Mud Gas Separator is commonly called a gas-buster or poor boy degasser. It captures and separates the large volumes of free gas within the drilling fluid. If there is a "kick" situation, this vessel separates the mud and the gas by allowing it to flow over baffle plates. The gas then is forced to flow through a line, venting to a flare. A "kick" situation happens when the annular hydrostatic pressure in a drilling well temporarily (and usually relatively suddenly) falls below that of the formation, or pore, pressure in a permeable section downhole, and before control of the situation is lost.

It is always safe to design the mud/gas separator that will handle the maximum possible gas flow that can occur.

Types of Mud/Gas Separators
The principle of mud/gas separation for different types of vessels is the same.
 Closed bottom type
 Open bottom type
 Float type
The closed-bottom separator, as the name implies, is closed at the vessel bottom with the mud return line directed back to the mud tanks.
Commonly called the poor boy, the open-bottom mud gas separator is typically mounted on a mud tank or trip tank with the bottom of the separator body submerged in the mud.
Fluid level (mud leg) is maintained in a float-type mud gas separator by a float/valve configuration. The float opens and closes a valve on the mud return line to maintain the mud-leg level.
According to pedestal or base type there are:
 Fixed type
 Elevating type

Poor boy degassers are usually named according to the vessel diameter. Types include:
 MGS800
 MGS1000
 MGS1200
 MGS1400

The degasser type or configuration is typically customisable.

Principle of operation
The principle behind the mud gas separator is relatively simple. On the figure, the mud and gas mixture is fed at the inlet allowing it to impinge on a series of baffles designed to separate gas and mud. The free gas then is moved into the flare line to reduce the threat of toxic and hazardous gases and the mud then discharges to the shale shaker and to the tank.

See also
 Mud systems

Notes

Drilling fluid
Gas-liquid separation

Mud Gas Separator


The Night Before the Divorce is a 1942 American comedy film directed by Robert Siodmak and starring Lynn Bari, Mary Beth Hughes and Joseph Allen, adapted from the 1937 play of the same name by Gina Kaus and Ladislas Fodor.

Main cast
 Lynn Bari as Lynn Nordyke
 Mary Beth Hughes as Lola May
 Joseph Allen as George Nordyke (as Joseph Allen Jr.)
 Nils Asther as Victor Roselle
 Truman Bradley as Inspector Bruce Campbell
 Kay Linaker as Hedda Smythe
 Lyle Latell as Detective Brady
 Mary Treen as Olga - the Maid
 Thurston Hall as Bert 'Mousey' Harriman
 Spencer Charters as Small Town Judge
 Leon Belasco as Leo - the Headwaiter
 Tom Fadden as Captain Walt
 Alec Craig as Jitters Noonan

References

Bibliography
 Alpi, Deborah Lazaroff. Robert Siodmak: A Biography. McFarland, 1998.
 Greco, Joseph. The File on Robert Siodmak in Hollywood, 1941-1951. Universal-Publishers, 1999.

External links

1942 films
1942 comedy films
1940s English-language films
American comedy films
Films directed by Robert Siodmak
Films scored by Leigh Harline
American films based on plays
Films based on Austrian novels
Films based on adaptations
20th Century Fox films
American black-and-white films
1940s American films
English-language comedy films

The Night Before the Divorce


George O'Hara (born George Bolger, February 22, 1899 – October 16, 1966) was an American motion picture actor and screenwriter of the silent film era.

Biography
Born in New York City and raised in Hollywood, California, George O'Hara began his acting career under contract as a performer for early Hollywood director Mack Sennett. Sennett was immediately charmed by the handsome, cleft-chinned young actor and saw O'Hara as a potentially popular matinee idol. O'Hara's acting career received an early boost when Sennett cast the young actor in the commercially successful 1920 romantic film Love, Honor, and Behave opposite the popular silent film actress Marie Prevost.

In 1921, O'Hara began working behind the camera with Sennett's tutelage. He was credited as an associate producer in the Ben Turpin film A Small Town Idol and later worked as a continuity and title writer throughout the 1920s in the film industry as well as continuing his successful acting career.

George O'Hara was most popular with the public when starring in two-reel action and adventure serials of the 1920s, such as The Pacemakers and Casey of the Coast Guard. In his most popular serial, Fighting Blood, O'Hara was cast as a boxer; a role well-suited to O'Hara, who in his free time was a boxing aficionado and moderately successful in the amateur lightweight division of the sport.

Throughout the 1920s, O'Hara continued working as an actor and became a quite popular matinee idol. He costarred with John Barrymore and Dolores Costello in a silent film adaptation of Moby-Dick called The Sea Beast playing Barrymore's evil half-brother; O'Hara was aptly cast as he bore a resemblance to the legendary actor. With the advent of sound films however, the film studios began to heavily promote a new crop of actors and many of the formerly popular actors of the silent era (including O'Hara) found it increasingly difficult to find work. O'Hara quietly faded into an early retirement in the early 1930s but began trying to rebuild his career later in the decade by taking bit parts, most notably as the role of a clerk in the 1940 John Ford directed film adaptation of John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath.

O'Hara never again achieved the success he had attained in his early career and spent the next several decades playing as an extra in often uncredited roles. O'Hara died of cancer in Los Angeles, California, in 1966.

Partial filmography

 Love, Honor and Behave (1920) - Newlywed Groom
A Small Town Idol (1921) - Cameraman
 Queenie (1921) - Vivian Van Winkle
The Crossroads of New York (1922) - Michael Flint
Shirley of the Circus (1922) - Pierre
Fighting Blood (1923) - Gale Galen aka Six Second Smith
A Midsummer Night's Scream (1923)
Listen Lester (1924) - Jack Griffin
Darwin Was Right (1924) - Robert Lee
The Sea Beast (1926) - Derek Ceeley
Casey of the Coast Guard (1926) - Ensign John Casey
Why Girls Go Back Home (1926) - John Ross
Bigger Than Barnum's (1926) - Robert Blandim
 Going the Limit (1926) - Gordon Emery
The False Alarm (1926) - Tim Casey
The Timid Terror (1926) - Talbot Trent
Is That Nice? (1926) - Ralph Tanner
California or Bust (1927) - Jeff Daggett
Burnt Fingers (1927) - Dick
Yours to Command (1927) - Robert Duane
 Ladies Beware (1927) - Jack O'Diamonds
Pirates of the Pines (1928) - John Markham
A Single Man (1929, writer)
Side Street (1929, writer)
Jesse James (1939) - Teller (uncredited)
News Is Made at Night (1939) - Usher (uncredited)
The Honeymoon's Over (1939) - Elevator Operator (uncredited)
The Grapes of Wrath (1940) - Clerk (uncredited)
The Cowboy and the Blonde (1941) - Melvyn
Cadet Girl (1941) - Waiter (uncredited)
Remember the Day (1941) - Photographer (uncredited)
The Dolly Sisters (1945) - Frank Tinny (uncredited)
When My Baby Smiles at Me (1948) - Stagehand (uncredited) (final film role)

References

External links

 George O'Hara at Silent Ladies & Gents

1899 births
1966 deaths
Male actors from New York City
American male film actors
American male silent film actors
American male screenwriters
Deaths from cancer in California
Male actors from Hollywood, Los Angeles
20th-century American male actors
Screenwriters from New York (state)
Screenwriters from California
20th-century American male writers
20th-century American screenwriters

George O'Hara (actor)


Teen Love is the debut extended play by noise rock band No Trend, released as a 7" vinyl in 1983 through their very own No Trend Records. It was reissued in 1984 on 12" vinyl, this time including the two extra tracks "Die" and "Let's Go Crazy". It has been described as "a perfect example of No Trend's ruthless proclivity towards lizard-cold satire". The album cover was drawn by guitarist Frank Price, but it was credited under the pseudonym Jim Jones.

Track listing

7" Version

12" Version

Personnel
Jeff Mentges - Vocals
Frank Price - Guitar, Cover Art
Bob Strasser - Bass
Michael Salkind - Drums (7" only)

References

1983 debut EPs
No Trend albums

Teen Love


In physics, angular velocity (symbol  or , the lowercase Greek letter omega), also known as angular frequency vector, is a pseudovector representation of how the angular position or orientation of an object changes with time, i.e. how quickly an object rotates (spins or revolves) around an axis of rotation and how fast the axis itself changes direction.

The magnitude of the pseudovector, , represents the angular speed (or angular frequency), the angular rate at which the object rotates (spins or revolves). The pseudovector direction  is normal to the instantaneous plane of rotation or angular displacement.

There are two types of angular velocity:
 Orbital angular velocity refers to how fast a point object revolves about a fixed origin, i.e. the time rate of change of its angular position relative to the origin.
 Spin angular velocity refers to how fast a rigid body rotates with respect to its center of rotation and is independent of the choice of origin, in contrast to orbital angular velocity.

Angular velocity has dimension of angle per unit time; this is analogous to linear velocity, with angle replacing distance, with time in common. The SI unit of angular velocity is radians per second, although degrees per second (°/s) is also common. The radian is a dimensionless quantity, thus the SI units of angular velocity are dimensionally equivalent to reciprocal seconds, s−1, although rad/s is preferable to avoid confusion with rotation velocity in units of hertz (also equivalent to s−1).

The sense of angular velocity is conventionally specified by the right-hand rule, implying clockwise rotations (as viewed on the plane of rotation); negation (multiplication by −1) leaves the magnitude unchanged but flips the axis in the opposite direction.

For example, a geostationary satellite completes one orbit per day above the equator (360 degrees per 24 hours) has angular velocity magnitude (angular speed) ω = 360°/24 h = 15°/h (or 2π rad/24 h ≈ 0.26 rad/h) and angular velocity direction (a unit vector) parallel to Earth's rotation axis (, in the geocentric coordinate system). If angle is measured in radians, the linear velocity is the radius times the angular velocity, . With orbital radius 42,000 km from the Earth's center, the satellite's tangential speed through space is thus v = 42,000 km × 0.26/h ≈ 11,000 km/h. The angular velocity is positive since the satellite travels prograde with the Earth's rotation (the same direction as the rotation of earth).

Orbital angular velocity of a point particle

Particle in two dimensions

In the simplest case of circular motion at radius , with position given by the angular displacement  from the x-axis, the orbital angular velocity is the rate of change of angle with respect to time: . If  is measured in radians, the arc-length from the positive x-axis around the circle to the particle is , and the linear velocity is , so that .

In the general case of a particle moving in the plane, the orbital angular velocity is the rate at which the position vector relative to a chosen origin "sweeps out" angle. The diagram shows the position vector  from the origin  to a particle , with its polar coordinates . (All variables are functions of time .) The particle has linear velocity splitting as ,  with the radial component  parallel to the radius, and the cross-radial (or tangential) component  perpendicular to the radius. When there is no radial component, the particle moves around the origin in a circle; but when there is no cross-radial component, it moves in a straight line from the origin. Since radial motion leaves the angle unchanged, only the cross-radial component of linear velocity contributes to angular velocity.

The angular velocity ω is the rate of change of angular position with respect to time, which can be computed from the cross-radial velocity as:

Here the cross-radial speed  is the signed magnitude of , positive for counter-clockwise motion, negative for clockwise. Taking polar coordinates for the linear velocity  gives magnitude  (linear speed) and angle  relative to the radius vector; in these terms, , so that

These formulas may be derived doing , being  a function of the distance to the origin with respect to time, and  a function of the angle between the vector and the x axis. Then:
.
Which is equal to:

(See Unit vector in cylindrical coordinates).

Knowing  we conclude that the radial component of the velocity is given by  because  is a radial unit vector; and the perpendicular component is given by  because  is a perpendicular unit vector.

In two dimensions, angular velocity is a number with plus or minus sign indicating orientation, but not pointing in a direction. The sign is conventionally taken to be positive if the radius vector turns counter-clockwise, and negative if clockwise. Angular velocity then may be termed a pseudoscalar, a numerical quantity which changes sign under a parity inversion, such as inverting one axis or switching the two axes.

Particle in three dimensions

In  three-dimensional space, we again have the position vector r of a moving particle. Here, orbital angular velocity is a pseudovector whose magnitude is the rate at which r sweeps out angle, and whose direction is perpendicular to the instantaneous plane in which r sweeps out angle (i.e. the plane spanned by r and v). However, as there are two directions perpendicular to any plane, an additional condition is necessary to uniquely specify the direction of the angular velocity; conventionally, the right-hand rule is used.

Let the pseudovector  be the unit vector perpendicular to the plane spanned by r and v, so that the right-hand rule is satisfied (i.e. the instantaneous direction of angular displacement is counter-clockwise looking from the top of ). Taking polar coordinates  in this plane, as in the two-dimensional case above, one may define the orbital angular velocity vector as:

where θ is the angle between r and v. In terms of the cross product, this is:

From the above equation, one can recover the tangential velocity as:

Spin angular velocity of a rigid body or reference frame

Given a rotating frame of three unit coordinate vectors, all the three must have the same angular speed at each instant. In such a frame, each vector may be considered as a moving particle with constant scalar radius.

The rotating frame appears in the context of rigid bodies, and special tools have been developed for it: the spin angular velocity may be described as a vector or equivalently as a tensor.

Consistent with the general definition, the spin angular velocity of a frame is defined as the orbital angular velocity of any of the three vectors (same for all) with respect to its own center of rotation. The addition of angular velocity vectors for frames is also defined by the usual vector addition (composition of linear movements), and can be useful to decompose the rotation as in a gimbal. All components of the vector can be calculated as derivatives of the parameters defining the moving frames (Euler angles or rotation matrices). As in the general case, addition is commutative: .

By Euler's rotation theorem, any rotating frame possesses an instantaneous axis of rotation, which is the direction of the angular velocity vector, and the magnitude of the angular velocity is consistent with the two-dimensional case.

If we choose a reference point  fixed in the rigid body, the  velocity  of  any point in the body is given by

Components from the basis vectors of a body-fixed frame

Consider a rigid body rotating about a fixed point O. Construct a reference frame in the body consisting of an orthonormal set of vectors  fixed to the body and with their common origin at O. The spin angular velocity vector of both frame and body about O is then

where  is the time rate of change of the frame vector   due to the rotation.

This formula is incompatible with the expression for orbital angular velocity

as that formula defines angular velocity for a single point about O, while the formula in this section applies to a frame or rigid body. In the case of a rigid body a single  has to account for the motion of all particles in the body.

Components from Euler angles

The components of the spin angular velocity pseudovector were first calculated by Leonhard Euler using his Euler angles and the use of an intermediate frame:
 One axis of the reference frame (the precession axis)
 The line of nodes of the moving frame with respect to the reference frame (nutation axis)
 One axis of the moving frame (the intrinsic rotation axis)

Euler proved that the projections of the angular velocity pseudovector on each of these three axes is the derivative of its associated angle (which is equivalent to decomposing the instantaneous rotation into three instantaneous Euler rotations). Therefore:

This basis is not orthonormal and it is difficult to use, but now the velocity vector can be changed to the fixed frame or to the moving frame with just a change of bases. For example, changing to the mobile frame:

where  are unit vectors for the frame fixed in the moving body. This example has been made using the Z-X-Z convention for Euler angles.

Tensor

See also
 Angular acceleration
 Angular frequency
 Angular momentum
 Areal velocity
 Isometry
 Orthogonal group
 Rigid body dynamics
 Vorticity

References

External links

  A college text-book of physics By Arthur Lalanne Kimball (Angular Velocity of a particle)

Angle
Kinematic properties
Rotational symmetry
Temporal rates
Tensors
Velocity

Angular velocity


Amedeo Maiuri (January 7, 1886 – April 7, 1963) was an Italian archaeologist, famous for his archaeological investigations of the Roman city of Pompeii which was destroyed in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in August of AD 79. He was the first to conduct systematic scientific excavations, analysis and publication at Pompeii and other sites around Vesuvius.

Born at Veroli, Italy, from 1914 until 1924 the young Maiuri directed the Italian archaeological mission in Greece, with a focus on Rhodes and the construction of a new museum there.

In 1924, Maiuri was installed as the chief archaeologist of Pompeii, serving as director until 1961.  Maiuri's work at Pompeii was revolutionary and he exposed many remains, and proposed chronologies, that are still at the focus of scholarly discussion. Maiuri's work included, for the first time, excavations below the Roman destruction level of 79 AD when he chose to excavate one of the most famous houses of Pompeii, the House of the surgeon to investigate the earlier history of the city.

Maiuri excavated other cities destroyed by the eruption of Vesuvius, such as Herculaneum.

He discovered the Cave of the Cumaean Sibyl in May 1932. The Cave is a trapezoidal dromos or passage over 131 meters long running parallel to the side of the hill and cut out of the volcanic stone. In 1936 he became first president of the Italian Numismatic Institute after it was transformed from a private to a public association.

The few remains of the Tiberian villa Damecuta are the result of excavations done between 1937–48 by Maiuri (who also excavated Villa Jovis), on land donated to the Italian Government by Axel Munthe, celebrated author of The Story of San Michele.

His book, L'anfiteatro flavio puteolano (1955), is considered to be the definitive monograph on the subject of the Flavian Amphitheatre in Pozzuoli.

The model of the torch used in the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome was inspired by Professor Maiuri from torches reproduced on ancient monuments.

Maiuri died in Naples in 1963.

References

Bibliography

 Maiuri, Amedeo. L'anfiteatro flavio puteolano. Napoli : G. Macchiaroli, 1955.
 A. Maiuri, "Pompei. Sterro dei cumuli e isolamento della cinta murale. Contributo all'urbanistica della città dissepolta." In Bollettino d'Arte 45 (1960): 172, L. García y García Danni di guerra a Pompei, 167.

1886 births
1963 deaths
People from Frosinone
People from Veroli
Italian archaeologists
20th-century archaeologists

Amedeo Maiuri


The Worshipful Company of Mercers is the premier livery company of the City of London and ranks first in the order of precedence of the Companies. It is the first of the Great Twelve City Livery Companies.

Today, the Company exists primarily as a charitable institution, supporting a variety of causes. The company's motto is Honor Deo, Latin for "Honour to God".

History
The Mercers' Company is based at Mercers' Hall, 6 Frederick's Place in the City of London. The city block upon which it stands contains the archaeology of a Roman-British temple known today as Gresham Temple.

Its corporate existence began in the form of a fraternity at least by the reign of King Henry II, in the mid 1100s if not before.

In 1210-1214, the first two Mayors of London, Henry FitzAlwyn and Robert FitzAlwyn were claimed to be members, and branch of the company was established at this time, the Company of Merchant Adventurers, who established themselves at Antwerp, the centre of the cloth trade.

Serlo le Mercer (who was Mayor of London for five terms in the early 1210s) was a member of the company and was one of the negotiators of Magna Carta.

Although of even older origin, the company was incorporated under a Royal Charter in 1394, the company's earliest extant Charter. The company's aim was to act as a trade association for general merchants, and especially for exporters of wool and importers of velvet, silk and other luxurious fabrics (mercers).

From the 14th century onwards the Company held its meetings in the Hospital of St. Thomas of Acon on Cheapside.

Around 1438 William Caxton was apprenticed into the Mercers, under Robert Large, becoming a full member in 1452: his work took him into the Low Countries.

Between 1517 and 1524 the Company built the Mercer's Chapel on this land, with the first Mercers' Hall above it, fronting Cheapside.

A member of the Mercers, Robert Packington, was murdered on 13 November 1536, the first recorded death by shooting with a handgun; Rose Hickman, a Protestant, recalled how he:used to bring English bybles from beyond seaand it is thought this may be connected to the murder. The entrance appears to have been on to Ironmonger Lane, and an interconnecting mansion house was secured by Sir Rowland Hill in 1546, which he later put at the use of his protégée and heir via his niece Sir Thomas Leigh.  Hill is associated with the publication of the Geneva Bible, and is considered a possible inspiration for the character Old Sir Rowland in Shakepeare's As You Like It.

There are accounts of the Mercer's buildings being the focus of London state pageantry in the mid- 16th century. For instance Sir Rowland Hill and Sir Thomas Gresham together with Henry VIII and Jane Seymour, are recording as watching the Midsummer Marchers that would become the Lord Mayor's Show from the loggia of the hall.  Around this time Francis Wren, grandfather of Christopher Wren was a member of the company

Sir Thomas Gresham, founder of the Royal exchange, was a member of the mercers. He was admitted in 1543 aged 24 as a liveryman, and later that year he left England for the Low Countries, where, either on his own account or that of his father or uncle, he carried on business as a merchant whilst acting in various matters as agent for King Henry VIII.

One of the most important surviving works of late English Catholic sculpture prior to the iconoclasm of the Reformation was secretly preserved in a sand-filled pit under the chapel floor, only being found during repairs after the bomb damage of World War Two.

Inigo Jones was admitted as a member in 1620.

The building was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666.

The second Hall, designed by Edward Jarman and John Oliver, opened in May 1676.

Following the Napoleonic Wars the first Viscount Hill, the Peninsular general, a relative (via his uncle, Ralph Hill) of the Lord Mayor of the same name was admitted to the company honouring his soldiering.

The Hall was extensively refurbished during the period 1877 to 1881 (the porch of the 1676 building is now incorporated into the facade of Swanage Town Hall).

The frontage was remodelled by George Barnes Williams and the interiors were redesigned by John Gregory Crace, the renowned Victorian designer. The Hall was destroyed by fire in 1941 during the Blitz. The third and present Mercers' Hall was opened in May 1958. The architect was E. Noel Clifton of Gunton and Gunton. The Hall incorporates fittings from the old Hall, including some 17th-century woodwork and Victorian stained glass.

The Mercers' Company is the only City Livery Company to have its own private chapel.

Membership
Children whose father or mother was a member of the Company at the time of their birth have an automatic right to become Mercers by 'patrimony'.

Most other members have a family connection to the company and obtain their Freedom by Redemption. Under this process applicants are recommended for membership after an interview and, if approved, they pay a sum of money called a 'fine'.

Other people can also become Members by Redemption. Membership is sometimes granted because the Company wishes to honour the individual. Notable Members who joined the company by Redemption are Thomas More and Winston Churchill.

One other route to membership is by apprenticeship, but this has not happened recently. In the early days this was a very usual route; an apprentice would be 'bound' to a Member for a term of about seven years but in exchange the member was required to teach the apprentice such that he was worthy of membership by the end of the term, when he became a 'Freeman', for he was no longer bound. Freemen of a Livery Company are also Freemen of the City of London, which used to carry certain privileges, such as the right to drive a flock of sheep without charge over London Bridge.

Etymology
The word "mercer" derives from the Latin merx, mercis, "merchandise" from which root the word "merchant" is also derived.

The words mercero and mercier, still used in Spanish and French respectively, have meanings similar to haberdasher, although the medieval mercers would not have recognised any relationship to that trade which was covered by the separate Worshipful Company of Haberdashers.

Charitable activities
In education, the company has administered St Paul's School since 1509 (and its prep school St Paul's Juniors), St Paul's Girls' School since 1904, two prep schools in London, The Hall School and Bute House, and retains close links with Collyer's College, Dauntsey's School, Abingdon School, Peter Symonds College and Gresham College, all founded by mercers. In recent times the company has founded a City Technology College (Thomas Telford School) and two City Academies (Walsall Academy and Sandwell Academy).

There was also a Mercers' School which was granted its first charter in 1447, and closed in 1959 when pupil numbers fell. The school was most recently based in Barnard's Inn in Holborn, now the home of Gresham College.

In 2011, the Mercers co-sponsored a new academy school, Hammersmith Academy, specialising in creative and digital media and information technology, located in Hammersmith.
The school was established in a new building, with support from the Mercers and the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists.

Coat of arms

The origin of the "Mercers' Maiden", the heraldic emblem of the company, is not known. Unlike most of the City livery companies, the Mercers had no early grant of arms but the 1425 charter granted a common seal. A few impressions of the early seal survive showing a greatly simplified version of the present coat of arms. The fifteenth century Wardens' Accounts reveal that, even then, the Company required the device of the Maid's Head to be displayed on its property. In 1530 the Company stated to the College of Heralds that they had no arms but only a Maid's Head for their common seal and in 1568 the Heralds registered the seal as the company's arms.

In 1911 the College of Arms confirmed the arms and granted the company a crest and motto, 'Honor Deo' (Honour to God). The grant blazons the arms: Gules, issuant from a bank of clouds a figure of the Virgin couped at the shoulders proper vested in a crimson robe adorned with gold the neck encircled by a jeweled necklace crined or and wreathed about the temples with a chaplet of roses alternately argent and of the first and crowned with a celestial crown the whole within a bordure of clouds also proper.

Current activities

Every year the Mercers' Company publishes an annual review of their activities. The property portfolio includes 90 residential flats in Covent Garden. In an average year they might give away £7 million, about one-sixth of the total charitable contributions of 110 livery companies.

Mercers

Famous Mercers include:
 Serlo le Mercer, Third Lord Mayor of London and negotiator of Magna Carter
 William Caxton, printer
 Sir John Thynne (c. 1513–1580), builder of Longleat
 John Dee (1527–1608), mathematician and astrologer
 Lionel Duckett (1511–1587), Sheriff of London (1565), Lord Mayor of London (1572)
 Richard Whittington, Mayor of the City of London
 Sir Rowland Hill of Soulton (d.1561), "The First Protestant Lord Mayor of London", privy councillor, statesman, scholar, merchant and patron of art and philanthropist who coordinated the Geneva Bible translation and may have been the inspiration for Shakespeare's play "As You Like It"
 Sir John Gresham, Mayor of the City of London
 Sir Richard Gresham, merchant and Mayor of the City of London
Sir Thomas Gresham, merchant, financier and founder of Gresham College
 John Roysse (1500/01–1571), merchant and benefactor
 Roundell Palmer, 1st Earl of Selborne (1812–1895), Lord Chancellor
 William Palmer, 2nd Earl of Selborne KG GCMG PC (1859–1942), politician and High Commissioner of South Africa
 Cecil Clementi (1875–1947), Governor of Hong Kong
 Harry Hodson, economist, editor of The Sunday Times (1950–61)
 Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell, founder of the Scout movement
 Earl Jellicoe, Lord Privy Seal (1970–73).
 Sir Alexander Graham, Lord Mayor of the City of London
 Sir Ralph Verney, (1410–1478), Lord Mayor of the City of London
 John Colet (1467–1519), founder of St Paul's School, London and dean of St Paul's Cathedral

See also
 Kilrea, Mercers plantation settlement in Northern Ireland

References

Further reading
Sutton, Anne F., The Mercery of London: Trade, Goods and People, 1130–1578, Aldershot, 2005

External links

Great Twelve City Livery Companies
History of the textile industry in the United Kingdom
Textile industry associations
Organisations based in London with royal patronage
1394 establishments in England

Worshipful Company of Mercers


Antibiotics kill certain types of bacteria. Over time, those bacteria change to develop resistance to the antibiotics. Called antibiotic resistance, this is one of the most serious problems facing modern surgery and medicine. It is also one of the best examples of evolution in action.  According to The Lancet, at least 1.2 million people died because of drug-resistant bacterial infections in 2019, more than from HIV or malaria.

Antibiotic resistance spreads very quickly, far faster than microbiologists expected. "As long as new drugs keep coming, resistance is not a problem. But there has not been a new class of antibiotics discovered since the 1980s".  Some scientists have developed new antibiotics to combat resistant bacteria.  However, there is a lag-time of about eight years between discovery and possible availability for general use. The process is also extremely costly.

The National Health Service is encouraging  pharmaceutical companies to create new treatments by paying  up to £20 million a year for new antibiotics no matter how many are prescribed, so they so they get paid even if the drugs are just kept in reserve for special cases or an emergency.

Natural selection in action

A well-known example of natural selection in action is the development of antibiotic resistance in microorganisms. Since the discovery of penicillin in 1928 by Alexander Fleming, antibiotics have been used to fight bacterial diseases. Natural populations of bacteria contain, among their vast numbers of individual members, considerable variation in their genetic material, as the result of mutations. When exposed to antibiotics, most bacteria die quickly, but some may have mutations that make them slightly less susceptible. If the exposure to antibiotics is short, these individuals will survive the treatment.

Prediction
In Fleming's 1945 Nobel Prize lecture he said:
"It is not difficult to make microbes resistant to penicillin in the laboratory by exposing them to concentrations not sufficient to kill them, and the same thing has occasionally happened in the body... The time may come when penicillin can be bought by anyone in the shops. Then there is the danger that the ignorant man may easily underdose himself and by exposing his microbes to non-lethal quantities of the drug make them resistant".

Mechanism
The mechanisms of which the bacteria undergo to become antibiotic resistant are via genetic mutation and horizontal gene transfer.

Effect on surgery and medicine
All surgery that involves cutting open the body poses massive risks of infection. Antibiotics given before and after surgery allow surgeons to do operations that would have been deadly before. Open-heart surgery is one obvious example.

Cancer treatments such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy damage the immune system. Antibiotics are prescribed to boost the body's natural defences. Patients with organ transplants always use drugs to suppress the immune system, otherwise it attacks the transplant. Therefore, antibiotics are used to protect the body. Without effective antibiotics, both sets of patients might die from infections which their immune systems could no longer control.

"It's a pretty grim future, I think a lot of major surgery would be seriously threatened," said Professor Richard James of the University of Nottingham.

Medical uses are also threatened. The number of tests coming back with resistance to carbapenems, one of the most powerful groups of antibiotics, has soared from a handful of cases in 2003 to more than 300 cases by 2010. "My lab is seeing an increasing number of resistant strains year on year," said Prof Neil Woodford, of the Health Protection Agency's antimicrobial resistance unit. Most cases are resistant to some drugs. Even worse, there are a few cases of strains which no antibiotic can touch.

Many infections which were almost eliminated are coming back. The sexually transmitted disease gonorrhoea is becoming increasingly difficult to treat. Around the world, multi-drug resistant and extremely-drug resistant tuberculosis is a growing problem. Only a couple of drugs still work.

Infections that hit the elderly when they are  in hospital are one of the main concerns. The greatest threat in the UK is opportunistic bugs which live in the gut such as E. coli and Klebsiella. They are now the most common form of infection which patients get in hospital. They show rising levels of resistance to antibiotics.

Official warnings
The UK Cabinet Office has issued a warning by the National Risk Register for Civil Emergencies. It says "the number of infections complicated by antimicrobial resistance could increase markedly over the next 20 years". "Without effective antibiotics, even minor surgery and routine operations could become high-risk procedures, leading to increased duration of illness and ultimately premature mortality".

World Health Organization
The WHO has issued similar assessments:
"The use and misuse of antimicrobials... over the past 70 years has led to a relentless rise in the number and types of microorganisms resistant to these medicines – leading to death, increased suffering and disability, and higher healthcare costs".
Deaths from acute respiratory infections, diarrhoeal diseases, measles, AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis account for more than 85% of the mortality from infection worldwide. Resistance to first-line drugs in most of the pathogens causing these diseases ranges from zero to almost 100%. In some instances resistance to second- and thirdline agents is seriously compromising treatment outcome. The bacteria that cause tuberculosis (TB) can develop resistance to the antimicrobial drugs used to cure the disease. Multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) is TB that does not respond to at least isoniazid and rifampicin, the 2 most powerful anti-TB drugs (WHO, 2018)
"Added to this is the significant global burden of resistant, hospital-acquired infections, the emerging problems of antiviral resistance and the increasing problems of drug resistance in the neglected parasitic diseases of poor and marginalized populations".

The WHO has now listed the world's most threatening superbugs. Antibiotic resistant infections are being seen all over the world.  In 2023 it said AMR has been associated with almost 5 million deaths a year and had cost the world $100 trillion in global economic losses.

Shareholders
About 70 per cent of antibiotics are given to farm animals to prevent disease. .Campaigners against misuse of antibiotics have raised the issue of antibiotics used in farming at company meetings, especially North American fast-food restaurant companies.

Examples
Given enough time, and repeated exposure to the antibiotic, a population of antibiotic-resistant bacteria will emerge. This leads to what is known as an evolutionary arms race, or co-evolution, in which bacteria continue to develop strains that are less susceptible to antibiotics, while medical researchers continue to develop new antibiotics that can kill them. A similar situation occurs with pesticide resistance in plants and insects, and with malarial resistance to quinine.

Gonorrhoea
A man in the UK has caught the "world's worst-ever case" of gonorrhoea, a sexually-transmitted disease. The main treatment by antibiotics azithromycin and ceftriaxone has failed to cure the disease. An authority said "This is the first time a case has displayed such high-level resistance to both of these drugs and to most other commonly used antibiotics".

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus
New strains of Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) have emerged that are resistant the next generation of drugs.

Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease caused by bacteria. It is caused by various types of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The disease usually attacks the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. The pathogen can travel through the air, and spread from one person to the next. Experts believe that one third of the world population is infected with M. tuberculosis.  New infections occur at a rate of one per second.

Drug-resistant TB is a serious public health issue in many developing countries, as its treatment is longer and requires more expensive drugs. MDR-TB is defined as resistance to the two most effective first-line TB drugs: rifampicin and isoniazid. Extensively drug-resistant TB is also resistant to three or more of the six classes of second-line drugs.

Totally drug-resistant TB was first observed in 2003 in Italy, but not widely reported until 2012. It is resistant to all currently used drugs.

Malaria
Malaria infections are not caused by bacteria: they are caused by a protozoan parasite injected into the blood by a mosquito. They are normally treated by a combination of two drugs, artemether-lumefantrine. In 2017 four cases occurred in Britain where the drugs have failed. The patients got the disease in Africa. A doctor said "It is an early sign and we need to take it quite seriously as it may be snowballing into something with greater impact".

Teixobactin
Teixobactin is an antibiotic discovered in 2015, the first new antibiotic discovered for forty years. It is not yet licensed for general use. It works against all gram-positive bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus and against some other bacteria such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

References

Evolutionary biology
Infectious diseases
Antibiotics

Antibiotic resistance


Fernand Goux (31 December 1899 – 9 November 2008) was, at age 108, the penultimate French World War I veteran, with Pierre Picault being the last.

Born in Sceaux-du-Gâtinais, Loiret, Goux was called up for service on 19 April 1918. Goux was deployed behind the front lines with the 85th Infantry Regiment, supplying the troops and burying the dead. On 3 November 1918, he was sent to the front line with the 82nd Infantry Regiment for the last week of the war. This made him one of two remaining trench veterans, along with Englishman Harry Patch.

However the French government did not recognize Goux as a poilu as he fought less than the requisite three months. The last official veteran thus remains Italian-born Lazare Ponticelli, who was buried with state honours on 17 March 2008, with Louis de Cazenave the last recognized native Frenchman to have served. After the war Goux worked as a farmer and he lived in the Île-de-France region.

See also
List of last surviving World War I veterans by country

References

1899 births
2008 deaths
French centenarians
French military personnel of World War I
Men centenarians
People from Loiret

Fernand Goux


Fabio Roscioli (born 12 March 1953), known by his stage name Ryan Paris, is an Italian singer, songwriter, musician and actor who gained international popularity in 1983 for the worldwide hit single "Dolce Vita", written and produced by Pierluigi Giombini.

Career
"Dolce Vita" was released in the United Kingdom on the Carrere Records label, distributed by RCA and spent ten weeks in the UK Singles Chart, peaking at Number 5. The record peaked at Number 1 in France, Belgium, Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Spain and peaked at Number 3 in Germany. Ryan Paris continued to release records in the mid-1980s and 1990s. In 2010 he made a comeback with a new song, "I Wanna Love You Once Again", which he wrote and composed, with production by Eddy Mi Ami. At the end of that year, Paris co-produced a remix of "Dolce Vita" which peaked at number 54 in the official French club chart.

In 2013, the song "Sensation of Love", written and produced by Paris, was released as a single by Bulgarian artist Miroslav Kostadinov, peaking at number 15 in the official Bulgarian CD chart. A new version of the song, with a more 1980s vibe, co-produced by Paris together with Eddy Mi Ami and sung in a duet with Valerie Flor, was released in March 2014.

Paris continues to record and produce songs; his most recent releases include the songs "You Are My Life", "Buonasera Dolce Vita" and "Love on Ice". In December 2017, Paris sang "Dolce Vita" in the Catalan language for the Fundació la Marato. This version was produced by Jordi Cubino (David Lyme) and was recorded as a charity single for the benefit of the foundation, with the proceeds being utilised for the study of several human illnesses.

Discography

Albums
 1984: Ryan Paris, RCA Italiana (released in Italy only)
 2002: The Best Of
 2000: I Successi
 2002: Best Of
 2004: Dolce Vita (Box mit 2 CDs)
 2004: Let's Do It Together
 2004: Don't Let Me Down

Singles

 1983: "Dolce Vita"
 1984: "Fall in Love"
 1984: "Paris on My Mind"
 1984: "Bluette"
 1985: "Harry's Bar"
 1988: "Besoin d'amour"
 1989: "Dolce Vita" (Remix)
 1991: "Dolce Vita" / "Fall in Love"
 1992: "The Beat Goes On"
 1993: "Don't Let Me Down"
 1994: "Mr. Jones"
 1995: "It's My Life" (Gen 64 feat. Ryan Paris)
 1997: "Only for You" (Favilli feat. Ryan Paris)
 1999: "Dolce Vita '99"
 2009: "Dolce Vita" (re-master)
 2010: "I Wanna Love You Once Again"
 2010: "In Love Again"
 2011: "Tiki–Tiki–Tiki"
 2012: "Parisienne Girl" (80's Remix)
 2013: "Sensation of Love"
 2013: "Yo quiero amarte una vez mas"
 2015: "Together Again"
 2016: "It's My Life" (Remix by Eddy Mi Ami)
 2017: "Buonasera Dolce Vita" (feat. Mauro)
 2017: "Dolce vita la marato" (Jordi Cubino version)
 2018: "Can Delight" (duet with George Aaron)
 2023: "Simply Paradise" (duet with Mac DeMarco)

See also
 One-hit wonders in the UK

References

External links

1953 births
Living people
Musicians from Rome
Italian male singers
Italian Italo disco musicians
Italian male film actors
English-language singers from Italy
Carrere Records artists
RCA Records artists

Ryan Paris


Why Man Creates is a 1968 animated short documentary film that discusses the nature of creativity.  It was written by Saul Bass and Mayo Simon and directed by Saul Bass. It won the Oscar for Best Documentary Short Subject. An abbreviated version of it ran on the first broadcast of CBS' 60 Minutes on September 24, 1968.

Why Man Creates focuses on the creative process and the different approaches taken to that process. It is divided into eight sections: The Edifice, Fooling Around, The Process, Judgment, A Parable, Digression, The Search, and The Mark.

In 2002, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

Saul Bass started thinking about creativity in the mid-1950s when he participated  in a New York Art Directors Club "Visual Communications Conference on Creativity (1958). In 1966 he was hired by the Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Company to produce what was essentially  a recruiting film for scientists and engineers from the East Coast, which then financed Why Man Creates with a budget of $200,000, which eventually exceeded $400,000.

Summary

The Edifice begins with early humans hunting. They attempt to conquer their prey with stones, but fail, so they begin to use spears and bait.  They kill their prey and it turns into a cave painting, upon which a building begins to be built. Throughout the rest of the section, the camera tracks upward as the edifice grows ever taller.

Early cave dwellers begin to discover various things such as the lever, the wheel, ladders, agriculture, and fire. It then cuts to clips of early societies and civilizations. It depicts the appearance of the first religions and the advent of organized labor. It then cuts to the Great Pyramids at Giza and depicts the creation of writing.

Soon an army begins to move across the screen chanting, "Bronze", but they are overrun by an army chanting, "Iron". The screen then depicts early cities and civilizations.

This is followed by a black screen with one man in traditional Greek clothing who states, "All was in chaos 'til Euclid arose and made order."  Next, various Greek achievements in mathematics are depicted as Greek columns are built, around which Greeks discuss items, including, "What is the good life and how do you lead it?" "Who shall rule the state?"  "The Philosopher King." "The aristocrat." "The people." "You mean all the people?" "What is the nature of the Good? What is the nature of justice?" "What is happiness?" A man in a bird costume then attempts to fly, a possible reference to Icarus.

The culture of ancient Greece fades into the armies of Rome. The organized armies surround the great Roman architecture as they chant, "Hail Caesar!" A man at a podium states, "Roman law is now in session", and when he bangs his gavel, the architecture collapses. Dark soldiers begin to pop up from the rubble and eventually cover the whole screen with darkness symbolizing the Dark Ages.

The Dark Ages consist of inaudible whisperings and mumblings. At one point, a light clicks on and an Arab mathematician says, "Allah be praised. I've invented the zero." at which point his colleague responds, "What?" and he says "Nothing, nothing." Next come cloistered monks who sing in Gregorian Chant: "What is the shape of the Earth? Flat. What happens when you get to the edge? You fall off. Does the earth move? Never."

Finally the scene brightens and shows a stained glass window. Various scientists open stained glass doors and say things such as, "The Earth moves." "The Earth is round." "The blood circulates." "There are worlds smaller than ours." "There are worlds larger than ours." Each time one opens a door, a large, hairy arm slams the door shut. Finally, the stained glass breaks in the wake of the new enlightenment.

Next, Michelangelo and da Vinci are depicted. The steam engine is invented, and gears and belts begin to cover everything. The light bulb and steam locomotive are created. Darwin is referred to as two men hit each other with their canes arguing whether man is an animal. The telegraph is invented and psychology created. Next, a small creature hops across the screen saying, "I'm a bug, I'm a germ, I'm a bug, I'm a germ... [indrawn breath] Louis Pasteur.  I'm not a bug, I'm not a germ..." The musicians Tchaikovsky and Beethoven are depicted.  Alfred Nobel invents dynamite.

Next, the cartooning shows the great speeches and documents on government and society from the American Revolution onward with quotes such as, "All men are created equal...", "Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness", "And the government, by the people,...", etc. and ends with "One world."

Finally, the building stops and the Wright brothers' plane lands on top of it. It is quickly covered in more advanced planes, in cars, in televisions, and finally in early computers. At the top is a radioactive atom which envelops a man in smoke. The edifice ends with that man yelling, "Help."

Fooling Around displays a random series of perspectives and the creative ideas which come from them.

The Process displays a man who is making artwork from a series of geometrical figures. Each time he attempts to keep them in place, they move and rearrange themselves, or collapses altogether on the man.  He tries many different approaches to the problem. In between, there are three quotations from Thomas Edison, Ernest Hemingway, and Albert Einstein on what one has to do to solve problems. Finally he accepts a working configuration and calls his wife to look at it. She says, "All it needs is an American flag."

Judgment is a series of reactions, presumably to the creation from The Process. It displays their criticisms of it, such as "It represents the decline of Western culture...", and only a very few support it. A cowboy is the human target. A lady (voice veteran June Foray) voices a sound of approval.

A Parable begins at a ping-pong ball factory. Each ball is made in exactly the same way, and machines test them to get rid of anomalies. As the balls are being tested for their bounce levels, one bounces much higher than the rest.  It is placed in a chute which leads to a garbage can outside the factory. It proceeds to bounce across town to a park, where it begins to bounce.  Quickly, a cluster of ping-pong balls gather around it.  It keeps bouncing higher and higher, until it doesn't come back. It concludes with the comment:
"There are some who say he's coming back and we have only to wait ...
There are some who say he burst up there because balls were not meant to fly ...
And there are some who maintain he landed safely in a place where balls bounce high ..."

Digression is a very short section in which one snail says to another, "Have you ever thought that radical ideas threaten institutions, then become institutions, and in turn reject radical ideas which threaten institutions?" to which the other snail replies "No." and the first says dejectedly, "Gee, for a minute I thought I had something."

The Search shows scientists who have been working for years on projects such as solving world hunger (James F. Bonner), developing a cure for Cancer (Renato Dulbecco), or questioning the origin of the universe (Jesse Greenstein). Then it shows a scientist,  who has worked on a project for seven years, which did not work out. He is asked what he will do next, and he replies that he does not know. (Note: each of the scientists shown was working on something which still has not been solved to date, even though each one expected solid results in only a few years. This forwards the concept shown in this session far better than the creators could have known in 1968.)

The Mark asks the question, Why does man create? and determines that man creates to simply state, "I Am." The film ends by displaying "I Am" written in paint on the side of a building.

Production
Although uncredited, George Lucas, who was studying film at University of Southern California (USC) at the time, was the second unit cameraman on this film. Portions of this film also appear in the Saul Bass pitch video for the Bell System logo redesign.

Why Man Creates today

 the film was distributed by Pyramid Media. They offer English and Spanish versions, DVD and VHS versions, and also offer two differently-priced versions (one for an educational/institutional license, and one for a personal-use license). Why Man Creates was restored by the Academy Film Archive in 2011.

References

External links
 Why Man Creates essay by Sean Savage at National Film Registry
Why Man Creates essay by Daniel Eagan in America's Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the National Film Registry, A&C Black, 2010 , pages 644-645

Watch Why Man Creates at the C-SPAN Video Library
Why Man Creates at Pyramid Media
Why Man Creates  on BCDB

1968 films
1968 animated films
1960s American animated films
1960s animated short films
1968 documentary films
1968 independent films
American short documentary films
Best Documentary Short Subject Academy Award winners
Films directed by Saul Bass
Kaiser Aluminum
Sponsored films
United States National Film Registry films
1968 directorial debut films
1960s short documentary films
1960s English-language films

Why Man Creates


François-Xavier Joseph de Casabianca (27 June 1796 – 24 May 1881) was a French aristocrat, lawyer and politician who served as minister of agriculture and commerce, minister of finance, and president of the council of state in the government of Louis Napoleon.

Early years

de Casabianca was born in Nice, Alpes-Maritimes, on 27 June 1796 to François-Louis-Camille-Giocante de Casabianca (1776-1837) and Maria-Ilaria (1773-1835), and was nephew of Raphaël, Comte de Casabianca. The family had contributed to the annexation of that island to France.

de Casabianca obtained good grades at the lycée Napoléon, studied law at the University of Paris, and in 1820 he became a member of the bar of Bastia, in Corsica, practicing as a lawyer until 1848.  Since he was a Bonapartist, the government of King Louis Philippe I kept him away from public office.

Representative and minister

After the February Revolution, on 23 April 1848 de Casabianca was elected to the constituent assembly as representative of Corsica.  He joined the majority and generally voted with the right.  After the presidential election of 10 December 1848 he became one of the most zealous supporters of the president, Prince Louis Napoleon.  He was reelected on 13 May 1849 as representative of Corsica in the legislative assembly.  He continued to support the president, while joining the monarchist majority in votes.  However, he abandoned the majority when conflict broke out with Louis Napoleon.

On 26 October 1851 de Casabianca joined the cabinet as minister of agriculture and commerce after the retirement of Léon Faucher, and fter a few weeks became minister of finance, a position held at the time of the coup of 2 December 1851.  When told by Louis-Napoleon of the planned coup the day before it took place, de Casabianca refused on principle to participate and was temporarily relieved of office.  On 22 January 1852 de Casabianca was charged with organizing the new ministry of state. He left office on 28 July 1852 and entered the senate, where he voted for the establishment of the Second French Empire, and continued to vote with the majority.

Later years

By a decree of 5 March 1864 de Casabianca was named attorney general at the court of accounts.  During the Franco-Prussian War (19 July 1870 – 10 May 1871), on 4 September 1870 he returned to private life.  He briefly returned to politics when he was elected on 14 May 1876 as deputy for the Bastia district.  He sat on the right with the Appel au peuple party.  He did not stand in the 1877 elections.  de Casabianca was named a grand Oofficer of the Legion of Honour in 1858.  He died in Paris on 24 May 1881.

References
Citations

Sources

1796 births
1881 deaths
People from Nice
Politicians from Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
Party of Order politicians
Appel au peuple
French Ministers of Agriculture and Commerce
French Ministers of Finance
Members of the 1848 Constituent Assembly
Members of the National Legislative Assembly of the French Second Republic
French senators of the Second Empire
Members of the 1st Chamber of Deputies of the French Third Republic
19th-century French lawyers
Francois

François-Xavier Joseph de Casabianca


The Seattle SuperSonics relocation to Oklahoma City was a successful effort by the ownership group of the Seattle SuperSonics to relocate the team from Seattle, Washington to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The team began play as the Oklahoma City Thunder in the 2008–09 NBA season, after becoming the third National Basketball Association (NBA) franchise to relocate in the 2000s.

After failed efforts to persuade Washington state government officials to provide $220 million in public funding to update KeyArena, the SuperSonics' ownership group, led by Howard Schultz, sold the team to the Professional Basketball Club LLC (PBC), an investment group headed by Oklahoma City businessman Clay Bennett. A condition of the sale was that PBC execute a "good faith effort" to secure a suitable arena in the Seattle area for the team. After failing to persuade local governments to pay for a new $500 million arena complex, Bennett's group notified the NBA that it intended to move the team to Oklahoma City and requested arbitration with the city of Seattle to be released from its lease with KeyArena. When the request was rejected by a judge, Seattle sued Bennett's group to enforce the lease that required the team to play in KeyArena through 2010. On July 2, 2008, a settlement was reached where PBC would pay $45 million in exchange for breaking the lease, and an additional $30 million if Seattle was not given a replacement team in five years, among other conditions.

In months prior to the settlement, Seattle publicly released email conversations that took place within Bennett's ownership group alleging they indicated that some members of the group had a desire to move the team to Oklahoma City prior to its purchase in 2006. The city used these conversations to argue that ownership failed to negotiate in good faith and as a result, Schultz filed a lawsuit seeking to rescind the sale of the team and transfer the ownership to a court-appointed receiver. The NBA claimed the lawsuit was void because Schultz signed a release forbidding himself to sue Bennett's group but also argued that the proposal would have violated league ownership rules. Schultz dropped the case before the start of the 2008–09 NBA season. Ten years later, in 2019, Schultz accepted full responsibility for the sale. "Selling the Sonics as I did is one of the biggest regrets of my professional life. I should have been willing to lose money until a local buyer emerged. I am forever sorry."

Sale of team

In 2001, ownership of the Seattle SuperSonics transferred from Barry Ackerley to Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz. In the five years Schultz owned the SuperSonics, the team suffered heavy financial losses due to Schultz's plan to sell, which led Schultz to seek funding from the Washington State Legislature for a newer, more modern arena in the Puget Sound region as a replacement for KeyArena at Seattle Center. On July 18, 2006, the Basketball Club of Seattle, led by Schultz, sold the SuperSonics and its sister team, the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA)'s Seattle Storm, after failing to reach an agreement with the city of Seattle over a publicly funded $220 million expansion of KeyArena. KeyArena was remodeled in 1995 and was the NBA's smallest venue, with a seating capacity of 17,072. After failing to find a local ownership group to sell the team to, Schultz talked to ownership groups from Kansas City, St. Louis, Las Vegas, San Jose and Anaheim before agreeing to sell the team to an ownership group from Oklahoma City, which pursued an NBA franchise after hosting the New Orleans Hornets franchise successfully for two seasons as the city of New Orleans rebuilt from Hurricane Katrina. The sale to Clay Bennett's ownership group for $350 million was approved by NBA owners on October 24, 2006. Terms of the sale required the new ownership group to "use good faith best efforts" for a term of 12 months in securing a new arena lease or venue in the Seattle metropolitan area. Further complicating matters, the voters of Seattle passed Initiative 91, a measure that virtually prohibited the use of public money on sporting arenas. This lack of taxpayer or government financial support for the team, combined with earlier losses under recent ownership groups, "likely doomed the Sonics' future in the city".

On February 12, 2007, Bennett proposed using tax money to pay for a new $500 million arena in Renton, Washington, a suburb of Seattle. After failing to reach a deal by the end of the legislative session, Bennett gave up his attempt in April 2007. On November 2, 2007 the team announced it would move to Oklahoma City as soon as it could get out of its KeyArena lease. Seattle's mayor, Greg Nickels, maintained a stance that the Sonics were expected to stay in Seattle until their lease expired in 2010 and said the city did not intend to make it easy for Bennett to move the team early. Over concerns the city would accept a buyout of the lease, a grassroots group filed a citywide initiative that sought to prevent the city from accepting such an offer from Bennett's group. The Seattle City Council later unanimously passed an ordinance modeled after the initiative.

On August 13, 2007, Aubrey McClendon, a minor partner of Bennett's ownership group, said in an interview with The Journal Record (an Oklahoma City newspaper) that the team was not purchased to keep it in Seattle but to relocate it to Oklahoma City. Bennett later denied such intentions, saying McClendon "was not speaking on behalf of the ownership group". Due to his comments, McClendon was fined $250,000 by the NBA. More than ten years later, in 2019, Schultz accepted responsibility for the sale. "Selling the Sonics as I did is one of the biggest regrets of my professional life. I should have been willing to lose money until a local buyer emerged."

Relocation effort
On September 21, 2007, Bennett applied for arbitration on the issue of whether the team could break its lease in 2008. Arguing that the lease does not allow for arbitration on the issue of occupancy, the city of Seattle filed for declaratory relief on September 24. The motion asked the King County Superior court to reject the arbitration request and enforce the Specific Performance Clause of the Sonics' lease, which required the team to play at KeyArena through 2010. United States District Court Judge Ricardo Martinez denied the request for arbitration on October 29, saying that the "arguments ignore the clear language of Article II, which states that PBC's use and occupancy rights with respect to the Premises and the Term of this Agreement shall end on September 30, 2010."

Two days after Bennett's October 31, 2007 deadline passed for public financing of a new arena, he informed NBA commissioner David Stern that the ownership group intended to move the Sonics to Oklahoma City as soon as it was legally possible. The timing of the announcement, one day after the Sonics' home opener, drew critical comments from Tom Carr, Seattle's attorney, who said "Mr. Bennett's announcement today is a transparent attempt to alienate the Seattle fan base and follow through on his plan to move the team to Oklahoma City ... Making this move now continues the current ownership's insulting behavior toward the Sonics' dedicated fans and the citizens of the city." Bennett also reiterated that the team was not for sale and dismissed attempts by local groups to repurchase the team.

On February 15, 2008, the Sonics' ownership group gave the city of Seattle a one-day deadline to accept a $26.5 million offer that would buy out the Sonics' lease in KeyArena and pay off what the ownership group claimed was the value of debts on the arena. The city rejected the offer.

The prospect of expanding KeyArena resurfaced on March 6, 2008, when Microsoft CEO at that time Steve Ballmer, promised that his investor group would pay half of the $300 million needed for an extensive renovation; the rest was to be provided by the city and county. However, when the state legislature did not give approval for the county to provide funds by an April 10 deadline, Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels said that the effort had failed and the city's hopes rested in its lawsuit.

Oklahoma City's preparations

In anticipation of an NBA team, and led by Mayor Mick Cornett, who had successfully lobbied for the previous temporary relocation of the New Orleans Hornets to Oklahoma City, the voters of that city approved a $120 million renovation of the Ford Center on March 3, 2008, including construction of a new NBA practice facility. After a tour of downtown Oklahoma City, a subcommittee of three NBA owners recommended that the league approve the move. On March 14, Bennett reached a preliminary agreement with Oklahoma City on a 15-year lease of the Ford Center that was finalized by the Oklahoma City Council and the Sonics' ownership group two weeks later. The Oklahoma State Legislature later approved a bill to provide tax breaks and other incentives if the team relocated.

NBA owners gave approval of a potential SuperSonics' relocation to Oklahoma City on April 18 in a 28–2 vote by the league's Board of Governors; only Mark Cuban of the Dallas Mavericks and Paul Allen of the Portland Trail Blazers voted against the move. The approval meant the Sonics would be allowed to move to Oklahoma City's Ford Center for the 2008–2009 season after reaching a settlement with the city of Seattle.

Popular opposition in Seattle
In 2006, a group of Seattle residents created Save Our Sonics and Storm ("SOS") to rally support for a permanent professional basketball presence in Seattle. The "and Storm" portion of the name was dropped when the WNBA Storm was sold to local ownership. On June 16, 2008, the group organized a well-publicized rally, which reportedly drew over 3,000 participants, at the U.S. District Courthouse in Seattle to protest the proposed relocation of the team.  The rally was held on the first day of the city of Seattle's lawsuit against the PBC to enforce the remaining two years on the KeyArena lease.

Lawsuits

City of Seattle v. Professional Basketball Club LLC
Seattle filed a lawsuit on September 23, 2007 in an attempt to keep the Sonics from leaving before the end of their lease in 2010. The trial was set for June 16, 2008. On April 10, 2008, Seattle asked the Federal District Court to order the NBA to release documents related to the financial situation of each team, the claim that the SuperSonics' lease with KeyArena was financially unworkable, and the league's involvement in requiring PBC to make a good-faith effort to stay in Seattle. On April 28, the trial's presiding judge, Loretta Preska, ruled that the NBA must supply the internal documents about the possible relocation of the Sonics that the city of Seattle had requested. In addition, the judge said that Stern could be deposed at a later day should the need arise. The city hoped the documents would aid in building its legal case, and cited an email conversation among members of the ownership group that suggested they were privately discussing intent to move the team while publicly insisting that they would not attempt to do so.

The ownership group filed a motion saying that the lawsuit and the release of the emails by the city were meant to drive up the cost of leaving Seattle and force the ownership group to sell the team. The motion requested that all emails and other records be released to the team. Slade Gorton, lead attorney for the city, responded by pointing out that it was PBC that started the fight that led to the lawsuit when they filed for arbitration to break the lease. The motion was denied by the presiding judge, who said the team failed to make a "good-faith effort" to resolve the dispute and that it failed to show that trial preparations were hindered by the records not being made public. However, the ruling also said the team could bring up the issue again if it could prove the relevance or the confidentiality of the records.

On April 21, 2008, Gorton said he would be open to a settlement if the league promised a replacement team for Seattle. He said it was "highly unlikely" that the Sonics would stay and indicated the city should instead focus on gaining a replacement team, but noted that local governments would need to be willing to fund an expansion of KeyArena first.

When Bennett's group requested that the trial also decide the team's financial obligations to KeyArena should its lease be broken, Seattle's lawyers requested a six-month delay in the trial date in order to prepare for the additional issues, arguing that the ownership group's request would "dramatically change the scope" of the case and would require considerable preparation time to determine damages. The trial's presiding judge denied the motion by Bennett's group on March 6, noting that the team would have needed to make the request at the scheduling conference. A second trial would therefore need to have been held to determine the team's financial obligations.

Attorneys made their closing arguments in the city's case on June 26 and Judge Marsha J. Pechman announced that she would issue her ruling on the following Wednesday. On July 2, hours before Judge Pechman was to release her ruling, it was announced that the team and the city had reached a settlement where PBC would pay the city $45 million immediately in exchange for breaking the lease, and an additional $30 million if Seattle was not given a replacement team in five years. According to the conditions of the settlement, the Sonics' name and colors could not be used by the team in Oklahoma City, but could be taken by a future team in Seattle, although no promises for a replacement team were given. The Oklahoma City team would retain the franchise history of the SuperSonics, which could be "shared" with any future NBA team in Seattle. The team moved to Oklahoma City immediately and announced it would begin play in the 2008–09 season.

Basketball Club of Seattle LLC v. Professional Basketball Club LLC

The release of email conversations between members of Bennett's group prompted former Sonics' owner Howard Schultz to file a lawsuit that sought to rescind the sale of the team and alleged that Bennett's group used fraud and misrepresentation to purchase the Sonics without making a "good faith best effort" to keep them in Seattle as mandated by the original sales contract. Bennett said the emails were misinterpreted and that he had spent millions of dollars in attempting to keep the team in Seattle.

The lawsuit was filed on April 22, 2008 at the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington. It sought, among other things, an injunction to prevent the Sonics from being relocated from Seattle to Oklahoma City. The suit further requested that the franchise be placed in a constructive trust and no longer in the ownership of PBC. On May 20, 2008, Schultz's attorney added alleged a breach of contract as a third cause of action against Bennett. Chicago-based attorney and ESPN senior writer Lester Munson said that while the remedies Schultz sought were "without precedent in the sports industry", he did believe that both the Schultz case and Seattle's lease case presented "serious problems" for Bennett.

On May 9, 2008, Oklahoma City officials declared intent to sue for damages and a forced relocation of the SuperSonics if Schultz's lawsuit succeeded and the subsequent ownership did not relocate. In a legal letter to Schultz, Oklahoma City's attorney said that the Sonics were legally bound to relocate to Oklahoma City at the end of the KeyArena lease regardless of who owned the team. The letter stated that the city had "valid and enforceable agreements with the Team requiring it relocate to Oklahoma City at the end of the current lease with the city of Seattle." Schultz's attorney replied to the letter saying the lease agreement was with PBC, not BCOS, and that the city began improvements on Ford Center at their own risk prior to conclusion of the pending litigation.

The NBA filed a motion to intervene with Seattle's federal court on July 9, 2008, claiming that Schultz's lawsuit would interfere with the stable operation of the franchise and the transfer of ownership would violate NBA regulations unless the team was put under control of NBA Commissioner David Stern. The league also claimed that Schultz signed a release forbidding him to sue Bennett's ownership group as a condition of the NBA's approval of the original sale. Weeks later, Schultz requested that two separate trials be used to determine whether Bennett's group committed fraud and subsequently determine a remedy. On August 29, 2008, shortly after the court denied his request and ruled that the NBA could intervene in the case, Schultz said his legal team no longer believed the case could be won. He announced he would drop the lawsuit, saying in a prepared statement, "The prevailing wisdom of many in the Seattle community and the advice of key members of the BCOS is that Seattle's best chance for a professional basketball franchise is to end this litigation and allow the City, State Legislature and other parties to begin the necessary fence mending with the NBA."

Distribution of assets
According to the terms detailed in the settlement agreement, items associated with the SuperSonics' history in Seattle, including trophies, banners, and retired jerseys, stayed in the city and were placed in the Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI). Other items such as televisions, radios, headphones, CDs, chairs, and equipment were shipped to Oklahoma City after the Seattle Storm finished the 2008 WNBA season.

Chronicles
In 2009, Seattle-based filmmakers released Sonicsgate, a documentary chronicling the history of the SuperSonics, especially including the team's relocation to Oklahoma City.

In 2012, the book Big League City: Oklahoma City's Rise to the NBA by now mayor David Holt chronicled the story from Oklahoma City's perspective.

See also
 Relocation of professional sports teams
 List of relocated National Basketball Association teams

References

Oklahoma City Thunder
Seattle SuperSonics
National Basketball Association controversies
Basketball in Oklahoma City
Relocated National Basketball Association teams
2008 in sports in Washington (state)
2008 in Oklahoma
2008–09 NBA season


Latex rubber is used in the manufacture of many types of clothing. It has traditionally been used to make protective clothing, including gas masks and Wellington boots. Mackintoshes have traditionally been made from rubberized cloth. However, rubber has now generally been replaced in these applications by synthetic polymers.

Latex rubber as a clothing material is common in fetish fashion and among BDSM practitioners, and is often worn at fetish clubs. It is sometimes also used by couturiers for its unusual appearance. Several magazines are dedicated to its use. Latex clothing tends to be skin-tight, but can also be loose-fitting.

Design and manufacture

A handful of companies around the world manufacture latex suitable for contact with human skin, and supply it to a larger number of smaller fashion clothing companies. In the past, some marketplaces suffered from de facto monopoly supply conditions, where a sheet supplier could impose restrictive ordering requirements. Being able to order only half-kilometre long batches of sheet in the colours and thicknesses they wanted meant that designers and clothing producers often had to co-operate, or face long delays in supplying their customers.

Since 2000, the sheet market has been exposed to competition courtesy of the Internet, producing an explosion in cottage industry latex fetish clothing makers.

Sheet-based latex clothing is made in a three-stage process:

A pattern for a specific garment is selected and adjusted carefully to the measurements supplied by the customer.
Sheet latex is cut out by hand on a flat board.
Glue (generally rubber cement or a similar solvent-based adhesive) is applied to join the seams.
Skilled latex makers can build a stocking, shaped to match the contours of a specific person's leg, from latex only 0.2 mm thick, in under an hour. It is possible to use water-based glues such as Copydex; however, the items' durability is usually affected.

Latex moulded clothing is produced by dipping a mould into a vat of liquid rubber. Dealing with raw liquid latex is more difficult because of the extra effort required to keep its thickness consistent.  Inconsistent thickness can cause latex to fail at its weak points faster than items made from sheet latex.  This has led to a stigma against molded latex garments, to the detriment of those few latex providers who have proper mold-making techniques.  When done properly, a molded latex is just as durable as sheet latex, and it is the preferred method for the skilled crafting of heavy contours such as hoods or gloves. Is impossible to get solid sheets to fit complex contours as well as properly molded latex can.  The belief that sheet latex is superior to all molded latex is completely false; ultimately, a garment's success depends on its creator's abilities, as even poorly made sheet latex can easily fail.  Sheet latex is the preferred method for items such as catsuits that do not need perfect form fitting, and are easier to create with sheets compared to the large molds required for bodysuits.

While there is little difference in latex clothing made from liquid latex versus sheet latex in the hands of a skilled artisan, liquid latex is cured via air drying while sheet latex is cured by being vulcanized. This makes the two forms slightly different. Due to the difference in curing, liquid latex can be applied to sheet latex clothing to add unique patterns and designs, which can be peeled off the sheet latex afterwards.

Neither moulded nor sheet-based latex is amenable to large-scale mass production. Skilled manual artistry is an integral part of the process; this means that made-to-measure and special designs are much more accessible to the general buyer, in looking at fetish latex, than is the case with regular textiles.

Use in clothing

Latex has been used to make leotards, bodysuits, stockings and gloves, besides other garments. Latex is also often used to make specialist fetishistic garments like hoods and rubber cloaks.

Latex clothing is generally made from large sheets of latex, which are delivered in rolls. The "classic" colour for fetishistic latex clothing is black, but latex is naturally translucent and may be dyed any colour, including metallic shades or white. It can come in thicknesses which generally range from about 0.18 mm to 0.5 mm. Instead of being sewn, latex clothing is generally glued along its seams.

Because latex sheet is relatively weak, latex clothing needs special care to avoid tearing. While latex can be repaired using materials similar to those provided in a bicycle repair kit, the result is rarely as attractive as the original appearance of the garment.

Latex clothing is often polished to preserve and improve its shiny appearance.

Putting on latex clothing can be difficult, because latex has high friction against dry skin. To make it easier to put on, wearers often use talc to reduce friction against the skin when putting the clothes on; then, because stray talc is very visible against the rubber, wearers generally polish off any visible talc. Another method of dressing is using lubricant (lube) which provides a slippery surface for the latex to glide over.  A third method of reducing or eliminating the high friction of latex when dressing is to chlorinate the rubber.  Chlorine in gaseous form is generated by the reaction of hydrochloric acid and sodium hypochlorite.  This chlorine bonds to the first few molecules on the surface of the isoprene (latex) and transforms them into neoprene. This process affects metallic colours, but does not affect strength.

Latex may also be painted directly onto the body as latex in liquid form, which is also sometimes used to close seams in the creation of latex clothing. Removal of a painted on liquid latex garment can result in painful hair removal.  Wearers avoid this by preparing the skin by prior hair removal, the use of release agents to prevent the latex adhering to the hair, or using products such as orange oil to weaken the latex during removal.

Use of latex clothing has been popularized by media appearances, such as the outfit of Catwoman, a cat burglar, in Batman Returns or the outfits in The Matrix which are mostly made of latex, like popular celebrities Kim Kardashian, Lady Gaga, Kylie Jenner, Pamela Anderson, Shania Twain, Eliza Dushku, and Emma Watson has worn latex in publicity events or hangouts.

Use in fetish community

Latex clothing is a popular feature of the BDSM community. Latex or rubber fetishists sometimes refer to themselves as "rubberists". One reason why latex or other tight shiny fabrics may be fetishised is perhaps that the garment forms a "second skin" that acts as a fetishistic surrogate for the wearer's own skin. Thus, wearers of skin-tight latex or PVC garments may be perceived by the viewer as being naked, or simply coated in a shiny substance like paint. Latex can also be polished to be shiny and can also be produced in bright colours, adding further visual stimulus to add to the physical sensations produced by the material. The tightness of the garments may also be viewed as a kind of sexual bondage.

See also
 Fetish fashion
 Leather subculture
 Lolita fashion
 Modest fashion
 PVC clothing
 Swim cap

References

External links

BDSM equipment
Clothing by material
Fetish clothing
Paraphilias
Rubber products
Sportswear

Latex clothing


Liang Huazhi () (1906, Dingxiang, Shanxi – April 24, 1949, Taiyuan, Shanxi) was a Kuomintang official who served in the warlord Yan Xishan's government. A relative of Yan, Liang rose rapidly through Shanxi's power structure, founding and leading a number of organizations dedicated to combating both internal and external threats to Yan's rule. At first radically socialist and later radically anti-communist, Liang's life illustrates the rapid and dramatic career changes that were not uncommon in the chaotic age in which he lived. Liang is best known for the way that he died, committing suicide in a spectacular fashion as a final act of defiance against Shanxi's Communist invaders.

Like many Chinese men before 1949, Liang had more than one name. In contemporary Chinese sources he is more commonly known as "Liang Dunhou" (梁敦厚).

Early career

Liang's political career began in 1932, at the age of 26, when he was named a member of the Kuomintang Shanxi Provincial Governing Committee. Liang was Yan Xishan's nephew, and rapidly gained power within Yan's government in the environment created by Yan's radical economic policies (modeled on those of the Soviet Union) in the early 1930s. The opposition that Yan's socialist economic policies aroused among Shanxi's traditional elites made Yan favour the service of young, progressive followers with modern educations. From the start, Liang's influence on his uncle Yan was profound. By the 1930s Liang was the leader of the group of young bureaucrats in Shanxi who admired the industrial accomplishments of the Soviet Union, and who were determined to see a similar degree of economic progress achieved in modern China. Liang's enthusiasm for realizing Soviet accomplishments were so well known that, before the Second Sino-Japanese War, a Japanese writer accused Liang of being a Communist. Liang worked as Yan's secret representative to the Chinese Communist Party in 1936, and he succeeded in negotiating an anti-Japanese "united front" agreement between Yan and the Communists in October 1936.

Second Sino-Japanese War
In September 1936, on the eve of the Second Sino-Japanese War, Yan created the "Patriotic Sacrifice League", a semi-independent organization composed primarily of students and recent graduates for the purpose of encouraging the resistance against the Japanese invasion of China that Yan believed was imminent. Liang, who by 1936 was serving as Yan's personal secretary and enjoyed Yan's complete confidence, became one of the main leaders of the Sacrifice League.  In 1937 the Japanese finally invaded and occupied the northern half of Shanxi, suffering over 50,000 casualties. After the Japanese invasion Liang served as the Director of the Political Department of the Second War Zone, which included Shanxi, Suiyuan, Chahar, and northern Shaanxi. In order to help defeat the Japanese Yan enlisted the assistance of the Communists, who entered Shanxi and initially cooperated with Yan in order to defeat the Japanese.

In July 1937, shortly after the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, Liang's Sacrifice League led efforts to arrest, and promote awareness about the dangers of, Japanese spies and hanjian.  After the Japanese began to seriously  threaten Yan's capital of Taiyuan, Yan authorized the expansion of the Sacrifice League's "Dare-to-Die Corps" to a force of 15,000 men. This branch of the Sacrifice League became known as the "New Army", was composed mostly of young students, and became known for its fanatical resistance against the Japanese and for the pro-Communist views of its membership. During 1937 and 1938 Yan actively replaced his own magistrates with members of the Sacrifice League, who he believed were less selfish, more enthusiastic, and thus better qualified to lead an organized resistance against Japan. After withdrawing to southern Shanxi and waging a guerilla war against the Japanese, Yan owed much of his ability to work with and mobilize the local people to the efforts of Liang's Sacrifice League, whose members placed a high priority on their cooperation with the common people.

By 1939 Yan's relationship with the Communists had become very poor. Because the Sacrifice League was suspected of being pro-Communist, Yan actively suppressed it, arresting many of its members and attempting to disarm its Dare-to-Die Corps. Those who escaped fled to join the Communists. Liang remained loyal to Yan; and, by the early 1940s, was known as being fanatically anti-Communist. After the destruction of the Sacrifice League, Liang became the commander of Yan's police force, responsible for investigating and arresting citizens suspected of being Communists in the area that Yan controlled. Liang's rapid intellectual change, from radical support to radical opposition of Communists and communism, illustrates the dramatic shifts of allegiance that often took place within the minds of individual Chinese between 1937 and 1945.

Civil War
Hostilities continued between the Communists and Yan's forces shortly after the surrender of the Japanese in 1945. These hostilities continued until 1949, when the Communists took control of most of Shanxi, completely surrounding Yan's capital, Taiyuan, and cutting it off from all sources of military and logistical supply. In 1949, shortly before his death, Liang was named the Chairman of the Government of Shanxi.

The fall of Taiyuan was one of the few examples in the Chinese Civil War in which Nationalist forces echoed the defeated Ming loyalists who had, in the 17th century, brought entire cities to ruins resisting the invading Manchus.  Many Nationalist officers were reported to have committed suicide when the city fell. Liang Huazhi fought for years against the Communists in Shanxi until he was finally trapped in the massively fortified city of Taiyuan.  For six months Liang led a savage resistance, leading both Yan's remaining forces and those of the warlord's thousands of Japanese mercenaries.  When Communist troops finally broke into the city and began to occupy large sections of it, Liang barricaded himself inside a large, fortified prison complex filled with Communist prisoners.  In a final act of desperation, Liang set fire to the prison and committed suicide as the entire compound burned to the ground.

Footnotes

References
 Feng Chongyi and Goodman, David S. G., eds. North China at War: The Social Ecology of Revolution, 1937-1945. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield. 2000. . Retrieved June 3, 2012.
 Gillin, Donald G.  Warlord: Yen Hsi-shan in Shansi Province 1911-1949.  Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.  1967.
 Schemmel, B.  "Liang Huazhi".  Rulers.  B. Schemmel.  2011.  Retrieved on May 22, 2011.
 Spence, Jonathan D. (1999) The Search for Modern China, W.W. Norton and Company. .

1906 births
1949 suicides
1949 deaths
Chinese people of World War II
People of the Chinese Civil War
Republic of China politicians from Shanxi
Politicians from Xinzhou
Suicides in China
Suicides by self-immolation

Liang Huazhi


Pontoise is the train station serving the city of Pontoise and the surrounding suburbs. The station is a large building situated on Place Charles de Gaulle itself at the bottom end of Rue Thiers. Rue Thiers was built for the station and links Pontoise's Medieval centre to the railway.

The station was opened to link Paris to Dieppe, it is parallel to the line with a long footbridge stretching over the lines to the Canrobert bus station. Trains no longer serve Dieppe (now rerouted via Rouen) but is well served by regional trains (Transilien) to Paris St-Lazare and Paris Nord. Pontoise Station is also served by RER C which uses a new bridge built of the River Oise to increase capacity.

See also
 List of stations of the Paris RER
 List of stations of the Paris Métro

External links

Railway stations in Val-d'Oise
Railway stations in France opened in 1863

Pontoise station


The Wisconsin Field House (commonly known as the UW Field House) is a multi-purpose arena owned by the University of Wisconsin–Madison and located directly south of Camp Randall Stadium. In addition to sports events, the Field House has been the site of large community gatherings such as convocations and concerts. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1998.

History

The UW began supporting team sporting events in the 1800s. In 1892 the university completed the Red Gym for indoor sports, and in 1893 it bought Camp Randall to use as playing fields. Basketball was played at the UW beginning 1898 and grew in popularity, but the Red Gym seated only 2240 spectators, and was referred to as "the little cigar box gym."

In 1925 the UW regents began discussing a larger space. With pushing from athletic director George Little the new UW Field House was dedicated in 1930. William F. Stevens and John Knudsen designed it in Renaissance Revival style, working under State Architect Arthur Peabody. That style and the Madison sandstone which covers the exterior align with a master plan for the UW campus that Peabody had laid out with Warren Laird and Paul Cret in 1909, loosely matching the style of the campus's earliest buildings North Hall, South Hall, and Bascom Hall. The Field House has a concrete foundation, a steel framework within concrete walls clad in sandstone and decorated with dressed and carved limestone, and a gable roof covered with red clay tiles. The simple interior design of two large galleries worked so well that it influenced the design of other field houses.

The new Field House opened in 1930, with 9000 attending a dedication and a basketball game against Pennsylvania. It housed a successful college boxing program from 1933 until 1960. It hosted the 1941 NCAA basketball tournament East Regionals, won by the Badgers, who would go on to win the national title that year in Kansas City. It is where in 1941 the UW President told the students about the bombing of Pearl Harbor. In 1945 it hosted a celebration of Germany's surrender. It was home to the Wisconsin Badgers basketball team before that team moved to Kohl Center. Currently the building is used by the volleyball and wrestling teams. The Wisconsin volleyball team got its first-ever sellout on October 21, 2007, when they hosted No. 1 Penn State.

When the Field House opened in 1929, a single level of seating provided a capacity of 8,000. A balcony added in 1939 brought the capacity to 12,000. Later renovations reduced capacity to 10,600 for basketball. After the men's and women's basketball teams moved to the Kohl Center in 1998, the balcony was closed due to concerns over code violations, giving a reduced capacity of 6,012. Recent sellouts for women's volleyball matches prompted plans for renovating and reopening several sideline sections of the balcony, allowing a capacity of 7,052 for women's volleyball. A project to refurbish the exterior facade, replace windows, and create a pedestrian plaza between the Field House and Regent Street began in April 2020 and was substantially complete by the fall of 2020.

The "W" crest at the top of the Field House, whose actual designer is unknown, is frequently employed as the emblem of the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Trivia
The Field House hosted Milwaukee Bucks home playoff games in 1970, 1971 and 1973, along with a variety of Wisconsin high school sports events.

References

Further reading
 "Field House" in Jim Feldman, The Buildings of the University of Wisconsin. Madison, Wis.: University of Wisconsin Archives, 1997, pp. 213–216.

External links

 The Fieldhouse on UWBadgers.com
 Modern appreciation from Wisconsin Builder

College volleyball venues in the United States
University and college buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Wisconsin
Basketball venues in Wisconsin
Wisconsin Badgers basketball venues
Defunct college basketball venues in the United States
Sports venues in Madison, Wisconsin
National Register of Historic Places in Madison, Wisconsin
1930 establishments in Wisconsin
Sports venues completed in 1930
NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament Final Four venues

Wisconsin Field House


With All My Might is the second studio album by Canadian country music artist George Fox. It was released by Warner Music Canada in 1989. The album peaked at number 84 on the RPM Top Albums chart and was certified gold by the CRIA.

Warner Bros. Records released the album in the United States in 1990 with a different track list and new artwork. The U.S. version included three songs previously included on Fox's debut album, "Angelina", "Hey Johnny", and "Lonesome Avenue Goodbye (Goldmine)".

Track listing
All songs written by George Fox except where noted.

Chart performance

References

External links
[ With All My Might] at Allmusic

1989 albums
George Fox albums
Albums produced by Brian Ahern (producer)

With All My Might (album)


St John the Divine is the Church of England parish church situated in the suburb of Horninglow, north west of Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire. It is part of the Diocese of Lichfield.

The church was built in 1866, designed by Edward Holmes.

The church was designed (...) in a Geometrical style and consists of a chancel with north vestry, a nave of five bays, north and south aisles, and an engaged southwest tower with spire. It is built of brick faced externally with cream Coxbench stone and rendered internally with plaster and dressings of Bath stone. The nave arcades have octagonal piers with heavy, crocketed capitals and arches of blue York and red Alton stone in bands, and the high and wide chancel arch rests on corbels with short, detached stone shafts. The east window depicting the life of St. John the Evangelist is by William Warrington of London. The vestry was extended northwards in 1911, (fn. 20) and in 1928 the east end of the south aisle was fitted out as a Lady chapel with a memorial window for Sarah Auden depicting St. Chad and St. Hilda with Celtic motifs. The font is at the west end. A peal of four steel bells was increased to six in 1875-6.

The churchyard contains the CWGC war graves of eleven service personnel of World War I and six of World War II.

The first vicar of the church was John Auden, who died 23 November 1876. He was the father of George Augustus Auden and the grandfather of W. H. Auden.

References

External links

 St John the Divine, Horninglow

Borough of East Staffordshire
Horninglow
Churches completed in 1866
19th-century Church of England church buildings
1866 establishments in England

St John the Divine, Horninglow