I'm Here is a 2010 American short film, written and directed by Spike Jonze. The film is a science fiction love story about two robots living in Los Angeles where humans and robots co-exist. The plot is based on the 1964 book The Giving Tree, and the main character is named after its author Shel Silverstein. The film's robots were created by Alterian, Inc., a Los Angeles-based effects company notable for their costume design for Daft Punk.

The film was funded by and is a promotion for Absolut Vodka, featuring the tagline "A Love Story in an Absolut World" on the promotional poster. Music from the band Sleigh Bells is prominently featured. The film made its debut at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.

Plot
Sheldon (Andrew Garfield) is a gray robot with a head shaped like an old PC tower. Every day, he rides the bus to the public library then rides home again at the end of the day to recharge himself in his apartment. He appears unhappy and forlorn until one day, while waiting for the bus, he sees Francesca (Sienna Guillory), a sleekly-designed woman robot, driving a car (despite an apparent ban on robots driving). He sees her again the next day, driving with several other robots and one shirtless human. Though she passes by him at first, she turns her car around and offers Sheldon a ride home, which he accepts.

Francesca stops at a mall and she, and Sheldon, walk off together while she sticks pieces of paper on an "Exit" sign and a palm tree. The papers show a drawing of long hair and eyebrows with the words "I'm here". Francesca falls off a ledge and injures her knee. Sheldon repairs her knee with his built-in toolkit, and they listen to "There Are Many of Us" by ASKA & The Lost Trees on her car radio.

Sheldon and Francesca grow closer. One night, while they are lying together in Sheldon's apartment, Francesca tells Sheldon about her dreams, something Sheldon thought was impossible for robots to have. The two later go to a rock concert, where Francesca gets lost in the crowd and loses her left arm. Sheldon takes her to safety then goes back to retrieve her arm. Finding it smashed on the floor, he replaces it with his own arm, transplanting it onto Francesca's body.

Later, Sheldon finds Francesca lying in the hallway outside his apartment, her right leg missing. He removes his own leg to replace it; and though Francesca initially protests, he convinces her to take it by telling her he had a dream about her needing a leg and choosing his over all the legs that were offered to her.

Some time after, Francesca fails to pick up Sheldon at the library (as she normally does), leaving him to take the bus. When he gets home, he receives a phone call summoning him to the hospital. He arrives to find Francesca's body broken and lifeless on an operating table, and he saves her life by having the rest of his body surgically transferred to her, with only his head remaining. Francesca is taken out in front of the hospital in a wheelchair, cradling Sheldon's head in her lap. The two smile and look out towards the setting sun as a taxi pulls up to pick them up.

Cast
 Andrew Garfield as Sheldon
 Sienna Guillory as Francesca
 Lyle Kanouse as Robot Neighbor
 Nancy Munoz as Lady at Bus Stop
 Annie Hardy as Annie
 Daniel London as Jack
 Michael Berry Jr. as Adam
 Christopher Wonder as Magician
 Richard Penn as Doctor
 Quinn Sullivan as Nurse

References

External links

2010s romance films
2010s science fiction films
2010 short films
Android (robot) films
Films directed by Spike Jonze
Films set in Los Angeles
2010s English-language films
American science fiction romance films
American science fiction short films
2010s American films

I'm Here (film)


Beach House is a pair of dream pop musicians from Baltimore. The band started in 2004. Victoria Legrand sings their songs and plays keyboards. Alex Scally plays guitar and plays keyboards. Beach House have released four albums.

History
They made their first album in two days. Carpark Records released Beach House's first album, Beach House, in 2006.

Devotion was released in 2008.

In January 2010 Subpop Records released Beach House's third album Teen Dream.

Beach House performed as an opening act for Vampire Weekend in August 2010.

In 2012 Bloom was released. It went straight to number seven in the Billboard 200.

The band released a short film called Forever Still on February 4, 2013.

In January 2014 Beach House performed Gene Clark's 1974 album No Other with Robin Pecknold, Daniel Rossen, Hamilton Leithauser, Iain Matthews, and Jess Wasner in the United States.

On April 19 2014 Space Project, an album with a song by Beach House on it, will be released for Record Store Day.

References

Other websites
Official website

2004 establishments in the United States
Musical groups from Maryland
Indie rock bands
21st-century establishments in Maryland

Beach House


John Raymond Zaller (born 1949) is a political scientist and professor specializing in public opinion at the University of California, Los Angeles. He was an Editor of the American Political Science Review. He graduated from Saint Monica Catholic High School in Santa Monica, CA. He pursued his undergraduate studies at the University of California, Riverside. He received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in 1984.

Career
Zaller is best known for his 1992 book The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion, in which he argues that changes in public opinion are due to the influences of political elites. Although he acknowledges the mainstream media's shortcomings, Zaller holds a positive view of "infotainment", arguing that even sensationalist and superficial media coverage of politics serves to inform and does increase awareness of political issues.  Zaller teaches undergraduate classes on electoral politics and the mass media's influence on public opinion in election cycles as well as graduate classes on political behavior and intermediate statistical analysis.

Zaller is a part of the UCLA School of Political Parties, which holds that political parties are created by intense policy demanders, rather than by ambitious politicians.

List of works
 The Party Decides: Presidential Nominations Before and After Reform, 2008, with Marty Cohen, David Karol and Hans Noel. University of Chicago Press.
 The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion, 1992, Cambridge University Press.
 The American Ethos, Public Attitudes Toward Capitalism and Democracy, 1984, with Herbert McCloskey, Harvard University Press.

Zaller has also authored numerous academic articles.

Bibliography

The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion New York: Cambridge University Press (summary)
"Who Gets the News: Measuring Individual Differences in Likelihood of News Reception" with Vincent Price. Public Opinion Quarterly 1993.

Notes

External links
 Profile on the UCLA Political Science Department website

1949 births
Living people
American political scientists
University of California, Berkeley alumni
University of California, Los Angeles faculty

John Zaller


Pope John V (; died 2 August 686) was the bishop of Rome from 23 July 685 to his death on 2 August 686. He was the first pope of the Byzantine Papacy consecrated without prior imperial consent, and the first in a line of ten consecutive popes of Eastern origin. His papacy was marked by reconciliation between the city of Rome and the Empire.

Early life

John was born in Antioch and was of Syrian origin. He was named papal legate to the Third Council of Constantinople in 680.

Papacy

John V was the first Pope of the Byzantine Papacy consecrated without the direct imperial approval. Emperor Constantine IV had done away with the requirement during the pontificate of Benedict II, John V's predecessor, providing that "the one elected to the Apostolic See may be ordained pontiff from that moment and without delay". In a return to the "ancient practice", John V was elected in July 685 "by the general population" of Rome. Constantine IV doubtlessly trusted that the population and clergy of Rome had been sufficiently Easternized, and indeed the next ten pontiffs were of Eastern descent.

John V's papacy saw a continuation of improving relations with Byzantium. The Emperor greatly reduced taxes on the papal patrimonies of Sicily and Calabria and abolished other taxes, such as a surtax on grain that had been paid only with difficulty in recent years. A letter from Justinian II assured John V that a "synod of high-ranking civil and ecclesiastical officials", including the apocrisiarius and the Byzantine military, had read and thereafter sealed the text of the Third Council of Constantinople, to prevent any alteration to its canons. The letter was addressed to "John pope of the city of Rome", written while the Emperor believed the pope to still be alive, but received by Pope Conon.

Like his immediate predecessors, John V was unusually generous towards the diaconies of Rome, distributing 1,900 solidi to "all the clergy, the monastic diaconies, and the mansionarii" for the poor.

Death

After a pontificate of little more than a year, John V died in his bed in August 686, giving rise to a "heated debate over his successor". The clergy favored an archpriest named Peter, while the army supported another priest, Theodore. The faction of the clergy gathered outside the Constantinian basilica and the faction of the military met in the Church of St. Stephen. Shuttle diplomacy proved futile and eventually the clergy elected Conon, a Greco-Sicilian.

John V was buried among the papal tombs in Old St. Peter's Basilica. His inscription praised him for combating Monothelitism at the Third Council of Constantinople "with the titles of the faith, keeping such vigilance, you united the minds so that the inimical wolf mixing in might not seize the sheep, or the more powerful crush those below". John V's tomb was destroyed during the Arab raid against Rome in 846.

Notes

References

Ekonomou, Andrew J. 2007. Byzantine Rome and the Greek Popes: Eastern influences on Rome and the papacy from Gregory the Great to Zacharias, A.D. 590–752. Lexington Books.

686 deaths
Popes
Asian popes
Syrian popes
Popes of the Byzantine Papacy
7th-century archbishops
635 births
7th-century popes
7th-century people
Burials at St. Peter's Basilica

Pope John V


Hematite or haematite is the main ore of iron. It is mostly iron(III) oxide. Millions of tons are dug up every year. This is usually to feed to blast furnaces to make steel. It is a mineral related to corundum. It is an oxide.

It has a metallic luster. It has no cleavage (the way a mineral breaks). It has a fracture. The fracture is irregular and uneven. Hematite on the hardness scale is 5 to 6. It has a bright red to dark red streak. To find the streak, you take the mineral and run it across a plate of unglazed porcelain. The colours can be metallic grey to a dark, rough and earthy red colour. Hematite has the chemical formula of Fe2O3.

Related pages

 Corundum

Iron(III) oxide
Rust

Minerals
Ores
Iron compounds

Hematite


A diacritic is a mark put above, below, through or on a letter. Some examples of diacritics are an acute accent or a grave accent. The word comes from the Greek word διακριτικός (transl. diakritikós, 'distinguishing').
Usually, it affects the way the word is said (pronounced). Most diacritics concern pronunciation because most alphabets do not describe the sounds of words exactly. Diacritics are rare in English, but common in many other languages.

Examples

English
English orthography often uses digraphs (like "ph", "sh", "oo", and "ea") rather than diacritics to show more sounds than can be shown with single letters of the Latin alphabet.  Unlike other systems (such as Spanish) where the spelling shows how to say the words, English pronunciation is so varied that diacritics alone would not make it phonetic. By using digraphs we show sounds which are not shown by single letters.

Diacritics are not used much in modern English.  Two types of diacritics have become part of everyday English: the dot above the "i" or "j" and the apostrophe. But they are no longer commonly thought of as being diacritical.  The apostrophe is used to show missing letters (elision, it's to replace it is) and show possession (as in Mike's car).

In most other cases, use of diacritics for native English words is considered old-fashioned (not used anymore). Diaereses (similar to umlauts) can be used on words where two vowels next to each other are pronounced separately like noöne, reëstablished, or coöperate (two vowels pronounced together are a diphthong). This method is still used sometimes. Diacritics are sometimes used in loanwords (words of foreign origin), such as  naïve, entrée, pâté, façade, which are French words.

French
Letter e: common are the acute accent é (rising voice, as in the French word née), grave accent è (lowering voice); élève has (from the left) acute, grave and silent e. The cedilla ç signals a soft c, sounding like an s in English.

A different principle is illustrated by the circumflex î. This usually shows the loss of letter: e.g. maistre (Middle French) > maître (modern French). Thus its function is historical. Also, less often, the circumflex is used to distinguish between homophones. These are words spelt the same, but with different meanings. Example: sur = on, but sûr = safe. In those cases the pronunciation of the two words may be different.

Spanish
In Spanish the acute accent simply signals stress, e.g. educación. There the stress is on the last vowel, not on the usual second to last. Second to last vowel (syllable) is the usual position for stress in spoken Spanish. It is usually not signalled by a printed accent. Where the stress is in its usual place, the end consonant is often dropped in speech.

The tilde ñ is pronounced something like ny. It counts as a separate letter in their dictionaries, coming after n.

The double L is pronounced as our Y and LL is in Spanish dictionaries in its own section,  after the single L section.

German
The umlaut ü in German is pronounced ue, and is less used in modern German. Historical name-spellings should always keep the umlaut if it was used for that name.

Swedish, Norwegian, Danish
The Scandinavian languages treat the characters with diacritics ä, ö and å as new and separate letters of the alphabet, and sort them after z. Usually ä is sorted as equal to æ (ash) and ö is sorted as equal to ø (o-slash). Also, aa, when used as an alternative spelling to å, is sorted as such. Other letters modified by diacritics are treated as variants of the underlying letter, with the exception that ü is frequently sorted as y.

Non-Roman scripts

Scripts for semitic languages such as Arabic and Hebrew have a wide variety of diacritics. This is partly because the scripts for semitic languages were originally formed without separate letters for vowels, and partly because some of the languages (Arabic in particular) are spoken in a number of dialects.

The diacritics in Hebrew and Arabic are not always used, however.

References

Diacritic


In computing, firmware is a computer program that is "embedded" in a hardware device and is an essential part of the hardware. It is sometimes called embedded software. An example is a microcontroller, a part of the microprocessor that tells the microprocessor what actions to take. It can also be a larger program stored on flash memory, or uploaded onto existing hardware by a user.

As its name suggests, firmware is somewhere between hardware and software, connecting the two worlds. It can mean slightly different things to different people, especially as stand-alone electronic devices become more like computers. Like software, it is a computer program which is run by a microprocessor. But it is also linked to a piece of hardware and has no meaning without it.

On a Computer
A computer can have both firmware and software. The firmware is permanently stored in the computer, such as the BIOS, and cannot be easily changed or added to. Software, even the OS, can be replaced by reformatting the hard drive. Software includes the applications that a person operating a computer sees, like a web browser or a word processor. Sometimes a device driver is called firmware, since it is needed to run that piece of hardware, like a printer or a video card. The device driver is on the main part of the computer and can be easily updated (if an update exists).

On an Electronic Device
Other electronic devices may not look like a computer, but they still have an embedded system such as a microcontroller inside, with a program telling them what to do. This is also firmware. A TV cable box, an elevator controller and a card reader in a hotel door lock all run firmware. In this case, the firmware is the only software on the device and it runs everything, from handling button presses to turning motors on or off.

In the past, firmware was stored in ROMs but now it is often stored in media that can be written to such as EEPROMs and Flash. Firmware in many machines such as routers can now be updated without any special hardware, other than a computer and a USB cable. This is done by downloading a new version from the World Wide Web to update the device, using instructions from the device manufacturer.

An electronic device is said to be "bricked" if it cannot be started because of firmware issues. It is then as useful as a brick. Loading the wrong firmware into a device might cause this. Firmware is stored as a binary image file.

Examples
Examples of firmware include:
 The BIOS found in IBM-compatible Personal Computers
 Code inside a printer (in addition to the printer driver that is on the computer)
 Software controlling a heart defibrillator
 Software controlling the lights in an office building
 Software controlling electronics in a car — the radio, the ABS (anti-lock braking system), engine controls, etc.
 Software controlling newer household appliances (microwave ovens, dishwashers, etc.)

Related pages
 BIOS
 Real-time operating system
 Microcode

References

Computer science

Firmware


Michael J. Rubio (born August 24, 1977) is a former California State Senator representing the 16th Senate District before resigning on February 22, 2013. He previously served as Fifth District Kern County Supervisor representing the communities of Arvin, Lamont, and East Bakersfield.

Career

Rubio put himself through Bakersfield College and subsequently studied Justice Administration at the University of New Haven in Connecticut, graduating with honors in Criminology.  He worked for the United States Department of Justice, then returned to Kern County with a job as an advocate for youth and led an agency that provided health insurance to underprivileged children.

For four years, Rubio worked for State Senator Dean Florez. In Florez's Sacramento office, Rubio worked on issues such as the quality of air in the San Joaquin Valley, opposing sludge coming into Kern County from Los Angeles and other surrounding areas, as well as initiatives in education.

Rubio was elected to the 16th State Senate District in November 2010, representing all or portions of Fresno, Kern, Kings and Tulare counties.

In March 2004, Rubio was elected to represent the Fifth District on the Kern County Board of Supervisors and, at the time, became the youngest elected supervisor in California. Rubio had the distinction of being the state's youngest senator when he served in the California State Senate.

While on the Kern County Board of Supervisors, Senator Rubio spearheaded the Kern County Renewable Energy initiative and has worked to facilitate the development of some of the largest solar and wind projects in California. Rubio led the effort to combat gang violence within the southern Central Valley. The Kern County Gang Violence Strategic Plan, authored by Rubio when he was a supervisor, guided the tripling of the Sheriff's Gang Unit and created mentoring and after-school programs to steer children away from gangs.

He was also awarded the John F. Kennedy Jr. Leadership Award from the California Democratic Party and the German Marshall Memorial Fellowship from the German Marshall Fund of the United States. Rubio received the Kern COG Regional Award of Merit – Distinguished Leadership / Elected Official and completed the Senior Executives in State and Local Government program at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Rubio resigned from the California Senate in late February 2013 to take a government-affairs job with Chevron Corporation. In explaining his decision, Rubio cited the 300-mile drive from his district to Sacramento and the attention required by his daughter with special needs.

Committees

While in the Senate, Rubio served as Vice Chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee and as a member of the Budget and Fiscal Review, Energy, Utilities and Communications, Health, Transportation and Housing, Veterans Affairs, and Joint Legislative Audit Committee.

State Senate candidacy
In July 2008, Rubio announced his intention to run for state senate when Senator Florez's term expires in 2010. He chose not to accept voluntary spending limits and expected to spend $1 million on his campaign.

In June 2010, Kern County Clerk Ann Barnett revealed that Rubio was living in the 18th Senate District, calling into question his eligibility to run for office in the 16th. In 2001, Rubio's precinct was incorrectly drawn into the 16th State Senate District. The Democratic California Secretary of State Debra Bowen ruled that Rubio's name would remain on the ballot. Acting in good faith to further address the situation, Rubio and his family immediately moved to a house inside the district in East Bakersfield. He subsequently released a radio ad about the incident citing the mistake as yet another example of broken government.

On Tuesday, November 2, Michael J. Rubio was elected to represent the 16th District in the California State Senate. He defeated his Republican opponent, Tim Thiesen, with over 60% of the vote.

Opposition to Proposition 19
Rubio came out against Proposition 19, the Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010. He characterized the initiative as "bad public policy" and spent $20,000 of his own campaign money to air radio ads opposing the proposition.

Personal life
Rubio lives in East Bakersfield with his wife, Dora, and their daughter, Illiana. Dora Rubio was a superdelegate to the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

References

External links

Join California Michael Rubio

1977 births
Living people
Bakersfield College alumni
County supervisors in California
Democratic Party California state senators
Hispanic and Latino American state legislators in California
Harvard Kennedy School alumni
Politicians from Bakersfield, California
University of New Haven alumni
United States Department of Justice officials
21st-century American politicians

Michael Rubio


World Bowl XII was NFL Europe's 2004 championship game. The game was played at Arena AufSchalke in Gelsenkirchen, Germany on June 12, 2004.  In this game, the defending champion Frankfurt Galaxy returned to try to protect their title after going through a 7–3 regular season.  Their opponent was the Berlin Thunder, as they entered the contest after a franchise-best 9–1 regular season.  35,413 fans were in attendance to watch this championship bout.  The Thunder's regular season record pretty much explained their performance, as they stripped the Galaxy of their championship belt in a close match-up. The final score was 30–24, in favor of Berlin.  Thunder RB Eric McCoo won MVP honors by running 28 times for 167 yards and a touchdown, with his longest run being 69 yards.

Background
The Thunder won the regular season series against the Galaxy, 31–27 in Frankfurt and 41–0 in Berlin.

Game summary
World Bowl XII began with the Galaxy getting the ball first, yet four plays and one "Delay of Game" penalty later, QB J. T. O'Sullivan tried to pass to RB Skip Hicks and his pass got intercepted by Berlin DT Montique Sharpe, who returned the ball 28 yards for a touchdown.  The Galaxy would then start their second drive at their own 25-yard line.  Despite going 66 yards on 11 plays, the Thunder defense forced the Galaxy to settle for a 28-yard field goal by Ralf Kleinmann.  In the second quarter, both teams prevented each other from scoring for most of the period.  It wasn't until the final two minutes of the half that the scoring would continue, with J. T. O'Sullivan leading a 5-play, 55-yard drive and capping it off with an 8-yard TD pass to WR Derrick Lewis.  With less than a minute to go in the half, Thunder QB Rohan Davey got a 7-play, 51-yard drive going, yet Frankfurt's defense forced Berlin to settle for a 38-yard field goal by Jonathan Ruffin, which gave the Berlin Thunder a 10–7 halftime lead.  In the third quarter, one play was all that was needed on their second drive of the half, as a little trick play helped QB Rohan Davey get the ball to WR Richard Alston, who in turn completed a 60-yard TD pass to fellow WR Chas Gessner.  The Thunder would later continue to pour on their lead, as Ruffin kicked a 42-yard field goal to give the Thunder a 23–10 lead going into the fourth quarter.  In the fourth quarter, the Thunder got their final points of the game, as MVP RB Eric McCoo ran 69 yards for a touchdown.  With the Galaxy trailing 30–10 with under six minutes to play, they needed points and they needed them fast.  They would respond as O'Sullivan lead a 5-play, 64-yard drive and wrap it up with a 17-yard TD pass to WR Drew Haddad.  On their next drive, O'Sullivan would throw a 19-yard pass to Derrick Lewis.  Unfortunately, it was too little, too late as the Thunder would wind the game clock to zero and clinch their third World Bowl title in four years.

Scoring summary
Berlin - TD Sharpe 28 yd INT return 2:25 1st
Frankfurt - FG Kleinmann 28 yd 7:42 1st
Frankfurt - TD Lewis 8 yd pass from O'Sullivan 14:01 2nd
Berlin - FG Ruffin 38 yd 15:00 2nd
Berlin - TD Gessner 60 yd pass from Alston 3:35 3rd
Berlin - FG Ruffin 42 yd 12:23 3rd
Berlin - FG Ruffin 40 yd 3rd 14:07
Berlin - TD McCoo 69 yr run 4th 8:34
Frankfurt - TD Haddad 17 yd pass from O'Sullivan 10:55 4th
Frankfurt - TD Lewis 19 yd pass from O'Sullivan 12:29 4th

External links
 World Bowl XII on NFL Europe.com

World Bowl
2004 NFL Europe season
2004 in American football
June 2004 sports events in Europe

World Bowl XII


Education in Moldova is currently the responsibility of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Research.

History
In 1990, the average Moldovan spent six years in school, and only 30% of people older than 15 had completed secondary education. After the end of Soviet rule, reforms were established that required nationals to receive a basic education over 10 years, followed by enrollment in a technical school or an  institution of higher learning.

Primary and Secondary school education
As of 2007-2008 academic year, Moldova had ten types of primary and secondary schools:
Kindergartens take kids from 3 to 5–6 years.
Primary schools, grades 1-4
Gymnasiums, grades 5-9
Lyceums, grades 10-12, Bacalaureat exam
General schools, grades 10-11, no Bacalaureat exam, cannot continue with higher education
Evening schools
Schools of trades, 1 year (grade 12), no Bacalaureat exam, cannot continue with higher education
Vocational schools, 3 years (grades 10-12), no Bacalaureat exam, but can continue with higher education
Vocational lyceums, 3 years (grades 10-12), Bacalaureat exam
Colleges (Colegii), 3 to 4 years, Bacalaureat exam optional, but can continue with higher education
Special schools, grades 1-11, no Bacalaureat exam, cannot continue with higher education

Grading conventions
The lowest grade (mark) in the Moldovan educational system is 1, the highest is 10. To pass a course, a subject, or an exam, the student must obtain a mark of 5 or above.

Higher education

In Moldova, there are 19 state and 12 private institutions of higher education, with a total of 81,669 students in 2015-16.

There are 6,200 faculty members in Moldova's universities, institutes and academies (on average 1 faculty member per 20.3 students). Out of these, only 2,700 (43%) hold PhD degrees, including 358 (5.8%) that also hold the highest academic degree:
Habilitation. Moldovan faculty members usually teach around 20 hours per week (one of the highest workloads in the world).

52.5% of students major in economics, law, social sciences, or in some fields that the Moldovan Ministry of Education calls on its website "professional formation fields", 18.4% study engineering and architecture, 16.0% - education. There are a total of 90 specialities (majors) offered.

101,100 students, or 80.2%, pay for their studies (from 2,000 to 7,300 Moldovan lei per year, i.e. from 120 to 430 euros per year). The state is trying to increase the number of places offered free of charge when students are admitted to public universities: there were 5,085 in 2001, 5,290 in 2002, 5,628 in 2003, 6,354 in 2004, 7,048 in 2005, 7,835 in 2006, but this rate (54% over 5 years) is lower than the rate of increase (65% over the same period) in the total number of places. 15% of the free of charge places are reserved, and distributed to candidates from low-income families. In an effort to support them, the state gives scholarships to 70% of students who occupy the free of charge places, i.e. to 14.4% of the total number of students. As of January 1, 2006, these scholarships are in three categories: 210, 230, or 270 Moldovan lei per month, i.e. 12, 14, or 16 euros per month respectively.

78.4% of students study in Romanian, roughly corresponding to its respective linguistic group, while 19.5% study in Russian (including members of other linguistic groups like Gagauz or Bulgarian). Foreign languages became increasingly less popular in recent years: 1.8% studied in English or French during the 2010-2011 schoolyear, compared to 3.2% in 2006.

The National Council on Accreditation and Attestation is an organization that approves the examination programs for doctoral students, confers scientific degrees, and scientific and pedagogical ranks. The Council publishes online all PhD theses  that are elaborated and defended in Moldova.

The curriculum
At present, the graduates get two types of diplomas: one type for fulfilling the curriculum and the Licence examination, and a second type, if in addition they write a Licence Diploma paper.

The Ministry of Education defines its strategic objective for higher education to be "the integration into the European common space for higher education, and active participation in its construction". In 2005 Moldova signed the commitment to implement the Bologna process agreements. In view of this, several changes have been operated since:
reorganization from September 1, 2005 of the higher education into an undergraduate cycle of 3–4 years, and a master cycle of 1-2 year
commitment to copy European laws and adopt them wholesale
elaboration and implementation of a Framework Plan for the first cycle (undergraduate)
elaboration of a new Classification List of Specialities for the undergraduate cycle
elaboration of an Implementation Guide for a to be National System of Transferable Credits, and institutionalization of this system in all universities and colleges
implementation of the introduction of an educational record from in a unique European format, as a supplement to the Licence diploma

The Ministry of Education's declared objectives in taking these actions are:
 improvement of the quality of the country's higher education
 increasing the national and international mobility of students and faculty
 taking and implementing "European university education values" into the educational system of Moldova

The quality of the higher education has been declared a priority. In this context, a prime priority is declared to the implementation of the National Framework of Qualifications for Professional Formation, which will determine the "educational finalities and competences", the "compulsory minimum of realization in higher education", and will somehow facilitate the rise in "the quality of the preparation of graduates for the national economy", and will also somehow contribute to "ensuring the continuous rise of the quality of education".

Universities and colleges are told to start creating own "systems of internal management of quality", with the aim of "organizing the internal process of ensuring the quality, in accordance with national standards, and the demands of external evaluation systems".

Citations

References

External links
 Ministry of Education of Moldova

Education in Moldova


Drug addiction is on the increase in Pakistan. Young boys and girls of colleges and universities fall an easy victim to it. The reasons are quite obvious. The first reason is that the young people feel frustrated and tense in the modern world. They fail to solve their emotional and intellectual problems themselves. They are highly educated but they do not get a job according to their ability. In this world of tension and anxiety, they feel lonely and sad. They resort to drugs in order to mitigate their sorrows and sufferings. The second reason is that the uneducated people use drugs to relieve pain and sufferings

Drug addiction is not a new thing. It has been in practice for centuries. People used opium, Charas and Bhang in the past. These narcotics gave them temporary pleasure and transported them into a world where there was no sorrow or suffering.

Now man has left these old narcotics and has become addicted to heroin. Heroin is the most sophisticated form of the drug. It is prepared from Opium. The major centres of illegal opium production are Turkey, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Heroin produced in these areas is marketed to European countries and America. It is a very costly drug. That is why it is smuggled to rich countries. It is the most addictive of drugs. A man may become addicted to it within a week. Its influence on our body, mind and soul is irresistible. If once this evil addiction grips us it may not leave us for years.

There are many reasons for its prevalence in Pakistan. First, the smugglers of heroin are very influential. They are not caught and punished severely. Secondly, the recent Afghan Russian War has encouraged this. Thirdly, young people want to get rid of their depression and anxiety. They resort to the use of drugs which mitigate their sufferings temporarily. Moreover, there is a misconceived notion that narcotics increase physical power and energy. Moreover, the heroine is the only drug which is easily available. Some people use it to have a new experience but soon they are caught into its web.

The use of drugs harms our body and mind. It affects lungs, heart and kidneys of the victim. It causes tuberculosis and cancer. It relieves depression for a short time and gives temporary pleasure. But as soon as the intoxication is over, it takes us to the world of reality and strain. In this way, it cripples our activity and makes us inactive. A drug addict cannot live without the drug. He can become a criminal, a robber or a thief. He must steal money to get the drug. Thus drug addiction produces an army of idlers and socially inactive people. In this way, it turns active and vigorous young people into active and passive idlers.

The Government of Pakistan is trying its utmost to control its prevalence. It persuades the producers of heroin not to prepare it. at the same time, it uses coercive measures to curb its preparation. co-operation of other countries, like U.S.A, U.K, West Germany and Canada is sought to counter its spread.

بھارت میں انتخابات کا طریقہ کار
بھارتی جمہوریت میں انتخابی عمل کے مختلف درجے ہیں لیکن بنیادی طور پر آئین ہند میں پورے ملک کے لیے ایک لوک سبھا اور علاحدہ ریاستوں کے لیے مختلف اسمبلی کی ہدایت دی گئی ہے۔

آئین ہند کے پندرہویں حصے میں دفعہ 324 سے دفعہ 329 تک انتخابات کی تشریح کی گئی ہے۔ دفعہ 324 میں انتخابی حلقہ، انتخابات کا ضابطہ اخلاق اور الیکشن کمیشن کے متعلق ہدایات ہیں، نیز دفعہ 324 میں الیکشن کمیشن کو انتخابات ختم کرانے کی ذمہ داری بھی دی گئی ہے۔ 1989ء تک الیکشن کمیشن صرف ایک رکنی تنظیم تھی لیکن 16 اکتوبر 1989ء کو ایک صدارتی اعلان کے ذریعہ مزید دو الیکشن کمشنروں کی تقرری کی گئی۔

انتخابات
نظریہ انفصال
سیاست
کامنز زمرہ جس کا ربط ویکی ڈیٹا پر ہے
تقابلی سیاست
Short description is different from Wikidata

انتخابات


A songwriter is a writer who creates songs. A songwriter generally writes songs for popular music, rather than art songs or classical music. Many songwriters are also singers, and perform the songs they write - they are called singer-songwriters. Other songwriters have their songs performed by other singers.

History
The history of writing songs is thousands of years old. Scholars believe that men and women may have created and sung songs even at the time of prehistory. Many modern bands have one or two members who write songs for the band. Others have more members contribute songs, or give the whole band credit for writing. Others perform songs by outside writers.

Famous songwriters
John Lennon and Paul McCartney, members of The Beatles
Brian Wilson and Mike Love, members of The Beach Boys
Elton John and Bernie Taupin
Paul Anka
Burt Bacharach
Bob Dylan
Stephen Foster
Woody Guthrie
Johnny Mercer
Willie Nelson
Mickey Newbury
Harry Nilsson
Laura Nyro
Dolly Parton
Cole Porter
Glen Ballard
Diane Warren
Neil Young
John Williams

Related pages
Composer

Music industry

Entertainment occupations

Songwriter


Tarzan the Magnificent is a 1960 British Eastmancolor film, the follow-up to Tarzan's Greatest Adventure (1959). Its plot bears no relation to that of the 1939 Edgar Rice Burroughs novel of the same name. The film was directed by Robert Day and produced by Sy Weintraub and Harvey Hayutin. Gordon Scott made his last appearance as Tarzan in the film, while Jock Mahoney appeared as villain Coy Banton. Mahoney would take over the Tarzan role himself beginning in the next film, Tarzan Goes to India, in 1962. The motion picture does not include Jane.

Plot
The Bantons (father, Abel and four sons, Coy, Ethan, Johnny and Martin) rob a pay office in a settlement, killing some people. Coy Banton is tracked down to their camp and taken away by a policeman, Wyntors. Taking him back to town, Wyntors is killed as two of the brothers seek to rescue Coy. Tarzan appears and kills Ethan Banton. The other brother escapes. Tarzan decides to take Coy to Kairobi for the $5000 reward so he can give it to Wyntors' widow. However, no one in the town of Mantu (same town as the one at the beginning of Tarzan's Greatest Adventure) wants to help him. The boat he is waiting for to take him and his prisoner to Kairobi is ambushed by the Bantons, who send the passengers off and destroy the boat.

Later that night Tarzan meets with the people from the boat and decides on an overland trek to take Coy Banton to Kairobi and agrees to take along, at first, the boat's mate, Tate, then reluctantly agrees to take the passengers of the boat: A business man named Ames and his wife, Fay; another man named Conway and a young woman named Lori, who all share with Tarzan their own reasons for wanting to go to Kairobi. But Tarzan warns them the trek through the jungles would be hard and dangerous. The presence of so many people to watch out for hinders Tarzan. The Bantons threaten to kill anyone who helps Tarzan. Pausing only to shoot the doctor who has told them what they want to know, the Bantons set out after the party and Coy.

Ames is a boastful and racist windbag whose wife begins to detest him. Seeing this, Coy plays up to her, hoping he might be able to use her later. The party are captured by natives and the leader wants to kill Coy, who killed his brother when the Bantons raided their village. However, the chief's wife is having a difficult childbirth labour, and since Conway (who was a doctor) is able to help her have her baby (a breach birth), the chief agrees to let the party go.

Coy sees his chance and escapes. Thanks to Ames, Tate is shot and later dies. Tarzan again captures Coy and he hides them both in a quicksand pit as the other Bantons search for them. Later, Lori wanders off and is caught by Johnny Banton who attempts to have his way with her. As she screams, Tarzan comes to rescue her and, after a fight, Johnny dies from a shot in the face with his rifle while struggling with Tarzan and falls into a stream. Later, seeing his grave (along with Tate's), Martin Banton has had enough of a father who taught them to steal and murder by age sixteen, and leaves him.

Coy's wiles have paid off and Fay Ames releases him while the others sleep, and they leave camp together. Tarzan goes after them and finds Fay's scarf. Coy left her behind when she was out of breath and a lioness found her. Tarzan eventually comes on Coy and Abel Banton, and in a roving battle, a ricochet from Coy's rifle kills Abel. A prolonged battle on rocks, on sand and underwater follows before Tarzan finally knocks Coy out. The film ends with Tarzan and the remaining three people (Ames, Lori, and Conway) handing Coy over to the Kairobi police on the border and instructs Conway to make sure Wyntor's widow gets the reward money.

Cast
 Gordon Scott as Tarzan
 Jock Mahoney as Coy Banton
 Betta St. John as Fay Ames
 John Carradine as Abel Banton
 Lionel Jeffries as Ames
 Alexandra Stewart as Lori
 Earl Cameron as Tate
 Charles Tingwell as Conway
 Al Mulock as Martin Banton
 Gary Cockrell as Johnny Banton
 Ron McDonnell as Ethan Banton
 Harry Baird as Warrior Leader
 Christopher Carlos as Native Chief
 John Sullivan as Inspector Wyntors
 Ewen Solon as Dexter
 Jacqueline Evans as Mrs Dexter
 Thomas Duggan as Frye
 Peter Howell as Dr Blake
 John Harrison as N'Como
 George Taylor as Captain Hayes

Production
Filming started 25 January 1960 in Africa.

See also
 List of American films of 1960

References

External links

 ERBzine Silver Screen: Tarzan the Magnificent

1960 films
1960s fantasy adventure films
American fantasy adventure films
American sequel films
British fantasy adventure films
British sequel films
Films directed by Robert Day
Paramount Pictures films
Tarzan films
Films produced by Sy Weintraub
1960s English-language films
1960s American films
1960s British films

Tarzan the Magnificent


Lag is a word that means to fail in keeping pace or to fall behind. This term is used a lot by people who are talking about video games that have a delay between when a player presses a button on a controller and something happening in the game. This happens more often during online gaming when the access point a player is using is far away or when other players are using slower connections, such as dial-up. The slowing down of a website when more people get onto that website can also be called lag.

Video games

Lag


The Book of General Ignorance  is the first in a series of books based on the final round in the intellectual British panel game QI, written by series-creator John Lloyd and head-researcher John Mitchinson, to help spread the QI philosophy of curiosity to the reading public. It is a trivia book, aiming to address and address many of the misconceptions, mistakes and misunderstandings in 'common knowledge'—it is therefore known not as a 'General Knowledge' book, but as 'General Ignorance.

As well as correcting these "all-too-common" mistakes, the book(s) attempt to explain how the errors have been perpetuated, and why people believe incorrect 'facts' to be true.

Publication history

First published by Faber and Faber in Britain on 19 October 2006, The Book of General Ignorance was published in the United States (on 7 August 2007 by Harmony Books), in France as Les autruches ne mettent pas la tête dans le sable: 200 bonnes raisons de renoncer à nos certitudes (on 3 October 2007 by Dunod) and in the Netherlands as Het grote boek van foute feiten (on 1 November 2007 by Uitgeverij Forum). A surprise Christmas 2006 best-seller in the UK, the book became "Amazon's number one Global bestseller for Christmas 2006." By the end of January 2007 it had sold more than 300,000 copies, and later passed half a million. Unexpectedly high sales led to a sequel and an annual.

In the United States the book received good reviews from both Publishers Weekly, and the New York Times, who recommended it in their "Books Holiday Gift Guide". It has a different cover (above ) to the UK edition, downplaying links with the QI TV series which had not been shown in North America. The book remained in the top 15 places on the New York Times Best Seller list for "Hardcover Advice" books from 9 December 2007 to 13 January 2008.

Background
The title "General Ignorance", chosen both to emulate and parody general knowledge quizzes, was first used to describe the final round of the panel game QI, which was created by Lloyd and had Mitchinson as head researcher. Appearing initially in the unbroadcast pilot (subsequently available on DVD), the round has varied little in content and style since, although the questions became slightly more obtuse. From the start the round consisted of several deliberately misleading questions which appear to have obvious answers that are actually inaccurate (for example, aircraft black boxes are in fact orange, for visibility.) The pilot also introduced the concept of penalising answers that were overly predictable, especially obvious jokes: one such question in the pilot was, "What is the sixth most popular name for a baby boy in Germany?" The answer to the question is, in fact, "Tim". However, QI's regular panellist Alan Davies answered with the jokey suggestion "Adolph", allowing host Stephen Fry to produce a prepared piece of card reading "Adolph," whereupon the obvious-but-inaccurate answer was revealed to carry a penalty score of −10 points. When the pilot was shown to the then-controller of BBC Two (Jane Root), it was this feature that particularly caught her attention, and penalties remained a regular feature throughout the first nine series of the programme. Due to the nature of the questions in the final round, however, the majority of penalties would always be awarded during "General Ignorance".

While most episodes are structured around a theme topic beginning with the Series' initial letter (each Series is alphabetically structured, with Series 5 being "E", etc.), "General Ignorance" contains questions on a range of diverse subjects, linked only by common misunderstanding. Occasionally the round differs, in particular during the Christmas specials. During the course of the "B" Series special, Fry and Davies swapped places for "General Ignorance", with Fry attempting to answer questions ostensibly written by Davies to stump him. During "D"s Christmas Special, all the "GI" questions revolved around saints.

Structure
The Book of General Ignorance contains a list of 230 questions, most of which previously appeared in episodes of QI. Each question explains the correct answer, and usually attempts to show why people tend to make the wrong assumptions, or believe certain myths. Each book contains two forewords, one by Fry, the other by Davies. Davies' initial "foreword" was credited as "Four words," which read simply: "Will this do, Stephen?"

Critical reception

Response to the book has been mostly positive, both critically and commercially. Critic Jennifer Kay said, "The Book of General Ignorance won't make you feel dumb. It's really a call to be more curious." Liesl Schillinger in The New York Times praised the book for gathering "so much repeatable wisdom […] in one place," asking the rhetorical question of interested parties—"In the Information Age, can you afford to remain ignorant of these precious factoids?"

Doug Brown reviewed the book for Powell's Books, noting that it has a "UK-heavy emphasis", and that "Overall The Book of General Ignorance is a lot of fun, and you're guaranteed to learn something you didn't know (but thought you did)."
Aileen Marshall rates it with the maximum five stars for the Librarian Book Review at TeensPoint.org, writing:

This book is just fun to read, alone or with your spouse or friends. And it broadens your horizon. Even if you don't plan on attending a trivia-gameshow anytime soon, your newly acquired knowledge will be beneficial when the need for smalltalk arises.

The book was favourably reviewed in other places, among them such American newspapers as the Los Angeles Times, Monsters and Critics, USA Today, Seattle Times, Chicago Sun-Times and Seattle Post-Intelligencer. However, some reviews were critical; Kirsten Garrett suggested in her review that, The Book of General Ignorance "is in danger of being too smart for its own good. In fact, a bit smart-arse." She also noted that "It's a disgrace that in a book of this kind there is no index. It's not possible to look up a subject about which you are ignorant".

Marcus Berkmann drew attention to the over-abundance of similarly themed books (to which the QI title—and series—clearly owe a certain debt), commenting that:

A book of the show has become all but necessary, if only to allow us to ingest this information at normal brain speed, and because such fine and creative research genuinely deserves to be captured in print. So it's slightly disappointing that the book arrives in the question-and-answer format made so familiar by last year's big hit Does Anything Eat Wasps? There are actually about 20 such books out this year, all asking these quirky questions (Do Sheep Shrink in the Rain? Do Fish Drink Water?), all piled up in Waterstones, making book-buyers feel a bit depressed.

Berkman's complaints, however, are countered by his admission that "this book is already the amusing trivia success of the season," containing many "eye-watering" and "eyebrow-raising" facts, even if he thinks it a little smug.

Both the "question and answer" format and indexing issues were addressed for the follow-up The Book of Animal Ignorance, which had an alphabetised structure (with contents page), and stand-alone facts, rather than responses.

Sequels
A "Pocket edition" of The Book of General Ignorance was published on 3 April 2008. A second book in the series, The Book of Animal Ignorance, was released in the UK a year after The Book of General Ignorance, on 4 October 2007. An audiobook adaptation called The Sound of General Ignorance was scripted and read by the authors on 4 November 2008. On 25 December 2008 an extended version of the book, entitled The Noticeably Stouter Edition, was published to coincide with QI moving to BBC One. This new version included new facts, quotes from the show, a list of all the episodes made at the time, an index, and a new collection of "Four words" from Davies.

On 1 November 2007 another QI spin-off title was produced: The QI annual, intended as a continuing work focusing on the Series' alphabetic themes. The annual featured contributions from most of "QI"s guest panellists and the comedian Rowan Atkinson. In 2010 the second book of General Ignorance was released.

See also
 List of common misconceptions

References

External links
QI.com - The Forum of General Ignorance
QI.com - The Book of General Ignorance
"QI Book"'s photos at Facebook
Creators John Lloyd and John Mitchinson discussing The Book of General Ignorance

Books based on QI
Trivia books
British books
Books by John Lloyd (producer)
2006 non-fiction books
Faber and Faber books
Harmony Books books

The Book of General Ignorance


Seanad Éireann (; Senate of Ireland) is the second house of the Irish parliament, the Oireachtas.

Function
Seanad Éireann's main business is the revising of legislation sent to it by Dáil Éireann.

It can initiate (start) and revise legislation, except bills for raising tax and spending money (Money Bills).  Financial legislation must start in Dáil Éireann, and the Seannad can only suggest changes, it cannot force the changes to be accepted.

Seanad Éireann slows Dáil Éireann.  All bills must be looked at by the Seannad, so it is a safeguard against laws being passed too quickly.

Seanad Éireann also debates important issues. Also, Seanad Éireann can debate these issues with more freedom because the fate of the Government will not be at stake.  If the government loses a vote in Seanad Éireann it could be embarrassing, but under the constitution if the Government loses a vote in Dáil Éireann they might have to call new elections.

Election day
Members of Dáil Éireann are members from the first meeting of Dáil Éireann after a general election until the Dáil is dissolved.  Members of Seanad Éireann are members from the first meeting until the day before the next general election of the Seanad.

Elections for Dáil Éireann must be within 30 days of being dissolved. Elections for the Seanad must be within 90 days of Dáil Éireann's dissolution.  The Seanad must be elected after the Dáil, because new TDs are allowed to vote in a Seanad election.

Members
There are sixty Senators.

 11 are nominated to be members by the new Taoiseach after a general election
 49 are elected from panels of candidates

Elected Senators
 Three senators are elected by the National University of Ireland;
 Three are elected by the University of Dublin;
 43 are elected from 5 panels of candidates:-
 National Language and Culture, Literature, Art, Education and other professions;
 Agriculture and allied interests, and Fisheries;
 Labour, (organised or unorganised);
 Industry and Commerce, including banking, finance, accountancy, engineering and architecture;
 Public Administration and social services, including voluntary social activities.

At least 5 senators must be elected from each panel, but no more than 11 from any one panel.

About 1.000 people can vote for the Seanad:

 Members of the newly elected Dáil Éireann
 Members of the old Seanad Éireann
 Members of city and county councils

The senators from the Universities are elected by any Irish citizen with a degree from that university.

The university seats shows how much Éamon de Valera, who wrote the Constitution of Ireland was influenced by the British Parliament.  At the time it was written the universities of Oxford and Cambridge had their own MPs in the House of Commons.  Graduates of those universities voted for these MPs as well as for the MP were they lived.

Related pages
 Dáil Éireann
 Oireachtas

References

Politics of Ireland
Government of the Republic of Ireland
Ireland

Seanad Éireann


Wolde Giyorgis Wolde Yohannes (; 1901 – 29 July 1976) was an important government Minister during the reign of Haile Selassie. Between 1941 and his downfall in 1955, he came to dominate Ethiopian politics for a decade and a half, not only serving as Tsehafi Taezaz or Minister of the Pen (1941–1955), but at times Minister of the Interior (1943–1949), and Minister of Justice (1949–1955).

Life
Wolde Giyorgis was born in Shewa, and received his education at the Menelik II School. According to John Spencer, he was the son of a saddle-maker and received "little formal education". Spencer considered him his friend, confessing that from "our first encounter at the headquarters at Dessie, I was drawn to him by his lively use of French and his swift ironic wit. Throughout the 12 years of our collaboration, he and I, even in the midst of serious discussion in committee meetings, continued to indulge in ironic by-play."

He became Emperor Haile Selassie's private secretary prior to the Italian occupation, and accompanied his monarch into exile. When Emperor Haile Selassie returned to Ethiopia Wolde Giyorgis was at his side, having gained the Emperor's trust during their exile, as well as according to Bahru Zewde a "knack for political intregue", Bereket Habte Selassie writes that "he was responsible (next to the Emperorsome say next to no one) for the post-restoration establishment of a firm control over the capital and the provinces. He enjoyed immense power (or the confidence of the Emperor, which is the same thing) and, to many people, exemplified the older educated generation who were the Emperor's willing and efficient tools in his pursuit of the policy of complete centralization of power."

Wolde Giyorgis was much involved in negotiating the Anglo-Ethiopian agreements of 1942 and 1944. He strongly opposed post-war British pressures on Ethiopia, most notably against British efforts to remain in occupation of the Ogaden and the so-called Reserved Area adjacent to British Somaliland. As a result, Richard Pankhurst notes, "several British officials went so far (incorrectly) as describing him as being 'anti-British'. For his part he used to say that he was not 'Anti-anybody, but pro-Ethiopian'. I emphasise this side of his life because it is highly relevant to our subject for today!"

However, in 1955 Wolde Giyorgis fell from favor, and a group of four ambitious ministers moved into his place: Makonnen Habte-Wold, Ras Abebe Aregai, Ras Andargachew Masai, and General Mulugeta Bulli. As Christopher Clapham observed, "Not least of among the emperor's achievements was the way in which he caused the resentment both of the nobility and of frustrated reformers to be directed against Wolde Giyorgis rather than himself, thus remaining detached from policies for which he was essentially responsible."

After his downfall, Wolde Giyorgis served as Governor of Arsi (1955–1960), and of Gamu-Gofa (1960–1961). He left Ethiopia for medical treatment, just before the Ethiopian revolution of 1974, becoming an exile in Britain where he died two years later. Wolde Giyorgis was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery.

Notes

1901 births
1976 deaths
Government ministers of Ethiopia
Ethiopian exiles
Ethiopian expatriates in the United Kingdom
Grand Crosses 1st class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
20th-century Ethiopian politicians

Wolde Giyorgis Wolde Yohannes


Bobby G (born Robert Alan Gubby, 23 August 1953), also known as Bobby Gee, is a member of pop group Bucks Fizz, best known for winning the 1981 Eurovision Song Contest and for achieving three UK number one hits with "Making Your Mind Up" (1981), "The Land of Make Believe" (1981) and "My Camera Never Lies" (1982).

Early career
G was born in Epsom, Surrey, England. After leaving school at 14, he began working in a number of trades, the most significant of these being in construction. In his late teens he set up his own building business, based on the knowledge he had gained from his father, who was also a builder. For much of the 1970s he worked in building and plumbing.

By the end of the decade, both businesses had failed, leaving him with heavy debts as well as having two marriages, both of which ended in divorce

In 1979, G decided to embark on a career in music and began touring pubs and clubs as a solo singer/guitarist. In 1980, G auditioned for a role in the West End musical Jesus Christ Superstar and became an understudy for the role of Pontius Pilate. The musical had been running for eight years at the Palace Theatre and was then the longest running musical ever in the UK, but it closed the same year as G joined the cast. He then went on to perform as a resident singer in a local country club.

Bucks Fizz
In January 1981, G auditioned for a new pop group being put together by songwriter/manager Nichola Martin. The group was called Bucks Fizz and were to perform in that year's A Song for Europe contest with the song "Making Your Mind Up". After another singer Stephen Fischer became unavailable, G was offered the job following further auditions.

Along with other members Mike Nolan, Cheryl Baker and Jay Aston the group went on to win the contest and on 4 April 1981 took part in the Eurovision Song Contest representing the United Kingdom. Bucks Fizz won the contest and the group were catapulted into overnight stardom. The song reached No.1 in the UK charts and sold four million copies worldwide.

Bucks Fizz began a career which saw them have many hits around the world over the next few years, notably so in Britain, where they became one of the biggest groups of the 1980s and scored many hit singles and albums, including two further No.1s "The Land of Make Believe" and "My Camera Never Lies".

On 11 December 1984, while on tour in Newcastle, the group were involved in a coach crash. G received medical attention for whiplash injuries, but unlike other band members, was not seriously harmed. The accident gained much media attention including front-page headlines and television news reports.

The group continued on for the rest of the decade and scored their final hit in 1988.

Later Bucks Fizz

In 1990, Bucks Fizz became a three-piece (G, Nolan and Baker), and they continued to tour the country. Apart from a 1991 live album, no other recordings were made by the group.

Baker left the group in 1993 and around this time G largely took over the management of Bucks Fizz, employing two new members, Heidi Manton and Amanda Schwartz. In 1995, Nolan also left the group and so G became the only original member. G took on former Dollar star David Van Day as Nolan's replacement.

Van Day was keen to record with the group, but G decided that this was not economically viable and was happy to continue touring. Unrest grew between the two and eventually after a show in the Falklands, Van Day sensationally quit the group. G rapidly employed a replacement, while Van Day launched a rival group along with former member Nolan. Unhappy with the situation, G filed a lawsuit against this version of the group and attempted to gain the rights to the Bucks Fizz name. In the early 2000s, G took Van Day to court, but was initially unsuccessful. Eventually he won the right to perform in the only officially recognised Bucks Fizz, following Nolan's departure from the Van Day version. In 2002, the debacle became the subject of a BBC2 documentary entitled Trouble at the Top, which saw interviews with both G and Van Day centring on their conflicting views.

In 2004, G performed once again with original members Nolan and Baker and later member, Shelley Preston as part of the Here and Now 1980's revival tour. This took in several arenas around the UK, but remained a one-off as G returned to his currently performing line-up. He also briefly appeared alongside Nolan, Baker, Preston and original member Aston in the video for Comic Relief's 2007 single "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)"

Members of Bucks Fizz continue to tour in two versions; one version consists of Mike Nolan, Cheryl Baker and Jay Aston as The Fizz, whilst the other contains Bobby G, his wife and two other singers as Bucks Fizz.

Solo career
G was keen to launch a solo career during the hit-making days of Bucks Fizz. In the end, only one single was released. This was the theme tune to BBC TV's Big Deal, which was released in 1984 and although only reached No.46, the song remained on the UK Charts for 12 weeks. G also wrote and produced a number of songs for Bucks Fizz, none of these were released as singles, but became album tracks and B-sides for the group.

Further solo recordings were made but went unreleased until 2006 and 2008 when two compilation CDs of unreleased Bucks Fizz tracks, The Lost Masters included some of his solo work.

Personal life
In the 1970s, G married twice and had a child by his first wife. In the early 1980s he divorced his second wife but subsequently continued in a relationship with her while fathering a second child in 1982. They split in the 1990s and G began a relationship with band member Heidi Manton. They married in 2000 and are still together. They have a daughter.

References

External links
 http://www.bucksfizz.co.uk/index.htm

1953 births
Living people
People from Epsom
Eurovision Song Contest entrants for the United Kingdom
English male singers
Eurovision Song Contest entrants of 1981
Eurovision Song Contest winners
English male songwriters
BBC Records artists

Bobby G


Morning glory is a family of common flowering plants known as Convolvulaceae which includes bindweed.

Behaviour
Most morning glory flowers curl up and close during the warm parts of the day, and are wide open in the morning, like their name.  On a cloudy day, the flower may last until night. The flowers usually start to fade a few hours before the petals start curling. They prefer full sun throughout the day. Some morning glories - such as Ipomoea muricata - are night-blooming flowers.

Cooking uses
Ipomoea aquatica (known as "water spinach", "water morning-glory", "water convolvulus", "Ong-Choy", "Kang-kung", or "swamp cabbage") is used as a green vegetable.

References

Convolvulaceae
Epiphytes
Flowers

Morning glory


A graphics processing unit (GPU) is the processor on a graphics card. It makes images, animations, graphics and then displays them on the computer's screen. A strong GPU is able to process complex animations and graphics smoothly and efficiently.

Images which GPUs make may be 2D or 3D.  For most applications, the GPU has to make two dimensional (2D) pictures.  Some applications use 3D pictures to simulate three-dimensionality.

Origin
The first graphics processors were used in the 1970s in arcade machines. Graphics processors were not used for consumer products until the 1980s because they were too expensive to make.

During the mid 1990s, graphics processors became common in arcade games, computer games and console games. The first GPU for personal computers was the Nvidia GeForce 256, released in 1999. It could calculate geometric objects in space and some lighting effects.

Modern Uses
Nowadays, GPUs are omnipresent in personal computers, mobile telephones and video game systems. This is because most CPUs come with an internal GPU built-in. Those internal GPUs can make the visual effects of modern graphical user interfaces such as shadows, semi-transparent backgrounds and animations. However, for newer video games a more powerful additional dedicated GPU is usually needed.

Other devices such as virtual reality headsets and driverless cars, such as Tesla, also use GPUs. The tasks a GPU can do include technical calculations, Artificial Intelligence problem solving, photo editing and other applications.

History of Multi-GPU systems
The first attempts in Multi-GPU Systems were done by now defunct company 3Dfx in the late 1990s, which was bought by Nvidia later. Their Voodoo video cards, which were 3D only accelerators, could be hooked up to a second Voodoo video card to gain more performance. This was called SLi. Theoretically the performance would double, practically it increased far less, depending on the video game. Later, 3Dfx built even four GPUs on one unreleased video card.

References

Computer hardware
Computer graphics

Graphics processing unit


Giovanni Ignazio Dioguardi (; April 29, 1914 – January 12, 1979), known as John "Johnny Dio" Dioguardi, was an Italian-American organized crime figure and a labor racketeer. He is known for being involved in the acid attack which led to the blinding of newspaper columnist Victor Riesel, and for his role in creating fake labor union locals to help Jimmy Hoffa become General President of the Teamsters.

Childhood and early criminal career
John Dioguardi was born on April 29, 1914, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York City, and brought up on Forsyth Street in Little Italy, to Giovanni B. Dioguardi and Rose Plumeri. He was the eldest of three brothers, including Thomas (Tommy Dio) and Frank J. (Frankie Dio) Dioguardi. His father was murdered in August 1930 in what police called a mob-related execution. Dioguardi's uncle, James "Jimmy Doyle" Plumeri, was a member of the gang run by Albert Marinelli and his patron, Charles "Lucky" Luciano, head of the rapidly forming Genovese crime family. Dioguardi was introduced to organized crime at the age of 15 by his uncle. At the time, labor racketeering in the garment district was controlled by Luciano and Tommaso "Tommy" Gagliano, head of the Lucchese crime family. Plumeri, John Dioguardi, and brother Tommy were working for both gangs. He also associated with hitmen and labor racketeers Louis "Lepke" Buchalter and Jacob "Gurrah" Shapiro.

With Plumeri and another gangster, Dominick Didato, Dioguardi established and ran a protection racket in New York City's garment district. He was arrested several times between 1926 and 1937, but never brought to trial. For a time in 1934, Dioguardi was executive secretary of the Allied Truckmen's Mutual Association, an employer association, and represented the employers during a strike by 1,150 Teamsters in September 1934. In March 1937, Dioguardi was arrested on charges of extortion, conspiracy, and racketeering, He pleaded guilty and received a three-year prison term in Sing Sing.

After his release from prison, Dioguardi moved to Allentown, Pennsylvania, where he established a dress manufacturing plant. He later sold the plant (taking a $11,200 bribe to ensure that it remained non-union before he sold it), and set up a dress wholesaler operation in New York City. Dioguardi also dabbled in stock investing, real estate, and trucking.

Dioguardi later returned to New York to live again on Forsyth Street. He married the former Anne Chrostek, and had two sons, Philip and Dominick, and a daughter, Rosemary, who died. Philip ("Fat Philly") later was a soldier in the Colombo crime family. Dominick became a soldier in the Lucchese family.

Labor racketeering in the 1950s
In 1950, Dioguardi returned to labor racketeering. He was appointed Regional Director of the United Auto Workers-AFL (UAW-AFL), and received 12 charters for paper locals in the garment industry. Criminals formed the membership of the paper locals, and Dioguardi demanded money from employers who wished to remain union-free and extorted cash from unionized employers who wished to avoid strikes and other labor troubles. Dioguardi was arrested for extortion in July 1952. Meanwhile, New York state officials charged Dioguardi with tax evasion (see below). Although Dioguardi was never convicted for this labor racketeering incident, he was removed from his post in February 1953 by the UAW-AFL and ejected from the union in April 1954.

In the midst of the 1952-54 labor racketeering scandal, Dioguardi was charged with tax evasion. New York state tax officials charged that Dioguardi had taken a bribe when selling his Pennsylvania dress factory, and failed to report the bribe as income. Dioguardi denied the charge, but he was found guilty in March 1954 and sentenced to 60 days in prison. This conviction, rather than the allegations of labor racketeering, was the basis used to remove him from his UAW-AFL position.

Teamsters paper locals scandal
Dioguardi's association with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters was a long one. He became acquainted with New York City Teamsters leaders Martin T. Lacey and John J. O'Rourke in 1934, when Dioguardi represented the employers in a trucking strike. Dioguardi was involved again with the Teamsters by 1954, when police suspected him of involvement in a protection racket run by several Teamsters locals aimed at trucking employers. His ties soon deepened. He met in a New York City hotel room with Midwestern Teamsters leader Jimmy Hoffa and plotted to help Hoffa oust Teamsters General President Dave Beck. Between November 29 and December 15, 1955, Dioguardi obtained charters from the Teamsters for seven paper locals. O'Rourke, a Hoffa ally, was planning to challenge Lacey (a Beck supporter) for the presidency of the 125,000-member New York City Teamsters Joint Council. Winning control of the delegate-rich Joint Council would significantly boost Hoffa's chances of ousting Beck, and might lead other large, important joint councils and locals to join a Hoffa bandwagon. O'Rourke fought to have the "Dio locals" admitted to the Joint Council, and a major political battle broke out in the international union over admitting the new unions. After a deadlocked election, the seating of the "Dio locals", the unseating of the "Dio locals", a grand jury investigation, several rulings by President Beck, and a successful lawsuit by Lacey, Lacey withdrew from his re-election bid and O'Rourke was elected president of the Joint Council. Although more paper locals established by Dioguardi petitioned for membership in the Joint Council, the Teamsters dismantled nearly all the "Dio locals" by mid-1959.

McClellan Committee revelations
Beginning in 1955, the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the U.S. Senate Committee on Government Operations began holding hearings into labor racketeering. Senator John L. McClellan, chair of the committee and chair of the subcommittee, hired Robert F. Kennedy as the subcommittee's chief counsel and investigator. Dioguardi became an object of the subcommittee's inquiries in March 1956. Initially, the subcommittee limited its investigation to the "Dio locals" scandal.

On January 30, 1957, the United States Senate created the Select Committee on Improper Activities in Labor and Management. The select committee was directed to study the extent of criminal or other improper practices in the field of labor-management relations or in groups of employees or employers. Membership was derived from the two standing committees, the Committee on Government Operations and the Committee on Labor and Public Welfare. The Select Committee continued to focus on Dioguardi's activities.  In February 1957, the Select Committee released Federal Bureau of Investigation wiretaps which showed Hoffa and Dioguardi allegedly discussing the establishment of a paper local to organize New York City's 30,000 taxi cab drivers and then use the charter as a means of extorting money from a wide variety of employers. Testifying before the Select Committee, Hoffa claimed that the tapes only showed that he wanted the best organizer in the city to work on the taxi organizing campaign, and that he could not have engaged in conspiracy because Dioguardi was not a member of the Teamsters union. The Select Committee accused Hoffa of being behind the "Dio locals", and of arranging for a $400,000 loan to the graft-ridden International Longshoremen's Association in a bid to take over that union and gain Teamsters control of the waterfront as well as warehouses. Dioguardi, who by this time was in prison serving time on bribery and conspiracy charges (see below), was paroled by a federal court in order to testify at the Select Committee's hearings. The Select Committee developed evidence that the UAW-AFL had paid Dioguardi $16,000 to leave the union but he wouldn't, and that even after his ouster Dioguardi had maintained effective control over his UAW-AFL paper locals for nearly a year. Michigan Governor G. Mennen Williams testified that, when he was director of the Mennen toiletries company, Dioguardi asked him for a $15,000 bribe in order to call off a 1951 strike. In a two-hour appearance before the Select Committee, Dioguardi invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination 140 times, and refused to answer any of the committee's questions. The Select Committee's evidence was further undermined when one of its star witnesses against Dioguardi was found to be mentally incompetent.

A notorious and iconic photograph of Dioguardi was taken at the time of his testimony (see infobox, above). As Dioguardi was leaving the committee hearing room, a crowd of press photographers gathered around him. Dioguardi attempted to flee so that his photograph would not be taken. United Press photographer Stanley Tetrick raced ahead of Dioguardi to take a photograph. International News Photos photographer Jim Mahan snapped a photograph (see infobox, above) of a snarling Dioguardi, cigarette dangling from his mouth, pushing Tetrick out of the way with one hand (not shown) and his other clenched in a tight fist (not shown). Dioguardi also screamed, "You sons of bitches, I got a family!" The photograph was widely published in American newspapers, and became an iconic image of Dioguardi, mafioso in general, and the way in which chic dress and charm conceal brutality and thuggery. The image is also a widely known symbol of Teamsters union corruption.

Role in Victor Riesel acid attack
In the midst of the Teamsters paper locals scandal, Dioguardi was indicted for planning the acid attack on crusading newspaper columnist Victor Riesel. At 3 a.m. on April 5, 1956, an unknown assailant threw a vial of acid into Riesel's face as he left a late-night interview at Lindy's, an attack which left the journalist permanently blind. The FBI identified Abraham Telvi as the assailant in August 1956, but Telvi had been murdered on July 28, 1956, by mobsters for demanding an additional $50,000 on top of the $500 he had already received for the crime. On August 29, 1956, Dioguardi was arrested for conspiracy in the Riesel attack, pleaded not guilty, and was released on $100,000 bond even though prosecutors later publicly linked him to the Telvi murder.

Dioguardi was tried separately for the attack on Riesel. Joseph Carlino, the Dioguardi associate who had hired Telvi to attack Riesel, pleaded guilty on October 22, and prosecutors severed Dioguardi's trial from the others. Carlino later testified that Dioguardi had ordered Gandolfo Maranti to find a hitman and identify Riesel, and that Maranti had contacted Dominick Bando to assist him in finding the hitman (Bando contacting Carlino, who sought out Telvi). Maranti and Bando were found guilty (Bando pleading guilty at the last moment).

Conspiracy charges against Dioguardi were later dropped despite the convictions. Dioguardi's attorney delayed the trial for nearly five months with motions. When the trial finally began, Carlino and Miranti recanted their pre-trial statements and courtroom testimony, claiming they did not know who had ordered the attack on Riesel. By September 1957, the government no longer sought to prosecute Dioguardi for the attack.

Extortion and tax evasion trials
Dioguardi's legal troubles worsened during his trial for the Riesel attack, when he was indicted in October 1956 on extortion and conspiracy charges. The indictment alleged that Dioguardi and others had extorted money from truck drivers in the New York City garment industry, and received bribes from employers in exchange for refusing to call strikes. Dioguardi's trial was due to begin in January 1957, but key government witnesses either refused to testify or recanted earlier statements implicating Dio in the labor rackets. Dioguardi sought lengthy delays once again prior to his trial, but the court refused to permit them and empanelled a special jury to try him. Dioguardi's bond was revoked in June 1957, and his trial resumed.

Dioguardi was convicted of extortion in July 1957. Key prosecution witnesses again recanted their testimony against him. The special jury considered the case for nine days, but nonetheless found him guilty on July 25, 1957, and he was sentenced in September to two years in prison.

As Dioguardi was awaiting sentencing in his extortion case, a federal grand jury indicted him on tax evasion charges. Dioguardi denied the charges and again sought lengthy trial delays, but the government halted the trial.

The reason for the tax trial delay soon became apparent as state charges on extortion and conspiracy were once more brought against Dioguardi. The charges had originated in June 1956, but Dioguardi had never been prosecuted. With the collapse of the Riesel case, state officials finally decided to act on the 1956 indictment and Dioguardi's second trial for labor racketeering began two days after his tax evasion trial halted. Dioguardi's tactic of delay was denied once more, and he was quickly found guilty on both charges in December 1957. He was sentenced to 15 years in Sing Sing, and began serving time on January 10, 1958. However, Dioguardi appealed his conviction, and on June 23, 1959, a New York state appellate court reversed his conviction.

Within an hour of his release from state prison, however, Dioguardi was re-arrested on federal tax evasion charges. His tax evasion trial began in March 1960, he was found guilty a month later, and was sentenced to four years in federal prison. Although a United States court of appeals reversed his conviction and ordered him retried in July 1960, a United States district court found that he had filed his appeal too late and reinstated his conviction.

Later life and legal troubles
Dioguardi's state sentence on extortion and conspiracy ended in June 1959, and he entered federal custody to serve his sentence for tax evasion. He was paroled in 1963, and went to work for Consumers Kosher Provision (a kosher meat products supplier).

Stock and bankruptcy fraud trials

In April 1966, Dioguardi and his son, Dominick, were indicted for bankruptcy fraud. According to prosecutors, Consumers Kosher Provision was losing market share to its competitor, American Kosher Provisions. Owner Herman Rose asked the Lucchese crime family for help, and Dominick Dioguardi convinced Rose that his father (up for parole and needing a job in order to win his release) could help. Rose died in July 1964, and soon Dioguardi and the Genovese crime family, in control of American Kosher, agreed to merge the two companies. The merging companies then attempted to dominate the kosher meat market in the United States. Local unions of the Amalgamated Meat Cutters controlled by the Lucchese and Genovese crime families would selectively strike other kosher meat producers, causing supermarkets to switch to the merged company in order to ensure a steady supply. Distributors and supermarkets were also bribed or coerced by mobsters to switch kosher meat suppliers. The company also slashed costs by distributing spoiled and rotten meat to stores, and raising prices dramatically. Companies such as First National Kosher Provisions, Mizrach Kosher Provisions, Tel Aviv Kosher Provisions, Finest Kosher Provisions, and others were taken over when they collapsed and assets (raw and processed meat) transferred back and forth among them. Thomas Plumeri ("Jimmy Doyle" Plumeri's son and Dioguardi's nephew) was named Consumers Kosher's president, and Dominick Dioguardi the company's vice president. Consumers Kosher filed for bankruptcy in January 1965, and Dioguardi (who was not part of the management team) ordered his son and Plumeri to sell more than $33,000 in raw and processed meat assets and disburse the money received to Dioguardi and other mob associates. Dioguardi was convicted on November 10, 1967, and received a five-year prison sentence. He appealed his conviction, but his appeal was denied and he began serving his prison term in October 1970.

While Dioguardi's appeal in his bankruptcy fraud conviction was pending, he was indicted for securities fraud. According to prosecutors, Dioguardi and Anthony Di Lorenzo, heir-apparent to the Genovese crime family, conspired to purchase 28,000 shares of Belmont Franchising Corporation, a substantially worthless over-the-counter stock. Dioguardi, Di Lorenzo and others opened accounts at numerous brokerages under false names, and purchased shares of Belmont from themselves and from each account in an attempt to inflate the price. They agreed to sell the stock to other investors, and then share the proceeds (estimated at $1 million) among themselves. Lucchese crime family member Michael Hellerman, who was part of the conspiracy, turned state's evidence and entered the federal witness protection program. At trial, Dioguardi was not only accused of running the stock fraud scheme but also of beating the original owner of the shares in order to get him to sell the securities to Dioguardi for just pennies. Midway through the trial, a high-level aide to Senator Hiram Fong (R-Hawaii) pleaded guilty to charges he had attempted to quash the federal government's inquiry into the case. Dioguardi's defense attorney argued that Hellerman, the government's chief witness, could not be believed, and the jury agreed—finding Dioguardi not-guilty on July 12, 1972.

Within a year, however, Dioguardi was indicted again for stock fraud. Dio had just recently finished serving his five-year sentence for bankruptcy fraud. Prosecutors alleged that Dioguardi had conspired with Lucchese crime family boss Carmine Tramunti, Vincenzo "Vinny" Aloi, Michael Hellerman, and others to float $300,000 in fake stock in At Your Service Leasing Corp., a luxury car leasing company which did extensive business with organized crime figures. Under the scheme, prosecutors said, Dioguardi and the others bribed securities dealers to sell the stock and then pocketed the money paid by investors. This time, the jury did not believe the defense's description of Hellerman's character, and Dioguardi was convicted and given sentences of ten years and nine years in prison, to run concurrently. Dioguardi appealed his conviction, but a federal appellate court upheld his conviction. A second appeal was also made, but his conviction was upheld again.

Death
Dioguardi was briefly paroled three times in order to testify about labor racketeering. The first occasion was in early 1958, when he testified before a special New York state grand jury investigating labor racketeering. The second time was in December 1967, when he testified extensively before the New York State Investigation Commission regarding labor racketeering, theft, sabotage, and assault at John F. Kennedy International Airport. He testified again before another New York state commission in May 1968.

Dioguardi's last years were spent incarcerated at Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary. His cell was on "mobsters row", a series of cells on the same level and wing of the prison where a number of famous and important organized crime figures, including Henry Hill, Carmine Galante, Paul Vario and John Gotti  served time. Dio became well known for being able to get better prison work assignments for other incarcerated mobsters.

Dioguardi was increasingly in ill health in the 1970s. He had applied for parole during his stock fraud trial, arguing that his poor physical condition made prison cruel and unusual punishment, but his parole request was denied. Dioguardi appealed the decision of the parole board, but a federal appellate court upheld the parole board's decision in August 1978. Dioguardi's health became precarious. A few weeks before his death, he was moved from the federal prison to a local hospital.

Dioguardi died in the hospital on January 12, 1979. He was survived by his wife, Anne; his son, Dominick; and his daughter, Rosemary Dioguardi Lester.

In popular culture
Actor Frank Pellegrino portrayed Johnny Dio in the 1990 film Goodfellas.
Dio was portrayed in the 1994 television movie Getting Gotti by actor Rino Romano.
Johnny Dio is the basis for Lee J. Cobb's character "Johnny Friendly" in the film On the Waterfront.
Singer Ronnie James Dio (born Ronald James Padavona) adopted the last name "Dio" after Johnny Dio.
Archival film footage of Dio is included in the documentary film I Due Kennedy (Two Kennedys).

References

Further reading
Devito, Carlo. The Encyclopedia of International Organized Crime. New York: Facts On File Inc., 2005.
Hilty, James W. Robert Kennedy: Brother Protector. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2000.
Kelly, Robert J. Encyclopedia of Organized Crime in the United States. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2000.
Moldea, Dan E. The Hoffa Wars. New York: S.P.I. Books, 1992.
Sifakis, Carl. The Encyclopedia of American Crime. New York: Facts on File Inc., 2005.

External links
Lucchese Crime Family Epic: Descent into Darkness - Part II, Johnny Dio at the Crime Library

1914 births
1979 deaths
American gangsters of Italian descent
People convicted of racketeering
American trade union officials convicted of crimes
American people convicted of tax crimes
Mafia extortionists
Lucchese crime family
American crime bosses
American people who died in prison custody
Murder, Inc.
Prisoners who died in United States federal government detention

Johnny Dio


Akbou or Aqvu () is a town in the Kabylie region in northern Algeria in Béjaïa Province. It is a growing city with a population of 52,300 in 2008.  This is a number approximately 20,000 more than what was recorded in 1998.

History
The modern town of Akbou was established by the French in 1874.  However, the area was occupied in ancient times by the Romans and contains a Roman mausoleum in the middle of the Soummam valley.

Bou Baghli had earlier organized the uprising in Kabylie against the French conquest in 1851. The French recognized the strategic importance of the area on the Soummam river and set up a stronghold. The area was again subject to an uprising in 1871, but the French troops led a ruthless suppression. The  fertile land in the Soummam valley was destined for settlement and shortly afterwards was established in 1874.

Geography

Akbou is located in the upper Soummam River valley on the eastern flank of the Djurdjura. It is bounded to the north by Ouzellaguen, east by the Soummam River, which separates it from the commune of Amalou, south-east by the Sahel River, locally called "assif abbas", which separates it from the communes of Ait R'Zine, to the south by Tazmalt, to the west by the municipality of Ighram and north-west by the town of Chellata. It is located at an average altitude of 280 m, and the commune covers an area of 52.18 square kilometers, comprising two distinct areas: the urban area and peripheries on the plain such as the villages Lazib and Colonel Amirouche (ex. Riquet).

Economy
Akbou plays an important economic role in the region because of its industrial base. The valley has attracted much investment and large state enterprises as Alcovel, Mac and Soum Sonaric, Soummam, General Emballage and Ramdy.

There are two large markets. The first is a wholesale market for fruits and vegetables ranked third nationally. The second is a market for vehicles and displays an average of 5,000 vehicles every Friday.

Akbou will benefit from the contribution of the large Tichy Haf Dam located not far from the city. Three large reservoirs created are scheduled to meet both the needs of people from industry and agriculture.

With a municipal budget of almost 700 million dinars, Akbou is a wealthy city that is growing rapidly.

Culture and heritage

Monuments

The Mausoleum Ausium,  situated on the peak of Akbou, is over 2,000 years old. It is assumed it was built by the Romans.

Petra Castle

Note the existence of the historical castle of Petra, located at a place called Mlakou, 8 km north-east of Akbou. It was destroyed by Theodosius in the war against Firmus.

Bibliography
Robin, Noël, Histoire du chérif Bou Bar'la, Alger, A. Jourdan, 1884, 294 p.
Robin, Noël, Notes historiques sur la Grande Kabylie de 1838 à 1851, Alger, 1905, 269 p.
Rinn, Louis, Histoire de l'insurrection de 1871 en Algérie, Alger, 1891, 672 p.
Mahe, Alain, Histoire de la Grande Kabylie, XIXe-XXe siècles. Anthropologie historique du lien social dans les communautés villageoises, Editions Bouchene, 2001, 650 p.,

1874 establishments in Algeria
Communes of Béjaïa Province
Populated places established in 1874

Akbou