The equivalence point, or stoichiometric point, of a chemical reaction is the point at which chemically equivalent quantities of reactants have been mixed. For an acid-base reaction the equivalence point is where the moles of acid and the moles of base would neutralize each other according to the chemical reaction.  This does not necessarily imply a 1:1 molar ratio of acid:base, merely that the ratio is the same as in the chemical reaction. It can be found by means of an indicator, for example phenolphthalein or methyl orange.

The endpoint (related to, but not the same as the equivalence point) refers to the point at which the indicator changes color in a colorimetric titration.

Methods to determine the equivalence point
Different methods to determine the equivalence point include:
pH indicator A pH indicator is a substance that changes color in response to a chemical change. An acid-base indicator (e.g., phenolphthalein) changes color depending on the pH. Redox indicators are also frequently used. A drop of indicator solution is added to the titration at the start; when the color changes the endpoint has been reached, this is an approximation of the equivalence point.
Conductance The conductivity of a solution depends on the ions that are present in it. During many titrations, the conductivity changes significantly. (For instance, during an acid-base titration, the H3O+ and OH− ions react to form neutral H2O. This changes the conductivity of the solution.) The total conductance of the solution depends also on the other ions present in the solution (such as counter ions). Not all ions contribute equally to the conductivity; this also depends on the mobility of each ion and on the total concentration of ions (ionic strength). Thus, predicting the change in conductivity is harder than measuring it.
Color change In some reactions, the solution changes color without any added indicator. This is often seen in redox titrations, for instance, when the different oxidation states of the product and reactant produce different colors.
Precipitation If the reaction forms a solid, then a precipitate will form during the titration. A classic example is the reaction between Ag+ and Cl− to form the very insoluble salt AgCl. Surprisingly, this usually makes it difficult to determine the endpoint precisely. As a result, precipitation titrations often have to be done as back titrations.
Isothermal titration calorimeter An isothermal titration calorimeter uses the heat produced or consumed by the reaction to determine the equivalence point. This is important in biochemical titrations, such as the determination of how substrates bind to enzymes.
Thermometric titrimetry Thermometric titrimetry is an extraordinarily versatile technique. This is differentiated from calorimetric titrimetry by the fact that the heat of the reaction (as indicated by temperature rise or fall) is not used to determine the amount of analyte in the sample solution. Instead, the equivalence point is determined by the rate of temperature change. Because thermometric titrimetry is a relative technique, it is not necessary to conduct the titration under isothermal conditions, and titrations can be conducted in plastic or even glass vessels, although these vessels are generally enclosed to prevent stray draughts from causing "noise" and disturbing the endpoint. Because thermometric titrations can be conducted under ambient conditions, they are especially well-suited to routine process and quality control in industry. Depending on whether the reaction between the titrant and analyte is exothermic or endothermic, the temperature will either rise or fall during the titration. When all analyte has been consumed by reaction with the titrant, a change in the rate of temperature increase or decrease reveals the equivalence point and an inflection in the temperature curve can be observed. The equivalence point can be located precisely by employing the second derivative of the temperature curve. The software used in modern automated thermometric titration systems employ sophisticated digital smoothing algorithms so that "noise" resulting from the highly sensitive temperature probes does not interfere with the generation of a smooth, symmetrical second derivative "peak" which defines the endpoint. The technique is capable of very high precision, and coefficients of variance (CV's) of less than 0.1 are common. Modern thermometric titration temperature probes consist of a thermistor which forms one arm of a Wheatstone bridge. Coupled to high resolution electronics, the best thermometric titration systems can resolve temperatures to 10−5K. Sharp equivalence points have been obtained in titrations where the temperature change during the titration has been as little as 0.001K. The technique can be applied to essentially any chemical reaction in a fluid where there is an enthalpy change, although reaction kinetics can play a role in determining the sharpness of the endpoint. Thermometric titrimetry has been successfully applied to acid-base, redox, EDTA, and precipitation titrations. Examples of successful precipitation titrations are sulfate by titration with barium ions, phosphate by titration with magnesium in ammoniacal solution, chloride by titration with silver nitrate, nickel by titration with dimethylglyoxime and fluoride by titration with aluminium (as K2NaAlF6) Because the temperature probe does not need to be electrically connected to the solution (as in potentiometric titrations), non-aqueous titrations can be carried out as easily as aqueous titrations. Solutions which are highly colored or turbid can be analyzed by thermometric without further sample treatment. The probe is essentially maintenance-free. Using modern, high precision stepper motor driven burettes, automated thermometric titrations are usually complete in a few minutes, making the technique an ideal choice where high laboratory productivity is required.
Spectroscopy Spectroscopy can be used to measure the absorption of light by the solution during the titration, if the spectrum of the reactant, titrant or product is known. The relative amounts of the product and reactant can be used to determine the equivalence point. Alternatively, the presence of free titrant (indicating that the reaction is complete) can be detected at very low levels. An example of robust endpoint detectors for etching of semiconductors is EPD-6, a system probing reactions at up to six different wavelengths.
Amperometry Amperometry can be used as a detection technique (amperometric titration). The current due to the oxidation or reduction of either the reactants or products at a working electrode will depend on the concentration of that species in solution. The equivalence point can then be detected as a change in the current. This method is most useful when the excess titrant can be reduced, as in the titration of halides with Ag+. (This is handy also in that it ignores precipitates.)

See also
Titration

References

External links
Equivalence points of virtual and real acid-base titrations - Software Program
Example of robust industrial endpoint detector
Graphical method to solve acid-base problems, including titrations
Graphic and numerical solver for acid-base problems -Software Program for phone and tablets

Titration

Equivalence point


Absolution is a 1978 British thriller film directed by Anthony Page and written by playwright Anthony Shaffer. The film stars Richard Burton as a priest who teaches at a boys' school and finds one of his favourite students is playing a nasty practical joke on him. He sets out to investigate the prank and stumbles upon a dead body, leading to his life spiralling out of control.

Plot
The film centres on schoolboy Benjamin Stanfield and his unpopular friend, Arthur Dyson; their form master, Father Goddard and a travelling motorcyclist named Blakey. The film opens with Blakey, arriving at the school. He asks Fr. Goddard if there are any odd jobs that he can do but is told there are none available.

Later Fr. Goddard is watching Dyson rehearse in a school production of the operetta Patience. It appears he does not like Arthur while he fawns on Stanfield. In the meantime Blakey has set up camp in the woods near the school. His camp is discovered the next day by Stanfield and some other boys, and Stanfield strikes up a friendship with Blakey.

The next day Fr. Goddard discusses the Catholic concept of confession with his class, during which he tells them that a Catholic priest cannot break the seal of confession, even if it includes a serious crime or murder.

Stanfield, having befriended Blakey begins to spend less time with his friend Arthur. Blakey encourages Stanfield to make up stories about sexual dalliances, which Stanfield later recounts to Fr. Goddard during confession.
The police, called to the school by Fr. Goddard to remove Blakey from the grounds, harass him and  tell him to move on. When Stanfield arrives later, Blakey is still upset and swears at Stanfield who picks up a rock, but what happens next is not shown. Later, in confession Stanfield tells Fr. Goddard that he has accidentally killed Blakey and has buried his body in the woods. Fr. Goddard goes to the wood to see for himself. At the site where the body is supposedly buried he digs and finds what at first he believes to be a head but later turns out to be a pumpkin. At this point boys' laughter is heard, and he realises that he is the victim of a practical joke. The watching boys warn Stanfield, who is among them, that he will be in trouble, but he says that there is nothing Fr. Goddard can do because he was told in confession. After the others leave, Arthur appears and offers to take the blame but Stanfield pushes him to the ground and walks off. When Fr. Goddard catches up with Stanfield, the boy asks for forgiveness, but as Goddard leaves, Stanfield turns and smiles at the others who are looking on.

Stanfield finds Arthur and tells him he can take credit for the joke and later, while the two are in chapel, Arthur enters the confessional to tell Fr. Goddard that he was a willing accomplice. An unseen person then enters, but it is Stanfield's voice that can be heard confessing that this time he really has murdered Blakey. The priest refuses to give absolution, fearing another joke, but again goes to the woods where he discovers Blakey's dead body. He returns to the chapel, where he hears Stanfield's voice in the confessional expressing a desire to kill again and that Arthur will be the next victim. Realising that he cannot tell anyone without breaking the seal of confession Fr. Goddard tries to keep an eye on Arthur and Stanfield. When he sees the boys heading for the woods, he becomes concerned for Arthur's safety and sets off in pursuit but loses sight of them. Later Arthur is not in class, and Fr. Goddard questions Stanfield, who claims that while he and Arthur were together earlier, Arthur became unwell and returned to the school. In a desperate attempt to find Arthur, Fr. Goddard activates the fire alarm but the boy is also absent at the emergency roll call. Fr. Goddard again questions Stanfield and alludes to his confession, but he denies the conversation ever took place. Later, in confession, he is heard apologising for denying the murder earlier, saying he wants to keep it to the confessional, and tells Fr. Goddard where he has buried Arthur's body.

Fr. Goddard goes to the woods again where he finds what appears to be Arthur's leg half exposed in the ground. He hears laughter and demands that the boy come out. When Stanfield appears, Fr. Goddard strikes him in the face, killing him. He then runs back to the chapel and prays for forgiveness, but is interrupted by Stanfield's voice. The priest turns to discover Arthur, who tells him how he imitated Stanfield's voice in the confessional and how it was he that killed Blakey, and later moved the body to another site. Arthur tells him that he did it out of revenge for Fr. Goddard's cruelty. Fr. Goddard says he will take the blame for both the killings and asks Arthur's forgiveness. Refusing it, Arthur tells him he has the choice of confessing to the killings and going to prison for the crime, or committing suicide, a mortal sin. Fr. Goddard falls to his knees in mortification as Arthur walks away whistling.

Cast
 Richard Burton as Father Goddard
 Dominic Guard as Benjamin 'Benjie' Stanfield
 Dai Bradley as Arthur Dyson
 Billy Connolly as Blakey
 Andrew Keir as Headmaster
 Willoughby Gray as Brigadier Walsh
 Preston Lockwood as Father Hibbert
 James Ottaway as Father Matthews
 Brook Williams as Father Clarence
 Jon Plowman as Father Piers
 Robin Soans as Father Henryson
 Trevor Martin as Mr. Gladstone
 Sharon Duce as Louella
 Brian Glover as First Policeman

Production

Writing
The screenplay was adapted by Anthony Shaffer from an unperformed stageplay he had written called Play With a Gypsy and was directed by Anthony Page.

Casting
Christopher Lee was initially considered for the role of Father Goddard before it was given to Richard Burton.

The co-stars Sharon Duce, who played the girlfriend of Connolly's character, and Dominic Guard later married.

Filming
Shot on location at Ellesmere College, Shropshire and in Pinewood Studios, the film also stars Dai Bradley, Dominic Guard and the Scottish comedian Billy Connolly, in his debut film role.

Alternative ending and cut scenes
There was disagreement between Shaffer and Page as to how the film should end. Rather than reveal Dyson as the murderer, Shaffer wanted the film to retrospectively show the boy's actions throughout, thus gradually leading the viewer to the terrifying conclusion.

A scene in which Arthur reveals his talent for voices by impersonating Father Goddard was cut from the film, as was a scene that reinforces Goddard's apparent hatred of Dyson, in which the priest fast bowls cricket balls at the boy, who is barely able to defend himself. Some of the scenes between Stanfield and Blakey, which reveal more about the pair's relationship, were also cut.

Release
Absolution premiered in the UK in 1978 and went on general release in 1981, but for legal reasons was not released in the United States until 1988, four years after Burton's death.

Reception
Reviews were mixed. Paul Taylor of the Monthly Film Bulletin called Absolution "[a] dire slice of clever narrative trickery". Leslie Halliwell noted that it was interesting and suspenseful but ultimately too complicated and The Guardian reviewer called it a "second rate murder mystery". Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide referred to the film as "[a] straightforward melodrama [that] loses credibility towards the end". All of them, however, lauded Burton's performance. Dragan Antulov also praised the acting of his co-stars, Connolly, Guard and Bradley. He also found the film to be unexpected and believable and went on to say, "Absolution takes place in isolated yet realistic setting, and the real source of tension is within the characters. Shaffer never takes sides and until the very end the audience is left to sympathise with different characters, never quite certain who among them is good or bad. Because of that constant uncertainty, the atmosphere of the film is very dark and its unusually bitter ending comes as something quite natural".

References

External links

1978 films
British drama films
Films about Catholic priests
Films directed by Anthony Page
Films shot at Pinewood Studios
Films about educators
Films about pranks
Films with screenplays by Anthony Shaffer
Films scored by Stanley Myers
Films set in boarding schools
Films produced by Elliott Kastner
1978 drama films
1970s English-language films
1980s English-language films
1970s British films
1980s British films

Absolution (1978 film)


The Yaqui topminnow is a species of fish in the family Poeciliidae. Its scientific name is Poeciliopsis sonoriensis; it is also sometimes considered a subspecies of  Poeciliopsis occidentalis as P. o. sonoriensis. This fish is native to Mexico and the United States, with a few native and introduced populations persisting in Arizona in the United States, and a number of populations still extant in northern Sonora, Mexico.

Description
The Yaqui topminnow has an elongated, slightly curved body with a rounded to squared tail fin. The female is generally  long, but may be longer. The male is smaller, generally under  long. The anal fin of the male is elongated into a copulatory organ used to inseminate the female. Along with other species of topminnow, Yaqui topminnow exhibit several relatively unique reproductive characteristics among fish: eggs are fertilized internally; the female can store sperm from several males in a special structure called the spermatheca, and can fertilize eggs for a prolonged period after receiving the sperm; the female can simultaneously carry a number of different broods at different stages of development; and they bear live young rather than lay eggs (Minckley, 1973; Miller et al.

During the breeding season, males may become jet black and exhibit aggressive breeding behavior, while others males may maintain the non-breeding coloration and attempt to mate inconspicuously with females. The female is tan or olivaceous with a pale belly and dark lateral band.

The species is closely related to the Gila topminnow (Poeciliopsis occidentalis), and is sometimes treated as a subspecies. The Yaqui topminnow can be distinguished by its superior mouth, longer snout, and the pattern of lateral banding on the body of the female, which rarely extends anterior to the bases of the pelvic fins.

Biology
This fish lives in shallow, warm, slow-moving waters containing thick algae and debris. It is most common in marshes, especially those fed by springs. It feeds on detritus and small bits of animal and plant material.

The female bears 20 or more young per brood, and may produce a brood about every 20 days. The species breeds year-round in many areas, but in habitats with fluctuating temperatures breeding occurs during the warmer months. The fish rarely lives more than one year.

Conservation
The fish has a limited range. It is considered to be a vulnerable species on the IUCN Red List. It faces the loss of its aquatic habitat types and competition with the western mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis).

Much of its United States population occurs on the San Bernardino National Wildlife Refuge, where it is protected.

References

External links
Froese, R. and D. Pauly, Eds. Poeciliopsis sonoriensis. FishBase. 2016.

Freshwater fish of Mexico
Taxa named by Charles Frédéric Girard
Fish described in 1859
Freshwater fish of the United States
sonoriensis

Poeciliopsis sonoriensis


James Aloysius Robert Quinn (February 14, 1870 – March 12, 1954), often referred to as J. A. Robert Quinn, was an American executive in Major League Baseball who became renowned for his management of four different franchises.

Career
Born in Columbus, Ohio, Quinn was a catcher in minor league baseball during the 1890s, also managing some of the teams for which he played. From 1902 to 1917, he served as general manager of the Columbus Senators in the American Association; he was also among the founders of that league. In 1908, he founded and was president of the Ohio State League, a Class D minor league (equivalent to a Rookie-level league today) which began operation as a six team league with teams located in Central/Southern Ohio. He became general manager of the St. Louis Browns from 1917 to 1922, developing the perennially poor team into one which lost the 1922 American League pennant by a single game.

In the summer of 1923, fresh off that success, Quinn put together a syndicate that purchased the Boston Red Sox from Harry Frazee. The purchase was financed by four investors who knew him from his days in Columbus, with the largest contribution coming from glass magnate Palmer Winslow. The investors trusted Quinn enough to make him president and operating head of the franchise. Quinn had every intention of rebuilding a team that had been rendered bereft of talent after Frazee's chronic cash shorts forced him to sell nearly every talented player to the New York Yankees. To that end, he spent $250,000 on minor league stars  However, in a case of exceptionally bad timing, Winslow fell ill in 1924 and largely withdrew from financing the team. He died in 1926, and the three surviving members of Quinn's syndicate didn't have nearly enough money between them to make up for the loss of Winslow's investment.

For the remainder of Quinn's tenure as owner of the Red Sox, the team was severely underfinanced. The team lost over $200,000 from 1924 to 1929. This led to a vicious circle in which lack of talent on the field sent attendance through the floor, thus denying Quinn money that could have been used to acquire more players or retain the few good players he had. As a result, Quinn's tenure as owner was, statistically speaking, the darkest in franchise history. With rosters made up mostly of castoffs from other AL teams, they finished dead last in the American League eight times during Quinn's ten years as owner, only rising as high as sixth twice.  They finally bottomed out in 1932, with a  record that is still the worst in franchise history.

By the 1932–33 offseason, Quinn knew he was at the end of his tether. He needed to borrow against his life insurance just to send the team to spring training. Realizing that there was no way he could operate the Red Sox in 1933, he began searching for a buyer. He found his white knight in lumber magnate Tom Yawkey, who had been looking to buy a baseball team as soon as he turned 30 and gained full access to money in a trust fund set up for him by his uncle and adoptive father, former Detroit Tigers owner Bill Yawkey. Former baseball great Eddie Collins, who had attended the same high school as Yawkey, set up a meeting between Yawkey and Collins during the 1932 World Series. The $1.5 million deal closed just before the start of 1933 spring training, and just days after Yawkey turned 30. Supposedly, the $1.5 million from the sale of the team was only enough for Quinn to pay off all of his debts from his owning the Red Sox, with no money left over for himself. Quinn later said that once the team was sold, "I was broke and out of a job, but I was free of debt. I breathed a sigh of relief when it was all over."

Quinn then became general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers for two seasons (1934–1935) before joining the Boston Braves as team president and part owner from 1936 to 1945. After his 1945 retirement, he briefly served as a sporting goods executive, and then became president of the Baseball Hall of Fame from 1948 to 1951, leaving that position after suffering two strokes.

Patriarch of baseball family
Quinn died at age 84 in Providence, Rhode Island, and was buried near Columbus. His son John J. Quinn took over as the general manager of the Braves following his father's retirement, continuing after the team moved to Milwaukee in 1953, and later served as GM of the Philadelphia Phillies. His grandson Bob Quinn was the general manager of the New York Yankees, Cincinnati Reds, and San Francisco Giants between 1988 and 1996, and his grandson Jack Quinn served as general manager of the St. Louis Blues franchise in the National Hockey League. His great-grandson Bob Quinn (born 1968) is the former executive vice president, finance and administration, and chief financial officer of the Milwaukee Brewers.

See also
 Honor Rolls of Baseball

References

Further reading
Bob Quinn at SABR (Baseball BioProject)

Major League Baseball executives
Boston Braves executives
Boston Braves owners
Boston Red Sox owners
Brooklyn Dodgers executives
Major League Baseball general managers
Major League Baseball team presidents
Major League Baseball owners
1954 deaths
1870 births

Bob Quinn (baseball, born 1870)


Gmina Sadowne is a rural gmina (administrative district) in Węgrów County, Masovian Voivodeship, in east-central Poland. Its seat is the village of Sadowne, which lies approximately  north of Węgrów and  north-east of Warsaw.

The gmina covers an area of , and as of 2006 its total population is 6,270 (6,066 in 2013).

Villages
Gmina Sadowne contains the villages and settlements of Bojewo, Grabiny, Kocielnik, Kołodziąż, Kołodziąż-Rybie, Kolonia Złotki, Krupińskie, Morzyczyn Włościański, Morzyczyn-Włóki, Ocięte, Orzełek, Płatkownica, Rażny, Sadoleś, Sadowne, Sójkówek, Sokółka, Szynkarzyzna, Wilczogęby, Zalesie, Zarzetka, Zieleniec and Złotki.

Neighbouring gminas
Gmina Sadowne is bordered by the gminas of Brańszczyk, Brok, Korytnica, Kosów Lacki, Łochów, Małkinia Górna and Stoczek.

References

 Polish official population figures 2006

Sadowne
Węgrów County

Gmina Sadowne


Planetary-surface construction is the construction of artificial habitats and other structures on planetary surfaces. Planetary surface construction can be divided into three phases or classes, coinciding with a phased schedule for habitation:

• Class I: Pre-integrated hard shell modules ready to use immediately upon delivery.

• Class II: Prefabricated kit-of-parts that is surface assembled after delivery.

• Class III: in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) derived structure with integrated Earth components.

Class I structures are prepared and tested on Earth, and are designed to be fully self-contained habitats that can be delivered to the surface of other planets. In an initial mission to put human explorers on Mars, a Class I habitat would provide the bare minimum habitable facilities when continued support from Earth is not possible.

The Class II structures call for a pre-manufactured kit-of-parts system that has flexible capacity for demountability and reuse. Class II structures can be used to expand the facilities established by the initial Class I habitat, and can allow for the assembly of additional structures either before the crew arrives, or after their occupancy of the pre-integrated habitat.

The purpose of Class III structures is to allow for the construction of additional facilities that would support a larger population, and to develop the capacity for the local production of building materials and structures without the need for resupply from Earth.

To facilitate the development of technology required to implement the three phases, Cohen and Kennedy (1997) stress the need to explore robust robotic system concepts that can be used to assist in the construction process, or perform the tasks autonomously. Among other things, they suggest a roadmap that stresses the need for adapting structural components for robotic assembly, and determining appropriate levels of modularity, assembly, and component packaging. The roadmap also sets the development of experimental construction systems in parallel with components as an important milestone.

See also
Inflatable space habitat
Aerospace architecture
Space architecture
Human spaceflight

Spaceport
Ground station
Airborne observatory
Mars to Stay
Underwater construction
Offshore construction
Underground construction

References

Citations
M.M. Cohen; K.J. Kennedy (1997).  Habitats and Surface Construction Technology and Development Roadmap.  In A. Noor, J. Malone (Eds.), Government Sponsored Programs on Structures Technology (NASA CP-97-206241, p. 75-96).  Washington, DC, USA: National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
K.J. Kennedy (2002).  The Vernacular of Space Architecture (AIAA 2002-6102).  1st Space Architecture Symposium (SAS 2002), Houston, Texas, USA, 10–11 October 2002.  Reston, Virginia, USA: American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
A. Smith (1993). Mechanics of Materials in Lunar Base Design. in H. Benaroya (Ed.) Applied Mechanics of a Lunar Base, Applied Mechanics Review, Vol 46, No 6. pp. 268–271.

External links
 Space Architecture

Fictional buildings and structures
Construction
Space colonization
Industry in space

Planetary surface construction


James Edward Fenton  (4 February 18642 December 1950) was an Australian politician.  He is notable for having been appointed a cabinet minister by two governments of different political complexions, but resigning from both governments on matters of principle. His first resignation looms largely in history as that came with his political defection, whereas there was no defection with his second resignation.

He was also acting as prime minister of Australia for several months in the early 1930s.

Early life
Born at Natte Yallock, near Avoca, Victoria, Fenton was educated at a local school.  At 13, he became a printer's apprentice with the  Avoca Mail and later became a compositor in the Government Printing Office in Melbourne, but lost his job in 1893 as a result of the depression of the 1890s. In 1887, he had married Elizabeth Jane Harvey. He was editor of the Broadford Courier from 1894 to 1903, and managing director of the Co-operative Dairyman from 1904 to 1910.

Political career

Fenton stood unsuccessfully for election to the Victorian Legislative Assembly three times as a liberal from 1897. In 1908 he stood, again unsuccessfully, as a Labor candidate; but in 1910, he was first elected as a member of the House of Representatives for the Division of Maribyrnong in Victoria. He held the seat without interruption until 1934.

When James Scullin led the Labor Party to victory at the 1929 general election, Fenton became Minister for Trade and Customs. He greatly increased the level of tariffs in an attempt to stimulate Australian industrial production.

However, the government soon was divided over the appropriate means to combat the Great Depression. Fenton became a supporter of the cautious, deflationary economic policies championed inside the Cabinet by his fellow minister Joseph Lyons, while other ministers supported more radical inflationary policies. While Scullin was in Britain from August 1930 to January 1931, attending the Imperial Conference and seeking to raise a low-interest loan for Australia, Fenton served as Acting Prime Minister, and Lyons as Acting Treasurer. Lyons, with Fenton's support, pursued conservative economic policies and sought to cut government spending, causing great anger among many in the Labor Caucus.

When Scullin returned to Australia in January 1931, he reappointed Ted Theodore, the major proponent of inflationary economic policies, as Treasurer. In response, Lyons and Fenton both immediately resigned from Cabinet. The following March, along with three other Labor MPs, they resigned from the Labor Party and crossed the floor to sit with the conservative Nationalist Party opposition. Soon the two groups merged to form the United Australia Party (UAP), with Lyons as its leader. At the general election in December 1931, the UAP won government in a landslide, and Fenton narrowly won his seat of Maribyrnong as a UAP candidate.

Fenton was appointed as Postmaster-General in the new UAP government and introduced the legislation that established the Australian Broadcasting Commission.  But he soon fell out with his fellow ministers over the government's acceptance of the Ottawa Agreement, establishing Imperial Preference, which he considered threatened the high tariff policy. In October 1932 he resigned, after voting against the bill that ratified the agreement. He remained on the government backbench and ran again as the UAP candidate for Maribyrnong at the general election in 1934, but the seat was naturally a Labor one. He had been able to win it for the UAP in the anti-Labor landslide of 1931, but in 1934 Fenton lost to the Labor candidate, Arthur Drakeford, suffering a seven-point swing.

Later life
After his defeat Fenton served as a director of the Commonwealth Oil Refineries from 1934 to 1936. He was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in 1938. He died in the Melbourne suburb of Frankston, survived by a son and a daughter, but pre-deceased by his wife and another daughter.

Notes

Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia
United Australia Party members of the Parliament of Australia
1864 births
1950 deaths
Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Maribyrnong
Members of the Australian House of Representatives
Members of the Cabinet of Australia
Australian Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George
20th-century Australian politicians

James Fenton (politician)


The European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) is a partnership between the European Union (EU), Norway, Switzerland and developing countries and other donors, as well as the pharmaceutical industry, to enable clinical trials and the development of new medicines and vaccines against HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. The need for global action against these diseases in order to promote poverty reduction has been recognised by the United Nations, the G8, and the African Union, and the program envisioned the provision of €600 million for the period 2003–2007 in order to translate medical research results into clinical applications relevant to the needs of developing countries.

The European Council adopted the Programme for Action: Accelerated action on HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis in the context of poverty reduction (COM (2001)96, ) on 15 May 2001, following its launch by the European Commission. The Commission proposal was adopted on 16 June 2003 by the Council and the European Parliament. The Programme was to be based on three central pillars: "the impact of existing interventions, the affordability of key pharmaceuticals and trade, and the research and development of specific global public goods." These aims relate specifically with the EU stance on access to essential medicines.

Projects and activities

EDCTP-funded activities are based on:

 North/North networking and co-ordination

Partnerships among the EU and associated countries, allowing focused collaboration of national and European efforts that were not previously coordinated.

 North/South networking and co-ordination

Partnerships among EU and developing countries that focuses specifically on developing countries' needs, who are jointly involved in setting the research priorities.

 South/South networking and co-ordination

Efforts aimed at creating lasting long-term partnerships between African scientists and research institutions in Africa.

 Supporting relevant clinical trials

Acceleration of the development of new or improved drugs, vaccines and microbicides against HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, with a focus on phase II and III clinical trials in sub-Saharan Africa.

 Capacity building

Manifested as a general strengthening of clinical research capacity in Africa, including training activities, workshops and meetings, and the upgrading of clinical trial sites in Africa.

Funding

The total budget of the EDCTP is €600 million for the period 2003–2007, of which one third (€200 million) is to be provided by the EU budget, an equivalent amounts from Member States' activities, and the remaining €200 million from industry, charities, and private organisations. The Partnership is intended to be a long-term initiative (10–20 years) and a separate legal entity has been created to maintain its independence and flexibility.

Taken together, clinical trials based in developing countries where the diseases are endemic, capacity building, and South-South networking are expected to make up over 90% of the overall budget. (figure).

Member states and partners

 Europe
 EU member states, plus Norway and Switzerland .

 Developing countries
 All sub-Saharan African countries.

 Industry and commercial
 Bayer
 GlaxoSmithKline
 Novartis Pharma
 Novo Nordisk
 Sanofi Pasteur
 Sanofi-Aventis.

 International initiatives
 The World Health Organization (WHO-TDR) ()
 Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (http://www.dndi.org)
 International Aids Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) (http://www.iavi.org)
 European Vaccine Initiative (EVI) (http://www.euvaccine.eu)
 TB Alliance (http://www.tballiance.org)

 Private non-profit organisations
 Aeras Global TB Vaccine Foundation (https://web.archive.org/web/20090318151237/http://www.aeras.org/home/home.php)
 The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (https://web.archive.org/web/20121012112446/http://www.gatesfoundation.org/Pages/home.aspx)
 International Partnership for Microbicides (https://web.archive.org/web/20071008192438/http://www.ipm-microbicides.org/)
 Medicines for Malaria Venture (https://web.archive.org/web/20090214212631/http://www.mmv.org/index.php)
 The Wellcome Trust (http://www.wellcome.ac.uk)

Representatives

High representative - Pascoal Mocumbi

Executive director - Charles Mgone

See also
 European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC)
 European Medicines Agency (EMEA)

External links
 European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP)

Clinical research
International medical and health organizations
National agencies for drug regulation
Medical and health organisations based in the Netherlands


Stationfall is an interactive fiction video game written by Steve Meretzky and released by Infocom in 1987. It was released for the Commodore 64, Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Apple II, Atari 8-bit family, Atari ST, and MS-DOS,. The game is a sequel to Planetfall, one of Infocom's most popular titles. It is Infocom's twenty-fifth game.

Plot
Following the events on Resida in Planetfall, the player's character received a promotion from lowly Ensign Seventh Class to Lieutenant First Class. The life of an officer in the Stellar Patrol is no better than that of a humble enlistee, however. Five years after the thrills of saving an entire planet from destruction, the character is stuck in a boring desk job that demands piles of tedious paperwork instead of menial cleaning duties.

A typically boring assignment comes in: accompany a spacetruck to a space station and pick up a load of "Request for Stellar Patrol Issue Regulation Black Form Binders Request Form Forms". To make things even more dull, spacetrucks are fully automated, so it will pilot itself once the proper coordinates are entered.

But the task does authorize the use of a robot assistant, and coincidentally enough, Floyd, a beloved companion revived at the end of Planetfall, is one of the choices.

Once the player and Floyd reach the space station, they find it largely deserted.  There are two living things on board: an ostrich and an Arcturian balloon creature, both apparently in perfect health. There are plenty of automated devices.  It is unclear where the people have gone.  The mechanical hull welders also seem intent on inflicting serious harm, which is unusual behavior.

Exploring the deserted complex, there are initially few clues. The station's missing commander audio log can be found, but it provides no solid answers. A ship of unfamiliar design is docked, empty except for an alien skeleton and a strange pedestal that looks like it should hold something but stands empty.

Floyd finds two fellow robots: an intellectual model named Plato and a not-yet-conscious "baby" named Oliver. Plato accompanies Floyd and the player, although his personality slowly changes from mild to sullen to aggressive. It is slowly revealed that every machine still functioning on the space station is hostile towards humans: besides the actively homicidal tendencies of the hull welders, the food dispensers manufacture poisonous food and drinks, and even seemingly harmless devices will explode unless powered down. Before long, Plato attempts to kill the player; Floyd is conflicted between the two friendships but reluctantly destroys the other robot. He moves from sadness over Plato's death to belligerence before disappearing altogether.

A pyramid-shaped artifact devised by the Zeenak race is emitting some sort of energy, the player discovers (thanks to Plato revealing everything upon trying to assassinate the player), and this energy causes anything mechanical to rebel against the human Hunji race.  All the people on the space station were killed by the Hunji machinery. Whatever the Zeenak pyramid is, the machines are building countless replicas of it that will be sent to "infect" other installations and similarly take them over.  Before the player can put a stop to this, however, Floyd reappears, completely under the evil influence of the Zeenak pyramid.  In order to survive, the player has no choice but to kill Floyd.  This time, however, the damage is too severe and there is no chance of repair for the robot.  After the pyramid is defeated, Oliver finally comes to life, and seems almost to be a reincarnation of the once-childlike and playful Floyd.

Feelies
Infocom was famous for including extra items, called feelies, with each game package.  These documents and objects were generally related to the game in some way, and sometimes provided information necessary to complete the game.  The feelies in the Stationfall package:
Blueprints for a "Gamma-Delta-Gamma Class deep space station" (detailed maps of the space station in which the game is set)
Three forms: an HB-56-V Class Three Spacecraft Activation form, a JZ-59-G Robot Use Authorization form, and a QX-17-T Assignment Completion form (which also contained "Astrogator navigational data" needed to reach the space station)
A Stellar Patrol patch for the rank of Lieutenant First Class

Reception
Charles Ardai of Computer Gaming World called Stationfall "a worthy successor", stating that it had its predecessor's wit and interesting story.

In a review for "Amstrad Action", the reviewer gave Stationfall a 90 out of 100, stating "To some extent (and with the notable exception of Hitchhikers) Meretzky's games are traditional adventures in the sense that they place a lot of emphasis on exploration, discovery and puzzle-solving. The spice is added by Meretzky's inimitable humour."

References

External links

 Stationfall at Infocom-if.org
 Stationfall at the Infocom Gallery has scans of the instructions and feelies that shipped with Stationfall

1980s interactive fiction
1987 video games
Adventure games set in space
Amiga games
Amstrad CPC games
Apple II games
Atari 8-bit family games
Atari ST games
Classic Mac OS games
Commodore 64 games
DOS games
Infocom games
Science fiction video games
Steve Meretzky games
Video games developed in the United States

Stationfall


Malabar is a diverse neighbourhood in  South Arima, in Trinidad and Tobago.  It is noted for middle class housing. Its boundaries are marked by Omeara Road to the west, Tumpuna Road to the east, the Churchill-Roosevelt Highway to the south and Pro Queen Street to the north. One of its main streets, Subero Street extends southward into Malabar from Pro Queen Street into the Malabar housing project and ends at Nutones Boulevard, which runs along the northern boundary of the O'meara Industrial Estate. The other main street is the Malabar Road. The western part of Malabar seems to overlap with what was once the La Chance estate (Verification required), which was founded by Gaston de Gannes de La Chancellerie in the 1840s. The La Chance estate house is located on O'Meara Rd and currently houses the Acoté veterinary clinic.

Until the early 1970s, southern Malabar was primarily populated by Malayali Malabar Indians, descendants of indentured labourers from the Malabar region in Kerala, India. The southern part of the original settlement along Malabar Road was known locally as India.

Malabar is a heavily residential area, with small to medium - size businesses distributed along its main thoroughfares. These businesses are in the main shops, food vendors and small service establishments such as tyre shops, laundries etc.
The late 1960s and 1970s saw the establishment of a number of residential areas by private developers in the district. these were:

Christina Gardens,
Malabar Gardens (often confused with the government housing project),
Leotaud Lands,
Sierra Vista, and
Concorde Gardens

And, in the late 1990s:

Filly Gardens

In the late 1960s the Trinidad and Tobago government commenced the construction of the Malabar housing project. This continued into the 1980s.
The Trinidad and Tobago government's Malabar housing project is currently divided into four Phases, numbered in order of establishment:
 Phase 1, whose streets are named after decorative and ornamental plant species, such as Banyan Boulevard, Salvia Drive, Allamanda Avenue, and Poui Lane. The Malabar Government Primary School is located in this Phase.
 Phase 2, whose streets are named after popular steelbands, such as Despers Crescent and Nutones Boulevard.
 Phase 3, whose streets are named after birds, such as Falcon Crescent and Cornbird Crescent
 Phase 4, whose streets are named after prominent Arimian citizens such as Roland Cleveland, Eustace Draper and Gloria McLean
Up to the late 1960s southern Malabar, currently the housing project, was covered by light forest and was known for large number of guava trees that grew there. Caimans, tortoises, green parrots, parakeets and various fish such as guppy (Poecilia reticulata), cascarob (a type of cichlid) and guabin (hoplias malabiricus) were quite common in the area but have virtually disappeared with the removal of the native forests. Green Iguanas (Iguana iguana), Opossums (of the order Didelphimorphia) and mongooses(Herpestidae) currently co - exist with the district's human residents.

A sports facility Larry Gomes Stadium is located in Malabar. The Malabar settlement has a community centre, and a judicial complex has been proposed.

Neighbourhoods in Trinidad and Tobago
Arima

Malabar Settlement


Vivendi SE is a French mass media holding company headquartered in Paris. Widely known as the owner of Gameloft, Groupe Canal+, Havas, Editis, Prisma Media, Vivendi Village and Dailymotion, the company has activities in television, film, video game, book publishing, print press, communication, tickets and video hosting services.

Vivendi's chairman Yannick Bolloré is also CEO of Havas, which was spun off from Vivendi in 2000 but has since become a subsidiary. Bolloré is the largest shareholder at approximately 30% of the company. The company is known for its stake in Universal Music Group, which it partially spun off in 2021.

History

Origins

On 14 December 1853, a water company named Compagnie générale des eaux (CGE) was created by an imperial decree of Napoleon III. In 1854, CGE obtained a concession in order to supply water to the public in Lyon, serving in that capacity for over a hundred years. In 1861, it obtained a 50-year concession with the City of Paris. CGE also supplied water to Nantes, Venice (from 1880), Constantinople (from 1882) and Porto (from 1883). For more than a century, Compagnie générale des eaux remained largely focused on the water sector.

Following the appointment of Guy Dejouany as CEO in 1976, CGE extended its activities into other sectors with a series of takeovers. Beginning in 1980, CGE began diversifying its operations from water into waste management, energy, transport services, and construction and property. It acquired the Compagnie générale d'entreprises automobiles (CGEA), specialized in industrial vehicles, which was later divided into two branches: Connex (later Veolia Transport) in 1999 and Onyx Environnement (later Veolia Environmental Services) in 1989. CGE then acquired the Compagnie générale de chauffe, and the Montenay group, with these companies later becoming the Energy Services division of CGE, and later renamed "Dalkia" in 1998.

In 1983, CGE helped to found Canal+, the first pay-TV channel in France, and in the 1990s, they began expanding into telecommunications and mass media, especially after Jean-Marie Messier succeeded Guy Dejouany on 27 June 1996, acquiring companies such as the Babelsberg Studio. In 1996, CGE created Neuf Cegetel to take advantage of the 1998 deregulation of the French telecommunications market, accelerating the move into the media sector which would culminate in the 2000 demerger into Vivendi Universal and Vivendi Environnement (Veolia).

Creation of Vivendi

In 1997, Compagnie Générale des Eaux changed its name to Vivendi, and sold off its property and construction divisions the following year to what would become Vinci SA. Vivendi went on to acquire stakes in or merge with Maroc Telecom, Havas, Cendant Software, Grupo Anaya, and NetHold, a large Continental European pay-TV operator. Beginning in 1998, Vivendi launched digital channels in Italy, Spain, Poland, Scandinavia, Belgium, and the Netherlands.

In June 1999, Vivendi merged with Pathé, and the exchange ratio for the merger was fixed at three Vivendi shares for every two Pathé shares. The Wall Street Journal estimated the value of the deal at US$2.59 billion. Following the completion of the merger, Vivendi retained Pathé's interests in British Sky Broadcasting Group PLC and CanalSatellite, a French broadcasting corporation, then sold all remaining assets to Jérôme Seydoux's family-owned holding company, Fornier SA, which changed its name to Pathé.

Vivendi Universal SA was created on 8 January 2001 with the merger of the Vivendi media empire with Canal+ television networks and the acquisition of media assets of Canadian company Seagram Company Ltd, owner of Universal Studios.

Vivendi Universal acquired MP3.com and the leading American publisher Houghton Mifflin in the year 2001. To raise the funds, Vivendi Universal sold its trade and medical publishing businesses to a group led by Cinven.

Vivendi Environnement

Vivendi Environnement was formed in 1999 by Vivendi to consolidate its environmental divisions, which were CGEA Transport, Onyx Environnement (now Veolia Environmental Services), Dalkia and CGE water division. As a result, CGEA Transport was renamed Connex (later Veolia Transport), and CGE's water division was renamed Vivendi Water (now Veolia Water). In July 2000, Vivendi Environnement was divested through IPOs in Paris and later New York in October 2001. Initially, Vivendi Universal retained a 70% stake in Vivendi Environnement in 2000, but by December 2002, it was reduced to 20.4%. In 2003, Vivendi Environnement was renamed to Veolia Environnement.

Corporate loss

Vivendi Universal disclosed a corporate loss of €23.3 billion in its 2002 annual report. It responded with financial reshuffling, trying to shore up media holdings while selling off shares in its spin-off companies. Amid intense media scrutiny, its chairman and CEO, Jean-Marie Messier (who had overseen the most dramatic phase of the company's diversification), was subsequently replaced by Jean-René Fourtou. Messier was found guilty of embezzlement in 2011, but not before he was paid over US$20 million as part of his severance package. The company reduced its stake in Vivendi Environnement to 40% and sold its stake in Vinci SA. The company then began reorganizing to stave off bankruptcy, announcing a strategy to sell non-strategic assets. Its largest single shareholder was the family of Edgar Bronfman Jr., who was head of Seagram at the time of the merger. Vivendi sold its stake in Vizzavi to Vodafone, with the exception of Vizzavi France. It also sold 20.4% of Vivendi Environnement's capital to a group of investors, and its stake in North American satellite operator EchoStar Communications Corporation. It also sold its European book publishing to Lagardère. It also sold Houghton Mifflin to Thomas H Lee, Blackstone and Bain consortium for US$1.66 billion. Also, in 2002, Vivendi Universal sold the Belgian and Dutch activities of its subsidiary Scoot Europe to Kapitol, the parent company of online directory Infobel.

In 2003, Vivendi Universal sold Canal+ Technologies to Thomson SA; Tele+ to News Corporation and Telecom Italia. It also sold its 26.3% interest in Xfera. Also in 2003, it sold its consumer magazines to Socpresse and its free newspapers to France Antilles. On 1 December, Vivendi Universal closed a deal to sell MP3.com to CNET. Despite predictions that it would be unable to raise the cash needed, Vivendi Universal bought out one of the two minority shareholders in Cegetel, taking its holding to 60 percent, with Vodafone holding the remaining 40 percent. Management viewed the mobile communications firm as a core asset once the bulk of media assets had been sold off.

Further acquisitions, mergers and divestments
In 2004, 80% of the Vivendi Universal subsidiary was sold to GE, to form NBC Universal, with Vivendi retaining a 20 percent stake. At the same time, it sold a 50% stake in Canal+ and StudioCanal to the new company. Vivendi also sold its interests in Kencell (re-branded Celtel, Kenya), Monaco Telecom and Sportfive (which it held through Canal+ Group), and sold Newsworld International to the business partnership of Joel Hyatt and former Vice-President of the United States Al Gore. Vivendi also sold Babelsberg Studio.

On 16 December 2005, it was announced that Canal Plus would merge with TPS, France's second largest Pay-TV provider. Vivendi owned 85% of the combined entity.

On 17 January 2006, Vivendi Universal announced it would end its American Depositary Receipt program and its listing on the New York Stock Exchange by the end of the second quarter of 2006, due to lowered trading volume on its shares and high costs. On 20 April, Vivendi in its current form came into existence, following the sale of an 80% stake in the Vivendi Universal unit to General Electric to form NBC Universal (merging GE's NBC unit and Vivendi's Vivendi Universal unit) and the gradual recovery of the company from its disastrous over-expansion in the late 1990s and the early 2000s. The company announced that shareholders had approved the name change to "Vivendi". In August, Vivendi signed a deal with Spiralfrog to distribute Vivendi's songs online in the United States and Canada.

On 2 December 2007, Vivendi announced that it would be merging its game publishing unit with Activision in a $18.8 billion deal. This will allow the merged company, Activision Blizzard, to rival Electronic Arts, the world's biggest video games publisher. The merger closed on 9 July 2008, for $9.8 billion. Vivendi held a 52% majority stake in the new business.

On 8 September 2009, Vivendi announced negotiations to buy the Brazilian phone operator Global Village Telecom (GVT). Vivendi took control of GVT at a cost of 56 reais per share, on 13 November, trumping Telefónica's bid. Geneva-based Crédit des Alpes was the investment bank to the transaction, originating the acquisition proposal and advising GVT's majority shareholders.

On 3 December 2009, GE announced it would purchase Vivendi's stake in NBC Universal, which would become a joint venture between GE and Comcast. Vivendi sold its stake in NBC Universal on 25 January 2011.

On 4 April 2011, Vodafone sold its 44% stake in French mobile service provider SFR to Vivendi for about $11 billion and giving Vivendi full control of its largest unit.

In 2012, Vivendi announced having entered a strategic review of its assets and decided to refocus its activities on media and content activities while maximizing its telecoms assets.

On 25 July 2013, Activision Blizzard announced the buyout of 429 million shares from Vivendi for $5.83 billion, dropping the shareholder from a 63% stake to 11.8% by the end of the deal in September, ending Vivendi's majority ownership of Activision Blizzard. In November, Vivendi also sold its 53% stake in Maroc Telecom to Dubai-based Etisalat for around $4.2 billion. Vivendi also confirmed in November 2013 its intention to launch a demerger plan which would result in Vivendi becoming an international media group consisting primarily of Canal+, Universal Music Group and GVT, while SFR would be listed separately on the stock market. As a result of the foregoing, Vivendi group results for the first semester 2014 are in a strong growth, witnessing the success of its repositioning strategy. Net income was up 84,8% to €1.9 billion. In August 2014 Vivendi sells GVT to Telefônica Vivo, a subsidiary of Telefónica in Brazil.

The moves have allowed Vivendi to rapidly pay down debt and increase cash returns to shareholders while leaving it with ammunition to do acquisitions of its own. Indeed, once the SFR deal closes, Vivendi will have a cash pile of around €5 billion, leaving it with some room to maneuver even after it pays down debt and returns nearly €5 billion in dividends and share buybacks to shareholders.

Vivendi's priority is now content. The French group is expected to expand its assets in the content industries in the coming year.

In 2014, Vivendi decided to sell mobile companies SFR (France) to Patrick Drahi's company, Altice, and GVT (Brazil) to the Brazilian company Telefônica Vivo. On 28 May, Vivendi sold half of its remaining shares (nearly 41.5 million shares) in Activision Blizzard for $850 million, reducing its stake to 6%.

In April 2015, it was announced that a shareholder in the company Bolloré raised its stake from 10.2 percent to 12.01 percent for a total fee of €568 million. In 2015, Vivendi bought 80% share in Dailymotion. According to the Wall Street Journal, the "French media group offered around $273 million for streaming service". Vivendi was in talks with Orange, to Buy 80% stake in Dailymotion. Also, Vivendi announced extra payouts in compromise with P. Schoenfeld Asset Management shareholder. It was revealed in October 2015 that Vivendi would increase its stake in Telecom Italia to around 19% of the ordinary share capital as part of its aims to increase its influence in the group. As of May 2017, Vivendi owns 24.6% of the company with Vivendi's CEO Arnaud de Puyfontaine becoming Executive Chairman of Telecom Italia. In October, Vivendi bought minority stakes in the French video game studios Gameloft and Ubisoft. On 17 December 2015, Vivendi acquired a 64.4% majority stake in Belgian online radio aggregator Radionomy (including its media player platform Winamp and internet radio streaming software Shoutcast). Its shareholders, including its employees and U.S.-based investment firm Union Square Ventures, however, retained their stakes in the company.

In June 2016, after having triggered a mandatory tender offer in February 2016 by reaching 30% ownership, and then becoming its largest shareholder, Vivendi completed a hostile takeover of Gameloft with the acquisition of its founders' stake. At the same time, Vivendi also further increased its stake in Ubisoft, which had led to concern from the company's management that Vivendi was also planning a hostile takeover of Ubisoft, however as of 2018 Vivendi is no longer in the position to do so. Vivendi (once the owner of Blizzard, later Activision Blizzard), searching for a new games publisher property has started investing in both Ubisoft and Gameloft. The brothers in charge of Ubisoft and Gameloft, Yves Guillemot and Michel Guillemot respectively, view the investments as a hostile takeover attempt, and are raising capital from within the family and from Canadian investors to maintain control of the companies. As of 8 June 2016, Vivendi has acquired a controlling stake in Gameloft. In news from 11 September 2016 Yves Guillemot is set to buy an additional 3.5% of Ubisoft shares to raise his stake to 12.5% to attempt to block a takeover from Vivendi. Yves has been attempting to lobby other shareholders to prevent them from selling their shares to Vivendi. As of 20 March 2018, Vivendi has sold all its shares in Ubisoft and Tencent has bought in in their place. In an auction on 6 June, Vivendi won a bid to acquire Flavorus from SFX Entertainment for $4 million. Also that month, it acquired Paddington and Company Limited-owner of Paddington Bear and other properties, and The Copyrights Group. Vivendi declared that it owned 12.3% of Mediaset in December 2016. In September 2020, Vivendi owns 28.8% of Mediaset. In January 2019, Vivendi completed its €900 million acquisition of Editis, one of France's major book publishers.

In 2019, Vivendi acquired Nigeria's film studio ROK Studios which included its linear channels and VOD service, IROKO+.

At the end of the first quarter of 2020, Vivendi completed a partial sale of Universal Music Group (UMG) to a consortium led by Tencent, a Chinese media conglomerate. The amount of stake of the world's largest record label group that has been sold to the consortium is 10% and the valuation of which was $3.3 billion. The Tencent-led consortium retained an option to purchase another 10% at the same valuation until January 2021, which they opted to exercise in December 2020. Pershing Square Holdings later acquired 10% of UMG prior to its IPO on the Euronext Amsterdam stock exchange. The company went public on September 21, 2021, at a valuation of €46 billion. In April, Vivendi bought a 10.6% stake in Lagardère Group, another French media group. The investment was made at the time when Lagardère, the assets of which include the world's third-largest book publisher Hachette, is faced with attacks from a group of fierce and well-funded activist investors, and a year after Vivendi completed its takeover of Editis, the smaller domestic book publisher. By August, Vivendi has doubled its stake in Lagardère to 23.5%, becoming the largest shareholder of the rival group. In October, Vivendi acquired a 12% stake in South Africa's media company, MultiChoice. In December, Vivendi announced a deal to buy the French media conglomerate Prisma Media from Bertelsmann. In January 2021, Vivendi bought a 9,9% stake in the Spanish media conglomerate Prisa.

In September 2021, Vivendi distributed 60% of its UMG shares to shareholders and retained 10% of shares in an IPO at Euronext Amsterdam. Amber Capital informed Vivendi of its intention to sell all its shares in Lagardère (17.93 of the share capital) and invited Vivendi to make an acquisition offer. Vivendi has acquired Amber Capital's shares for 24.1 euros per share. The transaction will be completed by December 15, 2022, after gaining the approvals required by the current regulations in light of the takeover that could result from the mandatory public offer following this acquisition. In December 2021, Vivendi announced its plan to accelerate the purchase of Amber's stake in Lagardere. , Vivendi owns 57.3% of Lagardère following the latter's IPO. Vivendi has offered to divest the book publisher Editis, as Lagardère already owns Hachette.

In July 2022, Vivendi announced its plan to spin off Editis, anticipating the European competition regulators not to allow Editis and Lagardere Publishing to merge. In June 2023, Vivendi agreed to sell Editis to Czech billionaire Daniel Křetínský's Czech Media Invest. In July 2023, Vivendi announced that Prisma Media entered into exclusive negotiations with Groupe Figaro for the sale of Gala magazine.

Corporate governance
As of 31 December 2019, Vivendi ownership is as follows:
 Bolloré (27.06%)
 Société Générale (5.29%)
 Caisse des dépôts et consignations (3.23%)
 Vivendi Employees (2.95%)
 DNCA Finance (0,31%)
 Self Control (1,18%)
 Other Shareholders (59.99%)

Supervisory board
As of 16 May 2020, the board is comprised as follows:
 Yannick Bolloré (chairman), CEO of Havas
 Philippe Bénacin, chairman and CEO of Interparfums
 Cyrille Bolloré, former chairman and CEO of Bolloré
 Paulo Cardoso, treasurer of Canal+
 Laurent Dassault, co-managing director of Dassault Group
 Sébastien Bolloré
 Véronique Driot-Argentin, Vivendi HR executive
 Aliza Jabès, chairwoman of NUXE
 Cathia Lawson-Hall, executive at Société Générale
 Sandrine Le Bihan, Vivendi legal executive
 Michèle Reiser, filmmaker and culture commissioner
 Katie Stanton, general partner of Moxxie Ventures
 Athina Vasilogiannaki, legal and business affairs director of Minos EMI

Business units

Vivendi is a company primarily focused on digital entertainment. It owns the French TV channel and movie producer Canal+ Group, book publisher Editis, communication company Havas Group, video games company Gameloft, and video hosting service Dailymotion.

Vivendi's president Vincent Bolloré, appointed in June 2014, aims at developing synergies between the company's subsidiaries now refocused on media: Canal+ Group, Vivendi Village, Dailymotion and Gameloft.

Groupe Canal+
Groupe Canal+ is the leading pay television group in France. It is also an international movie and television series producer and distributor with StudioCanal. In November 2013, Vivendi became the exclusive owner of France's biggest pay-TV company.

Havas
Havas is one of the largest global advertising and communications groups in the world. Since October 2017, Vivendi owns 94.75% of Havas's Share Capital.

Gameloft
In July 2016, Vivendi completed its takeover of Gameloft, the world's largest mobile-games publisher in terms of downloads. Gameloft reported that their games had amassed over 1 billion downloads in 2016.

Vivendi Village
Vivendi Village comprises a group of small companies active in digital and in live entertainment.

Vivendi Ticketing comprises the ticketing businesses See Tickets in the UK, the US, and in France. Both businesses specialize in the retail and distribution of tickets for live entertainment, sport and cultural events, in addition to providing operating platforms for venues to run their own ticketing services. Vivendi Ticketing processes annually over 40 million tickets. The business also operates as an internal service provider to other Vivendi businesses.

MyBestPro provides experts counseling in different fields (Wengo, RDVmedicaux, Juritravail, Bordas, Devispresto).

Vivendi Village also owns the Paris-based concert venue L'Olympia and the Théâtre de l'Oeuvre.

In 2015, Vivendi announced that it will open venues in central and west Africa. These venues will be named CanalOlympia, they will serve as concert halls, theaters and screening rooms.

Prisma Media
In 2021, Vivendi purchased Prisma Media from Gruner + Jahr for an estimated 100 to 150 million euros.

Prisma Media is number one magazine publishing group in France.

Dailymotion
In 2015, Vivendi purchased an 80% stake in Dailymotion from its previous owner, Orange S.A.

Vivendi announced that it increased this stake to 90% in September 2015.

Equity investments

See also

 List of French companies

References

External links

CAC Next 20
Companies based in Paris
Companies formerly listed on the New York Stock Exchange
Companies listed on Euronext Paris
Conglomerate companies of France
French brands
French companies established in 1853
French companies established in 1998
Holding companies established in 1853
Holding companies established in 1998
Holding companies of France
Mass media companies of France
Mass media companies established in 1853
Mass media companies established in 1998
Mass media in Paris
Multinational companies headquartered in France
Bolloré

Vivendi


Istanbul Beneath My Wings (Original Turkish title: İstanbul Kanatlarımın Altında) is a 1996 Turkish film, written and directed by Mustafa Altıoklar. It is a dramatization of Hezarfen Ahmet Çelebi's reported flight across the Bosphorus from Galata.

Plot
The film takes place in the 17th century. Hezarfen Ahmet Çelebi and Lagari Hasan Çelebi are researching bird flight. The new Sultan Murat IV resists the domination of his mother, the Valide Kösem Sultan and tries to enforce strict law and order in the empire. Meanwhile, a Venetian ship that has been captured by Algerian pirates is brought into Istanbul. One of those on the ship is a girl with a manuscript showing how to fly, the latter of which comes into Hezarfen's possession. However, this manuscript can't be deciphered by anyone.

Hezarfen and Hasan are caught examining a dead body (which is against the law) and sent to be executed. At the intervention of the Sultan, they are sent for a court trial.
Hasan tries to justify the research and experiments by claiming that they could be used as a weapon to defeat the enemies of the Ottomans. Murat forbids experiments on dead human bodies but gives his blessing to the duo's research on flying, hoping for a new army of flying soldiers that could get past ground level barriers like walls and the sea, and drop bombs. To go about their task, Hezarfen and Hasan tell Murat of the undecipherable script and ask him to release the girl from the dungeon.

The script belongs to Leonardo da Vinci and they realise that he too had the same idea of flying with wings, but the text is coded so they are unable to read it. Hezarfan and the girl (whose name turns out to be Franceska) fall in love. After witnessing some fireworks, Hasan tries experimenting with rockets and during a grand launch, manages to reach a reasonable altitude before bailing out and landing in the water below. When some drinks are accidentally spilt on the manuscript, the coded text becomes visible and Hezarfen uses his own ideas and that of Da Vinci's to build a flying machine consisting of artificial wings. The conservative Şeyh-ül İslam who is against Hezarfen tries to turn the Sultan against him. He succeeds when the Sultan bans Hezarfen from flying and orders his arrest. Hezarfen (with Franceska) manages to escape with the help of Evliya Çelebi to the Maiden's Tower and launches his flying machine across the Bosporus.

Cast
 Ege Aydan as Hezarfen Ahmet Çelebi
 Okan Bayülgen as Lagari Hasan Çelebi
 Beatriz Rico as Franceska
 Burak Sergen as Sultan Murat IV
 Savaş Ay as Bekri Mustafa
 Zuhal Olcay as Kösem Sultan
 Haluk Bilginer as Evliya Çelebi
 Tuncel Kurtiz as Topal Recep Paşa
 Giovanni Scognamillo as Antonio Ağa
 Ayton Sert as Hekimbaşı
 Berke Hürcan as Musa Çelebi
 Nazan Kesal as Fahişe
 Altan Günbay as Meyhaneci Agop
 Akasya Asıltürkmen as Leyla Hazer
 Cüneyt Çalışkur as Şeyh-ül İslam

Awards
Burak Sergen was awarded "Most Promising New Actor" at the 8th Ankara Film Festival. The film also won awards for "Best Music" (Tuluyhan Uğurlu) and "Best Cinematography" (Uğur İçbak) at the 18th SİYAD awards.

Bibliography
 Türker İnanoğlu, 5555 Afişle Türk Sineması. İstanbul: Kabalcı, 2004.
 Agâh Özgüç, Ansiklopedik Türk Filmleri Sözlüğü. İstanbul: Horizon International Yayınları, 2012.
 Agâh Özgüç, Türk Filmleri Sözlüğü 1917–2009. İstanbul: T. C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı ve SESAM, 2009.
 Deniz Yavuz, Türkiye Sinemasının 22 Yılı (1990-2011). İstanbul: Antrakt Sinema Kitaplığı, 2013.

References

External links

1990s fantasy drama films
1996 LGBT-related films
1996 films
Turkish aviation films
Films set in Istanbul
Films set in Turkey
Turkish fantasy drama films
1990s Turkish-language films
Turkish LGBT-related films
1996 drama films

Istanbul Beneath My Wings


Mount Bigelow (also called the Bigelow Range and Bigelow Mountain) is a long mountain ridge with several summits.  It is located in Franklin County and Somerset County, Maine.  It is one of Maine's highest summits.  The mountain is named after Major Timothy Bigelow who climbed the rugged summit in late October 1775 "for the purpose of observation."  Major Bigelow was one of Colonel Benedict Arnold's four division commanders during the 1775 Invasion of Canada.  The expeditionary force passed along the Dead River on the northern edge of the Bigelow Range, now dammed into Flagstaff Lake.

The highest summit of Bigelow Mountain is West Peak, at .  Subpeaks include Avery Peak (Myron H. Avery Peak) at , The Horns at , Cranberry Peak at , and Little Bigelow Mountain at about .

Bigelow Mountain is part of the Rangeley-Stratton mountain range, which also includes Sugarloaf Mountain, Crocker Mountain, Saddleback Mountain, Mount Abraham and Mount Redington.

The Appalachian Trail traverses Bigelow Mountain.  Much of the mountain and surrounding area is part of the  Bigelow Preserve, created in 1976 in response to a massive proposed ski resort.  The Maine Appalachian Trail Club (MATC) maintains the trails on Bigelow Mountain and stations seasonal caretakers at the popular backcountry campsites at Horns Pond and Bigelow Col.

The Appalachian Mountain Club considers both the West Peak and Avery Peak of Bigelow to be "four-thousand footers" because Avery Peak rises more than  in topographic prominence above the col that adjoins it to the higher West Peak. By this same criteria, the South Horn of Bigelow, while under , qualifies for the New England Hundred Highest list.

In 1975, Bigelow Mountain was designated as a National Natural Landmark by the National Park Service.

Climate

Gallery

See also
 List of mountains in Maine

References

Mountains of Franklin County, Maine
Mountains of Somerset County, Maine
Bigelow
Bigelow
National Natural Landmarks in Maine

Mount Bigelow (Maine)


A dropsonde is a weather reconnaissance device created by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), designed to be dropped from an aircraft at altitude to more accurately measure (and therefore track) tropical storm conditions as the device falls to the ground. The dropsonde contains a GPS receiver, along with pressure, temperature, and humidity (PTH) sensors to capture atmospheric profiles and thermodynamic data. It typically relays these data to a computer in the aircraft by radio transmission. The device's descent is usually slowed by a parachute, allowing for more readings to be taken before it reaches the water beneath.

Other websites
 Home page of NOAA's Aircraft Operations Center--includes info on dropsondes and the missions where dropsondes are used
 Site about the development of a dropsonde
 Company that makes them

Weather

Dropsonde


Maryland Route 242 (MD 242) is a state highway in the U.S. state of Maryland.  Known as Colton Point Road, the state highway runs  from Coltons Point north to MD 5 in Morganza.  MD 242 connects the communities of Morganza, Clements, Bushwood, Avenue, and Coltons Point in western St. Mary's County.  The state highway also leads to St. Clement's Island State Park, the site of Maryland's First Landing.  MD 242 was constructed in the early 1920s.

Route description

MD 242 begins at the intersection of Beach Road and Point Breeze Road in a residential neighborhood at Coltons Point on the shore of the Potomac River.  Point Breeze Road heads east toward the St. Clements Island–Potomac River Museum, which is the embarkation point for seasonal boat tours to St. Clement's Island State Park, the site of Maryland's First Landing that includes the Blakistone Island Light.  MD 242 heads northwest as a two-lane undivided road through a mix of farmland and forest and scattered residences along the parallel St. Patrick's Creek.  The state highway veers north through the community of Avenue, where the highway intersects the southern end of MD 470 (Oakley Road) and the western end of Abell Road.  MD 242 continues northwest through a forested area and turns north again at MD 239 (Bushwood Wharf Road) near the community of Bushwood.  The state highway veers northeast and intersects MD 238 (Maddox Road) in the hamlet of Milestown before crossing Tomakokin Creek.  MD 242 meets the northern end of MD 470 (Oakley Road) just south of the hamlet of Dynard.  The state highway crosses Dynard Run and parallels St. Clements Creek before arriving in the community of Clements, where the highway comes to a roundabout with MD 234 (Budds Creek Road), which connects Leonardtown to the east with U.S. Route 301 and the Governor Harry W. Nice Memorial Bridge to the west. A park and ride lot is located at the northwest corner of this roundabout. MD 242 leaves Clements heading north then curves to the east and crosses St. Clements Creek.  The state highway heads northeast through farmland, crossing Locust Run before passing west of Chopticon High School.  MD 242 reaches its northern terminus at MD 5 (Point Lookout Road) in the community of Morganza.  The highway continues north as county-maintained Morganza–Turner Road.

History
MD 242 was constructed as a gravel road from Morganza to Avenue by 1921 and completed to Coltons Point in 1923.  The state highway was reconstructed with curve modifications and a bituminous-stabilized gravel surface in the 1950s, beginning with the Morganza–Clements section in 1949 and 1950.  MD 242 was rebuilt from Clements to Bushwood by 1959.

Junction list

See also

References

External links

MDRoads: MD 242

242
Maryland Route 242

Maryland Route 242


Marion Best was the 35th Moderator of the United Church of Canada from 1994-1997.  Best succeeded Stan McKay as the spiritual leader and chief officer of the church.

Best is a well-known lay leader in the United Church of Canada and in 1998 began serving as a vice-Moderator for the World Council of Churches.  Best has served as President of British Columbia Conference and on the United Church's General Council Executive-the body that deals with the specific assignments from the broad vision that the General Council endorses every three years.

Best is also known for being the first Moderator of the United Church to serve a three-year term as the General Council deemed its work to be more fruitful that way.

External links
 United Church of Canada timeline

Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)
Moderators of the United Church of Canada
Ministers of the United Church of Canada
Members of the United Church of Canada

Marion Best


Francis Alexis, Grenadian politician and lawyer, currently serves as president of the Grenada Bar Association. He is also the leader of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP).

Francis Alexis was born October 3, 1947, in Grenada. Alexis is a former attorney-general of Grenada. He was  admitted to practice before the High Court of Justice in Grenada on December 10, 1980, having earned his LLM (1976), LLB (1973) and BA (1971) from the University of the West Indies (UWI), Cave Hill, Barbados. Alexis also holds a PhD in Public Law (1980) from the University of Cambridge, England and an LEC (1977) from Hugh Wooding Law School, Trinidad and Tobago. Alexis obtained his secondary education, 1962–68, from the Grenada Boys Secondary School, Grenada. Alexis was appointed Queen's Counsel in the Eastern Caribbean on August 7, 2008. Alexis is a practising Catholic. He has been married to Margaret Alexis née De Bique since 1973. He is the father of three and grandfather of one.

Alexis has been active in Grenadian politics since 1983; while in exile in Barbados during Maurice Bishop's People's Revolutionary Government (PRG), he founded the Grenada Democratic Movement (GDM) as an alliance of various exile groups opposed to the PRG. The GDM later merged with the Grenada National Party (led by Herbert Blaize) and the National Democratic Party (led by George Brizan) in August 1984 to create the New National Party (NNP). In 1987, Alexis, along with George Brizan, broke with the NNP to form the National Democratic Congress (NDC). He subsequently broke with the NDC, and has since founded the Democratic Labor Party  (DLP) and the People's Labour Movement (PLM).

References

4. ^ https://web.archive.org/web/20180407120017/http://wp.caribbeannewsnow.com/2017/10/27/criminal-complaint-filed-grenada-attorney-ccj-president/

1947 births
Living people
Grenadian politicians
20th-century Grenadian lawyers
University of the West Indies alumni
Alumni of the University of Cambridge
New National Party (Grenada) politicians
National Democratic Congress (Grenada) politicians
Attorneys General of Grenada

Francis Alexis


The word hajduk entered the Polish language from Hungarian in the late 16th century. It was initially a colloquial term for a style of footsoldier, Hungarian or Turco-Balkan in inspiration, that was introduced by King Stephen Báthory in the 1570s, and who formed the backbone of the Polish infantry arm from the 1570s until about the 1630s. Unusually for this period, Polish-Lithuanian hajduks wore uniforms, typically of grey-blue woollen cloth, with red collar and cuffs. Their principal weapon was a small calibre matchlock firearm, known as an arquebus. For close combat they also carried a heavy variety of sabre, capable of hacking off the heads of enemy pikes and polearms.

Contrary to popular opinion, the small axe they often wore tucked in their belt (not to be confused with the huge half-moon shaped bardiche axe, which was seldom carried by hajduks) was not a combat weapon, but rather was intended for cutting wood.

In the mid 17th century hajduk-style infantry largely fell out of fashion in Poland-Lithuania, and were replaced by musket-armed infantry of Western style. However, commanders or hetmans of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth continued to maintain their own liveried bodyguards of hajduks, well into the 18th century as something of a throwback to the past, even though they were now rarely used as field troops. In imitation of these bodyguards, in the 18th century wealthy members of the szlachta hired liveried domestic servants who they called hajduks, thereby creating the meaning of the term 'hajduk' as it is generally understood in modern Polish.

References

Sources
 Richard Brzezinski, Polish Armies 1569-1696, volume 1, London: Osprey Military Publishing, 1987 (also contains six contemporary illustrations of Polish hajduks, besides several modern reconstructions by Angus McBride).

Military history of Poland
Mercenary units and formations of the Early Modern era

Hajduk (Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth)


t Koetshuis was a restaurant located in Rhenen, Netherlands. It was a fine dining restaurant that was awarded one or two Michelin stars in the period 1957–1970.

The restaurant was established in 1945 in the stable of the former hotel "Berg en Bos". The hotel had fallen victim to the Second World War. The Frisch family, of Swiss origin, just started all again and started a rotisserie. This restaurant went very well, until it burned down in 1964. Henri Frisch wanted to start over again, but he died a month after the fire. His children went on with the rebuilding and the restaurant reopened in 1965.

Owners of the restaurant were Henri Frisch (1957–1964) and his daughter Marianne Frisch (1964–1970). Marianne Frisch sold the restaurant in 1988. Henri Frisch was also head chef. In 1967, J. van Heusden was head chef.

't Koetshuis was in 1967 one of the founding members of Alliance Gastronomique Néerlandaise, an association of quality restaurants in the Netherlands and Belgium.

Star history
- 1957–1964: two stars
- 1965–1966: one star
- 1967–1970: two stars

See also
 List of Michelin starred restaurants in the Netherlands

References

Michelin Guide starred restaurants in the Netherlands
Defunct restaurants in the Netherlands
Restaurants in Utrecht (province)
Rhenen

't Koetshuis


The Chinese Convert is a 1687 painting by Godfrey Kneller depicting the Chinese Catholic convert Michael Alphonsius Shen Fu-Tsung.

The painting was ordered by King James II when he met Shen Fu-Tsung during his visit to England in 1685. The king was so delighted by this visit that he commissioned the portrait, and had it hung in his bedroom. The portrait remains in the Royal Collection, and usually still hangs at Windsor Castle. Shen also visited Oxford, where he helped catalogue the Bodleian Library's collection of Chinese books.

Shen left China in 1681 with Philippe Couplet SJ for a tour of Europe, where Couplet planned to promote the Jesuit's China Mission and plead the Jesuit cause before Pope Innocent XI. Couplet was to be accompanied by five Chinese candidates for the priesthood, including Wu Li (Simon de Cunha) and Shen Fuzhong (Michael Shen). In the end only Michael Shen and another young candidate left with Couplet, and after a delay in Batavia, only Michael Shen went with Couplet on that tour of Europe.

Being a young Jesuit candidate, Shen's meeting with the English king was only possible during a brief period in post-Reformation English history, when the king was a Roman Catholic and Jesuits were received at court. A year later, in 1688, James II was deposed and replaced by the Protestant William III and Mary II, and so that encounter between king, Jesuit, and artist — James II, Michael Shen Fuzong, and Sir Godfrey Kneller — could not otherwise have happened. But the result of that encounter was an important Western portrait of a Chinese subject, and hence also its name, "The Chinese Convert".

References

Paintings by Godfrey Kneller
Portraits by British artists
17th-century portraits
1687 paintings
Paintings in the Royal Collection of the United Kingdom

The Chinese Convert


John David Pye (born 1932) is a British zoologist who is an Emeritus Professor of Queen Mary, University of London.

Professor Pye is a specialist in animal ultrasound echolocation and light polarisation. He presented the 1985 Royal Institution Christmas Lectures on the theme of "Communicating" and has written the textbook Polarised Light in Science and Nature.

References

Academics of Queen Mary University of London
Living people
English zoologists
1932 births

David Pye (zoologist)


Lauro Cruz (20 May 1933-January 29, 2017) was an American state politician who served as a member of the Texas House of Representatives from a district in Harris County, Texas. Cruz was the first Mexican-American legislator to be elected in Harris County since Lorenzo De Zavala in 1836. A Democrat who served three terms, Cruz focused on the areas of minimum wage, rights for farm workers, and migrant worker housing and transportation.

Early life

Born in Beaumont to Manuel Cruz and Margarita Menchaca, Lauro Cruz moved to Houston, Texas with his family when he was six months old, where his father owned and operated a grocery store. He enlisted for the United States Marine Corps Reserve during the Korean War in his second year of high school, and completed his GED in the Marines before being honorably discharged. Upon returning to Houston, he applied to be a bus driver with the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County and became their first Mexican-American driver. Later, he decided he wanted to attend college, explaining 	"I…wanted to go to college and the problem was I didn't know how to enroll. So, I just went over to the University of Houston and I said how do I get in here, you know? Somebody said you go to the admissions office and I said OK. Anyway, I ended up there." He received a BA in political science from the University of Houston.

Political career

As a State Representative, Cruz worked primarily in the areas of minimum wage and rights for farm workers and migrant workers. His interest in the topics developed after he was approached by activists organizing a march on Austin for farm workers' rights in 1966.
As a young legislator without much bargaining power, Cruz explained his method for gaining support: "...I would approach him every day and I'd say, 'John,' I said, 'are you going to vote for minimum wage?' Kept asking until the other legislator needed something in return."

After three terms in the legislature, Cruz began to run out of savings from his grocery business before he was a legislator. Sensing that it was time to "move up or move out," Cruz ran unsuccessfully for State Treasurer in 1972 to Jesse James. Cruz explained, "...how can I beat a guy with a name like Jesse James?" Maybe I ought to change my name to Pancho Villa, you know."

Post-legislative career

After leaving the legislature, Cruz became involved with the Dolph Briscoe gubernatorial campaign. After Governor Briscoe's election, he became the only Mexican-American special assistant to the Governor. Cruz used his position to push for fairer hiring practices for Mexican-Americans, asking state agencies for records of every Hispanic employed by the agency and their position. Later, he was asked by the governor to head the Greater South Texas Cultural Basin Commission, aimed at bringing economic development to South Texas.

After leaving the Governor's staff, Cruz became the head of the Texas Good Neighbor Commission. Wanting to stay close to his friends and family in Texas, Cruz opted to pursue work as a lobbyist and became one of the first Hispanic independent lobbyists in Texas.

In 1988, Cruz approached the Dean of the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs and proposed a leadership training program geared toward Mexican Americans called the Innovations88 Leadership Program, aimed at "...trying to get people more information on public policy, give them some skills in the area of parliamentary procedure, more than just a motion and a second."

References

External links
House Member Information Page
Lauro Cruz's Birthday House Resolution
Oral History Interview with Lauro Cruz

1933 births
2017 deaths
Hispanic and Latino American state legislators in Texas
University of Houston alumni
Democratic Party members of the Texas House of Representatives
Politicians from Beaumont, Texas

Lauro Cruz