Giacomo Costa (14 December 1919 – 22 January 2000) was an Italian Australian professional wrestler best known by his ring name, Al Costello. Costello was the first professional wrestler to be nicknamed "The Man of a Thousand Holds" because of his innovative and very technical style.

Costello was the creator and original member of the tag team The Fabulous Kangaroos, whose "Ultra Australian" gimmick complete with boomerangs, bush hats and the song "Waltzing Matilda" as their entrance music, existed in various forms from 1957 until 1983. Costello was either an active wrestler, or a manager in all versions of The Fabulous Kangaroos. He and Roy Heffernan are arguably the most famous version of The Kangaroos, regarded as one of the top tag teams to ever compete in professional wrestling, and are often credited with popularizing tag team wrestling in the late 1950s and 1960s.

Costello later formed other versions of The Fabulous Kangaroos with Ray St. Clair, Don Kent and Tony Charles. He also managed the team of Don Kent & Bruno Bekkar and later on "Johnny Heffernan" under The Fabulous Kangaroos name.

Costello officially retired from wrestling in 1983 but still made a few brief returns to the ring after that. In 1993, he managed The New Fabulous Kangaroos (Denny Kass and Al Snow) before retiring completely from the wrestling business. Both Costello and his tag team partner Heffernan died before Kangaroos were honored as the first tag team to ever be inducted into the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2003, which started a tradition of inducting a new team every year.

Early life
Costa was born in the village of Lingua, in the Italian island of Santa Marina Salina, Sicily, and lived there until his family immigrated to Australia when he was six years old. The family settled in Rockdale, New South Wales, where Costa helped out in his father's fruit store. He excelled at school sports and became interested in weightlifting at an early age. At age 16, Costa took up amateur boxing despite his father's wishes that he should become an opera singer. Costa was approached by Australian middleweight wrestling champion "Basher Bonas", who convinced him to try wrestling. Costa made his debut under an assumed name; his father still had hopes of him becoming an opera singer, and he did not want his parents to find out that he was wrestling. He came up with the name "Al Costello", thinking it sounded tough like a portmanteau of Al Capone and Frank Costello.

Wrestling career
Al Costello made his professional wrestling debut in 1938, but the man that would be known as "The Man of a Thousand Holds" 20 years later, found little success early in his career. The general belief in Australian professional wrestling at the time was that a wrestler had to go to North America and learn how to be a pro before the bookers would even consider pushing them up the card. Costello travelled across Asia, where he did see some success; he won the Malaysian Heavyweight title in 1939, as well as the South Africa trophy in 1949. During the 1950s, Costello finally started to turn heads at home by winning the Australasian title. In 1952, Costello began wrestling in America, hoping to finally break through and make a big name of himself.

Fabulous Kangaroos

For years, Al Costello had been working on an idea for a new tag team; he even knew who he wanted for a partner: a wrestler he had worked with some years ago named Roy Heffernan. Because Costello and Heffernan had lost touch over the years, the idea remained dormant until Costello toured Hawaii in 1956. Costello mentioned his idea of an "Ultra Australian" tag team to fellow wrestler, and future promoter, Joe Blanchard. Blanchard happened to be a good friend of Roy Heffernan and knew he was working in Stampede Wrestling at the time. Blanchard put the two in touch with each other, and Costello was soon off to Calgary, Alberta, Canada to join Heffernan and finally make his tag team a reality. Costello and Heffernan debuted as "The Fabulous Kangaroos" on 3 May 1957 for Stu Hart's Stampede Wrestling promotion in a match against Maurice LaPointe and Tony Baillargeon. Only weeks after that first match, The Kangaroos were working with the top tag teams in the promotion.

After working in Stampede for a while, The Fabulous Kangaroos started to travel across the United States, headlining shows wherever they went due to their ability to rile up crowds with their heel (bad guy) tactics. On one occasion in August 1958, The Kangaroos, or "Kangaroo Men" as they were billed, nearly caused a riot in Madison Square Garden during a match against Antonino Rocca and Miguel Pérez; the fans began to throw fruit and stones at them. After the match ended without a decisive winner, the promoters stepped in, turned up the arena lights, and played the National Anthem to stop a potential riot. This was a common tactic used at the time by the New York promoters in order to prevent riots and help the heels leave the arena unharmed. Later that year, Costello and Heffernan started working for Dory Funk's NWA Western States promotion based in Amarillo, Texas. Here, The Kangaroos won their first title as a team when they defeated Pepper Gomez and El Medico to win the Texas version of the NWA World Tag Team Championship on 17 November 1958. Their first title reign was short lived, however, as Gomez and Rito Romero defeated them to regain the titles two weeks later.

Between 1957 and 1965, The Kangaroos wrestled in the United States, Canada, Asia and select tours of Australia and New Zealand. They worked for such companies as Capitol Wrestling Corporation (the future World Wrestling Entertainment), Championship Wrestling from Florida, NWA Ohio, the Japan Wrestling Association and the World Wrestling Association in Los Angeles, California.

The Kangaroos never forgot their roots and continued to work in Canada off and on through the years; in addition to Stampede Wrestling, the team also worked for NWA All-Star Wrestling based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Costello featured in a National Film Board of Canada short subject La Lotta/Wrestling/Le Catch. Their stint in NWA All-Star Wrestling was the last time Costello and Heffernan teamed together. In June 1965, The Kangaroos lost to Don Leo Jonathan and Jim Hardy and then split up. Heffernan had left Australia to tour the world in 1953 and wanted to return to his homeland, while Costello was determined to remain in the United States for a while longer.

Between Kangaroos
Heffernan returned to Australia and began working for World Championship Wrestling (the Australian version, not the North American wrestling federation) under booker Jim Barnett as a singles wrestler. Costello was originally supposed to return to Australia as well and work for WCW, but those plans never came through. Instead, Costello remained in the United States and kept working in the tag team division, never seeking a career as a singles wrestler. Costello began wrestling for Georgia Championship Wrestling, where he teamed up with Louis Tillet to form a tag team known as "The Globetrotters"; a name that played off Costello's Australian and Tillet's French heritage. The Globetrotters defeated the Mysterious Medics in the finals of the Georgia NWA World Tag Team Championship but only held the titles for a week before losing them to Kurt and Karl Von Brauner on 4 February 1966. After this, the Globetrotters broke up due to differences in their approach to tag teaming.

Costello then moved to the NWA Mid-America territory near Nashville, Tennessee. In Mid-American, Costello teamed with Herb Welch to win the Mid-American version of the NWA World Tag Team Championship, which they held for just over 2 months. While still working in Mid-America, Costello began to team with Karl Von Brauner, who used a "German Nazi" gimmick despite being American. Under the management of "Playboy" Gary Hart, Costello and Von Brauner were billed as "The Internationals"; the team was later managed by George "Crybaby" Cannon. The Internationals worked mainly in Tennessee and Texas for NWA Western States. In Texas, Costello and Von Brauner won the Texas version of the NWA World Tag Team Championship, a title Costello and Heffernan had held in 1958. The team was also billed as the first NWA American Tag Team Champions, titles that were also recognized by World Class Championship Wrestling in addition to the Western States promotion. The Internationals lost the American Tag Team title to Fritz and Waldo Von Erich on 21 February 1967. Kurt then decided to go back to teaming with his storyline brother, Karl Von Brauner.

After the Internationals broke up, Costello returned to Australia to visit friends and relatives and to recuperate after many years on the road. On his way back to the United States, Costello had a stopover in Detroit, Michigan, where he met Cleo Williams. The two fell in love and married shortly afterwards, remaining together for the rest of Costello's life.

Kangaroos once more

In 1967, Al Costello reformed The Fabulous Kangaroos, this time teaming up with Ray St. Clair. The team had been touring non-stop for about six months when St. Clair was forced to retire due to knee problems. A few months after St. Clair retired, Costello found a new man to don the bush hat: Don Kent. Kent, who was from Michigan, adopted the Ultra-Australian gimmick (but retained his American accent) and the two formed the third overall and second most well-known version of The Fabulous Kangaroos. Costello and Kent teamed together on a regular basis from 1968 until 1974, approximately the same amount of time that Costello spent teaming with his original partner, Roy Heffernan. Costello and Kent continued in a tradition that was reminiscent of the original Kangaroos; when a federation needed a new tag team title, The Kangaroos were brought in and acknowledged as champions upon arrival instead of holding a tournament to determine the champions. In 1967, the Japanese federation "International Wrestling Enterprise" (IWE) brought The Kangaroos in as the first Trans-World Wrestling Alliance World Tag Team Champions. They held this title until 10 January 1968 when IWE mainstays Toyonobori and Thunder Sugiyama beat them for the gold. Over the years, many more title reigns came from various promotions all over the globe. In Canada, The Kangaroos were the first Eastern Sports Association International Tag Team Champions. In the World Wrestling Association of Indianapolis, they held the WWA World Tag Team Championship twice. In addition to winning titles all over North America, Costello and Kent also made appearances for the World Wide Wrestling Federation (now known as WWE).

The Kangaroos frequented NWA Detroit, where they held the Detroit version of the NWA World Tag Team Championship for most of 1971. By the end of 1972, The Kangaroos began working for Nick Gulas' NWA Mid-America. In Mid-America, they held the local version of the NWA World Tag Team Championship, the Mid-America version, on three occasions.

After a match at Cincinnati Gardens, an enraged fan took a fire extinguisher off the wall and threw it at Costello and Kent from the balcony of the Gardens. The extinguisher hit Costello in the hip, damaging it so much that he needed hip replacement surgery later that year. The fan was arrested, served 15 days in jail, and fined fifty dollars for damaging the fire extinguisher. The hip injury left Costello unable to wrestle, and The Fabulous Kangaroos split up once again. Costello had a full hip replacement and was forced to retire from active competition.

Managing
In 1975, Costello surprised everyone by returning to professional wrestling as the manager of the team known as "The Love Brothers" (Hartford and Reggie Love). He actually stepped into the ring on occasion as part of special six-man tag team matches.

After recovering from his hip surgery, Costello returned to active competition at age 56. The fact that he was able to recover from such a major injury is credited to his almost-fanatical style of healthy living. As a devout vegan, Costello credited his meat-free diet with his recovery, as well as the remarkable shape he was in for a man of his age.

Costello reformed The Fabulous Kangaroos once more, this time teaming up with wrestler Tony Charles. The team defeated Dominic DeNucci and Chris Markoff to win Detroit's version of the NWA World Tag Team title, the same title that Costello and Kent had previously held. The Kangaroos title run was short, however, and they lost their gold to "Crazy" Luke Graham and Ripper Collins.

In 1977, Tony Charles was replaced by Don Kent and the two reunited for a tour of Puerto Rico with the World Wrestling Council (WWC). In Puerto Rico, The Kangaroos arrived billed as the WWC World Tag Team Champions, once more to give a newly created title legitimacy. They dropped the titles to Carlos Colón and Jose Rivera on 12 March 1977 and remained in the WWC until 1978 chasing, but never regaining, the WWC World Tag Team Championship. After their tour in Puerto Rico ended, Don Kent returned to singles wrestling, and Costello refocused on managing.

Still a Kangaroo
In 1981, Costello convinced Kent to once again don the bush hat and pick up the boomerang. Costello got Kent to team up with Bruno Bekkar, who was mostly known from working in his native New Zealand and Australia. Kent and Bekkar worked a tour for the WWC, while Costello served as their manager. The team won the WWC North American Tag Team titles from Jack and Jerry Brisco on 22 October 1981. They then lost the titles to Invader I and Super Gladiator but quickly gained them back before dropping the titles for good to Invader and Gladiator on 26 January 1982. The Kent and Bekkar team only lasted through one tour of the Caribbean, after which Bruno Bekkar returned to Australia and New Zealand to work for the local promotions there.

Bekkar was replaced with Johnny Heffernan (Canadian wrestler Bob Della Serra), a storyline cousin of Roy Heffernan, for what was the final version of The Fabulous Kangaroos. The team ended Terry and Dory Funk Jr.'s year and a half run with the WWC World Tag Team championship on 1 May 1982. Kent and Heffernan held the gold for less than two months before losing the WWC World Tag Team titles to Invader I and Pierre Martel. After a tour in Puerto Rico, Costello, Kent and Heffernan returned to work for Championship Wrestling from Florida (CWF), a promotion The Kangaroos last worked for in 1962. In Florida, The Kangaroos won the NWA Florida Global Tag Team Championship four times. The final storyline involving The Fabulous Kangaroos saw Al Costello bring in J. J. Dillon to act as his short-term replacement while he was "away on business". When Costello returned from his business trip, Dillon kayfabe refused to give up The Kangaroos' contracts and was backed up by both Kent and Heffernan. This angle was designed to write Al Costello out of The Fabulous Kangaroos' storyline and allow him to retire from wrestling altogether. Not long after Costello retired, Kent and Johnny Heffernan went their separate ways.

Retirement
After retiring from wrestling, Al Costello became the head of security at College Harbor, Florida. In 1992, at the age of 71, Costello retired from his job in Florida and began teaching wrestling. He also started to manage The New Fabulous Kangaroos in 1993, a team consisting of Mickey Doyle and Denny Kass who worked for "Motor City Wrestling" (MCW). By the fall of 1993, Mickey Doyle had been replaced by a young wrestler by the name of Al Snow; with Costello's help The New Fabulous Kangaroos defeated "Canadian Lighting" (Otis Apollo and "Irish" Bobby Clancy), on 29 December 1993, to win the MCW Tag Team Championship. On 14 May 1994, Kass and Snow defeated Canadian Lighting again to win the Border City Wrestling (BCW) Can-Am Tag Team Championship, unifying the two tag team championships. A week later, The New Fabulous Kangaroos lost both sets of titles to Scott D'Amore and "Irish" Bobby Clancy. After losing the unified MCW/BCW Tag Team championships, The New Kangaroos split up; Snow focused on his World Wrestling Federation career while Costello retired for good, never making another wrestling related appearance.

Death
On 22 January 2000, Costello died from a combination of pneumonia and heart problems, in Clearwater, Florida. In 2003, Al Costello and Roy Heffernan became the first tag team to ever be inducted into the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame. Since that time, the Hall of Fame has honored other tag teams, but The Fabulous Kangaroos were given the honor of being the first. In the tradition of the Kangaroos, they were "billed as champions on arrival" one last time.

Championships and accomplishments
Alex Turk Promotions (Winnipeg)
International Tag Team Championship (2 times) - with Roy Heffernan
Capitol Wrestling Corporation
NWA United States Tag Team Championship (Northeast version) (3 times) - with Roy Heffernan
Cauliflower Alley Club
Other honoree (1994)
Championship Wrestling from Florida
NWA United States Tag Team Championship (Florida version) (1 time) - with Roy Heffernan
NWA World Tag Team Championship (Florida version)(1 time) - with Roy Heffernan
Eastern Sports Association
ESA International Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Don Kent
Georgia Championship Wrestling
NWA World Tag Team Championship (Georgia version) 1 time – with Louie Tillet
International Wrestling Enterprise
Trans-World Wrestling Alliance World Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Don Kent
Japan Wrestling Association
NWA International Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Roy Heffernan
Midwest Wrestling Association
NWA United States Tag Team Championship (Ohio version) (1 time) - with Roy Heffernan
Mike London Promotions
Rocky Mountain Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Roy Heffernan
National Wrestling Alliance
NWA Hall of Fame (Class of 2013)
NWA All-Star Wrestling
NWA Canadian Tag Team Championship (Vancouver version) (4 times) - with Roy Heffernan
NWA Big Time Wrestling
NWA American Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Karl Von Brauner
NWA World Tag Team Championship (Texas version) (2 times) - with Roy Heffernan (1), Karl Von Brauner (1)
NWA Detroit
NWA World Tag Team Championship (Detroit version) (3 times) - with Roy Heffernan (2), Ray St. Clair (1)
NWA Mid-America
NWA Southern Junior Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
NWA World Tag Team Championship (Mid-America version) 4 times) - with Don Kent (3), Herb Welch (1)
New Zealand Wrestling Union
NWA Australasian Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame
Class of 2003 - with Roy Heffernan
Western States Sports
NWA International Tag Team Championship (Texas version) (1 time) - with Roy HeffernanA
 NWA World Tag Team Championship (Amarillo version) (1 time) - with Roy Heffernan
World Wrestling Association
WWA World Tag Team Championship (2 times) - with Don Kent
Worldwide Wrestling Associates
WWA World Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Roy Heffernan
WWA International Television Tag Team Championship (2 times) - with Roy Heffernan
World Wrestling Council
WWC World Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Don Kent
Wrestling Observer Newsletter
Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame (Class of 1996) with Roy Heffernan

References

External links
 New Fabulous Kangaroos Tribute page
 Roy Heffernan Interview

1919 births
2000 deaths
Australian male professional wrestlers
Italian emigrants to Australia
Italian male professional wrestlers
Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum
Sportspeople from the Province of Messina
Stampede Wrestling alumni
Deaths from pneumonia in Florida
20th-century professional wrestlers
NWA World Tag Team Champions (Florida version)
NWA United States Tag Team Champions (Florida version)
NWA Americas Tag Team Champions
NWA International Tag Team Champions
WWWF United States Tag Team Champions
WCWA World Tag Team Champions
NWA World Tag Team Champions (Detroit version)

Al Costello


McWhinneys Brick Cottage is a heritage-listed cottage at 47-55 Birley Street, Spring Hill, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was built in the 1860s for Thomas McWhinney. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 23 February 2001.

History
The brick cottage at 59 Birley Street, Spring Hill, was likely erected in the mid-1860s for Thomas McWhinney, plasterer.

This part of Spring Hill was surveyed officially into suburban allotments in 1856, and was soon subdivided for closer residential settlement by speculative land owners. Along with Kangaroo Point and Petrie Terrace, Spring Hill was among the earliest of Brisbane's dormitory suburbs, attracting middle class residents to the high land along the ridges, and the working class to the hollows in between: Hanly's Hollow (between Wickham Terrace and Leichhardt Street), Spring Hollow (between Leichhardt Street and Gregory Terrace), and York's Hollow (to the north of Gregory Terrace - an area occupied by a number of brick-makers in the 1850s and 1860s).

The site on which the brick cottage is located was part of a larger parcel of land (   - suburban portion 179, parish of North Brisbane) with a frontage to Leichhardt Street, purchased from the Crown in May 1860 by Patrick Byrne of Brisbane for the sum of . Almost immediately Byrne subdivided this portion into 10 subdivisions around a central access road (Birley Street) off Leichhardt Street. At this period, Birley Street did not extend through to Wickham Terrace. The two subdivisions at the top of the hill, with frontages to Leichhardt Street, comprised  each, but the remainder, running down the hill each side of Birley Street into Hanly's Hollow, were each just under . The first transfer was recorded in August 1861 and all but one of the subdivisions sold in the period 1861-65. By the census of September 1871, there were 12 houses in Birley Street, all inhabited, accommodating 58 persons. Many of these houses appear to have been rental properties, and attracted mostly working class tenants such as bootmakers, carpenters, labourers, mariners, plasterers, printers, storemen and a number of widows, who were likely existing on modest incomes.

In September 1865, Patrick Byrne sold subdivision 3 of suburban portion 179 () to Thomas McWhinney (sometimes McWhinny or McWhinnie) of Brisbane, for the sum of . This is the site of the present brick cottage. It is not known if a house was extant on the land at the time of sale, but the price suggests not.

In April 1866 McWhinney took out a mortgage of  on his Birley Street property from the Queensland Building Society No.2, of which he was a member. The timing, within a year of acquiring the land, suggests that the mortgage was used to help finance construction of the brick cottage. McWhinney was occupying the land in October 1872, when he applied to bring his property under the provisions of the Real Property Act of 1861, and is listed in the 1874 Post Office Directory as resident in Birley Street.

McWhinney and his wife Isabella Todd and family had arrived in New South Wales by 1858, and moved to Brisbane in the early 1860s, where Thomas, who was a plasterer by trade, gained employment with James Campbell. He worked for Campbell for 26 years until his retirement , for most of that time as a foreman, supervising the plastering and designing the mouldings for most of the principal construction work undertaken by Campbell during that period.

The cottage at 59 Birley Street is constructed in Flemish bond brick-on-edge ('rat-trap' bond), a form of construction used in other Spring Hill buildings of the 1860s and 1870s (such as Moody's Cottages in Rogers Street). It was a faster and cheaper form of construction, usually restricted to working-class homes and small workshops and stores. At 59 Birley Street the exterior brick work was finished with tuckpointing and the internal fireplace was plastered, which may be explained by the connection with McWhinney.

By 1883 the McWhinneys had left Birley Street and had moved to Arthur Street in Fortitude Valley by 1885, but McWhinney retained his Birley Street land, likely renting out the brick cottage. In 1885, McWhinney also gained title the adjacent subdivision 6 on the northern side of his Birley Street allotment. In the 1880s there were only four or five houses along this side of Birley Street (which did not extend past Lilley Street at that stage), and it is possible (but not confirmed) that in the late 1880s, 59 Birley Street was known as Jireh Cottage, occupied by compositor Thomas Wright. In May 1894, title to subdivisions 3 and 6 was transferred to Mary Ann McWhinney of Brisbane, spinster, and in August 1896 Thomas McWhinney, aged nearly 77, died.

In the mid-1890s Birley Street was extended through to Wickham Terrace and in May 1900 subdivisions 3 and 6 of suburban portion 179 were transferred from Mary Ann McWhinney to Richard Gailey, the well-known Brisbane architect, who appears to have developed these two blocks with the construction of four timber houses for rental purposes. The existing houses on this land, one of which is now connected via an enclosed verandah to the front of the brick cottage at 59 Birley Street, appear to date from this period.

By 1913, 59 Birley Street was occupied by Mrs Jane Collins. A Brisbane City Council Water Supply and Sewerage Detail Plan dated 1914 indicates a structure at 59 Birley Street which correlates with the present  timber house attached to the brick cottage at the rear.

In June 1916, title to subdivisions 3 and 6 of suburban portion 179 was transferred from Richard Gailey to his daughter, Evadne Jane Gailey of Brisbane. The houses on these blocks remained rental properties, 59 Birley Street attracting mainly widows. In 1952 both subdivisions passed to Alfred Roberts, and following his death in 1979, was sold in 1983 to the Queensland Master Builders Association (Union of Employers), who have retained them since as rental properties.

Description
59 Birley Street is located on the western side of Birley Street, about two-thirds of the way down toward the hollow which runs between Leichhardt Street and Wickham Terrace (Hanly's Hollow).

It contains two principal structures: a  high-set timber residence at the front of the block, attached via an enclosed  timber verandah to a s brick cottage at the rear.

The s cottage is a small, rectangular, two-roomed brick structure with gable roof and close eaves. It rests on stone (porphyry or Brisbane tuff) foundations, low at the back and approximately  above ground at the front, where the land slopes. The stone blocks are roughly dressed and laid in courses, the more regular blocks placed along the exposed southern side. The roof is clad with corrugated iron, with the original shingle battens surviving beneath this.

The red face brick is laid in Flemish bond but brick-on-edge ('rat- trap' bond) - a faster and cheaper method of construction often used for working-class construction in Brisbane in the 1860s and 1870s. There are remnants of white tuckpointing on the bricks closest to the eaves, but the lower sections of the western and southern external walls have been badly repaired with later cement grouting. The northern external wall has been clad with a recent "pebble-dash" render. The front (eastern) wall has been painted and with the enclosing of the front verandah, is no longer exposed to the elements. It has two window openings symmetrically positioned either side of a central doorway. The western wall, built almost on the boundary of the allotment, has no fenestration. A chimney top, nicely detailed with decorative brickwork, rises above the roof at the southern end, but the main shaft of the chimney is internal.

The interior of the cottage comprises two small rooms. The former front entrance (the door has been removed) opens from a now enclosed timber verandah into the southern room, which is larger than the northern room and contains a fireplace and chimney. It is likely this room functioned as kitchen, living room and dining room. There are two windows to this room - one opening onto the front (eastern) verandah and retaining its original double-hung sash window, and the other a later opening in the southern wall beside the fireplace. The northern room is accessed from the southern room and has no external access. It originally had two windows, one in the north wall and the other in the eastern wall opening onto the verandah. The original sash window in the north wall has been replaced with louvres, and the window in the eastern wall has been in-filled with fibrous cement sheeting.

Both rooms retain their early skirting boards and the interior of the cottage is lined with plaster - walls, ceilings, partitioning wall and chimney. Much of this is early lathe and plaster work and early cement render, but sections of the ceilings have been replaced with recent plasterboard sheeting.

The floor boards are of pine, some of this early and secured with hand-made nails. The floor in the northern room has been replaced.

The front verandah was likely replaced  with the construction of the attached timber house, and is now enclosed. The northern section of this verandah has been partitioned and enclosed as a bathroom. The southern section is now an internal passageway with an external door at the southern end. This verandah links the brick cottage to the timber house.

The  house is a high-set, timber-framed, weatherboard clad structure with a corrugated iron hipped and gabled roof. It has a front extended gable and small front verandah which has since been enclosed.

In plan, the timber house has a central corridor opening off the enclosed front verandah. On the northern side of the corridor are three rooms. On the southern side there are two. The room at the rear on the southern side appears to have been partitioned to create a corridor through to the back door which opens onto the enclosed front verandah of the brick cottage. Floorboards throughout are the original, likely pine. Rooms throughout are lined with vertically-jointed tongue and groove boards and the ceilings are also tongue and groove. The house retains its original joinery, including doors and window frames, some of which are sash and some casements. All the internal doors have fanlights above. The place is remarkably intact considering that it has been occupied as a rental property for approximately a century.

A yard adjoining the cottage on the southern side contains a number of archaeological deposits—horse shoes, bottles, coins, broken pottery, shells and handmade nails have been found here—and there is sub-strata evidence of an early brick pathway to the cottage.

Heritage listing
McWhinneys Brick Cottage was listed on the Queensland Heritage Register on 23 February 2001 having satisfied the following criteria.

The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history.

McWhinney's Brick Cottage at 59 Birley Street, Spring Hill, erected probably in the mid-1860s, has high historical significance and is important in illustrating the pattern of Queensland's history. It is associated with the mid-19th century settlement of Spring Hill as one of Brisbane's earliest dormitory suburbs, and illustrates the nature of residential subdivisions and construction in Brisbane at this period - particularly the use of brick and stone as distinct from timber.

The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage.

The brick cottage is a rare surviving example of its type and age in Brisbane, and is particularly significant for its brick-on-edge construction, for the intactness of many of the finishes, and for what it reveals of mid-19th century working-class living conditions.

The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history.

Archaeological deposits in the grounds have the potential to reveal information since its non-indigenous occupation in the 1860s.

The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places.

The brick cottage is a rare surviving example of its type and age in Brisbane, and is particularly significant for its brick-on-edge construction, for the intactness of many of the finishes, and for what it reveals of mid-19th century working-class living conditions.

The place is important because of its aesthetic significance.

The place has aesthetic value engendered by the materials, form, scale and setting of the brick cottage.

References

Attribution

External links

Queensland Heritage Register
Spring Hill, Queensland
Houses in Queensland
Articles incorporating text from the Queensland Heritage Register

McWhinneys Brick Cottage


John Lee Levitow (November 1, 1945 – November 8, 2000) was a United States Air Force (USAF) loadmaster who received the Medal of Honor for exceptional heroism during wartime. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for his acts of heroism while serving on board a Douglas AC-47 Spooky gunship of the 3d Special Operations Squadron USAF on February 24, 1969. An airman first class at the time of his actions, he became the first enlisted serviceman in the Air Force to receive the Medal of Honor, the United States military's highest honor.{{efn|name=fn1|The US Air Force was created in 1948, so the four US Army Air Forces enlisted personnel awarded a Medal of Honor (MOH) during WWII were not from the US Air Force. All four US Air Force MOH recipients in the Korean War were officers. The first nine US Air Force MOH recipients in the Vietnam War were officers. Levitows was the 14th MOH ever awarded to someone from the Air Force and the first to an enlisted serviceman. Overall, the MOH has rarely been awarded to Air Force personnel of any rank; , only 19 have been awarded, to 14 officers and five enlisted personnel. See also: List of post-Vietnam War Medal of Honor recipients}}

Biography
Born in Hartford, Connecticut, he originally intended to join the United States Navy, but changed his mind and joined the USAF in June 1966. His first job was civil engineering, then he cross-trained into the loadmaster career field.

On February 24, 1969, Levitow was asked to fill in for the regular loadmaster on an armed AC-47, call sign Spooky 71. It was Airman Levitow's job to set the ejection and ignition timer controls on Mark 24 magnesium flares and pass them to the gunner for deployment. These flares were  metal canisters  long that would burn at 4,000°F, illuminate with the intensity of two million candlepower and burn for two and a half to three minutes. Spooky 71 was flying night missions near the Tan Son Nhut Air base area when Long Binh came under attack.

As the crew of Spooky 71 manned their aircraft patrolling the area, the pilot, Major Kenneth Carpenter, had seen muzzle flashes outside Long Binh Army Base. The pilot threw the AC-47 and its eight-man crew into a banked turn to engage the Viet Cong in the Tan Son Nhut Air Base area.

On the pilot's command, Levitow and the gunner began deploying flares through the open cargo door. Levitow set the timers and handed a flare to the gunner, who held it with his finger through the pull ring attached to the safety pin. Suddenly, Spooky 71 was jarred by a tremendous explosion. A North Vietnamese Army's 82 mm mortar shell hit the right wing and exploded inside the structure, raking the fuselage with flying shrapnel. Everyone in the back of Spooky 71 was wounded, including Levitow, who was hit by shrapnel and experienced a concussion that he was quoted as saying, "felt like being hit by a two-by-four." The blast also jarred the flare from the gunner's hands, pulling the safety pin from the canister as it did so and arming the fuse.

Despite more than 40 wounds in his back and legs, Levitow saw the loose flare, its fuse burning with clouds of smoke, rolling amid ammunition cans that contained 19,000 rounds of live ammunition. When the flare exploded, it could detonate the ammunition and burn a hole through the floor to the aircraft's control cables below. Through a haze of pain and shock, unable to stand up, and fighting the aircraft's 30° bank angle, Levitow crawled to the flare and threw himself upon it. Hugging it to his body, he dragged himself back to the rear of the cabin and pushed it through the open cargo door an instant before it ignited, saving the aircraft and its crew. When the aircraft finally returned to the base, the extent of the damage became apparent. The AC-47 had more than 3,500 holes in the wings and fuselage, one measuring more than 3 ft long.

Levitow received the Medal of Honor from President Richard Nixon on, May 14, 1970, on Armed Forces Day.

Levitow died of cancer on November 8, 2000. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. His grave can be found in section 66, site 7107.

The John Levitow Award is the highest honor presented to a graduate of Air Force Enlisted Professional Military Education, including Airman Leadership School, NCO Academy, and the Senior NCO Academy.  To be eligible for the award, a graduate must rank in the top 1% of his or her class.

Military decorations

Medal of Honor citation

Rank and organization: Sergeant, U.S. Air Force, 3d Special Operations Squadron. place and date: Long Binh Army post, Republic of Vietnam, 24 February 1969. Entered service at: New Haven, Conn. Born: 1 November 1945, Hartford, Conn.

Citation:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Sgt. Levitow (then A1C), U.S. Air Force, distinguished himself by exceptional heroism while assigned as a loadmaster aboard an AC-47 aircraft flying a night mission in support of Long Binh Army post. Sgt. Levitow's aircraft was struck by a hostile mortar round. The resulting explosion ripped a hole 2 feet in diameter through the wing and fragments made over 3,500 holes in the fuselage. All occupants of the cargo compartment were wounded and helplessly slammed against the floor and fuselage. The explosion tore an activated flare from the grasp of a crewmember who had been launching flares to provide illumination for Army ground troops engaged in combat. Sgt. Levitow, though stunned by the concussion of the blast and suffering from over 40 fragment wounds in the back and legs, staggered to his feet and turned to assist the man nearest to him who had been knocked down and was bleeding heavily. As he was moving his wounded comrade forward and away from the opened cargo compartment door, he saw the smoking flare ahead of him in the aisle. Realizing the danger involved and completely disregarding his own wounds, Sgt. Levitow started toward the burning flare. The aircraft was partially out of control and the flare was rolling wildly from side to side. Sgt. Levitow struggled forward despite the loss of blood from his many wounds and the partial loss of feeling in his right leg. Unable to grasp the rolling flare with his hands, he threw himself bodily upon the burning flare. Hugging the deadly device to his body, he dragged himself back to the rear of the aircraft and hurled the flare through the open cargo door. At that instant the flare separated and ignited in the air, but clear of the aircraft. Sgt. Levitow, by his selfless and heroic actions, saved the aircraft and its entire crew from certain death and destruction. Sgt. Levitow's gallantry, his profound concern for his fellowmen, at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of the U.S. Air Force and reflect great credit upon himself and the Armed Forces of his country.

Other awards
In 1998, he was inducted into the Airlift/Tanker Association Hall of Fame.

C-17 Globemaster III
On January 31, 1998, Boeing delivered C-17 Globemaster III S/N 96-0005, named The Spirit of John L. Levitow'' to the 437th Airlift Wing (AMC) and the 315th Airlift Wing (AFRC), Charleston AFB, South Carolina. Later transferred to the 105th Airlift Wing, New York Air National Guard.

See also

List of Medal of Honor recipients
List of Medal of Honor recipients for the Vietnam War
Henry E. Erwin – awarded the Medal of Honor for similar actions

Notes

References

Further reading

1945 births
2000 deaths
People from Glastonbury, Connecticut
United States Air Force Medal of Honor recipients
Burials at Arlington National Cemetery
United States Air Force airmen
United States Air Force personnel of the Vietnam War
Deaths from cancer in Connecticut
Jewish Medal of Honor recipients
Recipients of the Air Medal
Vietnam War recipients of the Medal of Honor
Military personnel from Hartford, Connecticut
20th-century American Jews

John Levitow


In geometry, a triangle is the flet set generate bi connectin three pynts, that isna collinear, wi straucht-line segments. It is a three-sidit polygon.

The internal angles o a triangle eiks up tae 180 degrees.

The'r three kynds o triangle: aquilateral, whaur aa three sides is aqual; isoceles, whaur twa sides is aqual juist; an scalene, whaur nane o the sides is aqual tae onie o the ithers.

Elementary shapes

Triangle


The 1872–73 Home Nations rugby union matches was a single international friendly held between the England and Scotland national rugby union teams. With no other recognised rugby union teams in Britain or the rest of the World, the encounter between Scotland and England represented the only possible match that could be arranged, and would continue as such until 1875, when Ireland formed a national team.

Results

Scoring system
The matches for this season were decided on goals scored. A goal was awarded for a successful conversion after a try, for a dropped goal or for a goal from mark. If a game was drawn, any unconverted tries were tallied to give a winner. If there was still no clear winner, the match was declared a draw.

The matches

England vs. Scotland

Scotland: WD Brown (Glasgow Academicals), T Chalmers (Glasgow Academicals), James Sanderson (Edinburgh Academicals), GB McClure (West of Scotland), JLH McFarlane (Edinburgh Academicals), W St Clair Grant (Craigmount School), TR Marshall (Edinburgh Academicals), Henry William Allan (Glasgow Academicals), P Anton (St. Andrew's University), EM Bannerman (Edinburgh Academicals), CC Bryce (Glasgow Academicals), CW Cathcart (Edinburgh University), John Davidson (RIE College), RW Irvine (Edinburgh Academicals), JAW Mein (Edinburgh Academicals), AG Petrie (Royal HSFP), FJ Moncreiff (Edinburgh Academicals) capt., TP Whittington (Merchistonians), RW Wilson (West of Scotland), A Wood (Royal HSFP)

England: Charles Vanderspar (Richmond), Frederick Mills (Marlborough Nomads), Sydney Morse (Law Club), Harold Freeman (Marlborough Nomads), Cecil Boyle (Oxford University), Stephen Finney (I.C.E. College), James Body  (Gipsies), James Bush (Clifton), Ernest Cheston (Law Club), William Fletcher (Marlborough Nomads), Alfred St. George Hamersley (Marlborough Nomads), Henry Lawrence (Richmond), Francis Luscombe (Gipsies), James Mackinlay (St George's Hospital), Henry Marsh (I.C.E. College), Murray Marshall (Blackheath), Cyril Rickards (Gipsies), Ernest Still (Ravenscourt Park), Frederick Stokes (Blackheath) capt., Dawson Turner (Richmond)

Bibliography

References

History of rugby union matches between England and Scotland
England national rugby union team matches
Scotland national rugby union team matches
1872–73 in British rugby union
1873 in Scottish sport
1873 in English sport


The Graeae, sometimes called the Grey Sisters, are characters from Greek mythology. They are a trio of hags, called Deino, Enyo and Pemphredo.  They are called the Grey Sisters because they were born with grey skin and hair. They also share one tooth and one eye. They take turns using the tooth and eye. The Graeae are affiliated with the gorgons. The hero Perseus made them say where Medusa was by taking their eye. Perseus said he would not give the eye back until the Grey Sisters told him where Medusa was.

Greek mythology

Graeae


The peripheral nervous system, or PNS, is part of the nervous system. It consists of the nerves and ganglia which are outside the central nervous system (the brain and spinal cord). The main function of the PNS is to connect the central nervous system (CNS) to the  limbs and organs.

The PNS is not protected by bone like the central nervous system. Therefore it is exposed to toxins and mechanical injuries. The peripheral nervous system is divided into the somatic nervous system (SNS) and the autonomic nervous system (ANS). But the enteric nervous system (ENS) can be seen as a third branch of its own and not as part of the autonomic nervous system.

 The SNS coordinates your body's movement, receiving external stimuli, and regulates everything under conscious control.
 The ANS controls all automatic actions. That means that it controls all reflexes and actions during sleep.
 The ENS controls the gastrointestinal system.

References
Nervous system

Peripheral nervous system


The word treble is used, especially in British English, to mean the singing voice of a boy or girl.  Often it is called boy soprano, but since there are also many girls who sing in cathedral and church choirs these days, the word treble is now used to describe the voice of either sex.

A boy can sing treble until he reaches puberty.  At puberty he starts to become a man and his voice range will go down (we say that his voice "breaks").  He will then become a tenor, baritone or bass, or he may even train to be a countertenor.  A girl's voice also changes when she reaches puberty, but the change into a grown-up female voice is more gradual than with a boy, and it is still within the soprano or  alto range.

Boys who join a cathedral choir or the choir of a large church will have to work hard to develop their voice and learn to sing musically.  They often start this training aged 7 or 8, and they may only have four or five years before their voice starts to break.  They do not usually become famous as soloists, but the Welsh treble Aled Jones became very famous for about three years and made many recordings before his voice broke in 1987.

The word 'treble' is used for children singing in a Classical Music style, especially church music.  Although children do not usually sing in opera, occasionally a treble is used for the part of a very small boy, e.g. in  Debussy's opera Pélléas et Mélisande.

Vocal ranges

Treble (singer)


WavPack is a free and open-source lossless audio compression format and application implementing the format. It is unique in the way that it supports hybrid audio compression alongside normal compression which is similar to how FLAC works. It also supports compressing a wide variety of lossless formats, including various variants of PCM and also DSD as used in SACDs, together with its support for surround audio.

Features
WavPack compression can compress (and losslessly restore) 8, 16, 24, and 32-bit fixed-point, and 32-bit floating-point PCM audio files in the .WAV file format. It can also handle DSD input in DSDIFF or DSF format. It also supports surround sound streams and high sampling rates. Like other lossless compression schemes, the data reduction rate varies with the source, but it is generally between 30% and 70% for typical popular music and somewhat better than that for classical music and other sources with greater dynamic range.

Hybrid mode
WavPack also incorporates a "hybrid" mode, which still provides the features of lossless compression, but creates two files: a relatively small, high-quality, lossy file (.wv) that can be used by itself; and a "correction" file (.wvc) that, when combined with the lossy file, provides full lossless restoration. This allows the use of lossy and lossless codecs together. The lossy algorithm is similar to ADPCM.

Hybrid mode can handle floating-point data, but only when "exception" values like infinities or NaNs are not present. It cannot handle DSD because there is no lossy algorithm for DSD.

A similar "hybrid" feature is also offered by OptimFROG DualStream, MPEG-4 SLS and DTS-HD Master Audio.

Summary
 Open-source, released under a BSD-like license
 Multiplatform
 Error robustness
 Fast encoding
 Higher compression ratios than other widely used (FLAC/ALAC) open-source lossless audio codecs
 Streaming support
 Supports multichannel audio and high resolutions
 Native support in WavPack 5.x for compressing Direct Stream Digital without converting the source file to PCM.
 Hybrid/lossy mode
 Hardware support (provided by Rockbox firmware)
 Metadata support (ID3, APE tags; APE tag is the preferred format)
 Supports RIFF chunks
 Compatible with ReplayGain
 Ability to create self-extracting files for the Win32 platform
 Supports 32-bit floating-point streams
 Supports embedded CUE sheets
 Includes MD5 hashes for quick integrity checking
 Can encode in both symmetrical and asymmetrical (slower encoding to speed up decoding) modes

History
David Bryant started development on WavPack in mid-1998 with the release of version 1.0 (1998-08-15). This first version compressed and decompressed audio losslessly, and it already featured one of the best efficiency vs. speed ratios among lossless encoders.

Very soon after the release of version 1.0, v. 2.0 (2 September 1998) was released, featuring lossy encoding (using only quantization of prediction residue for data reduction no psychoacoustic masking model was applied to the stream).

In 1999, version 3.0 (12 September 1999) was released, with a new "fast mode" (albeit with reduced compression ratio), compression of raw (headerless) PCM audio files, and error detection using a 32-bit cyclic redundancy check.

A feature added in late 3.x versions is the "hybrid" mode where the encoder generates a lossy file and a correction file such that both can be decompressed back to a PCM stream that has same quality as the original.

In WavPack 4, a new file format structure is introduced. A "roadmap" is also published by the author with 4.40, containing possible hints on future development. WavPack 5 introduced support for compressing DSD.

Support

Software
Some software supports the format natively (like DeaDBeeF, foobar2000, and Jack! The Knife), while others require plugins. The official WavPack website offers plugins for Winamp, Nero Burning ROM, MediaChest 2.1, and several other applications, as well as a DirectShow filter. dBpoweramp CD-Ripper, by the author of foobar2000, as well as foobar2000 itself, and Asunder allow ripping Audio CDs directly into Wavpack files.

Linux support is available with a native port.

FFmpeg has a native WavPack encoder, which may be combined with software like GNU parallel to use multiple CPU cores to quickly transcode other lossless formats into WavPack, and from WavPack to any format that FFmpeg supports, without the need for additional software. However, FFMpeg's encoder is somewhat limited.

As of 2023, FFmpeg's WavPack encoder has some considerable limitations. It can only produce version 4 bitstreams, which do not support fast verification for file integrity checks, or more than 16 channels. It will also discard RIFF chunks and may not behave predictably with 24-bit input. It also defaults to less than optimal compression to achieve faster encoding. Due to lack of support for Hybrid mode, FFmpeg-based playback software will fail to consider the .wvc correction file if there is one present, and will play or transcode only the lossy section. (However, this is not the usual mode of operation for WavPack.) As native Wavpack support for Direct Stream Digital was added in version 5 of the reference encoder, FFmpeg WavPack also is limited to encoding PCM input.

Hardware
Native support:
 Cowon A3 PMP supports WavPack out of the box.

Non-native support:
 Apple iPod range of music players do not support WavPack out of the box, but can through open-source Rockbox firmware.
 iRiver H100 series, through open-source Rockbox firmware.
 iRiver H300 series, through open-source Rockbox firmware.
 Android smartphones and tablets with the installation of third-party media-player software.
 ChromeOS devices using media-player software installed in the Linux subsystem or the Android Play Store.
The WavPack website also includes a plugin that allows support for the format on the Roku PhotoBridge HD .

Technology
To ensure high-speed operation, WavPack uses a predictor that is implemented entirely in integer math. In its "fast" mode the prediction is simply the arithmetic extrapolation of the previous two samples. For example, if the previous two samples were −10 and 20, then the prediction would be 50. For the default mode a simple adaptive factor is added to weigh the influence of the earlier sample on the prediction. In the example above the resulting prediction could then vary between 20 for no influence to 50 for full influence. This weight factor is constantly updated based on the audio data's changing spectral characteristics.

The prediction generated is then subtracted from the actual sample to be encoded to generate the error value. In mono mode this value is sent directly to the coder. However, stereo signals tend to have some correlation between the two channels that can be further exploited. Therefore, two error values are calculated that represent the difference and average of the left and right error values. In the "fast" mode of operation these two new values are simply sent to the coder instead of the left and right values. In the default mode, the difference value is always sent to the coder along with one of the other three values (average, left, or right). An adaptive algorithm continuously determines the most efficient of the three to send based on the changing balance of the channels.

Instead of Rice coding, a special data encoder for WavPack is used. Rice coding is the optimal bit coding for this type of data, and WavPack's encoder is less efficient, but only by about 0.15 bits per sample (or less than 1% for 16-bit data). However, there are some advantages in exchange. The first one is that WavPack's encoder does not require the data to be buffered ahead of encoding; instead it converts each sample directly to bitcodes. This is more computationally efficient and is better in some applications where coding delay is critical. The second advantage is that it is easily adaptable to lossy encoding, since all significant bits (except the implied "one" MSB) are transmitted directly. In this way it is possible to only transmit, for example, the 3 most significant bits (with sign) of each sample. In fact, it is possible to transmit only the sign and implied MSB for each sample with an average of only 3.65 bits per sample.

This coding scheme is used to implement the "lossy" mode of WavPack. In the "fast" mode the output of the non-adaptive decorrelator is simply rounded to the nearest codable value for the specified number of bits. In the default mode the adaptive decorrelator is used (which reduces the average noise about 1 dB), and both the current and the next sample are considered in choosing the better of the two available codes (which reduces noise another 1 dB).

No floating-point arithmetic is used in WavPack's data path because, according to the author, integer operations are less susceptible to subtle chip-to-chip variations that could corrupt the lossless nature of the compression (the Pentium floating-point bug being an example). It is possible that a lossless compressor that used floating-point math could generate different output when running on that faulty Pentium. Even disregarding actual bugs, floating-point math is complicated enough that there could be subtle differences between "correct" implementations that could cause trouble for this type of application. A 32-bit error detection code to the generated streams is included to maintain user confidence in the integrity of WavPack's compression.

WavPack source code is portable and has been compiled on several Unix and Unix-like operating systems (Linux, Mac OS X, Solaris, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, Compaq Tru64, HP-UX...) as well as Windows, DOS, Palm OS, and OpenVMS. It works on many architectures, including x86, ARM, PowerPC, AMD64, IA-64, SPARC, Alpha, PA-RISC, MIPS and Motorola 68k.

A cut-down version of WavPack was developed for the Texas Instruments TMS320 series Digital Signal Processor. This was aimed predominantly at encouraging manufacturers to incorporate WavPack compression (and de-compression) into portable memory audio recorders. This version supported features that were applicable only to embedded applications (stream compression in real-time, selectable compression rate) and dropped off features that only applied to full computer systems (self extraction, high compression modes, 32-bit floats). The TMS320 series DSPs are native integer devices, and support WavPack well. Some "special" features of the full WavPack software were included (ability to generate a correction "file" (stream), for example), and others were excluded. The port was based on version 4.

WavPack support was added to WinZip starting with version 11.0 beta, released in October 2006. This extension to the ZIP file format was included by PKWARE, the maintainers of the format, in the official  description file starting with version 6.3.2, released on 28 September 2007.

See also

Comparison of audio formats
MPEG-4 SLS
FLAC
TTA
Monkey's Audio
ALAC
Meridian Lossless Packing

References

External links
Official website
WavPack forum at Hydrogenaudio Forums
Historical versions at ReallyRareWares
A comparison of several Lossless Audio encoders at Hydrogenaudio Wiki.
 WavPack on MultimediaWiki
WavPack frontend
Flash WavPack player

Lossless audio codecs
Computer file formats
Free audio software
Free audio codecs
Open formats
Software using the BSD license

WavPack


The highly diverse and distinctive music of Madagascar has been shaped by the musical traditions of Southeast Asia, Africa, Oceania, Arabia, England, France and the United States over time as indigenous people, immigrants, and colonists have made the island their home. Traditional instruments reflect these widespread origins: the  and  owe their existence to the introduction of the guitar by early Arab or European seafarers, the ubiquitous  originated in mainland Africa and the —the bamboo tube zither considered the national instrument of Madagascar—directly evolved from an earlier form of zither carried with the first Austronesian settlers on their outrigger canoes.

Malagasy music can be roughly divided into three categories: traditional, contemporary and popular music.  Traditional musical styles vary by region and reflect local ethnographic history.  For instance, in the Highlands, the  and more subdued vocal styles are emblematic of the Merina, the predominantly Austronesian ethnic group that has inhabited the area since at least the 15th century, whereas among the southern Bara people, who trace their ancestry back to the African mainland, their a cappella vocal traditions bear close resemblance to the polyharmonic singing style common to South Africa. Foreign instruments such as the acoustic guitar and piano have been adapted locally to create uniquely Malagasy forms of music. Contemporary Malagasy musical styles such as the  or  have evolved from traditional styles modernized by the incorporation of electric guitar, bass, drums and synthesizer.  Many Western styles of popular music, including rock, gospel, jazz, reggae, hip-hop and folk rock, have also gained in popularity in Madagascar over the later half of the 20th century.

Music in Madagascar has served a variety of sacred and secular functions.  In addition to its performance for entertainment or personal creative expression, music has played a key part in spiritual ceremonies, cultural events and historic and contemporary political functions. By the late 19th century, certain instruments and types of music became primarily associated with specific castes or ethnic groups, although these divisions have always been fluid and are continually evolving.

Traditional music

Malagasy music is highly melodic and distinguishes itself from many traditions of mainland Africa by the predominance of chordophone relative to percussion instruments. Musical instruments and vocal styles found in Madagascar represent a blend of widespread commonalities and highly localized traditions.  A common vocal style among the Merina and Betsileo of the Highlands, for instance, does not preclude differences in the prevalence of particular instrument types (the  among the Merina, and the  and  among the Betsileo).  Similarly, the practice of  (entering a trance state, typically induced by music) is present on both the western and eastern coasts of the island but the vocal styles or instruments used in the ceremony will vary regionally. Music in Madagascar tends toward major keys and diatonic scales, although coastal music makes frequent use of minor keys, most likely due to early Arab influences at coastal ports of call. Malagasy music has served a wide range of social, spiritual and mundane functions across the centuries.

Vocal traditions

Vocal traditions in Madagascar are most often polyharmonic; southern vocal styles bear strong resemblance to South African singing (as exemplified by groups such as Salala or Senge), whereas Highland harmonies, strongly influenced in the past two hundred years by European church music, are more reminiscent of Hawaiian or other Polynesian vocal traditions.  In the Highlands, and particularly in the 19th century, vocal performance by large groups called  was favored, while in the south and western coastal regions singing was performed with more elaborate ornamentation and in small groups. Musical performance in Madagascar has often been associated with spiritual functions. Music is a key component in achieving a trance state in  (or ) spiritual rituals practiced in several regions of the island, as it is believed that each spirit has a different preferred piece of music. The association between music and ancestors is so strong on the eastern coast that some musicians will put rum, cigarettes or other valued objects inside an instrument (through the tone hole, for instance) as an offering to the spirits to receive their blessings. Similarly, music has long been central to the  ceremony (periodic reburial of ancestors' shroud-wrapped mortal remains).

Musical instruments

Instruments in Madagascar were brought to the island by successive waves of settlers from across the Old World. Over 1500 years ago, the earliest settlers from Indonesia brought the oldest and most emblematic instruments, including the tube zither () which evolved into a box form () distinct to the island.  Later settlers from the Arabian peninsula and the eastern coast of Africa contributed early lutes, whistles and other instruments that were incorporated into local musical traditions by the mid-16th century. The influence of instruments and musical styles from France and Great Britain began to have a significant impact on music in Madagascar by the 19th century.

Chordophones
The most emblematic instrument of Madagascar, the , is a bamboo tube zither very similar in form to those used traditionally in Indonesia and the Philippines. The  is considered the national instrument of Madagascar. It is typically tuned to a diatonic mode to produce complex music based on harmonic, parallel thirds accompanied by a melodic bass line. The strings are traditionally cut and raised from the fibrous surface of the bamboo tube itself, although a contemporary form also exists that instead uses bicycle brake cables for strings to give the instrument a punchier sound.

Strings may be plucked with the fingernails, which are allowed to grow longer for this purpose.  The instrument was originally used for rituals and for creative artistic expression alike. However, beginning in the mid-19th century, playing the instrument became the prerogative of the Merina aristocracy to such an extent that possessing long fingernails became symbolic of nobility. While the tubular  is the most emblematic form of the instrument most likely due to its popularization by the 19th century Merina aristocracy, other forms of the instrument exist across the island.  In the region around the eastern port city of Toamasina, for instance,  used in  ceremonies may take a rectangular box form called . While some regions construct their  from wood, near Toamasina the box is constructed of metal sheeting with much thicker and heavier strings that produce a different sound from the bamboo and bicycle cable  of the Highlands.

The  (or ) is a four to six-stringed simple guitar common in the southern Highlands moving toward the east, particularly among the Betsimisaraka and Betsileo ethnic groups. The soundbox, which is typically square or rectangular today, was originally circular in form, first made from a tortoise shell and later from wood carved into a rounded shape.  and  are the Antandroy names of a popular Southern chordophone similar to the  but with nylon fishing line for strings and five or seven movable frets that facilitate modification of the instrument's tuning.

The  is a chordophone that traditionally has two sisal strings, three frets and a calabash resonator, although modern versions may have as many as eleven or thirteen strings, typically made of steel. A maximum of four of these are strung over the frets, while the rest are strung lengthwise down the sides of the neck and are strummed with the fingers in accompaniment to the primary melody which is played with a bow. This more elaborate  is especially popular among the Betsileo of the southern Highlands and the Betsimisaraka of the southeast, who play it in accompaniment to their sung epic poems, called . In 19th-century Highlands society under the Kingdom of Imerina, the  was considered to be a slave instrument which only mature men were permitted to play. The , an evolved  with the sound box carved to resemble a three-stringed fiddle, is popular among the Southern Antandroy and Bara ethnic groups. The simplest form of instrument in this family is the  (musical bow), believed to have been brought to Madagascar by settlers from mainland Africa.

The piano was introduced to the royal Merina court in the early 19th century by envoys of the London Missionary Society, and soon afterward, local musicians began creating their own compositions for piano based on  technique.  Piano compositions reached their peak with the  style in the 1920s and 1930s before declining in the 1940s. Today, the compositions of this period by pianist theatrical composers like Andrianary Ratianarivo (1895–1949) and Naka Rabemananatsoa (1892–1952) form part of the canon of classical Malagasy music and feature in the repertoire of Malagasy students of piano.

When the modern acoustic guitar was first popularized in Madagascar, it was adopted by the lower classes who were inspired by the  piano style but for whom the purchase of a costly piano was out of reach. Early guitarists adapted the piano style (itself based on  style) to this novel stringed instrument to create a genre that came to be known as . Soon afterward, the guitar was widely disseminated throughout the island, producing an explosion of regionally distinctive Malagasy guitar styles inspired by the music played on local traditional instruments. Finger picking is the favored technique and guitarists frequently experiment with original tunings to obtain the desired range. One of the most common tunings drops the sixth string from E to C and the fifth string from A to G, thereby enabling the guitarist to capture a range approximating that of a vocal choir. The Malagasy acoustic guitar style has been internationally promoted by such artists as Erick Manana and pioneering Bara artist Ernest Randrianasolo (better known by his stage name D'Gary), who blends the rhythms of  with innovative open tunings to approximate the sounds of the ,  and .

Aerophones
The , an end-blown flute, is believed to be one of the oldest instruments on the island. There exists the more common and well-known short , about a foot long with six finger holes and one for the thumb, and another similar end-blown flute over two feet long with three holes at the far end.  Both are open-ended and are played by blowing diagonally across the near opening. The master of  performance, Rakoto Frah, was featured on the 1000 Malagasy franc (200 ariary) banknote after independence in 1960 and his death on 29 September 2001 prompted national mourning.

The conch shell ( or ) is a similarly ancient instrument believed to have been brought over by early Indonesian settlers. Mainly played by men, it features a lateral blow hole in the Polynesian style and is typically reserved for ritual or spiritual uses rather than to create music for entertainment. The antsiva has also been recorded to have been used as part of Merina royal regalia. The fipple flute is a simple aerophone brought to Madagascar after 1000 CE by immigrants from Africa.

The two-octave diatonic accordion (), popular across Madagascar, is believed to have been imported by French colonists after 1896. In the 20th century, the instrument was commonly performed during  spirit possession ceremonies in a style called . In the 1970s, the  was incorporated for the performance of electrified  music. This accordion style was also integrated into the performance of , while also inspiring the style used by the guitarists in these bands. Although today the sound of the accordion is most often replicated by a synthesizer in  or  bands due to the expense and rarity of the instrument, accordions continue to hold a privileged place in the performance of  ceremonial music. Artists like half-brothers Lego and Rossy have gained success as accordion players. Régis Gizavo brought the contemporary style of  to the world music scene, winning several international awards for his accordion performance.

A variety of European aerophones were introduced in the 19th century under the Merina monarchy. These most notably include bugles () and clarinets (), and less frequently the trombone or oboe ().  Their use today is largely restricted to the Highlands and the  or  bands that perform at  (reburials), circumcisions and other traditional celebrations. Metal and wood harmonicas are also played.

Membranophones

Various types of membranophones, traditionally associated with solemn occasions, are found throughout the island.  In the Highlands, European bass drums () and snare drums introduced in the 19th century have replaced an earlier drum () traditionally beat to accentuate the discourse of a  speaker during a  or other formal occasions where the oratory art of  is practiced.  Only men can play the , while women and men may both play the smaller  drum. The  ("male wood") drum produces the deepest sound and is reserved for the most significant occasions such as , circumcision ceremonies and the ancient festival of the royal bath.

Idiophones

Bamboo shakers () filled with seeds are integral to the performance of  on the eastern coast of the island, although modern items such as empty insecticide tins or sweetened condensed milk cans filled with pebbles increasingly take the place of traditional bamboo.  Shakers of this sort are used throughout Madagascar, commonly in conjunction with  and other ceremonies. During the slave trade era, another idiophone—a scraper called the —was popularized in Madagascar after being imported there from Brazil where it is known as a caracacha.

Early forms of xylophone such as the  are found throughout the island and are believed to have come across with the original Indonesian settlers. The earliest of these is played uniquely by a pair of women, one of whom sits with her legs outstretched together and the bars of the xylophone resting across her legs rather than on a separate resonator box. Each woman strikes the  with a pair of sticks, one keeping the beat while the second plays a melody. The xylophone bars range from five to seven in number and are made of differing lengths of a rot-resistant wood called . A similar xylophone called  is still played in the southwest among the Vezo and Bara ethnic groups.

Contemporary music

Contemporary music comprises modern-day compositions that have their roots in  traditional musical styles and have been created for entertainment purposes, typically with the intent of eventual mass dissemination via cassette, compact disc, radio or internet. Modern forms of Malagasy music may incorporate such innovations as amplified or imported instruments (particularly electric guitar, bass guitar, synthesizer and drum kit), blend the sounds of new and traditional instruments or use traditional instruments in innovative ways. As contemporary artists adapt their musical heritage to today's market, they manage to preserve the melodic, chordophone-dominated sound that distinguishes traditional Malagasy music from the more percussion-heavy traditions of mainland Africa.
African genres like Coupé-décalé and Afrobeats
heavily influence modern malagasy popular music.

Highlands

In the 1950s and 1960s, a variety of bands in the Highlands (in the area between and around Antananarivo and Fianarantsoa) were performing covers of European and American hits or adapting mainland African tunes for local audiences.  Madagascar got its first supergroup in the 1970s with Mahaleo, whose members blended traditional Malagasy sounds with soft rock to enormous and enduring success. Rossy emerged as a superstar shortly afterward, adapting the instrumentation, rhythms and vocal styles of the  to create a distinctly Malagasy radio-friendly sound. His open and enthusiastic support for then-President Didier Ratsiraka assured his band regular performances in association with Presidential functions, and his band came to define the Ratsiraka epoch for many.

Other important contemporary musicians from the Highlands include Justin Vali and Sylvestre Randafison, both  virtuosos; Rakoto Frah, who could play two  simultaneously; Solo Miral, featuring guitar played in the style of a ; Tarika, a Malagasy fusion band based in England; Olombelona Ricky, a highly accomplished solo vocalist, and Samoëla, a roots artist whose blunt social and political critiques propelled his group to popularity.

Coastal styles

Distinct contemporary forms of music, rooted in local musical traditions, have emerged in the coastal regions since the 1960s.  Chief among these are two up-tempo dance music styles that have become especially popular across Madagascar and have achieved crossover success: , a  style that originated in the northwest around Mahajanga and Antsiranana, and , a  style centered in the southwest between Toliara and Betroka. Other key coastal styles include  of Diego-Suarez and the northeast coast as popularized by Mika sy Davis,  of Morondava and the southwestern interior,  of the southern Anosy region performed by such groups as Rabaza,  of the northeast as popularized by Jerry Marcoss, the southern  polyharmonic tradition performed by bands like Senge and Terakaly, and  and  music from neighboring Reunion Island and Mauritius.

is funky, energetic dance music dominated by ringing electric guitars, accordion (real or synthesized), and call-and-response polyphonic vocals, with heavy electric bass and a driving percussion. The percussion section might include a drum kit, djembe, and shakers.

 is an electrified version of the traditional  musical style that Tandroy singer Mama Sana used to perform at Betsimisaraka and Tsimihety rituals.
In addition to their commonalities in tempo, vocal style, and tendency toward minor keys (which some attribute to an Arab influence, and which stands in contrast to the major key dominance of Highland music), the  shares the 's structure in that it always features a middle section called the  ("broken") which is primarily instrumental—voice serves only to urge on more energetic dancing—and during which the vocalists (and the audience) will launch into intricate polyrhythmic hand-clapping to the beat of the music.

The major exponents of modern  were Jaojoby and Mily Clément. Among the later artists are Ninie Doniah, Wawa, Vaiavy Chila, and Dr. J.B. and the Jaguars.

Like ,  is energetic dance music that originated from the traditional music of the southwestern region around Toliara and that has recently been adapted to contemporary instruments such as electric guitar, bass guitar and drum kit.  Generally even more rapid than the , this  form of music features a guitar performance style inspired by traditional  compositions, but the influence of South African township music is evident in both the guitars and polyharmonic vocals, often performed by female singers who repeat variations on a short refrain throughout the song.   music is performed at all manner of ceremonial occasion in the South, whether a birthday celebration, community party, or funeral. While  had risen to national popularity by the mid-1980s (some would argue the 1970s),  only truly began to garner a similar level of widespread appreciation by the mid-1990s.  It was not until the 2000 release of the "Tulear Never Sleeps" compilation album that the genre achieved international exposure on a major label. This compilation, however, showcases "traditional" , such as might have more commonly been performed in rural villages twenty years ago, rather than the amplified, synthesized and remixed style in heavy rotation on radio stations performed by national stars like Tearano, Terakaly, Jarifa, and Mamy Gotso.

There are many more regional styles of contemporary music that have yet to achieve the level of national recognition attained by  and  just as there are many nationally and internationally acclaimed musicians who draw upon the musical traditions of the coastal regions in their compositions.  Of note are Hazolahy (a largely acoustic roots band from the Southeast that plays ), D'Gary (an acclaimed acoustic guitarist from the inland South near Betroka), and Toto Mwandjani (who popularized Congolese ndombolo-style guitar, and whose band performs a fusion of Central/East African and Malagasy dance styles).

 Popular music

A wide range of foreign music styles have been popularized in Madagascar, including French  performed by artists such as Poopy, reggae, gospel music, and pop rock performed by bands such as Green and AmbondronA. Since mid-2010s malagasy popular music has been a blend of malagasy music, tropical music (Zouk) and African genres like Coupé décalé and Afrobeats. Artists of this new wave of malagasy music include Black Nadia, Vaiavy Chila, LIANAH and BIG MJ. Jazz has been popularized by artists such as Nicolas Vatomanga. Malagasy hip hop broke into the mainstream in the mid-nineties and has since skyrocketed to popularity through artists such as Da Hopp and 18,3. More recently bands like Oladad are experimenting with the fusion of hip-hop and traditional Malagasy musical styles and instruments. There is also a small metal scene with bands like Sasamaso being the most prominent.Dancehall has gained popularity in Madagascar since late 2010s with artists like Mad Max and Basta Lion.

 Performance of Malagasy music

Music has long served a variety of secular and sacred purposes in Madagascar. Song may accompany daily tasks, provide entertainment, preserve history or communicate social and political messages. Music is likewise integral to the experience of spiritual ritual among many ethnic and religious groups on the island.

 Secular performance

Among some ethnic groups music would help advance a repetitive or arduous task.  Geo Shaw, a missionary to Madagascar in the 19th century, described observing Betsileo and Merina serfs singing in the rice fields, "timing the music to the movements of their bodies, so that at each accented note they plant a stalk." Similarly, songs may accompany the paddling of dugout canoes on long journeys. Music may also accompany another form of entertainment, such as songs chanted by female spectators at matches of , a traditional form of full-body wrestling popular in coastal regions.

The preservation of oral history may be achieved through musical performance in Madagascar. Among the Betsileo, for instance, oral histories are retold through a form of musical performance called the , which in its current form may represent a combination of the original, single-verse  and an epic poem called the . The Betsileo  is performed by two men who each play a  while singing very loudly with a strained pitch in the soprano range. The structure of the song is complex and, unlike other Malagasy musical styles, parallel thirds are not predominant in the harmony. Other Southern ethnic groups also perform simplified variations of the  featuring for example a solo musician who strums rather than fiddles his accompanying instrument and sings at a lower, more natural pitch. While the Betsileo  can address diverse themes, those performed by other southern groups are almost always praise songs recalling a favorably memorable event.

Endogenous musical styles may also serve as a form of artistic expression, as in the highly syncopated  genre of Imerina.  The  emerged in conjunction with the French introduction of operetta and the subsequent rise of Malagasy theater at the Theatre Municipale d'Isotry beginning in the late 1910s. The vocal style used in  is characterized by female use of , a vocal ornamentation delivered in a nasal tone, offset by the  (tenor) and rapid-moving  (baritone) line sung by the men.  inspired the musical duet style , popularized in Imerina during the final two decades of the colonial period, in which the  vocal sensibilities are applied to love themes and accompanied by a syncopated composition for piano or occasionally guitar.

Musical performance in the Highlands took on a distinctly political and educative role through the  (: song; : Malagasy). The  is a day-long spectacle of music, dance, and a stylized form of traditional oratory known as  performed by a troupe or as a competition between two or more troupes.  While the origins of the  are uncertain, oral history attributes its modern form to 18th century Merina king Andrianampoinimerina, who reportedly employed musicians to gather the public together for royal speeches and announcements () and to entertain them as they labored on public works projects such as building dikes to irrigate the rice paddies surrounding Antananarivo. Over time, these musicians formed independent troupes who used and continue to use the non-threatening performance format to explore sensitive social and political themes in the public arena.

The  troupes of today are remnants of a tradition of court musicians that persisted through the end of the 19th century. Under Queen Ranavalona III, the final monarch in the Merina dynasty, there were three official groups of state musicians: one for the queen, one for her prime minister, and another for the city of Antananarivo.  The queen's troupe consisted of over 300 musicians. Until slavery was abolished, musicians in these groups were members of the slave class () directed by a  (free Merina). Each year at Christmas, the directors of each group would arrange a performance before the queen of a new original composition; the queen would select a winner among the three.  While court musicians (and therefore the earliest  troupes) originally performed using traditional instruments – namely the ,  and drums - over the course of the 19th century the increasing European influence led court musicians and  troupes alike to make increasing use of foreign instruments such as violins, clarinets, trombones and trumpets. The tradition of the court musician died out with the abolition of the monarchy in Madagascar after French colonization, but the  tradition has continued to thrive.

Musical styles from abroad have been merged with pre-existing Malagasy musical traditions to create distinctly Malagasy sounds with foreign roots.  An example of this is the , a tune based on the French quadrille that was popularized in the Malagasy court in the 19th century.  A specific form of partner dance accompanies this piece, in which dancers will form a long chain of male-female pairs with the woman at the front of each pair, both facing forward holding each other's hands while advancing to the rhythm of the music.  From its origins as a courtly dance, the  today is a quintessentially Malagasy tradition performed at the beginning of a social event or concert to kick off the festivities.

 Sacred performance

Music is a common element of spiritual ritual and ceremonies throughout the island.  For instance, members of  troupes are traditionally invited to perform at the  reburial ceremonies of central Madagascar. In coastal regions, music is crucial to helping a medium enter a trance state during a  ritual. While in a trance, the medium is possessed by an ancestral spirit. Each spirit is believed to prefer a particular tune or style of music and will not enter the medium unless the suitable piece of music is performed at the ceremony.

British missionaries of the London Missionary Society (LMS) arrived in Antananarivo in 1820 during the reign of King Radama I.  The subsequent spread of Christianity in Madagascar was coupled with the introduction of solfège as missionaries developed Malagasy-language hymns for their nascent church. The first wave of missionaries was obliged to depart Madagascar under Ranavalona I in 1836, but the hymns they developed became anthems for early Malagasy converts persecuted under the Queen's traditionalist policies.  In 1871, an LMS missionary (J. Richardson) improved the rhythm and harmony of these original hymns, which were considerably influenced by European musical styles such as quadrilles and waltzes.  Originally, church music was performed by slaves seated in groups of four to five at the front of the church. By the 1870s a more European congregational style had been adopted with all members of the church rising to their feet to sing together.

 See also
 Andy Razaf, (1895–1973), US composer, lyricist & poet of Malagasy descent
 Taralila, a Malagasy style of concertina

 References

 External links

 Virtual visit: The Museum of Art and Archaeology of the University of Antananarivo (Madagascar). Image and sound gallery of Malagasy instruments. Retrieved 29 November 2010.
 Audio clips: Traditional Malagasy music performed at the Paris Exposition of 1931. National Library of France. Retrieved 29 November 2010.
 Audio clips: Traditional Malagasy music. Musée de l'Ethnographie de Genève.'' Accessed 29 November 2010.
 Audio clip (60 minutes): "Valiha and the Music of the Spirit House." BBC Radio 3. Retrieved 29 November 2010.
 Audio clip (60 minutes): "Hira Gasy and Court Music." BBC Radio 3. Retrieved 29 November 2010.
 Audio clip (60 minutes): "Justin Vali." BBC Radio 3. Retrieved 29 November 2010.
 Audio clips: Contemporary Malagasy music. National Museum of African Art (Smithsonian Institution). Retrieved 29 November 2010.
 Database: Virtual Archive of Malagasy Music. Accessed 29 November 2010.
 MP3 Streaming: Free MP3 of Malagasy Music.
 Fandaharana Baobab: Radio Shows with Malagasy Music in RealAudio Stream

Malagasy music

Music of Madagascar


A Neighbourhood Action Group, or NAG, is a UK initiative, set up to deal with key issues identified by a community's first public consultation. The group is coordinated by the police. This may happen in the form of a public meeting, through surveys done face-to-face or by mail, or a combination of methods.

NAGs are volunteer working groups made up of representatives from the community. They will include residents, the police, local authority and other organisations, such as local businesses and schools. Ideally NAGs represent a cross section of the society they represent, including representatives from groups such as neighbourhood watch schemes and local councils.

They are key to the success of neighbourhood policing as it is this group which will plan on behalf of the community and organise for tasks to be completed. In effect, they are the 'doers', accountable locally for responding to problems a community wants to tackle.

NAG Members
The NAG constitution  suggests the following should be invited to join the NAG:
 Residents including young people
 Parish and Ward Councillors
 Representatives from the business community
 Neighbourhood Watch co-ordinators
 Local policing team including Police community support officers (PCSO)

Priority Profiles

Every NAG has three priority profiles - priorities for the neighbourhood policing team to address, with the assistance of NAG members. These are reviewed annually and those outside of the NAG are invited to contribute.

References

External links
National NAG website portal
Website for the Upper Caversham, Reading, Berkshire area: Upper Caversham NAG (Reading, Berkshire, UK)
Website for the Lower Caversham, Reading, Berkshire area: Lower Caversham NAG (Reading, Berkshire, UK)

Community organizing
Law enforcement in the United Kingdom
Neighborhood watch organizations

Neighbourhood action group


The 1807 United States Senate election in New York was held on February 3, 1807, by the New York State Legislature to elect a United States Senator (Class 3) to represent the State of New York in the United States Senate.

Background
John Smith had been elected to this seat in February 1804, after the resignation of DeWitt Clinton, replacing the temporarily appointed John Armstrong. Smith took his seat on February 23, 1804, and his term would expire on March 3, 1807.

At the State election in April 1806, the Democratic-Republican Party (D-R) won a large majority to the Assembly (82 D-R and 18 Federalist), and all 9 State Senate seats up for election. The 30th New York State Legislature met from January 27 to April 7, 1807, at Albany, New York.

Candidates
The incumbent U.S. Senator John Smith ran for re-election as the candidate of the Democratic-Republican Party. At this time the Democratic-Republican Party was split in two factions: the "Lewisites" (allies of Governor Morgan Lewis), and the "Clintonians" (allies of Mayor of New York DeWitt Clinton). The Federalist Party which had no seats in the State Senate and only a small minority in the State Assembly was allied in State politics with the Lewisites, the smaller faction, thus forming a bloc large enough to outvote the Clintonians. Nevertheless, for the election of a U.S. Senator both Democratic-Republican factions united supporting Smith.

Result
The incumbent John Smith was re-elected.

Aftermath
John Smith served until the end of the term on March 3, 1813.

Sources
The New York Civil List compiled in 1858 (see: pg. 63 for U.S. Senators; pg. 119f for State Senators 1806-07; pg. 180 for Members of Assembly 1806-07) [gives date of election "February 3"]
Members of the 10th United States Congress
History of Political Parties in the State of New-York by Jabez Delano Hammond (page 237) [gives date of election "first day of February"]

1807
New York
United States Senate
Single-candidate elections


Doctor Beverly Crusher is a fictional character from the American science fiction television series Star Trek: The Next Generation The character is played by actress Gates McFadden. Crusher was born as Beverly Howard. She is a human medical doctor working for Starfleet. Crusher was the chief medical officer on the starships USS Enterprise-D and USS Enterprise-E. She had the military rank of Commander. Crusher had a husband, Jack Crusher (now dead), and one son, Wesley Crusher.

Character story
Doctor Crusher was born in Copernicus City, Luna (Earth's moon). When she was very young her parents died. After this, she lived with her grandmother on Arvada III, a colony planet. After joining Starfleet, she married Lieutenant Jack Crusher. He served with captain Jean-Luc Picard on the USS Stargazor. They had a son, Wesley Crusher. Jack Crusher was killed in an accident on the Stargazor in 2354. On the Enterprise-D, Crusher is a good friend with all the senior staff. She plays poker with them every week. Beverly is a good dancer. She has won many trophies in the past for dancing. She tries to keep this a secret because she did not want to be known as "the dancing doctor" as she used to be in the past.

Star Trek: The Next Generation characters

Beverly Crusher


In Milton Lumky Territory is a realist, non-science fiction novel authored by Philip K. Dick. Originally written in 1958, but rejected by prospective publishers, this book was eventually published posthumously in 1985 by Dragon Press. It was published in two editions. Fifty copies were bound in quarter leather and included a signature from one of the author's canceled checks but were not jacketed. Nine hundred fifty copies were published with a cloth binding and included a dust jacket. It was reprinted in paperback in 2006.

Plot summary
It's 1958 and Bruce Stevens is a buyer for a national warehouse chain who passes through his hometown of Montario, Idaho whilst en route to Boise on business. His reason involves hormones more than nostalgia, however, as a one-time girlfriend named Peg lives there now. It is at a party at her place where he meets, and quickly falls into a relationship with, a strangely familiar older woman who turns out to be one of his former, and least favorite, elementary school teachers, Susan Faine. She simultaneously hires him on as manager of her typewriter shop. Travelling salesman Milton Lumky informs Bruce of a warehouse full of imported, Japanese-made surplus typewriters, and so Stevens drives to Seattle to see this potential bounty for himself. He belatedly discovers that the typewriters all have Spanish language keyboards, and so he tries to pass these hot potatoes down along the line to his former warehouse employer. He reveals his nefarious intentions to Susan, who passes the information onto the warehouse chain which nevertheless decides to take them off his hands at a fair but unprofitable price for Bruce. He then enters a period of waffling and indecision, ultimately deciding to try altering all of the machines himself and selling them at the shop. Returning to Boise he informs Susan of his decision and sets to work, only to return the next morning to find that Susan has fired him and all of the typewriters are being loaded into a truck by one of his former co-workers at the warehouse chain. Distraught by this turn of events he rents a room and recalls one of his first encounters with Susan as his fifth grade teacher which evolves into a day dream about the pair opening up shop in Montario and ultimately moving to Denver following the purchase of an expanded facility there and living happily ever after.

Sources

Andrew Butler: The Pocket Essential Philip K. Dick: Harpenden: Pocket Essentials: 2007:

1985 American novels
Novels by Philip K. Dick
Novels published posthumously
Fiction set in 1958

In Milton Lumky Territory


A quartz clock is a clock that uses an electronic oscillator that is regulated by a quartz crystal to keep time. This crystal oscillator creates a signal with very precise frequency, so that quartz clocks are at least an order of magnitude more accurate than good mechanical clocks. Generally, some form of digital logic counts the cycles of this signal and provides a numeric time display, usually in units of hours, minutes, and seconds. Since the 1970s, they have become the most widely used timekeeping technology.

Other websites
 Animation of quartz clock

References

Clocks

Quartz clock


Bookbinding is the process of putting a book together. The pages are put inside a book covering, then attached to the spine (closed edge of the book) by sewing or glueing. Bookbinding is an artistic practice from many centuries ago but it has also been industrialized. Bookbinding machines were invented in the 19th century and most books are made in factories by mechanical mass production.

A person who binds books is called a bookbinder.  Today, most hand-bound books are specially made, and more expensive than a factory-made book.  Bookbinding is a specialized job.  Bookbinders must be skilled in measuring, cutting, glueing, leather working, graphic arts, and fabric crafts, among other things.

Book terminology
Artisans

Bookbinding


Little Dancer of Fourteen Years () (1881) is a statue by Edgar Degas. The work measures 81 inches in height. The subject is a young dance student named Marie van Goethem. The relationship between van Goethem and Degas is uncertain. It was not unusual for the young dancers of the Paris Opera to seek protectors from among the well-heeled visitors at the back door of the opera.

The statue was shown in Paris at the Sixth Impressionist Exhibition of 1881. It received mixed reviews. Most critics were shocked by the piece. They thought it was ugly. Degas exhibited it inside a glass case. Some thought it was a medical specimen. The head and face were thought grotesque and primitive.

The dancer is dressed in a cotton skirt and is wearing a hair ribbon. For a finishing touch Degas used a wig made of real hair. He covered it with wax. The only parts not covered with wax were the ribbon given to him by van Goethem and the tutu. Each museum that shows this figure gives it a different tutu. The original wax model was acquired by Paul Mellon in 1956.

The sculpture was originally made in wax before it was cast in bronze. Degas's wife and daughter made the decision to have 27 of them cast in bronze. The casting was undertaken at the Hébrard foundry in Paris from 1920 until the mid-20th century. These statues posthumous Degas bronzes can be seen in many museums. Sixty-nine original sculptures in wax and mixed-media survived the casting process.

Other websites

"Little Dancer of Fourteen Years" sculpture at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
"Little Dancer Aged Fourteen"  in the Tate Collection, London
"Little Dancer of Fourteen Years"  in the Robert and Lisa Sainsbury Collection.
"The Little Dancer, Aged Fourteen"  at the Hay Hill Gallery in London.
History of La Danseuse  at the National Gallery of Art.

Statues
1880s works

Little Dancer of Fourteen Years