Ugly Americans is an adult animated sitcom created by Devin Clark and developed by David M. Stern. The series focuses on the life of Mark Lilly, a social worker employed by the Department of Integration, in an alternate reality version of New York City inhabited by monsters and other creatures. Daniel Powell served as executive producer and Aaron Augenblick as supervising producer and animation director.

Ugly Americans aired on Comedy Central from March 17, 2010 to April 25, 2012 with a total of 31 episodes over two seasons.

Production
Pre-production was handled at Brooklyn-based Augenblick Studios, and then the animation for the first season was produced in Flash and handled at Cuppa Coffee Studios in Toronto. The first half of the second season was handled by Big Jump Entertainment in Ottawa. The animation for the second half of season two was handled by Markle Productions and Solis Animation that are also located in Toronto.

The series premiered on March 17, 2010 on Comedy Central. The series is based on a webseries by Devin Clark entitled 5 On with Alan Whiter, which was later developed by former The Simpsons writer David M. Stern. It was picked for seven episodes in May 2009 and renewed for an additional seven episodes to air in October 2010. The show's second season premiered on June 30, 2011.

On May 29, 2013, the show's producers announced the series' cancellation via the show's Facebook page, saying: "the network did everything in their power to keep the show alive by trying to find outside financing. We came very close but unfortunately some legal technicalities kept any deals from going through." The possibility of the show continuing via other mediums, such as web shorts or graphic novels, was not ruled out.

On September 3, 2014, the series was revived as an mobile app game for iOS.

Plot
An upbeat, mild-mannered man named Mark Lilly moves to Manhattan, which is inhabited by humans and a wide variety of non-human and demonic species. He becomes a social worker with the Social Services Division of the Department of Integration, a sub-set of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which specializes in facilitating the integration of the non-humans into the city.

Mark lives with a lazy, over-sexed zombie roommate and has a wizard co-worker and a demon boss. His succubus girlfriend, who also works at the Department of Integration, is the daughter of Satan (who is trying to bring about the end of days) and a human who "looks like Mia Farrow in Rosemary's Baby".

Mark struggles to stay cheerful and politically correct while working with his bizarre and frequently dangerous companions.

Characters

Main characters
 Mark Lilly (voiced by Matt Oberg) – A 21-year-old man who works at the Department of Integration's Social Services Division and a newcomer to Manhattan. While attending college, Mark was a brother of the Zeta Psi Fraternity. In the pilot, he had recently moved into his first apartment, a two-bedroom he found on Craigslist. Despite the frustrations of his job where his boss Twayne Boneraper downsized Social Services to two people in the pilot in order to shift funding to Law Enforcement, Mark maintains a positive attitude.
 Randall Skeffington (voiced by Kurt Metzger) – Mark's roommate, who became a zombie in an attempt to win over a cute girl with a zombie fixation, only to find out she had moved on to warlocks. Now, the unemployed and undead Randall spends his days doing odd jobs to pay the rent (including making amateur, hidden-camera pornographic movies of Mark and Callie having sex). He often uses a catch phrase of sorts by groaning the word "crap" in a way stereotypical of a zombie moan for brains. Randall hails from South Jersey, a fiercely anti-zombie community, so he has been forced to hide his condition from his parents (especially his father, who fought in the Human-Zombie Civil War). Due to his zombie nature, Randall is frequently losing body parts to decay, forcing him to find replacements at local flea markets. Like other zombies, Randall finds the smell and taste of human flesh appealing. In "Treegasm", Randall's penis was shown to be a living creature in its own right. He has admitted that he has been living his sexual life so long that he is indiscriminate in choosing sexual partners, in one instance a toaster. He sometimes gets cravings for flesh, causing him to go temporarily insane with desire, and is in a program similar to Alcoholics Anonymous to deal with his cravings (mentioned in "An American Werewolf in America"). He has rarely missed an opportunity to consume Mark's body parts when it appeared he had been killed or otherwise didn't need them. In "Blob Gets Job", he mentions to Mark that he only has two working taste buds. He also has a bad habit of using Mark's things without permission.
 Callie Maggotbone (voiced by Natasha Leggero) – A succubus who is Mark's immediate superior, and his on-again/off-again girlfriend. In between romantic interludes with Mark, she berates him for being so caring and sensitive, although she loves it when he talks about how violent and malicious she is. She is the half human/half succubus daughter of the Devil and a human mother who was drugged by a cult and forced to bear his child, although this was retconned in the episode "Callie and her Sister" as a marriage of convenience: Her father got out of an arranged marriage to Twayne's mother and her mother got to have the child she always wanted. Callie is frequently marginalized with her demon side, and displays drastic mood swings and physio gnomic morphing between her demonic and more human appearances. Although she is drawn to Mark because he is nice, she feels in her heart that she will inevitably end up with someone like Twayne Boneraper, despite being repulsed by the idea, although she seems indifferent to the fact that such a union would bring about the end of humanity. She dislikes her father, seeming to be more turned on by Mark after believing her father hated him but has shown to deeply care about her mother, going to her to seek advice. Being a female demon, her body goes through a process called Painful Mortal Shedding, in which the toxins in her body cause her to shed her skin for a new one, during which she becomes increasingly deranged where the only thing that can numb the pain is sex. In earlier episodes she is shown to be overly possessive of Mark, and can shape shift. Unlike all pure demons, Callie has a soul, though she can remove it at will, although doing this seems to make her a full demon since when she does remove it, she changes into a large demonic beast. According to Mark's calendar, her period is three weeks long. Due to her demon side, she gets aroused by the sight of physical injury. At the end of the second season she asked Mark to be "engaged to be engaged" to her.
 Leonard Powers (voiced by Randy Pearlstein) – A wizard whose path has led him to a desk job at New York's Department of Integration. This suits Leonard just fine, as his primary goals in life are to drink heavily and not rock the boat. He hasn't done any real work in over three years, usually just literally throwing his case files out of a window, relying on Mark and his union, The Wizard's Guild, to cover for him. Leonard bears much resentment to his older but younger-looking brother, the famous magician Christ Angel (a parody of Criss Angel), due to Christ's abuse of Leonard during their childhood. Leonard has a soft spot for Mark, although this may be because Mark covers for him so much. Despite this he appears to have a vast array of knowledge when it comes to the different types of beings that live in New York, as he often explains the importance of something Mark finds pointless or odd, and seems fairly competent at spell-casting, when he bothers to actually focus on it. In one day he became a tuna canner in Alaska, addicted to spray paint, and gained a lot of weight, and was worshiped as a god in Dà Nang, Vietnam, claiming he really needed structure to function properly. In the episode "Kong of Queens", Leonard mentions to Mark that he currently lives at the YMCA, though in "Kill, Mark... Kill!", it is shown that he lives in an apartment in a townhouse.
 Twayne Boneraper (voiced by Michael-Leon Wooley) – A demonic, mid-level government bureaucrat who is the Director of New York's Department of Integration. Twayne loathes Mark's case files and would rather vaporize them than help them, but cannot, because infiltrating the U.S. government appears to be part of some larger demonic plan. Nonetheless, he despises Social Services and their compassionate ways, so in the pilot, he slashes the department down to just Leonard and Mark, the only two he could not get rid of, Leonard due to his union and Mark due to filling the token "Bleeding Heart" position, in order to allocate most of its funds to law enforcement. Despite his imposing appearance, Twayne often relies on Callie to make sure the department runs properly. Mark has referred to him as a "total douche nozzle". He also suffers from a severe case of glossophobia and shows signs of being a Momma's Boy, as seen in "Hell for the Holidays". Whenever he is under great stress he thinks of ponies, often repeating the word "ponies" aloud to make himself happy. He is also treated with little respect from the other demons, as they often look annoyed when he joins them. Twayne comes from a very well known and prestigious family and is very rich, although he doesn't seem to know how much he has, as when asked how he could afford to write Leonard a check for 1 billion dollars, he asked "How much is 12 zeroes?". Like most demons, he bleeds white snakes. Twayne's birthday is March 8, 1941 making him aged 70 as of 2011. He is often shown to be a child at heart, like when he and a little girl went to a fair and became BFF's.
 Francis Grimes (voiced by Larry Murphy) – The head of Department of Integration's Law Enforcement Division, and like Twayne, has utter disdain for non-humans. Preferring to think of them all as "illegal", he hunts down those who have strayed from the proper bureaucratic procedures that provide a path to U.S. Citizenship – at which point Mark must step in to help. As young man, he was an officer of the New York Police Department, but was fired because he kept ruining his partner's sting operations. Grimes' encounters with unruly creatures have left him with a lifetime's worth of both physical scars, such as his missing kneecap, and emotional ones, as that stemming from his broken marriage. Thus, he naturally detests Mark and anyone else who sympathizes with the immigrants. Grimes commands a small but well-funded goon squad that operates out of the D.O.I.'s "force floor". He has a daughter who in the first season, became a vampire and got married. His relationship with his wife is complex, given that after 15 births (all daughters) Grimes's wife left him and married "The Count."   He likes to collect model trains and also moonlights as a hospital security guard and contract hit-man. He is also shown to be attracted to older women in "Better Off Undead". In the second season finale "Mummy Dearest," it is revealed that his mother is a Mummy and that he is Egyptian. Grimes has powers of some sort as he is able to perform a ritual to summon Anubis to get rid of his mother.

Recurring characters
 Great Brain (voiced by Randy Pearlstein) – A living brain from Canada. He works as a counter-top sponge, and is usually the first to voice his opinion. He and his wife have a complicated relationship and enjoy playing mind games on others, which is aided by their telepathic powers.
 Croatian Man (voiced by Devin Clark) – A man from Croatia. Works in a hospital as a candy striper, but dreams of becoming the President of the United States. Mark once described him as a sociopath. It is revealed in "Any Given Workday" that his real name is "Goran", though he only lets his friends call him that.
 Doug – A very timid humanoid koala man usually mistreated by others, or in the wrong place at the wrong time. He almost always is seen weeping, whether frightened, overjoyed, or otherwise emotional. It is indicated in "The ManBirds" that Doug has a tendency to wander off. A still drawing in the end credits of the episode "Kong of Queen" portray him firing a rifle in a 1930s zoot suit and hat. The scene resembles Saddam Hussein firing his rifle into the air during a military parade in December 2001. Turns out that photo was actually foreshadowing that "Doug" is none other than a dangerous former assassin, who abandoned his work after he was responsible for a massacre in Bolivia, in which many women and children perished. Consumed by guilt, Doug moved to the U.S. under a new alias and tried starting his life anew. He still feels very guilty about the aforementioned incident and it is hinted his gentle and timid nature is a direct result of the past trauma. However, he still retains most of his assassin skills (especially when provoked). His dream is to fly.
 Erik (voiced by Randy Pearlstein) – A robot with senses and emotions, though more often than not has a cynical viewpoint. He is able to read punch cards, but is annoyed that everyone assumes he can. His dream is to be a human boy. It is possible that he is a former human who was murdered and became a robot to survive as stated during the last episode but it is unknown if this is true as this was all part of an elaborate practical joke on Mark.
 Martin – A two-headed worm who works in a coffee shop. Oddly for their species, the heads see themselves as equals, while usually the right dominates the left and treats the left as a slave. They are possibly in love with each other.
 Toby (voiced by Pete Holmes) – A fish man who often point out negative or depressing facts.
 Aldermach "Mac" Maggotbone (voiced by Larry Murphy) – Callie's father and the highest ranking demon in Hell. He shows signs of having mysophobia, and wishes that Callie had been born a boy. Rather than being specifically Satan himself, "The Devil" seems to be a title that's passed onto a next candidate, like positions in royalty or government, and one that he'd like to pass down to Callie. It is possible that he is acting as a host for Satan by letting a snake with multiple mouths live inside him. He is an avid fan of the perpetually snake bitten New York Jets, possibly a play on the old expression, "God is a Yankee fan" and is seen frequently in New York Jets attire and cheering for them on television. His real name is Aldermach Maggotbone (his name most likely based on Adrammelech).
 Rosie (voiced by Julie Klausner) – Callie's human mother, separated from Callie's father the Devil. Though it's originally claimed that she was impregnated with Callie when in a cult, she actually sold her soul to Aldermach shortly after they first met so that she could have a baby. However, she truly loves her daughter, claiming Callie was the best thing to come from the union. Rosie's relationship with Aldermach is shown to be strained most of the time with one episode revealing they argue almost constantly, but her relationship with Mark is much better. Her character appears to be modeled after Rosemary Woodhouse from the movie Rosemary's Baby as the story of Callie's conception is similar to the story in the movie and the character looks like Mia Farrow who played Rosemary in the movie.
 Grimes' Goon Squad – Shown doing all of Grimes dirty deeds when he is not around. Loyal to Grimes, but not afraid to leave him behind if it means their lives, just as Grimes would them.
 Girl Anchor – A news anchor that reports on New York. Always seen smiling even when saying horrible things.
 Melchior (voiced by Randy Pearlstein) – Leonard's hologram. Originally used by Leonard as a means to communicate with Mark when he is away, or to perform menial tasks for Leonard, but took on a life and personality of his own in "Kill, Mark... Kill!".
 Buddha – A walking, talking golden statue who wears a prayer beads necklace and always bares his large belly.
 Medusa – A gorgon  with green snakes for hair and light blue skin.
 Amoeba – An amoeba that reproduces asexually, yet still manages to get laid frequently.

Minor characters
 Krystal – The girl Randall turned zombie for. She is constantly changing attractions to different species and was already out of her zombie phase when Randall got back to her after going zombie. However, Randall continues to stalk her, having problems admitting the relationship is over, let alone that it never started.
 Kid Wizard (voiced by Devin Clark) – A young wizard who is often giving people the finger.
 Ratso Demon – A nod to Dustin Hoffman's character Enrico "Ratso" Rizzo from Midnight Cowboy, this demon wears a trench coat, has a five o'clock shadow and slicks his hair back. Ends every sentence with "ova heah".
 Mark's Mom – Seen to have slept with Clark Dungaree. Mark has dreamed about her in crotchless panties.
 Lillith Maggotbone (voiced by Julie Klausner) – Callie Maggotbone's sister in the episode "Callie and Her Sister" who was born very shortly after Aldremach and Callie's human mother got back together for a very short time. Lilith was born one day after she was conceived in Mark Lilly's apartment on a pool table. Due to a massive amount of hormone injections her mother was taking, so she also aged at an accelerated rate of one year per day. After Lilith was born, Aldremach decided to make Lilith marry Twayne Boneraper instead of Callie. Lilith appears to be more evil than Callie due to the constant use of her powers to harm people.
 Angie - a facegina woman who appears in the Pilot.

Episodes

The first episode premiered on March 17, 2010, following the 14th season premiere of South Park, "Sexual Healing". It was watched by over 2 million viewers. On April 21, 2010 Comedy Central announced that they had ordered 7 additional episodes of Ugly Americans, to begin airing in October 2010. On December 15th, Comedy Central announced that they picked up the show for a second 14-episode season, which was later expanded to 17 episodes. The first 10 episodes of the second season aired in the summer of 2011 following Futurama and the remaining 7 episodes aired from March 14, 2012 following South Park.

Critical reception

Ugly Americans holds a Metascore of 60, gaining positive reviews from the likes of Entertainment Weekly and The Washington Post. Variety Brian Lowry called it "more a triumph of design and concept than execution" and added, "Not everything works, but with its bountiful supply of visual gags, Americans is just goofy enough to be good." Alex Zalben of UGO Networks, commending its mix of slapstick and intelligent humor, as well as actually building relatable characters, says the show "is easily the best animated show on Comedy Central since South Park." David Hinckley of the New York Daily News stated, "If Ugly Americans comes with a message, it is at least equally determined to just be funny, and at that task, it frequently succeeds. The variety of odd creatures keep the visual gags going, and the dialogue runs steadily toward droll."

Largely due to its visual gags and morbid, offbeat humor, the series has also gained negative reception from publications such as the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Deseret News. Kris King of Slant Magazine gave Ugly Americans a 50/100 rating and claimed, "The show's dry humor, mixed with a rather troubling visual style where everything is stiff and vaguely deformed, mostly just makes you feel uneasy." IGN's Ramsey Isler also gave the pilot episode a 5/10, stating, "The show struggles to find some kind of funny [...] The whole thing feels more like a film student project that just didn't quite work out."

See also
 List of programs broadcast by Comedy Central

Explanatory notes

References

External links

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Ugly Americans (TV series)


Fernando Álvarez de Toledo y Pimentel, 3rd Duke of Alba (29 October 150711 December 1582), known as the Grand Duke of Alba (, ) in Spain and Portugal and as the Iron Duke ( or shortly 'Alva') in the Netherlands, was a Spanish noble, general and diplomat. Alba achieved notoriety for his actions during the Eighty Years' War in the Spanish Netherlands, where his prolonged military campaigns and harsh repression failed to suppress the Dutch revolt.

Born into a prominent Castilian military family, Alba first distinguished himself in the 1535 conquest of Tunis during the Ottoman-Habsburg Wars as part of a long conflict for predominance over the western Mediterranean Sea. He then commanded the Spanish troops at the Battle of Mühlberg (1547), where the army of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V defeated the German Protestant princes in the Schmalkaldic War. Alba was the commander-in-chief of the Spanish-Habsburg army during the Italian War of 1551–1559, and became governor of Milan in 1555 and viceroy of Naples in 1556.

In 1567, King Philip II of Spain appointed Alba governor of the Netherlands and tasked him with the suppression of Dutch rebels. Alba instituted the Council of Troubles, which led to the condemnations of thousands and came to be known as the "Council of Blood". Militarily, Alba repeatedly defeated the troops of William of Orange during the first stages of the Eighty Years' War but failed to extinguish the rebellion, and in 1573 he was recalled to Spain. Alba's last military successes were in the Portuguese succession crisis of 1580, for which he was rewarded the titles viceroy and constable of Portugal. He held both titles until his death in Lisbon in 1582.

Early years

Fernando was born in Piedrahíta, Province of Ávila, on 29 October 1507. He was the son of García Álvarez de Toledo y Zúñiga, heir of Fadrique Álvarez de Toledo y Enríquez de Quiñones, II Duke of Alba de Tormes, and of Beatriz Pimentel, daughter of Rodrigo Alonso Pimentel, IV Count – I Duke of Benavente and his wife, María Pacheco. Fernando was orphaned at age three when his father, García, died during a campaign on the island of Djerba in Africa in 1510. At the age of six, Fernando accompanied his grandfather, the second Duke of Alba, on a military mission to capture Navarre.

His youth and education were typical for Castilian nobility of the age. He was educated at the ducal court of the House of Alba, located in the Castle Palace of Alba de Tormes, by two Italian preceptors, Bernardo Gentilea Sicilian Benedictineand Severo Marini and by the Spanish Renaissance poet and writer Juan Boscan. He was educated in Roman Catholicism and humanism. He mastered Latin and knew French, English and German.

In 1524, when he was seventeen, he joined the troops of Constable of Castile, Íñigo Fernández de Velasco, II Duke of Frías, during the capture of Fuenterrabía, then occupied by France and Navarre. For his role in the siege, Fernando was appointed governor of Fuenterrabía.

When his grandfather Fadrique died in 1531, the ducal title passed to Fernando as the firstborn son of Garcia. Throughout his adulthood, he served the Spanish monarchs Charles I and his successor Philip II.

Mayordomo mayor to the Spanish Kings
In 1541 Fernando Álvarez de Toledo was named Mayordomo Mayor del Rey de España (High Steward to the King of Spain) by Charles I of Spain.  Alba kept this Office in court until the death of the monarch in 1556.

In 1546, Charles I invested Fernando, the Third Duke of Alba Grand Master as knight of the Illustrious Order of the Golden Fleece.

From 1548 King Charles intensified the preparations of Prince Philip as his successor in the Spanish Monarchy, and he named Duke of Alba mayordomo mayor of his son to prepare Philip for his new role. Fernando took Philip on a tour around Europe that lasted until 1551. Fernando accompanied Philip to England to attend his marriage to Mary Tudor. The Duke was one of fifteen grandees of Spain who attended the ceremony in the abbey of Winchester on 25 July 1554.

After the death of Charles, the new King Philip II maintained Fernando, Third Duke of Alba, as mayordomo mayor until the death of the Duke in 1582.

In 1563, King Philip II created the title Duke of Huéscar to be bestowed on the heir of the Dukes of Alba. Fadrique Álvarez de Toledo, son of Fernando became 1st Duke of Huéscar.

In 1566, Alba's son and heir, Fadrique, broke his promise of marriage to Magdalena de Guzman, lady of Queen Anne of Austria, which led to his arrest and imprisonment in the Castle of La Mota in Valladolid. The following year he was released so he could go to Flanders with his father to serve in the military. In 1578 Philip II ordered the case against Fadrique reopened. It was discovered that in order to avoid marriage, Fadrique had secretly married María de Toledo, daughter of García Álvarez de Toledo and Osorio, IV Marquess of Villafranca del Bierzo, using a permit issued for that purpose by his father the Duke of Alba. Fadrique was sent to prison, in the Castle of La Mota. Fernando, Duke of Alba was banished from the court for one year for "breaking the strict court protocol." The Duke went into exile in Uceda, where his secretaries Fernando de Albornoz and Esteban Ibarra likewise spent their punishment.

Military commands

Against the Ottomans and French (1532–42)
After Fernando had become the third Duke of Alba in 1532, Charles V sent him to Vienna to help defend the city against an Ottoman invasion army. No battle ensued as the Ottomans, having lost momentum due to time lost during the Siege of Güns, decided not to advance against Vienna and retreated from the field.

During this time, he was accompanied by the soldier-poet  Garcilaso de la Vega throughout his travels in Europe. The special access that De La Vega had as a close companion to Alba, coupled with his skilled craft as a writer, allows the historian to delve into the deepest emotions expressed by the Duke of Alba through the poetry of De La Vega. Specifically concerning the ardegous travels while on a war-footing as well as the emotional longing that Alba expressed for his wife.

The Duke's first military command to engage in battle was in the conquest of Tunis. In early June 1535 at Cagliari, he embarked with the military force commanded by the Marquess of Vasto. On 14 July, the fortress of La Goleta was seized, and a week later the army took the city of Tunis which was defended by Hayreddin Barbarossa. Thus Spain regained control over the western Mediterranean Sea.

In 1542, he led the Spanish troops against the French Army, ending the siege of Perpignan. The siege was a decisive victory for Alba and one of the worst defeats of Francis I during the French offensive of 1542.

In Germany (1546–47)
In 1547, Charles I, in his capacity as Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor engaged with the Protestant forces in the Schmalkaldic War. The Duke of Alba was in charge of Tercios, the elite Spanish ground troops during the Battle of Mühlberg on the banks of the river Elbe. A flanking attack by Alba's Tercios was largely responsible for the imperial army's decisive victory against the Elector of Saxony.

In Milan and Naples (1555–59)

In later years, the focus of conflict between France and Spain had moved to the Italian peninsula. Alba was sent to Italy as commander in chief of the Spanish-Habsburg army in Italy, and became governor of Milan in 1555, and viceroy of Naples in 1556.

The newly appointed Pope Paul IV, an enemy of the Habsburgs, prompted King Henry II of France to expel the Spanish from Italy. Papal troops joined the French for this aim. In July 1556 the Pope declared Philip II was removed from the title King of Naples. Alba did not hesitate and marched on Rome at the head of 12,000 Spanish soldiers. He financed the campaign, in part, by obtaining a loan of 430,000 ducats from Bona Sforza, dowager Queen of Poland; the loan became known as Neapolitan sums and was never repaid. The Pope called for a truce, giving time for a French army commanded by Francis, Duke of Guise to march on Naples. The Spanish intercepted the French and defeated them in the Battle of San Quentin. Without French support, the papal troops were overwhelmed by the Spanish and the Duke of Alba entered Rome in September 1557. The pope had to sue for peace.

In April 1559, Alba was one of the signatories of the Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis which ended their war with France and released Spanish resources for maximising its economic exploitation of New Spain. The Italian peninsula entered a prolonged period of peace, sealed by marriage between the twice widowed Philip II and Isabel de Valois, daughter of Henry II of France. During the royal wedding, which was held in Paris, Alba acted as proxy for Philip.

Governor of the Netherlands (1567–73)

On December 26, 1566, Alba received the Golden Rose, the blessed sword and hat granted by Pope Pius V, through the papal brief Solent Romani Pontifices, in recognition of his singular efforts in favor of Catholicism and for being considered one of his champions.

From August to October 1566, the "Iconoclasm" () took place in the Netherlands, during which Calvinist mobs attacked and destroyed numerous Catholic monasteries and churches, ransacking tombs and destroying statues. To tackle the civil and religious rebels, King Philip II sent Alba to Brussels on 22 August 1567, at the head of a powerful army. Upon arrival, he replaced Margaret of Parma, the sister of the Spanish king, as head of the civil jurisdiction. He decided that the local nobility was in open rebellion against the king and supported the new Protestant teachings, heresy in the Catholic view.

A few days later, on 5 September 1567, Alba established the "Council of Troubles", popularly known in the Netherlands as the "Court of Blood," to prosecute those responsible for the riots of 1566, especially those deemed heretics. Alba also targeted the local Catholic nobles who favoured dialogue and who opposed outside intervention. Two of the three heads of Flemish nobility, the Count of Egmont, a Catholic General for Philip II, who had led the cavalry that defeated the French at the Battle of San Quentin, and Philip de Montmorency, Count of Horn, were arrested and the court sentenced both counts to death. The Mayor of Antwerp, Anthony van Stralen, Lord of Merksem and Jan van Casembroot were other famous victims of the bloody repression, along with a large group of other apostates. Those condemned were executed on 5 June 1568 in the Town Hall Square in Brussels. Alba had little confidence in conventional Flemish justice, which he perceived as sympathetic to the defendants, and witnessed the executions in person. He would later become equally mistrustful of the local helpers of the Council of Troubles as possibly having their own agendas.

The maintenance of the troops in Flanders entailed substantial economic costs. The Duke imposed new taxes on the population and reformed its laws. Some cities, including Utrecht, refused to pay and declared a rebellion, which quickly spread throughout the Netherlands. William the Silent, the prince of Orange, enlisted the help of the French Huguenots and started to actively support the rebellion. William and the Huguenots took many Dutch cities. The Spanish troops advanced under banners with the Latin legend Pro lege, rege, et grege, which in English means For the law, the king, and the people [literally, the flock].
In 1572 the Spanish army carried out the Spanish Fury at Mechelen, retaking and sacking the city after the rebel garrison had left. From there, they retook Zutphen and Naarden. The Spanish Siege of Haarlem, characterized by brutality and savagery on both sides, culminated in the surrender of the city and the execution of all the garrison, estimated at 2,000 men. The subsequent Siege of Alkmaar was unsuccessful however. The first defeat in a full scale engagement for the Spanish troops during the Dutch revolt. The prolonged military campaigns and the harsh repression of the rebel citizenry earned the 3rd Duke of Alba the nickname "The Iron Duke" in the Netherlands, and he became an important element of the anti-Spanish Black Legend. His reputation was used for propaganda purposes by rebel statesman Philips of Marnix, Lord of Saint-Aldegonde to further strengthen anti-Spanish sentiments in the Netherlands.

In spite of continuous military action, the political situation in the Netherlands had not turned in favour of the Spanish crown. After five years of repression, more than 5,000 executions and numerous complaints to the Spanish court, Philip II decided to change policy and relieve the Duke. The monarch sent Luis de Requesens to replace him. De Requesens tried to appease the situation by giving concessions to the rebels. Alba returned to Spain in 1573.

Nevertheless, the Duke still had influence in the Royal Council. Alba belonged to the conservative Spanish faction called Albistas or imperialists. This faction included the Inquisitor General Fernando de Valdés y Salas, the House of Pimentel, the Duke de Alburquerque and other members of the House of Álvarez de Toledo. The Albistas advised the king to take a firm stand in the Netherlands. The Albistas' hardline position was hotly contested by the liberal Ebolistas or humanists, led by Ruy Gómez de Silva, prince of Éboli and his secretary Francisco de Eraso. After the death of the prince of Éboli in 1573, the royal secretary Antonio Pérez went on to lead the liberal faction and began his association with Ana de Mendoza de la Cerda, Princess of Éboli. Against the Albistas' urging, King Philip II himself publicly acknowledged that "it is not possible to carry Flanders forward by way of war."  Political concessions by Luis de Requesens failed to end the rebellion in the Netherlands and hostilities soon resumed. These failures of the Ebolistas to end the Dutch revolt raised the distrust of the king, and Philip II again granted the Duke of Alba an important position in court.

Portuguese succession (1580–82)

After the death of King Sebastian of Portugal, who had no heirs, in the Battle of Alcácer Quibir in 1578, the crown fell to his great uncle Cardinal Henry I of Portugal. The death of the latter, without any appointed heirs, led to the Portuguese succession crisis of 1580.

One of the claimants to the throne, António, Prior of Crato, a bastard son of Infante Louis, Duke of Beja and only grandson through the male line of king Manuel I of Portugal, was proclaimed King in June 1580.

Philip II, through his mother Isabella of Portugal also a grandson of Manuel I, did not recognize Antonio as king of Portugal.
The king appointed Fernando, Duke of Alba, as captain general of his army.  The duke was 73 years old and ill at the time. Fernando mustered his forces, estimated at 20,000 men, in Badajoz, and in June 1580 crossed the Spanish-Portuguese border and moved to Lisbon. In late August he defeated a Portuguese army at the Battle of Alcântara and entered Lisbon. This cleared the way for Philip II who became Philip I of Portugal, and created a dynastic union spanning all of Iberia under the Spanish crown.

King Philip II rewarded Fernando with the titles of 1st Viceroy of Portugal and Constable of Portugal on July 18, 1580. With these titles Fernando represented the Spanish monarch in Portugal and was second in hierarchy only after the king in Portugal. Fernando held both titles until his death in 1582.

Marriage and children
His first child, Fernando de Toledo (1527–1591), was an illegitimate son with a miller's daughter in the town of La Aldehuela.

27 April 1529 the Duke married his cousin María Enríquez de Toledo y Guzmán (died 1583), daughter of Diego Enríquez de Guzmán, III Count of Alba de Liste, with whom he had four children.
 García Álvarez de Toledo y Enríquez de Guzmán (1530–1548)
 Fadrique Álvarez de Toledo y Enríquez de Guzman, IV Duke of Alba (1537–1585)
 Diego Álvarez de Toledo y Enríquez de Guzmán (1541–1583), Count of Lerín and Constable of Navarre by his marriage, held on 24 March 1565, with Brianda Beaumont (1540–1588), daughter of Luis de Beaumont. He was succeeded by Antonio Álvarez de Toledo y Beaumont, V Duke of Alba de Tormes (1568–1639)
 Beatriz Álvarez de Toledo y Enríquez de Guzmán (died 1637), married Álvaro Pérez Osorio, V Marquess of Astorga.

Later years and death
Alba died in Lisbon on 11 December 1582, at the age of seventy-five; he was given the last rites by the famous Luis de Granada.

His remains were transferred to Alba de Tormes, where he was buried in the convent of San Leonardo. In 1619 they were transferred to the Convento de San Esteban, Salamanca. In 1983 a mausoleum was erected over his grave, funded by the Provincial Deputation of Salamanca.

Aceh War reference

In 1904 there was in the Dutch press and House of Representatives an intensive debate on the conduct of Gotfried Coenraad Ernst van Daalen, a Dutch commander who during the then current Aceh War was charged with the killing of numerous civilians, including women and children, during the conquest of Aceh in northern Sumatra. Some of van Daalen's detractors compared his conduct with the atrocities committed by the Duke of Alba, still well remembered in Dutch historical memory.

Ancestry

Notes

Bibliography

 Falcó y Osorio, María del Rosario. Duquesa de Berwick y de Alba. Catálogo de las colecciones expuestas en las vitrinas del Palacio de Liria. Madrid. 1898.
 Fernández Álvarez, Manuel. "El duque de hierro: Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, III de Alba". Colección Espasa Forum. Espasa Calpé. Madrid. 2007. .
 Kamen, Henry. The Duke of Alba. New Haven, Yale, 2004.
 Kamen, Henry. El gran duque de Alba. Cuarta edición, cartoné. La Esfera de los Libros. Madrid. 2004/7. .
 Maltby, William S. Alba: A Biography of Fernando Alvarez de Toledo, Third Duke of Alba, 1507–1582. University of California Press. 1983. .
 Maltby, William S. El gran duque de Alba. Prólogo Jacobo Siruela, traducción Eva Rodríguez Halffter. Segunda edición. Ediciones Atalanta. Vilaür. 2007. .
 Junta de Castilla y León. Consejería de Educación y Cultura. Los Álvarez de Toledo Nobleza viva. María del Pilar García Pinacho. España. 1998. .
 Alba, General and Servant to the Crown. Edited by Maurits Ebben, Margriet Lacy-Bruijn and Rolof van Hövell tot Westerflier. Karwansaray. 2013. .

External links

1507 births
1582 deaths
16th-century Spanish military personnel
Fernando 03
Fernando 03
Eighty Years' War (1566–1609)
Governors of the Habsburg Netherlands
Grandees of Spain
Fernando 03
Knights of the Golden Fleece
Catholicism-related controversies
Spanish generals
Spanish people of the Eighty Years' War
Spanish politicians
Spanish Roman Catholics
Portuguese Roman Catholics
Viceroys of Naples
Viceroys of Portugal
Viceroys of Catalonia
16th-century military history of Spain

Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, 3rd Duke of Alba


The spruce grouse (Canachites canadensis), also known as Canada grouse, spruce hen or fool hen,  is a medium-sized grouse closely associated with the coniferous boreal forests or taiga of North America. It is the only member of the genus Canachites.

It is one of the most arboreal grouse species, fairly well adapted to perching and moving about in trees. When approached by a predator, it relies on camouflage and immobility to an amazing degree; for example, letting people approach within a few feet before finally taking flight.

Taxonomy
In 1747 the English naturalist George Edwards included an illustration and a description of a female spruce grouse in the second volume of his A Natural History of Uncommon Birds. He used the English name "The Brown and Spotted Heathcock". Edwards based his hand-coloured etching on a preserved specimen that had been sent to him in London from the Hudson Bay in Canada by a Mr Light. Edwards was later sent what he assumed was a specimen of the male bird by James Isham. In 1750 he included the male bird in the third volume of his book under the English name "The Black and Spotted Heathcock". When in 1758 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the tenth edition, he placed the spruce grouse with other grouse in the genus Tetrao. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial name Tetrao canadensis and cited Edwards' work. The spruce grouse is now the only species placed in the genus Canachites that was introduced in 1885 by the zoologist Leonhard Stejneger. The genus name Canachites combines the name Canace from Greek mythology with the Ancient Greek -itēs meaning "resembling".

In the first half of the 20th century, spruce grouse were classified as two separate species in the genus Canachites: spruce grouse (C. canadensis) and Franklin's grouse (C. franklinii), a position reinstated by Birdlife International in 2014. However, as of early 2021 the International Ornithological Congress (IOC), the American Ornithological Society, and the Clements taxonomy retain Franklin's grouse as a subspecies of spruce grouse.

The species was later moved to the genus Dendragapus, congeneric with the blue grouse with which spruce grouse often share coniferous habitats. However, spruce grouse do not have inflatable cervical sacs as in blue grouse, and the natal plumage of the two species is different. Based on its stronger resemblance to the Siberian grouse (Falcipennis falcipennis), the spruce grouse was later reclassified into the genus Falcipennis. However, taxonomic studies found this classification to be paraphyletic, with the Siberian grouse being basal to a clade containing the spruce grouse, Tetrao, and Lyrurus. Due to this, the spruce grouse was again reclassified in Canachites, bringing its taxonomy full-circle.

The spruce grouse has six recognized subspecies:

Description
Spruce grouse are  long; males weigh  and females . The spruce grouse has a wingspan range of 21.5-22.6 in (54.5-57.5 cm). Races vary slightly in plumage, especially in the tail pattern and in the extent of white on the underparts, but in general adult males are mainly grey above and black below, with white spots along the side, and a red patch of bare skin over the eye called the "eyebrow comb". This red eyebrow comb, should not be confused by a similar yellow marking found on other species of grouse including, but not limited to, sharp-tailed and dusky grouse. Adult females are mottled brown (red morph) or mottled grey (grey morph) with dark and white bars on the underparts. Juveniles resemble females. Females may be confused with ruffed grouse but they have a dark tail with a pale band at the end (while the reverse is true in ruffed grouse) and they do not erect their crown feathers when alarmed the way ruffed grouse do.

Spruce grouse are among the most silent of all grouse, but they nevertheless have a number of calls used to warn of predators, to repel territorial intruders, to maintain brood cohesion, or to elicit brooding. In the subspecies franklinii, territorial males are notable for their wing-clap display. At the end of a short flight through the trees, the wings are brought together over the back so as to produce two sharp claps, about 0.5 s apart, loud enough to be heard by the human ear 150 m away. These territorial displays can sometimes be elicited by similar hand clapping, and can be used to detect male territories and estimate their density. Other non-vocal sounds include soft drumming by territorial males (a sound produced by the beating wings) and a tail-swish and a whoosh produced by the tail feathers in flight.

Distribution and habitat
As a specialist of the taiga, the spruce grouse is found throughout Canada. In the United States, it is present in Alaska, northern New England, the Adirondacks in New York, northern Michigan, northeastern Minnesota, northern Wisconsin and the montane coniferous forests of Montana, Idaho, Maine, Oregon, and Washington. Spruce grouse are always associated with conifer-dominated forests, be they pine, spruce, or fir. They seem to prefer young successional stands. In summer they can be found near rich understory of blueberries and other shrub, and in winter they prefer denser stands.

The spruce grouse is essentially a permanent resident. However, in southwestern Alberta up to 35% of females and 7% of males move several kilometers (up to 11) between summer breeding sites and wintering sites. Similar movements have also been documented in Alaska and New Brunswick (Canada).

Behaviour and ecology

This species prefers to walk on the ground or along tree limbs rather than fly. Like other grouse, in the fall they grow "snow shoes" (short lateral extensions, or pectinations) on their toes. This increases the surface area of the toes and helps support the bird on snow and probably to grip branches as well. The pectinations are shed in the spring.
Flights are usually over short distances, most commonly from the ground to a tree nearby, or vice versa. Flight can be rapid but no actual measures of velocity have been made.

Breeding
Males are promiscuous; they disperse and advertise a territory that is visited by females for mating. Females are solely responsible for the rest of the reproductive effort though males have been known to stay with young chicks and seem to aid in keeping the brood together. For a nest, they scratch a depression in the ground in a bush or under a low-lying coniferous branch or fallen tree, away from other females and from the males' territories. The nest is lined with grasses, leaves, and a few feathers. Nesting season is from early May to early July. Up to 10 eggs may be laid, the usual number being 4–7. Laying rate is 1 egg every 1.4 days. Eggs are about  and are tawny olive or buff, marked with blotches of brown. Incubation begins with the last egg laid and lasts about 24 days. Young are about 15 g at hatching (0.5 ounces) and they are precocial; they walk out of the nest as soon as they are dry (about 8 h after hatching). They are capable of fluttering up from the ground at 1 week of age. The brood stays together and is accompanied by the hen, who broods them all night and frequently during the day until the young are 3–5 weeks old. Brooding behaviour of the female seems to be initiated by specific calls from the chicks when they are cold. At 70–100 days of age, chicks tend to leave the group and become independent.
Females breed only once a year. Most females first breed at 1 year of age, but about half the males delay establishing a territory until 2 years. The species' lifespan appears to be about 5–6 years in the wild, though one study in Southwestern Alberta has found two males and one female that lived to be at least 13 years old.

Food and feeding
The staple winter food is conifer needles, clipped directly from the tree, preferably the midcrown of pines though other conifers such as spruce are exploited as well. Spruce needles are high in calcium and their increase in use by females in Spring may be related to egg production In summer the birds can forage on the ground, eating berries, green plants such as blueberry leaves, fungi, and some insects. In winter, when only needles are consumed, the caeca (dead-end extensions of the intestines) and ventriculus (gizzard) increase in size to support digestion. The crop is also well developed: up to 45 cc of needles (about 10% of body mass) can be stored in the crop at the end of the day, to be digested over the duration of the night fast. Like other birds, spruce grouse consume clay, grit or small stones to help their gizzard break down food. Chicks under 1 week old feed on insects and other arthropods, then switch to berries and fungi until the fall, when they start feeding on needles. Birds captured while on the winter diet have been maintained several months without loss of weight, on only pine needles and grit and clay taken from where they were seen consuming it.

Predators
Spruce grouse eggs are taken by American red squirrels, gray foxes, weasels, and possibly corvids. Adults can fall prey to various hawks and owls, red foxes, American and Pacific martens, wolves, cougars and coyotes.

Relationship with humans
This species is commonly hunted. Annual bag figures in the late 1970s were about 188,000 birds in the US and about 360,000 in Canada.  Even though it has been deemed of Least Concern by IUCN, in the United States this bird is a protected species according to many northern states' hunting rules. The spruce grouse is available for hunting in Alaska from August 10 - March 31 and in some regions through May 15 according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.
Conversely, the spruce grouse is considered threatened in its southern range - being listed as Endangered in New York and Vermont, and Critically Imperiled in Wisconsin according to NatureServe. In New York, the population is estimated at 175-315 individuals, with declines recorded since the 1970s. However, a management plan has been developed.

Gallery

References

 del Hoyo, J., A. Elliott, and J. Sargatal (eds.) (1994). Handbook of the Birds of the World. Volume 2. Barcelona: Lynx Edicions.
 Ehrlich, P.R., D.S. Dobkin, and D. Wheye (1988). The Birder's Handbook: A Field Guide to the Natural History of North American Birds. New York: Simon and Schuster Inc.
 Terres, J.K. (1982). The Audubon Society Encyclopedia of North American Birds. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Pendergast, B.A. and D.A. Boag (1971). "Maintenance and Breeding of spruce Grouse in Captivity" Journal of Wildlife Management 35(1):177-179.
Pendergast, B.A. and D.A. Boag (1970). "Seasonal Changes in Diet of Spruce Grouse in Central Alberta" Journal of Wildlife Management 34(3):605-609.
Pendergast, B.A. and D.A. Boag (1973). "Seasonal Changes in the Internal Anatomy of Spruce Grouse in Alberta" The Auk Vol. 90,(2): 307- 317.
Pendergast, B.A. and D.A. Boag (1971). "Nutritional Aspects of the Diet of Spruce Grouse in Central Alberta" The Condor Vol. 73, (4): 437- 443.

External links

Spruce Grouse Factsheet New York Department of Environmental Conservation
Spruce Grouse, Cornell Lab of Ornithology

spruce grouse
spruce grouse
Native birds of Alaska
Birds of Canada
spruce grouse
spruce grouse
Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN

Spruce grouse


The 1952 Hasankale earthquake occurred at 08:03 local time on 3 January in Hasankale (today Pasinler) in Erzurum Province, Eastern Anatolia Region of Turkey. The earthquake had an estimated magnitude of 5.8 and a maximum felt intensity of VIII (Severe) on the Mercalli intensity scale, causing 41 casualties. This spot has been the subject of studies due to the amount of earthquakes that occur in Turkey. 17% of earthquakes, globally, occur in this area. This is because the Alpide belt crosses through Turkey. The earthquakes are cause when the plates try to slide past each other on a transform boundary.

See also
List of earthquakes in 1952
List of earthquakes in Turkey

References

1952 Hasankale
1952 earthquakes
1952 in Turkey
History of Erzurum Province
January 1952 events in Asia
1952 disasters in Turkey

1952 Hasankale earthquake


Ray tracing is a computer algorithm for drawing very realistic 3D images.

With ray tracing, objects in the scene are described with geometrical shapes like spheres or planes. The computer then sends rays (straight lines) forward from where the camera is. The objects that get hit by these rays are the objects that the camera can see. The computer then draws these objects. This is similar to how our eyes see but in the real world the rays (light) go the opposite way – from the world to our eyes. If we made rays go from the world to the camera, most of the rays would not hit the camera, and we would have to wait a long time until we see an image appear. That is why instead, we make rays go from the camera to the world, meaning we know all the rays we create will go to the camera.

History
Ray Tracing was first mentioned by Albrecht Dürer in the XVI century. In 1982, Scott Roth called this technique "ray emission" in the computer graphics context, but in that time, it was a less accurate version of the Ray Tracing that didn't include reflection and refraction of light.

Computer graphics

Ray tracing


Sørkedalen is a valley located in the northwestern part of Oslo municipality, northwest of Oslo's western suburbs, in Norway.

The valley stretches from the suburb of Røa to Skansebakken. The valley is frequently used as an entry point to Nordmarka, the large wilderness recreational area to the north of Oslo.

Sørkedalen is an agricultural valley with several small farms, and stables for recreational horse riding. The valley is a popular destination for outdoor activities like skiing, riding and golfing for the population of West End Oslo and Bærum. Sørkedalen Church is a stone church from 1865 which was built of brick and has 250 seats. The church is in neo-Gothic style.

In the southern part of this valley is the old manor of Bogstad, which was owned by Peder Anker. On the manor grounds there are the lake Bogstadvannet and the Oslo Golf Club (Oslo Golfklubb) which was the first golf club to be established in Norway. The Sørkedalselva river runs through the valley and into the Bogstadvannet.

The name
The Norse form of the name was Surkudalr. The first element is the genitive of the rivername Surka (now Sørkedalselva), the last element is dalr m 'dale, valley'. The meaning of the river's name is unknown (maybe 'the dark one').

References

External links
 Sørkedalen website
Oslo Golf Club website

Valleys of Oslo
Marka, Oslo

Sørkedalen


The Frisian Solar Boat Challenge is a  solar boat race.

The race starts in Leeuwarden, the capital of Friesland, and follows the classic route of the Eleven City Tour. Following the canals, rivers, and lakes, with the occasional portage, the race features 40 teams from eight countries, including Belgium, Germany, Great Britain, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, and one long-distance entry, a team from the Federal University of Rio in Brazil.

The race is divided into three classes: the A class is for one-seater boats, the B class is for two-seater boats, and the open or C class can have a crew of any amount. To keep the costs down, entries in the A and B class can borrow solar panels from the race's sponsors, Sharp and The Sun Factory. As of June 24 2008, two Dutch teams appear to be competing for the prize, as the Technical University of Delft (running in the C class) won the first stage, and preliminary results show the Hanze Solar Team (running in the A class) winning the second stage. The six-day race concludes back at its starting point in Leeuwarden.

References

Solar-powered vehicles
Photovoltaics
Sport in Friesland

Frisian Solar Challenge


Semyon Grigorevich Frug (born in 1860) was a writer. He was born into a family of Jewish farmers in southern Ukraine. From 1912 until his death in 1916, he lived in Odessa, where the sixth edition of his three-volume Complete Works was published in 1913.

His talent was at its best in Odessa. Frug's works were mainly written in Russian with a few stories written in Yiddish. In his writing, he described the life of the Jewish colonists, their relationships with their Ukrainian and Russian neighbors, and the disagreements and occasional arguments about various Yiddish dialects. Many of Frug's poems were set to music and performed on stage.

Ukrainian writers
Ukrainian poets
1860 births
1916 deaths

Semyon Frug


Historically, the name Whitewater River applied to a 120 km (75 mi) long stream that headed approximately two miles east of the community of Womack in St. Francois County flowing south through Perry, Bollinger, Cape Girardeau and Stoddard counties before entering the Little River near Bell City. However, in the early 20th century, the Little River Drainage District constructed the Headwater Diversion Channel, which bisected the Whitewater River, causing the northern section of the stream to be diverted into the diversion channel, and separating the southern portion from its original headwaters. In 2007, the Board on Geographic Names approved a proposal to rename the two portions Upper Whitewater Creek and Lower Whitewater Creek. With the Upper Whitewater Creek now flowing through the Headwater Diversion Channel to the Mississippi River just south of Cape Girardeau.

References

Rivers of Missouri
Rivers of St. Francois County, Missouri
Rivers of Bollinger County, Missouri
Rivers of Perry County, Missouri
Rivers of Cape Girardeau County, Missouri
Rivers of Stoddard County, Missouri

Whitewater River (Missouri)


José Manuel Broto Gimeno (born 1949 in Zaragoza) is a Spanish painter.

Biography
He studied at the Escuela de Artes y Oficios de Zaragoza (School of Arts and Crafts in Zaragoza), and first exhibited in 1969. In 1972 he went to live in Barcelona where he formed the Trama Group with Grau, Rubio, and Tena. In 1985 he transferred his residence to Paris. After ten years in Paris where he met other Spanish artists such as Miquel Barceló, Miguel Angel Campano and José María Sicilia, he moved to Mallorca. He has showcased his works in major cities around the world, from Helsinki to New York City and in major galleries in cities across Spain. He has been awarded with the Premio Nacional de Artes Plásticas de España (National Prize of Plastic Arts of Spain) in 1995, the Premio ARCO de la Asociación de Críticos (ARC Award Critics Association Award) in 1997 and the Premio Aragón Goya de Grabado in 2003.

Style
His paintings are typically intellectual, thoughtful and very calculated in their apparent spontaneity, and reminiscent of Analytic Cubism. He often uses blue or yellow and red on black, and his brushwork is typically broad and uneven, often contrasting the blurry and the clear. His pictorial works are said to have a "strong chromatic component that combines the geometric shapes with dribbled paint."

References

20th-century Spanish painters
20th-century Spanish male artists
Spanish male painters
21st-century Spanish painters
1949 births
Living people
Artists from Zaragoza
21st-century Spanish male artists

José Manuel Broto Gimeno


An impact attenuator, also known as a crash cushion, crash attenuator, or cowboy cushion, is a device intended to reduce the damage to structures, vehicles, and motorists resulting from a motor vehicle collision. Impact attenuators are designed to absorb the colliding vehicle's kinetic energy. They may also be designed to redirect the vehicle away from the hazard or away from roadway machinery and workers. Impact attenuators are usually placed in front of fixed structures near highways, such as gore points, crash barrier introductions, or overpass supports. Temporary versions may be used for road construction projects.

Operation
Impact attenuators are designed to absorb the colliding vehicle's kinetic energy to bring it to a stop safely. If no impact attenuator is present, a vehicle which strikes a rigid roadside object will suddenly stop. A person inside will promptly collide with the interior of the vehicle, and that person's internal organs will collide with their chest wall, causing severe internal injuries and possibly death.  By safely dissipating the vehicle's kinetic energy, impact attenuators help prevent such injuries.

Impact attenuators can be categorized by the method used to dissipate kinetic energy:
 Momentum transfer. Many early models used successive rows of water-filled barrels or modules. Momentum is transferred to the water, reducing the speed of the impacting vehicle.
 Material deformation. Many newer attenuators use crushable materials (like various kinds of foam) that create a crumple zone, absorbing energy. Others flatten a corrugated steel guard rail section, or split a steel box beam.
 Friction. Some attenuators work by forcing a steel cable or strap through an angled slot or tube, converting kinetic energy into heat.

Types

Gating

Gating impact attenuators allow vehicles impacting from the side to pass through them (akin to a gate).

Gating attenuators are more economical, but require a greater clear space surrounding them to be effective; without enough space, errant cars may pass through into another hazard, such as into lanes of opposing traffic.

Water-filled attenuators

Water-filled attenuators consist of containers filled with water to absorb impact energy. They are typically not anchored to the ground, and therefore benefit from easy deployment and relocation using barrier transfer machines and cranes. They are non-redirective, meaning they do not deflect vehicles that impact the side back into the roadway. The energy of the impacting vehicle accelerates the water in the barrels vertically and laterally consuming that energy in work done on the water. Additionally, this work is done over time which reduces the deceleration (negative acceleration) applied to the vehicle occupants. A smaller amount of energy is consumed in the work of crumpling the plastic containers. In cold climates, water-filled attenuators are either avoided, or have additives such as magnesium chloride salt added to them to prevent freezing.

Fitch barriers

A Fitch barrier consists of sand-filled plastic barrels, usually yellow-colored with a black lid.  The "Fitch Highway Barrier System" was invented by race car driver John Fitch after the 1955 24 Hours of Le Mans race when his co-driver, Pierre Levegh rear-ended Austin-Healey driver Lance Macklin at high speed, launching his car through the air and into the spectator's area.  The car burst into flames and took the lives of Pierre and 84 spectators in one of the worst accidents in racing history.  He stated he was inspired by sand-filled fuel cans which he used to protect his tent from strafing during World War II. Early prototypes were self funded and tested due to low initial support. As a proof of concept Fitch used liquor barrels filled with sand to create the necessary impact attenuation, then personally crashed reinforced vehicles into them while recording with a high speed camera to capture the rate of deceleration.

Fitch barriers are often found in a triangular arrangement at the end of a guard rail between a highway and an exit lane (the area known as the gore), along the most probable line of impact. The barriers in front contain the least sand, with each successive barrel containing more, so that when a vehicle collides with the barrels they shatter, the kinetic energy is dissipated by scattering the sand, and the vehicle decelerates smoothly instead of violently striking a solid obstruction, reducing the risk of injury to the occupants.

Fitch barriers are widely popular due to their effectiveness, low cost, and ease of setup and repair or replacement.  Since first being used in the late 1960s, it is estimated that they have saved as many as 17,000 lives and approximately $400 million per year in property damage and medical expenses.

Non-gating

Non-gating impact attenuators arrest the motion of vehicles that impact head-on, whilst deflecting vehicles that impact the side of the barrier. They are anchored and more expensive, but can be used in tighter spaces.

Crash cushions
Crash cushions are constructed of multiple segments, which crumple into each other when collided with to absorb the impact. Their main benefit is in their reusability; some attenuators can automatically return to their original position after a crash, while others require minimal repairs.

Truck mounted attenuators

Truck mounted attenuators (TMA), similar in some ways to railcar buffers, can be deployed on vehicles that are prone to being struck from behind, such as snow plows and road construction or maintenance vehicles. Work zone regulations often specify a minimum buffer distance between the attenuator truck and the work area, and a minimum mass for the truck, to minimize the chances that the truck will be pushed forward by a crash into the workers or machinery. This is especially important in mobile work zones where the truck's parking brake may not be engaged. The truck may also be in movement (albeit slower than the vehicles that could crash into it).

In some countries, such as Sweden, road safety authorities operate dedicated TMA vehicles registered as emergency vehicles, able to be dispatched to blockages or emergencies.

Regulation
In the United States, impact attenuators are tested and classified according to AASHTO Manual for Assessing Safety Hardware (MASH), first issued in 2016 to supersede National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 350: Recommended Procedures for the Safety Performance Evaluation of Highway Features (1993). Classification is based on the maximum speed of a vehicle during a collision for which the attenuator is designed. The Federal Highway Administration reviews equipment to providing hardware eligibility letters for federal aid reimbursement.

See also
 Crumple zone
 Shock absorber
 Traffic barrier
 SAFER barrier

References

External links

Road safety
Road infrastructure

Impact attenuator


Ernie Hawkins (born Ernest Leroy Hawkins, 1947, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) is an American acoustic blues guitar player, singer, songwriter, recording artist, and educator.

Hawkins, along with fellow bluesmen Stefan Grossman and Roy Bookbinder, studied with blues legend Reverend Gary Davis in New York City in 1965 and 1966.  Over the years, he learned a variety of styles, including Piedmont blues, Delta blues, ragtime, and gospel.

In 1969, Hawkins moved back to his hometown of Pittsburgh, and enrolled at the University of Pittsburgh, earning a degree in philosophy.  In 1973, he moved to Dallas for graduate school and earned a PhD in phenomenological psychology at the University of Dallas, though he remained active in music, studying and performing with Mance Lipscomb, Robert Pete Williams, Fred McDowell, and Robert "Nyles" Jones.

In 1978, Hawkins decided to put aside his psychology career and become a full-time musician.  In the mid 1980s, He returned to Pittsburgh, and for the next ten years played lead guitar with the local R&B act Gary Belloma and the Blue Bombers.  Over the years, he played with blues musicians Reverend Gary Davis, Son House, Mance Lipscomb, Fred McDowell, Jim Brewer and others, and has been featured in Sing Out!, Fingerstyle Guitar, Dirty Linen, Acoustic Guitar, Blues Revue and Vintage Guitar magazines. He has appeared on A Prairie Home Companion, Mountain Stage, WoodSongs Old-Time Radio Hour and XM Satellite Radio.

Hawkins appeared on Maria Muldaur's Grammy and Blues Music Award nominated album Richland Woman Blues (2001), and was the guitarist for the national support tour.  He lives in Pittsburgh, and continues to perform nationally and internationally and to record, teach, and advocate for blues music.

Discography
Ragtime Signatures, 1980
Blues Advice Orchard, 1996
Bluesified Say Mo', 2000
Mean Little Poodle Say Mo', 2002
Rags and Bones Say Mo', 2005
Whinin' Boy Corona Records, 2010
Monongahela Rye Corona Records, 2014

Awards
Independent Music Awards 2012: "Shuffle Rag" – Best Cover Song

References

External links
Official Website
[ allmusic entry]
Ernie Hawkins interview and music from the CD Whinin' Boy
 Ernie Hawkins -Pittsburgh Music History Profile

1947 births
Living people
American blues guitarists
American male guitarists
American blues singers
Country blues musicians
Fingerstyle guitarists
Musicians from Pittsburgh
University of Pittsburgh alumni
University of Dallas alumni
Singers from Pennsylvania
Guitarists from Pennsylvania
20th-century American guitarists
20th-century American male musicians

Ernie Hawkins


María del Dulce Nombre Díaz Ruiz (27 April 1932 – 23 June 2015) better known as Marujita Díaz was a Spanish singer and actress. She was born in Seville, Spain. Díaz was known for presenting the very popular show Música y estrellas. She also appeared in the films A Cuban in Spain (1951) and La pérgola de las flores (1965).

Díaz died of respiratory failure caused by colon cancer in Madrid, aged 83.

Selected filmography

 1998: Tesoro (short film). (Spain), directed by Miguel Ángel Vivas
 1980: La reina de la Isla de las Perlas. (Spain), directed by Víctor Barrera
 1978: Deseo carnal. (Spain), directed by Manuel Iglesias Vega
 1976: El avispero. (Spain), directed by Ramón Barco
 1975: Canciones de nuestra vida. (Spain), directed by Eduardo Manzanos Brochero
 1974: La boda o la vida. (Spain), directed by Rafael Romero Marchent
 1971: Carmen Boom. Grazie zio, ci provo anch'io. (Spain, Italy), directed by Nick Nostro
 1971: Las amantes del diablo. (Spain, Italy), directed by José María Elorrieta
 1968: Flash 22. (short film (Spain), directed by Félix Martialay
 1965: La pérgola de las flores (1º Premio a la mejor película Argentina) (Argentina, Chile), directed by Román Viñoly Barreto
 1964: Visitando a las estrellas. (Spain), directed by Julián de la Flor
 1963: Lulú, El globo azul, (Spain), directed by Javier Setó
 1963: La casta Susana. (Spain, France), directed by Luis César Amadori
 1963: El valle de las espadas, (Productora Marujita Díaz). (Spain), directed by Javier Setó
 1963: La mujer de tu prójimo, (Productora Marujita Díaz). (Argentina, Spain), directed by Enrique Carreras
 1962: Han robado una estrella. (Spain), directed by Javier Setó
 1961: Abuelita Charlestón. (Spain), directed by Javier Setó
 1961: Canción de arrabal. (Argentina) Título alternativo: La cumparsita. Directed by Enrique Carreras
 1960: Three Black Angels. (México), directed by Fernando Cortés
 1960: The Showgirl (Spain)., directed by José María Elorrieta
 1960: Pelusa, (Spain) Título alternativo: La cenicienta del circo (México), Os milagres de Pelusa (Portugal). (Premio Nacional del Sindicato del Espectáculo a la mejor actriz), directed by Javier Setó.
 1959: Y después del cuplé. (Spain) Título alternativo:Le temps du charleston. Directed by Ernesto Arancibia
 1957: El genio alegre, Gioventù disperata. (Spain), directed by Gonzalo Delgrás
 1957: Ángeles sin cielo, (Spain, Italy), directed by Sergio Corbucci y Carlos Arévalo
 1956: Polvorilla, (Spain), directed by Florián Rey
 1955: El ceniciento, (Spain), directed by Juan Lladó
 1955: Good Bye, Sevilla (Adiós, Sevilla), (Spain), directed by Ignacio F. Iquino
 1954: The Fisher of Songs, directed by Antonio del Amo
 1953: Women's Town, directed by Antonio del Amo
 1952: ¡Ay, tu madre! o Aventuras y desventuras de Eduardini, (Spain), directed by Fernando Robles Polo
 1951: Una cubana en España, (Argentina, Cuba), directed by Luis Bayón Herrera
 1951: Surcos, (Spain, Portugal), directed by José Antonio Nieves Conde (4 premios del Sindicato Nacional del Espectáculo: mejor película, director, actor y actriz secundaria)
 1950: The Troublemaker
 1951: The Dream of Andalusia
 1949: La aventura de Esparadrapo, (Voz) (Spain), directed by Ángel de Echenique
 1949: La Revoltosa, (México), directed by Juan de Orduña
 1949: El rey de Sierra Morena, (Spain), directed by Adolfo Aznar
 1948: La cigarra, (Spain), directed by Florián Rey

References

External links

1932 births
2015 deaths
Deaths from respiratory failure
Deaths from cancer in Spain
Deaths from colorectal cancer
Spanish women singers
Spanish film actresses
Musicians from Seville
Actors from Seville
Spanish television presenters
21st-century Spanish actresses
20th-century Spanish actresses
Spanish stage actresses
Spanish television actresses
20th-century Spanish musicians
Spanish women television presenters

Marujita Díaz


Räntämäki is a district in the Koroinen ward of the city of Turku, in Finland. It is located to the north of the city, and consists mostly of low-density residential area.

Population
The current () population of Räntämäki is 1,924, and it is increasing at an annual rate of 0.68%. 17.78% of the district's population are under 15 years old, while 9.20% are over 65. The district's linguistic makeup is 88.31% Finnish, 5.15% Swedish, and 6.55% other.

See also
 Districts of Turku
 Districts of Turku by population

Districts of Turku

Räntämäki


Carl Frederick Rudolf Merkle (also sometimes documented as Frederick Charles Merkle; December 20, 1888 – March 2, 1956), nicknamed "Bonehead", was an American first baseman in Major League Baseball from 1907 to 1926. Although he had a lengthy career, he is best remembered for a controversial base-running mistake he made as a rookie while still a teenager.

Career
Born in Watertown, Wisconsin, to Ernst Merkle, a Swiss immigrant, and Amalie Thielmann Merkle, a German American, he was raised in Toledo, Ohio. Merkle played his first Major League game at the age of 18, with the New York Giants in 1907.  He was still the youngest player in the National League, and used mostly as a pinch hitter, at the time of his infamous "boner" in 1908.  Merkle became the Giants' regular first baseman by 1910 and contributed in that role to three straight pennant winners from 1911 to 1913.  He was traded to the Brooklyn Robins in August 1916 and played in his fourth World Series that year.  In April 1917, the Robins sold Merkle to the Chicago Cubs, the team against which he had made his infamous play in 1908, with whom he continued as the regular first baseman through 1920.  In 1918 with the Cubs, Merkle played in his fifth World Series in eight years, though he never won the championship.

From 1921 to 1925, Merkle was the regular first baseman for Rochester in the International League.  He returned to the Major Leagues in mid-1925, when he was acquired by the New York Yankees, but appeared in only seven games with the Yankees that year and one in 1926.  After one year back in the International League as player-manager for Reading in 1927, Merkle retired.

Fred Merkle was inducted into the International League Hall of Fame in 1953.

The "Boner"

On September 23, 1908, while playing for the New York Giants in a game against the Chicago Cubs, while he was 19 years old (the youngest player in the National League), Merkle committed a base-running error that became known as "Merkle's Boner" and earned him the nickname "Bonehead".

In the bottom of the 9th inning, Merkle came to bat with two outs, and the score tied 1–1.  At the time, Moose McCormick was on first base.  Merkle singled and McCormick advanced to third base. Al Bridwell, the next batter, followed with a single of his own.  McCormick trotted to home plate, apparently scoring the winning run.  The fans in attendance, under the impression that the game was over, ran onto the field to celebrate.

Meanwhile, Merkle ran to the Giants' clubhouse without touching second base.

Cubs second baseman Johnny Evers noticed this, and after retrieving a ball and touching second base, he appealed to umpire Hank O'Day, who later managed the Cubs, to call Merkle out.  Since Merkle had not touched the base, the umpire called him out on a force play, meaning that McCormick's run did not count.

The run was therefore nullified, the Giants' victory erased, and the score of the game remained tied.  Unfortunately, the thousands of fans on the field (as well as the growing darkness in the days long before large electric lights made night games possible) prevented resumption of the game, and it was declared a tie. The Giants and the Cubs ended the season tied for first place and had a rematch at the Polo Grounds, on October 8.  The Cubs won this makeup game, 4–2, thus the National League pennant.

Varying accounts
Accounts vary as to whether Evers actually retrieved the game ball or not.  Some versions of the story have him running to the outfield to retrieve the correct ball. Other versions have it that he shouted for the ball, which was relayed to him from the Cubs' dugout. Still other versions have it that Giants pitcher Joe McGinnity saw what was transpiring, and threw the game ball into the stands; thus, the ball that was picked up by or relayed to Evers was a different ball entirely. The New York Times account of the play recalls that Cubs manager and first baseman Frank Chance was the one who "grasped the situation" and directed that the ball be thrown to him covering second base.

At the time, running off the field without touching the base was common, as the rule allowing a force play after a potential game-winning run was not well known. However, Evers, who was noted as an avid student of the official rules of the game, had previously attempted the same play only a few weeks earlier, in Pittsburgh, with the same Hank O'Day umpiring. In that instance, O'Day had not seen whether the runner tagged second, so he declined Evers' appeal, but he apparently was alert to the possibility in the New York game. The outcome ensured that the rule was known to everyone afterward.

Aftermath
Giants manager John McGraw was furious at the league office, feeling his team was robbed of a victory (and a pennant), but he never blamed Merkle for his mistake.

The Cubs went on to win the 1908 World Series. The team then went through a 108-year-long championship drought, before finally winning the World Series in 2016.

Bitter over the events of the controversial game, Merkle avoided baseball after his playing career ended in 1926.  When he finally appeared at a Giants old-timers' game in 1950, he received a standing ovation.

Fred Merkle is commemorated in his hometown of Watertown, Wisconsin. The city's primary high school baseball field at Washington Park is named Fred Merkle Field. Also, a black plaque honoring him was erected in the park on July 22, 2010.  A second plaque in Watertown is on the grounds of the Octagon House.

Merkle's Bar and Grill in Chicago is named after Fred Merkle.

Family life
Merkle and his wife Ethel Cynthia Brownson Merkle enjoyed a long marriage, from 1914 to his death in 1956. The Merkles had three daughters: Marjorie, Jeannette, and Marianne. His grand-nephew is computer scientist Ralph Merkle.

Other sports
In 1906, Merkle played football for the Toledo Athletic Association as an end. That season, the team was defeated by the Canton Bulldogs by a score of 31–0.

Death
Merkle died in Daytona Beach at age 67, and was interred there in Bellevue Cedar Hill Memory Gardens. As Fred had before her, Ethel died in Daytona Beach, Florida, in December 1976.

See also
List of Major League Baseball career stolen bases leaders

References

Further reading

External links

Box score of the Merkle Boner game
"Sadly, one play defined Merkle's career, life", by Ed Sherman, ESPN.com

1888 births
1956 deaths
American people of German descent
American people of Swiss descent
Baseball players from Wisconsin
Brooklyn Robins players
Chicago Cubs players
Major League Baseball first basemen
Minor league baseball managers
New York Giants (NL) players
New York Yankees coaches
New York Yankees players
Newark Cotton Tops players
Tecumseh (minor league baseball) players
Reading Keystones players
Rochester Colts players
Rochester Tribe players
Toledo Athletic Association football players
People from Watertown, Wisconsin

Fred Merkle


Starsky & Hutch is a 2004 American buddy cop action comedy film directed by Todd Phillips. The film stars Ben Stiller as David Starsky and Owen Wilson as Ken "Hutch" Hutchinson and is a film adaptation of the original television series of the same name from the 1970s.

Two streetwise undercover cops in the fictional city of Bay City, California in 1975 bust drug criminals with the help of underworld boss Huggy Bear. The film is a prequel to the television series, as it portrays Starsky and Hutch being first partnered. The film also switches the personalities of the title characters. While in the television show, Starsky was curious and streetwise, and Hutch was by-the-book, in the film, Starsky is the serious cop, and Hutch is laid-back. There are four Frat Pack members in this film, although not all are in major roles.

The film was released on March 5, 2004, received mixed reviews from critics and was commercially successful, earning $170 million worldwide on a $60 million budget.

Plot
In 1975, two Bay City Police detectives, the macho David Starsky (who loves his Ford Torino and recklessly pursues minor offenders) and the easy-going Ken "Hutch" Hutchinson (who often works alongside criminals to investigate their activity) are forced to become partners as punishment for recent antics. Meanwhile, Jewish-American drug kingpin Reese Feldman and his right-hand man Kevin Jutsum develop a new type of cocaine that is untraceable in scent and taste. When one of his dealers botches an operation, Feldman kills him.

The body washes ashore a few days later, and Starsky and Hutch investigate the scene. A clue leads them to Feldman, who denies any knowledge of the crime, but his wife mentions the dealer had been dating a cheerleader. After meeting cheerleaders Stacey and Holly, the detectives are given a jacket from cheerleader Heather. Their street-wise informant Huggy Bear directs the pair to Big Earl's motorcycle bar. Disguised as "Captain America" and "Billy" from Easy Rider, Starsky and Hutch learn that Big Earl is in jail, where they question him on his connection to Feldman's illicit dealings; Big Earl forces the detectives into humiliating acts in exchange for information and a packet of what they believe is cocaine. However, Captain Doby, angered by their wild interrogation, dismisses their packet as nothing more than artificial sweetener and takes them off the case.

The duo invite Stacey and Holly to Starsky's place where Starsky puts the "sweetener" in his coffee while Hutch sings "Don't Give Up on Us". The four visit a disco where Starsky, suffering the effects what proves to be Feldman's modified cocaine, loses a dance-off. Hutch takes him home and puts him to bed, then proceeds to have a threesome with Stacey and Holly.

The duo are then assaulted by an Asian dealer and his knife-wielding son, working for Feldman. After an interrogation, they deduce that Feldman stores the drugs in his garage. They go undercover as mimes at his daughter's Bat Mitzvah; confronting Feldman, Starsky shoots the lock off his garage door, inadvertently killing a pony inside that had been a gift for his daughter. Feldman exonerates them, figuring the botched operation will take heat off him, but Doby indefinitely suspends both detectives, and though Starsky defends Hutch, Doby reveals a complaint Starsky filed against Hutch weeks ago. Starsky tries to explain himself to Hutch, but an argument leads to a split in their friendship.

A bomb meant for Hutch instead injures his young neighbor Willis. Visiting him in the hospital, Starsky and Hutch reconcile and decide to shut down Feldman's drug business. Aided by Huggy Bear, who grudgingly serves as Feldman's golf caddie, they learn that Feldman plans to sell the drugs at a charity ball by hiding them in Volkswagen Karmann Ghias to be given away to other dealers.

The duo enter the party in disguise with Stacey and Holly as their dates. Deducing Feldman's plan, they shoot open a VW's trunk, revealing the large stash of cocaine. Feldman takes Hutch hostage, and Starsky, attempting to rescue him, accidentally shoots Captain Doby in the shoulder, though Hutch declares Reese was responsible. In the confusion, Feldman and his girlfriend Kitty escape with the money from the cocaine deal, leading Starsky and Hutch on a car chase through a golf course.

As Feldman and Kitty take off in his yacht, Starsky and Hutch try to ramp Starsky's Torino off a pier in pursuit, but jumps way off course and lands in the sea. The two manage to escape to safety. Meanwhile, Huggy, hiding on board, knocks Feldman out with a golf club that Feldman had accused him of losing, and takes one of Feldman's money briefcases for himself.

Celebrating the capture of Feldman, Jutsum, and Kitty, Starsky mourns the loss of his car. Huggy surprises him with another Gran Torino (bought from the original Starsky and Hutch duo, David Soul and Paul Michael Glaser). The two partners roll out on another case in their new ride.

Cast

 Ben Stiller as Detective David Starsky
 Owen Wilson as Detective Ken "Hutch" Hutchinson
 Vince Vaughn as Mr. Reese Feldman
 Snoop Dogg as Huggy Bear Brown
 Jason Bateman as Kevin Jutsum
 Fred Williamson as Captain Doby
 Carmen Electra as Stacey Haack
 Amy Smart as Holly Monk
 Juliette Lewis as Kitty
 Molly Sims as Mrs. Feldman
 George Cheung as Chau
 Chris Penn as Manetti
 Terry Crews as Porter
 Brande Roderick as Heather
 Jeffrey Lorenzo as Willis Lewis
 Har Mar Superstar as Dancing Rick
 Patton Oswalt as Disco DJ
 Paul Michael Glaser as Original Starsky
 David Soul as Original Hutch
 Will Ferrell as Big Earl Drennan (uncredited)

Reception
On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 63% based on 194 reviews, with an average rating of 6/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "It's uneven and occasionally somewhat aimless, but Starsky & Hutch benefits from Stiller and Wilson's chemistry and a surprisingly warm-hearted script". On Metacritic the film earned a weighted average score of 55 out of 100 based on 40 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade B on scale of A to F.

Roger Ebert awarded it 3 out of 4 stars. Ebert called it "a surprisingly funny movie, the best of the 1970s recycling jobs, with one laugh ("Are you OK, little pony?") almost as funny as the moment in Dumb and Dumber when the kid figured out his parakeet's head was Scotch-taped on".
Brian Lowry of Variety magazine wrote: "Blessed with sporadic moments of cheeky fun, isn't painful but seldom advances beyond costumes and hairstyling in terms of creativity".

Ben Stiller earned a Golden Raspberry Award nomination for Worst Actor. Carmen Electra earned a nomination for Worst Supporting Actress.

Box office
In the film's opening weekend, it grossed $28,103,367 in 3,185 theaters. Starsky & Hutch has had gross receipts of $88,237,754 in the U.S. and Canada and $82,030,996 in international markets for a total of $170,268,750 worldwide.

References

External links

Starsky & Hutch
2004 films
2004 action comedy films
2000s buddy comedy films
2000s buddy cop films
2000s crime comedy films
American action comedy films
American buddy cop films
American crime comedy films
Dimension Films films
Films based on television series
Films directed by Todd Phillips
Films produced by Akiva Goldsman
Films set in 1975
Films set in California
Films set in Los Angeles
Films shot in Los Angeles
Red Hour Productions films
American buddy comedy films
Warner Bros. films
Films with screenplays by Todd Phillips
Films scored by Theodore Shapiro
2004 comedy films
2000s English-language films
2000s American films
American prequel films

Starsky & Hutch (film)


Alpo Rusi (born 17 August 1949, in Jyväskylä) served in the Foreign Ministry of Finland in several assignments (Hamburg, Copenhagen, New York, Bonn), and from 1994 to 1999 as foreign policy adviser to the President of Finland Martti Ahtisaari. He also served as EU Coordinator for the Sarajevo Summit 1999 and deputy Coordinator of the Stability Pact for Western Balkans in 1999–2000. He worked as professor of International Relations, 2000–2003, at Lapland University and in Hamburg. Later on 2007-2009 he was senior adviser in the Cabinet staff of the President of the UN General Assembly.

Rusi was from 2009-2014 the ambassador of Finland to Switzerland, with accreditation also to Liechtenstein and the Holy See. Rusi is a recognized scholar in the field of international relations and history of Finland, and has published several books in Finland, and in the United States and Great Britain.

[ Rusi was an MP Candidate for the Centre Party in 2015 parliamentary elections. He was an MEP Candidate in the 2004 European Parliament Elections and an MP Candidate in 2007.

Career
 The Rudolf Holsti Professor of Diplomacy, Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania, 2017-
 Visiting Professor, Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania, 2016-
 Expert, Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University, 2015-
 Ambassador of Finland, Bern, Switzerland, 2009-2014
 Senior Adviser in the Cabinet Staff of the President of the UN General Assembly, 2007-2009
 Roving Ambassador in the Balkans, 2004-2007
 Chairman of the Evaluation Committee of the Stability Pact for Western Balkans, 2005-2006
 Professor of International Relations, University of Lapland, 2000-2003
 Deputy Coordinator of the Stability Pact for Western Balkans, 2000
 EU Coordinator for the Sarajevo Summit, 1999
 Adviser of President of Finland Martti Ahtisaari, 1994-1999
 Ambassador, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, 1993
 Minister, West Germany, 1992-1993
 Chief of West Office, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, 1991-1992
 Resident Fellow, EastWest Institute, New York, the United States, 1988-1989
 Visiting Researcher, Columbia University, New York, the United States, 1988-1989
 Chief of Planning Department, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, 1987-1990
 Counsellor, the United Nations, 1983-1986
 Editor in Chief, Lalli Newspaper, 1982
 Member of Finland's OSCE Delegation, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, 1982
 First Secretary, Embassy of Finland in Copenhagen, Denmark, 1977-1979
 Vice Consular, West Germany, 1975-1977
 Maturity Test, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, 1975
 Attaché, Embassy of Finland in London, the United Kingdom, 1974
 Attaché, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, 1973

False espionage investigation
In 2002 the Finnish Security Police (SUPO) investigated Alpo Rusi for espionage on behalf of the East German Stasi between 1969 and 1976. The investigation was leaked to the media on September 10, 2002, and caused a major "trial by media" in Finland. Alpo Rusi was declared innocent by the state prosecutor on June 11, 2003. Later, the same prosecutor told Helsingin Sanomat (January 24, 2010) that SUPO made a mistake by not ending the investigation in January 2003, when it was clear that Alpo Rusi had nothing to do with the Stasi or the KGB. Alpo Rusi's brother, Jukka Rusi, had been in contact with East Germany and the Soviet Union. Rusi took the case to court and was awarded major compensation from the state of Finland in 2007.In real terms Alpo Rusi was twice a criminal target of foreign intelligence(Stasi 1976, the KGB 1978) which the Finish Security Police tried to make Rusi's crimes. This vindicates the investigation and its leaking as a political act.

Publications
 Yhdessä vai erikseen - Suomen ja Ruotsin turvallisuuspolitiikka tienhaarassa (Docendo, 2016)
 Etupiirin ote - Suomen valtapeli Euroopan rajalla 1700-2014 (Gummerus, 2014)
 Tiitisen lista (Gummerus, 2011)
 Vasemmalta ohi (Gummerus, 2007)
 Myrskyjen aika (Atena, 2004)
 Kylmä tasavalta. Alpo Rusi & Olli Rehn (WSOY, 2003)
 Ei enää erityistapaus (WSOY, 2003)
 Mariankadun puolelta (Otava, 2000)
 A Dangerous Peace: New Rivalry in World Politics (Westview Press Inc, 1997)
 After the Cold War: Europe's New Political Architecture (Palgrave Schol, Print UK. 1991)

Honours and awards
 Order of the White Star, 3rd Class
 Commander of the Finnish Lion
 Woodrow Wilson Foundation Prize Nominee 1992

References

Doctor Alpo Rusi's homepage

1949 births
Living people
Politicians from Jyväskylä
Centre Party (Finland) politicians
Ambassadors of Finland to Switzerland
Ambassadors of Finland to the Holy See
Ambassadors of Finland to Liechtenstein

Alpo Rusi


Trzcinno  is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Człopa, within Wałcz County, West Pomeranian Voivodeship, in north-western Poland.

Before 1772 the area was part of Kingdom of Poland, 1772-1945 Prussia and Germany. For more on its history, see Wałcz County.

The village has a population of 60.

References

Villages in Wałcz County

Trzcinno, Wałcz County


Ussuri krai () is an unofficial name for a part of Primorsky Krai and Khabarovsky Krai that consisted of the Ussuri and South-Ussuri Okrugs. The name was often used in the late Russian Empire. The name comes from the fact that Ussuri River is located on the territory of the krai.

Through the efforts of the Russian governor Nikolay Muravyov-Amursky, the Qing dynasty of China conceded its rights to the territory to Russia in the Amur Annexation. This decision was officially documented in the Aigun Treaty (1858) and the Convention of Peking (1860).

In 1889–1918, Ussuri krai was the location of the Ussuri Cossack Host. It was re-established in the 1990s.

National Geographic Channel represented the film named "Secret Forest" as the part of the cycle Wild Russia, which describes the natural reserves of Ussuri Krai.

References

Geography of Primorsky Krai
Geography of Khabarovsk Krai
Regions of Russia
China–Russia border
China–Russian Empire relations

Ussuri krai


Backhousia subargentea (syn. Choricarpia subargentea) is a rare Australian rainforest tree, growing near Mullumbimby in north eastern New South Wales and from Boonah to Imbil in south eastern Queensland.

Common names include giant ironwood, ironwood box, scrub ironwood and lancewood.  The New South Wales habitat of Backhousia subargentea is dry rainforest thickets on hillsides near Mullumbimby. It grows in association with the shatterwood and wild quince.

Description

Backhousia subargentea is a small tree to medium tree, occasionally reaching 30 metres in height. However, it is much smaller in New South Wales, reaching only 8 metres high and with a stem diameter of 20 cm. The trunk is often multi-stemmed and crooked, not cylindrical in cross section with some buttressing at the base.

The trunk can be smooth and glossy, of an attractive orange/brown or pinkish/mauve colour, or green where bark has recently been shed. Other times, the bark sheds irregularly resulting in a mottled trunk, similar to the spotted gum and the leopardwood.

The leaves are opposite, simple and entire, lanceolate or broad with a fine leaf tip, around 4 to 8 cm long. The leaves are glossy dark green above, and greyish fawn below. Crushed leaves have a familiar eucalyptus scent. (Both plants being dry fruited myrtles). Oil dots are evident when viewed with a magnifying glass. The midrib and lateral leaf venation is only visible on the top surface. An intramarginal vein surrounds the leaf, about 2 mm from the edge. Leaf stalks are 5 to 10 mm long, with scaly matter on the stalk.

Flowers are white, densely together in globular heads, 5 to 8 mm long, appearing in April. The fruit matures around six months later as a small dry capsule, 5 mm in diameter on a stalk 6 to 10 mm long.

Uses
If not so rare, it could possibly be used as an ornamental tree.

References

Further reading
  (other publication details, included in citation)
 PlantNET - The Plant Information Network System of Botanic Gardens Trust, Sydney, Australia - 5 August 2009. http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Choricarpia~subargentea
 NSW Threatened Species: http://www.threatenedspecies.environment.nsw.gov.au/tsprofile/profile.aspx?id=10166

Myrtales of Australia
Trees of Australia
Flora of New South Wales
Flora of Queensland
Endangered biota of Queensland
Endangered flora of Australia
subargentea

Backhousia subargentea