pageid
int64 1.39k
74.6M
| title
stringlengths 2
102
| revid
int64 962M
1.17B
| description
stringlengths 4
100
⌀ | categories
listlengths 0
61
| markdown
stringlengths 1.23k
15.9k
| sections
listlengths 0
33
| token
int64 258
3k
| __index_level_0__
int64 0
44.8k
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
59,658,692 |
Wine and Roses
| 1,152,664,895 | null |
[
"2022 American television episodes",
"Better Call Saul (season 6) episodes",
"Television episodes set in Mexico",
"Television episodes written by Peter Gould"
] |
"Wine and Roses" is the first episode of the sixth season of Better Call Saul, the spin-off television series of Breaking Bad. Michael Morris directed the episode written by Peter Gould. It aired back-to-back with "Carrot and Stick" on April 18, 2022, on AMC and AMC+. In several countries outside the United States and Canada, it premiered on Netflix the following day.
In the episode, Nacho Varga goes into hiding after aiding in the attempted assassination of Lalo Salamanca, unaware of its failure. Meanwhile, Jimmy McGill and Kim Wexler proceed with their scheme to ruin Howard Hamlin's life.
The episode's cold open features a glimpse into the life of Jimmy during the events of Breaking Bad when he was better known as Saul Goodman. The sequence was inspired by the classic films Citizen Kane and Sunset Boulevard. It includes an instrumental version of the song "Days of Wine and Roses". The closing shot of the opening shows a callback to an episode from the second season of Better Call Saul. Gould said it was a nod to the ending of Citizen Kane and that he wanted the moment to symbolize Saul's true character.
"Wine and Roses" was met with critical acclaim for the direction, screenplay, and on-screen performances. An estimated 1.42 million viewers saw the episode during its first broadcast on AMC.
## Plot
In a flashforward, authorities remove possessions from Saul Goodman's opulent home. As a cabinet is loaded onto a truck, Kim Wexler's souvenir tequila bottle stopper falls into the gutter.
In the present, Nacho Varga flees Lalo Salamanca's compound. Tyrus Kitt calls Nacho and directs him to a motel. Lalo arrives at the home of his tenants, Sylvia and Mateo, kills them, then moves Mateo's body to his house to be identified as his. Juan Bolsa calls Gus Fring and tells him that Nacho aided in killing Lalo and that the cartel has placed a bounty on him. Gus questions the circumstances, wondering why the hit team members are all dead if they succeeded in killing Lalo. Nacho reaches the motel room, where he finds a gun, cash, and a new cell phone. He calls Tyrus, who tells him to hide until it is safe to move. Nacho attempts to call Mike Ehrmantraut, who declines to answer.
The prosecutor and detective handling Lalo's murder case report that the defendant's name, address, and supposed family are fake and question whether Jimmy is complicit. Jimmy threatens to file misconduct complaints, and mistakenly refers to Lalo by his real name. He explains away the error, but afterward silently berates himself.
Kim suggests that if Jimmy intends to practice law as Saul Goodman, upgrades to his home, car, and office are in order. They decide to follow through on Kim's plan to force a resolution of the Sandpiper case by ruining Howard Hamlin's reputation. Later, as Kim surveils Howard and Clifford Main during a round of golf, Jimmy attempts to sneak into the club's locker room and plant a bag resembling cocaine in Howard's locker. After causing a scene in a confrontation with Kevin Wachtell, Jimmy succeeds. Howard and Cliff find the fake drugs, which Howard explains away as being someone else's, but Cliff appears dubious.
Lalo intends to enter the United States, but before hiding in the coyotes' cargo truck, he calls his uncle Hector to say he is alive and he believes Gus was responsible for the attack. Hector advises him to find proof the cartel will accept. Lalo realizes the proof is not in the U.S. and decides to stay. The coyotes refuse to return his money, so he kills them, returns the money of the others who paid to be smuggled, then uses the coyotes' pickup truck to drive away.
## Production
"Wine and Roses" was directed by Michael Morris and written by Better Call Saul showrunner and co-creator Peter Gould. It is the first Better Call Saul season premiere that does not feature a flashforward of Jimmy McGill living under the alias Gene Takavic after the events of Breaking Bad. Instead, it shows a glimpse of his personal life during Breaking Bad, when he was better known as Saul Goodman. Gould said that since the season was 13 episodes, instead of the usual 10, the writing staff decided to wait until later in the season to show the Gene timeline. The opening scene was inspired by the classic films Citizen Kane (1941) and Sunset Boulevard (1950). It features several callbacks to previous episodes as well as later ones. The sequence was shot in Albuquerque in the house of a wealthy family in the casino business. The location was the crew's second choice. It was originally going to be set in the house Jimmy and Kim consider buying in the episode "50% Off" but it was deemed "too restrictive", leading to the change. Many of the actors playing the house cleaners were professional dancers from the same dance troupe, an idea that Morris and assistant director Rich Sickler came up with to give the sequence a "ballet-like precision". The scene was rehearsed on a Sunday and filmed during the next two days.
Production designer Denise Pizzini and her crew transformed the house to the point Gould said it did not "look exactly the way you see it portrayed". Portions of the bathroom were taken from a set built at Q Studios. The gold toilet in the room was a normal toilet that was painted gold and later repainted after Morris said it was "not gold enough". The Saul Goodman standee in the sequence was a photo Gould took himself of actor Bob Odenkirk while putting together a website of the character, back when they were filming the third season of Breaking Bad. A black book that is opened by one of the cleaners in the scene was later revealed to be Dr. Caldera's book of criminal contacts in the episode "Axe and Grind". The book's functioning deciphers were conceived by screenwriter Ariel Levine, assistant Valerie Chu, props assistant Claudia Azurmendi, assistant producer Jenn Carroll, showrunner's assistant Joanna Zhang, and script coordinator Kathleen Williams-Foshee. The pages shown in the scene were reportedly decoded and solved by a Reddit user in May 2022. The song that plays over the scene is a recording of the orchestra of Jackie Gleason playing "Days of Wine and Roses", a piece Gould selected because of how often he would listen to it while on his way to work.
The opening scene's first shot is of several ties falling into a pile, of which the first few are monochromatic and the last ones are colorful. Morris came up with the idea, which he said reminded him of a similar opening scene in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974). The shot was recorded with a Photo-Sonics camera and filmed at 480 frames per second (FPS). It was originally three-quarters of a second; the broadcast played the recording back at 240 FPS so it lasted longer. It was completed with only practical effects. The ties were carefully selected by costume designer Jennifer Bryan and dispensed into frame by two conveyor belts, one on each side of the camera.
The opening scene's final shot is of the tequila bottle stopper, produced by the fictitious brand Zafiro Añejo, that Kim keeps as a souvenir in the episode "Switch" from the second season of Better Call Saul. The stopper was added to the scene through CGI to save time and give the crew control over where it was going to land and was added during post-production by Rodeo FX. The shot was challenging to film because it was the crew's last day in that location and they were running out of natural light. The shot is a nod to the ending of Citizen Kane, where the titular character's final words are explained by the trade name of his sled, "Rosebud", which no one notices. Morris said "the general approach to opening this season has a lot in common with that great sequence ending in the Rosebud reveal. The way that this sequence funnels into that one final image is deliberately reminiscent of that great, huge, what must have felt like a magical crane shot at the time, just going through the entire mansion." Gould said the inclusion of that shot "tells you, or it at least tells me, that even when Saul Goodman was at his lowest and he's advising Walter White to kill people, he still has that Zafiro stopper, so there's still some soul left in there somewhere. Maybe."
The episode includes an extreme close-up of an ant crawling on the finger of a dead body. Cinematographer Marshall Adams said the "ant was not being cooperative at all. He was the clumsiest ant I've ever seen. He was falling off the finger. He couldn't hold on. And then, all of a sudden, everything just happened to land perfectly in one take." Later on in the episode, Nacho (played by Michael Mando) hides in a pipe tunnel and drinks from the water coming out of it. The crew used an area behind the production studio to film the scene because a natural road was already built there. They dug the hole and put the pipe in it themselves, making sure it was sterilized and regularly cleaned. Adams said they had to be careful in making sure they were not leaving any dirt in the water so Mando could drink from it. A shot of Jimmy's bag going through a metal detector was filmed with a Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera. "The gaffer actually had to put a little green light in there, but it literally was strapping a monitor and a cable so that we could watch it go through," Adams said. The restaurant where Jimmy and Kim converse, El Camino Dining Room, is a real location and a nod to the Breaking Bad sequel film El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie (2019). During post-production, editing for the episode was completed by Joey Reinisch in his first solo editing credit on television.
In the scene where Nacho enters a motel in Mexico, a woman can be seen watching an episode of Casados con hijos, the Argentine version of the sitcom Married... with Children, featuring actors Darío and Luisana Lopilato, despite "Wine and Roses" taking place in 2004 and Casados con hijos not premiering until 2005.
## Reception
### Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 100% of ten reviews are positive, with an average rating of 9.0/10. David Segal of The New York Times described the episode as "strong, twisty and gripping" and said the writing "must be hailed as a masterly curtain raiser, one that managed to pick up the story right where it was left, two years ago, and hurl it forward at a promising pace." Segal also praised Morris's direction in the opening scene but criticized Kim's con against Howard at the country club, calling it "dimmer and daffier than the rest of the show" and "pointlessly cruel". Reviewing "Wine and Roses" and "Carrot and Stick" together, The A.V. Club's Kimberly Potts graded them with an "A" and gave positive notes to Gould's screenplay and the performances of the cast, especially those of Rhea Seehorn as Kim and Michael Mando as Nacho.
Steve Greene, writing for IndieWire, said the first two episodes were "astonishingly short on false moves so far". He also noted Ed Begley Jr.'s acting as Clifford Main and the symbolism in Kim throwing away the "World's 2nd Best Lawyer" coffee mug, calling it a "a poetic bookend of sorts." IGN's Tara Bennett said Odenkirk and Seehorn "lead a fantastic cast who all continue to bring nuance to their characters, even when they embark upon some inhumane life choices. They all make balancing a story about morality, corruption, revenge, and love, with an overriding side mystery of what happens to a lawyer who wears terrible suits, look easy." IndieWire ranked "Wine and Roses" the eighth best TV episode of the year.
### Ratings
An estimated 1.42 million viewers watched "Wine and Roses" during its first broadcast on AMC on April 18, 2022. It was the number one cable drama premiere of 2022 at the time of its airing. According to AMC, the two-episode premiere generated over half a million engagements across social platforms including Twitter and Facebook, an increase of more than 60% compared to "Magic Man", the premiere of the show's fifth season. Social analytics tracker ListenFirst said a 10-hour national trend on Twitter made the show the "#1 television drama in social engagement, organic search, conversation, and content shares." The premiere also resulted in the biggest day of new subscriber sign-ups for AMC+.
|
[
"## Plot",
"## Production",
"## Reception",
"### Critical response",
"### Ratings"
] | 2,646 | 35,817 |
42,010,779 |
Zimbabwe women's national field hockey team at the 1980 Summer Olympics
| 1,102,795,358 |
Hockey team that won a gold medal
|
[
"1980 in Zimbabwean sport",
"Field hockey at the 1980 Summer Olympics",
"Olympic gold medalists for Zimbabwe",
"Zimbabwe at the Summer Olympics",
"Zimbabwe women's national field hockey team"
] |
The 1980 Zimbabwe women's national field hockey team won the gold medal in women's field hockey at that year's Summer Olympics in Moscow, the capital of the Soviet Union. The squad of 16 women, all from Zimbabwe's white minority, was assembled less than a month before the Olympics began to help fill the gaps the American-led Olympic boycott created in the women's hockey competition. Zimbabwe's subsequent victory in the round-robin tournament with three wins and two draws was regarded as a huge upset, particularly considering the team's lack of preparation and experience; it has been called an "irresistible fairy story". Won at a time of great political transition in Zimbabwe, the gold medal was the country's first Olympic medal of any colour.
The 1980 Olympics were first to feature women's hockey, and the first to include Zimbabwe under that name—barred from the last three Olympics for political reasons, the country had last competed as Rhodesia in 1964. The women's hockey matches, held between 25 and 31 July, were all played on artificial turf, which none of the Zimbabwean team members had ever seen; they had also never played together until that month. After beating Poland and the USSR and drawing with Czechoslovakia and India, the Zimbabweans won the competition on the final day with a 4–1 victory over Austria. Dubbed the "Golden Girls" by the media of Zimbabwe, they were met by cheering crowds on their return home, and were briefly national celebrities. Zimbabwe did not win another Olympic medal until 2004.
## Invitation and team selection
The 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, the capital of the Soviet Union, were the first to include a competition in women's field hockey. Pre-tournament favourites included Australia, the Netherlands and West Germany, but the American-led Western boycott of the Moscow Olympics led to these teams and others withdrawing, leaving only the Soviets in the women's hockey event. The Soviet and international Olympic authorities filled the gaps by inviting teams from countries that had not qualified. Among the nations invited was Zimbabwe, which had become an internationally recognised country in April 1980 following seven years of civil war. Moscow marked the southern African nation's return to the Olympics after 16 years; as Rhodesia it had been excluded from the 1968, 1972 and 1976 Games for political reasons following the mostly white government's declaration of independence from Britain in 1965. The Zimbabwe Olympic Committee received the invitation to send men's and women's hockey squads to Moscow on 14 June 1980, 35 days before the Olympics were due to start. They were taken totally by surprise—they had not prepared hockey teams for the Games—but nevertheless agreed to send a women's squad. No women's hockey team representing the country had ever played overseas before.
A squad of 16 members, built around the core of the former Rhodesia team, was hastily assembled by Liz Dreyer, the president of the national women's hockey association, who became the team's manager. Every player and official was white. Ann Grant, the team's 25-year-old sweeper, was appointed captain. Anthea Stewart, who had played for South Africa 25 times before retiring in 1974, both coached the squad and played herself. Liz Chase, the only other team member with international experience (having also represented South Africa) was made vice-captain. At 35 years old, Stewart was the team's oldest player, while Arlene Boxall, the 18-year-old reserve goalkeeper, was the youngest. The squad included twin sisters in Sandy Chick and Sonia Robertson.
Entirely amateur, the team mostly comprised players with professions unrelated to sport—Grant, for example, was a bookkeeper, while Boxall was an operations clerk in the Air Force of Zimbabwe. Several had sporting relatives, most prominently Grant, whose brother was the international cricketer Duncan Fletcher. Audrey Palmer, a seasoned hockey official and referee who had played for Rhodesia from 1953 to 1961, travelled with the team as a medic, trainer and general supervisor. The squad left on 7 July, travelling first to the Zambian capital Lusaka and then to Luanda in Angola, from where they flew to Moscow on an aircraft usually used for freighting meat. "The stench was terrible", Grant later said. "There were no seats, so we all sat on the floor, strapped in and set off into the unknown. We didn't even have the right shoes to play on the artificial hockey surface."
## Tournament
The event was organised as a round-robin tournament in which each of the six teams would play each other once between 25 and 31 July. Two points were awarded for a win and one for a draw; the team with the most points at the end would be the winner. The other competitors were Austria, Czechoslovakia, India, Poland and the USSR; apart from the Soviets, all of these teams were competing as a result of the boycott, having failed to qualify initially. All of the matches were played at Dynamo Minor Arena in Moscow. Zimbabwe arrived two weeks before the hockey tournament was due to start, and warmed up with a number of matches against local teams. The players' lack of preparation and unfamiliarity with artificial turf—"none of us had ever seen it before", Chick recalled—were offset by what several members of the squad have described as a very strong team spirit. They considered themselves serious underdogs and did not expect to win a medal.
Zimbabwe played in the first women's Olympic hockey match, facing Poland on 25 July. Pat McKillop scored the first goal to put Zimbabwe ahead before Pat Davies, Linda Watson and Chase each added one more to round off a 4–0 victory. On 27 July, Zimbabwe and Czechoslovakia drew 2–2; McKillop and Chase scored. The next day, the Zimbabweans beat the Soviets 2–0, McKillop scoring both goals. A 1–1 draw with India on 30 July put Zimbabwe in first place before the final round of matches on the 31st. Zimbabwe had to beat Austria to be sure of winning the gold.
Stewart declared the team's first-choice white-and-blue outfit "lucky" on the basis that both Zimbabwe's victories had been won wearing it (as opposed to the two draws wearing green), and expressed joy that they would again be wearing white and blue in the deciding match. According to Glen Byrom, covering the event for the Herald newspaper, the Zimbabweans appeared nervous during the opening stages of the game, and were fortunate not to go behind after 15 minutes, when Austria missed a clear chance. Chick opened the scoring after 28 minutes, receiving the ball from a corner before cleanly stroking it into the net. Austria's Brigitte Kindler equalised two minutes later from a penalty stroke, flicking the ball beyond Zimbabwean goalkeeper Sarah English into the top-left corner of the goal. With the score 1–1 at half time, Brenda Phillips replaced Christine Prinsloo at right-half.
Urged on by a small but loud group of fellow Zimbabwean Olympians, the Zimbabweans improved after the break and, according to Byrom, "ke[pt] the Austrian goal under siege" throughout the second half. With 50 of the match's 70 minutes gone, McKillop powerfully stroked a short corner that deflected off an opposing player's stick and flew high into the net to give Zimbabwe the lead. Now appearing supremely confident, Byrom reported, the Zimbabweans "simply overran Austria with a splendid display of fast, attacking hockey", forcing eight short corners and four long corners during the second period to Austria's one long corner. Gillian Cowley made it 3–1 on 60 minutes, following up to score after Sandy Chick's free hit was blocked. McKillop rounded up the win four minutes later, collecting a through pass from Chase and smashing the ball home. Byrom reported "incredible scenes of unrestrained joy" at the final buzzer—"the Zimbabweans, tears streaming from their eyes, danced about the field hugging and kissing each other". Finally they hoisted Grant onto their shoulders and carried her off the field.
A few hours later, the Zimbabwean players returned to the field wearing their blue skirts and blue Zimbabwe Olympic blazers for the medals ceremony. After the third-placed Soviets and second-placed Czechoslovakians had received their medals, Grant led the team up to the podium to receive the first ever Olympic gold medal for women's hockey. It was their country's first Olympic medal of any colour. All 16 players received medals; they then led the Czechoslovakian and Soviet teams on a walking lap of honour around the field.
Zimbabwe finished the tournament undefeated, having scored the most goals and conceded the fewest of any team. The six goals from Pat McKillop, a housewife from Bulawayo, made her the competition's joint top scorer with the USSR's Natella Krasnikova. Chase, despite nursing a knee injury, played in all five matches and scored three goals. All of the Zimbabwean squad members played at least one match except for Boxall, who never came off the bench, but still received a gold medal.
## Reactions and legacy
The victorious hockey players were immediately dubbed the "Golden Girls" by Zimbabwean reporters. They were greeted by huge crowds on their return to Zimbabwe and briefly became national celebrities. Prime Minister Robert Mugabe welcomed them home at an official function. Each member of the team was promised an ox by the Prime Minister's wife Sally, but ultimately received a polystyrene package of meat instead at a ceremony hosted by Mrs Mugabe. Many of the players emigrated over the following years, mostly to South Africa. Their victory continues to be celebrated in Zimbabwe today. The country did not win another Olympic medal until Kirsty Coventry won three swimming medals in Athens in 2004. Robert Mugabe promptly applied the "golden girl" nickname to her on her return home.
The Zimbabwean hockey team's victory at the 1980 Olympics was widely considered a great upset. Sports historians have called it a "fairytale" and an "irresistible fairy story". While the Zimbabweans were overjoyed by their unlikely status as the first ever Olympic gold medallists in women's hockey, some, including Robert Sullivan of Sports Illustrated, felt that the Zimbabwean victory epitomised how the Western boycott had lowered competitive standards and, in their opinion, "ruined" the 1980 Olympics. While acknowledging this to an extent, Cathy Harris asserted in her 2008 retrospective on the team, published in The Sunday Times, that the victory still deserved to be recognised as a great achievement. "They freely acknowledge that they won the gold medal without competing against the best in the world", she concludes, "but, like many athletes in Moscow in 1980, they seized their chance."
|
[
"## Invitation and team selection",
"## Tournament",
"## Reactions and legacy"
] | 2,256 | 41,733 |
33,030,273 |
Nepal at the 2012 Summer Olympics
| 1,035,210,752 | null |
[
"2012 in Nepalese sport",
"Nations at the 2012 Summer Olympics",
"Nepal at the Summer Olympics by year"
] |
Nepal competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, which was held from 27 July to 12 August 2012. The country's participation at London marked its twelfth appearance in the Summer Olympics since its début at the 1964 Summer Olympics. The delegation included two track and field athletes; Tilak Ram Tharu and Pramila Rijal, one shooter Sneh Rana and two swimmers; Prasiddha Jung Shah and Shreya Dhital; all five competitors qualified for the Games through wildcard places from their respective sporting governing bodies. It was the smallest delegation sent by Nepal since the 1992 Summer Olympics. Shah was selected as the flag bearer for the opening and closing ceremonies. Four of the five athletes were unable to progress beyond the first stages of their respective events while Rana finished 54th in the women's 10 metre air rifle shooting competition.
## Background
Nepal participated in twelve Olympic Games between its début at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan and the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, England, with the exception of 1968. No Nepalese athlete has ever won a medal at the Summer Olympics and the country has entered four Winter Olympic Games. Nepal participated in the Summer Olympics from 27 July to 12 August 2012. The Nepalese delegation to these Olympics consisted of athletes Tilak Ram Tharu and Pramila Rijal, shooter Sneh Rana and swimmers Prasiddha Jung Shah and Shreya Dhital. It was the nation's smallest delegation since the 1992 Summer Olympics. Jung Shah was the flag bearer for both the opening and closing ceremonies.
Along with the five athletes, the country's delegation by its chef de mission Ganga Bahadur Thapa, secretary general Jeevan Ram Shrestha, the NOC president Dhruba Bahadur Pradhan, and the competitors were coached by Tika Sedain (athletics) and Ongden Iama (swimming). Yuva Raj Lama, the National Sports Council member secretary, withdrew from the delegation because of a disagreement over the selection of athletes and accused the NOC of being unable to maintain transparency over funds to the International Olympic Committee. The team trained in the English county of Kent in a deal announced in July 2011, and were primarily based at Canterbury Christ Church University and The Canterbury Academy.
## Athletics
Tilak Ram Tharu was the sole male competitor in athletics to represent Nepal at the London Olympic Games. He had not participated in any previous Olympic Games. Tharu qualified for the Games by using a wildcard because his fastest time of eleven seconds at the 2011 World Championships in Athletics was 0.76 seconds slower than the "B" qualifying standard for the men's 100 metres. He said that he did not expect to get the chance to take part in the Olympic Games and set himself the objective of recording a new Nepalese national record. Tharu spent two months training in Nepal alongside his period in Kent. He was drawn in the fourth heat in the preliminary round on 4 August, finishing fifth out of eight athletes, with a time of 10.85 seconds. Overall Tharu finished 59th out of 75 competitors overall, and did not advance to the later stages because he was 0.23 seconds slower than the slowest athlete in his heat who progressed to the first round. He was unable to obtain the Nepalese national record but stated his faster time was a positive although he felt Nepal required better training facilities.
Competing at her first Summer Olympic Games, Pramila Rijal was the oldest person to compete for Nepal at the London Olympics at age 27. She attained qualification to the Games with the use of a wildcard because she had not set any previous time for the women's 100 metres. Rijal revealed that she had problems with the starting block but hoped the training in Kent would aid her in setting a new Nepalese national record. She took part in the fourth heat on 3 August, finishing sixth out of nine competitors, with a time of 13.33 seconds. The result was attributed to Rajal having back pain in the days before the event and required painkillers to help her cope. She finished 71st out of 78 runners overall, and was eliminated from the event since only the first three finshers of each heat and the following ten quickest qualified for the next round.
Men
Women
Key
- Note–Ranks given for track events are within the athlete's heat only
## Shooting
Sneh Rana was her nation's sole representative in shooting at the London Games. She was 19 years old at the time and was making her début in the quadrennial event. Rana qualified for the women's 10 metres air rifle shooting competition after receiving a wildcard from shooting's Olympic governing body, the International Shooting Sport Federation, because of a re-allocation of unused quota places. On 28 July she competed in the qualification round of her event. Rana finished 54th out of 56 athletes with a score of 54 points. Rana scored 16 points less than the two equal highest scoring competitors, Sylwia Bogacka of Poland and Yi Siling from China. She scored 14 points less than the four lowest scoring qualifiers for the final and therefore her competition ended at the qualifying round. After the Games Rana said the event was "great exposure" for herself and that it was "an amazing experience".
Women
## Swimming
Making his second appearance at the Summer Olympics at the age of 23, Jung Shah was notable for carrying the flag of Nepal at the opening and closing ceremonies. He qualified for the Games by receiving a universality place from swimming's world governing body FINA because his fastest time of 27.30 seconds, set at the 2011 World Aquatics Championships, was 4.57 seconds slower than the "B" qualifying standard for the men's 50 metres freestyle. Shah sustained a minor shoulder injury heading during his training sessions going into the event but recovered and stated that he wanted to attempt to improve on his personal best time. He participated in the event's third heat on 2 August, finishing seventh out of eight swimmers, with a time of 26.93 seconds. Shah finished 47th out of 58 competitors overall, and did not advance into the semi-final because he was 4.66 seconds behind the slowest swimmer who made the later stages. Despite setting a new personal best time Shah said he was disappointed with his performance.
Competing in her first Olympic Games, Shreya Dhital was the youngest person to represent Nepal in the quadrennial event at the age of 17. She attained qualification into the Games by gaining a universality place from FINA because her fastest time of 1 minute, 10.82 seconds was 14.28 seconds slower than the "B" qualifying standard for the women's 100 metre freestyle. In an interview with The Kathmandu Post before the Games Dhital said that she was confident about achieving a new national Nepalese swimming record. She was drawn in the event's first heat on 1 August, finishing second out of three competitors, with a time of one minute, 10.80 seconds. The swimmer's time was a new national Nepalese record. Dhital finished 47th out of 48 swimmers overall, and was unable to progress to the semi-finals after placing 16.37 seconds slower than the slowest athlete who advanced to the later stages. Following the heat's completing Dhital said that the achievement would help her improve her performance in the future.
Men
Women
## See also
- Nepal at the 2012 Summer Paralympics
- List of Olympic athletes of Nepal
|
[
"## Background",
"## Athletics",
"## Shooting",
"## Swimming",
"## See also"
] | 1,614 | 23,847 |
3,207,042 |
Battle of Anzen
| 1,157,444,110 |
Part of the Arab–Byzantine wars (838 CE)
|
[
"830s conflicts",
"830s in the Byzantine Empire",
"838",
"9th century in the Abbasid Caliphate",
"Battles in medieval Anatolia",
"Battles of the Abbasid–Byzantine wars",
"History of Tokat Province",
"Turhal District"
] |
The Battle of Anzen or Dazimon was fought on 22 July 838 at Anzen or Dazimon (now Dazmana (Akçatarla), Turkey) between the Byzantine Empire and the forces of the Abbasid Caliphate. The Abbasids had launched a massive expedition with two separate armies in retaliation for the Byzantine emperor Theophilos's successes the previous year, and aimed to sack Amorion, one of Byzantium's largest cities. Theophilos with his army confronted the smaller Muslim army, under the Iranian vassal prince Afshin, at Dazimon.
The numerically superior Byzantine army was initially successful, but when Theophilos resolved to lead an attack in person, his absence from his usual post caused panic among the Byzantine troops, who feared that he had been killed. Coupled with a counterattack by Afshin's Turkish horse-archers, the Byzantine army broke and fled. Theophilos and his guard were surrounded on a hill, but managed to escape. The defeat opened the way for the sack of Amorion a few weeks later, one of the most serious blows Byzantium suffered in the centuries-long Arab–Byzantine Wars.
## Background
As the young Theophilos (r. 829–842) ascended the Byzantine throne in 829, the Arab–Byzantine wars had continued on and off for almost two centuries. An ambitious man and a convinced iconoclast, Theophilos sought to bolster his regime and gain support for his religious policies by military success against the Abbasid Caliphate, Byzantium's major antagonist. Theophilos launched a series of campaigns against the Caliphate throughout the 830s. These were only moderately successful, but sufficient for the imperial propaganda to portray Theophilos in the traditional Roman manner as a "victorious emperor". In 837 Theophilos personally led a major campaign to the region of the upper Euphrates, sacking the cities of Arsamosata and Sozopetra – which some sources claim as Abbasid Caliph al-Mu'tasim's (r. 833–842) own birthplace – and forcing the city of Melitene to pay tribute and deliver hostages in return for being spared.
In response, al-Mu'tasim decided to launch a major punitive expedition against Byzantium, aiming to capture the two major Byzantine cities of central Anatolia: Ancyra and Amorion. The latter was probably the largest city in Anatolia at the time, as well as the birthplace of the reigning Amorian dynasty and consequently of particular symbolic importance; according to the chronicles, al-Mu'tasim's soldiers painted the word "Amorion" on their shields and banners. A vast army was gathered at Tarsus (80,000 men according to Treadgold), which was then divided into two main forces. The northern force, under the Iranian vassal prince of Usrushana Afshin, would invade the Armeniac theme from the region of Melitene, joining up with the forces of the city's emir, Omar al-Aqta. The southern, main force, under the Caliph himself, would pass the Cilician Gates into Cappadocia and head to Ancyra. After the city was taken, the Arab armies would join and march to Amorion. Afshin's force included, according to John Skylitzes, the entire army of the vassal Armenian princes, and numbered an estimated 20,000 (Haldon) to 30,000 men (Treadgold), among whom were some 10,000 Turkish horse-archers.
On the Byzantine side, Theophilos became soon aware of the Caliph's intentions and set out from Constantinople in early June. His army included the men from the Anatolian and possibly also the European themes, the elite tagmata regiments, as well as a contingent of Persian and Kurdish Khurramites. Under their leader Nasr (converted to Christianity and baptized as Theophobos), these people had fled religious persecution in the Caliphate, deserted to the Empire in the previous years, and formed the so-called "Persian tourma". Setting up camp at Dorylaion, the Emperor divided his forces: a strong corps was sent to reinforce the garrison of Amorion, while he himself set out with the remainder (circa 25,000 according to Haldon and 40,000 according to Treadgold) to interpose himself between the Cilician Gates and Ancyra.
## Battle
In mid-June, Afshin crossed the Anti-Taurus Mountains and encamped at the fort of Dazimon (Greek: Δαζιμῶν, modern Dazmana), between Amaseia and Tokat, a strategically important location which served as a concentration point (aplekton) for the Byzantines. A few days later, on 19 June, the vanguard of the main Abbasid army also invaded Byzantine territory, followed two days after by the Caliph with the main body. Theophilos was informed of these movements in mid-July. Afshin's force was smaller, but also threatened to cut off his supply lines. Consequently, the Emperor left a small covering force against the Caliph's army and marched east to confront Afshin. On 21 July, the imperial army came into view of the Arab force, and encamped on a hill in the plain of Dazimonitis south of the fort of Dazimon, named Anzen (Greek: Ἀνζῆν).
Although Theophilos's principal commanders, Theophobos and the Domestic of the Schools Manuel, both advised for a surprise night attack, the Emperor sided with the opinion of the other officers and resolved to wait and launch his attack on the next day. The Byzantine army attacked at dawn, and initially made progress: they drove back one wing of the opposite army, inflicting 3,000 casualties on the Arabs. Near noon, Theophilos resolved to reinforce the other wing and detached 2,000 Byzantines and the Kurdish contingent to do so, abandoning his post and passing behind his own army's lines. At this point, however, Afshin launched his Turkish horse-archers in a counter-attack which halted the Byzantine advance and allowed the Arab forces to regroup. The Byzantine troops then noticed the emperor's absence, and, thinking he had been killed, began to waver. This soon turned into a disorderly retreat; some men fled as far as Constantinople, bringing with them the rumour that the Emperor had been killed. Some units, however, were apparently able to retreat in good order and assemble at a place called Chiliokomon.
Theophilos found himself isolated with his tagmata and the Kurds on the hill of Anzen. The Arabs proceeded to surround the hill, but the Byzantines were saved by a sudden rain, which loosened the strings of the Turkish bows, rendering them useless. Afshin then sent for catapults to be brought up to batter the Byzantine position. At the same time, Theophilos's officers, afraid of treachery by the Kurdish troops, persuaded him to withdraw. Breaking through the Arab lines and suffering many wounds in the process (the sources variously credit Manuel, who was severely wounded and possibly died soon after, and Theophobos for saving the Emperor), Theophilos and his small escort managed to reach safety at Chiliokomon, where he gradually re-assembled the remnants of his army.
## Aftermath
In the aftermath of this defeat, and with rumours circulating in Constantinople of his death, Theophilos's position was precarious. He abandoned the campaign and withdrew to Dorylaion, whence he soon departed for the imperial capital. Ancyra itself was left abandoned, and plundered by the Arab army on 27 July. Then the united Abbasid army marched unopposed to Amorion, which fell after a siege of two weeks. Out of its entire population of some 70,000, only about half survived the sack, to be sold as slaves. The fall of the city was one of the heaviest blows Byzantium suffered in the entire 9th century, both in material and symbolic terms. However, news of a rebellion in the Caliphate forced al-Mu'tasim to withdraw soon after.
At the same time, Theophilos had to deal with a revolt by Theophobos and his Kurds. When rumours of Theophilos's death reached the capital, the name of Theophobos, who was related to the Emperor by marriage and apparently an iconodule, was put forward by some as the new emperor. On returning to the city, Theophilos recalled his general, but the latter, fearful of being punished, fled with his loyal Kurds to Sinope, where he was proclaimed emperor. In the event, however, Theophobos was persuaded to surrender peacefully in the next year, while the "Persian" corps was disbanded and its men dispersed throughout the themes.
Though initially appearing decisive, the defeat at Anzen and the subsequent sack of Amorion were militarily of no long-term importance to the Byzantine Empire, since the Abbasids failed to follow up on their success. They did, however, play a crucial role in discrediting iconoclasm, which had always relied on military success to maintain its validity. Shortly after Theophilos's sudden death in 842, the veneration of icons was restored as part of the Triumph of Orthodoxy throughout the Empire. The Battle of Anzen is also notable for illustrating the difficulties faced by the Byzantine military of the time against horse-archers, a remarkable change from the army of the 6th–7th centuries, when such skills formed a core part of Byzantine tactical doctrine. It is also remarkable for being the first confrontation of the middle Byzantine army with the Turkic nomads from Central Asia, whose descendants, the Seljuq Turks, would emerge as Byzantium's major antagonists from the mid-11th century on.
|
[
"## Background",
"## Battle",
"## Aftermath"
] | 2,116 | 29,173 |
2,894,783 |
Angelina (Bob Dylan song)
| 1,135,393,425 |
1981 song written by Bob Dylan
|
[
"1981 songs",
"Bob Dylan songs",
"Songs written by Bob Dylan"
] |
"Angelina" is a song by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, recorded on March 26, 1981, for his album Shot of Love but not included on the record. The song was written by Dylan and produced by Jimmy Iovine. A version was released on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961-1991 on March 26, 1991. A different take was issued on The Bootleg Series Vol. 16: Springtime in New York 1980–1985 in 2021. Critics have expressed their lack of understanding of the lyrics, whilst generally affording the song a positive reception. Dylan's rhyming of the name in the title of the song with "concertina", "hyena", "subpoena", "Argentina" and "arena" has attracted commentary, with scholar Nicholas Birns calling the rhymes "bravura and ... provocative".
## Background and recording
"Angelina" was written by Bob Dylan after the end of his Gospel Tour, which concluded in May 1980. In October 1980, he recorded a version at Rundown Studios, Santa Monica, with himself on vocals and guitar, Fred Tackett (guitar and mandolin), Willie Smith (keyboards), Tim Drummond (bass), Jim Keltner (drums), and Clydie King, Carolyn Dennis and Regina McCrary (background vocals) Two takes were recorded on March 26, 1981, at Rundown Studios, with Jimmy Iovine as producer, during the sessions for Dylan's 21st studio album, Shot of Love. The 1981 sessions featured Dylan singing and playing piano, Drummond, Keltner, Dennis, McCrary and King in the same roles as on the 1980 version, Steve Ripley on guitar and Carl Pickhardt on keyboards. They were joined on the second take by Danny Kortchmar playing guitar.
Although "Angelina" had originally been chosen by Dylan to be the closing track of Shot of Love, it was cut from the album. Dylan has not explained the reasons for the song being omitted. On March 26, 1991, a second take, that featured piano and organ prominently, was released on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961-1991. The first take, with a full band, was issued on The Bootleg Series Vol. 16: Springtime in New York 1980–1985 in 2021.
## Composition and lyrical interpretation
Several commentators have expressed their inability to conclusively determine the mood or subject of the song. Scholar Nicholas Birns suggests that "one cannot quite know whether its mode is rapture, tribute, elegy, or rage." Author Michael Gray calls it "a difficult song to comprehend ... because of the disconnectedness, the impossible images, the general air of smudging that clings to it and the collision of the narrative into different genres as it passes." In 2004, Gray felt that the opening couplet:
> Well, it's always been my nature to take chances
> My right hand drawin' back while my left hand advances
was different from any of Dylan's other works, as it "appears candidly self-defining". Critic Oliver Trager wrote in 2004 that "Angelina" was unlike any of Dylan's other songs, "part surreal film, part cubist painting, and every bit as fractured as that combination suggests." Trager also noted that the song has some similarities with the opening chorus of the Gilbert and Sullivan work Trial by Jury, which references the character of Angeline, who is later called into court in the comic opera. Dylan biographer Clinton Heylin felt that the song could be regarded as a commentary on the final verses of Dylan's "Caribbean Wind" and "The Groom's Still Waiting at the Altar", both written at around the same time. Author Jim Beviglia thought that the name Angelina was chosen for its religious connotations, and speculated that the song could be addressing its narrator's faith rather than a person.
The lyrics reference various biblical verses, and refer to monkeys, giants, and four-faced angels. Each of the five verses has eight lines, with an AAABCCCB rhyming pattern; in all but one verse, the last line ends with the title, "Angelina". Birns described Dylan's rhyming, for example, of "Angelina" with "concertina", "subpoena", and particularly "Argentina", as "bravura and ... provocative", and noted that there was a repressive administration in Argentina when the song was composed. Heylin noted that other rhyming words used are "hyena" and "arena", and has called the song "a collection of lines bound together by a rhyming dictionary". Critic Paul Williams opined that "the 'feeling' of the Book of Revelation" invoked by Dylan's use of biblical imagery, rather than an understanding of each element, was important to appreciate the song.
The second verse opens with "Blood dryin' in my yellow hair as I go from shore to shore", which Gray proposes shows that the narrator is not Dylan. In one version, Angelina is described as having eyes that "were two slits, make any snake proud", and "With a face any painter would paint", and "well endowed". In a 1981 interview, Dylan compared the musical feel of the song to his own "Visions of Johanna", and said that "it seems to be very sensitive and gentle on one level, then on another level the lyrics aren't sensitive or gentle at all." Williams argued that "the lyrics are brilliant, but they only take on meaning as [Dylan] sings them", and that "to know the most private secrets of Dylan's relationship with God, with Woman, with his art and his audience, listen to the sound of his voice during this performance."
According to Dylan's official website, he has never played the song in concert.
## Critical reception
### The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (1991)
Trager wrote that Dylan's performance "is striking as he combines the passion and intrigue of his best work of the mid-1960s." Gray opined that it was one of five 1980s tracks on the album that "it was "madness to have left unissued", although he suggested that the song's impenetrability made it a "compelling, grand failure". In The Guardian, Adam Sweeting wrote that "the phantasmagoric 'Angelina' could only have improved several of [Dylan's] dire eighties records." Beviglia included the track in 71st place in his ranking of Dylan's 100 best songs.
### The Bootleg Series Vol. 16 (2021)
Allen Jones wrote for Uncut that the first take "feels already like something shaping up to be astonishing". Birns refers to the track as a "great Dylan song". For Record Collector, Nick Hasted called it a "wild saga of Revelations surrealism, Reaganite portents and symbolist visions, held together by simmering organ and Dylan's vocal spell". Williams describes the track as one of Dylan's "most disturbing and rewarding performances".
## Personnel
Personnel for the March 26, 1981, versions were as follows:
Musicians Both takes:
- Bob Dylan – vocals, piano
- Steve Ripley – guitar
- Carl Pickhardt – keyboards
- Tim Drummond – bass guitar
- Jim Keltner – drums
- Carolyn Dennis – backing vocals
- Regina McCrary – backing vocals
- Clydie King – backing vocals
Second take only:
- Danny Kortchmar – guitar
Technical
- Jimmy Iovine – producer
|
[
"## Background and recording",
"## Composition and lyrical interpretation",
"## Critical reception",
"### The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (1991)",
"### The Bootleg Series Vol. 16 (2021)",
"## Personnel"
] | 1,627 | 18,420 |
690,915 |
World Heavyweight Championship (WWE, 2002–2013)
| 1,173,161,524 |
Former professional wrestling championship
|
[
"WWE championships",
"World heavyweight wrestling championships"
] |
The World Heavyweight Championship was a professional wrestling world heavyweight championship owned by WWE. It was one of two top championships in WWE from 2002 to 2006 and from 2010 to 2013, complementing the WWE Championship, and one of three top championships from 2006 to 2010 with the addition of the ECW World Heavyweight Championship.
The title was established under the Raw brand in 2002, after Raw and SmackDown became distinct brands under WWE, and moved between both brands on different occasions (mainly as a result of the WWE draft) until August 29, 2011, when all programming became full roster "supershows".
The title was one of six to be represented by the historic Big Gold Belt, first introduced in 1986. Its heritage can be traced back to the first world heavyweight championship, thereby giving the belt a legacy over 100 years old, the oldest in the world.
## History
### Background
The title's origins lay in the first world heavyweight championship, and then to events that began in the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), which had many different territorial promotions as members. In the late 1980s, World Championship Wrestling (WCW) was a member of the NWA, having been formed by the purchase of Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP), which had absorbed many other NWA members, by Turner Broadcasting, which aired WCW's programming. During this time, WCW used the NWA World Heavyweight Championship as its world title. The WCW World Heavyweight Championship was soon established when the recognition was awarded to then-NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair in 1991. In 1993, WCW seceded from the NWA and grew to become a rival promotion to the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), itself a former member of the NWA. Both organizations grew into mainstream prominence and were eventually involved in a television ratings war dubbed the Monday Night Wars. Near the end of the ratings war, WCW began a financial decline which culminated in March 2001 with the WWF's purchase of selected assets of WCW.
As a result of the purchase, the WWF acquired the video library of WCW, select talent contracts, and championships among other assets. The slew of former WCW talent joining the WWF roster began "The Invasion" that effectively phased out the WCW name. Following this, the WCW World Heavyweight Championship was unified with the WWF Championship, the WWF's world title, at Vengeance in December. At the event, the WCW World Heavyweight Championship was decommissioned with Chris Jericho becoming the final WCW World Heavyweight Champion and the subsequent Undisputed WWF Champion after defeating The Rock and Steve Austin respectively. The WWF title became the undisputed championship in professional wrestling until September 2002 with the creation of the World Heavyweight Championship, spun off from the Undisputed WWE Championship as the successor to the WCW World Heavyweight Championship.
### Creation
By 2002, WWE's roster had doubled in size due to the overabundance of contracted workers. As a result of the increase, WWE divided the roster through its two main television programs, Raw and SmackDown, assigning championships and appointing figureheads to each brand of the same name. This expansion became known as the "Brand Extension". In May 2002, the WWF was renamed to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). Following these changes, the Undisputed WWE Championship remained unaffiliated with either brand as competitors from both brands could challenge the Undisputed Champion. Following the appointment of Eric Bischoff and Stephanie McMahon as General Managers of the Raw and SmackDown brands, respectively, Stephanie McMahon contracted then-WWE Undisputed Champion Brock Lesnar to the SmackDown brand, leaving the Raw brand without a world title. On September 2, Eric Bischoff announced the creation of the World Heavyweight Championship. Bischoff awarded the title to Triple H, who had been designated number-one contender to Lesnar's title the previous week. Immediately afterwards, the Undisputed Championship returned to being the WWE Championship as it was no longer undisputed. The World Heavyweight Championship and the WWE Championship switched brands a number of times before the first brand split ended in 2011.
### Historical lineage
While introduced in 2002 as a new title, the WWE often made allusions to other titles including those of WCW and the NWA, amalgamating the history of the championship with the history of the belt that represents it. As affirmed by WWE, the World Heavyweight Championship is not a continuation of the WCW Championship, but rather its successor by way of the WWE Undisputed Championship, just as the WCW Championship spun off from the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. Due to its relation to both titles, its lineage is connected with the earliest recognized world heavyweight championship. In 2009, WWE released a DVD set called History of the World Heavyweight Championship that definitively linked the title to the WCW and NWA titles.
### Title unification
Following the end of the first brand extension in 2011, both the World Heavyweight Champion and WWE Champion could appear on both Raw and SmackDown. In 2013, the night after Survivor Series, then-World Heavyweight Champion John Cena made a challenge to then-WWE Champion Randy Orton to determine an undisputed WWE world champion. Randy Orton defeated John Cena in a TLC match at the TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs pay-per-view on December 15, 2013, to unify the titles. Subsequently, the WWE Championship was renamed WWE World Heavyweight Championship. The unified championship retained the lineage of the WWE Championship, and the World Heavyweight Championship was retired. With his victory over John Cena, Randy Orton became the final World Heavyweight Champion. Like with the Undisputed Championship, the Big Gold Belt was used in tandem with the WWE Championship belt to represent the WWE World Heavyweight Championship until a single belt was presented to then champion Brock Lesnar in August 2014.
### Subsequent championship
On the April 24, 2023, episode of Raw, WWE Chief Content Officer Triple H unveiled a new World Heavyweight Championship with a belt design that pays homage to the "Big Gold Belt", and announced that the new champion would be crowned at Night of Champions; however, it does not carry the lineage of the 2002–2013 version.
## Brand designation history
The following is a list of dates indicating the transitions of the World Heavyweight Championship between the Raw and SmackDown brands.
## Reigns
The inaugural champion was Triple H, and there were 25 different champions overall. The longest championship reign was Batista's first reign, which lasted from April 3, 2005, to January 10, 2006, for a total of 282 days. Triple H holds the record for longest combined reigns at 616 days over 5 reigns. The shortest reigning champion was Randy Orton in his fourth and final reign, who immediately retired the championship upon winning it at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs (2013) and unifying it with the WWE Championship. He was also the youngest champion, when he won the title for the first time at the age of 24 years 136 days during SummerSlam (2004) in August. The oldest champion was The Undertaker who won the title for the third and final time at the age of 44 during Hell in a Cell (2009) in October 2009. Edge held the title the most times with seven championship reigns between 2007 and 2011. There were six vacancies throughout the title's history.
Randy Orton was the final champion in his fourth reign. He defeated John Cena in a Tables, Ladders and Chairs match at TLC in Houston, Texas on December 15, 2013 to unify the WWE and World Heavyweight Championships.
## See also
- List of former championships in WWE
- World championships in WWE
|
[
"## History",
"### Background",
"### Creation",
"### Historical lineage",
"### Title unification",
"### Subsequent championship",
"## Brand designation history",
"## Reigns",
"## See also"
] | 1,661 | 28,182 |
16,499,739 |
Washington State Route 285
| 1,159,873,025 |
Highway in Washington
|
[
"State highways in Washington (state)",
"Transportation in Chelan County, Washington",
"Transportation in Douglas County, Washington"
] |
State Route 285 (SR 285) is a short state highway serving Douglas and Chelan counties, located in the U.S. state of Washington. The highway serves Wenatchee and runs 5 miles (8 km) from an interchange with State Route 28 (SR 28) in East Wenatchee to Downtown Wenatchee, crossing the Columbia River on the Senator George Sellar Bridge. After traversing downtown, the highway ends at an interchange with U.S. Route 2 (US 2) and US 97 north of the Wenatchee River in Sunnyslope.
The highway originally crossed the Columbia River on an earlier bridge built in 1908. The bridge was signed as part of State Road 7 in 1909 and later State Road 2 (the Sunset Highway) in 1923. The roadway was used by US 10 from 1926 until 1940, when it was re-routed and replaced by an alternate route. US 2 was extended from Idaho into Washington in 1946 and used the bridge until the newer Senator George Sellar Bridge was built to the south in 1950. SR 285 was designated in 1977 after US 2 was routed onto the Richard Odabashian Bridge north of Wenatchee and East Wenatchee. The area around the Senator George Sellar Bridge is being improved by the Washington State Department of Transportation to handle increased traffic.
## Route description
SR 285 begins its 5.04-mile-long (8.11 km) long route at a partial cloverleaf interchange with SR 28 west of the Wenatchee Valley Mall in East Wenatchee. The freeway crosses the Columbia River from Douglas County into Wenatchee and Chelan County on the Senator George Sellar Bridge, listed as a part of the National Register of Historic Places. The highway becomes Stevens Street and has a small interchange with Wenatchee Avenue before turning north onto Mission Street.
SR 285 serves Downtown Wenatchee and splits into a one-way pair with southbound lanes on Chelan Avenue and northbound lanes staying on Mission Street, passing the Wenatchee branch of the North Central Regional Library at Memorial Park and the Wenatchee Valley Hospital. The one-way pair rejoins the main route, turning north as Miller Street and then northwest as Wenatchee Avenue into West Wenatchee near Wenatchee Confluence State Park. Wenatchee Avenue crosses the Wenatchee River into Sunnyslope and becomes a freeway, intersecting Penny Road and Easy Street in an incomplete diamond interchange before ending at an interchange with US 2 and US 97.
The Senator George Sellar Bridge is the busiest section of SR 285, being used by a daily average of 52,000 vehicles in 2011. The southern end of the one-way pair, at the intersection of Chelan Avenue and Mission Street, had a daily average of 22,000 vehicles in 2011.
## History
The cantilever truss Columbia River Bridge was built in 1908 by the Washington Bridge Company and purchased by the Washington State Highway Commission the following year to serve Wenatchee and East Wenatchee, divided by the Columbia River. The bridge and the streets were signed as State Road 7 in 1909 as part of the highway from Renton to Idaho, later named the Sunset Highway in 1913. The Sunset Highway became State Road 2 in a 1923 renumbering before the creation of US 10 in 1926.
State Road 2 became Primary State Highway 2 (PSH 2) in 1937 during the creation of the primary and secondary state highway system. US 10 was re-routed south to cross the Columbia River at Vantage in the 1940s and was designated as US 10 Alternate, until US 2 was extended from Bonners Ferry, Idaho to Everett in 1946. The Columbia River Bridge was replaced by a new bridge (since 2000 named Senator George Sellar Bridge) in 1950 and US 2 was re-routed south onto the bridge. PSH 2 was decommissioned during the 1964 renumbering and US 2 remained. US 2 was re-routed, along with US 97, onto the Richard Odabashian Bridge in Sunnyslope, bypassing Wenatchee in 1975. SR 285 was established in 1977 to maintain the Senator George Sellar Bridge and only included the short route until 1991, when it was extended to Sunnyslope.
Between May 2009 and July 2011, the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) added an additional eastbound lane on the Sellar Bridge by moving the sidewalks to a new structure on the outside of the bridge, opening on July 29, 2011. A southbound bypass lane for SR 28 was completed in 2013. At the west end of the bridge, in Downtown Wenatchee, a new off-ramp to Crescent Street and signal improvements at Mission Street were completed in December 2013.
## Major intersections
|
[
"## Route description",
"## History",
"## Major intersections"
] | 1,053 | 33,186 |
31,157,384 |
Stowaway (Fringe)
| 1,173,275,613 | null |
[
"2011 American television episodes",
"Fringe (season 3) episodes",
"Television episodes written by Akiva Goldsman"
] |
"Stowaway" is the 17th episode of the third season of the American science fiction drama television series Fringe, and the 60th episode overall. It followed the Fringe team's investigation into a woman, Dana Gray (Paula Malcomson), who repeatedly but unsuccessfully tries to commit suicide. Meanwhile, Olivia continues to serve as the host for William Bell, to the dismay of most of her other team members.
The episode's story was written by Akiva Goldsman, Jeff Pinkner, and J. H. Wyman, while Danielle Dispaltro contributed its teleplay. Charles Beeson served as the director. Along with Malcomson, "Stowaway" featured a guest appearance by previous Fringe actor Seth Gabel. Though Leonard Nimoy had recently retired, the writers still had storylines involving his character, leading to their decision to have Bell possess Olivia's body.
"Stowaway" first aired in the United States on March 18, 2011 to an estimated 3.8 million viewers and a 1.3 ratings share for adults aged between 18 and 49. This was the series' lowest ratings share for adults up to that point. Reviews of the episode were generally positive, as multiple critics praised Anna Torv's Nimoy impression as well as Joshua Jackson's reaction to it.
## Plot
Following from "Os", Olivia's (Anna Torv) body has been possessed by William Bell. Though he promises that no harm will come to Olivia while he seeks a suitable host for his mind, Broyles (Lance Reddick) demands that Bell leave Olivia in 48 hours. Bell begins searching local hospitals for a host.
They are alerted to eyewitness accounts of a woman who, after jumping with another man from a high roof and crashing onto a taxi parked below, simply walked away. As the Fringe team investigates, they are approached by another FBI agent, Lincoln Lee (Seth Gabel), who identifies the woman as Dana Gray (Paula Malcomson). Dana, who had been struck by lightning twice, was killed eighteen months earlier along with her family during a robbery of their home, but she apparently was able to walk away from the morgue. Since then, she has appeared to commit suicide with several others, but always managing to walk away. Walter (John Noble) and Bell, in studying Dana's blood samples, find that her body may have been altered by several past lightning strikes, making her incapable of dying.
Peter (Joshua Jackson) and Lincoln find that Dana worked as a suicide hotline operator, and in investigating her belongings, find that she appears to have a strong desire to take her soul to heaven or hell. Lincoln comes to believe that Dana may be looking for a way to have her soul "stow away" with that of another to join her family in the afterlife, and used the suicide hotline position to find those who are close to committing suicide.
Another man is found dead by a self-inflicted bullet wound, though Dana was seen leaving his apartment. Evidence in his apartment points to the construction of a bomb, and the Fringe team suspects that Dana knows its location and may be hoping to exploit an event which will kill several people simultaneously in order to increase her own chances of death. Peter calls her, using caller ID spoofing to disguise his number as that of her late husband, and the signal allows authorities to pinpoint her location to a commuter train. The train is stopped and searched, while Dana leaves on her own with the bomb, moving it far enough away from the train. The bomb soon explodes, and when Peter and Lincoln search, they find Dana's body nearby, finally dead, and the only fatality from the explosion.
Peter returns home where Walter has invited Bell to stay the evening. Bell explains that he believes that Dana was finally able to die after serving a purpose—saving the lives of the people on the train. When church bells go off nearby, Olivia's personality slips through momentarily. Bell regains control, but expresses new-found fear that his possession of Olivia's body has become more complicated than he thought.
## Production
The episode's teleplay was written by Danielle Dispaltro, while the story was contributed by consulting producer Akiva Goldsman and co-showrunners Jeff Pinkner and J.H. Wyman. Supernatural veteran Charles Beeson directed. The episode was shot in early February 2011.
Despite previous guest actor Leonard Nimoy's recent retirement, the writers still had plot lines concerning his character William Bell. Some months prior to the airing of "Stowaway", Nimoy and others had noted that Bell's character would return to Fringe. Anna Torv, who portrays Olivia, was not aware that her character would be channeling Bell until just prior to filming of the episode, and stated of the role, "This is not one I had been asking for!" To prepare, Torv sought advice from her fellow star John Noble, as both as a friend and because Noble's character, Walter, had spent the most time with Bell. She took further advice from the show's dialect coach and reviewed footage of Nimoy's previous work, though eventually she decided to jump right into the role. Noble later commented "I think the solutions she came up with – taking the essence of the man, playing with the eyebrows, simulating the voice — were really smart. We had a lot of fun doing it."
Executive producers J.H. Wyman and Jeff Pickner were both impressed with Torv's take on the role, with Wyman stating that it "just transcended all our expectations", while Pinkner noted that Nimoy himself was "the most proud and most impressed" with the outcome. Actor Joshua Jackson found her performance "so creepy". He explained, "In the episodes, you see I can barely look at her. I think it ended up being a good way to play Peter’s reaction to Olivia, but it was born out of the fact that when that voice came out of her, I was like: ‘Oh, that’s just wrong!'" Pinkner confirmed in an interview with TVLine that Bell's appearance would last for "a couple" episodes, and also warned that "cohabitation is not as benign as William assumes it is", a reference to problems Bell would soon have in Olivia's body. The possessed state of Olivia has led viewers to refer to her as "Bellivia".
"Stowaway" featured a guest appearance by actress Paula Malcomson, her first and only time on the show to date. Guest actor Seth Gabel had previously played just one version of character Lincoln Lee, who existed as the head of Fringe division in the parallel universe. "Stowaway" marked the first appearance of the character from the prime universe. Gabel described his prime universe character as someone who works for the FBI, "but has no idea about Fringe Division. He's more of a desk jockey [who] eventually comes to believe there is much more than reality suggests". Executive producer Jeff Pinkner described Lincoln's introduction as "insanely fun -- the characterization Seth has created just makes you smile". Gabel also indicated the new character would likely return for more episodes.
As with other Fringe episodes, Fox released a science lesson plan in collaboration with Science Olympiad for grade school children, focusing on the science seen in "Stowaway", with the intention of having "students learn about magnetism and how magnets can be created and demagnetized."
## Reception
### Ratings
"Stowaway" was watched by an estimated 3.8 million viewers with a 1.3 ratings share among those 18-49 on its first broadcast. It fell 13 percent in this ratings share from the previous week's episode. This was the lowest viewership for the show in the 18–49 adult demographic, though this has been partially attributed to the onset of daylight saving time and the NCAA Tournament. For that night, Fringe helped the Fox network finish in first place among the adult demographic, but it placed in third among total viewers. Time shifted viewing increased the episode's ratings among adults by 57 percent to a 2.2 ratings share. This was the largest increase in time shifting viewing for the week among network shows.
### Reviews
Television critics' reviews for "Stowaway" were mostly positive. Writing for Entertainment Weekly, Ken Tucker thought Anna Torv's Nimoy impression was "aces, very wry and amusing," and also praised Joshua Jackson's acting in response to it. Like Tucker, Noel Murray from The A.V. Club also praised Torv and Jackson's performances, and graded the episode with a B+, explaining it "was an effective episode despite all its metaphysical mumbo-jumbo [because] Dana's predicament was a legitimately tense one... As she stepped on the train, I didn't know if she was planning to save the passengers or send their souls a-scattering... the suspense itself was palpable". Murray however admitted that "if the "villain" weren't so sympathetic, or if the action weren't so breathless, or if I didn't find the Bellivia material so funny, I'd probably be annoyed by the wacky way the Fringe writers have found to bring William Bell back." Andrew Hanson of the Los Angeles Times noted of Torv that her "cadence of her words was dead on, and his/her interactions with everyone else in Fringe Division were pitch perfect." He praised other facets of the episode, including how "the weekly mysteries unfold like origami", and that introducing the prime's version of the Lincoln character allowed the audience "to see all the weirdness of Fringe through fresh eyes".
SFScope columnist Sarah Stegall also lauded Torv's performance, noting that the actress "captures Nimoy's staccato delivery, her growling voice, even his trick eyebrow. Not since Zachary Quinto played a young Spock in Star Trek a couple of years ago have I seen anyone so perfectly sound and move like Nimoy." Stegall did express a wish that the characters not try to explain every case (such as the one in the episode) out of a belief that their explanations were often absurd; this observation led Stegall to praise the new character of Lincoln however, as she believed, like Hanson, that the series has "been needing an Everyman in this mix for awhile, someone for whom immortality is not a commonplace." Charlie Jane Anders of io9 was critical of the episode, remarking that "the whole 'soul magnets' thing, which had seemed to be a throwaway comment a few episodes ago, is turning out to be sort of a weak plot device. And the whole bodily-possession storyline is just perhaps one level of wackiness too far for me. I also had the feeling that this might finally be the acting challenge that was beyond Anna Torv's considerable abilities, as her Leonard Nimoy impression quickly started to grate on my nerves."
|
[
"## Plot",
"## Production",
"## Reception",
"### Ratings",
"### Reviews"
] | 2,247 | 25,041 |
18,508,737 |
She's like a Star
| 1,168,525,083 | null |
[
"2000s ballads",
"2008 singles",
"2008 songs",
"Contemporary R&B ballads",
"Island Records singles",
"Songs written by Taio Cruz",
"Taio Cruz songs"
] |
"She's like a Star" is a song written, produced and performed by British singer and songwriter Taio Cruz. It was released on 18 August 2008 as the fifth single from his debut studio album Departure (2008). An R&B ballad, the lyrics of "She's like a Star" are about the theme of parenthood, an idea which inspired Cruz to compose the song. The song was remixed to feature vocals from English girl group Sugababes and American rapper K.R., and American rapper Busta Rhymes. It received generally mixed reviews from critics, who were ambivalent towards the composition. Upon release, it peaked at number twenty on the UK Singles Chart. The song's music video features Hollyoaks actress Roxanne McKee as Cruz's love interest. Cruz performed the song with the Sugababes at the 2008 MOBO Awards ceremony, and at Radio 1's Big Weekend 2011.
## Background and composition
"She's Like a Star" was written and produced by Taio Cruz for his debut studio album Departure (2008). He composed the song in the middle of 2007, towards the completion of the album's recording, and was inspired to write it based on the idea of parenthood. During an interview with Sugar, Cruz explained that the song has a double meaning behind it:
> It's about my girlfriend but it's also about how you would feel if you had a child and how strongly you would feel if you had a daughter and how overwhelming the love would be and they would kind of be like a star, you know like she’s my everything, she’s an angel.
"She's like a Star" is an R&B ballad, and according to the digital sheet music published by Hal Leonard Publishing, was composed in the key of C major at a tempo of 100 beats per minute. It contains synthesizers and uses a sample of a child's voice in the vocal "Like a star", which is repeated several times throughout the song. According to Jon O'Brien of AllMusic, the song is reminiscent of American rapper Kanye West's older material. British soul singer Corinne Bailey Rae claimed that Cruz sampled her voice with her song "Like a Star". Cruz denied the accusation and stated that a musicologist was able to prove that he did not sample Rae's voice.
## Release and reception
"She's like a Star" is the fifth single from Departure, and was released in the United Kingdom on 18 August 2008. There are several remixes of the song, including one by Cahill which is more uptempo than the original version. A remix that features vocals from English girl group Sugababes and American rapper Busta Rhymes was also released. According to the Daily Mirror, the collaboration came about when they ran into each other at the Hot 97 studios in New York City. A version of the remix without Busta Rhymes appears as a bonus track on the Sugababes' sixth studio album Catfights and Spotlights (2008).
### Critical response
Alex Fletcher of Digital Spy rated the song three out of five stars and stated that it is "undoubtedly" one of the album's low points. Additionally, he criticised the song's lack of "bravado and pizazz" in comparison to Cruz's previous singles "I Can Be" and "Come On Girl". Andy Welch of the Halesowen News described it as "a fine example of a Brit doing R&B as well as the Americans", but was unimpressed with the child's voice sample. Hazel Robinson from the BBC Chart Blog gave the song a full five-star rating, and wrote that its composition and musical arrangement produced a song that sounds natural and "pretty extraordinary". The reviewer admitted that while "She's like a Star" was not the best track from Departure, it sounds "infinitely cooler" than the album's previous single "I Can Be". Daily Records Rick Fulton praised "She's like a Star" as "one of the best R&B sounds to come out of the UK". "She's like a Star" earned Cruz a MOBO Award nomination for Best UK Male.
### Chart performance
The song debuted at number 44 on the UK Singles Chart in the issue dated 16 August 2008. It peaked at number 20 three weeks later, and spent a total of 15 weeks on the chart. "She's like a Star" became Cruz's fifth consecutive top-thirty hit in the United Kingdom, and outpeaked the album's first two singles "I Just Wanna Know" and "Moving On".
## Promotion
### Music video
The music video for "She's like a Star" was filmed in Spain. It features an appearance from the actress Roxanne McKee, known for her role as Louise in the British television soap opera Hollyoaks, in which she plays Cruz's love interest. Cruz, who is friends with McKee, explained how the collaboration came about, saying:
> Why Roxanne? She's fit and I wanted her in my video! I'm only joking. I've known Roxanne for some time, although I don't watch Hollyoaks so I don't know about the character she plays. We needed an actress who wouldn't feel awkward doing the mock love scenes so I just rang her and she agreed to do it. It was a case of canoodling for a few hours in sunny Spain.
Most scenes of the video take place in a large house. Throughout the video, the pair are touching and kissing with each other, and McKee is shown in the bathtub. In the concluding scenes, she leaves the house and is depicted as a bright star that travels towards the sky, while Cruz stands in front of the house by the pool.
### Live performances
The singer performed "She's like a Star" at the O2 Academy Sheffield, England in August 2008 along with many other tracks from Departure. The Sugababes, along with Cruz, performed the song as part of a medley with their single "Girls" at the 2008 MOBO Awards ceremony. Cruz performed it on MTV Live Sessions along with many of his previous and follow-up singles. He performed "She's like a Star" on 15 May 2011 at Radio 1's Big Weekend, as the fourth song on the set list, which included his hits "Break Your Heart", "Higher" and "Dynamite".
## Track listings and formats
- CD single
1. "She's like a Star" – 3:17
2. "She's like a Star" (Cahill Remix Radio Edit) – 3:38
3. "I Just Wanna Know" (Jim Beanz Remix) – 4:18
- Digital download
1. "She's like a Star" – 3:17
- Digital download (remix)
1. "She's like a Star" (Remix featuring the Sugababes and Busta Rhymes) – 3:40
- Digital download (K.R Version)
1. "She's like a Star" (featuring K.R) – 3:38
- Extended play (remixes)'
1. "She's like a Star" (Cahill Remix) – 3:38
2. "She's like a Star" (DJ Naughty Boy Remix) – 5:22
3. "She's like a Star" (Dubwise Remix) – 6:00
4. "She's like a Star" (Jeremy Short Remix) – 5:30
## Charts
### Weekly charts
### Year-end charts
## Certifications
|
[
"## Background and composition",
"## Release and reception",
"### Critical response",
"### Chart performance",
"## Promotion",
"### Music video",
"### Live performances",
"## Track listings and formats",
"## Charts",
"### Weekly charts",
"### Year-end charts",
"## Certifications"
] | 1,581 | 34,635 |
27,688,811 |
Lagidium ahuacaense
| 1,010,418,690 |
Species of rodent
|
[
"Chinchillidae",
"Critically endangered animals",
"Critically endangered biota of South America",
"Endemic fauna of Ecuador",
"Mammals described in 2009",
"Mammals of Ecuador",
"Mammals of the Andes",
"Rodents of South America"
] |
Lagidium ahuacaense is a rodent in the mountain viscacha genus (Lagidium) that occurs in southern Ecuador. First observed in 2005 and formally described in 2009, it occurs more than 500 km (310 mi) north of the nearest previously known population of mountain viscachas in central Peru. Only a single population is known, found on rocky habitats on Cerro El Ahuaca, an isolated granite mountain in southern Ecuador, and as few as several dozen individuals remain. The species is threatened by fires and grazing cattle, and the discoverers recommended its conservation status be assessed as critically endangered.
## Taxonomy
L. ahuacaense was first observed in July 2005, when the only known population was encountered at Cerro El Ahuaca, Ecuador, over 500 km (310 mi) north of the northernmost previously known population of mountain viscachas (Lagidium) in central Peru. The find was published in a 2006 note by Florian Werner, Karim Ledesma, and Rodrigo Hidalgo, who provisionally identified the population as representing the Peruvian species Lagidium peruanum, but did not discount the possibility that it might represent a distinct species. Three years later, Ledesma, Werner, Ángel Spotorno, and Luis Albuja described the population as a new species, Lagidium ahuacaense, on the basis of morphological and DNA sequence differences. The specific name, ahuacaense, refers to Cerro de Ahuaca. They suggested the English common name of "Ecuadorean mountain viscacha".
L. ahuacaense was the fourth species of the genus Lagidium to be described, after L. peruanum, L. viscacia, and L. wolffsohni of the central and southern Andes, although more species may eventually be recognized within L. peruanum and L. viscacia, and L. wolffsohni is poorly differentiated from L. viscacia. Together with the plains viscacha (Lagostomus maximus) and the chinchillas (Chinchilla), Lagidium forms the rodent family Chinchillidae. Within Lagidium, L. ahuacaense differs by at least 7.9% from all other species in DNA sequences of the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene. A cladistic analysis placed the Ecuadorian species as the sister group to all other Lagidium species, but support for this placement was not strong. Morphometric analysis also confirmed the Ecuadorian population is different from other Lagidium species.
## Description
L. ahuacaense is medium-sized with woolly, gray-brown fur and a very long tail. A black stripe runs along the middle of the back. The thick, long mystacial vibrissae (whiskers above the mouth) are mostly dark brown and the few superciliary vibrissae (above the eyes) are also thick and brown. The ears are covered with dark skin. The underparts are creamy white. The fore feet are brown-furred and much shorter than the hind feet, which are in covered in part by a mixture of brown and cream hairs and in part by dark brown hairs. The fore and hind feet both have four digits, which end in small, curved claws, and three black pads. The palms and soles are naked. The tail is hairy with the hairs on the upper side are longer than those below. The upper side is gray-brown at the base, light to medium brown intermixed with cream in the middle, and reddish-brown at the tip, and the lower side is dark brown. In the single measured specimen, head and body length is 403 mm (15.9 in), tail length is 400 mm (16 in), hind foot length is 85 mm (3.3 in), ear length is 60 mm (2.4 in), and body mass is 2.03 kg (4.5 lb).
The skull is long and compact. The premaxillary bones extend slightly in front of the upper incisors and the zygomatic arches (cheekbones) are broad. The suture between the premaxillary and frontal bones is more strongly curved than in L. peruanum and the rostrum (front part of the skull) is wider and the interorbital region is narrower than in L. viscacia and L. wolffsohni. The incisive foramina (openings in the front part of the palate) are long and narrow. The palate extends back to a point close to the upper third molar. The sides of the mesopterygoid fossa (the opening behind the back margin of the palate) are more strongly divergent than in other Lagidium species. The mandible is strong. The dental formula is (one incisor, one premolar, and three molars on each side of the upper and lower jaws). The incisors are large, white, and distinctly grooved. The molars are low-crowned and rootless (continuously growing).
## Ecology and conservation status
L. ahuacaense is known only from Cerro El Ahuaca, a steep granite inselberg near Cariamanga in Loja Province, southern Ecuador, where it occurs at an altitude of 1,950 to 2,480 m (6,400 to 8,140 ft), but only near rocky surfaces. The vegetation is dominated by the molasses grass (Melinis minutiflora). They eat plants, and traces of their feeding are visible on the mountain. Their habitat on Cerro El Ahuaca covers an area around 120 ha (300 acres), and the total population there may not contain more than a few dozen individuals. Except for some small outcrops close to the Cerro, no nearby habitat is suitable, but more populations may exist elsewhere in southern Ecuador or nearby northern Peru.
The species is threatened by fires, used to maintain crop fields in the vicinity, which frequently get out of control and destroy part of the viscacha's habitat on the Cerro, and by competition for food with grazing cattle. However, the species is unknown to the local people and is not hunted. In view of its small range and population, Ledesma and colleagues recommended the species be assessed as critically endangered under the IUCN Red List criteria and recommended immediate conservation action to protect the Cerro El Ahuaca population and further research into its biology.
|
[
"## Taxonomy",
"## Description",
"## Ecology and conservation status"
] | 1,351 | 22,958 |
14,445,144 |
HMS Esk (H15)
| 1,129,147,120 |
British E-class destroyer
|
[
"1934 ships",
"E and F-class destroyers of the Royal Navy",
"Maritime incidents in August 1940",
"Naval magazine explosions",
"Ships built by Swan Hunter",
"Ships built on the River Tyne",
"Ships sunk by mines",
"World War II destroyers of the United Kingdom",
"World War II shipwrecks in the North Sea"
] |
HMS Esk was an E-class destroyer built for the Royal Navy in the early 1930s. She was designed to be easily converted into a fast minelayer by removing some guns and her torpedo tubes. Although assigned to the Home Fleet upon completion, the ship was attached to the Mediterranean Fleet in 1935–36, during the Abyssinia Crisis. During the Spanish Civil War of 1936–1939, she spent considerable time in Spanish waters, enforcing the arms blockade imposed by Britain and France on both sides of the conflict. Esk was converted to a minelayer when World War II began in September 1939, and spent most of her time laying mines. During the Norwegian Campaign of April–June 1940, the ship laid mines in Norwegian territorial waters before the Germans invaded, but was recalled to home waters to resume her minelaying duties in early May. During one such sortie, Esk was sunk during the Texel Disaster on the night of 31 August 1940, when she ran into a newly laid German minefield.
## Description
The E-class ships were slightly improved versions of the preceding D class. They displaced 1,405 long tons (1,428 t) at standard load and 1,940 long tons (1,970 t) at deep load. The ships had an overall length of 329 feet (100.3 m), a beam of 33 feet 3 inches (10.1 m) and a draught of 12 feet 6 inches (3.8 m). They were powered by two Parsons geared steam turbines, each driving one propeller shaft, using steam provided by three Admiralty three-drum boilers. The turbines developed a total of 36,000 shaft horsepower (27,000 kW) and gave a maximum speed of 35.5 knots (65.7 km/h; 40.9 mph). Esk carried a maximum of 480 long tons (490 t) of fuel oil that gave her a range of 6,350 nautical miles (11,760 km; 7,310 mi) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph). The ships' complement was 145 officers and ratings.
The ships mounted four 45-calibre 4.7-inch (120 mm) Mark IX guns in single mounts. For anti-aircraft (AA) defence, they had two quadruple Mark I mounts for the 0.5 inch Vickers Mark III machine gun. The E class was fitted with two above-water quadruple torpedo tube mounts for 21-inch (533 mm) torpedoes. One depth charge rail and two throwers were fitted; 20 depth charges were originally carried, but this increased to 35 shortly after the war began. To compensate for the weight of her 60 Mark XIV mines and their rails, two of Esk's 4.7-inch guns, their ammunition, both sets of torpedo tubes, her whalers and their davits had to be removed. She was given small sponsons at the stern to ensure smooth delivery of her mines.
## Construction and career
The ship was ordered 1 November 1932, from Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson at Wallsend under the 1931 Naval Programme, for use as a destroyer that could quickly be converted for use as a minelayer when required. She was laid down on 24 March 1933, and launched on 19 March 1934. The ship was commissioned on 28 September 1934, at a total cost of £247,279, excluding government-furnished equipment like the armament. The ship accompanied the Home Fleet during its West Indies cruise between January and March 1935. Esk was attached to the Mediterranean Fleet from September 1935 to March 1936, during the Abyssinian Crisis. The ship patrolled Spanish waters during the Spanish Civil War, enforcing the edicts of the Non-Intervention Committee until March 1939, when she returned to the United Kingdom. During the Munich Crisis, Esk and her sister ship HMS Express were temporarily attached to the 9th Destroyer Flotilla at the Nore, and practiced minelaying on 3 October 1938. Esk was reduced to reserve on 24 June 1939, and was not recommissioned until 2 August. She attended the Reserve Fleet Review on the 15th, and then began conversion as a minelayer beginning on 28 August.
The conversion was completed on 7 September 1939, and the ship was assigned to the 20th Destroyer Flotilla the next day. Esk laid mines in the Heligoland Bight with her sister Express on the night of 9/10 September. She escorted the battleship Royal Sovereign from Scapa Flow to Portsmouth from 23–26 September, and then conducted minelaying operations from Milford Haven and Portsmouth through December. On 17–18 December, Esk, Express, HMS Intrepid and Ivanhoe laid 240 mines off the mouth of the Ems. She was refitted at Portsmouth from 29 December to 26 January 1940.
After the completion of her refit, Esk escorted the auxiliary minelayers HMS Princess Victoria and HMS Teviot Bank for the next six months, as they laid mines in the East Coast Barrier, as well as making occasional minelaying sorties of her own. On 3 March, Esk, Express, HMS Icarus and HMS Impulsive laid mines near Horns Reef in the Heligoland Bight, that sank the German submarine U-44 about 13 March. The ship was assigned to the Home Fleet at Scapa Flow at the beginning of April, and was allocated to "Force WV" with the ships of the 20th Flotilla for Operation Wilfred, an operation to lay mines in the Vestfjord to prevent the transport of Swedish iron ore from Narvik to Germany. On 5 April, "Force WV" sailed from Scapa Flow, escorted by the destroyers HMS Hardy, HMS Havock, HMS Hotspur and HMS Hunter of the 2nd Destroyer Flotilla. The ships of the 20th Destroyer Flotilla laid 234 mines in Vestfjord on the morning of 8 April, and later rendezvoused with the battlecruiser HMS Renown. On the 15th, she returned to Scapa Flow, escorting the battleship Rodney.
On 10 May, Esk, Express, Intrepid and Princess Victoria laid 236 mines off Bergen, North Holland, and on 15 May, she joined with Express and Ivanhoe to lay 164 mines off the Hook of Holland. Three German minesweepers, M 61, M 89, and M 136, were sunk by this minefield on 26 July. The ship joined the evacuation of Allied troops from Dunkirk on 29 May. Esk evacuated 3904 troops between 29 May and 3 June, including over 1,000 French troops rescued from the TSS Scotia, which was sinking after German air attacks. After repairs to the minor damage suffered by the ship during the evacuation, she resumed her previous duties.
On 31 August 1940, she sailed with Intrepid, Icarus, Ivanhoe and Express to lay a minefield off the Dutch coast, north of Texel. Express hit a mine in a newly-laid German field that night and had her bow blown off. Esk closed to assist her and almost immediately struck another mine. Some 15 minutes later, there was another explosion amidships which caused Esk to break in two, and she quickly sank in position . Ivanhoe rescued some survivors, but 127 of the ship's company were killed.
|
[
"## Description",
"## Construction and career"
] | 1,589 | 24,251 |
510,896 |
USS Bougainville (CVE-100)
| 1,172,730,297 |
Casablanca-class escort carrier of the US Navy
|
[
"Casablanca-class escort carriers",
"S4-S2-BB3 ships",
"Ships built in Vancouver, Washington",
"World War II escort aircraft carriers of the United States"
] |
USS Bougainville (CVE-100) was the forty-sixth of fifty Casablanca-class escort carrier built for the United States Navy during World War II. She was named after the Bougainville campaign, a prolonged action against Japanese forces entrenched in the island of Bougainville off Papua New Guinea . The ship was launched in May 1944, and commissioned in June, and served as a replenishment carrier in support of the invasion of Iwo Jima and the Battle of Okinawa. She was decommissioned in November 1946, when she was mothballed in the Pacific Reserve Fleet. Ultimately, she was sold for scrapping in August 1960.
## Design and description
Bougainville was a Casablanca-class escort carrier, the most numerous type of aircraft carriers ever built, and designed specifically to be mass-produced using prefabricated sections, in order to replace heavy early war losses. Standardized with her sister ships, she was 512 ft 3 in (156.13 m) long overall, with a length 490 ft (150 m) at the waterline, she had a beam of 65 ft 2 in (19.86 m), at her widest point, this was 108 ft (33 m), and a draft of 20 ft 9 in (6.32 m). She displaced 8,188 long tons (8,319 t) standard, 10,902 long tons (11,077 t) with a full load. She had a 257 ft (78 m) long hangar deck and a 477 ft (145 m) long flight deck. She was powered with two Uniflow reciprocating steam engines, which drove two shafts, providing 9,000 shp (6,700 kW), thus enabling her to make . The ship had a cruising range of 10,240 nmi (18,960 km; 11,780 mi) at a speed of 15 kn (28 km/h; 17 mph). Her compact size necessitated the installation of an aircraft catapult at her bow, and there were two aircraft elevators to facilitate movement of aircraft between the flight and hangar deck: one each fore and aft.
One 5-inch (127 mm)/38 caliber dual-purpose gun was mounted on the stern. Anti-aircraft defense was provided by eight Bofors 40 millimeters (1.6 in) anti-aircraft guns in single mounts, as well as 12 Oerlikon 20-millimeter (0.79 in) cannons, which were mounted around the perimeter of the deck. By the end of the war, Casablanca-class carriers had been modified to carry thirty 20-mm cannons, and the amount of 40-mm guns had been doubled to sixteen, by putting them into twin mounts. These modifications were in response to increasing casualties due to kamikaze attacks. Although Casablanca-class escort carriers were designed to function with a crew of 860 and an embarked squadron of 50 to 56, the exigencies of wartime often necessitated the inflation of the crew count. The carriers were designed to carry 27 aircraft, but the hangar deck could accommodate more. Because Bougainville only operated in a replenishment capability, she usually operated with about 60 aircraft on board, the maximum carrying capacity at which take-offs would still be possible.
## Construction
Her construction was awarded to Kaiser Shipbuilding Company, Vancouver, Washington under a Maritime Commission contract, on 18 June 1942, under the name Didrickson Bay, as part of a tradition which named escort carriers after bays or sounds in Alaska. She was renamed Bougainville, as part of a new naval policy which named subsequent Casablanca-class carriers after naval or land engagements. The escort carrier was laid down on 3 March 1944, MC hull 1137, the forty-sixth of a series of fifty Casablanca-class escort carriers. She was launched on 16 May 1944; sponsored by Mrs. Sally A. Monfort; transferred to the United States Navy and commissioned on 18 June 1944, with Captain Charles Alonzo Bond in command.
## Service history
### World War II
Upon being commissioned, Bougainville got underway, on 7 July, on a shakedown cruise down the West Coast to San Diego. Upon arriving, she was assigned to the Carrier Transport Squadron of the Pacific Fleet. The carrier departed on 25 July with a load of aircraft, bound for the West Pacific. Transiting via Pearl Harbor, she headed to Majuro, in the Marshall Islands. She returned to the West Coast on 23 August, and following a seventeen-day period at port, she left on 9 September for another transport mission. She steamed to Finschhafen, New Guinea, before proceeding to Manus Island in the Admiralty Islands, where she unloaded her aircraft. There, she took on an air group returning to Pearl Harbor, arriving at Oahu in mid-October.
After unloading her cargo, she took on a complement of sixty-four fighter aircraft, all bound for the Mariana Islands. After arriving at Saipan, her crew went to general quarters for the first time on 3 November in response to Japanese aircraft. Departing on 4 November, she headed to Guam, before returning to Pearl Harbor. In the closing months of 1944, Bougainville made another transport mission from Pearl Harbor to the Marianas, making a stop at Eniwetok. Upon completing her mission, she departed in mid-December for the West Coast, arriving at San Diego on 22 December. There, she underwent another stay of availability, until 7 January 1945, when she headed back into the Pacific.
She stopped at Pearl Harbor on 13 January, where she commenced flight training and gunnery exercises. Upon the completion of these activities, she departed Hawaiian waters on 30 January, arriving back at Eniwetok a week later. There, on 8 February, she was assigned to become a replenishment carrier as a part of Task Group 50.8.4, the mobile replenishment group supporting the frontline Fifth Fleet. She served alongside three other escort carriers, Admiralty Islands, Attu, and Windham Bay. Replenishment escort carriers such as Bougainville enabled the frontline carriers to replace battle losses, and to stay at sea for longer durations of time. She departed Eniwetok to commence her replenishment duties on 9 February.
For the next four months, Bougainville operated in a replenishment capability, supplying the Third Fleet's Fast Carrier Task Force with supplies, replacement aircraft, and munitions. She first supported Vice Admiral Marc Mitscher's carriers as they conducted operations in support of the landings on Iwo Jima. Upon the conclusion of said campaign, she providing aircraft to replace losses sustained in raids against the Japanese mainland, and she also provided support throughout the first six weeks of the Battle of Okinawa. During the Okinawa campaign, she had the task of providing replacement aircraft for both the escort carriers and the fleet carriers. Throughout her service as a replenishment carrier, she received supplies and additional aircraft from bases located within Eniwetok, Guam, and Ulithi in the Caroline Islands.
On 5 June, Bougainville, along with the ships of Task Group 38.1 and Task Group 30.8, was trapped in the path of Typhoon Connie, which was proceeding northwards, and on a course to the east of Okinawa. Admiral William Halsey Jr., which had already led the Third Fleet into the deadly Typhoon Cobra in December 1944, now managed to lead the Third Fleet yet again into another deadly storm. At the peak of the storm, Windham Bay experienced estimated winds of 127 kn (235 km/h; 146 mph) and waves towering some 75 ft (23 m) high. As Task Group 50.8 emerged from the typhoon, Bougainville had suffered considerable damage, in both her hull, and her aircraft contingent. Twenty-seven planes on Bougainville had been lost or wrecked, and most of her remaining planes, located in her hangar deck, were inaccessible, because both of her aircraft elevators had been jammed. In addition, her flight deck supports had been damaged, and she suffered much additional superficial damage.
In mid-June, Bougainville was released from her replenishment duties, when she undertook a transport mission to bases located within the Philippines, before returning to Guam. After completing her mission, she steamed eastward, pausing at Pearl Harbor, before arriving back at San Diego, where she lay in port until early August for repairs and replenishment. On 9 August, she left San Diego, bound yet again for the West Pacific. En route, her crew received news of the Japanese surrender on 15 August. After stops at Pearl Harbor and Guam, she was anchored off of the island of Roi-Namur when the formal signing of the Japanese Instrument of Surrender was occurring on 2 September. There, she loaded inoperational aircraft, before heading back to Oahu. At Pearl Harbor, she took on a load of aircraft and passengers, departing port on 12 September, stopping at Apra Harbor, Guam, where she disembarked some passengers and took on additional aircraft. Continuing westwards, she anchored at Nakagusuku Bay on 27 September, before leaving harbor the following day to evade Typhoon Jean, which appeared to heading for the Okinawa Islands.
Bougainville returned to port on 3 October, where she took on two Marine Corps observation squadrons, VMO-3 and VMO-6, which were headed to China for occupation duty. On 10 October, she arrived at the Taku Forts, where she disembarked VMO-3, which was attached to the 3rd Marines. Proceeding southwards, she arrived at Qingdao on 11 October, and on 12 October, VMO-6, which was attached to the 6th Marines, disembarked. After a layover of four days at Qingdao, she steamed for Okinawa on 16 October. She entered Nakagusuku Bay on 19 October, where she took on a load of inoperational aircraft and passengers. Steaming eastwards, she made a brief layover at Pearl Harbor, arriving back at the West Coast by the end of October.
After a long stay in port, Bougainville once again departed on 28 November, heading to Eniwetok, via Pearl Harbor. She returned to San Diego on 12 January 1946, whereupon she steamed northwards, arriving at Tacoma, Washington in late-January. There, inactivation work was conducted, and she was placed in reserve on 29 July. She was decommissioned on 30 November, and mothballed in the Pacific Reserve Fleet, as part of its Tacoma Group. Whilst in reserve, she was reclassified as a utility aircraft carrier (CVU-100) on 12 June 1955. She was further reclassified as an aircraft ferry (AKV-35) on 7 May 1959. She was struck from the Navy list on 1 April 1960, and she was sold on 9 September to the Cole Export Corp. Delivered on 7 November, she was ultimately broken up in Japan later that year. Bougainville received two battle stars for her World War II service.
|
[
"## Design and description",
"## Construction",
"## Service history",
"### World War II"
] | 2,382 | 4,244 |
21,006,465 |
Du wahrer Gott und Davids Sohn, BWV 23
| 1,138,096,940 |
Church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach
|
[
"1723 compositions",
"Church cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach"
] |
Du wahrer Gott und Davids Sohn (You true God and Son of David), BWV 23, is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed it in Köthen between 1717 and 1723 for Quinquagesima Sunday and performed it as an audition piece for the position of Thomaskantor in Leipzig on 7 February 1723. The Sunday was the last occasion for music at church before the quiet time of Lent.
Bach had at least the first three movements ready for the audition in Leipzig and may have added the substantial last movement, derived from the lost Weimarer Passion, rather late. The cantata deals with healing the blind near Jericho. An anonymous author stayed close to the gospel, having the blind man call Jesus in the first movement, and begging Jesus not to pass in the second. In the last movement Bach presents an extended version of "Christe, du Lamm Gottes", the German Agnus Dei of the Lutheran mass. He scored the cantata for three vocal soloists, a four-part choir, and a Baroque instrumental ensemble with oboes, strings and continuo.
Bach possibly led the audition performance of the work in Leipzig in the Thomaskirche on 7 February 1723, probably after the sermon. He performed the cantata again for the same occasion on 20 February 1724, this time reinforcing the voices by a brass choir in the final movement.
## History and words
Bach probably composed the cantata in Köthen between 1717 and 1723 for Estomihi (Quinquagesima), the last Sunday before Lent. He revised it, transposing it from C minor to B minor and possibly adding the last movement, to be a test piece, together with Jesus nahm zu sich die Zwölfe, BWV 22, for his application for the position of Thomaskantor, director of church music in Leipzig. The prescribed readings for the Sunday were taken from the First Epistle to the Corinthians, "praise of love" (), and from the Gospel of Luke, healing the blind near Jericho (). The authorship of the poetry is unknown. The Sunday was meaningful because it was the last chance to perform cantata music before the quiet time of Lent began.
The chorale theme assigned to "Christe, du Lamm Gottes", first appeared in print in Johannes Bugenhagen's Braunschweig church order, published in Wittenberg in 1525. Luther assigned it then to the Kyrie eleison of his Deutsche Messe.
Bach possibly led the audition performance of the work in Leipzig in the Thomaskirche on 7 February 1723, probably after the sermon. It is unclear whether a "test" performance of the 1723 revised version took place in Köthen before Bach's audition. Bach performed the cantata again for the same occasion on 20 February 1724, reinforcing the voices by a brass choir in the final movement. When he performed the cantata again between 1728 and 1731, he returned to the original Köthen key and performed without brass.
## Music
### Structure and scoring
Bach structured the cantata in four movements: a duet for soprano (S) and alto (A), a recitative for tenor (T), a chorus, and a closing chorale. He scored it for the three vocal soloists, a four-part choir and a Baroque instrumental ensemble. The duration is given as 20 minutes.
In the following table of the movements, the scoring and keys follow the Neue Bach-Ausgabe for the version performed in 1724, which is in B minor, uses oboes d'amore in the first movement and brass playing colla parte with the voices in the last movement, a choir of cornett (Ct) and three trombones (Tb) (or trumpets (Tr)). According to the Bach scholar Alfred Dürr, the audition version of 1723 had no reinforcement by brass, matching the scoring of the other audition piece. The originally composed version, which was not performed until 1728, was in C minor, had oboes in the opening movement and no brass. The time signatures are taken from the book on all of the cantatas by Dürr, using the symbol for common time (4/4). The continuo, played throughout, is not shown.
### Movements
In this cantata, Bach combines elements of ritornello and concerto writing to expand his range of structural experimentation. Although the closing chorale was a later addition, its melody is incorporated earlier in the piece, unifying the form. The theme of the text is optimistic, but the music throughout has a sense of underlying sadness. Craig Smith describes the cantata as "one of the densest and greatest". The Bach scholar Christoph Wolff notes that the opening duet and also the duet passages on the chorus are in the style of Bach's secular cantatas written in Köthen.
#### 1
The opening movement, "Du wahrer Gott und Davids Sohn" (You true God and Son of David), is "a sinewy and somewhat enigmatic quintet" for soprano and alto voices (assuming the role of the blind man addressing Jesus) with low active oboes and continuo. The movement is in adapted ternary form with an opening and closing "Italianate" ritornello. The soprano line includes a "drooping" motive, hinting at later harmonic and emotional development. There is a "thorny, even awkward juxtaposition of triple and duple meters" throughout the duet.
#### 2
The tenor recitative, "Ach! gehe nicht vorüber" (Ah! do not pass by), is similar to that for bass in Jesus nahm zu sich die Zwölfe: they are both in major mode and accompanied by chordal strings underlying the vocal line. This movement adds an instrumental rendition of the melody of the closing chorale in oboe and violin.
#### 3
The chorus, "Aller Augen warten, Herr" (All eyes wait, Lord), is, according to the musicologist Julian Mincham, "dance-like but not toe-tapping, major but not ebulliently so, employing the full chorus but restrained throughout". The form is a free rondo with interspersed extended episodes of tenor and bass duet. The opening includes the BACH motif.
#### 4
The last movement, "Christe, du Lamm Gottes" (Christ, Lamb of God), is probably older than the first three movements and may have originated in the lost Weimarer Passion from 1717. The three calls of the Agnus Dei are all set differently, with an independent prelude and interludes by the oboes and strings, between the verses. The first verse is marked "adagio". Instrumental motifs are derived from the hymn tune, which appears in the soprano and mostly chordal support by the lower voices. In the second verse, marked "andante", the tune appears in a three-part canon in soprano, oboes and first violin. The third verse returns to B minor. It has the tune in the soprano with polyphony in the lower voices and the instruments. The oboes play a syncopated independent role, while the strings support the voices, and the oboes in the interludes. The complex artful composition is a good preparation for Lent, the time of the Passion. Bach used it again to conclude the second version of his St John Passion in 1725.
## Recordings
The selection is taken from the listing on the Bach Cantatas Website.
|
[
"## History and words",
"## Music",
"### Structure and scoring",
"### Movements",
"#### 1",
"#### 2",
"#### 3",
"#### 4",
"## Recordings"
] | 1,605 | 44,718 |
34,351,924 |
William de Chesney (sheriff)
| 1,018,509,845 |
12th-century Anglo-Norman nobleman and sheriff
|
[
"1174 deaths",
"Anglo-Normans",
"High Sheriffs of Norfolk",
"High Sheriffs of Suffolk",
"People from Horsford",
"Year of birth unknown"
] |
William de Chesney (died 1174) was a medieval Anglo-Norman nobleman and sheriff. The son of a landholder in Norfolk, William inherited after the death of his two elder brothers. He was the founder of Sibton Abbey, as well as a benefactor of other monasteries in England. In 1157, Chesney acquired the honour of Blythburgh, and was sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk during the 1150s and 1160s. On Chesney's death in 1174, he left three unmarried daughters as his heirs.
## Early life
Chesney was the son of Robert fitz Walter and Sybil de Chesney, and a younger brother of John de Chesney. Sybil was the daughter of Ralph de Chesney. Robert fitz Walter was lord of Horsford in Norfolk, which was originally held by Walter de Caen, Robert's father. The barony was assessed at 10 knight's fees.
Roger was the eldest brother of William, but died childless during their father's lifetime. The next son, John, inherited the family lands, but died around 1149 without children. William then inherited the lands. John and William had a sister called Margaret, who was the wife of Haimo de St Clair. Their father married a second time, and had a son named Simon by that marriage. William took his surname from his mother's family, as did his half-brother Simon, who was not related to the Chesney family except by marriage. Two further children of Robert's, Elias and Peter, are known, but whether they were the children of the first marriage or the second is unclear. Chesney should be distinguished from another William de Chesney, who controlled the town of Oxford and its castle as well as the town of Deddington and its castle in the same time period.
## Career
Chesney founded Sibton Abbey, and after his brother John's death he confirmed the foundation of that Cistercian monastery, which was the only Cistercian house in Suffolk. Besides founding that monastery, he also gave lands or other gifts to Colne Priory, Essex, Thetford Priory, Castle Acre Priory, St John's Abbey, Stoke-by-Clare Priory, and Blythburgh Priory.
Chesney acquired the barony of Blythburgh in Suffolk in 1157. These lands were recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as being held by the king, and when Chesney was granted them they were assessed at one knight's fee in feudal service. Besides Blythburgh, Chesney also acquired lands in Norfolk and Essex which he added to the family lands in Norfolk and Suffolk.
In 1153 or 1154, Chesney was the recipient of the lordship of a hundred and a half in Norfolk, possibly in compensation for the loss of the manor of Mileham. Chesney likely lost Mileham to another noble family, the fitzAlans, as part of the settlement resulting from the Treaty of Wallingford which settled the civil war in England. Both William's father Robert and his elder brother John had held these offices before him.
Chesney was Sheriff of Norfolk in the late 1140s and the 1150s, being recorded as holding that office in two documents – one dated to between 1146 and 1149 and the other dated to between 1146 and 1153. The same documents record him as holding the office of Sheriff of Suffolk at concurrent times. He held both offices again between 1156 and 1163.
## Death and legacy
Chesney died in 1174, having had three daughters with his wife Gilla. Her ancestry is unknown, and it is possible that William married another time, to Aubrey de Poynings, because a Lewes Priory charter dated to around 1165 names a William de Chesney and Aubrey his wife, but it is not clear whether this charter is referring to William de Chesney the sheriff or to another William. William and Gilla's daughters were Margaret, Clemence, and Sara, all of whom were unmarried at the time of their father's death. Margaret married twice – first to Hugh de Cressy and second to Robert fitzRoger. Clemence married Jordan de Sackville, and Sara married Richard Engaine. Margaret inherited the majority of her father's estates.
At his death, Chesney had outstanding debts, both to the king and to Jewish moneylenders. In 1214, his daughter Margaret was exempted from repaying any of her father's debts to those moneylenders by a royal grant.
|
[
"## Early life",
"## Career",
"## Death and legacy"
] | 969 | 10,762 |
27,104,517 |
Your Love (Nicki Minaj song)
| 1,172,314,842 |
2010 song by Nicki Minaj
|
[
"2010 singles",
"2010 songs",
"2010s ballads",
"Annie Lennox",
"Cash Money Records singles",
"Contemporary R&B ballads",
"Music videos directed by Director X",
"Nicki Minaj songs",
"Song recordings produced by Pop & Oak",
"Songs written by Nicki Minaj",
"Songs written by Pop Wansel"
] |
"Your Love" is a song by rapper Nicki Minaj from her debut studio album Pink Friday (2010). It was released on June 1, 2010, by Young Money, Cash Money, and Universal Motown as the lead single of the album, replacing the song "Massive Attack" featuring Sean Garrett. "Massive Attack" was pulled from the album following an underwhelming commercial performance a month earlier.
"Your Love" was written by Minaj, Joseph Hughes, David Freeman, and Andrew "Pop" Wansel, and was produced by duo Pop & Oak. Described as a "rap ballad", the song is a change of tempo compared to Minaj's previous work, and according to Mariel Concepcion of Billboard, the song contains a "new brand of hood majesty". The song samples Annie Lennox's 1995 cover version of the song "No More I Love You's" (1986) by the Lover Speaks, using its background vocals with additional bass, hip-hop backbeats and drum loops added. The song peaked at numbers 14 and four on the US Billboard Hot 100 and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs charts, respectively. As of June 2016 the song has sold 1.5 million digital downloads.
## Background
The first version of "Your Love" appeared on Nicki Minaj's unofficial mixtape Barbie World (2010), with different lyrics included in the pre-chorus along with a faster pace. Another version was later stolen and leaked online. The song underwent minor lyrical adjustments and mixing before being sent to mainstream radio, as the first official single from Minaj's debut album Pink Friday (2010). In an interview with Hot 93.7 radio, Minaj spoke about the leak of the song, saying "That was a leak and I was so upset they put it out 'cause I recorded that song like two years ago. Next thing you know, people started falling in love with it." Whilst on set on the music video for "Your Love", Minaj further explain about the song's theft and leak, saying,
> "I was not planning on putting the song out at all. But then I heard it one day, somebody told me it was online. And I was like, 'No way, no way in the world that song is out.' I went and listened to it and was really upset. It wasn't mixed, it wasn't finished, it wasn't anything — I wasn't gonna use it at all. But then radio started playing it."
Rap-Up posted cover art featuring a close up of Minaj smirking to her right, however for unknown reasons the art work was changed. The new cover features a cartoon version of Minaj, made by illustrator Asia Kendrick-Horton who posted it for Minaj on Twitter.
## Composition
"Your Love" is a mid-tempo song with the heavy use of Auto-Tune in the chorus. It samples the instrumentals and background vocals of Annie Lennox's cover version of "No More I Love You's" by the Lover Speaks, with the addition of additional bass, drum-loops and hip-hop backbeats. According to the sheet music published at Musicnotes.com by Sony/ATV Music Publishing, "Your Love" is set in common time with a metronome of 94 beats per minute. It is composed in the key of E major with Minaj's vocal range spanning from the low-note of B<sub>3</sub> to the high-note of C<sub>5</sub>.
The concept of “Your Love” was created after a series of accidents; Pop had made the beat in his mother's basement. Pop’s sister, Jackie, was a big fan of Annie Lennox and recommended sampling “No More I Love You's”. Despite his disdain for the song, one day, while Jackie was cleaning house, Pop heard the song being played again and the idea for “Your Love” was born. He went back to the basement and looped the sample, adding a kick and snap. While sending Minaj some beats over email, Pop accidentally attached the track’s instrumental version. He texted her right after, saying it was an accident but, to his surprise, she liked the vibe and wrote her verses for it. After recording with the newly created beat, the song went into limbo for two years, until an anonymous hacker at Hot Beats Studio in Atlanta leaked it online. Nicki was horrified at how the public might have reacted to her Auto-Tune quality, hoping the leak would be forgotten; instead, it went on to surpass the initial single “Massive Attack”, which had been a commercial flop. The leaked unmastered demo started to gain listeners and would enter the charts. Along with Pop's partner Oak, they replayed the sample (Annie Lennox would not allow the sample to be cleared) and then re-recorded Nicki's vocals for the new version of the beat, which replaced the demo on the charts.
The official remix (featuring Cash Money labelmate Jay Sean) was also leaked via the internet on August 2, 2010, and later made available for purchase in Australia via iTunes. American rapper Flo Rida released an unofficial remix to the song, in which he adds a verse. Jamaican recording artist Sean Paul also did a remix to the song, in which he contributed his signature ad-libs throughout the song and added his own verse. Other remixes to the song include those done by American rapper Rick Ross and American R&B singer Chris Brown.
## Critical reception
Sara D. Anderson of AOL Radio Blog described the song as a "rap/singing mash-up". Coined as a "new brand of hood majesty", the song is accompanied by a simple beat, which includes finger snaps and "xylophone clings". Lean Greenblatt of Entertainment Weekly commented: "Rap's spitfire explores her softer side, sampling Annie Lennox on her honey-tongued ode to a good man." Greenblatt went on to compare the song to Jay-Z's "kindred" "Young Forever". Minaj makes several references in her lines to well known people, which includes Bruce Willis in Die Hard, as well as Adam and Eve. Minaj makes several connections to Superman including in the pre-chorus, "'S' on my chest, let me get my cape on."
Rap-Up stated that Minaj "slows down her rapid-fire verses on the sticky and sweet "Your Love" ... with a sprinkling of Auto-Tune to top it off. Young Money's First Lady even exercises her vocal chops. We demand another helping." Robbie Daw of Idolator gave the song a positive review, while complimented Minaj's dual rapping and singing, as well as the use of the sample. Backy Bain also of Idolator additionally gave the song a positive review stating "We were a bit worried that Harujuku Barbie would forever be the garnish on other people's tracks instead of the main dish, but this sweet song proves otherwise." Mariel Concepcion of Billboard commented on Minaj toning it down stating, "the Young Money rap princess puts the sleazy talk aside and finds herself smitten with a young man... Minaj proves that even the wildest ones can be tamed." While reviewing the music video, Brad Wete also of Entertainment Weekly reviewed the song positively, stating that Minaj was "slicing the competition to pieces with her second try". David Jeffries of AllMusic deemed the song an album highlight, additionally adding that the song, "waltzes out of the speakers". In 2014, Pitchfork named it the best Nicki Minaj single.
Alexis Petridis of The Guardian discussed the song's position on the album, stating that as the album progresses, Minaj turns into "devoted girlfriend material". Margaret Wappler of the Los Angeles Times gave a mixed review of the song, stating, "It's just another fantasy clattering around the head of this Queens-bred imagineer of urban music whose sense of identity is so whimsically schizoid that she makes Lady Gaga seem as fixed as Barbara Bush." Allison Stewart of The Washington Post complimented Minaj's singing on the track, stating that the song was "so shamelessly sweet it's as if replaced Minaj with Rachel McAdams, but it's a great song, and another example of Minaj trying on and ultimately discarding various personas the way Lady Gaga does platform shoes. She tries on voices, too, taking a scenic tour of Queens, London and Trinidad before settling on a Jamaican patois." Stewart went on to name the song a recommended download from the album.
## Chart performance
"Your Love" debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 at 51, becoming Minaj's first song to chart on the Hot 100 as a solo artist. It eventually peaked at No. 14, becoming her first Top 20 in the country. It debuted at No. 23 on the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, and peaked at number four. Your Love" peaked at No. 1 on the US Rap Songs chart for eight consecutive weeks. Minaj became the first female rapper to top the chart since Lil' Kim's "Magic Stick", featuring 50 Cent. Minaj also became the first artist to lead the chart with a song without any features since Missy Elliott in 2003 with "Work It". The song was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) denoting sales of over one million copies. On the Canadian Hot 100, the song peaked at 43. "Your Love" also charted in the United Kingdom, at a peak of 71 on the UK Singles Chart and at a peak of 22 on the UK R&B Chart. The song peaked at number 32 on the Australian Urban Singles chart.
## Music video
### Background
A music video for the song was directed by Director X on the weekend of July 4, 2010 in Los Angeles. Minaj took to her Twitter, asking fans who they would like to see portray her love interest in the video. Minaj was interviewed on the set of "Your Love" by MTV News while wearing a pink and purple kimono as a geisha for the video. In the interview, Minaj said, "We wanted to have geisha themes, samurai themes, stuff like that. I wanted to tell a love story. It's just kinda liking a guy, where he's not really for you to like—the forbidden fruit—and me and this other girl happen to like him and we go to war." The video premiered July 21, 2010 on MTV.com. Actor Michael Jai White portrays Minaj's love interest in the video.
### Synopsis
The video is set to tell the story of a samurai-in-training, who falls in love with her master while a jealous peer fights for his affection. The video begins with Minaj delivering her lines over a red flowing fabric backdrop wearing a brown coat and a geisha costume with a blue flowing fabric backdrop, while White teaches a martial arts class. As Minaj and the instructor (White) begin to fall for one another, a student, who also has feelings for the instructor sees this and is jealous. This is intercut with scenes with Minaj donning a blonde wig and black bodysuit and in front of a green flowing backdrop. After seeing Minaj and White embrace each other on a bridge over blue-fabric "water", Minaj and her peer rival have a confrontation, which results in a duel. According to MTV News, the scenes pay homage to Uma Thurman as The Bride and Lucy Liu as Cottonmouth in Kill Bill. Minaj loses and her rival walks away as Minaj bleeds a red fabric and White walks up and grieves over her body.
### Critical reception
Robbie Daw of Idolator appreciated the plot twist of the video, commenting, "We really expected Nicki to waste that other warrior-in-training hater. The fact that she dies—and does so in such a beautiful way here—kind of makes us love her all the more." Daw also inferred that the fancy attire from the "No More I Love You's" video inspired Minaj's in the "Your Love" video. Nicole Sia of MTV Buzzworthy stated that the video resembles Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in its fight scene. Sia also commented on Minaj's appearance stating "the camera cuts to Ms. Young Money soloing in front of billowing one-million-thread-count satin sheets, just to remind us how damn FINE she is." Tray Hova of Vibe gave a list of the best and worst parts of the music video, stating the best were Minaj chopped through the blocks of cement, her crazy faces, silk sheets and headgear, and that the worst part was the "melodramatic ending" and "the return of those Freddy Krueger fingers".
## Credits and personnel
- Songwriting – Onika Maraj, Warren "Oak" Felder, Andrew "Pop" Wansel, David Freeman, Joseph Patrick Hughes
- Recording/Mixing – Ariel Chobaz, assisted by Lyttleton "Cartwheel" Carter
- Mixing – Neal Pogue
- Production – Pop Wansel, Oak Felder
Credits are taken from the Pink Friday liner notes.
## Charts and certifications
### Weekly charts
### Year-end charts
### Certifications
## Radio dates and release history
|
[
"## Background",
"## Composition",
"## Critical reception",
"## Chart performance",
"## Music video",
"### Background",
"### Synopsis",
"### Critical reception",
"## Credits and personnel",
"## Charts and certifications",
"### Weekly charts",
"### Year-end charts",
"### Certifications",
"## Radio dates and release history"
] | 2,785 | 19,976 |
51,603,673 |
Tropical Storm Julia (2016)
| 1,171,842,039 |
Atlantic tropical storm in 2016
|
[
"2016 Atlantic hurricane season",
"2016 in Florida",
"Atlantic tropical storms",
"Tropical cyclones in 2016"
] |
Tropical Storm Julia was a weak tropical cyclone that caused minor damage across the Eastern United States in September 2016. The tenth named storm of the 2016 Atlantic hurricane season, Julia developed from a tropical wave near the coast of east-central Florida on September 13. Initially a tropical depression, the system soon made landfall near Jensen Beach. Despite moving inland, the cyclone intensified into a tropical storm, shortly before strengthening further to reach maximum sustained winds of 50 mph (85 km/h). Julia then drifted north-northwestward and then northeastward, moving offshore the Southeastern United States on September 14. A cyclonic loop occurred as strong westerly air developed in the region, with the shear causing fluctuations in intensity. By September 19, Julia degenerated into a remnant low, which later transitioned into an extratropical cyclone and moved inland over North Carolina before dissipating on September 21.
Due to Julia's asymmetrical structure and fairly weak intensity, the storm caused generally minor wind and flooding damage in Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina. However, parts of North Carolina received as much as 12 in (300 mm) of rain, while as much as 18 in (460 mm) fell in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia. One million gallons of sewage from Elizabeth City flowed into the Pasquotank River and Charles Creek. The Cashie River in Windsor, reached 15 ft (4.6 m), 2 ft (0.6 m) above flood stage. Several businesses and approximately 60 homes in the town were destroyed. In Bertie County alone, a total of 72 people had to be rescued from their homes, while 61 others were evacuated from nursing homes. Schools were closed in Bertie, Currituck and Hertford counties for at least two days. In Virginia, flooding overwhelmed the sewer system in Chesapeake and inundated numerous roads in the southeastern portion of the state. Damage from the storm amounted to \$6.13 million.
## Meteorological history
A tropical wave emerged into the Atlantic Ocean from the west coast of Africa on September 1. Due to entrainment of dry air, the wave struggled to maintain convection as it progressed westwards. The National Hurricane Center (NHC) did not begin monitoring the system in its Tropical Weather Outlooks until a concentrated area of low pressure developed about 350 mi (560 km) east of the Leeward Islands on September 8. The convection quickly diminished and mainly consisted of only sporadically bursts of shower and thunderstorm activity. Little change in organization took place as the disturbance tracked through the Bahamas on September 11 and September 12. However, the disturbance quickly organized and developed more thunderstorm activity while approaching Florida. A tropical depression is estimated to have formed at 06:00 UTC on September 13, around the time it was making landfall in Jensen Beach, Florida. Within a few hours, a strong band of deep convection formed in the northeast quadrant of the cyclone, though westerly wind shear prevented any significant convection from developing on the western side of the storm.
Radar and surface observations indicate that the depression intensified into Tropical Storm Julia around 12:00 UTC on September 13, about six hours after forming, becoming the first tropical cyclone to intensify into a tropical storm while over land. Once designated as a tropical storm, Julia reached its peak intensity of 50 mph (85 km/h) while inland, At 03:00 UTC on September 14, the NHC initiated advisories on Julia – which was then centered near Jacksonville – and initially predicted that the storm would move north-northwestward and become extratropical or a remnant low pressure area over Georgia by September 16. Shortly thereafter, Julia weakened slightly due to moderate to high wind shear. Periodic bursts of convection occurred near the center of the system as it moved over water and paralleled the coast of Florida and Georgia. However, these bursts were short-lived due to strong wind shear, causing its elongated circulation to become far removed from the deep convection. Operationally, the NHC erroneously downgraded Julia to a tropical depression on September 15. At 00:00 UTC that day, Julia attained its minimum barometric pressure of 1007 mbar (29.7 inHg).
Julia consisted of mainly a low-level swirl of clouds by late on September 16; however, minimal convection kept the storm at the minimum requirements for a tropical cyclone. Early on September 17, Julia weakened to a tropical depression. Despite a slight increase in convection and organization, wind shear and dry air continued to take its toll on the increasingly ill-defined storm, and Julia degenerated into a remnant low by early on September 19 after being devoid of convection for nearly 12 hours. While moving north, the remnants of Julia then transitioned into a weak extratropical cyclone and made a small westward turn before dissipating inland over North Carolina on September 21.
## Preparations and impact
Upon initiating advisories on the storm at 03:00 UTC on September 14, the NHC issued a tropical storm warning from Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, to Altamaha Sound in Georgia. Nine hours later, the tropical storm warning was discontinued as the cyclone began moving offshore Georgia. Additionally, flash flood watches were issued between Florida and North Carolina, as up to 10 in (250 mm) of rainfall was possible in some areas. Florida governor Rick Scott urged residents to prepare in case an evacuation became necessary and to dump standing water to control mosquitoes that could be carrying the Zika virus. Jacksonville mayor Lenny Curry released a statement telling those in the path of the storm to stay off the roadways due to the rain and wind and potential flash flooding.
In Florida, the storm produced wind gusts of 30 to 48 mph (48 to 77 km/h) along the First Coast, causing some structural damage, including ripping apart the roof of a Chevron gas station in Neptune Beach and carrying it over two blocks before dropping it. While Julia was still in its precursor stages as it paralleled the coast of Florida, an EF0 tornado was reported and later confirmed in the areas of Barefoot Bay, with sustained winds as high as 85 mph (137 km/h). One home had its roof partially ripped off by the tornado as it tracked through the area. Flooding rain impacted the Space Coast and the First Coast, with 3.3 in (84 mm) of precipitation reported in Melbourne.
The storm knocked out power to over 1,300 people in Georgia, especially in and near the Sea Islands and St. Simons. In South Carolina, rainfall from Julia caused flash flooding in a number of locations, such as the Charleston metropolitan area, where flooding resulted in the closure of several roads. Accumulations peaked at 3.67 in (93 mm) on September 14. Sporadic power outages were also reported.
As the remnants of Julia interacted with a cold front near the coastline, parts of North Carolina received as much as 12 in (300 mm) of rain. One million gallons of sewage from Elizabeth City flowed into the Pasquotank River and Charles Creek. The Cashie River in Windsor, crested at 15 ft (4.6 m) on September 22, about 2 ft (0.61 m) above major flood stage. In Windsor, several businesses and approximately 60 homes suffered water damage. In Bertie County alone, 72 people had to be rescued from their homes and vehicles, while 61 others were evacuated from nursing homes. A shelter was opened for displaced residents. Damage in the county reached about \$5 million in damage, including \$4 million to property and \$1 million to agriculture. Flooding in Bertie, Currituck, and Hertford counties resulted in school closures for at least two days. On September 22, then-Governor Pat McCrory declared a state of emergency for Bertie, Camden, Chowan, Currituck, Dare, Gates, Halifax, Hertford, Northampton, Pasquotank, and Perquimans. A disaster declaration was approved following Hurricane Matthew in October, which also included aid for victims of flooding during Julia. The declaration allowed businesses and non-profit organizations in Bertie, Chowan, Halifax, Hertford, Martin, Northampton, and Washington counties to apply for low-interest loans via the Small Business Administration, while loans up to \$200,000 became available for needy homeowners.
Heavy rainfall was reported in southeastern Virginia, with 17.85 in (453 mm) of precipitation observed near Great Bridge. Numerous roads were washed out in several counties and independent cities, including Chesapeake, Franklin, Isle of Wight, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Southampton, Suffolk, and Virginia Beach. In Chesapeake, flood waters overwhelmed the sewer system, causing sewage to enter the city's water system and local waterways. Farther north, the remnants of the storm interacted with a frontal boundary, resulting in heavy rainfall in some portions of Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Throughout its path, damage from the storm amounted to about \$6.13 million.
## See also
- Other storms named Julia
- List of Florida hurricanes (2000–present)
- List of North Carolina hurricanes (2000–present)
- Hurricane Ophelia (2005)
- Tropical Storm Tammy (2005)
- Tropical Storm Ana (2015)
- Hurricane Sally (2020) – strengthened to a tropical storm over Southern Florida during the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season
- Brown ocean effect – a phenomenon that causes topical cyclones to intensify over land
|
[
"## Meteorological history",
"## Preparations and impact",
"## See also"
] | 1,990 | 5,549 |
2,427,444 |
Curve-billed thrasher
| 1,133,988,378 |
Species of desert adapted bird
|
[
"Birds described in 1827",
"Birds of Mexico",
"Birds of the Rio Grande valleys",
"Birds of the Sierra Madre Occidental",
"Birds of the Sierra Madre Oriental",
"Birds of the Sierra Madre del Sur",
"Endemic birds of Southwestern North America",
"Fauna of the Chihuahuan Desert",
"Fauna of the Sonoran Desert",
"Native birds of the Southwestern United States",
"Taxa named by William John Swainson",
"Toxostoma"
] |
The curve-billed thrasher (Toxostoma curvirostre) is a medium-sized mimid native to most of Mexico and to the deserts of southwestern United States. It is a non-migratory species, and throughout most of its range it is the most common desert thrasher. Several subspecies have been classified since 1827, though there is no consensus on the number. Allopatric speciation is believed to have played a major role in the variations of the curve-billed. It is grey-brown overall with a slightly curved bill, and is similar in appearance to the related Bendire's thrasher. It generally resides in desert regions of the United States and Mexico, but can inhabit areas predominately populated by humans.
The demeanor of the curve-billed has been described as "shy and rather wild", but it allows humans to view it closely. It is very aggressive in driving out potential threats, whether competitors for food or predators of its chicks. The curve-billed thrasher sometimes mimics several other species, though not to the extent of other mimids. It has a variety of distinctive songs, and this extensive repertoire of melodies has led it to be known as cuicacoche (songbird) in Mexico.
## Taxonomy and systematics
The species was first described as Toxostoma curvirostre by William John Swainson in 1827. Since then, six subspecies have been recognized, and have been divided into two branches. Genetic research has indicated that the curve-billed thrasher is the sister species of a clade consisting of the ocellated thrasher, brown thrasher, long-billed thrasher, and Cozumel thrasher. This contrasts with an earlier suggestion that curve-billed and ocellated thrashers are closest relatives.
### Subspecies
Eastern:
- T. c. oberholseri (Law, 1928) – Brownsville thrasher. Generally ranges from SE Texas to NE Mexico (E Coahuila, Nuevo León and Tamaulipas).
- T. c. curvirostre (Swainson, 1827) – Ranges from Central to South-Central Mexico (towards Puebla, Oaxaca, and Veracruz).
- T. c. celsum (R. T. Moore, 1941) – plateau thrasher. Range spans from SE Colorado, SW Kansas, extreme NW Oklahoma to S/SE Arizona, S New Mexico and W Texas to Northern Mexico (E Chihuahua to Guanajuato and Jalisco).
Western:
- T. c. insularum (van Rossem, 1930) – San Esteban thrasher. Located in the Islands of San Esteban and Tiburón off the coast of Sonora in the Gulf of California.
- T. c. maculatum (Nelson, 1900) – spotted thrasher. Found in NW Mexico (S Sonora, N Sinaloa, SW Chihuahua).
- T. c. occidentale (Ridgway, 1882) – Mazatlan thrasher. Located in Western Mexico (from Sinaloa and Nayarit to Jalisco).
- T. c. palmeri (Coues, 1872) – Palmer's thrasher. Range is S Arizona, N Sorona and Chihuahua. This species is the representative of the western species, and was suggested to have enough variations to be considered a different species from T.c. curvirostre. T.c. palmeri was also used in a 2009 proposal by the American Ornithologists' Union to be elevated to species status, along with the eastern T.c. curvisrostre representing the eastern curve-billed thrashers.
## Description
The curve-billed thrasher is immediately recognized as a thrasher by its long tail and short wings. It is also recognized for its sickle-shaped bill, almost as long as its head width and brownish black in color. The body is compact with a large head, short wings and long tail. However, the tail is short relative to other thrasher species. The chest is grayish brown with circular brown-gray spots. The eyes are generally orange, shading to golden in adulthood. Juveniles are lacking in pale tips, rectrices, abdominal feathers are unkempt and upper parts and chest are washed rufously.
Variations are markedly different with each subspecies. The eastern subspecies has more distinct spots on its chest, more white along the tips and rectrices and obvious wing bars. T.c. palmeri has less spotting on chest and tips and less obvious wing bars. Other examples include T.c. curvirostre possessing longer wings and a tail than T.c. oberholseri; T.c. insularum is paler with more grey than T.c. palmeri and has more visible spotting on its breast.
One study published in 2003 suggested that curve-billed speciation was due to climate, which could be explained by molt and feather wear. The same study suggested that the Sierra Madre Occidental acts as a barrier to initiate differentiation within the species.
Measurements:
- Length: 10.6–11.0 in (27–28 cm)
- Weight: 2.1–3.3 oz (60–94 g)
- Wingspan: 13.4–13.6 in (34–35 cm)
### Voice and song
The most distinctive voice of the curve-billed is an abrupt and brash whit-wheet, which sounds akin to a person whistling to get one's attention. It is usually uttered from high perches. The songs are similar to that of the northern mockingbird but notes do not end as abruptly; its voice is regarded as more pleasant. The curve-billed can utter songs consecutively two or three times, the length spanning from 2 to 15 seconds. Some phrases are nasal and buzzy; its large vocabulary enables it to conjure successive songs that are usually different from one another.
As a mimid it is capable of mimicking several species, including scissor-tailed flycatcher, northern cardinal, pyrrhuloxia and, in one instance, a black-headed grosbeak.
### Similar species
Because its coloration is similar to Bendire's thrasher, the two birds are easily mistaken for one another. The bill of the curve-billed is all black, while that of Bendire's is paler down to the lower mandible, showing a dark grey with a basal area that does not feature a stark contrast. The upper and lower mandibles of the curve-billed are curved, while the upper is curved and lower is essentially straight for the Bendires'. Although geographic variances for the curve-billed can make discerning breast patterns difficult, the curve-billed has a tendency to display larger and rounder spots overall on its breast, in contrast to the Bendires' smaller, more pronounced markings shaped like arrowheads. However, curve-billed thrashers can also present this feature. Bendires' typically have yellow eyes while curve-billed eyes are typically orange, but Bendires' can have variations that appear yellow-orange while some curve-billed eyes are red-orange, yellow-orange, or yellow. The curve-billed is heavier and is more likely to inhabit suburban regions; Bendires' are likely to avoid dense vegetation such as mesquite and prefers open grassland with scattered yucca or around hedgegrows in agricultural areas. The song call of Bendire's is said to be more melodic and continuous with a chuck, while the curve-billed is known for its whit-wheet calls.
Some of the aforementioned differences, such as streaks on the breast, bill shape and eye color are even more prominent in juveniles of the two species.
## Habitat and distribution
The curve-billed thrasher is commonly found throughout the southwestern United States from Arizona's Sonoran Desert across New Mexico to west Texas, southeastern Colorado and southwestern Kansas as well as most of Mexico from the Sonoran-Chihuahuan Deserts and south through the Mexican Plateau into Central Tamaulipas, inland to Oaxaca, and on the coast of Sonora to Nayarit. Vagrants have been found in bordering states of its range, as far north as North Dakota, Alberta and Manitoba and as far east as Florida. Palmeri types have been spotted in Florida, while curvirostre have been found in Iowa on several occasions. Other than previously noted exceptions, the curve-billed is essentially non-vagrant.
In comparison with other desert thrashers, the curve-billed is not as particular with habitats and can be found from ground level up to 3,000 m (9,800 ft). It generally resides where cholla and saguaro cacti, ocotillo, mesquites, palo verde, and creosote bushes are prevalent. It can also be located along woodland edges, piñon, dry desert bushland and areas within its region where cacti are present. If there is an adequate amount of desert vegetation near human habitation, along with feeders, the curve-billed can adapt within these environments.
## Behavior and ecology
The curve-billed thrasher can generally be found running rapidly from cover to cover or flying near ground level from bush to bush. However, this bird is not shy about being in the open. It is generally a forager on ground level but can be very aggressive in routing out potential competitors for food at feeders, such as the Inca dove and round-tailed ground squirrel.
### Mating
One recorded case of courtship behavior involving curve-billed thrashers describes two males attacking each other vigorously and resorting to purring and hissings sounds when neither bird appeared to relent. The two males then puffed up their chests and strutted up and down in front of the female. They continued to alternate between purr and hiss and fighting one another until one triumphed. The victor flew towards the female and both chirped melodically before copulation.
### Breeding
The curve-billed breeding season begins in February and reaches an apex between March and May; however, new fledglings have been recorded as late as August. Dates vary within its range due to temperature and rainfall. Nests are generally built at conspicuous locations, the cholla being favored. Other potential nesting sites range from mesquite, prickly pear or yucca to the occasional oak and pine trees. The nest is generally a deep cup but can be flat with a depression for the eggs. The outer layer consists of thorny twigs while the inner layer includes smooth sticks, roots, coarse and fine grasses, rootlets or hair.
Both sexes build the nest; the building periods can be as brief as three days to as long as four weeks. Egg count differs by location; the number has been as low as two and as high as five. Egg color varies; they can appear bluish green to pale yellowish blue, spotted abundantly in reddish brown. Both sexes incubate but the female is mainly responsible as well as being the sole provider of brooding. Curve-billed parents defend their nests fervently against other species; snakes are the most frequent predators of eggs and nestlings. Curved-billed Thrashers are rarely victims of nest parasitism by cowbirds. In situations where food is scarce, parents feed older fledglings first. The fledging period ranges from 11 to 18 days.
### Feeding
The curve-billed thrasher is an omnivore. Its diet includes invertebrates such as beetles, moths, butterflies, arachnids, and snails. It also eats vegetable matter, and fruits from cacti, prickly pear, hackberries, and anacua, among other plants. The curve-billed has also been spotted eating dog food, and will feed it to their chicks. They are ground feeders, and not well adapting to climbing on branches. Thrashers will take surface prey, but will also dig holes more than 2 inches (5.1 cm) deep to search for food. Curve-billeds will also sip nectar from saguaro blossoms and eat insects trapped within, serving as pollinators in the process. They also have great love for the resulting saguaro fruits, which is an important source of water in dry months.<sup>:168-187</sup>
### Threats
Predators, which mainly focus on young birds, include snakes, coyotes, and roadrunners. This may account for very low brood success in the species, as only 20% of nests are successful in a year.<sup>:183-185</sup>
Curve-billed thrashers share a very similar range to the cactus wren, as well as a favorite species to nest in: the jumping cholla. Because of this, interspecific conflict is frequent. Fights over food are rare, but fights to protect fledglings are heated. They will vigorously work to destroy each other's nests, although typically only roosting nests, not breeding nests, are destroyed. Despite this, nests of curve-billeds and cactus wrens may still be concurrently and successfully raised even feet away from each other. Anderson & Anderson noted a minimum nest distance of a highly unusual 15 centimetres (neither nest was destroyed by the either throughout the entire season), although average interspecies nest distances were well over thirty metres. Nest destruction is almost always unsuccessful, and less intense, during breeding times, as both species adamantly defend their own nests. Once breeding season wanes, and fledglings emerge, competition becomes more fierce.<sup>:168-187</sup>
## Status
Although its populations is declining, the curve-billed thrasher is rated as a species of least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
|
[
"## Taxonomy and systematics",
"### Subspecies",
"## Description",
"### Voice and song",
"### Similar species",
"## Habitat and distribution",
"## Behavior and ecology",
"### Mating",
"### Breeding",
"### Feeding",
"### Threats",
"## Status"
] | 2,882 | 10,304 |
39,846,282 |
St. Joseph's Church, Semarang
| 1,126,996,470 |
Catholic church in Indonesia
|
[
"19th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Indonesia",
"Buildings and structures by Dutch architects",
"Churches in Semarang",
"Dutch colonial architecture in Indonesia",
"Gothic Revival church buildings in Indonesia",
"Roman Catholic churches completed in 1875"
] |
St. Joseph's Church (Indonesian: Gereja Santo Yosef), also known as Gedangan Church, is a Catholic church in Semarang, Indonesia, the first such church in the city. Administratively, it is part of the St. Joseph's Parish in the Archdiocese of Semarang.
Constructed between 1870 and 1875 to meet the needs of Semarang's growing Catholic population, the red-brick church building was designed by the Dutch architect W. I. van Bakel and built at a cost of 110,000 gulden. The church grew extensively over the following fifty years, at first dominated by ethnic Europeans and persons of mixed descent but later having a majority indigenous congregation. As the Catholic population grew, the size of the parish diminished as new ones were established.
The church complex consists of, among other things, the church building, a presbytery, and a convent. St. Joseph's itself is highly decorated, including nineteen stained glass windows (including three dedicated to church's patron saint, Joseph), carvings showing the fourteen Stations of the Cross, and an altar imported from Germany. The single tower is home to two bells produced by Petit & Fritsen.
## History
### Catholicism in Semarang
The Roman Catholic Church first entered Semarang, Dutch East Indies, in what is now Central Java, Indonesia, in the early 19th century. In 1808 Father Lambertus Prinsen (1777–1840) was sent from the Netherlands to the Indies as the pastor for Semarang and several surrounding settlements, including Salatiga and Klaten. He quickly established a council for handling religious duties, and baptisms began the following year; fourteen people, mostly Dutch, were baptised in 1809. However, this congregation did not have a church in which they could pray. Until 1815 the congregation used the nearby Immanuel Church, a building intended for Protestants. Between 1815 and 1822 services were held at the homes of members of the congregation, then from 7 August 1822 Mass was held at Prinsen's new home (near Immanuel).
The congregation required its own church building, and already owned land which could be used: in 1828 the Catholics had purchased a former hospital and the surrounding land in Gedangan, near the , and established an orphanage there. However, there were insufficient clergy for further development. Mgr. Joseph Lijnen (1815–82), who had become the congregation's pastor in 1858, left the Indies for Heythuysen, Netherlands. There, he convinced several Franciscan nuns to join him in the Indies and develop the congregation through education and ministry. Upon returning to the Indies, designs were made for a church building across from the orphanage and convent established for the nuns.
### A new church
The church was designed by Dutch architect W. I. van Bakel in a neogothic style. The construction costs of 110,000 gulden were funded partly by the colonial government, as well as the sale of unused land and donations from Catholics throughout the colony. The first stone was laid by the pastor Lijnen on 1 October 1870, and construction continued smoothly until 12 May 1873, when the nearly completed tower collapsed; various reasons have been put forward, including an insufficient frame and poor quality bricks. After the collapse, the design of the church was modified to be lower, and further construction was undertaken using bricks imported from the Netherlands as ballast for ships. The construction of the building was completed on 12 December 1875, and the church was blessed by Lijnen. It was the first Catholic church in the city, and served mostly those of European or mixed descent.
Further additions to the interior were made over the next quarter-century. A new Gothic altar, produced in Düsseldorf, Germany, was installed in 1880. Two years later a communion bench was installed. The tower was also given a clock and bells during this period; the clock was removed in 1978 since the machinery was broken. Lijden died in 1882, and the Jesuit Joannes de Vries became the parish priest, the first in an unbroken line of Jesuit pastors which continues until the present day. De Vries was soon after elected provincial superior for the province, and thus he spent much of his time away from the church. By 1885 there were 1,620 Catholics in Semarang, up from approximately a thousand four years earlier. Many of these were in the colonial military.
J. Keijzer replaced de Vries after the latter's death in 1887 and headed the church for seven years. During his tenure, the church and surrounding grounds were expanded significantly. Construction of a multi-story presbytery began in the 1880s and completed on 1 August 1890. Across the street, in 1888 the nuns established an elementary school, and they also began construction of a chapel for the convent, which was opened on 6 August 1892. During this period the church building received stained glass windows and new pews. Further construction continued into the 20th century. A pipe organ was installed in 1903; it was restored in 1993, but remains in poor condition. Also installed that year were carvings depicting the fourteen Stations of the Cross.
### Growth and evangelism among the indigenous population
At the close of the 19th century the Catholic church in the Indies began targeting the majority-Muslim indigenous population. They were not alone; Protestant missionaries such as Sierk Coolsma of the Netherlands Missionary Union and Mattheus Teffer of the Netherlands Missionary Society had had some success with the Sundanese in Cianjur and Javanese in Ambarawa, respectively. Keijzer, before stepping down as head pastor in 1894, sent a letter to the Netherlands asking that men be sent to learn the Javanese language, to enable them to preach to the people and translate the catechism and some prayer books.
Three Jesuits were sent - P. Hebrans in 1895 and P. Hoevanaars and Frans van Lith (1863–1926) in 1896. The three studied Javanese in Gedangan over a period of a year. Ultimately van Lith was the most successful, establishing a school in Muntilan to train teachers, who were hoped to further spread Catholicism through their teaching duties. This eventually led to the establishment of the , which established a number of Catholic schools throughout Java. Furthermore, in 1904 he spearheaded a mass baptism at Kalibawang, Kulon Progo, near Yogyakarta. A total of 168 Javanese were baptised. Van Lith's efforts eventually returned to Semarang, where he established a Kanisius school in the parish of Gedangan in 1924.
By the early 20th century the Catholic population of Semarang had become large enough to support multiple parishes. In 1915 the chapel in Karangpanas, in the southern part of Semarang, was elevated to the status of parish church and dedicated to St. Athanasius. A third church, in the Randusari area of western Semarang, was established in 1927 and became a parish church in 1930. Further parishes were established over the following decades, until in 2000 St. Joseph's Church was one of nine parish churches in the city, serving the subdistricts of East Semarang, Genuk, Sayung, and parts of North Semarang.
In 1940, under recommendation of Mgr. Petrus Willekens, the Apostolic Vicariate of Batavia was divided in two; Semarang became the capital of the new vicariate. The newly appointed vicar apostolic, Mgr. Albertus Soegijapranata (1896–1963), had his seat at the church in Randusari, but lived in the presbytery in Gedangan.
### After the colonial period
In March 1942 the Indies were occupied by the Empire of Japan. The occupation government captured numerous (mostly Dutch) men and women, both clergy and laymen, and instituted policies that changed how services were held. They forbade the use of Dutch in services and in writing, and seized several church properties; several others, including the presbytery at Gedangan, were protected by the clergy. After two European head pastors, G. Schoonhoff and G. de Quay, were confined, ultimately on 27 August 1943 the ethnic Javanese Soegijapranata took on parish duties in addition to his work as vicar apostolic. Although he promoted non-compliance with Japanese demands considered damaging to the church, Soegijapranata also endorsed some collaboration. For instance, on 28 February 1944 a Latin-language Mass was delivered at Gedangan by , bishop of Nagasaki.
On 17 August 1945, shortly after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and with Japan's defeat an increasing certainty, President Sukarno proclaimed the independence of the Indonesian state. During the ongoing revolution against returning Dutch forces, Europeans were detained (although the Dutch head pastors remained). These detentions, and post-revolution politics which decimated the European population in independent Indonesia, ensured that the congregation remained dominated by the Javanese and other indigenous peoples.
Throughout the 1950s and 1960s Gedangan remained a center of Catholic activity in Semarang. The Jesuit provincial superior continued to be placed in the Gedangan presbytery until 1949, when he was moved to the church in Karangpanas, then again from 1954 to 1962 (when he was sent to Karangpanas again). The central offices of the Kanisius Foundation remained on the church grounds until a new office was opened in 1970. Further construction has continued as well: an office building, named Bintang Laut, was completed on 6 August 1988, and renovations to the church building took place in the early 1990s. The church continues to hold regular services, including five on Sundays.
## Description
St. Joseph's Church is located on the east side of Ronggo Warsito Street in Semarang, Central Java. Administratively, it is part of the parish of St. Joseph in the Archdiocese of Semarang. The red-brick building can seat 800 people. It faces west and has windows on all sides, as well as five entrances (two on the north side, two on the south side, and one on the west side). The roof is a white cross-ribbed vault supported by ionic columns.
The interior of the church has nineteen stained glass windows, three behind the altar and eight along each side of the church building. The windows behind the altar focus on St. Joseph and depict, from right to left, the sojourn of the Holy Family in Egypt; the daily lives of the Holy Family; and the death of Joseph. Four of the sixteen windows on the sides of the church (those closest to the altar and those closest to the doors) depict lilies. The remaining twelve windows each depict a single saint, including Ignatius of Loyola, Stanislaus Kostka, and Saint Cecilia. Further ornamentation of the walls includes carvings depicting the fourteen Stations of the Cross as well as twelve triforiums holding paintings illustrating the Lord's Prayer, the Bread of Life Discourse, and praise to Christ and Mary. On top of the altar, at the eastern end of the church, is a tabernacle. The altar, imported from Germany in 1880, is decorated with statues of Abraham, Peter, Paul, and Melchizedek.
The tower is home to two cast iron bells, one measuring 93.5 centimetres (36.8 in) in height and 90 centimetres (35 in) wide at the base, and the other measuring 75 centimetres (30 in) in height and 70 centimetres (28 in) in diameter at the base. The bells were produced by Petit & Fritsen in April 1882 and exported from Rotterdam by the Caminada brothers. Both are inscribed with a dedication, in Latin, stating that the bells were donated by a Semarang-born Frenchman named Joseph Andrieux. The bells are further decorated with engraved plants and crosses. When the bells were installed in 1882, they were accompanied by a clock. However, over the years the machinery wore down, and in 1978 it was replaced with a round face decorated with the Christogram IHS (short for "Iesus Hominum Salvator", meaning "Jesus, Saviour of Men").
To the north of the church proper is a presbytery, established on 1 August 1890. The two-story building has a high foundation and marble flooring. Both stories have high ceilings, 4 metres (13 ft) above the floor. Further to the north is the Bintang Laut building, containing offices for the parish council and other administrative needs. On the west side of Ronggo Warsito Street is a convent for the Franciscan nuns, which has a neo-Gothic chapel.
## See also
- List of church buildings in Indonesia
|
[
"## History",
"### Catholicism in Semarang",
"### A new church",
"### Growth and evangelism among the indigenous population",
"### After the colonial period",
"## Description",
"## See also"
] | 2,793 | 21,703 |
8,178,757 |
Show Me the Monkey
| 1,070,859,841 | null |
[
"2007 American television episodes",
"Veronica Mars (season 3) episodes"
] |
"Show Me the Monkey" is the tenth episode of the third season of the American mystery television series Veronica Mars, and the fifty-fourth episode overall. Written by John Enbom and Robert Hull and directed by Nick Marck, the episode premiered on The CW on January 23, 2007. The series depicts the adventures of Veronica Mars (Kristen Bell) as she deals with life as a college student while moonlighting as a private detective.
In this episode, Veronica is hired by researchers in the disappearance of a Capuchin monkey being used for animal testing on non-human primates. However, she has a change of heart after infiltrating an animal rights group as part of the case. Meanwhile, Piz (Chris Lowell) becomes increasingly friendly and gives her advice, but after a heartfelt talk about love, Veronica decides to start dating Logan again. In addition, Keith (Enrico Colantoni) starts investigating Dean O'Dell's (Ed Begley, Jr.) mysterious death.
"Show Me the Monkey" was initially scheduled to have a cameo appearance by Ted Nugent, but when they writers could not schedule him, they changed the name of the character to Ed Argent. The eponymous monkey is played by live animal actor Katie, known for her role on Friends. In its original airing, the episode received 3.23 million viewers and positive reviews from television critics. Rowan Kaiser of The A.V. Club called "Show Me the Monkey" one of the best of the season, while Eric Goldman of IGN lauded Mac's new love interest. However, Keith McDuffee of AOL TV did not like the development of the love triangle between Logan, Piz, and Veronica.
## Plot synopsis
Keith (Enrico Colantoni) is visited by Mindy O’Dell (Jamie Ray Newman), who tells him to investigate Dean O’Dell's (Ed Begley, Jr.) death. Mac (Tina Majorino) is called in for tech support when an animal research lab is raided and a valuable monkey is stolen, and Mac asks Veronica for help. The researchers believe that a PETA-like organization, named PHAT (People for Humane Animal Treatment), is responsible. At the PHAT meeting, Mac flirts with the group leader, Bronson (Michael Mitchell) but there is no reason to think that they're guilty. Weevil (Francis Capra) invites Keith to investigate Dean O’Dell's office, and he finds a 40-year-old bottle of scotch unopened. At the next PHAT meeting, Veronica is asked to take action for animal rights in any way she sees fit. Keith presents the bottle of scotch as evidence of a murder of Dean O’Dell. Back at the lab, Veronica notices a coworker being mean to the monkey researchers. After a slight hazing ritual, Veronica and Mac are accepted into the group. In order to impress the leader of the group, Veronica, Mac, and Parker (Julie Gonzalo) participate in a party.
Mac leaves the party early, but the leader of the group appears at her room. When he tries to kiss her, she pulls away. Logan (Jason Dohring) and Dick (Ryan Hansen) go surfing. When Mac, Parker, and Veronica go to the leader's house, they find a woman, but he invites them in anyway. Veronica finds cages of rats in Bronson's house, but he says that they showed up on his doorstep one day. Logan has sex with a surfer woman, and when the police show up at Bronson's house to inquire after the stolen rats, they were gone. While investigating the hard drive of the lab's computer, Mac finds leaves, which Veronica discovers are green tea. She shows them to the coworker, Emi, and discovers that Emi stole one of the monkey's toys.
After doing some more searching, Veronica discovers that one of the lab members actually stole the monkey after developing a special bond with it. The lab member knew he could blame it on PHAT. Veronica decides to tell the other lab members that she was unable to find the monkey, although she is surprised to learn that they will quickly get another monkey. Mac goes to Bronson's house where she asks him on a date and the two share a kiss. Veronica has a heartfelt conversation with Piz, although soon afterward, she goes back to Logan. Keith decides to take the case of Dean O’Dell's death. The next morning, Piz walks up to Veronica excitedly, but Logan appears, making things awkward and causing Piz to leave sadly.
## Production
"Show Me the Monkey" was co-written by John Enbom and Robert Hull and directed by Nick Marck, marking Enbom's thirteenth writing credit and Hull's first writing credit for the show. As a joke in the episode's script, Enbom and Hull added the name of the lab worker who stole the monkey as "Gil Thomas Pardy", although his name is not mentioned directly in the episode. A condensed version of this name, Gil T. Pardy, is an intentional pun on "guilty party". The character of rock star Ed Argent was initially supposed to be a cameo appearance from musician Ted Nugent, but when he did not appear on the show due to scheduling conflicts, the writers changed the character's name in order to make it a reference to the band Argent, best known for their song "Hold Your Head Up". The episode references Wikipedia when Veronica looks up the origins of the color manila.
The stolen capuchin monkey named Oscar is played by live animal actor Katie, best known for playing Marcel, Ross Geller's pet monkey, on the sitcom Friends. Near the time of the episode's airing, she had also appeared in Bruce Almighty and an episode of 30 Rock. When the episode's editor first received one take of the scene in which Veronica and Mac sarcastically dance in response to accusations of doing a poor job on a school project, the editor called the writing staff into the editing room; they proceeded to view the scene fifteen times because of its humorous nature. They immediately included the take in the final cut of the episode.
## Reception
In its original United States broadcast, "Show Me the Monkey" received 3.23 million viewers, marking a decrease in viewers from "Spit & Eggs" and ranking 92nd of 103 in the weekly rankings.
The episode received positive reviews from television critics. Eric Goldman of IGN gave the episode an 8.2 out of 10, indicating that it was "great". Writing that it was entertaining and developed the plot well, he also lauded Mac's reappearance and her new love interest, opining that it created some interesting character moments for Mac. He was also pleased that the episode "ultimately ended on an optimistic note for Mac and her potential new guy." However, he thought that the episode, as well as the show in general, could not handle controversial issues such as animal testing delicately. Keith McDuffee of AOL TV gave mixed opinions on the development of the show's romantic relationships in the episode; he commented, "And as for Piz trying to woo Veronica a bit, I actually found myself saying "thank God" when [Veronica] was at Logan's door later in the episode." He compared Piz negatively to Logan at the beginning of the first season, and stated that "alas, Piz will have his chance again soon." Television Without Pity graded the episode an "A".
Rowan Kaiser, writing for The A.V. Club, praised the episode, arguing that "this is one of the few episodes so far that is both satisfying on its own and uses the higher education setting as a strength, instead of fighting it as a weakness." She praised the episode's treatment of the animal rights group as well as Mac's prominent role. She also lauded Keith's investigation into the dean's death, particularly the scene in which he encounters Veronica's criminology professor in a bar, which Kaiser described as "Keith discovering someone who may well be a match for him intellectually." Reviewer Alan Sepinwall, on his blog What's Alan Watching?, enjoyed the episode, calling the main plot the "Best Mystery of the Week in quite some time." In addition, he enjoyed the contrast between Veronica and Keith's methods of undercover work, writing that Veronica is less subtle in this area. In addition, he praised the more humorous aspects of the episode, particularly the performances in this regard by Bell and Majorino.
|
[
"## Plot synopsis",
"## Production",
"## Reception"
] | 1,752 | 20,594 |
21,744,029 |
BootX (Apple)
| 1,172,920,390 |
Boot loader developed by Apple Inc.
|
[
"Boot loaders",
"MacOS"
] |
BootX is a software-based bootloader designed and developed by Apple Inc. for use on the company's Macintosh computer range. BootX is used to prepare the computer for use, by loading all required device drivers and then starting-up Mac OS X by booting the kernel on all PowerPC Macintoshes running the Mac OS X 10.2 operating system or later versions.
Using BootROM, a read-only memory (ROM) computer chip containing Open Firmware, a graphical bootsplash is shown briefly on all compatible Macintosh computers as a grey Apple logo with a spinning cursor that appears during the startup sequence.
The program is freely available as part of the Darwin operating system under the open-source Apple Public Source License.
BootX was superseded by another nearly identical bootloader named `boot.efi` and an Extensible Firmware Interface ROM on the release of the Intel-based Mac.
## History
Older Macintoshes dating from 1983 until 1998 utilized a basic bootloader; the bootloader was solely a ROM chip varying in sizes up to 4 megabytes (MB), which contained both the computer code to boot the computer and to run the Mac OS operating system. The ROM-resident portion of the Mac OS is the Macintosh Toolbox and the boot-ROM part of that ROM was retroactively named Old World ROM upon the release of the New World ROM Macs, starting with the first iMac. The ROM-resident Macintosh Toolbox differs greatly from the design of the modern Macintosh, which generally use a hard drive of large capacity to store the operating system. This bootloader was used in all Macintosh computers until mid-1998.
With the advent of the iMac series of Macintoshes, the firmware was updated. The ROM was reduced in size to 1 MB, called BootROM, and the remainder of the ROM was moved to the file `Mac OS ROM` in the Mac OS System Folder, stored on the hard drive. This ROM used a full implementation of the Open Firmware standard (contained in BootROM) and was named the New World ROM.
In 2001, with the release of Mac OS X 10.0, the `Mac OS ROM` file was replaced with the `BootX` bootloader file. In 2002, with the release of Mac OS X 10.2, the historical "Happy Mac" start-up picture was replaced with a grey apple logo. By introducing the Intel Mac in 2006, BootROM was replaced by the near identical Extensible Firmware Interface ROM (although Apple still calls it BootROM) and the `boot.efi` file.
## Features
To make the boot loader appealing to other operating system developers, Apple added features to allow flexibility in the booting process such as network boot using TFTP and load Mach-O and ELF formatted kernels. BootX can also boot from HFS, HFS+, UFS and ext2 formatted volumes. The boot loader can be manipulated at startup by holding down various key combinations to alter the booting process. Such functions include Verbose Mode, achieved by holding down the Command and V key at startup, which replaces the default Apple logo with text-based information on the boot process and Single User Mode, achieved by holding down the Command and S, which, depending on the operating system, may boot into a more basic command-line or text-based version of the operating system, to facilitate maintenance and recovery action. The ROM can also be set to require a password to access these technical functions using the OpenFirmware interface.
## Boot process
In PowerPC-based Macintoshes, the boot process starts with the activation of BootROM, the basic Macintosh ROM, which performs a Power On Self Test to test hardware essential to startup. On the passing of this test, the startup chime is played and control of the computer is passed to OpenFirmware. OpenFirmware initializes the Random Access Memory, Memory Management Unit and hardware necessary for the ROM's operation. The OpenFirmware then checks settings, stored in NVRAM, and builds a list of all devices on a device tree by gathering their stored FCode information.
On the completion of this task, BootX takes over the startup process configuring the keyboard and display, claiming and reserving memory for various purposes and checking to see if various key combinations are being pressed. After this process has been completed BootX displays the grey Apple logo, spins the spinning wait cursor, and proceeds to load the kernel and some kernel extensions and start the kernel.
|
[
"## History",
"## Features",
"## Boot process"
] | 908 | 37,325 |
1,645,748 |
Fluffernutter
| 1,145,224,906 |
Sandwich made with peanut butter and marshmallow creme
|
[
"American sandwiches",
"Brand name confectionery",
"Brands that became generic",
"Marshmallows",
"New England cuisine",
"Peanut butter sandwiches",
"Vegetarian sandwiches"
] |
A fluffernutter (also called a "peanut butter and marshmallow sandwich", "peanut butter and marshmallow fluff sandwich", or "peanut butter and marshmallow stuff sandwich") is a sandwich made with peanut butter and marshmallow creme usually served on white bread. Variations of the sandwich include the substitution of wheat bread and the addition of various sweet, salty, and savory ingredients. The term fluffernutter can also be used to describe other food items, primarily desserts, that incorporate peanut butter and marshmallow creme.
The sandwich was first created in the early 20th century after marshmallow creme, a sweet marshmallow-like spread, was invented in Massachusetts. During World War I, a recipe for a peanut butter and marshmallow creme sandwich, the earliest known example of the sandwich, was published. The term "fluffernutter" was created by an advertising agency in 1960 as a more effective way to market the sandwich.
The sandwich is particularly popular in New England and has been proposed as the official state sandwich of Massachusetts.
## Recipe and variations
A fluffernutter is made by spreading peanut butter on a slice of bread, then spreading an equal amount of marshmallow creme on another slice and finally combining them to form a sandwich. Variations of the recipe include wheat bread instead of white, Nutella hazelnut spread instead of, or in addition to, peanut butter, and the addition of sweet ingredients like bananas or savory and salty ingredients like bacon. The Fluffernutter itself is often seen as a variation on the peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Though often seen as a food for children, the Fluffernutter recipe has been adapted to appeal to adult tastes. For example, a New York caterer serves a fluffernutter hors d'oeuvre in a toasted ice cream cone with a spoon of peanut butter and torched marshmallow creme on top.
The term fluffernutter has also been used to describe other foods that feature peanut butter and marshmallow creme, including fluffernutter cookies, bars, and cupcakes. Durkee-Mower, the company that produces Marshmallow Fluff, a brand of marshmallow creme, produces a cookbook that features recipes for fluffernutter bars, frosting, pie, and a shake. In 2006, Brigham's Ice Cream and Durkee-Mower introduced a fluffernutter flavor, which featured peanut butter and Marshmallow Fluff in vanilla ice cream. Fluffernutter was also the name of a candy briefly produced by the Boyer Brothers candy company beginning in 1969.
## History
Marshmallow creme, one of the two main ingredients of a fluffernutter, was invented in the early 20th century. Archibald Query invented a creation he called Marshmallow Creme in Somerville, Massachusetts, in 1917, while Amory and Emma Curtis of Melrose, Massachusetts, invented Snowflake Marshmallow Creme in 1913. During World War I, Emma Curtis published a recipe for the Liberty Sandwich, which consisted of peanut butter and Snowflake Marshmallow Creme on oat or barley bread. The recipe was published in a promotional booklet sent to Curtis' customers in 1918 and may be the origin of the fluffernutter sandwich. Earlier labels and booklets published by the Curtises suggested combining Snow Flake Marshmallow Creme with peanut butter or eating it on sandwiches with chopped nuts or olives.
Meanwhile, sugar shortages during World War I hurt sales of Archibald Query's Marshmallow Creme, so Query sold his recipe in 1920 to two men from Swampscott, Massachusetts, H. Allen Durkee and Fred L. Mower, who began distributing the product through their company, Durkee-Mower Inc. The pair renamed the product Toot Sweet Marshmallow Fluff, and Durkee-Mower continues to sell the product under the name Marshmallow Fluff. The sandwich made with peanut butter and marshmallow creme continued to be eaten, but was not called a fluffernutter until 1960, when an advertising firm Durkee-Mower hired created the term as a more effective way to market the sandwich. Fluffernutter is a registered trademark of Durkee-Mower, although the company's U.S. trademark registrations for the term cover only ice cream and printed recipes. In 2006, Durkee-Mower sued Williams-Sonoma, Inc. in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, alleging that Williams-Sonoma, Inc. infringed on its trademark by selling a marshmallow and peanut butter chocolate-covered candy under the Fluffernutter name.
In June 2006, Massachusetts State Senator Jarrett Barrios gained national attention when he proposed legislation restricting the serving of fluffernutter sandwiches in public schools. After Barrios learned that his son was served fluffernutters on a daily basis at his Cambridge, Massachusetts, public elementary school, he created an amendment to a junk food bill that aimed to limit the serving of fluffernutters in Massachusetts public schools to once a week. The proposal was criticized as an example of trivial and overly intrusive legislation, while Barrios' supporters pointed to concerns over the problem of childhood obesity. Among the people who defended the Fluffernutter at the time was Massachusetts State Representative Kathi-Anne Reinstein, whose district in Revere was close to Lynn, where Marshmallow Fluff is made. She claimed she planned to "fight to the death for Fluff" and supported legislation that would make the Fluffernutter the official state sandwich. The measure failed, and Reinstein tried again unsuccessfully in 2009. Supporters of the bill cited the sandwich's close association with childhood and Massachusetts.
In 2021, Merriam-Webster added the word fluffernutter to its dictionary.
## In popular culture
The term fluffernutter has sometimes been used disparagingly to describe something that lacks substance and has minimal to no cultural value. On the other hand, some writers look on fluffernutters and marshmallow creme as a source of childhood nostalgia and regional pride.
The sandwich has close ties to New England and Massachusetts, particularly to Somerville, where Archibald Query invented Marshmallow Fluff, and to Lynn, where Durkee-Mower has produced it for decades. Somerville holds an annual festival called What the Fluff? based around celebrating Marshmallow Fluff and Fluffernutter sandwiches. The festival incorporates music, visual art, games, and a cooking contest based around Fluff and Fluffernutters. In 2011, NASA astronaut Richard Michael Linnehan, who was born in Lowell and ate a fluffernutter while aboard the International Space Station, acted as one of the contest judges.
October 8 is National Fluffernutter Day.
## See also
- Comfort food
- Cuisine of New England
- List of regional dishes of the United States
- List of sandwiches
- List of peanut dishes
|
[
"## Recipe and variations",
"## History",
"## In popular culture",
"## See also"
] | 1,433 | 12,104 |
19,379,144 |
MS West Grama
| 1,095,246,602 |
American cargo ship
|
[
"1918 ships",
"Design 1013 ships",
"Design 1013 ships of the United States Navy",
"Maritime incidents in 1919",
"Maritime incidents in June 1944",
"Scuttled vessels",
"Ships built in Los Angeles",
"Ships sunk as breakwaters",
"Shipwrecks of France",
"World War I auxiliary ships of the United States",
"World War I cargo ships of the United States",
"World War II merchant ships of the United States",
"World War II shipwrecks in the Atlantic Ocean"
] |
MS West Grama, sometimes spelled as West Gramma, was a diesel-powered cargo ship of the United States Maritime Commission (USMC) that was sunk as part of the "gooseberry" breakwater off Utah Beach during the Normandy invasion. Prior to her diesel conversion, she was known as SS West Grama. In 1919, she was briefly taken up by the United States Navy under the name USS West Grama (ID-3794).
SS West Grama was built as a steam-powered cargo ship in 1918 for the United States Shipping Board (USSB), a predecessor of the USMC. She was part of the West boats, a series of steel-hulled cargo ships built on the West Coast of the United States for the World War I war effort, and was the 9th ship built at Los Angeles Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company in San Pedro, California. She was commissioned into the Naval Overseas Transportation Service (NOTS) of the United States Navy as USS West Grama (ID-3794) in January 1919. She became the first American-flagged vessel to enter Bulgarian waters when she delivered a load of wheat flour to Varna in early 1919. After her one overseas trip for the Navy, she was decommissioned in June 1919 and returned to the USSB.
SS West Grama sailed between Genoa and New York early in her civilian career. In 1927, West Grama was outfitted with a diesel engine that replaced her original steam engine as part of a pilot program by the USSB. After her conversion, she sailed primarily between East Coast ports and South America. By the late 1930s, she had been laid up, but was reactivated for merchant service during World War II. She sailed primarily in the Caribbean until March 1944 when she sailed from the United States for the final time. She was scuttled in June as part of the "gooseberry" breakwater off Omaha Beach during the Normandy invasion, earning a battle star in the process.
## Design and construction
The West ships were cargo ships of similar size and design built by several shipyards on the west coast of the United States for the USSB for emergency use during World War I. All were given names that began with the word West, like West Grama, the ninth of some 40 West ships built by the Los Angeles Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company of Los Angeles. West Grama (Los Angeles Shipbuilding yard number 9) was one of three Los Angeles Shipbuilding ships launched on 4 July 1918, and was completed in December.
West Grama was 5,445 gross register tons (GRT), and was 410 feet 1 inch (124.99 m) long (between perpendiculars) and 54 feet 6 inches (16.61 m) abeam. She had a steel hull that displaced 12,225 t with a mean draft of 24 feet 2 inches (7.37 m). Her hold was 29 feet 9 inches (9.07 m) deep and she had a deadweight tonnage of . West Grama's power plant, as built, consisted of a single triple-expansion steam engine driving a single screw propeller, which moved the ship at up to 10.5 knots (19.4 km/h).
## Military career
West Grama was taken over by the U.S. Navy on 9 January 1919 at San Pedro, California, and was commissioned into the NOTS the same day. West Grama headed north to San Francisco to take on a load of wheat flour for delivery to Europe. After undergoing boiler repairs at Union Iron Works, she departed San Francisco for Norfolk, Virginia, on 28 January. West Grama transited the Panama Canal on 14 February and got underway again on 19 February, after a four-day layover in the Canal Zone.
On 25 February, a half-submerged ship was spotted some 200 nautical miles (370 km) east-northeast of Nassau, Bahamas. Upon investigation, it was determined to be the wreck of the American schooner Nettie Shipman, but, with no signs of life aboard the hulk, West Grama continued on to Virginia, where she arrived three days later.
After general repairs and fuel replenishment, West Grama got underway for the Mediterranean on 13 March. Touching at Gibraltar, she next headed to Constantinople, Turkey, to unload part of her cargo, and then proceeded into the Black Sea. She arrived at Varna, Bulgaria, to unload the remainder of the flour, and, in the process, became the first American-flagged vessel to enter Bulgarian waters. After departure from Varna, West Grama returned to the United States via Gibraltar. She carried a mixed load of 13 depth charges and 218 long tons (221 t) of general cargo. In early June, during her return voyage, West Grama was disabled by some unspecified problem while west of Bermuda. The U.S. Navy cargo ship Eastport, en route from New Orleans to Cardiff, assisted West Grama, and the Navy dispatched the icebreaker Rogday from Boston to aid West Grama. It is not known what assistance was provided or if West Grama was even able to proceed on her own, but she arrived at Norfolk on 11 June. Five days later, West Grama was decommissioned and returned to the USSB for civilian service.
## Civilian career
After her return to the USSB, West Grama sailed on a Genoa – Gibraltar – New York route through 1920. In April 1920, West Grama carried some 52 passengers from Genoa and Gibraltar to New York. There is no mention in sources of the ship's activities over the next seven years, but in June 1927, the Los Angeles Times reported that West Grama had been selected for a \$400,000 conversion from steam-power to diesel-power. By late November, the conversion, undergoing at the Fore River Shipyard near Boston, was nearly complete. The new engine was a McIntosh & Seymour double-acting diesel, the first of its type built in America. On 8 December, during successful sea trials of West Grama's new diesel power plant, a malfunction in a steam boiler used to heat the crew quarters caused minor damage to the ship.
Allocated to the American Republics Line for service to the east coast of South America, West Grama sailed for Buenos Aires, Argentina, where she had arrived by late January 1928, and back to New York by late March. In October 1929, West Grama was reportedly assigned to the new Pacific–South Africa Line by the USSB, an around-the-world venture under the management of J. J. Moore & Company. The Pacific–South Africa Line—the world's only all-diesel around-the-world service, as described by the Los Angeles Times—sailed from Los Angeles to South Africa via the Straits of Magellan, across the Indian Ocean to Japan and China, across the Pacific to San Francisco, and back to Los Angeles. It's not clear how long, if at all, West Grama sailed for this line. In July 1929, a report in The New York Times shows that West Grama was still in South American service, sailing to Santos, Brazil.
Sources are not clear as to all of West Grama's movements over the next years. Hints can be gleaned from contemporary news accounts. In March 1930, the Los Angeles Times reported that West Grama was en route from Balboa to San Francisco. The New York Times reported West Grama's arrival from Portland, Oregon in September, her departure for Fremantle, Western Australia in October 1933, and her arrival from Baltimore in March the following year. After these mentions, West Grama disappears from contemporary news accounts, and by 1939, West Grama had been laid up in a reserve fleet.
## World War II
In December 1940, the USMC, a successor to the USSB, announced that it was seeking bids for the sale of 24 ships from its reserve fleet, including West Grama. In January 1941, the USMC announced that a consortium of Commonwealth shipping lines had been the high bidders for 19 of the 20 ships still offered. The highest bid for West Grama was \$80,000, but it is not clear if the bid was, in fact, accepted; by November, West Grama was sailing between Antofagasta, Chile, and New York, but remained under the American flag. From July 1942 through February 1944, West Grama sailed between the United States and Caribbean ports, frequently traveling in convoys. The ship's recorded movements show her calling at Cristóbal, Guantánamo Bay, Trinidad, Key West, and Pilottown, Louisiana. In mid-February 1944, West Grama sailed from Key West to New York, and from there, on to Boston.
## Final voyage
West Grama had been selected to become one of the blockships for the Allied invasion of France, then in the planning stages. Though the specific modifications performed on West Grama are not revealed in sources, modifications for other ships do appear. In November 1944, The Christian Science Monitor reported that blockships dispatched from Boston, like West Grama, had been loaded with "tons of sand and cement" and had been rigged with explosive charges before departing the port. Further, existing antiaircraft weapons had been moved higher up on the ship and supplemented by additional guns. An account by Cesar Poropat, chief engineer aboard , another blockship dispatched from Boston, mentions that shipyard workers proceeded to cut holes in "strategic places".
West Grama departed Boston on 25 March and arrived at Halifax two days later. Departing from that port on 29 March, she sailed in Convoy SC-156 and arrived at Barry Roads on 13 April, and by 7 May, she had arrived at Methil. West Grama's whereabouts and movements through early June are not recorded. Other ships that had been selected as blockships assembled in a "corncob" fleet at Oban, though it's not clear if West Grama did or not. The "corncob" fleet was the group of ships intended to be sunk to form the "gooseberries", shallow-water artificial harbors for landing craft. Poropat reports that once the ship crews were told of their mission while anchored at Oban, they were not permitted to leave the ships.
Three "corncob" convoys, consisting of what one author called the "dregs of the North Atlantic shipping pool", departed from Poole and reached the Normandy beachhead the next day, shortly after the D-Day landings. Poropat reports that the corncob ships traveled under cover of darkness and, stripped of all unnecessary equipment, carried no radios, having only a signal lamp (with a spare bulb) for communication. Once at the designated location, the ships were put into position and scuttled over the next days, under heavy German artillery fire. Naval Armed Guardsmen manned the guns on all the gooseberry ships to protect against frequent German air attacks. All the while, harbor pilots—about half of the New York Bar Pilots Association, according to one source—carefully positioned the ships. West Grama was sunk off Omaha Beach on 8 June, though she continued to serve as an antiaircraft platform manned by Navy gun crews. On 9 June, West Grama's gunners fired 19 times and were credited with assisting in the downing of one German airplane; only one of West Grama's Navy gunners was wounded during the attack. On 14 June, West Grama escaped serious damage when a bomb landed near the ship. By the time her Naval Armed Guardsmen were replaced by Army crews on 18 June, they had received credit for a second assist, and had been awarded a battle star for their participation in the Normandy Landings.
|
[
"## Design and construction",
"## Military career",
"## Civilian career",
"## World War II",
"## Final voyage"
] | 2,495 | 19,388 |
40,444,317 |
Francis Folger Franklin
| 1,111,146,765 |
Son of Benjamin Franklin (1732–1736)
|
[
"1732 births",
"1736 deaths",
"Burials at Christ Church, Philadelphia",
"Child deaths",
"Deaths from smallpox",
"Franklin family",
"People from Philadelphia",
"People of colonial Pennsylvania"
] |
Francis Folger Franklin (October 20, 1732 – November 21, 1736) was the son of Founding Father of the United States Benjamin Franklin and Deborah Read.
In 1736, four-year-old Francis contracted the smallpox virus and died shortly thereafter.
Benjamin Franklin, who had been inoculated earlier in his own life, had intended for his son to be inoculated as well. However, due to an illness affecting Francis at the time planned for his inoculation, the procedure was postponed.
His death devastated both his parents, who doted upon Francis, and after this incident, Franklin became "the most eloquent advocate of smallpox inoculation."
## Life
Francis Folger Franklin was born on October 20, 1732, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (then a colony in British America). He was the oldest legitimate child of Benjamin Franklin, then the publisher of the Pennsylvania Gazette, and Deborah Read. Franklin also had an illegitimate son, William (born c. 1730–31), whose mother may have been a maid in the household, perhaps a woman named Barbara, or even Deborah Read herself. It has been suggested that William was Franklin's son by Deborah, but was acknowledged as illegitimate because he had been conceived before the marriage of his parents. Some accounts argue that William's birth was legitimized sometime after Francis' death, possibly due to the lack of an heir.
The baby's middle name, Folger, was the maiden name of Franklin's mother, Abiah. Franklin was proud of his maternal family (one of the first settlers of New England) and thus, in an era when a middle name was unusual for ordinary people to receive, Francis was baptized as Francis Folger. Francis' baptism took place on September 16, 1733, while Franklin was away, at the Anglican Christ Church in Philadelphia, which Deborah attended.
Francis, affectionately called "Franky" by his parents, was described as a "precocious, curious and special" child by Franklin, "a golden child, his smiles brighter, his babblings more telling and his tricks more magical than all the other infants in the colonies combined" by historian of medicine Howard Markel and as "a most engaging child, of singular beauty and wonderful knowingness" by biographer James Parton. Given that Franklin considered Francis to be a "healthy child who thrived from the start," and "very clever," he advertised for a tutor for his two sons in December 1734. By all accounts, Francis was doted on by his parents; his portrait was painted while he was still a baby. By 1734, Franklin's business as a writer, publisher and founder of the Library Company of Philadelphia was going well enough that he was able to build a house for his family of four, at 318 Market Street.
## Death and aftermath
Franklin and his brother, James, criticized smallpox inoculation, which was performed by drawing a string, previously in contact with the pustules of a smallpox victim, through a small incision on the person being inoculated. At the time, inoculation offered a mortality chance of 2%, while smallpox contracted naturally was fatal to 15% of the infected. Later, while James still opposed inoculation, Franklin came to support it, believing it was a "safe and beneficial practice." In 1736, however, Francis contracted smallpox and died on November 21 of that year, without having been inoculated. Both Franklin and Deborah were devastated, and their devastation was compounded because they were unsure they could have another child. Franklin had written his paper, "On the Death of Infants", while Francis was still alive, and was inspired by his youngest son when writing about the beauty of babies. Francis was buried on the same day he died, his tombstone reading "The delight of all who knew him."
Rumors quickly surfaced that Francis had died after being inoculated, and so, Franklin wrote in the Pennsylvania Gazette, on December 30, that "[he] intended to get [Francis] inoculated as soon as he should have recovered sufficient strength from a flux with which he had been long afflicted," and that the boy "received the distemper in the common way of infection." However, the choice of having his son inoculated was a difficult one for Franklin, as Francis could die either way. Inoculation would become a real choice only if there was a high chance of smallpox being contracted naturally. In this case, the choice of having Francis inoculated was justified, even with its 2% mortality rate.
After Francis' death, Franklin became involved in promoting inoculation in Philadelphia: he published many studies on its value, working with several physicians, including the famed William Heberden at the Pennsylvania Hospital, which he helped found. In 1774, he founded the "Society for Inoculating the Poor Gratis", in order to help the poor people of Philadelphia afford inoculation. In his autobiography, Franklin writes:
> "In 1736 I lost one of my sons, a fine boy of four years old, by the smallpox taken in the common way. I long regretted bitterly and still regret that I had not given it to him by inoculation. This I mention for the sake of the parents who omit that operation, on the supposition that they should never forgive themselves if a child died under it; my example showing that the regret may be the same either way, and that, therefore, the safer should be chosen."
Seven years after Francis' death, Deborah gave birth to Sarah, who was Franklin's only surviving, legitimate child. In 1772, Franklin's sister Jane Franklin Mecom wrote him with news of his grandsons. Franklin replied that it "brings often afresh to my mind the idea of my son Franky, though now dead thirty-six years, whom I have seldom since seemed equaled in everything, and whom to this day I cannot think of without a sigh."
|
[
"## Life",
"## Death and aftermath"
] | 1,238 | 33,425 |
30,830,462 |
The Man from the Other Side
| 1,094,715,719 | null |
[
"2010 American television episodes",
"Fringe (season 2) episodes"
] |
"The Man from the Other Side" is the 18th episode of the second season of the American science fiction drama television series Fringe. The episode follows the attempts of Thomas Jerome Newton, with the help of shapeshifters, to create a pathway between the two parallel universes, while the Fringe team's Olivia Dunham, Peter Bishop, and Walter Bishop try to stop him.
The episode was written by co-executive producer Josh Singer and series story editor Ethan Gross, and directed by Jeffrey Hunt. It first aired on April 22, 2010 in the United States to an estimated 5.84 million viewers, helping Fox place second for the night. Television critics praised the episode for good pacing and a "heartbreaking" conclusion; one writer noted it was "full of just about everything I look for from the show".
## Plot
Walter (John Noble) has prepared himself to reveal to Peter (Joshua Jackson) the truth—that he is from the parallel universe—when they are called to a case. Two teenagers were found dead, evidently killed by shapeshifter agents from the parallel universe. Exploring the nearby area, they find a third unformed shapeshifter which Walter takes to the lab to study. At the same time of the teenagers' death, they find a carrier signal in the local television. With biotechnology corporation Massive Dynamic's help, they determine that the signal emanated from the parallel universe during a brief moment that the two universes were in sync, and that the next point of synchronization would occur the next afternoon. Recalling Thomas Jerome Newton's (Sebastian Roché) previous attempt to bring a building from the parallel universe into the prime, the Fringe team believes they must stop this next attempt.
From the unformed shapeshifter, they learn of a name of its potential target, a doctor at a local hospital. They take the man into custody but find that he has yet to be harmed. Based on the need for three shapeshifters, Walter surmises that Newton is trying to use the same technology that he and William Bell had pioneered for crossing the universes, by placing three vibrational sources triangulated around the target. Walter begins to collect equipment to create interference with the vibrations to prevent the crossing. Another corpse is found, that of a bank manager that appears to have been killed by a shapeshifter. Realizing both men would have access to secured areas in their workplaces, they use these locations as two points on Netwon's triangle. From this, they are able to identify two locations where the transfer will occur. Olivia (Anna Torv), using the information Walter has told her in private about his own crossing, identifies a collapsed derelict bridge over the Charles River, where the water would absorb the energy of crossing over.
The Fringe team converges on the bridge, where Newton has already started the process as the time of synchronization nears. As Olivia and the other FBI agent engage the two other shapeshifters in combat, Walter and Peter set up the interference device. Peter warns everyone, including Walter, back as he completes the interference device and the bridge, which still exists in the parallel universe, starts to appear with a man crossing it. The shockwave of its appearance disintegrates an FBI agent on the bridge with Peter but sends Peter flying back and knocks him out.
Peter wakes in the hospital, learning from Olivia that they saw a man safely cross the bridge and taken by Newton. When Walter arrives to see Peter, Peter tells him he has realized the truth: because he, like the man on the bridge, was not affected by the same shockwave that killed the FBI agent, he must be from the parallel universe. Walter is unable to deny Peter's accusations. The next day, Walter is devastated to learn that Peter has discharged himself and has disappeared.
## Production
The episode was written by story editor Ethan Gross and co-executive producer Josh Singer. It was Gross' first full episode writing credit for the series. Singer had last co-written the season's sixteenth episode, "Peter". Jeffrey Hunt served as the episode director, his first such credit for the series. Actors Ryan McDonald, Peter Bryant, Shawn MacDonald, and James Pizzinato guest starred in the episode.
The episode's opening scene featured the song "Tom Sawyer" by the Canadian rock band Rush. As with other Fringe episodes, Fox released a science lesson plan for grade school children focusing on the science seen in "The Man from the Other Side", with the intention of having "students learn about bioelectricity, the study of how electromagnetic fields interact with tissues, with a focus on how the muscular system requires the use of electric potentials."
## Reception
### Ratings
On its initial American broadcast on April 22, 2010, the episode was watched by an estimated 5.84 million viewers. It earned a 3.6/6 ratings share among all households and a 2.1/6 ratings share among adults aged 18–49. While "The Man from the Other Side" had a 15 percent decrease from the previous week's episode, Fringe and its lead-in, Bones, helped Fox place second for the night despite competition from the other networks' original programming.
### Reviews
MTV's Josh Wigler praised Jackson's and Noble's performances, and appreciated the show's ability to "gross you out in progressively unique ways". Noel Murray from The A.V. Club graded the episode with an A−, explaining it was "full of just about everything I look for from the show," as it had a sequence focused on weird science, a great performance by Noble, and a "heartbreaking" ending. Ramsey Isler from IGN rated the episode 8.6/10, as he thought it "delivered action, suspense, mystery, and the final climax" to Peter discovering his origins, and it was "a great achievement that marks a big turning point for the series". Like other critics, Isler also praised Jackson and Noble's acting. Ken Tucker from Entertainment Weekly lauded Noble and Jackson's performances, calling Peter's change back to "the secretive, bitter, scurrilous character he was before the series started" a "wrenching daring move on the part of the show". Tim Grierson of the magazine New York was worried that the hype surrounding Peter's secret would not pay off, but believed "Happily, last night's episode perfectly handled that anticipated plot point... [it] turned out to be much better than could have been hoped".
Hitfix's Ryan McGee found the possibility of Walternate being the aforementioned Secretary a "compelling idea," and loved the shapeshifting embryos. McGee concluded his review with a focus on the main cast's performances, "Joshua Jackson's understated nature during his final scene with John Noble really paid off. Had he blown into straight histrionics, the scene wouldn't have worked nearly as well. But playing it with controlled, eloquent, understated fury, he conveyed betrayal more than anger, which cut Walter even deeper than rage ever could." UGO Networks critic Alex Zalben was unhappy the promotions for the episode revealed Peter discovering his secret, "By showing Peter's revelation in the 'Next Week on Fringe' and subsequent commercials advertising this week's episode, [the network] totally, one hundred percent blew it." Otherwise, Zalben believed it to be an "awesome episode", and praised the shapeshifter visual effects. Jane Boursaw of AOL TV wrote, "This episode of Fringe had everything - a slimy embryo, a thrilling gunfight, nefarious shapeshifters, some alternate universe action, and yes, that heartbreaking drama we've been waiting for all season." Boursaw was slightly critical of Peter's discovery, explaining the relationship was built up so much that she wished Peter's subsequent estrangement had "turned[ed] out better" and had him stay with Walter.
|
[
"## Plot",
"## Production",
"## Reception",
"### Ratings",
"### Reviews"
] | 1,626 | 30,777 |
1,438,742 |
Copper(I) chloride
| 1,172,982,272 | null |
[
"Chlorides",
"Coordination complexes",
"Copper(I) compounds",
"Metal halides",
"Pyrotechnic colorants",
"Zincblende crystal structure"
] |
Copper(I) chloride, commonly called cuprous chloride, is the lower chloride of copper, with the formula CuCl. The substance is a white solid sparingly soluble in water, but very soluble in concentrated hydrochloric acid. Impure samples appear green due to the presence of copper(II) chloride (CuCl<sub>2</sub>).
## History
Copper(I) chloride was first prepared by Robert Boyle in the mid-seventeenth century from mercury(II) chloride ("Venetian sublimate") and copper metal:
HgCl<sub>2</sub> + 2 Cu → 2 CuCl + Hg
In 1799, J.L. Proust characterized the two different chlorides of copper. He prepared CuCl by heating CuCl<sub>2</sub> at red heat in the absence of air, causing it to lose half of its combined chlorine followed by removing residual CuCl<sub>2</sub> by washing with water.
An acidic solution of CuCl was formerly used to analyze carbon monoxide content in gases, for example in Hempel's gas apparatus where the CuCl absorbs the carbon monoxide. This application was significant during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries when coal gas was widely used for heating and lighting.
## Synthesis
Copper(I) chloride is produced industrially by the direct combination of copper metal and chlorine at 450–900 °C:
2 Cu + Cl<sub>2</sub> → 2 CuCl
Copper(I) chloride can also be prepared by reducing copper(II) chloride with sulfur dioxide, or with ascorbic acid (vitamin C) that acts as a reducing sugar:
2 CuCl<sub>2</sub> + SO<sub>2</sub> + 2 H<sub>2</sub>O → 2 CuCl + H<sub>2</sub>SO<sub>4</sub> + 2 HCl
2 CuCl<sub>2</sub> + C<sub>6</sub>H<sub>8</sub>O<sub>6</sub> → 2CuCl + 2HCl + C<sub>6</sub>H<sub>6</sub>O<sub>6</sub>
Many other reducing agents can be used.
## Properties
Copper(I) chloride has the cubic zincblende crystal structure at ambient conditions. Upon heating to 408 °C the structure changes to hexagonal. Several other crystalline forms of CuCl appear at high pressures (several GPa).
Copper(I) chloride is a Lewis acid. It is classified as soft according to the hard-soft acid-base concept. Thus, it forms a series of complexes with soft Lewis bases such as triphenylphosphine:
CuCl + 1 P(C<sub>6</sub>H<sub>5</sub>)<sub>3</sub> → 1/4 {CuCl[P(C<sub>6</sub>H<sub>5</sub>)<sub>3</sub>]}<sub>4</sub>
CuCl + 2 P(C<sub>6</sub>H<sub>5</sub>)<sub>3</sub> → CuCl[P(C<sub>6</sub>H<sub>5</sub>)<sub>3</sub>)]<sub>2</sub>
CuCl + 3 P(C<sub>6</sub>H<sub>5</sub>)<sub>3</sub> → CuCl[P(C<sub>6</sub>H<sub>5</sub>)<sub>3</sub>)]<sub>3</sub>
CuCl also forms complexes with halides. For example H<sub>3</sub>O<sup>+</sup> CuCl<sub>2</sub><sup>−</sup> forms in concentrated hydrochloric acid. Chloride is displaced by CN<sup>−</sup> and S<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub><sup>2−</sup>.
Solutions of CuCl in HCl absorb carbon monoxide to form colourless complexes such as the chloride-bridged dimer [CuCl(CO)]<sub>2</sub>. The same hydrochloric acid solutions also react with acetylene gas to form [CuCl(C<sub>2</sub>H<sub>2</sub>)]. Ammoniacal solutions of CuCl react with acetylenes to form the explosive copper(I) acetylide, Cu<sub>2</sub>C<sub>2</sub>. Alkene complexes of CuCl can be prepared by reduction of CuCl<sub>2</sub> by sulfur dioxide in the presence of the alkene in alcohol solution. Complexes with dienes such as 1,5-cyclooctadiene are particularly stable:
Upon contact with water, copper(I) chloride slowly undergoes disproportionation:
2 CuCl → Cu + CuCl<sub>2</sub>
In part for this reason, samples in air assume a green coloration.
## Uses
The main use of copper(I) chloride is as a precursor to the fungicide copper oxychloride. For this purpose aqueous copper(I) chloride is generated by comproportionation and then air-oxidized:
Cu + CuCl<sub>2</sub> → 2 CuCl
4 CuCl + O<sub>2</sub> + 2 H<sub>2</sub>O → Cu<sub>3</sub>Cl<sub>2</sub>(OH)<sub>4</sub> + CuCl<sub>2</sub>
Copper(I) chloride catalyzes a variety of organic reactions, as discussed above. Its affinity for carbon monoxide in the presence of aluminium chloride is exploited in the COPure<sup>SM</sup> process.
### In organic synthesis
CuCl is used as a co-catalyst with carbon monoxide, aluminium chloride, and hydrogen chloride in the Gatterman-Koch reaction to form benzaldehydes.
In the Sandmeyer reaction, the treatment of an arenediazonium salt with CuCl leads to an aryl chloride. For example:
The reaction has wide scope and usually gives good yields.
Early investigators observed that copper(I) halides catalyse 1,4-addition of Grignard reagents to alpha,beta-unsaturated ketones led to the development of organocuprate reagents that are widely used today in organic synthesis:
This finding led to the development of organocopper chemistry. For example, CuCl reacts with methyllithium (CH<sub>3</sub>Li) to form "Gilman reagents" such as (CH<sub>3</sub>)<sub>2</sub>CuLi, which find use in organic synthesis. Grignard reagents form similar organocopper compounds. Although other copper(I) compounds such as copper(I) iodide are now more often used for these types of reactions, copper(I) chloride is still recommended in some cases:
### Niche uses
CuCl is used as a catalyst in atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP). It is also used in pyrotechnics as a blue/green coloring agent. In a flame test, copper chlorides, like all copper compounds, emit green-blue.
## Natural occurrence
Natural form of CuCl is the rare mineral nantokite.
## See also
Copper(II) chloride
|
[
"## History",
"## Synthesis",
"## Properties",
"## Uses",
"### In organic synthesis",
"### Niche uses",
"## Natural occurrence",
"## See also"
] | 1,572 | 24,642 |
58,100,649 |
TooTimeTooTimeTooTime
| 1,170,608,108 | null |
[
"2018 singles",
"2018 songs",
"Dirty Hit singles",
"Electropop songs",
"Polydor Records singles",
"Songs by Matty Healy",
"The 1975 songs"
] |
"TooTimeTooTimeTooTime" (stylised in all caps) is a song by English band the 1975 from their third studio album, A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships (2018). The song was written by Matty Healy, George Daniel, and Guendoline Rome Viray Gomez, who has the stage name of No Rome, while production of the song was handled by the former two. It was released on 15 August 2018 by Dirty Hit and Polydor Records as the third single from the album. The beat originated from an accident that occurred during "Narcissist", the band's collaboration with No Rome. Having developed a skeletal song structure, the band created the song to celebrate their varied discography and fondness of pop music.
"TooTimeTooTimeTooTime" is an electropop and synth-pop song that revolves around a four-on-the-floor tropical house beat. In addition to the main genres, the song draws from a diverse set of musical styles including Afrobeats, dancehall, Europop, disco and sophisti-pop. Its production consists of Afropop-influenced percussion, fuzzy synths, a kick drum pulse, electric guitars, vocal samples and piano stabs. Thematically, the song explores communication in the digital age, specifically how social media and the internet can impact relationships, leading to infidelity. In the lyrics, Healy tries to recount the number of times he has called a woman.
Upon release, "TooTimeTooTimeTooTime" received positive reviews from contemporary music critics, who praised the song's playful lyricism, upbeat production and sonic experimentation. Commercially, the song peaked at number 26 on the UK Singles Chart, number 29 in Scotland, number 29 in Ireland, number 17 on the US Billboard Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart and number 17 on the Sweden Heatseeker chart. The song was later certified silver in the United Kingdom by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). An accompanying vertical music video premiered on 15 August 2018, while the fullscreen version was released on 29 August 2018. It depicts Healy and a group of fans dancing and lip synching the song's lyrics in front of a changing multicoloured backdrop.
## Background and recording
In an interview on the BBC Radio 1 show Annie Mac's Hottest Record in the World, Healy revealed that "TooTimeTooTimeTooTime" was created accidentally during the recording of "Narcissist" (2018), the 1975's collaboration with No Rome. The pair were working on the song's production when according to Healy: "[...] something went wrong. It just started looping too fast and the beat in 2 time just kind of appeared. And then we just made that." Having developed a skeletal, reggaeton-influenced song structure, Healy began writing the demo for "TooTimeTooTimeTooTime". Speaking with Sam Sodomsky of Pitchfork, Healy said that he wanted to celebrate the band's musically varied discography, condensing the track into a pop song, which he admitted felt counterintuitive. The singer described the song as unapologetically representing his fondness for pop music, saying it does not "negate [his] intellect or integrity". Furthermore, he noted that it would not work if he tried to be verbose, wanting the song to resonate with fans and be enjoyable like he considers music to be "about at some point". The final version of "TooTimeTooTimeTooTime" was written and produced by Daniel and Healy, while No Rome provides additional songwriting, programming, drums, synths and background vocals.
## Music and lyrics
Musically, "TooTimeTooTimeTooTime" is an electropop and synth-pop song that is built around a soft, insistent four-on-the-floor tropical house beat, running for a length of three minutes and 28 seconds (3:28). The song contains a unique structure that subverts the common "loud-quiet verse-chorus" format and instead gradually builds in intensity as it progresses. Pyror Stroud of PopMatters noted the song contains a "sheer, implacable momentum" that continuously builds before culminating in a climax that he deemed "the closest [the 1975] has come to pure pop perfection". According to sheet music published at Musicnotes.com by Hal Leonard Music Publishing, "TooTimeTooTimeTooTime" is set in the time signature of common time with a moderate tempo of 116 beats per minute. The track is composed in the key of Ab major, with Healy's vocals ranging between the notes of E♭<sub>3</sub> and E♭<sub>4</sub>. It follows a chord progression of D–Bm7–E(add4)–A(add9)/C. "TooTimeTooTimeTooTime" has a breezy, melodic production, composed of upbeat Afropop-influenced percussion, fuzzy synth textures, and upbeat groove, watery synth chords, a steady kick drum pulse, funk-style electric guitar lines, pitch-shifted vocal samples, electronic flourishes and piano stabs. The song's production also draws from house music, Afrobeats, dancehall, sophisti-pop, ambient, bubblegum pop, indietronica, disco, piano house, electronic music and Europop.
Thematically, "TooTimeTooTimeTooTime" explores how social media can affect modern-day relationships. The song expands upon the theme of communication in the digital age, a central topic in A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships. In the chorus, Healy attempts to recount the number of times he has called a certain woman ("I only called her one time / Maybe it was two times? / I don't think it was three times / It can't be more than four times"), before accusing his partner of doing the same ("I think we need to rewind / You text that boy sometimes / Must be more than three times"). Rolling Stone writer Ryan Reed commented that "TooTimeTooTimeTooTime" discusses "how social media fuels jealous head games and romantic angst" through suspicious text messages, missed phone calls and Instagram interactions. Tiana Timmerberg of Radio.com viewed the core thematic story behind the song as a tale of love and desperation, a sentiment shared by Billboard writer Chris Payne, who wrote that the track "captures [Healy's] side of a back-and-forth with a romantic partner [...] Both parties appear to be getting into the same kind of mischief."
Ross Horton of musicOMH wrote that "TooTimeTooTimeTooTime" is reminiscent of tropical house music run through Brian Eno's processors. Similarly, Philip Cosores of Uproxx observed a blend of retro aesthetics with contemporary sonics, exemplified by its use of both Auto-Tune on Healy's vocals and pulsing rhythms evocative of Peter Gabriel. Jordan Sargent of Spin said the song "bends even further back towards the unnaturally gleaming, synthetic concoctions of European balearic dance music and dancehall". He compared the track to Drake's mid-tempo dancehall songs, specifically "Controlla" (2016) and "Signs" (2017), along with the Felix Jaehn remix of "Cheerleader" (2014) by Omi. Pryour Stroud of Slant Magazine felt "TooTimeTooTimeTooTime" is a reflection of modern infidelity, saying it's "about how we self-medicate in a world of such stark superficiality that nothing seems to matter". This observation was echoed by Spin writer Ian Cohen in his review of A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships, with him calling the song a deconstruction of Instagram-era infidelity. Juan Rodriguez of No Ripcord opined that the track "looks into how the digital era broadens the gray areas when it comes to emotional affairs with an almost matter-of-fact indifference".
## Release and reception
"TooTimeTooTimeTooTime" was released on 15 August 2018. PopMatters declared the song the 16th best track of 2018; Stroud called it "fun, plain and simple, like cotton candy or a cannonball into a pool". Julianna Ress of The Ringer deemed "TooTimeTooTimeTooTime" the "breeziest and most radio-friendly" single from A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships, favourably comparing it to Drake's "Passionfruit" (2017). She praised the upbeat groove, lyrical exploration of anxiety and balance of sonic experimentation with a continued focus on the album's core theme of relationships in an online world. Sargent felt the track represented a "very comfortable" midpoint between the band's penchant for musical experimentation and contemporary pop music, calling it "their new album's clearest mission statement yet". Stereogum writer Ryan Leas commended "TooTimeTooTimeTooTime" for successfully infusing contemporary pop music trends into the 1975's signature sound, opining the song "uses texting and hints of infidelity and jealousy to create an infectious, number-based hook". Conrad Duncan of Under the Radar highlighted the song as an example of the album's "countless moments of inventive vision", saying it "jettisons the band's usual verbosity for a sharp pop crossover". Similarly, Larry Fitzmaurice of Uproxx deemed it their global-pop breakthrough.
Dan Stubbs of NME said he would play "TooTimeTooTimeTooTime" "to death" and highlighted the myriad of musical elements in "TooTimeTooTimeTooTime". He also commented that despite not being as lyrically complex as "Love It If We Made It", the song is emblematic of Healy's writing style, which he described as "knowing, insecure, romantic, flawed, and cocky at the same time". In her review of A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships for The Ringer, Lindsay Zoladz acclaimed the song for being able to "capture, so pithily, the surreal links between body and machine, technology and emotion, that now dictate ordinary life". She specifically called the couplet "She said that I should have liked it / I said that I only use it sometimes"–which references "liking" an Instagram post–one of her all-time favourite Healy lyrics. Shannon Cotton of Gigwise highlighted the same couplet, viewing it as a reference to the Instagram "generation" where "friendships are determined by who's liked your latest pre-night out mirror selfie rather than anything substantial or tangible". DIY writer Will Richards praised the "catchiness" of the chorus and "deliberately vacuous" lyrics, saying that the 1975 understand "the power of letting [everything] go for three-and-a-half minutes via a pop song - and on the face of it, a very silly pop song - that makes you feel on top of the fucking world".
Commercially, "TooTimeTooTimeTooTime" performed modestly on music charts worldwide. In the 1975's native United Kingdom, the song reached number 26 on the UK Singles Chart and number 29 in Scotland. Internationally, it peaked at number 29 in Ireland, number 17 on the Sweden Heatseeker chart and number 17 on the US Billboard Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart. The song was later certified gold in the United Kingdom by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), denoting sales of over 400,000 units.
## Music video
In July 2018, the 1975 invited fans to apply to be featured in an upcoming music video being filmed in London. On 22 July, Healy tweeted: "I just spent the whole day shooting a video with our fans and I just want to say that I couldn't be more proud. You are all so weird and beautiful. It was one of the best days of my life, thank you". A vertically-oriented music video for "TooTimeTooTimeTooTime" debuted via Spotify on 15 August 2018. On 29 August, the fullscreen version was released on the band's YouTube page. The video opens with individual fans calmly lip synching the song's lyrics against a colour-changing backdrop. Healy, dressed in an all-black tuxedo with blonde hair, gradually joins some of the fans as the video progresses and the dancing becomes more eccentric. Towards the end of the video, Healy and the fans gather together and frantically dance as a group.
Antonio Harris of Soundigest opined that the music video for "TooTimeTooTimeTooTime" suited the song's technology-themed lyrics, saying: "The song is all about communications among the online age, and [t]he 1975's fan base represents this perfectly." Alessandra Rincón of Billboard praised the colourful backdrops of the visual. In her review of the video for Nylon, Taylor Bryant wrote: "[...] it's easy to forget how charming music videos can be when they just show people hanging out, having a good time, and enjoying being alive. Well, [the band] is here to remind you." Wandera Hussein of The Fader complimented the "cutesy" visual. Stereogum writer Tom Breihan said that a viewer's enjoyment of the video "depends entirely on whether or not [they] find Healy charming", adding: "You will not be shocked to discover that I like the video. It has energy and brightness, it's fun to watch, and it executes the all-important task of making [the viewer] like the song more."
## Credits and personnel
Credits adapted from A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships album liner notes.
- Matthew Healy – composer, producer, keyboards, guitar, vocals
- George Daniel – composer, producer, programming, drums, keyboards, percussion, synthesizer
- Guendoline Rome Viray Gomez – composer, programming, drums, synthesizer, background vocals
- Ross MacDonald – bass guitar
- Jonathan Gilmore – recording engineer
- Robin Schmidt – mastering engineer
- Manny Marroquin – mixer
## Charts
## Certifications
## See also
- The 1975 discography
- List of songs by Matty Healy
|
[
"## Background and recording",
"## Music and lyrics",
"## Release and reception",
"## Music video",
"## Credits and personnel",
"## Charts",
"## Certifications",
"## See also"
] | 2,936 | 22,562 |
900,763 |
May Pang
| 1,172,476,970 |
American former music executive
|
[
"1950 births",
"American jewelry designers",
"American memoirists",
"American people of Chinese descent",
"American women memoirists",
"John Lennon",
"Living people",
"People from East Harlem",
"Women jewellers"
] |
May Fung Yee Pang (born October 24, 1950) is an American former music executive. She worked for John Lennon and Yoko Ono as a personal assistant and production coordinator. When Lennon and Ono separated in 1973, Pang and Lennon began a relationship that lasted more than 18 months. Lennon later referred to this time as his "Lost Weekend". Pang subsequently published two books about her relationship with Lennon; a memoir, Loving John (Warner, 1983), and a book of photographs, Instamatic Karma (St. Martin's Press, 2008). A documentary about their relationship, The Lost Weekend: A Love Story, was produced in 2022.
Pang was married to producer Tony Visconti from 1989 to 2000 and has two children.
## Early years and education
Pang was born in Manhattan in New York City. She is the daughter of Chinese immigrants and grew up in the Spanish Harlem section of New York City with an elder sister and an adopted brother, both of whom were born in China. Pang's mother owned and operated a laundry business in the area. The Pang family left Spanish Harlem when the tenements where they lived were scheduled to be razed, moving to an apartment near 97th Street and 3rd Avenue in Manhattan.
After graduating from Saint Michael Academy, Pang attended New York City Community College. She aspired to be a model, but modeling agencies reportedly told her she was too "ethnic". Pang's early jobs included being a song-plugger, which meant encouraging artists to record songs written by songwriters. In 1970, she began work in New York as a receptionist at ABKCO Records, Allen Klein's management office, which at that time represented Apple Records and three former Beatles: Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr.
Pang was asked to help Lennon and Ono with their avant-garde film projects, Up Your Legs Forever and Fly, in December 1970. Pang was then asked to be Lennon and Ono's secretary and factotum and gofer in New York City and Britain, which led to a permanent position as their personal assistant when the Lennons moved from London to Manhattan in 1971. Pang coordinated an art exhibition in Syracuse, New York, on October 9, 1971, for Ono's This Is Not Here art show at the Everson Museum. Ono's show coincided with Lennon's 31st birthday, and a party was held at the Hotel Syracuse, which was attended by Ringo Starr, Phil Spector, and Elliot Mintz, among others.
## "Lost Weekend"
In mid-1973, Pang was working on the recording of Lennon's Mind Games album. Lennon and Ono were having marital problems and Ono suggested to Pang that she become Lennon's companion. Ono explained that she and Lennon were not getting along, had been arguing and were growing apart, and said that Lennon would start seeing other women. She pointed out that Lennon had said he found Pang sexually attractive. Pang replied that she could never start a relationship with Lennon, as he was her employer and married. Ono ignored Pang's protests and said that she would arrange everything. Ono later confirmed this conversation in an interview.
At the time Lennon had his 18-month relationship with Pang, he was in a period of his life that he would later refer to as his "Lost Weekend", in reference to the film and novel of the same title.
In October 1973, Lennon and Pang left New York for Los Angeles to promote Mind Games, and decided to stay for a while, living at lawyer Harold Seider's apartment for a couple of days and then Lou Adler's house. While there, Lennon was inspired to embark on two recording projects: to make an album of the old rock 'n' roll songs that inspired him to become a musician, and to produce another artist. In December 1973, Lennon collaborated with Phil Spector to record the oldies album Rock 'n' Roll. The alcohol-fueled recording sessions became legendary. Every musician in L.A. wanted to participate, but soon Lennon's drinking and Spector's erratic behavior (which included his firing a gun in the studio control room) caused the sessions to break down. Then Spector, who claimed to have been in a car accident, took the session tapes and became unreachable.
In March 1974, Lennon began producing Harry Nilsson's Pussy Cats album, thus named to counter the "bad boy" image the pair had earned in the media with two drinking incidents at The Troubadour. The first was when Lennon placed a Kotex on his forehead and scuffled with a waitress at a concert given by Ann Peebles, who had released one of Lennon's favorite records at the time, 'I Can't Stand The Rain'; and the second, two weeks later, when Lennon and Nilsson were ejected from the same club after heckling the Smothers Brothers. Lennon thought it would be a good idea for the musicians to live under one roof to ensure they would get to the studio on time, so Pang rented a beach house in Santa Monica for her, Lennon, Nilsson, Ringo Starr and Keith Moon to live in. At this time, Pang encouraged Lennon to reach out to family and friends. He and Paul McCartney mended fences and played together for the first and only time after the breakup of the Beatles (see A Toot and a Snore in '74). Pang also arranged for Julian Lennon to visit his father for the first time in almost four years.
Julian began to see his father more regularly. Lennon bought Julian a Gibson Les Paul copy guitar and a drum machine for Christmas in 1973, and encouraged Julian's interest in music by showing him some chords. "Dad and I got on a great deal better then," recalls Julian. "We had a lot of fun, laughed a lot and had a great time in general when he was with May Pang. My memories of that time with Dad and May are very clear—they were the happiest time I can remember with them." The cover of Julian's seventh album, Jude, features a childhood photo of him taken by Pang.
In June 1974, Lennon and Pang returned to live in Manhattan. Lennon stopped drinking and concentrated on recording. Lennon previously had cats while he lived at his Aunt Mimi's house in Liverpool; he and Pang adopted two cats that they named Major and Minor. In the early summer, Lennon was working on his Walls and Bridges album when the couple moved into a penthouse apartment at 434 East 52nd Street. On August 23, Lennon and Pang claimed to have seen a UFO from their terrace, which had a panoramic view of Queens. To gain access to the deck, Lennon and Pang had to climb out of their kitchen window. On the night in question, a naked Lennon excitedly called Pang to join him on the deck outside and they both watched a circular object silently floating less than 100 feet away. Lennon called Bob Gruen—Lennon's "official" photographer—and told him what had happened. Gruen suggested Lennon should call the police, but Lennon laughed it off, saying, "I’m not going to call up the newspaper and say, 'This is John Lennon and I saw a flying saucer last night.'" Gruen called the local police precinct which confirmed that three other people had reported a sighting, and the Daily News said that five people had reported a sighting in the same area of New York where Lennon and Pang lived. Lennon references the incident in the song, "Nobody Told Me".
Walls and Bridges rose to the top spot on the album charts. Lennon achieved his only number-one solo US single in his lifetime with "Whatever Gets You Thru the Night". Pang's is the voice whispering Lennon's name on "#9 Dream". Another song, "Surprise, Surprise (Sweet Bird of Paradox)", was written about her. Julian played drums on the album's last track, "Ya Ya". While recording Walls and Bridges, Al Coury, vice president of promotion for Capitol Records, got possession of the chaotic Spector session tapes and brought them to New York. Lennon would complete his oldies album, which would be called Rock 'n' Roll, with the same musicians he used on Walls and Bridges. Pang received an RIAA gold record award for her work on Walls and Bridges and continued her work as production coordinator of Lennon's Rock 'n' Roll album, where she was credited as "Mother Superior". Pang also worked on albums by Nilsson, Starr, Elton John and David Bowie.
While visiting Mick Jagger at Andy Warhol's compound in Montauk, New York, Lennon and Pang saw a Scottish-style cottage for sale close to the Montauk Point Lighthouse. Lennon asked a real estate broker to put in an offer for it in February 1975. In the same month, Lennon and Pang were also planning on visiting Paul and Linda McCartney in New Orleans, where Wings were recording the Venus and Mars album, but Lennon reconciled with Ono the day before the planned visit, after Ono said she had a new cure for Lennon's smoking habit. After the meeting, he failed to return home or call Pang. When Pang telephoned the next day, Ono told her that Lennon was unavailable because he was exhausted after a hypnotherapy session. Two days later, Lennon reappeared at a joint dental appointment; he was stupefied and confused to such an extent that Pang believed he had been brainwashed. Lennon told Pang he had reconciled with Ono and their relationship was over. Over the coming years, Pang quietly met Lennon a few times but their relationship was never rekindled.
Lennon would lament this period publicly but not in private. Journalist Larry Kane, who befriended Lennon in 1964, wrote a comprehensive biography of Lennon which detailed the "Lost Weekend" period. In the interview with Kane, Lennon explained his feelings about his time with Pang; "You know Larry, I may have been the happiest I've ever been... I loved this woman (Pang), I made some beautiful music and I got so fucked up with booze and shit and whatever."
### Pang's books about Lennon
After Lennon returned to Ono, Pang started working for United Artists Records and Island Records as a PR manager, working on albums by Bob Marley and Robert Palmer.
Pang published her memoir, Loving John, in 1983. It was later updated and renamed John Lennon: The Lost Weekend. The original 500-page Loving John book focused mainly on Pang's role on Lennon's albums and sessions. It was edited down to 300 pages, concentrating mostly on the sensational aspects of their relationship. It also included postcards that Lennon had written to Pang during his travels throughout the world in the late 1970s. Pang claims that she and Lennon remained lovers until 1977, and stayed in contact until his death.
Pang's book of photographs, Instamatic Karma, was published in 2008. Besides the candid personal portraits, the book contains some historically important photographs, such as Lennon signing the official dissolution of the Beatles' partnership, and one of the last known photographs of Lennon and Paul McCartney together. Cynthia Lennon also provided a back cover endorsement, acknowledging Pang's role in reuniting Lennon with his estranged first son, Julian.
## The Lost Weekend documentary
The Tribeca Film Festival announced the 2022 premiere of The Lost Weekend: A Love Story, a 97-minute documentary about Pang's life and relationship with Lennon, on June 10 via virtual home viewing. The film was produced and directed by Eve Brandstein, Richard Kaufman and Stuart Samuels. The Lost Weekend appeared in theaters internationally for a limited run April 13th and 14th 2023.
## Photography
Coinciding with the release of the documentary, Pang teamed up with the Rock Art Show to publish 30 of her photographs of Lennon and is touring galleries throughout the United States with an exhibition called The Lost Weekend: The Photography of May Pang, selling limited-editions of her photographs.
## Jewelry
Pang started her own jewelry business. She designs stainless-steel feng shui jewelry.
## Subsequent personal life
Pang married record producer Tony Visconti in 1989; the couple divorced in 2000. They had two children. Pang remains in touch with some of the people from her time with Lennon, and Paul McCartney invited her to Linda McCartney's memorial service. She was an invited guest at The Concert for George in 2002 and remained close to Cynthia Lennon and Lennon's first son, Julian.
Although having had no contact for 30 years, on October 9, 2006, Pang accidentally met Ono in Iceland, on what would have been Lennon's 66th birthday. Ono was in Iceland to unveil a sculpture in Reykjavík and was staying in the same hotel.
Pang still resides in New York City. She volunteers with an animal shelter called Animal Haven in New York and owned a dog that was rescued after Hurricane Katrina. She also co-hosts an Internet talk radio show, Dinner Specials with Cynthia and May Pang, at blogtalkradio.com, with on-air partner Cynthia Neilson.
|
[
"## Early years and education",
"## \"Lost Weekend\"",
"### Pang's books about Lennon",
"## The Lost Weekend documentary",
"## Photography",
"## Jewelry",
"## Subsequent personal life"
] | 2,728 | 7,908 |
12,644,852 |
Russian cruiser Pallada (1906)
| 1,169,870,270 |
Russian Bayan-class cruiser
|
[
"1906 ships",
"Bayan-class cruisers",
"Maritime incidents in October 1914",
"Naval magazine explosions",
"Ships built at Admiralty Shipyard",
"Ships sunk by German submarines in World War I",
"Shipwrecks in the Gulf of Finland",
"Warships lost in combat with all hands",
"World War I cruisers of Russia",
"World War I shipwrecks in the Baltic Sea"
] |
Pallada (Russian: Паллада) was the last of the four Bayan-class armored cruisers built for the Imperial Russian Navy in the first decade of the 20th century. She was assigned to the Baltic Fleet during World War I where she captured codebooks from the German cruiser Magdeburg that had run aground during the first month of the war. The ship was torpedoed by a German submarine in October 1914 and exploded; none of the crew survived. Pallada was the first warship lost by the Russians during the war.
## Design and description
Pallada was 449.6 feet (137.0 m) long overall. She had a maximum beam of 57.5 feet (17.5 m), a draught of 26 feet (7.9 m) and displaced 7,750 long tons (7,870 t). The ship had a crew of 568 officers and men. Pallada was named in honour of the earlier Russian cruiser captured by the Japanese during the Russo-Japanese War. Both ships were named for the Greek goddess, Pallas Athena.
The ship had two vertical triple-expansion steam engines with a designed total of 16,500 indicated horsepower (12,304 kW), but they developed 19,320 indicated horsepower (14,410 kW) on sea trials and drove the ship to a maximum speed of 22.55 knots (41.76 km/h; 25.95 mph). Steam for the engines was provided by 26 Belleville boilers. She could carry a maximum of 1,100 long tons (1,118 t) of coal, although her range is unknown.
Pallada's main armament consisted of two 8-inch (203 mm) 45-calibre guns in single turrets fore and aft. Her eight 6-inch (152 mm) gun were mounted in casemates on the sides of the ship's hull. Anti-torpedo boat defense was provided by 20 75-millimetre (3.0 in) 50-calibre guns; eight of these were mounted in casemates on the side of the hull and in the superstructure. The remaining guns were located above the six-inch gun casemates in pivot mounts with gun shields. Pallada also mounted four 47-millimetre (1.9 in) Hotchkiss guns. The ship also had two submerged 15-inch (381 mm) torpedo tubes, one mounted on each broadside.
The ship used Krupp armour throughout. Her waterline belt was 190 millimetres (7.5 in) thick over her machinery spaces. Fore and aft, it reduced to 90 millimetres (3.5 in). The upper belt and the casemates were 60 millimetres (2.4 in) thick. The armour deck was 50 millimetres (2 in) thick; over the central battery it was a single plate, but elsewhere it consisted of a 30-millimetre (1.2 in) plate over two 10-millimetre (0.39 in) plates. The gun turrets were protected by 132 millimetres (5.2 in) of armour and the conning tower had walls 136 millimetres (5.4 in) thick.
## Service
Pallada was built by the Admiralty Shipyard in Saint Petersburg. Construction began on 24 June 1905, although she was not formally laid down until August, and the ship was launched on 10 November 1906. Pallada was completed in February 1911. She spent her entire career with the Baltic Fleet.
On 26 August 1914, during the first month of World War I, the German light cruiser Magdeburg ran aground near the island of Odensholm in the Gulf of Finland. Her escort, the V25-class torpedo boat SMS V-26, failed to pull her off and rescued part of the crew before Pallada and the protected cruiser Bogatyr appeared and opened fire. The Germans blew up the front part of the ship, but failed to demolish the rest of the ship. They failed to destroy their naval codebooks, which were discovered by the Russians. A copy was later given to the British where it proved enormously helpful to Room 40 in reading German wireless traffic for much of the war. Together with the armoured cruiser Rurik, Pallada unsuccessfully searched for German ships between Bornholm and Danzig on the night of 27 August. Less than two months later, on 11 October, Pallada was torpedoed by the German submarine SM U-26 and blew up with the loss of all hands, the first Russian warship sunk during the war.
## Wreck
On 6 October 2012 the Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat reported that the wreck of Pallada had been discovered by a diver group outside Hanko near the coast of Finland in 2000, but the group had waited until 2012 before publishing their find.
The ship is lying in three pieces, all upside-down, at a depth of about 40 to 50 metres (130 to 160 ft). Although the wreck was severely damaged during the sinking and is now covered in silt, a number of details such as a large wooden emblem of the Russian double-headed eagle are still intact. One of the eight-inch turrets is resting on the seafloor next to the bow section.
On 6 September 2013, Helsingin Sanomat reported that the previously largely untouched wreck of Pallada had been looted.
|
[
"## Design and description",
"## Service",
"## Wreck"
] | 1,147 | 6,970 |
712,542 |
Spyridon Louis
| 1,172,729,210 |
Greek athlete
|
[
"1873 births",
"1940 deaths",
"19th-century Greek military personnel",
"19th-century sportsmen",
"Athletes (track and field) at the 1896 Summer Olympics",
"Athletes from Athens",
"Greek male long-distance runners",
"Greek male marathon runners",
"Greek prisoners and detainees",
"Medalists at the 1896 Summer Olympics",
"Olympic athletes for Greece",
"Olympic gold medalists for Greece",
"Olympic gold medalists in athletics (track and field)",
"People acquitted of crimes"
] |
Spyridon Louis (Greek: Σπυρίδων Λούης , sometimes transliterated Spiridon Loues; 12 January 1873 – 26 March 1940), commonly known as Spyros Louis (Σπύρος Λούης), was a Greek water carrier who won the first modern-day Olympic marathon at the 1896 Summer Olympics. Following his victory, he was celebrated as a national hero.
A former soldier, Louis was encouraged to try out for the Olympics by his former commanding officer. After progressing through qualifying, he went on to win the inaugural Olympic marathon after placing first from seventeen competitors. Louis later became a police officer and a farmer. Outside of his athletics career, Louis was arrested for forgery, of which he was acquitted after spending a year in jail.
## Early life
Spyridon Louis was born in the town of Marousi, north of Athens, into a poor family. Louis's father sold mineral water in Athens, which at the time lacked a central water supply, and Spyridon helped him by transporting it.
## Olympic preparation
After Pierre de Coubertin's decision in 1894 to revive the Olympic Games, preparations were made to organise the first modern Olympics in Athens. One of the races would be the marathon, an event which had never been held before. It had been suggested by Frenchman Michel Bréal, who was inspired by the legend of the messenger Pheidippides, who had run from Marathon to Athens to announce the Athenian victory in the Battle of Marathon—and then dropped dead.
The Greeks were very enthusiastic about this new event and decided to hold qualifiers for the marathon. These races were started by Colonel Papadiamantopoulos, who Louis previously served under in the military. The first qualifying race—the first ever marathon race—was held on 22 March, and was won by Charilaos Vasilakos in 3 hours, 18 minutes. Louis participated in the second qualifying race, two weeks later, and placed fifth. Papadiamantopoulos, who knew of Louis's talent in running, had convinced him to try out.
The Olympic marathon was run on 10 April (or 29 March by the Julian calendar then in use in Greece). The Greek public had been very enthusiastic about the Games, but were disappointed in the fact that no track and field event had yet been won by a Greek competitor. The victory in the discus throw, a classical Greek event, by the American Robert Garrett had been particularly painful. Because of its close connection with Greek history, the public yearned for the marathon to be won by one of their countrymen.
## Marathon race
In Marathon, Colonel Papadiamantopoulos gave the starting signal for the small field, consisting of seventeen athletes, thirteen of them representing Greece. The early leader of the race, which led over dusty dirt roads along which throngs of Greeks had gathered to watch, was the Frenchman Albin Lermusiaux, who had placed third in the 1500 metres prior to the marathon. In the town of Pikermi, Louis is said to have made a stop at a local inn to drink a glass of wine. (Louis's grandson, also Spyridon Louis, has stated that this is incorrect; that his grandfather's girlfriend gave him half an orange and shortly afterwards he "got a glass of cognac from his future father-in-law.") After asking for the advantage of the other runners, he confidently declared he would overtake them all before the end.
After 26 km, Lermusiaux was exhausted and abandoned the race. The lead was taken over by Edwin Flack, an Australian who won the 800 and 1500 m races. Louis slowly closed in on Flack. The Australian, not used to running long distances, collapsed a few kilometers onwards, giving Louis the lead.
During the race, there was tension among the Greek spectators when Flack was in first place. However, when news was delivered to the fans that Louis overtook the lead, the cry "Hellene, Hellene!" was taken up by rapturous spectators. Louis was greeted with cheers after entering the Panathenaic Stadium for the final part of the marathon. Louis ran with Crown Prince Constantine and Prince George of Greece during the last lap, finishing with a time of 2:58:50. Louis's victory set off wild celebrations, as described in the official report of the Games:
> Here the Olympionic Victor was received with full honour; the King rose from his seat and congratulated him most warmly on his success. Some of the King's aides-de-camp, and several members of the Committee went so far as to kiss and embrace the victor, who finally was carried in triumph to the retiring room under the vaulted entrance. The scene witnessed then inside the Stadion cannot be easily described, even strangers were carried away by the general enthusiasm.
Adding to the celebrations, two more Greek runners entered the stadium to finish in second and third place. Third place finisher Spyridon Belokas was later found to have covered part of the course by carriage and was disqualified; third place was awarded to the Hungarian Gyula Kellner.
## After the Olympics
After his victory, Louis received gifts from many countrymen, ranging from jewellery to a lifelong free shave at a barber shop. It is unknown whether Louis accepted all these gifts, although he did take back home the carriage he had asked of the king. After the Olympics, Louis ended his athletic career to become a farmer and a police officer.
In 1926, Louis was arrested on charges of falsifying military documents and was imprisoned. After spending more than a year in jail, he was acquitted.
His last public appearance came in 1936, when he was invited to be a guest of honour by the organizers of the 1936 Summer Olympics, held in Berlin. After bearing the standard of the Greek team during the opening ceremonies, he was received by Adolf Hitler and offered him an olive branch from Olympia, the birthplace of the Olympic Games, as a symbol of peace. Louis recalled the moments after his victory: "That hour was something unimaginable and it still appears to me in my memory like a dream ... Twigs and flowers were raining down on me. Everybody was calling out my name and throwing their hats in the air ..."
Several months before the Italian invasion of Greece, Louis died. In Greece, various sports establishments are named after Louis. These include the Olympic Stadium of Athens where the 2004 Summer Olympics were held, as well as the road outside the stadium.
The Jayne Mansfield movie It Happened in Athens is a heavily fictionalized take on Louis and the marathon, and his story is featured in the 1984 TV miniseries The First Olympics: Athens 1896. The expression 'to become Louis' (Greek: γίνομαι Λούης, romanized: yinomai Louis) is used in Greece as a metaphor meaning "tο disappear by running fast."
## Breal's Silver Cup
The silver cup given to Louis at the first modern Olympic Games staged in Athens in 1896, was sold for £541,250 (\$860,000) in London during a Christie's auction on 18 April 2012. The trophy, with a height of six inches, broke the auction record for Olympic memorabilia. The item was sold on the day Britain marked the 100 days' countdown to the 2012 London Olympics. Christie's called the auction "heated" and involved six bidders. The auctioneer later confirmed the buyer as the Stavros Niarchos Foundation.
The cup is currently displayed at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center, a project of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, fulfilling the commitment of the foundation to make it available to the public and to share it with everyone, upon the project's completion. During the development of the project, the cup was temporarily displayed at the Acropolis Museum of Athens and the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, during a period that coincided with the International Marathon of Lausanne.
|
[
"## Early life",
"## Olympic preparation",
"## Marathon race",
"## After the Olympics",
"## Breal's Silver Cup"
] | 1,682 | 24,934 |
23,641,881 |
Harold L. George
| 1,137,217,980 |
United States Air Force general, born 1893
|
[
"1893 births",
"1986 deaths",
"20th-century American politicians",
"Aerial warfare pioneers",
"Air Corps Tactical School alumni",
"California Republicans",
"George Washington University alumni",
"Law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States",
"Mayors of Beverly Hills, California",
"People from Beverly Hills, California",
"People from Somerville, Massachusetts",
"Recipients of the Air Medal",
"Recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross (United States)",
"Recipients of the Distinguished Service Medal (US Army)",
"Recipients of the Legion of Merit",
"United States Air Force generals",
"United States Army Air Forces generals",
"United States Army Air Forces generals of World War II",
"United States Army Air Service pilots of World War I",
"United States Army Command and General Staff College alumni",
"United States Army officers"
] |
Harold Lee George (July 19, 1893 – February 24, 1986) was an American aviation pioneer who helped shape and promote the concept of daylight precision bombing. An outspoken proponent of the industrial web theory, George taught at the Air Corps Tactical School and influenced a significant group of airmen passing through the school, ones who had powerful influence during and after World War II. He has been described as the leader of the Bomber Mafia, the men who advocated for an independent military arm composed of heavy bombers. George helped shape America's bomber strategy for the war by assisting Air War Plans Division with the development of a complete aircraft production and bombing strategy.
In 1934, George helped institute the Order of Daedalians, and served as that organization's first Wing Commander.
During World War II, George led the Air Transport Command, taking it from 130 obsolescent aircraft to 3,000 modern transports, operated by 300,000 airmen. Following the war, he helped Hughes Aircraft become a very profitable company, and was twice elected mayor of Beverly Hills, California.
## Early career
George was born July 19, 1893, in Somerville, Massachusetts, to Horace and Susan E. George. He attended George Washington University, but decided to interrupt his studies when the United States became directly involved in World War I. George joined the United States Army and on May 21, 1917, received his commission as second lieutenant in the Cavalry as a reserve officer. A month later, he went on active duty with the Cavalry at Fort Myer, Virginia, and married Anna Virginia Helms on August 10. In October George resigned his reserve commission to become a flying cadet with the Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps.
George attended the ASSC School of Military Aeronautics (an eight-week ground school) set up on the campus of Princeton University and learned to fly at Love Field, Texas, receiving his rating of Reserve Military Aviator and a new commission on March 28, 1918. George went to France that September with an initial assignment to the 7th Aviation Instruction Center (bombardment) at Clermont-Ferrand. Two months later he was posted to Ourches-sur-Meuse with the 163d Aero Squadron, one of two DH-4B day bomber squadrons of the new 2nd Day Bombardment Group, Second Army Air Service. In the week in which it saw action in November 1918, just prior to the armistice, the 163d flew 69 sorties in support of the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. George observed that massed bombers, flying in formation, swamped enemy defenses and so reduced the attacker's casualties.
In 1919, George clerked part time for U.S. Supreme Court Justice James McReynolds, and graduated in 1920 from Georgetown University Law School.
## Bombing advocate
In France, George met William "Billy" Mitchell and became convinced that Mitchell's vision of an independent Air Force was the best future direction for the American military.
After the war, George was assigned to the 49th Bombardment Squadron at Kelly Field, Texas. On July 1, 1920, when the Air Service became a combat arm of the line, he transferred to it in the permanent grade of 1st lieutenant. He next served with the 14th Bombardment Squadron at Langley Field, Virginia, and with the Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, from 1921 to 1925. There George assisted Mitchell in his bombing demonstration against old battleships, and helped develop air-to-ship tactics. In August 1925, George went to Washington as chief of the Bombardment Section in the Operations Division of the Office of the Chief of Air Service. Later that year, still at the rank of first lieutenant, he was one of several young air officers to testify at Mitchell's court-martial.
In July 1929, George was ordered to Hawaii for two years with the 5th Composite Group at Luke Field. In September, 1931, he went to Maxwell Field, Alabama, to study at the Air Corps Tactical School (ACTS) where he helped refine the precision daylight bomber doctrine taught there. He was promoted to captain during the assignment, on December 1, 1931. Following graduation, George became an instructor at ACTS, teaching air tactics and precision bombing doctrine, and became de facto leader of the influential "Bomber Mafia". With Haywood S. Hansell, Laurence S. Kuter and Donald Wilson, George researched, debated and codified what the men believed would be a war-winning strategy that Wilson termed "industrial web theory". In 1934, George was made director of the Department of Air Tactics and Strategy, and vigorously promoted the doctrine of precision bombing in which massed air fleets of heavy bombers would be commanded independently of naval or ground warfare needs.
George was promoted to the temporary rank of major in July 1936. He graduated from the Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, the following year and returned to Langley as commanding officer of the 96th Bombardment Squadron. George flew to South America as a part of Air Corps goodwill flights in February 1938 and November 1939, and received for his participation the Order of the Southern Cross (Knight), from the government of Brazil. In 1940, George took command of the 2d Bombardment Group, which in 1937 had become the first unit equipped with the B-17 Flying Fortress bomber. Promoted to the temporary rank of lieutenant colonel on December 30, 1940, he also filled the position of Executive Officer of the 2nd Bombardment Wing from January 1941.
In July 1941, George was appointed assistant chief of staff for Air War Plans Division, a unit of the newly created USAAF Air Staff in Washington. In that capacity he assembled a small group of "bomber mafia" members (including Hansell, Kuter, and Kenneth N. Walker) to prepare AWPD–1, an estimate of air resources needed in the event of war that became the plan for the air war against Germany. He was promoted to colonel on January 2, 1942, and to brigadier general on April 19, 1942, when he took command of the Air Corps Ferrying Command (ACFC).
## Air transport
In June 1942, ACFC was redesignated Air Transport Command and tasked to become not just a delivery service of aircraft from factory to the field, but a worldwide cargo and personnel air transportation service. George led it brilliantly throughout World War II, with the able assistance of many staff officers including his deputy, General C. R. Smith, peacetime president of American Airlines.
New organizations were formed and new cross-ocean routes were established in the face of the enemy and under difficult conditions. George took the ferrying command from 130 obsolescent aircraft to 3,000 modern military transports, and expanded the personnel from 11,000 to 300,000. For this major contribution to his country, George received the Distinguished Service Medal, Legion of Merit, Distinguished Flying Cross, and Air Medal, as well as decorations from Great Britain, France, Brazil, Peru and China.
After the war he served for a while as director of information for the USAAF and as senior Air Force representative of the military staff of the United Nations. He retired from active duty December 31, 1946, with the rank of lieutenant general dating back to March 1945.
## Post-war activity
George accepted a position at Hughes Aircraft to work for Howard Hughes, along with fellow bomber advocate Ira C. Eaker. Eaker and George transformed Hughes Aircraft into a very profitable military contractor, reaching \$100M in sales in 1948. George expanded the company beyond the manufacture of aircraft to focus on the new field of military electronics, primarily by bringing together expert electronics designer Dean Wooldridge and engineer-businessman Simon Ramo, both hired by George in 1946. In August 1953, Ramo and Wooldridge resigned. George followed a few months later to help form the Ramo-Wooldridge Corporation, competing directly with Hughes by developing ballistic missile defenses. In 1958, Ramo-Wooldridge would merge with Thompson Products, to become Thompson Ramo Wooldridge, which was shortened to TRW in 1965.
After moving there in 1948, George was elected to the City Council of Beverly Hills, California, in 1952, and in 1954 he was elected mayor, a one-year term. He served a second term in 1959. During his second term, George established an annual award to honor outstanding Beverly Hills police officers, given in the name of Clinton H. Anderson, the city's police chief.
In 1955, George was recalled to active duty in the United States Air Force for eight months as a special consultant to the Air Force Chief of Staff. George was relieved from active duty November 4, 1955.
By 1984, George was living in Laguna Hills, California. That year, he collected and donated more than \$21,000 to various Republican Party candidates and conservative causes including the Jesse Helms-founded National Congressional Club and the "Helms for Senate" campaign. On February 24, 1986, George died in Laguna Hills. He is survived by his wife Violette; three daughters and one son.
## Legacy
In his directorship of ACTS, George is known today as the unofficial leader of the men in the Army Air Corps who closed ranks and pushed exclusively toward the concept of daylight precision bombing as a strategic, war-winning doctrine. Though he played a fundamental role in the development of U.S. air power strategy, he is perhaps better known as the first commander of Air Transport Command—the man who guided and expanded that organization throughout World War II.
The Order of Daedalians has, since 1956, awarded the "Lieutenant General Harold L. George Civilian Airmanship Award", a trophy "presented annually to the pilot, copilot and/or crew of a United States certified commercial airline selected by a Federal Aviation committee to have demonstrated ability, judgment and/or heroism above and beyond normal operational requirements." The Air Force Aid Society bestows the "Lieutenant General Harold Lee George Educational Grant Award."
In 1991 he was inducted into the Airlift/Tanker Association Hall of Fame.
## Recognition
George was awarded:
- Distinguished Service Medal
- Legion of Merit
- Distinguished Flying Cross
- Air Medal
- 1939 - Knight of the Order of the Southern Cross (Brazil)
## Effective dates of promotion
- Second Lieutenant - May 21, 1917
- First Lieutenant - April 1921
- Captain - December 31, 1931
- Major - July 1936
- Lieutenant Colonel - February 1941
- Colonel - January 1942
- Brigadier General - April 1942
- Major General - June 1942
- Lieutenant General - March 16, 1945.
## See also
- Aviation history
- List of accidents and incidents involving military aircraft (pre-1925)
- List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States (Seat 3)
|
[
"## Early career",
"## Bombing advocate",
"## Air transport",
"## Post-war activity",
"## Legacy",
"## Recognition",
"## Effective dates of promotion",
"## See also"
] | 2,366 | 9,281 |
24,579 |
Pelvic inflammatory disease
| 1,170,978,305 |
Infection of uterus, fallopian tubes, ovaries or the inner surface of pelvis
|
[
"Abdominal pain",
"Bacterial diseases",
"Chlamydia infections",
"Gonorrhea",
"Infections with a predominantly sexual mode of transmission",
"Inflammatory diseases of female pelvic organs",
"Mycoplasma",
"Sexually transmitted diseases and infections",
"Wikipedia medicine articles ready to translate"
] |
Pelvic inflammatory disease, also known as pelvic inflammatory disorder (PID), is an infection of the upper part of the female reproductive system, namely the uterus, fallopian tubes, and ovaries, and inside of the pelvis. Often, there may be no symptoms. Signs and symptoms, when present, may include lower abdominal pain, vaginal discharge, fever, burning with urination, pain with sex, bleeding after sex, or irregular menstruation. Untreated PID can result in long-term complications including infertility, ectopic pregnancy, chronic pelvic pain, and cancer.
The disease is caused by bacteria that spread from the vagina and cervix. While it has been reported that infections by Neisseria gonorrhoeae or Chlamydia trachomatis are present in 75 to 90 percent of cases, the strong association of PID with these infections is often a misconception. In the UK it is reported by the NHS that infections by Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Chlamydia trachomatis are responsible for only a quarter of PID cases. Often, multiple different bacteria are involved.
Without treatment, about 10 percent of those with a chlamydial infection and 40 percent of those with a gonorrhea infection will develop PID. Risk factors are generally similar to those of sexually transmitted infections and include a high number of sexual partners and drug use. Vaginal douching may also increase the risk. The diagnosis is typically based on the presenting signs and symptoms. It is recommended that the disease be considered in all women of childbearing age who have lower abdominal pain. A definitive diagnosis of PID is made by finding pus involving the fallopian tubes during surgery. Ultrasound may also be useful in diagnosis.
Efforts to prevent the disease include not having sex or having few sexual partners and using condoms. Screening women at risk for chlamydial infection followed by treatment decreases the risk of PID. If the diagnosis is suspected, treatment is typically advised. Treating a woman's sexual partners should also occur. In those with mild or moderate symptoms, a single injection of the antibiotic ceftriaxone along with two weeks of doxycycline and possibly metronidazole by mouth is recommended. For those who do not improve after three days or who have severe disease, intravenous antibiotics should be used.
Globally, about 106 million cases of chlamydia and 106 million cases of gonorrhea occurred in 2008. The number of cases of PID, however, is not clear. It is estimated to affect about 1.5 percent of young women yearly. In the United States, PID is estimated to affect about one million people each year. A type of intrauterine device (IUD) known as the Dalkon shield led to increased rates of PID in the 1970s. Current IUDs are not associated with this problem after the first month.
## Signs and symptoms
Symptoms in PID range from none to severe. If there are symptoms, fever, cervical motion tenderness, lower abdominal pain, new or different discharge, painful intercourse, uterine tenderness, adnexal tenderness, or irregular menstruation may be noted.
Other complications include endometritis, salpingitis, tubo-ovarian abscess, pelvic peritonitis, periappendicitis, and perihepatitis.
### Complications
PID can cause scarring inside the reproductive system, which can later cause serious complications, including chronic pelvic pain, infertility, ectopic pregnancy (the leading cause of pregnancy-related deaths in adult females), and other complications of pregnancy. Occasionally, the infection can spread to the peritoneum causing inflammation and the formation of scar tissue on the external surface of the liver (Fitz-Hugh–Curtis syndrome).
## Cause
Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae are common causes of PID. However, PID can also be caused by other untreated infections, like bacterial vaginosis. Data suggest that PID is often polymicrobial. Isolated anaerobes and facultative microorganisms have been obtained from the upper genital tract. N. gonorrhoeae has been isolated from fallopian tubes, facultative and anaerobic organisms were recovered from endometrial tissues.
The anatomical structure of the internal organs and tissues of the female reproductive tract provides a pathway for pathogens to ascend from the vagina to the pelvic cavity thorough the infundibulum. The disturbance of the naturally occurring vaginal microbiota associated with bacterial vaginosis increases the risk of PID.
N. gonorrhoea and C. trachomatis are the most common organisms. The least common were infections caused exclusively by anaerobes and facultative organisms. Anaerobes and facultative bacteria were also isolated from 50 percent of the patients from whom Chlamydia and Neisseria were recovered; thus, anaerobes and facultative bacteria were present in the upper genital tract of nearly two-thirds of the PID patients. PCR and serological tests have associated extremely fastidious organism with endometritis, PID, and tubal factor infertility. Microorganisms associated with PID are listed below.
Cases of PID have developed in people who have stated they have never had sex.
### Bacteria
- Chlamydia trachomatis
- Neisseria gonorrhoeae
- Prevotella spp.
- Streptococcus pyogenes
- Prevotella bivia
- Prevotella disiens
- Bacteroides spp.
- Peptostreptococcus asaccharolyticus
- Peptostreptococcus anaerobius
- Gardnerella vaginalis
- Escherichia coli
- Group B streptococcus
- α-hemolytic streptococcus
- Coagulase-negative staphylococcus
- Atopobium vaginae
- Acinetobacter spp.
- Dialister spp.
- Fusobacterium gonidiaformans
- Gemella spp.
- Leptotrichia spp.
- Mogibacterium spp.
- Porphyromonas spp.
- Sphingomonas spp.
- Veillonella spp.
- Cutibacterium acnes
- Mycoplasma genitalium
- Mycoplasma hominis
- Ureaplasma spp.
## Diagnosis
Upon a pelvic examination, cervical motion, uterine, or adnexal tenderness will be experienced. Mucopurulent cervicitis and or urethritis may be observed. In severe cases more testing may be required such as laparoscopy, intra-abdominal bacteria sampling and culturing, or tissue biopsy.
Laparoscopy can visualize "violin-string" adhesions, characteristic of Fitz-Hugh–Curtis perihepatitis and other abscesses that may be present.
Other imaging methods, such as ultrasonography, computed tomography (CT), and magnetic imaging (MRI), can aid in diagnosis. Blood tests can also help identify the presence of infection: the erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), the C-reactive protein (CRP) level, and chlamydial and gonococcal DNA probes.
Nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs), direct fluorescein tests (DFA), and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) are highly sensitive tests that can identify specific pathogens present. Serology testing for antibodies is not as useful since the presence of the microorganisms in healthy people can confound interpreting the antibody titer levels, although antibody levels can indicate whether an infection is recent or long-term.
Definitive criteria include histopathologic evidence of endometritis, thickened filled Fallopian tubes, or laparoscopic findings. Gram stain/smear becomes definitive in the identification of rare, atypical and possibly more serious organisms. Two thirds of patients with laparoscopic evidence of previous PID were not aware they had PID, but even asymptomatic PID can cause serious harm.
Laparoscopic identification is helpful in diagnosing tubal disease; a 65 percent to 90 percent positive predictive value exists in patients with presumed PID.
Upon gynecologic ultrasound, a potential finding is tubo-ovarian complex, which is edematous and dilated pelvic structures as evidenced by vague margins, but without abscess formation.
### Differential diagnosis
A number of other causes may produce similar symptoms including appendicitis, ectopic pregnancy, hemorrhagic or ruptured ovarian cysts, ovarian torsion, and endometriosis and gastroenteritis, peritonitis, and bacterial vaginosis among others.
Pelvic inflammatory disease is more likely to reoccur when there is a prior history of the infection, recent sexual contact, recent onset of menses, or an IUD (intrauterine device) in place or if the partner has a sexually transmitted infection.
Acute pelvic inflammatory disease is highly unlikely when recent intercourse has not taken place or an IUD is not being used. A sensitive serum pregnancy test is typically obtained to rule out ectopic pregnancy. Culdocentesis will differentiate hemoperitoneum (ruptured ectopic pregnancy or hemorrhagic cyst) from pelvic sepsis (salpingitis, ruptured pelvic abscess, or ruptured appendix).
Pelvic and vaginal ultrasounds are helpful in the diagnosis of PID. In the early stages of infection, the ultrasound may appear normal. As the disease progresses, nonspecific findings can include free pelvic fluid, endometrial thickening, uterine cavity distension by fluid or gas. In some instances the borders of the uterus and ovaries appear indistinct. Enlarged ovaries accompanied by increased numbers of small cysts correlates with PID.
Laparoscopy is infrequently used to diagnose pelvic inflammatory disease since it is not readily available. Moreover, it might not detect subtle inflammation of the fallopian tubes, and it fails to detect endometritis. Nevertheless, laparoscopy is conducted if the diagnosis is not certain or if the person has not responded to antibiotic therapy after 48 hours.
No single test has adequate sensitivity and specificity to diagnose pelvic inflammatory disease. A large multisite U.S. study found that cervical motion tenderness as a minimum clinical criterion increases the sensitivity of the CDC diagnostic criteria from 83 percent to 95 percent. However, even the modified 2002 CDC criteria do not identify women with subclinical disease.
## Prevention
Regular testing for sexually transmitted infections is encouraged for prevention. The risk of contracting pelvic inflammatory disease can be reduced by the following:
- Using barrier methods such as condoms; see human sexual behaviour for other listings.
- Seeking medical attention if you are experiencing symptoms of PID.
- Using hormonal combined contraceptive pills also helps in reducing the chances of PID by thickening the cervical mucosal plug & hence preventing the ascent of causative organisms from the lower genital tract.
- Seeking medical attention after learning that a current or former sex partner has, or might have had a sexually transmitted infection.
- Getting a STI history from your current partner and strongly encouraging they be tested and treated before intercourse.
- Diligence in avoiding vaginal activity, particularly intercourse, after the end of a pregnancy (delivery, miscarriage, or abortion) or certain gynecological procedures, to ensure that the cervix closes.
- Reducing the number of sexual partners.
- Sexual monogamy.
- Abstinence
## Treatment
Treatment is often started without confirmation of infection because of the serious complications that may result from delayed treatment. Treatment depends on the infectious agent and generally involves the use of antibiotic therapy although there is no clear evidence of which antibiotic regimen is more effective and safe in the management of PID. If there is no improvement within two to three days, the patient is typically advised to seek further medical attention. Hospitalization sometimes becomes necessary if there are other complications. Treating sexual partners for possible STIs can help in treatment and prevention.
For women with PID of mild to moderate severity, parenteral and oral therapies appear to be effective. It does not matter to their short- or long-term outcome whether antibiotics are administered to them as inpatients or outpatients. Typical regimens include cefoxitin or cefotetan plus doxycycline, and clindamycin plus gentamicin. An alternative parenteral regimen is ampicillin/sulbactam plus doxycycline. Erythromycin-based medications can also be used. A single study suggests superiority of azithromycin over doxycycline. Another alternative is to use a parenteral regimen with ceftriaxone or cefoxitin plus doxycycline. Clinical experience guides decisions regarding transition from parenteral to oral therapy, which usually can be initiated within 24–48 hours of clinical improvement.
## Prognosis
Even when the PID infection is cured, effects of the infection may be permanent. This makes early identification essential. Treatment resulting in cure is very important in the prevention of damage to the reproductive system. Formation of scar tissue due to one or more episodes of PID can lead to tubal blockage, increasing the risk of the inability to get pregnant and long-term pelvic/abdominal pain. Certain occurrences such as a post pelvic operation, the period of time immediately after childbirth (postpartum), miscarriage or abortion increase the risk of acquiring another infection leading to PID.
## Epidemiology
Globally about 106 million cases of chlamydia and 106 million cases of gonorrhea occurred in 2008. The number of cases of PID; however, is not clear. It is estimated to affect about 1.5 percent of young women yearly. In the United States PID is estimated to affect about one million people yearly. Rates are highest with teenagers and first time mothers. PID causes over 100,000 women to become infertile in the US each year.
|
[
"## Signs and symptoms",
"### Complications",
"## Cause",
"### Bacteria",
"## Diagnosis",
"### Differential diagnosis",
"## Prevention",
"## Treatment",
"## Prognosis",
"## Epidemiology"
] | 2,867 | 20,902 |
42,585,472 |
Chris Martin (baseball)
| 1,171,391,697 |
American baseball player (born 1986)
|
[
"1986 births",
"American expatriate baseball players in Japan",
"American expatriate baseball players in the Dominican Republic",
"Atlanta Braves players",
"Baseball players from Arlington, Texas",
"Boston Red Sox players",
"Chicago Cubs players",
"Colorado Rockies players",
"Colorado Springs Sky Sox players",
"Grand Prairie AirHogs players",
"Greenville Drive players",
"Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters players",
"Leones del Escogido players",
"Living people",
"Los Angeles Dodgers players",
"Major League Baseball pitchers",
"McLennan Highlanders baseball players",
"New York Yankees players",
"Nippon Professional Baseball pitchers",
"Pawtucket Red Sox players",
"Portland Sea Dogs players",
"Salem Red Sox players",
"Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders players",
"Surprise Saguaros players",
"Texas Rangers players",
"Worcester Red Sox players"
] |
Christopher Riley Martin (born June 2, 1986) is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Boston Red Sox of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the Colorado Rockies, New York Yankees, Texas Rangers, Atlanta Braves, Chicago Cubs and Los Angeles Dodgers and in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) for the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters.
Martin played baseball at Arlington High School and McLennan Community College, but gave up on baseball after he suffered a shoulder injury. After working in a warehouse for three years, Martin began playing catch, and felt strong enough to try out for independent league baseball. After he pitched for the Grand Prairie AirHogs in 2010, the Boston Red Sox of MLB signed Martin in 2011. He pitched in Minor League Baseball for the Red Sox organization, until they traded him to the Rockies after the 2013 season.
Martin made his MLB debut for the Rockies in 2014, and was traded to the Yankees after the season. He signed with the Fighters after the 2015 season, and won the 2016 Japan Series with the Fighters. He signed with the Rangers after the 2017 season. The Rangers traded Martin to the Braves during the 2019 season, and he was a part of the 2021 World Series championship team.
## Amateur career
Martin attended Arlington High School in Arlington, Texas, where he pitched for the school's baseball team. In 2004, his senior year, the Texas High School Baseball Coaches Association named Martin to its Class 5A All-State team. The Detroit Tigers of Major League Baseball (MLB) selected him in the 18th round of the 2004 MLB draft, but Martin did not sign a professional contract.
Martin enrolled at McLennan Community College, where he played college baseball for the McLennan Highlanders. After his freshman year at McLennan, he received interest from the college baseball programs representing the University of Oklahoma and the University of Texas at Austin. However, he did not have enough course credits to transfer.
The Colorado Rockies of MLB selected Martin in the 21st round of the 2005 MLB draft. He returned to McLennan for his sophomore season, with the Rockies following his progress while deciding whether or not to offer him a contract. Martin suffered a shoulder injury while pitching for McLennan as a sophomore, and the Rockies opted not to offer him a contract. Martin was diagnosed with a torn labrum in the shoulder of his pitching arm, and he underwent surgery to correct it.
## Professional career
### Independent leagues (2006–2010)
Martin was not selected in the 2006 MLB draft. After graduating from McLennan, Martin signed with the Fort Worth Cats of the United League Baseball, which is independent of MLB, for the 2007 season. Though Martin made the team out of their tryout camp, he did not pitch in a game for the Cats due to discomfort in his shoulder. A doctor recommended Martin undergo surgery to repair the labrum and the articular capsule of the humerus. Rather than undergo surgery, Martin quit professional baseball. He went to work loading trucks for UPS at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, moving refrigerators for Lowe's, and stocking washing machines and clothes dryers in an appliance warehouse in Arlington.
Martin and Jordan Bostick, a coworker in the warehouse and a former high school baseball teammate, began playing catch in the warehouse. Martin noticed that his shoulder felt stronger, and with encouragement from Bostick, he agreed to attempt to play professional baseball again.
In 2010, after three years out of baseball, Martin tried out with the Grand Prairie AirHogs of the independent American Association of Independent Professional Baseball. Martin threw fastballs at 95 miles per hour (153 km/h) before he was pulled aside by Pete Incaviglia, the AirHogs manager, and signed to a contract. He made his debut for the AirHogs that night. He had a 4–0 win–loss record and a 1.96 earned run average (ERA) for the AirHogs.
### Boston Red Sox (2011–2013)
Incaviglia started contacting MLB teams to promote Martin. Before the 2011 season, the Boston Red Sox offered him a tryout during spring training. After practicing at their training facility, the Red Sox signed Martin to a minor league contract. The Red Sox assigned Martin to the Greenville Drive of the Class A South Atlantic League to begin the 2011 season. Later in the year, the Red Sox promoted Martin to the Salem Red Sox of the Class A-Advanced Carolina League and then the Portland Sea Dogs of the Class AA Eastern League. Across the three levels, Martin had a 6–2 win–loss record and 2.55 ERA in 23 appearances.
The Red Sox assigned Martin to Portland in 2012. He began the season as a starting pitcher, but was moved back to a relief role later in the season. He ended the 2012 season with a 4.48 ERA. In 2013, Martin worked exclusively in relief. He had a 5–3 win–loss record with a 2.25 ERA and five saves in 42 games pitched, split between Portland and the Pawtucket Red Sox of the Class AAA International League during the 2013 season.
### Colorado Rockies (2014)
After the 2013 season, the Red Sox traded Martin, along with pitcher Franklin Morales, to the Colorado Rockies in exchange for infielder Jonathan Herrera. The Rockies insisted on Martin's inclusion in the trade. Martin began the 2014 season with the Colorado Springs Sky Sox of the Class AAA Pacific Coast League.
The Rockies promoted Martin to the major leagues for the first time on April 25, 2014. Martin made his major league debut on April 26, pitching a scoreless inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers. He pitched a total of 15+2⁄3 innings for Colorado, recording a 6.89 ERA while striking out 14 and allowing 22 hits, before the Rockies demoted Martin to Colorado Springs in June. He pitched the rest of the season for Colorado Springs, where he had a 4.39 ERA.
During the 2014–15 offseason, the Rockies agreed to sign Nick Hundley. The Rockies designated Martin for assignment on January 5, 2015, in order to remove him from their 40-man roster, so that the Rockies could sign Hundley.
### New York Yankees (2015)
The Rockies traded Martin to the New York Yankees on January 13, 2015, receiving cash considerations. Martin competed for a spot in the Yankees' bullpen in spring training, and was named to the Yankees' Opening Day roster.
On April 28, 2015, Martin recorded his first career save in a 4–2 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays. Martin began the season with a 0–1 record and a 3.55 ERA in 12+2⁄3 innings pitched across 15 appearances, before he went on the disabled list on May 9 due to tendinitis in his right elbow. The Yankees activated Martin from the disabled list on May 31, and optioned him to the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders of the International League. The Yankees recalled Martin from the minor leagues on June 11 to fill in for the injured Andrew Miller, and optioned him back to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on June 19. He finished the 2015 season with a 0–2 record and a 5.66 ERA in 24 games pitched for the Yankees.
### Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters (2016–2017)
After the 2015 season, the Yankees sold the contractual rights to Martin to the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters of Nippon Professional Baseball's Pacific League for \$750,000. At the time, he had a career 6.19 ERA in 36+1⁄3 innings in MLB and a .318 batting average against.
Martin succeeded Hirotoshi Masui in the role of closing pitcher for the Fighters in 2016. He made the Pacific League All-Star team, but injured his ankle in September. Martin missed the end of the regular season and the 2016 Japan Series, which the Fighters won. He finished the 2016 season with a 1.07 ERA and 21 saves. He appeared in 52 games, which was a personal single-season best.
The Fighters re-signed Martin for the 2017 season for ¥100 million (approximately US\$). He had a 1.19 ERA in 40 appearances with the Fighters in 2017. Between his two seasons in Japan, Martin struck out 91 batters and walked 13 in 88+1⁄3 innings. He credited his time with Hokkaido for helping him learn how to prepare himself between appearances with less input from coaches. He also learned how to throw a split-finger fastball from teammate Shohei Ohtani.
### Texas Rangers (2018–2019)
On December 15, 2017, Martin signed a two-year, \$4 million contract with the Texas Rangers. He recorded a 4.54 ERA in 41+2⁄3 innings pitched in 2018. After the 2018 season, Martin represented MLB in the 2018 MLB Japan All-Star Series from November 8–15. When Rangers' closer Shawn Kelley went on the injured list in May 2019, Martin filled in for him. Martin and José Leclerc received save opportunities when Kelley was injured in July. For the Rangers in 2019, Martin had a 3.08 ERA in 38 appearances; from May 24 to July 30, he had a 1.45 ERA.
### Atlanta Braves (2019–2021)
On July 30, the day before the 2019 trade deadline, the Rangers traded Martin to the Atlanta Braves in exchange for Kolby Allard. On September 11, Martin pitched an immaculate inning in the bottom of the seventh against the Philadelphia Phillies. He had a 4.08 ERA with Atlanta in 20 games after the trade, finishing the season with a 3.40 ERA and four saves in 58 total appearances. The Braves included Martin on their roster for the 2019 National League Division Series, but he injured an oblique muscle while warming up in Game 1 and was removed from the roster.
A free agent after the 2019 season, Martin re-signed with Atlanta on a two-year contract worth \$14 million on November 19. In the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, he pitched to a 1.00 ERA in 19 relief appearances spanning 18 innings. In 2021, Martin had a 3.95 ERA in 46 relief appearances. During the 2021 postseason, Martin had a 2.08 ERA in five appearances as the Braves won the 2021 World Series.
### Chicago Cubs (2022)
On March 17, 2022, Martin signed a one-year contract with the Chicago Cubs worth \$2.5 million, with additional achievable incentives. Martin appeared in 34 games for the Cubs, recording a 4.31 ERA in 31+1⁄3 innings. He recorded a 3.29 ERA in his appearances after June 17.
### Los Angeles Dodgers (2022)
On July 30, 2022, the Cubs traded Martin to the Los Angeles Dodgers in exchange for Zach McKinstry. He pitched 24+2⁄3 innings over 26 games and finished 3–1 with a 1.46 ERA.
### Boston Red Sox (2023–present)
On December 8, 2022, Martin signed a two-year contract with the Boston Red Sox. He started the 2023 season as a member of Boston's bullpen, and spent two weeks during the second half of April on the injured list.
## Pitching style
Martin is listed at 6 feet 8 inches (2.03 m) and 215 pounds (98 kg). He throws a fastball that averages 95 miles per hour (153 km/h). He also throws a slider, a splitter, and a cut fastball.
## Personal life
Martin is the youngest of four children born to Connie and Matt Martin. His three older siblings, Crystal, Jonathan, and Shannon, all played baseball or softball when they were growing up. Crystal played softball at the collegiate level for the Texas A&M Aggies as their shortstop, and was named an All-Big 12 Conference selection during her collegiate career.
|
[
"## Amateur career",
"## Professional career",
"### Independent leagues (2006–2010)",
"### Boston Red Sox (2011–2013)",
"### Colorado Rockies (2014)",
"### New York Yankees (2015)",
"### Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters (2016–2017)",
"### Texas Rangers (2018–2019)",
"### Atlanta Braves (2019–2021)",
"### Chicago Cubs (2022)",
"### Los Angeles Dodgers (2022)",
"### Boston Red Sox (2023–present)",
"## Pitching style",
"## Personal life"
] | 2,622 | 12,370 |
7,973,299 |
Nauru at the 1996 Summer Olympics
| 1,003,112,163 | null |
[
"1996 in Nauruan sport",
"Nations at the 1996 Summer Olympics",
"Nauru at the Summer Olympics by year"
] |
Nauru competed in the Olympic Games for the first time at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, United States from 19 July to 4 August 1996. The delegation consisted of three weightlifters; Quincy Detenamo, Gerard Garabwan, and Marcus Stephen. Their best performances were by Detenamo, who came 20th in the men's 76 kg category and Garabwan who finished 24th in the men's 91 kg event. Stephen failed to finish his event, but would later become President of the Republic.
## Background
Nauru became independent from being a United Nations trust territory on 31 January 1968. The Nauru Olympic Committee was recognized by the International Olympic Committee on 1 January 1994. Accordingly, Atlanta was the island nation's first participation in Olympic competition. The 1996 Summer Olympics were held from 19 July to 4 August 1996. The Nauran delegation consisted of three weightlifters; Quincy Detenamo, Gerard Garabwan, and Marcus Stephen. The flag bearer for the opening ceremony was Stephen.
## Weightlifting
In Olympic weightlifting, each competitor gets three attempts at the snatch, with the highest weight lifted counting. Those who post a mark in the snatch move on to the clean and jerk, where, again, each competitor is allowed three attempts with the best counting. Final results are the sum of the best lift from each technique. Quincy Detenamo was 17 years old at the time of the Atlanta Olympics, and was making his only Olympic appearance. He competed in the men's 76 kilograms category, for those whose body weight was 76 kg or less. In the snatch, he succeeded at 100 kg, 105 kg, and on his last attempt was successful at 110 kg, his mark for this portion of the event. In the clean and jerk, he succeeded at 137.5 kg, before failing twice at 142.5 kg. Detenamio's total mark for the event was therefore 252.5 kg, good for 20th place among 21 classified finishers; the gold medal was won with a mark of 367.5 kg by Cuban athlete Pablo Lara.
Gerard Garabwan was 25 years of age, and also making his only Olympic appearance. He competed in the men's 91 kg category on 27 July. In the snatch, he lifted 110 kg and 115 kg in his first two attempts, and failed at 120 kg on his third. In the clean and jerk, he lifted 150 kg, before failing twice at 157.5 kg. His total mark was thus 265.0 kg, which put him 24th and last in the event. The gold medal was won by Russian Aleksey Petrov with a mark of 402.5 kg.
Marcus Stephen was 26 years old at the time of these Games, and was making his second Olympic appearance; he had previously represented Samoa at the 1992 Summer Olympics. He competed in the men's 59 kg category on 21 July. In the snatch, he failed all three attempts at 120 kg, and was eliminated from the competition. Stephen would return to represent Nauru at the 2000 Summer Olympics, and would later serve as the President of Nauru from 2007 to 2011.
|
[
"## Background",
"## Weightlifting"
] | 696 | 36,244 |
32,625,864 |
Miranda Du
| 1,169,651,276 |
American judge (born 1969)
|
[
"1969 births",
"21st-century American judges",
"21st-century American women judges",
"American jurists of Asian descent",
"California lawyers",
"Judges of the United States District Court for the District of Nevada",
"Living people",
"Nevada lawyers",
"People from Cà Mau Province",
"UC Berkeley School of Law alumni",
"United States district court judges appointed by Barack Obama",
"University of California, Davis alumni",
"Vietnamese emigrants to the United States",
"Vietnamese refugees"
] |
Miranda Mai Du (born 1969) is an American lawyer who has served as a United States district judge. Du was nominated by President Barack Obama to the United States District Court for the District of Nevada in 2011, and confirmed by the Senate in 2012. As a district judge, Du has presided over a number of noteworthy cases, including a number regarding voting rights. She has been chief judge of the court since 2019.
## Early life and education
Du was born in Cà Mau, Vietnam, in 1969. During the Vietnam War, her father had been a supporter of the U.S.-backed Army of the Republic of Vietnam, and the family left to seek asylum in Malaysia when Du was nine years old, fleeing the country by boat. Du's family spent nearly a year in Malaysian refugee camps before ultimately being granted asylum in the United States, being sponsored by a family in Winfield, Alabama. Growing up, Du and her family lived in a number of places across the United States, including Winfield, Alabama, where her father worked on a dairy farm. The family also lived at various times in Tuscaloosa, Alabama; Seattle, Washington; and Oakland, California. Du participated in Upward Bound in high school.
Du received a Bachelor of Arts from University of California, Davis in 1991, graduating with honors in history and economics. She earned her Juris Doctor from University of California, Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall) in 1994.
## Career
Upon graduating from law school, Du was admitted to the bar in Nevada in 1994 and in California in 1995. She took a job as an associate at the law firm McDonald Carano Wilson LLP in 1994 and was promoted to partner in 2002. She practiced for about one year in Las Vegas, before transferring to the firm's Reno, Nevada office. Du practiced employment law, serving as chair of her firm's employment and labor practice group.
### Federal judicial service
On August 2, 2011, President Barack Obama nominated Du to replace Judge Roger L. Hunt, who assumed senior status. A substantial majority of the American Bar Association's Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary, which rates the qualifications of judicial nominees, rated Du as "qualified" for the post, with a minority rating her "not qualified" (the committee rates on a three-tier scale: well qualified, qualified, and not qualified). Du's nomination and confirmation were strongly supported by Nevada's two U.S. senators, Harry Reid (Democrat) and Dean Heller (Republican), as well as the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus. Her confirmation was opposed by some Republican senators, who viewed her as too inexperienced and cited a sanction against her in 2007 by a Nevada federal court.
On November 3, 2011, the Senate Judiciary Committee reported her nomination to the Senate floor by a 10–8 vote. On March 28, 2012, Du's nomination was confirmed by a 59–39 vote. She received her commission two days later. Du became the first Asian Pacific American to serve as an Article III judge in Nevada.
As a new district judge, Du initially worked in Las Vegas, but after about a year transferred her chambers to Reno, where she remains based. She became chief judge of the court on September 2, 2019, after Judge Gloria Navarro finished her term as chief judge. Du served as chief judge of the court during the coronavirus pandemic, during which all federal trials and naturalization ceremonies in the judicial district were postponed. Du is part of the court's Patent Pilot Program, which allows judges who are not part of the program to have new patent and plant variety protection cases randomly reassigned to a judge who is participating in the program.
In February 2020, a Nevada prison inmate was sentenced to four years in prison for making threats of violence against Du.
#### Voting rights decisions
In 2016, Du granted a preliminary injunction sought by members of two Nevada Native American tribes (the Pyramid Lake Paiute and Walker River Paiute), compelling the Washoe County registrar to set up early voting polling places at the tribes' reservations (in Nixon and Schurz), and to set up an Election Day polling place at Nixon. In the absence of the ruling, many tribal members would have had to travel nearly 100 miles round trip to reach polling sites, and Du ruled that Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 required the state to take the location of their reservations into account when planning polling locations. Du denied the plaintiffs' request to require the state to set up in-person voter registration locations at the reservations, holding that the tribes lacked standing to seek that form of relief.
In April and May 2020, Du twice rejected requests made by the right-wing group True the Vote and Nevada Right to Life seeking to cancel Nevada's mostly all-mail primary elections, which was put in place by Nevada Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske because in-person voting risked spreading COVID-19. Du held that the groups lacked standing to seek to block an all-mail election and that "Defendants' interests in protecting the health and safety of Nevada's voters and to safeguard the voting franchise in light of the COVID-19 pandemic far outweigh any burden on Plaintiffs' right to vote, particularly when that burden is premised on a speculative claim of voter fraud resulting in dilution of votes."
In May 2020, Du issued a decision granting Fair Maps Nevada (a political action committee backed by the Nevada League of Women Voters) additional time to collect voter signatures necessary to put a question on the ballot to create an independent Nevada redistricting commission. Du held that because the COVID-19 stay-at-home order issued by the Nevada authorities effectively prevented Fair Maps Nevada from gathering signatures for the period that the order was in effect, the Nevada Secretary of State's decision to refuse to extend the deadline to collect signatures was unreasonable and violated the First Amendment. Du therefore extended the deadline to August 2020. However, Du declined Fair Maps Nevada's request to allow electronic signature gathering.
#### Environment and land use decisions
In 2015, Du denied a request by a number of rural Nevada counties, mining companies, and ranchers seeking a preliminary injunction to block a U.S. Department of the Interior policy that restricted development on federal lands in Nevada and eastern California to protect the greater sage grouse. Du held that the plaintiffs had failed to demonstrate imminent, irreparable harm, a prerequisite for obtaining a preliminary injunction. In 2020, Du sided with the U.S. Forest Service and conservationists in upholding the Forest Service's power to prohibit off-roading within a 4 miles (6.4 km) "buffer area" in the Mono Basin along the California-Nevada border for a three-month period, to protect the greater sage grouse mating grounds. The Sierra Trail Dogs Motorcycle and Recreation Club sued the Forest Service over the rule, which forced the postponement of the club's annual dirt bike race; Du held that under the National Environmental Policy Act, the Forest Service's prohibition was a minor variation of the previously issued environmental impact statement, and therefore the agency was not required to conduct a supplemental environmental review.
In 2019, Du rejected a request by the Nevada state government for a preliminary injunction to block the U.S. Department of Energy from shipping weapons-grade plutonium from South Carolina's Savannah River Site to the Nevada National Security Site. Du found that an injunction was unwarranted because Nevada "cannot demonstrate the likelihood of irreparable harm in the absence of preliminary injunctive relief or that the balance of hardships tips in its favor". Nevada's appeal to the Ninth Circuit was dismissed as moot because the federal government completed the plutonium shipments to Nevada.
#### Criminal law decisions
In 2015, Du granted the habeas petition of Jose Echavarria, a death row inmate convicted of killing an FBI agent during a bank robbery in 1991. Echavarria's attorneys argued that his trial was unfair because the presiding judge was also being investigated by the FBI – a fact the defense did not learn until after the trial ended. Du agreed and ruled that Echavarria was entitled to a new trial. Du's ruling was upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Du also presided over the criminal case against a doctor and hospital executive from Winnemucca in rural Nevada who illegally wrote prescriptions for opioids without a medical purpose. The executive pleaded guilty to distribution of a controlled substance; Du sentenced him to a year and a day in federal prison, a \$125,000 fine, and three years of supervised release.
#### Other notable decisions
Du was assigned to preside over Walden v. State of Nevada ex rel. Nevada Department of Corrections, a major employment suit brought by several hundred Nevada state prison guards against the state. The guards allege that they are entitled to payment for tasks (such as debriefings, equipment collection, and uniform inspections) completed just before their shifts officially begin. In 2018, Du found that the state of Nevada had waived its sovereign immunity from suit by removing the guards' case from state court to federal court; that the pre-shift activities were "integral and indispensable" to the guards' jobs; and that the guards could thus pursue federal Fair Labor Standards Act claims against the state relating to overtime pay. Du dismissed the guards' breach-of-contract claims.
In 2019, Du dismissed a suit brought by three Texas women who argued that Nevada's legal prostitution law (the only one of its kind in the United States) conflicted with federal sex trafficking laws and therefore violated the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The women alleged that they had been victims of sexual violence in Nevada attributable to Nevada's legal brothels. In dismissing the suit, Du wrote: "While the Court empathizes with Plaintiffs for their lived experiences, the Court cannot adjudicate Plaintiffs' claims because Plaintiffs fail to establish standing to confer jurisdiction upon this Court."
In May 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic in Nevada, Du denied a church's request for an emergency injunction that would allow it to exceed a 50-person cap on religious gatherings imposed by Governor Steve Sisolak to slow the spread of COVID-19. The church asserted that the 50-person limit violated their right to free exercise of religion and sought a court order allowing the church to exceed the limit for Pentecost Sunday services. Du denied the motion, writing that although the church members undoubtedly had "sincerely held religious convictions" they had failed to demonstrate "the diligence required to warrant emergency relief" because they had waited until one business day before Pentecost Sunday to seek an emergency injunction.
In September 2020, Du ruled that Tesla, Inc. could not be sued for defamation after falsely alleging to several news outlets that a former employee, Martin Tripp, may "come back and shoot people" at Tesla's Gigafactory in Nevada. In the same ruling, Du refused to dismiss Tesla's suit against Tripp for leaking a Tesla document.
## See also
- List of Asian American jurists
- List of first women lawyers and judges in Nevada
|
[
"## Early life and education",
"## Career",
"### Federal judicial service",
"#### Voting rights decisions",
"#### Environment and land use decisions",
"#### Criminal law decisions",
"#### Other notable decisions",
"## See also"
] | 2,292 | 16,557 |
12,527,061 |
Zainab Salbi
| 1,172,671,505 |
Iraqi-American women's rights activist (born 1969)
|
[
"1969 births",
"Alumni of the London School of Economics",
"American Muslim activists",
"American Muslims",
"American feminist writers",
"American humanitarians",
"American podcasters",
"American television talk show hosts",
"American women podcasters",
"American women's rights activists",
"American writers of Iraqi descent",
"George Mason University alumni",
"Iraqi Muslims",
"Iraqi emigrants to the United States",
"Iraqi feminists",
"Iraqi humanitarians",
"Iraqi women writers",
"Iraqi women's rights activists",
"Iraqi writers",
"Living people",
"Organization founders",
"People from Baghdad",
"Postmodern feminists",
"Proponents of Islamic feminism",
"Women founders",
"Women humanitarians",
"Women podcasters",
"Writers from Baghdad"
] |
Zainab Salbi (Arabic: زينب سلبي; born 1969) is an Iraqi American women's rights activist, writer, television show host, and podcaster. She is the co-founder of Women for Women International, a non-profit organization that helps women affected by sexual violence and conflict. She hosted Through Her Eyes and \#MeToo, Now What? television shows, about issues affecting women. From 2022 she hosted the Redefined podcast.
In her 2005 memoir Between Two Worlds: Escape from Tyranny: Growing Up in the Shadow of Saddam, Salbi recounted her early life: Born in Baghdad to a father who later became Saddam Hussein's personal pilot, her family arranged her marriage and emigration to the United States, in order to remove her from the proximity of Hussein, who had started showing unwanted attention to her. After an abusive marriage in the U.S., she divorced her husband and started her humanitarian career. She is also the author of the nonfiction book The Other Side of War: Women's Stories of Survival & Hope which documents the stories of women survivors of war.
## Early life and education
Salbi is a Muslim woman born in 1969 in Baghdad, Iraq who grew up with her younger brother. In 1971, she moved to the Mansour district with her parents. Her mother was a biology teacher while her father was an airline pilot. Her mother Alia was a secular Muslim. When Salbi was 11, her father became the personal pilot for Saddam Hussein, who then regularly visited the family at their home while he was president of Iraq. The Iran-Iraq War occurred during her childhood, including missile attacks on Baghdad. She studied languages at an Iraqi university.
In 1990, at the age of 20, Salbi was sent to the United States for an arranged marriage after her mother became concerned about the attention she received from Hussein. She left the marriage after her husband became abusive but could not return to Iraq due to the start of the first Gulf War. She moved to Washington, D.C., worked as a translator, and married Palestinian-American lawyer Amjad Atallah. In 1996, she became a US citizen and completed her bachelor's degree in sociology and women's studies at George Mason University. She has a 2001 master's degree in development studies from the London School of Economics.
## Career
While studying at George Mason University, Salbi learned about the systematic rape during the Bosnian war. In 1993, with Atallah, she launched Women for Women International. Salbi began serving as president, initially with a focus on supporting women in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia expanding to Iraq in 2003. The program linked sponsors in North America with women in Bosnia. Salbi led the organization until her resignation in 2011, during which time its humanitarian and development efforts helped 315,000 women and distributed over \$108 million in direct aid and micro-credit loans. Among the 185 countries that Women for Women International focused on were Afghanistan, Bosnia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kosovo, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sudan, and Iraq.
Salbi is an activist who speaks about sexual violence in conflict. She contributed the 2003 report Winning the Peace Conference Report: Women’s Role in Post-Conflict Iraq published by Women Waging Peace and the Woodrow Wilson Center. She later testified before the United States Congress about the contents of the report. By 2006, Salbi had appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show six times discussing the work of Women for Women International. The same year, the organization was awarded the \$1.5 million Hilton Humanitarian Prize. In January 2005, it produced a report presenting findings from a survey of 1,000 Iraqi women. The report conveyed women's concerns about their safety during the war.
In 2015, Salbi launched the TLC Arabia talk show The Calling, with Oprah Winfrey appearing on the first show. The show was broadcast in 22 countries in the Middle East and North Africa and focused on Arab and Muslim women. In response to her television work, Salbia has been called the "Oprah of the Middle East" and "The Voice of Arabia". In 2016, she launched The Zainab Salbi Project, an original series with Huffington Post. As the host, she dealt with social issues from different parts of the world. In February 2018, she started hosting the PBS television shows \#MeToo, Now What?. The five part series explored how positive change could occur after the aftermath of the MeToo movement, examining issues of gender, race, and social class. As the host, Salbi interviewed political commentator Angela Rye, writer Ijeoma Oluo, activist Nadine Strossen, and a former Alamo Drafthouse Cinema's blog editor who was accused of sexual assault. In 2018, Salbi hosted the Yahoo! News show Through Her Eyes with Zainab Salbi, focusing global issues affecting women.
Salbi is the author of the 2005 memoir Between Two Worlds: Escape from Tyranny: Growing Up in the Shadow of Saddam that documents her childhood, her family's proximity to Saddam Hussein, her arranged marriage, escape from Iraq to the United States, marital abuse, and the start of her humanitarian career. Salbi is the author of the 2006 nonfiction book The Other Side of War, which documents the stories of women who have lived through conflict and inequality and succeeded in community leadership and business. She is also the author of the 2018 self-help book Freedom Is an Inside Job. In 2022, she joined the online mindfulness and spirituality platform FindCenter and began to host the center's podcast Redefined.
## Awards and recognition
In 1995, President Bill Clinton honored Salbi at the White House for her humanitarian work and identified her as a "21st Century Heroine". Time magazine named her Innovator of the Month in March 2005 and she was later profiled for her work as philanthropist. In April the same year, Salbi received a Forbes magazine Trailblazer Award. In 2012, she was one of Barclays' Women of the Year. In 2011, Salbi received a Visionary Leadership Award from the International Festival of Arts & Ideas and was identified as one of the Top 100 Women Activists and Campaigners for her role in setting up Women for Women International by The Guardian. Salbi was identified as an influential Arab woman by Arabian Business, and one of the 100 Global Thinkers in the World by Foreign Policy. With almost 24,000 followers, Fortune identified Salbi as one of the Most Influential Women on Twitter in 2014, noting her women-focused humanitarian work. Gulf Business declared her one of the 100 Most Powerful Arabs in 2019, noting her role leading Women for Women International. Salbi was selected as a jury member of The Hilton Humanitarian Prize in 2020 and 2021.
She has honorary doctorates from the University of York (2014), George Mason University (2019) and Glasgow University (2019). She received the Eleanor Roosevelt Val-Kill Award in 2019 for her writing and television work to advance awareness of issues affecting women. In 2005 she was given the Human Security Award by the University of California, Irvine's Blum Centre for Poverty Alleviation.
## Books
- Between Two Worlds: Escape from Tyranny: Growing Up in the Shadow of Saddam, 2005, ,
- Hidden in plain sight: growing up in the shadow of Saddam, London: Vision, 2006. ,
- The Other Side of War: Women's Stories of Survival & Hope Washington, D.C: National Geographic, 2006. ,
- If You Knew Me You Would Care New York: PowerHouse Books, 2012. ,
- Freedom Is an Inside Job: Owning Our Darkness and Our Light to Heal Ourselves and the World, Sounds True, Incorporated, 2018. ,
|
[
"## Early life and education",
"## Career",
"## Awards and recognition",
"## Books"
] | 1,653 | 7,699 |
996,863 |
Robert F. Christy
| 1,170,312,379 |
Canadian-American physicist (1916–2012)
|
[
"1916 births",
"2012 deaths",
"20th-century American astronomers",
"American astrophysicists",
"Canadian emigrants to the United States",
"Fellows of the American Physical Society",
"Manhattan Project people",
"Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences",
"Presidents of the California Institute of Technology",
"UC Berkeley College of Letters and Science alumni",
"University of British Columbia Faculty of Science alumni",
"University of Chicago faculty"
] |
Robert Frederick Christy (May 14, 1916 – October 3, 2012) was a Canadian-American theoretical physicist and later astrophysicist who was one of the last surviving people to have worked on the Manhattan Project during World War II. He briefly served as acting president of California Institute of Technology (Caltech).
A graduate of the University of British Columbia (UBC) in the 1930s where he studied physics, he followed George Volkoff, who was a year ahead of him, to the University of California, Berkeley, where he was accepted as a graduate student by Robert Oppenheimer, the leading theoretical physicist in the United States at that time. Christy received his doctorate in 1941 and joined the physics department of Illinois Institute of Technology.
In 1942 he joined the Manhattan Project at the University of Chicago, where he was recruited by Enrico Fermi to join the effort to build the first nuclear reactor, having been recommended as a theory resource by Oppenheimer. When Oppenheimer formed the Manhattan Project's Los Alamos Laboratory in 1943, Christy was one of the early recruits to join the Theory Group. Christy is generally credited with the insight that a solid sub-critical mass of plutonium could be explosively compressed into supercriticality, a great simplification of earlier concepts of implosion requiring hollow shells. For this insight the solid-core plutonium model is often referred to as the "Christy pit".
After the war, Christy briefly joined the University of Chicago Physics department before being recruited to join the Caltech faculty in 1946 when Oppenheimer decided it was not practical for him to resume his academic activities. He stayed at Caltech for his academic career, serving as Department Chair, Provost and Acting President. In 1960 Christy turned his attention to astrophysics, creating some of the first practical computation models of stellar oscillations. For this work Christy was awarded the Eddington Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1967. In the 1980s and 1990s Christy participated in the National Research Council's Committee on Dosimetry, an extended effort to better understand the actual radiation exposure due to the bombs dropped on Japan, and on the basis of that learning, better understand the medical risks of radiation exposure.
## Early life
Robert Frederick Cohen was born on May 14, 1916, in Vancouver, British Columbia, the son of Moise Jacques Cohen, an electrical engineer, and his wife Hattie Alberta née Mackay, a school teacher. He was named Robert after his maternal great uncle Robert Wood, and Frederick after Frederick Alexander Christy, the second husband of his maternal grandmother. He had an older brother, John, who was born in 1913. Moise changed the family surname to Christy by deed poll on August 31, 1918. On November 4, Moise was accidentally electrocuted at work. Hattie died after goitre surgery in 1926. Christy and his brother were then cared for by Robert Wood, their grandmother Alberta Mackay, and their great aunt Maud Mackay.
Christy was educated at Magee High School, and graduated in 1932 with the highest examination score in the province of British Columbia. He was awarded the Governor General's Academic Medal, and, importantly in view of his family's limited ability to pay, free tuition to attend the University of British Columbia (UBC). At the award dinner he met the second-place winner, Dagmar Elizabeth von Lieven, whom he dated while at UBC. He received his Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in mathematics and physics with first class honors in 1935, and his Master of Arts (MA) degree in 1937, writing a thesis on "Electron attachment and negative ion formation in oxygen".
George Volkoff, a friend of Christy who was a year ahead of him at UBC, was accepted as a graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley, by Robert Oppenheimer, who led the most active school of theoretical physics in the United States at that time. This inspired Christy to apply to the University of California as well. He was accepted, and was awarded a fellowship for his first year. At Berkeley he shared an apartment with Volkoff, Robert Cornog, Ken McKenzie and McKenzie's wife Lynn McKenzie. For his thesis, Oppenheimer had him look at mesotrons, subatomic particles called muons today, that had recently been found in cosmic rays. They were so-called because they were more massive than electrons but less massive than protons. With the help of Shuichi Kusaka he performed detailed calculations of the particle's spin. He published two papers on mesotrons with Kusaka in the Physical Review, which formed the basis of his 1941 Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) thesis
## Manhattan Project
Christy could have graduated in 1940, but could not then be a teaching assistant, and this would have left him jobless and without income. In 1941, Oppenheimer found him a post at the physics department at Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT). In May 1941, he married Dagmar von Lieven. They had two sons: Thomas Edward (Ted), born in 1944, and Peter Robert, born in 1946. IIT paid Christy \$200 per month to teach 27 hours per week for 11 months per annum. To keep abreast of developments in physics, he attended seminars at the University of Chicago. This brought him to the attention of Eugene Wigner, who hired him for the same money that IIT was paying him as a full-time research assistant, commencing in January 1942.
Enrico Fermi and his team from Columbia University arrived at the University of Chicago in January 1942 as part of an effort to concentrate the Manhattan Project's reactor work at the new Metallurgical Laboratory. Fermi arranged with Wigner for Christy to join his group, which was building a nuclear reactor, which Fermi called a "pile", in the squash court under Stagg Field at the University of Chicago. Construction began on November 6, 1942, and Christy was present when Chicago Pile-1 went critical on December 2.
In early 1943, Christy joined Oppenheimer's Los Alamos Laboratory in New Mexico, where he became an American citizen in 1943 or 1944. Hans Bethe, the head of T (Theoretical) Division, detailed his physicists to assist with the projects at the laboratory. With his knowledge of reactors, Christy's assignment was to help Donald W. Kerst's Water Boiler group. The Water Boiler was an aqueous homogeneous reactor intended as a laboratory instrument to test critical mass calculations and the effect of various tamper materials. It was the first reactor to use enriched uranium as a fuel, and the first to use liquid fuel in the form of soluble uranium sulfate dissolved in water. Christy estimated that it would require 600 grams (21 oz) of pure uranium-235, a figure he subsequently revised to 575 grams (20.3 oz). When the reactor went critical on May 9, 1944, with 565 grams (19.9 oz), the accuracy of Christy's figures raised the laboratory's confidence in T Division's calculations.
The discovery by Emilio Segrè's group in April and May 1944 of high levels of plutonium-240 in reactor-produced plutonium meant that an implosion-type nuclear weapon was required, but studies indicated that this would be extremely difficult to achieve. By August 1944, the calculations had been made of how an ideal spherical implosion would work; the problem was how to make it work in the real world where jets and spalling were a problem. Christy worked in Rudolf Peierls's T-1 Group, which studied the theory of implosion. He suggested the possibility of using a solid plutonium core that would form a critical mass when compressed. This was an ultra-conservative design that solved the problem of jets by brute force. It became known as the "Christy pit" or "Christy gadget", "gadget" being the laboratory euphemism for a bomb. However the solid pit was intrinsically less efficient than a hollow pit, and it required a modulated neutron initiator to start the chain reaction. Christy worked with Klaus Fuchs, Paul Stein and Hans Bethe to develop a suitable initiator design, which became known as an "urchin". The Gadget used in the Trinity nuclear test and the Fat Man used in the atomic bombing of Nagasaki used Christy pits.
Later in life, Christy agreed to give a number of both oral history and video interviews in which he discussed his role in the Manhattan Project and latter interests.
## Later life
After the war ended, Christy accepted an assistant professorship at the University of Chicago, at a salary of \$5,000 per annum, twice what he had been making before the war. He moved back to Chicago in February 1946, but suitable housing was hard to find in the immediate post-war period, and Christy and his family shared a mansion with Edward Teller and his family.
Before the war, Oppenheimer had spent part of each year teaching at California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Christy was one of Oppenheimer's Berkeley students who made the trip down to Pasadena, California, each year to continue studying with Oppenheimer. After the war, Oppenheimer decided that with his additional responsibilities he could no longer continue this arrangement. The head of the W. K. Kellogg Radiation Laboratory at Caltech, Charles Lauritsen therefore asked Oppenheimer for the name of a theoretical physicist that he would recommend as a replacement. Oppenheimer recommended Christy. Willy Fowler then approached Christy with an offer of a full-time position at Caltech at \$5,400 per annum, and Christy accepted. He remained at Caltech for the rest of his academic career. The drawback to working at Caltech was that neither Lauritsen nor Fowler was a theoretical physicist, so a heavy workload fell on Christy. This was recognised by a pay raise to \$10,000 per annum in 1954.
Christy joined Oppenheimer, Lauritsen and Robert Bacher, who joined the faculty at Caltech in 1949, in Project Vista, a detailed 1951 study on how Western Europe could be defended against the Soviet Union. Christy was distraught at the outcome of the 1954 Oppenheimer security hearing. When he encountered Teller, who had testified against Oppenheimer, at Los Alamos in 1954, Christy publicly refused to shake Teller's hand. "I viewed Oppenheimer as a god", he later recalled, "and I was sure that he was not a treasonable person." Asked about his relationship with Teller in 2006, Christy said:
> I’ve seen him from time to time. Our relationship has remained cool. Since that time, I have disagreed with him in a number of areas. For example, the Strategic Defense Initiative. I have disagreed with him, but I have not argued with him publicly, because Teller operates at a much different level than I do. He’s a confidant of presidents; I’m not. As I say, I merely disagree privately, and that’s the way it is.
In 1956, Christy was one of a number of scientists from Caltech who publicly called for a ban on atmospheric nuclear testing. The 1963 Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty that Christy advocated put an end to one of his most unusual projects. He worked with Freeman Dyson on Project Orion, the design of a spacecraft propelled by atomic bombs.
During a sabbatical year at Princeton University in 1960, Christy began an investigation of Cepheid variables and the smaller RR Lyrae variables, classes of luminous variable stars. At the time it was a mystery as to why they varied. He used the knowledge of the hydrodynamics of implosion gained at Los Alamos during the war to explain this phenomenon. This earned him the Royal Astronomical Society's Eddington Medal for contributions to theoretical astrophysics in 1967.
Christy was appointed vice president and Provost of Caltech in 1970. Under Christy and President Harold Brown Caltech expanded its humanities and added economics to allow (or perhaps to compel—undergrads were required to take 25% of their units in "humanities") students to broaden their education. He had David Morrisroe appointed as vice president for Financial Affairs, and they steered Caltech through the financially stringent 1970s. The first women were admitted as undergraduates in Fall 1970.
When Jenijoy La Belle, who had been hired in 1969 but refused tenure in 1974, filed suit with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Christy pressed for the case to be settled and La Belle to be given tenure. The EEOC ruled against Caltech in 1977, adding that she had been paid less than male colleagues. La Belle received tenure in 1979.
In 1970 he became romantically involved with Inge-Juliana Sackman, a fellow physicist 26 years his junior. He divorced Dagmar in early 1971, and married Juliana on August 4, 1973. They had two daughters, Illia Juliana Lilly Christy, born in 1974, and Alexandra Roberta (Alexa) Christy, born in 1976.
Christy briefly became acting President of Caltech in 1977 when Brown left to become Secretary of Defense. Christy returned to teaching after Marvin L. Goldberger became president in 1978. He became Institute Professor of Theoretical Physics in 1983, and Institute Professor Emeritus in 1986.
Christy died on October 3, 2012. He was survived by his wife Juliana, their two daughters, Illia and Alexa, and his two sons, Peter and Ted. He was buried at Mountain View Cemetery in Altadena, California.
|
[
"## Early life",
"## Manhattan Project",
"## Later life"
] | 2,932 | 16,439 |
35,908,682 |
Lemme See
| 1,166,129,102 | null |
[
"2012 singles",
"2012 songs",
"Music videos directed by Philip Andelman",
"RCA Records singles",
"Rick Ross songs",
"Song recordings produced by Jim Jonsin",
"Songs written by Danny Morris (music producer)",
"Songs written by Eric Bellinger",
"Songs written by Jim Jonsin",
"Songs written by Rick Ross",
"Songs written by Usher (musician)",
"Usher (musician) songs"
] |
"Lemme See" is a song by American singer-songwriter Usher, released through RCA Records, as the third single from his seventh studio album Looking 4 Myself (2012). The track features vocals from rapper Rick Ross. It was written by Usher, Eric Bellinger, Jim Jonsin, Danny Morris, Nickolas Marzouca and Lundon Knighten with its production helmed by Jonsin and Morris. It was digitally released on May 4, 2012 and sent to urban radio on May 8, 2012. "Lemme See" is a mid-tempo R&B song that makes heavy use of synthesizers. Its lyrics depict Usher contemplating on what he is going to do when he "gets a certain female clubgoer into his bedroom".
The song peaked at number 46 on the Billboard Hot 100. It has also reached number two on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, the second single from Looking 4 Myself to peak in the top three on the chart, following its lead single "Climax". Internationally "Lemme See" reached number six on the South Korea Gaon International Chart, number 88 on the French Singles Chart and number ninety on the UK Singles Chart. The song's music video was directed by Philip Andelman, and shows Usher inside his estate with his love interest in several risqué scenes. Usher performed the song live during the 2012 iTunes Festival.
## Release and composition
"Lemme See" was digitally released on May 4, 2012 as the third single from Usher's seventh studio album Looking 4 Myself, following "Scream". The following week, on May 8, 2012 "Lemme See" was released to SoundCloud. On the same day, it was sent to urban radio and on May 22, to rhythmic radio.
"Lemme See" is a mid-tempo R&B song that heavily incorporates synthesizers, and has a running duration of four minutes and 15 seconds. It contains elements of hip hop music, and its production was compared to the one in Kelly Rowland's "Motivation" (2011). Lyrically, Usher is contemplating on what he is going to do when he "gets a certain female clubgoer into his bedroom", in the line: Hey girl, I'm debating if I should take you home. During the pre-chorus, he comes to the conclusion: I decided to take my shirt off / and show my chest.
## Critical reception
The Observer's Killian Fox called the song a hit. Andy Kellman of AllMusic described the track as "a slithering, low-slung jam" noting it as one of Usher's best songs and a stand-out from Looking 4 Myself. DJ Booth commended its production, writing that it contains "sultry, slow-burning synth grooves". Erika Ramirez of Billboard also praised the song's production, calling it "seductive" while showing a positive response to Rick Ross' verse. Several other reviewers showed similar responses to Ross' appearance on "Lemme See", including Sobhi Youssef of Sputnikmusic who noted it as a "welcome" surprise. The Los Angeles Times's Randall Roberts wrote that the song "finds its groove when Rick Ross parks his Lamborghini on the track’s lawn for a cameo". By contrast, BBC Music's Natalie Shaw disapproved of Rick Ross' verse, saying that it consists of "tasteless mentions of Trayvon Martin".
## Chart performance
Due to digital downloads, "Lemme See" entered the singles chart in South Korea. It debuted on the South Korea Gaon International Chart at number ten on May 27, 2012, with sales of 17,445 digital copies. The following week, it rose to number six, selling a further 19,632 copies. In its third week, with the release of Looking 4 Myself in South Korea, it sold 10,914 units and was charted at number 18. In its fourth week, "Lemme See" dropped 23 positions to number 41, with 5,493 digital copies sold. It was knocked off the chart the proceeding week. In the US, "Lemme See" peaked below the top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 46. The song peaked at number two on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, and remained in the top five for eleven weeks. In the UK, following the release of Looking 4 Myself, the song entered and peaked at number ninety on the week of June 23, 2012. It also reached number 21 on the UK R&B chart. In France, the song entered and peaked at number 88, while dropping to number 110 the following the week before dropping off the chart in its third week.
## Music video and live performances
The official music video for "Lemme See" was released on June 14, 2012, and was directed by Philip Andelman. The video opens with a close-up of Usher's estate, and a woman bound by ropes. Usher is stood by a swimming pool singing the first verse, with the pool reflecting on him. During the pre-chorus, Usher is leaning against a wall while pulling up his top to reveal his chest. Entering the chorus, the video intercuts to Usher preparing drinks for himself and the tied up woman– his love interest. With the second verse, Usher is admiring his still tied up love interest. In the second pre-chorus, leaned against a wall Usher removes his shirt, while the video intercuts to him approaching his love interest to make love. Entering Rick Ross' verse, Ross is sat down shirtless, accompanied by two women sat by him left and right. Touching Ross' back, their tattoos transfer on to Ross and bloom. Him and Usher are both by a pool with Ross performing his rap, while in an intercut scene Usher's love interest is being released from her tied up predicament. In the final chorus, Usher and his love interest make love in a risqué scene, with both their tattoos moving and blooming on to each other in a similar way to Ross' scene. This alternates with the latter scene, Usher leaned against the wall and him and Ross by the pool, with Usher singing the verse. The video ends with Ross and Usher echoing the song's title.
American magazine Rap-Up praised the music video, calling it "seductive" while Billboard's David Greenwald compared it to Barbadian singer Rihanna's "S&M", and noted parts of "Lemme See"'s video as "less edgy" compared to its love scene. Opening the 2012 iTunes Festival, Usher performed the song for the first time along with "Can't Stop Won't Stop", "Twisted", "Dive" and "Numb" and other songs.
## Credits and personnel
Recording
- Vocal recording – Parkland Playhouse, Parkland, FL; Silent Sound Studios, Atlanta, GA
- Mixing – Parkland Playhouse, Parkland, FL
Personnel
- Songwriting – Jim Jonsin, Daniel Morris, Nickolas Marzouca, Usher Raymond IV, Eric Bellinger, Lundon
- Production – Jim Jonsin, Mr. Morris
- Vocal production – Natural
- Keyboard and programming – Jim Jonsin, Danny Morris
- Recording – Nickolas Marzouca, Mark "Exit" Goodchild
- Recording assistants – Matt Huber, Nathan Burgess, Kory Aaron
- Mixing – Robert Marks
- Mixing assistants – Matt Huber, Nathan Burgess, Dana Richard
- Additional vocals – Rick Ross
Credits adapted from the liner notes of Looking 4 Myself, RCA Records.
## Charts
### Weekly charts
### Year-end charts
## Release history
|
[
"## Release and composition",
"## Critical reception",
"## Chart performance",
"## Music video and live performances",
"## Credits and personnel",
"## Charts",
"### Weekly charts",
"### Year-end charts",
"## Release history"
] | 1,646 | 24,890 |
41,042,033 |
La Tante DC10 Restaurant
| 1,131,330,654 |
Airplane restaurant in Accra, Ghana
|
[
"2013 establishments in Ghana",
"Accra",
"Companies based in Accra",
"Ghanaian companies established in 2013",
"Individual aircraft",
"Restaurants established in 2013",
"Restaurants in Ghana"
] |
La Tante DC10 Restaurant, known locally as The Green Plane, is a public–private partnership restaurant established in Accra. This operates from the defunct Ghana Airways McDonnell Douglas DC-10, which had been in operation as a passenger jet between 1983 and 2005. The restaurant serves staple Ghanaian dishes. The restaurant has been well received locally.
## Description
La Tante DC10 Restaurant is a restaurant located inside a converted McDonnell Douglas DC-10 formerly used by the defunct Ghana Airways. Formerly flying 380 passengers, it has been converted into a 118-seat restaurant with large numbers of the seats removed in order to provide adequate space for patrons and for the installation of dining tables. An annex was attached to the right side of the fuselage to accommodate the kitchen.
The airplane itself has been moved to Airport City Accra, a suburb of Accra near to Kotoka International Airport and opposite Marina Mall Accra, with people entering and exiting the plane/restaurant via a covered staircase from ground level. They enter through the former first class seating area, which has been converted into a waiting area. Separate bathrooms have been installed for male and female diners and the restaurant is air-conditioned throughout.
### Menu
The restaurant serves Ghanaian cuisine. These include staples such as spiced tilapia, served with banku, a type of maize-based porridge. Other dishes include Jollof rice with chicken, and "red red" black-eyed pea stew with fish. While the prices at La Tante DC10 Restaurant are higher than those normally seen in the local area, the restaurant prices itself lower than the upmarket restaurants elsewhere in Accra.
## History
The DC-10 used as the restaurant was formerly owned and operated by Ghana Airways on routes between Ghana and both Europe and the United States. Ghana Airways ordered a DC-10-30 in 1976, with it arriving on 24 February 1983. During July 1985, it was used to fly United Nations troops in and out of Beirut, Lebanon. In January the following year the plane was used under contract from Caribbean Airlines to fly passengers from Europe to the Caribbean twice weekly.
In June 2002, the plane was impounded at London Heathrow Airport, United Kingdom, following unpaid debts of £4 million owned by the national carrier to parts supplier AJ Walters Aviation, causing services between Accra, the UK and Italy to be temporarily suspended. The airline went bankrupt in 2005. Following this, the plane was abandoned and left at Kotoka Airport; over the course of the following years, various parts were sold for scrap, including the three engines.
At the time it was purchased by the wife of the Togolese Minister in 2011, there had been preparations to salvage the plane for its aluminium. The plane was converted and re-opened as a restaurant on 11 November 2013 as a public-private partnership between the Ghana Airport Company Limited and Vindira Company Limited. It is the first time that a plane based restaurant has opened in Africa.
## Reception
The restaurant has proved popular with diners; manager Indira Shiyam explained in an interview with BBC News in 2014 that "At first, people wanted to have a feel of restaurant in a plane but surprisingly they keep coming". Some of the diners eat in the restaurant because they have never been inside a plane before, while others were curious about eating in a plane based restaurant.
Ask the Pilot columnist Patrick Smith visited the restaurant in 2016; his review was later published in Business Insider. He said it was cheap and good, but not exceptional. He criticised the "lack of context" given to the restaurant, as he would have enjoyed seeing photos of the plane when it was in use as a passenger jet. Smith said "Many restaurants have long and storied histories, but usually just in one place! Here's a restaurant that has literally been everywhere."
|
[
"## Description",
"### Menu",
"## History",
"## Reception"
] | 804 | 21,872 |
6,144,298 |
Sand Serpent
| 1,164,675,102 |
Steel roller coaster
|
[
"2004 establishments in Florida",
"Amusement rides that closed in 2003",
"Busch Gardens Tampa Bay",
"Roller coasters in Florida",
"Roller coasters in Tampa, Florida",
"Roller coasters introduced in 2004"
] |
Sand Serpent was a Wild Mouse roller coaster located at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay in Tampa, Florida. The ride originally operated at sister park Busch Gardens Williamsburg in Williamsburg, Virginia as Wild Izzy in 1996 and later as Wilde Maus from 1997 to 2003. When the roller coaster was relocated to Florida, it was renamed Cheetah Chase from 2004 to 2011 before receiving its last name change.
Sand Serpent was manufactured by Mack Rides and designed by Werner Stengel. The roller coaster reached a maximum height of 45.9 feet (14.0 m), with a maximum speed of 28 miles per hour (45 km/h), and a total length of 1,213.9 feet (370.0 m). Upon opening at Busch Gardens Williamsburg, the roller coaster was received generally well by the public, though its relocation at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay was minimally covered.
## History
In December 1995, Busch Gardens Williamsburg announced Wild Izzy, a Mack Rides Wild Mouse roller coaster, would be added to the park for the 1996 season in the Oktoberfest section. It was named after the mascot of the 1996 Summer Olympics, since Busch Gardens was a sponsor of the games. Originally in January, it was reported that Wild Izzy would open later in March. Though in March, the roller coaster was announced to open in April. Wild Izzy officially opened on April 12. After the 1996 season, it was given a European theme and renamed to Wilde Maus.
In November 2003, filings by the park for a new attraction were uncovered in James City County that would replace the Wilde Maus roller coaster. After seven years of operation at Busch Gardens Williamsburg, the roller coaster closed in 2003 where it was removed and replaced with the defunct dark ride, Curse of DarKastle in 2005. In December 2003, the St. Petersburg Times reported that the Wilde Maus would be shipped to Busch Gardens Tampa Bay in January 2004 and be renamed to Cheetah Chase. The roller coaster opened on February 28, in the Timbuktu section of the park.
Cheetah Chase replaced the defunct Crazy Camel flat ride that opened up with the Timbuktu section of the park in 1980. In 2011, the ride was rethemed from Cheetah Chase to Sand Serpent. This was done to reduce confusion with the park's new attraction, Cheetah Hunt. The roller coaster is situated in the Pantopia section of the park, which was renamed with the introduction of Falcon's Fury, the park's signature drop tower. Busch Gardens announced in June 2023 that Sand Serpent would close the next month for a new attraction. Sand Serpent closed on July 9, 2023.
## Characteristics
Sand Serpent was a stock Wild Mouse roller coaster model manufactured by Mack Rides and designed by Werner Stengel. Specifically, the ride model was the "Wild Maus", and the "Compact Mobile" version. Originally, the track was green and had yellow supports, with each car featuring colors from the Olympic rings along with lightning bolts and stars. The last iteration featured blue track and orange supports, with the cars variously colored solid blue, orange, or red.
Sand Serpent reached a maximum speed of 28 miles per hour (45 km/h), with the track having a total length of 1,213.9 feet (370.0 m), and encompassed a 144.3 feet (44.0 m) by 62.3 feet (19.0 m) area. The roller coaster operates with single cars that navigated the layout. The four riders per car are arranged in two rows with two seats across each. Unlike similar Wild Mouse roller coasters produced by Mack Rides, the Sand Serpent model did not feature dips in the track prior to the brake run.
### Ride experience
The car exited the station into a left turn and entered the 45.9 foot (14.0 m) tall lift hill. Following the lift, the car descended downward and went into a series of 180-degree turns that run parallel to each other. After the series of turns, the car made a wider continuous downward turn until it straightened out. The car then headed forward into a hill and two tight left turns. Thereafter the car dipped downward and ascended another hill where it takes another two left turns. The car then descended into another drop where the train headed upward into two tight left turns. Following the turn, the car descended into a hill and into the final brake run where it made a final left turn into the station. One cycle of the roller coaster took around two minutes to complete.
## Reception
Upon its original opening at Busch Gardens Williamsburg, the roller coaster was generally well received by the public. In the Daily Press' coverage, Michael McCary, a musician present, had described the roller coaster jokingly "not for tall people", as the force banged up his knees. Other guests during its opening stated that it was "scarier than you might think", relating it with that of the steel roller coaster Drachen Fire. In covering the state of Virginia's amusement parks, writers of The Star Democrat had described it as "distinctly different" from others because of its "jerky turns and quick dips" that would appeal to everyone. With its relocation to Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, the roller coaster was minimally covered by newspapers during its quiet debut in February 2004.
## See also
- List of attractions at Busch Gardens Tampa
- Scorpion (roller coaster), another roller coaster situated within the Pantopia section of the park
- Wild Mouse (Hersheypark), a similar Wild Mouse roller coaster produced by Mack Rides
|
[
"## History",
"## Characteristics",
"### Ride experience",
"## Reception",
"## See also"
] | 1,208 | 25,456 |
4,871,507 |
Mythodea
| 1,166,128,896 |
Album by Vangelis
|
[
"2001 albums",
"Choral symphonies",
"Concerts",
"Vangelis albums"
] |
Mythodea — Music for the NASA Mission: 2001 Mars Odyssey is a choral symphony by Greek electronic composer and artist Vangelis. It premiered as a single concert in Athens, Greece, in 1993 but a recording was only released in 2001 by Vangelis' then new record label Sony Classical, which also set up the NASA connection and promoted a new concert, this time with a worldwide audience.
For the 2001 version of Mythodea, Vangelis expanded and reorchestrated the original composition. It was first recorded and then played live on-stage by: Vangelis on synthesizers and keyboards, the London Metropolitan Orchestra augmented by two harpists, sopranos Kathleen Battle and Jessye Norman, the chorus of the Greek National Opera, and, for the concert only, the Seistron and Typana percussion ensembles. The concert was held in Athens, Greece on June 28, 2001, but the record was officially released only on October 23, 2001, to coincide with the 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft entering the orbit of planet Mars. The CD, and later the DVD, achieved a number of sales accolades around the world.
## First concert: 1993
The world premiere of Mythodia (original spelling) took place on July 13, 1993 as a public performance at the Herodes Atticus Theater, in Athens, Greece, for charity purposes. On stage were: Vangelis, who provided the full musical score accompanied by two harpists; mezzo-soprano Markella Hatziano, soprano Lucienne Deval, and the chorus and percussion of the Greek National Lyric Stage, conducted by Yvan Cassar.
Mythodia was then a piece in seven movements. Vangelis not only composed the music, he also wrote the lyrics in Ancient Greek. In a 2001 interview with KLEMblad magazine, Vangelis stated,
"This piece was composed in an hour. Yes, it took me an hour. [...] I'm not using the technology in the conventional way. I'm not using computers."
For the encore, Vangelis played a selection of his repertoire, including "La Petite Fille de la Mer" (from the album L'Apocalypse des Animaux), "Chariots of Fire", "Pulstar" (from the album Albedo 0.39), three tracks from the soundtrack of the film Conquest of Paradise ("Hispañola", "City of Isabel" and "Conquest of Paradise"), and finished with a performance of the Greek national anthem.
## Second concert: 2001
Mythodea would remain unheard in public for the next eight years, but Vangelis kept a recording of the 1993 concert for himself. Around the year 2000, Peter Gelb was the head of Sony Classical and was steering the record company in the direction of crossover music rather than mainstream classical repertoire. He had just signed with Vangelis and was in the process of selecting their first release together. Gelb was listening to some tapes that Vangelis had sent to him when he came upon Mythodea. He described the event in an interview: "When I first heard Mythodea I was in ecstasy with its rhythm and power themes, and with no further hesitation I suggested it was recorded immediately."
With the approval of Vangelis to record Mythodea with a full orchestra as Gelb had suggested, Sony Classical developed a marketing plan of Mythodea that with the help of Vangelis' friend and colleague, Dr. Scott Bolton, grew to include a promotional tie-in with NASA, a dedicated website, an audio CD and a live concert that involved the Greek Government and was broadcast on TV and published on video. The deal with NASA made Mythodea the official music of the mission involving the spacecraft 2001 Mars Odyssey. This mission took the spacecraft to the orbit of Mars on October 23, 2001, and the audio CD of Mythodea was scheduled to be officially released on the same day. Vangelis described the connection he felt between the music and the mission on the 2001 Mars Odyssey official website:
> I made up the name Mythodea from the words myth and ode. And I felt in it a kind of shared or common path with NASA's current exploration of the planet [Mars]. Whatever we use as a key — music, mythology, science, mathematics, astronomy — we are all working to decode the mystery of creation, searching for our deepest roots.
The premiere of the new version of Mythodea was held on June 28, 2001. By this date, the album had already been recorded and was finished. The concert was a live performance of the album, with everyone involved in the recording reprising their roles plus additional performers. The setting was the ancient (6th century BC) Temple of Olympian Zeus in Athens, Greece, featured on the album and video covers. Vangelis commented on the selection of location in an interview: "The record company wanted to promote this work and asked me 'where [...]?' and I thought that [...] Greece was really appropriate. And at the same time I had a proposition from the Minister of Culture [...] and this is what happened."
The concert was filmed by a 20-person camera crew. It was broadcast on TV from November 2001, and it was released on DVD in 2002. The budget for the spectacle was set at US \$7 million, split in half between the record company, Sony Classical, and the Greek government, which considered the concert a good promotion for Greece abroad and had it included in the Greek Cultural Olympiad leading to the 2004 Summer Olympics. There were some objections raised, mainly by fellow musician Mikis Theodorakis, over the use of both public money and an archaeological site. Vangelis himself, like in 1993, waived payment for his performance.
The spectacle involved 224 musicians on stage: Vangelis, the 75-person London Metropolitan Orchestra augmented by two harpists, soprano artists Kathleen Battle and Jessye Norman, the 123-person chorus of the Greek National Opera, and Greek percussion ensembles Seistron and Typana, that provided 24 timpani. Except for both percussion ensembles, all the other artists had participated in the recording of the album. In the back, a projection screen measuring 180 m (590 ft) in length and 24 m (79 ft) in height showed images of Mars supplied by NASA, combined with elements of ancient Greek mythology.
The number of attending spectators to the ticket-paid event was between 2,000, 2,500, and 3,000 with another 30,000 people watching for free on a giant screen at the nearby Panathinaiko Stadium. The concert lasted just over one hour, after which three encores were played: Chariots of Fire, Conquest of Paradise, and a combination of Movements 9 and 10. Mars itself made a special appearance at the concert as an announcer told the spectators to look for an orange spot shining in the clear sky above the orchestra. The concert was repeated the following day without an audience, to get extra camera angles. Despite not having been announced, around 50 people who showed up at the venue were admitted for free, authorized by Vangelis himself.
Mythodea was expected to be performed by other orchestras, without Vangelis' participation, but as of 2019 that had not happened.
## Album
The album was recorded at the Athens Concert Hall (Athens Μέγαρο Μουσικής - Megaro Moussikis), chosen for its excellent acoustics. For the recording, Vangelis expanded the original composition of 1993 by adding two movements, extending two more and inserting some new cues throughout. The chorus parts were also touched upon, with lyrics and melodic changes.
Except for Vangelis, none of the performers of the 1993 concert reprised their roles. Instead, Vangelis was accompanied by the London Metropolitan Orchestra augmented with two harpists, sopranos Kathleen Battle and Jessye Norman (both Sony Classical artists as well), and the Greek National Opera Choir and percussion ensemble. Vangelis asked musician Blake Neely to make the instrument transcriptions and conduct the orchestra as well.
Although the album was finished by the date of the concert in June 2001, its release was held back until October 23, 2001 to coincide with the entry of the 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft in the orbit of Mars. A promotional CD-audio was nevertheless given to the press at the date of the concert and a CD-audio in a blue velvet box was given to guests of a private dinner that took place after the concert. In 2004, two of these boxes were auctioned off online for charity purposes, fetching a total of US \$2,435.
Vangelis noted that "it's really the music that manages to speak to all. In Mythodea, everyone can find something to identify with, because it's in this shared language".
### Track listing
1. "Introduction" – 2:43
2. "Movement 1" – 5:41
3. "Movement 2" – 5:39
4. "Movement 3" – 5:51
5. "Movement 4" – 13:42
6. "Movement 5" – 6:35
7. "Movement 6" – 6:27
8. "Movement 7" – 4:58
9. "Movement 8" – 3:07
10. "Movement 9" – 5:00
11. "Movement 10" – 3:03
Two CD-singles were also released, both featuring a track called "Mythodea Special Edit" (3:57) which combined parts of "Movement 9" and "Movement 1", plus either "Movement 1" or "Movement 7". They were not widely available, so their original purpose may have been purely promotional, as were specifically a number of other CD-single releases.
There were variations on the track listing: some releases of the album carried alternative titles "Movement 1" through "Movement 11", and "Mythodea Special Edit" was sometimes included either as a bonus or as a hidden track.
The audio CD is CD-Text-enhanced, with the following header appearing on compatible players: Mythodea - Music for the NASA Mission: 2001 Mars Odyssey - Kathleen Battle, Jessye Norman, Vangelis. Text for tracks appears like this one for track 4: Movement 3 / Vangelis - London Metropolitan Orchestra - Athens Opera Choir - K.Battle - J.Norman.
### Sales and awards
The album reached \#1 in the sales charts of Greece, where it attained platinum certification and was nominated for the 2002 "Arion" Greek music awards, in the category "Best instrumental music". In Portugal, the album reached \#2 in the charts and attained silver certification for over 10,000 sales. The album reached \#39 in Italy, \#46 in Germany and \#75 in Switzerland. At the Billboard Classical Albums chart peaked at \#12 position, charting 22 weeks, while \#4 position on Top Classical Albums chart.
### Other appearances
A remixed version of "Movement 1" is included in the Vangelis compilation Odyssey: The Definitive Collection (2003). The opening march starts with less sound effects, instruments join in one by one more clearly, and an initial spoken countdown is absent. The same "Movement 1" was used as the title theme of reality TV series Der Maulwurf (lit. The Mole), which was broadcast by German station Pro7 in 2001. It was also used in the soundtracks of the trailers for the Hollywood films X-Men (2000) and The Scorpion King (2002). Finally, "Movement 9" is included in the compilation album Classic Kathleen Battle /A Portrait.
## Video
A one-hour condensed edit of the concert was made available for broadcast by TV stations and later released on video, cutting the intervals and leaving just the first encore, for a total running time of 76 minutes. More significantly, the live playing and singing were replaced by the album version mixed with live applause, except the encore which retained the original full-live recording. The synchronization of the live performance with the album recording was achieved with a click track being played to the performers.
The DVD-Video and VHS were released on February 17, 2002. The DVD featured PCM stereo and 5.1 Dolby Digital sound, 16:9 non-anamorphic image, and had as extras: artist biographies, "Making of Mythodea", music video, an introduction by NASA, and written notes by Vangelis. The DVD-video reached gold status in Portugal, for over 14,000 sales.
## Personnel
### 1993
Music composed, arranged and produced by Vangelis
Concert conceived, designed and directed by Vangelis
- Vangelis: synthesizers, keyboards
- Markella Hatziano, mezzo-soprano
- Lucienne Deval, soprano
- Choir and percussion of the National Lyric Stage, Yvan Cassar: conductor
### 2001
Album composed, arranged and produced by Vangelis
Concert conceived, designed and directed by Vangelis
- Vangelis: synthesizers, keyboards
- Kathleen Battle, Jessye Norman: sopranos
- London Metropolitan Orchestra, Blake Neely: conductor
- Greek National Opera Choir, Fani Palamidi: conductor
- Greek National Opera percussion emsemble (album only)
- Seistron, Typana: percussion ensembles (concert only)
- Frederick Rousseau: sound engineer and coordinator
|
[
"## First concert: 1993",
"## Second concert: 2001",
"## Album",
"### Track listing",
"### Sales and awards",
"### Other appearances",
"## Video",
"## Personnel",
"### 1993",
"### 2001"
] | 2,902 | 5,298 |
6,701,433 |
Iyarkai
| 1,169,706,130 |
2003 film by S. P. Jananathan
|
[
"2000s Tamil-language films",
"2003 directorial debut films",
"2003 films",
"2003 romantic drama films",
"Best Tamil Feature Film National Film Award winners",
"Films directed by S. P. Jananathan",
"Films scored by Vidyasagar (composer)",
"Films set on ships",
"Indian romantic drama films"
] |
Iyarkai (, ) is a 2003 Indian Tamil-language romantic drama film directed by S. P. Jananathan in his directorial debut. The film stars Shaam and Radhika. Arun Vijay—who at the time was known as Arun Kumar—makes a cameo appearance and Bollywood actor Seema Biswas plays a supporting role. Iyarkai marks the debuts of Radhika and Biswas in Tamil cinema.
Based on a true story, the film revolves around a young woman who is unable to accept the love of a sailor because she is in love with a ship captain who was lost at sea. It was made on a budget of one crore (₹). Vidyasagar composed the music for the film.
Iyarkai was released on 21 November 2003. Although the film was not successful at the box office, it won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Tamil at the 51st National Film Awards in 2004, and N. K. Ekambaram won the Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Cinematographer.
## Plot
Marudhu, a sailor, arrives at Rameshwaram port from Rome, after being away for fourteen years. At Senthil Aandavar Bar, a popular bar in the port, he meets Nandu while playing cards against Dorai and his posse at the bar. Marudhu asks Nandhu where the church is. Nandu directs Marudhu to the church, where he tells the church father, Stephen, the story of a captain who attempted to escape from his capsized ship. Marudhu later meets Nancy, who overheard his conversation with Stephen, at a roadside restaurant run by her sister-in-law, Mercy.
One day, Nandu comes to the bar with a bandaged nose. After seeing that Nandu is hurt, Marudhu looks for Dorai. A man from Durai's posse tells Dorai that Marudhu is looking for him and Durai goes in search of Marudhu. Marudhu finds Dorai fights him and his men. While fighting Dorai, Marudhu asks him who is he looking for, and if it is his lover. Nancy, overhears their conversation and, distracted by her thoughts, gets her dress stuck on train tracks as she is walking. Marudhu saves Nancy from an incoming train. She tells Marudhu to come to the only lighthouse in town at 6 p.m.
Later that day, Marudhu is directed to remove a stuck object from his ship's propeller. While effecting the repair, the propeller turns on and Marudhu is injured, making him unable to go to the lighthouse. To Marudhu's dismay, Nancy tells Marudhu that she was not waiting for him, but for a ship captain that she had met three years ago while selling mangoes and had fallen in love with. The ship captain had told her not to wait for him because she was too young to make a proper judgement about love, but he gave her a ring. Nancy also persuaded him to promise to return in one year.
Marudhu decides to help Nancy in her search for the ship captain. The search proves difficult, however, because Nancy does not know the captain's name, as she only addressed him as "Sir" and "Officer". After Marudhu reveals his love for Nancy, she distances herself from him. One day, Nancy comes across Joe, a crewman who sailed under the ship captain, after recognizing him in the bar. Joe tells Nancy that the ship captain's name is Mukundan and that he died in a shipwreck. The next day, Mercy wakes up and realizes that Nancy is missing. She tells Marudhu to go find Nancy. He gets on a ship docked at the port going to Sri Lanka after being directed there by one of the people working in the port. He finds an emotionally unstable Nancy sitting in the ship. Marudhu tries to get Nancy off the ship, but a man named Adam tells him that he cannot take her unless he fights him. After they fight, Nancy jumps off the ship and Marudhu follows to save her.
At night, Nancy and Marudhu sail on a canoe in search of Mukundan, when Marudhu accidentally loses Nancy's ring. The next day, he returns the ring to Nancy and tells the church father that he and his ship crew are planning to leave Christmas night. He writes his name on one piece of paper and "Captain" on the other and asks the church father to choose one of the papers, which he takes with him. On Christmas Eve, a man, unbeknownst to Nancy, arrives in the port. Marudhu helps the man get off his boat although Marudhu does not know that the man that he helped is Mukundan.
Marudhu asks Nancy if she is willing to accept his love. He starts to open the piece of paper to sees whose name is written, before Nancy stops him and agrees to marry him the next day, on Christmas. During their wedding, Nancy sees Marudhu and a group of other men dancing with Santa Claus masks. One of the men kneels and presents a ring on Nancy. To Nancy's surprise, the man removes his mask and reveals that he is Mukundan, not Marudhu. A depressed Marudhu leaves aboard his ship and drops the piece of paper into the ocean.
## Cast
- Shaam as Marudhu
- Arun as Mukundan (special appearance)
- Radhika as Nancy
- Senthil as the Senthil Aandavar Bar owner
- Seema Biswas as Mercy
- Chinni Jayanth as "Hawala" Arumugam
- Pasupathy as Father Stephen
- Karunas as Nandu
- Crane Manohar as a magician
- Suruli Manohar as a magician
- Kumaravel as Mastaan
- Abhinayashree (special appearance in the song "Seetu Kattu")
- Freddy Odiyo as Joe
- Antony Paul as Dorai
- Ahmed Adam as Adam
## Production
### Development
S. P. Jananathan began work on Iyarkai in 2001. The story is based on Jananathan's friend's uncle, who, immediately after getting married, went alone on a boat voyage in the Mediterranean Sea. He was lost and his body was nowhere to be found. Unaware of the situation, his wife awaited his return. Jananathan told the story to producer Ramkumar Ganesan, whose cousin V. R. Kumar became the producer after liking the story. The film was titled Iyarkai () because the conflict between man and nature causes a woman to wait for her past lover to return.
### Casting and filming
Suriya turned down the offer to play the lead role, saying he was not interested in doing romantic films. Shaam, whom Jananathan worked with as an assistant editor on 12B (2001), was cast instead. The film was shot in a coastal hamlet, where Shaam interacted with the locals to imitate their mannerisms.
Kannadathi actress Radhika made her Tamil cinema debut as Nancy. The media referred to her as "Kutti" (குட்டி; ) Radhika to differentiate her from the Tamil actress of the same name. Jananathan based Nancy on his friend's uncle's wife, and described her as an independent women with the autonomy to choose the man with whom she wants a relationship.
Arun Kumar was chosen to play the ship captain, a character based on the life of Jananathan's friend's uncle. He turned down the role because he was not interested in a cameo, but he later changed his mind after Jananathan explained the role's importance in the film. Bollywood actor Seema Biswas was cast as Nancy's sister-in-law, marking her Tamil film debut. Although he was advised not to, Pasupathy accepted the role of the priest. Pop singer Karunas was cast in a singing role in the film.
The film's first and second schedules were shot in the first half of 2003. The film's first schedule was a twenty-one day shoot at Rameshwaram, Tiruchendur, and Tuticorin. The second schedule was shot on the Andaman Islands.
Art directors Sabu Cyril and V. Selvakumar erected a lighthouse set for the film.
## Soundtrack
The music was composed by Vidyasagar with lyrics by Vairamuthu. The first song Vidyasagar composed for the film, "Kaadhal Vandhaal", was recorded before the film's first schedule in Tuticorin. The song was well received upon release. The song "Iyarkai Thaaye" from the film's soundtrack was not included in the film.
## Release and reception
Iyarkai was scheduled to be released on 24 October 2003, coinciding with the Deepavali festival, but the release was delayed. The film released to positive reviews, but it was a box office failure due to a lack of publicity and its delayed release. The film did not lose money because it was produced on a low budget.
Malathi Ranagarajan of The Hindu praised the cinematography and art direction, stating: "Together with Sabu Cyril-Selvan's art, K. Ekambaram's lens paints a bewitching picture on screen". She also praised the performances of Shaam, Kutty Radhika, Arun Kumar, and several foreign actors. Visual Dasan of Kalki appreciated the use of montage shots and Radhika's performance, but opined that Seema Biswas was underused.
R. Rangaraj of Chennai Online gave the film a positive review and wrote: "The debutant director, S P Jhananathan, has handled the build-up to the climax and the climax scenes too effectively. The end is rather stunning and unexpected for a Tamil movie". He also noted that the film may not have succeeded at the box office because it lacked commercial elements.
## Accolades
Upon release, Ekambaram sent Iyarkai to the National Awards committee. The film won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Tamil for 2003, competing with Virumaandi and Pithamagan. Jananathan wanted to return the award in protest of the death penalty and the hanging of Dhananjoy Chatterjee, but he did not do so.
## Dropped sequel
Jananathan wanted to shoot the film's sequel in Fiji, but the film never entered production.
|
[
"## Plot",
"## Cast",
"## Production",
"### Development",
"### Casting and filming",
"## Soundtrack",
"## Release and reception",
"## Accolades",
"## Dropped sequel"
] | 2,226 | 24,391 |
52,407,939 |
Yugoslav torpedo boat T7
| 1,134,934,980 |
Sea-going torpedo boat operated by the Royal Yugoslav Navy
|
[
"1916 ships",
"Maritime incidents in June 1944",
"Naval ships of Italy captured by Germany during World War II",
"Naval ships of Yugoslavia captured by Italy during World War II",
"Navy of the Independent State of Croatia",
"Ships built in Fiume",
"Ships of the Royal Yugoslav Navy",
"Shipwrecks in the Adriatic Sea",
"Torpedo boats of the Austro-Hungarian Navy",
"Torpedo boats of the Royal Yugoslav Navy",
"World War I torpedo boats of Austria-Hungary",
"World War II shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea"
] |
T7 was a sea-going torpedo boat operated by the Royal Yugoslav Navy between 1921 and 1941, after spending World War I in Austro-Hungarian Navy service. Originally 96 F, she was a 250t-class torpedo boat, and saw active service during World War I, performing convoy, patrol, escort and minesweeping tasks, and anti-submarine operations. Following Austria-Hungary's defeat in 1918, 96 F was allocated to the Navy of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, which later became the Royal Yugoslav Navy, and was renamed T7. At the time, she and the seven other 250t-class boats were the only modern sea-going vessels of the fledgling maritime force.
During the interwar period, T7 and the rest of the navy were involved in training exercises and cruises to friendly ports, but activity was limited by reduced naval budgets. The ship was captured by the Italians during the German-led Axis invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941. After her main armament was modernised, she served with the Royal Italian Navy under her Yugoslav designation, conducting coastal and second-line escort duties in the Adriatic. Following the Italian capitulation in September 1943, she was handed over by the Germans to the Navy of the Independent State of Croatia. She was driven aground by British motor torpedo boats in June 1944 and destroyed by the British Army to prevent her salvage.
## Background
In 1910, the Austria-Hungary Naval Technical Committee initiated the design and development of a 275-tonne (271-long-ton) coastal torpedo boat, specifying that it should be capable of sustaining 30 knots (56 km/h; 35 mph) for 10 hours. This specification was based upon an expectation that the Strait of Otranto, where the Adriatic Sea meets the Ionian Sea, would be blockaded by the hostile forces during a future conflict. Under such circumstances, there would be a need for a torpedo boat that could still sail from the Austro-Hungarian Navy (German: kaiserliche und königliche Kriegsmarine) base at the Bocche di Cattaro (Bay of Kotor) to the Strait during the night, locate and attack blockading ships and return to port before morning. Steam turbine power was selected for propulsion, as diesels with the necessary power were not available, and the Austro-Hungarian Navy did not have the practical experience to run turbo-electric boats. Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino (STT) of Trieste was selected for the contract to build the first eight vessels, designated as the T-group. Another tender was requested for four more boats, but when Ganz & Danubius reduced their price by ten percent, a total of sixteen boats were ordered from them, designated as the F-group. The F-group's designation signified the location of Ganz & Danubius' main shipyard at Fiume. 96 F was the fifteenth boat of the F-group to be fully completed.
## Description and construction
The 250t-class F-group boats had a waterline length of 58.5 metres (191 ft 11 in), a beam of 5.8 m (19 ft), and a normal draught of 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in). While their designed displacement was 266 tonnes (262 long tons), they displaced about 330 tonnes (325 long tons) when fully loaded. The crew consisted of 38–41 officers and enlisted men. The boats were powered by two AEG-Curtiss steam turbines driving two propellers, using steam generated by two Yarrow water-tube boilers, one of which burned fuel oil and the other coal. The turbines were rated at 5,000 shaft horsepower (3,700 kW) with a maximum output of 6,000 shp (4,500 kW), and were designed to propel the boats to a top speed of 28 knots (52 km/h; 32 mph). They carried 20 tonnes (19.7 long tons) of coal and 34 tonnes (33.5 long tons) of fuel oil, which gave them a range of 1,200 nautical miles (2,200 km; 1,400 mi) at 16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph). The F-group had two funnels rather than the single funnel of the T-group. Due to inadequate funding, 96 F and the rest of the 250t class were essentially coastal vessels, despite the original intention that they would be used for "high seas" operations. They were the first small Austro-Hungarian Navy boats to use turbines, and this contributed to ongoing problems with them.
The boats were armed with two Škoda 66 mm (2.6 in) L/30 guns, and four 450 mm (17.7 in) torpedo tubes. They could also carry 10–12 naval mines. 96 F was the second-to-last of its group to be completed, and was laid down on 24 February 1915, launched on 7 July 1916 and completed on 23 November of that year.
## Career
### World War I and the interwar period
During World War I, 96 F was used for convoy, patrol, escort and minesweeping tasks, and anti-submarine operations. In 1917, one of the 66 mm (2.6 in) guns on each boat of the class was placed on an anti-aircraft mount. On the night of 11 May 1917, the Huszár-class destroyer Csikós, accompanied by 96 F and two other 250t-class boats, were pursued in the northern Adriatic by an Italian force of five destroyers, but were able to retire to safety behind a minefield. On 3 June, the destroyers Wildfang and Csikós, along with 96 F and another 250t-class boat, had a brief encounter with three Italian MAS boats off the mouth of the Tagliamento river in the far north of the Adriatic.
96 F survived the war intact. In 1920, under the terms of the previous year's Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye by which rump Austria officially ended World War I, she was allocated to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (KSCS, later Yugoslavia). Along with three other 250t-class F-group boats, 87 F, 93 F and 97 F, and four 250t-class T-group boats, she was transferred in March 1921 to the Navy of the KSCS, which later became the Royal Yugoslav Navy (Serbo-Croatian Latin: Kraljevska Jugoslovenska Ratna Mornarica, KJRM). Renamed T7 in KJRM service, she and the other seven 250t-class boats were, at the outset, the only modern sea-going vessels in the KJRM. In 1925, exercises were conducted off the Dalmatian coast, involving the majority of the navy. In May–June 1929, six of the eight 250t-class torpedo boats accompanied the light cruiser Dalmacija, the submarine tender Hvar and the submarines Hrabri and Nebojša, on a cruise to Malta, the Greek island of Corfu in the Ionian Sea, and Bizerte in the French protectorate of Tunisia. It is not clear if T7 was one of the torpedo boats involved. The ships and crews made a very good impression while visiting Malta. In 1932, the British naval attaché reported that Yugoslav ships engaged in few exercises, manoeuvres or gunnery training due to reduced budgets.
### World War II
In April 1941, Yugoslavia entered World War II when it was invaded by the German-led Axis powers. At the time of the invasion, T7 was assigned as the flagship of the 3rd Torpedo Division located at Šibenik, which included her three F-group sisters. On 8 April, the four boats of the 3rd Torpedo Division, along with other vessels, were tasked to support an attack on the Italian enclave of Zara (Zadar) on the Dalmatia coast. They were subjected to three Italian air attacks and, after the last one, sailed from the area of Zaton into Lake Prokljan, where they remained until 11 April. On 12 April, the 3rd Torpedo Division arrived at Milna on the island of Brač, and refused to follow orders to sail to the Bay of Kotor. All four F-group boats, including T7, were captured by the Italians.
T7 was then operated by the Italians under her Yugoslav designation, conducting coastal and second-line escort duties in the Adriatic. Her guns were replaced by two 76 mm (3 in) L/40 anti-aircraft guns, but no other significant alterations were made to her. The Italians capitulated in September 1943, and once under German control, T7 was handed over to the Navy of the Independent State of Croatia, serving under her Yugoslav designation. Her crew came under the influence of the Yugoslav Partisans, and were preparing to mutiny when the Germans intervened. On 24 June 1944, she and the German S-boats S 154 and S 157 of the 7th S-Boat Flotilla were sailing between Šibenik and Rijeka, protecting German sea supply routes along the Adriatic, when they were attacked by the Royal Navy Fairmile D motor torpedo boats MTB 659, MTB 662 and MTB 670 near the island of Kukuljari, south of Murter Island. Considering T7 one of the few significant threats to British vessels in the region, the British commander ordered MTB 670 to launch a torpedo attack. The two torpedoes missed, so the MTBs pursued and approached the ship from abaft the beam. T7 opened fire at 150 yards (140 m). The MTBs returned fire with their forward and port guns, and within 30 seconds they had disabled T7*'s weapons and set her ablaze. At a speed of about 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph), T7 suddenly veered starboard, narrowly avoiding a collision with MTB 662* (it is not known whether her steering was damaged or if her crew was attempting to perform a ram) before running aground on Murter Island. The MTBs rescued 21 crew. The British crews later examined the wreck, capturing five more sailors and leaving her flooded and burning. A British Army demolition team destroyed the hulk to ensure it could not be salvaged.
|
[
"## Background",
"## Description and construction",
"## Career",
"### World War I and the interwar period",
"### World War II"
] | 2,236 | 43,084 |
26,268,329 |
French cruiser Bruix
| 1,056,463,506 |
French Amiral Charner-class cruiser
|
[
"1894 ships",
"Amiral Charner-class cruisers",
"Ships built in France",
"World War I cruisers of France"
] |
Bruix was one of four Amiral Charner-class armored cruisers built for the French Navy (Marine Navale)in the 1890s. She served in the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean, and in the Far East before World War I. In 1902 she aided survivors of the devastating eruption of Mount Pelée on the island of Martinique and spent several years as guardship at Crete, protecting French interests in the region in the early 1910s.
At the beginning of the war in August 1914, Bruix was assigned to protect troop convoys from French North Africa to France before she was transferred to the Atlantic to support Allied operations against the German colony of Kamerun in September. She was briefly assigned to support Allied operations in the Dardanelles in early 1915 before she began patrolling the Aegean Sea and Greek territorial waters.
The ship was decommissioned in Greece at the beginning of 1918 and recommissioned after the end of the war in November for service in the Black Sea against the Bolsheviks. Bruix returned home later in 1919 and was reduced to reserve before she was sold for scrap in 1921.
## Design and description
The Amiral Charner-class ships were designed to be smaller and cheaper than the preceding armored cruiser design, the Dupuy de Lôme. Like the older ship, they were intended to fill the commerce-raiding strategy of the Jeune École.
The ship measured 106.12 meters (348 ft 2 in) between perpendiculars, with a beam of 14.04 meters (46 ft 1 in). Bruix had a forward draft of 5.55 meters (18 ft 3 in) and drew 6.06 meters (19 ft 11 in) aft. She displaced 4,748 metric tons (4,673 long tons) at normal load and 4,990 metric tons (4,910 long tons) at deep load.
The Amiral Charner class had two 4-cylinder triple-expansion steam engines, each driving a single propeller shaft. Steam for the engines was provided by 16 Belleville boilers and they were rated at a total of 9,000 metric horsepower (6,600 kW) using forced draught. Bruix had a designed speed of 19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph), but only reached a maximum speed of 18.37 knots (34.02 km/h; 21.14 mph) from 9,107 metric horsepower (6,698 kW) during sea trials on 15 September 1896. The ship carried up to 535 metric tons (527 long tons; 590 short tons) of coal and could steam for 4,000 nautical miles (7,400 km; 4,600 mi) at a speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph).
The ships of the Amiral Charner class had a main armament that consisted of two Canon de 194 mm Modèle 1887 guns that were mounted in single gun turrets, one each fore and aft of the superstructure. Their secondary armament comprised six Canon de 138.6 mm Modèle 1887 guns, each in single gun turrets on each broadside. For anti-torpedo boat defense, they carried four 65 mm (2.6 in) guns, four 47-millimeter (1.9 in) and eight 37-millimeter (1.5 in) five-barreled revolving Hotchkiss guns. They were also armed with four 450-millimeter (17.7 in) pivoting torpedo tubes; two mounted on each broadside above water.
The side of the Amiral Charner class was generally protected by 92 millimeters (3.6 in) of steel armor, from 1.3 meters (4 ft 3 in) below the waterline to 2.5 meters (8 ft 2 in) above it. The bottom 20 centimeters (7.9 in) tapered in thickness and the armor at the ends of the ships thinned to 60 millimeters (2.4 in). The curved protective deck had a thickness of 40 millimeters (1.6 in) along its centerline that increased to 50 millimeters (2.0 in) at its outer edges. Protecting the boiler rooms, engine rooms, and magazines below it was a thin splinter deck. A watertight internal cofferdam, filled with cellulose, ran the length of the ship from the protective deck to a height of 1.2 meters (4 ft) above the waterline. The ship's conning tower and turrets were protected by 92 millimeters of armor.
## Construction and career
Bruix, named after Admiral Étienne Eustache Bruix, was laid down at the Arsenal de Rochefort on 9 November 1891. She was launched on 2 August 1894 and commissioned for trials on 15 April 1896. The ship was temporarily assigned to the Northern Squadron (Escadre du Nord) on 24 November for the visit of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and his wife to Dunkerque on 5–9 October. The ship's steering broke down on 7 October and she had to return to Rochefort for repairs. Trials lasted until early December and Bruix was officially commissioned on 15 December and assigned to the Northern Squadron.
On 18 August 1897, together with the protected cruiser Surcouf, she escorted the armored cruiser Pothuau that carried President Félix Faure on a state visit to Russia. Shortly after departure, Bruix fractured a piston rod in her port engine which forced her to return to port. Her repairs and armament trials lasted until January 1898, although the last of the trials was not completed until 25 February. Bruix was then assigned to the Far Eastern Squadron where she was based at Saigon, French Indochina until October, although she made a port visit to Manila, the Philippines, on 5 May after the American victory in the Battle of Manila Bay. While returning home in November, she damaged her starboard propeller on the 20th while transiting the Suez Canal. The ship reached Toulon on the 28th and was under repair until January 1899 before rejoining the Northern Squadron on 3 February.
Bruix made port visits in Spain and Portugal in June before another piston rod was damaged on the 7th. She began a refit on 20 September that lasted until 4 November that modified her for service as a flagship. On 20 November the ship became the flagship of a cruiser division. In 1901 she participated in the annual fleet maneuvers with the rest of the Northern Squadron. During this training the British steamer SS Paddington collided with the ship, lightly damaging the plating of her armored ram on 27 June. Bilge keels were fitted to Bruix in November–December and she remained at the dockyard until 10 January 1902 to evaluate the operation of her turrets. The ship was assigned to the Atlantic Division in April and visited several Spanish ports during the month and into May.
After the devastating eruption of Mount Pelée on 5 May, Bruix, now the flagship of Rear Admiral (contre-amiral) Palma Gourdon, was ordered to Fort-de-France to render assistance to the survivors where she remained until 19 August. On 30 November Rear Admiral Joseph Bugard hoisted his flag aboard Bruix. The ship spent most of the next several years either commissioned with a reduced complement or assigned to the reserve. The ship was reactivated in late 1906 for service with the Far Eastern Squadron and departed Toulon on 15 November, accompanied by her sister ship Chanzy. They arrived at Saigon on 10 January 1907 and Bruix was in Nagasaki, Japan when Chanzy ran aground off the Chinese coast on 20 May. The ship then participated in the unsuccessful effort to rescue her sister. Bruix spent most of her tour in the Far East showing the flag in Russia, China and Japan and departed for home on 26 April 1909. While passing through the Suez Canal, she accidentally collided with the Italian steamer SS Nilo before arriving at Toulon on 2 August. She began an overhaul several weeks later that was repeatedly delayed by labor shortages at the dockyard. She was finally towed to the dockyard at Bizerte, in French North Africa, in June 1911 and her overhaul was completed in January 1912.
Briefly assigned to the reserve, Bruix was recommissioned on 13 May for service with the Levant Division as the guardship for Crete. She relieved her sister Amiral Charner at Souda Bay on 9 July and spent the next two years in the Levant. During the Italo-Turkish War, her captain protested the bombardment of fleeing Turkish troops near the port of Kalkan on 3 October by the protected cruiser Coatit as a breach of international law. On 8 November the ship assisted in the refloating of the Russian protected cruiser Oleg. Although formally assigned to the Tunisian Squadron on 13 January 1913, Bruix remained in the Levant. Later in the year, she assisted in the salvage of the steamer SS Sénégal that had struck a mine at Smyrna, Turkey, that had been laid by the Italians during the war. In March 1914 Bruix escorted William, Prince of Albania during his voyage from Trieste to Durazzo, Albania to take up his throne. The ship returned to Bizerta on 25 April 1914 and began a refit that lasted until July.
When World War I began in August, she was assigned to escort convoys between Morocco and France and general patrols together with her sisters Latouche-Tréville and Amiral Charner. Bruix was sent to support the Allied campaign against Kamerun in September and bombarded several small towns as part of her contribution before returning home later in the year. After several short refits, Bruix was assigned to the Dardanelles squadron in February 1915 although the ship spent most of her time patrolling the Aegean. On 31 January 1918, she was placed in reserve at Salonika. Bruix was recommissioned on 29 November and transferred to Constantinople where she was assigned to the armored cruiser division of the 2nd Squadron on 2 December. Between March and May 1919 she patrolled the Black Sea as part of the Allied intervention against the Bolsheviks and took part in the evacuation of German and Allied troops from Nikolaev, Ukraine in March and from Odessa in April. Her crew did not participate in the mutiny that occurred aboard some French ships in Sevastopol, Crimea in April. Bruix departed the Black Sea for Constantinople on 5 May and then sailed for Toulon on 22 May where she was assigned to the reserve upon arrival. Proposals that she be converted into an accommodation ship or a merchant ship were judged impractical and she was stricken from the Navy List on 21 June 1920. Bruix was sold for scrap a year later, to the day, together with two other obsolete warships, for the price of 436,000 francs.
|
[
"## Design and description",
"## Construction and career"
] | 2,360 | 13,580 |
23,882,601 |
INS Kursura (S20)
| 1,173,313,078 |
Indian Kalvari-class submarine
|
[
"1969 ships",
"Kalvari-class submarines (1967)",
"Museums in Visakhapatnam",
"Ships built in the Soviet Union"
] |
INS Kursura (S20) was a Kalvari-class (variant of the Foxtrot-class) diesel-electric submarine of the Indian Navy. It was India's fourth submarine. Kursura was commissioned on 18 December 1969 and was decommissioned on 27 February 2001 after 31 years of service. It participated in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, where it played a key role in patrol missions. It later participated in naval exercises with other nations and made many goodwill visits to other countries.
After decommissioning, It was dedicated to the Nation by the Chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on 9 August 2002 and was preserved as a museum for public access from 24 August 2002 making its final journey to Visakhapatnam on RK Beach. Kursura has the distinction of being one of the very few submarine museums to retain originality and has been called a "must-visit destination" of Visakhapatnam. Despite being a decommissioned submarine, she still receives the navy's "Dressing Ship" honour, which is usually awarded only to active ships.
## Description
Kursura has a length of 91.3 m (300 ft) overall, a beam of 7.5 m (25 ft) and a draught of 6 m (20 ft). She displaces 1,950 t (1,919 long tons) surfaced, 2,475 t (2,436 long tons) submerged and has a maximum diving depth of 985 ft (300 m). The complement is about 75, including 8 officers and 67 sailors.
The submarine has three shafts, each with a six-blade propeller. She is powered by three Kolomna 2D42M diesel engines, each with 2,000 horsepower (1,500 kW). She also has three electric motors, two of them with 1,350 hp (1,010 kW) and one with 2,700 hp (2,000 kW). She can achieve a maximum speed of 16 knots (30 km/h) when on surface, 15 knots (28 km/h) when submerged and 9 knots (17 km/h) while snorkelling. She has a range of 20,000 mi (32,000 km) at 8 kn (15 km/h; 9.2 mph) when surfaced and 380 mi (610 km) at 10 kn (19 km/h; 12 mph) when submerged. There are 10 torpedo tubes to carry 22 Type 53 torpedoes. She could lay 44 mines instead of torpedoes. She also had a snoop tray and I-Band radar for surface search.
## Operational history
Kursura was commissioned on 18 December 1969 at Riga, Soviet Union. She was India's fourth submarine. Kursura'''s first commanding officer was Commander Arun Auditto. She began her maiden voyage to India on 20 February 1970. During her homecoming voyage, which lasted from February to April 1970, she visited Göteborg, La Coruña, Takoradi and Mauritius. Kursura, along with sister boat , were made operational under the Indian Navy's Western Naval Command, and reported to the Flag officer Commanding-in-Chief Western Naval Command (FOCINCWEST). They were ordered to patrol approaches to Pakistan's Karachi harbour and Makran Coast, for which they established waiting stations and submarine havens.
In 1970, Karanj was badly damaged after a collision with the destroyer Ranjit when she surfaced directly below the ship. As no drawings of the damaged portions of the boat were available with the Bombay Dockyard or the Indian Navy, it was decided to use Kursura, which was already docked at Bombay, as the design template for the metal work, and Karanj was repaired within months, in time to join the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971.
### Indo-Pakistan War of 1971
During the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, Kursura operated in the Arabian Sea. She was given the patrol duties at two designated areas before the war started, but was ordered to operate under two restrictions: she was not to cross demarcated shipping corridors and she could attack a target only after positive identification. The aims of her patrol were to sink any Pakistani naval warships, to sink merchant shipping when specifically ordered, and to conduct general patrol and surveillance.
She started from her home port on 13 November 1971 and reached her patrol location by 18 November. She remained there until 25 November when she was shifted to a new patrol location and remained there until 30 November. On 30 November, she rendezvoused with Karanj at sea to transfer instructions and subsequently then left for Bombay and reached there by 4 December 1971. During her patrols, she encountered fair weather and monitored a number of tankers and commercial aircraft flying on international routes. She was originally intended to lay mines but the plan was later cancelled.
### Later service
Kursura was used for test firing the NSTL 58 torpedo in 1975. She was laid off for many years to be cannibalised for spare parts for other submarines, but underwent a refit in the Soviet Union between September 1980 and April 1982, and was made operational again in 1985.
Along with , she participated in the first anti-submarine warfare(ASW) training exercise with the RSS Victory of Singapore off the coast of Port Blair between 21–24 February 1994. She participated in the second ASW exercise with Singapore along with , RSS Valour and RSS Vigilance. She visited Singapore and Jakarta, Indonesia, in December 1994 on a good-will visit.
After a service of 31 years and traversing 73,500 nautical miles (136,100 km; 84,600 mi), she was decommissioned on 27 February 2001. Despite being a decommissioned submarine, she still receives the navy's "Dressing Ship" honour, which is usually only awarded to active ships.
## Museum ship (2002 – present)
After decommissioning, the ship was towed to RK Beach in Visakhapatnam and was established as a museum ship, which is the first submarine museum in South Asia. The idea of the boat's conversion to a museum is credited to Admiral V Pasricha. Towing the submarine 600 metres to its final location took 18 months and cost ₹ 55 million. It was converted as a museum by N. Chandrababu Naidu government launching from 9 August 2002, and it was open to the public from 24 August 2002. Six retired naval personnel serve as guides and another one as the curator.
Kursura has the distinction of being one of the very few submarine museums to retain originality. She has become a famous tourist attraction of the city and has been called a "must-visit destination" of Visakhapatnam by The Hindu''. Out of the ₹ 10 million revenue generated every year by the museum, ₹ 8 million is used for the submarine's maintenance. During the first four months of the museum's operation, it was visited by about 93,000 people. Daily visitors usually range between 500 and 600 and shoot up to 1,500 during the tourist season.
In September 2007, Vice Admiral Carol M. Pottenger of the United States Navy visited the submarine when she wrote in the guestbook "What a fantastic experience. The Indian Navy should be very proud of this awesome display". She said that the submarine was very well preserved and they did not have anything similar to it in the United States. A major overhaul was done in December 2007 to repair her hull's corrosion. New steel plates were arranged at a cost of ₹ 1.5 million. As of August 2008, about 1.5 million people had visited the museum, and in 2010, she was visited by 270,000 people.
## Gallery
|
[
"## Description",
"## Operational history",
"### Indo-Pakistan War of 1971",
"### Later service",
"## Museum ship (2002 – present)",
"## Gallery"
] | 1,676 | 11,828 |
7,726,657 |
Eyes of the Insane
| 1,142,228,984 |
2006 single by Slayer
|
[
"2006 singles",
"Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance",
"Music videos directed by Tony Petrossian",
"Slayer songs",
"Song recordings produced by Josh Abraham",
"Song recordings produced by Rick Rubin",
"Songs about the military",
"Songs of the Iraq War"
] |
"Eyes of the Insane" is a 2006 song by the American thrash metal band Slayer, taken from their 2006 album Christ Illusion. The lyrics explore an American soldier's mental anguish following his return home from the second Gulf War, and are based on an article entitled "Casualty of War" in Texas Monthly magazine. "Eyes of the Insane" was written by vocalist Tom Araya during pre-production for the album. The song was generally well received by critics, and also peaked \#15 on the Danish singles charts.
The accompanying music video by the Tehran-born Armenian director Tony Petrossian was recorded in the Los Angeles area in August 2006. The film is presented as a close-up of the soldier's pupil and iris, which reflect disconcerting images of war-themed horrors, flashbacks of his home, wife and children, and ultimately images of his death. "Eyes of the Insane" was used on the soundtrack to Saw III, and won an award for the Best Metal Performance at the 49th Grammy Awards.
## Origins
While walking through an airport, vocalist Tom Araya picked up a March 2006 issue of Texas Monthly with a soldier's helmet on the front cover. Seeing the article "Casualty of War", he was interested enough to purchase a copy. The issue explored the involvement of military personnel from Texas in the Iraq War, and included a list of Texan soldiers who had died in the conflict. The feature was accompanied by photographs of some of the dead, while a further article dealt with the anguish of surviving soldiers on their return home. Araya later said the article "blew his mind".
Araya read the article during his flight back to Los Angeles. Pre-production for Slayer's tenth studio album Christ Illusion had just begun, and the band was about to undertake a three-day rehearsal with producer Josh Abraham. Araya left his baggage at the hotel to attend the rehearsals, then returned to re-read the article. Finding it to be "very profound", he woke up in the middle of the night and wrote down the lyrics. He said that his treatment of the topic is "sincere", and that he believes it to be "one that the military doesn't want you to know. They sweep it under the rug, but it's a story that needs to be told." The band's guitarist, Kerry King, has said that "these new songs [from the Christ Illusion album] aren't political at all: 'Jihad', 'Eyes of the Insane' — it's what's spewing out at us from the TV."
## Musical structure
"Eyes of the Insane" is 3 minutes 23 seconds long. A slow drum pattern played by Dave Lombardo opens the track, over which Hanneman and King play angular and descending scales on guitar. These guitar riffs evolve from verse to verse, and have been described by Allmusic as "intensely harrowing". The song gradually builds over the course of the verses, refrain and bridge, before resolving with a "towering" chorus.
Some reviewers paid particular attention to Araya's vocal contribution. Zach Hothorn of Prefix magazine said the song "allows Araya to show his vocal range, deepening to build up tension and creating a wonderfully chilling 3 and a half minutes", while Ian Robinson of musicOMH felt the track "is a distinct but welcome change of pace, Dave Lombardo's machine-gun rhythms forming the backbone for Tom Araya's impressively intact scream."
## Music video
By the time Slayer decided a music video should be filmed, touring commitments prevented their involvement in the actual shoot. Instead, others were contacted to produce the film. Director Tony Petrossian presented Slayer with the first draft, and the group made a few suggestions for improvement. Never having met him, King recalled Petrossian "had a treatment, and we all dug the treatment so we just turned him loose." "Eyes of the Insane"'s war-themed music video was filmed on August 13, 2006, in the Los Angeles area. Casting company Tolley Casparis Casting sought a male Caucasian between the ages of 18 and 26 to appear in the clip, with auditions held on August 10, 2006. The official project notes deemed that "This guy must be a serious actor, capable of emoting everything through his eyes. He was innocent a few months ago, now he is scarred by seeing so much fighting. Strong eyebrows that do not overpower the face. Scars or large veins actually a plus." The video was shot as a "first-person narrative about the horrors leading up to the final moments of a soldier at war", and was described as "a single, long and tight close-up of the soldier's eye with images clearly reflected within his pupil and iris and perfectly choreographed with the rhythm of the music. Reflected are disconcerting images of para trooping into enemy territory, gunfire, helicopters and tanks, explosions, poignant flashbacks of his wife and child and home, and the images of his death." Two endings were shot; one in which the soldier is killed as the result of sustained combat wounds, and another in which the soldier commits suicide by hanging - the latter one was used. Jeff Hanneman confirmed that the band "loved" the eye concept, and personally felt that the video was "pretty amazing" when he first viewed it. King admitted the film is "pretty cool — I thought it was neat idea — very different, especially for us, because we usually do performance based videos." The video was exclusively posted on mp3.com late in October 2006. In 2007, the video earned a Metal Hammer Golden Gods Awards nomination for Best Video, but eventually lost to Avenged Sevenfold's "Seize The Day."
## Critical reception
Critics were generally positive when reviewing "Eyes of the Insane". Stylus magazine's Cosmo Lee described the track as "a dark, midpaced exploration of a soldier's psyche", and remarked that "it's memorable and would be a good breather between the usual barnburners". Peter Atkinson of KNAC.com felt that "'Eyes of the Insane' offers a post-traumatic sequel to 'Mandatory Suicide', again with a soundtrack that recalls the original, but boasting a couple truly mammoth hooks that do shake things up." Don Kaye of Blabbermouth made a comparison to a different Slayer track than Atkinson, and commented that "'Eyes of the Insane' and 'Catatonic' both have that slow, grinding feeling of doom that the band has done so well before on classics like 'Dead Skin Mask'."
## Awards
The song was nominated for Best Metal Performance at the 49th annual Grammy Awards. When asked for his thoughts on the nomination, King revealed that he did not "even care", and noted that Slayer fans "don't give a shit and that's the most important thing to me". The interviewer expressed his surprise at the nomination given Slayer's "inflammatory" lyrics, to which King replied, "That would be the coolest thing, you know? To win with the shit we write about." The ceremony was held on February 11, 2007, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, with Slayer competing against Mastodon, Lamb of God, Ministry and Stone Sour. Slayer won the Best Metal Performance Grammy award, although the band was unable to attend because of a conflicting North American headlining tour. Araya commented about the win from a hotel room in Columbus, Ohio: "Jeff [Hanneman] and I put a lot into 'Eyes of the Insane' so we're thrilled that the Grammy voters took the time to listen to it, and then vote for it. We're out here on the road and we're all really, really happy." King disagreed, deeming the song "one of the poorest representations of us [Slayer] on the record [Christ Illusion]". He further said that, if given the decision, he would have chosen the controversial track "Jihad" to represent Slayer from their ninth album Christ Illusion. Critical of the Recording Academy, King said, "Realistically, I think people on the academy who vote pick the household name ... And that's what we are."
## Other media
The soundtrack to the 2006 horror film Saw III included "Eyes of the Insane", and was released on October 24, 2006, by Warcon Enterprises. The track was one of six songs performed by Slayer during their first US network television appearance on ABC-TV's Jimmy Kimmel Live! (January 19, 2007), and was the only song broadcast in its entirety. However, King dislikes playing "Eyes of the Insane" live, commenting, "It's just dull to play, good song just dull to play on guitar."
## Track listing
## Charts
|
[
"## Origins",
"## Musical structure",
"## Music video",
"## Critical reception",
"## Awards",
"## Other media",
"## Track listing",
"## Charts"
] | 1,833 | 40,087 |
7,873,264 |
Music of Final Fantasy X-2
| 1,152,319,218 |
Music from the video game Final Fantasy X-2
|
[
"Final Fantasy X",
"Final Fantasy music",
"Koda Kumi songs",
"Video game music discographies",
"Video game soundtracks"
] |
The music of the video game Final Fantasy X-2 was composed by Noriko Matsueda and Takahito Eguchi. Regular series composer Nobuo Uematsu did not contribute any of the music, despite having composed around half of the soundtrack for the first game, Final Fantasy X. The Final Fantasy X-2 Original Soundtrack was released on two Compact Discs in 2003 by Avex. After the release of Final Fantasy X-2 International + Last Mission, an album entitled Final Fantasy X-2 International + Last Mission Original Soundtrack composed of the songs added to the soundtrack for that game was released in 2003 by Avex. Final Fantasy X-2 Piano Collection, a collection of piano arrangements of the original soundtracks by Noriko Matsueda, Takahito Eguchi, Hiroko Kokubu, Masahiro Sayama, and Febian Reza Pane, was released by Avex in 2004.
A single by Koda Kumi entitled real Emotion/1000 no Kotoba, based on the theme song for the game and the ending credits song, was published by Rhythm Zone prior to the game's release in 2003. Another single, titled Kuon: Memories of Waves and Light – Music from Final Fantasy X-2, was released by Avex in 2003 along with the original soundtrack. It consisted of live arrangements of several of the game's songs, composed and arranged by Noriko Matsueda and Takahito Eguchi. A set of three singles entitled Final Fantasy X-2 Vocal Collection- Paine, Rikku, and Yuna was published by Avex in 2003, with each single including vocal arrangements of songs from the game, sung by the respective character's voice actress.
The soundtrack received mixed reviews from critics; while several felt that the music was good and keeping in tone with the game, others found it to be odd and shallow. Several reviewers attributed the change to the lack of participation by Uematsu. Final Fantasy X-2 International + Last Mission Original Soundtrack and Final Fantasy X-2 Piano Collection, on the other hand, were very well received by critics, who felt that they were far superior to the original soundtrack. The singles for the soundtrack were poorly received by critics, who found a few of the songs to be enjoyable but all of the singles to be overpriced.
## Concept and creation
Final Fantasy X-2 marks the first soundtrack where former Square composer Nobuo Uematsu did not contribute a single piece, despite having composed around half of the soundtrack for the predecessor, Final Fantasy X, as he was already busy with other projects. None of the pieces from the FFX soundtrack were re-used in X-2. Noriko Matsueda and Takahito Eguchi were brought on board to compose the music for the game, as the developers felt they were the "perfect fit" to incorporate a "pop" style into the music. The game includes two songs with vocalized elements, one of which, the J-Pop song "Real Emotion", was written by Ken Kato and composed by Kazuhiro Hara. The other, J-Pop ballad "1000 Words", was written by scenario writers Kazushige Nojima and Daisuke Watanabe. Matsueda and Eguchi composed and arranged the track. Both songs were sung by Jade Villalon from Sweetbox in the English version of the game, and are available as bonus tracks on the Japanese release of her album Adagio. In the Japanese version of the game both the songs were sung by Koda Kumi, and were released as a single entitled real Emotion/1000 no Kotoba. Kumi also released her own English versions of the songs on her CD single Come with Me, with slightly different versions of the lyrics than Jade.
## Albums
### Final Fantasy X-2 Original Soundtrack
Final Fantasy X-2 Original Soundtrack is a soundtrack album of music from Final Fantasy X-2 composed, arranged and produced by Noriko Matsueda and Takahito Eguchi. The album spans two discs and 61 tracks, covering a duration of 2:18:00. It was released on March 31, 2003 in Japan by Avex bearing the catalog number AVCD-17254. It included a booklet filled with printed images, providing more information about the soundtrack.
Final Fantasy X-2 Original Soundtrack sold 82,000 copies as of January 2010; it reached position \#5 on the Japanese Oricon charts and remained on the charts for 12 weeks. The game's soundtrack was met with mixed feelings from critics, because Final Fantasy X-2's score was the first in the series without input from Nobuo Uematsu, composer of all previous games in the main series, and because of the change to a distinct J-pop atmosphere. While IGN commented that the music provided an "appropriately fitting backdrop" and 1UP.com suggested that it "certainly is in keeping with the new flavor", others, such as Electronic Gaming Monthly, regarded it as "too bubbly". One staff member at RPGamer suggested that "the absence of Uematsu proves deafening" and "the soundtrack that accompanies this nonsensical adventure manages to encapsulate the shallow nature of the game perfectly". Ben Schweitzer of RPGFan found that the Final Fantasy X-2 Original Soundtrack album was unique and enjoyable, but "ultimately forgettable". Liz Maas of RPGFan agreed, finding the album to be simultaneously "refreshing" and "odd". Chris Heit of Soundtrack Central, however, found that the album had "good, original music", although altogether different than previous Final Fantasy soundtracks.
Track list
### Final Fantasy X-2 International + Last Mission Original Soundtrack
Final Fantasy X-2 International + Last Mission Original Soundtrack is a soundtrack album of music from Final Fantasy X-2 International + Last Mission composed, arranged and produced by Noriko Matsueda, Takahito Eguchi and Kazuhiro Hara. The album spans 10 tracks, covering a duration of 45:21. It includes the English versions of "real Emotion" and "1000 Words", performed by Jade Villalon of Sweetbox, as well as the eight tracks added for the International version of Final Fantasy X-2, released in Japan on February 19, 2004. The album was released on July 16, 2003 in Japan by Avex bearing the catalog number AVCD-17388.
The album was better received than the original soundtrack, with Patrick Gann finding several of the tracks to be "beautiful" and the album as a whole "a sure step up from the X-2 OST". Chris of Square Enix Music Online had similar feelings for the album, terming it a "high-quality and surprising effort" and "an incredible improvement" over the original soundtrack. The album reached \#42 on the Oricon charts and remained on the charts for four weeks, selling over 9,800 copies.
### Final Fantasy X-2 Piano Collection
Final Fantasy X-2 Piano Collection is a collection of music from the game's soundtrack composed by Noriko Matsueda and Takahito Eguchi and arranged for the piano. The tracks were arranged by Noriko Matsueda, Takahito Eguchi, Hiroko Kokubu, Masahiro Sayama, and Febian Reza Pane. Matsueda and Eguchi's tracks were performed by Shinko Ogata, while the other arrangers performed their own works. The album spans 12 tracks and covers a duration of 47:38. It was released on March 31, 2004 by Avex with catalog number AVCD-17444.
The album was very well received, with Patrick Gann claiming that it "shines as a light in the darkness" compared to the original soundtrack and that he was "extremely pleased" with the album. Chris from Square Enix Music Online agreed, calling the album "nothing short of fantastic" and saying that the pianists did "a flawless job executing each arrangement". Jillian of Square Enix Music Online agreed, finding it to be the best Final Fantasy piano arrangement album to date.
## Singles
### Real Emotion/1000 no Kotoba
"real Emotion/1000 no Kotoba" (real Emotion/1000の言葉, riaru Emōshon/Sen no Kotoba) is a double A-side by Koda Kumi, consisting of the songs "Real Emotion" and "1000 no Kotoba" (lit. "1000 words"), which are used as the opening and closing themes respectively of Square Enix's game Final Fantasy X-2, which was used in a cut-scene in the game as well as its ending credits.
"1000 no Kotoba" was arranged by Takahito Eguchi and Noriko Matsueda. The CD contains the two songs in addition to their instrumental versions, covering a duration of 20:02. It was published by Rhythm Zone on March 5, 2003 with the catalog number RZCD-45080.
Real Emotion/1000 Words was poorly received by critics, with Patrick Gann declaring himself to be "not too impressed". It sold 283,000 copies.
### Kuon: Memories of Waves and Light – Music from Final Fantasy X-2
Kuon: Memories of Waves and Light – Music from Final Fantasy X-2 is an arranged single consisting of the songs from the game "Kuon: Memories of Waves and Light", "Besaid", and "Yuna's Ballad", composed and arranged by Noriko Matsueda and Takahito Eguchi. The songs feature live instruments, and are the only arranged tracks released from the Final Fantasy X-2 OST to date. The album was released by Avex on March 31, 2003. It covers a duration of 9:37 and has a catalog number of AVCD-30444.
Gann was more receptive to the album than to "Real Emotion", feeling that the tracks were three of the best tracks from the soundtrack, and that the single was worth purchasing if only because it was the only release of arranged music from the game to date. However, he felt that for the length, the single was overpriced. Chris of Square Enix Music Online also felt the single was overpriced, but additionally felt that the arrangements were "unremarkable musically" and that the album as a whole was "a cheap production". Memories of Waves and Light reached \#32 on the Oricon charts and stayed on the charts for eight weeks.
### Final Fantasy X-2 Vocal Collection
Final Fantasy X-2 Vocal Collection was a set of three singles, each consisting of two tracks sung by the voice actress for one of the main characters of the game and two instrumental tracks. The singles, Paine, Rikku, and Yuna, were released by Avex on July 16, 2003. The songs were composed and arranged by Noriko Matsueda and Takahito Eguchi. Paine was voiced by Megumi Toyoguchi, Rikku by Marika Matsumoto, and Yuna by Mayuko Aoki. Each single was produced with an accompanying DVD which included a music video, an interview with the voice actress, and a montage of scenes from the game. Paine covered a duration of 16:19 and had a catalog number of AVCD-30485/B, Rikku had a duration of 16:09 and a catalog number of AVCD-30483/B, while Yuna covered a duration of 18:59 and had a catalog number of AVCD-30481/B.
The Final Fantasy Vocal Collection singles received mixed reviews, with Patrick Gann praising Paine as "sophisticated" and applauding the instrumentation, while also approving of Yuna, terming it "peaceful" and the best of the three. However, he also derided Rikku as "cheesy" and disliked the lyrics of one of the two tracks from Paine. Additionally, he overall found the singles to be very overpriced for the small amount of material included. Paine, Rikku and Yuna reached \#30, \#25, and \#21 on the Oricon charts, respectively, and stayed on the charts for four, six, and seven weeks.
Track listing
## Legacy
Unlike the music from the main Final Fantasy series, no songs from Final Fantasy X-2 have been played at any of the numerous Final Fantasy concerts. Selections of music from the game have appeared on Japanese remix albums, called dojin music, and on English remixing websites.
|
[
"## Concept and creation",
"## Albums",
"### Final Fantasy X-2 Original Soundtrack",
"### Final Fantasy X-2 International + Last Mission Original Soundtrack",
"### Final Fantasy X-2 Piano Collection",
"## Singles",
"### Real Emotion/1000 no Kotoba",
"### Kuon: Memories of Waves and Light – Music from Final Fantasy X-2",
"### Final Fantasy X-2 Vocal Collection",
"## Legacy"
] | 2,638 | 14,556 |
1,362,114 |
Aluminium chloride
| 1,159,251,100 |
Chemical compound
|
[
"Acid catalysts",
"Aluminium compounds",
"Chlorides",
"Deliquescent substances",
"Inorganic compounds",
"Metal halides",
"Reagents for organic chemistry"
] |
Aluminium chloride, also known as aluminium trichloride, is an inorganic compound with the formula AlCl<sub>3</sub>. It forms a hexahydrate with the formula [Al(H<sub>2</sub>O)<sub>6</sub>]Cl<sub>3</sub>, containing six water molecules of hydration. Both the anhydrous form and the hexahydrate are colourless crystals, but samples are often contaminated with iron(III) chloride, giving them a yellow colour.
The anhydrous form is important commercially. It has a low melting and boiling point. It is mainly produced and consumed in the production of aluminium metal, but large amounts are also used in other areas of the chemical industry. The compound is often cited as a Lewis acid. It is an example of an inorganic compound that reversibly changes from a polymer to a monomer at mild temperature.
## Structure
### Anhydrous
AlCl<sub>3</sub> adopts three structures, depending on the temperature and the state (solid, liquid, gas). Solid AlCl<sub>3</sub> has a sheet-like layered structure with cubic close-packed chloride ions. In this framework, the Al centres exhibit octahedral coordination geometry. Yttrium(III) chloride adopts the same structure, as do a range of other compounds. When aluminium trichloride is in its melted state, it exists as the dimer Al<sub>2</sub>Cl<sub>6</sub>, with tetracoordinate aluminium. This change in structure is related to the lower density of the liquid phase (1.78 g/cm<sup>3</sup>) versus solid aluminium trichloride (2.48 g/cm<sup>3</sup>). Al<sub>2</sub>Cl<sub>6</sub> dimers are also found in the vapour phase. At higher temperatures, the Al<sub>2</sub>Cl<sub>6</sub> dimers dissociate into trigonal planar AlCl<sub>3</sub> monomer, which is structurally analogous to BF<sub>3</sub>. The melt conducts electricity poorly, unlike more ionic halides such as sodium chloride.
Aluminium chloride monomer belongs to the point group D<sub>3h</sub> in its monomeric form and D<sub>2h</sub> in its dimeric form.
### Hexahydrate
The hexahydrate consists of octahedral [Al(H<sub>2</sub>O)<sub>6</sub>]<sup>3+</sup> cation centers and chloride anions (Cl<sup>−</sup>) as counterions. Hydrogen bonds link the cation and anions. The hydrated form of aluminium chloride has an octahedral molecular geometry, with the central aluminium ion surrounded by six water ligand molecules. Being coordinatively saturated, the hydrate is of little value as a catalyst in Friedel-Crafts alkylation and related reactions.
## Uses
### Alkylation and acylation of arenes
AlCl<sub>3</sub> is a common Lewis-acid catalyst for Friedel-Crafts reactions, both acylations and alkylations. Important products are detergents and ethylbenzene. These types of reactions are the major use for aluminium chloride, for example, in the preparation of anthraquinone (used in the dyestuffs industry) from benzene and phosgene. In the general Friedel-Crafts reaction, an acyl chloride or alkyl halide reacts with an aromatic system as shown:
The alkylation reaction is more widely used than the acylation reaction, although its practice is more technically demanding. For both reactions, the aluminium chloride, as well as other materials and the equipment, should be dry, although a trace of moisture is necessary for the reaction to proceed. Detailed procedures are available for alkylation and acylation of arenes.
A general problem with the Friedel-Crafts reaction is that the aluminium chloride catalyst sometimes is required in full stoichiometric quantities, because it complexes strongly with the products. This complication sometimes generates a large amount of corrosive waste. For these and similar reasons, the use of aluminium chloride has often been displaced by zeolites.
Aluminium chloride can also be used to introduce aldehyde groups onto aromatic rings, for example via the Gattermann-Koch reaction which uses carbon monoxide, hydrogen chloride and a copper(I) chloride co-catalyst.
### Other applications in organic and organometallic synthesis
Aluminium chloride finds a wide variety of other applications in organic chemistry. For example, it can catalyse the "ene reaction", such as the addition of 3-buten-2-one (methyl vinyl ketone) to carvone:
It is used to induce a variety of hydrocarbon couplings and rearrangements.
Aluminium chloride combined with aluminium in the presence of an arene can be used to synthesize bis(arene) metal complexes, e.g. bis(benzene)chromium, from certain metal halides via the so-called Fischer-Hafner synthesis. Dichlorophenylphosphine is prepared by reaction of benzene and phosphorus trichloride catalyzed by aluminium chloride.
## Reactions
Anhydrous aluminium chloride is a powerful Lewis acid, capable of forming Lewis acid-base adducts with even weak Lewis bases such as benzophenone and mesitylene. It forms tetrachloroaluminate ([AlCl<sub>4</sub>]<sup>−</sup>) in the presence of chloride ions.
Aluminium chloride reacts with calcium and magnesium hydrides in tetrahydrofuran forming tetrahydroaluminates.
### Reactions with water
Anhydrous aluminium chloride is hygroscopic, having a very pronounced affinity for water. It fumes in moist air and hisses when mixed with liquid water as the Cl<sup>−</sup> ligands are displaced with H<sub>2</sub>O molecules to form the hexahydrate [Al(H<sub>2</sub>O)<sub>6</sub>]Cl<sub>3</sub>. The anhydrous phase cannot be regained on heating the hexahydrate. Instead HCl is lost leaving aluminium hydroxide or alumina (aluminium oxide):
[Al(H<sub>2</sub>O)<sub>6</sub>]Cl<sub>3</sub> → Al(OH)<sub>3</sub> + 3 HCl + 3 H<sub>2</sub>O
Like metal aquo complexes, aqueous AlCl<sub>3</sub> is acidic owing to the ionization of the aquo ligands:
[Al(H<sub>2</sub>O)<sub>6</sub>]<sup>3+</sup> ⇌ [Al(OH)(H<sub>2</sub>O)<sub>5</sub>]<sup>2+</sup> + H<sup>+</sup>
Aqueous solutions behave similarly to other aluminium salts containing hydrated Al<sup>3+</sup> ions, giving a gelatinous precipitate of aluminium hydroxide upon reaction with dilute sodium hydroxide:
AlCl<sub>3</sub> + 3 NaOH → Al(OH)<sub>3</sub> + 3 NaCl
## Synthesis
Aluminium chloride is manufactured on a large scale by the exothermic reaction of aluminium metal with chlorine or hydrogen chloride at temperatures between 650 and 750 °C (1,202 and 1,382 °F).
2 Al + 3 Cl<sub>2</sub> → 2 AlCl<sub>3</sub>
2 Al + 6 HCl → 2 AlCl<sub>3</sub> + 3 H<sub>2</sub>
Aluminium chloride may be formed via a single displacement reaction between copper(II) chloride and aluminium metal.
2 Al + 3 CuCl<sub>2</sub> → 2 AlCl<sub>3</sub> + 3 Cu
In the US in 1993, approximately 21,000 tons were produced, not counting the amounts consumed in the production of aluminium.
Hydrated aluminium trichloride is prepared by dissolving aluminium oxides in hydrochloric acid. Metallic aluminium also readily dissolves in hydrochloric acid ─ releasing hydrogen gas and generating considerable heat. Heating this solid does not produce anhydrous aluminium trichloride, the hexahydrate decomposes to aluminium hydroxide when heated:
[Al(H<sub>2</sub>O)<sub>6</sub>]Cl<sub>3</sub> → Al(OH)<sub>3</sub> + 3 HCl + 3 H<sub>2</sub>O
Aluminium also forms a lower chloride, aluminium(I) chloride (AlCl), but this is very unstable and only known in the vapour phase.
## Natural occurrence
Anhydrous aluminium chloride is not found as a mineral. The hexahydrate, however, is known as the rare mineral chloraluminite. A more complex, basic and hydrated aluminium chloride mineral is cadwaladerite.
## Safety
Anhydrous AlCl<sub>3</sub> reacts vigorously with bases, so suitable precautions are required. It can cause irritation to the eyes, skin, and the respiratory system if inhaled or on contact.
## See also
- Aluminium monochloride
|
[
"## Structure",
"### Anhydrous",
"### Hexahydrate",
"## Uses",
"### Alkylation and acylation of arenes",
"### Other applications in organic and organometallic synthesis",
"## Reactions",
"### Reactions with water",
"## Synthesis",
"## Natural occurrence",
"## Safety",
"## See also"
] | 2,020 | 33,243 |
4,199,620 |
Tony Adamle
| 1,163,839,543 |
American football player (1924–2000)
|
[
"1924 births",
"2000 deaths",
"American football fullbacks",
"American football linebackers",
"American people of Slovenian descent",
"Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine alumni",
"Cleveland Browns (AAFC) players",
"Cleveland Browns players",
"Deaths from cancer in Ohio",
"Eastern Conference Pro Bowl players",
"Military personnel from West Virginia",
"Ohio State Buckeyes football players",
"People from Alliance, Ohio",
"Players of American football from Stark County, Ohio",
"Players of American football from West Virginia",
"Sportspeople from Fairmont, West Virginia",
"Sportspeople from Kent, Ohio",
"United States Army Air Forces personnel of World War II",
"United States Army Air Forces soldiers"
] |
Anthony Adamle (May 15, 1924 – October 7, 2000) was an American professional football player who was a linebacker and fullback in the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) and the National Football League (NFL). He played his entire career for the Cleveland Browns before retiring to pursue a medical degree.
Adamle grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, and was a star fullback on his Collinwood High School football team. He attended Ohio State University in 1942, but his college career was cut short by World War II. After a stint in the United States Army Air Force, Adamle returned to finish his education at Ohio State in 1946. He soon dropped out of school, however, and joined the Browns. Cleveland won AAFC championships in each of Adamle's first three years, after which the league folded and the Browns were absorbed by the more established NFL. Cleveland continued to succeed in the NFL, winning the 1950 championship and advancing to the 1951 championship but losing to the Los Angeles Rams. Adamle left the Browns after the 1951 season to pursue a medical degree, but he came out of retirement briefly in 1954 as the Browns won another NFL championship.
Adamle left football for good after the season, earning a medical degree from Western Reserve University in Cleveland in 1956. He settled with his family in Kent, Ohio, where he ran a medical practice until his death in 2000. He was a team physician for his local high school and for Kent State University for more than 35 years. Adamle's son Mike played in the NFL as a fullback in the 1970s before retiring and becoming a sports broadcaster.
## Early life and high school
Adamle was born in Fairmont, West Virginia to immigrants from Slovenia. His family moved to Cleveland when he was a child, and he attended Collinwood High School on the city's east side. Adamle was a standout fullback on his high school team and made a Cleveland-area All-Star squad in 1941 that matched up against a team of stars from Florida. He was "without question the best high school player I have ever seen," one Cleveland sports editor said after he was chosen as an all-star. He was also named an All-Ohio player by the Associated Press and United Press International and earned three varsity letters in football in high school.
## College and military career
Adamle attended Ohio State University and was on the 1942 Ohio State Buckeyes freshman team, but left school prior to the 1943 season to fight in World War II. After serving in the U.S. Air Force in the Mediterranean Theatre of War, he returned to Ohio State for the team's 1946 season—his only season with the varsity Buckeyes. Playing as a center in a November game against the Northwestern Wildcats, Adamle intercepted a Frank Aschenbrenner pass in the third quarter and returned it 38 yards. He had another interception in the fourth quarter of the 39–27 Buckeyes victory. Ohio State finished the season with a 4–3–2 record and Adamle was selected to play in the College All-Star Game, a now-defunct matchup between the National Football League (NFL) champion and a selection of the best college players from around the country.
## Professional career
Adamle was eligible to play for the Buckeyes again in 1947, but decided to leave school and join the Cleveland Browns of the All-America Football Conference (AAFC). Adamle had been selected with the 105th pick in the 1947 NFL Draft by the Chicago Bears, and he told Cleveland head coach Paul Brown, who coached Ohio State's varsity team between 1941 and 1943, that he would join the Bears if the Browns did not sign him. "I would be a pretty sick fellow today, knowing what I do about Tony, if George Halas had gotten him," Brown said before the season began.
Adamle's decision to drop out was controversial because of rules that under normal circumstances would have barred him from playing professionally before graduating. The interruption of the war had forced the suspension of the rule to account for players' military service, however, and he was allowed to leave college. The Browns denied that they encouraged Adamle to drop out. Adamle may have been convinced to join the Browns by Gene Fekete, Dante Lavelli, Lou Groza and Bill Willis, four Browns players who were back at Ohio State to finish their studies after the 1946 season.
With the Browns starting in the team's 1947 season, Adamle played as a fullback. He competed with Marion Motley at the position, and said he was "not working to be a second-stringer". Adamle was a straight-talker and was not afraid to stand up to Brown, a cold disciplinarian who was the team's coach between 1946 and 1962. Brown was impressed with Adamle's candor and held him in respect. Before the seventh game of the 1947 season, a matchup against the Chicago Rockets that October, Adamle replaced Motley as the team's starting fullback. Brown said that while he had not given up on Motley, a big back who had anchored the offense in the Browns' early years, the former starter had "made a few mistakes lately that hurt us" and thought competition would be helpful. Adamle, who was about 15 pounds lighter than Motley, started for a brief time as part of an offense led by quarterback Otto Graham, registering 23 carries for 95 yards on the season, a career-high. The Browns went on to finish the 1947 season with a 12–1–1 record and win the AAFC championship game against the New York Yankees. Adamle returned to Ohio State in the offseason to continue his studies.
By the team's following season, Adamle was being used mostly on defense as a left-side linebacker, and Motley was again the primary fullback. Cleveland had a perfect season in 1948, winning all of its games and beating the Buffalo Bills in the championship. Adamle had 88 rushing yards and a touchdown that year.
Adamle filled in for an injured Motley at fullback for several games the following year while continuing to play as a linebacker. He had 64 rushing yards and made four interceptions, a career-high. Cleveland again won the AAFC championship in 1949, but the league then folded and the Browns were absorbed by the more established NFL.
Cleveland's success continued in the NFL in its 1950 season as Adamle was named team captain, replacing Lou Saban following his retirement. The team won the 1950 NFL Championship Game, and Adamale was one of seven Browns players chosen to play in the first Pro Bowl, football's all-star game. He led the NFL with five fumble recoveries that year and was also named a second-team All-Pro by the New York Daily News.
Adamle was again one of eight Browns chosen for the Pro Bowl after Cleveland's 1951 season, when the team reached the championship game but lost to the Los Angeles Rams. He was named a first-team All-Pro by United Press International and the New York Daily News after the season, when he had one interception and one fumble recovery. He was used mainly as an outside linebacker in Cleveland's 5-3 defense later in his career, only attempting three rushes in the 1950s. Adamle finished college at Kent State University in 1950, earning a bachelor's degree, and received a master's degree in education from Western Reserve University in Cleveland in 1951.
Upset by Brown's criticisms of the defense in the 1951 championship game, Adamle left the Browns before the next season to enter medical school. Brown nevertheless traded the rights to Adamle to the Green Bay Packers as part of a deal that brought defensive back Ace Loomis to Cleveland. "We know Adamle is determined to enter medical school and informed the Packers it is very unlikely he would play any more football," Brown said. The Packers hoped to get him to play part-time while he was in school. Adamle spent most of 1952 working as an orderly at Glenville Hospital in Cleveland, entering Western Reserve's medical school in September.
Adamle came out of retirement to play for the Browns at 30 years old in October 1954. He had been working as a scout for the Chicago Cardinals and was in his third year of medical school; he agreed to come back on the condition that he would only practice once a week so he could continue his studies. The Browns had advanced to the NFL championship game in both of the seasons he did not play, but lost both times to the Detroit Lions. In Cleveland's 1954 season, the team reached the championship game and beat the Lions, 56–10.
## Medical career
Adamle quit football for good after the season and focused on his medical career. In 1956, he received his medical degree from Western Reserve in Cleveland, now known as Case Western Reserve University. He settled in Kent, Ohio, where he ran a medical practice for the rest of his life. He also served as the team doctor for Theodore Roosevelt High School and Kent State University for more than 35 years. Adamle specialized in knee and neck injuries, and published articles about cold therapy and the use of Vitamin C in sports medicine. The Ohio High School Athletic Association named him the state's Outstanding Team Physician in 1983.
## Later life and death
Adamle died in 2000 after a seven-year battle with cancer. His son, Mike Adamle, was a running back at Roosevelt High School and Northwestern University, and played professionally as a fullback for the Kansas City Chiefs, New York Jets and Chicago Bears in the 1970s before becoming a sports broadcaster.
|
[
"## Early life and high school",
"## College and military career",
"## Professional career",
"## Medical career",
"## Later life and death"
] | 2,028 | 12,116 |
40,318,239 |
Computer City (song)
| 1,105,804,551 | null |
[
"2006 singles",
"2006 songs",
"Perfume (Japanese band) songs",
"Song recordings produced by Yasutaka Nakata",
"Songs written by Yasutaka Nakata"
] |
"Computer City" (コンピューターシティ, Konpyūtā Shiti) is a song recorded by Japanese girl group Perfume for their first greatest hits compilation, Perfume: Complete Best (2006). It was written, composed, arranged, and produced by Japanese musician and Capsule member Yasutaka Nakata. The single also included the B-side track "Perfume", which appeared on the parent album. It premiered on January 11, 2006 as the second single from the album in Japan. It was also released on June 19, 2013 through European and Oceanic regions, and June 25 in North America. Musically, "Computer City" is a technopop song, influenced by electronic music.
Upon its release, the track garnered generally favourable reviews from music critics. Some critics highlighted the song as one of Perfume's best singles, and commended the composition. It achieved minor success in Japan, peaking at number 45 on the Oricon Singles Chart and 35 on TBS' Count Down TV chart. An accompanying music video was shot by Kazuaki Seki; it features the girls performing the song in a black room. With additional promotion through Japanese commercials, the song has been performed on several concert tours by Perfume, including their 2007 Seventh Heaven tour and 2008 Game Tour.
## Background and composition
"Computer City" was written, composed, arranged, and produced by Japanese musician and Capsule member Yasutaka Nakata. Alongside this, it was recorded, mixed, and mastered by Nakata. The song was recorded in 2005 at Contemode Studios, Shibuya, Tokyo by Nakata. Alongside the album's remaining material, "Computer City" has partial rights by Nakata through Yahama Music Communications. The single also included the B-side track "Perfume", which also appeared on the parent album. It premiered on January 11, 2006 as the second single from the group's first greatest hits compilation, Perfume: Complete Best (2006). The single was also released on June 19, 2013 through European and Oceanic regions, and June 25 in North America.
The CD single contains both "Computer City" and "Perfume". The artwork features Perfume, posing for the song's music video; Perfume member A-Chan is sitting down, Nocchi is leaning behind A-Chan, and Kashiyuka is standing behind them both. The maxi CD features an extra lyric booklet, printed on plain white paper. Musically, "Computer City" is a technopop song, influenced by electronic music. A staff editor from Amazon Japan noted that the song contained elements of technopop and 8-bit music. Ian Martin from AllMusic stated that the song, alongside their back catalogue from Tokuma Japan Communications, "adopt[ed] a vocoder-heavy production style strongly influenced by European electro and house". Similarly, a staff editor at CD Journal labelled the song's composition as "addictive technopop".
## Critical response
"Computer City" received generally favourable reviews from most music critics. A writer from CD Journal complimented the "tight" composition, and praised the production and songwriting by Yasutaka Nakata. Another reviewer from the same publication reviewed the single release, and highlighted the song's "pop catchy" melody and its lyrical content. A staff editor from Amazon was positive in their review, praising the composition of the track, and highlighted it as one of the best songs on the album. Channel-Ai staff editors awarded the song five stars out of five, stating "'Computer City' is a great improvement; it starts off with vocals only before it dives into a heavy beat. Although some parts turn a little monotone, most of the song remains catchy and melodic."
## Commercial performance
In Japan, "Computer City" debuted at number 45 on the Oricon Singles Chart; it sold 1,853 units within its first week of sales. It became the group's highest charting single and first top 50 charting performance at the time. It lasted five weeks in the top 200 chart, and sold over 4,000 units by the end of 2006. It was the group's highest charting and selling single until their 2007 effort, "Polyrhythm". The song debuted at number 35 on the TBS Count Down TV chart, and lasted two weeks there.
## Music video and live performances
An accompanying music video was shot by Kazuaki Seki; it features the girls performing the song in a black room. There are several intercut scenes of computer generated imagery (CGI), which include the overlapping of digital circuits and other patterns. The music video also appeared on Perfume's DVD compilation sets for Perfume: Complete Best, and Perfume Clips (2014). "Computer City" was used for a Japanese commercial promoting the television show Tokyo Brigade.
The single has been performed on several tours conducted by Perfume. It first appeared on two of the group's promotional concerts; the Seventh Heaven tour in 2007, and the Socks Fix Make tour in 2008. The song was included on their Game Tour, group's first nationwide concert tour, and eventually included on the live DVD, released on October 15, 2008. Since then, "Computer City" has been performed on their 2009 Budoukan Tour in Japan, 2009 Second Concert tour, and their 2010 Tokyo Dome tour. In 2010, four years after its original release, the group was invited to perform "Computer City" on the Japanese music television show, Music Station. This marked the only single previous to the release and subsequent breakthrough of their single "Polyrhythm" that has been performed on Japanese television.
## Track listings
- Japanese CD single
1. "Computer City" (コンピューターシティ)
2. "Perfume"
- Digital download
1. "Computer City" (コンピューターシティ)
2. "Perfume"
## Credits and personnel
Details adapted from the liner notes of the Perfume: Complete Best album.
- Ayano Ōmoto – vocals
- Yuka Kashino – vocals
- Ayaka Nishiwaki – vocals
- Yasutaka Nakata – producer, composer, arranger, mixing, mastering.
- Seki Kazuaki – video director
## Charts and sales
### Charts
### Sales
\|- ! scope="row"\| Japan (RIAJ) \| \| 4,000 \|-
## Release history
|
[
"## Background and composition",
"## Critical response",
"## Commercial performance",
"## Music video and live performances",
"## Track listings",
"## Credits and personnel",
"## Charts and sales",
"### Charts",
"### Sales",
"## Release history"
] | 1,375 | 9,321 |
4,134,434 |
The One with Ross's Wedding
| 1,155,310,612 | null |
[
"1998 American television episodes",
"Friends (season 4) episodes",
"Television episodes about weddings",
"Television episodes set in London",
"Television series produced at Pinewood Studios"
] |
"The One with Ross's Wedding" is the two-part fourth-season finale of the American television sitcom Friends, comprising the 96th and 97th episodes of the series overall. Originally broadcast by NBC on May 7, 1998, the episode features Ross, Monica, Joey, Chandler and later Rachel travelling to England to attend the wedding of Ross Geller (David Schwimmer) to his fiancée Emily (Helen Baxendale) in London. Ross and Emily's wedding vows are ruined when Ross accidentally says "I, Ross, take thee Rachel"; as the registrar asks Emily if he should continue, the episode ends on a cliffhanger until the season 5 premiere "The One After Ross Says Rachel". The episode also introduces Chandler and Monica's romantic relationship after they impulsively have a one-night stand. Lisa Kudrow won an Emmy Award for her work in the episode.
The episode's teleplay was written by Shana Goldberg-Meehan & Scott Silveri from a story by Michael Borkow (part one) and Jill Condon & Amy Toomin (part two). The episode's genesis came during the break between seasons three and four, when Channel 4, the British first-run broadcaster of Friends proposed an episode set in the United Kingdom to the series producers. The proposal fitted neatly with a storyline already being planned, whereby the character of Ross would be married at the end of the fourth season. The episode was filmed in March 1998 under the direction of executive producer Kevin S. Bright on locations in London, and in front of a live studio audience at The Fountain Studios. Scenes featuring Lisa Kudrow's character Phoebe Buffay were filmed on the show's sets in Burbank, California, as the pregnant Kudrow (and consequently her character) was unable to fly to London with the rest of the cast. Kudrow gave birth to her son on the day of the episode's original airing.
"The One with Ross's Wedding" features supporting roles from Tom Conti, Jennifer Saunders, Elliott Gould, Christina Pickles and Olivia Williams, and cameos by Richard Branson, Sarah, Duchess of York, Hugh Laurie and June Whitfield. The episode received good critical feedback in the U.S. on its first broadcast, and is often cited as one of the series' best episodes; however, when it aired in the United Kingdom it was poorly received, with criticism focused on the one-dimensional portrayal of Britain and the British.
## Plot
### Part 1
The group heads off to Ross's wedding in London, leaving behind a heavily pregnant Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow), and Rachel (Jennifer Aniston), who has declined the invitation because it would be too hard for her to see her ex-boyfriend get married.
In London, Joey (Matt LeBlanc) and Chandler (Matthew Perry) go see the sights in a musical montage featuring The Clash's song "London Calling", with Joey filming everything on his camcorder. Chandler becomes embarrassed by his friend's enthusiasm, and after Joey buys a large Union Flag hat from a vendor (Richard Branson), they part company. They reunite in their hotel room and Chandler apologizes. Joey impresses him with a video recording with Sarah, Duchess of York (who plays herself), but quickly becomes homesick after a phone call from Phoebe.
Emily takes Monica (Courteney Cox) and Ross to the church where the wedding will be, but they discover it is being demolished earlier than originally scheduled. Monica later suggests Emily postpone the wedding until everything is perfect. She passes the thought on to Ross, angering him; he tells her people have flown from America to be there and that it is "now or never"; she chooses "never". Monica berates Ross for his insensitivity and Ross apologizes to Emily, showing her the ceremony can still take place in the half-demolished hall that he has tidied up. She agrees.
In New York, Rachel realizes she still loves Ross, and is further taken aback that the entire group apart from Ross knew about it. Phoebe tries to help Rachel get over her feelings for Ross, but to no avail. Rachel soon decides to fly to London to tell him she loves him, ignoring Phoebe's protests.
### Part 2
At the rehearsal dinner, Ross introduces his parents, Jack and Judy (Elliott Gould and Christina Pickles) to Emily's, Steven and Andrea (Tom Conti and Jennifer Saunders). Jack and Judy have volunteered to pay for half of the wedding expenses but, when they discover extravagant costs, Ross spends much of the evening trying to bargain down his future in-laws. Chandler makes a toast that is not well received by the guests and Monica is taken aback when a drunken guest mistakes her for Ross's mother. She and Chandler console each other over alcohol and wake up in bed together the next morning.
On the flight from New York to London, Rachel annoys other passengers by telling them about her relationship with Ross. Eventually, one of the passengers (Hugh Laurie) has enough of this, and calls her out on her selfishness, pointing out that while Rachel claims to love Ross, she is going to ruin the happiest day of his life, and she should accept how things are. He also says that she and Ross were definitely "on a break". Phoebe tries to contact someone by phone to warn them about Rachel, eventually getting through to Joey at the hotel on the morning of the wedding. Joey devises a plan with Monica and Chandler for the three of them to intercept Rachel, but he does not see Rachel arrive in the hall, as he is distracted by kissing a bridesmaid who had seduced him the night before. Rachel sees Ross and Emily kiss after he has urged their parents to stop their argument over the wedding. She realizes how happy Ross is with Emily and congratulates him.
Phoebe phones Joey to hear the wedding and is relieved that Rachel has come to her senses. As Ross says his vows, he accidentally says Rachel's name rather than Emily's, leaving a shocked registrar to ask Emily if he should continue, while the camera shoots from character to character, settling on a shocked Rachel.
## Production
During the summer hiatus of 1997, the producers were contacted by Channel 4, the British first-run broadcaster of Friends, with a proposal to film an episode in London. Producer Greg Malins is quoted as saying "We had to come up with a storyline that would cause all the Friends to go to London [...] and that ended up being Ross getting married, because they would all have to go to his wedding". Casting Director Leslie Litt said Musician Paul McCartney was approached to play Emily's dad, but he declined as he was busy at the time.
The episode featured numerous supporting roles from British actors. For her role as Andrea Waltham, Saunders "heard Joan Collins' voice in [her] head". Her Absolutely Fabulous co-star June Whitfield appeared in cameo as the housekeeper. Felicity, the bridesmaid who Joey entices, is played by Olivia Williams. Further cameos were made by Sarah, Duchess of York as herself, Richard Branson as the vendor who sells Joey a hat, and Hugh Laurie as the man sitting next to Rachel on the plane. Lisa Kudrow did not join the others in London as she was too heavily pregnant to fly, as was her character Phoebe. Elliott Gould inadvertently revealed to the public that Rachel was to turn up at the wedding, upsetting Marta Kauffman.
Scenes not involving the main apartments were all filmed in London during the week beginning March 30, 1998. Location shooting was done mostly for scenes featuring Joey and Chandler; outside the London Marriott, Grosvenor Square, the top of an open-top London bus as it crosses Tower Bridge (this scene was excised from the final cut but features in the opening titles of the next episode), and near St John's Church, Wapping. Interiors, such as the restaurant, the Walthams' hallway and the hotel rooms, were all filmed on purpose-built sets at The Fountain Studios, Wembley. The reaction from the audience when Monica came out from under Chandler's bed covers meant the actors had to hold their position for 27 seconds. When filming ran late one evening, the production team ordered pizzas for the audience.
The episode was a coup for Channel 4, who erected crush barriers outside their building to hold back fans when the cast arrived for a press conference (though no fans actually turned up). The broadcaster also commissioned a behind-the-scenes program from Princess Productions. Hosted by British television personality Johnny Vaughan, The One Where Johnny Makes Friends features comedic tongue-in-cheek interviews with all six main cast (Vaughan contacted Kudrow by payphone, claiming that he could not make international calls from his dressing room) and was broadcast on Channel 4 on May 6, 1998.
Two brief behind-the-scenes featurettes were filmed, titled Friends Goes to London and Friends on Location in London, which were included on the DVD releases of seasons four and five. A tie-in book, Making Friends in the UK () was published by Channel 4 Books in November 1998. It was bundled into a gift pack entitled "The One with the Whole London Wedding", which featured an extended cut of the episode merged with the next episode.
Ross and Emily's marriage was originally planned to last, but Helen Baxendale did not wish to remain in America while pregnant. The writers could not script a convincing story for why Emily would not be seen, despite being married to Ross, so Baxendale was written out in the next season, making only three cameo appearances after the season premiere.
## Reception
In its original airing, "The One with Ross's Wedding" finished third in ratings for the week of May 4–10, 1998, with a Nielsen rating of 21.2, equivalent to approximately 20.6 million viewing households. It was the third highest-rated show on NBC that week, following Seinfeld and ER – all of which aired on the network's Thursday night Must See TV lineup. The episode aired in the Republic of Ireland on RTÉ on May 25, 1998, six days earlier than in the United Kingdom on Sky1. It also aired on Channel 4 on December 11, 1998, and was watched by 6.49 million viewers, making Friends the highest rated show on the channel for the week ending December 13, 1998.
Entertainment Weekly gives the episode an A rating, calling it a "near-perfect finale that finds everyone at the top of their game" with a "tantalizing cliff-hanger, and, in Chandler and Monica, a relationship that will have reverberations for seasons to come". The authors of Friends Like Us: The Unofficial Guide to Friends state there are "too many 'best moments' to list in detail", but single out Monica describing the perfect wedding to Ross, and Sarah Ferguson's cameo (though they call Branson's "embarrassing"). Following the broadcast of the episode in the UK, The Independent was critical, saying "Twice the length of a normal episode, last night's offering was approximately half as funny" and suggested the cast were behaving out of character.
David Schwimmer has expressed dissatisfaction that Ross was married again, saying it was "a mistake" and that Ross was not given "enough credit". He says that Ross's "taking on the world would just be shattered" and that he would not have risked marrying again. David Crane has said that filming in front of a different audience "energized the actors and writers". The hall where the wedding ceremony took place would inspire the location for the wedding of David and Victoria Beckham. The events of this episode are revisited in the seventh-season episode "The One with the Truth About London", in which flashbacks reveal how Monica and Chandler ended up in bed together. The hotel room set was recreated for those scenes.
In 2013, TV Guide ranked the beginning of the Monica-Chandler affair as the third-greatest twist of all time.
### Accolades
At the 50th Primetime Emmy Awards, Lisa Kudrow won Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her work in the episode.
|
[
"## Plot",
"### Part 1",
"### Part 2",
"## Production",
"## Reception",
"### Accolades"
] | 2,517 | 25,505 |
465,209 |
SM UB-4
| 1,172,009,544 |
Type UB I submarine of the German Imperial Navy
|
[
"1915 ships",
"German Type UB I submarines",
"Maritime incidents in 1915",
"Ships built in Belgium",
"Ships built in Kiel",
"Submarines lost with all hands",
"U-boats commissioned in 1915",
"U-boats sunk by British warships",
"U-boats sunk in 1915",
"World War I shipwrecks in the North Sea",
"World War I submarines of Germany"
] |
Seiner Majestät UB-4 was a German Type UB I submarine (U-boat) in the German Imperial Navy (German: Kaiserliche Marine) during World War I. She was sunk by a British Q-ship disguised as a fishing smack in August 1915.
UB-4 was ordered in October 1914 and was laid down at the Germaniawerft shipyard in Kiel in November. UB-4 was a little more than 28 metres (92 ft) in length and displaced between 127 and 142 tonnes (125 and 140 long tons), depending on whether surfaced or submerged. She carried two torpedoes for her two bow torpedo tubes and was also armed with a deck-mounted machine gun. UB-4 was broken into sections and shipped by rail to Antwerp for reassembly. She was launched and commissioned as SM UB-4 in March 1915.
UB-4 conducted the first sortie of the Flanders Flotilla in April, during which she sank the Belgian Relief ship Harpalyce, the first ship credited to the flotilla. She sank three more ships from mid-April to mid-August. On 15 August, UB-4 surfaced near the British Q-ship Inverlyon and was sunk by gunfire from the sailing vessel. None of UB-4's 14 crewmen survived the attack.
## Design and construction
After the German Army's rapid advance along the North Sea coast in the earliest stages of World War I, the German Imperial Navy found itself without suitable submarines that could be operated in the narrow and shallow environment off Flanders. Project 34, a design effort begun in mid-August 1914, produced the Type UB I design: a small submarine that could be shipped by rail to a port of operations and quickly assembled. Constrained by railroad size limitations, the UB I design called for a boat about 28 metres (92 ft) long and displacing about 125 tonnes (123 long tons) with two torpedo tubes. UB-4 was part of the initial allotment of eight submarines—numbered UB-1 to UB-8—ordered on 15 October from Germaniawerft of Kiel, just shy of two months after planning for the class began.
UB-4 was laid down by Germaniawerft in Kiel on 3 November. As built, UB-4 was 28.10 metres (92 ft 2 in) long, 3.15 metres (10 ft 4 in) abeam, and had a draft of 3.03 metres (10 ft). She had a single 59-brake-horsepower (44 kW) Daimler 4-cylinder diesel engine for surface travel, and a single 119-shaft-horsepower (89 kW) Siemens-Schuckert electric motor for underwater travel, both attached to a single propeller shaft. Her top speeds were 6.47 knots (11.98 km/h; 7.45 mph), surfaced, and 5.51 knots (10.20 km/h; 6.34 mph), submerged. At more moderate speeds, she could sail up to 1,650 nautical miles (3,060 km; 1,900 mi) on the surface before refueling, and up to 45 nautical miles (83 km; 52 mi) submerged before recharging her batteries. Like all boats of the class, UB-4 was rated to a diving depth of 50 metres (160 ft), and could completely submerge in 33 seconds.
UB-4 was armed with two 45-centimeter (17.7 in) torpedoes in two bow torpedo tubes. She was also outfitted for a single 8-millimeter (0.31 in) machine gun on deck. UB-4's standard complement consisted of one officer and thirteen enlisted men.
After work on UB-4 was complete at the Germaniwerft yard, UB-4 was readied for rail shipment. The process of shipping a UB I boat involved breaking the submarine down into what was essentially a knock down kit. Each boat was broken into approximately fifteen pieces and loaded onto eight railway flatcars. In early 1915, the sections of UB-4 were shipped to Antwerp for assembly in what was typically a two- to three-week process. After UB-4 was assembled and launched sometime in March, she was loaded on a barge and taken through canals to Bruges where she underwent trials.
## Service career
The submarine was commissioned into the German Imperial Navy as SM UB-4 on 23 March under the command of Oberleutnant zur See Karl Gross, a 29-year-old first-time U-boat commander. UB-4 soon joined the other UB I boats then comprising the Flanders Flotilla (German: U-boote des Marinekorps U-Flotille Flandern), which had been organized on 29 March. When UB-4 joined the flotilla, Germany was in the midst of its first submarine offensive, begun in February. During this campaign, enemy vessels in the German-defined war zone (German: Kriegsgebiet), which encompassed all waters around the United Kingdom (including the English Channel), were to be sunk. Vessels of neutral countries were not to be attacked unless they definitively could be identified as enemy vessels operating under a false flag.
UB-4 kicked off operations for the new flotilla when she departed on her first patrol on 9 April. The following day, she sank the first ship credited to the Flanders Flotilla. The 5,940 GRT British-flagged Harpalyce, which had been chartered by the American Commission for Relief in Belgium, was headed for Norfolk, Virginia, United States, in ballast after delivering relief supplies to Rotterdam. UB-4 came upon the steamer between Harwich and the Hook of Holland and pulled to within about 100 yards (91 m). Despite the fact that the ship had a pass of safe-conduct from Germany, was marked with the words "Belgian Relief" on her side, and was flying a white flag with the same wording, Gross torpedoed the vessel without warning. Harpalyce sank in about five minutes, which allowed no time to launch any of the lifeboats. The Dutch steamers Elisabeth and Constance, and the American steamer Ruby picked up survivors. Herbert Hoover, head of the relief committee, reported that his organization's charter of the ship ended after delivery of the cargo in Rotterdam, but expressed disbelief that the ship could have been the victim of a torpedo attack, given the "distinct assurance" that ships engaged in the relief effort "would not be molested". Harpalyce's master and 14 others from the 44-man crew died in the attack. Harpalyce was the largest ship sunk by UB-4 during her career.
UB-4's followed up the sinking of Harpalyce by sinking the Greek ship Ellispontos, a steamer of 2,989 gross register tons (GRT). Ellispontos was en route to Montevideo from Amsterdam when sunk by Gross and UB-4 on 17 April. Although German U-boats sank over 100,000 tons of shipping in each of May and June, UB-4 did not contribute to those totals. She did add one ship to the 98,000-ton tally for July when she sank the Belgian ship Princesse Marie Jose and her load of coal on 29 July. The 1,954 GRT steamer had sailed from Dunston and was headed to Bordeaux when sunk 1.5 nautical miles (2.8 km; 1.7 mi) from the Shipwash Lightship off Harwich.
### Sinking
On 14 August, the 59 GRT British fishing smack Bona Fide was stopped by a U-boat, boarded, and sunk with explosives 35 nautical miles (65 km; 40 mi) east-northeast of Lowestoft. According to the website Uboat.net, this attack was likely by UB-4, because she was operating in the area on her fourteenth patrol. Regardless of the identity of Bona Fide's attacker, UB-4 did approach a group of smacks in the vicinity the next day, but unbeknownst to UB-4's commander, Gross, one of the fishing vessels was actually a British decoy ship.
The decoy or Q-ship was His Majesty's Armed Smack Inverlyon, a smack that had been outfitted with a concealed 3-pounder (47 mm) gun. Around 20:20, UB-4 drew within 30 yards (27 m) of Inverlyon and Gross, on the conning tower of UB-4, shouted out commands to Inverlyon's crew in German. After waiting until the right moment, Ernest Jehan, a Royal Navy gunner in command of Inverlyon, ordered the White Ensign raised and gave the command to open fire. A burst of three rounds from the 3-pounder scored hits on the conning tower, the second destroying part of the bridge and sending Gross into the water. UB-4, with no one at the helm, drifted behind Inverlyon, and when clear, the 3-pounder fired another six shots into the hull of UB-4 at point blank range. All the while small arms fire from Inverlyon's crew peppered the submarine. The U-boat began going down by the bow, becoming nearly vertical before disappearing below the surface. A member of Inverlyon's crew attempted the rescue of one crewman from UB-4, but was unable to reach him before he went under, meeting the same fate as the other thirteen crewmen.
As UB-4 went down, her hulk fouled the Inverlyon's nets—which had been deployed to keep up the appearance of a real fishing boat—essentially anchoring Inverlyon in place. The Q-ship's crew, not having a wireless set on board, sent word of the encounter with another smack, and followed up by releasing messenger pigeons the following morning, requesting instructions on what to do with UB-4. The thought of salvaging the snagged U-boat was rejected, so the nets were cut, freeing UB-4 to sink to the bottom. UB-4's wreck lies at position . Jehan was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for the sinking of UB-4, and the crewmen of Inverlyon split the submarine bounty paid by the Admiralty.
## Summary of raiding history
|
[
"## Design and construction",
"## Service career",
"### Sinking",
"## Summary of raiding history"
] | 2,203 | 5,022 |
14,339,081 |
HMS Royal Sovereign (1891)
| 1,172,104,570 |
Royal Sovereign-class battleship
|
[
"1891 ships",
"Maritime incidents in 1899",
"Maritime incidents in 1901",
"Royal Sovereign-class battleships",
"Ships built in Portsmouth",
"Victorian-era battleships of the United Kingdom"
] |
HMS Royal Sovereign was the lead ship of the seven ships in her class of pre-dreadnought battleships built for the Royal Navy in the 1890s. The ship was commissioned in 1892 and served as the flagship of the Channel Fleet for the next five years. She was transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet in 1897 and returned home in 1902, and was briefly assigned as a coast guard ship before she began a lengthy refit in 1903–1904. Royal Sovereign was reduced to reserve in 1905 and was taken out of service in 1909. The ship was sold for scrap four years later and subsequently broken up in Italy.
## Design and description
The design of the Royal Sovereign-class ships was derived from that of the Admiral-class ironclad battleships, greatly enlarged to improve seakeeping and to provide space for a secondary armament as in the preceding Trafalgar-class ironclad battleships. The ships displaced 14,150 long tons (14,380 t) at normal load and 15,580 long tons (15,830 t) at deep load. They had a length between perpendiculars of 380 feet (115.8 m) and an overall length of 410 feet 6 inches (125.1 m), a beam of 75 feet (22.9 m), and a draught of 27 feet 6 inches (8.4 m). Their crew consisted of 670 officers and ratings.
The Royal Sovereigns were powered by a pair of three-cylinder, vertical triple-expansion steam engines, each driving one shaft. Her Humphrys & Tennant engines were designed to produce a total of 11,000 indicated horsepower (8,200 kW) and a maximum speed of 17.5 knots (32.4 km/h; 20.1 mph) using steam provided by eight cylindrical boilers with forced draught. Royal Sovereign was the first ship of the class to be completed, and was put through a lengthy set of steam trials of which only a few sets of figures have survived. She made 16.41 knots (30.39 km/h; 18.88 mph) over eight hours from 9,661 ihp (7,204 kW) using normal draught and 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph) over three hours from 13,360 ihp (9,960 kW) using forced draught. Some of her boiler tubes were observed to crack and leak under the pressures involved; as a result, the Navy decided not to push the boilers of the Royal Sovereign class past 11,000 ihp to prevent similar damage. The ships carried a maximum of 1,420 long tons (1,443 t) of coal, which gave them a range of 4,720 nautical miles (8,740 km; 5,430 mi) at a speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph).
Their main armament consisted of four breech-loading (BL) 13.5-inch (343 mm) guns mounted in two twin-gun barbettes, one each fore and aft of the superstructure. Each gun was provided with 80 rounds. Their secondary armament consisted of ten quick-firing (QF) 6-inch (152 mm) guns. 200 rounds per gun were carried by the ships. Sixteen QF 6-pounder (2.2 in (57 mm)) guns of an unknown type and a dozen QF 3-pounder (1.9 in (47 mm)) Hotchkiss guns were fitted for defence against torpedo boats. The two 3-pounders in the upper fighting top were removed in 1903–1904 and all of the remaining light guns from the lower fighting tops and main deck followed in 1905–1909. The Royal Sovereign-class ships mounted seven 14-inch (356 mm) torpedo tubes, although Royal Sovereign had four of hers removed in 1903–04.
The Royal Sovereigns' armour scheme was similar to that of the Trafalgars, as the waterline belt of compound armour only protected the area between the barbettes. The 14–18-inch (356–457 mm) belt and transverse bulkheads 14–16 inches (356–406 mm) thick closed off the ends of the belt. Above the belt was a strake of 4-inch (102 mm) Harvey armour closed off by 3-inch (76 mm) oblique bulkheads. The barbettes were protected by compound armour, ranging in thickness from 11 to 17 inches (279 to 432 mm) and the casemates for the 6-inch guns were protected by an equal thickness of armour. The thicknesses of the armour deck ranged from 2.5 to 3 inches (64 to 76 mm). The walls of the forward conning tower were 12–14 inches (305–356 mm) thick and the aft conning tower was protected by 3-inch plates.
## Construction and career
The Royal Sovereign class was ordered as part of the Naval Defence Act 1889 that was a supplement to the normal naval estimates. Royal Sovereign, the seventh ship of her name to serve with the Royal Navy, was laid down on 30 September 1889 in a drydock because Portsmouth Dockyard lacked a slipway long enough to accommodate her. The ship was floated out of dock on 26 February 1891 and christened by Queen Victoria. She completed her sea trials in May 1892 and was commissioned on 31 May at a cost of £913,986. Royal Sovereign relieved the battleship HMS Camperdown as flagship of the Channel Squadron. From then until 13 August 1892, she served as the flagship of the "Red Fleet" in the annual manoeuvres off the coast of Ireland. She reprised her role as the flagship of the Red Fleet, from 27 July to 6 August 1893 during the manoeuvres in the Irish Sea and the Western Approaches. To reduce her rolling, she was fitted with bilge keels in 1894–95. In June 1895, Royal Sovereign and three of her sister ships were part of a British naval squadron that attended the opening of the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal in Germany. During the third week of July 1896, the ship took part in annual manoeuvres in the Irish Sea and off the southwest coast of England as part of "Fleet A".
On 7 June 1897, Royal Sovereign paid off and her crew was transferred to the battleship Mars which relieved her in the Channel Squadron. The next day, she recommissioned to relieve the battleship Trafalgar in the Mediterranean Sea. Before departing for the Mediterranean, she took part in the Fleet Review for the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria at Spithead on 26 June 1897, and from 7–11 July took part in annual manoeuvres off the coast of Ireland. She finally departed England for the Mediterranean in September. Upon arrival, Royal Sovereign joined the Mediterranean Fleet. On 18 January 1899, Rear-Admiral Gerard Noel, Second-in-Command of the Mediterranean Fleet, hoisted his flag aboard the ship and Captain Charles Henry Adair was appointed in command two days later. The following month the ship toured Italian waters, visiting Naples, Genoa, Palermo and Syracuse. On 14 July, she visited Fiume (modern Rijeka), Croatia, in company with four other battleships, departing five days later. On the 28th, one man was killed aboard Royal Sovereign in a gun accident and he was buried at sea that evening.
On 9 November 1901, off Greece, one of her six-inch guns exploded when the breech was not fully closed, killing one officer (Captain Humphry Weston Spurway of Oakford, Devon) and five Royal Marines and injuring one officer (Sir Robert Keith Arbuthnot, 4th Bt) and 19 seamen. Captain Frederick Inglefield was appointed in command on 26 November 1901. After being relieved in the Mediterranean by the battleship London, Royal Sovereign departed Gibraltar on 9 July 1902, arriving at Portsmouth, England, on 14 July 1902. She served as flagship to Sir Charles Frederick Hotham, Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth, during the fleet review held at Spithead on 16 August 1902 for the coronation of King Edward VII. Paid-off at Portsmouth on 29 August, she immediately re-commissioned under Captain George Primrose and the crew of HMS Trafalgar, to take that ship′s place as a coast guard ship at Portsmouth. Captain Thomas MacGill was appointed in command on 15 December 1902, and was succeeded by Captain Alfred Wyndham Paget in May 1903. She later joined the home squadron. From 5–9 August 1903, the ship participated in manoeuvres off the coast of Portugal. From 1903 to 1904, she underwent an extensive refit at Portsmouth during which six-inch armoured casemates were added for the six-inch guns. On 9 February 1907, Royal Sovereign commissioned as a special service vessel in reserve. As such, she was incorporated into the 4th Division of the Home Fleet with other such vessels in April 1909. In September 1909, Royal Sovereign was taken out of service and she was sold for scrap to G. Clarkson & Son for £40,000 on 7 October 1913. They resold her to GB Berterello of Genoa and the ship was demolished there.
|
[
"## Design and description",
"## Construction and career"
] | 2,014 | 19,588 |
14,375,631 |
HMS Bellona (1909)
| 1,134,793,678 |
British Boadicea-class scout cruiser
|
[
"1909 ships",
"Boadicea-class cruisers",
"Ships built in Pembroke Dock",
"World War I cruisers of the United Kingdom"
] |
HMS Bellona was one of two Boadicea-class scout cruisers built for the Royal Navy in the first decade of the 20th century. The ship served as the flotilla leader for the 2nd Destroyer Flotilla from her completion in 1910 until 1913 when she was transferred to the 1st Battle Squadron. Bellona spent the bulk of World War I with that squadron. She was present at, but did not fight in, the Battle of Jutland in mid-1916. The ship was converted into a minelayer in mid-1917 and made four sorties to lay her mines before the end of the war. Bellona was reduced to reserve in 1919 and sold to be broken up for scrap in 1921.
## Design and description
Designed to provide destroyer flotillas with a command ship, Bellona proved too slow in service from the start of her career. Her 25-knot (46 km/h; 29 mph) speed was barely capable of matching the speeds of the River-class destroyers she led in her flotilla in 1909 and proved inadequate to match the speed of later destroyers.
Displacing 3,350 long tons (3,400 t), the ship had an overall length of 405 feet (123.4 m), a beam of 41 feet 6 inches (12.6 m) and a deep draught of 14 feet (4.3 m). She was powered by two sets of Parsons steam turbines, each driving two shafts. The turbines produced a total of 18,000 indicated horsepower (13,000 kW), using steam produced by 12 Yarrow boilers that burned both fuel oil and coal, and gave a maximum speed of 25 knots (46 km/h; 29 mph). She carried a maximum of 780 long tons (790 t) of coal and 189 long tons (192 t) of fuel oil. Her crew consisted of 317 officers and ratings.
Her main armament consisted of six breech-loading (BL) four-inch (102 mm) Mk VII guns. The forward pair of guns were mounted side by side on a platform on the forecastle, the middle pair were amidships, one on each broadside, and the two remaining guns were on the centreline of the quarterdeck, one ahead of the other. Her secondary armament consisted of four quick-firing (QF) 3-pounder (47-millimetre (1.9 in)) Vickers Mk I guns and two submerged 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes. During the war, four additional four-inch guns were added amidships to increase her firepower. A QF three-inch (76 mm) 20-cwt anti-aircraft gun was also added. In 1918 it was replaced by a four-inch gun.
As a scout cruiser, the ship was only lightly protected to maximise her speed. She had a curved protective deck that was 1 inch (25 mm) thick on the slope and 0.5 inches (13 mm) on the flat. Her conning tower was protected by four inches of armour.
## Construction and service
Bellona, the sixth ship of that name, was ordered as part of the 1907 Naval Programme and was laid down on No. 5 Slipway at Pembroke Royal Dockyard on 15 June 1908 by Mrs. Kingsford, wife of the Captain-Superintendent of the dockyard, Rear-Admiral Henry Kingsford. The ship was launched on 20 March 1909 by Lady Leonora, wife of John Philips, Baron St Davids. She was completed in February 1910 under the command of Captain Edwyn Alexander-Sinclair, commander of the 2nd Destroyer Flotilla. He was relieved by Captain The Honourable Hubert Brand on 7 February 1911. Captain Reginald Tyrwhitt replaced him on 10 August 1912. The ship had been transferred to the 1st Battle Squadron as of 18 June 1913 and Captain Percy Royds assumed command on 5 July.
She was still assigned to the 1st Battle Squadron of the Grand Fleet in Scapa Flow at the start of World War I. On 17 December 1914, Bellona collided with the destroyer leader Broke, although both ships were seriously damaged, there were no deaths. Captain Arthur Dutton relieved Royds on 24 April 1916. Bellona was at the Battle of Jutland but was assigned to a position at the rear of the squadron and did not fire her guns. Dutton was relieved in his turn by Captain Claud Sinclair on 28 August and was replaced by Captain Ernest Denison on 1 February 1917. The ship was on detached duty by May, probably for her conversion to a minelayer the following month, and was briefly assigned to the 4th Battle Squadron by July before rejoining the 1st Battle Squadron in August. Bellona's stay was destined to short-lived as the ship was transferred to the 2nd Battle Squadron by October. Bellona laid mines at the entrance to the Kattegat on the nights of 18/19 and 24/25 February 1918, part of her total of 306 mines laid in four missions. Captain Theodore Bigg relieved Denison on 15 November. After the war, the ship was relieved of her assignment with the 2nd Battle Squadron and assigned to Devonport Dockyard in February 1919 and placed in reserve there the following month. By 18 December, she had been listed for sale and sold for scrap on 9 May 1921 to Thos. W. Ward at Lelant.
|
[
"## Design and description",
"## Construction and service"
] | 1,185 | 2,002 |
3,117,124 |
Hurricane Cindy (2005)
| 1,167,416,848 |
Category 1 hurricane in 2005
|
[
"2005 Atlantic hurricane season",
"2005 in Mexico",
"2005 natural disasters in the United States",
"Atlantic hurricanes in Mexico",
"Category 1 Atlantic hurricanes",
"Hurricanes in Louisiana",
"July 2005 events in North America",
"Tropical cyclones in 2005"
] |
Hurricane Cindy was a tropical cyclone that briefly reached minimal hurricane strength in the Gulf of Mexico during July in the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season and made landfall in Louisiana. It was the third named storm and first hurricane of the season. Cindy was originally thought to have been a tropical storm at peak strength, but was upgraded to a Category 1 hurricane in the post-season analysis. Cindy formed on July 3 just east of the Yucatán Peninsula in the Caribbean Sea. The depression soon made landfall on the peninsula and weakened before reemerging in the Gulf of Mexico on July 4. The storm strengthened as it moved north becoming a hurricane just before making landfall near Grand Isle, Louisiana, on July 5. The storm weakened as it moved overland and became extratropical on July 7.
The storm was responsible for 3 deaths in the United States and brought heavy rains to Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Maryland. An unusually strong F2 tornado was spawned from Cindy's remnants and caused severe damage in Hampton, Georgia. Cindy also caused flooding and a severe blackout in New Orleans, Louisiana.
## Meteorological history
On June 24 a vigorous tropical wave moved off the African coast and quickly west across the Atlantic without developing. The wave gradually became more organized as it crossed the Caribbean and late on July 3 it strengthened into Tropical Depression Three about 80 miles (130 km) East of Chetumal, Mexico. The models initially had difficulty predicting the track of the depression and the forecasts from the National Hurricane Center reflected this, indicating that the depression would move towards Texas. The depression developed quickly before making landfall on Yucatán Peninsula early on July 4 with 35 mph (55 km/h) winds and began to lose its circulation overland. A new center of circulation began forming later on July 4, over the Gulf of Mexico, to the north of the original center. This reformation caused a significant alteration in the forecast models, which now indicated a landfall in Louisiana. The depression moved northwards into the Gulf of Mexico and became a tropical storm early on July 5, assigned the name Cindy.
Lower shear allowed Cindy to strengthen further as it approached Louisiana and the storm was a minimal hurricane with 75 mph (120 km/h) winds when it made landfall near Grand Isle late on July 5. Initially it was stated that Cindy did not reach hurricane strength, but post-season reanalysis confirmed the upgrade to Category 1 status. Cindy weakened back into a tropical storm as it crossed over extreme southeastern Louisiana and Breton Sound before making a second landfall near Waveland, Mississippi with 50 mph (85 km/h) winds on July 6. Cindy moved to the northeast over Mississippi and Alabama, weakening to a tropical depression that day. The depression became extratropical over the Carolinas on July 7 and moved to the northeast dissipating in the Gulf of St Lawrence on July 12.
## Preparations
Upon being declared a tropical depression, meteorologists in Mexico began advising residents about the possibility of heavy rainfall across the Yucatán Peninsula.
The National Hurricane Center issued a Tropical Storm Warning from Morgan City, Louisiana to Destin, Florida, and both tourists and residents evacuated the Louisiana and Florida coasts. Workers were evacuated from six oil rigs in the storm's path, and 23 coastal refineries stopped unloading oil as Cindy's approach made such activities dangerous. Numerous flights in and out of New Orleans were cancelled and Amtrak suspended passenger rail service until after the storm passed. Recreational vehicles were told to leave Grand Isle in case a full-scale evacuation was needed. In Mississippi, jail inmates filled sandbags which would be distributed to flood prone areas throughout the state.
## Impact
Three deaths were attributed to Cindy, none of them near the storm's landfall. One person was killed in Georgia, and two in Maryland from a car crash. Approximately 300,000 homes and businesses in southeast Louisiana and the Mississippi Gulf Coast lost electrical power and a storm surge of 4–6 feet (1.2-1.8 m) affected the same area, causing some beach erosion near Grand Isle, Louisiana. Hurricane Cindy's total damage was estimated to be US\$320 million.
In New Orleans, Louisiana, wind gusts reached 70 mph (110 km/h), many trees were damaged or uprooted and scattered street flooding was reported. As thousands lost electrical power, the city experienced its worst blackout since Hurricane Betsy 40 years earlier. Although still listed as a "Tropical Storm" by the weather service at the time, many laypeople in New Orleans were under the impression that Cindy was a hurricane, and referred to it as "Hurricane Cindy" before it was officially upgraded. Many people in the New Orleans metropolitan area expected minimal effects from the storm, but were cleaning up debris and were without power for days after Cindy's passage. In Louisiana, 260,000 residences were left without power.
Even though it had weakened to a depression when it moved inland, Cindy's effects were still significant across the final portion of its track. The day after its landfall in southeastern Louisiana, Tropical Depression Cindy reached central Alabama. There its rainbands produced heavy rainfall and eight tornadoes. Damage was mostly limited to trees and powerlines, but an F1 tornado in Macon county injured one man, destroyed an auto-repair shop, and damaged several nearby cars. About 35,000 residences in Alabama and 7,000 in both Florida and Mississippi were left without power following the storm.
On July 6 at 8:45 pm (EST), a large, half-mile-wide tornado touched down near the Atlanta Motor Speedway. The tornado was estimated to have had winds of 120 mph as it tore through the complex, making it an F2 on the Fujita scale. Every building had sustained at least minor damage and some that were damaged beyond repair. On some of the condominiums, the roof had caved in. Most structures had their windows blown out. The five-story scoreboard was blown down as well. The track was not damaged, however, debris was littered all over it. The tornado continued on its path of destruction towards the Tara Field Airport, west of the speedway. There, eleven planes and five vintage helicopters were damaged. The tornado then moved towards the Edgar Blalock Raw Water Reservation. At this point, the tornado had already been weakening and shrinking. The tornado turned to the northwest and crossed into Clayton County. The tornado lifted shortly after at around 9:04 p.m. (EST). Damage from the tornado was extensive. About \$40 million in damages was caused to the Speedway as many buildings needed to be torn down and rebuilt. Nearby the airport, a Chevron Auto service station was destroyed and at least 60 homes were severely damaged and over 200 others damaged along the tornados' nine-mile track. Power to most of Henry County was out due to the damage. Following the tornado, all races scheduled to take place for several weeks were cancelled; the first race after the repair work was finished was to take place on October 30.
Elsewhere in Georgia, an F1 tornado in Fayette county damaged three homes and caused an estimated US\$3 million of damage. Four other tornadoes were confirmed across the state, although none of them caused significant damage. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Atlanta recorded over 5 inches (130 mm) of rain on July 6, its sixth-highest one-day rainfall since records began in 1878; most of the rain fell during just two hours (8–10 p.m. EDT). This is more rain than the area normally gets in all of July. Due to the rain, the Atlanta Braves game against the Chicago Cubs was postponed.
Cindy's remnant low moving across western and northern North Carolina combined with a frontal boundary to produce several supercell thunderstorms. These supercells spawned a number of tornadoes in western North Carolina, at the foothills of the Appalachian mountains, but their effects were minimal. Continuing north, Cindy brought over 5 in (125 mm) of rain to areas as distant as Salisbury, Maryland. In addition, Cindy's remnants produce moderate rainfall in Upstate New York causing light damage due to flooding and gusty winds, which downed some trees.
### Tornadoes
As the remnants of Cindy weakened over Louisiana, it led to a two-day tornado outbreak across the southeastern United States. Strong thunderstorms began to develop along the edges of the system in Alabama. The first tornado touched down near Semmes, Alabama at 3:00 a.m. (CST). The tornado caused roof damage to several structures as well as knocking down several trees. Over the next ten hours, several F0 and two F1 tornadoes touched down in Alabama and Florida. Later on July 6, the remnants of Cindy were moving over Alabama and the activity shifted into Georgia. At 8:45 pm (EST), a large tornado touched down near the Atlanta Motor Speedway causing severe damage to the structures in the complex. The tornado then moved into an airfield where several planes and helicopters were damaged. Numerous homes were damaged or destroyed by the tornado as well. The tornado was rated F2 by the NWS. The activity slowed for a short while before picking back up in early afternoon hours on July 7 as the remnants of Cindy moved through Georgia. At 2:10<sup>PM</sup> (EST) an F2 tornado touched down about seven miles south of Taylorsville, North Carolina where three buildings were damaged a mobile home was destroyed. About an hour later, another F2 tornado touched down in North Carolina. It touched down about four miles north-northeast of Harmony. The tornado damaged several buildings before moving into Yadkin County where an additional 13 buildings were damaged as well as severe crop damage to the tobacco and corn farms. By the nighttime hours, the activity was shifting into Virginia. Before the remnants of Cindy moved out into the Atlantic Ocean, seven F1 tornadoes touched down in Virginia. The outbreak ended early on July 8 as Cindy began to move out over the Atlantic.
#### Atlanta Motor Speedway, Georgia
On July 6 at 8:45 pm (EST), a large, half-mile-wide tornado touched down near the Atlanta Motor Speedway. The tornado was estimated to have had winds of 120 mph as it tore through the complex. Every building had sustained at least minor damage and some that were damaged beyond repair. On some of the condominiums, the roof had caved in. Most structures had their windows blown out. The five-story scoreboard was blown down as well. The track was not damaged, however, debris was littered all over it. The tornado continued on its path of destruction towards the Tara Field Airport, west of the speedway. There, eleven planes and five vintage helicopters were damaged. The tornado then moved towards the Edgar Blalock Raw Water Reservation. At this point, the tornado had already been weakening and shrinking. The tornado turned to the northwest and crossed into Clayton County. The tornado lifted shortly after at around 9:04 p.m. (EST).
Damage from the tornado was extensive. About \$40 million in damages was caused to the Speedway as many buildings needed to be torn down and rebuilt. Nearby the airport, a Chevron Auto service station was destroyed and at least 60 homes were severely damaged and over 200 others damaged along the tornados' nine-mile track. Power to most of Henry County was out due to the damage.
Following the tornado, all races scheduled to take place for several weeks were cancelled; the first race after the repair work was finished was to take place on October 30.
In all, the tornado caused \$71.5 million in damages and despite all the devastation, no one was injured by the tornado.
## See also
- List of Florida hurricanes (2000–present)
- List of North Carolina hurricanes (2000–present)
- List of Category 1 Atlantic hurricanes
- Tropical Storm Arlene (2005) – Affected similar areas earlier in the year.
- Hurricane Barry (2019)
|
[
"## Meteorological history",
"## Preparations",
"## Impact",
"### Tornadoes",
"#### Atlanta Motor Speedway, Georgia",
"## See also"
] | 2,474 | 26,737 |
10,862,214 |
Ottoman ironclad Feth-i Bülend
| 1,149,463,451 |
Ironclad warship of the Ottoman Navy
|
[
"1869 ships",
"Feth-i Bülend-class ironclads",
"Maritime incidents in 1912",
"Naval ships of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkan Wars",
"Ships built in Leamouth",
"Shipwrecks in the Aegean Sea"
] |
Feth-i Bülend (Ottoman Turkish: "Great Victory") was an Ottoman ironclad warship built in the late 1860s, the lead ship of her class. The Ottoman Navy ordered her from the British Thames Iron Works, and she was laid down in 1868, launched in 1869, and commissioned in 1870. She was armed with four 229 mm (9 in) guns, was powered by a single-screw compound steam engine with a top speed of 13 knots (24 km/h; 15 mph).
Feth-i Bülend saw action during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878, where she battled the Russian steamer Vesta in an inconclusive engagement. The Ottoman fleet was laid up for most of the next twenty years, and Feth-i Bülend saw no activity during this period. Modernized in 1890, she was nevertheless still not in condition for active service at the outbreak of the Greco-Turkish War in 1897. She was therefore heavily rebuilt in Germany between 1903 and 1907. At the start of the First Balkan War in 1912, the ship was stationed in Salonica; the ship was disarmed so the guns could be used to strengthen the port's fortifications. On the night of 31 October, a Greek torpedo boat slipped into the harbor and sank Feth-i Bülend, killing seven of her crew.
## Design
Feth-i Bülend was 72.01 m (236 ft 3 in) long between perpendiculars, with a beam of 11.99 m (39 ft 4 in) and a draft of 5.51 m (18 ft 1 in). The hull was constructed with iron, and displaced 2,762 metric tons (2,718 long tons) normally and 1,601 t (1,576 long tons) BOM. She had a crew of 16 officers and 153 enlisted men.
The ship was powered by a single horizontal compound engine which drove one screw propeller. Steam was provided by six coal-fired box boilers that were trunked into a single funnel amidships. The engine was rated at 3,250 indicated horsepower (2,420 kW) and produced a top speed of 13 knots (24 km/h; 15 mph), though by 1877 she was only capable of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph). Decades of poor maintenance had reduced the ship's speed to 8 knots (15 km/h; 9.2 mph) by 1892. Feth-i Bülend carried 600 t (590 long tons; 660 short tons) of coal. A supplementary sailing rig was also fitted.
The ship was armed with a battery of four 222 mm (8.7 in) muzzle-loading Armstrong guns mounted in a central, armored casemate, two guns per side. The guns were positioned so as to allow any two to fire directly ahead, astern, or to either broadside. The casemate had heavy armor protection, with the gun battery protected by 222 mm of iron plating. The upper section of the casemate had thinner armor, at 150 mm (5.9 in) thick. The hull had a complete armored belt at the waterline, which extended .6 m (2 ft) above the line and 1.2 m (4 ft) below. The above-water portion was 222 mm thick, while the submerged part was 150 mm thick.
## Service history
### Construction and the Russo-Turkish War
Feth-i Bülend, meaning "Great Victory", was ordered in 1867 from the Thames Iron Works, Blackwall Yard in London and was laid down in May 1868. She was launched in 1869 and began sea trials in 1870, being commissioned into the Ottoman Navy later that year. Upon completion, Feth-i Bülend and the other ironclads then being built in Britain and France were sent to Crete to assist in stabilizing the island in the aftermath of the Cretan Revolt of 1866–1869. During this period, the Ottoman fleet, under Hobart Pasha, remained largely inactive, with training confined to reading translated British instruction manuals. Early in the ship's career, the Ottoman ironclad fleet was activated every summer for short cruises from the Golden Horn to the Bosporus to ensure their propulsion systems were in operable condition.
Feth-i Bülend saw extensive service in the Black Sea during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878, based primarily at Batumi. She took part in the bombardment of Russian positions and capture of the Black Sea port of Sokhumi on 14–16 May 1877. On 23 July, she engaged the Russian armed steamer Vesta in an inconclusive action. Poor visibility from smoke and escaping steam forced the ships to disengage, both with slight damage and few casualties. On the 31st, Feth-i Bülend, her sister ship Mukaddeme-i Hayir, the steam frigate Mubir-i Sürur, and several other ships departed Sochum for Trabzon to bring ground troops to Varna to defend against an expected Russian attack across the Danube. The Ottoman fleet then returned to Batumi, where it remained largely inactive. During a patrol on 25 August, Feth-i Bülend encountered the Russian yacht Livadia, but the Russian vessel fled before Feth-i Bülend could close to effective range.
### Inactivity in the 1880s and 1890s
Following the Ottoman defeat in 1878, the ship was laid up in Constantinople. The annual summer cruises to the Bosporus ended. By the mid-1880s, the Ottoman ironclad fleet was in poor condition, and Feth-i Bülend was unable to go to sea. Many of the ships' engines were unusable, having seized up from rust, and their hulls were badly fouled. The British naval attache to the Ottoman Empire at the time estimated that the Imperial Arsenal would take six months to get just five of the ironclads ready to go to sea. Throughout this period, the ship's crew was limited to about one-third the normal figure. During a period of tension with Greece in 1886, the fleet was brought to full crews and the ships were prepared to go to sea, but none actually left the Golden Horn, and they were quickly laid up again. By that time, most of the ships were capable of little more than 4 to 6 knots (7.4 to 11.1 km/h; 4.6 to 6.9 mph).
The fleet remained inactive at the Golden Horn for twenty years, though in October 1889, Feth-i Bülend left the Golden Horn to escort the German Emperor, Kaiser Wilhelm II, during a state visit to the Ottoman Empire. She accompanied Wilhelm as he cruised though the Dardanelles and the Sea of Marmara to Constantinople. Feth-i Bülend was refitted at the Imperial Arsenal in 1890. During this refit, several small guns were installed, including a pair of 87 mm (3.4 in) Krupp guns, two 63 mm (2.5 in) guns, two 37 mm (1.5 in) guns, and one 25.4 mm (1 in) Nordenfelt gun. In 1892, Feth-i Bülend and the ironclad Asar-i Tevfik were ordered to reinforce the Cretan Squadron during a period of unrest on the island, but neither vessel was capable of going to sea, owing to leaky boiler tubes. At the start of the Greco-Turkish War in February 1897, the Ottomans inspected the fleet and found that almost all of the vessels, including Feth-i Bülend, to be completely unfit for combat against the Greek Navy.
### Reconstruction and loss
Following the end of the war, the government decided to begin a naval reconstruction program. The first stage was to rebuild the older armored warships, including Feth-i Bülend. The Ottomans contacted several foreign shipyards; initially, Krupp's Germaniawerft received the contract to rebuild Feth-i Bülend on 11 August 1900, but by December 1902, the Ottomans had reached an agreement with Armstrong-Ansaldo in Genoa to rebuild the vessel. The work was conducted between 1903 and 1907. The ship was reboilered with a pair of water-tube boilers manufactured by the Imperial Arsenal, which improved speed slightly to 9 kn (17 km/h; 10 mph). Her armament was completely replaced with new, quick-firing guns manufactured by Krupp. Four 15 cm SK L/40 guns were mounted in the casemate, and six 75 mm (3 in) guns and six 57 mm (2.2 in) guns were installed on the upper deck.
At the outbreak of the Italo-Turkish War of 1911–1912, Feth-i Bülend was assigned to the Reserve Division, and she saw no action during the conflict. Instead, she was disarmed and most of her weapons—including all four 15 cm guns, and four each of the 75 mm and 57 mm guns—were used to bolster the defenses of Salonica's harbor. The guns were manned by 90 of the ship's crew. The ship itself was converted to a barracks ship. At the time of the outbreak of the First Balkan War on 18 October 1912, the ship's commander was Captain (Binbaşi) Aziz Mahmut Bey, who also functioned as the naval garrison commander. On the night of 31 October, the Greek torpedo boat No. 11 passed by the shore batteries and searchlights and through the mine barrages at 22:20. She launched three torpedoes at 23:30 against Feth-i Bülend. One torpedo missed, hitting the quay, but the two others hit the ship, causing her to capsize and sink. Seven of its crew, including the ship's imam, were killed in the sinking, while the Greek vessel exited the harbor by the same route without further incident.
|
[
"## Design",
"## Service history",
"### Construction and the Russo-Turkish War",
"### Inactivity in the 1880s and 1890s",
"### Reconstruction and loss"
] | 2,167 | 3,572 |
52,665,995 |
Yugoslav torpedo boat T8
| 1,134,935,021 |
Yugoslav torpedo boat
|
[
"1916 ships",
"Maritime incidents in September 1943",
"Naval ships of Yugoslavia captured by Italy during World War II",
"Ships built in Fiume",
"Ships sunk by German aircraft",
"Shipwrecks in the Adriatic Sea",
"Torpedo boats of the Austro-Hungarian Navy",
"Torpedo boats of the Royal Yugoslav Navy",
"Torpedo boats sunk by aircraft",
"World War I torpedo boats of Austria-Hungary"
] |
T8 was a sea-going torpedo boat that was operated by the Royal Yugoslav Navy between 1921 and 1941, after spending World War I in Austro-Hungarian Navy service. Originally 97 F, she was a 250t-class torpedo boat, which saw active service during World War I, performing convoy, patrol, escort and minesweeping tasks, and anti-submarine operations. Following Austria-Hungary's defeat in 1918, 97 F was allocated to the Navy of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, which later became the Royal Yugoslav Navy, and was renamed T8. At the time, she and the seven other 250t-class boats were the only modern sea-going vessels of the fledgling maritime force.
During the interwar period, T8 and the rest of the navy were involved in training exercises and cruises to friendly ports, but activity was limited by reduced naval budgets. The ship was captured by the Italians during the German-led Axis invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941. After her main armament was modernised, she served with the Royal Italian Navy under her Yugoslav designation, conducting coastal and second-line escort duties in the Adriatic. Following the Italian capitulation in September 1943, she was sunk by German aircraft while evacuating Italian troops from Dalmatia.
## Background
In 1910, the Austria-Hungary Naval Technical Committee initiated the design and development of a 275-tonne (271-long-ton) coastal torpedo boat, specifying that it should be capable of sustaining 30 knots (56 km/h; 35 mph) for 10 hours. This specification was based on an expectation that the Strait of Otranto, where the Adriatic Sea meets the Ionian Sea, would be blockaded by hostile forces during a future conflict. In such circumstances, there would be a need for a torpedo boat that could sail from the Austro-Hungarian Navy (German: kaiserliche und königliche Kriegsmarine) base at the Bocche di Cattaro (Bay of Kotor) to the Strait during the night, locate and attack blockading ships and return to port before morning. After the first contract for eight 250t-class torpedo boats was signed, another tender was requested for four more boats, but when Ganz & Danubius reduced their price by ten percent, a total of sixteen boats were ordered from them, designated the F-group. The F-group designation signified the location of Ganz & Danubius' main shipyard at Fiume. 97 F was the sixteenth and last boat of the F-group to be completed.
## Description and construction
The 250t-class F-group boats had a waterline length of 58.5 metres (191 ft 11 in), a beam of 5.8 m (19 ft), and a normal draught of 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in). While their designed displacement was 266 tonnes (262 long tons), they displaced about 330 tonnes (325 long tons) fully loaded. The crew consisted of 38–41 officers and enlisted men. The boats were powered by two AEG-Curtiss steam turbines driving two propellers, using steam generated by two Yarrow water-tube boilers, one of which burned fuel oil and the other coal. The turbines were rated at 5,000 shaft horsepower (3,700 kW) with a maximum output of 6,000 shp (4,500 kW) and designed to propel the boats to a top speed of 28 knots (52 km/h; 32 mph). They carried 20 tonnes (19.7 long tons) of coal and 34 tonnes (33.5 long tons) of fuel oil, which gave them a range of 1,200 nautical miles (2,200 km; 1,400 mi) at 16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph). The F-group had two funnels rather than the single funnel of the preceding T-group. Due to inadequate funding, 97 F and the rest of the 250t class were essentially coastal vessels, despite the original intention that they would be used for "high seas" operations. They were the first small Austro-Hungarian Navy boats to use turbines, and this contributed to ongoing problems with them.
The boats were armed with two Škoda 66 mm (2.6 in) L/30 guns, and four 450 mm (17.7 in) torpedo tubes. They could also carry 10–12 naval mines. 97 F was laid down on 5 March 1915, launched on 20 August 1916 and completed on 22 December 1916.
## Career
### World War I and the interwar period
During World War I, 97 F was used for convoy, patrol, escort and minesweeping tasks, and anti-submarine operations. In 1917, one of her 66 mm guns was placed on an anti-aircraft mount. 97 F survived the war intact.
In 1920, under the terms of the previous year's Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye by which rump Austria officially ended World War I, she was allocated to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (KSCS, later Yugoslavia). Along with three other 250t-class F-group boats, 87 F, 93 F, and 96 F, and four 250t-class T-group boats, she was transferred in March 1921 to the Navy of the KSCS, which later became the Royal Yugoslav Navy (Serbo-Croatian Latin: Kraljevska Jugoslovenska Ratna Mornarica, KJRM). Renamed T8 in KJRM service, she and the other seven 250t-class boats were, at the outset, the only modern sea-going vessels in the KJRM. In 1925, exercises were conducted off the Dalmatian coast, involving the majority of the navy. In May–June 1929, six of the eight 250t-class torpedo boats accompanied the light cruiser Dalmacija, the submarine tender Hvar and the submarines Hrabri and Nebojša, on a cruise to Malta, the Greek island of Corfu in the Ionian Sea, and Bizerte in the French protectorate of Tunisia. It is not clear if T8 was one of the torpedo boats involved. The ships and crews made a very good impression on the Royal Navy while visiting Malta. In 1932, the British naval attaché reported that Yugoslav ships engaged in few exercises, manoeuvres or gunnery training due to reduced budgets.
### World War II
In April 1941, Yugoslavia was drawn into World War II when it was invaded by the German-led Axis powers. At the time of the invasion, T8 was assigned to the 3rd Torpedo Division located at Šibenik, which included her three F-group sisters. On 8 April, the four boats of the 3rd Torpedo Division, along with other vessels, were tasked to support an attack on the Italian enclave of Zara (Zadar) on the Dalmatian coast. They were subjected to three Italian air attacks and, after the last one, sailed from the area of Zaton into Lake Prokljan, where they remained until 11 April. On 12 April, the 3rd Torpedo Division arrived at Milna on the island of Brač, and refused to follow orders to sail to the Bay of Kotor. All four F-group boats were captured by the Italians.
T8 was then operated by the Italians under her Yugoslav designation, conducting coastal and second-line escort duties in the Adriatic. Her guns were replaced by two 76 mm (3 in) L/40 anti-aircraft guns, but no other significant alterations were made to her. The Italians capitulated in September 1943, and T8 was sunk 37 km (23 mi) north-west of Dubrovnik by German aircraft while evacuating Italian troops from Dalmatia on 10 or 11 September 1943.
## See also
- List of ships of the Royal Yugoslav Navy
|
[
"## Background",
"## Description and construction",
"## Career",
"### World War I and the interwar period",
"### World War II",
"## See also"
] | 1,706 | 15,278 |
1,867,762 |
Wendi Richter
| 1,173,374,603 |
American professional wrestler
|
[
"1960 births",
"20th-century female professional wrestlers",
"21st-century American women",
"AWA World Women's Champions",
"American expatriate sportspeople in Germany",
"American expatriate sportspeople in Japan",
"American female professional wrestlers",
"American people of German descent",
"Entertainers from Dallas",
"Living people",
"People from Crystal River, Florida",
"Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum",
"Professional wrestlers from Texas",
"Stampede Wrestling alumni",
"WWE Hall of Fame inductees",
"WWF/WWE Women's Champions"
] |
Victoria "Wendi" Richter (born September 8, 1961) is an American former professional wrestler. She began her professional wrestling career in companies such as the National Wrestling Alliance, where she teamed with Joyce Grable, with whom she held the NWA Women's World Tag Team Championship twice. In the 1980s, she joined the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). She held the WWF Women's Championship twice and feuded with The Fabulous Moolah over the title. She was also involved in a storyline with singer Cyndi Lauper called the "Rock 'n' Wrestling Connection". Richter, however, left the WWF after losing the championship in controversial fashion. She then worked in the World Wrestling Council and American Wrestling Association, where she held both companies' women's titles.
## Professional wrestling career
### Training (1979–1983)
Wendi Richter was trained at The Fabulous Moolah's Lillian Ellison School of Professional Wrestling by Leilani Kai, Judy Martin and Joyce Grable and made her professional debut in 1979. In early 1982, Richter tag teamed with Moolah against Velvet McIntyre and Princess Victoria for three matches for the World Wide Wrestling Federation. Richter was later paired with Joyce Grable, with whom she also trained for six weeks, to form a tag team called The Texas Cowgirls. In late 1982, they wrestled in a series of matches in Canada's Stampede Wrestling against Velvet McIntyre and Judy Martin. She continued her feud with McIntyre in Bill Watts' Mid-South Wrestling Association, where she was defeated twice. While in Mid-South Wrestling Association she was a friend of Jim Cornette who made her an honorary member of the Midnight Express. Richter and Grable continued their rivalry with McIntyre and Martin into April 1983 in Verne Gagne's American Wrestling Association. In May, the team reformed in Stampede Wrestling in matches against McIntyre and Penny Mitchell. The team also won the NWA Women's World Tag Team Championship twice.
### World Wrestling Federation (1983–1985)
#### Rock 'n' Wrestling (1983–1985)
Richter returned stateside signing with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in late 1983. In April 1984, Richter teamed with Peggy Lee for a series of matches with old rivals Velvet McIntyre and Princess Victoria. WWF owner Vince McMahon brought in Cyndi Lauper for a feud with Lou Albano (who had appeared as Lauper's dad in her Girls Just Want to Have Fun music video). Albano seconded WWF Women's Champion Fabulous Moolah, while Lauper was in the corner of Wendi Richter. Richter defeated Moolah at MTV's The Brawl to End It All for the Women's Championship on July 23, 1984, with Richter lifting her own shoulder off the canvas during a double-pinfall situation while Moolah's shoulders remained down. With the win, she ended what was billed as the longest championship reign in professional wrestling history (Moolah's 28-year reign as recognized by the WWF; in reality she had lost the title several times between 1956 and 1978, and Richter's win had in reality only ended a nearly seven-year reign by Moolah as champion). The broadcast of the women's match earned MTV its largest ratings in history up to that point. This match was also the beginning of the "Rock 'n' Wrestling Connection", an era that combined both music and professional wrestling. Richter faced Moolah's protégé, Leilani Kai, who defeated Richter for the title, in early 1985 at The War to Settle the Score. She regained the title at the first WrestleMania one month later. While wrestling for the WWF, Richter referred to herself as "150 pounds of twisted steel and sex appeal". Richter was also animated for a CBS Saturday morning cartoon, Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n' Wrestling. In addition, she appeared in Lauper's music video for "She Bop".
#### The Original Screwjob (1985)
In 1985, after losing and then regaining the title from rival Leilani Kai at the inaugural WrestleMania, Richter was scheduled to defend her title at Madison Square Garden on November 25 of that same year against a mysterious masked opponent known only as The Spider. During the match, The Spider broke from the planned events and pinned Richter's shoulders to the mat. The referee—who was in on the plan—delivered a swift three count, despite Richter kicking out after a count of one. Richter ignored the bell and continued to attack The Spider, unmasking the new champion to reveal that it was The Fabulous Moolah in disguise.
It was reported that the plan to rid Richter of the title was concocted by WWF Chairman Vince McMahon, who brought in Moolah after Richter refused to sign a new contract with the WWF. Richter, however, claims she was still under her original five-year contract, but that she regularly had disagreements with McMahon about her compensation. She also claims that when she arrived at the arena that day, she was surprised to find Moolah backstage, as she never showed up to events at which she was not scheduled to wrestle. After the match, an infuriated Richter left the arena in her wrestling gear, took a cab to the airport, and booked herself on a flight out of New York. Afterward, she never spoke to Moolah again.
### Independent circuit (1987–2005)
Upon leaving the WWF, Richter wrestled in Puerto Rico, Japan, and throughout the United States in independent promotions. In Puerto Rico's World Wrestling Council, she traded the WWC Women's Championship with Monster Ripper, holding the belt twice: once in May 1987 and once in July 1987.
Richter surfaced in the American Wrestling Association (AWA) in 1987 to challenge champion Madusa Miceli for the AWA Women's Championship, winning the title in December 1988. On December 13, 1988, she participated in a mixed tag team match at SuperClash III with partners The Top Guns (Ricky Rice and Derrick Dukes) against Badd Company (Paul Diamond and Pat Tanaka) and Madusa Miceli. Richter's team won the match when she pinned Miceli.
On January 29, 2005, Richter appeared at WrestleReunion in an eight-woman tag team match (teaming with Bambi, Malia Hosaka, and Jenny Taylor) wrestling against Sherri Martel, Peggy Lee Leather, Krissy Vaine, and Amber O'Neal. In August of that same year, Richter appeared at the second WrestleReunion event, WrestleReunion 2, in a six-person tag team match.
### Life after wrestling and WWE Hall of Fame (2005–present)
In the years after her retirement, Richter was uninvolved with wrestling. In a 2005 shoot interview, she expressed disgust toward the portrayal of women in the WWE product, and was still hurt over her WWF exit. In 2010, Richter was offered induction in the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2010, which she accepted. She was inducted by Roddy Piper. In contrast of her shoot interviews, her speech spoke fondly of her wrestling career and how the WWE Divas thanked her for her influence. Richter's speech ended joyfully, exclaiming "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!"
On the June 16, 2012 episode of Raw, Richter appeared in an in-ring segment along with Cyndi Lauper, Roddy Piper and then-Diva's Champion Layla as part of the "1000th episode" buildup. Piper expressed his gratitude to Richter and Lauper for their "Rock 'N Wrestling" angle and presented Lauper with a gold record, with which she eventually hit Heath Slater, who at the time had a gimmick of insulting veteran Superstars before getting his comeuppance.
## Personal life
Born in 1961, Richter grew up in Dallas, Texas, and before she entered the sport of professional wrestling, she worked on her family's ranch and took part in rodeo competitions. She attended Bossier High School, where she participated in volleyball, track, and cross-country. She later majored in computer programming at Dallas's Draughon's Business College. In the 1980s, she moved to Crystal River, Florida.
After leaving the wrestling business, Richter worked as a real estate agent. She also returned to school for 13 years, earning a degree in physical therapy and a master's degree in occupational therapy. Aside from therapy, Richter competes in dog shows, including the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. She was once married to Hugo Savinovich, a former Spanish announcer for the WWF. In 2019, she was featured in the documentary Circle of Champions: The History of Women's Pro Wrestling directed by Christopher Annino.
She currently works as an occupational therapist for Rehab Partners Inc.
## Championships and accomplishments
- American Wrestling Association
\* AWA Women's Championship (1 time)
- Cauliflower Alley Club
\* Art Abrams Lifetime Achievement Award (2012)
\* Other honoree (1993)
- National Wrestling Alliance
\* NWA United States Women's Championship (1 time)
\* NWA World Women's Tag Team Championship (3 times) – with Joyce Grable
- National Wrestling Federation
\* NWF Women's Championship (6 time)
- Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame
\* Class of 2012
- Stampede Wrestling
\* Stampede Wrestling North American Women's Championship (1 time)
- World Wrestling Council
\* WWC Women's Championship (4 times)
- World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment
\* WWF Women's Championship (2 times)
\* WWE Hall of Fame (Class of 2010)
- '''Wrestling Observer Newsletter
- Worst Match of the Year (1984) vs. The Fabulous Moolah on July 23
|
[
"## Professional wrestling career",
"### Training (1979–1983)",
"### World Wrestling Federation (1983–1985)",
"#### Rock 'n' Wrestling (1983–1985)",
"#### The Original Screwjob (1985)",
"### Independent circuit (1987–2005)",
"### Life after wrestling and WWE Hall of Fame (2005–present)",
"## Personal life",
"## Championships and accomplishments"
] | 2,115 | 13,115 |
4,372,614 |
Jack Coggins
| 1,106,224,325 |
English painter (1911–2006)
|
[
"1911 births",
"2006 deaths",
"20th-century American male artists",
"20th-century American painters",
"20th-century British male artists",
"20th-century British painters",
"American Impressionist painters",
"American illustrators",
"American male painters",
"American marine artists",
"American science fiction writers",
"American war artists",
"American watercolorists",
"Art Students League of New York alumni",
"British Impressionist painters",
"British emigrants to the United States",
"British illustrators",
"British male painters",
"British marine artists",
"Hunter College faculty",
"People educated at the Imperial Services College",
"People from Berks County, Pennsylvania",
"People from Folkestone",
"People from Roslyn Heights, New York",
"Realist painters",
"Science fiction artists",
"United States Army personnel of World War II",
"United States Army soldiers",
"World War II artists",
"Writers from Pennsylvania",
"Writers who illustrated their own writing"
] |
Jack Banham Coggins (July 10, 1911 – January 30, 2006) was an artist, author, and illustrator. He is known in the United States for his oil paintings, which focused predominantly on marine subjects. He is also known for his books on space travel, which were both authored and illustrated by Coggins. Besides his own works, Coggins also provided illustrations for advertisements and magazine covers and articles.
During World War II, he served as an artist and correspondent for YANK magazine, capturing and conveying wartime scenes from the front lines. Over the course of his career, Coggins produced more than 1,000 paintings and taught art classes for 45 years. He retired in May 2001 and died at his home in Pennsylvania in January 2006.
## Biography
### Early life
Coggins was born in London, England on July 10, 1911, the only child of Ethel May (née Dobby) and Sydney George Coggins. Sydney Coggins was Regimental Corporal Major of the First Regiment of Life Guards, the part of the Household Cavalry responsible for guarding the British Monarch; Jack Coggins was born in his father's barracks. During World War I, Sydney Coggins served with, and was commissioned by the regiment. After the war, he was appointed regimental Riding Master, but he was retired when the 1st and 2nd Life Guards were amalgamated into a single regiment under the Geddes Axe. A fellow officer, married to an American steel heiress, offered Sydney work as a secretary to his wife, and the Coggins family emigrated to Long Island, New York in 1923.
### Education
While his father served with the Life Guards Regiment in France during World War I, Coggins and his mother lived with family in Folkestone, Kent. He attended the Imperial Service College, a public school preferred by army families. After moving to New York, Coggins enrolled at Roslyn High School in Roslyn Heights where he found difficulty in adjusting to the difference between military school in England and New York city public school. After graduation from Roslyn in 1928 at age 17, he enrolled in the New York City Grand Central School of Art and studied under Edmund Greacen, George Pearse Ennis, and Wayman Adams. In the early years, he painted advertising signs to support himself. With a grounding in fine art techniques, Coggins graduated to the Art Students League of New York, where he studied from 1933 to 1934 under noted artist Frank DuMond.
### Marriage and later life
While a member of the faculty of Hunter College in New York, Coggins met Alma Wood, a fashion and photographic model. They married in 1948 and moved to Pike Township, Berks County, Pennsylvania, where Coggins had purchased an old farm. Alma named their home "Crestfield," which, according to Jack, meant absolutely nothing.
Coggins taught his wife to paint, and she had success as an artist in her own right under the name Alma Woods. The couple would hold annual joint exhibitions for many years. Alma Coggins assisted her husband in the planning, research and typing of many of his books, and he acknowledged her efforts with book dedications to her.
He taught art classes at the Wyomissing Institute of the Arts from 1957 until 2001, despite being handicapped by the loss of his left eye due to infection after an operation.
Coggins was a signature member and Master Pastelist of the Pastel Society of America, a Fellow of the American Society of Marine Artists, a member of the American Ordnance Association, the U.S. Naval Institute, and an adviser to the boards of the Philadelphia Maritime Museum and the Reading Public Museum. He died at his home in Berks County, Pennsylvania at the age of 94 and willed his body to medical science. Alma Wood-Coggins died March 4, 2007. Jack and Alma Coggins had no children and were survived by several nieces and nephews.
## Illustrator, author and artist
### Military illustrations of World War II
Coggins's interest in sailing and maritime subjects began in London when he would sail model yachts on Round Pond in Kensington Gardens. This interest developed into a lifelong passion during his teens when he sailed small craft on Hempstead Harbor, near his new home on Long Island. During the early years of World War II, Coggins took a sampling of his war illustrations to Worthen Paxton, the art director of LIFE Magazine, who commissioned Coggins to produce a drawing of an imaginary coastal invasion of England. Coggins was paid \$250 for that work, a large sum at the time, which paid his rent for five months. Appearing on July 15, 1940, this was the first of many war time illustrations for LIFE. Some of Coggins's works are in the Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection.
During the early 1940s, Coggins obtained more work producing war pictures for other magazines, including a series of double-page spreads for the controversial newspaper PM, and illustrations for The Saturday Evening Post. Throughout the war years, most of the output of many large corporations was reserved for materiel production; however, management were keen to promote their connection to the war effort and keep their name before the buying public until they could resume peacetime sales. Coggins received advertising commissions from such corporations including Elco, Koppers, US Steel, and Westinghouse. He also received commissions from the U.S. War Department for aircraft recognition charts, and he was intrigued to later find these charts used during his army basic training.
Because of the quality of his maritime illustrations, Coggins was invited by publisher Doubleday to provide artwork for a children's book about the U.S. Navy; the author being Fletcher Pratt, the well known military historian. Coggins was invited to participate in Pratt's Naval Game, based on a wargame developed by Fred T. Jane involving dozens of tiny wooden ships, built on a scale of one inch to fifty feet. These were spread over the floor of Pratt's apartment and their maneuvers were calculated via a complex mathematical formula. The result of Pratt and Coggins's first collaboration, published in 1941, was Fighting Ships of the U.S. Navy, a volume that described in text and illustrated in full color every class of ship in the Navy.
Coggins was called up for Army service, and enlisted on April 8, 1943. He was pulled from basic training at Fort Eustis, Virginia before he could complete it to work as an illustrator for YANK magazine. He was originally introduced to the Commanding Officer and Editor of YANK, Colonel Franklin Forsberg, by Fletcher Pratt. On May 20, 1943, Coggins commenced work at the head office of YANK in New York, where he worked until his departure for Britain. Jack Coggins became a naturalized citizen of the United States on August 19, 1943.
He served as an artist for British YANK in London until August 2, 1945, and was discharged from the U.S. Army on November 3, 1945. After serving as a Private for most of his time abroad, he finally made Corporal, and just before discharge, Sergeant. While in Britain, Coggins spent time on a Royal Navy convoy in the North Sea, witnessed the bombing of Saint-Lô, and flew over Berlin in a Lancaster bomber. He also spent time on a U.S. PT boat patrolling the beaches and made a trip into Brittany with an armored column. Events from all of these sorties were illustrated in YANK magazine in double page spreads.
Coggins was "bugged" by the fact that the Liberty Ship to which he had been assigned for the Normandy Landings got to Utah Beach only on D-Day plus one. He saw lively action, but bemoaned missing the big show. During his time in Britain, Coggins also wrote articles on war rockets and the German Navy which were published in YANK.
### Science and science-fiction illustrations
During the late 1940s and early 1950s Coggins's marine art was featured on covers of Yachting Magazine and other publications, as well as on advertising material, and his science-fiction art illustrated covers for pulp science fiction magazines. These included Galaxy Science Fiction, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction and Thrilling Wonder Stories.
Due to reduced interest in his pre-war work, Coggins applied for a position teaching watercolor at Hunter College. He taught watercolor painting there from 1948 to 1952. In New York, as a result of his friendship with Fletcher Pratt, Coggins was introduced to the members of the Hydra Club, where he met Judith Merril and L. Ron Hubbard. Coggins was also invited to join Pratt's Trap Door Spiders club, where he became closely associated with L. Sprague de Camp and Isaac Asimov. The contact with such visionary thinkers complemented his exposure to the German V-2 rockets in Europe and served to strengthen his growing interest in space travel, rockets, and science fiction.
In 1951 and 1952, Coggins collaborated again with Fletcher Pratt on two classic books: Rockets, Jets, Guided Missiles & Space Ships, and By Space Ship to the Moon. The books were released amidst the great wave of interest in space travel sweeping the United States and the rest of the world in the 1950s, and they were published in several countries and translated into other languages. These books made the prospect of space exploration seem a practical possibility. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) scientists used the books to demonstrate their ideas to Congressmen when seeking funding for the space program, and there are many NASA scientists today who retain fond memories of the influence the books had on their careers.
### Books
Between 1941 and 1983, Coggins wrote or illustrated 44 books on a wide range of marine, military, historical and educational themes. Among his more famous works is the 1962 authoring and illustration of Arms and Equipment of the Civil War. Dale E. Biever, registrar at the Civil War Library and Museum in Philadelphia, described the work as "not about generals or battles but about the things one should know before delving into those areas ... a welcome addition to any Civil War library." It was republished several times, most recently in 2004. In 1966, Coggins wrote and illustrated The Horseman's Bible, which sold over 500,000 copies with a revised edition published in 1984. In this book Coggins acknowledges his father "whose twenty five years in the cavalry and lifetime interest in horses made his advice invaluable." Coggins's last book was Marine Painter's Guide, which was first published in 1983. After the book was published, he decided to stop writing to concentrate more on painting. A new edition of Marine Painter's Guide was published in 2005 by Dover Publications, the publisher of new editions for several of his books.
### Other paintings and illustrations
In 1968, Coggins was invited to undertake part of a voyage on the NOAA vessel USC&GS Discoverer (OSS-02) from Barbados and commissioned to paint several images of the ship and crew. Harris B. Stewart was the chief scientist who commissioned and personally paid for the artwork, which remained his personal property; Stewart was the author of the cited report.
Coggins relied on a realistic style that was executed in oils, for which he had a preference. However, he also painted works in water colors and other media. The majority of his paintings have a maritime theme, about which he wrote "It seems strange that with so much of the globe covered by water, so few artists know how to paint it." His stated preference in art styles was "a direct splashy type of realistic painting" and he admired the New Hope school of Redfield and Garber, with "no liking for 'modern art'".
A catalog listing well over 1000 works has been posthumously compiled by his relatives. A retrospective exhibition and sale of artworks found in Coggins's home after his death was held at the Wyomissing Institute of the Arts in late 2006. This consisted of about 300 previously unseen oils, watercolors, and other printed materials. An annual "Jack Coggins Award" to be given to a deserving local artist was financed from part of the proceeds from the sale of these works.
As of 2001, Coggins's paintings are owned by the Philadelphia Maritime Museum, the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, the U.S. Navy, and the United States Coast Guard, among many other institutions, corporations, and private collectors. His original manuscripts and illustrations are part of The University of Southern Mississippi's Permanent Collection of outstanding authors and artists.
### Recognition
Coggins's work has been accepted for show by the American Watercolor Society, the Salmagundi Club, the American Artist Professional League, and the Pastel Society of America. Coggins received a number of awards and accolades during his career, including the American Revolution Round Table Award in 1969, the Daniel Boone National Foundation's Americanism Award in 1985, the Mystic Maritime Gallery's Purchase Award in 1989, the International Maritime Exhibition's Rudolph Shaeffer Award from 1987 to 1990, and Berks Art Council's Pagoda Award in 1995. In 2000, he was inducted to the International Association of Astronomical Artists Hall of Fame as a Living Legend and celebrated master of the genre of Space Art.
|
[
"## Biography",
"### Early life",
"### Education",
"### Marriage and later life",
"## Illustrator, author and artist",
"### Military illustrations of World War II",
"### Science and science-fiction illustrations",
"### Books",
"### Other paintings and illustrations",
"### Recognition"
] | 2,861 | 4,678 |
38,850,105 |
Italian cruiser San Marco
| 1,134,784,871 |
Italian San Giorgio-class cruiser
|
[
"1907 ships",
"Naval ships of Italy captured by Germany during World War II",
"San Giorgio-class cruisers",
"Ships built in Castellammare di Stabia",
"World War I cruisers of Italy"
] |
The Italian cruiser San Marco was a San Giorgio-class armoured cruiser built for the Royal Italian Navy (Regia Marina) in the first decade of the 20th century. She was the first large Italian ship fitted with steam turbines and the first turbine-powered ship in any navy to have four propeller shafts. The ship participated in the Italo-Turkish War of 1911–1912, during which time she supported the occupations of Benghazi and Derna, the island of Rhodes, and bombarded the fortifications defending the entrance to the Dardanelles. During World War I, San Marco's activities were limited by the threat of Austro-Hungarian submarines, although the ship did participate in the bombardment of Durazzo, Albania in late 1918. She played a minor role in the Corfu incident in 1923 and was converted into a target ship in the first half of the 1930s. San Marco was captured by the Germans when they occupied northern Italy in 1943 and was found sunk at the end of the war. The ship was broken up and scrapped in 1949.
## Design and description
The ships of the San Giorgio class were designed as improved versions of the Pisa-class design. San Marco's design featured several new innovations that differentiated her from her sister ship San Giorgio. San Marco was given the first steam turbines fitted in a large Italian ship and she was the first turbine-powered ship in any navy to have four shafts, the first with a gyroscopic compass, the first with antiroll tanks, and the first not to use wood in any way.
San Marco had a length between perpendiculars of 131.04 metres (429 ft 11 in) and an overall length of 140.89 metres (462 ft 3 in). She had a beam of 21.03 metres (69 ft 0 in) and a draught of 7.76 metres (25 ft 6 in). The ship displaced 10,969 tonnes (10,796 long tons) at normal load, and 11,900 tonnes (11,700 long tons) at deep load. Her complement was 32 officers and 666 to 673 enlisted men.
The ship was powered by four steam turbines, each driving one propeller shaft using steam supplied by 14 Babcock & Wilcox boilers. Designed for a maximum output of 23,000 shaft horsepower (17,000 kW) and a speed of 23 knots (43 km/h; 26 mph), San Marco handily exceeded this, reaching a speed of 23.75 knots (43.99 km/h; 27.33 mph) during her sea trials from 23,030 ihp (17,170 kW). The ship was also required to be a half a knot faster than San Giorgio, a requirement she easily surpassed. San Marco had a cruising range of 4,800 nautical miles (8,900 km; 5,500 mi) at a speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph).
The main armament of the San Giorgio-class ships consisted of four Cannone da 254/45 A Modello 1908 guns in twin-gun turrets fore and aft of the superstructure. The ships mounted eight Cannone da 190/45 A Modello 1908 in four twin-gun turrets, two in each side amidships, as their secondary armament. For defense against torpedo boats, they carried 18 quick-firing (QF) 40-caliber 76 mm (3.0 in) guns. Eight of these were mounted in embrasures in the sides of the hull and the rest in the superstructure. The ships were also fitted with a pair of 40-caliber QF 47 mm (1.9 in) guns. The San Giorgios were also equipped with three submerged 450 mm (17.7 in) torpedo tubes. During World War I, eight of the 76 mm guns were replaced by six 76 mm anti-aircraft guns and one torpedo tube was removed.
The ships were protected by an armoured belt that was 200 mm (7.9 in) thick amidships and reduced to 80 mm (3.1 in) at the bow and stern. The armoured deck was 50 mm (2.0 in) thick and the conning tower armour was 254 mm thick. The 254 mm gun turrets were protected by 200 mm of armour while the 190 mm turrets had 160 mm (6.3 in).
## Construction and career
San Marco , named after Saint Mark, the patron saint of Venice, was ordered on 18 September 1905 and laid down on 2 January 1907 at the Regio Cantieri di Castellammare di Stabia in Castellammare di Stabia, on the Bay of Naples. The ship was launched on 20 December 1907 and completed on 7 February 1911.
When the Italo-Turkish War of 1911–1912 began on 29 September 1911, San Marco was not initially assigned to the 2nd Division of the 1st Squadron of the Mediterranean Fleet. She was assigned to the Division on 1 October and later escorted several Italian transports that arrived off Derna, Libya on 15 October together with the battleship Napoli and the armoured cruisers Pisa and Amalfi. After negotiations for a surrender of the town fell apart, Pisa shelled the barracks and a fort. There was no return fire from Derna, so a boat with offers of a truce was sent in. When it was greeted by a volley of rifle fire, San Marco and the other armoured cruisers opened fire on the town with their 190 mm guns and, according to a contemporary account, "completely destroyed" the town in 30 minutes time. A landing party was unable to reach the shore because of rough seas and gunfire from the shore. San Marco and her consorts then shelled the beach for two hours. Weather conditions prevented a landing until the 18th, when 1,500 men took possession of Derna. The ship then supported Italian troops at Benghazi in December. In mid-April 1912 the Italian fleet sortied into the eastern Aegean Sea with Pisa and Amalfi leading in an attempt to lure out the Ottoman fleet. When that failed, the Italians bombarded the fortifications defending the Dardanelles to little effect before the main body departed for Italy on the 19th. In May San Marco provided support for the occupation of Rhodes and finally returned home on 20 September.
She was used for experiments evaluating shipboard operation of seaplanes before the start of World War I. The ship was based at Brindisi when Italy declared war on the Central Powers on 23 May 1915. That night, the Austro-Hungarian Navy bombarded the Italian coast in an attempt to disrupt the Italian mobilization. Of the many targets, Ancona was hardest hit, with disruptions to the town's gas, electric, and telephone service; the city's stockpiles of coal and oil were left in flames. All of the Austrian ships safely returned to port, putting pressure on the Regia Marina to stop the attacks. When the Austrians resumed bombardments on the Italian coast in mid-June, Admiral Paolo Thaon di Revel responded by sending San Marco and the other armoured cruisers at Brindisi—the navy's newest—to Venice to supplement the older ships already there. Shortly after their arrival at Venice, Amalfi was sunk by a submarine on 7 July and her loss severely restricted the activities of the other ships based at Venice. San Marco later participated in the bombardment of Durazzo (now known as Durrës) on 2 October 1918 which sank one merchantman and damaged two others.
On 21 September 1923, the ship transported to Taranto the bodies of the members of the Boundary Commission killed on Corfu on 27 August (their deaths sparked the Corfu incident). On 1 October, San Marco ferried the last occupation troops from Corfu to Brindisi. On 16 March 1924, she saluted King Victor Emmanuel III when he arrived in Fiume to attend the ceremony commemorating the city's annexation by Italy. San Marco escorted Crown Prince Umberto, travelling aboard San Giorgio, during his South American tour in July–September 1924.
San Marco was disarmed and converted into a radio-controlled (by the elderly destroyer Audace) target ship in 1931–1935. Her old boilers were replaced by four oil-burning Thornycroft-type boilers which reduced her maximum speed to 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph) from 13,000 shaft horsepower (9,700 kW). During a naval review for Adolf Hitler in the Bay of Naples on 5 May 1938, the ship was used as a target by the heavy cruisers Fiume and Zara. She was captured by the Germans when they occupied La Spezia on 9 September 1943; the ship was found at the end of the war sunk in the harbor there. San Marco was formally stricken from the Navy List on 27 February 1947 and broken up in 1949.
|
[
"## Design and description",
"## Construction and career"
] | 1,937 | 7,296 |
29,077,039 |
Boletellus ananas
| 1,091,717,474 |
Species of fungus
|
[
"Boletellus",
"Fungi described in 1848",
"Fungi of Australia",
"Fungi of New Zealand",
"Fungi of North America",
"Fungi of South America"
] |
Boletellus ananas, commonly known as the pineapple bolete, is a mushroom in the family Boletaceae, and the type species of the genus Boletellus. It is distributed in southeastern North America, northeastern South America, Asia, and New Zealand, where it grows scattered or in groups on the ground, often at the base of oak and pine trees. The fruit body is characterized by the reddish-pink (or pinkish-tan to yellowish if an older specimen) scales on the cap that are often found hanging from the edge. The pore surface on the underside of the cap is made of irregular or angular pores up to 2 mm wide that bruise a blue color. It is yellow when young but ages to a deep olive-brown color. Microscopically, B. ananas is distinguished by large spores with cross striae on the ridges and spirally encrusted hyphae in the marginal appendiculae and flesh of the stem. Previously known as Boletus ananas and Boletus coccinea (among other synonyms), the species was given its current name by William Alphonso Murrill in 1909. Two varieties of Boletellus ananas have been described. Although the mushroom may be considered edible, it is not recommended for consumption.
## Taxonomy
The species was first named by Moses Ashley Curtis as Boletus ananas in 1848, based on specimens he found near the Santee River, in South Carolina. In 1909, William Murrill described the new genus Boletellus and made Boletellus ananas the type species. According to Murrill, the taxon Boletus isabellinus, described by Charles Horton Peck in 1897 from specimens collected in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, is a synonym of B. ananas; Peck described this species from undeveloped specimens. Wally Snell later doubted Murrill's conclusion in a 1933 publication; he considered the differences in the spore structure too great to consider the species conspecific with B. ananas, although he admitted it was impossible to come to any definitive conclusions until mature fruit bodies and spore prints were available for study. Rolf Singer and colleagues (1992) suggested the name Boletellus coccineus for Boletellus ananas. Singer created this name, however, in the mistaken belief that the earliest available name for the taxon was Boletus coccineus, proposed by Elias Magnus Fries in 1838. However, Fries's name is an illegitimate later homonym (compare with Boletus coccineus, named by Bulliard in 1791), and Singer's combination is actually based on Strobilomyces coccineus, named by Pier Andrea Saccardo in 1888. The earliest available name for the species is therefore Boletus ananas M.A. Curtis 1848, the basionym of Boletellus ananas.
Boletellus ananas, as the type species of the genus Boletellus, is in section Boletellus that Singer based on the scaly, dry cap with red-pink tones, a marginal veil that clasps the stem when immature, and longitudinally ridged spores that are greater than 16 μm long. The genus name Boletellus means "small boletus", while the specific epithet ananas alludes to the name for pineapple, referring to the pineapple-like pattern of scales on the cap surface. The mushroom is commonly known as the "pineapple bolete".
## Description
The cap of B. ananas is 33–74 mm (1.3–2.9 in) wide and plano-convex (flat on one side and rounded on the other). It is covered with squamules (small scales) that can be either pressed against the cap or curved back on itself. The squamules range in color from reddish brown to red-tan, to pink to pinkish gray, and they are more concentrated and more scaly in the center of the cap, extending out of cream to light orange-pink to light pink-red floccose ground. The margin clasps the stem when young; at maturity it separates into triangular veil remnants (appendiculae) that measure 6–12 by 3–10 mm. The color of these appendiculae range from buff-white to faint pink. The flesh is 2–3 mm thick at the edge of the cap, 7–10 mm over the tubes, and 11–18 mm centrally. It is buff white to light yellow, and quickly turns bluish upon exposure to air. The tubes are 1–5 mm long at the margin, 10–20 mm in the center, and 4–6 mm at the stem. They are broadly and deeply depressed around the stem, of irregular lengths, bright yellow to olive-yellow to mustard-yellow, and also rapidly turn blue upon exposure. The pores are the same color as the tubes, and rapidly turn blue-green with pressure; they are angular, and there are about 0.5–1.5 pores per mm. The stem is 53–115 cm (20.9–45.3 in) by 6–14 mm (0.2–0.6 in) wide, and gradually becomes larger towards the base to 10–19 mm. The top part of the stem is cream to pink, the middle finely longitudinally striate, with the striations darkening with handling, red-lavender to brown-red, lighter with age. Immediately above the basal tomentum the stem surface is cream-colored with few striations. The basal tomentum is made of stiff, coarse white hairs over the lower 6–50 mm. The flesh of the stem is solid (i.e., not hollow) white to buff-tan to light yellow, and turns slightly blue with exposure. The odor is not distinctive (although it has been described as "musty") and the taste is mild.
### Microscopic characteristics
The spores are olivaceous-brown in medium to heavy deposit. They are inamyloid, almond-shaped, contain one or more oil droplets, and measure 17.5–22.2 by 6.4-8 μm. The spore wall is 0.5–1 μm thick, with 12–14 longitudinal ridges. These ridges are less than 1 μm tall, occasionally bifurcating, converging at poles, with minute cross-striae. Although these cross-striae are visible when observed with light microscopy, they are not evident when viewed with scanning electron microscopy. The hilar appendage (the region of a spore which attaches to the basidium via the sterigma) is 0.3–1 μm long. The basidia are four-spored, club-shaped, and have numerous refractive globules; they measure 39–57 by 11–15 μm. The pleurocystidia (cystidia on the face of a gill) are 42–47 by 8-12 μm, swollen and beaked, slightly capitate. They are abundant, arising from the subhymenium, projecting 19.3–29.6 μm above the hymenial palisade, thin-walled, hyaline, and devoid of refractive contents. The cheilocystidia (cystidia on the edge of a gill) are 19–42 by 5–11 μm, swollen, cylindrical to narrowly cub-shaped, thin-walled, and infrequent. The flesh of the hymenium is boletoid and strongly divergent (composed of different tissue layers). The mediostratum (middle tissue layer) is 24.7–45.7 μm wide, and made of many parallel, slightly interwoven hyphae. The lateral stratum hyphae are 4.4–8.4 μm wide, hyaline, gelatinized in a dilute solution of potassium hydroxide (KOH), and regularly septate. The cap cuticle is a densely interwoven trichodermial palisade (an erect, roughly parallel chains of closely packed cells) of cylindrical elements with inflated terminal cells. The terminal cells are 23.5–51.9 by 9.4–16.8 μm, inamyloid, cylindrical to club-shaped, interwoven, and concentrated on the squamules. The marginal appendiculae are composed of wefts of interwoven inflated hyphae, some with faint golden spirally arranged encrusting pigments that are evident when mounted in water, KOH, and Melzer's reagent. The flesh of the cap is composed of highly interwoven hyphae measuring 7.4–11.1 μm wide that are hyaline in water, gelatinized and hyaline in KOH, and regularly septate. The stipitipellis (stem cuticle) is a trichodermial palisade of cylindrical elements with inflated terminal cells. The terminal cells project 30.4–63 μm, and they are cylindrical to club-shaped, occasionally with an abrupt tapering point. The flesh of the stem is made of densely interwoven hyphae that are 4.9–7.2 μm wide, with spirally arranged, faint golden encrusting pigments that can be seen in KOH, Melzer's reagent, and water. Clamp connections are absent in this species.
### Varieties
The typical variety of Boletellus ananas has consistently larger fruit bodies than B. ananas var. minor Singer from Brazil and Nicaragua, and lacks the thick-walled cheilocystidia of B. ananas var. crassotunicatus Singer from Nicaragua and Panama.
### Edibility
Although the mushroom is used as a food in Mexico, field guides list it as "inedible" or "not recommended".
## Similar species
Strobilomyces strobilaceus is roughly similar in appearance because of its rough scaly cap and lacerated margin, but may be distinguished from B. ananas by smooth stem without a ring, different spores, and flesh that is less tough. The Australian species Boletellus ananaeceps has spores with narrow longitudinal ribs that do not have cross-striae. B. dissiliens has colors that are not red as in B. ananas, and pores that can become reddish in maturity. Further, the cap flesh of B. dissiliens turns blue upon exposure to air.
## Ecology, habitat and distribution
The fruit bodies of B. ananas typically grow scattered or in groups under oak and pine trees, often on their bases. In Guyana, the mushroom typically fruits singly or in pairs within 1–2 m (3.3–6.6 ft) above ground level on the trunks of the tropical tree Dicymbe corymbosa (subfamily Caesalpinioideae), associated with ectomycorrhizas within humic accumulations. It is rarely found fruiting on the ground on heavily decayed, root-penetrated wood. Rolf Singer suggested that the fungus was not mycorrhizal, noting that as well as occurring under or on the bases of both pine and oaks, it occurred in scanty humus and debris accumulated on rock walls. Singer concluded that the species prefers to grow on hard surfaces. Harry D. Thiers, in his study of the bolete flora of Texas, wrote that B. ananas was a rare species that often fruited abundantly following an extended period of rain and high humidity.
Some varieties of B. ananas from southeastern North America, Costa Rica, Brazil, Panama, Nicaragua, and Guyana have been noted to fruit on tree trunks, although terrestrial fruiting has been reported in Malaysia and Central America. Due to the typically elevated fruiting habit and occurrence on dead wood, the ectomycorrhizal status of B. ananas has been debated; in the protolog Murrill noted "it always occurs either as a wound parasite on pine trunks or about the base of living pine trees." All collections have been made in association with ectotrophic host trees including Pinus and Quercus species in southeastern North America and Central America, Quercus humboldtii in Colombia, various Fagaceae and Dipterocarpaceae species in Malaysia, and Leptospermum and Pinus species in New Zealand. In Guyana, the humic deposits on Dicymbe trunks bearing B. ananas are consistently permeated with abundant ectomycorrhizas. The fungus was reported as forming mycorrhizal associations with eucalypts in Australia, based on fruit body association with trees.
Its North American distribution encompasses a range extending north from North Carolina to Florida, west to Texas and south to Mexico, and Central America. In 2008, it was reported for the first time in the Upper Potaro and Upper Ireng River Basins in Guyana. It has also been collected from New Zealand, Asia (including China, Korea, Malaysia, and Taiwan), and possibly Australia.
## See also
- List of North American boletes
|
[
"## Taxonomy",
"## Description",
"### Microscopic characteristics",
"### Varieties",
"### Edibility",
"## Similar species",
"## Ecology, habitat and distribution",
"## See also"
] | 2,792 | 17,133 |
3,247,787 |
Hall XPTBH
| 1,066,913,798 |
1937 US experimental torpedo-bomber seaplane
|
[
"1930s United States bomber aircraft",
"1930s United States patrol aircraft",
"Aircraft first flown in 1937",
"Floatplanes",
"Hall aircraft",
"High-wing aircraft",
"Twin piston-engined tractor aircraft"
] |
The Hall XPTBH was a prototype American twin-engined seaplane, submitted to the United States Navy by the Hall Aluminum Aircraft Corporation in response to a 1934 specification for new bomber and scout aircraft. Constructed in an innovative fashion that made extensive use of aluminum, the XPTBH proved successful in flight testing, but failed to win favor with the U.S. Navy. No production contract was awarded, and the single aircraft built served in experimental duties before its destruction in a hurricane during 1938.
## Design and development
In late 1934, the U.S. Navy's Bureau of Aeronautics (BuAer) issued a specification for new scout bomber and torpedo bomber designs. Eight companies submitted a total of ten designs in response, evenly split between monoplanes and biplanes. The Hall Aluminum Aircraft Company submitted the only seaplane design; a single prototype was ordered by the Navy for evaluation on June 30, 1934. Given the designation XPTBH-1, it became the only aircraft to receive three mission-type letters under the U.S. Navy's designation system used between 1922 and 1962.
Hall's choice of the twin-float seaplane configuration was dictated by the Navy's requirement that the new torpedo-bomber design should be capable of carrying a standard naval torpedo of the type carried by destroyers. As ordered, the XPTBH-1 was intended to be fitted with Wright R-1820 "Cyclone" radial engines; delays in design caused by Hall relocating their production facility, difficulties with the contract, and doubts about the aircraft's performance potential led to a redesign, the aircraft becoming slightly smaller and the engines being changed to a pair of Pratt & Whitney R-1830 "Twin Wasp" radials. The changes to the aircraft resulted in it receiving the revised designation XPTBH-2.
Utilising Hall's standard aluminum tubular spar, the fuselage and wing leading edges were covered in aluminum, while the rest of the wing and the control surfaces were fabric-covered. The aircraft was well-armed defensively by 1930s standards, with a powered turret, designed by Hall, mounted in the nose and carrying a single .30-caliber machine gun. Hand-traversed mountings for a pair of machine guns were fitted in dorsal (top) and ventral (belly) positions aft. An optically flat glass panel was fitted in the nose below the turret for use by the bombardier; the aircraft's offensive weaponry, consisting of a Mark XIII aerial torpedo or, alternatively, up to 2,000 pounds (910 kg) of bombs, was carried in an internal bomb bay, the twin-float arrangement allowing for a clear release of the weaponry.
## Operational history
Delivered to the Navy on January 30, 1937, the aircraft was officially presented to the public at Hall's Bristol, Pennsylvania factory in April of that year. The aircraft's early flight testing, starting in February and conducted by test pilot Bill McAvoy, showed that the XPTBH had few faults, with the only significant issue being a lack of roll authority – a reduction of the ability of the ailerons to turn the aircraft – as a result of the surface area of the floats. A modification to increase the area of the rudder solved the issue. The aircraft's water-handling characteristics were found to be excellent; the only significant complaints that surfaced during the testing period concerned the XPTBH-2's beaching gear, which was found to be extremely difficult to use in anything other than the calmest water.
Although the XPTBH-2 met most of its design specifications and was rated overall very good in flight testing, it failed to meet the contractual requirements for top speed and attack speed. In addition, the U.S. Navy did not consider a seagoing torpedo-bomber to be an aircraft for which there was an operational requirement; the fact that as a floatplane the aircraft was restricted to operation from water was also considered a negative, while the aircraft's "three-in-one" role led it to be viewed as a jack of all trades, purpose-designed aircraft for each role being considered superior. The company, however, blamed Navy politics for the lack of a production order.
Following the conclusion of its test program, the XPTBH-2 was used for experimental duties at the Naval Torpedo Station in Newport, Rhode Island, participating in trials of aerial torpedoes. Its service at Newport came to an end on September 21, 1938, when the XPTBH-2 was destroyed during the Great New England Hurricane. The XPTBH-2 was the last aircraft designed by Hall Aluminum; the company remained in business until 1940, when it was bought out by Consolidated Aircraft.
## Specifications (XPTBH-2)
## See also
|
[
"## Design and development",
"## Operational history",
"## Specifications (XPTBH-2)",
"## See also"
] | 994 | 2,123 |
7,537,935 |
Spit & Eggs
| 1,091,194,688 | null |
[
"2006 American television episodes",
"Veronica Mars (season 3) episodes"
] |
"Spit & Eggs" is the ninth episode of the third season of the American mystery television series Veronica Mars, and the fifty-third episode overall. Written and directed by series creator Rob Thomas, the episode premiered on November 28, 2006, on The CW. The series depicts the adventures of Veronica Mars (Kristen Bell) as she deals with life as a college student while moonlighting as a private detective.
In this episode, when the Greek system at Hearst College is suddenly reinstated, Veronica enlists the help of her friends in patrolling a party to look for date rape drugs. Eventually, she learns the identity of the Hearst serial rapist and puts herself in danger to catch him. In addition, Dean O'Dell (Ed Begley, Jr.) acts increasingly erratically before he mysteriously appears dead in his office with a gunshot wound to the head. Meanwhile, Veronica and Logan (Jason Dohring) both deal with the emotional aftereffects of O'Dell's death.
"Spit & Eggs" was the second episode to be both written and directed by Thomas, who included several camera and prop changes that were not originally in the script. Series regular Tina Majorino returns to the series beginning in this episode after an absence since "My Big Fat Greek Rush Week", a hiatus which was due to her filming Big Love. In addition, during production, the crew decided to change their narrative plan for the season, maintaining two of the shorter story arcs but removing the planned third.
The episode was viewed by 3.44 million viewers in its initial airing, a series high. The episode received critical acclaim, with many critics praising the return of Mac and the increased role of peripheral characters, the resolution to the rape mystery, and the setup of the next major story arc. Eric Goldman of IGN praised the various plotlines converging, while Rowan Kaiser of The A.V. Club wrote that the plot twist "plays on everyone's expectations."
## Plot synopsis
Beginning in medias res, while Piz (Chris Lowell) and Mac (Tina Majorino) are at a party, a bloodied Veronica stumbles to Piz's door and collapses. The episode flashes back to two days earlier. As the Lilith House celebrates the end of the Greek system, Logan (Jason Dohring) abruptly breaks up with Veronica. Weevil helps Dean O'Dell (Ed Begley, Jr.) fix his TV. A man comes into the Dean's office and implicitly threatens to remove his funding if the Greek system stays closed. The Dean tells Keith (Enrico Colantoni) to track his wife, and Veronica sobs in the shower due to her breakup with Logan. The Dean unexpectedly reinstates the Greek system, to the delight of Dick (Ryan Hansen). The Dean and Veronica spot a classified ad that states that a mysterious person will find his next victim at a party. After receiving an A on her paper, she visits Tim Foyle (James Jordan) and sees an investigation board. Veronica enlists Wallace (Percy Daggs III), Piz, and Mac for help in investigating an upcoming Pi Sig party.
At the party, Veronica notices that the "rape coasters" which test for date rape drugs do not actually work. Veronica, Mac, and Piz test various peoples' cups and find nothing. After Keith tells Dean O'Dell that his wife is cheating on him with Veronica's criminology professor, he pulls out a gun. Wallace and Piz find a drink that was tested positive for GHB, and Wallace and Logan dash to her dorm. Dean O'Dell finds and enters into the room in which his wife and the criminology professor are carrying on their affair as Veronica learns that they have tracked the wrong girl. Just as Mercer (Ryan Devlin) (the actual rapist) is about to rape his next victim, he abruptly learns that Veronica has changed places with his victim. Veronica tases Mercer, and they have a quick fight before Veronica escapes. She is let into Moe's (Andrew McClain) room.
Moe hands Veronica a drink. Immediately after discovering a picture of Mercer and Moe, Veronica experiences the effects of a date rape drug. She hides in the closet and struggles to remain conscious. Mercer and Moe enter the room and are about to miss her, but Veronica's cell phone rings and they knock her out. Parker (Julie Gonzalo) calls attention to Mercer. In addition to a bomb threat against Hearst, Dean O'Dell notices his window being egged before a mysterious man enters and the Dean asks "What are you doing here?" Keith arrests Mercer and Moe. Logan intentionally gets himself arrested so he can go into the cell with Mercer and Moe. The Dean is found dead in his office in the morning from a bullet wound to the head.
## Production
### Development
The episode was written and directed by series creator Rob Thomas, marking his seventh writing credit and second and final directing credit for the series (after "Donut Run"). Starting with this episode, Thomas and the crew's plan for the season changed—while they had initially scheduled three major story arcs for the season, this number was now bumped down to two, while the last few episodes would be standalone. The creative team decided that their choices for major mysteries had not worked since season one; Thomas elaborated, "One feeling is that the big mysteries keep away the casual TV viewers, and the other is the thing that has been the least successful since season one [...] the big mysteries." Thomas also recalled that his major design for the first season that was because Lilly had been murdered, everyone had a stake in the solving of the mystery and that the crew were finding it impossible to keep the same amount of emotional involvement since the first season; Thomas thought that the new format would be a way of trying to return to a more emotionally driven format.
In addition, Thomas turned what was scheduled to be the third major mystery into a two-episode storyline, with the last five episodes of the season being stand-alone. He stated, "It seems like a good time to do it—a good fun test balloon." Nevertheless, he confirmed that there would be ongoing stories in Veronica's personal life. A week prior to the episode's airing, Michael Ausiello received an advance screening of the episode, revealing several details that the network allowed him to divulge.
### Writing and directing
On the Season Three DVD Commentary, Thomas remarks on his experience directing "Spit & Eggs" and shares his thoughts on several scenes of the episode. He called the scene in which Mercer attacks Veronica the one he was "happiest with for any number of reasons." The scene was shot with 27 camera angles, the most for any Veronica Mars episode, and it took 10 or 11 hours to film. The scene also features a number of fake unicorns in various forms; unicorns were an in-joke among the cast and crew after one season 2 script involved Veronica calling a store "Unicornicopia." While directing the scene, Thomas wanted to find an unusual weapon to be used, and "a unicorn struck [him] as funny." The scene in which Moe removes the unicorn horn from Mercer's leg was initially intended to be Moe bandaging Mercer, but Thomas thought that the final product would be more "interesting" while preparing for the scene.
Thomas included Piz dancing humorously at the fraternity party because he "could watch it over and over", and there were roughly fifteen minutes of footage of him dancing. The band that plays at the party, the Diamond Smugglers, is from Thomas's hometown of Austin, Texas, and they played at Thomas's wedding and 40th birthday party. The scene near the end with Logan smashing a police car to get intentionally thrown in prison confused the crew, who doubted its artistic and technical plausibility. However, Thomas was pleased with the final output, and producer Dan Etheridge called it "one of the most compact and interesting visual storytelling pieces in the episode." The episode went over budget. In this episode, Mac wears a shirt that says "Ask Me About My STD", something which several critics commended for its comedic value. Thomas came up with the idea for the shirt and hired one of the other guest actors in the scene for another episode, commenting "It's funny, I actually made that up, and I now have one, too." In addition, because Thomas was so pleased with the acting in the scene from the boy who hands Mac a whiskey, he hired the actor for a role in a subsequent episode as an important witness to Dean O'Dell's death.
### Acting
"Spit & Eggs" features the return of series regular Tina Majorino, who plays Mac on the show, after an absence of six episodes. Majorino had not appeared since the second episode of the season, "My Big Fat Greek Rush Week". At the time, Majorino was also a series regular on the HBO series Big Love, so her schedule was difficult to determine. She stated: "It's a little tough, but Big Love and Veronica Mars have both been really great about juggling the schedule so I could do both shows." On October 24, 2006, the cast and crew were filming the episode. Because of this other commitment, Majorino appeared in eleven episodes of the season instead of the scheduled twelve. On that same date, Majorino revealed that she would be returning in "Spit & Eggs", that it resolved the Hearst rapist storyline, and that it would introduce the show's next major story arc. On her role in the episode and in the season as a whole in light of the events in the second season finale, Majorino commented, "It's not like all of the sudden she's over everything that happened."
"Spit & Eggs" features the reveal that Mercer Hayes, played by Ryan Devlin, is the Hearst serial rapist. Devlin was unaware that he would be the perpetrator until reading the episode's script; he stated, "To tell you the truth, I'm not even sure the writers knew where my story was headed. But I was happy to do it – it's way more fun being bad than good!" The episode also marks the final appearance by Ed Begley, Jr., after his character is killed. The mystery surrounding his murder would be the next major story arc.
## Reception
In its original broadcast, the episode received 3.44 million viewers, marking a series high and ranking 88th of 97 in the weekly rankings. Thomas was very pleased by the ratings.
The episode received critical acclaim, with many critics praising the return of Mac and the increased role of peripheral characters, the resolution to the rape mystery, and the setup of the next major story arc. Eric Goldman of IGN gave the episode an 8 out of 10, indicating that it was "great". He wrote that "Spit & Eggs" was a welcome episode for longtime fans, as it involved several plots converging in a way that he found satisfactory. He praised the final few scenes, writing that the episode transitions well into the next mystery of Dean O'Dell's death by developing it slowly over the course of the season's prior episodes, but he was more mixed towards the reveal of Mercer as the rapist, commenting "the ultimate revelation can't help but be a little underwhelming, since not enough time has been spent on any of the credible suspects to really have a good handle on them or be invested in them one way or another." Rowan Kaiser, writing for The A.V. Club, who was quite critical of the rape storyline in earlier episodes, said that the conclusion made the storyline slightly better overall. He praised the double reveal of Mercer and Moe as accomplices, stating, "That twist overall is effective because it plays on everyone's expectations. The characters all believe there is a single culprit here. [...] It makes the revelations more plausible, while also making the need for those revelations less intense (the two are related)."
Television Without Pity gave the episode a "B+". Alan Sepinwall, on his blog What's Alan Watching?, was also relatively positive towards the episode. While calling the reveal of the rapist "out of left field", he noted that there was some material in "My Big Fat Greek Rush Week" that pointed to this conclusion. In addition, he praised Parker rescuing Veronica and the start of the Dean O'Dell mystery, writing "Rob quite cleverly threw the start of the new mystery into the tail end of the first one." However, there were several plot issues that he found as well as that the nine-episode storyline didn't fully do the reveal justice, opining that Thomas and the crew had to rush to give the audience important information in this format. Cortney Martin of the Houston Chronicle enjoyed the major roles played by Wallace, Mac, Weevil, Piz, and Parker in the episode, writing "the show belongs to Veronica's sidekicks this week." Maureen Ryan of the Chicago Tribune gave praise as well. While being lukewarm regarding the season as a whole, she thought that "Spit & Eggs" was "appropriately suspenseful." In addition, she enjoyed that Veronica was less sarcastic and contemptuous in the episode, in contrast to previous episodes of the season.
Film.com praised the episode as well, lauding the in medias res opening scene, suspenseful tone, and Mac's reappearance, and the setup for the next mystery arc, among other aspects of the episode. Conversely, Keith McDuffee, writing for AOL TV, was more critical, calling it "way too fast for a partial season-ender", arguing that there were too many unanswered questions left after the episode's conclusion.
|
[
"## Plot synopsis",
"## Production",
"### Development",
"### Writing and directing",
"### Acting",
"## Reception"
] | 2,812 | 17,208 |
60,605,888 |
Asikni (goddess)
| 1,158,389,014 |
Consort of Daksha in Hinduism
|
[
"Hindu goddesses"
] |
In Hindu mythology, Asikni (Sanskrit: असिक्नी, romanized: Asiknī, lit. 'the dark one' or 'night'), also known as Panchajani and Virani, is a consort of Daksha in the Puranic pantheon. Most scriptures mention her as the mother of 6000 sons and 60 daughters.
## Etymology and epithets
The Sanskrit word "Asikni" means 'dark' or 'night'; it can also refer to "a girl attending woman's apartment". The word is used in the Rigveda (c. 1500 BCE) to describe the river Chenab.
She is also known by the patronymic "Panchajani" and "Virani".
## Legend
### Birth
Puranas differ about her parentage.
Devi-Bhagavata Purana, Kalika Purana, Garuda Purana, and Brahma Purana note Asikni to have been born of Brahma's left thumb. According to the Bhagavata Purana and Shiva Purana, she was the daughter of Prajapati Panchajana.
Brahma Purana, Brahmanda Purana, Vayu Purana, Kalika Purana, Kurma Purana, Padma Purana, Garuda Purana, and Shiva Purana note her to be the daughter of Prajapati Virana.
### Marriage
The broad theme is common to Vayu Purana, Bhagavata Purana, and Brahma Purana.
Daksa was delegated by Brahma to create beings to populate the cosmos; he went on to create gods, sages, asuras, yaskhas and rakhashas from his mind, but failed to be further successful. Upon a successful penance, Vishnu granted Asikni as his wife and urged him to engage in sexual union.
### Children
Through their union, numerous children were born. A common theme spans across the Brahmanda Purana, Bhagavata Purana, Linga Purana, Garuda Purana, Kurma Purana, Shiva Purana, Vishnu Purana, Vayu Purana, Padma Purana, and Brahma Purana in this regard.
Daksha and Asikni initially produced five thousand sons, who were known as Haryashvas. They were interested in populating the Earth but upon the advice of Narada, took to discovering worldly affairs instead and never returned back. Daksha and Asikni again produced another thousand sons (Shabalashvas), who had similar intentions but were persuaded by Narada to the same results. An angry Daksha cursed Narada to be a perpetual wanderer. This time, he birthed sixty daughters from Asikni. They were married off to different sages and deities, and went on to give birth to various species.
The Shiva Purana notes that thereafter Shiva had himself reincarnated within Asikni's womb; Asikni was widely respected and eulogized by all the deities during this span. In the tenth month, Asikni gave birth to Sati; she and Daksa went on to take good care of her.
|
[
"## Etymology and epithets",
"## Legend",
"### Birth",
"### Marriage",
"### Children"
] | 675 | 16,826 |
22,681,483 |
Soviet submarine S-99
| 1,138,137,459 |
1950s experimental ship
|
[
"1952 ships",
"Cold War submarines of the Soviet Union",
"Experimental submarines",
"Russian and Soviet navy submarine classes",
"Ships built in the Soviet Union",
"Soviet submarine accidents",
"Submarines of the Soviet Navy"
] |
The S-99 (Russian: С-99) experimental submarine was the only ship of the Project 617 class (codenamed Whale) that the Soviet Union built during the early Cold War. She was the only Soviet submarine which used a German Walter turbine fueled by high-test peroxide (HTP). Entering service in 1956, the boat was assigned to a training unit of the Baltic Fleet. S-99 was badly damaged by a HTP explosion in 1959 and was not repaired. The submarine was decommissioned in 1964 and subsequently scrapped.
## Background
At the end of the Second World War, the Soviets captured components for the HTP-fuelled Type XXVI submarine as well as engineers and technicians who had worked on the Walter turbine that used HTP. To make use of this new technology, they established a new submarine design bureau in Germany headed by Engineer-Captain Aleksei A. Antipin, formerly head of Central Design Bureau No. 18 (TsKB-18), which was tasked with the collection of plans and documents relating to the Type XXVI and its components. TsKB-18 began designing a copy of the German submarine as Project 616 in 1946, intending to order components from East Germany, but this was rejected by the Soviet Navy as it did not meet Soviet standards for reserve buoyancy and other issues. Together with the Central Research Shipbuilding Institute No. 45, the bureau immediately then began an original design utilizing the Walter HTP turbine. Preliminary design work on Project 617 was finished at the end of 1947.
A new design bureau for high-speed submarines (SKB-143) was established on 30 March 1948 and the Antipin Bureau was folded into the new organization with Antipin in charge. Knowing that the Walter HTP turbine technology was unproven, he decided to construct the submarine's propulsion plant and its hull compartment in a building at the Sudomekh Shipyard in Leningrad. The turbine used original German-built components as much as possible and was tested through the beginning of 1951. It was carefully disassembled in May and repaired as necessary in preparation for installation in S-99 which had begun construction a few months prior.
## Description
S-99 was a double-hulled submarine that displaced 950 tonnes (930 long tons) on the surface and 1,500 tonnes (1,476 long tons) submerged. The boat had an overall length of 62.2 meters (204 ft 1 in), a beam of 6.08 meters (19 ft 11 in) and a draft of 5.08 meters (16 ft 8 in). S-99's crew numbered 51 officers and men. Her hull was divided into six compartments; the sail was very small and did not have a compartment. The hull was fitted with anechoic tiles captured from the Germans. The boat had a reserve buoyancy of 28%, enough to remain afloat with any single compartment flooded, a figure more than two and a half times greater than that of the Type XXVI. S-99 had a test depth of 170 meters (560 ft) and a design depth of 200 meters (660 ft). In service, she proved to be maneuverable and was very noisy at full speed.
The submarine was primarily powered by a Walter HTP turbine that drove a single propeller shaft using steam generated when highly concentrated hydrogen peroxide was sprayed onto a layer of activated charcoal to produce high-pressure steam and oxygen at a temperature of 963 °C (1,765 °F). This passed into a combustion chamber into which kerosene was injected. The resulting combustion converted the oxygen into carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide and further increased the mixture's temperature and pressure. Water was then added to the mixture to reduce the temperature down to about 530 °C (986 °F), double the volume of the steam and convert the supersaturated steam into saturated steam better suited for powering a geared steam turbine. The steam/gas mixture was passed through a condenser to recover the water while the combustion gases were exhausted into the ocean. S-99's turbine could generate 7,250 metric horsepower (5,330 kW) in shallow water, but only 6,050 PS (4,450 kW) at depths of 30–40 meters (98–131 ft) because the pressure of the deeper water created more back pressure which reduced the turbine's efficiency. The turbine gave the boat a submerged speed in excess of 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph).
S-99 was also provided with a diesel-electric system that consisted of a 600 PS (440 kW) 8Ch-23/30 diesel engine and a 540 PS (400 kW) PG-100 electric motor for cruising. An additional 140 PS (100 kW) electric motor was intended for slow speeds underwater and could be powered by either the 112 Type 26-SU battery cells or a 450 PS (330 kW) DG-17 diesel generator. The boat was fitted with a folding snorkel to allow the diesel engines to operate while underwater.
The submarine's maximum speed on the surface was 11 knots (20 km/h; 13 mph) and she had a range of 120 nautical miles (220 km; 140 mi) at maximum speed on the Walter turbine and 198 nmi (367 km; 228 mi) at 14.2 knots (26.3 km/h; 16.3 mph). Using her diesel-electric system on the surface gave S-99 a range of 8,500 nmi (15,700 km; 9,800 mi) at 8.5 knots (15.7 km/h; 9.8 mph); using her snorkel reduced it to 8,000 nmi (15,000 km; 9,200 mi) at 5.8 knots (10.7 km/h; 6.7 mph). Using just the electric motor underwater, the submarine had a range of 13.9 nmi (25.7 km; 16.0 mi) at 9.3 knots (17.2 km/h; 10.7 mph). She had internal fuel tanks for 88.5 t (87.1 long tons) of diesel fuel and 13.9 t (13.7 long tons) of kerosene. Plastic bladders between the pressure hull and the outer hull held 103.4 t (101.8 long tons) of very expensive hydrogen peroxide. S-99 carried enough supplies for 45 days of operation.
The boat's armament consisted of six 533-millimeter (21 in) torpedo tubes mounted in the bow, each with one reload. Alternatively, 20 AMD-1000 naval mines could be carried. S-99 was fitted with a Tamir-5LS sonar, Mars-24-KEG hydrophones and a Nakat surface-search radar (NATO reporting name: Snoop Plate).
## Construction and career
S-99 was laid down on 5 February 1951 at the Shipyard No. 196 and launched on 5 February 1952. Naval historians vary on when the boat was commissioned or completed: Pavlov says she was completed in December 1955, but Friedman says she was commissioned on 6 June 1952 while Polmar and Moore give 26 March 1956. The boat's sea trials began on 16 June 1952 and lasted for years. Less than a year later, SKB-143 was pulled from Project 617 in March 1953 and tasked with developing a nuclear-powered submarine; TsKB-18 assumed responsibility for the project. Despite the testing of the Walter turbine ashore, the sea trials revealed that S-99 still had problems when HTP would decompose on contact with dirt or oil, causing fires or explosions.
During this time, TsKB-18 worked on Project 617M, an enlarged design with additional HTP and fuel as well as improved weapons and sensors. The bureau also considered two variants that utilized closed-cycle diesel engines, Project 635, a 1,660 t (1,630 long tons) (surface displacement), twin-turbine design and an even larger 1,865 t (1,836 long tons) boat, Project 643. Work on all of these was canceled in 1960 when all of the closed-cycle projects were terminated.
Upon commissioning, S-99 was assigned to a training brigade of the Baltic Fleet. Between 1956 and 1959, she went to sea 98 times, during which the boat cruised more than 6,000 nmi (11,000 km; 6,900 mi) on the surface and about 800 nmi (1,500 km; 920 mi) submerged. About 315 nmi (583 km; 362 mi) of the latter used the Walter turbine. On 17 May 1959 S-99 was cruising at a depth of 80 m (260 ft) when the turbine was started. This caused an explosion in the turbine compartment when HTP encountered mud in the hull valve of the HTP supply pipe. The resulting decomposition blew a 80-millimetre (3.1 in) hole in the pressure hull which caused the two rear compartments to partially flood. The submarine was able to surface and reached base on battery power. S-99 was not repaired because it was unfeasible to replace all of the damaged German parts. The submarine was not fully repaired and was reclassified as an experimental submarine on 31 August 1961. She was decommissioned on 28 February 1964 and later scrapped.
## See also
- German Type XVII submarine
- HMS Meteorite
|
[
"## Background",
"## Description",
"## Construction and career",
"## See also"
] | 2,019 | 16,775 |
15,650,160 |
Charlotte Lewis (Lost)
| 1,164,300,575 |
Fictional character from the TV series Lost
|
[
"British female characters in television",
"Fictional English people",
"Fictional anthropologists",
"Lost (2004 TV series) characters",
"Television characters introduced in 2008",
"Time travelers"
] |
Dr Charlotte Staples Lewis is a fictional character on the ABC television series Lost, played by Rebecca Mader. Charlotte is introduced in the second episode of season four and is a cultural anthropologist on a mission to the island where Oceanic Flight 815 crashed. On the island she is initially held hostage by one of the plane crash survivors, John Locke (Terry O'Quinn), but is freed when another person from her team switches places with her. She helps prevent poison gas from being released over the island, and develops a relationship with Daniel Faraday (Jeremy Davies). Charlotte dies in Daniel's arms after the frequent time traveling causes her headaches to worsen into something unexplainable.
Although conceived by the show's creators to be American, Charlotte's nationality was changed to British after the producers were impressed with English actress Rebecca Mader's audition. She was supposed to feature in just eight episodes of season four, but after the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike the role was expanded, which resulted in her starring in fifteen episodes over the fourth and fifth seasons. Charlotte's introduction, along with the three other new characters from the freighter introduced in season four, was well received, but her storylines in later episodes had a mixed reception, though Mader's acting was praised.
## Arc
During season five, a young Charlotte Lewis is shown living with her parents as part of a scientific community known as the Dharma Initiative, on the island where Oceanic Flight 815 would later crash. She is confronted by an adult Daniel Faraday, who attempts to persuade her never to return to the island once she leaves, and is seen evacuating the island during the fifth-season finale "The Incident". Charlotte grows up in Bromsgrove, unaware of where she was born, and goes on to study at the University of Kent for her undergraduate degree. She earns a doctoral degree in cultural anthropology from the University of Oxford, with her interest in anthropology stemming from a desire to find her birthplace. While visiting an excavation site in the Sahara Desert, Charlotte discovers the remains of a polar bear, which has a collar bearing a Dharma Initiative logo. Businessman Charles Widmore (Alan Dale) selects Charlotte along with Daniel Faraday, Miles Straume (Ken Leung), and Frank Lapidus (Jeff Fahey), to travel on a freighter to the island where she was born, and find Widmore's rival Ben Linus (Michael Emerson). She is forced to eject from a helicopter during a lightning storm over the island.
Charlotte arrives on the island on December 23, 2004, where she is held hostage by a number of the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815, who believe that she is dangerous. She spots a flare that belongs to a member of her team, but none of the survivors wish to investigate. Charlotte becomes impatient and attempts to leave, so Ben shoots her. As she is wearing a bulletproof vest she survives, forcing Ben to reveal that Charlotte's team are looking for him, and not on a rescue mission for the survivors. When the group encounters fellow survivors Kate Austen (Evangeline Lilly) and Sayid Jarrah (Naveen Andrews) with Miles, they agree for Miles to switch places with Charlotte. After reuniting with Faraday, she tests his memory with playing cards, noting he has made progress when he can remember two out of three cards. That night, Charlotte and Faraday sneak off to the Tempest Dharma Initiative station, where they neutralize a potential source of poison gas. While getting medical supplies at the Staff Dharma Initiative station, Jin-Soo Kwon (Daniel Dae Kim) notices Charlotte smiling after his wife Sun-Hwa Kwon (Yunjin Kim) remarks in Korean that Charlotte will know Faraday likes her as she is a woman. Jin confronts Charlotte in Korean, saying he will hurt Faraday if she does not promise to take Sun off the island. Later Faraday begins to ferry survivors to the freighter, but Charlotte chooses to remain on the island, as she believes she has found her birthplace. She kisses him, then watches on as he leaves.
After Ben causes the island to vanish, Charlotte, Faraday and the remaining survivors begin to randomly travel through time. Charlotte experiences nosebleeds and headaches, and realizes she is unable to remember her mother's maiden name. During one time jump Charlotte, Faraday and Miles are captured by the Others in 1954, where Faraday proclaims his love for her. After a further time jump, her nosebleed becomes more severe, and she collapses. As she dies, Charlotte relays to Faraday that she now remembers living on the island as a child, and that she recognizes Faraday as the man who told her not to return once she left the island. In season six the afterlife experienced by the characters is shown, in which Charlotte is set up as a blind date for James "Sawyer" Ford (Josh Holloway). The two spend the night together but when Sawyer catches her going through his belongings he throws her out of the apartment. He comes to her apartment later to apologize but she refuses, telling him he blew his chance. At a concert in the series finale, she and Faraday are reunited.
## Development
### Creation and casting
After Naomi (Marsha Thomason) parachuted onto the island in season three, the producers began to plan who else would be on the freighter she came from. They wanted these new characters to be scientists, who would be interested in finding the island for their own personal reasons. They decided to create a character who would be interested in lost civilizations, and named her Charlotte Staples Lewis as a reference to C. S. Lewis, which Lost producer Damon Lindelof said was a clue to the direction the show would be taking during season four.
The role was originally offered to Kristen Bell, however she chose to join Heroes as Elle Bishop instead. The producers cast English actress Rebecca Mader because "she won [them] over with her charm and presence and charisma". During casting, Charlotte was described as "a hot twentysomething ... precocious, loquacious and funny... a very successful academic who also knows how to handle herself in the real world". She also has "lots of repressed and pent-up emotions" beneath the surface. The Lost producers described her as a female version of Indiana Jones. During auditions, the producers provide fake scenes, to keep new characters' identities a secret. Mader's audition scene was a flashback that she was disappointed was not used for the show. Whilst recording her audition, a producer who was with her noticed that the shows on her résumé were from the British Broadcasting Corporation, so asked her to redo the audition again with a British accent. According to Lindelof, this "opened up another dimension [to the character that the producers] hadn't foreseen", so Charlotte was changed from American to English. Mader was pleased to be able to use her own accent, as many of her previous roles had been American characters.
Mader subsequently began to watch the first three seasons of Lost on DVD and was watching the fourth episode when she received the news that she had been chosen for the role. She watched all the previous episodes of Lost in the few weeks before she started working on the show. She found it "a really amazing moment" and felt like she had just stepped into the show. When she was cast, Mader was unaware of whether she would be a guest star, or would develop into a regular, and was planned to feature in eight episodes of season four. Mader helped develop Charlotte's outfit and was pleased to be wearing comfortable jeans and boots for the role. She only required a small amount of hair and makeup done, and stated "I just wanted to rough it. I wanted to roll around in the mud with a gun". This was a welcome change to her usual roles which required "full-on hair, makeup and heels".
### Storyline progression
Charlotte's discovery of a polar bear with a Dharma Initiative collar caused fan speculation about her connection with the island. Mader herself was unaware of Charlotte's backstory beyond the flashback in "Confirmed Dead"—she noted "I feel like I'm almost in the same seat as the audience, like 'What the hell is going on?' and 'What the hell is going to happen next?', it's really exciting actually". She found it freeing to not know her character's history, and felt it made her give a natural performance. Mader felt Charlotte's relationship with Faraday allowed her character to develop and show a softer, more human side, and thought their relationship resonated with the audience as she and Jeremy Davies had good chemistry. Eight episodes of season four were written before production stopped due to the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike. Once the strike was resolved, a further six episodes were written, two less than originally planned for the season, and as a result Charlotte's role continued into season five. She enjoyed speaking Korean in "Something Nice Back Home" and wished the full scene had been aired. Mader was excited when she discovered that Charlotte grew up on the island, and hoped to have scenes with Nestor Carbonell who plays Richard Alpert, as his character also has a history on the island. However, when negotiating contracts in June 2008 she found out that her character would die during season five; Mader summed up Charlotte's season five arc as her demise. Charlotte's death scene was written by Eddy Kitsis and Adam Horowitz and was amongst their favourite scenes they wrote during season five. Horowitz loved the emotion in the scene due to the audience only just learning Charlotte's backstory, and Kitsis thought Mader's performance "elevate[d] the words to a whole other level". Mader called it "the best thing [she] ha[d] ever done in [her] entire career" and enjoyed playing a significant role within the episode.
Three episodes after Charlotte's death, Faraday sees a young Charlotte in a scene set in 1974. This created a continuity error as her date of birth was given in "Confirmed Dead" as July 2, 1979. Lost producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse explained in the "Official Lost Audio Podcast" that Mader changed the age of Charlotte so she would not be portraying someone in their mid-thirties. However Mader retaliated on her Facebook page that the timeline error was their fault and was unhappy about being blamed for it. Lindelof and Cuse clarified that it was their mistake and apologized for blaming Mader. Fellow Lost producer Greggory Nations had noticed Mader was eight years younger than the age Charlotte was originally conceived to be, so suggested Charlotte's birthday be changed to the same as Mader's, without realizing the effect this would have on the subsequent season.
Mader returned to the show for two guest appearances in season six to show Charlotte in the afterlife. Mader described Charlotte as "the role of a lifetime", and cited it as a reason that she was cast in better roles following the series' conclusion.
## Reception
The producers of Lost were nervous about how well the new characters would be received after two characters introduced in season three, Nikki (Kiele Sanchez) and Paulo (Rodrigo Santoro), were hated by the fan community. IGN's Chris Carabott described Charlotte, as well as the other new characters from the freighter, as "great" and "exciting". James Poniewozik of Time liked the introduction of the new characters from the freighter because "Each got just one flashback and a little time on the island, and yet by the end of the episode, [he] felt [he] had a true handle on what they were like as individuals". Jeff Jensen from Entertainment Weekly liked that the "fascinating" new characters brought "mind-blowing new possibilities, and exciting new theory fodder". Oscar Dahl of BuddyTV called it the "perfect introduction". Michael Ausiello of TV Guide also liked their introduction, and praised the actors' performances.
During the season Charlotte's storylines had mixed reactions. Jensen thought Charlotte and Faraday's mission to the Tempest in "The Other Woman" felt "forced". Dan Compora from Airlock Alpha liked Charlotte and Juliet's fight scene in this episode. BuddyTV's Oscar Dahl thought the whole plot at the Tempest was "filler" and wondered if it had been added just to give Charlotte and Faraday something to do. After Charlotte speaks Korean in "Something Nice Back Home", James Poniewozik from Time became curious about her past because she is "the member of the four freighties whom we know the least about, and the most secretive and sinister-seeming of the bunch". Chris Carabott was also intrigued after this scene, which he called "one of the more unexpected scenes".
Carabott felt Charlotte's death could have been explored further, but as there was so much happening in the episode not enough time was made for her death. Alan Sepinwall of The Star-Ledger noted it was Jeremy Davies portrayal of Faraday's grief that made him care about her death. Cynthia Littleton from Variety said this was one of the few times Charlotte did not annoy her, as she acts as a translator for Jin, "finally do[ing] something worthwhile". Noel Murray of The A.V. Club felt distracted by Charlotte in this episode, because her reaction to time travel was different from what was shown in "The Constant", and found it "incredibly awkward" when Charlotte explained her whole backstory to Faraday. TV Guide's Mickey O'Connor praised Mader's acting, saying "Well done, Rebecca Mader, who has really done some fine work on Lost".
|
[
"## Arc",
"## Development",
"### Creation and casting",
"### Storyline progression",
"## Reception"
] | 2,812 | 29,714 |
12,084,419 |
Terrance and Phillip in Not Without My Anus
| 1,140,917,412 | null |
[
"1998 American television episodes",
"April Fools' Day",
"Celine Dion",
"Cultural depictions of Saddam Hussein",
"Fictional television shows",
"South Park (season 2) episodes",
"Television episodes set in Canada"
] |
"Terrance and Phillip in Not Without My Anus" is the second season premiere of the American animated television series South Park. The 14th episode of the series overall, it originally aired on Comedy Central in the United States on April 1, 1998. The episode follows the two title characters, a duo of Canadians who attempt to save their country from the dictator Saddam Hussein while performing repetitive toilet humour. Unbeknownst to them, the plan was partially set up by their rival, Scott, a critic who is often displeased by their random jokes of flatulence. The script was written by series co-creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, along with writer Trisha Nixon.
The episode was an elaborate April Fools' Day prank on South Park fans, who were waiting to learn the identity of Cartman's father after the cliffhanger ending of the first season finale "Cartman's Mom Is a Dirty Slut". Angering viewers, the prank episode resulted in 2,000 e-mail complaints to Comedy Central within a week of the original broadcast. The broadcast date of the subsequent episode, "Cartman's Mom Is Still a Dirty Slut", was moved up in response to the complaints. "Terrance and Phillip in Not Without My Anus" received mixed reviews, with some commentators criticizing Parker and Stone for "duping" their viewers and others praising them for taking the risk. The creators cited this episode as their favorite, and response to it has become warmer since.
## Plot
The episode begins with an announcement that viewers have waited for weeks for the answer to the mystery "Who Is Cartman's Father", but then points out that the answer will not be revealed in this episode; instead, there is a presentation of an unrelated cartoon titled Not Without My Anus, starring Terrance and Phillip. A caption wishes the viewers a Happy April Fools' Day. The cartoon itself opens in a courtroom in Canada with Terrance on trial for the murder of a local doctor; Phillip is his lawyer while Terrance and Phillip's sworn nemesis Scott, who has had a long hatred of the duo's toilet humor, is acting as the prosecutor. Scott uses a group of airtight exhibits to prove Terrance's guilt, while Terrance's defense consists of nothing but a long string of fart jokes. The jury returns a verdict of not guilty. Angered, Scott promises vengeance. He is approached by Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, proposing a deal: Saddam would assist in getting Terrance and Phillip out of Canada, in exchange for Scott assisting Saddam and his Iraqi associates in to Canada. Scott is apprehensive about trusting Saddam but agrees to the deal. The pair then conspires to kidnap Sally, daughter of Terrance and Celine Dion, and hold her hostage, as bait to lure Terrance and Phillip to Tehran; Saddam's soldiers would then murder Terrance and Phillip on arrival.
Terrance and Phillip become aware of the kidnapping when they receive a letter, but they immediately locate Sally upon arrival in Tehran. The duo returns Sally to her home, where Saddam has now taken control. Celine, Terrance's now ex-wife, is dating, and has become pregnant by a friend of the duo named Ugly Bob. While the couple discuss their relationship, Saddam interrupts and takes them hostage, with Celine having planned to sing at a Canadian football game. Scott has also become worried about the presence of the Iraqi soldiers in Canada but becomes infuriated when he finds that Terrance and Phillip have returned to Canada safely. He confronts Saddam about the double-cross, but Saddam's armed guards scare him into backing away. It is revealed that Saddam is trying to take over Canada as the first step in a plan for world domination. Terrance and Phillip arrive at the game. Instead of following a plan set up by Scott to commit suicide by using a bomb, they produce a new plan and put on gas masks. With brute force, everyone farts a huge gas cloud which kills Saddam and his soldiers. Scott arrives and is annoyed to find that Terrance and Phillip are still alive. Terrance, Phillip, Celine, and everyone else (excluding Scott) celebrate their freedom with a rendition of "O Canada". During the credits, an announcement stating that the solution to who Cartman's father is will be answered in a few weeks is shown.
## Production
"Terrance and Philip in Not Without My Anus" was written by Trisha Nixon and South Park co-creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone and directed by Parker. It was the second season premiere and first episode centered completely around Terrance and Phillip, fictional cartoon characters within the series.
The episode first aired on April 1, 1998, as an April Fools' Day prank by Parker and Stone on South Park fans who were anxiously waiting to learn the identity of Cartman's father after the cliffhanger ending of "Cartman's Mom Is a Dirty Slut", the first season finale. Instead, Parker and Stone presented a stand-alone episode entirely focused on a Terrance and Phillip cartoon with nothing in the story about Cartman's father. Upset fans wrote 2,000 angry e-mail complaints to Comedy Central within a week of the episode's original broadcast, and media outlets said some fans harbored a grudge against the show more than five years after the episode was broadcast. Stone said to Entertainment Weekly in response to the fan backlash, "If you get that pissed off because you don't know who a little construction paper kid's father is, then there's really something wrong with you." Allan Johnson of the Chicago Tribune said Comedy Central was "punking out" with the decision.
Several reviewers noted a significant amount of crude and vulgar humor in "Terrance and Philip in Not Without My Anus", even by South Park standards; The Sydney Morning Herald noted the episode contained 29 separate fart jokes in the span of 22 minutes. Global Television Network in Canada reported no complaints about the episode in the weeks after its release.
## Reception
Reviewers were mixed on Parker and Stone's elaborate April Fools' Day prank. Diane Werts of Newsday said of the episode, "Fans rioted. Some jumped ship and never came back. The lesson: Pay off our expectations, or you'll be sorry." Jim Minge of the Omaha World-Herald said South Park fans were "duped" by the episode. Philip Martin of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, who said in May 1998 the South Park phenomenon was "dead", described the April Fools' prank as "lamentable" and part of the reason for the show's apparent decline. Others, however, praised Parker and Stone for making the move at the risk of upsetting fans. Tim Clodfelter of the Winston-Salem Journal said, "It was a funny, clever move [that] quickly separated the fans who truly 'got' [Parker and Stone's] humor from those who were just watching for the dirty jokes." Jon Casimir of The Sydney Morning Herald said, "It is gratifying, in an entertainment world dominated by market research and common denominators, to see a program that obviously doesn't care if you like it or not." However, he said the characterization of Terrance and Phillip was too thin to be particularly funny and added that the novelty of the prank is lost in later years.
Jakob Von Bayer said the episode continued a long history of South Park Canada-bashing: "South Park has gotten a lot of comic mileage out of Canada over the years. [...] This episode portrays a country full of Bob and Doug McKenzies; Toronto is but a highway town en route to Buffalo." "Terrance and Phillip in Not Without My Anus" was among the episodes featured in a 2006 list by the Winnipeg Free Press of the ten most memorable South Park episodes. The Toronto Sun listed the episode as one of the most memorable television moments of 1998, and the single most memorable moment from the month of April. The prank played by the airing of this episode was revisited a number of times in subsequent episodes. The episode "Cartoon Wars Part II" revisits it by appearing to begin with a similar spoof, though the episode then cuts to the actual plot. The fifth season episode, "Terrance and Phillip: Behind the Blow", also references the controversy over the airing of this episode, as does the thirteenth season episode, "Eat, Pray, Queef".
### Home media
"Terrance and Phillip in Not Without My Anus" was released on VHS on June 15, 1999, as a stand-alone episode. It was also released on DVD, along with the rest of season two, in June 2003.
|
[
"## Plot",
"## Production",
"## Reception",
"### Home media"
] | 1,776 | 2,344 |
1,385,882 |
The Joy of Sect
| 1,171,642,777 | null |
[
"1998 American television episodes",
"Fiction about cults",
"Fictional religions",
"Heaven's Gate (religious group)",
"Scientology in popular culture",
"The Simpsons (season 9) episodes"
] |
"The Joy of Sect" is the thirteenth episode of the ninth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on February 8, 1998. In the episode, a cult takes over Springfield, and the Simpson family become members.
David Mirkin conceived the initial idea for the episode, Steve O'Donnell was the lead writer, and Steven Dean Moore directed. The writers drew on many groups to develop the Movementarians, but were principally influenced by Scientology, Heaven's Gate, the Unification Church ("Moonies"), the Rajneesh movement, and Peoples Temple. The show contains many references to popular culture, including the title reference to The Joy of Sex and a gag involving Rover from the television program The Prisoner.
"The Joy of Sect" was later analyzed from religious, philosophical, and psychological perspectives; books on The Simpsons compared the Movementarians to many of the same groups from which the writers had drawn influence.
Both USA Today and The A.V. Club featured "The Joy of Sect" in lists of important episodes of The Simpsons.
## Plot
While at the airport, Bart and Homer meet recruiters for the Movementarians, a new religious movement, who invite Homer and many other Springfield residents to a free weekend at their compound. There, an orientation film tells that a mysterious man known as "The Leader" will guide Movementarians aboard a spaceship to the planet Blisstonia, with audience members being pressured to sit back down and continue watching by having a spotlight shone on them. The lengthy film brainwashes the attendees into worshipping The Leader, except for Homer, who was not paying attention. After failing to brainwash Homer through humiliation and starvation, the recruiters succeed with a chant to the tune of the Batman theme song.
Almost all the townspeople join the cult, including Homer, who moves his family to the Movementarian compound. At the same time, Mr. Burns makes an unsuccessful attempt to start a religion of his own in order to achieve tax-exemption. Though defiant at first, all the Simpson children are converted to Movementarianism. Marge is the only family member to resist, and escapes from the heavily guarded compound. Outside, she finds Reverend Lovejoy, Ned Flanders, and Groundskeeper Willie, who have all resisted the Movementarians, and with their help, she tricks her family into leaving the compound with her.
At the Flanders' home, Marge deprograms her kids by baiting them with fake hoverbikes and then works on Homer with a glass of beer. However, as a drop of beer lands on his tongue, he is recaptured by the Movementarians' lawyers. Back at the compound, Homer reveals to the other Movementarians that he is no longer brainwashed and attempts to expose the cult as a fraud, but upon opening the doors of the compound's "Forbidden Barn" he and the crowd are surprised to find an actual spaceship. However, the crude spaceship disintegrates as it takes flight, revealing The Leader on a pedal-powered aircraft fleeing with everyone's money. He subsequently crashes on Cletus Spuckler's property, who forces him to give over the money at gunpoint.
The Simpsons return home, where Lisa remarks how wonderful it is to once again be able to think for themselves. The episode ends with the family monotonously repeating the words of a Fox announcer: that they "are watching Fox".
## Production
The episode was the second and last episode written by Steve O'Donnell and was based on an idea from David Mirkin. Mirkin had been the show runner during seasons five and six, but had been brought back to run two episodes during the ninth season. He said he was attracted to the notion of parodying cults because they are "comical, interesting and twisted". He conceived the episode after hearing a radio show about the history of cults whilst driving home one night. The main group of writers that worked on the episode were Mirkin, O'Donnell, Jace Richdale, and Kevin Curran. The episode's title "The Joy of Sect" was pitched by Richdale. Steven Dean Moore directed the episode.
Aspects of the Movementarians were inspired by different cults and religions, including Scientology, Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple, the Heaven's Gate group, the Unification Church, the Oneida Society, and Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. In particular, the leader driving through the fields in a Rolls-Royce was partly inspired by the Bhagwans, and the notion of holding people inside the camp against their will was a reference to Jim Jones. The name "Movementarians" itself was simply chosen for its awkward sound. The scene during the six-hour orientation video where those who get up to leave are induced to stay through peer pressure and groupthink was a reference to the Unification Church and EST Training. The show's producers acknowledged that the ending scene of the episode was a poke at Fox as "being the evil mind controlling network". The episode's script was written in 1997, at roughly the same time that the members of the Heaven's Gate cult committed mass suicide. The writers noticed strange parallels between Mirkin's first draft and Heaven's Gate, including the belief in the arrival of a spaceship and the group's members wearing matching clothes and odd sneakers. Because of these coincidences, several elements of the episode were changed so that it would be more sensitive in the wake of the suicides.
## Themes
Chris Turner's book Planet Simpson: How a Cartoon Masterpiece Defined a Generation describes the Movementarians as a cross between the Church of Scientology and Raëlism, with lesser influences from Sun Myung Moon and Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. Planet Simpson also notes the Simpsons' chant at the conclusion of the episode as evidence of a "true high-growth quasi-religious cult of our time", referring to television. The book refers to a "Cult of Pop", which it describes as "a fast growing mutation ersatz religion that has filled the gaping hole in the West's social fabric where organized religion used to be". Martin Hunt of FACTnet notes several similarities between the Movementarians and the Church of Scientology. "The Leader" physically resembles L. Ron Hubbard; the Movementarians' use of a 10-trillion-year commitment for its members alludes to the (Scientology) Sea Org's billion-year contract; and both groups make extensive use of litigation. The A.V. Club analyzes the episode in a piece called "Springfield joins a cult", comparing the Movementarians' plans to travel to "Blisstonia" to Heaven's Gate's promises of bliss after traveling to the comet Hale–Bopp. However, it also notes that "The Joy of Sect" is a commentary on organized religion in general, quoting Bart as saying, "Church, cult, cult, church. So we get bored someplace else every Sunday." Planet Simpson discusses The Simpsons' approach to deprogramming in the episode, noting groundskeeper Willie's conversion to the philosophy of the Movementarians after learning about it while attempting to deprogram Homer. Author Chris Turner suggests that Marge should have instead gone with the "Conformco Brain Deprogrammers" used in the episode "Burns' Heir" to convince Bart to leave Mr. Burns and come back home.
In The Simpsons and Philosophy: The D'oh! of Homer, the authors cite "escaping from a cult commune in 'The Joy of Sect'" as evidence of "Aristotle's virtuous personality traits in Marge." As the title suggests, the book The Psychology of the Simpsons: D'oh! examines "The Joy of Sect" from a psychological point of view. It discusses the psychology of decision-making in the episode, noting, "Homer is becoming a full-blown member of the Movementarians not by a rational choice, ... but through the process of escalating behavioral commitments." The Psychology of the Simpsons explains the key recruitment techniques used by the Movementarians, including the charismatic leader, established authority based on a religious entity or alien being (in this case "Blisstonia"), and the method of taking away free choice through acceptance of the Leader's greatness. The book also analyzes the techniques used during the six-hour Movementarian recruitment film. In that scene, those who rise to leave are reminded that they are allowed to leave whenever they wish. They are, however, questioned in front of the group as to specifically why they wish to leave, and these individuals end up staying to finish watching the film. The book describes this technique as "subtle pressure", in contrast to the "razor wire, landmines, angry dogs, crocodiles and evil mystery bubble Marge confronts to escape, while being reminded again that she is certainly free to leave". The Psychology of the Simpsons writes that "the Leader" is seen as an authority figure, because "he has knowledge or abilities that others do not, but want". Instead of traditional mathematics textbooks, the children on the compound learn from Arithmetic the Leader's Way and Science for Leader Lovers.
In Pinsky's The Gospel According to the Simpsons, one of the show's writers recounted to the author that the producers of The Simpsons had vetoed a planned episode on Scientology in fear of the Church's "reputation for suing and harassing opponents". Pinsky found it ironic that Matt Groening spoofed Scientology in spite of the fact that the voice of Bart Simpson, Nancy Cartwright, is a Scientologist, having joined in 1991. Pinsky notes that Groening later "took a shot at Scientology" in Futurama with the fictional religion "Church of Robotology". Groening said he received a call from the Church of Scientology concerned about the use of a similar name.
## Cultural references
When Marge attempts to leave the compound, she is chased by the Rover guard "balloon" from the 1967 television program The Prisoner. Neal Hefti and Nelson Riddle's theme music to the 1960s Batman series is used in the episode to indoctrinate Homer. When Mr. Burns introduces his new religion, most of the sequence is a parody of the promotional video of Michael Jackson's 1995 album HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I.
Willie scratching his nails along the church window to get Marge and Reverend Lovejoy's attention is a reference to the 1975 film Jaws, in which the character Quint performs a similar action. The Springfield Airport contains the "Just Crichton and King Bookstore", referencing Michael Crichton and Stephen King, authors famous for their airport novels, carrying only their works.
## Reception
In its original broadcast, "The Joy of Sect" finished 27th in ratings for the week of February 2–8, 1998, with a Nielsen rating of 9.6, equivalent to approximately 9.4 million viewing households. It was the fourth highest-rated show on the Fox network that week, following The X-Files, King of the Hill, and Ally McBeal.
In a 2006 article in USA Today, "The Joy of Sect" was highlighted among six other episodes of The Simpsons season 9, along with "Trash of the Titans", "The Last Temptation of Krust", "The Cartridge Family", "Dumbbell Indemnity", and "Das Bus". The A.V. Club featured the episode in its analysis of "15 Simpsons Moments That Perfectly Captured Their Eras". The Daily Mirror gave the episode positive mention in its review of the Season 9 DVD release, calling it "hilarious". Isaac Mitchell-Frey of the Herald Sun cited the episode as the highlight of the season.
The Sunday Mail highlighted the episode for their "Family Choice" segment, commenting: "Normally, a show about religious cults would spell doom and gloom. Only Bart, of The Simpsons, could make a comedy out of it but then, he and his cartoon family are a cult in their own right anyway!" Jeff Shalda of The Simpsons Archive used the episode as an example of one of the "good qualities present in The Simpsons", while analyzing why some other aspects of The Simpsons make Christians upset.
The authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide commented that the episode was "an odd one" with "a lot of good moments", and went on to state that it was "a nice twist to see Burns determined to be loved". However, the book also noted that "The Joy of Sect" is "another one where the central joke isn't strong enough to last the whole episode".
In a lesson plan developed at St Mary's College, Durham titled An Introduction to Philosophy: The Wit and Wisdom of Lisa Simpson, the episode is described in a section on "False Prophets" as applicable for "...studying the more outrageous manifestations of 'religion' or those simply alert to the teachings of Christ on the subject".
## See also
- Parody religion
- Religion in The Simpsons
- Religious satire
- UFO religion
|
[
"## Plot",
"## Production",
"## Themes",
"## Cultural references",
"## Reception",
"## See also"
] | 2,683 | 42,454 |
15,438,207 |
Saturday Night Live parodies of Sarah Palin
| 1,164,733,114 |
Television comedy sketches
|
[
"2008 United States presidential election in popular culture",
"2008 in American television",
"Cultural depictions of Sarah Palin",
"Saturday Night Live in the 2000s"
] |
The sketch comedy television show Saturday Night Live aired several critically acclaimed sketches parodying then Alaskan Governor and vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin in the lead-up to the 2008 United States presidential election. The sketches featured former cast member Tina Fey, who returned as a guest star to portray Palin. Fey won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for her impersonation of Palin.
## Background
Soon after the 2008 John McCain presidential campaign's August 29, 2008 announcement that Alaska governor Sarah Palin would be McCain's vice presidential nominee, people noted a physical resemblance between comedian Tina Fey and Palin.
Viewers began to speculate who would play Palin on SNL during the run up to the November 4 presidential election. Days before the broadcast of the sketch, SNL executive producer Lorne Michaels said "there are [ongoing] discussions" about Fey playing Palin. On September 13, 2008, NBC announced that Fey would appear in the thirty-fourth-season premiere.
## "A Nonpartisan Message from Governor Sarah Palin & Senator Hillary Clinton"
The first sketch, "A Nonpartisan Message from Governor Sarah Palin & Senator Hillary Clinton," aired during the thirty-fourth season premiere of SNL on September 13, 2008. The sketch starred Tina Fey and Amy Poehler as Palin and Clinton, respectively. Fey, the series' former head writer and repertory player, made her third appearance on the series since officially leaving SNL in 2006 to work on 30 Rock, a series which she created. The sketch was written by head writer and Weekend Update anchor Seth Meyers with added jokes by Poehler and Fey. A famous line from the sketch, "I can see Russia from my house." was written by SNL producer Mike Shoemaker.
Poehler and Fey are featured in a fictional speech playing New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin, respectively. The pair discuss the presence of sexism in the 2008 United States presidential election, and the differences between Palin and Clinton. Governor Palin was the Republican Party vice-presidential nominee and Senator Clinton was a contender for the Democratic Party presidential nomination. Through the course of the message, Palin tries to present herself as the candidate for the job, and Clinton gets progressively more and more disgusted at Palin's sudden rise to fame as John McCain's running mate, despite her background. It also features references to Clinton's campaign.
### Reaction
#### Critical reception
The sketch was well received by critics. Erin Fox of TV Guide wrote that Tina Fey "nails [Sarah] Palin's mannerisms and accent. [Amy] Poehler is amazing as Hillary [Clinton]; her timing is better than ever. My favorite line was Tina saying 'I can see Russia from my house!'" Fox added that "this was a much anticipated and hoped-for pairing and we got it!" Annie Wu of TV Squad thought that Fey's "impression wasn't perfect but it was more accurate than Amy Poehler's Hillary Clinton, which [she] still find[s] incredibly off." Wu added that "the mugging for the camera was absolutely hilarious." James Poniewozik of Time Magazine wrote that "Fey's Palin was perfectly good enough" and that "the skit itself did a good job of what SNL—which has lately cultivated a strong set of female comics—tried hard to do through Hillary's campaign, which is try to address sexism without either simply going for the easy stereotypes or letting female candidates off the hook." The Huffington Post's reviewer wrote that "Fey bears a striking resemblance to Palin and nailed the candidate's distinctive accent."
#### Palin's response
When asked how she felt about Fey's portrayal, Palin herself replied, "I watched with the volume all the way down and I thought it was hilarious... I didn't hear a word she said, but the visual was spot on." Palin "and the press corps watched the sketch in the back of her plane, laughing at Tina and Amy's satirical take on the two politicians," and Palin later claimed that she had once dressed up as Fey for Halloween. However, Carly Fiorina, a spokeswoman for the John McCain campaign argued that the sketch portrayed Hillary Clinton as "very substantive," but Fiorina thought, in the case of Sarah Palin, that she was portrayed as "totally superficial." Fiorina thought the sketch was "disrespectful in the extreme" and "sexist."
In a series of interviews, Palin made some "flubs" leading her to joke that "[she] was just trying to give Tina Fey more material." She also joked that it was to provide "job security for SNL characters." Palin later remarked that she should appear on SNL to spoof a series of American Express commercials which featured Tina Fey.
## Further Palin sketches
Due to the popularity of the sketch and Fey's impression of Palin, Fey reprised her role during the September 27, 2008 episode. That sketch featured Palin being interviewed by Katie Couric (also portrayed by Amy Poehler), and parodied an interview which took place between Palin and Couric which aired days before the sketch's broadcast. In the sketch, Fey quoted near verbatim one of Palin's answers from the actual interview and mimed Palin's gestures. The following episode featured a skit parodying the debate between Palin and Joe Biden (played by Jason Sudeikis). Queen Latifah also appeared in the skit as moderator Gwen Ifill.
Palin herself appeared on the October 18, 2008 episode, along with Fey in the cold opening, and in the Weekend Update segment. Alec Baldwin and Mark Wahlberg also appeared in that sketch as themselves. On the October 23 episode of Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Thursday, Fey as Palin appeared alongside Darrell Hammond as John McCain and Will Ferrell as President George W. Bush.
On November 1, 2008, Fey once again portrayed Palin, this time in a sketch featuring the real John McCain, the last of numerous sketches featuring the Arizona Senator. In the sketch, McCain poked fun at himself and his campaign, as well as Barack Obama's purchase of airtime on several major networks earlier in the week. In the sketch, McCain and Palin can only afford to buy airtime on QVC, a home-shopping channel. McCain's wife, Cindy, also made an appearance in the sketch as herself.
After Palin's memoir, Going Rogue: An American Life, achieved best-seller status through pre-orders, Fey announced she would resume impersonating the former Governor despite having "retired" the act months previously. On April 10, 2010, Fey hosted SNL, and once again played Palin, who unveiled her own television network featuring shows such as Hey Journalist, I Gotcha, Todd! starring her husband Todd Palin (Jason Sudeikis) and Are You Smarter than a Half-Term Governor? Fey hosted SNL in May 2011 while pregnant. A new sketch was made in which parodies of Mitt Romney (Jason Sudeikis), Newt Gingrich (Bobby Moynihan), Michele Bachmann (Kristen Wiig), Palin (Fey), Donald Trump (Darrell Hammond), and Jimmy McMillan (Kenan Thompson) fought in a Republican Party debate between undeclared candidates, with Shepard Smith (Bill Hader) coordinating.
On March 11, 2012, on the episode hosted by Jonah Hill, Palin was impersonated by Andy Samberg in the Weekend Update segment. The dialogue leads the audience to think that it was supposed to be another appearance by Fey and that Seth Meyers wasn't aware of the change, but Samberg convinces Meyers to finish his part.
Palin appeared on the Saturday Night Live 40th Anniversary Special, where Jerry Seinfeld jokingly mistook her for Tina Fey.
Fey and Poehler co-hosted SNL in December 2015, and performed as Palin and Clinton in yet another sketch. For their performance, the duo won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series. This is the first time an acting category has been won by more than one person. Additionally, this is the second win for Fey in the category for her performance as Palin and Poehler's first Emmy win after 18 nominations.
In January 2016, following Palin's real-life endorsement of Donald Trump, Fey returned to the role to parody the speech given by Palin in Iowa that endorsed Trump. This skit served as the show's cold open.
## See also
- Saturday Night Live parodies of George H. W. Bush
- Saturday Night Live parodies of Bill Clinton
- Saturday Night Live parodies of Hillary Clinton
- Saturday Night Live parodies of Donald Trump
- Saturday Night Live parodies of Joe Biden
|
[
"## Background",
"## \"A Nonpartisan Message from Governor Sarah Palin & Senator Hillary Clinton\"",
"### Reaction",
"#### Critical reception",
"#### Palin's response",
"## Further Palin sketches",
"## See also"
] | 1,796 | 19,722 |
5,694,335 |
Neville Chamberlain (police officer)
| 1,132,382,030 |
Inventor of snooker
|
[
"1856 births",
"1944 deaths",
"British Indian Army officers",
"Cue sports inventors and innovators",
"Devonshire Regiment officers",
"English recipients of the Queen's Police Medal",
"Inspectors-General of the Royal Irish Constabulary",
"Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath",
"Knights Commander of the Royal Victorian Order",
"Snooker coaches, managers and promoters"
] |
Sir Neville Francis Fitzgerald Chamberlain, (13 January 1856 – 28 May 1944) was an officer in the British Indian Army. He was later Inspector-General of the Royal Irish Constabulary, and resigned in the aftermath of the 1916 Easter Rising in Ireland. He is credited with having invented the game of snooker while serving in Jubbulpore (Jabalpur), India, in 1875.
## Early life
Chamberlain was born into a military family, in Birmingham, Warwickshire as the son of Charles Francis Falcon Chamberlain and his wife Marianne Ormsby Drury. He was also the nephew of Neville Bowles Chamberlain. He was educated at Brentwood School, and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst.
## Military career
Chamberlain was commissioned a sub-lieutenant in the 11th Foot on 9 August 1873, and promoted to lieutenant in August 1874. In 1878, during the Second Anglo-Afghan War, he joined the staff of Field Marshal Sir Frederick Roberts, Commander-in-Chief of the British Army in Afghanistan. Chamberlain was wounded slightly at the Battle of Kandahar. He served with Roberts at Ootacamund between 1881 and 1885. He was promoted to captain on 9 August 1885, to brevet major on 7 November 1885, and to brevet lieutenant-colonel on 1 July 1887.
In 1890 he became Military Secretary to the Kashmir Government. He was promoted to brevet colonel on 6 January 1894. He was promoted to colonel on 6 February 1899, when he was appointed Colonel on the Staff in Delhi.
Following the outbreak of the Second Boer War, Lord Roberts had been appointed Commander-in-Chief of the British forces in South Africa. Chamberlain rejoined Lord Roberts in South Africa in December 1899, as "First Aide-de-Camp and Private Secretary", and was highly commended by Roberts in despatches from the war in 1900.
## Royal Irish Constabulary
Chamberlain was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1900. In the same year he was appointed Inspector-General of the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC), the armed police force for the whole of Ireland except Dublin. The force was under the direct control of the British Administration in Ireland, based in Dublin Castle. It was responsible for intelligence gathering as well as maintaining order, and was seen as the "eyes and ears" of the government. He formally resigned from the British Army on 1 November 1901.
He was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in August 1903, Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (KCVO) in 1911 and Knight of Grace in the Venerable Order of Saint John in April 1914, and was awarded the King's Police Medal in the 1915 New Year Honours. Chamberlain's years in the RIC coincided with the rise of a number of political, cultural and sporting organisations with the common aim of separating Ireland from the UK, which were often referred to as Sinn Féin, culminating in the formation of the Irish Volunteers in 1913.
In reports to the Chief Secretary for Ireland, Augustine Birrell, and the Under-Secretary, Sir Matthew Nathan, Chamberlain warned that the Volunteers were preparing to stage an insurrection and proclaim Irish independence. However, in April 1916, when Nathan showed him a letter from the army commander in the south of Ireland telling of an expected landing of arms on the south-west coast and a rising planned for Easter, they were both "doubtful whether there was any foundation for the rumour". The Easter Rising began on Easter Monday, 24 April 1916, and lasted for six days, ending only when much of Sackville Street (now O'Connell Street) had been destroyed by artillery fire. Although the Royal Commission on the 1916 Rebellion (the Hardinge commission) cleared the RIC of any blame for the Rising, Chamberlain was eventually forced to resign following continued criticism of the force's intelligence handling.
## Later life
After his retirement, Chamberlain lived in Ascot, Berkshire, England. On 19 March 1938, he had a letter published in The Field in which he claimed to have invented the game of snooker at the officers' mess of the 11th Devonshire Regiment in Jubbulpore (Jabalpur), India in 1875. His claim was supported by the author Compton Mackenzie in a letter to The Billiard Player in 1939, and has been accepted by present-day governing bodies, such as the International Billiards and Snooker Federation.
The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography describes the circumstances in which the new game came about:
> While serving at Jubbulpore in 1875 Chamberlain developed a new variation of black pool by introducing coloured balls into the game. It was dubbed snooker—a derogatory nickname given to first-year cadets studying at the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich that Chamberlain had heard about from a young Royal Artillery subaltern visiting the mess. Chamberlain later retorted to a fellow player who had failed to pot a coloured ball: "Why, you're a regular snooker". While explaining the term to his fellow officers Chamberlain, to mollify the officer concerned, remarked that they were all "snookers at the game" and the name snooker or snooker's pool immediately stuck.
Chamberlain married Mary Henrietta Hay (1866–1936) in 1886. Their daughter, Nora (1887–1956), married Clive Wigram, 1st Baron Wigram. Chamberlain died from myocarditis at his home on 28 May 1944, aged 88.
|
[
"## Early life",
"## Military career",
"## Royal Irish Constabulary",
"## Later life"
] | 1,219 | 11,767 |
46,598,750 |
Radio 1 Madonna controversy
| 1,168,704,158 |
Event
|
[
"2015 controversies",
"2015 in British music",
"Ageism",
"BBC Radio 1",
"BBC controversies",
"February 2015 events in the United Kingdom",
"Madonna",
"Radio controversies"
] |
The Radio 1 Madonna controversy was a series of events that occurred as a result of BBC Radio 1's decision not to playlist American singer Madonna's single "Living for Love" in February 2015. Despite receiving moderate airplay from commercial radio in the United Kingdom, the single was not added to Radio 1's playlist, leading to accusations of ageism. The controversy stemmed from an article in the Daily Mail, which quoted an unnamed Radio 1 insider describing Madonna as "old" and "irrelevant". In response, the singer's fans posted numerous requests for the song on Radio 1's social media accounts, and several artists criticized Radio 1's music policy, prompting the station to release a statement defending their decision not to play the track.
The controversy received significant media coverage in the UK and internationally, sparking a wider discussion about ageism in the music industry. "Living for Love" was subsequently added to BBC Radio 2's C-list, before being promoted to the B-list. The station targets audiences aged 35 and higher. Commercially, the single peaked at number 26 on the UK Singles Chart for the week ending 28 February 2015.
## Background
Madonna has received considerable airplay on BBC Radio 1 since the beginning of her career and made her first appearance on the station on 22 December 1986, when she was interviewed by Simon Bates during the promotion of the film Shanghai Surprise. The singer gave subsequent interviews to Jakki Brambles, Bates, Simon Mayo, Mark Goodier, Sara Cox, Jo Whiley, and Chris Moyles in 1990, 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2001, and 2006, respectively. The station also broadcast the Blond Ambition World Tour in 1990 and The Girlie Show in 1993. On 10 May 2008, Madonna headlined BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend at Mote Park, in Maidstone to promote the release of her album Hard Candy. The first single from the album, "4 Minutes" (2008), was added to the station's A-list.
In 2012, Madonna released her twelfth studio album, MDNA. The lead single, "Give Me All Your Luvin'", and subsequent releases from the album were not added to the Radio 1 playlist, despite the former featuring rappers Nicki Minaj and M.I.A., two artists who receive regular rotation on the station. Radio 1 DJ Scott Mills defended their decision not to play Madonna saying, "I don't think we play Madonna any more. There is a lot of research, and if you ask a 17-year-old about her, they go 'don't care' [...] it's a sign of the times, things change, it's a generational thing. I like Madonna, does a 17-year-old? [She's] probably not at the top of their list. And that's horrible, but that is the way it is [...] and also youth audiences are so fickle in what they like and what they don't like, and they're quite opinionated, you just have got to keep on top of that."
Speaking at a Radio Academy event in 2014, the station's Head of Music, George Ergatoudis, stated that its audience had "moved on" from Madonna, and that the majority of her fans were "over 30". He added that the BBC Trust had decided to make Radio 1 as a station appealing to a younger demographic, a factor which determines their daytime playlists.
## Events
On 20 December 2014, Madonna's thirteenth studio album Rebel Heart became available for pre-order. Unlike other countries, first single "Living for Love" was only made available for pre-order in the United Kingdom, and was not chart-eligible until 25 February 2015. On 22 December 2014, "Living for Love" started to receive airplay on commercial radio, most notably Capital FM, where the song was eventually added to the station's playlist.
On 9 January 2015, Annie Mac played "Living for Love" on Radio 1 during her evening dance show. In a later interview with The Independent, Mac said that her mission was to "represent the landscape of new music honestly", and hoped that older artists such as Madonna should not get excluded from the station. "I'm a lifelong Madonna fan and I played her on my Friday show. [...] If I'm excited by a song, then I think it's going to be all right to play it", Mac concluded.
An article published by the Daily Mail on 14 February 2015 quoted an unnamed BBC Radio 1 insider who stated that "Living for Love" would not be played on the station because Madonna is "irrelevant" and "old". Radio 1 later denied the claims on their Facebook page, stating that the station "does not ban anyone". One of its representatives explained that tracks are chosen on "musical merit" and that an artist's age is never a factor when choosing songs for their playlist.
## Reception
The Daily Mail article quickly went viral, and hundreds of messages were left on Radio 1's Facebook page from Madonna's fans urging the station to play "Living for Love". Support for the singer soon spread to the station's Twitter and Instagram accounts, with fans posting links to the "Living for Love" video, her performance at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards, and posts claiming that the BBC was being discriminatory.
Madonna received support from artists such as Boy George, Elly Jackson, Diplo and Rita Ora. Shirley Manson wrote on her Twitter account that Madonna should "contemplate suing Radio 1 for discrimination in the workplace", and that the station's music policy was "bordering on, if not actively, unlawful".
Madonna posted a newspaper clipping that featured the story on her Twitter and Instagram accounts, and thanked her fans for their support. She also recalled discussing the incident with her manager Guy Oseary and admitted that it was perplexing for her to learn that artists in their fifties do not get played on radio, without exceptions. "We've made so many advances in other areas — civil rights, gay rights — but ageism is still an area that's taboo and not talked about and dealt with," she concluded.
## BBC rebuttal and aftermath
The BBC was quick to refute allegations of ageism, and explained that songs were chosen on a case-by-case basis for inclusion on their weekly playlist. Their representative noted that Paul McCartney had two songs on the playlist, although critics pointed out that both of these tracks were collaborations with younger artists (McCartney featured on "Only One", with Kanye West, and "FourFiveSeconds", with Rihanna). The station further listed David Guetta, the Foo Fighters, and Sia as examples of older artists making their playlist. In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Radio 1's controller Ben Cooper explained that the station has not banned Madonna, and that a group of twelve personnel aged 16–24 would meet on a regular basis to review the network's musical output, determining the relevant musical choice for their demographic.
In an interview with the Daily Mirror, Mills defended the station's decision not to play the song. He stated, "[Radio 1 are] trying to get the average age of the listener down and, to be honest, most Madonna fans are in their 30s and 40s. I don't actually mind the new single, but do I think Radio 1 should play it? Probably not." According to the Official Charts Company, "Living for Love" moved towards the top-twenty of the UK Singles Chart with two days of available sales as reported in their mid-week chart report. It ultimately debuted at number 26 on the chart with sales of 17,936 copies, becoming Madonna's 71st top-forty single, extending her record as the female artist with the most top-forty UK singles.
## See also
- BBC controversies
- "Real Love", a Beatles song that received similar treatment in 1996
- "Candy", a Robbie Williams song that received similar treatment in 2012
- "Padam Padam", a Kylie Minogue song given similar treatment in 2023
|
[
"## Background",
"## Events",
"## Reception",
"## BBC rebuttal and aftermath",
"## See also"
] | 1,698 | 31,616 |
56,314,677 |
David Meade (author)
| 1,171,812,929 |
American author and end-times conspiracy theorist
|
[
"21st-century American male writers",
"21st-century American non-fiction writers",
"21st-century apocalypticists",
"21st-century pseudonymous writers",
"American Christian writers",
"American Roman Catholics",
"American book editors",
"American conspiracy theorists",
"American male non-fiction writers",
"Christian conspiracy theorists",
"Christian writers about eschatology",
"Living people",
"Mass psychogenic illness in the United States",
"Numerologists",
"People involved in plagiarism controversies",
"Unidentified people",
"University of Louisville alumni",
"Year of birth missing (living people)"
] |
David Meade is the pen name of an American end-times conspiracy theorist and book author who has yet to disclose his real name. Meade, who describes himself as a "Christian numerologist", claims to have attended the University of Louisville, where he "studied astronomy, among other subjects"; because his real name is unknown, The Washington Post reported that the university could not confirm whether he had ever been a student there. He is also a writer, researcher and investigator who has written and self-published at least 13 books. He made appearances and interviews on Coast to Coast AM, The Washington Post, Glenn Beck Program, YouTube with pastor Paul Begley, and the Daily Express. He is best known for making numerous failed predictions, which have passed, regarding the end times, including that a hidden planet named Nibiru (sometimes known as Planet X) would destroy the Earth.
Meade predicted that planet Nibiru would collide with Earth on September 23, 2017, destroying it. After his prediction failed, he revised the apocalypse to October, where he stated that the seven-year tribulation would possibly start followed by a millennium of peace. In 2018, Meade again made several predictions for that year, for instance, that North Korea becoming a superpower in March 2018 and that Nibiru would destroy the Earth in spring. Meade announced that the apocalypse would begin in March 2018, but he didn't predict the exact date. After March 2018 passed, he moved the apocalypse to April 23, 2018, in which he also predicted the Sun, Moon, Jupiter, and Virgo will signal the rapture, and that Nibiru would destroy the Earth that day. Before that date, he said reports that he predicted the end on 23 April were "fake news" but that the rapture—not the end of the world—would take place on an unspecified date between May and December 2018.
## Early life
Meade claims he was raised as a Catholic and attended the University of Louisville, studying astronomy and other subjects. He also claims to have earned a master's degree in statistics. According to his profile page on his website, he has worked for both the federal government and private industry. He additionally stated that he has written investigative reports on abnormal state administration and executives for Fortune 1000 organizations. It is not known which companies he worked for. On his Google Plus page, he also claims to be an investigative journalist.
In a September 2017 The Washington Post article, Meade said that he studied astronomy and that he attended a university in Kentucky but declined to say which campus he attended due to safety concerns. He additionally refused to answer questions concerning which Fortune 1000 organizations he worked for and what he does for a living. When he was asked where he lives, he claimed that he lives in "the heart of a major disaster" zone of Hurricane Irma, but did not specify the state or city.
Meade appeared on Coast to Coast AM with George Noory in January 2017 and was interviewed by the American national television and radio program Glenn Beck Program in September 2017. In addition to books about Planet X, he has written books related to politics, such as The Coming Clinton Economic Collapse (2016) and The Coup D'état Against President Donald J. Trump (2017).
## Predictions
Meade received extensive media attention following his predictions that Nibiru would destroy Earth on September 23, 2017. He first predicted Nibiru would hit the Earth in October 2017, but moved it forward to September 23. On September 21, an Orange County, California television station accidentally displayed his prediction in an emergency alert, and broadcasting officials stated that the false alert was caused by a glitch from a test by the Emergency Alert System. On September 21, he claimed in a Glenn Beck interview to have seen Nibiru from his house and that other people would see the sign as well. Meade then changed his mind and stated that Nibiru would not collide with Earth on September 23.
### October 2017 predictions
As September 23 passed, Meade again revised the apocalypse to October, making new predictions for that month, such as Nibiru eclipsing the sun on October 5 and that several people would levitate into the sky (including then-current U.S. President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence) followed by a nuclear attack by North Korea, China, and Russia on the United States. He predicted other events for that month, such as a series of magnitude 9.8 earthquakes; that the Earth's pole would shift by 30 degrees; that the United States would be split in half; and that Barack Obama would be elected as U.S. president for an illegal third term. He also predicted that the 7-year Great Tribulation would start on October 15 and stated "[t]hat's when the action starts", but the month passed, and his predictions were incorrectly predicted. His October 2017 predictions were described in his book Will Planet X Signal the Rapture?.
### Predictions for 2018
In an interview with YouTube pastor Paul Begley, Meade made several predictions for 2018, such as North Korea becoming a world-class superpower in March 2018 and predicting that Nibiru would destroy the Earth in spring. In an article published by International Business Times on February 15, 2018, Meade announced that the apocalypse would begin in March 2018, but no date was given. He stated that several events in 2018, such as the January 2018 super blue blood moon eclipse, the 2018 Winter Olympics, and Israel's 70-year celebration of independence, were signs of the apocalypse. He called several officials in the United Nations "crazy people" after voting against the United States' decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and his prediction came just 42 days before the blood moon eclipse.
After March 2018 passed, he changed the apocalypse prediction to April 23, 2018, in which he also predicted the Sun, Moon, Jupiter, and Virgo will signal the rapture, and that Nibiru would destroy the Earth that day. He referred to his prediction as "end of days convergence" and that the "disappearance of the Church will occur". Meade became the first preacher since William Miller to predict that the world would end on 23 April. On April 19, 2018, he stated that reports saying that he predicted the world would be destroyed on 23 April were "fake news", but that the rapture—but not the end of the world—would take place on an unspecified date between May and December 2018. He stated that the rapture would bring in seven years of "tribulation", followed by 1,000 years of "peace and prosperity", before the world is destroyed. April 23, 2018 passed without incident and Meade's prediction of a rapture taking place has been labeled by some as one of the latest "kooky" doomsday calls.
### Other predictions
Meade has made similar predictions in 2015 in his book Rapture 2015 and Planet X and in his 2013 book Comet Ison and the Return of Jesus, in which he stated that Comet Ison is the biblical star Wormwood and that it ties to Nibiru. In September 2017, he also made predictions that North Korea would launch a nuclear attack against Yellowstone Caldera from a used Russian submarine parked off the coast of California, and that the attack would trigger a supervolcano eruption. He believed that there would be flooding similar to the Genesis flood narrative and that only believers would survive. He also believed that Russia would be able to wipe the United States out in less than 30 minutes if a war broke out between the two countries.
## Reactions
Meade has faced criticism from fellow Christians: Ed Stetzer, writing for Christianity Today, stated that "there is no such thing as a 'Christian numerologist'", and described Meade as "a made-up expert in a made-up field talking about a made-up event." Christopher M. Graney, a professor with the Vatican Observatory Foundation, noted that the supposedly unique astronomical event cited by Meade as a harbinger of doom was, in fact, quite common, having occurred four times in the last millennium. His theories were also debunked by NASA and Time writer Jeff Kluger, with NASA stating that Nibiru does not exist.
Albert Mohler, the president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary stated, upon Meade's previous prediction in September 2017, that "Christians are not called to be the setters of dates and the anticipation of the calendar." He went on to criticize Meade's predictions saying that "this kind of thinking should be an embarrassment to Biblical Christians". Judi McLeod labeled Meade as a false prophet on her website Canada Free Press after his prophecies failed to come true. ATLAH World Missionary Church pastor James David Manning has also called Meade a fraud in one of his YouTube videos. Brazilian astronomer Duília de Mello called his predictions and theories rubbish, and said Nibiru would have been seen during the eclipse and that Meade was using calculations based on the Gregorian calendar. British journalist Nick Pope stated that his theory had lack of critical thinking.
Meade has been compared to other failed doomsday preachers, such as Harold Camping and Nostradamus, and his September 23 prediction has been compared to other failed dates, such as the 2012 phenomenon and Y2K fulfilling Christian prophecy. After September 23, 2017 passed, a European mind reader and mentalist with the same name received multiple death threats when news websites linked him to the predictions. The man denied being the doomsday predictor and worked with a legal expert to have the false reports removed. Meade's Planet X – The 2017 Arrival book also received criticism as nonsense and plagiarism, with only 25% being his own work. On January 25, 2018, his predictions were labeled as "hype" by The Washington Post in a story about the Doomsday Clock.
## Calculations
Meade told The Washington Post that his September 23, 2017 prediction was based on numerical codes in the Bible. He also based his predictions on what he says are coded messages in the Giza Pyramids of Egypt. The specific focus of his prediction revolved around the Woman of the Apocalypse (referring to Revelation 12), another event that was supposed to take place on September 23 when a certain configuration of the Earth, Sun, Moon, and Virgo would happen. He stated the significant number for his September 23 prediction is the number 33, on the grounds that "Jesus lived for 33 years" and "Elohim, the Canaanite god who was later adopted as the supreme god of ancient Israel, is mentioned 33 times in the Bible". He stated several events, such as the solar eclipse of 21 August 2017, Hurricane Harvey, Hurricane Irma, and the Mexico earthquakes were a sign that Nibiru would appear on 23 September based on the Bible chapter verse Luke 21:25–26.
Meade's April 23 prediction was based on passage 12:1–2 in the Book of Revelation, which states "And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed in the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. She was pregnant and crying out in the pain and agony of giving birth". He referred to the woman as Virgo and stated that the alignment represents Lion of Judah. When discussing the 7-year tribulation and rapture, he stated "The Book of Revelation states that men will approach Armageddon on horseback. Nibiru is here and the earth will be prepared for the next event on its calendar. That's all in the Book of Revelation, too."
## See also
- List of dates predicted for apocalyptic events
- Apocalypticism
|
[
"## Early life",
"## Predictions",
"### October 2017 predictions",
"### Predictions for 2018",
"### Other predictions",
"## Reactions",
"## Calculations",
"## See also"
] | 2,494 | 36,514 |
19,136,361 |
USS West Apaum
| 1,152,187,053 |
Cargo ship in the United States Navy
|
[
"1918 ships",
"Design 1013 ships",
"Design 1013 ships of the United States Navy",
"Ships built by Skinner & Eddy",
"World War I auxiliary ships of the United States",
"World War I cargo ships of the United States"
] |
USS West Apaum (ID-3221) was a cargo ship in the United States Navy during World War I. She had been built as SS West Apaum for the United States Shipping Board (USSB) as part of the West boats, a series of steel-hulled cargo ships built on the West Coast of the United States.
West Apaum sailed on three voyages for the US Navy, two after the Armistice, before she was decommissioned in July 1919. Though little is available regarding West Apaum's civilian career, it is known that she was sailing on a New York – Rotterdam route in early 1927. By early 1929, West Apaum had been laid up by the USSB, which abandoned her in 1933. The cargo ship was scrapped in the second quarter of that same year.
## Design and construction
The "West" ships were cargo ships of similar size and design built by several shipyards on the West Coast of the United States for the United States Shipping Board for emergency use during World War I. All were given names that began with the word "West", like West Apaum, one of some 24 "West" ships built by Skinner & Eddy of Seattle, Washington.
West Apaum (Skinner & Eddy No. 23, USSB No. 88) was laid down on 19 March 1918, launched on 23 May, and delivered to the Navy upon completion on 19 June. West Apaum was built in a total of 78 working days, 92 calendar days, and was tied with three other ships for tenth place on a list of the ten fastest constructed ocean-going vessels compiled in 1920. Skinner & Eddy received a \$25,000 bonus for completing the ship early.
The ship was 5,537 gross register tons (GRT), and was 409 feet 5 inches (124.79 m) long (between perpendiculars) and 54 feet (16.5 m) abeam. West Apaum had a steel hull and a mean draft of 22 feet 2.25 inches (6.7628 m). She displaced 12,226 t, and had a deadweight tonnage of . The ship had a single triple-expansion steam engine powered by three coal-fired boilers that drove her single screw propeller, and moved the ship at a 10.5-knot (19.4 km/h) pace.
## Military career
USS West Apaum (ID-3221) was commissioned into the Naval Overseas Transportation Service (NOTS) on 20 June 1918.
West Apaum departed Bremerton, Washington, on 27 June for Arica, Chile, to take on a cargo of nitrates for the United States. Sailing from there via the Panama Canal, West Apaum arrived at Savannah, Georgia, on 9 September. From there she sailed for Hampton Roads, Virginia, where she arrived on 10 October. Eight days later, loaded with rolling stock, steel rails, and other general cargo for the United States Army, the cargo ship sailed for France. Delayed at Halifax for repairs to her damaged propeller, West Apaum finally entered the harbor at La Pallice on 22 November, 11 days after the Armistice.
West Apaum unloaded her railroad goods, loaded 2,214 long tons (2,250 t) of Army cargo, and headed for the United States on 13 December. She arrived at Hampton Roads on 3 January 1919. West Apaum made two more voyages to France under Navy control. On her final voyage, she carried airplane materials to France and returned 5,000 long tons (5,100 t) of Army ordnance to New York on 11 July. On 25 July, West Apaum was decommissioned and returned to the USSB.
## Civilian career
Little is known about West Apaum's subsequent civilian career. In the first quarter of 1927, it is known that West Apaum was sailing on a New York – Rotterdam route. While in this service, The New York Times, in one of just a few mentions the ship received in contemporary news coverage, reported on the transfer of one of West Apaum's crew members to the United States Lines ocean liner Republic at sea. The crewman had fallen into an open hatchway and had fractured his skull. The two ships, located some 200 nautical miles (370 km; 230 mi) west of New York, came within 1⁄4 mile (0.40 km) of each other and the injured man was loaded onto a boat from Republic in the heavy seas. The crewman, though successfully transferred to Republic, died several hours later.
By early 1929, West Apaum had been laid up, and was under consideration by the USSB for the installation of pulverized coal-fired boilers for testing purposes, but lost out on the honor to West Alsek. No further information on West Apaum's career is available, but it is known that she was abandoned by the USSB in 1933, and scrapped in the second quarter of that year.
|
[
"## Design and construction",
"## Military career",
"## Civilian career"
] | 1,088 | 5,023 |
39,418,034 |
Russia in the Eurovision Song Contest 1995
| 1,170,728,332 |
Performance of "Kolybelnaya dlya vulkana" in Dublin
|
[
"1995 in Russian television",
"Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest 1995",
"Russia in the Eurovision Song Contest"
] |
Russia participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 1995 in Dublin, Ireland. The Russian broadcaster Russian Public Television (ORT) internally selected Philipp Kirkorov with the song "Kolybelnaya dlya vulkana", written by Ilya Bershadskiy and Ilya Resnik, to represent the nation. Prior to Kirkorov's selection, ORT organised a public selection process to select the Russian entrant. While the event did take place, the jury could not decide on the winner of selection and ultimately opted to choose the artist internally.
Vocal Band were selected to represent Russia, however ORT later withdrew the band as the Russian representatives due to the members being unable to finance their participation. Kirkorov was then selected instead. Russia was drawn to appear sixth in the final, which was held on 13 May. In the final, the nation placed 17th with 17 points, marking the nation's worst placement in the contest to this point.
## Background
Prior to the 1995 contest, Russia had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest one time since its first entry in 1994 with the song "Vechny strannik" performed by Youddiph which placed 9th. The Russian participation in the contest alternates between two broadcasters: Russian Public Television (ORT) and Russian Television and Radio (RTR). The Russian broadcaster for the 1995 contest, who broadcasts the event in Russia and organises the selection process for its entry, was ORT. For the 1995 contest, ORT held a national final to choose the artist and song, which would represent Russia at the contest. The broadcaster later opted to select their 1995 entry internally, since the jury was unable to select a winner.
## Before Eurovision
### Evrovidenie "Pesnya-95"
Evrovidenie "Pesnya-95" was the national final format developed by ORT in order to select Russia's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 1995. The competition was aired on 30 April 1995 on ORT. Eight songs competed and the winner was set to be selected by the votes of an expert jury panel. In the end, the jury came to the conclusion that none of the participants deserves to represent Russia and therefore final ended without a winner.
### Internal selection
After the jury could not decide on the winner, it was decided to conduct an internal selection. Vocal Band were selected to represent Russia, however, ORT later withdrew the band due to the members' inability to finance their participation and instead selected Philipp Kirkorov as the nation's representative. His contest song, "Kolybelnaya dlya vulkana" was written by Ilya Reznik and Ilya Bershadskiy.
## At Eurovision
The Eurovision Song Contest 1995 took place at the Point Theatre in Dublin, Ireland, on 13 May 1995. According to the Eurovision rules, the 23-country participant list for the contest was composed of: the winning country from the previous year's contest and host country Ireland, highest placed 17 countries, other than the previous year's winner, from the previous year's contest, five countries which were relegated from the participation in the 1994 contest and any eligible countries who didn't participate in this contest. As Russia was one of the highest placed 17 countries in the 1994 contest, it was thus permitted to participate. The running order for the contest was decided by a draw held on 9 December 1994; Russia was assigned to perform 6th at the 1995 contest, following Norway and preceding Iceland. Eurovision Song Contest 1995 was televised in Russia on ORT in delay without voting sequence on 15 May 1995 and on Radio 101 with the commentary by Olesya Trifonova.
Kirkorov took part in technical rehearsals on 8 and 10 May 1995, followed by three dress rehearsals held in the afternoon and evening of 12 May and the afternoon of 13 May. The Russian performance featured Kirkorov on stage wearing a white shirt and black trousers, joined by internal selection participants Vocal Band as backing vocalists. After the voting concluded, Russia scored 17 points and placed 17th. At the time this result was Russia's worst placing in its competitive history. The Russian conductor at the contest was Mikhail Finberg. Following the contest, ORT implied that Russia had emerged as winners; Eurovision Song Contest historian John Kennedy O'Connor stated in his book The Eurovision Song Contest: The Official History that Kirkorov's performance was shown last and none of the voting was shown in order to give this impression. Giacomo Natali stated in his book Capire l'Eurovision that Russian broadcaster "[moved] his performance to the end and removed voting and results: that night, the audience from home saw the connection end with ovation of the audience for the Russian singer".
### Voting
The same voting system in use since 1975 was again implemented for the Eurovision Song Contest 1995, with each country providing 1–8, 10 and 12 points to the 10 highest-ranking songs as determined by a jury panel, with countries not allowed to vote for themselves. Russia assembled a 16-member jury panel, consisting of Yury Saulsky, Igor Krutoy, Marina Khlebnikova, Lora Kvint, Andrey Bill, Natalia Shemankova, Ninel Yakovenko, Roman Karasev, Konstantin Smertin, Andrey Boltenko, Vladimir Polupanov, Irina Bogushevskaya, Ekaterina Alekseeva and three unnamed representatives of the public, to determine which countries would receive their points. Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Russia and awarded by Russia in the contest. The nation awarded its 12 points to Norway in the contest.
|
[
"## Background",
"## Before Eurovision",
"### Evrovidenie \"Pesnya-95\"",
"### Internal selection",
"## At Eurovision",
"### Voting"
] | 1,216 | 10,574 |
3,810,976 |
Fairy Queen (locomotive)
| 1,153,989,563 |
1855-built steam locomotive in India
|
[
"5 ft 6 in gauge locomotives",
"Individual locomotives of India",
"Luxury trains in India",
"Passenger locomotives",
"Preserved steam locomotives of India",
"Railway locomotives introduced in 1855",
"Steam locomotives of India",
"Tourism in Delhi",
"Tourism in Haryana",
"Tourism in Rajasthan"
] |
The Fairy Queen, also known as the East Indian Railway No. 22, is a steam locomotive which was built in 1855. It was restored by Loco Works Perambur, Chennai in 1997, and housed at the Rewari Railway Heritage Museum.
The train occasionally runs between New Delhi and Alwar. In 1998 it was listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the world's oldest steam locomotive in regular service. The Fairy Queen runs on the same route as the Palace on Wheels, the tourist train launched in 1982, and was awarded the National Tourism Award in 1999.
The locomotive was built by Kitson, Thompson & Hewitson of England and worked on passenger and freight services for more than 55 years.
Unlike other luxury trains in India, the Fairy Queen has a total of only two coaches and a capacity to carry 50 passengers.
## History
The locomotive was constructed by Kitson, Thompson and Hewitson at Leeds, in England, in 1855, and reached Kolkata, then known as Calcutta, in the same year. On arrival, it was given fleet number "22" by its owner, the East Indian Railway Company; it was named 1895. Initially, the gauge locomotive was used to haul light mail trains in West Bengal, operating between Howrah and Raniganj, and during the Indian Rebellion of 1857 hauled troop trains. Subsequently, the train was consigned to a line construction duty in the state of Bihar, where it served until 1909.
The Fairy Queen spent the next 34 years on a pedestal outside Howrah station. In 1943, the locomotive was moved to the Railway Zonal Training School at Chandausi, in Uttar Pradesh, where it served as a curiosity object for many of the students based there.
### Other contemporary locomotives
A number of similar locomotives were built around the same time as the Fairy Queen. These were supplied by Kitson, Thompson and Hewitson and also by Stothert, Slaughter and Company of Bristol. One of these, Stothert-built Express, had been preserved at Jamalpur Locomotive Workshop, in Bihar, since 1901. As the inscription on Express' pedestal claimed that it was the first locomotive to operate between Howrah and Raniganj, and it was numbered "21" by the East Indian Railway Company, it has been claimed that Express is the older of the two. Express was restored by Loco Works Perambur for running in 2011, making it a contender as the world's oldest operating steam locomotive. Express EIR 21 is currently running in different divisions of Southern Railway on weekends.
## Specifications
The Fairy Queen was built by Kitson, Thompson and Hewitson at Leeds in England in 1855. The coal-fired engine is powered by two outside cylinders measuring 12 by 22 inches (305 mm × 559 mm), and has a power output of 130 horsepower (97 kW), producing a maximum speed of 40 kilometres per hour (25 mph). It carries 3,000 litres (660 imp gal; 790 US gal) of water in an underslung water tank. The locomotive weighs 26 tonnes (25.6 long tons; 28.7 short tons), and the coal tender 2 tonnes (1.97 long tons; 2.20 short tons). Built for the broad gauge, it has a 2-2-2 wheel arrangement, developed by Robert Stephenson and Company in 1833, with a driving wheel measuring 1,829 millimetres (72.0 in) in diameter.
## Restoration
The Indian government bestowed heritage status on the Fairy Queen in 1972, rendering it a national treasure. It was restored and given a special spot in the newly built National Rail Museum at Chanakyapuri, in New Delhi, which offers a comprehensive history of the Indian railway's defunct and operational models, their signalling apparatus, antique furnitures used, historic photographs, relevant literature, etc.
Following the success of the Palace on Wheels, the locomotive was restored to full working order in 1997, in preparation for its first mainline journey in 88 years and its return to commercial service on 18 July. The two-day excursion saw the train plying the 143 kilometres (89 mi) from New Delhi to Alwar in Rajasthan, with passengers spending an overnight stay at the Sariska Tiger Reserve. The locomotive hauled a carriage capable of carrying 60 passengers at a maximum speed of 40 kilometres per hour (25 mph), with a service car holding a generator, compressor and pantry. The operation was repeated between December and February in the following years. It was certified by the Guinness Book of Records in 1998 as the world's oldest steam locomotive in regular operation. The following year, the train received a National Tourism Award for the most innovative and unique tourism project from Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the then Prime Minister of India.
In 2011, it was discovered that rare locomotive parts that were "as good as irreplaceable" had been stolen, and the locomotive was moved to Perambur Loco Workshop at Chennai, in Tamil Nadu, for repair. On arrival, it was found that an estimated 50 to 60 parts had been looted, including "the boiler, condensor, lubricator and flow tubes". The Deputy Chief Mechanical Engineer at the workshops stated "What we received is a dead body, a piece of metal whose every removable part has been removed, leaving only the metal shell. The list of parts to be procured is huge." Officials estimated that it could take at least a year to restore the engine, even if suppliers of replacement parts could be found. Following a substantial rebuild, in which the workshops had to construct the missing parts themselves, the locomotive returned to service on 22 December 2012.
## Recognition
In 1998, the train was certified by the Guinness Book of Records as the world's oldest steam locomotive which was currently in regular operation.
In 1999, it received a National Tourism Award for the most innovative and unique tourism project from the then prime minister of India, Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
## See also
- Luxury rail in India
|
[
"## History",
"### Other contemporary locomotives",
"## Specifications",
"## Restoration",
"## Recognition",
"## See also"
] | 1,304 | 28,005 |
48,860,057 |
German destroyer Z32
| 1,148,432,913 |
Destroyer operated by the german kriegsmarine
|
[
"1941 ships",
"Maritime incidents in June 1944",
"Ships built in Bremen (state)",
"Shipwrecks in the Bay of Biscay",
"Type 1936A-class destroyers",
"World War II shipwrecks in the Atlantic Ocean"
] |
Z32 was a German Type 1936A (Mob) destroyer, which was completed in 1942 and which served with the 8th Destroyer Flotilla of the Kriegsmarine during the Second World War. She fought in the Battle of the Bay of Biscay against HMS Glasgow and HMS Enterprise, alongside the German 8th Destroyer Flotilla and the 4th Torpedo Boat Flotilla. She mainly operated from German-occupied French Atlantic ports, escorting blockade runners and U-boats, and was sunk during the Battle of Ushant on 9 June 1944.
## Construction and design
On 28 June 1939, Nazi Germany placed orders for nine destroyers (Z31–Z39) of the new Type 1938B class. A further three destroyers of the class were ordered in July. The Type 1938B destroyers were relatively small, compared with the preceding Type 1936 and 1936A ships. They were to be armed with four 12.7 centimetres (5.0 in) guns in two twin turrets, and were designed for long range. Following the outbreak of the Second World War, however, orders for the Type 1938B destroyers were cancelled; Germany reverted to the Type 1936A (Mob) class, a slightly modified version of the previous Type 1936A class. On 9 September 1939, four destroyers (Z31–Z34) were re-ordered from the Deschimag consortium, to be built at the AG Weser shipyard in Bremen. A further three ships (Z37–Z39) were ordered from the Germaniawerft yard. Z32 was laid down on 1 November 1940 (with a yard number of 1002), launched on 15 August 1941 and commissioned on 15 September 1942.
Z32 was 127 metres (416 ft 8 in) in overall length and 121.9 m (399 ft 11 in) in waterline length, with a beam of 12 m (39 ft 4 in) and a draught of 3.92–4.62 m (12 ft 10 in – 15 ft 2 in), depending on displacement. Her displacement was 2,645 tonnes (2,603 long tons) standard and 3,655 t (3,597 long tons) full load. The ship's machinery consisted of six Wagner boilers feeding high-pressure superheated steam (at 70 atm (1,029 psi; 7,093 kPa) and 450 °C (842 °F)) to two sets of Wagner-geared steam turbines. Her rated power was 70,000 shaft horsepower (52,000 kW), giving the destroyer a speed of 38.5 knots (71.3 km/h; 44.3 mph). Her range was 2,239 nautical miles (4,147 km; 2,577 mi) at 19 kn (35 km/h; 22 mph). The ship had a complement of 321 officers and ratings.
Z32's main armaments were five 15 cm (5.9in) TbtsK C/36 naval guns, with one twin turret forward and three single mounts aft. Z32 was the first ship of her class to be completely fitted with the armament, as development of the twin turret had been slow. Her anti-aircraft armament consisted of two twin 3.7 cm SK C/30 anti-aircraft guns (later replaced by automatic Flak M42 guns) and nine 2 cm cannon in one quadruple and five single mounts. A second quadruple 2 cm mount was fitted forward of the ship's bridge in 1943, replacing one of the single mounts. Eight 53.3 cm (21 in) torpedo tubes in two quadruple mounts were fitted, and up to sixty mines could be carried.
## Service
After commissioning and work up, Z32 joined the 8th Destroyer Flotilla, which was transferred via the English channel to the French Atlantic coast in Operation Karin from 5–8 March 1943. Despite being fired upon off the coast of Dover by British artillery, the Flotilla reached Bordeaux unscathed on 8 March. On 28 March, Z32 was one of four destroyers that formed the distant escort for the Italian blockade runner Himalaya. They set out from Bordeaux for the Far East, with nine torpedo boats providing a close escort, but the force turned back when it was spotted by British air reconnaissance. On 30 March, Z32, together with the destroyers Z23, Z24 and Z37, set out to meet the incoming blockade runner Pietro Orseolo. Heavy British air attacks were repelled, but Pietro Orseolo was damaged by a torpedo from the American submarine Shad, before reaching safety in the Gironde estuary on 2 April. On 9 April, Z32 provided cover for the Himalaya during her breakout attempt, but they were foiled once again by British air attacks. The Z32's other operations included covering German U-boats departing from and returning to their French bases.
On 24 December 1943, the 8th Destroyer Flotilla, consisting of six destroyers including Z32, and the 4th Torpedo Boat Flotilla, comprising six torpedo boats, set out to meet the blockade runner Osorno, meeting her on 25 December. They managed to escort Osorno to the Gironde despite heavy air attacks, but Orsono struck a submerged wreck and had to be beached to save her cargo. On 26 December, the 8th Destroyer Flotilla (again including Z32) and the 4th Torpedo Boat Flotilla set out again to meet another inbound blockade runner, Alsterufer. Unknown to the Germans, Alsterufer was attacked on 27 December by a B-24 Liberator bomber of No. 311 (Czechoslovak) Squadron RAF, set on fire and abandoned by her crew. At about midday on 28 December, the British cruisers Glasgow and Enterprise, on patrol in the Bay of Biscay to intercept blockade runners, encountered the German destroyers and torpedo boats, resulting in the Battle of the Bay of Biscay. The German forces attempted a pincer manoeuvre, but this was prevented by the heavy seas. The destroyer Z27 and the torpedo boats T25 and T27 were sunk. Z33 fired six torpedoes at the British cruisers, all of which missed.
On 30 January 1944, as Z32 was carrying out exercises with Z23 and Z37 in the south of the Bay of Biscay, she collided with Z37. Z32 sustained damage to her degaussing system and suffered a fire on her forecastle, caused by loose ready-use anti-aircraft ammunition. Meanwhile, one of Z37's torpedoes exploded, starting a fire and causing flooding. Z32 was under repair until 2 May. Z37 considered to be beyond economical repair, and was disarmed. Z32 was damaged again on 5 May after running aground, and underwent repairs for another month.
On 6 June 1944, following the Normandy landings, the 8th Destroyer Flotilla, consisting of the destroyers Z32, Z24, ZH1 and the torpedo boat T24, set off for Brest for operations against the invasion fleet. They were attacked by British aircraft during their journey, with Z32 damaged by British rockets. On 8 and 9 June, the four ships set out from Brest for Cherbourg, but were intercepted by eight Allied destroyers in the Battle of Ushant. ZH1 was sunk by torpedoes from the British destroyer Ashanti, while Z32 was pursued by the Canadian destroyers and . She ran aground and was wrecked on the Île de Batz. The other two German ships escaped back to Cherbourg, while the British destroyer Tartar was damaged.
|
[
"## Construction and design",
"## Service"
] | 1,683 | 20,278 |
4,658,863 |
Robin Starveling
| 1,114,420,927 |
Character in A Midsummer Night's Dream
|
[
"Characters in A Midsummer Night's Dream",
"Fictional Greek people",
"Fictional actors",
"Fictional artisans",
"Literary characters introduced in 1596",
"Male Shakespearean characters"
] |
Robin Starveling is a character in William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream (1596), one of the Rude Mechanicals of Athens who plays the part of Moonshine in their performance of Pyramus and Thisbe. His part is often considered one of the more humorous in the play, as he uses a lantern in a failed attempt to portray Moonshine and is wittily derided by his audience.
## Role in the play
In A Midsummer Night's Dream, Theseus, the Duke of Athens, is preparing to marry Hippolyta. Peter Quince decides to entertain her and hires a group of actors nicknamed the Rude Mechanicals to perform Pyramus and Thisbe, a love story. Robin is one of the Rude Mechanicals, the tailor, who gathers with his colleagues to prepare their production. Robin at first is told to play the part of Thisbe's mother, but Peter Quince points out that a love story needs moonlight shining on the lovers to have any real effect on the audience. After Nick Bottom suggests looking in the almanac for a time when the Moon might shine on their performance, the players apparently decide that they will just have Robin act as Moonshine. Robin's role as Moonshine in The Mechanical's performance of Pyramus and Thisbe before Theseus' court is often highlighted by scholars as among the funnier parts of the play. Although the court makes fun of all the players, Starveling is mocked the most by Hippolyta, who is very vocal in her opinion that his attempt to be moonshine is a ridiculous failure, although very humorous. He is also the only mechanical to be cut off in his monologue as opposed to being mocked afterwards, causing him to fluster and summarise his lines rather than giving them. This summary is usually played angrily or irritably, but has also been performed as the climax of Starveling's potential stage fright. Starveling is the member of the group that seems to be afraid of just about anything. Starveling is the most ambiguous in taking sides in the power struggle between Bottom and Quince. While Snout affirms whatever Quince says and Flute always looks to Bottom for the final word on something (Snug is too slow to be bothered), Starveling seems to try to agree completely with both, as impossible as it is to do so.
## Context
"Starveling" is a word for a thin or poor person lacking food. "Robin" may have connections to two of Queen Elizabeth's suitors, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, and Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex. Elizabeth's pet name for both of these men was "Robin", leading scholars to believe that Robin Starveling may be a satiric creation of Shakespeare's in their honour (or dishonour). Another suitor, Duke François ("Francis") Hercule Alençon, may have similar connections with Francis Flute. It may also be a nod to the fact that tailors of the time were usually poor and skinny. In the 1935 Max Reinhardt film, he was played by the chubby, jovial Otis Harlan.
## Analysis
Shakespeare constantly reflects on the problem of synecdoche in his plays, a rhetorical term meaning "the part representing the whole". For example, in Henry V, Shakespeare has the Prologue beg forgiveness of the audience for attempting to portray an entire army with a few men, and for portraying so great a man as the King with a feeble actor. Shakespeare explores these same problems through Robin Starveling. The Mechanicals' decision to use Robin as moonlight in place of actual moonlight delves into the problem of synecdoche, of trying to represent something greater than yourself. Robin's standing there, attempting to be moonshine, does not make him so, even if he is holding a lantern to represent at least a part of the Moon. Similarly, Shakespeare seems to be arguing that no representation of anything in a play can really be completely real or truthful, no matter how hard its players may try. Rather than begging forgiveness of the viewer, he is exaggerating the problem for their entertainment.
The deriding reactions of the members of the upper class watching Robin and his colleagues' performance would have been familiar to even the more professional actors in Shakespeare's day. Some scholars have seen in Theseus' words about the performance a note of sympathy and pleading the cause of the actor: "For never anything can be amiss / when simpleness and duty tender it ..."
|
[
"## Role in the play",
"## Context",
"## Analysis"
] | 934 | 21,344 |
2,734,616 |
Bergen Street station (IND Culver Line)
| 1,163,408,023 |
New York City Subway station in Brooklyn
|
[
"1933 establishments in New York City",
"Boerum Hill",
"Cobble Hill, Brooklyn",
"IND Culver Line stations",
"New York City Subway stations in Brooklyn",
"Railway stations in the United States opened in 1933"
] |
The Bergen Street station is a station on the IND Culver Line of the New York City Subway, located at the intersection of Bergen Street and Smith Street on the border of Cobble Hill and Boerum Hill in Brooklyn. It is served by the F and G trains at all times.
The Bergen Street station was constructed by the Independent Subway System (IND). It opened on March 20, 1933, as the original terminus of the Culver Line, which was known as the Smith Street Line or the South Brooklyn Line at the time. The station opened in advance of the opening of the remainder of the line to allow for it to compete with existing streetcar lines belonging to the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation (BMT). Once the rest of the line was opened on October 7, 1933, the line was extended, making Bergen Street a station for through trains. Bergen Street was renovated in the 1990s.
Bergen Street was constructed as a bi-level express station, though only the upper level is in use. The lower level is neither in regular service nor usable due to its deteriorated condition. The lower level was used when express service was provided on the Culver Line between 1968 and 1976. Express service was eliminated due to the loss of direct local service along the line to Manhattan. The express platforms were permanently removed from service during the 1990s, and due to a fire in 1999 the relay room was damaged, making the express tracks unusable. The relay room was rebuilt in 2008, and after repairs were done on the line, the implementation of express service became feasible. In 2019, express service returned to the line, though express trains skipped the Bergen Street station due to the high cost of rebuilding the express platforms, thus making Bergen Street a local station.
## History
Bergen Street opened on March 20, 1933, as the first station of the IND Culver Line. Service began one month after the expansion of the IND into Brooklyn to Jay Street–Borough Hall. The station's construction was expedited in order to both connect with and compete with the Bergen Street and Smith Street streetcar lines of the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation (BMT). Construction was slightly stalled due to delays in the delivery of steel flues for the ventilation system.
Upon opening, only the primary entrances of the station at Bergen Street (see ) were in use, with the southern exits completed at a later date. The first express train for Manhattan from Bergen Street left at 6:25 A.M. carrying 30 passengers, and the first rush hour of service for the station brought 121 passengers, of which most came from the Bergen and Smith Street Line Trolleys of the BMT. Only the Bergen Street entrance was ready in time for the station's opening, leaving the Smith Street entrance to open at a later date. and trains from the IND Eighth Avenue Line terminated here, running to 207th Street in Manhattan and 205th Street in the Bronx respectively. A southward extension to Church Avenue opened on October 7 of that same year. In 1937, the IND Crosstown Line was connected to the station, served by the train (today's service).
The lower-level express platforms, while built with the rest of the station, were only operated between 1968 and 1976 when express service was operated along the line. They were permanently removed from service in 1992, and support facilities were added to the platforms. There are no plans to restore express service to the station, even with the introduction of limited rush-hour F express service on the IND Culver Line in 2019.
Around the 1990s, the station was modernized. After water shorted out old wires in the station, on March 11, 1999, a major fire occurred originating in an equipment room on the station's lower level. A 1930s-era relay room, which controlled the interlocking north of the station, was destroyed in the fire. The station was closed for several months, with G service suspended south of Hoyt–Schermerhorn Streets and F trains bypassing the station at a lower-than-normal operating speed. Signals and switches at the station were replaced and modernized after the fire, and again in Fall 2008 when the relay room was rebuilt.
In July 2019, the MTA revealed plans to restore express service on the Culver Line between Jay Street and Church Avenue by mid-September 2019. The Bergen Street's lower level, however, would not be restored and reactivated for express service. This is in spite of the fact that the station is one of the most heavily used on the line. Express service started on September 16, 2019.
## Station layout
Bergen Street is laid out similar to other subway stations located below narrow streets, with two levels. The upper level serves local trains, while the lower level is used by non-stopping express trains. The station is directly beneath the street and has no mezzanine, making it one of only two as-built express stations in the system that do not allow free transfers between directions. Passengers wishing to transfer between southbound and northbound F and G trains cannot do so at this station.
Both platforms on the upper level have a dark green trim line on a lime green border which was installed during the 1990s renovations. New tiles replaced the original small "BERGEN" tiles, and covered existing advertisement panels. The only uncovered original tiles are the mosaic name tablets reading "BERGEN ST." in white sans-serif lettering on a dark green background and green border. The tiles were part of a color-coded tile system used throughout the IND. The tile colors were designed to facilitate navigation for travelers going away from Lower Manhattan. As such, a different tile color is used at Seventh Avenue, the next express station to the south; the original green tiles used at the Bergen Street station were also used at local stations between Bergen Street and Seventh Avenue. Dark green I-beam columns run along the entire length of both platforms at regular intervals with alternating ones having the standard black station name plate with white lettering.
### Exits
Each platform has two same-level fare control areas, one at either end of the station, and there are no crossovers or crossunders. The full-time ones are at the north end and each has a turnstile bank, token booth, and two street stairs. The ones on the Manhattan-bound platform go up to the northeast and southeast corners of Bergen and Smith Streets while those on the Coney Island-bound platform go up to the northwest and southwest corners. The fare control areas on the south end of the platforms are unstaffed, containing full height turnstiles and one street stair to the northeast corner of Warren and Smith Streets on the Manhattan-bound platform and the northwest corner for the Coney Island-bound platform. The south fare control area is more heavily used.
### Tracks and platforms
Bergen Street's lower level, though opened at the same time as the upper level, was not used in revenue service until 1968, when rush hour F express service along the IND Culver Line began. This service ran until 1976, ending due to service cuts and complaints from Culver local residents about losing direct access to Manhattan. The lower level was abandoned afterward; trains rerouted via the express tracks during construction or service disruptions bypass the station towards Jay Street (northbound) or 7th Avenue (southbound). The lower-level platforms have not been used since except for a scene for the movie Jacob's Ladder. The tile was removed during renovations in the 1990s, leaving unpainted concrete and corrugated metal, old lights and signage (including original IND signs reading "BERGN" on support pillars), and modern Exit signs, none of which are in usable condition. The only remaining IND tilework exists in the stairwells between the levels, with directional tile plaques reading "EXPRESS TRAINS" and pointing to the lower level. Steel doors on the upper level block access to the staircases to the lower level, which is used for support facilities, storage of heavy equipment and occasional layups of and trains.
A study on implementing an F express variant on the Culver Line found that reopening Bergen Street's lower level for express trains had potential benefits, including relieving passenger congestion along the heavily used northern section of the line, but that the costs of reopening the lower level outweighed the benefits. When the station was used for express service, passengers would wait on the staircases to see which level the next Manhattan-bound train would arrive at. This currently occurs at the Delancey Street/Essex Street station where passengers wait to see whether a northbound F arrives on the lower level, or whether a northbound M arrives on the upper level, since both services operate local along the Sixth Avenue Line north of that point. Repairs to restore the lower level to operating conditions, as well as required upgrades to make the station ADA-accessible, are estimated to cost over \$75 million. The signals near the station, damaged during the Bergen Street fire in 1999, would also have to be rebuilt to allow trains to stop at the station. Since restoring the lower level is prohibitively expensive, it is bypassed by F express trains, which resumed service in September 2019.
At the north (Manhattan- and Queens-bound) end of the upper level, the Culver Line local tracks diverge, splitting into four tracks. The F train, using the outer pair of tracks, ramps down to the lower level, merges with the innermost, express tracks located on the lower level, and continues north to Jay Street–MetroTech. Meanwhile, the G train, using the inner pair of tracks, stays on the upper level before making a hard right turn east under Schermerhorn Street to Hoyt–Schermerhorn Streets. The lower level tracks can only be reached by trains running to or from Jay Street–MetroTech since they do not connect to the IND Crosstown Line.
Both levels have a switch south of the platforms, allowing terminating trains to reverse direction. The switches were used when the station was the southern terminus of the line.
|
[
"## History",
"## Station layout",
"### Exits",
"### Tracks and platforms"
] | 2,099 | 23,358 |
1,251,848 |
The Unraveling (Rise Against album)
| 1,166,126,325 | null |
[
"2001 debut albums",
"Fat Wreck Chords albums",
"Rise Against albums"
] |
The Unraveling is the debut studio album by American punk rock band Rise Against, released on April 24, 2001 by Fat Wreck Chords. Following the release of the extended play Transistor Revolt in 2000, the band signed with Fat Wreck Chords and began working on the album at Sonic Iguana Studios with producer Mass Giorgini. Musically, The Unraveling is rooted in melodic hardcore, which later came to be the band’s signature style; conversely, its lyrics differ from their more politically-driven later work, focusing more on personal relationships and issues.
Although it failed to peak within any record charts, The Unraveling received positive reviews from music critics. After its release, guitarist Dan Wleklinski left the band due to personal differences with lead vocalist Tim McIlrath, and was eventually replaced with Todd Mohney. In 2005, Fat Wreck Chords reissued The Unraveling to coincide with Rise Against's fifth anniversary.
## Background and recording
Rise Against was formed in 1999 after the dissolution of the Chicago punk rock band 88 Fingers Louie. Bassist Joe Principe and guitarist Dan Wleklinski were still interested in making music, and decided to start a new band. The two recruited drummer Toni Tintari, guitarist Kevin White, and lead vocalist Tim McIlrath, the former lead vocalist of the punk band Baxter. They called themselves Transistor Revolt, and released the extended play Transistor Revolt in 2000. Transistor Revolt garnered the attention of Fat Mike, the co-founder of the independent record label Fat Wreck Chords. He signed the band to a recording contract in 2000, with the stipulation they change their name; the band members ultimately decided on the name Rise Against.
After signing with Fat Wreck Chords, Tintari and White left Rise Against; Tintari was replaced by Brandon Barnes shortly thereafter. With a new drummer, the band members began to work on The Unraveling at Sonic Iguana Studios in Lafayette, Indiana, where Principe and Wleklinski had previously recorded material for 88 Fingers Louie. Recording took place over the course of five weeks, with Mass Giorgini serving as the producer, and Wleklinski serving as the assistant engineer. Wleklinski later remarked on the grueling workdays: "12-hour days for 4 of those weeks, and then 22-24 hours per day during that last week of tracking. These were the times of 'If you don't play it right, you have to play it again,' not 'That was good enough, I'll edit it so it's on time.'" Wleklinski also commented that it was difficult to split his time between recording guitar parts and engineering the songs, and that during the last week he had to sleep on the studio floor.
## Style and composition
The Unraveling is primarily a melodic hardcore record, with influences of punk rock and hardcore punk. Shawn Merrill of Exclaim! compared the album to works by other punk rock bands like Agnostic Front, Bad Religion, Gorilla Biscuits, and Minor Threat. The Unraveling begins with a quote by actor and musician Jack Black asking the listener if they "are ready to rock", which is taken from the 1996 film The Cable Guy. It then transitions into the first track "Alive and Well", a fast-paced song that combines screaming vocals with melodies in the chorus. Davey Boy of Sputnikmusic considers the second track, "My Life Inside Your Heart", to be the most accessible song on the album, while "Great Awakening" has a "frantic pace" with a hardcore sound. The next song "Six Ways 'Til Sunday" is more inspired by punk rock, with a long closing group chant.
Boy notes that tracks five through ten alternate between short hardcore songs like "The Art of Losing" and "Remains of Summer Memories", and more conventional sounding songs like "The Unraveling". The eleventh track, "Everchanging", begins with minimal background music to highlight McIlrath's vocals. After two more hardcore songs, "1000 Good Intentions" begins playing, which James Benwell of Drowned in Sound compared to "Everchanging". Boy adds that the track is reminiscent of the sound of future Rise Against albums, with its punk base combined with more mainstream rock influence. The final two tracks, "Weight of Time" and "Faint Resemblance", close the album in a "nice summation of everything that has come before them", according to Boy. Lyrically, The Unraveling is intended to be thought-provoking, with themes ranging from "friendships and relationships [to] religion and memories".
## Release and reception
### Release
Fat Wreck Chords released The Unraveling on April 24, 2001, in the United States on CD and LP formats; the original 2001 CD pressing is currently out of print. It failed to reach any major music chart, and did not produce a single. Since the album's release, some of its songs have been featured in compilation albums and other media. An acoustic rendition of "Everchanging" was included on the Warped Tour 2006 Tour Compilation and the European track listing of the 2007 extended play This Is Noise. "The Art of Losing" and "My Life Inside Your Heart" were to be used in the unreleased video game Propeller Arena.
To promote The Unraveling, Rise Against toured extensively throughout North America and Europe. While on tour, Wleklinski left the band due to personal differences with McIlrath. Rumor spread that Wleklinski was fired because of his long hair, although McIlrath derided these claims. Phillip Hill stood in as lead guitarist, and Kevin White was eventually hired as a replacement. A few months later, White left the band, and Todd Mohney was recruited as the new lead guitarist.
In 2005, Fat Wreck Chords reissued The Unraveling on CD and digital download format to coincide with the band's fifth anniversary. It was remixed and remastered by Bill Stevenson and Jason Livermore at The Blasting Room in Fort Collins, Colorado, with two bonus songs ("Join the Ranks" and "Gethsemane"), updated photography, and additional album liner information. Mohney plays lead guitar on "Gethsemane", as the track was recorded after Wlekinski's departure.
### Critical reception
The Unraveling received positive reviews upon its initial release. Merrill praised the album's music, and described Rise Against as the "hardcore salvation" he had been waiting for. Boy wrote that he was initially skeptical about listening to the album, but ultimately called it "a surprisingly accomplished work that contains all of the band's trademark strengths". He also highlighted the musicianship between the band members. Benwell noted that while the music was not innovative, it was still a "perfectly formed slab of uplifting punk rock", and recommended the album to any hardcore punk fans. AllMusic's Kurt Morris commented that Rise Against was different than other Fat Wreck Chords bands at the time, as there was no poppy songs or juvenile humor in the lyrics. He felt that the music was "pure and unadulterated", and that The Unraveling would revitalize moshing.
The 2005 reissue was also met with positive reviews. AltSounds highlighted the improved sound quality and called it a "must have for any Rise Against fan". Sputnikmusic also noted the improved sound quality, but criticized the positioning of each song in the track list. The reviewer wrote that certain songs felt out of place when paired next to each other, and wondered why the track listing had not been altered for the reissue.
## Track listing
All lyrics written by Tim McIlrath; all music composed by Tim McIlrath, Joe Principe, Dan Wleklinski, and Brandon Barnes.
## Personnel
Credits adapted from the liner notes of the 2005 reissue of The Unraveling.
Rise Against
- Tim McIlrath – lead vocals
- Dan Wleklinski (credited as Mr. Precision in the cd booklet) – guitar
- Joe Principe – bass guitar, backing vocals
- Brandon Barnes – drums, percussion
Additional musicians
- Russ Rankin – backing vocals on "Weight of Time"
- Todd Mohney – guitar on "Gethsemane" (2005 reissue)
Production
- Mass Giorgini – producer, engineer
- Fergus Daly – additional engineering
- Dan Lumley – additional engineering
- Dan Wleklinski – additional engineering
- Phillip Hill – additional engineering
- Don Yonker – additional engineering
- Jason Livermore – mixing, mastering (2005 reissue)
- Bill Stevenson – mixing, mastering (2005 reissue)
|
[
"## Background and recording",
"## Style and composition",
"## Release and reception",
"### Release",
"### Critical reception",
"## Track listing",
"## Personnel"
] | 1,869 | 12,404 |
68,847,990 |
Salar Ignorado
| 1,170,918,057 |
Salt pan in the Andes of northern Chile
|
[
"Landforms of Atacama Region",
"Salt flats of Chile"
] |
Salar Ignorado is a salar (salt flat) in the Andes of Chile's Atacama Region at 4,250 metres (13,940 ft) elevation. Located just south of Cerro Bayo volcano, it comprises 0.7 square kilometres (0.27 sq mi) of salt flats, sand dunes and numerous pools of open water. The waters of Salar Ignorado, unlike these of other salt flats in the central Andes, are acidic owing to the input of sulfuric acid from hydrothermal water and the weathering of volcanic rocks.
The salt flat is located in a harsh climate with strong winds, large temperature fluctuations, intense insolation and aridity. Gypsum crystals develop in the pools of water and are redeposited by wind to form the dunes. Liquids and microorganisms are occasionally trapped within the crystals. The environment of Salar Ignorado has drawn comparisons to early Earth.
## Geography and geomorphology
The salt pan is in the Chilean Andes, and, not far from the border with Argentina, within the northernmost tip of the Chilean Atacama Region. It is located east of Plato de Sopa volcano and just south of the 5,400 metres (17,700 ft) high Cerro Bayo Complex volcano. Salar Gorbea is just northwest of Salar Ignorado. The area is difficult to access.
Salar Ignorado is triangular with a surface area of 0.7 square kilometres (0.27 sq mi) at 4,250 metres (13,940 ft) elevation, and salt-free benches delimit its shores. The surface of the salt flat is not actually flat and features a hummocky topography with heights of 2 metres (6 ft 7 in). About one third is made up by pools of open water, the rest are sand dunes and salar flats. Pools are less than 2 metres (6 ft 7 in) deep but reach widths of 2–50 metres (6 ft 7 in – 164 ft 1 in). They form either when strong winds blow out part of the salar surface and the shallow groundwater floods the resulting depressions, or from the ongoing dissolution of salts in the salt-undersaturated brines below. Crystals of gypsum grow in the pools, forming sea urchin-like shapes and mounds. Part of the groundwater reaches the surface and evaporates, leaving small gypsum crystals behind that are reworked by winds and form the dunes. They also form snow-like surface deposits around the margins of the pools. There is no evidence of former shorelines around Salar Ignorado. Only one inflow was identified during reconnaissance reported in 2002 and leads to a small lagoon at the northern end of Salar Ignorado. A dry channel runs from Salar Ignorado to Salar Gorbea, through which Salar Ignorado may have spilled into Salar Gorbea in the past. Otherwise, both Salar Ignorado and Salar Gorbea are closed basins.
The catchment of Salar Ignorado has a surface area of about 37.5 square kilometres (14.5 sq mi) and is devoid of vegetation, with a maximum elevation of about 5,100 metres (16,700 ft). It consists of heavily eroded and hydrothermally altered Miocene volcanoes that formed on a Paleozoic basement. The volcanoes feature large deposits of hydrothermally altered rock and native sulfur. The landscape is dominated by hills and mountains, and volcanic sediments with grain sizes ranging from boulders to sand cover the terrain surrounding Salar Ignorado.
## Hydrology and minerals
Water temperatures in the salar pools range from 9–15 °C (48–59 °F). The waters contain sodium and sulfate as their main salt components, with salt concentrations ranging between 4043–97091 mg/L. Salar Ignorado is one of the rare salars with acidic waters in northern Chile and Bolivia, with its neighbour Salar de Gorbea the only other one there. The waters of Salar Ignorado are unsuitable for irrigation or drinking water use.
The most common mineral deposited at Salar Ignorado is gypsum, but bassanite, epsomite, halite, jarosite and thenardite also occur. The gypsum crystals contain fluid inclusions that often have a complex history and contain H
<sub>2</sub>S bubbles. Large gypsum crystals are cemented by smaller crystals. Groundwater precipitates minerals like alunite, hematite, jarosite and kaolinite.
The acidity is unusual for salars in Chile and there is no obvious reason for it in the geology of the area. It appears to originate from hydrothermal and magmatic processes that generate sulfuric acid and consume the rocks' buffering capacity. Sulfur and iron oxidation gives rise to acids that in turn leach mineral components of rocks. Most of the water likewise is of hydrothermal and magmatic origin while direct precipitation plays a minor role. It is possible that Salar Ignorado and Gorbea were normal salars before hydrothermal alteration of the surrounding volcanoes set in. The inflow of Salar Ignorado is the most sulfate-rich of all studied Andean salars. A peak of solute input to Salar Ignorado took place between 120,000 and 11,000 years ago during the Pleistocene, during a humid period. Volcanic uplift occurs in the region at a rate of 2.5 centimetres per year (0.98 in/year); fluctuations in the regional magmatic system may have triggered intrusions of groundwater into the salar but these events have not been dated.
## Climate and ecology
Mean temperatures are about −2 °C (28 °F) but fluctuations of 1–25 °C (34–77 °F) were documented in summer months. Mean precipitation is about 140 millimetres (5.5 in) per year and evaporation reaches 1,000 millimetres (39 in) per year. The region is one of the driest on Earth and has a harsh climate with strong winds, dust devils and high insolation. This climate may have persisted since the Miocene or even Eocene and prevents the formation of glaciers and visible surface flow.
Diatoms, green algae such as Dunaliella and prokaryotes live inside the gypsum crystals, with cells both within the solid crystals and the fluid inclusions. Microbial mats grow on the bottom of shallow pools. The bacterial species variety of Salar Ignorado and the bacterial biomass are small. Ecosystems at Salar Ignorado may resemble these of early Earth.
There is no evidence of crustaceans at Salar Ignorado. Only one mammal was observed in the area during a reconnaissance reported in 2013, and a vicuña skeleton was reported in 2008.
|
[
"## Geography and geomorphology",
"## Hydrology and minerals",
"## Climate and ecology"
] | 1,423 | 21,258 |
39,793,767 |
K-51 (Kansas highway)
| 1,078,608,924 |
State highway in Kansas, United States
|
[
"State highways in Kansas",
"Transportation in Morton County, Kansas",
"Transportation in Seward County, Kansas",
"Transportation in Stevens County, Kansas"
] |
K-51 is an approximately 79-mile-long (127 km) east–west state highway in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of Kansas. K-51 begins at the Colorado state line as a continuation of County Road M and travels eastward through portions of Morton, Stevens, and Seward counties before ending at U.S. Route 83 (US-83) north of Liberal. Along the way, it runs concurrently with US-56 from Rolla to Hugoton. Although K-51 travels through mostly rural farmlands, it does pass through the cities of Richfield, Rolla and Hugoton. The highway is also a two-lane road most of its length with the exception of short sections within Rolla and Hugoton, where it is four lanes.
Before state highways were numbered in Kansas there were auto trails. The eastern terminus (US-83) was part of the Atlantic and Pacific Highway. K-51 was first designated as a state highway in 1926, and at that time started as a continuation of Colorado Highway 51 and went east to K-25 (current K-27). Then by 1927, it ran from K-12 north of Rolla to K-27 in Richfield. Between 1930 and 1931, K-51 was replaced with an extension of K-12. Then on January 1, 1937, K-51 was re-established from the Colorado border east to K-27. Then by 1937, K-51 was extended further east to US-83, its modern day routing. K-51 originally overlapped US-270, then in a May 18, 1981 resolution, the US-270 designation was removed.
## Route description
K-51's western terminus is at the Colorado state line, acting as a continuation of County Road M (CR M). The highway travels due east through flat, rural farmlands for 7.9 miles (12.7 km) then intersects K-27. At this point K-51 turns north and begins to overlap K-27. The highway continues north for 3.5 miles (5.6 km) then crosses an unnamed creek. K-27/K-51 continues north through more farmlands for another two miles (3.2 km) then crosses North Fork Cimarron River. K-27/K-51 continues north for roughly 2.6 miles (4.2 km) then curves east at Road 9 and U Road. The highway continues east through flat farmlands for about six miles (9.7 km) and enters Richfield as South Boulevard. About 0.5 miles (800 m) into the city K-27 turns north onto Main Street, as K-51 continues eastward. K-51 then crosses North Fork Cimarron River again as it exits the city. The highway continues east through rural farmlands for 7.1 miles (11.4 km) then curves south at Road 23 and U Road. It continues south for about 2.5 miles (4.0 km), where it curves southeast and crosses the Cimarron River. The highway then curves back south and after 1.8 miles (2.9 km) intersects P Boulevard. From here it continues south for another 4.3 miles (6.9 km) then enters Rolla.
Inside the city, K-51 has an at-grade crossing with a Cimarron Valley Railroad track then intersects US-56. K-51 turns east onto US-56 and then the highway exits the city. US-56/K-51 continues for about four miles (6.4 km), parallel to the railroad, then crosses into Stevens County. The highway continues into the county for 4.1 miles (6.6 km) through farmlands then intersects K-25, which travels south into Oklahoma. From here, US-56/K-25/K-51 continues northeast for 4.6 miles (7.4 km) then curves east. The highway then passes a group of houses then enters Hugoton as 11th Street and transitions from two lanes to four lanes. The highway continues through the city for 0.5 miles (800 m) then US-56/K-25 turns north onto Main Street. K-51 continues east and exits the city after about 0.5 miles (800 m), becoming a two-lane road again. The highway continues through rural farmlands for 6.9 miles (11.1 km) then intersects Road 20, which travels north to Moscow. From here, K-51 continues for about six miles (9.7 km) and passes through Woods. The highway continues another two miles (3.2 km) then enters into Seward County. About one mile (1.6 km) into the county, K-51 intersects Marteney Road and Ww Road. From here, the highway continues for seven miles (11 km) through more flat rural farmlands then reaches its eastern terminus at US-83 north of Liberal.
The Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) tracks the traffic levels on its highways, and in 2018, they determined that on average the traffic varied from 110 vehicles per day near the western terminus to 2,320 vehicles per day just west of the city of Hugoton. K-51 is not included in the National Highway System, a system of highways important to the nation's defense, economy, and mobility. K-51 does connect to the National Highway System at its junction with US-83.
## History
### Early roads
Before state highways were numbered in Kansas there were auto trails, which were an informal network of marked routes that existed in the United States and Canada in the early part of the 20th century. The eastern terminus of K-51 (US-83) was part of the Atlantic and Pacific Highway. It connected Los Angeles on the Pacific Ocean with New York City on the Atlantic Ocean.
### Establishment and realignments
K-51 was first designated as a state highway in 1926, and at that time started as a continuation of Colorado Highway 51 and went east to K-25 (current K-27). Then by 1927, K-25 was renumbered as K-27 and K-51 was extended along K-27 to Richfield then south to K-12 north of Rolla. Between 1930 and 1931, K-51 was replaced with an extension of K-12. In a January 1, 1937 resolution, it was approved to re-established K-51 from the Colorado border east to K-27. Then by February 1937, K-51 was extended east and replaced the former K-12, from K-27 in Richfield to US-83 by Liberal. K-12 signs were replaced with K-51 signs by April 1937. In a January 4, 1939 resolution, K-51 was to be realigned where it crosses the Cimarron River to eliminate two sharp curves. Between February 1937 and January 1938, US-270 was extended into Kansas, and overlapped K-51 from the eastern end of the overlap with K-25 to US-83. In a decision on November 14, 1980, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials approved a request by KDOT to truncate US-270 to its current terminus in Liberal. Then in a decision on May 18, 1981, US-270 was truncated to its current terminus in Liberal and the designation was removed from K-51.
The section of K-51 from Rolla northeast to Hugoton, originally overlapped K-45. In the early 1950s, towns along the K-45 corridor, connecting Ellsworth, Kansas to the Oklahoma state line at Elkhart, formed the Mid-Continent Diagonal Highway Association to push for a new highway from Springer, New Mexico, (on US-85) northeast across the Oklahoma Panhandle, along K-45, and continuing to Manitowoc, Wisconsin, on Lake Michigan. By mid-1954, it was being promoted as US-55 between the Great Lakes and the Southwestern United States. The first submissions to the American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO) to establish the route were made in 1954. The first route considered in northeast Kansas was via US-40 from Ellsworth to Topeka and K-4 and US-59 via Atchison to St. Joseph, Missouri. A revised route adopted in March 1955, due to AASHO objections to the original route, which traveled concurrently with other U.S. Highways for over half of its length, followed K-14, K-18, US-24, K-63, K-16, and US-59 via Lincoln and Manhattan. In July, the US-50N Association proposed a plan that would have eliminated US-50N by routing US-55 along most of its length, from Larned east to Baldwin Junction, and then along US 59 to Lawrence and K-10 to Kansas City; towns on US-50N west of Larned, which would have been bypassed, led a successful fight against this. However, in September of that year, the Kansas Highway Commission accepted that plan, taking US-55 east to Kansas City. On June 27, 1956, the AASHO Route Numbering Committee considered this refined plan for US-55, between Springer, New Mexico and Kansas City, Missouri, with a short US-155 along the remaining portion of US-50N from Larned west to Garden City. The committee approved the request, but since the proposed route was more east–west than north–south, it changed it to an even number (US-56) and the spur to US-156. At this time, K-45 became known as US-56.
## Major intersections
|
[
"## Route description",
"## History",
"### Early roads",
"### Establishment and realignments",
"## Major intersections"
] | 2,081 | 34,124 |
24,795,582 |
Halfway Gone
| 1,156,064,120 | null |
[
"2009 singles",
"Lifehouse (band) songs",
"Songs written by Jacob Kasher",
"Songs written by Jason Wade",
"Songs written by Jude Cole",
"Songs written by Kevin Rudolf"
] |
"Halfway Gone" is a song by American band Lifehouse. It is the first single released from their fifth studio album, Smoke & Mirrors (2010). It was first released via digital download in the United States and Canada on October 26, 2009. It was then solicited to mainstream radio on January 12, 2010. Several remixes of the song were later released on iTunes on April 6, 2010 in an album called Halfway Gone Remixes. The song was a commercial success, charting in Canada, the United States, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, and New Zealand. The accompanying music video portrays Lifehouse lead singer Jason Wade singing most of the lyrics in a park, and also features band cohorts and various people lip-syncing the lyrics as the song plays.
## Background and release
The song was written by Lifehouse's lead singer, Jason Wade, and American singer-songwriter Kevin Rudolf. In an interview with Billboard, Rudolf said, "I chose [to work on] 'Halfway Gone' because Jason Wade is such a great writer, great singer, and great artist." The song was produced by Lifehouse and record producer, Jude Cole, at MixStar Studios in Virginia Beach, VA. "Halfway Gone" was released via digital download in the United States and Canada on October 26, 2009. A few months later, it was solicited to mainstream radio on January 12, 2010.
## Composition and critical reception
"Halfway Gone" was described as a "fun rock-pop [song] that would brighten most people's day" by Alex Lai of Contactmusic.com. Nathaniel Schexnayder of Jesus Freak Hideout called the song an "effective rock song", noting that the song is "an easy album highlight as well as a hit single". Billboard'''s Michael Menachem gave a positive review of the song saying that "the song opens up with blurred 'wooh-ooh-oohs' that establish an uptempo pace, and its lively, danceable rhythm works well with frontman Jason Wade's vocals, which waver between intimate and explosive." He also said that working with Kevin Rudolf and Jacob Kasher resulted in "a fresh sound for Lifehouse as the band aims to extend its run on the hot AC and Billboard Hot 100 charts." Ultimate Guitar described the song as "laid-back in its approach", but commended its "hooks and infectious backing 'whoas' in the chorus."
## Chart performance
"Halfway Gone" debuted at number 99 on the Billboard Hot 100. It moved up and down the chart for several months and eventually peaked at number 50. It debuted on the Canadian Hot 100 at number 78. It stayed on the chart for 13 weeks, until peaking at number 67 on the chart. The song debuted and peaked on the Billboard Pop Songs chart at number 25. On the Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs chart, the song debuted at 43. It has since peaked at number 16, after being on the chart for 11 consecutive weeks. It debuted on Billboard's Radio Songs chart at number 67, and eventually peaked at number 47. On the Adult Contemporary chart, the song peaked at number 12 after being on the chart for 17 non-consecutive weeks. The song also charted on the Billboard Digital Songs chart and peaked at number 56.
The song also achieved international success. It debuted on Belgium's Ultratip chart at number 27 for the week of March 20, 2010 and stayed on the chart for seven consecutive weeks before peaking at number two on the chart. The song debuted on the Media Control Charts in Germany at number 35, which became its peak position on the chart. In Australia, the song debuted at number 47 on the ARIA Charts. It has since peaked at number 30, after being on the chart for eight weeks. The song debuted at number 63 in Austria, and later peaked at number 40 on the Ö3 Austria Top 40. It also charted in New Zealand, and debuted at number 34 on the New Zealand Singles Chart, which became its peak.
## Live performances
Lifehouse debuted their first live performance of "Halfway Gone" on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien on January 19, 2010. They also performed the song on Live with Regis and Kelly on March 2, 2010, and two days later on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on March 4, 2010.
## Music video
The music video, directed by Frank Borin, was first released on Lifehouse's official website on November 24, 2009. Later that day, it was also released on iTunes. It features all Lifehouse members singing lead vocals, and also features miscellaneous people, including actresses Lola Blanc and Aurelia Scheppers, singing lead vocals throughout the music video.
In the music video, it begins with an out-of-focus view of Wade, seemingly alone, coming up a hill towards the camera. When he stops and starts singing, the camera comes into focus and the other band members come out from behind him and start lip-synching his vocals. A group of people (In which one of them is YouTube star, Wendy McColm) pull up in cars and they also lip-synch the song, in addition to performing other activities throughout the video. The video's effects allow people to seemingly appear out of nowhere throughout the video.
The video was shot in the Anthony C. Beilenson Park (formerly Balboa Park) in the Lake Balboa district of Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley.
## Remixes
Three remixes of "Halfway Gone" were released on April 6, 2010 into an extended play on iTunes, entitled Halfway Gone Remixes. The names of the remixes are the "Morgan Page Remix", the "Jody Den Broeder Club Remix", and the "Fred Falke Remix". The remixes were mixed by the progressive house producers Morgan Page and Jody Den Broeder, and house music producer Fred Falke.
Hayley Beck of CWG Magazine'' gave a positive review of the EP, saying "Honestly I could hear these songs being played in a nightclub, and I definitely never would've imagined myself dancing around to a Lifehouse track!" She continues to describe the album, and describes the vocals as "coarse vocals laid over a dancingly, mellow beat."
## Credits and personnel
- Songwriting - Jason Wade, Kevin Rudolf, Jacob Kasher, Jude Cole
- Production - Jude Cole, Lifehouse
- Mixing - Serban Ghenea
- Engineering - John Hanes
Source: Smoke & Mirrors (Deluxe Version) - iTunes LP
## Charts
### Weekly charts
### Year-end charts
|
[
"## Background and release",
"## Composition and critical reception",
"## Chart performance",
"## Live performances",
"## Music video",
"## Remixes",
"## Credits and personnel",
"## Charts",
"### Weekly charts",
"### Year-end charts"
] | 1,416 | 29,119 |
1,822,258 |
Maximum Homerdrive
| 1,154,821,595 | null |
[
"1999 American television episodes",
"Television shows written by John Swartzwelder",
"The Simpsons (season 10) episodes"
] |
"Maximum Homerdrive" is the seventeenth episode of the tenth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It first aired on Fox in the United States on March 28, 1999. In the episode, Homer challenges trucker Red Barclay to a meat eating contest, of which Barclay is the long-standing champion. Barclay wins but quickly dies of "beef poisoning", marking the first time he will miss a delivery at his job. Feeling bad for him, Homer (alongside his son Bart) take on the duty of transporting Barclay's cargo from Springfield to Atlanta.
"Maximum Homerdrive" was written by John Swartzwelder and directed by Swinton O. Scott III. Although the episode's first draft was written by Swartzwelder, the writing staff was split into two groups in order to focus on both the A-story and the B-story. The episode features references to comedian Tony Randall, model Bettie Page, and science fiction film 2001: A Space Odyssey, among other things. In its original broadcast, the episode received a 7.8 Nielsen rating among adults between ages 18 and 49, the highest such rating for the series since "Wild Barts Can't Be Broken". The ratings boost was credited by Variety to the first episode of Futurama, which premiered after "Maximum Homerdrive". In the years since, it has received mixed reviews from critics.
## Plot
The Simpsons go out to dinner at a new steakhouse, whose existence Lisa is protesting. Homer accepts a challenge from truck driver Red Barclay to see who can finish an entire 16-pound steak first. Red wins the challenge, but immediately dies from beef poisoning, as diagnosed by Dr. Hibbert. Homer decides to finish Red's last delivery and brings Bart along with him.
During the trip, Homer falls asleep at the wheel due to taking a combination of pep pills and sleeping pills that he bought at a general store. He awakes to discover that the truck has piloted itself safely to a gas station due to an onboard automated driving system. Other truck drivers at the station have the system installed as well and warn Homer not to reveal its existence, as it would put all truckers out of work. However, Homer tells a busload of people about the device and incurs the wrath of a mob of truckers. Although the system ejects itself from Homer's truck, he and Bart manage to escape from the mob and deliver the shipment (artichokes and migrant workers) to Atlanta on time. They then volunteer to drive a trainload of napalm to Springfield so they can get home. The other truckers briefly consider relying on their own skills to drive, but instead decide to come up with a different money-making scheme.
Meanwhile, back in Springfield, Marge decides to have an adventure of her own and takes Lisa on a trip to buy a new doorbell for the house. They choose one that plays a snippet of "(They Long to Be) Close to You" and install it, but Marge is dismayed when no one comes to ring it. Lisa loses her patience and rings the bell herself, causing it to malfunction and play the tune over and over. When Marge pulls out one of the wires in an attempt to shut it off, it instead plays faster and louder and disturbs the neighbors. The doorbell store's mascot, Señor Ding-Dong, appears and silences the bell with one crack of his whip; when he tries to leave, though, his car will not start.
## Production
"Maximum Homerdrive", originally called "Homer the Trucker", was written by staff writer John Swartzwelder and directed by Simpsons director Swinton O. Scott III. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on March 28, 1999. The meat-eating contest seen in the beginning of the episode was conceived by Simpsons writer Donick Cary during a story pitch-out, according to writer and executive producer Matt Selman. When rewriting the episode, the writing staff was divided into two groups, so that one group wrote the A-story, while the other wrote the B-story. After the second act, the writers were "stuck", as executive producer and former showrunner Mike Scully recalled in the DVD commentary for the episode. Eventually, staff writer and co-executive producer George Meyer pitched the idea that the truckers would have "a secret device, that actually did all the driving for them", called the Navitron Autodrive System.
In order to animate Barclay's truck in "Maximum Homerdrive," Scott bought a model truck, which he also based the design of Barclay's truck on. According to storyboard consultant Mike B. Anderson, the trucks in the episode were very difficult to animate, as the Simpsons animators were still working with traditional cel animation at the time and did not have access to computer tools. In a scene in The Slaughterhouse, an employee is shown killing a number of cows with a captive bolt pistol, however the death of the cows are not shown. Originally, the writers wanted to show the cows being killed, however when Scott saw the scene in the storyboards, the Simpsons staff instead decided to make the deaths "indirect". During the meat eating contest, Homer becomes exhausted and sees two wine glass holding cows, who appear as "wavy" figures. In order to achieve the "wavy" effect, the Simpsons animators put a ripple glass on the cels and moved it around while shooting the scene. After the contest, Barclay dies of "beef poisoning". The Fox censors were uneasy with including any mention of "beef poisoning" in the episode, as talk show host Oprah Winfrey had recently been sued by "some Texas ranchers" for defaming the beef industry. In a scene in the episode, Homer buys a jar of "Stimu-Crank" pills in order to stay alert while driving during the night. He swallows all the pills at once, to the clerk's dismay. Homer replies, "No problem, I'll balance it out with a bottle of sleeping pills", and proceeds to swallow an entire jar's worth of sleeping pills. According to Scully, the censors had "a lot of trouble" with the scene, but it was included anyhow.
When Homer turns on the truck radio, the song "Wannabe" by the Spice Girls can be heard. Originally, a "trucker song" about "a horrible wreck out on old 95" would be heard. The song was a reference to the "Wreck of the Old 97", a famous locomotive that crashed in 1903 and inspired the country ballad of the same name. It was sung by main cast member Dan Castellaneta, included mentions of "scraping blood and guts off the road" and was eventually dropped because it was considered too gruesome by the staff. The song was later included as a deleted scene on The Simpsons - The Complete Tenth Season DVD box set. While eating dinner at Joe's Diner, "12 Bar Blues" by NRBQ (a band that Mike Scully was fond of) can be heard playing from a jukebox. According to producer Ian Maxtone-Graham, the doorbell tune in the episode "has a history with The Simpsons", as it is also Homer and Marge's wedding song. "Maximum Homerdrive" features the first appearance of Señor Ding-Dong, who is a recurring character in the series. He is portrayed by Castellaneta. Red Barclay, the trucker who dies of "beef poisoning" in The Slaughterhouse, was portrayed by regular cast member Hank Azaria. Barclay's voice is slightly based on that of American actor Gary Busey. The two Jehovah's witnesses were portrayed by Pamela Hayden and Karl Wiedergott.
## Themes and cultural references
In Voyages of Discovery: A Manly Adventure in the Lands Down Under, a book about adventuring and masculinity, Ken Ewell described "Maximum Homerdrive" as a "fine example" of "the poor man's lack of travel acumen". He wrote "Homer's usual ineptitude at first spells disaster for the duo, at least until they find out about the truck's auto-drive system. And though he promises to keep the device a secret, Homer can't keep his mouth shut, and so shamefully exposes to the world his un-manful behavior concerning the mates. So given that Homer once again learns absolutely nothing from his traveling experience, he can only take to heart the thoughts of the British writer Stephen Fry. 'At my age travel broadens the behind.'"
The decal on Homer's truck reads "Red Rascal" with an image of a wolf and a redheaded pin-up girl on the side, a possible reference to the 1943 Tex Avery cartoon "Red Hot Riding Hood". In the steak restaurant, a photo of actor and comedian Tony Randall can be seen next to Barclay's photo. Homer's postcard, which reads "Wish you were her", shows a picture of American model Bettie Page. In the scene where Homer drives Barclay's truck into the convoy, Navitron Autodrive System says "I'm afraid I can't let you do this, Red. The risk is unacceptable." The line, as well as the Navitron Autodrive System's voice, is a reference to HAL 9000, the antagonist in the 1968 science fiction film 2001: A Space Odyssey. The episode also references media mogul Ted Turner, with a sign that reads "Atlanta: the home of Ted Turner's mood swings". The title of the episode references the 1986 horror film Maximum Overdrive, which was one of Simpsons cast member Yeardley Smith's first credited screen roles. The 16 pound steak challenge is an homage to The Big Texan Steak Ranch's 72 oz. steak challenge in which contestants are given one hour to eat a 72 oz. steak and the entire meal; if failed, the consumer has to pay \$72.
## Release and reception
In its original American broadcast on March 28, 1999, "Maximum Homerdrive" received a 9.4 rating/15 percent share, according to Nielsen Media Research, meaning it was seen by 9.4 percent of the population and 15 percent of the people watching television at the time of its broadcast. Among adults between ages 18 and 49, the episode received a 7.8 rating/20 percent share, the strongest rating The Simpsons had in the demographic since "Wild Barts Can't Be Broken", which aired on January 17 the same year. Tom Bierbaum of Variety credited the boost in ratings to the premiere of Futurama, which aired after "Maximum Homerdrive", writing that "Sunday's Futurama preview energized Fox's entire lineup" that night. On August 7, 2007, "Maximum Homerdrive" was released as part of The Simpsons - The Complete Tenth Season DVD box set. Matt Groening, Mike Scully, George Meyer, Ian Maxtone-Graham, Ron Hauge, Matt Selman, Swinton O. Scott III and Mike B. Anderson participated in the DVD's audio commentary of the episode.
Following its home video release, "Maximum Homerdrive" received mixed reviews from critics. James Plath of DVD Town described it as "funny," and Brian Tallerico of UGO Networks considered it to be one of the season's best episodes, describing it as having "some awesome road comedy." Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood of I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide gave the episode a positive review as well, writing "The life of the trucker, as made popular in C. W. McCall's 1976 hit single "Convoy", is brought to life here in all its glory. For once, Homer is in the right and you cannot help but cheer as the truckers spectacularly fail to stop him getting to Atlanta." They concluded by writing "A nice, bonding story for Homer and Bart which is diametrically opposed to the one featuring Marge and Lisa." On the other hand, giving the episode a more mixed review, Colin Jacobson of DVD Movie Guide wrote "If nothing else, 'Homerdrive' takes unanticipated paths. The eating contest leads to a long truck drives leads to that 'shocking secret'. All of this means the show manages to become pretty unpredictable." However, he maintained that the episode is only "sporadically" funny, and that it "doesn’t ever excel in that department – at least not in terms of the trucker story." He enjoyed the episode's B-story more, because of its "absurdity", however he criticized the inclusion of Gil in the episode, calling the character "increasingly overused". Jake McNeill of Digital Entertainment News gave the episode a mixed review as well, writing that it "may have been a fairly decent episode but for the fact that something similar was done (and done better) on King of the Hill."
|
[
"## Plot",
"## Production",
"## Themes and cultural references",
"## Release and reception"
] | 2,689 | 33,785 |
16,723,046 |
Washington State Route 902
| 1,138,729,028 |
Highway in Washington
|
[
"State highways in Washington (state)",
"Transportation in Spokane County, Washington"
] |
State Route 902 (SR 902), also named the Gold Star Memorial Highway, is a state highway located entirely in Spokane County, Washington, United States. It forms a 12-mile (19 km) loop that connects Medical Lake and Eastern State Hospital to Interstate 90 (I-90) at both ends. The highway has existed since at least 1931, and before the 1964 state highway renumbering, it was numbered Secondary State Highway 11D.
## Route description
SR 902 forms a 12-mile (19 km) loop between two interchanges on I-90, a major freeway between Seattle and Spokane that is concurrent with U.S. Route 395 (US 395) through part of Eastern Washington. Its western terminus is at I-90 exit 264, an interchange south of Clear Lake; the roadway continues east beyond the freeway to Cheney as Salnave Road. The highway travels around wetlands at the end of the lake and turns north to traverse part of a prairie. SR 902 passes Lakeland Village, an educational facility for developmentally disabled people, and enters the city of Medical Lake.
The highway passes Eastern State Hospital, a state psychiatric facility, and continues northeast to follow the shore of Medical Lake. SR 902 turns north onto Lefevre Street, which travels through the city to a junction with Brooks Road near Medical Lake High School. The highway turns east onto Brooks Road, which continues west to the Washington State Veterans Cemetery, and follows a section of the Washington Eastern Railroad out of the city. SR 902 passes the north end of Silver Lake and traverses a prairie on the south side of Fairchild Air Force Base. The highway turns due east near a roundabout with Craig Road and approaches Spokane International Airport. At a roundabout with Geiger Boulevard, SR 902 turns southeast and terminates at an interchange with I-90 and US 395 near several truck stops and distribution centers. The dogbone interchange comprises two roundabouts and a four-lane overpass split between two structures.
SR 902 is maintained by the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT), which conducts an annual survey on state highways to measure traffic volume in terms of average annual daily traffic. Average traffic volumes on the highway in 2016 ranged from a minimum of 1,500 vehicles at its western terminus near Clear Lake to a maximum of 11,000 at its eastern terminus. It is officially designated as the Gold Star Memorial Highway, named for the gold star service banner displayed by families of deceased soldiers.
## History
The first roadway linking now I-90/US 395 and Medical Lake first appeared on maps in 1931. By the 1933 map, the remainder of the highway was present, linking back to I-90/US 395. Prior to the 1964 state highway renumbering, SR 902 was numbered Secondary State Highway 11D, a branch of Primary State Highway 11, the predecessor to US 395 through the region.
An interchange with I-90 east of Medical Lake was completed and opened to traffic in 1965 as part of the freeway's construction between Four Lakes and Spokane. In 1989, the state government completed reconstruction of the eastern 8 miles (13 km) of SR 902, which included wider shoulders and new guardrails. The highway was extended south from Lakeland Village to the Salnave Road interchange in 1991.
WSDOT installed centerline rumble strips to the rural sections of SR 902 in 2009 as part of safety improvements to several highways in Spokane County. The first roundabout on the highway, at Craig Road, was added during a repaving project in 2018 following several collisions at the old intersection. Three more roundabouts were constructed as part of a project to rebuild the eastern interchange with I-90 to address increased congestion from new homes and businesses in the area. A second overpass with a shared-use path opened alongside the roundabouts in 2021 at a cost of \$20 million.
SR 902 was designated as the Gold Star Memorial Highway by a unanimous vote of the Washington State Transportation Commission in September 2020. The highway was chosen due to its role as the primary access to the Washington State Veterans Cemetery; a set of signs were dedicated in March 2021.
## Major intersections
|
[
"## Route description",
"## History",
"## Major intersections"
] | 890 | 14,440 |
3,094,251 |
Evansville tornado outbreak of November 2005
| 1,172,826,258 | null |
[
"2005 in Indiana",
"2005 natural disasters in the United States",
"Evansville, Indiana",
"F3 tornadoes",
"Newburgh, Indiana",
"November 2005 events in the United States",
"Tornadoes in Indiana",
"Tornadoes in Kentucky",
"Tornadoes of 2005"
] |
A destructive outbreak of nine tornadoes struck the Mississippi Valley and the Midwest during the overnight hours of November 5–6, 2005. The worst event was an F3 tornado that formed early in the morning of November 6, 2005, outside of Evansville, Indiana, United States. It was the first of several tornado events that November. The tornado resulted in 24 confirmed fatalities across the region, making it the deadliest and most destructive November tornado in Indiana's history.
## Meteorological analysis
The system formed on a warm front that tracked across the Midwest and stretched from the northern Great Lakes to Tennessee. The front was enhanced by a strong jet stream and warm, humid air ahead of it, allowing thunderstorms to develop. A severe thunderstorm watch was issued for the region just west of Evansville as the main threat appeared to be straight-line winds. The system had formed into a squall line but at about 1:30 am CST (0730 UTC), the squall line broke up in the Ohio Valley area, as the low level jet intensified, allowing embedded tornadoes to form rapidly out of newly formed supercells. They were fairly isolated (only nine were confirmed across the entire region over a 24-hour period) but three significant tornadoes formed from two simultaneous supercells in southern Indiana and western Kentucky — one of them was the deadly Evansville tornado.
## Confirmed tornadoes
### November 5 event
### November 6 event
### Smith Mills, Kentucky/Evansville–Paradise–Gentryville, Indiana
On Sunday, November 6, 2005, at around 1:50 am CST (0750 UTC), an F3 tornado touched down 2 miles (3.2 km) north-northwest of Smith Mills in Henderson County, Kentucky. The tornado moved northeast, snapping numerous trees, destroying a farmhouse, and throwing a pickup truck into a field. The tornado then crossed the Ohio River and moved across a rural peninsula of Vanderburgh County, Indiana. Few structures were impacted in this rural area, though a two-story house built in 1875 sustained major roof damage, and tree branches were embedded into the walls of the house. One farm equipment shed was demolished, and another sustained major damage. A 10,000-pound truck was flipped over, and heavy farm equipment was moved several feet. Aerial surveys revealed distinct spiral-shaped scour marks in farm fields in this area. The tornado crossed the river again back into Kentucky, causing extensive tree damage on both sides of the river.
The tornado crossed the Ohio River a third time into a small portion of Kentucky situated on the north bank of the river. Almost immediately after crossing the river, the tornado tore through the Ellis Park horse racing facility. There was extensive damage to grandstands and housing facilities for jockeys. A few race horses were killed there. The tornado then re-entered Indiana and moved across the southern fringes of Evansville. Here, the tornado ripped directly through the Eastbrook Mobile Home Park, obliterating numerous mobile homes and killing 20 people. Of about 350 mobile homes in the park, 100 were destroyed and another 125 were damaged. The coroner reported that most of the victims were probably killed instantly, many by spine and skull fractures. Several bodies were carried almost two hundred yards. The tornado then crossed into Warrick County, Indiana at the Angel Mounds State Historic Site. Several permanent homes were destroyed in this area, along with many others on the north side of Newburgh. Past Newburgh, the tornado reached its peak intensity (high-end F3) as it tore through an industrial park near Paradise. Further northeast, the tornado passed just south of Boonville and caused a fatality in a mobile home. The tornado then tore directly through the small community of DeGonia Springs, tossing vehicles and destroying homes. Some of the homes in the community were leveled, and three people were killed in a mobile home in this area, including a woman who was 8 months pregnant. The tornado began to rapidly weaken as it passed just south of Tennyson, and then dissipated as it crossed into Spencer County, Indiana. Overall, the tornado damaged or destroyed 500 buildings, killed 24 people, and injured 238 others.
Tornado warnings were in effect at the time and issued on average about 30 minutes before the tornado hit, but few people were alerted as many were asleep as the tornado hit in the overnight hours. The local NOAA Weather Radio transmitter was experiencing technical difficulties at the time, causing some weather radios to not sound an alarm.
## Aftermath
The community's response to the tornado garnered national praise. Brad Gair, a coordinating officer for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) noted:
> "I don't think I've ever seen a community of people come out so quickly to help each other. All communities come together after a disaster, but this one is exceptional... Just having a telethon that quickly was amazing," said Gair, "Then to raise that kind of money ... That's unusual."
On August 12, 2006, a granite monument memorial was built at Eastbrook Mobile Home Park, along with a new playground dedicated to the children lost in the tornado. It was part of a campaign launched by two parents that lost children in the tornado. In addition, Rep. Phil Hoy introduced a bill called "CJ's law" which mandates that manufacturers of mobile homes install an operating weather radio with a separate power outlet in order to alert residents. It was named after victim C.J. Martin, who was two years old. Vanderburgh County also passed legislation toughening safety standards for their 3,100 mobile homes, requiring them to be more securely anchored with additional straps and braces, to try to prevent another tornado disaster.
Ellis Park was rebuilt and reopened on June 1, 2006, for training. The first races at the rebuilt facility were held on July 19, 2006.
Local television station WEHT began a campaign after the tornado to provide weather radios to tornado victims for free, and to all for a discounted price. Even WEHT's competitors have now posted how to program a weather radio on their websites. This program has since spread to many different areas of the country.
"Habitat for Humanity" Evansville Chapter launched construction of "Operation Home Again," the New Haven Subdivision, which are new homes dedicated to the survivors of the tornado at Green River Road and Fickas Road. The subdivision has 55 homes and playground/park. There are four streets in the subdivision – Inspiration Street, Healing Street, Promise Street, and Belief Street.
## See also
- List of North American tornadoes and tornado outbreaks
|
[
"## Meteorological analysis",
"## Confirmed tornadoes",
"### November 5 event",
"### November 6 event",
"### Smith Mills, Kentucky/Evansville–Paradise–Gentryville, Indiana",
"## Aftermath",
"## See also"
] | 1,372 | 12,082 |
55,849,651 |
George FitzGeorge Hamilton
| 1,170,849,112 |
British Army officer (1898–1918)
|
[
"1898 births",
"1918 deaths",
"British Army personnel of World War I",
"British military personnel killed in World War I",
"Burials in Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries in France",
"Burials in Hauts-de-France",
"Deaths by airstrike during World War I",
"FitzGeorge family",
"Graduates of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst",
"Grenadier Guards officers",
"Heirs apparent who never acceded",
"House of Hamilton",
"Military personnel from London",
"People educated at Hawtreys",
"People educated at Winchester College",
"People from Midhurst",
"People from Selsey"
] |
George Edward Archibald Augustus FitzGeorge Hamilton (30 December 1898 – 18 May 1918) was a British Army officer during the First World War and a distant relative of the British royal family. He was the only son of Sir Archibald Hamilton, 5th Baronet and Olga FitzGeorge, and was the heir to the Hamilton baronetcies of Trebinshun House and Marlborough House.
FitzGeorge Hamilton's godparents were his great-grandfather, Prince George, Duke of Cambridge, and the Duke and Duchess of York (later titled as George V and Queen Mary). His parents divorced in 1902, and during his adolescence he attended Hawtreys, Winchester College, and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. In 1917, FitzGeorge Hamilton was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Grenadier Guards, the regiment in which his great-grandfather, the Duke of Cambridge, also served. He served in the First World War and was killed during an aerial bombing raid in Warlincourt-lès-Pas, France, in 1918. Following his father's death in 1939, the Hamilton baronetcies of Trebinshun House and Marlborough House passed to FitzGeorge Hamilton's uncle Sir Thomas Sydney Perceval Hamilton.
## Early life and family
George Edward Archibald Augustus FitzGeorge Hamilton was born on 30 December 1898 in London. He was the eldest child and only son of Archibald Hamilton (1876–1939) and his first wife Olga FitzGeorge (1877–1928). FitzGeorge Hamilton was named for his maternal great-grandfather, Prince George, Duke of Cambridge (1819–1904), Commander-in-Chief of the Forces from 1856 to 1895; his paternal grandfather, Sir Edward Archibald Hamilton, 4th and 2nd Baronet (1843–1915); and his maternal great-uncle Colonel Sir Augustus FitzGeorge (1847–1933). He was given a double-barrelled surname composed of his parents' surnames.
FitzGeorge Hamilton's baptism was held at the Chapel Royal, St James's Palace, which was attended by his sponsors the Duke of Cambridge; Prince George, Duke of York; and Mary, Duchess of York, his first cousin twice-removed.
In 1900 a photographic portrait of FitzGeorge Hamilton with his mother, grandfather, and great-grandfather, entitled "Four Generations," was published in multiple periodicals in the United Kingdom and the United States. FitzGeorge Hamilton had an unnamed sister who was born and died on 5 May 1902.
## Childhood and education
FitzGeorge Hamilton resided with his parents at Rotherhill House, west of Midhurst in Sussex. His parents divorced in 1902, and FitzGeorge Hamilton's father was assigned as his legal guardian. FitzGeorge Hamilton's mother remarried in 1905 to Robert Charlton Lane, and his father remarried in 1906 to Algorta Child.
FitzGeorge Hamilton received his early education at Hawtreys (also known as St Michael's School) in Westgate-on-Sea, and then he attended Winchester College in Winchester from 1912 until 1915. Following the death of his paternal grandfather in October 1915, FitzGeorge Hamilton's father inherited the Hamilton baronetcies of Trebinshun House and Marlborough House and became titled as Sir Archibald Hamilton, 5th and 3rd Baronet; thus, FitzGeorge Hamilton became the baronetcies' heir apparent. Because FitzGeorge Hamilton had always intended to join the British Army, he entered the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, in 1916, following the completion of his studies at Winchester College. FitzGeorge Hamilton was among the college's successful examination candidates.
## Military career
FitzGeorge Hamilton obtained a commission as a Second Lieutenant in the Grenadier Guards, an infantry regiment of the British Army, on 1 May 1917. His great-grandfather, the Duke of Cambridge, served as a Colonel of the Grenadier Guards from 1862 until his death in 1904. In late 1917, FitzGeorge Hamilton proceeded to France to serve in the First World War with the Grenadier Guards. In January 1918, while in France, he joined the 1st Battalion as part of No. 4 Company.
## Death and legacy
On 18 May 1918, FitzGeorge Hamilton's battalion suffered an aerial bombing raid by enemy aircraft in Warlincourt-lès-Pas, France. Three officers, including FitzGeorge Hamilton, were killed in this raid on 18 May, and another officer died on 19 May as a result of his injuries from the bombing. FitzGeorge Hamilton was aged 19 at the time of his death. According to family legend, the four officers had departed on leave, but returned to Warlincourt-lès-Pas to retrieve FitzGeorge Hamilton's leave pass which he had left behind. His commanding officer said of FitzGeorge Hamilton, "He was particularly keen in his profession and had all the makings of a really good officer and Grenadier. He was well liked by all, and will be greatly missed."
FitzGeorge Hamilton was subsequently interred at Warlincourt Halte British Cemetery near Saulty in grave XII.B.6. With the permission of King George V, a memorial service was held for FitzGeorge Hamilton on 18 June 1918, at the Chapel Royal, St James's Palace, where he had been baptized 19 years prior. His service was officiated by Edgar Sheppard, Sub-Dean of the Chapel Royal. Queen Alexandra was represented at his memorial service by Sir Henry Streatfeild. Memorials were also erected in his honour within the "Outer G3" section of the Winchester College War Cloister, and at St Mary's Church in Iping, near Midhurst. FitzGeorge Hamilton was posthumously awarded the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.
Following the war, FitzGeorge Hamilton's mother Olga gave birth to a daughter, Jane (4 June 1919 – 20 September 2014), with her second husband Robert Charlton Lane. His mother died in 1929, and in her will, she bequeathed a gold cup presented to FitzGeorge Hamilton by the Duke of Cambridge to the officers' mess of the 1st Battalion, Grenadier Guards. His mother also left £1,000 to Winchester College for the establishment of the George FitzGeorge Hamilton Fund to assist in the education of the children of Wykehamists who had died in the First World War.
FitzGeorge Hamilton's father Sir Archibald Hamilton sold his Iping House estate in 1919, and later converted to Islam in December 1923 and changed his name to Sir Abdullah Archibald Hamilton. He married his third wife Lilian Maud Austen in 1927, and she subsequently converted to Islam and changed her name to Lady Miriam Hamilton. Sir Abdullah Archibald Hamilton died in 1939 in Selsey, Sussex, and the Hamilton baronetcies of Trebinshun House and Marlborough House passed to his brother Sir Thomas Sydney Perceval Hamilton.
## Ancestry
Through his father, FitzGeorge Hamilton was a grandson of Sir Edward Archibald Hamilton, 4th Baronet of Trebinshun House and 2nd Baronet of Marlborough House, and his wife Mary Elizabeth Gill. Also through his father, FitzGeorge Hamilton was a direct descendant of William Hamilton, one of the five Kentish Petitioners of 1701. FitzGeorge Hamilton was a great-great-grandson of both Admiral Sir Edward Hamilton, 1st Baronet (1772–1851) and Member of Parliament Panton Corbett (1785–1855) of the Corbet family. He was also a direct male-line descendant of James Hamilton, 1st Earl of Abercorn (1575–1618), and he was descended from James II of Scotland through his daughter Mary Stewart, Countess of Arran.
Through his mother, FitzGeorge Hamilton was a grandson of Rear Admiral Sir Adolphus FitzGeorge (1846–1922) and his wife Sophia Jane Holden (1857–1920). He was a great-grandson of Prince George, Duke of Cambridge and his wife Sarah Fairbrother (1816–1890), and a great-great-grandson of Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge (1774–1850) and Princess Augusta of Hesse-Kassel (1797–1889). Because his maternal great-grandfather's marriage was in contravention to the Royal Marriages Act of 1772, FitzGeorge Hamilton's grandfather and great-uncles Colonel Sir Augustus FitzGeorge and Colonel George FitzGeorge (1843–1907) were ineligible to inherit the Dukedom of Cambridge.
|
[
"## Early life and family",
"## Childhood and education",
"## Military career",
"## Death and legacy",
"## Ancestry"
] | 1,842 | 35,748 |
7,122,320 |
State Route 314 (New York–Vermont)
| 1,168,454,584 |
Two US highways, connected by a ferry
|
[
"State highways in New York (state)",
"State highways in Vermont",
"Transportation in Clinton County, New York",
"Transportation in Grand Isle County, Vermont"
] |
New York State Route 314 (NY 314) and Vermont Route 314 (VT 314) are a pair of like-numbered state highways in New York and Vermont in the United States, that are connected by way of the Grand Isle–Plattsburgh Ferry across Lake Champlain and the Thomas MacDonough Highway in Plattsburgh. NY 314 extends for 0.76 miles (1.22 km) through the Clinton County town of Plattsburgh from Interstate 87 (I-87) exit 39 to U.S. Route 9. NY 314 previously continued another 3.95 miles (6.36 km) to the ferry landing on Cumberland Head. Its Vermont counterpart is a 5.493-mile (8.840 km) loop route off of U.S. Route 2 (US 2) through the Grand Isle County towns of South Hero and Grand Isle that connects to the ferry near its midpoint.
VT 314 was originally designated as Vermont Route F-3 in the late 1920s. The roadway on the New York side was unnumbered until c. 1962, when Cumberland Head Road was designated as NY 314. VT F-3 was redesignated as VT 314 in 1964 to match the designation present at the New York ferry approach. In 2005, a new highway connecting US 9 to the ferry landing by way of the interior of Cumberland Head was completed and opened to traffic as the Commodore Thomas MacDonough Highway. NY 314 was realigned to follow the new highway while ownership and maintenance of its old alignment was transferred to the town of Plattsburgh. The designation of NY 314 east of US 9 was removed by July 2014.
## Route description
### NY 314
NY 314 begins along Moffitt Road in the town of Plattsburgh. The route heads southeast as a four-lane divided highway still known as Moffitt Road. Almost immediately, the state route reaches Adirondack Northway's (I-87) exit 39, a half-cloverleaf interchange and half-diamond interchange. Just past the interchange, the road reaches an intersection with US 9 (the Lakes to Locks Passage), where NY 314 terminates. The total length of the state highway is 0.76 miles (1.22 km).
### VT 314
VT 314 begins at an intersection with US 2 just north of Keeler Bay, a village in the town of South Hero. The route heads northwestward as Ferry Road, passing by a small number of homes situated amongst open fields. At the western edge of Grand Isle, VT 314 intersects West Shore Road, a local highway that runs along the western shoreline of the island. The route turns north onto West Shore Road, following the roadway along Lake Champlain and into the town of Grand Isle. Here, the route's surroundings are mainly the same as it proceeds toward Gordon Landing.
In Gordon Landing, VT 314 connects to a ferry landing for the Grand Isle–Plattsburgh Ferry (which leads to Clinton CR 57) by way of an unnamed extension of Bell Hill Road. VT 314 continues northward along West Shore Road to Allen Road, where the route turns to follow Allen Road eastward across the island. While on Allen Road, the route passes through an area of open fields and forests that contains only a couple dozen homes. VT 314 continues eastward to another junction with US 2, where the route comes to an end.
## History
### Designations
All of modern VT 314 was originally designated as VT F-3 in the late 1920s. At Gordon Landing, VT F-3 connected to Cumberland Head in New York by way of the Grand Isle–Plattsburgh Ferry across Lake Champlain. The primary highway leading from the New York ferry landing to US 9 near Plattsburgh, then Cumberland Head Road, was initially unnumbered. VT F-3 was maintained by the towns of South Hero and Grand Isle until June 20, 1957, when the state of Vermont assumed ownership and maintenance of the highway.
The portion of the Adirondack Northway (I-87) between exits 36 and 39 was completed and opened to traffic c. 1961. Moffitt Road was upgraded between the new freeway and US 9 as part of the Northway's construction. By the following year, the upgraded piece of Moffitt Road and the piece of Cumberland Head Road between US 9 and the ferry landing was designated as NY 314. From I-87 to US 9, NY 314 was maintained by the New York State Department of Transportation; the remainder of the route was maintained by Clinton County and co-designated as CR 42. VT F-3 was renumbered to VT 314 on May 1, 1964 to match the designation now present at the New York ferry approach.
### Cumberland Head connector
The idea of a building a new highway that would lead directly from US 9 to the ferry landing at the southern tip of Cumberland Head was first proposed in 1964. At that time, a group of Cumberland Head residents stated that the existing narrow and winding perimeter road (NY 314) jeopardized the safety of residents and motorists alike. As time went on, the problem grew worse as the amount of traffic traveling to and from the ferry increased. The proposal finally gained traction in 2002 when New York State Senator Ronald B. Stafford was able to procure most of the \$7.3 million required to build the highway. Construction on the new route began in March 2005 following three years of studies and planning.
The Cumberland Head connector began at the east end of the divided highway portion of NY 314 and would pass through the rural interior of the peninsula on its way to the ferry landing. Part of the road would utilize the preexisting Lighthouse Road. It was built as a super two highway with a 45-mile-per-hour (72 km/h) speed limit, 10 miles per hour (16 km/h) higher than that of the perimeter road. The project was initially expected to be completed around November 2006; however, it was completed nearly a year ahead of schedule. On December 1, 2005, the new highway was named the Commodore Thomas MacDonough Highway in honor of Thomas MacDonough, an American naval officer who defeated the British in the Battle of Plattsburgh during the War of 1812. The road opened to traffic about a week later, co-designated as NY 314 (which was realigned to follow the length of the highway) and CR 57. Following the completion of the project, ownership and maintenance of Cumberland Head Road (NY 314's former routing) was to be transferred from Clinton County to the town of Plattsburgh. The transfer was officially approved on September 13, 2006.
The new highway has only two intersections, both with Cumberland Head Road. This was by design as no access roads were built off of the route in an effort to improve safety along the highway. One part of the finished highway that drew controversy was a one-way ramp built between the eastbound MacDonough Highway and the west end of Cumberland Head Road. Some residents criticized the layout, stating that it made it difficult to travel to and from MacDonough Highway and Cumberland Head Road. Ironically, the ramp was added as a result of public input; the initial project designs did not call for a ramp. Instead, all traffic to and from Cumberland Head Road would have had to utilize the junction with MacDonough Highway 0.25 miles (0.40 km) to the east. The designation of NY 314 east of US 9 was removed by July 2014.
## Major intersections
NY 314
VT 314
## See also
- List of county routes in Clinton County, New York
- State Route 74 (New York–Vermont)
- State Route 346 (New York–Vermont)
|
[
"## Route description",
"### NY 314",
"### VT 314",
"## History",
"### Designations",
"### Cumberland Head connector",
"## Major intersections",
"## See also"
] | 1,647 | 17,417 |
47,684,332 |
French destroyer Cassard (1931)
| 1,151,040,976 |
French Vauquelin-class destroyer
|
[
"1931 ships",
"Maritime incidents in November 1942",
"Ships built in France",
"Vauquelin-class destroyers",
"World War II warships scuttled at Toulon"
] |
The French destroyer Cassard was one of six Vauquelin-class destroyers (contre-torpilleurs) built for the French Navy during the 1930s. The ship entered service in 1933 and spent most of her career in the Mediterranean. During the Spanish Civil War of 1936–1939, she was one of the ships that helped to enforce the non-intervention agreement. When France declared war on Germany in September 1939, all of the Vauquelins were assigned to the High Sea Forces (Forces de haute mer (FHM)) which was tasked to escort French convoys and support the other commands as needed. Cassard was briefly deployed to search for German commerce raiders and blockade runners in late 1939 and early 1940, but returned to the Mediterranean in time to participate in Operation Vado, a bombardment of Italian coastal facilities after Italy entered the war in June.
The Vichy French reformed the FHM after the French surrender in June. The ship was scuttled in Toulon when the Germans occupied Vichy France in November 1942. She was not significantly salvaged during the war and her wreck was broken up in 1950.
## Design and description
The Vauquelin-class ships were designed as improved versions of the preceding Aigle-class destroyers. They had an overall length of 129.3 meters (424 ft 3 in), a beam of 11.8 meters (38 ft 9 in), and a draft of 4.97 meters (16 ft 4 in). The ships displaced 2,441 metric tons (2,402 long tons) at standard and 3,120 metric tons (3,070 long tons) at deep load. They were powered by two geared Rateau-Breguet steam turbines, each driving one propeller shaft, using steam provided by four du Temple boilers. The turbines were designed to produce 64,000 metric horsepower (47,000 kW; 63,000 shp), which would propel the ships at 36 knots (67 km/h; 41 mph). During her sea trials on 26 August 1932, Cassard's turbines provided 76,833 PS (56,511 kW; 75,782 shp) and she reached 41 knots (76 km/h; 47 mph) for a single hour. The ships carried enough fuel oil to give them a range of 3,000 nautical miles (5,600 km; 3,500 mi) at 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph). Their crew consisted of 10 officers and 201 crewmen in peacetime and 12 officers and 220 enlisted men in wartime.
The main armament of the Vauquelin-class ships consisted of five 138.6-millimeter (5.5 in) Modèle 1927 guns in single shielded mounts, one superfiring pair fore and aft of the superstructure and the fifth gun abaft the aft funnel. Their anti-aircraft armament consisted of four 37-millimeter (1.5 in) Modèle 1927 guns in single mounts positioned amidships and two twin mounts for 13.2-millimeter (0.52 in) Hotchkiss Modèle 1929 anti-aircraft machineguns on the forecastle deck abreast the bridge. The ships carried two above-water twin mounts for 550-millimeter (21.7 in) torpedo tubes, one pair on each broadside between each pair of funnels as well as one triple mount aft of the rear pair of funnels able to traverse to both sides. A pair of depth charge chutes were built into their stern; these housed a total of sixteen 200-kilogram (440 lb) depth charges, with eight more in reserve. They were also fitted with a pair of depth-charge throwers, one on each broadside abreast the aft funnels, for which they carried a dozen 100-kilogram (220 lb) depth charges. The ships could be fitted with rails to drop 40 Breguet B4 530-kilogram (1,170 lb) mines.
### Modifications
The depth-charge throwers were removed in 1936 and more 200-kilogram depth charges were carried in their place. The Navy reconsidered its anti-submarine warfare tactics after the war began in September and intended to reinstate the depth-charge throwers, although these were an older model than the one previously installed; Cassard received hers in May 1940 at Toulon. Her depth charge stowage now consisted of 24 heavy depth charges and 16 of the 100-kilogram ones. At the same time, a pair of Browning 13.2-millimeter AA machine guns were installed on the quarterdeck. During the ship's late-1941 anti-aircraft refit, the mainmast was replaced by a platform for a single 37-millimeter twin-gun mount and two of her single 37-millimeter mounts were transferred to the platform while the other two single mounts were removed. The Hotchkiss machine guns were moved to new platforms between the funnels and the Brownings were positioned in front of the bridge. Cassard received a British Alpha 128 ASDIC system in December 1941 that had been taken from another ship.
## Construction and career
Cassard, named after the 17th-century commander Jacques Cassard, was ordered on 1 February 1930 from Ateliers et Chantiers de Bretagne as part of the 1929 Naval Program. She was laid down at their Nantes shipyard on 12 November 1930, launched on 8 November 1931, commissioned on 1 November 1932, completed on 10 September 1933, and entered service on 7 October. Her entry into service was delayed by six-month-long repairs to her main gearboxes.
When the Vauquelins entered service they were assigned to the 5th and the newly formed 6th Light Divisions (Division légère (DL)) which were later redesignated as scout divisions (Division de contre-torpilleurs). Cassard and her sister ships Tartu and Chevalier Paul were assigned to the 5th DL of the group of large destroyers (Groupe de contre-torpilleurs (GCT) of the 3rd Squadron (3<sup>e</sup> Escadre), based in Toulon. After the start of the Spanish Civil War in July 1936, the contre-torpilleurs and destroyers in the Mediterranean were assigned to assist French citizens in Spain and to patrol the surveillance zones assigned to France on a monthly rotation beginning on 24 September as part of the non-intervention agreement.
The GCT reverted to its previous designation of the 3rd Light Squadron on 15 September. As of 1 October 1936 Chevalier Paul, Tartu and Vauquelin were assigned to the 5th Light Division while Cassard, Maillé Brézé and Kersaint belonged to the 9th, both of which were assigned to the Mediterranean Squadron. The 9th DL participated in a naval review held by the Navy Minister Alphonse Gasnier-Duparc in Brest on 27 May 1937. The following year the Mediterranean Squadron cruised the Eastern Mediterranean in May–June 1938; the squadron was redesignated at the Mediterranean Fleet (Flotte de la Méditerranée) on 1 July 1939.
### World War II
On 27 August, in anticipation of war with Nazi Germany, the French Navy planned to reorganize the Mediterranean Squadron into the FHM of three squadrons. When France declared war on 3 September, the reorganization was ordered and the 3rd Light Squadron, which included the 5th and 9th Scout Divisions with all of the Vauquelin-class ships, was assigned to the 3rd Squadron which was transferred to Oran, French Algeria, on 3 September. The 9th Scout Division with Cassard, Kersaint and Maillé Brézé was assigned to escort duties until April 1940, although the former ship was detached (12 November–21 January 1940) to Force X in the Atlantic which was tasked to search for German commerce raiders and blockade runners. Afterwards Cassard rejoined her scout division which had returned to Toulon during her deployment. She was transferred to the 5th Scout Division in early June. Anticipating a declaration of war by the Italians, the Mediterranean Fleet planned to bombard installations on the Italian coast. After they declared war on 10 June, Cassard and the rest of the 5th Scout Division were among the ships ordered to attack targets in Vado Ligure on 14 June. The destroyer was tasked to bombard factories in the town. Two Italian MAS boats on patrol attempted to attack the French ships, but only one was able to launch a torpedo before they were driven off with light damage by the French defensive fire. Damage assessments afterward revealed that little damage had been inflicted despite expending over 1,600 rounds of all calibers.
After the French surrender on 22 June, the Royal Navy attacked the ships in Mers-el-Kébir, French Algeria, on 3 July to prevent them from being turned over to the Germans. To avoid an attack on the ships based nearby in Oran, they steamed for Toulon and Cassard was one of the ships that rendezvoused with them en route and escorted them to Toulon. The Vichy French reformed the FHM on 25 September after it negotiated rules limiting the force's activities and numbers with the Italian and German Armistice Commissions. Cassard was the only ship of her class assigned to it and was one of its escorts when they made a training sortie into the Western Mediterranean on 16–18 October. After the Allies invaded French Lebanon and Syria in June 1941, Cassard, Tartu and the heavy cruiser Foch transported a battalion of infantry from Algiers, French Algeria, to Marseilles that was intended to reinforce the Levant between 30 June and 1 July. When the Germans attempted to capture the French ships in Toulon on 27 November 1942, the ship was scuttled by her crew. The Germans made an effort to salvage her in late 1943, but gave up the attempt. Cassard's wreck was damaged by an Allied bomb on 7 March 1944 and it was eventually demolished in place during 1950.
|
[
"## Design and description",
"### Modifications",
"## Construction and career",
"### World War II"
] | 2,202 | 26,650 |
61,158,160 |
I Think I Love It
| 1,162,134,281 | null |
[
"2019 singles",
"2019 songs",
"Alexandra Stan songs",
"English-language Romanian songs",
"Reggae fusion songs"
] |
"I Think I Love It" is a song by Romanian singer Alexandra Stan, digitally released through Universal Music Romania on 28 June 2019 as the first single from Stan’s fifth album Rainbows. It was written by Krishane and Radu Bolfea, while the production was handled by Stan, Bolfea, Cătălin Safta, Achi, Adelina Stinga and Vlad Lucan. A reggae pop track, the song's lyrics discuss the theme of love and freedom. An accompanying music video for the song was uploaded to Stan's YouTube channel on 1 July 2019, directed by Criss Blaziny. Making use of several explicit scenes, it features the singer and model Geni Olaru driving a red Corvette car and posing in different ways. Further promoted by several live performances, the song peaked at number 38 on Romania's Airplay 100 ranking.
## Background and composition
"I Think I Love It" was released for digital download on 28 June 2019 by Universal Music Romania in various countries. Prior to release, Stan had spent several months in the United States, following which she signed new record deals with the aforementioned label and MediaPro Music. The song served as her first single in over a year after "Mami" (2018). It was written by Krishane and Radu Bolfea, while production was handled by Stan, Bolfea, Cătălin Safta, Achi, Adelina Stinga and Vlad Lucan; the latter also provided mixing and mastering. A reggae pop track, the genre is further emphasized by a "producer" hook featured throughout. The lyrics "paint a picture of being in love and the good and happy feelings that come with that", as well as reminding "us to take risks, to fall in love, to dance and to do the most crazy things".
## Music video and promotion
An accompanying music video for "I Think I Love It" was uploaded to Stan's official YouTube channel on 1 July 2019. It was directed by Criss Blaziny in Constanța, Romania, and features the guest appearance from model Geani Olaru. The colorful video begins with Stan topless underneath a pink polyester jacket, pink hot pants and cowboy boots, alongside Olaru driving a red Corvette car, stopping for the singer to interact with a butterfly and pose in front of a pink screen board. Following this, she can be seen sporting a green long-sleeved wet suit in front of the same board. She further wears a red heart as a top alongside jeweled pink hot pants in front of another large board, patterned with bananas and LED border lights, in the clip's next scene. The video closes out with scenes of Stan and Olaru covering themselves in mud. Jonathan Currinn of CelebMix praised the display of "confidence, sexiness, and a sense of feeling free", while he also noted the heavy use of explicit imagery. Stan posted explicit pictures from the music video's filming process on her social media, with them gaining attention on the internet and in Romanian press.
For further promotion, Stan performed "I Think I Love It" live for Romanian radio station Kiss FM on 15 July 2019, alongside a cover of "Dancing with a Stranger" (2019) by Sam Smith and Normani. Writing for CelebMix, Currinn thought that Stan "impress[ed] to no end", describing her as "giving off a relaxed vibe when she sang" and praising her vocals as "on-point throughout sounding just like the studio track". On 18 July, the singer sang the song for Virgin Radio Romania, also covering "Bad Guy" (2019) by Billie Eilish. Stan made further appearances to perform "I Think I Love It" on Pro FM, and on Romanian television show Vorbește lumea throughout the same month.
## Credits and personnel
Credits adapted from YouTube.
- Achi – producer
- Krishane – songwriter
- Radu Bolfea – songwriter, producer
- Vlad Lucan – producer, mixing, mastering
- Cătălin Safta – producer
- Alexandra Stan – lead vocals, producer
- Adelina Stinga – producer
## Track listing
- Digital download
1. "I Think I Love It" – 3:00
## Charts
## Release history
|
[
"## Background and composition",
"## Music video and promotion",
"## Credits and personnel",
"## Track listing",
"## Charts",
"## Release history"
] | 906 | 27,902 |
143,940 |
Katherine Pulaski
| 1,168,513,772 |
Fictional character, chief medical officer in Star Trek: The Next Generation
|
[
"Fictional Polish military personnel",
"Fictional characters from the 24th century",
"Fictional female doctors",
"Fictional surgeons",
"Star Trek: The Next Generation characters",
"Starfleet commanders",
"Starfleet medical personnel",
"Starfleet officers",
"Television characters introduced in 1988"
] |
Dr. Katherine Pulaski is a fictional medical doctor in the American science fiction television series Star Trek: The Next Generation. She served a rotation as the chief medical officer aboard the Federation starship USS Enterprise-D. During her time on the ship, her medical skills saved the lives of both Captain Jean-Luc Picard and Commander William Riker. She inadvertently caused Geordi LaForge to create a hologram of Professor Moriarty that became self-aware, after a bet involving the abilities of Lt. Commander Data. Pulaski seemed averse to most new technology and preferred to avoid the transporter, but was forced to rely on it to save her own life from a genetically-modified infection. Before arriving on the Enterprise-D, she previously served on the USS Repulse. For a time in her past, she was romantically involved with William Riker's father, Kyle Riker, with whom she has maintained a friendship.
Portrayed by actress Diana Muldaur, Pulaski replaced the character of Commander Beverly Crusher for the second season after Gates McFadden's contract was not renewed. Pulaski first appeared in the second season opener "The Child", and made her final appearance in "Shades of Gray". Before playing the role of Pulaski on The Next Generation, Muldaur appeared in the original Star Trek, playing different characters in the episodes "Return to Tomorrow" and "Is There in Truth No Beauty?" She later worked with series creator Gene Roddenberry on a pilot for the series Planet Earth. McFadden returned to replace Muldaur in the third season, reprising her role as Dr. Crusher for the remainder of the series.
Reviewers criticized Pulaski's approach, as well as her inability to fit in with the crew. Critics noted that her transporter phobia was reminiscent of Dr. Leonard McCoy from the original Star Trek, as was her relationship with Data; Pulaski's interaction with Data raised comparisons to that of McCoy and Spock from the original Star Trek. Episodes featuring Pulaski in a leading role produced divided opinions among critics, with some describing "Unnatural Selection" as a key episode while others argued that it showed only the negative side of her role.
## Concept and development
Towards the end of the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation, staff members convinced Gene Roddenberry to drop Gates McFadden as Dr. Beverly Crusher from the show. Executive producer Rick Berman opposed this decision. To allow for McFadden's return in the future, Roddenberry wrote Crusher's character out rather than killing her. McFadden's departure led to an opening for a new cast member. The producers contacted actress Diana Muldaur, unaware of her past involvement with Roddenberry's Star Trek and Planet Earth pilot. In the original Star Trek series, Muldaur played the role of a doctor in two episodes: as Dr. Ann Mulhall in "Return to Tomorrow", and as Dr. Miranda Jones in "Is There in Truth No Beauty?" Muldaur also worked on the pilot for Planet Earth after getting to know Roddenberry and his wife, Majel Barrett, through their annual Star Trek Christmas parties.
Muldaur was not required to audition for the role of Pulaski. Instead, she was given 15 VHS cassettes of the first season. She found it "very exciting", noting it "got better and better and better" as she watched it. Christina Pickles was also considered for the part of Pulaski, a decision Berman described as "very tough". Muldaur finally agreed to play the role, but asked Roddenberry to change the name of the character to Kate, which became Katherine. The character of Katherine Pulaski was not modeled on Doctor Leonard McCoy from the original Star Trek, despite claims to the contrary.
Pulaski debuted in the second season episode "The Child", along with Whoopi Goldberg making her first appearance as Guinan in the same episode. Even though Muldaur was a regular character on The Next Generation, she was listed in the opening credits as a "Special Guest Star". After the second season, Muldaur left the series and joined the cast of L.A. Law. She used footage of the episode "Unnatural Selection" to gain the part. Gates McFadden returned to continue her role as Dr. Crusher for the remainder of the series.
## Appearances
Pulaski's background is touched upon in the episode "The Icarus Factor". She is thrice divorced and was previously romantically involved with Commander William Riker's father Kyle Riker (Mitchell Ryan), after she was part of a rescue team responding to a Tholian attack on a Federation Starbase. She realised that a romantic relationship with Riker would not work, but they remained friends. Directly prior to serving on the Enterprise-D Pulaski served on the USS Repulse.
In, "Elementary, Dear Data" she challenges Lt. Cmdr Data to solve an original Sherlock Holmes mystery on the holodeck. He accepts her challenge, which results in the creation of a self-aware hologram of Professor Moriarty (Daniel Davis). Pulaski joins Data and Lieutenant Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton), but is captured by Moriarty who also takes over control of the Enterprise. Moriarty demands that they find a way to enable him to leave the holodeck, but is persuaded by Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) to release control and be stored within the ship's computer memory until a means can be found to grant his wish.
Pulaski's apprehension at using the transporter was evident in "The Schizoid Man", where Dr. Selar (Suzie Plakson) went with the away team instead of Pulaski, as it required her to beam over to a transport vessel. However, the transporter would later save Pulaski's life in "Unnatural Selection", after she was infected with a disease from the planet Gagarin IV that accelerated her aging process. She uses the transporters to remove the infection and is returned to health.
She demonstrates her medical expertise on several occasions. In "Time Squared", Pulaski discovers that the duplicate Captain Picard is out of sync in time and will slowly improve until he returns to the point at which he left. In the episode "Pen Pals", Picard orders Pulaski to wipe the memories of a young girl called Sarjenka, whom Data had been corresponding with and helping in violation of the prime directive. In "Samaritan Snare", she is summoned to Starbase 515 to perform heart surgery on Captain Picard, as she is the most experienced surgeon nearby. This is despite Picard's wish for her not to perform the surgery, due to his concern with the image it might give to the crew.
When the Enterprise arrives at the lost colony of Mariposa in "Up the Long Ladder", the Mariposans kidnap Pulaski and Commander William Riker (Jonathan Frakes) and steal their DNA to clone new members of their colony. Although technologically advanced, the Mariposans lack genetic diversity. When Pulaski and Riker discover the clones, they destroy them. Picard helps resolve the dispute by suggesting the Mariposans allow the Bringloidi, a preindustrial, rural people whose colony was destroyed, to migrate to their world. The Mariposans, however, have relied on cloning for 300 years, and no longer sexually reproduce. Pulaski notes that with time, they will become familiar with the practice once again, and recommends that the Mariposans form large, group marriages with the Bringloidi to create a healthy population.
Following Data's defeat at a game of stratagema in "Peak Performance", Pulaski and Counselor Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis) attempt to console him, but it is left to Captain Picard to convince Data that he is not malfunctioning. Pulaski's final appearance on The Next Generation was in the episode "Shades of Gray". When Commander Riker falls ill to a dangerous virus during an away team mission, Pulaski drives out the virus with a device that stimulates his memory centre. After she discovers that negative memories are more effective in removing the virus, she uses memories of fear and survival to save Riker's life.
In the alternative future timeline portrayed in "Endgame", the Star Trek: Voyager finale, Pulaski is said to have worked at the Starfleet Medical facility in San Francisco.
### Novels
Pulaski appears in several books of the non-canon novel series based on the adventures of the crew in The Next Generation and elsewhere in the same time period. In Peter David's novel Vendetta (1991), Pulaski is reassigned to the Repulse under Captain Taggart following her departure from the Enterprise. In Star Trek: Progress (2006), a Starfleet Corps of Engineers book by Terri Osborne, Pulaski is on board the USS Progress when it visits Drema IV, as she wants to check up on the progress of Sarjenka, a young girl from The Next Generation episode "Pen Pals". Pulaski also appeared alongside Wesley Crusher and Guinan in Michael Jan Friedman's "All Good Things..." (1994), a novelisation of The Next Generation series finale.
## Reception and commentary
In their 1998 book, Star Trek 101, Terry J. Erdmann and Paula M. Block called "Unnatural Selection" the key Pulaski episode. Science fiction writer Keith DeCandido described Pulaski as "charming" and noted that this feeling was mirrored on screen by Captain Picard. In Science Fiction Television: A History, author M. Keith Booker observed that "Pulaski never quite meshed with the rest of the crew".
The events of "Elementary Dear Data" led film professor Zoran Samardžija to suggest that Pulaski may have been inspired by the works of Friedrich Nietzsche. In Sherlock Holmes and Philosophy: The Footprints of a Gigantic Mind (2011), Samardžija notes that Pulaski's argument that Data lacks intuition is reminiscent of parts of Nietzsche's 1878 work Human, All Too Human. The relationship between Pulaski and Data was further considered by Rhonda V. Wilcox in her article "Dating Data: Miscegenation in Star Trek: The Next Generation" (1993). Wilcox notes that Pulaski "frequently challenges Data in terms of his machine nature." She compares Data's emotionless state to slavery due to the reference in "The Child" to Maya Angelou's 1969 work I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.
In 2016, Pulaski was ranked as the 39th most important character of Starfleet within the Star Trek science fiction universe by Wired magazine, out of 100 characters. In 2019, she was listed as one of the underrated characters of the Star Trek universe by CBS.
|
[
"## Concept and development",
"## Appearances",
"### Novels",
"## Reception and commentary"
] | 2,274 | 33,564 |
5,539,029 |
Ontario Highway 129
| 1,105,460,515 |
Ontario provincial highway
|
[
"Former segments of the Trans-Canada Highway",
"Ontario provincial highways"
] |
King's Highway 129, commonly referred to as Highway 129, is a provincially maintained highway in the Canadian province of Ontario. Located in the Algoma and Sudbury districts, the highway extends for 221 kilometres (137 mi) from a junction with Highway 17 in Thessalon to the town of Chapleau, just north of Highway 101. The route is isolated and lightly travelled throughout its length; while providing access to several remote settlements, the only sizable communities along the route are the two termini. The highway was established in 1956 along the Chapleau Road. From the early 1960s to mid-1970s, Highway 129 was designated as the Chapleau Route of the Trans-Canada Highway.
## Route description
Highway 129 is one of the most isolated in Ontario and among the least used of the King's Highways. Although the highway is an important access route for several isolated communities, including Little Rapids, Sultan, Kormak and Nemegos, as well as provincial parks such as Aubrey Falls, Five Mile Lake and Wakami Lake, the only community located directly on the highway's route between its termini is Wharncliffe. There are very few services along Highway 129. Tunnel Lake Trading Post and Aubrey Falls Trading Post & Resort offer some basic goods, fuel and lodging for travellers and local residents (albeit with limited hours).
The route begins in the town of Thessalon at Highway 17, north of Lake Huron. It travels northeast through the Municipality of Huron Shores, passing the Thessalon Township Heritage Museum southeast of Little Rapids. Wedging between Basswood Lake and the Byrnes Lake White Birch Provincial Conservation Reserve, it enters the unorganized portions of Algoma District. It passes through Wharncliffe, crosses the Mississagi River and encounters Highway 554, which travels east to Kynoch.
North of Highway 554, the route is generally parallel to the river and Mississagi River Provincial Park. After passing west of Wakomata Lake on its journey through completely undeveloped forest and muskeg, it reaches a junction with Highway 556 southwest of Aubrey Falls Provincial Park. Thereafter, the highway roughly follows the Wenebegon River through Wenebegon River Provincial Park to Wenebegon Lake. Highway 129 encounters the entrance to Five Mile Provincial Park and meets Highway 667, which travels east through Sultan, becoming the Sultan Industrial Road and connecting with Highway 144.
From this junction, the route travels northwest towards Highway 101, where drivers must turn right to continue north on the route. Both highways travel concurrently northeast for 7.6 kilometres (4.7 mi), at which point Highway 101 branches off to the east. Highway 129 continues north alongside the Sudbury–White River CPR line. It ends at the southern town limits of Chapleau, continuing north as a local road through the town and into the Chapleau Crown Game Preserve, the largest game preserve in the world.
## History
Highway 129 was first designated between Aubrey Falls and Chapleau in 1956, following the Thessalon–Chapleau Highway, a dirt road along the banks of the Mississagi River that opened to traffic on January 28, 1949. Though opened, this initial road was almost impassable, and certainly dangerous. Despite this, it quickly gained notoriety for its breathtaking scenery and seemingly limitless hunting and fishing potential. However, the poor condition of the road often left a terrible impression on tourists. John Austin Moore described his voyage up the road during the summer of 1951:
"Our first trip by car took us over the famed Chapleau Road, the scenery and unique loneliness of which have been often reported in magazines. And surely its condition not long after it had opened to travel, when we first drove it in June 1951, was unforgettable. One trip over its 145 miles was almost guaranteed to shorten your life"
The route was extended south on February 27, 1957, absorbing the entire length of Highway 559, itself designated in 1956. The Highway 559 designation has since been reused in Parry Sound District. In 1961, the partially gravel surfaced highway was designated as the Chapleau Route of the Trans-Canada Highway, despite being only a spur in the network at that time. This designation lasted until as early as 1974 and as late as 1978.
Highway 129 was the last King's Highway to be paved; the section immediately south of Aubrey Falls remained a gravel road as late as 1982. The one-lane Rapid River Bridge was replaced by an adjacent two-lane bridge in the second quarter of 2010.
## Major intersections
|
[
"## Route description",
"## History",
"## Major intersections"
] | 983 | 13,433 |
10,790,704 |
Don't Break My Heart (Nicola song)
| 1,171,478,749 |
Single by Nicoleta Alexandru
|
[
"2003 singles",
"2003 songs",
"Electronic dance music songs",
"English-language Romanian songs",
"Eurovision songs of 2003",
"Eurovision songs of Romania"
] |
"Don't Break My Heart" is a song recorded by Romanian singer Nicola for her greatest hits album Best of Nicola (2003) and fourth studio album De mă vei chema (2004). Written by Nicola and produced by her then-husband Mihai Alexandru, it was released as a CD single in 2003 by Cat Music. Musically, "Don't Break My Heart" is an uptempo dance recording.
The track represented in the Eurovision Song Contest 2003 in Riga, Latvia after winning the pre-selection show Selecția Națională. In Riga, Nicola was automatically qualified to the Grand Final, where she finished in tenth place with 73 points. During her show, the singer performed in front of background dancers who were rotating overdimensional discs in the colors of the Romanian flag. Although a remix of the song received airplay on multiple radio stations in the United States, it failed to impact any national chart.
## Background and release
In 1986, Nicola found the group Adaggio with Romanian singer Christina Fronea, giving over 200 concerts. She started her solo career in 1988 under the name Nicoleta Nicola, joining the Romanian project Riff. Prior to representing her country at Eurovision, Nicola had taken part in the national selection five times with her first appearance coming in 1992. Written by the singer and produced by her then-husband Mihai Alexandru, "Don't Break My Heart" is an uptempo and modern dance song. Marc Gehring from German website Prinz.de thought that the song was "cool" and labelled it as the first one of its kind to represent Romania at the contest. The single was released as a CD in 2003 by Cat Music, and was later included on Nicola's greatest hits album Best of Nicola (2003) and her fourth studio album De mă vei chema (2004).
## At Eurovision
On 1 March 2003, the Selecția Națională was held in order to select the Romanian entrant for the Eurovision Song Contest 2003. For the first time, the show was conducted in several televoting rounds to reach a wider and younger audience. Nicola, one of the favorites to win the national selection, was selected as the country's representative after the votes of a professional jury panel (79 points) and the televoting were added together, resulting in 24 points.
The Eurovision Song Contest 2003 took place at the Skonto Hall in Riga, Latvia and consisted of the final, held on 24 May. According to the then-Eurovision rules, selected countries were picked to participate in the final, including the host country and the "Big Four" (, , and the ). Nicola performed in 24th place in the final — where Romania was automatically qualified due to the top 19 result the previous year — preceded by and followed by . During her show, the singer wore a red jacket along with red trousers, and performed in front of four background dancers who rotated overdimensional discs in the colors of the Romanian flag. Gehring from Prinz.de criticised both the outfits and the choreography of the show. The country finished in tenth place with a total of 73 points, including 12 awarded by , ten by Spain and eight by . The Romanian televote awarded its 12 points to .
### Results
## Track listing
- Romanian CD single
1. "Don't Break My Heart" – 2:59
## Release history
|
[
"## Background and release",
"## At Eurovision",
"### Results",
"## Track listing",
"## Release history"
] | 729 | 31,442 |
5,102,221 |
Japanese battleship Shikishima
| 1,170,369,118 |
Japanese lead ship of Shikishima-class
|
[
"1898 ships",
"Naval ships of Japan",
"Russo-Japanese War battleships of Japan",
"Shikishima-class battleships",
"Ships built in Leamouth"
] |
Shikishima (敷島, Scattered Islands) was the lead ship of her class of two pre-dreadnought battleships built for the Imperial Japanese Navy by British shipyards in the late 1890s. During the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, the ship fought in the Battles of Port Arthur, the Yellow Sea and Tsushima and was lightly damaged in the latter action, although shells prematurely exploded in her main guns in the latter two engagements. Shikishima remained in home waters during World War I. She was reclassified as a coastal defence ship in 1921 and served as a training ship for the rest of her career. The ship was disarmed and hulked in 1923 and finally broken up for scrap in 1948.
## Description
Shikishima and her sister ship Hatsuse were designed in England as improved versions of the Royal Navy's Majestic-class battleships. At this time, Japan lacked the technology and capability to construct its own battleships and they had to be built abroad. Shikishima was 438 feet (133.5 m) long overall and had a beam of 75 feet 6 inches (23.0 m). She had a full-load draught of 27 feet 3 inches (8.3 m) and normally displaced 14,850 long tons (15,090 t) and had a crew of 741 officers and enlisted men. The ship was powered by two Humphrys Tennant vertical triple-expansion steam engines using steam generated by 25 Belleville boilers. The engines were rated at 14,500 indicated horsepower (10,800 kW), using forced draught, and were designed to reach a top speed of 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph). Shikishima, however, reached a top speed of 19 knots (35.2 km/h; 21.9 mph) from 14,667 ihp (10,937 kW) on her sea trials. She carried enough coals to give her a range of 5,000 nautical miles (9,300 km; 5,800 mi) at a speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph).
The ship's main battery consisted of four 12-inch (305 mm) guns mounted in two twin gun turrets, one forward and one aft. The secondary battery consisted of fourteen 6-inch (152 mm) quick-firing guns, mounted in casemates on the sides of the hull and in the superstructure. A number of smaller guns were carried for defence against torpedo boats. These included 20 QF 12-pounder 12 cwt guns, six 47-millimetre (1.9 in) 3-pounder guns and six 47-millimetre 2.5-pounder Hotchkiss guns. She was also armed with four submerged 18-inch (450 mm) torpedo tubes. Shikishima's waterline armour belt consisted of Harvey armour and was 4–9 inches (102–229 mm) thick. The armour of her gun turrets had a maximum thickness of 10 inches (254 mm) and her deck ranged from 2.5 to 4 inches (64 to 102 mm) in thickness.
## Operational career
Shikishima, a poetical name for Japan, was one of four battleships ordered from overseas shipyards as part of the 10-year Naval Expansion Programme paid for from the £30,000,000 indemnity paid by China after losing the Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895. The ship was laid down by Thames Iron Works at their Blackwall, London shipyard on 29 March 1897. She was launched on 1 November 1898 and completed on 26 January 1900. After her arrival in Japan, she was slightly damaged when she went ashore outside of Yokohama during a typhoon in September 1902.
### Russo-Japanese War
At the start of the Russo-Japanese War, Shikishima, commanded by Captain Izō Teragaki, was assigned to the 1st Division of the 1st Fleet. She participated in the Battle of Port Arthur on 9 February 1904 when Vice-Admiral Tōgō Heihachirō led the 1st Fleet in an attack on the Russian ships of the Pacific Squadron anchored just outside Port Arthur. Tōgō had expected his surprise night attack on the Russians by his destroyers to be much more successful than it actually was and expected to find them badly disorganised and weakened, but the Russians had recovered from their surprise and were ready for his attack. The Japanese ships were spotted by the cruiser Boyarin which was patrolling offshore and alerted the Russian defences. Tōgō chose to attack the Russian coastal defences with his main armament and engage the Russian ships with his secondary guns. Splitting his fire proved to be ineffective as the Japanese eight-inch (203 mm) and six-inch guns inflicted very little significant damage on the Russian ships who concentrated all their fire on the Japanese ships with some effect. Although a large number of ships on both sides were hit, Russian casualties numbered only 17 while the Japanese suffered 60 killed and wounded before Tōgō disengaged. During the battle, Shikishima was hit by a single six-inch shell which wounded 17 crewmen.
Shikishima participated in the action of 13 April when Tōgō successfully lured out a portion of the Pacific Squadron, including Vice-Admiral Stepan Makarov's flagship, the battleship Petropavlovsk. When Makarov spotted the five battleships of the 1st Division, he turned back for Port Arthur and Petropavlovsk struck a naval mine laid by the Japanese the previous night. The Russian battleship sank in less than two minutes after one of her magazines exploded; Makarov was one of the 677 killed. Emboldened by his success, Tōgō resumed long-range bombardment missions, which prompted the Russians to lay more minefields.
On 14 May, Rear Admiral Nashiba Tokioki put to sea with the battleships Hatsuse (flag), Shikishima, and Yashima, the protected cruiser Kasagi, and the dispatch boat Tatsuta to relieve the Japanese blockading force off Port Arthur. On the following morning, the squadron encountered a minefield laid by the Russian minelayer Amur. Hatsuse struck one mine that disabled her steering at 10:50 and Yashima struck another when moving to assist Hatsuse. At 12:33, the latter drifted onto another mine that detonated one of her magazines, killing 496 of her crew and sinking the ship. Yashima's flooding could not be controlled and she foundered about eight hours later, after her crew had abandoned ship.
Shikishima was not hit during the Battle of the Yellow Sea in August, although a shell exploded prematurely in one of her 12-inch guns, disabling it. During the Battle of Tsushima in May 1905, she was second in the line of battle of the First Division, following Tōgō's flagship Mikasa and was one of the main targets of the Russian battleships. Shikishima was hit nine times during the battle; the most serious of which penetrated beneath a six-inch gun, killing or wounding the entire gun crew. She also had another 12-inch shell prematurely detonate in one of her forward guns, wrecking it completely. In turn, Mikasa and Shikishima concentrated their fire on the battleship Oslyabya which eventually sank after two large-calibre shells blew large holes in her bow at the waterline. These caused massive flooding that sank her, the first modern battleship sunk entirely by gunfire. Shikishima fired a total of 74 twelve-inch, 1,395 six-inch and 1,272 twelve-pounder shells during the battle. She also fired a torpedo at the badly damaged armed merchant cruiser Ural that sank the Russian ship.
### Later career
During World War I, Shikishima was based at Sasebo during 1914–1915 and was then assigned to the Second and Fifth Squadrons, in that order, for the rest of the war. After the Washington Naval Treaty was signed, she was reclassified as a first-class coast defence ship on 1 September 1921, and was used to train submarine crews until the ship was reclassified as a transport on 1 April 1923. Shikishima continued to be used as a training hulk for the Sasebo Naval Barracks until she was scrapped in January 1948 at the Sasebo Naval Arsenal.
|
[
"## Description",
"## Operational career",
"### Russo-Japanese War",
"### Later career"
] | 1,816 | 18,617 |
26,993,173 |
Italian battleship Regina Elena
| 1,170,058,588 |
Pre-dreadnought battleship of the Italian Royal Navy
|
[
"1904 ships",
"Regina Elena-class battleships",
"Ships built in La Spezia",
"World War I battleships of Italy"
] |
Regina Elena was the lead ship of her class of pre-dreadnought battleships built for the Italian Regia Marina (Royal Navy). The ship was built by the La Spezia shipyard between 1901 and 1907, and was armed with a main battery of two 305 mm (12 in) guns and twelve 203 mm (8 in) guns. She was quite fast for the period, with a top speed of nearly 21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph). Regina Elena was active in both the Italo-Turkish War with the Ottoman Empire in 1911–1912, where she participated in the Italian conquest of Cyrenaica, and World War I in 1915–1918, where she saw no action due to the threat of submarines in the narrow confines of the Adriatic Sea. She was retained for a few years after the war, but was ultimately stricken in February 1923 and broken up for scrap.
## Design
The design for the Regina Elena class was prepared by the noted naval engineer, Vittorio Cuniberti, then the Chief Engineer of the Italian Regia Marina (Royal Navy). The Navy specified a vessel that would be more powerful than contemporary armored cruisers and faster than foreign pre-dreadnought battleships on a displacement of no more than 13,000 long tons (13,210 t). The first two vessels—Regina Elena and Vittorio Emanuele—were ordered for the 1901 fiscal year, and the final pair—Roma and Napoli—were authorized the following year.
### Characteristics
Regina Elena was 144.6 meters (474 ft) long overall and had a beam of 22.4 m (73 ft) and a maximum draft of 8.58 m (28.1 ft). She displaced 13,807 long tons (14,029 t) at full load. The ship had a slightly inverted bow and a long forecastle deck that extended past the main mast. Regina Elena had a crew of 742–764 officers and enlisted men.
Her propulsion system consisted of two vertical triple-expansion steam engines, each driving a screw propeller. Steam for the engines was provided by twenty-eight coal-fired Belleville boilers that were vented into three funnels. The ship's propulsion system was rated at 19,299 indicated horsepower (14,391 kW) and provided a top speed of 20.8 knots (38.5 km/h; 23.9 mph) and a range of approximately 10,000 nautical miles (19,000 km; 12,000 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph).
As built, the ship was armed with a main battery of two 305 mm (12 in) 40-caliber guns placed in two single gun turrets, one forward and one aft. The ship was also equipped with a secondary battery of twelve 203 mm (8 in) 45-cal. guns in six twin turrets amidships. Close-range defense against torpedo boats was provided by a battery of sixteen 76 mm (3 in) 40-cal. guns in casemates and pivot mounts. Regina Elena was also equipped with two 450 mm (17.7 in) torpedo tubes placed in the hull below the waterline.
Regina Elena was protected with Krupp steel manufactured in Terni. The main belt was 250 mm (9.8 in) thick, and the deck was 38 mm (1.5 in) thick. The conning tower was protected by 254 mm (10 in) of armor plating. The main battery guns had 203 mm thick plating, and the secondary gun turrets had 152 mm (6 in) thick sides.
## Service history
Regina Elena was laid down at the Arsenale di La Spezia shipyard in La Spezia on 27 March 1901, and was launched on 19 June 1904. After fitting-out work was completed, she was commissioned into the Italian fleet on 11 September 1907. She thereafter served in the Mediterranean Squadron, and was ready for the annual maneuvers in late September and early October, under the command of Vice Admiral Alfonso di Brocchetti. In April 1908, Regina Elena participated in a naval demonstration off Asia Minor in protest of the Ottoman decision to prohibit Italian post offices in Ottoman territory. The ship was at that time commanded by Prince Luigi Amedeo, Duke of the Abruzzi. The ship went to Messina in the aftermath of the 1908 Messina earthquake. Regina Elena remained in the active duty squadron through 1910, by which time her three sisters had been completed, bringing the total number of front-line battleships to six, including the two Regina Margherita-class battleships.
### Italo-Turkish War
On 29 September 1911, Italy declared war on the Ottoman Empire in order to seize Libya. For the duration of the conflict, Regina Elena was assigned to the 1st Division of the 1st Squadron along with her three sisters, under the command of Vice Admiral Augusto Aubry. She joined the squadron late, on 5 October. On 18 October, Regina Elena and her three sisters, along with three cruisers and several destroyers and torpedo boats escorted a convoy that carried half of the 2nd Infantry Division to Benghazi. When the Ottomans refused to surrender the city before the amphibious assault, the Italian fleet opened fire on the Turkish defenders at 08:00, while landing parties from the ships and the Army infantry went ashore. The Italians quickly forced the Ottomans to withdraw into the city by evening. After a short siege, the Ottoman forces withdrew on 29 October, leaving the city to the Italians.
By December, Regina Elena and the other ships of the 1st Squadron were dispersed in the ports of Cyrenaica. Regina Elena, Roma, and the armored cruiser San Marco were stationed in Benghazi, with Regina Elena recently arriving from Tobruk. While there, they supported the Italian Army as it occupied the city and surrounding area by contributing landing parties and providing fire support to the ground troops. The gunfire support supplied by Regina Elena contributed to the defeat of a major attack on the city by an Ottoman army on 14–15 December. In early 1912, most of the fleet had withdrawn to Italy for repairs and refit, leaving only a small force of cruisers and light craft to patrol the North African coast.
In March 1914, Regina Elena was involved in experiments with wireless telegraphy in Syracuse, Sicily. The tests were conducted by Guglielmo Marconi and were supervised by the Duke of the Abruzzi.
### World War I
Italy declared neutrality after the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, but by July 1915, the Triple Entente had convinced the Italians to enter the war against the Central Powers. The primary naval opponent for the duration of the war was the Austro-Hungarian Navy; the Naval Chief of Staff, Admiral Paolo Thaon di Revel, believed the threat from submarines in the confined waters of the Adriatic was too serious to permit an active fleet policy. He therefore planned a distant blockade with the battle fleet, while smaller vessels, such as the MAS boats conducted raids. The heavy ships of the Italian fleet would be preserved for a potential major battle in the event that the Austro-Hungarian fleet should emerge from its bases.
As a result, the ship's career during the war was limited. During the war, Regina Elena and her three sisters were assigned to the 2nd Division. They spent much of the war rotating between the bases at Taranto, Brindisi, and Valona, but did not see combat. In February 1916, Regina Elena and Roma sortied briefly in response to mistaken reports that the Austro-Hungarian fleet was at sea. On 14–15 May 1917, three light cruisers of the Austro-Hungarian Navy raided the Otranto Barrage; in the ensuring Battle of the Strait of Otranto, Regina Elena and her sisters raised steam to assist the Allied warships, but the Italian commander refused to permit them to join the battle for fear of risking their loss in the submarine-infested Adriatic.
Under the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty, Italy was permitted to retain Regina Elena and her three sisters. The Italian Navy could have kept the ships in service indefinitely, but they could not be replaced by new battleships under the normal practice of the Treaty system. Nevertheless, she was stricken from the naval register on 16 February 1923 and subsequently broken up for scrap.
|
[
"## Design",
"### Characteristics",
"## Service history",
"### Italo-Turkish War",
"### World War I"
] | 1,792 | 2,791 |
463,003 |
Hutchinson River Parkway
| 1,165,525,411 |
North–south parkway in southern New York
|
[
"Former toll roads in New York (state)",
"Harrison, New York",
"Parkways in New York City",
"Robert Moses projects",
"Transportation in New Rochelle, New York",
"Transportation in Westchester County, New York",
"Transportation in the Bronx"
] |
The Hutchinson River Parkway (known colloquially as the Hutch) is a north–south parkway in southern New York in the United States. It extends for 18.71 miles (30.11 km) from the massive Bruckner Interchange in the Throggs Neck section of the Bronx to the New York–Connecticut state line at Rye Brook. The parkway continues south from the Bruckner Interchange as the Whitestone Expressway (Interstate 678) and north into Greenwich, Connecticut, as the Merritt Parkway (Connecticut Route 15). The roadway is named for the Hutchinson River, a 10-mile-long (16 km) stream in southern Westchester County that the road follows alongside. The river, in turn, was named for English colonial religious leader Anne Hutchinson.
Construction of the parkway began in 1924 and was completed in 1941. The section of the parkway between Eastern Boulevard (now Bruckner Boulevard) in the Bronx and U.S. Route 1 (US 1) in Pelham Manor was designated as New York State Route 1X (NY 1X) from 1941 to 1946. NY 1A was subsequently realigned to follow the Hutch between Eastern Boulevard and US 1. The NY 1A designation was removed around 1962.
## Route description
The road is designated as NY 908A within the Bronx and is maintained by the New York City Department of Transportation (NYCDOT). In Westchester County, the road is designated as NY 907W and is maintained by the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT). Both designations are unsigned reference routes. Like the Bronx River Parkway, the reference route designation of the parkway in Westchester County violates the numbering scheme used by the NYSDOT. The second digit of a reference route designation typically indicates its region. While other reference routes in the county carry a second digit of "8", as Westchester County is located in region 8, the "0" in 907W is indicative of regions 10 and 11, containing Long Island and New York City, respectively.
### Throggs Neck to Pelham
The Hutchinson River Parkway begins at the large Bruckner Interchange in the Throggs Neck section of the Bronx. This interchange consists of junctions with the Cross Bronx Expressway (I-95 and I-295), the Whitestone Expressway (I-678), and the Bruckner Expressway (I-95 and I-278). The Hutchinson River Parkway proceeds north as a continuation of I-678, entering Exit 1, a small 1-lane ramp to Bruckner Boulevard near Saint Raymond's Cemetery. Just to the north of Exit 1A gas stations appear on each side of the road, which turns northeast and into Exit 1B, a connection to East Tremont Avenue. After Exit 1B, the parkway crosses under the IRT Pelham Line just west of Middletown Road subway station, crossing into the Pelham Bay section of the Bronx.
Just after crossing into Pelham Bay, the parkway enters Exit 1C–D, an interchange with the Pelham Parkway in a small section of Pelham Bay Park. After crossing over Amtrak's Northeast Corridor, the parkway crosses out of Pelham Bay Park and into Exit 2A–B, a junction with I-95 and the New England Thruway. Crossing over Bartow Avenue and the Hutchinson River, the parkway crosses into the main section of Pelham Bay Park, where Exit 3 forks off towards the center of the park. The now six-lane parkway crosses north through Pelham Bay Park, entering Exit 4A, another junction with the New England Thruway. When the Hutchinson River Parkway leaves Pelham Bay Park, the right-of-way leaves the Bronx and enters Westchester County. Now in the village of Pelham Manor, the parkway enters Exit 4B, an interchange with US 1 (Boston Post Road). Southbound, an Exit 5A is present, a ramp to Sandford Boulevard in Pelham Manor. Proceeding northbound, Exit 5 connects to Colonial Avenue, the continuation of Sandford Boulevard after the Hutchinson River Parkway in the adjacent village of Pelham. The parkway winds north through Pelham, entering Exit 5B on the southbound lanes, a connection to East 3rd Street. Winding northeast, the parkway crosses under the Metro-North Railroad New Haven Line just west of Pelham station. Just after the line, the Hutchinson River Parkway crosses into Exit 6A, a bi-directional junction with Lincoln Avenue in Pelham.
### Mount Vernon to Connecticut
Soon the parkway leaves Pelham for Mount Vernon, entering the Chester Heights section. In Mount Vernon, the Hutchinson River Parkway enters Exit 6B, a connection to the Cross County Parkway. The parkway winds northeast into Exit 7, a junction with New Rochelle Road, bending northwest through Nature Study Woods Park. The parkway then bends north into New Rochelle. Just after crossing into New Rochelle, the Cross County Parkway merges into the northbound lanes. Crossing through Twin Lakes Park, the parkway enters Exit 8, a junction with the northern end of Webster Avenue. Passing around Reservoir 3, the Hutchinson River Parkway crosses into Eastchester and soon back into New Rochelle near Exit 9, which connects to North Avenue.
To the north, Exit 9A and Exit 9B going southbound junctions with Mill Road in Eastchester, the continuation of North Avenue. After Exits 9A and 9B, the parkway passes east of Reservoir 1 and south of Exit 9C, Wilmot Road. The Hutchinson River Parkway proceeds northeast as a four-lane arterial through New Rochelle. The parkway crosses under NY 125 (Weaver Street), which is accessible southbound via exit 11. Proceeding northbound, exit 11 services Hutchinson Avenue, which connects to NY 125 and Quaker Ridge Country Club. Now in the Quaker Ridge section of Scarsdale, the Hutchinson River Parkway crosses into Exit 12, Mamaroneck Road near Saxon Woods County Park. The parkway runs along the southern end of the park, entering Exit 13A-B in the center of the park.
Exit 13A-B services Mamaroneck Avenue as it crosses over the West Branch of the Mamaroneck River. Leaving the park, the Hutchinson River Parkway enters White Plains, crossing past a median rest area. The parkway continues northeast, entering Exit 14, a diamond interchange with NY 127 (North Street) in Harrison. Passing Maple Moor Golf Course, the Hutchinson River Parkway enters Exit 15A–B, a cloverleaf interchange with I-287 (the Cross Westchester Expressway). Just to the north of the interchange, I-684 forks to the northwest in Harrison at Exit 16A. Just northeast of I-684, Exit 16B forks to NY 120 (Purchase Street).
After Exit 16A-B the parkway makes a bend to the southeast entering Exit 17, a junction with Lincoln Avenue in Harrison. The four-lane parkway winds northeast once again, entering Exit 18, a junction with North Ridge Street in Rye Brook. The Hutchinson River Parkway enters Exit 19A, a connection with NY 120A (King Street). At this interchange, the Hutchinson River Parkway crosses into the state of Connecticut and continues northeast as the Merritt Parkway (Route 15).
## History
Construction of the parkway began in 1924 and the first two-mile (3 km) section was completed in December 1927. By October 1928, 11 miles (18 km) of the parkway were open, connecting US 1 in Pelham Manor, New York with Westchester Avenue in White Plains, New York. The original roadway was an undivided freeway, designed with gently sloping curves, stone arch bridges, and wooden lightposts. The original 11-mile (18 km) section included bridle paths along the right-of-way. There was also a riding academy where the public could rent horses.
In 1930, Robert Moses, an American public official who worked on New York metropolitan area infrastructure, announced plans to build more parkways in the Bronx. A southward extension from Pelham Manor to Pelham Bay Park opened on December 11, 1937. The new southerly extension became part of a rerouted New York State Route 1A. The final segment of the parkway—a southward extension to the Bronx–Whitestone Bridge—was completed on October 11, 1941 and was initially designated NY 1X. The NY 1X designation was removed in 1946 and replaced with a realigned NY 1A, which had previously followed Bruckner Boulevard and Shore Road between what is now the Bruckner Interchange and Exit 5 on the Hutch. The NY 1A designation was completely removed c. 1962.
Originally, the parkway was built and designated all the way to the Bronx–Whitestone Bridge, but the original parkway designs did not allow for commercial traffic. When the bridge was designated I-678, the section between the Bruckner Interchange and the Bronx–Whitestone Bridge had to be converted to Interstate Highway standards. Once that was completed in 1972, that section was assigned the I-678 designation and renamed the Hutchinson River Expressway. Modifications in 1984 included the straightening of some curves, increased sight distances, removal of the rustic lightposts, and lengthening of acceleration and deceleration lanes. Originally, there was a 10 cent toll in Pelham between exits 7 and 8. The toll was increased to 25 cents in 1958 and removed on October 31, 1994, with the last toll collected just before midnight. The tolls were abolished on the Saw Mill River and Hutchinson River parkways in November 1994. In mid-2021, the parkway's exit numbers were changed from sequential to mileage-based numbering. In addition, I-684 was assigned an exit number after initially being unsigned, which is Exit 16A.
## Exit list
|
[
"## Route description",
"### Throggs Neck to Pelham",
"### Mount Vernon to Connecticut",
"## History",
"## Exit list"
] | 2,130 | 15,008 |
3,167,330 |
Dunstaffnage Castle
| 1,079,842,572 |
Castle in Argyll and Bute, Scotland, UK
|
[
"Castles in Argyll and Bute",
"Clan Campbell",
"Clan MacDougall",
"Historic Scotland properties in Argyll and Bute",
"Reportedly haunted locations in Scotland",
"Scheduled Ancient Monuments in Argyll and Bute"
] |
Dunstaffnage Castle (Scottish Gaelic: Caisteal Dhùn Stadhainis) is a partially ruined castle in Argyll and Bute, western Scotland. It lies 3 miles (5 km) NNE of Oban, situated on a platform of conglomerate rock on a promontory at the south-west of the entrance to Loch Etive, and is surrounded on three sides by the sea. The castle and the nearby chapel ruin have been a Historic Scotland property since 1958. Both are Scheduled Ancient Monuments.
The castle dates back to the 13th century, making it one of Scotland's oldest stone castles, in a local group which includes Castle Sween and Castle Tioram. Guarding a strategic location, it was built by the MacDougall lords of Lorn, and has been held since the 15th century by the Clan Campbell. To this day there is a hereditary Captain of Dunstaffnage, although they no longer reside at the castle. Dunstaffnage is maintained by Historic Environment Scotland, and is open to the public, although the 16th century gatehouse is retained as the private property of the Captain. The prefix dun in the name means "fort" in Gaelic, while the rest of the name derives from Norse stafr-nis, "headland of the staff".
## History
### Before Dunstaffnage
Before the construction of the castle, Dunstaffnage may have been the location of a Dál Riatan stronghold, known as Dun Monaidh, as early as the 7th century. It was recorded, by John Monipennie in 1612, that the Stone of Destiny was kept here after being brought from Ireland, and before it was moved to Scone Palace in 843. However, Iona and Dunadd are considered more likely, given their known connections with Dál Riatan and Strathclyde kings. Hector Boece records that the stone was kept at "Evonium", which has traditionally been identified with Dunstaffnage, although in 2010 the writer A. J. Morton identified Evonium with Irvine in Ayrshire.
### The MacDougalls
There was a castle here in the time of Somerled, Lord of the Isles. However, the castle became the seat of Duncan MacDougall, Lord of Lorn and grandson of Somerled in the second quarter of the 13th century. He had also travelled to Rome in 1237 and was the founder of nearby Ardchattan Priory. Duncan's son Ewen MacDougall inherited his father's title in the 1240s, and expanded the MacDougall influence, styling himself "King of the Isles" though that title belonged to the MacDonalds. It is probable that Ewen built the three round towers onto the castle, and constructed and enlarged the hall inside.
Following Alexander III's repulse of the Norse influence in Argyll, the MacDougalls backed the Scottish monarchy, and Ewen's son Alexander was made the first sheriff of Argyll in 1293. However, they supported the Balliol side during the Wars of Scottish Independence which broke out a few years later. Robert Bruce defeated the Clan MacDougall at the Battle of the Pass of Brander in August 1308. After a brief siege, King Robert took control of the MacDougall castle of Dunstaffnage. He did not destroy it, as he did others, but appointed a constable and provisioned it, thinking to use it to guard the countryside and seaways. With the land he gave his friend, Angus Og Macdonald, Lord of the Isles, that included much of the MacDougall lands, including nearby Mull, the castle could be well used for that purpose by the Isleman.
### Royal fortress
Now a Crown property, Dunstaffnage was controlled by a series of keepers. James I seized the castle in 1431, following the Battle of Inverlochy, as his enemies were hiding inside. In 1455 James Douglas, 9th Earl of Douglas stayed at Dunstaffnage, on his way to treat with John MacDonald, Lord of the Isles. This followed James II's attack on Douglas power, and led to the signing of the Treaty of Westminster-Ardtornish. A later keeper, John Stewart of Lorn, was a rival of Alan MacDougall, and was stabbed by his supporters on his way to his marriage at Dunstaffnage Chapel in 1463, although he survived long enough to make his vows. Although MacDougall took the castle, he was ousted by James III, who granted Dunstaffnage to Colin Campbell, 1st Earl of Argyll in 1470.
### Clan Campbell
The Earls of Argyll appointed Captains to oversee Dunstaffnage, and keep it in readiness, on their behalf. Changes were made to the buildings, particularly the gatehouse, which was rebuilt around this time. The Campbells were loyal allies of the royal house, and Dunstaffnage was used as a base for government expeditions against the MacDonald Lords of the Isles, among others, during the 15th and 16th centuries. James IV visited Dunstaffnage on two occasions.
Dunstaffnage saw action during the Civil War, holding out against Montrose's army in 1644. The castle was burned by royalist troops, following the failure of Argyll's Rising in 1685, against the Catholic James VII. During the Jacobite risings of 1715 and 1745, the castle was occupied by government troops. Flora MacDonald, who helped Bonnie Prince Charlie to escape from Scotland, was briefly imprisoned here while en route to imprisonment in London.
According to W. Douglas Simpson the castle appears in Tobias Smollet's Humphry Clinker, which although not naming Dunstaffnage, presents "a fair picture of life in the castle in the third quarter of the eighteenth century".
### Decline and restoration
The Campbells continued to add to the castle, building a new house over the old west range in 1725. However, the rest of the castle was already decaying. In 1810 an accidental fire gutted the gatehouse, and the Captains ceased to live here, moving to Dunstaffnage House some 2 km to the south-east. Tenants lived in the 1725 house within the castle until 1888.
Restoration work was undertaken in 1903 by the Duke of Argyll, the castle's owner. This was followed in 1912 by a court case, in which the Court of Session ruled that Angus Campbell, the 20th hereditary Captain, had right of residence notwithstanding the Duke of Argyll's ownership. Works were delayed by World War I, and the planned total restoration was never completed. In 1958, the 21st Captain and the Duke agreed to hand the castle into state care, and it is now open to the public as a Historic Environment Scotland property.
## Description
### Walls
Dunstaffnage is an irregular quadrangular structure of great strength, with rounded towers at three of the angles. It measures approximately 35 by 30 metres (115 by 98 ft), and has a circumference of about 120 metres (390 ft). The walls are of coursed rubble, with sandstone dressings, and stand up to 18 m (60 ft) high, including the conglomerate bedrock platform. The walls are up to 3 m (10 ft) thick, affording strong defence to this highly strategic location, guarding the entrance to Loch Etive and the Pass of Brander beyond, and today commanding a splendid view. The parapet walk, which once followed the whole of the walls, has been partially restored with new stone flags. The original parapet is now also gone. Arrow slits, later converted into gunloops, are the only openings. Brass cannon recovered from wrecked vessels of the Spanish Armada were once mounted on the walls.
### Round towers
Soon after the construction of the castle walls, three round towers were built on the north, east, and west towers. The north tower, or donjon, is the largest, comprising three or four storeys originally, and probably housed the lord's private apartments. The west tower is almost internal, barely projecting beyond the rounded corner of the curtain wall, and could only be entered via the parapet walk. The basement level contains a pit prison which was accessed from above. The east tower was almost completely rebuilt in the late 15th century as a gatehouse. Each tower was probably once topped by a conical roof.
### The gatehouse
The gatehouse was built by the Campbells in the late 15th century, replacing an earlier round tower in the east corner. It takes the form of a four-storey harled tower house, with the entrance passage running through half the vaulted basement, the other half forming guard rooms with arrow slits facing the gate. The present approach to the gate is by a stone stair, replacing an earlier drawbridge. The tower was remodelled in the 18th century to provide reception rooms and a private suite. The dormer windows at the top are capped by the pediments from the 1725 house (see below), and bear the date, the Campbell arms, and the initials AEC and DLC, for Aeneas Campbell, 11th Captain, and his wife Dame Lilias. The pediments were moved here during the 1903 restoration works.
### Internal ranges
The east range was located between the north and east towers, although only foundations remain. This was the principal range of buildings and contained a large hall above vaulted cellars. The hall had double-lancet windows, decorated with carved patterns, which were later blocked up; their outlines can be seen in the east curtain wall.
A second range stood along the north-west wall, and would have been connected to the hall range by the donjon tower. The ground floor housed a kitchen. In 1725 the range was remodelled into a two-storey house, accessed via a stone stair, and topped with the dormer windows which now form part of the gatehouse. The well in front is original, although the large stone surround is of 19th century date.
## Dunstaffnage Chapel
A ruined chapel lies around 150 metres (490 ft) to the south-west of the castle. This was also built by Duncan MacDougall of Lorn, as a private chapel, and features detailed stonework of outstanding quality. Experts believe that the chapel was built in the second quarter of the 13th century. The chapel is 20 by 6 metres (66 by 20 ft), and formerly had a timber roof. The lancet windows carry dog-tooth carving, and have fine wide-splayed arches internally. The chapel was already ruinous in 1740, when a burial aisle was built on to the east end, to serve as a resting place for the Campbells of Dunstaffnage.
## Captain of Dunstaffnage
Traditionally, an officer called the Hereditary Captain of Dunstaffnage is responsible for the castle and its defence. The office still exists, and to retain the title (now rather a sinecure without military significance), the incumbent is required to spend three nights a year in the castle. No other responsibilities or privileges now attach to the post.
## Castle ghost
A ghost, known as the "Ell-maid of Dunstaffnage", is said to haunt the castle. A type of gruagach, the ghost's appearances are said to be associated with events in the lives of the hereditary keepers.
|
[
"## History",
"### Before Dunstaffnage",
"### The MacDougalls",
"### Royal fortress",
"### Clan Campbell",
"### Decline and restoration",
"## Description",
"### Walls",
"### Round towers",
"### The gatehouse",
"### Internal ranges",
"## Dunstaffnage Chapel",
"## Captain of Dunstaffnage",
"## Castle ghost"
] | 2,414 | 2,151 |
848,414 |
St Catherine's Court
| 1,143,543,559 |
Grade I listed manor house in Bath and North East Somerset, United Kingdom
|
[
"Grade I listed buildings in Bath and North East Somerset",
"Grade I listed houses in Somerset",
"Grade II* listed parks and gardens in Somerset",
"Manor houses in England"
] |
St Catherine's Court is a manor house in a secluded valley north of Bath, Somerset, England. It is a Grade I listed property. The gardens are Grade II\* listed on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of special historic interest in England.
The original house was a priory grange for the monks of Bath Abbey adjacent to the Church of St Catherine. At the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the manor was granted to John Malte and passed down to the courtier John Harington. It was bought in 1591 by John Blanchard and housed his descendants for generations, but the property fell into disrepair. In the 19th century, the house was bought by Colonel Joseph Holden Strutt who renovated it, with the work being continued by his sons. In 1984, actress Jane Seymour bought the house and carried out further renovation. During her ownership, the property was used as a recording studio and party venue, which caused complaints among the neighbours. It has since been further extended and is now rented out as a wedding venue.
The fabric of the building has changed over the centuries with a two-storey porch being added in 1610. Further extensions were added in the early 19th century, and the orangery and library were added in the early 20th century. In the 21st century, another addition including a swimming pool was added. The house is surrounded by 4 hectares (9.9 acres) of landscaped grounds with terraces joined by flights of steps. The barn within the grounds is from the 13th to 15th centuries.
## History
The manor of St Catherine belonged to Prior Cantlow of Bath Abbey in medieval times. It takes its name from the Church of St Catherine beside the manor house. When the house was not occupied by the monks, it was leased. In 1536, the lease was to Thomas Llewellyn, who remained as the tenant after the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Henry VIII granted the manor to his tailor, John Malte, in 1546. Part of the condition of the gift was that he adopt the king's illegitimate daughter Ethelreda Malte. Ethelreda inherited the house and married John Harington. After Ethelreda's death in 1551, Harrington married again. His son from this marriage was another John Harington who grew up and became a courtier of Elizabeth I and invented the first flush toilet. He spent most of his time at his principle seat at nearby Kelston and, in 1591, sold St Catherine's Court to John Blanchard. His son, William Blanchard, remodelled the house. His initials appear in the plasterwork frieze of a bedroom. The Blanchard family lived at the court for several generations. In 1610, the porch was added and a terraced garden laid out. The house passed by marriage to the Parry family but was not maintained, and the fabric of the building was declining by the 18th century, when half of the building was used by a tenant farmer.
The house was bought by Colonel Joseph Holden Strutt, a British soldier and long-standing Member of Parliament. He renovated the house and neighbouring church. He extended the house before his death in 1845. His youngest daughter Charlotte Olivia inherited the house and lived there with her husband, the Reverend Robert Drummond, until her death in 1897. In 1912, it was inherited by Richard Strutt, the youngest son of the second Baron Rayleigh. Richard Strutt added an orangery and built the library based on designs by Charles Bateman. In addition, he joined the ruined chapel near the gate to the rest of the house. The house was then inherited by his son, John Strutt.
In 1984, actress Jane Seymour bought the house with her then husband David Flynn for £350,000. After spending £3 million on refurbishments, they undertook renovation of the house. They brought purchased furniture from Littlecote House, owned by Sir Seton Wills, as he was selling his house and there was little furniture at St Catherine's. Seymour spent summers at the house. After her divorce from Flynn and marriage to American film producer James Keach, Seymour rented out the manor as a film set, recording studio and latterly country house estate/hotel for corporate events and weddings. The English band The Cure recorded their album Wild Mood Swings there in 1994 and 1995. The band came back in the autumn of 1998 to record most of their 2000 album Bloodflowers. Radiohead recorded most of their 1997 album OK Computer there. New Order also recorded part of their 2005 album Waiting for the Sirens' Call and the unreleased 2013 track Lost Sirens at St Catherine's Court. The property was also rented by Robbie Williams, as seen in the first episode of MTV Cribs. In May 2007, Seymour was granted a 24-hour alcohol and entertainment licence under new UK regulations, by Bath and North East Somerset council. Neighbours complained that the access lane was too narrow and the noise excessive. Seymour won the court battle, but sold the house in November 2007 to an unknown buyer. In 2009, a planning application for a two-storey extension, including a swimming pool was submitted to the local council. This was on the site of a previous orchard from which the trees were transplanted. The house is now available for catered rental and weddings.
## Architecture
The oldest part of the house, the north front, was built in the Elizabethan era but incorporates parts of the earlier priory grange on the site. The front has sloping gables which reduce the load on the walls beneath them. The porch which was added in 1610 has tuscan columns supporting a balustrade with a statue of "Bungey", a favourite spaniel of John Harrington. It leads into a passage and the "oak room" which has wooden panelling with a moulded ceiling and 17th century fireplace. Similar features can be found in the hall and dining room. The ceiling of the library is an imitation of that at Audley End House, while the woodwork is mostly Jacobean. The staircase to the bedrooms incorporates the base of a tree trunk growing under the house.
The 4 hectares (9.9 acres) gardens and grounds and laid out in terraces and include a paved court with an octagonal pool and separate areas enclosed by clipped yew hedges. More recent landscaping to the south of the house is in an Italianate style with pergolas. The barn within the grounds was probably built between the 13th and 15th centuries. In 2008 proposals were submitted to turn the barn into offices and a workshop.
Many of the walls and structures within the gardens, such as the central flight of steps, were built in the late 17th century. The gatepiers and flanking walls north east of the house were added in the mid 19th century. The gardens are Grade II\* listed on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of special historic interest in England.
|
[
"## History",
"## Architecture"
] | 1,486 | 20,855 |
499,701 |
Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina
| 1,164,819,879 |
Second-highest elected official in the state
|
[
"Lieutenant Governors of North Carolina"
] |
The lieutenant governor of North Carolina is the second-highest elected official in the U.S. state of North Carolina and is the only elected official to have powers in both the legislative and executive branches of state government. A member of the North Carolina Council of State, the lieutenant governor serves a four-year term with a two consecutive term limit. The current lieutenant governor is Mark Robinson, a Republican, who has held the office since 2021. The Constitution of North Carolina designates the lieutenant governor the ex officio president of the State Senate and a member of the State Board of Education. They are also required to serve as acting governor of the state in the event of the governor's absence, and assume the governorship in the event it becomes vacant.
Five lieutenant governors have succeeded to the governorship throughout the office's history due to a vacancy. The constitution allows the governor and General Assembly to assign the lieutenant governor additional duties, and the lieutenant governor has thus been accorded membership on and responsibility for several appointments on other state boards. Unlike other Council of State offices, there is no mechanism to fill a vacancy in the lieutenant governorship between elections. From its creation in 1868 up until the 1970s, the lieutenant governorship was a single-term, part-time position largely confined to legislative duties when the General Assembly was in session. Most of the candidates who sought the office were veteran legislators seeking a final prestigious accomplishment for their careers. In 1971, new legislation declared it a full-time job.
In 1972, the Democratic-controlled General Assembly expanded the office's resources to challenge the incoming Republican governor. In 1977, the lieutenant governor was constitutionally authorized to serve two consecutive terms. The office's political prominence increased over the years following the succession amendment and the legislature continued to expand its powers. Upon a Republican's assumption of lieutenant gubernatorial office in 1989, Democrats in the Senate modified the body's rules, stripping the office of its long-standing powers to appoint committees in that house and assign bills to those committees. With the shift away from legislative duties, the office became increasingly used as a means to enhance its incumbents' bids for higher office; lieutenant governors have often run for governor, but few have been successful.
## History
Under North Carolina's first constitution in 1776, the state's executive authority was exercised by the governor. It accorded the duty of presiding over the North Carolina Senate to a speaker of the Senate, who was also to act as governor in case that office became vacant. The office of lieutenant governor was created by the state's 1868 constitution. The lieutenant governor—who was to be chosen by popular election—replaced the speaker of the Senate as that body's presiding officer and assumed the former office's role in succeeding to the governorship in the event it became vacant. Furthermore, the constitution made the official an ex officio member of the newly-created State Board of Education.
From 1868 until 1970, presiding over the Senate was the lieutenant governor's primary role, and in that capacity they appointed senators to committees (a power accorded to them by Senate rules) and oversaw the passage of legislation. The job was a part-time position, since the lieutenant governor served only when the General Assembly was in session or in the absence of the governor. What other functions they performed were largely ceremonial, and the office attracted little public attention. From 1943 to 1954, by informal arrangement, the official chaired the State Board of Education. Constitutional revisions which took effect in 1971 made the lieutenant governor a member of the Council of State. The Executive Reorganization Act of 1971 affirmed the role of lieutenant governor as a full-time job. With the election of James Holshouser as governor in 1972—the first Republican to win the office in decades—the Democratic majority in the General Assembly was compelled to raise the stature of the office of the lieutenant governor, which was held by Democrat Jim Hunt. It raised the job's salary from \$5,000 to \$30,000 per year, increased the office operating budget, and expanded its staff from two to five.
From 1868 to 1977, the lieutenant governor and the governor were limited to standalone four-year terms. In 1977, the state constitution was amended to allow both the governor and the lieutenant governor to serve two consecutive terms. James C. Green, who served from 1977 to 1985, was the first lieutenant governor to serve consecutive terms. The office's political prominence increased over the years following the succession amendment and the legislature continued to expand its powers. Green led the Senate in an effort at the onset of his term to make the lieutenant governor the ex officio chair of the State Board of Education by law, directly challenging the authority of Hunt, who had since become governor and was responsible for recommending the board's chair. The proposal was ultimately defeated in the House of Representatives.
Despite this, the legislature granted the lieutenant governor automatic membership on several state boards and significant appointment responsibilities. By 1982, North Carolina had one of the most powerful lieutenant governorships in the country. By 1989, the lieutenant governor was responsible for 195 appointments to 87 state boards (106 of these were subject to legislative confirmation). Despite this, the officials experienced mistrust from the Senate and faced several unsuccessful attempts to strip them of their appointive powers. From 1985 to 1989, Democrat Robert B. Jordan served as lieutenant governor while Republican James G. Martin served as governor, making him the de facto leader of the North Carolina Democratic Party. Upon Republican Jim Gardner's assumption of lieutenant gubernatorial office in 1989, Democrats in the Senate modified the body's rules, stripping the office of its powers to appoint committees in that house and assign bills to its committees. During Gardner's tenure, the office's staff was further expanded. In 1997 the General Assembly debated modifying the constitution to provide for the election of the lieutenant governor on a joint ticket with the governor or to have the office assume the responsibilities of the North Carolina Secretary of State, but these proposals did not move forward. Another effort in 2015 to amend the constitution to provide for the office's joint ticket election with the governor failed.
Three lieutenant governors assumed the office of governor upon the death of the incumbent: Curtis H. Brogden in 1874, Thomas M. Holt in 1891, and Luther H. Hodges in 1954. Tod R. Caldwell in 1870 assumed the office upon the previous governor's impeachment and removal, and Thomas J. Jarvis assumed it in 1879 upon the incumbent's resignation. Historically, the lieutenant governorship was often sought by veteran state legislators as a final prestigious accomplishment for their careers. With the shift away from legislative duties after the 1970s, the office became increasingly used as a means to enhance incumbents' bids for higher office; lieutenant governors have often run for governor, but few have been successful. Bev Perdue was the first woman to serve as lieutenant governor, while Mark Robinson was the first black person to ever be elected to the office. He was sworn-in on January 9, 2021.
## Election
As with other state officials, only qualified voters in North Carolina are eligible to be elected lieutenant governor. Unlike most other candidates, who must be at least 21 years of age, any potential lieutenant governor—like the governor—must be at least 30 years of age. They must also have been a citizen of the United States for at least five years and a resident of North Carolina for at least two years preceding election. Like the governor, the lieutenant governor is elected every four years thereafter, but is elected on their own ticket. Contested elections for the office of lieutenant governor are resolved by a majority vote of the General Assembly. Their term of office begins on January 1 following their election. They serve for a four-year term and until their successor has assumed office. The lieutenant governor is limited to serving two consecutive terms in office, with no limits on nonconsecutive terms.
## Powers, duties, and structure
The lieutenant governor is the only officer in North Carolina vested with responsibilities in both the executive and legislative branches of state government. The constitution designates the lieutenant governor the President of the Senate. In this capacity they direct the debate on bills and maintain order in that house, but have little influence over its workflow. They cannot cast a vote in the Senate except to break ties. In the event of a gubernatorial vacancy, the constitution requires the lieutenant governor to assume the governorship. If the governor is temporarily incapacitated or absent, the lieutenant governor is to serve as acting governor. In the event the governor-elect fails to qualify for their office, the lieutenant governor-elect becomes governor.
The constitution makes the lieutenant governor ex offico a member of the North Carolina Board of Education and one of the ten state officers who comprise the Council of State. They are also ex officio a member of the North Carolina Capital Planning Commission, the State Board of Community Colleges, and the State Board of Economic Development. They have the power to appoint some members of other executive state boards, though state law does not grant them the power to create their own officials boards. The constitution allows the governor and General Assembly to assign the lieutenant governor additional duties.
The lieutenant governor's office is located in the Hawkins-Hartness House on Blount Street in Raleigh. They also have an office in the North Carolina State Legislative Building. They retain a staff to assist in carrying out their functions. As of December 2022, the office has two employees retained under the terms of the State Human Resources Act. As with all Council of State officers, the lieutenant governor's salary is fixed by the General Assembly and cannot be reduced during their term of office. In 2022, the lieutenant governor's annual salary was \$146,421.
## Removal and vacancies
Unlike with other officers on the Council of State, the governor of North Carolina cannot appoint an interim officer in the event the lieutenant governor's office becomes vacant. In such an instance, the lieutenant governor's role in the Senate is assumed by the president pro tempore. In the event that the lieutenant governor is impeached by the North Carolina House of Representatives, the chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court presides over the court of impeachment, composed at minimum of a majority of the members of the State Senate. A two-thirds affirmative vote of the senators present constitutes a conviction and thus removal and future disqualification from holding office. Avenues for removing the lieutenant governor from office in circumstances other than impeachment—such as a lack of physical or mental capacity—may be determined by law.
## List of lieutenant governors
Parties
|
[
"## History",
"## Election",
"## Powers, duties, and structure",
"## Removal and vacancies",
"## List of lieutenant governors"
] | 2,180 | 18,269 |
36,197,536 |
Sexify (song)
| 1,147,134,167 | null |
[
"2012 singles",
"2012 songs",
"Epic Records singles",
"Leah LaBelle songs",
"So So Def Recordings singles",
"Song recordings produced by Pharrell Williams",
"Songs written by Pharrell Williams"
] |
"Sexify" is a song recorded by American singer Leah LaBelle, which was released on May 1, 2012, as part of the sampler album Pharrell Williams and Jermaine Dupri Present Leah LaBelle (2012). Written and produced by Pharrell Williams, it was the first song that LaBelle recorded with Williams as part of a joint record deal with Epic Records, So So Def Recordings, and I Am Other. It is an R&B song that features throwback elements to 1990s music. In its lyrics inspired by headlines from the women's fashion magazine Cosmopolitan, LaBelle instructs a woman on how to draw and keep the attention of a man.
"Sexify" received mostly positive reviews from music critics who praised LaBelle's sound and Williams' production. It did receive some criticism, with one critic questioning whether the throwback nature of the single would negatively affect its commercial potential. The song peaked at number 23 and number 89 on the Adult R&B Songs and the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs Billboard charts respectively. It had a large increase in digital downloads after its inclusion in an episode of R&B Divas: Atlanta.
The song's accompanying music video was directed by Sarah Chatfield and shows LaBelle holding a pizza party with her friends, after giving them advice on how to "sexify" themselves. It features cameos from Williams, So So Def Recording's founder Jermaine Dupri, and American singer JoJo. LaBelle performed the song live during promotional appearances at New York City media outlets.
## Background and release
Initially rising to fame in 2004 as a finalist on the third season of American Idol, Leah LaBelle found minor success through releasing covers of songs on her YouTube account. American record producer Pharrell Williams discovered LaBelle through her videos and called So So Def Recording's founder and CEO Jermaine Dupri for his opinion regarding her. In 2011, LaBelle was signed to a joint record deal with L.A. Reid's company Epic Records, Dupri's So So Def Recordings, and Williams' label I Am Other. LaBelle said that Williams and Dupri were drawn to her style of performing.
Recorded in Miami, "Sexify" was the first song that LaBelle and Williams completed together; it was written and produced solely by Williams. Additional and assistant engineering was carried out by Beau Villas and Matthew Desremeaux. The track was mixed by Jimmy Douglass, and mastered by Dave Kutch. Andrew Coleman recorded and edited the final product.
On May 1, 2012, "Sexify" was released as part of the sampler album Pharrell Williams and Jermaine Dupri Present Leah LaBelle; it also included four other tracks: "So Hot", "Make Me Get Up", "What Do We Got To Lose?", and "Mr. Scissors". LaBelle described the sampler as representative of her overall sound, calling it "that feel-good-texture music" with a "throwback-but-new feel". "Sexify" was released separately as a digital download on the following dates in July depending upon the country: (July 19, July 22, and July 29).
## Composition and lyrical interpretation
"Sexify" is a three-minute, 28-second R&B song that was inspired by headlines from the women's fashion magazine Cosmopolitan. According to LaBelle, the song originated from a discussion with Williams about "the Cosmopolitan women of today", and the duo compiled a list of frequently used phrases from the magazine that could be used as lyrics. Cosmopolitan's Korin Miller connected the single's title with a headline from the magazine's November 2011 cover: "Sexify Your Eyes".
The lyrics feature LaBelle offering advice on how to keep a man's attention and sexual interest. LaBelle described the single as an "anthem for women", in which she defined the term "sexify" as a way for women to "make [themselves] feel comfortable and confident and happy and proud" or help their men feel the same way. The chorus is accompanied by a "summery two-step tune", including lyrics such as "I gotta whole bunch of ways" and "He'll come home girl / If you know what I mean." LaBelle continues to instruct women by singing: "I'll sexify you / Have you thinking about my name in the middle of the day."
Bradley Stern of MuuMuse described "Sexify" as a "throwback to classic, feel-good R&B"; LaBelle's vocal performance was viewed as "raspy" by Soulbounce.com. During an interview with Essence, LaBelle said that she was first introduced to R&B music after her parents emigrated from Bulgaria to the United States. She recounted that she was initially discouraged from pursuing a career in the genre, but later said that she was not concerned with "the clichés surrounding white artists singing R&B". She followed this up saying: "I just want to make good music. I'm here and I'm doing what I love and the music that I love. It's going to reach who it's supposed to reach." LaBelle was identified as a blue-eyed soul singer by Essence.
## Critical reception
"Sexify" received primarily positive reception from music critics, with the single being called a "fun-girl talk anthem" and "a wonderful introduction to Leah's soulful sound" by BET. It was praised for being catchy and radio-friendly by Singersroom and Complex. Nicole James found the song to be "a much needed dose of late-'90s R&B realness". The single was listed as an example of the female R&B revival in 2012 by MTV's Katherine St. Asaph, who commended it as "retro-sassy" and "improbably great". Alternatively, SoulBounce.com felt that the throwback nature of the song would limit its chances for commercial success.
Critics also positively commented on LaBelle's vocal performance. Korin Miller praised LaBelle's vocals during a live performance, calling the lyrics "so fun and Cosmo-y". Rap-Up also complimented LaBelle's voice as powerful, and wrote that the instrumental was an example of a "signature Pharrell production". Nicole James of Fuse wrote that the song had a similar throwback style to that of Brandy, Alicia Keys, and Whitney Houston. The single was determined to be a good match for LaBelle's voice by SoulBounce.com, who called it a "solid enough cut". Complex's Jacob Moore wrote that the single and its accompanying video positively showcased LaBelle's look and sound.
## Commercial performance
In May 2012, "Sexify" reached a position of number three on the Bubbling Under R&B/Hip-Hop Singles Billboard chart. It debuted on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs Billboard chart three weeks later, and went on to peak at number 89 in July. It stayed on the chart for a total of ten weeks. "Sexify" later peaked at number 23 on the Adult R&B Songs Billboard chart on August 4, and remained on the chart for a total of ten weeks. Following the song's inclusion in Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta, LaBelle's digital sales increased by over 500 percent. It was featured in the fourth episode of the first season of the series during a scene in which "Scrappy reveals that he and Shay are more than just friends".
## Music video and promotion
A lyric video for the single was released in April. A music video, filmed by director Sarah Chatfield, was completed in Los Angeles in March 2012. In the video, LaBelle instructs her friends over the phone about how to "sexify" themselves while taking a bubble bath and modeling clothing in her wardrobe. The video ends with LaBelle inviting them to a pizza party in her apartment. Close-ups to LaBelle's closet are shown throughout the video, as well as a product placement featuring Qream crème liqueur. It includes cameos by Williams as a pizza delivery boy, Dupri as LaBelle's landlord, and American singer JoJo as one of her friends. The music video premiered on MTV.com, and was introduced by LaBelle, Durpi, and Williams on the music video show 106 & Park. Nicole James complimented LaBelle's hairstyle, and described the video as her new favorite. Prior to the release of the music video, a behind-the-scenes clip was shown as an episode of Living the Life, which included choreographer Fatima Robinson and LaBelle's mother.
LaBelle first performed "Sexify" during a promotional appearance at the Cosmopolitan headquarters, and later promoted the single through performances at "various New York media outlets", such as the Billboard and The Boombox offices. On May 4, Cosmopolitan offered free MP3 downloads of "Sexify" to new subscribers of LaBelle's mailing list, with the single being officially released on ITunes on June 19, 2012. LaBelle later performed the song at the Essence Music Festival, and a private benefit concert for the October 2012 issue of Vanity Fair. During the 2012 International Yardfest at Howard University, she sang "Sexify" as part of a medley with Williams' 2003 single "Frontin'". The following year, she performed the single as a part of a set for BET's Music Matters held on the weekend of the 55th Annual Grammy Awards.
## Formats and track listing
## Personnel
Credits adapted from the liner notes of "Sexify".
Management
- Epic Records
Personnel
- Composed By, Lyrics By – Pharrell Williams
- Engineer (Assistant Engineer) – Beau Vallas, Matthew Desremeaux
- Mastered By – Dave Kutch
- Mixed By – Jimmy Douglass
- Producer – Pharrell Williams
- Recorded By, Edited By – Andrew Coleman
## Charts
## Release history
|
[
"## Background and release",
"## Composition and lyrical interpretation",
"## Critical reception",
"## Commercial performance",
"## Music video and promotion",
"## Formats and track listing",
"## Personnel",
"## Charts",
"## Release history"
] | 2,087 | 11,845 |
17,956,541 |
Coltrane for Lovers
| 1,151,334,871 | null |
[
"2001 compilation albums",
"Albums produced by Bob Thiele",
"Compilation albums published posthumously",
"Hard bop compilation albums",
"Impulse! Records compilation albums",
"John Coltrane compilation albums",
"Verve Records compilation albums"
] |
Coltrane for Lovers is a compilation album of recordings by American jazz saxophonist-composer John Coltrane, released posthumously on January 23, 2001, by Impulse! and Verve Records. The 11 tracks compiled for the album are all romantic ballads from Coltrane's early years with Impulse!, being recorded during December 1961 to April 1963 at engineer Rudy Van Gelder's recording studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. Dominated by Coltrane's classic quartet, the sessions also included collaborations with vocalist Johnny Hartman and pianist Duke Ellington.
The recordings on Coltrane for Lovers initially received criticism for Coltrane's stylistic move from complex jazz compositions of the free jazz form to a simpler formula of ballads and blues. In the years since, they gained a legacy as one of Coltrane's most popular recordings and significant in the romantic jazz mode. For their inclusion on Coltrane for Lovers, the tracks were selected by producer Richard Seidel and remastering engineer Allan Tucker at Foothill Digital in New York City.
As the first release in the Verve for Lovers series, Coltrane for Lovers was issued 33 years after Coltrane's death and nearly 40 years after the original recording dates. The album charted at number 10 on Billboard magazine's Top Jazz Albums and was received positively by reviewers, who generally confirmed the popularity and aesthetic value of the recordings.
## Background
Shortly before completing his contract with Atlantic in May 1961, John Coltrane joined the newly formed Impulse! label, with whom the "Classic Quartet" would record. It is generally assumed that the clinching reason Coltrane signed with Impulse! was that it would enable him to work again with recording engineer Rudy Van Gelder, who had taped his Prestige sessions, as well as Blue Train. It was at Van Gelder's new studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey that Coltrane would record most of his records for the label.
During this period of Coltrane's recording career, critics and fans were fiercely divided in their estimation of Coltrane, who had radically altered his style from bebop to the modal and free jazz styles, as featured on Coltrane (1962), his first studio project for the Impulse! label. John Tynan of Down Beat magazine went so far as to call his playing "anti-jazz." In the midst of this controversy, Coltrane decided to release his next three albums in order to improve the critical perception of himself. In an interview with music journalist Gene Lees, Coltrane was asked of his musical and stylistic change from modal and free jazz to more simplistic forms and standards. He responded by stating "Variety".
John Coltrane's primary record producer, Bob Thiele, who had worked with Coltrane on his previous albums Live! at the Village Vanguard (1961) and Coltrane (1962), acknowledged that the next three Coltrane albums to be released were to be recorded at his behest and as ballad-themed to quiet the negative criticism of Coltrane's more diverse playing. The material chosen for Coltrane's next records would be suited for more slow-tempo, smooth and romantic playing, in contrast to Coltrane's forceful, aggressive style that had dominated his previously issued recordings, and which had led to reviewers describing his playing as "angry".
## Recordings and composition
The recordings featured on Coltrane for Lovers were made between December 1961 and April 1963, during his early years with Impulse! Records. As Thiele intended, these next of Coltrane's releases featured the hard bop form of playing, incorporating influences from rhythm and blues, gospel music, and the blues, especially with the saxophone and piano, and straight-ahead ballads and standards. Ballads, recorded in late 1961 and 1962, was at first criticized as predictable and too simple after the aggressiveness Coltrane displayed on his previous recordings, but was later reevaluated favorably, by some as a masterpiece. On Duke Ellington and John Coltrane, Ellington "sat in" with the John Coltrane Quartet for a set dominated by the pianist's songs. Some performances had Ellington's usual sidemen, bassist Aaron Bell and drummer Sam Woodyard, replacing Jimmy Garrison and Elvin Jones in Coltrane's group.
Recording for the collaboration LP John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman (1963) found the "classic quartet" backing up singer Hartman on ballad standards. Rolling Stone magazine later described the album as "...one of Coltrane's least innovative records, but impeccably dignified and elegant", and music critic Richard S. Ginell commented by saying that "Coltrane's eloquence and the warm, masculine baritone of Hartman can still break your heart." Renowned writer and poet Al Young wrote of the album's most well-known recording, "My One and Only Love", and interpretation of the song by Coltrane and Hartman:
> Without using words, great jazz interpreters make you feel the emotions that linger in the words and quiver between the words to the songs they perform. If, for example, you know the lyric to Robert Mellin and Guy Wood's "My One and Only Love", you dissolve at once into the undulant sea of John Coltrane's poetic paraphrase of that unremitting declaration of love... With the husky yet tender voice of Trane's tenor saxophone backing you, the very thought of you lover makes your heart sing like that April breeze on the wings of spring. You have no trouble picturing the splendor of it; the shadows that fall in the hush of night; and arms, those knowing arms and lips so tender, so warm that the heavenly touching of hands can only lead to sweet surrender.
Shortly after the release of his ballad-oriented albums, Coltrane returned to a more experimental phase, recording Impressions (1963) and A Love Supreme (1965). In spite of this, the previous serious of ballad-oriented recordings served in helping increase Coltrane's legacy and influence on romantic jazz.
## Compilation and release
Coltrane for Lovers compiled eleven of the recordings from the aforementioned period seen best fit by the compilation's producers for a romance-themed compilation. The album was released in the United States by the Verve Music Group on January 23, 2001. Thirty three years after Coltrane's death and nearly 40 years after the original recording dates, the album entered the Top Jazz Albums chart and peaked at number 10 on March 3, 2001. It remained on the chart for 63 weeks.
The album served as the first of several other For Lovers compilations that the Verve label would later issue, including recordings by Sarah Vaughan, Chet Baker, and Charlie Parker. A similar compilation, entitled Plays for Lovers, was released by Prestige in 2003. Another Verve compilation of Coltrane ballads, entitled More Coltrane for Lovers, followed in 2005.
## Critical reception
In a four-star review, Allmusic editor Alex Henderson called Coltrane for Lovers "an excellent collection that has no problem reminding us just how warm and expressive his ballad playing could be." After discussing how Coltrane's ballad-playing has been undervalued in comparison to his more experimental recordings, in a December 21, 2001 article for The New York Times, writer Ben Ratliff wrote that "This collection ... presents all the argument you need." Some, however, have criticized the album and Verve negatively for repackaging Coltrane material for an unnecessary cash-in compilation. In The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD, Richard Cook and Brian Morton gave the album one out of four stars and commented, "Oh, for goodness' sake! We're tempted to tell you that this contains a previously unreleased rehearsal of Ascension, which we have long regarded as excellent make-out music, but it does not. Needless to say, the music is fine ... It's the concept we have problems with. Avoid."
The recordings compiled for Coltrane for Lovers have endured a legacy as one of Coltrane's best performing and interpreting of ballads and standards. In a September 2000 essay on the recordings, writer Al Young elaborated on John Coltrane's ability during the period of recording the compiled jazz ballads, writing that "The rapport between performer and audience smooths and deepens when a player of John Coltrane's caliber breathes personal expression into some aspect of a song's lyric or meaning." Young continued in his review of the album, stating:
> Jazz soloists are always expected to meet listener expectations. "You tell your story" is how twentieth-century soloists described the way they had their way with a song, as it were. They interpret, they embellish, and they set or induce a mood. Not only are musicians expected to coax personal meaning from songs ... we generally expect them to know the lyrics ... For Coltrane, blues and ballads were anything but separate; each told a story. And he was a superb teller of love stories. Listen to the glistening tenderness of his delivery ... Coltrane for Lovers contains some of the most romantic and popular music ever recorded. Revered by musicians, critics, and music fans alike, John Coltrane set the standard for ballads.
In a 2007 interview for Esquire magazine, author and Coltrane biographer Ben Ratliff praised Coltrane's music and balladry, stating "His work contains most of the well-known ideals of jazz... If you're interested in improvisation, this guy pushed improvisation to the wall. He was the best blues player of his time. He wrote and played incredible ballads. Record companies are still putting out compilations of Coltrane ballads called Coltrane for Lovers or whatever. You can poke fun at the idea, but if you ever listen to one, they're indescribably beautiful."
## Track listing
Track sources
- <sup>a</sup> originally from Coltrane (1962)
- <sup>b</sup> originally from Duke Ellington and John Coltrane (1962)
- <sup>c</sup> originally from Ballads (1962)
- <sup>d</sup> originally from John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman (1963)
- <sup>e</sup> originally from Impressions (1963)
## Charts
Billboard Music Charts (North America) – Coltrane for Lovers
- 2001: Top Jazz Albums – \#10 (63 weeks)
## Personnel
### Musicians
- John Coltrane – tenor saxophone
- Aaron Bell – double bass (tracks: 3, 8)
- Duke Ellington – piano (tracks: 3, 8)
- Jimmy Garrison – double bass (tracks: 1, 2, 5–7, 9–11)
- Johnny Hartman – vocals (tracks: 1, 5, 10)
- Roy Haynes – drums (tracks: 7)
- Elvin Jones – drums (tracks: 1–6, 9–11)
- McCoy Tyner – piano (tracks: 1, 2, 4–7, 9–11)
- Reggie Workman – double bass (tracks: 4)
- Sam Woodyard – drums (tracks: 8)
### Production
- Pamala Cestero – research
- GrowingStudio, Bklyn – design
- Amelie Hazard – illustrations, cover art
- Carlos Kase – research coordination
- Peter Keepnews – note editing
- Hollis King – art direction
- Bryan Koniarz – production coordination
- Renee Rosnes – sequencing
- Richard Seidel – compilation production
- Sherniece Smith – art production
- Chuck Stewart – photography
- Bob Thiele – original production
- Allan Tucker – remastering
- Rudy Van Gelder – original engineering
- Al Young – liner notes
|
[
"## Background",
"## Recordings and composition",
"## Compilation and release",
"## Critical reception",
"## Track listing",
"## Charts",
"## Personnel",
"### Musicians",
"### Production"
] | 2,538 | 37,016 |
24,218,067 |
Hygrophoropsis
| 1,136,442,292 |
Genus of fungi
|
[
"Boletales genera",
"Hygrophoropsidaceae",
"Taxa described in 1888",
"Taxa named by Joseph Schröter"
] |
Hygrophoropsis is a genus of gilled fungi in the family Hygrophoropsidaceae. It was circumscribed in 1888 to contain the type species, H. aurantiaca, a widespread fungus that, based on its appearance, has been affiliated with Cantharellus, Clitocybe, and Paxillus. Modern molecular phylogenetic analysis shows that the genus belongs to the suborder Coniophorineae of the order Boletales.
There are 16 accepted species of Hygrophoropsis, found in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Hygrophoropsis is a saprophytic genus that causes brown rot in the wood it colonises. The fruit bodies grow on the ground in woodlands, on moss, peat, and on woodchips. They are convex to infundibuliform (funnel-shaped) and have decurrent, forked brightly colored gills. The spores are dextrinoid, meaning that they stain reddish-brown in Melzer's reagent. Because H. aurantiaca has orange gills, it has been mistaken for a chanterelle, and hence it has been called a false chanterelle.
## Taxonomy
Hygrophoropsis was originally circumscribed in 1888 by German mycologist Joseph Schröter as a subgenus of Cantharellus. It contained a single species, the widespread H. aurantiaca, commonly known as the false chanterelle. German naturalist Bernhard Studer-Steinhäuslin concluded in 1900 that the fungus was more appropriately placed in the genus Clitocybe, based on its white spores, decurrent gills, and lack of a ring on the stipe. This classification was adopted in the early writings of influential mycologist Rolf Singer, who in 1943 proposed that Hygrophoropsis should be a subgenus of Clitocybe.
French naturalist Emile Martin-Sans elevated Hygrophoropsis to the status of genus in his 1929 publication L'Empoisonnement par les champignons et particulièrement les intoxications dues aux Agaricacées du groupe des Clitocybe et du groupe des Cortinarius, while attributing authorship to his countryman René Maire. According to Martin-Sans, he concurred with Maire's assessment of Hygrophoropsis, suggesting that it represented a form intermediate between Cantharellus and Clitocybe, and was thus worthy of generic rank. The name Hygrophoropsis refers to a likeness (Greek: ὄψις, opsis) to the genus Hygrophorus.
Hygrophoropsis aurantiaca has been confused with the true chanterelles (genus Cantharellus) because of overall similarities in appearance. A combination of characters—including forked gills, frequently off-centre stipe placement, and dextrinoid spores—suggested to others a relationship with Paxillus. These characteristics prompted Singer to classify the genus Hygrophoropsis in the Paxillaceae in 1946, although others placed it in the Tricholomataceae, a family that has been described as a wastebasket taxon. Singer initially included only two species, both with dextrinoid spores—H. aurantiaca and H. tapinia. He justified the placement of Hygrophoropsis in the Paxillaceae largely on fruit body morphology and spore size: "The discovery of a second species, H. tapinia, with smaller spores and an external appearance frankly suggesting Paxillus curtisii but never met with in Clitocybe, makes the affinity between Hygrophoropsis and Paxillus an established fact." In 1975, he added H. olida, a species with inamyloid but cyanophilous spores, whose characteristics otherwise aligned with the type species.
Hygrophoropsis is now the type genus of the family Hygrophoropsidaceae, circumscribed by Robert Kühner in 1980 to contain it and the genus Omphalotus. Singer considered this family to be "transient between Tricholomatales and Boletales". Molecular phylogenetic analysis confirmed its affinity lay in the order Boletales in 1997, though later research showed that it is not closely related to Paxillus or other gilled boletes. Instead, it is most closely related to the genus Leucogyrophana. Hygrophoropsis and Leucogyrophana are sister to Coniophora, near the base of the cladogram representing the Boletales.
The presence of several pigments in the type species, including variegatic acid, variegatorubin, and several other derivatives of pulvinic acid, suggests a chemotaxic relationship with the Boletaceae, Coniophoraceae, and Paxillaceae—families of Boletales with members that have similar compounds.
## Description
Hygrophoropsis species have fruit bodies with concave caps that often have wavy margins and rolled-in edges. The texture of the cap surface ranges from somewhat tomentose to velvety. Typical fruit body colors are orange, brownish-yellow (fulvous) or paler, buff, and cream. The gills have a decurrent attachment to the stipe. They are narrow with blunt edges, often multiply forked, and readily detachable from the stipe. The flesh is soft and generally the same colour as the fruit body surface, or lighter. The taste and odour of the flesh is usually nondescript, or similar to cultivated mushrooms. In contrast, H. rufa can have a distinct ozone-like smell, reportedly reminiscent of the orchid Oncidium ornithorhynchum or a photocopier.
The spore print colour ranges from whitish to cream. Microscopically, Hygrophoropsis lacks cystidia and has spores that are dextrinoid, meaning that they stain reddish-brown in Melzer's reagent. Clamp connections are present in the hyphae. With respect to overall appearance, Hygrophoropsis species closely resemble those in genus Cantharellula; the latter genus, however, has amyloid rather than dextrinoid spores.
## Habitat, distribution, and ecology
Collectively, Hygrophoropsis is a widespread genus, found in both Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Hygrophoropsis aurantiaca is the most widely distributed species, found on several continents. The other species are not well-known and have more limited ranges. Fruit bodies grow on the ground in woodlands, on moss, and peat, and on woodchips. Hygrophoropsis is a saprophytic genus, and causes brown rot in the wood it colonises. Some species may be facultatively mycorrhizal.
Hygrophoropsis aurantiaca secretes large amounts of oxalic acid—a reducing agent and relatively strong acid—into the soil around its woody substrate. This chemical stimulates weathering of the humus layer of forest soil, as the organic matter in soil breaks down into smaller molecules. This influences the solubility and turnover of nutrients (particularly phosphorus and nitrogen), which in turn affects their availability for use by forest trees.
## Species
A 2008 estimate in the Dictionary of the Fungi placed five species in the genus. As of November 2015, Index Fungorum accepts 16 species in Hygrophoropsis:
Hygrophorus pallidus, recorded by Charles Horton Peck in 1902, is considered by mycologist Thomas Kuyper to be not validly published and "better regarded as a nomen confusum", a taxonomic opinion corroborated by Geoffrey Kibby. Now considered the type species for the genus Aphroditeola, A. olida was formerly classified in Hygrophoropsis, but it lacks dextrinoid basidiospores, and phylogenetically it is classified in the Agaricales. Other species formerly placed in Hygrophoropsis but since transferred to other genera include: H. stevensonii (Berk. & Broome) Corner 1966 (now Gerronema stevensonii); H. albida (Fr.) Maire 1933 (now Gerronema albidum); H. umbonata (J.F.Gmel.) Kühner & Romagn. 1953 (now Cantharellula umbonata); and H. umbriceps (Cooke) McNabb 1969 (now Cantharellus umbriceps).
|
[
"## Taxonomy",
"## Description",
"## Habitat, distribution, and ecology",
"## Species"
] | 1,832 | 25,045 |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.