Mixed franking

In philately, a mixed franking is an occurrence of postage stamps of more than one country or issuing entity on a single cover — or the occurrence of postage stamps of more than one currency of a country or issuing identity on a single cover. Since nearly all countries of the world have agreed to deliver each other's mail, it is unusual to need more than the stamps of the originating country; valid mixed frankings are uncommon and valued by collectors.

Before the advent of the Universal Postal Union in 1874, sending international mail was quite an adventure; it might be necessary to affix the stamps of the destination country in addition to those of the origin, and in the worst cases, possibly for several other countries along the way. Sometimes the letter was held until the recipient brought stamps, they were affixed and cancelled, and the result handed to the recipient. Since this only happened during the first few decades of stamp usage, and only for the few letters that were sent great distances, very few covers have survived. For some combinations, only single examples have survived, and command spectacular prices among collectors.

Another form of mixed franking occurs in transitional periods, either as a way to help the public use up the stamps of a defunct government, or involuntarily as a propaganda tool.

An example of involuntary mixed franking is when Germany took over Austria in the Anschluss in 1938; during the several months while Austrian stamps were still accepted, Austrians sending mail to Germany were required to include a German stamp on the envelope.

Sometimes illegitimate mixed frankings occur when a postal user adds another country's stamps to an envelope just for fun. Many countries' postal regulation require clerks to refuse to handle these, even if the correct postage of the country is present, because they slow down the sorting process, but such covers can still get through the system.

Predynastic period

The Nile Valley of Egypt was basically uninhabitable until the work of clearing and irrigating the land along the banks of the river was started.[1] However it appears that this clearance and irrigation was largely under way by about 6000 BC. By that time, society in the Nile Valley was already engaged in organized agriculture and the construction of large buildings in the Nile Valley.[2] At this time, Egyptians in the southwestern corner of Egypt were herding cattle and also constructing large buildings. Mortar was in use by 4000 BC. The people of the Nile Valley and on delta were self-sufficient and were raising barley and emmer (an early variety of wheat) and stored it in pits lined with reed mats.[3] They raised cattle, goats and pigs and they wove linens and baskets.[4] The Predynastic Period continues through this time, variously held to begin with the Naqada culture.

Between 5500 and 3100 BC, during Egypt's Predynastic Period, small settlements flourished along the Nile, whose delta empties into the Mediterranean Sea. By 3300 BC, just before the first Egyptian dynasty, Egypt was divided into two kingdoms, known as Upper Egypt, Ta Shemau, to the south, and Lower Egypt, Ta Mehu, to the north.[5] The dividing line was drawn roughly in the area of modern Cairo.

The Tasian culture was the next to appear in Upper Egypt. This group is named for the burials found at Der Tasa, a site on the east bank of the Nile between Asyut and Akhmim. The Tasian culture group is notable for producing the earliest blacktop-ware, a type of red and brown pottery which has been painted black on its top and interior.[6]

The Badarian Culture, named for the Badari site near Der Tasa, followed the Tasian culture, however similarities between the two have led many to avoid differentiating between them at all. The Badarian Culture continued to produce the kind of pottery called Blacktop-ware (although its quality was much improved over previous specimens), and was assigned the Sequence Dating numbers between 21 and 29.[7] The significant difference, however, between the Tasian and Badarian culture groups which prevents scholars from completely merging the two together is that Badarian sites use copper in addition to stone, and thus are chalcolithic settlements, while the Tasian sites are still Neolithic, and are considered technically part of the Stone Age.[7]

The Amratian culture is named after the site of el-Amra, about 120 km south of Badari. El-Amra was the first site where this culture group was found unmingled with the later Gerzean culture group; however, this period is better attested at the Naqada site, thus it is also referred to as the Naqada I culture.[8] Black-topped ware continued to be produced, but white cross-line ware, a type of pottery which was decorated with close parallel white lines crossed by another set of close parallel white lines, began to be produced during this time. The Amratian period falls between S.D. 30 and 39 in Petrie's Sequence Dating system.[9] Trade between Upper and Lower Egypt was attested at this time, as newly excavated objects indicate. A stone vase from the north was found at el-Amra, and copper, which is not present in Egypt, was apparently imported from the Sinai, or perhaps from Nubia. Obsidian[10] and an extremely small amount of gold[9] were both definitively imported from Nubia during this time. Trade with the oases was also likely.

Week News Abstract For SFP Series in 10GTEK: Northern England

James II & VII (14 October 1633 – 16 September 1701)[2] was King of England and King of Ireland as James II and King of Scotland as James VII,[1] from 6 February 1685. He was the last Catholic monarch to reign over the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland. Members of Britain's political and religious elite increasingly opposed him for being pro-French and pro-Catholic, and for his designs on becoming an absolute monarch. When he produced a Catholic heir, the tension exploded, and leading nobles called on William III of Orange (his son-in-law and nephew) to land an invasion army from the Netherlands, which he did. James fled England (and thus was held to have abdicated) in the Glorious Revolution of 1688.[3] He was replaced by William of Orange who became king as William III, ruling jointly with his wife (James's daughter) Mary II. Thus William and Mary, both Protestants, became joint rulers in 1689. James made one serious attempt to recover his crowns, when he landed in Ireland in 1689 but, after the defeat of the Jacobite forces by the Williamite forces at the Battle of the Boyne in the summer of 1690, James returned to France. He lived out the rest of his life as a pretender at a court sponsored by his cousin and ally, King Louis XIV.
Cumberland, Westmorland, Lancashire, County Durham and Northumberland were established as counties in the 12th century. Lancashire can be firmly dated to 1182.[34] Part of the domain of the Bishops of Durham, Hexhamshire was split off and was considered an independent county until 1572, when it became part of Northumberland.

Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum

The most extreme change in Earth surface conditions during the Cenozoic Era began at the temporal boundary between the Paleocene and Eocene epochs 55.8 million years ago. This event, the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM, alternatively "Eocene thermal maximum 1" (ETM1), and formerly known as the "Initial Eocene" or "Late Paleocene Thermal Maximum",[1] (IETM/LPTM)), was associated with rapid (in geological terms) global warming, profound changes in ecosystems, and major perturbations in the carbon cycle.
Global temperatures rose by about 6 °C (11 °F) over a period of approximately 20,000 years. Many benthic foraminifera and terrestrial mammals went extinct, but numerous modern mammalian orders emerged. The event is linked to a prominent negative excursion in carbon stable isotope (δ13C) records from across the globe, and dissolution of carbonate deposited on all ocean basins. The latter observations strongly suggest that a massive input of 13C-depleted carbon entered the hydrosphere or atmosphere at the start of the PETM. Recently, geoscientists have begun to investigate the PETM in order to better understand the fate and transport of increasing greenhouse-gas emissions over millennial time scales.

Archaeology

The archaeological evidence of the largely indigenous origins of Israel is "overwhelming," and leaves "no room for an Exodus from Egypt or a 40-year pilgrimage through the Sinai wilderness."[21] For this reason, most archaeologists have abandoned the archaeological investigation of Moses and the Exodus as "a fruitless pursuit."[21] A century of research by archaeologists and Egyptologists has found no evidence which can be directly related to the Exodus narrative of an Egyptian captivity and the escape and travels through the wilderness,[18] and it has become increasingly clear that Iron Age Israel - the kingdoms of Judah and Israel - has its origins in Canaan, not Egypt:[22][23] the culture of the earliest Israelite settlements is Canaanite, their cult-objects are those of the Canaanite god El, the pottery remains in the local Canaanite tradition, and the alphabet used is early Canaanite. Almost the sole marker distinguishing the "Israelite" villages from Canaanite sites is an absence of pig bones, although whether this can be taken as an ethnic marker or is due to other factors remains a matter of dispute.

Week News Abstract For SFP Series in 10GTEK:Bretwalda

Bretwalda (also brytenwalda and bretenanwealda) is an Old English word, the first record of which comes from the late 9th century Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. It is given to some of the rulers of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms from the 5th century onwards who had achieved overlordship of some or all of the other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. It is unclear whether the word dates back to the 5th century and was used by the kings themselves, or whether it is a later, 9th-century, invention. The term bretwalda also appears in a charter of ?thelstan.

The rulers of Mercia were generally the most powerful of the Anglo-Saxon kings from the mid-7th to the early 9th centuries, but are not accorded the title of bretwalda by the Chronicle, which is generally thought to be because of the anti-Mercian bias of the Chroniclers. The Annals of Wales continued to recognize the kings of Northumbria as 'Kings of the Saxons' (i.e. the English) until the death of Osred I of Northumbria in 716.

Bretw?lde was a term used in 11th and 12th century Ireland to denote the 'high king'. Part of the Gaelic lexicon, this spelling suggests a Germanic (Saxon) origin, as the 'w' is most likely pronounced as a 'v'. It is also possible that the term derives from the Welsh Brit Gweldig, the term for a ruler of Britain.Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe (from Latin: ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element (by mass) forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust. Iron's very common presence in rocky planets like Earth is due to its abundant production as a result of fusion in high-mass stars, where the production of nickel-56 (which decays to iron) is the last nuclear fusion reaction that is exothermic. This allows radioactive nickel to become the last element to be produced before collapse of a supernova leads to events that scatters this precursor radionuclide of iron into space.

The "Fourth Party"

It was not until 1878 that he came to public notice as the exponent of a species of independent Conservatism. He made a series of furious attacks on Sir Stafford Northcote, R. A. Cross, and other prominent members of the "old gang". George Sclater-Booth (afterwards 1st Baron Basing), President of the Local Government Board, was a specific target, and the minister's County Government Bill was fiercely denounced as the "crowning dishonour to Tory principles", and the "supreme violation of political honesty". Lord Randolph's attitude, and the vituperative fluency of his invective, made him a parliamentary figure of some importance before the dissolution of the 1874 parliament, though he was not yet taken quite seriously.

In the new parliament of 1880 he speedily began to play a more notable role. Along with Sir Henry Drummond-Wolff, Sir John Gorst and occasionally Arthur Balfour, he made himself known as the audacious opponent of the Liberal administration and the unsparing critic of the Conservative front bench. The "fourth party", as it was nicknamed, at first did little damage to the government, but awakened the opposition from its apathy; Churchill roused the Conservatives by leading resistance to Charles Bradlaugh, the member for Northampton, who, though an avowed atheist or agnostic, was prepared to take the parliamentary oath. Sir Stafford Northcote, the Conservative leader in the Lower House, was forced to take a strong line on this difficult question by the energy of the fourth party. The long controversy over Bradlaugh's seat, showed that Lord Randolph Churchill was a parliamentary champion who added to his audacity much tactical skill and shrewdness. He continued to play a conspicuous part throughout the parliament of 1880 to 1885, targeting William Ewart Gladstone as well as the Conservative front bench, some of whose members, particularly Sir Richard Cross and William Henry Smith, he singled out for attack.

From the beginning of the Egyptian imbroglio Lord Randolph was emphatically opposed to almost every step taken by the government. He declared that the suppression of Urabi Pasha's rebellion was an error, and the restoration of the khedive's authority a crime. He called Gladstone the "Moloch of Midlothian", for whom torrents of blood had been shed in Africa. He was equally severe on the domestic policy of the administration, and was particularly bitter in his criticism of the Kilmainham Treaty and the rapprochement between the Gladstonians and the Parnellites.


passage of time