Falcon (Duinrell)

Falcon is a steel roller coaster at the amusement park Duinrell, located in Wassenaar, Netherlands. The roller coaster is a Gerstlauer Euro-Fighter model coaster which was opened to the public on 14 May 2009. At 97 degrees, Falcon has a steeper-than-vertical drop, and the steepest drop of any roller coaster in the Netherlands.

History

Soon after it opened in 1935, Duinrell had the Netherlands' first artificial ski slope. This ski slope was ultimately removed for the installation of Falcon in 2009. The municipality of Wassenaar had often had disputes with Duinrell in regards to noise levels created by the amusement park. This was true again with the proposed construction of a new coaster. The new coaster was given the code name "Rick's Delight"—which was a reference to Duinrell's mascot, Rick the Frog. The park was awarded when a permit from the municipality of Wassenaar over the objections of some residents and after a lengthy court battle. Noise and traffic studies were conducted and showed that the new coaster would not adversely influence these environmental factors in the area surrounding the park (results were just under the 45 decibel benchmark). A Duinrell spokesperson also stated that measures were being taken to further mitigate the noise from the park. On 14 May 2009, Mayor Hoekema van Wassenaar and the director of Duinrell, Philip van Zuylen van Nijvelt opened the ride to the public. Objections from the community, however, had delayed the coaster opening 2 years later than had originally been planned.

Falcon (gasoline launch)

The launch Falcon operated in Puget Sound and nearby regions, and also on Lake Washington during the first part of the 1900s. The wreck of this vessel has been discovered in Lake Washington not far from Kirkland and is in good condition under 190 depth of water. This vessel should not be confused with the steam (later diesel) tug Falcon built in Tacoma, Washington in 1902.

Construction and design

Falcon is reported to have been built in Bellingham, Washington in 1909 for the Island Transportation Company. There is some conflict in the sources. Another more contemporaneous source shows a gasoline powered vessel named Falcon (U.S. Registry No. 204927) with the same sized engine (100 horsepower) as having been built in 1908 at Anacortes, Washington.

Falcon was one of a number of gasoline-engined launches built in 1909.Falcon was designed by L. H. Coolidge, a Seattle naval architect. Depending on the source, Falcon was either 85 ft (25.91 m) or 67.9 ft (20.70 m) long and either 16 ft (4.88 m) or 14.8 ft (4.51 m) on the beam,with a depth of hold of 4.8 ft (1.46 m). The overall size of the vessel was 46 gross and 26 registered tons. The total number of crew was two. Power was furnished by a 100 horsepower Eastern Standard engine. The cost of construction and equipment for the vessel was $8,000.

Falconet (cannon)

The falconet or falcon was a light cannon developed in the late 15th century. During the Middle Ages guns were decorated with engravings of reptiles, birds or beasts depending on their size. For example, a culverin would often feature snakes, as the handles on the early cannons were often decorated to resemble serpents. The falconet fired small yet lethal shot of similar weight and size to a bird of prey, and so was decorated with a falcon. Similarly, the musket was associated with the sparrowhawk.

Its barrel was approximately 4 feet (1.2 m) long, had a caliber of 2 inches (5 cm) and weighed 80 kilograms (176 lb)~200 kilograms (441 lb). The falconet used 0.5 pounds (0.23 kg) of black powder to fire a 1 pound (0.5 kg) round shot approximately 5,000 feet (1,524 m). They could also be used to fire grapeshot.

The falconet resembled an oversized matchlock musket with two wheels attached to improve mobility. In 1620s Germany a breechloading version was invented, seeing action in the Thirty Years War. Many falconets were in use during the English Civil War as they were lighter and cheaper than the culverins, sakers and minions. During times of unrest they were used by the nobility to defend their grand houses.

Liberty

Liberty, in philosophy, involves free will as contrasted with determinism. In politics, liberty consists of the social and political freedoms enjoyed by all citizens. In theology, liberty is freedom from the bondage of sin. Generally, liberty seems to be distinct from freedom in that freedom concerns itself primarily, if not exclusively, with the ability to do as one wills and what one has the power to do; whereas liberty also takes into account the rights of all involved. As such, liberty can be thought of as freedom limited by rights, and therefore cannot be abused.

Philosophy

Philosophers from earliest times have considered the question of liberty. Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (121–180 AD) wrote of "a polity in which there is the same law for all, a polity administered with regard to equal rights and equal freedom of speech, and the idea of a kingly government which respects most of all the freedom of the governed." According to Thomas Hobbes, "a free man is he that in those things which by his strength and wit he is able to do is not hindered to do what he hath the will to do" (Leviathan, Part 2, Ch. XXI).

Liberty (division)

A liberty was an English unit originating in the Middle Ages, traditionally defined as an area in which regalian right was revoked and where the land was held by a mesne lord (i.e., an area in which rights reserved to the king had been devolved into private hands). It later became a unit of local government administration.

Liberties were areas of widely variable extent which were independent of the usual system of hundreds and boroughs for a number of different reasons, usually to do with peculiarities of tenure. Because of their tenurial rather than geographical origin, the areas covered by liberties could either be widely scattered across a county or limited to an area smaller than a single parish: an example of the former is Fordington Liberty, and of the latter, the Liberty of Waybayouse, both in Dorset.

In northern England, the liberty of Bowland was one of the larger tenurial configurations covering some ten manors, eight townships and four parishes under the sway of a single feudal lord, the Lord of Bowland, the so-called Lord of the Fells. Up until 1660, such lords would have been lords paramount.

Liberty (1881–1908)

Liberty was a nineteenth-century anarchist periodical published in the United States by Benjamin Tucker, from August 1881 to April 1908. The periodical was instrumental in developing and formalizing the individualist anarchist philosophy through publishing essays and serving as a format for debate.

Contributors included Benjamin Tucker, Lysander Spooner, Auberon Herbert, Dyer Lum, Joshua K. Ingalls, John Henry Mackay, Victor Yarros, Wordsworth Donisthorpe, James L. Walker, J. William Lloyd, Voltairine de Cleyre, Steven T. Byington, John Beverley Robinson, Jo Labadie, and Henry Appleton. Included in its masthead is a quote from Pierre Proudhon saying that liberty is "Not the Daughter But the Mother of Order."

Purpose

Benjamin Tucker was an individualist anarchist and made it clear that the purpose of the journal was to further his point of view, saying in the first issue that the

However, the journal did become a forum for argumentation about diverse views, and Tucker credited both Josiah Warren and the social anarchist Proudhon as influences for Liberty. He says of Proudhon: "Liberty is…a journal brought into existence almost as a direct consequences of the teachings of Proudhon…" (Liberty I). He later said that Liberty was "the foremost organ of Josiah Warren's doctrines" (Liberty IX).