Keeper of the Bees is a 1935 American film directed by Christy Cabanne. The film depicts WWI veteran Jamie McFarland (played by Neil Hamilton) and his search for meaning in his last six months to live, and Molly Campbell (played by Betty Furness), a young woman looking to save her sister's child from being left alone. It also features Emma Dunn as Margaret Campbell, Molly's charming mother and Edith Fellows as Jean-Marie "Little Scout" (not to be confused with Scout Finch), an adventurous young girl trying to fit in with her male friends.

The novel of the same name, upon which the film was based, appeared in Publishers Weekly as one of the bestselling novels in the United States in 1925.

Plot

James "Jamie" Lewis McFarland is a veteran of the First World War whose damaged lungs means he only has six more months to live. Inspired by a nurse at the hospital he finds himself trapped in, he insists on living his last days in grand fashion and sneaks out of the hospital with the help of this nurse. On the way, he catches a ride from a good-looking young woman who catches his fancy. After riding in her car for a bit, she leaves him by the side of the road. Unfazed and fascinated by her remarkably blue eyes, he follows her to Peaceful Bay, where he comes across the house of an old beekeeper who is in critically poor health.

While Jamie seeks medical attention for the man, the Beekeeper instructs him to take care of his bees while he's away at the hospital, assuring him that his partner in beekeeping will come by soon to help. After the Beekeeper is taken away, his partner introduces himself as 10-year old "Little Scout," an enthusiastic young child with much knowledge of the keeping and maintenance of bees. He teaches Jamie the ways of the ranch and introduced him to his friends, who enjoy acting as a mock military battalion. He also meets his neighbor Ms. Campbell, a charming mother figure who takes care of him and treats him as she would a son. It is revealed in a separate scene that she has been missing her daughter for several months and that her daughter is the woman Jamie had gotten a ride from earlier.

That night, while on a walk, Jamie runs into this woman, crying to herself. After imploring her to tell him what's wrong, she admits that she needs to become legally married to someone for some undisclosed reason. Realizing that he's falling in love with her, he agrees to marry her if only legally. Despite his best efforts, she refuses to tell him her name. The next day, they are married at the courthouse, where Jamie learns that the mystery woman's name is "Louise". The woman immediately leaves Jamie and he returns to his bees, disappointed.

A series of rapid events quickly shakes his world: First, the old Beekeeper falls ill and dies, surprisingly leaving half of his possessions to Jamie and the other half to Little Scout, including the bees and their surrounding property. Little Scout admits to Jamie that she is actually a girl trying to blend in with the neighborhood boys, which leads him to encourage her to do what she wants as herself and not under a guise. Finally, Jamie receives a call telling him that his "wife" has just given birth and is ill.

He rushes to the hospital and finds a woman he's never met in the hospital bed, apologizing for never explaining to him the situation before dying. He returns to the house with a baby and a renewed confusion about the situation. Soon, the young woman to whom he is married arrives and reveals to him the whole story: that she is actually Molly Campbell (the niece of Ms. Campbell) and Louise is her cousin, the one who died in the hospital giving birth. Molly needed a marriage certificate, which she obtained by marrying Jamie as Louise, in order to save her cousin from others shaming her for having a baby outside of marriage. She wanted to keep this news from her mother to save her from the grief. Ms. Campbell hears anyway, but decides to not reveal this, instead opting to simply "have faith."

Differences from novel

The film features significantly less religious themes than the novel does, often omitting any overt religious references from the film's plot and dialogue. For example, this excerpt from the novel: "Don't be bitter, Margaret. We don't know why, we never can know why things happen in this world exactly as they do; but this we know: We know that God is in His Heaven, that He is merciful to the extent of ordaining mercy; we know that if we disobey and take our own way and run contrary to His commandments, we are bitterly punished." is portrayed in the film by a scene of Jamie simply hugging Ms. Campbell and offering her his condolences rather than quoting or invoking any religious text to her.

Cast
Neil Hamilton as James "Jamie" Lewis McFarland
Betty Furness as Molly Campbell
Emma Dunn as Margaret Campbell
Edith Fellows as Jean Marie Meredith / Little Scout
Hobart Bosworth as Michael the Bee Master
Helen Jerome Eddy as Priscilla / Shorty
Marion Shilling as Louise
James P. Burtis as Red
Barbara Bedford as Nurse
Lafe McKee as Dr. Grayson
George Cleveland as Judge
William Worthington as Colonel

References

External links

1935 films
American black-and-white films
1930s romance films
Films based on American novels
Films directed by Christy Cabanne
Fiction about beekeeping
Monogram Pictures films
Films based on works by Gene Stratton-Porter
American romance films
Remakes of American films
Sound film remakes of silent films
1930s English-language films
1930s American films

The Keeper of the Bees (1935 film)


Louis Paul Bénézet (1878–1961) was an American educator and writer who pioneered the reform of school education in the early twentieth century.

Early career

Bénézet was principal and football coach of Central High School in La Crosse, Wisconsin, from 1907 to 1908. From 1916 to 1924, Bénézet was superintendent of schools in Evansville, Indiana and, from 1924 to 1938, in Manchester, New Hampshire.

In 1918 he published The World War and What was Behind It, an account of the events leading up to World War I, which he blamed on German aggression combined with perceived threats to the traditional social order from radicals and ethnic nationalists. The book was based on a series of talks he had given about how European history had led to the creation of unstable nation-states. He included a map of "Europe As It Should Be," a template for avoiding ethnic rivalry by creating "the boundaries of the various nations as they would look if the bulk of the people of each nationality were included in a single political division."

Innovations
In the late 1920s he became a pioneer of new teaching techniques, when he initiated pilot schemes in selected schools, the results of which he published 1935/36. These schemes aimed at eliminating "meaningless drills" and abolished the ritualized formal mathematics instruction to seventh grade students. He introduced what he called the new three Rs, which were "to read", "to reason", "to recite". He explained, "by reciting I did not mean giving back, verbatim, the words of the teacher or of the textbook. I meant speaking the English language. I picked out five rooms - three third grades, one combining the third and fourth grades, and one fifth grade." The intention was to ensure that students grasped the meaning of what they were learning, rather than simply memorise it.

He intentionally chose schools with a high number of immigrants, without good English language skills, arguing that in the absence of rigid mathematics teaching, the students could concentrate on developing language skills and thus assimilate more easily into the new country, promoting both integration and more rapid learning at higher levels of schooling. Such students would catch up on the mathematics, once they had learned to understand problems in English. His theory was very controversial.

Later career
From 1938 to 1948 he was a professor at Dartmouth College, from which he retired in 1948 when he was in his 70s. However, he then taught for ten more years among Bradley University (IL), 1948-1950; Evansville College (IN), 1950-1952; and at Jackson College (HI), 1956-1960. In 1960 he suffered a stroke, which forced him to give up teaching. He died in Honolulu following a second stroke in May 1961.

Shakespeare authorship question

His hobby was the study of the so-called Shakespeare authorship question. He became an advocate for Oxfordian theory. In his book Shakespeare and de Vere (1937) he propounded a modified version of Percy Allen's Prince Tudor theory, but did not accept Allen's belief that Oxford had a son by Queen Elizabeth I. However, he argued that the sonnets were written to an actor son of the Earl's, who performed under the name "William Shakespeare". In The Six Loves of Shake-Speare (1959), he argued that the sonnets were addressed to six different individuals. He also devised the "Bénézet test" of conjoining lines from Oxford's and Shakespeare's verse to see whether the difference was noticeable to the reader.

Family

His son, Louis T. Benezet was an influential U.S. educational administrator.

Publications
Three Years of Football at Dartmouth: being the story of the seasons of '01, '02 and '03, Self-published, 1904
The teaching of arithmetic I, II, III: The story of an experiment, "Journal of the National Education Association" 24(8), 241-244 (1935); 24(9), 301-303 (1935); 25(1), 7-8, (1936).
The teaching of arithmetic I, II, III, in "Humanistic Mathematics Newsletter" 6: 1991
The World War And What Was Behind It, (2004 reprint)
"Look in the Chronicles", Shakespeare Fellowship Newsletter (US) 4:3, (1943) 28
Shakspere, Shakespeare and de Vere, Granite State Press, January 1, 1937
The Six Loves of Shake-speare, Pageant Press, Inc., New York, 1959
"A Hoax Three Centuries Old", American Bar Association Journal, May 1960, pp. 519–22

Notes

External links

 Benezet Centre, Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge

1878 births
1961 deaths
American educators
American education writers
Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship
Shakespeare authorship theorists

Louis P. Bénézet


Franciscan Ceramics are ceramic tableware and tile products produced by Gladding, McBean & Co. in Los Angeles, California, US from 1934 to 1962, International Pipe and Ceramics (Interpace) from 1962 to 1979, and Wedgwood from 1979 to 1983. Wedgwood closed the Los Angeles plant, and moved the production of dinnerware to England in 1983.  Waterford Glass Group plc purchased Wedgwood in 1986, becoming Waterford Wedgwood. KPS Capital Partners acquired all of the holdings of Waterford Wedgwood in 2009.  The Franciscan brand became part of a group of companies known as WWRD, an acronym for "Wedgwood Waterford Royal Doulton." WWRD continues to produce the Franciscan patterns Desert Rose and Apple.

Trade names were Franciscan Pottery, Franciscan Ware, and Franciscan for dinnerware products. Trade names for tile products were Gladding, McBean, Interpace, Hermosa, Terra Tile, and Contours Tile. Ceramic production included terracotta garden ware, earthenware tableware & art ware, porcelain tableware & art ware, stoneware tableware, stoneware and earthenware tile.  Currently only the trade name Franciscan is used by WWRD for tabletop products.

Gladding, McBean & Co.

Beginning in 1875, as a partnership between Charles Gladding, Peter McGill McBean, and George Chambers, Gladding, McBean & Co. would expand from one factory in Lincoln, California to multiple manufacturing plants throughout the Pacific West Coast producing clay products from sewer pipe to architectural terracotta.

In 1927, Gladding, McBean & Co. consolidated with Los Angeles Pressed Brick Company solidifying the primacy of Gladding, McBean & Co. as the largest terra cotta manufacturer west of the Mississippi.  Gladding, McBean & Co. retained ceramic engineer Max Compton from the former Los Angeles Pressed Brick Company's plant in Santa Monica California.  Compton, a 1922 graduate of Alfred University, studied under Charles F. Binns. In 1929, Compton was sent to the company's Lincoln plant to work on glazes and shortly thereafter became the plant's superintendent of the terracotta department.  Compton would return to Los Angeles in 1937 to work in the glaze laboratory.

Due to the economic collapse of 1929, Gladding, McBean & Co. saw its revenue decreasing due to the cessation of new construction, the main source of the demand for its ceramic products: roofing tile, sewer pipe, architectural terracotta, and brick.  To offset the loss of revenues from the sales of ceramic building materials, the company began the manufacture of earthenware dinnerware and art ware in 1933 in the former Tropico Potteries factory.  Tropico Potteries was acquired by the company in 1923. The forty acre pottery, located at 2901 Los Feliz Boulevard in Los Angeles, California, bordered the city of Glendale.  Gladding, McBean & Co. had two plant facilities in Los Angeles, so the former Tropico pottery was named the Glendale plant.

1934–1939
In 1934, Gladding, McBean & Co. hired Frederic J. Grant as a vice-president and the new Glendale dinnerware division's plant manager. Frederic, a chemical engineer, had retired as president of the Weller Pottery Company in Ohio, selling off his interest in the company. After becoming tired of touring around the country as a well known amateur golfer, he made up his mind to become active in business again. Mary K. Grant, prior to her marriage to Frederic, was the art director at R. H. Macy Co. in New York City.  The company agreed to have Mary Grant style the pottery lines of tableware and art ware; however at this time she would not hold an official position.

The tableware and art ware lines were produced in solid color glazes. Three other Southern California companies were already in production of solid colored dinnerware: J. A. Bauer Pottery Co., Pacific Clay Products Co., and Catalina Clay Products Division of Santa Catalina Island Co. Laboratory testing on the three competitive dinnerware lines revealed all three crazed in an autoclave test.

Gladding, McBean & Co.'s ware would be produced in a new patented earthenware clay body known as Malinite. Dr. Andrew Malinovsky developed the high talc one-fire body using an amorphous flux in 1928 for Gladding, McBean & Co. Malinite was developed for use in the production of one-fire clay tile; however the company made the decision to use Malinite for their dinnerware production. By using the Malinite and adjusting the kiln temperature for a one fire process, the company solved the crazing problem in their own product. Glaze was applied to the unfired body, and the glaze and body matured together in the kiln, saving the company the time and expense of separate biscuit firing for the body.  For the new line of pottery, Gladding, McBean & Co. decided to use Prouty tunnel kilns. The Prouty tunnel kiln patents were acquired in the purchase of the West Coast holdings of the American Encaustic Tiling Company in 1933. Prouty tunnel kilns allowed for the continuous flow of ware through the kiln to fire pottery. Thus the plant "combined mills, jiggering units, conveyors, dryers and kilns into a model of straight line output."

After the successful introduction of Franciscan Ware to Gladding, McBean & Co.'s products, Mary K. Grant in 1936 became a paid employee as Lead Stylist and Manager of the Glendale plant's design department.  Mary Grant designed many of the shapes and patterns for Franciscan Ware. The company also purchased shape and pattern designs from contract designers, which would either be used or adapted by Mary Grant for use in the various Franciscan Ware lines of dinnerware and art ware. To sell and market the dinnerware, the company first used the trade name of Franciscan Pottery. Later deciding the word "pottery" denoted an inferior product, the company changed the trade name to Franciscan Ware.

In 1937, Max Compton transferred from Gladding, McBean & Co.'s Lincoln Plant to the Glendale Plant to work on Franciscan Ware glazes, and by 1939 he took over the development the company's glazes for all of their ceramic products. In an article for Popular Ceramics, Norris Leap wrote, "He produced glazes for art ware that possibly never could have been equaled by either moderns or ancients … One of them is an oxblood red used on large decorative bowls and vases. He experimented with that glaze in odd moments over a period of a dozen or fifteen years. The color comes out in the kiln. By control of heat he controlled the behavior of the coloring. Another unique glaze he produced was a Persian blue, a turquoise blue with pebble effect. Those were just two glazes of thousands he produced."

Gladding, McBean & Co. acquired Catalina Clay Products on Catalina Island in 1937. Production of Catalina pottery was moved to the Glendale plant with the shapes being integrated into the company's art ware and dinnerware lines. Gladding, McBean & Co. continued to use the trademark Catalina Pottery for art wares.

1940–1951

In 1940, the Gladding, McBean & Co. introduced their first hand-painted embossed earthenware dinnerware line Franciscan Apple, and shortly thereafter in 1941, Desert Rose. Apple was adapted from the embossed pattern Zona, produced by the Weller Pottery Company of Ohio. Desert Rose was based on a pattern design by contract designer Annette Honeywell. Desert Rose would become one of Gladding, McBean & Co.'s bestselling dinnerware lines.

In 1942, after three years of experimentation, Gladding, McBean & Co. entered the fine china market with 14 patterns.  The china was considered to have a medium to high cost.  The glaze for the fine china line was developed by Max Compton with the shapes and patterns designed by Mary K. Grant, the design staff, and by contract designers.

In 1942, World War II curtailed the introduction of new dinnerware lines and shapes.  The Company continued to produce ware already in production, however discontinued all art ware lines.  After World War II, the Southern California ceramic industry was booming.  From garages to industrial plant facilities, pottery was being made to satisfy demand from the decline of imports from Europe and Japan.  Competitors and the biggest potteries in Southern California were Gladding, McBean & Company, J. A. Bauer Pottery Co., Vernon Kilns, and Metlox Potteries.

In 1948, the Company introduced Encanto, a new line of Franciscan fine china designed by Mary Grant.   Encanto was introduced in a clear glaze, with or without platinum or gold banding.  Encanto, in a clear glaze without banding, was chosen for The Museum of Modern Art 1951 Good Design Exhibition in New York.  Also in 1948 the Company introduced Franciscan Ivy, a hand-painted embossed dinnerware pattern.  Franciscan Ivy was designed and carved by Mary Jane Winans, a contract designer.

1952-1954

In 1952, a great change was occurring in the direction of the Gladding, McBean & Co.,   Atholl McBean, president from 1923 to 1938 and chairman of the board since 1938, decided to retire as Chairman though remaining on the board of directors.  During his fifty four years of service, Atholl guided the company to a position of being one of the most important ceramic companies in the United States.  Also in the fall of 1952, Frederic and Mary Grant resigned from Gladding, McBean & Co.

With a new president and chairman of the board, the company reorganized.  A. Lee Bennett became vice president of the newly formed research and development division at the Glendale plant carrying out the company policy of product diversification to maintain its trade position.  Under Bennett, Max Compton would continue as chief glaze ceramic engineer and a new design department was created with Mary Jane Winans as the chief designer and stylist. Joining Winans in the newly formed design department were George T. James and Otto Lund.  The tile department was managed and headed by Sheridan "Sherry" Stanton, son of architect J.E. Stanton architect of Honnold Library for the Associated Colleges at Claremont. Gladding, McBean & Co. continued to produce their trademarked Franciscan Hermosa tile products at the Glendale plant.

Mary Jane Winans graduated with a degree in Design and Decorative Arts from the Vancouver School of Art, Vancouver B.C.  She taught at Vancouver School of Art for two years. Winans became a dinnerware decorator for three years in the decorating department of Gladding, McBean & Co.'s Glendale plant.   After her employment as a decorator, Winans worked as a freelance industrial designer in the ceramic industry in the Los Angeles area for twelve years.  As a freelance designer for Gladding, McBean & Co., she designed the embossed hand-painted dinnerware patterns Franciscan Ivy and California Poppy.  Also she modeled and carved the shapes for the embossed dinnerware patterns Franciscan Apple, Desert Rose, Franciscan Ivy, and California Poppy.  George T. James, an Alfred University graduate hired by Gladding, McBean & Co. in 1950 as a ceramic engineer was promoted to the design department.  James, an admitted devotee of the Bauhaus movement, sought to bring this aesthetic to his design work.  Otto Lund emigrated from Denmark in 1947.  He was a pattern designer by trade and prior to his employment at Gladding, McBean & Co. he was the former director of Castleton China's design and decorating department.   Lund's mastery was in the painting of flora and fauna, and he used this mastery in designing patterns for the Franciscan fine china lines.  Besides designing surface patterns, Lund designed and participated in the development of dinnerware shapes.

The new design team was quickly put into action designing new earthenware dinnerware shapes and patterns to be included in the Gladding, McBean & Co.'s 1954 Franciscan Ware marketing promotion Modern Americana.   The Modern Americana promotion included a group of seven new patterns on three different shapes, to complement Franciscan's popular hand-painted embossed dinnerware lines; Apple, Desert Rose, and Ivy.  Two new lines with unique shapes were designed for Modern Americana; the 1800 Eclipse shape designed by George T. James and the 1900 Flair shape designed by Mary Jane Winans.  The only shape not designed for Modern Americana was the Metropolitan shape.  The Metropolitan shape was designed for Gladding, McBean & Co. by Morris B. Sanders to be included in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's 1940 Exhibition of Contemporary American Industrial Art.  The shape was adapted into a dinnerware line sold by the company as the matt glazed Metropolitan Service from 1940-42.  From 1948-54, the shapes were sold in gloss glazes as the dinnerware line Tiempo.  Surface patterns for the Modern Americana dinnerware group were Eclipse White, Pomegranate, and Starburst on the Eclipse shape; Flair White, Echo, and Woodlore on the Flair shape; and Trio on the Metropolitan shape.  Mary C. Brown, a contract designer, designed the surface patterns Starburst and Pomegranate for the Eclipse shape.  For the Flair shape, Brown designed the surface pattern Echo and Woodlore was designed by the contract design group, The Millers.  George T. James' wife Esta James, a ceramist whose ceramics were exhibited at The Egg & The Eye gallery in Los Angeles, designed the surface pattern Trio for the Metropolitan shape.  The Modern American group of dinnerware patterns was marketed in the company's promotions in 1954; however the promotion of this grouping ceased in 1955 with all the patterns being folded into the general earthenware lines sold by the company.

1955-1961

In 1955, Gladding, McBean & Co. introduced a new art ware line.  The company had ceased manufacturing all their earthenware art ware lines under the trademarks of Franciscan and Catalina in 1942.  However, the Company continued until 1955 to manufacture fine china blanks for the Max Shoenfeld Company and earthenware lamp bases for outside companies to assemble and sell under their trade names.  This new Franciscan line was named Contours by George T. James.   The Contours art ware line was sold in one color or duotone glazes, with or without decoration.  The Contours art ware line was the only art ware or dinnerware line the company allowed the designer to use their name on the promotion and marketing. Three Franciscan Contours bud vases were chosen for the Pasadena Art Museum's second California Design Exhibition in 1956.   Franciscan Contours did not appeal to the buying public, and was discontinued shortly after its introduction.

The late 1950s brought foreign imports flooding the American dinnerware market as well as the introduction of new competitive dinnerware manufacturing processes, melamine used in the brand Melmac and CorningWare by Corning Glass Works, placing pressure on Gladding, McBean & Co. to manufacture and market lower cost dinnerware lines to compete in the lower price tier dinnerware market.  The only lower priced dinnerware line, introduced in 1958, to be manufactured in the Glendale plant was the earthenware Family China line designed by George T. James.  Two lower priced dinnerware lines were produced in Japan and introduced in 1959.  The earthenware Whitestone Ware, designed by George T. James, was manufactured by Toyo Toki Kaisha, and the Cosmopolitan China, designed by Mary Jane Winans, was manufactured by Nippon Toki Kaisha.

Even with adding dinnerware lines to compete in the lower priced tiers, Gladding, McBean & Co. saw revenue fall in the dinnerware division.  However, revenue was up in all other divisions.  Aside from the dinnerware division, which was marketed throughout the United States and exported to other countries, the company was limited in all their other product divisions to distribution to the west coast states.  To expand the market for all their products, the company made the decision to merge with an established East coast company to create a national and international corporation.

Interpace

In 1962, West coast based Gladding, McBean & Company merged with East coast based Lock Joint Pipe Company merged, forming a new corporation: International Pipe and Ceramics Corporation.  The Lock Joint Pipe Company, based in New Jersey, was the largest producer of pre-stressed concrete pressure pipe in the United States and one of the leading manufacturers of concrete sewer, culvert, and sub-aqueous pipe.  The merged companies became one of the four hundred largest corporations in the United States with sales of over one hundred million.  Allan M. Hirsh, Jr., the former President of Lock Joint became the President of the newly formed corporation.  Atholl McBean would continue to give his guidance to the corporation and serve as a member of the board.

International Pipe and Ceramics Corporation's corporate name was later changed to Interpace: from International Pipe and Ceramics.  The former corporate headquarters for Gladding, McBean & Co. were moved to Interpace's new corporate headquarters' in Parsippany, New Jersey.  Management in New Jersey began their new mandate to overhaul operations in all their divisions. Gladding, McBean's former Glendale plant was now Franciscan Ceramics, Inc., a division of Interpace.

1963-1978

Millard Sheets was hired as a consultant to Interpace in 1963.  One of his projects included the development of a new design staff for tile and dinnerware.  George T. James resigned. Elliot House was hired as the manager of the dinnerware design department. Elliot House was formerly the design manager for the Southern California pottery Vernon Kilns.  In 1966, George T. James returned as the manager of design & development department replacing Elliot House. Hired on a contract basis for designing tile were ceramists Dora De Larios, Harrison McIntosh, and Jerry Rothman.  Hired on a contract basis for designing dinnerware were ceramists Richard Petterson and Helen Richter Watson. Hired full-time as dinnerware designers were Rupert J. Deese, and Francis Chun, joining Mary Jane Winans and Otto Lund.  Ceramist Henry Takemoto joined Max Compton in the glaze department. In 1969, Henry Takemoto was hired as a full-time dinnerware designer.  Notable ceramists hired on a consultant basis included Kenneth Price in the research & development group and  Chouinard Art Institute graduates Mineo Mizuno and Elsa Rady were hired as trainee designers in 1968.

The tile design team innovated new glazes and methods for decorating 12" by 12" tiles for wall murals.  Major ceramic tile wall murals completed and still in existence include: Jules Stein Eye Institute outpatient clinic at UCLA, donated by Walt Disney and designed by Mary Blair (1966); North and South facades of the Honolulu Hilton Rainbow hotel, designed by Millard Sheets (1968); Disney World Contemporary Resort, Grand Canyon Concourse fourth floor lobby, designed by Mary Blair (1970); and Los Angeles City Hall East Family of Man  West and East facades, designed by Millard Sheets (1972).

The dinnerware design team designed the Madeira line of patterns, an innovative studio potter shape dinnerware.  One of the companies top selling pattern on the Madeira shape designed by Rupert J. Deese was the pattern Madeira designed by Jerry Rothman with a dark glaze developed by Kathy Takemoto. The company also introduced a new fine china shape.  The 7000 shape was designed by George T. James.  Francis Chun designed many of the patterns on the 7000 shape.

1968-1978

In 1968, Interpace acquired its second largest company, Shenango China.  Shenango was the owner and maker of Castleton China and was a large supplier of restaurant china.  Shenango had acquired Mayer China in 1964 was included in the acquisition.  The design staff of each division was maintained separately.  However, Shenango manufactured Franciscan's Gourmet line of stoneware dinnerware and cookware.  Franciscan Gourmet was designed by Otto Lund and Jeffrey Tousley.

In 1969, Interpace purchased the Tiffin Glass Company, Tiffin, Ohio and began to manufacture glass to coordinate with their Franciscan dinnerware lines.  Expanding Franciscan ware to the European market, Interpace bought the Alfred Meakin company of Tunstall, Stoke-on-Trent, England and Myott, Son & Co. Ltd.  The Madeira line shapes were adapted to the existing equipment of the Alfred Meakin pottery by George T. James to produce the pattern Madeira and other Franciscan patterns for the European market.

Millard Sheets resigned as a consultant to the Franciscan Ceramics division in 1973. "In 1975, the division suffered from the adverse effects of the general economy.  The nation's longest recession since World War II drained consumer confidence and led to lower real spending on consumer household durables."  In 1976 Interpace sold Alfred Meakin to a group of investors and the former Gladding, McBean Lincoln plant to Pacific Coast Building Products.  In 1977, all fine china products were discontinued. Mary Jane Winans and Otto J. Lund retired, and George T. James and Mineo Mizuno resigned in 1977.

Wedgwood 1979-present

In 1979 Interpace sold the Franciscan Ceramics division in Los Angeles to Wedgwood, Shenango China Company to the Anchor Hocking corporation, and Mayer China to a group of investors.  The Tiffin Glass division of Interpace was sold to Towle Silversmiths. All glassware sold through Franciscan was discontinued. Tiffin closed in 1980. Interpace corporation was dissolved in 1984. After the sale of Franciscan Ceramics to Wedgwood in 1979, the design group was reorganized.

In 1984, Wedgwood closed the Franciscan Ceramics division, what was the former Gladding, McBean & Co.'s Glendale plant in Los Angeles.  The production of the Franciscan patterns Desert Rose, Apple, and Fresh Fruit were moved to the Johnson Brothers division of Wedgwood in England. All other dinnerware and tile lines were discontinued.   Archival examples of the Franciscan ware were packed up and given to the Wedgwood Museum.

In 1986, Waterford Glass Group plc purchased Wedgwood and the group was renamed Waterford Wedgwood.  In March 2009, KPS Capital Partners announced that it had acquired group assets in a range of countries, including the UK, US and Indonesia, would invest €100m, and move a jobs to Asia to cut costs and return the firm to profitability. In the acquisition of the Wedgwood-Waterford holdings, the Franciscan brand was also acquired.  The Franciscan brand is now a part of the WWRD - The Luxury Lifestyle Group.  WWRD is an acronym for "Wedgwood Waterford Royal Doulton." The Franciscan patterns Desert Rose and Apple continue to be manufactured under the Franciscan brand by WWRD in China.  The Fiskars Corporation, a Finnish maker of home products, agreed to buy 100% of the holdings of WWRD.  On 2 July 2015 the acquisition of WWRD by Fiskars Corporation was completed including brands  Waterford, Wedgwood, Royal Doulton, Royal Albert and Rogaška.  The acquisition was approved by the US antitrust authorities.

In popular culture
In Prizzi's Honor (1985) Starburst dinnerware in the kitchen cabinet.
 In Golden Girls, Season 1 Episode 3, Sofia, Dorothy, and Blanche have tea out of a Desert Rose Teapot.
 In I Dream of Jeannie, Captain/Major Anthony "Tony" Nelson's dinnerware is Apple Franciscan.
 In I Love Lucy, the Ricardo's dinnerware is Franciscan Ivy. Lucy also uses Franciscan fine china for special occasions, and Franciscan Tiempo for card games.
 In Malcolm in the Middle, Franciscan Larkspur is the family's dinnerware.
 In Graceland, home to Elvis Presley in Memphis, Tennessee, Elvis' dinnerware is Franciscan Apple.
 In 1962, the John F. Kennedy administration purchased a special service of Franciscan fine china with the seal of the president of the United States for Air Force One.
In 2013, the movie "Gangster Squad" starring James Brolin as Sgt. John O'Mara, the Franciscan pattern Desert Rose were the dishes on the breakfast table in the O'Mara kitchen.
In Northern Exposure, season 4, episode 14, the china in Maggie's home in Grosse Pointe, Michigan is Desert Rose.
In Better Call Saul, season 1, episode 5, the china Saul is using is Franciscan Sundance.
 In the mid-1990s, a Got Milk? commercial about a desperate airline pilot has two Franciscan Eclipse Starburst cups, some saucers and a relish plate (and milk) on the stewardess' cart in the first class section.
 In 1999 the movie Blast from the Past, starring Brendan Fraser and Alicia Silverstone, in the beginning, some people attending the dinner party are using small Franciscan Starburst plates while eating buffet style.
 In 2018 the show "Young Sheldon", starring a young Sheldon from "The Big Bang Theory" his Grandmother (his Moomaw)owns plates, bowls and a complete tea set. First seen in S01-E22.
In 2019, Amy Farrah Fowler's mother in The Big Bang Theory television series has Franciscan Apple dishes.
In Gilmore Girls, Babette's dishes are Franciscan Apple used in many scenes.
In 2020's Lovecraft Country, in the episode Holy Ghost, the character Hippolyta's breakfast dishes are Desert Rose.

References

Citations

Sources
 American Museum of Ceramic Art. Common Ground: Ceramics in Southern California, 1945-1975. American Museum of Ceramic Art (2013)
 Chipman, Jack. Collector's Encyclopedia of California Pottery. Collector Books, Paducah, Kentucky (1999)
 Chipman, Jack. California Pottery Scrapbook. Collector Books, Paducah, Kentucky (2004)
 Elliot-Bishop. Franciscan, Catalina, and Other Gladding, McBean Wares: Ceramic Table and Art Wares 1873-1942. Schiffer Publishing LTD, Atglen, Pennsylvania (2007)
 Elliot-Bishop. Franciscan Hand-decorated Embossed Dinnerware. Schiffer Publishing LTD, Atglen, Pennsylvania (2004)
 Snyder, Jeffrey B. Franciscan Dining Services. Schiffer Publishing, Atglen, Pennsylvania (2007)
 Tigerman, Bobbye. A Handbook of California Design.  Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art. (2013) .

External links
 Gladding, McBean
 Wedgwood Museum
 Franciscan Ceramics Archive

Ceramics manufacturers of the United States
Defunct companies based in Greater Los Angeles
Kitchenware brands
Porcelain of the United States
Waterford Wedgwood
Dinnerware designers
History of ceramics

Franciscan Ceramics


Wŏnsan (), previously kent as Wŏnsanjin (元山津), Port Lazarev, an Gensan (元山), is a port ceety an naval base locatit in Kangwŏn Province, North Korea, alang the eastren side o the Korean Peninsula, on the Sea o Japan (East Sea) an the provincial caipital.  The port wis opened bi occupying Japanese forces in 1880. Afore the 19501953 Korean War, it fell within the jurisdiction o the then Sooth Hamgyong Province, an during the war it wis the location o the Blockade o Wŏnsan. The population o the ceety wis estimatit at 329,207 in 2013. Notable fowk frae Wŏnsan include Kim Ki Nam, diplomat an Secretary o the Wirkers' Pairty o Korea. The ceety haes several major factories.

Geography

Wŏnsan's aurie is . It is locatit in Kangwŏn Province, on the westernmost pairt o the Sea o Japan (East Sea o Korea) an the east end o the Korean peninsula's neck. Mt. Changdok (Changdok-san) an Mt. Nap'al (Nap'al-san) are locatit tae the wast o the ceety. Mair nor 20 smaw islands flank Wŏnsan's immediate coastal aurie, includin Hwangt'o Island an Ryŏ Island. Wŏnsan is considered an excellent naitural port location. Kŭmgang-san moontain is locatit near Wŏnsan.

Wonsan
Port cities and towns in North Korea

Wonsan


A bathroom (also known as a restroom, washroom, toilet or lavatory) is where people go for personal hygiene activities. This includes use of the toilet, wash their hands, brush their teeth, take a bath, painted bathtub , or take a shower. The room may also contain a sink, often called a "wash basin", "hair basin" or "hand basin" (in parts of the United States) and often a "lavatory." In the United States, "bathroom" mostly means "a room containing a lavatory." In other countries this is mostly called the "toilet". The word "bathroom" is also used in the United States for a public toilet or "restroom." Bathrooms also have bathroom cabinets.

History
Baths go back to 3,000 B.C. Usually, a town would have a special building for people to take baths, which sometimes were part of a religious ceremony. Starting in the 16th century, public baths started declining. People at this time started building baths inside their homes.

Variations
Usually, a full bath will have a toilet, a sink, a bathtub (painted) , and/or a shower. If a bathroom has only a toilet and a sink, then it is called a half bath or a powder room. A master bath is connected to a master bedroom for the use of whoever lives in that bedroom and no one else.

Rooms

Bathroom


Shorthand or stenography is a way of writing. Shorthand systems allow people to write much faster. Shorthand systems have been in use since antiquity. Now, they are not used as much, because there are dictation machines to record voices.

Other websites
 Shorthand Untangled  - A site dealing with the skills of shorthand, with lots of learning and practice material
 Let's Love Teeline Together - Learn Teeline in your own time - online.  LLTT has an extensive website with a blog devoted to those looking to improve their Teeline.
 Teeline Online - Learn Teeline Shorthand in your own time - online and offline lessons, exercises, assignments, shortcuts - all you need to either refresh or start from scratch
 A full description in English of the Dutch shorthand system Groote
 A complete Dutch book from 1925 about system Groote
 A downloadable Teeline book (MSWord), written for journalists in particular  (see Teeline)
 Dictation disc samples for free download
 AgiliWriting - an alphabetic shorthand
 Alpha, the Easy Alphabetic Shorthand
 Handywrite, a phonetic shorthand system
 Keyscript is a fully alphabetical shorthand based on Pitman's.  It saves 60% of writing
 Sound writing - a learning resource from the British Library
 The Shorthand Place - includes chronological list of shorthand systems
 The Louis A. Leslie Collection of Historical Shorthand Materials.
 The Shorthand World and Imperial Typist magazine vol. 1 and vol. 5 available on Google Books

Writing systems

Shorthand


Market capitalization (often market cap) is a measurement of the size of a business corporation. It is equal to the price of one share of stock, times the number of shares of stock in a public company. Owning stock in a company is owning a part of the company. Market capitalization shows the public opinion of a company's value. The total market capitalization of all publicly traded companies in the world was US$51.2 trillion in January 2007. In May 2008 it rose to US$57.5 trillion, but by September 2008 had dropped to a little more than US$40 trillion.

Valuation
Market capitalization represents the public opinion of the value of a company's equity. A public corporation, including all of its assets, may be bought and sold as stock. These purchases and sales will define the price of the company's share price. Market capitalization is the share price times by the number of shares in issue. This provides a total value for the company's shares and the value the company.

Some companies have stock that is privately owned, and not publicly traded. Many Stock markets adjust the market cap on the value of the publicly traded part of the company. In this case, market capitalization is based on the publicly traded stocks.

Note that market capitalization is a market estimate of a company's value. It is based how the public believes the company will perform in the future. There are many things that can affect the stock price. These include economic conditions and mergers and acquisitions.

Categorization of companies by capitalization
In the past, companies were separated into large-cap, mid-cap, and small-cap. New categories 'micro-cap' and 'nano-cap' have been added. There are general guidelines to know what category a company is in. These guidelines are adjusted over time due to changes in the market and the economy. For example, $1 billion was a large market cap in 1950 but it is not very large now.

Different numbers are used by different stock markets. There is no official definition of the exact cutoffs. They also may be done by percentiles rather than fixed cutoffs.

Related measures
Market cap reflects only the equity value of a company. A more comprehensive measure is enterprise value (EV), which includes debt and other factors.
Insurance firms use a value called the embedded value (EV).

References

Other websites
 How to Value Assets - from the Washington State (U.S.) government web site

Business

Market capitalization


Kaspar Hauser (born probably 30 April  1812; died 17 December  1833) was a child who lived in Germany. His early life is a mystery. Kaspar appeared in the street in 1828, not able to talk normally, and no one knew where he had come from.

Discovery
On May 26 1828 the boy who became known as Kaspar Hauser was found in the streets of Nuremberg, Germany. He was dressed like a simple country person and could hardly talk.  He carried with him two letters.  One letter seems to have been written by a poor workman and it was addressed to a captain in the army.  The writer of the letter says that he had looked after the boy since 1812 and that the boy wants to serve the king in the army.  He asks the captain to take the boy or to hang him.  There is no date on the letter.  The other letter looked as if it was from his mother to the poor workman who had been looking after him.  It says that the child was born on April 30th 1812 and that he was called Kaspar but that he has no second name.  It says that his father was a soldier and that the boy should become a soldier when he is 17.  The mother writes that she herself is too poor to look after him.

The boy was taken to an army captain whose name was Wessenig. The only things Kaspar could say (in German) were: "I want to be a knight, as my father was," and "Horse! Horse!" The captain asked him lots of other questions but the boy only cried and said "Don't know."  He was taken to a police station where he could only write his name: Kaspar Hauser.

Early Life

He spent the next two months in a tower where a jailor looked after him.  Many people came to see him.  He smiled, and he walked like a baby.  He was probably 16 years old, but his thinking was like a small child, and he would only drink water and eat bread.

It took a long time, but Kaspar was taught to speak, and slowly told people about his life.  He said that he had spent his life locked up in a small room with only a straw bed to sleep in and a wooden horse to play with. He was only given bread and water. Sometimes the water tasted strange because it had something inside that made him go to sleep.  When he woke up from such a sleep he found that his hair and fingernails had been cut.  Later he was visited by a man who never showed his face. The man taught him to speak a little bit, and then let him go.  Kaspar walked down the streets of Nuremburg and then fainted.

People in many countries heard about the mysterious boy and tried to find out who he was.  Some people thought he was related to the Grand Duke of Baden.  Some people thought it was all a big joke.

Hauser was then taken into care by a schoolteacher, Friedrich Daumer, who taught him to speak, read and write. Kaspar learned quickly.

Attempted Murder

On October 17 1829, a hooded man tried to kill Hauser with a large knife but managed only to wound his forehead. People were worried that the person might try to kill him again, so he was given to someone else to be looked after.  He was given a job as a copyist.  Because someone had tried to murder him some people thought it proved that he was related to a noble family in the house of Baden.

Lord Stanhope

A British nobleman, Lord Stanhope, was interested in Hauser and gave him presents and tried to get permission to look after him.  He said that Hauser was Hungarian and not of noble blood. Many historians thought that Lord Stanhope himself might have been from the house of Baden and that was why he was interested in Kaspar.

Death

On 14 December  1833, Hauser was told to go to a garden where he would find out about the family he came from.  When he got there he was attacked by a stranger who stabbed him in the chest.  He managed to get home but died three days later.  No one knew who had murdered him, although a strange note was found in a black purse saying that Kaspar would not be able to tell people who had killed him, but that he was from the Bavarian border and that his initials were MLÖ."   No one ever found out who the murderer was, and no one ever found out who Kaspar was.

Popular Media

The story of Kaspar Hauser has been made into movies, both in German and in English.  Books have been written about him and lots of people have made guesses about who he might have been. Some people have even guessed that he was just pretending, but it seems unlikely that he could have kept that up for several years.

1810s births
1833 deaths

Mysterious people
People from Nuremberg

Kaspar Hauser


Campo Grande is a city in Brazil. Campo Grande is the capital of Mato Grosso do Sul State of Brazil. Campo Grande means, "Great Field" in Portuguese, the language of Brazil. Campo Grande is home to the official headquarters of the Western Brazilian Army. Campo Grande's nickname is "Brown City," for it's brown colored soil.

Until the 1970s, Mato Grosso do Sul was part of Mato Grosso State. Even when Mato Grosso do Sul was part of Mato Grosso, Campo Grande had more people than the capital of Mato Groso, Cuiabá. When Mato Grosso do Sul left Mato Grosso and became its own Brazilian state, Campo Grande became the new capital.

Campo Grande International Airport serves Campo Grande and all of Mato Grosso do Sul State and the Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul is in Campo Grande.

Cities in Mato Grosso do Sul
Capitals of Brazilian states

Campo Grande


Louis-François-Marie-Nicolas Le Goarant de Tromelin (January 11, 1786 in Morbihan, Gavrin – 1867), was a nineteenth-century French Naval admiral, sent to the Pacific Ocean on political and military missions, and credited with the discovery of Phoenix Island (Rawaki) in the Phoenix group and Fais Island in the Carolines.

Naval service
Tromelin joined the French Navy in 1800, and served on various ships during the Napoleonic Wars, before gaining command of the corvette Bayonnaise in 1826 and on 21 December sailed from Toulon for South America, via the Hawaiian Islands, where he was to report on the political situation and ease the plight of French missionaries. He visited various islands of the Pacific en route, and returned to Toulon 19 March 1829.

Attaining the rank of rear admiral, Tromelin returned to the Pacific in 1846 as commander of the French naval forces in the Pacific. In August 1849 he occupied the fort of Honolulu.

Island discoveries

Phoenix Island
While aboard the corvette Bayonnaise, Tromelin came across Sydney Island and Phoenix Island, probably in 1828, although some sources state 1823 and 1826.  Placing the island at 3°42'S, 189°17'E, Tromelin claimed it was already reported on Norie's map.  A "Phenix", plus unnamed islands at similar coordinates feature in Jeremiah N. Reynolds's 1828 report to the American Navy, but the source of the name (and discoverer) remains contentious.

Fais Island
Tromelin is sometimes credited for the discovery of Fais Island, although that honour might also belong to Francisco de Castro, whose sixteenth century journey to the Philippines took him through the Caroline Islands.

Notes

References
 Dunmore, John (1992); Who's Who in Pacific Navigation, Australia:Melbourne University Press,
 Maude, H.E., (1968) Of Islands and Men: Studies in Pacific History, Melbourne: Oxford University Press. .
 Sharp, Andrew (1960); The Discovery of the Pacific Islands, Oxford:Oxford University Press,
 Quanchi, Max & Robson, John, (2005); Historical Dictionary of the Discovery and Exploration of the Pacific Islands, USA: Scarecrow Press,

1786 births
1867 deaths
French explorers of the Pacific
French military personnel of the Napoleonic Wars
French Navy admirals
History of Kiribati

Louis Tromelin


The Malaysian Electronic Payment System (MEPS) is an interbank network service provider in Malaysia. In August 2017, MEPS merged with Malaysian Electronic Clearing Corporation Sdn Bhd (MyClear) to form Payments Network Malaysia Sdn Bhd (PayNet).

With the result of the merger, PayNet is now the holding company for the PayNet Group which comprises two main subsidiaries, namely Malaysian Electronic Payment System Sdn Bhd (MEPS) and MEPS Currency Management Sdn Bhd (MCM). The PayNet Group is Malaysia's premier payments network and central infrastructure for financial markets.

MEPS plays the integral role in the implementation of smart cards for automated teller machine (ATM) cards, which are an upgrade to chip-based cards from previous magnetic-stripe cards issued to all banks' customers.

The card is also known as Bankcard, a card with multiple functions. There are three main functions that can be used, namely ATM (with various combinations of banking transactions), e-debit (online purchase payment) transactions at participating merchants and MEPS Cash (a stored-value card that can be used to pay at participating merchants).

MEPS is a member of the Asian Payment Network (APN).

Role
In brief, MEPS' role encompasses:
 Development and implementation of payment services
 Provision and management of shared infrastructure for participating financial institutions
 Operating e-payment clearing and settlement systems for the financial industry
 Governing adherence to relevant standards
 Developing technical standards and specifications for the Smart Card
 Certification services for payment smart card and personalisation centres

MEPS provide the following services through its network to all participating banks:
 Nationwide Shared ATM Network – An interbank switching infrastructure network for routine banking transactions including cash withdrawal, funds transfer, credit card and loan repayment, account balance inquiry, mobile prepaid top-up, MEPS CASH loading and Touch n' Go top-up
 Cross-Border Initiative – A cross-border ATM network and link with six countries; providing inter-country cash withdrawal services and will be expanded to include inter-country funds transfer and balance enquiry
 Regional Switching for Financial Institutions – Provision of ATM switching services for member banks amongst their regional branches
 MEPS ATM – Deployment of white-label ATMs which are owned and managed by MEPS. The ATMs offer services ranging from domestic and cross-border cash withdrawal, domestic balance enquiry and funds transfer. Cardholders of participating banks in Malaysia have access to these ATMs while cash advance facilities for MasterCard and Visa cardholders would be enabled soon
 Payment Multi-Purpose Card Specification (PMPC) – A proprietary ATM and Debit chip-card standard which was developed by MEPS. MEPS is the central coordinating body for the national implementation of the PMPC and is responsible for developing the PMPC chip card specification, technical standards, technical integration, support and coordination. MEPS is upgrading the PMPC standard to become EMV compliant and renamed as Malaysian Chip Card Specification (MCCS).

Member banks
Listed below is the participating banks. However, some participating banks provide only selected few of the services offered by MEPS as mentioned above.

Affin Bank
Alliance Bank Malaysia Berhad
Al Rajhi Bank
Agrobank
AmBank
Bank Islam Malaysia
Bank Rakyat
Bank Muamalat Malaysia
Bank Simpanan Nasional
CIMB Bank
Citibank
Hong Leong Bank
HSBC Bank
Kuwait Finance House
Maybank
MBSB Bank
OCBC Bank
Public Bank
RHB Bank
Standard Chartered Bank
United Overseas Bank

Awards and recognition
MEPS is accredited with the following:
 ISO / IEC 27001 for Information Security Management System (ISMS)
 ISO 9001: 2008 Quality Management System
 MS 1900: 2005 Quality Management Systems – Requirements from Islamic Perspectives
 Malaysian Book of Records as First IT Company to be Certified from Islamic Perspectives
 Top Ten Favourite Brands by Superbrands Malaysia
 2015 Cards & Electronic Payments International (CEPI) Asia Payment Awards – Best Peer-to-Peer Payments Initiative (Highly Commended)

See also
ATM usage fees

References

External links

https://www.paynet.my/
https://www.mepsatm.com.my/
 MEPS FAQ

Financial services companies established in 1997
Companies based in Kuala Lumpur
Interbank networks
1997 establishments in Malaysia
2017 mergers and acquisitions
Malaysian brands

Malaysian Electronic Payment System


Thurston Dart (born 3 September 1921 - died 6 March 1971), was a British musicologist, conductor and keyboard player.  He is particularly remembered for his books in which he wrote about how music from earlier centuries should be performed.

Dart studied keyboard instruments at the Royal College of Music in London from 1938 to 1939, and also studied mathematics at University College, Exeter, graduating in  1942. He became a music lecturer and later professor at the University of Cambridge.  During his time at Cambridge, Dart did a lot of work for the early music revival.  Musicians were becoming interested in playing music from the Baroque, Renaissance and even Middle Ages. He formed such groups as the Early Music Consort of London.  In 1964 he became King Edward Professor of Music in the University of London (King's College).

Thurston Dart played the harpsichord in many concerts and made several gramophone recordings.  He wrote a book The Interpretation of Music (London, 1954), which became very widely read.  He wrote many articles in journals about music.

Dart taught many students, included some who later became famous: the composer Michael Nyman, conductor Sir John Eliot Gardiner and conductor/musicologist Christopher Hogwood.  He was one of the first musicians to make a recording of Bach's Brandenburg Concertos using historical instruments.

1921 births
1971 deaths
Harpsichordists
Musicologists
Alumni of the University of Exeter

Thurston Dart


Knob and tube wiring (abbreviated K&T) was an early type of electrical wiring. It was commonly used from the 1880s to the early 1940s, and is occasionally, but very rarely, still used today. In knob and tube wiring, wires were held to the wooden structure by ceramic knobs, and were protected by ceramic tubes when they went through a piece of wood. Wires were held to the knobs by another piece of non-conducting wire. A material called loom protected the wire when it entered a junction box, which usually contained an outlet, switch, or light fixture. Splices were soldered together and wrapped in cloth electrical tape. The insulation on knob and tube wiring was usually cotton cloth soaked in asphalt. To prevent short circuits, the hot and neutral wires were kept far apart. This is not necessary on modern wiring because modern insulation alone is enough to prevent short circuits. Knob and tube wiring did not have a ground wire and therefore did not have three-prong outlets. Most electrical codes allow the use of a GFCI to update knob and tube outlets to three-prong without installing any new wire.

Safety
Knob and tube wiring used cloth insulation. Over time this insulation can wear out, become brittle, and fall off, leaving bare wire. The ceramic knobs and tubes provide some protection because even if the insulation does fall off, the bare wire can not touch the wooden structure. The insulation is also somewhat flammable. Some knob and tube insulation intended for industrial use contained asbestos, which reduced the risk of fire, but can cause cancer. Unlike modern wiring, splices were not contained in a protective box. If a splice failed, it could make a spark and start a fire. The fuse boxes usually had no protection from using an incorrect fuse. An incorrect fuse could cause the wiring to overheat and become damaged or start a fire. Another problem is that when a fuse blew, people who didn't know or didn't care about the hazards would sometimes replace it with a coin or a ball of foil if a replacement fuse wasn't available, leaving no overload protection at all. These issues can be partially corrected by installing a modern circuit breaker panel with arc fault circuit interrupter breakers. There was also no ground wire. Knob and tube can be updated with a GFCI to add the equivalent of grounding. There is generally no need to replace knob and tube wiring if it is in good condition.

Unusual wiring layouts
Unlike modern wiring, knob and tube supply and return wires were not always alongside each other. In the oldest installations, several branch circuits could share the same neutral wire, which can cause overloads. To prevent overloads in this layout, the neutral wires were protected with fuses. If a neutral fuse blew or was removed, it could create a dangerous condition where the power appeared to be off, but was in fact still present. Three-way switches could also be wired in such a way that the outer ring of a lamp socket, which is normally connected to neutral, could be connected to hot, which is an electric shock hazard.

Related pages
Aluminum wiring
National Electrical Code

Electrical wiring

Knob and tube wiring


Canadian football is football generally played in Canada and follows much the same general rules as American Football. Compared to American football, the field is slightly longer and wider, 110 by 65 yards (101 by 59 m) rather than 100 by 53 1/3 yards (91 by 49 m), and the endzones are 10 to 15 yards deeper. There are also only 3 downs instead of 4, and the field goal posts are at the front of the endzone instead of the back. There are 12 players per team on the field during play. More than one player may be in motion before the snap of the ball and the rules are less strict about players position relative to the line of scrimmage.

Canadian football


Tube Tales is a 1999 British anthology film of nine short films based on the true-life experiences of London Underground passengers as submitted to Time Out magazine. The stories were scripted and filmed independently of each other. Filming took place on the London Underground network in 1999 by nine directors including Stephen Hopkins, Charles McDougall and Bob Hoskins, with directorial debuts by Ewan McGregor and Jude Law. The film was produced by Richard Jobson and is also Simon Pegg's film debut, in a small role.

The films
In order of screening:

Mr Cool
Director: Amy Jenkins
Writer: Amy Jenkins
Originator: Sue Smallwood
Starring: Jason Flemyng, Dexter Fletcher and Kelly Macdonald
Synopsis: After failing to impress his dream girl, Mr Cool suffers the embarrassment of becoming trapped on a train to nowhere.
Cast: (in alphabetical order) Jason Flemyng (Luke); Dexter Fletcher (Joe); Kelly Macdonald (Emma).

Horny
Director: Stephen Hopkins
Writer: Stephen Hopkins
Originator: Alex Piro
Starring: Denise van Outen and Tom Bell
Synopsis: A young woman flirts with a businessman somewhere under Liverpool Street.
Cast: (in alphabetical order) Denise van Outen (Alex); Liz Smith (Old Lady); Tom Bell (Old Gent); Leah Fitzgerald (Little Girl).

Grasshopper
Director: Menhaj Huda
Writer: Harsha Patel
Originator: Gary Dellaway
Starring:Dele Johnson, Ray Panthaki and Stephen Da Costa
Synopsis: Two inspectors close in on a suspected fare dodger, only to discover their target is not quite what he seemed, in a bizarre case of mistaken identity.
Cast: (in alphabetical order) Stephen Da Costa (Mr X); Alicya Eyo (Shantel); Roger Griffiths (Charlie); Dele Johnson (Stevie); Preeya Kalidas (Reena); Peter McNamara (Roy); Mazhar Munir (Mazaar); Raiyo Panthaki (Mo); Ashish Raja (Bulla); Marcia Rose (Miss Clinique); Jake Wood (James).

My Father the Liar
Director: Bob Hoskins
Writer: Paul Fraser
Originator: Christine Barry
Starring: Ray Winstone and Tom Watson
Synopsis: A young boy and his father witness an incident that causes the father to lie to his son.
Cast: (in alphabetical order) Edna Doré (Bag Lady); Frank Harper (Ticket Inspector); William Hoyland (Suicide Victim); Richard Jobson (Vendor); Tom Watson (The Son); Ray Winstone (The Father).

Bone
Director: Ewan McGregor
Writer: Mark Greig
Originator: Sam Taggart
Starring: Nicholas Tennant and Kay Curram
Synopsis: A musician invents a fantasy world surrounding the owner of a lost travel card displayed in the window of the ticket office.
Cast: (in alphabetical order) Corrinne Charton (Pot Plant Lady); Kay Curram (Louise); Joe Duttine (Flamboyant Soloist); Douglas L. Mellor (Concert Hall Manager); Nicholas Tennant (Gordon).

Mouth
Director: Armando Iannucci
Writer: Armando Iannucci
Originator: Peter Hart
Starring: Daniela Nardini
Synopsis: A crowded compartment's attentions are drawn to an attractive well-groomed woman, but she doesn't quite live up to their individual expectations.
Cast: (in alphabetical order) Buster Bevis (Father); Helen Coker (Bride To Be); Mark Frost (Dude); Sky Glover (Girlfriend); Simon Greenall (Business Man); Dominic Holland (Cello Player); Daniela Nardini (Heroine); Matthew Xia (Boyfriend).

A Bird in the Hand
Director: Jude Law
Writer: Ed Allen
Originator: Jim Sillavan
Starring: Alan Miller
Synopsis: When a trapped bird stuns itself on a window, a couple of passengers debate the bird's fate before an elderly man liberates it above ground.
Cast: (in alphabetical order) Ed Allen (Youth 2); Frank Harper (Station Guard); Morgan Jones (Youth 1); Alan Miller (Old Man); Cleo Sylvestre (Woman).

Rosebud
Director: Gaby Dellal
Writers: Gaby Dellal and Atalanta Goulandris
Originator: Tracey Finch
Starring: Rachel Weisz
Synopsis: A mother is separated from her daughter and experiences agonising panic as she searches for her, whilst the child discovers a surreal wonderland.
Cast: (in alphabetical order) Joao Costa Menezes (?); Doña Croll (Elizabeth); Leonie Elliott (Rosebud); Danny Cerqueira (Station Guard); Frank Harper (Station Guard); Ian Puleston-Davies (Typewriter Man); Rachel Weisz (Angela).

Steal Away
Director: Charles McDougall
Writer: Nick Perry
Originator: TJ Austin
Starring: Hans Matheson and Carmen Ejogo
Synopsis: Two young opportunists steal a briefcase, which turns out to contain wads of money. Their victim shoots at them, but they seem to escape unscathed onto an unused platform where they board a mysterious train. A preacher reads from the bible and a young boy washes passengers' feet. Leaving the train the couple leave the money with a tramp before heading to the exit where only one of their tickets is valid.
Cast: (in alphabetical order) Tim Barlow (Elderly Drunk); Darren Carr (Black Boy); Jim Carter (Ticket Inspector); Emma Cunniffe (Drained Young Woman); Clint Dyer (Walkman Boy); Jello Edwards (Middle Aged Woman); Annette Ekblom (Boy's Mum); Carmen Ejogo (Girl); Simon Kunz (White Pinstripe Suit Man); Hans Matheson (Michael); Simon Pegg (Clerk); Sean Pertwee (Driver); Lee Ross (Male Reveller); Don Warrington (Preacher).

References

External links
Tube Tales Official Site

1999 films
1999 drama films
British anthology films
British drama films
Films directed by Gaby Dellal
Films directed by Stephen Hopkins
Films directed by Bob Hoskins
Films directed by Jude Law
Works set on the London Underground
Works about underground railways
Films directed by Armando Iannucci
Films with screenplays by Armando Iannucci
1999 directorial debut films
Films directed by Menhaj Huda
1990s English-language films
1990s British films

Tube Tales


Tritium is an isotope of hydrogen, the lightest element. Tritium has one proton and two neutrons. It heavier than ordinary hydrogen or its isotope deuterium. Hydrogen does not have any neutrons, only a proton. The chemical symbol for Tritium is 3H or T.

In nature, tritium is made when cosmic rays hit nitrogen in the Earth's atmosphere. Tritium has a half-life of a little more than twelve years, so there is not much in the atmosphere. People make much more tritium in nuclear reactors, so that they can make things from it.

Ways of using tritium

Tritium is important for nuclear fusion power.  Tritium is added to nuclear bombs to make them more powerful when they explode.

Tritium is often used with phosphors to make glow in the dark key-rings, and sights on rifles. Tritium makes the phosphors glow because it is radioactively unstable and gives energy to the phosphor so it can make light. Before lots of tritium could be made, people used radium to make things light up but this gave people cancer.

Radioactive decay produces tritium. High levels of tritium were found in 2013 in the Pacific near the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant two years after the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

Other websites
 Tritium -Citizendium

Hydrogen
Isotopes

Tritium


MULTI2 is a block cipher, developed by Hitachi in 1988. Designed for general-purpose cryptography, its current use is encryption of high-definition television broadcasts in Japan.

Cipher details
MULTI2 is a symmetric key algorithm with variable number of rounds. It has a block size of 64 bits, and a key size of 64 bits. A 256-bit implementation-dependent substitution box constant is used during key schedule. Scramble and descramble is done by repeating four basic functions (involutions).

History
 1988 MULTI2 patent applied by Hitachi, Ltd on April 28
 1989 Algorithm announced to DPS-SIG Information Processing Society of Japan
 1991 Patent number 4982429 granted for MULTI2 algorithm in United States
 1994 Algorithm registered with ISO/IEC 9979 and assigned registration number 9
 1995 MULTI2 adopted as standard cipher for CS-Digital broadcasting in Japan
 1998 Japanese Patent number 2760799 granted for MULTI2 algorithm

Cryptanalysis
There are a large class of equivalent keys in the Multi2 block cipher.  The largest class (so far found) stems from the fact that the Pi3 round function in the key schedule is not bijective.  For example, with the following 40-byte input key to the key schedule:

45 ec 86 d8
b6 5e 24 d5
38 fe 1d 90
ce fc a4 22
3e 39 1b e3
da 03 0f cb
9c 9e d7 c6
1c e4 73 61
d0 fa 39 86
58 5d 5b 90

You can perform the following single byte modifications (modification here means XOR against the original key byte):

Can mod byte 5 with CF
Can mod byte 7 with 77
Can mod byte 20 with 9A
Can mod byte 20 with A9
Can mod byte 20 with D7
Can mod byte 21 with 35
Can mod byte 21 with 6A
Can mod byte 21 with 9F
Can mod byte 21 with CC
Can mod byte 22 with 4D
Can mod byte 22 with 7A
Can mod byte 22 with A7
Can mod byte 23 with 53
Can mod byte 23 with AE

In this case there are 15 different keys which will schedule to the same 8 32-bit round keys for the ciphers bulk encryption path.  The keys are all different in the first keyword used in the Pi3 round function (keys k[1] and k[5]).  The collision occurs because a single byte difference turns into a pattern like 0X0X0000 (rotated by 0, 8, 16, or 24 bits) which then expands to a variation of 0X000X00 and finally in the second last line (with the rotate by 16 and the XOR) the differences cancel out.  Turning into a zero-delta.

The problem stems from the fact that the function

x = ROL(x, y) ^ x

Where ROL means rotate left by y bits, is not bijective for any value of y.   There are similar problems with the Pi2 and Pi4 functions but they are seemingly harder to exploit because the rotation value is smaller.

There are other observations too, for example

x = ROL(x, 1) - x

Found in Pi3, is an identity function for 50% of the values of x (where the most significant byte is zero).

This also means it is possible to have weak keys where instead of forcing single byte differences in the key, they are in the plaintext into Pi3 produces a zero-delta output and possibly leading to a 1R differential.

See also
 Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting

External links
 ALGORITHM REGISTER ENTRY, registered in 1994

Feistel ciphers
ISDB

MULTI2


Gainsharing is a system of management used by a business to increase profitability by motivating employees to improve their performance through involvement and participation. As their performance improves, employees share financially in the gain (improvement). Gainsharing's goal is to improve performance and eliminate waste (time, energy, and materials) by motivating employees to work smarter as a team rather than just working harder.

Gainsharing should not be confused with profit sharing. There are many differences between Gainsharing and profit sharing. Gainsharing is also called Gain sharing, Gainshare, and Gain share. It could also be called "savings sharing." In other words, a company shares with employees the savings from improved performance.

There are two important parts of a Gainsharing system. One is a bonus calculation. The second is a structured system for employee involvement. Because of these two parts, Gainsharing is best seen as an "organizational development" tool. It is not just a bonus or "incentive plan." In order to get a better understanding of this concept one needs to look back at Gainsharing's history.

Gainsharing history
One of the first Gainsharing plans dates back to the 1930s. In the 1930s a labor leader and MIT Lecturer Joe Scanlon, preached that "the worker" had much more to offer than just a "pair of hands" (manual labor). Scanlon believed that the person closest to the problem often has the best and simplest solution. Also, if the worker is involved in the solution he will make the solution work.

In an effort to help a troubled company, Scanlon and the company owner asked employees for their ideas and suggestions to help reduce waste and lower cost. Many improvements were made. The company became more successful. Joe was asked to save other companies who had barely survived the depression. He eventually became the acting director of the Steelworkers Research Department and used his skills in creating joint labor/management improvement committees to help the war effort for WWII.

After the war Joe became a lecturer at MIT and went on to develop a system for organizational development and gainsharing that became known as the Scanlon Plan.

As the Scanlon Plan developed a method to measure (calculate) gains (improvements) was created. The monetary gains were then shared with all employees. This calculation represents the bonus (monetary incentive) element of Gainsharing. This concept addresses the principle of equity. "It is fair to share." Everyone in a company makes a contribution to the organization's success. Why limit bonuses to the select few? People typically take pride in their work and have a strong desire to be respected for what they do. By sharing the company is communicating an important message to the work force: "We all contribute. That contribution is respected. Let's share in the financial benefits."

Gainsharing today
Today, companies use Gainsharing to  measure both the performance and reward employees when it improves. Companies use a pre-determined calculation (formula) to share the savings with all employees. The goals of a company's Gainsharing plan depend on its cost structure and long-term competitive strategy and are tailored to fit the industry (manufacturing, service, or corporate). Information regarding the measures, formula, and gains (savings) is regularly and openly shared with all employees. Since the monetary gains are shared with employees, people develop more of a sense of ownership for their work and the company. People have a better understanding of how they influence the company's success.

Gainsharing develops the work culture
It should be noted that in a Gainsharing plan, the company's current performance is compared to its historic performance (baseline period). The savings above the baseline period determine the gain or loss. This is a very important point. Since gains are measured in relationship to a historical period, employees and the company must improve in order to make a gain. Performance thresholds must be corrected periodically for the effects of capital investment in new equipment as well as for the continuous improvement needed to meet ever higher customer demands.

When people do their work differently they must change. However, as everyone one knows, it is difficult for people to change. On the other hand, do people like money? Most people would say, "Yes." Therefore, Gainsharing can be a very powerful tool. Gainsharing promotes the need for continuous improvement and eliminates employees' sense of entitlement.

The employee involvement element
A very important part of a successful Gainsharing plan is the employee involvement element of Gainsharing. In order to foster a culture of positive change, a successful Gainsharing plan needs to incorporate a structure system of employee involvement. It is common for Gainsharing plans to have a "team-based" suggestion system in place.

How does a team-based suggestion system work? First, teams are formed in order to gather suggestions from employees on ways to improve, (in other words, suggestions on how to work "smarter"). To avoid unnecessary bureaucracy, most companies ask managers/supervisors to lead departmental teams whose goals mesh with the overall objectives of a company's Gainsharing plan. The teams are permanent groups. The teams meet on a regular basis to discuss the ideas and suggestions. They make decisions on approving or declining the ideas. Also the teams are given limited spending authority to approve and implement the suggestions. Suggestions that are approved by a team, but are beyond their spending authority, are advanced to a higher level in the organization for final approval. Unlike a traditional suggestion system, a team-based system does not provide individual monetary rewards. This is because everyone works together and shares in the gain together. Gainsharing is not an individual incentive plan.

The bonus calculation element
In terms of the calculation, a Gainsharing plan may have from one to six key performance measures. The most effective Gainsharing plans have relatively few performance goals because employee understanding of them is necessary for success. Examples of measures include productivity, quality, waste, spending, and customer service which are all factors employees can control. The gains (savings) from each measure are calculated separately. Then gains and losses from each measure are added to determine the total gain. A portion of the total gain goes to the company and a portion is shared with all employees. Generally, from 10% to 50% of the gain is shared with employees. The percent of the gain shared with employees depends on employee controllability and importance of the measure to the organization. The pool is distributed to all participants, typically on a monthly or quarterly frequency. The frequency of payouts depends on the employee line-of-sight (employees' ability to identify what they do today to earn a payout at the end of the Gainsharing period). Companies with unskilled and semi-skilled employees typically have plans calling for payouts at shorter intervals than those with highly skilled workers.

Gainsharing implementation
It is very important to note that the development and implementation of a Gainsharing plan involves employees and that its goals are within employee control. An employee committee called the "Design Team" helps to make policy decisions on issues such as the plan's measures, employee eligibility, frequency of payout, and method of communication. Next the design team gets upper management approval before implementation. After approval, the Design Team is responsible for conducting meetings with all employees to communicate the details of the plan. Follow-up training should also take place.

The following summarizes many of the elements of a Gainsharing plan which have been discussed.
 Gains and resulting payouts are self-funded based on savings generated by improved performance.
 The plan commonly applies to a single plant, site, or stand-alone organization. However, some organizations have levels of sharing across multiple locations or corporation-wide.
 Performance is typically measured across departments, units, or functions.
 Measures are typically based on operational measures (productivity, quality, spending, customer service) and are more controllable by employees rather than an organization-wide measure of profits.
 Payouts are often monthly or quarterly.
 Many plans often have a year-end reserve fund to account for deficit periods.
 Employees often are involved with the design process.
 All employees are eligible for plan payments.
 The bonus is often paid as an equal percentage of compensation or equal cents per hour worked, rather than paid on the basis of individual performance.
 A supporting employee involvement system is part of the plan in order to drive improvement initiatives.
 Plans are often reviewed at least annually and adjustments may be made that make sense for both the company and employees.

The keys to successful implementation are simplicity and employee involvement
 Simplicity - Employee understanding is necessary for them to be motivated by it.
 Involvement - The more employees are involved in a plan's design, the more ownership they will take in it.

Summary
Companies with successful Gainsharing plans view Gainsharing as much more than a bonus or incentive system. Instead, they see the system as an important part of their business strategy and a method to drive organization change. When properly designed and implemented, Gainsharing gradually grows into a company's core communications and compensation program. Gainsharing can be a powerful tool if installed and managed by a company that truly believes in its people.

Gainsharing Summary Table

Books
 Robert Masternak: Gainsharing-A Team-Based Approach to Driving Organizational Change, WorldatWork, 2003
 Brian Graham-Moore and Timothy L. Ross: Gainsharing and Employee Involvement, BNA Books, Second Printing November 1996
 John G. Belcher: Results-Oriented Variable Pay System, American Management Association, 1996

References

Management

Gainsharing


Vendetta is a 1950 American crime film based on the 1840 novella Colomba by Prosper Mérimée, about a young Corsican girl who pushes her brother to kill to avenge their father's murder.

The film, produced by Howard Hughes as a vehicle for his latest discovery, Faith Domergue, began principal photography for United Artists in 1946, but was not released until four years later through RKO Pictures, which Hughes had recently purchased. Hughes fired director Max Ophüls as well as his producing partner, Preston Sturges, who replaced Ophüls. Stuart Heisler completed the film, but Hughes decided he wanted more changes and brought in actor/director Mel Ferrer, who is the only credited director on the film.  Hughes himself did some direction of pick-up scenes.  The screenplay was credited to W. R. Burnett, but the script was worked on by a number of writers, including Sturges, who originated the project at Hughes's behest.

Vendetta is estimated to have cost around $4 million, an extraordinary amount for the time.  The film was neither a critical nor a box office success.

Plot
In 1825, in the village of Pietranera in French-controlled Corsica, hot-blooded maiden Colomba della Rabia (Faith Domergue) wants her brother Orso (George Dolenz) to avenge the murder of their father by the powerful Barracini family.  Despite being a lieutenant, Orso is a man of peace and reason who opposes the Corsican practice of vendetta and revenge; he is more interested in courting the beautiful English aristocrat, Lydia Nevil (Hillary Brooke), who is vacationing on the island with her father, Col. Sir Thomas Nevil (Nigel Bruce).

To persuade Orso to do his family duty, Colomba must have the help of a family friend, the "bandit" Padrino (Donald Buka), and his servant Brando (Hugo Haas).  When Orso is finally convinced that the Barracinis are guilty, and were acquitted at trial due to perjured testimony, he challenges Vincente Barracini to a duel, which pleases Colomba but horrifies Lydia.  She is now bethrothed to Orso, but threatens to leave him if he goes through with the duel.

When Orso heads to the appointed place, Colomba finds out that the Barracini brothers are going to ambush him, and rides out to give him warning.  In the confrontation that comes, Colomba is shot and dies in Orso's arms, the Barracinis are killed, and Orso is wounded, but not seriously.  Padrino tells the grief-stricken Orso that he must use his experience to guide the people to a better way of living, breaking the cycle of vendetta and death.

Cast
Faith Domergue as Colomba della Rabia
George Dolenz as Lt. Orso Antonio della Rabia
Donald Buka as Padrino the Bandit
Joseph Calleia as Mayor Guido Barracini
Robert Warwick as The French Prefect
Hugo Haas as Brando, a bandit
Hillary Brooke as Lydia Nevil
Nigel Bruce as Sir Thomas Nevil

Production

Sturges and Ophüls
The saga of the making of Vendetta, which had the working titles of "Colomba" and "Our Lady of the Doves", is extensive. In 1944, after ten years, writer/director Preston Sturges left Paramount Pictures, where he made his most popular and successful films, including the runaway hit The Lady Eve (1941), and joined in a partnership with eccentric millionaire aviator Howard Hughes to create California Pictures.  By September 1945, work has already begun on the new company's first picture, The Sin of Harold Diddlebock, written and directed by Sturges, and it was announced that Sturges had completed the first draft of an adaptation of Prosper Mérimée's 1840 novella Colomba, the first time it had been used as the basis for a sound film.  (It was adapted in 1920 in France as a silent film.)  Sturges began the project at the request of Hughes, who was looking for a vehicle for his protégée, Faith Domergue.

By July 1946, German director Max Ophüls had been announced as the director, in what would be his American debut. Ophüls had been trying for four years to get a directing job in Hollywood, and Sturges hired him so that he could concentrate on completing ...Harold Diddlebock.  Ophüls' first choices to play opposite Domergue were James Mason and Madeleine Carroll, but Hughes refused to pay star salaries, and worried that Domergue, who had little acting experience, would be outshone by powerful and better-known actors. The cast that was eventually assembled under Ophüls had Domergue, Robert Ryan, J. Carrol Naish, Gregory Marshall, George Renevant, and Fortunio Bonanova. Principal photography began in mid-August 1946.

After only a week of shooting, Hughes, who was recuperating from the crash of an experimental reconnaissance plane, complained to Sturges about the slowness of Ophüls' shooting pace and the way he handled Domergue. Saying that he did not want "foreigners" working for California Pictures, he forced Sturges to fire Ophüls; the German director later made the film Caught (1949) about his experience with Hughes. Sturges took over the remainder of allotted filming, and principal photography wrapped on 29 October, with the film over both its shooting schedule and its budget.

Stuart Heisler
At this point, Hughes was still unhappy with the footage produced, so Sturges either quit the film or was fired, and his partnership with Hughes was dissolved, with both of the company's films, Vendetta and The Sin of Harold Diddlebock, seriously overbudget.  Hughes bought director Stuart Heisler out of his contract with Gary Cooper to be the new director for Vendetta, fired at least two members of the cast, and replaced the entire production staff.  He cut out one of the major characters, the son of the aristocratic English lady, because he was dissatisfied with actor Gregory Marshall's performance, and because he wanted Domergue to get more screen exposure.

Principal photography began again on 8 November with Heisler directing, and with George Dolenz and Donald Buka as the new co-stars, but paused again for about 10 days near the end of the month for the script to be re-written. Filming started up again, with some new cast members, on 2 December and proceeded until 15 March 1947.  During this time, writers W. R. Burnett and Peter O'Crotty were engaged, in January, to do more re-writes, and director Heisler became ill for several days so that editor Paul Weatherwax had to substitute for him. By this time, the film had been shooting for 88 days.

Mel Ferrer
Hughes was dissatisfied with the result of Heisler's work and wanted a new ending for the film. He and Heisler were unable to agree, and Heisler departed in May 1947.  Hughes then brought in actor/director Mel Ferrer, who he borrowed from David O. Selznick's production company in June, to finish the film, with the expectation that his assignment would last about 30 days and cost about $200,000.  Hughes also hired Wells Root to do re-writes, and replaced the director of photography.

Ferrer began shooting on 6 October 1947. Because Hughes kept expanding what was to be re-shot, this phase of the production ended up taking almost seven weeks and costing over $1 million. Shooting wrapped in late November, but by March 1948, Hughes wanted more changes, and Ferrer came back to do re-shoots beginning on 27 March, with Hughes himself directing some pick-up scenes.

Corriganville

During the course of the film's extensive shooting, much of which was done at Samuel Goldwyn Studios, location shooting was done at the Corriganville Movie Ranch in Simi Valley, California and in Monterey, California. A village set was built in 1946 for the film with Ray Corrigan renaming the set "the Corsican Village". The set was used for several films but was removed after Bob Hope took over ownership of the property in 1965, the set gone by November 1967.

Release and reception
Vendetta was finally released in 1950, premiering in New York City on 25 December, over four years after filming had begun. The film had been made at the estimated expenditure of over $4 million, an extraordinary amount for the time for a film that had no big stars and was not epic in scale.  United Artists had originally been contracted to distribute the film, but after Hughes bought RKO Radio Pictures in the middle of 1948, he paid UA $600,000 for the rights to Vendetta, The Sin of Harold Diddlebock, and The Outlaw, and announced he would distribute them through RKO.  The film was marketed with the taglines "She lives by the code of the vendetta!" and "Love is wild - life is violent - death is cheap!"

In the course of production on Vendetta, there had been no significant problems with the censors at the Hays Office, although chief censor Joseph Breen had complained in August 1949 about the overtones of "unholy love" (i.e. incest) in the film, referring to the relationship between "Colomba" and "Orso", and after the film was released, conservative publisher Martin Quigley made the same complaint.  The censors also objected to the ad campaign for the film, which, like the campaign for Hughes' The Outlaw, featured Domergue's exposed cleavage.  Despite these concerns, no states banned or cut the film.

It is not known what percentage of the final released film can be ascribed to the various directors who worked on it.  News reports at the time claimed that little of what either Ophüls or Sturges shot was retained in the film; perhaps no more than a couple of minutes.  Heisler's footage apparently makes up less than two-thirds of the finished film; although it was reported that Hughes had agreed to give Heisler a screen credit, only Mel Ferrer is credited on the released film.

Preston Sturges later wrote that Vendetta was the best adaptation he had ever done, but how much of his script was used in the final film is not known – little enough that his autobiography lists his script for the film as being "unproduced".

Vendetta was a critical and box office flop.

In popular culture
Poster for the movie appears in Chandler and Joey's apartment in the NBC sitcom Friends, under the alternate title "Lover's Revenge".

References

External links

Films directed by Mel Ferrer
1950 films
1950 crime drama films
American black-and-white films
1950s English-language films
Films scored by Roy Webb
Films based on French novels
Films based on works by Prosper Mérimée
Films directed by Max Ophüls
Films directed by Preston Sturges
Films directed by Stuart Heisler
Films set in the 1820s
Films set in Corsica
Films produced by Howard Hughes
American crime drama films
RKO Pictures films
1950s American films

Vendetta (1950 film)


A meritocracy is the condition where people who deserve to can go up in rank, as opposed to a system like nepotism. It applies generally to all positions to which people may be appointed. It is often reinforced by laws, such as that women should have equal opportunities to men in employment.

The philosopher Plato thought that a government based on merit was better than democracy. In democracy, there is no guarantee that you will get the best person, the most qualified person, ruling the state. His criticisms were really of Athenian (or direct) democracy, where anyone could be selected to rule.

In a meritocracy, the people are chosen who are thought to be the best. Some have accused it of being elitist, saying that government by the best will mean that only those who have had the right opportunities will have a chance to govern, creating in effect a ruling class.

It is worth pointing out that Plato did not see it this way. He believed that philosophers were the best people to rule because they were disinterested, meaning they only had the interests of the state in mind, not their own interest. Plato's point was this: if you want to rule, then it will go wrong, because power will corrupt you. If you are a philosopher, you don't care about power  all you care about is truth, so you will rule well, without being interested in your power or status.

Related pages
Technocracy

Social classes

Meritocracy


Franz Hofmeister (30 August 1850, in Prague – 26 July 1922, in Würzburg) was an early protein scientist, and is famous for his studies of salts that influence the solubility and conformational stability of proteins. In 1902, Hofmeister became the first to propose that polypeptides were amino acids linked by peptide bonds, although this model of protein primary structure was independently and simultaneously conceived by Emil Fischer.

Early life
Hofmeister's father was a doctor in Prague, where Hofmeister first began his studies, under the physiologist Karl Hugo Huppert, himself a student of Carl Lehmann.  Hofmeister's Habilitationsschrift in 1879 concerned the peptic products of digestion.

Hofmeister became a Professor of Pharmacology at the First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University in Prague in 1885, then eventually moved to Strasbourg in 1896.

The Hofmeister series

Hofmeister discovered a series of salts that have consistent effects on the solubility of proteins and (it was discovered later) on the stability of their secondary and tertiary structure.   Anions appear to have a larger effect than cations, and are usually ordered

(This is a partial listing; many more salts have been studied.)
The order of cations is usually given as

The mechanism of the Hofmeister series is not entirely clear, but seems to result mainly from effects on the solvent at higher salt concentrations (> 100 mM). Early members of the series increase solvent surface tension and decrease the solubility of nonpolar molecules (salt out); in effect, they strengthen the hydrophobic interaction.  By contrast, later salts in the series increase the solubility of nonpolar molecules (salt in) and decrease the order in water; in effect, they weaken the hydrophobic effect. However, these salts also interact directly with proteins (which are charged and have strong dipole moments) and may even bind specifically (e.g., phosphate and sulfate binding to ribonuclease A). Ions that have a strong salting in effect such as I− and SCN− are strong denaturants, because they salt in the peptide group, and thus interact much more strongly with the unfolded form of a protein than with its native form. Consequently, they pull the unfolding reaction. Moreover, they may have direct interactions with some standard hydrophobic molecules, e.g., benzene. A quantum chemical investigation suggests an electrostatic origin of the Hofmeister series, which appears to quantify this qualitative series (at least for anions).

Protein purification
The importance of the Hofmeister series to early protein work should not be underestimated, since it provided the chief tool for purifying proteins (sulfate precipitation) over the next ~50 years, one that is still in use today.  Hofmeister himself may have been the first to crystallize a protein, hen egg-white albumin.  Repeated crystallization was a favourite purification technique in the early days of protein science, and was essential for its development.

Proposal of protein primary structure
Hofmeister argued for peptide bonds by process of elimination. C-C, ether and ester bonds were unlikely considering the digestion by trypsin. R=C-N-C=R bonds could be eliminated because it would imply a much larger number of carboxylate groups than is observed experimentally.

Hofmeister also argued for peptide bonds based on the biuret reaction observed with all proteins but never with free amino acids. Since biuret has the formula NH2-CO-NH-CO-NH2, that suggested the presence of similar peptide bonds in proteins.

See also
 primary structure
 peptide bond
 Picture of Hofmeister at Science and Society site, UK
 Hofmeister Still Mystifies, Chemical & Engineering News, July 16, 2012.

References

Further reading
 Hofmeister F. (1888) Arch. Exptl. Pathol. Pharmakol., 24, 247.

 Tanford C and Reynolds J. (2001) Nature's robots: a history of proteins, Oxford University Press.
 Creighton TE. (1993) Proteins, 2nd ed., W. H. Freeman.
 Jencks WP. (1969) Catalysis in Chemistry and Enzymology, Dover republication (1987).

External links

1850 births
1922 deaths
Chemists from Austria-Hungary
Emigrants from Austria-Hungary to Germany
20th-century German chemists
19th-century German chemists
German biochemists
German Bohemian people
Scientists from Prague
Academic staff of Charles University

Franz Hofmeister


Eugene Onegin (, Yevgeniy Onegin) is a novel in verse by Alexander Pushkin.

It is a classic of Russian literature. It was published in parts between 1825 and 1832. The first complete edition was published in 1833, and the currently accepted version is based on the 1837 publication.

Almost the entire work is made up of 389 stanzas of iambic tetrameter with the unusual rhyme scheme "AbAbCCddEffEgg". This form has come to be known as the "Onegin stanza" or the "Pushkin sonnet."

The story is told by a narrator (a lightly fictionalized version of Pushkin), whose tone is educated, worldly, and intimate. The narrator digresses at times, commenting on aspects of the social and intellectual world. This helps develop the characters and the drama of the plot.

An opera Eugene Onegin by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky has been composed based upon the book.

The storyline
Onegin, a nobleman who has just taken over his uncle's estate, is a fine young dandy, but bored and cynical. He does not value shy, bookish Tatyana Larina. Soon after their meeting she bares her soul to Onegin in a letter. She expresses her love for him.

Onegin does not write back. When they meet in person, he rejects her advances. This famous speech is often referred to as 'Onegin's Sermon' He admits that the letter was touching, but says that he would quickly grow bored with marriage and can only offer Tatyana friendship. He advises her to keep more emotional control in the future, lest another man take advantage of her innocence.

As their lives develop. His life falls apart after he kills his best friend in a duel. On the other hand, her life blossoms.

Years pass, and he attends a society ball in St. Petersburg. He sees a beautiful woman who captures the attention of everyone. He realizes her as Tatyana. Now she is married to an aged prince. He becomes obsessed with winning her affection, despite the fact that she is married. However, his attempts are rebuffed. He writes her several letters, but receives no reply.

Eventually Onegin manages to see Tatyana, and offers her the opportunity to renew their past love. She recalls the days when they might have been happy, but that time has passed. Onegin repeats his love for her. Faltering for a moment, she admits that she still loves him, but she will not allow him to ruin her. She declares her determination to remain faithful to her husband. She leaves him to his bitter regrets.

Notes

Russian novels
1820s books

Eugene Onegin


Huo Qubing (; 140 BC - 117 BC) was a Chinese general of the Han Dynasty under Emperor Wu. He was very good at shooting with his bow on a horse. When he was 18, he was ordered to attack the Xiongnu with 800 cavalry. Finally, his troops killed about 2,000 enemies and kidnapped the imperial officials.

In the spring of 121 BC, Emperor Wu ordered Huo Qubing to invade the Xiongnu with 10,000 cavalry. He occupied 5 cities within 6 days and finally killed 8,000 enemies. In order to fairly eliminate the main force of the Xiongnu, Huo Qubing and Wei Qing led 100,000 cavalry and fought with their enemies in the desert in the spring of 119 BC. Huo Qubing died in Chang'an (present-day Xi'an), the capital of the Han Dynasty, when he was 24.

140 BC births
117 BC deaths
Han Dynasty generals

Huo Qubing