Jean-Charles-Jean-Baptiste-Félix Pandosy (22 November 1824 –  February 1891), commonly known as Father Pandosy, was a French Catholic priest who was the first settler in the Kelowna area in British Columbia. He set up a church and a school and attracted many settlers to the area. He founded the Okanagan Mission which was the first permanent white settlement in the British Columbia Interior aside from the forts for the Hudson's Bay Company and the gold rush boomtowns of the Fraser Canyon.

Background

Father Pandosy was born on 22 November 1824 in Marseille, France, to Esprit-Étienne-Charles-Henri Pandosy, a sea captain, and Marguerite-Josephine-Marie Dallest. He was educated at Collège de Bourbon in Arles. He then decided to enter the Oblate Juniorate of Notre-Dame de Lumières. On 14 August 1844, he entered the novitiate of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate (O.M.I.) at Notre-Dame-de-l'Osier and took his vows one year and one day later, on 15 August 1845. After that, he studied philosophy and theology at the seminary in Marseille.

Towards the end of 1846, Eugène de Mazenod, the founder of the O.M.I., granted the request of two Pacific Northwest bishops (Augustin-Magloire Blanchet of Walla Walla, Washington and Modeste Demers of Vancouver Island) to send Oblate missionaries from France to serve in their dioceses. Pandosy and 4 other men (one ordained priest, three scholastics, of which Pandosy was one, and one lay brother) left Le Havre on 4 February 1847 when Pandosy was 23 years old. They arrived in New York on 2 April 1847, met Bishop Blanchet in St. Louis and reached Kansas City on 1 May 1847. They then joined a caravan going to Fort Hall in what is now southeastern Idaho. When the party arrived at Fort Hall the Bishop and a few companions went ahead to prepare lodgings and provisions for the winter. Father Pandosy remained with the wagons in Fort Hall and finally arrived in Walla Walla on 5 October 1847, eight months after he had set out from France.

Work in Oregon Territory

Father Pandosy and the other Oblates began by proselytizing the Yakama people in the lower valley of the Yakima River. While they were there, the Whitman Massacre occurred near Walla Walla. The Bishop decided to immediately ordain two of the Oblates, Pandosy and Father Eugene Chirouse. Pandosy was ordained into the priesthood on 2 January 1848. Father Pandosy then returned to the Yakama Indians, and convinced them to stay neutral in the Cayuse War which broke out after the massacre.

Pandosy and Chirouse befriended Chief Kamiakin of the Yakama people and he protected them for many years. In early 1849 the two priests built the Mission of St. Joseph at Saralpes.  In 1851 he was joined by Father Louis-Joseph d'Herbomez and they moved the mission to the Ahtanum Creek. This was near Kamiakin's camp.

The Yakima War broke out in 1855. Volunteer soldiers went into the field to fight against the Indians. Some of these volunteers took the St. Joseph Mission and uncovered a keg of powder, leading them to believe that the priests were helping the Yakama. The mission was burned and Father Pandosy was forced to flee with the Yakama. He escaped from them and managed to find his way to the Jesuits' St. Paul's Mission at Kettle Falls. He stayed there until the middle of 1856, then spent the rest of 1856 and 1857 ministering to the Indians and US troops in that area. In 1858, he was transferred to Esquimalt, which was then the headquarters of the Oblates in British Columbia.

Okanagan Mission

In 1858, Father Pandosy and the missionaries arrived in Esquimalt in the summer. Father Pandosy wanted to start a new colony in the Interior and he chose the Okanagan area. He started looking for people to join him. French-Canadian brothers, Theodor and Cyprienne Laurence, Cyprienne's wife Therese who was a member of the Flathead tribe and an unnamed Flathead man joined Father Pandosy and set off for the Okanagan. In the fall of 1859 they arrived in the Okanagan and settled down. However, in the spring it became too marshy so they moved to a spot near modern-day Mission Creek that summer. They built a small log home with a church on the ground floor and they slept upstairs. They called it Mission of the Immaculate Conception and it was located on the site they called L'Anse au Sable (Sandy Cove). Father Pandosy's Mission is commonly called Okanagan Mission. The site was not established for fur or gold but rather as a religious site and community settlement. Father Pandosy was just as much a farmer as he was a priest. Okanagan Mission had hogs, sheep, oats, barley, wheat, tobacco and potatoes. Father Pandosy's Mission was the first cemetery, the first place of worship and the first school in the Southern Interior. Two years after it was founded, 121 people were baptized at Okanagan Mission. In 1865, a brother's house was added to the site to house the many priests that stayed there as they were passing through as well as travelers who needed a place to stay. In 1866, a log barn was added to the site. Father Pandosy farmed and found ways to irrigate the land so a root cellar was also built. In 1882, a new sawn lumber church was added. This new church had five Gothic style windows and a bell tower. A bell that was given to Father Pandosy by Joseph Christien hung in the tower of the new church. father Pandosy was sent on missions across British Columbia and sometimes he would stay away for years at a time but he always came back to Okanagan Mission. Okanagan Mission became the Catholic Church's headquarters for the area. However, in 1885, after the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway's new transcontinental line, the oblates switched their headquarters to St. Louis Mission in Kamloops.

During his service in British Columbia, he established other missions, including one on Harbledown Island in 1863 which was later closed by Bishop D'Herbomez in 1874.  Louis d'Herbomez built mission with him in 1847, in Washington near Yakima, which was named Sainte Croix.  Location was main summer camp for Chief Kamiakin

Death

In February 1891, Father Pandosy was called to Keremeos. He was 67 years old and in tentative health. Returning from Keremeos, he made it as far as Penticton and was very ill. Chief Françoise of the Penticton Indian Band noticed Father Pandosy's illness and took him in. Thomas Ellis' wife was called because of her nursing skills. Little could be done for Father Pandosy and he died on February 6, 1891. His body was sent back to Okanagan Mission on the steamer Penticton. He was buried across the street from the site he founded. The Pandosy Mission Cemetery containing Father Pandosy's grave was discovered by a team of archeologists from Vancouver in 1983. The dig also discovered the graves of several early settlers pre-1900. The site is marked by a granite boulder with a commemorative brass plaque and is located on a working farm about 400 metres north-west from the mission.

Legacy

In 1896, Okanagan Mission was sold to Father Eumelin. Father Eumelin ran the Mission until 1902. Father Pandosy's Mission closed in 1902 and the land was purchased by the Kelowna Land and Orchard Company. Father Pandosy's Mission had been a place of worship for forty-four years. 1947 saw the property sold again and it was slated for demolition but a group of volunteers rescued and restored the three original buildings on the site. Father Pandosy's original sawn wood church was sold to a local congregation and they moved the church to their site in Rutland where it was later destroyed by fire. The Oblates of Mary Immaculate bought the two acres that held the original buildings in 1954. In 1983, the site was designated as a B.C. Heritage Site. Father Pandosy's Mission is now four acres and other historic buildings have been put on site.

See also

References

1824 births
1891 deaths
19th-century Canadian Roman Catholic priests
French emigrants to pre-Confederation British Columbia
Roman Catholic clergy from Marseille
Pre-Confederation British Columbia people
Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate

Father Pandosy


Anthony Leonard Randall (born Aryeh Leonard Rosenberg; February 26, 1920 – May 17, 2004) was an American actor. He is best known for portraying the role of Felix Unger in a television adaptation of the 1965 play The Odd Couple by Neil Simon. In a career spanning six decades, Randall received six Golden Globe Award nominations and six Primetime Emmy Award nominations, winning one Emmy.

Biography

Early years
Randall was born to a Jewish family in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the son of Julia (née Finston) (April 28, 1889 – October 3, 1950) and Moescha Rosenberg (August 6, 1875 – November 16, 1939), an art and antiques dealer. He attended Tulsa Central High School.

Randall attended Northwestern University for a year before going to New York City to study at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre. He studied under Sanford Meisner and choreographer Martha Graham. Randall worked as an announcer at radio station WTAG in Worcester, Massachusetts. As Anthony Randall, he starred with Jane Cowl in George Bernard Shaw's Candida and Ethel Barrymore in Emlyn Williams's The Corn Is Green.

Randall served for four years with the United States Army Signal Corps in World War II, including work at Arlington Hall for the codebreaking Signal Intelligence Service. After the war, he worked at the Olney Theatre in Montgomery County, Maryland, before heading back to New York City.

One of Randall's first acting jobs was playing "Reggie" in the long-running 1940s radio series I Love a Mystery.

Broadway
In 1946, Randall was cast as one of the brothers in a touring production of Katharine Cornell's revival of The Barretts of Wimpole Street.

Randall appeared on Broadway in Cornell's production of Antony and Cleopatra (1947–48) with Cornell, Charlton Heston, and Maureen Stapleton, and in Caesar and Cleopatra (1949–50) with Cedric Hardwicke and Lilli Palmer. Randall began appearing on television, notably episodes of One Man's Family.

Mister Peepers
Randall's first major television role was as history teacher Harvey Weskit in Mister Peepers (1952–1955). He continued to guest-star on other shows such as The Gulf Playhouse (directed by Arthur Penn), The Pepsi-Cola Playhouse, Kraft Theatre, The Motorola Television Hour, Armstrong Circle Theatre, Studio One in Hollywood, Appointment with Adventure, and The Philco-Goodyear Television Playhouse.

Randall replaced Gig Young in the Broadway hit Oh, Men! Oh, Women! (1954).

Inherit the Wind
Randall's first major role in a Broadway hit was in Inherit the Wind (1955–57), portraying newspaperman E. K. Hornbeck (based on real-life cynic H. L. Mencken), alongside Ed Begley and Paul Muni. On television he appeared in Heaven Will Protect the Working Girl (1956), co-written by Neil Simon. He also guest-starred on The Alcoa Hour.

Film star
Randall's success in Inherit the Wind led to film offers and his first significant big-screen role in Oh, Men! Oh, Women! (1957) for 20th Century Fox, which promoted Randall to stardom with Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957) alongside Jayne Mansfield. He played one of the leads in No Down Payment (1957).

In 1958, Randall played the leading role in the Broadway musical comedy Oh, Captain!, taking on a role originated on film by Alec Guinness. The show was a financial failure, but Randall received a Tony Award nomination for his dance turn with prima ballerina Alexandra Danilova.

Randall appeared in Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse, Goodyear Theatre, The United States Steel Hour, Sunday Showcase and Playhouse 90.

Continuing success
Randall co-starred with Debbie Reynolds in The Mating Game (1959) at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. He appeared in the hit film Pillow Talk (1959) supporting Doris Day and Rock Hudson; he would reunite with Day and Hudson for two more films.

He starred in an NBC-TV special, The Secret of Freedom, which was filmed during the summer of 1959 in Mount Holly, New Jersey, and broadcast on the network during the fall of 1959 and again in early 1960. On TV he was also in The Man in the Moon (1960), co-written by Mel Brooks.

Randall was top-billed in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from MGM in 1960. He had a Pillow Talk-style support role in Let's Make Love (1960) with Marilyn Monroe and Yves Montand, and Lover Come Back (1961) with Hudson and Day. Randall continued to guest on TV shows including General Electric Theater and Checkmate. In 1961, Randall played a highly dramatic role in "Hangover," an episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour in which he portrayed an alcoholic business executive who strangles his wife in a drunken rage. He starred in a TV adaptation of Arsenic & Old Lace (1962), and had big-screen leading roles in Boys' Night Out (1962) and Island of Love (1963).

Randall starred in the classic 1964 MGM film, 7 Faces of Dr. Lao, which was based on The Circus of Dr. Lao by Charles G. Finney. In addition to portraying and voicing the eponymous seven faces (Dr. Lao, the Abominable Snowman, Merlin, Apollonius of Tyana, The Giant Serpent, Pan, and Medusa), Randall also appeared without makeup in a two-second cameo as a solemn spectator in the crowd, for a total of eight roles in the film.

He played the lead in The Brass Bottle (1964) and made one last film with Hudson and Day, Send Me No Flowers (1965). Randall took the lead in Fluffy (1965), a comedy about a lion; The Alphabet Murders (1965), playing Hercule Poirot for Frank Tashlin; Our Man in Marrakesh (1966), as a secret agent; and Hello Down There (1969).

Randall returned to Broadway in UTBU (1966), which had only a short run. He appeared in the TV movie The Littlest Angel (1969) with Johnny Whitaker and Fred Gwynne.

The Odd Couple

Randall returned to television in 1970 as Felix Unger in The Odd Couple, opposite Jack Klugman, a role that lasted five years. The names of Felix's children in The Odd Couple were Edna and Leonard, named for Randall's sister and Randall himself.

In 1974, Randall and Klugman appeared in television spots endorsing a Yahtzee spinoff, Challenge Yahtzee. They appeared in character as Felix and Oscar, and the TV spots were filmed on the set of The Odd Couple.

During the series run, Randall took a small role in Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask) (1972).

In 1973, he was hired to play the voice of Templeton the gluttonous rat in Charlotte's Web, and recorded the part, but was replaced in the film by Paul Lynde, as Randall's voice was perceived as too sophisticated by the director, who wanted Templeton to have a nasal voice.

The Tony Randall Show
Beginning in 1976, Randall starred for two seasons in The Tony Randall Show, playing Philadelphia judge Walter Franklin. He had roles in Kate Bliss and the Ticker Tape Kid (1978), Scavenger Hunt (1979), and Foolin' Around (1980).

Love, Sidney
Randall starred in the NBC series Love, Sidney from 1981 to 1983. In the TV movie that served as the show's pilot, Sidney Shorr: A Girl's Best Friend, Sidney Shorr was written as a middle-aged homosexual man; the character's sexuality was made ambiguous for the series. After the show was canceled in 1983, Randall refused to star in another television series, favoring the Broadway stage as his medium.

Randall continued to appear in TV movies. He starred in Sunday Drive (1986) for Disney, Save the Dog! (1988), and The Man in the Brown Suit (1989). From October 30 to November 2, 1987, he hosted the free preview of HBO's short-lived premium channel Festival.

In 1989, Randall returned to Broadway as a replacement in M. Butterfly.

National Actors Theatre
In 1991, Randall founded the National Actors Theatre, ultimately based at Pace University in New York City. Their productions included The Crucible (1991), A Little Hotel on the Side (1992), The Master Builder (1992), The Seagull (1992), Saint Joan (1993), Three Men on a Horse (1993), Timon of Athens (1993), The Government Inspector (1993), The Flowering Peach (1994), Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1994), The School for Scandal (1995), Inherit the Wind (1996), and The Gin Game (1997). In 1997, he performed in The Sunshine Boys with Klugman to great success.

In September 1993, Randall and Klugman reunited in the CBS-TV movie The Odd Couple: Together Again, reprising their roles. The story began when, after Felix ruined plans for his daughter Edna's wedding, his wife Gloria threw him out of the house for 11 days, which left him no choice but to move back in with Oscar and to help him recover, getting him back in shape after throat cancer surgery had left his voice very raspy.

Randall's later stage productions included Night Must Fall (1999) and Judgment at Nuremberg (2001).

Periodically, he performed in stage revivals of The Odd Couple with Klugman, including a stint in London in 1996. Later film roles included Fatal Instinct (1994) and Down with Love (2003).

Randall's last appearances on stage as an actor were in The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (2002) and Right You Are (2003).

Guest appearances
On September 4, 1955, Randall and Klugman appeared together with Gena Rowlands in the episode "The Pirate's House" of the CBS anthology series Appointment with Adventure.

Randall was a frequent guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and often spoke of his love of opera and the salaciousness of many of its plotlines. He also admitted to sneaking tape recorders into operas to make his own private recordings. He chided Johnny Carson for his chain smoking and was generally fastidious. At the time of his death, Randall had appeared as a guest on The Tonight Show 105 times, more often than any other celebrity had appeared.

Randall was well-known for being a guest panelist on the game show What's My Line?, from 1958 to 1967, Password, The Hollywood Squares, and the $10,000 and $20,000 Pyramids. He also parodied his pompous image with an appearance as a "contestant" on The Gong Show in 1977.

Randall was a guest star on the fifth and final season of The Muppet Show in an episode that first aired on October 11, 1980. This was the 100th episode of the show.

Randall, along with John Goodman and Drew Barrymore, was among the first guests on the debut episode of Late Night with Conan O'Brien on September 13, 1993. He would also appear in Conan O'Brien's 5th Anniversary Special with the character PimpBot 5000. Randall was a frequent guest as well on both of David Letterman's late-night shows Late Night with David Letterman and the Late Show with David Letterman, making 70 appearances, according to his obituary in The Washington Post. Letterman said that Randall was one of his favorite guests, along with Regis Philbin.

On November 7, 1994, Randall appeared on the game show Jeopardy!, as part of a celebrity episode, playing on behalf of the National Actors Theatre. He came in second place behind General Norman Schwarzkopf Jr. but ahead of actress Stefanie Powers, with a final tally of $9,900.

Other creative activities
In 1973, Randall and Klugman recorded an album for London Records titled The Odd Couple Sings. Roland Shaw and the London Festival Orchestra and Chorus provided the music and additional vocals. The record was not a chart-topper but is a highly sought-after item for many Odd Couple fans. Randall and Klugman also collaborated on a series of television commercials for Eagle brand snacks.

A noted raconteur, Randall, along with co-writer Mike Mindlin, wrote a collection of amusing and sometimes racy showbusiness anecdotes called Which Reminds Me, published in 1989.

In keeping with his penchant for both championing and mocking the culture that he loved, during the Big Band-era revival in the mid-1960s, Randall produced a record album of 1930s songs, Vo, Vo, De, Oh, Doe, inspired by (and covering) the New Vaudeville Band's one-hit wonder, "Winchester Cathedral." He mimicked (and somewhat exaggerated) the vibrato style of Carmen Lombardo, and the two had once sung a duet of Lombardo's signature song "Boo Hoo (You've Got Me Crying for You)" on The Tonight Show.

In the 1980s, Randall served as off-camera narrator for several video productions by the Metropolitan Opera, announcing performers to the television audience as they appeared on stage during curtain calls and providing brief descriptions of scenes.

For the 1990 sequel Gremlins 2: The New Batch, Randall voiced the Brain Gremlin.

Personal life

Randall was married to his high school sweetheart, Florence Gibbs, from 1938 until her death from cancer on April 18, 1992. They had no children. On November 17, 1995, at the age of 75, he married 25-year-old Heather Harlan, an understudy from the production of The School for Scandal in which Randall was starring at National Actors Theatre; the ceremony was officiated by Rudy Giuliani. They lived in a Manhattan apartment and bought a vacation apartment in Key Biscayne, Florida, in 2003. The couple had two children, Julia, born on April 11, 1997, and Jefferson, born on June 15, 1998—and remained married until Randall's death in May 2004.

In his book Which Reminds Me, Randall maintained that any publicity that an actor generates should be about his work, not himself: "The public knows only one thing about me: I don't smoke."

Advocacy and politics
Randall was an advocate for the arts. During the summer of 1980, he served as the celebrity host of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra's concerts in Central Park, New York City.

Randall was politically liberal. He was an active supporter of Eugene McCarthy during the 1968 Democratic Party presidential primaries. When he was dropped as a regular panelist on the Opera Quiz intermission feature of the Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts because of his opposition to the Vietnam War, he donated the remainder of his contract fee to the McCarthy campaign. During the U.S. presidential primaries in 1972, he appeared as the featured celebrity at numerous fundraising house parties for Democratic Party candidate George McGovern. His name was featured on the master list of Richard Nixon's political opponents.

Death
Randall died in his sleep on May 17, 2004, at NYU Medical Center of pneumonia that he had contracted following coronary bypass surgery in December 2003. He had been hospitalized since the operation. His remains are interred at the Westchester Hills Cemetery in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York.

Filmography

Awards and nominations

Honors
 In 1993, he received The Hundred Year Association of New York's Gold Medal Award "in recognition of outstanding contributions to the City of New York."
 In 1999, the City College of New York honored Randall with the John H. Finley Award for outstanding service to the City of New York.
 In 2003, Pace University granted him an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree.

Bibliography

See also

References

External links

 Tony Randall papers, 1957-1981, held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts

1920 births
2004 deaths
American male film actors
American male radio actors
American male musical theatre actors
American male stage actors
American male television actors
Jewish American male actors
Male actors from Tulsa, Oklahoma
United States Army personnel of World War II
Outstanding Performance by a Lead Actor in a Comedy Series Primetime Emmy Award winners
Imperial Records artists
Burials at Westchester Hills Cemetery
Deaths from pneumonia in New York City
Central High School (Tulsa, Oklahoma) alumni
Jewish American military personnel
Northwestern University alumni
Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre alumni
Oklahoma Democrats
New York (state) Democrats
California Democrats
Massachusetts Democrats
20th-century American male actors
Signals Intelligence Service cryptographers
Military personnel from Oklahoma
20th-century American male singers
20th-century American singers
20th-century American Jews
21st-century American Jews
American Jews from Oklahoma

Tony Randall


Painter-Bernatz Mill, also known as the Old Stone Mill, is a historic building located in Decorah, Iowa, United States.  The original part of the mill was constructed by William Painter in 1851, and it was expanded to its present size in the next year or two.  A mill race was constructed from a dam on the Upper Iowa River, and it was routed beneath the building to power the turbine.  It was the first of at least 15 mills that used this river as its source of power.  The lower two floors are composed of native limestone.  The original hip roof was removed sometime between 1874 and 1890 and the present gable roof was built giving the mill a large loft.  Diesel power replaced water power in 1947.  The building continued to operate as a mill until 1964.  It became a part of the Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum in 1971, and houses exhibits on agriculture and industry.  It is also a site in the Silos & Smokestacks National Heritage Area.  The former mill is the oldest building in Decorah.  It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.

References

Industrial buildings completed in 1851
Decorah, Iowa
Museums in Winneshiek County, Iowa
Mill museums in Iowa
Grinding mills in Iowa
Flour mills in the United States
Grinding mills on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa
National Register of Historic Places in Winneshiek County, Iowa
1851 establishments in Iowa

Painter-Bernatz Mill


The Epic Games Store is a video game digital distribution service and storefront operated by Epic Games. It launched in December 2018 as a software client, for Microsoft Windows and macOS, and online storefront. The service provides friends list management, game matchmaking, and other features. Epic Games has further plans to expand the feature set of the storefront but it does not plan to add as many features as other digital distribution platforms, such as discussion boards or user reviews, instead using existing social media platforms to support these.

Epic began offering digital distribution for game publishers after the success of Fortnite, released in 2017, which Epic distributed using their own software channels to players on Windows and macOS systems. Tim Sweeney, founder and CEO of Epic Games, stated in August 2017 that the revenue cut of Steam, the dominant game storefront from Valve, was unreasonably high at 30%, and suggested that they could run a profitable store with as little as an 8% cut. By launch, Epic Games had settled on a 12% revenue cut for titles published through the store, as well as dropping the licensing fees for games built on their Unreal Engine, normally 5% of the revenue.

Epic Games enticed developers and publishers to the service by offering them time-exclusivity agreements to publish on the storefront, in exchange for guaranteed minimum revenue. Epic also offered users one or two free games each week for the first five years of its operation to help draw users. Criticism from users has been drawn to Epic Games and those developers and publishers opting for exclusivity deals, asserting that these are segmenting the market.

Storefront and software
The Epic Games Store is a storefront for games available via the web and built into Epic Games' launcher application. Both web and application allow players to purchase games, while through the launcher the player can install and keep their games up to date.

Epic's newer games will be exclusively available through its store and the company plans to fund developers to release exclusively through their store, using revenue guarantees to developers that opt for this, with Epic paying the difference should a game underperform. For other developers, Epic takes a 12% share of revenue, the rest going to the developer, and for any games developed using the Unreal Engine, Epic forgoes the 5% revenue-based fee for those games sold through their storefront. After paying for content delivery and other services, Epic's profit is about 5% of gross revenue, though, with economies of scale, this could increase to 6–7%. By Epic's calculations, the storefront's commission was sufficient to be profitable.

Epic planned to offer one free game every two weeks through 2019; this was increased to one free game every week in June 2019, and on weeks where the free game had a mature content rating and thus locked out if parental controls are enabled, Epic offered a second free game not so rated. Epic since affirmed that they planned to continue the free game program through 2021. Through the first eighteen months of this program, Epic had given out over two thousand dollars of games, as estimated by PCGamesN. Certain free game offerings had been highly popular; in its giveaway for Grand Theft Auto V in May 2020, more than seven millions new users claimed the giveaway in addition to existing ones, and temporarily crashed Epic's servers, and later, over 19 million users obtained a free copy of Star Wars Battlefront II offered in January 2021, with the new influx of players crashing the game's servers briefly. Documents unveiled during the Epic Games v. Apple trial in 2021 showed that in the store's giveaways prior to 2020, Epic paid buyouts to the developers of the free game ranging typically from  to , and measured this performance in new users drawn to the storefront on the order of 100,000 new users, with that buyout averaging from  per new user. Epic Games also has offered sales, in which Epic absorbs the discount from the sale. For example, its first store-wide sale in May 2019 offered a discount of  off any game valued at  or more.

The store at launch had barebones set of features, but Epic plans to develop feature subsets comparable to other digital storefronts. Eventually, the storefront will offer user reviews, but this feature will be opt-in by developers to avoid misuse by activities like review bombing. Cloud saving was added in August 2019, while preliminary support for achievements and user modifications were added in July 2020. Full support for achievements were rolled out in October 2021. There are no plans to include internal user forums. The storefront will include a ticket-based support system for users to report bugs and technical problems for games to developers, while developers will be encouraged to link to external forums and social channels of their choosing, like Reddit and Discord, in lieu of storefront-tied forums. However, a party chat system, similar to features of Discord, will be implemented in 2021 to allow friends to chat while in games supported by the store. Information taken from OpenCritic was added to product Store pages in January 2020 to provide users with critical review information. The store added a review system in June 2022, and as to fight review bombing, the system is based on randomized polling of users, and with presentation of random subsets of these reviews to storefront pages.

The store does not have features such as virtual reality headset support, nor is expected to have any "game-shaped features" similar to Steam's trading cards designed to drive sales.

Cloud saving was introduced on a very limited, game-by-game basis in July 2019, though Epic plans to expand this out after validating the feature. In December 2019, Epic gave developers and publishers the option to implement their own in-game storefront for microtransactions and other purchases for a game, while still retaining the option to use the Epic storefront instead.

Where possible, Epic plans to extend its "Support a Creator" program that it had launched in Fortnite Battle Royale to other games offered on the store. With the Support a Creator program, players can opt to indicate a streamer or content creator, selected by Epic based on submitted applications, to support. Supported streamers then receive revenue from Epic Games on microtransactions made through the Epic Games Store from the players that supported them, incentivizing these content creators; within Fortnite, creators had received about 5% of the cash value of the microtransactions.

Following developers discovering that Valve would not allow games on Steam that used blockchain-based elements like cryptocurrency or non-fungible tokens as these items have value outside of Steam, Epic announced that they would allow such games, though this remains part of the review of each game that Epic performs before accepting a game onto its system.

History
Digital distribution of games for personal computers prior to the introduction of the Epic Games Store was through digital storefronts like Steam and GOG.com, with Steam being the dominant channel with an estimated 75% of all digital distribution in 2013. Valve, which operated Steam, took a 30% revenue cut of all games sold through their services, a figure matched by the other services like GOG.com, and console and mobile storefronts. In August 2017, Epic's Tim Sweeney suggested that 30% was no longer a reasonable cut, and that Valve could still profit if they cut their revenue share to 8%.

In early December 2018, Epic Games announced that it would open a digital storefront to challenge Steam by using a 12% revenue split rather than Steam's 30%. Epic also said that it would not impose digital rights management (DRM) restrictions on games sold through its platform. The store opened days later, on December 6, 2018, as part of the Game Awards, with a handful of games and a short list of upcoming titles. The store was open for macOS and Windows platforms before expanding to Android and other platforms. Epic aims to release a storefront for Android devices, bypassing the Google Play Store, where it will similarly only take a 12% cut compared to Google's 30%. While Apple, Inc.'s monopoly on iOS currently makes it impossible for Epic to release an App Store there, analysts believe that if Google reacts to Epic's App Store by reducing their cut, Apple will be pressured to follow suit. Epic has tried to ask Google for an exemption to bypass Google's payment systems for in-app purchases for the Fortnite Battle Royale app, but Google has refused to allow this.

Prior to the store's launch, its Director of Publishing Strategy, Sergey Galyonkin, had run Steam Spy, a website that collected Steam usage data from public profiles to create public sales statistics. He ran the site as a side-project but used it to learn what developers would want from Epic's store, namely fewer social elements and less visual clutter. The store's contents were hand-curated until Epic opened the store to self-publishing, starting with a beta of these features in August 2021. Epic's staff will still need to approve games for the store, a process that "mostly focus[es] on the technical side of things and general quality", according to Tim Sweeney. Sweeney does not expect this vetting process to be as stringent as the approvals needed to publish games on home video game consoles, but will use human evaluation to filter out bloatware and asset flips, among other poor-quality titles. Epic does not plan to allow adults-only mature content on the store.

In January 2019, Ubisoft announced its plans to distribute its games via the Epic Games Store, with its upcoming Tom Clancy's The Division 2 to be sold on the storefront (in addition to Ubisoft's own Uplay storefront) instead of Steam, making it the first major third-party publisher to utilize the Epic Games Store. Ubisoft said that selecting the Epic Games Store for future games was part of a larger business discussion related to Steam. Chris Early, Ubisoft's vice president for partnerships and revenue, described Steam as "unrealistic, the current business model that they have...It doesn't reflect where the world is today in terms of game distribution." Publisher Deep Silver followed suit later that month, announcing that Metro Exodus will be exclusive to Epic Games Store for one year, at a reduced  (in North America) compared to  when it was offered on other storefronts. Epic has subsequently made partnerships with Private Division and Quantic Dream for publishing on the store.

The storefront started offering non-game applications in December 2020 with the introduction of Spotify; Epic stated that it will not take a cut of any of Spotify's subscriptions for those using it via its storefront app. Other apps added included itch.io, iHeartRadio, Krita, and Brave.

Epic introduced cabined accounts intended for children in December 2022. These accounts have access to certain free games on the store, including Fortnite, Fall Guys, and Rocket League with limited gameplay features to provide a safe environment for children. These accounts also cannot purchase games without the authority of a parent's approval, as well as other parental controls.

Epic added self-publishing options to the store in March 2023. Similar to Steam Direct, a developer pays $100 to list their game. Epic does some minimum oversight of these games, disallowing pornographic titles and those with multiplayer but lacking cross-platform play support for the game on other storefronts. In May, Epic announced a reward program in which users can earn 5% in currency for eligible purchases. A First Run Program, offering developers to waive Epic's revenue share during 6 months store exclusivity, was announced on August 23, 2023. Additionally, a Now on Epic program, offering developers the same conditions for previously releases games, was announced on October 16, 2023.

Reception
The Epic Games Store was announced a few days after Valve had revealed a change in the Steam revenue sharing model that reduced Valve's take, reducing their revenue cut from 30% to 25% after a game made more than , and to 20% after . Several indie game developers expressed concern that this change was meant to help keep larger AAA developers and publishers and did little to support smaller developers. As such, when the Epic Games Store was announced, several journalists saw it as potentially disruptive to Steam's current model. Some developers and publishers have announced plans to release games that they were planning to release through Steam now exclusively through the Epic Games Store, or to have timed exclusivity on Epic's storefront before appearing on other services. Valve's Gabe Newell welcomed the competition, saying it "is awesome for everybody. It keeps us honest, it keeps everybody else honest", but did comment that, in the short-term, the competition was "ugly".

Over its first year in 2019, Epic reported that the Store drew 108 million customers and brought in over  in sales, with  being spent on third-party games. Of those third-party games, 90% of the sales came from the Epic Games Store's time-limited exclusives. Overall, Epic stated that overall sales were 60% higher than they had anticipated. For 2020, Epic stated the store had reached 160 million players, 31 million daily active players, and annual sales over  ( of that for third-party titles). According to data collected by Simon Carless in 2021, of the first wave of Epic storefront-exclusive games in 2019, only Satisfactory had surpassed what Epic paid for that exclusivity, and it along with Dauntless are the only two games expected to make a profit for Epic.

Reactions to storefront exclusivity
To compete against Steam, Epic Games has frequently arranged for time-exclusive releases of games on the Epic Games Store before other storefronts, typically for either six months or a year. Sweeney stated that this strategy was the only way to challenge Steam's dominant position, and would stop seeking exclusivity should Valve reduce its 30% revenue share. Otherwise, Epic will continue to accept offers for exclusivity on the Epic Games Store from any developers or publishers that are interested, regardless of what prior plans they had made with Steam or other storefronts.

Some consumers have reacted negatively towards these exclusivity deals, as it appears to create division in the gaming community similar to games that are released with timed exclusivity on home consoles. Metro Exodus, by developers 4A Games and published by Deep Silver, had been planned as a Steam release. However, Deep Silver announced a few weeks before release that the game would be a timed-exclusive on the Epic Games Store, eventually available on Steam a year after release. Some users were upset by this, review bombing the game on Steam and complaining at 4A Games. Deep Silver backed up 4A Games, and noted the decision for Epic Games Store exclusivity was made by Deep Silver's parent, Koch Media. In the days that followed after Metro Exodus release, players used the Steam review system to praise the game as Epic Games Store lacked user reviews at that time. Phoenix Point, a spiritual successor to X-COM by X-COM lead designer Julian Gollop, was successfully crowdfunded with players given the option of redemption keys on Steam or GOG.com. In March 2019, Gollop announced that they have opted to make Phoenix Point exclusive to the Epic Games Store for a year; backers would get a redemption key for the Epic Games Store as well as for Steam or GOG a year later when the exclusivity period was up, as well as being provided the first year's downloadable content for free. Gollop explained that with the exclusivity deal, his team received additional financial support to finish up Phoenix Point. Several backers were angered by this decision, believing that Gollop's team used their funds to get the game to a point where they could get external investment and then change the direction of the game. Gollop asserted that the deal with Epic Games did not alter Phoenix Points ultimate direction, but did offer full refunds to backers if they wanted.

Glumberland, the developers of Ooblets, announced that the game would be exclusive to the Epic Games Store in late July 2019, citing that Epic's funding support would help to keep the studio afloat until release and provide them a better revenue split. In the announcement by Glumberland's Ben Wasser, he included what he felt had been joking language related to criticisms of Epic Games Store exclusivity, calling those who complained "immature, toxic gamers", but that the situation was "nothing to get worked up about". In the wake of this, Wasser and others at Glumberland began to receive thousands of hostile negative messages related to the announcement, including threats. Wasser had not expected the community to react to the message that way, and tried to clarify Glumberland's position of needing Epic's support rather than any attempt to spurn the gaming community. Sweeney spoke later that the campaign against Ooblets represents a growing trend in the community based on "the coordinated and deliberate creation and promotion of false information, including fake screenshots, videos, and technical analysis, accompanied by harassment of partners, promotion of hateful themes, and intimidation of those with opposing views." Sweeney said that Epic is working with its partners and developers to try to improve the situation and support those targeted in such manners.

Further issues on exclusivity arose after Unfold Games, who were in the final stages of preparing to release their game Darq, reported on their interactions with Epic Games. Darq had been established as a Steam release for several months and the developers announced that they were nearing release in 2019. According to Unfold Games, Epic Games approached them about having the game on the Epic Games Store in addition to providing funding support. However, when asked, Epic Games clarified that Unfold would have to sell the game on the Epic Games Store exclusively, having to withdraw the game from Steam for a period of one year. Unfold decided against going with Epic Games, noting that a large part of their marketing for fundraising was a major emphasis on releasing on Steam, as well as due to the game having been wishlisted by a large number of Steam users. As a result of media attention regarding Epic Games Store, Unfold released Darq as a digital rights management-free game on Steam and GOG.com. Some journalists have expressed concern that Epic's large focus on exclusivity may harm their intent.

Following a number of other time-exclusive planned releases on the Epic Games Store announced during the 2019 Game Developers Conference and further complaints from players about this, Steve Allison, head of the storefront division, admitted that they did not want to cause such disruption in the gaming community. According to Allison, they will try to avoid making such large-scale exclusivity deals so close to a game's release and want to try to respect what the community wants. Following similar complaints from backers of Shenmue III who were upset about the Steam release being delayed, Epic Games announced that with Shenmue III and any future crowd-funded game that ends up with Epic Games Store exclusivity, it will cover the costs of any refund requests from backers.

Other criticisms
In April 2021 in the Epic Games v. Apple lawsuit, Apple submitted a court filing that claimed that the Epic Games Store was running at a significant loss and likely would not be profitable until 2027, based on deposition from Epic's financial management, and thus requiring Epic to assure revenue from its other product streams. Apple asserted that Epic had lost around  on the store from 2019 to 2020, primarily due to the minimum guarantees it provides to developers for bringing their game to the store and from its storefront exclusivity deals. In its response to Apple's claim, Epic stated it expected the Epic Games Store to become profitable by 2023 and that it was not yet profitable "because it has front-loaded its marketing and user-acquisition costs to gain market share". Sweeney, in response to this claim via Twitter, stated that the store "has proven to be a fantastic success in reaching gamers with great games and a fantastic investment into growing the business".

In March 2021, PC Gamer discovered that on select laptop configurations Epic Games Store can shorten battery lifespan by up to 20% even when it is not used (Epic Games Store window is closed and application is minimized to tray). On most devices, this impact is milder, at only 5%.

References

External links

Epic Games
Internet properties established in 2018
Online-only retailers of video games

Epic Games Store


Charles MacKenzie (October 5, 1832 – September 5, 1900) was an Ontario merchant and political figure. He represented Lambton West in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as a Liberal member from 1889 to 1894.

He was born in Dunkeld, Perthshire, Scotland in 1832, the son of Alexander Mackenzie, and came to Canada West with his family in 1842. MacKenzie apprenticed in the printing business with George Brown at Toronto before returning to Sarnia where he went into the hardware business with his brother John. MacKenzie married Agnes Young in 1863. He was also an oil dealer in Sarnia and was president of the Lambton Loan and Investment Company. In 1888, he served as warden for Lambton County. He was first elected to the provincial assembly in an 1889 by-election held after the death of Timothy Blair Pardee. MacKenzie was a prominent member of the Freemasons.

His brother Alexander MacKenzie was a Canadian Prime Minister.

References

External links

The Canadian parliamentary companion, 1891 JA Gemmill
Commemorative biographical record of the county of Lambton, Ontario, JH Beers (1906)

1832 births
1900 deaths
Ontario Liberal Party MPPs
Scottish emigrants to Canada

Charles MacKenzie (merchant)


Bull Page (1947 – 1976) was a Canadian Hall of Fame Thoroughbred racehorse and an important sire.

Bred by Woodvale Farm in Kentucky, he was out of the mare Our Page, winner of the historic Spinaway Stakes in 1942 and a daughter of the 1929 American Horse of the Year and U.S. Racing Hall of Fame inductee Blue Larkspur. He was sired by Calumet Farm's Bull Lea, a five-time North American Champion Sire. Conformation defects resulted in Bull Page being sold at the 1948 Keeneland July sale for $38,000, a relatively low price for a Bull Lea colt whose son Citation had just won the U.S. Triple Crown.

Purchased  by Ontario horseman, E. P. Taylor, Bull Page was conditioned by future Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame trainer Gordon J. McCann, who took over his training on the retirement of another Hall of Fame trainer, Bert Alexandra. Blessed with natural speed, the colt had health problems that kept him off the racetrack until age three, when he began racing in the early part of the year in Florida, earning his first win at Gulfstream Park. Sent north, Bull Page won two allowance races at Jamaica Race Course in New York City.

As a four-year-old in 1951, Bull Page won two important races in Toronto: the Autumn Stakes at Woodbine Park, and the Canadian International Championship at Long Branch Race Track. He notably ran second in both the King Edward and Jockey Club Cup Handicap. In a year in which he set a track record at Thorncliffe Park Raceway, Bull Page made sixteen starts and was unplaced on just two occasions. His 1951 performances earned him Canadian Horse of the Year honours.

Stud record
Retired to stud duty at E. P. Taylor's National Stud Farm in Oshawa, Ontario, Bull Page was Canada's leading sire in 1958 and in 1970 was the Leading broodmare sire in Great Britain & Ireland. Four of Bull Page's daughters won the Canadian Oaks, the premier event for Canadian-foaled fillies: Air Page (1956), Yummy Mummy (1958), Maid o' North (1961), and Flaming Page (1962).

Bull Page also notably sired:
 New Providence  (b. 1956) - in 1959 became the first official winner of the Canadian Triple Crown.
 Flaming Page (b. 1959) - Canadian Hall of Fame filly who won the Queen's Plate and Canadian Oaks in 1962, dam of British Triple Crown Champion, Nijinsky

References

1947 racehorse births
1976 racehorse deaths
Racehorses bred in Kentucky
Racehorses trained in Canada
Racehorses trained in the United States
Canadian Thoroughbred Horse of the Year
Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame inductees
British Champion Thoroughbred broodmare sires
Thoroughbred family 4-m

Bull Page


FairPlay is a family of digital rights management (DRM) technologies developed by Apple Inc. for protecting videos, books and apps and historically for music.

Music
The initial version of FairPlay was created to protect music on the iTunes Store, and is the only version of FairPlay that is no longer actively used.

Technical details
FairPlay is built into the MP4 multimedia file format as an encrypted AAC audio layer. FairPlay-protected files are regular MP4 container files with an encrypted AAC audio layer. The layer is encrypted using the AES algorithm. The master key required to decrypt the audio layer is also stored in encrypted form in the MP4 container file. The key required to decrypt the master key is called the "user key". When a user registers a new computer with iTunes, the device requests authorization from Apple's servers, thereby gaining a user key. Upon attempting to play a file, the master key stored within the file is then matched to the user key, and if successful, allows playing. FairPlay allows music to be synchronized to an unlimited number of iPods and tracks to be burned to an unlimited number of CDs, though a given playlist can only be burned 7 times without being modified (a limitation which can be circumvented by changing a song's placement). Playback is limited to five computers which were authorized through iTunes; a computer can be deauthorized and another authorized in its place. Before April 2004, the limits were ten playlist burns, and three computers; Apple reduced the playlist limit to seven due to demands from record labels.

Lawsuit
In January 2005, an iTunes customer filed a lawsuit against Apple, alleging that the company broke antitrust laws by using FairPlay with iTunes in a way that purchased music would work only with the company's own music player, the iPod, freezing out competitors. In March 2011, Bloomberg reported that Apple's then-CEO Steve Jobs would be required to provide testimony through a deposition. In May 2012, the case was changed into a class action lawsuit. Around the same time, the main antitrust allegation was changed to cover the belief that Apple had deliberately updated the iTunes software with security patches in a way that prevented synchronization compatibility with competing music stores. All iPod owners who had purchased their device between September 12, 2006, and March 31, 2009, were included in the class action lawsuit, unless they opted out. In December 2014, Apple went to trial against the claims raised, with the opposing party's plaintiff lawyers seeking $350 million in damages for nearly eight million affected customers. A few weeks later, the case was closed, with the jury deciding in Apple's favor, citing a then-new version of iTunes as being a "genuine product improvement".

Circumvention/removal
The restrictions imposed by FairPlay, mainly limited device compatibility, have sparked criticism, with a lawsuit alleging antitrust violation that was eventually closed in Apple's favor, and various successful efforts to remove the DRM protection from files, with Apple continually updating its software to counteract such projects.

After the introduction of the FairPlay system, multiple parties have attempted and succeeded to circumvent or remove the encryption of FairPlay-protected files. In October 2006, Jon Johansen announced he had reverse engineered FairPlay and would start to license the technology to companies wanting their media to play on Apple's devices. Various media publications have written about DRM removal software, though Apple has continually made efforts in updating its software to counteract these options, resulting in upgraded DRM systems and discontinued DRM removal software.

RealNetworks and Harmony technology
In July 2004, RealNetworks introduced its Harmony technology. The Harmony technology was built into the company's RealPlayer and allowed users of the RealPlayer Music Store to play their songs on the iPod. In a press release, RealNetworks argued that Harmony was a boon to consumers that "frees" them "from the limitation of being locked into a specific portable device when they buy digital music." In response, Apple issued a statement:

We are stunned that RealNetworks has adopted the tactics and ethics of a hacker to break into the iPod, and we are investigating the implications of their actions under the DMCA and other laws.

RealNetworks launched an Internet petition titled "Hey Apple! Don't break my iPod", encouraging iPod users to sign up to support Real's action. The petition backfired, with comments criticizing Real's tactics, though some commentators also supported it. At the end of 2004, Apple had updated its software in a way that broke the Harmony technology, prompting RealNetworks to promise a then-upcoming fix.

In August 2005, an SEC filing by RealNetworks disclosed that continued use of the Harmony technology put themselves at considerable risk because of the possibility of a lawsuit from Apple, which would be expensive to defend against, even if the court agreed that the technology was legal. Additionally, the possibility that Apple could change its technology to purposefully "break" Harmony's function raised the possibility that Real's business could be harmed.

Hymn
Hymn (which stands for Hear Your Music aNywhere) was an open-source tool that allowed users to remove the FairPlay DRM of music bought from the iTunes Store. It was later supplanted by QTFairUse6. The Hymn project later shut down after a cease and desist from Apple.

Steve Jobs' "Thoughts on Music" open letter

On February 6, 2007, Steve Jobs, then-CEO of Apple, published an open letter titled "Thoughts on Music" on the Apple website, calling on the "big four" record labels to sell their music without DRM technology. According to the letter, Apple did not want to use DRM, but was forced to by the four major music labels, with whom Apple has license agreements for iTunes sales of music. Jobs' main points were:

 DRM has never been, and will never be, perfect. Hackers will always find a method to break DRM.
 DRM restrictions only hurt people using music legally. Illegal users aren't affected by DRM.
 The restrictions of DRM encourage users to obtain unrestricted music, which is usually only possible via illegal methods; thus, circumventing iTunes and their revenues.
 The vast majority of music is sold without DRM via CDs, which have proven commercial success.

Reactions
Although the open letter initially caused mixed industry reactions, Apple signed a deal with a major record label the following month to offer iTunes customers a purchase option for a higher-quality, DRM-free version of the label's tracks.

Jobs' letter was met with mixed reactions. Bloomberg highlighted several viewpoints. David Pakman, President of non-DRM music retailer eMusic, agreed with Jobs, stating that "consumers prefer a world where the media they purchase is playable on any device, regardless of its manufacturer, and is not burdened by arbitrary usage restrictions. DRM only serves to restrict consumer choice, prevents a larger digital music market from emerging, and often makes consumers unwitting accomplices to the ambitions of technology companies". Mike Bebel, CEO of music subscription service Ruckus, explained his view that the letter was an effort to shift focus, saying that "This is a way for Steve Jobs to take the heat off the fact that he won't open up his proprietary DRM. ... The labels have every right to protect their content, and I don't see it as a vow of good partnership to turn the tables on the labels and tell them they should just get rid of all DRM... He is trying to spin the controversy." An anonymous music label executive said that "it's ironic that the guy who has the most successful example of DRM at every step of the process, the one where people bought boatloads of music last Christmas, is suddenly changing his tune". In an article from The New York Times, Ted Cohen, managing partner at TAG Strategic, commented that the change could be "a clear win for the consumer electronics device world, but a potential disaster for the content companies". The Recording Industry Association of America put particular emphasis on Jobs' self-rejected idea about licensing its FairPlay technology to other companies, saying that such licensing would be "a welcome breakthrough and would be a real victory for fans, artists and labels".

iTunes Store DRM changes
In April 2007, Apple and the record label EMI announced that iTunes Store would begin offering, as an additional higher purchasing option, tracks from EMI's catalog encoded as 256 kbit/s AAC without FairPlay or any other DRM. In January 2009, Apple announced that the entire iTunes Store music catalog would become available in the higher-quality, DRM-free format, after reaching agreements with all the major record labels as well as "thousands of independent labels". Apple Music, Apple's subscription-based music streaming service launched on June 30, 2015, uses the DRM technology.

FairPlay Streaming
FairPlay Streaming (FPS) protects video transferred over HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) on iOS devices, in Apple TV, and in Safari on macOS. The content provider's server first delivers video to the client application encrypted with the content key using the AES cipher. The application then requests a session key from the device's FairPlay module. The session key is a randomly generated nonce which is RSA encrypted with the provider's public key and delivered to the provider's server. The provider's server encrypts the content key using the session key and delivers it to the FairPlay module, which decrypts it and uses it to decrypt the content for playback.

On iOS and Apple TV, the session key handling and content decryption is done in the kernel, while on macOS it is done using Safari's FairPlay Content Decryption Module.

Books

Apps
Apps downloaded from the App Store are protected and code signed using a variant of FairPlay DRM for apps. FairPlay DRM creates a public/private key pair when a device is registered with an iCloud account, and encrypting app encryption keys using the "public" key (which is kept on Apple's servers) in order to decrypt them on the device using the "private" key.

Problems
In July 2012, an issue with the creation of FairPlay-protected apps caused binaries to become corrupt and stop working.

A flaw allowing a form of man-in-the-middle attack can be used to install malware when an iOS device is connected to a computer.

References

External links
FairPlay Streaming

QuickTime
Audio software
Digital rights management systems
ITunes
Digital rights management for macOS

FairPlay


Yes, God, Yes is a 2019 American coming-of-age comedy-drama film written and directed by Karen Maine and starring Natalia Dyer. It is Maine's directorial debut, based on her 2017 short film of the same name also starring Dyer. The film premiered at the SXSW Film Festival on March 8, 2019, and was selected as a "Best of SXSW" film by The Hollywood Reporter. It was released in select drive-in theaters and virtual cinemas in the United States on July 24, 2020, by Vertical Entertainment, before launching digitally and on video on demand on July 28, 2020. The film was made available on Netflix on October 22, 2020.

Plot
It is the fall of 2000. Alice is a sexually inexperienced but curious junior at a strict Midwestern co-ed Catholic high school, where Father Murphy instructs her Morality class that any sexual activity not aimed toward procreation within a heterosexual marriage is a sin, with eternal damnation as punishment. She struggles with accepting her burgeoning feelings of sexual desire after both Father Murphy and her best friend, Laura, cause her to feel ashamed of them.

The following Monday, the school is abuzz with a rumor that Alice "tossed the salad" of a classmate, Wade, at Laura's party over the weekend. Alice denies this, admitting to not knowing what the phrase means. The rumor reaches Mrs. Veda, who prevents Alice from serving at Mass. Later that day, during the sacrament of reconciliation, Alice confesses venial sins to Father Murphy and receives a light penance of twenty prayers, which she immediately and fervently fulfills in the school chapel, Father Murphy and Mrs. Veda's words about sex echoing in her mind.

Alice and Laura both decide to attend the school's next "Kirkos" spiritual retreat— Alice to return to the path of righteousness, and Laura to be accepted by Nina, a popular senior. When they arrive on the retreat campgrounds, Laura is excited to find that Nina is a retreat leader, while Alice eyes Chris, a hunky senior who is also a retreat leader. Chris is friendly and enthusiastic, and after Alice is assigned to his group, the two begin to bond. That night, while playing on her contraband cell phone, Alice accidentally discovers that she can pleasure herself using her phone's vibrating feature; however, she stops soon after looking at the crucifix hanging in her room.

On the second day of the retreat, Alice fakes an injury on a hike to get closer to Chris. Nina confiscates Alice's phone; and, as a punishment, Father Murphy assigns Alice to cleaning duties around the retreat house. Once she is alone, she logs onto an AOL chat room from Father Murphy's office computer to ask what "tossing salad" means; before she can find out, the sound of footsteps causes her to hastily shut off the computer and leave. She runs into Nina, who lightheartedly guilts Alice about Alice's presumed sexual encounter with Wade, another instance of Alice's inability to be free of the rumor even while "on Jesus's time".

On the third day of the retreat, Father Murphy announces his discovery of an explicit chat on his computer; of course, no one claims responsibility. He later pushes Alice to confess to acting on her sexual temptations with Wade and doesn't believe her insistence that nothing happened. Alice confronts Wade about his complicity in the rumors spread by failing to deny it, and he leaves without admitting his fault or apologizing. Again, on cleaning duty, Alice witnesses Nina kissing, then fellating, another senior leader in the woods; Alice shares this with Laura, who refuses to believe Alice, accuses Alice of breaking into Father Murphy's office, and ends their friendship, calling Alice a "pervy psycho". Alice returns to Father Murphy's office and frames Wade for the earlier break-in; while hiding to make her escape, she catches Father Murphy masturbating to a pornographic video saved on his computer. Outside, finding herself alone with Chris, Alice kisses him, but he becomes overwhelmed and runs away. That night, Alice flees the campgrounds and stumbles upon a lesbian bar, where she and the owner, Gina, commiserate about how the fear of damnation can warp an adolescent's development. Gina counsels Alice and gives her a ride back to the retreat, encouraging Alice to look into colleges on the West and East Coasts and finally assuaging Alice's curiosity about what "tossing salad" means.

On the last day of the retreat, Alice befriends a socially awkward classmate while Father Murphy pulls Wade aside. With Wade on the hook for the explicit chat incident, Laura makes peace with Alice. At a whole group sharing session, Alice reminds the retreat attendees that everyone is "hiding stuff" and implores them to treat each other with honesty and respect, as Jesus wanted.

Back at school, Alice reassures a still-uncomfortable Chris that they can just be friends. Returning to reconciliation with Father Murphy, Alice boldly reveals that while on the retreat she saw a video of people having sex—both of them knowing, but not discussing, the implications of her confession. Father Murphy assigns a heavier penance of one hundred prayers, but instead of remaining in the chapel, Alice goes home to rewatch and masturbate to the sex scene in Titanic.

Cast

Reception
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of  based on  reviews, with an average rating of . The website's critics consensus reads, "Natalia Dyer's charming performance – and writer-director Karen Maine's sensitive work – will leave audiences saying Yes, God, Yes to this coming-of-age dramedy." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 71 out of 100, based on 19 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Richard Brody of The New Yorker called the film a "remarkable" first feature for writer and director Karen Maine. Brody included the film on his list of the best films of 2020.

References

External links

2019 films
2019 comedy-drama films
2019 directorial debut films
2019 independent films
2010s American films
2010s coming-of-age comedy-drama films
2010s English-language films
2010s sex comedy films
2010s teen comedy-drama films
American coming-of-age comedy-drama films
American independent films
American sex comedy films
American teen comedy-drama films
Features based on short films
Films about sexual repression
Films critical of the Catholic Church
Films set in the 2000s
Religious comedy films
Teen sex comedy films

Yes, God, Yes


Genetic engineering (GE), also called genetic modification, is a branch of applied biology. It is the changing of an organism's genome using biotechnology. These methods are recent discoveries. The techniques are advanced, and full details are not given here.

This is an overview of what can be done:
 new DNA may be inserted in the host genome by getting a DNA sequence,  and then putting this into the host organism by using a molecular biology vector.
 genes may be removed, or "knocked out", using an enzyme called a zinc finger nuclease.
 gene targeting is a different technique which uses recombination to change a gene. It can be used to delete a gene, remove exons, add a gene, or introduce mutations.

An organism that is altered by genetic engineering is a genetically modified organism (GMO). The first GMOs were bacteria in 1973; GM mice were made in 1974. Insulin-producing bacteria were commercialized in 1982. Genetically modified food has been sold since 1994, including crops.

Genetic engineering techniques have been used in research, agriculture, industrial biotechnology, and medicine. Enzymes used in laundry detergent, and medicines such as insulin and human growth hormone are now manufactured in GM cells. GM animals such as mice or zebrafish are being used for research purposes.

Critics have objected to use of genetic engineering on several grounds, including ethical concerns, ecological concerns. Economic concerns are raised by the fact GM techniques and GM organisms are subject to intellectual property law. Ecological concerns are more subtle. There is a risk that some genetically modified (GM) organisms may be better adapted to some niche in nature, and will take away some the habitat of the regular species.

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was won in 2012 by John B. Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka for "the discovery that "mature cells can be reprogrammed to become pluripotent". The Nobel Prize for
2020 was won by Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna for "the development of a method for genome editing". Together, these awards show how close we are to the practical use of genetic changes which could fix many medical problems.

Synthetic genomics
The ability to construct long base pair chains cheaply and accurately on a large scale allows researchers to do experiments on genomes that do not exist in nature. The field of 'synthetic genomics' is beginning to enter a productive stage.

GM food
GMOs (genetically modified organisms) are involved in controversies over GM food. Is the food produced from GM crops safe? Should it be labeled, and are GM crops needed to address the world's food needs? These controversies have led to litigation, international trade disputes, and protests, and to restrictive regulation of commercial products in most countries.

We can now produce and use GM and GE seeds.  Some large countries like India and China have already decided that GM farming is what they need to feed their populations. Other countries are still debating the issue. This debate involves scientists, farmers, politicians, companies and UN agencies.  Even those involved in the production of GM seedlings are not in total agreement.

Related pages
Genome editing
Zinc finger
Gene knockout
Gene targeting
Genetically modified food

References

Genetic engineering


Rold Gold refers to first a company and then a remaining brand of pretzels, now owned by Frito-Lay. The company, originally named "American Cone and Pretzel Company", was founded in 1917 by Philadelphia businessman Lorraine Schumaker.

Run for its first half century as a family business, Rold Gold expanded its operations to St. Louis, Missouri, and El Segundo, California, and established a reputation for producing pretzels. From 1921 until 1955, the company also owned the Continental Packing Company, a pimento canning plant located near Macon, Georgia, but sold that part of the business in 1955, in response to increasing competition from overseas canners. The Schumaker family sold Rold Gold to Red Dot Foods Inc. of Madison, Wisconsin, in 1960, but the deal fell through when Red Dot went bankrupt and its principal owner committed suicide. Frito-Lay then purchased Rold Gold in 1961, and has owned the pretzel company ever since.

In the years since its purchase by Frito-Lay, Rold Gold has expanded its sales nationwide. While on-bag advertising formerly stated that Rold Gold was "America's No. 1 Pretzel", when measured by total dollar sales in the United States, Rold Gold was the #2 pretzel brand behind Snyder's of Hanover as of 2014.

Rold Gold pretzels offer a range of pretzel and snack products. All of these items are baked, not fried, and most are lactose free.

References

External links

Brand name snack foods
Frito-Lay brands
Pretzels

Rold Gold


The Gibraltar National Museum is a national museum of the history, culture and natural history of Gibraltar located within the city centre of the British overseas territory of Gibraltar. Founded in 1930 by the then Governor of Gibraltar, General Sir Alexander Godley, the museum houses an array of displays portraying The Rock's millennia-old history and the unique culture of its people. The museum also incorporates the remains of a 14th-century Moorish bathhouse. Its director since 1991 is Prof. Clive Finlayson.

History

Background
There were several unsuccessful attempts to establish a museum in Gibraltar during the 19th century. Significant local finds could not be kept on The Rock because there was no museum, resulting in the first known adult Neanderthal skull (the so-called Gibraltar skull) went to the Natural History Museum in London. This was the second Neanderthal fossil to be found and was excavated in 1848 at Forbes' Quarry on the north face of the Rock of Gibraltar.

The first known collection established in Gibraltar was due to the Reverend John White, chaplain at Gibraltar from 1756 to 1774. Encouraged by his elder brother Gilbert White, he collected zoological specimens which he studied and sent to England. He took advice from Giovanni Antonio Scopoli and also later wrote in England, what is considered the first detailed zoological account of Gibraltar. However, Fauna Calpensis was never published, and it and his collections are now lost. The next known recording of something that could resemble a museum dates from 1830. St Bernard's Hospital is recognised to have had a room for specimens of natural history and morbid anatomy. Again, no remains of such collection are kept.

The first proposal to open a museum in Gibraltar was discussed in 1835 at a meeting of the Gibraltar Scientific Society - a group of British Army officers who met at the Garrison Library. The first museum was established and housed in rented accommodation. The museum became so important that the society changed its name to the Museum Society. One of the milestones of the existence of the Society was the presentation of the Gibraltar skull on 3 March 1848, although its importance was not recognised at the time, it was to the Society, by its secretary, Lieutenant Edmund Flint of the Royal Artillery.

Foundation
The museum's establishment is credited to General Sir Alexander Godley, who was installed as Governor of Gibraltar in 1928. Upon his arrival, he gave an opening address in which he highlighted his reformist aims, which would: "help to restore [Gibraltar] to its prosperity which had been showing signs of waning". One of the elements of this reformist mission was the creation of a national museum. After nine months in office, on 30 July 1929, the Gibraltar Society was launched. Its primary objective was to assist the colonial authorities in the foundation of a museum. Godley was able to get two adjacent military quarters for use as a museum. The choice was fortunate as under one of them, Ordnance House, the former residence of the assistant director of Ordnance Stores, lay chambers of a bathhouse from the Moorish period, which had been used as a semi-underground stable.

The Gibraltar Museum was opened on 24 July 1930 and on the first anniversary (10 July 1931), the Gibraltar Museum Ordinance was passed as "An Ordinance relating to Ancient Monuments and Antiquities and to provide for the management of the Gibraltar Museum".

In the 1970s, the Gibraltar Museum housed the first office of the Gibraltar Ornithological & Natural History Society (GONHS). Founders of the organisation included then curator of the museum Joaquin Bensusan and Clive Finlayson, the current museum director.

Name change
In 2018, the Heritage Trust Act 1989 which provided the legal framework for the management of the museum, was replaced with the Heritage and Antiquities Act 2018. The new legislation updated the name of the museum to officially recognise it as the national museum of Gibraltar.

Displays

The Gibraltarian
Rooms dedicated to Gibraltarian social history.

Cinema
Film about the history of Gibraltar.

The Rock – world symbol for three millennia
Rooms dedicated to The Rock as a symbol, from the Pillars of Hercules to today including Phoenician and Carthaginian collections.

Natural history and prehistory
Rooms devoted to the natural history of Gibraltar including reconstructions of past landscapes, walk-in cave and Neanderthals.

Marine biodiversity
A room dedicated to the variety of marine species living around Gibraltar's coastline.

The Great Siege

Room dedicated to the Great Siege of Gibraltar (1779–1783). This was an unsuccessful attempt by Spain and France to capture Gibraltar from the British during the American War of Independence. This was the largest action fought during the war in terms of numbers, particularly the Grand Assault of 18 September 1782. At three years and seven months, it is the longest siege endured by the British Armed Forces.

Rock model

The John Fernandez Rooms include a  long scale model of Gibraltar and also includes old photographs of Gibraltar. The model was completed in 1865 from a survey by Lieut. Charles Warren R.E. who later took a leading role in the Jack the Ripper investigations. It was made at the direction of Major General Edward Charles Frome R.E. and painted by Captain B.A. Branfill in 1868.

Calpe gallery
Devoted to The Rock's Latin name, Calpe. A 19th-century fox hunt and a Royal Navy reserve unit.

Urban excavations
A room containing medieval artefacts excavated within the city of Gibraltar.

External excavation
An open-air excavation covering seven centuries of Gibraltar's history.

Moorish baths

Located within the museum's basement level lie the remains of a Moorish bath house built around the 14th century during the rule of Marinid dynasty. These private baths are known to have been within the Palace of the Governor of Gibraltar. The building was used as stables while the building was under control of the British military with a floor of one of the rooms was raised so high that horse-drawn coaches could be moved into the remaining space in the room. The site is now smaller than it was originally as the building suffered extensive damage during the Great Siege of Gibraltar. It is one of the best-preserved Moorish bath houses in Europe. In 1906, Mr. Budgett Meakin, an authority on Moorish antiquities, wrote of these baths:

Excavations in the museum's garden revealed a water conduit, dating to the Spanish period. This conduit enters the garden from Line Wall Road and is thought to have run off an aqueduct that run along that road from wells south of the town. It then runs through the rooms and into a cistern under the interior patio.

The baths consist of rooms similar to the Roman Hypocaust system of baths with a normal temperature room for undressing, a cold room and a hot room. Channels under the floor would allow warm air to circulate as a form of underfloor heating. This process of bathing would act like modern saunas whereby moving between hot and cold temperatures cleanses the body by sweating.

Projects
Gibraltar Caves Project

Curators/directors
 M. McEwen (1952–1965)
 David C. Devenish (1967–1970)
 Joaquin Bensusan (1970–)
 Prof. Clive Finlayson (1991–present)

See also
 History of Gibraltar
 British Museum
 Natural History Museum

References

External links
Gibraltar Museum (official website)
Old Gibraltar Museum web site

Gibraltarian culture
Gibraltar
Buildings and structures in Gibraltar
History of Gibraltar
1930 establishments in Gibraltar
Tourist attractions in Gibraltar
Museums in British Overseas Territories

Gibraltar National Museum


Varazdat Harutyunyan (also Harutiunian, ; 29 November 1909 – 20 March 2008) was an Armenian academic, architect and writer.

Biography
Harutyunyan was born in the Ottoman Empire, in the town of Van, but he and his family were forced to flee into Russian territory during the Armenian genocide. They settled first in Tbilisi and then in Yerevan. In 1946, he obtained his Ph.D., and then Doctor of Science in architecture. In 1964, he became a professor of history. In 1996 he was elected Academician of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia. In Armenia, he was also president of the Society for Protection of Historical Monuments.

He was the author of over 40 books and over 800 articles, mostly on Armenian architecture.

References

External links
Life of Academician Varazdat Harutyunyan

1909 births
2008 deaths
20th-century Armenian architects
20th-century Armenian historians
People from Van, Turkey
Communist Party of the Soviet Union members
National Polytechnic University of Armenia alumni
Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour
Emigrants from the Ottoman Empire to the Russian Empire
Armenian genocide survivors
Armenians from the Ottoman Empire
Soviet architects
Soviet historians

Varazdat Harutyunyan


Glanford Power Station is an electricity generating plant located on the Flixborough industrial estate near Scunthorpe in North Lincolnshire. It generates around 13.5 megawatts (MW) of electricity, which is enough to provide power to about 32,000 homes. It was designed to generate electricity by the burning of poultry litter, and was only the second of this kind of power station in the world to have been built when it went into operation in 1993. The station is owned by Energy Power Resources (EPR) and operated by its subsidiary Fibrogen.

History
After the BSE crisis in the 1980s, millions of cattle were slaughtered, and almost half a million tons of dried meat and bone meal (MBM), the cause of the disease, was stockpiled in secure sheds. Glanford Power Station was re-commissioned in May 2000 to burn them. It charges a gate fee for the fuel it burns, which would have otherwise been disposed of using conventional landfills. MBM has around two thirds the energy value of fossil fuels such as coal, and has been labelled carbon neutral. Despite producing "green energy", Glanford Power Station is listed as the 27th largest arsenic air emitter in England and Wales in an air quality report published in February 2000.

In January 2004 Glanford Power Plant received planning permission for the site to be extended to allow other sources of biomass to be burned. The plant technology is based on a conventional moving grate boiler and steam cycle.

In accordance with the United Kingdom Government's new Renewables Obligation incentive mechanism, a premium is paid for renewable electricity generation. Each renewable generator is issued with Renewables Obligation Certificates (ROC), which they may sell to other electricity supply companies. This trade allows them to meet their obligation for the proportion of supplied electricity generated from renewable sources. The power output from the Glanford plant qualifies for ROC trading.

The combustion ashes produced by the station are then disposed of via landfill (21% of fuel by mass). Before the switch to MBM, they used to be sold as agricultural fertiliser.

References

External links

EPR Corporate website
Fibrowatt UK
"Promising Future for Bioenergy in the United Kingdom"
"Toxic Hazards Associated with Poultry Litter Incineration"

Biofuel power stations in England
Power stations in Lincolnshire
Power stations in Yorkshire and the Humber
Waste power stations in England

Glanford Power Station


The Vanishing, previously titled Keepers, is a 2018 British psychological thriller drama film directed by Kristoffer Nyholm and written by Celyn Jones and Joe Bone. Based on the 1900 disappearance of the Flannan Isles Lighthouse crew, it stars Gerard Butler, Peter Mullan, and Connor Swindells as three lighthouse keepers whose shift takes a dark turn. The film premiered at Sitges Film Festival in October 2018, which was followed by a United Kingdom release in March 2019.

Plot
Three men begin their six-week shift tending to the remote Flannan Isles Lighthouse. Donald, the youngest, is inexperienced and learning the trade of the lighthouse keeper from James and Thomas. James has a family waiting for him on the mainland, Thomas is still mourning the loss of his wife and children.

After a storm, the men discover a boat, a body and a wooden chest washed ashore. Donald descends the cliffs to check on the man, who appears lifeless. As they haul the chest, the man awakens and attacks Donald. Donald smashes the man's head with a rock in self-defence.

Thomas is against opening the chest, but does so alone and keeps the findings to himself. Eventually the other two give in to their curiosity and discover several gold bars inside. Urging caution and secrecy, Thomas proposes they dispose of the body, sneak the gold back to the mainland, and lie low for a year before splitting their shares.

Another boat arrives with strangers Locke and Boor, crewmates of the deceased. They interrogate Thomas who claims the body and cargo have been reported and taken away, as per protocol. The visitors leave but attempt to contact the lighthouse by radio. Thomas and James are unable to respond due to their malfunctioning radio, revealing their lie. The strangers return, circling the island until nightfall. In a violent struggle James manages to strangle Boor and Donald kills Locke, using the woolding. Sensing another intruder outside, the keepers chase him through the darkness and James slashes him with a hook. He is horrified to discover he has killed a young boy, reminding him of his son.

After dumping the bodies into the sea, the three men endure their remaining time on the island despite mounting distrust and tension. James in particular becomes unhinged, secluding himself in the tiny chapel nearby. Donald grows uneasy and insists that he and Thomas leave with the gold. James suddenly reappears, apologising for his behaviour. Once Donald and Thomas let their guards down, James locks Thomas in the pantry and strangles Donald. Thomas breaks free and subdues James.

Finally ready to depart the island, Thomas and James board the dead visitors' boat with the gold. After throwing Donald's body overboard, James admits that he cannot bear to live with his guilt and lowers himself into the water to end his life. He calls for Thomas to help with this last act and Thomas complies by holding James' head under water before sailing on alone.

Cast
 Gerard Butler as James Ducat
 Peter Mullan as Thomas Marshall
 Connor Swindells as Donald McArthur
 Ólafur Darri Ólafsson as Boor
 Søren Malling as Locke
 Gary Lewis as Kenny
 Gary Kane as Gherd
 Roderick Gilkison as the galley hand
 Emma King as Mary

Production
On 31 October 2016 it was announced that a psychological thriller Keepers was in development, which Kristoffer Nyholm would make his directing debut from a script by Celyn Jones and Joe Bone. Kodiak Pictures would fully finance the film along with Cross Creek Pictures, which would be produced by Andy Evans, Ade Shannon, and Sean Marley for Mad as Birds along with Gerard Butler and Alan Siegel for G-BASE, Maurice Fadida for Kodiak Pictures, and Brian Oliver for Cross Creek. Butler, Peter Mullan and Connor Swindells would star as James, Thomas, and Donald, respectively, in the film inspired by a true unresolved 1900 mystery at the Flannan Isles Lighthouse.

Principal photography on the film began in mid-April 2017 in Galloway, Scotland. Locations included the Mull of Galloway, Port Logan harbour, Killantringan Lighthouse near Portpatrick and Corsewall Lighthouse near Stranraer.

Reception
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of  based on  reviews, with an average rating of . The website's critics consensus reads: "Suspenseful atmosphere, an evocative setting, and a strong cast keep audiences invested throughout The Vanishing's patient approach to unraveling its mystery." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 64 out of 100, based on 10 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

References

External links

2018 films
2018 psychological thriller films
British psychological thriller films
Films about murder
Films produced by Gerard Butler
Films shot in Scotland
Films set in Scotland
Films set on islands
Films scored by Benjamin Wallfisch
Lionsgate films
Saban Films films
Films set in lighthouses
British films based on actual events
Thriller films based on actual events
2010s English-language films
2010s British films

The Vanishing (2018 film)


Dextromoramide (Palfium, Palphium, Jetrium, Dimorlin) is a powerful opioid analgesic approximately three times more potent than morphine but shorter acting. It is subject to drug prohibition regimes, both internationally through UN treaties and by the criminal law of individual states, and is usually prescribed only in the Netherlands.

History
Dextromoramide was discovered and patented in 1956 by Paul Janssen at Janssen Pharmaceutica, who also discovered fentanyl, another important synthetic opioid, widely used to treat pain and in combination with other drugs as an anaesthetic, as well as haloperidol, piritramide, the loperamide-diphenoxylate series and other important drugs.

Dextromoramide was much favoured by drug users in Australia in the 1970s and the United Kingdom. It has the main proprietary name of Palfium amongst others, though as of mid-2004 the drug was discontinued in the UK due to limited supplies of precursor chemicals. Although this is true, it is believed there was an approximate one year shortage of Dextromoramide and the real reason that Palfium was not put back into production for the UK market is because of how addictive and potent it is as an oral painkiller. Dependence liability is similar to morphine, but with a less severe withdrawal syndrome.

The only European countries that now use the brand Palfium are the Netherlands, Ireland and Luxembourg.  It is presumably able to be imported into other Schengen zone countries under Title 76 of said treaty coming into force in 2002. It is a Schedule I Narcotic controlled substance in the United States, with a DEA ACSCN of 9613 and an annual aggregate manufacturing quota of zero as of 2013, and had been out of use in the United States for around a decade when the new Controlled Substances Act 1970 was promulgated.  The salts of dextromoramide in use are the hydrochloride (free base conversion ratio 0.915) and tartrate (0.724).  Racemoramide and moramide intermediate are also controlled.

Medical use
The main advantage of this drug is that it has a fast onset of action when taken orally, and has a high bioavailability which means that oral dosing produces almost as much effect as injection. It also has a relatively low tendency to cause constipation which is a common problem with opioid analgesics used for cancer pain relief, and tolerance to the analgesic effects develops relatively slowly compared to most other short-acting opioids.

Pharmacokinetics

Dextromoramide has a mean elimination half life of 215.3 ± 78.4 minutes and volume of distribution of 0.58 ± 0.20 L/kg. Peak plasma levels are reached within 0.5–4.0 h after dosing, decline of plasma concentrations after the peak follow a biphasic pattern, with half-lives of 0.4–1.6 h for the first phase and 6.3–21.8 h for the terminal phase. While in about 40% of patients, half-lives range from 1.5 to 4.7 h, in a monophasic manner. Less than 0.06% of the dose is excreted unchanged in urine within 8 h of administration.

Chemistry
Dextromoramide is the right-handed isomer of the moramide molecule. The left-handed molecule is called levomoramide, and a mixture of the two is called racemoramide.  Its full chemical name is  (+)-1-(3-Methyl-4-morpholino-2,2-diphenylbutyryl)pyrrolidine, and its molecular formula: C25H32N2O2, with an atomic weight of ~392.5.

Dextromoramide was discovered during the course of research into a related family of compounds, the α,α-Diphenyl-γ-Dialkyamino-Butyramides, which show no analgesic activity, but are extremely active physiologically as inhibitors of gastric secretions in man. Other drugs from this series show antispasmodic and antihistamine effects, but most research was put into researching analgesics.

The structure-activity relationships of this family of drugs was investigated extensively, with dextromoramide representing the optimisation of several different structural features;

(i) at the 1-amide group only the pyrrolidine and dimethylamide substituents were active, with pyrrolidine being more potent

(ii) the alkyl chain was more potent when methylated, 3-methylation was more potent than 4-methylation, and in the 3-methyl analogues the dextro isomer was more active

(iii) while morpholine, dimethylamine, pyrrolidine and piperidine were all active at the 4-amine group, morpholine was the most active

(iv) any substitution on the phenyl rings reduces activity.

So dextromoramide, with a pyrrolidine ring on the 1-amide position, a dextro methyl group on the 3-position of the alkyl chain, a morpholine ring around the 4-amine group, and both phenyl rings unsubstituted, was by far the most potent out of all the compounds in this series and was the only one that became widely used in medicine (although the racemic mix racemoramide saw some limited use).

References

Further reading

Synthetic opioids
4-Morpholinyl compounds
1-Pyrrolidinyl compounds
Carboxamides
Mu-opioid receptor agonists
Janssen Pharmaceutica
Belgian inventions
Benzhydryl compounds

pl:Moramid

Dextromoramide


Acacia macraneura, commonly known as big mac wattle, is a shrub belonging to the genus Acacia and the subgenus Juliflorae that is native to arid parts of western Australia.

Description
The multi-stemmed shrub typically grows to a height of  with a spreading habit but it is occasionally found as an obconic tree with a height of  that has crooked stems and branches. The slightly hairy branchlets often have obscure resinous ribbing near the extremities. Like most species of Acacia it has phyllodes rather than true leaves. The green to grey-green phyllodes have a blueish coloured tinge and are incurved or sigmoid to sinuous. The usually terete phyllodes have a length of  and a diameter of  with many obscure longitudinal nerves.

Distribution
It is endemic to the Mid West and Pilbara regions of Western Australia. It has a scattered distribution from around Mount Magnet in the south west to around Leonora in the south east to the Pilbara region and around the Rudall River catchment and the Little Sandy Desert with smaller populations close to the border with South Australia.

See also
List of Acacia species

References

macraneura
Acacias of Western Australia
Plants described in 2012
Taxa named by Bruce Maslin

Acacia macraneura


Silent Witness is a British television drama. The following is a list of all episodes that have been broadcast across all television series, since the series began on 21 February 1996. The first seven series featured Amanda Burton in the lead role. Following Burton's departure (in series 8, episode 2), Emilia Fox joined the show (in series 8, episode 5) as new forensic pathologist Nikki Alexander and as of 2023 is still in the series. In the first episode of series 6, William Gaminara and Tom Ward both joined the series. After series 15, Ward left the show to pursue other projects. He was replaced by David Caves and Liz Carr who both joined the show in series 16.
Gaminara left the show at the end of series 16 and was replaced by Richard Lintern from series 17. Both Lintern and Carr left the show at the end of series 23.

The series has been released on BBC DVD since July 2006, usually with two series being released together in one box set. This practice has stopped and series 17 onwards have been released as single DVDs (as was the case for series 1 and 2). Silent Witness stories usually consist of two episodes to one story, with each part lasting 60 minutes, while series 25 is one story in six 1-hour episodes.

Series overview

Episodes

Series 1 (1996)

Series 2 (1997)

Series 3 (1998)

Series 4 (1999)

Series 5 (2000–01)

Series 6 (2002)
Series 6 was confirmed in April 2001. This series saw the introduction of two new main characters, Professor Leo Dalton and Dr. Harry Cunningham, portrayed by William Gaminara and Tom Ward respectively.

Series 7 (2003)

Series 8 (2004)
Series 8 was confirmed alongside series 7. This series saw the departure of Amanda Burton as Dr. Sam Ryan and the introduction of new character Dr. Nikki Alexander, portrayed by Emilia Fox.

Series 9 (2005)

Series 10 (2006)

Series 11 (2007)

Series 12 (2008)

Series 13 (2010)

Series 14 (2011)

Series 15 (2012)
Series 15 was confirmed in April 2011. It is the last to star Tom Ward, as Dr Harry Cunningham
NOTE that this list is in order of first broadcast by the BBC. The BBC postponed the first broadcast of episode And Then I Fell in Love for "editorial reasons" shortly before its intended broadcast and brought forward Domestic in its place, eventually showing And Then I Fell in Love four months later (after it had been shown in Australia).
The originally intended order of episodes now used by the BBC on iPlayer, by other broadcasters, and by IMDb is:
Death Has No Dominion, And Then I Fell in Love, Paradise Lost, Domestic, Redhill, Fear.

 Episodes originally in swapped places.

Series 16 (2013)
It was confirmed during the shooting of series 15 that Silent Witness would return for a 16th series in January 2013. It is the final series to star William Gaminara, as Professor Leo Dalton. This series sees the introduction of new main characters Jack Hodgson and technician Clarissa, portrayed by David Caves and Liz Carr respectively.

Series 17 (2014)
After the last episode of series 16, it was confirmed that Silent Witness would return for a 17th series in early 2014. Emilia Fox, David Caves and Liz Carr returned for the series, which started filming in April 2013. In the new series Richard Lintern would play new forensic pathologist Dr Thomas Chamberlain. Some scenes were filmed at Charlton Athletic's last game of the 2012–13 season at The Valley and again on 15 May. Filming also took place in Dundee and on the Tay Road Bridge.

Series 18 (2015)
Emilia Fox confirmed on Twitter that production on the 18th series was underway, and that it should air in 2015.

Series 19 (2016)

Series 20 (2017)

Series 21 (2018)

Series 22 (2019)

Series 23 (2020)

Series 24 (2021)

Series 25 (2022)
After the series 24 finale, a trailer was shown on BBC1 announcing that Amanda Burton would be reprising her role as Sam Ryan in series 25, consisting of six episodes starting on 23 May 2022. Unlike the previous series', the twenty fifth series features one story spread over six parts.

Series 26 (2023)

References

Silent Witness
Silent Witness

List of Silent Witness episodes