In the past, many rulers in south and southeast Asia had people crushed by elephants as a death penalty. This was common for more than 4000 years.  The Romans and Carthaginians also sometimes did this.

The elephant would step upon the head of the condemned, the one commanded to die. Usually, handlers trained the elephant to put its large foot gently on the person's head. At this point, witnesses looked under the elephant's foot to make sure the prisoner was the one who committed the crime. Often, the condemned would scream and beg the witnesses to say it was not him.  If a witness stated this was not the criminal, they would probably commit perjury.  Perjury means lying at a trial.  In those days rulers could punish perjury with death.  Few witnesses denied the condemned was the criminal, because then the elephant may crush them instead.  Then the mahout, or elephant driver, gave the order, and the elephant would push down with its weight.  The skull broke and the foot crushed the head flat.

Sometimes, the elephant would drag the condemned through streets before the crushing.  Some elephants crushed the arms and legs first, to increase the pain.

Locations
Most rajahs, Indian rulers, kept elephants for death by crushing.  The public could often see the deaths; this was the rulers' warning not to commit a crime. Many of the elephants were very large, weighing more than nine tons. Rulers wanted crushing by elephant to be bloody and gross. Some rulers in history condemned children, too.

Many rulers in South Asia used elephants as executioners, ones who put the condemned to death. One nonreligious Mogul Emperor, Akbar (1547-1605), used his favorite elephant as a judge, too. Akbar ruled in the city of Agra from 1570-1585.  He believed that his favorite elephant could know who was guilty. He put thousands of people to death this way.  Even when the crimes were minor, he sent them to the elephant. Elephant handlers staked them before the great elephant and tried to convince it to step on them.  The huge elephant crushed most, but sometimes refused. Akbar believed this proved their innocence and then released them.

Different regions crushed people by elephant in different ways.  One region put people inside of a bag, so they would not have to watch what was about to happen. Then, the elephant would crush the bag flat with the condemned inside. In another region, people made the condemned watch the elephant slowly come from far away.  Its huge feet kept coming closer. Sometimes, they buried the condemned to the neck.  The elephant would come and step on the head. Some places made the condemned put his head on a special stand.  The stand had fountains on the sides where brains and blood would flow when the elephant pressed down its huge foot.

Military use
For hundreds of years, people used elephants for military purposes.  Death under the foot of an elephant was common for people who left the army or prisoners as well as for military criminals.

History in writing
There are few records about crushing by elephant.  Many records were lost. The British wrote about about it during their long rule of India.

Robert Knox was an English traveler.  He wrote about a Sri Lankan crushing in 1681.

The King makes use of them for Executioners; they will run their Teeth through the body, and then taer (sic) it in pieces, and throw it limb from limb. They have sharp Iron with a socket with three edges, which they put on their Teeth at such times...(An Historical Relation Of the Island Ceylon, Robert Knox, London, 1681)

History of Asia
Capital punishment

Crushing by elephant


The 1810 Act of Succession () is one of four Fundamental Laws of the Realm () and thus forms part of the Swedish Constitution. The Act regulates the line of succession to the Swedish throne and the conditions which eligible members of the Swedish royal family must abide by in order to remain in it.

It was jointly adopted by the Riksdag of the Estates, convened in Örebro on 26 September 1810, and Charles XIII, as a logical consequence following the election on 21 August of Jean Baptiste Bernadotte as Crown Prince.

The actual contents of the Act, save the solemn preamble, has been thoroughly rewritten over the years: the most notable change occurred in 1980 when the core principle of agnatic primogeniture (male succession only) was changed in favor of absolute primogeniture (eldest child regardless of sex).

Historical background
The Act of Succession was adopted by the Riksdag of the Estates assembled at Örebro in 1810, upon electing Charles XIV John (Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte) as the heir to King Charles XIII. This happened at a tumultuous time for Sweden, as only one year earlier the former king, Gustav IV Adolf (and his sons) had been deposed and replaced by his childless uncle, Charles XIII. At the same time the Finnish War was coming to an end and Finland, then a part of Sweden proper, was held by Russia. The authoritarian constitution of 1772 was abolished and power was returned to parliament by the new Instrument of Government adopted on 6 June 1809. From 1814 to 1905 the Act of Succession also regulated succession to the Norwegian throne, due to the union of Sweden-Norway.

Provisions
The Act in the current version specifies that:
 Only children born in wedlock may inherit the Throne.
 Only the descendants of Carl XVI Gustaf may inherit the Throne.
 A prince or princess in the line of succession shall belong to and profess the "pure evangelical faith", as defined in the Unaltered Augsburg Confession and the Uppsala Synod of 1593, i.e. by implication the Church of Sweden.
 The offspring of an approved marriage must be brought up within Sweden.
 A prince or princess may not marry and remain in the line of succession without having received consent, upon application of the Monarch, from the Government of Sweden.
 A prince or princess is also prevented from becoming monarch of another country, either by election or marriage, without the consent of the Monarch and the Government.
If any of these provisions are violated: all rights of succession for the person concerned and all descendants are lost.

Changes
In its original version, the Act mandated that a Swedish prince could only marry into families deemed to be of equal rank, or forfeit for himself and his future descendants all dynastic rights. The key wording was a prohibition of marrying a "private man's daughter" (), a term which in Swedish jurisprudence was understood to exclude all non-royal persons, including the aristocracy. In 1937 the statutory provision which in effect had required a spouse of royal birth was changed and the prohibition only extended to a "private Swedish man's daughter" ().

A total of five Swedish princes lost their style of HRH, title as Prince of Sweden, personal Ducal title, and all rights of succession to the throne because they violated the uncompromisable constitutional provision, regardless of whether the King-in-Council did consent or not: Oscar in 1888, Lennart in 1932, Sigvard in 1934, Carl in 1937 and Carl Johan in 1946. There is since 1980 no statutory limitation, based on either nationality or royal rank, on whom a prince or princess can marry, apart from the fact that permission must be granted.

In 1980, the rule of succession was changed from agnatic primogeniture to absolute primogeniture. This change in effect made Victoria (born 1977) heir apparent and Crown Princess, passing over her younger brother Prince Carl Philip (born 1979) who had been the heir apparent and Crown Prince for less than one year.

See also
1809 Instrument of Government
List of Swedish monarchs
Monarchy of Sweden

References

Act of Succession – at the Riksdag

External links

1810 in law
1810 in Sweden
Swedish monarchy
Constitution of Sweden
Succession acts
1810 in politics

Swedish Act of Succession


60S acidic ribosomal protein P2 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the RPLP2 gene.

Ribosomes, the organelles that catalyze protein synthesis, consist of a small 40S subunit and a large 60S subunit. Together these subunits are composed of 4 RNA species and approximately 80 structurally distinct proteins. This gene encodes a ribosomal phosphoprotein that is a component of the 60S subunit. The protein, which is a functional equivalent of the Escherichia coli L7/L12 ribosomal protein, belongs to the L12P family of ribosomal proteins. It plays an important role in the elongation step of protein synthesis. Unlike most ribosomal proteins, which are basic, the encoded protein is acidic. Its C-terminal end is nearly identical to the C-terminal ends of the ribosomal phosphoproteins P0 and P1. The P2 protein can interact with P0 and P1 to form a pentameric complex consisting of P1 and P2 dimers, and a P0 monomer. The protein is located in the cytoplasm. As is typical for genes encoding ribosomal proteins, there are multiple processed pseudogenes of this gene dispersed through the genome.

Interactions
RPLP2 has been shown to interact with RPLP1.

References

Further reading

Ribosomal proteins

60S acidic ribosomal protein P2


A taco truck is a truck that sells tacos and other types of Mexican food.  Some taco trucks also deal in fusion cuisine.  It is one of the most common types of food trucks.  In most taco trucks, the food is made in the truck.  Taco trucks and other food trucks are common around colleges, as college students often eat at them.  Though there are taco trucks all over the world, they are most often seen in Los Angeles and other Mexican-American cities.  In many cities, such as Los Angeles, regular restaurants have tried to shut down taco trucks.  This is because taco trucks sell food at a lower price than many restaurants.  Taco trucks have been criticized in the past for being dirty and unhealthy, but this is not the case anymore. Chicago is the only city in the United States which does not allow cooking on food trucks but Taquero Fusion, Chicago's Original Taco Truck, managed to figure out a way to provide gourmet tacos to their customers.

Related pages
Food truck

Mexican food
Trucks

Taco truck


Egburt E. Woodbury (March 29, 1861 – March 13, 1920) was an American lawyer and politician.

Life
He was born on March 29, 1861, in Cherry Creek, Chautauqua County, New York. He attended the common schools, and Chamberlain Institute in Randolph. Then he studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1884, and practiced in Jamestown.

He was elected a Justice of the Peace in 1886. He was a member of the New York State Assembly in 1891, 1892 (both Chautauqua Co., 2nd D.) and 1893 (Chautauqua Co.); Surrogate of Chautauqua County from 1901 to 1905; and a State Tax Commissioner from 1906 on.

He was New York Attorney General from 1915 to 1917, elected at the New York state election, 1914, and re-elected at the New York state election, 1916. He resigned on April 19, 1917, due to ill health, and was succeeded by his First Deputy Attorney General Merton E. Lewis.

He died on March 13, 1920, in Jamestown, New York.

Sources
History of Jamestown, NY at history.rays-place.com History of Jamestown
New York State Legislative Souvenir by Henry K. Phelps (1893; pg. 65)
 His appointment as tax commissioner, in NYT on January 2, 1906
 His appointments for deputies, in NYT on December 19, 1914
 His resignation, in NYT on April 20, 1917
 Merton Lewis declined renomination, in NYT on May 7, 1918
 Obit notice in NYT on March 14, 1920

1861 births
1920 deaths
Politicians from Jamestown, New York
New York State Attorneys General
Republican Party members of the New York State Assembly

Egburt E. Woodbury


Lawrence Ingalls Buell (born 1939) is Powell M. Cabot Professor of American Literature Emeritus at Harvard University, specialist on antebellum American literature and a pioneer of Ecocriticism. He is the 2007 recipient of the Jay Hubbell Medal for Lifetime Achievement in American Literary studies, the "highest professional award that the American Literature Section of the MLA can give."  He won the 2003 Warren-Brooks Award for outstanding literary criticism for his 2003 book on Ralph Waldo Emerson. His Writing for an Endangered World won the 2001 John G. Cawelti Award for the best book in the field of American Culture Studies. He retired from Harvard in 2011.

Life and work
Professor Buell earned an A.B. at Princeton University in 1961 before enrolling at Cornell University for his Ph.D., which he was awarded in 1966.  He was assistant professor and then professor at Oberlin College from 1966 until he moved to Harvard in 1990. He was a Guggenheim Foundation fellow, 1987-1988.

Buell served as the Harvard College Dean of Undergraduate Education from 1992–1996, and later chaired the Department of English and American Literature and Languages.   He also served on the graduate committee for degrees in the study of American Civilization.

Both the Boston Globe and the Harvard Crimson have regularly requested commentary from Buell for published articles concerning his views on undergraduate life.  His term as Dean of Undergraduate Education and previous affiliation with Oberlin College are two important influences on his outlook on undergraduate education, as he is more focused on undergraduate concerns than many of his colleagues at large, research-based universities. His tenure as Dean of Undergraduate Education was unusual in setting the precedent of weekly, walk-in office hours open to all students.

Harvard College Professorship
Buell was part of the first class of Harvard College Professorships in 1998, a now-annual award "created to recognize those especially dedicated to undergraduate teaching" at Harvard University. The award comes with "support to aid the recipient's professional development in the form of a semester of paid leave, or commensurate summer pay, or an equivalent fund to support their scholarly work."  Said Buell, "To be recognized publicly for what one considers inherently most important in one's professional life is by no means to be taken for granted, and I am very grateful...Never during my eight years at Harvard have I taught an undergraduate course that I didn't enjoy teaching."

Little Lulu goes to Harvard
Buell's mother, Marjorie Henderson Buell, was the creator of the Little Lulu cartoon series, begun in the 1930s. In July 2006, Buell and his brother Fred donated the "Marge Papers," to the Schlesinger Library at Harvard. The papers include a collection of fan letters, comic books, scrapbooks of high points in Lulu's history, and a complete set of the newspaper cartoons.

The then-President of Harvard University and then-Dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study Drew Gilpin Faust suggested the donation after discovering that "Marge" was Buell's mother. Said Faust, "I was a big Little Lulu fan when I was a kid...[the donation] was a really exciting possibility. His mother was clearly a pathbreaker, both in her creativity in designing the cartoon, the artistry involved, and the proto-feminism in this tough little girl."

Buell's brother Fred is a published poet and literary critic, and is a professor at Queens College, New York.

Research interests
Buell's research interests include the following: Rethinking U. S. Literature in a Globalizing World, Discourses of Literature and Environment, Theory of National Fiction, Transmutations of Genre in Anglophone Writing, Literature and/of Friendship.

Transcendentalism

Emerson
Buell's 2003 book, Emerson, was published on the eve of Ralph Waldo Emerson's 200th birthday. The book won critical acclaim, picking up the 2003 Warren-Brooks Award soon after publication.

According to the jury, Buell was selected "for a book worthy of both the great philosopher he chose as his topic and of the Brooks and Warren tradition of excellence in literary criticism." The jury added: "In an elegant, clear-speaking style, notably free of pretentious academic jargon, Dr. Buell cogently assesses Emerson's radically original contributions to fields of thought as disparate as science, politics, religion, philosophy, literature and social action."

"I am honored that my 'Emerson' has been chosen as this year's recipient of the Warren-Brooks Award," Buell said. "I also confess to being somewhat bemused and surprised," he added, "that a book about a New England icon toward whom both Mr. Warren and Mr. Brooks felt distinctly ambivalent would be honored in their name, especially considering that only one of its seven chapters is exclusively devoted to Emerson's accomplishment as a creative writer. So for that particular book to be awarded this prize in particular seems deliciously ironic." Buell added, "On the other hand, Emerson always aspired to be a poet first and foremost, and it's no less true that Brooks and Warren were my own first and foremost instructors in the art of reading literary texts. I take the judge's verdict as heartening evidence that Emerson did not aspire in vain, and that my early training somehow managed to stick."

Ecocriticism
He is widely considered a pioneer of Ecocriticism, although his 2005 book The Future of Environmental Criticism uses "Environmental Criticism" in lieu of ecocriticism in both the title and preface to the book, claiming his usage as a "strategic ambiguity" which distances his work from a "cartoon image" of the field "no longer applicable today, if indeed it ever really was."

Bibliography
Literary Transcendentalism (1973)
New England Literary Culture (1986)
The Environmental Imagination: Thoreau, Nature Writing, and the Formation of American Culture, Harvard University Press (1995)
Writing for an Endangered World: Literature, Culture, and Environment in the United States and Beyond, Harvard University Press (2001)
Emerson, Harvard University Press (2003)
The Future of Environmental Criticism: Environmental Crisis and Literary Imagination (2005)
The American Transcendentalists (2006) Editor
Shades of the Planet: American Literature as World Literature (2007) Editor with Wai Chee Dimock
The Dream of the Great American Novel, Harvard University Press (2014)

External links
The Environmental Imagination at Harvard University Press
Writing for an Endangered World at Harvard University Press
Emerson at Harvard University Press
'2007 Hubbell Award Citation and Acceptance Speech

References

1939 births
Living people
Princeton University alumni
American literary critics
Cornell University alumni
Harvard University faculty
Oberlin College faculty

Lawrence Buell


Romeo and Juliet is a play written by William Shakespeare. It is set in Italy and is about the love between two young people from noble families that are enemies.  Romeo and Juliet has always been one of Shakespeare's most popular plays. It has been adapted to opera, ballet, television productions, and movies.

Characters

 Romeo Montague
 Juliet Capulet
 Nurse
 Mercutio
 Friar Laurence
 Tybalt
 Prince Escalus
 Lord and Lady Capulet
 Lord and Lady Montague
 Benvolio

Story
The noble families of the Montagues and the Capulets live in the city of Verona. Both families are enemies, and even their servants get into fights with each other. Prince Escalus, the ruler of the city, tells the families to stop fighting or they will be punished.

Montague has only one child, a teenage boy called Romeo. Capulet also has only one child, a beautiful 14-year-old daughter called Juliet. One evening, Romeo sneaks into a party at the Capulet's house. He meets Juliet and they fall in love with each other. Later on, Romeo overhears Juliet standing on her balcony admitting her love for him. He reveals himself and they agree to be married. Friar Laurence agrees to marry them in secret the next day.

Juliet's cousin Tybalt confronts Romeo, angry that he sneaked into the party. Romeo's friend Mercutio steps in and fights Tybalt. Tybalt kills Mercutio, so Romeo takes revenge and kills Tybalt. The Prince orders Romeo to leave the city, and warns he will be executed if he returns. Romeo secretly spends the night with Juliet before leaving the next morning.

Juliet is left upset after Romeo leaves. To cheer her up, her parents arrange for her to quickly marry Paris, a cousin of the Prince. This only makes it worse. Juliet refuses, so her father threatens to kick her out if she doesn't marry Paris. Friar Laurence suggests a drug that can put her to sleep for 42 hours, so that she can pretend to be dead, so that she can sneak out with Romeo. The Friar sends a message to Romeo to tell him about the plan. Juliet takes the drug and her family, thinking her to be dead, lay her in the family tomb. But before the messenger can reach Romeo, he learns of Juliet's "death" from someone else and believes she is really dead.

Romeo goes to the tomb and is discovered by Paris, who has also come to mourn her. They fight, and Romeo kills Paris. Still believing Juliet to be dead, Romeo poisons himself. Juliet wakes up, but when she sees that Romeo is dead, she stabs herself. The play ends with the families and the Prince entering the tomb and discovering them dead. In their sadness, the families agree they should no longer be enemies with each other.

About the play

Because this play was written in the 1500's, the English language that it uses is not exactly like the English that is used today. Some of the play is written in poetry.

Language
In modern English we say "you" for one person and also "you" for more than one person. But in Shakespeare's English, he often writes "thee" and "thou" when it means just one person.
Juliet says "If they do see thee, they will murder thee!"
Many words are used a little bit differently to the way they are used today, and other words are used that are now only used sometimes in poetry.
Examples: "morn" for "morning; "morrow" for "tomorrow"; "woe" for "unhappiness".

Form
Romeo and Juliet, like many of Shakespeare's plays, is written in several different forms.
Some of it is prose, which is like normal speaking. The servants in the play usually talk in prose.
For example, two Capulet servants are planning to cause trouble with two Montague servants who are walking down the street.
Sampson: "Let us take the law of our side! Let them begin!"
Gregory: "I will frown as I pass by, and let them take it as they list!" (however they like)
Sampson: "I will bite my thumb at them, which is a disgrace to them, if they bare it!"

Some of the play is written in poetry which rhymes on the ends of the lines.
For example, when Friar Laurence goes out to tend his garden in the early morning, he says:
"The grey eyed Morn smiles on the frowning Night
Checkering the eastern clouds with streaks of light."
("Morn" is used to mean morning in poetry)

 A lot of poetry has rhyme and rhythm. But most of this play is written in a type of poetry called blank verse. This means that although it does not usually rhyme, it has strong rhythm. The rhythm is exactly the same in most of the play, and in many of Shakespeare's other plays. The rhythm goes:
da-dah da-dah da-dah da-dah da-dah,
da-dah da-dah da-dah da-dah da-dah.

For example, Juliet, who is anxious to get a message from Romeo says:
"The clock struck nine when I did send the nurse!
In half an hour, she promised to return!"

 The play finishes with two lines that rhyme. This is called a rhyming couplet.

The Prince says to Montague and Capulet:
"A glooming peace this morning with it brings;
The sun for sorrow will not show his head.
Go hence to have more talk of these sad things;
Some shall be pardoned and some punished:
For never was a story of more woe
Than this of Juliet and her Romeo."

In simple English

The Balcony scene

Of all the scenes that have ever been written in plays, one of the most famous is in Romeo and Juliet.

After Romeo and Juliet have met at a party and fallen in love, Juliet goes up to bed. But she cannot sleep so she stands at her window and pretends she is talking with Romeo.
Romeo is going past and says "But soft, what light through yonder window breaks? ...It is my Lady! O, it is my Love!"

Juliet, not knowing he is there, says "Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?" (Romeo, Romeo, why do you have to be who you are?) She wishes he was not called Romeo Montague but had some different name, so he was not an enemy.

Romeo climbs up onto the balcony. Juliet tells Romeo that her love for him is as deep and endless as the sea. They part from each other with the famous words:
"Good night! Good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow,
That I shall say Good night till it be morrow." (tomorrow)

This romantic scene has been acted and copied many times, sometimes seriously and sometimes for fun. One well-known scene that took its idea from this, is from West Side Story, a musical by Leonard Bernstein, which takes place on a fire-escape landing with the lovers, Tony and Maria, singing the lovesong, Tonight.

Movies and music based on the play

Movies
Romeo and Juliet has been performed on stage many times. There have also been forty different movies

 1908 - Romeo and Juliet, a silent movie was made by Vitagraph Studios in the US. Directed by J. Stuart Blackton, the movie starred Paul Panzer as Romeo and Florence Lawrence as Juliet.
 1936 - Romeo and Juliet, produced by Irving Thalberg and directed by George Cukor of Classical Hollywood with Norma Shearer as Juliet and Leslie Howard as Romeo, but many critics said that the actors were too old.
 1968 - Romeo and Juliet, directed by Franco Zeffirelli. This movie was made in Italy, with Olivia Hussey, who was 15, as Juliet and Leonard Whiting, who was 17, as Romeo. The costumes won an Oscar.
 1996 - Romeo + Juliet, directed by Baz Luhrmann, with Leonardo DiCaprio as Romeo and Claire Danes as Juliet. This very colourful version has a modern setting.
 2013 - Romeo + Juliet, directed by Carlo Carlei, with Douglas Booth as Romeo and Hailee Steinfeld as Juliet.

Adaptations
 1950s - West Side Story, by Leonard Bernstein, is a musical set in a modern city in the US. It is about two rival street gangs, the J uyot ta yo juliet

Music

 1839 - Berlioz wrote a symphony called Romeo and Juliet.
 1867 - Gounod wrote an opera called Roméo et Juliette.
 1869 - Tchaikovsky wrote a symphonic poem called Romeo and Juliet.
 1936 - the first performance of Prokofiev's ballet, Romeo and Juliet.
 1978 - Madero Richard. Costandinos, a French composer, wrote a disco opera titled Romeo & Juliet, which was released as a double album.
 2017- Trippie Redd released a song on his "A Love Letter To You" album named Romeo and Juliet.

References

Other websites

 Full text of the play

Plays by William Shakespeare
1590s plays

Romeo and Juliet


Paul Michael Glaser (born March 25, 1943) is an American actor and director.

Career
He began his career in the TV series Love Is a Many Splendored Thing (1967). In 1972 he had a role in the film starring Goldie Hawn, Butterflies Are Free (1972), and in the TV movies Aces Up (1974), with Raul Julia, and Trapped Beneath the Sea (1974), with Lee J. Cobb.

In 1976 he played Harry Houdini in the TV movie: The Great Houdini. Followed starred in the movies Phobia (1980), as Dr. Peter Ross, Wait Till Your Mother Gets Home! TV (1983), and Attack on Fear TV (1984), he plays the role of a journalist who reports cases of corruption in a small town.

Glaser had a great director career as a film and television. He directed Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Running Man (1987). He also directed episodes of the series: Starsky and Hutch, Miami Vice, Otherworld, The Agency, Mister Sterling, Robbery Homicide Division, Judging Amy, Third Watch, and many more.

Starsky and Hutch

His best known role was that of Det. Dave Starsky in American TV series Starsky and Hutch. The series is about two friends police, Dave Starsky and Ken Hutchinson; David Soul, to solve all kinds of cases. The series ran between 1975 and 1979. And they filmed 82 episodes. Glaser and Soul have a small role in the movie Starsky & Hutch (2004).

He was a guest star on the TV series: Cannon (1972), The Streets of San Francisco (1972), The Waltons (1973), Kojak (1974), The Closer (2008), Criminal Minds (2008), Numb3rs (2008), and The Mentalist (2009).

References
Paul Michael Glaser official web site

Paul Michael Glaser  at Internet Off-Broadway Database
Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation
Fansite about Paul Michael Glaser and David Soul
The Paul Michael Glaser Web Experience

American movie actors
American movie directors
Actors from Massachusetts
1943 births
Living people

Paul Michael Glaser


The Pokémon Company is a Japanese company founded in 1998 by the same makers of the Pokémon franchise. The Pokémon Company's headquarters is in Tokyo, Japan at the Pokémon Center. It is home to Pokémon toys, games, and other stuff that belongs to the Pokémon franchise. The Pokémon Center is also a mall where people buy goodies and gifts from the Pokémon franchise.

Pikachu is the mascot of The Pokémon Company.

The Pokémon Company also has trading card game booster packs and comics. Some examples of things manufactured by The Pokémon Company include figures, costumes and handheld video games.

The Pokémon Company has 4 sister companies, each of which is located in different countries in the world.

Pokémon
Anime companies
Video game companies of Japan

The Pokémon Company


The Chevrolet Corvette is a sports car that has been built by Chevrolet since 1953. It is now in its 8th generation.

History
The Corvette C1 was the first Corvette model.  It was created by GM (General Motors) in 1953. It was designed by Harley Earl and it was a show car. Chevrolet only made 300 Corvettes in 1953, and they are all almost the same. The C1 was the only model of Corvette to have an inline-6 engine option, and the inline-6 was only available from 1953 to 1955. Because the C1 was expensive and kind of slow, it was in danger of not being made anymore. Chevrolet changed the C1 in 1956, which made it faster and better. Afterwards, the car became more popular, and the C1 was built until 1962.

The Corvette C2 was the second Corvette model. The C2 was first built in 1963 and was made until 1967. The C2 was the first Corvette that could be bought as a coupé. The C2 was also the first Corvette to only offer V8 engines. The C2 became known as the Corvette Sting Ray. The C2 was much better and more advanced than the C1. The C2 features more powerful engines, better suspension, and faster speeds. Because of this, the C2 sold much better than the C1, and the Corvette was no longer in danger of not being made anymore.

The Corvette C3 was the third Corvette model. It was made from 1968 to 1982. The C3 was very similar to the C2. The main changes were the body and the inside. The V8 engines from the C2 became more powerful. In 1971, because the engines were too bad for the environment, the engines' power went down. This made the C3 slightly slower and less powerful. Every year the engines became less powerful until 1975. This was because the U.S. government forced GM (General Motors) to make the engines better for the environment. The C3 Corvette convertible was not made after 1975, so only the coupe was for sale after 1975.

The Corvette C4 was the fourth Corvette model. It was made from 1984 to 1996. There were no 1983 Corvettes, except for a few made by Chevrolet that were used for testing. The C4 was the first time the Corvette was totally new. The C4 used many of the same engines as the C3 Corvette, but the body was totally new. The Corvette was made as a convertible again starting in 1986. 1986 was also the year the Corvette was a pace car for the Indianapolis 500 car race. Throughout the C4's life, new engines and transmissions were used. The C4 ZR-1 was a special edition of the C4, which was much faster than the normal C4. It was made from 1990 to 1995.

The Corvette C5 was the fifth Corvette model. It was made from 1997 to 2004. The C5 was much better than the C4 Corvette. The C5 had a new body, many new engines, and a better chassis. Because of the better engines and more aerodynamic body, the C5 Corvette  The C5 was also much faster than the C4, and it had a top speed of 181 mph (miles per hour). The 1997 model was only available as a coupé with removable roof parts (known as a targa top), but in 1998 the Corvette convertible came on sale. Starting in 1999, a fixed-roof coupé went on sale. It is like the coupé but with a completely solid roof. It is sometimes called the "FRC." In 2001, a faster C5 was made, called the Z06. The Z06 was faster than the C4 ZR-1, which it replaced. There was also a race car version of the C5, called the C5-R.

The Corvette C6 was the sixth Corvette model. It was made from 2005 to 2013. The C6 was a fairly large improvement over the C5. Some of the changes were exposed headlights, better suspension, and a much better interior. The C6 was also faster than the C5. Starting in 2008, the C6 got a new engine that had 430 horsepower. This made the car even faster. Like the C5, the C6 had a Z06 model. The C6 Z06 had a very big engine and was very light for a Corvette. This made the Z06 very fast. Also, there was a model called the ZR1, which was even faster. The ZR1 featured a supercharged engine and was even faster than the Z06. The ZR1 is sometimes called the Blue Devil. It is the fastest Corvette C6. The ZR1 was first made in 2008. Like the C5, there was a race car version of the C6, called the C6.R.

The Corvette C7 is the seventh Corvette model. It was first made in 2014. It is known as the Corvette Stingray. The C7 is more advanced than the C6, and has a much nicer inside. The main engine is very similar to the one in the C6, but is now more powerful. The body of the C7 is different from other Corvettes. It has bigger headlights, very different back lights, and many more vents. The Corvette C7 is also available as a convertible. Like the C5 and C6, the C7 has a Z06 model. The Z06 is even faster than the C6 ZR1, and it has a supercharged engine. This engine makes 650 horsepower in the Z06. There is also a Z06 convertible for the first time ever. Like the C5 and C6, there is a C7 race car, which is called the C7.R.

The Corvette C8 is the eighth generation and is the current model, first produced on February 2020.

References

Other websites

Chevrolet Corvette  - Official site
Corvette Europe

Corvette
Sports cars
1950s automobiles
1960s automobiles
1970s automobiles
1980s automobiles
1990s automobiles
2000s automobiles
2010s automobiles
2020s automobiles

Chevrolet Corvette


A unitary authority is a type of local authority that is responsible for all local government functions within its area. This is different from a system where local government functions are divided between different authorities.

Typically unitary authorities cover large towns or cities, which are large enough to be independent of county or regional administration. Sometimes they consist of counties which have no lower level of administration.

United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, "Unitary Authorities" are English councils which are responsible for almost all local government functions within their areas.

This is opposed to the system of local government which still exists in most of England, where local government functions are divided between county councils and district councils.

Until 1996 a similar system existed in Scotland and Wales but this has now been replaced by a fully unitary system. The unitary system has existed in Northern Ireland since 1973. when the administrative responsibilities of the Counties of Northern Ireland were replaced by a system of 26 unitary authorities.

England
Some cities, large towns and groups of neighbouring towns are unitary authorities and independent from county councils and some English counties, such as Rutland, Herefordshire and the Isle of Wight, have so small populations that the entire county is a unitary authority.

In practice most unitary authorities in the UK are not entirely unitary, as they often run some services on a joint basis with other authorities, these typically include policing, fire services, and sometimes waste disposal and public transport. In addition some unitary authorities contain civil parishes, which effectively form another limited  of local government

When the metropolitan councils were abolished in 1986 their functions were given to the boroughs. These became unitary authorities in all but name.

Other countries
Similar institituions exist in other countries, which although not called unitary authorities, are similar in concept.

United States
In the United States an Independent city or a consolidated city-county is roughly equivalent to a unitary authority. The city might be separate from any county government, as in Virginia, or merged with a county government, as in San Francisco, California, or as is common in Florida. Another type of local government that is roughly equivalent to a unitary authority is a county when there are no municipal or township governments in the county. That is the case in Arlington County, Virginia, and Baltimore County, Maryland.

Canada
Unitary authorities or single-tier municipalities exist as a single level of government in a province that otherwise has two levels of local government. One should not confuse municipalities in provinces with no upper-level of local government as single-tier municipalities, as these are the only level of local government in that province.

Germany
In Germany a kreisfreie Stadt is the equivalent term for a city which is responsible for the local and the Kreis (district) administrative level.

Political systems
Local government in England
Local government in the United States
Government of Canada
Government of New Zealand

ru:Унитарные единицы Англии

Unitary authority


Rochester is a city in southeast Minnesota. It is Minnesota's third largest city, with about 115,700 people as of 2017. The Mayo Clinic is there. It was named after Rochester, New York.

On August 21, 1883, a strong tornado severely damaged much of the city. Almost 40 people were killed by the tornado.

County seats in Minnesota

Rochester, Minnesota


Klänge (German; Sounds) is a book by the Russian expressionist artist Wassily Kandinsky. Published in an edition of 345 in Munich in late 1912, the work is a famous early example of an artist's book, containing both poems and woodcuts by the artist, forming two parallel strands, each involving a loose progression. One of three seminal books that Kandinsky published between 1911 and 1912 - the other two being Concerning the Spiritual in Art and Der Blaue Reiter Almanac that he edited with Franz Marc - Klänge was to have a direct and lasting influence on Expressionism, Dada and Russian Futurism.
[Kandinsky] began writing prose-poems, composing 38 altogether between 1908 and 1912. In 1913 these were published by Piper Verlag under the title Sounds, accompanied by colour and black-and-white woodcuts. in these Dadaistic poems, Kandinsky employs a method borrowed from young children's early attempts at speech; through constant repetition and babbling words are emptied of their meaning, so that only the pure sound remains. It is Kandinsky's aim to uncover this "pure sound" of language, the sound which "sets the soul vibrating."

"We fought for painting, but painting alone will not suffice. I had the idea of a synthetic book that removed half of the old, narrow conceptions, breaking down the walls between the arts.... and finally prove that the problem of art is not a problem of form but a problem of spiritual content." Kandinsky,

Klänge, expressionism and Zürich dada

Whilst the relationship between expressionism and dada are complex, one critic has compared them to two twins fighting, 'like Tweedledee and Tweedledum', there are numerous links between the two movements. In Berlin, key dadaists such as Raoul Hausmann, George Grosz and Kurt Schwitters all started their careers as Expressionists, whilst in Switzerland, two of the founders of Dada, Hugo Ball and Hans Arp had formulated a number of key concepts embodied by Zürich Dada, such as an affinity to abstract art and a belief in theatre 'bursting forth from the roots of all dramatic life'  - in Munich as part of the group centred on Kandinsky at the time that Klänge was published.

Both Arp and Ball had been involved with Kandinsky's group Der Blaue Reiter before the First World War; Arp contributed to the first almanac and exhibited work in the second group exhibition, whilst Ball edited a second almanac with Kandinsky - Das Neue Theater (Almanac of New Theatre) - that was only abandoned due to the outbreak of World War I. A number of poems from Klänge were read out during performances at the Zürich Dada nightclub the Cabaret Voltaire, and two of these were included in the magazine of the same name, published 15 May 1916.

Hans Arp was so enamoured of his copy, that later in his life he would allow no-one except himself and his wife (Sophie Taeuber-Arp) to read it.
"Kandinsky has undertaken the rarest spiritual experiments in his poems. Out of 'pure existence' he has conjured beauties never previously heard in this world. In these poems, sequences of words and sentences surface in a way that has never happened before... Kandinsky (..) confronts the reader with a dying and transforming image, a dying and transforming phrase, a dying and self-transforming dream. In these poems we experience the cycle, the waxing and waning, the transformation of this world. Kandinsky's poems reveal the emptiness of appearances and of reason." Hans Arp on Klänge

One of the poems

Seeing
Blue, Blue got up, got up and fell.
Sharp, Thin whistled and shoved, but didn't get through.
From every corner came a humming.
FatBrown got stuck - it seemed for all eternity.
———————————It seemed. It seemed.
You must open your arms wider.
————————————Wider. Wider.
And you must cover your face with red cloth.
And maybe it hasn't shifted yet at all: it's just that you've shifted.
White leap after white leap.
And after this white leap another white leap.
And in this white leap a white leap. In every white leap a white leap.
But that's not good at all, that you don't see the gloom: in the gloom is
——— where it is.
That's where everything begins. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
With a. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Crash. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1912

Notes

External links
 Kandinsky's first book, Verses Without Words, 1903
 Klange on MOMA's website
 A whole series of woodblocks from Klänge
 Modernism-dada-postmodernism By Richard Sheppard, Googlebooks
 Between Text and Image in Kandinsky's Oeuvre: A Consideration of the Album Sounds on Tate Papers

Russian art
Artists' books
Modern art
Russian poetry collections
Expressionist works

Klänge


Compressive stress is the stress on materials that leads to a smaller volume.

By compressive stress the material is under compression. Compressive stress to bars, columns, etc. leads to shortening.

One can increase the compressive stress until compressive strength is reached.  Then materials will react with ductile behaviour (most metals, some soils and plastics) or with fracture in case of brittle materials (geomaterials, cast iron, glass, etc.). For example, if a cylinder is compressed under the action of the applied force, the restoring force per unit area is known as the compressive stress. It is one of the best stresses for chassis, so if you have a chassis report explain it well as it helps a lot.

Related pages
Tensile stress
Hooke's law

Engineering
Materials science
Solid mechanics

Compressive stress


The cleansing of the Temple narrative tells of Jesus making people who sold animals leave the temple in Jerusalem. These people provided animals used in the Jewish rituals of sacrifice.  Jesus also drove out the money changers. The temple required that only special coins be used to buy the animals or donate to the temple.  Sometimes they were corrupt and cheated people who came to worship. Jesus says they are turning the Temple into "a den of thieves".

The Synoptic Gospels tell of this happening near the end of Jesus' life. It was one of the reasons that the Jewish leaders opposed Jesus.  The Gospel of John puts it near the beginning of the three year ministry of Jesus.  This makes some Bible scholars think this happened two times and others think it refers to a single time.

References

Jesus
Gospels

Cleansing of the Temple


The Sahara, in North Africa, is the largest desert in the world except for Antarctica. The Sahara is the largest hot desert.

It is bounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the Atlas Mountains, the Mediterranean Sea, the Red Sea, and the Sahel region. It runs through many countries including Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Chad, and The Sudan. Most parts are uninhabited, but some people manage to survive in places where there is water.

The Sahara Desert is about 9,000,000 square kilometers (3.5 million square miles) in size. It has been both larger and smaller at different times. After the last ice age it became more fertile, then dried up again. It is the hottest place on the Earth, but not the driest. The driest is the Atacama Desert in South America. The Sahara has about the same size as the whole United States.

Climate
The Sahara has one of the world's most harsh climates. Typically, the Sahara landscape experiences little rainfall, powerful winds and wide temperature ranges. In some areas, there can be no rainfall for years at a time.

In the summer, daytime air temperatures across the Sahara often reach over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. In the winter the freezing temperatures may occur in the northern Sahara, and milder temperatures, across the southern Sahara. Snow may fall occasionally in some of the higher mountain ranges and rarely, on the desert floor.

Environment
The highest mountain is 3415 m, and is the Emi Koussi in Chad. Some mountain peaks in the Sahara Desert have snow even in the summer. The main mountain ranges is the Atlas Mountains in Algeria. The Sahara's lowest point lies in the Qattara Depression in Egypt, at about 130 metres below sea level. Sand sheets and dunes are about 25% of the Sahara. The other parts are mountains, steppes with a lot of stones, and oases.

Several rivers run through the Sahara. However, most of them come and go through the seasons, except for the Nile River and Niger River.

Metallic minerals are very important to most Saharan countries. Algeria and Mauritania have several major deposits of iron ore.  There are also uranium mines, mostly in Niger.  A lot of phosphates are in Morocco and Western Sahara.  Petroleum is mainly found in Algeria, where it is very important to the economy.  While mineral exploitation has led to economic growth in Sahara, this has rarely helped the indigenous population, as skilled workers have been brought from other countries.

Cities
Of the Sahara's around 4 million people, most live in Mauritania, Western Sahara, Algeria, Libya and Egypt.  Dominant groups of people are Sahrawis and Tuareg people.  The largest city is Nouakchott, Mauritania's capital.  Other important cities are Tamanrasset in Algeria, and Sebha and Ghat in Libya.

Only 200,000 km² of the Sahara are fertile oases, where dates, corn, and fruits are grown. The few fertile regions today are fed by underground rivers and underground basins. Many of Sahara's oases rests in depressions (areas under sea level) allowing water to surface from underground reservoirs; artesian wells.

The soil in Sahara is low in organic matter. The soil in depressions is often saline.

Other sorts of vegetation include scattered concentrations of grasses, shrubs and trees in the highlands, as well as in the oases and along river beds. Some plants are well adjusted to the climate, allowing them to germinate within 3 days of rain and sow their seeds within 2 weeks after that.

Animals living in the Sahara include gerbil, jerboa, cape hare and desert hedgehog, barbary sheep, oryx, gazelle, deer, wild ass, baboon, hyena, jackal, sand fox, weasel and mongoose. The bird life counts more than 300 species. Reptiles, including 4 species of snake also live here.  The most venomous scorpion in the world lives here.

4,000 years ago, the Sahara was a thriving savanna grassland with a great variety of wildlife.  This included animals such as elephants and giraffes.  Climate change has caused the rainfall to be less and turn the Sahara into the barren, desert wilderness as we know it today.

References

Other websites
 Flora and fauna of the Sahara

Deserts of Africa

Sahara


For other uses see: Gradient (disambiguation)

The grade (or gradient) of a road or railway line is a measure of its steepness. It may be expressed as a percentage or in other ways.  For example, a gradient of 1% may also be expressed as 1 in 100.  This means that the road rises or falls by 1 metre for every 100 metres of forward travel.

Physical geography

Grade (slope)


Syrup is a thick, sweet, flavored liquid with a high sugar content. There are different flavored syrups, such as chocolate syrup, vanilla syrup, and maple syrup. Syrups are used to sweeten and flavor hot and cold drinks, and they are poured on desserts and breakfast foods.

Used in drinks
Syrups are used in many different types of drinks. Coffee shops add chocolate syrup and other flavored syrups (for example: vanilla) to coffee drinks. Ice cream parlors add chocolate syrup to milk shakes. In Italy, cafés often offer a choice of different syrups that can be added to carbonated soda water, to add sweetness and flavor.

Used for desserts
Syrups are also used in many desserts. Ice cream parlors pour chocolate and butterscotch syrup on bowls of ice cream. Cafés and restaurants pour syrup on cakes, pies, crepes, and pancakes.

In North America, maple syrup is often poured over pancakes as a breakfast food. It is made from the sap of maple trees, which is boiled until it thickens. During the summer months, flavored syrups are also used over crushed ice to make "slush puppies" or "slush puppies".

In China, pear syrup is used to make ligaotang, a staple of Shanghainese food. It comes in many flavors, including pinenut, rose, and meat floss. It is also used as a traditional Chinese medicine to help with coughs or poor appetite.

References

Syrup


Sambrial is a town and tehsil of Sialkot District in the Punjab province of Pakistan. It is on the bank of Upper Chenab Canal at 32°28'0N 74°20'60E and lies to the west of the district capital Sialkot. It is home to Sialkot International Airport and Sialkot Dry Port.

Sambrial became the fourth tehsil of Sialkot, containing 160 villages with 17 Union Councils of Pakistan and two police stations - Sambrial and Begowala.

Tehsils of Sialkot District

Sambrial Tehsil


Roberta Teale Swartz Chalmers (9 June 1903 in Brooklyn, New York – 13 May 1993 in Wellesley, Massachusetts) was an American academic, a poet, and co-founder of the Kenyon Review.

Early life and education
The daughter of William King Swartz and his wife Carrie Teale, Swartz attended Mount Holyoke College, where she took her Bachelor of Arts degree in 1925 magna cum laude. After obtaining her Master of Arts degree at Radcliffe College, Harvard University in 1926, she went on to Oxford University, where she obtained her B.Litt. degree in 1929.  On 3 September 1929, she married Gordon Keith Chalmers, with whom she had three sons and a daughter.

Academic career
Roberta Teale's first appointment was as an English teacher at Bancroft School, Worcester, Massachusetts in 1926-27. From there, she went on to become instructor in English at Mount Holyoke College, and was promoted to assistant professor in 1931. She left Mount Holyoke in 1934 on her husband's selection as president of Rockford College, where she served as associate professor of English. On his selection as president of Kenyon College in 1937, she eventually served as associate professor there in 1942-45. In 1937, Mount Holyoke College awarded her a D.Litt. degree.
While at Kenyon, she became a major influence in the establishment of the Kenyon Review in 1939 and served as an advisor to its first editor John Crowe Ransom.

After her husband's death in 1956, she was appointed visiting lecturer at Wellesley College in 1956-57, and then she was appointed associate professor of English at Queens College, Charlotte, North Carolina, from 1959 to 1968.

Published works
 Lilliput New York : Harcourt, Brace, 1926.
 Lord Juggler & other poems New York: Harper, 1932
 Mount Holyoke College hundred year poems 1937

Unpublished works
 Clarastella by Robert Heath (fl. 1636-59), edited, introduction and notes by Roberta Teale Swartz. Mount Holyoke archives

Notes

1903 births
Alumni of the University of Oxford
Writers from Brooklyn
American women poets
Mount Holyoke College alumni
Mount Holyoke College faculty
Kenyon College faculty
Radcliffe College alumni
Rockford University faculty
1993 deaths
Queens University of Charlotte faculty
20th-century American poets
20th-century American women writers
American women academics

Roberta Teale Swartz


Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (30 July 1549 – 3 February 1609) was Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1587 to 1609. He succeeded his older brother Francesco I.

Ferdinando was the fifth son of Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany and Eleonora di Toledo.

He was a Cardinal before he became Grand Duke, until he married Christine of Lorraine in 1589. He was succeeded by his eldest son, who reigned as Cosimo II. His wife and daughter-in-law Maria Maddalena of Austria acted as regents for Cosimo II.

Issue

 Cosimo II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (1590–1621); married Maria Maddalena of Austria and had issue;
 Eleonora de' Medici (1591–1617) died unmarried
 Catherine de' Medici (1593–1629); married Ferdinando Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, later Governor of Siena;
 Francesco de' Medici (1594–1614) died unmarried;
 Carlo de' Medici (1595–1666) died unmarried;
 Filippino de' Medici (1598–1602) died unmarried;
 Lorenzo de' Medici (1599–1648) died unmarried;
 Maria Maddalena de' Medici (1600–1633) died unmarried;
 Claudia de' Medici (1604–1648); married (1) Federico della Rovere and had issue; (2) Leopold V, Archduke of Austria and had issue.

1549 births
1609 deaths
Ferdinando 1


The Bravery is an American rock band formed in New York City in 2003. The band consists of lead vocalist Sam Endicott, guitarist Michael Zakarin, keyboardist John Conway, bassist Mike Hindert and drummer Anthony Burulcich. They are best known for their 2005 top 10 UK single "An Honest Mistake" and their certified gold 2008 single "Believe". Before their initial split, they released three studio albums: The Bravery (2005), The Sun and the Moon (2007) and Stir the Blood (2009). They also released a remixed edition of their second album, called The Sun and the Moon Complete, in 2008, as well as an Internet live album called Live at the Wiltern Theater in 2010. The group's music is mostly post-punk, dance-influenced rock.

The band was inactive from the early 2010s onward, with Endicott confirming the band's indefinite hiatus in April 2014. On July 31, 2021, The Bravery's website confirmed the return of the group.

History

Formation and rising fame (2003)
Frontman-songwriter Sam Endicott and keyboardist John Conway were classmates at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York. The two began a musical partnership, playing together in various bands in the Poughkeepsie area including Skabba The Hut with future CSI: Miami star Jonathan Togo. After graduating, Endicott and Conway moved to New York City, where Endicott switched from bass guitar to vocals and began writing music that would later become The Bravery.

Guitarist Michael Zakarin joined after answering an advert in a local paper, and brought with him bassist Mike Hindert, a classmate of his from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. Drummer Anthony Burulcich was living in Boston, Massachusetts, where he had studied percussion at Berklee College of Music. After his sister's death, Burulcich moved back to his childhood home in Long Island New York to be with his family. On the day Burulcich was moving, while driving with his belongings in a U-Haul truck, Endicott called him.

The band played their first gig at the Stinger Club in Brooklyn in November 2003. To promote their local shows, they manufactured 1,000 posters and 3 song cd samplers containing the songs "An Honest Mistake", "No Brakes" and "Public Service Announcement". Both items featured the iconic "Phoenix" image by New York artist C. Finley. The same artwork later became the cover of The Bravery's debut album. The band self promoted themselves by handing out CDs and postering the Lower East Side of Manhattan and Brooklyn. The band also promoted themselves on the internet and were one of the first bands on MySpace to have a profile. Their MySpace profile pointed to thebravery.com, where the same 3 songs were available as downloadable MP3s.

Unconditional EP (2004)
After a few months of headlining and selling out small clubs, The Bravery booked a residency at the Lower East side club Arlene's Grocery. The Bravery played every Thursday at 10pm in May 2004. Every show sold out and garnered the attention of many record labels. Around the same time, the band received their first radio airplay on the show 'Alter Ego' hosted by Paul Driscoll on Boston's WFNX. Aaron Axeleson at Live 105 in San Francisco and Zane Lowe at BBC Radio 1 in the UK, also downloaded the MP3 of "An Honest Mistake" from thebravery.com. With three major radio stations around the world playing the MP3 of "An Honest Mistake" and sold-out shows in New York, The Bravery signed in August 2004 to Island Def Jam in the United States and Loog Records in the UK.

For the month of November 2004, The Bravery moved to the Stoke Newington part of London. The band imported their residency idea to London playing every Thursday at The Metro Club in Soho. The band toured the entire UK, France and the Netherlands between Thursdays. The band also opened shows for Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Razorlight.

Loog Records released the Unconditional EP, a limited edition 3 song EP on CD and 12" vinyl containing the songs "Unconditional", "No Brakes" and "Out of Line". NME wrote, "Unconditional already has the time-worn feel of an indie classic." The cover was taken from C. Finley's oil on canvas named "Colab." "Unconditional" received heavy airplay on Radio 1 and XFM London.

The Bravery played New Year's Eve of 2005 at the Motherfucker Party in New York City.

The Village Voice proclaimed the Bravery to be "New York's Official Next Big Thing", while MTV and Rolling Stone hailed them as an artist to watch. The band were also tipped in the BBC News website's Sound of 2005 poll as 2005's #1 most promising act.

The Bravery (2005–2006)
The Bravery's first single "An Honest Mistake", was released in the UK on February 28, 2005, and debuted at No. 7 on the UK Singles Chart. The single reached No. 12 on the US Modern Rock Chart. The CD single contained the b-side "Hey Sunshiney Day." The 7" Vinyl contained the b-side "Hot Pursuit (Duet Version)," a duet with lead singer Sam Endicott and Gillian Conway (sister of keyboard player John Conway). The Bravery's second single, "Fearless" was released in the UK on May 23, 2005. The single's slimline CD featured a cover of "An Cat Dubh" by U2 as the b-side. The b-side for the 7" vinyl was a cover of The Cars' "It's All I Can Do". The DVD single contained the Fearless Video as well as live footage of "No Brakes" recorded at club Koko in London on March 1, 2005. C. Finley's artwork entitled "Lady With A Blunt" was used as the cover art. The "Unconditional" single was released in the UK on August 29, 2005. The slimline CD single contained a Michael Brauer radio Mix as the A-side and a Benny Benassi dance remix as the b-side. The remix reached the top 10 on the UK dance charts. The Maxi single contained the b-sides "Oh, Glory" and "An Honest Mistake" remix by Superdiscount. The CD was enhanced with the video for "Unconditional". "Phoenix Girl", an acrylic and graphite drawing on paper by C. Finley's was used for the cover art.

The Bravery, was released on March 14, 2005, in the UK (March 29, 2005 in the US). It debuted No. 5 on the UK Album Chart and No. 15 on the Irish Chart. C. Finley's painting "Phoenix" was used as the cover art. The first 10,000 copies in the UK were made with a silver foil cover and a black embossed Phoenix. The band was featured on the cover of the March 12 issue of NME. The album was released in Europe on April 4, 2005. The band was featured on the cover of the French music magazine Magic. Australia released the album on May 4. "An Honest Mistake" became a top ten hit on Triple J radio in Australia.

On May 28, 2005, The Bravery played three shows in one day, taking a helicopter from Homelands festival in Winchester, to Birmingham for Duran Duran's concert at the Birmingham City soccer ground, and then on to London. The Bravery's last show of the day was the first of three sold out headlining shows at the Astoria. On June 14, 2005, The Bravery supported the opening night of U2's European tour in Manchester, UK. During The Bravery's opening song "Rites of Spring", the power failed on stage. The band left the stage coming back 10 minutes later, only to have the power shut off again. Bono wrote a letter to the band thanking them, stating "P.S. If you ever need anything, call Edge, Adam or Larry". The Bravery went on to support other European dates for U2 including a sold out 90,000 capacity Croke Park concert in Dublin on June 27. The Bravery played at Glastonbury Festival on June 26, 2005. Their set was due to be aired live on BBC Three in the daytime, but had to be shown well after the watershed, as bass guitarist Mike Hindert stripped naked on stage due to the hot weather and threw himself into the drumkit to end their set. A photograph of Hindert's buttocks on stage with 40,000 people in the distance was featured in the following issue of the NME and Blender Magazine. His nakedness is now immortalized on film in Julien Temple's Glastonbury The Film. Throughout 2005, The Bravery sold out headlining shows all over the world and played some of the largest festivals including SXSW, Coachella Music Festival, Glastonbury and Lollapalooza. In November and December 2005 and January through March 2006, the band was the supporting act for Depeche Mode on their Touring the Angel world tour. The tour traveled all over the US, UK and Europe.

The Sun and the Moon (2007–2008)
US modern rock radio stations received the CD for The Bravery's first single "Time Won't Let Me Go" the same week as the band played in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and the SXSW festival. The single reached the Alternative Top Ten Hit in America.

On May 22, 2007, The Bravery's second album The Sun and the Moon was released, debuting at No. 24 on the US album charts. Endicott described the new album as a departure from the synth-heavy sound of their debut. The cover and artwork are candid photographs taken by Jo McCaughey and Drew King. Endicott and art designer Andy West took a newsprint/collage approach to the album's layout. The Bravery's second single "Believe" reached No. 4 on the US Alternative Charts in April 2008, 11 months after the original release of the album. "Believe" stayed at No. 4 for six weeks, becoming the band's biggest radio hit to date.

Two weeks before the release, The Bravery played a number of special shows in New York City, including two secret shows on May 8 at Arlene's Grocery, the very club that the band credits as the club where they were discovered. The Bravery toured extensively in the US, headlining dates until June. The band headed to Europe on their own headlining tour, stopping to play in Oxegen and T in the Park festivals. Between July and September, The Bravery supported Incubus on their outdoor amphitheatre summer tour. The band then supported The Smashing Pumpkins on their US theatre tour. In October, The Bravery headed to Mexico where they played Motorkr Festival in Mexico City. They finished 2007 headlining more dates in the US.

iTunes announced The Bravery as the first artist ever to pre-release a different song every week prior to the album release. On February 19, 2008, the first single, a re-recording of "Believe" debuted on iTunes. A song a week followed: "This Is Not the End" was released on February 26, "Bad Sun" on March 4 and "The Ocean" on March 11.

While on the road, The Bravery continued working on The Moon recording in the back of their tour bus, in hotels and dressing rooms. In December 2007, The Bravery headed back into their New York City home studios to finish up their more raw and electronic version of the songs. In January 2008, the band announced the new release of The Sun and the Moon Complete, a two-disc set featuring The Sun (the original Brendan O'Brien-produced 12 songs) and The Moon (the same exact 12 songs, in the same order, but re-imagined and re-worked by the band). It was released on March 18, 2008. A new album cover and packaging accompany the two-disc set. The Bravery's single "Believe" reached number four on the Modern Rock Charts during the week of April 13, 2008. It is the highest chart position for the band in the United States. "Believe" stayed at number 4 for six weeks. "Believe" went on to become a certified gold single in the United States.

After a disagreement with the band's UK label, The Sun and The Moon was never released in the UK. Endicott addressed the issue for the first time in public during a feature in the November 4, 2009 issue of the NME. "The big thing was the BBC counted us as the best new band of the year and at that point our label lost its shit. We got off a plane in London and there were billboards of us on the highway. Suddenly we weren't this indie band, we were the Spice Girls!" The band has since been in a legal battle with their UK label over the rights of The Sun and The Moon and the band's future releases.

Stir the Blood (2009)
Keyboardist John Conway posted on the band's blog that The Bravery were in the studio with producer John Hill, who has previously worked with Santigold and M.I.A., and that new tunes were "already taking shape". Throughout summer 2009, The Bravery performed songs from their forthcoming third studio album at various shows, including those whilst supporting Green Day on their 21st Century Breakdown North American Tour. These include "Hatef--k" and "Red Hands and White Knuckles".

In a Billboard feature, Enidcott describes the new album as "more like the first record (in 2005) in that there's a lot of electronics on it, but it still sounds very human. It's also like the first record in that it's a party album. It's uptempo, fun music, although it does have a range of things. There are slower, dreamy songs, and our bass player (Mike Hindert) wrote a song ('She Is So Bendable') that sounds like a '50s ballad."

The first single "Slow Poison" debuted on September 8, 2009. Sam called into these morning shows to debut The Bravery's new single: KROQ – Los Angeles, WRXP – New York, WFNX – Boston, The End – Seattle, 91X – San Diego, The Edge – Phoenix. The video for "Slow Poison" premiered on AOL Spinner Friday November 6, 2009. Another video directed by bass player Mike Hindert for the song "Sugar Pill" was released on November 19, 2009.

On October 1, 2009, The Bravery leaked a video for their new song "Hatef--k" via the band's MySpace page. The disturbing video was directed by bass player Mike Hindert and depicts a sadomasochistic scene where the female character wearing a gas mask cuts a vagina into the male character using a knife. Mermaid dolls then enter into the orifice.

The Bravery headlined an entire North American tour prior to the Stir the Blood, December 1, 2009 release. Fans were able to meet the band after pre-ordering the album. An iTunes pre-order for the album began on Tuesday, November 10. New song "I Am Your Skin" was made available to download when pre-ordering the album.

Like The Sun and The Moon, Stir the Blood was not released in the UK due to a legal battle with the UK label.

Live at the Wiltern Theater (2010–2011)
Live At The Wiltern Theater was the Bravery's first live album and concert film. The iTunes exclusive was released on June 8, 2010, and chronicles the Bravery's sold-out performance at the Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles from November 5, 2009. The digital only release features all 18 songs from the show including the band's hits, "An Honest Mistake", "Believe", "Time Won't Let Me Go", "Unconditional", and "Slow Poison". The official iTunes review states "it's obvious that the NYC quintet has a symbiotic relationship with their audience — the more the crowd gives, the more the band delivers."

On June 2, 2010, a brand new Bravery song entitled "Ours" was released on The Twilight Saga: Eclipse: Soundtrack through Atlantic Records. This was the first Bravery song to be released in the UK since their certified gold debut album in 2005.

On December 9, 2010, the band announced a UK tour and London residency for February 2011. The band's social media sites stated "The group, whose last UK album release was their Gold-selling, Top 5 debut in 2005, have resolved a legal dispute with their former record label and will go on to release a new single and album following a residency at London's Hoxton Bar and Kitchen and further UK shows."
At the SXSW 2011 The Bravery performed "Gin and Juice" with Dennis Quaid singing the vocals.

Hiatus (2012–2021)
Burulcich toured as Morrissey's drummer from 2012 to 2013. In July 2013, Burulcich started playing drums for Weezer, as drummer Patrick Wilson was on personal leave. Burulcich toured as the drummer for White Sea in 2014, and Weezer guitarist Brian Bell's band The Relationship. Mike Hindert started the record label Merrifield Records, and went on to work as a director. John Conway became a wine maker with his business, Conway Family Wines. Zakarin pursued other creative interests outside of music. Endicott became lead vocalist in the band The Mercy Beat, with Burulcich playing drums for the band. In April 2014, Endicott confirmed through The Bravery's website and Facebook page that all the members were taking part in separate avenues of creative interests and that there were no plans for The Bravery in the foreseeable future.

Reunion (2021–present)
On July 31, 2021, the band posted a notice to their website and social media, hinting at a return. The Bravery would reunite for a show at Rickshaw Shop in San Francisco in late 2021.

In September 2021, the band were announced on the bill for the Corona Capital Festival in Mexico City alongside Tame Impala and Twenty One Pilots.

On January 17, 2023, the band were announced on the bill for the Just Like Heaven festival in Pasadena CA. The festival appearance marked the band's first in the United States for over a decade.

Collaborations
While recording the Bravery's Stir the Blood album, Sam Endicott and John Hill co-wrote three songs for the Shakira album She Wolf (2009), including the single "She Wolf" and "Men In This Town". "She Wolf" peaked at No. 1 in Latin America, No. 2 in Germany, Ireland, Italy, Estonia and Spain, No. 3 in Switzerland and Austria, No. 4 in the UK, France and Greece, No. 5 in Canada and Belgium, No. 6 in Finland, No. 9 in Japan as well as No. 11 in the US. The third song "Devoción" is featured on Shakira's 2010 Spanish album Sale El Sol. Bravery drummer Anthony Burulcich played drums on Shakira's song "Tu Boca" on the album Sale El Sol.

Endicott, Hill and artist Santigold co-wrote "Monday Morning", a song for Christina Aguilera's album Bionic (2010). Dan Martin of the NME wrote in his album review of Bionic: "Perhaps best of all is 'Monday Morning'. Written with Santigold and The Bravery's Sam Endicott, it's a Day-Glo disco jam that sounds like Gwen Stefani doing 'Borderline'."

Discography

Studio albums
 The Bravery (2005)
 The Sun and the Moon (2007)
 Stir the Blood (2009)

Band members
 Sam Endicott – lead vocals, rhythm guitar
 Michael Zakarin – lead guitar, backing vocals
 John Conway – keyboards, backing vocals
 Mike Hindert – bass, backing vocals
 Anthony Burulcich – drums, backing vocals

References

External links

2003 establishments in New York City
2011 disestablishments in New York (state)
American musical quintets
Indie rock musical groups from New York (state)
Island Records artists
Musical groups established in 2003
Musical groups disestablished in 2012
Musical groups reestablished in 2021
Musical groups from New York (state)
Post-punk revival music groups
Universal Music Group artists

The Bravery


Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close is a 2005 novel by Jonathan Safran Foer.
The book's narrator is a nine-year-old boy named Oskar Schell. In the story, Oskar discovers a key in a vase that belonged to his father, a year after he is killed in the September 11 attacks. The discovery inspires Oskar to search all around New York for information about the key and closure following his father's death.

Synopsis
Oskar Schell is a nine-year-old boy whose father, Thomas Schell, died in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. The novel begins after the tragedy, with Oskar narrating. Since his father's death, Oskar struggles with insomnia, panic attacks, and depression. He often describes the feeling of depression as wearing heavy boots, and deals with this by giving himself bruises. His relationship with his mother has also become strained, particularly as she has started dating a man named Ron, whom Oskar resents for having replaced his father.

One day, in his father's closet, Oskar finds a key in a small envelope inside a vase that he accidentally broke; in the keyshop he finds the name Black and thinks this has something to do with the key. Curious, Oskar sets out on a mission to contact every person in New York City with the last name of Black in the hope of finding the lock that belongs to the key his father left behind, creating a binder with mementos of his journey.

One of the first people Oskar meets is a 48-year-old woman named Abby Black. Oskar and Abby instantly become friends, but she has no information on the key. Oskar continues to search the city. Toward the end of his journey Oskar meets an old man he calls "the renter" because until the point of meeting, Oskar had only heard of the old man's existence from his grandmother who referred to him as the new tenant in her apartment. The reader learns towards the end of the book that "the renter" is actually Oskar's grandfather, who abandoned his grandmother while she was pregnant with Thomas, though Oskar does not realise the connection.

The book spans many months of Oskar's journey, some of which he is accompanied by his eccentric elderly neighbour, Mr. A. Black, and they develop a close friendship. After meeting with a woman named Ruth in the Empire State Building, who has a history of her own with the building, Mr. Black ends his travels with Oskar, who struggles with his departure. He tries to visit Mr. Black again later but finds out he has moved house, presumably to be with Ruth, and is selling his apartment, leaving behind a card for Oskar, reading "Oskar Schell: Son". Eight months after Oskar initially met Abby, he finds a message from her on the answering machine. Oskar had not touched that phone since his father died because his father's last words had been on an identical answering machine which Oskar had kept hidden from his mother. Oskar finds out that Abby called him directly after his visit, saying she was not completely honest with him and might be able to help. Oskar returns to Abby's apartment after listening to this message, and Abby directs him to her ex-husband, William Black.

When Oskar talks to William, he learns that the key once belonged to William's father. In his will, William's father left William a key to a safe-deposit box, but William had already sold the vase at the estate sale to Thomas Schell. Then, Oskar tells William something that he "never told anyone" – the story of the last answering machine message Oskar received from his father, during the attack of 9/11. Disappointed that the key does not belong to him, Oskar then gives William the key and goes home angry and sad, not interested in the contents of the box. Oskar also discovers that his mother knew about his activities the entire time and was contacting everyone with the name Black in New York City. After the first few visits she called every Black that he would meet and informed them that Oskar was going to visit and why. In response, the people Oskar met knew ahead of time why he was coming and usually treated him in a friendly manner.

Resolving to try to move on from his father's death, Oskar bonds with Ron after finding out that he met his mother at a support group after having lost his wife and daughter in a car accident. On the second anniversary of his father's death, Oskar meets with "the renter" and they go to dig up his father's grave. Contemplating on what to put into the empty coffin, "the renter" decides to bury various letters that he had written to his unborn son. Shortly after returning home, Oskar reconciles with his mother and vows to become better and allow for her to find happiness again, and she tells him how Oskar's father lied to her in his last call, telling her that he was coming home, to assure her not to worry over his death. Before going to bed, Oskar takes out his binder and proceeds to rearrange the pages in reverse in an attempt to relive the last few hours with his father and achieve closure.

The novel has a parallel narrative that eventually converges with the main story. This narrative is portrayed through a series of letters written by Oskar's grandfather to Oskar's father Thomas, and by Oskar's grandmother to Oskar himself. The letters written by Oskar's grandfather explain his past in World War II, his first love, and his marriage to Oskar's grandmother. The letters written by Oskar's grandmother explain her past in meeting Oskar's grandfather, the trouble in their relationship, and how important Oskar is to her. Upon learning of his son's death, Oskar's grandfather promptly returns to New York and tracks down Oskar and his grandmother. His grandmother decides to let him live with her in her apartment temporarily, which results in them becoming intimate, and he watches over Oskar from afar before meeting him. Shortly after burying the letters with Oskar, his grandfather returns to the airport where Oskar's grandmother follows him. After discussing the war, losing their loved ones and their marriage, they decide to stay in the airport for a while.

The final pages are a flip-book style animation of a photograph of a man falling from the World Trade Center, derived from a photograph by Lyle Owerko. The animation makes the man appear to fall upwards.

Characters

Oskar Schell is the nine-year-old protagonist of Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. He is an eccentric, intelligent, and clever young boy who self-identifies as a number of things including inventor, amateur entomologist, origamist, and amateur archaeologist. He often contemplates deeper topics and shows great empathy beyond what the average 9-year-old might have. His thoughts have a tendency to trail off into far-flung ideas, such as ambulances that alert passersby to the severity of their passengers' conditions and plantlike skyscrapers, and he has several assorted hobbies and collections. He is very trusting of strangers and makes friends easily, though he does not have many friends his own age. In the film it is alluded that he has Autism. Oskar mentions being taken in for testing in his first interaction with Abby Black, however he states that "...Tests weren't definitive."

Oskar's mother, Linda Schell, referred to as "Mom" by Oskar in the book, cares for her family greatly. After Thomas's death,  Linda tells Oskar "I won't fall in love again."[4] Though it is implied that she knows Oskar is running around the city meeting strangers, she nevertheless allows him to do so in order to discover more about his father.

Oskar's grandmother is a kind woman who is very protective of Oskar. She calls out to him often, and Oskar always responds with "I'm okay" out of habit. When she arrived in the United States, she read as many magazines as she could to integrate herself into the culture and language. As Anna's (Oskar's grandfather's first love) younger sister, she enters into a tumultuous marriage with Oskar's grandfather, and the couple breaks up before the events of the novel.

 Mr A. Black is an elderly man who is one hundred and three years of age, who lives in the same apartment building as Oskar, and joins him for some of his journey. Prior to meeting Oskar, Mr. Black had not left his apartment in twenty-four years, after having had a rather adventurous life. He is nearly deaf, and cries after Oskar turns on his hearing aids after a "long time" where he was unable to hear.

Oskar's grandfather, Thomas Schell Sr. (also referred to as "the renter") is an important character in the story, even though he does not physically meet Oskar until the book's end. After the death of his first love, Anna, Oskar's grandfather loses his voice completely and consequently tattoos the words "yes" and "no" on his hands. He carries around a "daybook" where he writes phrases he cannot speak aloud. He marries Anna's younger sister, Oskar's grandmother.

Anna is an absent character. She is Oskar's grandfather's first love. Oskar's grandfather falls in love with her instantly. She dies in the Dresden firebombings of World War II after telling Oskar's grandfather of her pregnancy. She is Oskar's grandmother's sister.

Abby Black is William Black's ex-wife. She is forty-eight years old and lives by herself. She is friendly and welcoming to Oskar when he arrives at her house, though she does decline Oskar's offer of a kiss.

Oskar's father, Thomas Schell, dies before the events of the book begin, having been in 1 World Trade Center the day of the attacks. Oskar remembers him as caring, smelling of aftershave and always humming the song "I Am the Walrus" by The Beatles. Thomas Schell organizes several expeditions for Oskar, such as a game to find an object from every decade of the past century. These adventures with his father are one of the reasons Oskar begins his journey about the key.

Stan is the doorman in the building Oskar lives in. He alerts Oskar when he has mail.

Buckminster is Oskar's cat.

Background

Jonathan Safran Foer's inspiration for his main character came when having difficulty with another project. In an interview, Foer stated, "I was working on another story and I just started to feel the drag of it. And so, as a side project, I got interested in the voice of this kid. I thought maybe it could be a story; maybe it would be nothing. I found myself spending more and more time on it and wanting to work on that". On the challenges of writing a novel in a child's voice, Foer responded, "It's not the voice of a child exactly," adding that "in order to create this thing that feels most real, it's usually not by actually giving the most accurate presentation of it."

Foer combined the character he had been developing with the 9/11-centered plot. He created the story line from his personal experiences and reactions regarding the terrorist attacks on 9/11. Foer was sleeping off jet lag after returning to New York City from a trip to Spain, when he was woken by a phone call from a friend: "He said, 'You have to turn on the TV, a plane has crashed into the World Trade Center.' And then he said, 'I think it's going to be a very strange day.'" In another interview, Foer said, "I think it's a greater risk not to write about [9/11]. If you're in my position—a New Yorker who felt the event very deeply and a writer who wants to write about things he feels deeply about—I think it's risky to avoid what's right in front of you."

Themes

Major themes of Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close include trauma, mourning, family, and the struggle between self-destruction and self-preservation. Sien Uytterschout and Kristiaan Versluys have examined the specific types of trauma and recuperative measures that Oskar's grandmother and grandfather go through after the Dresden bombings and that Oskar goes through after the loss of his father. They argue that Oskar has a simultaneous death wish and extreme need for self-preservation: This theme is echoed in Thomas Schell, Sr.'s pronounced survivor guilt and Oskar's grandmother's well-disguised inability to cope with her trauma. They also argue that though Oskar's journey to "find" his father does not help him get over his traumatic experience, it does allow him to grow closer to his mother.

Cultural impact

Authors began producing 9/11 novels as early as 2002 as a way of recognizing the tragedy. Jonathan Safran Foer's novel was one of many that confronted the aftermath of the attacks through the eyes of a New Yorker. However, 9/11 fiction is not only a new subgenre, but a new struggle for many authors. Richard Gray stated in his book on 9/11 literature After The Fall, "If there was one thing writers agreed about in response to 9/11, it was the failure of language; the terrorist attacks made the tools of their trade seem absurd." There was a desire to write about the experience, to recognize the individual impact, as well as the greater social impact, while appreciating the mourning of the country, but many authors found it difficult to do so.

Foer utilizes the child narrator in an attempt to connect with that struggle. The struggle of the child to understand the trauma is reflective of the struggle many faced after the trauma of the 9/11 attacks.

Foer's novel was one of the most popular and widely read novels of this post 9/11 fiction subgenre. Because of its great popularity, its message had a greater impact than many novels of its kind. Apart from the terrorist attacks of September 11, the novel also sheds light on the experience of terrible tragedy. Rebecca Miller of the Library Journal claims "Foer nimbly explores the misunderstandings that compound when grief silences its victims." The novel makes sense of and provides a way of moving on from the grief of the specific catastrophe. "Few works of literature have succeeded in drawing lasting meaning, whole or fragmentary, from modernity's string of catastrophes… but Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close is one of them, providing a tool to create understanding of grief and loss."

Critical response

John Updike, writing for The New Yorker, found the novel to be "thinner, overextended, and sentimentally watery," compared to Foer's first novel. He stated, "the book's hyperactive visual surface covers up a certain hollow monotony in its verbal drama." In a review for The New York Times, Michiko Kakutani said, "While it contains moments of shattering emotion and stunning virtuosity that attest to Mr. Foer's myriad gifts as a writer, the novel as a whole feels simultaneously contrived and improvisatory, schematic and haphazard." Kakutani also stated the book was "cloying" and identified the unsympathetic main character as a major issue.  The topic of the child narrator is a contentious one. Many critics found the child narrator to be unbelievable and not relatable.

Despite several unfavorable reviews, the novel was viewed positively by several critics. Foer's child narrator was featured in a critical article titled "Ten of the Best Child Narrators" by John Mullan of The Guardian in 2009.  The Spectator stated that "Safran Foer is describing a suffering that spreads across continents and generations" and that the "book is a heartbreaker: tragic, funny, intensely moving". "Foer's excellent second novel vibrates with the details of a current tragedy but successfully explores the universal questions that trauma brings on its floodtide.... It's hard to believe that such an inherently sad story could be so entertaining, but Foer's writing lightens the load." Sam Munson, in a review of two novels on catastrophe claimed, "Foer has a natural gift for choosing subjects of great import and then pitching his distinctive voice sharply enough to be heard above their historical din."

Reception
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close received the following accolades:
New York Public Library's "Books to Remember" list
International Dublin Literary Award Shortlist (2007)
The Morning News Tournament of Books (Quarterfinalist, 2006)
The New York Times Bestseller (Fiction, 2005)
Libraires du Québec (Lauréat Roman hors Québec, 2007)
ALA Outstanding Books for the College Bound (Literature & Language Arts, 2009)
ALA Notable Books for Adults (2006)
Village Voice 25 Favorite Books (2005)
V&A Illustration Award (2005)
Despite the above, the book has frequently been challenged. According to the American Library Association, it was one of the top one hundred banned and challenged books between 2010 and 2019.

Film adaptation

A film adaptation of the novel was released on January 20, 2012. The script was written by Eric Roth, and Stephen Daldry directed. Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock, John Goodman, Viola Davis, Max von Sydow and Jeffrey Wright starred, alongside 2010 Jeopardy! Kids Week winner Thomas Horn, 12, as Oskar Schell. The film was produced by Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros.

See also
 List of cultural references to the September 11 attacks
 Here I Am
 House of Leaves

Bibliography

Further reading

Vanderwees, Chris. "Photographs of Falling Bodies and the Ethics of Vulnerability in Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close." Canadian Review of American Studies. 45.2 (2015): 171–94.

References

External links
Interview of Foer following release of novel, Mother Jones Magazine, May/June 2005.

Reviews
 Extremely Cloying & Incredibly False review by Harry Siegel in New York Press
 Terror Comes to Tiny Town – review by Laura Miller in New York magazine
 A Bag of Tired Tricks – review by B. R. Myers in The Atlantic
 A tower of babble – review by Michel Faber in The Guardian

2005 American novels
American novels adapted into films
Novels by Jonathan Safran Foer
Novels about the September 11 attacks
Novels set in New York City
Houghton Mifflin books
Books about autism
Postmodern novels

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close


Museum of Cultural History (, KHM) is an association of museums subject to the University of Oslo, Norway.  KHM was established in 1999 as Universitetets kulturhistoriske museum with the merging of the bodies Universitetets Oldsaksamling which housed  a collection of ancient and medieval objects, Viking Ship Museum (Vikingskipshuset) at Bygdøy, the Coin Cabinet (Myntkabinettet) and Ethnographic Museum (Etnografisk samling). In 2004 the name was changed to Kulturhistorisk museum.

The activities of the Museum of Cultural History are currently localized in four main buildings in Oslo city centre: Historical Museum at Frederiks gate 2 and Frederiks gate 3 and administration at St. Olavs gate 29, as well as the Viking Ship Museum on the Bygdøy peninsula.

The Museum of Cultural History is one of Norway's largest cultural history museums. It holds the country's largest prehistoric and medieval archaeological collections, including the Viking ships at Bygdøy, a substantial collection of medieval church objects, and a rune archive. The museum also has a comprehensive ethnographic collection that includes objects from every continent, as well as Norway's largest collection of historical coins.

Gallery

References

External links
 KHM Official website
Hoen Viking Age Gold Treasure

Museums in Oslo
1999 establishments in Norway
Museums established in 1999
Ethnographic museums in Europe
University museums in Norway
University of Oslo
History museums in Norway
Archaeological museums in Norway
Numismatic museums in Europe
Viking Age museums
Art Nouveau museum buildings

Museum of Cultural History, Oslo


The Burmese calendar is a calendar where the months are based on lunar months. It is based on an older version of the Hindu calendar. It has been used in Myanmar since 640 CE. Today it is used as together with the Buddhist calendar.

Myanmar
Calendars
640s establishments
7th-century establishments in Asia
Establishments in Myanmar

Burmese calendar


The NORYL family of modified resins consists of amorphous blends of polyphenylene oxides (PPO) or polyphenylene ether (PPE) resins with polystyrene. They combine the inherent benefits of PPE resin (affordable high heat resistance, good electrical insulation properties, excellent hydrolytic stability and the ability to use non-halogen fire retardant packages), with excellent dimensional stability, good processability and low density.

They were originally developed in 1966 by General Electric Plastics (now owned by SABIC). NORYL is a registered trademark of SABIC Innovative Plastics IP B.V.

NORYL resins are a rare example of a homogeneous mixture of two polymers. Most polymers are incompatible with one another, so tend to produce separate phases when mixed. The two polymers compatibility in NORYL resins is due to the presence of a benzene ring in the repeat units of both chains.

Properties
The addition of polystyrene to PPE increases the glass transition temperature above 100 °C, owing to the high Tg of PPE,  so NORYL resin is stable in boiling water. The precise value of the transition depends on the exact composition of the grade used. There is a smooth linear relation between weight content of polystyrene and the Tg of the blend. Due to its good electrical resistance, it is widely used in switch boxes. However, product design is important in maximising the strength of the product, especially in eliminating sharp corners and other stress concentrations. Injection molding must ensure that moldings are stress-free.

Like most other amorphous thermoplastics, Noryl is sensitive to environmental stress cracking when in contact with many organic liquids. Compounds such as gasoline, kerosene, and methylene chloride may initiate brittle cracks resulting in product failure.

Applications

NORYL resins offer a good balance of mechanical and chemical properties, and may be suitable for a wide variety of applications such as in electronics, electrical equipment, coating, machinery, etc.

One of the most famous applications of NORYL was the molded case of the original Apple II computer.  At that point, the product was referred to internally at Apple (1978) as "GE NORYL".  A famous picture of an Apple II was made after a fire almost completely melted the NORYL case, but the motherboard, when removed from the case, was found to still operate.

NORYL resins have possible applications in the production of hydrogen, where it could serve as cost-effective electrodes in an electrolyzer, replacing expensive rare elements. It is highly resistant against the alkaline potassium hydroxide. For conductivity, the plastic is sprayed with a nickel-based catalyst.

NORYL resins are being investigated as a possible replacement for polycarbonate used in the manufacturing of Blu-ray Discs.

It is also used in certain construction products, like water pumps for swimming pools.

See also
 Hydrogen economy
 Thermoplastic

References

External links
 MIT Technology Review - Hydrogen on the Cheap

Polymers
Polyethers
SABIC

Noryl