David A. Gross is an American lawyer and former U.S. Coordinator for International Communications and Information Policy at the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs.

He is currently a partner in the communications practice of Wiley Rein LLP where he assists U.S. companies seeking to enter or expand international businesses, as well as non-U.S. companies and organizations seeking to invest in, monitor, and understand the U.S. market. Gross also advises foreign companies on non-U.S. countries and opportunities and informs clients regarding the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), and other international bodies.

Department of State
Prior to joining Wiley Rein, Gross served as the U.S. Coordinator for International Communications and Information Policy at the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs from 2001 to 2009. He was responsible for the formulation and advocacy of international communications policy for the United States. He was appointed by President George W. Bush and unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate for the rank of Ambassador.

While at the Department of State, Gross led U.S. delegations to several major international telecommunications conferences, including the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Plenipotentiary Conference (2002, 2006), ITU World Telecommunication Development Conferences (2002, 2006) and ITU World Telecommunication Standardization Assemblies (2004, 2008).  He also led U.S. delegations to three APEC Ministerial Meetings in Shanghai, Lima, and Bangkok.

Gross was the head U.S. government negotiator and head of the delegation for the multilateral preparatory conferences for both phases of the United Nations' "Heads of State" World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) and was a member of the UN Information and Communications Technologies Task Force and co-led the U.S. delegation to the formal Summits in Geneva (2003) and Tunis (2005). Gross also led interagency telecommunications delegations to many countries, conducted bilateral discussions at senior levels with representatives from more than 70 countries and provided commercial and policy advocacy on behalf of U.S. companies in markets around the world.

Other positions
Gross was the National Executive Director of Lawyers for the 2000 Bush-Cheney presidential campaign and served as Washington Counsel for AirTouch Communications (1994–2000), acquired by Vodafone in 1999. From 1979-1993, he was in private practice at the law firm of Sutherland, Asbill & Brennan.

Personal
Gross received his B.A. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania and received his Juris Doctor (J.D) from Columbia University Law School. He is a member of the District of Columbia Bar. For many years, he has been active with various bar associations, including the Federal Communications Bar Association (in which he serves as President, has twice been elected as an officer, and has often served as co-chair of various committees) and the International Bar Association (in which he has been vice-chair of the Communications Committee).

David Gross father, Robert A. Gross (physicist), was a physicist who led the department of mechanical engineering at Columbia University. From 1982 to 1990, Robert Gross served as dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science. David Gross resides in Bethesda, Maryland, with his wife and nearby son.

References

External links
https://web.archive.org/web/20080709035303/http://www.wileyrein.com/index.cfm

1954 births
Living people
University of Pennsylvania alumni
Columbia Law School alumni
Ambassadors of the United States
Information Technology and Innovation Foundation

David A. Gross


Kokkai-gijidōmae Station (国会議事堂前駅,こっかいぎじどうまええき) is a railway station of Tokyo Metro in Tokyo. This station is also connected by underground passageways to Tameike-Sanno Station. It is also the deepest station on the entire Tokyo Metro system.

"Kokkai-gijidōmae" means "In front of National Diet Building".

Adjacent stations
 Tokyo Metro
  Marunouchi Line
 Akasaka-mitsuke(M 13) - Kokkai-gijido-mae(M 14) - Kasumigaseki(M 15)
  Chiyoda Line
Akasaka(C 06) - Kokkai-gijido-mae(C 07) - Kasumigaseki(C 08)

Other websites

 Kokkai-gijidomae Station information (Tokyo Metro)

Railway stations in Tokyo

Kokkai-gijidō-mae Station


Ferdinand "Andy" Geiger (born March 23, 1939) is a former athletic director at six different institutions, most recently holding that position from May 10, 2012, to August 30, 2013, at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. His most notable time as an athletic director was when he spent 11 years at the helm of the largest athletic department in the US at Ohio State University, during some of which time he was flanked by controversy over various dealings regarding the former OSU running back, Maurice Clarett.

Biography
A native of Syracuse, New York, Geiger graduated from Syracuse University in 1961 and was a member of the crew team as an undergraduate. He also was a member of the US squad that won a gold medal in the 1959 Pan American Games.

After graduation, Geiger accepted the job of freshman rowing coach at Dartmouth College in 1961. His first administrative role was as an assistant athletics director at his alma mater in 1964. He left Syracuse in 1970 to become assistant commissioner of the Eastern College Athletic Conference.

In 1971, at age 32, Geiger became athletics director at Brown University. He held that position until 1975, when he moved to the University of Pennsylvania in a similar capacity.

Geiger accepted the head athletics position at Stanford University in 1979. During his 11-year stay at the Pac-10 school, Stanford won a total of 27 national championships and was considered one of the leading programs in intercollegiate athletics.

In 1990, Geiger left Stanford to take over a Maryland program that was on NCAA probation. He spent a little more than three years at Maryland, working to return the athletics department to stability.

On April 29, 1994, Geiger was named athletic director at Ohio State. He officially assumed the position on May 16, 1994, succeeding the former NACDA president Jim Jones.

Geiger's enduring legacy in Columbus was a building program, sometimes referred to as "Andy-land", that resulted in a number of new athletic facilities on campus, most notably the 4,450-seat Bill Davis Stadium for baseball, the 10,000-seat Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium for track, soccer and lacrosse and the 19,200-seat Schottenstein Center for basketball and hockey as well as a $194 million renovation and expansion of Ohio Stadium in 1999 and 2000. The resulting debt service on "the Schott" was so burdensome that operation of the building was eventually transferred to the Office of Student Life which was in a better position to service the debt.

Geiger hired both Jim Tressel and Thad Matta as the head coaches to the American football team and men's basketball team respectively.

Controversy
As a result of his decision in 2003 to end Maurice Clarett's football scholarship because of alleged violations of the amateur clause, Geiger was widely criticized. Jim Brown came to Clarett's defense. Brown went as far as to refer to Geiger as a "slave master".

On January 1, 2005, it was announced that Geiger would retire as athletic director with effect from June 30, 2005, and would remain with the university until June 2006. Geiger was an honorary captain for the Buckeyes for their September 15, 2007, game when they visited the Washington Huskies.

Geiger was announced as athletic director at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee on May 10, 2012. He became the third athletic director there within a two-year span, succeeding Rick Costello who resigned in April 2012. He was succeeded by Amanda Braun in 2013.

Geiger received the 2009 Homer Rice Award, presented by the Division I-A Athletic Directors' Association, the NACDA FBS Athletics Director of the Year Award for the Northeast Region in 2004, as well as the National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame's John L. Toner Award and the Sports Business Journal Athletics Director of the Year Award, both in 2003.

References

External links
 Andy Geiger: An Oral History, Stanford Historical Society Oral History Program, 2017

1939 births
Living people
Brown Bears athletic directors
Dartmouth Big Green rowing coaches
Maryland Terrapins athletic directors
Milwaukee Panthers athletic directors
Ohio State Buckeyes athletic directors
Penn Quakers athletic directors
Stanford Cardinal athletic directors
Syracuse Orange rowers
Sportspeople from Syracuse, New York

Andy Geiger


The Talofofo River is one of the longest rivers on the Pacific Ocean island of Guam. Rising on the eastern slopes of Mount Lamlam in the island's south-west, it traverses the island in a north-eastward direction, flowing into the sea at Talofofo Bay.

Major features of the river's course include Fena Lake, Guam's largest lake, and the Talofofo Falls. The river has one major tributary, the Ligum River, which joins it close to its mouth.

References

Rivers of Guam
Talofofo, Guam

Talofofo River


2,3-Sigmatropic rearrangements are a type of sigmatropic rearrangements and can be classified into two types. Rearrangements of allylic sulfoxides, amine oxides, selenoxides are neutral. Rearrangements of carbanions of allyl ethers are anionic. The general scheme for this kind of rearrangement is:

Atom Y may be sulfur, selenium, or nitrogen. If Y is nitrogen, the reaction is referred to as the Sommelet–Hauser rearrangement if a quaternary ammonium salt is involved or the aza-Wittig reaction if an alpha-metalated tertiary amine is involved; if Y is oxygen, then it is called a 2,3-Wittig rearrangement (not to be confused with the well-known Wittig reaction, which involves a phosphonium ylide). If Y is sulfur, the product can be treated with a thiophil to generate an allylic alcohol in what is known as the Mislow–Evans rearrangement.

A [2,3]-rearrangement may result in carbon-carbon bond formation. It can also be used as a ring-expansion reaction.

Stereoselectivity
2,3-sigmatropic rearrangements can offer high stereoselectivity. At the newly formed double bond there is a strong preference for formation of the E-alkene or trans isomer product. The stereochemistry of the newly formed C-C bond is harder to predict. It can be inferred from the five-membered ring transition state. Generally, the E-alkene will favor the formation of anti product, while Z-alkene will favor formation of syn product.

Diastereoselectivity can be high for Z-alkene with alkynyl, alkenyl, or aryl anion-stabilizing group. Diastereoselectivity is usually lower with E-alkenes. Hydrocarbon groups will prefer exo orientation in the envelope-like transition state. Anion-stabilizing group will prefer the endo orientation in transition state.

References

Rearrangement reactions
Reaction mechanisms

2,3-sigmatropic rearrangement


The northern white-faced owl (Ptilopsis leucotis) is a species of owl in the family Strigidae. The southern white-faced owl (P. granti) was formerly included in this species and the two were known as the white-faced scops-owl.

It is found in a band across Africa between the Sahara and the Equator. It occurs in Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Togo and Uganda.

Fight-or-flight response
This owl has a rather notable defense mechanism. When faced with a similar-sized predator (like another owl slightly larger than it), the bird flares its wings to appear larger. When faced with something much larger than itself (such as an eagle), it pulls its feathers inwards, elongates its body, and narrows its eyes to thin slits. It is thought that it uses this ability to camouflage itself, and it shares the ability with relatives like the African scops owl.

Many different types of owls have some ability to adopt a "concealing posture", also known by the German word Tarnstellung, in which they squeeze and thin their body to look like a broken tree branch, and some types may also narrow their eyes to slits and fold a wing sideways across their chest in a Dracula-like manner to hide the lighter-colored feathers on their underparts. Such behavior has also been documented in Eastern screech owls in a natural setting reacting to threats.

In popular culture
A member of this species named "Popo-chan" was the subject of a Japanese television show.

The Arknights character Ptilopsis is named and based on the Northern white-faced owl, with some of her art and animations referring to the species.

References
 Sinclair, Ian & Ryan, Peter (2003) Birds of Africa south of the Sahara, Struik, Cape Town.

External links

 Northern white-faced owl - Species text in The Atlas of Southern African Birds.

northern white-faced owl
Birds of prey of Sub-Saharan Africa
northern white-faced owl
Taxonomy articles created by Polbot

Northern white-faced owl


Kathleen McCracken (born 1960 in Markdale, Ontario) is a Canadian poet, who was a shortlisted nominee for the Governor General's Award for English-language poetry at the 1992 Governor General's Awards for her collection Blue Light, Bay and College.

Her other collections have included Reflections (1978), Into Celebration (1980), The Constancy of Objects (1988), A Geography of Souls (2002), Mooncalves (2007), and Tattoo Land (2009), and her poetry has appeared in The Malahat Review, Poetry Canada Review, Exile Quarterly, Poetry Ireland, The Shop, Revival, Abridged, New Orleans Review and Grain.

She has lived in Northern Ireland since 1992, where she teaches English and creative writing at Ulster University.

References

1960 births
20th-century Canadian poets
21st-century Canadian poets
Canadian women poets
Canadian emigrants to the United Kingdom
People from Grey County
York University alumni
Academics of Ulster University
Living people
Canadian expatriate writers
21st-century Canadian women writers
20th-century Canadian women writers

Kathleen McCracken


Asma Bint Shihab al-Sulayhiyya () (died 1087) was the queen and co-ruler of Yemen in co-regency with her cousin and spouse, Ali al-Sulayhi, and later her son Ahmad al-Mukkaram, and daughter-in-law, Arwa al-Sulayhi, from 1047 until 1087. Her full title as sovereign, "al-Sayyida al-Hurrat-ul" translates to "The noble lady who is free and independent, the woman sovereign who bows to no superior authority".  As female sovereign, Asma bint Shihab has an almost unique position in history: though there were more female monarchs in the international Muslim world, Asma bint Shihab and Arwa al-Sulayhi were the only female monarchs in the Muslim Arab world to have had the khutba proclaimed in their name in the mosques as sovereigns.

Life
Asma bint Shihab married her cousin, Ali al-Sulayhi, sultan and founder of the Sulayhid dynasty. The marriage between Ali and Asma was reportedly a happy one, and Ali relied on her support on his way to power and participated in the sacrifices his religious faith placed upon him.

First reign
When Ali became king in 1047, he named her queen, malika, but not merely his consort, but his formally acknowledged co-ruler and political partner, who governed the realm of Yemen by his side.  In recognition of this, her name was proclaimed alongside that of her spouse in the Khutba, the traditional privilege of a sovereign in a Muslim state: 'the khutba was proclaimed from the pulpits of the mosques of Yemen in her husband's name and in her name', after the Fatimid sovereign and her husband: 'May Allah prolong the days of al-Hurra the perfect, who manages the affairs of the faithful with care.'  This was the first time ever in history when the name of a woman had been proclaimed in the khutba. Another almost unique occurrence was that queen Asma bint Shihab "attended councils with her face uncovered", that is to say unveiled.

Muhammad al-Thawr described her: "She was one of the most famous women of her time and one of the most powerful. She was munificent. She was a poetess who composed verses. Among the praises given her husband al-Sulayhi by the poets was the fact that he had her for a wife ... . When he ascertained the perfection of her character, her husband entrusted the management of state business to her. He rarely made decisions that went against her advice and [...]  regarded her with very great respect and never gave any other opinion precedence over hers."

In 1067, during the pilgrimage to Mecca, the Banu Najah clan under Sa'id Ibn Najah, the prince of Zabid, attacked the travel party of Ali and Asma, killed Ali and took Asma prisoner. She was sequestered in a secret prison in Zabid, and reportedly, the severed head of her spouse was planted on a pole visible from her cell. After a year's imprisonment, she managed to get a message through to her son and daughter-in-law in Sa'na, and her son stormed Zabid and freed her.

Second reign
Asma returned to her realm and assisted her son, Ahmad al-Mukkaram, and daughter-in-law, Arwa al-Sulayhi, with the management of the realm until she died.  When she met her son al-Mukarram, she confirmed him as his father's successor, but when he was paralyzed shortly afterward, she retook control as the co-regent of the realm together with her daughter-in-law Arwa, who was to be her co-ruler in accordance with the will of her son, as he was himself unable to rule because of his condition.

Legacy
Queen Asma was sometime affectionally referred to as the Little Queen of Sheba, according to  Muhammad al-Thawr, "Some poets, carried away by their admiration of Asma, went so far as to declaim that if the throne of the queen of Sheba had been magnificent, that of Asma was still more so."  This is somewhat remarkable, as the queen of Sheba belonged to the jahiliyya, the time before Islam, which was traditionally viewed as a negative one. Another name used both for her and her daughter-in-law and co-regent was malika hazima: malika means queen, and hazim was an epithet awarded people regarded to have shown the utmost wisdom and judgement in political affairs.

References

Sources

External links
 Worldwide Guide to Women in Leadership. Heads of State of Yemen

1087 deaths
Arab queens
Musta'li Isma'ilism
Monarchs of Yemen
Sulayhid dynasty
Year of birth unknown
Yemeni Ismailis
11th-century women rulers
11th century in Yemen
11th-century Arab people
11th-century Ismailis
11th-century Yemeni people
Queens regnant in Asia

Asma bint Shihab


The word Midweek normally refers to the middle of the week. It can also refer to:

MidWeek, a newspaper based in Hawaii
Midweek, a topical political series airing weekly on TV3 (Ireland)
Midweek (BBC Radio 4), a BBC radio programme on Radio 4
Midweek, a weekly newspaper covering South Buckinghamshire, England every Tuesday. It is published by the Bucks Free Press, which itself is published weekly on Fridays.

Midweek


Google Play Pass is an app and video game subscription service by Google for Android devices. It was launched on September 23, 2019 in the United States.

History
Google Play Pass was launched on September 23, 2019 in the United States. In July 2020, the service launched in Germany, Australia, and Canada. The service launched in India in March 2022. In late August 2023, Google Play Pass launched in Malaysia and the Philippines.
, the service is available in 100 countries/regions.

Subscribers can access the included apps and games without ads and in-app purchases for a monthly or yearly subscription. There are over 1,000 curated titles available under the service, which range from puzzles to podcasts.

Features
Google Play Pass gives users access to a curated catalog of a variety of apps and games taken directly from the Google Play Store without any ads or the need for additional in-app purchases. Play Pass can be shared with up to five other family members.

App developers who wish to offer their app as part of the subscription can apply to be considered for inclusion in the service and according to Google, "will receive royalties based on algorithmic methods that incorporate signals which capture how users value all types of content".

See also
 Apple Arcade
 GameClub

References

External links

 Official Developer Guide

2019 in video gaming
Pass
Play Pass
Subscription services

Google Play Pass


Great Amwell is a village and civil parish in the East Hertfordshire district, in the county of Hertfordshire, England. It is  southeast of Ware and about  north of London. In 2011 the parish had a population of 2353.

History
On a hill above the church there are some traces of an Iron Age hill fort, but more substantial remains of the earthworks were destroyed by landscaping of the Old Vicarage gardens in about 1840. To the west, on the road to Hertford, is a large tumulus at Barrowfield.

In the Domesday Book of 1086 Great Amwell and neighbouring Little Amwell were a single parish recorded as "Emmewell". By the 17th century, the name of the village was recorded as Amwell Magna, Much Amwell or Great Amwell. The name is probably derived from a spring to the northeast of the village called Emma's Well, which was used by Sir Hugh Myddelton as one of the sources of the New River in the early 17th century. It is believed to have been named after Queen Emma of Normandy, wife of King Cnut the Great. A nearby white stone memorial is inscribed with verses from by the Quaker poet, John Scott of Amwell (1730-1783).

The Church of England parish church is a medieval building dedicated to St John the Baptist. The nave and chancel date from the 11th century with a Norman chancel arch. A bell tower was added in the 15th century and the building was restored in 1866. It is a Grade II* listed building. The stocks in the churchyard date from the 17th or 18th century and were moved there from behind the George IV pub in 1887.

The East India College was founded at the hamlet of Hailey to the south of the parish in 1806, for the education of young men intended for the civil service of the East India Company in India. It was built in the neoclassical style to the design of William Wilkins. When the company was abolished in 1858, the buildings were briefly used as a barracks by the army, but were converted into a public school, Haileybury College, in 1862.

Governance
Great Amwell has three tiers of local government at parish, district, and county level: Great Amwell Parish Council, East Hertfordshire District Council, and Hertfordshire County Council.

Great Amwell was in the hundred of Hertford. The parish was included in the Ware Poor Law Union from 1835. It therefore became part of the Ware Rural District under the Local Government Act 1894. Ware Rural District was abolished in 1974, becoming part of East Hertfordshire.

Transport
The village has no railway station, the nearest being Ware or St Margarets both of which are on the Hertford East branch line which passes through the parish. There are a few bus routes, these are:
Arriva Shires & Essex route 310 Hertford-Waltham Cross which operates every 30 minutes Monday to Friday daytime and,
Arriva Shires & Essex route 311 Hertford-Waltham Cross which operates every 30 minutes Monday to Friday daytime and,
Centrebus route 351 Hertford-Bishops Stortford which operates every two hours Monday to Saturday Daytime and hourly Monday to Friday peak hours,
SM Coaches route 524 Harlow-Hertford which operates hourly Monday to Saturday daytime
Arriva Shires & Essex Green Line route 724 Harlow-Heathrow Airport which operates hourly daily.

Notable people
Great Amwell has been the residence of some celebrated literary characters, among whom are:
 Izaak Walton, (1593–1683), the noted angler;
 John Scott of Amwell, (1730–83), author of several poems and tracts, who built a grotto containing several apartments, which still exists;
 John Hoole, (1727–1803), translator of Tasso and biographer of John Scott of Amwell;
 Rev Robert Scott Mylne FRSE FSSA FSA, (1854-1920), antiquarian, vicar of Amwell, where he is buried in the Mylne vault.

Others buried in Amwell include:
 William Warner, (1558?-1609), poet and historian;
 Alexander Small, (1710-1794), Scottish surgeon and frequent correspondent of Benjamin Franklin;
 Harold Abrahams in 1978, Olympian depicted in Chariots of Fire.

Richard Warren (d. 1628), a passenger on the Mayflower in 1620, who settled in Plymouth Colony and co-signed the Mayflower Compact, was married on 14 April 1610 at Great Amwell to Elizabeth Walker, daughter of Augustine Walker. Richard and Elizabeth are the ancestors of two U.S. Presidents, Ulysses S. Grant and Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

See also
 The Hundred Parishes

References

Further reading
 Heath, Cyril The Book of Amwell Barracuda Books Limited, 1980
 Doree, Stephen and Perman, David  Amwell and Stanstead's Past in Pictures Publisher:  The Rockingham Press 1997,

External links
 Great Amwell Parish Council
 Local Amwell amenities list Provided by Hertfordshire County Council - Accessed February 2007
 Amwell (A Guide to Old Hertfordshire)

Villages in Hertfordshire
Civil parishes in Hertfordshire
East Hertfordshire District

Great Amwell


A blacklight, also called a UV-A light, Wood's lamp, or ultraviolet light,  is a lamp that emits long-wave (UV-A) ultraviolet light and very little visible light.  One type of lamp has a violet filter material, either on the bulb or in a separate glass filter in the lamp housing, which blocks most visible light and allows through UV, so the lamp has a dim violet glow when operating.  Blacklight lamps which have this filter have a lighting industry designation that includes the letters "BLB".  This stands for "blacklight blue".   A second type of lamp produces ultraviolet but does not have the filter material, so it produces more visible light and has a blue color when operating.  These tubes are made for use in "bug zapper" insect traps, and are identified by the industry designation "BL". This stands for "blacklight".

Blacklight sources may be specially designed fluorescent lamps, mercury-vapor lamps, light-emitting diodes (LEDs), lasers, or incandescent lamps.  In medicine, forensics, and some other scientific fields, such a light source is referred to as a Wood's lamp, named after Robert Williams Wood, who invented the original Wood's glass UV filters.

Although many other types of lamp emit ultraviolet light with visible light, black lights are essential when UV-A light without visible light is needed, particularly in observing fluorescence, the colored glow that many substances emit when exposed to UV.  Black lights are employed for decorative and artistic lighting effects, diagnostic and therapeutic uses in medicine, the detection of substances tagged with fluorescent dyes, rock-hunting, scorpion-hunting, the detection of counterfeit money, the curing of plastic resins, attracting insects and the detection of refrigerant leaks affecting refrigerators and air conditioning systems. Strong sources of long-wave ultraviolet light are used in tanning beds.

UV-A presents a potential hazard when eyes and skin are exposed, especially to high power sources. According to the World Health Organization, UV-A is responsible for the initial tanning of skin and it contributes to skin ageing and wrinkling. UV-A may also contribute to the progression of skin cancers. Additionally, UV-A can have negative effects on eyes in both the short-term and long-term.

Types

Fluorescent

Fluorescent black light tubes are typically made in the same fashion as normal fluorescent tubes except that a phosphor that emits UVA light instead of visible white light is used on the inside of the tube.  The type most commonly used for black lights, designated blacklight blue or "BLB" by the industry, has a dark blue filter coating on the tube, which filters out most visible light, so that fluorescence effects can be observed. These tubes have a dim violet glow when operating. They should not be confused with "blacklight" or "BL" tubes, which have no filter coating, and have a brighter blue color. These are made for use in "bug zapper" insect traps where the emission of visible light does not interfere with the performance of the product. The phosphor typically used for a near 368 to 371 nanometer emission peak is either europium-doped strontium fluoroborate (:) or europium-doped strontium borate (:) while the phosphor used to produce a peak around 350 to 353 nanometres is lead-doped barium silicate (:). "Blacklight blue" lamps peak at 365 nm.

Manufacturers use different numbering systems for black light tubes. Philips uses one system which is becoming outdated (2010), while the (German) Osram system is becoming dominant outside North America. The following table lists the tubes generating blue, UVA and UVB, in order of decreasing wavelength of the most intense peak. Approximate phosphor compositions, major manufacturer's type numbers and some uses are given as an overview of the types available. "Peak" position is approximated to the nearest 10 nm. "Width" is the measure between points on the shoulders of the peak that represent 50% intensity.

"Bug zapper" tubes
Another class of UV fluorescent bulb is designed for use in "bug zapper" flying insect traps.  Insects are attracted to the UV light, which they are able to see, and are then electrocuted by the device. These bulbs use the same UV-A emitting phosphor blend as the filtered blacklight, but since they do not need to suppress visible light output, they do not use a purple filter material in the bulb. Plain glass blocks out less of the visible mercury emission spectrum, making them appear light blue-violet to the naked eye. These lamps are referred to by the designation "blacklight" or "BL" in some North American lighting catalogs.  These types are not suitable for applications which require the low visible light output of "BLB" tubes lamps.

Incandescent

A black light may also be formed by simply using a UV filter coating such as Wood's glass on the envelope of a common incandescent bulb. This was the method that was used to create the very first black light sources. Although incandescent black light bulbs are a cheaper alternative to fluorescent tubes, they are exceptionally inefficient at producing UV light since most of the light emitted by the filament is visible light which must be blocked. Due to its black body spectrum, an incandescent light radiates less than 0.1% of its energy as UV light. Incandescent UV bulbs, due to the necessary absorption of the visible light, become very hot during use. This heat is, in fact, encouraged in such bulbs, since a hotter filament increases the proportion of UVA in the black-body radiation emitted. This high running-temperature drastically reduces the life of the lamp, however, from a typical 1,000 hours to around 100 hours.

Mercury vapor

High power mercury vapor black light lamps are made in power ratings of 100 to 1,000 watts. These do not use phosphors, but rely on the intensified and slightly broadened 350–375 nm spectral line of mercury from high pressure discharge at between , depending upon the specific type. These lamps use envelopes of Wood's glass or similar optical filter coatings to block out all the visible light and also the short wavelength (UVC) lines of mercury at 184.4 and 253.7 nm, which are harmful to the eyes and skin. A few other spectral lines, falling within the pass band of the Wood's glass between 300 and 400 nm, contribute to the output.
These lamps are used mainly for theatrical purposes and concert displays. They are more efficient UVA producers per unit of power consumption than fluorescent tubes.

LED

Ultraviolet light can be generated by some light-emitting diodes, but wavelengths shorter than 380 nm are uncommon, and the emission peaks are broad, so only the very lowest energy UV photons are emitted, within predominant not visible light.

Safety

Although black lights produce light in the UV range, their spectrum is mostly confined to the longwave UVA region, that is, UV radiation nearest in wavelength to visible light, with low frequency and therefore relatively low energy. While low, there is still some power of a conventional black light in the UVB range.  UVA is the safest of the three spectra of UV light, although high exposure to UVA has been linked to the development of skin cancer in humans. The relatively low energy of UVA light does not cause sunburn. UVA is capable of causing damage to collagen fibers, however, so it does have the potential to accelerate skin aging and cause wrinkles. UVA can also destroy vitamin A in the skin.

UVA light has been shown to cause DNA damage, but not directly, like UVB and UVC. Due to its longer wavelength, it is absorbed less and reaches deeper into skin layers, where it produces reactive chemical intermediates such as hydroxyl and oxygen radicals, which in turn can damage DNA and result in a risk of melanoma. The weak output of black lights, however, is not considered sufficient to cause DNA damage or cellular mutations in the way that direct summer sunlight can, although there are reports that overexposure to the type of UV radiation used for creating artificial suntans on sunbeds can cause DNA damage, photoaging (damage to the skin from prolonged exposure to sunlight), toughening of the skin, suppression of the immune system, cataract formation and skin cancer.

UV-A can have negative effects on eyes in both the short-term and long-term.

Uses
Ultraviolet radiation is invisible to the human eye, but illuminating certain materials with UV radiation causes the emission of visible light, causing these substances to glow with various colors.  This is called fluorescence, and has many practical uses. Black lights are required to observe fluorescence, since other types of ultraviolet lamps emit visible light which drowns out the dim fluorescent glow.

Medical applications

A Wood's lamp is a diagnostic tool used in dermatology by which ultraviolet light is shone (at a wavelength of approximately 365 nanometers) onto the skin of the patient; a technician then observes any subsequent fluorescence. For example, porphyrins—associated with some skin diseases—will fluoresce pink. Though the technique for producing a source of ultraviolet light was devised by Robert Williams Wood in 1903 using "Wood's glass", it was in 1925 that the technique was used in dermatology by Margarot and Deveze for the detection of fungal infection of hair. It has many uses, both in distinguishing fluorescent conditions from other conditions and in locating the precise boundaries of the condition.

Fungal and bacterial infections
It is also helpful in diagnosing:
 Fungal infections. Some forms of tinea, such as Trichophyton tonsurans, do not fluoresce.
 Bacterial infections
Corynebacterium minutissimum is coral red
Pseudomonas is yellow-green
 Cutibacterium acnes, a bacterium involved in acne causation, exhibits an orange glow under a Wood's lamp.

Ethylene glycol poisoning

A Wood's lamp may be used to rapidly assess whether an individual is suffering from ethylene glycol poisoning as a consequence of antifreeze ingestion. Manufacturers of ethylene glycol-containing antifreezes commonly add fluorescein, which causes the patient's urine to fluoresce under Wood's lamp.

Other
Wood's lamp is useful in diagnosing conditions such as tuberous sclerosis and erythrasma (caused by Corynebacterium minutissimum, see above).  Additionally, detection of porphyria cutanea tarda can sometimes be made when urine turns pink upon illumination with Wood's lamp. Wood's lamps have also been used to differentiate hypopigmentation from depigmentation such as with vitiligo. A vitiligo patient's skin will appear yellow-green or blue under the Wood's lamp. Its use in detecting melanoma has been reported.

See also
Bili light. A type of phototherapy that uses blue light with a range of 420–470 nm, used to treat neonatal jaundice.

Security and authentication

Black light is commonly used to authenticate oil paintings, antiques and banknotes. Black lights can be used to differentiate real currency from counterfeit notes because, in many countries, legal banknotes have fluorescent symbols on them that only show under a black light. In addition, the paper used for printing money does not contain any of the brightening agents which cause commercially available papers to fluoresce under black light. Both of these features make illegal notes easier to detect and more difficult to successfully counterfeit. The same security features can be applied to identification cards such as passports or driver's licenses.

Other security applications include the use of pens containing a fluorescent ink, generally with a soft tip, that can be used to "invisibly" mark items. If the objects that are so marked are subsequently stolen, a black light can be used to search for these security markings. At some amusement parks, nightclubs and at other, day-long (or night-long) events, a fluorescent mark is rubber stamped onto the wrist of a guest who can then exercise the option of leaving and being able to return again without paying another admission fee.

Biology

Fluorescent materials are also very widely used in numerous applications in molecular biology, often as "tags" which bind themselves to a substance of interest (for example, DNA), so allowing their visualization.

Thousands of moth and insect collectors all over the world use various types of black lights to attract moth and insect specimens for photography and collecting. It is one of the preferred light sources for attracting insects and moths at night. Black light can also be used to see animal excreta such as urine and vomit that is not always visible to the naked eye.

Detection of faults

Black light is used extensively in non-destructive testing. Fluorescing fluids are applied to metal structures and illuminated with a black light which allows cracks and other weaknesses in the material to be easily detected.

In addition, if a leak is suspected in a refrigerator or an air conditioning system, a UV tracer dye can be injected into the system along with the compressor lubricant oil and refrigerant mixture. The system is then run in order to circulate the dye across the piping and components and then the system is examined with a blacklight lamp. Any evidence of fluorescent dye then pinpoints the leaking part which needs replacement.

Decorative and artistic uses

It is also used to illuminate pictures painted with fluorescent colors, particularly on black velvet, which intensifies the illusion of self-illumination. The use of such materials, often in the form of tiles viewed in a sensory room under UV light, is common in the United Kingdom for the education of students with profound and multiple learning difficulties. Such fluorescence from certain textile fibers, especially those bearing optical brightener residues, can also be used for recreational effect, as seen, for example, in the opening credits of the James Bond film A View to a Kill. Black light puppetry is also performed in a black light theater.

Mineral identification

Blacklights are a common tool for rock-hunting and identification of minerals by their fluorescence. The most common minerals and rocks that glow under UV light are fluorite, calcite, aragonite, opal, apatite, chalcedony, corundum (ruby and sapphire), scheelite, selenite, smithsonite, sphalerite, sodalite. The first person to observe fluorescence in minerals was George Stokes in 1852. He noted the ability of fluorite to produce a blue glow when illuminated with ultraviolet light and called this phenomenon "fluorescence" after the mineral fluorite. Lamps used to visualise seams of fluorite and other fluorescent minerals are commonly used in mines but they tend to be on an industrial scale. The lamps need to be short wavelength to be useful for this purpose and of scientific grade. UVP range of hand held UV lamps are ideal for this purpose and are used by Geologists to identify the best sources of fluorite in mines or potential new mines. Some transparent selenite crystals exhibit an "hourglass" pattern under UV light that is not visible in natural light. These crystals are also phosphorescent. Limestone, marble, and travertine can glow because of calcite presence. Granite, syenite, and granitic pegmatite rocks can also glow.

Curing resins

UV light can be used to harden particular glues, resins and inks by causing a photochemical reaction inside those substances. This process of hardening is called 'curing'. UV curing is adaptable to printing, coating, decorating, stereolithography, and in the assembly of a variety of products and materials. In comparison to other technologies, curing with UV energy may be considered a low-temperature process, a high-speed process, and is a solventless process, as cure occurs via direct polymerization rather than by evaporation. Originally introduced in the 1960s, this technology has streamlined and increased automation in many industries in the manufacturing sector. A primary advantage of curing with ultraviolet light is the speed at which a material can be processed. Speeding up the curing or drying step in a process can reduce flaws and errors by decreasing time that an ink or coating spends wet. This can increase the quality of a finished item, and potentially allow for greater consistency. Another benefit to decreasing manufacturing time is that less space needs to be devoted to storing items which can not be used until the drying step is finished.
Because UV energy has unique interactions with many different materials, UV curing allows for the creation of products with characteristics not achievable via other means. This has led to UV curing becoming fundamental in many fields of manufacturing and technology, where changes in strength, hardness, durability, chemical resistance, and many other properties are required.

Other

One of the innovations for night and all-weather flying used by the US, UK, Japan and Germany during World War II was the use of UV interior lighting to illuminate the instrument panel, giving a safer alternative to the radium-painted instrument faces and pointers, and an intensity that could be varied easily and without visible illumination that would give away an aircraft's position. This went so far as to include the printing of charts that were marked in UV-fluorescent inks, and the provision of UV-visible pencils and slide rules such as the E6B.

They may also be used to test for LSD, which fluoresces under black light while common substitutes such as 25I-NBOMe do not.

Strong sources of long-wave ultraviolet light are used in tanning beds.

See also
 Blacklight poster
 List of light sources

Footnotes

References

External links

 http://mississippientomologicalmuseum.org.msstate.edu/collecting.preparation.methods/Blacklight.traps.htm

American inventions
Articles containing video clips
Luminescence
Types of lamp
Ultraviolet radiation

Blacklight


Samuel Pordage (1633 – c. 1691) was a 17th-century English poet. He is best known by his Azaria and Hushai (1682), a reply to John Dryden's Absalom and Achitophel.

Life
Samuel was the eldest son of John Pordage, a clergyman from Bradfield in Berkshire,  who married the widow, Mary Pordage (born Lane) on 17 January 1633. Samuel baptised at St Dionis Backchurch, London, on 29 December 1633. He was educated at Merchant Taylors' School from 1644, and studied law at Lincoln's Inn. At the trial of his father ten years later he appears to have been one of the witnesses. In his title-pages he  described himself as 'of Lincoln's Inn' and 'a student of physick.' He was at one time chief steward to Philip Herbert, 5th Earl of Pembroke.

Roger L'Estrange attacked Pordage in the 'Observator' for 5 April 1682 on account of 'A brief History of all the Papists' bloudy Persecutions,' calling him 'limping Pordage, a son of the famous Familist about Reading and the author of several libels,' one against L'Estrange. Dryden, in the second part of 'Absalom and Achitophel,' published in November, described Pordage as

Lame Mephibosheth, the wizard's son.

Works
He made various translations, wrote poems, and laid claim to two tragedies, Herod and Mariamne (1673), and The Siege of Babylon (1678), and a romance, Eliana.

While living with his father at the parsonage of Bradfield in 1660 he published a translation from Seneca the Younger, with notes, called 'Troades Englished.' About the same time he published 'Poems upon Several Occasions, by S. P., gent.,' a little volume which included panegyrics on Charles II and General George Monck, but which consisted for the most part of poems in the style of Robert Herrick.

In 1661 a volume appeared called 'Mundorum Explicatio, or the explanation of an Hieroglyphical Figure. … Being a Sacred Poem, written by S. P., Armig.' This book, which was reissued in 1663, is attributed to Samuel Pordage, though it has been suggested that the real author was Pordage's father, a professed follower of Jacob Boehme.  White Kennett, writing in 1728, attributed the work to Samuel.

In 1661 Samuel Pordage published a pamphlet, 'Heroick Stanzas on his Maiesties Coronation.' In 1673 his Herod and Mariamne a tragedy, was acted at the Duke's Theatre, and was published anonymously. Elkanah Settle signed the dedication to the Duchess of Albemarle. The plot was borrowed from Josephus and the romance of 'Cleopatra.'  In 1678 appeared 'The Siege of Babylon, by Samuel Pordage of Lincoln's Inn, Esq., author of the tragedy of "Herod and Mariamne."' This play had been licensed by Roger L'Estrange on 2 November 1677, and acted at the Duke's Theatre not long after the production at the Theatre Royal of Nathaniel Lee's 'Rival Queens;' and Statira and Roxana, the 'rival queens,' were principal characters in Pordage's rhymed tragedy. The story is based upon 'Cassandra' and other romances of the day.

Pordage brought out in 1679 the sixth edition of John Reynolds's 'Triumphs of God's Revenge against the sin of Murther;' he prefixed to it a dedication to the Earl of Shaftesbury. In 1681, at the time when the Popish Plot scare was ebbing out, he wrote a single folio sheet, 'A new Apparition of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey's Ghost to the E. of D—— in the Tower;' the printer was obliged to make a public apology for the reflections on the Earl of Danby which it contained. Between 1681 and 1684 he issued 'The Remaining Medical Works of … Dr. Thomas Willis … Englished by S. P., Esq.' There is a general dedication to Sir Theophilus Biddulph, signed by Pordage; and verses 'On the author's Medico-philosophical Discourses' precede the first part.

Dryden's 'Absalom and Achitophel' appeared in November 1681, and among the answers to it was Pordage's 'Azaria and Hushai, a Poem,' 1682. In this piece Azaria was the Duke of Monmouth, Amazia the king, Hushai Shaftesbury, and Shimei Dryden. Some lines were devoted to L'Estrange, who was called Bibbai. On 15 March 1682 Dryden brought out 'The Medal, a Satire against Sedition,' an attack on Shaftesbury, and on 31 March Pordage published 'The Medal revers'd, a Satyre against Persecution,' with an epistle, addressed, in imitation of Dryden, to his enemies, the Tories. Pordage said he did not believe that the authors of 'Absalom and Achitophel' and 'The Medal' were the same, yet, as they desired to be thought so, each must bear the reproaches of the other.

In May John Oldham, in his 'Imitation of the Third Satire of Juvenal,' had ridiculed Pordage, and in another 'Satire' mentioned Pordage among the authors who had 'grown contemptible, and slighted since.' Besides the pieces already mentioned, Pordage is stated to have written a romance called 'Eliana.'

References

Attribution

External links

1633 births
17th-century deaths
People from Bradfield, Berkshire
People educated at Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood
English male poets

Samuel Pordage


Gord the Rogue is the protagonist in a series of fantasy novels and short stories written by Gary Gygax. Gygax originally wrote the novels and short stories to promote his World of Greyhawk campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. After he left TSR, Gygax continued to write Gord the Rogue novels for several years. In all of these works, the plot revolves around the adventures of a young man named Gord who rises from humble origins in the slums of a large city on the planet Oerth to become a powerful force trying to stave off the takeover of Oerth by demons.

Publication history
One of the factors that contributed to the success of the Dragonlance setting when it was published in 1984 was a popular series of concurrent novels by Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis. Gary Gygax, the developer of the World of Greyhawk campaign setting, realized that novels set in Greyhawk could have a similar benefit for his recently published World of Greyhawk boxed set, so he wrote Saga of Old City, the first in a series of novels that would be published under the banner Greyhawk Adventures. The protagonist was Gord the Rogue, and this first novel told of his rise from the Slum Quarter of the city of Greyhawk to become world traveller and thief extraordinaire. The novel was designed to promote sales of the boxed set by providing colourful details about the social customs and peoples of various cities and countries in a region called the Flanaess.

Shannon Appelcline noted that "Gygax introduced Gord in Dragon #100 (August 1985) in a story called "At Moonset Blackcat Comes." The first novel, Saga of Old City (1985) appeared a couple of months later." Appelcline also noted that as the final projects initiated by Gary Gygax were published by TSR, "A few more Greyhawk books appeared as well. The first of those was Artifact of Evil (1986), Gygax's second and final Gord the Rogue novel for TSR." Appelcline commented that "After Gygax left TSR in 1985, the Greyhawk setting forked. Gygax himself retained rights to his fictional character, Gord the Rogue — as well as a few characters whose names derived from his, such as Zagyg the Mad Wizard. Over the next several years, Gygax used those rights to publish a series of Gord the Rogue novels ending with Dance of Demons (1988) in which Gygax destroyed Oerth (!) and replaced it with the world of Yarth — which may or may not have been the Aerth of Mythus (1992)."

Appelcline explained that since Gygax retained the rights to Gord when he started New Infinites, "Now, he licensed Greyhawk from TSR and started writing new books. The first was Sea of Death (1987), and it quickly hit bestseller lists. Over the next years, the success of the Gord novels would continue, and they would be the main thing keeping New Infinities in business. As a result, Gygax would spend most of his time at New Infinities working on books rather than RPGs." Appelcline noted that "Gygax's Gord the Rogue appeared a few times after New Infinities disappeared, once in White Wolf 's Pawn of Chaos: Tales of the Eternal Champion (1996) and once in Paizo Publishing's Dragon Magazine #344 (2006). Some of his stories were also reprinted by Troll Lord Games and Paizo Publishing." Appelcline also noted that in 2006 "Troll Lord Games revealed that they had licensed Gygax's Gord the Rogue novels, previously published by TSR and New Infinities Productions. The first, Tale of Old City (2008), would unfortunately be one of Troll Lord's final Gygax publications."

Even before Saga of Old City rolled off the presses in November 1985, Gygax wrote a sequel, Artifact of Evil. He also wrote a short story, "At Moonset Blackcat Comes", that appeared in the special 100th issue of Dragon magazine in August 1985. This introduced Gord the Rogue to gamers just before Saga of Old City was scheduled to be released.

However, at the same time, various factions within TSR with different visions of the company's future caused a power struggle, and Gygax was forced out on December 31, 1985. By the terms of his settlement with TSR, Gygax kept the rights to Gord the Rogue as well as all D&D characters whose names were anagrams or plays on his own name (for example, Yrag and Zagyg).

After Gygax left TSR in 1985, he continued to write a few more Gord the Rogue novels, which were published by New Infinities Productions: Sea of Death (1987), Night Arrant (1987), City of Hawks (1987), Come Endless Darkness (1988), and Dance of Demons (1988). In Gygax's absence, however, TSR moved the Greyhawk storyline in new directions that Gygax didn't appreciate, and the line of Greyhawk Adventures novels (without Gord the Rogue) continued to be written by Rose Estes. In a literary declaration that his old world of Oerth was dead, and wanting to make a clean break with all things Greyhawk and D&D, Gygax destroyed his version of Oerth in the final Gord the Rogue novel, Dance of Demons.

Series overview
The series of novels follows the progress of the orphan beggar Gord, from his lowly youth to his ascension as an avatar of Balance. Gord begins his career with less than heroic motives, but early mentors Gellor the bard and druid Curley Greenleaf continually steer him toward honorable ends. Eventually Gord is revealed to have a kinship with an enigmatic deity named the Catlord.

The series, originally designed to provide some social and descriptive details about Gygax's Greyhawk campaign world that he had not been able to fit into the limited space of either the 1980 folio edition or the 1983 boxed set, were written in a pulp swords and sorcery style reminiscent of Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser short stories. Gygax, who believed D&D would always only appeal to a male demographic, wrote the novels for that readership.

Individual novels
Saga of Old City was the first novel in TSR's Greyhawk Adventures series. It starts in Gord's childhood, and ends with his triumphant return to Greyhawk City as a young man and master thief. He learns his trade in the "beggars' guild", and gets involved in the gang war touched off by the beggars encroaching on the official thieves' guild's territory. He travels and has a variety of swashbuckling adventures, ranging from participating in a war to liberating a young noblewoman held hostage.

Artifact of Evil is a continuation of Saga of Old City. This was the final novel under TSR's Greyhawk Adventures banner that was written by Gygax. An ancient artifact is uncovered, whose power could destroy their world. It is up to Gord and his companions to try to stop this artifact of evil from falling into the wrong hands.

Sea of Death, the first of the series published by New Infinities Productions, Inc., has Gord traveling far afield to the Sea of Dust, on a quest for a "Theorpart", hidden in a lost city.  He must face rivals sent by demon lords: the psychopathic dwarf Obmi, who serves Zuggtmoy, and the drow priestess Eclavdra, serving Graz'zt.  He meets and falls in love with Leda, a clone of Eclavdra.  Leda and Gord part at the end of the book as she returns to the Abyss, impersonating Eclavdra in Graz'zt's service for the sake of higher ideals.

Night Arrant is a collection of nine short stories about Gord's adventures, in his early twenties, in the City of Greyhawk.

City of Hawks is a retelling of the events that occurred in Saga of Old City. Gord's rise from simple beggar to master thief are detailed, as is his search for his true heritage.

Come Endless Darkness continues where Sea of Death left off and has Gord continue his quest to stop Tharizdun and Lord Entropy from taking over the Multiverse.

Dance of Demons is the finale, in which Gord and Gellor enter the Abyss on a mission from the world's most powerful forces of Balance, to retrieve the remaining Theorparts.  The goal is nothing less than to free Tharizdun, the long-imprisoned god of ultimate evil and entropy, and to finally destroy him. The novel ends with the complete destruction of Oerth, and the unveiling of a new and better world.

Uncollected short stories
"At Moonset Blackcat Comes" is an early tale of Gord and his friend Chert the barbarian, in which Gord accepts a mission for the Catlord.

"Evening Odds" appears as story 14 in Pawn of Chaos: Tales of the Eternal Champion, an anthology of fiction inspired by Michael Moorcock's Eternal Champion mythos.  The story takes place some time after the events of Dance of Demons. Gord has apparently been deposed from his position as the new Catlord and is traveling the alternate realities as a Champion of Balance. In the course of the story he upsets a plot by the archfiend Baphomet on modern Earth.

"The Return of Gord" is a caper story set during Gord's days as a master thief in the City of Greyhawk, and "A Wizard's Thief" is another caper story, involving Gord and Chert, and set in an unnamed city.

Dave Langford, reviewing Artifact of Evil in the April 1986 edition of White Dwarf (Issue 78), was critical of Gygax's writing ability, saying, "At the first glimpse within, my soul was purged by the brutalities visited upon the English language." Langford believed the book was simply "an AD&D campaign write-up" rather than a bona-fide fantasy novel.

Other reviews
 Voice of Youth Advocates, August, 1986, reviews of Artifact of Evil and The Crimson Sea, p. 169;
 Voice of Youth Advocates, August, 1988, review of City of Hawks, p. 142.

Description
Gord is described as being small for a human, five and a half feet tall, slender and wiry. His eyes are iron-gray in color. He has black hair and olive-toned skin (which allows him to fit in among the Rhennee).

List of "Gord the Rogue" novels and short stories
 Gygax, Gary. "At Moonset Blackcat Comes: A Tale of Gord of Greyhawk." Dragon #100 (TSR, 1985)
 Gygax, Gary. Saga of Old City (TSR, 1985)
 Gygax, Gary. Artifact of Evil (TSR, 1986)
 Gygax, Gary. Sea of Death (New Infinities, 1987)
 Gygax, Gary. Night Arrant (New Infinities, 1987)
 Gygax, Gary. City of Hawks (New Infinities, 1987)
 Gygax, Gary. Come Endless Darkness (New Infinities, 1988)
 Gygax, Gary. Dance of Demons (New Infinities, 1988)
 Gygax, Gary. "Evening Odds." Pawn of Chaos: Tales of the Eternal Champion (White Wolf Publishing, Clarkson, Ga. 1996)
 Gygax, Gary and Bourgoine, K.R. "The Return of Gord." Dragon #344 (Paizo Publishing, 2006)
 Gygax, Gary and Bourgoine, K.R. "A Wizard's Thief." Of Dice & Pen (Game Day Fiction, an imprint of Flying Pen Press, Denver, Co. 2008)

Reception
In a 2021 Io9 series revisiting older Dungeons & Dragons novels, Rob Bricken described Gord as "a young street urchin who rises from poverty and imprisonment to become one of the greatest thieves on the planet" and goes on to say that "Gygax also revels in the misery he can inflict upon Gord".  He described Gord's adventures as "a series of ho-hum D&D game sessions" with "no overarching plot" or and "no emotional growth". Bricken felt that the novel and its plot were "all terrible, but it might be mitigated if Gord weren't so deeply unlikeable".  Bricken commented after reading Artifact of Evil that "even in this mortal realm, where I've devoted my life to watching bad movies and reading bad books, reading more about Gord feels like a zero-sum game to me".

References

External links
Gord's Greyhawk: A list of geographical places of Greyhawk featured in "Gord the Rogue" publications
Summaries of "Gord the Rogue" publications

Fictional professional thieves
Greyhawk characters
Literary characters introduced in 1985
Orphan characters in literature

Gord the Rogue


Beagle Gulf is a gulf in the Northern Territory of Australia which opens on its west side to  the Timor Sea. The gulf is bounded to the south by the mainland and to the north by Bathurst and Melville Islands.  It is connected to Van Diemen Gulf in the east by Clarence Strait.  Its south coast includes the natural harbours of Darwin and Bynoe.  It is approximately 100 km long and 50 km wide. It surrounds the Quail Island Group.

Name

Beagle Gulf was named after the ship HMS Beagle, on which Charles Darwin and Robert Fitzroy sailed around parts of Australia. The Cambridge Dictionary of Australian Places incorrectly states that "it was named in 1836 by Robert Fitzroy, commander of HMS Beagle, after his ship. The Beagle charted the area with Charles Darwin aboard as naturalist." However, Darwin and Fitzroy sailed in 1836 from King George's Sound (Western Australia) directly to the Cocos-Keeling Islands, at the south coast of Java, and from there to Cape Town and back to England. They stayed away from Beagle Gulf by 3000 sea miles and did not know of its existence. The gulf was actually named by Captain John Clements Wickham, commanding HMS Beagle during its survey of northern Australia in 1837-1838, at the beginning of her third and last long voyage.

Protection
In 1991 the Northern Territory Government proposed the formation of the Beagle Gulf Marine Park. The proposed Marine Park has a significant commercial, recreational conservation value. Zoning plans enable the broadest possible use of marine parks whilst providing for the protection and conservation of significant ecological, scientific, historical, cultural and scenic sites.

Administrative status
On 4 April 2007, most of the area occupied by the Beagle Gulf was gazetted by the Northern Territory Government as a locality with the name, Beagle Gulf.  The locality has not been added to any existing local government area and is considered to be part of the Northern Territory's unincorporated areas.

References

Gulfs of Australia
Bodies of water of the Northern Territory
Coastline of the Northern Territory
Timor Sea

Beagle Gulf


The Nullarbor dwarf bettong, Bettongia pusilla, was a potoroine marsupial that occurred in Australia. The animal is only known from skeletons found in caves of the Nullarbor Plain and is now classified as recently extinct.

Taxonomy
The Nullarbor dwarf bettong was a species of Bettongia, a genus that includes still living species such as the northern bettong, belonging to the subfamily Potoroinae. The description was first published in 1997 by R. A. McNamara, using specimens collected on the Nullarbor Plain from the Koonalda and Weekes Caves. The holotype is part of a juvenile's right jaw, with some teeth absent, obtained at the Koonalda site. The author recognised an earlier description, misidentified as Caloprymnus campestris by Ernest Lundelius and William D. Turnbull in 1984, and the informal reference to an potoroid species. McNamara's paper on the new species details his diagnosis as arising independently, but gives credit for the discovery to earlier worker's identification of the taxon as 'Thomson's unnamed Potoroid' or 'Unnamed potoroid' (Baynes 1987).

The epithet pusilla is derived from Latin, a reference to the small size of the animal.  The English vernacular Nullarbor dwarf bettong was suggested by McNamara and is used to refer to this species.

Description
Betongia pusilla show a form of dentition and jaw structure that distinguishes them from others of the genus. The mandible is lighter than the extant species, and the teeth are smaller. Molars of Bettongia pusilla are straight sided with an elevated crown, which contrasts with the bulbous shape of other Bettongia species.

Distribution and habitat
Only known from a series of skeletal remains found in caves on the Nullarbor Plain, an arid desert region of southern Australia. The species is assumed to have become extinct in the states of Western and South Australia during the period of colonisation.

References

Bettongia
Nullarbor Plain
Mammals described in 1997
Fossil taxa described in 1997

Nullarbor dwarf bettong


Ashford Black Marble is a kind of dark limestone, which was mined from Ashford-in-the-Water, in Derbyshire, England. Once cut, turned and polished, its shiny black surface becomes very beautiful.

Strictly speaking, Ashford Black Marble is not a true marble formed by heat, but a smooth sedimentary rock, a hard mass of dark minerals. True marble is a metamorphic rock formed by heat and pressure.

To make art objects, Ashford Black Marble can be cut as materials of them and put together with other fine stones. Derby Museum has a diagram of Ecton Hill made from Ashford Black Marble and other minerals.

History
Ashford Black Marble were used for decorative purpose since prehistory. Bess of Hardwick was known to use Ashford Black Marble.

Henry Watson played important roles in the development of the local industry of inlaying Ashford Black Marble in the 1750s. He was the uncle of Derbyshire geologist White Watson, and had a water-powered mill at Ashford in the Water.

Pots, obelisks, and other decorative items of AMB were frequently traded during the late 18th and early 19th century. John Mawe had a museum in Matlock Bath that dealt in black marble. Ann Rayner carved Black Marble into pictures using a diamond. Many art objects of Ashford Black Marble are collected in local institutions, including those of Derby Museum, Buxton Museum, and Chatsworth House. In 2009, huge blocks of Ashford Black Marble were found underground in Derby. The auction of these was planed because these blocks are valuable. The rocks might have been abandoned when an Ashford Black Marble manufacturer moved in the 1880s.

Geology
Ashford Black Marble is a kind of limestone which contains some carbon, and its particles are very small. Its dark color is from bitumen, and once cut and polished, the surface shines.
At first the rock was mined from Arrock Mine, and later in 1832 from nearby Rookery Plantation, near Ashford-in-the-Water.

Manufacturing techniques

Ashford Black Marble can be manufactured into pots, candlesticks and other similar objects, or sawn to make smooth, flat items such as obelisks and paper weights.

Derby Museum and Art Gallery has collections of worked and part-worked items of Ashford Black Marble, got from an inlaying workshop owned by the Tomlinson family. This collection includes pieces of stones which were cut and ready to put into the black marble background. Forget-me-not and lily of the valley were typically designed. Various stones were used with Ashford Black Marble: Greys, blues and purples stones are from Monyash. "Rosewood" from Nettler Dale in Sheldon is a kind of barytes and has red and white layers. Castleton Blue John from Crich is a kind of flourspar and has purple and yellow colors. "Birds-Eye" rock has a design made from the fossils in it. "Duke's Red" is so valuable that it was stored at Chatsworth House. The tabletop design illustrated shows some of the combinations described here.

In the late 1780s, Derbyshire geologist White Watson made geological picture boards using Ashford Black Marble into which other local rocks were inlaid. These boards show layers of rock in different parts of the county. Derby Museum has a diagram of Ecton Hill made from Ashford Black Marble and other minerals.

William Martin was once a partner with Watson, and wrote the first scientific study of fossils. His Petrifacta Derbiensia says that Watson's uncle and workers at the Black Marble mine called some of the fossils "crocodile tails"

In 2006, Buxton Museum bought the Black Marble collection that had been left by John Michael Tomlinson. He had spent over 50 years to collect them after finding that his ancestors had been involved in Ashford Black Marble manufacturing.

Related material
 Noir Belge

References

Sources

 The Gem of the Peak, William Adam, 1843

Other websites

Collections of Derby Museum and Art Gallery
Sedimentary rocks

Ashford Black Marble


A blanket order, blanket purchase agreement or call-off order is a purchase order which a customer places with its supplier to allow multiple delivery dates over a period of time, often negotiated to take advantage of predetermined pricing. It is normally used when there is a recurring need for expendable goods. Blanket orders are often used when a customer buys large quantities and has obtained special discounts. Based on the blanket order, sales orders ('blanket releases' or 'release orders') and invoice items can be created as needed until the contract is fulfilled, the end of the order period is reached or a pre-determined maximum order value is reached.

Benefits
Issuing a blanket order allows a customer not to hold more stock than necessary at any time, and avoids the administrative expense of processing frequent purchase orders, while favoring discount pricing through volume commitments or price-breaks. On the supplier's side, a blanket order may provide the benefit of guaranteeing ongoing business and also help suppliers better predict future cash flows and orders.

A blanket order is set at a fixed priced contract for a period of time. The buyer looks for the best pricing among competing supplier bids. After the best one is chosen, the prices of goods are fixed, and also quantities of each product are given to the supplier to prepare stock for on requested delivery.

Forecasted quantity is provided by the buyer as full usage quantity recorded historically a few years or as needed for quantitative analysis. The supplier may give a condition of quantity to supply for this [contract]. For example, 80% of the forecast quantity must be bought at the end of the contract, which may be one or two years.

The blanket order will charge the delayed delivery if the supplier could not supply the products in the contract on time. Anyway, since the supplier has already kept the stock for ready delivery for the first year or agreed period, if the buyer could not fulfill the contract's conditions, such as "must buy 80% of forecast quantity within a year," the contract may be extended, or the delay charge could be no more, or no other charges requested by the buyer.

Realistically, at the end of the blanket order contract, the buyer would not buy at forecasted quantity as agreed in the contract say, 80% of the demand sent to the supplier. The buyer will also allow the supplier to sell the products in the contract to reduce the quantity. The supplier also has to talk and inform the buyer about the quantities of goods kept in order that the buyer could know the status of the stock.  Before the buyer issuing the purchase order to the supplier, the buyer must ask the supplier first about stock availability to avoid the problem from no stock availability.

Libraries use the term "blanket order" to cover their agreements with publishers to purchase "all of a certain set of publications". Blanket orders or call-off orders may also be used for ordering services, for example for maintenance and repair services. In these cases, the benefits associated with stock-holding do not arise but the call-off order may allow emergency repairs or on-call maintenance to be arranged easily at guaranteed rates.

Difficulties
The most difficult part of having a contract is determining the forecast quantity arranged by the user of the product. As the forecast quantity can be difficult to get, the supplier must be aware of the quantity to keep in stock. An easy way to do this is to discuss with the buyer what quantity to keep in stock. For example, they might keep only 20% in stock in the first 6 months, so that the supplier and the buyer are able to review the quantity and adjust it appropriately. This reduces the stock burden of the supplier during the contract period and might help the buyer at the end of the contract if the stock does not move as quickly as anticipated. The contract might be extended year after year, but it can be adjusted each time as more relevant forecasting history will predicate the need to decrease or increase stock requirements. Alternatively, some companies may utilize forecasted information via a material requirements planning system to determine appropriate stock quantities throughout the product's life cycle.

Federal Acquisition Regulation
The United States' Federal Acquisition Regulation uses the term "blanket purchase agreements" or BPAs at FAR 8.405-3: The Regulation notes a preference in favour of establishing multiple-award BPAs where practicable, rather than only awarding a single-award BPA.

According to the U.S. General Services Administration, BPAs:
 Provide opportunities to negotiate improved discounts
 Satisfy recurring requirements
 Reduce administrative costs by eliminating repetitive acquisition efforts
 Permit ordering activities to leverage buying power through volume purchasing
 Enable ordering activities streamlined ordering procedures
 Permit ordering activities to incorporate Contractor Team Arrangements (CTAs)
 Reduce procurement lead time
Allow ordering activities the ability to incorporate additional agency or local terms and conditions not in conflict with the underlying contract.

See also
 General order
 Invoice
 Purchase order
 Remittance advice
 Sales order

References

Accounting source documents
Procurement
Business documents

Blanket order


Jacques Lambinon (born 28 September 1936 in Namur and died in Liège on 14 November 2015) was a Belgian botanist. He was a professor at the University of Liège and member of the Royal Academy of Sciences, Letters and Fine Arts of Belgium.

He is the main author of the New Flora of Belgium, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, Northern France and neighbouring regions which is used by thousands of students.

He was a recognized specialist of:

Taxonomy of the vascular plants of Western Europe and the Mediterranean basin,
Nature conservation (especially problems of introduced and reintroduced plants), scientific popularization of botany, botanical nomenclature
Vegetation-entomofauna relationships (cecidology, co-evolution, pollination ...)
Mycology and lichenology,
Radioecology

Among his very numerous functions, we can mention his role in the direction of the herbarium (Vascular plants) of the University of Liege.

He was a member of many scientific committees such as the Flore de Corse or the National Botanical Conservatory of Bailleul.

He was editor, proofreader and relentless proofreader, he was editorial secretary of "Lejeunia, Revue de Botanique", secretary of the Society for the Exchange of Vascular Plants of Europe and the Mediterranean Basin and correspondent (since 1983) of the Med-Checklist editorial committee (Geneva & Berlin).

Works

 Serusiaux E., & J Lambinon 1994
Bacidia clauzadei sp.nov., une espèce nouvelle de lichen foliicole produisant des cils conidiogènes. Bulletin de la Société Linnéenne de Provence, 45:349-35

 Verloove F. & Lambinon J 2006
The non native vascular flora of Belgium  Systematics and Geography of Plants 76: 217-220

Belgian botanists
1936 births
2015 deaths

Jacques Lambinon


Harry Pregerson (October 13, 1923 – November 25, 2017) was a United States circuit judge appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit by President Jimmy Carter in 1979.  Pregerson was regarded as one of the judiciary's most liberal judges, attracting both praise and criticism for his insistence on placing his conscience above court precedent.

Early life and education

Pregerson was born and raised in Los Angeles, California, where his father was a postal worker. Both his parents were Jewish immigrants from Ukraine.

Pregerson was a United States Marine Corps First Lieutenant in World War II, during which he was severely wounded in the Battle of Okinawa (4 May 1945). After the war, Pregerson attended college on the G.I. Bill. He graduated from University of California, Los Angeles with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1947, and the UC Berkeley School of Law with a Bachelor of Laws in 1950.

He was in private practice of law in Los Angeles from 1951 to 1953. He was in private practice of law in Van Nuys, California from 1953 to 1965. Pregerson joined the Los Angeles Municipal Court in 1965 and advanced to the Los Angeles County Superior Court the next year, serving until 1967.

Federal judicial service

Pregerson was nominated by President Lyndon B. Johnson on November 29, 1967, to the United States District Court for the Central District of California, to a new seat created by 80 Stat. 75. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on December 7, 1967, and received his commission the same day. His service was terminated on November 6, 1979, due to elevation to the Ninth Circuit.

Pregerson was nominated by President Jimmy Carter on August 28, 1979, to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, to a new seat created by 92 Stat. 1629. He was confirmed by the Senate on October 31, 1979, and received his commission on November 2, 1979. He assumed senior status on December 11, 2015. His service terminated on November 25, 2017, due to his death in Los Angeles.

Judicial philosophy

Pregerson's judicial philosophy was frequently characterized as liberal. At his confirmation hearing, Pregerson told the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary that "My conscience is a product of the Ten Commandments, the Bill of Rights, the Boy Scout Oath, and the Marine Corps Hymn.  If I had to follow my conscience or the law, I would follow my conscience."  The conservative commentator Hugh Hewitt criticized him for "judicial activism" and "rul[ing] with his heart instead of his head."

Criminal punishment

In 1992, Pregerson halted the execution of Robert Alton Harris after the prisoner had been strapped into the gas chamber.  The U.S. Supreme Court allowed the execution to proceed two hours later.  In 2003, Pregerson refused to follow Supreme Court precedent regarding California's three-strikes law.  Pregerson continued dissenting whenever the court imposed that law.

Involvement in California recall election

Pregerson was part of a unanimous three-judge panel that ordered the postponement of the 2003 California recall election based on the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment because in the recall, six counties would use the antiquated punched cards voting system. The decision, however, was subsequently overturned by the en banc court of Ninth Circuit. Eventually, the recall was successful in removing Gray Davis from governorship, and Arnold Schwarzenegger became the new governor of California.

Federalism

Pregerson was a supporter of federalism and favors restraints on the power of federal government. He wrote the majority decision in the Ninth Circuit panel on Gonzales v. Raich, holding that the Interstate Commerce Clause forbade the federal government from interfering with state laws that permitted the use of medical marijuana. The ruling was later overturned by the Supreme Court, however, which held that it is within Congressional power to regulate intrastate activities that are seen to influence interstate commerce, including using homegrown marijuana for medical purposes.

Pregerson's first ruling on Raich was based on federalism rather than his opinion on the merit of medical marijuana. In 2007, after Raich was decided by the Supreme Court, Angel Raich sued Alberto Gonzales again for substantive due process violation because the Controlled Substance Law deprived her fundamental right to life. Pregerson ruled against Raich this time, arguing it is still untimely to call using medical marijuana a "fundamental right" that is "implicit in the concept of ordered liberty" as only a minority of states legalized medical marijuana.

In the case United States v. Reynard, the circuit court upheld the DNA Analysis Backlog Elimination Act of 2000. Pregerson wrote a dissent, arguing that the act was an unconstitutional exercise of federal power.

Gender equality

Pregerson wrote a dissenting opinion in Jespersen v. Harrah's Operating Co., which was joined by judges Alex Kozinski, Susan P. Graber, and William A. Fletcher. The majority ruled that Jespersen had not shown sufficient evidence that Harrah's "Personal Best" policy, which required women but not men to wear makeup, was sex discrimination. Pregerson disagreed:

"Harrah's regarded women as unable to achieve a neat, attractive, and professional appearance without the facial uniform designed by a consultant and required by Harrah's. The inescapable message is that women's undoctored faces compare unfavorably to men's, not because of a physical difference between men's and women's faces, but because of a cultural assumption—and gender-based stereotype—that women's faces are incomplete, unattractive, or unprofessional without full makeup."
"Therefore, I strongly disagree with the majority's conclusion that there "is no evidence in this record to indicate that the policy was adopted to make women bartenders conform to a commonly-accepted stereotypical image of what women should wear.""

Civil procedure

In 2007, Pregerson wrote the panel majority decision that affirmed the class action certification in Dukes v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., a case involving female employees suing Wal-Mart Corporation for gender discrimination. He wrote that although the class action suit had a massive class, "mere size does not render the case unmanageable." The decision did not address the employees' claim but only affirmed its class action status. Wal-Mart stated that it would seek an appeal. The decision was then reheard by an en banc panel of the Ninth Circuit, which also narrowly upheld class certification, but certification was ultimately reversed by the Supreme Court.

Honors

In 2002 the California Legislature named the freeway interchange between I-110 and I-105 as the "Judge Harry Pregerson Interchange" in honor of Pregerson, the longest-serving judge in the history of the Ninth Circuit. When district judge, he supervised the settlement of the federal lawsuit against the Century Freeway, enabling the construction of the interchange.  Judge Pregerson's name is now on signs at the interchange. In 1992 the UCLA Alumni Association awarded Pregerson "Community Service Award" for his efforts helping homeless families to house in Salvation Army shelters.

As a World War II veteran, Pregerson was an advocate for veterans' interests, and has worked on behalf of homeless veterans.  In 2001 the Department of Veterans Affairs honored him and the then-Acting Secretary Hershel Gober and presented Pregerson with a token of appreciation with the VA seal.

Personal life

Pregerson was the child of Ukrainian Jewish immigrants. His wife, Bernardine, is a microbiologist. Pregerson's son, Dean Pregerson, is a federal district judge for the United States District Court for the Central District of California. His daughter, Katie Rodan, is a dermatologist and cofounder of a skin-care brand. Pregerson died on November 25, 2017, from respiratory problems.

See also

 List of Jewish American jurists
 List of United States federal judges by longevity of service

References

External links

Profile at Appellate Counsellor Website

1923 births
2017 deaths
20th-century American judges
21st-century American judges
20th-century American Jews
American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent
United States Marine Corps personnel of World War II
California state court judges
Judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
Judges of the United States District Court for the Central District of California
Lawyers from Los Angeles
Superior court judges in the United States
United States district court judges appointed by Lyndon B. Johnson
United States court of appeals judges appointed by Jimmy Carter
United States Marine Corps officers
UC Berkeley School of Law alumni
University of California, Los Angeles alumni
21st-century American Jews

Harry Pregerson


Dov Viktor Király (born March 29, 1984) is a Hungarian singer and songwriter. In 2006, he was part of the Hungarian band Twinz with his twin brother Benjamin. In 2008, he became the fourth winner of the Hungarian music competition Megasztár. He is the younger brother of the Hungarian pop singer Linda Király.

In 2012 and 2014, he took part in A Dal, a selection process in an unsuccessful bid to represent Hungary in the Eurovision Song Contest. In 2015, he took part in season 9 of the American series The Voice, initially as part of Adam Levine's team, and later Gwen Stefani's, but was eliminated on November 11 during the Live Playoffs round, in which the Top 24 competed for the public's vote and coaches' choices.

Early years
Király was born in New York, a son of Hungarian immigrants. His father, Tamás Király, a musician, was the drummer in the band Universal együttes between 1972 and 1982. His mother Gabriella Király () sang as a backing vocalist in the band. Growing up in New York, Király played drums in a number of garage bands. After his mother became seriously ill, the family returned to Hungary in 1999, where he continued his musical career.

In Twinz and Face to Face
Viktor started a musical career in Hungary alongside his identical twin brother Benjamin Király forming a Hungarian musical band in 2006 called Twinz. The band released a number of singles, and their single "Aranyásók" had some good airplay in Hungary. The band is active still and is known as Face to Face. Linda Király, Viktor's sister, is also a very well-known Hungarian singer, who had a great number of hits charting many times on the Mahasz Top 40, the Hungarian Singles Chart.

Viktor Király competed as a solo contestant on a show on Hungarian television channel M1. The series titled A Társulat was dedicated to choosing performers for roles in the well-known Hungarian rock opera István, a király (István the King). The language hurdle and his clear American accent in pronouncing the Hungarian language prevented him from moving to the later rounds of the show.

Megasztár (2008)
In 2008, Király won the fourth season of the Hungarian music competition Megasztár, an annual music talent contest on Hungarian television station TV2 based on a Pop Idol and Star Academy format.

Király's performances during the show:
Top 15: "You Are Not Alone" (Michael Jackson)
Week 1: "September" (Earth, Wind & Fire)
Week 2: "When a Man Loves a Woman" (Percy Sledge)
Week 4: "Hull az elsárgult levél" (Péter Máté) / "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" (Aerosmith)
Week 5: "As" as a duet with Magdolna Rúzsa (Stevie Wonder / George Michael & Mary J. Blige) and "Féltelek" as a duet with Tamara Bencsik (Color együttes)
Week 6: "This Love" (Maroon 5) / "Englishman in New York" (Sting)
Week 7: "Careless Whisper" (George Michael) / "Billie Jean" (Michael Jackson)
Week 8: "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" (J. Fred Coots & Haven Gillespie) / "(Where Do I Begin?) Love Story" (theme from Love Story)
Final:
"Don't Stop Me Now" (Queen)
"You Are So Beautiful" – duet with Magdolna Rúzsa (Joe Cocker)
"Kiss" – duel with Dávid Fekete (Prince)
"Éjfél" – duel with Dávid Fekete (from the musical Cats)
"Time to Say Goodbye" – duel with Dávid Fekete (Sarah Brightman & Andrea Bocelli)

Solo career (2009-present)
After winning Megasztár, Király launched a solo career with a live album Király Viktor: A döntőben elhangzott dalok released in 2009 containing most of his live performances on Megasztár 4. The album made it to number 4 on MAHASZ Top 40, the official Hungarian Albums Chart. The same year he appeared alongside his sister Linda and brother Benjamin in a T-Mobile sponsored concert by Simply Red. Also in 2009, he released his self-titled studio album Király Viktor. The debut studio album made it to number 9 on MAHASZ Top 40. Two singles from Király Viktor, namely "Forgószél" and "Ha arra indulsz" were successes on MAHASZ and music television station VIVA. An English language version of "Ha arra indulsz" retitled "Have I Told You" with an accompanying music video also gained fame.

The follow-up album was Solo in 2010. The title track "Solo" topped the Hungarian charts, and the follow-up single "Crazy" was also a big hit in Hungary. Later 2012 and 2013 releases included the singles "Move Faster", "Over" and a chart-topping single "Fire". In 2013-2014, Király became a jury member and mentor in the talent program Az ének iskolája for young Hungarian singers between ages 8 and 16. 3rd Dimension was the third studio album for Király and was released in 2014. It reached number 2 on the MAHASZ Top 40 Albums Chart and was certified platinum in Hungary. Two singles have been released from the album: "Chasing Demons" and "Exhale".

A Dal
Király has participated three times in A Dal, the Hungarian national selection show for a bid to represent Hungary in the Eurovision Song Contest.

2012
Király's first attempt was with the song "Untried" as part of the family band Király Testvérek (The Kiralys) during the 2012 contest alongside his twin brother Benjamin and his sister Linda. The Kiralys reached the finals of the qualification finishing fourth overall. Compact Disco went on to win the public vote and represented Hungary at the Eurovision Song Contest 2012.

2014
Király attempted A Dal for the second time in 2014 as a solo artist, with the song "Running Out of Time" co-written by Király himself, his father Tamás Király and by Diamond Duggal known as DJ Swami. Reaching the finals, the song was selected in Top 4 by the four-member jury, but the public vote opted for András Kállay-Saunders to represent Hungary in Eurovision 2014. The single "Running Out of Time" made it to number 3 on the MAHASZ Top 40. Due to the success of Király's song, he re-recorded it in a new version featuring American musician Darryl McDaniels, also known as D.M.C.

2018
Király was announced as one of the participants in A Dal 2018, with the song "Budapest Girl". He reached the superfinal.

U.S. The Voice (2015)

In 2015, Király auditioned for season 9 of the American series of the reality talent show The Voice broadcast on NBC. In the fourth episode of the "Blind Auditions" of the program broadcast on September 29, 2015, he sang "What's Going On" by Marvin Gaye with all four coaches, Adam Levine, Blake Shelton, Pharrell Williams, and Gwen Stefani, turning their chairs. Király chose to be on Team Adam. In the Battle Round, he was paired against Cassandra Robertson with the song "Nobody Knows". Király was chosen by Levine as the winner.

During the Knockout Rounds, Király was stolen by Stefani after Levine chose Jordan Smith as the winner of their knockout round. In the first live round (also known as the Live Playoffs, consisting of 24 finalists with six artists from each team), Király failed to get the Top 2 Public Vote save for Team Gwen and was not saved by Stefani as a coach's choice. Therefore, he left the competition on November 11, 2015,  sparking criticism from critics and fans alike.

Non Competition Performances:

Discography

Albums
Studio albums

Live albums

Singles

Others
2012: "Untried" (credited as The Királys) (from A Dal)
2014: "Running Out of Time" (feat. D.M.C.)
2015: The Voice'' performance releases on iTunes:
"What's Going On"
"Nobody Knows" (with Cassandra Robertson)
"If I Ain't Got You"
"All Around the World"

See also
Hungarian pop
Linda Király

References

External links
Official website

1984 births
Living people
21st-century Hungarian male singers
American people of Hungarian descent
American emigrants to Hungary
Singers from New York (state)
Twin musicians
The Voice (franchise) contestants
Musicians from Great Neck, New York
21st-century American male singers
21st-century American singers
MTV Europe Music Award winners

Viktor Király


The Studva () is a river in eastern Croatia and northern Serbia, a 37 km-long right tributary to the Bosut river. It flows entirely within the Syrmia region of both Croatia and Serbia (Vojvodina).

The Studva originates from the marshes of the western Syrmia in Croatia (Spačva sub-region), near the village of Gunja. It is a slow, meandering river and spills over into several marshes as it flows by the villages of Đurići, Drenovci, Soljani and Vrbanja.

There is a canal from the Studva to the river Spačva.

At the medieval ruins of the town of Zvezdangrad, the Studva becomes a border river between Croatia and Serbia (total length as a border or Serbian river is 18 km). At the village of Morović the Studva empties into the Bosut river.

Just like the Bosut itself, the Studva is a satellite flow to the Sava river and uses the same, ancient (fossile) Sava's river bed. The river is navigable for 18 km for smaller vessels, drains an area of 355 km2 and belongs to the Black Sea drainage basin.

References

Rivers of Croatia
Rivers of Serbia
Geography of Vojvodina
Syrmia
International rivers of Europe
Croatia–Serbia border
Border rivers
Geography of Vukovar-Syrmia County

Studva


Value numbering is a technique of determining when two computations in a program are equivalent and eliminating one of them with a semantics-preserving optimization.

Global value numbering
Global value numbering (GVN) is a compiler optimization based on the static single assignment form (SSA) intermediate representation. It sometimes helps eliminate redundant code that common subexpression elimination (CSE) does not.  At the same time, however, CSE may eliminate code that GVN does not, so both are often found in modern compilers.  Global value numbering is distinct from local value numbering in that the value-number mappings hold across basic block boundaries as well, and different algorithms are used to compute the mappings.

Global value numbering works by assigning a value number to variables and expressions.  The same value number is assigned to those variables and expressions which are provably equivalent.  For instance, in the following code:

 w := 3
 x := 3
 y := x + 4
 z := w + 4

a good GVN routine would assign the same value number to w and x, and the same value number to y and z.  For instance, the map  would constitute an optimal value-number mapping for this block.
Using this information, the previous code fragment may be safely transformed into:

 w := 3
 x := w
 y := w + 4
 z := y

Depending on the code following this fragment, copy propagation may be able to remove the assignments to x and to z.

The reason that GVN is sometimes more powerful than CSE comes from the fact that CSE matches lexically identical expressions whereas the GVN tries to determine an underlying equivalence.  For instance, in the code:

 a := c × d
 e := c
 f := e × d

Without copy propagation, CSE would not eliminate the recomputation assigned to f, but even a poor GVN algorithm should discover and eliminate this redundancy.

In IRs and source languages where rebinding (assigning to the same variable more than once) is possible, SSA form is required to perform GVN so that false  mappings are not created.

Local value numbering
Local value numbering (LVN) is a compiler optimization that aims to find multiple instances of equivalent expressions (i.e. expressions which yield the same result) and replace them with the first occurrence. LVN is a local optimization, meaning that unlike global value numbering, it operates on a single basic block at a time.

Local value numbering works by assigning a unique number to each operation and remembering these associations. Subsequent instructions are then looked up and, in case an identical instruction has already been registered, replaced with the previous instruction's result. For example:

 a ← 4         a is tagged as #1
 b ← 5         b is tagged as #2
 c ← a + b     c (#1 + #2) is tagged as #3
 d ← 5         d is tagged as #2, the same as b
 e ← a + d     e, being '#1 + #2' is tagged as #3

By assigning numbers to instructions, comparing for duplicates is turned into simple integer comparisons. In this particular example, c and e are assigned the same number (#3), thus signalling to the compiler that any references to e may simply be replaced with ones to c.

Difficulties and extensions

Issues when not using SSA
A naive implementation might attempt to perform the optimization by directly using the variable names instead of numbers. However, this approach does not work when the values of variables can change. Consider the pseudocode:

 a ← 1         a is tagged as #1
 b ← 2         b is tagged as #2
 c ← a + b     c is tagged as #3
 b ← 3
 d ← a + b     d is incorrectly tagged as #3

In this scenario, d is incorrectly assigned the number 3 because the arguments match those of c. This is incorrect, however, because b has changed value from 2 to 3, making the actual results differ. Using the SSA representation resolves this disparity.

Using mathematical identities
A simple implementation might also be unable to catch all equivalent expressions, even when they only differ by the order of their operands. In the following example, a and b could be assigned the same number:

 a ← 1 + 2
 b ← 2 + 1

This issue can easily be resolved either by assigning the same number to both cases (i.e. a + b and b + a are both recorded with the same number) or by sorting the operands before checking for equivalents.

Local value numbering optimizers may also be aware of mathematical identities. Assuming a is an integer, all of the following expressions can be assigned the same value:

 b ← a + 0
 c ← a * 1
 d ← min(a, MAX_INT)
 e ← max(a, a)
 f ← a & 0xFF..FF       (assuming '&' denotes bitwise AND)

See also
Partial redundancy elimination
 Optimizing compiler
 Common subexpression elimination

References

Further reading

 Alpern, Bowen, Wegman, Mark N., and Zadeck, F. Kenneth.  "Detecting Equality of Variables in Programs.", Conference Record of the Fifteenth Annual ACM Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages (POPL), ACM Press, San Diego, CA, USA, January 1988, pages 1–11.
 L. Taylor Simpson, "Value-Driven Redundancy Elimination." Technical Report 96-308, Computer Science Department, Rice University, 1996.  (Author's Ph.D. thesis)

Compiler optimizations

Value numbering