The Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) is a public research project which aims "to build a comprehensive parts list of functional elements in the human genome."

ENCODE also supports further biomedical research by "generating community resources of genomics data, software, tools and methods for genomics data analysis, and products resulting from data analyses and interpretations."

The current phase of ENCODE (2016-2019) is adding depth to its resources by growing the number of cell types, data types, assays and now includes support for examination of the mouse genome.

History

ENCODE was launched by the US National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) in September 2003. Intended as a follow-up to the Human Genome Project, the ENCODE project aims to identify all functional elements in the human genome.

The project involves a worldwide consortium of research groups, and data generated from this project can be accessed through public databases. The initial release of ENCODE was in 2013 and since has been changing according to the recommendations of consortium members and the wider community of scientists who use the Portal to access ENCODE data. The two-part goal for ENCODE is to serve as a publicly accessible data base for "experimental protocols, analytical procedures and the data themselves," and "the same interface should serve carefully curated metadata that record the provenance of the data and justify its interpretation in biological terms." The project began its fourth phase (ENCODE 4) in February 2017.

Motivation and Significance

Humans are estimated to have approximately 20,000 protein-coding genes, which account for about 1.5% of DNA in the human genome. The primary goal of the ENCODE project is to determine the role of the remaining component of the genome, much of which was traditionally regarded as "junk". The activity and expression of protein-coding genes can be modulated by the regulome - a variety of DNA elements, such as promoters, transcriptional regulatory sequences, and regions of chromatin structure and histone modification. It is thought that changes in the regulation of gene activity can disrupt protein production and cell processes and result in disease. Determining the location of these regulatory elements and how they influence gene transcription could reveal links between variations in the expression of certain genes and the development of disease.

ENCODE is also intended as a comprehensive resource to allow the scientific community to better understand how the genome can affect human health, and to "stimulate the development of new therapies to prevent and treat these diseases".

The ENCODE Consortium

The ENCODE Consortium is composed primarily of scientists who were funded by US National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI). Other participants contributing to the project are brought up into the Consortium or Analysis Working Group.

The pilot phase consisted of eight research groups and twelve groups participating in the ENCODE Technology Development Phase. After 2007, the number of participants expanded to 440 scientists based in 32 laboratories worldwide as the pilot phase was officially over. At the moment the consortium consists of different centers which perform different tasks.

ENCODE is a member of the International Human Epigenome Consortium (IHEC).

NHGRI's main requirement for the products from ENCODE-funded research is to be shared in a free, highly accessible manner to all researchers to promote genomic research. ENCODE research allows the reproducibility and thus transparency of the software, methods, data, and other tools related to the genomic analysis.

The ENCODE Project

ENCODE is currently implemented in four phases: the pilot phase and the technology development phase, which were initiated simultaneously; and the production phase. The fourth phase is a continuation of the third, and includes functional characterization and further integrative analysis for the encyclopedia.

The goal of the pilot phase was to identify a set of procedures that, in combination, could be applied cost-effectively and at high-throughput to accurately and comprehensively characterize large regions of the human genome. The pilot phase had to reveal gaps in the current set of tools for detecting functional sequences, and was also thought to reveal whether some methods used by that time were inefficient or unsuitable for large-scale utilization. Some of these problems had to be addressed in the ENCODE technology development phase, which aimed to devise new laboratory and computational methods that would improve our ability to identify known functional sequences or to discover new functional genomic elements. The results of the first two phases determined the best path forward for analyzing the remaining 99% of the human genome in a cost-effective and comprehensive production phase.

The ENCODE Phase I Project: The Pilot Project

The pilot phase tested and compared existing methods to rigorously analyze a defined portion of the human genome sequence. It was organized as an open consortium and brought together investigators with diverse backgrounds and expertise to evaluate the relative merits of each of a diverse set of techniques, technologies and strategies. The concurrent technology development phase of the project aimed to develop new high throughput methods to identify functional elements. The goal of these efforts was to identify a suite of approaches that would allow the comprehensive identification of all the functional elements in the human genome. Through the ENCODE pilot project, National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) assessed the abilities of different approaches to be scaled up for an effort to analyze the entire human genome and to find gaps in the ability to identify functional elements in genomic sequence.

The ENCODE pilot project process involved close interactions between computational and experimental scientists to evaluate a number of methods for annotating the human genome. A set of regions representing approximately 1% (30 Mb) of the human genome was selected as the target for the pilot project and was analyzed by all ENCODE pilot project investigators. All data generated by ENCODE participants on these regions was rapidly released into public databases.

Target Selection

For use in the ENCODE pilot project, defined regions of the human genome - corresponding to 30Mb, roughly 1% of the total human genome - were selected. These regions served as the foundation on which to test and evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of a diverse set of methods and technologies for finding various functional elements in human DNA.

Prior to embarking upon the target selection, it was decided that 50% of the 30Mb of sequence would be selected manually while the remaining sequence would be selected randomly. The two main criteria for manually selected regions were: 1) the presence of well-studied genes or other known sequence elements, and 2) the existence of a substantial amount of comparative sequence data. A total of 14.82Mb of sequence was manually selected using this approach, consisting of 14 targets that range in size from 500kb to 2Mb.

The remaining 50% of the 30Mb of sequence were composed of thirty, 500kb regions selected according to a stratified random-sampling strategy based on gene density and level of non-exonic conservation. The decision to use these particular criteria was made in order to ensure a good sampling of genomic regions varying widely in their content of genes and other functional elements. The human genome was divided into three parts - top 20%, middle 30%, and bottom 50% - along each of two axes: 1) gene density and 2) level of non-exonic conservation with respect to the orthologous mouse genomic sequence (see below), for a total of nine strata. From each stratum, three random regions were chosen for the pilot project. For those strata underrepresented by the manual picks, a fourth region was chosen, resulting in a total of 30 regions. For all strata, a "backup" region was designated for use in the event of unforeseen technical problems.

In greater detail, the stratification criteria were as follows:
 Gene density: The gene density score of a region was the percentage of bases covered either by genes in the Ensembl database, or by human mRNA best BLAT (BLAST-like alignment tool) alignments in the UCSC Genome Browser database.
 Non-exonic conservation: The region was divided into non-overlapping subwindows of 125 bases. Subwindows that showed less than 75% base alignment with mouse sequence were discarded. For the remaining subwindows, the percentage with at least 80% base identity to mouse, and which did not correspond to Ensembl genes, GenBank mRNA BLASTZ alignments, Fgenesh++ gene predictions, TwinScan gene predictions, spliced EST alignments, or repeated sequences (DNA), was used as the non-exonic conservation score.

The above scores were computed within non-overlapping 500 kb windows of finished sequence across the genome, and used to assign each window to a stratum.

Pilot Phase Results

The pilot phase was successfully finished and the results were published in June 2007 in Nature and in a special issue of Genome Research; the results published in the first paper mentioned advanced the collective knowledge about human genome function in several major areas, included in the following highlights:
 The human genome is pervasively transcribed, such that the majority of its bases are associated with at least one primary transcript and many transcripts link distal regions to established protein-coding loci.
 Many novel non-protein-coding transcripts have been identified, with many of these overlapping protein-coding loci and others located in regions of the genome previously thought to be transcriptionally silent.
 Numerous previously unrecognized transcription start sites have been identified, many of which show chromatin structure and sequence-specific protein-binding properties similar to well-understood promoters.
 Regulatory sequences that surround transcription start sites are symmetrically distributed, with no bias towards upstream regions.
 Chromatin accessibility and histone modification patterns are highly predictive of both the presence and activity of transcription start sites.
 Distal DNaseI hypersensitive sites have characteristic histone modification patterns that reliably distinguish them from promoters; some of these distal sites show marks consistent with insulator function.
 DNA replication timing is correlated with chromatin structure.
 A total of 5% of the bases in the genome can be confidently identified as being under evolutionary constraint in mammals; for approximately 60% of these constrained bases, there is evidence of function on the basis of the results of the experimental assays performed to date.
 Although there is general overlap between genomic regions identified as functional by experimental assays and those under evolutionary constraint, not all bases within these experimentally defined regions show evidence of constraint.
 Different functional elements vary greatly in their sequence variability across the human population and in their likelihood of residing within a structurally variable region of the genome.
 Surprisingly, many functional elements are seemingly unconstrained across mammalian evolution. This suggests the possibility of a large pool of neutral elements that are biochemically active but provide no specific benefit to the organism. This pool may serve as a 'warehouse' for natural selection, potentially acting as the source of lineage-specific elements and functionally conserved but non-orthologous elements between species.

The ENCODE Phase II Project: The Production Phase Project

In September 2007, National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) began funding the production phase of the ENCODE project. In this phase, the goal was to analyze the entire genome and to conduct "additional pilot-scale studies".

As in the pilot project, the production effort is organized as an open consortium. In October 2007, NHGRI awarded grants totaling more than $80 million over four years. The production phase also includes a Data Coordination Center, a Data Analysis Center, and a Technology Development Effort.  At that time the project evolved into a truly global enterprise, involving 440 scientists from 32 laboratories worldwide.  Once the pilot phase was completed, the project "scaled up" in 2007, profiting immensely from new-generation sequencing machines.  And the data was, indeed, big; researchers generated around 15 terabytes of raw data.

By 2010, over 1,000 genome-wide data sets had been produced by the ENCODE project. Taken together, these data sets show which regions are transcribed into RNA, which regions are likely to control the genes that are used in a particular type of cell, and which regions are associated with a wide variety of proteins. The primary assays used in ENCODE are ChIP-seq, DNase I Hypersensitivity, RNA-seq, and assays of DNA methylation.

Production Phase Results

In September 2012, the project released a much more extensive set of results, in 30 papers published simultaneously in several journals, including six in Nature, six in  Genome Biology and a special issue with 18 publications of Genome Research.

The authors described the production and the initial analysis of 1,640 data sets designed to annotate functional elements in the entire human genome, integrating results from diverse experiments within cell types, related experiments involving 147 different cell types, and all ENCODE data with other resources, such as candidate regions from genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and evolutionary constrained regions. Together, these efforts revealed important features about the organization and function of the human genome, which were summarized in an overview paper as follows:

 The vast majority (80.4%) of the human genome participates in at least one biochemical RNA and/or chromatin associated event in at least one cell type. Much of the genome lies close to a regulatory event: 95% of the genome lies within 8kb of a DNA-protein interaction (as assayed by bound ChIP-seq motifs or DNaseI footprints), and 99% is within 1.7kb of at least one of the biochemical events measured by ENCODE.
 Primate-specific elements as well as elements without detectable mammalian constraint show, in aggregate, evidence of negative selection; thus some of them are expected to be functional.
 Classifying the genome into seven chromatin states suggests an initial set of 399,124 regions with enhancer-like features and 70,292 regions with promoters-like features, as well hundreds of thousands of quiescent regions. High-resolution analyses further subdivide the genome into thousands of narrow states with distinct functional properties.
 It is possible to quantitatively correlate RNA sequence production and processing with both chromatin marks and transcription factor (TF) binding at promoters, indicating that promoter functionality can explain the majority of RNA expression variation.
 Many non-coding variants in individual genome sequences lie in ENCODE- annotated functional regions; this number is at least as large as those that lie in protein coding genes.
 SNPs associated with disease by GWAS are enriched within non-coding functional elements, with a majority residing in or near ENCODE-defined regions that are outside of protein coding genes. In many cases, the disease phenotypes can be associated with a specific cell type or TF.

The most striking finding was that the fraction of human DNA that is biologically active is considerably higher than even the most optimistic previous estimates.  In an overview paper, the ENCODE Consortium reported that its members were able to assign biochemical functions to over 80% of the genome. Much of this was found to be involved in controlling the expression levels of coding DNA, which makes up less than 1% of the genome.

The most important new elements of the "encyclopedia" include:

A comprehensive map of DNase 1 hypersensitive sites, which are markers for regulatory DNA that is typically located adjacent to genes and allows chemical factors to influence their expression. The map identified nearly 3 million sites of this type, including nearly all that were previously known and many that are novel.
A lexicon of short DNA sequences that form recognition motifs for DNA-binding proteins. Approximately 8.4 million such sequences were found, comprising a fraction of the total DNA roughly twice the size of the exome. Thousands of transcription promoters were found to make use of a single stereotyped 50-base-pair footprint.
A preliminary sketch of the architecture of the network of human transcription factors, that is, factors that bind to DNA in order to promote or inhibit the expression of genes. The network was found to be quite complex, with factors that operate at different levels as well as numerous feedback loops of various types.
A measurement of the fraction of the human genome that is capable of being transcribed into RNA. This fraction was estimated to add up to more than 75% of the total DNA, a much higher value than previous estimates. The project also began to characterize the types of RNA transcripts that are generated at various locations.

Data Management and Analysis

Capturing, storing, integrating, and displaying the diverse data generated is challenging. The ENCODE Data Coordination Center (DCC) organizes and displays the data generated by the labs in the consortium, and ensures that the data meets specific quality standards when it is released to the public. Before a lab submits any data, the DCC and the lab draft a data agreement that defines the experimental parameters and associated metadata. The DCC validates incoming data to ensure consistency with the agreement. It also ensures that all data is annotated using appropriate Ontologies. It then loads the data onto a test server for preliminary inspection, and coordinates with the labs to organize the data into a consistent set of tracks. When the tracks are ready, the DCC Quality Assurance team performs a series of integrity checks, verifies that the data is presented in a manner consistent with other browser data, and perhaps most importantly, verifies that the metadata and accompanying descriptive text are presented in a way that is useful to our users. The data is released on the public UCSC Genome Browser website only after all of these checks have been satisfied. In parallel, data is analyzed by the ENCODE Data Analysis Center, a consortium of analysis teams from the various production labs plus other researchers. These teams develop standardized protocols to analyze data from novel assays, determine best practices, and produce a consistent set of analytic methods such as standardized peak callers and signal generation from alignment pile-ups.

The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) has identified ENCODE as a "community resource project". This important concept was defined at an international meeting held in Ft. Lauderdale in January 2003 as a research project specifically devised and implemented to create a set of data, reagents, or other material whose primary utility will be as a resource for the broad scientific community. Accordingly, the ENCODE data release policy stipulates that data, once verified, will be deposited into public databases and made available for all to use without restriction.

Other Projects
With the continuation of the third phase, the ENCODE Consortium has become involved with additional projects whose goals run parallel to the ENCODE project. Some of these projects were part of the second phase of ENCODE.

modENCODE project

The MODel organism ENCyclopedia Of DNA Elements (modENCODE) project is a continuation of the original ENCODE project targeting the identification of functional elements in selected model organism genomes, specifically Drosophila melanogaster and Caenorhabditis elegans. The extension to model organisms permits biological validation of the computational and experimental findings of the ENCODE project, something that is difficult or impossible to do in humans. Funding for the modENCODE project was announced by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 2007 and included several different research institutions in the US. The project completed its work in 2012.

In late 2010, the modENCODE consortium unveiled its first set of results with publications on annotation and integrative analysis of the worm and fly genomes in Science. Data from these publications is available from the modENCODE web site.

modENCODE was run as a Research Network and the consortium was formed by 11 primary projects, divided between worm and fly. The projects spanned the following:
 Gene structure
 mRNA and ncRNA expression profiling
 Transcription factor binding sites
 Histone modifications and replacement
 Chromatin structure
 DNA replication initiation and timing
 Copy number variation.

modERN
modERN, short for the model organism encyclopedia of regulatory networks, branched from the modENCODE project. The project has merged the C. elegans and Drosophila groups and focuses on the identification of additional transcription factor binding sites of the respective organisms. The project began at the same time as Phase III of ENCODE, and plans to end in 2017. To date, the project has released 198 experiments, with around 500 other experiments submitted and currently being processed by the DCC.

Genomics of Gene Regulation
In early 2015, the NIH launched the Genomics of Gene Regulation (GGR) program. The goal of the program, which will last for three years, is to study gene networks and pathways in different systems of the body, with the hopes to further understand the mechanisms controlling gene expressions. Although the ENCODE project is separate from GGR, the ENCODE DCC has been hosting GGR data in the ENCODE portal.

Roadmap
In 2008, NIH began the Roadmap Epigenomics Mapping Consortium, whose goal was to produce "a public resource of human epigenomic data to catalyze basic biology and disease-oriented research". In February 2015, the consortium released an article titled "Integrative analysis of 111 reference human epigenomes" that fulfilled the consortium's goal. The consortium integrated information and annotated regulatory elements across 127 reference epigenomes, 16 of which were part of the ENCODE project. Data for the Roadmap project can either be found in the Roadmap portal or ENCODE portal.

fruitENCODE project
The fruitENCODE: an encyclopedia of DNA elements for fruit ripening is a plant ENCODE project that aims to generate DNA methylation, histone modifications, DHS, gene expression, transcription factor binding datasets for all fleshy fruit species at different developmental stages. Prerelease data can be found in the fruitENCODE portal.

Criticism of the project

Although the consortium claims they are far from finished with the ENCODE project, many reactions to the published papers and the news coverage that accompanied the release were favorable. The Nature editors and ENCODE authors "... collaborated over many months to make the biggest splash possible and capture the attention of not only the research community but also of the public at large".  The ENCODE project's claim that 80% of the human genome has biochemical function was rapidly picked up by the popular press who described the results of the project as leading to the death of junk DNA.

However the conclusion that most of the genome is "functional" has been criticized on the grounds that ENCODE project used a liberal definition of "functional", namely anything that is transcribed must be functional. This conclusion was arrived at despite the widely accepted view, based on genomic conservation estimates from comparative genomics, that many DNA elements such as pseudogenes that are transcribed are nevertheless non-functional. Furthermore, the ENCODE project has emphasized sensitivity over specificity leading possibly to the detection of many false positives. Somewhat arbitrary choice of cell lines and transcription factors as well as lack of appropriate control experiments were additional major criticisms of ENCODE as random DNA mimics ENCODE-like 'functional' behavior.

In response to some of the criticisms, other scientists argued that the wide spread transcription and splicing that is observed in the human genome directly by biochemical testing is a more accurate indicator of genetic function than genomic conservation estimates because conservation estimates are all relative and difficult to align due to incredible variations in genome sizes of even closely related species, it is partially tautological, and these estimates are not based on direct testing for functionality on the genome. Conservation estimates may be used to provide clues to identify possible functional elements in the genome, but it does not limit or cap the total amount of functional elements that could possibly exist in the genome. Furthermore, much of the genome that is being disputed by critics seems to be involved in epigenetic regulation such as gene expression and appears to be necessary for the development of complex organisms. The ENCODE results were not necessarily unexpected since increases in attributions of functionality were foreshadowed by previous decades of research. Additionally, others have noted that the ENCODE project from the very beginning had a scope that was based on seeking biomedically relevant functional elements in the genome not evolutionary functional elements, which are not necessarily the same thing since evolutionary selection is neither sufficient nor necessary to establish a function. It is a very useful proxy to relevant functions, but an imperfect one and not the only one. The ENCODE project noted that its data is used to illuminate biological and biomedical questions on genomes and function.

In response to the complaints about the definition of the word "function" some have noted that ENCODE did define what it meant and since the scope of ENCODE was seeking biomedically relevant functional elements in the genome, then the conclusion of the project should be interpreted "as saying that 80 % of the genome is engaging in relevant biochemical activities that are very likely to have causal roles in phenomena deemed relevant to biomedical research."  Ewan Birney, one of the ENCODE researchers, commented that "function" was used pragmatically to mean "specific biochemical activity" which included different classes of assays: RNA, "broad" histone modifications, "narrow" histone modifications, DNaseI hypersensitive sites, Transcription Factor ChIP-seq peaks, DNaseI Footprints, Transcription Factor bound motifs, and Exons.

In 2014, ENCODE researchers noted that in the literature, functional parts of the genome have been identified differently in previous studies depending on the approaches used. There have been three general approaches used to identify functional parts of the human genome: genetic approaches (which rely on changes in phenotype), evolutionary approaches (which rely on conservation) and biochemical approaches (which rely on biochemical testing and was used by ENCODE). All three have limitations: genetic approaches may miss functional elements that do not manifest physically on the organism, evolutionary approaches have difficulties using accurate multispecies sequence alignments since genomes of even closely related species vary considerably, and with biochemical approaches, though having high reproducibility, the biochemical signatures do not always automatically signify a function. They concluded that in contrast to evolutionary and genetic evidence, biochemical data offer clues about both the molecular function served by underlying DNA elements and the cell types in which they act and ultimately all three approaches can be used in a complementary way to identify regions that may be functional in human biology and disease. Furthermore, they noted that the biochemical maps provided by ENCODE were the most valuable things from the project since they provide a starting point for testing how these signatures relate to molecular, cellular, and organismal function.

The project has also been criticized for its high cost (~$400 million in total) and favoring big science which takes money away from highly productive investigator-initiated research. The pilot ENCODE project cost an estimated $55 million; the scale-up was about $130 million and the US National Human Genome Research Institute NHGRI could award up to $123 million for the next phase. Some researchers argue that a solid return on that investment has yet to be seen. There have been attempts to scour the literature for the papers in which ENCODE plays a significant part and since 2012 there have been 300 papers, 110 of which come from labs without ENCODE funding. An additional problem is that ENCODE is not a unique name dedicated to the ENCODE project exclusively, so the word 'encode' comes up in many genetics and genomics literature.

Another major critique is that the results do not justify the amount of time spent on the project and that the project itself is essentially unfinishable. Although often compared to Human Genome Project (HGP) and even termed as the HGP next step, the HGP had a clear endpoint which ENCODE currently lacks.

The authors seem to sympathize with the scientific concerns and at the same time try to justify their efforts by giving interviews and explaining ENCODE details not just to the scientific public, but also to mass media. They also claim that it took more than half a century from the realization that DNA is the hereditary material of life to the human genome sequence, so that their plan for the next century would be to really understand the sequence itself.

FactorBook

The analysis of transcription factor binding data generated by the ENCODE project is currently available in the web-accessible repository FactorBook. Essentially, Factorbook.org is a Wiki-based database for transcription factor-binding data generated by the ENCODE consortium. In the first release, Factorbook contains:
 457 ChIP-seq datasets on 119 TFs in a number of human cell lines
 The average profiles of histone modifications and nucleosome positioning around the TF-binding regions
 Sequence motifs enriched in the regions and the distance and orientation preferences between motif sites.

See also

 GENCODE
 SIMAP
 Functional genomics
 Human Genome Project
 1000 Genomes Project
 International HapMap Project
 List of biological databases

References

External links

 Official list of ENCODE project publications
 ENCODE project at the National Human Genome Research Institute
 Encyclopedia of DNA Elements at the UCSC Genome Browser
 ENCODE/GENCODE project at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute
 ENCODE-sponsored introductory tutorial
 FactorBook
 modENCODE
 ENCODE threads Explorer at the Nature (journal)

Biological databases
Genetics or genomics research institutions
Population genetics organizations
21st-century encyclopedias

ENCODE


Daniel Francis La Spata (born February 26, 1981) is a Chicago politician. He has served as the alderman of Chicago's 1st ward since May 2019. He won election to that office after defeating incumbent Proco Joe Moreno in the 2019 Chicago aldermanic elections. He is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America.

Early life, education, and career
La Spata was born in South Plainfield, New Jersey in 1981 and graduated in 1999 from South Plainfield High School. He moved to Chicago in 1999 to attend North Park University, where he later received a bachelor's degree in psychology and music. In 2019, he completed his master's degree in urban planning and public policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

He was a member of the Logan Square Neighborhood Association for 10 years, including a stint as vice-president, where he worked on issues of equitable housing and community development. He has also worked as a community organizer for the Jane Addams Seniors Caucus, a policy and planning associate at Friends of the Parks, and policy intern at the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability.

In the 2019 Chicago aldermanic elections, La Spata ran for alderman of the 1st ward, challenging incumbent Proco Joe Moreno. He received endorsements from local community organization The People's Lobby and state representative Will Guzzardi. In February 2019, a photograph reportedly from his 2013 bachelor party was released in which La Spata, dressed in a banana costume and with his friends surrounding him in monkey masks, posed with four African-American boys at a downtown Chicago park. Following criticism of the photo as racist, La Spata issued an apology stating "I apologize unequivocally for the photo from my bachelor party six years ago." On February 29, 2019, he won election to the seat after defeating Moreno with 61.3% of the vote.

On April 10, 2019, La Spata joined six other newly elected socialist members of the City Council in protesting against the approval of tax increment financing for the Lincoln Yards and The 78 real estate developments.

Chicago City Council (2019–present)
La Spata was sworn in as alderman from the 1st ward on May 20, 2019. He is a member of the Progressive Caucus and Socialist Caucus within City Council.

In November 2019, La Spata was one of eleven aldermen to vote against Mayor Lori Lightfoot's first budget. He joined all five other members of the Socialist Caucus in signing a letter to Lightfoot which criticized her budget for "an over-reliance on property taxes" and "regressive funding models" that are "burdensome to our working-class citizens, while giving the wealthy and large corporations a pass."

La Spata has advocated for Chicago to altogether end its contract with Commonwealth Edison.

Electoral history

See also
List of Chicago aldermen since 1923
List of Democratic Socialists of America who have held office in the United States

References

1981 births
21st-century American politicians
Chicago City Council members
Hispanic and Latino American city council members
Illinois Democrats
Living people
Members of the Democratic Socialists of America from Illinois
New Jersey politicians
North Park University alumni
People from South Plainfield, New Jersey
South Plainfield High School alumni
University of Illinois Chicago alumni

Daniel La Spata


The rope-a-dope is a boxing fighting technique in which one contender leans against the ropes of the boxing ring and draws non-injuring offensive punches, letting the opponent tire himself out. This gives the former the opportunity then to execute devastating offensive punches to help them win. The rope-a-dope is most famously associated with Muhammad Ali in his October 1974 Rumble in the Jungle match against world heavyweight champion George Foreman in Kinshasa, Zaire (Democratic Republic of the Congo).

Technique
The rope-a-dope is performed by a boxer assuming a protected stance (in Ali's classic pose, pretending to be trapped and lying against the ropes, which allows some of the punch's energy to be absorbed by the ropes' elasticity rather than the boxer's body). The boxer keeps their guard up and is prepared for the incoming blows while looking for opportunities to counter-punch their opponent, who by mounting an offensive may have left themselves open to counters. By being in a defensive posture and being prepared for the incoming blows, the boxer decreases their chances of being caught with a clean flush blow, as ideally a significant portion of the punches will land on the boxer's hands and arms, or will miss completely as a result of the boxer slipping the punch. Additionally, if the opponent lacks stamina, their power will decrease throughout the fight and essentially "waste" many punches into the boxer's guard.

However, a boxer employing this tactic must have a strong chin, or capacity to withstand punishment and thus avoid being knocked down by those punches that do get through the boxer's defenses and land. Offensively, the boxer employing this tactic will look to exploit mistakes made in their opponent's attack by countering if the opponent has left himself open. The boxer will also look to mount short bursts of offensive attacks in between their opponent's attack, being sure to immediately get back in their defensive posture as to not leave themselves open to a counterattack.

Etymology
According to photographer George Kalinsky, Ali had an unusual way of conducting his sparring sessions, where he had his sparring partner hit him, which he felt "was his way of being able to take punishment in the belly". Kalinsky told him: "Do what you do in a training session: Act like a dope on the ropes." Ali then replied: "So, you want me to be a rope-a-dope?"

According to Angelo Dundee, Kalinsky told Ali: "Why don't you try something like that? Sort of a dope on the ropes, letting Foreman swing away but, like in the picture, hit nothing but air." The publicist John Condon popularized the phrase "rope-a-dope".

Notable fights
The maneuver is most commonly associated with the match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman, known as "The Rumble in the Jungle". Foreman was considered by many observers to be the favorite to win the fight due to his superior punching power. Ali purposely angered Foreman during the match, provoking Foreman to attack and force him back on the ropes. Some observers at the time thought that Ali was being horribly beaten and worried that they might see him get killed in the ring. Writer George Plimpton described Ali's stance as like "a man leaning out his window trying to see something on his roof." Far from being brutalized, however, Ali was relatively protected from Foreman's blows. Norman Mailer described the advantage of Ali's rope-a-dope this way: "Standing on one's feet it is painful to absorb a heavy body punch even when blocked with one's arm. The torso, the legs, and the spine take the shock. Leaning on the ropes, however, Ali can pass it along; the rope will receive the strain." Ali's preparation for the fight, which involved toughening himself up by allowing his sparring partners to pummel him, contributed to observers' sense that Ali was outmatched. But Ali took advantage and won the match when Foreman became tired from the punches he was delivering.

Manny Pacquiao used the strategy to gauge the power of welterweight titlist Miguel Cotto in their November 2009 fight. Pacquiao followed the rope-a-dope with a knockdown.

Nicolino Locche, an Argentine boxer nicknamed "El Intocable" (The Untouchable), used this technique extensively throughout his career. He would get against the ropes and dodge nearly every single punch until his opponent would tire, and then he would take him down with combinations.

"Irish" Micky Ward used this strategy during many of the fights in the latter part of his career. Ward would wait for his opponent to become fatigued and would hit with either a left hook to the body or other combinations. This strategy led him to the junior welterweight championship of the WBU, where he took the belt from Shea Neary.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. often used this technique in his bouts, as he demonstrated in his August 2017 fight against Conor McGregor.

See also
Boxing styles and technique

References

Further reading

Boxing terminology
Muhammad Ali

Rope-a-dope


Sylvias hälsning från Sicilien (Swedish, Sylvia's Greeting from Sicily) is a poem by Zachris Topelius from 1853, which was composed to a christmas carol by Karl Collan. The poem has been translated to Finnish by both Elina Vaara and Martti Korpilahti, and the latter one from 1918 is one of the most beloved Finnish christmas carols. It has been chosen as the best Finnish christmas carol in the 1960s and again in 2002 in a poll by Yleisradio. The poem is a part of the collection Sylvian laulut:

Sylvia, or Eurasian blackcap, (Sylvia atricapilla), is a migratory bird which hibernates in Sicily. The poem tells about the wonders of the South, like Cypresses and Mount Etna, but it also tells about homesickness and patriotism.

The cage mentioned in the first verse refers to a cruel way of catching birds: The bird is trapped into a cage with its eyes pierced, and as a night singer it will attract other birds, who will fly straight to the catcher's net. Topelius opposed this harsh way of netting.

The cage reference is also said to depict Finland as an autonomic but oppressed part of Russia.

Lyrics of the carol

See also

List of Christmas carols
Varpunen Jouluaamuna
Joulupuu on rakennettu

References

Works by Zacharias Topelius
Christmas carols
Finnish songs

Sylvias hälsning från Sicilien


Jim Tavaré (born 1963) is a British stand-up comedian, actor, and musician. He is best known for his work on The Sketch Show on ITV, which won a BAFTA award. He played the role of Tom (the owner of the Leaky Cauldron) in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and has appeared in several music videos, including Roots Manuva's "Too Cold", McFly's  "It's All About You" (for BBC Comic Relief), Phoenix Foundation's "Thames Soup", and Letlive's "Banshee".

Life and career
Tavaré was born in Essex, England in 1963. He is a cousin of former international cricketer Chris Tavaré. When he was 7, he and his family moved to Cheshire, where he eventually attended art school in Northwich. After finishing his art studies, he moved to London, where he worked with Corin Redgrave. As a result, he successfully auditioned for and attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Tavaré's first film appearance was as a student in Another Country (1984) with Rupert Everett and Colin Firth. Although uncredited, he was a featured extra appearing in numerous scenes throughout the film. Tavaré was Colin Firth's stand-in for the duration of the film. Charles Spencer, Diana, Princess of Wales's brother, was also an uncredited extra. Tavaré eventually branched out into stand-up comedy with a unique act which featured his double bass, an instrument he had learned to play during his childhood.

In 1995, Tavaré wrote and starred in a series of short silent films for BBC2, titled Jim Tavaré Pictures Presents. On Channel Five, he had a skit series of his own that he co-wrote with Ricky Gervais, called The Jim Tavaré Show. He appeared three times in the Royal Variety Performance and subsequently worked for Prince Charles at several private engagements, including at a private Christmas party and at a gala held at Highgrove in front of Queen Elizabeth II and 13 other crowned heads of state. He became renowned in the UK as Prince Charles's favourite comedian. Following an appearance at the Montreal Just For Laughs festival, CBS commissioned a special episode of the American series Wings based on and written entirely around his comedy act. Tavaré starred in this episode, which was called "Take My Life Please".

Tavaré co-wrote and appeared in the BAFTA-winning ITV series The Sketch Show, alongside Lee Mack, Tim Vine, Ronni Ancona, Karen Taylor, and Kitty Flanagan. In 2004, Tavaré appeared in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban as Tom the Innkeeper. In 2008, he finished in fourth place on the American show Last Comic Standing 6, having been the only overseas act ever to have reached the final show. He performed a 63-date national tour with the other four Last Comic Standing finalists throughout the US. He appeared in the fifth series of the David Duchovny comedy-drama Californication as an English butler to a hip-hop mogul played by Wu-Tang Clan frontman RZA. He made a guest-star appearance in season 5 of the comedy and spy drama Chuck, the TV show Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and on Comedy Central's Tosh.0. In September 2013, he began filming the role of The Dog Catcher in Syco Entertainment's feature film Pudsey: The Movie alongside David Walliams, Jessica Hynes, and John Sessions.  In 2017, Tavaré was in an intensive care unit after being injured in a collision with a car. After suffering catastrophic injuries (over 30 broken bones, including 14 broken ribs, collapsed lungs, multiple fractures, broken neck and a hand that detached from the wrist) Tavare returned to the stage with a new show about his experiences entitled "From deadpan to bedpan".

References

Sources
 Sit-Down Comedy (contributor to anthology, ed. Malcolm Hardee & John Fleming) Ebury Press/Random House, 2003.  ;

1963 births
Living people
20th-century English male actors
21st-century English male actors
20th-century English comedians
21st-century English comedians
People from Northwich
Alumni of RADA
English double-bassists
Male double-bassists
English male comedians
English male film actors
English male television actors
Last Comic Standing contestants
Male actors from Essex
21st-century double-bassists
21st-century British male musicians
Comedians from Essex
English comedy musicians

Jim Tavaré


Ardrossan Winton Pier railway station served the town of Ardrossan and its harbour, North Ayrshire, Scotland. The station allowed train passengers to link with the Caledonian MacBrayne (CalMac) ferry sailings to Brodick on the Isle of Arran and other destinations.

History
The station was opened on 27 July 1840 as part of the Ardrossan Railway (later merged with the Glasgow and South Western Railway) and was known as Ardrossan Pier. Upon the grouping of the G&SWR into the London, Midland and Scottish Railway during the Grouping of 1923, the station was renamed Ardrossan Winton Pier on 2 June 1924 in order to distinguish between the Ardrossan Pier station on the former Lanarkshire and Ayrshire Railway (which was renamed Ardrossan Montgomerie Pier).
The station then passed on to the Scottish Region of British Railways on nationalisation in 1948.

The station had a single island platform. With the closure of Montgomerie Pier station on 6 May 1968, Winton Pier station became the sole passenger rail terminus at the harbour. When sectorisation was introduced in the 1980s, the station was briefly served by ScotRail before closing, replaced by Ardrossan Harbour railway station (situated slightly further inland) on 19 January 1987 upon the commencement of electric services.
Train services in connection with the sailings of Burns and Laird Lines to Belfast and Isle of Man Steam Packet Company to Douglas, Isle of Man ceased in 1976 and  1985, respectively, when the shipping routes closed.

The site of the station is now located behind the main CalMac ferry terminal building. Only the outline of where the platform was once located remains.

References

Notes

Sources

 Stations on navigable O.S. map. Used (on map) station at end of branch south of harbour entrance'

Disused railway stations in North Ayrshire
Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1840
Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1987
1840 establishments in Scotland
1987 disestablishments in Scotland
Former Glasgow and South Western Railway stations
Ardrossan−Saltcoats−Stevenston

Ardrossan Winton Pier railway station


The Warrior knife is a large curved blade fighting knife with a serrated back edge that was first made by Al Mar Knives and Round Eye Knife and Tool (REKAT). Part of the knife's design is credited to martial arts instructor Michael Echanis.

Design
The Warrior knife was designed by custom knife maker, Vietnam combat veteran, and close combat instructor  Bob Taylor and Hwarang-do expert Randy Wanner. The blade is distinctive in that the entire rear portion of the blade has a serrated edge, that was added at the suggestion of Wanner's Hwarang-do student Michael D. Echanis and is the reason why the knife has the informal name "Echanis' Warrior". Al Mar was an edged-weapons specialist in the U.S. Army Special Forces, a 5th degree black belt in Judo when he started Al Mar Knives in 1978 and began work on the famous and highly sought after "Warrior" knife. In his book, Battle Blades, Greg Walker[3] refers to the Al Mar Warrior as, "perhaps the ultimate in battle-blade design.

In addition to the rear serrations used for trapping an opponent's attacking limb, the knife is noted for having an extremely ergonomic handle for use in both the forward and reverse grip. The handle was designed by making a complex study of the human hand through a COBOL computer program and this design has gone on to influence other fighting knives such as Emerson Knives' CQC-8 model.

Versions
The original version was made by Al Mar Knives and had either a polished or blackened blade with either a black or camouflage rubber handle.
G.Sakai of Seki Japan was the manufacturer of the Al Mar Warrior as well as Spyderco's version.

Round Eye Knife and Tool made a smaller version known as the "Hobbit Warrior" and a folding version known as the "Pocket Hobbit".

Spyderco knives makes a version of this knife.

References

Military knives
Mechanical hand tools
Camping equipment
Goods manufactured in the United States

Warrior knife


The Market Street Row is located on the west side of that street in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States, just south of Hulme Park and across from the Adriance Memorial Library, on the southern edge of downtown. It includes three houses, including the Mott-Van Kleeck House, the oldest frame house in the city.

Market Street is Poughkeepsie's oldest, in existence in 1709 when a royal decree made it part of the King's Highway, later to become the Albany Post Road after independence. The Mott-Van Kleeck House was built around 1780 by a descendant of the Van Kleeck family, one of Poughkeepsie's oldest. Stylistically it is a precursor to the Federal style, in which later decorative motifs were added. For many years it indicated the beginning of Poughkeepsie to travelers.

In the late 19th century, around 1880, the two neighboring houses were built. They were ornate -story brick structures with peaked slate roofs, iron cresting, and Shingle-style porches. A tower was added to the Mott-Van Kleeck House, in sympathetic colors and materials.

In the automotive era, Market Street was incorporated into US 9, the main route for drivers from New York City to Albany until the construction of the New York State Thruway and the subsequent rerouting of Route 9 onto a new expressway through the city. The houses became decrepit and were threatened during urban renewal efforts in the 1970s. They were preserved instead, and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. Today they have been redeveloped into commercial offices, like the Hasbrouck House and Amrita Club nearby.

References

Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in New York (state)
Houses completed in 1780
1880s architecture in the United States
Houses in Poughkeepsie, New York
National Register of Historic Places in Poughkeepsie, New York

Market Street Row


Chama cha Kiswahili cha Taifa (National Kiswahili Association, abbreviated as CHAKITA) is a Kenyan institution founded in 1998 responsible for the promotion of the Swahili language in Kenya. The Founding Chair is Prof. Kimani Njogu, a graduate of Yale University's department of Linguistics.

Key activities of CHAKITA are directing research into Kiswahili language and literature in coordination with academic institutions and to develop Kiswahili so that it can be used as a means of national development. The institution sees use of indigenous languages in governance as key to socio-economic development. The Association is key in influencing policies on culture and languages in Kenya and was instrumental in ensuring that Kiswahili was entrenched in the Constitution of Kenya. In 2000, the Kenyan parliament passed a CHAKITA sponsored bill to make Kiswahili a national language and to make its teaching compulsory in schools. Professor Clara Momanyi, Secretary of CHAKITA, was tasked with translation of the new Constitution of Kenya, which was approved in the 2010 referendum.

In keeping with its view of the need for development of indigenous languages for national integration and development, CHAKITA has also supported increased government promotion of other Kenyan languages. The 2000 bill also called for the creation of 'Baraza la Lugha la Taifa' (National Languages Council), to develop other local languages.

The vision of CHAKITA is to have the East African region use Kiswahili effectively in all sectors of the economy. The mission of CHAKITA is to contribute in the development of Kiswahili in the region through advocacy as well as publishing, teaching, conferences, translations and linkages with key stakeholders. CHAKITA has played a key in fostering closer ties and coordinating its activities with similar Kiswahili promotion bodies such as BAKITA in Tanzania and Uganda to aid in the development of Kiswahili.

CHAKITA is managed by an Executive Committee composed of a Chairperson, Vice Chair, Secretary, Treasurer, and Assistant Treasurer. A number of technical committees support the work of the association.

See also
 Baraza la Kiswahili la Taifa (BAKITA), its Tanzanian counterpart

References

External links
Official website

Language regulators
Swahili language
Cultural organisations based in Kenya

Chama cha Kiswahili cha Taifa


John Frederick, Prince of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt (8 January 1721 in Rudolstadt – 10 July 1767 in ibid) was the ruling Prince of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt from 1744 to 1767.

Life
John Frederick von Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt was the only son of Frederick Anton, Prince of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt and his first wife, Princess Sophia Wilhelmina of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld.

John Frederick mastered the French language. Between 1738 and 1742, John Frederick made a Grand Tour.  He attended lectures on theology at the University of Strasbourg and lectures on mathematics and physics at the University of Utrecht.  During his Grand Tour, he came into contact with the ideas of the Age of Enlightenment.  He later tried to reconcile these ideas with his faith.

In 1742, John Frederick represented his father at the coronation of Emperor Charles.  The ceremony in Frankfurt Cathedral lasted several hours and John Frederick found it very impressive.

In 1744, at the age of 23, he inherited the Principality of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt.  He continued the Heidecksburg construction project his father had begun.  His father had built the exterior of the castle, John Frederick took up decorating the interior.  He commissioned frescoed ceilings and overdoor ornaments.  In 1750, the ballroom was completed by Gottfried Heinrich Krohne.  It is considered a prime example of Rococo interior design in Germany.

The princely collection of sheet music had been lost in a fire in 1735.  John Frederick started a new collection to replace it.  Georg Gebel composed at least nine opera libretti and about a hundred symphonies, partitas and concerts.  In 1746, John Frederick rewarded him with the title of Concertmeister and in 1750 with the title of Kapellmeister.  In 1754, Christian Gotthelf Scheinpflug succeeded gebel as Kapellmeister.  He composed music for all kinds of courtly occasions.

In 1746, he founded a theological seminary and supported the founding of an extensive public library.  He added his private library to the existing collection and from 1751 onwards, he allowed the general public to access it once a week.  He considerably extended the collection of the "Princely public library Rudolstadt", founded in 1748, be purchasing scientific literature and numerous valuable books, incunables and oriental manuscripts.  The collection is currently split between the , and the .

On 4 October 1760, John Frederick granted a license to operate a porcelain factory to Georg Heinrich Macheleid.  John Frederick himself acted as a director for this company, which still exists under the name of Aelteste Volkstedter Porzellanmanufaktur.

On 20 January 1764, the local gymnasium celebrated its centenary.  On this occasion, John Frederick officially named the building  and added a position teaching mathematics and physics.  The ceremony was attended by the Prince and the entire princely household.

John Frederick died on 10 July 1767.  As he had no male heir, he was succeeded by his uncle Louis Günther II.  In 1763, Louis Günther II's eldest son, the new Hereditary Prince Frederick Charles, had married John Frederick's eldest daughter, Frederike.

Marriage and issue

John Frederick married on 19 November 1744 in Eisenach to Princess Bernardina Christina Sophia of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (1724–1757).  They had the following children:
 Princess Frederike of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt (1745–1778); married on 1763 Frederick Charles, Prince of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt (1736-1793)
 Daughter (1746-1746)
 Son (1747-1747)
 Princess Sophie Ernestine of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt (1749–1754)
 Princess Wilhelmina of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt (1751–1780); married in 1766 Louis, Prince of Nassau-Saarbrücken (1745-1794).
 Princess Henrietta Charlotte of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt (1752–1756)

Ancestry

References
 Bernhard Anemüller: Johann Friedrich Fürst zu Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt 1721 bis 1767, 1864
 Jens Henkel and Lutz Unbehaun: Die Fürsten von Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, Thüringer Landesmuseum Heidecksburg, Rudolstadt, 1997 (3rd ed.: 2001),
 Johann Christian August Junghans: Geschichte der schwarzburgischen Regenten, Leipzig, 1821, online, viewed on 2 march 2012
 Friedrich Apfelstedt: Das Haus Kevernburg-Schwarzburg von seinem Ursprunge bis auf unsere Zeit: dargestellt in den Stammtafeln seiner Haupt- und Nebenlinien und mit biographischen Notizen über die wichtigsten Glieder derselben, Bertram, Sondershausen, 1890,

Footnotes

House of Schwarzburg
Princes of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt
1721 births
1767 deaths
18th-century German people


Hugh Todd Naylor Gaitskell  (9 April 1906 – 18 January 1963) was a British politician, and leader of the Labour Party 1955–1963. He was also Chancellor of the Exchequer under Clement Attlee. He read Philosophy, Politics and Economics at New College, University of Oxford. After an academic career at University College London he became the MP for Leeds South in 1945.

Other websites

1906 births
1963 deaths
Chancellors of the Exchequer
Labour Party (UK) MPs

Hugh Gaitskell


Willingshausen is a municipality in the Schwalm-Eder district in Hesse, Germany.

Geography

Location
The community of Willingshausen lies in the Schwalm area.

Neighbouring communities
Willingshausen borders in the north on the town of Schwalmstadt, in the northeast on the community of Frielendorf, in the east on the town of Neukirchen and the community of Schrecksbach (all in Schwalm-Eder), in the south on the town of Alsfeld and the community of Antrifttal (both in the Vogelsbergkreis), and in the west on the town of Neustadt (Marburg-Biedenkopf).

Constituent communities
Willingshausen consists of the ten centres of Gungelshausen, Leimbach, Loshausen, Merzhausen, Ransbach, Steina, Steinatal, Wasenberg (administrative seat), Willingshausen and Zella.

Politics

Municipal council

Willingshausen's municipal council is made up of 31 councillors.

As of the last municipal elections held on 26 March 2006, the council seats are apportioned thus:

Culture and sightseeing

Willingshäuser Malerkolonie
The Willingshausen Painters' Colony is Germany's oldest artists' association. It was founded by a man from Livonia named Gerhardt Wilhelm von Reutern after he had been badly wounded in the Battle of the Nations at Leipzig in 1814 while serving as an officer in the Russian army; as a result, he had to have his right arm amputated. He came to convalesce with his brother's inlaws at the Schwertzellsche Haus in Willingshausen, where he met and got to know the lady whom in 1820 he would wed, Charlotte von Schwertzell. He settled down in Willingshausen and began to draw and paint. He procured an honorary stipend from the Russian Imperial Family, which afforded him financial independence.

In 1825 the Kassel painter Ludwig Emil Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm's brother, came to Willingshausen to study landscapes. This is said to be the time when the colony was founded. Many painters worked – and still work today – at Willingshausen. The Museum "Malerstübchen" at the Gerhardt-von-Reutern-Haus documents the artists' work.

Regular events
Two music festivals take place each year in the constituent community of Loshausen, the "World Music Festival der Klangfreunde" on the first weekend of August, and "Rock im Park" in July.

Economy and infrastructure

Transport
Federal Highway (Bundesstraße) B 254 (Homberg – Fulda) is about 6 km east of town. The Alsfeld-West interchange on Autobahn A 5 (Kassel – Frankfurt is about 15 km away.

The community belongs to the North Hesse Transport Network.

References

External links
  Willingshausen
 Painters' Colony in Willingshausen

Artist colonies
Schwalm-Eder-Kreis

Willingshausen


Bodenteich is a former Samtgemeinde ("collective municipality") in the district of Uelzen, in Lower Saxony, Germany. Its seat was in the village Bad Bodenteich. At the 1 November 2011 local government reform, the Samtgemeinden Bodenteich and Wrestedt merged to form the new Samtgemeinde Aue.

The Samtgemeinde Bodenteich consisted of the following municipalities:

 Bad Bodenteich
 Lüder
 Soltendieck

Former Samtgemeinden in Lower Saxony
Uelzen (district)

Bodenteich (Samtgemeinde)


The First Epistle of Peter is the sixtieth book in the Christian Bible, and the twenty-first in the New Testament.  This book is believed to be a letter from Peter to fellow Christians. The traditional Roman Catholic belief is that was written during his time as Bishop of Rome or Bishop of Antioch but that is not said in the letter, which says that it was written from Babylon. In the Book of Revelation Babylon is used as a code word for Rome. The letter was sent to Christian churches in Asia Minor that were being persecuted for their faith.

Who sent the letter

Many students of the book believe that Peter was not the author of the letter because it seems been written by someone who had learned rhetoric and philosophy, and had studied the Greek language, none of which would be usual for a Galilean fisherman. Others believe that Peter used an educated secretary to help him write the letter or that he studied relevant subjects in the decades-long period between Jesus' death and Peter's writing of the letter.

To whom it was sent

1 Peter was sent to the "elect resident aliens" living in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. These were Roman provinces in Asia Minor. In Chapter 1, verse 17, they are told to "live in reverent fear during the time of your exile". Peter calls them "strangers", in the first verse of the letter.  This could mean Christians wishing for their home in heaven, or people in a different place from where they were born. While local people may have been unkind to the Christians, Peter tells them to stay loyal to both their religion and the Roman Empire (Chapter 2, verse 17).

What Peter tells the Christians

(1) to keep faithful even when other treat them badly. (Chapters 1 and 2)
(2) to live a holy life in every day ways. (Chapter 2 and 3)
(3) He uses the example of Jesus Christ and other reasons to be patient and holy in Chapters 3 and 4.
(4)  He concludes with advice to pastors and people (Chapter 5).

References

Other websites
I Peter (NIV)
I Peter (KJV)

New Testament books
General Epistles

First Epistle of Peter


Major-General Robert Adam Mungo Simpson Melvin (born 1955) CB OBE is a retired British Army officer, and a military historian. He is best known for his biography of German field marshal Erich von Manstein. He is an editorial board member of the Journal of Intelligence and Terrorism Studies.

Military career
Educated at Daniel Stewart's College in Edinburgh, the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst, Downing College, Cambridge and the German Armed Forces Command and Staff College in Hamburg, Melvin was commissioned into the Royal Engineers in 1975. He became Director, Land Warfare in June 2002, Director of Operational Capability at the Ministry of Defence in 2004 and General Officer Commanding United Kingdom Support Command (Germany) in 2006. He went on to be Chief Army Instructor at the Royal College of Defence Studies in 2009 before retiring in 2011.

In 2009 he appeared as an expert witness at the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia. He is an associate senior fellow of the Royal United Services Institute.

Manstein biography

During his Army service in Germany, Melvin learned German and developed an interest in German military history. The product of this was his 2010 biography of Erich von Manstein. Manstein is widely regarded as the most gifted German commander of World War II, but he was also a convicted war criminal who never acknowledged his own or the German Army's responsibility for the crimes committed on the Eastern Front while he held major commands there. Melvin's conclusion was that Manstein was a product of his age, his class, his education and his own stubborn personality, all of which blinded him to the ethical conflict between his duty as a German officer to obey the orders of the legitimate government, and the increasingly criminal nature of the Nazi regime.

Reviews of Melvin's book concentrated on this question. Alexander Rose in The New York Times referred to "Mungo Melvin's authoritative and splendidly comprehensive biography" but criticized what he saw as Melvin's narrow focus on military matters. Tom Nagorski in The Wall Street Journal found fault with Melvin's concentration on detailed descriptions of Manstein's work as a military commander.

References

External links
Official website

People educated at Stewart's Melville College
British historians
Royal Engineers officers
British Army major generals
Companions of the Order of the Bath
Officers of the Order of the British Empire
Living people
1955 births
British military historians
Military personnel from Edinburgh
Alumni of Downing College, Cambridge

Mungo Melvin


Catherine Fonck (born 22 September 1968) is a nephrologist and Belgian politician. She is currently a member of the Centre démocrate humaniste (cdH).

Early life and education
Fonck was born in Ciney, in the Province of Namur, in the Wallonia region of Belgium.

She graduated from the Catholic University of Louvain in 1993 with a medical degree.

Career
Specialized in internal medicine and nephrology, she worked first at the Cliniques Universitaires Saint-Luc in Brussels and at the St. Elizabeth Maternity and Clinic in Namur.

Fonck married Jacques Doyen. She served as the Minister for Children, Youth Assistance and Health in the French Community of Belgium from 2004 to 2009 and Secretary of State for Environment and Secretary of State for Institutional Reforms in the federal caretaker government in 2014. She is currently the cdH group leader in the Chamber of Representatives since 13 October 2014.

Political career
Elected member of Parliament since June 2003, she was effective member of the Committee on Public Health, Environment and Renewal of Society as well as alternate member of the Economic Committee and Social Affairs Committee.

From July 2004 to July 2009, she served as the Minister for Children, Youth Assistance and Health in the French Community. During the federal elections of 10 June 2007, Catherine Fonck's list of the CdH in the House for the Province of Hainaut received 25,685 votes.

She was elected member of Parliament but leaves her seat to her substitute deputy to remain Minister for Children, Youth Assistance and Health in French Community. In June 2009, she topped the list CdH in the regional elections in the district of Mons with a total of 7,986 votes. Catherine Fonck is also the current head of the CdH group in federal parliament. She replaces on 22 July 2014 Melchior Wathelet as Secretary of State for Minister of Energy until 13 October 2014.

References

Living people
1968 births
21st-century Belgian politicians
21st-century Belgian women politicians
Belgian women physicians
Belgian nephrologists

Catherine Fonck


Hit boxes are areas programmed into a video or computer game where an attack will hit and do damage. A hurt box is where a player or bot can be hurt by another's attack. Splash damage is the area where a player or bot's own attack does damage to themselves. Explosive weapons like rocket launchers and grenades usually do splash damage if they explode too close to the player or bot, even when friendly fire is on.

Video games

Hit box (video games)


Andre Maurice Davis (born February 11, 1949) is the former city solicitor for Baltimore and a former United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. He was formerly a United States district judge and was nominated first for a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit by President Bill Clinton in 2000. He was renominated to the Fourth Circuit by President Barack Obama on April 2, 2009, and he was confirmed by the Senate on November 9, 2009. On February 28, 2014 Davis assumed senior status. Davis retired from the federal bench to become the City Solicitor for the City of Baltimore of which he served from 2017 to 2020.

Early life and education

Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Davis grew up in East Baltimore.  His father was a schoolteacher, his mother was a food services worker and his stepfather was a steel worker, according to an October 12, 2000 article in the Baltimore Sun. As an early participant in the Ford Foundation's A Better Chance (ABC) program, Davis attended Phillips Andover Academy for high school, and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in American history from the University of Pennsylvania in 1971. Although he had planned to become a college professor, Davis chose to pursue a career in the law after taking an undergraduate course in constitutional law, according to the October 12, 2000 article in the Baltimore Sun. Davis earned a Juris Doctor from the University of Maryland School of Law in 1978. At the University of Maryland, Davis won the Myerowitz Moot Court Competition in 1977 and was thus elected to the law school's three-member National Moot Court Team.

Professional career

Prior to law school, Davis served as an assistant housing manager and equal opportunity specialist with the Housing Authority of Baltimore City. After graduating from law school, Davis clerked for United States District Judge Frank Kaufman of the United States District Court for the District of Maryland from 1978 until 1979. Davis then clerked from 1979 until 1980 for Judge Francis Dominic Murnaghan Jr. of the Fourth Circuit. From 1980 until 1981, Davis worked as an appellate attorney for the United States Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division. In 1981, Davis joined the United States Attorney's office for the District of Maryland as an Assistant United States Attorney until 1983, when he entered private practice. From 1984 until 1987, Davis worked as an assistant professor for the University of Maryland School of Law. He became a judge in 1987, when he was appointed to be an associate judge for the District Court of Maryland for Baltimore City. From 1990 until 1995, Davis worked as an associate judge for the Circuit Court for Baltimore City.

Federal judicial service

District court service

On May 4, 1995, President Bill Clinton nominated Davis to be a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Maryland to a seat vacated by Judge Walter Evan Black Jr., who assumed senior status on October 21, 1994.The United States Senate confirmed Davis by a voice vote on August 11, 1995. He received his commission on August 14, 1995. His service terminated on November 12, 2009, due to elevation to the Fourth Circuit. In discussing his judicial philosophy, Davis told the Baltimore Sun in an article that was published on October 12, 2000 that "I want the loser—and I know there's always going to be a loser, that's the nature of the beast—but I want the loser to be able to say, 'I lost, but I was heard, and I believe that judge gave me every consideration in hearing my side.

Court of Appeals service

On October 12, 2000, President Clinton nominated Davis to be a judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, to a seat vacated by Judge Francis Dominic Murnaghan Jr., who died on August 31, 2000. The nomination was a part of Clinton's effort to integrate the Fourth Circuit, which up to that point had never had an African-American judge; however, since Davis was nominated after July 1, 2000, the unofficial start date of the Thurmond Rule during a presidential election year, no hearings were scheduled on his nomination, and the nomination was returned to Clinton at the end of his term. President George W. Bush chose not to renominate Davis to the Fourth Circuit.

On April 2, 2009, President Barack Obama renominated Davis to the same seat of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. On June 4, 2009, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved the nomination by a 17–3 vote. On November 9, 2009, the Senate confirmed Davis by a 72–16 vote. He received his commission on November 10, 2009. Davis assumed senior status on February 28, 2014. Davis retired from active federal judicial service on August 31, 2017, and was named City Solicitor for the City of Baltimore by Mayor Catherine Pugh, effective September 1, 2017. Davis retired from that position on March 1, 2020.

See also
 Bill Clinton judicial appointment controversies
 List of African-American federal judges
 List of African-American jurists

References

External links

1949 births
Living people
20th-century American judges
20th-century American lawyers
21st-century American judges
African-American judges
Assistant United States Attorneys
Judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
Judges of the United States District Court for the District of Maryland
Maryland state court judges
Lawyers from Baltimore
Phillips Academy alumni
United States court of appeals judges appointed by Barack Obama
United States district court judges appointed by Bill Clinton
University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law alumni
University of Pennsylvania alumni
University System of Maryland faculty
20th-century African-American lawyers

Andre M. Davis


In 1893 Giuseppe Lauricella defined and studied four hypergeometric series FA, FB, FC, FD of three variables. They are :

for |x1| + |x2| + |x3| < 1 and

for |x1| < 1, |x2| < 1, |x3| < 1 and

for |x1|½ + |x2|½ + |x3|½ < 1 and

for |x1| < 1, |x2| < 1, |x3| < 1. Here the Pochhammer symbol (q)i indicates the i-th rising factorial of q, i.e.

where the second equality is true for all complex  except .

These functions can be extended to other values of the variables x1, x2, x3 by means of analytic continuation.

Lauricella also indicated the existence of ten other hypergeometric functions of three variables. These were named FE, FF, ..., FT and studied by Shanti Saran in 1954 . There are therefore a total of 14 Lauricella–Saran hypergeometric functions.

Generalization to n variables

These functions can be straightforwardly extended to n variables. One writes for example

where |x1| + ... + |xn| < 1. These generalized series too are sometimes referred to as Lauricella functions.

When n = 2, the Lauricella functions correspond to the Appell hypergeometric series of two variables:

When n = 1, all four functions reduce to the Gauss hypergeometric function:

Integral representation of FD

In analogy with Appell's function F1, Lauricella's FD can be written as a one-dimensional Euler-type integral for any number n of variables:

This representation can be easily verified by means of Taylor expansion of the integrand, followed by termwise integration. The representation implies that the incomplete elliptic integral Π is a special case of Lauricella's function FD with three variables:

Finite-sum solutions of FD

Case 1 : ,  a positive integer

One can relate FD to the Carlson R function  via

with the iterative sum

 and

where it can be exploited that the Carlson R function with  has an exact representation (see  for more information).

The vectors are defined as

where the length of  and  is , while the vectors  and  have length .

Case 2: ,  a positive integer

In this case there is also a known analytic form, but it is rather complicated to write down and involves several steps.
See  for more information.

References

  (see p. 114)

  (corrigendum 1956 in Ganita 7, p. 65)
  (there is a 2008 paperback with )
  (there is another edition with )

Hypergeometric functions
Mathematical series

Lauricella hypergeometric series


Eric Jamili (born May 20, 1977 in Silay, Negros Occidental, Philippines) is a retired Filipino professional boxer. He won the vacant WBO minimumweight title in December 1997 with an eighth round technical knockout of Englishman Mickey Cantwell in London. He lost the title in his first defense to Kermin Guardia six months later.

Eric is the younger brother of one-time world title challenger Reynante Jamili. Both trained out of the Elorde Boxing stable of Paranaque City, Philippines.

Professional career
Jamili turned professional in 1995, beginning his career with a modest record of 5-5-1. Jamili then won the next five of his bouts, capturing the WBO Inter-Continental minimumweight title and earning a shot at the WBO minimumweight title against Englishman Mickey Cantwell that had been vacated by Ricardo López (boxer).

Jamili traveled to London in December 1997 to face Cantwell, and managed to cut him in the first round. Jamili's longer reach and tricky southpaw style befuddled Cantwell, who was hampered by the cut. Referee Mark Nelson halted the bout at 1:22 of the eighth round due to the cut, awarding the championship to Jamili.

Jamili lost the title in May 1998 with a fifth round technical knockout loss to Kermin Guardia. Jamili, who had arrived in the fight location of Las Vegas, Nev. just two days prior to the bout, was knocked down prior to the end of the fourth round. In a rematch in March 1999, Jamili knocked Guardia down in rounds 4 and 9, but lost a unanimous decision.

Jamili received a shot at the IBF minimumweight title against Zolani Petelo in May 1999. Jamili was knocked out with a left hook to the body at 1:21 of the first round.

Jamili would fight just six more times afterwards, going 2-3-1 with all three losses by knockout before retiring in 2003.

Professional boxing record

External links

1977 births
Mini-flyweight boxers
Living people
World boxing champions
World Boxing Organization champions
People from Silay
Boxers from Negros Occidental
Filipino male boxers

Eric Jamili


The Shenandoah Yellow Jackets were an Anthracite League football team that played during the league's two years of existence in the 1923 and 1924 football seasons.

They played twelve games in the 1923 football season finishing the season with five wins, six losses and a tie. Their actual league record was three wins, three losses and a tie as the other wins and losses were with teams outside the Anthracite Football League. Nevertheless they still finished third in the overall league standings with a tally of 24 points scored for to 26 points against.

The Yellow Jackets returned for the 1924 football season to complete eight games, going 4–4 for a .500 winning percentage, but two of those games were non league related, giving the Yellowjackets three wins, three losses and no ties, with a points tally of 27 points scored for and 30 points against. They finished second behind the leading Pottsville Maroons with six wins, no losses and a tie in the five-team league.

References

American football teams established in 1923
Defunct American football teams in Pennsylvania
Anthracite League teams
1923 establishments in Pennsylvania
1924 disestablishments in Pennsylvania

Shenandoah Yellow Jackets


The Colorado Governor's Mansion, also known as the Cheesman-Boettcher Mansion, is a historic U.S. mansion in Denver, Colorado. It is located at 400 East 8th Avenue. On December 3, 1969, it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. It is open free-of-charge for scheduled tours, and also hosts special public events.

History
This building is located in Denver on the southeast corner of 8th Avenue and Logan Street.  The exact address is 400 E. 8th Avenue.  The Governor's Mansion is also known as the Cheesman-Evans-Boettcher Mansion for its former owners.

The building was built in 1908 after a design by Denver architects Willis A. Marean and Albert J. Norton.  The house was originally built as a residence for the widow and the daughter of Denver real estate tycoon Walter Scott Cheesman.

The mansion was designed to accommodate two families.  On November 8, 1908, Cheesman's daughter, Gladys, married John Evans II, the grandson of John Evans, the second territorial governor of Colorado. The widowed mother and young couple lived together until the birth of the Evans' first child, after which they relocated. On January 2, 1923, Alice Foster Sanger Cheesman died.

Claude K. Boettcher purchased the mansion on February 23, 1923.  Boettcher was the head of a financial empire that eventually included sugar, livestock, cement, potash, steel, securities, utilities, and transportation.  Boettcher was famous for his lavish parties which included President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952.  Boettcher died on June 9, 1957, and his wife in 1958.

The house was inherited by the Boettcher Foundation.  The foundation offered the house to the State of Colorado as an Executive Residence.  The building needed a great deal of work, and its fate remained uncertain for nine months in 1959 as three agencies of the State rejected the offer.  On the last day of 1959, Governor Stephen McNichols accepted the building as a gift to the state.

From then until January, 2011, it has been the residence of Governors Stephen L. R. McNichols, John Love, John D.Vanderhoof, Richard D. Lamm, Roy R. Romer, William Owens, and William Ritter.  The building was restored in the 1980s under the direction of Edward D. White Jr. Upon taking office in January 2011, Governor John Hickenlooper and his family decided to maintain their private residence in Denver instead of moving to the Governor's Mansion, though Hickenlooper did move into the mansion on a part-time basis after he separated from his wife in 2012.

Hickenlooper's successor, Jared Polis, also chose to only live in the mansion on a part-time basis, staying there during legislative sessions while retaining his home in Boulder as his primary residence.

Architecture

The Cheesman-Evans-Boettcher Mansion is a formal, late Georgian Revival house.  The building is surrounded by a wrought iron fence with cannonball finials on the brick posts.  The walls of the mansion are red brick.  There is a white wooden frosting under a hipped roof with prominent gabled dormers.  The cornice is pedimented and dentiled.  The west side portico has massive, two-story fluted Ionic columns.  There is a dramatic entry way with grouped columns that support a porch which becomes a balustraded second-story balcony.  The semicircular sunroom was added by suggestion of Mrs. Cheesman in 1915, and it overlooks a small park now known as "Governor's Park".

It was built in 1908.

References

External links
Governor's Residence at the Boettcher Mansion

Colorado State Register of Historic Properties
Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Colorado
Colonial Revival architecture in Colorado
Houses completed in 1908
National Register of Historic Places in Denver
Governors' mansions in the United States
Houses in Denver
Museums in Denver
Historic house museums in Colorado
Government buildings in Colorado
1908 establishments in Colorado
Governor of Colorado

Colorado Governor's Mansion


Shishir Inocalla is a practitioner of Filipino martial arts, Yoga and meditation. He was the first of 6 men named as Datu (meaning a chieftain or leader) by the late Remy Presas, Founder of Modern Arnis. He is an accomplished martial artist, Yogi as well as noted actor with movie credits including: Ninja Turtles, Pinoy Boxer, Five Style Fist, Crazy Kung Fu and The Ultimate Fight. [9] [10]He played "Michaelangelo" in Teenage Mutant Ninja turtle 3 Movie and TV series.  is also a balisong expert and Hilot healer. [4.]Master Shishir Inocalla became the mind body inner heart trainer for David Leadbetter golf Academy in Championsgate since 2003 and Zone golf Academy in Richmond, BC Canada. He created Arnis chigolf  and  heartful training from the heart. [5]He co star and co produced "The Process" aka "ultimate Fight" movie. [6]He revived Modern Arnis In the Philippines under GM Remy Presas and became President of Modern Arnis. Canada and Vice President of International Arnis Federation Iarnis (member of Philippine Sports Commission and Philippine Olympic Committee). He also formed Sport Arnis to be approved sport in Canada, USA, Brazil and other countries www.Sportarniscanad.org. Together with his family They Created Maharlika Institute for higher learning and www.paracalegoldcorp.com creating self sufficient agro-green mining in his family farm Paracale/Mambulao, Camarines Norte, Philippines.  www.mastershishir.com

[7]Master Shishir Inocalla created and produced several books and videos in Arnis, Yoga, Meditation, Chigolf, Sport Arnis, MFMA community with the mission of "Self realization and service.

Sources
4. Celebration Life Magazine - Oct. 15, 2006

5. Burnaby Now Metro Canada edition- April 24-30, 1996

6. Manila standard "Action star-movie producer launches arnis club here" Nov. 23, 1996

7. Florida Today "the Verge" July 9, 2006

8. Philippine Journal - January 16-31, 2002

9. The Philippine Reporter "Pinoy stars in Ninja Turtle movie" April 1-15, 1993

10. Burnaby now "Michaelangelo" opens the door - Sept. 22, 1993

 Video: Balisong, Knife Fighting Art of The Philippine Islands, Shishir Inocalla.

External links

Filipino male martial artists
Martial arts school founders
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)

Shishir Inocalla


The Historic Dockyard Chatham is a maritime museum on part of the site of the former royal/naval dockyard at Chatham in Kent, South East England.

Chatham Dockyard covered 400 acres (1.6 km²) and was one of the Royal Navy's main facilities for several hundred years until it was closed in 1984. After closure the dockyard was divided into three sections. The easternmost basin was handed over to Medway Ports and is now a commercial port. Another slice was converted into a mixed commercial, residential and leisure development. 80 acres (324,000 m²), comprising the 18th-century core of the site, was transferred to a charity called the Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust and is now open as a visitor attraction. It claims to be the world's most complete dockyard of the Age of Sail.

Exhibits and displays

The attraction has seven main elements:

 Three historic warships:
 HMS Gannet (1878)
 HMS Cavalier (R73)
 HMS Ocelot (S17)
 The Ropery: a Grade I listed building, Georgian and Victorian rope factory.
 Steam, Steel and Submarines: tells the story of Chatham Dockyard and the Royal Navy's use of the River Medway in the 19th and 20th centuries.
 Lifeboat: a museum about the work of the RNLI which has 17 historic vessels.
 3 Slip – The BIG Store: Originally a covered slipway, now a display of large objects from the dockyard and the nearby Royal Engineers Museum.
 No 1 Smithery: The structure is a Grade II listed building (formerly for iron-working) and a Scheduled Ancient Monument. It was restored by van Heyningen and Haward Architects and re-opened as a visitor and exhibition centre in July 2010. The new building provides dedicated storage and curatorial facilities for the National Maritime Museum and Imperial War Museums' 4,000 ship models as well as a regional Touring Exhibition Gallery, and museum quality permanent Exhibition Galleries. The first touring exhibition to be shown was Stanley Spencer's Shipbuilding on the Clyde series.

 A new project for 2014 was 'Command of the Oceans'. This was possible due to £4.53m grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund. Also the project got a £3m contribution from the Homes and Communities Agency. A new entrance was built on the north side of the visitor attraction, and a discovery centre linking the former naval base with other significant heritage sites including Fort Amherst, the Great Lines Heritage Park (between Gillingham and Chatham) and Upnor Castle. This all became possible after the remains of the Namur warship was discovered under the floor of the Wheelwrights' Shop in 1995. In 2017, the Command of the Oceans display was shortlisted for the Stirling Prize for excellence in architecture.

Workers at the dockyard performed eight years of restoration work on the MV Havengore, the ceremonial vessel that carried the body of Winston Churchill during his state funeral. In addition the dockyard acted as custodian of artefacts, masts and rigging from the Cutty Sark and the Medway Queen, while their hulls were being restored elsewhere.

 Records of the ships built at Chatham go back to 1646.
 Chatham Dockyard had one of the best technical schools in England, it housed the first Dockyard School followed by  Devonport and Portsmouth. It accepted students from Overseas Dockyards as Gibraltar and H.M. Dockyard, Malta
 Some of the hundreds of warships built at the Chatham Royal Dockyard may still be seen. These preserved ships include:
 HMS Victory (100-gun first rate, i.e. ship of the line" launched 1765, preserved in dry dock at Portsmouth, England, UK; Nelson's flagship at Trafalgar)
 HMS Unicorn (54-gun fifth rate – launched 1824, preserved afloat at Dundee, Scotland, UK)
 HMS Ocelot (S17) ("O" class submarine – launched 5 May 1962, preserved in dry dock at Chatham).

Dockyard Railway
The site is also home to a Dockyard Railway that has a diverse collection of locomotives and rolling stock, some of which can be seen in operation throughout the year.

Steam Locomotives

Diesel Locomotives

Use in TV and other media
The Historic Dockyard Chatham spans 80 acres, has over 100 buildings and structures dating from the Georgian and Victorian periods to the present day, thus making it an attractive location for period filming over the years.

Some of the shows/films to have used the facilities and locations at Chatham Dockyard are:
 Call The Midwife (Seasons 1-6 (ongoing)) (Used mainly for exterior shots)
 SS-GB
 Amazing Grace
 The Halcyon
 The Crown
 Future Tense: The Story of HG Wells
 Mr Selfridge
 Victor Frankenstein
 Jekyll and Hyde
 Suffragette
 The Man From UNCLE
 Grantchester
 Muppets Most Wanted
 Downton Abbey (Season 4)
 Les Misérables
 Great Expectations
 Sherlock Holmes and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
 Loki

In 2020, some scenes for Belgravia (TV series) were filmed at the dockyard.

References

External links

 A World Heritage Site application for Chatham Dockyard and its defences
 RNLI Chatham Museum – official site

Maritime museums in England
Naval museums in England
Transport museums in England
Museums in Medway
Chatham, Kent
European Route of Industrial Heritage Anchor Points
Sea rescue in England

Chatham Historic Dockyard


Sensory, Inc. is an American company which develops software AI technologies for speech, sound and vision. It is based in Santa Clara, California.

Sensory's technologies have shipped in billions of products including mobile phones, automotive, Bluetooth devices, toys, and various home electronics. To date, more than 40 mobile handsets, tablets, and wearables have shipped with Sensory's TrulyHandsfree.

History
Sensory, Inc. was founded in 1994, originally as Sensory Circuits, by Forrest Mozer, Mike Mozer and Todd Mozer. The three had also co-founded ESS Technology years earlier. In 1999 Sensory acquired Fluent Speech Technologies, which was formed and started by a group of professors out of the Oregon Graduate Institute (formerly OGI, now OHSU). Fluent Speech Technologies developed high performance embedded speech engines, the technology from this acquisition is now the core technology used throughout Sensory's chip and software line.

Company timeline
 1994 – Founded
 1995 – Introduces the RSC 164 - first commercially successful speech recognition IC
 1998 – Introduces first speaker verification IC
 2000 – Acquires Oregon based Fluent-Speech Technologies
 2002 – Acquires Texas Instruments line of speech output ICs (the SC series)
 2007 – Introduces first Voice User Interface for Bluetooth silicon (CSR BC-5) - BlueGenie
2008 - Sensory and BlueAnt partner on the V1 - Revolutionary new Bluetooth headset with a voice user interface. First wearable to use a voice user interface for control and best-reviewed speech recognition product in history
 2009 – Introduced world's smallest text to speech system (TTS) and Truly HandsfreeTM Triggers/ wake words.
 2010 – Introduced the NLP-5x – First Natural Language Voice Processor and TrulyHandsfree wake words in SDKs for Android, iOS, Linux, and Windows. NLP5x used the first generation of TrulyHandsfree wake words with low power and enhanced accuracy.
 2011 – Sensory partners with Google and Microsoft to enable TrulyHandsfree as a front end to Goog411 and Bing411
 2012 – Partnered with Tensilica to offer ultra-low power TrulyHandsfree wake words; introduced Speaker Verification and Speaker Identification for mobile phones and other consumer electronics.
2012 - TrulyHandsfree released into Samsung's Galaxy S2 for "Hey Galaxy" wake word
2013 – TrulyHandsfree wake words migrated to many new platforms and began shipping as MotoVoice in the Google-owned MotoX. Sensory's TrulyHandsfree in mobile takes off with the Galaxy S3 and S4 and Galaxy Note and is licensed into wearables like Google Glass.
2014 – Announced new initiative in Vision; added LG and Motorola as customers; received the 2014 Global Mobile Award for Best Mobile Technology Breakthrough at the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain (judges commented, "A big advance for the wearables market, this offers many benefits for consumers, increasing uptake and usage of many mobile apps, driving revenue for operators and content providers.")
2015-2018 - Licensed Google, Amazon, MSFT, Baidu, Huawei, ZTE, and many others with TrulyHandsfree wake words. Sensory develops first wake words for OK Google, Hey Siri, and Hey Cortana.
2019 - Sensory launched two new solutions: SoundID, sound identification, and TrulyNatural, embedded large vocabulary speech recognition. Sensory also acquired Vocalize.ai, an independent testing lab.
2020 - Sensory introduced VoiceHub, which allows the automated generation of wake words.
2021 - Sensory expands VoiceHub with speech recognition and NLU capabilities. The company initiated a new cloud platform, SensoryCloud.ai.

Technology and products
Sensory originally developed both hardware (Integrated Circuit - IC or "chip") and software platforms but migrated to software only around 2005 and added cloud and hybrid computing capabilities in 2021. Sensory's RSC-164 IC (Integrated Circuit or "chip") was used on NASA's Mars Polar Lander in the Mars Microphone on the Lander.  Speech Synthesis SC-6x chips – acquired some speech synthesis technology from Texas Instruments.

Sensory's embedded AI solutions include the following:

 TrulyHandsfree (THF) - wake word detection and phrase spotting.
 TrulyNatural (TNL) - large vocabulary continuous speech recognition with NLU.
 TrulySecure (TS) - face and voice biometrics.
 TrulySecureSpeakerVerification (TSSV) - speaker and sound identification.
 VoiceHub - Online portal for creating custom wake words and speech recognition models with NLU.

The cloud initiative, SensoryCloud.ai, is targeting Speech To Text (STT), Text To Speech (TTS), Wake Word verification, face and voice recognition, and sound identification.

References

Speech recognition
Speech synthesis
Companies based in Santa Clara County, California
Technology companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area

Sensory, Inc.