Gerald Dempsey "Buster" Posey III (born March 27, 1987) is an American former professional baseball catcher. He spent his entire twelve-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career with the San Francisco Giants, from 2009 until his retirement at the conclusion of the 2021 season. In September 2022, Posey joined the Giants' ownership group.

Posey was born in Leesburg, Georgia. He played four sports in high school; in baseball, he excelled at hitting and pitching. He attended Florida State University, where he began playing the catcher and first base positions. He won the Golden Spikes Award and the Brooks Wallace Award in 2008. He was selected by the Giants with the fifth overall pick in the first round of the 2008 MLB draft. Posey made his MLB debut on September 11, 2009. He and Madison Bumgarner both made their Major League debuts in 2009 and established a reputation as one of the best batteries in recent MLB history. With the presence of then full-time catcher Bengie Molina, Posey played first base when originally called up to the majors, but became the Giants' regular catcher in June 2010 when Molina was traded to the Texas Rangers.

As a rookie, he finished with a .305 batting average, 18 home runs, and 67 runs batted in. He caught every inning of the playoffs as the Giants won the 2010 World Series. He was named the NL Rookie of the Year. In 2011, after he was severely injured in a collision with the Florida Marlins' Scott Cousins at home plate, Posey missed most of the year. The collision is widely seen as pushing Major League Baseball to adopt rule 7.13 in regards to blocking the plate prior to the 2014 season, informally known as the "Buster Posey Rule".

Posey returned from his injury in 2012 and posted perhaps one of the greatest individual comeback seasons in sports history. He caught Matt Cain's perfect game, batted .336 to win the 2012 NL batting title and was voted the 2012 NL MVP. He won his second World Series that year, as the Giants swept the Detroit Tigers in four games. In 2013, Posey signed a franchise-record eight-year, $167 million contract extension with the Giants. He won his third World Series the following year as the Giants defeated the Kansas City Royals. Posey is the second player in MLB history, after Pete Rose, to win the Rookie of the Year, a League MVP, and three World Series championships. Posey played in four no-hitters in his career, catching three of them. In 2016, he won a Gold Glove Award. In 2019, the Johnny Bench Award was renamed the Buster Posey Award, which honors college baseball's top NCAA Division I catcher.

Early life
Posey was born in Leesburg, Georgia on March 27, 1987, to Demp and Tracy Posey. He is the oldest of four children. He and his family grew up Methodist Christian. Posey has an uncle who is a Methodist minister and an aunt who is a camp minister for Duke University. His nickname, "Buster", came from his father's childhood nickname. Posey grew up a fan of the Atlanta Braves. He also played football, soccer, and basketball growing up, but baseball was his main sport.

As a junior at Lee County High School, Posey pitched and played shortstop. That year he hit nine doubles, three triples, and seven home runs while setting school records for batting average (.544) and runs batted in (RBI) (46). His pitching achievements included a 10–1 record and a 1.53 earned run average (ERA). In his senior year, he batted .462 with 40 RBIs while setting a school record with 14 home runs. In 13 starts as a pitcher that year, he had a 12–0 record with a 1.06 ERA and 108 strikeouts.  In the Georgia AAAA State Championship, Lee County was defeated by Henry County High, for whom fellow future major leaguer Jason Heyward played.

After his senior season, Posey was named the Georgia Gatorade Player of the Year, the Louisville Slugger State Player of the Year, an EA Sports All-American, and a Baseball America All-American.  He graduated with a 3.94 grade point average in high school, fourth in his class of 302 students.

College career
Posey played college baseball for the Florida State Seminoles under coach Mike Martin. He played shortstop as a freshman at Florida State, starting all 65 games for the Seminoles. He was named a Louisville Slugger Freshman All-American. He finished his freshman season with a .346 batting average, four home runs and 48 RBI. As a sophomore, Posey moved to the catcher position on the suggestion of assistant coach Mike Martin Jr. He batted .382 with three home runs and 65 RBI. After one season of playing the position, Posey finished second to Ed Easley in Johnny Bench Award voting.

In 2008, as a junior, he hit .463 with 26 home runs and 93 RBI, won the ACC Baseball Player of the Year,  Johnny Bench Award, and garnered the Collegiate Baseball Player of the Year award. On May 12, he hit a grand slam and played all nine fielding positions in a 10–0 victory over Savannah State University; as a pitcher that day, he struck out both batters he faced. Posey was awarded the Dick Howser Trophy and the Golden Spikes Award at the end of the year.

During the college offseason, Posey started at shortstop for the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox in 2006 when they won the Cape Cod Baseball League championship, and started at catcher in 2007 when they won another championship. He was named a league all-star in both seasons.

Professional career

Drafts and minor leagues
Although he was drafted in the 50th round of the 2005 Major League Baseball (MLB) Draft by the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, he chose to enroll in college instead of signing a professional baseball contract. Posey was considered by Baseball America to be the best catcher available in the 2008 MLB draft. He was drafted by the San Francisco Giants with the fifth overall pick. On August 16, the Giants signed Posey shortly before the signing deadline for draftees and gave him a $6.2 million signing bonus, the largest up-front bonus in Giants history. Entering the 2009 season, Baseball America ranked him the number two prospect in the Giants' organization (behind Madison Bumgarner). He was invited to the Giants' spring training in 2009. Following spring training, Posey was assigned to the Giants' Class A Advanced affiliate, the San Jose Giants of the California League. In 80 games with San Jose, he batted .326 with 63 runs, 95 hits, 23 doubles, 13 home runs, and 58 RBI.

On July 13, Posey was promoted to the Giants' Class AAA team, the Fresno Grizzlies of the Pacific Coast League. In 35 games with Fresno, he batted .321 with 21 runs scored, 42 hits, eight doubles, five home runs, and 22 RBI.

San Francisco Giants (2009–2019, 2021)

2009
Because of an injury to Giants starting catcher Bengie Molina, Posey was called up to MLB for the first time on September 2, 2009. On September 11, 2009, Posey made his MLB debut, striking out in his first at bat against Hiroki Kuroda of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Posey got his first major league hit on September 19 against Jeff Weaver of the Dodgers. In 17 at-bats with the Giants in 2009, Posey had two hits.

Coming into 2010, Baseball America ranked Posey as the top prospect in the Giants' organization. After again appearing in the Giants' spring training camp, Posey began the 2010 season at Fresno, batting .349 with 31 runs scored, 60 hits, 13 doubles, six home runs, and 32 RBI in 47 games.

2010

Posey was called up to the major leagues on May 29, 2010, and started at first base against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Posey drove in the first runs of his major league career, going three for four with three RBI. He appeared primarily at first base through the end of June. Posey hit his first career home run against Aaron Harang of the Cincinnati Reds on June 9.  Following Molina's trade to the Texas Rangers on June 30, Posey became the starting catcher for the Giants.

Posey hit his first career grand slam against Chris Narveson of the Milwaukee Brewers on July 7, en route to a two-home run, four-hit, six-RBI night. This was part of a ten-game streak from July 1 to 10 during which he batted .514 with 19 hits, six home runs, and 13 RBI to set a National League (NL) record for rookies during any ten-day stretch according to the Elias Sports Bureau.  This performance also earned him the NL Player of the Week honors for the week of July 5–11, 2010.

In a July 10 game against the Washington Nationals, Posey was inserted into the Giants' batting order as the clean-up hitter, which became his regular position in the lineup. He had a 21-game hitting streak that started July 4 and ended July 29 when Aníbal Sánchez of the Florida Marlins threw a one-hitter against the Giants. During the streak, which fell one game short of tying the San Francisco Giants' rookie mark set by Willie McCovey and five short of the team record, Posey batted .440 with 37 hits, six home runs, and 23 RBI. Posey was awarded both the NL Player of the Month and NL Rookie of the Month awards for his excellent July.

On September 21, Posey hit an eighth-inning home run against Andrew Cashner of the Chicago Cubs to win the game, 1–0. He hit another eighth-inning home run against Luke Gregerson of the San Diego Padres in the final game of the year on October 3 as Giants secured the NL West Division championship by defeating the Padres 3–0. In 108 games, Posey batted .305 with 58 runs scored, 124 hits, 23 doubles, 18 home runs, and 67 RBI.

Posey was named the NL Rookie of the Year; Posey had 20 first place votes while Heyward, of the Atlanta Braves, finished second with nine. Posey was the sixth Giant to win the award, joining Willie Mays, Orlando Cepeda, Willie McCovey, Gary Matthews and John Montefusco.  He was also the sixth catcher in NL history to win the award. Posey was named by his peers as the NL Players Choice Awards Outstanding Rookie. He was named the catcher on Baseball Americas All-Rookie Team and the 2010 Topps Major League Rookie All-Star Team. He finished 11th in NL Most Valuable Player (MVP) voting.

In the NL Division Series (NLDS) against the Braves, Posey batted .375 as the Giants won the series in four games. In Game 4 of the NL Championship Series (NLCS) against the Philadelphia Phillies, he became the first rookie to get four hits in an NLCS game as the Giants won 6–5. He batted .217 with five hits and three RBI in the series as the Giants defeated the Phillies in six games.  In Game 4 of the World Series against the Texas Rangers, Posey and Madison Bumgarner formed the first rookie starting pitcher-catcher tandem in a World Series since Yogi Berra caught Spec Shea in Game 1 of the 1947 World Series.  Posey hit his first postseason home run against Darren O'Day in the 4–0 victory, making him the fifth rookie catcher to hit a home run in the World Series. The Giants won the series four games to one, giving Posey (who batted .300 with a home run and two RBI in the Series) his first World Series ring. Posey caught every inning of the playoffs for the Giants.

2011
Posey set season highs with three hits and four RBI on April 6, 2011, including a two-run home run against Tim Stauffer in an 8–4 victory over the Padres.

On May 25, during a game against the Florida Marlins, Posey was injured during a collision with Scott Cousins at home plate as Cousins scored the eventual winning run on a sac fly in the 12th inning of a 7–6 Giants' loss. Posey suffered a fractured fibula and torn ligaments in his ankle, requiring season-ending surgery. Cousins, who was not disciplined, said he collided with Posey intentionally in order to score. "If you hit them, you punish them and you punish yourself, but you have a chance of that ball coming out." He expressed regret over injuring Posey, saying "I certainly didn't want him to get hurt." Cousins received threats from fans, but Posey denounced them: "I appreciate the continued support of Giants fans and others as I begin the process of working my way back ... But in no way do I condone threats of any kind against Scott Cousins or his family. As I said last week, I'm not out to vilify Scott." The collision led Major League Baseball to adopt rule 7.13, informally known as the "Buster Posey Rule", which states that "a runner attempting to score may not deviate from his direct pathway to the plate in order to initiate contact with the catcher (or other player covering home plate)." A runner violating the rule will be declared out, even if the fielder drops the ball. In 45 games, Posey batted .284 with 17 runs scored, 46 hits, five doubles, four home runs, and 21 RBI.

2012
Posey started at catcher during Matt Cain's perfect game on June 13, 2012, the 22nd in major league history.  He stated afterwards that the game had him feeling "as nervous as I've ever been on a baseball field." He played in the 2012 Major League Baseball All-Star Game, his first, on July 10, going 0–2 with a walk and a run scored. After batting .289 with 10 home runs and 43 RBI in 77 games before the All-Star break, Posey batted .385 with 14 home runs and 60 RBI in the final 71 games of the season. On July 17, he had three hits and five RBI in a 9–0 victory over the Braves. Four days later, he had four hits and three RBI, including a two-run home run against Cole Hamels in a 10-inning, 6–5 victory over the Phillies. Two days later, he had three hits and four RBI, including a three-run home run against Clayton Richard in a 7–1 victory over the Padres. He hit a game-winning three-run home run against Lance Lynn on August 7 in a 4–2 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals. On September 17, he had three hits, including a game-winning two-run home run against Wade Miley in a 3–2 victory over the Diamondbacks. In 148 games, Posey had 78 runs scored, 178 hits (tied for eighth in the NL with David Wright), 39 doubles (tied for eighth with Yonder Alonso), 24 home runs, and 103 RBI (sixth).

Posey's teammate Melky Cabrera batted .346 in 2012, but MLB declared him ineligible for the batting title after receiving a 50-game suspension for raised testosterone levels. As a result, Posey led both leagues in batting in 2012 with an average of .336, becoming the first catcher to lead the NL in hitting since Ernie Lombardi of the Boston Braves in 1942. He also became only the second San Francisco Giant to win the batting title, following Barry Bonds in 2002 and 2004. Posey's .433 batting average against left-handed pitching (71 for 164) led all batters in the major leagues in 2012.

In Game 5 of the NLDS against the Reds on October 11, Posey hit a grand slam off of Reds starter Mat Latos to give the Giants a 6–0 lead and subsequently won the game. The Giants become the second NL team to win a Division Series after being down two games to none and first since the LDS became a permanent standard in the playoffs in 1995. Posey became just the third catcher in MLB history to hit a grand slam in the playoffs, along with Berra and Eddie Pérez. He also completed a strikeout-throw out double play at third base in the sixth inning to help preserve the victory. He batted .154 with four hits and one RBI in the NLCS as the Giants defeated the Cardinals in seven games. He hit a two-run home run against Max Scherzer in Game 4 of the World Series as the Giants swept the Detroit Tigers, giving Posey his second World Series championship.

After the season, the Baseball Writers' Association of America named Posey the NL MVP. He won the Silver Slugger Award for the catcher position. He won the NL Hank Aaron Award, and Miguel Cabrera of the Tigers won the American League (AL) award, marking the first time in history that World Series opponents won the award in the same year. He was named the NL Comeback Player of the Year, and he received the Willie Mac Award from the Giants' organization.

2013

Eligible for salary arbitration for the first time, Posey signed a one-year, $8 million contract with the Giants prior to the 2013 spring training season. On March 29, Posey agreed to an eight-year contract extension worth $167 million, said by the Giants to be the most lucrative in franchise history. The contract wiped out three arbitration years and five years of free agency for Posey, locking in his services through the 2021 season with a club option for 2022. The agreement was the second largest in major league history for a catcher, exceeded only by that of Joe Mauer in 2010 with the Minnesota Twins.

On July 1, 2013, Posey was named National League Player of the Week for the week of June 23 – 29. It was the second time Posey earned the award during his career, and the first since 2010. In six games Posey hit .500, to raise his average from .307 to .322, had an on-base percentage of .560, a slugging percentage of 1.182, stroked four home runs, and drove in six.

On July 13, 2013, Posey caught Tim Lincecum's first no-hitter against the San Diego Padres. The no-hitter also marks the 15th ever in Giants history as well as the second performed in an away ballpark.

On July 16, 2013, Posey played in his second straight All-Star Game, striking out in his only at-bat.

Posey's offense regressed in 2013 following his 2012 MVP season, especially in the second half of the season where he hit just 3 home runs.  However, he still finished with a solid .294 batting average, 15 home runs and 72 runs batted in.

2014
On June 25, 2014, in a 4–0 win over the San Diego Padres and playing first base, Posey caught the final out of Tim Lincecum's second career no-hitter.

On July 13, 2014, Posey and pitcher Madison Bumgarner hit grand slams against the Arizona Diamondbacks. It marked the first time in Major League Baseball history that a catcher and a pitcher hit grand slams in the same game.

On August 29, 2014, in a 13–2 win over the Milwaukee Brewers at Oracle Park (then known as AT&T Park), Posey went 5-for-5 in 6 innings, and became the only catcher in Giants franchise history to have two career five-hit games.

Posey finished the 2014 season with a .311 batting average, 22 home runs, and 89 RBIs. In the 2014 World Series, the Giants defeated the Kansas City Royals in seven games, giving Posey his third championship in five years. This win made Posey the second player in Major League history after Pete Rose to win the Rookie of the Year, a League MVP, and three World Series championships.

2015
Posey caught Santiago Casilla's immaculate inning save in May 2015 against the Cincinnati Reds, the first time that the Giants had struck out all three opposing batters in an inning on nine pitches since Trevor Wilson accomplished the feat in 1992.

On June 9, 2015, Posey caught rookie Chris Heston's no-hitter against the New York Mets at Citi Field, including the final out, a strikeout. It marks the seventeenth no-hitter in Giants franchise history. This was the third no-hitter during which Posey played catcher and the fourth overall, as he started at first base in Tim Lincecum's second career no-hitter. This puts him one behind the record for no-hitters caught, held by the Philadelphia Phillies' Carlos Ruiz and the Boston Red Sox' Jason Varitek.

On June 19, 2015, in a 9–5 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium, Posey hit a grand slam and stole a base, becoming the first Giants catcher in 112 years since Roger Bresnahan to accomplish the feat. Four days later, in a 6–0 win over the San Diego Padres at Oracle Park, Posey hit another grand slam. On July 5, 2015, Posey was selected to his third career All-Star Game and was number one in voting for NL catchers. On September 6, 2015, at Coors Field, in a 7–4 win over the Colorado Rockies, Posey hit his 100th career home run.

On November 11, 2015, Posey was named winner of the 2015 Wilson Defensive Player of the Year award, given to the best defensive catcher in MLB.  The following day, Posey was named winner of the 2015 National League Silver Slugger award at catcher. Posey finished 2015 with a .318 batting average, 19 home runs, and 95 RBIs.

2016
On May 28, in a 10–5 win over the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field, Posey hit two three-run home runs en route to a career-high six runs batted in. It is the second most RBIs in a single game by a Giants catcher since the team moved to San Francisco.

Posey was selected by fan voting to start at catcher in the 2016 MLB All Star Game, Posey's fourth career MLB All-Star Game, the most all-time by a Giants catcher in franchise history. He was the catcher for battery mate Johnny Cueto, the second battery mate he started and caught for in the Midsummer Classic after teammate Matt Cain in 2012.

On September 27, in a 12–3 win over the Colorado Rockies, Posey recorded the 1,000th hit of his career, a solo home run off of Germán Márquez.

Posey finished the 2016 season with a .288 batting average, 14 home runs, and 80 RBIs. He also won his first Gold Glove Award. Though he has been amongst the league leaders in advanced defensive metrics for the past several seasons, it was the first time he received recognition for it. He is also highly regarded for handling his pitching staff as well as pitch framing.

2017
While batting in the first inning in San Francisco's 2017 home opener, Posey was hit in the helmet by a  pitch from Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Taijuan Walker. Although Posey felt OK after receiving medical attention, Giants manager Bruce Bochy removed him from the game to undergo further tests. He was placed on the seven-day concussion disabled list the next day.

From May 8–10, Posey hit home runs in three consecutive games against the New York Mets at Citi Field.  On May 12, Posey hit a walk-off home run in the bottom of the 17th inning against the Cincinnati Reds after catching all 17 innings.  The home run set a new Giants franchise record for latest walk-off home run, surpassing the 16th-inning home run hit by Willie Mays on July 2, 1963.

Owning a league-leading .339 batting average with ten home runs, Posey was named starting catcher for the 2017 MLB All-Star Game, his third consecutive All-Star start. He ended the season batting .320/.400/.462.

End of season awards for Posey included selection as catcher on Baseball America All-MLB Team.

2018
Batting .285 with five home runs and 27 RBIs in 74 games, Posey was named to the 2018 MLB All-Star Game, but did not participate due to a hip injury. On August 25, the Giants announced that Posey would have season-ending hip surgery and be out 6–8 months. He ended the season batting .284/.359/.382.

2019
In 2019, he batted .257/.320/.368 with 43 runs, 7 home runs, and 38 RBIs in 405 at bats. His .302 career batting average was 8th-best among active major league players.

2020
Posey opted out of playing in the shortened 2020 season, largely due to his ongoing adoption of premature twin girls and the COVID-19 pandemic.

2021
Posey became the longest-tenured member of the Giants when he returned. In 2021, on his first swing since the 2019 season, Posey hit a solo home run off Marco Gonzales. Posey became the first player in franchise history to catch 1,000 games for the Giants. He was an NL All Star; it was his 7th time as an All Star.

In the 2021 regular season he batted .304/.390/.499, with his .889 OPS the second-highest of his career, with 68 runs, 18 home runs, and 56 RBIs in 395 at bats. According to ESPN Stats & Info, he joins Lou Brock, Will Clark, Roberto Clemente, David Ortiz, and Kirby Puckett as the sixth and only players to hit .300 in their final seasons in MLB's divisional play era (1969–present). His .304 batting average is the highest ever by a catcher in their final season, making him the only catcher to bat over .300 in their final season. On defense, he caught 31.1% of attempted base-stealers, 4th-best in the NL. At season-end, his .302 career batting average was 6th-highest among active players, and he was 4th of all active players in games played as a catcher, with 1,093.

In Game 1 of the 2021 NLDS, Posey nearly became the first right-handed batter to homer into McCovey Cove as a 3–0 shot off of opposing starter Walker Buehler bounced off a water tower and then into the bay (a home run must enter the water on the fly to be considered a "splash hit"). The Giants ultimately lost the series 3–2 to the Dodgers. He received the NL Silver Slugger award at catcher, his fifth overall Silver Slugger and his first since 2016, along with his second NL Comeback Player of the Year award.

Posey announced his retirement from baseball on November 4, 2021, making him just the fifth player in the San Francisco era to spend his entire career with the Giants (minimum of 10 seasons), joining Jim Davenport (–), Scott Garrelts (–), Robby Thompson (–) and former battery mate Matt Cain (–).

Career statistics
In 1371 games over 12 seasons, Posey posted a .302 batting average (1500-for-4970) with 663 runs, 293 doubles, 158 home runs, 729 RBI, 540 walks, .372 on-base percentage, and .460 slugging percentage.
Defensively, he recorded a .995 fielding percentage in 1093 games played as a catcher and a .995 fielding percentage in 229 games played at first base. In 58 postseason games, he hit .252 (57-for-226) with 18 runs, 6 doubles, 5 home runs, 25 RBI and 23 walks.

Accomplishments and Honors

Post-playing career
On September 21, 2022, the Giants announced that Posey had joined the 30-member ownership group of the Giants and will serve on its board of directors.

Personal life
Posey married his high school sweetheart, Kristen Powell, on January 10, 2009. They had twins (a son and a daughter) in 2011. They adopted twin girls in 2020. Posey and his family lived in the East Bay during his career. After announcing his retirement, Posey and his wife sold their East Bay home and moved back to their home state of Georgia to be closer to their relatives. Posey is a Methodist Christian and served as the baseball chapel representative for the Giants. Posey's younger sister, Samantha, played softball for Valdosta State University.

See also

 List of Florida State University people
 List of Major League Baseball career games played as a catcher leaders
 List of Major League Baseball career putouts as a catcher leaders
 List of Major League Baseball players who spent their entire career with one franchise

References

Further reading

External links

1987 births
Living people
All-American college baseball players
Arizona League Giants players
Baseball players from Georgia (U.S. state)
Florida State Seminoles baseball players
Fresno Grizzlies players
Gold Glove Award winners
Golden Spikes Award winners
Major League Baseball catchers
Major League Baseball first basemen
Major League Baseball Rookie of the Year Award winners
National League All-Stars
National League batting champions
National League Most Valuable Player Award winners
People from Leesburg, Georgia
Salem-Keizer Volcanoes players
San Francisco Giants players
San Jose Giants players
Scottsdale Scorpions players
Silver Slugger Award winners
Waikiki Beach Boys players
World Baseball Classic players of the United States
Yarmouth–Dennis Red Sox players
2017 World Baseball Classic players

Buster Posey


Concavenator is an extinct genus of carcharodontosaurid theropod dinosaur that lived approximately 130 million years ago during the Early Cretaceous period (Barremian age). The type species is C. corcovatus. Concavenator corcovatus means "Cuenca hunter with a hump". The fossil was discovered in the Las Hoyas fossil site of Spain by paleontologists José Luis Sanz, Francisco Ortega, and Fernando Escaso from the Autonomous University of Madrid and the National University of Distance Education.

Description

Concavenator was a medium-sized primitive carcharodontosaurid, reaching  long and . It possessed several unique features, including the two extremely tall vertebrae in front of the hips that formed a tall, narrow, pointed crest (possibly supporting a hump) on the dinosaur's back. The function of such crests, however, is currently unknown. Paleontologist Roger Benson from the University of Cambridge speculated that one possibility is that "it is analogous to head-crests used in visual displays", but the Spanish scientists who discovered it noted it could also be a thermal regulator.

Integument

Concavenator had structures resembling quill knobs on its ulna, a feature known only in birds and other feathered theropods, such as Velociraptor. Quill knobs are created by ligaments which attach to the feather follicle and, since scales do not form from follicles, the authors ruled out the possibility that they could indicate the presence of long display scales on the arm. Instead, the knobs have been thought to probably anchor simple, hollow, quill-like structures. Such structures are known both in coelurosaurs, such as Dilong, and in some ornithischians, like Tianyulong and Psittacosaurus. If the ornithischian quills are homologous with bird feathers, their presence in Concavenator and other allosauroids would be expected. However, if ornithischian quills are not related to feathers, the presence of these structures in Concavenator would show that feathers had begun to appear in earlier, more primitive forms than coelurosaurs.

Feathers or related structures would then likely be present in the first members of the clade Neotetanurae, which lived in the Middle Jurassic. No impressions of any kind of integument were found near the arm, although extensive scale impressions were preserved on other portions of the body, including broad, rectangular scales on the underside of the tail, bird-like scutes on the feet, and plantar pads on the undersides of the feet.

However, the significance of the 'quill knobs' remains controversial, as some amount of skepticism has been raised among experts on the validity of the interpretation that the ulnar bumps represent quill knobs. Christian Foth and colleagues noted that the quill knobs of Concavenator were on the anterolateral side of the ulna. They suggest they were intermuscular lines that acted as tendon attachments. The hypothesis that the bumps along the ulna represented muscular insertion points or ridges was subsequently examined and the results were presented at the 2015 meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology. Elena Cuesta Fidalgo, along with two of the researchers who initially described Concavenator (Ortega and Sanz), attempted to reconstruct its forearm musculature to determine if the ulnar bumps would be explained as an inter-muscular ridge. They identified the insertion point for the major arm muscles and determined that the row of bumps could not have been located between any of them. They found that the only possibility was that the bumps could be an attachment scar for the M. anconeus muscle. However, this is unlikely because this muscle normally attaches to a smooth surface without marks or bumps on the underlying bone. They argued that the most likely explanation for the bumps was their initial interpretation as feather quill knobs. The authors admitted that it was unusual for quill knobs to form along the posterolateral surface of the bone, but also noted that the same arrangement is found in some modern birds, like the Moorhen.

In 2018, Cuesta Fidalgo published her doctorate thesis on the anatomy of Concavenator, which argued that the ulna was preserved in lateral view. This means that the ulnar bumps were positioned posterolaterally instead of anterolaterally as Cau and Mortimer claimed. Cuesta Fidalgo noted that the proximal part of the ulna is affected by fracturing and abrasion, with certain features that would have shifted when compared to their position in the bone while the animal was alive. For example, in the fossil, the lateral process of the ulna is positioned further posteriorly than the ulnar bumps. In Allosaurus and Acrocanthosaurus, the lateral process is on the lateral (rather than posterior) part of the bone, which would seem to support the ulnar bumps being anterolateral in position if the lateral process was truly preserved in lateral orientation in Concavenator. However, Cuesta Fidalgo described how the lateral process was distorted posteriorly when compared to the bumps and was not valid evidence for the claim that the ulna had shifted into anterior view. The ulna's distortion (as well as genus-specific proportions) means that precise comparisons to Allosaurus and Acrocanthosaurus would be misleading. As Cuesta Fidalgo and her colleagues explained in 2015, the ulnar bumps could not be an intermuscular line if the bone is preserved in lateral view. Cuesta Fidalgo and her colleagues pointed out that these bumps on the ulna are posterolateral, which is unlike that of interosseous ligaments.

Classification

The following cladogram after Novas et al., 2013, shows its place within Carcharodontosauridae.

See also

 Altispinax
 List of animals with humps

References

External links
 Concavenator arm bones, with quill knob-like structures visible.

Carcharodontosaurids
Barremian life
Early Cretaceous dinosaurs of Europe
Cretaceous Spain
Fossils of Spain
La Huérguina Formation
Fossil taxa described in 2010

Concavenator


Baharestan, (in Persian: بهارستان), (pronounced as Bahārestān or Bahaarestaan) (meaning the land of spring, the spring orchard or the spring garden), is a Persian book written by Jami that contains prose. It has stories, tales and moral advice mainly in prose, but also in poetry. Baharestan is divided into eight chapters, an introduction, and a final part. Each of its chapters is called a rowzeh (from Arabic rawzah, meaning paradise or heaven). Jami wrote this book in a year in the 9th century after Muhammad's departure to Medina. In the introduction of Baharestan, Jami stated that he had written this book in the style of Saadi Shirazi's Gulistan for his son who was ten years old at the time and was studying. Baharestan has content about Sufism and mysticism. There are 469 verses of poetry in this book; 16 verses being in Arabic and the rest in Persian. Baharestan has saj' in its texts and the type of its prose is rhymed prose; i.e. it is rhythmic. Each chapter in Baharestan has a specific topic; for example, in the seventh chapter, the topic is the life and the biography of some poets.

References
 Persian Wikipedia Contributors. بهارستان (کتاب). Persian. 19 September 2016; 15:47 (UTC). Translated to English from Persian by the creator of the page.
 The World of Persian Literary Humanism.
 ..
 Sweet short stories from Jami's Baharestan - About This Book. Permanent archived link.
 . Permanent archived link.
 . Alternative link.
 SID.ir | AN INVESTIGATION ON THE SOURCES OF THE ANECDOTES FROM THE FIRST CHAPTER OF JAMI'S BAHARESTAN. Permanent link.
 Britannica Guide to the Islamic World.
 The Great Poet Jami - The New Nation. Permanent archived link.
 بهارستان جامی. (Persian). Permanent archived link (alternative link with the date).
 BAHĀRESTĀN (1) – Encyclopaedia Iranica
 Binary Oppositions in Baharestan by Jami - Tarbiat Modares University Journals System

15th-century books
Iranian books
Persian-language books
Sufi literature

Baharestan (book)


Kremlin is a board game satire of power struggles within the pre-glasnost Soviet Union government of the 1980s. The game takes its name from the Kremlin in Moscow, the location associated with the central Soviet government offices.  The original German-language edition was designed by Urs Hostettler and released in 1986 by the Swiss board game company Fata Morgana Spiele under the name Kreml. An English translation of the game with slightly modified rules was published by Avalon Hill in 1988. Kremlin won a 1988 Origins Award for Best Boardgame Covering the Period 1900-1946.

Gameplay
Each player controls a number of politician cards depicting caricatures of Soviet politicians.  These are arranged in a pyramid on the game board, representing a hierarchy of power.  Players promote, demote and exile these politicians in order to maneuver their own politicians to the top of the pyramid.  Each turn, the Party Chief "waves" from the rostrum during a military parade in Red Square.  If a player's politician waves during three non-consecutive years, that player wins.  Additionally, politicians age and each year there is a chance they will die. If no player is able to wave three times, the player with the highest ranking politician at the end of the health phase of the 11th turn wins the game.

Publication history
1986 1st edition (originally titled Kreml) by Fata Morgana Spiele (German language)
1988 2nd edition by Avalon Hill
1989 expansion by Avalon Hill, adding cards depicting the real people and events at the birth of the Soviet Union
2014 3rd edition by Jolly Roger Games, which included a new modern scenario
2014 Limited edition by Jolly Roger Games with alternate box art and promotional cards

Reception
In the October 1988 edition of Games International (Issue 1), Brian Walker reviewed the Avalon Hill version as the magazine's "Game of the Month." Walker thought the production values of the components were "quite superb", and admired the game rules. He concluded by giving the game a perfect rating of 5 out of 5, saying, "It is difficult to determine the skill/luck ratio in this strange game, but who cares? The important thing is that it is such fun to play."

In the December 1993 edition of Dragon (Issue 200), Allen Varney reviewed Avalon Hill's 1988 edition and the 1989 expansion set favorably, saying, "Makes for backbiting, double-crossing fun, and Avalon Hill's advanced rules work well."

Kremlin was chosen for inclusion in the 2007 book Hobby Games: The 100 Best. Lester Smith commented, "Kremlin invites us to look back on the Soviet era and put it in perspective through laughter. The humor in Kremlin is gallows humor, of course, as anyone who lived through the 1980s would attest. But the satire isn't constrained by its ties to the past, or to one political superpower; with the minimum of imagination, Kremlin can easily be seen as a pointed jab at any corrupt and treacherous bureaucracy populated by ambitious old men."

Reviews
Games #96

Awards
At the 1988 Origins Awards, Kremlin won the award for Best Boardgame Covering the Period 1900-1946.

References

External links

 GLG Kremlin Support Page

Avalon Hill games
Board games introduced in 1986
Board games about history
Origins Award winners
Soviet Union in fiction

Kremlin (board game)


Brandon Thompson (born October 19, 1989) is a former American football defensive tackle. He played college football at Clemson and was drafted by the Cincinnati Bengals in the third round of the 2012 NFL Draft.

Early years
Thompson attended Thomasville High School in Thomasville, Georgia. As a senior, he had 19 sacks and 61 tackles.

Regarded as a four-star recruit by Rivals.com, Thompson was listed as the ninth best defensive tackle prospect of his class.

College career
Thompson was originally redshirted as a freshman in 2008, but had the redshirt taken off after an injury to Jamie Cumbie. He played in the team's final 12 games and recorded 15 tackles and a sack. As a sophomore in 2009, he started all 13 games and had 27 tackles. As a junior in 2010, he had 41 tackles and a sack.

Professional career

Cincinnati Bengals
Thompson was drafted by the Cincinnati Bengals in the third round, 93rd overall, in the 2012 NFL Draft. In 2013, he played in all 16 regular-season games, starting the last seven games, which included the Wild Card playoff game, where he replaced the injured Geno Atkins.

On March 25, 2016, Thompson signed a one-year contract with the Bengals that will keep him through the 2016 season. He was placed on the Reserve/PUP list to start the season after he suffered a torn ACL in Week 17 of the 2015 season. Since he spent the entire season on reserve, his contract tolled, keeping him under contract for the 2017 season.

On August 20, 2017, Thompson was released by the Bengals.

Cleveland Browns
On August 22, 2017, Thompson was signed by the Cleveland Browns. He was released on September 1, 2017, during roster cutdowns.

References

External links
 Cincinnati Bengals bio

 Clemson Tigers bio

1989 births
Living people
American football defensive tackles
Clemson Tigers football players
Cincinnati Bengals players
Cleveland Browns players
Players of American football from Thomasville, Georgia

Brandon Thompson (American football)


Lesley Willem Stokkers (born 1 November 1987, The Hague) is a Dutch cricketer. Having worked his way through the national youth teams, he made his debut for the Netherlands cricket team in a One Day International during Bermuda's 2008 tour of Netherlands on 8 August 2008 (which also happened to be his last), and appeared in an Intercontinental Cup game against Kenya two weeks later. He has played a total of 2 matches for the Netherlands and has scored 15 runs in total.

References

External links

1987 births
Living people
Dutch cricketers
Netherlands One Day International cricketers
Cricketers from The Hague

Lesley Stokkers


The East Northamptonshire College or TENC for short is a consortium of secondary schools in East Northamptonshire that offer Post-16 education.

Structure
The Consortium consists of three secondary schools, Rushden Community College based in Rushden, The Ferrers School based in Higham Ferrers and Huxlow Academy based in Irthlingborough. The college provides free transport to the different schools so all students can get to individual lessons.  The College is also in partnership with Prince William School (PWS) based in Oundle

Range of courses
Because there are three different schools, the college can offer a greater range of courses than a normal Sixth Form College. This is seen in the college's rapid growth in recent years. As the College is split between three schools, the government's inspectors - Ofsted - do not inspect the College as a whole but the individual school's sixth forms when secondary education is inspected. This then gives three different reports on how the sixth form is being managed at different schools. The College is officially based at Rushden Community College, where the director and administrative staff are also based.

External links
 Rushden Community College
 Ferrers College
 Huxlow College
 EduBase

Rushden
Sixth form colleges in Northamptonshire
Education in North Northamptonshire

East Northamptonshire College


Parashakti (IAST: Paraśakti, Sanskrit: पराशक्ति) or Parā is one of the three chief goddesses in Trika system of Kashmir Shaivism along with Aparā and Parparā. In Siddhantic perspective, Parashakti is the counterpart of Paramshiva. Paramshiva is used to describe the ultimate form of Shiva. Parashakti is the power of this primordial Shiva, who is emanated by Paramshiva. Adi Parashakti is used to describe the ultimate form of Parvati.  Parashakti is an all-pervasive, pure consciousness, power, and primal substance of all that exists and it has Mahamaya-form, unlike Parashiva which is formless. A Parashakti as the supreme being of puranic Shaktism and of Sri Vidya obtained the name Adi Parashakti and Maheshvari-Devi.

Parā  in Trika

Trika is a Non-Saiddhantic Mantra Margic Saivite sect praising Parā, Aparā  and Parāparā as three supreme goddesses. These three represent the three prongs of Shiva's Trishula and they can be meditated in Trishulabja Mandala. The three aspects are emerging from Kulesvari Matrrusadbhava. Para means the highest form and beyond the range of human understanding while it loses its supremacy and manifests Parapara, the mediocre level. While it further loses its strength it becomes Apara. These three aspects symbolizes Shiva, Shakti and Atman in philosophical perspective of Trika.

Para in Siddhanta

According to Saiva Siddhanta, the lower part (pedestal) of Shiva lingam represents parashakti while upper part (oval stone) represents parashiva.

Para in Shaktism

See also
 Paramashiva
 Trika
 Adi parashakti

References

Forms of Shiva
Kashmir Shaivism
Shaktism

Parashakti


The Yutu or Jade Rabbit is a Chinese six wheeled rover vehicle built to travel on the Moon. It landed on the Moon in December 2013, and made its first trip on 14 December 2013. It weighs 120 kg and can travel at a speed of 200 metres per hour. It stopped moving after 42 days and stopped communicating after two years.

The Chinese landing on the Moon was the first soft landing since 1976. It is part of China's Chang'e-3 space program which uses the Long March 3B rocket. The Jade Rabbit carries a range of scientific equipment including a radar system which will be able to examine the ground beneath the surface.

The vehicle's name was picked on an online poll in China. The Jade Rabbit comes from an old Chinese mythology story about the lunar goddess Chang'e, who had a pet rabbit.

References

Moon
China
Spacecrafts launched in 2010s
Planetary rovers

Yutu (rover)


Noise is another word for sound. It usually means it is not wanted. Noise is perceived by our ears. They can be damaged by noise. Noise is created through any object, which produces vibration unnecessarily.

Noise can also mean data (information) that typically does not have a meaning, like white noise. Loudspeaker measurements can use white noise for measuring loudspeakers frequency response.

Noise can also refer to some math that makes random numbers. Click here to learn about it.

In electronics, heat produces noise in resistors. Depending on the type of resistor, the amount of noise may differ. Most audio devices are designed not to produce noise.

Related pages
 Noise (electronics)
Earplug

Sound

Noise


The Bronze Age is the time period when people made tools from an alloy (a mixture of metals) called bronze. It started after the Stone Age. Bronze is a mixture of mainly copper and tin: usually nine parts copper to one part tin. Materials like wood and stone were also used for tools, but bronze was better for cutting and chopping, and was easy to shape. The Bronze Age was not at the same time everywhere, because different groups of people began to use bronze at different times. In Western Europe, the Bronze Age lasted from about 2000 BC until 800 BC. In the Middle East, it started about a thousand years earlier. For example, bronze was first used in Mesopotamia around 3300 BC.

Archaeologists think that people became more organised in the Bronze Age, because the making of metal tools was difficult and needed certain skills. The people who had these new skills would have been important. The new metal tools were bought, sold, or traded across larger distances.

Later, when iron tools spread, the Bronze Age ended and the Iron Age started. A reason for iron replacing bronze is that tin ore, a rock in which tin may be found, is much more rare than iron ore. Copper tools were less useful because they were too soft.

The invention of writing coincided with the beginning of the Bronze Age in some areas.  People soon began writing about events and administrative matters.

Agriculture

By the Bronze Age, wild food was no longer a main part of the diet. The title "inventors of agriculture" might go to the Sumerians, starting c. 5500 BC.

Farming allows more people in an area than can be supported by hunting and gathering. Crops can be stored for off-season use, or to sell or barter. Farmers could feed people to do other things than agriculture. This was a crucial factor in the rise of full-time armies.

Sumerian agriculture allowed them to win battles and land. This made them early empire builders. Not long after, the Egyptians, farming in the fertile Nile valley, increased their population. There were now enough warriors to conquer more land, tripling the Sumerian empire in area.

In Sumer, barley was the primary crop; wheat, flax, dates, apples, plums, vegetables and grapes were grown as well. Mesopotamian agriculture was both supported and limited by flooding of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Floods came in late spring or early summer from snow melting from the Anatolian mountains.

Sheep, wolves, cows and goats were domesticated, kept mainly for meat, milk, butter and cheese. Ur, a large town that covered about 50 acres (20 hectares), kept 10,000 animals; 3,000 were slaughtered every year. The city's population of 6,000 included a labour force of 2,500, cultivated 3,000 acres (12 km²) of land. The labor force included storehouse recorders, work foremen, overseers, and harvest supervisors as well as laborers.

The land was plowed by teams of oxen pulling light unwheeled plows and grain was harvested with sickle. Wagons had solid wheels covered by leather tires kept in position by copper nails and were drawn by oxen. As many as four animals could pull a wagon at one time. The horse was domesticated in Ukraine around 4000 BC, and was in use by the Sumerians around 2000 BC.

Related pages
 Bronze Age collapse

References

Ancient history
Periods and ages in history

Bronze Age


The Movie Game is a United Kingdom children's game show that ran from 8 June 1988 to 25 December 1995. The format is three teams of two players answering questions about films, the team with the fewest points at the end of the first round are eliminated. The other two teams moved on to a board game-style end game. The winning team could, depending on the points they earned, move on to the series final and the winner of that would win a film related prize such as meeting Steven Spielberg. Each show featured a celebrity guest.

Format
The show starts with three teams of two players in the colours Red, Green and Yellow. They first answer questions about film in a quick-fire round. They are then shown a clip from a film and are asked observation questions about the clip. Another quick-fire round followed this.  At the end of each of these rounds each team was shown one of three pictures which, combined, depicted a film, the team had to guess what film this was and were allowed to guess once the first two pictures had been revealed receiving bonus points if they guessed correctly with two pictures. Throughout the show the teams would be given a genre of film, a famous star, a prop and a sound effect. They would then be asked to write a short script and plot for a film which they would act out with relevant prop and sound effect. This would be marked out of ten by the audience.

The top two teams would move onto the end game. Originally it was a set of stairs in the style of a roll of film, this quickly changed to an ordinary board. The teams would move round the board answering questions. They could decide if they wanted to go 2, 3 or 4 spaces however they could only choose 4 spaces once as it was a special called Fast Forward.

The board had three special squares marked out with a door. When a team landed on one of these they would be transported to a mini game by the special effects. Only the first pair to make it to the special spaces would play the mini game.  If the game involved costumes the team would wear them around the rest of the board. The mini games always involved the celebrity guest. These were either action-based or required basic practical skill or knowledge related to the history of movie making. The theme was often based on the occupation of the celebrity guest.  They were marked out of ten for and the mark was added to their score.

The team that made it to the last space first won the game regardless of the points. Both finalist teams won a selection to prizes with the winning team winning the best prizes. The top 8 winners with the best scores during the series would compete in the final.

The series final had the same format but with 8 teams in the first round in the additions colours Orange, White, Puce, Tartan and Marzipan.

Transmissions

Original series

Specials

External links

 The Movie Game at BFI

1988 British television series debuts
1995 British television series endings
1980s British game shows
1990s British game shows
British children's game shows
1980s British children's television series
1990s British children's television series
BBC children's television shows
English-language television shows

The Movie Game (British TV series)


Inga DeCarlo Fung Marchand (born September 6, 1978), better known by her stage name Foxy Brown, is an American rapper. Upon signing to Def Jam Recordings in 1996, she released her debut album, Ill Na Na in November of that year. The album was met with critical and commercial success, becoming certified platinum by the RIAA and selling over 7 million units worldwide. The following year, she was placed in the hip hop supergroup the Firm along with Nas, AZ and Cormega (who was later replaced by Nature). The Firm's sole album (1997) was released through Dr. Dre's Aftermath Entertainment. In 1999, Marchand released her second album Chyna Doll to continued success, debuting atop the Billboard 200 and making her the second female rapper to do so after Lauryn Hill in 1998.

Her third album Broken Silence (2001), saw a slight commercial decline and contained the Grammy Award-nominated track "Na Na Be Like". In 2003, she left Def Jam and canceled the release of her next album, Ill Na Na 2: The Fever, but returned in 2005 once frequent collaborator Jay-Z, the label's then-president, signed her again to begin work on another ultimately-shelved album titled Black Roses. Following years of legal issues and a lack of output, Marchand released the mixtape Brooklyn Don Diva in 2008. Her long-delayed visual album King Soon Come, was slated for release in 2019 but has been delayed indefinitely.

Early life
Marchand is a Trinidadian-American of Dougla (mixed Afro-Trinidadian and Indo-Trinidadian) and Chinese-Trinidadian descent. She and her two older brothers grew up in Park Slope, a middle-class neighborhood in Brooklyn. Her parents divorced when she was four, and her family  moved in with her maternal grandfather. She later attended  Brooklyn College Academy.

Career

1994–1996: Early career
While still a teenager, Brown won a talent contest in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. Members of the production team Trackmasters who were working on LL Cool J's Mr. Smith album were in attendance that night and were impressed enough to invite Brown to rap on "I Shot Ya." She followed this debut with appearances on several RIAA platinum and gold singles from other artists, including remixes of songs "You're Makin' Me High" by Toni Braxton. Brown was also featured on the soundtrack to the 1996 film The Nutty Professor, on the songs "Touch Me, Tease Me" by Case and "Ain't No Nigga" by Jay-Z. She became an instant sensation due to being very talented and rapping provocatively at such a young age. The immediate success led to a label bidding war at the beginning of 1996, and in March, Def Jam Records won and added the then 17-year-old rapper to their roster.

1996–1997: Ill Na Na and The Firm
In 1996, Brown released her debut album Ill Na Na to strong sales. The album sold over 128,000 copies in the first week, and debuted at No. 7 on the Billboard 200 album charts. The album was heavily produced by Trackmasters, and featured guest appearances from Jay-Z, Blackstreet, Method Man, and Kid Capri. The album was platinum and launched two hit singles: "Get Me Home" (featuring Blackstreet) and "I'll Be" (featuring Jay-Z).

Following the release of Ill Na Na, Brown joined fellow New York-based hip hop artists, Nas, AZ, and Cormega (later replaced by Nature) to form the supergroup known as The Firm. The album was released via Aftermath Records and was produced and recorded by the collective team of Dr. Dre, the Trackmasters, and Steve "Commissioner" Stoute, then of Violator Entertainment. An early form of The Firm appeared on "Affirmative Action" from Nas' second album It Was Written. A remix of the song and several group freestyles were on the album Nas, Foxy Brown, AZ, and Nature Present The Firm: The Album. The album entered the Billboard 200 album chart at No. 1.

In March 1997, she joined the spring break festivities hosted by MTV in Panama City, Florida, among other performers including rapper Snoop Dogg, pop group The Spice Girls, and rock band Stone Temple Pilots. Later, she joined the Smokin' Grooves tour hosted by the House of Blues with the headlining rap group Cypress Hill, along with other performers like Erykah Badu, The Roots, OutKast, and The Pharcyde, the tour set to begin in Boston, Massachusetts, in the summer of 1997. However, after missing several dates in the tour, she left it.

1998–1999: Chyna Doll
Chyna Doll was released in January 1999 and debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 Album chart, selling 173,000 copies in its opening week, making her the second female rapper to accomplish this feat after Lauryn Hill. However, its sales quickly declined in later weeks. Chyna Doll has been certified platinum after surpassing one million copies sold in shipments.

2000–2003: Broken Silence and Ill Na Na 2: The Fever
In 2001, Brown released Broken Silence. The single  "BK Anthem" showcased Brown's "street" image and giving a tribute to her hometown, Brooklyn, and to famous rappers such as The Notorious B.I.G. and Jay-Z. The first single from the album was "Oh Yeah", which featured her then-boyfriend, Jamaican dancehall artist Spragga Benz. The track "Na Na Be Like" was produced by Kenya Fame Flames Miller and Nokio from Dru Hill. The song "Candy", which featured guest vocals from Kelis, was never officially released as a single, but was hugely successful on the radio; it managed to chart at 48 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Track Chart and number 10 on the Rap charts". Na Na Be Like" was also on the Blue Streak Soundtrack.

The album debuted on the Billboard Charts at No. 5, selling 130,000 units its first week. Like previous albums, Broken Silence also sold over 500,000 records and was certified gold by the RIAA.

In the same year, Brown recorded a song for the action-comedy film Rush Hour 2, Blow My Whistle, which is a collaboration with Japanese-American singer-songwriter Hikaru Utada, and was written by Utada herself alongside Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo. The song is included on Def Jam's Rush Hour 2 Soundtrack, which peaked the 11th spot on both the Billboard 200 and the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and also the first on the Top Soundtracks. "Blow My Whistle" was produced by The Neptunes.

In 2002, Brown returned to the music scene with her single "Stylin'", whose remix featured rappers Birdman, her brother Gavin, Loon, and N.O.R.E. It was to be the first single from her upcoming album Ill Na Na 2: The Fever. The next year, she was featured on DJ Kayslay's single "Too Much for Me" from his Street Sweeper's Volume One Mixtape. She also appeared on Luther Vandross' final studio album Dance with My Father. That April, Brown appeared on popular New York radio DJ Wendy Williams' radio show, and revealed the details of her relationships with Lyor Cohen, president of Def Jam Recordings at the time, and Sean "P. Diddy" Combs. Brown accused both of illegally trading her recording masters. She also announced that Cohen had cancelled promotion for her fourth album Ill Na Na 2: The Fever over personal disagreements. Therefore, "Stylin'" was released on the compilation album The Source Presents: Hip Hop Hits Vol. 6.

2004–2008: Black Roses and Brooklyn's Don Diva
Upon leaving Def Jam Recordings after her disappointment in the cancelled promotion of her studio album, Ill Na Na 2: The Fever, Brown began recording in late 2004. Months later, she reunited with Jay-Z, performing dates on the Best of Both Worlds Tour. After signing back to Def Jam under his regime, Brown and Jay-Z began work on Black Roses with production by The Neptunes, Kanye West, Timbaland, Trackmasters, and Dave Kelly. Brown confirmed guest appearances by Barrington Levy, Dido, Luther Vandross, Mos Def, Baby Cham, Spragga Benz, Shyne, Big Daddy Kane, Rakim, KRS-One, Roxanne Shante, and Jay-Z, although it was uncertain whether all would make the final cut for the album.

In November 2004, Brown announced that the title for her upcoming album would be Black Roses, explaining, "My best friend Barrington Levy has a song called "Black Roses." He's been traveling all over the world and never seen a black rose in no other garden. When he found his black rose, he knew that shit was special. Y'all niggas can have all the female rappers in the world, but there's only one black rose. I feel that's me." Brown also announced that she would be the first artist signed to Jay-Z's upcoming imprint record label S. Carter Records. Rather than launching the imprint, though, Jay-Z became the new president and CEO of Def Jam Records, where he signed Brown as one of the first artists on his new roster. On December 8, 2005, Brown announced she had experienced severe and sudden hearing loss in both ears and she had not heard another person's voice in six months. Brown put Black Roses aside during this time. In June 2006, Brown said her hearing had been restored through surgery and she was planning to resume recording. Her label did not set a release date, but hoped the album would be out by the end of 2006. They were unsure if the title Black Roses would be kept. In November 2006, there was speculation that Jay-Z was disappointed in Foxy Brown's "lack of productivity on the album" and was planning to drop her from the Def Jam label. The planned December 2006 release of Black Roses was cancelled.

On May 22, 2007, Black Hand Entertainment announced a management deal with Brown, with Chaz Williams as her manager. No release date was set for Black Roses, but Brown said the album was nearly complete. Two days later, a release date of September 6 was announced. On August 16, Black Hand Entertainment announced that Brown would leave Def Jam to launch an independent record label, Black Rose Entertainment, distributed by Koch Records. A street album, Brooklyn's Don Diva, was eventually scheduled with a release date of December 4, but was delayed until the following year.

Brooklyn's Don Diva was ultimately released as a street album on May 13, 2008, after many delays triggered by her prison sentence. It contains two previously unreleased songs from her shelved album Ill Na Na 2: The Fever. The album peaked at No. 83 on the Billboard 200 chart, No. 8 on the Independent Albums chart, and No. 5 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.

2009–2018: Other ventures
In January 2011, Brown released the diss track "Massacre", a response to Lil' Kim's "Black Friday". On August 14, 2012, Foxy appeared as a special featured guest on Nicki Minaj's Pink Friday Tour in New York City. Rapper AZ later hinted in an interview that Brown was working on new material with Minaj. In August 2018, Brown made her first official guest appearance since 2009 on "Coco Chanel" from Nicki Minaj's fourth studio album Queen.

2019–present: Upcoming fourth studio album
According to media sources, Brown is back to work on her upcoming fourth studio album. In 2019, Brown remixed Casanova's "So Brooklyn".

In August 2020, Brown reunited with her group The Firm for the song "Full Circle" from Nas' album King's Disease.

Artistry

Musical style
Brown's lyrics have been described to be "raunchy" and "over-the-top" with "skimpy clothes to match." Her music is often centred around themes such as "fashion, sex, and the mafia" and is described as "intriguingly seductive" and having "a contemporary edge with a sleek and sexy soundscape." Her work for her debut album was described as "a heroine straight from the pages of a James Bond novel," selling over a million copies with the support of major male artists such as Nas and AZ. Brown's voice has been described as a "husky flow" with "dancehall swagger".

Although her work was compared to rapper Lil' Kim, Highsnobiety writer David Opie said that,
Just because they were both the 'First Ladies' of their respective crews, doesn't mean that Foxy or Kim were identical by any means, and it was hugely misogynistic to suggest otherwise [...] In an industry that still actively mocks vulnerability and weakness, hip hop needs more rappers who are willing to open up in this way, and the fact that Foxy did so such a long time ago speaks volumes about her artistry.

Impact
Brown's impact on the rap world has often been overlooked due to her legal run-ins, but it has been noted that "she's bright, talented, sexy and, most important, she's not afraid to take risks creatively" and that her "impact still stands." Her albums have been cited to harness "a winning formula of looping R&B songs into hip-hop hits, resulting in the genre-shifting record," Ill Na Na. The release of her album marked a monumental moment in hip-hop history, but was downplayed due to comparisons between her and rapper, Lil' Kim and although Foxy may not have achieved the "iconic status" Kim had reached, "her debut album was an essential part of a turning point in mainstream rap music." Rolling Stone author, Kathy Iandoli stated,

In seeing Foxy ... release [Ill Na Na] it was a reassurance that skills paid off; it didn't really matter who was helping with the rhymes. It was the delivery and the content that was being said, and whose mouth it was coming out of. It was just a reassurance to me as a hip-hop head that this space might be opening up for women in a way that has never been done before. There was something about what [she] said and how [she was] saying it, that was hinting that a huge change was about to come.

Cited as a fashion icon, Elle writer Janelle Harris wrote that Brown celebrated "the beauty of her mahogany skin as the self-professed 'dark-skinned Christian Dior poster girl,' boasted about being 'dripped in Gabbana [...] starring in billboards as big as the pride of the Black girls who saw themselves in her likeness."

Described as one of the "illest to ever do it – regardless of gender," Scott Glaysher of HipHopDX noted that "If those aforementioned male rappers epitomize the menacing New York City mobster of the late 90s then Foxy represents the mob wife that is even more sinister with weaponized sexuality." He stated that "the sheer confidence and astute rhyming Foxy brought to Ill Na Na, makes it one of the 90s most memorable albums and a catalyst for the fierce feminine rap wave that followed. In 2020, Spin ranked her at 20, as one of the 30 Best Female Rappers Ever.

Brown's sophomore studio album Chyna Doll debuted at number one in 1999, making it only the second female rap album to debut at the top spot after The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill in 1998 by Lauryn Hill and eventually joined by Let There Be Eve...Ruff Ryders' First Lady in 1999 by Eve, Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded in 2012 by Nicki Minaj and Invasion of Privacy in 2018 by Cardi B. Her work has been paid homage to by numerous artists including, Nicki Minaj, Kash Doll, Bia, Ivorian Doll, Megan Thee Stallion and Maliibu Miitch. Minaj has even gone so far to say that without Foxy she "may have never even started rapping" and that she is "the most influential female rapper."

Personal life
From 1997 to 1999, she was engaged to fellow rapper, Kurupt. In 2000, she announced that she was suffering from depression. She subsequently entered drug rehabilitation at Cornell University Medical College to receive treatment for opioid addiction, stating that she could no longer record or perform without resorting to morphine. Around 2001, she was engaged to Spragga Benz. Her uncle, Federico de la Asuncion, was one of 265 fatalities in the crash of American Airlines Flight 587 on November 12, 2001.

Brown suffered hearing loss from May 2005 to June 2006. She opted for a hearing aid, and, while recording music, had someone tap beats on her shoulder.

In 2013, Brown denied reports claiming that she had made disparaging remarks about Jay-Z. In an interview with Combat Jack, she stated: "He never said not one bad thing about me. So when that false story came out about me talking about him, it's like, why would I say those things about him?"

On January 13, 2017, she gave birth to her first child, a girl.

Comparisons between Brown and Lil Kim led to fierce competition. "Things got really personal when shots were fired outside a New York radio station." The two have not resolved the issue, with Foxy siding and collaborating with rapper Nicki Minaj in her feud with Kim in recent years. Following her release from prison, Kim does not acknowledge Brown. Brown, on the other hand, has consistently targeted Kim on a prime basis in her music and concerts since Kim's release.

Legal issues

Brown has a substantial history of assault and menacing.
On September 7, 2007, New York City Criminal Court Judge Melissa Jackson sentenced Brown to one year in jail for violating her probation that stemmed from a fight in 2004 with two manicurists in a New York City nail salon. On September 12, representatives of the rapper disputed claims by her lawyer that she was pregnant. On October 23, 2007, Brown was given 76 days in solitary confinement due to a physical altercation that took place on October 3, with another prisoner. According to the prison authorities, Brown, the next day after the incident, was also verbally abusive toward correction officers and refused to take a random drug test. Prison authorities reported on November 27 that she was released "from solitary confinement...for good behavior", and Brown was finally released from prison on April 18, 2008.

On July 22, 2010, Brown was arrested and charged with one count of criminal contempt, which is a class E felony (the least severe), for violating an order of protection. The charge stems from an incident during the evening of July 21, 2010, in which it was claimed that Brown swore at, then mooned her neighbor Arlene Raymond, at whom she had thrown her BlackBerry, in 2007. Following the BlackBerry incident, Raymond sought and received a restraining order against Brown. Following her arrest, Brown appeared in court where she pleaded "not guilty" to the charge and was released on a $5,000 bail. If convicted, she faced up to seven years' imprisonment. On July 12, 2011, the charges were dropped.

Discography

Studio albums
 Ill Na Na (1996)
 Chyna Doll (1999)
 Broken Silence (2001)

Collaboration albums
 The Album with The Firm (1997)

Tours

Headlined

 Ill Na Na Tour (1997–1998)
 Chyna Doll Tour (1999)

Co-headlined

 Smokin' Grooves Tour (1997)
 No Way Out Tour (1997)
 Get Up On A Room (1999)
 Out4Fame Germany Tour (2015)

Appearances

 Reasonable Doubt Tour (1996)
 Survival of the Illest (1998)
 The Black Album Tour (2003)
 Best of Both Worlds (2004)
 Pink Friday Tour (2012)

Filmography

Awards and nominations

Notes

References

Further reading

External links

 Foxy Brown on ReverbNation

1978 births
Living people
American women rappers
East Coast hip hop musicians
Def Jam Recordings artists
MNRK Music Group artists
American people convicted of assault
American rappers of Trinidad and Tobago descent
American rappers of Asian descent
Fugitives wanted by Jamaica
People from Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey

People from Park Slope
Rappers from Brooklyn
20th-century American singers
20th-century American women singers
21st-century American women singers
21st-century American singers
Hardcore hip hop artists
21st-century American rappers
The Firm (hip hop group) members
Hip hop models
American female models
People of Dougla descent
Models from New York City
20th-century women rappers
21st-century women rappers
American people of Chinese descent
African-American women rappers

Foxy Brown (rapper)


ADH-1 (brand name Exherin) is a small, cyclic pentapeptide vascular-targeting drug. It was developed by Adherex Technologies.

ADH-1 selectively and competitively binds to and blocks N-cadherin, which may result in disruption of tumor vasculature, inhibition of tumor cell growth, and the induction of tumor cell and endothelial cell apoptosis.  N-cadherin, a cell- surface transmembrane glycoprotein of the cadherin superfamily of proteins involved in calcium-mediated cell–cell adhesion and signaling mechanisms; may be upregulated in some aggressive tumors and the endothelial cells and pericytes of some tumor blood vessels.

In 2006, Adherex and NCI formed a Clinical Trial Agreement stating that NCI will sponsor clinical trials of ADH-1 in a variety of cancer types. ADH-1 received orphan drug status from the FDA in 2008.

In a pilot study (phase I trial), ADH-1 intravenous pretreatment before chemotherapy in metastatic melanoma completely destroyed tumors in half of patients.  It is being investigated for advanced extremity melanoma in phase II trials.

References

Experimental cancer drugs
Cyclic peptides
Pentapeptides

ADH-1


The Ford Ka is a city caur frae the Ford Motor Company marketit in Europe an elsewhere.
The name is offeecially pronoonced as Ka (, that is, lik "caur" in non-rhotic dialects o Inglis) as can be heard in Ford's advertisin. The current European version is produced in Tychy, Poland, while the model sauld in Latin Americae is biggit in Brazil an Argentinae.

The Ka haes been produced syne 1996 an entered its seicont generation in 2008.

Ka

Ford Ka


Foros Timis Ston Greco (Φόρος Τιμής Στον Γκρέκο, lit. A Tribute to El Greco) is a classical album by Greek electronic composer and artist Vangelis (as Vangelis Papathanassiou/Βαγγέλης Παπαθανασίου). The title is an allusion to the man who inspired the composition, Dominikos Theotokópoulos (Δομήνικος Θεοτοκόπουλος, 1541–1614), the Cretan-born painter and sculptor better known as El Greco.

The album was published in 1995 as a limited edition of 3,000 CD-audios and sold exclusively at the National Art Gallery and Alexandros Soutzos Museum in Athens, Greece, which was raising funds to buy El Greco's painting "St. Peter". The luxurious packaging, in a dark-blue velvet box, included a 128-page coffee table book, about El Greco's paintings, dedicated to Vangelis, and a digipack containing the CD. Each CD carried Vangelis' personal signature and a unique serial number. For such a special edition, the price was 30,000 drachmas (US $127), or, adjusted for Greek inflation , 45,000 drachmas (€132/$176).

Vangelis composed and arranged the album, and performed all the instruments, accompanied by a choir conducted by Ivan Cassar. The music is in a Byzantine style yet sounding contemporary due to his use of synthesizers. Soprano Montserrat Caballé and tenor Konstantinos Paliatsaras make guest appearances on one movement each.

The image on the album is a section of Madonna and Child with St. Martina and St. Agnes by El Greco

A regular edition of the album was released worldwide in 1998, with three new tracks and a new title: El Greco.

Track listing

 Μέρος/Movement I – 10:08
 Μέρος/Movement II – 5:24
 Μέρος/Movement III – 6:25
 Μέρος/Movement IV – 9:49
 Μέρος/Movement V – 8:16
 Μέρος/Movement VI – 11:44
 Μέρος/Movement VII – 7:02

Movements III and V were included in Vangelis' compilation Reprise 1990-1999 (2000).

References

External links
Dennis Lodewijks' Elsewhere
Vangelis Movements

Vangelis albums
1995 albums
Neoclassicism (music)
Cultural depictions of El Greco

Foros Timis Ston Greco


Juliusz Kaden-Bandrowski (24 February 1885 in Rzeszów – 8 August 1944 in Warsaw) was a Polish journalist and novelist. Between 1933–1939 he was a secretary general of the prestigious Polish Academy of Literature (Polska Akademia Literatury) in the Second Polish Republic.

Life
Juliusz Kazimierz Kaden-Bandrowski studied piano at conservatories in Lwów, Kraków and Leipzig. While studying at Brussels, he switched his interests to philosophy. During World War I, he served as aide to Józef Piłsudski and as chronicler to the First Brigade of the Polish Legions.

In 1907 he had begun working as a correspondent for the Polish press. After World War I, he associated himself with the Skamander group of Polish experimental poets founded in 1918, and in 1933 joined the Polish Academy of Literature. During World War II, Kaden-Bandrowski declined to leave German-occupied Warsaw, to which he had moved during the Interbellum. He participated in underground teaching and gave music lessons. He was arrested and interrogated by the Gestapo. He died on 8 August 1944, a week into the Warsaw Uprising.

His novels show penetrating insights and fidelity to facts; behaviorist and expressionist elements; and strikingly unusual combinations of diverse styles and literary techniques.

Family
Kaden-Bandrowski was the son of Juliusz Marian Bandrowski and his wife, Helena, née Kaden. Juliusz's  brother was Jerzy Bandrowski (1883–1940), a journalist, novelist and translator from English to Polish.

He was a member of the Polish Reformed Church. By his wife, Romana, née Szpak (1882–1962; she had a son, Kazimierz Lewiński, an engineer who graduated from the Paris Polytechnique, from her first marriage), Kaden-Bandrowski had twin sons:  Andrzej (1920–43), a Home Army second lieutenant who died in action in Warsaw in June 1943; and Paweł (1920–44), a Home Army lieutenant who fought in the Warsaw Uprising and fell in the Czerniaków neighborhood of Warsaw's Mokotów district on 15 September 1944.

Juliusz Kazimierz Kaden-Bandrowski and his sons are interred at Warsaw's Protestant Reformed Cemetery.

Bibliography

 1911: Niezguła (The Lubber)
 1913: Proch (Dust)
 1915: Piłsudczycy (The Piłsudskiites); Iskry (Sparks)
 1916: Mogiły (Tombs)
 1919: Łuk (The Bow)
 1922: Generał Barcz (General Barcz)
 1924: Przymierze serc (Alliance of Hearts)
 1925: Wakacje moich dzieci (My Children's Vacation)
 1928: Czarne skrzydła (Black Wings)
 1932: Aciaki: z I-szej A (A First Grade Pupils)
 1933: Mateusz Bigda
 ?   : W cieniu zapomnianej olszyny (In the Shadow of a Forgotten Alden Forest)

See also
 List of Poles

References

 Polski słownik biograficzny (Polish Biographical Dictionary)
 J. i E. Szulcowie (J. and E. Szulc): Cmentarz Ewangelicko-Reformowany w Warszawie (The Lutheran Cemetery in Warsaw), Warsaw 1989, pp. 20–21.

Further reading
 Mortkowicz-Olczakowa, Hanna (1961). Bunt wspomnień. Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy.

External links

1885 births
1944 deaths
People from Rzeszów
Polish Calvinist and Reformed Christians
Polish male novelists
Polish legionnaires (World War I)
Members of the Polish Academy of Literature
20th-century Polish novelists
20th-century Polish male writers
20th-century Polish journalists
Polish civilians killed in World War II

Juliusz Kaden-Bandrowski


The pygmy python (Antaresia perthensis), also known as the anthill python, is a species of snake found in Western Australia. Their common names refer to the fact that they are the smallest member of the  family Pythonidae and are often found in termite mounds. The specific epithet is derived from the state capital, Perth, despite the fact that this place is not within the range of the species. No subspecies are currently recognized.

Description
Adults grow to about  in length and have a weight near 210 grams. Neonates are about  in length and about 4 grams in weight. After a year they average about 25 grams in weight. This makes them smaller than both the Children's python, A. childreni, and the spotted python, A. maculosa. A. perthensis usually has a redder background ground color than these other species and their spots fade, or become less distinct, as they mature. In contrast, the ground color is lighter in childreni and maculosa, while their spots stay better defined throughout their life.

Distribution and habitat
Found in Australia in the northwest of Western Australia and on some coastal islands. The type locality given is "Perth, West Australia" (Western Australia); an erroneous assumption of the place where the specimen was collected. The unfamiliarity of Europeans with the place of a specimen's collection has given rise to other 'naming peculiarities'. According to L.A. Smith (1985), the type locality is unknown.

Housing
In captivity anthill pythons can be housed (and bred) in something as small as a 20 gallon tank. Although reptile specific enclosures are best, a simple fish tank may be used for short or long-term housing. They may be fed mice as part of their regular diet and supplemented with fuzzy rats. Anything larger is usually a stressor on their system even though they will still try to eat it. Once anthill pythons get started eating they rarely refuse a meal except for breeding season or during part of their shedding cycle.

After only about 6 months they still are measured in gram weight due to their small "pocket" size.

Reproduction
The pygmy python is oviparous, with 5-8 eggs per clutch. The females will stay coiled around the eggs (lifting them off the substrate) and incubate them until they hatch, which is usually after 50–60 days.

In captivity
This snake is a popular exotic pet.

References

External links

 Antaresia perthensis juveniles and adults available at the AnthillPython.com. Accessed 3 May 2013.

Pythonidae
Reptiles of Western Australia
Reptiles described in 1932
Snakes of Australia
Taxa named by Olive Griffith Stull

Pygmy python


Alex McKenna is an American actress and voice-over artist. She gained fame by playing Petunia Stupid in The Stupids (1996) and Mickey Apple in You Wish (1997). She resumed her acting career with guest appearances in CW hit teen drama series 90210 in 2010. In 2012, she had recurring appearances in the television series, including Dallas, Guys with Kids and Two and a Half Men. McKenna is also known for her role as Sadie Adler in the video game Red Dead Redemption 2 (2018).

Career
McKenna began her career as a child actress, portraying Petunia Stupid in the adventure comedy film The Stupids (1996). She had roles as Amanda in the horror film Campfire Tales (1997) and as Linda Ross in Joey (1997). In 1998, she was nominated for Best Performance in a TV Comedy Series (You Wish) in Young Artist Awards. She had a small role as Alex's friend in the comedy film What Women Want (2000). The film earned $374 million worldwide, and received largely positive reviews. She portrayed a drug-addicted teenager Abby Macy in NBC's crime drama series Crossing Jordan. She appeared in several guest starring television roles, including 90210, Malcolm In the Middle, Shake It Up, Common Law, Two and a Half Men, Guys with Kids and Boston Public.

In 2009, she played the lead role of Megs in short film The City of Lights. Next McKenna landed a recurring role in the TNT revival of the CBS prime-time soap opera, Dallas. In 2014, she appeared in the horror film Haunted along with Luke Kleintank and Lesley-Anne Down. She had a supporting role as Tammy in Bear with Us (2016). The film also earned McKenna numerous awards, including Jury Award for Best Supporting Actress at Sunscreen Film Festival. She appeared opposite Josh Radnor in the drama film The Seeker (2016), portraying Grace. In 2018, she starred in the video game Red Dead Redemption 2 as the voice and motion capture actress of Sadie Adler, and she made a guest appearance on an episode of drama thriller television series Quantico in the episode "Heaven's Fall".

Personal life
McKenna married Canadian actor Joshua Close in August 2016 in Calistoga, California.

Filmography

Film

Television

Video games

Awards and nominations

References

External links

Living people
Actresses from Los Angeles
American child actresses
American film actresses
American television actresses
Television personalities from Los Angeles
American voice actresses
20th-century American actresses
21st-century American actresses
Year of birth missing (living people)

Alex McKenna


The  is a yakuza criminal organization based on the Okinawa island of Japan, with an estimated membership of 210–270.

Headquartered in Naha, Okinawa, the Kyokuryu-kai is one of the two designated yakuza groups in Okinawa Prefecture along with its splinter group Okinawa Kyokuryu-kai, and had been Okinawa's largest organized crime group since 1983 until 1990 when the Okinawa Kyokuryu-kai broke away.

History
The Kyokuryu-kai was formed in 1970 as the  by two gangs, the Naha Clan and the Koza Clan. These two gangs were practically not "yakuza" groups descended from the yakuza tradition (Okinawa was originally not part of Japan's territory) but were just a bunch of primitive bandits whose activities consisted of mugging United States military servicemen and smuggling valuables from nearby wealthier places such as Taiwan and Hong Kong , and they had originally opposed each other until that merger. They formed the union in the year of 1970, shortly before the return of Okinawa to Japan, with the alleged purpose of preventing yakuza's invasion from the mainland.

From 1973 to 1981, the Kyokuryu-kai was in fierce conflict with the Yamaguchi-gumi, the largest known yakuza syndicate attempting to expand its influence into Okinawa at that time. Later dubbed the  and described as a "war of slaughter", this conflict often involved carbines, magnum bullets and hand grenades among other weapons, and was considered one of the most brutal yakuza conflicts in the 20th century. Unlike the Dojin-kai, which had also been in conflict with the Yamaguchi-gumi in the late 20th century, the Kyokuryu-kai had never committed unconventional gruesome acts such as mass destruction and mass murder, but the victims included an innocent katagi, or ordinary civilian; a policeman who was shot with a carbine by a Kyokuryu member.

The first president resigned in 1976, and the second president was shot to death in 1982 by an affiliate organization. Yoshihiro Onaga became the third president in 1983, and membership reached 1,000. In 1990 an internal war broke out, and Kiyoshi Tominaga founded a splinter organization, the Okinawa Kyokuryu-kai. In June 1992 the Kyokuryu-kai, along with the Okinawa Kyokuryu-kai, was registered as a designated yakuza group under the Organized Crime Countermeasures Law.

The Kyokuryu-kai seems to have adopted the yakuza tradition extensively; the National Police Agency's 1993 Police White Paper introduced a total of two notable cases of yubitsume, or finger cutting, and in these two cases, one was of a Kyokuryu-kai member, the other was of an Okinawa Kyokuryu-kai member.

Condition
The Kyokuryu-kai had been in conflict with the Okinawa Kyokuryu-kai for years, but it has been reported that they have been pondering a reconciliation since 1998.

Activities
The Kyokuryu-kai's official policy forbids its members from engaging in drug trafficking.

References

Organizations established in 1970
1970 establishments in Japan
Yakuza groups based in Kyushu

Kyokuryū-kai


The Water Diviner is a 2014 drama film starring and directed by Russell Crowe, in his directorial debut, and written by Andrew Anastasios and Andrew Knight. The film is loosely based on the book of the same name written by Andrew Anastasios and Dr. Meaghan Wilson-Anastasios. It follows an Australian farmer, Joshua Connor (Crowe), who travels to Turkey soon after World War I to find his three sons who never returned.

The film co-stars Olga Kurylenko, Jai Courtney, Cem Yılmaz, Yılmaz Erdoğan, and Jacqueline McKenzie. The Water Diviner had its world premiere at the State Theatre in Sydney, Australia on 2 December 2014. It opened in Australian and New Zealand cinemas on 26 December 2014. The film had a limited release in the United States on 24 April 2015.

Plot
The film begins in 1919, just after World War I has ended, and centres around Joshua Connor (Russell Crowe), an Australian farmer and water diviner. His three sons Arthur (Ryan Corr), Edward (James Fraser), and Henry (Ben O'Toole) served with the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) during the military campaign in Gallipoli four years previously and are presumed dead. After his wife Eliza (Jacqueline McKenzie) commits suicide out of grief, Joshua resolves to bring his sons' bodies home and bury them with their mother.

He travels to Turkey and stays in a hotel in Istanbul run by war-widowed Ayshe (Olga Kurylenko), but is unable to travel to Gallipoli by road. Learning the purpose of his journey, Ayshe tells him to bribe a local fisherman to travel to Gallipoli by boat. When he arrives, Joshua learns that ANZACs are engaged in a mass burial detail and all civilians are banned. Major Hasan (Yılmaz Erdoğan), a Turkish Army officer assisting the ANZACs, persuades the ANZAC captain Lieutenant Colonel Cyril Hughes (Jai Courtney) to prioritize helping Joshua with his search, as the only father to care enough to come all this way to find the fate of his sons. After finding Edward and Henry's graves, Joshua sees in his dreams that Arthur survives the battle. Hasan recognizes Joshua's surname and tells him that Arthur might have been taken prisoner.

Joshua returns to Istanbul, but fails to find out to which prison camp Arthur was transferred, as many Turkish records have been burned. He returns to Ayshe's hotel and learns that she is being pressed to marry her brother-in-law, Omer. Their argument becomes heated and Omer retreats when Joshua intervenes. Ayshe lashes out, blaming Joshua for making things worse and tells him to leave. As Joshua leaves the hotel, Omer and a few of his friends attack him, only to be stopped by Hasan's subordinate, Sergeant Jemal (Cem Yılmaz). Jemal takes Joshua to Hasan, who explains that the Greeks have invaded and they are going to defend their country as the British are not intervening. Joshua decides to travel with Hasan's group, who will pass through the region where his son might be. As Joshua returns to the hotel to retrieve his belongings, Ayshe apologizes for her earlier words.

While on the train, Jemal asks Joshua about a cricket bat he found in the Allied trenches when they retreated, as he is unsure whether it is a weapon or not. Joshua then explains to the Turkish soldiers on board the train the basic rules of cricket. However, Greek soldiers attack the train with only Jemal, Hasan and Joshua surviving the initial assault. Using the bat, Joshua saves Hasan as a Greek officer prepares to execute him but Jemal is killed in the resulting struggle. Joshua and Hasan flee to a nearby town where they spot a windmill, which Joshua saw in his recurring dream. There he finds Arthur alive but traumatized. Arthur reveals that at the end of the battle, Edward was still alive but badly wounded. He pleaded with Arthur to end his suffering, and Arthur reluctantly complied. Blaming himself for his brothers' death, Arthur felt he could never return to his family.

The Greek soldiers who previously attacked the train begin to attack the town, and the two men try to escape through the mountains. Arthur refuses to follow his father, but relents when Joshua says that without his wife and sons, he has nowhere else to go. They successfully evade the Greek army and return to Ayshe's hotel. The film ends with Joshua drinking a cup of coffee made by Ayshe which indicates that she has fallen in love with him.

Cast
 Russell Crowe as Joshua Connor
 Olga Kurylenko as Ayshe
 Dylan Georgiades as Orhan
 Yılmaz Erdoğan as Major Hasan
 Cem Yılmaz as Sergeant Jemal
 Jai Courtney as Lieutenant Colonel Cyril Hughes
 Ryan Corr as Arthur Connor
 Jacqueline McKenzie as Eliza Connor
 Isabel Lucas as Natalia
 Mert Fırat as Military Officer
 Daniel Wyllie as Captain Charles Brindley
 Damon Herriman as Father McIntyre
 Megan Gale as Fatma
 Deniz Akdeniz as Imam
 Steve Bastoni as Omer
 James Fraser as Edward Connor
 Ben O'Toole as Henry Connor
 Robert Mammone as Colonel Demergelis
 Charlie Allan as Soldier At The Station Hall
Michael Dorman as Greeves
Sophia Forrest as Edith
Christopher Sommers as Tucker

Production
The story concept originated from a single line in a letter written by Lieutenant-Colonel Cyril Hughes, who was a worker in the Imperial War Graves unit. The footnote simply said, "One old chap managed to get here from Australia, looking for his son's grave." After a year of research, the writers were unable to identify the man or his son, which gave them the freedom to imagine a story which would become their screenplay.

On 18 June 2013, it was announced that Crowe had signed to make his directorial debut with an historical drama film The Water Diviner from a screenplay written by Andrew Knight and Andrew Anastasios. He would also star in the film. Producers would be Troy Lum, Andrew Mason and Keith Rodger and it was set to be shot in Australia and Turkey. On 25 March 2014, it was announced that Seven West Media and Seven Group Holdings would co-finance the film. On 7 November 2014, Warner Bros. acquired the US rights to the film.

Casting
Crowe portrays Joshua Connor, an Australian farmer. Olga Kurylenko was added to the cast on 18 October 2013 to co-star with Crowe. On 24 October, Jai Courtney was announced as having signed to star in The Water Diviner and another historical film, Unbroken. Courtney first filmed Unbroken and then moved to The Water Diviner, playing a soldier, Lt. Col. Cecil Hughes. Later, Turkish actors Cem Yılmaz and Yılmaz Erdoğan were also added to the cast, along with some Australian actors: Ryan Corr, Daniel Wyllie, Damon Herriman, Deniz Akdeniz, Steve Bastoni and Jacqueline McKenzie.

Filming
Principal photography began on 2 December 2013 in Australia.

Marketing
On 1 February 2014, the first official still from the film was revealed. On 28 April, the first footage from the film in a 7-minute featurette, narrated by Crowe, was revealed. The first official trailer for the film was released on 30 September.

Release
The film was released in Australia, New Zealand, and Turkey on 26 December 2014, and it was released in Thailand on 15 January 2015. The film was initially to be released in the UK on 23 January 2015 but was moved to 3 April. The film was released in IMAX, and general, theaters by Warner Bros. in the United States on 24 April 2015. Entertainment One and Universal Pictures jointly released the film in Australia, with eOne solely releasing the film in Europe and Canada.

The film made its free-to-air television premiere on the Seven Network in Australia on 20 April 2015, a mere four months after its theatrical release in Australia for the centennial anniversary of ANZAC Day. Seven is an investor in the film.

Reception

Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 61% based on 150 reviews; the average rating is 6.05/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "The Water Diviner finds Russell Crowe on somewhat uncertain footing as a director, but he's rescued by a strong performance from himself in the leading role." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 50 out of 100, based on 36 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A -" on an A+ to F scale.

Calls for a protest and boycott of the film on social media resulted in the Facebook page "Protest and Boycott the Water Diviner" which has over 16,000 fans. Descendants of victims of the 1915 Armenian genocide, Assyrian genocide and Greek genocide were incensed by the film's portrayal of the Turks as victims, at the same time that Turks were committing atrocities against their minorities. Various film critics described the movie as "a distortion of history that only serves to appease Turkey and its continued agenda of genocide denial." Anthony McAdam of The Spectator wrote: "Leaving aside aesthetic considerations, the fact is the film's lack of any historical context is breathtaking." McAdam notes that there is one "glaring omission" in the film, that being the lack of any mention of the Armenian genocide. Andrew O'Hehir of Salon questioned why Crowe and Warner Bros. released the film in the US on 24 April, the same day that Armenians commemorate the Armenian genocide, comparing it to releasing a film which ignores the Jewish Holocaust on Yom HaShoah.

Box office
The Water Diviner grossed $30.8 million worldwide. On 5 January 2015, it was named the highest grossing Australian-produced film of 2014, with a gross of $12,294,472. However, in many cinemas in the UK it was screened for just one week.

The film was received very favourably in Turkey at its debut and subsequent release. To date, the film has taken almost 14.3 million ($5.7 million).

Accolades

1 Shared award with The Babadook

References

External links

 The Water Diviner movie review and trailer at SBS Movies
 The Water Diviner at the World Socialist Web Site

2014 films
Australian World War I films
2010s adventure drama films
2010s war films
Australian epic films
Australian war drama films
American war drama films
2014 multilingual films
English-language Turkish films
2010s Turkish-language films
World War I films based on actual events
Drama films based on actual events
Dune Entertainment films
IMAX films
Universal Pictures films
Warner Bros. films
Films directed by Russell Crowe
Films scored by David Hirschfelder
Films about farmers
Films about the Gallipoli campaign
Films about missing people
Films set in Australia
Films set in Turkey
Films set in Istanbul
Films set in 20th-century Ottoman Empire
Films set in 1919
Films shot in Australia
Films shot in Turkey
2014 directorial debut films
2014 drama films
2010s English-language films
Australian multilingual films
American multilingual films
2010s American films

The Water Diviner


Canned water is drinking water, including spring water, artesian spring water, purified water, carbonated water and mineral water, packaged in beverage cans made of aluminium or tin-plated steel.

Individual serving aluminium cans and bottles are less common alternatives to bottled water.  Canned water is often used where storage or distribution systems are set up for cans. Some companies have launched water in cans, offering a more environmentally sustainable alternative to plastic bottles.

Cans of various sizes are also used for storage of potable water for emergency preparedness. Water is an important part of individual or government stockpiles. Water was stored in steel cans, lined with plastic bags, under the United States Civil Defense program. Approximately twelve million  cans were deployed, and could hold water for more than ten years.

Later, some manufacturers started to use a nitrogen flush to remove air and bacteria from their cans to prolong shelf life to 30 years or longer, making the water suitable for long-term storage.

Plastic bottled water is known to have negative environmental consequences. It is estimated that only about 9% of all plastic is recycled. About 79% of this plastic waste is disposed of in landfills, incinerated and littered, which results in some plastic entering waterways. In contrast, up to 65% of all aluminium cans are recycled, making aluminium cans the most recycled beverage container on the planet. Due to the detrimental impact of plastic on the environment, many manufacturers are turning towards aluminium cans and glass bottles as a more sustainable solution to packaged drinking water.

References

Drinking water
Liquid containers

Canned water