Harry Mwaanga Nkumbula (15 January 1916 – 8 October 1983) was a Zambian nationalist leader involved in the movement for the independence of Northern Rhodesia, as Zambia was known until the end of British rule in 1964. He was born in the village of Maala in the Namwala district of Zambia's southern province. He was the youngest of three children and the only son.

Educational background
Nkumbula received his early formal education at Methodist mission schools and in 1934 completed Standard VI at the Kafue Training Institute. He then taught in Namwala District for several years.

In 1938 Nkumbula joined the Northern Rhodesian government's teaching service and later worked in Kitwe and Mufulira on the Copperbelt. During World War II he became involved in African nationalist politics, like many other educated Africans of the day. For example, he held the position of Secretary of the Mufulira Welfare Association and co-founded the Kitwe African Society.

In 1946, from Chalimbana Teacher Training School, Nkumbula went to Kampala's Makerere University College in Uganda. This was made possible by the support of Sir Stewart Gore-Browne, a pro-black British settler politician. From Makerere, Nkumbula went on to study for and received a diploma from the Institute of Education, University of London. In London, Nkumbula had the opportunity to meet other African nationalists who were galvanized after attending the 1945 Pan-African Congress in Manchester, England. In 1949 he worked with Nyasaland's Hastings Kamuzu Banda in drafting a document that expressed African opposition to the proposed white-dominated Central African Federation. This collaboration prepared the two men for their subsequent struggles with the colonialists in their home countries. After his diploma, Nkumbula enrolled to study economics at the London School of Economics but he failed his examinations and returned to Northern Rhodesia without a degree early in 1950.

Independence struggle
As a militant, articulate and uncompromising opponent of the Federation, Nkumbula was elected president of the Northern Rhodesian African Congress in 1951. The party was soon renamed the African National Congress (ANC). In 1953, Kenneth Kaunda became secretary general of the ANC. When Nkumbula called a national strike—disguised as a "national day of prayer" — in opposition to the Federation, the African population did not respond. This was due to the opposition of the president of the African Mineworkers' Union, Lawrence Katilungu, who campaigned against the strike on the Copperbelt. In October 1953, the white colonial settlers formed the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, ignoring the black African majority's opposition. In the early months of 1954, Nkumbula and Kaunda organised a partially successful boycott of European-owned butcheries in Lusaka. However, Nkumbula, Kaunda, and the ANC found it difficult to mobilize their people against the Federation.

In early 1955 Nkumbula and Kaunda were imprisoned together for two months (with hard labour) for distributing "subversive" literature. Such imprisonment and other forms of harassment were normal rites of passage for African nationalist leaders. The experience of imprisonment had a moderating influence on Nkumbula, but it had a radicalizing influence on Kaunda. Nkumbula became increasingly influenced by white liberals and was seen as willing to compromise on the fundamental issue of majority rule.

Opposition to Nkumbula's allegedly autocratic leadership of the ANC eventually resulted in a split with Kaunda, who went on to form the Zambian African National Congress (ZANC) in October 1958. ZANC was banned in March 1959 and in June Kaunda was sentenced to nine months imprisonment. While Kaunda was still in prison, the United National Independence Party (UNIP) was formed late in 1959. Once he came out of prison, Kaunda took over the presidency of UNIP, which became better organized and more militant than Nkumbula's ANC. Due to this, UNIP rapidly took the leading position in the struggle for independence, eclipsing the ANC.

During independence constitutional talks in London in 1960–61, Nkumbula played only a secondary role. He suffered a further setback when he disappeared from the political scene for nine months (April 1961 – January 1962), while serving a prison sentence for causing death by dangerous driving. In the run-up to elections in October 1962, Nkumbula made the mistake of accepting funding from Moise Tshombe's regime in Katanga. He also made an ill-advised secret electoral pact with the white-dominated United Federal Party (UFP). He then found himself in a bind after the ANC won seven seats and held the balance of power between UNIP and the UFP. Eventually Nkumbula chose to form a coalition with UNIP and was given the post of minister of African education. The UNIP/ANC alliance lasted until the pre-independence elections of January 1964, when UNIP won fifty-five seats to the ANC's ten seats. Nkumbula became leader of the opposition.

After independence
During the last days of the Federation, the ANC had been largely confined to Nkumbula's regional base in the southern province. Although the party won seats in Western Province during the general elections of 1968, Nkumbula had little to offer the Zambian public. When Kaunda moved to convert Zambia into a one-party state, Nkumbula capitulated. He signed a document called the Choma Declaration on 27 June 1973 and announced that he was joining UNIP. The ANC ceased to exist after the dissolution of parliament in October 1973. Some have alleged that Kaunda "bought off" Nkumbula by offering him an emerald mine.  However, the fact that the emerald mine did not enter his possession until 1975 suggests that this allegation is false. Nkumbula's last prominent political action was an ill-fated attempt, together with Simon Kapwepwe, to stand against Kaunda for Zambia's one-party presidential nomination in 1978. Both Nkumbula and Kapwepwe were outmaneuvered by Kaunda, who secured the nomination while the two of them disappeared from Zambia's political scene.

Nkumbula died on 8 October 1983, aged 67.

His son Baldwin Nkumbula was also a politician. He was widely tipped to become the next president of Zambia until his death in a road accident.

References

 "Hugh Macmillan, Nkumbula, Harry Mwaanga (1917?–1983)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. 2004. Retrieved 18 May 2006.
 D. Mulford, Zambia: the politics of independence (1967)
 G. Mwangilwa, Harry Mwaanga Nkumbula: a biography of the 'old lion' of Zambia (Lusaka, Zambia, 1982)
 K. Macpherson, Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia: the times and the man (1974)
 J. J. Grotpeter, B. V. Siegel, and J. R. Pletcher, Historical dictionary of Zambia, 2nd ed. (1998)

External links

1916 births
1983 deaths
Makerere University alumni
Alumni of the UCL Institute of Education
Zambian educators
Zambian trade unionists
20th-century Zambian businesspeople
Zambian African National Congress politicians
Members of the Legislative Council of Northern Rhodesia
Education ministers of Zambia
United National Independence Party politicians
Members of the National Assembly of Zambia
Zambian farmers

Harry Nkumbula


The fantasy of manners is a subgenre of fantasy literature that also partakes of the nature of a comedy of manners (though it is not necessarily humorous). Such works generally take place in an urban setting and within the confines of a fairly elaborate, and almost always hierarchical, social structure. The term was first used in print by science fiction critic Donald G. Keller in an article, The Manner of Fantasy, in the April 1991 issue of The New York Review of Science Fiction.

Characteristics

Original definition
Keller used the term to describe a group of American fantasy writers who emerged in the 1980s, including Steven Brust, Emma Bull, Ellen Kushner, Delia Sherman, Caroline Stevermer, and Terri Windling; Kushner suggested the name. These writers were influenced by television, children's literature, and the works of Jane Austen, Georgette Heyer, and Dorothy Dunnett; in fantasy fiction, Fritz Leiber was important, as were Michael Moorcock and M. John Harrison. Their works included themes of negotiating social structures, disguise, the importance of childhood, the necessity of self-discovery, and the importance of manners and especially of language. This emphasis meant that their characters' speech tended to be more important than their actions, and they used a wide range of diction. After the article was released, fantasy of manners was nicknamed "mannerpunk".

Modern definition
In the words of author Teresa Edgerton, the term has since taken on a life of its own. It began to mean fantasy literature that owes as much or more to the comedy of manners as it does to the work of J. R. R. Tolkien and other authors of high fantasy. The protagonists are not pitted against fierce monsters or marauding armies, but against their neighbors and peers; the action takes place within a society, rather than being directed against an external foe; duels may be fought, but the chief weapons are wit and intrigue; romance and emotions are central, and the plot may revolve around courtship and marriage. The way the protagonist pushes against their social constraints drives the plot. The setting is a city in another world, usually post-medieval but pre-technological. Stylistically, fantasies of manners tend to be dry and witty.

While there is occasional overlap with steampunk or gaslamp fantasy, fantasy of manners is more grounded in reality; magic, fantastic races, and legendary creatures are downplayed or dismissed entirely, and the technology is typically no more advanced than is expected of the period. Indeed, but for the fact that the settings are usually entirely fictional, some of the books considered "fantasy of manners" could be also considered historical fiction, and some do cross over with historical fantasy. The social system, with its conventions and restraints that can be mastered, replaces magic.

Influences
Like the authors Keller originally described, contemporary fantasy of manners is influenced by the social novels of Jane Austen, the historical romances of Georgette Heyer, and Dorothy Dunnett's historical novels. Other major influences on the subgenre include the drawing room comedies of Oscar Wilde and P. G. Wodehouse. Many authors also draw from nineteenth century popular novelists such as Anthony Trollope, the Brontë sisters, and Charles Dickens. Traditional romances of swashbuckling adventure such as The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas, The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy, or the works of Rafael Sabatini may also be influences. The Ruritanian romances typified by The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope, or George Barr McCutcheon's Graustark itself, are also of some consequence as literary precedents.

Examples
 Half a Soul by Olivia Atwater
 Of Dragons, Feasts, and Murders by Aliette de Bodard
 Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho
 Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
 The Labyrinth Gate by Kate Elliott
 The Glamourist Histories series by Mary Robinette Kowal
 The Riverside series, beginning with Swordspoint, by Ellen Kushner
 The Beautiful Ones by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
 Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake
 Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton
 Sorcery and Cecelia, The Grand Tour, and The Mislaid Magician by Patricia Wrede and Caroline Stevermer

Relationship with other genres
A class of fantasies set in contemporary times and blending some characteristics of fantasies of manners with the subgenre urban fantasy has been dubbed, tongue-even-further-in-cheek, elfpunk.

A Civil Campaign by Lois McMaster Bujold has been described as "science fiction of manners".

References

Fantasy genres

Fantasy of manners


Save Me is the eighth album by Irish singer and actress Clodagh Rodgers released in 1977 on the Polydor label. It was her first album for four years and her last to date, excepting compilation albums.

Track listing

All tracks written by Guy Fletcher and Doug Flett except where indicated.

"Save Me"
"Morning Comes Quickly"
"Leaving"
"Incident At The Roxy"
"Candlelight"
"Discovery" (Sally Kemp)
"The Sun's On Sausalito" (John Dawson Read)
"The Singer Of The Song"
"Put It Back Together"
"I Can't Survive"
"Loving Cup"

Production
Recorded at Audio International, London
Producer - Guy Fletcher for Sweet Water Ltd.
Engineer - Nick Ryan
Backing vocals - "Rogue" & "Promises"
Cover Design - Jo Mirowski
Photography - Fraser Wood

Clodagh Rodgers albums
1977 albums

Save Me (Clodagh Rodgers album)


Christians for Fair Witness on the Middle East is a Christian organization working to correct bias against Israel in the North American Christian community.

National Director Sr. Ruth Lautt, OP, Esq., told a reporter that she believes that the "one-sided, unbalanced approach" on the Middle East taken by many mainline churches is the result of "shallow understanding" of the Arab-Israel conflict. In 2008, Fair Witness worked with members of the United Methodist Church to stop the denomination from divesting from its investments in Israeli companies.

References

External links
 Official Website

Non-governmental organizations involved in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict
Christian advocacy groups


Whirlwind is a novel by James Clavell, first published in 1986. It forms part of The Asian Saga and is chronologically the last book in the series.

Set in Iran in early 1979, it follows the fortunes of a group of Struan's helicopter pilots, Iranian officials and oil men and their families in the turmoil surrounding the fall of the Iranian monarchy and the rise of the Ayatollah Khomeini. Like many of Clavell's novels, it is very long and is composed of many interweaving plot strands involving a large cast of characters, as well as a detailed portrayal of Iranian culture.

The novel is closely inspired by the true struggle of Bristow Helicopters to escape the revolutionary forces and get their employees and equipment out of the unstable, deteriorating situation in the region. Alan Bristow, chairman of Bristow Helicopter commissioned a journalist, Jackie Griffin, who was married to one of his employees to write a report on the events in Iran. Bristow then gave his friend, James Clavell the resulting script to form the basis of the novel.  Much of the story mirrors these and other contemporary events.  In February 1979, U.S. Ambassador Adolph "Spike" Dubs was murdered in Kabul after Afghan security forces burst in on his kidnappers, the actual event both mentioned and fictionalized into the plot of Whirlwind.  Other companies operating in Iran faced similar dilemmas.  For example, Ross Perot's Electronic Data Systems similarly became very involved in the rescue of two executives from prison in Tehran, events dramatised in Ken Follett's novel On Wings of Eagles.

Backstory
When tai-pan Ian Dunross learned in Noble House that the North Sea may soon be wide open for oil exploration, he sent Andrew Gavallan to Scotland to quietly buy up real estate in Aberdeen so they would be positioned to take advantage of this trend. The North Sea oil rigs, once built, are serviced by helicopter, which leads to Gavallan being involved in the helicopter and oil services industries.  These become main business ventures of Struan's in Iran during the 1970s, as depicted in Whirlwind.

Plot summary
Gavallan, based in Scotland, runs S-G Helicopter company operating in Iran during the Shah's reign. When Khomeini comes to power, Gavallan must get his pilots and their families, and his valuable helicopters, and the spare parts for the helicopters (of equal or greater value than the aircraft) out of the riot-torn country. Complicating matters is his power struggle with his company's secret owner, the Noble House of Hong Kong. The pilots' escape efforts form the basic story and the action sweeps across many lives: lovers, spies, fanatics, revolutionaries, friends and betrayers. British, French, Finnish, American, Canadian, Australian and Iranian are all caught up in a deadly religious and political upheaval, portraying the chilling and bewildering encounters when Westernized lifestyle clashes with harsh ancient traditions.

Equipment
Aircraft used by S-G Helicopters throughout the story include the Bell 212, Bell 206, and Aérospatiale Alouette III helicopters and the British Aerospace BAe 125 business jet.

Locations
The settings for the story are the western and southwestern parts of Iran, as well as neighboring Persian Gulf states, Turkey to Lake Van, and the environs of Aberdeen, Scotland.

Actual locations within Iran include Tehran (including Qasr Prison, Evin Prison,
Galeg Morghi, and Doshan Tappeh Air Base), Tabriz, Qazvin, Mount Sabalan, the Zagros Mountains, Lengeh, Bandar Delam, Siri, the Dez Dam and Kharg island.

Fictional locations include the city of Kowiss, Yazdek village and the safe haven emirate of Al-Shargaz, meaning protector.

Main characters
Robert Armstrong - MI6 officer, appeared in earlier Noble House as a police inspector in Hong Kong, he was promoted to Special Intelligence, concerned with counter-espionage.
Freddy Ayre - ex-Royal Air Force helicopter pilot based at Kowiss
Marc Dubois - French helicopter pilot based at Bandar Delam
Kuram "Hotshot" Esvandiary - IranOil station manager based at Kowiss.
Colonel Hashemi Fazir - deputy chief of Inner Intelligence.
Andrew Gavallan - member of Struans' inner court, brother-in-law of Ian Dunross, appeared in earlier Noble House. Gavallan is an aspirant to the office of tai-pan.  He was married to Dunross' late sister Kathren. In Noble House, Gavallan worked in Hong Kong with the other members of the inner court.  Gavallan later plotted with Dunross to force current tai-pan Linbar Struan into early retirement and hinted at having his son Scot take over the corporation.
Scot Gavallan - helicopter pilot based at Zagros Three, son of Andrew Gavallan.  Prospective future tai-pan.
Yoshi Kasigi - Toda Shipping Industries executive and sometime ally to the Struan corporation.
Abdollah Khan - father of Azadeh Yokkonen, head of Gorgon clan, leader in Iranian Azerbaijan playing both sides.
Hakim Khan - brother of Azadeh Yokkonen, son of Abdollah Khan, later leader in Iranian Azerbaijan.  He became ruthless and devious with his appointment to the position of authority in Tabriz.
Nitchak Khan - Qashqai Kalandar of Yazdek village in Zagros neighborhood.
Hussain Kowissi - mullah, town of Kowiss.
Ibrahim Kyabi - university student-turned-leftist.
Nathaniel "Nogger" Lane - helicopter pilot based at Tehran
Sharazad (Bakravan) Lochart  - Iranian wife of Tom Lochart.
۞Tom Lochart - Canadian senior helicopter pilot based at Zagros Three, husband of Sharazad.
۞Rudiger "Rudi" Lutz - German senior helicopter pilot based at Bandar Delam
۞Duncan MacIver - medically grounded senior helicopter pilot, managing director of S-G Helicopter operations office in Teheran, appeared in earlier Noble House.
Genevere "Genny" McIver - wife of Duncan MacIver
Colonel Karim Peshadi - Imperial Iranian Air Force, cousin of Sharazad, Shah-loyalist military commander of Kowiss Air Base, Hero of Dhofar and uncle of Sharazad, possibly based on Nader Jahanbani.
Sandor "Sandy" Petrofi - Hungarian American helicopter pilot based at Kowiss.
Charlie Pettikin - helicopter pilot based at Tehran, Vietnam vet with Duke Starke.
Fedor Rakoczy - alias Dimitri Yazernov/alias Ali Bin Hassan Karakose/real name Igor Mzytryk, KGB agitator, son of Petr Oleg Mzytryk.
John Ross - Gurkha captain sent to destroy abandoned CIA listening posts.
۞Harry "Scrag" Scragger, DFC and bar, AFC and bar. - oldest S-G pilot, senior helicopter pilot based at Lengeh,
Jean-Luc Sessonne - French helicopter pilot based at Zagros Three.
۞Conroe "Duke" Starke - American senior helicopter pilot based at Kowiss, Vietnam vet with Charlie Pettikin.
Manuela Starke - wife of "Duke" Starke
George Talbot - United Kingdom Embassy Tehran MI6 Station Chief.
General Valik - chairman of IHC (Iran Helicopters Company, enforced partners of S-G Helicopters) and uncle of Sharazad.
Sergeant Wazari - Iranian air traffic control based at Kowiss.
Azadeh (Gorgon) Yokkonen - Iranian wife of Erikki Yokkonen.
۞Erikki Yokkonen - Finnish helicopter pilot based at Tabriz.
Zataki - leader of Kowiss komiteh (Islamic Revolution Committee).

۞ indicates leader of respective base

Minor characters
Ali Abbasi - Iranian helicopter pilot of General Valik.
General Hassan Aryani - Imperial Iranian Air Force, killed in a hang-gliding accident in 1975; based on HE General Mohammad Amir Khatami, CVO (1920–1975), Chief of Staff of the Imperial Iranian Air Force who served as Chief Pilot to the Shah and was married to one of his sisters, HIH Fatimeh Pahlavi (1928–1987)
Jared Bakravan - father of Sharazad.
Sheik Bayazid - tribal leader, kidnapper of Erikki Yokkonen.
General Beni-Hassan - national IranOil liaison.
Sayada Bertolin - mistress of Jean-Luc Sessonne, secret Palestine Liberation Organization agent.
Major Changiz - Shah-loyalist military officer based at Kowiss, second-in-command to Colonel Peshadi.
Elizabeth "Liz" Chen - Scotland-based secretary to Andrew Gavallan.
Paul "Profitable" Choy - the richest and most powerful Chinese businessman in Hong Kong, adversary to Andrew Gavallan, ally to Linbar Struan and witness to the death of David MacStruan.  He was likely the mastermind of Linbar's sinister plots.
Georges de Plessey - French chief EPF official
Marc Dubois - French helicopter pilot based at Bandar Delam
Ian Dunross - retired tai-pan of Struan's, protagonist and behind-the-scenes supporter of Gavallan, major character of Noble House
Ahmed Dursak - Turcoman advisor to Abdollah Khan and later to Hakim Khan.
Pietro Fiere - Italian second in command at Rig Bellissima in the Zagros
Maureen Gavallan - wife of Andrew Gavallan
Paula Giancani - Alitalia stewardess
Sergeant Gueng - Gurkha sent to destroy abandoned CIA listening posts.
Mario Guineppa - manager at Rig Bellissima in the Zagros.
Henley - MI6 liaison based at Tabriz
John Hogg - senior S-G fixed wing pilot
Major Abdul Ikail - Turkish police officer
Hideyoshi Ishida - Iran-Toda engineer
Jahan - radio operator at Bandar Delam
Fowler Joines - helicopter mechanic based at Kowiss
"Effer" Jordon - Australian helicopter mechanic based at Zagros Three
Ignatius "Pop" Kelly - helicopter pilot based at Kowiss.
Yusuf Kyabi - IranOil senior area manager based at Ahwaz.
Colonel General Petr Oleg Mzytryk - alias Gregor Suslev, KGB Colonel General who appeared in earlier Noble House.
Nasiri - Zagros base manager.
Willi Neuchtrichter - German helicopter pilot based at Lengeh.
Numir - new site director at Bandar Delam.
Doctor Nutt - S-G company doctor based at Kowiss.
Abrim Pahmudi - newly appointed SAVAMA head. Based on Hossein Fardoust
Emir Paknouri - first husband of Sharazad, goldsmith.
Ali Pash - radio operator at Lengeh.
Pavoud - Iranian chief clerk based at Kowiss.
Sergeant Qeshemi - police officer at Lengeh.
"Rod" Rodrigues - American helicopter mechanic based at Zagros Three.
Vien Rosemont - CIA officer.
Mimmo Sera - Italian company man based at Rig Rosa in the Zagros.
Sir Percy Smedley-Taylor - director of Struan's Holdings, MP, appeared in earlier King Rat.
Linbar Struan - Twelfth tai-pan of Struan's, who assumed that office in 1975 following the ostensibly accidental death of his predecessor David MacStruan.  Prior to this, in Noble House, he was a member of Struan's inner court and an aspirant to the office of tai-pan.
Sergeant Tenzing - Gurkha sent to destroy abandoned CIA listening posts.
Hiro Toda - tai-pan of Iran-Toda Shipping joint partnership, appeared in earlier Noble House
Massil Tugul - Palestinian air traffic control tower operator based at Kowiss.
Jon Tyrer - American helicopter pilot, second-in-command based at Bandar Delam.
Ed Vossi - helicopter pilot based at Lengeh.
Watanabe - chief engineer of Iran-Toda Shipping joint partnership.
Suliman al Wiali - Syrian assassin and head Group Four intelligence agent.

Writing
Clavell got the idea for a book in 1975 when he visited Iran for the first time. He felt it had the potential to become "a country that seemed likely to become the No. 3 power in the world." Clavell:
I toured the country in a helicopter with an old friend of mine who was in the oil business. We went everywhere. I saw how helicopters and an international team of pilots were essential to the oil industry. Immediately, I knew it lent itself to a novel. But I had other projects going so I put it aside. Then the revolution occurred. Now there were all these stories about the horrors of living through someone else's revolution. It all came together in my mind as the story of a multinational group of copter pilots caught up in an ugly revolution. Of course, that's all I knew. I never have a plan before I begin a novel.
Clavell was completing Noble House at the time and was preparing to start a sequel to Shogun called Nippon (which became Gai-Jin). But at his wife's urging he put that work on the back burner and took up the Iran book. He says he never told his publisher he had switched topics.
They all continued to think I was writing a book about Japan. I never liked anyone to know what I'm doing. It's self-defense. When I was writing 'Shogun,' my publisher was asked at a sales meeting what Clavell was working on and when he said 'A book about 17th Century Japan,' they all roared 'Who the hell's interested in THAT?' If I told them I was writing about Iran, they'd say, 'Oh, another book on the hostage crisis.' But it's not. It's an adventure story that will hopefully tell people a lot they didn't know about the motivations of Moslem fundamentalists.
Clavell spent four years researching and writing the book. Clavell:
I learned to fly a helicopter. I read the Koran for the second time (the first was as a POW), I read anything the Shah had written, anything by his sister, by Khomaini. I read about the cults, about Sufism and 100 other books, about the Caucasus, the war years, the partition of Iran between Russia and Britain, I read about Ali, the first of the Imams.
Whirlwind was written in the alpine country around the Swiss resort of Gstaad, and in the south of France, where Clavell lived. He started writing in 1982 and finished it in late 1985.

Clavell auctioned off the rights to the novel after having written only 200 pages. He was paid $5 million, a record amount at the time.

Escape: The Love Story from Whirlwind

A much shorter version of the story, focusing on a single pair of characters (Erikki Yokkonen and his wife Azadeh), was published in 1994 as Escape: The Love Story from Whirlwind. It is 598 pages long in paperback edition. The back cover of the first edition bore a message from the author humorously dedicating the book to anyone who had ever complained that his books were too heavy. Escape also includes story details not included in Whirlwind. Hard to find for many years, it returned to circulation when Clavell's Asian Saga was republished in 2016.

References

1986 British novels
Asian Saga novels
Novels set in the Iranian Revolution
Fiction set in 1979
Aviation novels
Hodder & Stoughton books

Whirlwind (novel)


Antonio Poma (12 June 1910 – 24 September 1985) was an Italian cardinal of the Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Bologna from 1968 to 1983, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1969.

Biography
Poma was born in Villanterio, and studied at the seminary in Pavia and the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome (from where he obtained his Doctor of Theology degree in 1934). He was ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop Giuseppe Palica on 15 April 1933, in the chapel of the Major Roman Seminary. Before becoming rector of the Pavia seminary in July 1947, he was made private secretary to the Bishop of Pavia and a professor of literature and of dogmatic theology at the same seminary in 1935.

On 28 October 1951, Poma was appointed auxiliary bishop of Mantua and titular bishop of Thagaste by Pope Pius XII. He received his episcopal consecration on the following 9 December from Bishop Carlo Allorio, with Bishops Vittorio De Zanche and Giuseppe Piazzi serving as co-consecrators, in the Cathedral of Pavia. Poma was named coadjutor bishop of Mantua on 2 August 1952, later succeeding Domenico Menna as bishop of the same on 8 September 1954. From 1962 to 1965, he attended the Second Vatican Council. He was advanced to coadjutor archbishop of Bologna and titular archbishop of Hierpiniana on 16 July 1967. On 12 February 1968, Poma succeeded Giacomo Lercaro as Archbishop of Bologna upon the latter's resignation.

During his tenure as Archbishop of Bologna, he founded the second House of Charity, the Mensa della fraternità or Poor People's Refectory, the Diocesan Charitas and the Mission of the Bolognese Church in Tanzania.

Pope Paul VI created him cardinal-priest of San Luca a Via Prenestina in the consistory of 28 April 1969. From 1969 to 1979, Poma served as president of the Italian Episcopal Conference; during this capacity, he warned that Catholics who support communism separate themselves from the Church. He was also one of the cardinal electors who participated in the conclaves of August and October 1978, which selected Popes John Paul I and John Paul II respectively. On 11 February 1983, the Cardinal resigned as Bologna's archbishop, after almost fourteen years of service. He continued to govern the archdiocese as its apostolic administrator until the appointment of Bishop Enrico Manfredini on the following 18 March.

Poma also suffered from erysipelas.

Poma died in Bologna, at age 75. He is buried in the metropolitan cathedral of the same city.

References

External links

Catholic-Hierarchy

1910 births
1985 deaths
People from the Province of Pavia
20th-century Italian cardinals
Bishops of Mantua
20th-century Italian Roman Catholic archbishops
Roman Catholic archbishops of Bologna
Participants in the Second Vatican Council
Italian anti-communists
Cardinals created by Pope Paul VI
Pontifical Gregorian University alumni

Antonio Poma


Eomaia ('dawn mother') is an early fossil eutherian mammal. It is exceptionally well-preserved for a 125 million-year-old specimen.

It was discovered in rocks of the Yixian Formation, Liaoning Province, China. These strata date to the Lower Cretaceous about 125 million years ago (mya).

The fossil is  in length and virtually complete. It weighed between . Although the fossil's skull is squashed flat, its teeth, tiny foot bones, cartilages and even its fur are visible.

Eomaia is a eutherian. The eutherians are the placental mammals plus some extinct mammals which had not developed a placenta.

What distinguishes the Eutheria from metatherians, a group that includes modern marsupials, are various features of the feet, jaws and teeth.

However Eomaia is not a true placental mammal as it lacks some features that are specific to placentals.
Eomaia has:
variations in the shin and ankles.
an ancestral eutherian dental formula.
a wide opening at the bottom of the pelvis, which allows the birth of large, well-developed offspring. Marsupials have and non-placental eutherians had a narrower opening that allows only small, immature offspring to pass through.
Eomaia has epipubic bones extending forwards from the pelvis. These are not found in any placental mammal, but are found in all other mammals, even in the cynodont therapsids that are closest to mammals. Their function is to stiffen the body during locomotion. This stiffening would be harmful in pregnant placentals, whose abdomens need to expand.

Its discoverers sampled 268 characters from all major Mesozoic mammal clades and principal eutherian families of the Cretaceous period. As a result, they claimed Eomaia is at the root of the eutherian "family tree" with a few other fossils.

The Eomaia fossil shows clear traces of hair. However this is not the earliest clear evidence of hair in the mammalian lineage, as fossils of the docodont Castorocauda, discovered in rocks dated to about 164 mya, also have traces of fur.

Related pages
 Juramaia
 Sinodelphys

References

Other websites
 New Scientist article on original find.
 Nat. Geo. article

Mammals
Fossils
Cretaceous
China

Eomaia


The  was a political scandal in the early Shōwa period of Imperial Japan which brought about the collapse of the administration of Prime Minister Saitō Makoto in 1934.

History and background
In June 1933, the Banchokai, a group of young investors, purchased 100,000 shares of Teijin (a leading rayon and textile firm) from the Bank of Taiwan at a price of ¥125 per share. The stock steadily rose in price, reaching ¥200 per share by the end of the year, and rumors began to arise in the editorial pages of various newspapers that the Banchokai had somehow managed to manipulate the market.

Working with this unsubstantiated rumor, ultrarightist officials in the Ministry of Justice accused officials in the Ministry of Finance and members of Saitō Cabinet of conspiracy with the Bank of Taiwan to permit the Banchokai to purchase shares at an artificially low price in return for bribes of cash and stock. In April 1934, the Ministry of Justice ordered the arrest of the Vice-Minister of Finance, director of the Bank of Taiwan and president of Teijin. On receiving word that a number of cabinet ministers were also scheduled to be arrested, Prime Minister Saitō dissolved the government on 3 July 1934. Soon afterwards, thirteen more officials were arrested on charges of corruption.

Consequences
After a lengthy trial, all sixteen defendants were cleared of all charges, and the entire set of stock transactions involving Teijin shares was found to be free of fiscal irregularities. However, the Japanese public in general was left with a strong impression on extensive corruption in high levels of government and finance, which further eroded public confidence in both liberal democracy and in the capitalist system. This image was encouraged by the right-wing Kokuhonsha, led by Hiranuma Kiichirō, who was also chief prosecutor in the trial. Indirectly, the Teijin Incident contributed to an increase in violent terrorist attacks by secret societies such as the Sakurakai and League of Blood against leading figures in government and finance. It also contributed to attempted military coup d'etats, such as the February 26 Incident, against the perceived corruption of civilian rule.

References

Further reading

1934 in Japan
Politics of the Empire of Japan
Political scandals in Japan
Corruption in Japan

Teijin Incident


The Malwa culture was a Chalcolithic archaeological culture which existed in the Malwa region of Central India and parts of Maharashtra in the Deccan Peninsula. It is mainly dated to  BCE, but calibrated radiocarbon dates have suggested that the beginning of this culture may be as early as  2000-1750 BCE.

This culture is characterized by the increasing dominance of the agricultural way of life, but also incorporated pastoralist and hunting groups. The people cultivated wheat, barley, legumes, and later rice, and domesticated cattle, sheep, goats, and pigs. At most of the settlements, there is no evidence of urban planning, rather a "haphazard" distribution of houses, but some of the largest sites have evidence of planned settlement, large houses, and public architecture. Most dwellings were round huts made from wattle-and-daub. There are also small round huts used for storing grain, and large rectangular structures which may have been used for religious performances.

Their pottery was red or orange, and painted with geometric, floral, animal, and human designs in black. Copper and stone were used to make tools. Beads of semi-precious stones have been found. Objects made from seashells indicate trade with coastal communities in Gujarat, such as Bharuch. Evidence of religion includes bull idols, worship of trees, snakes, and goddesses, and altars for fire sacrifices.

Sites of the Malwa Culture include Daimabad, Inamgaon, Kayatha, Nagda, Vidisha, Eran, Mandsaur, and Navdatoli (near Maheshwar).

It is preceded by the Kayatha, Ahar-Banas, and Savalda cultures, and succeeded by the Jorwe culture and the Black and red ware culture.

See also
History of Madhya Pradesh
Pottery in the Indian subcontinent

References

Chalcolithic cultures of Asia
Archaeological cultures of South Asia
History of Madhya Pradesh
Archaeological cultures in India

Malwa culture


The Land Before Time is a 1988 animated adventure drama film directed and produced by Don Bluth from a screenplay by Stu Krieger and a story by Judy Freudberg and Tony Geiss, and executive produced by Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Kathleen Kennedy, and Frank Marshall. The film stars the voices of Gabriel Damon, Candace Hutson, Judith Barsi and Will Ryan with narration provided by Pat Hingle. It is the first film in The Land Before Time franchise.

Produced by Amblin Entertainment and Sullivan Bluth Studios, it features dinosaurs living in prehistoric times. The plot features a young brown Apatosaurus named Littlefoot, who ends up alone after his mother is attacked by a villainous Tyrannosaurus rex and dies. Littlefoot flees famine and upheaval to search for the Great Valley, an area spared from devastation, where the adult dinosaurs have moved on to. On his journey, he meets four young companions: Cera, an orange Triceratops, Ducky, a green Saurolophus, Petrie, a brown Pteranodon, and Spike, a green Stegosaurus. The film explores issues of prejudice between the different species and the hardships they endure in their journey as they are guided by the spirit of Littlefoot's mother and forced to deal with a "sharptooth" (Tyrannosaurus rex).

The Land Before Time is the only Don Bluth film of the 1980s in which Dom DeLuise did not participate (instead, he starred in Disney's Oliver & Company released that same day), and the only film in The Land Before Time series that is not a musical, as well as the only one to be released theatrically worldwide. It was also the last film that Bluth directed that was distributed by Universal Pictures.

The film was released by Universal on November 18, 1988, to generally positive reviews from critics and was a box office success, grossing $84.4 million. Its success, along with An American Tail and the 1988 live-action/animated film Who Framed Roger Rabbit led Spielberg to found his animation studio, Amblimation. The first film spawned a franchise with thirteen direct-to-video sequels, a television series, video games and merchandise, none of which had Bluth, Spielberg nor Lucas' involvement (though Amblin Entertainment was involved in the television series like it was for Fievel's American Tails). It is currently Don Bluth's third highest-grossing animated film, only behind Anastasia (1997) and An American Tail (1986).

Plot
During the age of the dinosaurs, a famine forces herds of dinosaurs to seek an oasis known as the Great Valley. Among these, a mother in a diminished "longneck" herd gives birth to a single male baby, named Littlefoot. Years later, Littlefoot encounters and plays with Cera, a female "three-horn", until her father intervenes, saying "three-horns never play with longnecks". That night, Littlefoot plays with Cera again, until a large "sharptooth" pursues them. Littlefoot's mother eventually comes to their rescue. During the struggle, an "earthshake" strikes and splits the land, swallowing up the sharptooth and dividing Littlefoot, Cera, and other dinosaurs from their herds; several die in the process. Before dying,  Littlefoot's wounded mother gives him some words of advice about finding the Great Valley: "let your heart guide you. It whispers, so listen closely". Confused, and in-grief, Littlefoot meets Rooster, an older dinosaur who consoles him. Littlefoot is then guided by his mother's voice telling him to follow the sun to the Great Valley. First, he must pass several landmarks, such as a rock formation that resembles a Longneck and the "Mountains that Burn" (volcanoes).

Later, Littlefoot meets a female "bigmouth" named Ducky and a male "flyer" named Petrie, themselves separated from their families during the earthshake, who accompany him on his journey. Looking for her own kind, Cera finds the unconscious sharptooth inside a ravine and inadvertently wakes him up. She escapes and bumps into Littlefoot, Ducky, and Petrie. While describing her encounter, she accidentally flings Ducky in the direction of a lone hatching "spiketail" egg, from which a male emerges; Ducky names the hatchling "Spike" and inducts him into the group. Seeking the Great Valley, they discover a cluster of trees, which is depleted by a herd of longnecks. Searching for remaining growth, they discover a single leaf-bearing tree, and obtain food by stacking atop each other and pulling it down. Cera remains aloof, but at nightfall, she and everyone else gravitate to Littlefoot's side for warmth and companionship.

The next morning, they are attacked by the sharptooth but manage to escape through a tunnel that is too small for him to follow. Beyond this, they discover the landmarks mentioned by Littlefoot's mother. Before the Mountains that Burn, a clash between Littlefoot's intention to follow his mother's directions and Cera's strong-willed insistence on going a different way results in a fight between them that causes the others to follow Cera, forcing Littlefoot to continue alone. When Ducky and Spike become endangered by lava, and Petrie gets stuck in a tar pit, Littlefoot returns to rescue them. Cera gets ambushed by a pack of "domeheads" who live in the Mountains that Burn; the rest of the group pose as a tar monster, scaring away the domeheads and frightening Cera. After realizing who it really is, Cera angrily leaves the group. Later, while crossing a pond, Petrie overhears the sharptooth nearby. The group devises a plan to lure him to the pond and drown him in the deep side using a nearby boulder. During the ensuing struggle, a draft from the sharptooth's nostrils enables Petrie to fly for the first time.

The plan nearly fails when the sharptooth begins attacking the boulder while the group attempts to push it onto him. However, Cera, having overcome her sorrow, reunites with the group and headbutts the boulder, causing the sharptooth to fall into the water, the boulder crashing into him in the process. The sharptooth momentarily takes Petrie down with him, seemingly to his death, but Petrie later emerges unharmed. Littlefoot, alone and about to give up on his search, follows a cloud resembling his mother, which guides him to the Great Valley. He is then joined by the others. Upon arrival, the five are reunited with their families: Petrie impresses his family with his newfound flight; Ducky introduces Spike to her family, who adopt him; Cera reunites with her father; and Littlefoot finds his grandparents. The group then rejoins at the top of a hill and embrace each other in a hug.

Cast

 Gabriel Damon as Littlefoot
 Candace Hutson as Cera
 Judith Barsi as Ducky
 Will Ryan as Petrie
 Helen Shaver as Littlefoot's mother
 Burke Byrnes as Cera's father
 Bill Erwin as Littlefoot's grandfather
 Pat Hingle as Narrator and Rooter

Production

Development
During production of An American Tail, talk began of the next feature with Bluth and executive producer Steven Spielberg. Bluth and Spielberg wanted to do a film similar to Bambi, but with dinosaurs. Steven Spielberg's longtime friend George Lucas was also brought in on the project after being interested with it. The three persuaded An American Tail writers Judy Freudberg and Tony Geiss (both of whom were also prominent writers for Sesame Street) to write the screenplay for the film. Their initial draft was based on their early ideas, but when it was felt the story was too juvenile, Stu Krieger was brought on to revise their draft. Early into story development, the film was about a group of young dinosaurs looking for a wise, older dinosaur. Later on, Bluth explained, "...we came up with another idea that none of these dinosaurs get along with each other, they all hate each other. They're taught from the time they were born not to associate with each other, that's racism". An early working title for the film was The Land Before Time Began. Bluth, Spielberg and Lucas originally wanted the film to have no dialogue, like The Rite of Spring sequence in Fantasia, but the idea was abandoned in favor of using voice actors in order to make it appealing to children.

Animation
As work on the script continued, Bluth delegated some of the animation staff to begin creating concept art. As with his previous films, Bluth handled the storyboarding, but with final revisions by Larry Leker. Production was initially delayed by several months as the studio moved to Ireland. Production would eventually begin in spring 1987, a few months after the release of An American Tail.

The production was preceded by extensive research, including visits to natural history museums in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. Skeletons, fossils, and paleoart from the turn of the century were consulted to help create a credible landscape and animals. Further research was conducted using live-action footage of quadrupedal modern animals, including elephants and giraffes.

Editing
Late into production, The Land Before Time underwent a severe cutting and editing of footage. Spielberg and Lucas thought that some scenes in the film would appear too dark and intense for young children. At a screening in Soho Square, London in late April 1988, six months before the film was completed, Spielberg told Bluth while looking at the scenes from the film: "It's too scary. We'll have kids crying in the lobby, and a lot of angry parents. You don't want that". A total of 19 fully animated shots from the sharptooth attack were cut from the final film, to attain a G rating instead of a PG rating. Examples can be seen in the storyboards of the chase sequence in the briar patch. POV shots of sharptooth's snapping jaws were deleted, and shots were rearranged to shorten the sequence. This results in continuity errors, depicting the Tyrannosaur with his right eye still open after it had been blinded.

Perhaps just weeks before the film's release, more than 10 additional minutes of footage was cut from the film by Spielberg "to be sure it would not disturb parents or their children", according to producer Gary Goldman, reducing the runtime from 80 to 82 minutes to just 69 minutes. Much of the cut footage also consisted of sequences of the five young dinosaurs in grave danger and distress. An extended scene involving the introduction of Spike was deleted, as was some of the "Green Food" sequence. Petrie's apparent death scene originally went longer, and was followed by a group hug where Littlefoot says "Now we'll always be together" (this line survives in the form of a Pizza Hut promotional advertisement for the film). The film's final act was also heavily altered and rearranged; originally, Littlefoot was to find the Great Valley on his own before turning back to rescue his friends, kill sharptooth, and enter the valley as a group. This ending survives in multiple book adaptations, and the music accompanying it still exists in the official soundtrack release. Some screams were re-voiced using milder exclamations. The scenes are believed to be destroyed, but some did make it into multiple advertisements and trailers created before the release of the film, and multiple stills can be found in storybook adaptations and press kits for the movie. Much of the unused music from the film score was meant to play over the deleted scenes. Many animation cels and drawings from the deleted scenes have surfaced on the internet.

Music

The music for The Land Before Time was composed by James Horner, who had previously provided the soundtrack for An American Tail, and performed by the London Symphony Orchestra and the Choir of King's College. An official soundtrack was released on audio cassette and vinyl record on November 21, 1988, and later on CD by MCA Records, and features seven tracks from the film. The film's theme song "If We Hold on Together", written by Horner and Will Jennings, was sung by Diana Ross and was released as the soundtrack's lead and only single on November 5 the same year, peaking at number 23 on the US adult contemporary charts, and was later included on her 1991 album The Force Behind the Power. A digital version of the soundtrack was released on a number of services on January 22, 2013 by Geffen Records.

An expanded version of the soundtrack album was released by Intrada Records on October 27, 2020. This release featured newly remastered versions of the music on the original album, as well as 15 minutes of previously unreleased material.

Release
The Land Before Time opened on November 18, 1988. Attached to the film, Universal and Amblin issued Brad Bird's Family Dog short from their television anthology Amazing Stories.

Reception

Box office
During its opening weekend, the film opened at number one in the United States and Canada, grossing $7.5 million. By the end of its theatrical run, it had grossed $48.1 million at the US box office, slightly more than Don Bluth's previous film, An American Tail, but $5 million less than Oliver & Company which was released at the same time. Overall, The Land Before Time grossed $84.5 million worldwide.

Critical response
The Land Before Time holds  approval rating from review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes from  critics, with the consensus: "Beautifully animated and genuinely endearing, The Land Before Time is sure to please dino-obsessed tykes, even if it's a little too cutesy for older viewers". Metacritic assigned a score of 66, based on reviews by 15 critics, signifying "Generally favorable reviews".

Critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert gave the film "two thumbs up" on a November 19, 1988, episode of their television program At the Movies. Siskel found it to be "sweet more than it was scary" and "quite beautiful", also praising its straightforward story and remarked that he would recommend it to children over Disney's Oliver and Company, released on the same day. In his own review for the Chicago Sun-Times, Ebert gave the film three out of four stars, writing: "I guess I sort of liked the film, although I wonder why it couldn't have spent more time on natural history and the sense of discovery, and less time on tragedy". Peter Travers of People magazine felt the film had an unclear audience: "The animation is fine. But the Stu Krieger screenplay contains violence that might be hard on the younger ones, [...] and a never-let-up cuteness that can turn minds of all ages to mush". Los Angeles Times writer Sheila Benson also stated that the film's enjoyment was limited to younger viewers, remarking "do dinosaurs really lend themselves to ootsie-cutesiness?" Hal Hinson of The Washington Post wrote "though it's not a great film, it is an entertaining and, at times, emotionally rich one".

Many reviewers compared The Land Before Time to films from Disney's Golden Age. Steven Rea of the Philadelphia Inquirer said that the film "looks and sounds as if it came out of the Disney Studios of the '40s or '50s. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing", calling it "meticulously crafted" but was also "mildly disappoint[ed]" that the dialog wasn't as sophisticated. In her review for the Sun-Sentinel, Candice Russel similarly remarked, "The Land Before Time works by evoking the simple virtues of this art aimed at children, as it was in the beginning when Disney animated Mickey Mouse". A review from the Motion Picture Guide 1989 Annual notes that the film "has been called a sort of prehistoric Bambi". David Kehr from the Chicago Tribune similarly felt that the film's title "also refers to the Disney past, but it goes for all the marbles. Its model is nothing less than the life-cycle saga of Bambi, and that Bluth gets even half the way there is proof of a major talent". Kehr gave the film three-and-a-half out of four stars, calling it "as handsome and honest an animated feature as any produced since Walt Disney's death; it may even be the best".

Don Bluth's membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints influenced the themes of the film. In an interview with Church News, he stated: "Everything I do is centered around the gospel. Even our films are, although the secular world would never realize it". Randy Astle states that Littlefoot can be read as a Christ figure because of his special birth circumstances and position as a leader of his people. The journey to the Great Valley, which is to the west, mirrors that of the Mormon pioneers, who moved from fertile lands in the east to the arid and mountainous great basin. Astle concludes that "Littlefoot is both a Joseph Smith—he sees a pillar of light and receives heavenly visitors—and a Brigham Young–he leads his followers across the plains".

Accolades
The Land Before Time was nominated for "Best Family Animation or Fantasy Motion Picture" at the 10th annual Youth in Film Awards, losing out to Tim Burton's Beetlejuice. It also received a nomination for "Best Fantasy Film" at the 16th Saturn Awards ceremony in 1990, beaten by Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

Home media
The Land Before Time was released on VHS on September 14, 1989, and on November 22, 1991, as well as LaserDisc in regular pan and scan and "Special Collector's Edition" CAV-play editions by MCA/Universal Home Video in North America, and CIC Video internationally. According to the book The Animated Films of Don Bluth, the original release did "very successful business" on the home video market, and included a promotional tie-in with Pizza Hut in North America, which was offering rubber hand puppets based on the film at the time. Pizza Hut also ran its partnership with the film's VHS release in Australia. The VHS version was made available once more on February 20, 1996, under the Universal Family Features label, and was later packaged with following three films in the series as part of the Land Before Time Collection on December 4, 2001.

The film was released on DVD for the first time on April 30, 1997, and re-released on December 2, 2003, as the "Anniversary Edition" for the movie's 15th anniversary, which included games and sing-along songs. The Anniversary Edition was later included with An American Tail and Balto as a three-movie pack in November 2007. A widescreen Blu-ray version was available for the first time on October 13, 2015, which included digital HD and UltraViolet copies, which was accompanied by a new widescreen DVD release on the same day. The Blu-ray was re-released on January 15, 2019.

Legacy

The film generated 13 direct-to-video sequels, which differ from the original by adding "sing-along" musical numbers. Bluth, Spielberg, and Lucas have no affiliation with any of the film's sequels. The sequels have generally been met with mixed reception: many fans of the original disregarded the sequels, while others have embraced the sequels into the canon of the story.

In 2007, a television series was released in North America. It follows the style of the sequels in terms of the morality and the musical numbers (with some of the songs being shortened and reworked).

See also
 List of films featuring dinosaurs

References

Bibliography

External links

The Land Before Time films
1988 films
1988 animated films
1980s adventure drama films
1980s children's adventure films
1980s American animated films
1980s buddy drama films
1988 drama films
Amblin Entertainment films
Amblin Entertainment animated films
American children's animated adventure films
American children's animated drama films
American buddy drama films
Irish animated films
American coming-of-age drama films
American adventure drama films
Animated buddy films
Animated coming-of-age films
Films about dinosaurs
Animated films about dinosaurs
Films about earthquakes
Films about famine
Films adapted into television shows
Films directed by Don Bluth
Films scored by James Horner
Films produced by Don Bluth and Gary Goldman
Films produced by John Pomeroy
Lucasfilm films
Lucasfilm animated films
American drama road movies
Rotoscoped films
Sullivan Bluth Studios films
Universal Pictures films
Universal Pictures animated films
1980s children's animated films
Animated films about friendship
1980s English-language films
Irish children's films

The Land Before Time (film)


Vladimir Slepian, a.k.a. Eric Pid (; 1930 – 7 July 1998) is a French artist and writer of Russian-Jewish origin.

Biography
Son of a repressed and executed Soviet functionary, Vladimir Slepian was born in Prague and resided in Leningrad before moving to Moscow. He began his university studies in mathematics, continuing as a student of fine art. In 1956 Slepian moved to Moscow. He attended the Picasso exhibition at the Pushkin Museum and presented his paintings to David Burliuk, who was then staying at Hotel Moskva. Burliuk inspired Slepian to look towards the way Jackson Pollock deposited paint on canvas with broad, lunging, spontaneous gestures. Slepian's style evolved towards happening and performance art. He devoted several years to action painting. On one occasion, Slepian conducted a séance of simultaneous painting in collaboration with Yuri Zlotnikov. They suspended a bedsheet in the middle of a room and each of them painted one side of it whilst following the actions of his partner on the other side through the translucent fabric. Slepian created abstract paintings using a gas torch and paint dispensed out of a pump. He is said to have worked on a canvas a few kilometers long, by pouring paint on it from a truck. Slepian also made a pilgrimage to Nazım Hikmet, who assured him and his friends that modern art will prevail over political oppression. In 1957 Paris' Right Bank Galerie Daniel Cordier mounted an anonymous exhibition of paintings by Vladimir Slepian, smuggled out of Moscow by its owner.

Vladimir Slepian emigrated to France in 1958, by way of Poland. In 1960 he conducted a performance of "transfinite painting" ("трансфинитная живопись") in Paris. Slepian sprinted along a roll of paper a hundred meters long, depositing paint in a manner that recalled calligraphy. Slepian competed with Georges Mathieu, by creating a picture in ninety seconds. He is said to have turned a road into an action painting by throwing paint onto it whilst riding a motorcycle. In 1963, Slepian gave up painting, resolving to concentrate on writing. He founded a successful translation bureau, explaining his ambition as using his intelligence to put others to work for his benefit, whilst enjoying idleness. His business operated successfully until its manager quit in a protest against Slepian's despotism.

In his only published French text, a short story Fils de chien, Vladimir Slepian writes of a man who decides to become a dog. He transforms himself one limb and one organ at a time, mapping the effects of the canine body across a human form in a kind of diagramming. Since dogs are quadrupeds, he ties shoes to his hands and feet. When his paws prevent him from lacing the fourth shoe, he uses his mouth, which becomes a dog's snout. This metamorphosis almost succeeds, until the hero comes to the dog's tail, for which he can find no analogue among human limbs. For him to involve his sexual organ in this transmogrification would tear him away from the society that he has begun to flee. Who would he be, if his identity could not be inferred from his anatomy? The story ends with a descent into childhood memories of the protagonist's mother. It appeared in n° 7 of the Revue Minuit alongside texts by Samuel Beckett, Robert Pinget, and Alain Robbe-Grillet. It served as inspiration for discussion by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari in A Thousand Plateaus.

Several years later, Vladimir Slepian renamed himself Eric Pid. He explained his new French name as an anagram of the blind king Oedipus, alluding to blindness at the etymological origins of his Russian family name. In his later years, Slepian succeeded at having his dramatic text staged as an interpolation in A quand Agamemnon ?, an adaptation of Aeschylus' Agamemnon by Philippe Brunet and Demodocos, a band of young artists specialized in classical theatre, performed in French, Latin and/or ancient Greek. He went around Paris, distributing framed photographs of this performance for wall display at restaurants. On 7 July 1998, Slepian collapsed on a sidewalk at Saint-Germain des Prés. The cause of his death is variously reported as hunger and a cardiac crisis. He was buried as an indigent, at the state's expense.

Vladimir Slepian's life served as inspiration for Viktor Atemian, the protagonist of 2007 feature film L'Homme qui marche by Aurélia Georges.

External links
 Memorial page of Vladimir Slepian, in Russian
 Commemoration of Vladimir Slepian, with an extract from Fils de chien, in French
 An anonymous exhibition of paintings by Vladimir Slepian in Paris' Right Bank Galerie Daniel Cordier, Time magazine
 L'Homme qui marche at IMDb
 Slepian's painting at the Tretyakov Gallery
  Demodocos

References

1930 births
1998 deaths
Russian male artists
Russian male writers
French artists
Jewish artists
Jewish writers
French male writers
20th-century French male writers

Vladimir Slepian


Edward F. Daas (May 30, 1879 – May 2, 1962) was an American amateur journalist.

Daas joined the United Amateur Press Association within a year of its founding in 1895. In 1907 he was elected President and held the post one year. He also served as Official Editor in 1913 and 1915.

A lifelong resident of Milwaukee, Wisconsin (except for a brief stay in Washington, District of Columbia 1918-1920), he was instrumental in forming a local amateur press club there. At the time of his death, he was serving as UAPA Secretary.

References

American male journalists
1962 deaths
1879 births

Edward F. Daas


Ganguela (pronunciation: gang'ela) or Nganguela is the name of a small ethnic group living in Angola.

All of these people live on agriculture, on the upbreeding of small animals, and from gathering wild fruit, honey and other eatable items. Each group has their own language.

Ethnic groups in Africa

Ganguela


State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America is a collection of pieces about the United States, with one essay on each of the fifty states. It was conceived of and edited by Matt Weiland and Sean Wilsey.

Background
Weiland and Wilsey stated that they were inspired by the Federal Writers Project of the 1930s, in which the US government helped to create jobs by sending writers across the country and commissioning pieces on their sights and experiences. The two previously edited Thinking Fan's Guide to the World Cup, in which they commissioned 32 authors to write pieces on the 32 countries competing in the 2006 World Cup; they decided a similar approach could be taken with the United States.

Both Weiland and Wilsey decided that they wanted a mixture of approaches for the collection; while several well-known authors (e.g., Ha Jin, Jhumpa Lahiri, Dave Eggers) were included, they deliberately avoided certain authors that were closely associated with a particular state - for instance, Garrison Keillor with Minnesota, or Carl Hiaasen with Florida. The collection has a mix of familiarity, with some authors writing about places in which they have lived their entire lives, while others visited the state for the first time.

Editing process
Editors Matt Weiland and Sean Wilsey both agree that they were heavy, interactive editors. "I mean no dishonor to any of the writers to say that we worked very closely with them all to revise as much as possible, to make every piece as lasting and solid and convincing as possible," Weiland told Bookslut. "And I take great pride in that kind of work. I've done it on The Baffler and on Granta and now at The Paris Review. And to Sean, likewise, that means a lot to him—he did it at The New Yorker and continues to do it for McSweeney's....I think [the writers] saw very quickly we wanted to make a book that would still be read decades from now...and that meant...not even taking their A-minus work, but pushing them for their absolute best." Each essay, Weiland said, went through at least six rounds of edits.

Editorial point of view
Weiland told Bookslut that State by State had served for both its editors as "a kind of reminder of the many things we [as Americans] have to be confident about.... Despite many reasons not to feel optimistic, chiefly during the last eight years of the Bush administration—deep down, I think we're all right." Wilsey told Brooklyn Rail that he was sorry the late David Foster Wallace had declined to be in the book: "Nobody gets at what makes America the extravagantly sad country it is like Wallace did." Asked whether he hates any states, Wilsey replied, "I hate Maine. I hate New England. It's so claustrophobic, no vistas, the landscape is constantly choking you. The people in New England just don't seem kind; they're all hardened and beaten down by the harsh winters. As a Californian, you're not always kind, but you're always nice, and within the framework of niceness you can either be mellow or stoked. I'm a stoked Californian. New England somehow flattens that. Granted, I went to boarding school there for three years, and those were some of the worst years of my life, so that's probably a big part of my dislike for it."

Presentation to Barack Obama

As he documented in an essay for The Guardian, Sean Wilsey personally presented a copy of State by State to Barack Obama in late 2008. Wilsey was invited to attend an event after donating his portion of the advance for the book to Obama's campaign. "When he turned to shake my hand, for some reason I chose to address him by his first name, saying, 'Barack, I brought you this book.'" Six photographs were taken of the handover. "As I handed it to him I was thinking we, all of us, did this for you. I think you can see that in the [accompanying] picture." Obama was very interested in the book and began reading it in front of Wilsey.

Distribution to schools and related coverage

Select institutions received complimentary copies of State by State. Many educators received the book with respectful interest and enthusiasm. On the website The Millions, a teacher asked whether he should assign the book in his 21st century literature class. It was one of four tomes he was considering; the others were "[Charles] Bock's Beautiful Children, [Joshua] Ferris' Then We Came to the End, and Brock Clarke's An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England. "My students are really intelligent, and so just about anything is fair game." Millions contributor Edan Lepucki responded, "Of the four you're considering teaching, I think State by State is the best, since it showcases so many great writers. While I enjoyed Joshua Ferris's Then We Came to the End, I think a workplace narrative would be lost on most teenagers."

Professor Tyler Cowen, on the site Marginal Revolution: Small Steps to a Much Better World, noted that he was thinking of assigning State by State to his graduate students at Berlin's Freie Universität along with Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America.

Manhattan's progressive Calhoun School used State by State for its Upper School students in 2012 as required summer reading. The school assigned fifteen essays, two of which are graphic essays, or comic strips. "There's interesting material in every essay and we are certain that this book will spark a wide variety of interesting conversations between students, teachers and parents," the school noted on its website.

Matt Weiland and two of his writers were hosted by a Milwaukee high school for a reading at an assembly. "I wasn't sure what high school students would make of it, but we were careful to select the pieces with the most drinking and the most sex," Weiland told Bookslut. Columbia, the alumni magazine of Columbia University, of which Weiland is a graduate, profiled him in an article called "This Land Is Weiland" and praised him as "a consummate intellectual".

Essays

 Alabama - George Packer
 Alaska - Paul Greenberg
 Arizona - Lydia Millet
 Arkansas - Kevin Brockmeier
 California - William T. Vollmann
 Colorado - Benjamin Kunkel
 Connecticut - Rick Moody
 Delaware - Craig Taylor
 Florida - Joshua Ferris
 Georgia - Ha Jin
 Hawaii - Tara Bray Smith
 Idaho - Anthony Doerr
 Illinois - Dave Eggers
 Indiana - Susan Choi
 Iowa - Dagoberto Gilb
 Kansas - Jim Lewis
 Kentucky - John Jeremiah Sullivan
 Louisiana - Joshua Clark
 Maine - Heidi Julavits
 Maryland - Myla Goldberg
 Massachusetts - John Hodgman
 Michigan - Mohammed Naseehu Ali
 Minnesota - Philip Connors
 Mississippi - Barry Hannah
 Missouri - Jacki Lyden
 Montana - Sarah Vowell
 Nebraska - Alexander Payne
 Nevada - Charles Bock
 New Hampshire - Will Blythe
 New Jersey - Anthony Bourdain
 New Mexico - Ellery Washington
 New York - Jonathan Franzen
 North Carolina - Randall Kenan
 North Dakota - Louise Erdrich
 Ohio - Susan Orlean
 Oklahoma - S. E. Hinton
 Oregon - Joe Sacco
 Pennsylvania - Andrea Lee
 Rhode Island - Jhumpa Lahiri
 South Carolina - Jack Hitt
 South Dakota - Said Sayrafiezadeh
 Tennessee - Ann Patchett
 Texas - Cristina Henríquez
 Utah - David Rakoff
 Vermont - Alison Bechdel
 Virginia - Tony Horwitz
 Washington - Carrie Brownstein
 West Virginia - Jayne Anne Phillips
 Wisconsin - Daphne Beal
 Wyoming - Alexandra Fuller

Afterword: Washington, D.C. - A Conversation with Edward P. Jones

External links
 Interview at WorldHum
 New York Times review

2008 non-fiction books
2008 anthologies
Essay anthologies
Books about the United States
HarperCollins books

State by State


SSL International plc was a British manufacturer of healthcare products. Its best known brands were Durex and Scholl; other significant brands were Sauber and Mister Baby. The company's name was an abbreviation of Seton Scholl London International, its predecessor businesses. The company was founded in 1929 and was listed on the London Stock Exchange. In November 2010, SSL International was folded into Reckitt Benckiser.

Background

Scholl plc

Dr. Scholl's was founded in 1906, by Chicago-based podiatrist William M Scholl. Opening its first shop in London in 1913, after the death of Dr Scholl it was listed publicly on the New York Stock Exchange in 1972, and became a member of the Fortune 500. Bought by Schering-Plough in 1978, the company sold the global brand and non-North American operations to Basingstoke-based home appliance electrical manufacturer European Home Products in 1984.

London Rubber Company
The London Rubber Company was founded in 1915 by LA Jackson, selling imported condoms and barber shop supplies. Subsequently renamed London International Group (LIG) plc, it developed a consumer based product portfolio, spanning health and beauty products including Durex, medical markets with Regent surgical gloves, and business-to-business with Marigold Industrial Gloves.

Seton Healthcare plc
Seton Healthcare plc was founded in 1952 by Ivor Stoller, selling tubular bandages. The company floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1990 and, in 1992, it added over the counter consumer drugs to its portfolio when it bought Blackburn-based patent medicines maker Cupal - and with it brands including Cuprofen, Full Marks Mousse and Meltus - for the equivalent of $12.4 million, as well as acquiring the rights to manufacture and market Betadine antiseptics.

Merger of Seton and Scholl
In July 1998, Scholl and Seton merged to become Seton Scholl plc. In 1999, Seton Scholl and LIG merged to become Seton Scholl London International Group plc, shortened to SSL International. The integration of these two businesses was led by Stuart Wallis, the first chairman of SSL, who left the company in 2001.

From 2002 to 2004 the company disposed of its medical and industrial products to focus on its two main brands as part of a "strategic repositioning". The first major diversification was of 21 OTC brands to Thornton & Ross Limited in March 2002. Marigold Industrial Gloves was sold to Comasec SAS in November 2003. The wound management products were sold to Medlock Medical Limited (owned by Apax Partners) in May 2004. Regent Infection Control (makers of Biogel surgical gloves and Hibi antiseptics) was also sold to a business owned by Apax Partners in May 2004 for £173 million. The final sale was of the minor Silipos business to Langer Inc in October 2004.

In November 2007 the company acquired Orthaheel, an Australian business selling insoles designed and marketed by podiatrist Phillip Vasyli.
In 2008, the company acquired Crest Condoms, a Swiss based condom brand.

Takeover
By the beginning of 2010, the company was listed on the FTSE 250, and had a commercial presence in over thirty countries, and manufacturing plants in the United Kingdom, Spain, China, India, Thailand and CIS. In July 2010, SSL agreed to be bought by household products company Reckitt Benckiser in a £2.5 billion deal. The takeover was completed in November 2010 and SSL was then folded into Reckitt Benckiser.

References

External links
 Durex subsidiary site
 Scholl subsidiary site

Health care companies of the United Kingdom
Companies formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange
Defunct companies based in London
Multinational companies
Health care companies established in 1999
British companies disestablished in 2010
Reckitt
2010 mergers and acquisitions
British companies established in 1999
Health care companies disestablished in 2010

SSL International


Cécile Andrée Paule DeWitt-Morette (21 December 1922 – 8 May 2017) was a French mathematician and physicist. She founded a summer school at Les Houches in the French Alps. For this and her publications, she was awarded the American Society of the French Legion of Honour 2007 Medal for Distinguished Achievement. Attendees at the summer school included over twenty students who would go on to be Nobel Prize winners, including Pierre-Gilles de Gennes, Georges Charpak, and Claude Cohen-Tannoudji, who identify the school for assisting in their success.

Biography
Cécile Morette was born in 1922 and brought up in Normandy, where in 1943 she earned her License des Science from the University of Caen.

Despite her original intention to become a surgeon, she completed her degree in mathematics, physics, and chemistry due to limited opportunities to attend medical school in France during World War II.

Following the completion of her bachelor's degree, Morette entered the University of Paris. She was studying there when her mother, sister, and grandmother were killed in the Allied bombing of Caen to support the D-Day landings.  In 1944, while still working toward her doctorate at the University of Paris, Morette took a job at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, then under the direction of Frederic Joliot-Curie. She worked as a scholar at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies from 1946 to 1947. In 1947, she completed her Ph.D. (Sur la production des mésons dans les chocs entre nucléons).

In 1948 she was invited to the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey by Robert Oppenheimer, who had recently become director of the institute. While there, she became interested in Richard Feynman's path integral method for computations in quantum mechanics and worked to make this approach rigorous, which ultimately led to wide applications of the Feynman diagrams and the underlying mathematics. She also met her future husband and scientific collaborator, American physicist Bryce DeWitt while at IAS; the couple married in 1951, and would have four children.

To revitalize French research in mathematics and physics following the war, DeWitt-Morette established a summer school at Les Houches in the French Alps in 1951.  She told stories of how she obtained the funding by tricking her way into a minister's office and then persuaded her male colleagues to support the idea by pretending that the idea was theirs.

Morette was to lead this school for the next 22 years. The school was able to list twenty former students or lecturers at the school who went on to become Nobel laureates. The French mathematician Alain Connes, who is a recipient of the Fields Medal, credited the summer school as responsible for his career in mathematics. Nobel laureates Pierre-Gilles de Gennes, Georges Charpak, and Claude Cohen-Tannoudji identified the school as helping with their success. In 1958, NATO funded a series of advanced study centres that were based on Morette's summer school. In 1987, Cecile DeWitt-Morette participated in a Quantum Gravity Seminar in Moscow together with her husband.

Bryce DeWitt died in 2004 from cancer. In 2007, DeWitt-Morette was awarded the American Society of the French Legion of Honour 2007 Medal for Distinguished Achievement in New York. She was then the Jane and Roland Blumberg Centennial Professor Emerita of Physics at the University of Texas at Austin.

Work
In 1953 a trustee of the unusual Gravity Research Foundation, Agnew Bahnson, contacted Bryce DeWitt with a proposal to fund a gravity research institute. The proposed name was agreed as the "Institute for Field Physics" and it was established in 1956 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill under the direction of Bryce and Morette. "She was an instructor in the department from 1956-1971 but was offered a position at the University of Texas at Austin after UNC failed to promote her despite her significant contributions to physics and the department. The DeWitts then left together with their students in January of 1972."

In 1958 Cécile DeWitt-Morette invited Léon Motchane to see the Institute of Advanced Study in USA which inspired Léon Motchane to establish an institute dedicated to fundamental research in three areas: mathematics, theoretical physics, and the methodology of human sciences upon which he later created the Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques.

Expedition to test general relativity
In 1972 Morette and her husband led an expedition to Mauritania to confirm that light was deflected in line with the theory of general relativity, to improve on Arthur Eddington's 1919 experiment. These measurements were made during the solar eclipse there. Comparison of the pictures with those made six months later confirmed that, in line with theory, light was indeed bent when passing by massive objects. Morette and her husband joined the faculty of the University of Texas in 1972. She began to work increasingly in physics rather than in mathematics, and she became a Professor in 1985.

Awards and honors
In 2007 Professor Cécile DeWitt-Morette was awarded the American Society of the French Legion of Honour 2007 Medal for Distinguished Achievement in New York. She was then the Jane and Roland Blumberg Centennial Professor Emerita of Physics at the University of Texas at Austin.

Selected works
L'Energie Atomique, de Gigord, Paris (1946)
Cross-Sections for Production of Artificial Mesons, C. Morette and H.W. Peng, Nature 160 (1947) 59-60
Particules Elémentaires, Hermann, Paris (1951)
Black holes (Cécile DeWitt-Morette, Bryce Seligman DeWitt, 1973)
(With Y. Choquet-Bruhat and M. Dillard-Bleick) Analysis, Manifolds and Physics, (1977)
I.T. for Intelligent Grandmothers, (1987)
(With Y. Choquet-Bruhat) Analysis, Manifolds, and Physics. Part II. (1989)
Quantum field theory: perspective and prospective (1999)  (Cécile DeWitt-Morette, Jean-Bernard Zuber, eds.)
(With P. Cartier) Functional Integration, Action and Symmetries (2006)

References

External links
 Interview: Cécile DeWitt-Morette, seniorwomen.com; accessed 14 July 2015.
 Oral history interview transcript with Bryce DeWitt and Cecile DeWitt-Morette on February 28 1995, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library & Archives
"From Wartime Devastation To Academic Discrimination, Cecile DeWitt-Morette Overcame It All", Forbes magazine memoriam, June 20, 2017

1922 births
2017 deaths
20th-century French mathematicians
20th-century French physicists
20th-century women mathematicians
20th-century French women scientists
French women physicists
Knights of the Ordre national du Mérite
Scientists from Paris
French expatriates in the United States
Fellows of the American Physical Society
Academics of the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies

Cécile DeWitt-Morette


Lambros Demetrios Callimahos (December 16, 1910 – October 28, 1977) was a US Army cryptologist and a flute player.

Early life and education
Callimahos was born in Alexandria of Greek parents; the family emigrated to the United States when he was four. His father was a journalist.

His main interests at school were in chemistry, physics and medicine. He did not show interest in music until the age of fourteen when he entered high school in Asbury Park.

Callimahos earned a degree in law from Rutgers in accord with his fathers' wishes, but attended Juilliard music school at the age of nineteen and graduated with a degree in 1933. While he started at the bottom of the class, he became head of his class in his second year after encouragement from his teacher, Arthur Lora. After graduation, he continued study in Europe.

Musical career
His musical debut was in Munich in 1935 and was heralded as Meisterfloetist. He also played in Vienna and that autumn played an all-Bach programme in Munich, consisting of the seven sonatas and his own transcription for flute and harpsichord of the B-Minor suite. He had a two-year tour of recitals in Europe and was appointed to a professorship in the Mozarteum. Two CDs of his performances were recorded and released.

In April 1937, he had his first United States debut in The Town Hall. He continued to tour both in Europe and the United States.

World War II
He joined the United States Army in 1941, hoping his interest in cryptology could be put to service.

He taught Italian and cryptanalysis at Fort Monmouth. He enrolled in a Japanese course and eventually served as a Signals Intelligence officer in New Delhi.

Later career
After World War II, he was assigned to the Army Security Agency as assistant to William F. Friedman. When the National Security Agency was formed, both men joined it. During the 1950s he developed the course CA-400, an expansion of Friedman's own intensive-study course. Graduates of the course became members of the Dundee Society. As part of this course he devised the Zendian Problem. He also revised some of Friedman's own work to produce the text Military Cryptanalytics.

In 1955, he established the NSA Technical Journal and served as technical advisor for the rest of his career.

Health problems forced his retirement in 1976.

References

External links
NSA pdf about the Legacy of Lambros D. Callimahos at the NSA

1910 births
1977 deaths
Signals Intelligence Service cryptographers
United States Army personnel of World War II
National Security Agency cryptographers
Egyptian emigrants to the United States

Lambros D. Callimahos


Stephanie Kalesavich Buono (born May 31, 1984) is an American former competitive pair skater. With Aaron Parchem, she is the 2000 Golden Spin of Zagreb champion and the 2001 Nebelhorn Trophy bronze medalist. They competed at one ISU Championship, the 2002 Four Continents, where they placed fifth.

Personal life
Stephanie Kalesavich was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. She married Michael Buono in around 2005 and has three daughters, Gabriella, Aria and Liliana.

Career
Kalesavich began skating at age eight. In 1997, she won a U.S. national title on the novice level with Amaan Archer. The pair competed at one ISU Junior Grand Prix event, in the autumn of 1998.

Coaches at the Detroit Skating Club paired Kalesavich with Aaron Parchem in March 1999. The pair won the junior title at the 2000 U.S. Championships with all first-place ordinals in the free skate.

In 2001, Kalesavich/Parchem began competing internationally and won a pewter medal at the 2001 U.S. Championships. The following year, the pair placed second after the short program, but were narrowly edged out for the silver by Scott/Dulebohn after the free skate. As bronze medalists, Kalesavich/Parchem were named the first Olympic alternates in that year. Their partnership ended just after the 2003 U.S. Championships.

Kalesavich coaches young skaters of all levels at the Onyx-Suburban Skating Academy in Rochester and Macomb Township, Michigan.

Programs
(with Parchem)

Results

With Archer

With Parchem

References

1984 births
American female pair skaters
Living people
Sportspeople from Ann Arbor, Michigan
Competitors at the 2001 Goodwill Games
20th-century American sportswomen
21st-century American sportswomen

Stephanie Kalesavich


Dirk II or Theoderic II (920/930 – 6 May 988) was a count in West Frisia, and ancestor of the counts of Holland. He was the son and heir of Dirk I and his wife Geva (or Gerberge).

Career
In 983 Emperor Otto III confirmed Dirk's rights within the Duchy of Lower Lorraine to properties and territories in the counties of Maasland, Kinhem (Kennemerland) and Texla (Texel), thus stretching along the entire Hollandic coast, as well as inland. Count Dirk II built a fortress near Vlaardingen, which was later the site of the Battle of Vlaardingen between his grandson Dirk III and an Imperial army under Godfrey II, Duke of Lower Lorraine.

Starting in 950, Dirk II rebuilt Egmond Abbey and its wooden church in stone, in order to house the relics of Saint Adalbert. Adalbert was not well known at that time, but he was said to have preached Christianity in the region two centuries earlier. The abbey was given to a community of Benedictine monks from Ghent, who replaced the nuns originally housed there, probably in the 970s. His daughter Erlint, Erlinde or Herlinde, who was abbess at the time, was made abbess of the newly founded Bennebroek Abbey instead.

Family
Dirk married Hildegarde who is thought to be a daughter of Count Arnulf of Flanders, based on the names of her children. They had three known children. His son Arnulf became Count of Holland and Frisia after Dirk's death.  The younger son Egbert became Archbishop of Trier in 977. His daughter Erlinde (or Herlinde) was an abbess.

Dirk died in 988 and was buried in the stone church at Egmond Abbey. Hildegard died two years later and was also buried there.

References
 Geerts.com: History of Holland
 Frisia Coast Trail: The Abbey of Egmond and the Rise of the Gerulfings

10th-century births
988 deaths
Counts of Holland
Counts of Frisia
10th-century counts in Europe
Burials at Egmond Abbey

Dirk II, Count of Holland


DFMA stands for design for manufacture and assembly. DFMA is the combination of two methodologies; design for manufacture, which means the design for ease of manufacture of the parts that will form a product, and design for assembly, which means the design of the product for ease of assembly deriving creative ideas at the same time.

Usage
DFMA is used as the basis for concurrent engineering studies to provide guidance to the design team in simplifying the product structure, to reduce manufacturing and assembly costs, and to quantify improvements. The practice of applying DFMA is to identify, quantify and eliminate waste or inefficiency in a product design. DFMA is therefore a component of lean manufacturing. DFMA is also used as a benchmarking tool to study competitors' products, and as a should cost tool to assist in supplier negotiations.

Software
DFMA is the name of the integrated set of software products from Boothroyd Dewhurst, Inc. that are used by companies to implement the DFMA methodology. DFMA is a registered trademark of Boothroyd Dewhurst, Inc.

Notes

References
 "DFMA Takes a Back-to-Basics Product Simplification Strategy to Cut Costs" September 2010 article from Design News magazine
 "DFMA Hits the Jackpot" July 2010 article from Desktop Engineering magazine
 Official European DFMA Site
 DFMA Official Site

Product development
Design

DFMA


KOERS. Museum van de wielersport. (till 2018 the Cycling Museum - WieMu) is a museum in the Belgian city of Roeselare. The museum shows the history of the bicycle and cycling. The museum started officially on 27 March 1998 at 'Het Polenplein', in the earlier fire-station.

History

The Cycling Museum was founded in 1985 as part of the earlier Municipal Museum of Roeselare. The city of Roeselare took that decision because the region can be seen as 'the cradle of the flandriens'. A lot of flandriens and racing cyclists are born in the region. The municipality proper has known a lot of popular racing cyclists for example Odiel Defraeye, the first Belgian winner of the Tour of France and several world-champions: Jean-Pierre Monseré, Benoni Beheyt, Patrick Sercu, Freddy Maertens… In the beginning, the museum only showed a few old bicycles and organised an exhibition in summer.

Replacement
In 1998, they made the final decision to replace the old folkloristic museum for a real Cycling Museum, the National Cycling Museum. Ferdy Callewaert was the first conservator till he retired in 2006. Old-racing cyclist Freddy Maertens worked from 2000 till 2007 at the museum and he welcomed often the visitors. In 2005 King Albert II visited the museum. In 2010 the museum got the short name 'WieMu'.

2018 renewal
After a renovation, the museum re-opened on 8 September 2018. The new name of the museum is "KOERS. Museum van de wielersport". At the museum, there are also the municipal touristic service and a pub.

Collection

The museum shows the history of bicycles from 1760 till now: all sorts of old bicycles and modern bicycles used for professional duties, leisure and sport. In the beginning, that was the heart of the collection of the cycling museum. After some years, the museum became more and more specialized in cycle-racing. So the museum has a lot of racing-bicycles, cycling-trophies and -souvenirs, cycling-clothes, portraits of racing cyclists etc.

Halls
In one of the halls, you find a lot about the local world-champion Jean-Pierre Monseré, who lost his life as world-champion during a race in 1971. Another hall shows an old workshop of bicycle-maker Hallaert where you can learn about the technical evolution of the bicycle.

Documents
The cycling museum has a documentation center about cycling with a lot of photos, old newspapers and (cycling-)magazines, programme brochures and cycling archives. The museum publishes regular exhibition catalogues or books of exercises. Since 2012 the museum publishes the cycling-historic magazine 'Etappe'.

Building

The museum 'WieMu' is in the earlier fire-station. The station was built between 1899 and 1902. Till 1962 it was a fire-station. During World War I, German soldiers lived in the station. On 21 July 1917, it was bombed by British aircrafts. After the war it was rebuilt. The building was also used for several public services such as a festive hall, a school, sportaccommodation and a folkloristic museum. The building is now a classified monument and partly restored.

Buildings and structures in Belgium
1998 establishments in Europe
1990s establishments in Belgium

National Cycling Museum


Heart of Glass () is a 1976 German film directed and produced by Werner Herzog, set in 18th century Bavaria. The film was written by Herzog, based partly on a story by Herbert Achternbusch. The main character is Hias, based on the legendary Bavarian prophet Mühlhiasl.

Plot
The setting is an 18th-century Bavarian town with a glassblowing factory that produces a brilliant ruby glass. When the master glass blower dies, the secret of producing it is lost. The local Baron, who owns the factory, is obsessed with the ruby glass and believes it to have magical properties. With the loss of the secret, he descends into madness along with the rest of the townspeople. The main character is Hias, a seer from the hills, who predicts the destruction of the factory in a fire.

Production
During shooting, almost all of the actors performed while under hypnosis. Every actor in every scene was hypnotized, with the exception of the character Hias and the professional glassblowers who appear in the film. The hypnotized actors give very strange performances, which Herzog intended to suggest the trance-like state of the townspeople in the story. Herzog provided the actors with most of their dialogue, memorised during hypnosis. However, many of the hypnotised actors' gestures and movements occurred spontaneously during filming.

The majority of the film was shot in Bavaria, just a few miles from where Herzog was raised in the remote village of Sachrang (nestled in the Chiemgau Alps), and also at a nearby village in Switzerland. Other brief shots of landscape scenes were filmed in various locations around the world that Herzog scouted out, including Yellowstone National Park. The conclusion of the film was shot on the Skellig Islands.

Herzog, along with other members of the crew, has a cameo as one of the men carrying a load of ruby glass to the river.

References
Notes

Bibliography
 "Heart of Glass" (Skellig Edition, 1976) by Alan Greenberg, including the screenplay by Herzog. English adaptation by Greenberg, with black and white photos also by him.

External links

1976 films
1970s avant-garde and experimental films
1976 drama films
German avant-garde and experimental films
German drama films
West German films
1970s German-language films
Films directed by Werner Herzog
Films scored by Popol Vuh (band)
Films set in the 18th century
Films set in Bavaria
Films about hypnosis
1970s German films

Heart of Glass (film)


Sandstorm is an autonomous vehicle created by Carnegie Mellon University's Red Team, for the 2004 and 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge competition. It is a heavily modified 1986 M998 HMMWV.

Sandstorm qualified in first position in the 2004 DARPA Grand Challenge.  It traveled the fastest and farthest (7.4 miles) during the race before high centering on an embankment.

The sensors used by Sandstorm in 2004 included three fixed LIDAR laser-ranging units, one steerable LIDAR (in the globe on top), a radar unit (developed in collaboration with the Duke University Robotics Team), and a pair of cameras for stereo vision.  Sandstorm also had an Applanix POS/LV system, providing a GPS and inertial navigation system for determining geographical position.

Since the 2004 race Sandstorm has been continually tested and modified, logging hundreds of test miles.  Testing includes an unprecedented continuous 200 mile test run at an average of 28 miles per hour.

The 2005 version of Sandstorm used six fixed LIDAR units, the steerable LIDAR, and short- and long-range radar.

Sandstorm competed in the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge on October 8, qualifying third from the pole position behind Stanley and finished in 7 hours, 5 minutes, placing 2nd out of the five vehicles to complete the 132-mile course.

See also
 H1ghlander - Sandstorm's sister vehicle

External links

 Carnegie Mellon Red Team Racing
 2004 Technical Paper

Experimental self-driving cars
Carnegie Mellon University
DARPA Grand Challenge

Sandstorm (vehicle)