William Benedict (April 16, 1917 – November 25, 1999), was an American actor, perhaps best known for playing "Whitey" in Monogram Pictures' The Bowery Boys series.

Early years
Benedict was born in Haskell, Oklahoma, After his father's death when Billy was three years old, his mother supported him and his two sisters. He took part in school theatricals, and on leaving school he made his way to Hollywood.

Career
Benedict's first film was $10 Raise (1935) starring Edward Everett Horton, which launched the blond-haired young man on a busy career. He almost always played juvenile roles, such as newsboys, messengers, office boys, and farmhands.

In 1939, when Universal Pictures began its Little Tough Guys series to compete with the popular Dead End Kids features, Billy Benedict was recruited into the cast. These films led him into the similar East Side Kids movies (usually playing a member of the East Side gang, but occasionally in villainous roles). The East Side Kids became The Bowery Boys in 1946, and Benedict stayed with the series (as "Whitey") through the end of 1951.

Other films included My Little Chickadee (1940) starring W. C. Fields and Mae West, The Ox-Bow Incident (1943), Ed Wood's Bride of the Monster (1955), The Sting (1973) and Farewell, My Lovely (1975). Benedict never shook his juvenile image completely, and continued to play messengers and news vendors well into his sixties. He also worked often in television commercials, and in television series, including The Andy Griffith Show, All in the Family, and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.

Death
Benedict died at age 82 on November 25, 1999, at Los Angeles' Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, following heart surgery.

Selected filmography

Television

References

External links

American male film actors
Male actors from Oklahoma
20th-century American male actors
1917 births
1999 deaths
Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)
People from Haskell, Oklahoma

William Benedict


Alpine skiing at the 2018 Winter Paralympics had 5 types of races.  These included downhill, Super-G, Super Combined, slalom and giant slalom.

Schedule
Skiers had training runs for the downhill race on 7 March.  Their practice runs in the downhill on 8 and 9 March were cancelled.

The first event on the para-alpine program is the downhill. It starts on 10 March, running from 9:30 AM to 1:30 PM. The second event on the program is Super-G. All skiers will race between 9:30 AM and 1:00 PM on 11 March.  The super combined takes place on 13 March. The Super-G part of the event is in the morning. The slalom part is in the afternoon. The slalom event gets underway on 14 March and conclude on 15 March. Women and men both race during the same sessions in the morning. The afternoon sessions start with the women doing their second run. Then the men go.The last para-alpine skiing race of the 2018 Games is the giant slalom. It takes place on 17 - 18 March.  Men and women both race at the same time in the morning sessions.  Women race first in the afternoon sessions, with the men racing a half hour after they end.

Results

Downhill
Henrieta Farkasova, guided by Nataly Subrtova, won the first gold medal at the Winter Paralympics.  Farkasova won gold in women's downhill vision impaired race. B2 classified skier Millie Knight won silver. Belgian B2 classified skier Eleonor Sana won bronze. Marie Bochet from France won gold in the women's downhill standing.  Andrea Rothfuss from Germany won silver.  Mollie Jepsen from Canada won bronze. Mac Marcoux won gold in the men's visually impaired downhill race.  Jakub Krako of Slovakia won silver.  Giacomo Bertagnolli of Italy won bronze. Theo Gmur won a gold medal in the men's downhill standing race.  Arthur Bauchet of France won silver.  Markus Salcher of Austria won bronze.

References

Sports at the 2018 Winter Paralympics
Skiing


Ficus septica (called Hauili or Hawili in the Philippines, 稜果榕 in Taiwan) is a shrub or tree of the family Moraceae living at low altitudes from northeast India to north Australia (Queensland), and throughout Malesia.
It lives on the edge of the vegetation, often in degraded environments. The seeds of this species are dispersed by numerous species, including fruit bats (Megachiroptera) when present.

Taxonomy
Ficus septica was described first by the Dutch botanist Nicolaas Laurens Burman in 1768. Two centuries later, E. J. H. Corner listed three varieties for Ficus septica: F. septica var. septica distributed all over the range of the species; F. septica var. cauliflora limited to Queensland, Australia and the Solomon islands; and F. septica var. salicifolia endemic to the Philippines Islands. Then in the latest Flora Malesiana edition, Cornelis Christiaan Berg put all these varieties in synonymy together under the name Ficus septica.
Within the genus, Ficus septica belongs to the subgenus Sycomorus section Sycocarpus subsection Sycocarpus.

Description
Tree or shrub up to 25 meters. The latex of F. septica is characteristically yellow. Leaves and petioles are both glabrous. Leaves are symmetric, elliptic to oblong.  Figs grow often in pairs but can be solitary or in groups of up to four. Figs are depressed-globose to ellipsoid, the apex is flat or concave. Seven to twelve ribs towards to ostiole. At maturity, whitish to yellowish dots appear on the fig. The individuals from Philippines have their stems covered by short hairs while those found in Taiwan are glabrous.

Habitat
Ficus septica trees live up to 1800m in montane forests or secondary growth environments. It can be seen often along rivers. In Taiwan, at the northern limit of its distribution, F. septica lives up to 500m in secondary growths and along roads and coastlines.

Ecology
Ficus septica is pollinated by fig wasps from the genus Ceratosolen. Usually members of the genus Ficus are pollinated by a single species of pollinating fig wasps specific to each fig species, but recent observations of Ficus septica have shown there to be three pollinating species in the South of Taiwan and two in the Philippines.

The figs of Ficus septica have been reported to be eaten by 22 animal species and among them 14 are bats:

 Double-eyed fig parrot
 Unspecified fruit dove
 Black-naped oriole
 Northern common cuscus
 Stein's cuscus
 Common spotted cuscus
 Mantled guereza
 Black rat
 Lesser short-nosed fruit bat
 Horsfield's fruit bat
 Greater short-nosed fruit bat
 Indonesian short-nosed fruit bat
 Bare-backed fruit bat
 Lesser naked-backed fruit bat
 Long-tongued nectar bat
 Long-tongued fruit bat
 Broad-striped tube-nosed fruit bat
 Common tube-nosed fruit bat
 Greater musky fruit bat
 Geoffroy's rousette
 Common blossom bat

References

septica
Flora of Australia
Flora of Malesia
Flora of Taiwan
Dioecious plants
Taxa named by Nicolaas Laurens Burman

Ficus septica


The Association of Greek Tourism Enterprises (), commonly abbreviated to SETE (ΣΕΤΕ), is a non-governmental, non-profit organization founded in 1991. It is the representative Association for unions of tourism enterprises in Greece, as well as independent companies operating across the broader tourism sector.

History

The original 9 entrepreneurs who met in Elounda, Crete to discuss the creation of the association were:
 Spyros Kokotos, of Elounda S.A. Hotels and Resorts, and first president of the Association
 Nikos Angelopoulos, of ALDEMAR Hotels & Spa, the current president
 Dia Capsis, of Capsis Hotels & Resorts
 Nikos Metaxas, of Maris Hotels
 Nikos Daskalandonakis, of Grecotel Hotels
 Yannis Sbokos, of the Sbokos Hotels Group
 Gina Mamidakis, of Bluegr Mamidakis Hotels
 Tasos Grigoriadis, of Chalkidiki hotels
 Stefanos Voulgaris, of Corfu hotel

In order to fulfill the legal requirement of 20 members, the following 14 were added to the original group and became the 23 founding members of the Association:

 Thedore Vassilakis, of Autohellas and Aegean Airlines
 Georgios Vernicos, of Vernicos Yachts
 Vassilis Konstandakopoulos, of Costamare Shipping and Navarino Resorts
 Dakis Ioannou, of J&P Overseas and Athenaum Intercontinental
 George Tsilidis
 Manolis Tsatsakis
 Konstantinos Koulouvatos
 Stelios Golemis
 Antonis Mousamas
 Maria Argyrou
 Manolis Papakaliatis
 Elias Kammenos
 Stelios Seferiades, formerly of Astir Hotels
 Constantine Mitsis, of Mitsis Hotels

Organizational aims
SETE aims constantly at boosting competitiveness and demonstrating the key role of tourism in the Greek economy. More specifically, SETE:
 Underlines the impact of tourism on the economy, the society and the environment
 Informs the Government, the broader public sector and the business community regarding developments in the international tourism market
 Promotes co-operation between public and private sectors
 Represents its Members in national and international organizations
 Establishes platforms of collaboration among the various tourism branches and between tourism and other sectors of the economy
 Co-operates with Greek and international research centres in the fields of tourism and economy
 Aims for the creation and dissemination of tourism industry know how

Activities

Research
SETE positions are based on continuous research, study and analysis of the special features of tourism economy.

SETE:
 studies the status and contribution of tourism to Greek economy
 proposes measures for the improvement of quality and the competitiveness enhancement
 monitors the international developments
 analyses the growth of tourism sector in competitor countries

SETE research work is supported per case by its staff, expert consultants and university research centres. The results are disseminated and promoted through publications, seminars and through the web.

sete.gr provides information for professionals and researchers in the wider tourism economy.

SETE offices house a library with Greek and foreign publications on tourism.

Education & Training
SETE actively supports the work of researchers, experts and students and collaborates with the academic community.

Members of SETE Board of Directors and the Association's Executives are regular speakers and lecturers at events and programs held by partner universities.

SETE proposals regarding tourism training include:
 the establishment of tourism studies faculties in Greek universities
 the co-ordination between the various levels of studies and tourism education bodies
 the continuous education for tourism entrepreneurs and professionals
 correlation of market needs with training policies and practices
 production of research directly linked to actual tourism needs.

Membership
SETE Members fall into two main categories:
 unions of tourism enterprises representing on national level the accommodation, travel, transportation (air, land and sea), exhibitions, conferences and other sectors related to the tourism industry and
 enterprises across the entire spectrum of direct and indirect tourism activities, including: hotels, travel agencies, transportation, airlines, car rental, cruise ships, sea-ferries, tourist coach services, yachts, as well as tourist interest companies like banks, business consultants, catering, construction companies, development companies, expo-conference organizers, marketing – management companies, museums, publishing, real estate, restaurants, special tourism infrastructure (golf, marinas, conference centres, exhibitions, etc.), vineyards – wineries.

SETE provides a series of services to its Members, in a joint effort to create a more favourable environment for boosting tourism and entrepreneurship:

 Information

SETE Members receive circular documentation, studies and data about markets which concern Greek tourism, and about specific market segments. Moreover, SETE Members are informed on the press releases and the interventions made by SETE to Greek government and the broader public sector.

 Participation

SETE Members can be involved in shaping tourism policy positions and proposals by actively participating in the meetings and events held by SETE (General Assemblies, conferences, regional events, business lunches).

 Promotion

SETE web pages, events and publications allow for the promotion of businesses and services to selected target groups. SETE Members can be promoted through its regular publications for information purposes, i.e. the SETE Annual Report, the e-newsletter "Corporate Citizenship - Members Activities" and the e-newsletter "Members Business News".

International presence
Tourism is one of the most significant economic activities in the world and the main field of international competition. SETE is present in the major international fora:
 United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), as an Affiliate Member since 1993
 UNWTO Business Council
 Statistics and TSA Committee of the UN World Tourism Organization
 International Hotel & Restaurant Association (IH&RA), as a member
 The Travel Partnership Corporation (TTPC), as a member
 Various international committees, working groups and councils, either as a full member or as an observer.

Moreover, SETE cooperates with:
WTTC (World Travel and Tourism Council), OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), IMF (International Monetary Fund), IFTO (International Federation of Tour Operators), IAGTO (International Association of Golf Tour Operators), TYD (Turkish Tourism Investors Association), Egyptian Tourism Federation, Exceltur (Spain), Visit Britain, Maison de la France, IMG Tourism, Tourism Intelligence International, ILM Hospitality & Tourism, IPK International, THR Barcelona, Monitor Group, Mintel, Phocuswright, Tourism Industry Intelligence, Eye for Travel

References

https://web.archive.org/web/20100704214203/http://www.sete.gr/files/Media/CORPORATE_ENG.pdf
https://web.archive.org/web/20100516155638/http://greektourismblog.com/
http://www.greektourism2020.gr/
https://web.archive.org/web/20110407024823/http://unwto.org/

Non-profit organizations based in Greece
Tourism in Greece
Traveling business organizations


WildStar was a massively multiplayer online role-playing game that was developed by Carbine Studios, published by NCSoft. It was unveiled on August 17, 2011 during Gamescom. WildStar was set in a fantasy/science fiction world on the fictional planet Nexus, where a mysterious and powerful race known as the Eldan have disappeared, leaving behind a wealth of technology and secrets for players to explore.

The game was released on June 3, 2014 with a subscription and later changed to free-to-play on September 29, 2015. While it was no longer required to pay for a subscription, those who did were "signature" members, getting a few bonuses such as increased experience/currency gain.

On September 6, 2018, NCSoft announced the immediate closure of Carbine Studios and that they "will begin the process of winding WildStar down". A shut-down date was later set for November 28, 2018.

Plot

Setting
The Eldan, a highly advanced alien race, sought to create a perfect being called the Genesis Prime through the Nexus Project.  This being, whom the Eldan named Drusera, seemed kind and benevolent, and was capable of shaping reality as she saw fit; shortly thereafter, the Eldan realized that their creation was less than perfect: Drusera contained an alternate, malicious personality which they called the Entity. They attempted to destroy the Entity using a device called the primal disintegrator. However, they were unsuccessful, and in retaliation the Entity annihilated all Eldan on the planet Nexus. Distraught over her failure to save the Eldan, Drusera then imprisoned herself (and by extension, the Entity).

Before their sudden extinction, the Eldan had sown the seeds for an intergalactic empire; they had contacted humans inhabiting a planet called Cassus, and assisted them in forming a mighty civilization which would span galaxies and ultimately be under Eldan control.  After their patrons' disappearance, the majority of the Cassian humans continued as they had done before, forming a religion around the vanished Eldan. A splinter faction, who would become known as the Exiles, rebelled against the nascent Dominion and fled into the stars; over the years they accumulated other races who had grievances with the Cassian Dominion.

Shortly before the beginning of the game, an Exile explorer rediscovers Nexus. Both factions attempt to lay claim to the world: the Exiles want a planet to settle and call home, while the Dominion see the world as sacred and consider it a holy obligation to take it for themselves. Unfortunately for both sides, Nexus still contains Drusera, the Entity, and many holdovers from the Nexus project, both mechanical and living; the factions wrestling for control of the Eldan world need to fight not only each other, but the world itself.

Gameplay
In WildStar, players were able to create a character that they could control through their playing session. These characters could move in an open, persistent world environment. Characters could level from 1 to 50. Gameplay mainly consisted of quests, dungeons, and player versus player combat.

Movement
WildStar allowed the player many liberties in movement, such as double jumping, sprinting, and dashing. This tied into the gameplay in ways such as speed races and jumping puzzles.

Moreover, there were zones with altered gravity in the game, allowing the player to jump higher.

Combat

WildStar used a system of telegraphs for combat, where zones are displayed on the ground, allowing a player to predict attacks of enemies and heals of allies. A player could dodge them by either walking or dashing out of them.

Player attacks were also telegraphs, this means that players had to cast them in the right direction if they wanted to damage enemies. Players also had the option of auto-targeting enemies, which puts the telegraph for the move they use centered on their current target. This made it easier to get a particular enemy into their telegraph, but often wouldn't catch as many enemies as a well-placed free-targeting attack would.

Housing
In WildStar, players could own a sky plot. This plot was a part of land consisting of a house and several "sockets", each socket could receive different "plugs". Plugs could consist of many different things, such as a crafting bench, a mine, an exploration shaft, etc.

The exterior offered not only plugs, but a remodel feature to change the ground, sky, and background music as well as complete creative freedom with "decor". Decor could be placed anywhere, rescaled in size, and rotated three different ways. Each housing plot had the option to put down one of many houses at the center of the exterior, which could be entered for a house interior that could have its walls, floors, ceiling, and lighting modified through remodeling, as well as free decor placement such as on the exterior. Various interior decorations offer a bonus to rested experience if a player logged out inside their home, making a house the best source of rested experience in the game.

This plot could be accessed by anyone who has the owner's permission. Every plug could be used by all the players who have access to this plot. If a visitor performed a task such as harvesting, the reward can be split by the visitor and the owner of the plot, allowing friends to maintain a plot for the owner and allowing both to benefit.

While housing was not a required part of the game, it offered many advantages to the players, from personal workbenches, gathering nodes, personal dungeons, quicker access to raids, and increased rested experience.

Near the game's sunset, "Housing Communities" were added. Allowing up to five housing plots belonging to different characters to be combined with some space between each individual skyplot to freely decorate with the housing decor.

Character advancement
Upon character creation, players would be able to choose among six classes, four paths, and eight races. Classes were limited to certain pre-determined races. There were no inherent statistical or game play differences in the different races; the difference was all aesthetic.

Each class was able to fulfill the role of DPS as well as one of the support roles, tank or healer.

WildStar also used a system of paths. Upon character creation, players were able to choose among the four paths, in addition to their desired class. Unlike classes, paths were not restricted to specific races, and leveled up independently of class, capping at 30. The paths were loosely based on the Bartle player types. The path the player chose upon character creation determined what kind of extra content the player enjoys, and each path gave players unique bonuses and benefits.

Player versus player
WildStar offered numerous means of player conflict. WildStar allowed players of opposing factions to fight almost anywhere within the in-game world.

In addition to open world combat, players were able to participate in more organized combat, such as arenas, battlegrounds, or War Plots, where players fought each other in teams.

Arenas consisted of small teams (2v2, 3v3, or 5v5) attempting to kill the opposing group of enemies. Each team had a set amount of respawns. A match was won when all of the members of a certain team had been killed, and were unable to respawn.

Battlegrounds consisted of larger teams (10v10 to 15v15). Matches were centered on varying objectives, and victory conditions were dependent upon the nature of the objectives teams are tasked with.

War Plots have the biggest teams (30v30). A War Plot is a fortress controlled by a War Party. Players of a War Party had to build the War Plot in order to increase its attack and defense possibilities. Matches were then organized by two War Parties. Victory is then obtained when players take control of the opposing team's War Plot.

Raiding
One of the main attractions of WildStar was its unique style of player vs. environment encounters, or raids. Carbine Studios took a stance unlike other games at the time and marketed raid encounters as "hardcore". Two primary raid instances were available in both 20 player and 40 player formats. The game began with the 20 man Genetic Archives instance and players progressed towards the 40 player Datascape instance. A future patch would lower the player number required in this instance to 20. The encounters were unique in that they were built primarily off of WildStar's telegraph combat system, meaning players would need to interact with bosses in unfamiliar ways to defeat them.

Development
WildStar development started in 2005, after 17 former members of Blizzard Entertainment founded Carbine Studios. At the time, they had a desire to "do anything but WoW", "In fact, most were excited and overjoyed to try and start over, this time, not making the same mistakes that might have been made before". When confronted with the decision of a game engine, the company first looked at off-the-shelf options. Although multiple engines were available for use, the team found that none of them suited their needs, to be able to scale well five years into the future. Eventually, the team decided it would be best for them to create their own, allowing them complete freedom.

In 2007, NCSoft acquired Carbine Studios, saying they were working on an unannounced MMO project.

WildStar was first announced by NCSoft at Gamescom 2011 and that it would use the subscription model. Two weeks later, more footage of the game was released at PAX Prime 2011.

WildStar initially gave players two methods of paying for the game's subscription: a monthly fee, or the purchase of an in-game item, C.R.E.D.D., with real money. C.R.E.D.D. granted 30 days of playtime and is tradable to other players for in-game currency. This essentially enables the player-driven economy to set the in-game price for C.R.E.D.D., and thus an exchange rate between real money and in-game currency.

On May 28, 2015, NCSoft announced that the game would become free-to-play to all players starting on September 29, 2015. Coinciding with the launch of the free-to-play model, the game received graphical updates that improves the lighting system, skyboxes, and viewing distance.

In February 2016, NCSoft closed the game's PvP servers for being under-populated and those users were merged with the two remaining PvE servers.

The decision to close down Carbine Studios, and shutdown the WildStar game servers, was announced by NCSoft at a staff meeting on September 6, 2018, after at least two other projects were declined by the publisher. NCSoft promised to refund in-game purchases made after July 1, 2018. WildStar's servers were announced to go offline on November 28, 2018 at 5:00 PM EST via the game website and the Steam Discussion threads.

Audio
The soundtrack for WildStar was composed and arranged by Jeff Kurtenacker.

Reception

WildStar was released to mostly positive reviews. Aggregating review websites Metacritic and GamingRankings held a rating of 82/100 and 80.52% respectively. Reviewers praised the game for its own unique style and personality, an active battle system, and numerous side features such as housing and challenges.  IGN's Branden Tyrrel remarked that "...WildStar is of course not the next evolution of the modern MMORPG. Instead, it's much more the culmination of a decade's worth of experimentation and design, cherry-picked and enhanced, and infused with Carbine's twists and light-hearted flourish".  GamesRadar praised the game's combat system and its side features, but panned the game's traditional questing as "patience-breakingly long" and its story-telling as "shallow".

References

External links

 Official YouTube Channel

2014 video games
Inactive massively multiplayer online games
Massively multiplayer online role-playing games
Space massively multiplayer online role-playing games
NCSoft games
Video games developed in the United States
Video games scored by Jeff Kurtenacker
Video games set on fictional planets
Windows games
Windows-only games
Lua (programming language)-scripted video games

WildStar


Korea State, currently spelt as Koriya, was a princely state of the British Empire of India. After Indian independence in 1947, the ruler of Korea acceded to the Union of India on 1 January 1948, and Koriya was made part of Surguja District of Central Provinces and Berar province. In January 1950, "Central Provinces and Berar" province was renamed Madhya Pradesh state. After November 2000, Korea and the former princely state of Changbhakar became Koriya district of Chhattisgarh state.

Korea had an area of  and a population of 126,874 as of 1941.

Location
The state of Korea, which included 400 villages, was in what is now Chhattisgarh state. It bordered Rewa to the north and also to the southwest; Surguja State to the east; the British district of Bilaspur (Central Provinces) to the south; and Changbhakar State to the west.

History
Korea State was founded in the 17th century.  The ruling family of Koriya were Rajputs of the Chauhan dynasty who came to Koriya from Rajputana in the 13th century and conquered the country. Before the coming of the Marathas, it is alleged that the rajas of Koriya "lived in perfect independence, and never having been necessitated to submit to the payment of any tribute, they had no occasion to oppress their subjects." This situation changed in 1790 when Korea had to pay tribute to the Marathas.

Historically Korea State also seems to have had some indefinite feudal relations with Surguja, but the British government ignored this claim when Koriya was ceded to them by the Bhonsle Raja of Nagpur in 1818.
On 24 Dec 1819 the state became a British protectorate. Upon the extinction of the direct line in 1897, a distant collateral branch of the ruling family was recognized as successor by the British Raj.

In 1891, the Raj decided that the five states of the Surguja group (Surguja, Udaipur, Jashpur, Korea, and Changbhakar), as well as the states of Bonai, Gangpur, Seraikela, and Kharsawan, formerly known as the Tributary Mahals of Chhota Nagpur, were not part of British India, and revised sanads were issued in 1899 formally recognizing them as feudatory states and defining their relations with the British Raj.

Rulers
The rulers of the state have apparently always held the title of 'Raja' and were so recognized by the British as early as 1819.

Rajas

.... - ....                Jit Rai Deo
.... - ....                Sagar Sahi Deo
.... - ....                Afhar Sahi Deo
.... - ....                Jahan Sahi Deo
.... - ....                Sawal Sahi Deo
.... - ....                Gajraj Singh Deo
1795 - Jun 1828            Gharib Singh Deo                   (b. 1745 - d. 1828)
Jun 1828 - 1864            Amole Singh Deo                    (b. 1785 - d. 1864)
 4 Apr 1864 - 1897         Pran Singh Deo                     (b. 1857/59 - d. 1897)
1897 - 18 Nov 1909         Sheo Mangal Singh Deo              (b. 1874 - d. 1909)
18 Nov 1909 – 15 Aug 1947 Ramanuj Pratap Singh Deo          (b. 1901 - d. 1954)

See also
Eastern States Agency
Chirmiri
Manendragarh

References

External links

Dr. Sanjay Alung - Chhattisgarh ki poorv Riyaste aur Jamindariyaa - On line

History of Chhattisgarh
Koriya district
Rajputs
Princely states of Chhattisgarh

Korea State


DJM Records (also known as Dick James Music) was a British independent record label, set up in the late 1960s by British music publisher Dick James.  It was distributed by Pye Records in the UK, and various other companies around the world, including the US.

The first release on the label was by Dave Sealey and entitled "It Takes a Thief", which had been adapted from the theme music from the television series for which a lyric was written.  Frank Neilson was A&R manager from 1976 to 1979, before he moved to Polydor Records. Andy Stinton was Promotions Manager for several years before moving to Canada in 1980 to start his own communications company.

Elton John was prominent on DJM, except in the United States and Canada where his records were issued on the MCA Records label. In 1976, he began his own label, The Rocket Record Company. He brought a lawsuit against DJM in the 1980s over the rights to his earlier (pre-1976) work.

Other acts on the label in the 1970s included Hector; Ireland's Celtic rockers Horslips; John Inman, Mr. Bloe, who included pianist  and harmonica player Harry Pitch; former Fleetwood Mac member Danny Kirwan, who recorded three albums for DJM, Second Chapter (1975), Midnight in San Juan (1976), and Hello There Big Boy! (1979); The Tremeloes, after their departure from CBS/Epic in 1974; singer and actor Dennis Waterman; and Johnny "Guitar" Watson, who had several successful singles and albums in the US.

Roger Hodgson – prior to joining Supertramp – issued a UK single on DJM under the name "Argosy".  This record was also released on Congress Records (a division of Kapp Records) in the US.

DJM had a daughter label called "Weekend Records" for releases relating to the ITV contractor London Weekend Television such as T.V. themes and some releases appeared both on the DJM and "Weekend Records" labels. Notable releases include "Hi Summer" by Carl Wayne.

After Dick James' death in 1986, the DJM catalogue was acquired by PolyGram. Today, the catalogue is now owned by Polygram's successor-in-interest Universal Music Group.

See also
 List of record labels

References

British record labels
Record labels disestablished in 1986
Pop record labels
Elton John
Record labels established in 1969
Pye Records
Defunct record labels of the United Kingdom

DJM Records


Franz Ernst Heinrich Spitzner (October 31, 1787 – July 2, 1841) was a German educator and philologist who specialized in Homeric studies. He was born in Trebitz, Saxony-Anhalt.

He studied theology and philology at the University of Wittenberg, where he was student of Christian Lobeck (1781–1860). In 1811 he became conrector at the Lyceum at Wittenberg, where two years later he was appointed rector. In 1820 he relocated to the Gymnasium at Erfurt, and in 1824 returned to his former position at the Wittenberg Lyceum.

Published works
Spitzner's work on Greek prosody was translated into English and published in 1831 as "Elements of Greek Prosody". He was an editor of Köppen's "Erklärende Anmerkungen zu Homers Ilias" (Explanatory notes on Homer's Iliad). Other noted works by Spitzner are:
 Observationes criticae in Apollonii Rhodii Argonautica, 1810.
 De versu graecorum heroico maxime Homerico, 1816 (with Friedrich Traugott Friedemann).
 Geschichte des Gymnasiums und der Schulanstalten zu Wittenberg, (History of gymnasiums and school institutions in Wittenberg), 1830.
 Observationes criticae et grammatica in Quinti Smyrnaei Posthomerica, 1837.

References
 Wikisource @ Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie

1787 births
1841 deaths
People from Bad Schmiedeberg
19th-century German educators
19th-century philologists
German philologists
Heads of schools in Germany

Franz Ernst Heinrich Spitzner


A feral pig is a domestic pig which has gone feral, meaning it lives in the wild. The term feral pig has also been applied to wild boars, which can interbreed with domestic pigs. They are found mostly in the Americas and Australia. Razorback and wild hog are Americanisms applied to feral pigs or boar–pig hybrids.

Definition
A feral pig is a domestic pig that has escaped or been released into the wild, and is living more or less as a wild animal, or one that is descended from such animals. Zoologists generally exclude from the feral category animals that, although captive, were genuinely wild before they escaped. Accordingly, Eurasian wild boar, released or escaped into habitats where they are not native, such as in North America, are not generally considered feral, although they may interbreed with feral pigs. Likewise, reintroduced wild boars in Western Europe are also not considered feral, despite the fact that they were raised in captivity prior to their release.

North America

Domestic pigs were first introduced to the Americas in the 16th century. Christopher Columbus intentionally released domestic swine in the West Indies during his second voyage to provide future expeditions with a freely available food supply. Hernando de Soto is known to have introduced Eurasian domestic swine to Florida in 1539, but it's possible that Juan Ponce de León had already introduced the first pigs into mainland Florida in 1521.

The practice of introducing domestic pigs into the New World persisted throughout the exploration periods of the 16th and 17th centuries. The Eurasian wild boar (S. s. scrofa), which originally ranged from Great Britain to European Russia, may have also been introduced. By the 19th century, their numbers were sufficient in some areas such as the Southern United States to become a common game animal.

Feral pigs are a growing problem in the United States and also on the southern prairies in Canada. As of 2013, the estimated population of 6 million feral pigs causes billions of dollars in property and agricultural damage every year in the United States, both in wild and agricultural lands. Their ecological damage may be equally problematic with 26% lower vertebrate species richness in forest fragments they have invaded. Because pigs forage by rooting for their food under the ground with their snouts and tusks, a group of feral pigs can damage acres of planted fields in just a few nights. Because of the feral pig's omnivorous nature, it is a danger to both plants and animals endemic to the area it is invading. Game animals such as deer and turkeys, and more specifically, flora such as the Opuntia plant have been especially affected by the feral hog's aggressive competition for resources. Feral pigs have been determined to be potential hosts for at least 34 pathogens that can be transmitted to livestock, wildlife, and humans. For commercial pig farmers, great concern exists that some of the hogs could be a vector for swine fever to return to the U.S., which has been extinct in America since 1978. Feral pigs could also present an immediate threat to "nonbiosecure" domestic pig facilities because of their likeliness to harbor and spread pathogens, particularly the protozoan Sarcocystis.

By the early 2000s, the range of feral pigs included all of the U.S. south of 36°
north. The range begins in the mountains surrounding California and crosses over the mountains, continuing consistently much farther east towards the Louisiana bayous and forests, terminating in the entire Florida peninsula. In the East, the range expands northward to include most of the forested areas and swamps of the Southeast, and from there goes north along the Appalachian Mountains as far as upstate New York, with a growing presence in states bordering West Virginia and Kentucky. Texas has the largest estimated population of 2.5–2.6 million feral pigs existing in 253 of its 254 counties., and they cause about $50 million in agriculture damage per year.

Hunting in the United States

To control feral pig numbers, American hunters have taken to trapping and killing as many individuals as they can. Some, in Texas, have even turned the trapping and killing of razorbacks into small businesses. The meat of wild pigs may be suitable for human consumption; around 461,000 animals killed in Texas between 2004 and 2009 were federally inspected and commercially sold for consumption.

Legal restrictions on methods of hunting are lax, as most state departments of wildlife openly acknowledge feral pigs as an ecological threat and some classify them as vermin. For example, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources considers them unprotected wild animals with no closed season or harvest limit, and promotes their aggressive removal.

Shooting pigs from a helicopter is legal in Texas, and can be an effective method, killing as many as 9 to 27 animals per hour. Helicopters can cost from US$400 to US$1000 per hour to operate. These costs are defrayed by selling seats on these helicopter flights to recreational hunters; Texas law only requires that those buying a helicopter hunt be in possession of a hunting license. The method relies on the helicopter flushing pigs into the open where they can be targeted. In some areas, such as the Piney Woods, this may not be possible because of vegetation.

Hunting with dogs is permitted and very common; it has been practiced in the Southeast for generations. Competitions for producing the fastest bay dogs are prevalent in the South, with Uncle Earl's Hog Dog Trials in Louisiana a popular example, held every summer since 1995.  Preferred scent dogs for catching feral pigs mostly are native breeds, and include the Catahoula Leopard Dog, the Blue Lacy, the Leopard Hound, all six of the Coonhound breeds, and the Blackmouth Cur.

Catch dogs typically are American Pit Bull Terriers and their crosses, the Catahoula (dual purpose), the Dogo Argentino, a dog used for the same purpose in South America, and American Bulldogs; the first of these has been put back to work as a utility breed over the past 30 years and its tenacity on the hunt and undying loyalty to protect its master have made it a popular asset. The method of hunting has little variation: usually, the hunter sends out bay dogs trained to chase the pig until it tires and then corner it; then a bigger catch dog is sent out to catch and hold down the pig, which may get aggressive, until the hunter arrives to kill it.

No single management technique alone can be totally effective at controlling feral pig populations. Harvesting 66% of the total population per year is required to keep the Texas feral pig populations stable. Best management practices suggest the use of corral traps which have the ability to capture the entire sounder of feral pigs.  The federal government spends $20 million on feral pig management.

In February 2017, Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller approved the use of a pesticide called Kaput Feral Hog Lure, which is bait food laced with warfarin (a rodenticide used to kill rodents).

Hawaii
A genetic analysis found that the first pigs were introduced to Hawaii by Polynesians in approximately AD 1200. Additional varieties of European pigs were introduced after Captain Cook's arrival into Hawaii in 1778, where they prey on or eat endangered birds and plants. The population of feral pigs has increased from 2 million pigs ranging over 20 states in 1990, to triple that number 25 years later, ranging over 38 states with new territories expanding north into Oregon, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and New Hampshire.  Some of these feral pigs have mixed with escaped Russian boars that have been introduced for hunters since the early 1990s.

Feral pigs are opportunistic omnivores, with about 85%-90% of their diet being plant matter, and the remainder animal. Plants have difficulties regenerating from their wallowing, as North American flora did not evolve to withstand the destruction caused by rooting pigs, unlike European or Asian flora. Feral pigs in the U.S. eat small animals, mostly invertebrates like insects and worms but also vertebrates such as wild turkey poults, toads, tortoises, and the eggs of reptiles and birds. This can deprive other wildlife that normally would feed upon these important food sources.

In some case, other wildlife are out-competed by the feral pigs' higher reproductive rate; a sow can become pregnant as early as six months old and give birth to multiple litters of piglets yearly. In the autumn, other animals such as the American black bear compete directly with feral pigs as both forage for tree mast (the fruit of forest trees). These are likely reasons that they reduce diversity when they invade.

In the U.S., the problems caused by feral pigs are exacerbated by the small number of species which prey on them.  Predators such as bobcats and coyotes may occasionally take feral piglets or weakened animals, but are not large enough to challenge a full-grown boar that can grow to three times their weight. In Florida, feral pigs made up a significant portion of the Florida panther's diet. Other potential predators include the gray wolf, red wolf, cougar, jaguar,  American alligator, American black bear, and grizzly bear.  Unfortunately, each keystone predator presents problems: the jaguar is extirpated from California and the Southwest.  The grizzly bear, while native to most of the American West, is gone from the states that have large feral pig populations, namely Texas, Arizona, California, and New Mexico; and the species also has a very slow reproductive rate.  Wolf numbers are small and expected to remain so as they slowly repopulate their range; only a few individuals thus far have been recorded as inhabiting California, in spite of thousands of square miles of good habitat. The cougar is present in most of the West, but is gone from the East, with no known populations east of Minnesota in the north, and very thin numbers east of Houston in the South.  The American black bear is both predator and competitor, but in most areas probably may not impact feral pig populations enough to control them.  Programs do exist to protect the weakened numbers of large predators in the U.S., but it is expected to take a very long time for these animals to naturally repopulate their former habitat.

South America
In South America, during the early 20th century, free-ranging boars were introduced in Uruguay for hunting purposes and eventually crossed the border into Brazil in the 1990s, quickly becoming an invasive species. Licensed private hunting of both feral boars and their hybrids with domestic pigs was authorized from August 2005 on in the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, although their presence as a pest had been already noticed by the press as early as 1994. Releases and escapes from unlicensed farms (established because of increased demand for boar meat as an alternative to pork) continued to bolster feral populations and, by mid-2008, licensed hunts had to be expanded to the states of Santa Catarina and São Paulo.

Recently established Brazilian boar populations are not to be confused with long-established populations of feral domestic pigs, which have existed mainly in the Pantanal for more than 100 years, along with native peccaries. The demographic dynamics of the interaction between feral pig populations and those of the two native species of peccaries (collared peccary and white-lipped peccary) is obscure and is still being studied. The existence of feral pigs could somewhat ease jaguar predation on peccary populations, as jaguars show a preference for hunting pigs when they are available.

Australia

The first recorded release of pigs in Australia was made by Captain James Cook at Adventure Bay, Bruny Island in 1777.  This was part of his policy of introducing animals and plants to newly discovered countries. He "carried them (a boar and sow) about a mile within the woods at the head of the bay and there left them by the side of a fresh water brook".  The deliberate introduction of pigs into previously pig-free areas seems to have been common. As recently as the early 1970s, pigs were introduced to Babel Island, off the east coast of Flinders Island. These pigs were eradicated by Department of Agriculture staff with local assistance.

One common story about the feral pig population on Flinders Island is that pigs were released when the ship City of Foo Chow went ashore on the northeast coast of the island in March 1877. On Flinders Island, feral pigs usually invade agricultural areas adjacent to the national park and east-coast swamps. Farmers consider damage caused by the pigs to be minor, as it is restricted to rooting in pasture adjacent to scrubland edges. The total pasture area damaged each year is estimated to be less than 50 hectares. Feral pigs are reported to visit paddocks where ewes are lambing, but no lambs are reported as having been killed. As omnivores, they may scavenge any carcasses left near the scrubland, thus developing a potential "taste" for lamb or mutton. In the Strzelecki National Park on the island, the ecosystem has been severely damaged; extensive rooting in the gullies led to water erosion and loss of regenerating forest plants. Bracken fern (Pteridium esculentum) flourishes in this damaged environment and dominates large areas forming dense stands to about 4 m which prevent light reaching the forest floor.

Since 1987, feral pigs have been considered to be the most important mammalian pest of Australian agriculture.  Feral pigs may be a new food source for crocodiles, helping to boost their population.

While no incidences of feral pigs killing newborn lambs have been recorded in Australia, the same cannot be said in nearby New Zealand, where feral pigs have been seen with some regularity in and around the island nation's capital of Wellington.  Here, they have been documented killing and consuming newborn/juvenile dairy goats kept on farms, separating the youngest goats from the rest of the herd; the feral pigs (which usually raid the farms by cover of darkness) will also threaten any guard dogs present into submission, in order to attack and eat the goat kids. As of September 2022, one single goat farm in the suburb of Brooklyn has estimated their total loss to feral hogs to be at least 60 kids.  According to property co-owner Naomi Steenkamp, "It's a murder scene," with the morning revealing evidence of the previous night's carnage—bone fragments, such as bits of hoof and skull, are often all that remain of the helpless young goats. Additionally, Steenkamp has stated that "…If they [feral pigs] find something they like eating, and it is a free feed – like a newborn kid – they are going to keep coming back." The pigs also damage the nesting sites of New Zealand's endemic wildlife, including kiwi and other ground-nesting and flightless birds, and may target chicks and eggs for food, as well as adult birds.

Fatal attacks on human beings
Feral pigs can be extremely dangerous to people, particularly when the pigs travel in herds with their young, and should be avoided when possible. Feral pigs living in the United States have been known to attack without provocation and fatally injure human beings. There have been over 100 documented attacks by feral pigs on human beings in the United States between the years 1825 and 2012. Of these attacks, five have been fatal. Three of the five fatal attacks were by feral pigs wounded by hunters.  Both male and female feral pigs are known to attack without provocation, and attacks by solitary males, as well as group attacks have been documented.

On November 26, 2019, a 59-year-old Texas woman named Christine Rollins was attacked and killed only a few feet away from the front door of her workplace by a herd of feral pigs in the town of Anahuac, Texas, which is 50 miles east of Houston. This incident was the fifth documented fatal feral pig attack in the United States since 1825. Chambers County Sheriff Brian Hawthorne in a formal statement to news media stated that "multiple hogs" assaulted Rollins during pre-dawn hours between 6 and 6:30 a.m. when it was still dark outside.  The victim died of blood loss as a result of her injuries.

See also
 Boar hunting
 Boar–pig hybrid
 Hog-dog rodeo
 Pig wrestling

References

External links
 Coping With Feral Hogs
 Feral Hogs and Agriculture
 U.S. distribution maps by county

Invasive mammal species
Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus

Feral pig


Alexander Bernstein, Baron Bernstein of Craigweil (15 March 1936 – 13 April 2010) was a British television executive and a Labour member of the House of Lords.

Descending from Latvian Jewish immigrants and educated at Stowe School and St John's College, Cambridge, Bernstein joined the Granada Group, the leisure and television company founded by his uncle, Sidney, and his father, Cecil Bernstein. He was a director of the company, managing director of Granada Television in the 1970s, and Chairman of Granada Group 1979–96.

Bernstein was a major contributor to the Labour Leader's Office Fund run by Lord Levy to finance Tony Blair's private office. He was created a life peer as Baron Bernstein of Craigweil, of Craigweil in the County of West Sussex, on 15 May 2000. He was also active in the arts, serving on several governing bodies and trusts.

He married Vanessa Anne Mills in 1962; they had a son and a daughter, and divorced in 1993. In 1995, he married Angela Mary Serota, the former wife of Sir Nicholas Serota.

References

1939 births
2010 deaths
Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge
British Jews
British television executives
Bernstein of Craigweil, Alexander Bernstein, Baron
People educated at Stowe School
20th-century British businesspeople
Life peers created by Elizabeth II
Jewish British politicians


Valentino Zeichen (24 March 1938 – 5 July 2016), was an Italian poet and writer. He was born in Fiume, Italy. Zeichen's poetry has been praised for its ability to quickly hook the reader. His works include humor. A literary award named after him, the Premio Zeichen, is held every December in Rome. Zeichen himself was the only member of the jury.

Zeichen died on 5 July 2016 in Rome, Italy, aged 78.

References

1938 births
2016 deaths
Italian writers
Italian poets

Valentino Zeichen


The AeroVironment RQ-20 Puma is an American unmanned aircraft system which is small, battery powered, and hand-launched. Its primary mission is surveillance and intelligence gathering using an electro-optical and infrared camera. It is produced by AeroVironment.

Configuration

Each military RQ-20A system has three air vehicles and two ground stations. The Puma AE can operate under extreme weather conditions including temperatures ranging from , wind speeds up to , and an inch of rain per hour (2.54 cm/h). It had a reported top speed of 45 miles per hour, a range of 10+ miles and an endurance time of more than 2 hours. The drone carries an array of sensors, including a times-fifty optical zoom, to live-stream video back to its ground station.

History

In 2008 it was selected for the United States Special Operations Command. In March 2012 the United States Army ordered the Puma All Environment (AE) and designated it the RQ-20A. In April, the United States Marine Corps and United States Air Force placed a similar order for the RQ-20A.

On 26 July 2013, the Puma became one of the first unmanned aerial vehicles to be granted certification by the Federal Aviation Administration to fly in U.S. airspace for commercial purposes.
On 8 June 2014, the Puma AE made its first flight for BP in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, which was the first authorized unmanned commercial flight over land.

The UK tested ISR packages compatible with the Puma AE on board the M80 Stiletto trials ship in November 2014. As of 2021, 12 systems were deployed with 700 Naval Air Squadron permitting individual teams to be embarked on Royal Navy vessels as might be required.

On 20 January 2016, RQ-20 units were captured by the Turkish army from the PKK. It is suspected that the Kurdish militants were able to acquire these drones from their Syrian affiliates.

In August 2016, AeroVironment announced the U.S. Navy had tested and deployed the RQ-20B Puma aboard a Flight I Guided Missile Destroyer. The test included the company's Precision Recovery System to autonomously recover the aircraft aboard a ship. The Puma was utilized on Navy patrol craft in the Persian Gulf.

In 2018 commercial certification followed military certification and the Congressionally-mandated opening of airspace over much of Alaska to small UAVs. Three individual Pumas were certified, with strict requirements: only one aircraft of the type was allowed to be airborne at any one time; they were not certified for clouds or icing conditions; takeoff and landing was not allowed during certain gust and wind conditions. The certification did not mention line-of-sight control. In December 2021, the United States allocated $5 million for a Puma drone for the Kurdish Peshmerga in Iraq.

On 1 April 2022, the United States announced a $300 million military aid package to Ukraine that included Puma drones, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Oryx reports that by 19 September 2023, Russian forces had shot down at least 10 of these drones.

Variants
RQ-20A Puma
Military designation for the Puma All Environment variant.

Enhanced Puma
Upgrade of the RQ-20A Puma AE with more powerful propulsion system and new batteries that increase endurance by 75 percent to 3.5 hours, auxiliary payload bay to integrate payloads while keeping the video camera, precision navigation system with secondary GPS, and a redesigned durable fuselage with reinforced construction and improved aerodynamics. Available in early 2014.

Solar Puma
Puma AE powered by ultra-thin solar cells that increases endurance to 9 hours. Production version planned for early 2014.

RQ-20B
Block 2 Puma AE, includes a more powerful and lighter propulsion system, lighter and stronger airframe, long endurance battery, precision inertial navigation system an improved user interface, and the new, all environment Mantis i45 gimbal sensor suite.

LRTA Puma
Puma AE upgraded with a long-range tracking antenna (LRTA) that extends range to 60 kilometers (37.28 miles). Available Spring 2018.

Puma LE (Long Endurance)
Puma with expanded battery-operated endurance to 5.5 hours, revealed in May 2019.

Puma 3 AE
 Designed for maritime use, it is capable of landing on water or ground. Includes the Mantis i45 EO/IR sensor suite and extended range. Released in 2021.

Operators

Albanian Armed Forces - 6 RQ-20B Puma Block AE were purchased through Foreign Military Sales (FMS) in 2020. The first batch was handed over in early September 2021.

Belgian Army - Leased from the US Army in 2017

Canadian Army - An unknown number of RQ-20A Puma are operated by the Canadian Armed Forces.
Royal Canadian Navy - 12 aircraft used for all Kingston-class coastal defence vessels.
.
Air Vigilance Service - Costa Rica received a systems with total of 6 Puma AE drones as part of US Military Assistance grant

Army of the Czech Republic - One system RQ-20A Puma was purchased in 2018. In 2022 was purchased four systems Puma 3 AE.

Royal Danish Army - Bought Puma AE in 2012. Upgraded to Puma AE II in 2016.

Egyptian Army - RQ-20B Puma AE II UAVs, delivery to be completed by 2020.

Estonian Army - Unknown number of RQ20B Puma AE II UAVs purchased in September 2018. Delivery to be expected by March 2019.

Commandos Marine - Unknown number of Puma AE UAVs purchased in 2017 followed by an additional purchase in 2020.

German Navy - 3 RQ-20B Puma AE II systems in service.

Hellenic Army - Unknown number of RQ20B Puma AE II UAVs purchased in June 2017. Delivered by September of the same year to special operations units.

Kosovo Security Forces - Operate 4 Puma Drones

Latvian Army - 3 RQ-20A Puma systems

Royal Marechaussee

New Zealand Army - Operates a single top-end AeroVironment Puma drone.

Norwegian Army - Bought Puma AE in 2018–2019.

Philippine Marine Corps - Received 2 systems with total of 8 Puma AE drones as part of US Military Assistance grant.

Spanish Army - Operates an unknown number of Puma AE.

Swedish Army- Bought Puma AE in 2012.

Fleet Air Arm

United States Special Operations Command
United States Army – 325 systems, one per infantry company and 18 per brigade
United States Marine Corps
United States Navy
United States Air Force
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Armed Forces of Ukraine

• Peshmerga

Specifications

See also
 List of unmanned aerial vehicles

References

External links

RQ020 Puma
Electric aircraft
High-wing aircraft
Single-engined tractor aircraft
2000s United States military reconnaissance aircraft
Unmanned military aircraft of the United States
Aircraft first flown in 2007

AeroVironment RQ-20 Puma


Rufus Mathewson Rose (born May 17, 1836, in New London, Connecticut; died July 21, 1910, in Atlanta, Georgia), was an American businessman. After growing up and receiving a primary and secondary education in that state, he moved to New York City, where he practiced as a druggist, and then on to Long Island, where he worked in a sailors' hospital.

Before the start of the American Civil War, Rose had studied medicine, received a diploma and moved to Hawkinsville, Georgia. When the war broke out in 1861, Rose joined the Confederate Army's Tenth Georgia Regiment as a foot soldier, but was quickly reassigned to Williamsburg, Virginia, where he worked in the army's medical department. Due to a personal injury, Rose was honorably discharged in December 1861, but his services in creating medicines for the Confederate army continued until just before the end of the war.

After the war, Rose moved to Atlanta. In 1867, he founded the R. M. Rose Co. Distillery, also known as the Mountain Spring Distillery, in Vinings, Georgia, a then-small community twelve miles north of Atlanta. He sold his corn and rye whiskies to the public from retail outlets he owned and operated in Atlanta.

According to some accounts, his company established the whiskey brand Four Roses in 1888, likely named in honor of him, his brother Origen, and their two sons. The brand is still produced, and was the top selling brand of Bourbon in the United States in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. The brand is currently owned by the Kirin Brewery Company of Japan and produced at the Four Roses distillery in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky. However, the actual origin of the Four Roses brand is not well established, and current brand owners do not mention Rufus M. Rose in their version of its history.

In addition to selling liquor, Rose was the owner of a large real estate business known as the Rose Investment Company.

Rose died of heart failure on July 21, 1910, in his Victorian mansion – the Rufus M. Rose House – which still stands on Peachtree Street in the SoNo district of Atlanta. His remains are interred in the Rose mausoleum at Oakland Cemetery.

References

1836 births
1910 deaths
Businesspeople from Connecticut
Physicians from Connecticut
American drink distillers
People from New London, Connecticut
People from Hawkinsville, Georgia
People from Vinings, Georgia
Burials at Oakland Cemetery (Atlanta)
19th-century American businesspeople

Rufus M. Rose


Julius Wilson Hobson (May 29, 1922March 23, 1977) was an activist and politician who served on the Council of the District of Columbia and the District of Columbia Board of Education.

Early life
Hobson was a native of Birmingham, Alabama, He was the son of Irma (Gordon) and Julius Hobson. His mother was a schoolteacher and later a principal. His father died when he was a very young child. His mother remarried a man who had a dry-cleaning plant and a drugstore.

As a child, Hobson worked at a public library, where he could clean the floors, but he was not allowed to borrow books. He read a lot of books about abolitionist John Brown, who he said was the greatest and most under-appreciated American in history. He graduated from Industrial High School, the only public high school in Birmingham that allowed black children to attend.

While attending Tuskegee Institute, he was called away from his studies due to World War II. During the war, he served in the United States Army in Europe. He was awarded three bronze stars for his many piloting missions.

After returning from the war, Hobson graduated from Tuskegee Institute. After graduation, he moved to Harlem and attended Columbia University. He did not learn well from the lecture-style classes, and he left after a few months. In 1946, he moved to Washington, D.C. to attend graduate school in economics at Howard University. He particularly loved the visiting professors and the small classroom sizes at Howard.

For his first job after graduation, he worked as a researcher for the Library of Congress. He wrote papers on economic theory for Congress. After about six years, he changed jobs and worked at the Social Security Administration.

Activism
Walking his son to school, past the all-white school to Slowe Elementary School in Northeast, Washington, D.C., gave Hobson the drive to fight for school desegregation. He was elected president of the school's parent-teacher association, and he argued that overcrowding at black schools would be alleviated if white schools were to admit black students.

During the 1960s, Hobson served as the chair of the Washington chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality. While a part of the organization, he led several sit-ins. Hobson later joined a local civic association, where he marched the streets of Downtown, Washington, D.C., with signs encouraging shoppers to boycott stores that would not hire black employees. When Hobson threatened to encourage a boycott of the city's bus system because the system would not employ black drivers, the bus system backed down and hired 44 black employees. The group helped desegregate restaurants in Maryland and Delaware, ended discrimination in public housing in the District of Columbia and forced private businesses to open employment to black people. He practiced non-violence, although he would say he did not go around saying he was non-violent because violence was never his intention.

When the Congress of Racial Equality expelled him from the organization for being too authoritative, Hobson and his closest associates formed a new civil rights organization, Associated Community Teams.

When Hobson's ten-year-old daughter Jean was assigned the lowest educational track, Hobson sued the public school system. In the case of Hobson v. Hansen, he displayed many charts for the court as evidence that the District spent more on each white student than on each black student. The court ruled in his favor, banning discrimination in the District of Columbia Public Schools and stopping its overly rigid system of grouping students by ability on June 19, 1967.

Hobson was elected to an at-large seat on the District of Columbia Board of Education in 1968. He decided to run again for a seat representing Ward 2 the next year, but he lost the race to Evie Mae Washington.

In an effort to protest the employment discrimination practiced by Pepco, Hobson distributed stamps that were intended to be pasted on check payments sent to Pepco that would prevent Pepco's computers from processing the checks. He was later ordered by court to stop distributing the stamps.

In 1969, Hobson founded the Washington Institute for Quality Education, a nonprofit organization dedicated to ending discrimination in schools.

Hobson taught a class at American University on social problems and the legal system. His students researched whether the legal system could be a recourse to remedy problems in society.

The D.C. Statehood Party was founded to convince Hobson to run under the party for District's delegate to the United States House of Representatives. Hobson announced his candidacy under the Statehood Party on January 15, 1971. He lost to Democrat Walter E. Fauntroy. Hobson was elected in 1974 as one of the at-large members of the Council of the District of Columbia at its creation, and he served in that position until his death in 1977.

In a 1972 interview, Hobson said one contemporary he admired was Sterling Tucker, not because he agreed with him on everything, but because he was smart and cunning, worked with everyone, and had many political accomplishments.

Hobson was the People's Party Vice Presidential candidate in 1972. Benjamin Spock was the People's Party Presidential candidate. They polled 0.1014% of the popular vote and no electoral votes.

FBI Informant
In 1981, The Washington Post revealed that documents in the Federal Bureau of Investigation file on Hobson revealed that he had once provided information to the FBI about the black freedom movement. It reported that "there are 29 specific reports over a five-year period of Hobson giving information to agents contained in the massive 1,575-page file obtained by The Post through the Freedom assembled the file on Hobson over a nearly 20-year period from the 1950s to the early 1970s. The file indicates, among other things, that Hobson gave the FBI information on advanced planning for the historic March on Washington led by Martin Luther King Jr. in 1963 and was paid $100 to $300 in expenses to monitor and report on civil rights demonstration plans at the 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City. On another occasion, he reported on a 1965 meeting in Detroit involving a revolutionary black group and, on still another, he warned agents of possible violence at a Philadelphia demonstration that same year, according to the file."

The article also reported that FBI Agent Elmer Lee Todd "said he met regularly with Hobson — sometimes as often as twice a month — from about 1961 to late 1964, mostly to discuss and assess potentially violent or disruptive demonstrations, organizations and individuals in the civil rights movement." The article does not indicate that Hobson, who the FBI also monitored for his activism, provided information to the FBI after 1965.

In 1995, Cartha DeLoach, the third most senior official in the FBI, described Hobson as "a paid FBI informant" in his book, Hoover's FBI: The Inside Story by Hoover's Trusted Lieutenant.

Personal life
While attending Howard University, Hobson met Carol Smith. They married in 1947, and they had a son Julius Hobson Jr. and a daughter Jean Hobson. Carol filed for divorce in 1966, citing religious differences and that Hobson occasionally prioritized activism over the needs of his family.

Three months later, he was on his second date with Tina Lower when he asked her to marry him. Tina was originally from Anaheim, California, a graduate of Stanford University, and an employee at the National Institute for Public Affairs. He admired her sense of peace and justice. She was divorced with two teenage sons. Some local activists criticized Hobson for having a relationship with Tina, saying he "talked black but dated white."

Death
After experiencing persistent back pain, Hobson was diagnosed with a form of cancer of the spine called multiple myeloma In 1971. He later learned he also had acute leukemia.

Hobson died of leukemia at George Washington University Hospital on March 23, 1977.

At the time of his death, his son, Julius Hobson Jr., was a member of the District of Columbia Board of Education.

Memorials
In 1980, a group of co-operative apartment buildings at First and M streets and New York Avenue NW built in the 1930s were rehabilitated, renamed the Julius Hobson Plaza Condominiums, and sold as condos.

In 1979, the Edmonds School on Capitol Hill was closed, and the students and staff moved to Watkins Elementary School as the Region 4 Middle School. In 1981, the school was renamed the Julius W. Hobson Middle School.  In 1986, schools in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Washington were reorganized, and Stuart Middle School was combined with Hobson to create Stuart-Hobson Middle School.

Quotes
On democracy: "In this country, you don't have any democracy really. You have the right to elect but not to select. For example, here's two people: you get to vote for one of them. But you didn't choose in the first place either of them. That's not democracy from what I understand."

On being a politician: "I am not a politician. A politician is someone who does things to get elected. He's a guy who says things to please the public, that he thinks the public wants to hear, and his story changes with every passing day. I want to be elected, but I am not going to say a damn thing for your benefit, or that person's benefit out there on the street, or anybody's."

On a local black minister: "I was asked to speak at his church one Sunday. I went over there and when I went there I looked over the congregation. I would say the average person in there had on a pair of Thom McAn shoes, that their suits cost an average $35 a piece, that their shirts were from Hechts basements and that they were very poor and very illiterate - almost illiterate - people who were emotionally shocked just came to the church to let out this scream. [The minister] took up a love offering, he took up a minister's travel offering and then he took up a regular - he took up five or six offerings. So when he got to me to speak, I got up and said, 'God damn it, if this is Christianity, I want no part of it.' And 'this son of a bitch is stealing from you and the thing is, he's not just stealing your money, he's stealing your minds. And I refuse to be a part of this.' And I walked off."

About his interracial marriage: "Tina thinks black is beautiful, and I think white is beautiful, and anybody that's got a psychological problem about that — don't come aboard the Statehood Party."

As long as the courts offer justice, there's no excuse for the bomb throwers.

After being the only candidate elected to the Board of Education before a runoff: "We've got a one-man School Board right now. All in favor of firing [Superintendent William R.] Manning say 'aye.'"

References

External links
 "Guide to the Papers of Julius Hobson" Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library Washingtoniana Division
Julius W. Hobson, Jr. - Washington lobbyist

1922 births
1977 deaths
Deaths from multiple myeloma
African-American people in Washington, D.C., politics
African-American candidates for Vice President of the United States
American civil rights activists
American University faculty and staff
D.C. Statehood Green Party politicians
Howard University alumni
Members of the Council of the District of Columbia
Members of the District of Columbia Board of Education
Politicians from Birmingham, Alabama
People's Party (United States, 1971) politicians
Tuskegee University alumni
1972 United States vice-presidential candidates
Military personnel from Birmingham, Alabama

Julius Hobson


Carl Bass is a former president and chief executive officer of Autodesk, Inc., a maker of professional 3D design software and consumer applications, and was a co-founder of Ithaca Software, which commercialized HOOPS, a 3D graphics system. Bass has been credited with expanding Autodesk beyond its core AutoCAD software through acquisitions and new product developments and transitioning from 2D to 3D model-based design.

Early life and education
Bass was born in New York, New York to a chemist father and school teacher mother. After starting at Cornell University, Bass took a break to build boats, furniture, and sculpture in Seattle and Maine for five years. He returned to Cornell and graduated with Bachelor of Arts in mathematics in 1983.

Career
In 1981, Bass co-founded a computer graphics company called Flying Moose Systems and Graphics Ltd., which became Ithaca Software in 1986. The company commercialized HOOPS, a 3D graphics system originally developed at Cornell University in the mid-1980s. Bass served as Ithaca Software's chief technology officer and CEO. He joined Autodesk when the company acquired Ithaca Software in 1993, serving as the chief architect for AutoCAD. In 1995, Bass was forced out by Autodesk's then president and CEO Carol Bartz, only to be rehired five months later, after top Autodesk engineers said they needed Bass's software development skills.

Bass left Autodesk in 1999 to launch Buzzsaw, an online service for management of construction projects, where he served as president and CEO. Bass returned to Autodesk when it acquired the company in 2001. In addition to being the company's president and CEO from 2006 through 2017, Bass held a number of high-level positions at Autodesk, including executive vice president and chief strategy officer (2001 to 2002); senior executive vice president of the Design Solutions Group (2002 to 2004); chief operating officer (2004 to 2006); and interim chief financial officer (2008 to 2009).

Tenure at Autodesk
In 2006, Carol Bartz stepped down as Autodesk's president and CEO, naming Bass as her replacement.

During his tenure as CEO, Bass focused on expanding the company beyond its core AutoCAD software through acquisitions and new product development, and transitioning from 2D to 3D design. He emphasized vertical markets focusing on model-based design, simulation, and lifecycle management. Under his direction, Autodesk introduced consumer-oriented products such as SketchBook, a mobile painting and drawing app with more than 7 million users as of Nov. 2011. Bass helped lead the company to develop Building Information Modeling (BIM) and generative design technologies. In March 2008, Autodesk was ranked number 25 on Fast Company's list of "The World's 50 Most Innovative Companies."

Bass serves on the Board of Directors of Autodesk, HP Inc., Zendesk Inc., Planet, VELO3D, Formlabs Inc, Box, and Built Robotics. He also serves on the board of trustees of the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, Art Center College of Design, and California College of the Arts, and is a member of the advisory boards of Cornell Computing and Information Science, UC Berkeley School of Information, and UC Berkeley College of Engineering. He currently acts as an advisor to Zoox Inc. and a special advisor to Alphabet CEO Larry Page.

Bass announced that he would be stepping down as Autodesk's CEO effective on February 8, 2017. He remains a board member and special advisor to the company.

Personal life
Bass owns a workshop near his home in Berkeley, Calif., where he designs and fabricates objects made from wood, metal and stone. Bass' projects have included furniture, sculpture and a walk-in wooden rocket ship he built for his children, which is on permanent display at Chabot Science Center.

References

External links
 Carl Bass on Bloomberg
 Carl Bass Bio Page on Autodesk
 Carl Bass on Twitter
 Carl Bass Furniture and Other Objects

Living people
American computer businesspeople
American company founders
American technology chief executives
1957 births
Businesspeople from New York City
Cornell University alumni
Autodesk people

Carl Bass


Ekaterina Arbore, Arbore-Ralli or Ralli-Arbore (rendered into Russian as Екатерина Арборе or Арборэ - Yekaterina Arborye or Arbore, with "Ralli" as Ралли; 1873 or 1875 – 2 December 1937), daughter of Zamfir Arbore (a socialist militant in Imperial Russia), was a Romanian, Soviet, and Moldovan communist activist and official.

Early life
Born in Geneva, she trained towards a medical degree, and became committed to socialism and the Social Democratic Party during her University years. As such, Ecaterina Arbore took part in the proceedings of the 2nd Congress of the Second International in 1903, and she served as member of the Executive Committee of the Socialist Party.

She campaigned for an efficient preventive medicine, especially as an answer to the rising incidence of tuberculosis within large groups of the industrial worker population (as stated in her 1907 medical sociology work, Influenţa industriilor asupra sănătăţii lucrătorilor). At the same time, she demanded increased social security, and tried herself to improve conditions, mainly by creating the very first crèches in Romania.

In the Soviet Union
After the October Revolution, she became an enthusiastic supporter of the Bolshevik cause, opting to leave Romania for Bolshevist Russia in 1918. Once there, after being received in the ranks of the Russian Communist Party, Ecaterina Arbore was integrated in the administrative structure of the Ukrainian SSR, as Commissar for Health.

She returned to Romania briefly, in 1924, being swiftly expelled by the authorities. Back in the Soviet state, Arbore was a delegate of the Romanian Socialist-Communist Party (Romanian Communist Party) to the 5th Congress of the Comintern, and took part in the Party's 5th Congress in Moscow and Kharkiv (1931). She became Health Commisar for the newly created Moldavian ASSR, being one of the Romanian/Moldovan intellectuals who endorsed the terms of the Soviet policy towards the Romanian state.

Persecution and murder
As a rather old member of the movement, she was a natural target for Joseph Stalin's repression. Viewed as a partisan of Trotskyism, she was marginalized and stripped of all political decision. This is the time when she was paid a visit by Romanian author Panait Istrati, during the latter's revelatory journey to the Soviet lands (as described in his The Confession of a Loser). Istrati praised the work carried by Arbore in the Health Department of the Republic, and likened her the legendary architect Meşterul Manole's wife, who according to myth, was walled in the monastery by her husband, who believed this to be the only thing able to prevent the building from collapsing; this is a reflection on the terror that was mounting in the Soviet Union, as a direct consequence of the state not being able to live up to its promise.

She was arrested during the Great Purge, and died in 1937 (it is not known whether this meant she was executed straight away, or whether her death was preceded by a stay in the Gulag). She was rehabilitated by Soviet authorities during the De-Stalinization process, and by Romanian ones a while after the rise of Nicolae Ceaușescu, during the condemnation of Soviet policies in 1968 (she was exonerated together with most Romanian communist victims of Stalin's purges).

References
 Henri H. Stahl, Gânditori și curente de istorie socială românească, Cap. VII: "Curentul gândirii socialiste"
 Panait Istrati, The Confession of a Loser, "MASSR" chapter

1870s births
1937 deaths
Moldovan feminists
Romanian socialist feminists
Politicians of the Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic
Moldovan communists
Moldovan socialist feminists
Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic people
Romanian Communist Party politicians
20th-century Romanian women politicians
Transnistrian women in politics
Romanian public health doctors
Romanian sociologists
Romanian women sociologists
Medical sociologists
Women public health doctors
Social Democratic Party of Romania (1910–1918) politicians
Romanian emigrants to the Soviet Union
Great Purge victims from the Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic
Executed Romanian women
Executed communists
Soviet rehabilitations
People from Geneva

Ecaterina Arbore