John Harold Force (born May 4, 1949) is an American NHRA drag racer. He is a 16-time NHRA and 1 time AHRA Funny Car champion driver and a 22-time champion car owner. Force owns and drives for John Force Racing (JFR). He is one of the most dominant drag racers in the sport with 155 career victories.  He graduated from Bell Gardens High School and briefly attended Cerritos Junior College to play football.  He is the father of drag racers Ashley Force Hood, Brittany Force, and Courtney Force. His oldest daughter Adria Hight is the CFO of JFR.

Current drivers racing for Force's team are son-in-law Robert Hight, and daughter Brittany. Mike Neff was crew chief for John two separate times. Effective July 2013 Jimmy Prock replaced Mike Neff as crew chief, and Mike Neff became crew chief for Robert Hight. Neff, who was once the crew chief for rival driver Gary Scelzi, raced in a 4th Funny Car for JFR from October 26, 2007, following the death of Eric Medlen, until the end of the 2009 season. However, in 2010, after a 2009 season in which Force did not win a single race, Force parked his 4th car, and named Neff as his new crew chief instead. This decision resulted in Force winning his 15th NHRA Championship. His nickname among several of the drivers, as well as several announcers within the sport of drag racing is "Brute Force", a nickname he earned by his dominating wins during his run of ten straight NHRA championships. Force, his daughters, Courtney, Ashley, and Brittany, and son-in-law Robert Hight are collectively known as "The First Family of Drag Racing".

Early life

Force was born to Harold and Betty Ruth Force in the Los Angeles suburb of Bell Gardens, California. As a child he lived in logging camps, Indian reservations, migrant farms, and trailer parks.  He survived childhood polio with therapy and perseverance of his mother and family. He played football in high school and attended Cerritos College.
John is one of six children. John has five siblings- Walker, Louie, Tom (now deceased), and Cindy Hem (married to Skip Hem) were all older than John. Dana (Baby Force) Marino is ten years younger than John. Walker and Cindy still live near John in Southern California. Walker Force and Louie Force have worked with John over the years, but Walker Force is the only sibling now working at JFR. Younger sister Dana (Marino) did not grow up in the same house or spend any time with the family in the early years of the Force Family Racing activities. Dana now attends some of the NHRA events as she is a part-time Intern-Journalist with "The Motorsports Report" based in Las Vegas, Nevada, and resides an hour south in Kingman, AZ. She is a realtor by trade, but is Aunt Dana to Adria, Ashley, Courtney and Brittany. Much of the family still attends NHRA National events to cheer on John, Robert Hight (Adria's husband), Brittany and Austin Prock (JFR Crew Chief Jimmy Prock's son) when the events are closer to their homes in Pomona, Las Vegas, Sonoma, and Phoenix.

1978–2004

In 1971, Force drove the Jack Chrisman-built Night Stalker Mustang, his first funny car.  Early in his career, he drove a Corvette, a Monza and then in the 1980s switched to an Oldsmobile Cutlass through the end of the 1993 season. He drove a Chevrolet for 1994, quickly changing to a Pontiac in 1995 and 1996. Force was a Ford driver and team owner from 1997 until 2014, when he returned to Chevrolet.

1985-Travel back in time to an era when John Force was trying to find his place in a drag racing world in Spokane, Wash., at the ADRA World Finals in the latter years of the old American Hot Rod Association. It was part of the syndicated Pro Drag Superstars series. Both Johnny West and John Force were tied at 1650 Points. John Force beat Johnny West in the finals with a time of 5.87 seconds at 252.10 miles per hour 1/4 mile run in the Coca-Cola Wendy's Funny Car. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SW-6Jk_gTgk

Between 1987 and 1996, Force won sixty-seven of 203 NHRA national events, four of nine Big Bud Shootouts, and six World Championships. In 1996, with Austin Coil tuning, Force went to the final round in sixteen of nineteen national events, taking thirteen wins, one of the best records ever in Funny Car history. His domination would continue, with ten NHRA FC World Championship wins from 1993 to 2002, including six straight 1997-2002; his success was so amazing, he was accused of cheating (and was willing to strip off his firesuit to prove he was not). Between 1997 and 2006, Force went to the final in 105 of 228 events and took sixty-one tour wins.  On top of that, he had ten of the quickest or fastest passes in Funny Car.

In 1992, the honor of putting Force on the trailer would go to Cruz Pedregon, driving the Larry Minor McDonald's-sponsored Olds to the championship.

Force's points finishes were 23rd, 8th, 26th, 16th, 20th, 4th, 13th, and 5th from 1978 to 1985. Force then had Castrol Motor Oil jump on as his main sponsor, and was even more successful. From 1986 to 1995, he finished 4th, 4th, 6th, 1st, 1st, 2nd, 1st, 1st, and 1st. He then had fellow driver and arch-rival Cruz Pedregon's younger brother, Tony, come aboard to drive John's 2nd car. From 1996 to 2000, John finished 1st all 5 years. In 2001, John had longtime friend and fellow drag racer Gary Densham drive a third car. In that same year, John once again finished as the champion, which he followed up with an astronomical 10th straight world title in 2002. In 2003, for the 1st time since 1992, John didn't win the title. It was not all lost however, because teammate Tony Pedregon won his 1st world title. At the end of the season, Tony Pedregon went on to join brother Cruz in their own racing organization, and Gary Densham went on to race independently. John found quick and personal talent in two young-guns. Eric Medlen, son of long-time JFR crewmember John Medlen, came on to race. John's other driver, Robert Hight, was his son-in-law and crewmember. Both had a lot of success in their season, but John topped both in 2004 with a 13th world title.

In 2000, Force was sponsored by BP's Castrol brand, continuing the relationship between Force and Castrol that began in 1985 and lasted through 2014. After winning his fourth Funny Car title in 1994, Force earned the nickname of "Brute Force" from drivers, and even announcers such as Steve Evans.  This nickname hearkens back to his early days on the track, when he drove his own unsponsored car, named "Brute Force".  Force had a cameo in a 2004 episode of King of the Hill ("Dale Be Not Proud"), in which Dale Gribble donates a kidney to Force, after which it appears he does not need it.

2005

In 2005, Force won 5 events, but only finished third in the championship standings, 32 points behind champion Gary Scelzi, and 24 points behind Ron Capps, both of Don Schumacher Racing [DSR].

2006

In 2006,  Force won his 14th NHRA World Funny Car Championship, defeating Capps in the quarter-finals of the Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals which mathematically eliminated Capps and teammate Robert Hight from the championship. Force went on to win the event, his third of the season and 122nd of his career.

2007

After the death of Eric Medlen, and John Force's crash in Ennis, Texas at the 2007 O'Reilly NHRA Fall Nationals,  Force started 2007 poorly, suffering a DNQ ending a 20+ year consecutive qualifying streak.  He rebounded, winning the O'Reilly NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals in Bristol, Tennessee, then proceeded on to three more final rounds, winning another race in Sonoma, California, putting him fourth in points and allowing him to make the first cut in NHRA's new point system, the Countdown to the Championship aka the "Countdown to Eight". He stumbled again in the next two races but, again, rebounded until his crash.

On September 23, 2007, Force was injured in a crash at the O'Reilly Auto Parts Fall Nationals in Ennis, Texas as he crossed the finish line against Kenny Bernstein. Bernstein's Funny Car drifted into Force's lane, clipping the final timing cone and a foam block which shot into Force's lane. Initially, it was thought that the block ruptured Force's left rear tire, causing it to come apart, violently shaking the chassis until it broke apart. However, it was determined by NHRA after a thorough review, that the block went behind Force's tire and was not the cause of the wreck. Injuries sustained were a broken ankle, abrasion of his right knee, a dislocated left wrist, and badly mangled fingers and toes, and Force had to be airlifted to Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas. Phil Burkart Jr. was added as Force's replacement for the remainder of the 2007 season, starting at Las Vegas.

2008

2008 was a subpar season for Force who finished 7th, out of the top five for the first time since early in his career. However, after the death of driver Scott Kalitta, he was instrumental in the development of some of the safety precautions that were implemented throughout the rest of the season, and along with retired six-time world champion Kenny Bernstein [4 Funny Car titles, 2 Top Fuel titles] and seven-time Top Fuel champion Tony Schumacher, with backing from NHRA's Track Safety Committee, assisted in developing a sensor that monitors the engines of Top Fuel dragsters and Funny Cars. Should the engine backfire at any time during a race, the fuel pump is automatically shut down, and the parachutes are deployed. The idea was to either minimize or eliminate the circumstances that led to Kalitta's death. This safety device became mandatory and was put into place at the start of the 2009 season. Also, a brake handle that, instead of needing to be pulled back toward the driver, was set up to be pushed away from the driver was made an optional setting for the Funny Car division. This change happened because when the 2008 season began, Force's right arm was still in a cast, due to broken fingers, and he needed a different way of using the brakes on the car, rather than the traditional handbrake that needed to be brought back toward the driver; also, in the 2007 accident in Texas, Force had lost some grip in his right hand, and had some problems putting enough pressure on the handbrake to unlock it from position to apply the brakes. This led to the development of the forward application handbrake, which has given several drivers in the Funny Car class quicker access to the brakes. Though Force only finished seventh in the points in 2008, he became influential within the NHRA for innovations in driver safety.

2009

2009 once again saw Force finish outside of the top five. John finished 9th, daughter Ashley finished 2nd, and Mike Neff placing 10th. However, he would win his 16th overall championship as a car owner, with teammate Robert Hight's championship, placing Force as the winningest car owner in NHRA history.

2010

The start of the 2010 season saw Force celebrate 25 years with the same sponsor, as well as 34 years in the NHRA. On February 14, Force won the season opener at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona in the 50th Winternationals in California defeating Ron Capps. After 13 events, Force had 4 wins, and lead the Funny Car points standings with 933, 58 ahead of teammate Robert Hight.

Going into the Auto Club of Southern California Finals in Pomona, CA on November 14, 2010, Force needed some help to win the championship. He started the day 38 points behind 28-year-old Matt Hagan, who ran for team rival Don Shumacher and his team. In order to capture the championship he needed to finish two rounds ahead of Hagan. With Bob Tasca III taking Hagan out in the first round, Force won his first round over Gary Densham and second-round win over Bob Bode, securing the championship. He then went on to victory beating Melanie Troxel in the semi-finals and in the final, defeated Jeff Arend. John Force now has the distinction of being the oldest NHRA champion in history. Long-time crew chief Austin Coil resigned from John Force Racing on November 16, 2010.

2011

As of February 7, 2011, JFR has already flip-flopped cars between John, Robert, Ashley, and Mike. Ashley Force Hood announced that she was expecting her 1st child, and would sit out the 2011 Full Throttle Drag Racing Season. John Force would drive Force Hood's new Ford Mustang with Dean Antonelli and Ron Douglas tuning, sponsored by Castrol Motor Oil. Robert Hight will remain in the Auto Club of Southern California Ford Mustang. Mike Neff, after co-crew chiefing John Force's car with Austin Coil, will drive Force's car from John's 2010 championship season. Neff's Ford Mustang will be sponsored by Castrol Oil. As of February 7, 2011, JFR started testing for the 2011 season. Out of the 11 testers so far, Force is 1st, Hight was 5th, and Neff was 6th.
As of July 31, Force is 7th in the points standings, while teammate Mike Neff is leading, and Robert Hight is in second.

2012

2012 saw John welcome a fourth driver to his stable, former Top Alcohol Dragster champion, and daughter Courtney, who was in the running for the Auto Club Rookie of the Year Award, she will be driving the Traxxas Ford Mustang in her rookie season, and she has done something that only sister Ashley has done, beat her father in the first meeting between the two, taking John out of the Arizona Nationals in Phoenix in just the first round. Although Force was unable to retain the championship, finishing in fifth, he saw Courtney win something he never did, the NHRA Road to the Future Rookie of the Year award, and Courtney's second-place finish in the season helped cement John Force Racing's legacy for several years to come.

2013

During the start of the 2013 season, Ashley announced her retirement from full-time competition, this left the Force team short a driver. Rather than find another driver to take Ashley's place within the Castrol GTX Funny Car, John did something he had never done before, field a Top Fuel car, with daughter Brittany behind the wheel. On July 26, 2013 it was announced that after the 2014 racing season Ford Motor Company would no longer be a part of John Force Racing. It was also announced that after the 2014 racing season, primary sponsor Castrol would be leaving JFR after a 29-year business relationship

During the penultimate race of the 2013 season, Force beat his daughter Courtney in the final round to win the race and his 16th NHRA Funny Car Championship.

2014

He won at the season opener in Pomona California as well wins in Norwalk Ohio & Seattle Washington as he would finish 2nd points.

2015

In 2015 John announced a partnership with Chevrolet. He competed in the 2015 racing season with a new sponsorship deal from Peak Antifreeze.

2016
Debuted the new Chevrolet Camaro SS body in May at the Kansas Nationals in Topeka Kansas. John won four races during the 2016 season at The Mile High Nationals at Bandimere Colorado, The Sonoma Nationals in Sonoma California, The Toyota Nationals in LasVegas Nevada and The Carolina Nationals in Charlotte NC. Finished the season fourth in Funny Car Championship points.

2017
John's daughter Brittany & Robert Hight both won the championship in Top Fuel & Funny Car respectively. Advance Auto Parts joined team, sponsoring Courtney Force and rest of JFR teams.

2018

Won at the Denver event for his only win of the season.

2019
On August 4, 2019, John Force won his 150th race at the Magic Dry Organic Absorbent NHRA Northwest Nationals in Seattle, Washington, edging out Ron Capps and breaking a 25 race winless streak, having last won in Colorado the year prior, also against Capps. John expressed extreme relief after winning, his first words to the camera being obscenities (which NHRA had to censor, as the broadcast was on network television). Force was not present in the winners' circle, having ridden his pitbike to the stands to watch Austin Prock, a driver on his Top Fuel team and son of a Force Racing mechanic, win his first race and was still celebrating with fans while Prock was being interviewed.

Force further celebrated the 2019 season by winning the U. S. Nationals.

Daughter Courtney Force retired from driving.

2020
He was the runner-up at the season opener in Pomona California but after 2 events he & his teams didn't run again in the 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic but would return in the following year.

2021
In his return after missing most of the previous year because of the COVID-19 pandemic he won 3 events. He won at the Charlotte 4 Wide, Epping, & Topeka events. At Dallas for the first time since 2018 John Force was set on fire in a crash that echoed his win in 1996 where his Castrol car caught fire at this track.

2022
He gained a win of the season at the 4-Wide Nationals in Charlotte, NC.

Achievements and awards

Championships
1984 AHRA Funny Car Champion
1985 ADRA Funny Car WORLD FINALS Champion
1990 NHRA Funny Car Champion
1991 NHRA Funny Car Champion
1993 NHRA Funny Car Champion
1994 NHRA Funny Car Champion
1995 NHRA Funny Car Champion
1996 NHRA Funny Car Champion
1997 NHRA Funny Car Champion
1998 NHRA Funny Car Champion
1999 NHRA Funny Car Champion
2000 NHRA Funny Car Champion
2001 NHRA Funny Car Champion
2002 NHRA Funny Car Champion
2003 NHRA Champion Owner (Tony Pedregon, Funny Car)
2004 NHRA Funny Car Champion
2006 NHRA Funny Car Champion
2009 NHRA Champion Owner (Robert Hight, Funny Car)
2010 NHRA Funny Car Champion
2013 NHRA Funny Car Champion
2017 NHRA Champion Owner (Brittany Force, Top Fuel)
2017 NHRA Champion Owner (Robert Hight, Funny Car)
2019 NHRA Champion Owner (Robert Hight, Funny Car)
2022 NHRA Champion Owner (Brittany Force, Top Fuel)

Achievements

 Selected as "Driver of the Year" for all of American motor racing in 1996 by a national panel of motorsports journalists, the first drag racer ever so honored.
 153 wins in 259 final rounds as of June 13, 2021 (first driver with 100 wins)
 First NHRA drag racer to achieve 1,000 career elimination round wins (1,000th win: first round, 2008 NHRA Midwest Nationals at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway near St. Louis, Missouri), where he defeated Ron Capps for the 1,000th round win.
 First driver to set an official NHRA Funny Car elapsed time under five seconds in the quarter mile (October 16, 1993, Texas Motorplex, 4.996).
 16-time NHRA champion driver, and 21-time champion owner.
 Ranked #2 on the NHRA Top 50 Drivers, 1951–2000, behind Don Garlits
 With daughter Ashley, first father/daughter pair to compete against each other, during the first round of the NHRA Southern Nationals in Atlanta in 2008, which saw Ashley win.
 Only driver to have won more than ten championships in his division, beating the record once held by retired NHRA Pro Stock Champion Bob Glidden, who had 10 championships
 Most event #1 qualifications in NHRA history, with 161 (as of May 15, 2021)
 Force received the Lee Iacocca Award at Bristol Dragway on June 19, 2012
 Most consecutive championship seasons - 10 (1993-2002)

Awards

He was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2008.

Driving Force

John was featured on A&E's reality show Driving Force with his wife (Laurie) and three of his daughters (Ashley, Courtney, and Brittany).

See also

 Ford Racing

References

Sources
Taylor, Thom.  "Beauty Beyond the Twilight Zone" in Hot Rod, April 2017, pp. 30–43.

External links

 NHRA COIN
 Interview with John Force
 The Truth about Force's crash and heat-treated funny car chassis
 Thinking Back To An Eye-Opening Day With John Force
 Pro file on  NHRA.com
 Driving Force website
 Driving Force profile

 Even at 65, he's still NHRA drag racing's driving Force - NBC Sports, Jerry Bonkowski, October 3, 2014

1949 births
Dragster drivers
Force family
Living people
NHRA drivers
Racing drivers from California
Sportspeople from Los Angeles County, California
People from Bell Gardens, California

John Force


In electronics, noise is a random fluctuation in an electrical signal. This happens in all electronic circuits. Noise made by electronic devices varies greatly. In communication systems, noise is an error or random disturbance of useful information in a communication channel.

The noise is the total of unwanted or disturbing energy from natural and sometimes man-made sources. Noise is usually distinguished from interference, such as deliberate jamming or other unwanted electromagnetic interference.

If a message is transmitted in a natural language (a series of letters which make sense), then it is more resistant to noise than a spoken language.

References

Electronics
Telecommunications

Noise (electronics)


Frankenstein is a superhero comic book series published by Dell Comics, based on the literary and movie character Frankenstein's monster. The book was part of a line of three superhero comics based on the Universal Monsters characters; the other two were Dracula and Werewolf.

Frankenstein lasted three issues, numbered 2-4 (Sept. 1966- March 1967). Issue #1 was a 1964 adaptation of the 1931 film. Art was by Tony Tallarico and Bill Fracchio.

Fictional biography
Created in 1866 by a reclusive scientist referred to only as "the Doctor" who endowed him with a superior intellect and the strength of fifty men, Frankenstein lay dormant for over a hundred years under the ruins of an abandoned castle near the large modern American metropolis of Metropole City. Upon awakening thanks to a convenient lightning bolt, he dons a lifelike rubber mask to hide the fact that his white-haired and black-browed head has pale green skin (the rest of his tall, muscular body has a Caucasian flesh tone) and takes the name "Frank Stone", a pseudonym inspired by a fallen chunk of masonry with the word "FRANK" engraved in it.

Befriending elderly millionaire philanthropist Henry Knickerbocker after rescuing him from a traffic accident (and who, by an amazing coincidence, is the son of a man who had been his long-dead creator's friend and business partner), when the old man dies from a heart attack he leaves his "nephew" Frank his vast fortune, allowing him the financial freedom to devotes his life to being a scarlet-suited superhero.

Only his devoted butler William knows his secret, although neighboring blond busybody (and journalist) Miss Ann Thrope suspects that handsome brown-haired playboy Frank Stone is really the secret identity of the crew cut and craggy-faced crimefighter Frankenstein and is constantly trying to prove it. His archenemy is the amazingly "Mini-Me"-like midget mad scientist Mr. Freek who likes to ride around on the shoulders of his huge and extremely powerful pet gorilla Bruto.  Another enemy was a sentient computer that brainwashed Frankenstein by turning him into a super-criminal.  He only broke out of his trance when his butler William hit him over the head with a large spanner.

The series was lampooned by Big Bang Comics with their own superhero character, Super Frankenstein.

References

External links
Frankenstein's entry at International Catalog of Superheroes
Frankenstein (1966) at Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived from the original on July 30, 2016.

Dell Comics titles
1966 comics debuts
1967 comics endings
Horror comics
Comics based on Frankenstein
Male characters in comics
Comics set in the 19th century
Dell Comics characters

Frankenstein (Dell Comics)


G.728 is an ITU-T standard for speech coding operating at 16 kbit/s. It is officially described as Coding of speech at 16 kbit/s using low-delay code excited linear prediction.

Technology used is LD-CELP, low-delay code excited linear prediction. Delay of the codec is only 5 samples (0.625 ms). The linear prediction is calculated backwards with a 50th order linear predictive coding filter. The excitation is generated with gain scaled VQ. The standard was finished in 1992 in the form of algorithm exact floating point code. In 1994 a bit exact fixed point codec was released. G.728 passes low bit rate modem signals up to 2400 bit/s. Also network signaling goes through. The complexity of the codec is 30 MIPS. 2 kilobytes of RAM is needed for codebooks. Mean opinion score for G.728 is 3.61.

The essence of CELP techniques, which is an analysis-by-synthesis approach to codebook search, is retained in LD-CELP. The LD-CELP however, uses backward adaptation of predictors and gain to achieve an algorithmic delay of 0.625 ms.

RealAudio 28.8 is a reduced-bitrate variant of this standard, using 15.2 kbit/s.

See also
List of codecs
Comparison of audio coding formats

References

External links
 ITU-T G.728 page
 C source code for G.728

Speech codecs
Audio codecs
ITU-T recommendations
ITU-T G Series Recommendations

G.728


A monster truck is a vehicle usually styled after a pickup truck. It is changed or purposely built with very big wheels and suspension. Monster trucks are used for competition and popular entertainment.

Usually, a monster truck show involves the truck crushing smaller cars under its huge tires.

Trucks

Monster truck


A lance is a pole weapon or spear used by a mounted warrior. The lance is longer, thicker and heavier than an infantry spear, and is not intended for throwing, or for quick thrusting. Lances did not have tips meant to break off or bend, unlike many throwing weapons of the spear and javelin family. They often had a vamplate, a small circular plate to prevent the hand sliding up the shaft upon impact.

The lance was longer than a spear, about 9–10 feet long. When charging the lance was carried under the arm (couched) using the weight of the horse and rider to push the lance tip into its intended target. It was a medieval shock and awe weapon (caused great fear) to have a number of mounted knights with lances charging towards you. In many cases it caused panic and the enemy fled the battle.

They were used by European knights, but the use of lances was spread over the Old World wherever horses were available. The use of the lance was made possible by the use of the stirrup added to saddles. It allowed the knight to control the horse and stand in the saddle. As a backup weapon, lancers (one who used a lance) of that period also carried swords, maces (a type of club) or something else suited to hand-to-hand (or close) combat, since the lance was often used only once during an event. It could not be used once the combatants were close to each other.

Related pages
 Spear

References

Weapons

Lance


Henry Dawson (1811–1878) was a British landscape painter.

Born in Kingston upon Hull, Dawson went with his parents to Nottingham when he was still an infant and always regarded the latter as his native town. His parents were poor, and he began life in a Nottingham lace factory. But even while engaged in lace-making he continued to find time for art, and used to paint small pictures, which he sold at first for about half-a-crown each. In 1835 he gave up the lace trade and set up as an artist, his earliest patron being a hairdresser in Nottingham, who possessed a taste for art. In 1844 he removed to Liverpool, where after a time he got into greater repute, and received higher prices for his works. In 1849 he came with his family to London, and settled at Croydon, where some of his best pictures were painted. Among these may be reckoned 'The Wooden Walls of Old England,' exhibited at the British Institution in 1853, 'The Rainbow,' 'The Rainbow at Sea,' 'London Bridge,' and ' London at Sunrise.'

With the exception of six lessons from Pyne received in 1838, Henry Dawson was entirely a self-taught artist, and his art shows much originality and careful realism. He studied nature for himself, but he seems in later life to have been moved by Turner's influence to try more brilliant effects than he had before dared. Many of his works indeed are very Turneresque in treatment, though he can scarcely be called an imitator of Turner, for he had a distinct style of his own.

Henry Dawson, though painting much, and selling his pictures for high prices in his later life, remained, strange to say, very little known except to artists and connoisseurs until the large and very interesting collection of his works that was made for the Nottingham Exhibition in 1878 brought him wider fame. This exhibition showed him to be a genuine English landscape painter, of no great imaginative or intellectual power, but who delighted in nature, and represented her faithfully to the best of his ability. He died in December 1878, at Chiswick, where he had for some time resided.

References

External links

1811 births
1878 deaths
English landscape painters
Artists from Kingston upon Hull
Artists from Nottingham
19th-century English painters
English male painters
19th-century English male artists

Henry Dawson (artist)


Second in Command is a 2006 American action film starring Jean-Claude Van Damme and directed by Simon Fellows. The film was released direct-to-DVD in the United States on May 2, 2006.

Plot
Commander Sam Keenan (Jean-Claude Van Damme), a decorated US Navy SEAL, is sent to the Eastern European nation of Moldavia to become the new security attaché at the US Embassy.

When he arrives, Keenan learns that Moldavia is in the middle of a civil war. At the embassy, Keenan meets with Ambassador George Norland (Colin Stinton), who designates Keenan as his "second in command" despite the traditional diplomatic hierarchy, which is contested by others afterward. Recently, the US installed a new government in Moldavia, which is led by Moldavia's newly elected president Yuri Amirev (Serban Celea). Amirev wants the nation to be run as a democratic republic, but under the command of Anton Tavarov (Velibor Topić), communist insurgents have caused a riot at the presidential palace, threatening the fragile stability of the country. The insurgents are loyal to Alexei Kirilov (Costel Lupea), the former brutal communist dictator of Moldavia.

When the palace guards start firing on the insurgents without Amirev's authorization, the insurgents storm the palace, demanding Amirev's head. Keenan volunteers to bring Amirev to the embassy. But events reach critical mass, and the insurgents open fire. Keenan barely makes it back with Amirev, but the fight isn't over yet. Fifty Americans are holed up in the embassy, and Tavarov and his massive army have arrived at the gates, with plans to crash the building and drag Amirev out by any means necessary. To add to Keenan's problems, Norland is killed by a rocket that was launched by one of Tavarov's men.

To defend the embassy, Keenan has only 15 Marines, CIA bureaucrat Frank Gaines (William Tapley), limited ammunition, and his martial arts skills to hold Tavarov's army off until American reinforcements arrive. To make matters worse, Keenan's girlfriend, reporter Michelle Whitman (Julie Cox), is one of the hostages. With Tavarov's crew getting in position for attack, a power struggle takes place between Keenan and Gaines; with help hours away, it will be up to Keenan to rescue the hostages.

When the supposedly loyal General Borgov (a personal CIA "asset" claimed by Gaines) arrives, he turns out to side with the insurgents but Keenan rescues the surviving personnel with help from arriving American military reinforcements.

Cast

 Jean-Claude Van Damme as Commander Sam Keenan
 Julie Cox as Michelle Whitman
 Alan McKenna as Captain John Baldwin
 William Tapley as Frank Gaines
 Raz Adoti as Gunnery Sergeant Earl Darnell
 Velibor Topić as Anton Tavarov
 Warren Derosa as Mike Shustec
 Ian Virgo as Corporal Will Butler
 Șerban Celea as President Yuri Amirev
 Vlad Ivanov as Regional Security Officer John Lydon
 Emanuel Pârvu as Corporal Chevantón
 Răzvan Oprea as Private First Class Devereaux
 Mihai Bisericanu as Marshall Geller
 Elizabeth Barondes as Jennifer Lennard
 Colin Stinton as Ambassador George Norland
 Dan Rădulescu as Private First Class Pazzini
 Cătălin Paraschiv as Private First Class Burke
 Eugen Cristea as General Borgov
 Costel Lupea as President Alexei Kirilov

Production
It is set and filmed in Bucharest, Romania in 50 days on June 7 and July 27, 2005.

Reception
The film opened in the 24th place with $1.04 million in the rentals chart.

David Nusair of Reel Film Reviews gave it 1.5 out of 4. He said that after Van Damme's surprisingly decent previous film Wake of Death it was hard not to be disappointed and criticized the "astonishingly inept directorial choices".

Home media
DVD was released in Region 1 in the United States on May 2, 2006. It was released in Region 2 in the United Kingdom on 15 May 2006. It was distributed by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

References

External links

2006 films
2006 action thriller films
2006 direct-to-video films
American action thriller films
American political thriller films
Films about the United States Marine Corps
Films about United States Navy SEALs
Films produced by Donald Kushner
Films set in Europe
Films set in a fictional country
Films shot in Bucharest
Films shot in Romania
Political action films
Sony Pictures direct-to-video films
2000s English-language films
Films directed by Simon Fellows
2000s American films

Second in Command


Oriana Fallaci (29 June 1929 - 15 September 2006) was an Italian journalist, author, and political interviewer. A young partisan during World War II, she had a long and successful journalistic career.

She has interviewed many internationally known leaders and celebrities such as the Dalai Lama, Henry Kissinger, the Shah of Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini, Willy Brandt, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Walter Cronkite, Omar Khadafi, Federico Fellini, Sammy Davis Jr, Nguyen Cao Ky, Yasser Arafat, Indira Gandhi, Alexandros Panagoulis, Archbishop Makarios III, Golda Meir, Nguyen Van Thieu, Haile Selassie and Sean Connery.

After retirement, she returned to writing a series of articles and books critical of Islam and Arabs and some people interpreted the articles under the guise of racism and so-called Islamophobia.

Life and career
Fallaci was born in Florence, Italy. During World War II, she joined the resistance in the democratic armed group "Giustizia e Libertà". Her father Edoardo Fallaci, was a famous antifascist political activist, in Florence.

Fallaci began her journalistic career in her teens, becoming a special correspondent for the Italian paper Il mattino dell'Italia centrale in 1946. After 1967 she worked as a war correspondent, in Vietnam, for the Indo-Pakistani War, in the Middle East and in South America. For many years, Fallaci was a special correspondent for the political magazine L'Europeo and wrote for a number of leading newspapers and Epoca magazine. During the 1968 Tlatelolco massacre prior to the 1968 Summer Olympics, Fallaci was shot three times, dragged down stairs by her hair, and left for dead by Mexican forces. The demonstrations by immigrants in the United States these past few months "disgust" her, especially when protesters displayed the Mexican flag. "I don't love the Mexicans," Fallaci said, invoking her nasty treatment at the hands of Mexican police in 1968. "If you hold a gun and say, 'Choose who is worse between the Muslims and the Mexicans,' I have a moment of hesitation. Then I choose the Muslims, because they have broken my balls."

In the late 1970s, she had an affair with the subject of one of her interviews, Alexandros Panagoulis, who was a big rebel in the Greek resistance against the 1967 dictatorship, having been captured, heavily tortured and imprisoned for his (unsuccessful) assassination attempt against dictator and ex-Colonel Georgios Papadopoulos. In 1972 she interviewed  Henry Kissinger.

Fallaci has twice received the St. Vincent Prize for journalism, as well as the Bancarella Prize (1971) for Nothing, and So Be It; Viareggio Prize (1979), for Un uomo: Romanzo; and Prix Antibes, 1993, for Inshallah.  She received a D.Litt. from Columbia College (Chicago). She has lectured at the University of Chicago, Yale University, Harvard University, and Columbia University. Fallaci's writings have been translated into 21 languages including English, Spanish, French, Dutch, German, Greek, Swedish, Polish, Croatian, Hungarian and Slovenian.

Fallaci, smoked always during her life, died on 15 September 2006 where she was born, in Florence, from lung cancer.

Bibliography
The Seven Sins of Hollywood 1958.
The Useless Sex: Voyage around the Woman 1961.
Penelope at War 1962.
Limelighters 1963.
The Egotists: Sixteen Surprising Interviews 1968.
Quel giorno sulla Luna 1970.
Interview With History, (a collection of interviews with various political figures) 1976.
A Man, a novel about a hero who fights alone for freedom and for truth, never giving up, and so he dies, killed by all. 1979
Inshallah,1983.
If the Sun Dies, (about the US space program).
Letter to a Child Never Born, (a dialogue between a mother and her unborn child).
Nothing, and so be it, report on the Vietnam war based on personal experiences.
The Rage and The Pride (An expose on Islam) December 2001..
The Force of Reason (La Forza della Ragione ) April 2004.
Oriana Fallaci intervista Oriana Fallaci, Fallaci interviews herself on the subject of "Eurabia" and "Islamofacism".August 2004.
Oriana Fallaci intervista sé stessa - L'Apocalisse. An update of the interview with herself. November 2004.

1929 births
2006 deaths
Italian journalists
Writers from Florence

Oriana Fallaci


North Pole is a city in Alaska. It is hundreds of miles from the actual North Pole, which is in an area that is very cold and very hard to get to. The town of North Pole is about  from Fairbanks, the only big city in the Interior of Alaska. At first it was just a small settlement called "Davis" with a stop on the Alaska Railroad. The first people to form a local government there decided to call it North Pole. Soon a trading post that had been opened there became a Christmas themed shop called the Santa Claus House and was a big attraction for tourists who came to Alaska. The city's mayor pro tem is city council member Santa Claus.

References

Cities in Alaska

North Pole, Alaska


The Pan-Arab colors are black, white, green, and red. Individually, each of the four Pan-Arab colors were intended to represent a certain Arab dynasty, or era.

There are four Pan-Arab colors: white, red, green, and black. Historically, each of the three represents an era or a dynasty in the Arabic world. The representations are as follows:
 The Rashidun Caliphate, the Abbasid Caliphate, as well as the banner of Muhammad are all represented by the black color.
 The white color was representative of the Umayyad Caliphate while the Fatimid Caliphate was represented by green.
 Lastly, the red color was used by the Hashemites, the Ottoman Empire, and the Khawarij.

Origin And History
The origin of the colors goes all the way back to the 14th century during the time of an Iraqi poet known as Safi Al-Din Al-Hilli. In one of his poems, there is a line that makes reference to the four colors. The line talks about white representing the acts of people, the black representing their struggles, the green standing for the fields where these struggles are fought on, while the red is for swords.

The very first time these colors were used together was back in 1916 when the flag of the Arab Revolt was designed. The flag was a simple design involving three stripes of black, green, and white from the top respectively. The red color is in the shape of a triangle originating from the left side. Presently, there are several flags that utilize these colors. These flags include those of nations and regions such as Jordan, Palestine, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, and the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. The brief union that was known as the Arab Federation of Iraq and Jordan also had a flag that used the colors.

The Arab Liberation Colors
The Pan-Arab colors continued to be used for a while until the onset of the 1950s. From there onward, the Arab Liberation colors started becoming more popular and eventually replaced the Pan-Arab ones. The new colors were almost the same as the old ones with a slight difference. In the new scheme, the flag featured three bands of white, black, and red. The green was not eliminated but it was given much less prominence compared to previous designs. Under the new flag, the colors adopted a different meaning altogether. The black now stood for past foreign oppressors, the red symbolized the bloody sacrifices made, and the white was representative of a bright future full of hope.

The inspiration for these new colors can be traced back to the Arab Liberation flag that was in use during the 1952 Egyptian Revolution (also called the July 23 revolution). The revolution was led by two army officers, namely Gamal Abdel Nasser and Mohammed Naguib, who wanted to do away with the reign of King Farouk. The new colors appear today in several flags. These flags include those of Egypt, Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Iraq, and Yemen. Even before Yemen merged, the rival states that made up the larger Yemen, North and South Yemen, both had the colors in their respective flags. There were also Arab unions that did not last very long but had the Arab Liberation colors. These unions were the Federation of Arab Republics and the United Arab Republic.

Arab world
Flags of Asia
Middle East
National flags

Pan-Arab colors


Year 1500 (MD) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The year 1500 wasn't a leap year in the Proleptic Gregorian calendar.

The year was seen as being especially important by many Christians in Europe, who thought it would bring the beginning of the end of the world. Their belief was based on the phrase "half-time after the time", when the apocalypse was due to occur, which appears in the Book of Revelation and was seen as referring to 1500. This time was also just after the Old World's discovery of the Americas in 1492, and therefore was influenced greatly by the New World.[1]

Historically, the year 1500 is also often identified, somewhat arbitrarily, as marking the end of the Middle Ages and beginning of the Early Modern Era.

The end of this year marked the halfway point of the 2nd millennium, as there were 500 years before it and 500 years after it.

Events
 Europe's population was about 60 million.
 January 5 – Duke Ludovico Sforza recaptures Milan, but is soon driven out again by the French.
 January 26 – Vicente Yáñez Pinzón becomes the first European to discover Brazil.
 April 21 – Portuguese navigator Pedro Álvares Cabral officially discovers Brazil and claims the land for Portugal.
 November 11 – Treaty of Granada – Louis XII of France and Ferdinand II of Aragon agree to divide the Kingdom of Naples between them.
 Emperor Go-Kashiwabara ascends to the throne of Japan.
 Battle of Hemmingstedt: The Danish army fails to conquer the peasants' republic of Dithmarschen.
 Second Battle of Lepanto – The Turkish fleet of Kemal Re'is defeats the Venetians.  The Turks proceed to capture Modon, Lepanto, and Koron.
 The Luo, a Nilotic people from modern Sudan, settle the Cwezi states, establishing the state of Buganda. (approximate date)
 Diogo Dias is the first European to see Madagascar.

1500


A text file is a computer file structured as a sequence of lines of electronic text. Each line is a sequence of printable characters.
They can be opened and edited with Wordpad, Notepad, and other text editors. Text files usually contain plain text and not binary data. Whether it be a story, recipe, or even directions to Grandma's house, you can put it in a text file.
When text is stored with Microsoft Word or LibreOffice Writer the file is no more called a text file, but a word processor file or document file.

Text files are commonly encountered with an extension of .doc, .txt, and many others, depending on the software and hardware you choose.

Computer file formats

Text file


Lu Xiangxian (陸象先) (665–736), né Lu Jingchu (陸景初), formally Duke Wenzhen of Yan (兗文貞公), was an official of the Chinese Tang Dynasty and Wu Zetian's Zhou Dynasty, serving as a chancellor during the reigns of Emperor Ruizong and Emperor Xuanzong.

Background
Lu Jingchu was born in 665, during the reign of Emperor Gaozong.  His father Lu Yuanfang would eventually serve as chancellor twice during the reign of Emperor Gaozong's wife Wu Zetian.  It was said that in his youth, Lu Jingchu was both capable and modest, and after he passed the imperial examinations, was made an officer at Yang Prefecture (揚州, roughly modern Yangzhou, Jiangsu).  After his term was complete, he was set to be promoted.  At that time, both Ji Xu and his father Lu Yuanfang were deputy ministers of civil service affairs in charge of selecting officials.  Ji selected Lu Jingchu to be the sheriff of Luoyang County—not formally a particularly highly placed post but in actuality a highly regarded one, as Luoyang was the capital at the time—and Lu Yuanfang, out of modesty, initially tried to decline on Lu Jingchu's behalf.  Ji responded, "It is fair to select officials who are capable.  Lu Jingchu is capable and elegant, and common people cannot compare to him.  I am not recommending him out of the fact that he is the son of a deputy minister of civil service affairs."  Ji went ahead with the recommendation, and Lu Jingchu was made the sheriff of Luoyang County.  Lu Jingchu later served as an imperial censor, and then Zhongshu Shilang (中書侍郎), the deputy head of the legislative bureau of government (中書省, Zhongshu Sheng).

During Emperor Ruizong's second reign
In 710, during the reign of Emperor Gaozong's and Wu Zetian's son Emperor Ruizong, Lu Jingchu was made the deputy minister of defense (兵部侍郎, Bingbu Shilang), and it was said that with him and Lu Huaishen serving in that capacity, assisting the minister Yao Yuanzhi, the military officers' promotion system, which was highly damaged by the irregular reign of Emperor Ruizong's brother Emperor Zhongzong (705-710), was repaired.

In 711, Emperor Ruizong's powerful sister Princess Taiping was set to recommend her lover, the official Cui Shi, as chancellor.  Cui admired Lu Jingchu greatly, and therefore asked to be promoted along with him.  When she initially declined to recommend Lu, Cui responded that he would not dare to be chancellor unless Lu was as well.  She therefore recommended both.  Thereafter, Lu was given the designation Tong Zhongshu Menxia Pingzhangshi (同中書門下平章事), making him a chancellor de facto, and was also put in charge of editing imperial histories.  However, despite the fact that Princess Taiping recommended him, Lu was not considered part of her faction, and while other chancellors often tried to ingratiate her, he did not.  Sometime during Emperor Ruizong's reign, Emperor Ruizong changed his name to Xiangxian, citing that the name had the meaning of "elaborating on ancestors' virtues."

During Emperor Xuanzong's reign
In 712, Emperor Ruizong passed the throne to his son Li Longji the Crown Prince (as Emperor Xuanzong) -- who was initially made crown prince despite his not being the oldest son or born of Emperor Ruizong's deceased wife Empress Liu—because Li Longji was instrumental in his return to the throne in 710, having, along with Princess Taiping, started a coup against Empress Wei, Emperor Zhongzong's wife, after Emperor Zhongzong's sudden death in 710.  Princess Taiping, finding the new emperor to be difficult to control, advised Emperor Ruizong to continue to wield imperial power as Taishang Huang (retired emperor), and Emperor Ruizong did so.

By 713, the conflict between Princess Taiping and Emperor Xuanzong were coming to a head, and Princess Taiping and her partisans were said to be plotting to depose or kill Emperor Xuanzong and replace him with his older brother Li Chengqi the Prince of Song.  She told the chancellors that Li Chengqi was both older and born of Empress Liu and should not have been replaced by a younger brother who was not born of Empress Liu.  Lu rebuffed her, however, pointing out that Emperor Xuanzong was made emperor on account of his accomplishments, and that unless he had public faults, he should not be deposed.  Princess Taiping did not listen to him, and continued plotting against Emperor Xuanzong.  Late in 713, Emperor Xuanzong acted first, using force to kill a number of her associates and forcing her to commit suicide.  Emperor Ruizong yielded imperial powers to Emperor Xuanzong and thereafter was not involved in important decisions any more.  Among the ones killed were several chancellors she recommended—Cui, Dou Huaizhen, Xiao Zhizhong, and Cen Xi.  Initially, Lu was set to be executed as well, but Emperor Xuanzong, knowing that he was not actually a member of Princess Taiping's faction, commented to him, "Only in the cold can one tell that the pine and the cypress are evergreens."  He further created Lu the Duke of Yan, gave him the honorific title Yinqing Guanglu Daifu (銀青光祿大夫), and initially had him remain as a chancellor.  When Emperor Ruizong heard of the incident, he climbed up the tower at Chengtian Gate (承天門) to try to figure out what was happening, and stated to the officials who gathered, "If you will help me, stay.  Otherwise, go."  A number of officials stated their names and swore loyalty to Emperor Ruizong—an act that greatly displeased Emperor Xuanzong.  He gathered the names and asked Lu to arrest these officials, but Lu burned the list, drawing Emperor Xuanzong's anger.  Lu responded:

Emperor Xuanzong realized the wisdom in what Lu is doing and praised him.  It was said that Lu saved many people accused of being part of Princess Taiping's faction at the time, but did not speak of it, and his actions were not known at that time.

Later in the year, Lu was removed from his chancellor post and made the secretary general at Yi Prefecture (益州, roughly modern Chengdu, Sichuan), as well as the examiner of the Jiannan Circuit (劍南道, roughly modern Sichuan, Yunnan, and Chongqing).  While Lu served at Yi Prefecture, he was known for his lenience and kindness.  His subordinate Wei Baozhen (韋抱真) once complained that he was being overly lenient and that the people would not respect him, but he responded:

At a later point, Lu was made the mayor of Hezhong Municipality (河中, roughly modern Yuncheng, Shanxi).  In 718, when Hezhong Municipality was disbanded and converted back into Pu Prefecture (蒲州), Lu remained prefect of Pu Prefecture and also made the examiner of Hedong Circuit (河東道, roughly modern Shanxi).  It was said that Lu's governance was simple and lenient at Pu Prefecture as well.  On one occasion, a minor official committed an error, and Lu rebuked him.  A higher ranked subordinate of Lu's suggested that the minor official be caned, but Lu declined, stating, "The emotions of every human are similar.  If you think caning is proper, perhaps I should start with you."  Another famous saying of Lu's was:

(The first two sentences of this quote was eventually simplified and turned into the idiom tianxia ben wushi, yongren zi raozhi (天下本無事, 庸人自擾之).)

Lu was later recalled to serve as Taizi Zhanshi (太子詹事), the head of the household of the crown prince Li Siqian, and yet later served as the minister of public works (工部尚書, Gongbu Shangshu).  In 722, he was put in charge of selecting officials at the ministry of civil service affairs, and was further made the minister of justice (刑部尚書, Xingbu Shangshu).  He later left public service for a time to observe a mourning period for his stepmother's death.  In 725, he returned to public service, to serve as the prefect of Tong Prefecture (同州, roughly modern Weinan, Shaanxi), and was soon made an advisor to the crown prince.  He died in 736.

Notes and references

 Old Book of Tang, vol. 88.
 New Book of Tang, vol. 116.
 Zizhi Tongjian, vols. 210, 211, 212.

Chancellors under Emperor Ruizong of Tang
Chancellors under Emperor Xuanzong of Tang
Tang dynasty historians
8th-century Chinese historians
Mayors of Yuncheng
665 births
736 deaths

Lu Xiangxian


The Château de Montgeoffroy is an 18th-century manor house located in the commune of Mazé (Maine-et-Loire), France.

History
In 1676, Érasme de Contades acquired the property. In 1772, Marshal Louis Georges Érasme de Contades, governor of Alsace, decided to rebuild the château as a retirement home. He called on the Parisian architect Jean-Benoît-Vincent Barré, who worked with the local architect Simier.

The marshal being far from Anjou, the work was directed primarily by his son, le marquis de Contades, his daughter-in-law, Julie Constantin de Marans, his mistress, Hélène Hérault, and her daughter-in-law, Marie-Marguerite Magon de La Lande. It took three years.

The old château was burned down, but Barré appreciated its U shape and kept two towers and the moat, as well as the chapel, which dated from 1543.

The building miraculously survived the French Revolution and the Revolt in the Vendée conserving its common buildings, agricultural structures, chapel, and park. It also kept its archives and its furniture, which was studied by Pierre Verlet.

External links

 History and description

Montgeoffroy
Historic house museums in Pays de la Loire
Museums in Maine-et-Loire

Château de Montgeoffroy


Sosigenes the Peripatetic was a philosopher who lived in the 2nd century AD. He followed the Aristotelian school of thought, and was one of the first people to write interpretations and commentaries to Aristotle's work.

He was the tutor of Alexander of Aphrodisias, and wrote a work On Revolving Spheres. On 4th September 164 AD, he watched an 'annular' solar eclipse. He noticed that, unlike a total solar eclipse, the apparent size of the moon was smaller than that of the sun. This meant the distances between the sun, moon and earth were not the same at different eclipses. For this reason, sun and moon could not be on a circular movement around the same centre.

This was a significant discovery. It pinpointed a difficulty with the theory that the earth was the centre of the known universe. Much later, Nicolaus Copernicus used the same idea when he proposed a heliocentric view. In this view, the earth, moon and the planets rotate around the sun, which does not move.

Ancient Greek astronomers

Sosigenes the Peripatetic


J. J. Johnson (January 22, 1924 – February 4, 2001), born James Louis Johnson and also known as Jay Jay Johnson, was an American jazz trombonist, composer and arranger.

Johnson was one of the earliest trombonists to embrace bebop.

Biography

Big bands
After studying the piano beginning at age 9, Johnson decided to play trombone at the age of 14. In 1941, he began his professional career with Clarence Love, and then played with Snookum Russell in 1942. In Russell's band, he met the trumpeter Fats Navarro, who influenced him to play in the style of the tenor saxophonist Lester Young. Johnson played in Benny Carter's orchestra between 1942 and 1945, and made his first recordings in 1943 under Carter's leadership, recording his first solo (on "Love for Sale") in October 1943. In 1944, he took part in the first Jazz at the Philharmonic concert, presented in Los Angeles and organized by Norman Granz. In 1945, he joined the big band of Count Basie, touring and recording with him until 1946.

Bebop
While the trombone was featured prominently in dixieland and swing music, it fell out of favor among bebop musicians, largely because instruments with valves and keys (trumpet, saxophone) were believed to be more suited to bebop's often rapid tempos and demand for technical mastery. In 1946, bebop co-inventor Dizzy Gillespie encouraged the young trombonist's development: "I've always known that the trombone could be played different, that somebody'd catch on one of these days. Man, you're elected."

After leaving Basie in 1946 to play in small bebop bands in New York clubs, Johnson toured in 1947 with Illinois Jacquet. During this period, he also began recording as a leader of small groups featuring Max Roach, Sonny Stitt and Bud Powell. He performed with Charlie Parker at the 17 December 1947 Dial Records session, following Parker's release from Camarillo State Mental Hospital.

In 1951, with bassist Oscar Pettiford and trumpeter Howard McGhee, Johnson toured the military camps of Japan and Korea, before returning to the United States and taking a day job as a blueprint inspector. Johnson admitted later he was still thinking of nothing but music during that time, and indeed, his Blue Note recordings as both a leader and with Miles Davis date from this period. Johnson's compositions "Enigma" and "Kelo" were recorded by Davis for Blue Note, and Johnson was part of the Davis studio session band that recorded the jazz standard "Walkin'" in 1954 (the title track of a Davis album issued by Prestige).

Jay and Kai
In 1954, producer Ozzie Cadena, then with Savoy Records, convinced Johnson to set up a combo with trombonist Kai Winding: the "Jay and Kai Quintet". The trombone styles and personalities of the two musicians, although very different, blended so well that the pairing, which lasted until August 1956, was a success both musically and commercially. They toured U.S. nightclubs and recorded numerous albums. The duo reunited again in 1958 for a tour of the UK, an Impulse! studio album in 1960 and, in 1968–1969, (two albums for CTI/A&M Records). In January 1967, Johnson and Winding were in an all-star line-up (alongside the likes of Clark Terry, Charlie Shavers and Joe Newman) backing Sarah Vaughan on her last sessions for Mercury Records, released as the album Sassy Swings Again, with three of the cuts, including Billy Strayhorn's "Take the "A" Train", being arranged by Johnson himself. The duo also made some jazz festival appearances in Japan in the early 1980s, the last shortly before Winding died in May 1983.

Solo career
Following the mid-1950s collaboration with Winding, J. J. Johnson began leading his own touring small groups for about three years, covering the United States, United Kingdom and Scandinavia. These groups (ranging from quartets to sextets) included tenor saxophonists Bobby Jaspar and Clifford Jordan, cornetist Nat Adderley, trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, pianists Tommy Flanagan and Cedar Walton, and drummers Elvin Jones, Albert "Tootie" Heath, and Roach. In 1957, he recorded the quartet albums First Place and Blue Trombone, with Flanagan, Paul Chambers and Roach. He also toured with the Jazz at the Philharmonic show in 1957 and 1960, the first tour yielding a live album, featuring Johnson and tenor saxophonist Stan Getz. In 1958–59, Johnson was one of three plaintiffs in a court case which hastened the abolition of the cabaret card system.

This period overlaps with the beginnings of Johnson's serious forays into Third Stream music (see below). Periods of writing and recording his music would alternate with tours demanding attention to his playing.

Following the six months he spent writing Perceptions (see below), Johnson entered the studio for a date with André Previn's trio (adding Johnson as the only horn). They recorded an entire album of the music of Kurt Weill, released as Andre Previn and J. J. Johnson Play 'Mack The Knife' and Other Kurt Weill Songs. In 1962, Johnson toured for a number of months with Davis' sextet of that year, which went unrecorded.

Johnson's 1963 album J. J.'s Broadway is an example of both his mature trombone style and sound, and his arranging abilities. Johnson's album Proof Positive (1964) was the last recording of his working band for over 20 years. Beginning in 1965, Johnson recorded a number of large group studio albums under his name, featuring many of his own compositions and arrangements. The late 1960s saw a radical downturn in the fortunes of many jazz musicians, and Johnson was consequently heard almost exclusively on big band-style studio records, usually backing a single soloist.

Composer
From the mid-1950s, but especially the early 1960s on, Johnson dedicated more and more time to composition. He became an active contributor to the Third Stream movement in jazz, (which included such other musicians as Gunther Schuller and John Lewis), and wrote large-scale works which incorporated elements of both classical music and jazz. He contributed his "Poem for Brass" to a Third Stream compilation titled Music for Brass in 1957, and composed a number of original works which were performed at the Monterey Jazz Festival in the late 1950s and early 1960s. In 1961, he composed a suite in six movements, titled Perceptions, with Gillespie as soloist. The First International Jazz Festival, held in Washington, D.C. in 1962, featured another extended work. In 1965, he spent time in Vienna to perform and record his Euro Suite with a jazz-classical fusion orchestra led by Friedrich Gulda. In 1968, a Johnson work titled "Diversions" was commissioned by the American Wind Symphony and performed.

Hollywood
Johnson moved to California to compose for cinema and television. During this period, he played almost no concerts, except in 1977 and 1982 in Japan, and in 1984 in Europe. Despite the low profile, he did record six albums as a leader between 1977 and 1984 (including a 1984 trombone duo album with Al Grey) and a few albums as a sideman, two with Basie, and on The Sting II soundtrack. During the California period he also played in the Cocoanut Grove orchestra of Sammy Davis, Jr. and the TV orchestra of Carol Burnett.

Return to performing
Johnson returned to performing and recording in November 1987, with an engagement at the Village Vanguard in New York City. Tours of the United States, Europe and Japan followed as well as a return engagement to the Vanguard in July 1988 which yielded two albums worth of material.

While touring Japan in December 1988, Johnson learned that his wife Vivian had suffered a bad stroke, which incapacitated her for the remaining three and a half years of her life. During this period Johnson cancelled all work, devoting his energy to caring for his ailing wife. After her death in 1991, he dedicated an album to her on Concord.

In 1992, Johnson married his second wife, Carolyn Reid, and he began actively performing once again. Following this second comeback in 1992, Johnson's contracts with a variety of record labels, including Verve and Antilles, resulted in five albums as a leader, from small groups to separate brass orchestra and string orchestra recordings, as well as sideman appearances with his leading disciple, trombonist Steve Turre, and the vocalist Abbey Lincoln. He earned several Grammy nominations during this period. He retired from active performing and touring in late 1996, after having performed his last concert at William Paterson College on November 10, 1996, then choosing to stay at his home in Indianapolis where he could indulge his passion of composing and arranging music with computers and MIDI.

Later diagnosed with prostate cancer, Johnson maintained a positive outlook and underwent treatment. He wrote a book of original exercises and études for jazz musicians, published later by Hal Leonard. A biography, titled The Musical World of J. J. Johnson, was published in 2000.

On February 4, 2001, he died by a self-inflicted gunshot wound. His funeral in Indianapolis drew jazz musicians, friends and family from around the country.

Influence
Johnson's work in the 1940s and 1950s demonstrated that the slide trombone could be played in the bebop style; as trombonist Steve Turre has summarized, "J. J. did for the trombone what Charlie Parker did for the saxophone. And all of us that are playing today wouldn't be playing the way we're playing if it wasn't for what he did. And not only, of course, is he the master of the trombone—the definitive master of this century—but, as a composer and arranger, he is in the top shelf as well."

Several of Johnson's compositions, including "Wee Dot", "Lament", and "Enigma" have become jazz standards.

From the mid-1950s onwards, Johnson was a perennial polling favorite in jazz circles, even winning "Trombonist of the Year" in DownBeat magazine during years he was not active. He was voted into the DownBeat Hall of Fame in 1995.

Discography

Bibliography
 The Musical World of J. J. Johnson by Joshua Berrett and Louis G. Bourgois (Rowman & Littlefield).
 Exercises and Etudes for the Jazz Instrumentalist by J. J. Johnson (Hal Leonard Corporation, February 1, 2002).

References

External links
 A tribute at trombone.org
 Trombone Page of the World
 Kai Winding site
 Album cover gallery

1924 births
2001 deaths
Musicians from Indiana
2001 suicides
20th-century American composers
20th-century American male musicians
20th-century trombonists
American jazz composers
American jazz trombonists
American music arrangers
Bebop trombonists
Hard bop trombonists
Third stream trombonists
Blue Note Records artists
RCA Victor artists
Savoy Records artists
Suicides by firearm in Indiana
Burials at Crown Hill Cemetery
American male jazz composers
Male trombonists
Musicians from Indianapolis
20th-century jazz composers
20th-century African-American musicians

J. J. Johnson


The Rök Runestone is a runestone. It has an inscription of about 760 runes, which is the longest known runic inscription in stone. It is on display at the church of Rök, a small village in the south of Sweden. It is considered the first piece of written Swedish literature and marks the beginning of the history of Swedish literature.

References

Norse mythology

Rök Runestone


A cascade is
a small splashing waterfall that tumbles down a mountainside in a series of steps.
a series of musical notes.
a series of events which follow each other rapidly, each of which triggers the next.

Cascade may also mean:

Places

North America
 Cascade Range, a mountain range on the west coast of North America
 Cascade Volcanoes, a grouping of volcanoes on the west coast of North America

Canada
 Cascade Mountain (Alberta), a mountain in the Bow River Valley of Banff National Park
 Cascade, British Columbia, aka Cascade Falls, a ghost town

United States
Communities
 Cascade, Colorado, an unincorporated town in El Paso County
 Cascade-Chipita Park, Colorado, a census-designated place
 Cascade, Idaho, a city in Valley County
 Cascade, Iowa, a city in Dubuque County and Jones County
 Cascade, Montana, a town in Cascade County
 Cascade, New Hampshire, a village within the town of Gorham and the city of Berlin
 Cascade, Seattle, Washington, a small neighborhood abutting downtown Seattle
 Cascade, Wisconsin, a village in Sheboygan County
 Cascade-Fairwood, Washington, a census-designated place in King County
 Cascade Locks, Oregon, a city in Hood River County
 Cascade Township, Michigan, a charter township of Kent County
 Cascade Township, Minnesota, in Olmsted County
 Cascade Township, Pennsylvania, in Lycoming County
 Cascade Valley, Washington, a census-designated place in Grant County

Other U.S. locations
 Cascade Highway (Washington), a portion of U.S. Route 2 through the northern Cascades in Washington
 Cascade Highway (Oregon), a portion of Oregon Route 213 running from Silverton to Stayton in Oregon
 Cascade Lakes, a collection of lakes in Oregon
 Cascade Mountain (New York), a mountain in Essex County of New York
 Cascade Park, a Lorain County Metropark in Elyria, Ohio
 Cascade Pass, a mountain pass in Washington
 Cascade Tunnel, a railroad tunnel near Everett, Washington
 Shasta Cascade, a region of northern California

Seychelles
 Cascade, Seychelles, a district in the Republic of Seychelles

Australia
 Cascade National Park, a national park in New South Wales

WALES, UK

Cascade, Rhymney Valley,

Technology
 Ablation cascade, a possible catastrophic orbital event
 Biochemical cascade, a consecutive series of chemical reactions
 Complement cascade or Complement system, a biochemical cascade in the immune system
 MAPK cascade, a process in the action of cancer genes
 Cascade reaction, a consecutive series of chemical reactions within a molecule
 Electron cascade or Electron avalanche, a process in physics
 Quantum cascade laser, a unipolar semiconductor laser
 Event cascade, a problem in event-driven computer programming
 Informational cascade, an economic theory
 Cascading failure, a failure in a system of interconnected parts
 Cascade (chemical engineering), a series of chemical processes
 Cascading rollback, multiple failure after a database rollback
 Cascading Style Sheets specifying the appearance of web information
 Fractional cascading, a data structuring technique for speeding up binary searches

Organizations
 Boise Cascade, an American pulp and paper company
 Cascade Bicycle Club, a non-profit organization and advocacy group, Seattle, Washington
 Cascade Brewery, a brewer in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
 Cascade College, a private college in Portland, Oregon
 Cascade Communications, a manufacturer of communications equipment
 Cascade Corporation, a manufacturer of Material Handling Equipment in Portland, OR
 Cascade Investments LLC, a private investments and holding company owned by Bill Gates
 Cascade Limited, a subsidiary of Pacific Century Cyberworks (PCCW), a Hong Kong telecommunications company
 Cascade Lacrosse, a sports manufacturer
 Cascade Collegiate Conference, a sports conference in the western United States
 Open CASCADE, a software development company with head office in France
 CASCADE, an EU-funded research project, targeting health risks in food

Music
 Cascade (album), an album by folk rock band Capercaillie
 "Cascade" (song), a single by Future Sound of London
 Cascade (band), a Japanese Visual Kei band
 Another name for German dance group Cascada

Other
 Cascade Club and Spa[Cascade Club and Spa], premium health club based in Bangkok Thailand
 Cascade converter, a type of motor-generator
 Cascade (juggling), a juggling pattern
 Resonance cascade, the event that started "The Black Mesa Incident" in the Half-Life game series.
 Cascade virus, a computer virus
 USS Cascade (AD-16), a United States Navy destroyer tender
 A variety of hops found in North America
 Kemble's Cascade, a pattern of stars
 A brand name of detergent by Procter & Gamble
 A variety of Seibel grapes
 Superencryption, or Cascading encryption, when an encrypted message is encrypted again

Related pages
 Cascades (disambiguation)
 Cascade Falls

Cascade


The scroll in art is an element of ornament and graphic design featuring spirals and rolling incomplete circle motifs, some of which resemble the edge-on view of a book or document in  scroll form, though many types are plant-scrolls, which loosely represent plant forms such as vines, with leaves or flowers attached.  Scrollwork is a term for some forms of decoration dominated by spiralling scrolls, today used in popular language for two-dimensional decorative flourishes and arabesques of all kinds, especially those with circular or spiralling shapes.

Scroll decoration has been used for the decoration of a vast range of objects, in all Eurasian cultures, and most beyond. A lengthy evolution over the last two millennia has taken forms of plant-based scroll decoration from Greco-Roman architecture to Chinese pottery, and then back across Eurasia to Europe. They are very widespread in architectural decoration, woodcarving, painted ceramics, mosaic, and illuminated manuscripts (mostly for borders).

In the usual artistic convention, scrolls "apparently do not succumb to gravitational forces, as garlands and festoons do, or oppose them, in the manner of vertically growing trees.  This gives scrolls a relentless power. Even if attached to walls, they are more deeply embedded in the architectural order than the festoon, which are fictitiously hanging on them."

Terminology
Typically in true scrolls the main "stem" lines do not cross over each other, or not significantly.  When crossing stems become a dominant feature in the design, terms such as interlace or arabesque are used instead.  Many scrolls run along a relatively narrow band, such as a frieze panel or the border of a carpet or piece of textile or ceramics, and so are often called "running scrolls", while others spread to cover wide areas, and are often infinitely expandible.  Similar motifs made up of straight lines and right angles, such as the "Greek key", are more often called meanders.

In art history, a "floriated" or "flower scroll" has flowers, often in the centre of the volutes, and a "foliated" or "leaf scroll" shows leaves in varying degrees of profusion along the stems.  The Ara Pacis scrolls are foliated and sparingly floriated, whilst those in the Dome of the Rock mosaics are profusely foliated with thick leaves forming segments of the stems.  As in arabesques, the "leaf" forms often spring directly from the stem without a leaf stalk in ways that few if any real plants do; these are generally derived from the ancient half-palmette motif, with the stem running along the bisected edge of the palmette.  Although forms are often based on real plants, especially the acanthus, vine, lotus and paeony, faithful representation is rarely the point of the design, as of these four only the vine is actually the sort of climbing plant with many stems and tendrils that scrolls generally represent.  Later Islamic and Chinese scroll decoration often included more flowers than European designs, whether classical or medieval (see below).

Scroll-forms containing animals or human figures are said to be "inhabited"; more often than not the figures are wildly out of scale with the plant forms.  Frequently, especially in spreading designs, an upright element imitating the main stem or flower-stalk of the plant appears as a central element protruding vertically from the base, again as in the Ara Pacis panel. This may be termed a "standard" but is not a necessary element; it gives the design a top and bottom, which may be appropriate for architecture or furniture, but many designs on textiles and pottery are intended to have no main orientation for the viewer. The standard was frequently depicted as a fanciful candelabra in grotesque designs, in which it is an important element, central to the composition.

Scrollwork in its strict meaning is rather different; the scroll is imagined as the curling end of a strip or sheet of some flat and wide material. It develops from strapwork, as the ends of otherwise flat elements, loosely imitating leather, metal sheets, or broad leaves rather than plant tendrils. Rather than the "profile" view displaying the spiral, the forms are often shown front on with the width of the strip seen.  It begins in the Renaissance, and becomes increasingly popular in Mannerist and Baroque ornament.

History
Continuous scroll decoration has a very long history, and such patterns were an essential element of classical and medieval decoration. The use of scrolls in ornament goes back to at least the Bronze Age; geometric scroll ornament has been found in the Palace of Knossos at Minoan Crete dating to approximately 1800 BC, perhaps drawing from even earlier Egyptian styles; there were also early examples in Mesopotamia.  Geometrical scroll patterns like the Vitruvian scroll are found very widely in many cultures, and probably often developed independently.

Plant-based scrolls were very widely used in Greek and Roman architectural decoration, spreading from them to other types of objects. They may have first evolved in Greek painted pottery, where their development can traced in the large surviving corpus.  In Europe Greco-Roman decoration, probably especially as seen in jewellery and floor mosaics, was adapted by the "barbarian" peoples of the Migration Period into interlace styles, often replacing the plant forms of the main scrolling stem with stretched and stylized animal forms. In Insular art the earlier interlace designs were partly replaced after Christianization by vine scrolls – a reference to John 15:1 "I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener" – and medieval European decoration in general evolved styles that combined the two.

Another expansion was to the East: "The practice of decorating facades in Chinese Buddhist caves with figures combined with leaf scrolls was derived in its entirety from provincial forms of Hellenistic architecture employed in Central Asia"; they appear in China from the 5th century.  The (Nelumbo nucifera) lotus flower was a symbol of Buddhism, and so very often included in these religious scroll designs from the 6th century on, which was to have a profound influence on Asian scroll designs, long after the religious significance had been largely or entirely forgotten, and in places where the actual lotus water plant was unknown.

It was several centuries before these designs were adapted by Chinese potters, via their earlier adoption in metalwork; indeed an isolated gilt-bronze cup with a vine scroll comes from the 5th-century Northern Wei, probably influenced by metalwork from the West, and more abstracted or geometrical scroll designs appear earlier in Chinese art. The paeony seems to have become very fashionable in China during the T'ang dynasty, and often replaced the lotus flower. By the Yuan dynasty plant scroll designs became very important in painted pottery.  In the Islamic world the external influences were initially mainly from their Byzantine and Sasanian predecessors, but later, especially after the Mongol conquests, from Chinese designs, especially in pottery, which themselves had developed from the original Buddhist importation to China.

Greco-Buddhist art, and direct luxury imports, brought scroll forms to India, for example to the great 1st century stupa at Amaravati in southern India, from where they spread to South-East Asia, with additional input from China.  There they often became very abstracted in pottery. Japan was heavily influenced by China. From the late medieval period onwards Chinese and Indian scrolling styles, and their Islamic cousins, were imported to Europe on pottery and textiles, reaching a peak of influence in the 18th-century.  In the Renaissance Europe had also revived interest in versions of its own classical styles that more strictly followed their originals.

Common types
In one common spreading type for wide areas, the basic form of the arabesque is a heart shape formed from two confronted volutes on stems, shown highlighted in green in the illustration. To this core are added any number of further volutes, above, below or to the sides. It is thus a motif which can be infinitely expanded to cover a surface of any size, and indeed this function of decorating plain surfaces, as a form of diaper, is its chief use. From the illustration it is clear that the form present on the Ara Pacis (drawing E) erected in Imperial Rome during the time of Augustus, that is to say during the 1st quarter of the 1st century AD, is unchanged in substance when compared with the form in the apse mosaic of San Clemente al Laterano in Rome dated c. 1200 (drawing C). The basic form appears unaltered during the intervening centuries, and indeed continued in use through the Renaissance and to the present day.

In other types the heart-shaped core is omitted, the scroll taking the form of an "S" with voluted ends, generally seen in confronted pairs, as in the mosaics of the Treasury of the Great Mosque of Damascus, Byzantine work of the 7th century.  This form is also encountered at the Treasury in Damascus, having a pair of volutes turned inwards towards the bowl. The form is generally used alone and does not sprout further volutes as generally does the core heart-shaped form.

Applications
Scrollwork (in the popular definition) is most commonly associated with Baroque architecture, though it saw uses in almost every decorative application, including furniture, metalwork, porcelain and engraving.  In Mannerism, strapwork forms often terminated in scrolls. Modern blacksmiths use scrolls in ornamental wrought-iron work gates and balustrades, and they have formed the basis of many wallpaper designs.

Applications of single scroll forms can be seen in the volutes at the head of an Ionic column, the carved scroll at the end of the pegbox on instruments in the violin family (resembling fiddleheads in nature), and the heads of many Western crosiers.

Scrollwork is a technique used in cake decorating. "Albeit a bit baroque, scrollwork lends a charmingly antique quality to the sides of a cake."  Scrollwork in wood may be made using a scroll saw.

Plant scrolls, Late antique to Early Medieval examples
Santa Maria Maggiore, Rome. Sides of the apse mosaic, c. 432.
Basilica di San Clemente, Rome, apse mosaic, c. 1200.
Lateran, Rome, chapel of Saints Rufinus & Secundus, apse mosaic, 4th century.
Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, Ravenna, mosaic in north lunette, c. 440.
Treasury of Great Mosque of Damascus, mosaics of external walls, 7th century.
Dome of the Rock Mosque, Jerusalem, mosaic in octagon, 691-2

Pattern  forms
 Vitruvian scroll

Notes

References
Rawson, Jessica, Chinese Ornament: The Lotus and the Dragon, 1984, British Museum Publications,

External links

Decorative arts
Visual motifs
Architectural elements
Ornaments
Ornaments (architecture)

Scroll (art)


In physics, polarity describes an attribute that can usually have two values:
 An electric charge has a polarity of either positive or negative.
 A voltage has a polarity, in that it could be positive or negative (with respect to some other voltage, such as the one at the other end of a battery or electric circuit).
 A magnet has a polarity, in that one end is the "north" and the other is the "south".
 The spin of an entity in quantum mechanics has a polarity - positive or negative.
 Polarized light has waves which all line up in the same direction.

Chemical polarity is a feature of chemical bonds, where two different atoms in the same molecule have different electronegativity.  As a result, the electrons in the bond are not shared equally by the two atoms. This causes an asymmetrical (polar) electric field.  Molecular covalent bonds can be described as polar or nonpolar. Entire molecules can also be described as polar.

References

Physics

Polarity


Bubbly Creek is a nickname for the South Fork of the Chicago River's South Branch. It is the border between the Bridgeport and McKinley Park community areas of the city. The nickname for the creek comes from gases that bubbled out of the riverbed due to the decomposition of blood and entrails that were dumped in the river in the early 20th century by local meatpacking businesses that surrounded the Union Stock Yards.

Author Upton Sinclair wrote an exposé called The Jungle, which was an unflattering portrait of the meat packing industry of America. In it, he wrote:
""Bubbly Creek" is an arm of the Chicago River, and forms the southern boundary of the Union Stock Yards; all the drainage of the square mile of packing-houses empties into it, so that it is really a great open sewer a hundred or two feet wide. One long arm of it is blind, and the filth stays there forever and a day. The grease and chemicals that are poured into it undergo all sorts of strange transformations, which are the cause of its name; it is constantly in motion, as if huge fish were feeding in it, or great leviathans disporting themselves in its depths. Bubbles of carbonic gas will rise to the surface and burst, and make rings two or three feet wide. Here and there the grease and filth have caked solid, and the creek looks like a bed of lava; chickens walk about on it, feeding, and many times an unwary stranger has started to stroll across, and vanished temporarily. The packers used to leave the creek that way, till every now and then the surface would catch on fire and burn furiously, and the fire department would have to come and put it out. Once, however, an ingenious stranger came and started to gather this filth in scows, to make lard out of; then the packers took the cue, and got out an injunction to stop him, and afterwards gathered it themselves. The banks of "Bubbly Creek" are plastered thick with hairs, and this also the packers gather and clean."

References

Rivers of Illinois

Bubbly Creek


An organ trio is a type of jazz band with three musicians. Usually a jazz organ trio consists of a Hammond organ player, a drummer, and either a jazz guitarist or a saxophone player.

Organ trios popular in the United States in the 1950s and 1960s. Organ trios usually performed jazz music that had influences from blues music. Organ trios are usually led by the organ player, who is called the leader of the trio.

History
Important organ trio leaders from the 1950s were organists such as  Jimmy McGriff, Jimmy Smith, and Jack McDuff. In the late 1960s, organist Larry Young had a jazz fusion style organ trio. In the 1970s, Tony Williams had a jazz fusion band called Lifetime which was an organ trio. In the 1990s and 2000s, organist Joey DeFrancesco is an organ trio leader.

Other meanings
The word "organ trio" is also used to refer to the type (or "genre") of music played by organ trios from the 1950s and 1960s. For example, a person might say "I want to listen to some organ trio music." This would usually mean that they want to listen to music by Jimmy McGriff, Jimmy Smith, Jack McDuff, or other well-known organ trio leaders.

Jazz music

Organ trio


Wu mey refer tae:

Places:
 Wu (region) (吳), a region in Cheenae, associatit wi:
 Wu Cheenese, a variety o spoken Cheenese spoken in the Wu region
 Wu (state), a state in the Wu region durin the Ware an Hairst Period
 Eastren Wu, also cried Kinrick o Wu or Sun Wu, a state in sootheastren Cheenae durin the Three Kinricks Period
 Wu (Ten Kinricks), ane o the kinricks durin the Five Dynasties an Ten Kinricks Period
 Wuyue, ane o the kinricks durin the Five Dynasties an Ten Kinricks Period

Fowk
 Wu (surname) (or Woo), several different Cheenese surnames
Wu Zixu, famous general in the Ware an Hairst period o Cheenese history
 Ta-You Wu (1907–2000), Cheenese-born pheesicist
 Chien-Shiung Wu (1912–1997), Cheenese-born pheesicist
 David Wu (1955–), a Unitit States Congressman frae Oregon
 Harry Wu (1937–), a human richts activist
 Jason Wu, Taiwanese Canadian fashion designer
Jason Wu, HORIZON Dancer, Renowned Mathematics Teacher
Tim Wu, a legal academic
Wu Wenjun (1919–), mathematician
Yi Wu (1912–1945), a memmer o Korea's imperial faimily
Wu Yi, Vice Premier o Cheenae
 Kevin Wu, better kent as KevJumba, YouTube celebrity
 Wu, eik-name o the sangster o alternative rock baund This Et Al
 Wu Qingyuan, better kent bi the Japanese pronunciation o his name, Go Seigen, leadin player o Go (gemme)
Chun Wu, past memmer o Fahrenheit 飛輪海 Fei Lun Hai(Taiwanese Baund), actor an Own 3 Fitness Zone in Brunei
 A nummer o Cheenese emperors
 Emperor Wu o Han, ane o the maist influential an important emperors o the Han dynasty
 Emperor Wu o Jin
 Emperor Wu o Liang
 Empress Wu (Wu Zetian) o the Zhou Dynasty
 Cao Cao, also kent as Emperor Wu o Wei
 Fictional fowk
 Mr. Wu, a character frae the TV series Deadwood
 Mr. Wu, a character referred tae in sangs bi George Formby

Wu mey also refer tae:
 Wú (negative), Zhaozhou's response tae the question: "Does a dug hae the Buddha-nature?"
 Wu-style taijiquan, also Wu/Hao style Taijiquan
 Wu, a kind o Cheenese shaman
 The Wu-Tang Clan, an American rap group wi themes based on Cheenese folk lore an martial airts movies
 Shen Gong Wu are feectional mystical artifacts frae the animatit series Xiaolin Showdown
 Wu wei, a principle o Taoism

Wu


In the fields of communications, signal processing, and in electrical engineering more generally, a signal is any time-varying quantity.

The concept is broad, and hard to define precisely.  Definitions specific to subfields are common. For example, in information theory, a signal is a codified message, i.e., the sequence of states in a communications channel that encodes a message. In a communications system, a transmitter encodes a message into a signal, which is carried to a receiver by the communications channel.  For example, the words "Mary had a little lamb" might be the message spoken into a telephone. The telephone transmitter converts the sounds into an electrical voltage signal. The signal is transmitted to the receiving telephone by wires; and at the receiver it is reconverted into sounds.

Examples of signals
 Motion.  The motion of a particle through some space can be considered to be a signal, or can be represented by a signal.  The domain of a motion signal is one-dimensional (time), and the range is generally three-dimensional.  Position is thus a 3-vector signal; position and orientation is a 6-vector signal.

 Sound.  Since a sound is a vibration of a medium (such as air), a sound signal associates a pressure value to every value of time and three space coordinates.  A microphone converts sound pressure at some place to just a function of time, using a voltage signal as an analog of the sound signal.

 Compact discs (CDs).  CDs contain discrete bits representing a sound signal, recorded at 44,100 samples per second.  Each sample contains data for a left and right channel, which may be considered to be a 2-vector (since CDs are recorded in stereo).

 Noise typically unwanted but not always.

References
Shannon, C. E., 2005 [1948], "A Mathematical Theory of Communication,"  (corrected reprint ), accessed Dec. 15, 2005. Orig. 1948, Bell System Technical Journal, vol. 27, pp. 379–423, 623-656.

Electronics
Electrical engineering
Telecommunications

Signal (electrical engineering)


Analog signature analysis is electronic component and circuit board troubleshooting technique which applies a current-limited AC sinewave across two points of an electronic component or circuit.

The resulting current/voltage waveform is shown on a signature display using vertical deflection for current and horizontal deflection for voltage. This unique analog signature represents the overall health of the part being analyzed. By comparing the signatures of known good circuit boards to those of suspect boards, faulty nets and components can be quickly identified.

Analog signature analysis relies on a change in electrical characteristics to detect problems on a circuit board.

See also
 ATE diagnostics
 Flying probe
 Power-off testing

Hardware testing
Nondestructive testing

Analog signature analysis


Sodium hypochlorite is an unstable compound composed of sodium and hypochlorite ions. It is stable in solution, though. It is light green and has the chemical formula NaClO (or NaOCl). It is a strong oxidizing agent. It is used to disinfect (kill bacteria) and as a bleach to remove stains from clothing. It is not good for cotton because the sodium hydroxide normally contained eats away the clothing fibers. It reacts with acids to produce chlorine.

Related pages
Potassium chlorate
Hypochlorite

Sodium compounds
Chlorine compounds

Sodium hypochlorite


Cape Fear Museum of History and Science is a museum located at 814 Market Street in downtown Wilmington in southeastern North Carolina. Founded in 1898, it is the oldest history museum in the state.

Museum scope
The Cape Fear Museum was founded in 1898 by the local chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy to preserve artifacts relating to the Civil War.  Today, it is owned and operated by New Hanover County New Hanover, North Carolina. The Museum moved to its current location in 1970.  The Museum's building is a combination of an historic structure—a 1930s Works Progress Administration armory—and a 1990s expansion.

The museum has a collection of more than fifty two thousand artifacts, the vast majority of which are in storage.  The Museum currently collects artifacts relating to the history, science, and cultures of the Lower Cape Fear, defined as a 50-mile radius around the city of Wilmington. In addition to New Hanover, the adjacent counties are Brunswick and Pender. The extended region encompasses portions of Columbus, Bladen, Sampson, Duplin, and Onslow counties.

Exhibits
On the first floor of the Museum, visitors can explore The Michael Jordan  Discovery Gallery which examines the region's ecosystems.  There are natural history displays, with a section on native plants and wildlife in the region, such as deer,  beavers, foxes, a woodpeckers, and the unique Venus flytrap carnivorous plant.  The weather is also discussed.

There is a small exhibit on Michael Jordan, the basketball superstar from Wilmington.
Visitors can also see a Simmons Sea-skiff, a locally built boat in the lobby.  And, castings of the bones of a Giant Ground Sloth are on display.

The lobby also includes the "Arrivals" exhibit which showcases the varied ways people experienced arriving in the Lower Cape Fear over time.  The Museum's main exhibit, Cape Fear Stories starts on the first floor.  The first section of the exhibition, Land of the Longleaf Pine, examines the history of the region from the first inhabitants through the American Revolution.  The exhibits then explore the 19th century, including the American Civil War, and, after visitors go upstairs, they can learn about the history of the racial violence that wracked the city in 1898, about segregation, and learn some of the region's 20th century stories.

The Museum also hosts traveling exhibits and temporary exhibits.  Currently (August 2015) the Museum's temporary exhibits were all researched, curated, designed and fabricated by the Museum's staff.  The exhibits are Reflections in Black and White, and Make it Work, an exhibit about simple machines and maritime work  An in-house exhibit on Smoking is on display in the Collections Selection space.

References

External links
 Cape Fear Museum website

History museums in North Carolina
Natural history museums in North Carolina
Science museums in North Carolina
Buildings and structures in Wilmington, North Carolina
Museums in New Hanover County, North Carolina
Museums established in 1898
1898 establishments in North Carolina
Institutions accredited by the American Alliance of Museums

Cape Fear Museum of History and Science


Bacchus was the Roman god of agriculture, wine and fertility, equivalent to the Greek god Dionysus. Dionysus was said to be the last god to join the twelve Olympians. Supposedly, Hestia gave up her seat for him. His plants were vines and twirling ivy. He carried a pine cone-topped staff, and his followers were goat-footed Satyrs and Maenads, wild women who danced energetically during his festivals. Bacchus is the son of Jupiter.

Mythical history
Bacchus was the child of Jupiter and Semélé, a human whom Juno had tricked into asking to see Jupiter as he really was. Since she was a mortal, she was burned up by the sight of Jupiter in his divine form. So Jupiter sewed the infant Bacchus into his thigh, and gave birth to him nine months later. As a child, Bacchus was tutored by Silenus, who was a great lover of wine and often had to be carried on the back of a donkey. Before he took his place at Olympus, Bacchus wandered the world for many years, going as far as India to teach people how to grow wines.

Further reading
 Mythology by Lady Hestia Evans, published by Candlewick Press.

Related pages

 Dionysus - Greek mythology version of Bacchus

Roman gods and goddesses

Bacchus