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"Wol, WoL or WOL may refer to: ;Computing * Wake-on-LAN, (/wɒl/) an Ethernet standard that allows computers to be powered on by a network message * An unofficial initialism for Web Ontology Language * .wol, file extension for the WOLF eBook file format * World Online, a defunct European internet service provider * Write-only language, a programming which facilitates hard to read code ;Computer games * War of Legends, (/wɒl/) a fantasy real-time strategy game published by Jagex Games Studio * Warhammer Online, abbreviation used internally by Games Workshop staff * StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty * Westwood Online, multi-player game mode by Westwood Studios, superseded by XWIS ;Publishing * Editorial language, (/wɒl/) acronym for write on line, a dotted or solid line in an exercise book for students to write in an answer. ;Other * Owl (Winnie the Pooh), character in the Winnie the Pooh stories, who spells his name "Wol" * Wide outside lane, in bicycle transportation engineering * WOL (AM), a radio station in Washington, D.C. * WOL World Loud TV * Wol Books, the first independent academic bookshop (opened 1981) at Royal Holloway College, now Royal Holloway University of London, later taken over in 1987 by Pentos * Illawarra Regional Airport See also *Word of Life (disambiguation) "
"László Ede Almásy de Zsadány et Törökszentmiklós (; ; 22 August/3 November 1895 – 22 March 1951) was a Hungarian aristocrat, motorist, desert explorer, aviator, Scout-leader and sportsman who also served as the basis for the protagonist in both Michael Ondaatje's novel The English Patient (1992) and the movie adaptation of the same name (1996). Biography Almásy was born in Borostyánkő, Austria-Hungary (today Bernstein im Burgenland, Austria), into a Hungarian noble family (his father was the zoologist and ethnographer György Almásy), and, from 1911 to 1914, was educated at Berrow School, situated in a private house in Eastbourne, England, where he was tutored by Daniel Wheeler.Eastbourne Local History Society Newsletter Nr 143 =World War I= During World War I, Almásy joined the 11th Hussars along with his brother Janos. Almásy saw action against the Serbians, and then the Russians on the Eastern Front. In 1916, he transferred to the Austro-Hungarian Imperial and Royal Aviation Troops. After being shot down over Northern Italy in March 1918, Almásy saw out the remainder of the war as a flight instructor. =Interwar period= After the war, Almásy returned to join the Eastbourne Technical Institute, in East Sussex, England. From November 1921 to June 1922, he lodged at the same address in Eastbourne. He was a member of the pioneering Eastbourne Flying Club. Returning to Hungary, Almásy became the personal secretary of the Bishop of Szombathely, János Mikes, one of the leading figures of the abortive post-war Habsburg restoration attempt. The young Almásy became involved in these events by accident as the driver of Bishop Mikes when King Karl IV of Hungary returned to Hungary in 1921 to claim the throne, and was helped by Mikes to reach Budapest (from where he was politely but firmly sent back to Austria by Miklós Horthy, the Regent of Hungary). After he was introduced, the King continued to refer to him as "Count Almásy", confusing László with another branch of the family. This was the basis for Almásy using the title to his advantage, mostly in Egypt among the Egyptian Royalty to open doors that would have remained closed to a commoner. However, he himself admitted in private conversations that the title was not legitimate.Kubassek, János, A Szahara bűvöletében (Enchanted by the Sahara), Panoráma, Budapest 1999 After 1921, Almásy worked as a representative of the Austrian car firm Steyr Automobile in Szombathely, Hungary, and won many car races in the Steyr colours. He managed to persuade a wealthy friend, Prince Antal Eszterházy, to join him in driving a Steyr from Alexandria to Khartoum, before embarking on a hunting expedition to the Dinder River, a feat which had never before been accomplished by an ordinary automobile.Almásy, László, Autóval Szudánba (With Motorcar to the Sudan), Franklin, Budapest 1929 The 1926 drive from Egypt to the Sudan along the Nile proved to be the turning point in his life. Almásy developed an interest in the area and later returned there to drive and hunt. He also demonstrated Steyr vehicles in desert conditions in 1929 with two Steyr lorries and led his first expedition to the desert. In 1931 Almásy made arrangements with a Cairo - Cape Town expedition, led by captain G. Malins, to make a detour and accompany him to Uweinat and northern Sudan on what was planned to be the first exploration of the Libyan Desert by aeroplane. He was accompanied by Count Nándor Zichy. They took off from Mátyásföld Airport Budapest on 21 August in a De Havilland Gipsy Moth that had been purchased by Zichy in England a few weeks earlier. Four days later they crashed in a storm near Aleppo. Both survived with scratches only, but the aircraft was a total wreck. The Syrian papers reported them dead, and the Malins expedition left Cairo without them.Almásy, László, Levegőben... homokon... (In Air... on Sand...), Franklin, Budapest 1937 László Almásy with Nándor Zichy at Mátyásföld Airport, Budapest 1931 =Exploring the Libyan Desert= In 1932, Almásy embarked on an expedition to find the legendary Zerzura, "The Oasis of the Birds," with three Britons, Sir Robert Clayton, Squadron Leader H.W.G.J. Penderel and Patrick Clayton. The expedition used both cars and a De Havilland Gipsy Moth aeroplane owned by Sir Robert Clayton. While Almásy went with two cars to Kufra Oasis, Sir Robert and Penderel discovered a valley with green vegetation inside the Gilf Kebir plateau, which they presumed to be one of the three hidden valleys of Zerzura. Their attempts to reach the mouth of the valley by car failed.Almásy, László, Ismeretlen Szahara (Unknown Sahara), Franklin, Budapest 1935 Later in 1932, Almásy's sponsor and travel companion Sir Robert Clayton East-Clayton died of acute spinal poliomyelitis contracted within two months of completing the spring 1932 expedition to the Gilf Kebir. (Robert East-Clayton died, not from a crash-landing as described in The English Patient but from an infection possibly picked up during the desert expedition. However, East-Clayton's wife Dorothy, also a pilot, did die in a peculiar plane accident, at Brooklands on 15 September 1933.) Despite the setbacks, Almásy succeeded in organizing another Zerzura expedition for the spring of 1933, this time with the desert explorer Prince Kamal el Dine Hussein as his sponsor. He was accompanied by Squadron Leader H.W.G.J. Penderel, the Austrian writer Richard Bermann (pen name Arnold Hollriegel) and the German cinematographer and photographer Hans Casparius. This expedition succeeded in entering the valley discovered the previous year, and circumstantial evidence collected from an old Tibou at Kufra Oasis confirmed the identity of the valleys as Zerzura. Later on this expedition, Almasy succeeded in entering Wadi Talh, (the third valley of Zerzure), and at the very end of the expedition Almásy, together with Lodovico di Caporiacco, discovered the prehistoric rock paintings of Ain Dua at Jebel Uweinat.Hollriegel, ArnoldZarzura, die Oase der kleinen vögel, Orell Füssli, Zürich 1938 In the autumn of 1933 Almásy embarked on a further expedition, this time with the noted German ethnographer Leo Frobenius, his assistant Hans Rhotert and draughtswoman Elisabeth Pauli (later Elisabeth Jenssen). They copied and cataloged the known prehistoric rock art sites, and made a large number of new discoveries at Karkur Talh (Jebel Uweinat) and the famous Cave of Swimmers at Wadi Sora in the Gilf Kebir.Rhotert, HansLybische Felsbilder, L. C. Wittich, Darmstadt 1952 In the spring of 1934 Almásy led an expedition organised by the Royal Egyptian Automobile Club to the Gilf Kebir and Jebel Uweinat. The expedition erected a memorial tablet for Prince Kelam el Din (who died the previous year, giving another blow to Almásy's ambitions) at the southern tip of the Gilf Kebir plateau. The note left by the expedition now rests in the Heinrich Barth Institut in Köln.Monument to Prince Kemal el Din, accessed 20 Oct. 2013 At Jebel Uweinat Almásy visited the Sudan Defence Force camp commanded by Captain Francis Godfrey Bertram Arkwright, and together they made some new rock art discoveries at the south of Jebel Uweinat. Almásy also visited and copied a panel of paintings found by Captain Arkwright at Jebel Kissu.Almásy, László, Récentes Explorations dans le Désert Libyque Societé Royale de Geographie de l'Egypte, Cairo, 1936 In February 1935, Almásy and his colleague Hansjoachim von der Esch became the first Europeans to re-establish contact with the Magyarab tribe, living on an island of the Nile opposite Wadi Halfa in Nubia, who speak Arabic but are believed to be the descendants of Nubian women and Hungarian soldiers serving in the Ottoman army in the 16th century. The accounts of Almásy and von der Esch differ substantially. While Almásy presents the discovery as his own, von der Esch describes the encountervon der Esch, HansjoachimWeenak - die Karawane ruft, Brochhaus, Leipzig 1941 as having been made after Almásy left Wadi Halfa with Count Zsigmond Széchenyi and Jenő Horthy on a hunting trip to the Wadi Howar.Széchenyi, ZsigmondHengergő Homok (Roling Sand), Budapest 1936 As Almásy's only illustration shows a group of Egyptian fellahin surrounding a car (no car could have made it over to the island), while von der Esch shows several photos taken on the island, the story of the latter is more likely to be true. In April 1935, again accompanied by Hansjoachim von der Esch, Almásy explored the Great Sand Sea from Ain Dalla to Siwa Oasis, the last remaining 'blank spot' untouched by earlier explorers or Patrick Clayton's surveys. In his book Almásy claims to have been in the service of the Egyptian Government, a statement which led some authors to claim that Almásy was a cartographer of the Libyan Desert in a formal capacity.Török, Zsolt. "László Almásy: The Real 'English patient' - The Hungarian Desert Explorer." Földrajzi Közlemények 121.1-2 (1997): 77-86 However, as at the time Patrick Clayton was still the "official" Libyan Desert desert surveyor of the Desert Survey department of the Survey of Egypt, and the two were definitely not on good terms,Clayton, Peter, Desert Explorer (A Biography of Colonel P.A. Clayton), Zerzura Press, Cargreen 1998 this claim is very unlikely, with no surviving documentary proof. In 1939 with the help of Hansjoachim von der Esch, Almásy published a German edition of a compilation (not the entire text) of selected chapters from his books published in Hungarian.Almásy, Ladislaus E, Unbekannte Sahara. Mit Flugzeug und Auto in der Libyschen Wüste (The Unknown Sahara. By Aeroplane and Car in the Libyan Desert), Brockhaus, Leipzig 1939 =End of his stay in Egypt= Almásy never had the means to finance his own expeditions; he was always reliant on financial backers, some of whom raised the suspicion of the British Authorities in Egypt. By 1934 both the Italians and the British had suspected him of spying for the other side (though there is no conclusive proof that he did so for either), and in 1935 he was refused permission by the British military authorities to make another expedition to Uweinat.Foreign Office corresponcence, National Archives, London, accessed 20 Oct. 2013 His attention turned to another passion, aviation, and he was deeply involved with setting up gliding activities in Egypt under the auspices of the Royal Egyptian Aviation Club (the president of which, Taher Pasha, was also providing accommodation for Almásy). There is an oft-quoted urban legend (spread mainly in Hungary) that the Almaza Air Base was named after him, but this has absolutely no foundation; the first airfield of Cairo had carried this name since its establishment during World War I, well before Almásy ever visited Egypt. =World War II= After the outbreak of World War II in 1939, Almásy had to return to Hungary. The British suspected that he was a spy for the Italians, and vice versa. While there is no evidence to suggest that he was involved in any clandestine intelligence gathering prior to the War, he was clearly not welcome by authorities on either side of the Egypt-Libya border.Kelly, Saul, The Hunt for Zerzura, John Murray, London, 2002 Hungary formally joined the Axis powers by signing the Tripartite Pact on 20 November 1940. Nikolaus Ritter of the German military intelligence service, the Abwehr, recruited Almásy in Budapest. As a Hungarian reserve officer, he was permitted to wear the uniform of a Hauptmann (Captain/Flight Lieutenant) of the German Air Force, the Luftwaffe. Initially he was working on maps and country descriptions prepared by the Abteilung IV. Mil.Geo., then he was assigned to an Abwehr commando in Libya under the command of Major Nikolaus Ritter, using his aviation and desert experience in various missions. After the failure of Plan el Masri and the first Operation Condor to airdrop two German spies into Egypt (ending with the ditching of one of the two aircraft and the injury of Ritter), Almásy assumed command of the unit.Gross, Kuno, Michael Rolke and András Zboray, Operation Salaam - László Almásy's most daring mission in the Desert War, Belleville, München 2013 Almásy's greatest achievement during his wartime stay in North Africa was the successful completion of Operation Salam, the infiltration of two German spies through the Libyan Desert behind enemy lines in a manner similar to the Allied Long Range Desert Group. Operation Salam was not a covert operation; Almásy and his team were wearing German uniforms. They used captured British (Canadian-built) Ford cars and trucks with German crosses surreptitiously incorporated into the vehicles' camouflage pattern. Almásy successfully delivered the two Abwehr agents, Johannes Eppler and his radio operator Hans-Gerd Sandstede, into Assiut in Egypt after crossing the Gilf Kebir and Kharga Oasis. Unknown to Almásy and the German Command, British code breakers at Bletchley Park had succeeded in breaking the Abwehr hand cypher that Almásy and the spies used for their wireless transmissions. A young intelligence analyst at Bletchley Park, Jean Alington (later Jean Howard), noticed the signal trail. However, as a warning to the British HQ ME in Cairo arrived too late (due to the imminent attack of Rommel), Afrika Korps messages had a higher priority in deciphering and analysis, and Almásy was able to return to his starting point at Gialo unhindered. The subsequent Operation Condor, the actual spy mission of Eppler and Sandstede, was a complete failure. They were both captured within six weeks of reaching Cairo. Almásy received the Iron Cross (Eisernes Kreuz) and a promotion to captain for the success of Operation Salam. However, his services in North Africa were no longer needed and he returned to Hungary, where he wrote a short book on his wartime experiences in Libya.Almásy, László, Rommel seregénél Libyában (With Rommel's Army in Libya), Stádium, Budapest 1943 There is some evidence that he remained in contact with the Abwehr until late 1943. =Post war= After the war, as the Communists took over in Hungary, Almásy was arrested for alleged war crimes and treason for joining the armed forces of a foreign power. The charge was based mainly on his wartime book. However, during the trial it emerged that neither the prosecutor nor the judge had read the book, as it was placed on the banned books list by the Soviet occupation forces. Eventually Almásy was acquitted with the help of some influential friends. However, after the trial the Soviet NKVD also started looking for him. He escaped from the country, supposedly with the aid of the British Intelligence, which reportedly bribed Hungarian Communist officials to enable his release. The bribe was paid by Alaeddin Moukhtar, cousin of King Farouk of Egypt. The British then spirited him into British occupied Austria using a false passport under the name of Josef Grossman, then on to Rome, where he was escorted by Ronnie Waring, later known as the Duke of Valderano.Albo d'Oro delle Famiglie Nobili e Notabili Europee, vol XIV, Florence 2000, pp. 811-812 When Almásy was pursued by a "hit squad" from the Soviet "Committee for State Security" (Komityet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosty or KGB), Valderano put him on an aeroplane to Cairo. A note of caution needs to be exercised when taking Valderano's account at face value. While he claimed to have been working for MI6 as the Rome "resident", there is no corroborating proof that Almásy was helped by British Intelligence, and the story was only released following the wide media publicity generated by the 1996 film The English Patient. If indeed Almásy had any contacts with British intelligence during and after the War as rumoured, any evidence is still lying in unreleased intelligence files. Back in Egypt, Almásy supported himself with odd jobs, some related to aviation, but also leading hunting parties to other parts of Africa. His last brief moment of glory came in December 1950, when King Farouk appointed him Director of the newly founded Egyptian Desert Research Institute. =Death= Almásy became ill in 1951 during a visit in Austria. On 22 March, he died of complications induced by amoebic dysentery—contracted during a trip to Mozambique the previous year—in a hospital in Salzburg, where he was then buried. The epitaph on his grave, erected by Hungarian aviation and desert enthusiasts in 1995, honors him as a "Pilot, Saharaforscher und Entdecker der Oase Zarzura" (Pilot, Sahara Explorer, and Discoverer of the Zerzura Oasis). Scouting From the beginning he was a member of the Scout movement. In 1921 Almásy became the International Commissioner of the Hungarian Scout Association. With Count Pál Teleki, he took part in organizing the 4th World Scout Jamboree in Gödöllő, Hungary, where Almásy presented the Air Scouts to Robert Baden-Powell on August 9, 1933. The English Patient Almásy remained a little-known desert explorer until 1996, when he (or rather his fictitious character) was thrown into the limelight by the Academy Award-winning film The English Patient. The screenplay was based on the 1992 novel by Michael Ondaatje. While the storyline is pure fiction, some of the characters and the events surrounding the search for Zerzura and the Cave of Swimmers have been adapted from Geographical Journal articles describing the expeditions of the real Almásy into the Libyan Desert. The publicity attracted by the film helped uncover many hitherto unknown details about Almásy's life, but also resulted in a huge volume of inaccurate or outright untrue claims, mostly related to his World War II activities, which continue to circulate in print and on the web. Much of these inaccuracies and false stories has been examined and refuted in the recent (2013) book on Operation Salam by Kuno Gross, Michael Rolke and András Zboray. In the movie, a native guide describes to Almásy the physical location of the cave; "A mountain the shape of a woman's back". Almásy then renders a drawing and some text that he then includes in the book that he keeps for himself.The scene that plums are found in the monastery orchard and the scene just before the Cliftons arrive at the base camp on the Crown-owned airplane. See also * Rommel Calls Cairo (1959 film) * Foxhole in Cairo (1960 film) Notes=References= * Almásy, László. Autóval Szudánba (With motorcar to the Sudan). Budapest: Franklin, 1929. * Almásy, László. Ismeretlen Szahara (Unknown Sahara). Budapest: Franklin, 1935. * Almásy, L.E. de. Récentes Explorations dans le Désert Lybique. Cairo: Societé Royale de Geographie d'Egypte, 1936. * Almásy, László. Levegőben... homokon... (In Air... on Sand...). Budapest: Franklin, 1937. * Almásy, L.E. Unbekannte Sahara. Leipzig: Brockhaus, 1939. * Almásy, László. Rommel seregénél Libyában (With Rommel's Army in Libya). Budapest: Stádium, 1942. * Almásy, Ladislaus. Schwimmer in der Wüste (Swimmer of the Desert). Innsbruck: Haymon, 1997. (new edition of Unbekannte Sahara) * Bermann, Richard (Arnold Hollriegel). Zarzura - die Oase der kleinen vögel. Zürich: Orell Füssli, 1938. * Bierman, John. The Secret Life of Laszlo Almasy: The Real English Patient. London: Penguin Books, 2004. * Gross, Kuno, Michael Rolke and András Zboray. Operation Salam - László Almásy's most daring mission in the Desert War. München: Belleville, 2013. (HC) * Kelly, Saul. The Hunt for Zerzura. London: John Murray, 2002. (HC) * Kubassek, János. A Szahara bűvöletében (Enchanted by the Sahara), Panoráma, Budapest 1999 (Biography of Almásy, in Hungarian) * Ondaatje, Michael. The English Patient. (fiction) 1992. * Sensenig-Dabbous, Eugene. " 'Will the Real Almásy Please Stand Up!' Transporting Central European Orientalism via The English Patient," in: German Orientalism, Jennifer Jenkins (ed.), Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East Volume 24, No. 2, 2004. * Széchenyi, Zsigmond. "Hengergő homok" (Rolling sands). Budapest: published by the author, 1936. * Török, Zsolt: "Salaam Almasy. Almásy László életregénye" (Salaam Almasy: Biography of László Almásy). Budapest: ELTE, 1998. * Török, Zsolt. "László Almásy: The Real 'English patient' - The Hungarian Desert Explorer." Földrajzi Közlemények 121.1-2 (1997): 77-86. External links * The writings of László Almásy (English) * Almásy's explorations in the Libyan Desert * Another Almasy on film. * El verdadero "Paciente Inglés" * Hungarian Aristocracy. * László Almásy Digital Archive * Laszlo Almásy, the real English patient Category:1895 births Category:1951 deaths Category:People from Oberwart District Category:20th-century Hungarian people Category:Abwehr Laszlo Category:Hungarian explorers Category:Explorers of Africa Category:Hungarian aviators Category:Hungarian people of World War II Category:World War II spies for Germany Category:Hungarian scientists Category:Hungarian monarchists Category:Scouting and Guiding in Hungary Category:Aerial photographers Category:People acquitted of treason Category:LGBT people from Hungary Category:LGBT royalty "
"A screwball is a baseball and fastpitch softball pitch that is thrown so as to break in the opposite direction of a slider or curveball. Depending on the pitcher's arm angle, the ball may also have a sinking action. Carl Hubbell was one of the most renowned screwball pitchers in the history of Major League Baseball. Hubbell was known as the "scroogie king" for his mastery of the pitch and the frequency with which he threw it. Other famous screwball artists include Tug McGraw and Cy Young Award winners Mike Cuellar, Fernando Valenzuela, Mike Marshall, Christy Matthewson, and Willie Hernández. Grip and action The baseball is held with the open end of the horseshoe shape (where the seams are closest together) facing upward. The thumb is placed just beneath the bottom of the horseshoe, the index finger is curled against the top of the thumb, forming a tight circle to the side of the ball. The middle finger is then placed on the top of the ball and grips against the top seam, (the seam closest to the index finger). The ring finger is placed outside the other top seam loosely and the pinky is held on the side opposite the thumb; all fingers are spread apart. The grip is similar to the Circle changeup, but with different placement in regards to the seams. Also, unlike the Circle change, when throwing the screwball the middle finger applies the most pressure to the baseball, while the ring and pinky exert no pressure at all. For left-handed pitchers, as the middle finger presses hard down on the ball, their hand pronates (turns) inwardly in a clockwise manner near the end of the pitching motion, until much of the hand is beneath the ball. Conversely, right-handed pitchers turn their hand counter-clockwise. Effects When thrown by a right-handed pitcher, a screwball breaks from left to right from the point of view of the pitcher; the pitch therefore moves down and in on a right-handed batter and down and away from a left-handed batter. When thrown by a left-handed pitcher, a screwball breaks from right to left, moving down and in on a left-handed batter and down and away from a right-handed batter. Due to this left-to-right movement of the ball (when thrown by a right-handed pitcher), right-handed pitchers use a screwball against left-handed batters in the same way that they use a slider against right-handed batters. If thrown correctly, the screwball breaks in the opposite direction of a curveball. Pitchers One of the first great screwball pitchers was Christy Mathewson, who pitched for the New York Giants 1900–1916, whose pitch was then labeled as the "fadeaway"; although historians have been unable to prove it, baseball legend holds that Giants manager John McGraw arranged for Black pitcher Rube Foster to teach Mathewson the screwball, as McGraw was forbidden from hiring Foster directly. In truth, Matthewson learned the pitch from minor leaguer Dave Williams. Major league pitchers who have thrown the screwball during their careers include: * Carl Hubbell"Hubbell Out For Season", New York Times, August 24, 1938, pg. 26. * Cy Blanton"Blanton, Pirates, Stops Dodgers, 8-2", New York Times, May 19, 1935, pg. S5. * Luis Arroyo"Arroyo: Artist of Yankee Bullpen", New York Times, August 21, 1960, pg. S2. * Jack Baldschun"Orioles Get Baldschun of Phillies", New York Times, December 7, 1965, pg. 61. * Bobby Castillo (taught the pitch to Valenzuela) * Mike Cuellar"Roundup: Cuellar Holds Showing of Old Art Form", New York Times, June 12, 1970, pg. 43. * Warren Spahn (in the second half of his career) * Jim Brewer * Rich Folkers * John Franco * Nelson Potter * Clark Griffith * Mel Parnell * Mike Norris * Juan Marichal * Rubén Gómez * Mike Marshall * Masanori Murakami * Fernando Valenzuela * Teddy Higuera * Tom Browning * Tug McGraw * Willie Hernández * Jim Mecir * Pedro Martínez * Jeff Sparks * Daniel Ray Herrera * Dallas Braden * Yoshinori Tateyama * Hector Santiago * Paul Byrd * Yu Darvish * Oliver Drake Contrary to popular belief, the screwball is not particularly stressful on a pitcher's arm. The pronation of the forearm allows for the protection of the ulnar collateral ligament, which is replaced during Tommy John surgery. References Category:Baseball pitches "