Heitor Villa-Lobos (March 5, 1887November 17, 1959) was a Brazilian composer, conductor, cellist, and classical guitarist described as "the single most significant creative figure in 20th-century Brazilian art music". Villa-Lobos has become the best-known South American composer of all time. A prolific composer, he wrote numerous orchestral, chamber, instrumental and vocal works, totaling over 2,000 works by his death in 1959. His music was influenced by both Brazilian folk music and stylistic elements from the European classical tradition, as exemplified by his Bachianas Brasileiras (Brazilian Bachian-pieces) and his Chôros. His Etudes for classical guitar (1929) were dedicated to Andrés Segovia, while his 5 Preludes (1940) were dedicated to his spouse Arminda Neves d'Almeida, a.k.a. "Mindinha". Both are important works in the classical guitar repertory.

Biography

Youth and exploration

Villa-Lobos was born in Rio de Janeiro. His father, Raúl, was a civil servant, an educated man of Spanish extraction, a librarian, and an amateur astronomer and musician.  In Villa-Lobos's early childhood, Brazil underwent a period of social revolution and modernisation, abolishing slavery in 1888 and overthrowing the Empire of Brazil in 1889. The changes in Brazil were reflected in its musical life: previously European music had been the dominant influence, and the courses at the Conservatório de Música were grounded in traditional counterpoint and harmony. Villa-Lobos underwent very little of this formal training. After a few abortive harmony lessons, he learnt music by illicit observation from the top of the stairs of the regular musical evenings at his house arranged by his father. He learned to play cello, clarinet, and classical guitar. When his father died suddenly in 1899 he earned a living for his family by playing in cinema and theatre orchestras in Rio.

Around 1905 Villa-Lobos started explorations of Brazil's "dark interior", absorbing the native Brazilian musical culture. Serious doubt has been cast on some of Villa-Lobos's tales of the decade or so he spent on these expeditions, and about his capture and near escape from cannibals, with some believing them to be fabrications or wildly embellished romanticism. After this period, he gave up any idea of conventional training and instead absorbed the musical influences of Brazil's indigenous cultures, themselves based on Portuguese and African, as well as American Indian elements. His earliest compositions were the result of improvisations on the classical guitar from this period.

Villa-Lobos played with many local Brazilian street-music bands; he was also influenced by the cinema and Ernesto Nazareth's improvised tangos and polkas. For a time Villa-Lobos became a cellist in a Rio opera company, and his early compositions include attempts at Grand Opera. Encouraged by Arthur Napoleão, a pianist and music publisher, he decided to compose seriously.

Brazilian influences

On November 12, 1913, Villa-Lobos married the pianist Lucília Guimarães, ended his travels, and began his career as a serious musician. Up until his marriage, he had not learned to play the piano, so his wife taught him the rudiments of the instrument. His music began to be published in 1913. He introduced some of his compositions in a series of occasional chamber concerts (later also orchestral concerts) from 19151921, mainly in Rio de Janeiro's Salão Nobre do Jornal do Comércio.

The music presented at these concerts shows his coming to terms with the conflicting elements in his experience, and overcoming a crisis of identity, as to whether European or Brazilian music would dominate his style. This was decided by 1916, the year in which he composed the symphonic poems Amazonas and Tédio de alvorada, the first version of what would become Uirapurú (although Amazonas was not performed until 1929, and Uirapurú was only completed in 1934 and first performed in 1935). These works drew from native Brazilian legends and the use of "primitive" folk material.

European influences did still inspire Villa-Lobos. In 1917 Sergei Diaghilev made an impact on tour in Brazil with his Ballets Russes. That year Villa-Lobos also met the French composer Darius Milhaud, who was in Rio as secretary to Paul Claudel at the French Legation. Milhaud brought the music of Claude Debussy, Erik Satie, and possibly Igor Stravinsky; in return Villa-Lobos introduced Milhaud to Brazilian street music. In 1918, he also met the pianist Arthur Rubinstein, who became a lifelong friend and champion; this meeting prompted Villa-Lobos to write more piano music.

In about 1918 Villa-Lobos abandoned the use of opus numbers for his compositions as a constraint to his pioneering spirit. With the piano suite Carnaval das crianças (Children's carnival) of 191920, Villa-Lobos liberated his style altogether from European Romanticism: the suite, in eight movements with the finale written for piano duet, depicts eight characters or scenes from Rio's Lenten Carnival.

In February 1922, a festival of modern art took place in São Paulo and Villa-Lobos contributed performances of his own works. The press were unsympathetic and the audience were not appreciative; their mockery was encouraged by Villa-Lobos's being forced by a foot infection to wear one carpet slipper. The festival ended with Villa-Lobos's Quarteto simbólico, composed as an impression of Brazilian urban life.

In July 1922, Rubinstein gave the first performance of the piano suite A Prole do Bebê (The Baby's Family), composed in 1918. There had recently been an attempted military coup on Copacabana Beach, and places of entertainment had been closed for days; the public possibly wanted something less intellectually demanding, and the piece was booed. Villa-Lobos was philosophical about it, and Rubinstein later reminisced that the composer said, "I am still too good for them." The piece has been called "the first enduring work of Brazilian modernism".

Rubinstein suggested that Villa-Lobos tour abroad, and in 1923 he set out for Paris. His avowed aim was to exhibit his exotic sound world rather than to study. Just before he left he completed his Nonet (for ten players and chorus) which was first performed after his arrival in the French capital. He stayed in Paris in 192324 and 192730, and there he met influential residents including Edgard Varèse, Pablo Picasso, Leopold Stokowski and Aaron Copland. Parisian concerts of his music made a strong impression.

In the 1920s, Villa-Lobos also met the Spanish classical guitarist Andrés Segovia, who commissioned a guitar study: the composer responded by writing a set of twelve such pieces, each based on a tiny detail or figure played by Brazilian itinerant street musicians (chorões), transformed into an étude that is not merely didactic. The music of chorões also provided the initial inspiration for his Chôros, a series of compositions written between 1920 and 1929. The first European performance of Chôros No. 10, in Paris, caused a storm: L.Chevaillier wrote of it in Le Monde musical, "[...it is] an art [...] to which we must now give a new name."

Vargas era

In 1930, Villa-Lobos, who was in Brazil to conduct, planned to return to Paris. One of the consequences of the revolution of that year was that money could no longer be taken out of the country, and so he had no means of paying any rents abroad. Thus forced to stay in Brazil, he arranged concerts instead around São Paulo, and composed patriotic and educational music. In 1932, he became director of the Superintendência de Educação Musical e Artística (SEMA), and his duties included arranging concerts including the Brazilian premieres of Ludwig van Beethoven's Missa Solemnis and Johann Sebastian Bach's Mass in B minor as well as Brazilian compositions. His position at SEMA led him to compose mainly patriotic and propagandist works. His series of Bachianas Brasileiras were a notable exception.

In 1936, at the age of forty-nine, Villa-Lobos left his wife, and became romantically involved with Arminda Neves d'Almeida, who remained his companion until death. Arminda eventually took on the name Villa-Lobos, though Villa-Lobos never divorced his first wife. After Villa-Lobos' death, Arminda became the Director of the Museu Villa-Lobos in 1960, until her death in 1985. Arminda was herself a musician and a significant influence on Villa-Lobos. He also dedicated a good number of works to her, including the Ciclo brasileiro and many of the Chôros.

Villa-Lobos's writings during the presidency of Getúlio Vargas (1930–1945) include propaganda for Brazilian nationhood (brasilidade), and teaching and theoretical works. His Guia Prático ran to 11volumes, Solfejos (two volumes, 1942 and 1946) contained vocal exercises, and Canto Orfeônico (1940 and 1950) contained patriotic songs for schools and for civic occasions. His music for the film O Descobrimento do Brasil (The Discovery of Brazil) of 1936, which included versions of earlier compositions, was arranged into orchestral suites, and includes a depiction of the first mass in Brazil in a setting for double choir.

Villa-Lobos published A Música Nacionalista no Govêrno Getúlio Vargas 1941, in which he characterised the nation as a sacred entity whose symbols (including its flag, motto and national anthem) were inviolable. Villa-Lobos was the chair of a committee whose task was to define a definitive version of the Brazilian national anthem.

After 1937, during the Estado Novo period when Vargas seized power by decree, Villa-Lobos continued producing patriotic works directly accessible to mass audiences. Independence Day on September 7, 1939, involved 30,000 children singing the national anthem and items arranged by Villa-Lobos. For the 1943 celebrations he also composed the ballet Dança da terra, which the authorities deemed unsuitable until it was revised. The 1943 celebrations did include Villa-Lobos's hymn Invocação em defesa da pátria shortly after Brazil's declaring war on Germany and its allies.

Villa-Lobos's status damaged his reputation among certain schools of musicians, among them disciples of new European trends such as serialismwhich was effectively off limits in Brazil until the 1960s. This crisis was, in part, due to some Brazilian composers finding it necessary to reconcile Villa-Lobos's own liberation of Brazilian music from European models in the 1920s with a style of music they felt to be more universal.

Composer in demand

Vargas fell from power in 1945. Villa-Lobos was able, after the end of the war, to travel abroad again; he returned to Paris, and also made regular visits to the United States as well as travelling to Great Britain, and Israel. He received a huge number of commissions, and fulfilled many of them despite failing health. He composed concertos for piano, cello (the second one in 1953), classical guitar (in 1951 for Segovia, who refused to play it until the composer provided a cadenza in 1956), harp (for Nicanor Zabaleta in 1953) and harmonica (for John Sebastian, Sr. in 1955–56). Other commissions included his Symphony No. 11 (for the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1955), and the opera Yerma (1955–56) based on the play by Federico García Lorca. His prolific output of this period prompted criticisms of note-spinning and banality: critical reactions to his Piano Concerto No. 5 included the comments "bankrupt" and "piano tuners' orgy", "raked the very depths of banality", "nothing ... but soupy textures or a bedraggled romantic idea", and "truly the kind of music that should never get written, still less performed".

His music for the film Green Mansions starring Audrey Hepburn and Anthony Perkins, commissioned by MGM in 1958, earned Villa-Lobos , and he conducted the soundtrack recording himself. The film was in production for many years. Originally to be directed by Vincente Minnelli, it was taken over by Hepburn's husband Mel Ferrer. MGM decided to use only part of Villa-Lobos's music in the actual film, turning instead to Bronisław Kaper for the rest of the music. From the score, Villa-Lobos compiled a work for soprano soloist, male chorus, and orchestra, which he titled Forest of the Amazon and recorded it in 1959 in stereo with Brazilian soprano Bidu Sayão, an unidentified male chorus, and the Symphony of the Air for United Artists Records. The recording was issued both on LP and reel-to-reel tape (United Artist UAC 8007, stereo 7 1/2 IPS).

In June 1959, Villa-Lobos alienated many of his fellow musicians by expressing disillusionment, saying in an interview that Brazil was "dominated by mediocrity". In November he died in Rio; his state funeral was the final major civic event in that city before the capital transferred to Brasília. He is buried in the Cemitério São João Batista in Rio de Janeiro.

Music

His earliest pieces originated in guitar improvisations, for example Panqueca (Pancake) of 1900. The concert series of 191521 included first performances of pieces demonstrating originality and virtuosic technique. Some of these pieces are early examples of elements of importance throughout his œuvre. His attachment to the Iberian Peninsula is demonstrated in Canção Ibéria of 1914 and in orchestral transcriptions of some of Enrique Granados' piano Goyescas (1918, now lost). Other themes that were to recur in his later work include the anguish and despair of the piece Desesperança – Sonata Phantastica e Capricciosa no. 1 (1915), a violin sonata including "histrionic and violently contrasting emotions", the birds of L'oiseau blessé d'une flèche (1913), the mother–child relationship (not usually a happy one in Villa-Lobos's music) in Les mères of 1914, and the flowers of Suíte floral for piano of 191618 which reappeared in Distribuição de flores for flute and classical guitar of 1937.

Reconciling European tradition and Brazilian influences was also an element that bore fruit more formally later. His earliest published work Pequena suíte for cello and piano of 1913 shows a love for the cello, but is not notably Brazilian, although it contains elements that were to resurface later. His three-movement Suíte graciosa of 1915 (expanded to six movements c. 1947 to become his String Quartet No. 1) is influenced by European opera, while Três danças características (africanas e indígenas) of 191416 for piano, later arranged for octet and subsequently orchestrated, is radically influenced by the tribal music of the Caripunas Indians of Mato Grosso.

With his tone poems Amazonas (1917, first performed in Paris in 1929) and Uirapurú (1917, first performed 1935) he created works dominated by indigenous Brazilian influences. The works use Brazilian folk tales and characters, imitations of the sounds of the jungle and its fauna, imitations of the sound of the nose-flute by the violinophone, and not least imitations of the uirapuru bird itself.

His meeting with Arthur Rubinstein in 1918 prompted Villa-Lobos to compose piano music such as Simples coletânea of 1919—which was possibly influenced by Rubinstein's playing of Ravel and Scriabin on his South American tours—and Bailado infernal of 1920. The latter piece includes the tempi and expression markings "vertiginoso e frenético", "infernal" and "mais vivo ainda" (faster still).

Carnaval das crianças of 191920 saw Villa-Lobos's mature style emerge; unconstrained by the use of traditional formulae or any requirement for dramatic tension, the piece at times imitates a mouth organ, children's dances, a harlequinade, and ends with an impression of the carnival parade. This work was orchestrated in 1929 with new linking passages and a new title, Momoprecoce. Naïveté and innocence is also heard in the piano suites A Prole do Bebê (The Baby's Family) of 191821.

Around this time he also fused urban Brazilian influences and impressions, for example in his Quarteto simbólico of 1921. He included the urban street music of the chorões, who were groups containing flute, clarinet and cavaquinho (a Brazilian guitar), and often also including ophicleide, trombones or percussion. Villa-Lobos occasionally joined such bands. Early works showing this influence were incorporated into the Suite populaire brésilienne of 190812 assembled by his publisher, and more mature works include the Sexteto místico (1955, replacing a lost and probably unfinished one begun in 1917), and his setting of the poetry of Mário de Andrade and Catulo da Paxão Cearense in the Canções típicas brasileiras of 1919. His classical guitar studies are also influenced by the music of the chorões.

All the elements mentioned so far are fused in Villa-Lobos's Nonet. Subtitled Impressão rápida do todo o Brasil (A Brief Impression of the Whole of Brazil), the title of the work denotes it as ostensibly chamber music, but it is scored for flute/piccolo, oboe, clarinet, saxophone, bassoon, celesta, harp, piano, a large percussion battery requiring at least two players, and a mixed chorus.

In Paris, his musical vocabulary established, Villa-Lobos solved the problem of his works' form. It was perceived as an incongruity that his Brazilian impressionism should be expressed in the form of quartets and sonatas. He developed new forms to free his imagination from the constraints of conventional musical development such as that required in sonata form. The multi-sectional poema form may be seen in the Suite for Voice and Violin, which is somewhat like a triptych, and the Poema da criança e sua mamã for voice, flute, clarinet, and cello (1923). The extended Rudepoêma for piano, written for Rubinstein, is a multi-layered work, often requiring notation on several staves, and is both experimental and demanding. Wright calls it "the most impressive result" of this formal development. The Ciranda, or Cirandinha is a stylised treatment of simple Brazilian folk melodies in a wide variety of moods. A ciranda is a child's singing game, but Villa-Lobos's treatment in the works he gave this title are sophisticated. Another form was the Chôros. Villa-Lobos composed more than a dozen works with this title for various instruments, mostly in the years 19241929. He described them as "a new form of musical composition", a transformation of the Brazilian music and sounds "by the personality of the composer".

He also composed between 1930 and 1945 nine pieces he called Bachianas Brasileiras (Brazilian Bachian pieces). These take the forms and nationalism of the Chôros, and add the composer's love of Bach. He incorporated neoclassicism in his nationalistic style. Villa-Lobos's use of archaisms was not new (an early example is his Pequena suíte for cello and piano of 1913). The pieces evolved over the period rather than being conceived as a whole, some of them being revised or added to. They contain some of his most popular music, such as No.5 for soprano and eight cellos (19381945), and No.2 for orchestra of 1930 (the Tocata movement of which is Otrenzinho do caipira, "The little train of the Caipira"). They also show the composer's love for the tonal qualities of the cello, both No.1 and No.5 being scored for no other instruments. In these works the often harsh dissonances of his earlier music are less evident: or, as Simon Wright puts it, they are "sweetened". The transformation of Chôros into Bachianas Brasileiras is demonstrated clearly by the comparison of No.6 for flute and bassoon with the earlier Chôros No. 2 for flute and clarinet. The dissonances of the later piece are more controlled, the forward direction of the music easier to discern. Bachianas Brasileiras No.9 takes the concept so far as to be an abstract Prelude and Fugue, a complete distillation of the composer's national influences. Villa-Lobos eventually recorded all nine of these works for EMI in Paris, mostly with the musicians of the French National Orchestra; these were originally issued on LPs and later reissued on CDs. He also recorded the first section of Bachianas Brasileiras No.5 with Bidu Sayão and a group of cellists for Columbia.

During his period at SEMA, Villa-Lobos composed five string quartets, nos. 5to9, which explored avenues opened by his public music that dominated his output. He also wrote more music for Segovia, the Cinq préludes, which also demonstrate a further formalisation of his composition style. After the fall of the Vargas government, Villa-Lobos returned full-time to composition, resuming a prolific rate of completing works. His concertos—particularly those for the classical guitar, the harp, and the harmonica—are examples of his earlier poema form. The Harp Concerto is a large work, and shows a new propensity to focus on a small detail, then to fade it and bring another detail to the foreground. This technique also occurs in his final opera, Yerma, which contains a series of scenes each of which establishes an atmosphere, similarly to the earlier Momoprecoce.

Villa-Lobos's final major work was the music for the film Green Mansions (though in the end, most of his score was replaced with music by Bronisław Kaper) and its arrangement as Floresta do Amazonas for orchestra, as well as some short songs issued separately. In 1957, he wrote a Seventeenth String Quartet, whose austerity of technique and emotional intensity "provide a eulogy to his craft". His Bendita Sabedoria, a sequence of a cappella chorales written in 1958, is a similarly simple setting of Latin biblical texts. These works lack the pictorialism of his more public music.

Except for the lost works, the Nonet, the two concerted works for violin and orchestra, Suite for Piano and Orchestra, a number of the symphonic poems, most of his choral music and all of the operas, his music is well represented on the world's recital and concert stages and on compact disc.

Legacy

When touring Europe with his music he said, "I don't use folklore, I am the folklore" (Eu sou o folclore) and "I have not come to learn, I have come to show what I have done up to now" (Ich bin nicht gekommen, um zu lernen, sondern um zu zeigen, was ich bisher gemacht habe), showing that he was quite aware of his unique position among classical composers, and he made good use of his origins to publicise his own works.

Recordings
 Villa-Lobos plays Villa-Lobos (SCSH 010, SanCtuS Recordings) (audio)
 Villa-Lobos par lui-même (EMI Classics 0077776722924) (archive from September 26, 2011, accessed November 19, 2015).
 Villa-Lobos: Bachianas Brasileiras Nos. 1, 2, 5 & 9 Angel 0724356696426; EMI Classics CD 724356696457 (archive from September 26, 2011, accessed November 19, 2015). (EMI Classics)
 A database of available Villa-Lobos recordings (archive)

Notes and references
Notes

References

Sources

 {{wikicite|ref=|reference=Villa-Lobos, sua obra: Programa de Ação Cultural, second edition, 1972. Rio de Janeiro: MEC, DAC, Museu Villa-Lobos.}}

Further reading

 Appleby, David P. 1988. Heitor Villa-Lobos: A Bio-Bibliography. New York: Greenwood Press. .
 Béhague, Gerard. 1994. Villa-Lobos: The Search for Brazil's Musical Soul. Austin: Institute of Latin American Studies, University of Texas at Austin, 1994. .
 Napp, Cornelia. 2010. "Personal representatives" in musikverlegerischen Kulturbeziehungen. Die Vertretung von Heitor Villa-Lobos in den USA. Mit Zeittafel "Villa-Lobos in den USA 1947–1961". Remagen: Max Brockhaus Musikverlag. .
 Peppercorn, Lisa. 1985. "H. Villa-Lobos in Paris". Latin American music review / Revista de musica Latinoamericana 6, no. 2 (Autumn): 235–248.
 Peppercorn, Lisa M. 1989. Villa-Lobos. Edited by Audrey Sampson. Illustrated Lives of the Great Composers. London and New York: Omnibus. .
 Peppercorn, Lisa M. 1991a. Villa-Lobos, the Music: An Analysis of His Style Translated by Stefan De Haan. London: Kahn & Averill; White Plains, New York: Pro/AM Music Resources. .
 Peppercorn, Lisa M. 1996. The World of Villa-Lobos in Pictures and Documents. Aldershot, Hampshire, England: Scolar Press; Brookfield, Vermont: Ashgate Publishers. .
 Villa-Lobos, Heitor. 1994. The Villa-Lobos Letters. Edited, translated, and annotated by Lisa M. Peppercorn. Musicians in Letters, no. 1. Kingston upon Thames: Toccata. .

External links

 Villa-Lobos Museum

 villalobos.iu.edu Villa-Lobos site at Indiana University: Maintained by the Latin American Music Center
 villalobosproject.com Villa-Lobos: Maintained by Minc
 Peermusic Classical: Heitor Villa-Lobos Composer's Publisher and Bio

 Classical Composers Database. Villa-Lobos: Biography.
 "O acorde de Tristão em Villa-Lobos" by Paulo de Tarso Salles. Violão Intercâmbio 12, no. 8 (archive from March 7, 2008, accessed November 19, 2015).
 Heitor Villa-Lobos e o ambiente artístico parisiense: convertendo-se em um músico brasileiro by Paulo Renato Guérios
 Heitor Villa-Lobos and the Parisian art scene: how to become a Brazilian musician by Paulo Renato Guérios
 International Jose Guillermo Carrillo Foundation
 "Villa-Lobos' Guitar Music: Alternative Sources and Implications for Performance ", by Stanley Yates, reprinted from Soundboard, Journal of the Guitar Foundation of America'' 24, no. 1 (Summer 1997): 7–20 (accessed November 19, 2015).
 The Villa-Lobos Magazine: News about Heitor Villa-Lobos on the web and in the Real World.

1887 births
1959 deaths
20th-century classical composers
20th-century guitarists
Ballet composers
Brazilian classical composers
Brazilian classical guitarists
Brazilian male guitarists
Brazilian film score composers
Brazilian opera composers
Brazilian people of Spanish descent
Composers for piano
Composers for cello
Composers for harmonica
Composers for the classical guitar
Concert band composers
Male film score composers
Male opera composers
Musicians from Rio de Janeiro (city)
Neoclassical composers
20th-century Brazilian musicians
20th-century male musicians
Burials at Cemitério de São João Batista

Heitor Villa-Lobos


Irena Arkesteijn-Pantelic (born 1981, Rotterdam) is a model from the Netherlands. She was Miss Nederland in 2001. She represented the Netherlands at the Miss World pageant in Sun City, South Africa.
Pantelic was born in Rotterdam, her parents are immigrants from former Yugoslavia. She was raised in Capelle aan den IJssel and attended the Nationale Hogeschool voor Toerisme en Verkeer in Breda.

In 2001 she first became Miss South Holland and later went on to become Miss Netherlands. In 2002 she became a candidate for the Dutch Parliament for the Lijst Pim Fortuyn. Prior to the 2002 elections, turmoil erupted in the party, because Irena Pantelic and Antonia Viljac accused two other party members of sexual harassment in a letter to the party board.

This letter however, was leaked to the press and Irena Pantelic and Antonia Viljac were degraded on the candidate list. She was not elected in the elections of 2002, which took place only days after the assassination of the party's controversial leader Pim Fortuyn. She never returned to politics.

After her internship she started working as a model again, mainly in Lebanon and South Africa. In 2007 she got married. Since 2007, she has given birth to three children. She currently lives in Rotterdam, with her husband and three children.

In 2009 she began working as a model again. In 2012 she became the licence holder for Miss South Holland, the local pageant for pre-selection of candidates for Miss Netherlands. In 2013 she was awarded the Campaign Award at the Dutch Model Awards.

References

1981 births
Living people
Miss Nederland
Dutch female models
Dutch people of Serbian descent
Miss World 2001 delegates
Models from Rotterdam

Irena Pantelic


The Glatt Valley (German: Glattal or Glatttal) is a region and a river valley in the canton of Zürich in Switzerland.

Geography
The Glatt is a tributary to the Rhine in the Zürcher Unterland area of the canton of Zurich. It is  long and flows out from the Greifensee through its river valley, discharging into the Rhine by Rheinsfelden.

The Region Glatttal comprises, among other communities in the districts of Uster, Dielsdorf and Bülach, the suburban cities and municipalities of Bassersdorf, Bülach, Dietlikon, Dübendorf, Fällanden, Glattfelden, Höri, Kloten, Oberglatt, Opfikon-Glattbrugg, Rümlang, Schwerzenbach, Wallisellen and Wangen-Brüttisellen. In addition, the districts 11 and 12 (so-called Zürich-Nord) of the city of Zürich, consisting of the districts of Affoltern, Oerlikon and Seebach respectively Hirzenbach, Saatlen and Schwamendingen Mitte, are geographically located in the Glattal.

Economics and transport
Thanks to its excellent location including infrastructure, a growing economy and attractive residential areas, the Glattal is densely populated. Hosting the most important airport between Milan and Munich increases both the attractiveness and the noise for residents.
One of the biggest Glattal building projects for mostly residential space of the last decade has been Glattpark. In Zürich Oerlikon, Seebach and Affoltern, the urban residential neighbourhood Neu-Oerlikon was built. The society glow Glattal, operated by the municipalities, is intended to enhance networking of the region and to common projects.

The Glatt Valley has excellent transport links: Zurich Airport in Kloten, SBB-CFF-FFS (InterRegio and InterCity) lines serving Zurich Oerlikon and Zurich Airport railway stations which are among the 15 most frequented railway stations in Switzerland, additionally to commuter railway lines S2, S3, S5, S6, S7, S8, S9, S14, S15 and S16. The tramway lines of Stadtbahn Glattal are a rapid-transit system integrated with the tramway system of the city of Zurich. Verkehrsbetriebe Zürich (VBZ) and Verkehrsbetriebe Glattal (VBG) provide additional bus services.

References

External links

 Agglomerationslandschaften: Das Glattal

Regions of Switzerland
River valleys of Switzerland
High Rhine basin
Landforms of the canton of Zürich

Glatt Valley


Polygonal rifling ( ) is a type of gun barrel rifling where the traditional sharp-edged "lands and grooves" are replaced by less pronounced "hills and valleys", so the barrel bore has a polygonal (usually hexagonal or octagonal) cross-sectional profile.

Polygonal riflings with a larger number of edges have shallower corners, which provide a better gas seal in relatively large diameter bores. For instance, in the pre-Gen 5 Glock pistols, octagonal rifling is used in the large diameter .45 ACP bore, which has an 11.23 mm (0.442 in) diameter, since it resembles a circle more closely than the hexagonal rifling used in smaller diameter bores.

History

The principle of the polygonal barrel was proposed in 1853 by Sir Joseph Whitworth, a prominent British engineer and entrepreneur. Whitworth experimented with cannons using twisted hexagonal barrels instead of traditional round rifled barrels and patented the design in 1854.  In 1856, this concept was demonstrated in a series of experiments using brass howitzers. The British military, however, rejected Whitworth's polygonal designs. Afterwards, Whitworth adopted the concept on small arms, believing that polygonal rifling could be used to create a more accurate rifled musket to replace the Pattern 1853 Enfield.

During the American Civil War, Whitworth's polygonally rifled Whitworth rifle was successfully used by the Confederate States Army marksmen (known as the Whitworth Sharpshooters) to terrorize Union Army artillery crews. The muzzle-loading Whitworth rifle is often called the "sharpshooter" because of its superior accuracy compared to other rifled muskets of its era (far surpassing the breechloading Sharps rifle used by the Union Army) and is considered one of the earliest examples of a sniper rifle. The Whitworth sharpshooters killed multiple high-ranking Union officers, most famously Major General John Sedgwick, who was fatally shot at a range of  during the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House.

The last service rifles to use polygonal rifling were the British Lee–Metford rifles, named after their proprietary Metford rifling, American M1895 Lee Navy rifles (both designed by James Paris Lee), and the Japanese Arisaka rifles designed by Colonel Arisaka and Colonel Nambu.  The Lee-Metford rifle turned out to be a failure after the switch to the erosive Cordite proved too much for the smooth and shallow Metford rifling, which had been designed to reduce barrel fouling for black powder ammunition.  When the Metford rifling design was dropped, the Lee–Metford became the Lee–Enfield rifle in favour of Enfield type rifling, which was deep-grooved for longer service life. Lee Navy shared the same fate since Rifleite adopted for 6 mm Lee Navy was analogous to Cordite. However, the Arisakas were manufactured extensively for the Imperial Japanese Army from 1897 to 1945 with no excessive rifling erosion problems, as the Japanese had adopted a better, non-erosive, rifle powder.

During World War II, polygonal rifling emerged again in the German MG 42 general-purpose machine guns, as an outgrowth of a cold-hammer forging process developed by German engineers prior to the outbreak of the war.  The process addressed the need to produce large quantities of more durable gun barrels in less time than those produced with traditional methods, as the MG 42's infamously fast rate of fire tended to overheat the barrel quickly and thus warranted frequent barrel changes.  The MG 42's successor, the Rheinmetall MG 3 machine gun, can also have polygonal rifling.

Heckler & Koch was the first manufacturer to begin using polygonal rifling in modern small arms like the G3A3 battle rifle and several semi-automatic hunting rifles like the HK SL7.  Companies that utilize this method today include Tanfoglio, Heckler & Koch, Glock (Gen 1-4), Magnum Research, Česká Zbrojovka, Kahr Arms, Walther and Israel Weapon Industries.  Polygonal rifling is usually found only in pistol barrels, and is less common in rifles; however, some extremely high end precision rifles like the Heckler & Koch PSG1 and its Pakistani variant PSR-90, and the LaRue Tactical Stealth System sniper rifle use polygonal bores.

Design

A number of advantages are claimed by the supporters of polygonal rifling. These include:
Not compromising the barrel's thickness in the area of each groove as with traditional rifling, and also less sensitive to stress concentration-induced barrel failure.
Providing a better gas seal around the projectile as polygonal bores tend to have shallower, smoother edges with a slightly smaller bore area, which translates into more efficient seal of the combustion gases trapped behind the bullet, slightly greater (consistency in) muzzle velocities and slightly increased accuracy.
Less bullet deformation, resulting in less frictional resistance when the bullet travels through the barrel, which helps to increase muzzle velocity.  The lack of sharp surface deformation on the bullet (rifling marks) also reduces drag in flight.
Reduced buildup of copper or lead within the barrel, as there are no sharp rifling edges to "shred" into the bullet surface and no pronounced corners that can accumulate foulings difficult to clean, which results in easier maintenance.  The reduced fouling also theoretically translates to a simpler "copper equilibrium" profile, which is potentially beneficial to accuracy.
Prolonged barrel life, as the thermomechanical stress upon the riflings are spread over a larger area, hence less wear over time.

However, precision target pistols such as those used in Bullseye and IHMSA almost universally use traditional rifling, as do target rifles.  The debate among target shooters is almost always one of cut vs. button rifled barrels, as traditional rifling is dominant.  Polygonal rifled barrels are used competitively in pistol action shooting, such as IDPA and IPSC competitions.

Part of the difference may be that most polygonal rifling is produced by hammer forging the barrel around a mandrel containing a reverse impression of the rifling.  Hammer forging machines are tremendously expensive, far out of the reach of custom gunsmiths (unless they buy pre-rifled blanks), and so are generally only used for production barrels by large companies.  The main advantage of a hammer forging process is that it can rifle, chamber, and contour a bored barrel blank in one step.  First applied to rifling in Germany in 1939, hammer forging has remained popular in Europe but was only later used by gunmakers in the United States. The hammer forging process produces large amounts of stress in the barrel that must be relieved by careful heat treatment, a process that is less necessary in a traditionally cut or button rifled barrel.  Due to the potential for residual stress causing accuracy problems, precision shooters in the United States tend to avoid hammer forged barrels, and this limits them in the type of available rifling.  From a practical standpoint, any accuracy issues resulting from the residual stresses of hammer forging are extremely unlikely to be an issue in a defense or service pistol, or a typical hunting rifle.

Variations

Different manufacturers employ varying polygonal rifling profiles. H&K, CZ and Glock use a female type of polygonal rifling. This type has a smaller bore area than the male type of polygonal rifling designed and used by Lothar Walther. Other companies such as Noveske Rifleworks (Pac Nor) and LWRC use a rifling more like the conventional rifling, with both of each land's sides being sloped but having a flat top and defined corners; this type of rifling is more a canted land type of rifling than polygonal rifling.

Forensic examination

Polygonal rifling prevents the forensic firearms examiner from microscopically measuring the width of land and groove impressions (so-called "ballistic fingerprinting") because the polygonal riflings have a rounded profile instead of well-defined rectangular edges, which causes few noticeable surface deformations.  In the FBI GRC file, the land and groove widths for these firearms are listed as 0.000. However, forensic identification of firearms (in court-cases, etc.) is based on microscopic examination of tooling marks on the surface of the bore, produced by the manufacturing process and modified by the drag of bullet jackets on that same surface. Thus, the bore surface of individual firearms is always unique.

See also

 Ballistic fingerprinting
 Smoothbore

References

External links

 Glockmeister FAQ, with information on lead bullets in Glock firearms.
 The Gun Zone 2001 e-mail questions, with information on cast bullets in Glock and H&K handguns.
 Barrel making FAQ, with information on methods of making and rifling barrels
 6mmBR barrel FAQ, covers new polygonal profile button rifled barrels
 Polygonal Rifling, A comment from Gale McMillan about lead bullets and polygonal rifling.

Firearm components

Polygonal rifling


Leohumicola incrustata is a species of fungus. It was named after the appearance of its terminal conidial cells, incrusted with a crust-like slime. It was first found in the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve, from heated soil. Large warts or the production of slime on its terminal cell are this species' defining characteristics. Its conidia are similar to those of L. verrucosa, however in the latter the wall ornamentation forms smaller warts.

Description
Its conidiogenous hyphae are hyaline, measuring approximately 1.5–2.0μm wide, often found in fascicles in aerial mycelium. These are reduced to a single denticle that is 1.0–3.0μm long and 1.5–3.5μm wide. Conidia are two-celled, either solitary or distributed side by side in clusters. Its terminal cell is 4.0–5.5 by 4.0–5.0μm, being globose to subglobose, transitioning to a pale brown to dark brown colour; its conidial walls are slightly thick, smooth or verrucose, with warts measuring 0.75 to 1.5μm, incrusted with a brown-coloured slime that is 1–2μm thick around the apex. Its basal cell measures 2.5–4.5 by 2.0–3.0μm. Chlamydospores are sparsely produced, being intercalary, single, and the same colour as the conidial terminal cell. The vegetative mycelium often carry swollen, monilioid hyphae that are 1.5 to 3μm wide, septate, and show thickened walls.

References

Further reading

External links

Leotiomycetes
Fungal plant pathogens and diseases

Leohumicola incrustata


Suzanne Chazin is an American author best known for the Georgia Skeehan mystery series, published by Putnam, about a New York City female firefighter-turned-fire marshal and for the Jimmy Vega mystery fiction series about a homicide detective navigating the world of the undocumented, published by Kensington Books.

Biography
Suzanne Chazin was born in Manhattan, New York and is a 1982 graduate of Northwestern University. Chazin spent 18 years in journalism, writing for publications including Family Circle, The Ladies Home Journal, Money Magazine and The New York Times. She is a former senior editor and writer for Reader's Digest, where she won several national awards.

Her first novel in the Georgia Skeehan series, The Fourth Angel, was released in February 2001, followed by Flashover in 2002 and Fireplay in 2003. Her first novel in the Jimmy Vega series, "Land of Careful Shadows," was released in December 2014, followed by "A Blossom of Bright Light" in 2015 and "No Witness But the Moon" in 2016. Her novels received critical praise and have been excerpted in the New York Times. In May 2003, she received the Washington Irving Book Award for both The Fourth Angel and Flashover. In 2016, "Land of Careful Shadows" was selected among the top five mystery books of the year by the American Library Association's RUSA reading council.

Chazin has taught fiction and non-fiction writing at The New School in Manhattan, New York University, Sarah Lawrence College and The Smithsonian.

External links
Suzanne Chazin via Penguin Group
suzannechazin.com
Kensingtonbooks.com

Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
21st-century American novelists
American mystery writers
American women novelists
Medill School of Journalism alumni
Sarah Lawrence College faculty
Women mystery writers
21st-century American women writers
Novelists from New York (state)
American women academics

Suzanne Chazin


The Sac County Courthouse  in Sac City, Iowa, United States, was built in 1889. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1981 as a part of the County Courthouses in Iowa Thematic Resource. The courthouse is the third building the county has used for court functions and county administration.

History
The first Sac County courthouse was a two-story brick building that was constructed in 1860. The building measured . The courtroom was on the second floor with the county offices on the first floor. The second courthouse, which was built in 1873, measured . It too was built of brick, and was destroyed by an arsonist in 1888.

The present courthouse was built in 1889. Storm Lake, Iowa architect J.M. Russell designed the building that is basically a form of vernacular architecture with a reference to the Romanesque in the entrances arches. It was very similar in design to the courthouse that had just been completed in Storm Lake (no longer extant). The county used $15,000 in insurance money and the same amount raised by county citizens to build the courthouse. The building was renovated in 1900. A courtroom addition was built onto the east side of the building in 1977. The architect for the project was Keninger, Galvin & Associates and the contractor was McCorkle Construction Company.

Architecture
The courthouse is a two-story structure composed of red brick. A center pavilion projects slightly from the main building. It has a stone arch with large voussoirs that used to be the main entrance. Stone trim runs in horizontal bands and around the windows. The gable ends feature shoulder parapets. The base of the building is coarse stone and it is capped with a hipped roof. The significance of the courthouse is derived from its association with county government, and the political power and prestige of Sac City as the county seat.

References

Government buildings completed in 1889
Sac City, Iowa
Vernacular architecture in Iowa
Romanesque Revival architecture in Iowa
Buildings and structures in Sac County, Iowa
Courthouses on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa
County courthouses in Iowa
National Register of Historic Places in Sac County, Iowa

Sac County Courthouse


McNeill Bay (aka Shoal Bay) lies within the boundaries of Oak Bay, British Columbia along the coast of Vancouver Island.  It was named after Captain William Henry McNeill, master of the Hudson's Bay Company steamer SS Beaver, and one of the  five original landowners of Oak Bay.

On 14 March 1843 the SS Beaver anchored in this bay, with James Douglas (Chief Factor of the Hudson's Bay Company) as the site for Fort Victoria was being scouted.

The land where the esplanade currently runs along the shoreline was a gift from Rosina Irene Margaret Ross.

References

External links
BCGNIS

Bays of British Columbia
Greater Victoria

McNeill Bay (British Columbia)


Karl-Heinz Urban (born 7 June 1972) is a New Zealand actor. His career began with appearances in New Zealand films and TV series such as Xena: Warrior Princess. His first Hollywood role was in the 2002 horror film Ghost Ship. Since then, he has starred in many high-profile movies, including as Éomer in the second and third installments of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Vaako in the second and third installments of the Riddick film series, Leonard McCoy in the Star Trek reboot film series, Kirill in The Bourne Supremacy (2004), John "Reaper" Grimm in Doom (2005), Judge Dredd in Dredd (2012), Gavin Magary in Pete's Dragon (2016), and Skurge in Marvel Studios' Thor: Ragnarok (2017). In 2013, he starred in the sci-fi series Almost Human. Since 2019, he has starred as Billy Butcher in Amazon's superhero streaming television series The Boys.

Early life
Urban was born in Wellington, New Zealand. His father, a German immigrant, owned a leather goods store, and his mother once worked for Film Facilities in Wellington. Through his mother, the young Urban was exposed to classic New Zealand cinema and developed an interest in the film industry. Urban attended St Mark's Church School, where he showed an early love for public performance. His first acting role came at age eight, when he had a single line in one episode of the New Zealand television series Pioneer Woman. Though continuing to take part in school stage productions, he did not act professionally again until after high school.

He attended Wellington College in 1986–1990. He then enrolled at Victoria University of Wellington in the Bachelor of Arts program but left after one year to pursue a career in acting. Over the next few years, he appeared in several local TV commercials in addition to theater roles in the Wellington area. Eventually, he moved to Auckland where he was offered many guest roles in TV shows (one of which was playing a heroin addict in the police drama Shark in the Park).  Urban then moved briefly to Bondi Beach, Sydney, Australia in 1995 before returning to New Zealand the following year.

Career
Urban's first Hollywood role was in the 2002 horror film Ghost Ship. Since then, he has worked on many high-profile movies, including the second and third installments of The Lord of the Rings trilogy (The Two Towers and The Return of the King) as Éomer, The Bourne Supremacy (as Russian Federal Security Service agent Kirill), The Chronicles of Riddick, Star Trek and Doom. The Hollywood Reporter speculated that Urban was one of several actors being considered for the part of British secret service agent 007 in Casino Royale, directed by fellow New Zealander Martin Campbell.

Urban played John "Reaper" Grimm in Universal Pictures' Doom (based on the first-person shooter video game Doom), which was released on 21 October 2005. In 2007, he starred in the Viking adventure Pathfinder. A longtime fan of Westerns, he starred as Woodrow Call in Comanche Moon, a television miniseries that aired in early 2008 as a prequel to the Lonesome Dove miniseries based on Larry McMurtry's book series of the same name.

In the 2009 film Star Trek, he played Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy, a role originated by DeForest Kelley in the original Star Trek TV series. A fan of the Star Trek franchise since childhood, Urban actively pursued a role in the film. His performance was widely embraced by the Star Trek fan community for its faithfulness to the spirit of Kelley's McCoy. Urban reprised the role in the 2013 film Star Trek Into Darkness and the 2016 film Star Trek Beyond.

Urban next appeared as CIA agent William Cooper in Red, adapted from the graphic novel of the same name and co-starring Bruce Willis and Helen Mirren. He portrayed Black Hat, a villainous priest-turned-vampire, in the film adaptation of the Korean manhwa Priest, released in 3-D in 2011.

In 2012, Urban starred as law-enforcing comic book character Judge Dredd in the film Dredd. In an interview with Shave magazine, Urban described it as a "high-octane, action-fueled film... about the day in the life of Dredd". The film was directed by Pete Travis, with a script by Alex Garland. Though it underperformed at the box office, Dredd was well received by critics.

In 2013, Urban starred as Detective John Kennex in Almost Human, a TV series created by J. H. Wyman. The series was set 35 years into the future when cops in the L.A.P.D. are paired up with lifelike androids. Urban played a detective who has a dislike for robots but ends up being teamed up with one with emotional feelings. Urban next appeared in the ensemble thriller The Loft, a remake of the Belgian film of the same name. It was filmed in New Orleans and Belgium by the director of the 2008 original, Erik Van Looy. In January 2015, Urban replaced Michael C. Hall as the main antagonist in the 2016 remake of Pete's Dragon. In 2017, he played Skurge in Thor: Ragnarok. Also in 2017, Urban played a psychotic cop in the action thriller Acts of Vengeance opposite Antonio Banderas and Robert Forster. Urban had a cameo as a stormtrooper in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker in 2019. He voiced the lead role in The Sea Beast in 2022.

Since 2019, Urban has starred as William "Billy" Butcher in the Amazon Prime series The Boys.

Personal life
In September 2004, Urban married his longtime partner, Natalie Wihongi, who was his makeup artist for the 2000 television film The Privateers. Together they have two sons; Hunter and Indiana. His second son was named for the eponymous hero of the Indiana Jones franchise, which he has stated is one of his favourite movie series. They lived in their NZ$5.25 million mansion in the affluent Herne Bay section of Auckland, New Zealand. The couple announced their separation in June 2014.

From 2014 to 2018, he was in a relationship with actress Katee Sackhoff.

Philanthropy
Urban serves as a celebrity ambassador for KidsCan, a charity that currently supports over 16,000 disadvantaged children in New Zealand by providing them with essentials such as food, clothing, and shoes.

In May 2022, UNICEF Aotearoa New Zealand welcomed Urban as an official Ambassador to support in raising awareness on children's rights both in New Zealand and around the world.

On 1 June 2020, Urban, together with Sean Astin, Sean Bean, Orlando Bloom, Billy Boyd, Ian McKellen, Dominic Monaghan, Viggo Mortensen, Miranda Otto, John Rhys-Davies, Andy Serkis, Liv Tyler, and Elijah Wood, plus writer Philippa Boyens and director Peter Jackson, joined Josh Gad's YouTube series Reunited Apart which reunites the cast of popular movies through video-conferencing, and promotes donations to non-profit charities.

Filmography

Film

Television

Video games

References

External links

1972 births
People educated at Wellington College (New Zealand)
Living people
New Zealand male film actors
New Zealand male stage actors
New Zealand male television actors
New Zealand male video game actors
New Zealand male voice actors
New Zealand people of German descent
Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Screen Actors Guild Award winners
Male actors from Wellington City
20th-century New Zealand male actors
21st-century New Zealand male actors
New Zealand male soap opera actors
Victoria University of Wellington alumni

Karl Urban


Code of the Streets is a 1939 Universal Studios film starring The Little Tough Guys.

Plot
Convicted on circumstantial evidence, Tommy Shay, a young product of the Front Street slums, is sentenced to die for the murder of police lieutenant Carson. When Denver Collins, Tommy's only alibi, mysteriously disappears, Tommy's younger brother Danny and his gang of alley kids (The Little Tough Guys) determine to find a way to save Tommy from the electric chair. Lieutenant Lewis, Tommy's arresting officer, also believes that the boy is innocent and tries to get the case reopened. For his efforts, Lewis is demoted to patrolman, prompting his son Bob, a radio bug with an ambition to become a detective, to initiate his own investigation by which he hopes to find the real murderer and reinstate his father.

While searching for Collins on Front Street, Bob meets Danny and after he fibs that his father is a gangster, the boys join forces to track down Carson's killer. Acting on a tip, Danny and Bob visit a gambling club operated by Chick Foster and warn Foster that the police have reopened the Carson murder case and are looking for Denver Collins. In response, Foster begins to act strangely, giving the boys a look at his henchman, Halstead, whom they suspect is Collins.

When the boys discover that Bob is really a cop's son, they beat him up but have a change of heart upon learning that Bob's father was arrested while trying to help Tommy. Joining forces once again, the boys locate Halstead's hideout and lure Foster to the spot with a phony telegram. Eavesdropping by means of a Dictaphone, they learn that Halstead is really Collins and that he was hired by Foster to kill Carson. Overcome with fear, Halstead demands that Foster pay him off, and in the ensuing argument, Foster kills Halstead and hurries back to his club. Refusing to give up, Bob follows Foster and, after connecting a microphone attached to a radio in Foster's office, broadcasts a fake news flash telling how Halstead made a full confession before his death. Attempting to escape, Foster hails a cab in the alley which has been commandeered by Danny and the gang. After the boys force a confession from Foster, Officer Lewis arrives to arrest the gambler, and all ends happily as Tommy is freed, Lewis is reinstated as lieutenant, and the kids decide to go straight.

Cast

The Little Tough Guys
 Harris Berger as Sailor
 Hally Chester as Murphy
 Charles Duncan as Monk
 David Gorcey as Yap
 William Benedict as Trouble

Additional cast
 Harry Carey as Detective Lieutenant John Lewis
 Frankie Thomas as Bob Lewis
 James McCallion as Danny Shay
 Juanita Quigley as Cynthia
 El Brendel as Mickhail 'Micky' Bjorgulfsen
 Leon Ames as 'Chick' Foster
 Paul Fix as Tommy Shay
 Marc Lawrence as Henchman Halstead/Denver Collins
 Dorothy Arnold as Mildred
 Stanley Hughes as Young man
 Eddy Chandler as Second guard
 James Flavin as Doorman
 Monte Montague as Lieutenant Carson
 William Rupel as Police Lieutenant Welles
 Wade Boteler as Reception guard
 Pat Flaherty as Visiting guard

External links

1939 films
American black-and-white films
Universal Pictures films
Films directed by Harold Young (director)
1939 crime films
American crime films
1930s English-language films
1930s American films

Code of the Streets


Sprite is a lemon-lime soda, similar to 7 UP and Sierra Mist. It is made by the Coca-Cola Company. It has no caffeine. In 2009, its logo was changed.

Variants
There are many variants of Sprite. The two popular Sprite variants are:
 Sprite, lemon-lime carbonated drink with no caffeine
 Sprite Zero, the no calorie and no sugar added version of Sprite

Soft drinks

Sprite


Montferrat (Piedmontese: Monfrà; ; ) is part of the region of Piedmont in Northern Italy. It is both a historical and geographic area. It includes either a part of the Province of Alessandria, or a part of the Province of Asti. In the Middle Ages, it was a small marquisate (meaning a "small reign"), inside the Kingdom of Italy. Montferrat is famous worldwide for its soft and green hills. It produces award-winning wines, including Asti wine, Barbera and Moscato d'Asti. In June 2014, Montferrat, along with Langhe was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site because of its unique characteristics.

Montferrat has three areas:

 Basso Monferrato (low Montferrat), which is the area surrounding the town of Casale Monferrato
 Monferrato Astigiano (Astesan Montferrat), which is the area of almost the whole Province of Asti (except Astesan Langhe). Its highest point,  above sea level, has been identified as the village of Albugnano.
 Alto Monferrato (High Montferrat), which is the area that orbits around the town of Acqui terme

Montferrat has a strong culinary culture. It is one of the most important producers in the world of cheese, white truffle and other products of nature, such as vegetables, cereals and fruits. One of the best-known dishes of Monferrato is Agnolotti, which are a special type of filled pasta.

Province of Alessandria
Province of Asti
Former countries in Europe
World Heritage Sites in Italy

Montferrat


The  took place at White City, London in Great Britain from 14 May 1910 to 29 October 1910. It was the largest international exposition that the Empire of Japan had ever participated in and was driven by a desire of Japan to develop a more favorable public image in Britain and Europe following the renewal of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance. It was also hoped that the display of manufactured products would lead to increased Japanese trade with Britain.  Japan made a successful effort to display its new status as a great power by emphasizing its new role as a colonial power in Asia.

Background

A proposal was made in 1908 for an Exhibition to be held in London to celebrate and reinforce the Anglo-Japanese Alliance on a grass-roots level. It was strongly supported by Japanese Foreign Minister Jutaro Komura, who was aware that there still was a general conception in the West of Japan as a backward and undeveloped country, despite the Boxer Rebellion and the Russo-Japanese War. The Japanese Diet voted an enormous sum to sponsor the Exhibition in 1909, despite the fact that the Treasury had been drained from the Russo-Japanese War, and the economy was on the verge of bankruptcy.

Baron Ōura Kanetake, who was then Minister of Agriculture and Commerce, was the President of the Japanese committee organizing the exhibition.  His British counterpart was Henry Fitzalan-Howard, 15th Duke of Norfolk.

The Japanese display covered , three times the space Japan occupied at the previous Paris Exhibition of 1900, not including an additional  for two large Japanese gardens. There were some 2,271 Japanese exhibitors.

The Imperial Japanese Navy sent the Japanese-built cruiser Ikoma (which was anchored at Gravesend in Kent) to underscore that the Anglo-Japanese Alliance was primarily a naval alliance and to stress that Japan was a formidable military power worthy of partnership with Great Britain.

A visit by Queen Alexandra in mid-March, in advance of the opening, added publicity and royal prestige to the Exhibition. The death of King Edward VII caused the opening to be delayed until 14 May. By the time the event closed on 29 October, over 8 million visitors had attended.

The Exhibition was widely known in London as 'the Japanese Exhibition' rather than 'the Japan–British Exhibition', as there was minimal British content.

Exhibits

The Japanese gardens had to be constructed from scratch at the Exhibition site.  Since authenticity was regarded as of the utmost importance, trees, shrubs, wooden buildings, bridges, and even stones were brought in from Japan.

One of the many aims of the Exhibition was to introduce the civilization of Japan to the western world, showing past, recent present and projected future. The intent was to show that Japan was not a country that had suddenly leapt from a state of semi-barbarism to one of high civilization in the middle of the nineteenth century, but had always been "progressive", and that the modernization of Japan since 1868 was only a natural progression.  This was illustrated with twelve impressively full-sized dioramas with wax figures, showing the progression of Japanese history.

Each of the Japanese government ministries was represented, along with the Japanese Red Cross and the post office, showing displays of the modern systems and facilities used by the governmental departments.

Displays about Taiwan, Korea, the Kwantung Leased Territory, and 10 Ainu from Hokkaidō were meant to demonstrate that Japan was following in Great Britain's footsteps as an imperial power to improve the lives of the 'natives' in its colonies.

Almost 500 Japanese firms sent items to London. Care was taken only to display the highest possible quality, to offset popular images that Japanese products were cheaply made and tawdry.

Artists represented included ceramicists Yabu Meizan and Miyagawa Kozan as well as the cloisonné artists Namikawa Sōsuke, Kawade Shibatarō and Ando Jubei. Lacquer artist Tsujimura Shoka (1867–1929) won a gold medal for a box decorated in  with a stylised depiction of an  plant. The Samurai Shokai Company won a gold medal for a set of metalwork pieces.

In addition to manufactured goods, traditional and modern fine arts, and arts and crafts were well represented, including  (Japanese-style) and  (Western-style) painting, sculpture, lacquerwares, and woodcuts. One of the most popular craftsmen in the Exhibition was Horikawa Kozan, a celebrated potter.  He was invited to demonstrate pottery-making and repair priceless antiquities, some of which had been in the possession of British collectors for generations.

The most remarkable British exhibit was the full sized gyroscopically balanced Brennan mono-rail, which gave rides of around 40 passengers at a time around a 1-mile track, and which was awarded the Grand Prize as the best exhibit. During the exhibition Winston Churchill (then Home Secretary) rode upon the car, and drove it for one circuit, he was so impressed that he arranged for the Prime Minister, H. H. Asquith and David Lloyd George among others to travel on the mono-rail in early November.

Reaction

Japanese
A number of the Japanese visitors felt that the display showing a "typical Japanese village" to be an embarrassment, depicting as it did the life of peasants in northeast Japan.  Although not far from the truth, this was not the impression that Japan wished to convey to the Western public. These comments dominated in Japanese newspapers leading to the prevalent negative opinion that 'the exhibition was a failure'. Korehiro Kurahara, a member of the Japanese House of Representatives, spoke before the National Diet on January 25, 1911 disapproving of the exhibition. The Japanese were most concerned with how best Japan could convince the British public that it was worthy to be considered a modern and civilized ally and equal to any western nation.

Some Japanese correspondents in London also stated that certain exotic and entertaining 'attractions', in the shape of sideshows organized by the entrepreneur who organized the Exhibition were vulgar, and had been calculated to bring discredit to Japan. Moreover, the exhibition of the Ainu and Taiwanese natives together with their native dwellings was regarded as controversial and demeaning.

Consequently, in Japanese history, mention of the Japan–British Exhibition of 1910 is often neglected in favor of other events that year, such as Captain Nobu Shirase's Antarctic expedition.

British
The negative views of the Exhibition in Japanese newspapers were in contrast to those of almost all British newspapers, which gave wide and detailed coverage and contained favorable reviews, especially on some of the exhibits of fine arts and the gardens.

Aftermath

The final stage of the Exhibition was the disposal of the exhibits.  These fell into three categories: those to be sent back to Japan (400 boxes in three separate shipments), those to be presented to various institutions (over 200 boxes divided between thirty recipients), and those to be sent to other cities in Europe where international exhibitions were projected for the near future (Dresden and Turin, both in 1911).

The Chokushimon (Gateway of the Imperial Messenger) (four-fifths replica of the Karamon of Nishi Hongan-ji in Kyoto) was moved to Kew Gardens a year later, where it still can be seen.

See also
 Japan–United Kingdom relations
 Hakuhō period
 History of Shepherd's Bush

Notes

References

 Hennessey, John L. "Moving up in the world: Japan's manipulation of colonial imagery at the 1910 Japan–British Exhibition." Museum History Journal 11.1 (2018): 24-41.
 Hotta-Lister, Ayako, The Japan-British Exhibition of 1910: gateway to the island empire of the East Richmond, Surrey: Japan Library, 1999.
 Mochizuki, Kotarō. (1910) Japan To-day. A Souvenir of the Anglo-Japanese Exhibition held in London, 1910. Tokyo: Liberal News Agency. OCLC 5327867
 Mutsu, H., British Press and the Japan-British Exhibition of 1910, Routledge, 2001

External links
 An illustrated catalogue of Japanese old fine arts displayed at the Japan-British Exhibition, London, 1910 via Internet Archive
 An illustrated catalogue of Japanese modern fine arts displayed at the Japan-British exhibition, London, 1910 via Internet Archive
 An Illustrated Catalogue of Japanese Old Fine Arts Displayed at The Japan-British Exhibition London & An Illustrated Catalogue of Japanese Modern Fine Arts Displayed at The Japan-British Exhibition London (summary and selected plates)
 Photographs and illustrations from the Japan-British Exhibition of 1910

World's fairs in London
Japan–United Kingdom relations
Foreign relations of the Empire of Japan
1910 in the United Kingdom
1910 in Japan
E
1910 in international relations
History of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham
White City, London
Festivals established in 1910
1910 in London

Japan–British Exhibition


Jolly Randall Blackburn is an American publisher and cartoonist who is best known as the creator of the comic strip and identically titled magazine  Knights of the Dinner Table.

Early life
As a child, Jolly Blackburn enjoyed playing Monopoly, Life, Sorry  and many other board games. At age 15, he was introduced to the Avalon Hill wargame Luftwaffe, and soon owned several other wargames. While perusing wargames at the local games shop, Blackburn was introduced to Dungeons & Dragons, and he eventually created his own campaign world called Alderac.

Following high school, Blackburn entered Ball State University where he majored in anthropology, history, and classical cultures.

Shadis
After graduation, Blackburn enlisted in the Army, and married his wife Barbara. Blackburn had always wanted to be a writer, and while he was posted in Fort Jackson, South Carolina, he and Barbara launched a gaming magazine titled Shadis. He also created Alderac Entertainment Group, named after his D&D campaign world.  (Shadis was the name of one of the moons that circled Alderac.)

Shadis was a black-and-white digest that featured gaming articles usually written by Blackburn, as well as several fictional works by Blackburn, collectively referred to as the "Alderac Anthology", since they were set in Blackburn's Alderac world.

In the second issue, faced with a blank last page, Blackburn drew a roughly drawn comic strip titled Knights of the Dinner Table that featured a group of gamers seated at a table playing a fictional role-playing game called Hackmaster. As Blackburn told Allen Varney,  "I had been a great fan of J.D. Webster's Finieous Fingers from the early Dragon Magazine, and I wanted something similar. Unfortunately, I couldn't find anyone willing to do a strip. Finally I sat down and drew out a very crude cartoon showing a gamemaster and a player sitting around a table arguing over a rules call." Blackburn based the comic strip's players on his gamer friends, and the gamemaster B.A. Felton on himself. Blackburn continued to draw the cartoon for Issues 3 to 5, but in Issue 6, believing that his readers wanted better artwork and a more involved storyline, Blackburn replaced his own comic strip with more professional cartoon strips. However, his readers' outcry convinced him to immediately return to Knights of the Dinner Table in the very next issue.

Blackburn had to put both Shadis and Knights of the Dinner Table on hold for 18 months in 1991–1992. He was still working as a sergeant in the army, and during Operation: Desert Storm, Blackburn was involved with activating reservists for remedial training prior to deployment, a job that required him to work working seven days a week for up to 16 hours a day. Following the end of the conflict, Blackburn returned to writing.

Knights of the Dinner Table
In 1994, Alderac published a Knights of the Dinner Table comic book, and followed up with two more issues. But by the following year, Blackburn felt that his plans for the future had diverged from his partners John Zinser and David Seay — they wanted to expand Alderac and look for success in the collectible card game industry while Blackburn wanted to keep the company fun and small and focus on Knights of the Dinner Table. Blackburn sold his share of Alderac to his partners — keeping the rights to Knights of the Dinner Table — and also sold Shadis after Issue 21.

Blackburn believed that he could produce a monthly Knights of the Dinner Table magazine, and started up KODT Enteractive Facktory with that in mind.

While he was working on getting that new company together, Blackburn received a call from the editor of TSR's Dragon magazine, asking if the Knights of the Dinner Table strip was now available; although Blackburn originally planned to continue the strip in Shadis, he accepted the offer and Knights of the Dinner Table appeared Issue 226 of Dragon (February 1996). Blackburn's comic suddenly reached ten times the audience that it in Shadis, and Blackburn was surprised at the overwhelmingly positive response. He later recounted "I think that's when the light bulb went on over my head.  I was shocked by the interest and the apparent appetite for more." Knights of the Dinner Table would continue in Dragon until Issue 269 (March 2000), when it was replaced by an expanded Nodwick strip.

After he and Barbara finally published Knights of the Dinner Table #4, Blackburn questioned whether they could make it work on their own. In November 1996 when David Kenzer and some of his Kenzer & Company staff of met Blackburn at a local con, Kenzer asked Blackburn to join his company. Blackburn decided that Kenzer had the sort of business sense and integrity that he was looking for in a partner, and he agreed to become a shareholder. Kenzer reprinted Issue 4 of Knights of the Dinner Table that the Blackburns had produced on their own. Starting with Issue 5 (February 1997), Knights of the Dinner Table was the work of the "KoTD Development Team" which consisted of Jolly Blackburn, David Kenzer, Brian Jelke and Steve Johansson.

Knights of the Dinner Table increased in popularity, and Blackburn was invited to be the guest of honor at several conventions, including U Con (November 1998), Key Con (April 2003) and Gencon (August 2004).

In 2022, Knights of the Dinner Table published its 301st issue, becoming the longest comic book series by a single creator (passing the 300 issues of Cerebus the Aardvark created by David Sim).

In 2023, Blackburn announced that Knights of the Dinner Table would be moving to an expanded format, but only once every two months, citing the short turnaround times for a monthly magazine and increased production costs.

Hackmaster
As early as 1995, Blackburn toyed with the idea of creating a one-off joke role-playing game called Hackmaster, based on the fictional role-playing game being played in Knights of the Dinner Table. However, Jim Kenzer urged him to wait, believing that it could become a serious product. In 2000, using Wizards of the Coasts Open Game License, Blackburn and Kenzer created Hackmaster, based on the rules for D&D.

Several years later, Blackburn made the decision to break away from the D&D game system and create an independent role-playing system for Hackmaster. This enabled him to include many items and ideas from the Knights of the Dinner Table comics.

Reception
Writing for Black Gate, John O'Neill noted that the artwork is not what draws readers to Knights of the Dinner Table, commenting, "Jolly has never claimed to be an artist, and in truth the art isn't where this strip shines anyway. Jolly's true gifts are as a writer, and the writing in KoDT is top notch."

Awards
Blackburn has received a number of awards for Knights of the Dinner Table, including:
 Origins Awards for "Best Professional Game Magazine" of 1998 and 1999.
 Origins Award for "Gamer's Choice: Best Periodical of 2003".
 Origins Award for "Best Game Accessory of 2009".

References

American cartoonists
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)

Jolly Blackburn


A propositional attitude is a mental state held by an agent or organism toward a proposition.

In philosophy, propositional attitudes can be considered to be, neurally-realized causally efficacious content-bearing internal states (personal principles/values).

Linguistically, propositional attitudes are denoted by a verb (e.g. "believed") governing an embedded "that" clause, for example, 'Sally believed that she had won'.

Propositional attitudes are often assumed to be the fundamental units of thought and their contents, being propositions, are true or false from the perspective of the person. An agent can have different propositional attitudes toward the same proposition (e.g., "S believes that her ice-cream is cold," and "S fears that her ice-cream is cold").

Propositional attitudes have directions of fit: some are meant to reflect the world, others to influence it.

One topic of central concern is the relation between the modalities of assertion and belief, perhaps with intention thrown in for good measure. Discrepancies can occur as to whether or not a person's assertions conform to their beliefs. When the departure of assertion from belief is intentional, it is called a lie.

Other comparisons of multiple modalities that frequently arise are the relationships between belief and knowledge and the discrepancies that occur among observations, expectations, and intentions.  Deviations of observations from expectations are commonly perceived as surprises, phenomena that call for explanations to reduce the shock of amazement.

Issues

In logic, the formal properties of verbs like assert, believe, command, consider, deny, doubt, imagine, judge, know, want, wish, and a host of others that involve attitudes or intentions toward propositions are notorious for their recalcitrance to analysis.
(Quine 1956).

Indiscernibility of identicals

One of the fundamental principles governing identity is that of substitutivity, also known as fungibility — or, as it might well be called, that of indiscernibility of identicals.  It provides that, given a true statement of identity, one of its two terms may be substituted for the other in any true statement and the result will be true. It is easy to find cases contrary to this principle. For example, the statements:

(1) Giorgione = Barbarelli,
(2) Giorgione was so called because of his size.
are true;  however, replacement of the name 'Giorgione' by the name 'Barbarelli' turns (2) into the falsehood:
(3) Barbarelli was so called because of his size.

Quine's example here refers to Giorgio Barbarelli's sobriquet "Giorgione", an Italian name roughly glossed as "Big George." The basis of the paradox here is that while the two names signify the same individual (the meaning of the first statement), the names are not themselves identical; the second statement refers to an attribute (origin) that they do not share.

Overview
What sort of name shall we give to verbs like 'believe' and 'wish' and so forth?  I should be inclined to call them 'propositional verbs'.  This is merely a suggested name for convenience, because they are verbs which have the form of relating an object to a proposition.  As I have been explaining, that is not what they really do, but it is convenient to call them propositional verbs.  Of course you might call them 'attitudes', but I should not like that because it is a psychological term, and although all the instances in our experience are psychological, there is no reason to suppose that all the verbs I am talking of are psychological.  There is never any reason to suppose that sort of thing.  (Russell 1918, 227).

What a proposition is, is one thing.  How we feel about it, or how we regard it, is another.  We can accept it, assert it, believe it, command it, contest it, declare it, deny it, doubt it, enjoin it, exclaim it, expect it.  Different attitudes toward propositions are called propositional attitudes, and they are also discussed under the headings of intentionality and linguistic modality.

Many problematic situations in real life arise from the circumstance that many different propositions in many different modalities are in the air at once.  In order to compare propositions of different colours and flavours, as it were, we have no basis for comparison but to examine the underlying propositions themselves.  Thus we are brought back to matters of language and logic.  Despite the name, propositional attitudes are not regarded as psychological attitudes proper, since the formal disciplines of linguistics and logic are concerned with nothing more concrete than what can be said in general about their formal properties and their patterns of interaction.

See also

 Accessibility relation
 Affect (linguistics)
 Attitude
 Belief
 Disposition
 Embedded clause
 Habit
 Intensionality
 Knowledge
 Responsive predicate
 Qualia
 Self-fulfilling prophecy
 Truth

Footnotes

Notes

Bibliography

 Awbrey, J. and Awbrey, S.(1995), "Interpretation as Action: The Risk of Inquiry", Inquiry: Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines 15, 40–52.
 Cresswell, M.J. (1985), Structured meanings. The semantics of propositional attitudes. MIT Press, Cambridge & London 1985.
 Quine, W.V. (1956), "Quantifiers and Propositional Attitudes", Journal of Philosophy 53 (1956).  Reprinted, pp. 185–196 in Quine (1976), Ways of Paradox.
 Quine, W.V. (1976), The Ways of Paradox, and Other Essays, 1st edition, 1966.  Revised and enlarged edition, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1976.
 Quine, W.V. (1980 a), From a Logical Point of View, Logico-Philosophical Essays, 2nd edition, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.
 Quine, W.V. (1980 b), "Reference and Modality", pp. 139–159 in Quine (1980 a), From a Logical Point of View.
 Ramsey, F.P. (1927), "Facts and Propositions", Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume 7, 153–170.  Reprinted, pp. 34–51 in F.P. Ramsey, Philosophical Papers, David Hugh Mellor (ed.), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 1990.
 Ramsey, F.P. (1990), Philosophical Papers, David Hugh Mellor (ed.), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.
 Runes, Dagobert D. (ed.), Dictionary of Philosophy, Littlefield, Adams, and Company, Totowa, NJ, 1962.
 Russell, Bertrand (1912), The Problems of Philosophy, 1st published 1912.  Reprinted, Galaxy Book, Oxford University Press, New York, NY, 1959.  Reprinted, Prometheus Books, Buffalo, NY, 1988.
 Russell, Bertrand (1918), "The Philosophy of Logical Atomism", The Monist, 1918.  Reprinted, pp. 177–281 in Logic and Knowledge: Essays 1901–1950, Robert Charles Marsh (ed.), Unwin Hyman, London, UK, 1956.  Reprinted, pp. 35–155 in The Philosophy of Logical Atomism, David Pears (ed.), Open Court, La Salle, IL, 1985.
 Russell, Bertrand (1956), Logic and Knowledge: Essays 1901–1950, Robert Charles Marsh (ed.), Unwin Hyman, London, UK, 1956.  Reprinted, Routledge, London, UK, 1992.
 Russell, Bertrand (1985), The Philosophy of Logical Atomism, David Pears (ed.), Open Court, La Salle, IL.

External links

 Propositional Attitudes, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Psycholinguistics
Psychological attitude
Concepts in epistemology
Formal semantics (natural language)

Propositional attitude


Bruno Gordano Grollo  (born 1942, Melbourne, Victoria) is an Australian businessman, property developer, former Director of Grocon and is noted for his controversy surrounding the Swanston Street Wall incident on 29 March 2013.

Bruno is the son of Luigi Grollo, who founded Grocon, one of Australia's largest construction companies, in 1948 after immigrating to Australia from Italy. Bruno's role in his company remains despite handing the title of chief executive and chairman to his son, Daniel Grollo in 1999.

Following public disputes with Infrastructure New South Wales in 2020, Grocon announced that it and 86 of its subsidiaries have entered Voluntary Administration.

Early life
Bruno Grollo was born in Melbourne in 1942 and is the son of accountant Emma Girardi (1913-1986) and builder Luigi Arturo Grollo (1909-1994). His grandfather, Giovanni Grollo, was a farmer.

Luigi Grollo emigrated to Australia at 18 years old, due to his adolescent life being rife with war, drought, storms and the death of his mother at 52 years old. He said of the experience growing up in Italy, 'The following year, 1928, I saw that things were still going bad there. There was another storm that carried off everything. It left only the soles of our feet! Here were some new debts to pay off.'

Luigi Grollo and his family left their hometown of Arcade, Treviso, in Northern Italy after it became a World War I battleground and was no longer habitable. At 18 years old, with his older brother sponsoring him, he boarded the passenger ship named the Principe d'Udine and arrived in Melbourne on 24 July 1928 to start a new life in Australia. His cousin Carlo Zanatta was awaiting his arrival but did not recognise Luigi as they had not been together since he was a young boy. Luigi said of Carlo, 'He was a good man to me. Zanatta took me to a boarding house in Russell Street, Melbourne city. There we stayed all one day and one night. The next morning we left for Healesville to go to work.'

In 1938, Luigi settled in Carlton, Melbourne and began concreting work, whilst building his construction business, formerly known as L Grollo & Sons, on the weekends, while wife, Emma, helped with bookkeeping and accounts. Luigi's one-man company began with residential paths, gutters, fireplace foundations and swimming pools before rapidly expanding in the 1950s to become the Grollo Group, transitioning to constructing multiple high-rises in Melbourne.

Bruno had a substantial role in his father's company whilst growing up; he and his brother would help out, gaining trade experience whilst still at school. He had minimal formal education growing up, recalling his attendance as a 'series of Catholic schools' before beginning his career as a labourer. In 1958, at 15 years old, Bruno left school and began his career in construction when he joined his father's company, of, at the time almost 130 employees. His brother, Rino Grollo, soon after joined the company in 1965. In 1968, after suffering a heart-attack, the patriarch and Director of Grocon, Luigi Grollo, retired and left sons, Bruno and Rino as co-Directors of his company Grocon. Following the stressful period after their mother's death in 2001, Bruno and Rino divided the company and its assets into two. Bruno headed Grocon Constructions and multiple building assets and in 2003 made his two sons, Adam and Daniel, joint managing directors.

Controversy

Bruno Grollo has been involved in several media controversies concerning himself and his company, Grocon.

On Trial
In 1997, Bruno Grollo and co-accuseds Mr John William Flanagan and Mr Robert Charles Howard were acquitted of conspiracy charges. They were accused of bribing a Federal Police Officer, Superintendent Lloyd Farrell, and of conspiring to pervert the course of justice. This conspiracy arose from fears surrounding the taxation office in which the court alleged that Grollo had 'failed to declare $59 Million' in the process of building the Rialto Towers. Recorded as one of the longest trials in Victorian history, running for 13 months, this investigation into the taxation affairs of the Grollo Group resulted in a not-guilty verdict on all charges for all three men, Grollo, Flanagan and Howard, and ended on June 26, 1997.

Swanston Street Collapse
On 28 March 2013, during wind gusts of up to 102 kilometres per hour (63 mph) a Grocon building site construction wall collapsed on Swanston Street, Melbourne killing three pedestrians walking by. This collapse resulted in the death of Bridget Jones, Alexander Jones and Marie-Faith Fiawoo. This fatal incident in which promotional hoarding incorrectly fastened to a Grocon brick wall, resulted in a court case in which Grocon Victoria Street Pty Ltd pleaded guilty to a charge of failing to warrant a safe workplace. Grollo stated about the incident, 'I personally, along with all of the directors and employees of Grocon, reiterate our deep regret at the tragic and untimely loss'. The court case against WorkSafe Victoria, concluding in 2014, resulted in a guilty verdict and a $250,000 fine for Grollo's company, Grocon.

Grocon Constructions

As the new co-Director of Grocon, Bruno and his company were involved in many of the projects that created Melbourne's skyline. His projects included the Rialto Towers, the Hyatt Hotel and the Eureka Tower in 2006, which was one of the world's highest residential towers at the time. Continuing his expansion into Sydney with the Governor Philip Tower, the Macquarie Towers and 1 Bligh Street, the two-brothers led Australia's construction industry to new heights.

The Grollo Tower

The Grollo Tower proposal was a $1.7 billion, 500m skyscraper for the Melbourne docklands, proposed by Bruno as a gift to Melburnians in 1995, but also partially funded by the Victorian public. Bruno stated of the tower, 'It would be a golden building for a golden city for the golden times to come ... it has to put the city on the world map' . His ambitious ideals underlined many aspects of the company, Grollo stated he wanted, 'To do something for Melbourne that did what the pyramids did for Egypt, or the Colosseum did for Rome, or the Opera House and Harbour Bridge did for Sydney'. The Grollo Tower, although never coming to fruition, would have been the tallest in the world at that time. The proposal was reviewed again in 2003 for construction to begin in Dubai, commissioned by The Grollo Corporation and Emaar Properties, the largest development company in the Arab Emirates. The $3 billion deal was proposed as an exact replica of the original Grollo Tower, however ultimately the project was cancelled and Bruno's ambitious skyscraper was never built.

Cyclone Tracy Restoration
On Christmas Day in 1974, Cyclone Tracy destroyed more than 70 percent of Darwin's buildings, including 80 percent of its houses; this led to the Northern Territory Government signing a contract with the Grollo Group to help with restorations. Both Rino and Bruno were involved in the restoration of the cyclone-torn city, building 400 cyclone-proof houses with various designs for the government. This contract substantially grew their business and by the 1980s, Grocon had a total workforce of over 1000 employees.

Voluntary Administration
In 2020, following public disputes with Infrastructure New South Wales, Grocon announced that it and 86 of its subsidiaries have entered Voluntary Administration.  The Grocon predicament began in November 2020 when Daniel Grollo experienced troubles with the latest Grocon projects, in Barangaroo, Sydney and inner-city Melbourne.

In January 2018, Grocon was awarded construction rights for a project in Central Barangaroo, Sydney as a deal with Aqualand and Scentre Group. In 2019, during a court battle with Dexas over a $28 million lease claim they put 2 subsidiaries into voluntary administration. In 2020, during the Covid-19 Pandemic, their only Melbourne based project consisting of a $111 million office development stopped construction, with subcontractors, employees and creditors said to be owed more than $100 million.

Grocon is suing the NSW Government, claiming they lost $270 million during the sale of the Barangaroo Central project to Aqualand for $73 million in 2020, and it is due to be seen in the New South Wales Supreme Court in 2022.

Personal life
Bruno Grollo married Dina Bettiol in 1965 and they had three children together, Daniel Grollo, Leanna Grollo and Adam Grollo. They were married for 26 years before Dina suffered a stroke which left her severely paralysed until her death, aged 58, in December 2001; Bruno keeps a room in her honour at his house.

On 14 February 2004, Grollo was remarried to Pierina Biondo at St Patrick's Cathedral in East Melbourne.

In 2014, he revealed in an interview with Melbourne journalist, Ruth Ostrow, of his ongoing struggles with leukemia, melanoma and prostate cancer. Grollo stated, 'My biggest goal now is staying alive. I'm trying to live long enough to see the success of gene, nano and stem-cell therapies which will keep us alive.' He now employs a professional team within his Melbourne home in Thornbury, 'Casa Del Matto' which translates to House of the Madman in English to research products on the market and new science on anti-ageing and longevity. Grollo stated, 'This is cutting-edge biology and those young and healthy enough to be around will be able to live indefinitely.' Grollo takes up to 100 tablets per day, exercises regularly and every day will hang upside down on a machine with a backwards tilt to increase longevity.

Since retiring from the construction industry, stating, 'buildings are hard work, they're stressful, they are draining. They're hard to put up. I'd had enough. I got out.' Bruno has found a passion for meditation and Maharishi yoga and has since invested $3 million into a transcendental meditation college in Watsonia, Victoria. Stating that, 'The Maharishi said consciousness is everything. It's the closest thing to what God might be, your consciousness, mine, the dog, the cat, the flowers, the trees… transcendental meditation was the closest thing to euphoria and youth I've ever discovered.'''

In 1991, Grollo was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia for service to building and construction and to the community.

Net worth
In 2006, Grollo was listed in Forbes top 40 richest people in Australia and New Zealand. Bruno Grollo and family were listed on Financial Review 2018 Rich List with an assessed net worth of 702 million. Bruno Grollo and family did not appear on the 2019 Rich List, although Rino Grollo and his family were independently assessed with a net worth of 583 million.

Bruno, Rino, and/or their father, Luigi (whilst living), are one of thirteen living Australians who have appeared on every Financial Review Rich List, since it was first published in 1984.

 Philanthropy
Bruno and his brother, Rino, along with their wives, Dina Bettiol and Diana Ruzzene, became well known in the Melbourne community for being generous philanthropists. They would all often donate to community groups, charities, educational organisations and sporting institutions.

After their mother's death in December 2001, they established The Emma Grollo Memorial Scholarship in her memory funded by Bruno, Rino and the Grollo Group. The scholarship seeks to provide financial support to students studying Italian language or literature at the University of Melbourne.

Bruno remembers his mother with these words, 'My mother had a unique ability to keep us united. She managed to keep us united right up until the very end ... and sometimes this was not easy ... Of all her merits, this for me was the greatest''.'

References

External links
 Official website
 Grocon website
 Eureka Tower website

1942 births
Australian businesspeople
Australian people of Italian descent
Living people
Construction and civil engineering companies
Cyclone Tracy
Italian-Australian culture
Transcendental Meditation
Officers of the Order of Australia

Bruno Grollo


Rachid Solh (; 22 June 1926 – 27 June 2014) was a Lebanese politician and former Prime Minister, kin of one of the most eminent Sunni Muslim families in the country that brought several of its members to the office of Prime Ministers, and that was originally from Sidon but later moved its civil-records to Beirut.

Career
Solh was elected to the Lebanese Parliament as an MP for the first time in Beirut in 1960 and was appointed by then President of Lebanon Suleiman Franjieh as prime minister in 1974. Solh resigned from office on 15 May 1975, a few weeks after the outbreak of the Lebanese civil war.

Following the resignation of the government of Omar Karami in May 1992, President Elias Hrawi was forced to form a new government and to hold the first parliamentary elections since the end of the civil war. The elections were boycotted en masse by the main Christian political parties who cited election fraud and corruption, and his term as Prime Minister lasted only five months. In 1996, Rachid Solh resigned from the Lebanese government and political life.

References

1926 births
2014 deaths
Rachid
Prime Ministers of Lebanon
Members of the Parliament of Lebanon
Place of birth missing
Interior ministers of Lebanon
People of the Lebanese Civil War
Lebanese Sunni Muslims
Lebanese Sunni politicians

Rachid Solh


Lex Parliamentaria; or, A treatise of the law and custom of the Parliaments of England, was a pocket manual for members of the Parliament of England first published in 1690. It was originally attributed to George Petyt. However, an attribution to Irishman George Philips seems now to be widely accepted, including by the historians Sir James Ware and Walter Harris. Thomas Jefferson praised the book in a letter to his son-in-law, opining, "For parliamentary knowledge the Lex parliamentaria is the best book." Its American counterparts are Jefferson's own 1801 Manual of Parliamentary Practice and Lex Parliamentaria Americana by Luther Stearns Cushing. The term lex parliamentaria is also sometimes used to describe parliamentary law in general.

See also
House of Commons of England
House of Lords

References

1690 books
Legal treatises
Parliament of England

Lex Parliamentaria


The 'Non-Cooperation Movement was a significant phase of the Indian independence movement from British rule. It was led by Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi after the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre. It aimed to resist British rule in India through non-violent means or "satyagraha". Protestors would refuse to buy British goods, adopt Nihal use of local handicrafts and picket and liquor shops. The ideas of Ahimsa and nonviolence, and Gandhi's ability to rally hundreds of thousands of common citizens towards the cause of Indian independence, were first seen on a large scale in this movement through summer 1920. Gandhi feared that the movement might lead to popular violence. The non-cooperation movement was launched on 4th September 1920. This movement became a breakthrough and in a way helped India achieve Independence.
It was called off in February 1922 when a group of peasants lit fire to the police station in chauri chaura located in Uttar Pradesh and ended the non-cooperation.

Indian independence movement

Non-cooperation movement


VF-301 Fighter Squadron 301 was an aviation unit of the United States Naval Reserve in service from 1970 to 1994 at Naval Air Station (NAS) Miramar in southern California. The squadron's nickname was Devil's Disciples. In an early display of political correctness it was changed to Blazing Infernos when the Pope visited Los Angeles in the late 1980's.

History
VF-301 was activated on 1 October 1970 and assigned to Carrier Air Wing Reserve 30 (CVWR-30) (tail code "ND") at Naval Air Station Miramar, California (USA).

The squadron first flew the F-8L Crusader and later transitioned to the F-4B Phantom in 1974. Their time with the B-models was short and VF-301 soon received the F-4N in February 1975. In 1980, VF-301 received the most advanced F-4 variant in the U.S. Navy, the F-4S. In October 1984 the unit transitioned to the F-14A Tomcat. The squadron made its first deployment with the F-14A on 21 April 1985, with five aircraft visiting MCAS Yuma, Arizona for air-to-air training against U.S. Marine Corps F-21A Kfir fighters of Marine Fighter Training Squadron 401 (VMFT-401). At this time, the squadron was still transitioning to the F-14 and it was not until 4 August the same year the entire squadron was able to deploy to NAS Fallon, Nevada for air wing training.

The Devil's Disciples first carrier landings were on board the . Further carrier training was limited but did include time on board the  between 10 and 22 August 1988. Later in its life the squadron became the first Naval Air Reserve squadron to drop air-to-ground ordnance, specifically Mk 84 bombs and Mk 20 cluster munitions.

After 24 years of service VF-301 was disestablished on 11 September 1994, the same time as sister squadron VF-302, due to post-Cold War budget cuts where the Navy opted to sacrifice Reserve F-14 squadrons to keep Regular Navy F-14 squadrons operating. Deactivation of the rest of CVWR-30 was soon to follow. During these 24 years VF-301 had acquired an outstanding safety record, flying 71,322.4 hours without a Class A mishap, setting a new record for Navy tactical jet squadrons.

See also
History of the United States Navy
List of inactive United States Navy aircraft squadrons
List of United States Navy aircraft squadrons

References

External links
VF-301 History

Strike fighter squadrons of the United States Navy

VF-301


William Francis de Vismes Kane (1840 – 1918) was an Irish entomologist

Born in Exmouth, Devon Kane lived at Drumreaske House in Monaghan. His mother was French. He was appointed Sheriff of Monaghan for 1865.

Most of Kanes collecting was in Monaghan and at Favour Royal in County Tyrone but his collection contains insects from the entirety of Ireland. He also collected extensively in Europe as well as maintaining an extensive collection of world butterflies. After 1901, Kane, a leisured country gentleman,  suddenly gave up entomology and left Ireland, leaving his collection to the National Museum of Ireland.

Works
A catalogue of the Lepidoptera of Ireland. London.West Newman & Co.. 166pp. Fine coloured frontis of 15 varieties of Irish Lepidoptera. (1901) _ the third (and first comprehensive) catalogue of the Irish macrolepidoptera.
European Butterflies Macmillan. 184pp. Some b/w photos(1885).

Arms

References

Sources
Anonym 1918: [Kane, W. F. V.] - Ent. Rec. J. Var. 30 157
Anonym 1919: [Kane, W. F. V.] - Ent. News 30 209
Edwards, S. 1918–1919: [Kane, W. F. de Vismes] - Proc. Soc. London Ent. & N. H. Soc. : 36
Gardner, W. 1918: [Kane, W. F. V.] - Entomologist's Monthly Magazine (3) 54 254-255
H. R. B. 1918: [Kane, W. F. V.] - Ent. 51 240

1840 births
1918 deaths
People from Exmouth
High Sheriffs of Monaghan
Irish entomologists
People from Monaghan (town)

William Francis de Vismes Kane