Cygnus X-1 (abbreviated Cyg X-1) is a galactic X-ray source in the constellation Cygnus and was the first such source widely accepted to be a black hole. It was discovered in 1971 during a rocket flight and is one of the strongest X-ray sources detectable from Earth, producing a peak X-ray flux density of  (). It remains among the most studied astronomical objects in its class. The compact object is now estimated to have a mass about 21.2 times the mass of the Sun and has been shown to be too small to be any known kind of normal star or other likely object besides a black hole. If so, the radius of its event horizon has  "as upper bound to the linear dimension of the source region" of occasional X-ray bursts lasting only for about 1 ms.

Cygnus X-1 belongs to a high-mass X-ray binary system, located about 2.22 kiloparsecs from the Sun, that includes a blue supergiant variable star designated HDE 226868, which it orbits at about 0.2 AU, or 20% of the distance from Earth to the Sun. A stellar wind from the star provides material for an accretion disk around the X-ray source. Matter in the inner disk is heated to millions of degrees, generating the observed X-rays. A pair of relativistic jets, arranged perpendicularly to the disk, are carrying part of the energy of the infalling material away into interstellar space.

This system may belong to a stellar association called Cygnus OB3, which would mean that Cygnus X-1 is about 5 million years old and formed from a progenitor star that had more than . The majority of the star's mass was shed, most likely as a stellar wind. If this star had then exploded as a supernova, the resulting force would most likely have ejected the remnant from the system. Hence the star may have instead collapsed directly into a black hole.

Cygnus X-1 was the subject of a friendly scientific wager between physicists Stephen Hawking and Kip Thorne in 1975, with Hawking, hoping to lose, betting that it was not a black hole. He conceded the bet in 1990 after observational data had strengthened the case that there was indeed a black hole in the system. This hypothesis lacks direct empirical evidence but has generally been accepted from indirect evidence.

Discovery and observation
Observation of X-ray emissions allows astronomers to study celestial phenomena involving gas with temperatures in the millions of degrees. However, because X-ray emissions are blocked by Earth's atmosphere, observation of celestial X-ray sources is not possible without lifting instruments to altitudes where the X-rays can penetrate. Cygnus X-1 was discovered using X-ray instruments that were carried aloft by a sounding rocket launched from White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. As part of an ongoing effort to map these sources, a survey was conducted in 1964 using two Aerobee suborbital rockets. The rockets carried Geiger counters to measure X-ray emission in wavelength range 1– across an 8.4° section of the sky. These instruments swept across the sky as the rockets rotated, producing a map of closely spaced scans.

As a result of these surveys, eight new sources of cosmic X-rays were discovered, including Cyg XR-1 (later Cyg X-1) in the constellation Cygnus. The celestial coordinates of this source were estimated as right ascension 19h53m and declination 34.6°. It was not associated with any especially prominent radio or optical source at that position.

Seeing a need for longer-duration studies, in 1963 Riccardo Giacconi and Herb Gursky proposed the first orbital satellite to study X-ray sources. NASA launched their Uhuru satellite in 1970, which led to the discovery of 300 new X-ray sources. Extended Uhuru observations of Cygnus X-1 showed fluctuations in the X-ray intensity that occurs several times a second. This rapid variation meant that the energy generation must take place over a relatively small region of roughly , as the speed of light restricts communication between more distant regions. For a size comparison, the diameter of the Sun is about .

In April–May 1971, Luc Braes and George K. Miley from Leiden Observatory, and independently Robert M. Hjellming and Campbell Wade at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, detected radio emission from Cygnus X-1, and their accurate radio position pinpointed the X-ray source to the star AGK2 +35 1910 = HDE 226868. On the celestial sphere, this star lies about half a degree from the 4th-magnitude star Eta Cygni. It is a supergiant star that is by itself incapable of emitting the observed quantities of X-rays. Hence, the star must have a companion that could heat gas to the millions of degrees needed to produce the radiation source for Cygnus X-1.

Louise Webster and Paul Murdin, at the Royal Greenwich Observatory, and Charles Thomas Bolton, working independently at the University of Toronto's David Dunlap Observatory, announced the discovery of a massive hidden companion to HDE 226868 in 1972. Measurements of the Doppler shift of the star's spectrum demonstrated the companion's presence and allowed its mass to be estimated from the orbital parameters. Based on the high predicted mass of the object, they surmised that it may be a black hole, as the largest possible neutron star cannot exceed three times the mass of the Sun.

With further observations strengthening the evidence, by the end of 1973 the astronomical community generally conceded that Cygnus X-1 was most likely a black hole. More precise measurements of Cygnus X-1 demonstrated variability down to a single millisecond. This interval is consistent with turbulence in a disk of accreted matter surrounding a black hole—the accretion disk. X-ray bursts that last for about a third of a second match the expected time frame of matter falling toward a black hole.

Cygnus X-1 has since been studied extensively using observations by orbiting and ground-based instruments. The similarities between the emissions of X-ray binaries such as HDE 226868/Cygnus X-1 and active galactic nuclei suggests a common mechanism of energy generation involving a black hole, an orbiting accretion disk and associated jets. For this reason, Cygnus X-1 is identified among a class of objects called microquasars; an analog of the quasars, or quasi-stellar radio sources, now known to be distant active galactic nuclei. Scientific studies of binary systems such as HDE 226868/Cygnus X-1 may lead to further insights into the mechanics of active galaxies.

Binary system
The compact object and blue supergiant star form a binary system in which they orbit around their center of mass every 5.599829 days. From the perspective of Earth, the compact object never goes behind the other star; in other words, the system does not eclipse. However, the inclination of the orbital plane to the line of sight from Earth remains uncertain, with predictions ranging from 27° to 65°. A 2007 study estimated the inclination as , which would mean that the semi-major axis is about , or 20% of the distance from Earth to the Sun. The orbital eccentricity is thought to be only , meaning a nearly circular orbit. Earth's distance to this system is calculated by trigonometric parallax as , and by radio astrometry as .

The HDE 226868/Cygnus X-1 system shares a common motion through space with an association of massive stars named Cygnus OB3, which is located at roughly 2000 parsecs from the Sun. This implies that HDE 226868, Cygnus X-1 and this OB association may have formed at the same time and location. If so, then the age of the system is about . The motion of HDE 226868 with respect to Cygnus OB3 is , a typical value for random motion within a stellar association. HDE 226868 is about  from the center of the association and could have reached that separation in about —which roughly agrees with estimated age of the association.

With a galactic latitude of 4° and galactic longitude 71°, this system lies inward along the same Orion Spur, in which the Sun is located within the Milky Way, near where the spur approaches the Sagittarius Arm. Cygnus X-1 has been described as belonging to the Sagittarius Arm, though the structure of the Milky Way is not well established.

Compact object
From various techniques, the mass of the compact object appears to be greater than the maximum mass for a neutron star. Stellar evolutionary models suggest a mass of , while other techniques resulted in 10 solar masses. Measuring periodicities in the X-ray emission near the object yielded a more precise value of . In all cases, the object is most likely a black hole—a region of space with a gravitational field that is strong enough to prevent the escape of electromagnetic radiation from the interior. The boundary of this region is called the event horizon and has an effective radius called the Schwarzschild radius, which is about  for Cygnus X-1. Anything (including matter and photons) that passes through this boundary is unable to escape. New measurements published in 2021 yielded an estimated mass of .

Evidence of just such an event horizon may have been detected in 1992 using ultraviolet (UV) observations with the High Speed Photometer on the Hubble Space Telescope. As self-luminous clumps of matter spiral into a black hole, their radiation is emitted in a series of pulses that are subject to gravitational redshift as the material approaches the horizon. That is, the wavelengths of the radiation steadily increase, as predicted by general relativity. Matter hitting a solid, compact object would emit a final burst of energy, whereas material passing through an event horizon would not. Two such "dying pulse trains" were observed, which is consistent with the existence of a black hole.

The spin of the compact object is not yet well determined. Past analysis of data from the space-based Chandra X-ray Observatory suggested that Cygnus X-1 was not rotating to any significant degree. However, evidence announced in 2011 suggests that it is rotating extremely rapidly, approximately 790 times per second.

Formation
The largest star in the Cygnus OB3 association has a mass 40 times that of the Sun. As more massive stars evolve more rapidly, this implies that the progenitor star for Cygnus X-1 had more than 40 solar masses. Given the current estimated mass of the black hole, the progenitor star must have lost over 30 solar masses of material. Part of this mass may have been lost to HDE 226868, while the remainder was most likely expelled by a strong stellar wind. The helium enrichment of HDE 226868's outer atmosphere may be evidence for this mass transfer. Possibly the progenitor may have evolved into a Wolf–Rayet star, which ejects a substantial proportion of its atmosphere using just such a powerful stellar wind.

If the progenitor star had exploded as a supernova, then observations of similar objects show that the remnant would most likely have been ejected from the system at a relatively high velocity. As the object remained in orbit, this indicates that the progenitor may have collapsed directly into a black hole without exploding (or at most produced only a relatively modest explosion).

Accretion disk

The compact object is thought to be orbited by a thin, flat disk of accreting matter known as an accretion disk. This disk is intensely heated by friction between ionized gas in faster-moving inner orbits and that in slower outer ones. It is divided into a hot inner region with a relatively high level of ionization—forming a plasma—and a cooler, less ionized outer region that extends to an estimated 500 times the Schwarzschild radius, or about 15,000 km.

Though highly and erratically variable, Cygnus X-1 is typically the brightest persistent source of hard X-rays—those with energies from about 30 up to several hundred kiloelectronvolts—in the sky. The X-rays are produced as lower-energy photons in the thin inner accretion disk, then given more energy through Compton scattering with very high-temperature electrons in a geometrically thicker, but nearly transparent corona enveloping it, as well as by some further reflection from the surface of the thin disk. An alternative possibility is that the X-rays may be Compton-scattered by the base of a jet instead of a disk corona.

The X-ray emission from Cygnus X-1 can vary in a somewhat repetitive pattern called quasi-periodic oscillations (QPO). The mass of the compact object appears to determine the distance at which the surrounding plasma begins to emit these QPOs, with the emission radius decreasing as the mass decreases. This technique has been used to estimate the mass of Cygnus X-1, providing a cross-check with other mass derivations.

Pulsations with a stable period, similar to those resulting from the spin of a neutron star, have never been seen from Cygnus X-1. The pulsations from neutron stars are caused by the neutron star's rotating magnetic field, but the no-hair theorem guarantees that the magnetic field of a black hole is exactly aligned with its rotation axis and thus is static. For example, the X-ray binary V 0332+53 was thought to be a possible black hole until pulsations were found. Cygnus X-1 has also never displayed X-ray bursts similar to those seen from neutron stars. Cygnus X-1 unpredictably changes between two X-ray states, although the X-rays may vary continuously between those states as well. In the most common state, the X-rays are "hard", which means that more of the X-rays have high energy. In the less common state, the X-rays are "soft", with more of the X-rays having lower energy. The soft state also shows greater variability. The hard state is believed to originate in a corona surrounding the inner part of the more opaque accretion disk. The soft state occurs when the disk draws closer to the compact object (possibly as close as ), accompanied by cooling or ejection of the corona. When a new corona is generated, Cygnus X-1 transitions back to the hard state.

The spectral transition of Cygnus X-1 can be explained using a two-component advective flow solution, as proposed by Chakrabarti and Titarchuk. A hard state is generated by the inverse Comptonisation of seed photons from the Keplarian disk and likewise synchrotron photons produced by the hot electrons in the centrifugal-pressure–supported boundary layer (CENBOL).

The X-ray flux from Cygnus X-1 varies periodically every 5.6 days, especially during superior conjunction when the orbiting objects are most closely aligned with Earth and the compact source is the more distant. This indicates that the emissions are being partially blocked by circumstellar matter, which may be the stellar wind from the star HDE 226868. There is a roughly 300-day periodicity in the emission, which could be caused by the precession of the accretion disk.

Jets
As accreted matter falls toward the compact object, it loses gravitational potential energy. Part of this released energy is dissipated by jets of particles, aligned perpendicular to the accretion disk, that flow outward with relativistic velocities (that is, the particles are moving at a significant fraction of the speed of light). This pair of jets provide a means for an accretion disk to shed excess energy and angular momentum. They may be created by magnetic fields within the gas that surrounds the compact object.

The Cygnus X-1 jets are inefficient radiators and so release only a small proportion of their energy in the electromagnetic spectrum. That is, they appear "dark". The estimated angle of the jets to the line of sight is 30°, and they may be precessing. One of the jets is colliding with a relatively dense part of the interstellar medium (ISM), forming an energized ring that can be detected by its radio emission. This collision appears to be forming a nebula that has been observed in the optical wavelengths. To produce this nebula, the jet must have an estimated average power of 4–, or . This is more than 1,000 times the power emitted by the Sun. There is no corresponding ring in the opposite direction because that jet is facing a lower-density region of the ISM.

In 2006, Cygnus X-1 became the first stellar-mass black hole found to display evidence of gamma-ray emission in the very high-energy band, above . The signal was observed at the same time as a flare of hard X-rays, suggesting a link between the events. The X-ray flare may have been produced at the base of the jet, while the gamma rays could have been generated where the jet interacts with the stellar wind of HDE 226868.

HDE 226868

HDE 226868 is a supergiant star with a spectral class of O9.7 Iab, which is on the borderline between class-O and class-B stars. It has an estimated surface temperature of 31,000 K and mass approximately 20–40 times the mass of the Sun. Based on a stellar evolutionary model, at the estimated distance of 2,000 parsecs, this star may have a radius equal to about 15–17 times the solar radius and has approximately 300,000–400,000 times the luminosity of the Sun. For comparison, the compact object is estimated to be orbiting HDE 226868 at a distance of about 40 solar radii, or twice the radius of this star.

The surface of HDE 226868 is being tidally distorted by the gravity of the massive companion, forming a tear-drop shape that is further distorted by rotation. This causes the optical brightness of the star to vary by 0.06 magnitudes during each 5.6-day binary orbit, with the minimum magnitude occurring when the system is aligned with the line of sight. The "ellipsoidal" pattern of light variation results from the limb darkening and gravity darkening of the star's surface.

When the spectrum of HDE 226868 is compared to the similar star Epsilon Orionis, the former shows an overabundance of helium and an underabundance of carbon in its atmosphere. The ultraviolet and hydrogen-alpha spectral lines of HDE 226868 show profiles similar to the star P Cygni, which indicates that the star is surrounded by a gaseous envelope that is being accelerated away from the star at speeds of about 1,500 km/s.

Like other stars of its spectral type, HDE 226868 is thought to be shedding mass in a stellar wind at an estimated rate of  solar masses per year. This is the equivalent of losing a mass equal to the Sun's every 400,000 years. The gravitational influence of the compact object appears to be reshaping this stellar wind, producing a focused wind geometry rather than a spherically symmetrical wind. X-rays from the region surrounding the compact object heat and ionize this stellar wind. As the object moves through different regions of the stellar wind during its 5.6-day orbit, the UV lines, the radio emission, and the X-rays themselves all vary.

The Roche lobe of HDE 226868 defines the region of space around the star where orbiting material remains gravitationally bound. Material that passes beyond this lobe may fall toward the orbiting companion. This Roche lobe is believed to be close to the surface of HDE 226868 but not overflowing, so the material at the stellar surface is not being stripped away by its companion. However, a significant proportion of the stellar wind emitted by the star is being drawn onto the compact object's accretion disk after passing beyond this lobe.

The gas and dust between the Sun and HDE 226868 results in a reduction in the apparent magnitude of the star, as well as a reddening of the hue—red light can more effectively penetrate the dust in the interstellar medium. The estimated value of the interstellar extinction (AV) is 3.3 magnitudes. Without the intervening matter, HDE 226868 would be a fifth-magnitude star, and thus visible to the unaided eye.

Stephen Hawking and Kip Thorne

Cygnus X-1 was the subject of a bet between physicists Stephen Hawking and Kip Thorne, in which Hawking bet against the existence of black holes in the region. Hawking later described this as an "insurance policy" of sorts. In his book A Brief History of Time he wrote:

According to the updated tenth-anniversary edition of A Brief History of Time, Hawking has conceded the bet due to subsequent observational data in favor of black holes. In his own book Black Holes and Time Warps, Thorne reports that Hawking conceded the bet by breaking into Thorne's office while he was in Russia, finding the framed bet, and signing it. While Hawking referred to the bet as taking place in 1975, the written bet itself (in Thorne's handwriting, with his and Hawking's signatures) bears additional witness signatures under a legend stating "Witnessed this tenth day of December 1974". This date was confirmed by Kip Thorne on the January 10, 2018 episode of Nova on PBS.

In popular culture
Cygnus X-1 is the subject of a two-part song series by Canadian progressive rock band Rush. The first part, "Book I: The Voyage", is the last song on the 1977 album A Farewell to Kings. The second part, "Book II: Hemispheres", is the first song on the following 1978 album, Hemispheres. The lyrics describe an explorer aboard the spaceship Rocinante, who travels to the black hole, believing that there may be something beyond it. As he moves closer, it becomes increasingly difficult to control the ship, and he is eventually drawn in by the pull of gravity.

In the Disney Sci-Fi film The Black Hole, the scientific survey ship captained by Dr. Hans Reinhardt to study the black hole of the film's title is the Cygnus, presumably (although never stated as such) named for the first-identified black hole, Cygnus X-1.

In Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters The Bilusaludo's homeworld of Bilusaludia Was the third planet of The Cygnus X System until their homeworld was consumed by the Black hole They were the second Alien race to come into contact with Humanity in 2036 They asked to take refuge on Earth and if humanity accepted they promised to eliminate their greatest threat Godzilla and in 2039  alongside Humanity and Their Exif Alies lead to the formation of the United Earth.

See also

 X-ray binary
 List of nearest black holes
 Stellar black hole

References

External links

Cygnus X-1 at Constellation Guide
 NuSTAR and Suzaku observations of the hard state in Cygnus X-1: locating the inner accretion disk Michael Parker, 29 May 2015
 NuSTAR's First View of High-Energy X-ray Universe NASA/JPL-Caltech June 28, 2012

098298
O-type supergiants
Cygnus (constellation)
226868
Stellar black holes
X-ray binaries
Cygni, V1357
Durchmusterung objects
Rotating ellipsoidal variables

Cygnus X-1


Adriane Lenox is an American actress, best known for her performances in Broadway theatre. Her performance in the play Doubt: A Parable garnered her the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play in 2005. She received another Tony Award nomination for After Midnight in 2014.

Early life
Lenox, who is from Tennessee, attended Lambuth College in Jackson, Tennessee and has a degree in drama. She appeared in Ain't Misbehavin in New York after graduation.

Career

Stage
Lenox appeared in Doubt: A Parable on Broadway in 2005 as Mrs. Muller. She won the Tony Award, Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play, for this performance. Other Broadway appearances include Hattie in the Broadway revival of Kiss Me, Kate in 1999, a revue, The Gershwins' Fascinating Rhythm in 1999,
Caroline, or Change in 2004 as standby for "Caroline Thibodeaux", and Chicago as the Matron (Replacement from August 2007 to October 2007). She appeared on Broadway in After Midnight, in 2013, reprising her role in the New York City Center Encores! staged revue Cotton Club Parade.

She has appeared in many Off-Broadway productions, starting with Beehive in 1986 at the Village Gate (Upstairs). She appeared in the "drama with music", Dinah Was in May 1998 to January 1999 at the Gramercy Theatre in the roles of Maye/Waitress/Violet, and won the Obie Award, Performance (1997–1998).

Film and television
Lenox had a role in the 2009 film The Blind Side, as Denise Oher. Her other film credits include Black Snake Moan (2006), My Blueberry Nights (2007), The Sorcerer's Apprentice (2010), and The Butler (2013).

On television, Lenox has appeared in episodes of Law & Order, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Third Watch and Nurse Jackie. She had the recurring roles on Lipstick Jungle, 30 Rock, Damages, Daredevil, The Blacklist, and The Path. She also had a role in the HBO film The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks starring Oprah Winfrey.

Stage Credits

Broadway

Touring

Filmography

Film

Television

Awards and nominations

References

External links

Actresses from Memphis, Tennessee
American film actresses
American stage actresses
American television actresses
Drama Desk Award winners
Living people
Tony Award winners
African-American actresses
20th-century American actresses
21st-century American actresses
20th-century African-American women
20th-century African-American people
21st-century African-American women
Year of birth missing (living people)

Adriane Lenox


was a Japanese swimmer who competed at the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California.

Kitamura was born in Kōchi, Japan. Selected as one of the youngest members of the Japanese swimming team in the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics, he won the gold medal in the Men's 1500 meter freestyle swimming event. He was 14 years and 309 days old at the time, setting a record for youngest ever swimmer to win a gold medal at the Olympic Games. This record lasted until the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, Korea, when Hungarian swimmer Krisztina Egerszegi won the gold in the Women's 200-meter backstroke event. However, Kitamaura still holds the record for the youngest male swimmer.

After the 1932 Olympics, Kitamura retired from competitive sports, and eventually graduated from Tokyo Imperial University, and obtained a job at the Japanese Ministry of Labor. He rose through the bureaucratic ranks, eventually becoming a department head, before retiring in 1984 to become a director at Sumitomo Cement.

See also
 List of members of the International Swimming Hall of Fame

References

External links

Kusuo Kitamura at databaseOlympics.com

1917 births
1996 deaths
People from Kōchi, Kōchi
University of Tokyo alumni
Olympic swimmers for Japan
Swimmers at the 1932 Summer Olympics
Olympic gold medalists for Japan
Medalists at the 1932 Summer Olympics
Japanese male freestyle swimmers
Olympic gold medalists in swimming
20th-century Japanese people

Kusuo Kitamura


Supersonic speed is the speed of an object that exceeds the speed of sound (Mach 1). For objects traveling in dry air of a temperature of 20 °C (68 °F) at sea level, this speed is approximately . Speeds greater than five times the speed of sound (Mach 5) are often referred to as hypersonic. Flights during which only some parts of the air surrounding an object, such as the ends of rotor blades, reach supersonic speeds are called transonic. This occurs typically somewhere between Mach 0.8 and Mach 1.2.

Sounds are traveling vibrations in the form of pressure waves in an elastic medium. Objects move at supersonic speed when the objects move faster than the speed at which sound propagates through the medium. In gases, sound travels longitudinally at different speeds, mostly depending on the molecular mass and temperature of the gas, and pressure has little effect. Since air temperature and composition varies significantly with altitude, the speed of sound, and Mach numbers for a steadily moving object may change. In water at room temperature supersonic speed can be considered as any speed greater than 1,440 m/s (4,724 ft/s). In solids, sound waves can be polarized longitudinally or transversely and have even higher velocities.

Supersonic fracture is crack motion faster than the speed of sound in a brittle material.

Early meaning
The word supersonic comes from two Latin derived words; 1) super: above and 2) sonus: sound, which together mean above sound, or faster than sound.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the term "supersonic" was used as an adjective to describe sound whose frequency is above the range of normal human hearing. The modern term for this meaning is "ultrasonic".

Supersonic objects

The tip of a bullwhip is thought to be the first object designed to break the sound barrier, resulting in the telltale "crack" (actually a small sonic boom). The wave motion travelling through the bullwhip is what makes it capable of achieving supersonic speeds. However, the first man-made supersonic boom was likely caused by a piece of cloth, spurring the whip's eventual development.

Most modern firearm bullets are supersonic, with rifle projectiles often travelling at speeds approaching and in some cases well exceeding Mach 3.

Most spacecraft are supersonic at least during portions of their reentry, though the effects on the spacecraft are reduced by low air densities. During ascent, launch vehicles generally avoid going supersonic below 30 km (~98,400 feet) to reduce air drag.

Note that the speed of sound decreases somewhat with altitude, due to lower temperatures found there (typically up to 25 km). At even higher altitudes the temperature starts increasing, with the corresponding increase in the speed of sound.

When an inflated balloon is burst, the torn pieces of latex contract at supersonic speed, which contributes to the sharp and loud popping noise.

Supersonic land vehicles

To date, only one land vehicle has officially travelled at supersonic speed, the ThrustSSC. The vehicle, driven by Andy Green, holds the world land speed record, having achieved an average speed on its bi-directional run of  in the Black Rock Desert on 15 October 1997.

The Bloodhound LSR project planned an attempt on the record in 2020 at Hakskeenpan in South Africa with a combination jet and hybrid rocket propelled car. The aim was to break the existing record, then make further attempts during which [the members of] the team hope to reach speeds of up to . The effort was originally run by Richard Noble who was the leader of the ThrustSSC project, however following funding issues in 2018, the team was bought by Ian Warhurst and renamed Bloodhound LSR. Later the project was indefinitely delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the vehicle was put up for sale.

Supersonic flight

Most modern fighter aircraft are supersonic aircraft. No modern-day passenger aircraft are capable of supersonic speed, but there have been supersonic passenger aircraft, namely Concorde and the Tupolev Tu-144. Both of these passenger aircraft and some modern fighters are also capable of supercruise, a condition of sustained supersonic flight without the use of an afterburner. Due to its ability to supercruise for several hours and the relatively high frequency of flight over several decades, Concorde spent more time flying supersonically than all other aircraft combined by a considerable margin. Since Concorde's final retirement flight on November 26, 2003, there are no supersonic passenger aircraft left in service. Some large bombers, such as the Tupolev Tu-160 and Rockwell B-1 Lancer are also supersonic-capable.

The aerodynamics of supersonic aircraft is simpler than subsonic aerodynamics because the airsheets at different points along the plane often cannot affect each other. Supersonic jets and rocket vehicles require several times greater thrust to push through the extra aerodynamic drag experienced within the transonic region (around Mach 0.85–1.2). At these speeds aerospace engineers can gently guide air around the fuselage of the aircraft without producing new shock waves, but any change in cross area farther down the vehicle leads to shock waves along the body. Designers use the Supersonic area rule and the Whitcomb area rule to minimize sudden changes in size.

However, in practical applications, a supersonic aircraft must operate stably in both subsonic and supersonic profiles, hence aerodynamic design is more complex.

The main key to having low supersonic drag is to properly shape the overall aircraft to be long and thin, and close to a "perfect" shape, the von Karman ogive or Sears-Haack body. This has led to almost every supersonic cruising aircraft looking very similar to every other, with a very long and slender fuselage and large delta wings, cf. SR-71, Concorde, etc. Although not ideal for passenger aircraft, this shaping is quite adaptable for bomber use.

See also
 Area rule
 Hypersonic speed
 Sonic boom
 Supersonic aircraft
 Supersonic airfoils
 Transonic speed
 Vapor cone
 Prandtl–Glauert singularity

References

External links
 "Can We Ever Fly Faster Speed of Sound", October 1944, Popular Science one of the earliest articles on shock waves and flying the speed of sound
 "Britain Goes Supersonic", January 1946, Popular Science 1946 article trying to explain supersonic flight to the general public
 MathPages - The Speed of Sound
 Supersonic sound pressure levels

Aerodynamics
Aerospace engineering
Airspeed
Sound
Temporal rates

Supersonic speed


The Ring of Brodgar is a Neolithic henge and stone circle on Mainland, the largest island in Orkney, Scotland. It is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site known as the Heart of Neolithic Orkney.

The stone circle is  in diameter, and the third largest in the British Isles. The ring originally comprised 60 stones, of which only 27 remained standing at the end of the 20th century. The tallest stones stand at the south and west of the ring.

The stones are set in a circular ditch up to  deep,  wide and  in circumference that was carved out of the solid sandstone bedrock by the ancient residents. Technically, this ditch does not constitute a true henge as there is no sign of an encircling bank of earth and rock. However, many archaeologists refer to this structure as a henge. Aubrey Burl classifies the ditch as a Class II henge; one that has two opposing entrances, in this case on the north-west and south-east.

The Ring is in a significant ritual landscape. Within  there are the two circle-henges, four chambered tombs, groups of standing stones, single stones, barrows, cairns, and mounds. A number of flint arrowheads and broken stone mace-heads were found nearby. They seem to date from the Bronze Age. The nearby Standing Stones of Stenness and its Maeshowe tomb help to make the Ring of Brodgar a site of major importance.

References

Archaeological sites in Scotland
Henges
Stone circles
Neolithic
Prehistoric buildings and structures on Orkney
3rd millennium BC buildings and structures

Ring of Brodgar


Bartolomé Araujo Fortunato (born August 24, 1974) is a former baseball pitcher.

Fortunato was originally an outfielder, but was converted to pitching when signed as a free agent by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in . He made his Major League debut on June 29, 2004, against the Toronto Blue Jays.

Fortunato was traded to the New York Mets along with Victor Zambrano as part of a controversial deal that sent top Mets prospect Scott Kazmir to Tampa Bay. After pitching well late in 2004, he spent the entire  season on the disabled list with a herniated disc. After signing with the San Francisco Giants in spring training , Fortunato was released by the Giants on June 15.

On July 6, 2008, Fortunato signed with the Calgary Vipers of the Golden Baseball League. On July 10, the Vipers traded him to the St. George Roadrunners for a PTBNL. On August 23, 2010 Fortunato signed with the Bridgeport Bluefish. He last played for the Edmonton Capitals of the North American League.

Fortunato is single and resides in Santo Domingo.

References

External links

1974 births
Living people
Acereros de Monclova players
Bakersfield Blaze players
Bridgeport Bluefish players
Calgary Vipers players
Dominican Republic expatriate baseball players in Canada
Dominican Republic expatriate baseball players in Mexico
Dominican Republic expatriate baseball players in the United States
Durham Bulls players
Edmonton Capitals players
Fresno Grizzlies players
Gigantes del Cibao players
Hudson Valley Renegades players

Leones del Escogido players
Major League Baseball players from the Dominican Republic
Major League Baseball pitchers
Mexican League baseball pitchers
New York Mets players
Norfolk Tides players
Orlando Rays players
Princeton Devil Rays players
Baseball players from Santo Domingo
St. George Roadrunners players
Tampa Bay Devil Rays players

Bartolomé Fortunato


Kei car (or , kanji: , "light automobile", ), refers to the Japanese vehicle category for the smallest highway-legal passenger cars, with restricted dimensions and engine capacity. Similar Japanese categories exist for microvans and kei trucks. These vehicles are most often the Japanese equivalent of the European Union's A-segment "city cars".

The kei category was created by the Japanese government in 1949, and the regulations have been revised several times since. These regulations specify a maximum vehicle size, engine capacity, and power output, so that owners may enjoy both tax and insurance benefits. In most rural areas, they are also exempted from the  parking space ownership requirement (as street parking is usually prohibited in Japan).

Kei cars have become very successful in Japan, consisting of over one-third of domestic new-car sales in fiscal year 2016, despite dropping from a record 40% market share in 2013 after the government increased kei car taxes by 50% in 2014. In 2018, seven of the 10 top-selling models were kei cars, including the top four, all boxy passenger vans: the Honda N-Box, Suzuki Spacia, Nissan Dayz, and Daihatsu Tanto.

In export markets, the genre is generally too small and specialized for most models to be profitable. Notable exceptions exist, for instance the Suzuki Alto and Daihatsu Cuore, which have been exported consistently from around 1980. Kei cars are not only popular with the elderly, but also with youths and younger families because of their affordability and ease of use.

Nearly all kei cars have been designed and manufactured in Japan, but a version of the German-made Smart Fortwo was briefly imported and officially classified as a kei car, and since then, the British Caterham 7 160 has also received such classification.

Description
Kei cars feature yellow license plates (with black numbers on a yellow background for private use, and yellow numbers on a black background for commercial use), earning them the name "yellow-plate cars" in English-speaking circles. Japanese government regulations limit the physical size, engine power, and engine displacement of kei cars. Kei cars have also been subject to other restrictions, such as lower speed limits; vehicles are equipped with a warning chime that sounds if being driven too fast.

Kei cars are often available with forced-induction engines, automatic and continuously variable transmissions, front-wheel drive, and all-wheel drive.

History

360-cc era (1949–1975)

The kei legal class originated in the era following the end of World War Two, when most Japanese citizens could not afford a full-sized car, though many had enough money to buy a motorcycle. To promote the growth of the car industry, as well as to offer alternative delivery vehicles to small business and shop owners, the kei category and standards were created. Originally limited to a displacement of only 150 cc (or just 100 cc for two-stroke engines) in 1949, dimensions and engine size limitations were gradually expanded in 1950, 1951, and 1955 to make kei car production more attractive to manufacturers.

In 1955, the displacement limit increased to 360 cc for both two-stroke and four-stroke engines, resulting in several new kei car models beginning production in the following years. These included the 1955 Suzuki Suzulight and the 1958 Subaru 360, the first mass-produced kei car, which were finally able to fill people's need for basic transportation without being too severely compromised. In 1955, the Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry also set forth goals to develop a "national car" that was larger than kei cars produced at the time. This goal influenced Japanese automobile manufacturers to determine how best to focus their product development efforts for kei cars or the larger "national" cars. The small exterior dimensions and engine displacement reflected the driving environment in Japan, with speed limits in Japan realistically not exceeding  in urban areas. Kei cars were not allowed to be driven any faster than 40 km/h until the mid-1960s, when the kei speed limit was increased to .

The class then went through a period of ever increasing sophistication, with an automatic transmission appearing in the Honda N360 in August 1968, and front disc brakes becoming available on a number of sporting kei cars, beginning with the Honda Z GS of January 1970. Power outputs also kept climbing, reaching a peak with the  Daihatsu Fellow Max SS of July 1970. Sales increased steadily, reaching a peak of 750,000 in 1970.

Until 31 December 1974, kei cars used smaller license plates than regular cars, at . From 1975, they received medium-sized standard plates, which are . To set them apart from regular passenger cars, the plates were now yellow and black rather than white and green.

550-cc era (1976–1990)

Throughout the 1970s, the government kept whittling away at the benefits offered to kei vehicles, which combined with ever stricter emissions standards to lower sales drastically through the first half of the decade. Honda and Mazda withdrew from the shrinking passenger kei car market in 1974 and 1976, respectively, although they both maintained a limited offering of commercial vehicles. Sales had been steadily declining, reaching a low of 150,000 passenger cars in 1975, 80% less than 1970 sales.

Emissions laws were another problem for the kei car industry in the mid-1970s. From 1973 to 1978, emissions standards were to be tightened in four steps. Meeting the stricter standards, which were to be introduced in 1975, would be problematic for manufacturers of kei cars. This was particularly hard for Daihatsu and Suzuki, which focused on two-stroke engines, and especially Suzuki, a relatively small company whose entire lineup consisted of two-stroke kei cars. Daihatsu, though, had both the engineering backing and powerful connections of their owner, Toyota, to aid them in meeting the new requirements. All manufacturers of kei cars were clamoring for increased engine displacement and vehicle size limits, claiming that the emissions standards could not be met with a functional 360-cc engine. In the end, the Japanese legislature relented, increasing the overall length and width restrictions by  and , respectively. Engine size was increased to 550 cc, taking effect from 1 January 1976. The new standards were announced on 26 August 1975, leaving very little time for manufacturers to revise their designs to take advantage of the new limits.

Most manufacturers were somewhat surprised by the decision; having expected a  limit, they had already developed new engines to fit such restrictions. These new engines were quickly introduced, usually mounted within widened bodies of existing models. These interim versions, with displacements ranging between 443 and 490 cc, were "feelers", developed to see if a continued market existed for the kei car. As sales improved, these engines only lasted for a model year or so until manufacturers had the time to develop "full-sized" engines. Only Daihatsu had a 550 cc engine ready and thus managed to avoid developing transitional engines that did not take full advantage of the new regulations. Kei car sales remained stagnant, however; while combined passenger and commercial kei car sales reached 700,000 for the first time since 1974, the small cars still lost market share in a quickly growing market.

As the kei cars became larger and more powerful, another benefit appeared as exports increased considerably. In particular, export sales of kei trucks increased, while kei passenger car exports increased at a lower rate. In 1976, the number of exported kei cars and trucks combined was 74,633 (up 171% year-on-year), despite exports of passenger kei cars decreasing. In 1980, another record year occurred as exports climbed 80.3% (to 94,301 units), of which 77.6% were microtrucks. Nearly 17% of exports went to Europe, dwarfed by Chile, which took nearly a quarter of the exported kei vehicles. Due to the difficult economic environment, low-priced cars sold well, and 1981 marked another successful year as Japanese kei car sales reached their highest since 1970 (at 1,229,809 units for cars and trucks).

As the 1980s progressed, kei cars became increasingly refined, losing their utilitarian origins, as Japanese customers became ever better off. Features such as four-wheel drive, turbochargers, and air conditioning began to become available on kei-car models. Conversely, van versions of kei hatchbacks were now marketed to non-business customers to take advantage of even lower taxation and more lenient emissions rules; this move in the market was spearheaded by Suzuki with their 1979 Alto, and competitors soon followed suit, with the Subaru Family Rex and the Daihatsu Mira appearing within a year's time.

In the 1980s, the speed limit for kei cars was . Government rules also mandated a warning chime to alert the driver if this speed was exceeded.

660-cc era (1990–2014)

The kei car regulations were revised in March 1990, allowing engines a displacement increase of , or twenty percent, while the maximum length was increased by . These changes occurred during the 1990s Japanese economic bubble, and all manufacturers quickly developed new models to suit. Within five months, all major kei models had switched from 550 cc to 660 cc engines.

For the first time, a power limit of  was also applied in addition to the limit on engine size, in response to the ever-increasing power outputs available with turbocharging and multivalve technologies popularized in the late 1980s. Engine technology was also shared with sports bikes, which are designed more for rider enjoyment and less so for fuel economy, going against the idea of small people's cars and putting the kei cars' tax and structural advantages at risk of a governmental backlash. This power limit matched the highest output reached by any kei manufacturer at the time and was a gentlemen's agreement amongst the manufacturers in an effort to avoid a kei-class horsepower war. The only kei car to have exceeded this limit is the Caterham 7 160, a lightweight British sports car that was not expected to qualify as a kei car, though it is small enough (in dimensions and displacement) to fit the regulations. Its engine is rated at —since that is how the car is homologated in the United Kingdom, Japanese authorities told the importer that its power should remain unchanged. The Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association also self-imposes a speed limit of  for kei cars.

In a rare example of an overseas mass-produced model being sold as a kei car in Japan, a kei version of the Smart Fortwo (called the Smart K) was sold in Japan by Yanase from 2001 to 2004. The Smart K used revised rear fenders and reduced tire dimensions and track width to conform to kei regulations. The model was not a success, and sold the fewest examples of a kei car when it was marketed.

The Suzuki Wagon R was the best-selling kei car in Japan from 2003 to 2008. Starting in 2011, Toyota entered the kei car market for the first time. The resulting Toyota Pixis Space, a rebadged Daihatsu Move Conte, was expected to increase competition in that market. Nissan and Mitsubishi began to jointly produce the Mitsubishi eK (also sold as the Nissan Dayz and formerly the Nissan Otti). Honda's kei car lineup—the N-one, N-Box, and N-WGN—accounts for around a quarter of its overall sales.

Reduced incentives (2014–present)

In April 2014, the Japanese government significantly reduced advantages for kei car owners, imposing a higher sales tax, a higher gasoline tax, and a higher kei car tax, the last of which was raised by 50 percent—greatly reducing tax benefits compared to regular-sized cars.

Daihatsu, Honda, Suzuki and Nissan-Mitsubishi (through the NMKV joint venture) are currently the only mass-production manufacturers of kei cars. Mazda sells rebadged Suzuki models, Toyota and Subaru sell badge-engineered Daihatsu models, and Nissan-Mitsubishi sources their commercial kei models from Suzuki.

Electric kei cars

The electric version of the Mitsubishi i, the Mitsubishi i-MiEV was the first electric kei car. This was launched for fleet purchasers in 2009 in the Japanese domestic market. It became available to the wider public as well as the global market in 2010. The i-MiEV uses a  permanent-magnet synchronous motor powered by a 16 kWh lithium-ion battery pack. It can charge overnight in 14 hours from home 100-volt mains, or in 30 minutes from quick-charging stations installed at fleet locations. Its range is  as tested by the US EPA, and  as tested by the Japanese Transport Ministry. It was the world's first mass-produced electric car, and the first electric car to sell more than 10,000 units.

Rebadged and slightly updated variants of the i-MiEV were also sold in Europe as the Peugeot iOn and Citroën C-Zero. In 2011, Mitsubishi launched the MINICAB-MiEV; a battery electric version of the Minicab microvan, borrowing the drivetrain and key components from the i-MiEV. As of March 2015, over 50,000 units across all variants (including the two minicab versions sold in Japan) have been sold worldwide since 2009. Production of the i-MiEV was discontinued in 2021.

In May 2022, NMKV launched the Nissan-badged Sakura and the Mitsubishi-badged eK X EV in the Japanese domestic market. These models have a 20 kWh lithium-ion battery pack with an estimated WLTC range of . Both use a single electric motor with a maximum output of . The eK X EV is a battery-electric version of the Mitsubishi eK X, and the Sakura is an update to Nissan's Dayz line. The two are eligible for EV purchase incentives in Japan, and as of June 2022, are also the cheapest new BEVs from a major Japanese manufacturer.

Taxation and insurance
The vehicle excise tax levy is 2% of the purchase price, compared to 3% for a regular car. A 24-month insurance contract typically costs ¥18,980 at the time of registration versus ¥22,470 for a larger car.

An automobile weight tax also is levied: The amount is ¥13,200 and ¥8,800 for a three- and two-year period, respectively, as compared to the ¥18,900 and ¥12,600 charged for larger-sized passenger cars. The savings are thus more than 30% in both cases. This weight tax is paid after the vehicle has passed its safety inspection. The required road tax is based on the engine's displacement.

Best-selling models

Gallery

360 cc era

550 cc era

Kei sports cars

Present

See also
Kei truck

References

Further reading

Road transport in Japan
Car classifications
1949 introductions

Kei car


Mikko Aleksi Innanen (born 28 February 1978 in Lapinjärvi, Finland), is a Finnish saxophonist and composer.

Innanen graduated in 2003 from the jazz department of Sibelius Academy, the only university level music academy in Finland. Innanen spent one year of his studies in Copenhagen, Denmark, at the Rhythmic Music Conservatory.

Over the last few years, he has played with a number of groups, including several groups with other Finnish jazz musicians such as Nuijamiehet, Gourmet, Mr Fonebone and Mikko Innanen & Innkvisitio as well as Delirium (with Danes Kasper Tranberg, Stefan Pasborg and Jonas Westergaard), Triot (with Pasborg and Nicolai Munch-Hansen), as a featured guest of the French trio Triade (Cedric Piromalli, Sebastian Boisseau and Nicolas Larmignat), The European Jazz Youth Orchestra, drummer Teppo Mäkynen's Teddy Rok 7, Itchy (Jakob Dinesen, Jeppe Skovbakke, Rune Kielsgaard), Ulf Krokors - Iro Haarla Loco Motife, Ibrahim Electric, Espoo Big Band and the UMO Jazz Orchestra.

He has also performed with Han Bennink, Jaak Sooäär, John Tchicai, Ingrid Jensen, Anders Bergcrantz, Marc Ducret, Tim Hagans, Chris Speed, Barry Guy, Juhani Aaltonen, Liudas Mockunas, Hiroshi Minami, Lelo Nika, Billy Cobham, Andre Sumelius, Marcus Shelby, Dayna Stephens and many others, including virtually all of the musicians currently active on the Finnish jazz scene and a growing number of international artists.

Innanen was awarded a one-year artist's grant by the Finnish State's Arts Council in 2003, the best soloist's prize at the International Competition for Jazz Groups in Getxo, Spain, in 2000 and the first prize at the first Jukka Perko saxophone competition in 2001. In 2004 Finnish jazz journalists voted Innanen as the runner-up alto, soprano and baritone saxophone player of the year 2003 and 2004.

Selected recordings

Delirium: Eclexistence (2005, TUM Records)
Gourmet: Six Acres of Broken Hearts (2004, Fiasko Records)
Triot with John Tchicai: Sudden Happiness (2004, TUM Records)
Delirium (2002, Fiasko Records)
Gourmet: Glamour & Decadence (2001, Fiasko Records )
Mr. Fonebone: Live featuring Ingrid Jensen (2000, Texicalli)
Nuijamiehet (2000, Fiasko Records)
Mr. Fonebone (1997, Antti Rissanen)

References

External links and sources
Profile at Fiasko Records

1978 births
Living people
People from Lapinjärvi
Finnish saxophonists
Male saxophonists
Finnish composers
Finnish male composers
Sibelius Academy alumni
21st-century saxophonists
21st-century male musicians

Mikko Innanen (musician)


Dareen Tatour (Arabic: دارين طاطور, born April 16, 1982 in Reineh) is a Palestinian poet and photographer. She wrote an Arabic book called The Final Invasion, which she published in 2010. In 2017, an English anthology of Palestinian poets called A Blade of Grass: New Palestinian Poetry included translations of her writing. She is a citizen of Israel.

Imprisonment

She was arrested in 2015 by Israeli police. They accused her of terrorism and inciting violence. Then her trial became famous and many free speech activists defended her. In May 2018 she was found guilty, and in July 2018 she was sent to prison for six months. She served 42 days in prison and was set free on September 20, 2018.

Trial

At Tatour's trial, a police officer translated her poem, "Resist them, my people, resist them." This police officer was not a professional translator and did not have experience with literature. Tatour's defense team invited a professional translator. Tatour's accusers said the professional translator was biased.

Tatour's accusers also showed one of her Facebook posts. It said "I am the next martyr." They claimed that this meant she was planning terrorism. They also showed that she had shared the Facebook status of a terrorist group.

Tatour's defense team invited literature professors to her trial. They said that the Russian Empire and British Mandate of Palestine did not put Jewish writers on trial for "much harsher words."

Protests

Many writers protested her arrest. In June 2016, there was a protest in Tel Aviv. Almost 20 poets, writers and translators read their writing. Sami Michael wrote that her arrest showed that Israel was helpless and its culture had failed. He said that Israel could not defend itself but could only make writers be quiet. The poet Lilach Weber also wrote a poem about her.

In October 2016 more than 180 poets, writers and intellectuals asked for her freedom. Four of them were winners of the Israel Prize: A. B. Yehoshua, Tuvia Rivner, Avishai Margalit and Shimon Sandbank. The statement said Tatour was "arrested and tried for writing a poem." They believed this went against "democracy, free speech and creativity." They added that it made it difficult for Arabs and Jews to talk to each other and end the Arab-Israeli conflict. A poet and activist named Tal Nitzan led these efforts.

After she was found guilty, PEN International wrote that she was only doing her job as a writer: "we use our words to peacefully challenge injustice."

Freedom

Tatour was set free on September 20, 2018.

Sources

Other websites

 "Resist them, my people, resist them"
 Interview in Salon
 Interview in Ha'aretz
 Interview in Warscapes
 Interview in +972

1982 births
Photographers
Palestinian poets
Palestinian artists

Dareen Tatour


Daniel Francis Murphy (born August 23, 1942), is a retired American professional baseball player who played pitcher and outfielder in the Major Leagues from 1960 to 1962 and in 1969–1970 for the Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox.  Murphy threw right-handed, batted left-handed, stood  tall and weighed  during his playing career.

A native of Beverly, Massachusetts, Murphy signed with the Cubs for a $100,000 bonus as an outfielder on June 15, 1960, following his graduation from St. John's Preparatory School after an illustrious career in youth and schoolboy baseball. Three days later, he made his professional and Major League debut as the Cubs' starting center fielder in a game against the Cincinnati Reds at Crosley Field.  He went hitless in four at bats against Jay Hook, but the following day, he took over from the Cubs' regular center fielder, Richie Ashburn, late in the game and collected his first MLB hit, a single against left-handed relief pitcher Bill Henry. He became the youngest Cub to hit a home run at the age of 18 years, three weeks, when he connected on September 13, 1960, off the Reds' Bob Purkey with two runners on base.   However, Murphy would collect only 23 total hits in 49 games played during his Cub career, batting only .171 during his tenure. He was traded to the Houston Colt .45s during spring training in .

Murphy then disappeared into minor league baseball for the next six full seasons, converting to pitcher in 1966 at the Double-A level in the White Sox' organization. After promising campaigns in the Southern and Pacific Coast leagues, the White Sox recalled Murphy in August , and he debuted as a relief pitcher against the Boston Red Sox at Comiskey Park on August 11. He had a successful two months coming out of the White Sox bullpen, compiling a low 2.01 earned run average with four saves. Murphy then spent the entire  campaign with Chicago, with markedly less impressive results. His ERA rose to 5.69 and he yielded 82 hits and 49 bases on balls in  innings pitched—although Murphy connected for his fourth and final career home run off Bill Zepp in a winning effort against the Minnesota Twins on June 28.  All told, he appeared as a pitcher in 68 games played and 112 innings, and gave up 100 hits and 59 bases on balls, with 58 strikeouts and nine saves as a Major Leaguer.

The following spring, Murphy was traded to his hometown Red Sox. He spent the 1971 season at Boston's Triple-A Louisville Colonels affiliate before leaving baseball after 12 professional seasons.

References

External links

1942 births
Living people
Chicago Cubs players
Chicago White Sox players
Evansville White Sox players
Hawaii Islanders players
Indianapolis Indians players
Louisville Colonels (minor league) players
Lynchburg White Sox players
Major League Baseball outfielders
Major League Baseball pitchers
Oklahoma City 89ers players
Salt Lake City Bees players
San Antonio Bullets players
San Antonio Missions players
Sportspeople from Beverly, Massachusetts
Baseball players from Essex County, Massachusetts
Tucson Toros players
Wenatchee Chiefs players

Danny Murphy (pitcher)


Live at the Foxes Den is a 2013 drama film. It marks the directorial debut for Michael Kristoff, and stars Jackson Rathbone, Jocelin Donahue, Jack Holmes, Pooch Hall, Brian Doyle-Murray, Bob Gunton and Elliott Gould. It was shot in the greater Los Angeles area and was released on December 6, 2013. Den tells the story of a young and disenchanted lawyer, Bobby (Rathbone), who after a night of debauchery decides to leave his job at a prestigious law firm to sing in a lounge called "The Foxes Den." Songs from Frank Sinatra, Jack Jones and others are featured in "The Foxes Den" as is original music penned by star and co-writer, Jack Holmes. Kevin Mann, Peer Pedersen and Matthew Perniciaro serve as executive producers. Adam Gibbs and Roger Pugliese produced the film.

References
 Kroll, Justin (June 2, 2011). "Jocelin Donahue digs 'Foxes Den'", Variety.com

External links

American drama films
2013 films
2013 drama films
2010s English-language films
2010s American films

Live at the Foxes Den


Little House on the Prairie is a book written by Laura Ingalls Wilder in 1935. It is one part of series of books about Wilder's childhood in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Kansas during the late 19th century. The books have been made many times into movies and television series. Some other writers have also written books about Laura and her relatives.

The books became famous during the 20th century.  During the 21st century, scholars began to look at them closely as literature and as art.  Wilder has been criticized for the way she shows Native Americans and black Americans.

"Little House" books

Pioneer Girl was one of the first books Ingalls-Wilder wrote, but she could not find a publisher that wanted to print it.  Pioneer Girl is a nonfiction story of Wilder's life.  Her daughter told her to write fictional stories instead.  The Little House series is a different from the true story of Ingalls-Wilder's life.  She was trying to tell a happy story and to show manifest destiny as a good thing.  She wanted the story to make sense, so she left things out if they did not fit her ideas.  The fictional books do not talk about when her family moved east to Iowa or her little brother who died young.  She also invented fictional characters and made combination characters: Nellie Olson is one person in the fictional books but she was based on more than one person in real life.

In 2015, an edited version of Pioneer Girl was published. It has many footnotes explaining things for twenty-first-century readers.

Original books

 Little House in the Big Woods (1932)
 Farmer Boy (1933)
 Little House on the Prairie (1935)
 On the Banks of Plum Creek (1937)
 By the Shores of Silver Lake (1939)
 The Long Winter (1940)
 Little Town on the Prairie (1941)
 These Happy Golden Years (1943)
 On the Way Home (1962)
 The First Four Years (1971),
 West From Home (1974)
 The Road Back (2006)

Nonfiction

 Pioneer Girl (2015)

Screenings

TV movies
 Little House on the Prairie (1974)
 Little House Years (1978)
 Little House: Look Back to Yesterday (1983)
 Little House: Bless All the dear Children (1984)
 Little House: The Last Farewell (1984)
 Beyond the Prairie: The True Story of Laura Ingalls Wilder (1997)
 Beyond the Prairie: The True Story of Laura Ingalls Wilder II (1998)
 Little House on the Prairie (2005) - miniseries

TV shows
 Jackanory - Little House in the Big Woods (1966)
 Jackanory - Farmer Boy (1968)
 Little House on the Prairie / Little House: A New Beginning (1974-1983) - live action
 Laura the Prairie Girl (1975) - animated

Native Americans in the books

In 2018, the Association for Library Service to Children changed the name of its Laura Ingalls Wilder Award to the Children's Literature Legacy Award because people did not like the way Wilder wrote about Native Americans in Little House on the Prairie.  They said the book had "dated cultural attitudes toward Indigenous people and people of color that contradict modern acceptance, celebration, and understanding of diverse communities."  For example, in the book, one white character says "the only good Indian is a dead Indian." Some of the words Ingalls use to describe Native Americans makes them sound like non-human animals.  Other people disagreed, saying the book showed how complicated things between Native Americans and white settlers were.  For example, it shows that the Ingalls family is on Indian land illegally, which means they must leave.  It shows Laura asking her parents why they are in Indian territory if they don't want to be near Indians.

Other websites
Little House Wiki: Little House on the Prairie

References

1935 books
20th-century American novels
Fiction set in the past
Minnesota in fiction

Little House (book series)


Íslandspóstur or simply Pósturinn is the national postal service of Iceland. It dates back to the year 1776 when Christian VII, king of Denmark (and at the time also Iceland) ordered a mail service to be established in the country. Two years later, regular postal sailings began between Iceland and Denmark, once a year. The first Icelandic postage stamps were published in 1873, and at the same time, the Icelandic postal system was being organised under a special board and the first post offices being established. In 1935, the postal service and the national telephone company were merged under the name Póstur og sími (Post and telephone). In 1998, that governmental company was split up into two companies, Landssími Íslands (the telephone company) and Íslandspóstur. Landssími Íslands has since been privatized. Íslandspóstur has one of the greatest numbers of employees in Iceland, at nearly 1,200. Many new post offices throughout the country are being planned to widen the distribution net and better the services of the company.

Íslandspóstur is a member of the Small European Postal Administration Cooperation.

Services
Besides other services Íslandspóstur offers a different service than the basic postal service and often it is in competition with the private sector.
 Domestic mail (airplanes and cars always used; no service by boats or ships anymore)
 International mail. Couriers who are offered through TNT Express Transport
 Flyer. Driver comes with loads and shipments in the company at predetermined times.
 Lottery tickets. Iceland Post is a proxy for the various lotteries in several places in the countryside.
 The number of contracts. Recipient signs a contract in the presence of a qualified person mail. After signing purchase agreements are still sent to the sender.
 Printing services. After Communication Ltd. became a subsidiary of Iceland has been printing services part of the company's services.
 Publication Services. According to the law on civil postman may publish trends and other manifestations in a manner similar strategy witness.
 Same day dispatch.
 Message Services.
 Customs brokers. Customs brokers of Iceland themselves to finalize the customs declarations and other staff for the importation of goods.
 Packaging. Íslandspóstur provides and sells cardboard boxes and envelopes.
 Other products. At post offices offer a variety of other products such as writable CDs and greeting cards.

See also
Postage stamps and postal history of Iceland

External links
  Official website

Iceland
Logistics companies of Iceland
Postal system of Iceland
Philately of Iceland
1776 establishments in Europe

Íslandspóstur