Spearheads of the Keliysky Stone Box Burial Ground (Ingushetia Highlands)

For the first time, the paper publishes all 20 spearheads and one spear counter-weight, discovered as a result of excavations in 1987–1988, in Keliysky stone boxes burial ground of Highland Ingushetia. A brief description of the burials containing these artifacts is published. The main feature of this burial ground is that the burial structural stone boxes, despite being intended primarily for individual burials, were used for multiple (up to five times) subburials. And only a small part of the spearheads were revealed in the burials in situ, while the rest were either re-laid (together with the bone remains of the buried), moved to the end of the stone box, placed onto the stone box overlap or buried in the ground above the stone box. The authors of the paper assume that the population who made the stone-bearing burial ground (at least its significant part) is of a foreign cultural origin. Accordingly, the artifacts accompanying the buried, including of defensive and offensive weapon parts, are largely imported. The published collection of spearheads, containing a small variety of types, allows us to consider the Keliysky burial ground to be a reference monument for the spearheads typology in the North Caucasus of the 13th–14th centuries AD.

A type IVB secretion system adapted for bacterial killing, biofilm invasion and biocontrol

Many bacteria utilize contact-dependent killing machineries to eliminate rivals in their environmental niches. Here, we show that Pseudomonas putida IsoF is able to outcompete a wide range of bacteria with the aid of a novel type IVB secretion system (T4BSS) that can deliver toxic effectors into bacterial competitors. This extends the host range of T4BSSs, which were so far thought to transfer effectors only into eukaryotic cells, to prokaryotes. Bioinformatic and genetic analyses showed that this killing machine is entirely encoded by a rare genomic island, which has been recently acquired by horizontal gene transfer. IsoF utilizes this secretion system not only as a defensive weapon to antagonize bacterial competitors but also as an offensive weapon to invade existing biofilms, allowing the strain to persist in its natural environment. Furthermore, we show that IsoF can protect tomato plants against the plant pathogen Ralstonia solanacearum in a T4BSS-dependent manner, suggesting that IsoF capabilities can be exploited for pest control and sustainable agriculture.

Global Challenges and Threats of Hypersonic Weapons – the Russian Context

This article presents the results of research that set out to identify and characterize the challenges and threats to international security posed by the use of hypersonic weapons. The research process mainly employed the critical assessment of the literature, systemic and comparative analyses and generalization. As a result of the research, it was established that hypersonic weapons are an indispensable tool in the conducting of international competition by the Russian Federation and can be treated on par with nuclear weapons. Due to its attributes, it meets the criteria of an offensive weapon and poses certain uncertainties and real threats to the international security environment mainly because, so far, the capabilities to intercept and destroy it in the active phase of flight to the target has not been acquired. The Russian Federation considers hypersonic weapons as an excellent tool for applying pressure and aggression, allowing it to conduct international competition in the gray zone and achieve foreign policy objectives without the need for direct military confrontation. Due to its ability to cause almost immediate operational and strategic effects, it accelerates the dynamics of conflict escalation and rapidly affects the transition from a state of stability to international instability. It cannot be ruled out that in the third decade of the 21st century hypersonic weapons may be the key element determining the Russian Federation's achievement of global dominance.

14. Further offences under the Theft Acts

Course-focused and contextual, Criminal Law provides a succinct overview of the key areas on the law curriculum balanced with thought-provoking contextual discussion. This chapter discusses the several offences in the Theft Acts 1968 and 1978, including: making off without payment; burglary (including discussion of the key terms ‘entry as a trespasser’, ‘building’, and the ulterior offences); aggravated burglary (burglary committed when the person has with them a firearm or imitation firearm, or offensive weapon); blackmail; handling stolen goods; and dishonestly retaining a wrongful credit. The feature ‘The law in context’ feature examines how burglars are sentenced, including the applicable sentencing guidelines, the evolution of relevant case law, and the ‘three strikes and you’re out’ mandatory sentence.

The PBY Catalina’s Offensive Utility and Its Transformation into Black Cats and MAD Cats

By the Second World War the US Navy had slated the pby Catalina to function as its long-range patrol seaplane and considered it for a bombing role. The first months of the war, however, revealed the pby to be too antiquated and slow to be a viable offensive weapon and thus minimized its utility. Relegated to conducting patrols and rescue operations, pby crews looked to the aircraft itself and experimented with technical and operational changes in reaction to fighting the Japanese in the South Pacific and the U-boat threat in the Atlantic. With the blessing of Navy’s command structure, crews made physical adjustments, added the latest technologies, incorporated supporting armaments, and designed new operational methods on an ad hoc basis for their respective circumstances and opponent. This experimentation and innovation resulted in the enhancement of the pby’s offensive utility as an attack weapon, and its transformation into the Black Cats and mad Cats.

The Star Gate Archives : Reports of the United States Government Sponsored Psi Program, 1972–1995. Volume 3: Psychokinesis compiled and edited by Edwin C. May and Sonali Bhatt Marwaha

The remote viewing research conducted at Stanford Research Institute (SRI) and later at Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) was covered in The Star Gate Archives Volumes 1 and 2, both reviewed in this journal (see Mörck, 2018, 2019). Less well-known is the fact that much psychokinesis (PK) research was also carried out. This research “ . . . was never intended to be an academic exercise typical of most laboratories. Rather, the only interest was to determine the degree to which PK might be used as part of a defensive or even offensive weapon system” (p. 12). This sounds dramatic. To U.S. intelligence agencies, a proper threat assessment was deemed necessary due to research conducted in the Soviet Union. The research in America, at SRI, was initially directed by Harold Puthoff from 1972 on, and later, for about ten years, by one of the volume’s editors, Edwin May. In addition to research reports and reviews, Volume 3, like its predecessor volumes, includes nine appendixes, a list of abbreviations, an extensive glossary, an author index, and a subject index. The papers are arranged chronologically, but it is not necessarily a good idea to read them in that order.

About the Bosporos Oil of Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus and the Byzantine “Greek Fire”: Archaeological Evidence

Introduction. The article discusses information sources of the 10th – 11th centuries about the oil fields in the area of the Bosporus needed to produce the secret offensive weapon of the Byzantine Empire, i.e. the famous “Greek fire”. Methods. The study is comprehensive. Along with a review of written sources allowing to establish the chronology of the most active period of using the Byzantine “Greek fire”, their material evidence of the oil fields development on the banks of the Kerch strait and the subsequent transportation of Bosporus oil in the central regions of Byzantium were analyzed. Analysis. The treatise of Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus De Administrando Imperio contains a message about the oil fields in various areas of the Northeastern Black Sea including the Asian Bosporus which are traditionally considered as sources of raw materials for the famous secret weapons of the Empire – the so-called “Greek fire”. The unique nature of this information, in fact, has reliable archaeological evidence. During excavations of many settlements and fortresses of the Bosporus a sufficient number of examples of the local oil production and transportation to the central areas of Byzantium were found. In the late 9th – 11th centuries containers for the oil transportation were the so-called jugs with a high neck, the general chronology of which generally coincides with the period of the most active use of the “Greek fire” by the Byzantine fleet in fighting against numerous opponents of the Empire. Results. As the study shows, in addition to the military-strategic and political component, the interest of Byzantium in ensuring control over the territories of the Bosporus was probably due to the abundance of numerous sources of oil needed to manufacture the secret offensive weapon of the Empire – the famous “Greek fire”.

Introduction

The cover of this book features an open penknife with an impressive range of attachments, set against a bright yellow background. So why did we pick this as the image to capture what we think Criminology Skills is all about? Without turning this into a media studies lesson, the cover says several things to us. First, by its very nature, much crime is hidden. Criminals tend not to want their activities to be made public. Criminology aims to bring criminality into the light: to explore issues such as why people start to offend, the causes and consequences of crime, methods of crime prevention, public perceptions and reactions to crime, measuring and quantifying crime, how the criminal justice system, the police, the courts, the probation and prison service, should deal with offenders, and methods that the state uses, especially the criminal law, in response to crime. Secondly, a penknife is quite capable of causing harm: stabbing or merely cutting someone with a knife could give rise to criminal liability for a range of different offences. Simply waving it at someone could be criminal. What about possession of the penknife in a public place? Or selling one to someone under the age of 16? Is it an offensive weapon or a weapon of offence? These have distinct meanings in the criminal law of England and Wales. Knife crime is a topic that is always of concern in the media. Thirdly, and perhaps, most importantly, a penknife contains a whole selection of different tools that can be used in different situations to make life easier. Several years ago, one of us was asked the question: ‘Why do you make such a fuss about skills? These students are at university. They ought to know how to study by now.’ Our answer is that, yes, perhaps students ...

Lord Beaverbrook, RDX, and the Ministry of Supply

By the spring of 1940, Germany had won an overwhelming victory. The battle for France was lost, and in the summer of 1940 the Battle of Britain raged between the Luftwaffe and “The Few” for supremacy in the skies over Britain. Winston Churchill looked to the bomber as Britain’s only offensive weapon; however, British Bomber Command lacked numbers, and its bombs were small and deficient in explosive power. Lord Beaverbrook made strenuous efforts to obtain the explosive RDX developed at the Woolwich Arsenal, but the Ministry of Supply was unable to provide the huge quantities needed by Bomber Command.