Thomas Ollis Hicks Sr. (born February 7, 1946), is an American private equity investor and sports team owner living in Dallas, Texas. Forbes magazine estimated Hicks' wealth at $1 billion in 2009, but it dropped to $700 million in 2010. Hicks co-founded the investment firm, Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst, previously owned 50% of the English football club Liverpool F.C., and is chairman of Hicks Holdings LLC, which owns and operates Hicks Sports Group, the company that formerly owned the Texas Rangers, the Dallas Stars, and the Mesquite Championship Rodeo. In 2010, Hicks was forced to sell the Rangers and Liverpool to satisfy his creditors, and the Stars went into bankruptcy the following year.

Biography
The son of a Texas radio station owner, Hicks was born in Port Arthur, Texas, and graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School, in Port Arthur, in 1964. Hicks received his bachelor's degree in finance from the University of Texas in 1968, and received his MBA from the University of Southern California in 1970. He is a member of the Sigma Phi Epsilon social fraternity.

Hicks became interested in leveraged buyouts as a member of First National Bank of Dallas's venture capital group. Hicks and Robert Haas formed Hicks & Haas in 1984. The next year that firm bought Hicks Communications, a radio outfit run by Hicks' brother Steven – the first of several media companies bought or created by the buyout firm that involved Steven (Capstar, Chancellor, and AMFM).

Hicks & Haas' in the mid-1980s bought several soft drink makers, including Dr Pepper and 7 Up. The firm took Dr Pepper/7 Up public just 18 months after merging the two companies. In all, Hicks & Haas turned $88 million of investor funding into $1.3 billion. The pair went their separate ways in May 1989. He wanted to raise large pools to invest, while Haas preferred to work with investors deal by deal.

In 1989, Hicks co-founded the investment firm, Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst with former Prudential Securities banker John Muse. The firm raised $250 million, with early investments including a life insurance company, Life Partners Group (bought in 1990 and sold in 1996). In 1991, Morgan Stanley's Charles Tate and First Boston's Jack Furst became partners. Hicks was chairman from 1989 to 2004, Hicks Muse raised $12 billion of private equity funds, consummated over $50 billion of leveraged acquisitions, and grew to become one of the largest private investment firms in the country.

But Hicks Muse hit a rough patch by the early 2000s, when investors in Equity Fund IV were burned by a $1.2 billion plunge into telecom investments in 1999. Hicks announced that he would leave the Hicks Muse on March 8, 2004, to spend more time with his family and his sports teams. (Hicks Muse was subsequently renamed HM Capital Partners.) He has remained active in his own ventures. He created Hicks Holdings, a vehicle for his sports and real estate empire, and then started buying companies again in the $10 to $250 million level, including: a Chinese electronics firm, a venture with DirecTV selling bundled TV-telecom services to condos, a landscaping materials company in the Midwest, a pet food firm in Argentina, and Gammaloy – an oil field rental outfit he bought from his wife's family, paying approximately $20 million in the 1990s.

Additionally, he formed Hicks Acquisition Company I, Inc. (HACI). In September 2009, HACI merged into Resolute Energy Corporation (REN), an oil and gas firm. Hicks does not sit on REN's board of directors, but his son, Thomas O. Hicks, Jr., represents HACI on the board.

As of August 13, 2010, the website for Hicks Sports Group appears to have disappeared. As for other websites for Hicks companies, while they are still operating, they appear to be empty of any data and Hicks Sports Marketing now appears to be a Word Press blog site, with the first page advertising Online Gaming.

Politics
Hicks was a member of the political action committee for the 2008 presidential election campaign for former Republican Mayor of New York City Rudy Giuliani.

Hicks was previously neighbors with former U.S. President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush. Each neighbor's property shared a boundary between Daria Place and Holloway Road, within a gated community of Preston Hollow, Dallas, Texas respectively.

Tom Hicks Elementary School
Tom Hicks Elementary School in Frisco, Texas, part of the Lewisville Independent School District, was given its name after Hicks donated the land for the school.

Sports
Hicks moved from the business pages to the sports section in December 1995 when he bought the National Hockey League Dallas Stars for $82 million.

Dallas Stars
Hicks contracted to purchase the National Hockey League (NHL) franchise from Norman Green in December 1995. During his tenure as owner of the club, Hicks served as the Stars' Chairman of the Board and the club's representative on the NHL Board of Governors. Hicks played an instrumental role in the development and planning of American Airlines Center. Under his ownership, the Stars won seven division titles, two Western Conference crowns, two Presidents' Trophies (as the team with the best regular season record), two consecutive trips to the Stanley Cup Finals and the 1999 Stanley Cup championship. In April 2010, Hicks' company defaulted on $525 million in bank loans backed by the Stars and a 50% interest in the American Airlines Center.

On September 13, 2011, lenders voted to agree to have the Stars file for bankruptcy and sold at auction.

On November 22, 2011, a bankruptcy court judge approved a bid by Vancouver businessman and Kamloops Blazers owner Tom Gaglardi to buy the team for $240 million.

Texas Rangers
In June 1998, Hicks bought the Texas Rangers of Major League Baseball's American League from an investment group managed by George W. Bush. Under Hicks' ownership, the Rangers won the American League West Division crown in 1998 and 1999, but failed to deliver a World Series. Hicks made headlines across all MLB when he personally negotiated and signed shortstop Alex Rodriguez to the biggest contract in MLB history at that time; a ten-year, $252 million deal at the December 2000 winter meetings. That contract, however,  severely limited the Rangers' ability to sign other players, and they would have only two more winning seasons during Hicks' ownership. Years later, Hicks pointed to the blockbuster contract as "one of his biggest regrets".

The Rangers also spent a large amount of money on Chan Ho Park, who signed a $65 million contract with the Rangers following the 2001 season. The Park signing would be a disaster for the Rangers as the new "staff ace" was unable to adjust to the move from pitcher-friendly Dodger Stadium to the hitter-friendly American League. After finishing in last place for the division three seasons in a row with Rodriguez, Hicks agreed to trade to the New York Yankees before the 2004 season. As part of the agreement, the Rangers would supplement a portion of his remaining contract. This agreement would continue until Rodriguez opted out of his contract in 2007. On January 23, 2010, it was announced Hicks had agreed to sell the Rangers to a group led by Chuck Greenberg and Nolan Ryan. Hicks would have been a minority share holder in the new ownership group.

Prior to bids being placed by potential buyers, Hicks told the media the Rangers were operating under normal business with no interference from MLB. Regarding the Rangers' inability to sign 2009 first round pick Matt Purke, he said, "We were disappointed that the family insisted on $6 million. The Texas Rangers were not willing to do that. It had nothing to do with MLB restrictions. There is a clear misimpression we didn't sign Matt Purke because MLB wouldn't let us. That's not true. We didn't because of Tom Hicks, Nolan Ryan and Jon Daniels. We were not willing to go to $6 million." After his group had completed the purchase agreement, Ryan told the media the Rangers were unable to offer the first round pick the $6 million signing bonus both parties had verbally agreed upon after the draft because MLB, who were strictly overseeing the Rangers budget by this time, would not approve the amount needed to sign Purke. After the announcement of the pending sale by Hicks Sports Group (HSG), several additional hurdles occurred which had to be remedied before the sale of the team could be finalized. Several of the lenders, who were owed over $500 million, vocally objected to the deal accusing Hicks of rejecting a higher offer by Jim Crane and stated they would not sign off on the deal. Hicks has been sued by three different parties over the land adjacent to the stadium that was sold in a separate transaction as a part of the purchase by Greenberg and Ryan.

On May 24, 2010, HSG filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection/separation of the Texas Rangers from HSG and asked the courts to approve of the sale of the Rangers to the group headed by Greenberg and Ryan. The move was made to expedite the sale and resolve the sale prior to the MLB trade deadline and draft signing deadline. Ironically, Alex Rodriguez was the largest unsecured creditor, owed nearly $25 million in deferred payments despite being traded six years earlier.

Emails presented in court show that after Hicks agreed to an exclusive negotiation period with Greenberg attorneys for HSG were still in discussion with another bidder, Dennis Crane, about a sale price for the team and emailed the creditors on December 31, 2009 saying, "Basically, the response from the MLB was to prohibit us from negotiating with anyone other than Greenberg. Their intent seems to be to lock us into Greenberg even though Crane now has a clearly superior economic deal – and may always have had based on Greenberg's current position. We need help here. Unless the lenders weigh in, we are going to be stuck negotiating a deal that is clearly worse than Crane's."

The bankruptcy court ordered a public auction to be held on August 4, 2010, and the winning bid was submitted by Greenberg/Ryan. Co-lead investors Ray Davis and Bob R. Simpson were named co-chairmen.

In March 2011, Greenberg resigned as chief executive, sold his interest, and Nolan Ryan was named president and chief executive officer. Ryan was subsequently designated the controlling owner of the club by a unanimous vote of the 30 owners of Major League Baseball on May 12, 2011.

Cruzeiro and Corinthians
In 1999, Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst entered into a partnership with Cruzeiro Esporte Clube and Sport Club Corinthians Paulista, two popular Brazilian football clubs. Club directors and Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst assured the fans that a new stadium was in development, but this never materialized.

In 2003, after legal/financial troubles and partner infighting, Hicks retired from the company and the ownership group eventually left the partnership with Corinthians. There was no new stadium.

Liverpool F.C.

On February 1, 2007, it was made known through the English press that he was involved in a consortium with one-time friend and Montreal Canadiens owner George N. Gillett Jr. to purchase English Premier League club Liverpool F.C.; this takeover proposal was believed to be the front-runner after Dubai International Capital (DIC) withdrew their bid. On February 6, 2007, Hicks and Gillett's joint offer for Liverpool was formally accepted, valuing the club at £218.9 million ($432.9M) (£5,000 per share and £44.8M in debt). Liverpool became the third Premier League club to be acquired by American businessmen, the others being Aston Villa and Manchester United. When taking over the club, Hicks and Gillett made a joint declaration: "Liverpool is a fantastic club with a remarkable history and a passionate fanbase. We fully acknowledge and appreciate the unique heritage and rich history of Liverpool and intend to respect this heritage in the future." Hicks stated his foremost priority was gaining silverware, and vowed to build a new stadium for the club at Stanley Park Stadium. The preexisting plans to build the stadium were revised but the stadium never materialized.

Hicks became extremely unpopular among Liverpool fans for his failure to deliver on the promise of a new stadium or on the promise that no debt would be placed onto the club and for his allegedly misleading statements about planned and past investment in players. During Hicks and Gillett's period of ownership, Liverpool became associated with frequent boardroom wranglings as the owners fell out with each other and engaged in public battles with Parry and Benítez. Anger was also directed at the Hicks family when Tom Hicks' son, Thomas O. Hicks, Jr., had to resign from the Liverpool board of directors after sending an abusive e-mail to a Liverpool fan saying, "Blow me fuck face. Go to hell. I'm sick of you."

On January 22, 2008, a majority of Liverpool fans at the game between Liverpool and Aston Villa protested against Gillett and Hicks' running of the club, urging the pair to sell their shares in Liverpool to Dubai International Capital (DIC). Neither owner, nor their representative Foster Gillett, was present at the game. George Gillett was reportedly targeted by DIC to sell his shares. It was reported that he had fallen out with Hicks and he subsequently kept silent over his dealings with the club. On March 7, 2008, it was reported that Gillett had agreed to sell 98% of his Liverpool stock to DIC, but Hicks blocked the sale. In an interview on Prime Time Sports in Canada, Gillett revealed that he and his family had received death threats from angry Liverpool fans: "The fans don't want him [Tom Hicks] to have even one share of my stake in the club, based on what they are sending to me. As a result of that we [my family] have received many phone calls in the middle of the night threatening our lives, death threats. A number came to the office and my son, Foster, and daughter-in-law, Lauren, have received them." On April 16, 2010, the club was put up for sale. Hicks claimed that he believed the club had tripled in value during his tenure, and boasted that he would be looking for a price of four times what he purchased his stake for. He claimed that, "Liverpool will be the most profitable investment I've ever made." On June 16, 2010, Liverpool Walton MP Steve Rotheram tabled a motion in the House of Commons expressing dismay at the continuing ownership of the club. Hicks and Gillett were described as "asset strippers" and the club was being "drained by their greed".

In October 2010, as part of a fans' campaign against the ownership, a video entitled Dear Mr Hicks was released virally via YouTube. Produced and directed by Mike Jefferies, it featured celebrity fans of the club giving their reasons why they wanted to see a change of ownership. The Independent newspaper praised the video, saying, "True to the city's capacity to create something out of adversity, a wonderfully inventive viral film, Dear Mr Hicks, has been published online to make it clear where he ought to go. The fans' view can be summarised thus: away, and soon."
It was claimed that the video was watched 400 000 times in 42 hours.

On October 15, 2010, Hicks lost ownership of Liverpool. Despite numerous attempts to prevent it, the club was sold to New England Sports Ventures (NESV), for a fee believed to be around £300 million, which was far below Hicks' valuation of "between £600M and £1 billion (B)", by the club's board of directors in a 3–2 vote. Hicks is pursuing a (max.) £1 billion suit against NESV and Kop Holdings for damages, claiming that, "This outcome... devalues the club..." and suggesting that he had been the victim of an "epic swindle". From the time the club had been put up for sale, however, it had been widely reported that the fee that Hicks and Gillett were asking for was unlikely to be achieved. The Wall Street Journal pointed out that the asking price of £600–800 million took no account of the fact that a new owner would have to spend £375 million building the new stadium which Hicks and Gillett had promised and failed to deliver. The Daily Telegraph suggested that Hicks and Gillett were unlikely to achieve their estimated price because everyone knew that there was huge debt at the club and that these debts were due to be called in very shortly, meaning that the bankers would subsequently put the club into administration and then sell off the club at a bargain price anyway. The likelihood of the club being placed in administration increased once, on September 7, 2010, the Royal Bank of Scotland, Hicks's main creditor, placed the Texan's indebtedness in the toxic debt category as he was considered unable to find refinancing or to pay off the debt. In the end, none of the offers made were anywhere close to Hicks and Gillett's valuation and with the threat of administration looming the club was sold for £300 million. This meant that the sale in 2010 fetched £80 million more than Hicks and Gillett had paid for the club in 2007, but because more than £200 million worth of debt had been piled on to the club, resulting in huge interest rates and penalty payments, the outgoing owners ended up losing an estimated £144 million on their investment.

Liverpool fans were delighted to hear that the club had been sold. Steve Horner, from the fans' group Kop Faithful, declared,
"It's like a huge cloud has been lifted off us... Hicks and Gillett leave with no legacy, apart from one of chaos." The chairman of Liverpool Supporters Club, Richie Pedder, announced to the Liverpool Echo, "This is the start of a new era. A lot has been taken off the club's shoulders now. Good riddance to Hicks and Gillett." Former Liverpool player Tommy Smith expressed his joy at the departure of Hicks and Gillett in his regular newspaper column: "But today they are out of our club – and I'm as happy as every one of the Liverpool fans who've made it clear they're so sick of them. All they were ever interested in was making money – not in owning what is for me the greatest football club in the world, investing in it properly and taking good care of it. Good riddance." After selling the club, Hicks admitted that his relationship with the fans had been strained: "Something went wrong with my ability to communicate with the fans. I am saddened by it."

In the two years before Hicks and Gillett took control of the club, Liverpool won the UEFA Champions League in 2005 and the FA Cup in 2006 under manager Rafael Benítez. In the three-and-a-half years in which Hicks and Gillett owned the club, they won not a single trophy, and at the time they left Liverpool, the club were in the relegation zone of the Premier League standings. Hicks denied this claim, declaring that during his reign Liverpool's net spend on player transfers was £150 million (sometimes cited as $150 million).  The Sunday Mirror calculated that the net spend probably did not exceed £25.1 million and has accused Hicks of "creative accountancy", stating "what is irrefutable is that Hicks has exaggerated the net spend by probably close to six fold".

During Hicks and Gillett's period of ownership, the club struggled to meet the interest payments on the loans taken out as part of the leveraged buy-out. Christian Purslow, managing director of Liverpool since June 2009, publicly stated in September 2010 that the debt was an important burden for the club because it limited investment in players: "The issue is that too much of that profit is being used to service loans put into place when the club was bought." Hicks admitted after the sale that the club's debt was too great but argued that he had not been given sufficient time by his main creditor, the Royal Bank of Scotland, to repay the debt: "It has a little bit too much debt, no question. But we were going to fix that and we were frustrated by others." He has also suggested that the Royal Bank of Scotland prevented him paying back the debt to them: "I can't go into the details but I can confirm the funds were available to pay off Royal Bank of Scotland entirely but between Royal Bank of Scotland, the chairman and the employees that conspired against us, they would not let us."

After more legal trouble with his other sports team, Hicks decided not to pursue his claims of a conspiracy against him. On January 11, 2013, Hicks and Gillett finally decided to drop their case in the English law courts against Sir Martin Broughton, Christian Purslow and Ian Ayre, the three directors on the club's board of directors at the time of the sale of the club to NESV; they also agreed to drop their case against NESV and RBS Bank. The terms of the agreement are confidential, though it is believed that no monies were paid to Hicks or Gillett. Earlier in the week, Hicks and Gillett had lost a Court of Appeal bid to delay a High Court trial so they could have more time to raise the money needed to fund the multi-million pound lawsuit.

Philanthropy
In addition to donating the land for aforementioned school in Frisco, Hicks donated a gymnasium to the St. Mark's School of Texas in Dallas. Hicks was also the 1996 co-chair of the Dallas Jewish Coalition for the Homeless "Vogel Alcove" project, and received the 2000 Henry Cohn Humanitarian Award from the Anti-Defamation League.

References

External links
Bio at Dallas Stars
Hicks Holdings Official Website

1946 births
Living people
American financial businesspeople
American soccer chairmen and investors
American sports businesspeople
Businesspeople from Texas
Dallas Stars executives
Liverpool F.C. chairmen and investors
Major League Baseball owners
National Hockey League executives
National Hockey League owners
Private equity and venture capital investors
Sportspeople from Dallas
Stanley Cup champions
Texas Rangers owners
Marshall School of Business alumni
McCombs School of Business alumni
University of Texas System regents

Tom Hicks


Pirate Cinema is a do-it-yourself cinema. Recently Pirate Cinema has been associated with groups in Brazil, Berlin, Copenhagen, Melbourne and Helsinki, where local Pirate Cinema groups are associated with the anti-copyright movement and squatting.

At its simplest Pirate Cinema involved the screening of a movie in front of an audience, for free. Some Pirate Cinema groups perceive their actions within a political context, by deliberately screening copyrighted movies, or movies that document the current copyright debate.

In connection with showing copyrighted movies the Pirate Cinema group in Helsinki had confrontation with the local police.

Pirate Cinema groups are also active in Amsterdam, Stockholm, Paris and London.

Brazil
The first pirate cinema initiative in Brazil was Cine Falcatrua ("Cine Hoax"), an academic film society based on the state of Espírito Santo. Cine Falcatrua started its activities around 2003, downloading movies from P2P networks and screening them in open weekly sessions on the whereabouts of the Federal University of Espírito Santo.

Most of the movies were exhibited by the film society long before they officially got into Brazilian movie theaters. Some of them, like Kill Bill and Fahrenheit 9/11, were screened more than two months before their official release. They were subtitled in Brazilian Portuguese by the very members of Cine Falcatrua.

In June 2004, the university that hosted the project was prosecuted by a couple Brazilian film companies that held the rights to distribute these films in national territory. Nevertheless, the film society did not stop its activities.

In October 2009, the Growing Minds Project started "Cinema Pirata São Paulo", another initiative to encourage free screenings and the popularization of free culture in Brazil. They promote free screenings in many places, theatres, streets, parks, etc., promoting free culture and conscience on the Intellectual Property revolution.

Copenhagen

Pirate Cinema Copenhagen has since 2006 on a regular basis screened movies on different locations in Copenhagen. The group has explained its position in a statement from November 2006. In it the group says:  "The battle of copyright is a battle for control. The film industry is fearing to lose control of which films we want to watch, how we want to watch them and how we produce new film. The technological evolution is giving access to a gigantic supply of film. Video technology is incorporated into cheap cameras and mobile phones. Now that we also can edit our own film on our computers, the film industry is scared - and they should be - of losing their monopoly on creating film culture."

In 2008 the group was renamed Jesper Cinema Copenhagen for a shorter period as a statement relating to the Danish "The Jesper Bay"-campaign.

Pirate Cinema Copenhagen screens mainly copyrighted movies, but makes few exceptions when the movies are copyright-related (such as the Steal This Film and Good Copy Bad Copy documentaries)

Berlin
The group behind Pirate Cinema Berlin states in "Keep Up Your Rights. First Preliminary Program of the Berlin Pirate Cinema" that: "But above all, the "War on Piracy" is a war against revolution: against the French Revolution that has generalized individual rights and against the Digital Revolution that has generalized the individual exchange of data." Pirate Cinema Berlin regularly screens copyrighted and un-copyrighted movies.

Members of Pirate Cinema Berlin were interviewed, asked "How did it all start?" they answered:
"(Sebastian Lütgert) Conventional cinema is fucked up and useless...
(Jan Gerber) But we started off because one of the films we had hadn't been distributed and we wanted to have it screened . Our strong opinions about copyright and restrictions on distributing digital data always surfaced in Pirate Cinema events, with their motto: »Free admission, cheap drinks, and bring a blank CD.«"

Segments of an interview with Sebastian Lütgert are featured in Steal This Film (Two), reflecting on copyright, internet and culture.

The "archive" of Pirate Cinema Berlin is said to be growing steadily. Content is mostly obtained via different peer-to-peer file-sharing networks. In late 2008, it contains over 3 TB of compressed, tagged, sorted and searchable video material.

Melbourne
In Melbourne a pirate cinema group has been running successfully (although sporadically) since early 2010. Amongst other things they aim provide free entertainment, protest against copyright and censorship laws, and make use of abandoned & disused spaces screening films under freeway bridges, in abandoned buildings & squats, etc... They mostly screen independent or less known films that would not be shown at a mainstream cinema.

Helsinki
In Helsinki on organiser of the local Pirate Cinema has been arrested by police in connection with the screening of copyrighted movies. The organisers said that their aim is to show the discrepancy between laws and how people really act.

Antti Kotilainen, executive director of the Copyright Information and Anti-piracy Centre (CIAPC), stated "They say that they are anarchists, fighting against big movie moguls. Then the only recreation that they have is to show movies produced by the companies that they despise so much."

Professor Jukka Kemppinen, an expert on copyright legislation, states that Pirate Cinema is a deliberate provocation, but that, despite it being illegal, there is no point in making a big issue out of it. Kemppinen states "It is no more illegal than showing a legally rented DVD to residents of an apartment building after an afternoon of volunteer work."

References

See also
 The Pirate Bay
 Good Copy Bad Copy
 Steal This Film
 Copyright
 Anti-copyright

Intellectual property activism
Copyright infringement

Pirate Cinema


In geometry, the major axis o an ellipse is its langest diameter: a line segment that runs throu the centre an baith foci, wi ends at the widest pynts o the perimeter. The semi-major axis is ane hauf o the major axis, an thus runs frae the centre, throu a focus, an tae the perimeter. Essentially, it is the radius o an orbit at the orbit's twa maist distant pynts. For the special case o a circle, the semi-major axis is the radius. Ane can think o the semi-major axis as an ellipse's lang radius.

The semi-minor axis (an aa semiminor axis) is a line segment associatit wi maist conic sections (that is, with ellipses an hyperbolas) that is at richt angles with the semi-major axis an haes ane end at the centre o the conic section. It is ane o the axes o symmetry for the curve: in an ellipse, the shorter ane; in a hyperbola, the ane that disna intersect the hyperbola.

Conic sections
Orbits

Semi-major an semi-minor axes


The vocal cords or vocal folds are two sets of tissue stretched across the larynx. They can vibrate when air passes through the larynx. This produces sounds. Humans use them to produce language.

Men and women have different vocal fold sizes.  Adult male voices are usually deeper: males have thicker cord. The male vocal folds are between 17 mm and 25 mm in length.

The female vocal folds are between 12.5 mm and 17.5 mm long.

The difference in vocal fold size between men and women means that their voices have a different pitch. Each person's voice is different and has a slightly different pitch. This is caused by genes that influence how the larynx is made.

False vocal cords

The vocal cords are sometimes called 'true vocal cords' to distinguish them from the false vocal cords.  These are a pair of thick folds of mucous membrane. They sit directly above the true vocal folds, to protect them. They have a very small role in normal speech , but are often used in musical screaming and the death grunt singing style.  They are also used in Tuvan throat singing.

The false cords are also called vestibular folds and ventricular folds.  They can be seen on the diagram above as ventricular folds.

Unlike the true vocal cords, the false ones grow back completely when they are removed by surgery.

References

Neck

Vocal cords


The Great Giana Sisters is a 1987 platform game known for resembling Nintendo's Super Mario Brothers. The game was developed by Time Warp Productions and published by Rainbow Arts. Due to the game's similarity to Nintendo's Super Mario Brothers, Nintendo threatened the game's makers with a legal action, and the game was removed from stores.

Players control one of two protagonists Giana or Maria. Players defeat enemies and collect gems and powerups in order to increase their score. The player's objective is to advance through each level.

1987 video games
Commodore 64 games
Platform games

The Great Giana Sisters


Vitiligo is a skin disease that causes the skin to lose its color.  It occurs when the melanocytes, cells that give skin their color, die or do not work. This is a problem because these cells protect against the light from the sun.

How is it caught?
The exact cause of vitiligo is complex and not fully understood. It may be caused by the immune system, genetic, and environmental factors.
Vitiligo may also be caused by stress that affects the immune system, leading the body to react and start eliminating skin pigment.

People over 20 years old rarely develop this disease. These patches often occur to both sides symmetrically and may change shape.

Effects of vitiligo
 color of the skin is lighter because there are no pigments
 purple or golden brown patches on and around the eyes, nose, and mouth
 puffiness of the middle layer of the eye
 quicker graying of hair
 more sensitive to sun

This disease can also affect the mental state of the patient.

Curing it
As of 2020, doctors do not understand what causes the disease, so right now, it can not be cured. Some things can be done to fight its effects, though. Makeup or cosmetics can cover up the parts of the skin with vitiligo. Also, staying out of the sun to prevent tanning is good. But the treatment given by most skin doctors is cortico steroid cream.
Breakthrough discovery in 2004 allowed for the transplant of melanocytes to vitiligo affected areas, repigmenting the region.

Famous people with vitiligo
Michael Jackson told Oprah in a 1993 interview that he had vitiligo. He is the most well known person to have had the disease. A lot of people thought that he was lying. He died in 2009, and his autopsy found that he was telling the truth. Apparently, when it got past the point where makeup could have hidden it, he chose to have the rest of the pigment removed.
Jon Hamm got vitilgo when he was filmed acting for Mad Men because of stress.

References

Related pages
Albinism

Skin problems

Vitiligo


For the lighthouse of the same name in the St. Mary's River, see Round Island Light (St. Mary's River)

The Round Island Light, also known as the "Old Round Island Point Lighthouse" is a lighthouse located on the west shore of Round Island in the shipping lanes of the Straits of Mackinac, which connect Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. It was deemed necessary because the island is a significant hazard to navigation in the straits, and was seen as an effective complement to the other lights in the area.  Because of its color scheme and form — red stone base and wood tower — it has been likened to an old-fashioned schoolhouse. Ferries regularly pass it on their way to (and from) Mackinac Island, and it is a recognizable icon of the upper Great Lakes.

History
This light is a twin of the Two Harbors Light in Minnesota. Located in Coast Guard District 9, the Round Island Light was built of painted brick in 1895 by a predecessor agency of the United States Coast Guard and Mackinac island carpenter Frank Rounds.  It served as an active, manned lighthouse and fog signal from 1895 to 1947. It was abandoned in 1947 and replaced by the Round Island Passage Light, an automated light tower located in the adjacent Round Island Channel.  Abandoned, the lighthouse fell prey to plunderers and vandals.  The structure's deterioration was almost complete in 1972 when a storm caused a corner of the lighthouse structure to collapse.

This event spurred preservation efforts.  Round Island Light was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in September 1974, and was added to the list of registered Michigan historic sites in 1978.  Emergency work to stabilize the light tower structure was conducted in the 1970s, but the light tower remained gutted and inoperative.  Restoration work was conducted in 1995 by the Friends of the Round Island Lighthouse and led by the Great Lakes Lighthouse Keepers Association (GLLKA), aided by Boy Scouts of America Troop 323.  The work was partially funded by the state of Michigan, with the help of funds from a special license plate developed by the state to raise donations for lighthouse restoration.  In 1973 rip rap was spread around the lighthouse base to help prevent more deterioration. The following year, after it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, local fundraising efforts collected $12,000 for the project. The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation appropriated $125,000 in 1977 for the project. As a result of the success of this restoration work, the Coast Guard granted permission to relight the Round Island Light.  The light was re-lit in 1996.

The original brick outhouse and oil house are still intact.

The Round Island Light is a registered Michigan historic site and is the focus of an official Michigan Historical Marker erected in 1978, Registered Site No. L0107.  The text of the marker notes:

Getting there
Because Round Island is not accessible to most visitors (but it can be visited), the "Round Island Lighthouse" historical marker is located on Biddle's Point on nearby Mackinac Island, within easy view of the light tower.  Photography of the light is possible if using a telephoto lens.

A private boat is the best way to see this light close up.  Short of that, Sheplers Ferry Service out of Mackinaw City offers periodic lighthouse cruises in the summer season.  Its "Eastbound Tour" includes passes by Round Island Light, Bois Blanc Island and Light, Poe Reef Light and Fourteen Foot Shoal Light. Schedules and rates are available from Shepler's.

An expensive but exciting alternative is to charter a seaplane to tour the lights in the straits.

Round Island Light is one of over 150 past and present lighthouses in Michigan.  Michigan has more lighthouses than any other state.  See Lighthouses in the United States.

Light in popular culture
This lighthouse, with Biddle's Point on Mackinac Island, forms the finish line for the annual Chicago Yacht Club Race to Mackinac, run since 1898.

The lighthouse was prominently featured in the 1980 movie Somewhere in Time.

The light's location makes it "somewhat of a wilderness" but it has been depicted in sculptures  and even bird houses.  Because of its picturesque color and form and its location near Mackinac Island (in the path of passing ferries) and the Mackinac Bridge, it is often the subject of photographs, and drawings.  Even needlepoint illustrations have been created.  It has long been the ongoing subject of postcards.

A children's book written by Robert A. Lytle and Karen Howell is titled Mackinac Passage: Mystery at Round Island Light.

See also
 Lighthouses in the United States

References

Further reading
 "A Tour of the Lights of the Straits." Michigan History 70 (Sep/Oct 1986), pp. 17–29.
 Brisson, Steven C. (Mackinac State Historic Parks chief curator).  Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse: A History & Pictorial Souvenir (1/29/2008).
 "Round Island Passage Light Station." Proceedings of the Merchant Marine Council 5 (Sep 1948), p. 145.

External links

 Round Island Lighthouse Preservation Society
 Round Island Lighthouse history and many photos
 Aerial photos, Round Island Light, marinas.com.
Interactive map of Lights in Northern Lake Michigan, mapped by Google.
 Lighthouses in the Mackinac Straits.
 Michigan in Pictures, Round Island Light.

Lighthouses completed in 1895
Houses completed in 1895
Lighthouses on the National Register of Historic Places in Michigan
Lighthouses in Mackinac County, Michigan
Hiawatha National Forest
National Register of Historic Places in Mackinac County, Michigan
Michigan State Historic Sites in Mackinac County

Round Island Light, Michigan


Hypergravity is defined as the condition where the force of gravity exceeds that on the surface of the Earth. This is expressed as being greater than 1 g. Hypergravity conditions are created on Earth for research on human physiology in aerial combat and space flight, as well as testing of materials and equipment for space missions. Manufacturing of titanium aluminide turbine blades in 20 g is being explored by researchers at the European Space Agency (ESA) via an 8-meter wide Large Diameter Centrifuge (LDC).

Bacteria
NASA scientists looking at meteorite impacts discovered that most strains of bacteria were able to reproduce under pressures exceeding 7,500 g.

Recent research carried out on extremophiles in Japan involved a variety of bacteria including Escherichia coli and Paracoccus denitrificans being subject to conditions of extreme gravity. The bacteria were cultivated while being rotated in an ultracentrifuge at high speeds corresponding to 403,627 g. Another study that has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, reports that some bacteria can exist even in extreme "hypergravity". In other words, they can still live and breed despite gravitational forces that are 400,000 times greater than what's felt here on Earth.
Paracoccus denitrificans was one of the bacteria which displayed not only survival but also robust cellular growth under these conditions of hyperacceleration which are usually found only in cosmic environments, such as on very massive stars or in the shock waves of supernovas. Analysis showed that the small size of prokaryotic cells is essential for successful  growth under hypergravity. The research has implications on the feasibility of existence of exobacteria and panspermia. A concern of this practice is rapid spinning. If someone moves their head too quickly while they're inside a fast-moving centrifuge, they might feel uncomfortably like they're tumbling head over heels. This can happen when balance-sensing fluids in the semicircular canals of the inner ear become "confused". Some experiments using centrifuges often include devices that fix the subjects' heads in place to prevent that illusion. Traveling through space, however, with one's head fixed in place is not practical.

Materials
High gravity conditions generated by centrifuge is applied in the chemical industry, casting, and material synthesis. The convection and mass transfer are greatly affected by the gravitational condition. Researchers reported that the high-gravity level can effectively affect the phase composition and morphology of the products.

Effects on rate of aging of rats
Ever since Pearl proposed the rate of living theory of aging, numerous studies have demonstrated its validity in poikilotherms. In mammals, however, satisfactory experimental demonstration is still lacking because an externally imposed increase of basal metabolic rate of these animals (e.g. by placement in the cold) is usually accompanied by general homeostatic disturbance and stress. The present study was based on the finding that rats exposed to slightly increased gravity are able to adapt with little chronic stress but at a higher level of basal metabolic expenditure (increased 'rate of living'). The rate of aging of 17-month-old rats that had been exposed to 3.14 g in an animal centrifuge for 8 months was larger than of controls as shown by apparently elevated lipofuscin content in heart and kidney, reduced numbers and increased size of mitochondria of heart tissue, and inferior liver mitochondria respiration (reduced 'efficiency': 20% larger ADP: 0 ratio, P less than 0.01; reduced 'speed': 8% lower respiratory control ratio, P less than 0.05). Steady-state food intake per day per kg body weight, which is presumably proportional to 'rate of living' or specific basal metabolic expenditure, was about 18% higher than in controls (P less than 0.01) after an initial 2-month adaptation period. Finally, though half of the centrifuged animals lived only a little shorter than controls (average about 343 vs. 364 days on the centrifuge, difference statistically nonsignificant), the remaining half (longest survivors) lived on the centrifuge an average of 520 days (range 483–572) compared to an average of 574 days (range 502–615) for controls, computed from onset of centrifugation, or 11% shorter (P less than 0.01). Therefore, these results show that a moderate increase of the level of basal metabolism of young adult rats adapted to hypergravity compared to controls in normal gravity is accompanied by a roughly similar increase in the rate of organ aging and reduction of survival, in agreement with Pearl's rate of living theory of aging, previously experimentally demonstrated only in poikilotherms.

Effects on the behavior of adult rats
Pups from gestating rats exposed to hypergravity (1.8 g) or to normal gravity at the perinatal period were evaluated. By comparison to controls, the hypergravity group had shorter latencies before choosing a maze arm in a T-maze and fewer exploratory pokes in a hole board. During dyadic encounters, the hypergravity group had a lower number of self-grooming episodes and shorter latencies before crossing under the opposing rat.

See also
g-force#Human tolerance

References

External links
The Pull of Hypergravity

Gravity
Acceleration
Human spaceflight
Astrobiology

Hypergravity


Luca Gaurico (in Latin, Lucas Gauricus) (Giffoni March 12, 1475 – March 6, 1558, in Rome) was an Italian astrologer, astronomer, astrological data collector,  and mathematician.  He was born to a poor family in the Kingdom of Naples, and studied judicial astrology, a subject he defended in his Oratio de Inventoribus et Astrologiae Laudibus (1508).  Judicial astrology concerned the fate of man (astrologia judiciaria; mundane astrology) as influenced by the stars.  His most famous work is the Tractatus Astrologicus. Later in life he was named a bishop of the Catholic Church.

Career as astrologer
Gaurico's reputation was such that he served as an "astrological consultant" to Catherine de' Medici.  Gaurico had predicted the accession to the papacy of Catherine's great-uncle Giovanni de Medici (when he was 14 – who later became Leo X) and predicted Catherine's uncle Giulio de Medici involvement in important political struggles and numerous descendants.  Giulio de Medici later was to become Pope Clement VII, who involved with disputes with both Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and Henry VIII of England.

Giovanni II Bentivoglio, ruler of Bologna, consulted him about his destiny.  Displeased with Gaurico's prophecy, Bentivoglio subjected Gaurico to the torture of mancuerda, the effects of which he suffered for the rest of his life, and exiled the astrologer.  When Bologna fell to Pope Julius II, Gaurico returned to general favor.

Gaurico became famous after predicting the ascension of Alessandro Farnese, a prediction that came true with Farnese's ascension as Paul III.  Gaurico foretold also the sickness and death of this Pontiff, who died on November 20, 1549, the day said to have been indicated by Gaurico.  Paul III obviously did not wait for his death in order to verify Gaurico's prediction.  Paul III, who encouraged astrologers to come to Rome and work under his protection, made Gaurico his unofficial astrologer, and he was made a Papal Table Companion, knighted, and appointed bishop of Giffoni (Salerno province), and thus described as Episcopus Geophonensis, in 1539.  Paul III made Gaurico bishop of Civitate (San Severo), in Capitanata, in southern Italy, in 1545.  Four years after the death of Paul III, Gaurico abandoned these duties and settled in Rome.

The Tractatus Astrologicus contained the natal charts of popes and cardinals, kings and nobles, scholars, musicians and artists.  Gaurico systematically examined each natal chart, compared it to the life of the person in question, and in the case of living subjects, predicted the outcome of their lives and careers.  Gaurico also attempted to calculate the exact date of Jesus' crucifixion, and the number of hours between it and the resurrection.  Allegedly, both he and Nostradamus were responsible for predicting the death of Henry II of France in a tournament in 1559.

Allegedly, Catherine de' Medici had wished to know Henry's destiny as the Apparent Heir of France. Allegedly, Gaurico replied that the Heir would exert his royal power, which would first marked by a duel, and finally by another duel that would put a stop to his reign and his life. Allegedly, he also explained in detail the kind of wound that would result in the death of Henry II during this duel.

Allegedly, the danger of this duel was considered impossible because of the social condition of the Prince, and Gaurico was not believed. Allegedly, Gaurico insisted on his statements, printed in France in 1552, that is, seven years before the well-known joust in which Henry II would find his death.  He is also said to have sent a letter to the King repeating with full details his prediction and advising him to avoid any single combat in closed field, especially around the time when he had reached 41 years of age, since a wound on his head, at this age, could produce his blindness or his death.  Allegedly, the letter did not deter Henry.

On July 1, 1559, during a match to celebrate the Peace Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis with his longtime enemies, the Habsburgs of Austria and to celebrate the marriage of his daughter Elizabeth of Valois to King Philip II of Spain, during the final joust, King Henry's eye was pierced by a sliver that penetrated the brain, from the shattered lance of Gabriel Montgomery, captain of the King's Scottish Guard. He suffered terribly, and, despite the efforts of royal surgeon Ambroise Paré, died on July 10, 1559, and was buried in a cadaver tomb in Saint Denis Basilica.

In fact, the one known horoscope of Henri II by Gaurico is literally quoted in the Dictionnaire of Pierre Bayle. There is no question of a duel. Gaurico promises the best successes to Henri II and adds that he shall live up to the age of 69 year, 10 month and 12 days, provided that he passes the years 56, 63 and 64 of his age.

In regard to the birth of Martin Luther, Gaurico found a connection between this date (November 10, 1483, according to the reckoning of the Gregorian Calendar) and a "grand conjunction," that is, a meeting of the planets Jupiter and Saturn.  Grand conjunctions were meant to predict extensive changes in the secular and religious power structures.  Because the "grand conjunction" of 1484 took place in the sign of Scorpio, an astrological sign that stood for radical, revolutionary events as well as for epidemics and widespread death, this indicated to Gaurico that dramatic changes would occur in all social spheres –such as would result from the Reformation.

Gaurico has been identified by the historian Paola Zambelli as the author of an anonymous 1512 pamphlet that predicted a universal deluge to take place in 1524 as a result of a conjunction of the superior planets in the watery sign of Pisces.

Astrology and buildings

Gaurico was widely renowned as an astrologer, and his Tractatus Astrologicus (1552) also contained charts of the foundation of various buildings and cities.  Pope Paul III thus used Gaurico to determine the most auspicious time at which the cornerstone of a new building in the neighborhood of St Peter's Basilica should be laid.  It is said that Gaurico arrived at the scene in great pomp.  An assistant, the astrologer Vincentius Campanatius of Bologna, was commanded to inspect the sky with an astrolabe and cry out in a loud voice the best time when the moment to lay the first marble slab arrived.

Legacy
Gaurico ran a school of astrology at Ferrara.  One of his pupils was Julius Caesar Scaliger.  As a scholar, Gaurico edited George of Trebizon's translation of Ptolemy's Almagest, a work Gaurico dedicated to Pope Nicholas V, who had commissioned the work.  Gaurico theorized that Ptolemy was a native of Pelusium.

The lunar crater Gauricus is named after him.

References

External links
Gustav-Adolf Schoener, The Coming of a "Little Prophet": Astrological Pamphlets and the Reformation
Renaissance Astrology
Santiago Bovisio: HISTORY OF THE ESOTERIC ORDERS
Online Galleries, History of Science Collections, University of Oklahoma Libraries High resolution images of works by and/or portraits of Luca Gaurico in .jpg and .tiff format.

1475 births
1558 deaths
Italian astrologers
16th-century astrologers
Astrological data collectors
16th-century Italian astronomers
15th-century Neapolitan people
Prophets
16th-century Italian mathematicians
16th-century Italian writers
16th-century male writers
16th-century Neapolitan people

Luca Gaurico


Sotion (, gen.: Σωτίωνος; fl. 1st century AD), a native of Alexandria, was a Greek Neopythagorean philosopher who lived in the age of Tiberius. He belonged to the school of the Sextii, which was founded by Quintus Sextius and combined Pythagoreanism with Stoicism. Sotion was the teacher of Seneca the Younger, who "sat as a lad, in the school of the philosopher Sotion." Seneca derived from him his admiration of Pythagoreanism, and quotes Sotion's views concerning vegetarianism and the migration of the soul:
You do not believe that souls are assigned, first to one body and then to another, and that our so-called death is merely a change of abode? You do not believe that in cattle, or in wild beasts, or in creatures of the deep, the soul of him who was once a man may linger?  You do not believe that nothing on this earth is annihilated, but only changes its haunts? And that animals also have cycles of progress and, so to speak, an orbit for their souls, no less than the heavenly bodies, which revolve in fixed circuits?  Great men have put faith in this idea; therefore, while holding to your own view, keep the whole question in abeyance in your mind.  If the theory is true, it is a mark of purity to refrain from eating flesh; if it be false, it is economy.  And what harm does it do to you to give such credence?  I am merely depriving you of food which sustains lions and vultures.

It was perhaps this Sotion who was the author of a treatise on anger, quoted by Stobaeus. Plutarch also quotes a Sotion as the authority for certain statements respecting towns founded by Alexander the Great in India, which he had heard from his contemporary Potamo of Mytilene. He may be the same Sotion who is quoted by John Tzetzes as the authority for some other statements relating to India.

Notes

1st-century Greek philosophers
1st-century Romans
Neo-Pythagoreans
Philosophers in ancient Alexandria

Sotion (Pythagorean)


A bicycle stage race is a race held over several days.  Each day's race is called a stage.  Many countries have a racing tour of their country, for example the Deutschland Tour and the Tour of Britain.  The oldest and most famous stage race is the Tour de France.

A stage race does not have to be tour of a country.  The Bayern Rundfahrt is a stage race in Bavaria, Germany. In contrast the ENECO Tour  is a stage race around Belgium and the Netherlands.
Cycle races

Stage race


Tonsillitis is a disease. It is also known as pharyngitis, laryngitis and Tonsillar infection. Tonsillitis is caused by either a virus or bacteria. It is the inflammation and infection of the tonsils. The tonsils are in the back of the throat. The tonsils get inflamed and red. Other symptoms include headaches, fevers, back and neck aches, chills, bad breath, weak voice, fatigue, having trouble swallowing, and more. There are treatments for tonsillitis. One treatment is antibiotics. Medicines to relieve pain like Tylenol and Advil are also suggested. The tonsils may be removed surgically if it is medically necessary. This operation is called a tonsillectomy. It is the most effective way to get rid of the infection. All kinds of tonsillitis are contagious. Tonsillitis is spread by human contact.

References

Infectious diseases

Tonsillitis


The samurai (or bushi) were Japanese warriors who were members of the important military class before Japanese society changed in 1868. The samurai were also considered to be a type of hereditary nobility.

The word samurai comes from the Japanese verb saburau, which means "to serve and look up to someone."

History

In the 12th century, two military clans, the Minamoto and the Taira, were very powerful. They controlled  Japan and fought wars against each other. In 1192, Minamoto no Yoritomo became the first shogun. He became the ruler of all of Japan and started a new government in Kamakura. The Kamakura government lasted from 1185 to 1333. It made the samurai the ruling class of Japanese society.

The samurai fought many wars in the Warring States period (1467-1573). There were many independent areas in Japan that fought one another all the time and so Japan needed many samurai. Many of the famous samurai movies by Akira Kurosawa were about this time.

Toyotomi Hideyoshi won many wars against other clans. He made Japan one country and developed a social caste system. It was completed by Tokugawa Ieyasu and the rulers after him. Between the wars, many samurai had always worked on farms. Hideyoshi said that all samurai must either live on farms or live in castle towns with other warriors. He also made a law that only samurai could have swords.

The samurai became very powerful and important near the end of the Edo period (1603-1867) and during the Shinto period. In the Edo period, they were the most important social caste.  All samurai had to live in castle towns. Some of them had lords who paid them with rice, but others did not have lords and were called "rōnin". The "rōnin" caused problems for Japan in the early Edo period.

In 1615, the Tokugawa an won a very important battle when he took Osaka Castle. It has no rivals and so Japan became very peaceful for about 250 years. Military skills became less important, and most samurai became bureaucrats, teachers or artists.

In 1868, feudalism ended in Japan, which ended the samurai class.

Weapons

Weapons used by the samurai included:
 Japanese swords, (katana)
 The yumi (longbow)
 Firearms from the 16th century
 Cannons
 Pole weapons bearing blades, and spears
 Staff weapons (no blades)
 Clubs and truncheons
 Chain weapons

Beliefs
A samurai believed that his swords held his soul and so his sword was the most important thing that he had.

Samurai were allowed to fight anyone who did not show them proper respect. Every sword had to be tested for sharpness. To do so, the owner of the sword could execute a criminal.

Samurai led their lives according to the ethical code of bushido ("the way of the warrior"). That meant loyalty to one's master, self-discipline, respect, and ethical behavior. When a samurai lost his master, also called daimyo, he became a rōnin.

If a samurai was defeated or dishonored himself by not following the code of bushido, he had to commit seppuku (ritual suicide). Part of the seppuku ritual was cutting his stomach or abdomen. That part of the ritual is called hara-kiri. For a samurai, death was better than having no honor or being captured by the enemy. Another reason for committing Seppuku was the death of the daimyo. With that ritual, a samurai showed how loyal he was to his dead master. There were periods in which seppuku was forbidden, but some samurai still committed it.

The bushi's training methods, like meditation, judo and kendo, are still followed today. There is no longer a samurai class in modern Japan, but their families' successors are still well-respected.

Women

Samurai women were trained to defend themselves and their children. They usually did so when their warrior husbands were busy in battles. Sumurai women were therefore trained to handle polearms (naginata) and short daggers (tanto). During the Edo period, Japanese women were trained to handle naginata by the age of 18. The short kaiken knife was used by young women to defend their virtue or, if they lost it, to take their own life.

During the Edo period, women's education became very important. Girls were taught from a young age to write, read, dance, etc. The main criteria for marriage changed, but among the most important were physical attractiveness and education. Special books were written for women. They taught mainly how to take care of house and children. By the end of the Edo period, women attended philosophical and literary classes.

The term "samurai" refers to males specifically, but here were a few women who were samurai. One of the most famous was Itagaki, who lived during the end of the Heian period. She owned her own army of about 3,000 warriors. In 1199, Itagaki fought against 10,000 Heike soldiers. She was famous for being very good at handling the naginata sword.

Hino Tomiko ruled in place of her husband, Ashikaga Yoshimasa (8th shogun).

Toyotomi Hideyoshi's mistress became the master of Osaka Castle after his death.

Yamauchi Kazutoyo's wife, Chiyo, was one of the most loyal wives known in Japanese history. She supported her husband during hard times and saved to buy a horse for him. Yamauchi Kazutoyo never took a mistress, though it was a known tradition for a samurai. He never left Chiyo even though she had only one child.

Related pages
 Katana
 Tachi
 Japanese sword schools
 Wakizashi

References

Other websites

 Samurai from childhood
 Hanami Web - Samurai

Samurai


An ovipositor is the long hollow tube on the rear of female insects (and some other animals). Through this tube they lay eggs. The ovipositor is formed by the union of three pairs of rear appendages.

In many species it is a piercing organ which allows the insect to put its eggs into a specific place. In some species of wasp, the female drills through tree bark with her ovipositor and lays eggs in the bodies of grubs eating under the bark.
However, in many hymenoptera the ovipositor is used as a sting, and the female does not use it for egg-laying.

insects
Animal anatomy

Ovipositor


Winslow Lewis ( Nathaniel Winslow Lewis; 11 May 1770 – 20 May 1850) was a sea captain, engineer, inventor and contractor active in the construction of many American lighthouses during the first half of the nineteenth century.

Life and career

A resident of Wellfleet, Massachusetts, Lewis began developing his ideas during the embargo of American shipping during the Napoleonic wars.  He created a new lighting system based on Argand lamps; in 1812 the United States Congress purchased his patent rights for the system. In so doing, it awarded him a contract to equip all American lighthouses with the lamps; the fitting took four years. In 1815 Lewis won another contract with Samuel H. Smith, Commissioner of Revenue, which gave him a monopoly over the provision of winter pressed Spermaceti oil for lighthouses throughout the eastern seaboard. It also allowed him to visit the lighthouses yearly to ensure their smooth operation.

Lewis soon branched out into contracting work, winning bids to build new lighthouses around the country.  When Stephen Pleasonton took over the responsibility for these contracts in 1820 and reorganized the Lighthouse Establishment, Lewis apparently continued his oil supply contract.  Pleasonton began an alliance with Lewis, who was soon being awarded most lighthouse construction deals in the United States.  While demand for the towers was high and funds were short, Pleasonton took great pride in the fact that Lewis was able to complete the work cheaply and rapidly.

Lewis soon had a set of standard plans drawn up to meet demand; these plotted out five different sizes of lighthouses, at 25, 30, 40, 50, and 65 feet high.  Many such towers were built; most were made of brick, but a few were constructed of stone.  But Lewis knew little about proper engineering practices, and most of the lighthouses were either poorly constructed, or they were too short.  Most had to be replaced; only a few survive today.

Little is known of Lewis' later career, but he died in his home town of Wellfleet.  His nephew, I. W. P. Lewis, was also a lighthouse builder and engineer.

See also
 Lewis lamp
 Back River Light
 Bodkin Island Light
 Cat Island Light
 Little Cumberland Island Light
 New Presque Isle Light
 Pass Christian Light
 Sapelo Island Light
 Tchefuncte River Range Lights

References

Further reading
F. Ross Holland, Jr.  America's Lighthouses: Their Illustrated History Since 1716.

External links
Description of lighting system
US Lighthouse Society

1770 births
1850 deaths
American lighthouse keepers
People from Wellfleet, Massachusetts
Lighthouse builders
19th-century American engineers
Architects from Massachusetts
Engineers from Massachusetts
19th-century American architects
19th-century American inventors

Winslow Lewis


Thin layer chromatography (or TLC) is a method by which mixtures are separated into their individual components.

TLC is performed on a TLC plate.  These plates consist of a layer of silica and are usually backed by a thin piece of glass, although other materials like plastic may be used.  The silica coating on the front of the TLC plate is called the stationary phase.

Performing TLC
The process of running a TLC experiment starts with placing a small droplet of liquid analyte near the bottom of the TLC plate.  This is called "spotting" the TLC plate.  Very thin glass tubes are commonly used as spotters.

Once a plate has been spotted, it is placed into a glass container with a small amount of solvent.  This solvent is called the mobile phase.  It is important that the height of the solvent is below the height that the compound was spotted on the plate.  As the solvent moves up the TLC plate by capillary action, the compound will also move.  The compound will be separated into its components based upon each component's attraction for the stationary phase versus the mobile phase.  Components that are attracted to the mobile phase more than they are attracted to the stationary phase will move further up the column.  Attractive forces are based on polarity differences.

The TLC plate should be removed before the solvent reaches the top of the plate.  Separated compounds will sometimes be colored, but further work is often required for analysis.  Many compounds will be illuminated when the TLC plate is placed under an ultraviolet lamp.  TLC plates are also commonly dipped in stains (such as anisaldehyde, potassium permanganate, or iodine) to force a compound to appear on the plate.

Application
TLC is commonly used by organic chemists to monitor the progress of reactions.  The presence of starting material and products may be monitored using a single TLC plate.

Based on the results of a TLC experiment, a larger volume of mixture may be separated by another technique (like column chromatography) using a similar solvent system.  Or, a TLC experiment may be repeated using a different solvent.  Mixtures of solvents may also be used.  Use of different solvents will affect how well individual components are separated on the TLC plate.

Laboratory techniques

Thin layer chromatography


Home for Christmas ni albamu ya pili kutoka kundi la wanamuziki waitwao 'N Sync, iliyotolewa mnamo 10 Novemba 1998. Single ya "Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays" ilipata mafanikio ya kiasi kwenye redio. Ilithibitishwa 2x platinum nchini Marekani na imeuza nakala milioni nne kote duniani.

Nyimbo zake
 "Under My Tree" (Peiken/Roche) – 4:32 Lead Vocals: Justin Timberlake,JC Chasez and Chris Kirkpatrick
 "Home for Christmas" (Haase/Morehead) – 4:28 Lead Vocals:Justin Timberlake and JC Chasez."I Never Knew the Meaning of Christmas" (Rogers/Sturken) – 4:45 Lead Vocals:Justin Timberlake and JC Chasez
 "Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays" (Renn/Chasez/Timberlake) – 4:12 Lead Vocals:JC chasez and Justin Timberlake
 "Guess It's Christmas Time" (Peiken/Bliss) – 3:52 Lead Vocals: Chris Kirkpatrick and JC Chasez
 "All I Want Is You This Christmas" (Briley/Calitri) – 3:43 Lead Vocals:Chris Kirkpatrick,Joey Fatone, JC Chasez and Justin Timberlake
 "The First Noel" (Traditional) – 3:28 Lead Vocals:JC Chasez and Justin Timberlake
 "The Christmas Song" (Mel Tormé/Robert Wells) – 3:15 Lead Vocals:Justin Timberlake and JC Chasez
 "I In Love on Christmas" (Bennett/Hailey/Hailey) – 4:06 Lead Vocals:JC Chasez, Joey Fatone and Justin Timberlake
 "It's Christmas" (Ries/Thomas) – 4:29 Lead Vocals:Joey Fatone,Justin Timberlake and Chris Kirkpatrick. Spoken by Lance Bass
 "O Holy Night" (Traditional, arranged by Robin Wiley)  – 3:33 Lead Vocals: Justin Timberlake, JC Chasez and Chris Kirkpatrick
 "Love's in Our Hearts on Christmas Day" (Haase/Lowell/Werking) – 3:54 Lead Vocals:Justin Timberlake and JC Chasez
 "The Only Gift" (Christensen/Franzell) – 3:51 Lead Vocals:Justin Timberlake, Chris Kirkpatrick,Joey Fatone,Lance Bass, and JC Chasez
 "Kiss Me at Midnight" (Renn/Lamb) – 3:28 Lead Vocals:JC Chasez and Justin Timberlake

Nyimbo zingine za Krismasi
 "I Don't Wanna Spend One More Christmas Without You" (Found on "Now That's What I Call Christmas Vol. 2")
 "You Don't Have to Be Alone (On Christmas)" (Found on "The Grinch" soundtrack)

Marejeo

Albamu za 'N Sync
Albamu za 1998

Home for Christmas


Fred Figglehorn is a fictional character made up by Lucas Cruikshank, a teenager from Columbus, Nebraska.

Fred Figglehorn was first recorded in 2005 and first seen on YouTube in 2006 as a five year old boy. Cruikshank makes his voice sound higher pitched for the Fred character. By April 2009, Fred's YouTube subscription page had over one million subscribers, making him the most subscribed person on YouTube. His peak amount of subscribers was over 3,000,000. The amount has declined since he started working on his films and TV show due to the hiring of writers to make his scripts for him, thus making his videos less funny. As of July 27, 2012, his channel has 1,910,093 subscribers.

In February 2009 Cruikshank worked with Nickelodeon acting in an episode of iCarly and creating the movies Fred: The Movie, Fred 2: Night of the Living Fred and Fred 3: Camp Fred. He also worked with them, creating his own TV show called Fred: The Show.

The Fred Figglehorn franchise has 3 web shows (FЯED, Figgle Chat, and It's FЯED!), 3 movies (FЯED: The Movie, FЯED 2: Night of the Living FЯED and Fred 3: Camp Fred), and a television show (FЯED: The Show). It also has 2 albums (It's Hackin' Christmas with FЯED! and Who's Ready to Party?). It has many types of merchandise, including T-shirts, a talking doll, and many other products.

Movies

FЯED: The Movie
An unpopular, hyper teenage boy named Fred Figglehorn has a crush on a girl named Judy, but is sad to see her singing a romantic duet with his enemy Kevin during a music class. After this, Fred wants to sing a song with Judy, but after trying to sneak his way into her house, he discovers that she has moved. So Fred goes on a journey to find Judy's new house.  While looking, Fred runs into different characters, including a talking deer, a lost childhood friend who had disappeared in the forest years earlier, a neighborhood girl named Bertha who's friends with Fred, and a boy with a personality opposite to his own named Derf.

When he arrives at Judy's home, he discovers that she is hosting a party to which he was never invited. He is bullied by her guests who are bullies of him for his poor social status at school and strange personality. After vomiting on Judy's party dress, Fred leaves the house. He is angry to find that Kevin has posted a video of him vomiting on Judy online, so he decides to throw a party of his own and not invite anybody to get revenge. In order to trick others into believing that he has had a spectacular house party, Fred invites Bertha to his house where they dress up mannequins in different outfits and play around.  After Fred edits the video of the fake party, he posts it on the internet, where his schoolmates watch it and believe that Fred and Bertha actually had a really good party. After watching the video, different students at Fred's school say how awesome Fred and Bertha are (except Kevin, who claims the party was "lame"). Some students say they actually went to the party. Soon, Judy visits Fred's house and asks if the two may sing together, and Fred accepts the request.

FЯED 2: The Night of the Living FЯED
In school, Fred finds out his music teacher, who had trouble hearing, has been replaced by Mr. Devlin. Mr. Devlin cleans up and throws away a hearing aide, which is suspicious. While walking home with his friend, Bertha, he sees a girl, Talia following them. Fred thinks he is being stalked, so he runs home. Later, Fred notices Mr. Devlin is his new neighbor. Fred is now afraid of Mr. Devlin, thinking he may be a vampire.

At school, Devlin asks everyone to join a musical community. Fred thinks that Devlin is trying to turn everyone into a vampire by having them take his lessons, and everyone is joining. That night, Fred spies on him and sees him burying what he believes is a body. Meanwhile, Talia vanishes, making him think she was a ghost.  Kevin's mom then invites them to a party. It is then found out that Talia is Kevin's sister. The next day, Mr. Devlin, takes Fred's mom on a date. This worries Fred.

Fred asks Bertha to help prove Mr. Devlin is a vampire. Fred and Bertha spy on Mr. Devlin and Fred's mom at a restaurant.  Mr. Devlin orders a bloody steak making Bertha more suspicious. Later that night, Fred falls from his window because Mr. Devlin sees him as he is trying to get away. Later, Fred goes around and puts up crucifixes to fend off Devlin, as vampires hate all things holy. Derf tells Fred to face his fears and defeat Devlin, so Fred buys garlic sauce. At the piano recital that night, Fred squirts the garlic sauce on everyone, including Talia.

Afterwards, Mr. Devlin invites him to his house for dinner so that they can "bury the hatchet". Fred sets up a live video stream from his phone so he can prove that Devlin is a vampire. Inside Devlin's house, Fred discovers a secret butchers' room behind a wall filled with meat and bones. Devlin creeps in with a long knife and a tall head-dress, scaring Fred.  Fred then drops his phone into a pot of boiling liquid. The video freezes on Devlin. This image of Devlin in his headdress makes everyone who sees it think that he is a vampire. But after Devlin talks about his weird hobbies, Fred now begins to like Devlin.

Everyone at school sees his video, so they believe that Devlin is a vampire, too. He runs to Devlin's house to apologize but Devlin is too depressed to answer. Mr. Devlin gets fired and says that he will have to sell his house and move. Fred feels guilty and tries to fix things by making them think he is the vampire. Bertha and Talia both help, as Talia reveals how much she hates her brother. Kevin and his friends go to Devlin's house because they think he has Talia. Devlin tells them that vampires are not real, but Bertha comes out and says, "Vampires are real, but it's not Devlin. It's him!" Then, Fred walks out of the garage carrying Talia, threatening to turn her into a vampire too. Bertha makes Kevin stab Fred, and he gets sprayed with fake blood. Devlin sees Fred and accepts his apology. Devlin says he quit his job and sold his house of his own choice.  Then, as Fred's mom and Devlin are going out for dinner, Fred looks in the mirror and sees that Mr. Devlin has no reflection. This means he was a vampire after all, and Fred screams in terror as the movie ends.

FRED 3: Camp FRED
There is a third Fred film called Fred 3: Camp Fred. It was shown on Nickelodeon on July 28, 2012. Fred is stuck at Camp IWannapeepee as his mom signed him up for the wrong camp as he quickly befriends two campers as they must win this year's Summer Camp Games and beat Camp Superior, where Kevin is a camper.

Shows

TV

FЯED: The Show
FЯED: The Show (where Mr. Figglehorn (Fred's abusive imaginary/make-believe father) (played by John Cena) didn't appear), is a Nickelodeon show starring Lucas Cruikshank as Fred. A preview aired on January 16, 2012 and another aired on February 20, 2012. The show itself was aired the same day as the second preview. The show came to production after the success of Fred 2: Night of the Living Fred. So far, 18 episodes have aired and had to stop production for the release for the third film, but new episodes will air on July 30, 2012.

Online

FЯED
Fred is the original web show Fred started out with. There are 4 seasons. Each one seems to have a kind of different style than the one before. In Season 1, Fred has a blue shirt. In Season 2, his shirt is red (because his grandma put a red sock in the laundry and the color ran). In Season 3, his shirt somehow becomes blue again. Season 4 is in HD and features Fred in many different places besides his house.

Figgle Chat
Figgle Chat is a talk show series Fred made where he interviews special guests (such as "Barack Obama", Hunter Hunterson, and Perez Hilton).

It's FЯED
This web show is an animated version of Fred's world. The first episode ("Fred gets Animated part 1) was posted on November 17, 2011. The second part ("Fred gets Animated part 2") was posted on November 24, 2011.

Music

It's Hackin' Christmas with Fred

Who's Ready to Party?

References

Other websites
Fred's Youtube Channel

Movie characters
YouTube
Webcomics

Fred Figglehorn


Mercutio is a character in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. He is a young man and friend to Romeo. When Romeo declines to participate in a duel with a family enemy, Mercutio takes Romeo's place and is killed as Romeo tries to end the duel. Mercutio is a talkative young man. His most famous speech is the Queen Mab speech.

Characters in Shakespeare's plays

Mercutio


The Victorian Heritage Register is a list of places of cultural heritage important to the State of Victoria, Australia. It has legal powers under the Heritage Act 1995. Heritage Victoria is the government department which is responsible for the register. It protects a wide range of cultural heritage places and objects, including:
 historic archaeological sites and objects
 historic buildings, structures and areas
 gardens, trees and cemeteries
 cultural landscapes
 shipwrecks and relics
 important objects and collections

Heritage Victoria is part of the Department of Planning and Community Development, a department of the Government of Victoria, Australia. Heritage Victoria reports to the Heritage Council who decide which places and items should be on the register.  The Minister for Planning is the responsible Minister for Heritage Victoria and the Heritage Act 1995.

It lists important buildings and other places in Victoria. It gives legal protection to stop listed sites being destroyed or changed. Removing an item from the list can only be done by a government minister.

All places and objects listed on the register are entitled to a blue sign.
.

References

Other websites
 Heritage Victoria website
  Heritage Act 1995

Victoria, Australia
History of Australia

Victorian Heritage Register


Wisdom literature is a genre of literature that was common in the  ancient Near East. Wisdom literature is about sayings of wisdom that teach about divinity and wisdom. The story-telling used is the same than in other forms of literature. Wisdom literature  tells the reader has about how nature is made, and what reality is.
There are two kinds of wisdom literature:
Sayings
Speculative wisdom literature
Sayings are generalized. Speculative wisdom literature are about a person, and its relationship to questions such as the meaning of life, suffering or the relationship between that person and a deity.

Christianity
The Jews sometimes say the Old Testament is the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings. Included inside the Writings are Psalms and wisdom materials like Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes. These wisdom books are related to certain people called "wise men" who were an important part of Israelite society. ()

Examples
The collection of Ptah-Hotep, dated to about 2450 BC.
In the second half of the second millennium BC, there are a number of writings from Ugarit, Emar and other centres in Western Syria
Certain books of the Bible are classified as Wisdom literature
Mirrors for princes writings have a long history in Islamic and Western literature. These writings are secular though.
In Classical Antiquity there was "advice poetry", for example Hesiod's Works and Days

Religious literature

Wisdom literature


A movie or film is a type of visual art that uses images and sounds to tell stories or teach people something. Most people watch movies to entertain themselves or to have fun. Some movies can make people laugh, but other movies can make them cry, or make them feel afraid.

Overview

Most movies are made so they can be watched at home or on a movie screen at movie theaters. Movies are shown in movie theaters a few weeks or months after or before the movie is released. Movies can be marketed using media. Movies are shown on pay television or cable television, or are sold or rented on DVD disks or videocassette tapes, so that people can watch the movies at home. Movies can also be downloaded or streamed. Some movies are shown on television broadcasting stations.

Movies are filmed with movie cameras or video cameras. Movie cameras take pictures very quickly, and they usually take 24 or 25 pictures, or frames every second. When a movie projector, a computer, or a television shows the pictures at 24 frames a second, it looks like the things shown in the set of pictures are moving. Sound is usually recorded at the same time as the pictures are, but sometimes they are added later. The sounds in a movie are usually people talking, the soundtrack, and sound effects. In the 20th century the camera used photographic film.

Making movies
Most movies start to be made when a screenwriter writes a script, which is the story of the movie with dialogue and words and things that the actors will say and do. A producer hires people to work on the movie and gets the money that will be used to pay for the actors and the equipment. Producers usually get the money by borrowing it from a bank or by asking investors to give money to them. Some producers work for a movie studio, but other producers work by themselves.

Actors and directors read scripts to learn what to say and what to do. The actors learn the words from the script that they will say in the movie, and learn the things that the script tells them to do. Then, the director tells the actors what to do and a cameraman takes the film of them saying the words with a film camera.

When the filming is done, an editor makes the film play after each other, which makes a story. Audio engineers and sound engineers record music and singing and combine it with the film. When the movie is done, many copies of the movie are made by movie labs and put onto film reels. Then the reels are sent to movie theaters. A projector shines a very bright light through the film, and people sitting in a dark room see it on a big screen.

Types of movies
A genre means a type of movie. Movies can be fictional, or non-fictional. Even though hundreds of movies are made every year, there are not like another movie. Some movies can be two or more genres.
 Action movies are movies where the main character is in a dangerous situation, and the movies usually have a lot of violent things, like explosions, blood, and fight scenes. In Die Hard, terrorists take control of a skyscraper and ask for a big ransom. If they are given the ransom, they won't killing the people who work in the skyscraper, who are called hostages.
 Adventure movies usually have a hero who go on long journeys to fight big things, like dragons.
 Animated movies use drawn images like cartoons to tell a story. These movies used to be drawn by hand, one frame at a time, but they are usually now made on computers. They can be 2D animated or 3D animated.
 Buddy movies involve two friends. Buddy movies usually have comedy. Buddy cop movies are a common theme.
 Comedies are movies about funny scenarios that characters might be in.
 Comedy horror movies blend horror and comic motifs in its plots. Movies in this genre sometimes use black comedy as the main form of humor.
 Documentaries are non-fiction movies that are (or claim to be) about real people and real events. They are nearly always serious and may involve strongly emotional subjects, for example cruelty.
 Dramas are serious, and often about people falling in love or needing to make a big decision in their life. They tell stories about relationships between people. They usually follow a basic plot where one or two main characters (each actor plays a character) have to 'overcome' (get past) an obstacle (the thing stopping them) to get what they want.
 Family movies are made to be okay for children to watch. Disney is famous for their family movies.
 Fantasy movies include magical and impossible things that any real human being cannot do.
 Film noir movies are 1940s-era detective dramas about crime and violence.
 Horror movies use fear to excite the audience. Music, lighting and sets (man-made places in movie studios where the movie is made) are all designed to add to the feeling.
 Romantic Comedies, also called "Rom-Com"s are usually stories about 2 people who fall in love, and do funny things or have funny things happen to them.
 Science fiction movies are fiction and also have a lot of science, and have machines that can not be built in real life yet.
 Sports movies tells stories that involve sports. They are often a form of drama where athletes must overcome some issue.
 Suspense movies makes the audience stressed. They usually have multiple twists that confuse the people watching the movie
 Thrillers are usually about a mystery, strange event, or crime that needs to be solved. The audience is kept guessing until the final minutes, when there are usually 'twists' in the plot (surprises).
 Tragedies are a type of dramas. They are about people in trouble. For example, a husband and wife who are divorcing must each try to prove to a court of law that they are the best person to take care of their child. Emotion (feelings) are a big part of the movie and the audience (people watching the movie) may get upset and even cry.
 War is a movie genre concerned with warfare. They are normally about naval, air or land battles. They have combat scenes central to the story. These stories are most commonly set in the 20th century.
 Western movies tell stories about cowboys in the western United States in the 1870s and 1880s. They are usually action movies, but with historical costumes. Some involve Native Americans. Not all movies that are set in the American West are made there. For example, Western films made in Italy are called Spaghetti Westerns. Some films can also use Western plots even if they are set in other places.

Business of making movies
Most movies lose money but some make up to hundreds of millions. In India movies have become an enormous part of the economy. The industry has always been led by a few major movie studios like MGM/UA, Warner Bros., Columbia, Paramount, or Disney.

Elements
There are many large companies that provide all of the services needed to make movies, such as special effects, lighting, set building. Many of these employees belong to trade unions who say how much their members must be paid. A large number of smaller companies also offer services, such as music studios (which record the music for original movie sound tracks) and CGI computer animation.

Distribution
Finally there are movie distribution companies (Which send movies around the world or around a country), and advertising companies (Showing people who may watch the movie so they do it.)

Movies with famous stars (actors who are well known) and large budgets (lots of money), are designed to have a large appeal (something a person would like about the, so that hopefully millions of people will pay to see them. These most expensive movies are called blockbusters.

Special effects can add a huge amount to the cost of a movie, especially the newest CGI effects, but people have come to expect them and every blockbuster movie tries to outdo the last. Even in 2008, some movies cost up to $200 million to make.

Very successful movies can make many times that amount in profit, and that's why the studios keep producing them. This kind of movie will have a lot of promotion (getting the movie into the public.) through television advertising, billboards and internet sites.

Blockbuster
In blockbuster movies, there is usually a happy ending, in which all of the problems in the plot (story) are figured out or fixed and almost everyone (except the bad guys) live happily ever after. Some movies have been so successful that the studios keep releasing more and more sequels, or movies with the same characters and basic plots.

Indie films
At the opposite end of the scale to the blockbuster, there is the independent, art, or Indie movie. These are usually made by small movie companies, or even just a small group of people that do not have much money. An example is The Blair Witch Project, which cost only about $60,000, but which has so far taken perhaps $200 million in ticket and DVD sales. Movies like this are very unusual and usually become popular 'underground' (word of mouth advertising), so that they have a cult following, or popular but not mainstream.

Independent movies often tell more creative or unusual (strange) stories, or may have sad endings that do not appeal to the big studios, because they can not be sure how the public will react to them. They rarely make a lot of money, but if they are successful, the big studios will quickly try to get the people involved to sign a contract with them, by offering them a lot of money to make another movie. Often the new movie, with its big budget and its stars will be less successful than the first.

The Oscars
Some movies received Oscar nominations, and wins. Also, some actors and actresses received Oscar nominations, and wins.

Age appropriate ratings
Movies have age appropriateness. Some examples include G, PG, PG 13, and R.

Related pages
 Big Ten (movie studios), America's ten largest movie studios

References

Other websites

 The Internet Movie Database
 Rotten Tomatoes – Movie reviews.
 Yahoo! Movies
 Allmovie.com
 The Movie Database

Movie


The debt service coverage ratio (DSCR), known as "debt coverage ratio" (DCR), is a financial metric used to assess an entity's ability to generate enough cash to cover its debt service obligations. These obligations include interest, principal, and lease payments. The DSCR is calculated by dividing the operating income available for debt service by the total amount of debt service due.

A higher DSCR indicates that an entity has a greater ability to service its debts, making it easier for it to obtain loans. Banks and lenders often use a minimum DSCR ratio as a condition in the covenant, and a breach can sometimes be considered an act of default.

Uses
In corporate finance, DSCR refers to the amount of cash flow available to meet annual interest and principal payments on debt, including sinking fund payments.

In personal finance, DSCR refers to a ratio used by bank loan officers in determining debt servicing ability.

In commercial real estate finance, DSCR is the primary measure to determine if a property will be able to sustain its debt based on cash flow.  In the late 1990s and early 2000s banks typically required a DSCR of at least 1.2, but more aggressive banks would accept lower ratios, a risky practice that contributed to the Financial crisis of 2007–2010.  A DSCR over 1 means that (in theory, as calculated to bank standards and assumptions) the entity generates sufficient cash flow to pay its debt obligations. A DSCR below 1.0 indicates that there is not enough cash flow to cover loan payments. In certain industries where non-recourse project finance is used, a Debt Service Reserve Account is commonly used to ensure that loan repayment can be met even in periods with DSCR<1.0

Calculation
In general, it is calculated by:

where:

To calculate an entity's debt coverage ratio, you first need to determine the entity's net operating income (NOI). NOI is the difference between gross revenue and operating expenses. NOI is meant to reflect the true income of an entity or an operation without or before financing. Thus, not included in operating expenses are financing costs (e.g. interests from loans), personal income tax of owners/investors, capital expenditure and depreciation.

Debt Service are costs and payments related to financing. Interests and lease payments are true costs resulting from taking loans or borrowing assets. Paying down the principal of a loan does not change the net equity/liquidation value of an entity; however, it reduces the cash an entity processes (in exchange of decreasing loan liability or increasing equity in an asset). Thus, by accounting for principal payments, DSCR reflects the cash flow situation of an entity.

For example, if a property has a debt coverage ratio of less than one, the income that property generates is not enough to cover the mortgage payments and the property's operating expenses. A property with a debt coverage ratio of .8 only generates enough income to pay for 80 percent of the yearly debt payments. However, if a property has a debt coverage ratio of more than 1, the property does generate enough income to cover annual debt payments. For example, a property with a debt coverage ratio of 1.5 generates enough income to pay all of the annual debt expenses, all of the operating expenses and actually generates fifty percent more income than is required to pay these bills.

A DSCR of less than 1 would mean a negative cash flow. A DSCR of less than 1, say .95,  would mean that there is only enough net operating income to cover 95% of annual debt payments. For example, in the context of personal finance, this would mean that the borrower would have to delve into his or her personal funds every month to keep the project afloat. Generally, lenders frown on a negative cash flow, but some allow it if the borrower has strong outside income.

Typically, most commercial banks require the ratio of    to ensure cash flow sufficient to cover loan payments is available on an ongoing basis.

Example
Let's say Mr. Jones is looking at an investment property with a net operating income of  and an annual debt service of . The debt coverage ratio for this property would be 1.2 and Mr. Jones would know the property generates 20 percent more than is required to pay the annual mortgage payment.

The Debt Service Ratio is also typically used to evaluate the quality
of a portfolio of mortgages.  For example, on June 19, 2008, a popular
US rating agency, Standard & Poors, reported that it lowered its credit
rating on several classes of pooled commercial mortgage pass-through
certificates originally issued by Bank of America.  The rating agency
stated in a press release that it had lowered the credit ratings of
four certificates in the Bank of America Commercial Mortgage Inc.
2005–1 series, stating that the downgrades "reflect the credit
deterioration of the pool".  They further go on to state that this
downgrade resulted from the fact that eight specific loans in the
pool have a debt service coverage (DSC) below 1.0x, or below one
times.

The Debt Service Ratio, or debt service coverage, provides a useful
indicator of financial strength.  Standard & Poors reported that
the total pool consisted, as of June 10, 2008, of 135 loans, with
an aggregate trust balance of .
They indicate that
there were, as of that date, eight loans with a DSC of lower than
1.0x.  This means that the net funds coming in from rental of the
commercial properties are not covering the mortgage costs.  Now,
since no one would make a loan like this initially, a financial
analyst or informed investor will seek information on what the
rate of deterioration of the DSC has been.  You want to know not
just what the DSC is at a particular point in time, but also how
much it has changed from when the loan was last evaluated.  The
S&P press release tells us this.
It indicates that of the eight loans which are "underwater",
they have an average balance of
million, and an average decline in DSC of 38% since the loans
were issued.

And there is still more.  Since there are a total of 135 loans in
the pool, and only eight of them are underwater, with a DSC of
less than 1, the obvious question is: what is the total DSC of the
entire pool of 135 loans?  The Standard and Poors press release
provides this number, indicating that the weighted average DSC
for the entire pool is 1.76 .
Again, this is just a snapshot now.
The key question that DSC can help you answer,
is this better or worse, from when all the loans in the pool were
first made?   The S&P press release provides this also, explaining
that the original weighted average DSC for the entire pool of 135
loans was 1.66 .

In this way, the DSC (debt service coverage) ratio provides a way to assess the financial quality, and the associated risk level, of this pool of loans, and shows the surprising result that despite some loans experiencing DSC below 1, the overall DSC of the entire pool has improved, from 1.66  to 1.76 .  This is pretty much what
a good loan portfolio should look like, with DSC improving over
time, as the loans are paid down, and a small percentage, in this
case 6%, experiencing DSC ratios below one times, suggesting that
for these loans, there may be trouble ahead.

And of course, just because the DSCR is less than 1 for some loans,
this does not necessarily mean they will default.

Pre-Tax Provision Method

Income taxes present a special problem to DSCR calculation and interpretation. While, in concept, DSCR is the ratio of cash flow available for debt service to required debt service, in practice – because interest is a tax-deductible expense and principal is not – there is no one figure that represents an amount of cash generated from operations that is both fully available for debt service and the only cash available for debt service.

While Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA) is an appropriate measure of a company's ability to make interest-only payments (assuming that expected change in working capital is zero), EBIDA (without the "T") is a more appropriate indicator of a company's ability to make required principal payments. Ignoring these distinctions can lead to DSCR values that overstate or understate a company's debt service capacity. The Pre-Tax Provision Method provides a single ratio that expresses overall debt service capacity reliably given these challenges.

Debt Service Coverage Ratio as calculated using the Pre-Tax Provision Method answers the following question: How many times greater was the company's EBITDA than its critical EBITDA value, where critical EBITDA is that which just covers its
Interest obligations + Principal obligations + Tax Expense assuming minimum sufficient income + Other necessary expenditures not treated as accounting expenses, like dividends and CAPEX.

The DSCR calculation under the Pre-Tax Provision Method is
,
where Pre-tax Provision for Post-tax Outlays is the amount of pretax cash that must be set aside to meet required post-tax outlays, i.e.,
CPLTD + (Unfinanced CAPEX) + Dividends.
The provision can be calculated as follows:

If (noncash expenses depreciation) + (depletion) + (amortization) > (post-tax outlays), then
(Pretax provision for post-tax outlays) = (Post-tax outlays)

For example, if a company's post-tax outlays consist of CPLTD of  and  in unfinanced CAPEX, and its noncash expenses are ,
then the company can apply  of cash inflow from operations to post-tax outlays without paying taxes on that  cash inflow. In this case, the pretax cash that the borrower must set aside for post-tax outlays would simply be .

If (post-tax outlays) > (noncash expenses), then
(Pretax provision for post-tax outlays) = (Noncash expenses) +

For example, if post-tax outlays consist of CPLTD of  and noncash expenses are , then the borrower can apply  of cash inflow
from operations directly against  of post-tax outlays without paying taxes on that  inflow, but the company must set aside
(assuming a 35% income tax rate) to meet the remaining  of post-tax outlays. This company's pretax provision for post-tax outlays =  +  = .

See also
LLCR
Operating leverage
Project Finance

References

Financial ratios
Commercial real estate
Credit

Debt service coverage ratio


Concepción is a ceety in northren Paraguay an caipital o the Concepción Department. It lies on the Paraguay River.

Foondit bi a Spainyie Governor, named Agustín Fernado de Pinedo, the toun prospered in the early years o the 20t century, as a centre for the north o the kintra, exploitin the new wealth o the Gran Chaco, an a river port. The toun wis an aa a centre for the Paraguayan Civil War o 1947. The ceety is the seat o the Roman Catholic Diocese o Concepción en Paraguay.

Populatit places in Paraguay
Populatit places established in 1773

Concepción, Paraguay