Crossing the Line (Korean: 푸른 눈의 평양시민, A Blue-Eyed Pyongyang Citizen in North Korea) is a 2006 British documentary film by Daniel Gordon and Nicholas Bonner.

Synopsis
The film is about a former U.S. Army soldier, James J. Dresnok, who defected to North Korea on 15 August 1962. It was directed and produced by British filmmakers Daniel Gordon and Nicholas Bonner, and was shown at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. Crossing the Line, which was narrated by actor Christian Slater, was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the festival.

Production
It was first screened in 2007 on the BBC. The film centred on Dresnok's history, highlighting his unhappiness in America, and particularly his desertion from the United States Army in 1962 to the DPRK. It showed Dresnok in present-day in Pyongyang (where he lived to his death), interacting with his North Korean family and friends. Dresnok spoke exclusively to the filmmakers about his childhood, his desertion, his life in a country completely foreign and quite hostile to his own, his fellow defectors, and his wife and children.

Dresnok is shown with fellow defectors, including Charles Robert Jenkins, who returned to Japan to be with his wife, Hitomi Soga (a victim of kidnapping by the North Koreans), while filming was taking place. Dresnok seemed hurt by Jenkins' allegations of physical abuse by Dresnok and the North Korean regime and angrily denied them.

Towards the end of Crossing the Line, a North Korean doctor discloses to the BBC that Dresnok is in failing health, mainly due to heavy drinking and smoking.

Cast
James Joseph Dresnok
Charles Robert Jenkins
Christian Slater as narrator

Reception
The movie had mostly positive  reception.

References

External links

Crossing the Line on Rotten Tomatoes

2006 films
British documentary films
Documentary films about North Korea
2006 documentary films
2000s English-language films
2000s British films

Crossing the Line (2006 film)


Oberto, Uberto, or Umberto II () was the Count of Biandrate (Blan-Dras) in Lombardy and a participant in the Fourth Crusade.

Oberto was a companion of Boniface of Montferrat on the Fourth Crusade. After Boniface' elevation to King of Thessalonica and his death, Oberto became acting regent for his son Demetrius (1207–1209). Immediately, Oberto and Amedeo Buffa, the constable of Thessalonica, began to plot the overthrow of Demetrius. They intended to put William VI of Montferrat, Boniface' elder son, on the throne. However, the Emperor Henry marched on Thessalonica to force the Lombard lords to do him homage on Demetrius' behalf, but Oberto closed the gates to him. He demanded the whole of Epirus from the Vardar river (in Macedonia) to the Adriatic and a corridor to the Black Sea going west of Philippopolis, which Henry accepted on condition that Margaret, Boniface' widow, would agree to it. Upon his entry into the city, he convinced her to refuse it and thus disempowered Oberto and Amadeo. He imprisoned Oberto in the castle of Serres under the guard of Berthold II, Count of Katzenelnbogen, but later released him. Oberto went to Negroponte and plotted against the emperor, but Ravano dalle Carceri, lord of that island and a former confederate of Biandrate, protected the emperor and Oberto quickly surrendered and returned to Montferrat, where he sought to convince William to claim Thessalonica.

Oberto has been accused of subsequently poisoning Henry, who died in 1216 at Thessalonica. In 1224, according to Pope Honorius III, Oberto and William were headed east to relieve besieged Thessalonica, but it fell to the Despotate of Epirus before they arrived.

Ancestors

Sources

Lock, Peter. The Franks in the Aegean 1204 – 1500. New York, 1995.
Cheetham, Nicholas. Mediaeval Greece. Yale University Press, 1981.
Bury, John B. "The Lombards and Venetians in Euboia (1205-1303)." Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. 7. (1886), pp. 309–352.

Counts in Italy
Christians of the Fourth Crusade
Regents of Thessalonica
13th-century Italian nobility

Oberto II of Biandrate


Alberto Granado Jiménez (8 August 1922 — 5 March 2011) was an Argentine biochemist. He traveled through South America in 1951 with his friend Che Guevara on a motorcycle. They kept a journal about the trip and what they saw. These writings were the basis for Walter Salle's movie, The Motorcycle Diaries (2004).

Granado was born in Hernando, Argentina, and later studied chemistry and pharmacology at the University of Córdoba. Active in politics, he spent time in prison after taking part in student protests against the government. He met Che at university, and in 1951 they traveled thousands of miles and finally ended up in Caracas, Venezuela. Che went back home to finish his medical degree, but Granado stayed and worked in a leprosy clinic.

Granada moved to Cuba in 1961 and set up the school of medicine at the University of Santiago. He later moved to Havana and was able to work on scientific research. He died in Havana in 2011. He asked for his ashes to be scattered in Cuba, Argentina and Venezuela.

References

1922 births
2011 deaths

Argentine scientists
Biochemists
Cuban scientists

Alberto Granado


Pituitary adenomas are tumors that occur in the pituitary gland. Pituitary tumors are generally divided into three kinds dependant upon their biological functioning: benign adenoma, invasive adenoma or carcinomas, with carcinomas accounting for 0.1% to 0.2%, appoximately 35% being invasive adenomas and most being benign adenomas. Pituitary adenomas represent from 10% to 25% of all brain tumors and is thought to happen in about 17% to 25% of most people.

Non-invasive and non-secreting pituitary adenomas are considered to be benign [harmless]; but a recent large study (Fernández-Balsells, et al. 2011) has shown there are few studies to prove if this is true or not.

Adenomas that are bigger than  are called macroadenomas, and those smaller than 10 mm are called microadenomas. Most pituitary adenomas are microadenomas. Most pituitary microadenomas often remain undiagnosed and those that are diagnosed are often found as an incidental finding [which means found by chance], and are called incidentalomas.

Invasive adenomas may invade the dura mater, cranial bone, or sphenoid bone. It used to be thought that clinically active pituitary adenomas were rare but recent studies have suggested that they may affect about one in 1000 of the general population.

References

Neuroendocrinology

Pituitary adenoma


The NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), formerly known as Division I-A, is the highest level of college football in the United States. The FBS consists of the largest schools in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). As of the 2023 season, there are 10 conferences and 133 schools in FBS.

College football is one of the most popular spectator sports throughout much of the United States. The top schools generate tens of millions of dollars in yearly revenue. Top FBS teams draw tens of thousands of fans to games, and the fifteen largest American stadiums by capacity all host FBS teams or games. Since July 1, 2021, college athletes have been able to get paid for the use of their name, image, and likeness. Prior to this date colleges were only allowed to provide players with non-monetary compensation such as athletic scholarships that provide for tuition, housing, and books.

Unlike other NCAA divisions and subdivisions, the NCAA does not officially award an FBS football national championship, nor does it sanction a playoff tournament to determine such a champion on the field. As the College Football Playoff did not exist until 2014, organizations such as the Associated Press and AFCA have historically sought to rank the teams and crown a national champion, by taking a vote of sports writers and coaches, respectively. Various cities across the United States have created their own postseason contests, called bowl games, in which they traditionally invite teams to participate. Historically, these bowl games were mostly considered to be exhibition games involving a payout to participating teams. However, in the modern era, some of the bowls serve as semifinal games of the Playoff and the remainder constitute the de facto postseason for teams that fail to qualify for the Playoff. The decades preceding the advent of the Playoff also included attempts by the premier FBS conferences and bowl games attempt to organize matchups so that the FBS national championship was decided on the field, such as the Bowl Coalition from 1992 to 1994, the Bowl Alliance from 1995 to 1997, and the Bowl Championship Series from 1998 to 2013.

Overview

The FBS is the highest level of college football in the United States, and FBS players make up the vast majority of the players picked in the NFL Draft. For every sport but football, the NCAA divides schools into three major divisions: Divisions I, II, and III. However, in football, Division I is further divided into two sub-divisions: the Bowl Subdivision, abbreviated as the FBS, and the Championship Subdivision, abbreviated as the FCS. Divisions are themselves further divided up into conferences, which are groupings of schools that play each other in contention for a conference championship. The FBS currently has ten conferences, which are often divided into the "Power Five conferences" and the less prominent "Group of Five".

Although FCS programs can draw thousands of fans per game, many FCS schools attempt to join the FBS in hopes of increased revenue, corporate sponsorship, alumni donations, prestige, and national exposure. However, FBS programs also face increased expenses in regards to staff salaries, facility improvements, and scholarships. The athletic departments of many FBS schools lose money every year, and these athletic departments must rely on subsidies from the rest of the university. In many states, the highest-paid public employee is the head coach of an FBS team. FBS schools are limited to a total of 85 football players receiving financial assistance. Nearly all FBS schools that are not on NCAA probation give 85 full scholarships. The three United States service academies that are FBS members are technically subject to the 85-scholarship limit, but are effectively exempt because all of their students receive federally-funded full scholarships whether or not they play a varsity sport.

In order to retain FBS membership, schools must meet several requirements. Before 2023, FBS schools had to average at least 15,000 home attendance (over a rolling two-year period). An FBS school must sponsor a minimum of 16 varsity intercollegiate teams (including football), with at least six men's or coeducational teams and at least eight all-female teams. Across all sports, each FBS school must offer at least 200 athletic scholarships (or spend at least $4 million on athletic scholarships) per year, and FBS football teams must provide at least 90% of the maximum number of football scholarships (which is currently 85).

In October 2023, the NCAA announced major changes to FBS membership requirements. The average home attendance requirement, which had largely gone unenforced in the 21st century and was suspended in 2020 due to COVID-19 impacts, was permanently eliminated, effective immediately. Effective in 2027–28, the number of required athletic scholarships across all sports will increase to 210, with the annual spending requirement raised to $6 million. Also starting in 2027–28, FBS programs must not only provide at least 90% of the required number of football scholarships, but must provide at least 90% of the maximum number of scholarships across a total of 16 sports, including football.

Scheduling

The FBS season begins in late August or early September and ends in January with the College Football Playoff National Championship game. Most FBS teams play 12 regular season games per year, with eight or nine of those games coming against conference opponents. All ten FBS conferences hold a conference championship game to determine the winner of the conference. Between conference games, non-conference games, a conference championship game, and up to two bowl games if ranked among the top four college teams in the country by the College Football Playoff Committee. Only the four Playoff teams are eligible to participate in two bowl games in one postseason, and only the winners of the two playoff semifinal bowl games will play a 15th game when they meet in the College Football Playoff National Championship. The Hawaii Rainbow Warriors and teams that play at Hawaii get a special exemption and are allowed to play a thirteenth regular season game in order to defray travel costs, so an FBS team that plays 13 regular season games, a conference championship game, a semifinal bowl game, and in the national championship game could theoretically play 16 games in a season. No team has played a 16th game in one season, due to the unlikelihood of a team playing Hawaii at some point, finishing the season ranked in the top four, opting in to a 13th regular season game, and then winning a Playoff semifinal game. The theoretical 16th game has only been possible since the beginning of the College Football Playoff era in the 2014 season. Furthermore, the College Football Playoff will expand to 12 teams starting in the 2024 season, and, with its new bracket format, means that a team could potentially play in up to 18 games.

For non-conference regular season games, FBS teams are free to schedule match-ups against any other FBS team, regardless of conference. A small number of FBS teams are independent, and have total control over their own schedule. Non-conference games are scheduled by mutual agreement and often involve "home and homes" (where teams alternate as hosts) and long-established rivalries. A 2014 study found that teams from the stronger conferences frequently play non-conference games against teams from the weaker conferences or, occasionally, against FCS teams. FBS teams are free to schedule up to forty percent of their games against FCS teams, but FBS teams can only use one win per season against an FCS team for the purposes of bowl eligibility. Additionally, the FCS opponent must have averaged at least 80% of the FCS limit of 63 scholarship equivalents over a rolling two-year period. (Before the 2022 season, this limit had been 90%.) An FBS team must schedule a total of five home games per year; for the purposes of scheduling, a "home game" must take place at a venue in which the team plays 50% of its "home games", although a team is allowed to count one neutral-site game against an FBS team toward the "home game" requirement. FBS-FCS games, known as "money games," are often home games for the FBS team, and victories by FCS teams are usually considered to be upsets. FCS teams receive hundreds of thousands of dollars for their participation in these games.

The Football Bowl Subdivision gets its name from the bowl games that many FBS teams play at the end of the year, although other college divisions also have their own bowl games. FBS bowl games are played at the end of the season in December or January, and collectively generate over $400 million per year as of 2012. For the 2017–18 bowl season, there were 40 bowl games. In order to be bowl eligible, an FBS team must have a winning record. In certain cases, 5–7 and 6–7 teams can also be selected to bowls, usually to fill bowl vacancies.

Many bowls have an established conference tie-in; for example, the Pop-Tarts Bowl provides a match-up between teams from ACC and the Big 12. A small number of long-established bowls played a major role in the Bowl Championship Series, which was used to select the national champion until the 2013 season, and these bowls continue to play a major role in the College Football Playoff. Under the playoff, there are six major bowls, known as the New Year's Six, with automatic bids going to the conference champions of the Power Five conferences and the top-ranked member of the "Group of Five." Two of these bowls serve as semi-final games to the College Football Playoff National Championship game. Conferences receive millions of dollars for each school that appears in the playoff, and appearances in other bowls are also quite lucrative. In addition to the regular bowls, some postseason bowls, such as the NFLPA Collegiate Bowl, match up teams of all-stars and NFL Draft entrants.

History

College football has been played for over one hundred years, but the game and the organizational structure of college football have evolved significantly during that time. The first college football game was played in 1869, but the game continued to develop during the late 19th and early 20th century. During this period, Walter Camp pioneered the concept of a line of scrimmage, the system of downs, and the College Football All-America Team. The 1902 Rose Bowl was the first bowl game in college football history, and the event began to be held annually starting with the 1916 Rose Bowl. In the 1930s, other bowl games came into existence, including the Sugar Bowl, the Cotton Bowl Classic, and the Orange Bowl. The 1906 college football season was the first season played under the IAAUS (which would later change its name to the NCAA) and the first season in which the forward pass was legal. The IAAUS had formed after President Theodore Roosevelt, responding to several deaths that had occurred during football games, requested that colleges find ways to make football a safer sport.

In 1935, the Heisman Trophy was presented for the first time; the award is generally considered to be college football's most prestigious individual award. In 1965, the NCAA voted to allow the platoon system, in which different players played on offense and defense; teams had previously experimented with the concept in the 1940s. In 1968, the NCAA began allowing freshmen to compete in games; freshmen had previously been required to take a redshirt year. In 1975, after a growth of "grants-in-aid" (scholarships given for athletic rather than academic or need-based reasons), the NCAA voted to limit the number of athletic scholarships each school could offer. In 1968, the NCAA required all teams to identify as members of either the University Division (for larger schools) or the College Division (for smaller schools), and in 1973, the NCAA divided into three divisions. At the urging of several larger schools seeking increased autonomy and commonality, Division I-A was formed prior to the 1978 season; the remaining teams in Division I formed the Football Championship Subdivision or FCS (then known as Division I-AA). In 1981, members of the College Football Association attempted to create a fourth division consisting solely of the most competitive schools, but this effort was defeated. In the 1992 season, the SEC split into divisions and played the first FBS conference championship game. The Big 12 and Western Athletic Conference did the same for the 1996 season, and most conferences eventually adopted divisions and championship games.

The NCAA does not officially award an FBS football championship, but several teams have claimed national championships. Other organizations have also sought to rank the teams and crown a national champion. The Dickinson System and other methods were formed in the early 20th century to select the best team in the country, and the AP Poll and the Coaches Poll began rankings teams in the middle of the 20th century. In many seasons, selectors such as the AP and the Coaches Poll designated different teams as national champions. Often, more than one team would finish undefeated, as the top teams were not guaranteed to play each other during the regular season or in bowl games. In 1992, five major conferences established the Bowl Coalition in order to determine the FBS champion. In 1998, the two remaining major conferences joined with the other five conferences to form the Bowl Championship Series. The BCS used a rankings system to match up the top two teams in the BCS National Championship Game. However, even the BCS era saw split national championships, as in 2003 the AP Poll and the Coaches Poll selected different national champions. The College Football Playoff, with a four-team field, replaced the BCS starting with the 2014 season.

Currently as of March 2020, there is no unified system to provide FBS football players with financial compensation aside from collegiate scholarships. Leading the forefront of the movement on compensation is California governor Gavin Newsom. He stated, "Collegiate student athletes put everything on the line — their physical health, future career prospects and years of their lives to compete. Colleges reap billions from these student athletes' sacrifices and success but, in the same breath, block them from earning a single dollar," he said in a statement. "That's a bankrupt model — one that puts institutions ahead of the students they are supposed to serve. It needs to be disrupted." Newsom passed a law in California called the "Fair Play to Pay Act" making it the first state to allow student athletes to profit off their name, image and likeness. The law is scheduled to go in effect on January 1, 2023.

Television

College football was first broadcast on radio in 1921, and first broadcast on television in 1939. Television became profitable for both schools and the NCAA, which tightly controlled the airing of games in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. The NCAA limited each football team to six television appearances over a two-year period. The 1981 Supreme Court case NCAA v. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma & University of Georgia granted television rights to individual schools as opposed to the NCAA and allowed teams to televise all of their games. After a period during which FBS schools negotiated collectively under the College Football Association, Notre Dame's 1991 television contract ushered in an era in which schools and conferences negotiate their own television contracts. This new era of television led to several waves of conference realignment, most notably in 1996, 2005, and the early 2010s. FBS games continue to be a major draw on television, as over 26 million people watched the 2014 BCS National Championship Game.

National networks such as CBS, ABC, NBC, several ESPN networks, and several Fox networks have all covered the FBS, as have several regional and local networks. As conferences negotiate their own television deals, each conference is affiliated with a network that airs its home games. In the mid-2000s, college and conferences began to create their own television networks; such networks include the Big Ten Network, BYUtv, the Longhorn Network, and the Pac-12 Network. In 2012, college football games drew over 400 million viewers.

Teams and conferences

Conferences

History
The Big Ten (then popularly known as the Western Conference) was founded in 1896, after which several other schools joined to form conferences, including the Pacific Coast Conference, the MVIAA, the Southwest Conference, the Southern Conference, the Mountain States Conference (also known as the Skyline Conference), and the Border Conference. In 1928, six schools seceded from the MVIAA to form the Big Six Conference, which later expanded to the Big Eight in 1957; the remaining schools formed the Missouri Valley Conference. In 1932, several Southern schools formed the SEC after breaking away from the Southern Conference, and in 1953 several more schools seceded from the Southern Conference to form the ACC. In 1946, several Midwestern schools formed the MAC. Several elite Northeastern schools had formed the Eastern Intercollegiate Basketball League in 1901, and its members (plus Brown University, not an EIBL member at the time) signed the Ivy Group Agreement, which governed football competition between the signatories, in 1945; the Ivy League was formally founded in 1954, when the agreement was extended to cover all sports. In 1959, the Pacific Coast Conference dissolved, and most of its former members formed the new Athletic Association of Western Universities, which became the Pac-8 when more former PCC members joined. In 1962, several schools from the Mountain States Conference and the Border Conference formed the Western Athletic Conference. In 1969, the Pacific Coast Athletic Association (PCAA), later known as the Big West Conference, was formed by several Division II California schools that sought to join Division I.

Division I separated into Division I-A (the predecessor to the FBS) and I-AA (predecessor of the FCS) prior to the 1978 season. At that time, there were several independent I-A schools and twelve Division I-A conferences: the Southeastern Conference (SEC), Big Ten, Pacific-10 (Pac-10), Big 8, Southwest Conference (SWC), Western Athletic Conference (WAC), PCAA (which later changed its name to the Big West), Missouri Valley Conference, Southern Conference, Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), Mid-American Conference (MAC), and the Ivy League. The Ivy League and the Southern Conference left for Division I-AA prior to the 1982 season, while the Missouri Valley Conference stopped sponsoring football prior to the 1985 season. In 1991, the Big East recruited several independents and began sponsoring football, becoming a major conference. In 1996, Conference USA (C-USA), formed the previous year by the merger of the non-football Metro and Great Midwest Conferences, also began sponsoring football. That same year, the Southwest Conference dissolved, and four of its former members joined with the Big 8 to form the Big 12 Conference. In 1999, eight schools broke away from the WAC to form the Mountain West Conference (MWC). Prior to the 2000 season, the Big West stopped sponsoring football. The Sun Belt Conference began sponsoring football in 2001. After periods of conference realignment in 2005 and the early 2010s that saw the expansion of the ACC, Big Ten, SEC, and Pac-10 (which changed its name to the Pac-12), the WAC reorganized as a non-football conference and the Big East split into the American Athletic Conference and a new non-football conference that retained the Big East name.

Current conferences

Most of the 133 FBS schools are members of an FBS conference, but there are also a small number of independent schools. Since the Western Athletic Conference discontinued football sponsorship prior to the 2013 season, there have been ten conferences in the FBS. Through the 2023 season, all of the FBS conferences have between ten and fourteen members, although independent Notre Dame has a scheduling agreement with the fourteen-member ACC. The ten conferences are split into two groups for the purposes of the College Football Playoff. The "Power Five conferences" consist of most of the largest and best-known college athletic programs in the country. A school from one of the Power Five conferences won every BCS National Championship Game (which operated from 1999 to 2014), and has won every College Football Playoff National Championship. The remaining five conferences are known as the "Group of Five." Any conference may split its teams into two divisions, and as of the 2023 season, the Atlantic Coast Conference, American Athletic Conference, Big 12 Conference, Conference USA, Mountain West Conference, and Pac-12 Conference do not use divisions. The American, the Big 12, and C-USA all previously utilized division systems before abandoning them after losing some of their member schools to realignment: UConn left The American in July 2020, and Marshall, Old Dominion, and Southern Miss left C-USA in July 2022, leaving both those conferences with an odd number of members, while the Big 12 has not used divisions since the early-2010s conference realignment left it with 10 members. The Pac-12, however, chose to abandon divisions entirely as a result of the NCAA Division I Council ruling that conferences would no longer be required to maintain divisions in order to hold a conference championship. It was the first conference to entirely abandon divisions due to this, with the Atlantic Coast Conference and Mountain West Conference announcing similar intentions for 2023. Since the 2018 season, all conferences have held a championship game that determines the conference champion. The Sun Belt was the last conference to launch a championship game, as well as the most recent to split into divisions for football, with both the title game and the divisional alignment debuting in 2018. That conference chose to form football divisions despite having only 10 football members; it has since expanded to 14 members while maintaining its divisional alignment.

† "Big Five" or "Power Five" conferences with guaranteed berths in the "access bowls" associated with the College Football Playoff

Notes

Transitional teams

Georgia Southern University in Statesboro, Georgia joined the Sun Belt Conference upon transitioning to the FBS level in 2014. Prior to joining the Sun Belt, GASOU won six FCS (I-AA) national championships and have produced two Walter Payton Award winners. The Eagles first continuously fielded a football team in 1924; however, play was suspended for World War II and revived in 1981. The Eagles competed as an FCS independent from 1984 until 1992 as the Eagles' main conference at the time, the Trans America Athletic Conference (now known as the ASUN Conference), did not sponsor football, and as a member of the Southern Conference from 1993 until 2013, winning 10 SoCon championships.

The Georgia Southern Eagles finished their first FBS season 9–3 overall and was undefeated in Sun Belt Conference play at 8–0; winning the Sun Belt Conference championship outright in its first year as an FBS member. They were also the first team ever to go unbeaten in conference play in their first FBS season. Since the Eagles were under transitional status, the university filed for a postseason waiver to allow the Eagles to play in a bowl game; however, the NCAA denied Georgia Southern's waiver request and a subsequent appeal since enough full member FBS teams became bowl-eligible during the season.

Liberty University began its FBS transition process on July 1, 2017. The NCAA granted the school a waiver from its normal transition rules that require an invitation from an FBS conference before beginning the transition. The Flames played in the Big South Conference in 2017 but were not eligible for the FCS playoffs. For 2018 to 2022, the Flames became an FBS independent. The school initially intended to remain a Big South member in other sports until it received an invitation to an FBS conference, but instead joined the non-football ASUN Conference in 2018. Conference USA (C-USA) eventually announced in November 2021 Liberty's future addition to that conference, with Flames football moving to C-USA starting in the 2023 season.

Three schools began FBS transitions on July 1, 2022. James Madison University joined the Sun Belt after meeting the NCAA minimum of five FBS opponents at its home stadium, as required and scheduled. This happened after James Madison's FCS conference, the all-sports Colonial Athletic Association (CAA), barred the Dukes from competing in or hosting team championships in any sport for that conference during the 2021–22 season according to CAA bylaws. (The CAA football league, branded as CAA Football, is technically a separate entity from the all-sports CAA.) However, the Dukes were eligible for at-large bids to all NCAA team championships in 2021–22. By meeting FBS scheduling requirements in 2022, JMU played an FBS schedule in year one of their transition process, which normally only occurs in the 2nd year of two-year transition process. Due to that, JMU tried to become bowl eligible in 2023, but NCAA refused it. On July 1, 2023, two outgoing FCS teams Jacksonville State and Sam Houston are moving to C-USA.

The most recent school to start an FBS transition is Kennesaw State University, which started its transition in 2023 ahead of its move to Conference USA in 2024.

Finances

The following table shows revenue for each conference reported by the Knight Commission for the 2021–22 academic year.

Note: Values from some universities are not reported here.

Realignment
The FBS has experienced several realignments since its formation in 1978, with many teams changing conferences, dropping out of the FBS, or moving up from the FCS. In 1982, the size of the division was cut considerably, and the Southern Conference and the Ivy League were demoted to the FCS. In 1985, the Missouri Valley Conference stopped sponsoring football. In the 1980s and 1990s, several independents joined conferences, dropped football, or joined the FCS. In the 1996 NCAA conference realignment, the Southwest Conference dissolved, and four Texas teams from that conference joined with the Big 8 schools to form the Big 12 Conference. The Western Athletic Conference expanded to sixteen members, but half of the schools left in 1999 to form the Mountain West Conference. Conference USA (C-USA) formed from a merger of the Metro Conference and the Great Midwest Conference, two conferences which had not sponsored football. The Big West stopped sponsoring football after the 2000 season, and was essentially replaced by the Sun Belt Conference, which added former Big West members and began sponsoring football in 2001. In the mid-2000s, the Big East added former basketball-only member Connecticut, while Temple left the conference (before eventually returning in 2013). During another phase of realignment in 2005, three schools jumped from the Big East to the ACC. The Big East responded by adding schools from Conference USA.

College football underwent another major conference realignment in the first half of the 2010s. Members of the Big East left the conference to join the Big 12 and ACC. The Big 12 lost members to the SEC, the Pac-12, and the Big Ten, while the Big Ten also gained one former ACC member. The remaining members of the Big East split into two conferences: the American Athletic Conference ("The American") and a new conference that assumed the Big East name but does not sponsor football. The American added several schools from C-USA, but lost one school each to the ACC and Big Ten after its first season. In turn, C-USA added FCS schools and schools from the Sun Belt Conference. The Sun Belt Conference replenished its membership by adding FCS schools and schools from the Western Athletic Conference. The Mountain West lost schools to the Big 12, Pac-12, and the FBS independent ranks, and added several schools from the WAC. After several defections, leaving the conference with only two football-sponsoring schools remaining, the WAC dropped its sponsorship of football.

The early-2010s realignment cycle also affected the FBS independent ranks. BYU left the MW in 2011 for football independence and the non-football West Coast Conference. In 2013, Idaho and New Mexico State, the last two football-sponsoring schools in the WAC, became FBS independents, but would return to their former football home of the Sun Belt Conference as football-only members the following year. Also in 2013, Notre Dame became a full but non-football member of the ACC, entering into a scheduling agreement with that conference that calls for the Fighting Irish football team to play five games each season against ACC schools, and to play each other ACC school at least once every three years. Finally, in 2015, Navy became a football-only member of The American, ending more than a century of football independence.

Realignment continued at a lower level through the rest of the 2010s and into the early 2020s. Georgia Southern joined the Sun Belt Conference upon transitioning to the FBS level in 2014. The Eagles won the Sun Belt Conference championship outright in its first year as an FBS member. The 2016 season saw FCS Coastal Carolina join the Sun Belt Conference for non-football sports while beginning a transition to FBS football; the football team joined the Sun Belt in 2017. That season was also the last for Idaho and New Mexico State as Sun Belt football members. After 2017, New Mexico State returned to independent status, while Idaho downgraded to FCS football—becoming the first program ever to voluntarily do so—and added football to its all-sports membership in the Big Sky Conference. Also in 2016, UMass went independent after turning down an offer of full membership in the Mid-American Conference. Most recently, UConn went independent in 2020 when the school left The American to rejoin many of its historic basketball rivals in the current Big East Conference. Notre Dame competed under a full ACC schedule only also in 2020 in response to logistical concerns that arose from the effects of COVID-19.

The most recent realignment is currently ongoing, starting with the announcements by Oklahoma and Texas that they would leave the Big 12 for the SEC no later than 2025. The Big 12 and its departing members later announced a 2024 departure date. The first actual conference changes came in 2022, with the Sun Belt gaining Marshall, returning Old Dominion, and Southern Miss from C-USA, and FCS upgrader James Madison. The following year saw C-USA add Jacksonville State, Sam Houston (both from FCS), New Mexico State and Liberty (FBS independents) but lose Charlotte, Florida Atlantic, North Texas, Rice, UAB, and UTSA to The American. In turn, The American lost Cincinnati, Houston, and UCF to the Big 12, which also added former football independent BYU. In 2024, Oklahoma and Texas will join the SEC, while 10 of the 12 members of the Pac-12 have announced their departure for other power conferences—UCLA, USC, Oregon, and Washington for the Big Ten; Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, and Utah for the Big 12; and California and Stanford for the ACC. In addition, Kennesaw State will upgrade to FBS and join C-USA, and SMU will leave The American for the ACC.

Awards

Several awards are given each year to players and coaches in the FBS. Although all college football players are eligible for many of these awards (such as the Heisman Trophy), FBS players usually win these awards, and other awards (such as the Walter Payton Award) exist to honor players in other divisions and the FCS. In addition to the national awards listed below, FBS conferences also have their own awards, and several organizations release a yearly College Football All-America Team. In 1951, the National Football Foundation established the College Football Hall of Fame. Notable individual awards include:
Best/most valuable player: Heisman Trophy, Maxwell Award, Walter Camp Award, Archie Griffin Award, AP Player of the Year, SN Player of the Year, Lombardi Award (originally lineman/linebacker, but expanded to all players in 2016)
 Defensive player of the year: Chuck Bednarik Award, Bronko Nagurski Trophy, Lott Trophy
 Position awards: Dave Rimington Trophy (Center), Davey O'Brien Award and Manning Award (Quarterback), Dick Butkus Award (Linebacker), Doak Walker Award (Running back), Fred Biletnikoff Award (Wide receiver), Jim Thorpe Award (Defensive back), John Mackey Award (Tight end), Lou Groza Award (Placekicker), Outland Trophy (Interior lineman), Ray Guy Award (Punter), Ted Hendricks Award (Defensive end), Jet Award (Return Specialist)
 Non-positional playing awards: Paul Hornung Award (most versatile player), Burlsworth Trophy (top player who began his college career as a walk-on), Jon Cornish Trophy (top Canadian player)
Coaching awards:
 Head coaches: AFCA Coach of the Year, Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year, SN Coach of the Year, Walter Camp Coach of the Year Award, Paul "Bear" Bryant Award, Home Depot Coach of the Year Award, AP Coach of the Year
 Assistants: Broyles Award, AFCA Assistant Coach of the Year
Other awards: William V. Campbell Trophy, Wuerffel Trophy, Rudy Award, Amos Alonzo Stagg Award, Walter Camp Man of the Year, Theodore Roosevelt Award

The NCAA does not officially name a national champion, but several other organizations name national champions and all conferences participate in the College Football Playoff in order to determine a champion. The winner of the College Football Playoff receives the College Football Playoff National Championship Trophy. The AP awards the AP National Championship Trophy, while the American Football Coaches Association awards the AFCA National Championship Trophy. The AFCA trophy was previously awarded to the winner of the BCS National Championship Game (a predecessor of the College Football Playoff National Championship game), which operated from 1999 to 2014. The Football Writers Association of America awarded the Grantland Rice Trophy until after the 2013 season, and the National Football Foundation awards the MacArthur Bowl. Since the disputed end of the 2003 season, the various organizations have been able to agree on a single national champion.

Maps of teams

Many of the school names on the maps below are abbreviated in order to save space.Some of them are very well known, others not as well known.The following is list of such abbreviations with along with each school's full name:

1927 map of teams

1956 map of teams

1976 map of teams

1991 map of teams

2010 map of teams

2023 map of teams

Schools that have transitioned to the FBS

FBS programs

In addition to the list of FBS football programs in the Main article, there is also a List of NCAA Division I FBS football stadiums.

See also
 List of NCAA Division I non-football programs

References


Società Sportiva Racing Club Roma (or simply Racing Roma) was an Italian association football club located in Rome, Lazio. The club folded in 2017. The owner of Racing Club Roma, bought Fondi Calcio instead in 2017 and F.C. Aprilia in 2018.

History
The club was founded in mid-2013, after A.S.D. Real T.B.M. Zagarolo transferred the seat and its sports title of Eccellenza Lazio to the city of Frascati, becoming A.S.D. Lupa Castelli Romani. In the same year Lupa Frascati moved to Rome.

In the 2013–14 season the club was promoted to Serie D. It was then promoted to Lega Pro in the 2014–15 Serie D season. They were then relegated again the following season.

In the 2016–17 season the club changed its name to S.S. Racing Club Roma, moved to Rome and was admitted to Lega Pro to fill the vacancies created.

Colors and badge
Its colors are yellow and green.

Stadium
Although the club was based in Frascati and representing Greater Rome, the club played in Centro d'Italia-Manlio Scopigno in Rieti, the capital of the province of the same name, in 2015–16 season. In 2016–17 season the club changed to play in Stadio Casal del Marmo, in Rome.

References

External links

Defunct football clubs in Italy
Defunct football clubs in Lazio
Football clubs in Rome
Association football clubs established in 2013
2013 establishments in Italy
Association football clubs disestablished in 2017
2017 disestablishments in Italy

SS Racing Club Roma


Graveyard of the Atlantic is a nickname for the treacherous waters and area of numerous shipwrecks off the Outer Banks of North Carolina, United States, which are due to the coast's shifting sands and inlets. To a lesser degree, this nickname has also been applied to Sable Island off of Nova Scotia, Canada, as well as the waters off Cape Cod, Massachusetts, United States.

Outer Banks

Along the Outer Banks, navigational challenges posed by the Diamond Shoals area off Cape Hatteras, caused the loss of thousands of ships and an unknown number of human lives. More than 5,000 ships have sunk in these waters since record-keeping began in 1526.  The Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum, located in Hatteras Village, focuses on the history of this area and features many artifacts recovered from area shipwrecks.

Among the better known shipwrecks were the , a participant in the famous Battle of Hampton Roads during the American Civil War, and the Patriot which carried Theodosia Burr Alston, Aaron Burr's daughter. The Monitor foundered and sank on December 31, 1862, off Cape Hatteras, while the Patriot presumably sank off the coast in January 1813. The first recorded shipwreck off the coast of North Carolina was in 1526 off the mouth of Cape Fear River. The large numbers of explorers who came to the area in subsequent years had to travel through the rough waters to get to the coast of North Carolina. In June 1718, Edward Teach—better known as Blackbeard the pirate—ran his flagship, the Queen Anne's Revenge, aground near present-day Beaufort Inlet, NC. Thirty-two years later, in August 1750, at least three Spanish merchantmen ran aground off North Carolina during a hurricane: the El Salvador sank near Cape Lookout, while the Nuestra Señora de Soledad went ashore on near present-day Core Banks, and the Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe went ashore near present-day Ocracoke Island. Survivors of a much earlier shipwreck created the lost town of Wash Woods, Virginia using lumber that washed ashore. However, the extreme weather eventually claimed the town as well.

The Graveyard extends along the whole of the North Carolina coast, northward past Chicamacomico, Bodie Island, and Nags Head to Sandbridge Beach, and southward in curving arcs to the points at Cape Lookout and Cape Fear. This spot is known as Cape Point, which is the stretch of beach that divides Hatteras Island's north- and south-facing beaches. It is a very famous spot on the east coast, despite its fragile location. Cape Hatteras has been a deadly trap for sailors that have entered over the centuries. The stretch of shore is home to more than 600 shipwrecks off the shifting sandbars of the Hatteras Islands. The sandbars shift due to rough waves and unpredictable currents. Another danger was the Outer Banks "wreckers." Some residents of the Outer Banks, known as wreckers, made part of their living by scavenging wrecked ships—or by luring ships to their destruction. Horses with a lantern tied to their neck would be walked along the beach. The lanterns' up and down motion would appear to other ships to represent clear water and a ship ahead. The unsuspecting captain would then drive his ship ashore following the false light.

During World War II, German U-boats would sit offshore and prey on passing freighters and tankers silhouetted against the lights onshore. Hundreds of ships along the North Carolina coast were torpedoed by submarines in this fashion in what became known as Torpedo Alley. In the twenty-first century, ships still have trouble in the area including the Bounty which sank off Cape Hatteras in 2012 due to Hurricane Sandy and a 72-foot fishing boat called the Ocean Pursuit which ran aground on Bodie Island in 2020.

Sable Island
The title "Graveyard of the Atlantic" is also applied to Sable Island, a narrow crescent of sand that lies 300 km southeast of Halifax, Nova Scotia.  There have been over 350 recorded shipwrecks since HMS Delight in 1583.

People believe that the island was first discovered in the 1520s by the European explorer João Álvares Fagundes, who named it Fagundes, but the name was changed by the French at the end of the 16th century to île de Sable, which means Sand Island.  The island is little more than a 40 km long sandbar, although it does have a number of fresh water ponds. It is only 1.5 km wide at its widest; the highest point on the island is approx 30 metres tall.

Rev. Andrew Le Mercier was a French Huguenot priest from Boston who tried to colonize the island in 1738. There are approximately 400–550 feral horses that are believed to be the descendants of survivors of those that were introduced by Le Mercier. These horses feed off the wild grass, plants and fresh water sources throughout the island.  Sable Island is home to the largest grey seal colony in the world.  There are also many types of birds, including the Ipswich sparrow, who breeds only on Sable Island.  In 2013, Sable Island was designated a National Park Reserve

In the age of sail, the danger of Sable Island was due to the shifting sand bars that surround it, and the thick fog in the area due to the close proximity of the cold Labrador Current and warm Gulf Stream current.  Ships were often pushed onto its shores during storms, resulting in a life-saving station being established there in 1801.  In 1872, the Canadian Government added two lighthouses one on each end of island, which helped reduce the number of wrecks.  The last shipwreck was the Merrimac, which occurred in 1999. With the many advances in modern navigation, the two lighthouses have been decommissioned.

Due to the strange (and mostly uninhabited) location of Sable Island, Guglielmo Marconi made it an outpost for radio communication experimentation. In 1901, Marconi thought this Atlantic island would be a good location for a wireless station for transatlantic communication.

See also
 Graveyard of the Pacific

References

External links

 Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum website
 National Park Service, Graveyard of the Atlantic webpage
 NOAA Wrecks and Obstructions Database
 WWII German UBoats
 Wreck Diving in the Graveyard of the Atlantic
 National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service
 Scientists Show Relics From Ship Fit For Pirate, Possibly Blackbeard, Chicago Tribune

Geography of North Carolina
Geography of Virginia
Shipwrecks in the Atlantic Ocean
Outer Banks
Ship graveyards

Graveyard of the Atlantic


Pontygwaith (Welsh language: "Bridge of work" or "Bridge of the Ironworks") is a small village located in the Rhondda Fach valley in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales, in the community of Tylorstown.

History
Pontygwaith takes its name from a blast furnace built in the early 16th century, though by 1863 it was described as a shapeless ruin The location of the furnace was at the north end of what today is Furnace Road and the only documented proof of the structure is in a contract drawn up in 1614 between John Hanbury of Pontypool and Richard ap Rhys of Llantrisant for the supply of charcoal to the "furnace of Penrees" (Penrhys).

Elfed Davies, Labour Party Member of Parliament for Rhondda East 1959-74 and who went on to become elevated to the Peerage as Lord Davies of Penrhys, was born at Fenwick Street, Pontygwaith.

Pontygwaith was the birthplace of composer Mansel Thomas OBE (1909 – 1986).

Transport
Between 1849 and 1856, the Taff Vale Railway opened the Maerdy Branch from , including a station at . Passenger services were withdrawn from Pontygwaith Halt in 1914 but passenger services continued along the line until 1964. The line closed completely after the last train in August 1986 after coal from Mardy Colliery was raised through Tower Colliery. Since 2005, the southern section from Porth to Pontygwaith is now the A4223 Porth and Lower Rhondda Fach Relief Road (Porth Bypass). The upper section including the section passing Pontygwaith has become a branch of the Taff Trail cycleway.

References

Villages in Rhondda Cynon Taf

Pontygwaith, Rhondda


Ron Bozman is an American film producer who won an Academy Award for Best Picture in 1991 for the film The Silence of the Lambs.

Personal life
Bozman was born in Dallas, Texas. He grew up in Garland, Texas, graduating from Garland High School in 1965. He graduated from Rice University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology in 1969. He lives in New York City, with his wife Kyle McCarthy and his son Regan.

Career
Bozman broke into the film business in 1974 when he was a production manager for the film The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, a low-budget horror movie that developed a cult following.

He was a first assistant director on a string of successful movies through the 1980s, including The Muppets Take Manhattan, Something Wild and Married to the Mob. He then went on to be a full producer on Waiting for the Light (1990) and The Silence of the Lambs (1991).

In 1991, Bozman won the Academy Award for Best Picture as one of the producers of Jonathan Demme's The Silence of the Lambs—one of only three films to win all the major categories in that competition (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actor, and Best Actress).

Two years later, Bozman was an executive producer on Philadelphia, another film directed by Demme, which won two Academy Awards.

Bozman also produced The Ref, Eddie, Beloved, For Love of the Game, Changing Lanes, The Human Stain, The Stepford Wives, Failure to Launch, Perfect Stranger, and Confessions of a Shopaholic.

References

External links

Film producers from Texas
Living people
People from Garland, Texas
Rice University alumni
Producers who won the Best Picture Academy Award
Year of birth missing (living people)

Ron Bozman


Mahmoud Shaltout or Mahmud Shaltut (1893–1963) () was an Egyptian Islamic jurist and scholar. He was a reformer of al-Azhar, a center of Islamic learning in Cairo. He was the highest religious authority in Egypt during the 1960s. He was received his elementary religious education in Alexandria, Egypt. He then spent many years at al-Azhar University in Cairo. There he rose to become rector of the university. Shaltut was a very active writer on the sharia and on tafsir (explaining texts). Some consider him to be the best example of the intellectual and scholarly project of Imam Muhammad Abduh.

He was born in a farming village in Lower Egypt. Shaltut distinguished himself as a student at the religious institute of Alexandria and later at al-Azhar. He became an instructor of Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh) at al-Azhar in 1927. The following year, the reform-minded Muhammad Mustafa al-Maraghi was appointed shaykh al-Azhar (rector). Shaltut was one of his best supporters. When al-Maraghi was forced out of office the following year, Shaltut continued pressing for reforms.

Shaltut himself took many progressive stands. He wanted translating of the Quran. He was in favor of re-establishing relations with Shia Muslims. He suggested sending Azhari students to Europe for graduate studies. He wanted to admit women. He also wanted to add scientific and technical studies to al-Azhar. Yet he survived as a reformer within al-Azhar. This was unlike such former Azhari modernists as Taha Hussein, Ali Abd al-Raziq, and Mustafa Abd al-Raziq, who ended up on the outside. Out of favor with King Faruq, Shaltut helped deliver Azhari support to Nasser against the Muslim Brothers.

His views on Shi'ism
In an effort bring together Sunnis and Shiites worldwide, Shaltut issued a fatwa (religious injunction). It recognized (Twelver) Shiite law as a fifth school alongside the four Sunni schools. He recognized the Ja'fari school of law (called Ithna Ashariyya, or the Twelvers, the largest group in Shia Islam) as one of the five mainstream schools of thought in Islam. This was an important achievement in attempting to unite Muslims around the world.

The term "Ja'fari" relates to Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq (d. 765). Ja'fari became increasingly used during the twentieth century in the efforts to add Shi'ism as a fifth school of law (madhhab) along with the four established Sunni schools. This led to an interview (and later a fatwa) given by the Shaikh al-Azhar Mahmud Shaltut in 1959. Shaltut went as far as declaring that Muslims are free to attach themselves to any of the five schools.

The fatwa of Mahmud Shaltut was published (in 1959) under the title Islam: the religion of unity. It was introduced by two arguments. The historical argument about mutual respect and tolerance between different legal schools of Sunnis as well as the Shi'i school. The other was an argument about the harmful effects of prejudice between Muslim schools of fiqh. It was argued that the spirit of ijtihad had turned into antagonism and they were no longer having discussions. Shaltut feels that all schools of fiqh should be ready to accept from one another. They should accept any idea which follows Islamic principles and that ensures the welfare of family and society. As a first step the Ja'fari school of fiqh was included in the curriculum of al-'Azhar.

His opinion on apostasy
Shaltut is of the opinion that disbelief in Islam (kufr) is itself not a cause for killing the disbeliever. The apostate should not be killed, since the punishment for apostasy is hellfire and the apostate has no penalty in this world. Mahmud Shaltut believes this based on relevant Qur'anic evidence and concludes that apostasy carries no worldly penalty because it speaks only of punishment in the afterlife.

References

Other websites
 The Oxford Dictionary of Islam (Oxford Quick Reference)

1893 births
1963 deaths
Egyptian Muslims
Islamic religious leaders

Mahmoud Shaltout


Marske Hall is a 17th-century former mansion house, now a Valorum Care Group  residential care home, in Marske-by-the-Sea, Redcar and Cleveland, England. It has Grade I listed building status.

The building is constructed of squared stone in two storeys to an E-shaped plan with tiled roofs and a nine bay frontage which incorporates two three storey turrets. The facade, which twice incorporates the arms of the Pennyman family, is little changed to this day.

History
The Manor of Marske was purchased in 1616 by William Pennyman, who built the imposing mansion in 1625. He was made 1st Baronet Pennyman of Marske in 1628 and appointed High Sheriff of Yorkshire in 1635–36. On his death in 1643 the manor passed to his half-brother James, who was made 1st Baronet Pennyman of Ormesby in 1664. In the Civil War James Pennyman was a Royalist and created an army made of his tenants, which was involved in a battle against Oliver Cromwell on Marske beach in 1643. Cromwell, keen to gain a foothold in this part of the world, tried to land a party of men on the seafront near to the village, and was successfully repelled by Sir James and his army. For this delinquency he was convicted and fined £1200, a burden which may have contributed to his decision to sell the estate to the Lowther family in 1650.

William Lowther (1676–1705) was made 1st Baronet Lowther of Marske and was elected MP for Lancaster in 1702. His only son Thomas, the 2nd baronet, was elected MP for Lancaster in 1727. The latter's son, William, the 3rd baronet, was MP for Cumberland in 1755 and died unmarried in 1756, leaving Marske to four Wilson brothers.

The estate was acquired by Thomas Dundas, 1st Baron Dundas from the Wilsons in 1762. His son Lawrence was a Member of Parliament for Richmond and also served as Lord Lieutenant of Orkney and Shetland. He was ennobled in 1838 as Earl of Zetland and died at Aske Hall in 1839. Marske descended via Thomas Dundas, 2nd Earl of Zetland (whose horse Voltigeur won both The Derby and St Leger Stakes in 1850) to Lawrence Dundas, 3rd Earl of Zetland, who was elevated to Marquess of Zetland in 1892 and died in 1929. The last person to live at the hall was the Dowager Lady Zetland who died in 1943 at the age of 92.

During the Great War, the Hall was used by the Royal Flying Corps and during World War II by the army. In 1948, it was made into a private school, but was damaged in 1957 after pupils played with gunpowder. The building was then abandoned for a few years, until in 1961 Lord Zetland donated it to the Leonard Cheshire Foundation. It was opened in 1963 as a residential care home providing nursing care for 30 disabled people. In 2019 the home was sold to Valorum Care Group and continues as a residential care home.

References
   A History of the County of York North Riding: Volume 2 (1923) pp399-405 from British History on Line

External links

Country houses in North Yorkshire
Grade I listed buildings in North Yorkshire

Marske Hall


Optiarc is a brand of optical disc drives and solid-state drives. It is owned by a US-based Vinpower Digital, Inc.

Initially Optiarc was established on April 3, 2006 as a joint venture between Sony (55% shares) and NEC (45% shares). The company, named Sony NEC Optiarc, focused on manufacturing optical disk drives primarily for the OEM desktop and notebook PC markets.

On September 11, 2008, it was announced that Sony would take over NEC's 45% share, making Optiarc a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony, to be called Sony Optiarc. This took effect on December 5, 2008

In March 2013, Sony closed its Optiarc optical disc drive division, laying off about 400 employees globally.

In 2017, an American company, Vinpower Digital, whose main business is manufacturing optical disc and other media duplicators for the commercial market, acquired the rights to the Optiarc brand and product line. The brand PioData is also owned by Vinpower Digital.

Products
Products were both DVD+/-R(W) and BD-ROM drives. Among other things, Sony Optiarc supplied the Blu-ray drives for the Sony PlayStation 3. The naming scheme for the drives is as follows: DDU stands for DVD-ROM, AD stands for DVD-RW, BR for BD-ROM and BC for BD Combo. A combo drive is a drive that only supports the newer format in reading and the predecessor in writing. The three digits that follow indicate the generation, the design (5.25" or slimline) and the speed class. The digit after that the equipment variant and the appended letter the interface. An AD-7243S is a 5.25" DVD-RW Drive with 24x speed when writing to DVD-R and DVD+R blanks. It also supports Labelflash. For Lightscribe, a "1" would be in the fourth position. The "S" indicates SATA. An "A" stands for PATA. However, the last Optiarc drives were no longer available with this legacy interface.

See also

Similar joint ventures
 Hitachi-LG Data Storage
 Toshiba Samsung Storage Technology Corporation

References

External links

Companies established in 2006
Computer storage companies
Electronics companies of Japan
Former NEC subsidiaries
Joint ventures
Optical computer storage
Former Sony subsidiaries
Technology companies disestablished in 2013

Optiarc


Akiva Arieh Weiss, also spelled Aryeh (1868-1947), was a Zionist activist, architect, and city planner in Palestine. He is best known as the primary founder of Tel Aviv. He had been the initiator of the project to create the "first Hebrew city" in Palestine and presided over its establishment. He also helped establish the Jewish diamond industry and textile industry in Palestine.

Biography
Weiss, a jeweler and watchmaker, was born to a Jewish family in Hrodna (in present day Belarus) in 1868, but raised in Lodz, Poland. Along with his wife and six children, he immigrated from Russian Poland to Palestine in 1906.

As president of the then newly established building cooperative named simply Ahuzat Bayit, Hebrew for Building Society, Weiss wrote and presented a prospectus to the group in which he laid out his vision for a new Jewish city. Arthur Ruppin's memoirs recount that Weiss demanded the creation of "a Hebrew urban centre in a healthy environment, planned according to the rules of aesthetics and modern hygiene." Weiss would later on tell Ruppin; "Outside Jaffa, on the road to Petach Tikva...we intend to found a modern Jewish urban district. We already have our eye on a particular tract of land."

Currently scholarship also suggests that he likely presided over the 1909 real estate lottery (and is the leading figure in Abraham Soskin's famous photograph of the event) in which 66 Jewish families drew numbers written on seashells to determine the allocation of lots in the about-to-be established city of Tel Aviv.

Weiss was a founder of the textile industry in Mandatory Palestine, and built the earliest textile factory, the Lodzia House.

One of Weiss' visions which became reality was the establishment of a Jewish diamond industry in Palestine.

Legacy
In 1956, Weiss's children put together a posthumous collection of his works, essays and letters. The book featured an introduction by Moshe Sharett, the 2nd Prime Minister of Israel and a man of considerable stature at the time. Sharett's introduction read thus (translated from Hebrew):"It is not always those who start things that are remembered. Sometimes they are forgotten, and those who continue and finish the work are those who ultimately win praise. This is what happened with Tel Aviv. The "first founder" was forgotten. There are no pictures of him in the mayor's office and no streets named after him….The people who have put together this book have done a good thing by making this book. Let this collection serve as a memorial to this modest and noble man who was full of ideas and actions, and whose ideas have and will came to life."

House

The cornerstone of Weiss's Tel Aviv house at #2 Herzl Street was laid in 1909. Originally a single-story structure, the upper floor was added in the 1920s.  The house was restored between 1996 and 2011.

References

1868 births
1947 deaths
Jewellers
Ashkenazi Jews in Mandatory Palestine
Ashkenazi Jews from Ottoman Palestine
Jews from the Russian Empire
Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the Ottoman Empire
Mandatory Palestine people of Belarusian-Jewish descent
Israeli watchmakers (people)
Businesspeople from Łódź
Architects from Ottoman Palestine
Israeli urban planners
Diamond industry in Israel
Jewish architects
Belarusian Zionists
History of Tel Aviv
Businesspeople in textiles
Burials at Trumpeldor Cemetery
Immigrants to Ottoman Palestine

Akiva Aryeh Weiss


Dyfnwal Hen or Dumnagual Hen ("Dyfnwal the Old") was a ruler of the Brittonic kingdom of Alt Clut, later known as Strathclyde, probably sometime in the early 6th century. His biography is vague, but he was regarded as an important ancestor figure for several kingly lines in the Hen Ogledd or "Old North" of Britain. As an ancestor figure, he compares to Coel Hen, another obscure figure credited with founding a number of northern dynasties.

According to the Harleian genealogies, Dyfnwal was the son of a Cinuit, the son of Ceretic Guletic, probably his predecessors as king. The Harleian genealogies name three of his sons, each of whom formed a kingly line: Clinoch, Dyfnwal's successor as king of Alt Clut; Guipno (NB this is NOT the same name as "Gwyddno" ), who fathered the later king Neithon; and Cynfelyn, a king of Eidyn or Edinburgh. The Bonedd Gwŷr y Gogledd, a later genealogy of northern kings, gives a modified version of Dyfnwal's family tree. Here, he is the son of Idnyued and the grandson of Maxen Wledig, better known as the Roman usurper Magnus Maximus. The Bonedd follows the Harleian in making Dyfnwal the great-grandfather of Rhydderch Hael, a later king of Alt Clut, but his other descendants are altered significantly. A Gwyddno is included, but he listed as Dyfnwal's great-grandson rather than son, and he is specifically identified as Gwyddno Garanhir of the Taliesin legend. A highly confused track makes Dyfnwal the ancestor to the family of Áedán mac Gabráin, a 6th-century ruler of the Gaelic kingdom of Dál Riata.

Notes

References

6th-century Scottish monarchs
Monarchs of Strathclyde

Dyfnwal Hen


Martin John Sheridan (March 28, 1881 – March 27, 1918) was a three time Olympic Games gold medallist. He was born in Bohola, County Mayo, Ireland, and died in St. Vincent's Hospital in Manhattan, New York, the day before his 37th birthday, a very early casualty of the 1918 flu pandemic. He is buried in Calvary Cemetery, Queens, New York. He was part of a group of Irish-American athletes known as the "Irish Whales".

Career
At 6 ft 3 in (191 cm) and 194 lbs (88 kg), Sheridan was the best all-around athlete of the Irish American Athletic Club, and like many of his team mates, served with the New York City Police Department (from 1906 until his death in 1918).  Sheridan was so well respected in the NYPD, that he served as the Governor's personal bodyguard when the governor was in New York City.

A five-time Olympic gold medalist, with a total of nine Olympic medals, Sheridan was called "one of the greatest figures that ever represented this country in international sport, as well as being one of the most popular who ever attained the championship honor." He won the discus throw event at the 1904, 1906, and 1908 Summer Olympics as well as the shot put at the 1906 Olympics and the Greek discus in 1908. At the 1906 Intercalated Games in Athens he also won silver medals in the standing high jump, standing long jump and the stone throw.

In 1907, Sheridan won the National Amateur Athletic Union discus championship and the Canadian championship, and in 1908 he won the Metropolitan, National and Canadian championships as well as two gold medals in the discus throw and bronze in the standing long jump at the 1908 Olympic Games.

Two of Martin Sheridan's gold medals from the 1904 Olympic Games in St. Louis, Missouri and one of his medals from the 1906 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, are currently located in the USA Track & Field's Hall of Fame History Gallery, in Washington Heights, Manhattan.

Legacy
It is often claimed that Sheridan fueled a controversy in London in 1908, when flagbearer Ralph Rose refused to dip the flag to King Edward VII.  Sheridan is supposed to have supported Rose by explaining "This flag dips to no earthly king," and it is claimed that his statement exemplified both Irish and American defiance of the British monarchy. However, careful research has shown that this was first reported in 1952. Sheridan himself made no mention of it in his published reports on the Games and neither did his obituary.

The inscription on the granite Celtic Cross monument marking Martin Sheridan's grave in Calvary Cemetery, Queens, New York says in part: "Devoted to the Institutions of his Country, and the Ideals and Aspirations of his Race. Athlete. Patriot."

According to his obituary in the New York Times, Sheridan was "one of the greatest athletes the United States has ever known".

Notes

References

 http://www.wingedfist.com/assets/Sheridan_from_Sprin_3100.pdf Police Athletes of the Past: Martin Sheridan - Spring 3100

External links

New York Times obituary

1881 births
1918 deaths
Sportspeople from County Mayo
American Roman Catholics
American male shot putters
American male discus throwers
American male high jumpers
American male long jumpers
Olympic gold medalists for the United States in track and field
Olympic bronze medalists for the United States in track and field
Athletes (track and field) at the 1904 Summer Olympics
Athletes (track and field) at the 1906 Intercalated Games
Athletes (track and field) at the 1908 Summer Olympics
Irish emigrants to the United States
New York City Police Department officers
Burials at Calvary Cemetery (Queens)
Deaths from the Spanish flu pandemic in New York (state)
Medalists at the 1908 Summer Olympics
Medalists at the 1904 Summer Olympics
Medalists at the 1906 Intercalated Games
Track and field athletes from New York City
People from Bohola
Police officers from County Mayo

Martin Sheridan


Abdominal compartment syndrome occurs when the abdominal cavity (compartment) within the body becomes subject to increased pressure from within. This may be caused by internal bleeding, a blockage or fluid build-up in the intestines, or 'ascites' which is when fluid accumulates in the peritoneal cavity - the space between the lining of the abdomen (peritoneum) and the abdominal organs (the stomach, small and large intestines, pancreas, liver, and gallbladder).

This increased pressure causes the abdomen to distend or expand, stretching the skin and placing pressure on the abdominal organs, which can constrict the blood vessels which supply them. When the pressure reaches a level above that of the blood supply to the tissues and organs of the abdomen, ischemia will happen leading to organ dysfunction and eventually failure.

An operation called a decompressive laparotomy may need to be performed, where an incision is made to open the abdominal cavity. The incision is typically left open for a period of time to reduce the  pressure in the abdomen.

Abdominal compartment syndrome can be divided into three categories:

Primary or acute abdominal compartment syndrome occurs when injuries within the abdomen are responsible for the compartment syndrome
Secondary abdominal compartment syndrome occurs when there are no visible injury within the abdomen but injuries outside the abdomen cause fluid build-up inside the abdominal cavity
Chronic abdominal compartment syndrome occurs happens in association with diseases such as cirrhosis of the liver.

References

Syndromes

Abdominal compartment syndrome


End Day is a 2005 docu-drama produced by the BBC. It aired on the National Geographic Channel, on the TV series, National Geographic Channel Presents, and BBC Three that depicts a set of five doomsday scenarios. The documentary follows the fictional scientist Dr. Howell, played by Glenn Conroy, as he travels from his London hotel room to his laboratory in New York City, and shows how each scenario affects his journey as well as those around him, with various experts providing commentary on that specific disaster as it unfolds. After each 'End Day' runs its course, the day repeats, this time with the next scenario panning out.

The following descriptions of the program were released by the BBC:

"Imagine waking up to the last day on Earth..."

"Inspired by the predictions of scientists, End Day creates apocalyptic scenarios that go beyond reality. In a single hour, explore five different fictional disasters, from a giant tsunami hitting New York to a deadly meteorite strike on Berlin."

Scenarios
Below are the various catastrophes depicted in the order they occur in the film:

Mega-Tsunami
In this scenario, a volcanic eruption of Cumbre Vieja on the island of La Palma in the Canary Islands triggers a massive landslide. A sizable portion of the island collapses into the sea, causing a massive tsunami, 500 feet tall, to race across the Atlantic Ocean. The United States Navy searches for the wave and locates it, predicting that the mega-tsunami will strike the East Coast of the United States. An evacuation of New York City is ordered but not completed by the time the wave arrives and inundates the city, killing thousands of people but leaving many sturdier buildings intact, which proved to be crucial in providing a means of escape. A briefing by the US government after the flood waters started receding reveals that the wave travelled over two miles inland, but also that many of those who survived the arrival of the wave in New York had climbed staircases to the upper floors of the city's taller buildings.

Killer Meteorite
This scenario begins with a mysterious 'missile attack' in a remote area in the Middle East. The 'missiles' are soon revealed to be small asteroid fragments, the advance guard of a much larger asteroid on a collision course with Earth, threatening Berlin, Germany. The asteroid is located, and the militaries of Germany, Britain, and the United States attempt to alter its course using nuclear ICBMs. The attempt fails, resulting in the asteroid being broken into hundreds of smaller pieces. Berlin is evacuated by air and rail, with those unable to escape seeking shelter in the city's U-Bahn stations, leaving the city largely deserted. Countless smaller meteorites rain down across Berlin, while a speeding train manages to escape just in time to avoid the heart of the city's obliteration by the largest of the asteroid fragments, leaving behind a large impact crater where the Reichstag once stood.

Global Pandemic

In this scenario, a respiratory virus, a variant of influenza known as the "Far East Virus" with similarities to SARS is unleashed in the United Kingdom after an infected passenger from a flight known as UK Airlines 009, which originated in Hong Kong, begins infecting people on a London Underground train by coughing uncontrollably. The virus wreaks havoc as it spreads phenomenally throughout the rest of Europe; cases start popping up in North America and other countries. Meanwhile, a young woman from London and her daughter attempt to make their way to her mother's house, knowing she was one of the passengers on board the flight. Arriving at the housing estate where her mother lives, the woman goes to post a message through her mother's postbox, unaware that she is lying dead just behind the house's front door. A man desperate to leave the quarantine zone steals the woman's car with her daughter still inside but dies after crashing into a lamppost not far away; a soldier approaches the car and rescues the child. Countries around the world enact martial law and close their borders in a frantic attempt to quarantine the spread of the disease; however, they are unsuccessful, and the outbreak reaches the scale of the 1918-20 Spanish flu pandemic, killing millions of people across the globe.

Supervolcano
In this scenario, the supervolcano beneath Yellowstone National Park begins to become active, showing the initial signs of activity through volcanic earthquakes in Wyoming. Volcanic activity quickly increases in the area at an exponential rate. A family of tourists visiting Yellowstone die after the ground surrounding a geyser explodes, sending their car hurtling down a hill right before Yellowstone itself explodes, incinerating everything within 100 kilometres of the caldera. A driver fleeing from a pyroclastic flow is killed after driving the wrong way down a highway into the side of a jackknifing 18-wheeler, whose own driver is then presumably killed by the pyroclastic flow. The volcanic ash launched high into the atmosphere causes chaos, grounding the aviation industry across America and Europe and being projected to bring a period of global cooling to the planet. In the final scene, injured survivors emerge from the wreckage of Denver, Colorado, the city having been scorched by lava and pyroclastic flows and enveloped in ash clouds. This segment has only aired in the UK. The BBC docudrama Supervolcano explored this scenario more in-depth.

Strange Matter
This is the only scenario in which Dr. Howell reaches his laboratory unhindered, with people protesting outside and shouting, "Stop the experiment!" On numerous television screens, scientists talk about a new type of matter, the strangelet, and just how unlikely it is for one to be formed. Upon arrival, Howell and his colleagues initiate a highly controversial experiment using the world's largest particle accelerator. The experiment quickly goes out of control, which ironically results in the creation of a single strangelet as scientist Brian Cox describes just what the mysterious particle can do. The strangelet first causes the collider and most of the surrounding area to explode, then rises out of the ground and converts the whole planet into strange matter, starting with New York City. The strangelet wreaks havoc on the Earth's climate, with newly-converted strange matter distributing itself around the globe. Paris is devoured by a gigantic storm system, and the strange matter continues to spread at an exponential rate. An Airbus A320 slams into a Boeing 777 while attempting to flee the storm, killing all on board both aircraft. Off-screen, the strangelet finishes consuming and converting the planet into a sphere of pure strange matter. This scenario establishes that, by preventing Dr. Howell from reaching his laboratory, the other scenarios saved humanity, as it was confirmed that the facility would be shut down and the experiment not done if Dr. Howell did not make it.

However, after the plane crashed, the physicist Frank Close reassured us that this particular scenario was unlikely to happen, as scientists had already done similar experiments by the time the movie was produced, and no disaster came after it. This is the only scenario in the film that doesn't end with a scientist saying that "it's not a question of if but when", as Close ends the segment by saying that "It makes great science fiction, great entertainment, great television, but on this – we can sleep easy".

Alternate versions
All original official sources cite five different scenarios including a giant volcanic explosion, but the volcanic explosion segment has never been aired in the United States. It has been edited out by the National Geographic Channel. Possibly for time problems or the inaccurate depiction of the Western United States and Yellowstone park. All references to it on the National Geographic website have been removed. Only the other four scenarios have been aired. However, the BBC website had the super volcano segment until it was removed sometime after 28 May. 2006. UKTV History aired the version including the supervolcano segment on 23 January 2007. However, in the original BBC airing each of the scenarios showed the attempts of a family or person to escape the depicted disaster as well as following Dr. Howell, these segments were mostly cut from the UKTV History version aired in 2007. The volcano sequence can however be found on the popular video website YouTube.

A French-dubbed version of End Day was also aired in France (on the channel W9) and in Belgium (on RTBF), under the title Fin du monde : les quatre scénarios (End day: the four scenarios). The "super volcano" scenario was not included.

In-film references
At one point when Dr. Howell drives off in a taxi at the beginning of the second segment, a front of a cinema is visible behind with "Groundhog Day now showing". In Groundhog Day, the protagonist is stuck in a single day of his life, repeating it time after time with minor variations – similar to the life of Dr. Howell. Transitions between the disasters are shown such that it turns out that the prior disaster was actually a movie on a TV that has been left running overnight and the credits would roll as Dr. Howell's alarm clock goes off.

See also
 Extinction event
 Near-Earth Object

References

External links

Video.Google.com: HorizonEndDay.mp4

BBC television docudramas
British documentary television films
National Geographic (American TV channel) original programming
Science docudramas
2005 British television series debuts
Films directed by Gareth Edwards

End Day


Khanom Tokyo or Khanom Tokiao (, , ) is a Thai street snack. It is a thin flat pancake filled with sweet custard cream. Some have a savory filling, like pork or sausage.

History
The snack is believed to have been sold for the first time in 1967 at a Japanese department store in Bangkok, named Thai-Daimaru (タイ大丸), and is said to be a Thai adaptation of the Japanese dorayaki.

The snack can have either sweet or savoury fillings. In the Thai language, khanom means "snack" or "sweet". The name Tokyo is taken from the capital of Japan.  Although the name of this snack suggests a Japanese origin, in reality this is a Thai invention.

Ingredients
The batter is made from egg, wheat flour, sugar, fresh milk, baking soda. The fillings are usually sweet: vanilla cream, taro, pandan cream, various fruit jams, shredded coconut, cocoa powder etc. Often fillings are kind of sweet but always mixed with something salty such as quail eggs or small sausages.

References

External links

Street food
Thai desserts and snacks
Stuffed dishes

Khanom Tokyo


The Confederate States Marine Corps (CSMC) was a branch of the Confederate States armed forces during the American Civil War. It was established on March 16, 1861. The CSMC's manpower was initially authorized to include one major, one quartermaster sergeant, and 600 men divided into six companies of 100 marines each. This was increased on May 20, 1861 raising the rank of officers and adding more men. The organization of the corps began at Montgomery, Alabama. It was completed at Richmond, Virginia, when the capital of the Confederate States of America was moved there. The CSMC headquarters and main training facilities remained in Richmond, Virginia throughout the war. It was located at Camp Beall on Drewry's Bluff and at the Gosport Shipyard in Portsmouth, Virginia. The last CSMC unit surrendered on April 9, 1865, with the Confederacy itself surrendering a month later.

History
The Corps was established by an act passed by the Congress of the Confederate States on March 16, 1861. It was modeled after the United States Marine Corps. Many of its officers were U.S. Marines who joined the Confederacy after the war started. The strength of the Corps were authorized for 46 officers and 944 enlisted men. But it always had fewer marines than it was authorized to have. One of the reasons was that Marines were paid $3 a month less than other Confederate enlisted men. Late in the war they drew men from Confederate Army conscripts and were finally given bounties. Both of these helped to fill out their ranks. Lloyd J. Beall served as a colonel and as Commandant of the Corps. He had no marine experience and was a former United States Army paymaster.

While similar to the United States Marine Corps, there were some differences. They replaced the Marine Corps fife with the bugle. Their uniforms were similar to the British Royal Marines. The Confederate Marines were organized into permanent companies, unlike the U.S. Marines. Their tasks were much the same as the U.S. Marines. They provided detachments of marines for warships, commerce raiders, shore batteries and to guard shipyards. They served as landing forces and sharpshooters. Later their duties including manning the main guns of warships. A detachment of Company A served as part of the crew of the ironclad CSS Virginia during the Battle of Hampton Roads.

During the entire Civil War, a total of 148 Confederate Marines were killed in action. Another 312 Marines died from other causes.

Uniforms

Officers
Officers wore a French Kepi of different colors, but most were grey and blue. They wore frock coats in a shade of gray. The coats had two rows of seven brass buttons (for a total of 14) which were made in England. They wore dark trousers, usually blue in color.

The Marines used the Confederate Army's rank insignia. One collar stripe for a second lieutanant, two for a first lieutanant and three for a captain. A major wore a star on his collar. A lieutenant colonel wore two stars while a colonel wore three. Officers also wore Austrian knots on their sleeves. A lieutenant wore one braid, a captain wore two and field officers wore three.

Enlisted men

The enlisted ranks also wore the kepis. They wore a grey coat trimmed in black around the collar and cuffs. Non-commissioned officer coat sleeves were trimmed in flax-colored linen. All enlisted men had one row of brass buttons on their coats. Like the officers' buttons, they had a Roman numeral "M". Enlisted ranks were indicated by black chevrons. They were the same as those worn by the army, but instead of wearing them with the points down, marines wore them with the points up. The ranks insignia was the same. A corporal had two stripes while a sergeant had three. A first sergeant wore three stripes with a diamond in the center. A sergeant major wore three stripes up with three arcs below.

Both officers and men also wore Fatigues when not in their dress uniforms.

References

Other websites
 Confederate States Marine Corps Flag; YouTube

Confederate States of America

Confederate States Marine Corps