On May 18, 2017, a car was crashed in Times Square, New York City, United States. One person was killed and 20 were injured. Navy veteran Richard Rojas was charged with one count of second degree murder, 18 attempted murders and 38 assaults, for which he was found not responsible because of insanity.

After being detained, Rojas was found to have ingested phencyclidine before the crash. When interviewed by the NYPD, Rojas said he wanted to die in a "suicide by cop", and that he had been hearing voices. In a jailhouse news interview three days later, he said he did not remember the incident or any statements he made afterward.

A year later, multiple liability lawsuits were filed between Rojas, victims, and the city.

Incident
Richard Rojas, the driver of a maroon 2009 Honda Accord, sped into pedestrians in Times Square after having jumped the sidewalk on the west side of Seventh Avenue at 42nd Street, outside the Reuters Building. He continued for three blocks before crashing into traffic bollards at the northwest corner of 45th Street and Seventh Avenue, at Broadway. As Rojas was trying to leave his car, a traffic agent tackled him and took him into custody. After having exited the car Rojas said: "I wanted to kill them," according to prosecutors.

Victims
Alyssa Elsman, an 18-year-old tourist from Portage, Michigan, was killed and 20 people were injured, four critically.

Suspect
Richard Rojas (born 1991), a 26-year-old resident of the Bronx and a military veteran, was arrested and charged after the crash. He previously served in the United States Navy and had two prior arrests for driving under the influence. These arrests came in 2008 and 2015. He enlisted in the Navy in 2011 and was an electrician's mate fireman apprentice. In 2012, he served aboard the destroyer USS Carney. He was most recently based at Naval Air Station Jacksonville and was discharged in 2014.

Rojas was arrested in September 2012 after assaulting a cab driver and yelling at an officer, "My life is over", and threatening to kill police officers after his release. He also spent two months in military prison in 2013. A neighbor said his family was Dominican. One of his friends said Rojas had developed a drinking problem after his military service, using it as medication for his "dark thoughts and moods", and posted what the friend described as "demonic" content on social media. According to authorities and his friends, his mental health issues dated back to his childhood though he never sought psychiatric care, becoming more paranoid and increasing his intake of marijuana and alcohol.

Rojas was obsessed with Scientology and had accumulated literature on the religion. He recently got back his car after it was repossessed a short time before the incident. A week before the incident, he was arrested and charged with pointing a knife at a notary, whom he accused of stealing his identity.

Investigators looked into his psychological history. In an interview for the New York Post on May 21, he said he had no recollection of the incident or any statements he made when arrested and sought help in the prior week, including speaking to a mental health counselor at a veteran's affairs center, who promised to call him on Monday (May 22).

Aftermath
Bill de Blasio, the Mayor of New York City, and other officials have said there is no indication the incident was an act of terrorism. Several law enforcement officials said the suspect thought he was hearing voices and expected to die. Rojas tested negative for alcohol, but additional testing was done to determine whether he was taking any drugs. The drug test came back as positive while blood tests were conducted for whether he had taken synthetic marijuana or PCP. Rojas has since offered alternative explanations to the investigators who said they hadn't come to any conclusions.

According to a criminal complaint, Rojas admitted smoking marijuana laced with PCP before driving the car. Prosecutors said he told the police he wanted to die by suicide by cop. He also rambled that he had been hearing voices and it was the last day on Earth. According to other sources, he said he claimed to hear voices telling him the police were going to kill him. Later, they said he had tested positive for PCP and told police God made him do it. His interview was said to be abnormal and rambling.

Legal proceedings
Rojas was later charged with second-degree murder, 20 counts of attempted murder, and five counts of aggravated vehicular homicide. On July 13, Rojas, through his lawyer, Enrico DeMarco, pleaded not guilty to two counts of second-degree murder, 18 attempted murders and 38 assaults.

On October 24, DeMarco declined to reveal whether he would attempt an insanity defense, saying he needed "another month or so" to examine Rojas' possessions, such as notebooks, which the district attorney possesses. Justice Melissa Jackson urged him to hurry before adjourning until December 18. On December 17, he filed notice of his intent to pursue an insanity defense. Rojas was examined by psychiatrists hired by both sides. Jury selection began on April 18, 2022, five years after the attack. If Rojas was convicted of all charges, he would have faced a life sentence.

Defense psychiatrist Dr. Ziv Cohen from Weill Cornell Medicine at Columbia University testified that Rojas had schizophrenia, and had begun hearing voices while in the navy. Cohen testified that "At a certain point, the psychosis becomes so severe that he can't control his behavior anymore." It was one of these voices that told Rojas on the day of the attack to crash his car. On June 22, the jury found Rojas not responsible because of insanity.

Civil action
In July 2018, Elsman's father and sister sued New York City for unspecified damages, alleging it failed to provide adequate protection from civilian attacks. Rojas was also named as a defendant. The next month, victims Jessica Williams and William Nelson Sr. filed a similar joint suit for $75 million.

Rojas countersued the plaintiffs, blaming their injuries on their own culpable conduct, and holding their respective insurance companies solely responsible for paying their expenses. He agreed with their claim that the city was recklessly negligent, and sued it accordingly.

See also
2010 Times Square car bombing attempt
2017 New York City Subway bombing

References

2010s in Manhattan
2010s road incidents in North America
2017 crimes in New York City
2017 road incidents
Crimes in Manhattan
May 2017 crimes in the United States
Road incidents in the United States
2017 car crash
Vehicular rampage in the United States

2017 Times Square car attack


David B. Saxe (born December 30, 1942) was an associate justice of the New York Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, First Judicial Department.

Early life and education
Justice Saxe earned his bachelor's degree at Columbia College in 1963. He received his JD from Case Western Reserve University School of Law in 1966 and an LL.M. from New York University School of Law in 1972.

Legal career
Following law school, Judge Saxe clerked under Shanley N. Egeth. He was the consumer advocate and director of law enforcement for the New York City Consumer Affairs Department before becoming a lecturer and assistant professor of law at the City University of New York School of Law. He also maintained a private practice in Manhattan before joining the bench in which he specialized in representing tenants in co-op and condominium conversions and landlord-tenant matters; conducted a general civil practice with an emphasis on litigation; represented the rights of schoolchildren and their parents as well as handicapped children; and represented family members in family court; in addition to advocating for the consumer and doing appellate work.

Judge Saxe served on the New York City Civil Court from 1982 to 1985 and on the New York Supreme Court from 1986 to 1998. In 1998, he was designated as an associate justice for the Appellate Division, First Judicial Department, by New York Governor George Pataki. He served on that court until retiring from the bench effective February 28, 2017. He is currently a partner in the law firm of Morrison Cohen LLP in Manhattan.

References

1942 births
Living people
New York Supreme Court Justices
Columbia College (New York) alumni
New York University School of Law alumni
Case Western Reserve University School of Law alumni
Lawyers from the Bronx
New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department justices

David Saxe (judge)


Katya Mandoki is a Mexican-Israeli scholar of philosophy, author and experimental artist.

Career
Mandoki pioneered the systematic research of Everyday Aesthetics coining the term "Prosaics" (1994) for this subfield of Aesthetics. In her book Everyday Aesthetics, the first extended treatment of this subject, she opens up the study of aesthetics – traditionally confined to art and beauty – to encompass all those aspects involving  sensibility in common experience  using the human body as a starting point for this analysis. Her work covers not only the positive aspect of aesthetics but also its negative side such as cruelty and abuse upon someone's sensibility, never before thought of in those terms.  She stresses the danger of political manipulation of sensibility  illustrated  by the propagandistic use of aesthetics  specifically during the Nazi regime. From Mandoki's work on the negativity of aesthetics Arnold Berleant takes off to analyze this issue in relation to terrorism. The subfield of everyday aesthetics is so fertile that it has been followed and enriched by a number of contemporary aestheticians.

Mandoki has published eight books on this topic, the most recent presenting and developing the concept of bio-aesthetics  that traces sensibility not only in humans but in the most elemental creatures from an evolutionary perspective. She is a member of the Mexican Academy of Sciences, of the National System of Researchers (SNI), and Founder and Honorary Member of the Mexican Association of Aesthetics (AMEST) serving as President from 2007–2011. She has been professor of aesthetics and semiotics at Metropolitan Autonomous University (UAM) in Mexico where she established and chaired postgraduate specialization studies in Aesthetics, Semiotics and Theory of Culture, has taught postgraduate level at National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and given courses for Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes and Universidad Iberoamericana. She received the National Prize for Arts in experimental work (1982, 1985) by the INBA, the  Prize for Academic Research by UAM (1995, 2007, 2015) and participated in various individual and collective artwork exhibitions at museums and galleries such as Palacio de Bellas Artes on several occasions. Her monumental sculpture Histogram on the distribution of income in Mexico can be visited at the Library Plaza in the Xochimilco Campus of UAM. Mandoki published more than 150 articles on aesthetics and semiotics and presented papers and lectures in 20 countries. Presently, Mandoki works on the International Association of Aesthetics' executive committee (IAA), at the international advisory board of the International Institute of Applied Aesthetics, Finland, and on the international editorial board of various academic journals such as Contemporary Aesthetics, Cultural Politics and Environment, Land, Society, Architectonics.

Books
The Indispensable Excess of the Aesthetic: Evolution of Sensibility in Nature". ( Lexington Books, Rowman & Littlefield 2015) .
 El indispensable exceso de la estética. (México: Siglo XXI editores, 2013) .
 Everyday aesthetics: prosaics, the play of culture, and social identities. (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007) .
 La construcción estética del Estado y de la identidad nacional: Prosaica III. (México: Siglo XXI editores, 2007) .
 Prácticas estéticas e identidades sociales: Prosaica II. (México: Siglo XXI editores, 2007) .
 Estética cotidiana y juegos de la cultura: Prosaica I. (México: Siglo XXI editores, 2006) .
 Estética y comunicación: de acción, pasión y seducción. (Bogotá: Grupo Editorial Norma 2006) .
 Prosaica; introducción a la estética de lo cotidiano''. (México: Grijalbo, 1994) .

References

External links

 International Association of Aesthetics
 Histogram at Metropolitan Autonomous University
 Asociación Mexicana de Estudios en Estética
 Academia Mexicana de Ciencias
 Ashgate Publishing
 Siglo Veintiuno Editores
 Editorial Grijalbo

Mexican women writers
Mexican women artists
Writers from Mexico City
Artists from Mexico City
Mexican people of Hungarian descent
Mexican people of Hungarian-Jewish descent
1947 births
Living people
Academic staff of Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana

Katya Mandoki


Oil-based mud  is a drilling fluid used in drilling engineering. It is composed of oil as the continuous phase and water as the dispersed phase in conjunction with emulsifiers, wetting agents and gellants. The oil base can be diesel, kerosene, fuel oil, selected crude oil or mineral oil.

The requirements are a gravity of 36–37 API, a flash point of , fire point of  and an aniline point of .

Emulsifiers are important to oil-based mud due to the likelihood of contamination. The water phase of oil-based mud can be freshwater, or a solution of sodium or calcium chloride. The external phase is oil and does not allow the water to contact the formation. The shales don't become water wet.

Poor stability of the emulsion results in the two layers separating into two distinct layers.
The advantages are:
 high drilling rates
 lowered drill pipe torque and drag,
 less bit balling and
 reduction in differential sticking.

Oil-based muds are expensive, but are worth the cost when drilling through:
 troublesome shales that would otherwise swell and disperse in water based mud e.g. smectite,
 to drill deep, high-temperature holes that dehydrate water-based mud,
 to drill water-soluble zones and
 to drill producing zones.

The disadvantages of using oil-based mud, especially in wildcat wells are:
Inability to analyze oil shows in cuttings, because the oil-based mud has fluorescence confusing with the original oil formation.
Contamination samples of cuttings, cores, sidewall cores for geochemical analysis of TOC and masks the real determination of API gravity due to this contamination.
Contaminate areas of freshwater aquifers causing environmental damage.
Disposal of cuttings in an appropriate place to isolate possible environmental contamination.

This mud type can be used as a completion and workover fluid, a spotting fluid to relieve a stuck pipe and as packer or casing fluid. They are very good for "Gumbo" shales. The mud weight can be controlled from 7–22 lbs/gal. It is sensitive to temperature but does not dehydrate as in the case of water based mud as mentioned before. It has no limit on the drilled solids concentration. The water phase should be maintained above a pH of 7. Stability of the emulsion depends on the alkaline value.

References
 Lyons Williams C. PhD. P.E., "Standard handbook of Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineers", Houston Texas, Gulf Publishing Company, 1996.

External links
 Photorealistic quality images of oil-based mud wellbores

Drilling fluid

Oil-based mud


A drainage divide, water divide, ridgeline, watershed, water parting or height of land is elevated terrain that separates neighboring drainage basins. On rugged land, the divide lies along topographical ridges, and may be in the form of a single range of hills or mountains, known as a dividing range. On flat terrain, especially where the ground is marshy, the divide may be difficult to discern.

A triple divide is a point, often a summit, where three drainage basins meet. A valley floor divide is a low drainage divide that runs across a valley, sometimes created by deposition or stream capture. Major divides separating rivers that drain to different seas or oceans are continental divides.

The term height of land is used in Canada and the United States to refer to a drainage divide. It is frequently used in border descriptions, which are set according to the "doctrine of natural boundaries". In glaciated areas it often refers to a low point on a divide where it is possible to portage a canoe from one river system to another.

Types

Drainage divides can be divided into three types:
Continental divides in which waters on each side flow to different oceans, such as the Continental Divide of the Americas and the Congo-Nile Divide.
Major drainage divides in which waters on each side of the divide never meet but flow into the same ocean, such as the divide between the Yellow River basin and the Yangtze. Another, more subtle example is the Schuylkill-Lehigh divide at Pisgah Mountain in Pennsylvania in which two minor creeks divide to flow and grow east and west respectively joining the Lehigh River and Delaware River or the Susquehanna River and Potomac River, with each tributary complex having separate outlets into the Atlantic.
Minor drainage divides in which waters are originally separate but eventually join at a river confluence, such as the Mississippi River and the Missouri River drainage divides.

Valley-floor divides

A valley-floor divide occurs on the bottom of a valley and arises as a result of subsequent depositions, such as scree, in a valley through which a river originally flowed continuously.

Examples include the Kartitsch Saddle in the Gail valley in East Tyrol, which forms the watershed between the Drau and the Gail, and the divides in the Toblacher Feld between Innichen and Toblach in Italy, where the Drau empties into the Black Sea and the Rienz into the Adriatic.

Settlements are often built on valley-floor divides in the Alps. Examples are Eben im Pongau, Kirchberg in Tirol and Waidring (In all of these, the village name indicates the pass and the watershed is even explicitly displayed in the coat of arms). Extremely low divides with heights of less than two metres are found on the North German Plain within the Urstromtäler, for example, between Havel and Finow in the Eberswalde Urstromtal. In marsh deltas such as the Okavango, the largest drainage area on earth, or in large lakes areas, such as the Finnish Lakeland, it is difficult to find a meaningful definition of a watershed.

A bifurcation is where the watershed is effectively in a river bed, in a wetland, or underground. The largest watershed of this type is the bifurcation of the Orinoco in the north of South America, whose main stream empties into the Caribbean, but which also drains into the South Atlantic via the Casiquiare canal and Amazon River.

Political boundaries
Since ridgelines are sometimes easy to see and agree about, drainage divides may form natural borders defining political boundaries, as with the Royal Proclamation of 1763 in British North America which coincided with the ridgeline of the Appalachian Mountains forming the Eastern Continental Divide that separated settled colonial lands in the east from Indian Territory to the west. Another instance of a border matching a watershed in modern times involves the western border between Labrador and Quebec, as arbitrated by the privy council in 1927.

Portages and canals
Drainage divides hinder waterway navigation. In pre-industrial times, water divides were crossed at portages. Later, canals connected adjoining drainage basins; a key problem in such canals is ensuring a sufficient water supply. Important examples are the Chicago Portage, connecting the Great Lakes and Mississippi by the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, and the Canal des Deux Mers in France, connecting the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. The name is enshrined at the Height of Land Portage on the route from the Great Lakes in the Atlantic drainage basin to the Hudson Bay drainage basin.

See also

References

Further reading

Freshwater ecology
Geomorphology
Hydrology
Rivers
Water and the environment
Water streams

Drainage divide


Military parlance is the vernacular used within the military and embraces all aspects of service life; it can be described as both a "code" and a "classification" of something. Like many close and closed communities, the language used can often be full of jargon and not readily intelligible to outsiders—sometimes this is for military operational or security reasons; other times it is because of the natural evolution of the day-to-day language used in the various units.

For example: "Captain, this situation is 'Scale A'", "Scale A" being an army's parlance for "This situation requires the closest of attention and resources and all members of relevance should be present."

The military has developed its own slang, partly as means of self-identification. This slang is also used to reinforce the (usually friendly) interservice rivalries. Some terms are derogatory to varying degrees and many service personnel take some pleasure in the sense of shared hardships which they endure and which is reflected in the slang terms.

Military abbreviations

The military often use initials and abbreviations of all kinds - partly for security and operational reasons and partly for the simple convenience of their use; like all such things they can be hard to understand for outsiders. A few examples are given below:

US Army

G.I. - originally stood for "Galvanized Iron" but has come to be interpreted as everything from "General Infantry" (soldiers) to "Government Issue" and "Government Inductee".
SHAEF - Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (WWII)
AO - Area of Operations

Indian Army

GD - General Duty - usually indicates the equivalent of G.I. in the US Army.
CO - Commanding Officer (of a Major Unit).
LC - Line of Control (usually referred to as LoC in non-Military Parlance).

British Army

HQ - Headquarters
CGS - Chief of the General Staff (formerly Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS) - as in Lord Alanbrooke)
GCHQ - UK Government Communications Headquarters (Cheltenham)
ADC - aide de camp (a military or naval officer who helps an officer of higher rank)
OC - Officer Commanding
GOC - General Officer Commanding (usually followed by number indicating what rank of General is being mentioned)
SIS - Secret Intelligence Service
MI8 - British signals intelligence group in World War II. Also known as the Radio Security Service, it tracked radio broadcasts about German bombers during The Blitz.
MI9 - Escape & Evasion services (WWII)
VC - Victoria Cross
MM - Military Medal
MC - Military Cross
RV - Rendezvous Point
FRV - Final Rendezvous Point

Tactics

The "Four Fs" is a military term used in the United States military, especially during World War II.

Designed to be easy to remember, the "Four Fs" are as follows:
 Find - Locate the enemy
 Fix - Pin them down with suppressing fire
 Flank - Send soldiers to the enemy's sides or rear
 Finish - Eliminate all enemy combatants

The British Army uses the mnemonic "Perry Rat Likes Shooting Arseholes Regularly" as a way of remembering its Six Section Battle Drills (Squad Tactics):
 P - Prepare for battle
 R - Reaction to effective enemy fire (RTR (Return fire, Take cover, Return appropriate fire))
 L - Locate the enemy
 S - Suppress the enemy
 A - Assault the enemy position
 R - Reorganise

Alternatively, the British Army uses the mnemonic P.R.E.W.A.R. to remember the 6 section battle drills. These are:
P-Preparation/Prep for battle
R-Reaction to effective enemy fire
E-Enemy Location
W-Winning the Fire Fight
A-Assaulting the enemy Position
R-Reorganisation

The seven Ps
 Prior Planning and Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance.

Military songs and bands

Many armed forces, particularly the US Army, use songs as part of the training process, to help build morale and allow troops to train to a unified rhythm. Historically armies also went into battle led by a military band and such bands are still maintained in the armed forces today - albeit for mainly ceremonial purposes.

Apart from the official side of music, fighting troops have always sung to keep up their morale and to ridicule the enemy, examples from the two world wars include:

"Hitler has only got one ball" (Colonel Bogey)
"It's a long way to Tipperary"
"Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit-Bag"
"Gee, Mom, I Want to Go Home"
"Mademoiselle from Armentières"

Ranks

Purpose

Military ranks are necessary to identify the role of each serving individual and to show the hierarchy of command; however they can be obscure to non-military personnel and even comparing comparative ranks between different services is not always straightforward; the following pages detail these matters in more detail:

Army ranks
Navy ranks
Air force ranks
Comparative ranks

Insignia

Rank insignia is worn on military uniforms to identify the rank of the wearer and can involve such diverse elements as different uniforms, shoulder flashes, armbands and cap insignia. For more information, see the following pages:
 British Army officer rank insignia and British Army other ranks rank insignia
Royal Navy officer rank insignia
RAF officer ranks and RAF other ranks
U.S. Navy enlisted rate insignia and U.S. Navy officer rank insignia
United States Air Force enlisted rank insignia and United States Air Force officer rank insignia
United States Marine Corps rank insignia

British Army jargon/slang

The British Army has a rich and diverse history of slang usage; the following links provide more detail on the subject:
List of British army slang
WWII related military slang

Medals

Medals are issued to military personnel to commemorate an event, campaign or as a sign of distinction. The history of medals is a subject in itself and more information can be found on the following pages:

See the following pages:
British and Commonwealth orders and decorations
Awards and decorations of the United States military

Code names

Code names such as Operation Market Garden and Operation Overlord are given by the military to plans being developed and then executed. They serve to disguise the nature of the operation should an enemy or unauthorised person come across the name (although the military of the United States have recently used codenames to trumpet the operation's intention, such as Operation Iraqi Freedom).

References

External links
British Code names of WWII
Military equipment manuals
US Marines Dictionary

Military terminology

Military parlance


Yelü Chucai (;  "Longbeard", written in Chinese characters as "", July 24, 1190 – June 20, 1244), courtesy name Jinqing (), was a Khitan statesman from the imperial clan of the Liao dynasty, who became a vigorous adviser and administrator of the early Mongol Empire in the Confucian tradition. He was the first of Genghis Khan's retainers to formulate policy during the Mongol invasions and conquests, and he also introduced many administrative reforms in North China during the reign of Genghis Khan and his successor Ögedei.

Biography
Yelü Chucai was a Confucian scholar who was born close to Beijing, during the Jin dynasty. Well versed in Buddhist scriptures and a practitioner in Taoism, Yelü Chucai has become best known for his service as the chief adviser to Genghis Khan. Yelü Chucai's father Yelü Lu, served with the Jurchen-led Jin dynasty, which defeated the Liao dynasty in 1125. When the unified Mongol army under Genghis Khan began a war of conquest against the Jin dynasty in 1211, both Jurchen and Khitan rebels joined the Mongols in the fight against the Jin dynasty. Yelü Chucai then joined Genghis Khan's administration in the year 1218 at the age of 28.

The Khitans and Mongols, as well as the Southern Song, were united by their common enemy in the Jin dynasty. This is shown in the well-known words spoken by Genghis Khan, when at the end of July, he met Yelü Chucai for the first time at Ordos in the Sāri Steppe (west of the great bend of the Kerulen River): "Liao and Jin have been enemies for generations; I have taken revenge for you."  To which Yelü Chucai replied, "My father and grandfather have both respectfully served the Jin.  How can I, as a subject and a son, be so insincere in heart as to consider my sovereign and my father as enemies?" The Mongol is said to have been impressed by this frank reply, as well as by Yelü Chucai's looks (he was a very tall man with a magnificent beard reaching to his waist) and sonorous voice.  He gave him the nickname "Urtu Saqal" (Long Beard) and placed him in his retinue as an adviser. Because he was experienced in writing and knew the laws of other settled societies, Yelü Chucai was useful to the Empire.

He did his best to convince the Mongols to tax rather than slaughter conquered peoples.  In Grousset's Empire of the Steppes, it is reported that Ögedei would mock him, asking "Are you going to weep for the people again?". The wise chancellor had the great words to temper the Mongol practices, stating to Genghis Khan's son and successor to the throne, that while empires may be conquered on horseback, they could not be ruled on horseback. Yelü Chucai used his office to save other fellow Confucian scholars from punishment and mistreatment by Mongol rulers. He also helped them gain offices as bureaucrats and tutors to the Mongol princes.

While Northern China was capitulating to the Mongol onslaught, Yelü Chucai instituted several administrative reforms, like separating civil and military powers and introducing numerous taxes and levies.  In response to the tough resistance the Mongol army faced while trying to conquer the Jurchen Jin's southern capital of Kaifeng, some Mongol officers in high command recommended the complete razing of Kaifeng and the deaths of all its occupants.  But Yelü Chucai convinced Genghis Khan to rule and tax the people, and make use of their extraordinary talents instead of killing all of them in order to further their own riches.  He was six-foot eight-inches tall and had a waist-length beard. He was buried by Kunming Lake in Beijing, and a temple constructed in his memory stood until 1966, when it was razed during the looting of the Summer Palace by communist Red Guards as part of the Cultural Revolution. Yelü Chucai was the last recorded person to be able to speak the Khitan language and read and write the Khitan large and small scripts.

See also
Temple of Azure Clouds

References

External links
Biography on Bookrags.com
Biography on ColdSiberia.org
Translation of Yelu Chucai's description of Central Asia, based on travels with Chinggis Khan's army
Translation of Yelu Chucai's official Yuanshi biography

1190 births
1244 deaths
Politicians from Beijing
13th-century Khitan people
13th-century politicians
Yuan dynasty government officials
Last known speakers of a language
Chucai

Yelü Chucai


Biscúter (Spanish spelling for the pronunciation of BiScooter) is a microcar manufactured in Spain, by Auto Nacional, SA, from 1953 until 1960, total of all versions around 10,000 units.

Background
Raw material shortages and general economic difficulties in Europe following the Second World War made very small, economical cars popular in many countries.  In Spain, following the Spanish Civil War and the embargo declared by the United Nations against General Francisco Franco's dictatorship, the situation was even worse. The combination of relative underdevelopment, war devastation and an international trade embargo meant that the country operated at a much lower economic level than the rest of Western Europe for nearly two decades and was forced to develop domestic substitutes for hard-to-get imported products and technologies.  The Biscúter, tiny, simple, and cheap even by microcar standards, was a product of this economic environment and was well suited to its time and market.

Origins

The car had its origins in France in the late 1940s, where aircraft and car designer and manufacturer Gabriel Voisin had designed a minimal car called the Biscooter for Avions Voisin. The playful name implied that it was about the size of two motorscooters, or a scooter with four wheels.  The design drew no interest from either manufacturers or consumers there, however, and he eventually licensed it to Spanish firm Autonacional S.A. of Barcelona.  By the time it was introduced in 1953, the marque had been hispanicized to Biscúter.  The first car had no formal model name and was called simply the Series 100, but it soon became known as the Zapatilla, or little shoe (clog), after a low-heeled peasant slipper popular at the time.

Technical information

The Zapatilla was minimal indeed, with no doors or windows or reverse gear.  The 1 cylinder, 197 cc, two-stroke motor produced 9 horsepower (7 kW), had a crank starter, and drove only the right front wheel. It had a large, oil-filled cylinder head, to compensate overheating during traffic light arrests, and avoid overcooling while on road at higher speeds, producing a: 'Temperature Buffer' effect.  Braking was by an unusual three-point system involving the transmission and cable ties to the two rear wheels.  One genuinely advanced feature was an all-aluminum body, although steel was later used.

History

Biscúter flourished for about ten years and the cars became a common sight on Spanish roads, as well as a part of popular culture.  ("Ugly as a Biscúter" was a common joke.)  Amenities such as doors and windows did eventually appear, and several different bodystyles were produced, including trucks, an elegant woodie station wagon, and a toy-like sports car called the Pegasín (little Pegaso).

In 1950 the Spanish auto maker SEAT was set up as the country's national car manufacturer, but at first even the most inexpensive of its designs were considered luxury cars, out of reach of the average Spanish consumer.  As time went on and a greater degree of prosperity developed, though, SEATs began to take more of the market and crowd out the cheaper marques. In 1957 the company attempted to produce a sports car, the Biscuter Pegasin in an attempt to attract the wealthier buyers. The styling was similar to the Pegaso Z-102, but it didn't help much. By the early 60s, Biscúter sales and production stopped, after a total production run of about 12,000.  It is thought that almost all of the cars were eventually scrapped.

Today
Now Biscúters are mostly museum curiosities, although like many vanished marques they have some following among auto enthusiasts.  The name is little known outside Spain, however, and most materials pertaining to it are in Spanish.

References

External links

The Bruce Weiner Microcar Museum in Georgia has probably the best Biscúter collection in the United States:
A Zapatilla
A Furgoneta van
The Pegasin
A 200-C Comercial, or station wagon
Another Comercial

A history of the marque in Spanish, with some interesting photos:
 Biscúter history
 Vintage Spanish Ads

Microcars
Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of Spain
Companies based in Barcelona
Cars introduced in 1953

Biscúter


Raghunandan Swarup Pathak (25 November 1924 – 17 November 2007) was the 18th Chief Justice of India. He was the son of Gopal Swarup Pathak, a former Vice President of India.

He was one of the four judges from India to have been on the International Court of Justice in The Hague (the others being Benegal Narsing Rau who served at ICJ during 1952 to 1953 Nagendra Singh who served as its President from 1985 to 1988 and former Supreme Court justice Dalveer Bhandari, who currently sits upon the World Court). He did his schooling from St. Joseph's College, Allahabad and had studied law at Allahabad University. After practising law at Allahabad, he became Judge at Allahabad High Court in 1962 and later Chief Justice of Himachal Pradesh High Court in 1972.

At the Supreme Court of India
Pathak was made a judge at Supreme Court of India in 1978 and became its 18th Chief Justice on 21 December 1986. He is remembered as a judge who was a man of the middle and was able to bring relative peace to the Court. He served as Chief justice for two and a half years during which time a dozen judges were appointed to the Court. Five of them — Madhukar Hiralal Kania, Lalit Mohan Sharma, Manepalle Narayana Rao Venkatachaliah, Aziz Mushabber Ahmadi, and Jagdish Sharan Verma— went on to serve as Chief Justices between 1991 and 1998.

Bhopal gas disaster
Pathak facilitated an out of court settlement between Union Carbide Corporation and the Government of India in 1989 regarding the compensation to be paid for the Bhopal gas tragedy. The government had sought $3.3 billion but received only $470 million and the settlement resulted in the dropping of criminal liability charges against Union Carbide in the case. Within three months of his retirement Pathak became a member of the International Court of Justice at The Hague. The Supreme Court in 1991 upheld the settlement in 1991 thus ending Union Carbide's liability in the case.

Judge of the International Court of Justice
Pathak was elected a judge of the International Court of Justice and served in that position from 1989 to 1991. He was elected in "casual election" that was held following the death of M. Nagendra Singh, an Indian judge who was then serving his second term at the International Court. In 1991 India decided not to renominate Pathak, who however entered the fray with the backing of Ireland. After the Irish government came under attack in the Dáil from MPs who blamed Pathak for approving, as Chief Justice of India, the $470-million Bhopal gas disaster settlement with Union Carbide, Pathak withdrew from the race.

Oil-for-Food Programme inquiry

In November 2005, Justice Pathak was appointed to inquire into alleged Indian links in the Oil-for-Food Programme. On 3 August 2006, he submitted his 90-page report which indicted suspended Congress leader and former External Affairs Minister K. Natwar Singh.

Death
Pathak died on 17 November 2007, at the age of 82 following a heart attack in New Delhi. His death occurred a week before his 83rd birthday.

References

External links
 Official Supreme Court of India Website

Chief justices of India
1924 births
2007 deaths
International Court of Justice judges
Chief Justices of the Himachal Pradesh High Court
20th-century Indian judges
Judges of the Allahabad High Court
20th-century Indian lawyers
Indian judges of United Nations courts and tribunals

Raghunandan Swarup Pathak


Volcanic gases are gases given out by active volcanoes or sometimes not active volcanoes. They come from gases trapped in holes in volcanic rocks, dissolved or separated gases in magma and lava, or gases coming from lava, volcanic craters, or openings. Volcanic gases can also be released through water heated by volcanic activity.

Volcanic gases on Earth come from sources which include:
 Gases from the Earth's mantle, which include ancient and recycled materials.
 Gases that are absorbed from the Earth's crust.
 Gases taken from groundwater and the Earth's atmosphere.

Volatile substances are materials that can turn into gas or release gases when heated.

Volcanology
Gases

Volcanic gas


Alizarin (also known as 1,2-dihydroxyanthraquinone, Mordant Red 11, C.I. 58000, and Turkey Red) is an organic compound with formula  that has been used throughout history as a prominent red  dye, principally for dyeing textile fabrics. Historically it was derived from the roots of plants of the madder genus. In 1869, it became the first natural dye to be produced synthetically.

Alizarin is the main ingredient for the manufacture of the madder lake pigments known to painters as rose madder and alizarin crimson. Alizarin in the most common usage of the term has a deep red color, but the term is also part of the name for several related non-red dyes, such as Alizarine Cyanine Green and Alizarine Brilliant Blue. A notable use of alizarin in modern times is as a staining agent in biological research because it stains free calcium and certain calcium compounds a red or light purple color. Alizarin continues to be used commercially as a red textile dye, but to a lesser extent than in the past.

History
Madder has been cultivated as a dyestuff since antiquity in central Asia and Egypt, where it was grown as early as 1500 BC.  Cloth dyed with madder root pigment was found in the tomb of the Pharaoh Tutankhamun, in the ruins of Pompeii, and ancient Athens and Corinth. In the Middle Ages, Charlemagne encouraged madder cultivation. Madder was widely used as a dye in Western Europe in the Late Medieval centuries. In 17th century England, alizarin was used as a red dye for the clothing of the parliamentary New Model Army. The distinctive red color would continue to be worn for centuries (though also produced by other dyes such as cochineal), giving English and later British soldiers the nickname of "redcoats".

The madder dyestuff is combined with a dye mordant. Depending on which mordant is used, the resulting color may be anywhere from pink through purple to dark brown. In the 18th century, the most valued color was a bright red known as "Turkey Red". The combination of mordants and overall technique used to obtain the Turkey Red originated in the Middle East or Turkey (hence the name). It was a complex and multi-step technique in its Middle Eastern formulation, some parts of which were unnecessary. The process was simplified in late 18th-century Europe. By 1804, dye maker George Field in Britain had refined a technique to make lake madder by treating it with alum, and an alkali, that converts the water-soluble madder extract into a solid, insoluble pigment.  This resulting madder lake has a longer-lasting color, and can be used more efficaciously, for example by blending it into a paint.  Over the following years, it was found that other metal salts, including those containing iron, tin, and chromium, could be used in place of alum to give madder-based pigments of various other colors. This general method of preparing lakes has been known for centuries but was simplified in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

In 1826, the French chemist Pierre-Jean Robiquet found that madder root contained two colorants, the red alizarin and the more rapidly fading purpurin.  The alizarin component became the first natural dye to be synthetically duplicated in 1868 when the German chemists Carl Graebe and Carl Liebermann, working for BASF, found a way to produce it from anthracene. The Bayer AG company draws its roots from alizarin as well. About the same time, the English dye chemist William Henry Perkin independently discovered the same synthesis, although the BASF group filed their patent before Perkin by one day.  The subsequent discovery (made by Broenner and Gutzhow in 1871) that anthracene could be abstracted from coal tar further advanced the importance and affordability of alizarin's artificial synthesis.

The synthetic alizarin could be produced for a fraction of the cost of the natural product, and the market for madder collapsed virtually overnight. The principal synthesis entailed bromination of anthraquinone by bromine (in a sealed tube at 100 oC) to give 1,2-dibromoanthraquinone. Then the  two bromine atoms were substituted by -OH by heating (170 oC) with KOH, followed by treatment with strong acid. The incorporation of two bromine atoms in 1 and 2  position is not expected by an aromatic electrophilic substitution, and suggest the existence of an α,β unsaturated enol form of anthraquinone which suffer electrophilic addition by bromine.

Alizarin, as a dye, has been largely replaced today by the more light-resistant quinacridone pigments developed at DuPont in 1958.

Structure and properties

Alizarin is one of ten dihydroxyanthraquinone isomers. It is soluble in hexane and chloroform, and can be obtained from the latter as red-purple crystals, melting point 277–278 °C.

Alizarin changes color depending on the pH of the solution it is in, thereby making it a pH indicator.

Applications
Alizarin Red is used in a biochemical assay to determine, quantitatively by colorimetry, the presence of calcific deposition by cells of an osteogenic lineage. As such it is an early stage marker (days 10–16 of in vitro culture) of matrix mineralization, a crucial step towards the formation of calcified extracellular matrix associated with true bone.

Alizarin's abilities as a biological stain were first noted in 1567, when it was observed that when fed to animals, it stained their teeth and bones red. The chemical is now commonly used in medical studies involving calcium. Free (ionic) calcium forms precipitates with alizarin, and tissue block containing calcium stain red immediately when immersed in alizarin. Thus, both pure calcium and calcium in bones and other tissues can be stained. These alizarin-stained elements can be better visualized under fluorescent lights, excited by 440–460 nm. The process of staining calcium with alizarin works best when conducted in acidic solution (in many labs, it works better in pH 4.1 to 4.3).

In clinical practice, it is used to stain synovial fluid to assess for basic calcium phosphate crystals. Alizarin has also been used in studies involving bone growth, osteoporosis, bone marrow, calcium deposits in the vascular system, cellular signaling, gene expression, tissue engineering, and mesenchymal stem cells.

In geology, it is used as a stain to differentiate the calcium carbonate minerals, especially calcite and aragonite in thin section or polished surfaces.

Madder lake had been in use as a red pigment in paintings since antiquity.

See also
 1,2,4-Trihydroxyanthraquinone or purpurin, another red dye that occurs in madder root
 Alizarine ink
 Aniline
 Dihydroxyanthraquinone
 Hydroxyanthraquinone
 List of colors (compact)
 List of dyes
Diaphonization
 Red pigments

References

Further reading
 Schweppe, H., and Winter, J. "Madder and Alizarin", in Artists' Pigments: A Handbook of Their History and Characteristics, Vol. 3: E.W. Fitzhugh (Ed.) Oxford University Press 1997, pp. 109–142

External links

 Molecule of the day: Alizarin
 Madder lake, Colourlex

Anthraquinone dyes
Catechols
Chelating agents
Dihydroxyanthraquinones
Organic pigments
3-Hydroxypropenals within hydroxyquinones

Alizarin


Henri de Boulainvilliers (; 21 October 1658, Saint-Saire, Normandy – 23 January 1722, Paris) was a French nobleman, writer and historian. He was educated at the College of Juilly; he served in the army until 1697.

Primarily remembered as an early modern historian of France, Boulainvilliers also published an early French translation of Spinoza's Ethics and wrote on topics as diverse as astrology, physics, philosophy and theology. His theory that French nobility is of Germanic origins while the Third Estate is of Celtic Origin inspired Arthur de Gobineau.

The Comte de Boulainvilliers traced his lineage to the House of Croÿ, to Jean de Croÿ, sire de Clery et de Boulainviller, who died in the Battle of Poitiers (1356).  At the time of his birth, however, the family's fortune had declined significantly.  Much of Boulainvilliers' historical work and political life centered on the decline of the nobility.

Education
In 1669, Henri de Boulainvilliers went to study at the Collège de Juilly, one of the most famous schools of the Congregation of the Oratory of Philip Neri. Exact sciences, history and geography were taught there.
The philosopher Malebranche being one of the great educators at the Oratory, cartesianism was allowed reference in the classroom from 1662 until 1675 when it was banned by Royal decree.
In 1673, Henry studied rhetoric with his teacher Richard Simon, who was excluded from the Oratory (1678) because of his critical Bible studies.

The education at Juilly had great impact on Boulainvilliers: a special accent on critical history had been introduced into the Oratory by Caesar Baronius and Richard Simon, and through the science classes he became familiar with the works of Jean Baptist van Helmont, Robert Boyle and Edme Mariotte.

Since he had also received private lessons in the German language, it is not inconceivable that he was able to read van Helmont in Middle Dutch that author used as a critical means to an accessible reading of medicine in the Low Countries, and which so fluently worded his rich independence of mind.

Physics
In 1683 Boulainvilliers wrote l'Idée d'un Système Général de la Nature, based on his reading of Jan Baptist van Helmont and Robert Boyle, followed by Archidoxes de Paracelsus, avec une préface sur les principes de l'art chimique.

By 1715-1720, he wrote his Traité d'astronomie physique using the Cartesian method, commenting on the nature of gravity and the movement of planets and drawing on sources such as Jean-Baptiste du Hamel and Huygens.

He described his method as experimental philosophy and closely preceded the Dutch experimentalists led by Anthony Leeuwenhoek (Nieuwentijt, Boerhave, Volder)

He retained affection for astrology, for which he was famous in Court gossip.

Critical history
In a Lettre à Mlle Cousinot sur l'histoire de France et le choix des historiens, he explained why the writing of history was to be more than the "amateur" collection of dates and anecdotes related to old coins (numismatics) and stones: The knowledge of history pertained to a distinct moral character of society. Related causes of past events, such as the 1346 Battle of Crécy during the Hundred Years' War, could be instructive on related measures in the present — how to do things better or worse. Sometimes we want to know not only what a historical figure has done, but by what right he might have done so differently.

He stressed in his writings the corruption absolutism played in the fall of France when he contrasts the role English and French historians were able to investigate history. For instance, when stressing the importance of sources in developing fact, he contrasted Thomas Rymer's way of access to the London archives to that of his own where he had to bribe the keepers of the French archives. For his neutral reasoning, his works were cited by subsequent writers whose works would prove influential in the development of Western political thought and historical research.

Philosophy
Parallel to his historical studies ran an untiring interest in philosophy which he wrote down in Considérations abrégées des operations de l'entendement sur les idées on the model borrowed from the famous Port-Royal Logic by Antoine Arnauld: psychology of the mind, logic, and method; to which he added ontology. His influences, apart from the Schola of his early education, were Gassendi, Descartes, Malebranche, Locke and Spinoza.

Spinoza
Boulainvilliers's translation of Spinoza's Ethics was not published until 1907 by Colonna d'Istria from an unsigned manuscript at Lyon.

Boulainvilliers's study of Spinoza, as captured in the collected treatises published by Renée Simon (1973), shows an exceptional development from a basic criticism to an enlightened understanding marked by the incredibly generous way in which he let his opponent use his own voice.

In the Essay de Métaphysique dans les principes de B...de Sp... he translated Spinoza's "geometrical method" into an accessible French, closely following its original meaning without incisive criticism.

In the Exposition du système de Benoit Spinosa et sa defense contre les objections de M. Régis he voiced the defense of Spinoza against his cartesian critic Pierre-Sylvain Régis. The comte Boulainvilliers was no blind follower of Descartes; he knew how to make use of his method, but he could equally well criticise him on metaphysical points.

This unusual way of writing philosophy led to the gossip that he was a Spinozist and therefore an atheist. Yet in his persistent criticism of Spinoza's monism (through the concept of the "unity of substance"), in writings inaccessible to the multitude, his independent judgement remained unspoilt. After his death his name was frequently used to circulate anti-religious treatises, leading to still more confusion about his intellectual identity.

With Matthieu Marais he shared a friendship with another great student of Spinoza, Pierre Bayle.

Molinos
Less well known but as important in his time was the similar treatment he gave to the mysticism of Molinos in Extrait du livre du ministre Pierre Jurieu touchant les dogmes des mystiques et particulièrement contre Messieurs de Cambray et de Méaux. By the time the reader finished his lecture he had a complete survey of the works of Molinos, thus recapitulating the famous disagreements over Quietism.

Such are the traits that can make one regret the criticism — amply justified in retrospect — that Boulainvilliers, elsewhere, brought over himself by his brutal stance on feudalism; traits for which he equally deserves to be known to a larger circle of students.

Bibliography
Boulainvilliers wrote a number of historical works (published after his death), of which the most important were the following:
Histoire de l'ancien gouvernement de la France (La Haye, 1727)
Etat de la France, avec des memoires sur l'ancien gouvernement (London, 1727)
Histoire de la pairie de France (London, 1753)
Histoire des Arabes avec la Vie de Mahomet (1731). Translation (s.d. 18th century) reprinted (2001) as The Life of Mohammad: Or The Life of Mahomet, Henri de Boulainvilliers. Kessinger Publishing's Rare Reprints
Essai sur la noblesse de France, contenans une dissertation sur son origine & abaissement. Avec des notes historiques, Critiques et Politiques ; Un projet de Dissertation sur les premiers Français & leurs Colonies ; et un Supplément aux notes par forme de Dictionnaire pour la Noblesse. Amsterdam, Rouen, 1732.
Analyse du Traité Théologi-politique de Spinosa, par le comte de Boulainvilliers. Londres, 1767.

See also
Philosophy of history

Notes

References

Renée Simon: "Henry de Boulainviller, Historien, Politique, Philosophe, Astrologue (1658-1722)" Paris: Boivin & Cie, Editeurs, Rue Palatine, s.d.
Renée Simon: "Henry de Boulainviller: Œuvres Philosophiques" International Archives of the History of Ideas 58. La Haye: Martinus Nijhoff, 1973

1658 births
1722 deaths
People from Seine-Maritime
18th-century French historians
French political writers
Counts of France
French male non-fiction writers

Henri de Boulainvilliers


Phillip Edward Hartmann (known professionally as Phil Hartman; September 24, 1948 – May 28, 1998) was a Canadian-born American graphic designer, artist, writer, comedian, voice artist, and actor. Hartman was born in Brantford, Ontario, Canada and he then moved to the United States with his family at the age of 10 and then became an American citizen in 1990. Hartman was a cast member of Saturday Night Live.

Early life
Hartman was born Philip Edward Hartmann on September 24, 1948 in Brantford, Ontario, Canada. He was the fourth of eight children of Doris Marguerite (Wardell) and Rupert Loebig Hartmann, a salesman specializing in building materials. One of his brothers is named John Hartman. His parents were Catholic and raised their children in that faith. As a middle child, Hartman found affection hard to earn and stated: "I suppose I didn't get what I wanted out of my family life, so I started seeking love and attention elsewhere."

Career
Hartman got his start in show business as a performing member of the comedy troupe, Groundlings. Hartman then joined the cast of Saturday Night Live in 1987, and stayed on the show for 8 years. Hartman also did prominent voice acting roles on The Simpsons until his untimely death in 1998. He was also part of the main cast on the critically-acclaimed sitcom News Radio, until his murder. Hartman, before becoming an actor and performer, worked as an album designer and graphic artist for multiple rock bands such as Poco, America and Crosby, Stills and Nash, while also co-creating the signature logo for the latter group. Hartman had also co-created the character Pee-wee Herman together along with his fellow Groundlings member and associate Paul Reubens. Hartman also co-wrote the screenplay for the film Pee-wee's Big Adventure.

He had also appeared in multiple films such as Coneheads, Kiki's Delivery Service, Cheech & Chong's Next Movie, House Guest, The Pagemaster, Small Soldiers and Jingle All The Way, among many others. Hartman was also a prolific voice actor who had voice roles in several cartoons, such as Scooby Doo, The Simpsons, Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child, Darkwing Duck and The Smurfs.

One of Hartman's last notable projects was in the 1998 video game Blasto, released for the PlayStation.

Death
On May 27, 1998, Brynn returned to home that night and had a big fight with her husband. After the fight, Phil told her that if she ever used any drugs or abuse their children, then he would break up with her and take the children with him.
Later on May 28, 1998 at almost 3:00 AM, while he slept in his bed, Phil died at the hands of his wife,  Brynn Omdahl-Hartman, by a revolver. Brynn, intoxicated and under the influence of cocaine and alcohol, drove to the home of a friend, and confessed to the murder. Returning to the house, with the couple's two children asleep inside, Mrs. Hartman pulled to gun to her head, and ended her life at around 6:30 AM. Phil Hartman was cremated days later, with his ashes spread over an island off the coast of Southern California.

The Hartmans' two children, Sean Edward Hartman (born in 1989) and Birgen Anika Hartman (born in 1992), were raised by their aunt and uncle, Katherine Omdahl (Brynn's sister) and Michael Wright in Minnesota.

References

Other websites

 Phil Hartman at Yahoo! Movies
 Phil Hartman at The New York Times
 Hartman's autopsy and death certificate
 Phil Hartman's final night: The tragic death of a "Saturday Night Live" genius, Mike Thomas, Salon, September 21, 2014

1948 births
1998 deaths
Naturalized citizens of the United States
Writers from Ontario
Actors from Ontario
Comedians from Ontario
Comedians from Los Angeles
Actors from Los Angeles
Canadian comedians
Canadian voice actors
Canadian movie actors
Canadian television actors
Canadian television writers
American television writers
American television actors
American movie actors
American voice actors
American murder victims
Murdered entertainers
Murders by firearm in California
Murder-suicides in the United States
People murdered in California

Phil Hartman


Matthew Rudd is an English radio personality and disc jockey.  Since May 2013 he has presented the weekly Forgotten 80s radio show on Absolute 80s.

Early career
Rudd was brought up and educated in Hedon, East Riding of Yorkshire, and started his working life as a journalist, working for a news agency. He began his radio career  as an amateur on the local hospital radio station in Hull, Kingstown Radio. He also supplemented this experience by working on other local amateur stations.

Rudd joined Hallam FM in Sheffield in 1996, and thus became a radio professional. A year later he joined Viking FM, working on through the nights and presenting the station's football show. In 2001, Rudd moved to Imagine FM in Stockport and presented the evening show before moving to the breakfast show. Rudd also produced and presented the station's coverage of Stockport County during his time at Imagine. Whilst based in Stockport, Rudd started work hosting a weekly 80s night at Cobdens nightclub, which continued for eight years.

In 2005, Rudd left Imagine and went freelance for two years. During this time he travelled the United Kingdom and worked for Century FM (Manchester and Newcastle), Magic AM (Sheffield), TFM Radio (Middlesbrough), 97.2 Stray FM  (Harrogate), Home FM (Huddersfield), Minster FM (York) and Heart West Midlands (Birmingham).

KCFM

Rudd returned to Hull in 2007 and joined new independent station KCFM, the station having been granted an OFCOM broadcast licence in 2006 after a trial period.

When the station started broadcasting in August 2007, Rudd presented the night show during the week, the Sunday breakfast show, the 70s show on Tuesday nights and Sportscall, a show dedicated to providing an on-air forum to supporters of Hull City, Hull F.C. and Hull Kingston Rovers with each club having a weekly fans panel. He also interviewed both current and former players and staff from all clubs, including co-hosting the show with Hull City chairman Paul Duffen on Thursdays.

He later scaled down his duties in order to concentrate on SportsCall, before departing the station in November 2008 to return to freelancing.

Pennine 107.9 FM

On 12 November 2009 it was announced he would return to Huddersfield's Pennine FM after a stint previously on the station during its Home 107.9 branding. Rudd launched their brand new Breakfast Show on 4 January 2010. However, the station closed down in April 2010.

Q Radio

Rudd presented a weekly 1980s music show for digital and satellite station Q Radio from September 2010 until the station was discontinued in May 2013.

Absolute 80s

In May 2013 Rudd moved to digital radio station Absolute 80s to present the weekly Forgotten 80s show which airs each Sunday evening at 9 pm.

Disco Dancing 80s
From 5 May 2018, a new weekly 2 hour show Disco Dancing 80s presented by Rudd was broadcast on Saturdays from 7 pm on Imagine FM.

From 26 May 2018, this was also broadcast on Hull Kingston Radio from 8 pm.

Miscellaneous

Rudd is a supporter of Hull City. He is a contributor to club fanzine Amber Nectar, and also acts as editor-at-large for the site, while also hosting and producing its weekly podcasts. He has also written several articles on the club for football magazine When Saturday Comes and has been a correspondent on club affairs for talkSPORT.

He is also a long-time contributor to the TV Cream website and its associated mailouts.

Rudd's elder brother is swimming coach Jon Rudd and Rudd himself also works as a swimming teacher. In 2015 he was given the award of Teacher of the Year by the Swimming Teachers Association.

References

External links
Matthew's blog
Forgotten 80s on Absolute 80s

English radio personalities
British radio DJs
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)

Matthew Rudd


Rocky V is a 1990 American sports drama movie directed by	John G. Avildsen and starring Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Burt Young, Sage Stallone, Tony Burton, Tommy Morrison, Burgess Meredith, Richard Gant. It is the sequel to the 1985 movie Rocky IV and is the fifth movie in the Rocky franchise. The movie was distributed by United Artists and was nominated for 7 Razzie Awards in 1991.

Plot summary
Shortly after winning a boxing match against Ivan Drago, Rocky and his family return to the United States. When the family returns home, it is revealed that Paulie had signed a power of attorney over to Rocky's accountant, who sabotaged the family's entire fortune of real estate deals gone sour. In addition, the accountant did not pay Rocky's tax returns within the past known years, and the mortgage on the family's mansion is in debt worth $400,000. When Rocky sees a doctor, it is revealed that he has suffered some brain damage, which forces his to regret his decision to continue boxing and retire.

After selling the mansion and auctioning off some of the belongings, the family has paid off the mortgage debt and moves back to their former site in southern Philadelphia. One day, Rocky meets someone named Tommy Gunn, and agrees to train him. Rocky becomes so fixated on training Tommy that he ends up neglecting his family, especially for his son Robert, who is being harassed in school. Around the holidays, promoter George Washington Duke visits the Balboa residence, which foreshadows Tommy turning his back on Rocky. Rocky reconnects with his family, while Tommy wins the boxing championship against Union Cane. The media condemns Tommy for leaving Rocky, a concept of which Tommy brushes away. Duke recommends Tommy to have a street fight with Rocky, which proves to be the only way of facing a true contender.

Tommy engages Rocky in a street fight with nearby neighbors in support of Rocky. The duel ends in a stalemate, where the police arrest both Tommy and Duke for their actions. Later, Rocky and his son Robert discuss what might come of the future.

Other websites

1990s sports movies
1990 drama movies
1990s sequel movies
American sequel movies
Rocky movies
Movies directed by John G. Avildsen

Rocky V


Charlton Comics was an American comic-book publishing company that existed from 1945 to 1986, having begun under a different name: T. W. O. Charles Company, in 1940. It was based in Derby, Connecticut. The comic-book line was a division of Charlton Publications, which published magazines (most notably song-lyric magazines), puzzle books, and briefly, books (under the Monarch and Gold Star imprints). It had its own distribution company (Capital Distribution).

Charlton Comics published a wide variety of genres, including crime, science fiction, Western, horror, war, and romance comics, as well as talking animal and superhero titles. The company was known for its low-budget practices, often using unpublished material acquired from defunct companies and paying comics creators among the lowest rates in the industry. Charlton was also the last of the American comics publishers still operating to raise its cover prices from 10 to 12 cents in 1962.

It was unique among comic-book companies in that it controlled all areas of publishing – from editorial to printing to distribution – rather than working with outside printers and distributors, as did most other publishers. It did so under one roof at its Derby headquarters.

The company was formed by John Santangelo Sr. and Ed Levy in 1940 as T. W. O. Charles Company, named after the co-founders' two sons, both named Charles, and became Charlton Publications in 1945.

History

Early years

In 1931, Italian immigrant John Santangelo Sr., a bricklayer who had started a construction business in White Plains, New York, five years earlier, began what became a highly successful business publishing song-lyric magazines out of nearby Yonkers, New York. Operating in violation of copyright laws, however, he was sentenced in 1934 to a year and a day at New Haven County Jail in New Haven, Connecticut, near Derby, where his wife and he by then lived. In jail, he met Waterbury, Connecticut, attorney Ed Levy, with whom he began legitimate publishing in 1935, acquiring permissions to reproduce lyrics in such magazines as Hit Parade and Big Song Magazine. Santangelo and Levy opened a printing plant in Waterbury the following year, and in 1940, founded the T.W.O. Charles Company, eventually moving its headquarters to Derby. Charlton purchased the company Song Lyrics, Inc., which published Song Hits magazine and was owned by Lyle Engel in 1949.

Following the adoption of the Charlton Comics name in 1946, the company over the next five years acquired material from freelance editor and comics packager Al Fago (brother of former Timely Comics editor Vincent Fago). Charlton additionally published Merry Comics, Cowboy Western, the Western title Tim McCoy, and Pictorial Love Stories.

The company used a second-hand press originally used for printing cereal boxes. These large presses were very costly to both stop and start, which only happened twice a year when they had to be cleaned, and so they started publishing comics as a mean to keep the presses going. After the entry into the comic business, the company's first comic book was Yellowjacket, an anthology of superhero and horror stories launched September 1944 under the imprint Frank Comunale Publications, with Ed Levy listed as publisher. Zoo Funnies was published under the imprint Children Comics Publishing; Jack in the Box, under Frank Comunale; and TNT Comics, under Charles Publishing Co. Another imprint was Frank Publications.

In 1951, when Al Fago began as an in-house editor, Charlton hired a staff of artists who included its future managing editor, Dick Giordano. Others (staff or freelance) who eventually worked with Charlton included Vince Alascia, Jon D'Agostino, Sam Glanzman, Rocco "Rocke" Mastroserio, Bill Molno, Charles Nicholas, and Sal Trapani. The primary writer was the remarkably prolific Joe Gill. The same year the company created an in-house comics department, where comics would make up 25% of Charlton.

The company began a wide expansion of its comics line, which included notoriously gory horror comics (the principal title being Steve Ditko's The Thing!). In 1954–55, it acquired a stable of comic-book properties from the defunct Superior Comics, Mainline Publications, St. John Publications, and most significantly, Fawcett Publications, which was shutting down its Fawcett Comics division. Charlton continued publishing two of Fawcett's horror books—This Magazine Is Haunted and Strange Suspense Stories—initially using unpublished material from Fawcett's inventory.<ref>[http://www.toonopedia.com/charlton.htm "Charlton Comics] at Don Markstein's Toonopedia notes that Charlton's acquisition included unused artwork from a number of Fawcett titles. Archived from the original December 6, 2011.</ref> Artistic chores were then handed to Ditko, whose moody, individualistic touch came to dominate Charlton's supernatural line. Beset by the circulation slump that swept the industry towards the end of the 1950s, Haunted struggled for another two years, published bimonthly until May 1958. Strange Suspense Stories ran longer, lasting well into the 1960s before "giving up the ghost" in 1965.

Charlton published a wide line of romance titles, particularly after it acquired the Fawcett line, which included the romance comics  Sweethearts, Romantic Secrets, and Romantic Story. Sweethearts was the comic world's first monthly romance title (debuting in 1948), and Charlton continued publishing it until 1973. Charlton had launched its first original romance title in 1951, True Life Secrets, but that series only lasted until 1956. Charlton also picked up a number of Western titles from the defunct Fawcett Comics line, including Gabby Hayes Western, Lash LaRue Western, Monte Hale Western, Rocky Lane Western.Six-Gun Heroes, Tex Ritter Western, Tom Mix Western, and Western Hero.

Seeking to save money on second-class postage permits, Charlton, like many comic-book publishers of the era, frequently changed the titles of their comics, rather than start new ones at number 1 (a new publication required a new postal permit, while an existing publication that just changed its name could use its existing permit). Notable examples of this practice include the titles Billy the Kid (originally Masked Raider), Blue Beetle vol. 2 (originally The Thing!), Blue Beetle vol. 3 (originally Unusual Tales), Fightin' Air Force (originally Never Again), Fightin' Army (originally Soldier and Marine Comics), Fightin' Marines (originally The Texan), Fightin' Navy (originally Don Winslow of the Navy), Ghostly Haunts (originally Ghost Manor), Ghostly Tales (originally Blue Beetle vol. 3), I Love You (originally In Love), and Sweethearts (originally Fawcett's Captain Midnight).

Al Fago left in the mid-1950s, and was succeeded by his assistant, Pat Masulli, who remained in the position for 10 years. Masulli oversaw a plethora of new romance titles, including the long-running I Love You, Sweetheart Diary, Brides in Love, My Secret Life, and Just Married; and the teen-oriented romance comics Teen-Age Love, Teen Confessions, and Teen-Age Confidential Confessions.

On August 19, 1955, the company was hit hard by a flood. The water was rising so fast that vital office records was all that could be saved. $300,000 in paper inventory, plates, mats and original comics artwork were lost, including the artwork the company had bought from Fawcett Comics, in addition to printing presses and typesetting machines. Several issues of comics were destroyed, and some titles abandoned completely.Charlton Neo Media/Charlton Comics: The Movie Panel at CT ComiCONN

Superheroes were a minor part of the company. At the beginning, Charlton's main  characters were Yellowjacket, not to be confused with the later Marvel character, and Diana the Huntress. In the mid-1950s, Charlton briefly published a Blue Beetle title with new and reprinted stories, and in 1956, several short-lived titles written by Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel, such as Mr. Muscles, Zaza the Mystic, and Nature Boy (the latter with artist Mastroserio).

Silver Age
The company's most noteworthy period was during the "silver age" of comic books, which had begun with DC Comics' successful revival of superheroes in 1956. In March 1960, Charlton's science-fiction anthology title Space Adventures introduced Captain Atom, by Gill and the future co-creator of Marvel Comics' Spider-Man, Steve Ditko. (After the mid-1980s demise of Charlton, Captain Atom went on to become a stalwart of the DC stable, as would Blue Beetle, the old Fox Comics superhero revived by Gill and artists Bill Fraccio and Tony Tallarico as a campy, comedic character in Blue Beetle #1 [June 1964].)

Charlton also had moderate success with Son of Vulcan, its answer to Marvel's Thor, in Mysteries of Unexplored Worlds #46 (May 1965).

During the Silver Age, Charlton, like Marvel and DC, published war comics. Notable titles included the "Fightin'" line of Fightin' Air Force, Fightin' Army, Fightin' Marines, and Fightin' Navy; the "Attack" line of Army Attack and Submarine Attack; Battlefield Action;  D-Day, U.S. Air Force Comics, and War Heroes. Though primarily anthologies of stories about 20th-century warfare, they included a small number of recurring characters and features, including "The American Eagle", "Shotgun Harker and the Chicken", "The Devil's Brigade", "The Iron Corporal", and "The Lonely War of Capt. Willy Schultz". Army War Heroes and Marine War Heroes depicted stories based on actual Medal of Honor recipients. Space War, first created in 1959 became Fightin' 5 in 1964.

With the mid-1960s fad for James Bond secret agents such as Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., Charlton turned their Vietnam veteran Mike Hammer hardboiled detective Sarge Steel into a special agent after the sixth issue, later renaming the comic Secret Agent.

Charlton threw itself into the resurgent horror comics genre during this period with such titles as Ghostly Tales, The Many Ghosts of Doctor Graves, and Ghost Manor. It also created a pair of identical horror-movie magazines: Horror Monsters (1961–1964) and Mad Monsters (1961–1965). Additionally, Charlton produced comics based on monsters featured in motion pictures such as Konga, Gorgo and Reptilicus.

Charlton continued its commitment to romance comics with such new titles as Career Girl Romances, Hollywood Romances (later to change its name to For Lovers Only), and Time for Love.

In 1965, Charlton revived the Captain Atom character in Strange Suspense Stories numbers 75, 76, and 77, reprinting the Steve Ditko-illustrated stories that had originally appeared in Space Adventures in the early 1960s. Retitling the comic, Captain Atom Volume 2 #78 (cover dated Dec. 1965), Charlton began publishing newly created stories by Ditko of the superhero.  In 1967, Ditko stopped working at Marvel and returned to Charlton full-time. After his celebrated stint at Marvel, he had grown disenchanted with that company and his Spider-Man collaborator, writer-editor Stan Lee. Having the hugely popular Ditko back helped prompt Charlton editor Giordano to introduce the company's "Action Hero" superhero line, with characters including Captain Atom, Ditko's the Question, Gill and artist Pat Boyette's The Peacemaker, Gill and company art director Frank McLaughlin's Judomaster, Pete Morisi's Peter Cannon... Thunderbolt, and Ditko's new "Ted Kord" version of the Blue Beetle. Because Giordano had a personal dislike for superheroes and wanted to keep them in a pulplike realm of relative believability, all the characters in his Action Hero line, except for Captain Atom, were ordinary humans which used their skills and talents instead of superpowers.Dick Giordano Interview - Comic Book Artist #1 The company also developed a reputation as a place for new talent to break into comics; examples include Jim Aparo, Dennis O'Neil and Sam Grainger. As well, Charlton in the late 1960s published some of the first manga in America, in Ghost Manor and other titles (thanks to artist Sanho Kim), and artist Wayne Howard became the industry's first known cover-credited series creator, with the horror-anthology Midnight Tales blurbing "Created by Wayne Howard" on each issue—"a declaration perhaps unique in the industry at the time".

Yet by the end of 1967, Charlton's superhero titles had been cancelled, and licensed properties had become the company's staples, particularly cartoon characters from Hanna-Barbera (The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Top Cat, Korg: 70,000 B.C., others). Charlton took over publication of a number of King Features Syndicate characters from that company's short-lived King Comics, including Beetle Bailey, Blondie Comics, Flash Gordon, Jungle Jim, The Phantom, and  Popeye. Charlton also published Bullwinkle and Rocky, and Hoppity Hooper, based on Jay Ward Productions' Hoppity Hooper, and Rocky and His Friends/The Bullwinkle Show.

Charlton dabbled occasionally in adaptations of live-action TV comedies. The most successful was My Little Margie, based on the 1952-55 network series starring Gale Storm; the Charlton version ran for a full 10 years (1954-64, 54 issues) and inspired two spinoffs, My Little Margie's Boy Friends (1955–58, 11 issues) and My Little Margie's Fashions (1959, five issues). Abbott and Costello, debuting in 1968, was based on the syndicated Abbott and Costello animated cartoon series of 1967-68 and ran for 22 issues. Hee Haw, a remarkably faithful rendition of the then-current CBS-TV series, bowed in 1970 but ran for only seven issues. Both the Abbott and Costello and Hee Haw comics were discontinued in the summer of 1971, although Charlton's Hee Haw was revamped for general audiences as a 50-cent magazine, printed in black-and-white with cast photos and jokes supplemented by advertising. The last of the comedy vehicles was The Partridge Family, based on the then-current ABC-TV sitcom; launched in 1971, the comic book ran for 21 issues until it was cancelled in 1973.

Bronze Age
Nicola Cuti made creative improvements to Charlton's line in the early 1970s, which had been referred to as comics' Bronze Age, during which he worked as assistant editor under George Wildman, who was occupied primarily with administrative duties. Cuti brought Mike Zeck, among others, into Charlton's roster of artists, and his writing enlivened the Ghostly titles, now including Ghostly Haunts. Other Bronze Age Charlton horror titles included Haunted, Midnight Tales, and Scary Tales.

In 1973, Charlton debuted the gothic romance title Haunted Love, but this same period saw the mass cancellation of almost all of Charlton's vast stable of traditional romance titles, including such long-running series as; Sweethearts, Romantic Secrets, Romantic Story, I Love You, Teen-Age Love, Just Married, and Teen Confessions, all of which dated from the 1950s.

In the mid-1970s, a brief resurgence of talent occurred, energized by Cuti, artist Joe Staton, and the "CPL Gang" – a group of writer/artist comics fans including John Byrne, Roger Stern, Bob Layton, and Roger Slifer, who had all worked on the fanzine Contemporary Pictorial Literature. Charlton began publishing such new titles as E-Man, Midnight Tales, and Doomsday + 1. The CPL Gang also produced an in-house fanzine called Charlton Bullseye, which published, among other things, commissioned but previously unpublished material; including the company's last Captain Atom story. Also during this period, most of Charlton's titles began sporting painted covers.

Early in 1975, Cuti, already writing freelance for the company in addition to his staff duties, quit to write freelance exclusively for Charlton when its line expanded to include black-and-white magazines in addition to the King Features and Hanna-Barbera franchised titles. He was replaced by Bill Pearson, who became assistant editor after promoting Don Newton as the new Phantom artist and writing scripts for that title.

Charlton's black-and-white comics magazines were based upon current television series and aimed at older readers. One of these was The Six Million Dollar Man #1–7 (July 1976 – August 1977). Retailing for $1, it featured art by Neal Adams' studio, Continuity Associates, as well as some stories by veteran illustrators Jack Sparling and Win Mortimer. Also published in magazine form were adaptations of The Six Million Dollar Man spinoff The Bionic Woman, Space: 1999, and Emergency!, as well as a comic based on teen heartthrob David Cassidy, then starring in the musical sitcom The Partridge Family.

By 1976, however, most of these titles had been cancelled, and most of the company's remaining titles  went on hiatus during the period January to August 1977. Much of the new talent took the opportunity to move on to Marvel and DC.

Final years
By the 1980s, Charlton was in decline. The comic-book industry was in a sales slump, struggling to reinvent a profitable distribution and retail system. Charlton's licensed titles lapsed, its aging presses were deteriorating towards uselessness, and the company did not have the resources to replace them. In 1981,  yet another attempt was made at new material, with a comic-book version of Charlton Bullseye serving as a new-talent showcase that actively solicited submissions by comic-book fans, and an attempt at new Ditko-produced titles. A number of 1970s-era titles were also reprinted under the Modern Comics imprint and sold in bagged sets in department stores (in much the same way Gold Key Comics were published under the Whitman Comics moniker around the same time). None of these measures worked, and in 1984, Charlton Comics suspended publication.

In 1985, a final attempt at a revival was spearheaded by new editor T. C. Ford with a direct-to-market Charlton Bullseye Special."Charlton Back from the Dead," The Comics Journal #101 (Sept. 1985), pp. 22–23. Later that same year, though, Charlton Comics went out of business; Charlton Publications followed suit in 1991, and its building and presses were demolished in 1999.

Editor Robin Snyder oversaw the sale of some properties to their creators, though most of the rights were purchased by Canadian entrepreneur Roger Broughton. He produced several reprint titles under the company name of Avalon Communications and its imprint America's Comics Group (ACG for short, Broughton having also purchased the rights to the defunct American Comics Group properties), and announced plans to restart Charlton Comics. This did not occur beyond its publishing a number of reprints and changing his company name to Charlton Media Group.

Most of Charlton's line of action heroes were acquired in 1983 for $5000 a character by Paul Levitz at DC Comics, as a gift to managing editor and former Charlton editor Dick Giordano. These "Action Hero" characters were proposed to be used in the landmark Watchmen miniseries written by Alan Moore, but DC then chose to save the characters for other uses. Moore instead developed new characters loosely based on them. The Charlton characters were incorporated into DC's main superhero line, starting in the epic Crisis on Infinite Earths miniseries of 1985.

Charlton's original strength, doing everything in-house, like art, lettering, editorial, printing, packaging and distribution, had helped them survive when America's largest distributor, American News Company, closed its doors. But this gradually turned into a weakness as their old equipment was stuck in the past, while other companies used more modern equipment that was faster, had higher quality and was more efficient, which contributed to their decline and fall.

Fan revivals
In 2000, Charlton Spotlight, a fanzine devoted to Charlton, began publication.

In 2014, comics writer Mort Todd founded a revival imprint named Charlton Neo, which relied heavily on crowdfunding, and printed stories featuring Charlton characters and titles not owned by DC. In May 2017, AC Comics announced that they had entered into an agreement to bring print versions of Charlton Neo's comics to the direct-sales comic shop market, starting with Charlton Arrow #1 in September. The Charlton Arrow, an anthology series featuring many Charlton characters, was the company's main product and only title sold in stores, but the company ran a number of other titles through mail-order and digital sales.  In January 2018, citing poor sales and "a variety of financial calamities," Todd launched a GoFundMe campaign to "help save" the company.

See also
 List of Charlton Comics publications

References

External linksComic Book Artist  #9, August 2000: "The Charlton Comics Story: 1945–1968". Online portions:
Cooke, Jon B., & Christopher Irving. "The Charlton Empire: A Brief History of the Derby, Connecticut Publisher", Comic Book Artist. Access date 2010-04-27. WebCitation archive.
Interview with Jim Aparo. WebCitation archive.Comic Book Artist''  #12, March 2001: "The Charlton Comics Story: 1972–1983" Online portions:
Interviews with John Byrne ( WebCitation archive); Joe Staton (WebCitation archive); and Roger Stern (WebCitation archive)
Charlton Comics at An International Catalogue of Superheroes. WebCitation archive

 Additional  on June 11, 2011
Additional  made June 15, 2010.
FBI file on Charlton Publications
Deep Dish Radio podcast on the history of Charlton Comics with the documentarians making Charlton The Movie

Derby, Connecticut
Comic book publishing companies of the United States
DC Comics imprints
Defunct comics and manga publishing companies
Defunct companies based in Connecticut
1945 establishments in Connecticut
1986 disestablishments in Connecticut
Publishing companies established in 1945
Mass media companies disestablished in 1986
American companies established in 1945

Charlton Comics


Crowded House (album) is the first studio album by the band of the same name. It was released in June 1986. It features the top 10 hits "Don't Dream It's Over & Something So Strong". It also features 3 other singles that also charted in Australia and New Zealand.

Track Listing:

 Mean to Me
 World Where You Live
 Now We're Getting Somewhere
 Don't Dream it's Over
 Love You 'Til the Day I Die
 Something So Strong
 Hole in the River
 Can't Carry On
 I Walk Away
 Tombstone
 That's What I Call Love

1986 albums

Crowded House (album)


Casco is a town in Kewaunee County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 1,165 at the 2010 census. The village of Casco, a separate municipality, is in the northwest part of the town, and the unincorporated communities of Clyde, Ryans Corner, Slovan, and Rio Creek are located in the town.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , all of it land.

Demographics
As of the census of 2000, there were 1,153 people, 385 households, and 329 families residing in the town. The population density was 32.3 people per square mile (12.5/km2). There were 404 housing units at an average density of 11.3 per square mile (4.4/km2). The racial makeup of the town was 98.27% White, 0.26% Native American, 0.09% Asian, and 1.39% from two or more races. 1.04% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There were 385 households, out of which 37.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 73.5% were married couples living together, 6.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 14.5% were non-families. 12.5% of all households were made up of individuals, and 5.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.98 and the average family size was 3.19.

In the town, the population was spread out, with 28.4% under the age of 18, 8.8% from 18 to 24, 27.3% from 25 to 44, 23.9% from 45 to 64, and 11.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females, there were 104.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 105.2 males.

The median income for a household in the town was $46,250, and the median income for a family was $48,036. Males had a median income of $35,323 versus $23,977 for females. The per capita income for the town was $17,605. About 4.4% of families and 4.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 2.4% of those under age 18 and 11.6% of those age 65 or over.

References

Towns in Kewaunee County, Wisconsin
Green Bay metropolitan area
Towns in Wisconsin

Casco (town), Wisconsin


Nigga () is a colloquial and vulgar term used in African-American Vernacular English that began as a dialect form of the word nigger, an ethnic slur against black people. The word is commonly associated with hip hop music and African-American gang culture. In dialects of English (including standard British English) that have non-rhotic speech, nigger and nigga are often pronounced the same.

Usage
The use of nigger non-pejoratively within the black community was documented in the 1912 novel The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man by James Weldon Johnson, in which he recounted a scene in New York City around the turn of the century:
I noticed that among this class of colored men the word "nigger" was freely used in about the same sense as the word "fellow," and sometimes as a term of almost endearment; but I soon learned that its use was positively and absolutely prohibited to white men.

There is conflicting popular opinion on whether there is any meaningful difference between nigga and nigger as a spoken term. Many people consider the terms to be equally pejorative, and the use of nigga both in and outside black communities remains controversial. H. Lewis Smith, author of Bury That Sucka: A Scandalous Love Affair with the N-word, believes that "replacing the 'er' with an 'a' changes nothing other than the pronunciation" and the African American Registry notes, "Brother (Brotha) and Sister (Sistah or Sista) are terms of endearment. Nigger was and still is a word of disrespect." The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, a civil rights group, condemns use of both nigga and nigger.

Some African-Americans only consider nigga offensive when used by people of other races, seeing its use outside a defined social group as an unwelcome cultural appropriation. Used by black people, the term may indicate "solidarity or affection", similar to the usage of the words dude, homeboy, and bro. Others consider nigga non-offensive except when directed from a non-African-American towards an African-American. Yet others have derided this as hypocritical and harmful, enabling white racists to use the word and confusing the issue over nigger. Conversely, nigga has been used an example of cultural assimilation, whereby members of other ethnicities (particularly younger people) will use the word in a positive way, similar to the previously mentioned dude, homeboy, and bro.

In practice, its use and meaning are heavily dependent on context, with non-offensive examples ranging from a greeting, to reprimand, to general reference, to a use synonymous with male person. , the word nigga was used more liberally among younger members of all races and ethnicities in the United States. In addition to African-Americans, other ethnic groups have adopted the term as part of their vernacular, although this usage is very controversial.

Cultural influence
The phrase nigga, please, used in the 1970s by comics such as Paul Mooney as "a funny punctuation in jokes about Blacks", is now heard routinely in comedy routines by African-Americans. The growing use of the term is often attributed to its ubiquity in modern American hip hop music.

One of the earliest uses of the term in a popular song was in the lyrics of the 1983 song "New York New York" by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, although it had featured in some very early hip hop recordings such as "Scoopy Rap" and "Family Rap", both from 1979. Ol' Dirty Bastard uses the term 76 times in his Nigga Please album (not including repetitions in choruses).

Comedian Chris Rock's 1996 routine "Niggas vs. Black People" distinguishes a "nigga", which he defined as a "low-expectation-havin' motherfucker", from a "black person". In contrast, Tupac Shakur distinguished between nigger and nigga: "Niggers was the ones on the rope, hanging off the thing; niggas is the ones with gold ropes, hanging out at clubs." Tupac, who has been credited with legitimizing the term, said his song "N.I.G.G.A." stood for "Never Ignorant Getting Goals Accomplished".

In 2001, a public disagreement between Conrad Tillard (activist and minister then, Conrad Muhammad) and Russell Simmons (Def Jam co-founder) erupted about the portrayal in media of hip hop culture, especially that of rap music. Tillard argued that the use of bitch and nigga by rappers is "degrad[ing] the African-American community" through its "bombardment of ... negative images". He directly accused Simmons of "condoning violence by refusing to condemn the frequent use of [these words] in rap lyrics" in the lead up to both parties organizing gatherings to discuss hip hop culture. Rapper KRS-One publicly supported Tillard, but stated that "if an artist feels he has to use the 'n' or 'b' words, that's a poetic debate. What we're saying is you cannot package the word muthaf---er to our children."[censoring quoted] Tillard's own Campaign for Dignity Meeting in April was boycotted by Simmons, who also encouraged others to not attend, while Simmons organized the Hip Hop Summit in June, which Tillard attended. The disagreement has been referred to as a "feud", and the two were successfully encouraged by Louis Farrakhan (head of the Nation of Islam) at Simmons' summit to bury the hatchet and show public unity.

The song "R & B" from Devin the Dude's second solo album Just Tryin' ta Live (2002) features a comedic conversation between Devin and "a redneck" (voiced by Devin) exploring a cultural divide and how it might be overcome by the liberal application of "reefer and beer". The song culminates with Devin frustrated by the redneck failing to correctly pronounce nigga.

In the 2004 Coen brothers film The Ladykillers, the antagonist is Marva Munson (Irma P. Hall), an elderly church-going landlady with moral certainty living in the Baptist bible belt, who is introduced making a complaint to her local sheriff about her neighbour playing "hippity hop music too loud". She qualifies her disdain by asking the sheriff rhetorically if he knows "what they call colored folks in them songs?" moving to quickly exclaim, "Niggaz" [or "Niggers"; sources have printed both spellings].

Some television shows use the word, either to create a realistic atmosphere or as a way of presenting social discussion, specifically ones relating to the wealth gap between the rich and the poor. The word continues to be used for comedic effect, e.g. it is used commonly in The Boondocks, an adult animated series with satirical takes on traditional American sitcoms and African-American culture.

Use in trademarks or brand names
Until a 2017 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in Matal v. Tam, the Lanham Act did not permit registration of trademarks containing terms that may disparage persons or bring them into disrepute. Registration by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) of terms that are historically considered disparaging to groups of people has been allowed in some circumstances. Self-disparaging trademarks have been allowed in some cases where the applicant has shown that the mark as-used is not considered by the relevant group to be disparaging.

In 1995, two men from Houston filed a trademark application with the PTO for the words "Naturally Intelligent God Gifted Africans", and its acronym. The application was rejected, as were numerous subsequent applications for variations of the word nigga. In 2005, comedian Damon Wayans twice attempted to trademark a brand name called Nigga, "featuring clothing, books, music and general merchandise". The PTO refused Wayans' application, stating "the very fact that debate is ongoing regarding in-[ethnic]-group usage, shows that a substantial composite of African-Americans find the term 'nigga' to be offensive".

See also

Notes

References

External links

"Let's Make a Deal on the N-Word: White folks will stop using it, and black folks will stop pretending that quoting it is saying it," John McWhorter, The Root

African-American culture
American slang
English words
English profanity
Hip hop phrases
African-American slang

Nigga