The 1977 Benin coup d'état attempt, Opération Crevette or Operation Shrimp was a failed attempt by a team of French-led mercenaries to overthrow the government of the People's Republic of Benin which was led by Mathieu Kérékou whose communist party, the People's Revolutionary Party of Benin (PRPB), was the only allowed political party in the country. The coup took place on 17 January 1977 and included a failed invasion of the port city of Cotonou by mercenaries contracted by a group of exiled Beninese political rivals.

Bob Denard was the leader of the mercenary group and although Jacques Foccart denied knowledge of the attempted coup after its failure, he did recognize that it had been backed-up by Gnassingbé Eyadéma (Togo), Félix Houphouët-Boigny (Ivory Coast), Omar Bongo (Gabon) and Hassan II (Morocco), all allies of France.

The coup would be one of several against Kérékou who survived numerous attempts to oust him, including two coup attempts in 1988.

References

Links
 War is boring: In 1977, 80 Mercenaries Nearly Took Over Benin

Military coups in Benin
Benin coup d'état attempt
Coup attempt
Benin coup d'état attempt
Benin coup d'état attempt, 1977
Benin–France relations

1977 Benin coup attempt


The University of Akron is a public research university in Akron, Ohio. It is part of the University System of Ohio. As a STEM-focused institution, it focuses on industries such as polymers, advanced materials, and engineering. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity".

The University of Akron offers about 200 undergraduate and more than 100 graduate majors and has an enrollment of approximately 15,000 students. The university's School of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering is housed in a 12-story reflective glass building near downtown Akron on the western edge of the main campus. UA's Archives of the History of American Psychology is an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution.

The university has three branch campuses: Wayne College in Orrville, Ohio; the Medina County University Center, in Lafayette Township, Ohio; and UA Lakewood, in the Cleveland suburb of Lakewood, Ohio. In addition, the university hosts nursing programs in affiliation with Lorain County Community College.

History

Buchtel College
In 1867, at the annual convention of the Universalist Church of the state of Ohio, the Committee on Education expressed an interest in founding a college compatible with Universalist religious principles.  It was announced that the location would be given to those who could find an appropriate location and also supply $60,000 for the college. John R. Buchtel, a prominent Akron businessman and Universalist, promptly contributed $25,000 to the endowment fund and $6,000 to the building fund. This led other Akronites to donate, setting the goal and securing Akron as the location for Buchtel College, named after its greatest supporter. John R. Buchtel   continued to be the college's most significant contributor, giving $500,000 over his lifetime, approximately equivalent to $16 million today.  When the university opened in 1872 it was a single-building campus, housed in what is now known as "Old Buchtel." George Washington Crouse donated $10,000 of the $20,000 needed to build a new gymnasium, completed in 1888.  It was named Crouse Gymnasium in his honor, and was known as "the finest gym west of the Alleghenies."

Tragedy struck the small college on December 20, 1899, when Old Buchtel burned to the ground. Insurance only covered $65,000 of the estimated $100,000 in loss. While new campus buildings were being constructed, the Crouse Gymnasium was divided into seven classrooms and served as the college until a new Buchtel Hall was opened in 1901. The new Buchtel Hall, which itself was gutted by fire in 1971, survives to this day but had some blackening on the exterior up until a 2011 restoration.

20th century
In 1907, the college shed its Universalist affiliation and became a non-denominational institution, in order to be able to receive funds from the Carnegie Foundation, which would not give funds to religiously affiliated schools. In 1913, Buchtel College trustees transferred the institution and its assets to the city of Akron, and Buchtel College became the Municipal University of Akron. At this time, the enrollment was 198 students. Tax money levied for the school and Akron's growing population led to strong growth for the university.  Over the next several decades the university continued to add new buildings to accommodate its growing student population, acquiring more land through purchases and donations. In 1963, Governor Jim Rhodes approved the university as a state-assisted institution.  Enrollment in 1964 was 10,000 students. In 1967, it fully became a state university, providing its current name as The University of Akron.  In 2015, 25,117 students were enrolled at the University of Akron.

Construction, dropping enrollment, and lay-offs

During the tenure (1999-2014) of its 15th president, Luis M. Proenza, the University of Akron underwent a $627 million construction project, called "A New Landscape for Learning." A new football stadium, InfoCision Stadium-Summa Field, was also constructed on campus. The new stadium opened for its first game on September 12, 2009. The stadium replaced the Rubber Bowl, which is  from campus and was built in 1940.

The university purchased the Quaker Square Crowne Plaza Hotel and shopping complex and uses it as a residence hall space. The university did a land-swap with the city of Akron so that the city may find a new downtown hotel. This means the University of Akron campus is made up of 82 buildings on  near downtown Akron with a total property value of $1.84 billion.

In 2015, the university eliminated over 200 positions as the result of a $6 million budget deficit. Subsequently, in May 2016, Moody's Investors Service, downrated the university's bonds from stable to negative, because of low enrollment and high debts and pension burdens. Moody's upgraded the university's outlook to stable in 2018, citing improved enrollment, rising donations and steps to reduce expenses. Still, between 2011 and 2020 the university's enrollment went down almost 40 percent, from 25,190 in 2011 to 15,385 in 2020.

On October 1, 2019, Gary Miller became Akron's 18th president; formerly the chancellor of University of Wisconsin–Green Bay, he was given a five-year contract with a base salary of $475,000, with an annual $25,000 in a deferred compensation plan, monthly stipends of $3,500 and $750 for housing and a car, and $36,000 for moving expenses. In May 2020, president Miller announced that the university will consolidate its eleven academic colleges into five due to budget issues resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic; the cut is meant to reduce administrative costs, and "the plan does not cut or change any degree program offerings." The "redesign", as Miller called it, was termed a "bloodbath" by the faculty union president, and would eliminate "97 full-time professors out of about 570"; the union commented that "names were selected regardless of rank or tenure status". One study suggested that "women and professors of color were laid off at a disproportionate rate". After earlier layoffs and faculty taking early retirement, that added up to a loss of almost a quarter of the university's faculty since the start of the pandemic. The university's chapter of the American Association of University Professors had advocated the university also consider cuts to athletics and leave NCAA Division I, which had lost $215 million during that decade, but the university said it would cut only $4.4 million from athletics. The Chronicle of Higher Education reported in August 2022 that thirty-six of the professors who had been fired were hired back by the university, but as adjuncts, with a similar workload and lower pay--in one case, at $18,000 a year, one-third of their former salary. In 2021, the Board of Trustees extended President Miller's contract, praising him for "consistent and decisive leadership". They increased the annual deferred compensation to $40,000, promised additional bonuses for 2025-2027 for a total of $107,000 if he remained on the job, and increased his housing and car stipends to $4,000 and $1,000, respectively.

Relationship with tire and rubber industry
The tire and rubber industry and the University of Akron have an overlapping history. Historically, several rubber corporations, such as Goodyear, Firestone, General Tire and Rubber Company, and Goodrich, had their headquarters in Akron. In 1909, the world's first courses in rubber chemistry were offered at the university. The university is also credited with featuring the first College of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering in the world, which was founded in 1988.

Academics

The University of Akron offers both undergraduate and graduate degrees, ranging from certificate to doctoral programs. The largest college of the university is the Buchtel College of Arts and Sciences. Bierce Library is the main campus library. It is named for Lucius Bierce, a Civil War era General, whose personal library constituted the first collection of the University Libraries.

Academic divisions

The University of Akron comprises the following colleges, schools, and campuses:
Buchtel College of Arts and Sciences
College of Business
College of Engineering and Polymer Science (includes School of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering)
College of Health and Human Sciences
The Graduate School
School of Law
Williams Honors College
Wayne College

Undergraduate

The university offers about 200 undergraduate majors. In conjunction with the Northeast Ohio Medical University (NEOMED), the university offers an Early Assurance Pathway to the NEOMED MD program. The University of Akron is also the first and only university in the nation to offer a baccalaureate program in corrosion engineering.

Williams Honors College
The University of Akron Honors College students earn degrees from any of the four-year accredited colleges in the university while receiving special advisement and having the opportunity to live in the Honors Complex, a resident hall exclusively for honors students. The university announced on February 3, 2016, that the college was renamed in honor of Dr. Gary B. and Pamela S. Williams.

Graduate
The University of Akron currently offers more than 105 graduate degrees to approximately 2,000 graduate students. The graduate schools at the University of Akron variously offer the Master's degree, PhD, J.D., and LL.M., among others. The Cleveland Clinic and University of Akron have formed the Integrated Bioscience Fellowship in Biomedicine. Fellowships will allow students to conduct cutting-edge research at the University of Akron and the Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute while pursuing a PhD in Integrated Bioscience. Recipients of Fellowships will be able to work with faculty at both institutions.

Law
The University of Akron School of Law was founded in 1921 as Akron Law School and became affiliated with the university in 1959, becoming fully accredited by the American Bar Association in 1961. It has both day and evening full-time and part-time programs that lead to the J.D. and LL.M. The University of Akron School of Law is also one of only 22 institutions in America to offer the LL.M. in intellectual property, and one of two such programs in Ohio.

Research

Goodyear Polymer Center

The Goodyear Polymer Center (commonly referred to as "the polymer building"), is a 146,000 sq. ft. research facility, located at the university.  Built by Richard Fleischman & Associates and completed in 1991, the center comprises two 12-story and nine-story towers connected by glass-enclosed walkways that serve as areas for informal interaction. It is the 8th tallest building in Akron.  It contains eight large polymer synthesis groups, computer simulation and modeling capabilities, a microscopy suite, molecular and morphological characterization labs, surface analysis facilities, and thermal analysis and mechanical properties testing equipment.

The Goodyear Polymer Center houses both the Department of Polymer Science and the School of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering.  The building houses classrooms, approximately 60 labs, 20 faculty offices, and 25 offices with 200 modules arranged in clusters for students and researchers. It contains the Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Center, the Paul J. Flory Reading Room, The International Rubber Science Hall of Fame portrait gallery, The Applied Polymer Research Center, and the 213-seat Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company Auditorium.

Other facilities
 The Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics is a bipartisan research institute dedicated to increasing understanding of the political process with emphasis on political parties, grassroots activity, and ethical behavior.

Athletics

The University of Akron's athletic teams are known as the "Zips," originally short for "Zippers," overshoes with zippers made in the 1920s and 1930s. The university's mascot is "Zippy," a kangaroo. Zippy is one of eight female college mascots in the United States. Zippy won the title of Capital One National Mascot of the Year in 2007.

Akron facilities include InfoCision Stadium – Summa Field, the James A. Rhodes Arena, and the FirstEnergy Stadium-Cub Cadet Field.

In football, Akron's major rivalry is with Kent State Golden Flashes. In 2005, the Akron Zips football team won their first MAC championship, allowing them to compete for the Motor City Bowl, Akron's first Division I-A bowl game appearance where they lost to the Memphis Tigers.

In soccer, the Akron Zips men's soccer team, ranked number one throughout the 2009 regular season, went undefeated, making it to the NCAA Men's Division I Soccer Championship. The following season they secured the 2010 "College Cup" against the Louisville Cardinals. This was the first NCAA national team championship won by the Akron Zips.

In 2009, the men's basketball team won the MAC Tournament title, defeating Buffalo in Cleveland at the Quicken Loans Arena 65–53, thus qualifying Akron for its first appearance in the NCAA tournament since 1986 and first as a MAC member. In 2010, the team reached the MAC Tournament Championship game for the fourth straight year, but lost in overtime. The Zips played in the postseason CBI tournament where they lost to Wisconsin–Green Bay 70–66. In 2022, the Zips defeated rival Kent State in the 2022 MAC men's basketball tournament championship to earn a spot in the 2022 NCAA Tournament, their fourth MAC tournament title overall and first title and NCAA Tournament appearance since 2013.

Greek life

The University of Akron has more than twenty fraternities and sororities.
Kappa Kappa Gamma was the oldest continuous sorority chapter on the campus, locally founded in 1877. This organization suspended operation in 2022.
The Lone Star Fraternity (Pi Kappa Epsilon) was the oldest local fraternity in the United States, and the only chapter in existence. Lone Star Fraternity was founded by W.V.N. Yates on February 22, 1882. The 135th anniversary was celebrated in 2017. The organization suspended operation in 2021.
Alpha Delta Pi was founded on the University of Akron's campus as "Sigma Delta Theta" in 1920 and at the time it was the oldest local sorority on campus. Sigma Delta Theta later became the Beta Tau chapter of Alpha Delta Pi in 1938.
The Ohio Epsilon chapter of Phi Delta Theta fraternity, founded in 1875, is the oldest continuous Greek-letter organization on campus.
Phi Kappa Tau was originally founded as Sigma Beta Nu in 1923. The Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics offers scholarships to men pursuing political science while being members of the organization. Notable alumni include Ray C. Bliss, Congressman and mayor of Akron Tom Sawyer, retired president/CEO of Goodyear Aerospace Morris Jobe, and former mayors of Akron John Ballard and Roy Ray. The fraternity was incorporated into Phi Kappa Tau in 1938.

Notable alumni

Politics
Former Akron mayor and Ohio Congressman Thomas C. Sawyer attended undergraduate and graduate school there.

United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit Senior Judge Deborah L. Cook received her Bachelor of Arts and Juris Doctor degrees from the university.
Former Ohio congresswoman Betty Sutton received her Juris Doctor from the university as well.
Former Republican National Committee chairman Ray C. Bliss graduated from Akron in 1935. The university's Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics is named for him.
Current Akron Mayor Daniel Horrigan earned BA in education from the university.

Former Republican National Committee Co-chair and current Ohio Republican Party Chairman Bob Paduchik earned his bachelor's degree in political science from the university in 1989.
Congressman Shri Thanedar received his Ph.D. from the university in 1982.

Athletics
Former Akron Zips football players Chase Blackburn, Charlie Frye, Domenik Hixon, Dwight Smith, and Jason Taylor have each gone on to find success in the National Football League.  Blackburn and Hixon were members of the 2008 Super Bowl Champion New York Giants, while Smith won a Super Bowl Ring with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2003.  Taylor was named the NFL Defensive Player of the Year in 2006 and was named the NFL's Man of the Year in 2007.
Baseball players Chris Bassitt, Mike Birkbeck and Mark Malaska have gone on to find success in Major League Baseball. Birkbeck played for the Milwaukee Brewers from 1986 to 1989 and the New York Mets in 1992 and 1995. Malaska played for the Tampa Bay Rays in 2003 and was a member of the 2004 World Series Champion Boston Red Sox. Former Zips baseball player Keith Dambrot went on to become a distinguished college basketball coach.
Soccer players in the MLS (24) include Colorado Rapids (1): Dillon Serna (2012); Columbus Crew (2): Chad Barson (2009–12), Wil Trapp (2011-12); D.C. United (2): Perry Kitchen (2010), Chris Korb (2008–10); Houston Dynamo (1): Kofi Sarkodie (2008–10); Montreal Impact (2): Evan Bush (2005–08), Sinisa Ubiparipovic (2004-06); New England Revolution (1): Scott Caldwell (2009–12); New York Red Bulls (1): Eric Stevenson (2009–13); Philadelphia Union (2): Robbie Derschang (2012–13), Aodhan Quinn (2011-13); Portland Timbers (6): Bryan Gallego (2011–13), David Meves (2009–12), Darlington Nagbe (2008–10), Michael Nanchoff (2007–10), Steve Zakuani (2007–08), Ben Zemanski (2006-09); Seattle Sounders (2): Blair Gavin (2007–09), DeAndre Yedlin (2011-12); Sporting Kansas City (2): Reinaldo Brenes (2010–13), Teal Bunbury (2008-09); Toronto FC Richie Laryea (2014–15) Vancouver Whitecaps (1): Darren Mattocks (2010–11).
Track and field athlete Shawn Barber, went professional in 2015, signing with Nike, after winning the IAAF World Track and Field Championships in Men's Pole Vault. Clayton Murphy is a professional middle-distance track runner with Nike, and earned the bronze medal in the 800m in the 2016 Olympic Games.
Cheerleader Alexis Kaufman, known as Alexa Bliss, has held a combined total of seven championships in WWE.  She is also both the second and youngest woman to be named a WWE Triple Crown (professional wrestling).
Basketball player Kwan Cheatham plays for Ironi Nes Ziona of the Israel Basketball Premier League.

See also
 List of colleges and universities in Ohio

Notes

References

External links

 University of Akron athletics website

Universities and colleges established in 1870
Education in Akron, Ohio
Buildings and structures in Akron, Ohio
Tourist attractions in Akron, Ohio
Public universities and colleges in Ohio
1870 establishments in Ohio

University of Akron


The traditional martial arts of the Mainland Southeast Asia are related to one another, and as a group to Indian martial arts.  The most salient common feature is Mainland Southeast Asia kickboxing.  The region of Mainland Southeast Asia is believed to be the land of Suvarnabhumi that ancient Indians mentioned in Buddhist text and Hindu text. In 790 A.D., a Khmer prince who grew up abroad by the name of Jayavarman II returned to unify the Khmer civilization.  In 802 A.D., Jayavarman II established the Khmer Empire, the precursor to modern Cambodia, and declared himself the Chakravatin (universal ruler).  Around 850 A.D., Pagan, the ancestor of modern-day Burma, was established by Tibeto-Burman speakers. For 200 years, Pagan remained a small principality until the reign of King Anawrahta. In 1238 A.D., Thailand's first state, Sukhothai, was started when the residents declared independence from the Khmer Empire. In 1353 A.D., Laos's first state, Lan Xang, was started by Fa Ngum with the assistance of the Khmer from Angkor.

Myanmar

Thaing (, ) is a Burmese term used to classify the traditional martial systems of Myanmar. There are three main generation of Thaing in Myanmar, named "Kanbawza" "Inwa" and "Yamanya". Burmese martial arts include bando, banshay, naban, shan gyi and Lethwei:

Lethwei or Burmese boxing. A traditional style of striking with headbutts, kicks, punches, knee and elbow strikes.

Naban is the traditional form of wrestling from Myanmar. Originally based on Indian wrestling, it is practiced primarily in rural areas. Naban is especially popular among the Himalayan tribes. The Chin and Kachin people are both known for their skilled wrestlers. Techniques include joint locks, strikes to pressure points, and chokeholds.

Cambodia

Bokator is an ancient Cambodian martial art with roots in the 1st century. It prioritises physical and mental development through strength, discipline, and a commitment to non-violence. It combines physical combat techniques with a strong focus on mental discipline rooted in respect for nature and societal values. Masters, some believed to possess special healing and protective abilities, guide apprentices in understanding their roles and responsibilities, ultimately preparing them to safeguard communities, the environment, and advocate for justice and peace. Bokator remains an integral part of Cambodian culture, not only as a martial art but also in rituals dedicated to local deities and festive events. These occasions often incorporate traditional elements like dance, music, and traditional medicine. Bokator symbolises Cambodia's cultural, social, and religious values and enjoys a broad following across age, gender, education, and social status.

Kun Khmer or Pradal Serey is an unarmed martial art from Cambodia. In Khmer the word pradal means fighting or boxing and serey means free. Originally used for warfare, pradal serey is now one of Cambodia's national sports. Its moves have been slightly altered to comply with the modern rules.  The martial art was turned into a sport when French colonists arrived and added components of Western boxing such as a boxing ring, boxing gloves, weight classes and timed rounds.

Khmer traditional wrestling is a folk wrestling style from Cambodia. It has been practiced as far back as the Angkor period and is depicted on the bas-reliefs of certain temples. The earliest form of Khmer traditional wrestling was called Maloyuth. Maloyuth was created in 788 A.D. by Brahmin Timu. It evolved to the current form of wrestling, Cham Bab, in the 8th century. Although predominantly a male sport today, Khmer wrestling was once practiced by both sexes as female wrestlers are also displayed on the Banteay Srei temple.

Laos

Muay Lao is a traditional unarmed martial art from Laos. It incorporates punches, kicks, elbows and knee strikes. Muay Lao was an event at the 2009 Southeast Asian Games in Vientiane.

Malaysia

Tomoi is an unarmed martial art from Malaysia. It is practiced mainly in the northern states such as Kedah, Trengganu, and especially Kelantan.

Thailand

Muay Boran (, , ; ) is an umbrella term for the unarmed martial arts of Thailand prior to the introduction of modern equipment and rules in the 1930s. It is the predecessor of modern Muay Thai or Thai boxing.

Muay Thai (, , ; ) is the Thai style of striking with strong emphasis on kicks, punches, knee and elbow strikes.

Krabi-Krabong (, ) is a Thai weapon-based martial art. Krabi-krabong was developed by the ancient Siamese warriors for fighting on the battlefield. It was likely used in conjunction with muay boran but whether the two arts were developed together or independently is uncertain. Early warfare in Indochina was mostly between rival kingdoms and were fought en masse. Individual fighters were armoured and carried rhino hide shields. The system's name refers to its main weapons, namely the Thai sword (krabi) and staff (krabong). Typically, two swords (daab song mue) are wielded as a pair. Unarmed krabi-krabong (muay boran) makes use of kicks, pressure point strikes, joint locks, holds, and throws.

Vietnam

Traditional Vietnamese martial arts (Võ Thuật Cổ Truyền Việt Nam 武術古傳越南) can be loosely divided into those of the Sino-Vietnamese descended from the Han, and those of the Chams or indigenous Vietnamese. Qwan Ki Do and Vovinam are prominent modern Vietnamese martial arts.

References

Indochina

Mainland Southeast Asia martial arts


Abraham Lincoln, The Hoosier Youth is a heroic bronze sculpture by American artist Paul Manship and was commissioned in 1928 by the Lincoln National Life Insurance Company for its headquarters in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The statue is  tall and sits atop a pedestal designed by architect Benjamin Wistar Morris and a granite base. The sculpture depicts a youthful Abraham Lincoln during the time he lived in Indiana. The Lincoln figure wears a handmade shirt, buckskin trousers, and boots. He is seated on a tree stump and holds a book. An ax leans against his leg and a dog is seated beside him. Manship also sculpted four bronze allegorical bas reliefs, one for each side of the pedestal, to represent traits associated with Lincoln: Charity, Fortitude, Justice and Patriotism. The statue was dedicated on 16 September 1932.

Description
The Lincoln sculpture is installed between two wings in the forecourt of the Lincoln National Life Insurance Company's former headquarters building in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The heroic bronze statue stands approximately  tall and depicts Lincoln as a youthful frontiersman with a serious, reflective, and slightly melancholy expression—characteristics used to describe Lincoln's demeanor throughout his life. Lincoln is seated on a tree stump and holds a partially closed book in his proper right hand. An ax leans against his proper right leg. His proper left hand rests on the head of a dog seated beside him. Lincoln wears a homemade linsey-woolsey shirt, buckskin trousers, and boots to emphasize his frontier background. The ax represents Lincoln's youth in Indiana's backwoods, the book symbolizes his intellect, and the dog is a symbol of his love of animals, human empathy, and protectiveness.

Although it is not known if Lincoln had a dog in his youth, Lincoln biographer William Herndon relates a story of Lincoln's refusal to leave a dog behind when the family moved west to Illinois in 1830. According to Herndon, after a stranded dog traveling with the wagon party refused to cross an icy stream, the twenty-one-year-old Lincoln removed his shoes and socks, waded across the chilly water to retrieve the dog, and carried it back in his arms to rejoin the group.

Manship's bronze statue rests on a pedestal designed by Benjamin Wistar Morris, the architect for the Lincoln National building who was also a sculptor. The pedestal is graced with four allegorical reliefs by Manship, one on each side of the pedestal, portraying traits associated with Lincoln: Charity, Fortitude, Justice and Patriotism. These, as well as the main work are executed in the simplified, almost art deco manner that typifies Manship's work. The pedestal sits on a granite base with an overall height of .

Historical information
In 1928 the Lincoln National Life Insurance Company commissioned sculptor Paul Manship to produce a statue of Abraham Lincoln for its headquarters in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The company's officers wanted "an outstanding creation of art which would be one of the recognized monuments of the world and which, as such, would attract universal admiration" Benjamin Wistar Morris, the architect for Lincoln National's headquarters in Fort Wayne, recommended Manship for the project.

Manship intended to depict Lincoln as a youthful dreamer and poet rather than an older frontiersman and railsplitter. His first concept paired Lincoln with his mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln. Manship created four small-scale compositions of  Nancy Hanks and Boy Abraham Lincoln, but rejected the mother and son duo in favor of a single figure of Lincoln as a young man. Manship brought a hound dog from Kentucky to his studio in Paris and used it as the model in the Lincoln sculpture. Manship's preliminary sketch was completed and approved in 1929 and he worked on the plaster model in his studios in Paris and New York in 1931. The bronze casting was done at the Compagnie des Bronzes, in Brussels, Belgium, and shipped to the United States, where the statue and four relief medallions were completed in Manship's New York studio during the winter of 1931–32. The sculpture was dedicated in Fort Wayne on 16 September 1932. The plaster model is today kept at the Musée bruxellois des industries et du travail, in Brussels, Belgium, located on the site of the factory of the Compagnie des Bronzes.

A picture of the statue is featured on the dust jacket and the inside front cover of Marks of Lincoln on Our Land.

Artist

Paul Howard Manship (1885–1966), who was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, was an experienced sculptor with an international reputation when he received the commission for the Lincoln sculpture in 1928. Manship familiarized himself with Lincoln's youth by touring the areas where Lincoln lived in Kentucky and Indiana to prepare for the project; there were no photographs taken of Lincoln until he was 37 years of age. Manship also consulted with Lincoln scholars and biographers: Louis Warren, who was a director at Lincoln National, Carl Sandburg, and Ida Tarbell, among others. Manship received $75,000 for the Lincoln statue, an "astonishing" amount considering it was completed in 1932 in the midst of the Great Depression.

See also
 List of statues of Abraham Lincoln
 List of sculptures of presidents of the United States

References

External links

Nancy Hanks and Boy Abraham Lincoln (#1), Smithsonian American Art Museum
Nancy Hanks and Boy Abraham Lincoln (#4), Smithsonian American Art Museum
Abraham Lincoln, the Hoosier Youth, small-scale study, Smithsonian American Art Museum

Monuments and memorials in Indiana
Statues of Abraham Lincoln
Monuments and memorials to Abraham Lincoln in the United States
1932 sculptures
Bronze sculptures in Indiana
Outdoor sculptures in Indiana
Statues in Indiana
Sculptures of men in Indiana
1932 establishments in Indiana
Works by Paul Manship

Abraham Lincoln: The Hoosier Youth


Michael Francis Dukes (March 16, 1936 – June 16, 2008) was an American collegiate and professional football player who was best known as a linebacker for the original Houston Oilers. Born in Louisville, Kentucky, Dukes attended Southwest DeKalb High School in Decatur, Georgia and then played in college for Clemson University. He then played the 1959 season for the San Francisco 49ers of the National Football League (NFL). Dukes left the NFL for the upstart American Football League (AFL) where he played eleven seasons for the Oilers, Boston Patriots and New York Jets. He played for the first two championship teams of the American Football League, the 1960 and 1961 Oilers, and was selected to the UPI All-AFL Team in 1961.

Dukes died in an automobile accident on Interstate 10 in Beaumont, Texas on June 16, 2008, at age 72.

His interment was at Oak Bluff Memorial Park in Port Neches.

See also

 List of American Football League players

References

External links

1936 births
2008 deaths
American football linebackers
Clemson Tigers football players
Boston Patriots players
Houston Oilers players
New York Jets players
San Francisco 49ers players
Players of American football from Decatur, Georgia
Players of American football from Louisville, Kentucky
Road incident deaths in Texas
American Football League players

Mike Dukes


Joannes Seyve (1900–1966) was a French biochemist who often used Seibel wine grape hybrids first produced in the 1860s. He created the Chambourcin grape, a French hybrid variety that is grown extensively in the Midwest and Northeast United States. His variety Joannes-Seyve 23.416 was crossed with Gewürztraminer to produce the Traminette grape.

His father Bertille Seyve (1864–1939), and brother Bertille Seyve Jr. (1895–1959) also produced new hybrid Grape varieties (identified as Seyve-Villard) including Seyval blanc and Villard Noir.

References

French biochemists
20th-century French botanists
1900 births
1966 deaths
20th-century French chemists

Joannes Seyve


Dan Zetterström (born 1 June 1954) is a  Swedish ornithologist and bird artist. He is best known as a co-author of the  Collins Bird Guide, with Killian Mullarney, Lars Svensson and Peter J. Grant.  He has designed several series of Swedish stamps.

He has contributed to the following titles:
 Collins Bird Guide, with Killian Mullarney, Lars Svensson and Peter Grant
  Handbook of Bird Identification, Mark Beaman and Steve Madge
  Country Life Guides, Birds of Britain and Europe, Håkan Delin et al.
  Handbook of the Birds of Europe The Middle East and North Africa (Birds of the Western Palearctic), S. Cramp et al.

References

1954 births
Swedish artists
Swedish illustrators
Living people
Swedish bird artists

Dan Zetterström


Sir James Michael Goldsmith (26 February 1933 – 18 July 1997) was a French-British financier, tycoon and politician who was a member of the Goldsmith family.

His controversial business and finance career led to ongoing clashes with British media, frequently involving litigation or the threat of litigation.

In 1994 he was elected to represent a French constituency as a Member of the European Parliament. He founded the short-lived Eurosceptic Referendum Party in the United Kingdom, which became an early campaigner for opposition to Britain's membership of the European Union.

Early life
Born in Paris, Goldsmith was the son of luxury hotel tycoon and former Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) Major Frank Goldsmith and his French wife, Marcelle Mouiller, and younger brother of environmental campaigner Edward Goldsmith. Frank Goldsmith had previously changed the family name from the German Goldschmidt to the English Goldsmith. The Goldschmidts, neighbours and rivals of the Rothschild family, were a wealthy, Frankfurt-based, Jewish family that had been influential in international merchant banking since the 16th century. James's great-grandfather was Benedikt Hayum Goldschmidt, founder of the  bank and consul to the Grand Duke of Tuscany. James's grandfather was Adolphe Benedict Goldschmidt (1838–1918), a multi-millionaire who moved to London in 1895.

Raised initially in Paris, James Goldsmith had to flee France with his family when Nazi Germany overran the country in 1940, only just managing to escape on the last over-loaded ship from the French port of exit, leaving behind their hotels and much of their property. After that the family relocated to the Bahamas, and Goldsmith was sent to school in Canada, where he founded a business trapping small furbearing animals such as rabbits, skunk and mink. He also attended Millfield and Eton College, which he left early in 1949 at the age of 16, after winning £8,000 () on a horse racing bet of £10 () for a three-horse accumulator at Lewes. With the money, he decided that he should leave Eton immediately; in a speech at his boarding house, he declared that "a man of my means should not remain a schoolboy!" He then took over a business in Paris from his brother Teddy, which sold a cure for rheumatism and electrical plugs and sockets.

Goldsmith served as a Gunner in the British Army's Royal Artillery under the National Service requirements, during which time he received a commission as an officer.

Business career

During the 1950s and 60s, Goldsmith's involvement in finance and as an industrialist involved many risks, and brought him close to bankruptcy several times. His successes included winning the British franchise for Alka-Seltzer and introducing low-cost generic drugs to the UK. He was described in the tabloid press as a greenmail corporate raider and asset stripper, a categorisation he denied vigorously. He claimed the re-organizations he undertook streamlined the operations, removed complacent inefficient management, and increased shareholder value.

Having taken on the management of the Paris business handed on by his brother Teddy, Goldsmith organised a publicity stunt involving an arthritic racehorse. Sales escalated in response and, within a couple of years, the staff had been expanded from two to over a hundred. Goldsmith took on the agency for various slimming remedies and branched out into the manufacture of generic prescription drugs. His acquisition of the distributorship for Slimcea and Procea low-calorie breads was the start of the shift of focus towards the food industry. In the early 1960s, in partnership with Selim Zilkha, Goldsmith founded the Mothercare retail chain, but sold out his share to Zilkha who went on to develop it with great success.

With the financial backing of Sir Isaac Wolfson, he acquired diverse food companies quoted on the London Stock Exchange as Cavenham Foods in 1965. Initially, the group had an annual turnover of £27m and negligible profits. He added bakeries and then confectioners to the group, and then took over a number of wholesalers and retailers, including small chains of tobacco, confectioner and newsagent shops. By rationalising the activities, closing inefficient factories, and improving the management practices, he steadily improved productivity. By 1971, the turnover was £35m and profits were up to £2m.

In June 1971, he launched a bid for Bovril, which was a much larger company with a diverse portfolio including several strong brands (including Marmite, Ambrosia, Virol and Jaffajuice), dairies and dairy farms, and cattle ranches in Argentina. It was run by the third generation of the founding family and Goldsmith concluded that they were ineffectual. The bid was strongly contested and Goldsmith was fiercely attacked by the financial press. The directors tried to induce Beechams and Rowntree Mackintosh to make rival offers but, in the end, they both withdrew.

After the successful bid, Goldsmith sold the dairies and farms to Max Joseph's Express Dairies group for £5.3m, and found buyers in South America for the ranches. Sales of other parts of the company recouped almost all of the £13m that the acquisition had cost him. Some years later, he sold the brand names to Beecham for £36m. Later, he took over Allied Distributors, who owned a miscellaneous portfolio of grocery stores and small chains, including the Lipton shops. As journalists began to question his techniques of dealing with the funds and assets of publicly quoted companies, Goldsmith began dealing through private companies registered in the UK and abroad. These included the French company Générale Occidentale and Hong Kong and then Cayman-registered General Oriental Investments.

In early 1973, Goldsmith travelled to New York to assess US business opportunities, followed by a tour round Central and South America. He took the view that the UK economy was due for a downturn and began aggressively liquidating many of his assets. In December that year, in the midst of financial chaos, he announced that he had acquired a 51% controlling stake in Grand Union, one of the oldest retailing conglomerates in the US. He set Jim Wood – who had revitalised his British retail operations – to work on rationalising the operations of the chain, but ran into continuous obstruction from both unions and management.

During the 1960s and 1970s, Goldsmith received financing from the banking arm of the conglomerate Slater Walker, of which he succeeded founder Jim Slater as Chairman following the company's collapse and rescue by the Bank of England in the secondary banking crisis of 1973–75.

Goldsmith was knighted in the 1976 resignation honours – the so-called "Lavender List" – of Prime Minister Harold Wilson. In early 1980, he formed a partnership with longtime friend and merchant banker, Sir Roland Franklin. Franklin managed Goldsmith's business in the Americas. From 1983 until 1988, Goldsmith, via takeovers in America, built a private holding company, Cavenham Forest Industries, which became one of the largest private owners of timberland and one of the top-five timber-holding companies of any type in America. Goldsmith and Franklin identified a quirk in American accounting whereby companies with substantial timberland holdings would often carry them on their balance sheets at a nominal valuation (as the result of years of depreciation).

Goldsmith, a reader of financial statements, realised that in the case of Crown Zellerbach the underlying value of the timberland assets alone, carried at only $12.5m on the balance sheet, was worth more than the target company's total market capitalisation of around $900m.
With this insight, Goldsmith began raids that left him with a holding company owning huge tracts of timberland acquired at virtually no net cost. The majority of the pulp and paper assets were sold to James River Corporation in 1986, which in turn became a part of Georgia-Pacific in 2000. (The brown paper container division became Gaylord Container).

Additionally, in 1986, Goldsmith's companies reportedly made $90 million from an attempted hostile takeover of the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, although he regarded this profit as an inadequate consolation for the failure to carry the bid through to a successful conclusion. The management of the company coordinated a virulent campaign against Goldsmith, involving unions, the press, and politicians at state and federal level.

Goldsmith retired to Mexico in 1987, having anticipated the market crash that year and liquidated his assets. However, he continued corporate raiding, including an attempt on British-American Tobacco in 1989 (for which he joined Kerry Packer and Jacob Rothschild). He also swapped his American timber assets for a 49.9 percent stake in Newmont Mining and remained on the board of Newmont until he liquidated his stake through open-market trades in 1993. He had been precluded by the original purchase of Newmont from acquiring a controlling shareholding in the company. In 1990, Goldsmith also began a lower-profile, but also profitable, global "private equity style" investment operation. By 1994, executives working in his employ in Hong Kong had built a substantial position in the intermediation of global strategic raw-material flows.

A large Hong Kong-linked and Goldsmith-funded stake in one of the world's largest nickel operations, INCO Indonesia, was also disclosed in the 1990s, showing Goldsmith's ability to position capital before a trend became obvious to others. The group was also a major backer of the Hong Kong-based and Singapore listed major raw material player Noble Group, with low-profile long-time Goldsmith protégé Tobias Brown serving for many years as the company's non-executive chairman.

Goldsmith and the press
Goldsmith attracted little attention until he became embroiled in a damaging dispute with anti-establishment satirical magazine Private Eye. In 1976 Private Eye accused Goldsmith of being part of what amounted to a conspiracy to obstruct the course of justice in relation to the fugitive Lord Lucan, who was wanted for murder of his children's nanny. The article falsely stated that Goldsmith had participated in a meeting supposedly called by John Aspinall to help Lucan. Goldsmith was a regular at his close friend Aspinall's gambling club, the Clermont, where Lucan was one of the house players having their losses written off, rather than a true member. In addition to pursuing a large number of civil lawsuits against the editor of the magazine and a journalist who was also a TV researcher and regarding them as dangerous subversives, Goldsmith sought to bring a criminal libel prosecution, though there had not been one for half a century. Through his actions Goldsmith formed an unlikely friendship with the Labour Party's then Prime Minister Harold Wilson who loathed Private Eye. The access to Wilson aided Goldsmith when, to the horror of Bank of England officials, he became head of the troubled Slater Walker, and this is said to have been the reason for his knighthood. The costly libel suits were eventually settled by Goldsmith, but he was subsequently dogged by disparaging commentary from a wide range of British media.

In November 1977, there were two editions of The Money Programme on BBC; the first gave a critical account of Goldsmith's business history and methods. In the second programme a combative Goldsmith appeared in person and countered the implication of asset stripping by pointing to an investment of over a hundred million pounds his company was making to upgrade their going concerns.

In 1977 Goldsmith bought the French weekly L'Express and between 1979 and 1981 published the UK news magazine NOW! which failed to survive.

In 1999 an episode of The Mayfair Set, a BBC television documentary series by filmmaker Adam Curtis, portrayed the by then deceased Goldsmith as a playboy, speculator and deluded victim of the success as a corporate raider that made him one of the world's richest men.

Into politics
Goldsmith had become increasingly concerned throughout the 1980s about the nature of the European Economic Community, and harboured a deepening suspicion that at its core lay a desire for the domination of the European continent by Germany, a suspicion which was for him confirmed further when in 1992, via the passage of the Maastricht Treaty, the E.E.C. re-titled itself as the European Union, with dramatically centralising governmental powers being enacted over its constituent member nations.

In March 1993 Goldsmith gave a televised lecture publicly declaring opposition to the European Union, which was transmitted across the United Kingdom on Channel 4 Television as part of its Opinions political commentary series, the text of which was published in The Times the following day under the title Creating a Superstate is the way to destroy Europe. In the mid-1990s he financially supported a Eurosceptic think tank entitled the European Foundation.

In 1994 he published The Trap, a book detailing his broader political philosophical thoughts, giving a critique of the dominance of Neoliberalism in the governments of the First World. In its text he criticised their ideological dogmatic pursuance of Free Trade, and the facilitation of the American Melting Pot societal model being copied by the rest of the First World's governments through mass foreign migration, driven by a pursuance of short term economic advantage, which he posited was fatally flawed in societal concept and brought with it great societal dangers. As an economic alternative he espoused a restoration of Classical Liberalism, and a return to Mercantilism. He also advocated the prevention by governmental action of mass migrations by populations from poorer areas of the globe into the First World driven by economic motivation, which he foresaw as an inevitability of escalating Third World population demographics and First World governmental Neo-Liberal and Socialist ideologies.

In 1994 he was elected in France as a member of the European Parliament, representing the Majorité pour l'autre Europe party, and subsequently became the leader of the eurosceptic Europe of Nations group within the European Parliament.

The Referendum Party

In the early 1990s, with the removal of Margaret Thatcher from the United Kingdom's Prime Ministerial office by the Tories, and their enactment into law of the Maastricht Treaty, Goldsmith, who up until that time had retained close links with the Conservative Party, came to the conclusion that it was no longer a serious political vehicle to oppose the European Union's advancing power, and that opposition would have to be created within the party political system beyond its current order of the Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrats parties, all of which supported the United Kingdom's incorporation into the European Union.

In consequence, in 1994 Goldsmith founded and financed The Referendum Party in the United Kingdom, modelled upon the Majorité pour l'autre Europe, with the objective of seeking a referendum for its national withdrawal from the European Union, which would go on to stand candidates in the country's general election of 1997. As the mid-1990s progressed Goldsmith involved himself in British politics, appearing with increasing regularity in the political press, and in domestic political televised debates, raising opposition to the nature of the European Union and what he perceived was mainstream media culpability in playing down its supranational ambitions, and pouring scorn on a Westminster parliamentary political order that he stated had failed the nation and was now wilfully betraying its governmental sovereignty.

During the 1997 electoral campaign Goldsmith had mailed to approximately five million homes a VHS video cassette film to allow him to address the electorate free from the editorial control of the nation's mainstream media, having previously rejected the idea of by-passing the United Kingdom's legal restrictions on the broadcast of political information by the means of an offshore radio station named "Referendum Radio".

1997 United Kingdom general election
At the 1997 general election, Goldsmith stood as a candidate for the Referendum Party in the London constituency of Putney, against the former Conservative Minister David Mellor, MP, in an electoral contest in which Goldsmith polled 3.5% of the vote. The declaration of the Putney result, which was televised and nationally broadcast live on the night of 1 May 1997, saw a charged atmosphere at the count, with a rowdy crowd in attendance of anti-European Union activists from the Referendum Party, and the recently inaugurated UK Independence Party (which would itself receive only a couple of hundred votes in Putney that night). An acrimonious confrontation between Mellor (who had lost his seat to the Labour Party candidate) and Goldsmith developed on stage after Mellor, in what was to be his valedictory address from politics, personally insulted Goldsmith's candidacy. During the speech, part of the crowd, Goldsmith and some of the other candidates began a gleefully defiant collective repetitive shouting chant of "Out!" in response, in celebration of the perceived substantive damage having been done to a prominent member of the Westminster Parliamentary political order of which they had become so contemptuous.

Goldsmith's electoral performance at Putney had been reasonably insubstantial, in a British electoral culture in which it is notoriously difficult for new political parties or maverick politicians to establish themselves. He was also terminally ill during the election, a fact which he had kept secret beyond his closest personal circle, and which had limited his ability to campaign. When interviewed by the BBC's Michael Buerk during the count prior to the result being announced, he described his chances as being "very remote" -  the 1,518 votes that his candidacy had garnered had not in itself defeated the incumbent Mellor, who had lost by 2,976 votes; moreover it amounted to less than 5% of the total votes cast, this being insufficient for Goldsmith to retain the candidate's financial deposit of £500, a part of the 20 million pounds that he had reportedly poured into The Referendum Party in its brief existence. Mellor had correctly predicted at the count that the Referendum Party was "dead in the water", and indeed the party did disappear with Goldsmith's death two months after the election. However, many of the Referendum Party's activists and voters would go on to join and support the nascent UK Independence Party, which would ultimately lead a sea-change in the nation's politics, which almost twenty years later would see the United Kingdom vote to leave the European Union in a referendum on the issue.

Death
Two months after contesting the 1997 general election, Goldsmith died from the effects of pancreatic cancer at a farmhouse that he owned in Benahavís, southern Spain, on 18 July 1997. He was 64 years old.

Personal life
Goldsmith was married three times.  At 20 he wed the 17-year-old  Bolivian heiress María Isabel Patiño y Borbón, the daughter of tin magnate Antenor Patiño by his wife María Cristina de Borbón y Bosch-Labrús, 3rd Duchess of Dúrcal. When Goldsmith proposed the marriage to Antenor Patiño, it is alleged his future father-in-law replied, "We are not in the habit of marrying Jews". Goldsmith is reported to have replied, "Well, I am not in the habit of marrying [Red] Indians". The story, if true, is typical of Goldsmith's humour. With the heiress pregnant and the Patiños insisting the pair separate, the couple eloped in January 1954. The marriage was brief: rendered comatose by a cerebral haemorrhage in her seventh month of pregnancy, Maria Isabel Patiño de Goldsmith died in May 1954. Her only child, Isabel, was delivered by caesarean section and survived. She was brought up by Goldsmith's family and was married for a few years to French sportsman Arnaud de Rosnay. On her father's death, she inherited a large share of his estate. Isabel has since become an art collector, and is the owner of Hotel Las Alamandas in Mexico.

Goldsmith's next married Ginette Léry, with whom he had a son, Manes, born 1959, and daughter, Alix, born 1964. They divorced in 1978 but shared a house in Paris until his death, and he built her a house on his Cuixmala estate. His son Manes worked for FIFA and CONCACAF and has also owned football teams in Mexico. His daughter Alix took over his properties in Mexico managing them with her husband Goffredo Marcaccini, whom she married in July 1991; together they have four children. Cuixmala and Hacienda de San Antonio are two of the most renowned hotels in Mexico, having won various prizes in the hospitality business.

In 1978 he wed his mistress Lady Annabel Birley, by whom he had already had two children, Jemima, born in 1974, and Zacharias, born in 1975; a third child, Benjamin was born in 1980. After this marriage, Goldsmith embarked on an affair with Laure Boulay de La Meurthe (granddaughter of Bruno, Count of Harcourt and Princess Isabelle of Orléans), with whom he had two more children, Jethro and Charlotte Colbert. Charlotte married Philip Colbert and has a daughter.

Publications

Books
The Trap. Paris: Fixot (1993). .
The Response. New York: Macmillan (1995). .

Pamphlets
Communist Propaganda Apparatus & Other Threats to The Media. London: Conservative Monday Club. Goldsmith's statement to the Media Committee of the Conservative Party at the British House of Commons, January 21, 1981.

Speeches
 Small Today, Bigger Tomorrow: Three Speeches from the 1984 Small Business Bureau Conference, with Margaret Thatcher and Milton Stewart. London: Conservative Political Centre (1984). . .
 GATT Speech at U.S. Senate (15 November 1994).

Notes

References

Further reading

Books
Geoffrey Wansell, Sir James Goldsmith: The Man and the Myth, HarperCollins, 1982, .
Geoffrey Wansell, Tycoon: Life of James Goldsmith, HarperCollins, 1987, .
Ivan Fallon, Billionaire, Little, Brown, 1991. .
Richard Ingrams, Goldenballs!: The Incredible Story of the Long and Complex Legal Battle Between Sir James Goldsmith and Private Eye. London: Private Eye Productions, 1979. .

Documentaries
The Mayfair Set, a 1999 BAFTA Award-winning documentary series by Adam Curtis describing buccaneer capitalists in the Thatcher years, focusing on James Goldsmith and other members of the Clermont Set.

External links

The Lucky Gambler: Sir James Goldsmith Is a Billionaire Buccaneer, Time, 23 November 1987
 , featuring Goldsmith heckling David Mellor

1933 births
1997 deaths
20th-century British businesspeople
British billionaires
British expatriates in France
British expatriates in Spain
British people of German-Jewish descent
British retail company founders
Businesspeople awarded knighthoods
Businesspeople from London
Businesspeople in confectionery
Corporate raiders
Deaths from cancer in Spain
Deaths from pancreatic cancer
James
Knights Bachelor
People educated at Eton College
People educated at Millfield
French emigrants to the United Kingdom
Private equity and venture capital investors
Referendum Party politicians
Royal Artillery officers
20th-century English businesspeople
James Goldsmith

James Goldsmith


Chorizanthe palmeri is a species of flowering plant in the buckwheat family known by the common name Palmer's spineflower. It is endemic to California, where it is known only from the Central Coast Ranges of western Monterey and San Luis Obispo Counties.

It grows on mountain slopes of serpentine soils. This herb is variable in appearance, with isolated populations often appearing quite different from one another, but not different enough to be considered separate taxa. In general, it is an erect plant growing up to 40 centimeters tall. The stem, leaves, bracts, and flowers can all be reddish to decidedly purple-red in color, and when a good-sized population is in bloom it can be spotted even from aircraft as a mark of red against an otherwise brownish hillside landscape. The inflorescence is a cluster of flowers surrounded by six red or purple bracts with hooked awns. The flower is a few millimeters across and is red or purple with a white or yellow throat.

References

External links
Jepson Manual Treatment

palmeri
Endemic flora of California
Natural history of the California chaparral and woodlands
Natural history of the California Coast Ranges
Natural history of Monterey County, California
Natural history of San Luis Obispo County, California
Taxa named by Sereno Watson
Flora without expected TNC conservation status

Chorizanthe palmeri


Romaine or cos lettuce (Lactuca sativa L. var. longifolia) is a type of lettuce. It is green in colour and its flavour is similar to other varieties of lettuce. It is one of the few types of lettuces that can be fed to iguanas.

Leaf vegetables
Asteraceae

Romaine lettuce


Pickfair is a mansion and estate in the city of Beverly Hills, California with legendary history. The original Pickfair was an 18 acre (7.3 ha) estate designed by architect Horatio Cogswell for attorney Lee Allen Phillips of Berkeley Square as a country home. Phillips sold the property to actor Douglas Fairbanks in 1918. Coined "Pickfair" by the press, it became one of the most celebrated houses in the world. Life Magazine described Pickfair as "a gathering place only slightly less important than the White House... and much more fun."

History
Located at 1143 Summit Drive in San Ysidro Canyon in Beverly Hills, the property was a hunting lodge when purchased by Fairbanks in 1919 for his bride-to-be, Mary Pickford. In the 1920s, the newlyweds extensively renovated the lodge, transforming it into a four-story, 25-room mansion complete with stables, servants quarters, tennis courts, a large guest wing, and garages.

Remodeled by Wallace Neff in a mock Tudor style, it took five years to complete. Ceiling frescos, parquet flooring, wood paneled halls of fine mahogany and bleached pine, gold leaf and mirrored decorative niches, all added to the authentic charm of Pickfair. The property was said to have been the first private home in the Los Angeles area to include an in-ground swimming pool, in which Pickford and Fairbanks were famously photographed paddling a canoe.

Pickfair featured a collection of early 18th-century English and French period furniture, decorative arts and antiques. Notable pieces in the collection included furniture from the Barberini Palace, the Baroness Burdett-Coutts estate in London, and Louis XVI furniture from the Countess Rodezno and Lord Leverhulme collections. The highlight of any visit to Pickfair was a large collection of Chinese objets d'art collected by Fairbanks and Pickford on their many visits to the Orient. The Pickfair art collection was wide and varied and included paintings by Philip Mercier, Guillaume Seignac, George Romney, and Paul de Longpré.

The mansion also featured an Old West-style saloon complete with an ornate burnished mahogany bar obtained from a saloon in Auburn, California, as well as paintings by Frederic Remington. In the 1970 Volume 2, Number 10 issue of Mankind Magazine it states there were twelve Remingtons from 1907 purchased from the Cosmopolitan Publishing Company that "were Mary Pickford's gift to her husband, Charles 'Buddy' Rogers". The interior of Pickfair was decorated and updated throughout the years by Marilyn Johnson Tucker, Elsie De Wolfe, Marjorie Requa, Tony Duquette, and Kathryn Crawford.

During the 1920s the house became a focal point for Hollywood's social activities, and the couple became famous for entertaining there. An invitation to Pickfair was a sign of social acceptance into the closed Hollywood community. In 1928, Will Rogers said "My most important duty as mayor of Beverly Hills is directing people to Mary Pickford's house".

Dinners at Pickfair became legendary; guests included Charlie Chaplin (who lived next door), the Duke of Windsor and Duchess of Windsor, Dorothy and Lillian Gish, Mildred Harris, Greta Garbo, George Bernard Shaw, Albert Einstein, Elinor Glyn, Helen Keller, H.G. Wells, Lord Louis Mountbatten, Fritz Kreisler, Tony Duquette, Amelia Earhart, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Joan Crawford, Noël Coward, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt, Pearl S. Buck, Charles Lindbergh, Max Reinhardt, Arthur Conan Doyle, Thomas Edison, Gloria Swanson, the Duke and Duchess of Alba, the King and Queen of Siam, Austen Chamberlain, Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, the spiritual teacher Meher Baba, and Sir Harry Lauder. Lauder's nephew, Matt Lauder Jr., a professional golfer whose family had a property at Eagle Rock, Los Angeles, California, taught Fairbanks to play golf.

Fairbanks and Pickford divorced in January 1936, but Pickford continued to reside in the mansion with her third husband, actor and musician Charles "Buddy" Rogers, until her death in 1979. Pickford received few visitors in her later years, but continued to open up her grand home for charitable organizations and parties, including an annual Christmas party for blind war veterans, mostly from World War I.

In 1976, Pickford received a second Academy Award for contribution to American film. The Academy Honorary Award was presented to her in the formal living room of Pickfair, and televised on the 48th Academy Awards. Introduced and narrated by Gene Kelly, it provided the public a very rare glimpse inside the fabled mansion.

Sale, demolition, and rebuild
Empty for several years after Pickford's death in 1979, Pickfair was eventually sold to Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss, who continued to care for the home, updating and preserving much of its unique charm. In 1988, it was purchased by actress Pia Zadora and her husband Meshulam Riklis. They announced they were planning renovations to the famous estate, but revealed in 1990 that they had in fact demolished Pickfair and a new larger "Venetian style palazzo" was going to be constructed in its place. In 1990, the Los Angeles Times reported that all but the guest wing and part of the living room had been razed.

Faced with harsh criticism from a nostalgic public, including Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Zadora defended her family's actions, stating that the house was allegedly in a poor state of repair and was infested by termites. In the L.A. Times, Fairbanks was quoted as saying, "I regret it very much. I wonder, if they were going to demolish it, why they bought it in the first place."

In 2012, Zadora claimed on the BIO channel's Celebrity Ghost Stories that the real reason she demolished Pickfair was not due to termite infestation but because it was haunted by the laughing ghost of a woman who allegedly died there while having an affair with the elder Fairbanks. Defending her actions, Zadora explained, "If I had a choice, I never would have torn down this old home. I loved this home, it had a history, it had a very important sense about it and you can deal with termites, and you can deal with plumbing issues, but you can't deal with the supernatural."

Remaining artifacts from the original Pickfair include the gates to the estate, the kidney-shaped pool and pool house, remnants of the living room, as well as the two-bedroom guest wing that played host to visiting royalty and notable film celebrities for over half a century. The guest wing was once used as a honeymoon suite for Lord Louis and Lady Mountbatten.

Located at 1143 Summit Drive in Beverly Hills, UNICOM Global bought the mansion on April 19, 2005, for $15,000,000. The property included a gym, disco room, and sits on . UNICOM Global now uses it for meetings, conferences and events.

In popular culture
Zadora's purchase and subsequent demolition of Pickfair is referenced in Deborah Harry and Iggy Pop's version of "Well, Did You Evah!". Pop claims he was invited to Pia Zadora's house but didn't go, later saying "I hear they dismantled Pickfair... wasn't elegant enough", to which Harry replies "probably full of termites".

In The Simpsons, Krusty the Klown's mansion is named "Schtickfair" in an homage.

Lucille Ball stated that she and husband Desi Arnaz were inspired by the combination of names in Pickfair to name their own estate (and later studio) Desilu.

See also
 Casa del Rio, a house in Devon, England, inspired by Pickfair.

References

External links
 The Mary Pickford Foundation Online Research Center
 Mary Pickford receiving an Honorary Oscar® at Pickfair in 1976
 Photographs of Pickfair during its heyday in the 1920s
 Extensive fine craftwork of the final Pickfair remodel was performed by Alister Paterson of Paterson Construction
 Inside tour of home UNICOM's Pickfair Estate

Houses in Beverly Hills, California
Wallace Neff buildings
Mary Pickford
Buildings and structures demolished in 1990
Demolished buildings and structures in California

Pickfair


Arne Morris Sorenson (October 13, 1958 – February 15, 2021) was an American lawyer and hotel executive who served as the president and chief executive officer of Marriott International from 2012 until his death in 2021. He was a graduate of Luther College in Iowa, and the University of Minnesota Law School. He previously practiced law in Washington, D.C., with Latham and Watkins, specializing in mergers and acquisitions litigation. He joined Marriott in 1996 where he served in increasingly senior management roles before being promoted to chief executive.

He was also a member of the board of directors of Microsoft Corporation and Walmart, as well as a trustee of the Brookings Institution.

Early life and education
Sorenson was born in Tokyo on October 13, 1958. His father, Morris "Bo" Sorenson, Jr., was a Lutheran pastor in Japan at the time of his birth. His mother, Dorothy (Austin), was a public school teacher. The family returned to the United States when he was seven. He grew up in Saint Paul, Minnesota. He graduated from Luther College in Decorah, Iowa in 1980, with majors in business and religion, and proceeded to earn his J.D. degree from the University of Minnesota Law School in 1983.

Career
Sorenson started his career working with the Washington, D.C. based law firm Latham & Watkins, where he went on to become a partner, specializing in mergers and acquisitions. One of his clients during this time included Marriott International.

Sorenson joined Marriott International as an associate general counsel in 1996. He went on to become a senior vice president focusing on business development, as well as mergers and acquisitions. During this period, he handled the company's $1 billion acquisition of Renaissance Hotels. He later went on to become the chief financial officer, and then chief operating officer, before becoming the president and chief executive officer in 2012. Upon the retirement of Bill Marriott who remained as executive chairman, Sorenson became the third CEO in company history and the first executive outside of the Marriott family to lead the company.

As CEO of Marriott, one of the key decisions that Sorenson was known for was the $13 billion acquisition of Starwood Hotel & Resorts Worldwide, Inc., which made the company the largest global hotel chain with over 30 hospitality brands including Sheraton, W Hotels, Ritz-Carlton, Westin, among others, and held more than 1.4 million rooms globally. The acquisition had the company beat a bid from Hyatt hotels, and a bid from a Chinese insurance company, Anbang Insurance. The acquisition enabled the company to emerge as a dominant global player in the hospitality business with a presence in over 70 countries, and allowing for more favorable economics with providers including the likes of Expedia.

Some of the other moves introduced by Sorenson as the head of the company including diversifying the brand portfolio to cater to a younger audience, including teaming up with independent hotels that provided a distinct experience. He also had the company entering into the home-rental marketplace spurred by advances by new entrants like Airbnb. Some of the challenges faced during his time included a security breach in 2018 that had compromised more than personal records including passport numbers, credit card details, and other personal information of over 300 million guests. As a leader during the COVID-19 pandemic, he had initiated staff furloughs and retrenchments. He had notably mentioned in a video, that was released publicly, that he would not be taking his salary during the period.

Sorenson also served as a director of the boards of Microsoft Corporation and Walmart as well as a member of the Special Olympics board. He was also associated with the Brookings Institution as a trustee.

Political advocacy
Sorenson was a registered Democrat, but donated to Mitt Romney's 2012 election campaign. He had also advocated for LGBT rights and had opposed Indiana's proposed Religious Freedom Restoration Act. He was one of a number of CEOs who had asked for a full repeal of North Carolina's House Bill 2.

Sorenson spoke out against then-President Trump's Executive Order 13769, a ban on travel from seven majority-Muslim countries as potentially harmful to the U.S. tourism industry. He also advocated for improved relations with Cuba, including harnessing tourism as a strategic tool for this purpose.

Personal life
Sorenson met his future wife, Ruth Christenson, when he was studying at Luther College and Christenson was working at her family's ice cream shop in Decorah, Iowa. The couple married in 1984 and went on to have four children.

During college, Sorenson's father sent him on a summer church mission in war-torn Beirut; he continued to be "driven by faith" throughout his life and career.

Death and legacy
In 2019, it was announced that Sorenson was undergoing treatment for stage II pancreatic cancer at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. He continued to head the company during this period. On February 2, 2021, the company announced he would take a reduction in work hours to allow for treatment and spending time with his family. Although Sorenson had been described as in good health at that time, he unexpectedly died at his home in Washington, D.C., two weeks later on February 15, 2021, at age 62. Sorenson was succeeded as Marriott CEO by Anthony Capuano.

Considered an industry icon who was noted for a progressive, even "transformational" style of leadership; his legacy inspired the creation of the Arne Sorenson Social Impact Leadership Award by the American Hotel and Lodging Association (AHLA), the American Hotel & Lodging Foundation, and the BHN Group. The inaugural award is slated for the AHLA Foundation's annual fundraising gala, "Night of a Thousand Stars", and "Americas Lodging Investment Summit" in 2021.

Awards

 International Leadership Award, 2019 by the World Trade Center Institute.
 "CEO of the Year," 2019 by Chief Executive magazine
 "CEO For All Leadership Award," 2020 by Great Place to Work.
 Awarded the "Out & Equal Ally Changemaker Award" for his advocacy for the LGBTQ community
 Katie Taylor Economic Empowerment Award for Women in Tourism and Hospitality
 Legend in Leadership Award, Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute
 2021 Above and Beyond Lifetime Achievement Award scheduled for posthumous presentation at The Lodging Conference, September 29, 2021.

See also

References

1958 births
2021 deaths
20th-century American lawyers
21st-century American businesspeople
American Lutherans
American chief executives of travel and tourism industry companies
American chief operating officers
American hoteliers
Brookings Institution people
Businesspeople from Saint Paul, Minnesota
Businesspeople from Washington, D.C.
Chief executives in the hospitality industry
Corporate lawyers
Deaths from pancreatic cancer in Washington, D.C.
Hotel executives
American LGBT rights activists
Lawyers from Washington, D.C.
Marriott International people
Businesspeople from Tokyo
University of Minnesota Law School alumni
Washington, D.C., Democrats
Luther College (Iowa) alumni

Arne Sorenson (hotel executive)


In ancient Roman religion, Pales was a deity of shepherds, flocks and livestock. Regarded as male by some sources and female by others, Pales can be either singular or plural in Latin, and refers at least once to a pair of deities.

Pales' festival, called the Parilia, was celebrated on April 21. Cattle were driven through bonfires on this day. Pales and the Parilia were strictly connected to the foundation of Rome which took place on the day of their festival.

Marcus Atilius Regulus built a temple to Pales in Rome following his victory over the Salentini in 267 BC. It is generally thought to have been located on the Palatine Hill, but, being a victory monument, it may have been located on the route of the triumphal procession, either on the Campus Martius or the Aventine Hill. According to the Fasti Antiates Maiores, there was a festival for "the two Pales" (Palibus duobus) on July 7, probably to mark the dedication of this temple.

Scholarship has suggested the Pales deities are related to Sicilian pair of gods Palici, and both sets of brother may be reflexes of the Indo-European mytheme of the Divine twins.

References

Sources
Richardson, L. (1992). A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome. Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press. (p. 282)
Scullard, H.H. (1981). Festivals and Ceremonies of the Roman Republic. London: Thames and Hudson. (p. 104–105)

Roman gods
Roman goddesses
Agricultural deities
Roman deities

Pales


Multi-National Division Baghdad (MND-B) was a division of Multi-National Force Iraq.

It was headquartered by the 1st Cavalry Division, based at Camp Victory (primary component of the Victory Base Complex), north of Baghdad International Airport.  The division controlled those brigades in greater Baghdad that are responsible for areas within the city itself. Of the brigades controlled by the 1st Cavalry Division, one was north of the city at Taji, one was in the northeastern part in Adhamiya, one at Camp Liberty in the west, one in the "International Zone" or "Green Zone" at the heart of the city, one on the southern outskirts, and a sixth in the southeast near Rasheed airfield. Following the Iraq War troop surge of 2007, most of the brigades' troops were dispersed at battalion- and company-level "combat outposts" and "joint security stations."  The headquarters of MND-B was previously provided by HQ 1st Armored Division (2003–2004), HQ 1st Cavalry Division (2004–2005), HQ 3rd Infantry Division (2005), 4th Infantry Division (2006 & 2008–2009) and 1st Cavalry Division (2007).

References

See also
 Iraq War order of battle 2009

Multinational force involved in the Iraq War
Military units and formations established in the 2000s

Multi-National Division - Baghdad


Bird & Bird is an international law firm that was founded in London in 1846. The firm has since expanded to over 30 offices in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, and has a particular focus on the technology, media, and telecommunications sectors. In addition to its core practice areas of intellectual property, litigation, and corporate and commercial law, the firm also covers areas such as employment, competition, and regulatory law. Bird & Bird's clients are based across 118 countries worldwide and 75% of major clients work with more than one office, making it a collaborative international network.

History

Founding and establishment
Bird & Bird's history stretches back to the 1830s and the firm was formally established in the UK in 1846.

2000s
In 2000, the firm opened offices in France and Sweden. One year later it opened in The Netherlands and the following year it opened its first office in Germany.

In 2003, the expansion continued, with a new office in Italy and a second office in Germany.

In 2004, the number of partners at the firm reached 100 for the first time, and the expansion continued unabated with a new office in Beijing. The following year saw new offices in Madrid, Rome and Frankfurt.

2006 saw a further opening of  new office in Lyon in France.

2008 saw the firm open a Finnish office in Helsinki through a merger with a leading Finnish firm Fennica, as well as four other offices in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia and a third office in China with the opening of an office in Shanghai. On top of this, expansion in London continued through a merger with Lane & Partners.

2010s
Bird & Bird continued to expand its international reach and in May 2013, merged with Danish outfit BvHD, completing its coverage of the Nordic region. The same year, the firm signed an international cooperation agreement with BCCC Avocats, located in Switzerland.

In November 2014, Bird & Bird merged with leading Australian new economy specialist law firm, Truman Hoyle, to create their first office in Australia. The merger brought their presence in the Asia Pacific region to 5 offices, with another 5 formal co-operation agreements in place in Malaysia, China, Indonesia and Korea.

Bird & Bird's international growth continued with the launch of a Luxembourg office in 2016.

In 2018, the firm welcomed a new hub office in Amsterdam, and a representative office in downtown San Francisco, their first office in the USA.

Diversity
Bird & Bird has a Diversity & Inclusion committee that aims to provide and maintain an inclusive work environment.

Clients
In 2021, Bird & Bird advised DP Poland, the UK AIM listed company which owns the Domino's Pizza franchise in Poland, on its acquisition of a domestic Polish pizza restaurant chain called Dominium SA.

Awards
The firm was awarded "Most Admired Law Firm" by Legal Cheek in 2021, and "Global Firm of the Year" by Who's Who Legal 2021 in IT, Telecoms and Media, Life Sciences – Patent Litigation, and Patents.

References

External links

Law firms of the United Kingdom
Intellectual property law firms
Patent law firms
Law firms established in 1846
1846 establishments in the United Kingdom
Foreign law firms with offices in the Netherlands
Foreign law firms with offices in Hong Kong

Bird & Bird


Demetrio "Mino" Carta (Genoa, 6 September 1933) is an Italian-born Brazilian journalist, publisher and writer. Carta helped in the creation of Veja, Istoé and CartaCapital, three of the four leading newsmagazines currently published in Brazil.

Biography
Carta arrived in São Paulo, São Paulo with his family after the War in 1946, when he "still wore short pants". He was probably 12 or 13 years old at that time. He recalls São Paulo as a "quiet and orderly" town with "human measures".

In 1951, Carta did a vestibular exam and was admitted at the University of São Paulo's traditional Law School of Largo São Francisco. His enrollment records state that he was born on September 6, 1933. He attended the classes of the first years, but quit and ended up never graduating from higher education.

In 1960 he started his career in journalism by helping to found Editora Abril automobile magazine Quatro Rodas. In 1966, he introduced new journalism in Brazil by founding São Paulo-based newspaper Jornal da Tarde. Two years later, he helped Victor Civita of Abril to found Veja, which currently is the leading newsmagazine in the country, with a circulation of over a million copies per edition. Unsatisfied with the result, he helped in the foundation of Istoé in 1976. Yet not completely satisfied with the result, he founded CartaCapital in 1994. On the new magazine, he and other columnists emphatically criticize neoliberal and neocon politics that are recently defended by Veja.

Of all the publications Carta helped create during his life, only one, the defunct Jornal da República, failed to succeed. The 1970s newspaper had a large deficit on its budget.

Disappointed with the position of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in the Cesare Battisti case, Carta decided to retire from his blog and his column on CartaCapital.

Published books
In 2000, Carta released his first novel, titled O Castelo de Âmbar (The Castle of Amber), in which he narrates a semi-biographical story. The main character, Mercúcio Parla, may be his alter-ego; Parla narrates what he considers to be the promiscuous relationship between politicians, journalists and media thanes during almost half a century in the recent History of Brazil. Written as a fictional story, some connections may be done with the reality, such as the character's home land "Ausônia" being Italy and his house on "Rua Áurea" being Rua Augusta.

In 2003, Carta published his second novel A Sombra do Silêncio (The Shadow of Silence), a follow-up to O Castelo de Âmbar. In this book, the main character finds himself on the Rua Áurea with Cuore Mio, "the most laughing girl in the neighbourhood", starting what is described by the author as the "only and authentic love of their lives".

Awards
2003: Comunique-se Award for Best Businessperson of a News Vehicle – CartaCapital
2005: Comunique-se Award for Best Businessperson of a News Vehicle – CartaCapital
2006: Award of the Association of Foreign Press Correspondents in Brazil for Most Prestigious Journalist of the Year
2007: Comunique-se Award for Best Businessperson of a News Vehicle – CartaCapital

Notes

References

External links
Mino's blog
CartaCapital official website

Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
Brazilian journalists
Brazilian columnists
Italian emigrants to Brazil
University of São Paulo alumni
Brazilian male writers
Brazilian newspaper founders
Brazilian magazine founders

Mino Carta