Group 6, numbered by IUPAC style, is a group of elements in the periodic table. Its members are chromium (Cr), molybdenum (Mo), tungsten (W), and seaborgium (Sg). These are all transition metals and chromium, molybdenum and tungsten are refractory metals.

The electron configuration of these elements do not follow a unified trend, though the outermost shells do correlate with trends in chemical behavior:

"Group 6" is the new IUPAC name for this group; the old style name was "group VIB" in the old US system (CAS) or "group VIA" in the European system (old IUPAC). Group 6 must not be confused with the group with the old-style group crossed names of either VIA (US system, CAS) or VIB (European system, old IUPAC). That group is now called group 16.

History

Discoveries
Chromium was first reported on July 26, 1761, when Johann Gottlob Lehmann found an orange-red mineral in the Beryozovskoye mines in the Ural Mountains of Russia, which he named "Siberian red lead," which was found out in less than 10 years to be a bright yellow pigment. Though misidentified as a lead compound with selenium and iron components, the mineral was crocoite with a formula of PbCrO4. Studying the mineral in 1797, Louis Nicolas Vauquelin produced chromium trioxide by mixing crocoite with hydrochloric acid, and metallic chromium by heating the oxide in a charcoal oven a year later. He was also able to detect traces of chromium in precious gemstones, such as ruby or emerald.

Molybdenite—the principal ore from which molybdenum is now extracted—was previously known as molybdena, which was confused with and often implemented as though it were graphite. Like graphite, molybdenite can be used to blacken a surface or as a solid lubricant. Even when molybdena was distinguishable from graphite, it was still confused with a galena (a common lead ore), which took its name from Ancient Greek  , meaning lead. It was not until 1778 that Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele realized that molybdena was neither graphite nor lead. He and other chemists then correctly assumed that it was the ore of a distinct new element, named molybdenum for the mineral in which it was discovered. Peter Jacob Hjelm successfully isolated molybdenum by using carbon and linseed oil in 1781.

Regarding tungsten, in 1781 Carl Wilhelm Scheele discovered that a new acid, tungstic acid, could be made from scheelite (at the time named tungsten). Scheele and Torbern Bergman suggested that it might be possible to obtain a new metal by reducing this acid. In 1783, José and Fausto Elhuyar found an acid made from wolframite that was identical to tungstic acid. Later that year, in Spain, the brothers succeeded in isolating tungsten by reduction of this acid with charcoal, and they are credited with the discovery of the element.

Seaborgium was first produced by a team of scientists led by Albert Ghiorso who worked at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory in Berkeley, California, in 1974. They created seaborgium by bombarding atoms of californium-249 with ions of oxygen-18 until seaborgium-263 was produced.

Historical development and uses
During the 1800s, chromium was primarily used as a component of paints and in tanning salts. At first, crocoite from Russia was the main source, but in 1827, a larger chromite deposit was discovered near Baltimore, United States. This made the United States the largest producer of chromium products until 1848 when large deposits of chromite where found near Bursa, Turkey. Chromium was used for electroplating as early as 1848, but this use only became widespread with the development of an improved process in 1924.

For about a century after its isolation, molybdenum had no industrial use, owing to its relative scarcity, difficulty extracting the pure metal, and the immaturity of the metallurgical subfield. Early molybdenum steel alloys showed great promise in their increased hardness, but efforts were hampered by inconsistent results and a tendency toward brittleness and recrystallization. In 1906, William D. Coolidge filed a patent for rendering molybdenum ductile, leading to its use as a heating element for high-temperature furnaces and as a support for tungsten-filament light bulbs; oxide formation and degradation require that moly be physically sealed or held in an inert gas. In 1913, Frank E. Elmore developed a flotation process to recover molybdenite from ores; flotation remains the primary isolation process. During the first World War, demand for molybdenum spiked; it was used both in armor plating and as a substitute for tungsten in high-speed steels. Some British tanks were protected by 75 mm (3 in) manganese steel plating, but this proved to be ineffective. The manganese steel plates were replaced with 25 mm (1 in) molybdenum-steel plating allowing for higher speed, greater maneuverability, and better protection. After the war, demand plummeted until metallurgical advances allowed extensive development of peacetime applications. In World War II, molybdenum again saw strategic importance as a substitute for tungsten in steel alloys.

In World War II, tungsten played a significant role in background political dealings. Portugal, as the main European source of the element, was put under pressure from both sides, because of its deposits of wolframite ore at Panasqueira. Tungsten's resistance to high temperatures and its strengthening of alloys made it an important raw material for the arms industry.

Chemistry
Unlike other groups, the members of this family do not show patterns in its electron configuration, as two lighter members of the group are exceptions from the Aufbau principle:

Most of the chemistry has been observed only for the first three members of the group. The chemistry of seaborgium is not very established and therefore the rest of the section deals only with its upper neighbors in the periodic table. The elements in the group, like those of groups 7–11, have high melting points, and form volatile compounds in higher oxidation states. All the elements of the group are relatively nonreactive metals with a high melting points (1907 °C, 2477 °C, 3422 °C); that of tungsten is the highest of all metals. The metals form  compounds in different oxidation states: chromium forms compounds in all states from −2 to +6: disodium pentacarbonylchromate,  disodium decacarbonyldichromate, bis(benzene)chromium, tripotassium pentanitrocyanochromate, chromium(II) chloride, chromium(III) oxide, chromium(IV) chloride, potassium tetraperoxochromate(V), and chromium(VI) dichloride dioxide; the same is also true for molybdenum and tungsten, but the stability of the +6 state grows down the group. Depending on oxidation states, the compounds are basic, amphoteric, or acidic; the acidity grows with the oxidation state of the metal.

Occurrence and Production

Chromium is a very common naturally occurring element. It is the 21st most abundant element in the Earth's crust with an average concentration of 100ppm. The most common oxidation states for chromium are zero, trivalent, and hexavalent states. Most naturally occurring chromium is in the hexavalent state. About two-fifths of the worlds chromium are produced in South Africa, with Kazakhstan, India, Russia, and Turkey following. Chromium is mined as chromite ore.

Molybdenum is refined mainly from molybdenite. It is mainly mined in the United States, China, Chile, and Peru, with the total amount produced being 200,000 tonnes per year.

Tungsten is not a common element on Earth, having an average concentration of 1.5ppm in Earth's crust. Tungsten is mainly found in the minerals wolframite and scheelite, and it usually never occurs as a free element in nature. The largest producers of tungsten in the world are China, Russia, and Portugal.

Seaborgium is a transuranium element that is made artificially by bombarding californium-249 with oxygen-18 nuclei. It is artificial, therefore it does not occur in nature.

Precautions
Hexavalent chromium compounds are genotoxic carcinogens. Seaborgium is a radioactive synthetic element that is not found in nature; the most stable known isotope has a half-life of approximately 14 minutes.

Applications
 Alloys
 Catalysts
 High temperature and refractory applications, such as welding electrodes and kiln components.
 Metallurgy, sometimes used in jet engines and gas turbines.
 Dyes and pigments
 Tanning
 hard materials

Biological occurrences
Group 6 is notable in that it contains some of the only elements in periods 5 and 6 with a known role in the biological chemistry of living organisms: molybdenum is common in enzymes of many organisms, and tungsten has been identified in an analogous role in enzymes from some archaea, such as Pyrococcus furiosus. In contrast, and unusually for a first-row d-block transition metal, chromium appears to have few biological roles, although it is thought to form part of the glucose metabolism enzyme in some mammals.

References

See also

Groups (periodic table)

Group 6 element


Richard James Wrona (born December 10, 1963) is a former professional baseball player. He played parts of six seasons in Major League Baseball, between 1988 and 1994, for the Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds, Chicago White Sox, and Milwaukee Brewers, primarily as a catcher.

Baseball career
Wrona played high school baseball at Bishop Kelley High School and college ball for Wichita State University. After being drafted by the Cubs in the 5th round of the 1985 Major League Baseball Draft, he spent several seasons in the minor leagues before making his major league debut on September 3, 1988, as a pinch hitter against the Reds.

The next year, with Joe Girardi and Damon Berryhill, the Cubs two primary catchers, both spending time in the minor leagues, Wrona found himself spending a good part of the season in the majors as well. The Cubs carried all three catchers for the National League Championship Series against the San Francisco Giants. The Giants won the series 4 games to 1. Wrona enjoyed no success in the series, going 0-for-5 with 3 strikeouts while appearing in two games.

Wrona never played a full season in the major leagues. A career backup, he played no more than 38 games, nor had more than 92 at bats, in any one season. Only in 1989 did Wrona play more than 16 games or log more than 29 at bats in the majors. He played his final major league game as a member of the Brewers on July 22, 1994, although he continued to play in the minor leagues until 1998.

References

External links

Major League Baseball catchers
Chicago Cubs players
Cincinnati Reds players
Chicago White Sox players
Milwaukee Brewers players
Peoria Chiefs players
Winston-Salem Spirits players
Pittsfield Cubs players
Iowa Cubs players
Tulsa Drillers players
Nashville Sounds players
Indianapolis Indians players
New Orleans Zephyrs players
Buffalo Bisons (minor league) players
Louisville Redbirds players
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons players
Birmingham Barons players
Oklahoma RedHawks players
Wichita State Shockers baseball players
Baseball players from Tulsa, Oklahoma
1963 births
Living people

Rick Wrona


Saga Musical Instruments is a manufacturer and wholesale distributor of stringed instruments, particularly fretted instruments and members of the violin family, and parts and accessories for them. They own twenty-two brands, fifteen are listed below.

Brands
Their brands include:
 Blueridge
 Gitane
 Appalachian
 J Navarro
 Rover
 Kentucky
 Anton Brenton
 Hamano
 Regal
 Durango
 Trinity College
 Gold Star
 Cremona
 H. Siegler
 Hamano
 Diamond Head
 Recital Instruments

Blueridge
The Blueridge brand are Chinese-built and have won praise from publications such as Guitarist Magazine, Total Guitar and Music Maker for quality and affordability. The company specializes in historic and pre-war reproductions that are used by folk and bluegrass players. Endorsed by UK bluesman Martin Harley, two Blueridge models were used to break the world record for the highest gig ever played.
Played by Sierra Ferrell, Melvin Goins, Ralph Stanley II, Larry Sparks and many more.

Families of instruments
 Guitar family brands include: Accent, Blueridge, Bristol, Burns, Catala, Cigano, J. Navarro, P. Saez, & Regal
 Mandolin family brands include: Appalachian,  Kentucky, Rover, & Trinity College.
 Banjo family brands include: Appalachian, Flinthill, Gold Star, Rover, & Saga.
 Violin family brands include: Anton Breton, Appalachian, Cervina, Cremona, & Recital Instruments
 Ukulele family brands include: Hamano, & Diamond Head
 Folk instrument brands include: Appalachian, Cusco, Schwartz, & Trinity College

References

External links
 Company homepage.
 Blueridge Guitars on Fretbase Specs, photos and videos of Blueridge models

Musical instrument manufacturing companies of the United States
String instrument manufacturing companies

Saga Musical Instruments


Eléonor Marie du Maine (14 September 1655, Changy - 15 January 1739, Strasbourg), count of Le Bourg, baron of Espinasse was a French nobleman and general.

Life
He was made a page in the grande Écurie du roi in 1671, before joining the musketeers in 1673.  He then moved to the Gardes Françaises.  He fought his first campaigns in Franche-Comté, distinguishing himself in the 1674 attack on Besançon.  He also took part in the sieges of Condé, Bouchain (Nord), Valenciennes, Saint-Omer, Ypres, Kehl, and Strasbourg.

He became mestre de camp of the Régiment Royal Cavalerie in December 1701 and was made governor of the province of Alsace in 1713.  In 1724 he was made a Marshal of France.  His first wife's name is unknown — he married his second in Strasbourg on 14 January 1729, namely Marie Anne de Klinglin, elder sister of François-Joseph de Klinglin, "préteur royal" of Strasbourg, and of Christophe de Klinglin, first president of the Conseil souverain d'Alsace.

References

Sources

 Viton, Nicolas (1834). De l'ancienne France de Saint-Allais. p. Page 499.
 Revue d'Alsace n° 132 (2006). L'Alsace : un très riche patrimoine archéologique. Diplomatie et religion en Alsace au temps du cardinal de Fleury (1726-1743) pp. 129–173.

1655 births
1739 deaths
Barons of France
Counts of France
Marshals of France

Éléonor Marie du Maine du Bourg


Celebrity MasterChef is a Romanian competitive cooking game show. It is spin-off of MasterChef România, itself an adaptation of the British show MasterChef, and features celebrity contestants. It began production in early 8 October 2013, and was broadcast on PRO TV on 22 October 2013.

Format
In contrast to its parent show, the celebrity version is based around a heats and semi-finals format similar to MasterChef Goes Large, and is aired only once a week in a two-hour format.

Celebrities are split into groups of three as they compete in a heat round featuring two challenges, with one celebrity making their way from each heat into the semi-finals. The heats consist of an Invention Test, in which they prepare a dish of their own concoction, and a Pressure Test, in which they must complete a dish from a professional chef. Due to the difficulty of these dishes contestants are given a single "lifeline" in which the chef is able to aid them for 90 seconds.

The six remaining celebrities will then face further challenges in order to secure their place in the final.

Cast
The series is judged by Florin Dumitrescu, Cătălin Scărlătescu and Sorin Bontea.

Contestants

TV ratings

The show's premier received 8.3 share, which jumped to 17.8 in its second week.

References

Romanian reality television series
Romania
Pro TV original programming
2013 Romanian television series debuts
2013 Romanian television series endings
2010s Romanian television series
Masterchef
Romanian television series based on British television series

Celebrity MasterChef (Romanian TV series)


Babcock & Wilcox is an American energy technology and service provider that is active and has operations in many international markets across the globe with its headquarters in Akron, Ohio, USA. Historically, the company is best known for their steam boilers.

Background
The company was founded in 1867 in Providence, Rhode Island, by partners Stephen Wilcox and George Babcock to manufacture and market Wilcox's patented water-tube boiler. B&W's list of innovations and firsts include the world's first installed utility boiler (1881); manufacture of boilers to power New York City's first subway (1902); first pulverized coal power plant (1918); design and manufacture of components for , the world's first nuclear-powered submarine (1953–55); the first supercritical pressure coal-fired boiler (1957); design and supply of reactors for the first U.S. built nuclear-powered surface ship,  (1961).

History

The company was founded in 1867 by Stephen Wilcox, Jr. and his partner George Herman Babcock with the intention of building safer steam boilers. Stephen Wilcox first avowed that "there must be a better way" to safely generate power, and he and George Babcock responded with the design for the first inherently safe water-tube boiler. B&W was the main builder of naval boilers for American forces during World War II, and were a supplier to the Manhattan Project. After the war they entered the nuclear reactor business, and became a major supplier for commercial nuclear power plants. They also built naval nuclear reactors, including for the first commercial nuclear ship. In 2000 the company filed for bankruptcy due to lawsuits from employees over asbestos exposure; they emerged from bankruptcy in 2006.

 In 1867,  Stephen Wilcox, Jr. and his partner George Herman Babcock, of Providence, Rhode Island,   patented their so-called safety boiler ("Improvements in Steam Generators," U.S. Patent No. 65,042). Its water was dispersed in many small tubes that resisted exploding when heated, a significant advance over conventional shell boilers, whose water was concentrated in a single container. When overheated, seams of the shell could burst, causing an explosion, often with fatal consequences. The water tube boiler had the added advantages that it could generate steam under higher pressure and more efficiently than existing designs.

In 1878, Thomas Edison purchased B&W boiler No. 92 for his Menlo Park laboratory.
 In 1891, Babcock & Wilcox Ltd is established as a separate United Kingdom company, to be responsible for all sales outside the US and Cuba.
 In 1895, Supply of steam furnaces of Kahrizak sugar factory, Tehran, Iran
 In 1898, Robert Jurenka and Alois Seidl signed an agreement with the British division of Babcock & Wilcox Ltd to make the Berlin, Germany Babcock sales office into a subsidiary of the British company; a factory in Oberhausen in the Ruhr district made the boiler designed by the American engineers.
 In 1902, the New York City's first subway is powered by B&W boilers.
 During 1907 and 1909 Theodore Roosevelt's Great White Fleet were powered by B&W Boilers.
 In 1923, both Babcock & Wilcox Ltd and The Babcock & Wilcox Company buy into The Goldie & McCulloch Company Ltd of Cambridge, Ontario, to form Babcock-Wilcox & Goldie-McCulloch Ltd in Canada.
 In 1929, B&W installs the world's first commercial size recovery boiler using the magnesium bisulfite process in Quebec, Canada.
 Between 1941 and 1945 B&W designed and delivered 4,100 marine boilers for combat and merchant ships, including 95 percent of the US fleet in Tokyo Bay at Japanese surrender.
 In 1942, the company developed the cyclone furnace.
 Between 1943 and 1945, B&W provided components, materials and process development for Manhattan Project.
 In 1948, Babcock and Wilcox was at the center of a labor dispute with the United Stone and Allied Products Workers of America. The National Labor Relations Board held that during captive audience meetings, the union was entitled to equal time. This was later overturned in Livingston Shirt Corp.
 Between 1949 and 1952, B&W provided the 8 boilers for the , the fastest ocean liner ever constructed.
 Between 1953 and 1955, B&W designed and fabricated components for , world's first nuclear-powered submarine.
 In 1961, B&W designed and supplied reactors for world's first commercial nuclear ship .
 In 1962, B&W designed and furnished reactor systems for B&W's first commercial reactor, Indian Point, NY, using HEU 233.
 In 1967, the name of Babcock-Wilcox & Goldie-McCulloch Ltd is changed to Babcock & Wilcox Canada Ltd.
 In 1975, B&W designed and built components for liquid metal fast breeder reactors.
 In 1975, the long-term business agreements with the British Babcock & Wilcox Ltd were ended. Subsequently, the British company was renamed Babcock International Group plc.
 In 1978, B&W designed and built the nuclear reactor that was involved in the Three Mile Island accident.
 In 1999, B&W was awarded the contract to develop fuel cells and steam reforming for US Navy.
 On February 22, 2000, B&W filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in part as a result of thousands of claims for personal injury due to prolonged exposure to asbestos and asbestos fibers. Claims included asbestosis, lung cancer, pleural and peritoneal mesothelioma. As a condition of emerging from bankruptcy, B&W created a trust fund to compensate victims for amounts far less than settlements paid in individual personal injury lawsuits.
 After B&W emerged from bankruptcy in 2006, B&W and BWX Technologies, both subsidiaries of the McDermott International, Inc., merged on 26 November 2007 to form The Babcock & Wilcox Companies, headed by President John Fees. The old company logo was changed.
On June 10, 2009, B&W unveiled B&W Modular Nuclear Energy, LLC (B&W MNE). On the same day, B&W MNE announced its plans to design and develop the B&W mPower reactor, a modular, scalable nuclear reactor. The B&W mPower reactor design is a 125 megawatt, passively safe Advanced Light Water Reactor (ALWR) (a Generation III reactor) with a below-ground containment structure. The reactor is set to be manufactured in a factory, shipped by rail, then buried underground.
 On May 12, 2010, B&W announced that it and its subsidiaries would be spun off from its parent company, McDermott International, Inc. The headquarters moved from Lynchburg, Virginia to Charlotte. and the company became The Babcock & Wilcox Company.
 On August 2, 2010, B&W began trading on the New York Stock Exchange as BWC.
 On June 30, 2015, Babcock & Wilcox completed a spinoff from BWX Technologies, its former parent company. The two companies began trading separately on July 1 when Babcock & Wilcox Enterprises, Inc. was listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol: BW.
On September 24, 2018, Babcock & Wilcox announced that it would move its corporate headquarters from Charlotte to Akron, Ohio, into space formerly occupied by the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company prior to its move to a new building nearby.
On December 30, 2019, Babcock & Wilcox relocated its corporate headquarters from Barberton, Ohio, to Akron, Ohio.

Football

The company had works association football teams which played at senior level in Scotland and the United States; Babcock & Wilcox F.C. reached the second round of the Scottish Cup on two occasions, and the American side was runner-up once in the American Cup.

See also
 Steam generator (boiler)

References

External links

Manufacturing companies based in Ohio
Manufacturing companies established in 1867
Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange
Nuclear technology companies of the United States
Companies based in Akron, Ohio
American companies established in 1867
1867 establishments in Rhode Island
Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2000
Electrical engineering companies of the United States

Babcock & Wilcox


In enzymology, a hyponitrite reductase is an enzyme that catalyzes the oxidation of hydroxylamine  by the nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide cation (NAD+) into hyponitrous acid HON=NOH:
2  + 2 NAD+  HON=NOH + 2 NADH + 2 H+
This systematic name of this enzyme class hydroxylamine:NAD+ oxidoreductase.  It is also called NADH2:hyponitrite oxidoreductase.

This enzyme belongs to the family of oxidoreductases, specifically those acting on other nitrogenous compounds as donors with NAD+ or NADP+ as acceptor.  It employs one cofactor, metal.

References

EC 1.7.1
NADH-dependent enzymes
Metal enzymes
Enzymes of unknown structure

Hyponitrite reductase


John Rennie (born 1959) is an American science writer who was the seventh editor in chief of Scientific American magazine. After leaving Scientific American in 2009, he began writing for Public Library of Science (PLoS) Blogs. Rennie has also been involved with several television programs and podcasts as well as multiple writing projects, including his latest position as a deputy editor on the staff of Quanta Magazine.

Biography
John Rennie was born in 1959, near Boston, MA. In 1981, he completed a Bachelor of Science in Biology at Yale University. Rennie then worked for the better part of a decade in a laboratory at Harvard Medical School before commencing his career as a science writer and editor. He began his editorial career with Scientific American in 1989 when he joined its editorial board, becoming editor-in-chief in 1994. Rennie has several published articles in Scientific American, starting with the September 1989 issue and as recently as the December 2013 issue. Rennie has had a varied career in addition to his time as an editor at Scientific American, including positions in higher education, as an author, and as a television host.

Career

Scientific American
Rennie joined the Board of Editors at Scientific American in 1989. In 1994 he was installed as the 7th editor-in-chief for Scientific American, serving in that role until 2009. While editor-in-chief, Rennie was involved in several projects including the launch of its website, authoring articles, and contributing to Scientific American's podcasts, Science Talk and 60-Second Science.

Television
Rennie has appeared in, or contributed in some other way to, several television programs since the mid-1990s:
 A&E Networks' Scams, Schemes, and Scoundrels
 CNN's Anderson Cooper 360°
 History's Weird U.S. and MysteryQuest
 National Geographic's Naked Science
 The Weather Channel's Hacking the Planet and The Truth About Twisters
 Travel Channel's Mysteries at the Museum
 Science's Space's Deepest Secrets

Other writing
The blog that Rennie authored for PLoS, The Gleaming Retort, primarily focuses on science writing, climate, technology, and health. It was active from September 2010 through December 2014.

Rennie wrote the blog The Savvy Scientist for SmartPlanet between November 2011 and September 2012 and penned a handful of articles for the General Electric sponsored online magazine, Txchnologist, in 2011 and 2012.

In 2017, Rennie joined the staff of Quanta Magazine as a deputy editor.

Higher education
Rennie is listed as adjunct faculty for the graduate Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program at New York University's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. Rennie also appears as core faculty for Beakerhead's SciComm Lab.

Awards
In 2000, Rennie was awarded the Carl Sagan Award for Public Understanding of Science by the Council of Scientific Society Presidents. In September 2003, he was awarded the Navigator Award from Potomac Institute for Policy Studies.

Selected articles

References

External links

 Faculty profile, NYU
 JohnRennie.net, Official website
 The Gleaming Retort, Official Blog on PLoS

1959 births
Living people
Scientific American people
Harvard Medical School people

John Rennie (editor)


Carl David af Wirsén (9 December 1842 – 12 June 1912) was a Swedish poet, literary critic and the Swedish Academy's permanent secretary 1884–1912.

Career
Wirsén was born in Vallentuna, Uppland, to Karl Ture af Wirsén and Eleonore von Schulzenheim.

He was also for several years, in company with the historian Hans Forssell, editor of the Swedish Literary Review.

In 1870, he became a lecturer in Swedish and Latin at Katedralskolan in Uppsala. In 1876 he moved to Gothenburg, where he lectured and took care of the museum's library and art collections.

In 1879 he succeeded Carl Wilhelm Böttiger to the seat 8 of the Swedish Academy, and moved the year after to Stockholm, where he became literary reviewer for the Post- och Inrikes Tidningar, and in 1886 also for the magazine Vårt Land.

In November 1884 he was appointed permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy. One of his tasks was to direct the work with "fixation of spelling" and the academy's dictionary. The former work resulted in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (The Swedish Academy's dictionary), where the modern spelling was represented, in spite of af Wirséns's opposition. Together with Theodor Wisén and Esaias Tegnér Jr., he tried to obstruct the publication.

In December 1883, he was appointed member of The Hymn Book committee of the Church of Sweden, which had the task of "preparing, with discretion, a new proposal for hymnbook". The result was the edition of 1889. He was appointed member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1905.

Poetry
Wirsén made his debut as a poet under the signature Kuno, first in the student's calendar Isblomman (1861) and in Namnlösa sällskapet's first publication Sånger och berättelser af nio signaturer ("Songs and tales by nine signatures", 1863). After that, it lasted until the mourning memorial in Uppsala in 1872 after the death of king Charles XV of Sweden, for whom he wroteSång till minne af konung Carl XV ("Song commemorating king Charles XV"). After several romantic poems in the monthly Nu, he published his first collection Dikter (poems) in 1876. It was followed by other collections of poetry. His Christian faith was expressed in several ways in his works, including hymns and spiritual poems, of which probably the best known is the summer hymn En vänlig grönskas rika dräkt.

Criticism
af Wirsen's conservative views and an abundant publication of his literary criticism made him well-known but also provoked opposition, sometimes in harsh words, by his opponents, who represented new ideas with spelling reform and a freer style. According to his view, "the task of poetry is to discover the absolute, supersensual content, which is the foundation of the phenomena of the material world. The calling of the poet is a priesthood of light, he should in poetry reveal a higher world of purity and peace..."

As a critic, Wirsén found a hearing among many educated men, but not much connection with the young literature, and he has become notorious for his many negative reviews of August Strindberg, Verner von Heidenstam, Selma Lagerlöf, Henrik Ibsen and many others. His central position as permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy - the institution which started to award the Nobel prize of literature in 1901 - also gave him considerable influence on the choice of laureate in the first years; for instance, he was long able to exclude Selma Lagerlöf from the award, by year after year persuading a majority of the academy members to vote for alternative candidates, often nominated by himself.

Selected works

Poetry
 Dikter (Poems), first collection (1876)
 Nya dikter (New poems), second collection (1880)
 Sånger och bilder (Songs and images) (1884)
 Vintergrönt  (Winter green) (1890)
 Toner och sägner (1893)
 Under furor och cypresser (1896), med dikter som Spinoza, Septemberdag vid Bellmans byst
 Visor, romanser och ballader (1899)

Historical literature biographies
 Inträdestal i Svenska akademien över (sin företrädare) C.W. Böttiger (1880)
 Minne av riksmarskalken greve Johan Gabriel Oxenstierna (1885)
 Minne av biskopen doktor Frans Michael Franzén (1886)
 Minne av skalden Karl August Nicander (1886)
 Minne av friherre Bernhard von Beskow (1897)
 Minnesruna över professor A.J. Ångström (1875)

Hymns
En vänlig grönskas rika dräkt (1986) written in 1889
Det går ett tyst och tåligt lamm (1921)
Det är så tyst, han kämpat ut (Sånger och psalmer 1951) written in 1889.
Herren är tillstädes (Kyrklig sång 1928 nr 25 b.)
I livets bok, o Fader, skriv (1921)
Jag nu den säkra grunden vunnit (1921)
Nu dagen är till ända (1986)

Hymn books
 Andliga Sånger (1898), samlingsverk.
 Från Betlehem till Golgata (1882), andliga sånger
 Vid juletid (1887), psalmer
 I livets vår (1888)
 Kristna högtids- och helgdagar (1889), sånger och psalmer

Misc
 Studier rörande reformerna inom den franska vitterheten under sextonde och nittonde seklen (Studies concerning the reforms in the French literature of the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries) (1868)
 Utgav och skrev en biografisk inledning till E. Björcks "Valda dikter" (1869)
 Inledning till D. Klockhoffs "Efterlemnade skrifter" (1871).
 Prolog vid sällskapsspektaklet till förmån för skandinavisk-etnografiska samlingen (1879)
 Vid tvåhundraårsfesten till Calderons minne (1881)
 Sång över Esaias Tegnér (1882)
 Rafael (1883)
 Sång vid Svenska akademiens hundraårsfest (1886)
 Claes Livijn, ett självständigt bidrag till forskningen över Nya skolan.

References

External links
 Runenberg
 "Violent Debate in the Academy When Lagerlöf Was Elected", article in the daily Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet.

1842 births
1912 deaths
People from Vallentuna Municipality
Swedish male writers
Members of the Swedish Academy
Swedish male poets
19th-century Swedish poets
19th-century male writers
Burials at Uppsala old cemetery
Knights of the Order of Charles XIII

Carl David af Wirsén


Rudolf Arnold Nieberding (May 4, 1838 in Konitz, West Prussia - October 10, 1912 in Berlin) was a German jurist and politician.

Nieberding studied law at the University of Breslau, the University of Heidelberg and the Humboldt-University of Berlin.

He started to work in the civil service of Prussia in 1861, followed by the civil service of the German Empire in 1872.

He was Minister of Justice of the German Empire from 1893 to 1909.

He died at the age of 74 in 1912.

References
  www.deutsche-biographie.de

1893 births
1909 deaths
German civil servants
Government ministers of the German Empire
Jurists
Prussian politicians

Rudolf Arnold Nieberding


The East of England is a region in England.  There are nine regions of England.  It was made in 1994 and was used as a category for statistics in 1991.  The counties of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk are in the region.  Also Peterborough is in the region.

In 2001 the census in England found that 5,388,140 persons lived in the region.  The land is mostly low.  The highest place is the hill of Ivinghoe Beacon, near Tring in the county of Hertfordshire.  The top of the hill is 249 metres above the level of the sea.

1994 establishments in England

East of England


Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead is a play written by Bert V. Royal.

An "unauthorized continuation," the play reimagines characters from the popular comic strip Peanuts as degenerate teenagers. Drug use, child sexual abuse, suicide, eating disorders, teen violence, rebellion, sexual relations and identity are among the issues covered in this homage at the works of Charles M. Schulz.

Characters
CB (Charlie Brown) is the main character in the play. He is intensely saddened over the death of his dog, and is forced to question both his sexuality and his social status when he unwittingly falls for his classmate Beethoven.
Beethoven (Schroeder) became the school outcast prior to events in the play when it was revealed that he was sexually abused by his father. A bit of a recluse, Beethoven takes solace in playing the piano, but when he and CB become romantically involved, his world is turned upside down.
CB's Sister (Sally) has gone Goth, at least for a portion of the play. It is mentioned that, like her character basis, she changes her philosophy on life often. Her other personas during the course of the play are scripted as thug (called "gansta-bitch" in the script), and hippie.
Van (Linus), always the philosopher in childhood, is now a pothead with a worldview to match. He repeatedly attempts to pursue a sexual relationship with CB's Sister.
Matt (Pig-Pen) is a pathological germophobe whose dirtiness has been internalized - he is sex-obsessed and homophobic, and terrorizes Beethoven mercilessly. He is also a football player, and is CB's best friend.
Tricia (Peppermint Patty), a party girl, who professes herself to be "Pretty" and "Popular".
Marcy (Marcie), a party girl and Tricia's sidekick. She has a threesome with Tricia and Matt during the play.
Van's Sister (Lucy) has been institutionalized for setting the Little Red-Haired Girl's hair on fire.
Pen Pal does not appear in person, but has a key part in the play. This character additionally alludes to being a representation of God; he/she/it has a clear picture of an afterlife and signs letters with the initials CS (Charles Schulz).
Frieda is never seen, but referred to numerous times as having an eating disorder; Tricia hates her and openly comments on her weight, while Van thinks that she is actually too skinny.
Rerun and Franklin are both mentioned as being guests at Marcy's party. Marcy refers to the former as Van's "retard little brother" and addresses an offstage Franklin by name.

Plot
CB and CB's sister have a funeral for their dog, who recently contracted rabies and was put down after killing "a little yellow bird" and nearly biting CB. The funeral ends in failure as they argue over who should say a prayer for him. After the funeral, CB approaches Van and asks him what happens to humans when they die. He answers that they get reincarnated. When CB asks Matt the same question, Beethoven walks by and Matt calls him a fag.

At lunch, Marcy and Tricia tell their friends about an upcoming party at Marcy's house. Later on, CB goes to Beethoven's practice room to listen to his piano playing, but ends up monologuing over his dead dog. An irritated Beethoven tells CB about how he cannot go through his day without someone bullying him in some sort, including CB himself, and that people "messing around" with him is just a front for harassment and violence. CB makes a truce with Beethoven and invites him to the party to re-establish their friendship. They share a kiss.

Beethoven arrives at the party to everyone's surprise. Matt insults Beethoven again, but CB comes to Beethoven's defense and kisses him, this time in front of everyone. After abruptly leaving the party with CB, Beethoven demands an explanation for what happened. CB explains he revealed his feelings not out of obligation to Beethoven, but because he truly wanted to do so. The morning after, Matt, Tricia, and Marcy all wake up together, half-naked and wondering what happened between them the night before. CB goes to visit Van's sister, who was institutionalized for setting the Little Red-Haired Girl's hair on fire. CB tells her the whole story, also revealing to her that he and Beethoven had sex after the party.

A few days later, Matt, Tricia, Marcy, and Van eat lunch together and are all stunned at what happened at the party. Matt vows to make Beethoven pay for "fucking with [his] best friend's head." Meanwhile, CB and Beethoven argue over whether or not they should be in a relationship. CB leaves disappointed but hopeful for the future between them. Matt then enters and threatens Beethoven to stay away from CB. Beethoven refuses, calls him by his old nickname, Pig-Pen, and implies he knows Matt's "secret:" that Matt has repressed homosexual feelings for CB. This angers Matt, who slams the piano top over Beethoven's hands, breaking them. During class later on, CB's friends take turns sharing fond memories of Beethoven, who had committed suicide (Matt, meanwhile, was suspended from school for a week). However, knowing they all bullied Beethoven, CB berates them for pretending that they actually cared about him.

CB receives a letter from his pen pal. In the letter, he tells CB that he must keep strong, even in rough times. It also mentions a boy "who plays piano just like [CB's] friend" that moved in near the pen pal, that "he's had a tough life, but things are better for him, now," and that he found a dog who likes to sing along to the piano (like CB's dog did, alluding that Beethoven is now caring for CB's dog in the afterlife). The letter is signed 'CS', an allusion to Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz.

Intellectual property issues
Dog Sees God is advertised as a parody, and includes language indicating that the production has not been authorized or approved by United Features Syndicate or the estate of Charles M. Schulz.

Development history
Dog Sees God was first presented as a reading on May 3, 2004, at the Barrow Street Theatre.  It was directed by Anthony Barrile and produced by Sorrel Tomlinson. The cast was as follows:

Alexander Chaplin as CB
Karen DiConcetto as CB's Sister
Daniel Franzese as Van
Marcus Chait as Matt
Daniel Letterle as Beethoven
Mary Catherine Garrison as Tricia
Melissa Picarello as Marcy
Jennifer Esposito as Van's Sister

Dog Sees God had its world premiere at the 2004 New York International Fringe Festival.  It was presented at the SoHo Playhouse.  It was directed by Susan W. Lovell and produced by Sorrel Tomilinson/File 14 Productions.  The cast was as follows:

Michael Gladis as CB
Karen DiConcetto as CB's Sister
Tate Ellington as Van
Jay Sullivan as Matt
Benjamin Schrader as Beethoven
Bridget Barkan as Tricia
Stelianie Tekmitchov as Marcy
Melissa Picarello as Van's Sister
Understudies: Clay Black, Andrew Fleischer

The production was extended for two weeks and Daniel Franzese assumed the role of Van

Dog Sees God had another reading on May 9, 2005, at the Westside Theater.  It was directed by Trip Cullman and produced by DeDe Harris and Sorrel Tomlinson.  The cast was as follows:

Patrick Fugit as CB
Alison Pill as CB's Sister
John Gallagher Jr. as Van
Mark Webber as Matt
Logan Marshall Green as Beethoven
Michelle Trachtenberg as Tricia
Anna Paquin as Marcy
Carly Jibson as Van's Sister

Dog Sees God received its off-Broadway premiere by Martian Entertainment and Dede Harris at the Century Center for the Performing Arts, opening on December 15, 2005. Presented by Bert V. Royal, the play was directed by the Trip Cullman; the set design was by David Korins;  the costume design was by Jenny Mannis; the lighting design was by Brian MacDevitt; the sound design was by Darron L. West; the general manager was Roy Gabay; the production stage manager was Lori Ann Zepp; the assistant stage manager was Tammy Scozzafava; and the production manager was Randall Etheredge.

The cast was as follows.

Eddie Kaye Thomas as CB
America Ferrera as CB's Sister
Logan Marshall-Green as Beethoven
Ian Somerhalder as Matt
Keith Nobbs as Van
Kelli Garner as Tricia
Ari Graynor as Marcy
Eliza Dushku as Van's Sister
When Dushku (of Buffy the Vampire Slayer fame) quit in February 2006 along with several other members of the cast, attempts were made to tie their leaving to a lawsuit between the producers.  Charges of abuse against one of the producers were later dismissed as "plainly devoid of merit and undertaken as a vindictive campaign to harass".

The Los Angeles premiere of the play was presented by the Havok Theatre Company and ran from June 7 - July 20, 2008 at the Hudson Backstage Theatre. It was directed by Nick DeGruccio.

The Los Angeles cast was as follows.

Joseph Porter as CB
Andrea Bowen as CB's Sister
Erin Dinsmore as Van
Wyatt Fenner as Beethoven
Christine Lakin as Tricia
Lauren Robyne as Marcy
Nick Ballard as Matt
Megan McNulty as Van's Sister

Christine Lakin won an LA Weekly Theatre Award for Best Female Comedy Performance.

The U.K. premiere production took place at the Taurus Bar on Manchester's famous Canal Street in March 2008, thanks to author Bert V Royal helping them secure the UK rights, which at that time did not exist (after this production the U.K. rights were set up). The show was a sell out and quickly transferred to the larger venue The Lowry in January 2009. The production gained rave reviews and now looks set to move in to return in 2012. The play was produced by Award Nominated Vertigo Theatre Productions and directed by Craig Hepworth.

The U.K. cast was as follows:

 Rick Carter as CB
 Craig Hepworth as Beethoven
 Abby Simmons as CB's Sister
 Greg Kelly as Matt
 Emma Salt as Marcy
 Adele Stanhope as Tricia
 Stuart Reeve as Van
 Emma Willcox as Van's Sister

For The Lowry production, Greg Kelly and Abby Simmons were replaced with Mike Gates and Louise Allen due to scheduling conflicts.

The Canadian premiere production took place at Six Degrees in Toronto, Ontario, in March 2009, produced by Michael Rubinoff and Lindsay Rosen. The show was directed by Lezlie Wade, with set and costume design by Jessica Poirier-Chang and lighting by Renee Brode. The Toronto Star gave it a -out-of-4-stars review, saying 'What seems to be a comedic deconstruction of the famous Peanuts cartoon characters turns out to be one of the most interesting and moving plays I've seen this year, with some absolutely stunning performances. Director Lezlie Wade manages the transition skilfully and, by the end, there were totally unexpected tears rolling down my face."The Canadian cast was as follows:

Jake Epstein as "CB"
Ben Lewis as "Beethoven"
Mike Lobel as "Matt"
Adamo Ruggiero as "Van"
Tatiana Maslany as "CB's Sis"
Sibohan Murphy as "Tricia"
Alex Saslove as "Marcy"
Paula Brancati as "Van's Sister"
Lindsay Clark was a female swing

 Awards
In 2004, it was one of the breakout hits at the New York International Fringe Festival, winning the Excellence Award for Best Overall Production, as well as Theatermania's Play Award of 2004, the GLAAD Media Award for Best Off-Off-Broadway production, Broadway.com's 2006 Audience Award for Favorite Off-Broadway Production and the 2006 HX Award for Best Play.

 Sequel
On July 24, 2014, it was announced on the official Facebook page that a sequel to the play was in the works. This sequel focuses on Matt, and will be titled The Gospel According to Matt: Confessions of a Teenage Dirtbag'''.

References

External links
 Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead from Dramatists Play Service
 Review of the play from Variety''
 Review of the play from The New York Times

2004 plays
American plays
Buddhism in fiction
Comedy-drama plays
LGBT-related plays
Off-Broadway plays
Parodies of comics
Unofficial works based on Peanuts (comic strip)
Satirical plays
Fiction about suicide


A lithium-ion battery is a lightweight, high-power battery used in computers and mobile phones. It comes in several shapes, although a flat rectangle is most common. It is lighter than the nickel cadmium battery and the nickel metal-hydride battery. That makes it useful for devices that should be lightweight. Lithium-ion batteries work by the movement of lithium ions through a membrane (thin sheet that allows some substances to pass through). They are different from lithium batteries. Lithium batteries contain lithium metal and are not rechargeable (primary cells). Lithium-ion batteries do not contain lithium metal (only lithium compounds) and are rechargeable (secondary cells). They also do not last forever. Traditional lithium-ion batteries will have an average of 600 charge cycles. Some newer versions such as lithium iron phosphate and lithium titanate can last for 3000 cycles or more.

Safety issues
Lithium-ion batteries can be very dangerous. They can catch fire or explode if they are punctured, overcharged, or short-circuited, or if there is a manufacturing defect. In a multi-cell battery pack, the fire can spread from one cell to another, consuming the entire pack. The fire cannot be put out with a fire extinguisher or water. Flaming electrolyte can be ejected from the battery, setting fire to nearby combustible material. Many products have been recalled due to defective lithium-ion batteries.

Related pages
Lithium battery
Lithium
Rechargeable battery
Ion
Table of batteries

References

Batteries

Lithium-ion battery


The South Manchuria Railway (; ), officially , Mantetsu () or Mantie () for short, was a large  of the Empire of Japan whose primary function was the operation of railways on the Dalian–Fengtian (Mukden)–Changchun (called Xinjing from 1931 to 1945) corridor in northeastern China, as well as on several branch lines.

In 1905, after Russia's defeat in the Russo-Japanese War, this area was taken over by Japan as the South Manchuria Railway Zone. Mantetsu was established in 1906 to operate the railways taken over from the Russians. Subsequently, Mantetsu expanded by building new lines for itself and for Chinese-owned undertakings, and after the establishment of the puppet state of Manchukuo in 1932, it was also entrusted with the management of the Manchukuo National Railway. Between 1917 and 1925, Mantetsu was also responsible for the management of the Chosen Government Railway in Japanese-occupied Korea.

However, it was also involved in nearly every aspect of the economic, cultural and political life of Manchuria, from power generation to agricultural research, for which reason it was often referred to as "Japan's East India Company in China". Nisshō Inoue, the founder of the interwar Japanese far-right militant organization Ketsumeidan (血盟団, League of Blood), was employed by Mantetsu from 1909 to 1920.

In 1945, the Soviet Union invaded and overran Manchukuo, and following Japan's defeat in the Pacific War, Mantetsu itself was dissolved by order of the American occupation authorities in occupied Japan. The railway was operated by the Soviets for a time, and handed over to China Railway after the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949. Fengtian has been called Shenyang since 1945, and the line from there to Dalian is today part of the Shenda Railway from Changchun to Dalian, whilst the Shenyang–Changchun section is now part of the Jingha Railway; the branch lines have also been part of China Railway since then.

History

The main line from Changchun to Port Arthur, as Luishun was called under Russian rule, was built between 1898 and 1903 by the Russians as the southern branch of their Chinese Eastern Railway according to the 1896 secret treaty and the 1898 lease convention between Qing China and Imperial Russia in the aftermath of the First Sino-Japanese War.

Following the Japanese victory over Imperial Russia in 1905 after the Russo-Japanese War and the signing of the Treaty of Portsmouth, most of the southern branch (Harbin—Port Arthur) of the China Eastern Railway was transferred to Japanese control.  The last station remaining in Russian hands was at Kuanchengzi () in modern-day Changchun.  The northernmost Japanese-controlled station was the Changchun railway station.

Under the authorization of Emperor Meiji, Japan then established a new semi-privately held company, the South Manchurian Railway Company (a.k.a. Mantetsu), with a capitalization of 200 million yen to operate the railroad and to develop settlements and industries along its route.  The organizing committee was headed by General Kodama Gentarō, and after his death, by General Terauchi Masatake.  Count Gotō Shimpei, formerly the Japanese governor of Taiwan, was appointed the first president of the company, and the headquarters was established in Tokyo before relocated to Dalian in 1907.

One of the first tasks of the new company was to change the railway gauge.  The rail line was originally built according to the gauge of , during the war it had been converted by the advancing Japanese troops to the Japanese  gauge, in order to facilitate the use of rolling stock brought from Japan. But once the new Japanese South Manchuria Railway Company took possession of the line, it had the tracks re-gauged again, now to the gauge of , presumably with an eye to connecting the system to other railways of China.

In 1907, an agreement was reached between the Japanese and Russian authorities about connecting the Japanese South Manchuria Railway with the line to the north, which remained in the hands of Russian China Far East Railway. According to the agreement, Russian gauge tracks would continue from the "Russian" Kuanchengzi Station to the "Japanese" Changchun station, and vice versa, tracks on the "gauge adapted by the South Manchuria Railway" (i.e., the standard gauge) would continue from the Changchun Station to the Kuancheng Station.

By the end of 1907, the company employed 9,000 Japanese and 4,000 Chinese. By 1910, those numbers had increased to 35,000 and 25,000 respectively. The railway used a significant amount of U.S.-made rails and signaling equipment, as well as some steam locomotives built by the American Locomotive Company at Dunkirk, NY. A visiting executive from the Erie Railroad was quite impressed with the arrangement, and described South Manchurian Railway ca. 1913 as "the only railroad in the whole world that is like our American railroads (and they are, fairly speaking, the best)".

Mantetsu quickly expanded the system inherited from Russia to staggering proportions, building coal mines at Fushun and Yantai, and harbor facilities at Andong, Yingkou, and Dalian. At each station, Mantetsu built hotels for travelers and warehouses for goods. Japanese settlers were encouraged through the construction of schools, libraries, hospitals and public utilities. The Mantetsu Research Wing was the centerpiece of Japan's colonial program, and instigated agricultural research into development of soybean farming. Land under cultivation expanded 70% in 20 years.

From 1916, Mantestu began to spin off a number of subsidiary companies, including Showa Steel Works, Dalian Ceramics, Dalian Oil & Fat, South Manchurian Glass, as well as flour mills, sugar mills, electrical power plants, shale oil plants and chemical plants.

On 31 July 1917, the management of the Chosen Government Railway (Sentetsu) in Japanese-occupied Korea was transferred from the Railway Bureau of the Government-General of Korea to Mantetsu, which established the Mantetsu Keijō/Gyeongseong Railway Administration (, ; , Mancheol Gyeongseong Gwalliguk), and under Mantetsu control Korea's railway network was expanded rapidly. On 1 April 1925, management of Sentetsu was returned to the Railway Bureau, though Mantetsu retained control of the line along the Korea–Manchuria border from the port of Najin in Korea to Tumen in Manchuria and to Sangsambong in Korea. Mantetsu called this line the North Chosen Line, and it remained under Mantetsu control until 1945.

Company assets rose from 163 million yen in 1908 to over a billion yen in 1930. Mantetsu was by far the largest corporation in Japan, and also its most profitable, averaging rates of return from 25 to 45 percent per year. During the 1920s, Mantetsu provided for over a quarter of the Japanese government's tax revenues.

Over 75% of Mantetsu's income was generated by its freight business, with the key to profitability coming from soybean exports, both to Japan proper and to Europe. Soybean production increased exponentially with increasing demand for soy oil, and for soy meal for use in fertilizer and animal feed. By 1927, half of the world's supply of soybean was from Manchuria and the efforts by Mantetsu to expand production and to ship to export ports was a classic example of an extractive colonial economy dependent on a single product.

In 1931, the Mukden Incident occurred, where the Japanese military faked an attack on the railway by Chinese partisans as a pretext for the Japanese invasion of Manchuria.

Mantetsu was also charged with a government-like role in managing the rail transportation system after the formation of Manchukuo in 1932, including management of the (theoretically independent) Manchukuo National Railway. By 1938, Mantetsu had 72 subsidiary companies, development projects in 25 urban areas and carried 17,515,000 passengers per year. Between 1930 and 1940, the Japanese population of Manchukuo rose by 800,000 making ethnic Japanese the majority in many of the towns and cities served by Mantetsu. Mantetsu prided itself on state-of-the-art urban planning, with modern sewer systems, public parks, and creative modern architecture far in advance of what could be found in Japan itself. These things were possible due to Mantetsu's tremendous profitability, and its political power to seize property and silence opposition and dissent at will through its political connections to the military and totalitarian national leadership.

In 1934, Mantetsu inaugurated the "Asia Express", a high speed train from Dalian to the Manchukuo capital of Xinjing (Changchun). Reaching a top speed of , the "Asia Express" was the fastest scheduled train in Asia at the time.

Changchun remained the break of gauge point between the Russian and standard gauges in the 1930s, until the Chinese Eastern railway itself was bought by Manchukuo and converted to the standard gauge in the mid-1930s.

In 1936, the company owned 466 locomotives, 554 coaches and 8134 goods wagons.

In 1945, the Soviet Union invaded and overran Manchukuo.  Rolling stock and movable equipment was looted and taken back to the Soviet Union; some was returned when the Chinese Communist government came into power.  Mantetsu itself was dissolved by order of the American occupation authorities in occupied Japan.  The People's Republic of China government later merged the northern half of the South Manchuria Railway's mainline (the Renkyō Line) with other railway lines to form the present Beijing–Harbin railway.

Railway dining car service
In conjunction with magazine advertising by Japan Tourist Bureau (JTB), the railway attempted to create a unique food culture in Manchukuo. They offered a variety of special cuisine such as Yamato beef steak, Mongolian barbeque, and sorghum vulgare (kaoliang) confectionery in dining cars along the line and in the railway-operated Yamato Hotel. There was little uptake in the cuisine however after the fall of Manchukuo.

Network

 Anpō Line: Fengtian–Andong,
 Bushun Line: Sujiatun–Fushun, , electrified
 Eikō Line: Dashiqiao–Yingkou,
 Endai Colliery Line: Yantai–Yantai Colliery, , freight only
 Futō Line: Shahekou–Dalian Quay, , freight only
 Gusai Line: Dalian–Wuqi, , freight only
 Kanseishi Line: Nanguangling–Dalian Ganjingzi Quay, , freight only
 Kinjō Line: Jinzhou–Chengzitan,
 Kon'yu Connecting Line: Hunhe–Yushutai, , freight only
 North Chosen East Line: Tumen, Manchukuo–Namyang, Korea–Unggi, Korea,
 North Chosen West Line: Sangsambong–Namyang  (entirely in Korea)
 Nyūzen Line: Shahekou–Ruchuan Quay, , freight only
 Rashinfutō Line: Najin–Najin Quay, , freight only (entirely in Korea)
 Renkyō Line: Dalian–Xinjing,
 Ryojun Line: Zhoushuizi–Lüshun,
 Ryūshuton Line: Dafangshen–Liushutun,
 Jōhei Line: Donggwan–Seongpyeong,  (owned by Chosen Government Railway)
 Tōho Line: Cheongseong–Tongpo,  (owned by Chosen Government Railway)
 Yūra Line: Unggi–Najin,  (entirely in Korea)

Mantetsu presidents

See also
 Rolling stock of the South Manchuria Railway
 Manchukuo National Railway
 Kwantung Leased Territory
 South Manchuria Railway Zone
 Yamato Hotels

References

Further reading

External links

 WorldStatesmen- China- foreign colonies

Railway lines in China
Defunct railway companies of Japan
Rail transport in Jilin
Rail transport in Liaoning
Rail transport in Manchukuo
History of Manchuria
Foreign relations of the Republic of China (1912–1949)
Foreign relations of the Empire of Japan
Kwantung Leased Territory
Russian Empire
Companies in Manchukuo
Defunct companies of Japan
Defunct companies of Russia
Railway companies established in 1906
Railway companies disestablished in 1945
Chinese companies established in 1906
1945 disestablishments in China
1945 disestablishments in the Japanese colonial empire
3 ft 6 in gauge railways in China
Standard gauge railways in China
Defunct railway companies of China

South Manchuria Railway


The South Pacific Cartel (Spanish: Cártel del Pacífico Sur) is a Mexican organized crime group composed of the remnants of the Beltrán-Leyva Cartel.   It is based in the Mexican state of Morelos. The gang has been significantly less active since mid-2011 when the group's leaders Julio de Jesus Radilla Hernandez and Victor Valdez were captured.

Although they call themselves a 'cartel', the violent gang is a local cell created in April 2010 by Héctor Beltrán Leyva, leader of the Beltran Leyva Cartel. The gang is known for having employed a 12-year-old gunman and executioner.

References

Organizations established in 2010
2010 establishments in Mexico
Gangs in Mexico
Mexican drug war
Beltrán-Leyva Cartel
Morelos

South Pacific Cartel


Survivor (, Hisardut), formerly known as Survivor 10, is an Israeli reality competition game show. It is based on the popular international Survivor television franchise. The series began in December 2007. It aired on Israel's Channel 10 for six seasons. After legal issues between Channel 10 and Castaway Television, the series went on a three-year hiatus. In 2015 the series returned for a seventh season on Channel 2 and Reshet. The show is hosted by actor and singer Guy Zu-Aretz.

Following the basic premise of other international versions of the franchise, it features a group of contestants who are marooned in an isolated location, where they must provide food, water, fire, and shelter for themselves. The contestants compete in challenges for rewards and immunity from elimination. The contestants are progressively eliminated from the game as they are voted out by their fellow contestants, until only one remains and is given the title of "The Last Survivor" and is awarded the grand prize of 1 million NIS.

Mass media in Israel
Television game shows
Reality television series
2007 television series debuts

Survivor (Israeli TV series)


Aymer (also Aymar, Adhemar, Ademar, or Adomar; c. 1160 – 16 June 1202) was the last Count of Angoulême of the House of Taillefer. He was the youngest child of Count William VI and Marguerite de Turenne. Two of his elder brothers, Wulgrin III and William VII, became Counts of Angoulême in succession after the death of their father in 1179.

Aymer succeeded his brother in 1186, and soon after was at the court of Richard the Lionheart, then Duke of Aquitaine and thus Aymer's lord, to receive recognition of his accession. By 1188, Aymer had married Alice of Courtenay, the daughter of Peter I of Courtenay and thus granddaughter of King Louis VI of France. In that year, Alice gave birth to a daughter, Isabella of Angoulême, who married King John of England in 1200. The marriage alliance was sealed by two treaties, one public, the other private between Aymer and John. The count remained a steady ally of the kings of England against the rebellious House of Lusignan.

Aymer had a claim to the County of La Marche, where in 1199 or 1200 he was exercising authority, perhaps on behalf of his son-in-law, and issued a charter to some monks of Aubignac. In February 1202 when John was visiting Angoulême to negotiate a treaty with Sancho VII of Navarre, Aymer took him on a tour of the newly consecrated abbey church at La Couronne. The role of Aymer's daughter in John's continued refusal to properly care for his brother Richard the Lionheart's widow, Berengaria of Navarre, may explain the Count of Angoulême's proximity to the negotiations between the two kingdoms.

Aymer died in Limoges on 16 June 1202. His daughter and only child succeeded him as Countess of Angoulême. Her title, however, was largely empty since her husband denied her control of her inheritance as well as her marriage dowry and dower. John's appointed governor, Bartholomew de Le Puy (de Podio), ran most of the administrative affairs of Angoulême until John's death in 1216. In 1217 Isabella returned and seized her inheritance from Bartholomew, who appealed unsuccessfully to the English king for help.

Aymer's widow, Alice, ruled the city of Angoulême until March 1203, when John summoned her to court and granted her a monthly pension of 50 livres d'Anjou in return for her dower rights. She thereafter retired from public life to her estate at La Ferté-Gaucher, where she was living as late as July 1215, when she issued a charter at Provins using the title Countess of Angoulême.

Notes

References

Sources

House of Taillefer

12th-century French people
1160 births
1202 deaths
Year of birth uncertain

Aymer, Count of Angoulême


Fan Chun Yip (; born 1 May 1976) is a former Hong Kong professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He is currently the goalkeeping coach of Hong Kong Premier League club Southern.

Widely considered as one of the best goalkeepers in Hong Kong back in the days, he was voted as the Hong Kong Footballer of the Year in the 2003–04 season.

Childhood and early career
Fan was born in Hong Kong into a 7-member family. He is the youngest son. As a child, his 2nd oldest brother, who was tragically murdered in 2006, invited him to a 7 a-side match. Because he was the smallest, he was picked to be the goalkeeper. He surprised everyone with his agility and goalkeeping prowess, and even dived to save shots from the opponent on the hard concrete "pitch".
After this, Fan would regularly play in goal, which built his interest in football.

In 1985, Fan joined the Hong Kong football promotional program, and was picked for the Hong Kong Schools Sports Federation training team. This was the first step towards his illustrious football career.

After being picked for the Hong Kong Schools Sports Federation training team, Fan was picked to join the Hong Kong Sports Institute because his potential was recognised. From amateur, Fan was promoted to the junior team, then promoted to the youth team. Because of his average height, it was not easy for him to proceed and become the first choice keeper of the youth team.

After Fan's promotion to the youth team, he started off his 4-year long accommodated training.
Because Fan was professionally trained by the Hong Kong Sports Institute, he eventually was selected to represent the Hong Kong youth team.

Rangers is the First Division club Fan first joined. In a Reserve League match, he injured his index finger and was forced to rest for a couple of months. After recovering from this injury, he was named in the Hong Kong Olympic squad.

After a year at Rangers, he was loaned to Happy Valley. Happy Valley gave him the chance to make his debut, against his parent club, Rangers. Fan gained a lot of first-team experience with Happy Valley, although a hand injury kept him sidelined for two months. After this, he was released by Hong Kong Rangers.

In the two years after Fan's departure from Rangers, he joined Yee Hope and Instant-Dict. In the third year after Fan's joining to the club, he helped the club to win the Hong Kong FA Cup.Unfortunately, it was the last title for the club, as the sponsor left the club, forcing them to disband. On the night of 8 August 2003, Fan became nationally famous. There was an exhibition match against Spanish giants Real Madrid in the Hong Kong National Stadium. In the first half, the home team was down 4–2 due to the poor performance by the China goalkeeper An Qi. Fan came on as a substitute in the second half. He made a string of excellent saves to keep Real Madrid (with World Class players such as Beckham, Zidane, Raul and Ronaldo) at bay in the second half. After this 45-minutes, everyone in Hong Kong started to recognise and notice him.

Club career
On 17 November 2004, China played against Hong Kong in Guangzhou in a World Cup 2006 qualifying match. Fan performed numerous saves, and saved Zheng Zhi's crucial penalty kick. The save ended China's hope of reaching the 2006 tournament on goal difference, with Kuwait finishing above them in the group by virtue of one goal. After the match, the Mainland Chinese press named Fan 'The Bane of China', and Fan received some personal attack and threats; though fans of Hong Kong supported and honoured him as the Hero of Hong Kong, Pride of Hong Kong, etc. This has somewhat ironically led to his popularity in China, and Fan has attracted some Chinese clubs' interest.

In 2005, Chinese Super League team Changsha Ginde were interested in Fan and wanted to sign him from Happy Valley, and he verbally accepted the offer. The transfer was called off however, due to the sudden murder of his brother. Fan had no choice but had to stay in Hong Kong to take care of his family. In the meantime, he has promised that he will not join any team in the future except Changsha Ginde, and indicated that he will join them after the painful transition.

On 1 July 2007, a Reunification Cup was held in Hong Kong to celebrate the re-merging of Hong Kong with China anniversary. A China-Hong Kong XI (Chinese national team including six Hong Kong international players) played a World Star XI. Fan was given the captain's armband by the Chinese national team's head coach. He took part in the first half of the International exhibition match and again impressed highly. His excellence was acknowledged by the fans, who gave him an ovation and chanted his nickname Jyujai (豬仔; "Piggy").

Fan played for Shatin Sports Association in the Hong Kong First Division League. Before joining Shatin Sports Association, he played for Instant-Dict, Yee Hope, Rangers and Happy Valley. This was Fan's second spell with Happy Valley, having joined on loan some years previously. He made his international debut on 19 November 1998 against the Vietnam.

Fan made it into the Hong Kong league's Team of the Season four times consecutively between 2001 and 2005, and has been awarded the 'Hong Kong First Division League Most Popular Player' twice consecutively (2004–06).

International career
In 2005, Fan again impressed in his second appearance in the East Asian Cup, his excellent performances impressing foreign press and football fans alike. Indeed, he was eventually awarded the Best Goalkeeper of the tournament. Fan is now recognized as one of the best goalkeepers in Asia (along with the Japan national Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi and the R.O. Korean national Lee Woon-Jae).

On 6 September 2006, Hong Kong were playing against Uzbekistan in the Asian Cup Qualification Group stages. Fan was the star player for the Hong Kong, he consistently made excellent saves, infuriating the Uzbekistan's forwards, to the extent that one of them spat at him, though the matter was resolved. At last, Fan was noted the man of the match.

Managerial career
On 10 May 2020, it was reported that Fan would return to Pegasus as a goalkeeping coach after working at the club between 2015 and 2018.

Honours

Individual
Hong Kong Footballer of the Year: 2003–04

Career statistics

International
As of 19 November 2008

Personal life
Fan married when he was 23 and has a son named Fan Ki Chi(Kenji). He and his family now live in Kowloon Bay. He enjoys war game simulations with his teammates and friends during his leisure time. His most admired football players are Netherlands goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar and Italy's number one Gianluigi Buffon.

Fàn is a member of the Fàn family.

Fame beyond football
Fan is sponsored by Nike, with all his sportswear provided by the company. His goalkeeping gloves and boots are sewed with his initials on (C Y FAN).

Fan is also the spokesman for two companies, one for skincare and the other for ointment.

In 2005, Fan was invited to be the host for a Hong Kong TV program about sport.

Fan is now also an amateur football live commentator with IPTV's now TV.

Fan was invited to be a visitor in an Olympic related TV programme on TVB in 2008.

References

External links
 Fan Chun Yip – HKFA player profile
 Fan Chun Yip – Happy Valley player profile
 Hong Kong Athletes' Interviews – Fan Chun Yip
 My Football Dairy – Fan Chun email@example.com

1976 births
Living people
Hong Kong men's footballers
Hong Kong men's international footballers
Men's association football goalkeepers
Hong Kong Rangers FC players
Happy Valley AA players
Double Flower FA players
Shatin SA players
South China AA players
Yee Hope FC players
Hong Kong First Division League players
Footballers at the 1998 Asian Games
Footballers at the 2002 Asian Games
Footballers at the 2006 Asian Games
Asian Games competitors for Hong Kong
Hong Kong League XI representative players

Fan Chun Yip


Buellton is a small city in Santa Barbara County, California, United States. It is located in the Santa Ynez Valley, 3 miles west of Solvang. The population was 5,161 at the 2020 census, up from 4,828 at the 2010 census. Located at the junction of U.S. Route 101 and State Route 246, Buellton attracts many travelers.

Settlements in Santa Barbara County, California
Cities in California

Buellton, California


The Seattle Times is a daily newspaper, which is published in Washington state. The newspaper was founded in 1891, as Seattle Press-Times. In 2021, it is the newspaper with the highest circulation in the state; most people who read newspapers read The Seattle Times. The Seattle Times Company publishes the newspaper. Bethen family holds a majority in the company. Several reports of The Seattle Times were awarded the Pulitzer Prize. In 2013, its printed circulation was about 275.000 copies.

Newspapers in the United States
Seattle

The Seattle Times


St Bride's Church is a Church of England church in Fleet Street in the City of London. Likely dedicated to Saint Bridget perhaps as early as the 6th century, the building's most recent incarnation was designed by Sir Christopher Wren in 1672, though Wren's original building was largely gutted by fire during the London Blitz in 1940 and then was faithfully reconstructed in the 1950s.

Due to its location in Fleet Street, it has a long association with journalists and newspapers. The church is a distinctive sight on London's skyline and is clearly visible from a number of locations. With its steeple standing 226 feet (69m) tall, it is the second highest of all Wren's church spires, with only St Paul's itself having a higher pinnacle.

Background

Origins

St Bride's may be one of the most ancient churches in London, with worship perhaps dating back to the conversion of the Middle Saxons in the 7th century. It is believed that its name is derived from Bridget of Ireland, the patron saint of Ireland. It may have been founded by Irish monks, missionaries proselytising the English. It is believed that the original church, founded around the 6th Century by Irish missionaries, is the only such celtic Irish founded church in the east of Britain.

The present St Bride's is at least the seventh church to have stood on the site. Traditionally, it was founded by St Bridget in the sixth century. Whether or not she founded it personally, the remnants of the first church appear to have significant similarities to a church of the same date in Kildare, Ireland. The Norman church, built in the 11th century, was of both religious and secular significance; in 1210, King John held a parliament there. It was replaced by a larger church in the 15th century,

St Bride's association with the newspaper business began in 1500, when Wynkyn de Worde set up a printing press next door. Until 1695, London was the only city in England where printing was permitted by law.

Roanoke colony
In the late 1580s, Eleanor White, daughter to artist and explorer John White, was married in St Bride's to the tiler and bricklayer Ananias Dare. Their daughter, Virginia Dare, was to be the first English child born in North America. She was born on Roanoke Island on 18 August 1587: "Elenora, daughter to the governour and wife to Ananias Dare, one of the assistants, was delivered of a daughter in Roanoke". The child was healthy and "was christened there the Sunday following, and because this childe was the first Christian borne in Virginia, she was named Virginia". A modern bust of Virginia Dare stands near the font (one of the few survivals from the original church)  replacing an earlier monument which was stolen and has not been recovered.

Great Fire of London

In the mid-17th century disaster struck. In 1665, the Great Plague of London killed 238 parishioners in a single week, and in 1666, the following year, the church was completely destroyed during the Great Fire of London, which burned much of the city. After the fire, the old church was replaced by an entirely new building designed by Sir Christopher Wren, one of his largest and most expensive works, taking seven years to build.

St Bride's was reopened on 19 December 1675. The famous spire was added later, in 1701–1703. It originally measured 234 ft, but lost its upper eight feet to a lightning strike in 1764; this was then bought by the then owner of Park Place, Berkshire, where it still resides. The design utilises four octagonal stages of diminishing height, capped with an obelisk which terminates in a ball and vane.

Buried at St Bride's is Robert Levet (Levett), a Yorkshireman who became a Parisian waiter, then a "practicer of physick" who ministered to the denizens of London's seedier neighbourhoods. Having been duped into a bad marriage, the hapless Levet was taken in by the author Samuel Johnson who wrote his poem "On the Death of Mr. Robert Levet", eulogising his good friend and tenant of many years. Also buried at St Bride's are the composer Sir William Leighton (d. 1622), organist and composer Thomas Weelkes (d. 1623) and the poet Richard Lovelace (d. 1658), as well as author Samuel Richardson (d. 1761)

The wedding cake is said to date back to 1703 when Thomas Rich, a baker's apprentice from Ludgate Hill, fell in love with the daughter of his employer and asked her to marry him. He wanted to make an extravagant cake, and drew on the design of St Bride's Church for inspiration.

Second World War
On the night of 29 December 1940, during the Blitz of central London in the Second World War, the church was gutted by fire-bombs dropped by the Luftwaffe. That night 1,500 fires were started, including three major conflagrations, leading to a fire storm, an event dubbed the Second Great Fire of London, due to the enormous amount of damage caused.  St Paul's Cathedral itself was only saved by the dedication of the London firemen who kept the fire away from the cathedral and the volunteer firewatchers of the St Paul's Watch who fought to keep the flames from firebombs on the roof from spreading. After the war, St Bride's was rebuilt at the expense of newspaper proprietors and journalists.

One fortunate and unintended consequence of the bombing was the excavation of the church's original 6th century Saxon foundations. Today, the crypt known as the Museum of Fleet Street is open to the public and contains a number of ancient relics, including Roman coins and medieval stained glass.
Post-war excavations also uncovered nearly 230 lead coffins with plaques dating from the 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries, filled with the bones of parishioners; causes of death for most of them were found by the Museum of London.

Modern era

The church was designated a Grade I listed building on 4 January 1950.

In September 2007 the former rector, Archdeacon the Venerable David Meara, announced a special appeal to raise  £3.5 million to preserve the church's unique heritage and in November 2007 Queen Elizabeth II was guest of honour at a service to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the restoration work necessary after the Second World War.

In March 2012, the Inspire! appeal was launched to raise the at least £2.5m needed to repair the crumbling stonework of the church's famous spire.

In March 2016 the wedding of Jerry Hall and Rupert Murdoch was celebrated at St Bride's.

Music

Choir
The choir in its present form (12 adult singers – 4 sopranos, 2 altos, 3 tenors and 3 basses) was established in time for the re-dedication service in 1957, and has remained more or less in this format ever since. The choir sings at two services each Sunday throughout the year (reducing to 8 singers during August) and also for numerous special services. The Director of Music is Robert Jones, and the Assistant Director of Music is Matthew Morley.

Organ
The organ was built by the John Compton Organ Company, and is arguably their finest work. It was ready for the rededication of the church in November 1957. It has recently been completely overhauled and cleaned by Keith Bance, who has carried out some modest tonal updating. This included remodelling the positive division, adding new mixture stops to the great and pedal divisions and the provision of a new Vox Humana for the solo division. These changes have further increased the resources of an already versatile instrument. The organ has four manuals, 98 speaking stops, close to 4,000 pipes, a multi-level capture system and the wind is provided by four blowing installations.

Organists

 Henry Lightindollar 1696–1702
 John Weldon 1702–1736
 Samuel Howard 1736–1782
 Richard Huddleston Potter 1782–1821
 George Mather 1821–1854
 Mr. Reynolds, from 1854
 Ernest Kiver, from 1882
 John D. Codner, until 1888 (later organist of St Davids Cathedral)
 Edmund Hart Turpin 1888–1907
 Herbert Townsend 1909–ca. 1921
 Gordon Reynolds 1952–1965
 Robert Langston 1972–1988
 Robert Harre-Jones, from 1988

Bells
St Bride's Church is noted as the site of the first ever full peal on twelve bells (5060 Grandsire Cinques), and is considered to be one of the first towers which had a diatonic ring of twelve bells. Ten bells were cast for the church in 1710 by Abraham Rudhall of Gloucester, and were augmented to twelve in 1719 with the addition of two trebles. The 5th and 6th bells were recast by Samuel Knight of Holborn in 1736.

All of the bells were destroyed on 29 December 1940 during the Blitz. After the war, a single bell cast by John Taylor & Co was placed in the tower, hung for full-circle ringing, but was never joined by any other bells. During the installation, the church and foundry made sure that it was sympathetic to a future 12-bell installation. It weighs 15 hundredweight in the key of F♯ , and would be the 10th of a new ring of 12 in D.

Notable parishioners

St Bride's has had a number of notable parishioners, including John Milton, John Dryden, and the diarist Samuel Pepys, who was baptized in the church. Pepys buried his brother Tom in the church in 1664, but by this stage the vaults were so overcrowded that Pepys had to bribe the gravedigger to "justle together" the corpses in order to make room. In 2009, Sir Clement Freud's funeral was held in the church.

Notable burials in the churchyard
 Richard Lovelace, poet
 Denis Papin, steam engine pioneer
 Samuel Richardson, novelist
 Thomas Weelkes, composer
William Charles Wells, physician, formulated early ideas of natural selection

Gallery

See also

 Bridewell Theatre
 List of Christopher Wren churches in London
 St Bride Library
 Anna Popplewell - British actress from The Chronicles of Narnia who portrayed Susan Pevensie, also a member of Congregation as her mother Debra Lomas was a churchwarden.

References

 Milne, Gustav, St. Bride's Church London: Archaeological research 1952-60 and 1992-5, English Heritage, London (1997)
 Milton, Giles, Big Chief Elizabeth – How England's Adventurers Gambled and Won the New World, Hodder & Stoughton, London (2000)
 Morgan, Dewi, Phoenix of Fleet St – 2,000 years of St Bride's, Charles Knight & Co., London (1973),

Notes

Further reading

 .

External links

 Mystery Worshipper Report at the Ship of Fools website
 360° panorama inside St Bride's Church

Christopher Wren church buildings in London
Church of England church buildings in the City of London
English Baroque church buildings
17th-century Church of England church buildings
Bride's
Buildings and structures in the United Kingdom destroyed during World War II
Rebuilt churches in the United Kingdom
Diocese of London
Grade I listed churches in the City of London

St Bride's Church


The  is a museum located in the Sapporo Garden Park in Higashi-ku, Sapporo, Hokkaidō, Japan. Registered as one of the Hokkaidō Heritage sites in 2004, the museum is the only beer museum in Japan. The red-brick building was erected originally as a factory of the Sapporo Sugar Company in 1890, and later opened as a museum in July 1987. The building also houses the Sapporo Beer Garden in the south wing.

History
The history of the Sapporo Beer Museum dates back to Meiji period, when William Smith Clark, who visited Hokkaidō as an O-yatoi gaikokujin, started beer production, and the Hokkaidō Kaitaku-shi, the former government of Hokkaidō, established a number of breweries in Sapporo. William Clark was a president of the Massachusetts Agricultural College, which had one of the best techniques of beet production in the United States at that time, and he hoped to establish the beet cultivation in Hokkaidō during his stay. After Clark went back to the United States, the Kaitaku-shi began beet production in Nanae Village, where is currently a part of Hakodate. This was the first beet cultivation in Hokkaidō.

In 1878, the Kaitaku-shi delegated beet cultivation to the Sapporo Agricultural College, the predecessor of the Hokkaidō University, and a Monbetsu Sugar Factory was built in 1879, where currently Date is located. The sugar factory was disposed to the private, and in 1888, the Sapporo Sugar Company was established with a sugar manufacturing factory in Naebo Village, which would have been Naebo area in Higashi-ku, Sapporo. The company was established as a manufacturer of beet sugar, and asked foreign engineers for advice. The factory building of the Sapporo Sugar Company later became the Sapporo Beer Museum and the Sapporo Beer Garden. The construction of the building was supervised by the government of Hokkaidō, and a Germany-based company the Sangerhausen.

While the sugar manufacturing building was constructed, the Kaitaku-shi Brewery was established on September 23, 1876, in the place where now the Sapporo Factory is located. It was built by the government official Murahashi Hisanari. The chief engineer of the brewery was Seibei Nakagawa, who learned brewing technique in Germany. The inauguration was held at the brewery, and beer barrels were piled up in front of the building. These barrels were restored, and currently located in the area of the Sapporo Beer Museum.

The Kaitaku-shi Brewery was disposed, and the Sapporo Beer Company was established in December 1887, which later became the Sapporo Brewery. Due to the popularization of Taiwanese sugar manufacturers after the end of First Sino-Japanese War in 1895, Japanese sugar manufacture declined, causing liquidation of the beet manufacturing factory run by the Sapporo Sugar Company. In 1903, the Sapporo Beer Company purchased and remodeled the factory to use as a brewery.

The factory was operated until 1965, and the Kaitaku-shi Beer Memorial Hall was constructed at the third floor of the building in 1967, which exhibited a number of historical records, tools, and documents practically used in the factory. After the renovation of the building, the Sapporo Beer Museum was officially opened to the public in July 1987. After the function of the factory as a brewery transferred to Eniwa, the building was renovated again and renewedly opened in December 2004.

In 1996, the Agency for Cultural Affairs proposed to register the Sapporo Beer Museum as one of the Important Cultural Properties of Japan. The museum side, however, declined the proposal. This was mainly because if it was registered, the permission of the government would be required to remodel the building each time, which was thought to be inconvenient by the museum. The museum was registered as one of the Hokkaidō Heritage sites on October 22, 2004.

Overview

The Sapporo Beer Museum has three floors, and is free to enter. A museum tour is available. The panels displaying the history of people involved in beer industry and the Sapporo Brewery Inc. are exhibited. Other exhibited items include beer bottles, signs, posters, miniatures of the building, and instruments for brewing beer. Some of them were actually used in the brewery before World War II.

Since some products of the DaiNippon Beer Company, a predecessor of the Sapporo Brewery, were also housed in the museum, materials related to the Yebisu Beer are exhibited as well as the Sapporo Beer ones. A museum bar is located on the second floor, and visitors can try alcohol products of the Sapporo Beer. The first floor has a restaurant called "Star Hall", and a museum shop. The Sapporo Garden Park also houses the Ario Sapporo, a shopping mall, and the Sapporo Beer Garden, which is connected to the museum.

See also
Asahi Beer Hall

References

External links
 The Sapporo Beer Museum
 Happy Jappy — Sapporo Beer Museum

Industrial buildings completed in 1890
Museums established in 1987
Museums in Sapporo
Food museums in Japan
Beer museums
Sapporo Breweries
Higashi-ku, Sapporo
Buildings and structures in Sapporo
Tourist attractions in Sapporo
Beer gardens
1890 establishments in Japan

Sapporo Beer Museum


EleutherAI () is a grass-roots non-profit artificial intelligence (AI) research group. The group, considered an open-source version of OpenAI, was formed in a Discord server in July 2020 to organize a replication of GPT-3. In early 2023, it formally incorporated as the EleutherAI Foundation, a non-profit research institute.

History
EleutherAI began as a Discord server on July 7, 2020 under the tentative name "LibreAI" before rebranding to "EleutherAI" later that month, in reference to eleutheria, an ancient greek term for liberty.

On December 30, 2020, EleutherAI released The Pile, a curated dataset of diverse text for training large language models. While the paper referenced the existence of the GPT-Neo models, the models themselves were not released until March 21, 2021. According to a retrospective written several months later, the authors did not anticipate that "people would care so much about our 'small models.'" On June 9, 2021, EleutherAI followed this up with GPT-J-6B, a six billion parameter language model that was again the largest open-source GPT-3-like model in the world. These language models were released under the Apache 2.0 free software license and are considered to have "fueled an entirely new wave of startups".

While EleutherAI initially turned down funding offers, preferring to use Google's TPU Research Cloud Program to source their compute, by early 2021 they had accepted funding from CoreWeave (a small cloud computing company) and SpellML (a cloud infrastructure company) in the form of access to powerful GPU clusters that are necessary for large scale machine learning research. On Feb 10, 2022 they released GPT-NeoX-20B, a model similar to their prior work but scaled up thanks to the resources CoreWeave provided.

In 2022, many EleutherAI members participated in the BigScience Research Workshop, working on projects including multitask finetuning, training BLOOM, and designing evaluation libraries. Engineers at EleutherAI, Stability AI, and NVIDIA joined forces with biologists lead by Columbia University and Harvard University
to train OpenFold, an open-source replication of DeepMind's AlphaFold2.

In early 2023, EleutherAI incorporated as a non-profit research institute run by Stella Biderman, Curtis Huebner, and Shivanshu Purohit. This announcement came with the statement that EleutherAI's shift of focus away from training larger language models was part of a deliberate push towards doing work in interpretability, alignment, and scientific research. While EleutherAI is still committed to promoting access to AI technologies, they feel that "there is substantially more interest in training and releasing LLMs than there once was," enabling them to focus on other projects.

Research

According to their website, EleutherAI is a "decentralized grassroots collective of volunteer researchers, engineers, and developers focused on AI alignment, scaling, and open-source AI research". While they do not sell any of their technologies as products, they publish the results of their research in academic venues, write blog posts detailing their ideas and methodologies, and provide trained models for anyone to use for free.

The Pile

The Pile is an 886 GB dataset designed for training large language models. It was originally developed to train EleutherAI's GPT-Neo models but has become widely used to train other models, including Microsoft's Megatron-Turing Natural Language Generation, Meta AI's Open
Pre-trained Transformers, LLaMA, and Galactica, Stanford University's BioMedLM 2.7B, the Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence's
Chinese-Transformer-XL, and Yandex's YaLM 100B. Compared to other datasets, the Pile's main distinguishing features are that it is a curated selection of data chosen by researchers at EleutherAI to contain information they thought language models should learn and that it is the only such dataset that is thoroughly documented by the researchers who developed it.

GPT models
EleutherAI's most prominent research relates to its work to train open-source large language models inspired by OpenAI's GPT-3. EleutherAI's "GPT-Neo" model series has released 125 million, 1.3 billion, 2.7 billion, 6 billion, and 20 billion parameter models.

 GPT-Neo (125M, 1.3B, 2.7B): released in March 2021, it was the largest open-source GPT-3-style language model in the world at the time of release.

 GPT-J (6B): released in March 2021, it was the largest open-source GPT-3-style language model in the world at the time of release.

 GPT-NeoX (20B): released in February 2022, it was the largest open-source language model in the world at the time of release.

 Pythia (13B): While prior models focused on scaling larger to close the gap with closed-sourced models like GPT-3, the Pythia model suite goes in another direction. The Pythia suite was designed to facilitate scientific research on the capabilities of and learning processes in large language models. Featuring 154 partially trained model checkpoints, fully public training data, and the ability to reproduce the exact training order, Pythia enables research on verifiable training, social biases, memorization,  and more.

While the overwhelming majority of large language models are trained in either English or Chinese, EleutherAI also trains language models in other languages, such as the Korean-language Polyglot-Ko.

VQGAN-CLIP

Following the release of DALL-E by OpenAI in January 2021, EleutherAI started working on text-to-image synthesis models. When OpenAI didn't release DALL-E publicly, EleutherAI's Katherine Crowson and digital artist Ryan Murdock developed a technique for using CLIP (another model developed by OpenAI) to convert regular image generation models into text-to-image synthesis ones. Building on ideas dating back to Google's DeepDream, they found their first major success combining CLIP with another publicly available model called VQGAN and the resulting model is called VQGAN-CLIP. Crowson released the technology by tweeting notebooks demonstrating the technique that people could run for free without any special equipment. This work was credited by Stability AI CEO Emad Mostaque as motivating the founding of Stability AI.

Public reception

Praise
EleutherAI's work to democratize GPT-3 won the UNESCO Netexplo Global Innovation Award in 2021, InfoWorld's Best of Open Source Software Award in 2021 and 2022, was nominated for VentureBeat's AI Innovation Award in 2021.

Gary Marcus, a cognitive scientist and noted critic of deep learning companies such as OpenAI and DeepMind, has repeatedly praised EleutherAI's dedication to open-source and transparent research.

Maximilian Gahntz, a senior policy researcher at the Mozilla Foundation, applauded EleutherAI's efforts to give more researchers the ability to audit and assess AI technology. "If models are open and if data sets are open, that'll enable much more of the critical research that's pointed out many of the flaws and harms associated with generative AI and that's often far too difficult to conduct."

Criticism
Technology journalist Kyle Wiggers has raised concerns about whether EleutherAI is as independent as it claims, or "whether the involvement of commercially motivated ventures like Stability AI and Hugging Face — both of which are backed by substantial venture capital — might influence EleutherAI's research."

References

Language modeling
Artificial intelligence laboratories
Deep learning
Applied machine learning

EleutherAI