The Federation of Damanhur, often called simply Damanhur, is a commune, ecovillage, and spiritual community situated in the Piedmont region of northern Italy about  north of the city of Turin. It is located in the foothills of the Alps in the Chiusella Valley, bordering on the Gran Paradiso National Park. The community has its own constitution and currency, the Credito.

Damanhur is named after the Egyptian city of Damanhur which was the site of a temple dedicated to Horus.

It  was founded in 1975 by Oberto Airaudi with around 24 followers, and by 2000 the number had grown to 800. The group holds a mix of New Age and  neopagan beliefs.

Damanhur's supporters claim the growth and activity of the community has revitalized the local area.

The Federation of Damanhur has centers in Europe, America, and Japan.

The Temples of Humankind are a collection of subterranean temples built by the Federation of Damanhur, and they are some of the largest underground temples in the world.

Life at Damanhur

The constitution began with 3 bodies of Damanhur: The School of Meditation (ritual tradition) Social (social theory, social realization) and The Game of Life (experimentation and dynamics, life as a game, change). A fourth body was recently added, Technarcate (individual inner refinement).

Citizens participate in one of 4 levels, depending on their desired involvement: A, B, C, or D.  Class A citizens share all resources and live on site full-time.  Class B citizens contribute to financial goals and live on site a minimum of 3 days a week.  Class C and D citizens live anywhere.  (page 102, Merrifield, 2006)  Class A & B citizens participate fully in The School of Meditation, Social, and the Game of Life.  Class C citizens participate fully in The School of Meditation.

Citizens participate in one of several ways, depending on their personal nature.  Ways include the Way of the Oracle, the Way of the Monk, the Way of the Knight, the Way of Health, the Way of the Word, the Way of Art & Work, and many others.  Most citizens live in houses of 10-20 people each, federated together into the Federation of Damanhur.

Marriage works on a renewal basis, for a period of so many years before renewal.  Conception is timed for auspicious birthdays of children.

From 1983 onwards, members have assumed animal names (Sparrow, Prawn, Mole, etc.).

Controversy
Since May 2009, a website called Damanhur Inside Out has hosted anonymous testimonials from people claiming to be ex-members of the Damanhur community, and articles relating to legal controversy around the Foundation and its founder. In the 2007 assessment of Patrizia Santovecchi, the President of the National Psychological Abuses Observatory (Osservatorio Nazionale Abusi Psicologici, O.N.A.P.), Damanhur shares characteristics typical of psychologically abusive cults. These characteristics include barriers to leaving freely, siege syndrome, in which outsiders are portrayed as enemies constituted by negative energies; suppression of criticism, imposition of obedience, estrangement from family members, depersonalization, and submission to the will of the guru.
A 2018 analysis of interviews with ex-members echoed these themes, showing that their process of disillusionment with and departure from the community usually took several years and could be "torturous".
Damanhur have publicly responded to criticism by describing themselves as an "ethical cult". Academics have noted that Damanhur has undergone changes since the death of the founder in 2013, and become more outward-facing. Websites have become an important means by which the Foundation is "advertising and legitimizing" itself as an 'Exemplary Utopia'.

Notes

References

External links

1975 establishments in Italy
Ecovillages
Micronations
New Age communities
New religious movements
Religious organizations established in 1975
Subterranea (geography)
Utopian movements

Federation of Damanhur


The Glitter Band are a glam rock band from England, who initially worked as Gary Glitter's backing band under that name from 1973, when they then began releasing records of their own. They were unofficially known as the Glittermen on the first four hit singles by Gary Glitter from 1972 to 1973.

The Glitter Band had seven UK Top 20 hit singles in the mid-1970s, and three hit albums.

Early career and commercial success
When Gary Glitter's first single "Rock and Roll Parts 1 and 2" became a number 2 hit in the UK, his manager Mike Leander realised that he would need a backing band and contacted John Rossall who was then the musical director of the Boston Showband. With a few changes in personnel, the Boston Showband became the Glittermen, and later The Glitter Band in 1973 who were:  John Rossall (trombone and musical director), Gerry Shephard (lead guitar and vocals), Pete Phipps (drums and keyboards), Tony Leonard (drums), John Springate (bass and vocals) and Harvey Ellison (saxophone). They backed Glitter in live performances, although in the studio Mike Leander played all the instruments, apart from the brass section provided by Rossall and Ellison.

In 1973, Rossall approached Leander with the suggestion that the band record some material without Glitter. Leander agreed, but rejected the first recordings. The band then went back into the studio and recorded the Rossall/Shephard composition "Angel Face", which met with Leander's approval, but not without some changes. The band, now working as a separate entity with Tony Leonard having replaced Pete Gill, as well as continuing to back Glitter, played a few well-received live shows before their first single came out, mixing some new songs with cover versions of 1950s and 1960s songs. In March 1974, "Angel Face" was released on Bell Records, reaching number four in the UK Singles Chart, and outselling Gary Glitter's "Remember Me This Way" that week, though "Remember Me This Way" ultimately peaked higher at #3. Further hits followed between 1974 and 1976, along with the release of four albums. Rossall left the band on 31 December 1974, with Gerry Shephard, John Springate and Pete Phipps taking over leadership of the band, and Springate taking lead vocal duties on hits such as the ballad "Goodbye My Love", "The Tears I Cried", and "People Like You". Soon after performing on Gary Glitter's "final live tour" in 1976, sales for The Glitter Band dropped, with the decline of glam rock and the advent of punk rock. The band switched to CBS Records and later Epic Records, and changed their name to The G Band to disassociate themselves from Glitter, but failed to find another hit single. The band reverted to The Glitter Band name in March 1977 for the release of "Look What You've Been Missing", co-written by John Rossall and Gerry Shephard.

May 1977 saw the band release a final single in the 1970s as The Glitter Band, "She Was Alright". Finally Springate, Phipps and Shephard released "Gotta Get a Message Back To You" in September 1977, under the new band name of Air Traffic Control. The single, written by Springate and Phipps, never made it past a few initial commercial pressings on the Epic label. In 1979, Shephard and Phipps worked with former Sparks keyboard player Peter Oxendale, recording the US only album Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is as Oxendale and Shephard. They regrouped as The Glitter Band in 1980 with the addition of Eddy Spence on keyboards and Brian Jones replacing Harvey on sax. Further sporadic releases followed in the 1980s on a variety of labels. Trevor Horn played bass guitar for the band in this era. The band's profile was maintained with a slew of Greatest Hits releases, mainly concentrating on their peak mid-1970s era.

Reformation
Guitarist/singer Gerry Shephard and drummer/pianist Pete Phipps reformed the band in 1987, and successfully performed in the UK and Europe, including tours with Gary Glitter, until 2001 when they split up. Bassist/singer John Springate had joined them on most tours from 1991 to 1996. After the split in 2001, Shephard and former drummer Tony Leonard formed one band, whilst Phipps continued to perform with his own band. After Rossall was taken to court in 1983, an injunction banned him from using Glitter in his band name; a second legal ruling in 1997, after Rossall had persistently breached the first order, resulted in him receiving a one-year suspended prison sentence which would come into force if he used the Glitter name again. Rossall was subsequently not allowed to use Glitter Band as part of his band's name, but was allowed to advertise his historical connections to the band. With Shephard's death in May 2003, Leonard retired to concentrate on musical production activities in Norway, whilst both Phipps and Rossall continued on the road with their own bands.  Shephard and Phipps had previously guested on Denim's Back In Denim (1992).

Later career
Pete Phipps still performs live as The Glitter Band. In April 2010, The Glitter Band performed at Scala, Kings Cross, London where they were joined by special guests Angie Bowie and Adam Ant. Rossall and Harvey Ellison continued to tour with their band, releasing the album Glitteresque in 2008, which was subsequently withdrawn from circulation by their record company because of trademark infringement. Following Ellison's death in 2017, Rossall continued to tour for the rest of his life.

Springate and Shephard also wrote the UK's 2000 Eurovision Song Contest entry, "Don't Play That Song Again" performed by Nicki French.

Phipps and Shephard appeared in the Identity Parade line-up on the first episode of Never Mind The Buzzcocks, recorded on 28 October 1996.

In December 2013, John Rossall released a new single, a Glitter styled version of the classic "White Christmas". In 2014 the song "Angel Face" was included on the soundtrack of the hit Spanish film The Face of an Angel.

Springate retired from the band in 2019, and in August 2020 Phipps, the only remaining original member, released his first solo album entitled Wherever You Are.

John Rossall died on 2 October 2021, at the age of 75.

Discography

Albums
 Hey (1974) UK No. 13, AUS No. 16
 Rock 'n' Roll Dudes (1975) UK No. 17, AUS No. 35
 Listen to the Band (1975)
 Makes You Blind (1975), Arista (same songs as Listen To The Band) released outside UK
 Paris Match (1977)

Live albums
 Live at the Marquee (1986)
 Glitz Blitz, Live! (1998), MCI
 Greatest Hits ...Live! (2001), Armoury

Compilations
 Greatest Hits (1976) UK No. 52
 The Collection (1990)
 Pop Fire (1994), Pilz
 Let's Get Together Again (1996)
 20 Glittering Greats (1998), Music Club
 Solid Silver: The Ultimate Glitter Band Vol. 1 (1998), Edsel
 The Best of the Glitter Band (1999)
 The Glitter Band: The Bell Singles Collection (2000)
 Greatest Hits (2002)
 The Glitter Band: The Albums (2016) - A boxset containing The Glitter Band's four studio albums
 The Glitter Band: Complete Singles Collection (2021) - A three-disc set from The Glitter Band, featuring every A and B side from 1974 to 1984, two reworkings of "Angel Face" from 1989 (i.e. Angel Face 1989, Angel Face Choir of Angels version!), six rare bonus studio tracks from the early 1980s, a John Springate solo song from 1985 called "Boys Love Rock and Roll", and The Glitter Band's "Live At The Marquee" live concert from 1985.

Singles

Notes
  These singles were released under the band name "The G Band"
  This single was released under the band name "Air Traffic Control"

Members

Current
 Pete Phipps – drums, keyboards (1973–1979, 1985–present)
 Dominic Rodgers – guitar (2001–present)

Former
 John Rossall – trombone, saxophone (1973–1974; died 2021)
 Harvey Ellison – saxophone, guitar, piano, backing vocals (1973–1977; died 2017)
 Pete Gill – drums (1973)
 Bob Edmunds – saxophone (1973)
 Gerry Shephard – guitar, lead and backing vocals (1973-1979, 1981–2001; died 2003)
 John Springate – bass, lead and backing vocals (1973–1979, 1981–1987, 1991–1996, 2009–2019)
 Tony Leonard – drums (1973–1977, 1981–1985)
 Eddy Spence – keyboards (1981–1987, 2009–2019)
 Brian Jones – saxophone (1981–1985)
 Terry Popple – drums (1981–1983)

Film appearances
Remember Me This Way (1974), as themselves
Never Too Young to Rock (1975), as themselves

References

External links
The Official Website for Pete Phipps and The Glitter Band

High Court documents

1973 establishments in England
English glam rock groups
Gary Glitter
Musical groups established in 1973
Bell Records artists
Epic Records artists
Musical backing groups

The Glitter Band


The cuisine of Schleswig-Holstein forms part of the German cuisine in which the different influences of the regions Niedersachsen and Friesland and of Denmark are perceptible. The proximity to the sea and the harsh climate play a great role and determine which ingredients are available.

Typical dishes
One of the most known dishes of Schleswig-Holstein is Birnen, Bohnen und Speck. Other very popular dishes include:
Grünkohl with Kochwurst and Schweinebacke (a cured cut from a pig's head), sometimes with Pinkel
Saure Rolle (a kind of sour sausage)
Danish Rote Grütze (preferably with liquid cream)
Labskaus
Mehlbüdel (a kind of dumpling which is served with sugar, liquid butter and pork meat)
Schnüsch (a vegetable stew with milk)
Rübenmalheur (a rutabaga stew)
Holsteiner Rübenmus (mushed rutabaga, similar to Stamppot)
Holsteiner Sauerfleisch (a kind of sour aspic)
Fliederbeersuppe (elderberry soup)
Swattsuer (a kind of blood soup, also known as 'Schwarzsauer')
Buttermilchsuppe mit Klüten (buttermilk soup with flour dumplings)
Grünkohlsuppe (a kale soup)
Großer Hans (a kind of bread pudding)
Nordseekrabben
Vegetables are frequently served with a butter and flour-based sauce which is called "Gestovtes Gemüse". In the city of Eiderstedt this cooking method is used to prepare rutabaga which is then served as a side dish. In Elmshorn Graue Erbsen(lit. "grey peas") have a long tradition and generally milk and meat products play an important role. Cheeses from Holtsee are considered a speciality just as Holsteiner Katenschinken.

Because of the proximity to the sea, fish plays a great role in the cuisine of Schleswig-Holstein and is featured in many dishes. Particularly typical are Maischollen, Heringe and Kieler Sprotte and carp dishes are traditionally served for New Year's Eve. Famous desserts are vanilla ice cream served with Friesischer Bohnensuppe (a local liqueur).

Especially in the rural and peasant cuisine many recipes were buried in oblivion since the mid of 20th century such as Mädchenröte (a dessert made of egg whites and cassis), Förtchen (a kind of pastry), a precursor of the famous Berliner, Munkmarscher Muscheltopf (a seafood stew), Kalbfleischpudding or filled breast of pork, which is one of the many dishes with sweet and sugary side dishes.

Taste characteristics
One of the preferences of this regional cuisine is to combine the sweetness of a dish with a taste contrast like sour or salty. These combinations are also described as "Broken sööt" which means "broken sweetness" in English and is especially present in dishes which are "söötsuur" (sweet-sour).

Many typical dishes feature this "broken-sööt-taste" due to their preparation such as Holsteiner Sauerfleisch or Rübenmalheur. This impression mainly emerges from the association of tangy meat dishes with sweet side dishes such as in the famous stew Birnen, Bohnen und Speck. In this stew the sweetness of pears is combined with the hearty and rich bacon broth. In some dishes this taste combination is accomplished by stewing meat for a long time together with vegetables and is then being served e.g. with caramelized potatoes or some sugar to add and adjust sweetness after the cooking process.

Often the sweetness is also due to dried fruit such as plums or raisins which are not only used as a stuffing for poultry but can also be served as a side dish to grilled meats or fish or being featured in chicken or beef broth.

Beverages
Apart from the common drinks, the cuisine of Schleswig-Holstein features many liqueurs and liquors, such as Korn and Akvavit, which are popular to be drunk together with beer. This combination is also called "Lütt un Lütt" which literally means "small and small". The most famous beer brands have their origin in the federal state of Schleswig-Holstein and are Flensburger Pilsener and Dithmarscher Pilsener.

Hot drink specialities are particularly , "dead aunt", , "pharisee", a coffee drink with rum, and , a kind of glögg.

Schleswig-Holstein

Schleswig-Holstein cuisine


The Dark Fields is a 2001 techno-thriller novel by Irish writer Alan Glynn. It was re-released in March 2011 under the title Limitless, in order to coincide with its 2011 film adaptation.

Plot
Edward "Eddie" Spinola is a copywriter at a small publishing house in New York City. He starts using MDT-48, an experimental drug granting heightened intellectual, creative, and learning powers, and enabling its user to see meaningful patterns in large amounts of disparate data. Using his newly acquired intellect, Edward amasses a small fortune short selling technology stocks. His trading escapades don't go unnoticed, and he is offered a job by billionaire tycoon Carl Van Loon, mediating the merger between entertainment giant MCL Parnasis and Abraxis, the country's second largest Internet service provider – a deal he sees to completion.

However, his indiscriminate use of the drug leads to panic attacks and blackouts.
Edward is suspected of bludgeoning to death Donatella Alvarez, the wife of a prominent Mexican artist, during an MDT induced fugue state. He further learns the full scope of the side-effects from his ex-wife Melissa, who had dabbled in the substance and suffered permanent neurocognitive damage, prompting him to gradually discontinue use of the drug.

Edward initially reduces his intake to half a pill a day, but this quickly proves insufficient to maintain the level of mental acuity required to work out the details of the merger, and he is forced to increase the dosage. Realizing he is on a treadmill of addiction, Edward tracks down another user, from whom he learns of the existence of a drug, readily available over the counter, capable of negating some of the harmful side-effects. Armed with this knowledge, Edward resumes taking MDT and is filled with a renewed surge of energy and motivation.

This proves to be a mere stop-gap measure, as Edward realizes the need to secure a steady supply. His stash running out, Edward makes a desperate attempt to blackmail the pharmaceutical conglomerate responsible for developing MDT into providing him with continued access to the drug. His gambit fails when men break into his apartment and steal his remaining MDT. He then receives an anonymous phone call on his land-line informing him that he had been under surveillance all along, and an unwitting guinea pig in a clandestine clinical drug trial.

Facing imminent death from withdrawal, Edward comes to terms with his own actions and travels to Mahopac, New York, where he seeks redemption by leaving a bag full of cash at his ex-wife's doorstep. He then continues driving aimlessly up north, and eventually checks into a remote motel along the Vermont highway, where he pens his account of the last few months of his life and the events leading to his ultimate downfall. As he drifts into a semi-conscious state, Edward watches on as the President – visibly under the influence of MDT – announces the deployment of US troops into Mexico in a televised address to the nation.

Adaptations

Film

Limitless is a 2011 American thriller based on The Dark Fields. The film was directed by Neil Burger and starred Bradley Cooper, Abbie Cornish, Andrew Howard and Robert De Niro. It was released in the United States and Canada on , 2011.

The screenplay roughly mirrors the events portrayed in the book, albeit with a number of significant differences. For example, the novel is set during the peak and subsequent collapse of the Dot-com bubble, with allusions by several characters to "irrational exuberance" in the financial markets. Meanwhile, and while Edward mentions adverse market conditions indicating a bear market, the viewer is never given a clear time frame for the events portrayed in the film. Similarly, any mention of the growing tensions between the United States and Mexico is also absent from the movie adaptation, as is any reference to government involvement with MDT-48 (renamed NZT-48).

The role of several characters was also changed in the movie adaptation, while others are altogether absent. Hank Atwood, for instance,  who is shown to be quite fond of Edward in the novel, has no qualms about hiring a hitman to eliminate him and steal his supply of NZT in the film. Carl Van Loon, too, takes a similarly antagonistic view towards Edward, whom he tries to blackmail into doing his political bidding in exchange for a steady supply of the drug. Van Loon's daughter, the object of Edward's infatuation in the novel, is replaced by Lindy – who leaves him at the beginning of the movie, only to rekindle their relationship after being charmed by Edward's NZT persona.

(Illuminating) The Dark Fields is mentioned in the film as the name of the book written by the main character.

Television

A spinoff of the film based on the novel premiered in 2015, under the same title. It is a sequel which follows the events of the film.

Sequel
A sequel to the book The Dark Fields, Under the Night, was announced by its author and Amazon indicated that the sequel (in ebook form) would be available as from 4 October 2018.

It was subsequently republished in America as Receptor: A Novel, released on 8 January 2019.

In 1950s Manhattan a man Ned Sweeney finds himself an unwitting participant in MK Ultra trials, the CIA's covert study of psychoactive drugs. The experiment introduces him to MDT-48, a mind-expanding smart drug, which takes him away from his wife and young son and straight to the corridors of the richest and most powerful people of his day.  But before long, Ned is dead.  Over 60 years later, Ned's grandson, Ray, meets Clay Proctor—a retired government official who may be able to illuminate not only Ned's life and death, but also the truth behind the mysterious MDT-48.

See also
 Understand, a 1991 novelette by Ted Chiang, nominated for the 1992 Hugo Award for Best Novelette, and won the 1992 Asimov's Reader Poll.

References

External links

2001 Irish novels
Little, Brown and Company books
Novels set in New York City
Irish novels adapted into films
Techno-thriller novels
Smart drugs in fiction

The Dark Fields


Tabernacle, Abercynon was a Calvinistic Methodist chapel in Edward Street, Abercynon, Mid Glamorgan, Wales. Services at Tabernacle were conducted in the Welsh language.

Early history
The church commenced in 1892, when meetings are recorded as being held in various houses and at the Junction stables. The first building, which became the vestry and Sunday school was built in 1893. Membership increased rapidly  and a larger chapel was built in 1898. The new building could accommodate 550 people.

The first minister was M.H. Jones, who moved from Abercynon to Water Street Chapel, Carmarthen.

Twentieth century
In 1903 the Rev. William Jones became minister and remained until he moved to Pontrhydfendigaid in 1914.

During the 1904/05 Religious Revival, membership rose to 300. Around 1912, a vestry was built at Glancynon Terrace, where a branch Sunday School and week-night services were held for the benefit of the members living on the left bank of the river Cynon. The debts arising from the building of the chapel and vestry were cleared in 1919.

The church was without a minister during the first World War, but in 1919, the Rev W.M. Davies of Treorchy, a native of Goginan, near Aberystwyth, was inducted as minister at Tabernacle.

The chapel building suffered from problems with subsidence for many years. The minister during the 1960s was D. Ben Rees who later ministered in Liverpool for over forty years. During his time at Abercynon, Rees completed a thesis on nonconformity in the Aberdare Valley which was later published in 1975 as Chapels in the Valley.

Tabernacle closed in 1991 and both chapel and vestry were demolished in 1993.

References

Bibliography

Chapels in Rhondda Cynon Taf
Churches completed in 1893
Buildings and structures demolished in 1993
1893 establishments in Wales
1993 disestablishments in Wales

Tabernacle Chapel, Abercynon


Hartmut Becker (6 May 1938 – 22 January 2022) was a German actor. He played Sgt. Gustav Wagner in Escape From Sobibor in 1987. He also starred in the 1970 film o.k., which was also entered into the 20th Berlin International Film Festival. However, the competition was cancelled and no prizes were awarded, over controversy surrounding the film. After O.K. Hartmut Becker was one of Germany's busiest actors in film and theatre (at the State Theatres of Munich and Berlin he performed leading characters in plays from Shakespeare to Tennessee Williams). More important main parts in films followed like in Verhoeven's He Who Loves in a Glass House (International Film Festival Berlin 1971), When Mother Went on Strike, John Ralling (TV), , Audienz (TV), Sunday Children.

Career
Becker was born in Berlin on 6 May 1938. His first leading part in an English-language production, Becker performed in the BBC film Forgive Our Foolish Ways, where he played the role of a German prisoner of war next to Kate Nelligan. The television film became a very big success all over the world. Hartmut's following international film was the American-English production Jenny's War  (Columbia Pictures), where he portrayed the main part of Karl Koenig, a character in the crucial test between love and war. His partners in this film were Dyan Cannon, Elke Sommer and Trevor Howard. For his widely praised performance in the following American production Escape from Sobibor (director: Jack Gold, also starring Alan Arkin and Rutger Hauer) Hartmut had been nominated for an Emmy Award 1988. In his next "Festival-Film" The Tenth One in Hiding (Festival International du Film Cannes 1989) Becker worked together with director Lina Wertmüller. His female partner in this feature film was Dominique Sanda.

Several dream parts followed after the success of The Tenth One in Hiding, for example the characters Niels Jost in A Quiet Conspiracy (Channel 4; director: John Gorrie; also starring Joss Ackland), Rauscher in the American film Triumph of the Spirit (director: Robert M. Young; with Willem Dafoe, Robert Loggia), Lutz in the English-French Television film Free Frenchmen (also starring Derek de Lint, Agnes Soral, directed by Jim Goddard), Moritz in the English-Austrian feature film Gavre Princip by Peter Patzak, King Christian in Young Catherine (American TV; with a.o. Vanessa Redgrave, Julia Ormond, Marthe Keller, Maximilian Schell; director: Michael Anderson), Rusty in the Italian TV-film Requiem per Voce e Pianoforte (RAI DUE), and last but not least Dieter Krause in the English TV-thriller The Waiting Time (ITV 1999; director: Stuart Orme). His last leading roles in German feature films of the last years were The Unforgotten, Montag kommen die Fenster/Windows will drive on Monday (International Filmfestival Berlin), The Gift and Amatores Meae Matris.

Between 2007 and 2012 Becker was a member in the committee of the German Academy of Film (Deutsche Filmakademie).
As a songwriter and singer his first single was produced in 2013.

Becker died of cancer in Berlin on 22 January 2022, at the age of 83.

Selected filmography

 Student of the Bedroom (1970), as Schläger auf Fest
 o.k. (1970, International Filmfestival Berlin), as Ralph Clarke
 He Who Loves in a Glass House (1971, International Filmfestival Berlin), as Igor
 When Mother Went on Strike (1974), as Gabriel Gillhoff
 John Ralling (1974, TV Series)
 Derrick (1975, Season 2, Episode 1: "Mitternachtsbus"), as Erich Holler
  (1976), as Dr. Sand
 21 Hours at Munich (1976, TV Movie)
 A Bridge Too Far (1977), as German sentry
 Bier und Spiele (1977, TV Series), as Jupp Krüger
 Derrick (1978, Season 5, Episode 5: "Steins Tochter"), as Alexander Bork
 Sunday Children (1980), as Konradi
 Forgive Our Foolish Ways (1980, TV Movie)
  (1981, TV Movie)
 Jenny's War (1984, TV Movie)
  (1985), as Pater Roger Lee
 Escape from Sobibor (1987, TV Movie), as Hauptscharführer Gustav Wagner
 The Tenth One in Hiding (Portraits with Women / Nine plus One) (1988, Festival International du Film Cannes)
 A Quiet Conspiracy (1988, TV Movie)
 Triumph of the Spirit (1989), as Sturmbannführer Rauscher
 Young Catherine (1990, TV Mini-Series)
 Requiem per Voce e Pianoforte (1991, TV Movie)
  (1990), as Cpl. Moritz
 Saint Peter's Snow (1991), as Prince Praxatin
 Dr. Stefan Frank – Der Arzt, dem die Frauen vertrauen (1995, TV Series) as Dr. Ulrich Waldner
 SOKO 5113 (1995, Episode: "Der Keltendolch")
 Rosa Roth (1997, Episode: "The Voice")
 The Waiting Time (1999, TV Movie)
 Medicopter 117 (2000, Episode: "Gehertzt")
 A Touch of Love (2003, TV Movie)
 Leipzig Homicide (2004, TV Series)
 The Unforgotten (short film, 2005, Short)
 Montag kommen die Fenster (Windows will come on Monday) - (2005, International Film festival Berlin 2006), as Herr Buchner
 Crazy Partners (TV film, 2006)
 Love and Passion (TV film, 2007)
 The Gift (2008)
 Interim (2009)
  - One Murder too much (TV film, 2010)
 The German Friend (2012), as Herr Werner Kunheim
 Amatores Mea (short film, 2012)
 Couples (TV film, 2013)
 Verfehlung (2015), as Kardinal Schoeller
 Die Spezialisten - Miss Mai 1988 (TV film, 2016), as Big Toni
 Liebesfilm (2017), as Lenz Senior

References

External links

1938 births
2022 deaths
Male actors from Berlin
German male film actors
German male stage actors
German male television actors
20th-century German male actors
21st-century German male actors
Deaths from cancer in Germany

Hartmut Becker


The Badminton Cabinet is a monumental piece of 18th-century furniture that twice set the record for most expensive piece of furniture ever sold.

The Badminton Cabinet, or Badminton Chest, was commissioned in 1726 by Henry Somerset, 3rd Duke of Beaufort, at the age of 19. It took thirty experts six years to make, and came to be named after the Duke's country seat, Badminton House in Gloucestershire, England, where it remained until it was auctioned by his descendants in the late 20th century.

The ebony cabinet is  tall and  wide and shows scenes rendered in pietra dura—inlaid finely cut, polished and coloured stones, including in this case a number of semi-precious stones. The clock face set at the top of the cabinet is marked with fleurs-de-lis, flanked by two gilded statues, and surmounted with a coat of arms. Below that is a parapet set with pietra dura lozenges. Three horizontal sections with inlaid drawers surround a central cupboard. The cabinet rests on eight inlaid pilasters.

The Badminton Cabinet became the highest-priced piece of furniture in the world when it was auctioned for £8.58m million in 1990. It again set the record when it was auctioned in December 2004, this time for £19 million.

References

Cabinets (furniture)
History of furniture
Individual pieces of furniture

Badminton cabinet


The Overwatch League (OWL) is a professional esports league for the video game Overwatch, produced by its developer, Blizzard Entertainment. The Overwatch League follows the model of other traditional North American professional sporting leagues by using a set of permanent, city-based teams backed by separate ownership groups. The league uses the regular season and playoffs format rather than promotion and relegation used commonly in other esports and non-North American leagues, with players on the roster being assured a minimum annual salary, benefits, and a portion of winnings and revenue-sharing based on team performance.

The Overwatch League was announced in 2016 and secured commitments from 12 teams across the United States, Europe, and Asia, each investing $20million in franchise fees, to participate in its 2018 inaugural season. The league faced skeptics who questioned its potential success due to the lack of a proven concept and a game without a substantial esports history. For the following season, the Overwatch League brought in eight new franchises, each investing between$35 million to $60million. In 2020, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic led to widespread disruptions and forced the league abandon its original homestand model and shift to an online format, where teams competed remotely from their respective regions. While the suspension of in-person events provided a temporary solution, it also raised concerns about its financial viability. However, some team owners noted that not having live events allowed them to mitigate financial losses that they would have otherwise incurred. During the 2021 season, in the wake of a lawsuit filed against Activision Blizzard, nearly all of the league's sponsors withdrew their support from the league. In November 2022, a broken partnership with NetEase and Blizzard resulted in Overwatch 2 being banned in mainland China. As a result, the league allowed Overwatch Contenders teams to compete in its Eastern Region for the following season, and the league saw its first team leave, as the Chengdu Hunters dissolved. In January 2023, Overwatch League teams collectively initiated a collective bargaining process, which resulted in the Overwatch League agreeing to waive all outstanding franchise fees.

Format
The Overwatch League is owned by Blizzard Entertainment and run by Major League Gaming, which is also owned by Blizzard's parent company Activision Blizzard. The Overwatch League plays out similar to most North American professional sports leagues, in which all teams play scheduled games against other teams to vie for position in the season's playoffs, rather than the approach of team promotion and relegation more commonly used in other esports leagues. The league currently features twenty teams split between two conferences based on their location: East and West. The East will have eight teams, while the West will have twelve.

The 2018 season consisted of non-regulation pre-season play, a regular season divided into four stages, and a post-season playoffs tournament to determine the championship team for the season. Each regular season stage lasted five weeks, with each stage ending with a short playoff of the top teams based on that stage's records to determine stage champions. Teams played 40 matches across the regular season, playing teams both within and outside their division. The post-season playoffs used teams' overall standings across all stages. The top standing team in both divisions received the top two seed in the playoffs, followed by a fixed number of teams determined from across both divisions. An All-Star weekend is also held, featuring two division-based teams selected by league representatives and voted on by fans.

The 2019 season format was similar to that of the previous season, though stage playoffs for the fourth stage were eliminated and the number of matches was decreased to 28, among other changes. The 2020 season introduced a number of changes, including a home-and-away format, where each team would host home games with up to eight teams per homestand event, and the elimination of the stage format. This format was eventually changed to a bimonthly tournament-based season in April due to the global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Teams are awarded with monetary prizes for how they place at the end of the regular season, as well as for participating and placing high in the stage playoffs and post-season tournament. For example, the first season had a total prize pool of  available, with the top prize of $1 million awarded to the post-season championship team.

Rules

Overwatch is a five-versus-five team-based first-person shooter video game. Broadly, the goal is to work with team members to eliminate or repel opponents while attacking, defending, or competing for an objective. Players select from the game's roster of thirty-three heroes, split between classes of Damage (the main attackers), Support (providing healing and other buffs), and Tank (shielding teammates with high health amounts) each with their own pre-designed set of weapons and skill kits, though each player on a team must play a unique hero. Starting with stage four of the 2019 season, each team must be composed of two Damage heroes, two Supports, and two Tanks. A player can switch to an available hero within the same class if they are eliminated prior to respawning, or if they return to their current spawn point, which allows for teams to adjust their composition dynamically based on the current situation.

Within league play, a regular season match features two teams (one selected as the home team, the other as the visiting team) playing a best-of-five format, with each map featuring a predetermined map type, following the same gameplay format as with normal competitive mode in Overwatch: Control maps, played on a best-of-three rounds, and Assault, Escort, and Hybrid maps, with each team having at least one chance as the attacking team. The pool of specific maps from the standard Overwatch rotation are determined periodically, allowing the teams to determine their player lineups and strategy while also changing the season's metagame. A team may call in substitutes for players only between maps. The team that wins three maps first wins the match. If teams are tied after four games, a tiebreaker game played on a Control map (which cannot end in a tie) is used to break the tie and determine the match winner. Standings are based primarily on the overall match win–loss record, but ties are broken based on the total map win–loss record. Any further ties for tournament placement are broken based first on the head-to-head game win–loss record, then head-to-head match count.

Overwatch League games are played on a custom server controlled by Blizzard; this server is also available to players for practices. This version of the game receives similar updates to the main commercial game, adding new maps and heroes, and altering the various hero abilities based on testing within the Public Test Realm. However, these updates are not applied immediately as they are for the commercial game, but instead no more frequent than once every six weeks. For example, a late January 2018 patch, which had significant effects on characters like Mercy and thus had potential to upset the metagame, was not applied to the league server until mid-February, at the start of the second stage. However, teams are given access to private servers updated to alongside the main release of Overwatch for them to practice and scrimmage against other teams to learn and develop strategies on updates and patches before experiencing them in official matches. For matches, each player is provided with an identical desktop computer, monitor, and pair of noise-cancelling headphones to play on to eliminate any handicaps related to computational or graphics processing, but players may use their preferred keyboard and mouse.

Player eligibility and benefits

While Overwatch is played in teams of five, Overwatch League teams can have up to six additional players that can be swapped between maps. A team's membership is locked at the start of the season, but a mid-season signing period allows teams to bring in new players or trade players between teams. Following the end of the season, teams have about one month to extend current player contracts, bring on players from affiliated Overwatch Contenders teams, or hold private tryout sessions. Subsequently, all unsigned players by the end of this period enter free agency during which players can negotiate with teams to become part of the roster; in the case of when expansion teams are added, there is a month-long period where expansion teams have exclusive negotiating rights before other teams can engage. A team's minimum roster is to be set prior to the season's pre-season matches, about two months prior to season play, but they can expand and change this roster up until a specified date. The league is not region-locked, so teams can use players of any nationality to fill their ranks, as long as the team ownership is based in that city or region. For example, the London Spitfire at the onset of the first season was entirely made up of South Korean players. The only restriction on players is to be of at least 17 years old and to be able to travel internationally.

Overwatch League players, while on a team's contract, are paid an annual salary. As of the 2023 season, a player's salary is a minimum of  set by the league. Additionally, the league offers players with health and retirement benefits, as well as housing and training support. Blizzard required team owners to provide the signed players with bonuses representing at least 50% of the team's winnings and revenue. Players can negotiate for larger amounts with their team's owners and larger portion of the bonus revenue-sharing from tournament winnings and other income. For example, in 2017, Jay "sinatraa" Won secured the league's highest salary of $150,000 for his spot on the San Francisco Shock, along with a 50% share of the team's bonuses.

Players are expected to follow a code of conduct set by Blizzard while playing and representing the league, and may face suspension and fines for violating these, in addition to any penalties the team itself may impose. A noted incident shortly after the league's launch saw Dallas Fuel's Félix "xQc" Lengyel suspended by the league for four games and fined $2,000 for making homophobic comments about another player; the Fuel further suspended him for the remainder of the first stage of play. Following additional conduct violations in the second stage that led to further suspension, xQc was released by the Fuel. Blizzard has since started its online "discipline tracker" in December 2018 to list players who have been temporarily suspended or fined for actions related to their behavior as representatives of the Overwatch League. Players, as part of their benefits, receive media training to help with speaking to the press and public about their roles, an issue that has been a problem in previous organized esport systems.

Open Division and Contenders
Professional teams in the league are given the opportunity to scout for new players through two additional competitive leagues run by Blizzard. The Open Division, first started in June 2017, allows amateur teams to compete against each other in a structured season. Those that qualify at the end of the season are seeded into a post-season tournament with intra-regional matches. Players that complete all non-playoff games for their team can earn a small amount of credit to Blizzard's digital storefront, while regional winning teams can earn higher prize payouts. The Open division is played across seven different regions: Australia, China, Europe, Korea, North America, Pacific, and South America.

Players or teams can then move up from the Open Division into Overwatch Contenders, a minor league to the Overwatch League. Contenders was launched in 2018 to merge existing regional tournaments into a structure to support the Overwatch League. Contenders consists of several global divisions with a number of teams within each, which may include both professional and amateur players. Contender teams may be affiliated with an Overwatch League team as an academy team, and up to two players per academy team can be signed to two-way contracts to be moved between their academy team and Overwatch League team.

Contenders was launched in the first half of 2018 with five divisions with 12 teams each: Korea (replacing the Overwatch Apex tournament), China (replacing the Overwatch Premier Series), and Pacific (replacing Overwatch Pacific Championship for other Asian-Pacific countries), and adding in North America and European divisions. Prior to the second 2018 Contenders season, Blizzard added two additional divisions, for Australia and South America, bringing the total to seven. The top eight teams from the Open Division within each region are also invited to Contenders Trials, a weekly promotion and relegation tournament to compete in the following week of Contenders. For its second season in 2019, Blizzard adjusted the format by reducing the number of teams in each region to eight, while dividing the North American region into East and West divisions. Blizzard also added a regional limit of the number of "import players", which are those that live outside the division's region, to a maximum of three. These changes were reverted for the 2020 season.

History

Concept

The development of Overwatch began in approximately 2013, coinciding with the rising popularity of esports and spectator-driven video gaming, fueled by the accessibility of live streaming platforms. However, the game's development was not dedicated to esports. Lead director Jeff Kaplan, based on Blizzard's past experiences with esports, emphasized the importance of avoiding excessive commitment to esports too early in the game's lifespan. Instead, they chose to closely observe the player community and incorporate any esports-related goals based on their observations. During the beta period of Overwatch, which lasted from late 2015 to mid-2016, Blizzard observed that players were organizing ad hoc competitions and tournaments for the game. This led to Blizzard's consideration of the potential impact if they took charge of formalizing and structuring these competitions. Nate Nanzer, who later became the league's commissioner, noted that with the right approach and investment, they could monetize esports in a manner comparable to traditional sports. Building on this insight, Blizzard laid the groundwork for what would eventually become the Overwatch League. Part of this included introducing competitive features directly into the main Overwatch game, such as ranked play, allowing players to climb a rankings ladder and attract the attention of esports team organizers. In October 2016, Bobby Kotick, the CEO of Activision Blizzard, the parent company of Blizzard, first publicly mentioned the Overwatch League. Kotick highlighted the viewership of user-generated esports content, which had already reached around 100million, surpassing the viewership of some professional NFL and NBA games. Recognizing this potential, Kotick envisioned the Overwatch League as a means to deliver "professional content" and tap into this extensive viewership.

The Overwatch League was formally announced at BlizzCon in November 2016. During the announcement, Blizzard revealed their plans for the league, which would feature franchised teams employing players to compete in both live arenas and via video streaming platforms. These teams would provide players with salaries, benefits, and opportunities for team and player development. Blizzard's approach to the league differed from traditional esports models that used relegation and promotion systems, such as the one employed in the League of Legends Championship Series. Instead, they opted to follow the American model prevalent in more traditional physical sports. Kotick expressed his belief that the Overwatch League represented an unprecedented venture in esports, emphasizing that nothing of this scale had been attempted before. He also emphasized the importance of adopting a model similar to the NFL in terms of league structure and financial opportunities to attract substantial investments and establish long-lasting franchises within the Overwatch League. He described this approach as a "forever investment".

Blizzard aimed to cover the costs of running the league through traditional revenue streams commonly seen in professional sports leagues, including promotion, advertisements, and physical merchandise. Additionally, owing to the digital nature of esports, Kotick said that they had the opportunity to generate revenue from virtual league-based items offered to fans, as well as increased sales of Overwatch and other games. He also expressed that they could explore more lucrative "over-the-top advertising opportunities that wouldn't exist in traditional sports". Kotick expressed confidence in the league's future financial success. While certain revenue streams might take time to fully materialize, he noted significant traction and enthusiasm from fans before the inaugural season began.

Buildout

Blizzard sought out potential team owners, with a focus on establishing localized teams tied to specific geographic areas. The company believed that having such local teams would generate greater interest in esports among spectators and potential sponsors, as it would create new opportunities for fans to engage and support their hometown teams. A meeting for prospective team owners took place at BlizzCon 2016, shortly after the league's official announcement. Notable attendees included Robert Kraft, the owner of the New England Patriots, and Stan Kroenke, the owner of the Los Angeles Rams. During the formative stages of the league, Blizzard appointed Steve Bornstein as the company's esports chair. Bornstein, formerly the president of ABC Sports and CEO of NFL Network, assumed a role in shaping the broadcast and presentation of Overwatch League games.

Blizzard anticipated the Overwatch League would have a seven-figure payoff for the winning team at the end of a season. The inaugural season of the league, which was initially intended to be a shortened one, was planned to start in Q3 2017. Subsequent full-length seasons were scheduled to commence in 2018, with the league incorporating half-year long seasonal breaks beginning in Q4 of that year. Prior to the league's official start, Blizzard planned to host a combine, during which players would be invited to try out for guaranteed team contracts.

After the initial announcement in November 2016, Blizzard remained tight-lipped about the Overwatch League for several months, leading to some speculation that the league might be encountering challenges. In May 2017, ESPN reported that the league was indeed facing difficulties in securing franchise deals and attributed these issues to two primary factors. Firstly, the high base cost of starting a franchise, which began at $20million and could be even higher in more urban markets like New York City and Los Angeles, presented a significant barrier. This entry fee was substantially higher compared to buy-ins for other esports leagues. Secondly, another obstacle was the absence of revenue sharing until 2021. This meant that potential franchise owners could face difficulties in recovering their initial investment costs. However, during this time, Activision Blizzard was actively engaging with potential team owners, opting to withhold extensive announcements until they could present comprehensive details.

The Kraft Group, headed by Robert Kraft, emerged as a key team owner for the league. Kraft had shown previous interest in investing in esports and had met with Bobby Kotick in 2013 when Kotick was exploring investment opportunities in an NFL franchise. During that meeting, Kraft revealed their intent to seek investment in an esports team. Over the next few years, Kraft evaluated various esports competitions but was not entirely comfortable with their grassroots nature. However, when Blizzard introduced the Overwatch League during BlizzCon 2016, it captured Kraft's attention. By March 2017, a deal was successfully struck between Kraft and Activision, securing the first team ownership group for the Overwatch League. Once the Kraft Group committed to supporting a Boston-based team, later named the Boston Uprising, this acted as a catalyst, leading to the formation of six additional teams in the league. The Kraft Group themselves helped to convince some of the other owners to buy into the Overwatch League.

In July 2017, Blizzard revealed the first seven teams and their respective owners for the Overwatch League. Over the following months, additional teams were announced, eventually finalizing a total of twelve teams by mid-December.

In September 2017, Blizzard announced that they would make permanent use of Studio 1 at The Burbank Studios in Burbank, California, and would convert it into the "Blizzard Arena". Having a dedicated arena served several purposes. Firstly, it aimed to elevate the status of the Overwatch League, presenting it as a highly orchestrated event distinct from other esports tournaments. Additionally, the Blizzard Arena provided an opportunity for players to build stronger connections with their fanbase. Blizzard conducted Overwatch Contenders events in the Blizzard Arena in October 2017. This allowed them to identify areas for improvement and make necessary adjustments ahead of the Overwatch League pre-season, which commenced in December 2017.

Launch and expansion
To support spectating on broadcast and streaming media, Blizzard implemented cosmetic modifications to the game. Each team received dedicated character skins featuring their team colors, names, and logos. These customized skins were used during matches to easily identify and represent their respective teams. To allow fans outside of the league to show their support, Blizzard introduced a special in-game currency called "OWL Tokens". Players could purchase a character's team skin using OWL Tokens. A percentage of the revenue generated from these purchases was allocated to the teams themselves, providing them with additional financial support. Initially, OWL Tokens were obtainable through an in-game purchase with real currency. However, during the first season, viewers could receive tokens by watching the live broadcast of games through any official Overwatch League channel.

Blizzard also worked to create an AI-based cameraman, capable of following the action of the game and selecting key instant replays. During regular season matches, Blizzard employed a team of approximately 80 to 100 people to manage the game and its broadcast. This team included on-screen hosts, interviewers, play-by-play announcers or "shoutcasters", broadcasting and technical support personnel, and "observers" who used the AI cameraman to monitor matches from various angles. Additionally, there were broadcasting and technical support personnel involved in the production. For broadcasting and commentary, Blizzard enlisted individuals such as Christopher "MonteCristo" Mykles, Erik "DoA" Lonnquist, Matt "Mr. X" Morello, and Mitchell "Uber" Leslie to shoutcast the matches. Blizzard released an Overwatch League app in early January 2018, just before the first season commenced. The app provided schedules, results, highlights, and other essential details about the league's progress.

Preseason play for the inaugural season of the Overwatch League commenced on December 6, 2017. The first regular season game took place on January 10, 2018, with the Los Angeles Valiant defeating the San Francisco Shock. The initial night of play through the English broadcast on Twitch garnered over 415,000 viewers, while never dropping below 285,000 once play started. Blizzard reported that during the first week, over 10million viewers watched league play across all streaming platforms, and the Blizzard Arena was sold-out throughout the entire week. However, by the end of the season, the league faced challenges in filling seats at Blizzard Arena. According to a former esports executive, it was not uncommon to have only around 100 people in the audience. To address this issue, the company resorted to busing in employees or distributing free tickets to students when high-profile individuals like Kotick or other VIPs were expected to attend. However, this approach was seen as incentivizing undesirable behavior, as it artificially inflated attendance numbers to impress potential team owners and sell them on the promise of a thriving live audience.

As the postseason began, Blizzard and Disney signed a deal to air postseason games on ABC, ESPN, and Disney XD alongside the official Twitch streams, with the partnership extending into the second season. During its first season, the league secured over $200million in sponsorships and broadcast rights. Major sponsors included Intel, Omen by HP, Toyota, T-Mobile, and Spotify, with most deals valued at over $10million each. The league ultimately exceeded its 2018 projected revenue of $22million.

The London Spitfire became the first champions of Overwatch League after defeating the Philadelphia Fusion in the Grand Finals, which took place before 22,000 fans at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York on July 27–28. The finals were watched by more than 10.8million people, with a viewership comparable to regular season NFL games.

In March 2018, Overwatch League executives began to search for new expansion teams, particularly in international markets, as only one team, the Shanghai Dragons were owned by a foreign corporation at the time. Despite initial skepticism and doubts about the league's potential, Overwatch League's revenue had already exceeded expectations, reaching almost four times its original projection from December 2017 to February 2018. The franchise fee for expansion teams was expected to be higher than the inaugural season, estimated to be between $35million to $60million. In September 2018, Blizzard announced the addition of eight new teams for the second season: the Atlanta Reign, Guangzhou Charge, Hangzhou Spark, Toronto Defiant, Paris Eternal, Washington Justice, Vancouver Titans, and Chengdu Hunters. This brought the total number of teams in the league to 20.

For the second season, the regular season was split into four stages, and each team played a total of 28 games, with seven games per stage. This reduced the number of games from 40, which was played in the first season, addressing concerns related to player fatigue and mental health. Most regular season games were played at the Blizzard Arena in Los Angeles, but select Homestand Weekends matches took place at locations in Dallas, Atlanta, and Los Angeles, testing the feasibility of home-and-away games for the following season.

In May 2019, during the middle of the season, league commissioner Nate Nanzer announced that he would be leaving Blizzard to join Epic Games. Pete Vlastelica, who was the CEO and president of Activision Blizzard Esports, took over as the league commissioner following Nanzer's departure. The following month, Immortals Gaming Club (IGC), the parent company of the Los Angeles Valiant, acquired Infinite Esports, the parent company of Houston Outlaws, marking the first sale of any Overwatch League franchise. Since one company may not own more than one OWL franchise, IGC sold the Outlaws to the Beasley Media Group in November 2019.

Beginning in the second season, Fanatics became the league's outfitter, responsible for producing and selling team- and OWL-related clothing and merchandise. Blizzard also signed a multi-year deal with Coca-Cola to become the official non-alcoholic beverage sponsor for various Overwatch esports events, including the Overwatch League, Overwatch Contenders, Open Division, Overwatch World Cup, and BlizzCon. Bud Light became the league's alcoholic beverage sponsor, excluding in China. Furthermore, Xfinity signed on as a sponsor for the 2019 Overwatch League playoffs and Grand Finals. Throughout the second season, the overall global viewership was estimated at 218,000 per minute on average across all games, with a majority of viewers coming from outside the United States.

Transition to online play
Ahead of the 2020 season, Blizzard signed a three-year deal with YouTube to be the exclusive broadcaster of the Overwatch League. This agreement replaced Twitch as the primary streaming platform for the league's matches. As part of the arrangement, Blizzard also established Google Cloud Platform as the preferred infrastructure provider for the game servers.

In the third season of the Overwatch League, significant changes were made to fully adopt the away-and-home format, allowing games to take place in home arenas for each team. The home arenas were not required to be dedicated esports venues, and some teams collaborated with their local cities to develop such spaces that could also host other sports and entertainment events. For instance, the Philadelphia Fusion's owner, Comcast Spectacor, announced plans to construct the $50million Fusion Arena by the 2021 season, but during the 2020 season, they scheduled homestand games at the Metropolitan Opera House in Philadelphia and Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City. Throughout the 2020 season, there were 52 homestand events planned, with each team hosting at least two in their home arenas. Teams that already secured larger arenas were set to host additional regular season events to support the newer teams and arenas in becoming better established. For example, Dallas, Washington, and Guangzhou each had five homestand events scheduled.

The initial schedules were managed by the teams, but Blizzard anticipated taking over scheduling for the 2021 season. Blizzard provided flexibility for teams to plan the 2020 schedule and develop logistics for hosting homestand events, including providing accommodations and practice areas for visiting teams during those weekends. This expansion was coordinated with the Call of Duty League (CDL), a professional esports league founded by Activision in 2020, which also followed the city-based model with many teams owned by the same entities as OWL teams. Both leagues faced similar logistics challenges and coordinated efforts when applicable. Moreover, the previously established divisions were converted into conferences, with each conference having two divisions. The stages were eliminated, and teams continued to play 28 games throughout the season with a planned mid-season All-Star break. Looking forward, League Commissioner Pete Vlastelica expressed interest in potential expansion of the league, with a primary focus on introducing more teams from Europe.

Due to the restrictions imposed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the league had to suspend all homestand events and transitioned to online play just a month into the 2020 season. Blizzard Entertainment announced its intention to return to the homestand format as soon as it was safe and logistically feasible. With the closure of entertainment venues in Los Angeles, the Overwatch League production team, including casters and analysts, moved to remote setups, with everyone working from home for the remainder of the season. As part of the adaptation to the new circumstances, the league abandoned the original conferences and instead organized teams into two regions to account for their geographical locations. Teams exclusively competed within their respective regions during the regular season, and inter-regional matches only occurred at the end of the playoffs period. Additionally, the 2020 season introduced mid-season tournaments, held three times throughout the regular season, all still split by region.

According to two owners, the pandemic had an unexpected positive impact on teams as it halted the financial losses incurred from live events. However, the suspension of in-person games also challenged the league's original justification for its existence, leading some teams to contemplate not paying franchise fees in 2020. Two individuals familiar with the situation revealed that Activision Blizzard permitted teams to postpone the fees and provided a $2million payroll credit. As part of the agreement, teams were required to sign a release stating they would not pursue legal action against the company, as reported by two other sources.

At the end of the 2020 season, commissioner Pete Vlastelica stepped down to take on a new position. He was replaced by Johanna Faries, the commissioner of the Call of Duty League, who became the commissioner of both leagues.

During the fourth season of the Overwatch League, the league continued to adopt regional, online play due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. However, some live events were initially planned to take place in China. The OWL expanded on its tournament format from the previous year, introducing four midseason tournaments throughout the regular season. In July 2021, the league announced that it would host its two postseason events live at different venues: the playoffs would be held at the Esports Stadium Arlington in Arlington, Texas, and the 2021 Grand Finals would take place at the Galen Center in Los Angeles, California. However, due to increasing risks related to COVID-19 and the Delta variant, as well as visa difficulties, these live events were later canceled and shifted to online play. During the season, the OWL also faced sponsor pullbacks, with many of its partners withdrawing their sponsorships following a lawsuit filed by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) against Activision Blizzard for sexual harassment and discrimination within the company. Sponsors, such as Coca-Cola, Kellogg's, State Farm, and T-Mobile, withdrew their support from the league. By mid-August 2021, the only sponsor present during Overwatch League broadcasts was voice-over-Internet Protocol software company TeamSpeak.

Overwatch 2 era

For the fifth season of the OWL, the league played on an early release of Overwatch 2. The season, which began in early May 2022, faced several challenges on multiple fronts. Notably, there were no known sponsors for the season as of June 9, 2022. Moreover, the league underwent significant changes in its leadership during this time, as five top executives left Activision Blizzard Esports or transitioned to other departments since the start of the season. Furthermore, the company made adjustments to its operations, deciding to outsource its broadcast and event production to a third party. During the midseason tournaments, viewership numbers experienced a significant decrease compared to the previous season, with a reduction of up to 40.5%. However, after the official release of Overwatch 2 on October 5, 2022, the league saw a surge in viewership. The 2022 playoffs reached an live average minute audience of 250,000, surpassing previous viewership records from when the league was broadcast on Twitch in 2018 and 2019. The 2022 Grand Finals were held live at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California, marking the first time that the Grand Finals were held live since 2019. In terms of sponsorships, the league secured a deal with Butterfinger for the playoffs, marking their first new sponsorship since 2021.

During the offseason leading up to the 2023 season, the league faced challenges with uncertainties about its future, as broken partnership with NetEase caused disruptions in the East Region as certain Blizzard games, including Overwatch 2, were banned in mainland China. To adapt to this, in the East Region, an "open ecosystem" approach was implemented, allowing Overwatch Contenders teams to compete alongside Overwatch League teams. A preseason pro-am tournament was also held in the West Region, where Overwatch Contenders teams competed against established OWL teams. The regular season was divided into two stages, Spring and Summer, and featured only one midseason tournament. Several teams underwent significant changes in branding and regions during this offseason as well. The Paris Eternal relocated to Las Vegas and rebranded as the Vegas Eternal, making them the first team in the league to switch cities. Similarly, the Philadelphia Fusion shifted their base to Seoul and adopted a new identity as the Seoul Infernal. Not all teams remained intact, as the Chengdu Hunters disbanded.

In January 2023, in an effort to address operating costs and viewership challenges, Overwatch League teams collectively initiated a bargaining process. They enlisted the representation of Sheridans, a British law firm, to negotiate with Activision Blizzard. This collective bargaining process led to an agreement between OverActive Media, the owner of the Toronto Defiant, and the Overwatch League. As part of this agreement, the Toronto Defiant signed a sponsorship deal with the league, and the Overwatch League agreed to waive the outstanding franchise fees owed by all teams. On July 19, 2023, Activision-Blizzard released its second-quarter earnings report. According to the report, following the conclusion of the 2023 season, franchise owners will vote on an updated operating agreement. Should the teams opt not to continue under the updated agreement, a termination fee of $6million will be payable to each participating team entity, amounting to a total fee of approximately $114million.

Teams
The league launched in 2018 with twelve teams, each based in a global city. Eight additional teams were added in the league's 2019 season. Prior to the 2020 season, the teams were divided between two divisions: the Atlantic Division with the American East Coast, Eastern Canadian and European teams, and the Pacific Division with the American West Coast, Western Canadian and Asian teams. With the 2020 season, the two divisions were elevated to conferences, keeping the same team distributions, but with now two divisions within each conference. Additionally, teams began playing in home/away games, with each team having one or more venues to host homestand weekends. However, due to the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, all live matches were cancelled near the beginning of the 2020 season, and teams were divided into regions. Below is the region split as of the 2023 season.

League championships
As of the 2022 season, 20 different teams have competed in the league, with four having won at least one Grand Finals title.

Broadcasting
Shortly prior to the beginning of the 2018 regular season, Blizzard reached a two-year deal with Twitch to be the main streaming broadcaster of the Overwatch League outside of China, reported to be valued at $90million. The service carried streams in English, French, and Korean, while users who linked their Twitch account to their Battle.net account would also be eligible for chances to receive in-game items for Overwatch while watching broadcasts. A subscription service known as the "All-Access Pass" also allowed users access to private streams and chat rooms with players, coaches, league officials and announcers, in-game currency to purchase team skins, emotes for use on Twitch chats, and discounts at Blizzard's store. This feature was expanded for the 2019 season to include the ability for viewers to use the "command center" app introduced during the 2018 Overwatch World Cup, to be able to view matches from different camera angles in real-time. The league also posted highlights on Twitter starting with the first season's All-Star Weekend and continuing into the second season, and also produced a weekly pre-game show called Watchpoint.

On July 11, 2018, Blizzard also announced a U.S. television deal with ESPN through the 2019 season, under which coverage of the 2018 playoffs would be simulcast across ESPN networks, including the semi-finals airing across ESPN2, ESPNews, and Disney–ABC Television Group sister channel Disney XD, the first night of the final airing on the main ESPN network (marking its first-ever primetime broadcast of an esports event), continuing on Disney XD the next day, and a highlights package the following Sunday on ABC. The arrangement continued into the 2019 season, with Disney XD adding regular-season broadcasts, and ABC adding broadcast television simulcasts of the Stage 1 and Stage 2 finals, and the all-star event. This partnership included broadcasting rights to the Overwatch World Cup as well. ESPN's sister Canadian network TSN also carried broadcasts on its platforms, including television encores of matches involving the league's new Canadian franchises.

German sports channel Sport1, which broadcasts to Switzerland and Austria in addition to Germany, made a two-year deal with Blizzard games live starting in the second season, partnering to form a new eSports1 sister channel.

In early 2020, YouTube reached a three-year exclusive deal to serve as broadcaster for all Activision Blizzard esports events, including the Overwatch League, Call of Duty League, and Hearthstone, replacing Twitch. The deal was reported to be valued at $160million. Alongside the agreement, Activision Blizzard also reached an agreement to use Google Cloud Platform as its preferred infrastructure provider for its game servers. After the expiration of the deal, the Overwatch League season would continue to be exclusively broadcast on YouTube.

Reception
Some commentators observed that of the more than 100 players selected for teams for the first season, none of them were female. Some noted the absence of Kim "Geguri" Se-yeon, a teenage South Korean player who is recognized as one of the highest-skilled Zarya players and who was the first female player to play in the Overwatch APEX league. During the press day event prior to the start of the season, teams acknowledged they had considered signing on Geguri but noted issues with such an action. The Houston Outlaws said that there would have been a language barrier issue with her potential teammates, and complications related to co-ed housing for teams. The team also claimed that if they had brought her on board, there would have been issues from external commentators about whether it was a press stunt or an otherwise legitimate reason, and the nature of this legitimacy would shadow her career. Other teams like the London Spitfire and the New York Excelsior had looked to Geguri as a free agent but in the end desired to work from an established set of players that had already worked in leagues in the past. Team owners recognized that they want to make the player roster more diverse, but this in part requires making the community around Overwatch less toxic and more inviting. Nanzer also said he would like to see further diversity in players in the league, but was aware that there are cultures where there is a social stigma against professional video game players that can be a barrier to achieve this. By mid-February, during the Season 1 free agency window, Geguri was signed by the Shanghai Dragons, making her the first female player in the league.

Additional concerns were raised following several league-issued fines and suspensions issued against a number of players based on their conduct. Journalists found that some players carried over the toxic nature from their days as YouTube or Twitch broadcasters, in which players would often routinely ridicule their opponents; many of the fines and suspensions follow from similar behavior displayed at the league level. The Overwatch player base outside of the league has also had issues of toxicity, which Blizzard has been trying to handle through better reporting tools. In addition to requiring the league players to follow the code of conduct, Blizzard is also watching how these players behave on off-league broadcasts, and would fine players if they engage in toxic or inappropriate behavior even if not part of a league session, as well as publicizing when the league takes such actions. Some of this poor behavior had concerned at least one of the league's sponsors, HP, since the behavior becomes associated with their brand, though such problems were not unique to esports, according to HP product manager John Ludwig.

After the conclusion of the first stage of the inaugural season, ESPN reported that the revenue projections for the league has exceeded its expectations, with some insiders claiming that the league's revenue was four times greater than initially planned; this was in part through its Twitch streaming deal and new advertisers, such as Toyota and T-Mobile, that came on board a few weeks into play. Due to the success of the first season of the Overwatch League, Fortune named commissioner Nate Nanzer as one of their "40 Under 40" in 2018.

Entering the third season, concern had been raised on the stress of the league on its players. Fifty players had dropped from the league during the first two years, with several of them citing the stress the league places on them and mental health issues.

Litigation
In July 2017, a trademark dispute arose when Major League Baseball (MLB) association expressed concerns regarding the logo that Blizzard had registered for the Overwatch League. MLB argued that Blizzard's logo bore similarities to their own, raising the potential for confusion among consumers. However, following the initial complaint, no further filings were made by Major League Baseball within the required dispute period. This suggested that either MLB decided to drop the dispute, or an undisclosed understanding was reached between MLB and the Overwatch League, allowing the league to continue using the logo.

In July 2021, Dot Esports reported that the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) was investigating the Overwatch League in regards to their team soft cap on players' salaries. In contrast to professional sports leagues like the NFL, where the use of player unions allows the league to implement salary caps under the Supreme Court ruling in Amalgamated Meat Cutters v. Jewel Tea Co., the Overwatch League currently lacks such unions, which would make salary caps potentially a violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890. The league soft cap in 2020 was , and while a team could have salaries over that amount, they would be taxed as a luxury tax and would be considered detrimental. In October 2021, Sports Business Journal reported that the OWL would be eliminating the luxury tax and maximum salary caps. A settlement between the two parties was proposed, but according to a report by former ESPN writer Jacob Wolf in late 2022, Activision Blizzard refused to terms regarding particular requests that would endure after the proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft. The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit, and Activision Blizzard agreed to settle the suit in April 2023, with provisions that would prohibit it from implementing similar measures in the future in the Overwatch League, the Call of Duty League, or any other esports league it operates.

Legacy
Activision Blizzard used the Overwatch League model to establish the Call of Duty League in 2019. While the Call of Duty League was to have its inaugural season in 2020 with the same planned home/away format that the Overwatch League was planning the use in its third season, the COVID-19 pandemic forced the Call of Duty League to switch to a fully online format. The league was a central plot element in the seventeenth season episode "Brave N00b World" of American Dad! which was first broadcast in May 2020.

Notes

References

External links

Sports leagues established in 2017
2017 establishments in the United States
Professional sports leagues in the United States

Overwatch League


Edward Alexander Sprinkle (September 3, 1923 – July 28, 2014) was an American football defensive end and end  who played for the Chicago Bears of the National Football League (NFL). He was known to many as "the Meanest Man in Pro Football" and was nicknamed "the Claw". He played for 12 seasons with the Bears and is credited with calling attention to the NFL's defensive players.

College career
Prior to his NFL career, Sprinkle won three letters in football and two in basketball and earned All-Border Conference while at Hardin–Simmons University in the early 1940s.  Hardin-Simmons dropped its sports program due to World War II, causing Sprinkle to transfer to the United States Naval Academy for his senior season in 1943, where he earned All-Eastern honors.

Playing career
After leaving college, Sprinkle was signed by George Halas' Chicago Bears in 1944. At first, he played on both defense and offense; he caught 32 passes for 451 yards and seven touchdowns during his career. His ability to rush opposing quarterbacks, however, soon made him a defensive specialist.

Sprinkle quickly developed a reputation for his aggressive playing style; in the 1946 NFL Championship Game, New York Giants George Franck, Frank Reagan, and Frank Filchock left with injuries sustained in hits from Sprinkle. One of Sprinkle's tackling strategies, a clothesline tackle with his forearm, led to him receiving the nickname "The Claw" from Collier's Weekly.

While accused of "dirty play" and unsportsmanlike conduct during his career, leading to calls in 1949 from coaches Greasy Neale and Buddy Parker for the NFL to discipline him, he defended his play as not being any different from other players of the era. According to Sprinkle, "We were meaner in the 1950s because there were fewer positions and we fought harder for them. It was a different era." He was praised by Halas "the greatest pass-rusher I've ever seen," while Giants quarterback Y. A. Tittle remarked in 1969 that "quarterbacks would look with only one eye for receivers. They kept the other eye on Sprinkle."

Post-playing career
Following his pro career, Sprinkle entered business in the Chicago area. He died on July 28, 2014.

The Professional Football Researchers Association named Sprinkle to the PFRA Hall of Very Good Class of 2007.
Sprinkle was also inducted in the Chicagoland Sports Hall of Fame.

On January 15, 2020, Sprinkle was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2020.

Sprinkle was also an avid golfer. He had a handicap of 18 at the Midlothian Country Club.

References

External sources

1923 births
2014 deaths
Players of American football from Texas
Sportspeople from Taylor County, Texas
Hardin–Simmons Cowboys football players
Navy Midshipmen football players
Western Conference Pro Bowl players
Chicago Bears players
Pro Football Hall of Fame inductees
Military personnel from Texas

Ed Sprinkle


The Fourth Angel is a 2001 British-Canadian thriller film directed by John Irvin and starring Jeremy Irons, Forest Whitaker, Jason Priestley and Charlotte Rampling. It was written by Allan Scott, from a homonymous novel by Robin Neillands (writing under the name Robin Hunter). Irons portrays a man who seeks justice after a terrorist attack on the plane in which his family was travelling. The film takes its title from Revelation 16:8: "The fourth angel poured out his bowl upon the sun, and it was given to him to scorch men with fire".

Plot
Jack Elgin (Jeremy Irons) is the European editor of The Economist, a magazine based in London, England. Jack has a wife, Maria (Briony Glassco), and three kids, Joanne (Anna Maguire), Julia (Holly Boyd), and Andrew (Joel Pitts). Jack subtly hijacks the family vacation, changing it from a lazy week of Mediterranean fun and sun in Corfu, Greece, to a tour of India, because of a story he has to cover. Maria is not as impressed as the kids are.

Jack himself envisioned a chance to simultaneously seize a plum reporting assignment and spend at least a smidgen of quality time with his family. But, on the way to India, their plane, a Boeing 747-200 owned by AM Air, an American airline, makes an unscheduled stopover in Limassol, Cyprus, because of a mechanical problem. After a while of waiting inside the Limassol airport, everyone gets back on the plane—which is then hijacked by a group of terrorists known as the August 15th Movement, led by a Serbian man named Ivanic Loyvek (Serge Soric) and his right-hand man Karadan Maldic (Ivan Marevich). And they are demanding $50,000,000 from the U.S. State Department in one hour or everyone on the airplane will die.

The demand is met, and Loyvek and Maldic start releasing the women and children, with the men to go last. But as soon as a front passenger door is opened, a local police team gunning for the terrorists opens fire. The flight attendants frantically open the rest of the airplane's doors and start getting passengers out, but the terrorists start killing passengers, leading to an explosion.

Maria, Joanne, and Julia get out of the airplane, and then Jack, holding Andrew, gets out—only to watch Maria, Joanne, and Julia get shot by the terrorists. Jack tries to hide Andrew's face so he can't see it. Maria and Joanne are dead, and Julia is still alive—but Julia burns to death while crying for help. In all, a total of 15 passengers die, and Loyvek and Maldic, the surviving terrorists, escape, knowing that they now have the $50,000,000. Jack feels that the hijacking would never have ended that way if the police team had waited until after the passengers were released from the airplane before getting trigger happy.

Back in London, an absolutely devastated Jack is told that the terrorists were captured, but they were released and deported secretly, with no charges, no arrest—the result of some awfully compromised politics. Jack is understandably enraged that Loyvek and Maldic got off scot-free. While helping Andrew cope, Jack tries all the legal ways to ensure justice for his family, but to no avail.

Jack pays a visit to Henry Davidson (Jason Priestley), a CIA agent who works at the American Embassy in London. Davidson tells Jack that there's little that can be done. Obviously, the American and British governments are completely impotent when it comes to going after Loyvek and Maldic, so Jack must do it himself.

With the help of his friend ex-intelligence operative Kate Stockton (Charlotte Rampling), who is well-schooled in the finer points of international intelligence, Jack becomes a one-man anti-terrorist squadron, tracking down those who work with Loyvek and Maldic, and turning their own weapons against them. Dogging Jack's trail is FBI agent Jules Bernard (Forest Whitaker), who's cooperating with Scotland Yard on anti-terrorist activities, and who suspects that Jack is the man who has been killing anyone involved in the hijacking.

But as it turns out, Jules is on Jack's side, and he's willing to help Jack. After Jack kills Maldic, it turns out that Davidson was behind everything. Davidson had the airplane hijacked so he could get $50,000,000. With Jules's help, Jack sets out to make Loyvek and Davidson pay for the deaths of his family and the other people who died in Cyprus.

Cast
 Jeremy Irons as Jack Elgin
 Forest Whitaker as FBI Agent Jules Bernard
 Jason Priestley as CIA Agent Henry Davidson
 Briony Glassco as Maria Elgin
 Charlotte Rampling as Kate Stockton
 Lois Maxwell as Olivia
 Timothy West as Jones
 Joel Pitts as Andrew Elgin
 Anna Maguire as Joanne Elgin
 Holly Boyd as Julia Elgin
 Kal Weber as Kulindos
 Ian McNeice as MI5 Agent Lewison
 Serge Soric as Ivanic Loyvek
 Ivan Marevich as Karadan Maldic

Release
Produced in 2001, The Fourth Angel opened in a number of European countries before the events of 9/11. The commercial failure of other terrorist-themed films such as Collateral Damage led to the delay of its wider release, including in the US and UK. It was finally issued direct to DVD in the US in 2003 by Artisan Entertainment.

References

External links

2001 films
2001 thriller films
British thriller films
British aviation films
Aviation novels
Films directed by John Irvin
Films postponed due to the September 11 attacks
Films about the Serbian Mafia
2000s English-language films
2000s British films

The Fourth Angel


Pius Nkonzo Langa SCOB (25 March 1939 – 24 July 2013) was Chief Justice of South Africa, serving on the Constitutional Court. He was appointed to the bench in 1994 by Nelson Mandela, he became Deputy Chief Justice in 2001 and was elevated as Chief Justice in 2005 by Thabo Mbeki. He retired in October 2009. He served as the Chancellor of Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (now Nelson Mandela University) from 2006 to 2010. He died in 2013, aged 74, following a long illness.

Legal career
Pius Langa was born on 25 March 1939 in Bushbuckridge, in the then Transvaal Province. Educated at Adams College he left with a junior certificate and while working, studied part-time and obtained a matric certificate. He obtained his B. Iuris law degree from the University of South Africa in 1973 and his LLB in 1976.

He worked in a shirt factory from 1957 to 1960 but then found employment as an interpreter and messenger for the Department of Justice. He worked his way up to serving as a prosecutor and a magistrate. He was admitted as an Advocate of the Supreme Court of South Africa in June 1977, practised at the Natal Bar and attained the rank of Senior Counsel in January 1994. He was a founding member of the National Association of Democratic Lawyers and a member of the African National Congress Constitutional Committee, where he worked on its draft bill of rights, which later formed part of Chapter Two of the Constitution of South Africa.

When the Constitutional Court was established in 1994 after the end of apartheid, Justice Langa was appointed together with ten others as the first Judges of the new Court. He became its Deputy President in August 1997 and, in November 2001, assumed the position of Deputy Chief Justice of South Africa. He was appointed as the country's Chief Justice and head of the Constitutional Court with effect from June 2005 until his retirement in October 2009.

Justice Langa died on 24 July 2013 (age 74) at the Milpark Hospital in Johannesburg, following a long illness.

Honours and awards
In April 2008 Justice Langa was awarded the Order of the Baobab in Gold for "his exceptional service in law, constitutional jurisprudence and human rights."

References

External links

Transformative Constitutionalism and Socio-Economic Rights Video of lecture by Chief Justice Pius Langa for the Foundation for Law, Justice and Society, Oxford
Article about Langa
"A Man Who Would Not Bend", timeslive.co.za. Accessed 17 May 2022.

1939 births
2013 deaths
20th-century South African judges
20th-century South African lawyers
21st-century South African judges
Chief justices of South Africa
Judges of the Constitutional Court of South Africa
Recipients of the Order of the Baobab
Lawyers from Johannesburg
South African Senior Counsel
University of South Africa alumni

Pius Langa


Bernard Bellush (November 15, 1917 – December 20, 2011) was an American historian and journalist. He taught at the City College of New York.

Biography
Bellush was born in the Bronx, New York City on November 15, 1917. He graduated from CCNY in 1941. He entered Columbia University in 1941 for graduate training in history. He completed a master's degree with a thesis on Eugene V. Debs, and two days after submission in November 1942 he was inducted into the United States Army. During the war he served with the 616th Ordnance Ammunition Company, and as part of the 5th Engineer Special Brigade he landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day, June 6, 1944.  Returning to the United States and demobilized after the war, he attended Columbia University's doctoral program in history and received his Ph.D. in 1951 under the direction of Allan Nevins.

He subsequently taught at his alma mater, the City College of New York, for the remainder of his academic career.

Scholarly impact
Bellush's work is remembered through several memorial awards. The City College of New York History Department awards undergraduates the Bellush Service Award to a student for social service as well as scholarship.  In commemoration of Bellush's influence on the field of labor history, the New York Labor History Association established the Bernard Bellush Prize in his honor to be given for a student research paper in the field of labor and work history.

Bibliography
Franklin D. Roosevelt as Governor of New York (1955)
He Walked Alone: A Biography of John G. Winant (1968)
The Failure of the N.R.A. (1975)
Union Power and New York: Victor Gotbaum and District Council 37 (with Jewel Bellush) (1984)

References

1917 births
2011 deaths
City College of New York alumni
City College of New York faculty
Columbia University alumni
Historians of the United States

Bernard Bellush


Hercules: The Legendary Journeys is an action adventure video game with Beat 'em up elements that was released on November 17, 1997, on the Nintendo 64 and Game Boy Color, developed by PS1 and published by Titus Software, based on the television series.

Description
Ares, Hercules' brother, forms a plan to dethrone Zeus with the help of Hera. With Zeus ill, a struggle for power corrupts the immortal realm. The Gods, unaware of the true nature of the disturbance, flee to the mortal realm in a search to find the reason for the turmoil. Hercules, a man whose strength is like nothing ever seen, is the only one who can save the world, both mortal and immortal, and his father from certain doom. Take control of the legendary hero as you travel around the land in search of a cure, and to stop Ares from completing his plan.

Related pages
 Xena: Warrior Princess
 Young Hercules

References

Xenaverse
1997 video games
Video games based on television shows

Hercules: The Legendary Journeys (video game)


Bhendali village is situated in Niphad Taluka of Nashik district, Maharashtra State, India.

Statistics
It is located 31 km east of Nashik, 14 km from the Niphad district and 195 km From the state capital Mumbai.

pin code of Bhendali is 422210 and its postal head office and Police Station is in Saykheda.

Nearby villages are Mahajanpur (1 km), Songaon (5 km) Ramnagar (4 km), Bhuse (5 km), Pimpalgaon Nipani (6 km). Bhendali is surrounded by Sinnar to the South, Nashik to the west, Chandwad to the North, and Kopargaon to the East.

Bhendali has a gram panchayat, which was established on 25 April 2000, and has a total area of 662.83 hectares. 615.9 hectares are covered by Agriculture, 27.97 hectares are vacant land and the remaining 19.77 hectares are covered by "gayran", "Road", "leke", "panthal" etc.

According to 2011 Population survey. The Population of Bhendali 2247
Male - 1183
Female - 1064
Backward Cast - 162
other - 240

Sarpanchs of Bhendali:
 Balasaheb Sadashiv Khalkar (25/10/2000 To 12/8/2002)
 Sudhakar Pandharinath Khalkar (13/8/2002 To 24/10/2005)
 Deepak Bhaskar Kamankar (25/10/2005 to 21/10/2010)
 Usha Sharad Khalkar (22/10/2010 to 19/10/2015)
* Gorakh Sampat Khalkar (20/10/2015 to till date)

Connectivity of Bhendali
Public Bus Service	Available - > within village,
Private Bus Service	->Available within 5 – 10 km distance,
Railway Station	-> Available within 14+ km distance (Kherwadi,Niphad,Sukene etc.)

Demographics of Bhendali:
Marathi, Urdu, is the Local Language here

Schools in Bhendali
Anu Madhyamik Vidyalaya
Address: bhendali, niphad, Nashik, Maharashtra. PIN- 422210, Post - Saykheda
Z.p.school Bhendali No 2
Address: bhendali, niphad, Nashik, Maharashtra. PIN- 422210, Post - Saykheda
Z.p.school Bhendali No 1
Address: bhendali, niphad, Nashik, Maharashtra. PIN- 422210, Post - Saykheda

References

External links
https://villageinfo.in/maharashtra/nashik/niphad/bhendali.html

Villages in Nashik district
2000 establishments in India

Bhendali


O͘ is one of the six Taiwanese Hokkien vowels as written in the Pe̍h-ōe-jī (POJ) orthography. It is pronounced . Because Taiwanese Hokkien is a tonal language, the standard letter without a diacritic represents the vowel in the first tone, and the other five possible tone categories require one of the following tonal symbols to be written above it:
Ó͘ ó͘ (second tone)
Ò͘ ò͘ (third tone)
Ô͘ ô͘ (fifth tone)
Ō͘ ō͘ (seventh tone)
O̍͘ o̍͘ (eighth tone)

History
The character was introduced by the Xiamen-based missionary Elihu Doty in the mid-nineteenth century, as a way to distinguish the Minnan vowels  and  (the latter becoming ). Since then it has become established in the Pe̍h-ōe-jī orthography, with only occasional deviations early in its usage – one example being Carstairs Douglas's 1873 dictionary, where he replaced the  with an o with a curl (similar to that of the English Phonotypic Alphabet), and a second example being Tan Siew Imm's 2016 dictionary of Penang Hokkien, where she replaced the  with .

Computing
In the Unicode computer encoding, it is a normal Latin o followed by , and is not to be confused with the Vietnamese Ơ. This letter is not well-supported by fonts and is often typed as either o· (using the interpunct), o• (using the bullet), o' (using the apostrophe), oo, or ou.

References

Languages of Taiwan
Vowel letters
Latin letters with diacritics

O͘