A parabolic aluminized reflector lamp (PAR lamp or simply PAR) is a type of electric lamp that is widely used in commercial, residential, and transportation illumination. It produces a highly directional beam. Usage includes theatrical lighting, locomotive headlamps, aircraft landing lights, and residential and commercial recessed lights ("cans" in the United States).

Many PAR lamps are of the sealed beam variety, with a parabolic reflector, one or more filaments, and a glass or plastic lens sealed permanently together as a unit. Originally introduced for road vehicle headlamp service, sealed beams have since been applied elsewhere. Halogen sealed beam lamps incorporate a halogen lamp within a quartz or hard glass envelope.

Construction

A PAR lamp consists of a light source, with lens and a parabolic reflector with a smooth aluminium surface determining the spread of the beam. The most common sealed beam type combines these three elements into an integral unit. The light source usually approximates a point source that can be focused on; tungsten filaments and halogen lamps are common, but some theatrical usage that requires a higher color temperature may use hydrargyrum medium-arc iodide (HMI) instead.

Sizes
PAR lamps come in a variety of standardized sizes. The size of a round PAR lamp is expressed as the nominal diameter of the mouth of the reflector, in eighths of an inch—so the approximate nominal lamp bell diameter in inches can be found by dividing the PAR size by 8. A PAR56, for example, is 56 eighths of an inch (7 inches) in diameter; a PAR36 is 36 eighths (4.5 inches) in diameter, and so on. Similarly, the diameter in millimeters can be found by multiplying the PAR designation by 3.175. For example, a PAR16 lamp is approximately 2 inches or 50.8 mm in diameter.

The size of rectangular PAR lamps is expressed as the letters REC followed by the reflector's mouth height, the letter "X", and the reflector's mouth width—with both dimensions in millimeters. For example, REC142X200 lamps are 142  high and 200 mm wide.

Light beams
Depending on the parabolic reflector geometry, the configuration of the filament and its placement within the paraboloid, PAR lamps can achieve a wide range of beams, from narrow spot to wide flood. The following suffixes are commonly used with PAR lamps to indicate their beam width:  PAR lamps are also manufactured to produce beam patterns specific to the needs of particular applications, such as low beam and/or high beam headlights and fog and driving lights for vehicles, and warning lamps for school buses.

The suffixes given are for 1000-Watt PAR64 lamps only. The focused beam can be oval and is sometimes specified in two numbers.

Uses

Automotive headlamps

In the United States of America, sealed-beam headlamps were introduced in 1939, becoming standard equipment across all American-market vehicles starting in 1940 and remaining the only type allowed for almost four and a half decades, until the 1984 model year. Before and after those years, vehicles could have model-specific, nonstandard-shape headlamps, using any of a wide variety of replaceable light bulbs. Between 1940 and 1956, all U.S. cars had to have two  round headlamps with dual filaments, so each lamp provided both a high and a low beam light distribution. In 1957, a system of four sealed-beam headlamps—two per side, of  diameter, was allowed in some U.S. states. The following year in 1958, all states allowed the new system. Two of the lamps contained two filaments and served as low and high beam, while the other two lamps contained only one filament and were active only during high-beam operation.

From the 1975 model year, a rectangular version of the four-lamp system was legalized. The new lamps were  wide and  tall. For 1978, a rectangular version of the two-lamp system became legal; these measured  wide and  tall.

With only two round and two rectangular lamp sizes allowed, the sealed-beam headlamp mandate greatly restricted styling possibilities for automobiles.

Halogen sealed-beam headlamps appeared on U.S. cars in 1979, to enable greater high beam intensity newly permitted by Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 108 without unreasonably high lamp wattage. Eventually, halogen sealed-beam lights came to dominate the (U.S.) automotive lamps market.

Aircraft

Aircraft landing (ACL) lights are often sealed beams that have a very narrow beam spread. They typically have a size of PAR36 or PAR64, and run on 28 V DC. They have found some use in stage lighting as well.

Outdoor and stage lighting
PAR lamps and their fixtures are widely used in theatre, concerts and motion picture production when a substantial amount of flat lighting is required for a scene. They are often mounted in can-shaped fixtures known as PARCANs, which can be used to generate colours by fitting them with colored sheets called gels. The cans are arranged into rows of different colours and identical rows placed on different sides of the stage; such assemblies made from aluminum bars are known as PARbars. Due to their affordability, they are ideal for colour washes in several different colours. However, because of the lack of dynamic control over the beam diameter, shape and sharpness, PARs are rarely used as Front of House lights other than for front washes but can be used for special effect lighting such as lighting from directly above or from extreme angles as well as general wash lights overhead/above stage. If used cleverly, par cans can provide low budget productions with good effects.

PAR64 sealed beam lamps are often used for these purposes; they are typically available with 250, 500 or 1000 watt power ratings. Beam spreads are designated as FL (flood), SP (spot), NSP (narrow spot), and VNSP (very narrow spot), as stamped on the back of the lamp's reflector.

PAR38 lamps, with an E22 base and with ratings up to 150W, were often used for domestic outdoor floodlight illumination for patios, backyards, and often combined with a PIR sensor switch as a security/convenience light, for example, in a driveway. Coloured versions were popular with discos and mobile DJs, however were usually only available up to 100w in coloured form and were considerably more expensive than standard PAR38 globes. In domestic applications, halogen and later on LED largely replaced the incandescent PAR38.

In situations where sunlight or other specular light is available, a white foam reflector is often used to accomplish the same effect as a PAR array. PAR cans are being replaced in some stage applications by LED stage lighting, which use less electric power and produce a wide array of saturated colors without the use of color filters, when white light is not needed.

Indoor lighting
Smaller sealed beam PAR lamps (PAR 38 and smaller) with an Edison screw base are common in indoor lighting. They can be found in recessed fixtures mounted in the ceiling or on tracks.

Lighthouses
Sealed beam lamp arrays are also in use by modern lighthouses.

Electrical connector
High-power, mains-voltage, theatrical PARs usually use the bi-pin GX16d "Mogul" lamp connector; G9.5 and variants are common too. Theater metal-halide lamps use G12. In addition to being used on light bulbs themselves, the G38 connectors are also found as a part of the Raylite reflector assembly, although some Raylite reflectors have "tails" which then require connection to the mains flex with the use of a ceramic connector block (ideally fixed to the can's body).

In residential and office use, the usual connector for the lamp's voltage is often used. This includes Edison screw or a bayonet connector for mains-supplied PARs, or small bi-pin connectors for low voltage applications.

Variations

LED

LED retrofit equipment that match PAR lamp dimensions is made by some manufacturers. As with the case of LED MR lamps, LED PAR lamps generally use an array of individual LED elements that are unsuitable for reflector operation. Nevertheless, some degree of beam control can be obtained with aperture or lens, and LED PAR 38 replacements with a 40° spread is common.

Models built for stage lighting may use less similar dimensions. They often use a RGB color model for color-tuning abilities, though some higher-end fixtures use a 5-primary colour system (with cool and warm white LEDs) instead for better color reproduction.

PAR moving lights
Intelligent, moving PARs allow for the ability to pan and tilt the instruments through a lighting control console. These have been generally superseded by dedicated intelligent lighting fixtures, which use a different light source and offer more control over the colour and shape of the beam.

See also
Stage lighting instrument
Stage lighting accessories

Notes

References

Cinematography
Incandescent light bulbs
Stage lighting instruments
Automotive lamps

Parabolic aluminized reflector


In computing, ATTRIB is a command in Intel ISIS-II, DOS, IBM OS/2, Microsoft Windows and ReactOS that allows the user to change various characteristics, or "attributes" of a computer file or directory. The command is also available in the EFI shell.

History
Several operating systems provided a set of modifiable file characteristics that could be accessed and changed through a low-level system call.  For example, as of release MS-DOS 4.0, the first six bits of the file attribute byte indicated whether or not a file was read-only (as opposed to writeable), hidden, a system file, a volume label, a subdirectory, or if the file had been "archived" (with the bit being set if the file had changed since the last use of the BACKUP command). However, initial releases of the operating system did not provide user-level method for reading or changing these values.

The initial version of the ATTRIB command for DOS was first included in version 3.0 of PC DOS, with functionality limited to changing the read-only attribute. Subsequent versions allowed the read-only, hidden, system and archive bits to be set. MS-DOS version 3.3 added the capability of recursive searching through subdirectories to display attributes of specified files.

Digital Research DR DOS 6.0 and Datalight ROM-DOS also include an implementation of the  command.

The FreeDOS version was developed by Phil Brutsche and is licensed under the GPLv2.

Uses
Setting the read-only bit of a file provided only partial protection against inadvertent deletion:  while commands such as del and erase would respect the attribute, other commands such as DELTREE did not.  Changing the system attribute was not possible in early versions of Windows, thus requiring use of ATTRIB. Similarly, a system crash in early versions of Windows could lead to a situation where a temporary file had the read-only bit set and was additionally (and irrevocably) locked by the Windows OS; in this instance, booting into DOS (thus avoiding the Windows lock) and unsetting the read-only attribute with ATTRIB was the recommended way of deleting the file. Manipulating the archive bit allowed users to control which files were backed up using the BACKUP command.

See also
 chattr, the equivalent on Unix and Linux
 cacls, the Windows NT access control list (ACL) utility
 List of DOS commands

References

Further reading

External links

attrib | Microsoft Docs
Microsoft DOS ATTRIB command

External DOS commands
MSX-DOS commands
OS/2 commands
ReactOS commands
Windows commands

ATTRIB


Joe Grant (May 15, 1908 – May 7, 2005) inggih punika silih tunggil aktor miwah produser film sané mawit saking Amérika Serikat. beginning in 1932 on the Mickey Mouse short, Parade Of The Nominees (a cartoon never theatrically released but instead made for the Academy Awards) . He designed Queen Grimhilde in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. He led the development of Pinocchio and co-wrote Fantasia, Dumbo and Saludos Amigos. During World War II, Grant worked on war cartoons including the Oscar-winning Der Fuehrer's Face. Lady, the protagonist from Lady and the Tramp, was based on a pet English Springer Spaniel of the same name kept by Grant. Grant left the Disney studio in 1949 and ran a ceramics business and a greeting card business, but returned in 1989 to work on Beauty and the Beast. He also worked on Aladdin, The Lion King, Pocahontas, Mulan, Fantasia 2000, and Pixar's Monsters, Inc. among others. Grant was also specially mentioned in the credits of Monsters, Inc.  The last two films he worked on before his death, Chicken Little and Pixar's Up, were dedicated to him.

Pustaka

1908 births
2005 deaths

Joe Grant


Milecastle 42 (Cawfields) is a milecastle on Hadrian's Wall ().

Description
Milecastle 42 is on a steep south-facing slope, 10 metres south of Cawfield Crags, and looks over Hole Gap to the west. It is on a well-preserved section of Hadrian's Wall. It measures 17.8 metres east–west by 14.4 metres north–south internally, with walls 2.8 metres thick and 1.4 metres high.

Excavations
It was excavated in 1847–48 and again in 1936. The 1847–48 excavation uncovered part of a dedication slab indicating that the milecastle had been built by the Legio II Augusta. The 1936 excavations showed that the milecastle had a short axis, with a Type I gateway.

Associated turrets
Each milecastle on Hadrian's Wall had two associated turret structures. These turrets were positioned approximately one-third and two-thirds of a Roman mile to the west of the Milecastle, and would probably have been manned by part of the milecastle's garrison. The turrets associated with Milecastle 42 are known as Turret 42A and Turret 42B.

Turret 42A
Turret 42A (Burn Head) () has not been located as its remains have been destroyed by quarrying.

Turret 42B
Turret 42B (Great Chesters) () was located by exploratory excavation in 1912. The site is visible as a turf-covered platform 0.5 metres high.

Public access
The milecastle and the site of Turrets 42B are both accessible via the Hadrian's Wall Path.  Cawfields Picnic Area car park is on the line of the Hadrian's Wall Path, between the two sites.  It is signposted from the B6318 (Military Road).

References

External links

42
Haltwhistle

Milecastle 42


In the early morning hours of March 18, 1990, 13 works of art were stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. Guards admitted two men posing as police officers responding to a disturbance call, and the thieves bound the guards and looted the museum over the next hour. The case is unsolved; no arrests have been made, and no works have been recovered. The stolen works have been valued at hundreds of millions of dollars by the FBI and art dealers. The museum offers a $10 million reward for information leading to the art's recovery, the largest bounty ever offered by a private institution.

The stolen works were originally procured by art collector Isabella Stewart Gardner (1840–1924) and were intended for permanent display at the museum with the rest of her collection. Among them was The Concert, one of only 34 known paintings by Johannes Vermeer and thought to be the most valuable unrecovered painting in the world. Also missing is The Storm on the Sea of Galilee, Rembrandt's only seascape. Other paintings and sketches by Rembrandt, Edgar Degas, Édouard Manet and Govert Flinck were stolen, along with a relatively valueless eagle finial and Chinese gu. Experts were puzzled by the choice of artwork, as more valuable works were left untouched. As the collection and its layout are intended to be permanent, empty frames remain hanging both in homage to the missing works and as placeholders for their return.

The FBI believes that the robbery was planned by a criminal organization. The case lacks strong physical evidence, and the FBI has largely depended on interrogations, undercover informants and sting operations to collect information. It has focused primarily on the Boston Mafia, which was in the midst of an internal gang war during the period. One theory holds that gangster Bobby Donati organized the heist to negotiate for his caporegime's release from prison; Donati was murdered one year after the robbery. Other accounts suggest that the paintings were stolen by a gang in Boston's Dorchester neighborhood, although these suspects deny involvement despite the fact that a sting operation resulted in several prison sentences. All have denied any knowledge or have provided leads that proved fruitless, despite the offer of reward money and reduced or canceled prison sentences if they had disclosed information leading to recovery of the artworks.

Background
The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum was constructed under the guidance of art collector Isabella Stewart Gardner (1840–1924) to house her personal art collection. The museum opened to the public in 1903, and Gardner continued to expand the collection and arrange it until she died in 1924. She left the museum with a $3.6 million endowment, and her will stipulated that the arrangement of the artwork should not be altered and that no items were to be sold from or purchased into the collection.

By the 1980s, the museum was running low on funds. This financial strain left the museum in poor condition; it lacked a climate control system and an insurance policy and was in need of basic building maintenance. After the FBI uncovered a plot by Boston criminals to rob the museum in 1982, the museum allocated funds to improve security. Among these improvements were 60 infrared motion detectors and a closed-circuit television system consisting of four cameras placed around the building's perimeter. No cameras had been installed inside the museum, as its board of trustees considered the cost prohibitive, but additional security guards were hired. Despite these security improvements, the only manner in which guards could summon police to the museum was by pressing a button at the security desk. Other area museums had fail-safe systems that required night watchmen to place hourly phone calls with the police to indicate that conditions were normal.

An independent consultant reviewed the museum's security operations in 1988 and determined that they were on par with most other museums but recommended improvements. The security director at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston also suggested security upgrades to the museum. Because of the museum's financial strain and Gardner's directive forbidding major renovations, the board of trustees did not approve these security enhancements. The board also denied a request from the security director for higher guard salaries in a bid to attract more qualified applicants. The museum's guards were paid slightly higher than minimum wage, and the museum's security flaws were an open secret among the guards.

Robbery

Prelude
The robbery occurred in the early hours of Sunday, March 18, 1990. The thieves were first witnessed around 12:30a.m. by several St. Patrick's Day revelers leaving a party near the museum. The two men were disguised as police officers and parked in a hatchback on Palace Road, about a hundred feet from the side entrance. The witnesses believed them to be policemen.

The museum guards on duty that night were Rick Abath, age 23, and Randy Hestand, age 25. Abath was a regular night watchman, but March 18 was Hestand's first time on the night shift. The museum's security policy required that one guard would patrol the galleries with a flashlight and walkie-talkie while the other would sit at the security desk. When Abath took the first patrol, fire alarms sounded in several rooms, but he could not locate any fire or smoke. He returned to the security room where the fire alarm control panel indicated smoke in multiple rooms. He assumed that some type of malfunction had occurred and disabled the panel before returning to his patrol. Before completing his rounds, Abath stopped at the side entrance of the museum, briefly opening the side door and shutting it again without informing Hestand. Abath returned to the security desk around 1:00a.m., and Hestand assumed patrol duties.

Guards are subdued
At 1:20a.m., the thieves drove to the side entrance, parked and walked to the side door. They rang the buzzer, which connected them to Abath through an intercom. They explained to Abath that they were police investigating a disturbance and that they must be admitted. Abath could see them on the closed-circuit television wearing what appeared to be police uniforms. He was not aware of any disturbance, but he surmised that a St. Patrick's Day reveler may have had climbed over the fence, causing someone to report it to the police. Abath admitted the men at 1:24a.m.

The thieves first entered a locked foyer that separated the side door from the museum. They approached Abath at the security desk and asked if anyone else was in the museum. Abath radioed Hestand to return to the security desk. Abath noticed around this time that the taller man's moustache appeared to be fake. The shorter man told Abath that he looked familiar and that they may have a warrant for his arrest, demanding that Abath emerge from behind the desk to provide identification. Abath complied, leaving the desk that contained the museum's only panic button to alert police. The shorter man forced Abath against a wall, spread his legs and handcuffed him. Hestand walked into the room around this time, and the taller thief turned him toward the wall and handcuffed him. With both guards handcuffed, the thieves revealed their true intentions to rob the museum and asked the guards to not cause any problems.

The thieves wrapped duct tape around the heads and eyes of the guards. Without asking for directions, they led the guards into the basement, where the guards were handcuffed to a steam pipe and workbench. The thieves examined the guards' wallets and threatened that they knew where the guards lived and told them that if they would not inform the authorities, they would receive a reward in about a year. It took the thieves less than 15 minutes to subdue the guards, which they completed at about 1:35a.m.

Stealing the works

The thieves' movements through the museum were recorded on infrared motion detectors. Steps in the first room they entered, the Dutch Room on the second floor, were not recorded until 1:48a.m. This was 13 minutes after they had finished subduing the guards, perhaps waiting to ensure that police had not been alerted.

As the thieves approached the paintings in the Dutch Room, a sensor sounded that was intended to alert when patrons moved too close to artwork, and the thieves smashed the device. They removed The Storm on the Sea of Galilee and A Lady and Gentleman in Black from the wall and threw them on the marble floor, shattering their glass frames. Using a blade, they cut the canvases out of their stretchers. They also removed a large Rembrandt self-portrait oil painting from the wall but left it leaning against a cabinet. Investigators believe that the thieves may have considered it too large to transport, potentially because it was painted on wood and not canvas like the others. The thieves instead took a small postage-stamp-sized self-portrait etching by Rembrandt on display beneath the larger portrait. On the right side of the room, they removed Landscape with Obelisk and The Concert from their frames. The final piece taken from the room was an ancient Chinese gu.

At 1:51a.m., while one thief continued working in the Dutch Room, the other entered a narrow hallway dubbed the Short Gallery on the other end of the second floor. Soon both men were in the Short Gallery, where they began removing screws for a frame displaying a Napoleonic flag, likely an effort to steal the flag. They appeared to have abandoned the effort, as some screws were not removed, and they ultimately took only the exposed eagle finial atop the flagpole. They also took five Degas sketches from the room. The last work stolen was Chez Tortoni from the Blue Room on the first floor. The museum's motion detectors did not detect any motion within the Blue Room during the thieves' time in the building. The only footsteps detected in the room that night were Abath's during the two times when he passed through the gallery on his earlier patrol.

As they prepared to leave, the thieves checked the guards again and asked if they were comfortable. The thieves then moved to the security director's office, where they took the video cassettes that contained evidence of their entrance from the closed-circuit cameras as well as the data printouts from the motion-detecting equipment. The movement data was also captured on a hard drive, which remained untouched. The frame for Chez Tortoni was left at the security director's desk. The thieves then began to remove the artwork from the museum. The side entrance doors were opened at 2:40a.m. and again for the last time at 2:45a.m. The robbery lasted 81 minutes.

The next guard shift arrived later in the morning and realized that something was amiss when they could not establish contact with anyone inside for admittance. They called the security director, who entered the building with his keys and found nobody at the watch desk before calling the police. The police searched the building and found the guards still bound in the basement.

Stolen artwork

Thirteen works were stolen. In 1990, the FBI estimated the value of the theft at $200 million and raised the estimate to $500 million by 2000. In the late 2000s, some art dealers suggested that the total value of the stolen artwork could be $600 million. It is considered the highest-value museum robbery in history.

The most valuable works were taken from the Dutch Room. Among these was The Concert by Dutch painter Vermeer (1632–75), one of only 34 paintings attributed to him. The painting accounts for half of the overall theft's value, estimated at $250 million in 2015. Experts believe that The Concert may be the most valuable stolen object in the world. In the same room, the thieves targeted works by Dutch painter Rembrandt (1606–69). These include The Storm on the Sea of Galilee, his only seascape and the most valuable of his works stolen that night. Estimates have placed its value at about $140 million. The other Rembrandt works taken were A Lady and Gentleman in Black and a small postage-stamp-sized self-portrait etching. The latter was previously stolen and returned in 1970. The thieves may have taken Landscape with Obelisk believing that it was a Rembrandt; it was long attributed to him until it was quietly credited to his pupil Govert Flinck (1615–60) a few years before the heist. The last item taken from the Dutch Room was a bronze gu about  tall. Traditionally used for serving wine in ancient China, the beaker was one of the oldest works in the museum, dating to the Shang Dynasty in the 12th century BC. Its estimated value is several thousand dollars.

In the Short Gallery, five sketches by French artist Edgar Degas (1834–1917) were stolen. They were each drawn on paper less than a square foot in size and made with pencils, inks, washes and charcoal. They are of relatively little value compared with the other stolen works, worth under $100,000 combined. Also taken was a  French Imperial Eagle finial from the corner of a framed flag for Napoleon's Imperial Guard. There is a $100,000 reward for information leading to the return of the finial alone. It possibly appeared to be made of gold to the thieves. Chez Tortoni by French painter Édouard Manet (1832–1883) was taken from the Blue Room; it was the only item taken from the first floor.

The eclectic mix of items has puzzled experts. While some of the paintings were valuable, the thieves passed other valuable works by Raphael, Botticelli and Michelangelo and left them undisturbed, opting to take relatively valueless items such as the gu and finial. The thieves did not enter the third floor where Titian's The Rape of Europa hung, which is among the most valuable paintings in the city. The selection of works and the thieves' rough treatment of the artwork has led investigators to believe that the thieves were not experts commissioned to steal particular works.

As Gardner's will decreed that nothing in her collection should be moved, the empty frames for the stolen paintings remain hanging in their respective locations in the museum as placeholders for their potential return. Because of the museum's low funds and lack of an insurance policy, the director solicited help from Sotheby's and Christie's auction houses to post a reward of $1 million within three days. This was increased to $5 million in 1997. In 2017, it was doubled to $10 million with an expiration date set for the end of the year. This reward was extended following an outpouring of tips from the public. It is the largest bounty ever offered by a private institution. The reward is for "information that leads directly to the recovery of all of [their] items in good condition." Federal prosecutors have stated that anyone who willingly returns the items will not be prosecuted. The statute of limitations expired in 1995 as well, so the thieves and anyone else who participated in the theft cannot be prosecuted.

Early leads and people of interest

The FBI took immediate control of the case on the grounds that the artwork could likely cross state lines. Investigators have called the case unique for its lack of strong physical evidence. It is unknown if the thieves left DNA evidence. Although fingerprints and footprints were found at the scene, it could not be concluded whether they were from the thieves or from museum employees. The FBI has performed DNA analysis in the years following the theft as advancements in the field have grown. Some of the evidence has been lost among the agency's files. The guards and witnesses in the street described one thief as about  to  in his late 30s with a medium build, and the other as  to  in his early 30s with a heavier build.

Rick Abath
Security guard Rick Abath was investigated at an early stage because of his suspicious behavior on the night of the theft. While on patrol, Abath briefly opened and closed a side door, a move that some believe could have been a signal to the thieves parked outside. Abath told authorities that he opened and closed the door routinely to ensure that it was locked. One of Abath's colleagues told journalists that if Abath had opened the door routinely as he maintains, supervisors would have noticed him doing so from their computer printouts and stopped the behavior. Suspicion has surrounded the museum's motion detectors, which did not detect any movement in the Blue Room (which housed Chez Tortoni) during the 81 minutes that the thieves were in the museum. The only footsteps in the room that night were Abath's during his security patrol. A security consultant reviewed the motion-detector equipment several weeks after the theft and determined they were operating correctly. Abath maintains his innocence, and the FBI agent overseeing the case in its early years concluded that the guards were too incompetent and foolish to have committed the crime.

In 2015, the FBI released a security video from the museum on the night before the theft showing Abath admitting an unidentified man into the museum to converse at the security desk. Abath told investigators that he could not recall the incident or recognize the man, and the FBI requested the public's assistance. Several former museum guards came forward and identified that the stranger was the museum's deputy security chief.

Whitey Bulger
Whitey Bulger was one of the most powerful crime bosses in Boston during the era, heading the Winter Hill Gang. He denied involvement and in fact dispatched his subordinates to identify the culprits because the robbery was committed within his area and he wanted to be paid tribute.

FBI agent Thomas McShane investigated Bulger to determine his involvement. He determined that Bulger's strong ties with the Boston police could explain how the thieves acquired legitimate police uniforms, or perhaps that real police were arranged to perform the heist. Bulger also had ties to the Irish Republican Army (IRA). McShane identified the act of tripping the fire alarm before the heist as a "calling card" of the IRA and of its rival Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). Both organizations had agents in Boston at the time, and both had previously demonstrated the capability to organize art heists. McShane's investigation of Bulger and the IRA did not produce any evidence to tie them to the theft. According to Charley Hill, a retired art and antiquities investigator for Scotland Yard, Bulger gave the Gardner works to the IRA and they are most likely in Ireland.

1994 letter to the museum
In 1994, museum director Anne Hawley received an anonymous letter from someone who claimed to be attempting to negotiate a return of the artwork. The writer explained that they were a third-party negotiator and did not know the identity of the thieves. They explained that the artwork was stolen to reduce a prison sentence, but as the opportunity had passed, there was no longer a motive to keep the artwork and they wanted to negotiate a return. The writer explained that the artwork was being held in a "non-common law country" under climate-controlled conditions. They wanted immunity for themselves and all others involved, and $2.6 million for return of the artwork, which would be sent to an offshore bank account at the same time the art was handed over. If the museum was interested in negotiating, they should print a coded message in The Boston Globe. To establish credence, the writer conveyed information only known by the museum and FBI at the time.

Hawley felt this was a strong lead. She contacted the FBI, who then contacted the Globe; the coded message was printed on May 1, 1994, edition of The Boston Globe. Hawley received a second letter a few days later in which the writer acknowledged the museum was interested in negotiating, but that they had become fearful of what they perceived was a massive investigation by federal and state authorities to determine their identity. The writer explained that they needed time to evaluate their options, but Hawley never heard from the writer again.

Brian McDevitt
Brian McDevitt was a conman from Boston who tried to rob The Hyde Collection in Glens Falls, New York, in 1981. He dressed up as a FedEx driver, carried handcuffs and duct tape, and planned to steal a Rembrandt. He was also a known flag aficionado and fit the description of the larger robber except for his thinning red hair. These parallels to the Gardner case fascinated the FBI, so they interviewed him in late 1990. McDevitt denied any involvement and refused to take a polygraph test. The FBI ran his fingerprints which did not match any of those at the crime scene. McDevitt later moved to California and conned his way into television and film writing. He died in 2004.

Investigation of the Boston Mafia

Merlino gang
The FBI announced significant progress in their investigation in March 2013. They reported "with a high degree of confidence" that they identified the thieves, which they believed were members of a criminal organization based in the mid-Atlantic and New England. They also felt "with that same confidence" that the artwork was transported to Connecticut and Philadelphia in the years following the theft, with an attempted sale in Philadelphia in 2002. Their knowledge of what happened after that is limited, and they requested the public's help to locate and return the artwork. In 2015, the FBI stated both thieves were deceased. Though the FBI did not publicly identify any individuals, sources familiar with the investigation said they were associated with a gang from Dorchester. The gang was loyal to Boston Mafia boss Frank Salemme and ran their operations out of an automobile repair shop run by criminal Carmello Merlino.

Merlino's associates may have gained knowledge of the museum's weaknesses after gangster Louis Royce cased it as early as 1981. He devised plans with an associate to light up smoke bombs and rush the galleries amidst the confusion. In 1982, when undercover FBI agents were investigating Royce and his associates for an unrelated art theft, they learned of their interest in robbing the Gardner Museum and warned the museum of the gang's plan. Royce was in prison at the time of the robbery. Royce shared his plan with others and believes associate Stephen Rossetti may have ordered the robbery or shared it with someone else.

Robert Guarente and Robert Gentile
Among those associated with the Merlino gang were Robert Guarente and Manchester, Connecticut, gangster Robert Gentile. Guarente died from cancer in 2004, but his widow Elene told the FBI in 2010 that her husband had previously owned some of the paintings. She claimed that when her husband got sick with cancer in the early 2000s, he gave the paintings to Gentile for safekeeping. Gentile denied the accusations, claiming he was never given them and knew nothing of their whereabouts. Federal authorities indicted Gentile on drug charges in 2012, likely in an attempt to pressure Gentile for information about the Gardner works. He submitted to a polygraph test which indicated he was lying when he denied any knowledge of the theft or location of the artwork. Gentile maintained he was telling the truth and demanded a retest. During the retest, he said Elene had once shown him the missing Rembrandt self-portrait, to which the polygraph machine indicated he was telling the truth. Gentile's lawyer felt that the veracity of Gentile's claims were being affected by the large presence of federal agents and requested a smaller meeting in hopes that it would get Gentile to speak honestly. In the more intimate meeting, Gentile maintained that he did not have any information.

A few days later, the FBI stormed Gentile's house in Manchester with a search warrant. The FBI found a secret ditch beneath a false floor in the backyard shed but found it empty. Gentile's son explained that the ditch flooded a few years prior, and his father was upset about whatever was stored there. In the basement, they found a copy of the Boston Herald from March 1990 reporting the theft along with a piece of paper indicating what each piece might sell for on the black market. Beyond this, no conclusive evidence was found to indicate he ever had the paintings. Gentile went to prison for 30 months on drug charges. If he knew information about the theft, at no point did he opt to share it, which would have reduced his sentence or freed him from prison. After getting out of prison, he spoke with investigative reporter Stephen Kurkjian, claiming he was framed by the FBI. He explained how the imprisonment was detrimental to his finances and personal life. He also explained that the list found in his basement was written up by a criminal trying to broker return of the works from Guarente and was talking to Gentile as an intermediary. When asked about what could have been in the ditch, Gentile could not recall but believed it could have been small motors.

David Turner
David Turner was another associate of Merlino. The FBI began investigating him in 1992 when a source told them Turner had access to the paintings. Merlino was arrested that same year for cocaine trafficking and told authorities that he could return the paintings for a reduced prison sentence. He asked Turner to track down the paintings; Turner failed to return them, though he heard they were in a church in South Boston. Another associate arrested in the drug sting told authorities about Turner's involvement in several break-ins but never mentioned the Gardner heist. Based on conversations with Merlino after his release from prison in the mid 1990s, authorities gathered that Merlino never had direct access to the paintings but possibly could broker for their return.

Despite his claims of innocence, the FBI believes he may have been one of the thieves. Evidence indicates that he went to Florida to pick up a cocaine order just days before the heist, and credit card records suggest he remained there through the night of the robbery, but some investigators believe this may have been Turner's attempt at creating an alibi. The FBI thinks the other thief was his friend and Merlino associate George Reissfelder. He died in July 1991. No clues were found in his apartment or the homes of friends and relatives, but his siblings recall a painting similar to Chez Tortoni in his bedroom. Investigators believe he looks similar to the slimmer man in the police sketches.

In 1999, the FBI arrested Turner, Merlino, Rossetti, and others in a sting operation the day they planned to rob a Loomis Fargo vault. When the FBI brought Turner in for questioning, they told him they had information that he participated in the Gardner robbery, and that if he returned the paintings they would let him go. He told the authorities he did not know who stole the paintings nor where they could be hidden. In his 2001 trial, he claimed entrapment, that the FBI let the Loomis Fargo plot proceed so they could pressure him for information about the Gardner paintings. The jury found him guilty, and he was sent to prison. Turner knew Gentile through Guarente; in 2010 he wrote a letter to Gentile asking if he could call Turner's former girlfriend to assist in recovering the Gardner paintings. In cooperation with the FBI, Gentile spoke with Turner's girlfriend, and she told him that Turner wanted him to speak with two of his ex-convict friends in Boston. The FBI wanted Gentile to meet the men and send an FBI undercover agent with him, but Gentile did not want to cooperate further. Turner was freed in November 2019, one month after Rossetti. Merlino died in prison in 2005.

Bobby Donati

Criminal Bobby Donati was murdered in 1991 in the midst of a gang war within the Patriarca crime family. His involvement in the Gardner theft was suspected after notorious New England art thief Myles J. Connor Jr. spoke with authorities. Connor was in jail at the time of the heist, but he believed Donati and criminal David Houghton were the masterminds. Connor had worked with Donati in past art heists and claimed the two cased the Gardner Museum where Donati took interest in the finial. Connor also claimed that Houghton visited him in jail after the heist and said that he and Donati organized it and were going to use the paintings to get Connor out of jail. If this is true, they likely borrowed the idea from Connor as he returned art to reduce sentences in the past. Even though Donati's and Houghton's appearances did not fit the witness descriptions, Connor suggested they probably hired lower-level gangsters to carry out the robbery. Like Donati, Houghton also died within two years of the robbery, though from an illness rather than murder. Connor told investigators he could assist in returning the Gardner works in exchange for the museum's posted reward and his freedom. When investigators did not give in to Connor's demands because of lack of evidence, he suggested they speak with criminal and antiques dealer William P. Youngworth.

Acting on Connor's lead, the FBI opened a case on Youngworth and conducted raids on his home and antique store properties in the 1990s. The raids caught the attention of journalist Tom Mashberg, who began talking with Youngworth in 1997 about the theft. One night in August 1997, Youngworth called Mashberg and told him he had proof he could return the Gardner paintings under the right conditions. That night, Youngworth picked up Mashberg from the Boston Herald offices and drove him to a warehouse in Red Hook, Brooklyn. Youngworth led him inside to a storage unit with several large cylinder tubes. He removed one painting from its tube, unfurled it, and showed it to Mashberg under flashlight. It appeared to Mashberg to be The Storm on the Sea of Galilee. He noticed cracking along the canvas, and the edges were cut in a manner consistent with the museum's reports, and he noticed Rembrandt's signature on the ship's rudder. Mashberg wrote about his experience in the Boston Herald, leaving out details to hide Youngworth's identity and the painting's location. He reported that his "informant" (presumably Youngworth) told him the robbery was pulled off by five men and identified two: Donati was one of the robbers, and Houghton was responsible with moving the art to a safe house. The FBI discovered the location of the warehouse several months later and raided it, finding nothing.

The veracity of Youngworth's claims and the authenticity of the painting shown to Mashberg is disputed. Youngworth supplied paint chips to Mashberg, and federal authorities reported that they were indeed from Rembrandt's era but did not match oils used for The Storm on the Sea of Galilee. The way Mashberg described the painting as being "unfurled" has also been scrutinized, as the stolen painting was covered with a heavy varnish that would not roll easily. Federal authorities and the museum began working with Youngworth after Mashberg's story was published, but Youngworth made negotiations difficult.  He would not work with authorities unless his demands could be met, which included full immunity and Connor's release from jail. The authorities were skeptical of Youngworth's veracity and only offered partial immunity. The United States attorney overseeing the case eventually ceased talks with Youngworth unless he could provide more reliable evidence that he had access to the Gardner works. Youngworth again provided a vial of paint chips, purportedly from The Storm on the Sea of Galilee, and 25 color photographs of the painting and A Lady and Gentleman in Black. A joint statement from the museum and federal investigators announced that the chips were not from the stolen Rembrandts, though they did test as being from 17th century paintings and could potentially be from The Concert.

In 2014, investigative reporter Stephen Kurkjian wrote to gangster Vincent Ferrara, Donati's superior during the gang war, inquiring if he had information about the Gardner theft. He received a call back from an associate of Ferrara who explained the FBI was wrong in suspecting the Merlino gang's involvement and claimed that Donati organized the robbery. The caller explained that Donati visited Ferrara in jail about three months before the theft, after the latter was charged for murder, and told Ferrara that he was going to do something to get him out of jail. Three months later, Ferrara heard news about the Gardner theft, after which Donati visited him again and confirmed to Ferrara that he was involved in the robbery. He claimed to have buried the artwork and would start a negotiation for his release once the investigation cooled down. The negotiations never occurred because Donati was murdered. Kurkjian believes Donati was motivated to free Ferrara from prison because Ferrara could protect him in the gang war. A friend of Guarente also corroborated that Donati organized the robbery, and that Donati gave paintings to Guarente when he became concerned for his own safety. Donati was close friends with Guarente. The two were seen at a social club in Revere shortly before the robbery with a bag of police uniforms.

Explanatory notes

Citations

General and cited references

External links

Gardner Museum's theft page
FBI's theft page
Last Seen podcast series by WBUR

1990 crimes in the United States
1990 in Boston
American Mafia events
Art crime
Crimes in Massachusetts
Individual thefts
March 1990 crimes
March 1990 events in the United States
Museum crime
Patriarca crime family
Robberies in the United States
Unsolved crimes in the United States

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum theft


Bihari Muslims are people originating and tracing descent from the Indian State of Bihar, who practice Islam as their religion. Bihari Muslims mainly practice Sunni Islam of the Hanafi creed, though a small Shia minority exists.

Origin

Islam in Bihar is said to have been established in the 10-15th century with the arrivals of Sufi missionaries as well as Sunni rulers.

About 3 millions of Bihari Muslims migrated to the newly created State of Pakistan and the former East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) because of Muslim League politics. Those who settled in Pakistan were deemed a sub-caste of Muhajirs. Those who lived in Bangladesh were deemed Stranded Pakistanis.

History
This glorious history of Bihar lasted till around the middle of the 7th or 8th century A.D. - the Gupta Period - when, with the conquest of almost all of northern India by invaders from the middle-east, the Gupta dynasty also fell a victim.

In medieval times Bihar lost its prestige as the political and cultural center of India. The Mughal period was a period of unremarkable provincial administration from Delhi. The only remarkable person of these times in Bihar was Sher Shah, or Sher Khan Sur, an Afghan. Based at Sasaram which is now a town in the district of the same name in central-western Bihar, this jagirdar of the Mughal King Babur was successful in defeating Humayun, the son of Babur, twice - once at Chausa and then, again, at Kannauj (in the present state of Uttar Pradesh or U.P.) Through his conquest Sher Shah became the ruler of a territory that, again, extended all the way to the Punjab. He was noted as a ferocious warrior but also a noble administrator - in the tradition of Ashok and the Gupta kings. Several acts of land reform are attributed to him. The remains of a grand mausoleum that he built for himself can be seen in today's Sasaram (Sher Shah's maqbara.)

Society

The majority of educated Bihari Muslims formally speak Urdu, while in the vernacular speak in the Bihari language. The Muslims of Bihar have wealth rates comparable to rest of the Republic of India.

Bihar
Partition of India
Bangladeshi Muslims

Bihari Muslims


The Transnet Freight Rail Class 20E of 2013 is a South African electric locomotive.

In early August 2013 the first of ninety-five Class 20E dual-voltage electric locomotives for Transnet Freight Rail was lowered onto its bogies for the first time. Ten of these locomotives were built by the Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Company in China while the rest were built locally.

Manufacturer
The first ten of ninety-five 3 kV DC and 25 kV AC dual voltage Class 20E electric locomotives for Transnet Freight Rail were built in China by Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Company, a subsidiary of the China South Locomotive and Rolling Stock Corporation (CSR), China's leading train manufacturer. The roll-out ceremony of the first locomotive, no. 20-001, took place at the factory in Changsha in central China's Hunan Province on 20 August 2013.

The contract marked Zhuzhou's largest single foreign order of electric locomotives to date and made provision for the company to export electric locomotive manufacturing technologies to South Africa to enable a local production ratio of more than 60 percent. The first two of these locomotives, numbers  and , were landed at Durban Harbour on 14 November 2013. Three more, numbers ,  and , came ashore on 18 December 2013.

Of the remaining eighty-five locomotives, numbers  to  were assembled from Chinese-built kits by Transnet Engineering at Koedoespoort and were all in service by the end of September 2014.

The rest of the order has greater local content and was built at Koedoespoort in South Africa by a consortium composed of CSR Zhuzhou and the South African Black Economic Empowerment company Matsetse Basadi. The first of these, no. , was in service by late September 2014.

Characteristics
The locomotive body is a welded monocoque design, constructed of steel plates and profiled members which has a compressive strength of  and a tensile strength of .

The Class 20E is equipped with a wireless data transmission system which can send the locomotive operation status, fault data and energy consumption data via GSM and Wi-Fi to a trackside station for analysis. It is also equipped with an axle temperature alarm device, fire alarm system, closed-circuit television (CCTV) system, wheel flange lubricating device and, as personnel safety measure, high voltage protective interlocking devices. The AC traction motors are powered through insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) control.

Layout
The locomotive has a single cab and a gangway along the centre, while the interior layout and placement of equipment is as follows, from behind the cab towards the rear:

Left side
 Air conditioner.
 Low voltage cubicle.
 Battery cubicle.
 Service entrance portal and door.
 Traction converter cubicle 1.
 Cooling tower 1.
 Power supply cubicle.
 Traction motor blower 2.
 Braking resistor.
 Toilet, with a porta-potty and hand washbasin.

Right side
 Signal cubicle.
 Traction motor blower 1.
 Machine ventilation blower.
 Cooling tower 2.
 Traction converter cubicle 2.
 High voltage cubicle.
 Main compressor.
 Brake cubicle.

Underbelly between bogies
 Main transformer.
 Two auxiliary transformers.

Dual voltage
As on the dual voltage Class 19E, the main electric circuit is automatically selected in either AC or DC mode, based on the voltage of the overhead contact wire feeding the locomotive. To facilitate automatic trouble-free transition on the run, the locomotive is equipped with onboard voltage detectors, while the overhead wire is equipped with two wooden isolators and a  length of neutral wire to separate the AC and DC feed. The neutral section is connected to the rails which serve as the return conductor on electrified lines.

The transition process requires that the locomotive should automatically be switched off before it reaches the isolators and the unpowered overhead wire section, and automatically be restarted after exiting from under the unpowered wire. This is done by a pair of track magnets, one on either side of the neutral overhead wire and spaced  apart. The two magnets are mounted with their polarities reversed in relation to each other and they activate a magnetic relay located behind the cowcatcher of the locomotive to do the switching off and restarting.

Under 25 kV AC/50 Hz line voltage, the electric system is designed to operate at a maximum of 31 kV and a minimum of 17 kV, while under 3 kV DC it is designed to operate at a maximum of 4 kV and a minimum of 2 kV.

Mixed power
The locomotive has regenerative and rheostatic braking, a maximum speed of 100 km/h and is equipped with low-speed controls. Using radio frequency distributed power (RFDP) technology, the units are able to work mid-train in lengthy wagon consists.

A Class 20E unit can also be used as the leading locomotive in multi-unit operation with diesel-electric locomotives.

Pantographs
Transnet Freight Rail insisted that the locomotive should be designed in such a way that the pantograph contact shoe centres are directly above the bogie pivot centres, as was done on the Class 7E and Class 7E2, Series 1 and Series 2. The reason is to reduce the possibility of pantograph hookups on catenary in sharp curves, such as in turnouts, as a result of sideways movement of the pantograph in relation to the overhead wire.

Service
Following testing, the first of the Chinese-built locomotives entered service in March 2014, working on the manganese ore line between Hotazel in the Northern Cape and Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape via Kimberley, De Aar and Noupoort.

Two class 20E units, numbers 20-031 and 20-032, were selected to be used on the Blue Train and were painted in blue livery. In Blue Train service they replaced the previously used Class 18Es on the DC lines, the Class 7Es on the AC lines and the Classes 14E and 14E1 country-wide early in 2015. The Classes 14E and 14E1 were withdrawn from service shortly before.

Illustration

References

3220
Bo-Bo locomotives
Zhuzhou locomotives
Cape gauge railway locomotives
Railway locomotives introduced in 2013
2013 in South Africa

South African Class 20E


is a shojo manga series created by Haruka Fukushima, centered on a growing romance between two step-siblings, Minami and Otome. It was originally serialized in Nakayoshi, and was published by Kodansha in 2004. The first volume of the series was released in America by Tokyopop in September 2007.

Plot
For 5 years, Otome and Minami have been step siblings. Their grandmother is staying with them, taking up Otome's room while she recovers from surgery. This results are to Otome having to bunk in her brother's room. They have divided the room with a sheet hanging from the ceiling between the bed where Otome sleeps and a futon on the floor where Minami is sleeping. This often results in Otome either falling half-dressed out of her bed and onto Minami or Minami knocking down the sheet while Otome isn't there and rifling through her things. Shortly afterwards, a boy named Amane kisses Otome and they begin to date. This sparks emotions in Minami, forcing him to realize that he may feel for Otome more than brotherly love. As Minami begins to express this inner struggle through teasing, harsh words, and awkward romantic gestures, Otome comes to feel the same things.

Characters

Main characters

 The cheerful, cute, clumsy older step-sister of Minami. Otome is at first oblivious to Minami's growing feelings for her. She has a crush on Amane (Minami's friend), but also finds that she's heartbroken at the thought of Minami transferring to another high school next year. Throughout the story, she was "given up" by Amane because he realizes that she loves Minami more than she loves him. At the end of the series, Otome and Minami get together.

 Otome's step-brother who was three days younger than her. Minami is popular with girls and flirts confidently with almost every one of them in school. He even turns his interest in baking into a strategy to charm the opposite sex. As Otome starts showing interest in other boys, Minami is surprised to find that this bothers him to have rivals for his sister's attention. At age 17, he goes to study Kyoto and leaves Otome behind. But at Christmas, he comes back and starts dating her. In truth, Minami actually fell in love with Otome at first sight.

Other characters

Serious and athletic, Amane is the captain of the school kendo team. He used to love Otome and confessed his feelings to her and they began to go out. Amane was making Minami jealous and becomes very possessive of Otome. He then tries to make her to forget about Minami. But after a while, he realizes that Otome loves Minami more and finally "gives up on her". Amane then understands that Otome has feelings for Minami. Later on, he goes out with one of her friends, Naru.

Naru is Otome's close friend who is an expressionless, cool girl. She is solemn and speaks bluntly at times. Naru is observant, realizing Minami's and Otome's changing feelings toward each other before they do. She pokes around Otome's personal life, trying to get her to admit the truth of her love. Naru has been dating Amane after he gave up on Otome.

Another one of Otome's close friends. She is seen as energetic and is one of Minami's fangirls. But in the end, she ends up with Hokuto.

Kasumi is one year younger than Minami and is also a member of the cooking club. When Minami first began flirting with Kasumi, she was mildly offended and embarrassed, reacting defensively. Eventually she allows herself to get closer to him. Though it seems like she and Minami have begun a legitimate relationship, she easily spots his affection for Otome and is frustrated by it. She is very interested in Minami and tries to get him to return her feelings and give her more attention. Later on, she finally gives up and realizes that it's impossible for Minami to return her feelings because he's in love with Otome.

Granny
She acts as a loving grandmother to both of the siblings, and was the person who got them to get along when they first became a family by having them both over at her house during summer break. Granny is a busybody, gossiping and spying on Minami when he is alone in his room with Kasumi. She made matching yukata for Minami and Otome. When Otome ran away she went to Granny's empty house and lounged in the plastic kiddy pool Granny had used to bring Minami and Otome together years before.

The younger biological brother of Minami that likes to tease Otome, although he somewhat looks and acts older than Minami. Hokuto is a very mean, sadistic boy that has qualities that are very similar to Minami. At first he is very rude to Otome and Minami, but immediately fell for Otome when he sees her in a wedding dress for a cosplay competition. As a proof that Hokuto threatens to steal Otome, he kisses her in front of Minami. Later in the end, he ends up with Aiko instead after she gives him a candy to cure his sore throat.

Media
Originally published by Kodansha and serialized by Nakayoshi in Japan, Cherry Juice was first released in America by Tokyopop in 2007. The series ran for four volumes, from December 2004 until April 2006. In America, the series has three volumes out with one to be released in August. The fourth volume's release date is not known as of now. In Germany, it was first released in July 2006 and the final volume released in February 2007. The manga was never released in an animated format.

Reception
"Artist Haruka Fukushima has drawn some pretty wacked-out romance in the past (see Kedamono Damono for ample evidence of that), but Cherry Juice plays it a great deal straighter, saving most of the comedy for the cute little side comments that dot each page." — Kevin Gifford, Newtype USA.
"This manga is a romantic dramedy like few, if any, others. The latest in this romance series sees relationships turned inside out and a taboo line perhaps being crossed." — Holly Ellingwood, activeAnime.
"Definitely a tweens and young teens title, older readers or those more widely read could appreciate some of the perceptive observation, but might be unimpressed with the rest." — Patricia Beard, Mania.

References

External links

Manga series
Shōjo manga
Tokyopop titles
2004 manga
Comedy anime and manga
Romance anime and manga
Kodansha manga

Cherry Juice


Talgai is an archaeological site, near Allora on the Darling Downs, south east of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. In 1884 a Pleistocene era skull was found in Dalrymple Creek after a big flood. It was found by William Naish, a shearer, who was building a fence at the East Talgai station. The skull was that of a 14 year old boy who had lived about 11,000 years ago. Naish gave the skull to the owners of the station. It was purchased by the University of Sydney in 1914. It was the first fossil found which showed the early human occupation of Australia.

The skull was heavily encrusted with calcium carbonate and the shape had been distorted during long time buried in the ground. At first scientists thought it was a primitive skull with ape like teeth. Later study showed that the skull was a modern Homo sapien, the teeth were normal, but heavily worn. The boy had a massive injury to the side of his skull which was probably what had killed him.

In 1968 a Tom Haydon made a documentary movie, The Talgai Skull: An Investigation Into the Origin of the Australian Aborigines. It won the Australian Film Institute award for Best Documentary.

References

Archaeological sites in Australia
History of Australia
Queensland

Talgai


Princess Nikki is a British reality television show that stars former Big Brother 7 UK house mate Nikki Grahame. It ran on Wednesday nights between 10:00 - 10:30pm on the digital and satellite television channel E4 from 6 September 2006, for a total runtime of 30 minutes. The show was devised by Endemol, the company that also devised Big Brother. It was narrated by the presenter and comedian, Alex Zane.

The format saw Grahame attempt several jobs on each show, which included various unpleasant tasks such as rubbish collecting, deep sea fishing, and waste management. The show's premise was to see whether or not she would perform the tasks given to her and keep her job for a day, or whether she would quit or be sacked due to her infamous tantrums. The concept of the show was taken from one of the tasks Nikki undertook while in the Big Brother house. During the task, she was assigned as Big Brother's personal assistant and had to carry out various duties, which often resulted in Nikki throwing a tantrum and refusing to comply.

The theme music for the programme has been adapted from the 1982 hit single "Hey Mickey!" by Toni Basil, with the lyrics "Hey Nikki!" used as a replacement.

Contrary to rumors, no second season is planned. Creative director Philip Edgar-Jones confirmed the series is finished in an interview with Brother's Bar.

2006 British television series debuts
2006 British television series endings
2000s British television series
Channel 4 reality television programmes

Princess Nikki