(also spelled as Liber Abbaci; "The Book of Calculation") is a  historic 1202 Latin manuscript on arithmetic by Leonardo of Pisa, posthumously known as Fibonacci.

Premise
 was among the first Western books to describe the Hindu–Arabic numeral system and to use symbols resembling modern "Arabic numerals". By addressing the applications of both commercial tradesmen and mathematicians, it promoted the superiority of the  system, and the use of these glyphs.

Although the book's title is sometimes translated as "The Book of the Abacus",  notes that it is an error to read this as referring to calculating devices called "abacus". Rather, the word "abacus" was used at the time to refer to calculation in any form; the spelling "abbacus" with two "b"s (which is how Leonardo spelled it in the original Latin manuscript) was, and still is in Italy, used to refer to calculation using Hindu-Arabic numerals, which can avoid confusion. The book describes methods of doing calculations without aid of an abacus, and as  confirms, for centuries after its publication the algorismists (followers of the style of calculation demonstrated in ) remained in conflict with the abacists (traditionalists who continued to use the abacus in conjunction with Roman numerals). The historian of mathematics Carl Boyer emphasizes in his History of Mathematics that although "Liber abaci...is not on the abacus" per se, nevertheless "...it is a very thorough treatise on algebraic methods and problems in which the use of the Hindu-Arabic numerals is strongly advocated."

Summary of sections
The first section introduces the Hindu–Arabic numeral system, including methods for converting between different representation systems. This section also includes the first known description of trial division for testing whether a number is composite and, if so, factoring it.

The second section presents examples from commerce, such as conversions of currency and measurements, and calculations of profit and interest.

The third section discusses a number of mathematical problems; for instance, it includes (ch. II.12) the Chinese remainder theorem, perfect numbers and Mersenne primes as well as formulas for arithmetic series and for square pyramidal numbers. Another example in this chapter involves the growth of a population of rabbits, where the solution requires generating a numerical sequence. Although the problem dates back long before Leonardo, its inclusion in his book is why the Fibonacci sequence is named after him today.

The fourth section derives approximations, both numerical and geometrical, of irrational numbers such as square roots.

The book also includes proofs in Euclidean geometry. Fibonacci's method of solving algebraic equations shows the influence of the early 10th-century Egyptian mathematician Abū Kāmil Shujāʿ ibn Aslam.

Fibonacci's notation for fractions
In reading , it is helpful to understand Fibonacci's notation for rational numbers, a notation that is intermediate in form between the Egyptian fractions commonly used until that time and the vulgar fractions still in use today.

Fibonacci's notation differs from modern fraction notation in three key ways:

 Modern notation generally writes a fraction to the right of the whole number to which it is added, for instance  for 7/3. Fibonacci instead would write the same fraction to the left, i.e., .
 Fibonacci used a composite fraction notation in which a sequence of numerators and denominators shared the same fraction bar; each such term represented an additional fraction of the given numerator divided by the product of all the denominators below and to the right of it. That is, , and .  The notation was read from right to left. For example, 29/30 could be written as , representing the value . This can be viewed as a form of mixed radix notation, and was very convenient for dealing with traditional systems of weights, measures, and currency. For instance, for units of length, a foot is 1/3 of a yard, and an inch is 1/12 of a foot, so a quantity of 5 yards, 2 feet, and  inches could be represented as a composite fraction:  yards. However, typical notations for traditional measures, while similarly based on mixed radixes, do not write out the denominators explicitly; the explicit denominators in Fibonacci's notation allow him to use different radixes for different problems when convenient. Sigler also points out an instance where Fibonacci uses composite fractions in which all denominators are 10, prefiguring modern decimal notation for fractions.
 Fibonacci sometimes wrote several fractions next to each other, representing a sum of the given fractions. For instance, 1/3+1/4 = 7/12, so a notation like  would represent the number that would now more commonly be written as the mixed number , or simply the improper fraction . Notation of this form can be distinguished from sequences of numerators and denominators sharing a fraction bar by the visible break in the bar. If all numerators are 1 in a fraction written in this form, and all denominators are different from each other, the result is an Egyptian fraction representation of the number. This notation was also sometimes combined with the composite fraction notation: two composite fractions written next to each other would represent the sum of the fractions.

The complexity of this notation allows numbers to be written in many different ways, and Fibonacci described several methods for converting from one style of representation to another. In particular, chapter II.7 contains a list of methods for converting an improper fraction to an Egyptian fraction, including the greedy algorithm for Egyptian fractions, also known as the Fibonacci–Sylvester expansion.

Modus Indorum
In the , Fibonacci says the following introducing the affirmative Modus Indorum (the method of the Indians), today known as Hindu–Arabic numeral system or base-10 positional notation. It also introduced digits that greatly resembled the modern Arabic numerals.

As my father was a public official away from our homeland in the Bugia customshouse established for the Pisan merchants who frequently gathered there, he had me in my youth brought to him, looking to find for me a useful and comfortable future; there he wanted me to be in the study of mathematics and to be taught for some days. There from a marvelous instruction in the art of the nine Indian figures, the introduction and knowledge of the art pleased me so much above all else, and I learnt from them, whoever was learned in it, from nearby Egypt, Syria, Greece, Sicily and Provence, and their various methods, to which locations of business I travelled considerably afterwards for much study, and I learnt from the assembled disputations. But this, on the whole, the algorithm and even the Pythagorean arcs, I still reckoned almost an error compared to the Indian method. Therefore strictly embracing the Indian method, and attentive to the study of it, from mine own sense adding some, and some more still from the subtle Euclidean geometric art, applying the sum that I was able to perceive to this book, I worked to put it together in xv distinct chapters, showing certain proof for almost everything that I put in, so that further, this method perfected above the rest, this science is instructed to the eager, and to the Italian people above all others, who up to now are found without a minimum. If, by chance, something less or more proper or necessary I omitted, your indulgence for me is entreated, as there is no one who is without fault, and in all things is altogether circumspect.

The nine Indian figures are:
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
With these nine figures, and with the sign 0 which the Arabs call zephir any number whatsoever is written...

In other words, in his book he advocated the use of the digits 0–9, and of place value. Until this time Europe used Roman Numerals, making modern mathematics almost impossible.  The book thus made an important contribution to the spread of decimal numerals. The spread of the Hindu-Arabic system, however, as Ore writes, was "long-drawn-out", taking many more centuries to spread widely, and did not become complete until the later part of the 16th century, accelerating dramatically only in the 1500s with the advent of printing.

Textual history
The first appearance of the manuscript was in 1202. No copies of this version are known. A revised version of   dedicated to Michael Scot, appeared in 1227 CE. There are at least nineteen manuscripts extant containing parts of this text. There are three complete versions of this manuscript from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. There are a further nine incomplete copies known between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries, and there may be more not yet identified.

There was no known printed version of  until Boncompagni's Italian translation of 1857. The first complete English translation was Sigler's text of 2002.

See also

References

Bibliography

.
. Dover version also available, 1988, .
.

External links

1202 books
Mathematics books
13th-century Latin books
13th century in science

Liber Abaci


Devas are a Romanian music band formed in the spring of 2010 in Cluj Napoca.  The band consists of Cristian Şerbănescu (violin), Dragoş Cucoş (synthesizer) and Ionuţ Cataramă (violin). Their goal is to produce "inspirational music for your soul".

They currently have only one album Androginal Symphonicity and they have performed an international tour with it.

They have been invited several times to perform on national and local TV (Prima TV, KanalD TV, Antena 1, Antena 2, TVR Iasi, MIx TV Brasov), and radio ( Radio Romania Actualitati, Radio BV, Radio Iasi). Devas are currently working with Edward Maya on some new pieces.

References

External links

Romanian musical groups

Devas (band)


Wee Ben Nevis was a British gag-a-day comic, published in the comic book magazine The Beano, first appearing in issue 1678, dated 14 September 1974, and continuing until 7 May 1977. It was drawn by Vic Neill, and replaced The McTickles, another Scottish themed strip by the same artist.

Concept
Wee Ben Nevis was a fictional Scottish Highlands boy of superhuman strength. In the first storyline, Wee Ben is sent by his father (Big Ben Nevis) to Pudding College in England. On arriving, he meets the headmaster Prof. Egwell Fryd, who instructs him to "tidy up the classroom". Unfortunately, Wee Ben's idea of "tidying up" involves stuffing all the other students into cupboards. For the next few years, he brought chaos to staff and students alike. Much of the humour stemmed from the fact that Wee Ben never realised (or at least never anticipated) his own strength.

His name is a pun on the Scottish mountain Ben Nevis.

Beano strips
British comics characters
1974 comics debuts
Comics characters introduced in 1974
1977 comics endings
Fictional Scottish people
Comics characters with superhuman strength
School-themed comics
Male characters in comics
Child characters in comics
Comics about children
Gag-a-day comics
Comics set in Scotland

Wee Ben Nevis


2C-T-7 is a psychedelic phenethylamine of the 2C family. In his book PiHKAL: A Chemical Love Story, Alexander Shulgin lists the dosage range as 10 to 30 mg. 2C-T-7 is generally taken orally, and produces psychedelic and entactogenic effects that last 8 to 15 hours. Up until Operation Web Tryp and three deaths, two of which involved the use of other drugs in addition to 2C-T-7, and one which involved an excessive insufflated dose, 2C-T-7 was sold commercially in Dutch and Japanese smartshops and online. It is known on the streets as Blue Mystic or 7th Heaven. There has been little real research done on this chemical other than Shulgin's comments in PiHKAL and a few small animal studies mostly aimed at detecting metabolites.

Pharmacology
The mechanism that produces the psychedelic and entactogenic effects of 2C-T-7 is most likely to result from action as a 5-HT2A serotonin receptor agonist in the brain, a mechanism of action shared by most currently-known hallucinogenic tryptamines and phenethylamines. 2C-T-7 has structural and pharmacodynamic properties similar to those of 2C-T-2.

Effects

2C-T-7 is psychedelic. In PiHKAL, Shulgin records that the hallucinations are unique, and that the chemical may cause muscle tension and an altered vocal quality. Shulgin rated it as one of the "magical half-dozen" most important psychedelic phenethylamine compounds, together with Mescaline, 2C-B and 2C-T-2.

Deaths
The Partnership for a Drug-Free America reports that 2C-T-7 can be lethal even in small doses; however, they provide no source for their claim and of the three known deaths of 2C-T-7 intoxicated individuals, all involved either excessive insufflated doses or the concomitant ingestion of other stimulants such as ephedrine and MDMA. There have been at least three reported deaths related to 2C-T-7 use as of August 2007, mainly at insufflated doses of 30 mg or more or combined with stimulants such as MDMA, as well as a number of very uncomfortably intense effects and hospitalizations, these mostly followed insufflation of 2C-T-7. In January 2002, Rolling Stone published an article about 2C-T-7 entitled "The New (legal) Killer Drug", although the legal status of the drug was misrepresented in the article, as 2C-T-7 may have been already illegal under the United States' legally ambiguous analog act. A detailed response on the website Disinformation challenged the accuracy of much of the reporting in that Rolling Stone article.

All of these known deaths of individuals under the influence of 2C-T-7, therefore, occurred in those known either to be intoxicated with potentially deadly stimulants such as ephedrine or MDMA or after the individual insufflated an excessive amount of 2C-T-7—excessive being an amount greater than necessary to induce the full range of the drug's effects, such as the reported 35 mg insufflated dose taken by the individual who died in the fall of 2000.  This reported dose was characterized as "excessive" by the US DEA.

Legal status
Around the year 2000, 2C-T-7 began to change from an obscure chemical to a drug used at parties and clubs in North America and Europe as it became available through a number of grey-market commercial vendors. This aroused the attention of the authorities, and many countries have since scheduled the chemical.

Germany
2C-T-7 is scheduled in Germany. (BTMG)

Australia
In Australia, 2C-T-2 and 2C-T-7 are covered by the country's analogue drug laws.

Canada
As of October 31, 2016, 2C-T-7 is a controlled substance (Schedule III) in Canada.

China
As of October 2015 2C-T-7 is a controlled substance in China.

The Netherlands
The Netherlands was the first country in the world to ban 2C-T-7, after being sold in smartshops for a short period. After 2C-T-2 was first banned, 2C-T-7 quickly appeared on the market, but was soon banned as well. 2C-T-7 is a list I drug of the Opium Law.

Sweden
Schedule I in Sweden. 2C-T-7 was first classified as "health hazard" under the act Lagen om förbud mot vissa hälsofarliga varor (translated Act on the Prohibition of Certain Goods Dangerous to Health) as of April 1, 1999, under SFS 1999:58 that made it illegal to sell or possess.

United Kingdom
In 1999, Alexander Shulgin was sent a copy of a letter from the British Home Office to several of its administrative associates that in effect placed all compounds listed in PiHKAL into Class A.

United States
On September 20, 2002, 2C-T-7 was classified as a Schedule I substance in the United States by an emergency ruling by the DEA. On March 18, 2004, the DEA published a Final Rule in the Federal Register permanently placing 2C-T-7 in Schedule I. (69 FR 12794).

Notes

External links
 Erowid 2C-T-7 Vault
 PiHKAL #43 2C-T-7 by Alexander Shulgin
 2C-T-7 Entry in PiHKAL

2C (psychedelics)
Designer drugs
Thioethers
Propyl compounds

2C-T-7


Sooth Wast Ingland, alsae kent as the Sooth Wast o Ingland, is ane o the nine official regions o Ingland. It conseists o the coonties o Bristol, Cornwall (includin the Isles o Scilly), Dorset, Devon, Gloucestershire, Somerset an Wiltshire. Cities an muckle touns in the region include Bath, Bristol, Bournemouth, Cheltenham, Exeter, Gloucester, Plymouth an Swindon.

Sooth Wast Ingland


The Faculty of History is one of the constituent departments of the University of Cambridge.

Teaching and research of history has centuries old roots at Cambridge and the first Regius Professorship of Modern History was established by King George I in 1724. The History Faculty is one of the largest history departments in the world with well over a hundred faculty members. Each academic year a new intake more than two hundred undergraduates is admitted and the Faculty also has more than 450 graduate students studying for masters degrees and the PhD.

Cambridge's History Faculty is consistently ranked as one of the best history faculties in the world and is almost always ranked first in the UK. It is notable among Cambridge's faculties for the influence of its alumni in public life.

The Faculty is divided into eight subject groups (i.e. areas of research and teaching): American History; Ancient and Medieval History; Early Modern History; Economic, Social and Cultural History; Modern British History; Modern European History; Political Thought And Intellectual History; and World History.

Courses offered
At undergraduate level, the faculty offers three courses (known as tripos) that result in a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree. These are the Historical Tripos, the History and Politics Tripos, and the History and Modern Languages Tripos.

At postgraduate level, the faculty offers three types of degrees: Master of Philosophy (MPhil), Master of Studies (MSt), and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD). The MPhils are 9 month to one year courses, consisting of taught courses and a research dissertation; there are eight MPhils, one for each of the eight subject groups. The MSt is a two year part-time course, consisting of taught modules and a research dissertation: it is jointly taught by the Faculty of History and the Institute of Continuing Education. The PhD is a research course, taking 3–4 years full-time and 5–7 years part-time, and resulting in a doctoral thesis of 80,000 words.

Notable academics

There are a number of professorships, including endowed chairs, within the department:

 Regius Professor of History (currently Sir Christopher Clark)
 Paul Mellon Professor of American History (currently Gary Gerstle)
 Professor of Medieval History (currently John H. Arnold)
 Smuts Professor of Commonwealth History (currently Saul Dubow)
 Vere Harmsworth Professor of Imperial and Naval History (currently Samita Sen)
 Dixie Professor of Ecclesiastical History (currently David Maxwell)

Alumni

References

External links

History, Faculty of
History departments

Faculty of History, University of Cambridge


Edward Doran Davison (June 10, 1819 – February 21, 1894) was a lumber merchant and political figure in Nova Scotia. He represented Queen's County in the Nova Scotia House of Assembly from 1855 to 1859.

He was born in Queens County, Nova Scotia, the son of Samuel Davison and Eleanor Doran. His parents both died while he was still young. Davison inherited property including a farm, fishing rights and a sawmill from his mother's family. He married Desiah Mack in 1839. Davison was defeated when he ran for reelection in 1859. He expanded his lumber operations and his company had become the largest lumber business in the province by the 1880s. In 1887, he married Martha Hopkins Campbell after the death of his first wife. Davison died in Bridgewater at the age of 74.

His son Charles Henry also served in the provincial assembly.

References

1819 births
1894 deaths
Nova Scotia pre-Confederation MLAs

Edward Doran Davison


Karen Muir (16 September 1952 – 1 April 2013) was a South African competitive swimmer. Born and raised in Kimberley, she attended the Diamantveld High School, where she matriculated in 1970.

Biography
On 10 August 1965, aged twelve years, Muir became the youngest person to break a sporting world record in any discipline when she swam the 110 yards backstroke in 1m 08.7s at the ASA National Junior Championships in Blackpool, England.

Over the following five years Muir would go on to set fifteen world records in the backstroke at 100 metres, 200 metres, 110 yards, and 220 yards. She also won 22 South African Championships and three US National Championships. Due to the sporting boycott of South Africa during her active career, she was never able to participate in an Olympic Games.

Muir was elected to the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1980. After retiring from her sport, she qualified, through the University of the Orange Free State, as a doctor and practiced in the African continent. Since 2000 she worked as a family physician in Vanderhoof, British Columbia, Canada. During 2009, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. On 19 January 2012, it was reported that the cancer had spread.

Muir died of breast cancer at the age of 60 in Mossel Bay, South Africa on 1 April 2013.

Kimberley's Olympic-sized swimming pool was named the Karen Muir Swimming Pool in honour of the young swimmer, who was nicknamed locally as the "Tepid Torpedo". When Muir revisited the city in 2009 she donated her Springbok blazer to the Diamantveld High School.

See also
 List of members of the International Swimming Hall of Fame
 World record progression 100 metres backstroke
 World record progression 200 metres backstroke

References

External links

1952 births
2013 deaths
South African female backstroke swimmers
Sportspeople from Kimberley, Northern Cape
World record setters in swimming
Deaths from breast cancer
Deaths from cancer in South Africa
White South African people
South African people of British descent
20th-century South African women
21st-century South African women

Karen Muir


Abraxas pantaria, the light magpie or spotted ash looper is a species of moth belonging to the family Geometridae. It was described by Carl Linnaeus in 1767. It is found in the Mediterranean and is common in Portugal and Spain. It is also known from the United Kingdom, Ireland, Croatia, Armenia and Georgia south-eastern Russia and Turkey.

The wingspan is 38–42 mm for females and 35–40 mm for males. Adults are white to creamy (bone colour). The head, thorax and abdomen have light brown hairs and the thorax and each abdominal segment has dark brown spots. The wings are white, although the base of the wings is darker, almost the same colour of thorax. The forewings have light brown spots toward the apical margin very close to the middle, forming an irregular band. The hindwings have smaller spots.

The larvae feed on the leaves of Fraxinus excelsior and are considered a pest. The newly hatched caterpillars mostly feed on the lower epidermis and parenchyma tissue, leaving a network of veins. As the caterpillars grow, the size of these grooves increases. Infested leaves usually dry and turn brownish in time. The damage caused can be significant and some trees may be completely defoliated. There are five instars.

References

External links

Light Magpie at UKMoths
Moths and Butterflies of Europe and North Africa
Lepiforum e.V.

Abraxini
Moths described in 1767
Moths of Europe
Moths of Asia
Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus

Abraxas pantaria


John Sopinka,   (March 19, 1933 – November 24, 1997) was a Canadian lawyer and puisne justice on the Supreme Court of Canada, the first Ukrainian-Canadian appointed to the high court.

Early life and education
Sopinka was born in Broderick, Saskatchewan and lived there until his Ukrainian Canadian family moved to Hamilton, Ontario. He completed secondary school at Saltfleet High School in Stoney Creek. He earned Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws degrees at the University of Toronto where he was a member of the Toronto chapter of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity. While studying law, he also played professional football. He was drafted in the sixth round of the 1955 CFL draft.  He played with the Toronto Argonauts (1955 to 1957, 29 games) and then the Montreal Alouettes (1957, 8 games) of the Canadian Football League.

Career
He was called to the bar of Ontario in 1960 and practiced law at Fasken & Calven before becoming a senior partner at Stikeman Elliott. He was designated Queen's Counsel in 1975 and was also a lecturer at both the Osgoode Hall Law School and the University of Toronto Faculty of Law. He authored several books on the law, including a leading text on the law of evidence.

Sopinka was involved with several high-profile cases, including acting on behalf of Susan Nelles when she sued the government of Ontario and the Toronto police for malicious prosecution after the withdrawal of charges against her for murdering babies at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.  An inquiry into her case exonerated her and she won damages from the government for her ordeal. In 1986 he represented the Civil Liberties Commission of the Ukrainian Canadian community, the CLC at the Deschênes Commission of Inquiry on War Criminals and argued against the deportation of suspected war criminals to their native lands, particularly the Soviet Union.  He also served as counsel to the William Parker Inquiry that looked into the conduct of former cabinet minister Sinclair Stevens.

Appointment to the Supreme Court of Canada
A noted trial lawyer, he was appointed directly to the Supreme Court of Canada on May 24, 1988 without ever having been a judge. At the time it was highly unusual for a Supreme Court of Canada appointee to have had no prior judicial experience.  Following Sopinka's death, the court's next appointee, Ian Binnie, also came directly from private practice.

Death
Sopinka died in Ottawa on November 24, 1997 of a blood disease.

Posthumous recognition
In 1999, a new courthouse in downtown Hamilton was named in his honour. The John Sopinka Courthouse has 18 courtrooms, accommodating Hamilton's civil, criminal, and small claims courts. The government of Canada had purchased and renovated the Dominion Public Building for an estimated $64-million. The building was erected in 1935-36 and served as the main post office until 1991.

Also in 1999, the Sopinka Cup was established. This is a national mock trial competition open to law students from law faculties all over Canada. In 2000, the volume Ruled by Law: Essays in Memory of Mr. Justice John Sopinka was published as a special edition of the Supreme Court Law Review (volume 12, second series). Many of the contributors were former law clerks of John Sopinka who had gone on to become law professors. The collection was reprinted by Butterworths Canada as a free-standing volume in 2003.

See also
 List of decisions by John Sopinka

References

External links

 Obituary at The Canadian Encyclopedia
 Archives of John Sopinka (John Sopinka fonds, R1312) are held at Library and Archives Canada

Justices of the Supreme Court of Canada
Lawyers in Ontario
University of Toronto alumni
Toronto Argonauts players
Montreal Alouettes players
Canadian people of Ukrainian descent
Players of Canadian football from Saskatchewan
1933 births
1997 deaths
20th-century Canadian lawyers
Canadian King's Counsel
University of Toronto Faculty of Law alumni

John Sopinka


Julio César Aguilera Peña is a Venezuelan-American painter and sculptor born in Caracas, on July 28, 1961. Previously to his career as an artist, Aguilera was awarded the sixth Dan in Kung Fu when he was just 26 years old.

Biography
Aguilera was born in Catia, one of the poor neighborhoods surrounding Caracas. His mother died at birth and he was raised by his grandmother and other relatives. At age 6, he was making a living as a shoe polisher while attending primary school. After graduating from high school in 1978 from the Colegio San Agustin, Julio studied at the Instituto Pedagógico de Caracas.

Aguilera was inclined towards the arts since he was in primary school, and he began painting at a young age after a local painter gave him a handful of used brushes and half-empty tubes of oil paint. However strong, his artistic inclinations had to take a back seat for several years while Aguilera struggled to move out of the slums. During this time, he painted mostly for enjoyment, giving away his canvases to friends and relatives while he made his way through school. While at the Instituto Pedagógico, Julio enrolled himself in the academy of Chan Lee Kam Fai, one of Venezuela's most renowned martial arts training academies., unbeknownst Julio, he would later become the future president of the Venezuelan Federation of Chinese Martial Arts and the International Hung Sing Choy Li Fat Chan Kim Fay. This decision temporarily separated him from his artistic career due to the success he would enjoy as a martial artist.

In July, 1978, Aguilera earned the black belt in the Choy Lay Fut Kung-Fu style, and during that and the following year he participated in several international competitions and exhibitions, including the Muay Thai World Championship in Manila, Philippines, the Barehand Championship in China and the International Martial Arts Open of Puerto Rico, which he won in 1979. From that year until 1981, he stayed on the Caribbean island, working as a trainer in Santurce, until he was handpicked to co-develop in Venezuela Top Spa Gym at the time the most successful gym in Caracas, located in Las Mercedes sector of the city. Two years later, he was part of the Venezuelan Martial Arts team at the 1983 Pan American Games in the same city.

In 1983, Aguilera met and married Janice Tuohy, an American choreographer working in the local theater and TV industry. With Touht he opened a multidisciplinary academy with dancing and languages training directed by Touht herself and other Venezuelan professionals such as Anita Vivas, Antonio Drija and Betty Kaplan. The academy didn't last a year and in 1984, Julio and his wife moved to the United States.

After a brief stay in New York City, in 1985 Julio moved to Diamond Bar, California, and opened another martial arts academy under the name "Eagle Lighting". This time, the business was a success and in a few years he opened other branches in Marina del Rey, San José and Sacramento. It was while he taught Martial Arts in California that he won the Bare Hand Kung-Fu World Championship in August 1987. That same month, he was awarded the 6th Dan in China Kung-Fu, I Ching Kung-Fu by the International Kung Fu Federation.  Despite all those achievements, Aguilera retired from Martial Arts in 1987, closed down the academies and moved to New York City with his wife. During the following years he flirted with corporate America and the tried opening a few businesses himself, but the Californian success didn't repeat in New York City, where he divorced Janice Touht in 2001.

During his years in California, Julio always kept a studio inside the academy, where he painted with lukewarm success. After the several failed business ventures, he began painting professionally around 1997. That year, he bought fifty canvases and in three months developed what is known as the Blue Series. Aguilera promoted these pieces through web forums and the Venezuelan Consulate in New York, and by 2000 his work had been exhibited in Spain, Argentina and Venezuela in sold-out shows.

After a show in the Venezuelan Consulate in 2003, Julio was appointed as the Venezuelan Cultural Attaché in New York City, a position he held until 2006. At the same time, he became the General Manager of the El Nuevo Cojo Ilustrado a Hispanic  general interest magazine based in Harlem, and started to experiment with bronze, producing a series of statues from his studio in New Jersey.

About his art, critics are uniform about Aguilera's style. He's unashamed about the influence of Picasso and other Spanish master like Goya, El Greco and Velázquez. And according to the art critic Ed McCormack, Managing Editor of Gallery & Studio Magazine, "more than any other artist in the Hispanic Diaspora, Aguilera has brought new blood, so to speak, to that still vital tradition, which came to encompass not only the spirit of Spain but all the antique cultural booty that the canny old pirate, Picasso, looted from France Italy and the North."

Recent exhibitions
2019 - Red Dot at Art Basel Miami, Miami, Florida
2016 - Art Basel Extension Calle 8, Miami, Florida
2016 - Art Basel, Miami, Florida
2015 - Afropolis in Gardens Art Basel, Miami Gardens, Florida
2015 - Mana Art Basel, Miami, Florida
2014 - Mana Art Basel, Miami, Florida
2013 - Symposium Sculpture New Art Arcaelogy, Boston, Massachusetts
2013 - Symposium Sculpture, Nashua New Hampshire
2006 - Davidoff of Geneva. New York City.
2005 - Venezuelan Consulate Gallery, New York City.
2004 - Citibank Park Avenue. New York City.
2004 - Marriott Marquis, New York, New York.
2004 - Art. Atlanta. Atlanta Convention Center. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
2004 - Thyme Gallery, Havertown, Pennsylvania.
2004 - Venezuelan Consulate Gallery, New York City.
2004 - Art Philadelphia, Philadelphia Convention Center.
2004 - International ArtExpo. Jacob Javits Center, New York City.
2004 - Décor Expo International, Jacob Javits Convention Center New York City.
2004 - Citibank. One Rockefeller Plaza, New York City.
2003 - Venezuelan Center, New York City.
2003 - Frames Works Galleries. Holland, Michigan.
2003 - Kandu Galleries. Holland, Michigan.
2003 - International Art Expo, Las Vegas, Nevada.
2003 - General Motors / GMC. East Hampton, New York.
2003 - Art Chicago, - Navy Pier. Chicago, Illinois.
2003 - Art Atlanta, - Atlanta Convention Center. Atlanta, GA.
2003 - International ArtExpo. Jacob Javits Center New York City.
2003 - Galleria West, New Jersey.
2003 - Art Miami, Miami, Florida.
2003 - Latin Museum. Miami, Florida.
2002 - La Gallerie. East Elmhurst, New York.
2002 - La Gallery. New York City.
2002 - Palm Springs International Art Fair. Convention center Palm Springs, California.
2002 - Feria Cuadro Madrid, Spain.
2002 - Venezuelan Consulate Gallery. New York City.
2001 - International Art Fair. Montreal, Canada.
2001 - Venezuelan Consulate Gallery, New York City.
2001 - Art Atlanta. Atlanta Convention Center.
2001 - Richards. Greenwich, Connecticut.
2000 - Décor Expo International, Jacob Javits Center. New York City.
2000 - Feria Iberoamericana de Arte. Caracas, Venezuela.
2000 - ArtBa Feria de Arte Contemporáneo. Buenos Aires, Argentina.
2000 - Venezuelan Consulate Gallery, New York City.
1999 - Huntington Public Library, Huntington, New York.
1999 - Cosi Public Display. Huntington, New York.
1998 - Galleria Portal. Barcelona, Spain.

References

External links

Picasso net Gallery with some of Aguilera's work.
Absolute Arts Review of exhibit in 2003.
ArtAreas.com Gallery with some works of Aguilera.
Image from the blue series.
Image from the blue series.

1961 births
Living people
Artists from Caracas
Modern sculptors
Modern painters
Venezuelan painters
Venezuelan male martial artists
American male martial artists
People from Diamond Bar, California
Venezuelan emigrants to the United States
20th-century Venezuelan sculptors
20th-century Venezuelan male artists
21st-century Venezuelan male artists
Male sculptors

Julio Aguilera


The Roscoe Conkling House is a historic house at 3 Rutger Park in Utica, New York, United States. A National Historic Landmark, it was the home of Roscoe Conkling (1829–1888), a powerful and controversial politician.  He is responsible, perhaps, for the angry, political atmosphere that led to the assassination of U.S. President James Garfield.

Early political career

Roscoe Conkling's political career began as mayor of Utica in 1858, and rose through terms as U.S. Congressman 1859-1863 and 1865–1867.  Finally he was U.S. Senator from New York 1868–1881.  In 1870 he became boss of New York's Republican political machine.  Conkling was mentor to Chester A. Arthur, and was instrumental in getting him appointed collector of the port of New York in 1871.  In 1872 Conkling was offered the position of Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court by Grant, but he refused.

A party divided
When Rutherford B. Hayes became president in 1877, Conkling violently opposed him on the issue of civil service reform.  In 1880, Conkling, as part of the "Stalwart" faction of the Republican Party, supported Grant's bid for a third term.  The split in the Republican Party was so divisive that the 1880 Republican National Convention took 36 ballots to nominate James A. Garfield.  The fact that Chester Arthur then accepted the nomination for vice-president infuriated Conkling.  In May, 1881, Conkling and the other U.S. Senator from New York resigned from the Senate in protest of Garfield's political appointments.  They expected to be immediately re-elected to the Senate by the New York State legislature, but this did not happen.  Instead, they returned to New York to campaign for re-election.  In the highly charged atmosphere while the New York legislature was deadlocked on this issue, crazed "Stalwart" supporter Charles J. Guiteau assassinated President Garfield.  The resulting public outcry effectively ended Conkling's political career.  Although Chester Arthur became president, he kept Conkling at a safe political distance.  Arthur did offer him a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court in 1882, but again Conkling refused.

The House
The Roscoe Conkling House was designed by Philip Hooker in the Greek Revival style.  It was begun between 1820 and 1824, and completed in 1830 by the Miller family.  The house may also be known as the Miller-Conkling-Kernan House.  Roscoe Conkling bought the house in 1863 and lived there until his death in 1888.  The hip roofed brick house is covered with grey stucco scored to look like rock. The house was purchased from Conkling's family in 1894 by Nicholas Kernan.  After this time, the two story East (left) wing was added, as well as the current porch, dormer and chimney tops.

The house was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1975.
The house and its park are part of the Rutger-Steuben Park Historic District.  In 2005, the house was listed for sale. It could be bought separately or together with another house at 1 Rutger Park that was designed by Andrew Jackson Davis.

As of 2010, both the Conkling House (3 Rutger Park) and 1 Rutger Park are owned by the Landmarks Society of Greater Utica, "which is slowly renovating the buildings with the goal of turning them into mansion-museums."

Julia Seymour Conkling, wife of Senator Roscoe Conkling, served as the very first Chapter Regent of the Oneida Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, which was formed on June 19, 1893. The first meeting took place in Julia's home at 3 Rutger Park in Utica, New York.

References

Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in New York (state)
National Historic Landmarks in New York (state)
Houses completed in 1829
Houses in Oneida County, New York
National Register of Historic Places in Oneida County, New York
Conkling family

Roscoe Conkling House


Nikos Xanthoulis (, born Νικόλαος Γεωργίου Ξανθούλης; 1962) is a Greek composer and author. He is currently Artistic Consultant with the Greek National Opera, Assistant Researcher at the Academy of Athens (2009–present), Correspondent Member of the Archaeological Institute of America (2010–present), and Professor of Composition (2004–present) and Trumpet (1984-2013) at the Athens Conservatory. He was Artistic Director of the Public Broadcasting Orchestras and Choir (2014-2015), and Principal Trumpet Player with the Greek National Opera (1983-2007).

Biography

Nikos Xanthoulis was born in Larissa, Greece in 1962. He studied trumpet with Anastasios Kypreos at the Athens Conservatory graduating with an "A" Certificate in 1983. He was also awarded the coveted "First Prize" at the conservatory for his achievement on performance examinations. During the same year, he became a member of the European youth Orchestra and played under conductors as Claudio Abbado and Yuri Simonof.

Xanthoulis studied Advanced Theoretical Subjects and Composition in the Athens Conservatory with Menelaos Palandios, Diamantis Diamantopoulos and Pericles Koukos. He received his PhD in Musicology from the Music Academy of Sofia, Bulgaria, for his dissertation on the "Polyphony of 1800". The Examining Committee, which included Professor Dimiter Christoff, unanimously accepted the thesis—- the first time in 16 years. He also holds a Bachelor in Political Sciences from the Panteion University of Athens. Xanthoulis also studied Harpsichord at the Vignanelli School of Athens, Athenaeum Conservatory with Professor Margarita Dalmati, graduating Cum Laude with the "Ferruccio Vignanello" award. He graduated with a Baccalaureate from Ιωνίδειος Πρότυπος Σχολή, Greece.

As Artistic Consultant with the Greek National Opera, he is in charge of the radio program. He was the principal trumpet player in the Athens Opera for the last twenty-three years, performing as a soloist and member of numerous ensembles throughout Greece. He was also the professor of trumpet at the Athens Conservatory and served as professor at the "Open University" Greece.

Career
Many concerts featuring performances and compositions by Xanthoulis have been broadcast on Greek and Bulgarian radio programs. "Two children's operas" were premiered by the Athens Opera (1998) and the Messinian Theatre (1999) to critical acclaim and commercial success. Xanthoulis has been invited by four American universities and the Music University of Tien Jin, China, in 2000 and 2001 for recitals and lectures on Greek music from the Antiquity till nowadays.

His investigation and translations on the theory of the ancient Greek music was presented in lecture at the Boston University in 2003 at the Concordia University (Montreal), and in Ottawa.  He composed the music for the Aeschylian tragedy "Eumenides", which was presented in the frame of the Epidaurus Festival (August 2004). He has released three personal CDs and participated in two more CDs (published in Italy and Germany). The KEDROS edition published his symphonic tales "The selfish giant" (Oscar Wilde: book and CD recorded in Montreal) which was a best seller among the children's books in Greece till September 2005 and the "Happy Prince" (2007: book and CD). As a soloist he has performed with many Orchestras and in various Festivals (Ferenc Liszt Orchestra at the Athens Festival, International Festival of Sarajevo, Tashkent Symphony orchestra, Philharmony of Sofia, Tien Jin Symphony Orchestra in China, Thessalonica State Orchestra, Camerata Orchestra, National Symphony Radio Orchestra). Editions "Daedalus- Zacharopoulos" published his treatise on Ancient Greek Music in 2006.
Kress Lecturer for 1012-2013 in USA and Canada by the Archaeological Institute of America.

Main compositions

 Concerto for trumpet and orchestra (1995, Editions ORPHEUS)
 Fantasia for trumpet and piano (Editions ORPHEUS, 2005)
 "The tear of the moon "children's opera (Greek National Opera, 1999)
 "The Selfish Giant" children's opera (Kalamata Municipal Theater, 2000)
 "Ismini" of Ghiannis Ritsos for violin and piano (Kalamata Municipal Theater, 2001)
 Fantasia preludio e fuga for piano and strings (Dimitris Papatheodorou (piano), Radio Orchestra of Modern music, Athens, 2002)
 "O Plythintikos Arithmos" on poetry of Kiki Dimoula (Athens, 2002)
 Concerto for 2 guitars and string orchestra (Radio Symphony Orchestra, Stelios and Vassilis, Athens 2003)
 Eumenides of Aeschylus, incidental music (Epidaurus, Herodion, 2004)
 Concerto for 4 horns and symphony orchestra (Athens, 2005)
 "The Happy Prince" (2007) symphonic tale for symphony orchestra, soprano, baryton and narrator
 "The Iliad" (2008)
 Incidental music for "Helen" by Euripides ("Knossos" Theater 2008)
 Incidental music for "Agamemnon" by Aeschylus (Athens Greek Festival, 2009)
 "Helioghenniti" on poetry by Kostis Palamas. Cantata for Bass and Mezzosoprano and orchestra (Academy of Athens, 2009)
 "Poems of Kostas Papageorgiou" (Athens 2010)
 "L' enfant de la mer" French children's opera (2010)
 "The Magic Violin" Opera for "young ears" 2011 (premiere 7 May in the Greek National Opera)
 "L' enfant de la mer 2" French children's opera (2013)
 "Antigone" (in English language)<AIA>

Books and Theoretical Treatises

Trumpet Technic (Athens, 1985)
Prout, Richter and Gedalge three theoreticians of the fugue in the 2nd half of the 19th century. (Doctoral dissertation, Sofia, Bulgaria, 1993)
The art of breathing (Athens, 1996)
Techne Mousikes" Cleonides, Aristoxenus, Anonymous Bellerman:The Ancient Greek Music Theory'' - introduction and translation into modern Greek by Nikos Xanthoulis (Daedalus-Zacharopoulos, Athens 2006)

Discography

Personal:
"Works by Greek Composers for Trumpet" (Athens, 1993)
"The Selfish Giant" a symphonic tale for symphony orchestra, children's choir and two singers (Kedros, Athens / Montreal, 2004)
"O Plythintikos Arithmos" on the poetry of Kiki Dimoula (Athens, 2002)
"An Anthology of Compositions" (Athens, 2003)
"Happy Prince",a symphonic tale for symphony orchestra, children's choir and two singers  (Kedros, Athens, 2007)
"The Adventures of the Giant Assilaba Dellassy", music tale for string quartet and two singers Kalendis edition (Greece 2011)
"The Magic Violin" Kalendis edition (Greece 2013)

Collections:
"Tribute to Astor" (Milano, 2001)
"Music for Brass" (Agora, 1999)
"Greek composers for children choir and symphonic orchestra" (Malliaras, 2008)

References

External links
Homepage of Nikos Xanthoulis

1962 births
Classical trumpeters
Greek classical composers
Greek trumpeters
Living people
Writers from Larissa
Male classical composers
20th-century trumpeters
21st-century trumpeters
20th-century classical composers
21st-century classical composers
Male trumpeters
20th-century male musicians
21st-century male musicians

Nikos Xanthoulis


El Chupacabra (or El Chupacabras) is a cryptid said to live in Puerto Rico, Mexico, Chile, Brazil, Anaheim California. Gilbert Arizona.   Texas to Florida, Michigan, Maine and even Oregon. Its name comes from the Spanish translation of "goat sucker", because of its habit of attacking and drinking the blood of livestock, including goats. The legend was started in 1987 when there was a huge, gruesome massacre of livestock all over. All the animals had two puncture wounds on their neck in which the blood had been drained.

Cryptozoology

Chupacabra


In any domain of mathematics, a space has a natural topology if there is a topology on the space which is "best adapted" to its study within the domain in question. In many cases this imprecise definition means little more than the assertion that the topology in question arises naturally or canonically (see mathematical jargon) in the given context.

Note that in some cases multiple topologies seem "natural". For example, if Y is a subset of a totally ordered set X, then the induced order topology, i.e. the order topology of the totally ordered Y, where this order is inherited from X, is coarser than the subspace topology of the order topology of X.

"Natural topology" does quite often have a more specific meaning, at least given some prior contextual information: the natural topology is a topology which makes a natural map or collection of maps continuous. This is still imprecise, even once one has specified what the natural maps are, because there may be many topologies with the required property. However, there is often a finest or coarsest topology which makes the given maps continuous, in which case these are obvious candidates for the natural topology.

The simplest cases (which nevertheless cover many examples) are the initial topology and the final topology (Willard (1970)). The initial topology is the coarsest topology on a space X which makes a given collection of maps from X to topological spaces Xi continuous. The final topology is the finest topology on a space X which makes a given collection of maps from topological spaces Xi to X continuous.

Two of the simplest examples are the natural topologies of subspaces and quotient spaces.
 The natural topology on a subset of a topological space is the subspace topology. This is the coarsest topology which makes the inclusion map continuous.
 The natural topology on a quotient of a topological space is the quotient topology. This is the finest topology which makes the quotient map continuous.

Another example is that any metric space has a natural topology induced by its metric.

See also
 Induced topology

References

  (Recent edition published by Dover (2004) .)

Mathematical structures
Topology

Natural topology


Alice Frey (25 June 1895 – 30 August 1981) was a Belgian painter.

Biography
Born in Antwerp, Frey was one of three children. She was trained as a dressmaker, a trade which she later taught as a school teacher. As with many Belgian families, the Freys left their home in the First World War, moving to Ostend. There Alice met painter James Ensor who became a close friend. Ensor encouraged her interest in art, and after the war she enrolled as student in the Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, where she studied drawing and painting.

It was as a student that she met her future husband Georges Marlier, himself later a noted art critic and painter. They married in 1922. Together they formed part of a group known as Lumière, which published a journal. A second journal, Ça Ira, was established by Frey, and these formed part of the avant-garde movement in Belgium in the 1920s.

Frey's work was widely exhibited in her lifetime. In her later years she became profoundly deaf and lived alone in Ostend. On her death in 1981, much of her work was sold at auction, and only the small collection that she willed to Ostend is readily accessible. Stylistically, Frey's work was influenced by Marc Chagall, Ensor, and Edgard Tytgat. Her early works are expressionist, while her later work may be closer to magic realism.

References
 Dupont, Pierre-Paul, "FREY, Alice, épouse MARLIER" in E. Gubin, C. Jacques, V. Piette & J. Puissant (eds), Dictionnaire des femmes belges: XIXe et XXe siècles. Bruxelles: Éditions Racine, 2006.

1895 births
1981 deaths
Belgian women painters
20th-century Belgian painters
20th-century Belgian women artists
Belgian blind people
Painters from Antwerp

Alice Frey


Celtic Woman: A Celtic Christmas is an album by the group Celtic Woman, released on 25 November 2011. This album was released exclusively in Germany.

Performers in A Celtic Christmas are vocalists Chloë Agnew, Lisa Kelly, Lisa Lambe, Órla Fallon, Méav Ní Mhaolchatha, Lynn Hilary,  and fiddler Máiréad Nesbitt. Most songs were taken from previous releases (Celtic Woman: A Christmas Celebration and Celtic Woman: Lullaby), and this album is the third Christmas-themed one to be released by the group. New songs in this album include An Angel and There Must Be An Angel, as well as two live recordings from the Helix Theatre, Dublin, Ireland.

Track listing

Charts

References

Celtic Woman albums
2011 albums
Manhattan Records albums

A Celtic Christmas


Passing Strange is a comedy-drama rock musical about a young African American's journey of self-discovery as an artist, while combining strong existentialist and meta-fictional elements (especially self-referential humor). The musical's lyrics and book are by Stew with music and orchestrations by Heidi Rodewald and Stew. It was created in collaboration with director Annie Dorsen.

The musical was developed at the Sundance Institute Theatre Lab in 2004 and 2005, one of the few works to be invited back for a second round of development.  It had productions in Berkeley, California and Off-Broadway before opening on Broadway in 2008, garnering strong reviews and several awards. Spike Lee filmed the musical on Broadway in July 2008, premiering the film in 2009.

Title
Stew had never written a play before Passing Strange. In an interview with Berkeley Rep, where the play premiered, he said he was initially inspired by reading about the Old Globe Theatre, where  Shakespeare productions were originally performed in front of rowdy audiences. A longtime rock musician and performer, he wanted to combine the energy of a rock show with the lively potential of a theater setting.  Stew stated that the title "Passing Strange" comes from Shakespeare's 1603 play Othello, the Moor of Venice. In the play, the title character utters the following lines:
My story being done,
She gave me for my pains a world of sighs;
She swore, in faith 'twas strange, 'twas passing strange;'''Twas pitiful. 'twas wondrous pitiful,
She wish'd she had not heard it, yet she wish'd
That heaven had made her such a man.
—Othello, the Moor of Venice, act 1, scene 3, lines 158–163

Stew commented that the quote reminds him of a rock musician who tries to attract a girl with his on-the-road stories. "Passing" in Early Modern English meant "extremely" (thus, the meaning of "extremely strange" in the above passage). However, in the play's title, it also refers to the history of Black Americans "passing" (that is, "passing as white"), a concept raised multiple times in the play, as well as the passage of time.

Background
The plot itself involves an anonymous protagonist, called the Youth, who travels on a picaresque journey to find "the real", complicated by his need to rebel against his mother and society, "passing" through place to place and from lover to lover. His experiences are shaped by his black, American, and middle-class identity. As a musician, he attempts to express his true self through a number of musical genres, including gospel, punk, blues, jazz, and rock; however, the musical itself is most prominently grounded in rock music.

Stew summarized the story and the music: "It's ... about the costs of being a young artist. It's a 46-year-old guy looking back at the things that he did and the values he had in his 20s, sort of when you're making that decision to really be an artist ... We knew we were going to invent something 'cause we kind of knew this hadn't been done before, the goal being to bring the actual music that one hears in a club to the stage — not through some kind of theatrical musical-theater filter".

The musical was nominated for seven Tony Awards, winning one, for best book. It won three Drama Desk Awards, however, for outstanding musical, music and lyrics (out of seven nominations), among a number of other awards and nominations. The musical was also awarded the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Musical; the Audelco Award for Best Musical, as well as Best Director (Annie Dorsen), Best Musical Director (Rodewald), and Best Performance (Daniel Breaker); and an Obie Award for Best New Theatre Piece, as well as Outstanding Ensemble.

Production history
Passing Strange premiered on October 19, 2006, at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre in Berkeley, California.  It was then produced off-Broadway at The Public Theater in New York City, running from May 14, 2007, through June 3, 2007.  The musical began previews at the Belasco Theatre on Broadway on February 8, 2008, and officially opened on February 28, 2008, with the same cast that starred at the Public Theater. After 165 performances, it closed on July 20, 2008.  Directed by Annie Dorsen, the musical was choreographed by Karole Armitage, with scenic design by David Korins, costume design by Elizabeth Hope Clancy and lighting design by Kevin Adams.

The first regional production opened at The Studio Theatre in Washington, D.C., on July 18, 2010, with a revised script and ran through August. It did not include co-creator Stew as the Narrator, and the cast was expanded from seven to fourteen players. "Passing Strange" played at ACT Theatre in Seattle, WA in June and July, 2014 with LeRoy Bell of "The Voice" in the lead role.

The first production in a high school opened at The Beacon School in New York on May 8, 2014, completely uncensored. Stew would later work with members of the Beacon School cast where they performed numbers from Passing Strange with him at Lincoln Center.

Synopsis

Act I
The Narrator introduces himself as Stew ("Prologue"), openly referring to himself, his collaborator Heidi, and the rest of the band, and occasionally interrupting the plot and interacting directly with the characters throughout the play. The Narrator introduces the African-American male protagonist as "the Youth"—whom the Narrator also refers to as the "hero" or "pilgrim". In a late 1970s South Central Los Angeles middle-class neighborhood, the Youth begins searching for "the real" during his teenaged years, having just briefly turned to Zen Buddhism in defiance of his single mother's conservative Christian faith ("Baptist Fashion Show"). Regardless, he is reluctantly dragged to her church and feels surprisingly moved by the church's gospel band, joyfully equating gospel to rock & roll ("Blues Revelation / Freight Train") and, deciding to explore the spiritual power of music, he joins the church choir ("Edwina Williams"). Here, he meets the pastor's son and choir director, Franklin Jones, who as a marijuana-smoking closeted gay man, exposes the Youth to drugs, New Negro culture, and European philosophy ("Arlington Hill"). The Youth eventually begins playing guitar, deserts Franklin's choir, and forms a punk rock band ("Sole Brother"), which quickly dissolves during a bad LSD trip ("Must've Been High").

The Youth saves money to travel to Europe where he hopes to truly develop as a musical artist, despite his mother and community's disapproval ("Mom Song / Philistines"), culminating in an argument that satirizes the overly dramatic styles of European experimental cinema and which soon merges onstage into the actual journey to Europe ("Merci Beaucoup, M. Godard"). Now in promiscuous Amsterdam, with its easy access to drugs and sex ("Amsterdam"), the Youth experiences his first sense of acceptance when a local squatter, Marianna, unquestioningly accepts him into her apartment ("Keys"). After happily living among Marianna and other free-spirited artists ("We Just Had Sex"), he finds he cannot write songs when he has nothing to complain about. He heads to Berlin, leaving behind an upset Marianna, who tells him not to return ("Paradise").

Act 2
The Youth arrives in West Berlin during a May Day riot ("May Day"), joining some of the performance-artist protesters ("Surface"). His integrity falters when he misrepresents himself as poor to be accepted by the revolutionary artists whom he now lives with, collectively called Nowhaus. Desi, his new girlfriend and the Nowhaus leader, tells him that only love is real ("Damage").

The Youth can never bring himself to be honest about his background ("Identity"), though he basks in a romanticized African-American stereotype amidst his German friends ("The Black One"). Desi finally expresses her feelings that the Youth is concealing his true identity ("Come Down Now"). Meanwhile, he is irritated by his heartsick mother's phone calls and delays visiting her, even with Christmas approaching, when the other Nowhaus members abruptly return home to their families. The Youth pleads with Desi to stay with him during the holidays, but they fight over their differing views on love and she leaves him ("Youth's Unfinished Song").

The Narrator's self-reflections promptly enter into the Youth's story ("Work the Wound"), concluding with the unexpected scene of the Youth at his mother's funeral. With this surprisingly dramatic turns of events, the tone of the play shifts from largely comedic to suddenly heavy-hearted. The Narrator and the Youth confront each other directly and in a serious moment for the first time as the Youth copes with his grief; dealing with the loss of the same mother, it is clear now that the Narrator and Youth represent the same person at two different times in his life ("Passing Phase"). The Youth, after declaring that only art can correct the mistake known as life, resurrects his mother's spirit through his art ("Is It Alright?"). Ultimately, however, only the more mature Narrator remains onstage, professing the need for something beyond "the real" and that this is love ("Love Like That").

Song list

Act 1

"Prologue: We Might Play All Night" — Narrator and the Band
"Baptist Fashion Show" — Narrator, Band and Ensemble
"Blues Revelation; Freight Train":
"Listening is Waiting" † — Heidi (from the Band) and Narrator
"Church Blues Revelation" — Reverend Jones, Narrator and Ensemble
"Music is the Freight Train in which God Travels" — Narrator and Ensemble
"Edwina Williams" — Edwina and Narrator
"Arlington Hill" †; "Everything's Alright" — Narrator; Narrator and Ensemble
"Sole Brother" — Youth, Terry and Sherry
"Must've Been High" † — Narrator
"Mom Song"; "Philistines" — Narrator, Mother and Ensemble; Youth and Ensemble
"Merci Beaucoup, M. Godard" — Narrator and Stewardesses
"Amsterdam" — Band and Ensemble
"Keys":
"Keys #1" — Marianna and Youth
"Keys #2" — Narrator
"It's Alright" — Narrator and Ensemble
"We Just Had Sex" — Youth, Marianna and Renata
"Paradise":
"Paradise/Stoned" ‡ — Youth, Marianna and Ensemble
"Keys (Reprise)" † — Youth and Narrator
"Paradise (Reprise)/Starting to Feel Real" ‡ — Youth, Marianna, Band and Ensemble

Act 2
"May Day":
"Berlin: A Black Hole with Taxis" — Narrator
"May Day (There's a Riot Goin' Down)" † — Narrator, Heidi, Youth, Nowhaus and Ensemble
"Desi" † — Narrator, Youth, Desi and Ensemble
"Are You Ready to Explode?" — Narrator and Ensemble
"Surface":
"What's Inside is Just a Lie" — Mr. Venus
"Are You Ready to Explode? (Reprise)" — Mr. Venus, Youth and Ensemble
"The System Does All Kinds of Damage" † — Narrator, Desi and Youth
"Identity" — Youth
"The Black One" — Narrator and Ensemble
"Come Down Now":
"Listening is Waiting (Reprise)" † — Heidi
"Come Down Now" — Desi and Heidi
"Starting to Feel Real (Reprise)"  — Narrator, Desi, Heidi and Ensemble
"Youth's Unfinished Song" — Youth
"Work the Wound" — Narrator
"Passing Phase" — Youth and Narrator
"Cue Music (Is It Alright?)" † — Narrator and Mother
"Epilogue: Love Like That" — Narrator and Heidi
Encore: "It's Alright" — All

† In the staged performance, this song is heavily interspersed with or broken up by dialogue and/or spoken narration.
‡ The two titles here enclosed within a single pair of quotation marks and separated by a slash refer to two songs that play in counterpoint.

Characters
All actors except those playing the Narrator, Youth, and Mother also play miscellaneous, nameless roles such as church-goers, family members, airplane stewardesses, etc. Major roles are emphasized in boldface.

Passing Strange: The Movie
Director Spike Lee made a permanent record of the Broadway production "for generations and generations to see" by filming the last three performances at the Belasco Theatre. His feature film had its world premiere on January 16 at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and opened at the IFC Center in New York City's West Village on August 21, 2009. It aired on PBS as part of Great Performances.

Critical reaction
Reviews on and off Broadway were positive. Charles Isherwood wrote in The New York Times: "Although it is far richer in wit, feeling and sheer personality than most of what is classified as musical theater in the neighborhood around Times Square these days, its big heart throbs to the sound of electric guitars, searing synthesizer chords, driving drums and lyrics delivered not in a clean croon but a throaty yelp... Passing Strange is bursting at the seams with melodic songs, and it features a handful of theatrical performances to treasure... Call it a rock concert with a story to tell, trimmed with a lot of great jokes. Or call it a sprawling work of performance art, complete with angry rants and scary drag queens... I'll just call it wonderful, and a welcome anomaly on Broadway".  Hilton Als praised the storyline of the musical in The New Yorker: "Passing Strange is a brilliant work about migration — a geographical migration but also its hero's migration beyond the tenets of "blackness" and toward selfhood. ...Stew, who created Passing Strange, which is an autobiography of sorts, doesn't distract us with exoticism or nostalgia; his story centers on a young black man who discovers his own Americanness while growing up, first, in Los Angeles and, later, in Europe. The Youth (Daniel Breaker) is a rock-and-roll Candide — a wanderer whose innocence is never entirely corrupted".

Spike Lee's documentary of the play also received a positive review by A. O. Scott in The New York Times: "Here's the strange thing. When I saw Spike Lee's film adaptation, 'Passing Strange: The Movie,' in effect a video recording of a performance identical to the one I'd witnessed at the Belasco Theater in 2008, I was blown away. Loose ends ceased to dangle; soft spots were smoothed away and slow passages tightened up".  Laremy Legel of Film.com called the film "vibrant and compelling" noting that Lee's decision to shoot it as a play was the right one: "Spike Lee, to his credit, realized the beauty of the musical was right there on stage – no further tinkering was needed. Spike used 14 cameras at once to capture the action like it's never been done before. Amazingly, you never see a camera you weren't meant to see. Intimate shots were gathered in gorgeous high-definition over the course of three shows and seamlessly edited together. It's a technological triumph as well as an artistic one".

Awards and nominations

Original Broadway production

Passing Strange: The Movie

References

External links
Official web site

 "Drama Desk Nominees Announced; Catered Affair Garners 12 Noms", Playbill, April 28, 2008, Retrieved 5-2-2008
 "Young Frankenstein Tops Outer Critics Circle Awards Nominations", Playbill, April 21, 2008, Retrieved 5-2-2008
 "74th Annual Drama League Award Nominees Announced", Playbill, April 22, 2008, Retrieved 5-2-2008
 "Adding Machine Gets Six Lucille Lortel Noms; Opus, Passing Strange Recognized", Playbill, March 31, 2008, Retrieved 5-2-2008

2006 musicals
Broadway musicals
African-American musicals
All-Black cast Broadway shows
Existentialist plays
Off-Broadway musicals
Original musicals
Rock musicals
Sung-through musicals
Films directed by Spike Lee
Tony Award-winning musicals
Musicals set in Los Angeles
Musicals set in Berlin

Passing Strange


The North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust  is the ambulance service for North West England. It is one of ten ambulance trusts providing England with emergency medical services, and is part of the National Health Service.  It is based in Bolton.

It started on  1 July 2006, by the merger of the four previous services (Cumbria Ambulance Service; Lancashire Ambulance Service; Cheshire and Mersey Ambulance Service; and Greater Manchester Ambulance Service).  In 2019 they had 104 ambulance stations and about 6000 people.

References

NHS ambulance services trusts
Organisations based in Greater Manchester

North West Ambulance Service


The Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) is a captive body of the Ministry of Education, Government of India established by an Administrative Order. The body has provided financial assistance to historians and scholars through fellowships, grants, and symposia.

The ICHR receives grants-in-aid from the Department of Higher Education, grants-in-aid from various Indian states, private donations, and the proceeds of revenues from the sale of publications of the ICHR. The ICHR is based in Delhi, with regional centres in Pune (Maharashtra), Bengaluru (Karnataka), and Guwahati (Assam).

Founded:27 March 1972

Its first chairman was the historian Ram Sharan Sharma nominated as its first chairman. Historians who have served as members or functionaries of the ICHR include Irfan Habib, Tapan Raychaudhuri, and Barun De.

Objectives
The objectives of the ICHR, as enunciated in the initial pamphlet published by the Department of Education, Government of India in 1972, are as under:

 to bring historians together and provide a forum for the exchange of views between them;
 to give a national direction to objective and scientific writing of history and to have rational presentation and interpretation of history;
 to promote, accelerate and coordinate research in history with special emphasis on areas that have not received adequate attention so far;
 to promote and coordinate a balanced distribution of research effort over different areas; and
 to elicit support and recognition for historical research from all concerned and ensure the necessary dissemination and use of results.

Funding, expenses and salaries

ICHR is funded by grants-in-aid received from the Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development. It also receives funds from the various state governments of India and from other Ministries of the government of India.

Organization
The ICHR is headed by an Honorary Chairman. The Member Secretary functions as the Secretary of the Governing Council during its General Body and special meetings and as the day-to-day Head of the Department in ICHR.

The Members of the Council of ICHR (Governing Body) are nominated for a period of three years. The Chairman of the Council of ICHR is nominated by the Department of Education in an honorary capacity and his term is not co-terminus with that of the members of the Constituted Council. The day-to-day functioning of the ICHR is looked after by the Director who acts as  ex officio Member Secretary of the Council. In 1991, a trend was started to have a separate post of Member Secretary of the ICHR, with Professor MGS Narayanan being selected as the First Member Secretary of ICHR. The institution has been continually embroiled in intra-rivalries between the Chairmen, Member Secretaries, and the Directors, at the cost of historical research. The main reason, as per many, has been the deputing of persons from here and there as the Member Secretaries and the undermining the office of the Chairman and the Director of the institution.

Chairmen
 R.S. Sharma, 1972 - 1977
 A.R. Kulkarni, 1978 - 1981
 Niharranjan Ray, 1981 - 1981
 Lokesh Chandra, 1982 - 1985
 Irfan Habib, 1986 - 1993
 Ravinder Kumar, 1993 - 1996
 S. Settar, 1996 - 1999
 K.S. Sarma (acting), 1999 - 1999
 B.R. Grover, 1999 - 2001
 K.S. Lal, 2001 - 2001
 M.G.S. Narayanan, 2001 - 2003
 Kumud Bansal (acting), 2003 - 2004
 D.N. Tripathi, 2004 - 2007
 K.M. Acharya (acting), 2007 - 2007
 Sabyasachi Bhattacharya, 4 March 2007 – 3 March 2010
 Sabyasachi Bhattacharya (acting), 4 April 2010 – 20 May 2011
 Basudev Chatterjee, 20 May 2011- 2014
 Yellapragada Sudershan Rao, 28 June 2014 -26 June 2017
 A.P Jamkhedkar, 15 February 2018 – 14 January 2022
 Raghuvendra Tanwar, 14 January 2022 - present

Member Secretary
 Umesh Ashok Kadam (Present)

Directors
 B.R. Grover (1975-1986)
 T.R. Sareen (1986-1997)
 Sushil Kumar (1997-2010)

Composition of the Council

The ICHR Council consists of the following members:
 Nineteen historians nominated by the Government of India one being appointed as the Chairman of the Council
 Representative of the University Grants Commission
 Director General of the Archaeological Survey of India
 Director General of the National Archives of India
 Four persons to represent government who shall be nominated by the Government of India and which shall include one representative each of the Ministry of Education, the Department of Culture and the Ministry of Finance, and
 the Member Secretary, who is appointed by the Council of the ICHR on a deputation basis for a period of three years, with the approval of the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India.

Publications

The ICHR publishes online as well as on print media. It publishes two journals: the Indian Historical Review (bi-annually) and Itihas (in Hindi). It also provides publication subsidies to seminars, books, congress proceedings, and journals. The editing and publication has been outsourced to certain publishing houses.

References

External links

 Indian Council of Historical Research - Sudhir Chandra - Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 7, No. 28 (Jul. 8, 1972), pp. 1311-1313
 Society Name Search at www.delhi.gov.in

Organisations based in Delhi
Organizations established in 1972
History organisations based in India
Research institutes in India
Historiography of India
Ministry of Education (India)
1972 establishments in Delhi

Indian Council of Historical Research


Birnam Arts is a multipurpose arts centre in Birnam, Perthshire, central Scotland. It is also known as the Birnam Arts and Conference Centre, and was originally named the Birnam Institute.  It is a not for profit organisation owned by the community.

History
The Birnam Arts and Conference Centre was developed from 1880, to the plans of John Kinnaird, the village stationmaster, to build a facility for the community. This was the original Birnam Institute which was built and was opened on 29 September 1883.  It comprised a library, reading room, hall, a refreshment and games room, and accommodation for the caretaker. In 1890, public baths were added to the facilities that the Institute offered. During both World Wars, the Institute was used by the military for accommodation and entertainment purposes. By the 1990s the Institute no longer met the regulations for a public building, so a plan to redevelop it was created.  A major fundraising exercise allowed the building to be renovated and extended.  The work was completed in June 2001.

Today

 170-seat auditorium
 Dance and drama workshop
 Meeting rooms
 Beatrix Potter exhibition and shop
 Foyer Café
 Public Library
 Art Exhibitions
 Community Learning offices

References

External links
 Birnam Arts
 Birnam Library

Biographical museums in Scotland
Theatres in Scotland
Cinemas in Scotland
Public libraries in Scotland
Beatrix Potter
1883 establishments in Scotland
Museums in Perth and Kinross
Arts centres in Scotland

Birnam Arts