Journal articles on the topic 'Breeches parts'

This a r t i d e discusses the the seductive element of looking at females in breeches (female parts where women dress like men) through the eyes of queer theory, but also highlights the risks with such an undertaking. The a r t i d e also discussed the subversive n a t u r e of women in drag in productions of m o d e r n opera, an area where this aspect is sadly u n d e r r a t e d . Rosenberg gives a few examples f r om her research around drag and relätes this to Rudolf Dekkers' and Lotte van der Pol's survey Kvinnor i manskläder: En avvikande tradition; Europa 1500-1800 /Women in drag. A divergent tradition; Europé 1500-1990/.

Cross dressing is about deliberately traversing meaningful boundaries. The cultural critic, Marjorie Garber, argues that Western civilization has long been obsessed with transvestite behavior. Garber's wide-ranging analysis (from Shakespeare to Madonna) stresses the disruptive aspect of the phenomenon, which, she claims, precipitates a “category crisis” by exposing the futility of all binary oppositions, including those of gender. Could cross dressing ever have been a commonplace part of the notoriously cautious bourgeois culture of nineteenth-century France? The very idea seems implausible on the surface, but in fact the mainstream stage presented the opportunity to see an enormous amount of transvestite performance (travesti). It consisted not simply of plays within which characters disguise themselves as the other sex. In hundreds of French plays before and after the Revolution, actresses assumed male roles, and, to a more limited extent, actors took female parts. Playwrights and producers, more concerned with fame and success than with social commentary, turned out a stream of such transvestite spectacles.

As a kind of complicated mechanical automation, most of key parts of breech mechanism are cams delivering forces and movements by parts’ outline and figure. The major fault mode of breech mechanism is grain abrasion caused by dry sliding friction. There are no feasible and practical technologies to simulate and predict the abrasion failure lives of key parts for breech mechanism. A new simulation and prediction method is firstly put forward in this paper. Based on Pro/E and ADAMS, the virtual prototype of breech mechanism of semiautomatic vertical sliding-wedge type is established. Key parts’ load spectrum can be obtained based on virtual prototype. Pin-on-disc friction and abrasion testing machine is designed and adopted to obtain typical materials’ abrasion rules. Finial simulation and prediction results are given as abrasion thresholds and operating items, which provide sufficient references for breech mechanism’s design and safeguard.

Breech mechanism serves to close the breech, fire the ammunition and extract the cartridge case in firing process. In firing process, breech mechanism completes complicated actions, bears tremendous impact forces and produces huge percussive forces between components. Its major fault mode is grain abrasion caused by dry sliding friction. There are no feasible and practical technologies to simulate and predict the abrasion failure life of key parts for breech mechanism. A new simulation and prediction method is firstly put forward in this paper. Based on Pro/E and ADAMS, the virtual prototype of breech mechanism of semiautomatic vertical sliding-wedge type is established. To validate its precision and affectivity, qualitative and quantitative verification methods are adopted to check the virtual prototype of breech mechanism. Virtual prototype produces key parts’ load spectrums and failure thresholds. Dry sliding friction and abrasion experiment provides abrasion rules of typical materials. Finial simulation and prediction results are given as abrasion thresholds and operating items, which provides sufficient references for breech mechanism’s maintenance and safeguard.

Breech mechanism is the key and important device to improve reliability and maintenance for large caliber guns. It’s major fault mode is grain abrasion caused by dry sliding friction. There is no feasible and practical technologies to simulate and predict the abrasion failure life of key parts for breech mechanism. A new simulation and prediction method is firstly put forward in this paper. Based on Pro/E and ADAMS, the virtual prototype of breech mechanism of semiautomatic vertical sliding-wedge type is established. To validate its precision and effectivity, qualitative and quantitative verification method are adopted to check the virtual prototype of breech mechanism. Virtual prototype produces key parts’ load spectrums and failure theresholds. Dry sliding friction and abrasion experiment provides abrasion rules of typical materials. Finial simulation and prediction results are given as abrasion thresholds and operating items, which provide sufficient references for breech mechanism’s maintenance and safeguard.

The breech mechanism is a very important part of artillery with a high failure rate. It is planned to build a test-platform for the investigation of the breech mechanism. By this test-platform the motion of the breech, while the artillery is shooting, can be simulated as the same. While the artillery is shooting, the energy for the opening and shutting action of the breechblock comes from the impact between the breechblock operating cam and crank, when the breech is returning. But this action of a hugely heavy thing is very difficult to simulate. So the negative direction action is considered, which makes the breechblock operating cam moved to impact the crank. In this paper the virtual prototype model based on ADAMS is used to measure the load etc. of the key-parts of the breech mechanism by simulation experimentations.

The work presents the peculiarities of the activity of the beech martens of «Kachaghakaberd» National Park in the territories of Martakert, Askeran, Shahumyan and Kashatagh regions of Artsakh in 2002-2020. The observations carried out by us showed that there are no marked deviations within the area. However, deviations are recorded at different times of the day and in different seasons of the year. Studies show that the breech martens are mostly active during dusk and night; however they may also be active during the mornings and throughout the day. Higher activity is observed during daylight hours in spring, which is due to the spring mating of animals and in winter, which, in our opinion, is due to the compensation of low activity because of the night frosts. Changes in the nature of the activity of these beasts are conditioned by large predators, climatic and anthropogenic factors. As a result of the observations we found out that in summer at the temperature of +33 - +35°C and in winter at the temperature of -15 - -22°C their activity is lost. In summer they are more frequently encountered when the temperature is +23 - +25°C, meanwhile in winter, they are encountered if the temperature is not below -8 - -13°C. One of the factors affecting the activity of Breech martens is the stress, resulted from the economic activities, that sometimes causes extinction. Keywords: «Kachaghakaberd» National Park, area, beech martens, population, activity, climat

The work presents the peculiarities of the activity of the beech martens of "Kachaghakaberd" National Park in the territories of Martakert, Askeran, Shahumyan and Kashatagh regions of Artsakh in 2002-2020. The observations carried out by us showed that there are no marked deviations within the area. However, deviations are recorded at different times of the day and in different seasons of the year. Studies show that the breech martens are mostly active during dusk and night; however they may also be active during the mornings and throughout the day. Higher activity is observed during daylight hours in spring, which is due to the spring mating of animals and in winter, which, in our opinion, is due to the compensation of low activity because of the night frosts. Changes in the nature of the activity of these beasts are conditioned by large predators, climatic and anthropogenic factors. As a result of the observations we found out that in summer at the temperature of +33 - +35 oC and in winter at the temperature of -15 - -22 oC their activity is lost. In summer they are more frequently encountered when the temperature is +23 - +25 0C, meanwhile in winter, they are encountered if the temperature is not below -8 - -130C. One of the factors affecting the activity of Breech martens is the stress, resulted from the economic activities, that sometimes causes extinction.

This paper is concerned with an analysis of the dynamic characteristics of the high performance launcher—rarefaction wave gun(RAVEN) by numerical simulation. Based on its launch mechanism and launch structure, a rigid-flexible coupling dynamic model which considered the coupling effect between the flexible virbation of the launch barrel and the motion behaviors of the other parts of the RAVEN is established via a subsystems method. The actual motion of the projectile and inertial breech during the lauching are described by the interior ballistic equations of the RAVEN. The dynamic characterisitcs of RAVEN is illustrated by the numerical simulation about a small caliber launcher, and the interaction between launch barrel and the other parts is also studied.

Flame lily (Gloriosa superba L.) contains colchicine and gloriosin in almost all parts of the plant, especially in tubers and seeds. Colchicine is often used in biological and breeding studies to induce mutations that result in polyploid plants. This study aimed to examine the effectiveness of flame lily tuber extract as a natural mutagen for the development of superior kepok banana cultivars through the in vitro assembly of polyploid kapok bananas. The study was arranged completely randomly with two factors. Factor 1 consisted of 3 levels, namely fresh extract of breech flower tubers (10 %), pure colchicine solution (0.1%) as a positive control, and without being added (0%) as a negative control. Factor 2 consists of 3 levels, namely Kepok Abu, Kepok Batu and Kepok Kuning. All treatment combinations were repeated 5 times. The data were analyzed by Diversity Test (Sidik Ragam) and if there is a difference, it will be continued with the DMRT test at a level of 5%. The results showed that the administration of colchicine in culture media could induce the emergence of polyploid banana plantlets when viewed from the addition of the size of the number of shoots, shoot length, number of roots, root length, leaf area, epidermal cells, stomata, and decreased stomata index. Meanwhile, 10% breech flower tuber extract was not able to induce the emergence of polyploid plantlets. Kepok Kuning bananas had a better response to mutagens than Kepok Abu and Kepok Batu. From these results, it can be concluded that 0.1% colchicine was able to induce polyploid banana plantlets and 10% breech flower tuber extract was not able to induce polyploid plantlets.

Accidents with firearms can result in extensive orbital trauma. Moreover, gun parts can come loose and impale the maxillofacial region. These injuries can cause the loss of visual acuity and impair eye movements. Multidisciplinary treatment is required for injuries associated with this type of trauma. Computed tomography with three-dimensional reconstruction is useful for determining the precise location and size of the object lodged in the facial skeleton, thereby facilitating the planning of the correct surgical approach. The temporal approach is a fast, simple technique with few complications that is indicated for access to the infratemporal fossa. This article describes the use of the temporal approach on a firearm victim in whom the breech of a rifle had impaled orbital region, with the extremity lodged in the infratemporal fossa.

Caesarean section (CS) rates are increasing in many parts of the world, recently reaching about 20% worldwide. The postmodern lifestyle characteristics, obesity and delayed childbirth, have been put forward as the main reasons for high CS rates. The present study tests the association patterns between lifestyle parameters and delivery mode on a data set of 3786 births in Vienna between 2005 and 2013. The focus is exclusively on singleton term births. As well as maternal age, prepregnancy weight status, maternal body height and gestational weight gain, newborn size (birth weight, birth length, and head circumference), Apgar scores and child presentation were recorded. Planned as well as emergency CS rates increased significantly (p < 0.0001) with increasing maternal age and decreasing maternal body height. Emergency CS rates, however, increased significantly with increasing maternal prepregnancy weight status and gestational weight gain. An especially high risk of emergency CS occurred among four groups of mothers: those older than 40 years (OR = 2.68; 95% CI 1.87–3.86), those who were obese (OR = 1.44; 95% 1.15–1.81), those experiencing a gestational weight gain above 15 kg (OR = 1.32; 95% CI 1.13–1.54), and those shorter than 160 cm (OR = 1.216; 95% CI 1.02–1.45). Emergency CS rates were significantly higher among low-weight newborns (<2500 g) and macrosome newborns (>4000 g) than among normal-weight newborns. Furthermore, breech presentation was associated with an increased risk of caesarean delivery (OR 6.97; 95% CI 6.09–7.96). Logistic regression analyses reveal that maternal age, maternal body height, prepregnancy weight status, gestational weight gain, birth weight, newborn head circumference and child presentation show an independent, highly significant association with caesarean delivery. We conclude that maternal and newborn characteristics typical of recent lifestyle patterns, such as advanced maternal age, obesity, increased gestational weight gain and increased newborn size, are highly significantly associated with increased emergency CS rates. Moreover, maternal shortness and breech presentation are risk factors for emergency CS.

A 25-year-old gravida 2 para one with a history of 8 months lactational amenorrhoea presented to labour room with pain in abdomen since, 20 days in shock. Fundal height of uterus corresponded to 34 weeks size with unstable lie and uterus was relaxed. Fetal parts were palpable more easily than usual. Fetal heart sound was good. Pelvic examination revealed uneffaced and undilated cervix. Antenatal ultrasonography showed a single, viable fetus with gestational age of 33 weeks 6 days with oblique lie with head in right lower quadrant. Placenta was located in lower uterine segment covering internal os with AFI – nil with normal fetal cardiac activity and fetal movement. On opening the abdomen there was a boggy mass in the lower pelvic cavity with fetus with intact membrane lying in the abdominal cavity. Baby was delivered by breech extraction Baby weighed 2.2kg with no congenital anomaly. Placenta with membrane was in the left non-communicating horn of uterus with feeding vessels from omentum which were clamped, cut and ligated. The non-communicating horn with placenta was resected and left salpingo oophorectomy was done. Examination of intraabdominal viscera confirmed no injury. There was no torrential haemorrhage intraoperatively and abdomen was closed in layers after achieving proper hemostasis.

The article deals with the replacement of hard chrome plating by applying the duplex system plasma nitriding + CrN coating (hereinafter referred to as PN + CrN). The goal of the research was to find a suitable alternative for steel surface treatment that would replace hard chrome plating and ensure similar mechanical and tribological properties. An exposed part of a small-bore weapon was selected for evaluation, namely the gas piston of the 42CrMo4 steel breech mechanism drive. The PN + CrN duplex system was compared with a hard chrome coating as well as a self-deposited CrN coating. The mentioned surface treatments were evaluated in terms of metallography, mechanical and tribological properties and surface texture. From the mechanical properties, the hardness of the surface was analyzed, an indentation test was performed (Mercedes test) and adhesive-cohesive behavior was evaluated (Scratch test). Furthermore, an instrumented penetration test was performed (an evaluation of plastic and elastic deformation work and indentation hardness). As part of the assessment of tribological properties, the Ball-on-Flat test, the measurement of the coefficient of friction and the measurement of traces of wear were performed. The surface texture was evaluated in terms of morphology and surface roughness measurement by selected 2D and 3D parameters. The PN + CrN duplex system showed higher hardness than hard chrome, better tribological properties (lower friction coefficient), but worse surface texture. The PN + CrN duplex system has proven to be a suitable alternative to the hard chrome coating for exposed parts of small-caliber weapons, which can be applied in arms production.

<b><i>Introduction:</i></b> Hemorrhage from a partially or fully detached placenta with an advanced abdominal pregnancy can be profuse and catastrophic. The general approach to placental management is removal of “all or nothing.” In the event of acute hemorrhage, attempts to achieve hemostasis quickly are critical. We have found a Foley catheter tourniquet to be useful to control placental hemorrhage or as a temporary tourniquet applied around structures surrounding the implantation site to aid placental removal. We report use of the technique on 4 occasions with good surgical outcomes. <b><i>Case Presentation:</i></b> We report the case of a 33-year-old primigravid woman admitted at term with ultrasound diagnosis of breech presentation and placenta previa grade 4. Her preoperative clinical assessment, however, raised suspicion of an abdominal pregnancy. At laparotomy, a live female infant was delivered from the extra-uterine gestation sac, weighing 3,640 g and with Apgar scores of 7 and 6 at 1 and 5 min, respectively. Following delivery, there was profuse bleeding from the partially detached distal portion of the placenta that derived a rich blood supply from the poorly accessible posterior pelvic wall. We applied a novel, simple, and effective surgical technique for minimizing blood loss from the partially detached placenta using a Foley’s catheter tourniquet that was applied between the detached and still attached parts of the placenta. The tourniquet was left in situ and removed at laparotomy 4 days later. The placenta was not removed. The mother and baby did well postoperatively and were discharged after 10 and 21 days, respectively, in good condition. The surgical technique was used in 3 additional cases with good clinical outcomes. <b><i>Discussion:</i></b> Use of a Foley catheter as an intraoperative tourniquet has become accepted as a useful technique in obstetric and gynecological surgery. We describe a simple life-saving technique of applying a Foley tourniquet across a partially detached placenta following an advanced extra-uterine pregnancy to control acute hemorrhage. <b><i>Conclusion:</i></b> We recommend that surgeons keep in mind the option of intraoperative tourniquets when faced with uncontrollable bleeding as a short-term or medium-term temporizing measure.

Objetivo: Caracterizar los pacientes con displasia de cadera atendidos en el Hospital Infantil Universitario de la ciudad de Manizales (Caldas, Colombia) entre los años 2004 y 2011. Materiales y métodos: Estudio de corte trasversal. Se estudiaron 198 pacientes pediátricos. Se tomaron variables asociadas a esta patología y se realizó revisión de historias clínicas. Resultados: Se encontró en la población que el lado izquierdo y bilateral de la cadera afectada presentó una proporción de 35,6%; hiperlaxos 31,9%, 3,1% embarazo gemelar, pliegues asimétricos presentes en un 61,6%. La maniobra de Ortolani negativa en un 47,1%, la maniobra de Barlow negativa en 53,3%. La edad promedio de diagnóstico fue de 24,12 meses, género femenino en el 75,6% de los casos, por cesárea nacieron el 33,5%, madres primigestantes 53,8%, antecedentes familiares de displasia del desarrollo de la cadera en el 20,9% de los casos, parto en presentación podálica en un 29,7%. El 71,2% son de área urbana, 98,2% de raza mestiza. Se encontró relación significativa entre las variables asociadas a DDC, presencia de parálisis cerebral, cargar al niño envuelto, procedencia urbana, historia familiar de DDC positiva, uso de caminadores y variables propias de la DDC como afectación en ambas caderas, hiperlaxitud ligamentosa, maniobra de Ortolani negativa. Conclusión: Este estudio concuerda con otros estudios realizados en otras partes del mundo, lo que podría indicar que la DDC en Caldas se presenta en pacientes cuyos perfiles se asocian a factores de riesgo señalados por otros autores en otras investigaciones.Objecive: To characterize patients with dysplasia of the hip treated at the UniversityChildren’s Hospital in Manizales city (Caldas, Colombia) between 2004 and 2011.Materials and methods: cross sectional study. 198 pediatric patients were studiedreviewing variables associated with this pathology and clinical reports. Results: Theleft hip showed a proportion of 35.6%, hypermobile 31.9%, twin pregnancy 3.1%, asymmetricfolds the dislocated hip 61.6%. Ortolani maneuver negative 47.1%, negativeBarlow maneuver at 53.3% considering that the maneuvers are performed before 3months. Average age at diagnosis 16.56 months, female cases at 75.6%, cesarean33.5%, primigravida mothers 53.8%, family history of developmental dysplasia of thehip 20.9% of cases , breech delivery 29.7%. and 71.2% are in urban areas, 98.2% ofmixed race. It was also found a significant relationship between the variables associatedwith DDC, carrying a baby wrapped, urban, family history of DDC, using walkers andvariables of the DDC as involvement in both hips, ligamentous laxity, negative Ortolanimaneuver and presence of cerebral paralysis as a special condition of paralytic hip andnot as a risk factor. Conclusion: This study agrees with others already made, whichcould indicate that the DDC in Caldas occurs in patients with profiles associated withrisk factors identified by several authors in other investigations

The mechanical structure of the breech block after repairing is different from the original breech block. It is assembly parts of the new front-end face, the original breech block, and the connecting screws. So analyzing the stress and deformation of the breech block is an important issue in the repair process for the breech block. The paper is focused on analyzing the stress and deformation of the breech block before and after repair using the finite element method (FEM) approach. Besides, the results of the FEM are compared with the analytical method approach. The comparison between the results of the analytical method and FEM results shows a very good agreement (before repair, the difference in maximal stress between the two methods is 2.12%). The study object of this paper is the wedge-type breechblock.

Rarefaction wave gun (RAVEN) propulsion has renewed interest in the fundamental limits of recoil reductions attainable by redirecting propellant gases rearward from a gun without compromising the projectile propulsion. Compared with a conventional gun there is a great difference in the launch process and launch structure. This paper is concerned with an analysis of the dynamic characteristics of this high performance weapon system by numerical simulation. Based on its launch mechanism and launch structure, the vibration equation describing the vibration characteristics of RAVEN was established by vibration theory, which considered the actual movement of the projectile and inertial breech by coupling the interior ballistic equations of the rarefaction wave gun. A rigid-flexible dynamic model, which considered the coupling effect between the elastic vibration of the launch barrel and the dynamic behaviors of the other parts of the RAVEN, is established via a subsystem method. The vibration response of RAVEN during the launch is analyzed by numerical simulation. Comparisons are presented based on the conventional gun, as well as the rules of how the different parameters affect the vibration response. During the launching of RAVEN, the launch barrel shows significant vibration due to the effect of the propellant gases, the inertial breech, and the projectile, and there is some reduction in the vibration amplitude compared with that observed in a conventional closed chamber gun. The vibration amplitude and duration of the launch barrel, which increased with a decrease in the loading density, an increase in the mass of the inertial breech and projectile, and a delay of the venting time, is affected in a more significant manner by changes in loading density and the mass of projectile. The coupled effect between the launch barrel and the other parts of RAVEN are most prevalent in the z-direction. The vibration amplitude along the z-direction is higher than that of the y-direction. When the coupled effect is considered, the transverse vibration response of the flexible barrel has some reduction compared with the one that does not exhibit the coupling effect.

Abstract Vaginal delivery is typically avoided in the extremely preterm breech population due to the concern of entrapment by the cervix of the aftercoming head. A mechanical device concept is presented to enable vaginal delivery by preventing retraction of the cervix against the fetus during delivery. The two-part device was designed to dilate the cervix, prevent prolapse of small fetal parts and maintain sufficient dilation during delivery. The two-part device was designed and manufactured with the following modules: an inflatable saline-filled cervical balloon for dilation and a cervical retractor composed of semirigid beams to stabilize the cervix and maintain adequate dilation. The device was tested using a cervical phantom designed to simulate the compressive force the cervix exerts. The cervical balloon reached a maximum dilation of 8.5 cm, after which there was leakage of saline from the balloon. While this dilation was less than the target goal of 10 cm, the leaking was attributed to prototype manufacturing defects, which could be resolved with further development. The cervical retractor was able to withstand between 1–3 kPa. Although estimates of cervical pressure values can be upward of 30 kPa, there are no in vivo measurements to formally identify the pressure values for patients in preterm labor. This device serves as a viable proof-of-concept for utilizing an inflatable balloon device to prevent cervical retraction in the setting of extremely preterm vaginal breech delivery. Further manufacturing improvements and design changes could improve the device for continued development and testing.

Background: Amniotic band sequence (ABS) is a rare congenital disorder resulting from the entanglement of fetal parts by fibrous bands that may cause disruptions, deformations, or malformations that can range from mild to life threatening conditions. Prenatal diagnosis is usually based on ultrasounds visualization on amniotic bands attached to fetal parts, possibly causing fetal defects. Case Presentation: A 19-year-old woman with an unremarkable clinical history and a low-risk pregnancy was referred to our Fetal Therapy Unit for a suspected fetal clubfoot at 22 weeks gestational age. A chorioamniotic separation, together with unilateral clubfoot was diagnosed. Due to a high risk of premature rupture of membranes a decision was made not to perform amniocentesis for genetic investigation. At prenatal follow up progressive polyhydramnios developed with a preterm spontaneous rupture of the membranes at 34 weeks. After caesarean section – due to breech presentation – an amniotic band was observed at the abdominal level causing a circular skin lesion, constriction, and a sub-occlusive intestinal status. Moreover, a left clubfoot with amputation of distal phalanx of the second toe and a right foot amputation of 2nd and 3rd toes were evident. The neonate underwent abdominal plastic surgery on the second day of life with complete recovery. Following the postnatal diagnosis of ABS, we re-examined a stored fetal 3D ultrasound volume acquired at 22 weeks and, focusing on the fetal surface rendering, we could notice the deep abdominal skin furrow that was evident at birth. Discussion: This case represents an unusual antenatal presentation of an amniotic band sequence that escaped prenatal diagnosis with a progressive polyhydramnios as an indirect sign of fetal bowel obstruction caused by an abdominal constricting band. In the presence of chorioamniotic separation and additional ominous ultrasound findings, it is advisable to consider the possibility of an ABS.

IntroductionNew Orleans is one of a number of infamous swamp cities—cities built in swamps, near them or on land “reclaimed” from them, such as London, Paris, Venice, Boston, Chicago, Washington, Petersburg, and Perth. New Orleans seemed to be winning the battle against the swamps until Hurricane Katrina of 2005, or at least participating in an uneasy truce between its unviable location and the forces of the weather to the point that the former was forgotten until the latter intruded as a stark reminder of its history and geography. Around the name “Katrina” a whole series of events and images congregate, including those of photographer Robert Polidori in his monumental book, After the Flood. Katrina, and the exacerbating factors of global warming and drained wetlands, and their impacts, especially on the city of New Orleans (both its infrastructure and residents), point to the cultural construction and production of the disaster. This suite of occurrences is a salutary instance of the difficulties of trying to maintain a hard and fast divide between nature and culture (Hirst and Woolley 23; Giblett, Body 16–17) and the need to think and live them together (Giblett, People and Places). A hurricane is in some sense a natural event, but in the age of global warming it is also a cultural occurrence; a flood produced by a river breaking its banks is a natural event, but a flood caused by breeched levees and drained wetlands is a cultural occurrence; people dying is a natural event, but people dying by drowning in a large and iconic American city created by drainage of wetlands is a cultural disaster of urban planning and relief logistics; and a city set in a swamp is natural and cultural, with the cultural usually antithetical to the natural. “Katrina” is a salutary instance of the cultural and natural operating together in and as “one single catastrophe” of history, as Benjamin (392) put it, and of geography I would add in the will to fill, drain, or reclaim wetlands. Rather than a series of catastrophes proceeding one after the other through history, Benjamin's (392) “Angel of History” sees one single catastrophe of history. This single catastrophe, however, occurs not only in time, in history, but also in space, in a place, in geography. The “Angel of Geography” sees one single catastrophe of geography of wetlands dredged, filled, and reclaimed, cities set in them and cities being re-reclaimed by them in storms and floods. In the case of “Katrina,” the catastrophe of history and geography is tied up with the creation, destruction, and recreation of New Orleans in its swampy location on the Mississippi delta.New OrleansNew Orleans is not only “the nation’s quintessential river city” as Kelman (199) puts it, but also one of a number of infamous swamp cities. In his post-Katrina preface to his study of New Orleans as what he calls “an unnatural metropolis,” Colten notes:While other cities have occupied wetlands, few have the combination of poorly-drained and flood-susceptible territory of New Orleans. Portions of Washington, D.C. occupied wetlands, but there was ample solid ground above the reach of the Potomac [River’s] worst floods. Chicago’s founders platted their city on a wetland site, but the sluggish Chicago River did not drain the massive territory of the Mississippi. (5)“Occupied” is arguably a euphemism for dredging, draining, filling, and reclaiming wetlands. Occupation also conjures up visions of an occupying army, which may be appropriate in the case of New Orleans as the Army Corps of Engineers have spearheaded much of the militarisation by dredging and draining wetlands in New Orleans and elsewhere in the U.S.The location for the city was not propitious. Wilson describes how “the city itself was constructed on an uneven patch of relatively high ground in the midst of a vast swamp” (86). New Orleans for Kelman “is surrounded by a wet world composed of terrain that is not quite land” (22) with the Mississippi River delta on one side and Lake Pontchartrain and the “backswamps” on the other, though the latter were later drained. The Mississippi River for Kelman is “the continent’s most famed and largest watercourse” (199). Perhaps it is also the continent’s most tamed and leveed watercourse. Earlier Kelman related how a prominent local commentator in 1847 “personified the Mississippi as a nurturing mother” because the river “hugged New Orleans to its ‘broad bosom’” (79). Supposedly this mother was the benign, malign, and patriarchal Mother Nature of the leveed river and not the recalcitrant, matrifocal Great Goddess of the swamps that threatened to break the levees and flood the city (see Giblett, Postmodern Wetlands; People and Places, especially Chapter 1). The Mississippi as the mother of all American rivers gave birth to the city of New Orleans at her “mouth,” or more precisely at the other end of her anatomy with the wetland delta as womb. Because of its location at the “mouth” of the Mississippi River, New Orleans for Flint was “historically the most important port in the United States” (230). Yet by the late 1860s the river was seen by New Orleanians, Kelman argues, only as “an alimentary canal, filled with raw waste and decaying animal carcasses” (124). The “mouth” of the river had ceased to be womb and had become anus; the delta had ceased to be womb and had become bowel. The living body of the earth was dying. The river, Kelman concludes, was “not sublime” and had become “an interstate highway” (146). The Angel of Geography sees the single catastrophe of wetlands enacted in the ways in which the earth is figured in a politics of spaces and places. Ascribing the qualities of one place to another to valorise one place and denigrate another and to figure one pejoratively or euphemistically (as in this case) is “placist” (Giblett, Landscapes 8 and 36). Deconstructing and decolonising placism and its use of such figures can lead to a more eco-friendly figuration of spaces and places. New Orleans is one place to do so.What Colten calls “the swampy mire behind New Orleans” was drained in the first 40 years of the twentieth century (46). Colten concludes that, “by the 1930s, drainage and landfilling efforts had successfully reclaimed wetland between the city and the lake, and in the post-war years similar campaigns dewatered marshlands for tract housing eastward and westward from the city” (140–1). For Wilson “much of New Orleans’s history can be seen as a continuing battle with the swamp” (86). New Orleans was a frontline in the modern war against wetlands, the kind of war that Fascists such as Mussolini liked to fight because they were so easy to win (see Giblett, Postmodern Wetlands 115). Many campaigns were fought against wetlands using the modern weapons of monstrous dredgers. The city had struck what Kelman calls “a Faustian bargain with the levees-only policy” (168). In other words, it had sold its soul to the devil of modern industrial technology in exchange for temporary power. New Orleans tried to dominate wetlands with the ironic result that not only “efforts to drain the city dominate early New Orleans history into the present day” as Wilson (86) puts it, but also that these efforts occasionally failed with devastating results. The city became dominated by the waters it had sought to dominate in an irony of history and geography not lost on the student of wetlands. Katrina was the means that reversed the domination of wetlands by the city. Flint argues that “Katrina’s wake-up call made it unconscionable to keep building on fragile coastlines […] and in floodplains” (232–3). And in swamps, I would add. Colten “traces the public’s abandonment of the belief that the city is no place for a swamp” (163). The city is also no place for the artificial swamp of the aftermath of Katrina depicted by Polidori. As the history of New Orleans attests, the swamp is no place for a city in the first place when it is being built, and the city is no place for a swamp in the second place when it is being ravaged by a hurricane and storm surges. City is antithetical and inimical to swamp. They are mutually exclusive. New Orleans for Wilson is “a city on a swamp” (90 my emphasis). In the 1927 flood (Wilson 111), for Kelman “one of the worst flood years in history” (157), and in the 2005 hurricane, the worst flood year so far in its history, New Orleans was transformed into a city of a swamp. The 1927 flood was at the time, and as Kelman puts it, “the worst ‘natural’ disaster in U.S. history” (161), only to be surpassed by the 2005 flood in New Orleans and the 2012 floods in north-eastern U.S. in the wake of Superstorm Sandy in which the drained marshlands of New York and New Jersey returned with a vengeance. In all these cases the swamp outside the city, or before the city, came into the city, became now. The swamp in the past returned in the present; the absent swamp asserted its presence. The historical barriers between city and swamp were removed. KatrinaKatrina for Kelman (xviii) was not a natural disaster. Katrina produced “water […] out of place” (Kelman x). In other words, and in Mary Douglas’s terms for whom dirt is matter out of place (Douglas 2), this water was dirt. It was not merely that the water was dirty in colour or composition but that the water was in the wrong place, in the buildings and streets, and not behind levees, as Polidori graphically illustrates in his photographs. Bodies were also out of place with “corpses floating in dirty water” (Kelman x) (though Polidori does not photograph these, unlike Dean Sewell in Aceh in the aftermath of the Asian tsunami in what I call an Orientalist pornography of death (Giblett, Landscapes 158)). Dead bodies became dirt: visible, smelly, water-logged. Colten argues that “human actions […] make an extreme event into a disaster […]. The extreme event that became a disaster was not just the result of Katrina but the product of three centuries of urbanization in a precarious site” (xix). Yet Katrina was not only the product of three centuries of urbanisation of New Orleans’ precarious and precious watershed, but also the product of three centuries of American urbanisation of the precarious and precious airshed through pollution with greenhouse gases.The watery geographical location of New Orleans, its history of drainage and levee-building, the fossil-fuel dependence of modern industrial capitalist economies, poor relief efforts and the storm combined to produce the perfect disaster of Katrina. Land, water, and air were mixed in an artificial quaking zone of elements not in their normal places, a feral quaking zone of the elements of air, earth and water that had been in the native quaking zone of swamps now ran amok in a watery wasteland (see Giblett, Landscapes especially Chapter 1). Water was on the land and in the air. In the beginning God, when created the heavens and the earth, darkness and chaos moved over the face of the waters, and the earth was without form and void in the geographical location of a native quaking zone. In the ending, when humans are recreating the heavens and the earth, darkness and chaos move over the face of the waters, and the earth is without form and void in the the geographical location and catastrophe of a feral quaking zone. Humans were thrown into this maelstrom where they quaked in fear and survived or died. Humans are now recreating the city of New Orleans in the aftermath of “Katrina.” In the beginning of the history of the city, humans created the city; from the disastrous destruction of some cities, humans are recreating the city.It is difficult to make sense of “Katrina.” Smith relates that, “as well as killing some 1500 people, the bill for the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans […] was US$200 billion, making it the most costly disaster in American history,” more than “9/11” (303; see also Flint 230). A whole series of events and images congregate around the name “Katrina,” including those of photographer Robert Polidori in his book of photographs, After the Flood, with its overtones of divine punishment for human sin as with the biblical flood (Coogan et al. Genesis, Chapters 6–7). The flood returns the earth to the beginning when God created heaven and earth, when “the earth was without form and darkness moved […] upon the face of the waters” (Coogan et al. Genesis Chapter 1, Verse 2)—God's first, and arguably best, work (Giblett, Postmodern Wetlands 142–143; Canadian Wetlands “Preface”). The single catastrophe of history and geography begins here and now in the act of creation on the first day and in dividing land from water as God also did on the second day (Coogan et al. Genesis Chapter 1, Verse 7)—God’s second, and arguably second best, work. New Orleans began in the chaos of land and water. This chaos recurs in later disasters, such as “Katrina,” which merely repeat the creation and catastrophe of the beginning in the eternal recurrence of the same. New Orleans developed by dividing land from water and is periodically flooded by the division ceasing to be returning the city to its, and the, beginning but this time inflected as a human-made “swamp,” a feral quaking zone (Giblett, Landscapes Chapter 1). Catastrophe and creativity are locked together from the beginning. The creation of the world as wetland and the separation of land and water was a catastrophic action on God's part. Its repetition in the draining or filling of wetlands is a catastrophic event for the heavens and earth, and humans, as is the unseparation of land and water in floods. What Muecke calls the rhetoric of “natural disaster” (259, 263) looms large in accounts of “Katrina.” In an escalating scale of hyperbole, “Katrina” for Brinkley was a “natural disaster” (5, 60, 77), “the worst natural disaster in modern U.S. history” (62), “the biggest natural disaster in recent American history” (273), and “the worst natural disaster in modern American history” (331). Yet a hurricane in and by itself is not a disaster. It is a natural event. Perhaps all that could simply be said is that “Katrina was one of the most powerful storms ever recorded in U.S. history” (Brinkley 73). Yet to be recorded in U.S. history “Katrina” had to be more than just a storm. It had also to be more than merely what Muecke calls an “oceanic disaster” (259) out to sea. It had to have made land-fall, and it had to have had human impact. It was not merely an event in the history of weather patterns in the U.S. For Brinkley “the hurricane disaster was followed by the flood disaster, which was followed by human disasters” (249). These three disasters for Brinkley add up to “the overall disaster, the sinking of New Orleans, [which] was a man-made disaster, resulting from poorly designed and managed levees and floodwalls” (426). The result was that for Brinkley “the man-made misery was worse than the storm” (597). The flood and the misery amount to what Brinkley calls “the Great Deluge [which] was a disaster that the country brought on itself” (619). The storm could also be seen as a disaster that the country brought on itself through the use of fossil fuels. The overall disaster comprising the hurricane the flood, the sinking city and its drowning or displaced inhabitants was preceded and made possible by the disasters of dredging wetlands and of global warming. Brinkley cites the work of Kerry Emanuel and concludes that “global warming makes bad hurricanes worse” (74). Draining wetlands also makes bad hurricanes worse as “miles of coastal wetlands could reduce hurricane storm surges by over three or four feet” (Brinkley 10). Miles of coastal wetlands, however, had been destroyed. Brinkley relates that “nearly one million acres of buffering wetlands in southern Louisiana disappeared between 1990 and 2005” (9). They “disappeared” as the result, not of some sort of sleight of hand or mega-conjuring trick, nor of erosion from sea-intrusion (though that contributed), but of deliberate human practice. Brinkley relates how “too many Americans saw these swamps and coastal wetlands as wastelands” (9). Wastelands needed to be redeemed into enclave estates of condos and strip developments. In a historical irony that is not lost on students of wetlands and their history, destroying wetlands can create the wasteland of flooded cities and a single catastrophe of history and geography, such as New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.In searching for a trope to explain these events Brinkley turns to the tried and true figure of the monster, usually feminised, and “Katrina” is no exception. For him, “Hurricane Katrina had been a palpable monster, an alien beast” (Brinkley xiv), “a monstrous hurricane” (72), “a monster hurricane” (115), and “the monster storm” (Brinkley 453 and Flint 230). A monster, according to The Concise Oxford Dictionary (Allen 768), is: (a) “an imaginary creature, usually large and frightening, composed of incongruous elements; or (b) a large or ugly or misshapen animal or thing.” Katrina was not imaginary, though it or she was and has been imagined in a number of ways, including as a monster. “She” was certainly large and frightening. “She” was composed of the elements of air and water. These may be incongruous elements in the normal course of events but not for a hurricane. “She” certainly caused ugliness and misshapenness to those caught in her wake of havoc, but aerial photographs show her to be a perfectly shaped hurricane, albeit with a deep and destructive throat imaginable as an orally sadistic monster. ConclusionNew Orleans, as Kelman writes in his post-Katrina preface, “has a horrible disaster history” (xii) in the sense that it has a history of horrible disasters. It also has a horrible history of the single disaster of its swampy location. Rather than “a chain of events that appears before us,” “the Angel of History” for Benjamin “sees one single catastrophe which keeps piling wreckage upon wreckage” (392). Rather than a series of disasters of the founding, drainage, disease, death, floods, hurricanes, etc. that mark the history of New Orleans, the Angel of History sees a single, catastrophic history, not just of New Orleans but preceding and post-dating it. This catastrophic history and geography began in the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, darkness and chaos moved over the face of the waters, the earth was without form and void, and when God divided the land from the water, and is ending in industrial capitalism and its technologies, weather, climate, cities, floods, rivers, and wetlands intertwining and inter-relating together as entities and agents. Rather than a series of acts and sites of creativity and destruction that appear before us, the Angel of Geography sees one single process and place which keeps (re)creating order out of chaos and chaos out of order. This geography and history began at the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, and the wetland, and divided land from water, and continues when and as humans drain(ed) wetlands, create(d) cities, destroy(ed) cites, rebuilt/d cities and rehabilitate(d) wetlands. “Katrina” is a salutary instance of the cultural and natural operating together in the one single catastrophe and creativity of divine and human history and geography.ReferencesAllen, Robert. The Concise Oxford Dictionary. 8th ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990.Benjamin, Walter. “On the Concept of History.” Selected Writings Volume 4: 1938–1940. Eds. Howard Eiland and Michael W. Jennings. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard UP, 2003. 389–400.Brinkley, Douglas. 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