersection of Main Street and Scott Avenue. By the end of the feud, he had lost seven of his children and his wife.
Shortly after the New Year's massacre, Kentucky deputy Frank Phillips and a posse of McCoys chased down Jim Vance and Cap Hatfield, killing Vance. Phillips' posse rounded up nine Hatfield family members and supporters and hauled them off to jail.
Death.
Randolph McCoy died at the age of 88 after he was severely burned from a cooking fire. He is buried in the Dils Cemetery in Pikeville, next to his wife who died in the 1890s.
Conclusion.
In 1888, Wall Hatfield and eight others were arrested by a posse led by Frank Phillips and brought to Kentucky to stand trial for the murder of Alifair McCoy, who was killed during the New Year's Massacre.
The feuding and warfare brought in political leaders of Kentucky and West Virginia. The governor of West Virginia, E. Willis Wilson, accused Kentucky of violating the extradition process and appealed the matter to the Supreme Court of the United States. Kentucky Governor Simon Bolivar Buckner sent his Adjutant General to Pike County to investigate the situation. In May 1889, the Supreme Court decided against West Virginia "(Mahon v. Justice)"; the nine Hatfields would be tried in Pikeville. Private detectives hunted down many Hatfields, though Devil Anse was never tried nor jailed. In 1890, Ellison Mounts was executed in Kentucky for his part in the McCoy killings. He was one of the men captured along with Mahon. The feud started to wind down with Mounts' execution.
On June 14, 2003, the McCoy cousins partnered with Reo Hatfield of Waynesboro, Virginia, to author an official truce between the families. The idea was symbolic: to show that Americans could bury their differences and unite in times of crisis.


Ross Garnaut

Ross Gregory Garnaut (born 28 July 1946, Perth, Western Australia) is an Australian economist, currently serving as a vice-chancellor's fellow and professorial fellow of economics at the University of Melbourne. He is the author of numerous publications in scholarly journals on international economics, public finance and economic development, particularly in relation to East Asia and the Southwest Pacific.
Throughout his career Garnaut held a number of influential political and economic positions as: senior economic adviser to Prime Minister Bob Hawke (1983–85), Australia's ambassador to China (1985–88), chairman of the Primary Industry Bank of Australia (1989–94), chairman of BankWest (1988–95), head of division in the Papua New Guinea Department of Finance (1975–76) and chairman of Lihir Gold.
On 30 April 2007 the state and territory governments of Australia, at the request of Kevin Rudd, then leader of the Australian Labor Party and Leader of the Opposition, appointed Garnaut to examine the impacts of climate change on the Australian economy and recommend medium to long-term policies and policy frameworks to improve the prospects for sustainable prosperity. The Garnaut Climate Change Review was finalised on 30 September 2008, with a finalised update being released on 31 May 2011. Garnaut concluded his role as climate change advisor for the Australian Government on 30 June 2011.
Career.
Garnaut attended Perth Modern School and then the Australian National University. He attained a Bachelor of Arts in 1967 and a PhD in 1972 as a student of Peter Drysdale.
He was previously distinguished Professor of Economics at the Australian National University (1989-2008), Head of Economics Department at ANU (1989-1998) and the Director of the ANU Asia Pacific School of Economics and Management. He retired from ANU before moving to the University of Melbourne.
Notable positions include Principal Economic Adviser to Prime Minister R.J.L. Hawke (1983-1985); Australian Ambassador to China (1985-1988); First Assistant Secretary (Head of the Division of General Financial and Economic Policy), Papua New Guinea Department of Finance in the years straddling independence in 1975; and Member of the Advisory Council to the Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs (1997-2002). He was Deputy Chairman and Member of the Australia-China Council (1990-1994); and author of the 1989 Report to the Australian Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, 1989, "Australia and the Northeast Asian Ascendency", (Australian Parliament Publicity Service, Canberra, 1989).
Contributions.
Garnaut has held a number of government and corporate board positions, while maintaining an academic profile as an economist. For example, he was chairman of the Papua New Guinea Sustainable Development Program from 2002 to 2012, but resigned after Prime Minister Peter O'Neill's government banned Garnaut from entering Papua New Guinea due to a dispute with BHP Billiton. He was chairman of Lihir Gold Limited from 1995 until the merger with Newcrest Mining Limited in 2010 and he was the chairman of the International Food Policy Research Institute from 2006 to 2010.
Garnaut commented after Cyclone Yasi affected Queensland in 2011 that the extensive body of climate science suggested that "cyclonic events will be more intense in a hotter world". He further noted that if there were an intensification of extreme weather events with less than one degree of warming experienced and, if strong emissions growth was expected from many rapidly growing developing countries, then "you ain’t seen nothing yet" in terms of the intensification of extreme weather events. Recent studies by Australian scientists have detected a long-term shift towards wet extremes and hot extremes occurring at the same time, consistent with changes as a result of increased concentrations in greenhouse gases.
Garnaut Climate Change Review.
The Garnaut Climate Change Review was commissioned by former Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd, and by the Australia's state and territory governments on 30 April 2007. After his election on 24 November 2007 the Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd, confirmed the participation of the Commonwealth Government in the review.
The final report was released on 30 September 2008 and recommended that Australia should indicate at an early date its preparedness to play its full, proportionate part in an effective global agreement that 'adds up' to either a 450 or a 550 emissions concentrations scenario, or to a corresponding point between.
Australia’s full part for 2020 in a 450 scenario would be a reduction of 25 per cent in emissions entitlements from 2000 levels. For 2050, reductions would be 90 per cent from 2000 levels (95 per cent per capita). Australia’s full part for 2020 in a 550 scenario would be a reduction in entitlements of 10 per cent from 2000 levels. For 2050, reductions would be 80 per cent from 2000 levels or 90 per cent per capita. If there is no comprehensive global agreement at Copenhagen in 2009, Australia, in the context of an agreement among developed countries only, should commit to reduce its emissions by 5 per cent (25 per cent per capita) from 2000 levels by 2020, or 13 per cent from the Kyoto compliance 2008–12 period.
The report's recommendations in terms of policy, apart from a Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme which included forestry and agriculture, centred heavily on hoping that carbon capture and storage and other coal pollution mitigation technologies would be available on a wide scale within the next twenty years.
The report was criticised by the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry for the economic impact that reducing greenhouse gas emissions would have. It was also heavily criticised by environmental organisations, including Friends of the Earth and Rising Tide Australia. The Australian Conservation Foundation praised the report for advocating a 450 ppm target. Dr. Clive Hamilton was heavily critical of the report, arguing that it reduced global expectations of what should be aimed for, naively exposed Australia's negotiating tactics to the international diplomatic sphere, alienates both the Australian public and the international community, misjudges the time frames necessary to avoid dangerous climate change, gives Australia numerous special deals, and would be rejected by the international community.
Responses from political parties were mixed. Australian Greens leader Bob Brown showed that the report demonstrated that reducing greenhouse gas emissions would not come at the expense of Australia's economic growth. Climate Change Minister Penny Wong did not comment directly on the report but said that economic responsibility needed to be considered in responding to the report, and that the Government would wait before Treasury modelling on climate change mitigation before responding.
In November 2010 the Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency commissioned Professor Garnaut to update his 2008 Garnaut Climate Change Review. Eight papers were released in February and March 2011 and the final report of the Garnaut Climate Change Review Update 2011 was presented to the Government on 31 May 2011.
In September 2010, Professor Garnaut was appointed as an independent expert advisor to the Multi-Party Climate Change Committee. The committee will explore options for the implementation of a carbon price and will help to build consensus on how Australia will tackle the challenge of climate change.
Garnaut on nuclear power.
In 2008, Garnaut was of the opinion that nuclear was not obviously necessary in Australia's low carbon energy future. He told the media: "Nuclear energy is an important part of the global response to a low-carbon economy, but under Australian circumstances, it is not obvious that nuclear is an important part of our answer."His position on the matter was countered by Ziggy Switkowski, leader of the 2006 UMPNER Review, and an advocate for nuclear power in Australia.
Garnaut considers nuclear power to be a "low emissions" energy source, given its negligible emissions of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere during plant operation. As such, he supports nuclear power as part of global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions especially given rising energy consumption in Asia. He has also publicly noted China's commitment to expanding its fleet of nuclear reactors, even in the wake of the Fukushima disaster.
Personal life.
Married to Jayne, with sons John (born 1974 – a journalist for Fairfax Media newspapers) and Anthony (1977).


Gwili Andre

Gwili Andre (born Gurli Ingeborg Elna Andresen, 4 February 1907 – 5 February 1959) was a Danish model and actress who had a brief career in Hollywood films. (Another source gives her birth date as 4 February 1907.)
Early years.
Born in Frederiksberg, Andre had two sisters. Her parents were Carl Axel Andresen b. 1880 and Emma Marie Ellen Sørensen Bruun b. 1884, they married in 1904. Her parents divorced, and her father remarried in 1917.
Career.
Andre came to Hollywood in the early 1930s with the intention of establishing herself as a film star after working as model in Europe. In 1930, she moved to New York City with her first husband where she was reportedly spotted by David O. Selznick at the premiere of a Broadway show. Selznick was taken by her beauty and arranged for a screen test.
She was signed to RKO Studio and, in 1932 appeared in "Roar of the Dragon" and "Secrets of the French Police". While her striking looks were likened to that of Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich, her acting garnered poor reviews. One newspaper columnist called her "stiff, colorless and completely talentless performer." Despite the poor reviews of her acting, RKO began using her glamorous looks to promote her career. A widespread publicity campaign ensured that her name and face became well known to the American public, but her next role in "No Other Woman" (1933), opposite Irene Dunne, was not the success the studio expected. Over the next few years she was relegated to supporting roles which included a role in the Joan Crawford picture "A Woman's Face" (1941).
Personal life.
Andre was married twice. She was married to realtor Stanisław Mlotkowski in 1929. They separated in 1930, and divorced in 1935. Andre then married engineer William Dallas Cross, Jr. in 1943. They had a son, Peter Lance Cross, in February 1944. They divorced in 1948.
Later years and death.
By the early 1940s, Andre's film career had come to a standstill. Her final role was a minor part in one of the popular Falcon series, "The Falcon's Brother" in 1942. She did not return to the screen, although she spent the rest of her life trying to orchestrate a comeback. Andre returned to her native Denmark with her son after her divorce from William Cross, Jr. but returned to New York City in 1954. She eventually moved back to California.
On 5 February 1959, Andre died in a fire that started in her Venice, California apartment where she lived alone. The cause of the fire was never determined. Upon her death, she was cremated at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California, and her ashes sent for burial at Søndermark Cemetery in Copenhagen, Denmark.


Kiku-ichimonji

 ("Chrysanthemum-straight line"), often romanized with a somewhat misplaced hyphen as "Kikuichi-monji", is a collective name given to the "katana" (a type of Japanese sword) made by the thirteen swordsmiths who were in attendance to the Emperor Go-Toba in 1208.
Each swordsmith was in attendance to the emperor for a month of the Japanese calendar. The swordsmiths of the Fukuoka School traditionally inscribed only the Japanese "kanji" character "Ichi" (一, "one") on the tang of their swords as their signature. They further received permission to add the Imperial chrysanthemum emblem (菊の御紋, "kiku no gomon") on the tang, leading to these swords being known collectively as ""Kiku-ichimonji", with "monji" (文字) meaning the inscribed "kanji".
Go-Toba was interested in the construction of Japanese swords, and so he summoned these swordsmiths, granting them court rank and title, and asked them to share the secrets of the production of higher-quality swords.
"Kiku-ichimonji" in popular culture.
Owing to the popularity of Shiba Ryōtarō's fiction, many modern fans of the Shinsengumi believe a "Kiku-ichimonji" made by Norimune to have been Okita Soji's sword. Historically, Okita used a sword made by Kiyomitsu of Kaga Province, among other blades.
In the anime and manga versions of Rurouni Kenshin, a Norimune-made "Kiku-ichimonji" is wielded by Seta Sōjirō (who is based on a darker Okita from the novel "Shinsengumi Keppuroku".)
In the sci-fi alternate history "jidaigeki" action-comedy anime and manga Gintama, a member of the anime world's Shinsengumi, Okita Sougo, owns a katana dubbed "Kiku-ichimonji" RX-78", which features, alongside basic featurea such as sharp blade, a digital music player with a maximum 124 hours of playtime in its hilt. Okita Sougo himself was loosely based on the historical figure Okita Soji, alluding to popular rumours that a "Kiku-ichimonji" was Okita Soji's sword.
Swords styled as "Kiku-ichimonji" or which share characteristics with "Kiku-ichimonji" appear in many video games.
In Inazuma Eleven GO, "Kiku-ichimonji" is used by Tsurugi Kyosuke in his Mixi-Max form.
In Final Fantasy IV, "Kiku-ichimonji" is a type of sword used by Edge, the ninja. It is also a type of sword wielded by ninjas and assassins in multiple games from that series.
Path of Exile features a sword named Ichimonji, paying homage to the "Kiku-ichimonji" and resembling them in appearance.
In Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Astray, the Gundam Astray Red Frame wields a katana named Gerbera Straight, which a literal translation of "Kiku-ichimonji".
In the Golden Sun (series) "Kiku-ichimonji" is a light blade that can be obtained and equipped in some characters.
In Wizardry: Tale of the Forsaken Land, a character named Hina wields the Kikuichimonji.
In , ichimonji is a heavy, overhead attack found in the Ashina Arts Skill Tree.
In Touken Ranbu, during the event "Special Investigation: Keiou Koufu", it is possible to get a Kiku-ichimonji named "Ichimonji Norimune". If the unit used for the event has "Kashuu Kiyomitsu", special cutscenes between the two of them can be unlocked.


Christopher Allport

Christopher Allport (born Alexander Wise Allport Jr.; June 17, 1947 – January 25, 2008) was an American actor.
Biography.
Alexander Wise Allport Jr. was born in Boston. His acting life began at the age of nine in New Canaan, Connecticut, at the Children's Theatre. While at Northwestern University, he worked with director Paul Sills and Story Theatre. He performed in New York with the Public Theater at Lincoln Center, and with Ensemble Studio Theatre; and in Los Angeles at the Taper, South Coast Repertory and with Padua Playwrights. In 2007, he wrote and starred in "The Backroad Home", a theatrical memoir with his original music, directed and developed by Paul Linke and produced by his wife, Susan Hayden (Ruskin Group Theatre).
One of his earliest television roles was as Tim McGowan on the soap opera "Another World" (1973–74). Around 1975 or 1976, Allport did a screen test with actress Amy Irving for the parts of Han Solo and Princess Leia, respectively, for the upcoming filming of the 1977 movie "Star Wars". Neither actor got the parts, which went to Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher, respectively.
His film credits include "Savage Weekend", "To Live and Die in L.A.", "Jack Frost", "", and "Garden Party", which was released in 2008. He died shortly after the latter film was completed.
His list of television credits includes appearances on such programs as "Midnight Caller", "The X-Files", "Commander In Chief", "ER", "Felicity", "Mad Men", and "Brothers & Sisters".
His role as Andrew Campbell on "Mad Men" was set to be a recurring one, though he only got to appear in one episode (season one, episode 4: "New Amsterdam"). In season two, after Allport's death, they killed off his character in the American Airlines crash storyline, and later, dedicated the show to him.
Personal life.
Allport was married to novelist Susan Hayden at the time of his death. He had two sons: Andrew (from a previous marriage to writer/actress Carolyn Allport) and Mason, his son from his marriage to Hayden.
Allport had written a story about the pleasures of backcountry skiing in the "Los Angeles Times" in 2004 in which he stated that "any excursion into the mountains requires awareness. Have fun, but be careful."
Death.
On January 25, 2008, Allport was one of three people killed by three avalanches near the Mountain High ski resort in Wrightwood, San Bernardino County, California (in the San Gabriel Mountains). There were two other fatalities: Michael McKay, an off-duty member of the resort's ski patrol, and Darin Bodie Coffey. A fourth man, snowboarder Oscar Gonzales, escaped after getting lost and hitting a rock. Winter storms had been recently hitting Southern California; the San Gabriel Mountains, while usually free of avalanches, had been hit by of snow the week before Allport died.
Allport played Pete Campbell's father, Andrew, on the 2007–15 drama series "Mad Men" during season one. Following Allport's death, the writers of "Mad Men" had to kill his character, doing so in 'Flight One', where Andrew Campbell is one of those killed in the crash of American Airlines Flight 1 in Jamaica Bay, New York, following take-off on March 1, 1962. The episode is dedicated in Allport's memory.


Rimfire ammunition

Rimfire ammunition is a type of firearm metallic cartridge whose primer is located within a hollow circumferential rim protruding from the base of its casing. When fired, the gun's firing pin will strike and crush the rim against the edge of the barrel breech, sparking the primer compound within the rim, and in turn ignite the propellant within the case. Invented in 1845, by Louis-Nicolas Flobert, the first rimfire metallic cartridge was the .22 BB Cap (a.k.a. 6mm Flobert) cartridge, which consisted of a percussion cap with a bullet attached to the top. While many other different cartridge priming methods have been tried since the 19th century, only rimfire and the later centerfire cartridges survive to the present day with regular usages. The .22 Long Rifle rimfire cartridge, introduced in 1887, is by far the most common ammunition in the world today in terms of units sold.
Characteristics.
The rimfire ammunition is so named because the firing pin strikes and crushes the base's rim to ignite the primer. The rim of such cartridge is essentially an expanded and flattened end section of the case, and the priming compound is filled from inside into the trough cavity inside the rim. The case is then filled with propellant powder and sealed off by the projectile (bullet).
Rimfire cartridges are limited to low pressures because the case must be thin enough so that the firing pin can crush the rim and ignite the primer. Rimfire cartridges of .44 caliber (actually .45 caliber) up to .56 caliber were once common when black powder was used as a propellant. Modern rimfire cartridges use smokeless powder which generates much higher pressures and tend to be of .22 caliber (5.5 mm) or smaller. This also means that rimfire firearms can be very light and inexpensive, as the production cost of the case material and powder load are both low, and the manufacturing process is significantly more streamlined than centerfire cartridges (which require more steps in the assembly process). As a result, rimfire cartridges are typically very affordable, primarily because of the inherent cost-efficiency of manufacturing in large lots, which has helped lead to the continuing market popularity of these small-caliber cartridges.
History.
Frenchman Louis-Nicolas Flobert invented the first rimfire metallic cartridge in 1845. The 6mm Flobert cartridge consisted of a percussion cap with a bullet attached to the top. These cartridges do not contain any powder, the only propellant substance contained in the cartridge is the percussion cap. In Europe, the .22 BB Cap (introduced in 1845) and the slightly more powerful .22 CB Cap (introduced in 1888) are both called 6mm Flobert and are considered the same cartridge. These cartridges have a relatively low muzzle velocity of around to .
Flobert also made what he called "parlor guns" for this cartridge, as these rifles and pistols were designed for target shooting in homes with a dedicated shooting parlor or shooting gallery. 6mm Flobert Parlor pistols came into fashion in the mid-19th century; they typically featured heavy barrels. This cartridge was improved upon by Benjamin Houllier in 1846.
The next rimfire cartridge was the .22 Short, developed for Smith & Wesson's first revolver, in 1857; it used a longer rimfire case and 4 grains (260 mg) of black powder to fire a conical bullet. According to Berkeley R. Lewis, a firearms historian, this later Smith & Wesson cartridge was 'essentially the same as Houllier's 1846 patent'. This led to the .22 Long in 1871, with the same bullet weight as the short but with a longer case and 5 grains (320 mg) of black powder. This was followed by the .22 Extra Long in 1880, with a case longer than the .22 Long and a heavier bullet.
American firearms manufacturer J. Stevens Arms & Tool Company introduced the .22 Long Rifle cartridge in 1887. It combined the casing of the .22 Long with the bullet of the .22 Extra Long, giving it a longer overall length, a higher muzzle velocity and superior performance as a hunting and target round, rendering both the .22 Long and .22 Extra Long cartridges obsolete. The .22 LR uses a heeled bullet, which means that the bullet is the same diameter as the case, and has a narrower "heel" portion that fits in the case. It is one of the few cartridges that are accepted by a large variety of rifles and handguns.
Larger rimfire calibers were used during the American Civil War in the Henry repeating rifle, the Spencer repeating rifle, the Ballard Rifle and the Frank Wesson carbine. While larger rimfire calibers were made, such as the .30 rimfire, .32 rimfire, .38 rimfire .41 Short (for the Remington Model 95 derringer), the .44 Henry (for the Henry rifle and later used by the famous Winchester Model 1866), the .56-56 Spencer (for the Spencer rifle was the world's first military metallic cartridge repeating rifle), up to the .58 Miller, the larger calibers were quickly replaced by centerfire versions, and today the .22 caliber rimfires are all that survive of these early rimfire cartridges.
The early 21st century has seen a revival in .17 caliber (4.5 mm) rimfire cartridges. New and increasingly popular, the 17 HMR is based on a .22 WMR casing with a smaller formed neck which accepts a .17 bullet. The advantages of the 17 HMR over .22 WMR and other rimfire cartridges are its much flatter trajectory and its highly frangible hollow point bullets (often manufactured with plastic "ballistic tips" that improve the bullet's external ballistics). The .17 HM2 (Hornady Mach 2) is based on the .22 Long Rifle and offers similar performance advantages over its parent cartridge, at a significantly higher cost. While .17 HM2 sells for about four times the cost of .22 Long Rifle ammunition, it is still significantly cheaper than most centerfire ammunition and somewhat cheaper than the .17 HMR. First shown at the 2013 SHOT Show, the .17 WSM utilizes the blank case from a .27 nail-gun necked down accommodate a .17 caliber bullet, resulting in substantially higher muzzle velocity and energy than the .17 HMR.
Shot shells.
Some .22 caliber rimfire cartridges are loaded with a small amount of No. 11 or No. 12 shot (about 1/15th ounce). This "snake shot" is only marginally effective in close ranges, and is usually used for shooting snakes, rats or other small animals. It is also useful for shooting birds inside storage buildings as it will not penetrate walls or ceilings. At a distance of about 10 feet (3 m), which is about the maximum effective range, the pattern is about 8 inches (20 cm) in diameter from a standard rifle. Special smoothbore shotguns, such as the "Marlin Model 25MG "Garden Gun"" can produce effective patterns out to 15 or 20 yards using .22 WMR shotshells, which hold 1/8 oz. of No. 11 or No. 12 shot contained in a plastic capsule.
Shotshells will not feed reliably in some magazine fed firearms, because of the unusual shape of some cartridges that are crimped closed at the case mouth, and the relatively fragile plastic tips of other designs. Shotshells will not produce sufficient power to cycle semiautomatic actions, because, unlike projectile ammunition, nothing forms to the lands and grooves of the barrel to create the pressure necessary to cycle the firearm's action.
The 9mm Flobert is a notable rimfire cartridge that is still in production in Europe, and is chambered by the Winchester Model 36 in the 1920s. This cartridge is primarily loaded with a small amount of shot, but can also fire a small ball, and are used in "garden gun", which are miniature shotguns. Its power and range are very limited, making it suitable only for pest control. An example of rare but modern 9mm Flobert Rimfire among hunters in Europe is the 1.75 inch brass shotshell manufactured by Fiocchi in Lecco, Italy, using a .25 oz shot of No. 8 shot with a velocity of 600 fps.
Common rimfire ammunition.
Below is a list of the most common current production rimfire ammunition:


Contact fuze

A contact fuze, impact fuze, percussion fuze or direct-action (D.A.) fuze ("UK") is the fuze that is placed in the nose of a bomb or shell so that it will detonate on contact with a hard surface.
Many impacts are unpredictable: they may involve a soft surface, or an off-axis grazing impact. The pure contact fuze is often unreliable in such cases and so a more sensitive graze fuze or inertia fuze is used instead. The two types are often combined in the same mechanism.
Artillery fuzes.
The British Army's first useful impact fuze for high-explosive shells was the "Fuze No. 106" of World War I. ("illus.") This used a simple protruding plunger or "striker" at the nose, which was pushed back to drive a firing pin into the detonator. Its ability to burst immediately at ground level was used to clear the barbed wire entanglements of no man's land, rather than burying itself first and leaving a deep, but useless, crater. The striker was protected by a safety cap that was removed before loading, but there was no other safety mechanism.
The simplest form of artillery contact fuze is a soft metal nose to the shell, filled with a fulminating explosive such as lead azide. An example is the British World War II "Fuze, Percussion, D.A., No. 233" ('direct action') The primary explosive transmits its detonation to an explosive booster within the fuze, then in turn to the main charge of the shell. As an artillery shell lands with a considerable impact, the "soft" nose may be made robust enough to be adequately safe for careful handling, without requiring any protection cap or safety mechanism. As a matter of normal practice though, fuzes and shells are transported separately and the fuze is only installed shortly prior to use. These simple contact fuzes are generally used for anti-tank shells, rather than high-explosive.
A more sophisticated fuze is the "double-acting" fuze, which is sensitive to both contact and grazing. An example of such a double-acting fuze is the British WW II "Fuze, D.A. and percussion, No. 119" This fuze uses a nose striker, as for the original No. 106, but is rather more complex with an added inertia mechanism for grazing impacts and also three automatic safety devices. Simple contact impacts drive the striker back into the detonating pellet, as before. Graze impacts trigger the inertia mechanism, where instead the pellet in a heavy carrying plug travels forwards onto the striker. The striker is protected in storage by a nose safety cap. Normally this is removed before loading, but it may also be left in place if the target is behind cover. This reduces the sensitivity of the striker to light impacts through vegetation, but the fuze will still function through the inertia mechanism, or through a hard impact. Three safety devices are provided, one released by inertia during firing, which then unlocks a second that is released by centrifugal force of the spinning shell. These are mechanical locks that prevent the striker contacting the pellet. A third device is a centrifugal shutter that initially blocks propagation from the detonator pellet to the booster explosive.
Most artillery contact fuzes act immediately, although some may have a delay. This allows a high-explosive or semi-armour-piercing shell to penetrate a wall before exploding, thus achieving the most damage inside the building. Where a shell is used against strong armour and requires all of its explosive power merely to penetrate, a delay is not appropriate. Most such delayed fuzes are thus switchable to a "superquick" or immediate mode.
Timed fuzes are used for airbursts. They take their delay time (½ second or longer) from firing, not from impact. These fuzes may also offer a contact fuzed ability. As this type of fuze is complex and more sensitive, they usually have a deliberate safing mechanism such as an arming wire that must be removed before use.
Air-dropped bomb fuzes.
Fuzes for air-dropped bombs have generally used an internally mounted inertia fuze, triggered by the sudden deceleration on impact. Owing to the risk of an aircraft crash, or even the need to land with an undropped bomb still on board, these are protected by sophisticated safety systems so that the fuze can only be triggered after it has been dropped intentionally.
The German "Stachelbombe" (nose-spike bomb) or "stabo" of WWII was a standard bomb, from 50 kg to 500 kg, modified for use from low altitude. To avoid the risk of ricochet from the ground, a nose spike was fitted to penetrate first and anchor the bomb against bouncing — without this, there was a risk of the dropping aircraft not only missing the target, but also being damaged by its own weapon. As the German electric fuzes had an arming delay after dropping, and the bombs were dropped at such low altitude as to leave insufficient time for this to arm, they were also sometimes fitted with additional contact fuzes on the tips of these nose spikes.
Similar devices were employed by Soviet forces, in a similar ground attack role using the Il-2 Sturmovik.
Notable examples of air-dropped bombs that did use contact fuzes include the Fat Man atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki. The bomb was intended for air burst detonation and was fitted with both radar height-finding and barometric fuzes. As the device was so secret, and the risk of informative fragments or plutonium being recovered after a failed drop was considered to be unacceptable, it was fitted with supplementary contact fuzes that were only intended to destroy the weapon beyond recognition. Four AN-219 piezo-electric impact fuzes were fitted to the nose of the bomb casing.
The BLU-82 was a large conventional explosive bomb, used to make helicopter landing clearings in forests. The intended fusing was an extremely low air burst of only a few feet, so as to maximize the clearance effect and minimize cratering. The fuze was a mechanical impact fuze on a 38-inch nose spike.
The contact fuze is set off when a series of connected crush switches that are placed on the exterior nose of the ordnance device make contact with the ground. The contact with solid ground activates the interior firing circuits which leads to the detonation of the ordnance device. A cone shaped cover over the device prevents premature detonation while the device is being loaded and carried to the desired location by aircraft.