In cryptography, Blowfish is a keyed, symmetric block cipher, made in 1993 by Bruce Schneier and since 1993 has been included(put together) in a large number of encryption products. Blowfish has a good encryption rate in software and until 2008 no cryptanalytic attack model of it has been found. However, the AES block cipher algorithm now has more attention.

Schneier made Blowfish as a general-purpose algorithm, to be used as a replacement for the old DES algorithm and to remove the problems and difficulties of other encryption algorithms. At the time Blowfish was released, many other algorithms were proprietary, or were secrets. Schneier has said that, "Blowfish is unpatented, and will remain so in all countries. The algorithm is hereby placed in the public domain, and can be freely used by anyone."

Main features of the design include key-dependent S-boxes and a very complex key schedule. Blowfish is one of the fastest block ciphers used by many people, except when changing keys. Each new key needs to be pre-processed which takes the same time as encrypting about 4 kilobytes of text, which is very slow compared to other block ciphers. This stops its use in certain applications (such as in the smallest embedded systems like the early smartcards), but it is not a problem in other applications. In one of the applications, it is actually good: the password-hashing method used in OpenBSD uses an algorithm that comes from Blowfish which makes use of the slow key schedule; the idea is that the extra computational effort required gives protection against dictionary attacks. See key strengthening.

Blowfish has a 64-bit block size and a variable key length from 0 up to 448 bits
It is a 16-round Feistel cipher and uses large key-dependent S-boxes. It is similar in structure to CAST-128, which uses fixed S-boxes.

In 1996, Serge Vaudenay found a known-plaintext attack needing 28r + 1 known plaintexts to break, where r is the number of rounds. Moreover, he also found a class of weak keys that can be detected and broken by the same attack with only 24r + 1 known plaintexts. This attack cannot be used against the regular Blowfish; it assumes knowledge of the key-dependent S-boxes. Vincent Rijmen, in his Ph.D. papers, introduced a second-order differential attack that can break four rounds and no more. Still there is no known way to break the full 16 rounds, apart from a brute-force search.
A sign extension bug in one of the published C code has been found in 1996.

There is no good cryptanalysis on the full-round version of Blowfish known publicly till 2008. However, in 2007, Bruce Schneier noted that while Blowfish is still in use, he recommended using the new Twofish algorithm instead

Related pages
 Advanced Encryption Standard
 eSTREAM - An evaluation of new stream ciphers being conducted by the EU.
 Twofish
 MacGuffin

Notes and references

 Vincent Rijmen, "Cryptanalysis and design of iterated block ciphers", doctoral dissertation, October 1997.
 Bruce Schneier, Description of a New Variable-Length Key, 64-bit Block Cipher (Blowfish). Fast Software Encryption 1993: 191-204 .
 Bruce Schneier, The Blowfish Encryption Algorithm—One Year Later,  Dr. Dobb's Journal,  20(9), p. 137, September 1995 .
 Serge Vaudenay, "On the weak keys of Blowfish," Fast Software Encryption (FSE'96), LNCS 1039, D. Gollmann, Ed., Springer-Verlag, 1996, pp. 27–32.

Other websites
 Official Blowfish website
 List of products using Blowfish
 SCAN's entry for Blowfish
 Blowfish PHP and JavaScript implementation with online demo
 Blowfish JavaScript implementation and Page Encryption
 Blowfish PHP implementation
 Blowfish Java implementation (LGPL)

Cryptography

Blowfish (cipher)


The Rail Vehicle Accessibility (Non-Interoperable Rail System) Regulations 2010 (commonly known as RVAR 2010) is a Statutory Instrument in the United Kingdom. It aims to set standards designed to improve accessibility for disabled people on light rail passenger vehicles.

It came into force on 6 April 2010. The Instrument exercises powers conferred by the Disability Discrimination Act 1995.  It revokes and replaces the Rail Vehicle Accessibility Regulations 1998.

Applicability
RVAR 2010 sets standards designed to improve accessibility for disabled people on light rail vehicle systems for passengers, including metro, underground and tram systems, which are not subject to the Railways (Interoperability) Regulations 2006 (PRM-TSI). RVAR 2010 does not apply to main line rail systems.

The regulations apply to a rail vehicle (as defined by the Instrument) that was first brought into service after 31 December 1998, except if it belongs to a class first brought into use before 1 January 1999.

Regulated Features
RVAR 2010 covers the following areas of a rail vehicle:

 Boarding devices
 Catering
 Doors
 Door controls
 Door handles
 Exterior doorways and through routes
 Interior doorways
 Floors
 Handholds
 Handrails
 Passenger information
 Request-stop controls
 Seats
 Steps
 Toilets
 Transparent surfaces
 Wheelchair spaces

Key Means
The Instrument aims to provide accessibility by ensuring that:

 exterior doors, steps, floors and handrails contrast strongly visually with adjacent areas of the vehicle.
 door handles, door controls and request-stop controls can be used by the widest range of people.
 handrails are provided at doorways, on seat backs and in toilets.
 nominated doorways are accessible to wheelchairs.
 wheelchair spaces and wide throughways to those spaces from the accessible doorways are provided.
 interior glazed panels are clearly marked to aid visibility (or protected).
 passenger information is clearly communicated, both visually and audibly.
 toilets are provided that are accessible to disabled people, including wheelchair users.
 seats are nominated that are accessible to disabled people.
 catering facilities that are provided are accessible to all.
 boarding devices are provided to allow wheelchair users to enter and leave the vehicle.

References

External links
 Guidance on the Rail Vehicle Accessibility Regulations 1998

Disability legislation
Statutory Instruments of the United Kingdom
2010 in British law
2010 in transport

Rail Vehicle Accessibility Regulations


The term spiny mouse refers to any species of rodent within the genus Acomys. They are usually called spiny mice in English.  They look like mice of the genus Mus. Spiny mice are small mammals with bare, scaled tails.  Their coats have unusually stiff guard hairs that work the same way as the spines of a hedgehog. These stiff hairs are why they are called the spiny mouse.

Even though they look like members of the genus Mus, scientists thhink that the African spiny mice may be more closely related to gerbils than to common mice.

Spiny mice as exotic pets
African spiny mice originated in the deserts of Africa. They are often kept as exotic pets in other parts of the world, particularly Western nations such as the United States. In the pet trade, they are commonly called Egyptian spiny mice or, more simply, spiny mice.  Though these animals are like pet mice and rats, the tail of a spiny mouse is much more delicate.  The spiny mouse should never be picked up by its tail and should be handled with care to avoid a degloving injury.

Housing
Because of their desert origin, spiny mice need warm temperatures and should be kept around 80 degrees Fahrenheit.  These animals are very social and should always be housed in groups when possible.  As spiny mice are prone to obesity (getting too fat), it is important to provide a big space and a complex environment to encourage exercise. They need constant attention and should NEVER be housed in a cage smaller than 4X4 ft.

Reproduction
Gestation length is between 38 and 42 days.  Litters are normally 2 to 3 pups, but females may have up to 6 pups in a single litter.  Other females within the social group may help in the birthing process and look after the pups.  Pups are born with their eyes open and covered in fur. They will begin to leave the nesting area at about 3 days of age.  Pups are weaned around 5 to 6 weeks and reach sexual maturity at about 6 to 9 weeks.  A female can become pregnant at any time in the year and may have up to 12 litters in a year.  Spiny mice can live for 4 to 5 years.

Other websites

List of Rodent/Lagomorph Scientific Names  - Includes several species of African spiny mouse

References

Rodents

Spiny mouse


Mount Etna is a volcano on the east coast of Sicily, part of southern Italy. It is the largest active volcano in Europe. Mount Etna erupts every few years.

Etna's most destructive eruption in historic times started on 11 March 1669. It produced lava flows that destroyed 10 villages and reached the town of Catania five weeks later, on 15 April. Many buildings were destroyed and few people were killed.

Major twentieth century eruptions occurred in 1928, 1949, 1971, 1983 and 1992, as well as the 2001 eruption. In 1971, it buried the Etna Observatory (built in the late 19th century) under lava. The 1992 eruption saw the town of Zafferana threatened by a lava flow, but successful diversion efforts saved the town with the loss of only one building a few hundred metres outside it.

In 2002–2003, the biggest series of eruptions for many years threw up a huge column of ash that could easily be seen from space and fell as far away as Libya, on the far side of the Mediterranean Sea. Seismic activity in this eruption caused the eastern flanks of the volcano to slip by up to two metres, and many houses on the flanks of the volcano were damaged.  The eruption also destroyed the Rifugio Sapienza, a ski resort on the southern flank of the volcano.

Related pages
 List of volcanoes

References

Other websites

 Mount Etna Live Webcam
 Italy's Volcanoes: The Cradle of Volcanology, with detailed information of Italy's volcanoes, including Etna
 Stromboli Online, with info on Etna, photo galleries and video clips of Etna's past eruptions including those of the 1990s and the 2000s
 Mount Vesuvius -Citizendium

Volcanoes of Italy
VEI-6 volcanoes
Sicily

Mount Etna


My Brother Is an Only Child () is a 2007 Italian drama film directed by Daniele Luchetti.  It is based on an Antonio Pennacchi novel. The title comes from a song by Rino Gaetano from 1976.

Plot

Accio (Elio Germano) and Manrico (Riccardo Scamarcio) are working class brothers who live in Italy in the 1960s. While his brother becomes drawn into left-wing politics, Accio, the hotheaded younger brother, is taken under the wing of a market trader and while under his influence, joins the Fascist party. Accio ("Bully") is a nickname he is proud of because it makes him seem tough.  Manrico and their sister Violetta are alarmed to hear their brother listening to Benito Mussolini's speeches in his room. Manrico often physically torments his brother, including stuffing his head in the barrel under the drain pipe of their house.

Accio once runs away from home because his mother voted for the Houses Party.  Their house is falling apart and she thinks the Houses Party will help them rebuild it.

As Accio and Manrico get older they start demonstrating as members of the Fascist party and the Communist movement respectively.  (There are scenes of a factory occupation, and the occupation of the Rome conservatoire, where the sister is studying the cello.) The film is relatively even handed in its treatment of politics. If the young fascists seem absurd with their chanting of 'Duce! Duce!', and their actions constantly tending to violence, the communists are hardly less so: Schiller's words in the final movement of Beethoven's choral symphony are replaced by a hymn in praise of Mao Zedong, Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin; a meeting of activists consists of a room full of bearded men all shouting at once and only agreeing when the time comes to shout a slogan.

Francesca, Manrico's girlfriend, becomes Accio's friend.  Accio secretly likes her and thinks that she should not stay with Manrico because "he can't be depended on".  The viewer is in little doubt that Accio is also attracted to Francesca himself. At the same time, he has himself become sexually involved with the wife of his fascist friend, the market trader, who has been imprisoned for his violent political activities. She buys him a car through an installment plan.

Eventually Accio ends up leaving the Fascist party and tearing up his membership card when party members burn his brother's car. He also breaks up with his older lover, telling her that he cares for someone else, but not replying when asked if he is loved in return.

But while Accio largely pulls out of political activism, his brother is drawn deeper into revolutionary violence. After disappearing for two years, he calls home. Accio travels to meet him and telephones Francesca, who twice quickly hangs up on him. When they meet in a cafe, Manrico sees Francesca arriving unexpectedly, but also the police who have perhaps been tailing her or tapping her telephone. He  flees but dies in an exchange of (handgun) fire with the pursuing police.

Accio then breaks into the corrupt and inefficient housing office to seize the waiting keys and the records of the homeless. He distributes keys and a party of homeless families take possession in the middle of the same night. The film ends with Accio living with his family, including his brother's small son.

Cast
 Elio Germano as Accio Benassi
 Riccardo Scamarcio as Manrico Benassi
 Angela Finocchiaro as Amelia Benassi
 Massimo Popolizio as Ettore Benassi
 Ascanio Celestini as Padre Cavalli
 Diane Fleri as Francesca
 Alba Rohrwacher as Violetta Benassi
 Vittorio Emanuele Propizio as Young Accio
 Claudio Botosso as Prof. Montagna
 Ninni Bruschetta as Segretario Bombacci
 Anna Bonaiuto as Bella Nastri
 Luca Zingaretti as Mario Nastri
 Pasquale Sammarco as Padre Tosi
 Lorenzo Pagani as Bertini

Reception
The film received positive reviews from critics. The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 86% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 63 reviews with an average rating of 7/10. Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 71 out of 100, based on 19 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Awards
The film won four David di Donatello Awards—Best Actor (Elio Germano), Best Supporting Actress (Angela Finocchiaro), Best Screenplay, Best Editing.

References

External links

2007 films
2007 drama films
Films set in the 1960s
2000s Italian-language films
Films directed by Daniele Luchetti
Films set in Lazio
Italian drama films

My Brother Is an Only Child


The Teatro del Fondo is a theatre in Naples, now known as the Teatro Mercadante. It is located on Piazza del Municipio #1, with the front facing the west side of Castel Nuovo and near the Molo (Dock) Siglio. Together with the Teatro San Carlo, it was originally one of the two royal opera houses of the 18th and 19th-century city.

It opened in 1779 as the 'Teatro del Real Fondo di Separazione', with comic operas sung mainly in Tuscan. The Mozart operas Don Giovanni, The Marriage of Figaro and Così fan tutte were performed there (1812-1815) and also a number of French operas under the patronage and influence of Joseph Bonaparte, King of Naples (1806-1808). The theatre was later used by Gioachino Rossini, who became the music director of the royal theatres, Giovanni Pacini and Gaetano Donizetti and many other leading composers.

After a period of relative inactivity, in 1871 it was renamed the Real Teatro Mercadante, after Saverio Mercadante, whereupon opera productions once again flourished at the theatre.

It is now part of the Teatro Stabile Napoli.

References
Robinson, Michael F and Di Benedetto, Renato (1992), 'Naples' in The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, ed. Stanley Sadie (London)
Warrack, John and West, Ewan (1992), The Oxford Dictionary of Opera, 782 pages,

External links
Teatro Stabile Napoli history of the theatre

Opera houses in Naples
1779 establishments in Italy
Theatres in Naples
Theatres completed in 1779
Music venues completed in 1779
18th-century architecture in Italy

Teatro del Fondo


A horse-bus or horse-drawn omnibus was a large, enclosed, and sprung horse-drawn vehicle used for passenger transport before the introduction of motor vehicles. It was mainly used in the late 19th century in both the United States and Europe, and was one of the most common means of transportation in cities. In a typical arrangement, two wooden benches along the sides of the passenger cabin held several sitting passengers facing each other. The driver sat on a separate, front-facing bench, typically in an elevated position outside the passengers' enclosed cabin. In the main age of horse buses, many of them were double-decker buses. On the upper deck, which was uncovered, the longitudinal benches were arranged back to back.

Similar, if smaller, vehicles were often maintained at country houses (and by some hotels and railway companies) to convey servants and luggage to and from the railway station. Especially popular around 1870–1900, these vehicles were known as a 'private omnibuses' or 'station buses'; coachman-driven, they would usually accommodate four to six passengers inside, with room for luggage (and sometimes additional seating) on the roof.

A small open wagon with or without a top, but with an arrangement of the seats similar to horse-drawn omnibuses, was called a wagonette.

Etymology
Bus is a clipped form of the Latin word omnibus. A legend, promoted by the French Transportations Museum website, says the name is derived from a hatter's shop of the Omnes family in front of the first station opened in Nantes by Stanislas Baudry in 1823. "Omnes Omnibus" was a pun on the Latin-sounding name of that hatter Omnès: omnes (nominative plural) meaning "all" and omnibus (dative plural) meaning "for all" in Latin. Thence, the legend concludes, Nantes citizens gave the nickname of Omnibus to the vehicle.

Though it is undisputed that the term arose with Stanislas Baudry's company, there is no record of any Omnès hatter living in that street. In 1892, the son of Baudry's bookkeeper wrote in the Bulletin de la Société archéologique de Nantes that omnibus had a simpler origin. Baudry used to call his horsecars Dames blanches (White ladies), a name which, critics told him, made no sense. He then replied, with the Latin word: "Then, these are omnibus cars!" (cars for all). The name caught on immediately. Other stories about the name origin quickly spread out.

The term 'omnibus' carried over to motor vehicles. The 1914 book Motor Body-building in all its Branches, by Christopher William Terry, described an omnibus as having longitudinal seats in rows with either a rear door or side doors.

History
The first known public bus line (known as a "Carriage" at that time) were carrosses à cinq sols launched by Blaise Pascal in 1662 in Paris. It was quite popular until fares were increased and access to the service was restricted to high society members by regulation. Services ceased after 15 years.

In Britain, John Greenwood opened the first bus line in Britain in Manchester in 1824. His pioneering idea was to offer a service where, unlike with a stagecoach, no prior booking was necessary and the driver would pick up or set down passengers anywhere on request. The first omnibus was introduced in London in 1831. In 1833, legislation was passed to allow these long-bodied vehicles to ply the streets of the city, provided the drivers and conductors took out a license and wore a badge with a number on it.

The Paris omnibus was started in 1828 by a businessman named Stanislas Baudry, who had begun the first French omnibus line in Nantes in 1826, using two spring-suspended carriages, each for 16 passengers. Following success in Nantes, Baudry moved to Paris and founded the Enterprise des Omnibus on rue de Lancre, with workshops on the quai de Jemmapes. In 1827 he commissioned an English coach-maker, George Shillibeer, to design a vehicle that could be stable and carry a large number of passengers. Shillibeer's design worked. On 28 April 1828, the first Paris omnibus began service, running every fifteen minutes between La Madeleine and la Bastille. Before long, there were one hundred omnibuses in service, with eighteen different itineraries. A journey cost twenty-five centimes. The omnibuses circulated between seven in the morning and seven in the evening; each omnibus could carry between twelve and eighteen passengers.  The busiest line was that along the Grand Boulevards; it ran from eight in the morning until midnight.

The Paris omnibus service was an immediate popular success, with more than two and a half million passengers in the first six months. There was no reliable way to collect money from the passengers, or the fare collectors kept much of the money for themselves;  In its first years the company was continually on the verge of bankruptcy, and in despair, Baudry committed suicide in February 1830. Baudry's partners reorganized the company and managed to keep it in business.

In September 1828, a competing company, les Dames-Blanches, had started running its own vehicles.  In 1829 and the following years, more companies with poetic names entered the business;  les Citadines, les Tricycles, les Orléanises, les Diligentes, les Écossaises, les Béarnaises, les Carolines, les Batignollaises, les Parisiennes, les Hirondelles, les Joséphines, les Excellentes, les Sylphides, les Constantines, les Dames-Françaises,  les Algériennes, les Dames-Réunies, and les Gazelles.  The omnibus had a profound effect on Parisian life, making it possible for Parisians to work and have a social life outside their own neighborhoods.

By 1845, 13 companies in Paris operated 20 or 23 omnibus lines. In 1855, Napoleon III had them combined into a single company, the Compagnie générale des omnibus, with a monopoly on Paris public transportation. Beginning in 1873, they were gradually replaced by tramways, and, beginning in 1906, by the omnibus automobile, or motor bus. The last horse-drawn Paris omnibus ran on 11 January 1913, from Saint-Sulpice to La Villette.

Buses have been used on the streets of London since 1829. George Shillibeer saw the success of the Paris omnibus in service and concluded that operating similar vehicles in London would be commercially successful. His first London "Omnibus", using the same design and name as the Paris vehicle, took up service on 4 July 1829 on the route between Paddington, The Yorkshire Stingo, and Bank via the New Road (now Marylebone Road), Somers Town and City Road. Four services were provided in each direction daily. Shillibeer's success prompted many competitors to enter the market, and for a time buses were referred to as 'Shillibeers'. Shillibeer built another bus for the Quaker Newington Academy for Girls near London; this had a total of 25 seats, and entered history as the first school bus. On London omnibuses, the introduction of the clerestory roof in 1847, to provide more headroom inside, allowed the provision of a longitudinal seat on the upper deck. Outside fares were, like stage coaches, cheaper than for travelling inside.

In 1850 Thomas Tilling started horse bus services, and in 1855 the London General Omnibus Company or LGOC was founded to amalgamate and regulate the horse-drawn omnibus services then operating in London.

The public transport system of Berlin is the oldest one in Germany. In 1825 the first bus line from Brandenburger Tor to Charlottenburg was opened by Simon Kremser, running to a timetable. The first bus service inside the city operated from 1840 between Alexanderplatz and Potsdamer Bahnhof. It was run by Israel Moses Henoch, who had organized the cab service since 1815.
On 1 January 1847, the Concessionierte Berliner Omnibus Compagnie (Berlin Bus Concession Company) started its first horse-bus line. The growing market experienced the launch of numerous additional companies, with 36 bus companies in Berlin by 1864.

From the end of the 1820s, the first horse-drawn omnibuses ran in the streets of New York City, facilitating the march uptown.

Horses pulling buses could only work for limited hours per day, had to be housed, groomed, fed and cared for every day, and produced large amounts of manure, which the omnibus company had to store and dispose of. Since a typical horse pulled a bus for four or five hours per day, covering about a dozen miles, many systems needed ten or more horses in stable for each bus.

With the advent of mass-produced steel in around 1860, horse-buses were put on rails as the same horse could then move 3 to 10 times as many people. This was not only more efficient, but faster and produced, in an age of unpaved streets, a far superior ride. These horse drawn trams were converted to cable-drawn cars in some larger cities, as still exist in San Francisco, the underground cable being driven by stationary steam engines.

At around 1890, electric propulsion became practical and replaced both the horse and the cable and the number of tram lines expanded exponentially. This was seen as a huge advance in urban transport and considered a wise investment at that time. These became known as streetcars, trams or trolleys, and still exist in many cities today, though often having been replaced by the less infrastructure intensive motorbus.

From the beginning of the twentieth century the remaining horse buses which had not been converted to rail began to be replaced by petrol-driven motor buses, or autobuses. The last recorded horse omnibus in London was a Tilling bus which last ran, between Peckham and Honor Oak Tavern, on 4 August 1914. The last Berlin horse omnibus ran on 25 August 1923. Some horse buses remain in use today for tourist sightseeing tours.

See also
 Bus or autobus, the later motorized multi-person vehicle
 Horse-drawn vehicle
 Horse harness
 Stagecoach another type of horse-drawn passenger carriage for longer distances

Bibliography

References

External links

Peter Gould: Local Transport Histories > The Horse Bus 1662–1932

Animal-powered vehicles
Bus
Buses by type

it:Carrozza#Omnibus

Horsebus


The Badalisc (also Badalisk) is a mythical creature of the Val Camonica, Italy, in the southern central Alps. The Badalisc is represented today as a creature with a big head covered with a goat skin, two small horns, a huge mouth and glowing eyes.

The celebration
According to legend the Badalisc lives in the woods around the village of Andrista (commune of Cevo) and is supposed to annoy the community: each year it is captured during the period of Epiphany (5 & 6 January) and led on a rope into the village by musicians and masked characters, including il giovane (the young man), il vecchio (the old man), la vecchia (the old woman) and the young signorina, who is "bait" for the animal's lust. There are also some old witches, who beat drums, and bearded shepherds, and a hunchback (un torvo gobetto) who has a "rustic duel" with the animal. Traditionally only men take part, although some are dressed as women. In medieval times women were prohibited from participating in the exhibition, or even to see or hear the Badalisc's Speech; if they did so they would be denied Holy Communion the following day.

In the village square (formerly in a stable) the Badalisc's speech (la 'ntifunada) is read, in which the mythological animal gossips about the community. The Badalisc itself is a dumb creature, so the speech, nowadays written in rhyme, is read by an "interpreter". Once improvised, now written in advance, the speech reveals all the supposed sins and scheming of the community. During the speech the hunchback bangs his stick rhythmically at intervals.

The speech is followed by singing, dancing and feasting. In the evening the community eats the "Badalisc polenta" (a commercial version of this traditional food was launched in 2010). Until recently, village children would beg from house to house during the Badalisc celebrations for cornmeal to make the polenta; a Badalisc salami was also specially made for them. The badalisc has a place of honour at the feasts.

On the second day, at the end of the exhibition, the Badalisc is set free and allowed to return to the woods.

Related customs
The ritual has strong similarities with the Bosinada, Bosinade or Businade, satirical performances of prose, poetry or song, in which a storyteller (the Bosin) denounced the misdeeds of the community. Known from the 16th century, these were once widespread throughout northern Italy and derived from the purification rituals of New Year's Eve.

Any link between the Badalisk of Andrista and the mythical Basilisk (half lizard, half serpent, with a head like a cat, but squarer, like a toad) that incinerates everything on which it rests its gaze (well known in Cevo and elsewhere in northern Italy) is unclear.

Gallery

See also
 Perchta
 Krampus
 Pre-Christian Alpine traditions

External links
  Atlante demologico lombardo
  Badalisc.com
  YouTube
  Demologia.it

Bibliography
Luca Giarelli, Il Badalisc di Andrista: maschera di Cevo in Valle Camonica, in Carnevali e folclore delle Alpi. Riti, suoni e tradizioni popolari delle vallate europee, 2012, .

References

Alpine folklore
Italian folklore
Italian legendary creatures
Christmas characters
Christmas in Italy
Mythic humanoids
Ritual animal disguise
Supernatural legends

Badalisc


Marguerite Louise d'Orléans (28 July 1645 – 17 September 1721) was Grand Duchess of Tuscany, as the wife of Grand Duke Cosimo III de' Medici. Deprived of her lover, Charles V of Lorraine, Marguerite Louise despised her husband and his family, whom she often quarrelled with and falsely suspected of attempting to poison her. Marguerite Louise reconciled with the Medici on more than one occasion, however, only to promptly resume hostilities.

Having become Grand Duke of Tuscany upon his father's death, in 1670, Cosimo III, under the sway of his mother, Vittoria della Rovere, refused to grant Marguerite Louise entry to the Privy Council. Thus without political influence, Marguerite Louise sorted the education of her eldest son, Grand Prince Ferdinando. Two more children followed: Anna Maria Luisa, Electress Palatine, and Gian Gastone, the last Medici Grand Duke of Tuscany.

In June 1675, Marguerite Louise was allowed to return to France to live in a convent in Paris. She was a daughter of Gaston de France, Duke of Orléans. Although the contract, banned her from leaving the convent, Marguerite Louise often went to her cousin Louis XIV's court at Versailles. She was at the centre of many scandals at the convent, including an attempt to burn it down, which greatly irritated her husband, who, despite the separation, took great interest in Marguerite Louise's life. While still technically married, Marguerite Louise had several affairs.

Children
Ferdinando de' Medici, Grand Prince of Tuscany (b.1663 d.1713)
Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici, Electress Palatine (b.1667 d.1743)
Gian Gastone de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (b.1671 d.1737)

Titles, styles, honours and arms

Titles and styles

28 July 1645 – 12 June 1661 Her Royal Highness "Mademoiselle d'Orléans" [Grand daughter of France]
12 June 1661 – 23 May 1670 Her Royal Highness The Grand Princess of Tuscany
23 May 1670 - 5 February 1691 His Highness  The Most Serene Grand Duchess of Tuscany
5 February 1691 - 17 September 1721 Her Royal Highness The Most Serene Grand Duchess of Tuscany

1645 births
1721 deaths
Grand Princesses of Tuscany
House of Orléans
House of Bourbon
Grand Duchesses of Tuscany

Marguerite Louise d'Orléans


Alyson Renee "Aly" Michalka (born March 25, 1989) is an American actress and musician. She works with Disney Channel and takes part in duo group 78violet with her sister, Amanda Michalka. She is most well known for playing the part of Keely Teslow on the Disney series Phil of the Future.

Early life
Alyson Michalka was born in Torrance, California, United States on March 25, 1989 to Mark Michalka and Carrie Begley-Michalka. She was raised mostly in the city of Seattle, Washington. She has two dogs named Saint and Bandit.

Later life
She began to be home schooled. She started acting for Disney Channel on Phil of the Future, then began her singing career. She says on Disney 411 that she started playing guitar with her sister at the ages of 12 and 10. She lives in a multimillion-dollar California mansion.

Musical career
Michalka has been singing since her sister was able to speak and sing. Then, for the movie Now You See It... her sister and she started a band and created a music video called Do You Believe In Magic?. The band is called 78violet. Then they left Disney Channel to "take off" with their musical career.

Acting career
Soon she started acting for Disney Channel in the show Phil of the Future, which she had quit in 2006. She has been seen in many movies, outside of Disney channel, she worked with WB and NBC with TV dramas with her sister. She was most known for playing Keely Teslow in Phil of the Future on Disney Channel, though now has gained popularity being in a band. She has been in other Disney Channel productions like Now You See It... and Cow Belles. She is half of the musical duo 78violet, with her sister.

Filmography
 Phil of the Future (2004-2006)-- Keely Teslow
 Now You See It... (2005 movie)-- Allyson Miller
 Cow Belles (2006 movie)-- Taylor Callum
 Bandslam (2009 movie) -- Charlotte Barnes
 Hellcats (2010 movie)--

Discography
 Do You Believe In Magic?–2005
 No One–Ice Princess, 2005
 Walking on Sunshine–Herby: Fully Loaded, 2005
 Into the Rush–Twitches, 2005
 Chemicals React–2006
 Pontential Break Up Song–2007

Other websites

 Hollywood Records's Aly & AJ Bio

1989 births
Living people
American movie actors
American television actors
Musicians from Los Angeles County, California
American rock guitarists
American pop musicians
Actors from Torrance, California

Alyson Michalka


A hamlet is a human settlement that is smaller than a town or village. This is often simply an informal description of a smaller settlement or possibly a subdivision or satellite entity to a larger settlement.

Sometimes  a hamlet is defined for official or administrative purposes. In that case, its size relative to a parish or other administrative unit will depend on the administration and region.

The word and concept of a hamlet can be traced back to Norman England, where the Old French , came to apply to small human settlements.

Etymology

The word comes from Anglo-Norman , corresponding to Old French , the diminutive of Old French  meaning a little village.  This, in turn, is a diminutive of Old French , possibly borrowed from (West Germanic) Franconian languages. It is the equivalent of the modern French , Dutch , Frisian , German , Old English , and Modern English home.

By country

Afghanistan
In Afghanistan, the counterpart of the hamlet is the qala (Dari: قلعه, Pashto: کلي) meaning "fort" or "hamlet". The Afghan qala is a fortified group of houses, generally with its own community building such as a mosque, but without its own marketplace. The qala is the smallest type of settlement in Afghan society, outsized by the village (Dari/Pashto: ده), which is larger and includes a commercial area.

Canada
In Canada's three territories, hamlets are officially designated municipalities. As of January 1, 2010:

 Northwest Territories had 11 hamlets, each of which had a population of less than 900 people as of the 2016 census;
 Nunavut had 24 hamlets, with populations ranging from 129 to 2,842 as of the 2016 census; and
 Yukon had two hamlets, both of which had a population of less than 450 people as of the 2016 census.

In Canada's provinces, hamlets are usually small unincorporated communities within a larger municipality (similar to civil townships in the United States), such as many communities within the single-tier municipalities of Ontario or within Alberta's specialized and rural municipalities.

Canada's two largest hamlets—Fort McMurray (formerly incorporated as a city) and Sherwood Park—are located in Alberta. They each have populations, within their main urban area, in excess of 60,000—well in excess of the 10,000-person threshold that can choose to incorporate as a city in Alberta. The designation of these urban areas as a "hamlet" is simply to enable their residents to participate in the politics of their surrounding counties. As such, these two hamlets have been further designated by the Province of Alberta as urban service areas. An urban service area is recognized as equivalent to a city for the purposes of provincial and federal program delivery and grant eligibility.

France
A hamlet, , is a group of rural dwellings, usually too small to be considered a village. The term  is also applied to hamlets, but this can also refer to uninhabited localities.

During the 18th century it was fashionable for rich or noble people to create their own  in their gardens. This was a group of houses or farms with rustic appearance, but in fact very comfortable. The best known is the Hameau de la Reine built by the queen Marie-Antoinette in the park of the ; also the Hameau de Chantilly built by Louis Joseph, Prince of Condé in .

Germany
The German word for hamlet is  (). A Weiler has, compared to a Dorf (village), no infrastructure (i.e. no inn, no school, no store, no church). The houses and farms of a Weiler can be grouped (in the hills and the mountains) or scattered (more often in the plains). In North West Germany, a group of scattered farms is called Bauerschaft. In a Weiler there are no street names, the houses are just numbered.

There is no legal definition of a hamlet in Germany. In Bavaria, like in Austria, a Weiler is defined as a settlement with 3 to 9 dwellings, from 10 houses it is called a village. A hamlet does not usually form its own administrative unit, but is part of a larger municipality.

India
In different states of India, there are different words for hamlet. In Haryana and Rajasthan it is called "dhani" ( ) or "Thok". In Gujarat a hamlet is called a "nesada", which are more prevalent in the Gir forest. In Maharashtra it is called a "pada". In southern Bihar, especially in the Magadh division, a hamlet is called a "bigha". In state of Karnataka, Hamlet (place of human settlement) is known by different names like Palya, Hadi (Haadi), Keri, and Padi (Paadi). In olden days the human population of hamlet was less than Halli (Village) or Ooru (Uru). But in 20th century with tremendous increase in population, some of these hamlets have become villages, towns, cities or merged with them.

Indonesia

All over Indonesia, hamlets are translated as "small village",  or . They are known as  in Central Java and East Java,  in Bali,  or  in West Sumatra.

Netherlands
The Dutch words for hamlet are  or . A gehucht or buurtschap has, compared to a dorp (village), no infrastructure (i.e. no inn, no school, no store) and contains often only one street, bearing the same name. The houses and farms of a gehucht or a buurtschap can be scattered. Though there are strong similarities between a gehucht and buurtschap, the words are not interchangeable. A gehucht officially counts as an independent place of residence (e.g. Wateren), while a buurtschap officially is a part of an other place (e.g. Bartlehiem, part of Wyns).

Pakistan
In Pakistan a hamlet is called a  gaaon گاؤں or mauza موضع in Urdu, giraaan گراں or pind پنڈ in Punjabi, and kalay کلې in Pashto. It is almost synonymous to 'village'.

Poland
In Poland the law recognises a number of different kinds of rural settlement. Przysiółek (which can be translated as "hamlet") refers to a cluster of farms. Osada (which is typically translated as "settlement" but also can be translated as "hamlet") includes smaller settlements especially differing by type of buildings or inhabited by population connected with some place or workplace (like mill settlements, forest settlements, fishing settlements, railway settlements, former State Agricultural Farm settlements). They can be an independent settlement, or a part of another settlement, like a village.

Romania

In Romania hamlets are called  (singular: ), and they represent villages that contain several houses at most. They are legally considered villages, and statistically, they are placed in the same category. Like villages, they do not have a separate administration, and thus are not an administrative division, but are part of a parent commune.

Russia
In the Russian language there are several words which mean "a hamlet", but all of them are approximately equivalent. The most common word is деревня (derevnia, the word meant "an arable" in the past); the words село (selo, from the Russian word селиться (selit'tsa), meaning "to settle") and посёлок (posiolok) are quite frequently used, too. Parallel to many other cultures, a distinction was often that selo has a church and derevnia has not.

The once common Russian word хутор (khutor) for the smallest type of rural settlement (arguably closest in nature to the English hamlet) is now mostly obsolete. The state of USSR wanted to have some form of basic infrastructure and central authority at each and every settlement. Obviously, this is the opposite of hamlet - a place without neither for being too small to meaningfully support those. Even without state pressure, once one of the neighboring khutors got a permanent shop, school, community center (known in Russia as дом культуры, "house of culture"), maybe a medical post, others would naturally relocate closer, drawing together into one village.

Thus, the dimunitive form деревенька (derevenka, tiny derevnia) is in widespread, albeit unofficial, use to denote such settlements, which mostly possess the amenities of a village yet the size of hamlet.

Spain
In Spain a hamlet is called  (). The word comes from the Spanish term  («estate»). In the South of Spain, the term  () is also used for designating small groups of rural dwellings or farmhouses.

A hamlet in Spain is a human settlement, usually located in rural areas, and typically smaller in size and population than a village (called in Spain,  ). The hamlet is a common territorial organisation in the North West of Spain (Asturias, Cantabria and Galicia) dependent on a larger entity (e.g. parish or municipality).

In Spain, the hamlet is one of the categories in the official gazetteer of population entities. In the Royal Order and Instruction of the 8 of March 1930, issued for the elaboration of the Annual gazetteer, the hamlet () is defined as the population entity with the smallest population and neighbourhood, usually more disseminated than the lugar, though its buildings can be also organised in streets and plazas.

Switzerland
In the four national languages hamlets are known as  (German),  (French),  (Italian) and  (Romansh). A hamlet is always part of a larger municipality or may be shared between two municipalities. The difference between a hamlet and a village is that typically a hamlet lacks a compact core settlement and lacks a central building such as a church or inn. However, some hamlets () may have grown up as an unplanned settlement around a church. There is no population limit that defines a hamlet and some hamlets have a larger population than some of the smallest municipalities. Generally there are no street names in a hamlet; rather, addresses are given by hamlet name and a number. House numbers might start at one side of the hamlet and continue to the other side or may have no clear organization.

A hamlet may form or have formed a  (legal place of citizenship regardless of where a person was born or currently lives) and may own common property for the .

Turkey

In Turkey, a hamlet is known as a  and denotes a small satellite settlement usually consisting of a few houses in the rural outskirts of a village.

Ukraine
In Ukraine, a very small village such as a hamlet usually is called a . There also existed such places like volia, sloboda, huta, buda, and others.

United Kingdom

England

In England, the word hamlet (having the French origin given at the top of this article) means (in current usage) simply a small settlement, maybe of a few houses or farms, smaller than a village. However traditionally and legally, it means a village or a town without a church, although hamlets are recognised as part of land use planning policies and administration. Historically, it may refer to a secondary settlement in a civil parish, after the main settlement (if any); such an example is the hamlet of Chipping being the secondary settlement within the civil parish of Buckland. Hamlets may have been formed around a single source of economic activity such as a farm, mill, mine or harbour that employed its working population. Some hamlets may be the result of the depopulation of a village; examples of such a hamlet are Graby and Shapwick.  Because of the hilly topography of the parish, the village of Clent, situated on the Clent Hills, consists of five distinct hamlets.

Northern Ireland
In Northern Ireland the common Irish place name element  is sometimes considered equivalent to the term hamlet in English, although  would actually have referred to what is known in English today as a townland: that is to say, a geographical locality rather than a small village.

Scotland
In the Scottish Highlands the term , of Gaelic derivation, may be preferred to the term hamlet. Also found in Scotland more generally is  used in the specific case of a farm settlement, including outbuildings and agricultural workers' homes.

Wales
The term hamlet was used in Wales to denote a geographical subdivision of a parish (which might or might not contain a settlement). Elsewhere, mostly in England, these subdivisions were called "townships" or "tithings". The Welsh word for "hamlet" is  (also ). Both these words are diminutives of pentref ("village") with the loose meaning of "small village".

United States

Mississippi
In Mississippi, a 2009 state law (§ 17-27-5) set aside the term "municipal historical hamlet" to designate any former city, town, or village with a current population of less than 600 inhabitants that lost its charter before 1945. The first such designation was applied to Bogue Chitto, Lincoln County.

New York

In New York, hamlets are unincorporated settlements within towns. Hamlets are not legal entities and have no local government or official boundaries. Their approximate locations will often be noted on road signs, however, a specific service, such as water, sewer, or lighting to provide only that hamlet with services. A hamlet could be described as the rural or suburban equivalent of a neighborhood in a city or village. The area of a hamlet may not be exactly defined; it may be designated by the Census Bureau, or it may rely on some other form of border (such as a ZIP Code, school district or fire district for more urbanized areas; rural hamlets are typically only demarcated by speed zones on the roads serving them). Others, such as Forestville, New York, will be the remnants of former villages, with borders coextant with the previously defined borders of the defunct or dissolved village. Some hamlets proximate to urban areas are sometimes continuous with their cities and appear to be neighborhoods, but they still are under the jurisdiction of the town. Some localities designated as hamlets, such as Levittown in the Town of Hempstead, with a population of over 50,000, are more populous than some incorporated cities in the state.

Oregon

In Oregon, specifically in Clackamas County, a hamlet is a form of local government for small communities that allows the citizens therein to organize and co-ordinate community activities. Hamlets do not provide services, such as utilities or fire protection, and do not have the authority to levy taxes or fees. There are four hamlets in Oregon: Beavercreek, Mulino, Molalla Prairie, and Stafford.

Vietnam

In Vietnam, a hamlet (, ) is the smallest unofficial administrative unit. It is a subdivision of a commune or township ().

See also
 Developed environments
 Dhani and villages

 Manorialism
 Types of inhabited localities in Russia

References

External links

 Wolfhampcote: A hamlet formed by depopulation
 Low Mill: A mill hamlet

Types of populated places

Hamlet (place)


Guildford Dudley (1536 - 12 February 1554) was the husband of Lady Jane Grey. He was executed along with Jane on February 12 1554.

Pre-Marriage
Guildford (also spelled as Guilford) was the son of John Dudley, the Earl of Warwick and later Duke of Northumberland and Jane Guildford (that was how he got his unusual name). He was very handsome, but arrogant and selfish because his mother spoiled him ever since he was a child.

Marriage
In 1553, Guildford was told by his father that he was to marry Lady Jane Grey. Like many other people in the sixteenth century, Guildford complied. However, Jane did not want to marry Guildford because she thought he was rude. Jane only agreed after her parents had beaten and whipped her.
When Jane became queen, in July 1553, they got into an argument about Guildford becoming king. Guildford claimed than he should be king, but Jane did not believe that Guildford had the qualities to become king. She said she would make him duke, but Guildford was unhappy. Guildford and his mother attempted to leave the Tower of London, but Jane had him brought back. Jane lost the throne on July 19 1553.

Inprisonment and Death
At first, Guildford and Jane were allowed to visit each other, but only in the garden. However, for the last few months of their lives, they were not allowed to visit each other anymore.
A few days before their execution, Guildford asked Jane if they could visit one last time, but Jane refused.
On February 12 1554, Guildford was executed and, unlike his wife, he was not very calm when he went to his death. Days before his death, he cried endlessly. However, on the day he was executed, he was calm. At the sight of the block, however, he lost his courage and cried again. He is said to have cried "Pray for me!" many times.

Other websites
 More on Guildford Dudley  Guildford's biography

1536 births
1554 deaths

Executed English people

Guildford Dudley


Alberto Sordi  (15 June 1920 – 24  February 2003) was an Italian actor, comedian, director, singer, and screenwriter.

Early life
Born in Rome to a schoolteacher and a musician and the last of five children, Sordi was named in honour of an older sibling, who died several days after his birth. Sordi enrolled in Milan's dramatic arts academy but was kicked out because of his thick Roman accent. In the meantime, he studied to be a bass opera singer. His vocal distinctiveness would become his trademark.

Career

Cinema and television
In a career that spanned seven decades, Sordi established himself as an icon of Italian cinema with his representative skills at both comedy and light drama.

His movie career began in the late 1930s with bit parts and secondary characters in wartime movies. Early roles included Fellini's The White Sheik in 1952; Fellini's I vitelloni (1953), a movie about young slackers, in which he plays a weak  immature loafer; and a starring role in The Bachelor as a single man trying to find love. Sordi frequently appeared in Italian historical comedies.

In 1959, he appeared in Monicelli's Great War, considered by many critics and film historians to be one of the best Italian comedies. The Hollywood Foreign Press recognized his abilities when he was awarded a Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture Actor in a Musical or Comedy for To Bed or Not to Bed (1963). Sordi acted alongside Britain's David Niven in the World War II comedy The Best of Enemies. In 1965, he was in another highly regarded comedy, I complessi (Complexes).

In 1969, he was a juror at the 6th Moscow International Film Festival. In 1984, he directed and co-scripted Tutti dentro (Off to jail, everybody), in which he played a judge who has warrants for corruption served on ministers and businessmen. In 1985, he was a member of the jury at the 35th Berlin International Film Festival.

Dubbing
Sordi was also a prominent voice actor and dubber. Prior to the war he began working as a dubber for the Italian versions of many Laurel and Hardy shorts and movies, voicing Oliver Hardy after winning an MGM contest for the Italian voice nearest to that of Oliver Hardy. Sordi provided the voice of Hardy in more than forty Laurel and Hardy films from 1939 to 1951, paired with Mauro Zambuto, who voiced Stan Laurel.

He also appeared as a voice actor in other Italian-language versions and Italian films. Sordi provided voice-overs for such actors as Bruce Bennett, Anthony Quinn, John Ireland, Robert Mitchum, Pedro Armendáriz and Frank Faylen. He also dubbed Italian actors such as Franco Fabrizi, Marcello Mastroianni and Enzo Fiermonte for English-speaking audiences. His own voice was dubbed over by Gualtiero De Angelis in Cuori nella tormenta and Carlo Romano in Bullet for Stefano. Sordi ceased his career as a dubber in 1956.

Personal life
Sordi was discreet about his private life. Despite never marrying and having no children, Sordi was in several relationships, including a nine-year romance with actress Andreina Pagnani.

Sordi was raised Roman Catholic.

Sordi was also a big supporter of AS Roma football team. This was something he expressed a fondness of in some of his films.

Awards
Sordi won seven David di Donatello, Italy's most prestigious film award, holding the record of David di Donatello as best actor, and four awards for his works from the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists. He also received a Golden Lion for lifetime achievement at the Venice Film Festival in 1995, and The Golden Globe Award for his performance as an Italian labourer stranded in Sweden in To Bed or Not to Bed. In 2000, the City of Rome made him honorary mayor for a day to celebrate his eightieth birthday.

At the 22nd Berlin International Film Festival, he won the Silver Bear for Best Actor award for Detenuto in attesa di giudizio. At the 13th Moscow International Film Festival he won a Special Prize for I Know That You Know That I Know.

Sordi received honorary citizenship from Kansas City, Missouri for his references to the city in the 1954 film, Un americano a Roma.

Illness and death
In 2001, Sordi was diagnosed with lung cancer. He died of pneumonia and bronchitis at his house in Rome on 24 February 2003. A crowd in excess of a million gathered to pay their last respects at his funeral by the Basilica of St. John Lateran.

Filmography

Actor

 Scipione l'africano (1937) as Comparsa soldato romano
 The Ferocious Saladin (1937) as The Lion
 Princess Tarakanova (1938) as Ciaruskin (uncredited)
 The Night of Tricks (1939) as Bentivoglio
 Cuori nella tormenta (1940) as Giulio Ferri
 The Hero of Venice (1941) as Aiutante del Veronese
 Le signorine della villa accanto (1941) as Un giovane invitato al ballo
 Giarabub (1942) as Il tenente Sordi
 The Three Pilots (1942) as Filippo Nardini
 La signorina (1942) as Nino
 After Casanova's Fashion (1942) as Un giocatore di biliardo
 Sant'Elena piccola isola (1943) as Il capitano Popleton
 Tre ragazze cercano marito (1944) as Giulio
 The Za-Bum Circus (1944) (segment "Galop finale al circo")
 Chi l'ha visto? (1945) as Un idraulico
 The Innocent Casimiro (1945) as Guido Corra
 His Young Wife (1945) as Camillo Barbarotti
 Il vento m'ha cantato una canzone (1947) as Paolo
 Flesh Will Surrender (1947) as Doberti
 Il Passatore (1947) as The Boyfriend
 Under the Sun of Rome (1948) as Fernando
 Che tempi! (1948) as Manuel Aguirre
 Cameriera bella presenza offresi... (1951) as Donato
 Mamma Mia, What an Impression! (1951) as Alberto
 Viva il cinema! (1952) as Narratore (voice)
 The White Sheik (1952) as Fernando Rivoli – The White Sheik
 Toto and the King of Rome (1952) as Il maestro elementare
 Giovinezza (1952) as Alberto
 The Piano Tuner Has Arrived (1952) as Avvocato Adolfo
 The Enchanting Enemy (1953) (uncredited)
 I Vitelloni (1953) as Alberto
 Cavalcade of Song (1953) as Alberto
 Ci troviamo in galleria (1953) as Mario Pio al telefono
 A Day in Court (1954) as Nando Moriconi
 Two Nights with Cleopatra (1954) as Cesarino
 Mid-Century Loves (1954) as Alberto (segment "Dopoguerra 1920")
 Marriage (1954) as Ivan Vassilievich Lomov
 Gran Varietà (1954) as Fregoli il trasformista (episodio 'Fregoli')
 A Slice of Life (1954) as L'amore (segment "Scusi, ma...")
 The Cheerful Squadron (1954) as Il soldato Vergisson
 Il seduttore (1954) as Alberto Ranieri
 It Happened at the Police Station (1954) as Alberto Tadini
 A Parisian in Rome (1954) as Alberto Lucetti
 Camilla (1954) as Il pappagallo in auto (voice, uncredited)
 Un americano a Roma (1954) as Nando Moriconi
 Via Padova 46 (Lo scocciatore) (1954) as Gianrico
 Tripoli, Beautiful Land of Love (1954) as Alberto
 The Art of Getting Along (1955) as Rosario 'Sasà' Scimoni
 The Sign of Venus (1955) as Romolo Proietti
 Buonanotte... avvocato! (1955) as Alberto Santi, advocate
 The Belle of Rome (1955) as Gracco
 Accadde al penitenziario (1955) as Giulio Parmitoni
 Bravissimo (1955) as Ubaldo Impallato
 I pappagalli (1955) as Dr. Alberto Tanzi
 The Letters Page (1955) as Rodolfo Vanzino
 Faccia da mascalzone (1956)
 The Bachelor (1956) as Paolo Anselmi
 Guardia, guardia scelta, brigadiere e maresciallo (1956) as Guardia Alberto Randolfi
 Nero's Weekend (1956) as Nero
 The Virtuous Bigamist (1956) as Mario – le chauffeur du car
 Allow Me, Daddy! (1956) as Rodolfo Nardi
 I pinguini ci guardano (1956) as an animal (voice)
 Arrivano i dollari! (1957) as Alfonso Pasti
 Souvenir d'Italie (1957) as Sergio Battistini
 A Hero of Our Times (1957) as Alberto Menichetti
 Count Max (1957) as Alberto Boccetti
 Doctor and the Healer (1957) as Corrado
 A Farewell to Arms (1957) as Father Galli
 Il marito (1958) as Alberto
 Ladro lui, ladra lei (1958) as Cencio
 Le septième ciel (1958) as Xavier Laurentis
 Fortunella (1958) as Peppino
 Domenica è sempre domenica (1958) as Alberto Carboni
 Venice, the Moon and You (1958) as Bepi
 Girls for the Summer (1958) as Aristarco Battistini
 Nella città l'inferno (1959) as Antonio Zampi, detto Adone (uncredited)
 Policarpo (1959) as l'ambulante che vende ombrelli
 Oh, que Mambo! (1959) as Nando
 Winter Holidays (1959) as Roger Moretti
 The Moralist (1959) as Agostino
 Wild Cats on the Beach (1959) as Alberto
 The Great War (1959) as Oreste Jacovacci
 The Magliari (1959) as Totonno
 Il vedovo (1959) as Alberto Nardi
 Vacations in Majorca (1959) as Anselmo Pandolfini
 Everybody Go Home (1960) as Lt. Alberto Innocenzi
 The Traffic Policeman (1960) as Otello Celletti
 Crimen (1960) as Alberto Franzetti
 Gastone (1960) as Gastone
 The Last Judgment (1961) as Merchant of children
 The Best of Enemies (1961) as Capt. Blasi
 A Difficult Life (1961) as Silvio Magnozzi
 The Police Commissioner (1962) as Dante Lombardozzi
 Mafioso (1962) as Antonio Badalamenti
 Il diavolo (1963) as Amedeo Ferretti
 Il Boom (1963) as Giovanni Alberti
 The Teacher from Vigevano (1963) as Mombelli
 My Wife (1964) as The husband (segments "L'uccellino", "L'automobile") / Sartoletti (segment "Eritrea") / Marco (segments "I miei cari", "Luciana")
 Il disco volante (1964) as Vincenzo Berruti / Marsicano / Don Giuseppe / Conte Momi Crosara
 The Three Faces (1965) as Armando Tucci (segment "Latin Lover")
 Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965) as Count Emilio Ponticelli
 I complessi (1965) as Guglielmo Bertone (segment "Guglielmo il Dentone")
 Thrilling (1965) as Fernando Boccetta (segment "L'autostrada del sole")
 Made in Italy (1965) as Silvio, Errant Husband (segment "5 'La Famiglia', episode 2")
 Tentazioni proibite (1965) as Himself
 Fumo di Londra (1966) as Dante Fontana
 I nostri mariti (1966) as Giovanni Lo Verso (segment "Il Marito di Roberta")
 Sex Quartet (1966) as Giovanni (segment "Fata Marta")
 Pardon, Are You For or Against? (1966) as Tullio Conforti
 The Witches (1967) as Elio Ferocci (segment "Senso Civico")
 Un italiano in America (1967) as Giuseppe
 Be Sick... It's Free (1968) as Doctor Guido Tersilli
 Will Our Heroes Be Able to Find Their Friend Who Has Mysteriously Disappeared in Africa? (1968) as Fausto Di Salvio
 Help Me, My Love (1969) as Giovanni Macchiavelli
 Nell'anno del Signore (1969) as The Friar
 Il Prof. Dott. Guido Tersilli, primario della clinica Villa Celeste, convenzionata con le mutue (1969) as Dr. Guido Tersilli
 Let's Have a Riot (1970) as Don Giuseppe Montanari (segment "Il prete")
 Le coppie (1970) as Giacinto Colonna (segment "La camera") / Antonio (segment "Il leone")
The President of Borgorosso Football Club (1970) as Benito Fornaciari
 In Prison Awaiting Trial (1971) as Giuseppe Di Noi
 A Girl in Australia (1971) as Amedeo Battipaglia
 The Scientific Cardplayer (1972) as Peppino
 The Most Wonderful Evening of My Life (1972) as Alfredo Rossi
 Roma (1972) as Himself – Interviewé (uncredited)
 My Brother Anastasia (1973) as Father Salvatore Anastasia
 Polvere di stelle (1973) as Mimmo Adami
 Finché c'è guerra c'è speranza (1974) as Pietro Chiocca
 Di che segno sei? (1975) as Nando Moriconi (segment "Il fuoco")
 Il comune senso del pudore (1976, first segment) as Giacinto Colonna
 Strange Occasion (1976) as Mons. Ascanio La Costa (segment "L'Ascensore")
 An Average Little Man (1977) as Giovanni Vivaldi
 I nuovi mostri (1977) as Il principe (segment "First Aid") / Il figlio (segment "Come una regina") / L'attore (segment "Elogio funebre")
 The Witness (1978) as Antonio Berti
 Where Are You Going on Holiday? (1978) as Remo Proietti (segment "Le vacanze intelligenti")
 Traffic Jam (1979) as Dr. De Benedetti, lawyer
 Hypochondriac (1979) as Argante
 Catherine and I (1980) as Enrico Menotti
 Il Marchese del Grillo (1981) as Onofrio Del Grillo / Gasperino
 I Know That You Know That I Know (1982) as Fabio Bonetti
 In viaggio con papà (1982) as Armando Ferretti
 Il tassinaro (1983) as Pietro Marchetti
 Everybody in Jail (1984) as Judge Annibale Salvemini
 Bertoldo, Bertoldino e Cacasenno (1984) as Friar Cipolla
 I Am an ESP (1985) as Roberto Razzi
 Troppo forte (1986) as Count Giangiacomo Pigna Corelli in Selci
 Un tassinaro a New York (1987) as Pietro Marchetti
 Una botta di vita (1988) as Elvio Battistini
 I promessi sposi (1989, TV Mini-Series) as Don Abbondio
 L'avaro (1990) as Arpagone
 In the Name of the Sovereign People (1990) as Marchese Arquati
 Vacanze di Natale '91 (1991) as Sabino
 Acquitted for Having Committed the Deed (1992) as Emilio Garrone
 Nestore, l'ultima corsa (1994) as Gaetano
 Romanzo di un giovane povero (1995) as Mr. Bartoloni
 Incontri proibiti (1998) as Armando Andreoli (final film role)

Director

 Fumo di Londra (1966)
 Scusi, lei è favorevole o contrario? (1966)
 Un italiano in America (1967)
 Amore mio, aiutami (1969)
 Le coppie (1970, segment "La camera")
 Polvere di stelle (1973)
 Finché c'è guerra c'è speranza (1974)
 Il comune senso del pudore (1976)
 Dove vai in vacanza? (1978, segment "Le vacanze intelligenti")
 Io e Caterina (1980)
 Io so che tu sai che io so (1982)
 In viaggio con papà (1982)
 Il tassinaro (1983)
 Tutti dentro (1984)
 Un tassinaro a New York (1987)
 Acquitted for Having Committed the Deed (1992)
 Nestore, l'ultima corsa (1994)
 Incontri proibiti (1998)

Dubbing roles

Animation
Narrator of segment 10 in Make Mine Music

Live action
Oliver Hardy in Laurel and Hardy (1939-1951 redubs)
Ollie in Swiss Miss
Ollie in The Flying Deuces
Ollie in A Chump at Oxford
Pickpocket in Casablanca
Jim Brennan in The Valley of Decision
Nino in Abbasso la ricchezza!
Ernie Bishop in It's a Wonderful Life
Woody Herman in New Orleans
Monte Loeffler in Humoresque
Bicycle vendor in Bicycle Thieves
Ercole Nardi in Sunday in August
Fashion show presenter in Story of a Love Affair
Narrator in Father's Dilemma
Spike MacManus in State of the Union
Sam in Somewhere in the Night
Steven Warren in The Spiral Staircase
Sergeant Beaufort in Fort Apache
Professor Stevens in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein
Captain de Trevignac in The Garden of Allah
Kid Callahan in City for Conquest
Sid in Duel in the Sun
Peter Virgil in Romance on the High Seas (singing voice)
Hugo Barnstead in The Strawberry Blonde
Jeb Rand in Pursued
Jim Fairways in Rachel and the Stranger (singing voice)
James Cody in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Ed Landers in Cheyenne
Tommy Chamberlain in The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer
Neff in Panic in the Streets
Marino in Body and Soul
Ed Garzah in The Naked City
Dakota in Destination Tokyo
Bill Hughes in You Can't Take It with You
Frank Reardon in Blood on the Moon
Giuseppe in Sahara
Hawley in The Gal Who Took the West
Fred Lord in Sorry, Wrong Number
Nat Sperling in The Big Clock
Torquato Torquati in Where Is Freedom?
Major A. M. Bagley in Air Force
John Withers in The Letter
Cole Porter in Night and Day (singing voice)
David Winthrop in Mexican Hayride
Bartender / Hotel clerk in Tall in the Saddle

Theatre

Actor
 1969–1966: San Giovanni with Aldo Fabrizi and Anna Fougez
 1969–1939: Ma in campagna è un'altra... rosa (In the country it's another... rose), with Guido Riccioli and Nanda Primavera
 1969–1942: Tutto l'oro del mondo (All the gold in the world), with Guido Fineschi and Maria Donati
 1942–1943: Teatro della caricatura (Theatre of the caricature), with Fanfulla
 1943–1944: Ritorna Za-Bum, by Marcello Marchesi, directed by Mario Mattòli
 Sai che ti dico? (You know what I am saying to you?), by Marcello Marchesi, directed by Mario Mattòli
 1944–1945: Un mondo di armonie (A world of harmonies), musical revue by Alberto Semprini
 Imputati... alziamoci! (Suspects... arise!), by Michele Galdieri 666 the divel
 1945–1946: Soffia so'..., by Pietro Garinei and Sandro Giovannini
 Soffia so'... n. 2, by Pietro Garinei and Sandro Giovannini
 1947–1948: E lui dice... (And he says...), by Benecoste, directed by Oreste Biancoli and Adolfo Celi
 1952–1953: Gran baraonda (Total chaos), by Pietro Garinei and Sandro Giovannini, with Wanda Osiris

Composer and singer
 1966: You never told me (Sordi – Piccioni), sung by Lydia MacDonald in the movie Fumo di Londra and in Italian by Mina with title Breve amore
 1966: Richmond bridge (Sordi – Piccioni), sung by Lydia MacDonald in the movie Fumo di Londra
 1973: Ma 'ndo... Hawaii? (Sordi – Piccioni), sung by Alberto Sordi and Monica Vitti in the movie Polvere di stelle

References

External links

1920 births
2003 deaths
Best Musical or Comedy Actor Golden Globe (film) winners
Burials at Campo Verano
David di Donatello Career Award winners
David di Donatello winners
Deaths from bronchitis
Deaths from pneumonia in Lazio
Italian film directors
Italian male comedians
Italian male composers
Italian male film actors
Italian male radio actors
Italian Roman Catholics
Italian male screenwriters
Italian male stage actors
Italian male television actors
Italian male voice actors
Knights Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic
Male actors from Rome
Nastro d'Argento winners
Recipients of the Italian Order of Merit for Culture and Art
Silver Bear for Best Actor winners
20th-century Italian male actors
20th-century Italian male singers
20th-century Italian male writers
20th-century Italian screenwriters
Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement recipients
Comedians from Rome

Alberto Sordi


The 1955 World Series was played between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Yankees. The Dodgers won the Series in seven games.  This was their first championship in team history. It would be the only Series the Dodgers won in Brooklyn. The team moved to Los Angeles after the 1957 season. The last time the Brooklyn team won a World Championship was in 1900. The team was called the Brooklyn Superbas. The series was called the Chronicle-Telegraph Cup. Their opponent then was fellow National League competitor Pittsburgh Pirates.

This series would also end a long period of success for the Yankees in the World Series.  It was the Yankees' first loss in a World Series since 1942. It was only their second loss since 1926.  The Yankees were 15-2 in the series during that time. They would lose again in 1957, 1960, 1963, and 1964.  The Yankees would have a record of 4-5 in World Series over the next decade.

The two teams were meeting in a World Series for the fifth time in nine years. The Yankees had won in 1947, 1949, 1952 and 1953.

World Series
1955 in sports
Los Angeles Dodgers
New York Yankees
1955 in the United States
1950s in New York (state)

1955 World Series


Rapsodi is the debut studio album by Nigerian rapper Olamide, released by Coded Tunes. The album features guest appearances from Pheelz, Wizkid, 9ice, Reminisce, I.D Cabasa, 2Phat, Adol, Ab1, Jumoke, Lord of Ajasa, B-Rank, Soul Joe, and Terry Da Rapman. It was nominated for Best Rap Album at The Headies 2012.

Accolades
Rapsodi was nominated for Best Rap Album at The Headies 2012.

Track listing

References

2011 albums
Olamide albums

Rapsodi (Olamide album)


Spider Solitaire, also known as Microsoft Spider Solitaire (Spider in the About box in some versions), is a solitaire (NA)/patience (EU) card game that is included in Microsoft Windows. It is a version of Spider. , it was the most played game on Windows PCs, surpassing the shorter and less challenging Klondike-based Windows Solitaire.

The game was first included as part of Windows 98's Microsoft Plus! package on its release on June 25, 1998 and has been since featured on most subsequent versions of Windows. Spider Solitaire was not included in Windows 2000, but was added to Windows Me and later on Windows XP; the game gained popularity subsequent to its inclusion in the latter. Windows Vista again saw a new version, which was mainly unchanged in Windows 7. Finally, Windows 8 has another updated version available in the Windows Store as part of Microsoft Solitaire Collection but not bundled with the operating system. Windows 10 has the Microsoft Solitaire Collection app updated and bundled with the OS.

Gameplay

The game is played with two decks of cards for a total of 104 cards. Fifty-four of the cards are laid out horizontally in ten columns with only the top card showing. The remaining fifty cards are laid out in the lower right hand corner in five piles of ten with no cards showing.

In the horizontal columns a card may be moved to any other card in the column as long as it is in descending numerical sequence.  For example, a six of hearts may be moved to a seven of any suit.  However, a sequence of cards can only be moved if they are all of the same suit in numerical descending order.  For example, a six and seven of hearts may be moved to an eight of any suit, but a six of hearts and seven of clubs cannot be moved together. Moving the top card in a column allows the topmost hidden card to be turned over. This card then enters into the play.  Other cards can be placed on it, and it can be moved to other cards in a sequence or to an empty column.

The object of the game is to uncover all the hidden cards and by moving cards from one column to another to place cards in sequential order from King to Ace using the fewest moves.  Each final sequence must be all of the same suit.  Once a complete sequence is achieved the cards are removed from the table and 100 points are added to the score.  Once a player has made all the moves possible with the current card layout, the player draws a new row of cards from one of the piles of ten in the lower right-hand corner by clicking on the cards.  Each of the ten cards in this draw lands face up on each of the ten horizontal columns and the player then proceeds to place these in such a way to create a sequence of cards all in one suit.

Features
There are three levels of difficulty in Spider Solitaire: Beginner (one suit), Intermediate (two suits), and Advanced (four suits).

Spider Solitaire has an "undo" feature that allows moves to be retracted. Any number of moves can be retracted, back to the last non-retractable move, but each "undo" subtracts one from the score.

To aid the player, the key H (Windows Vista or later only) or M will highlight possible moves, whereas in the Windows XP version this is done by clicking on the score panel. The player can also undo previous moves and try again. Windows keeps track of scores for the player's reference; these may be viewed by going to Game and then Statistics. In Windows 7, these scores appear in the Games Explorer by clicking the game and selecting the Statistics tab in the Preview Pane.  There are two measures of performance in Spider Solitaire:  number of games won and highest score.  In a certain sense these two measures are negatively correlated:  maximizing games won may yield lower scores per game and vice versa.

The final score in a Spider Solitaire game is calculated as follows.  The initial score is 500 and every move subtracts one from the score.  Using the "undo" feature also subtracts one point from the score.  Every time the player is able to place an entire sequence of cards of the same suit in order (kings, queens, jacks, 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 ace), 100 points are added to the score.  There is a total of eight such sequences in the game yielding a maximum achievable number of 800.  Therefore, in a winning game the total score is 800 plus 500 minus the number of moves and "undo"s.

In popular culture
Spider Solitaire was referenced on the February 27, 2021 episode of Saturday Night Live.  In the, "So You Think You Can Get the Vaccine," cold opening sketch 85-year-old contestant, Seymour Forman, (played by Mikey Day) was asked if he was computer literate enough to make an appointment online for a COVID-19 vaccine.  After replying "on what?," Mr. Forman was then asked if he had a computer at home.  He replied, "for Spider Solitaire."

See also
 List of games included with Windows

References

1998 video games
Microsoft games
Patience video games
Video games developed in the United States
Windows games
Windows-only games
he:ספיידר סוליטר (חלונות)

Microsoft Spider Solitaire


The Graphics Device Interface is an API of Microsoft Windows used for representing graphical objects and transmitting them to output devices, such as printers and monitors.

GDI is responsible for tasks such as drawing lines and curves, rendering fonts and handling palettes. It is not directly responsible for drawing windows, menus, etc.; that task is reserved for another subsystem built on top of GDI. Other systems have components that are similar to GDI, for example Macintosh's QuickDraw and GNOME/GTK's GDK/Xlib.

Perhaps the most significant capability of GDI over more direct methods of accessing the hardware is its scaling capabilities, and abstraction of target devices. Using GDI, it is very easy to draw on multiple devices, such as a screen and a printer, and expect proper reproduction in each case. This capability is at the center of all What You See Is What You Get applications for Microsoft Windows.

Simple games that do not require fast graphics rendering use GDI. However, GDI cannot animate properly as it has no notion of synchronizing with the framebuffer, and lacks rasterization for 3D. Modern games usually use DirectX or OpenGL instead, which give programmers the capabilities to use features of modern  hardware.

Microsoft Windows software

Graphics Device Interface


Jerry Stackhouse (born November 5, 1974) is a NBA basketball player who is currently playing for the Atlanta Hawks. Before that, he played with the Philadelphia 76ers, Detroit Pistons, Washington Wizards, Dallas Mavericks, Milwaukee Bucks and Miami Heat.  He went to the University of North Carolina. His jersey number is 42. He plays the forward guard position. He is 6'6 and weighs 218 pounds. He is a 15 year pro in the NBA.  In the 2000-01 season, when he played for the Pistons, he scored more points than anyone else in the league.

Other websites
NBA profile
Career stats

1974 births
Living people
Atlanta Hawks players
Dallas Mavericks players
Detroit Pistons players
Miami Heat players
Milwaukee Bucks players
Philadelphia 76ers players
Washington Wizards players
Sportspeople from North Carolina

Jerry Stackhouse


The Taming of the Shrew is a play by William Shakespeare. It is a comedy. Shakespeare's source was Suppositi (1509) by Ludovico Ariosto. George Gascoigne's play Supposes (1566) may have also been used. The play was probably first acted between 1593 and was first printed in 1623 in the First Folio. The   musical, Kiss Me Kate, was based on the play. Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton made a movie of the play.

References

Plays by William Shakespeare
1590s plays

The Taming of the Shrew


In electronics, signal processing, and video, ringing is oscillation of a signal, particularly in the step response (the response to a sudden change in input). Often ringing is undesirable, but not always, as in the case of resonant inductive coupling. It is also known as hunting. It is closely related to overshoot, often instigated as damping response following overshoot or undershoot, and thus the terms are at times conflated.

It is also known as ripple, particularly in electricity or in frequency domain response.

Electricity
In electrical circuits, ringing is an unwanted oscillation of a voltage or current. It happens when an electrical pulse causes the parasitic capacitances and inductances in the circuit (i.e. those that are not part of the design, but just by-products of the materials used to construct the circuit) to resonate at their characteristic frequency.  Ringing artifacts are also present in square waves; see Gibbs phenomenon.

Ringing is undesirable because it causes extra current to flow, thereby wasting energy and causing extra heating of the components; it can cause unwanted electromagnetic radiation to be emitted; it can delay arrival at a desired final state (increase settling time);  and it may cause unwanted triggering of bistable elements in digital circuits.  Ringy communications circuits may suffer falsing.

Ringing can be due to signal reflection, in which case it may be minimized by impedance matching.

Video
In video circuits, electrical ringing causes closely spaced repeated ghosts of a vertical or diagonal edge where dark changes to light or vice versa, going from left to right. In a CRT the electron beam upon changing from dark to light or vice versa instead of changing quickly to the desired intensity and staying there, overshoots and undershoots a few times. This bouncing could occur anywhere in the electronics or cabling and is often caused by or accentuated by a too high setting of the sharpness control.

Audio
Ringing can affect audio equipment in a number of ways. Audio amplifiers can produce ringing depending on their design, although the transients that can produce such ringing rarely occur in audio signals.

Transducers (i.e., microphones and loudspeakers) can also ring.  Mechanical ringing is more of a problem with loudspeakers as the moving masses are larger and less easily damped, but unless extreme they are difficult to audibly identify.

In digital audio, ringing can occur as a result of filters such as brickwall filters. Here, the ringing occurs before the transient as well as after.

Signal processing

In signal processing, "ringing" may refer to ringing artifacts: spurious signals near sharp transitions. These have a number of causes, and occur for instance in JPEG compression and as pre-echo in some audio compression.

See also
 Microphonics
 Ripple (electrical)
 Impedance matching

References

External links
Microphony with older video cameras

Transient response characteristics
Filter theory

Ringing (signal)


Calypso is a small moon of Saturn. It was discovered by a few astronomers in 1980, based on observations from the Earth. It is named after Calypso in Greek mythology. Calypso is a Trojan moon, as it orbits together with larger moon Tethys. It orbits behind Tethys by 60 degrees in its orbit around Saturn. Telesto is another moon which shares Calypso's orbit. Calypso was named after Calypso, a nymph in Greek mythology.

Saturn's moons

Calypso (moon)


A key is an object used to open and close locks. Many things have locks, for example, doors. Keys are also used to turn on cars, machines and other things.

A key is used by placing the key into the slot of the thing you want to unlock.

A key that can open more than one lock (if each lock also has its own key) is called a master key or skeleton key.

History

The earliest known lock and key device was discovered in the ruins of Nineveh, the capital of ancient Assyria. Locks such as this were later developed into the Egyptian wooden pin lock, which consisted of a bolt, door fixture or attachment, and key. When the key was inserted, pins within the fixture were lifted out of drilled holes within the bolt, allowing it to move. When the key was removed, the pins fell part-way into the bolt, preventing movement.

The warded lock was also present from antiquity and remains the most recognizable lock and key design in the Western world. The first all-metal locks appeared between the years 870 and 900, and are attributed to the English craftsmen. It is also said that the key was invented by Theodorus of Samos in the 6th century BC.

Affluent Romans often kept their valuables in secure locked boxes within their households, and wore the keys as rings on their fingers. The practice had two benefits: It kept the key handy at all times, while signaling that the wearer was wealthy and important enough to have money and jewelry worth securing.

Further reading
 Phillips, Bill. (2005). The Complete Book of Locks and Locksmithing. McGraw-Hill. .
 Alth, Max (1972). All About Locks and Locksmithing. Penguin.
 Robinson, Robert L. (1973). Complete Course in Professional Locksmithing Nelson-Hall.

Other websites

 Historical locks by Raine Borg and ASSA ABLOY
 Picking Locks Popular Mechanics

Basic English 850 words
Tools
Locks

Key


A caravel () is a type of small sailing ship. It is easy to maneuver. It was developed in the 15th century by the Portuguese. The Portuguese used caravels to explore the West African coast and the Atlantic Ocean. Lateen sails made the caravels fast and able to sail against the wind. Caravels were used by the Portuguese to explore oceans during the 15th and 16th centuries in the Age of Discovery.

Sailing ships

Caravel


Buck Rogers is a fictional character in American sci-fi. He was created by Philip Francis Nowlan. He first appeared as Anthony Rogers in the August 1928 issue of the pulp magazine Amazing Stories.  The Buck Rogers comic strip first appeared in newspapers on January 7, 1929. Since then the character has appeared in movie serials (played by Buster Crabbe), television series, and other forms of pop entertainment.

Comics characters

Buck Rogers


Li Keqiang (; pronoonced , born 1 Julie 1955; deed 27 October 2023) wis a Cheenese economist an umwhile Premier o the Fowkrepublic o Cheenae an pairty secretary o the State Cooncil. In his capacity as Premier, Li is Cheenae's heid o govrenment as well as the leadin figur behind its economic policy. He is an aa the seicont ranked member o the CPC Politburo Staundin Committee, the de facto heichest decision-makin body o the kintra. Frae 2008 tae 2013, Li served as the First Vice-Premier unner then-Premier Wen Jiabao. Durin this tenure, Li's offeecial portfolio includit economic development, price controls, finance, climate chynge, an macroeconomic management.

Li rose through the pairty ranks through the Communist Youth League. Frae 1998 tae 2004, Li served as the Govrenor o Henan an the province's Pairty secretary, an then the Liaoning pairty secretary, an office that made him first-in-charge in that province. Li is a leadin figur in the "fift generation" (Xi-Li Admeenistration) o Communist Pairty leadership.

References

Freemit airtins

 Profile

1955 births
Cheenese economists
Communist Pairty o Cheenae politeecians frae Anhui
2023 daiths
Peking Varsity alumni
Fowk frae Chuzhou
Fowkrepublic o Cheenae politeecians frae Anhui
Poleetical office-haulders in Liaoning
Premiers o the Fowkrepublic o Cheenae
Tuanpai
Vice Premiers o the Fowkrepublic o Cheenae
Govrenors o Henan

Li Keqiang


Bruce Scott Gordon (born February 15, 1946) is an American business executive who spent most of his career with Verizon and currently serves as a corporate director of CBS, Northrop Grumman, and Tyco International. He was selected in June 2005 to head the NAACP, a major American civil rights organization. Gordon served in that position until March 2007.

Early life
Born in Camden, New Jersey, Gordon's parents were both active in the civil rights movement. A 1968 graduate of Gettysburg College, where he was a member of Tau Kappa Epsilon Fraternity, and a 1988 Master's degree in Management (M.B.A.) graduate of the Sloan Fellows program of the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Career
Gordon's professional career began at Bell of Pennsylvania, where he rose in corporate management to become the Head of the Retail Markets Division of Verizon upon his retirement in December 2003. Other Verizon executives have credited him with helping to promote diversity and a corporate culture based on customer service at the telecom company.

The American Advertising Federation inducted him into the Advertising Hall of Fame, the industry's most prestigious honor, in March 2007.  Ebony magazine named him one of its "100 Most Influential Black Americans and Organization Leaders" in May 2006.  He was ranked #6 on Fortune magazine's list of the "50 Most Powerful Black Executives" in July 2002.  Black Enterprise magazine named him executive of the year in 1998.

Gordon is a member of the boards of CBS Corporation, Northrop Grumman Corporation, and Tyco International, Ltd., where he serves as lead director. He is a diversity consultant to Fortune 500 companies. Gordon is a trustee of U.S. Fund for UNICEF, National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, and Newport Festivals Foundation; a member of the Advisory Boards for New York Urban League, and Bishop John T. Walker School for Boys; and a member of the Executive Leadership Council. He previously served on the boards of Southern Company, Office Depot, Best Foods, Infinity Broadcasting and Bartech Group; previously chaired the Chancellor's Advisory Board on Student Motivation in the New York Public School System; was a trustee of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater Foundation, The Barnes Foundation, Gettysburg College and Lincoln Center.

NAACP
Gordon's selection as NAACP president on 25 June 2005 was widely regarded as unusual — most of the organization's past presidents have been prominent figures in politics, religion, or the civil rights movement before holding the office. The only candidate seriously considered by the organization's board, he was approved by a unanimous vote and was confirmed at the July 2005 NAACP convention. He succeeded Kweisi Mfume, who resigned his post as NAACP president in late 2004.

President George W. Bush made his first appearance at the NAACP on July 20, 2006, half-way through his second term. After having declined to address the organization for most of his presidency, it was Gordon's "moderate" political views that led Bush to acquiesce to the appearance, according to White House spokesman Tony Snow.

Citing strain with the board, Gordon resigned in March 2007. He stated "I did not step into the role to be a caretaker, to be dictated to," Gordon said. "I stepped into the role to understand as best I could the needs of the African American community and then to propose strategies and policies and programs and practices that could improve conditions for African Americans…. The things I had in mind were not consistent with what some — unfortunately, too many — on the board had in mind."

References

External links

 C-SPAN Q&A interview with Gordon, November 20, 2005

Living people
1946 births
People from Camden, New Jersey
MIT Sloan School of Management alumni
MIT Sloan Fellows
NAACP activists
African-American business executives
Verizon Communications people
American corporate directors
21st-century African-American people
20th-century African-American people

Bruce S. Gordon


Heinrich Schliemann (January 6, 1822, in Neubukowin, Germany - December 26, 1890, in Naples) was a German archaeologist. He is famous for his work in discovering the ancient city of Troy.

Life
Heinrich Schliemann was born in Neubukowin, Germany. His father, Ernst Schliemann, was a minister. His mother, Luise Therese Sophie Schliemann, died in 1831 when Heinrich was 9 years old. When his mother died, Heinrich lived with his uncle in Neustrelitz. He went to a grammar school in the town for about a year. His father paid the school fees. Heinrich was very interested in history and was encouraged by his father to read history books. After he left school, he worked in a shop in Fürstenberg for about five years. He worked hard as an apprentice, but he continued to read in his spare time.

He was not able to work as an archaeologist at this time, so he moved to a company which imported and exported products. In this job, he visited many different countries around the world, and learnt to speak English, French, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, Swedish, Italian, Greek, Latin, Russian, Arabic, and Turkish. His ability to speak languages was very important in his job. He later studied Latin and Ancient Greek in Paris.

In 1850, Heinrich's brother, Ludwig Schliemann, died, having got rich in the California Gold Rush. He moved to Sacramento, where he opened a bank, just like his brother. The new bank bought gold dust and sold it on to make money. In six months, the bank bought and sold millions of dollars' worth of gold dust.

Heinrich married his wife, Ekaterina, in 1852, but the marriage was troubled. Ekaterina kept encouraging her husband to make more money, but Heinrich felt that they were rich enough.

His work

Nobody knows how Heinrich became an archaeologist, but he continued to travel to see famous historical icons around the world. He even disguised himself to get into Mecca, the holy Muslim city. He became very interested in Troy, which was involved in a big dispute at the time. He was inspired by many people in the city, especially Ferdinand Fouqué and Frank Calvert, who he met in 1868.

Many reports have said Heinrich buried a 'treasure' he found in Troy, dubbed Priam's gold.

References

1822 births
1890 deaths
German archaeologists
People from Mecklenburg-Vorpommern

Heinrich Schliemann


The classic definitions of innovation include:
the introduction of something new. (Merriam-Webster Online)
 a new idea, method or device. (Merriam-Webster Online)
 the successful exploitation of new ideas  (Department of Trade and Industry, UK).
change that creates a new dimension of performance Peter Drucker (Hesselbein, 2002)

In economics, business and government policy,- something new - must be substantially different, not an unimportant change. In economics the change must increase value, customer value, or producer value. Innovations are intended to make someone better off, and the succession of many innovations grows the whole economy.

Related pages
 Creativity
 Entrepreneur
 History of science
 Ingenuity
 Invention
 Paradigm shift
 Patent
 Public domain
 Research
 Joseph Schumpeter
 Technological singularity

Other websites

 Academic article on Being a Systems Innovator on SSRN
"Communication on Innovation policy: updating the Union's approach in the context of the Lisbon strategy" - The European Commission.

Science

Innovation


Park and ride facilities are parking lots with public transport connections. They allow people to leave their vehicles and travel on a bus, train or carpool for the remainder of the journey. Park and rides are usually in the suburbs of metropolitan areas or on the outer edges of large cities.

Park and ride are shown as "P+R" on road signs in the UK.

Other websites

Park and ride
Park and ride

Park and ride


Undergraduate education is a level of education wherein a student completes their first degree. The first degree of an undergraduate degree is normally named a bachelor's degree. Therefore, for many subjects in many systems of education, undergraduate education is between secondary education and a bachelor's degree. This education usually takes place in a university. In the United States, a person starting at a university is known as undergraduate while students who have higher degrees are known as graduate students. In some other educational systems and subjects, undergraduate education is between secondary education and a master's degree, for example in some science and engineering courses in Britain and some medicine courses in Europe.

Differences in different places

Brazil
In Brazil, it normally takes four or five years to complete an "undergraduate" degree. Students need to choose their main subjects before they join the university by taking a test named a "vestibular".

Europe
Undergraduate degrees are not like in the United States where students have general studies during the first years and only specialize in a "major" during the last years of college. European students enroll in a specific course of studies they want to do from the start. They are expected to have received a good general education already in the secondary level in a school (like a gymnasium or lycée). In many countries they go to university at 18 or 17. The degree normally takes four or five years. After completing the first degree students can move on to doctoral studies. In many countries, the English distinction between a bachelor's and master's degree is only now being introduced by the Bologna process. This means that the old first degree would be approximately equal to a master's degree in the US or the UK.

United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, undergraduate normally means students studying to get a Bachelor's degree. It is also called an award. Getting a bachelor's degree normally takes three years in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, it takes four years to obtain a Bachelor's degree "with honours", and five years to obtain a Scottish master's degree. Alternatively, what is known as an "ordinary degree" can be obtained in three years. Some undergraduates in England do a master's degree as their first degree in a similar manner to Scotland. The first three years are spent attaining a bachelor's degree and the last year includes research and more difficult subjects. In England, this is more common for degrees in science and engineering.

The only universities where it is possible to receive a master's degree without even attending the university beyond the award of the bachelor's degree are Oxford and Cambridge. Master's are generally awarded to Oxford and Cambridge graduates a year after they have graduated with bachelor's degrees.

Ireland
In Ireland, undergraduate study is like in the United Kingdom. It is like this because undergraduate education was first taught the same in both countries. In Ireland, the undergraduate degree is closest to the Scottish type in the United Kingdom. They are four year undergraduate programmes.

India
In India, it takes 3 years to complete the undergraduate course (other than engineering, law and medicine). There are two types of undergraduate courses. Arts and Science is the first one which takes 3 years to complete the courses. Another one is Engineering, this will take 4 years to complete the courses (B.E/B.TECH).

United States
In the United States most undergraduate education is done at colleges or universities. Undergraduate education gives a bachelor's degree. This usually takes four years of study, although some courses take five years.

In the United States students in different years are often given different names:
Students in the first year are named freshmen. In many women's colleges students in the first year are not named "freshmen". They are named "first-years". This is to be more gender-neutral.
Students in the second year are named sophomores.
Students in the third year are named juniors.
Students in the fourth year are named seniors.

Some students choose to attend a community college or junior college for two years beforehand to further study at another college or university.

Most universities also offer graduate study. Some institutions (e.g. liberal-arts colleges) only give undergraduate education or only give a small number another level of education. Getting an undergraduate degrees normally needs many courses to be completed. The courses have different subjects and different levels of difficulty. The academic discipline of the most number of subjects taken is called a "major" or concentration.

Unlike in the British model, degrees in law and medicine are not offered at the undergraduate level and are completed as graduate study after earning a bachelor's degree. Neither field specifies or prefers any undergraduate major, though medicine has set prerequisite courses that must be taken before enrollment. However, nursing is taught as an undergraduate program.

References

Education

Undergraduate education