Amber Leann Portwood is an American reality television personality and convicted criminal. From Anderson, Indiana, she is known for being cast in the reality television series 16 and Pregnant in 2009, which documented the pregnancies and first months of motherhood for several teenage girls. Portwood received particular public attention in 2010 where an episode documented Portwood's domestic violence against her partner, Gary Shirley, with Portwood eventually imprisoned for this and other crimes. She also went on to abuse her third partner Andrew Glennon.

Portwood was also cast in the spin-off series Teen Mom, and appeared in each of its four seasons until its conclusion in 2012. In March 2015, Portwood, along with Maci McKinney, Catelynn Baltierra, and Farrah Abraham, returned to MTV for the fifth season of the show, renamed Teen Mom OG.

Personal life
Amber Leann Portwood is the daughter of Tonya and Shawn Edwin Portwood Sr. (1964–2014). She has a brother, Shawn Edwin Portwood Jr., a United States Army veteran, and a sister, Candace Portwood (1995–1996), who died in infancy. Portwood told the press that she had been neglected by her mother in her early teens, after her mother began having an affair. She attended Anderson High School, but dropped out after falling pregnant.

Portwood became pregnant by her then-boyfriend, Gary Shirley, in 2008 and, later that year, on November 12, at the age of 18, gave birth to their daughter, Leah Leann Shirley. Portwood and Shirley were engaged for a time but ultimately separated, with Shirley being granted full custody of Leah in December 2011. Shirley went onto wed Kristina Shirley (née Tinch, formerly Anderson), by whom he has a daughter, Emilee Grace Shirley, and became a police officer.

From 2014 until 2017, Portwood was engaged to Matt Baier, an amateur DJ she met through the social networking site Twitter.

Portwood fell pregnant a second time by her boyfriend, Andrew Glennon, in 2017 and Portwood gave birth to their son, James Andrew Glennon, on May 8, 2018.

Portwood has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder.

Legal issues
MTV aired footage of Portwood's violent behaviour towards her child's father Gary Shirley, most notably a September 2010 broadcast showing an assault in which Shirley refused to physically defend himself and was injured. The MTV crew failed to intervene in Portwood's attacks and also failed to report the crimes to the police. An investigation from the police department of Anderson, Indiana, and that city's branch of the state Child Protective Services was later launched after the authorities were alerted by concerned viewers of the footage upon its broadcast, weeks after the incidents occurred.

The episode showed Portwood punching, slapping, and choking Shirley, she then kicked him in the back as he descended a set of stairs. The broadcast sparked hundreds of public complaints questioning Portwood's suitability to be a mother. Police searched Portwood's apartment, finding "evidence that requires further investigation," but would not specify what had been found at the time; it was later revealed that Portwood had been caught with a large quantity of marijuana and crack cocaine. On November 3, 2010, it was reported that Portwood agreed to allow Indiana CPS to monitor her for up to six months in exchange for CPS's allowing her to maintain custody of Leah.

On November 18, after an extensive investigation, Portwood was charged with three counts of domestic violence, two of them felonies, in connection with separate incidents of on-camera abuse of Shirley. The same day, MTV released a statement concerning the charges filed on Portwood: "We are cooperating with all parties and hope for a quick and fair resolution that allows everyone involved to move forward in a positive manner." On June 9, 2011, Portwood pleaded guilty to two felony counts of domestic battery and was given a two-year suspended sentence and two years' probation.

In December 2011, Portwood was arrested for the Class D felony of possession of a controlled substance and was later charged with violating her probation on her earlier domestic-violence charges by breaching conditions including behaving well in society, obtaining a GED certificate, completing six months of anger-management training, paying her probation fees, and setting up a $10,000 college fund for Leah. She was held without bond in Madison County Jail until her January 27, 2012, hearing on both charges, at which she entered a guilty plea and the court scheduled a sentencing hearing for February 6 of that year. On February 6, 2012, Portwood was given a five-year suspended sentence with the provision that all charges would be dropped if she went to and completed rehab.

In March 2012, Portwood failed to take a required drug test, violating the associated condition of her suspended sentence and putting herself in jeopardy of having the five-year suspended sentence reimposed. At the ensuing probation violation hearing, the judge in the case declined to reimpose any portion of the suspended sentence, instead requiring Amber to complete 30 days of daily drug tests. Portwood subsequently dropped out of her rehabilitation program and was charged with a third violation of her probation; in June 2012, the court reimposed Portwood's five-year sentence in its entirety.

On June 13, 2012, Portwood began serving her five-year sentence, during which she was expected to attend substance abuse classes and earn her GED.

On December 20, 2013, Portwood made an appearance on the talk show Dr. Phil. She said that she had been released from jail early due to good behavior and now has her GED. Portwood also said that she was high on prescription and illegal medication for most episodes of Teen Mom and that she was sober with no intent of ever using again. Portwood said she was working on obtaining a joint custody agreement with her ex-boyfriend Gary Shirley and was trying to focus on being a good mom to her daughter. She also has established an organization to help teens stay off drugs.

On July 5, 2019, Portwood was arrested in Indianapolis, Indiana and charged with two counts of domestic battery and one count of criminal recklessness with a deadly weapon, after she struck Glennon in the neck while Glennon held James in his arms, threatened to commit suicide by overdosing on clonazepam, and used a machete to attempt and break into the room where Glennon was hiding with their son. Portwood made bail the following day, after posting a bond of $2,000, and was released from jail. A restraining order was issued against Portwood, ordering she have no contact with Glennon. In October 2019, Portwood pleaded guilty to two felony charges of domestic battery and intimidation, and was sentenced to 906 days of probation. Should Portwood violate her probation she will be sentenced to five years' imprisonment. She must also take 26 weeks of parenting classes.

References

1990s births
Living people
Teenage pregnancy in television
Participants in American reality television series
People from Anderson, Indiana
People with bipolar disorder
People with borderline personality disorder
People convicted of domestic violence
American people convicted of drug offenses
Anderson High School (Anderson, Indiana) alumni

Amber Portwood


Bagrat A. Asatryan (, born February 2, 1956), also transliterated Bagrat Asatrian or Assatrian, is an Armenian economist and the former Chairman of the Central Bank of Armenia from 1994 to 1998. He is one of the architects of the modern-day Armenia. On February 3, 1998 because of a political crisis in the country, Bagrat Asatryan resigned from his post with several of his key allies including the President Levon Ter-Petrossian, Vano Siradeghyan, Head of the National Assembly Babken Ararktsyan and Minister of Foreign Affairs Alexander Arzumanyan.

Early life

Bagrat Asatryan was born in the Armenian SSR. In 1977 he graduated from Yerevan State University as an Economist. B. Asatryan worked as a scientific-research assistant and in 1985 received his Ph.D. in economics from the Institute of Economics at the Academy of Sciences of Armenia.

Life after independence

Asatryan was an activist of the revolutionary movement in Armenia in the late 1980s. In August 1990 Asatryan, already a member of the Armenian National Movement (ÐÐÞ), became a deputy to the Supreme Council of the First Convocation of Armenia, where he was the chair of the Standing Committee on Health and Social Affairs. In 1995 he was elected as a member of the National Assembly of Armenia. In 1994 Asatryan was elected the chairman of the Central Bank of Armenia by the National Assembly. Some of CB's main operations of this period were putting into circulation and stabilizing the newly implemented Armenian monetary value Dram (AMD), constructing an entirely new banking system in the new market economy. Before him a parliamentary commission introduced the Armenian dram. Bagrat Asatryan is the author of the first Monetary Policy implemented by the CBA in 1995, he is also the initiator of several significant legislative pieces about the banking system in Armenia, including laws on "The Central Bank", "Banks and Banking", "Bank Bankruptcy", "Bank Secrecy", which were designed to regulate the relationships in the banking system and were adopted by the National Assembly in June 1996. In 1998 Dr. Asatryan and several of his key allies resigned after a political crisis, which was a result of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and disagreement over its solution among high government officials.

After leaving the government Asatryan took several professional posts: serving as the President of the [Association of Banks of Armenia] (1998–1999) and the Executive Director of [ArmimpexBank] (1999–2003). Since 1999 Dr. Asatryan is a full professor at Yerevan State University, faculty of Economics, department of Finance and Accounting.

He is the author of more than 20 scholarly publications in Armenian, Russian and English. In 2005 as a head of a team of young professionals he published his more than 700 pages long book "Banking", which serves as a textbook in YSU and is the only publication about Armenia's banking system, its principles, history, evolution, transition to market economy etc.
Bagrat Asatryan is married and has two sons.

External links

1956 births
Living people
Armenian economists
Chairmen of the Central Bank of Armenia
Members of the National Assembly (Armenia)
Armenian corporate directors
Textbook writers
Yerevan State University alumni

Bagrat Asatryan


Griffin & Phoenix is a 2006 American romance film directed by Ed Stone and written by John Hill. It stars Dermot Mulroney and Amanda Peet and is a remake of the 1976 film Griffin and Phoenix.

Plot
The film starts with Henry Griffin (Dermot Mulroney) learning from his oncologist that his cancer has spread and that he only has one year, two at most, left to live. This discovery starts him on a journey of self-reflection which includes starting a novel and taking a psychology class at New York University. In this class, he meets Sarah Phoenix (Amanda Peet). He asks her on a date and after hesitation she comes. Then the two of them goof around and eventually stay up all night together watching the sunrise. Griffin believes they are close, but Phoenix doesn't show as much interest. Although Phoenix sends Griffin the occasional mixed signals, the two team up for a whirlwind of adventurous and almost childlike activities, such as painting graffiti on a water tower. However Phoenix doesn't want to hurt Griffin or herself by falling in love because she's too weak to deal with it as she too has cancer and is also short of time. One day while at Griffin's house after their adventure, while cleaning she comes across his books on dying and "living life to the fullest" and comes to the conclusion that Griffin knows she's ill and is being nice only out of sympathy. She storms out and after their confrontation Griffin explains that the books belong to him and he too has cancer. This causes the two to fall ever more deeply for one another, and their relationship deepens. Together, they strive to make the most of their last days of life. However while exploring and making the most of their last days, Griffin explains how when he gets seriously ill he will just leave and he wishes for her to not come looking for him because it's something he feels he must do himself. But Phoenix is first to get sick and uses Griffin's same words against him. This deeply hurts Griffin and causes him to overreact. Later, however, after realizing he was wrong, he decides he wants to spend the last moments of Phoenix's life with her anyhow. Griffin makes a last 'Christmas' for Phoenix, as it is her favorite season and it would be their last holiday together. The movie ends with two men repainting the water tower, covering Griffin's graffiti heart proclaiming his love for Phoenix.

Cast

 Amanda Peet as Phoenix
 Dermot Mulroney as Griffin
 Sarah Paulson as Peri
 Blair Brown as Eve
 Alison Elliott as Terry
 Lois Smith as Dr. Imberman
 Jonah Meyerson as Kirk
 Max Morris as Andrew
 Simon Jones as Professor
 Jesse Tyler Ferguson as Student (as Jesse Ferguson)
 Susan Pourfar as Waitress
 Omar Scroggins as Movie Usher
 Adam Kulbersh as Stu Knoepflemacher
 Adriane Lenox as Doctor
 Novella Nelson as Maya Restaurant Owner
 Don McManus as Good Samaritan #1
 Jason Workman as Good Samaritan #2
 Brian Klugman as Beach Stud
 Sile Bermingham as Lilly
 Steven Randazzo as Cop #1
 Ted Koch as Cop #2
 Dana Eskelson as Mother with Stroller
 T.J. Stanton as Crying Boy
 Michael Showalter as Terry's Fiancé
 Fred Armisen (uncredited)
 John Farrer  as Hospital Doctor (uncredited)
 Chuck Gerena as Water Tower Painter (uncredited)
 Pablo Hernandez as Luc (uncredited)
 Robert Oppel as Tattooed Student (uncredited)
 Kristen Silverman as Bikini Babe (uncredited)

References

External links

 Griffin & Phoenix at Gold Circle's website
 Griffin & Phoenix at Lifetime's website

2006 films
2006 romantic drama films
Remakes of American films
American romantic drama films
Films shot in New York (state)
Films produced by Jason Blum
Blumhouse Productions films
Gold Circle Films films
Sidney Kimmel Entertainment films
Films about cancer
Films set in New York City
Films scored by Roger Neill
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films
2000s English-language films
2000s American films
English-language romantic drama films

Griffin & Phoenix (2006 film)


Fingal Head Light is an active lighthouse located at Fingal Head, New South Wales, Australia, a headland about  south of Point Danger, which marks the Queensland border.

History

The station was first established on 19 February 1872, a wooden pole structure of approximately , holding a fixed kerosene wick burner which shone a fixed white light with an intensity of 1,000 cd. It was described by a daughter of William Arnold, the first lighthouse keeper, as being shaped like a large meat safe, mounted on a wooden structure resembling a pigeon loft. The keeper had to row from the Tweed Heads Pilot Station each day and light the lantern at sunset, and a hut was constructed for him to stay in.

In October 1878 the Maritime Board of New South Wales decided to construct a modern lighthouse at the location. It was the third of five lighthouses of similar design designed by James Barnet in 1878–80, the other four being Richmond River Light, Clarence River Light (now demolished), Tacking Point Lighthouse and Crowdy Head Light. It originally had a porch and an annexe serving as oil room. A four-room, single-storey lighthouse keeper's house was constructed about  northwest of the tower. The lighthouse and keeper's cottage were constructed by Joseph William Mortley and Shepherd who were successful with their government tender.

On 15 June 1920 the light was converted to an automatic carbide lamp (acetylene gas) apparatus, with an intensity of 1,500 cd, and altered to group flashing. Soon after, the station was demanned and all buildings other than the tower were demolished.

In 1980 the light was converted to electricity. The current light source is a modern FA-251 Beacon with a 12 Volt 75 Watt HL-2000 quartz halogen lamp. It is fed by mains electricity with a Battery standby. It revolves once every 30 seconds.

The current light characteristic is a flash every five seconds, red to east and white to other directions (Fl.W.R. 5s). It is partially obscured.

Structure
The circular tower is made from bricks and cement rendered from the outside. It is capped by an oversailing bluestone platform at  above ground levels, supported by shaped bluestone corbels. The platform is surrounded by a handrail of metal standards and rails. It is topped by the domed lantern housing the optical apparatus, a fourth order catadioptric.

Site operation
The light is operated by Transport for NSW. The site is managed by the New South Wales Department of Lands.

Visiting
The light is accessible by road from the Pacific Highway just south of the Tweed River. Parking is provided, and there is also a public beach and a picnic area just north of the lighthouse. The tower itself, however, is closed to the public.

See also
 List of lighthouses in Australia

Notes

References

Lighthouses completed in 1880
Lighthouses in New South Wales
1872 establishments in Australia
Tweed Heads, New South Wales

Fingal Head Light


Alkanes occur widely in nature in different forms.These are the simplest hydrocarbons.The lower members(C1 to C4) are major constituents of the natural gas which is used as fuel in cooking, automobiles and in power generation plants.Some of the higher hydrocarbons(C6 to C8) are constituents of gasoline or petrol.Diesel contains different alkens C15 to C18. Waxe,that occur in nature as coating on green leaves contain C29 to C31 alkanes. Some alkanes possess exceptional biological activity. Undecane(C11 alkane) secreted by cockroach helps to attract opposite gender of its species. Cyclohexane, a cyclic alkane is one of the common component of mangoes. It is intended to study some interesting aspects of chemistry of alkanes in this chapter.
Alkanes="The saaturated aliphatic hydrocarbons are called as alkanes.
Alkane are open chain hydrocarbons in which all the four valencies of carbon are satisfied by four atoms or groups of atoms.These atoms are joined to carbon atom by sinle covalent bonds.Alkanes are also called as paraffins easily(Latin param means little and affin aeans affinty or reactivity).Some common alkanes and their molecular fomulae are mentioned below.
                        Methane      CH4
                        Ethane       C2H6
                        Propane      C3H8
                        Butane       C4H10
                        Pentane      C5H12
Thus all alkanes can be represented by the general formula CnH2n+2 where 'n' is an integer and indicates tha number of carbon atoms in the molecule.

आल्केन


Commandments is a 1997 American romantic comedy-drama which was written and directed by Daniel Taplitz and stars Aidan Quinn, Courteney Cox and Anthony LaPaglia. The executive producer was Ivan Reitman.

Plot Synopsis
Ever since Seth Warner's (Aidan Quinn) wife died two years ago, his life has gone to pieces. In his rage, he affronts God who seemingly responds by stopping his suicide attempt and his screaming at God above by crippling his dog and putting Seth in the hospital. So Seth sets out to break all of the ten commandments. Moving in with his sister-in-law, Rachel (Courteney Cox), and her reporter-husband, Harry (Anthony LaPaglia), he systematically starts breaking each of the commandments, increasingly aided by Harry and Rachel. When Rachel finds out Harry has been having an affair, she responds by having an affair with Seth. Seth then steals all of Harry's personally autographed guitars and pawns them, subsequently lying to the police that it was part of an insurance scam and Harry was in on it. Harry loses his job and finds out Rachel is pregnant with Seth's baby. Seth attempts to kill himself, but is swallowed by a whale and the belly is cut open and Seth is released. Rachel decides to marry Seth and raise the baby with him. Harry stands on top of a building with Seth's crippled dog the same way Seth did before and asks for a sign from God. Perhaps to be saved like Seth was.

Critical reception
The film has received negative reviews, with a 24% "rotten" rating by the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, based on 17 reviews.

References

External links

1997 films
1997 romantic comedy films
American romantic comedy films
1990s English-language films
Films about Christianity
Films about God
Gramercy Pictures films
Religious comedy films
Universal Pictures films
1997 directorial debut films
1990s American films

Commandments (film)


Hội An (), formerly known in English as Fai-Fo or Faifoo, is a city with a population of approximately 120,000 in Vietnam's Quảng Nam Province and has been noted as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1999. Along with the Cù Lao Cham archipelago, it is part of the Cù Lao Cham-Hội An Biosphere Reserve, designated in 2009.

Old Town Hội An, the city's historic district, is recognized as an exceptionally well-preserved example of a Southeast Asian trading port dating from the 15th to the 19th century, its buildings and street plan reflecting a blend of indigenous and foreign influences. Prominent in the city's old town is its covered "Temple Bridge", dating to the 16th–17th century.

Etymology
Hội An (chữ Hán: 會安) translates as "peaceful meeting place" from Sino-Vietnamese. In English and other European languages, the town was known historically as Faifo. This word is derived from Vietnamese Hội An phố (the town of Hội An), which was shortened to "Hoi-pho", and then to "Faifo". It has also been known as Hải Phố, Hoài Phố, Hội Phố, Hoa Phố, Haiso  and during the Champa period, it was named Lam Ap Pho.

History

Cham period (2nd century-15th century)

Between the 7th and 10th centuries, the Chams (people of Champa) controlled the strategic spice trade and with this came increasing wealth.

The early history of Hội An is that of the Chams. These Austronesian-speaking Malayo-Polynesian people created the Kingdom of Champa which occupied much of what is now central and lower Vietnam, from Huế to beyond Nha Trang.  Various linguistic connections between Cham and the related Jarai language and the Austronesian languages of Indonesia (particularly Acehnese), Malaysia, and Hainan have been documented.  In the early years, Mỹ Sơn was the spiritual capital, Trà Kiệu was the political capital and Hội An was the commercial capital of the Chams, they later moved further down towards Nha Trang. The river system was used for the transport of goods between the highlands, as well as the inland countries of Laos and Thailand and its lowlands.

Vietnamese period

In 1306, the Vietnamese and the Chams signed a land treaty, in which Cham king Jaya Simhavarman III gave Đại Việt the two provinces of Ô and Lý in exchange for a long-term peace and marriage with emperor Trần Nhân Tông's daughter Huyền Trân. In 1471, Emperor Lê Thánh Tông of Đại Việt annexed Champa and Hội An became a Vietnamese territory, and also became the capital of Quảng Nam Province.

In 1535, Portuguese explorer and sea captain António de Faria, coming from Đà Nẵng, tried to establish a major trading centre at the port village of Faifo. Since 1570, Southern Vietnam had been under the control of the powerful Nguyễn clan, established by governor Nguyễn Hoàng. The Nguyễn lords were far more interested in commercial activity than the Trịnh lords who ruled the north. As a result, Hội An flourished as a trading port and became the most important trade port on the South China sea. Captain William Adams, the English sailor and confidant of Tokugawa Ieyasu, is known to have made one trading mission to Hội An in 1617 on a Red Seal Ship. The early Portuguese Jesuits also had one of their two residences at Hội An.

Hội An was a divided town with the Japanese settlement across the "Japanese Bridge", constructed in the 16th-17th century. The bridge (Chùa Cầu) is a unique covered structure built by Japanese merchants, the only known covered bridge with a Buddhist temple attached on one side. In the 18th century, Hội An was considered by Chinese and Japanese merchants to be the best destination for trading in all of Southeast Asia. The city also rose to prominence as a powerful and exclusive trade conduit between Europe, China, India, and Japan, especially for the ceramic industry. Shipwreck discoveries have shown that Vietnamese and Asian ceramics were transported from Hội An to as far as the Sinai in Egypt.

Hội An's importance waned sharply at the end of the 18th century because of the collapse of Nguyễn rule, which resulted from the Tây Sơn Rebellion - which was opposed to foreign trade. In 1775, Hội An had been the battleground between the Trịnh army and Tây Sơn rebels, where the city was destroyed in the prices. Then, with the triumph of Emperor Gia Long, he repaid the French for their aid by giving them exclusive trade rights to the nearby port town of Đà Nẵng. Đà Nẵng became the new centre of trade (and later French influence) in central Vietnam while Hội An was a forgotten backwater. Local historians also say that Hội An lost its status as a desirable trade port due to the silting up of the river mouth. The result was that Hội An remained almost untouched by the changes to Vietnam over the next 200 years. The efforts to revive the city were only done in the 1990s by a Polish architect and conservator from Lublin and influential cultural educator, Kazimierz Kwiatkowski, who finally brought back Hội An to the world. There is a statue of the Polish architect in the city, and remains a symbol of the relationship between Poland and Vietnam, which share many historical similarities despite their distance.

Today, the town is a tourist attraction because of its history, traditional architecture, and crafts such as textiles and ceramics. Many bars, hotels, and resorts have been constructed both in Hội An and the surrounding area. The port mouth and boats are still used for both fishing and tourism.

Weather

Hoi An has two main seasons during the year: rainy and dry seasons, with a warm average temperature of 29 °C during the year. The hottest period is from June to August when the highest temperature can reach 38 °C during day time. November to January are the coldest months, with an average temperature of 20 °C. The rainy season lasts from September to January with heavy rains which can cause floods and affect tourism. The city's dry season is between February and May, when the weather becomes very mild with moderate temperature and less humid.
Calm mild weather is now limited to the season of May/June - end of August when the seas are calm and wind changes direction and comes from the South.  The remainder of the year the weather is intermittent between rain & cold and hot & mild. Activities such as visiting the offshore Cù lao Chàm islands are only guaranteed to be likely during the short season from May to the end of August, which is the high season for domestic tourism.

Heritage and tourism

In 1999 the old town was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO as a well-preserved example of a Southeast Asian trading port of the 15th to 19th centuries, with buildings that display a blend of local and foreign influences. According to the UNESCO Impact Report 2008 on Hội An, there are challenges for stakeholders to protect the heritage from tourism.

Owing to the increased number of tourists visiting Hoi An a variety of activities are emerging that allow guests to get out of the old quarter and explore by motorbike, bicycle, kayak, or motorboat. The Thu Bon River is still essential to the region more than 500 years after António de Faria first navigated it and it remains an essential form of food production and transport. As such kayak and motorboat rides are becoming an increasingly common tourist activity.

This longtime trading port city offers a distinctive regional cuisine that blends centuries of cultural influences from East and Southeast Asia. Hoi An hosts a number of cooking classes where tourists can learn to make Cao lầu or braised spiced pork noodle, a signature dish of the city.

The Hoi An wreck, a shipwreck from the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century, was discovered near the Cham Islands, off the coast of the city in the 1990s. Between 1996 and 1999, nearly three hundred thousand artifacts were recovered by the excavation teams, that included the Vietnamese National Salvage Corporation and Oxford University's Marine Archaeology Research Division.

Another attraction is the Hoi An Lantern Full Moon Festival taking place every full moon cycle. The celebrations honour the ancestors. People exchange flowers, lanterns, candles, and fruits for prosperity and good fortune.

The Faifo Coffee house has an open air rooftop that has become a particularly popular location for Asian tourists to stop for well dressed selfies and posed photos.

In 2019, Hoi An was listed as one of Vietnam's key culture-based tourist areas where rampant tourism growth 'threatens the sustainability". Excessive tourism in the past has also damaged the eco-system of Chàm Islands-Hội An Marine Protected Area.

Museums
The city has four museums highlighting the history of the region. These museums are managed by the Hoi An Center for Cultural Heritage Management and Preservation. Entrance to the museum is permitted with a Hoi An Entrance Ticket.

The Museum of History and Culture, at 13 Nguyen Hue St, was originally a pagoda, built in the 17th century by Minh Huong villagers to worship the Guanyin, and is adjacent to the Guan Yu temple. It contains original relics from the Sa Huynh, Champa, Dai Viet and Dai Nam periods, tracing the history of Hoi An's inhabitants from its earliest settlers through to French colonial times.

The Hoi An Folklore Museum, at 33 Nguyen Thai Hoc Street, was opened in 2005, and is the largest two-storey wooden building in the old town, at 57m long and 9m wide, with fronts at Nguyen Thai Hoc St and Bach Dang St. On the second floor, there are 490 artifacts, organised into four areas: plastic folk arts, performing folk arts, traditional occupations and artifacts related to the daily life of Hoi An residents.

The Museum of Trade Ceramics is located at 80 Tran Phu Street, and was established in 1995, in a restored wooden building, originally built around 1858. The items originating from Persia, China, Thailand, India and other countries are proof of the importance of Hội An as a major trading port in South East Asia.

The Museum of Sa Huỳnh Culture, is located at 149 Tran Phu Street. Established in 1994, this museum displays a collection of over 200 artifacts from the Sa Huỳnh culture—considered to be the original settlers on the Hội An site—dating to over 2000 years ago. This museum is considered to be the most unusual collection of Sa Huỳnh artefacts in Vietnam.

The Precious Heritage Art Gallery Museum is located at 26 Phan Boi Chau. It includes a 500m2 display of photos and artifacts collected by Réhahn during the past 10 years of the French photographer's explorations of Vietnam.

Food
According to CNN, Hoi An is the "banh mi capital of Vietnam." Banh Mi is a type of Vietnamese sandwich, consisting of a baguette, pâté, meats and fresh herbs.

The regional dish is Cao lầu, consisting of rice noodles, meat, greens, bean sprouts, and herbs, most commonly served with a small amount of broth. The water for the broth has been traditionally taken from the Ba Le Well, thought to have been built in the 10th century by the Chams.

Other regional specialties include Mi quang noodles, Banh bao banh vac, Hoanh thanh, com ga (chicken with rice), bánh xèo, sweet corn soup and baby clam salad are also regional specialties. They make a local chili sauce, Ớt Tương Triều Phát, widely popular throughout Vietnam.

In addition, herbal teas with natural ingredients such as licorice, cinnamon, chamomile, lemongrass, etc. It is also a popular local drink among tourists.

Hoi An Lantern Festival

The Hoi An Lantern Festival, a renowned cultural event in Hoi An, Vietnam, is a celebration of light, color, and tradition. This vibrant and enchanting festival is held on the 14th day of each lunar month when the moon is at its brightest. As of 2023, the festival dates coincide with the following Gregorian calendar dates: February 5th, March 6th, April 5th, May 4th, June 3rd, July 2nd, August 1st, August 30th, September 29th, October 28th, November 27th, December 26th; offering an extraordinary experience to both residents and tourists. Throughout the year, the festival showcases Hoi An's rich heritage, featuring a stunning display of thousands of lanterns illuminating the ancient town and the serene Thu Bon River.

The Hoi An Lantern Festival holds a special place in the hearts of locals and visitors alike. It serves as a platform to celebrate Vietnam's culture and heritage, fostering a sense of community and unity. During the festival, the entire town is adorned with radiant, handcrafted lanterns, creating a surreal and mesmerizing atmosphere that transports participants back in time. The festival encapsulates the unique blend of influences in Hoi An, including Chinese, Japanese, and European, making it an exceptional showcase of cultural diversity. In addition to the visual spectacle, the festival also offers a diverse array of street food, traditional music performances, and rituals that engage attendees in the rich tapestry of Vietnamese traditions.

Visitors to the Hoi An Lantern Festival can expect a plethora of activities and experiences that cater to all ages and preferences. As the sun sets, the town's streets come alive with the soft glow of lanterns. One of the highlights is the ritual of releasing floating lanterns on the Thu Bon River, symbolizing the sending away of worries and bad luck, and welcoming good fortune. Traditional music and dance performances are held at various locations throughout the town, providing insight into Vietnam's artistic heritage. Furthermore, visitors can indulge in a delectable array of street food, from savory dishes to sweet treats, making the festival a true culinary delight. Hoi An Lantern Festival continues to capture the hearts and imagination of all who partake, ensuring that this captivating event remains an integral part of Hoi An's cultural identity and the global calendar of must-visit festivals.

Gallery

See also
 Kim Bồng woodworking village
 Hội An wreck

References

External links

 Hoi An Ancient Town from UNESCO
 Hoi An World Heritage - Government website with tourist information.
Cu Lao Cham - Hoi An Biosphere Reserve from UNESCO

Districts of Quảng Nam province
Populated places in Quảng Nam province

World Heritage Sites in Vietnam
Cities in Vietnam

Hội An


The Southern Alps are a geological subdivision of Alps that are found south of the Periadriatic Seam, a major geological faultzone across the Alps. The southern Alps contain almost the same area as the Southern Limestone Alps. The rocks of the southern Alps gradually go over in the Dinarides or Dinaric Alps to the south-east. In the south-west they disappear below recent sediments of the Po basin that are lying discordant on top of them.

Lithology
The Southern Alps are composed of material from the Adriatic or Apulian tectonic plate, the area is a part of this plate. These are mainly Mesozoic sedimentary rocks, most of them limestones.

Tectonics
In contrast to the Central Eastern Alps north of the Periadriatic Seam, the geology of the Southern Alps is not characterized by nappes. Neither are high grade metamorphic rocks common in the region. The Southern Alps are tectonically characterized by large scale thrusting and folding to the south, the dominant vergence (direction of fold asymmetry) in the region is southward. As is also the case in the southern foreland of the Pyrenees, thrusts in the Southern Alps are oriented along listric fault planes with relatively shallow decollement horizons.

To the west, south of the Valle d'Aosta, the Southern Alps form a huge monocline, up until the point that mantle material of the Apulian plate crops out in what is called the Ivrea zone.

References

Geology of the Alps
Structural geology
Geology of Austria
Geology of Italy
Geology of Slovenia
Mountain ranges of the Alps
Limestone Alps
Southern Limestone Alps

Southern Alps (Europe)


The Mousetrap is a murder mystery play by Agatha Christie. The Mousetrap opened in London's West End in 1952 and ran continuously until 16 March 2020, when the stage performances had to be temporarily discontinued during the COVID-19 pandemic. It then re-opened on 17 May 2021. The longest-running West End show, it has by far the longest run of any play in the world, with its 28,915th performance having taken place as of November 2022. Attendees at St Martin's Theatre often get their photo taken beside the wooden counter (showing a count of the number of performances) in the theatre foyer. As of 2022 the play has been seen by 10 million people in London.

A whodunit, the play has a twist ending, which the audience are traditionally asked not to reveal after leaving the theatre. There are eight members of the cast, and by 2012 more than 400 actors and actresses had played the roles. Richard Attenborough was the original Detective Sergeant Trotter, and his wife, Sheila Sim, the first Mollie Ralston – owner of Monkswell Manor guesthouse. However, since then few of the cast have been headliners, with Stephen Moss in The Guardian writing that "the play and its author are the stars".

History

The play began life as a short radio play written by Agatha Christie as a birthday present for Queen Mary, the consort of King George V. It was broadcast on 30 May 1947 under the name Three Blind Mice. The story drew from the real-life case of Dennis O'Neill, who died after he and his brother Terence suffered extreme abuse while in the foster care of a Shropshire farmer and his wife in 1945.

The play is based on a short story, itself based on the radio play, but Christie asked that the story not be published as long as it ran as a play in the West End of London. The short story has still not been published within the UK but it has appeared in the US in the 1950 collection Three Blind Mice and Other Stories.

When she wrote the play, Christie gave the rights to her grandson Mathew Prichard as a birthday present. In the United Kingdom, only one production of the play in addition to the West End production can be performed annually, and under the contract terms of the play, no film adaptation can be produced until the West End production has been closed for at least six months.

The play had to be renamed at the insistence of Emile Littler who had produced a play called Three Blind Mice in the West End before the Second World War. The suggestion to call it The Mousetrap came from Christie's son-in-law, Anthony Hicks. In William Shakespeare's play Hamlet, "The Mousetrap" is Hamlet's answer to Claudius's inquiry about the name of the play whose prologue and first scene the court has just observed (III, ii). The play is actually The Murder of Gonzago, but Hamlet answers metaphorically, since "the play's the thing" in which he intends to "catch the conscience of the king." The nursery rhyme "Three Blind Mice" or its tune is heard a few times during the play.

The play's longevity has ensured its popularity with tourists from around the world. In 1997, at the initiative of producer Stephen Waley-Cohen, the theatrical education charity Mousetrap Theatre Projects was launched, helping young people experience London's theatre.

The play's storyline is set at "the present", which presumably means England as it was around the time when the play came out in 1952, including postwar continuation of World War II rationing.

Tom Stoppard's 1968 play The Real Inspector Hound parodies many elements of The Mousetrap, including the surprise ending.

Theatrical performances

As a stage play, The Mousetrap had its world premiere at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham, on 6 October 1952. It was originally directed by Peter Cotes, elder brother of John and Roy Boulting, the film directors. Its pre-West End tour then took it to the New Theatre Oxford, the Manchester Opera House, the Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool, the Theatre Royal, Newcastle, the Grand Theatre Leeds and the Alexandra Theatre in Birmingham, before it began its run in London on 25 November 1952 at the Ambassadors Theatre. It ran at this theatre until Saturday, 23 March 1974 when it immediately transferred to the larger St Martin's Theatre, next door, where it reopened on Monday, 25 March thus keeping its "initial run" status. The London run has now exceeded 26,000 performances. The director of the play for many years has been David Turner.

Christie herself did not expect The Mousetrap to run for such a long time.  In her autobiography, she reports a conversation that she had with Peter Saunders: "Fourteen months I am going to give it", says Saunders.  To which Christie replies, "It won't run that long.  Eight months perhaps.  Yes, I think eight months." When it broke the record for the longest run of a play in the West End in September 1957, Christie received a mildly grudging telegram from fellow playwright Noël Coward: "Much as it pains me I really must congratulate you ..." In 2011 (by which time The Mousetrap had been running for almost 59 years), this long-lost document was found by a Cotswold furniture maker who was renovating a bureau purchased by a client from the Christie estate.
By the time of Christie's death in 1976, the play had made more than £3 million. Prichard, who was only 9 when he was given the copyright of the play, set up the Colwinston Charitable Trust in 1995 to use the money from productions of the play. The trust supports charities for the arts, mainly in Wales.

The original West End cast included Richard Attenborough as Detective Sergeant Trotter and his wife Sheila Sim as Mollie Ralston. They took a 10% profit-participation in the production, which was paid for out of their combined weekly salary ("It proved to be the wisest business decision I've ever made ... but foolishly I sold some of my share to open a short-lived Mayfair restaurant called 'The Little Elephant' and later still, disposed of the remainder in order to keep Gandhi afloat.")

Since the retirement of Mysie Monte and David Raven, who each made history by remaining in the cast for more than 11 years, in their roles as Mrs Boyle and Major Metcalf, the cast has been changed annually. The change usually occurs around late November around the anniversary of the play's opening, and was the initiative of Sir Peter Saunders, the original producer. There is a tradition of the retiring leading lady and the new leading lady cutting a "Mousetrap cake" together.

The play has also made theatrical history by having an original "cast member" survive all the cast changes since its opening night. The late Deryck Guyler can still be heard, via a recording, reading the radio news bulletin in the play to this present day. The set was changed in 1965 and 1999, but one prop survives from the original opening – the clock which sits on the mantelpiece of the fireplace in the main hall.

Notable milestones in the play's history include:
 6 October 1952 – First performance at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham
 25 November 1952 – First West End performance at the Ambassadors Theatre
 22 April 1955 – 1,000th performance
 13 September 1957 – Longest-ever run of a "straight" play in the West End
 12 April 1958 – Longest-ever run of a show in the West End with 2,239 performances (the previous holder was Chu Chin Chow)
 9 December 1964 – 5,000th performance
 23 March 1974 – Final performance at the Ambassadors Theatre
 25 March 1974 –  The play transfers to the St Martin's Theatre
 17 December 1976 – 10,000th performance
 16 December 2000 – 20,000th performance
 25 November 2002 – 50th anniversary; a special performance was attended by Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.
 18 November 2012 – 25,000th performance; starred Patrick Stewart, Julie Walters, Hugh Bonneville and Iain Glen.

In May 2001 (during the London production's 49th year, and to mark the 25th anniversary of Christie's death) the cast gave a semi-staged Sunday performance at the Palace Theatre, Westcliff-on-Sea as a guest contribution to the Agatha Christie Theatre Festival 2001, a twelve-week history-making cycle of all of Agatha Christie's plays presented by Roy Marsden's New Palace Theatre Company.

Performances at the St. Martin's Theatre were halted on 16 March 2020, along with all other West End shows, during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom. The Mousetrap re-opened on 17 May 2021 after 14 months without performances.

Other stagings
A staging at the Toronto Truck Theatre in Toronto, Ontario, that opened on 19 August 1977 became Canada's longest running show, before finally closing on 18 January 2004 after a run of twenty-six years and over 9,000 performances.

On 18 November 2012, both the 25,000th performance and the 60th year of the production were marked by a special charity performance which featured Hugh Bonneville, Patrick Stewart, Julie Walters and Miranda Hart. The money raised by the performance went towards Mousetrap Theatre Projects.

During the Diamond Anniversary year of Mousetrap a touring production visited regional theatres for the first time in its history, whilst the London run continued uninterrupted.

The play has also been presented internationally: in 2013 in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok by the British Theatre Playhouse.
The play has been staged in Queensland, Australia several times. In September 2011, it was staged at The Mousetrap Theatre in Redcliffe, the theatre group having been named after Christie's play. From July to August 2019, the Toowoomba Repertory Theatre Society performed the play in their home city. In November 2022, The Mousetrap was performed in Brisbane, the State's capital. In December 2022, after more than 70 years, the first Broadway production of The Mousetrap was announced to be staged in 2023 with an all-American cast.

Characters
 Mollie Ralston – Proprietor of Monkswell Manor, and wife of Giles.
 Giles Ralston – Husband of Mollie who runs Monkswell Manor with his wife.
 Christopher Wren – The first guest to arrive at the hotel, Wren is a hyperactive young man who acts in a very peculiar manner.  He admits he is running away from something, but refuses to say what. Wren claims to have been named after the architect of the same name by his parents.
 Mrs Boyle – A critical older woman who is pleased by nothing she observes.
 Major Metcalf – Retired from the army, little is known about Major Metcalf.
 Miss Casewell – A strange, aloof, masculine woman who speaks offhandedly about the horrific experiences of her childhood.
 Mr Paravicini – A man of unknown provenance, who turns up claiming his car has overturned in a snowdrift.  He appears to be affecting a foreign accent and artificially aged with make-up.
 Detective Sergeant Trotter – The detective. He arrives in a snow storm and questions the proprietors and guests.
 Voice on the radio – source of news relevant to the story

Twist ending and tradition of secrecy

The murderer's identity is divulged near the end of the play, in a twist ending that is unusual for playing with the very basis of the traditional whodunnit formula, where the cliché is that the detective solves the crime and exposes the remaining plot secrets. By tradition, at the end of each performance, audiences are asked not to reveal the identity of the killer to anyone outside the theatre, to ensure that the end of the play is not spoilt for future audiences.

Christie was always upset by the plots of her works being revealed in reviews. In 2010, her grandson Mathew Prichard, who receives the royalties from the play, said he was "dismayed" to learn from The Independent that the ending to The Mousetrap had been described in the play's Wikipedia article.

Duncan Leatherdale of BBC News contrasted the play to other works like Psycho and The Sixth Sense, where the plot twist has been revealed and became itself an element of popular culture.

Plot

The play is set in the Great Hall of Monkswell Manor, Berkshire, in what Christie described as "the present".

Act I
Act I opens with the murder of a woman named Maureen Lyon, played out in sound only. The action then moves to Monkswell Manor, recently converted to a guesthouse and run by a young couple, Mollie and Giles Ralston.  While waiting for the guests to arrive, Mollie listens to a radio report about the Lyon murder, which notes that police are looking for a man in a dark overcoat, observed near the scene.

Their four guests arrive. Christopher Wren is an unkempt, flighty young man. Giles reacts strongly to Wren with instant dislike and Mollie with instinctual trust. Mrs Boyle and Major Metcalf then arrive together in a taxi from the station. Mrs Boyle complains about many things; Metcalf is an amiable ex-military man.  Miss Casewell, a mannish young woman, is the last of the booked guests to arrive, before an unexpected fifth party appears. Identifying himself in a foreign accent as Mr Paravicini, he tells the Ralstons his car has overturned in a snowdrift. He remarks that the snow has blocked the roads and that the denizens of the house are trapped. Uneasy about Paravicini's manner, Mollie nevertheless places him in the last remaining room.

The next afternoon the guest house proves to be snowed in, and the residents are restless. Mollie answers the telephone to Superintendent Hogben of the Berkshire Police. Hogben tells her that he is dispatching Sergeant Trotter to the guest house, and that the Ralstons must listen carefully to what Trotter has to tell them. The Ralstons wonder what they could have done to garner police attention.

Trotter appears at the door on a pair of skis and Major Metcalf discovers that the phone has stopped working.

Trotter explains he has been sent in regard to the murder of Maureen Lyon. In a story loosely based on the real Dennis O'Neill case, the dead woman and her husband had mistreated their three foster children, resulting in the death of the youngest. Both adults were imprisoned for their actions; the husband died in gaol, while the wife served her sentence and had been released, only to be found strangled. Police suspect the elder boy of the abused children, who would now be twenty-two, of being the killer.

Trotter reveals that a notebook found at the murder scene contained the address of Monkswell Manor and the words "Three Blind Mice". A note reading "This is the First" was pinned to the woman's body. The police have sent Trotter to find out how the Ralstons' guesthouse is connected to the murder and whether the residents are in danger. Both Giles and Mollie deny a connection to the case, though Mollie is ill at ease answering Trotter's questions and quickly excuses herself. Trotter asks each of the guests to explain why they are at Monkswell Manor and any connection they have to the foster children. All five guests deny any personal knowledge of the case.

While Trotter and Giles tour the house, Major Metcalf confronts Mrs Boyle, revealing that she was one of the magistrates who had assigned the children to the foster parents. Mrs Boyle acknowledges this but denies that she has any responsibility for what eventually happened to the children there.

As the evening wears on, Giles and Mollie become suspicious of each other while the guests snipe at one another. Sergeant Trotter traces the phone wire to find out if it has been cut. Mrs Boyle wanders back into the now-empty room and listens to the radio. The opening notes of "Three Blind Mice" are heard whistled by an unknown party and Mrs Boyle responds without alarm, speaking to the person only she can see. Suddenly, the lights go out and a scuffle is heard. Moments later, Mollie walks into the room and turns on the lights, only to find Mrs Boyle dead on the floor.

Act II
Ten minutes after Mollie finds Mrs Boyle dead of strangulation, Sergeant Trotter takes charge of the household. All the remaining residents are gathered in one room as he attempts to sort out the events of the evening. A shaken Mollie Ralston cannot provide him with any useful clues; the only thing she is sure she observed was the radio blaring. Frustrated, Trotter points out that their lives continue to be in danger; a third murder could very well happen, given the notes left with Maureen Lyon. He insists that everyone tell him where they were when Mrs Boyle was murdered. As each person recounts his or her whereabouts, Trotter takes them to account for inconsistencies or weaknesses in their stories. Finally, he declares that everyone in the house had the opportunity to commit the murder, since each of them was alone at the time. Giles counters that while seven people in the house lack alibis, only one fits the description of the man the police suspect to be the murderer: Christopher Wren. Wren insists that it is all a frame-up, and Trotter acknowledges that he lacks any evidence pointing to Wren in particular.

Mollie later pulls Trotter aside; Trotter says that while the police suspect the elder boy to be the killer, the dead boy also had relatives and loved ones who might be interested in revenge: the children's father, an army sergeant, for example; or the dead boy's sister, who would now be a young woman. Trotter notes that Metcalf or Paravicini could be the father, Miss Casewell or Mollie could be the sister, and Giles could be the elder boy. Mollie, aghast, objects to the notion that either she or Giles could be a murderer, but Trotter forces her to admit that they know little about each other's pasts.

Mollie soon finds herself in conversation with Christopher Wren, who confesses that he is actually an army deserter hiding from his past under a false name. Mollie acknowledges that she, too, is running away from her past. Despite the trust Christopher and Mollie are forming, he and Giles each suspect the other and nearly come to blows over Mollie. The situation is only defused by the arrival of Paravicini, who tells the company that Trotter's skis are missing.

Trotter again calls an assembly of the household, declaring that he now intends to check the alibis everyone provided to him after Mrs Boyle's murder. They will re-enact the murder, with each member of the household acting out another's alibi. Trotter's hope is that while most of the alibis will be verified, one will be proved impossible. Each person is to go to his or her assigned position and stay there until summoned back by Trotter. The household obediently disperses, leaving Trotter alone onstage.

Identity of the murderer

After the role-players scatter, Trotter sits for a moment before calling for Mollie. He tells her that she has risked extreme danger by not identifying herself to him; he now knows that she was once the schoolteacher of the doomed Corrigan children. She failed to answer a letter the younger boy sent her at the time, begging to be rescued from the farm. Mollie protests that she had been seriously ill when the letter arrived and was unable to even read it until well after the boy was dead. To this day, she says, she is haunted by her failure to help the children out of their circumstances.

Trotter takes a gun out of his pocket and points it at Mollie, telling her that she had only assumed him to be a policeman based on the telephone call. He had in fact impersonated Hogben, then cut the telephone wires himself upon arriving at the house. Trotter is actually Georgie, the elder Corrigan brother, and he intends to take his revenge on Mollie. Falling back into the demeanour of a wounded child who never grew up, he drops his gun and begins to strangle Mollie, but is stopped by the sudden appearance of Miss Casewell. She calls him by name and reveals that she is his long-lost sister Kathy, come to take him somewhere safe. Major Metcalf, who accompanied Miss Casewell into the room, summons Giles and tells the frightened innkeepers that he had known all along that Trotter was not a policeman – because Metcalf himself is one, having arranged to take the place of the real Metcalf after discovering the "Three Blind Mice" notebook on Maureen Lyon.

Critical reception
The play made little stir in the review pages of the British press when it opened. The Manchester Guardian commented that it was "a middling piece" with "less in it than meets the eye ... Coincidence is stretched unreasonably." The critic commented that the characters were "built entirely of clichés". The reviewer in The Times was more favourably disposed to the characters, calling them "nicely assorted, individually labelled and readily identified", and found the plot "elaborately skilful." In The Daily Express, John Barber praised "the atmosphere of shuddering suspense" but thought some of the characters "too obvious by half". In The Illustrated London News, J. C. Trewin commented that those who failed to spot the killer would probably call the plot "preposterous and over-burdened", but those who succeeded might be more kindly disposed.

Publication history
The play was published as a paperback by Samuel French Ltd as French's Acting Edition No. 153 in 1954 and is still in print. It was first published in hardback in The Mousetrap and Other Plays by G. P. Putnam's Sons in 1978 ().

Film and television versions
In 1959, it was announced that Edward Small, who had produced Witness for the Prosecution for the screen, was to make a film version of the play in co-production with Victor Saville for United Artists. Tyrone Power and Maria Schell were named as leads. However, no film version resulted. In 1960, the Bengali author Premendra Mitra directed a film Chupi Chupi Aashey, based on the radio play and short story. In 1990, Russian film director Samson Samsonov directed a film titled Мышеловка (Myshelovka, English: The Mousetrap) at Mosfilm. The script by Vladimir Basov is based on Christie's play.

In 2022, the story of a British-American film See How They Run was set in the Ambassadors Theatre and concerned in-story actors of The Mousetrap, following murders of personnel involved in the production of and linked to the play.

References

Further reading

External links

 2004 review in The Stage

1952 plays
Plays by Agatha Christie
West End plays
British plays adapted into films
Thriller plays

The Mousetrap


Brian Levin-Stankevich is the former president of Westminster College (Utah).  He previously served as the chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.

Personal life
He was raised in Buffalo, New York's Kaisertown district and spent over twenty years working as an academic and administrator before being named chancellor at UW-Eau Claire.   Stankevich received his master's and doctoral degrees from the University at Buffalo. He received his undergraduate degree from Hamilton College. In 1977, he was a Fulbright Scholar.  He has worked as both a teacher and administrator at several institutions including the University at Buffalo, Florida Atlantic University, and Eastern Washington University.  Stankevich is married and is the parent of twin sons.

References

Living people
People from Buffalo, New York
Heads of universities and colleges in the United States
Hamilton College (New York) alumni
University at Buffalo alumni
Year of birth missing (living people)

Brian Levin-Stankevich


The Battle at Herdaler was a battle between the Norse Viking leader Olav Haraldsson (later King Olaf II of Norway, also Saint Olaf) and local Finnish people at Herdaler in Finland around years 1007/8. The Saga of Olaf Haraldson tells how Olav raided the coasts of Finland and was almost killed in the battle.

After this they sailed to Finland and plundered there, and went
up the country.  All the people fled to the forest, and they had
emptied their houses of all household goods.  The king went far
up the country, and through some woods, and came to some
dwellings in a valley called Herdaler, -- where, however, they
made but small booty, and saw no people; and as it was getting
late in the day, the king turned back to his ships.  Now when
they came into the woods again people rushed upon them from all
quarters, and made a severe attack.  The king told his men to
cover themselves with their shields, but before they got out of
the woods he lost many people, and many were wounded; but at
last, late in the evening, he got to the ships.  The Finlanders
conjured up in the night, by their witchcraft, a dreadful storm
and bad weather on the sea; but the king ordered the anchors to
be weighed and sail hoisted, and beat off all night to the
outside of the land.  The king's luck prevailed more than the
Finlanders' witchcraft; for he had the luck to beat round the
Balagard's side in the night. and so got out to sea.  But the
Finnish army proceeded on land, making the same progress as the
king made with his ships.  So says Sigvat: --

"The third fight was at Herdaler, where
The men of Finland met in war
The hero of the royal race,
With ringing sword-blades face to face.
Off Balagard's shore the waves
Ran hollow; but the sea-king saves
His hard-pressed ship, and gains the lee
Of the east coast through the wild sea."

The location of "Herdaler" in Finland is not certain. The expedition's possible place could have been north of Uusimaa in Hirdal in the present-day town of Ingå. That makes it the first mentioning of a place located in present-day Finland in historical literature.

See also

 Prehistoric Finnish wars

References

Conflicts in 1007
Olaf II of Norway
Ingå
1008 in Europe
1007 in Europe

Battle at Herdaler


The Titular Patriarchate of the West Indies (, ) is a Latin Church titular patriarchate of the Catholic Church. It has been vacant since the death of its last holder in 1963.

Attempt to create a jurisdictional Patriarchate in the Spanish West Indies
King Ferdinand V of Castile asked Pope Leo X to establish a patriarchate for the ecclesiastical government of the American territories discovered by the Spaniards. The Holy See was not keen to accept the establishment of such an autonomous Spanish American church and, on 11 May 1524, Clement VII agreed to create it but only as honorific, without jurisdiction and without clergy. In addition, the Patriarch was banned from actually residing in the Americas.

Antonio de Rojas, archbishop of Granada and bishop of Palencia, was the first patriarch. The following patriarchs were the bishop of Jaén Esteban Gabriel Merino (1530–1535) and the archbishop of Granada Fernando Niño de Guevara (not the homonymous cardinal) (1546–1552). After the Niño de Guevara's death, the office remained vacant because Philip II, against the Holy See policy, wished an actual jurisdictional Patriarchate. Finally, the king agreed in 1591 to propose the archbishop of Mexico City (but who was actually resident in Madrid as President of the Council of the Indies) Pedro Moya de Contreras. However, the new patriarch died before he could take the oath of his new office.

In 1602, Philip III abandoned the idea of a jurisdictional Patriarchate and used it as an honorific title for noble clergymen.

Merge with the Spanish Military Vicariate
In 1705, Pope Clement XI named Patriarch Carlos de Borja Centellas the Military Vicar (General) of the Spanish Armies. Beginning in 1736, Pope Clement XII merged the office of Vicar General of the Spanish Armies with the Patriarchate of the West Indies pro tempore et ad septennium, that is, "temporarily for seven years", and added to those titles the  Royal Palace's Chaplaincy in 1741.

Clement XIII  decreed the merger of the Patriarchate and the Military Vicariate in 1762.

Last incumbent and current status
In 1933, Patriarch Ramón Pérez Rodríguez was appointed Bishop of Cádiz and Ceuta. The previous year, the Republican Government had abolished the Military Vicariate. Thus, the Patriarchate remained vacant.

During the Civil War, the Nationalists organized a religious military service and the Holy See appointed Cardinal Isidro Gomá, Archbishop of Toledo, as interim Pontifical Delegate. In 1940, Gomá died and the auxiliary bishop Gregorio Modrego was commissioned with the deceased cardinal's military duties. In 1942, Modrego was appointed bishop of Barcelona. During all that time, the Patriarchate remained vacant.

In 1946, the Bishop of Madrid Leopoldo Eijo y Garay was appointed Patriarch of the West Indies, but without the Military Ordinariate, which was established once more as a military archbishopric in 1950, this time without any association with the patriarch's title.

Since Eijo's death, this titular patriarchate has remained vacant and is not considered likely to be filled.

List of Patriarchs of the West Indies

See also
 Patriarch of the East Indies
 Grand Inquisitor
 Patriarchs

References

External links
 GCatholic, with incumbents list linking to biographies

1524 establishments in North America
West Indies
West
Spanish colonization of the Americas

Patriarchate of the West Indies


The Hanriot H.31 was a single engine, single seat French biplane fighter aircraft built in 1925 to compete in a government programme. It was not successful and only one prototype was completed.

Design and development
The Hanrot H.31 was designed to participate in the 1923 competitive C1 (single seat Chasseur or fighter) programme, which specified engines in the power range 300-370 kW (400-500 hp).  Hanriot selected a 370 kW Salmson 18Cm 18-cylinder double row water-cooled radial engine.  This 1923 call attracted an unusually large number of competing designs.

The H.31 was a single bay biplane with straight edged, parallel chord wings with slight sweep and essentially no stagger; the leading edge of the lower wing was marginally behind that of the upper one because its chord was a little less. It also had a slightly smaller span. A single, wide chord, airfoil section interplane strut on each side, with widened roots to lower interference drag, separated the bays; on each side pairs of flying wires and landing wires provided cross bracing between these struts and the fuselage. The wings were built around twin Duralumin box main spars, with metal and wood ribs.  There were ailerons on the upper planes.  Neither wing was directly fuselage mounted but instead held off by pairs of N-form struts on each side. Those joining the lower wing to the low-mid fuselage were longer than those of the cabane and the lower forward component was itself a close pair. Both upper and lower wings had the common cut-outs to improve the pilot's vision but the H.31 had a forward, full chord slot between the upper wings as well.

The Salmson engine was close cowled with fairings over each cylinder and drove a two blade propeller.  It was cooled with an Andre radiator mounted ventrally in the space between the fuselage and the lower wing.  The H.31's fuselage was built around four Duralumin tube longerons with triangular cross bracing.  Its external oval cross section was produced by longitudinal stringers over formers. The pilot's open cockpit, provided with a small, faired headrest was under the trailing edge of the upper wing.  The fuselage tapered only gently to the rear, where a roughly elliptical cantilever tailplane carrying split elevators was mounted on top.  The vertical tail was similarly rounded and low, with a rudder that extended down to the keel.  The fighter had a fixed conventional undercarriage with mainwheels on a fixed axle, supported by a pair of V-struts attached to the bottom of the lower wing to fuselage struts, and given lateral strength by cross-wire bracing. There was a tailskid.

The H.31 first appeared in public, before its first flight, at the December 1924 Paris Aero Show (Salon de  l'Aéronautique).  It first flew in 1925. When the twelve competing designs were evaluated by the Section Technique de l'Aéronautique (Technical Section of Aeronautics), the H.31 did not fare well.  It was one of the heaviest, and the slowest of all both in level flight and particularly in the climb.   The Nieuport-Delage NiD 42 was the competition winner and the H.31 was abandoned.

Specifications

References

Single-engined tractor aircraft
Biplanes
1920s French fighter aircraft
H.031

Hanriot H.31


Asylum Records is an American record label, owned by Warner Music Group. After several incarnations, today it is primarily oriented towards hip-hop, alternative metal and rock.

Company history

Formation
Asylum was founded in 1971 by David Geffen and his partner Elliot Roberts, who had previously worked an agent at the William Morris Agency and operated a folk/rock label. They founded their own management company, and when Geffen was unable to secure a recording contract for Jackson Browne, one of his clients at the time, Geffen and Roberts founded Asylum specifically to sign Browne. Asylum's first releases were distributed by Atlantic Records. The same year, Asylum signed John David Souther, Judee Sill, Linda Ronstadt, Joni Mitchell and Glenn Frey (who Geffen encouraged to form The Eagles, with Don Henley, Bernie Leadon, and Randy Meisner.) In 1972, then-folk singer-songwriter Tom Waits signed with the label and released his debut, Closing Time, in 1973. His fifth and final album for the label, Heartattack and Vine, was released in 1980. Asylum's crowning achievement was to sign Bob Dylan, who had been with Columbia Records since the early 1960s but, after a falling out with the company, was looking for a new label. Dylan recorded two albums, Planet Waves and the live Before the Flood for Asylum before returning to Columbia. Columbia reissued Dylan's two Asylum albums in 1981.

Warner takeover and Elektra merger
In 1972 Asylum was taken over by the then-Warner Communications (now Warner Music Group) and Asylum merged with Elektra Records to become Elektra/Asylum Records. David Geffen received $2 million in cash and $5 million in Warner Communications stock, making it one of the company's largest shareholders. In 1973, Geffen opened the now famous Roxy nightclub on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles, which became a showcase for many up-and-coming artists. Geffen served as chairman and president of Elektra/Asylum Records until 1975, when he moved into motion pictures and was named vice president of Warner Brothers Pictures.

One of Asylum's most notable signings after Geffen's departure was Warren Zevon, who released a string of critically acclaimed and successful LPs for the label; his self-titled 1976 label debut has been called the best California rock album of the decade.

Geffen withdrew from his business affairs for several years after a cancer scare in 1976, which later turned out to be a misdiagnosis. He returned to the business in 1980, founding the Geffen Records label and signing John Lennon, whose comeback album Double Fantasy was released just days before Lennon's assassination in December 1980.

In the early 1980s, while still technically billing itself as "Elektra/Asylum Records or Elektra/Asylum/Nonesuch Records", Elektra and Asylum began to break up, with the former becoming more dominant and the latter acting more as an extension. By the middle of the decade, the company was unofficially calling itself Elektra Records, and in 1989 it was renamed Elektra Entertainment. Meanwhile, Asylum splintered into a subsidiary label and subsequently became less active in its own right.

Country format
Asylum was reformatted into a country music label, still operated by Elektra, in 1992. Under the new format, Asylum garnered hit recordings from acts like Brother Phelps, Thrasher Shiver, Emmylou Harris, Kevin Sharp, Bryan White, and Lila McCann. They also produced many critically acclaimed albums by artists including Mandy Barnett, Guy Clark, The Cox Family, Bob Woodruff, J.D. Myers and Jamie Hartford. However, by the end of the decade, mismanagement and a lack of money for promotion led to the dissolution of the country label Asylum.

In 2003, Mike Curb, head of Curb Records, revived Asylum's Nashville division, forming a new label known as Asylum-Curb. LeAnn Rimes, Clay Walker, Lee Brice, Rio Grand, Hank Williams, Jr. and Wynonna are among the artists in the Asylum-Curb division.

Relaunch
After being dormant for several years, Asylum Records was revived as an urban music-based label in 2004, independently managed through Warner Music Group. Some of its releases are distributed in conjunction with Warner Bros. Records and others through Atlantic Records. In 2006, WMG switched to Asylum to operate under its newly created Independent Label Group, which also comprises Cordless Recordings and East West Records.

Sevendust signing
On December 6, 2006, Asylum Records announced the signing of Atlanta-based metal band Sevendust, the first non-hip-hop artist to sign with the newly reconfigured label. Sevendust's Asylum debut (their sixth full-length album overall), titled Alpha was released on March 6, 2007, selling around 42,000 albums in its first week. Although Asylum has signed them, they have not given any notice of it anywhere. Sevendust's second album Chapter VII: Hope & Sorrow, on the Asylum label was released in 2008.

References

1971 establishments
American record labels

Asylum Records


The Birmingham pen trade evolved in the Birmingham Jewellery Quarter and its surrounding area in the 19th century; for many years, the city was the centre of the world's pen trade, with most dip pens being produced there. At the height of the Jewellery Quarter's operations, there were about 100 pen factories, which employed around 8,000 skilled craftspeople.

The trade also pioneered craftsmanship, manufacturing processes and provided employment opportunities especially for women, who constituted more than 70% of the workforce. In its peak, there were about 100,000 varieties of pens manufactured in Birmingham. By the end of the 19th century the number of manufacturers had declined to just 12. The start of public sale of the Biro ballpoint pen in late 1945 caused further decline in the mass production of traditional pen nibs.

History

19th century

John Mitchell manufactured pens in Newhall Street; he went on to pioneer the mass production of steel pens (prior to this, the quill was the most common form of writing instrument). The Mitchells are credited as being the first manufacturers to use machines to cut pen nibs, greatly speeding up the process. John's brother William later set up his own pen-making business in St Paul's square.

Baker and Finnemore operated in James Street, near St Paul's Square; C. Brandauer & Co Ltd. (founded as Ash & Petit) traded at 70 Navigation Street; Joseph Gillott & Sons Ltd. made pen nibs in Bread Street (now Cornwall Street) for companies such as Perry & Co.; Hinks, Wells & Co. traded in Buckingham Street; George W. Hughes traded in St Paul's Square; Leonardt & Catwinkle (then D. Leonardt & Co.) traded in George and Charlotte Streets, and M. Myers & Son. were based at 8 Newhall Street.

In 1828 Josiah Mason developed a cheap, efficient slip-in nib based on existing models, which could be added to a pen holder.

By the 1850s, Birmingham was the world center of steel pen and steel nib manufacture; more than half the steel-nib pens manufactured in the world were made there. Thousands of skilled craftsmen and women were employed in the industry. Many new manufacturing techniques were perfected in Birmingham, enabling the city's factories to mass-produce their pens cheaply and efficiently. These were sold worldwide to many who previously could not afford to write, thus encouraging the development of education and literacy.

Women made 18,000 pens a day, under strict rules of no talking, no singing, and no wasting of the metal among others. Men served as the toolmakers and looked after the furnaces but the majority of the workers in the factories were women. In the latter half of the 19th-century young children were also employed, with ages varying between 10 and 12 years old.

20th century
Another manufacturer was Richard Esterbrook, who made quills in Cornwall, his home town. He started by working in the stationery trade of Birmingham, where he learnt about the mechanical process invented by Mitchell for making steel pen nibs. In searching for opportunities, Esterbrook realized there were no steel pen manufacturers in the United States. He approached five craftsmen who worked for John Mitchell in Navigation Street with an idea of setting up a business in Camden, New Jersey. Esterbrook later went on to become one of the largest steel-pen manufacturers in the world. He returned to Birmingham for help when in 1928 the British Government placed restrictions on US imports. John Mitchell's factory was used to produce Esterbrook pens within the UK, through an agreement with Esterbrook representatives. In 1930 Esterbrook introduced a fountain pen in Britain which had a nib made of osmiridium, which eventually replaced large-scale production of steel-tipped pens.

During World War II, pen manufacture in the city was somewhat disturbed. Mitchell's factory on Moland Street was struck by an incendiary bomb; the premises were partially rebuilt during the war with government aid, on condition that a government stationery office and ammunition assay office could reside there. The John Mitchell business and factory were sold to Esterbrook in 1947. Twenty years later, the Esterbrook Pen Co. was taken over by the "Venus Pencil Co", which had a modern factory in King's Lynn, Norfolk, to which Esterbrook's production was transferred until 1972.

Manufacturers
Some of the main pen makers of Birmingham were: Baker & Finnemore, C. Brandauer & Co., Hinks Wells & Co., Joseph Gillott's, Geo W. Hughes, D. Leonardt & Co., Macniven & Cameron, Josiah Mason, John Mitchell, William Mitchell, M. Myers & Son, Perry & Co., A. Sommerville & Co.

See also
 Calligraphy
 Dip pen
 List of pen types, brands and companies
 Pen Museum

References

External links
 The Pen Museum
 William Mitchell
 Calligraphy website

Writing implements
Pens
Economy of Birmingham, West Midlands
Fountain pen and ink manufacturers
History of Birmingham, West Midlands

Birmingham pen trade


The Mechanical Bride: Folklore of Industrial Man (1951) is a study of popular culture by Marshall McLuhan, treating newspapers, comics, and advertisements as poetic texts.

Like his later 1962 book The Gutenberg Galaxy, The Mechanical Bride is unique and composed of a number of short essays that can be read in any order – what he styled the "mosaic approach" to writing a book. Each essay begins with a newspaper or magazine article or an advertisement, followed by McLuhan's analysis thereof. The analyses bear on aesthetic considerations as well as on the implications behind the imagery and text. McLuhan chose the ads and articles included in his book not only to draw attention to their symbolism and their implications for the corporate entities that created and disseminated them, but also to mull over what such advertising implies about the wider society at which it is aimed.

Summary

McLuhan is concerned by the size and the intentions of the North American culture industry. "Ours is the first age in which many thousands of the best-trained individual minds have made it a full-time business to get inside the collective public mind," McLuhan writes in his preface to the book. He believes the modern "helpless state engendered by prolonged mental rutting is the effect of many ads and much entertainment alike." McLuhan hopes Bride can reverse this process.

By using artifacts of popular culture as a means to enlighten the public, McLuhan hopes the public can consciously observe the effects of popular culture on them.

McLuhan compares his method to the sailor in Edgar Allan Poe's short-story "A Descent into the Maelstrom." The sailor, McLuhan writes, saves himself by studying the whirlpool and by co-operating with it.  Likewise, the book is not interested in attacking the strong currents of advertising, radio, and the press.

The book argues anger and outrage are not the proper responses to the culture industry. "The time for anger...is in the early stages of a new process," McLuhan says, "the present stage is extremely advanced."  Amusement is the proper strategy. This is why McLuhan uses punning questions that border on silly or absurd after each visual example.

On the technique of amusement McLuhan quotes Poe's sailor, when he's locked into the whirlpool's walls looking at floating objects:

"I must have been delirious, for I even sought amusement in speculating upon the relative velocities of their several descents towards the foam below." [italics original]

This amusement, McLuhan argues, born "of his rational detachment as a spectator of his own situation," saved the sailor's life. By adopting the position of Poe's sailor, readers of Bride can escape from the whirlpool of popular culture.

Origins

Marshall McLuhan's interest in the critical study of popular culture was influenced by the 1933 book Culture and Environment by F. R. Leavis (with Denys Thompson) and Wyndham Lewis' 1932 book Doom of Youth, which uses similar exhibits.

During the 1940s, McLuhan regularly held lectures with slides of advertisements analysing them. He first referred to the present era as the Age of the Mechanical Bride in 1945, during a series of lectures in Windsor, Ontario. McLuhan had planned on publishing these lectures and slides since before 1945.

During the thirties and forties, many "exposé" books critiquing the advertising industry were published but McLuhan's book was different. While critical, the tone of the essays was admiring at times, impressed with the skills of advertisers. Despite the influence, McLuhan was far more playful in The Mechanical Bride than Leavis was in Culture and Environment.

In June 1948, McLuhan received an advance of $250 for the publication of The Folklore of Industrial Man from Vanguard Press. The tentative title would later become the subtitle.

The title The Mechanical Bride comes from a piece by the French avant-garde artist, Marcel Duchamp, titled The Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors, Even.

The book underwent several title changes over four manuscripts before McLuhan settled on Bride. The first manuscript was titled Guide to Chaos. The following three manuscripts were titled Typhon in America, after the Ancient Greek mythological monster. The eventual title of the book reflects McLuhan's concern about the merging of sex and technology in advertising.

McLuhan was frustrated by the editorial efforts of Vanguard Press. He resisted requests to cut entries, to expand on subjects, give examples, underline a point, or generally make the book easier for readers to understand. He would verbally abuse Vanguard Press staff, accusing editors of wearing him down with editorial requests. He began to suffer from severe headaches during this period, possibly products of the stress, anger, and frustration of his dealings with Vanguard.

The Mechanical Bride was published in the fall of 1951. The book was well-reviewed but it was not a financial success, only selling a few hundred copies. Biographer Philip Marchand reports that after the publication, McLuhan complained of a vague "homosexual influence in the publishing world, that was horrified by the masculine vigor of his prose and trying to castrate his text." McLuhan bought one thousand copies and sold them individually to bookshops and students. By the 1970s, hardcover first editions of The Mechanical Bride became sought after items in the rare book business.

Examples of advertisements

Notes

Bibliography

Further reading
 The Mechanical Bride on Ginko Press' website.
 "Introduction to the Fiftieth Anniversary Edition" by Philip B. Meggs. The Mechanical Bride: Folklore of Industrial Man by Herbert Marshall McLuhan, Gingo Press, 2002. pp. ix-xiii.
 "Twilight of the Mechanical Bride" in Marshall McLuhan: the medium and the messenger : a biography by Philip Marchand. Random House: Toronto, 1989. pp. 80–110.
 The Mechanical Bride in McLuhan, Marshall; McLuhan, Eric; Zingrone, Frank, Essential McLuhan, Basic Books, 1995. Cf. especially pp. 21–34.

Anthropology
Popular culture studies
Works by Marshall McLuhan
Vanguard Press books
1951 books
Canadian essays

The Mechanical Bride


Lady Elsie Mackay (August 21, 1893–13th March 1928) was a British actress, jockey, interior decorator and pioneering aviator who died attempting to cross the Atlantic Ocean with Walter G. R. Hinchliffe in a single engined Stinson Detroiter. Her stage name as an actress was Poppy Wyndham.

Biography
Elsie Mackay was born August 21, 1893, in Simla, West Bengal, India, to James Mackay, 1st Earl of Inchcape of Strathnaver, a British colonial administrator in India who became chairman of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company and Jean Paterson Shanks. Her father was serving as President of the Bengal Chamber of Commerce, as a member of the Legislative Council of the Viceroy of India, and as a member of the Council of the Secretary of State for India.

She was reportedly disinherited by her family after eloping with actor Dennis Wyndham to be married on 23 May 1917. She appeared on the stage and screen as Poppy Wyndham from 1919 to 1921. This marriage was annulled in 1922.

As Poppy Wyndham she was the first woman jockey in England, and in her short career on the turf she piloted no less than a dozen winners under the barriers. In the few events from which her sex did not bar her, her colours - yellow and blue - were always present, and always were heavily backed.

Filmography
Poppy Wyndham's film career included:
 A Great Coup (1919) as Kate Hampton
 Snow in the Desert (1919)
 Many a Slip (1919) as The Girl
 A Dead Certainty (1920) as Pat Stone
 The Town of Crooked Ways (1920) as Queenie Clay
 The Tidal Wave (1920) (as Carmen Hale / Columbine)
 A Son of David (1920) as Esther Raphael

Interior design
After the marriage to Wyndham was annulled she returned to her family and developed a career as an interior decorator, creating lavish interiors, state rooms and public spaces for her father's shipping line, the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O). In 1923 she launched the , and went on to design much of the interiors for the four P&O "R" class ships of 1925: SS Rawalpindi, ,  and , plus the  in 1927.

Flying
In 1923 she took up flying, gaining her pilot's licence at the De Havilland Flying School, probably the second woman since World War I after 'Mrs Atkey', bought a plane, and expressed a determination to be the first woman to fly the Atlantic. She was regarded as a contemporary role model amongst women, with dark looks, graceful manner, and a habitually well-dressed and bejewelled appearance. She was noted for driving her Rolls-Royce at great speed and was a familiar sight in her Avro biplane in the skies over South Ayrshire and Wigtownshire. She even participated in an "outside loop", the most dangerous of all stunts in air, with Capt. E. C. D. Herne as her pilot. During this manoeuvre her safety-strap broke but she clung to bracing wires while her body swung outside the plane like a stone twirled on the end of a piece of string. She was one of the first women in Britain to gain her Royal Aero Club pilot's licence and was later elected to the advisory committee of pilots to the British Empire Air League.

Transatlantic flight

To achieve her transatlantic ambition Mackay bought a Stinson Detroiter, having been impressed by the aircraft during Ruth Elder's failed 1927 transatlantic attempt (despite an oil leak causing the failure  from the Azores over the Atlantic). It was shipped from the US to Britain and delivered to the Brooklands motor racing track, which at the time was also used as an airfield. She named it Endeavour.  It was a monoplane with gold tipped wings and a black fuselage, powered by a nine-cylinder,  Wright Whirlwind J-6-9 (R-975) engine, with a cruising speed of .

In early March 1928 the Daily Express discovered that Captain Hinchliffe and Mackay were preparing for a transatlantic attempt by carrying out test flights at RAF Cranwell and were staying at the George Hotel in Leadenham near Grantham. The story was silenced by Mackay's threatened legal action as she intended to depart in secret while her father was in Egypt, having promised her family she would not make the attempt.

At 8:35 am on 13March 1928 Endeavour took off from RAF Cranwell, Lincolnshire, with minimal fuss as Hinchliffe had told only two friends he was going and Elsie registered under the pseudonym of 'Gordon Sinclair'.' Approximately five hours later, at 1.30 pm the chief lighthouse keeper at Mizen Head on the south west coast of Cork, Ireland saw the monoplane over the village of Crookhaven. A French steamer later reported seeing them still on course, but nothing else is known. A crowd of 5,000 is reputed to have waited for them at Mitchel Field, Long Island. In December 1928, eight months later, a single piece of identifiable undercarriage (a wheel with a serial number on it) washed ashore in north west Ireland.

Commemoration
Elsie Mackay is commemorated by a stained glass window in the chancel of Glenapp Church in the parish of Ballantrae, Ayrshire (where her father owned the Glenapp estate). Rhododendrons, now somewhat overgrown, spell out "Elsie" on the opposite side of the glen.() A street is named after her in Gander, Newfoundland and Labrador. Her financial legacy was the Elsie Mackay Fund, a £500,000 trust bequeathed by her father that was left to the British nation on 12 December 1928, for 50 years and used to help pay off the national debt.

See also
 Amelia Earhart
 Frances Wilson Grayson
 Amy Johnson
 List of people who disappeared mysteriously at sea

References

External links

 BBC Radio 4 Making History – Elsie Mackay overview
 West over the Waves – Elsie Mackay tribute site
 Images and Info of Stinson Detroiter SM-1 at Airliners.net
Crossing the Horizon, a novel based on Elsie Mackay's flight

1893 births
1920s missing person cases
1928 deaths
20th-century Scottish actresses
Actresses from Himachal Pradesh
Elsie
Daughters of British earls
Aviation pioneers
Scottish aviators
British women aviators
Scottish film actresses
Scottish interior designers
Scottish silent film actresses
Scottish stage actresses
Missing aviators
People from Shimla
People lost at sea
Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in international waters
British people in colonial India
People from Ballantrae

Elsie Mackay


Stephen Malvern Omohundro (born 1959) is an American computer scientist whose areas of research include Hamiltonian physics, dynamical systems, programming languages, machine learning, machine vision, and the social implications of artificial intelligence. His current work uses rational economics to develop safe and beneficial intelligent technologies for better collaborative modeling, understanding, innovation, and decision making.

Education
Omohundro has degrees in physics and mathematics from Stanford University (Phi Beta Kappa) and a Ph.D. in physics from the University of California, Berkeley.

Learning algorithms
Omohundro started the "Vision and Learning Group" at the University of Illinois which produced 4 Masters and 2 Ph.D. theses. His work in learning algorithms included a number of efficient geometric algorithms, the manifold learning task and various algorithms for accomplishing this task, other related visual learning and modelling tasks, the  model merging approach to machine learning (including the learning of Hidden Markov Models and Stochastic Context-free Grammars), and the Family Discovery Learning Algorithm, which discovers the dimension and structure of a parameterized family of stochastic models.

Self-improving artificial intelligence and AI safety
Omohundro started Self-Aware Systems in Palo Alto, California to research the technology and social implications of self-improving artificial intelligence. He is an advisor to the Machine Intelligence Research Institute on artificial intelligence. He argues that rational systems exhibit problematic natural "drives" that will need to be countered in order to build intelligent systems safely. His papers, talks, and videos on AI safety have generated extensive interest. He has given many talks on self-improving artificial intelligence, cooperative technology, AI safety, and connections with biological intelligence.

Programming languages
At Thinking Machines Corporation, Cliff Lasser and Steve Omohundro developed Star Lisp, the first programming language for the Connection Machine. Omohundro joined the International Computer Science Institute (ICSI) in Berkeley, California, where he led the development of the open source programming language Sather. Sather is featured in O'Reilly's History of Programming Languages poster.

Physics and dynamical systems theory
Omohundro's book Geometric Perturbation Theory in Physics describes natural Hamiltonian symplectic structures for a wide range of physical models that arise from perturbation theory analyses.

He showed that there exist smooth partial differential equations which stably perform universal computation by simulating arbitrary cellular automata. The asymptotic behavior of these PDEs is therefore logically undecidable.

With John David Crawford he showed that the orbits of three-dimensional period doubling systems can form an infinite number of topologically distinct torus knots and described the structure of their stable and unstable manifolds.

Mathematica and Apple tablet contest
From 1986 to 1988, he was an Assistant Professor of Computer science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and cofounded the Center for Complex Systems Research with Stephen Wolfram and Norman Packard. While at the University of Illinois, he worked with Stephen Wolfram and five others to create the symbolic mathematics program Mathematica. He and Wolfram led a team of students that won an Apple Computer contest to design "The Computer of the Year 2000." Their design entry "Tablet" was a touchscreen tablet with GPS and other features that finally appeared when the Apple iPad was introduced 22 years later.

Other contributions
Subutai Ahmad and Steve Omohundro developed biologically realistic neural models of selective attention. As a research scientist at the NEC Research Institute, Omohundro worked on machine learning and computer vision, and was a co-inventor of U.S. Patent 5,696,964, "Multimedia Database Retrieval System Which Maintains a Posterior Probability Distribution that Each Item in the Database is a Target of a Search."

Pirate puzzle
Omohundro developed an extension to the game theoretic pirate puzzle featured in Scientific American.

Outreach
Omohundro has sat on the Machine Intelligence Research Institute board of advisors. He has written extensively on artificial intelligence, and has warned that "an autonomous weapons arms race is already taking place" because "military and economic pressures are driving the rapid development of autonomous systems".

References

External links

 Self-Aware Systems
 Steve Omohundro Interviews Playlist

Living people
1959 births
American computer scientists
Machine learning researchers
Artificial intelligence researchers
Cellular automatists
Stanford University alumni

Steve Omohundro