William Bradford "Bill" Keith (December 20, 1939 – October 23, 2015) was a five-string banjoist who made a significant contribution to the stylistic development of the instrument. In the 1960s he introduced a variation on the popular "Scruggs style" of banjo playing (an integral element of bluegrass music) which would soon become known as melodic style, or "Keith style".

Professional career
Keith was born in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. He attended Amherst College and graduated in 1961. In 1963 he became a member of Bill Monroe's Bluegrass Boys.

Keith's recordings and performances during these nine months with Monroe permanently altered banjo playing, and his style became an important part of the playing styles of many banjoists. After leaving the Bluegrass Boys, he joined the Jim Kweskin Jug Band playing plectrum banjo. He began playing the steel guitar and soon after 1968, worked together with Ian and Sylvia and Jonathan Edwards.

In the 1970s, Keith recorded for Rounder Records. Over the years he performed with several other musicians, such as Clarence White and David Grisman in Muleskinner, Tony Trischka, Jim Rooney and Jim Collier. Today, Keith style is still regarded as modern or progressive in the context of bluegrass banjo playing. He was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame at an awards ceremony in Raleigh, North Carolina on October 1, 2015, and delivered a heartfelt address on that occasion, just three weeks prior to his death from cancer at his home in Woodstock, New York on October 23, 2015, aged 75.

Joe Boyd, who was producing the music for the movie Deliverance, offered Duelling Banjos to Bill, but as Bill was travelling in Europe and wanted to visit a girl in Ireland, he turned it down suggesting Eric Weissberg instead.

Afterwards

Keith made a mechanical contribution to the banjo, as well. He designed a specialized type of banjo tuning peg that facilitates changing quickly from one open tuning to another, while playing. Earlier famed banjoist Earl Scruggs had designed a set of cams which were added to the banjo to perform this task.

Keith's invention made the extra hardware unnecessary, replacing two of the tuning machines already on the banjo —  a more elegant solution. Scruggs himself became a partner in the venture for a while, and the product was known as "Scruggs-Keith Tuners". Known today simply as Keith Tuners, they remain the state of the art, and Bill Keith continued to manufacture and market them personally as the primary product of his own company, the Beacon Banjo Company, until his death. Beacon Banjo tuners continue their proud tradition, now in the hands of his son, Martin.

Discography

Solo and contributions
1962 Bill Keith & Jim Rooney, Bluegrass Livin' on the Mountain, Prestige Folklore FL 14002
1976 Bill Keith, Something Auld, Something Newgrass, Something Borrowed, Something Bluegrass (1976) Rounder - CD 0084, 1998 (feat. Tony Rice, David Grisman)
1978 Bill Keith and Jim Collier, Hexagone 883020
1981 Tony Trischka, Bill Keith, Bela Fleck, Fiddle Tunes for Banjo, Rounder 0124 CD 1999
1984  Bill Keith, Banjoistics Rounder Select OG US - 148
1993 Bill Keith, Beating Around The Bush, Green Linnet.

With Bill Monroe
1963 Bill Monroe & his Bluegrass Boys, Deca Session, 20 & 27 Mars 1963 reed. CD 3/4, tracks 1 to 7 in : Bluegrass 1963 Bill Monroe & his Bluegrass Boys, July 1963: Two Days at Newport, And More Bears AMD / ACDAA 25001(CD 2003) (feat. Del McCoury, guitar; Bill Keith, banjo; Billy Baker, fiddle; Ralph Rinzler, Bass, producer)
1963 Bill Monroe & his Bluegrass Boys, Live at Mechanic Hall Acoustic Disc, ACD-59 (CD 2004), (recorded 11 November 1963 by David Grisman; feat. Del McCoury, guitar; Bill Keith, banjo; Joe Stuart, fiddle; Bessie Lee Mauldin, Bass)
1991 Bill Monroe, Blue Grass – 1959–1969, Bear Family Records, BCD 15529 (4CD) (feat. Del McCoury, guitar; Bill Keith, banjo; Kenny Baker, fiddle; Bessie Lee Mauldin, bass; Harry Silverstein, producer)

Bands
1964 Red Allen, Frank Wakefield and Kentuckians, The Bluegrass, Folkways Records – FA 2408 CD 2004 Smithsonian Folkways Recordings SFW40127
1965 Jim Kweskin & The Jug Band, Jug Band Music, Vanguard VRS-9163, VSD-79163
1966 Jim Kweskin & The Jug Band, See Reverse Side For Title, Vanguard VRS-9234, VSD-79234
1967 Jim Kweskin & The Jug Band, Garden of Joy, Reprise 6266
1969 Blue Velvet Band, Sweet Moments With The Blue Velvet Band  Warner Bros. - Seven Arts Records WS 1802 (Bill Keith: Pedal Steel Guitar, member of The Blue Velvet Band, with Richard Greene, Jim Rooney, Eric Weissberg).
1972 Mud Acres, Music Among Friends 1972, Rounder 3001
1973 Muleskinner, A Pot pourri of Bluegrass Jam, Warner Bros. records BS 2787 (feat. Peter Rowan, Clarence White, David Grisman)
1973 Muleskinner Live: Original Television Soundtrack, released in 1998, Sierra MSI-11059
1975 Jim Rooney, One day at the Time, Rounder Records, 3008
1975–1976 Bill Keith & Jim Rooney, in Banjo Paris Session vol. 1 Pony/Musigrass; Cezame CEZ 1005 & vol 2 Cezame CEZ 1022
1976 The David Grisman Rounder Record (1976) reed. CD 0069, 1986 (feat. Tony Rice)
1985  Peter Rowan The First Whippoorwill, Sugar Hill, reed. CD 1990 SHCD 3749
1995 Richard Greene, The Grass is Greener, Rebel Records 1995 REB CD 1714

As session musician
 1966 Gloria Belle, Today I Can Smile/Baby, You Gotta Be Mine single 45 RPM Redwing 16171 (sidemen: Bill Keith (banjo) and Clarence "Tater" Tate (fiddle))
 1969 The Bee Gees, Odessa, Polydor Records (UK), Atco Records (US)
 1973 Judy Collins True Stories And Other Dreams Elektra EKS-75053 (sidemen: Bill Keith: Pedal Steel Guitar, with Eric Weissberg)
 1976 Marcel Dadi And Friends – Country Show Guitar World Records – GW 4 (US release)
 1976 Marcel Dadi – Dadi's Pickin' - Lights Up Nashville - Part Two, Cezame – CEZ 1019 (US release, 1977: Nashville Memories, Guitar World Records – GW 6)
 1977 Marcel Dadi – Travelin' Man Guitar World Records – GW 5 (US release)
 1977 Christian Seguret (fr) With Bluegrass Friends: Bill Keith, Mike Lilly, Wendy Miller, Jean Marie Redon (fr), Jean-Claude Druot, Denis Blanchard – Old Fashioned Love, Cezame – CEZ 1035 (tracks: B3, B4)

References

Bibliography
Tony Trischka, Pete Wernick, Masters of the 5-String Banjo, Oak Publications, 1988,
Neil V. Rosenberg, Charles K. Wolfep The Music of Bill Monroe, University of Illinois Press, 2007, p. 148-151, discography p. 168 sq. Bill Keith is identified as: "Bradford Keith".
"Bill Keith" in The Encyclopedia of Country Music, The Ultimate Guide to the Music'', ed. by The Country Music Foundation and Paul Kinsbury, Oxford University Press, 1998, p. 276.

External links
Bill Keith's website
Banjo workshop - Grey Fox 2003
Bill "brad" Keith on the ''Bluegrass boys''' pages
Tribute page with audio, video, photos, stories, articles

1939 births
Musicians from Boston
American country banjoists
American bluegrass musicians
2015 deaths
Steel guitarists
American country guitarists
Deaths from cancer in New York (state)
Great Speckled Bird (band) members
20th-century American guitarists
Muleskinner (band) members

Bill Keith (musician)


Northrop, now a ghost town, was a small, early settlement in Washington County, Utah, United States, established in 1861 by Isaac Behunin.  It was located at the confluence of the North Fork and East Fork of the Virgin River. It was one of the settlements formed as part of the cotton growing colony in the County.

Northrop was destroyed by the Great Flood of 1862 and the settlers moved to settle on some nearby land with more space for growth and above the river floods, in what is now Springdale.

Site today
The site of Northrop was just at the confluence of the North and East Forks of the Virgin River, on the east side of the Virgin River east of Grafton. Nothing remains; the site was just beginning to be settled when it was washed away by the worst flood recorded in the Western United States.

See also

 List of ghost towns in Utah

References
 Washington County Chapter, Daughters of the Utah Pioneers, " Under Dixie Sun",  1950 with 1978 Supplement.  Page 127.
 John W. Van Cott, Utah Place Names: A Comprehensive Guide to the Origins of Geographic Names: a Compilation, University of Utah Press, 1990.

Ghost towns in Washington County, Utah
Populated places established in 1861
1861 establishments in Utah Territory
Ghost towns in Utah
Populated places disestablished in 1862
1862 disestablishments in Utah Territory

Northrop, Utah


D'Elidas is the brand name for a hot sauce produced by Productos D'Elidas S.A in Panama.
The D'Elidas original yellow hot sauce is made from the main ingredients "Aji Chombo" (Panamanian capsicum chinense), mustard and vinegar.

History

The recipe behind the D'Elidas original yellow hot sauce dates back to 1904 when it was created by a colony of antillean-Panamanians. For almost 100 years the recipe was inherited through generations until Elida Valdivieso came up with the idea of commercializing her version of the recipe.

In April 2002, the D'Elidas hot sauce product and brand was acquired by a group of Panamanian entrepreneurs. From that point the company D'Elidas S.A. was formalized and the first exports from Panama to the United States started. Today, D'Elidas S.A. exports its products to the United States (New York, North Carolina, Florida, Missouri, Washington, and California), as well as to Canada, Costa Rica, El Salvador, India and most recently Sweden.

D'Elidas S.A. started its marketing with their yellow hot sauce "Picante Chombo" containing the main ingredients "Aji Chombo" (Panamanian habanero chili), mustard and vinegar.

Marketing
D'Elidas hot sauce is featured in the musical video to the song, "Rojo Caliente" (Red Hot) by Canadian reggaeton singer Meagan Taylor.

Spiciness
The original yellow variety of D'Elidas hot sauce measures 2,500–5,000 SHU on the Scoville scale.

Most habanero varieties ripen from green to orange or red and have a Scoville scale heat rating of between 150,000 and 325,000.

Varieties
The product portfolio of D'Elidas S.A. initially contained only the original Yellow hot sauce but has since then expanded to also include both a Red hot sauce and a Green hot sauce, both containing habanero chili and vinegar but without the mustard found in the Yellow hot sauce. There is now also a Chinese style D'Elidas sweet and sour sauce which is the only of its kind that is based on the spicy Panamanian "Aji Chombo" (habanero chili).

References

External links
D'Elidas website in Spanish

Hot sauces
Brand name condiments

D'Elidas


Barium hydroxide is a chemical compound with the chemical formula Ba(OH)2.  The monohydrate (x = 1), known as baryta or baryta-water, is one of the principal compounds of barium. This white granular monohydrate is the usual commercial form.

Preparation and structure
Barium hydroxide can be prepared by dissolving barium oxide (BaO) in water:

BaO + H2O → Ba(OH)2

It crystallises as the octahydrate, which converts to the monohydrate upon heating in air.  At  100 °C in a vacuum, the monohydrate will yield BaO and water.  The monohydrate adopts a layered structure (see picture above).  The Ba2+ centers adopt a square antiprismatic geometry.  Each Ba2+ center is bound by two water ligands and six hydroxide ligands, which are respectively doubly and triply bridging to neighboring Ba2+ centre sites.  In the octahydrate, the individual Ba2+ centers are again eight coordinate but do not share ligands.

Uses
Industrially, barium hydroxide is used as the precursor to other barium compounds.  The monohydrate is used to dehydrate and remove sulfate from various products.  This application exploits the very low solubility of barium sulfate.  This industrial application is also applied to laboratory uses.

Laboratory uses
Barium hydroxide is used in analytical chemistry for the titration of weak acids, particularly organic acids. Its aqueous solution, if clear, is guaranteed to be free of carbonate, unlike those of sodium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide, as barium carbonate is insoluble in water. This allows the use of indicators such as phenolphthalein or thymolphthalein (with alkaline colour changes) without the risk of titration errors due to the presence of carbonate ions, which are much less basic.

Barium hydroxide is occasionally used in organic synthesis as a strong base, for example for the hydrolysis of esters and nitriles, and as a base in aldol condensations.

There are several uses for barium hydroxide such as to hydrolyse one of the two equivalent ester groups in dimethyl hendecanedioate.

Barium hydroxide has also been used, as well, in the decarboxylation of amino acids liberating barium carbonate in the process.

It is also used in the preparation of cyclopentanone, diacetone alcohol and D-gulonic γ-lactone.

Reactions
Barium hydroxide decomposes to barium oxide when heated to 800 °C.  Reaction with carbon dioxide gives barium carbonate. Its aqueous solution, being highly alkaline, undergoes neutralization reactions with acids due to it being a strong base. It is especially useful on reactions that require the titrations of weak organic acids. Thus, it forms barium sulfate and barium phosphate with sulfuric  and phosphoric acids, respectively.  Reaction with hydrogen sulfide produces barium sulfide.  Precipitation of many insoluble, or less soluble barium salts, may result from double replacement reaction when a barium hydroxide aqueous solution is mixed with many solutions of other metal salts.

Reactions of barium hydroxide with ammonium salts are strongly endothermic. The reaction of barium hydroxide octahydrate with ammonium chloride or ammonium thiocyanate is often used as a classroom chemistry demonstration, producing temperatures cold enough to freeze water and enough water to dissolve the resulting mixture.

Safety
Barium hydroxide presents the same hazards such as skin irritation and burns as well as eye damage, just as the other strong bases and as other water-soluble barium compounds: it is corrosive and toxic.

See also
 Baralyme

References

External links
Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS)

Barium compounds
Hydroxides

Barium hydroxide


Gruntruck is an American rock band formed in 1989 in Seattle, Washington, by vocalist Ben McMillan and drummer Norman Scott, both previously from early Seattle sound pioneers Skin Yard. While in Skin Yard, Norman also briefly joined Soundgarden, and collaborated with Chris Cornell on a lesser-known band, the low frequency power trio Bass Truck. Lead guitarist Tommy Niemeyer from crossover thrash band The Accüsed and bassist Tim Paul, previously of Portland hardcore punk band Final Warning, rounded out the initial, classic line-up. Their sound is described as grunge, and the band focuses more on the metal side of the genre.

History
While on tour with Skin Yard, Ben and Norman wrote a song (Paint from Inside Yours) in Tucson, Arizona, which had a vibe that Ben felt was worthy of forming a new band around. Before long Ben, Norman, and Tom began to collaborate on blending Bass Truck's sound with this new material, and brought in Tim Paul on bass to fill out the sound later that year. After several attempts at titling the new lineup, the name Gruntruck came to Ben while out record shopping.

The band soon recorded a full-length album for Seattle label Empty Records, with Skin Yard alum/legendary producer Jack Endino (Nirvana, Soundgarden) producing with Gary King. Inside Yours was released in 1990, and was released simultaneously in Germany on the Musical Tragedies label. Gruntruck made a video for the song "Not a Lot to Save" with Henry Shepherd (brother of Soundgarden bassist Ben) directing, which soon found its way onto MTV.

In 1991, Gruntruck gained further exposure after opening for Pearl Jam on the night they recorded the music video for the song Even Flow, and during the frenzy of media and record label attention that had descended on Seattle, they signed a multi-album deal with Roadrunner Records. Roadrunner re-released Inside Yours later that same year.

In 1992, the band recorded their second album, Push, with Endino and King again in charge of production. Roadrunner released it that same year, and also licensed Inside Yours for release in Japan on the Appolon Records label. The track "Tribe" was made into a music video and appeared on the soundtrack of the film PCU, also earning an enthusiastic reception on MTV and rotation on the show Headbangers Ball.

They toured the U.S. and Canada with Alice in Chains in fall of 1992, as well as Europe in the winter of 1993 with Pantera, who were supporting Vulgar Display of Power. According to Sean Kinney, they were Alice in Chains's most supported band at the time, opening alongside the Screaming Trees for Alice in Chains' Dirt tour.

Tim left the band shortly after their return to Seattle, and was replaced by Alex Sibbald of The Accüsed.

Shortly thereafter, a video was made for Crazy Love, which garnered generous airplay on MTV and a rare snark-free mention on the show Beavis and Butt-Head, where a stunned Butthead mused, "I must be hallucinating now. I can't believe they're playing something cool. These guys rock!"

Following a particularly grueling tour of the States, Norman left the band and was replaced by Josh Sinder, also of The Accüsed.

In 1996, even though the band was at the height of their popularity, they were struggling to make ends meet while fulfilling contractual obligations to Roadrunner Records. Major record label PolyGram offered to buy out Gruntruck's contract for $1 million, but Roadrunner refused. Subsequently, on the advice of their attorney, Gruntruck filed for bankruptcy in an attempt to break free of their contract. The label sued to block the bankruptcy petition, resulting in a precedent-setting case that has been cited in subsequent cases, written up in legal journals, and eventually inspiring major congressional legislation. The court ultimately ruled in Gruntruck's favor, but the litigation would exact a severe financial and emotional toll on the band. The lineup of Ben, Tom, Alex and Josh released a three-song EP, Shot, on Betty Records in 1996, with Endino and King producing for a third time. The new lineup attempted to recapture the momentum Gruntruck had enjoyed before the lawsuit by stoking a bidding war for the newly available band. However, at a showcase in Los Angeles with A&R representatives from nearly all of the major labels in attendance, the music industry was uniformly perplexed by singer Ben's decision to perform with his back to the audience and the band remained unsigned.

In 1997, the original lineup was reunited after Norman and Tim rejoined to play extensively in local venues, and the band began working on new material together as well as with a side project called Mona Diesel. Some of the songs written during this latter collaboration would find their way back to Gruntruck.

These new songs were the foundation of what was envisioned as their breakthrough third album, and the original lineup began a two-year journey recording in five different studios in and around Seattle with both Jack Endino and Martin Feveyear (Mudhoney, Screaming Trees, Queens of the Stone Age) producing.

Once the self-titled third album was complete, the band ramped up their live performances around Seattle in preparation for the album's release. Then in 2003, the band took what was envisioned to be a brief hiatus to give Ben time to recover from his recent health issues.

The finished third album languished in the vaults until 2016, when Jack Endino mentioned its existence to Found Recordings head, Scott Blum, who enthusiastically embarked on a journey with the band to bring the album to the world. The self-titled third album, nicknamed 'Phoenix' (which included also the songs of the Mona Diesel era), was released October 13, 2017 by Found Recordings, and the remaining original members will honor the late singer's memory by reuniting for a limited number of live performances with a guest singer later in the year.

Death of Ben McMillan
Ben McMillan died at age 46 from complications related to diabetes on January 26, 2008.

Legacy
In 2017, Metal Injection ranked Gruntruck at number 4 on their list of "10 Heaviest Grunge Bands".

Members
 Ben McMillan - vocals, guitar (1989–2002, deceased)
 Tom Niemeyer - guitar (1989–2002, 2017–present)
 Tim Paul - bass (1989–1993, 1997–2002, 2017–present)
 Norman Scott - drums (1989–1993, 1997–2002, 2017–present)
 Alex Sibbald - bass (1993–1996)
 Josh Sinder - drums (1993–1996)

Discography

Studio albums
 1990: Inside Yours (empty Records/Roadrunner Records)
 1992: Push (Roadrunner Records)
 2017: Gruntruck (The Phoenix Record) (Found Recordings)

Singles & EPs
 1992: "Tribe" (Roadrunner Records)
 1992: "Above Me" (Roadrunner Records)
 1992: "Crazy Love" (Roadrunner Records)
1996: Shot EP (Betty Records)
 2017: "Bar Fly" (Found Recordings)

Compilations
 1991: Another Damned Seattle Compilation (Dashboard Hula Girl Records)
 2005: The All-Star Sessions (Roadrunner Records) - appearance by Tommy Niemeyer, credited as member of Gruntruck

References

Musical groups established in 1989
Musical groups disestablished in 1993
Musical groups reestablished in 1996
Musical groups disestablished in 2002
American alternative metal musical groups
American grunge groups
Musical groups from Seattle
Heavy metal musical groups from Washington (state)

Gruntruck


The Standard House is a landmark in the city of Peekskill in Westchester County, New York, built in 1855. It is located at 50 Hudson Avenue between South Water Street and the Metro-North Hudson Line train tracks.

An Italianate brick building, it and the Union Hotel across the street are the only two hotel buildings remaining from the period of Peekskill's industrial height as a center for the manufacture of stoves. It continued to be in use as a hotel after that industry declined, but couldn't survive the decline of the railroad in the mid-20th century. Vacant and neglected through most of the later years of that century, it was restored early in the next. In 2000 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Currently it houses a retail store on the ground floor, and the city's economic development offices.

Building

The building's small lot is flat, reflecting the nearby Hudson River. The fenced-off tracks are on its west; it shares a party wall with another commercial building to the east. To its north is a vacated section of the former West Street, the only fragment of Peekskill's once yellow-brick paved streets remaining in the city.

The Standard House is a three-story painted brick building, four bays by three, with a shallow-pitched pyramidal roof covered in bitumen roll topped by a central cupola with a flagpole on top. Two brick chimneys rise from the western corners. The south (front) elevation of the first story has two glass storefronts, topped by a wooden cornice. All four windows on both upper stories are round-arched with louvered shutters, brick keystones and a stone sill supported by corbeled brick. "STANDARD HOUSE" is prominently painted on a wooden panel between the second and third stories.

The roofline has a dentilled wooden box cornice, with molding and brackets above a paneled frieze. The cupola has roofing and trim similar to the rest of the building. Some past fire damage is still visible at its southwest corner.

Inside, the first floor has been completely gutted and rebuilt. Only the original wood siding and window framing on the west wall remain. The two upper stories have their original plans intact as well as most of their original finishings.

History

Built in approximately 1855, it was originally used as a boarding house and tavern, catering to the busy traffic in the industrial area of the city near the New York Central railroad and the Hudson River. The name "Standard House" is not associated with the property until a photo taking during the Blizzard of 1888 shows the name on the facade between the second and third stories as it appears today.

The origins of the name are unclear. Theories that have been advanced suggest a connection to William Jennings Bryan. The first concerns The Standard, a society newspaper published in New York and London during the 1890s. Issues with articles highlighting Bryan and Chauncey Depew, a Peekskill native, were found in the building during its restoration. At that time, the owner, John Galligan, was a staunch supporter of Bryan and bimetallism A local newspaper photo taken of Bryan campaigning from the railroad station during the 1908 presidential election shows the Standard House prominently in the background. A photo in the same newspaper of William Howard Taft speaking at the same spot two days later was taken from a different angle that does not show the building at all.

Throughout the early 20th century, the Standard House passed through several other owners. At the outset of Prohibition, a man named John Carbone bought it and turned it into a successful restaurant, restoring liquor service after Prohibition's repeal. While the industry around Peekskill's waterfront declined, Carbone's remained successful, but the building was neglected by subsequent ownership, which renamed it the Central Grill.  After suffering severe fire damage, the building was boarded up and left to deteriorate further while the city pursued a foreclosure action against its owners for unpaid property taxes.

In 1998, the building was purchased by Kathy and Rick Cerreta, longtime city residents with an interest in historic preservation. They spent heavily on restoring the structure, rebuilding its wooden windows instead of merely replacing them. In 2000 it was added to the National Register of Historic Places. They reopened it in March 2001, and shortly thereafter received an Excellence in Historic Preservation Award from the New York State Preservation League. The city has also recognized them for the effort. They have been leasing the space inside to local businesses since then.

In popular culture
In 2001, the Standard House was used as a police station in the 2002 movie Unfaithful, however the filmmakers decided to change the ending of the movie, and the scene with "Standard House" was omitted.  The building can still be seen in the "deleted scenes" section of the movie's DVD.

References

External links

Standard House in portfolio of architect Stephen Tilly

Hotel buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in New York (state)
Houses completed in 1855
Italianate architecture in New York (state)
Hudson River
Buildings and structures in Peekskill, New York
Railway hotels in the United States
National Register of Historic Places in Westchester County, New York

Standard House


Canandaigua Historic District is a national historic district located at Canandaigua in Ontario County, New York. The district includes 354 residential, commercial,  religious, and civic properties (338 contributing) that constitute the historic core of Canandaigua.  It incorporates the North Main Street Historic District.  The structures date from the 1810s to 1930s and contains a number of distinctive buildings reflecting a variety of architectural styles including Greek Revival, Italianate, Colonial Revival.  The Ontario County Courthouse is located within the district boundaries. Located in the district is the separately listed former United States Post Office.

It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. In 2016, an isolated area of 68 additional properties was added to the district after they were found to be sufficiently historic.

Gallery

See also

National Register of Historic Places listings in Ontario County, New York

References

External links

 Canandaigua Historic District pdf

Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in New York (state)
Colonial Revival architecture in New York (state)
Greek Revival architecture in New York (state)
Italianate architecture in New York (state)
Historic districts in Ontario County, New York
Canandaigua, New York
National Register of Historic Places in Ontario County, New York

Canandaigua Historic District


The chisel-toothed kangaroo rat (Dipodomys microps) is a species of rodent in the family Heteromyidae.

There are 13 sub-species. Saltbush leaves are a major dietary component, requiring specialized physiology to eliminate the salt while retaining water.

Description
They ranges between 268.4 - 273mm long with their body length from 100 - 116mm and tails being longer than their body ranges between 136 - 190mm. Their hind feet are approximately 40% the length of their body and ranges between 40 - 45mm and the front limbs being much shorter. Males tend to be a bit larger than the females. Their backs can range from a sandy brown, gray-brown to a pale yellow, their bellies are white, and their sides range from yellow to yellow gray.  They have "tufted" tails which are brown with white stripes on the sided and the tuft at the end of the tail being dark brown with scattered white hairs. They have large rounded bicolour ears. Their incisors are unique and are used to identify them, they are anteriorly flattened and broad, like chisels, which is where their name comes from.

Geographic range and habitat
It is endemic to the United States (found in Nevada, Utah, California, Oregon, and parts of Arizona and Idaho). They inhabit the arid regions with gravelly soils are found at moderate elevations (1000 - 1,500m), though they have been found at elevations of 3,200m above sea level. Their habit is saltbrush, especially Atriplex confertifolia, dominated desert valleys and upland deserts with blackbush and are less common in sand dunes. They create burrows in the ground with multiple entries, usually under the bushes of shrubs. Their usual habitat is desert shrub.

Diet
D. microps is a facultative specialist, and the only foliovore in the Dipodomys genus. 60 - 80% of its diet consists of the Atriplex confertifolia's leaves. They do consume some seed and insects, however, this is a small portion of their diet. This desert shrub, Atriplex confertifolia, is adapted to desert life by encrusting its leaf surfaces with a layer of salt crystals, this has a dual purpose, one of which is to reflect incoming solar radiation which help maintain its water homeostasis, and secondly it is a defense against herbivory. D. microps have adapted morphologically, physiologically, and behaviorally to overcome this defense mechanism. They have evolved their lower incisors to become flat, broad, and chisel-shaped, which is a unique to character among the kangaroo rats.

They collect the leaves of the Atriplex shrub and stuff it into their cheek pouch and take it back to their burrows. They have been found to have caches of leaves of up 250g. Their unique incisors are used to scrape/strip the epidermis and the salt layer off of the leaf by repeatedly pulling the leaf downward and perpendicular to its lower incisors. This is then repeated on the other side till the inner tissue, consisting of the parenchyma, vascular tissue, bundle sheath, and the mesophyl, which is then consumed. This part of the leaf has a water content of up to 80% in the spring, and D. microps obtains its water from the leaves. Another adaptation to assist with the consumption is that the upper lip closes off the mouth cavity which reduces the amount of salt entering or falling into the mouth.

References

Dipodomys
Endemic mammals of the United States
Fauna of the Western United States
Rodents of North America
Fauna of the Great Basin
Fauna of the Mojave Desert
Fauna of the Sierra Nevada (United States)
Natural history of the Transverse Ranges
Mammals described in 1904
Least concern biota of the United States
Taxonomy articles created by Polbot

Chisel-toothed kangaroo rat


Barrie Mitchell Osborne  (born February 7, 1944) is an American film producer, production manager and director.

Biography
The son of Hertha Schwarz and William Osborne, Barrie was born in New York City and grew up in New Rochelle, New York where he graduated New Rochelle High School. He is an alumnus of Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota and currently lives in Wellington, New Zealand. He was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM), for services to the film industry, in the 2017 New Year Honours.

Osborne's most notable work is The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King for which he, Peter Jackson, and Fran Walsh received the Academy Award for Best Picture. He also produced the 2013 The Great Gatsby remake, starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

In 2014, Osborne, Alan B. Curtiss, and Mexican entrepreneur Max Appedole, released Gloria, a biopic of controversial Mexican pop star Gloria Trevi, directed by  Christian Keller.

Osborne is also preparing a possible movie trilogy about the Viking king Harald Hardrada.

Filmography

Producer

 Kojak (1973) (unit manager)
 Apocalypse Now (1979) (production manager) - as Barry Osborne
 Cutter's Way (1981) (associate producer/unit production manager)
 The Big Chill (1983) (associate producer/unit production manager) - as Barrie Osborne
 Octopussy (1983) (production manager)
 The Cotton Club (1984) (line producer)
 Fandango (1985) (associate producer/unit production manager)
 Peggy Sue Got Married (1986) (executive producer/unit production manager)
 Child's Play (1988) (executive producer)
 Dick Tracy (1990) (executive producer)
 Child's Play (1992) (executive producer)
 Wilder Napalm (1993) (executive producer/unit production manager)
 Rapa-Nui (1994) (executive producer)
 China Moon (1994) (producer)
 The Fan (1996) (executive producer)
 Face/Off (1997) (producer)
 The Matrix (1999) (executive producer)
 The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) (producer)
 The Last Place on Earth (2002) (producer)
 The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) (producer)
 The Long and Short of It (2003) (executive in charge of production)
 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) (producer)
 Little Fish (2005) (executive producer)
 The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep (2007) (producer)
 The Warrior's Way (2010) (producer)
 The Great Gatsby (2013) (executive producer)
 Pete's Dragon (2016) (executive producer)
 The Meg (2018) (executive producer)
 Mulan (2020) (executive producer)

Other
 American Hot Wax (1978) (second assistant director)
 The China Syndrome (1979) (second assistant director)
 Dick Tracy (1990) (second unit director)
 The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) (additional second unit director)

References

External links

 Feature Financing Partner

1944 births
Film producers from New York (state)
Carleton College alumni
Living people
New Zealand film producers
Producers who won the Best Picture Academy Award
Businesspeople from New Rochelle, New York
Golden Globe Award-winning producers
American expatriates in New Zealand
Officers of the New Zealand Order of Merit
Filmmakers who won the Best Film BAFTA Award
Unit production managers
New Rochelle High School alumni

Barrie M. Osborne


Manufacturing cost is the sum of costs of all resources consumed in the process of making a product. The manufacturing cost is classified into three categories: direct materials cost, direct labor cost and manufacturing overhead. It is a factor in total delivery cost.

Direct materials cost

Direct materials are the raw materials that become a part of the finished product. Manufacturing adds value to raw materials by applying a chain of operations to maintain a deliverable product. There are many operations that can be applied to raw materials such as welding, cutting and painting. It is important to differentiate between direct materials and indirect materials.

Direct labour cost

The direct labour cost is the cost of workers who can be easily identified with the unit of production. Types of labour who are considered to be part of the direct labour cost are the assembly workers on an assembly line.

Manufacturing overhead

Manufacturing overhead is any manufacturing cost that is neither direct materials cost nor direct labour cost. Manufacturing overhead includes all charges that provide support to manufacturing.

Manufacturing overhead includes
Indirect labour cost: The indirect labour cost is the cost associated with workers, such as supervisors and material handling team, who are not directly involved in the production.
Indirect materials cost: Indirect materials cost is the cost associated with consumables, such as lubricants, grease, and water, that are not used as raw materials.
Other indirect manufacturing cost: includes machine depreciation, land rent, property insurance, electricity, freight and transportation, or any expenses that keep the factory operating.

References

Further reading
 Lanen, W. N., Anderson, S., Maher, M. W. (2008). Fundamentals of cost accounting, McGraw Hill,

Costs
Manufacturing

Manufacturing cost


Upper Matecumbe Key is an island in the upper Florida Keys.

U.S. 1 (or the Overseas Highway) crosses the key at approximately mile markers 79–83.5, between Windley Key and Lower Matecumbe Key.

All of the key is within the Village of Islamorada as of November 4, 1997, when it was incorporated.

The island lies to the southwest of Windley Key, and to the northeast of Lower Matecumbe Key.

The history of the names of both this key and Lower Matecumbe Key are very confusing, as identical names have been used at different times to designate both keys. Upper Matecumbe Key is the location of the original settlement site of Islamorada. There are a number of Indian mounds and habitation sites located here.

Education
It is in the Monroe County School District. It is zoned to Plantation Key Elementary School (K-8) in Plantation Key.

References

Islands of the Florida Keys
Islands of Monroe County, Florida
Islands of Florida

Upper Matecumbe Key


Simone Pianetti  (7 February 1858 – 1952) was an Italian anarchist and mass murderer.

Pianetti was born in Camerata Cornello, Lombardy, Austrian Empire. The area came under the control of Italian forces when he was still an infant and was made part of the Kingdom of Italy when it was formed in 1861. At a young age, he unsuccessfully attempted to kill his father over a legacy question. For unknown reasons he was not charged and in an agreement with the local chief of the Carabinieri, he left Italy and went to the United States of America. After some years in the US he returned to Italy with a ticket paid for by his father. Back in his village, he married a woman named Carlotta who gave birth to seven children.
Pianetti opened a small restaurant where customers were also allowed to dance. Because the local parish priest and other church people did not agree with dancing in Pianetti's restaurant, the municipality forced him to close it. He subsequently opened an electric-powered mill which was also unsuccessful.

Pianetti was the only person in the village who did not attend church on Sundays. He had grown to think that everyone in Camerata Cornello hated him, which supposedly led him to his killing spree.

The killings
On the morning of 13 July 1914, Pianetti used his rifle to shoot and kill 7 people:
Domenico Morali, doctor
Abramo Giudici, the manager of the municipality
Valeria Giudici, daughter of the previous
Giovanni Ghilardi, shoemaker
Stefano Filippi, priest
Giovanni Giupponi, a layman
Caterina Milesi, a farmer

Soon after the killings, Pianetti left the village and reached Monte Cancervo, where he lived for some days, despite a search by 200 people from the Carabinieri, the Polizia di Stato and a company of the 78th infantry regiment. Pianetti fired at some Carabinieri to escape into the mountains near the villages of Olmo al Brembo and Cassiglio. He was never arrested and his body was never found. Pianetti's image enjoyed a positive response among Italian and American anarchists, for his actions against the religious establishment and the bigotry of many, especially those in position of preeminence in the society of the time.

Sources

References

1858 births
1952 deaths
1910s mass shootings in Europe
20th-century deaths
Italian anarchists
Italian assassins
Italian mass murderers
Italian spree killers
Mass shootings in Italy
People from the Province of Bergamo

Simone Pianetti


Benjamin Boss  (January 9, 1880 – October 17, 1970) was an American astronomer. He served as the director of both the Dudley Observatory in Schenectady, New York and the Department of Meridian Astrometry of the Carnegie Institution of Washington.

Biography
Boss was born in Albany, New York to astronomer Lewis Boss and Helen M. (Hutchinson) Boss. After attending The Albany Academy, he graduated from Harvard University in 1901 and worked at Dudley Observatory until 1905. Following a year at the U. S. Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C., he became director of the U.S. Naval Observatory at Samoa and helped organized the expedition to Flint Island to observe the 1908 solar eclipse. He served as director from 1906 to 1908.

He joined the Department of Meridian Astrometry of the Carnegie Institution of Washington in 1908, working as a secretary until 1912 when he became acting director. In 1915, he became director of the department. He also served as director of Dudley Observatory from 1912 to 1956. His primary work was in positional astronomy, particularly in the positions and motions of the stars.

His father served as editor of the Astronomical Journal from 1909 until his death 1912, whereupon Benjamin undertook the duty until 1941. In 1936 his General Catalogue of 33,342 Stars was published by the Carnegie Institution of Washington, DC. This publication replaced the Preliminary General Catalogue of 6,188 stars of Lewis Boss, and it became known as the Boss General Catalogue. (Star designations that began with GC are from this catalogue.)

Boss died on October 17, 1970, in Albany, New York.

References

Bibliography

External links

1880 births
1970 deaths
Harvard University alumni
American astronomers
People from Albany, New York
Scientists from New York (state)
The Albany Academy alumni
The Astronomical Journal editors

Benjamin Boss


Russell Keith Procope (August 11, 1908 – January 21, 1981) was an American clarinetist and alto saxophonist who was a member of the Duke Ellington orchestra.

Before Ellington
Procope was born in New York City, United States, and grew up in San Juan Hill, where he attended school with Benny Carter. His first instrument was the violin, but he switched to clarinet and alto saxophone. He began his professional career in 1926 as a member of Billy Freeman's orchestra. He recorded with Jelly Roll Morton at the age of 20, and played with bands led by Benny Carter, Chick Webb (1929–30), Fletcher Henderson (spring of 1931 to 1934), Tiny Bradshaw, Teddy Hill, King Oliver, and Willie Bryant.

Fletcher Henderson's band dissolved in 1934. Along with several other ex-Henderson musicians, Procope joined Benny Carter's orchestra. He also worked for a time with the Tiny Bradshaw and Willie Bryant bands before joining Teddy Hill in 1935. During his stay with Teddy Hill's orchestra the trumpet section included, at various times, Roy Eldridge, Bill Coleman, Frankie Newton, and Dizzy Gillespie, while trombonist Dickie Wells and tenor-saxophonist Chu Berry were two other soloists who played with the band. It was as a member of this orchestra that Russell Procope made his first trip to Europe in 1937; Teddy Hill's band formed part of The Cotton Club Revue, an all-African American show, which during its European tour appeared at the London Palladium.

In 1938, Procope replaced Pete Brown in John Kirby's sextet, with whom he played exclusively alto sax until 1945 (with an interruption for World War II). It was with Kirby that he began to make his name. Kirby's band included Charlie Shavers (trumpet), Buster Bailey (clarinet), Procope (alto-sax), Billy Kyle (piano) and O'Neil Spencer (drums). This group was billed as "The Biggest Little Band In The World" - performing intricate, tightly-woven small-band orchestrations, combining precision with relaxation and a high standard of solo playing.

From September 1943 until the end of World War II, Procope served in the United States Army. He was a private with the 372nd Infantry Regiment band.

Ellington and afterwards
Procope joined the Ellington orchestra in 1946, standing in for Otto Hardwick for one night in Worcester, Massachusetts, and staying until Ellington died in 1974. Procope came to Europe again as a member of this band during the summer of 1950. Like all members of the Ellington reed section except for alto saxophonist Johnny Hodges and tenor saxophonist Paul Gonsalves, Procope doubled on the clarinet, and it was on that instrument that he made his reputation. Though he was a fine saxophonist who could (and did) play tenor as well as alto saxophone with authority, Procope was most highly regarded for his woody, understated clarinet solos, a warm contrast to fellow reed section member Jimmy Hamilton's cheerful, breezy style. (A hearing of the contrast between the two clarinetists can be heard on Ellington's three-part suite "Idiom '59"; Ellington handed Procope the solo for the slower tempoed opening part, before handing Hamilton the first clarinet solo and the bridge blues solo on the more swinging second part.) Procope was also highly regarded personally within and outside the Ellington band. "He was", wrote Ellington in Music is My Mistress, "an utterly sober and reliable musician, always to be depended upon." After Ellington's death, Procope toured with Brooks Kerr's trio.

In 1956, Procope recorded The Persuasive Sax of Russ Procope under the London Records label. Procope played the alto-saxophone, along with Remo Biondi (rhythm guitar), Earl Backus (solo guitar), Paul Jordan (piano) Mel Schmidt (bass), and Frank Rullo (drums). Although Procope's early playing reflected the influence of Benny Carter, he had evolved a highly individual style. It combined an essentially lyrical approach with a forceful, swinging attack.

Discography
With the Duke Ellington Orchestra
Masterpieces by Ellington (Columbia, 1951)
Ellington Uptown (Columbia, 1952)
Live At The Crystal Gardens 1952 (Hep, 2011)
Duke Ellington Presents... (Bethlehem, 1956)
Blue Rose (Columbia, 1956) with Rosemary Clooney
Historically Speaking
A Drum Is a Woman (Columbia, 1956)
Ellington at Newport (Columbia, 1956)
Duke Ellington and the Buck Clayton All-Stars at Newport (Columbia, 1956)
Such Sweet Thunder (Columbia, 1957)
All Star Road Band (Doctor Jazz, 1957 [1983])
Ellington Indigos (Columbia, 1957)
Black, Brown and Beige (Columbia, 1958)
Newport 1958 (Columbia, 1958)
Live at the Blue Note (Roulette, 1959)
Festival Session (Columbia, 1959)
Blues in Orbit (Columbia, 1959)
Anatomy of a Murder (Columbia, 1959)
Jazz Party (Columbia, 1959)
Piano in the Background (Columbia, 1960)
Hot Summer Dance (Red Baron, 1960 [1991])
First Time! The Count Meets the Duke (Columbia, 1962) with the Count Basie Orchestra
The Nutcracker Suite
Swinging Suites by Edward E. and Edward G. (Columbia, 1960)
All American in Jazz (Columbia, 1962)
Midnight in Paris (Columbia, 1962)
Afro-Bossa (Reprise, 1963)
Will Big Band Ever Come Back? (Reprise, 1962–1963 [1965])
All Star Road Band Volume 2 (Doctor Jazz, 1964 [1985])
Harlem (Pablo, 1964 [1985])
Duke Ellington Plays Mary Poppins (Reprise, 1964 [1965])
Ellington '65 (Reprise, 1964)
Ella at Duke's Place (Verve, 1965)
Ellington '66 (Reprise, 1965)
Concert in the Virgin Islands (Reprise, 1965)
In the Uncommon Market (Pablo, 1963–1966 [1986])
Ella and Duke at the Cote D'Azur (Verve, 1966)
The Far East Suite (RCA, 1966)
Live in Italy 1967
...And His Mother Called Him Bill (RCA, 1967 [1968])
Yale Concert (Fantasy, 1968 [1973])
Francis A. & Edward K. (Reprise, 1967 [1968]) with Frank Sinatra
Second Sacred Concert (Prestige, 1968)
Liederhalle Stuttgart 1967 (SWR, Jazzhaus, 2020)
Live At The Opernhaus Cologne 1969 (Delta Music, 2016)
70th Birthday Concert (Solid State, 1969 [1970])
Latin American Suite (Fantasy, 1968–1970 [1972])
New Orleans Suite (Atlantic, 1970)
The Intimate Ellington (Pablo, 1969–1971 [1977])
The Afro-Eurasian Eclipse (Fantasy, 1971 [1975])
Togo Brava Suite (United Artists, 1971)
Duke Ellington in Sweden 1973 (Caprice, 1973 [1999])
The Ellington Suites (Fantasy, 1958–72 [1976])

With Dizzy Gillespie
The Complete RCA Victor Recordings (Bluebird, 1937–1949 [1995])

With Johnny Hodges
Ellingtonia '56 (Norgran, 1956)

With Billy Strayhorn
Cue for Saxophone (Felsted, 1959)

References

Sources
Jazz: the Rough Guide (2nd edition). The Rough Guides, 2000.
[ Russell Procope] — by Scott Yanow for Allmusic
Russell Procope recordings at the Discography of American Historical Recordings.
Liner notes from "The Persuasive Sax of Russ Procope", London Records, HA-D2013

1908 births
1981 deaths
20th-century American male musicians
20th-century American musicians
20th-century saxophonists
Musicians from New York City
Swing clarinetists
American jazz alto saxophonists
American male saxophonists
American jazz clarinetists
Duke Ellington Orchestra members
Swing saxophonists
Jazz musicians from New York (state)
American male jazz musicians
United States Army Band musicians
United States Army soldiers

Russell Procope


Rafael Bombelli (baptised on 20 January 1526; died 1572) was an Italian mathematician. Born in Bologna, he is the author of a treatise on algebra and is a central figure in the understanding of imaginary numbers.

He was the one who finally managed to address the problem with imaginary numbers. In his 1572 book, L'Algebra, Bombelli solved equations using the method of del Ferro/Tartaglia. He introduced the rhetoric that preceded the representative symbols +i and -i and described how they both worked.

Life
Rafael Bombelli was baptised on 20 January 1526 in Bologna, Papal States.  He was born to Antonio Mazzoli, a wool merchant, and Diamante Scudieri, a tailor's daughter. The Mazzoli family was once quite powerful in Bologna.  When Pope Julius II came to power, in 1506, he exiled the ruling family, the Bentivoglios. The Bentivoglio family attempted to retake Bologna in 1508, but failed.  Rafael's grandfather participated in the coup attempt, and was captured and executed.  Later, Antonio was able to return to Bologna, having changed his surname to Bombelli to escape the reputation of the Mazzoli family.  Rafael was the oldest of six children.  Rafael received no college education, but was instead taught by an engineer-architect by the name of Pier Francesco Clementi.

Bombelli felt that none of the works on algebra by the leading mathematicians of his day provided a careful and thorough exposition of the subject.  Instead of another convoluted treatise that only mathematicians could comprehend, Rafael decided to write a book on algebra that could be understood by anyone.  His text would be self-contained and easily read by those without higher education.

Bombelli died in 1572 in Rome.

Bombelli's Algebra

In the book that was published in 1572, entitled Algebra, Bombelli gave a comprehensive account of the algebra known at the time.  He was the first European to write down the way of performing computations with negative numbers.  The following is an excerpt from the text:

	"Plus times plus makes plus
	Minus times minus makes plus
	Plus times minus makes minus
	Minus times plus makes minus
	Plus 8 times plus 8 makes plus 64
	Minus 5 times minus 6 makes plus 30
	Minus 4 times plus 5 makes minus 20
	Plus 5 times minus 4 makes minus 20"

As was intended, Bombelli used simple language as can be seen above so that anybody could understand it.  But at the same time, he was thorough.

Notation

Bombelli introduced, for the first time in a printed text (in Book II of his Algebra), a form of index notation in which the equation

appeared as
1U3 a. 6U1 p. 40.
in which he wrote the U3 as a raised bowl-shape (like the curved part of the capital letter U) with the number 3 above it.  Full symbolic notation was developed  shortly thereafter by the French mathematician François_Viète.

Complex numbers
Perhaps more importantly than his work with algebra, however, the book also includes Bombelli's monumental contributions to complex number theory.  Before he writes about complex numbers, he points out that they occur in solutions of equations of the form  given that  which is another way of stating that the discriminant of the cubic is negative.  The solution of this kind of equation requires taking the cube root of the sum of one number and the square root of some negative number.

Before Bombelli delves into using imaginary numbers practically, he goes into a detailed explanation of the properties of complex numbers.  Right away, he makes it clear that the rules of arithmetic for imaginary numbers are not the same as for real numbers.  This was a big accomplishment, as even numerous subsequent mathematicians were extremely confused on the topic.

Bombelli avoided confusion by giving a special name to square roots of negative numbers, instead of just trying to deal with them as regular radicals like other mathematicians did.  This made it clear that these numbers were neither positive nor negative.  This kind of system avoids the confusion that Euler encountered.  Bombelli called the imaginary number i "plus of minus" and used "minus of minus" for -i.

Bombelli had the foresight to see that imaginary numbers were crucial and necessary to solving quartic and cubic equations.  At the time, people cared about complex numbers only as tools to solve practical equations.  As such, Bombelli was able to get solutions using Scipione del Ferro's rule, even in the irreducible case, where other mathematicians such as Cardano had given up.

In his book, Bombelli explains complex arithmetic as follows:

	"Plus by plus of minus, makes plus of minus.
	Minus by plus of minus, makes minus of minus.
	Plus by minus of minus, makes minus of minus.
	Minus by minus of minus, makes plus of minus.
	Plus of minus by plus of minus, makes minus.
	Plus of minus by minus of minus, makes plus.
	Minus of minus by plus of minus, makes plus.
	Minus of minus by minus of minus makes minus."

After dealing with the multiplication of real and imaginary numbers, Bombelli goes on to talk about the rules of addition and subtraction.  He is careful to point out that real parts add to real parts, and imaginary parts add to imaginary parts.

Reputation

Bombelli is generally regarded as the inventor of complex numbers, as no one before him had made rules for dealing with such numbers, and no one believed that working with imaginary numbers would have useful results.  Upon reading Bombelli's Algebra, Leibniz praised Bombelli as an ". . . outstanding master of the analytical art."  Crossley writes in his book, "Thus we have an engineer, Bombelli, making practical use of complex numbers perhaps because they gave him useful results, while Cardan found the square roots of negative numbers useless.  Bombelli is the first to give a treatment of any complex numbers. . . It is remarkable how thorough he is in his presentation of the laws of calculation of complex numbers. . ."

In honor of his accomplishments, a Moon crater was named Bombelli.

Bombelli's method of calculating square roots
Bombelli used a method related to continued fractions to calculate square roots. He did not yet have the concept of a continued fraction, and below is the algorithm of a later version given by Pietro Cataldi (1613).

The method for finding  begins with  with , from which it can be shown that .  Repeated substitution of the expression on the right hand side for  into itself yields a continued fraction

for the root but Bombelli is more concerned with better approximations for .  The value chosen for  is either of the whole numbers whose squares  lies between. The method gives the following convergents for  while the actual value is 3.605551275... :

The last convergent equals 3.605550883... .  Bombelli's method should be compared with formulas and results used by Heros and Archimedes. The result  used by Archimedes in his determination of the value of  can be found by using 1 and 0 for the initial values of .

References

Footnotes

Citations

Sources
 Morris Kline, Mathematical Thought from Ancient to Modern Times, 1972, Oxford University Press, New York,
 David Eugene Smith, A Source Book in Mathematics, 1959, Dover Publications, New York,

 Daniel J. Curtin, et al., Rafael Bombelli's L'Algebra, 1996,
https://www.people.iup.edu/gsstoudt/history/bombelli/bombelli.pdf

External links
L'Algebra, Libri I, II, III, IV e V, original Italian texts.

Background

1526 births
1572 deaths
16th-century Italian mathematicians
Algebraists
Scientists from Bologna

Rafael Bombelli


Mansoor Hekmat (, born Zhoobin Razani ; June 4, 1951 – July 4, 2002) was an Iranian Marxist, revolutionary and leader of the Worker-communist movement. He opposed the Shah and, after the 1979 Revolution, he first founded the movement of Revolutionary Marxism and in 1983 he co-founded the Communist Party of Iran which was opposed to the Islamic Republic of Iran. In 1991 he separated from this party and founded the Worker-communist Party of Iran (WPI), which he led until his death in 2002. He was the husband of fellow politician Azar Majedi.

Life
Born in Tehran, Hekmat moved to Shiraz, where he graduated in economics at the University of Shiraz, before moving to the UK where completed his Masters at Bath University. He moved to London in 1973 to start his Phd at Birkbeck University, where he studied under the supervision of Marxist theorist Ben Fine and became a critic of what he saw as distorted versions of communism, including Russian communism, Chinese communism, the guerrilla warfare movement, social democracy, Trotskyism and nationalism among the left.

He founded the Union of Communist Militants in 1979, then took part in the Iranian Revolution of 1979 – marked by the creation of workers' councils (shoras) – and, unlike the major part of the Iranian left-wing, refused to pay allegiance to Islamism and Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini. He denounced the "myth of a progressive national bourgeoisie".

Because of mounting repression against political opposition groups in Iran, Hekmat sought refuge in Kurdistan in 1982. Hekmat's Union then fused with a Kurdish group of Maoist roots, Komalah – together, they formed the Communist Party of Iran (CPI) based on Revolutionary Marxism. Hekmat and a group of other CPI members left the party and, in 1991, founded the WPI. He also helped establish the Worker-Communist Party of Iraq.

He died of cancer in hospital in the UK and his headstone is at Highgate Cemetery, a few meters away from Karl Marx's grave.

Views
Hekmat supported the "return to Marx", and theorized that the working class is to rely only on itself – arguing that it had been the only class to impose beneficial changes in the 20th century. He opposed Stalinism and never accepted that either the Soviet Union or the People's Republic of China were socialist countries. He famously said "The basis of Socialism is the human being". Hekmat was also a practicing vegetarian and towards the end of his life became vegan.

Hekmat believed in free, legalised abortions but encouraged criticism of the strong feminist movements of his time whom he criticized as having a lack of compassion on this matter. He believed all should be done to create a world in which women are supported socially, economically, culturally and politically to keep their children, to reduce the need for abortions.

References

External links

The Official Mansoor Hekmat Website
Multi-lingual site of Mansoor Hekmat's works
Mansoor Hekmat Internet Archive
Worker-Communist Party of Iran
 Marx-Hekmat Society London
Mansoor Hekmat texts and information on the worker-communist movement in Iraq (in French)

1951 births
2002 deaths
Alumni of the University of Bath
Burials at Highgate Cemetery
Communist Party of Iran politicians
Former Muslim critics of Islam
Deaths from cancer in England
Iranian communists
Iranian dissidents
Iranian emigrants to the United Kingdom
Iranian Marxists
Iranian revolutionaries
Marxist humanists
Marxist theorists
Politicians from Tehran
People of the Iranian Revolution
Shiraz University alumni
Worker-communist Party of Iran politicians

Mansoor Hekmat


The Decembrists (Russian: Декабристы) is an unfinished novel by Leo Tolstoy, who finished three chapters. Its hero was to have been a participant in the abortive Decembrist Uprising of 1825, released from Siberian exile after 1856. It was intended as a sequel to War and Peace, and the second part of a planned trilogy, whose third part would be set in 1856.

Planning and early composition
In a letter to Herzen in 1861, Tolstoy spoke of shifting the focus of his writing back to previous historical eras:"In 1856, I began to write a tale with a certain theme, the hero of which was to have been a Decembrist returning with his family to Russia. Reluctantly I turned from the present to the year 1825, the epoch of my hero's mistakes and misfortunes, and abandoned what I had begun. But in 1825 my hero was already a grown-up family man. To understand him I had to go back to his youth, and his youth coincided with the epoch, glorious for Russia, of 1812. Once again I put aside my beginning, and started to write from the period of 1812."The story was to contrast the physical and moral vitality of the returning Decembrist exiles with the decrepitude and artificiality of his contemporaries who had stayed in Moscow's "club society". Tolstoy's aim, however, was not just to idealize the Decembrists, but to present a balanced view, similar to his other work. The Pierre and Natasha Labazov of the Decembrists share characteristics with, and are clearly the prototypes of, the Pierre and Natasha Bezukov that appear in War and Peace. Pierre is absent-minded and idealistic, while Natasha is calm and efficient. The early chapters deal with their arrival in Moscow and re-admittance into society. "Late on a winters night of 1856 one of the 'criminals of 1825' returns 'to Moscow, to the heart of Russia ... after thirty-five years' exile and a journey lasting one and a half months' accompanied by his wife and their son and daughter who had been born and brought up in Siberia.""Geographically they had been transported three thousand miles into completely different, alien surroundings, but morally they were, this evening, still at home, just the same people as their special, long, secluded family life had made them. By tomorrow this would no longer be so"

Termination of writing
During composition, Tolstoy decided to begin with what he saw as the roots of the Decembrist movement in the 1812 Napoleonic invasion of Russia. The result was his celebrated novel War and Peace, set between the years 1805 and 1820. Its final chapters carry the action up to the period of the Decembrists. It is known that he conducted research into the Decembrist movement with much the same thoroughness that he had approached the Napoleonic wars. Tolstoy sought access to the Decembrists' court proceedings but was denied. This may have contributed to his abandonment of the process, though his wife attributed his inability to complete his novel on feelings of ambivalence. The finished chapters were first published in 1884.

References

See also
English translation at:

Novels by Leo Tolstoy
Unfinished novels

The Decembrists


Scotussa or Skotoussa ( or Σκοτοῦσα or Σκοτοτοῦσαι) was a town and polis (city-state) of Pelasgiotis in ancient Thessaly, lying between Pherae and Pharsalus, near the frontiers of Phthiotis. Scotussa is not mentioned in Homer, but according to some accounts the oracle of Dodona in Epirus originally came from this place. In 394 BCE, the Scotussaei joined the other Thessalians in opposing the march of Spartan king Agesilaus II through their country. In 367 BCE, Scotussa was treacherously seized by Alexander of Pherae, tyrant of the neighbouring town of Pherae.

In the territory of Scotussa were the hills called Cynoscephalae, which are memorable as the scene of two battles, one fought in 364 BCE, between the Thebans and Alexander of Pherae, in which Pelopidas was slain, and the other, of still greater celebrity, fought in 197 BCE, in which Philip V of Macedon was defeated by the Roman consul Titus Quinctius Flamininus. In 191 BCE Scotussa surrendered to Antiochus III, but was recovered shortly afterwards, along with Pharsalus and Pherae, by the consul Manius Acilius Glabrio.

Scotussa's site is at Agia Triada in the municipality of Farsala.

References

Former populated places in Greece
Thessalian city-states
Pelasgiotis

Scotussa


Blackjack (Twenty-one, pontoon or Vingt-et-un) is a kind of card game which usually involves gambling. It is often played in casinos. There is a dealer, who deals cards from a special device called a 'dealer's shoe' or a 'shuffling machine'. The dealer has one to eight decks. When there are one or two decks, the dealer usually holds the decks instead of dealing from a shoe.

It is a 'dealer versus players game'. Each player has their own game against the dealer. Cards are dealt in succession, and bets placed for each hand. Players win if their cards add up to more than the dealer's hand to a limit of 21. Hands which add up to more than 21, called busted hands, lose. Face cards count as 10. Aces can count as one or eleven.

'Blackjack', an ace and a face card or ten, is the top scorer. Blackjack usually pays a bonus. Five cards adding to 21 or fewer is the next ranking hand. Apart from that, unbusted hands rank by total add-up. Hands below the dealer's hand lose unless the dealer goes over 21 (busts). Hands equal to the dealer's keep their chips. If both the player and dealer bust, the dealer wins.

Players have a choice whether or not to get extra cards. Stand means to get no more cards and hit means to ask for another card. To stand, wave your hand back and forth. To ask for another card, wave your hand toward you. You can ask for any number of cards unless you bust. The dealer has rules as to when he takes extra cards for himself (or herself). In the UK, the dealer must stand on 16. These rules are set by the casino and cannot change after the game has started. In some states or countries, the rules are set by the government.

There is some skill in blackjack, because the odds change as the cards are dealt. The critical information is the numbers of tens (including face cards) which have been dealt. This is because they are the common cause of 'busting' the dealer hand and because they are needed for a blackjack. Aces are also important because they are needed for a blackjack. Keeping track of the cards is called 'card counting'. It is legal if done without a device like a computer. But, many casinos tell players to leave if they think are counting the cards.

History
Over the years the origin of Blackjack, like many other games, has eluded researchers for a long time and which continues to be hotly debated to this day. Till date there has been no clear consensus, but most agree it probably originated in French casinos around 1700, where it was called Vingt-et-Un, which translated means twenty-one. Most believe it was probably derived from the French card games, Chemin de Fer, and French Ferme, which were in popular at that time. Another version was prevalent in Spain, called One and Thirty. The basic rule of the Spanish version was to reach 31 with a minimum of three cards. Another theory is that Blackjack was an invention by the Romans. It is believed that Romans used to play this game with wooden blocks of different numerical values. This theory holds some weight as Romans loved gambling, but that by no means confirms the theory. Among the various versions of the game, Vingt-et-Un or 21 continued to grow in popularity and reach. It gradually spread to North America thanks to French colonists and soon after was played throughout the continent. The rules of Blackjack were then different from those of modern Blackjack. The game was still termed '21' when it gained popularity in Nevada in 1931 when the State first chose to make gambling legal. Its origin is disputed, but it is certainly related to several French and Italian gambling games. To draw more people to the game, some casinos then offered a special bet: A hand featuring either of the black jacks (the Jack of Spades or that of Clubs) plus the Ace of Spades would pay 10-to-1 odds on the lucky player's bet. Although casinos later discontinued this payout, the name blackjack remained, as the game is known today. Blackjack played today was not created by any one person at one definite point of time, but has changed over centuries, and continues to change. Fueling its popularity the online casino industry has developed various versions of the game which has truly revolutionized it.

Blackjack example

This is an example of a Blackjack game. Players are named by gambling chip colour: white, brown, blue and black.

The dealer has given two cards each to the four players who are betting. One of the dealer's two cards is face-up so all the players can see it (an Ace), and the other is face down.

 Black gets an Ace and 2 which is worth either 13 or 3, and asks for a hit and gets a King (worth 10) which takes black to 13; black hits again, gets 16 and decides to stand.
 Blue gets a King and Jack which are worth 20 together and of course chooses to stand. (Splitting a K and J may be possible in some games although it is unusual to split a 20 because it is such a high hand)
 Brown gets a 10 and 4, and asks for a hit, gets 2 which takes brown to 16. Another hit and they get a 10, which means they are bust at 26 and the dealer takes the chips. Normally the cards would be taken away immediately with the bet.
 White gets two 5s, so they double the bet and split the cards, the dealer gives them a 5 and a 7 for each. They ask for hits in both cases and get a 9 and 6, taking them to 21 and 16 respectively.

The dealer turns their card over and gets a 6, together with the Ace takes them to 17, and stands because the dealer must stand on 17. (In this case the dealer must stand on a "soft" 17). Results:

 Black loses their chips because the dealer's 17 beats black's 16
 Blue is paid the same amount of chips they bet because blue's 20 beats the dealer's 17
 Brown has already lost their chips when they went bust
 White's 21 is paid at 2:1, which means that white receives double and a half the amount of chips white bet for one of the splits, however white loses the other half of chips bet on the 16 which is beaten by the dealer's 17. Most games do not pay 2:1 for a hand of 21 however. The strongest scoring 21 would be an ace card and any other 10-point card. You can actually get to 21 in many different ways, but the ace and 10-point card combination will beat those variations.

Variations

 Base (American): with one dealer's open card and one hole card. With an open ace or a dozen (in some variations only with ace), the dealer looks at the hidden card and, if the blackjack dealer, the game ends.
 European: the dealer takes the second card after all players finish the set. In the case of a blackjack dealer, the players are returned all additional bets (except for "insurance"),
 On the basis of Blackjack, numerous versions have been created, with their own names such as Blackjack in the open (Double Exposure), 3-Card Blackjack, Blackjack Switch, Spanish 21, Caribbean 21, Super Fan 21, Pontoon, etc.

References

Card games

Blackjack


Pieter Frans Norbert Jozef Raymond De Crem (; born 22 July 1962) is a Belgian politician and member of Christian Democratic and Flemish (CD&V). He has been a Member of the Belgian Chamber of Representatives since 1995. He headed the CD&V fraction in the Chamber of Representatives from 2003 to 2007. Since 1995, he has been the mayor of Aalter in East Flanders.

De Crem became the Belgian minister of defense on 21 December 2007. On 5 March 2013, he was also appointed First Deputy Prime Minister in the Belgian federal government. From 11 October 2014 to 9 December 2018, he served as Secretary of State for Foreign Trade in the Michel I Government. He was subsequently appointed Minister for Security and the Interior under the Michel II Government.

Education
De Crem holds a Master of Romance Philology from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Catholic University of Leuven) and a Master of European and international Law from Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Free University of Brussels). De Crem attended the six-week Harvard Business School Advanced Management Program.

Municipal politics

 When Jan De Crem – father of Pieter De Crem – decided to retire after more than 30 years in office as a mayor of the township of Aalter, Pieter was considered as his favorite successor. In 1994, he participated for the first time in the municipal elections. He was straightaway elected mayor. His mandate was renewed in the elections in 2000 and in 2006.
 During the elections of 2006, all opposition parties in Aalter bundled their efforts while attempting to break the Christian Democrate majority. The opposition was led by former federal Minister Jef Tavernier. Nevertheless, the election resulted in a major success for the incumbent majority as two out of three citizens voted in favor of De Crem's party.
 With the municipal elections of 14 October 2012, De Crem even succeeded in improving his success of 2006. His party won 64,56%  of the votes, which entitles it to 19 out of the 25 seats in Aalter.
 The municipal elections of 14 October 2018 confirmed his absolute majority, and he became by far the most popular politician in Aalter with a personal score of 5056 preferential votes.

Minister of Defense

 On 21 December 2007, when the 'interim government Verhofstadt III' was established, De Crem was appointed Minister of Defense. He promptly revised a controversial arms contract, signed by his predecessor André Flahaut, who ordered several non-NATO standard 90mm turrets for Belgian Army's armored vehicles. On 23 January 2008, he came into the news by suggesting that nuclear capability was present at the Kleine Brogel Air Base, confirming in this way Belgium's responsibilities in NATO's nuclear policy.
 De Crem increased the participation of the Belgian armed forces in international operations. As of early 2009, well over 1.200 Belgian troops participated in peace support missions around the world. This was an increase by half compared with the average during the five preceding years. Belgium sent the first four and later even six F-16 combat aircraft to Kandahar in southern Afghanistan. According to De Crem, hereby supported by several international reports, an emphasis must be granted on training the Afghan Army and Police. As a result, he sent two Operational Mentoring and Liaison Teams to Kunduz in the north to train the Afghan National Army. Meanwhile, the UNIFIL mission in Lebanon was extended for one year.
 He also launched several new initiatives. From September 2009, a Belgian navy frigate, flying the European flag, patrols in the Gulf of Aden to fight piracy.
 In May 2009, when a Belgian ship, the 'Pompey', was hijacked in the Gulf of Aden, he offers immediate military assistance to all Belgian merchant vessels sailing through the strait of Aden. At the same time, De Crem and his colleague Minister of Justice Stefaan De Clerck update an old law against piracy in order to enable prosecution. The Vessel Protection Disposal concept was born.
 As part of the budget cuts by the Belgian Government, Minister De Crem accelerated the reduction in staff from 42,000 to 37,725 employees. He realized, six years earlier than planned, the objectives of previous army reform. At the same time, he reduced the number of generals by 20 percent.
 On 21 October 2009, De Crem got the approval of the government for his own transformation plan. Initially, it received severe opposition from the unions. The plan completes all former but still unfinished reforms. De Crem is committed to finalizing this reform in the current legislative period. By 2012 the number of employees shall be reduced to 34,000 and 23 military barracks will close. Equipment and personnel are grouped together to form new and fully deployable units. The contingent needs to be reduced to bring expenditure back into balance.
 After years of searching in the jungle of Central Africa, Minister De Crem approved new defense efforts in order to locate the remains of a helicopter crash. The plane, a Piasecki H-21 Shawnee, was flown by a Belgian military three-man crew. It disappeared in 1965 in bad weather conditions. At the end of 2010, at year long insistence of the families, and because De Crem considers it important that the fate of every missing soldier is known, the Minister approved and sponsored an expedition into the jungle. Belgian paratroopers found the wreck after a four-day march through inaccessible terrain. They do not find any human remains, however, though they found serial numbers that demonstrated that they'd found the missing helicopter.
 De Crem used the opportunity of the Belgian EU-Presidency in the second half of 2010 to set the first steps towards more cooperation in the field of a common European Defence. On 9 December 2010 at the Council for Foreign Affairs in Brussels, all 27 Defence Ministers of the EU Member States supported the "Ghent Framework Initiative". European member states commit themselves to more cooperation in the defence field through pooling and sharing. The Framework Initiative took shape at the end of September in Ghent during the informal meeting that was convened by Minister De Crem.
 De Crem's name also pops up several times in the Wikileaks 'Cables'. They were sent by the U.S. Ambassador in Brussels to Washington saying that De Crem is striving to become again a reliable ally within NATO. Another message in which De Crem shows up, states that Belgium is a small country that will and can play an important role in Europe.
 In the middle of March 2011, all political parties in parliament requested a decisive attitude of the Belgian Government in response to Muammar Gaddafi, who was using tanks against the Libyan population in order to stop the "Arab Spring". As proposed by De Crem, Belgium offered six F-16 fighter aircraft, a minehunter, and one hundred and fifty soldiers to the international coalition. Belgium was one of the first countries to join the NATO operation for the protection of the population of Libya.
 On Wednesday, 18 April 2012, Belgian Minister of Defense, De Crem, and his Dutch and Luxembourg counterparts, Hans Hillen and Jean-Marie Halsdorf, respectively, signed a letter of intent on cooperation in the field of defence. This opens new possibilities for greater cooperation of the three armies and possible joint participation in NATO or EU operations.
 On 11 May 2012, Minister of Defense Pieter De Crem received the approval of the Council of Ministers for his investment plan for the Belgian Armed Forces. In 2012, 242 million euros will be invested. With this plan, Belgium wants to answer the recurring question of NATO for the renewal of its military equipment.
 On 20 and 21 May 2012, Minister De Crem, accompanied by Minister of Foreign Affairs Didier Reynders and Belgian Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo, participated at the NATO-summit in Chicago, United States. The key theme on the agenda was the role of NATO in the International Security and Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan. The decision has been made that all 130.000 international forces, including 600 Belgian military personnel, have to leave the country before the end of 2014. Afterward, NATO will continue to assist, train and support the Afghan security forces. The Belgian government has agreed to donate 12 million euros annually, after 2014, for the reconstruction of Afghanistan.
 On 11 July 2012, De Crem announced that the government had unanimously agreed to appoint Lieutenant General Gerard Van Caelenberge as the new Chief of the Belgian Armed Forces. The Council of Ministers of 13 July 2012, will confirm this mandate for a period of four years.  Lieutenant General Van Caelenberge already took over this function on a temporary basis, after the resignation of his predecessor, General Charles-Henri Delcour in March 2012.
 During the budget negotiations for 2013, the Belgian government has agreed upon a one-time cut of 100 million euros in the Defense budget. Despite this considerable sum, Minister De Crem assured that the impact on the Department of Defense would stay relatively limited. Neither the operationality  of the Belgian Armed Forces or the further implementation of the transformation plan that is almost fully realized, will be affected. Savings will be made in the domain of investments, although without canceling large projects. The planned investments for 2012, worth a total of 242 million euros, will not be influenced. The further implementation of the government agreement will thus remain the reference for this term.
 On 21 December 2012, the first NH90 helicopter has been delivered to the Belgian Ministry of Defence, in the context of the investment implementation. The handover ceremony took place on the Eurocopter Site in Marignane (France); this helicopter is part of an order for a total of eight NH90s: four in the TTH (Tactical Transport Helicopter) variant, and four NFH (NATO Frigate Helicopter). The TTHs will be used for tactical transport missions. Two of the four NFHs will be deployed on Belgium's M-class frigates; the two others will take over the Search and Rescue mission of the current Sea Kings.
 On 8 January 2013, De Crem was awarded the "Großes Verdienstkreuz mit Stern und Schulterband des Verdienstordens der Bundesrepublik Deutschland". This prestigious German decoration was awarded  to him by the German Federal President Joachim Gauck, in particular for his efforts to strengthen the cooperation between the armed forces of both countries. The decoration was presented to him by the German ambassador in Belgium, Eckart Cuntz.
 On 15 January 2013, Minister De Crem received the approval of the Council of Ministers for a military contribution to the French military Operation Serval, aiming to stop and defeat an aggressive Islamic militant rebellion in the north of Mali. The Belgian Defence deploys 75 soldiers, two C-130 transport planes, and two Agusta A109 helicopters for medevac.
 On 18 February 2013, the Belgian Government decided to participate in the Training Mission of the European Union (EUTM Mali) in Mali after positively evaluating Belgian participation in the French operation Serval. Belgian C-130 transport planes will end their mission on 28 February 2013. Furthermore, the Government accepted De Crem's proposal to participate in EUTM. Belgian Defense will extend the presence of the two A109 medevac helicopters for the benefit of EUTM. The Government accepted an additional contribution to deliver force protection troops for the training camp or headquarters, provided that this participation is in proportion with the efforts of the other European partners.
 On Wednesday, 13 March 2013, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense Pieter De Crem received the approval of the restricted Council of Ministers to send 50 Belgian troops to Mali to assure the protection of the European Mission (EUTM) aiming to train Mali's armed forces. In total, 150 European troops will guarantee the safety of this mission.
 End of April 2013, De Crem inaugurated the new post of Belgian Defence Attaché in Germany. This is a part of a broader reorientation of the posts of Belgian Defence Attachés worldwide. Earlier that month, Minister De Crem already opened a new post in Brazil.
 On 14 May 2013, De Crem and Luxembourg Defence Minister Jean-Marie Halsdorf have signed a technical agreement that will strengthen the cooperation between the armed forces of both countries in the field of military air transport. Both countries opted for the Airbus A400M transport aircraft.
 During a conference at the Royal Higher Institute for Defence on 12 June 2013, De Crem called for a continuation of the Belgian military presence in Afghanistan, even after the end of the ISAF-mission in 2014, by taking part in the support and training mission that will replace the current NATO-led mission.
 On 20 June 2013, the Belgian Council of Ministers approved the proposal of Pieter De Crem to expand the Belgian contribution to EUTM Mali by sending 70 troops as part of the force protection of the training camp Koulikoro. They will be responsible for the protection of the infrastructure and of the trainers and other staff of the mission. They will also protect the convoys between Koulikoro and Bamako and be ready to intervene in case of incidents as a Quick Reaction Force. Belgium will alternate the command of this protection mission with Spain. The two A109 helicopters, who are already supporting the EUTM-mission, will return to Belgium not later than 31 July 2013. The first detachment of some fifty soldiers left for Mali on 10 July 2013, from the military airport of Melsbroek, where they were greeted by Minister De Crem.
 On 18 July 2013, the Belgian Senate approved two bills proposed by Minister De Crem that modify the status of Belgian military personnel. Earlier, on 17 July 2013, the Chamber of the Belgian Parliament already gave its approval. These changes, the most important since 2007, aimed at modernizing Belgian Defense in terms of personnel structure, management of personnel, military ability, internal recruitment, and transition from a military to a civilian career.
 Following the Dutch decision to buy 37 Joint Strike Fighters F-35 from the American aircraft manufacturer Lockheed Martin, Minister De Crem said that Belgium also needs to acquire a successor for the F-16. A decision must be taken quickly, explained De Crem, because of the large time gap between a political decision and the actual delivery of the aircraft. The JSF of F-35 will probably be the fighter aircraft used within NATO.
 On 1 and 2 October 2013, Minister De Crem visited the Belgian troops currently in Mali as part of the European Union Training Mission EUTM Mali. Minister De Crem also met with the commanders of EUTM and the French Operation Serval and spoke with different authorities from Mali, the United Nations, and the African Union.
 In his speech at the Royal Higher Institute for Defence on 11 December 2013, Minister De Crem has clearly called for the first time for the acquisition of a new fighter plane to succeed the F-16 aircraft, currently used by the Belgian Air Force. According to Minister De Crem, the Belgian Air Force needs about forty aircraft to remain a reliable partner. During the same speech, the Minister also launched the proposal that the Benelux region presents itself as a joint constituency for the European elections in 2019. This would give the Benelux the same numerical importance in the European Parliament as Spain or Poland, when it comes to its voting weight.
 On 13 December 2013, the Belgian Council of Ministers approved the proposal of Pieter De Crem to contribute to the French military operation in the Central African Republic with an Airbus A330 for the strategic airlift and a Lockheed C-130 Hercules for the tactical airlift. Both planes will transport French and African troops and their equipment to the Central African Republic. On the same day, the Council of Ministers also approved the operations of the Belgian Defence in 2014. The ongoing operations in Afghanistan and Lebanon will continue. The mission in Mali continues until May. In the second semester, the Belgian Navy will send a frigate for the European mission ATALANTA. Also, in the second semester, the Belgian Defence will take the lead of a European Union Battle Group. This involves approximately 1,800 Belgian military personnel that can be deployed on a short-term base.
 On 6 February 2014, De Crem gave a speech at a meeting of military reserve forces at NATO's headquarters in Brussels, in which he outlined his vision on NATO's future. Among other topics, he stressed the need to further strengthen the transatlantic bond, with a balanced burden-sharing between the European Union and the United States.
 Pieter De Crem was often considered to become the next Secretary-General of NATO. A so-called secret visit to Washington end of 2013 nourished these speculations, and well-informed diplomatic sources put him in pole position. The North Atlantic Council however, agreed on 28 March 2014, on the former Norwegian socialist Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg.
 On 2 June 2014, De Crem and his Dutch colleague Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert have visited the Royal Military Academy in Brussels and the Belgian training center for paratroopers in Schaffen, near Diest. From mid-2015, both the Belgian and Dutch paratroopers will be trained here together. This initiative is part of the ongoing quest of both countries to enhance cooperation among allies in the field of defense.
 Following a formal request from the United States to Belgium, the federal government and the MP's approved the proposal of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense Pieter De Crem for Belgian military participation in the international coalition against the terrorist group Islamic State. Belgian Defense will deploy a military detachment consisting of 120 personnel and six F-16 fighter jets, which will operate from Jordan.

Secretary of State for Foreign Trade
 On 11 October 2014, he took the oath as Secretary of State for Foreign Trade in the Belgian Government. Since 2017, he has also been a Special Envoy of the Federal Government for the research project MYRRHA of the Belgian Nuclear Research Center. He held this position until 9 December 2018, when he was subsequently appointed as Minister for Security and the Interior.

Minister of the Interior and Security
 After the fall of the Michel I government and the departure of N-VA from the government, De Crem became Minister of the Interior and Security, in the Michel II government on 9 December 2018.

Honours
: Grand Officer in the Order of Leopold
: Knight Grand cross in the Order of the Dannebrog.
: Knight Grand Cross in the Order of Orange-Nassau.
: Grand Cross in the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Other information
 De Crem has faced criticism for visiting a New York bar with taxpayers' money, claiming it was for a United Nations meeting. However, his own aides admitted they knew the meeting was cancelled.
 De Crem is known for his staunch support for the maintenance of Nuclear Weapons on Belgian soil. As revealed, he also pressed Prime Minister Leterme to maintain the 'secret' weapons in Belgium.

References

External links

1962 births
Christian Democratic and Flemish politicians
Vrije Universiteit Brussel alumni
KU Leuven alumni
Living people
Members of the Belgian Federal Parliament
People from Aalter
Belgian Ministers of Defence
Knights Grand Cross of the Order of Orange-Nassau
Grand Crosses of the Order of the Dannebrog
Grand Crosses with Star and Sash of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
21st-century Belgian politicians
Interior ministers of Belgium

Pieter De Crem


Sardar Abdullah Khan Tarzi (died 1970) was a twentieth century Afghan Statesman from Kandahar province in Afghanistan.  As a country "elder," he participated in the national Loya Jirga (loya means "great" or "grand" and jirga means "council" or "assembly"), specifically the one in 1964 that was called by Mohammed Zahir Shah, which acted as a constitutional convention. In and out of office, he was always a key decision maker, as he was a tribal and Pashtun leader in southern Afghanistan.

Abdullah Khan Tarzi was a soldier in the Third Anglo-Afghan War in 1919, which led to Afghan independence from the British. He would fight in that war for over two years. This led to his first role in Afghan politics, as Abdullah Khan Tarzi would become mayor of Kandahar at the age of 18 years. He would rise from being the Mayor of the city to representative of Kandahar province in the Wolesi Jirga, the lower house of the Afghan parliament. After one term, he then took the position of being the governor of the province. Soon after, Abdullah Khan Tarzi reached the Afghan Senate, known as the House of Elders, representing Kandahar province for two terms, he was the leader of the Senate during his final two years.  Abdullah Khan Tarzi was one of the few members of the Tarzi's family, since Ghulam Muhammad Tarzi to lead within Afghanistan; traditionally, most notable Tarzi's have served Afghanistan on the international stage.

Abdullah Khan Tarzi died in 1970, leaving behind his wife, four sons and three daughters.

See also
Politics of Afghanistan

References

Pashtun people
Afghan military personnel
Year of birth missing
1970 deaths
Mayors of Kandahar
Governors of Kandahar Province
Presidents of the House of Elders (Afghanistan)
Mayors of places in Afghanistan

Abdullah Khan Tarzi


Emir Uyar (born 1983) is the Vice Chairman of Permak Group, a major Turkish company, and is also the Honorary General Consul of Dominica to Turkey. He is the son of businessman Selim Uyar, who is the founder of Permak Group.

Emir Uyar owns many old buildings and places in Europe, like the famous San Clemente Kempinski Palace Hotel in Venice, Italy. The hotel's brand name is now under Kempinski Hotels. He bought the whole island of San Clemente in Italy, which was one of the largest investments between Italy and Turkey. Uyar also helps build solar power in Turkey.

Education
Uyar graduated from Deutsche Schule Istanbul and got a Bachelor's degree in Business and Economics from the University of Southern California (USC) in the United States.

Career
Emir Uyar is the Vice Chairman of Turkey's Permak Group and Chairman of the Permak Investments. Permak Group does business in real estate, machinery, energy, technology, and retail.

He manages the Permak Group's investments, and also owns the Kempinski Palace Hotel on San Clemente Island in Venice, Italy. Uyar was the Honorary General Consul of Dominica to Istanbul since 2014.

Uyar helped build solar power in Turkey in places like Çankırı. He has also invested very much in luxury properties in Lake Como, which is also home to George Clooney's summer house.

References

Living people
1983 births
Turkish businesspeople

Emir Uyar


Charles Robert Jenkins (February 18, 1940 – December 11, 2017) was a former United States Army soldier. He lived in North Korea from 1965 to 2004 after deserting from his unit and crossing the Korean Demilitarized Zone. He was born in Rich Square, North Carolina.

On November 3, Jenkins pleaded guilty to charges of desertion and aiding the enemy, but denied making disloyal or seditious statements – the latter charges were dropped.  He was sentenced to 30 days' confinement, received a dishonorable discharge, forfeiture of all pay and benefits and was reduced in rank to E-1 private (the lowest rank in the US Army). He was released six days early, on November 27, 2004, for good behavior.

On July 15, 2008, Jenkins obtained permanent residency status in Japan, just half a month after he applied for the status.

Jenkins died in Sado, Niigata on December 11, 2017 of heart failure, aged 77.

References

1940 births
2017 deaths
Deaths from heart failure
Military people from North Carolina

Charles Robert Jenkins


Shirui Lily Festival is an annual cultural state festival of Manipur organised by Manipur Tourism Department every year. Initially, the festival was celebrated by the locals of Shirui village in Ukhrul to pay tribute to the state flower Shirui Lily that blooms from the last week of May through the second week of June. In 2017, Shirui Lily Festival was declared as a state festival by the Government of Manipur. The 2023 Shirui Lily Festival was postponed due to the prevailing tension in the region.

Festival locations
After being declared as a state festival, three venues were selected to celebrate the festival.
 Ukhrul
 Shirui
 Hungpung

Main Attractions
The four day festival showcases cultural events, artifacts, games, music and food of Manipur state in general and particularly that of the Tangkhul Naga tribe. The main attractions of the festival are:
ShiRock where rock bands from across the country competes for best rock music title. The event also features international bands to perform mainly on the opening and closing nights.
ShiChef where chefs compete to showcase their cooking skills and recipes.
Miss Spring Pageant where maidens walk the ramp to win the Miss Lily or Miss Spring title.

References

Cultural festivals in India
Entertainment events in India
Festivals in Manipur

Shirui Lily Festival