PowerNation is a programming block of automotive how-to enthusiast television programs that began originally as the PowerBlock. It is currently produced by Gray Television, which purchased the assets of PowerNation's former owner Raycom Media in 2019. PowerNation consists of a block of automotive enthusiast shows including Engine Power, XOR (Xtreme Off Road), Truck Tech, and Detroit Muscle. PowerNation airs on the History Channel, and also features content on its own through a digital media player app available on the Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV and Roku platforms.

History
PowerNation first began airing on The Nashville Network (commonly referred to as TNN, now the Paramount Network, which shifted to a general entertainment model in 2018 and stopped carrying PowerNation programming) in 1999 as PowerBlock. PowerBlock rebranded to PowerNation in 2014 and began airing on NBCSN and CBS Sports Network in addition to the Paramount Network. PowerBlock was originally hosted by Michelle Spaziano, followed by Danica Patrick. PowerNation was originally hosted by Courtney Hansen, then later by Katie Osborne. PowerNation is produced by RTM Studios in Franklin, TN.

Programming

Engine Power
Engine Power (previously known as HorsePower, and originally Hot Rod TV) began airing in 1999 on The Nashville Network (now Paramount Network), hosted by Joe Elmore and Chuck Hanson, and later added Mike Galley. In later years, engine builders Buddy Hendricks then John Bouchard were added and shared co-hosting duties. Engine Power is currently hosted by Pat Topolinski and Frankie Forman. Engine Power follows a how-to show format that focuses on assembling and tuning everything from mild performance street engines to full-race monster engines.

Detroit Muscle
Detroit Muscle (previously known as MuscleCar) began airing in 2006 on Spike TV (now Paramount Network). MuscleCar was originally hosted by Lou Santiago and Jared Zimmerman, then later by Rick Bacon, Brent Buttrey, Tommy Boshers, Joe Elmore, Steve Mank, Marc Christ, Daniel Boshears and others throughout the years. Detroit Muscle is currently hosted by Boshers and Joel McMillan. Detroit Muscle follows a how-to show format restoring and modifying classic and late model muscle cars. Ez Gg

Truck Tech
Truck Tech (previously known as Trucks!) began airing in 1999 on The Nashville Network (now Paramount Network). Trucks! was originally hosted by Mel Fair and Stacey David. After David left in 2005, Trucks! was hosted by Kevin Tetz and Paul Vinson, then Ryan Shand, Jeremy Bumpus and others since then. Truck Tech was finally hosted by Lawrence "LT" Tolman and Austin LeFort. Truck Tech followed a how-to show format that showed viewers how to restore, modify, customize and paint classic and late model trucks.

Truck Tech has since been rebranded as Music City Trucks, hosted by Marc Christ and Brandon Burke, then by Christ and Eric Smart.

XOR
XOR (previously known as Xtreme 4x4 and Xtreme Off Road) began airing in 2005 on Spike TV (now Paramount Network). Xtreme 4x4 was originally hosted by Jessi Combs and Ian Johnson. Following the departure of Combs in 2008, Johnson hosted Xtreme Off Road for many years before departing in 2017. XOR was then hosted by Jeremy Weckman and Eliza Leon. XOR is a how-to show format where regular vehicles get turned into off road rigs.

XOR was replaced in the PowerNation lineup by Carcass, a show no longer focused solely on trucks and off-road vehicles, hosted by Weckman and Jimmy King.

Other Programming
Over the years, RTM Studios has produced a variety of enthusiast programs for television and digital outlets including:

 PowerNation Daily (2015 - Current)
 PowerNation Garage (2016 - Current)
 PowerNation On The Road (2016 - Current)
 American Shooter
 The Gold Prospector
 Motor Trend
 Hot Rod
 Car and Driver Television
 RV Today
 Everything Outdoors
 Top Dead Center
 Search and Restore

PowerNation Daily
PowerNation Daily is a digital automotive news show featuring car and truck news and viral videos. PowerNation Daily is hosted by Gannon Pritchard.

PowerNation Garage
PowerNation Garage is a digital how to show hosted by the various hosts of PowerNation.

American Shooter
American Shooter was an American half-hour sports program which ran from 1993 to 2003, first on ESPN, and then on TNN (now Paramount Network), and finally, on OLN (now NBCSN). Hosted by Jim Scoutten. The show featured competitions, classic firearms, gun tech, and exhibition shooting. Each episode featured a segment called "Great Guns", featuring a look back at the classic firearms that shaped American history. The segments were originally narrated by Marc Stengel during the first two seasons. Beginning in Season 3 (1995), Scoutten narrated the segments, rather than Stengel. Another segment featured on American Shooter was Gun Tech, featuring the latest in guns, and shooting gears. This segment debuted in Season 5 (1997), and ran until the end of the series. The final segment of each episode called "Shot of the Week" featuring exhibition shooters demonstrating some shooting tips and techniques. The segments were originally hosted by Michael Blackburn and Byron Ferguson during the first two seasons. Beginning in Season 3 (1995), Bob Munden and John Satterwhite hosted the segments. But Satterwhite departed in Season 4 (1996), leaving Byron Ferguson, and Bob Munden. Byron Ferguson left the show at the end of Season 7 (1999), and was replaced by exhibition shooter Tom Knapp, who joined the show in Season 8 (2000), and stayed until the end of the series. American Shooter was produced by RTM Productions (now RTM Studios).

For the first four seasons, American Shooter was broadcast on ESPN, as part of their ESPN Outdoors block. In 1996, Guns & Ammo magazine bought the show from ESPN, and became Guns & Ammo presents American Shooter. In 1997, TNN picked up American Shooter as part of their TNN Outdoors block. In 2003, OLN picked up American Shooter, where they aired new episodes.

References

1993 American television series debuts
2003 American television series endings
Gray Television

PowerNation


Herbert Denis Edleston Elliott (30 March 1887 – 26 April 1973) was an English schoolmaster and cricketer.  Elliott's batting and bowling styles are unknown.  He was born at Newport, Shropshire and educated in the town at Newport School.

Elliott made two first-class appearances for Essex against Kent and Northamptonshire in the 1913 County Championship, scoring just three runs and taking a single wicket. He later served in World War I, holding in December 1914 the temporary rank of second lieutenant. By 1916 he still held the rank of second lieutenant; it was in that year that he resigned his commission from the Shropshire Light Infantry due to ill health. At some point after this his heath recovered enough for him to serve in a training capacity in the Territorial Force.  By July 1919 he had been promoted to captain in recognition of his command of the Malvern College Contingent of the Officers' Training Corps. He was still the Division Captain of the Malvern College Contingent by 1923, in November of that year he was promoted to major.

He died at Bognor Regis, Sussex on 26 April 1973.

References

External links
Herbert Elliott at ESPNcricinfo
Herbert Elliott at CricketArchive

1887 births
1973 deaths
People from Newport, Shropshire
English cricketers
Essex cricketers
British Army personnel of World War I
King's Shropshire Light Infantry officers
Officers' Training Corps officers
Cricketers from Shropshire

Herbert Elliott


The Nevada State Capitol is the capitol building of the U.S. state of Nevada located in the state capital of Carson City at 101 North Carson Street. The building was constructed in the Neoclassical Italianate style between 1869 and 1871. It is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. It is also Nevada Historical Marker number 25.

Construction
Abraham Curry, the founder of Carson City, reserved an area equivalent to four city blocks (10 acres or 4.04 ha) at the center of the town for the future state capitol. When the Capitol building was constructed, it was naturally located on "the plaza", which had, some ten or eleven years earlier, been designated for it, and given for that purpose. Mark Twain wrote in his book Roughing It that the capitol site was in 1861 "a large, unfenced, level vacancy, with a liberty pole in it, and very useful as a place for public auctions, horse trades, mass meetings, and likewise for teamsters to camp in."

The "act to provide for the erection of a State Capitol" was passed by the Nevada Legislature and signed into law by Governor Henry G. Blasdel during 1869. The Board of Capitol Commissioners received bids of $84,000 to $160,000 for construction and they chose the lowest bid, submitted by Peter Cavanaugh and Son of Carson City. The 1869 act authorized $100,000 for construction, with money to come from a special tax levy, plus the proceeds from the sale of some public land. To reduce costs, the building sandstone was obtained free of charge from the Nevada State Prison quarry, just outside Carson City. In spite of this, the construction costs increased to some $170,000, exceeding even the high bid.

The cornerstone was laid on June 9, 1870. A brass box that served as a time capsule was deposited in the stone. The cornerstone was a solid block of sandstone, laid on top of blocks which contained the capsule. The capsule was inspected and returned to the cornerstone location (the northeast corner of the original building) during reconstruction in the 1979–81 period.

The fourth session of the state legislature met in the still-incomplete building at the beginning of 1871. Construction was completed by May 1, 1871. Several of the architect's original drawings are preserved in the state archives.

Architecture

The original building was cruciform, with a central rectangle  wide by  deep (23 x 25.8 m). It had two wings, each  wide by  deep (10.6 x 15.8 m). The windows' glass panes are made of 26-ounce (737 g) French crystal, as are those above the doors. Floors and wainscotting are of Alaskan marble, shipped to San Francisco in 20-ton (18,144 kg) blocks and there cut and polished for installation.

The first floor contained a major office at each corner connected by central halls, while the wings of the second floor were filled by the two legislative chambers—the Assembly and the Senate. The octagonal dome topped with a cupola admitted light to the second story. During 1906, an octagonal Annex was added to the rear (east) of the capitol to house the State Library.

By the early 20th century, the legislature had outgrown the capitol, and prominent Nevada architect Frederic DeLongchamps was contracted to design northern and southern legislative wing-annexes, completed in time for the 1915 session. These compatible wings used stone from the same quarry as the original portion of the capitol, and provided more office space and expanded legislative chambers.

Usage
For more than 50 years, all three parts of the state government were housed in the Capitol. The Supreme Court met here until 1937, when it relocated into an adjacent building, and the Nevada Legislature met here until 1971, when it relocated to its new Legislative Building just south of the Capitol. Every Nevada governor except the first has had his office in the capitol. Nowadays, the Capitol continues to serve the Governor, and contains historical exhibits on the second floor.

Gallery

See also
 List of state and territorial capitols in the United States

References

External links

 State of Nevada Information about the State Capitol

Museums in Carson City, Nevada
History museums in Nevada
State capitols in the United States
Government buildings completed in 1871
Government buildings in Nevada
National Register of Historic Places in Carson City, Nevada
Government buildings with domes
Italianate architecture in Nevada
Neoclassical architecture in Nevada
Tourist attractions in Carson City, Nevada
Nevada State Register of Historic Places
Nevada historical markers
Historic American Buildings Survey in Nevada
Government buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Nevada
Frederic Joseph DeLongchamps buildings

Nevada State Capitol


Tradescantia ohiensis, commonly known as bluejacket or Ohio spiderwort, is an herbaceous plant species in the genus Tradescantia native to eastern and central North America.  It is the most common and widely distributed species of Tradescantia in the United States, where it can be found from Maine in the northeast, west to Minnesota, and south to Texas and Florida. It also has a very small distribution in Canada in extreme southern Ontario near Windsor.

Distinguishing features of the species include glaucous leaves and stems, leaves forming an acute angle with the stems, sepals with hairs lacking glands which are confined to the apex if present at all, and a relatively tall habit (up to about 115 cm). Typical habitats for the plant include roadsides, along railroads, and in fields and thickets. Less typically it can occur in woods, and sometimes along streams. As with many species in the genus, it often forms hybrids with related species where they co-occur. More specifically, at least nine different species are thought to be capable of forming hybrids with T. ohiensis.

Ohio spiderwort has edible flowers and shoots. Flowers and stems can be eaten raw, while the leaves can be cooked. Leaves of the plant are mucilaginous and can be used to soothe insect bites in a similar way to aloe vera.

References

ohiensis
Flora of Eastern Canada
Plants described in 1814
Flora of the Northeastern United States
Flora of the North-Central United States
Flora of the South-Central United States
Flora of the Southeastern United States
Taxa named by Constantine Samuel Rafinesque

Tradescantia ohiensis


Adriana Salazar Lopes Pereira (born August 20, 1964) is a former Olympic freestyle swimmer from Brazil.

She was at the 1979 Pan American Games, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where she finished 5th in the 4×100-metre freestyle, 8th in the 100-metre butterfly, and was disqualified at the 200-metre butterfly.

She was at the 1983 Pan American Games, in Caracas.

Pereira was classified to compete in the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, but she decided to abandon the swim. Later, she returned to swim.

At the 1986 World Aquatics Championships in Madrid, Pereira finished 19th in the 50-metre freestyle, 33rd in the 100-metre butterfly, and 36th in the 100-metre freestyle.

She was at the 1987 Pan American Games, in Indianapolis, where she finished 5th in the 50-metre freestyle.

At the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, she finished 11th in the 4×100-metre freestyle, 17th in the 50-metre freestyle, and 34th in the 100-metre freestyle.

She was Brazilian and South American record holder of the 50-metre and 100-metre freestyle. In 1982, Adriana Pereira debuted the Brazilian women's 50-metre freestyle record, swimming in 27.10 seconds. On 1989, she broke the South American record of the 50-metre freestyle for the last time, with a time of 26.24 seconds. The record was only beaten in 2000 by Flávia Delaroli. In the 100-metre freestyle, she broke the South American record for the first time, on 1981, with a time of 59.50 seconds. The last record of 100-metre freestyle made by Adriana fell in 1996. She was also the Brazilian record holder of the 100-metre butterfly, with a time of 1:04.66.

References

External links

1964 births
Living people
Brazilian female butterfly swimmers
Brazilian female freestyle swimmers
Swimmers at the 1979 Pan American Games
Swimmers at the 1983 Pan American Games
Swimmers at the 1987 Pan American Games
Pan American Games competitors for Brazil
Swimmers at the 1988 Summer Olympics
Olympic swimmers for Brazil
Sportspeople from Pernambuco
21st-century Brazilian women
20th-century Brazilian women

Adriana Pereira


Claude Barzotti (born Francesco Barzotti, ; 23 July 1953 – 24 June 2023) was a Belgian singer of Italian origin who was prominent during the 1980s. Barzotti recorded several songs which each sold hundreds of thousands of copies. He first achieved success in 1981 with his song Le Rital.

Biography and career
Barzotti was born in Châtelineau, Belgium, but raised in Italy. Barzotti moved back to Belgium at the age of 18 and settled in the town of Court-Saint-Étienne. Barzotti began his musical career in France in 1981 with his song Madame, which sold 400,000 copies. However, later in the year, Barzotti found widespread success with his song Le Rital, which propelled him to household-name status.

Rital is a derogatory French slang term used to refer to people of Italian descent. The song deals with Barzotti's experiences as a young child and how "he would have preferred to be named Dupont" (a common French surname) but the song also deals with his pride concerning the term, exemplified in lines such as Je suis rital et je le reste, (I'm Italian and will so remain). Barzotti's career continued throughout the 1980s, but his last major successful song was Aime-moi (Love Me) in 1990, at which point many people believed his career was far from over. Although Barzotti took advantage of the wave of nostalgia which gripped France at the turn of the 21st century, he was unable to capture the musical prominence he had once held. Because of his distinctive voice and great successes in the French music industry, he is considered one of the most prominent French pop musicians of the 1980s. Barzotti's music was also popular in Québec, with songs such as Je ne t'écrirai plus (I Won't Write You Anymore), Prends bien soin d'elle (Take Good Care of Her), C'est moi qui pars (It's Me Who's Leaving), and J'ai les bleus (I Have the Blues).

Barzotti's songs have also been featured in movies and DVDs in France. The movies in which his songs have been featured have sold more than five million copies. He also wrote the Belgian entry to the 1992 Eurovision Song Contest.

Barzotti's best-of compilation was released in France in 2003, and he also recorded a more traditional Italian song, Vado Via. He released a new single, Jada, on 8 August 2007, the proceeds from which went to benefit children in poor countries who did not have access to education. His 2012 album C'est mon histoire debuted at No. 39 on the Canadian Albums Chart.

Barzotti died on 24 June 2023, 29 days before his 70th birthday.

Selected discography
1981: Madame
1983: Le Rital
1984: Beau, j's'rai jamais beau
1986: C'est moi qui pars...
1987: J'ai les bleus
1990: Aime-moi
1991: Douce
1991: Amani
1992: Pour elles
1993: Chante en italien
1993: Chante Noël
1996: Je t'apprendrai l'amour
1998: Émotions
2003: Ancora
2013: Une autre vie
2013: Re-chante Noël
2015: Le temps qui passe
2019: Un homme

References

External links
Barzotti Fan Club
Lyrics for Barzotti's songs

1953 births
2023 deaths
People from Châtelet
Belgian people of Italian descent
Belgian pop singers
Belgian male singers
French-language singers of Belgium
Officers of the Order of Leopold II
Deaths from pancreatic cancer

Claude Barzotti


Sky Lee (born September 15, 1952, as Sharon Lee) is a Canadian artist and novelist. Lee has published both feminist fiction and non-fiction and identifies as lesbian.

Personal life
Lee was born September 15, 1952, in Port Alberni, British Columbia. Her mother, Wong Mowe Oi, was a homemaker and her father, Lee Gwei Chang, was a millworker.

Moving to Vancouver in 1967 to attend university, she received a B.A. in Fine Arts at the University of British Columbia and a Diploma in Nursing from Douglas College. She became a member of the Asian Canadian Writers Workshop. Lee lives on Saltspring Island, British Columbia.

Career
Lee was first published as the illustrator of 1983's children's book, Teach Me to Fly, Skyfighter! by Paul Yee.  The book is a collection of four stories exploring what it is like to grow up as a Chinese-Canadian in a community with links to both Asian-Canadian and Anglo-Canadian cultures.  Reviewer Robert W. Bruinsma argued the book was "modestly illustrated."

Lee's first book, Disappearing Moon Cafe, published in 1990, explores the Wong family over four generations, as they operate the titled cafe.  Nominated for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize and the Governor General's Award, the novel won the City of Vancouver Book Award despite some critics charging that the writing was over-earnest.  For example, critic Gary Draper wrote, "Hardly a noun walks free of a trail of adjectives." Critic John Z. Ming Chen has studied Lee's literary works exhaustively from a Daoist perspective in The Influence of Daoism on Asian-Canadian Writers (Mellen, 2008). Disappearing Moon Café was reissued in 2017 by NeWest Press with an afterword by Chris Lee and an interview with the author conducted by Smaro Kamboureli.  Chris Lee comments: "SKY Lee's novel was a major intervention in contemporary Canadian literature, a bold attempt to account for the role of Chinese migrants in settler colonialism, a feminist interrogation of diaspora, family, and kinship, as well as a gesture towards queer futures."

In the same year, Lee contributed to the collective prose, Telling It: Women and Language Across Culture.  The book's writing is attributed to the "Telling It Book Collective", of which Lee was a member.  The book explores issues of racism and homophobia experienced by native, lesbian and Asian Canadian women.

In 1994, Lee published Bellydancer: Stories, a collection of 15 short stories that explore a range of feminist themes, with allegories focusing primarily on the "bellydancer," an archetype of survival.  The back cover of the book explains: "bellydancing was originally performed at the bedside of women in labor, as an erotic dance of creation."

Critical Studies:
Dr. John Z. Ming Chen's monograph, The Influence of Daoism on Asian-Canadian Writers (2008), features an entire chapter on SKY Lee's two book-length works of fiction published so far.

Her short stories have also appeared in Vancouver Short Stories as well as periodicals such as West Coast Line, The Asianadian , Kinethis, and Makara.

Bibliography
Teach Me to Fly, Skyfighter!: And Other Stories (as illustrator, text by Paul Yee) – 1983
Disappearing Moon Cafe – 1990
Telling It: Women and Language Across Cultures – 1990 (with Betsy Warland, Lee Maracle and Daphne Marlatt) Press Gang Publishers
Bellydancer: Stories – 1994

References

Canadian women novelists
Canadian feminist writers
Canadian lesbian writers
People from Port Alberni
Canadian writers of Asian descent
Canadian illustrators
Lesbian feminists
Canadian women artists
1952 births
Living people
20th-century Canadian novelists
Canadian LGBT novelists
Canadian women short story writers
20th-century Canadian women writers
20th-century Canadian short story writers
Lesbian novelists
20th-century Canadian LGBT people
Canadian lesbian artists

Sky Lee


Charles Wallace Chapman (4 August 1897 - December 1979) was a British mechanical engineer, who designed the first diesel engine suitable for an automobile, the high speed diesel engine (compression ignition engine).

Early life
He was born in Lancaster, Lancashire.

He attended Lancaster Royal Grammar School. He served in the First World War as a lieutenant in the RNVR. He later gained a master's degree in engineering from the University of Liverpool.

Career

Petters
In the 1920s he worked as personal assistant to Sir Ernest Petter, who owned Petters Ltd (Ipswich). At this company he worked with Frank Perkins.

Perkins Engines
On 7 June 1932 he jointly founded Perkins Engines in Peterborough (then in Northamptonshire) with Frank Perkins, who he first met in 1929. Perkins Engines was created to build high speed diesel engines. Francis Arthur Perkins was the businessman, and Charles Chapman provided technical skill.

During the Second World War, he designed the Perkins S6 marine diesel engine, which powered the Royal Navy's air-sea rescue craft. He also designed the T1 engine for boats, which was not made. He resigned from Perkins in November 1942. Frank Perkins died in 1967.

Second World War
During the Second World War he carried out work for the Air Ministry.

Personal life
He died in Winchelsea in East Sussex, aged 82 in 1979.

See also
 History of the diesel car
 List of diesel automobiles

References

 Times obituary, 3 December 1979, page 14

External links
 Grace's Guides
 Perkins is Peterborough
 Biography

1897 births
1979 deaths
Alumni of the University of Liverpool
British automotive pioneers
British company founders
British mechanical engineers
History of the diesel engine
Manufacturing company founders
People associated with the internal combustion engine
People educated at Lancaster Royal Grammar School
People from Lancaster, Lancashire
Perkins engines
Royal Navy officers of World War I
People from Winchelsea
20th-century British businesspeople

Charles Chapman (engineer)


The Altair 8800 is a microcomputer designed in 1974 by MITS and based on the Intel 8080 CPU. Interest grew quickly after it was featured on the cover of the January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics and was sold by mail order through advertisements there, in Radio-Electronics, and in other hobbyist magazines. According to Harry Garland, the Altair 8800 was the product that catalyzed the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s. It was the first commercially successful personal computer. The computer bus designed for the Altair was to become a de facto standard in the form of the S-100 bus, and the first programming language for the machine was Microsoft's founding product, Altair BASIC.

History

While serving at the Air Force Weapons Laboratory at Kirtland Air Force Base, Ed Roberts and Forrest M. Mims III decided to use their electronics background to produce small kits for model rocket hobbyists. In 1969, Roberts and Mims, along with Stan Cagle and Robert Zaller, founded Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS) in Roberts' garage in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and started selling radio transmitters and instruments for model rockets.

Calculators
The model rocket kits were a modest success and MITS wanted to try a kit that would appeal to more hobbyists. The November 1970 issue of Popular Electronics featured the Opticom, a kit from MITS that would send voice over an LED light beam. As Mims and Cagle were losing interest in the kit business, Roberts bought his partners out, then began developing a calculator kit. Electronic Arrays had just announced the EAS100, a set of six large scale integrated (LSI) circuit chips that would make a four-function calculator. The MITS 816 calculator kit used the chipset and was featured on the November 1971 cover of Popular Electronics. This calculator kit sold for , or $275 assembled. Forrest Mims wrote the assembly manual for this kit and many others over the next several years. As payment for each manual he often accepted a copy of the kit.

The calculator was successful and was followed by several improved models. The MITS 1440 calculator was featured in the July 1973 issues of Radio-Electronics. It had a 14-digit display, memory, and square root function. The kit sold for  and the assembled version was . MITS later developed a programmer unit that would connect to the 816 or 1440 calculator and allow programs of up to 256 steps.

In 1972, Texas Instruments developed its own calculator chip and started selling complete calculators at less than half the price of other commercial models. MITS and many other companies were devastated by this, and Roberts struggled to reduce his quarter-million-dollar debt.

Test equipment
In addition to calculators, MITS made a line of test equipment kits. These included an IC tester, a waveform generator, a digital voltmeter, and several other instruments. To keep up with the demand, MITS moved into a larger building at 6328 Linn NE in Albuquerque in 1973. They installed a wave soldering machine and an assembly line at the new location.

Popular Electronics

In January 1972, Popular Electronics merged with another Ziff-Davis magazine, Electronics World. The change in editorial staff upset many of their authors, and they started writing for a competing magazine, Radio-Electronics. In 1972 and 1973, some of the best construction projects appeared in Radio-Electronics.

In 1974, Art Salsberg became editor of Popular Electronics. It was Salsberg's goal to reclaim the lead in electronics projects. He was impressed with Don Lancaster's TV Typewriter (Radio Electronics, September 1973) article and wanted computer projects for Popular Electronics. Don Lancaster did an ASCII keyboard for Popular Electronics in April 1974. They were evaluating a computer trainer project by Jerry Ogden when the Mark-8 8008-based computer by Jonathan Titus appeared on the July 1974 cover of Radio-Electronics. The computer trainer was put on hold and the editors looked for a real computer system. (Popular Electronics gave Jerry Ogden a column, Computer Bits, starting in June 1975.)

One of the editors, Les Solomon, knew MITS was working on an Intel 8080 based computer project and thought Roberts could provide the project for the always popular January issue. The TV Typewriter and the Mark-8 computer projects were just a detailed set of plans and a set of bare printed circuit boards. The hobbyist faced the daunting task of acquiring all of the integrated circuits and other components. The editors of Popular Electronics wanted a complete kit in a professional-looking enclosure.

Ed Roberts and his head engineer, Bill Yates,  finished the first prototype in October 1974 and shipped it to Popular Electronics in New York via the Railway Express Agency. However, it never arrived due to a strike by the shipping company. Solomon already had a number of pictures of the machine and the article was based on them. Roberts got to work on building a replacement. The computer on the magazine cover is an empty box with just switches and LEDs on the front panel. The finished Altair computer had a completely different circuit board layout than the prototype shown in the magazine. The January 1975 issues appeared on newsstands a week before Christmas of 1974 and the kit was officially (if not yet practically) available for sale.

The name
The typical MITS product had a generic name like the "Model 1440 Calculator" or the "Model 1600 Digital Voltmeter". Ed Roberts was busy finishing the design and left the naming of the computer to the editors of Popular Electronics.

One explanation of the Altair name, which editor Les Solomon later told the audience at the first Altair Computer Convention (March 1976), is that the name was inspired by Les's 12-year-old daughter, Lauren. "She said why don't you call it Altair – that's where the Enterprise is going tonight." The Star Trek episode is probably "Amok Time", as this is the only one from The Original Series which takes the Enterprise crew to Altair (Six).

Another explanation is that the Altair was originally going to be named the PE-8 (Popular Electronics 8-bit), but Les Solomon thought this name to be rather dull, so Les, Alexander Burawa (associate editor), and John McVeigh (technical editor) decided that: "It's a stellar event, so let's name it after a star." McVeigh suggested "Altair", the twelfth brightest star in the sky.

Intel 8080
Ed Roberts had designed and manufactured programmable calculators and was familiar with the microprocessors available in 1974. He thought the Intel 4004 and Intel 8008 were not powerful enough (in fact several microcomputers based on Intel chips were already on the market: the Canadian company Microsystems International's CPS-1 built-in 1972 used a MIL MF7114 chip modeled on the 4004, the Micral marketed in January 1973 by the French company R2E and the MCM/70 marketed in 1974 by the Canadian company Micro Computer Machines); the National Semiconductor IMP-8 and IMP-16 required external hardware; the Motorola 6800 was still in development. So he chose the 8-bit Intel 8080. At that time, Intel's main business was selling memory chips by the thousands to computer companies. They had no experience in selling small quantities of microprocessors. When the 8080 was introduced in April 1974, Intel set the single unit price at  ($ in ). "That figure had a nice ring to it," recalled Intel's Dave House in 1984. "Besides, it was a computer, and they usually cost thousands of dollars, so we felt it was a reasonable price." Ed Roberts had experience in buying OEM quantities of calculator chips and he was able to negotiate a  price ($ in ) for the 8080 microprocessor chips.

Intel made the Intellec-8 Microprocessor Development System that typically sold for a very profitable . It was functionally similar to the Altair 8800 but it was a commercial grade system with a wide selection of peripherals and development software. Customers would ask Intel why their Intellec-8 was so expensive when that Altair was only . Some salesmen said that MITS was getting cosmetic rejects or otherwise inferior chips. In July 1975, Intel sent a letter to its sales force stating that the MITS Altair 8800 computer used standard Intel 8080 parts. The sales force should sell the Intellec system based on its merits and that no one should make derogatory comments about valued customers like MITS. The letter was reprinted in the August 1975 issue of MITS Computer Notes. The "cosmetic defect" rumor has appeared in many accounts over the years although both MITS and Intel issued written denials in 1975.

The launch

For a decade, colleges had required science and engineering majors to take a course in computer programming, typically using the FORTRAN or BASIC languages. This meant there was a sizable customer base who knew about computers. In 1970, electronic calculators were not seen outside of a laboratory, but by 1974 they were a common household item. Calculators and video games like Pong introduced computer power to the general public. Electronics hobbyists were moving on to digital projects such as digital voltmeters and frequency counters. The Altair had enough power to be actually useful, and was designed as an expandable system that opened it up to all sorts of applications.

Ed Roberts optimistically told his banker that he could sell 800 computers, while in reality they needed to sell 200 over the next year just to break even. When readers got the January issue of Popular Electronics, MITS was flooded with inquiries and orders. They had to hire extra people just to answer the phones. In February MITS received 1,000 orders for the Altair 8800. The quoted delivery time was 60 days but it was months before they could meet that. Roberts focused on delivering the computer; all of the options would wait until they could keep pace with the orders. MITS claimed to have delivered 2,500 Altair 8800s by the end of May. The number was over 5,000 by August 1975. MITS had under 20 employees in January but had grown to 90 by October 1975.

The Altair 8800 computer was a break-even sale for MITS. They needed to sell additional memory boards, I/O boards and other options to make a profit. The system came with a "1024 word" (1024 byte) memory board populated with 256 bytes. The BASIC language was announced in July 1975 and it required one or two 4096 word memory boards and an interface board.

MITS Price List, Popular Electronics, August 1975.

 4K BASIC language (when purchased with Altair, 4096 words of memory and interface board): $60
 8K BASIC language (when purchased with Altair, two 4096-word memory boards and interface board): $75

MITS had no competition in the US for the first half of 1975. Their 4K memory board used dynamic RAM and it had several design problems. The delay in shipping optional boards and the problems with the 4K memory board created an opportunity for outside suppliers.

An enterprising Altair owner, Robert Marsh, designed a 4K static memory that was plug-in compatible with the Altair 8800 and sold for $255. His company was Processor Technology, one of the most successful Altair compatible board suppliers. Their advertisement in the July 1975 issue of Popular Electronics promised interface and PROM boards in addition to the 4K memory board. They would later develop a popular video display board that would plug directly into the Altair.

A consulting company in San Leandro, California, IMS Associates, Inc., wanted to purchase several Altair computers, but the long delivery time convinced them that they should build their own computers. In the October 1975 issue of Popular Electronics, a small advertisement announced the IMSAI 8080 computer. The ad noted that all boards were "plug compatible" with the Altair 8800. The computer cost $439 as a kit. The first 50 IMSAI computers shipped in December 1975. The IMSAI 8080 computer improved on the original Altair design in several areas. It was easier to assemble: The Altair required 60 wire connections between the front panel and the motherboard (backplane). The IMSAI required only two soldered connections between the front panel and power supply. The MITS motherboard consisted of 4 slot segments that had to be connected together with 100 wires. The IMSAI motherboard implemented 18 slots on a single segment. The IMSAI also had a larger power supply to handle the increasing number of expansion boards used in typical systems. The IMSAI advantage was short lived because MITS had recognized these shortcomings and developed the Altair 8800B, which was introduced in June 1976.

In 1977, Pertec Computer Corporation purchased MITS and began to market the computer, without changes (except for branding), as the PCC 8800 in 1978.

Description

In the first design of the Altair, the parts needed to make a complete machine would not fit on a single motherboard, and the machine consisted of four boards stacked on top of each other with stand-offs. Another problem facing Roberts was that the parts needed to make a truly useful computer were not available, or would not be designed in time for the January launch date. So during the construction of the second model, he decided to build most of the machine on removable cards, reducing the motherboard to nothing more than an interconnect between the cards, a backplane. The basic machine consisted of five cards, including the CPU on one and memory on another. He then looked for a cheap source of connectors and came across a supply of 100-pin edge connectors. The S-100 bus was eventually acknowledged by the professional computer community and adopted as the IEEE-696 computer bus standard.

The Altair bus consists of the pins of the Intel 8080 run out onto the backplane. No particular level of thought went into the design, which led to disasters such as shorting from various power lines of differing voltages being located next to each other. Another oddity was that the system included two unidirectional 8-bit data buses, when the normal practice was for a single bidirectional bus (this oddity did, however, allow a later expansion of the S-100 standard to 16 bits bidirectional by using both 8-bit buses in parallel). A deal on power supplies led to the use of +8 V and ±18 V, which had to be locally regulated on the cards to TTL (+5 V) or RS-232 (±12 V) standard voltage levels.

The Altair shipped in a two-piece case. The backplane and power supply were mounted on a base plate, along with the front and rear of the box. The "lid" was shaped like a C, forming the top, left, and right sides of the box. The front panel, which was inspired by the Data General Nova minicomputer, included a large number of toggle switches to feed binary data directly into the memory of the machine, and a number of red LEDs to read those values back out.

Programming the Altair via the front panel could be a tedious and time-consuming process. Programming required the toggling of the switches to positions corresponding to the desired 8080 microprocessor instruction or opcode in binary, then used the "DEPOSIT NEXT" switch to load that instruction into the next address of the machine's memory. This step was repeated until all the opcodes of a presumably complete and correct program were in place. The only output from the programs was the patterns of lights on the panel. Nevertheless, many were sold in this form. Development was already underway on additional cards, including a paper tape reader for storage, additional RAM cards, and an RS-232 interface to connect to a proper teletype terminal.

Software

Altair BASIC

Ed Roberts received a letter from Traf-O-Data asking whether he would be interested in buying what would eventually be the BASIC programming language for the machine. He called the company and reached a private home, where no one had heard of anything like BASIC. In fact the letter had been sent by Bill Gates and Paul Allen from the Boston area, and they had no BASIC yet to offer. When they called Roberts to follow up on the letter he expressed his interest, and the two started work on their BASIC interpreter using a self-made simulator for the 8080 on a PDP-10 mainframe computer. They figured that they had 30 days before someone else beat them to the punch, and once they had a version working on the simulator, Allen flew to Albuquerque to deliver the program, Altair BASIC (aka MITS 4K BASIC), on a paper tape. The first time it was run, it displayed "READY", then Allen typed "PRINT 2+2", and it immediately printed the correct answer: "4". The game Lunar Lander was entered in, and this worked as well. Gates soon joined Allen and formed Microsoft, then spelled "Micro-Soft".

Altair DOS
Announced in late 1975, it started shipping in August 1977.

See also
 SIMH emulates Altair 8800 with both 8080 and Z80.
 IMSAI 8080

References

Further reading

Books

 Chapter 6 "Mechanics: Kits & Microcomputers"

Magazines

External links

 MITS Altair 8800 exhibit at old-computers.com's virtual computer museum
 Virtual Altair Museum
 Altair 8800 images and information at vintage-computer.com
 Marcus Bennett's Altair Documentation resource
 Maker of a hardware emulation of the 8800 running on an Atmel AVR 8515
 Altair 8800 Clone
 True-to-life MITS Altair 8800 online simulator

Computer-related introductions in 1974
S-100 machines
8-bit computers

Altair 8800


Clan Kinninmont is a Scots clan. The clan disna hae a chief recognised bi the Lord Lyon King of Arms, syne the clan haes nae staunin unner Scots Law. Clan Kinninmont is conseidered an armigerous clan, meanin that it is conseidered tae hae haed at ane time a chief wha possessed the chiefly arms, housomever nane at present is in possession o sic arms. The oreiginal chiefly line dee'd oot whan an heiress mairried intae anither faimily.

History
The clan name Kinninmont is derived frae the lands o Kinninmonth in Fife, Scotland. In the years atween 1189 an 1199, Odo, seneschal tae the Bishop o St Andrews, received a charter for thir lands frae William I o Scotland. An 1841 publication dealing wi the charters on the archbishopric o St Andrews states that the charter grantit bi John, son o Adam, son o Odo isna recordit. The publication forby states that John's "original deed o consent, executed at the same time, an afore the same witnesses wi the charter o his father, is still extanct; an on his seal we fin the faimily name for the first time: S'Iohannis de Kinimmund". William de Kynemuthe's name appears on the Ragman Roll, whilk records the names o Scots nobles who submitted tae Edward I o Ingland in 1296. In 1329 Alexander de Kininmund became Bishop o Aiberdeen. Anither Alexander de Kininmund became Archdeacon o Aiberdeen in 1352. James Kynimond o that Ilk asserted his hereditary right tae the offices o baillie, steward an marischal o St Andrews, in 1438. The direct line of Kininmonts o that Ilk (the chiefly line) came tae an end wi the mairriage o the ane heiress tae Murray o Melgund.

Clan symbols
The crest badge suitable for members o the clan is derived frae the arms o Kinninmont o that Ilk. The crest is blazoned as an aik tree vert an the slogan is STABO, meanin "A sall staun".

See also
Scots clan

Kinninmont
Kinninmont

Clan Kinninmont


University Unitarian Church was designed by Seattle architect Paul Hayden Kirk in 1959. The church is located in the Wedgwood, Seattle neighborhood at the corner of 35th Avenue NE and 68th Street. The building is approximately a mile and half Northeast of the University of Washington Campus and sits across from the Northeast Branch of the Seattle Public Library. It was designed during the time when architect Kirk was working as a sole practitioner.

The University Unitarian Church won Paul Hayden Kirk the American Institute of Architects Award (1960).

Church history

Early years
Unitarianism was brought to United States by the pilgrims and the puritans, with its origins found in the individualism and rational temper of those who settled Boston, Salem, and Plymouth. In 1909 the Alaska–Yukon–Pacific Exposition, which as a tribute to the City Beautiful Movement, sought to bring about social and political reform.  The exposition encouraged the church to branch out West, to the University of Washington. As a direct result of the exposition, the University Unitarian church was established in 1913.  In the beginning, the congregation met in a rented hall for its Sunday services.  With the help of the Woman's Alliance for fund-raising, and the acquisition of Unitarian Universalist Association grants, the church was able to hire ministers and purchase their first church in 1915.  They hired Ellsworth Storey to design their first building for $5000. The church was located at the corner of NE 47th Street and 16th Avenue NE, in Seattle.
From 1927 to 1931 the Great Depression deeply affected the church's financial resources, requiring two ministers to come out of retirement to work without compensation.

The 1940s are reflected upon as the 'golden age' of the church as a result of the end of great depression and general upbeat attitudes of the patrons during this time. In 1955 the church commissioned their second building, which was to be designed by Paul Hayden Kirk.

Architect

Paul Hayden Kirk was born in Salt Lake City on November 18, 1914.  He traveled to Seattle with his family in 1922 where he received his degree in architecture at the University of Washington in 1939.  When he began his own practice in 1939, his scope of work was primarily residential.  Kirk's earliest designs employed the use of historicist forms and detailing.  In the coming years Paul H. Kirk began to move away from historical references in his work. This new attitude towards design can be seen in the Columbia Ridge development in 1942.  His shift towards more modern designs can be explained by his admitted respect and admiration for Pietro Belluschi.  It is also evident that many of Paul H. Kirk's designs draw upon the teachings of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Although Paul H. Kirk was a follower of Mies's motto, "God is in the details", he made it clear that he was not a supporter of the international style. Kirk believed the international style is "an architecture which has been imposed on the land by man."  Where he differentiated himself from international style architects, was through the belief that architecture should respect and respond to its environment.  This mentality shows through his work in the use of materials that are reflective of the northwest. Wood, rough-cut stone, and glass are seen throughout his projects.  He also often incorporated large ceiling to floor windows in his residential designs because, with the Northwest's small diurnal temperature fluctuations, it could afford the heat loss in exchange for the feeling of openness.  Aside from the modern style, Japanese architecture also had a powerful influence on him.  This can be seen through the use of shoji screens for interior partitions, large simple openings, and his treatment of roof conditions.  The combination of modernism, regional materials, and Japanese influences were all integral in assisting Kirk in beginning to define the Pacific Northwest Regional style.

Location
The district of Wedgwood, Seattle located approximately two miles Northeast of I-5 and 6 miles Northeast of Seattle's Downtown, is a middle class residential Seattle neighborhood.  Its name originates from Wedgwood, an English bone china-maker. In respect to the built environment, developments in the neighborhood "were tremendously enhanced by the saving of some of the existing trees."  Other typical architectural features in the neighborhood are brick veneer, hip roofs, asphalt shingles, planter boxes, small porches, stock wrought-iron railings, and one story houses. When masonry is employed, it is typically solely decorative.

Architecture

The design goal of the University Unitarian Church was to "be a place where people may gather for worship, where children may be taught to work and pray, and where the community is enriched by its presence."  The building is recessed away from 35th NE due to the high usage of the street.  A small courtyard is placed at the base of the western wall to further serve as a buffer to the street, which is highly used by the community. The building embraces this courtyard, indicative of Kirk's desire for site integration. The west façade of the University Unitarian Church exposes its structure and adheres to straight lines, typical of Kirk's work. The large structural vertical elements support detailed glass and screens.  The detailed woodwork of the screens is another typical characteristic of Kirk's designs.

Clerestory windows are hung by large bolted beams on the upper portion of the East Facade, allowing for natural light to enter the space. The roof beams in the sanctuary transfer weight from the western walls to the shorter vertical supports of the eastern wall, resulting in a traditional church construction of evenly spaced bays, but an atypical sloped ceiling plane.  Kirk uses change in ceiling height to bring attention to the sequential experience when walking through his building.

Preservation

The University Unitarian Church, given both its age and architectural significance, may now be considered for historic preservation. The church, having been built in 1959, is now eligible to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places in respect to the 'fifty-year rule.' This rule is a commonly accepted principle that for a building to be listed on the National Register for Historic Places, it must be at least fifty years old, that is, unless they are of 'significant importance.' Aside from its age, there must be a case made for the building's historical significance and/or aesthetic significance to be considered for acceptance. In the case of the University Unitarian Church, it has clear architectural significance, with its ties to the roots of Northwest regionalism. The justification for acceptance of buildings on the National Register based on aesthetics came around the late 1880s, with the desire to preserve colonial revival style buildings. The National Register's currant stance on determining significance of a property is association with events, activities, lives, or developments that were important in the past, have significant architectural history, landscape history, or engineering achievements, or if it has the potential to yield information through archeological investigation. The University Unitarian Church has the potential to argue for significance based on its connection to Paul Hayden Kirk as well as its connection to the origins to Pacific Northwest Regionalism, allowing it to be deemed significant in terms of architectural history.

The Secretary of the Interior's Standards' for the treatment of historic properties address four treatments of properties; preservation, rehabilitation, restoration, and reconstruction. Since the building is still in use today by the UUC congregation and is still in great physical condition, the most logical of treatments for the University Unitarian Church is preservation, defined by James Marston Fitch as, "the maintenance in the same physical condition as when it was received by the curatorial agency. Nothing is added or subtracted from the aesthetic corpus of the artifact. Any interventions necessary to preserve its physical integrity are to be cosmetically unobtrusive."

Style
The Pacific Northwest style has its earliest connections to the indigenous wooden houses along the northwest coast and Puget Sound. These indigenous houses utilized the cedar, which was easy to split to form boards. In addition to this, climate, terrain, history and social attitudes from British Columbia to Portland, Oregon all contribute to define the Pacific Northwest style.

Cost
The University Unitarian Church cost the congregation $250,000.  Using the westegg.com inflation calculator, that sum is equivalent to approximately $1,800,000 in 2009.

References

Churches completed in 1959
Churches in Seattle
Unitarian Universalist churches in Washington (state)
Wedgwood, Seattle
1959 establishments in Washington (state)

University Unitarian Church


Luciana Gilli (born 1944) is a former Italian film actress. During the 1960s she starred in a number of Italian films or European co-productions, particularly adventure stories and westerns.

Her film debut was the role of Luciana in the movie Wir Frauen  in 1953. Ten years later she was seen in Jürgen Roland's German-Italian adventure film The Black Panther of Ratana with Marianne Koch and Heinz Drache. In the following years she acted in several spaghetti westerns, such as Eine Bahre für den Sheriff, Stirb aufrecht, Gringo!, Jonny Madoc rechnet ab and Der Tod zählt keine Dollar. She also appeared under the stage name Gloria Gilli, Luciana Gillj, and Judy Gilly.

Selected filmography
Adua e le compagne (1960)
 Leoni al sole (1961)
 Ghosts of Rome (1961)
 The Four Monks (1962)
 Seven Seas to Calais (1962)
 The Swindlers (1963)
 Ursus in the Land of Fire (1963)
 The Black Panther of Ratana (1963)
 The Thief of Damascus (1964)
 A Coffin for the Sheriff (1965)
 Conqueror of Atlantis (1965)
 Jungle Adventurer (1965)
 Mexican Slayride (1967)
 La morte non conta i dollari (1967)
 Pecos Cleans Up (1967)

References

Bibliography
 Thomas Weisser. Spaghetti Westerns--the Good, the Bad and the Violent: A Comprehensive, Illustrated Filmography of 558 Eurowesterns and Their Personnel, 1961–1977. McFarland, 2005.

External links

1944 births
Living people
Italian film actresses
Actresses from Rome

Luciana Gilli


Polysilicone-15 (INCI) is an organic compound used in hair products like shampoos, conditioners, hair sprays, pomades and color treatment products to absorb UVB radiation. In the EU, it is also approved for use in sunscreens and cosmetics. The absorption maximum is at about 310 nm. It is marketed as Parsol SLX by DSM.

The backbone chain is mainly composed of siloxane repeat units, and is of low molecular weight, so being classed as an oligomer.

References
Parsol SLX

Silicones
Sunscreening agents
Siloxanes

Polysilicone-15


Aurore von Haxthausen (Gustava Charlotta Märta Aurora: 1830 in Daretorp in Västergötland – 7 February 1888 in Stockholm), known also by her artist pseudonym as Klara Kuhlman, was a Swedish author, composer, pianist and lady in waiting.

History
She was the daughter of the State Councillor (swedish: statsråd) and Governor (swedish: landshövding) of Halland County, Baron Carl Henrik Gyllenhaal and Aurore af Nordin and married in 1873 to the Danish noble at the Danish legation in Stockholm, Frederik Ferdinand von Haxthausen.

From 1857 until 1871, she was a favored maid of honor and confidante of the Swedish queen, Louise of the Netherlands. She was known at court for her wittiness and talent for cheering people up as well as for her piano improvisations: a typical episode of all these qualities was when she, at one occasion when Louisa had reprimanded a chamber maid, eased the tension by improvising the whole episode on piano.

Aurore von Haxthausen wrote several compositions for piano which was given on public concerts: one of them was, for several years, often played during the annual opening of parliament. She also published a collection of novels: Från svenska hem (1883–84).

Selected works
Från svenska hem: pennritningar / af Klara Kuhlmann. Stockholm: Seligmann. 1883. Libris 1597523 (Swedish language)
Från svenska hem: pennritningar : ny samling / af Klara Kuhlmann. Stockholm: Seligmann. 1884. Libris 1597524 (Swedish language)

References

External links
 http://www.ub.gu.se/fasta/laban/erez/kvinnohistoriska/tidskrifter/idun/1888/pdf/1888_10.pdf
 Haxthausen, Gustava Charlotta Märta Aurora von, in Nordisk familjebok (1909)

Further reading

1830 births
1888 deaths
19th-century classical composers
19th-century Swedish women writers
19th-century Swedish writers
People from Västergötland
Swedish classical composers
Swedish classical pianists
Swedish women pianists
Swedish pianists
Swedish ladies-in-waiting
Women classical composers
19th-century classical pianists
Swedish women composers
19th-century Swedish musicians
Women classical pianists
19th-century Swedish women musicians
19th-century women composers
19th-century women pianists

Aurore von Haxthausen


Gary Novak (born in 1969) is an American session drummer who has collaborated with numerous artists as varied as George Benson, Maynard Ferguson, Chick Corea Elektric Band, Brandon Fields, Lee Ritenour, Michael McDonald, Natalie Cole, David Sanborn, Anita Baker, Andrew WK, Bob Berg, Allan Holdsworth, Robben Ford, Michael Landau, Eros Ramazzotti, Tiziano Ferro, Cesare Cremonini, Jimmy Haslip, Alanis Morissette David Crosby, Larry Carlton and Travis Carlton.  He is the son of jazz pianist Larry Novak.

Collaborations
 Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie - Alanis Morissette (1998)
 The Sixteen Men of Tain - Allan Holdsworth (2000)
 Under Rug Swept - Alanis Morissette (2002)
 To Whom It May Concern - Lisa Marie Presley (2003)
 Take All My Loves: 9 Shakespeare Sonnets - Rufus Wainwright (2016)
 The Heart Speaks in Whispers - Corinne Bailey Rae (2016)
 Sky Trails - David Crosby (2017)

References

http://www.drumchannel.com/articles/20140219_13

External links

Living people
American session musicians
American drummers
1969 births

Gary Novak


Nasir Khusraw (; 1004 – between 1072–1088) was a Isma'ili poet, philosopher, traveler, and missionary () for the Isma'ili Fatimid Caliphate.

Despite being one of the most prominent Isma'ili philosophers and theologians of the Fatimids and the writer of many philosophical works intended for only the inner circle of the Isma'ili community, Nasir is best known to the general public as a poet and writer who ardently supported his native Persian tongue as an artistic and scientific language. All of Nasir's philosophical Isma'ili works are in Persian, a rarity in the Isma'ili literature of the Fatimids, which primarily used Arabic.

Nasir was a key figure in the spread of Isma'ilism in Central Asia. He is with great reverence called "Pir" or "Shah Sayyid Nasir" by the Isma'ili community of Badakhshan (split between Afghanistan and Tajikistan) and their branches in northern Pakistan, who all consider him to be their founder.

Name
Nasir Khusraw's full name was Abu Mu'in Hamid al-Din Nasir ibn Khusraw ibn Harith al-Qubadiyani al-Marvazi, which he would generally refer himself by in his prose philosophical works. In his book Safarnama, he mostly calls himself "Nasir", and in his poetry he mostly uses the pen-name "Hujjat", a title meaning "proof", which he had received by the Isma'ili missionary organisation in Cairo. In his poetry he also sometimes use the names of "Nasir" and "Khusraw", the latter being a Persian name, which according to historian Dr C. Alice Hunsberger "would certainly have been a point of great pride to this defender of Persian culture and language." His name is also transliterated as Nasir-i Khusraw and Naser-e Khosrow.

Life
Nasir is the subject of many tales, including a fake autobiography that bears his name and has been passed around between Isma'ilis and non-Isma'ilis for many centuries. The writings of Nasir that are still in existence offer insightful information about his life and philosophy. Yet, it appears that the majority of these manuscripts were censored to remove any references to Isma'ilism by antagonistic Sunni scribes. A native Persian, Nasir was from a family of government bureaucrats and landowners. He most likely adhered to the Twelver Shi'ism form of Islam before his conversion to Isma'ilism. He was born in 1004 in Qubadiyan, a neighborhood of the city of Balkh, which was part of the Marw province in the Khurasan region. The area was then controlled by the Ghaznavids, a culturally Persianised dynasty of Turkic slave origin.

Nasir supposedly started his career as a scribe before moving to the city of Marw to work as a financial administrator. He was allowed entry to the court at Balkh until in 1040, when Khurasan was conquered by the Seljuks. He retained his office under the Seljuks, whose co-founder Chaghri Beg ruled Khurasan. Around the age of 41, Nasir underwent a tremendous and sudden change in his spirituality, which drastically altered the direction of his life. According to Nasir, the incident had the characteristics of a dream. He subsequently resigned from his office and converted to Isma'ilism.

In December 1045, Nasir made the decision to embark on a prolonged journey with the ultimate goal of performing a pilgrimage to Mecca. In March 1046, along with his brother Abu Sa'id and an Indian attendant, he started his journey, which would first end after nearly seven years. From Khurasan, he travelled west, passing through northern and western Iran, Armenia, and Asia Minor. He then descended to Syria, Palestine, and then Arabia, where he performed his pilgrimage. On August 1047, he went to Cairo in Egypt, which served as the capital of the Isma'ili Fatimid Caliphate.

The Fatimid Caliphate was the first and last significant Shi'i dominion until the emergence of the Safavid dynasty of Iran in 1501, who declared Twelver Shi'ism as its official religion. The majority of other governmental power bases were overwhelmingly Sunni, including the Ghaznavid and Seljuk rulers, who demonstrated their support for the Abbasid caliph in Baghdad by making determined efforts to put an end to Isma'ili activity, especially that of Isma'ili missionaries operating under the Fatimid caliph. At Cairo, Nasir was taught Isma'ili teachings, law, and administration by prominent scholars. He met al-Mu'ayyad fi'l-Din al-Shirazi (died 1087), an Isma'ili scholar from Shiraz in southwestern Iran, who had also recently arrived to Cairo. He became Nasir's teacher, instructing him in enigmatic Isma'ili concepts and philosophy.

Nasir was raised to the position of dā'ī "missionary" and appointed as the Hujjat-i Khorasan, though the hostility he encountered in the propagation of these new religious ideas after his return to Greater Khorasan in 1052 A.D. and Sunnite fanaticism compelled him at last to flee. After wandering from place to place, he found refuge in Yamgan (about 1060 A.D.) in the mountains of Badakhshan, where he spent as a hermit the last decades of his life, gathering a considerable number of devoted adherents, who have handed down his doctrines to succeeding generations.

Nasir-i Khusraw explained that through revelation (tanzil), intellectual matters were transformed into a state that could be understood by humankind. Esoteric interpretation (ta'wil) is necessary to revert them to their original intellectual state. He also said that one must not be satisfied with the exoteric form but look for the person who can explain the original esoteric meaning to them. In saying this he alluded to the Imam of the Time.

He died in Yamagan in present-day northern Afghanistan. He was buried in a small mausoleum on a small hill in the present-day village of Hadrat-i Sayyid (also called Hadrat-i Sa'id), on the eastern side of the Koksha Valley in present-day Afghanistan. According to an engraved inscription on the structure, it was renovated in 1697.

Works
Safarnama ()
Safarnama (The Book of Travels) is his most famous work. He visited dozens of cities in about seven years (March 6, 1046 – October 23, 1052) and wrote comprehensively about them, including details about colleges, caravanserais, mosques, scientists, kings, the public, the population, the area of the cities, and, of course, his interesting memories. After 1000 years, his Safarnama is still readable for Persian-speaking people.

Diwan ()
Among his other works, most of the lyrical poems in his Diwan were composed in his retirement, and their chief topics are an enthusiastic praise of Ali, his descendants, and al-Mustansir in particular, along with passionate outcries against Khorasan and its rulers, who had driven him from his home. It also explores his immense satisfaction with the quiet solitude of Yumgan, and his utter despondency again in seeing himself despised by his former associates and excluded from participation in the glorious contest of life. Scattered through all these alternating outbursts of hope and despair, there are lessons of morality, and solemn warnings against the tricks and perfidy of the world, the vanity of all earthly splendour and greatness, the folly and injustice of men, and the hypocrisy, frivolity and viciousness of fashionable society and princely courts in particular.

Gushayish va Rahayish ()
Another work of Nasir Khusraw is the Persian philosophical work "Gushayish va Rahayish" which has been translated into English by F.M. Hunzai under the title: "Knowledge and Liberation". The work discusses creation, questions related to the soul, epistemology, and Ismaili Islamic doctrines. From a linguistic point of view, the work is an example of early philosophical writing in new Persian.

It is the same strain which runs, although in a somewhat lower key, through his two larger masnavis, the Rawshana-i-nama () (or Book of Enlightenment, also known as Shish Fasl), and the Sa'datnama (Book of Felicity). The former is divided into two sections: the first, of a metaphysical character, contains a sort of practical cosmography, chiefly based on Avicenna's theories, but frequently intermixed both with the freer speculations of the well-known philosophical brotherhood of Basra, the Ikhwan al-Safa, and purely Shi'ite or Isma'ili ideas; the second, or ethical section of the poem, abounds in moral maxims and ingenious thoughts on man's good and bad qualities, on the necessity of shunning the company of fools and double-faced friends, on the deceptive allurements of the world and the secret snares of ambitious men craving for rank and wealth. It concludes with an imaginary vision of a beautiful work of spirits who have stripped off the fetters of earthly cares and sorrows and revel in the pure light of divine wisdom and love.

If we compare this with a similar allegory in Nasir's Diwan, which culminates in the praise of Mustansir, we are fairly entitled to look upon it as a covert allusion to the eminent men who revealed to the poet in Cairo the secrets of the Isma'ili faith, and showed him what he considered the heavenly ladder to superior knowledge and spiritual bliss.

A similar series of excellent teachings on practical wisdom and the blessings of a virtuous life, only of a more severe and uncompromising character, is contained in the Sa'datnama; and, judging from the extreme bitterness of tone manifested in the reproaches of kings and emirs, we should be inclined to consider it a protest against the vile aspersions poured out upon Nasir's moral and religious attitude during those persecutions which drove him at last to Yumgan.

Of all other works of the author, the Zaad-al-Musafirin (or Travelling Provisions of Pilgrims) and the Wajh-i Din (or The Face of Religion) are theoretical descriptions of his religious and philosophical principles; the rest of them can be dismissed as being probably just as apocryphal as Nasir's famous autobiography (found in several Persian tadhkiras or biographies of poets), a mere forgery of the most extravagant description, which is mainly responsible for the confusion in names and dates in older accounts of our author.

 Wajh-i din ()
Nasir Khusraw, explains the spiritual interpretation of the tradition of a six day creation of the physical universe. He writes about how the story of creation is a symbolic explanation of what happened when God created the universe. Interpreting it literally is something human beings do based on the limits of their intellects. In the scriptures, when it says that God began the work of creating the world on Sunday, completed it on Friday, and then rested on Saturday, it is not a literal account, rather a symbolic one.

When the Prophets shared the story of a six-day creation of the physical universe, it was meant for the people to understand that God was saying that six prophets would come into this world and command people to work. When the seventh day came, God would not command in this manner, but would rather reward them for their hard work.

Book on Mathematics ()
Nasir Khusraw wrote a book on mathematics which has now been lost. He states in his other work that he could: not find one single scholar throughout all of Khorasan and eastern lands like myself [who] could grapple with the solutions to these problems. But he felt it his responsibility to take the task for readers he would never see, 'those yet to come, in a time yet to come'

Jamiʿ al hikmatayn ()

Legacy and assessment
Despite being one of the most prominent Isma'ili philosophers and theologians of the Fatimid era and the writer of many philosophical works intended for only the inner circle of the Isma'ili community, Nasir is best known to the general public as a poet and writer who ardently supported Persian as an artistic and scientific language. All of Nasir's philosophical Isma'ili works are in Persian, a rarity in the Isma'ili literature of the Fatimids, which primarily used Arabic.

Nasir was a key figure in the spread of Isma'ilism in Central Asia. He is with great reverence called "Pir" or "Shah Sayyid Nasir" by the Isma'ili community of Badakhshan (split between Afghanistan and Tajikistan) and their branches in northern Pakistan, who all consider him to be their founder. Devotees that visit Nasir Khusraw's mausoleum also refer him by other names than "Nasir Khusraw", such as shāh (king), shāh-i buzurgvār (great king), mawlā (guardian), shīd-i Yumgān (sun of Yumgan), and uqāb-i Yumgān (eagle of Yumgan). The latter refers to one of Nasir Khusraw's poems, written to offer moral advice; The narrative, which is based on an ancient fable, describes an eagle circling in the sky "full of selfish pride" before being brought to the ground by an arrow with eagle feathers sewn into its fletch. The final lines of the poem convey a lesson, which has become a well-known saying amongst speakers of the Persian language; az māst ki bar māst ("what comes from us returns to us"), meaning that people possess the very characteristic that will determine both their success and failure.

References

Sources

Further reading

11th-century Persian-language poets
11th-century Iranian philosophers
Islamic philosophers
Transoxanian Islamic scholars
11th-century people from the Fatimid Caliphate
1004 births
1088 deaths
People from Khatlon Region
Iranian Ismailis
Travel writers of the medieval Islamic world
11th-century Persian-language writers
Ismaili literature
11th-century Iranian scientists
Geography of Palestine (region)
Holy Land travellers
11th-century Iranian geographers
Researchers of Persian literature
11th-century explorers
Medieval geographers

Nasir Khusraw


Dutch colonial architecture is the type of architecture prevalent in the construction of homes, commercial buildings, and outbuildings in areas settled by the Dutch from the early 17th to early 19th century in the area encompassing the former Dutch colony of New Netherland.

In the early 17th century, the original portion of most dwellings started out, as a matter of immediate need, as simple one-story dwellings constructed primarily of local available material. When available the house would be constructed of fieldstone such as the Abraham Manee House on Staten Island. The wood for the joists and rafters were trimmed with an adze from trees felled on or near the property.

The ceiling and interior walls when constructed after the initial construction were usually framed then plastered with clay from local deposits, mixed with horse hair for strength, over rough trimmed wood laths.

Common characteristics of Dutch colonial architecture are they typically, but not always had Gambrel roofs with flared eaves, Dutch doors and brick chimneys built at the gable ends.

References

New Netherland
Colonial architecture in the United States
American architectural styles
Dutch colonial architecture

Dutch Colonial architecture (New Netherland)


Aroga alleriella is a moth of the family Gelechiidae. It is found in North America, where it has been recorded from Alabama and Florida.

The wingspan is 17–22 mm. The forewings are black with white markings. There is a white costal streak, outwardly oblique from before the basal fourth, reaching to the fold and a smaller inwardly oblique costal streak at the apical fourth with a similar white dorsal streak opposite to it. A short longitudinal white spot is found on the middle of the cell and there is a minute white dot on the middle of the fold and a few white scales at the apex.

The larvae feed on Polygonum maritunum.

References

Moths described in 1940
Aroga
Moths of North America

Aroga alleriella


Pebre is a Chilean condiment made of coriander and/or parsley, chopped onion, vinegar, a neutral oil, ground or pureed spicy aji peppers, and usually chopped tomatoes. Pebre is most commonly used on bread. It is also used on meat, or when meat such as choripán is provided in a bread roll. In far northern Chile, the term pebre refers to a sauce more like Bolivian llajwa.

History

The word pebre in Catalan means pepper of any type, in this case ají cultivars of chilli pepper. In the rest of Spain, it refers to a sauce made of vinegar, pepper, saffron, clove, and other spices.

The origin of Pebre as a sauce in Chile dates to the arrival of Catalan engineers and highly skilled masons under the supervision of the Italian  architect Joaquin Toesca, for the construction of the Tajamares de Santiago, the fluvial channels, river walls and bridges for the main river that intersects the city of Santiago, the Rio Mapocho (Mapocho River). Catalan workers made a simple sauce (salsa) with cilantro, oil, vinegar and salt, called Pebre for its main ingredient, the ají.

Similar International Variations
In Brazil, a similar sauce can be found by the name of Vinagrete (which is less hot than Pebre due to the lack of peppers in it). This sauce is one of the most popular sauces in Brazilian churrascos.

In Mexico, a similar sauce called pico de gallo is commonly used for cochinita pibil tacos, among other preparations. Like pebre, pico de gallo is also made with onion, coriander and tomato.

In the Dominican Republic, there is a similar sauce called wasakaka, which usually contains lime or sour orange juice.

See also
 Pico de gallo
 Vinagrete
 List of tomato dishes

References

Chilean condiments
Chili pepper dishes

Pebre


Charles Hodes (1848 – February 14, 1875) was an American professional baseball player who played as a catcher, infielder, and outfielder in the National Association for three seasons from 1871 to 1874. A Brooklyn native, Hodes played one season each for the Chicago White Stockings, Troy Haymakers, and Brooklyn Atlantics. He had a career batting average of .231 in 63 total games before dying from tuberculosis in 1875.

Early life
Hodes was born to German immigrants in Manhattan, New York, in 1848, though the exact date of his birth is unknown. His family lived in Manhattan until about 1853, when they moved to Brooklyn. There, Hodes would eventually play baseball with multiple amateur teams.

Amateur career
In 1868, Hodes joined the hometown Brooklyn Eckfords, playing for them in 1869 as well. He moved on to the Chicago White Stockings in 1870 and remained with the team the following season when they became a charter member of the National Association (NA), the first professional baseball league.

Chicago White Stockings (1871)
Hodes's first NA game with Chicago came on May 8, against the Cleveland Forest Citys at the Union Base-Ball Grounds in Chicago. Playing catcher for the team, he had two hits, two runs scored, and two runs batted in (RBI) in Chicago's 14–12 victory. Though Hodes was Chicago's main catcher during the season, manager Jimmy Wood also used him as a third baseman, shortstop, and outfielder. The White Stockings' season was interrupted on October 8, when the Great Chicago Fire consumed their ballpark, uniforms, and equipment. Other teams loaned them supplies to finish the year, and they played the rest of their regularly scheduled games on the road. Despite these challenges, the White Stockings remained in contention for the league title until the final day of the season (October 30), when they faced the Philadelphia Athletics in a game that would determine the champion. Catching that day, Hode was hitless in three at bats as Philadelphia won 4–1. In 28 games in 1871, Hodes batted .277 with 32 runs scored, 36 hits, two home runs (the only ones of his career), and 25 RBI.

Troy Haymakers (1872)
The White Stockings suspended operations after the 1871 season, but Wood was hired to manage the Troy Haymakers for 1872. He brought several of his Chicago players along, including George Zettlein, Bub McAtee, and Hodes. The catcher only appeared in 13 of the team's 25 games, but he continued to demonstrate his versatility by playing third base, shortstop, and outfield. However, Troy's season ended early on July 23, when the team's owners revealed that they would not be able to pay the players. In 13 games, Hodes batted .242 with 17 runs scored, 15 hits, and 10 RBI.

Brooklyn Atlantics (1874)
Six of Troy's former players joined the Brooklyn Eckfords for the rest of the 1872 season, but Hodes was not signed by the team. He returned to Brooklyn and played semipro baseball until 1874, when he joined the NA's Brooklyn Atlantics. This time, he was used primarily as an outfielder, though he also played the positions of catcher, second base, and first base. However, Hodes battled fatigue throughout the year, which affected his performance on the field. On July 13, he was hitless in five at bats in a 6–4 victory over the Hartford Dark Blues at the Hartford Ball Club Grounds. After that game, manager Bob Ferguson decided his player needed rest and gave him the remainder of the season off. Though Hodes did not play any more games in 1874, he did umpire four contests, the last of these coming on October 3 when the Atlantics played the Baltimore Canaries. In 21 games, he batted .148 with eight runs scored, 12 hits, and seven RBI. His three-season totals in the NA included a .231 batting average, 57 runs scored, 63 hits, and 42 RBI in 62 games.

Illness and death
Hodes's fatigue would only get worse over the offseason, as he was diagnosed with tuberculosis in mid-October. Ferguson held an exhibition game at the Union Grounds in Brooklyn on November 12 to raise funds for the player's recovery, and a benefit "hop" was held for him later that day, though the Brooklyn Eagle reported that the latter "was not so successful as might have been desired." Ferguson and Hodes's teammates also went to his house several times to encourage the ailing ballplayer. However, Hodes died of the disease on February 14, 1875. He is interred at Lutheran All Faiths Cemetery in Queens, New York.

See also
 List of baseball players who died during their careers

References

External links

Major League Baseball catchers
Major League Baseball center fielders
Brooklyn Eckfords (NABBP) players
Chicago White Stockings (NABBP) players
Chicago White Stockings players
Troy Haymakers players
Brooklyn Atlantics players
Baseball players from New York (state)
19th-century baseball players
1848 births
1875 deaths
19th-century deaths from tuberculosis
Tuberculosis deaths in New York (state)
American people of German descent

Charlie Hodes


Shinsengumi was a military police force in Japan in the Edo era. Shinsengumi was organized by Katamori Matsudaira. He was an Aizu feudal lord. They were gathered to defend Kyoto against political opponents. Shinsengumi  became famous by the Ikedaya Incident. They became part of the army after the Tokugawa shogunate was overthrown by a new government in the Meiji Restoration. Isami Kondo who was the head was arrested and punished. Toshizo Hijikata who was the subleader fought to the last battlefield in the Meiji Restoration. He was killed in the battle. Hajime Saito who was third section commander became a police officer in the Meiji Restoration.

References
chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp

History of Japan

Shinsengumi


The Caledonian orogeny was a mountain building era. It left its mark in the northern parts of the British Isles, the Scandinavian Mountains, Svalbard, eastern Greenland, northern Europe and the eastern United States.

The events occurred from the Ordovician to early Devonian, roughly 490390 million years ago (mya). It was caused by the closure of the Iapetus Ocean when the continents and lands of Laurentia, Baltica and Avalonia collided.

The Caledonian orogeny is named after Caledonia, the Latin name for Scotland. The name is not used for an absolute period of time: it applies only to the series of mountain-building events.

Part of the mountain chain ended up in modern North America, where it is called the Acadian orogeny (see Appalachian Mountains).

Stages
The Caledonian orogeny was one of several orogenies that would eventually form the supercontinent Pangaea later in the Palaeozoic era. The main phase of the Caledonian orogeny happened from about 425 to 395 million years ago.

Continental collision started in the mid Silurian, and mountain building took place in the early Devonian (from 407 million years ago onward).

References

Orogenies
Palaeozoic
Mountains of Norway
+
Geography of Greenland
Geography of Scotland

Caledonian orogeny


Acquafraggia (also Acqua Fraggia) is a short and frequently steep torrente, or seasonal stream, of the province of Sondrio in Lombardy, north Italy.

Its source is on Pizzo del Lago, at an elevation of , on the north side of the Val Bregaglia and close to the Swiss border which here marks the limit of the Po drainage basin. From here it flows in a southwesterly direction within the territory of the commune of Piuro until it joins the Mera as a right tributary at the locality of Borgonuovo, a little upstream from Chiavenna and the mouth of the Val Bregaglia.

At an early point of its course the stream forms the lake of Acqua Fraggia at an elevation of ; it then runs through two hanging valleys of glacial origins, emerging from each in a series of waterfalls, which were noted by Leonardo da Vinci in the Codex Atlanticus. This has been a protected area since 1983.

References
Monumento Naturale Cascate dell'Acquafraggia

Rivers of the Province of Sondrio
Val Bregaglia
Waterfalls of Lombardy
Rivers of Italy

Acquafraggia