Utekáč () is a village and municipality in the Poltár District in the Banská Bystrica Region of Slovakia.

In the middle of Veporské vrchy, in the narrow valley of the Rimavica river, the village Utekáč is situated. Its name is derived from the útek (meaning escape) of Hungarian king Bela IV ahead of the Tatars. The first mention about Utekáč is from the year 1593.

Development of Utekáč began in 1787 when earl Forgáč came to the territory. He built up a few glassworks from which just the biggest – Clara – is preserved. Aboriginal inhabitants of the glasswork's colony moved in families of glassworks experts from Germany, Hungary, Bohemia and Moravia. Modern history began on 1 January 1993 with establishment of the separate village. Utekáč was only an industrial part of the village Kokava nad Rimavicou before. With its industrial and housing development it is a small town now. Its villages Salajka, Drahová, Havrilovo, Dlhá Lúka, Ďurkovka, Bánik, Nad Rimava and Cisársko are typical mountain settlements of original folk architecture character. The residences in the village Salajka are Finnish wooden storeyed houses.

From the historic point of view, there is the dominant mansion of Earl Forgáč and a Chapel of Saint Anton Paduánsky that also serves as the tomb of the Kuchynka family – the owners of glassworks. In Drahová and Havrilovo there are interesting small chapels. A trio of fujara makers and fujarists, the Kubincs brought the village fame. During the II. World War and SNP there were severe fighting on the village's territory. The memorial of fallen in local park and the vale of Nikolaj Chmelnický with three memorials characterize events from that period. Lovers of hiking, mushroom picking, hunting and fishing will enjoyed the vicinity. The village has a suitable location for development of tourism, forest tourism and farming. There are excellent conditions for running tracks and downhill skiing – ski tows are directly in Utekáč and in the vicinity.

Attractions: Folk crafts, Glass tradition, Tourist march "Utekáčska horská tridsiatka", "Utekáčska horská stovka", Ski tow.

References

External links

Villages and municipalities in Poltár District

Utekáč


Edward Lodewijk Van Halen ( , ; January 26, 1955 – October 6, 2020) was an American musician. He was the guitarist, keyboardist, backing vocalist, and primary songwriter of the rock band Van Halen, which he founded with his brother Alex in 1972.

Van Halen is widely regarded as one of the greatest guitar players in rock history, and was well-known for popularizing the tapping guitar technique, allowing rapid arpeggios to be played with two hands on the fretboard. Rolling Stone named Van Halen the 4th greatest guitarist of all time in 2023.

Early life
Edward Lodewijk Van Halen was born in Amsterdam on January 26, 1955, the son of Jan van Halen and Eugenia (née van Beers). His father was a Dutch jazz pianist, clarinettist, and saxophonist, while his mother was an Indo (Eurasian) woman from Rangkasbitung on the island of Java in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). The family eventually settled in Nijmegen, Netherlands.

After experiencing mistreatment for their mixed-race relationship in the 1950s, the parents moved the family to the U.S. in 1962. They settled near other family members in Pasadena, California, where Eddie and his brother Alex attended a segregated elementary school. Since the boys did not speak English as a first language, they were considered "minority" students and experienced bullying by white students. They began learning the piano at age six, commuting from Pasadena to San Pedro, Los Angeles, to study with an elderly piano teacher, Stasys Kalvaitis.

Van Halen was never taught to read music; instead, he watched recitals of Bach or Mozart repertoire and improvised. Between 1964 and 1967, he won first place in the annual piano competition at Long Beach City College. His parents wanted the boys to be classical pianists, but Van Halen gravitated towards rock music, and was greatly influenced by 1960s British Invasion bands like the Beatles and the Dave Clark Five. Consequently, when Alex began playing the guitar, Eddie bought a drum kit; however, after he heard Alex's performance of the Surfaris' drum solo on the song "Wipe Out", he gave Alex the drums and began learning the electric guitar. According to him, as a teen he often practiced while walking around at home with his guitar strapped on, or sitting in his room for hours with the door locked.

Eddie and Alex formed their first band with three other boys, called themselves The Broken Combs, and performed at lunchtime at Hamilton Elementary School in Pasadena when he was in the fourth grade. He later cited this performance as key to his desire to become a professional musician. He described supergroup Cream's "I'm So Glad" on the album Goodbye as "mind-blowing". He once claimed that he had learned almost all of Eric Clapton's solos in the band Cream note for note. "I've always said Eric Clapton was my main influence," he said, "but Jimmy Page was actually more the way I am, in a reckless-abandon kind of way." Speaking at an event at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in 2015, Van Halen discussed his life and the American Dream, saying "We came here with approximately $50 and a piano, and we didn't speak the language. Now look where we are. If that's not the American dream, what is?"

Career

Van Halen band

Eddie and his brother Alex formed the band Mammoth in 1972. Two years later, David Lee Roth joined Mammoth as lead singer and Mammoth officially changed its name to Van Halen and became a staple of the Los Angeles music scene, playing at well-known clubs such as the Whisky a Go Go.

At a 1976 concert at The Starwood in California, the band opened for UFO. Kiss bassist Gene Simmons saw the performance, and said, "I was waiting backstage by the third song." He asked the band about their plans, and they said, "There is a yogurt manufacturer that is going to invest in us." Gene begged them not to go that route and invited them to record some demos at Electric Lady Studios in Greenwich Village in New York City. Gene then signed them to his company and the band recorded early demos of their songs, including "Runnin' with the Devil". Excited about the band, Gene approached Kiss manager Bill Aucoin and Kiss frontman Paul Stanley about them, but they dismissed his desire to sign them to Aucoin's management fold. Stanley later said he "rejected Van Halen to protect Kiss", and that they made an effort to make Gene drop the band to "keep Gene in check". The discouraging words caused Gene to rip up the contract, and he "let them go" after feeling he may have held the band back.

The next year, Warner Records offered Van Halen a recording contract.

Eddie remained on good terms with Gene. It was rumored that Eddie nearly replaced guitarist Ace Frehley after his departure from Kiss in 1982, but that Gene talked him out of leaving Van Halen. However, neither Paul Stanley nor Eddie Van Halen remember this happening. Stanley does remember Eddie coming down to the studio, being "blown away" by their song "Creatures of the Night", and telling Stanley he wanted to get into playing keyboards. Stanley was confused at Eddie's interest in keyboards, but his interest resulted in the creation of "Jump".

The band's 1978 album Van Halen reached #19 on the Billboard pop music charts and was one of rock's most commercially successful debuts, highly regarded as both a heavy metal and hard rock album. By the early 1980s, Van Halen was one of the most successful rock acts of the time.

Eddie recorded the solo on the Michael Jackson song "Beat It" when The Who guitarist Pete Townshend became unavailable and recommended him. Eddie met with Quincy Jones and Jackson. Unsure of what he could add to a pop song, he played along with the song and ended up restructuring it and adding the classic solo. In a 2012 CNN interview, he said, "I listened to the song, and I immediately go, 'Can I change some parts?' I turned to the engineer and I go, 'OK, from the breakdown, chop in this part, go to this piece, pre-chorus, to the chorus, out.' Took him maybe 10 minutes to put it together. And I proceeded to improvise two solos over it." He added, "I was just finishing the second solo when Michael walked in. And you know artists are kind of crazy people. We're all a little bit strange. I didn't know how he would react to what I was doing. So I warned him before he listened. I said, 'Look, I changed the middle section of your song.' Now in my mind, he's either going to have his bodyguards kick me out for butchering his song, or he's going to like it. And so he gave it a listen, and he turned to me and went, 'Wow, thank you so much for having the passion to not just come in and blaze a solo but to actually care about the song and make it better." Eddie was so pleased he refused payment for his work. Ironically, Jackson's Thriller went to the #1 spot on the charts, pushing Van Halen's album 1984 to #2. 1984 went five-times Platinum a year after its release. Its lead single, "Jump", became the band's first and only #1 pop hit and brought them a Grammy nomination.

The band won the 1992 Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance with Vocals for the album For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge. In 2019, the band ranked 20th on the RIAA list of best-selling artists, with 56 million album sales in the United States and more than 100 million worldwide. Additionally, Van Halen charted 13 number-one hits in the history of Billboards Mainstream Rock chart; meanwhile, VH1 ranked the band seventh on a list of the top 100 hard rock artists of all time, and, in 2007, Van Halen was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Individually, Van Halen received acclaim for his guitar work in the band.

Other work
Van Halen engaged in several projects outside of his eponymous band, including solo work and partnerships with his brother on film soundtracks (such as The Wild Life, Twister, and Sacred Sin) as well as musical collaborations with Kiss bassist Gene Simmons, singer/songwriter Nicolette Larson, Queen guitarist Brian May, Sammy Hagar, Black Sabbath, Roger Waters, Toto guitarist Steve Lukather, and LL Cool J. In 1982, he contributed the guitar solo to "Beat It", for Michael Jackson's Thriller, which became the biggest selling album of all time. In addition, Van Halen made cameo appearances in the music video for Frank Sinatra's "L.A. Is My Lady", an episode of Café Americain starring his then-wife Valerie Bertinelli, and an episode of Two and a Half Men.

Equipment

Guitars

His first guitar, purchased as a child from Sears and Roebuck, was a Teisco Del Rey.  He played the guitar in his elementary school band, The Broken Combs.

Van Halen was an inveterate tinkerer, and played many custom-built and heavily modified guitars, especially early in his career.  Upon embarking on his professional music career, he purchased a Gibson Les Paul, for which he replaced the original P90 pickup on the bridge with a humbucker in order to sound like Eric Clapton. He later bought and briefly used a Gibson ES-335, also because of its association with Clapton, though he damaged the body while modifying it and it later became cannibalized for parts on numerous other home-build guitar projects.  He also owned an Ibanez Destroyer that was used extensively on the debut Van Halen album.  Originally used in its natural wood finish, he later painted it white and made several modifications to the electronics.  After recording the album, he used a chainsaw to drastically modify the body shape, cutting a deep V into the bottom of the guitar, and painting it in a similar way to his later, more famous, Frankenstrat.  Inset into the V, he hand carved teeth and set two eyehooks and chains; the new distinctive shape led to it being nicknamed "The Shark".  He only played it for a short time in this state, however, as the modifications changed the tone of the guitar in an unsatisfactory way; he did retain the guitar for the rest of his life, remaining in his collection until his death.  The final state of the Shark can be seen on the cover of Women and Children First, where he posed with the guitar.

He is most associated with the Frankenstrat, a custom guitar he built from parts. Originally pictured on Van Halen's debut album Van Halen (album), The maple neck cost $80, while the ash body was bought for $50 as the wood had a knot in it. The tremolo arm was originally taken from a 1958 Fender Stratocaster, and was later replaced with a Floyd Rose arm.  He frequently replaced the neck on the guitar, going through a number of different ones through the years, and the pickup configuration was also frequently changed.  In its most commonly used configuration, the guitar had a single functional pickup, a Gibson PAF (patent applied for) bridge pickup from his ES-335, which he enclosed with paraffin wax to prevent feedback.  The middle pickup was removed and in its place he had stuffed a non-functional selector switch and random wires, while the neck pickup slot was replaced with a red single-coil pickup, that was also non-functional.  The original selector switches and tone knobs were removed, and the volume knob was replaced with a knob labeled "TONE".  The Frankenstrat, as shown on the cover of Van Halen I, was originally painted black, but was recoated with Schwinn red bicycle paint in 1979.

Before and during the recording of Van Halen II, he built a second "partscaster" guitar painted in a distinctive black-and-yellow striped paint job that earned it the moniker "The Bumblebee Guitar".  That guitar was later donated to Rita Haney, the longtime partner of Dimebag Darrell Abbott, shortly after his death; it was placed in his casket and buried along with him.

Eddie Van Halen used a mini-Les Paul guitar for "Little Guitars" (Diver Down). This is the only Van Halen recording that the guitar was used for. The mini-Les Paul was made by Nashville luthier David Petschulat and was pitched and sold to him during a tour stop in Nashville, Tennessee. He later purchased a second mini-LP guitar, built to slightly different specs, the first being a honey-sunburst with mini-humbuckers, and the second being dark wine-red with a thicker body and full-size humbuckers. In 1982, Van Halen made his first guitar endorsement by launching the 5150 Baretta model with Kramer. This partnership lasted a decade.  In the mid 1980s, he purchased a Steinberger GL2T guitar.  Its distinctive switch-operated vibrato system can be heard on the 5150 album.  From 1991 to 1995, Van Halen worked with Ernie Ball / Music Man, developing the Music Man EVH model guitar, which was later renamed the Axis after the partnership ended. In 1996, Van Halen teamed up with Peavey, where they developed the Peavey EVH Wolfgang; this relationship lasted until 2004, when Van Halen joined forces with Fender, initially releasing the Edward-endorsed Art Series guitars under Fender's Charvel brand and later developing the EVH brand.  In 2006, Fender created the "Frank 2", a near-perfect production replica of the original Frankenstrat; Van Halen later claimed that when presented the two guitars in a blind comparison, he had some trouble picking out the original home-made guitar from Fender's production replica.

For Van Halen's 2012 tour, and early 2015 television appearances, he used a Wolfgang USA guitar with a black finish and ebony fretboard. For the 2015 tour, he used a white Wolfgang USA guitar designed by Chip Ellis, featuring a custom kill switch.

Strings

Van Halen's first string endorsement deal happened around 1989 when Ernie Ball launched the 5150 EVH line of guitar strings. The gauge of the strings differed slightly from typical electric guitar strings at the time, which were 9, 11, 16, 24, 32 and 42 (in thousandths of an inch) - the EVH Ernie Ball strings measured 9, 11, 15, 24, 32 and 40. After this endorsement deal ended, guitar strings became part of the Fender EVH line and are now sold as EVH Premium Strings.

Pickup selection
Van Halen used a variety of pickups, including 1970s Mighty Mites, which were made by Seymour Duncan and were copies of DiMarzio Super Distortion pickups. He also used Gibson PAFs, one of which was rewound by Seymour Duncan in 1978.

In an interview with Guitar World in 1985, Van Halen stated that his guitar sound style which he called "brown sound" is "...basically a tone, a feeling that I'm always working at ... It comes from the person. If the person doesn't even know what that type of tone I'm talking about is, they can't really work towards it, can they?" In an interview with Billboard magazine in June 2015, he stated that with the expression "brown sound" he actually tried to describe the sound of his brother Alex's snare drum, which he thought "...sounds like he's beating on a log. It's very organic. So it wasn't my brown sound. It was Alex's."

Keyboards
The first recorded keyboard work by Van Halen is "And the Cradle Will Rock...", written and performed on a Wurlitzer electric piano through a Marshall amp. The riff for "Dancing in the Street" (on Diver Down) was written and performed on Minimoog. "Jump" and "I'll Wait" were written and performed on an Oberheim OB-Xa, while "Dreams", "Why Can't This Be Love" and "Love Walks In" are with Oberheim OB-8. Eddie also wrote "When It's Love" and "Right Now" on keyboards.

During the 5150 and OU812 tours, Eddie Van Halen would play keyboard parts live while Hagar played the guitar. From the For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge tour, Van Halen played guitar throughout the concerts, while the keyboards were played backstage by touring keyboardist Alan Fitzgerald up through 2004, a fact kept low-key in the press.

Amplifiers

In 1993, Van Halen collaborated with Peavey Electronics to develop a series of amplifiers and cabinets, collectively called the 5150 series, which ended in 2004. Van Halen then began work with Fender, developing the EVH products and brand.

EVH brand

In 2007, the first EVH branded amplifiers were produced by Fender, followed shortly after by a limited-edition "Frankenstrat" inspired guitar.  In 2009, they continued to press forward on the guitar front by releasing the Wolfgang-inspired EVH guitar line. The brand has since expanded to include additional guitars and accessories.

Patents
Van Halen was awarded three patents related to guitars: a folding prop to support a guitar in a flat position, a tension-adjusting tailpiece, and an ornamental design for a headstock.

Style and influence

Tapping

Van Halen's 1978 instrumental solo "Eruption", which was voted number 2 in Guitar Worlds readers poll of the "100 Greatest Guitar Solos", showcased the tapping technique, which uses both left and right hands on the guitar neck. Although he popularized tapping, he did not invent the technique. According to MusicRadar, Steve Hackettlead guitarist with Genesis in the 1970sis "widely credited with inventing two-handed tapping" and was an influence on Van Halen. When asked about this, Hackett said, "Eddie and I have never spoken about it, but yes, he has credited me with tapping... Eddie is a fine player, of course, and he's the one who named the technique."

George Lynch said in an interview that he and Van Halen saw Harvey Mandel tap at the Starwood in the 1970s. Van Halen named Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin as an influence, saying in one interview with Guitar World:

Until it expired in 2005, Van Halen held a patent for a flip-out support device that attaches to the rear of the electric guitar. This device enables the user to employ the tapping technique by playing the guitar in a manner similar to the piano with the face of the guitar oriented upward instead of forward.

Personal life

In 1980, Van Halen met actress Valerie Bertinelli at a Van Halen concert in Shreveport, Louisiana. They married in California eight months later on April 11, 1981, and had one son, Wolfgang, in 1991. In 2005, Bertinelli filed for divorce in Los Angeles after four years of separation. The divorce was finalized in 2007.

The following year, Eddie proposed to his girlfriend, Janie Liszewski, an actress and stuntwoman who was Van Halen's publicist at the time. The two married in 2009 at his Studio City estate, with his son Wolfgang and ex-wife Bertinelli in attendance. His brother Alex Van Halen is an ordained minister, and he officiated Eddie's 2009 wedding and that of his former sister-in-law, Valerie Bertinelli, when she remarried in 2011.

Health issues and death
Van Halen struggled with alcoholism and drug abuse. He began smoking and drinking at the age of 12, and he stated that he eventually needed alcohol to function. He entered rehabilitation in 2007, and later shared in a 2015 interview that he had been sober since 2008.

He was diagnosed with chronic avascular necrosis in 1995. After suffering from lingering injuries from past, high-risk, acrobatic stage performances and crashes, Eddie underwent hip replacement surgery in 1999. He began receiving treatment for tongue cancer in 2000. The subsequent surgery removed roughly a third of his tongue. He was declared cancer-free in 2002. He blamed the tongue cancer on his habit of holding guitar picks in his mouth, stating in 2015: "I used metal picks – they're brass and copper – which I always held in my mouth, in the exact place where I got the tongue cancer. ... I mean, I was smoking and doing a lot of drugs and a lot of everything. But at the same time, my lungs are totally clear. This is just my own theory, but the doctors say it's possible."

In 2012, Van Halen underwent emergency surgery for a severe bout of diverticulitis. Recovery time required due to the surgery led to postponement of Van Halen tour dates scheduled in Japan. Van Halen was later hospitalized in 2019 after battling throat cancer over the previous five years, and his ex-wife Valerie Bertinelli also mentioned a battle with lung cancer in an Instagram post shortly after his death. He died of a stroke at Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica, California, on October 6, 2020, at the age of 65, surrounded by his wife, Janie; son and current (at the time) bassist of Van Halen, Wolfgang; ex-wife Valerie Bertinelli; and brother and co-founder/drummer of Van Halen, Alex. His son, Wolfgang, confirmed his death on social media later that same day. Some of Van Halen's childhood landmarks in Pasadena became memorials where fans could pay their respects.

Legacy
In February 2017, Van Halen donated 75 guitars from his personal collection to The Mr. Holland's Opus Foundation, a program that provides musical instruments to students in low-income schools. At the 2020 Billboard Music Awards, Eddie Van Halen was honored by several former musicians he worked with. Jack White from The White Stripes, G. E. Smith, Charlie Benante from Anthrax, and Dierks Bentley gave speeches as a tribute to his career. Wolfgang Van Halen also shared several personal photos between him and his father. On October 10, 2020, Saturday Night Live paid tribute by playing a clip of him performing with G. E. Smith from a February 1987 show, which was hosted by Valerie Bertinelli. In 2020, the Pasadena Library, located in Pasadena, California, offered several archives and documents related to Eddie Van Halen. The collection included several albums, along with photographs by Neil Zlozower, and several CDs. The library also uploaded Van Halen's albums to Hoopla. On November 16, 2020, his son Wolfgang Van Halen announced on The Howard Stern Show that Van Halen would not continue as a band, saying "You can't have Van Halen without Eddie Van Halen". The Red Hot Chili Peppers paid tribute to Van Halen on their song "Eddie" from their 2022 album Return of the Dream Canteen.

Discography

Solo discography

 "Donut City" for The Wild Life (1984)
 "Respect the Wind" for Twister (1996)

References

Bibliography

Further reading

External links

1955 births
2020 deaths
20th-century American guitarists
21st-century American guitarists
American film score composers
American heavy metal guitarists
American male guitarists
American people of Dutch-Indonesian descent
American people of Javanese descent
American rock guitarists
Deaths from cancer in California
Deaths from throat cancer
Dutch emigrants to the United States
Dutch guitarists
Dutch rock guitarists
Dutch heavy metal guitarists
Dutch people of Javanese descent
Guitarists from California
Indo people
Lead guitarists
American male film score composers
Musicians from Amsterdam
Naturalized citizens of the United States
Pasadena City College alumni
Pasadena High School (California) alumni
Musicians from Nijmegen
People from Studio City, Los Angeles
People from the San Gabriel Valley
Van Halen members
Burials at sea
Glam metal musicians

Eddie Van Halen


Churchman typically refers to a member of the clergy.

Churchman or Churchmen may also refer to:

English Churchman, a family Protestant newspaper founded in 1843
Churchman (journal), an Evangelical Anglican academic journal, formerly known as The Churchman
Churchman (surname)
Churchman's, a former British cigarette manufacturer

Churchman


Walter Feit (October 26, 1930 – July 29, 2004) was an Austrian-born American mathematician who worked in finite group theory and representation theory. His contributions provided elementary infrastructure used in algebra, geometry, topology, number theory, and logic. His work helped the development and utilization of sectors like cryptography, chemistry, and physics.

He was born to a Jewish family in Vienna and escaped for England in 1939 via the Kindertransport. He moved to the United States in 1946 where he became an undergraduate at the University of Chicago. He did his Ph.D. at the University of Michigan, and became a professor at Cornell University in 1952, and at Yale University in 1964.

His most famous result is his proof, joint with John G. Thompson, of the Feit–Thompson theorem that all finite groups of odd order are solvable. At the time it was written, it was probably the most complicated and difficult mathematical proof ever completed.He wrote almost a hundred other papers, mostly on finite group theory, character theory (in particular introducing the concept of a coherent set of characters), and modular representation theory. Another regular theme in his research was the study of linear groups of small degree, that is, finite groups of matrices in low dimensions. It was often the case that, while the conclusions concerned groups of complex matrices, the techniques employed were from modular representation theory.

He also wrote the books:The representation theory of finite groups and Characters of finite groups, which are now standard references on character theory, including treatments of modular representations
and modular characters.

Feit was an invited speaker at the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) in Nice in 1970.
He was awarded the Cole Prize by the American Mathematical Society in 1965, and was elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He also served as Vice-President of the International Mathematical Union.

"In October 2003, on the eve of Professor Feit's retirement, colleagues and former students gathered at Yale for a special four-day "Conference on Groups, Representations and Galois Theory" to honor him and his contributions. Nearly 80 researchers from around the world met to exchange ideas in the fields he had helped to create."

He died in Branford, Connecticut in 2004 and was survived by his wife, Dr. Sidnie Feit, and a son and daughter.

"A memorial service was held on Sunday, October 10, 2004, at the New Haven Lawn Club, 193 Whitney Avenue, New Haven, CT."

Selected publications

References

External links

  Yale obituary
 Walter Feit (1930–2004), Notices of the American Mathematical Society; vol. 52, no. 7 (August 2005).

1930 births
2004 deaths
20th-century American mathematicians
Mathematicians from Vienna
Group theorists
Institute for Advanced Study visiting scholars
Cornell University faculty
Yale University faculty
University of Chicago alumni
University of Michigan alumni
Jewish emigrants from Austria after the Anschluss to the United States
Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences

Walter Feit


Flight envelope protection is a human machine interface extension of an aircraft's control system that prevents the pilot of an aircraft from making control commands that would force the aircraft to exceed its structural and aerodynamic operating limits. It is used in some form in all modern commercial fly-by-wire aircraft. The professed advantage of flight envelope protection systems is that they restrict a pilot's excessive control inputs, whether in surprise reaction to emergencies or otherwise, from translating into excessive flight control surface movements. Notionally, this allows pilots to react quickly to an emergency while blunting the effect of an excessive control input resulting from "startle," by electronically limiting excessive control surface movements that could over-stress the airframe and endanger the safety of the aircraft.

In practice, these limitations have sometimes resulted in unintended human factors errors and accidents of their own.

Function
Aircraft have a flight envelope that describes its safe performance limits in regard to such things as minimum and maximum operating speeds, and its operating structural strength. Flight envelope protection calculates that flight envelope (and adds a margin of safety) and uses this information to stop pilots from making control inputs that would put the aircraft outside that flight envelope. The interference of the flight envelope protection system with the pilot's commands can happen in two different ways (which can also be combined):
 Ignoring part or all of an control input that would bring an aircraft's state of flight closer to or even outside of its operational borders. This method is applied in most sidestick-controlled fly-by-wire aircraft with rate command.
 Inform the pilot that the respective command is bringing the aircraft closer to the calculated operational borders; this communication can happen by simple alarms or tactile feedback. This method is often applied in aircraft with conventional controls.
For example, if the pilot uses the rearward side-stick to pitch the aircraft nose up, the control computers creating the flight envelope protection can prevent the pilot pitching the aircraft beyond the stalling angle of attack:
In the first case, if the pilot tries to apply even more rearward control, the flight envelope protection would cause the aircraft to ignore this command. Flight envelope protection can in this way increase aircraft safety by allowing the pilot to apply maximum control forces in an emergency while not at the same time inadvertently putting the aircraft outside the margins of its operational safety. Examples of where this might stop air accidents are when it allows a pilot to make a quick evasive maneuver in response to a ground proximity warning system warning, or in quick response to an approaching aircraft and a potential mid air collision. In this case without a flight envelope protection system, "you would probably hold back from maneuvering as hard as you could for fear of tumbling out of control, or worse. You would have to sneak up on it [2.5 G, the design limit], and when you got there you wouldn't be able to tell, because very few commercial pilots have ever flown 2.5 G. But in the A320, you wouldn't have to hesitate: you could just slam the controller all the way to the side and instantly get out of there as fast as the plane will take you." Thus the makers of the Airbus argue: "envelope protection doesn't constrain the pilot. It liberates the pilot from uncertainty – and thus enhances safety."
In the second case, e.g. when using a force-feedback-system to communicate with the pilot, if the pilot tries to apply even more rearward control, the flight envelope protection would present increasing counterforces on the controls so that the pilot has to apply increasing force in order to continue the control input that is perceived as dangerous by the flight envelope protection.

While most designers of modern fly-by-wire aircraft stick to either one of these two solutions ('sidestick-control & no feedback' or 'conventional control & feedback', see also below), there are also approaches in science to combine both of them: As a study demonstrated, force-feedback applied to the side-stick of an aircraft controlled via roll rate and g-load (as e.g. a modern Airbus aircraft) can be used to increase adherence to a safe flight envelope and thus reduce the risk of pilots entering dangerous states of flights outside the operational borders while maintaining the pilots' final authority and increasing their situation awareness.

Airbus and Boeing
The Airbus A320 was the first commercial aircraft to incorporate full flight-envelope protection into its flight-control software. This was instigated by former Airbus senior vice president for engineering Bernard Ziegler.  In the Airbus, the flight envelope protection cannot be overridden completely, although the crew can fly beyond flight envelope limits by selecting an alternate "control law".  Boeing took a different approach with the 777 by allowing the crew to override flight envelope limits by using excessive force on the flight controls.

Incidents

China Airlines Flight 006

One objection raised against flight envelope protection is the incident that happened to China Airlines Flight 006, a Boeing 747SP-09, northwest of San Francisco in 1985. In this flight incident, the crew was forced to overstress (and structurally damage) the horizontal tail surfaces in order to recover from a roll and near-vertical dive. (This had been caused by an automatic disconnect of the autopilot and incorrect handling of a yaw brought about by an engine flame-out).  The pilot recovered control with about 10,000 ft of altitude remaining (from its original high-altitude cruise). To do this, the pilot had to pull the aircraft with an estimated 5.5 G, or more than twice its design limits. Had the aircraft
incorporated a flight envelope protection system, this excessive manoeuvre could not have been performed, greatly reducing chances of recovery.

Against this objection, Airbus has responded that an A320 in the situation of Flight 006 "never would have fallen out of the air
in the first place: the envelope protection would have automatically kept it in level flight in spite of the drag of a stalled engine".

FedEx Flight 705

In April 1995, FedEx Flight 705, a McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30, was hijacked by a FedEx Flight Engineer who, facing a dismissal, attempted to hijack the plane and crash it into FedEx Headquarters so that his family could collect his life insurance policy. After being attacked and severely injured, the flight crew was able to fight back and land the plane safely. In order to keep the attacker off balance and out of the cockpit the crew had to perform extreme maneuvers, including a barrel roll and a dive so fast the airplane couldn't measure its airspeed.

Had the crew not been able to exceed the plane's flight envelope, the crew might not have been successful .

American Airlines Flight 587

American Airlines Flight 587, an Airbus A300, crashed in November 2001, when the vertical stabilizer broke off due to excessive rudder inputs made by the pilot.

A flight-envelope protection system could have prevented this crash, though it can still be argued that an override button should be provided for contingencies when the pilots are aware of the need to exceed normal limits.

US Airways Flight 1549

US Airways Flight 1549, an Airbus A320, experienced a dual engine failure after a bird strike and subsequently landed safely in the Hudson River in January 2009. The NTSB accident report mentions the effect of flight envelope protection: "The airplane's airspeed in the last 150 feet of the descent was low enough to activate the alpha-protection mode of the airplane's fly-by-wire envelope protection features... Because of these features, the airplane could not reach the maximum angle of attack (AoA) attainable in pitch normal law for the airplane weight and configuration; however, the airplane did provide maximum performance for the weight and configuration at that time...

The flight envelope protections allowed the captain to pull full aft on the sidestick without the risk of stalling the airplane."

Qantas Flight 72

Qantas 72 suffered an uncommanded pitch-down due to erroneous data from one of its ADIRU computers.

Air France Flight 447

Air France Flight 447, an Airbus A330, entered an aerodynamic stall from which it did not recover and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean in June 2009 killing all aboard.
Temporary inconsistency between measured speeds, likely a result of the obstruction of the pitot tubes by ice crystals, caused autopilot disconnection and reconfiguration to alternate law;
a second consequence of the reconfiguration into alternate law was that stall protection no longer operated.

The crew made inappropriate control inputs that caused the aircraft to stall and did not recognize that the aircraft had stalled.

MCAS on the Boeing 737 MAX

In October 2018 and again in March 2019, the MCAS flight protection system's erroneous activation pushed two Boeing 737 MAX airliners into unrecoverable dives, killing 346 people and resulting in the worldwide grounding of the airliner.

See also
 Aircraft flight control system
 Flight envelope

Notes

Aerospace engineering
Aircraft controls
Aviation risks
Aviation safety
Avionics
Control engineering
Technology systems
User interfaces

Flight envelope protection


Alexei Soutchkov, in Russian Алексе́й Никола́евич Сучко́в, often transliterated in English Alexey Suchkov (Moscow, April 3, 1966), is a Russian pianist, prize winner of seventy national and international piano competitions in the Soviet Union, Germany, France, Italy and in the United States of America.

Biography
Born in a family of piano teachers, Soutchkov began his studies in the Central Music School of Moscow, after he has continued to study in the Moscow Conservatory "Tchaikovsky" with Professor Yevgeny Malinin (assistant to Maestro Heinrich Neuhaus), obtaining his Diploma and specialization in piano in 1991 and completing the doctorate of study in 1993.

He is the winner of First Prizes in national and international piano competitions: Cup Pianists of Italy in Osimo, Palma d'Oro in Finale Ligure, Seiler Prize in Palermo, Carlo Mosso Prize in Alessandria, International Piano Competition in Rome, Riviera Etrusca prize in Piombino, Onde Musicali prize in Taranto, Mario Polovineo Tribute in Teramo, Prize Citta di Brindisi, Prize Citta di Cesenatico, Pietro Argento Prize in Gioia del Colle.

He has given concerts as a soloist in the Soviet Union, Italy, Germany, France, Poland and in the United States of America. He is currently President of the Italian Artistic Association "Suchkov & Suchkov", founded in Sassuolo in 2011 together with his son Ivan, who is also a pianist and artistic director of the association.

References

External links
 Official website
 Interview with Alexei Soutchkov
 (RU) Alexey Suchkov in the site of the Central Music School of Moscow
 (RU, EN) Alexey Suchkov in the site of the Moscow Conservatory

Russian classical pianists
Male classical pianists
1966 births
Moscow Conservatory alumni
Living people
21st-century classical pianists
21st-century Russian male musicians

Alexei Soutchkov


"G.G." is the thirteenth episode of the fifth season of the American television teen drama, Gossip Girl and the show's 100th episode overall. The episode was written by executive producer Joshua Safran and directed by Mark Piznarski. It premiered on The CW Television Network (The CW) in the United States on January 30, 2012. In the episode, the wedding of Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester) to Prince Louis Grimaldi (Hugo Becker) takes place.

The episode opened to favorable reviews, with television critics praising the fact it honored the series' successful days. Michelle Trachtenberg's performance as Georgina Sparks was also well received. Upon its initial airing, the episode was viewed by 1.39 million Americans and garnered a 0.7/2 Nielsen rating/share in the 18–49 demographic. The total viewership and ratings for this episode were slightly up in comparison to the previous episode "Father and the Bride".

Plot
The episode begins with a musical dream sequence of Serena (Blake Lively), featuring herself as Marilyn Monroe singing "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" and Blair (Leighton Meester) as Audrey Hepburn. Everyone prepares for the wedding of Blair to Prince Louis Grimaldi of Monaco (Hugo Becker). Father Cavilla (Marc Menard) visits Chuck (Ed Westwick) to tell him the plan to ruin the wedding – Father Cavilla will replace Father Smythe who will mistakenly have taken sleeping pills, and when he asks during the ceremony if anyone has any objection to the marriage, Chuck will tell that Blair is still in love with him. Though he first agreed on helping him, Chuck changes his mind because he doesn't want to destroy Blair's dream and only wants her happiness.

Georgina Sparks (Michelle Trachtenberg), who has just come back in New York, then teams up with the priest in an act of revenge for everything Blair has done to her in the past. In the meantime, Serena continues to show an interest in Dan (Penn Badgley), even though he is still unaware of her love. Nate (Chace Crawford) reflects on his past failed relationships, while also taking an interest in Lola, who happens to be the real Charlie Rhodes. Blair 's mother tries to dissuade her from marrying Louis but she doesn't want to listen to her so she finds help in Chuck, who agrees to try to convince Blair to stop the wedding. Meanwhile, Georgina tries to seduce Louis and have her husband film it. Unfortunately, it doesn't work as Rufus and Lily stop her.

Before the ceremony, Chuck talks to Blair who professes her undying love for him -which has been filmed by Georgina- but still refuses to call off the wedding. During the ceremony, someone sends the video of the discussion between Blair and Chuck to everyone's cell phones. The ceremony is temporarily suspended until Blair comes back to the aisle determined to marry Louis. As a result, she becomes Her Serene Highness, Princess Blair of Monaco. At the reception, Serena tells Dan how she feels about him but quickly leaves before he can answer. During their last dance, Louis reveals to Blair that it will be a loveless, contracted marriage. After hearing that, Blair runs away in a limousine with Dan at the wheel. At the end of the episode, the identity of Gossip Girl is seemingly revealed to be Georgina Sparks.

Production

"G.G." was written by Joshua Safran and directed by Mark Piznarski. The wedding scene was filmed at the St. James' Episcopal Church in New York on November 9, 2011. The reception that followed it was shot at The St. Regis Hotel. On November 19, 2011, news from the episode, including the title, were reported. Later on, the episode was also reported to feature a dream musical number with Serena as Marilyn Monroe, Blair as Audrey Hepburn, and the men in both their lives. Blair's wedding dress as well as Serena's maid of honor dress were designed by Vera Wang. Blair's dress appeared in InStyle top 20 TV fashion moments of the season.

On November 1, 2011, it was announced that Michelle Trachtenberg would reprise her role as troublemaker Georgina Sparks. Other cast members included Sparks' husband Philip (Nick Cornish), Blair's father Harold (John Shea), Blair's mother (Margaret Colin), Cyrus Rose (Wallace Shawn), Princess Sophie (Joanne Whalley), and Father Cavalia (Marc Menard). Blair's minions, Penelope Shafai (Amanda Setton), Kati Farkas (Nan Zhang) and Jessica (Alice Callahan) were also present as bridesmaids.

Featured music included Peter Bjorn and John's "Young Folks" performed by The Kooks, Marilyn Monroe's "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" performed by Serena, Jon Hastings' "Endless Summer", Grouplove's "Slow", Ludwig van Beethoven's "Rondo in C Major, Op 51", INXS' "Never Tear Us Apart" performed by the Vitamin String Quartet, Pat Benatar's "We Belong" also performed by the Vitamin String Quartet and Wolf Gang's "Suego Faults".

Reception

Ratings
"G.G." was first broadcast on January 30, 2012 in the United States on The CW. The episode was watched by 1.39 million Americans and scored a 0.7/2 Nielsen rating/share in the adults among the 18–49 demographic, a season high in viewership. It was also up 25% and 17% in viewers and adults 18–49, respectively, from the previous episode "Father and the Bride", which netted 1.11 million American viewers and a 0.6/2 Nielsen rating/share during its initial airing.

Critical reception

The episode received generally favorable reviews. Zap2it wrote, "Sure, Blair's (Leighton Meester) been dreaming of her fairytale wedding since she was just a little girl. But it's also true that producers of Gossip Girl have been dreaming of this moment for a long time as well. And the Upper East Side drama didn't disappoint. In fact, it was easy the best episode this season." Steve Marsi from TV Fanatic gave the episode a four stars rating out of five writing, "In what has come to be sort of a make-or-break episode, Gossip Girl had a golden opportunity to redeem its recent mediocrity and prove itself worthy of all the passion and loyalty we've invested over the years. While there were some gaping plot holes and disappointments tonight - especially depending on your couple of choice - you can't find fault with the pure number of twists, especially during the last five minutes." Marsi appreciated the references to Gossip Girls early days, "The promised homages to the old days were there in spades, and incorporated in ways that actually fit the present-day story. Case in point: A memorable Gossip Girl quote ("I love you, always have, always will") which was spoken to a very different character long ago. Also, the cover of "Young Folks" at the onset was fun." The Huffington Posts Laura Prudom also found the episode had honored Gossip Girls past, "For the first time in recent memory, this week's milestone episode of Gossip Girl finally recaptured the confident plotting and razor sharp shocks of its first two seasons." She also praised the fact Georgina is Gossip Girl which was totally unexpected. The Hollywood Reporter wrote, "In classic Gossip Girl fashion, the 100th episode was full of witty one-liners, many of them from the mouth of Georgina Sparks and one in honor of The Princess Bride; paid homage to the pilot; and featured several head-turning moments." Ology gave the episode a 9/10 grade.

Digital Spy writer Catriona Wightman found the episode "completely absurd" but "brillantly entertaining." Morgan Glennon of BuddyTV wrote, "Despite how ridiculous it was seeing character after character after character try to save Blair from her own stupid decisions, Gossip Girl really knows how to do big events. After 100 episodes, the show understood that it needed to go big to top off the royal wedding storyline. So the wedding, and attendant quest to stop it, was as big, dramatic and heartfelt as Gossip Girl at its best." Glennon also conceded about the Gossip Girl reveal, the show can still pull out those OMG moments. Glennon found Georgina "amazing" in the episode, "you can't even take your eyes off her because she's so great in every scene." However, The Atlantic Wire thought the writers "should have waited until the last-ever episode to do the unveiling" of Gossip Girl and questioned, "isn't that indicative of the show's greater failings over these past four and a half years? That constant need of this once-promising show to tip its hand too soon?" and concluded "we think the time has finally come to remove Gossip Girl from our bookmarks."

References

External links

 "G.G." at The CW.com

Gossip Girl (season 5) episodes
2012 American television episodes
Television episodes about weddings

G.G. (Gossip Girl)


Troodon (or Troödon) is a genus of relatively small, bird-like dinosaurs, from the later part of the Cretaceous period, 75 - 65 million years ago. The alternate spelling Troödon shows that the 'o's are pronounced separately, as in 'zoology'.

They were probably carnivorous, but details of their teeth are a bit unusual. Some experts suggest they may have included plant material in their diet, but this is not a majority view.

Discovered in central Montana in 1855, it was among the first dinosaurs found in North America. Its species ranged widely, with fossil remains recovered from as far north as Alaska, and the Judith River formation of Alberta, and as far south as Wyoming and even possibly Texas and New Mexico.

Troodon had a large brain in proportion to its body weight. It had a sickle claw, an enlarged and retractable second toe claw bone. Troodon had 122 teeth. The size and shape of the leg bones show that the Troodon would have been a fast runner.
The view that Troodon was a predator is supported by its sickle claw on the foot and apparently good binocular vision.

Troodons size ranged widely. In general, individuals that lived further north were larger than those that lived in more southern areas. Troodons in Alaska were especially large, up to 12 feet long, 5 feet tall, and weighing up to 175 pounds. Meanwhile, Troodons that lived in more southern locations were only around 7 feet long, 3 feet tall, and weighed up to 50 pounds, about the size of a Velociraptor. Very likely Troodon had feathers, but no fossil evidence for feathers has yet been found.

There has been a lot of debate about which specimens, all very incomplete, should be called Troodon. The genus now includes specimens previously classified as Stenonychosaurus.

Troodon nests full of eggs have been found in Montana. When scientists CAT-scanned them, they found baby Troodon skeleton embryos inside of them. They found skeletons of a small plant-eating dinosaur named Orodromeus with the eggs, as well as a skeleton of an adult Troodon. At first, it was believed that the eggs had belonged to the Orodromeus, and that the Troodon was there intending to rob the nest.

However, it was later discovered that the eggs belonged to the Troodon when baby Troodon embryos were found inside the eggs. It is now believed that the adults had killed the Orodromeus and brought them back to feed their babies. Troodons laid up to 24 eggs in their nests which were earth mounds. They were able to lay two eggs at a time, so large clutches would take two weeks to lay.

A 2017 description had redeemed the validity of Stenonychosaurus and had created a new genus from separate bones naming them Lateniventrix, limiting Troodon to a few teeth.

References

Theropods
Cretaceous dinosaurs

Troodon


Solomon Frank (January 5, 1900October 21, 1982) was an American–Canadian Orthodox rabbi, speaker, and civic and community leader. He served as rabbinic leader of Shaarey Zedek Synagogue of Winnipeg, Canada, from 1926 to 1947, and spiritual leader of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue of Montreal from 1947 until his death. Active in interfaith affairs, he was also a chaplain for Jewish and Christian organizations and hospitals. In Montreal, he broadcast a weekly radio message on Jewish thought and practice for more than 25 years.

Early life and education
Solomon Frank was born on January 5, 1900, in New York City, the only child of Abraham and Gerta Frank. At age 4, he moved with his parents to Buffalo, New York, where he attended public schools. He obtained a Bachelor of Science degree from the University at Buffalo in 1922 and a Bachelor of Laws from the same institution in 1923. He received his rabbinic ordination at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, Ohio. He later earned a master's degree and PhD at the University of Manitoba.

Career

New York
From 1922 to 1924, Frank served as associate rabbi of Temple Beth Zion in Buffalo. Originally his duties involved teaching high school classes in the temple's religious education division and giving adult lectures. However, due to the illness of the main rabbi, he was called upon to lead the synagogue services. He discussed some of the ideas he lectured about—Zionism, the situation in Mandatory Palestine, the success of the League of Women Voters, and evolution—in a local newspaper interview in 1924. He delivered a eulogy for President Woodrow Wilson in the synagogue in February 1924. From 1925 to 1926, Frank served as rabbi of Temple Beth David in the same city.

Winnipeg
In 1926, Frank was appointed rabbinical leader of Shaarey Zedek Synagogue in Winnipeg, Canada. According to the Manitoba Historical Society, Frank applied his training from his Reform rabbinical seminary to oversee "the gradual liberalization of synagogue practice at Shaarey Zedek without initiating any radical breaks with tradition". Frank was the first rabbi of an Orthodox synagogue in Western Canada to deliver his sermons in English rather than Yiddish. In 1929, Shaarey Zedek changed its ideology from Orthodox to Conservative, and introduced more English to the services a number of years after that.

In addition to his rabbinical duties, Frank was very active in community affairs. He served as president of the Winnipeg lodge of B'nai Brith, president of the League of Nations Society, vice-president of the United Nations Society, and executive director of the Winnipeg Joint Public Relations Committee. He assisted in the founding of the first Winnipeg chapter of the Canadian Legion. During World War II, he was a part-time chaplain with the Canadian army and visited a Canadian field hospital in Europe. He was also a chaplain of the Canadian Club of Winnipeg, the Jewish Scouts and Guides, and Mount Sinai Lodge, president of the 9th Manitoba Provincial Command, Boy Scouts Association, and Grand Chancellor of the Knights of Pythias.

In 1939, Frank and his wife were among the 105 prominent Canadian personages invited to a royal luncheon at Government House to welcome the King and Queen.

Frank was a popular speaker for both community and civic groups. He was also active in interfaith affairs. In 1935, he delivered a sermon at a "joint service of worship and thanksgiving" at the city's Knox Church upon the silver jubilee of King George V. In 1940, he joined a symposium with Catholic and Protestant clerics to discuss "Common Ground". He shared the podium with Dr. E. Crossley Hunter, pastor at Knox Church and chairman of the Canadian Conference of Christians and Jews, at Fellowship Day of the Young Men's Hebrew Association in March 1942.

Montreal
In 1947, Frank moved to Montreal to become spiritual leader of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue of Montreal. Under his leadership, daily morning and evening services were reinstated in 1949 along with the Shabbat morning Kiddush. From 1949 onwards, membership increased and overflow services were required on the High Holy Days in two additional locations. Frank was one of the officiators at a synagogue memorial service for King George VI on the day of his funeral, February 15, 1952.

In Montreal, too, Frank involved himself in civic and community affairs. He was a member of B'nai Brith and the Montreal Rotary Club, and served as a deputy chaplain at the Masonic Grand Lodge of Quebec. He performed chaplaincy services for the Jewish General Hospital, Verdun General Hospital, Queen Mary Veterans' Hospital, St. Anne's Veterans' Hospital, Montreal Children's Hospital, the Archambault penitentiary, and the Bordeaux jail. In 1948, he was one of the founders of the Cercle juif de lange française, a lecture and publishing society within the Canadian Jewish Congress.

In spring 1962, Frank visited Jerusalem and after his return spoke about the religious and historical implications of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls before a meeting of the St. James Literary Society.

Frank delivered a popular Sunday-morning radio message on CJAD radio in which he explained aspects of Jewish thought and practice. The program was followed by Jews and Christians alike for a quarter of a century.

Awards and honors
In 1936, Frank received the Tau Delta Phi medal from the Omega Chapter of the University of Manitoba for his intercultural and interfaith work. In 1962, he was presented with the B'nai Brith Community Service Award for "outstanding contribution to life in Montreal". In 1968, he was awarded the Canada Centennial Medal.

Personal life
Frank and his wife, Elsie, had one daughter.

Frank died of a brain tumor on October 21, 1982, aged 82. He was buried in the Spanish and Portuguese Section of the Mount Royal Cemetery in Outremont, Quebec.

Legacy
Upon Frank's death, the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue of Montreal established a memorial fund in his memory. A book of essays, which the editors intended to present to Frank on the occasion of his eightieth birthday, was instead published as a memorial volume for the occasion of the unveiling of his gravestone on October 2, 1983.

Bibliography
Frank, Solomon (1968). Two Centuries in the Life of a Synagogue. Montreal: Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue.

References

Sources

1900 births
1982 deaths
Canadian Orthodox rabbis
Canadian Conservative rabbis
University at Buffalo alumni
University of Manitoba alumni
Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion alumni
Orthodox rabbis from New York City
People from Buffalo, New York
People from Winnipeg
Clergy from Montreal
Burials at Mount Royal Cemetery
Canadian talk radio hosts
Canadian military chaplains
Deaths from cancer in Quebec
Neurological disease deaths in Quebec
Deaths from brain tumor
Canadian people of American-Jewish descent
20th-century American rabbis

Solomon Frank


Superflat is a postmodern art movement, founded by the artist Takashi Murakami, which is influenced by manga and anime. However, superflat does not have an explicit definition because Takashi Murakami does not want to limit the movement, but rather leave room for it to grow and evolve over time.

Superflat is also the name of a 2000 art exhibition, curated by Murakami, that toured West Hollywood, Minneapolis and Seattle.

Description
"Superflat" is used by Murakami to refer to various flattened forms in Japanese graphic art, animation, pop culture and fine arts, as well as the "shallow emptiness of Japanese consumer culture." Superflat has been embraced by American artists, who have created a hybrid called "SoFlo Superflat".

Murakami defines Superflat in broad terms, so the subject matter is very diverse. Some works explore the consumerism and sexual fetishism that is prevalent in post-war Japanese culture. This often includes lolicon art, which is parodied by works such as those by Henmaru Machino. These works are an exploration of otaku sexuality through grotesque and/or distorted images. Other works are more concerned with a fear of growing up. For example, Yoshitomo Nara's work often features playful graffiti on old Japanese ukiyo-e executed in a childish manner. And some works focus on the structure and underlying desires that comprise otaku and overall post-war Japanese culture. Murakami is influenced by directors such as Hideaki Anno.

Superflat is not limited to contemporary art alone. Murakami cites older Japanese pieces as superflat as well, including Katsushika Hokusai's "Thunderstorm Beneath the Summit" (1830–32) as an example of superflat.

A subversive look at otakuism is not a defining factor of Kaikai Kiki's galleries; Bome, one of the most important artists involved with the first Superflat exhibition, is a famous otaku figure sculptor and his work based on existing bishōjo anime characters has been showcased in multiple galleries including a solo exhibition in the Kaikai Kiki Gallery. The artist Mr. is a self-described lolicon and views his artwork to be not a cultural commentary but a portrayal of his own personal fantasies.

Artists
Superflat artists include Chiho Aoshima, Ayako Rokkaku, Mahomi Kunikata, Sayuri Michima, Yoshitomo Nara, Yuko Yamaguchi, Aya Takano, Yusuke Nakamura, Sebastian Masuda, Fantasista Utamaro and Takashi Murakami. In addition, some animators within anime and some manga artists have had their past and present work exhibited in Superflat exhibitions, especially Kōji Morimoto, Keita Takahashi, Seizō Watase, Seiichi Hayashi, Hibiki Yoshizaki, and the work of Hitoshi Tomizawa, author of Alien 9 and Milk Closet.

Origins
There are multiple factors that played a role for Murakami to come up with his Superflat claim. In his Manifesto, he describes "Super flatness" as an original concept of Japanese who have been completely Westernized, that simultaneously links the past with the present and the future.

The past, in this case, refers to art made during the Edo period in Japan, where Murakami finds his foremost inspiration in the works of Fine Art painters such as Kano Sansetsu, Ito Jakuchu, Soga Shohaku and Katsushika Hokusai. Murakami explains that his theory was born from a hypothesis created by art historian Nobuo Tsuji in his book The Lineage of Eccentricity.

In his book, Tsuji critically analyses works from Edo period painters and explains how the picture controls the speed and course of its observer's gaze, creating an interaction between the surface and the viewer with a zigzag motion. This is further elaborated in Takashi Murakami: Lineage of Eccentrics, a book that presents key examples of Murakami's work alongside a selection of Japanese masterpieces arranged according to the concepts laid out by Tsuji himself. It is mentioned that the juxtaposition of foreground forms extending horizontally across broad compositions and two-dimensional surfaces is another feature that Murakami has adapted for his own theory and contemporary subject matter.

The particular sensibility of the gaze and inspiration from old masters is what Murakami continues to incorporate in his own works. An example of this is his painting called 727, a work made with acrylics on three panels. In the middle is his alter ego depicted, also known as 'Mr. DOB', riding a stylized wave that is a direct reference to Hokusai his famous Great Wave off Kanagawa. The panels on which it was painted show a resemblance to the flat and often 'blank' backgrounds characterizing in Nihonga paintings and folding screens, illustrating features of Superflatness.

Another field within the arts that, according to both Murakami and Tsuji, is closely related to eccentricity of traditional Japanese art and also carries Superflat features, is animation. In his manifesto, Murakami takes Yoshinori Kanada as a prime example of an animator whose work contains a compositional dynamic that resembles that of the "eccentric" artists to a startling degree.

A connection can be made of modern-day animation back to twelfth- and thirteenth-century Japanese handscrolls, where the narrative is composed across multiple sheets of joined paper, read from right to left, providing the observer once again a two-dimensional 'flat' space and composition where the gaze leads the viewer through the story.

A different factor that played a role for the emergence of Superflatness was the bursting bubble of the Japanese economy in the 1990s, where Japan was led into uncertain territory and a loss of its sense of security. Michael Darling explains that "rabid consumerism and the slavish following of fads, especially in fashion, have further contributed to a culture of surfaces and superficiality, representing still another facet of the Superflat concept". Darling, 2001). He uses photography and fashion as further examples to illustrate Superflatness and the hype and high consumer demand of Japan.

See also
 Hiropon (sculpture)
 My Lonesome Cowboy
 Nijikon

References

Bibliography

 Murakami, Takashi, ed. (2018). Lineage of Eccentrics; A Collaboration with Nobuo Tsuji and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Boston; MFA Publications. .

External links
 Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd.—Takashi Murakami's official site featuring Superflat artists
 Superflat Japanese postmodernity by Hiroki Azuma—on blog.emilkerie.com
 "Superflat Japanese Postmodernity" (Archived)—essay by Hiroki Azuma.
 Plumbing the Depths of Superflatness
 Inspired works from Superflat
 Overthinking Superflat

Contemporary art movements
Anime and manga terminology
Japanese aesthetics
Pop art
Postmodern art

Superflat


The Belenski most (Беленски мост) or Byala Bridge is an arch bridge over the Yantra River in northern Bulgaria, 1 km from the town of Byala in Ruse Province, whose name it carries. It is regarded as one of the prominent achievements of Bulgarian National Revival engineering and architecture.

The bridge was constructed between 1865 and 1867 by Bulgarian architect and master builder Kolyu Ficheto on the order of Turkish statesman Midhat Pasha, when Bulgaria was part of the Ottoman Empire. While other architects were willing to build it for 2 to 3 million groschen, Kolyu Ficheto was willing to build it for 700 thousand. When asked to confirm this sum, he replied that Midhat Pasha could take his head if he didn't succeed doing it for this sum. It is 276 m long and 6 m wide, has 14 arches each with a clearance of 12 m and decorated with relief images of animals. Constructed from local limestone and limestone plaster, it is supported by 13 props with cutwaters.

The Belenski most suffered from a flood in 1897, as 8 vaults of the central part (about 130 m) were destroyed. It was reconstructed between 1922 and 1923 with reinforced concrete props and arches, but its initial appearance was not altered.

The bridge is not suitable for modern automobiles, and a new one is built next to the old (approx. 40 m away) to handle the traffic.

References

Ottoman bridges in Bulgaria
Bridges completed in 1867
Buildings and structures in Ruse Province
Concrete bridges
1867 establishments in the Ottoman Empire
Stone arch bridges

Belenski most


Oceanside is a name adopted for a group of communities on the eastern coast of Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. It is part of the Regional District of Nanaimo and includes the City of Parksville and the Town of Qualicum Beach as well as the unincorporated communities of Nanoose Bay, Coombs, Errington, French Creek, Bowser, Deep Bay, Qualicum Bay and a few other smaller centres.  The area is promoted by Parksville Qualicum Beach Tourism Association.

Populated places in the Regional District of Nanaimo

Oceanside, British Columbia


Discovery Bay (DB) is a resort town on Lantau Island, Hong Kong. It consists of mixed, primarily residential, development, in particular upmarket residential development and private and public recreational facilities, including garden houses, low-, mid- and high-rise residential developments, a 27-hole golf course, an ice rink, a 262-berth marina, two clubhouses, the first private manmade beach in Hong Kong, international schools, two shopping malls and the largest oceanfront alfresco dining area in Hong Kong.

The 2021 census record 19,336 people living at DB; 55% of them are non-Chinese and DB is a sizeable community of expatriates from over fifty countries. It's is one of the most ethnically diverse places in Hong Kong . With only 45% of the population being Chinese , the largest ethnic minority groups in the community is white (25%) and flipino (11.2%). DB is located 2 km west of Hong Kong Disneyland Resort and approximately 12 km west from the nearest point on Hong Kong Island.

As of April 2018, Discovery Bay consists of 15 residential development phases with properties ranging from garden houses to low-, mid- and high-rise. The development also features a 400-metre-long privately owned beach (accessible to the public), four private membership clubs including a golf club and a marina club, and a public park (Siena Central Park).

Discovery Bay is a key community in Lantau Island (after Tung Chung) and enjoys a very low plot ratio of 0.15. Pets are allowed in Discovery Bay.

History

In May 1973, the Hong Kong Resort Company (HKR) was established by Edward Wong Wing-cheung, a Hong Kong merchant. Following two years of planning and negotiation, a 'Master Plan' was agreed in December 1975 between HKR and the Hong Kong government. By New Grant No. 6122 of 10 September 1976, HKR agreed  The plan called for development, on Lot 385 at Tai Pak Wan, of "membership club houses and a leisure resort and associated facilities which shall include an hotel or hotels ... a cable-car system ... and a non-membership golf course ..." In addition, HKR handed over HK$61.5 million in exchange for the grant and undertook to spend no less than another HK$600 million on development (excluding site formation costs) within 10 years of the grant.

Within months, however, Wong faced financial difficulty. The Soviet-government controlled Moscow Narodny Bank Limited filed a writ in Hong Kong on 1 April 1977 against Wong himself for return of US$7 million advanced in 1973, as well as against Wong's Panamanian bank holding company, Paclantic Financing Co., Inc. (which was HKR's majority shareholder), for US$22.12 million in proceedings in Panama. Both the Chinese and British governments were concerned to prevent the property rights to the single largest piece of privately controlled land in Hong Kong falling into the hands of the Russian bank during times of deepening political uncertainty for Hong Kong. Sir David Akers-Jones, then-Secretary for the New Territories, led the government's efforts to avert that prospect, steering HKR into the hands of Hong Kong-based Chinese industrialist Cha Chi-ming. It is suspected that Cha decided to bid for the project under the instruction of Liao Chengzhi, then director of China's Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office to avoid Soviet acquisition of Hong Kong land.

Having lost control of HKR and facing bankruptcy proceedings, Wong left Hong Kong in January 1977 while mooting the establishment of a Pacific Atlantic Bank of Miami and going into the casino business with the Anderson group of whom one Robert B. Anderson, of One Rockefeller Plaza, had been a fellow director on the HKR board.

Cha Chi-ming, better known for running China Dyeing Works Ltd during the 1970s, an international textile group, acquired equity interest in HKR in 1977. By 1979 all debts were paid off and work started on the reservoir and the core infrastructure but for a very different sort of project – essentially a residential community offering a relaxed lifestyle. This decision was revisited in 2004 when it was discovered that Akers-Jones did not seek approval from the Executive Council (ExCo) for the deviation from the terms of the Land Grant. In a 2004 report by the government's Audit Commission, the Lands Department was severely criticized for allowing this to happen, particularly since Akers-Jones did not call on HKR under Cha to pay any additional land premium. After retiring from government, in 2000 Akers-Jones joined the board of Mingly Corporation, also controlled by Cha.

Unlike other large Hong Kong developments, everything in DB was built with private money, including roads, electricity and the water supply. The government-operated fire and police station, community hall and the government-aided primary school were also built by the developer. These developments have to be approved and checked by the government with the official Master Plan version 6.0a in 2003, including the major extension in 2003 in Yi Pak Wan.

Geography

As with most of the terrain in Hong Kong, Lantau Island seems to be a set of hills that rise out of the water. DB is wedged between the hills and the sea and both environments are accessible from the edges of the developed areas. The hills directly behind DB reach up to , and the hiking trails that traverse all the peaks on Lantau Island are accessible from those hills. The hills of Lantau tend to fall dramatically into jungle-covered valleys that spread up into verdant, grass-covered hills. DB has a series of rock pools which lead to one such valley and into a man-made addition to the water-drainage system. (Note: DB has switched to Government potable water supply since 2000)

Environment
DB is home to animals of many kinds, most of which are domestic pets. There are, however, a number of wild species that lived or are living on Lantau Island that can be found in and around DB. Most of these creatures are birds such as finches, tits, gulls and kites. Until the construction of the new Hong Kong International Airport in Chek Lap Kok, wild cattle and water buffalo thrived in the pasture-like hills. Increasingly vigorous development all over Hong Kong has reduced the habitat of the local dolphin and whale populations. The most famous of these is the Chinese white dolphin, often called the pink dolphin due to a slight pinkish cast to their skin. (See Environment of Hong Kong)

Climate
Discovery Bay has a sub-tropical climate characterised by distinct seasons. Summers are usually from June to August, with temperatures often within the mid 20s to low 30s Celsius (80s to 90s Fahrenheit) range. Winters start in December and run till February, with temperatures ranging from teens to low 20s Celsius (high 50s to low 70s Fahrenheit).

As DB is a coastal region, typhoon season(May-Nov) provides a more intense weather experience for residents. Severe tropical storms tend to only occur later in the season, typically August and September. These storms bring torrential rain and strong winds to the region, sometimes leading to a temporary suspension of ferry services to the resort town.

Environmental awareness
DB was awarded the Green Property Management Award (Private Housing) in 2002. To make DB a greener town, DBSML, the management company of DB, has replaced conventional ballasts with energy-saving tubes. The number of lights in common corridors and main entrances of buildings were re-assessed and unnecessary lights were removed. It was thought that a 30% reduction in electricity charges was achieved in La Vista, one of the villages. Apart from energy reduction, flea market, old books collection, old clothes collection and used household items collection have been held on a regular basis to promote recycling.

Current development

DB was developed in phases and the developer, HKR, envisages that DB will eventually be home to 25,000 residents. The following data applies as of April 2008:

Community and Culture

Community life centres on two commercial hubs: DB Plaza and DB North Plaza. DB Plaza features a bus terminus, ferry pier, an open piazza, and a range of shops, medical and dental clinics, and a veterinary surgery. The DB plaza mall was opened in 2021 bringing in lots of external businesses. The two plazas each have a supermarket and a range of international themed restaurants, bars and food outlets.

Amenities include: two schools, a beach at Tai Pak Bay; four private membership recreational clubs including a 27-hole golf course and a marina (previously a residential area for houseboats, but now a premium yacht club); natural streams and rock pools: a bicycle track alongside Discovery Bay Road; an astro-turf football pitch; basketball courts; children's playgrounds scattered around the developments and hiking paths leading to other parts of Lantau Island – including the Trappist Haven Monastery and Mui Wo. A Community Centre / Indoor Recreation Centre was finally completed in 2007, seven years after the extended development in Yi Pak was approved. It was handed over to government-appointed operators in April 2009.
Clubs in DB
(All are private clubs with separate membership fees)
Discovery Bay Recreation Club and Club Siena (DBRC)
Lantau Yacht Club (LYC)
Discovery Bay Golf Club (DBGC)

Housing units in DB used to be sold with a DBRC debenture (and later a right to join the club), although residents can choose whether to be active members and pay a monthly subscription. DBRC members are automatically members of Club Siena. Debentures of DBMC and DBGC are traded in the secondary market.

The Maria opens into Nim Shue Wan, a bay to the south of DB. There is also a public landing stage for cargo boats and privately operated kat-to ferries that link DB to nearby Peng Chau Island and the Trappist Haven Monastery pier about 2 km to the south. There are also Kai-to services connecting to Mui Wo (Silvermine Bay).

Residents also run activities and groups. These include the Lantau Boat Club (a catamaran sailing and outrigger canoe club), Discovery Bay Pirates Rugby Club, and numerous religious services.

Auberge Discovery Bay Hong Kong

The resort hotel on the waterfront of Yi Pak opened in March 2013 complements the resort lifestyle of Discovery Bay. The 325-room resort features an outdoor swimming pool, gym, all-day dining, Spa Botanica, and 1,300 square metres of function space comprising a 700 square metres ballroom and 11 function rooms; all available to suit every need and stay for leisure, meeting, incentive, event, wedding or a special celebration. Opening alongside the hotel is the first-ever seaside glass wedding chapel in Hong Kong. The glamorous white chapel is 16-metre tall, offering a capacity of 100 guests and a sea view as backdrop for weddings.

Transportation
DB is connected the rest of Hong Kong via a road tunnel to the North Lantau Expressway and by a ferry service.

All services accept Hong Kong's Octopus card.

Ferries

There are 3 different ferry routes operating in Discovery Bay:
 A day time ferry service plies between DB Pier on Tai Pak Bay and Pier 3 in Central District on Hong Kong Island (journey time of approximately thirty minutes; frequency of around 15–30 minutes. Current ticket price, paid by Octopus Card, is HKD$46 for adults and HKD$23 for children for a single journey; If using a DB Resident's Octopus Card, the prices for adults and children / students will be HKD$33.5 and HKD$16.8 (regular services). Seniors can enjoy the HKD$2 scheme subsidised by the government. Since 2005, ferries have been equipped with free on-board Wi-Fi wireless broadband Internet, which is unique not only in Hong Kong but across Asia.
Kai-to ferries operated by an independent operator link DB to nearby Peng Chau Island (via Trappist Haven Monastery) and Mui Wo, also on Lantau Island (journey time approximately 10 and 20 minutes respectively)

There are 2 discount package provided by DBTPL. For plan A, there are total 1,550 stored points in transport card for adult at a price of HK$1,310 and 775 for child at a price of HK$655. For plan B, there are 930 stored points in the card for adult and 465 points for child. The prices are HK$858 and HK$429 respectively.

Ferries were the only way to reach Discovery Bay until the opening of the DB Tunnel in 2000 and remain the main way to reach DB from Central, Hong Kong. The service is operated by Discovery Bay Transportation Services Ltd (DBTSL), a wholly owned subsidiary of HKR. The route between DB and Central is served by monohull and catamaran waterjets manufactured by Marinteknik in Singapore; seating 300 and 500 passengers respectively.

Buses
Commuting within DB is done via a 24-hour internal shuttle bus service operated by DBTSL, which runs between various parts of DB and the Bus Terminus by the DB Plaza/the ferry pier. Travelling between the various villages by bus requires a change at the DB Plaza Bus Terminus. The same applies for residents not living on a direct connection to the schools, churches and most of the clubs.

In 2000, a 2.4 km road tunnel linking DB to the North Lantau Expressway opened, enabling access to DB by road - and shortening the journey to other parts of Lantau, Kowloon and the New Territories. From the tunnel's inauguration, shuttle bus services ran to Tung Chung and the Hong Kong International Airport in Chek Lap Kok, and shortly after the opening of Hong Kong Disneyland and the Sunny Bay MTR station in June 2005, an additional route between Sunny Bay and DB was launched, further shortening the time to reach Kowloon and New Territories.

The five external bus are operated by Discovery Bay Transit Services Limited (DBTSL), another wholly owned subsidiary of HKRI:
 DB01R: From DB Plaza Bus Terminus to Tung Chung MTR station (journey time approximately 15–20 minutes; frequency of every 20 minutes during day time, every 10 minutes at peak hours).
 DB02R: From DB Plaza Bus Terminus to Hong Kong International Airport in Chek Lap Kok (via Cathay City; journey time approximately 20–30 minutes; frequency of every 30 minutes during day time, every 60 minutes at midnight hours, 24-hour service)
 DB03R: From DB Plaza Bus Terminus to Sunny Bay MTR station (journey time approximately 15–20 minutes; frequency of every 20 minutes during day time, every 5–8 minutes at peak hours).
 DB03P: From DB(N) Commercial Centre to Sunny Bay MTR station (journey time approximately 15–20 minutes; frequency of every 30 minutes during day time, every 20 minutes at peak hours).
 DB08R: From No 28, Coastline to Central Ferry Pier 3. an overnight ferry replacement service. 5 buses from 00:15 to 05:00 with the ferry restarting at 06:30. Journey time approximately 60 minutes.

Separate night buses
 N3/2 - DB Plaza Bus Terminus <> Midvale / Parkvale

 N3/2/7/8 - DB Plaza Bus Terminus <> Midvale / Parkvale / Caperidge / Capevale / Coastline / Capeland

 N5/1/6 - DB Plaza Bus Terminus <> La Serene / Parkland / Headland / Seabee

 N7/8 - DB Plaza Bus Terminus <> Capridge / Capevale / Coastline / Capeland

Private transport
Private cars not permitted to enter the area, with a few exceptions for certain agents of the developer, local businesses or for emergency needs and Taxis are only allowed in DB North.

Golf carts are a common mode of transportation for residents within Discovery Bay, however exiting the resort town in a golf cart is not allowed. The number of golf carts is restricted by Hong Kong Transport Department to 500. This has contributed to the exuberant prices of the vehicle, with some buggies selling for more than $2 million HKD.

The presence of golf carts (with a much slower maximum speed than normal private cars) creates a safer road environment than many other places in Hong Kong, especially compared with the road traffic density in other parts of the territory. As such, DB has gained a reputation for its child and pet-friendly environment. Most golf carts run on petrol, however electric models are being introduced.

Residents can also use the hire car service which is operates as a point-to-point minibus shuttle service (e.g. operating on a basis similar to SuperShuttle airport services in the States). This service only operates within Discovery Bay.

Motorised scooters have gained popularity in recent years, particularly amongst teenagers.

Education
A number of schools and colleges operate in Discovery Bay, ranging from kindergartens to secondary schools. This ranges from government-subsidised to private schools.

Discovery Bay is in Primary One Admission (POA) School Net 99, which contains two aided schools: SKH Wei Lun Primary School in Discovery Bay and Holy Family School in Peng Chau; no government primary schools are in this net.

Schools located within Discovery Bay include:
Discovery Bay International School (DBIS), was built by the developer in 1983. It is an English language private international kindergarten, primary and early secondary school providing education from nursery to Year 13.
Discovery College, a primary and secondary 'through-train' school set up under the government's Private Independent Schools scheme. The college opened for the 2008–2009 academic year, currently operating from Year 1 to Year 13.
SKH Wei Lun Primary School, a Chinese language government aided Anglican primary school providing education from Year 1 to Year 6.
Discovery Mind Primary School, opened in 2012, provided private primary education.
L'Ecole Pierre et Marie Curie Education Centre, a French school, offering programmes in French, English and Mandarin, for Year 1 to Year 6 students.

Nursery and kindergartens operating within Discovery Bay include:
Discovery Montessori school (DMS), located in the north plaza,
Discovery Bay International School (DBIS) Kindergarten, an English language private international kindergarten;
Discovery Mind Kindergarten (DMK), a private kindergarten operating Chinese and English sessions; and
Sunshine House, an English language private international kindergarten.
La Petite Enfance Kindergarten, a French language private international kindergarten.

There are a number of parents that send their children to the schools in Hong Kong Island, Tung Chung and the Kwai Tsing District.

A further site has been earmarked for the development of a Catholic 'through train' School. However, as of August 2009, this is still at the proposed stage.

Municipal services
DB is owned and developed by HKR International Limited (HKRI). Discovery Bay Services Management Limited (DBSML), a subsidiary of HKRI, manages the development. DB used to have its own private water supply from a reservoir and water treatment plant located near the golf course in the mountain valley above the estate. Since DB Tunnel opened in 2000, DB has been connected to the municipal supply from the Water Supplies Department which sources its water both from reservoirs throughout Hong Kong, Lantau Island and the New Territories and from the Pearl River Delta in the Mainland. Current municipal facilities inside DB include a fire station and ambulance depot, a post office and a police reporting post. These facilities were built by the developer and services rendered by various government bodies.

With the opening of the DB Tunnel in 2000, the Government deemed the police station and fire station/ambulance depot unnecessary, and DB relies on services provided by the headquarters in Tung Chung. A Community Centre has also been built at the Yi Pak Bay and it should have been handed over to and operated by the Government in 2009.

Issues and criticisms

Discovery Bay Marina Club 2018
On 31 August 2018 the Discovery Bay Marina Club (DBMC) gave notice to all 200+ boat owners to vacate the marina permanently by 31 December 2018 for renovations. The majority of these boats were live-a-boards, used by families. The DBMC offered no time line for the renovations or indication that the boats would be allowed to return. A public campaign was started to have the HKRI reverse their decision. Many families went into debt as their 'house boats' became worthless overnight. The DBMC, rebranded as Lantau Yacht Club, was transformed from the family and community friendly club to an exclusive members-only yacht club.

The problem was first foreseen when DBMC lined up all the berth dates and wouldn't renew them. The first open move the club did against its members at the time was removing itself from the marine departments official typhoon shelter list just 2 weeks before Typhoon Mangkhut. This stopped boats from being allowed to take shelter within the DBMC breakwater .

Sports ground
Discovery bay currently has one artificial turf pitch beside the community centre, located in the north plaza (there is also a pitch located in-between the two Primary schools).

Transport

Whereas other parts of Hong Kong are generally well served by frequent transport options from competing operators, DB is served solely by DBTSL and DBTPL, both subsidiaries of HKRI.

Ferry dispute, 2008-2009
On 8 October 2008, the sole ferry service operator DBTPL proposed to increase the ferry fares between Discovery Bay and Central up to 64 per cent. A questionnaire received by residents from Discovery Bay Transportation Services proposes an increase of 16 per cent to 64 per cent. The frequency of services would depend on the size of the increase. A single ride now costs HK$27, or HK$23.20 in 50-trip tickets (Child tickets are HK$17.00). Under the lowest fare-rise option, the number of services on weekdays would fall by 113 to just 40. Under this option, ferries would only travel every 70 minutes even during the morning peak. Overnight ferries could also be scrapped in favour of a coach service from Central. Residents also have the choice of taking buses to Sunny Bay and Tung Chung MTR stations. The ferry operator said in a letter to residents that annual fuel expenses had risen from HK$20 million in 2001 to a projected HK$80 million this year and it had been operating at a deficit, with an accumulated loss of more than HK$120 million since 2001.

HKRI has come up with a new proposal which calls for a 27.5% increase (for 50 trip holders) and a 33.3% increase (for single trips). Furthermore, frequencies are to be reduced from 113 sailings a day to 80. After midnight services will be replaced by a coach service. Residents are still concerned that this is still a substantial increase given the current economic situation and fuel prices have fallen below US$50.00. The eventual deal agreed with the Transport Department (TD) was for single fares of HK$31 per journey with an overnight surcharge of HK$13 per journey between 00:00 and 06:00. This represented a general price increase of 10%.

Ferry prices, 2018-2019

A further increase by HKRI was implemented on June 10, 2018. The new cost of a standard ticket from Discovery Bay to Central will rise a further 15% to HK$46 for adults, while the price of a child's ticket, aged 1 to below 12, will rise to $23. Overnight, sailings on or after 12:00 midnight and before 6:00 am, will see a +HK$19.50 surcharge. If you were to pay via Octopus Card, the same charges take effect. Senior citizens can enjoy a HK$2 Government Scheme.

A single adult trip using a Transport Card (T-Card) will cost 43.5 stored points, and overnight 66.5 stored points. A child T-Card trip will cost 21.8 stored points, and 44.7 stored points overnight.

As of October 2017, any DB resident including owners, tenants, occupants and domestic helpers can enjoy privileges around Discovery Bay with a registered DB Resident's Octopus Card. A single adult trip with this card costs HK$33.5, and HK$50.50 overnight. For children, a single trip costs HK$16.80 and overnight HK$33.8. Again, senior citizens enjoy a HK$2 Government Scheme.

Construction
As an ongoing residential development, construction sites, continual renovation work to many increasingly older apartments and the subsequent dust and noise is an ever-present issue in DB. Buildings are generally renovated every seven years, in compliance with the government regulations.

Environment
A number of green groups are pushing for the re-introduction of electric golf carts, replacing the current petrol powered golf carts. However, this is being faced with some resistance of the management company and residents as there are other green priorities including upgrading of the buses to Euro standards.

DB suffers few natural disasters, with the exception of typhoons and hillfires as a result of a mixture of dry weather and carelessness.

See also
 Lantau Island
Lo Fu Tau
 List of areas of Hong Kong
 List of buildings and structures in Hong Kong

References

External links

HKR International

Discovery Bay


Geoffrey Richmond (born March 1941) was a football chairman of Bradford City from 1994 to 2002, and previously chairman of Scarborough.

Career
Richmond was born and raised in Leeds, where he attended Roundhay Grammar School. After leaving school, he worked as a salesman, selling children's encyclopedias door-to-door, car bulbs and car bumper and window stickers, before initially retiring before the age of 40. He bought Ronson Lighters from the receivers for £250,000 before selling it in 1994 for £10m.

Richmond became chairman of Bradford City on 27 January 1994 when he and David Simpson switched positions, with Simpson moving to Scarborough. He immediately loaned Bradford £2.3m to clear the club debts.

He was at Bradford during their most successful times, including their first appearance at Wembley Stadium in the 1996 Second Division play-off final and their promotion to the Premier League in the 1998–99 season. He left after the club was relegated in 2001 and went into administration in 2002, having lost the confidence of the fans. The failure of the club was put down to heavy spending in the club's second season in the Premier League and the collapse of ITV Digital with the resulting loss of television rights. Richmond said: "I will never, ever, forgive myself for spending the money we did. Looking back now, it was six weeks of madness and I hold my hands up." He later added: "I went into my office on the following Monday and cleared my desk. As I drove away, I was in tears. It had been my life, and I have never been back since.

Richmond was later linked with Notts County and Leeds United before being declared bankrupt in 2004. He owed £3.3m to the Inland Revenue, for the sale of Ronson 10 years previously; the sum included £1m in interest.

Richmond was also an advocate of the Phoenix League, a proposed second tier of the Premier League.

Personal life
He was married to Elizabeth. They have one son Michael. Geoffrey also has an older son, David and two daughters, Dawn and Deborah from his first marriage to Barbara. In July 2000, he was made a Doctor of Letters from the University of Bradford. Richmond was also chairman of New Rover Cricket Club, in Adel, Leeds.

References

Bibliography

Living people
Sportspeople from Leeds
Bradford City A.F.C. directors and chairmen
Year of birth uncertain
People educated at Roundhay School
1941 births

Geoffrey Richmond